Blame It On My Youth

Part 3 of A Tragedy In Five Acts

Prologue

Months had passed, but still there had been a no sign of either the missing Mall Rats or the new tribe that had taken them. Amber's baby had been born on time, this time, but both mother and child had taken pains to avoid Ebony. Ever since the attack on the Mall, Ebony had only had to look at Amber for her own pain to be renewed. Jack felt that pain too, but as Ebony seemed to be avoiding him and his daughter, he had no way of telling her this. In fact, the only person Ebony seemed willing to speak to was Lex.

The loss of Salene had seemed to hit Lex hard, as had the death of Paul, but Ebony's miscarriage had hit him harder than either. He spent almost every waking moment in Ebony's company, sometimes alone, sometimes discussing plans and strategies with Morgaine, Alice and Pride. It was during one of these conferences that the first clue arrived.

"I still don't understand," Alice interjected. "Why they would kill KC and Paul, then take everyone else prisoner."

"Perhaps they had a use for them," replied Morgaine.

"We know that at least one, probably two, of those who were taken were traitors," Pride added.

"You mean how do we know that the rest of them weren't traitors also," Ebony said quietly.

"Nah, no way. Not all of them," Lex said, shaking his head. "There's no way all of them could be traitors without any of us knowing!"

As the discussion rapidly became an argument, Trudy came running into the room, Brady in her arms. The silence that her entrance had precipitated was broken only by the sounds of another argument coming from downstairs.

"You'd better come quickly," Trudy said. "She says she needs our help, but I've never seen her around the city before. I recognised her voice: I think she might be one of the Chosen."

All five got to their feet and hurried out of the room after Trudy. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they saw on the other side of the grill a young girl dressed in black flared trousers with green trim and a bright green top that cut away above her midriff. Her medium length hair was the same bright green as her top and the trim of her trousers.

"Who are you?" Pride demanded as they approached the grill.

"My name is Glitch," the girl replied. "I'm not a threat to you, I need your help. Plus, if I'm right, I think you need mine too."