The Shadow of the Progenitors: A Transforms Novel (The Cause Book 1) (13 page)

“I have some complaints about Crow activities that violate the spirit of the Cause and our agreements for working together,” Focus Biggioni said.  Shadow just smiled patiently, and nodded at the Focus.  Hell, Sinclair said to himself, Shadow likes the Focus bitch.  Who would have thought it was possible for anyone to like her!

“A great many of us have complaints about Crow activities, Focus Biggioni, including myself,” Shadow said.  “I’d like to start off with Gilgamesh, though, if you don’t mind.”

Focus Biggioni minded, but didn’t say anything.  Shadow turned to Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh shrugged, suddenly looking uncomfortable.  “I received this in the mail at the end of January,” Gilgamesh said.  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a grimy and folded piece of paper.  Gilgamesh flattened it out and passed it over to Arm Sibrian, who read it and passed it on.  When it got to Sinclair, Sinclair noted that the paper had been crumbled up several times, and was about to fall apart.

The letter was short and to the point – become a Guru or go back to hiding in culverts.  Sinclair’s stomach plunged to see so harsh an attack on another Crow.  No signature, as Sinclair would have expected from a senior Crow.  Sinclair passed the letter on to Duke Hoskins, who gave the note a quick scan before he passed it to the Focuses.

“What does this mean?” Focus Keistermann said.

“Among Crows, one must be officially cleared to teach if one is to teach many.  The historical reasons behind this aren’t relevant to this discussion.  A Crow cleared to teach is termed a Guru, which you likely know is my station,” Shadow said, and smiled.  “The danger to the Cause from this is great; among the many things Gilgamesh instructs, Gilgamesh is the only one of us who teaches Crows how to clean out gristle dross.  Uh, in Focus terms, how to remove the bad juice from a Focus household.”

“So he can’t teach anymore?” Focus Keistermann said, and pursed her lips.  “House cleaning is important.”  Left untended, dross would build up in a household until the household became so contaminated that the Focus could no longer move the juice.  The constant relocations this forced were one of the things that kept Transform households in grinding poverty.

“To get around the restriction stated in the letter, Gilgamesh must become a Guru, not a trivial activity,” Shadow said.  “I’m currently teaching him Guru-hood.  Understand, though, by Crow tradition, Gilgamesh does not have enough housecleaning students to qualify as a Guru, and certainly not enough students to be called on his imagined transgressions.  I inquired by letter to other knowledgeable Crows, and found the reason for Gilgamesh’s letter: many Crows count all of Gilgamesh’s students together, as a single group, since Gilgamesh teaches other subjects besides house cleaning.  Also, many of my formerly friendly Crow contacts have politely informed me that they are no longer going to be exchanging letters with me.  Suddenly, I am deemed unacceptable, for my quiet advocacy of the Cause and my willingness to sit on the Focus Council as an advisor.”

“Hrrr,” Duke Hoskins said.  “Will they come after me for the same?”  Hoskins, Shadow and Arm Hancock held non-voting seats on the ruling Council of the United Focuses of America, as advisors.  The Focus Council was the de facto center of Transform politics in the United States.

“Perhaps.  Perhaps not.  I’m unclear as to how impolite the Crows behind these letters are willing to be,” Shadow said.

“Extremely impolite,” Focus Biggioni said.  “What happened to me was extremely…”

She stopped, as Arm Sibrian stood and drew her swords.  Her target was, improbably, Diane, one of the commoners, who had been bringing in another tray of food for the meeting.  She was one of the barony’s commoners who had decided to stabilize in Monster form, in her case, that of a larger-than-normal large-brained chimpanzee.

Focus Biggioni joined Arm Sibrian, just behind the Arm, and if Sinclair guessed correctly, about to offensively wield some Focus juice abomination at Diane.

“What’s the problem, ladies?” Duke Hoskins asked, as he stood and interposed himself between Diane and the hostile pair.

“You have Monster slaves now?” Biggioni said.  “I can’t imagine anything more unsafe.”

“Huh?” Hoskins said.  “No, Focus Biggioni.  She isn’t a slave.  Diane’s one of our commoners.”

“That’s no part-Monster commoner, that’s a full Monster.”  Sinclair winced.  Biggioni mustn’t have realized how many Commoners took full Monster forms these days.

Arm Sibrian just hissed.  Diane didn’t move a muscle.  Shadow cleared his throat, trying to attract attention, but as he did so, Jane skittered into the room, behind Diane.

“Put your goddamn weapons down, Focus,” Jane said.  “You’re not in danger from Diane.”

Arm Sibrian studied Jane intently, and then made her weapons vanish.  Focus Biggioni relaxed, as well.

Well.  This was unexpected, Sinclair noted.  The charisma Jane had picked up when they made her a Pack Alpha, which mirrored Sinclair’s own ability to calm others, appeared to work on more than the Commoners and the Nobles.

“You’re not a standard Transform,” Arm Sibrian said, to Jane.  She had a beautiful voice, rich and melodic, with a trace of a Spanish accent.  “Your Barony has full Monsters in it, now, just like the Hunters?” she said, to Hoskins.

Sinclair wanted to shout “It’s my Barony, too!”, but he decided that he would let the others handle a hostile Arm.  This was definitely turning into one of those days he would rather forget.  He surreptitiously wiped sweat from his brow.

“Diane decided to take a different path,” Hoskins said.  “She’s not a tamed Monster, Arm Sibrian.  She’s a woman Transform, the same as our other commoners.”

Sinclair did note Jane mouth ‘Arm Sibrian?’, and back off a step.  He fervently hoped Jane didn’t faint and embarrass the Barony even more.

“Jane here has benefited from a recent development of ours,” Shadow said.  “She’s the Barony equivalent of a Hunters’ Pack Alpha.”

“Not even close,” Arm Sibrian said, after a quick metasensing of Jane.  Hrrr.  There was more to this Arm than met the eye.  Sinclair had no idea that any of the Arms had such a detailed metasense.  “Or are you talking symbolically instead of structurally?”

“Symbolically.”

“In that case, you need a different name, Jane, or you’ll end up imprinting the Barony with inappropriate Hunter attributes.”  Arm Sibrian studied Jane for a moment longer.  “You’re a Warden.”

That would do, symbolically, Sinclair decided.

“Isn’t Warden a male name?” Jane said.

“I was going for gender neutral,” Arm Sibrian said, “because the changes made in you could be made to a commoner male Transform, as well.  After the Nobles figure out how to bring your male Transforms fully back to humanity, of course.”

Of course.  This Sibrian was indeed a very strange Arm, Sinclair decided.

Arm Sibrian studied Jane some more.  “It’s all right, now.  I’m not going to harm your Monsterish commoner.”  Jane relaxed.

A very strange Arm who could tune her predator to something close to Focus charisma.

“You know,” Arm Sibrian said to Focus Biggioni, who hadn’t moved from behind Arm Sibrian’s left shoulder.  “You’re wasted as a politician.  You’d make a fine predator Focus.”

“I know that,” Focus Biggioni said.  “That’s why I’m a politician.”  Biggioni stalked back to her seat, straightening her suit jacket and slacks, as composed as if she hadn’t moved from her seat to engage in a fight against a putative Monster.

Just being around Biggioni made Sinclair want to go somewhere quiet and have a good panic.

“So we’ve got Crow problems, again,” Focus Biggioni said, after she sat.

“It seems so,” Shadow said.  “What’s your complaint, Focus Biggioni?”

“Three of the Cause’s leading Northeast Region Focuses, not including Polly, myself or Focus Rizzari, recently received notes from some group labeled ‘the Watchers’, saying that if they didn’t cease their secret support of Crows and Nobles, their activities would be exposed to the Region President.”  Focus Biggioni paused.  “I don’t need to tell you what a disaster that would be.”  They all nodded.  The Northeast Region President, Focus Suzie Schrum, was adamantly opposed to all aspects of the Cause.

“More of the same,” Shadow said, exasperated.  He turned to Arm Sibrian.  “And your information?”

“Master Shadow, Arm Haggerty discovered that the person who tipped off the FBI as to the location of Arm Hancock’s Chicago home was a Crow or group of Crows, though as with Focus Biggioni’s foes, they called themselves ‘Watchers’.  We must strongly protest that this is not acceptable behavior by allies.”  Sinclair was glad the righteously pissed off Commander wasn’t here.  Although she hadn’t been home when the Feds torched her place, she lost several of her people and a lot of stature.  So far, this hadn’t been a good year for the Commander.

“I doubt the Crows behind this are allies, Arm Sibrian,” Shadow said.  “Unfortunately, we Crows don’t have a centralized leadership, and we do have quite a few distinct factions, of which these ‘Watchers’ are one.  I must also reluctantly and likely redundantly point out that no run-of-the-mill Crow would ever contemplate writing or sending any of these letters, as even the thought of sending such threatening letters to other Major Transforms would bring on panic.  I’m afraid we’re dealing with one or more senior Crows.  This won’t be an easy problem to solve.”

“There’s been more harassment as well,” Focus Keistermann said.  “Arm Haggerty got one of these notes, threatening to expose all her activities unless she ceased her research.  She has, so far, ignored the note.  I also received a complaint from a West Region Focus, Focus Forrest, complaining about ‘unknowns, likely Crows’ who exposed all her employed Transforms, forcing her out of Barstow.  I would like to point out that Focus Forrest isn’t associated with the Cause, keeps to herself, and has kept out of politics since the Battle in Detroit.”  Focus Forrest had a reputation as a loner Focus, immensely powerful, as talented a witch Focus as Focus Keistermann herself.  “Lastly, I have learned through backdoor channels” that is, the Dreaming “that the Hunters have similarly been harassed, forcing them to flee from their strongholds in the Tetons.”

“So, this is a
big
problem, and the timing suggests this is fallout from the revelation of the Eskimo Spear, much as you and I feared from the start,” Focus Biggioni said, eyeing Shadow.  “What are they aiming for?”

“They want the other Major Transforms to distrust Crows,” Shadow said.  “They want Crows with contacts among other Major Transforms to cease the contacts.”

“I’ll have to inform Arm Haggerty of this,” Arm Sibrian said.  Shadow nodded.

“I’ll also have to inform the Council,” Focus Keistermann said.  “I’m going to need to do a great deal of work to stop the Focuses and Arms from doing what these Crows want, you understand.”

Shadow nodded.  “Yes.  This is a very dangerous situation, one that could easily get out of hand.  I’m going to have to think on this, to see if there is some way that I and my Crow friends can make this up to all of you, somehow.  I don’t have any easy and immediate answers, though.”

Focus Biggioni smiled a pained smile.  “If I come up with anything, I’ll pass it along to you,” she said, to Shadow.

---

“Did you notice that Focus Biggioni seemed rather easily mollified, your grace?” Sinclair said, cornering Duke Hoskins behind the barn, long after the meeting ended and the dignitaries left.

Duke Hoskins nodded, and leaned against the fence.  “Politics, Master Sinclair.  On the Focus Council, she and Shadow work well together in many areas.  Besides, what more could she do?  It isn’t exactly productive to berate Master Shadow for the actions of his enemies.”

Sinclair smiled.  “Just because complaining isn’t productive doesn’t mean she won’t do so.”

Hoskins stared off towards where Shadow and Gilgamesh worked.  “How serious do you consider these Crow games to be?”

“Very serious, your grace,” Sinclair said.  Most Nobles would dismiss the Crow threat as non-fruitful; fruitful attacks involved blood and gore, spiced up by juice and dross weaponry.  Hoskins was more subtle than that, though, and understood the deeper threats.  That subtlety was the reason he had been able to take leadership of the Nobles from Earl Sellers many years ago.  “You’ve seen the letters I get, denouncing my work with the Nobles, and heard my meditation-based theories about the Phoenix Church Massacre being the result of an Arm who got some of her secrets exposed by a Crow.  There are quite a few Crows out there who don’t like what the Noble Crow Masters are doing.  This is a very serious threat.”

Duke Hoskins nodded and sniffed the evening air.  “The scent on the wind is of storms, Master Sinclair.  Dark clouds, big storms.”

Sinclair: July 3, 1972

Sinclair metasensed a flicker at the edge of his range around midnight.  All the commoners were asleep, and Sir Randolph slept in his room with Anne after this evening’s draw.  Page Alexander slept in the shed after a long day of exercise and training.  Sinclair, pleased with Sir Randolph’s progress, planned to recommend his promotion within the next week or so.  Duke Hoskins had just returned a few hours ago from a hunt, and sat with Sinclair in the living room, reading a biography of Napoleon.