Black Point Clan (Wine of the Gods Book 36)

by Pam Uphoff

  His mother's house was made of the local wood and blended into the mostly natural trees of her allotment. The door still opened to his ID, and the house computer addressed him by name.

  "The Mistress is in. She will see you in the Great Room."

  He set his luggage down and turned into the designated room.

  Packed, of course.

  Uncle Ajki was there, to his surprise. Director of External Relations. His own boss, up a few levels.

  "Thought you'd be too busy to come."

  "Unfortunately the Ax needs every vote he can get. If I can tone down your mother, so she doesn't attack him and turn her friends away, I can get him a dozen at least."

  "I'm surprised you're supporting Father."

  The Director snorted. "Politics before family, especially in family matters."

  "My condolences."

  "Who are you supporting?"

  "Supporting? No one. Like as not I'll vote for Father. The other candidates are a bit squishy." Ajha shrugged.

  "Squishy? What world did you pick that up on. And no, I don't want a definition. You've been abroad too much, gone native."

  "I've been accused of that from the very first one. Can't remember who by, Uncle Ajki."

  "Three tiers of your superiors, starting with me, if I remember correctly. We should have listened to you. The thing is, if we retest and redesignate, well. Rumor has it that Urfa knows who's headed up and who's going down. And he wants your father in the Conclave. Do you know why? Have you checked your count?"

  Ajha shook his head. "I haven't bothered, never had those genes. I've outgrown the problem. If, One forbid, I ever wind up in politics, it will matter again. If Father's for dropping the count, it won’t be because he thinks he can raise my status. What is his position?"

  "That we drop those three genes from the count of the Prophets' genes. One hundred and five pairs, rather than one hundred eight. Withiones having one complete set of 105 and at least 80 of the second set. Or whatever number will keep them an elite one percent of the One. Neartuones, one complete set and 79 or fewer of the second set will then be about ten percent. Clostuone, the next thirty percent by gross number of Prophets' genes. Servaones, everyone else with the power gene.

  “If I recall, you lacked only four of a complete set, and had almost as high a number of the second. And then there were those Comet Fall Potions you tested. You ought to get yourself retested. At least anonymously, so you know what impact a redefinition will have on you."

  "If they allow official change of rank after a genetic change, you'll see a rush to Embassy or Comet Fall to get those gene altering potions. Legal or not."

  "Or a demand that we import them, or duplicate them. Legally. There's already a sizable black market and con men selling snake oil to the terminally stupid. It makes the thought of killing all their magicians, which, as you might have noticed, is rather high in the polls of public opinion, just now, look really good to us poor hard working cops."

  "Polls of the One. I understand the Multitude is delighted. And you haven't been a cop for a century, Director."

  Unfortunately his mother overheard that.

  "Very amusing, Jaja."

  Oh, One, not the baby name, please, not the baby name. Ajha retreated hastily into formality.

  "Mother, Kiaj Withione, I am honored to see you again. Aunt Zowm, Aunt Tuyq, Uncle Afla, Uncle Elwy." He clicked his heels properly and bowed. "Ahvi who is With the One. I greet you, Grandfather."

  Mother invited her ex-husband's father to a party? Well, they both live here, so I guess they've buried the old feud. Or Grandfather is also chumming for votes for his son . . . I wonder why he isn't the one running for the office . . . Oh. Never mind. Publicity for Father, in case he decides to make a presidential run.

  His father's father nodded infinitesimally. "I was just telling your mother what a shame you had no brothers. Your lack of a complete set should have been seen as a mere unlucky draw, not likely to repeat. Your accomplishments are proof of our house's competence."

  Ajha showed teeth. You were the one who insisted that Father drop the wife who'd produced a mere Clostuone baby. Paid my university tuition on the promise to tell no one that I was related to him. Maybe I will get retested. Show the old son-of-a . . . no. At that point, he'd start bragging on my genetics, and I really would haul off and hit him.

  I'm seventy years old. Successful. About time I got over it. Just shrugged and admitted that my family is a typical High Oner mess.

  His mother beamed at the mixed praise. "Now, dear, I've had to move furniture all over for all the people coming to this convention. Ajki, of course, has the big guest room. Fibber and Jain and their new husbands have the upstairs two.

  “I managed to squeeze your bed into the other downstairs bedroom, and the girls will be sharing it. Then I swapped work for room and board, and the servant's quarters are just packed.

  “So I got some smaller furniture for you boys. I know you, Ushy, Whipper, and Ifbo will have a great time remembering your school days."

  "Oh." Ajha hastily closed his mouth on the rest of that. It could be worse. Really.

  Aunt Zowm beamed at him. "Ewmo is home! He got in this morning with Ukky and Orqu. Why don't you all come over! And Tuyq, do send your three over as well."

  Yes. It could be worse. And it is getting there, fast.

  In the interests of getting the pain over with, Ajha looked back at his mother. "You said girls? Who's staying, Phoebe and Poppy?"

  "And Xiat, of course. Plus three friends, barely related, third generation outcrosses, you know, but they have to sleep somewhere. Kayz, Suyh, Cuec. Do you know them?"

  "Of course. Krazy, Sue, and Cookie. They were the popular girls in secondary. Cheer Squad and so forth." And no doubt they never noticed my drooling from afar. Well, no problems there. Fifty-six years since I graduated and went off to University, and the Directorate. Maybe they're all fat and wrinkled. He suppressed a smile at such vain hopes. Withiones and Neartuones, all. They will have aged better than me.

  "Well, you do have a houseful. Should be lively." He turned as the House computer murmured the names of new arrivals. Mushy and Whipper, arm-in-arm and still quite drunk, staggered in. Ajha took one look and steered them down the hall to his bathroom. "One! I hope I have some antihols. I don't believe you two didn't stop on the way up the hill."

  "We did stop," Whipper protested.

  "For another drink!" Mushy laughed uproariously, staggered back and started falling. Ajha cursed and steered him toward the bedroom. "One! Where did Mother get these?" Two sets of bunkbeds. He rolled Mushy into one bottom bunk.

  Whipper giggled as he tried out the other. "I don't know if we'll fit!" He was snoring in seconds. With his feet sticking over the end.

  Director Ajki walked in, carrying Ajha's luggage. "I was afraid of that. One! Did your mother think you'd revert to being teenagers?"

  "Apparently. We're all seventy-three. This going to be embarrassing. Pity it's so cold out, between the beds and the snoring, camping begins to look good."

  Ajki shook his head. "It's going to be a rough week."

  "Maybe Mother still has that old couch in the attic. Would you happen to know when Father is getting in?"

  "Right about now. Ahvi's house will be campaign central. Avoid it if you can."

  "I will." Ajha sighed. "He's going to want some command displays of his faithful parenting, though. How about if I trot up there and hug, umm, Asno instead, then stammer about I'd got them all mixed up, not having actually seen my dad more than a couple times a year?"

  "That's a poor trick to pull on an outstanding butler. And then I'd have to choose between firing you and twice a year full audits." Ajki looked a bit wistful though. "I'll have to just imagine it. You're much too sensible to actually do it."

  "Yeah. Pity though. And father wasn't that bad." Ajha looked at his slumbering cousins. "I think maybe I'll talk to the adults out there for awhile." He shifted his electronics from jacket
pockets to pants.

  "You need to get one of these bracers to keep your stuff on. Very handy. All the rage."

  "I noticed. You may have Tin Foil to keep you up to date, but I'm just a lowly Action Leader. All my old clothes have narrow sleeves."

  "If Fuyl ever hears you call her that, you may suffer an embarrassing accident in public view. You need to get home often enough to at least have a fashionable wardrobe."

  "I'll speak to my boss about it." Ajha smiled a bit. Princess Fuyl, his uncle's official watchdog, was an elderly pushover, a reliable source of sweets, and always nagging Ajki to find a nice girl and settle down.

  His uncle glared. "And no, I didn't drag her out for this. No cookies for you."

  ***

  Back in the Great Room, the beauty of the sunset over the Pacific Ocean was competing with the beauty of a half dozen women. Seventy-three years old, give or take a few years. Ajha's eyes had gotten adjusted to several different standards over the last twenty years. On Earth, he'd have judged them to be less than a third of that age, and fit and healthy, with the added confidence of experienced women. The softness and the silliness of those teenage girls was gone. Almost.

  Phoebe and Poppy (Fiob and Jowp officially) were the daughters of Mother's best childhood friends. Withiones, both. The others . . . a few Neartuones, mostly Withiones. He tightened his mental shields at the gleam of one. Xiat, a double-half-first cousin. Very high Oner. He knew all about the power of that glow. She was only shielding at the usual Oner frequencies.

  I’ve been around the Fallen for too long, I used to not be sensitive to frequencies so low or so high.

  He tightened his shields a bit more. Several faces turned his way, a few distant nods.

  "No kids around? I thought I remembered at least a couple of you getting married." He looked innocently at them.

  Poppy glowered at him. "Good evening, Ajha. Nice to see you again. And you know perfectly well what happened. Even you must have caught that gossip."

  "Well, yes." He looked around. "But no kid?"

  "He's at boarding school. Where else? I can't keep him with me, at his age. I have to work for a living, you know."

  After your husband divorced you and retired in disgrace with you pregnant with "Endi Dewulfe's" baby. Right. Caught right in the middle of the spy wars.

  "Yes, you got used by all sides, and then dumped."

  Poppy lowered her voice and told him to do something he didn't quite catch over the party background.

  He closed his teeth over a reply. Typical Withione woman.

  "I barely remember what you were like in school." A voice behind him. Xiat, studying him.

  Her sudden attention had him sucking in his aura and closing down his shields. She’s trained, honed and strong.

  "Hi, Xiat. Still enjoying the Presidential Directorate?"

  She was the daughter of his mother's half brother and his father's half sister.

  Pity our mothers hated each other. My closest cousin, and she's just another pretty girl who ignored me in school.

  "I don't advertise that, and anyway, I've moved to Interior, for a change of pace. And I've never seen such a fast close down. And thorough. You could pass as Multitude."

  "Thanks. I get lots of practice. It's a reflex, sorry." He opened back up to a socially polite level, just a little heavier on blocking incoming impressions.

  "Do you? What are you up to now? I thought the Helios aftermath was pretty well wrapped up."

  "I'm still in the Exterior Directorate. Fighting off promotion to a desk job. Specifically, I've been on the recovery mission, working out of a hub world. I sort of got out of touch with everything going on here at home."

  "Ah. I didn't realize you were out in the field. That would be why I haven't heard about you insulting the Council with another Top Secret report for a while. Of course, everyone here thinks you're in a cushy office job your uncle provides. They never think to question their assumptions."

  Ajha shrugged. "Gossip always takes the worst possible view. Uncle Ajki wasn't Director when I started. In fact, I think he shifted to the Transportation Ministry sometime during my first assignment. And anyway, I love field work. Have you done any? Or has it all been Presidential Directorate? Of course we all know you're a 'real' princess."

  "Yes, Princess School. But I didn't have the right mindset for the standard post." She hunched her shoulders and Ajha'd swear she shivered.

  Doesn't want to kill? Hard to believe, I've seen the assassination attempt recordings. She was flat out deadly. Maybe she was afraid she'd want to kill her assigned politician?

  "So I wound up as a Presidential bodyguard at first. So while I've been to all the colonies, it was all guard duty, and brief. Then playing hostess and chatting people up, getting them relaxed and talking at parties, and writing up the notes and analysis the next morning. After thirty years it started looking poisonous and pointless. So back to school. I spent a couple of years in criminal investigations. Central Region. Then six months ago I switched to analysis. My job is half analysis, stuck at a desk, and half footwork, out in the field. But not cross dimensional."

  "I'll bet that's a challenge. If you need another change you should try to transfer to Embassy. It's an interesting place, all the very different people. Fascinating."

  Poppy snorted. "You could meet Endi again. Or Xen, as he calls himself. One only knows why."

  Ajha shrugged. "It's his mother's culture to name their children according to themes, going through the alphabet. They were doing minerals, that year. He got Xenotime. His father is one of their old gods. Wolfgang Oldham, the Old Wolf, the God of War. Hence the 'Wolfson' he uses at home and 'Dewulfe' that he used on One."

  Poppy rolled her eyes. "I meant, why would anyone want to meet him again."

  "Oh. Of course."

  Xiat eyed him. "Did you research Xen?"

  "I don't think you can get a degree in Cross Dimensional Affairs without doing at least one paper on him, these days. But he happened to us much later. I've met him, on Embassy."

  Krazy oozed over and batted her eyelashes. "Was he your type?"

  Cute. "No. But have you seen the pictures of the Comet Fall witches? Very pretty, and that's without the glow they've got in person." Ajha spotted his uncle retreating, grinning. Yeah, right. Like I have the faintest idea what to do with these six women. Last thing I need is too many.

  The House Computer announced more people. Ifbo had been one of his fellow nerds. Looked like he hadn't outgrown it.

  "Hey, Bo, you remember everyone?"

  Bo nodded a bit nervously. He appeared to have transitioned from teenaged nerd to middle-aged nerd. "Sure. Long time, and all that."

  "Ajha was just telling us all about the Comet Fall people."

  "We should kill them all for what they've done to us." Sue tossed her headful of golden curls.

  Ajha eased back half a step from her. "We shouldn't have started a war with a powerful bunch of magic users. Especially ones who are so good at genetic engineering."

  "I know you travel dimensionally, but have you actually met many Fallen? Aren't you afraid of the von neumanns?" Cookie was at least not encroaching on his space.

  "Terrified by the potential. Yet there hasn't been a single incident—apart from the one they intended—so far. Even with the stuff in the hands of Rior's Gang. There's some scary potions running around out there. The Exterior Directorate has their hands full stopping the smuggling. Trying. But, thank the One, the majority of potions are not von neumanns."

  Phoebe's eyes were wide. "But, but what about the bio attack? You, especially, couldn't afford to lose more magic genes."

  "Actually I never had any copies of those three genes. So I didn't lose anything. I know a lot of Withiones are upset." He nodded politely around the group. "But those genes had minimal advantage and lots of potential negatives. Losing them isn't going to change anything other than a few extra very high count Oners being promoted to Withione. If they define it as one compl
ete set of 105 gene complexes, and half of another. And some Withiones and Neartuones will find themselves demoted if they continue to define it as at least one full set of 108. The Conclave of the Clans is going to be interesting."

  Cookie snorted. "Some! You do realize that if they don't change the definition, ninety-five percent of Withiones and Neartuones will suddenly be ranked as Clostuones, don't you? Ninety-five percent!"

  "If they retest everyone. Doubt that'll ever happen. Much more likely they'll change the definitions for babies born in the future. And probably allow, but not require, retesting." Ajha eyed the women. Lots of emotional overtones, there. I guess, being out in the field, I didn't realize how upset everyone is.

  Krazy wrinkled her nose. "No matter what they do, it's going to be a definite switch in enough people to change a whole lot of relationships."

  "Both personal and social. And we have no idea how long it'll take the congress to embrace the idea that they started the war, and they can stop it." Ajha shrugged. "I keep telling people that the Comet Fall people just don't hold grudges like sensible people. But they can't seem to deal with the concept of 'just stop and they will too.' "

  Krazy frowned at him. "Why not fight them? Since when have we been pacifists?"

  Poppy sniffed. "I don't see why they are so sure Xen will whip up popular support for a war, over our almost executing a single witch. Well, and trying to assassinate him."

  "It's more complicated than that. That was just one more attack on them, and they've run out of patience." He glanced back, but his uncle was across the room listening to Grandfather. No help there. "We can't just keep attacking people and expecting them to do nothing about it. I trust you pay enough attention to the screaming headline news that you know that when the Helaos attacked us, they jumped straight in and helped?"

  Multiple dainty sniffs. Cookie shrugged. "They could have been the next people who got attacked. They were helping themselves."

  Ajha sighed. How many people don't really grasp that the One World was a potential focus of a Helios merge?

  But his grandfather had caught his glance and gestured him over. "Come by at ten tomorrow morning. Your father wants to present a united front for the cameras. You've always wanted his approval? Here's how to get it. Support him in every way."