Bought

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"You are wrong, William Ellison." The burly Sentinel sitting across

the table from William asserted, beetling his brow. "The Laws have

stood the test of time. They are workable, they are effective. There

is no reason to advocate for change. None." The man folded his thick

hands over his powerful belly, scowling mightily.



William almost let out a sigh. Instead he turned to face the big man.



"Senator Miles, I can only point back to my earlier arguments. Look at

the facts. Guides are becoming more scarce with every generation. We are

mismanaging them. That has to change. We need to ask ourselves why

Guides are rapidly heading towards extinction and how to stop it.

After looking at all the data, I came to the conclusion that Sentinels

are the reason fertile Guides are increasingly rare. Not Guides

themselves. I respectfully suggest you read the documents." William kept his voice modulated and even with the practice of long years of debate.



"Yes, you are being very stubborn about reading the material. I found it invaluable." The other speaker, a short man, with a very serious, intent expression on his round

face, met the belligerent gaze of the first speaker.



The Senator gave a disbelieving snort, eyeing the foot high stack of

printed material at his elbow. He made it abundantly clear he wasn't

going to be wading through any of it any time soon, if ever.



"Stopping it won't be enough," a slim, dark haired man mumbled as he

read over a few sheets from the packet he held in his hands. Beside him rested more than half the stack he'd already gone through. "We need

to reverse this trend of infertility and quickly. The falling population has reached a lytic point. The fall in Guide numbers is only going to accelerate from here

on out. There is little time left to intervene without dire

consequences."



"This is drivel. What the hell is a lytic point?" A second state official opined, hands widely placed on the table, as he leaned in aggressively. "Fabrications made by

fringe scientists who have nothing better to do than stir up trouble."

The narrow faced man was not happy. William gave him the courtesy of

listening to his objections more than half his attention on how the man's temples pulsed every time he was overcome with outrage. He had to think the man was a

conspiracy theorist more than anything else, the half dozen pointed

comments he'd made from time to time pointed that way.



William raised a hand when several men angrily opened their mouths in

preparation to respond. There had been several shouting matches earlier, he was too impatient himself to sit through another now.



"No, it is not so simple. I think we need to listen to Dr Braun's conclusions. All of this research is confirmed by our own state labs. It has been suppressed, true enough, but only because neither state officials nor national officials are sure of how to fit it into current guide policy and Laws. That is because it doesn't fit. It

can't. It radically and directly calls into question the science behind the existing Guide Laws. Our predecessors, made a huge miscalculation. Sentinels, gentlemen, and we must alter our path, or our kind will die out along with the Guides who make our lives possible."



"Preposterous!" Several indignant voices chimed in. But more stayed

silent, faces all around the table thoughtful. The two men who were

outspoken and disbelieving were actually in the minority now. Ten

hours of heated debate over two days and William had eroded the

certainty that had been a united coalition against him and turned the

tide into grudging neutrality bordering on terrified acceptance of

reality. A reality that included the possible extinction of Guides

within a few generations. Of course it had taken every ounce of his

persuasive powers. He was exhausted yet strangely energized by the debate.



"This is very foolish, Ruler Ellison. I hate to see you make this kind

of mistake, and to drag other territories in with you. Think of how

the younger rulers look up to you before you do this." The stately

figure of Senator Thaddeus Grover was seated at William's right hand. His

thick, greying hair brushed back from his high, noble forehead. The

much older Sentinel was not convinced that William wasn't panicking

unnecessarily.



"Believe me, Sentinel Grover, I have spent hours, days contemplating

every decision I am making. There have been no hasty moves. No jumping

to conclusions no listening to fringe theorists. After exhaustive

reading, talking to specialists who have looked at this problem for

decades, I believe what they are telling us is true. I've put these

packets together for you. I encourage you to read them, have your

staff review them. They are all true. We are at fault. Our laws are at

fault. Our practices are at fault. We must change. I will change.

Cascade will no longer support the wholesale decline of the Guide

population by stubbornly clinging to outdated practices and Laws."



"This is a mistake." Growled the first Senator. "I warn you, the state

body is not behind you on this." He offered up the threat which

William ignored instead of reacting to.



"Now Miles," a far younger voice was heard. Paul Keats was a dynamic

civic activist with leanings that more reflected William's youngest

son's opinions than William's own. "That is not helpful. I for one

want to know more. I think others seated here at this table are also

willing to entertain the idea that there are better ways to govern

than the ones we have used for a few centuries. Maybe that won't turn

out to be the case, but just maybe it is true. Maybe there is a better

way. I want to hear about it before I make up my mind."



"And I, too." A tall, slender man who was the youngest of the rulers

at the table said. "I've heard these kinds of rumors from my own

scientists. There is a body of knowledge that has been kept from us and

from the public. I think we deserve to see it, read it and question

it. I've had a dozen of my own people urge me to read the work of one

researcher. His name is Sandburg. After finding his work and reading

it, I tried to contact him to have a face to face meeting, but no one

seems to know where he's gone, only that he has vanished. I intend to

approach this with an open mind. My people are still looking for Dr.

Sandburg and when I find him, nothing is going to stop me from talking

to him and hearing what he has to say, especially not loyalty to laws we

all know are archaic and ineffective in today's world."



William's eyes flashed over to his elder son's. Jim's look was

glacial, making his position on revealing Sandburg's current

whereabouts very clear. William gave a faint nod. He would not reveal

Blair, not now. It might prove the deciding point, some of the

Sentinels at the meeting might not read his work if they knew Blair

was a Guide. He thought that if they read the work, thought about it,

then found out at a later date Sandburg was a Guide it would mean they

wouldn't dismiss him out of hand. They might actually believe what

William was trying to say, that Guides had an untapped potential equal

to any Sentinel or Mundane.



"Sentinel James Ellison." Jim looked over towards the man who was

calling to him. "You are William's heir, yet you remain silent on the

subject matter we are discussing. Would you be so kind as to share

your thoughts? Do you agree with your father's position?"



Jim cleared his throat. "I support my father's position. I've read the

work he is recommending to you. I believe it for the most part.

Regardless of the truth of all of the research, there is something

very wrong with the population of Guides all around this country. I

am, as you point out, the heir to Cascade. But I have one Guide. One

whom I share with my junior Sentinel. In the nineteenth century, I'd

have had two or maybe three Guides to myself. In the eighteenth I'd

have had a harem full. I think that says it all, gentlemen."



His statement prompted a lingering silence as the men present

contemplated the truth of his words. Of the men sitting at the table

only one or two had a Guide who was their own exclusively. Most shared

a Guide with a junior Sentinel. Their faces where thoughtful, uneasy.

The truth wasn't exactly welcome or comforting. In fact it was almost

embarrassing to have a heir with only one Guide at his disposal. Then

Dr Braun cleared his throat delicately.



"I have believed in and upheld the old laws. They are laws that have

been around a long time, as has been pointed out. We all grew up with

them, know them inside and out. They have framed the structure of our

Sentinel culture. Our lives from birth to death. Change is

frightening. Learning new ways. But I know that we are becoming more

and more desperate for an answer as to why the breeding Guides aren't

breeding at the same rate as they did in our grandfathers and great

grandfather's time. I have to believe it is more than a difference in

record keeping. There is a real reason behind it. We have to find the

reason. It is vital that we do."



"I agree." The new voice came from the doorway and heads turned to see

who it was. William smiled at the slim, blond man standing there. He

was pleased to see him.



"My younger son." William offered a short introduction. "Sit, Stephen.

We are waiting to hear what you have to offer. Say your piece."



Stephen smiled in return and walked towards his father. He bent down

and dropped a filial kiss on his father's cheek. William felt himself

flush with pleasure at the affectionate and respectful gesture.

Stephen moved past to an empty seat, seated himself and then looked

around the room.



"It seems to me, obvious that our system is broken and needs to be

fixed." He gazed around the room again, meeting the sharp eyes fixed on

him, the looks a mixture of curious and hostile.



Stephen's reputation and his position on Guide Law reform was no secret. "We can't go on the way we are. I've been touring the country. The will for change is

strong now. The general populace has noticed what we don't want to

talk about or admit. The Guides disappearing. The common Sentinel now only

rarely is able to have a personal Guide all to himself. They must make

do with local public Guides at home or brothel Guides if they are

traveling. This state of affairs has not made the common man happy

with us. In fact it has made them afraid of us. They fear we will turn to their sons or daughters if Guides are not available."



Stephen ended on that grim note to rumbled displeasure from around the table. The fear of Mundanes, that Sentinels were likely to covet the young men and women of their families, an unfounded rumor, was well known to all. An urban legend that no amount of public service announcements or outright denials had been effective in suppressing.



"We need to give these reforms a chance," William offered more mildly, after the grumbling had died down a little, "before we dismiss them out of hand."



"How do we know these are the right reforms?" Alderman Talbot asked, obviously happy to be off the subject of what Mundanes thought Sentinels capable of.

He'd been a silent observer since the meeting began, paying close attention to each person as they put forth their own views. "What if the new Laws only make things worse? What then?"



"How can things get worse? We are in danger of wiping out Guides

entirely, soon you may have to go to a museum, perhaps with your

grandchildren, to show them a live Guide. The captured wild Guides are

consistently more fertile than those raised in the Guide Houses. Why

is this true?" Stephen asked bluntly, his cheeks were flushed as his passion rose.



"Hormones." Dr Braun chimed in, fortuitously interrupting before Stephen could get carried away. "Forced breeding. Castration. I think an argument can be made all of these factors have an influence." He waited for someone else to dispute his words. Then he continued when the men groups around the large table remained silent.



"Ruler Ellison's reforms make sense, they are not extreme. I hate to

say it but maybe we have been wrong about Guides for the last few hundred

years and more. We also need to look at another consideration. Maybe

they are human after all?" It wasn't a statement, but rather a question put to the men at the table.



The table exploded in loud conversation, shouts of derision and protest as well as support. William bit the inside of his cheek. It was far too soon to ask that question. One step at at time.



"I certainly wouldn't go that far!" Someone exclaimed. "Reforms, yes,

for the good of the Sentinels and Guides but Guides as human? No, I

can't see it."



"I can agree with all the reforms except recognizing Guides as human.

They are so clearly not human." Keats stared at William who was

shaking his head. "Is this the object of this debate? To declare

Guides human. I am sorry William. I cannot get behind that kind of

talk."



"How can you look at their bodies and call them human?" Senator Miles

huffed. He raised several thick fingers counting off points as he made

them. "They have six nipples like an animal. They are hermaphrodites.

And have you ever seen one of them go into Heat? They go into rut, just like an animal." He snorted, concluding, "they are beasts made to breed."



And we take them to our beds. What does that make us? William thought, but he bit his tongue before the words made it out loud. He hated to hear of Guides spoken of as if they had no more value or feelings than an animal. He was aware his own treatment of his Guide wasn't anything to hold up as an example.

And he was aware that as a convert to a new way of thinking, he did

tend to be defensive over his new position. Perhaps even fanatical. He took a deep, cleansing breath. And interrupted the explosion of rancorous arguments.



"Let's not get sidetracked by the Guide-animal/Guide-human debate

now." William said when he had himself under control and the room had quieted. "This is not the forum for that and it is not my purpose or intent to arrive at that kind of conclusion." He stared around the room. "What we can do is we

can make the reforms for the preservation our Guides. I intend to do just

that. I want you to understand what I am dong and why. It is for the

good of the Sentinels of Cascade. That is what I want to have come out

of these meetings."



"We don't have to answer the question of them being human." Senator

Grover stated firmly. "I refuse to address that idiotic...."



"No we don't." William cut him off abruptly, he could see Stephen set to explode with indignation. But it wasn't the time nor the place to push that far.

Not yet. He held up an admonishing finger in the direction of his

younger son. Stephen locked his jaw shut. Jim, closer to his father,

looked ready to bite through steel, but he also held his tongue.



Senator Grover spoke again, his voice holding a pompousness that was irritating. "Well if just one of them showed the talent or capability of a Sentinel or a Mundane I'd agree with you that we should look at their status again. But I've not met a single one who is capable of anything remarkable. So I say we table that

discussion until a time it is actually relevant." He waved a hand.

There was a displeased murmur around the table.



"Gentlemen, Gentleman! Let's start with the most important reform. We

need to get the birth rate up, whether Guides are human or not is not

important now. Let the philosophers argue that point. I want to outlaw

Guide castration. I will outlaw it. It is proven to correlate with

reduced Guide fertility and decreased ability to carry pups to term.

It is traumatic to the Guide and harmful as the numbers show." William

said, his features were set, hard and unflinching.



"I propose a double blind study on the effect of hormone therapy on

Guides and their pups." Dr Braun broke in, offering his support. "In

fact I'd say without it we are just shooting in the dark for a long

term solution. We owe this kind of research to future generations."



William nodded his agreement. "I would also like to take away the

"pup" incentive for Vets. They are often paid not monetarily, but by

claiming a pup from a litter. This practice gives them reason to overbreed Guides. They profit from it. I find that a conflict of interest." He saw the fierce agreement on his younger son's face.



"The pup acquisition is a tradition, I am not sure they'd agree to

give it up." Grover argued, but not with any heat. As a concession it was clear he thought it a minor one.



"Well, they don't make the laws now do they?" William Ellison said, a

dangerous glint in his eye. He let that sink in for a moment as silence fell around him. Then he relaxed, turning suddenly back into the genial host, smiling at his guests. Bending forward he placed his hands palm down on the table in front of him. He pushed upright, trying to ignore the fatigue in his limbs. It was no longer an easy thing to put in long hours seated at a table.



"I think that is all for tonight. We will meet back in the dining room in one hour to

give you time to refresh yourselves. I will see you then." Christian moved to his side, discreetly offering support with a hand under his arm, hidden by the sleeve of William's robe of office.



The twelve men in the room stood with him. William looked around the room, met each pair of eyes for a long moment, then he turned and exited the room with Christian, followed closely by his elder son Jim, and then his younger son, Stephen.



ne'ichan and Joan Z