Wolf Pack

I had been puzzled by Schlomo's behavior outside the recovery wards and had promised myself to look him up as soon as things calmed down around the general headquarters. The move back to Wolf Hall was chaotic, and the business of reuniting the Dragoons was time-consuming. New officers had to be assigned, old officers checked for loyalty. Surprisingly, Elson was useful in pinpointing those of his former faction who were unable to accept the changes and the new order. The Dragoons lost a lot of perso

"You won't find anything about her in there."

I looked up, startled by his silent approach. The old man was haggard, his face showing the deep tiredness of a long-carried burden.

In a brilliant response, I asked, "What are you talking about?"

He sat down beside me and gave me a weary smile. "The others didn't catch on. They only saw what they expected. But I saw your face when Fraser called Maeve Jaime Wolf's daughter, and I knew you'd come looking sooner or later. Does she mean something special to you?"

"She means everything to me," I said. "That's something you ought to understand. Even though you're an old-timer, you know what love is."

"Yes. I'm an old-timer, but I never was a warrior. The other castes didn't abandon love for honor. We weren't so foolish." He sighed. "At least not that way. She means everything, you say. Is that why you want to ruin her life and destroy the Dragoons?"

"How can knowing who Maeve's parents were destroy the Dragoons?"

"Don't pretend to be stupid, Brian. You know what would happen if she had the parentage you suspect."

I did, and the thought sent a slight shudder through me. To placate certain factions, Wolf had sworn that all officers of the Dragoons would be tested and evaluated for their positions. There would be no favoritism, he had promised. As a gesture of good faith, he stipulated that none of his children or grandchildren could hold a major command within the Dragoons. Maeve hadn't tried out for the command of the battalion in which she served; she hadn't wanted to take that away from Gentleman Joh

But who would support General Maeve if it became known that she was Jaime Wolf's sibko daughter? Who would believe that Wolf hadn't lied or that the tests had not been rigged? The factionalism, quiescent now, would flare, and we would be plunged again into civil war. The Dragoons could not survive another.

"Then she is Jaime Wolf's sibkid," I said, throat dry.

"No."

"What?"

"But the danger you fear is there nonetheless. The warriors would find the truth less palatable and less believable even than assuming her to be Wolf's true-born child."

Dreading the answer, I asked, "And what is that truth?"

"Aren't you afraid it will change your feelings for her?"

"No."

"You should be."

His calm sparked the worry that he had expected to find. "Tell me. You obviously want to."

"I wantto?" He chuckled at some private amusement. "Yes, maybe it is a question of desire. You probably already think that I only do what I want to do. Well, that's not quite the situation. I'm talking to you because I think it necessary, because I believe it's the right thing to do, the necessary thing. I think you should know the truth, but not for my sake. For yours. And hers."

"So tell me already."

"All right. You know about the genetic sampling of the heirs of the leaders of the Great Houses of the I

"The scientists considered the move unethical and ill-advised, or most of them did. Officially, the plan was rejected, but there were a few of us who saw the plan as a chance to do what we thought was necessary to achieve the same goal. We went to Wolf and offered to secretly replace the seed for an already pla

I could hardly speak for a moment. "So you used his genes without him knowing. I thought you said she wasn't his sibdaughter."

"She isn't, in the strict sense. But in the broadest, she might be considered so:"

"You're confusing me, Schlomo."

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to. You see, Jaime would never contribute to the Dragoon gene pool. He was freeborn and believed that the old ways were the best in that regard. For him anyway. It was hard enough for him to order the creation of any sibkos at all, but he had to bow to the necessity of filling Dragoon ranks with soldiers of quality genetic heritage. He knew the Clans were coming.

"All the children of Wolf's first marriage except MacKenzie had been killed and MacKenzie had yet to reproduce—or even to prove his genetic heritage enough for his seed to be entered into the sibko program. Our group of scientists believed that the Dragoons needed Jaime Wolf's heritage to survive, and MacKenzie was too slender a thread. Don't you agree that subsequent events have proven us correct on that last point?"

I didn't want to even begin trying to respond to that last question. Maybe Schlomo didn't really want an answer either. When I shrugged, he went on as though his thread had never been broken.

"Well, we believed that the Dragoons needed more than just his heritage; we needed Jaime Wolf personally, but he was getting older every year like the rest of us. When his blood offspring didn't show enough of the right aptitudes, we conceived, if you'll pardon the expression, a plan.

"A direct reiteration would have been too obvious, even to the uninitiated. Though it took us to the edge of our capabilities, we were able to manipulate some of his cells, deleting the sex determinate from the Y chromosome. The resulting genetic blueprint was superimposed on an egg from which the nucleus had been removed. Mitochondrial matter from the donor was introduced to the egg as well. Most of the recombinants failed to multiply. Only one thrived."

"Maeve."

He nodded slowly. "For all practical purposes, she is a female Jaime Wolf. Genetically speaking, of course. Her upbringing and education are substantially different."