Beast Master's Circus

by Andre Norton

  *A11 that is true, furless-sister. But what interests me more is Dedran's errand. And why those men sought Cregar.*

  Laris told another fortune while mulling over those questions. She was interrupted by giggles outside. Someone speaking in accented one-speech was insisting that she be taken inside to learn her fate. The hair on the back of Laris's neck rose. She could feel danger here. The voice sounded like that of a young flighty girl, indulged, spoiled, and from some rich planetside family. But there were undertones only Laris, and through her, Prauo, could detect.

  *Leave, sister, quickly. Go openly before they enter.*

  Laris leapt for the tent entrance. All her instincts were shouting that she should not allow herself to be trapped inside where none could see. She was barely in time. Her slender body brushed past the girl who would have entered and the girl staggered sideways with a gasp. Laris caught only an impression of her. Apparently young, richly dressed-and with the most coldly vicious, experienced eyes Laris had ever seen.

  The man with her matched well. If he wasn't heavily armed, then Laris was a carra. He appeared young and from some wealthy provincial family but his eyes too did not match the outward picture.

  *Strip your veil,* Prauo sent. *Make them believe they are dealing with a child.*

  Laris paused to wipe her forehead as she stood outside the tent. She removed the veil, lightened her voice, and shifted her stance to the slightly angular hip-shot way of standing of a younger girl.

  "I apologize, Gracious Lady, Honored Sir. But I am weary, the tent grows stuffy, and I feel unwell."

  The girl surveyed her. The air was one of spoiled irritation but the eyes showed only calculation. "I wanted my fortune told. I demand it. That's why you're there, isn't it? Tell her, Baris. I'm the Lady Ideena, and it'll pay for her to do what I want."

  Laris concentrated, letting her body sag a little, her voice waver. "I'm sorry, Lady. But I really do feel unwell." From the corner of one eye she could see Dedran approaching, or at least someone who looked the way he had when he had departed her tent. She raised her voice, thinning it to a more childish note.

  "I feel siiick. Oooo!" She retched realistically.

  Dedran had slipped behind a cage. He wouldn't want this pair-whoever they were-to get their hands on her too long in case she talked. His current disguise would take only minutes to remove. She must play for time. The man took hold of her shoulder.

  "If you feel sick then you should go back inside your tent, my dear. You can lie down in there. We'll stay with you. Maybe you'll feel better after a while." Somehow Laris doubted that. She doubled over, holding the tent rope in a ferocious grip against his urging hands. Her voice came out in a piercing wail.

  "I feel so sick." She swallowed again and again, forcing her stomach to react. She'd eaten only a couple of hours earlier. One of the circus women had brought her the food and the portion had been generous. It was always easier to be sick on a full stomach. She swallowed again. Where was Dedran? They were beginning to attract attention but the grip on her shoulder hurt. The girl, hands screened by their bodies, was trying to make her let go of the tent rope.

  Laris felt her fingers pried loose one by one. They'd have her in a minute. She wailed again. Her stomach finally cooperated and she was lavishly sick over the girl's expensive cloak. The girl snarled.

  "Get her into the tent, Baris. There's gossip about this outfit and I want to find out all I can. There could be credits in it for us."

  A voice came just as Laris was running out of strength. "Gracious Lady, Honored Sir. May I aid?" Dedran moved to block the tent entrance.

  Laris took her cue. "Oh, Master. I'm so sorry. Maybe it was something I ate, an' the tent being so hot. I came out to get air an' these gentlefolk wanted their fortunes told. I was afraid if I went back inside I'd be sick but they kept pulling at me, an' then I really was sick and now they're mad at me..." She let her voice-which had gradually become louder, attracting the attention of many close by-trail off into childish sobs.

  Dedran drew himself up. "I apologize for my bond-servant. But she is very young."

  "Too young to be in bond, surely?" The man's tone was acid.

  Dedran raised his eyebrows, lying smoothly. "On Meril one may set a bond providing the servant is ten. And the girl has only been with me two years." His voice became silky. "If it is any of your business. It is not I who has been frightening the child."

  Laris swallowed a grin. She'd been bound on Kowar where the bond age was sixteen. Although it was true Meril permitted a far lower age. And she'd been with the circus more than two years. But then she'd also been bound earlier than the law allowed. Oh, what a tangled web was being woven. But that precious pair had just noticed that people were gathering, drawn by the commotion and raised voices. They wouldn't like that much public attention, she was sure. They didn't. Her would-be abductors were muttering explanations and allowing the crowd to close about them until they were gone.

  "Who were they?" Dedran hissed.

  "They called themselves Baris and Lady Ideena," Laris hissed back.

  He nodded, apparently recognizing the names. "Scavengers seeking pickings and information. Scavengers-with a touch of the tigerbat," he added as he helped her with mock solicitous-ness to walk toward the ship. "What did they ask you?"

  "Nothing. They just tried to get me back into the tent. She said there was gossip and where there was talk there were credits."

  Dedran grunted. "She'd be the one to hear any talk too. Crats! Have we drawn the attention of every nose on a dozen planets?" He focused on Laris. "You'd better not be really ill. We've a job to do tonight still." She gasped. That was madness with so many watchers. He shrugged.

  "I know. But there's no choice. We do it tonight. I've been given a security-breaker and copier. It will take time but should break the security coding and copy the information. Then you can put the target back in place and no one will know. We leave in a couple more days and they won't know what happened." He snickered. "Not until they find copies of their fancy protections being sold all over."

  Laris hesitated to argue but she had to say something. It would be Laris he turned on and her at risk. "Surely they'd have the information protected by their own new codes."

  He chuckled harshly. "It should be. But money buys favors. It bought that one. There's an assistant who thinks he should be more."

  "Then why doesn't he just sell the information?" She'd noticed that he seemed to be talking freely and she chilled. That wasn't a good sign.

  "None of your business, my dear. You and your clever cat just get the thing to me outside. I copy it, and you return it." His fingers dug into her arm as he shook her slightly. "Understand?"

  "Yes," Laris muttered.

  "Good. I'll have the tent packed up. You go and sleep, eat something but not too much. We don't want you being sick in the wrong place." He laughed and pushed her toward her cabin. "Go on. And be ready in a couple of hours. I won't want to waste time."

  She nodded, trudging for her cabin. She liked none of this and danger signals were nudging her harder and harder. She slid her door aside and joined the big cat where he sprawled comfortably on the bunk. No one could hear anything but within the cabin the two were at once engaged in intense discussion.

  They came to no conclusions, only questions. Who were the searching men, why did they ask for Cregar, and for what were they searching? Then there were Baris and the Lady Ideena. Dedran said they were scavengers. Presumably they'd have asked questions of Laris. But what would they have wanted to know? Were they members of the Thieves Guild and if so, did they have any standing? If they did, how high was it in comparison to Dedran's status?

  They considered that for some time. There'd always been thieves, even on Terra. When Terrans broke into space, thieves had gone with them. Gradually they'd organized into a guild which now stretched across the settled planets. They had their own organizational structure-that much was known by ordinary people who kept their ears open
for the gossip, although little else about the shadowy group was public knowledge. It was known that the guild had a system which allowed the more important members to be recognized by their own people on any human-settled planet. That, Laris believed, applied to Dedran, which suggested in turn that either he himself was important, or that he was commanded by one who was of power in the guild.

  Finally, tired out, girl and cat slept. The alarm woke both at three A.M. planet time. Yohal's rotation being slower, there were still some six hours until daylight. Laris yawned, stretched, and sullenly climbed into a dark blue jumpsuit. Prauo trotted silently beside her as she left her cabin. Dedran was waiting, dressed in a dull dark-green coverall. One side of it bulged slightly and from the way one hand shifted Laris was sure he was carrying a stunner as well.

  He made for his cabin again, locked the door, switched on a light, and dropped down a desktop. On that he laid out plans and several gadgets. Laris had grown used to using the items and to learning plans within minutes. Once he'd finished the explanation she asked only one question.

  "Security in the area?"

  "All taken care of. Now, come with me and don't speak again until I say you can. No matter how long that may be." He beckoned and set off toward the ramp.

  She and the cat fell in behind obediently. They traveled in silence until they reached a hovercab stand. The cabs were robotic and accepted tokens. Dedran signaled her to remain silent as he fed tokens into the fare slot. The cab lifted, and they were on their way. Some twenty minutes later they arrived, exited, walked around a corner, climbed into a second cab, and rode again before finding another. They left the third cab and went on foot a while before Dedran halted at a corner.

  From one pocket he took a small rod and extended it to a right angle. Placing his eye against one end he peered in. "Right, be ready." He waited, "Wait... wait... now, around the corner." Laris obeyed. He pointed to a wall cloaked in heavy shrubbery around the base. "Into there, now." She scurried into hiding, Prauo close on her heels. Dedran paused, looking out over the street. All was quiet and empty. On a post above them a scanner revolved slowly.

  Laris had noted that in one swift glance as she dived for cover. It was slower than those normally used to cover the wealthier residential streets. It also seemed to halt in its circuit earlier and return. It looked as if the last part of the missing arc would have covered the house wall. Now it didn't. She guessed someone had been here before them. Some kid working his passage for the guild by slowing and aborting a portion of the scanner's movement.

  But there was no time to think about that. She had to keep her mind on the job. Prauo was scaling the wall, a fine rope trailing behind him. He reached the top, folded his shoulders together, slid between bars barely a hand's length apart, then walked briskly around one to anchor the rope. His mind voice reached her.

  *Climb, sister-one. None stir here.*

  She climbed, leaving Dedran below. Once balanced on the window ledge she was able to cut the center bar and bend it outward. She slid adroitly through the narrow gap and joined the waiting cat. Her hand smoothed the ruffled fur over his shoulders.

  *Just as well for us that Yohal has little of the inner world's technology. Their security is laughable.*

  *Not so laughable that they cannot invent the thing we seek.*

  *Having technology and having brains are different things.*

  She felt his amused agreement as they moved silently through the building. Dedran had shown her a plan of the place. It was simplified but it had all she needed to find the safe. A small instrument given to her before she climbed would deactivate the alarm. She had the security codes after that. The guild would hold their stolen knowledge until the new invention was in widespread use. Then, little by little they would sell the code-breaker.

  They would make millions of credits from the sale, garner a hundred favors owed. This theft of the breaker's plans and technology, if successful, would probably gain Dedran more guild status. If he failed it might gain all three of them an early, unlabeled, and unlamented grave. Laris moved more carefully. She'd gain nothing from a successful theft but she had no desire for the possible results of a theft foiled by discovery.

  Ahead the big cat moved on silken silent paws. They accessed the safe without difficulty once it was found. Laris shivered with nerves the almost sixty minutes it took to crack the technology and make the copy. With all the information safely in her hands she returned it, closed and re-coded the safe. Then, she carefully reset the alarm.

  Half done. She moved quickly back through the building. Hissed the all-clear to Dedran and climbed through the window bars. With the miniature heat device she re-welded the bar shut; below, Dedran was waiting when she descended the rope. Together they watched as the scanner circled slowly, halted, returned, and set off again.

  "Now." They trotted quickly around the corner into the darker alley. Laris heaved a sigh as they reached it in safety. No alarm. With luck they'd be home free. It seemed they were, since in another hour they were drifting, darker shadows among shadows in a deserted circus ground, up the ramp to their respective cabins, and still in silence.

  After that Laris waited. The performances went by, there was no sign of Baris and Ideena and after another week of ordinary events the circus's ship requested takeoff clearance. It was granted casually. They lifted from Yohal and no one below was the wiser that the departing ship was now worth a million times its previous value.

  Chapter Four

  The circus landed on Arzor with the minimum of official fuss and the maximum glare of publicity. Not since the half-forgotten days before the war had there been such an event. Some of the oldest families at Arzor Port liked to consider themselves sophisticated. But sophistication is in the eye of the beholder. It pleased the first-ship families to decide that a traveling circus was sophisticated and to have their entire families attend in their best clothing.

  With them, as Dedran had expected, came the beast master here. Laris was watching when they arrived.

  "Is that them?"

  Occasionally Dedran enjoyed showing off what he knew. "Yes, see. The man at the end with the woman. That's the beast master and his wife. His name is Hosteen Storm and she is Tani."

  "Who're the others with them?" Laris was peering at the distant figures with fascination.

  "His stepfather and younger half-brother. Storm only joined the family after the war. He was raised apart. But the stepfather is from a first-ship family. He doesn't make a parade of it but there's some wealth and a lot of influence there." He studied her briefly. "I'd have no objections if you spoke to them. With you handling the animals here they may well wish to talk with you." His fingers bit into her arm. "Just be very careful what you say, my dear. We wouldn't want them to be warned in any way, would we?"

  "No, of course not. I'll be careful."

  But he'd put the idea into her mind and she thought about it all through the performance. She gave it up reluctantly. If Dedran thought she'd let anything slip it would be her body on the turntable; what would Prauo do then? Even as her mind flew in search of ideas she soared on her trapeze. The carras soared with her, tumbling like the happy beasts they were, whirling about her, clowning to her serious act so that Arzor Port alternately gasped at her skill and laughed as the carras foiled her attempts to be a serious artist time and time again.

  She caught glimpses of the family as she swung. They were laughing as hard as anyone, all but the beast master and even he wore a half-smile. Somehow it pleased her, that they should admire her. She pushed her act to the edge and brought gasps from below. She ended the performance by dropping lightly from the trapeze to land bouncing in the safety net, the carras dropping with her, chittering merrily.

  The family was clapping for her as she swung down, to turn, bowing to the audience. She scampered with the beasts from the ring and Dedran watched her take up the carras. That had been an interesting display. The girl had pushed safety to the limits and given an act that had
brought the audience halfway to its feet in horror and then applause. But how much of her daring had been a determination to show her skill before a beast master, Dedran wondered.

  His mind paused at that thought before following the path. How much had been admiration for beast master skills? Maybe a desire to see the man's animals remain where they were? Dedran was not a fool. He knew the girl was more and more unhappy over the stolen animals that died. So was Cregar. Could it have been one of them who had brought down those spies from the authority, and later, Baris and Ideena, upon the show? He'd have to think about that. Cregar and Laris could be replaced. Not easily on the part of the man but for the girl, there was the De Pyall camp where he'd first found her.

  His lips twisted into a sneer. In a refugee camp there were always those who'd take any job, accept any condition to be free of the place. He'd known the girl's fears. But she'd still followed him. Signed a false closed bond and held to it. His glare became a scowl. He hoped to leave the circus behind if his patron's plans worked out well. He would take the girl-someone with her skills was worth real credits to arena buyers if he faked her signature on an open bond. He had to be careful there. Between officials, the patrol, and do-gooders who checked on bondservants, he dare not make the wrong move. Not yet. But the closed bond under which he held her did not allow the bond's sale to someone else. An open bond would permit that.