Beast Master's Quest

by Andre Norton

  “Didn’t they want to talk?” Logan was curious.

  “Yes. Just statements, though. They repeated that they were sorry about the misunderstanding over the sea-beast. Their names are T’k’ee and T’s’en, and,” she added in parentheses, “I’m pretty sure both are also males. I asked the names of their aikizai and got a very clear impression that’s one of the improper things to ask.”

  “So they refused to tell you?”

  “It wasn’t exactly a refusal, just not an answer.” She looked at Logan, “I think they didn’t want me to know some things, but they keep forgetting that I can pick up some of what they say to each other when we’re in close proximity.”

  “Such as?” The query was Storm’s as he joined his half-brother and Laris [where they stood in the crew doorway, watching Prauo with the two aikizai.]

  “I felt as if they were being polite for a reason. They don’t like me or Prauo that much, but right now they need me to keep meeting them. But if they did stay polite and meet me I thought I could maybe ask a few questions and get answers so I did.” She took a deep breath.

  “I asked how many of the pairs could be together before they had problems with that. Then I asked about the aikizai females and the liomsa women—you remember I said all three of the others felt male and so did their aikizai.”

  Storm was deeply interested. “What did they tell you?”

  “The liomsa weren’t exact on the numbers who could meet safely, but one of the aikizai sent me a picture privately. From that I’d say the upper limit may be around thirty or so pairs. The question about the liomsa, well, I seemed to have put my foot in it there. When I asked about that, I felt real anger from them.”

  Logan draped a consoling arm around her shoulders as Storm asked her, “Could you sense anything specific about the anger? Was it directed at you, at the women, at the question, or what?”

  “I had an impression of secrecy.” Laris strained to clarify that. “I don’t know, really. It was as if maybe there was something the women didn’t know, or maybe that their women are different. Perhaps that the women of their kind don’t feel the same about something the males believe in.” Storm absorbed that thought without showing emotion. Inside he was adding the information to the theories and suggestions made by the Patrol specialist.

  Aloud he said, “Prauo’s coming. Will he go out to talk to the aikizai after dark?” The big feline had bounded up the steps in time to pick up the question from Laris’s mind.

  *I am willing. They agree their others will not be with them then.*

  “Laris couldn’t get their others to answer clearly, but do the aikizai have females?”

  Prauo’s amusement tickled the inside of their heads. *Indeed they do. The aikizai would not speak further on this, but I am assured they do have females of their race.* His purple gaze fastened on Storm. *What thought is in your mind?*

  “Three liomsa and three aikizai met us,” Storm said, thinking as he spoke. “The aikizai of the three liomsa males are themselves male. Could it be that they link by sex? Do aikizai on this world link only as males with males, females with females? If that’s so, where does it leave you and Laris?”

  Prauo’s mind-voice was sober, his answer indirect. *I do not believe one of my kind would harm her.*

  “Maybe not.” Storm kept his thoughts on that to himself. T’s’ai had overruled his aikiza twice when he would have warned Logan about the sea-beast. That lack of a warning could have resulted in Logan’s death. What if one of the humanoid liomsa moved openly against Laris and overruled his aikiza there, too? As Versha had warned Storm before they set out on this exploration, on alien worlds and with the aliens upon them there were never any guarantees of easy understanding.

  Chapter Ten

  Storm casually wandered away to the bridge where Captain D’Argeis was checking transmissions. There was no one else nearby, the rest of Storm’s friends having gone to the mess.

  “Captain, you were scanning as we landed. Are there any other good landing sites, perhaps one nearer that concentration of cubs and other native pairs?”

  The captain nodded. “Take a look at the scans. I’ll bring them on-screen.” They studied them together, especially those showing the life concentration which the computers has suggested might be a number of the unattached cubs of younger age. The captain put his finger on that.

  “I’ve continued to refine input and run it against the original scans. Further computer extrapolation suggests these are several dozen cubs of around the age Prauo was when he was stolen. But look here.” Dotted about the central area was a circle of markers.

  “If the computer is right, these are adult duos of aikizai and their liomsa.” He touched the controls, homing in slowly on the item he sought to see more clearly. Storm watched with deepening fascination as a shape grew slowly on the screen. Once it was clear he moved back to place it within context, then grunted softly.

  “Ruins again, some distance away from the cubs and maybe five or six miles from the nearest side of that circle of attendants or whatever they are. It would be convenient. We’d have all three things of interest within half a day’s walk, and we could look at the ruins first before we approach the people.

  “Walking in the forest seems to be easy so far as the physical activity is concerned there’s little undergrowth in most places, and where there are clumps of it, there are still places where the walker can detour around them. Although we must move very carefully, the walking may be easy, but in any alien environment there can be dangerous traps for the unwary. There’s another thing, too—look at this.”

  He gave an order to the screen, watching as pictures revolved. “Could we land just there?” his finger pointed to a flat area, near the coast still, and where the computer said the underlying land was a mixture of rock and hard-packed gravel. It looked to Storm as if the spot had once been the narrower end of an old stream delta before it widened to sweep down to the outer coast.

  “It’s clear of trees, it isn’t right on a beach so we may not be in as much danger from sea-beasts, and it’s only ten or twelve miles from the nearest part of the circle,” Storm said.

  “Close enough for them to hear and see us land, not close enough, hopefully, for them to panic or attack us before they’ve had a chance to think about it. Yes,” Captain D’Argeis agreed. “That’d be a good place to land, I’d say. Shall I set up coordinates while you talk it over with your friends?”

  Storm nodded. “Get that done. I’ll discuss it with them over dinner, but I think they’ll agree to move tomorrow. Prauo is going out tonight to talk to the two aikizai, but I think their liomsa are hiding things, and whether or not the aikizai agree, it looks to me as if they’re mostly going to go along with that. I’d like to talk to a few other humanoids and aikizai elsewhere who may not have the same agenda.”

  The discussion about the move was fierce, but it was decided before Prauo left. If he found out more, if the aikizai were prepared to be more open with answers to his questions, the ship would stay. If not, they would leave to set down on the second landing site.

  *Be careful, brother-in-fur.* Laris hugged the powerful neck before she opened the crew door.

  Prauo’s mind-send was affectionate. *I have no plans to be anything else, sister, although I do not think they would harm me. Nor will I let them know we plan to leave, in case they would prefer us not to go.*

  Laris hid her thoughts from Prauo as he padded down the ramp. Had there been an ambiguity in his mind then? Was he reluctant to leave the first of his kind he’d ever met? Was his belief that the aikizai wouldn’t hurt him based on a feeling of kinship? She clutched her fears tighter, buried them deeper under layers of not-worrying in her mind.

  Logan was standing by with the night-sighter. Even in the dim light from the three tiny moons which raced in orbit above them, he could use the sighter to watch Prauo almost all the way to his rendezvous. If there were any obvious signs of ambush or attack, he could warn Prauo and
those in the ship. Beside him, Mandy perched on Tani’s padded shoulder and waited. She, too, would be ready to watch over Prauo, more closely than the sighter could manage.

  “Let her go,” Storm ordered quietly. Tani touched her bird’s head in a quick caress, then leaned forward a little to allow for an easier departure. Mandy drifted silently into the night, sideslipped into the forest and was gone. Tani linked and spoke.

  “No sign of anything other than small animals and two aikizai. Wait! No, there are several of their liomsa moving in. They’re forming around the aikizai in a half circle on the forest’s inner edge.” Storm signaled Laris to hold Prauo back. “They aren’t doing anything. They’re settled down in hiding—to listen, I think.” She dropped a level of the link to speak directly to Storm. “What do we do now?”

  “Can Mandy see anything that looks like real weapons, anything apart from their knives?”

  Tani linked more tightly and sent Mandy drifting past the nearest humanoid. Like all owls Mandy flew silently and, as the liomsa was seven or eight feet below her, he was unaware he had company. Mandy circled in and out of the trees above him as Tani studied him through paraowl eyes. After the inspection she allowed the bird to move on to circle above a second liomsa. That wasn’t good. She lightened the link and looked up.

  “Each of the two we’ve looked at closely seem to have a weapon. You know I can’t say anything about native artifacts. But if they were Nitra down there I’d guess the items are rifles of some kind. Their body language when they handle the things says ‘weapon’!”

  Logan spoke thoughtfully. “And if they have rifles or something similar, I really wonder why they approached us without them? A sign of trust, or didn’t they want us to know they had better weaponry? They came to us looking just like innocent, unarmed natives. Could this be some kind of plan to take the ship?”

  Storm shook his head. “I’m not at all sure those rifles—if that’s what they are—are for us. Look at it. They’re surrounding the aikizai, watching them, not the ship. I think maybe they don’t want them talking to Laris or Prauo without their liomsa knowing exactly what’s said.”

  Laris looked at Prauo. “Could you warn the aikizai they’re being spied on without their partners knowing what you say?”

  His reply was sent to them all. *I think so.*

  Logan nodded. “I’ll watch him, Storm; so will Tani, with Mandy. Prauo, see if you can move closer to the forest edge as you talk. That way I’ll have a clearer view of you.”

  *That I can do.*

  In a tree above two of the watching liomsa, Mandy was now resting, talons curled around a comfortable branch. Logan lifted the night-sighter to his face, watching as Prauo ambled from the ship. The big feline sniffed, wandered, and slowly drew closer to where the aikizai crouched. As he had hoped, his presence sprang a small creature from its cowering in low vegetation. He circled, apparently to cut it off, and his start of surprise as he discovered the aikizai was quite convincing to all who saw him.

  His mind-send was general, emotions of surprise and mild indignation leaking around it: *Are you spying on my ship?*

  Within the ship Laris grinned. Really, that was very well done of Prauo. Injured innocence, and, if the aikizai were as bright as Prauo was, they’d get the message something was going on. It seemed they had. Through her own link she could receive their reply, which she passed on to her friends while simplifying into words the blend of emotions, blocks of scent/touch, and native voices.

  *No, we watch over your ship. To be sure all is well.*

  Prauo’s mind-voice was subtly younger now, sounding like an innocent and rather inquisitive cub. *Oh, that’s kind. Why don’t your friends watch over us, too? Don’t they want to protect us as well?*

  In the ship that provoked an explosion of giggles from Laris and Tani, gruffer chuckles from the men.

  The aikiza took the words at face value as intended. *They would wish to do so, but they do not venture out at night.*

  Prauo’s reply to that still sounded innocently cublike. *You do. My sister-without-fur and her friends do not fear the night, either. Are your liomsa cowards or is the dark harmful to them?* As he had thought they would, the aikizai hesitated, thinking of a neutral reply to that.

  And in a tight mind-send to them alone, he added, *Beware. Your liomsa are close, watching and listening to all you say. They have with them what may be weapons.* A flick of a picture went with that, showing what Mandy had seen.

  On the heels of his sending came the answer. *Our liomsa are not cowards. There are dangers at night that we are better suited to deal with. They do not have our natural weapons.* And in another close sending! *How many watch us?*

  *Then perhaps being out after night has fallen is dangerous to me, too. I am only young as yet, and I do not know this world—although the scent of that creature I frightened was pleasant. Are they good eating?* Adding in undersend, *Our machines saw six. What should I do?*

  The reply was unambiguous and open. He understood it was not only for the benefit of those who watched but advice for him in answer to his underquestion.

  *That is true, younger one. The dark can be dangerous for those unused to this place. The allaar is edible, but surely your friends share food with you? Return to your ship; we will walk you to the edge of the trees.*

  He moved between them as they paced closer to the ship. With his shoulder brushing theirs he knew communication should be safe, as it was with Laris under the same circumstances. He spoke quickly, keeping the sending so tight anyone not touching them would not hear.

  *We think of leaving this place. We could land elsewhere. Have you advice for us?*

  *Go, yes, that is safer for you. Where? Perhaps to the south . . . * Laris dropped into linked minds a picture of the place Storm was considering. Both recognized it instantly. *Yes, go there. Find E’l’ith and her aikiza.*

  They reached the tree fringe and both aikizai turned. *We will leave you here, young one. Be wary—in the dark of night there may always be danger.*

  *You are kind. Thank you.* His general mind-voice stayed that of a younger aikiza, barely out of cubhood, rather naïve and inexperienced. More tightly, he sent, *Would your liomsa harm us?*

  *A cersho bears horns not only for decoration. South they have horns but are more open to talk.* With that they padded away, disappearing into the dark under the trees.

  Once there, so Tani was able to see through her link with Mandy, they were met by their liomsa. The humanoids were angry, judging from their attitudes. One turned toward the forest fringe where Prauo was, lifting his weapon. Another reached up to push it downward, glancing in the direction of the ship and speaking in a way that seemed to be soothing. Tani passed this on hastily.

  “Get Prauo inside. One of the others is waving his rifle or whatever it is around, and looking towards Prauo.”

  *Prauo, come quickly to the ship, Tani thinks there is danger for you.*

  Prauo obeyed, bounding towards the ramp and taking most of it in a flying leap. Logan slammed the door behind him. Tani yelped, “Mandy—she’s still out there!”

  “Call her in!” Storm ordered. “Tell her to circle the ship and we’ll open the door as soon as she comes by.”

  Minutes later the paraowl hurtled through the opening, but even as Logan slammed it again there was a sudden clang and the whine of a ricochet. Storm spoke calmly amidst the exclamations.

  “A simple projectile rifle from the sound of that. They won’t even make a dent in a Garand with one of those.”

  “It would have made more than a dent in Prauo.” Laris was fuming. “How dare they? He’s one of them. What did he ever do to harm anyone out there?” She hid a small, wicked satisfaction that the humanoids had driven Prauo back to her. Let him see that she was better to him than the liomsa were to the aikizai here.

  Storm nodded. “True. Well, it makes up our minds for us. We’ll lift off for the southern site first thing in the morning.”

  “But why did
they try to shoot Prauo?” Laris was still angry at the injustice. “He’s one of them.”

  “Perhaps they were afraid he learned more than they wanted us to know.” Captain D’Argeis’s voice cut in. “The liomsa could have realized that their aikizai had been speaking with Prauo without letting them listen in. Which raises a very good question.” He looked at Storm, who nodded.

  “Yes. Exactly what is it they don’t want us to know? Something that would have made it worthwhile to shoot Prauo and risk whatever we might do in retaliation?”

  Prauo sent, *They were afraid, I think. I could not tell if they were afraid of what they did, or that they spoke to me secretly, or if they feared their liomsa knowing that they did. But there was fear and fear-scent with an undertaste of compulsion beneath much of what they said openly to me.*

  “And their others were very quick to jump to conclusions,” Storm muttered. “You could have only exchanged a few sentences in secret, and they had no way of knowing if you did for certain, but for that they were prepared to commit murder.”

  “If they count the death of an aikiza as murder,” Tani said very softly, and everyone turned to stare at her as she continued.

  “Consider these possible points. The aikizai were afraid. They advised Prauo to get away to the ship quickly and that the ship should leave. It should go south where we could talk to an E’l’ith and her aikiza. Either the aikizai were afraid for themselves, in which case they could fear being killed, or they feared for Prauo, that their liomsa would kill him. Either way, the possibility is a dead aikiza at the hands of those who supposedly cherish all aikizai.”

  “I think Tani is right.” Storm’s face was stern. “We’ll upship in the morning, land at the southern site and make very careful contact with the aikizai and their liomsa there. I want everyone to carry stunners any time you leave the ship from now on, please. Take no chances; always stay within sight of at least one or more of us. Personal alarms should be worn at all times, and I suggest that the ship is never to be left unattended. I’d like to have someone on the bridge watching the scanners any time someone is outside.” He turned.