Andre Norton - Beast Master's Circus

by Beast Master's Circus(lit)

  According to her reading the beast master teams were few and far between. Maybe fifty had been trained at first. Another dozen or so in training had broken free before the final Xik thrust which had left Terra a smoking cinder. Most of the trained teams had perished in the hard fighting shortly before that time. But even the partly trained teams were bonded. That intimate emotional and mental connection was set before the physical training began.

  In fact, with the later teams the bond had been set far more deeply than with those first used. It was an experiment which, Laris felt, had been folly. The novice teams were bonded until death, but they lacked the military training which would help them resist Cregar's attack. Thus it was that Cregar targeted them, but also for that reason that he lost beast after beast to the trauma of its master's death.

  She shivered as she placed the animal in the matter chamber and activated the turntable. Dedran was determined to have live beasts from such a team. They had proved over and over that they could not use beasts from the trainee teams. She was afraid she could guess where his eyes would turn next. But surely there were none left of the trained teams which had fought and mostly died for Terra.

  Behind her Dedran spoke. "Prepare for departure, girl. I won't be needing you and the cat after all. Get the cages in. We up ship tonight."

  "We have a show booked for tonight. They'll talk if we cancel." She paused then added, "Do we want talk and attention drawn to us?"

  His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "True. All right. Start preparing after the show. We'll leave tomorrow morning as soon as we're packed up."

  For a moment Laris wondered if this was the time to jump ship. But it wasn't a good planet on which to take that chance. Lereyne would be better. In her mind another's eyes opened and looked out on the bleak, chill landscape. Agreement came. There was always time to consider. But to act hastily could mean unnecessary suffering.

  As she bustled about making ready for the show and then departure, Laris allowed that other to see through her eyes. Cregar didn't know how far they had come since Laris had found a tiny, shivering, starving cub three years gone on a world far off the beaten track. She'd taken the poor beast in, cared for him, loved him, and then found in him growing abilities which mixed strangely with the girl who loved him. Nowadays Prauo and Laris were useful to Dedran. The circus boss had many irons in the fire. They'd taken minute tissue samples from Prauo several times; Laris had been forced to permit that. But she smiled secretly on overhearing Dedran's rage.

  "They can't produce anything. Damned beast we grow ends up mindless over and over. And it doesn't grow larger." He'd ranted on and Laris had slipped away in silence.

  After that she'd carefully hidden other advances between herself and her friend. After his last growth spurt some eighteen months back Prauo had begun to be able to use her eyes. Not merely a bond, but a direct linkage. Shortly thereafter Laris had found she could do the same and see what the young cat saw. It had enabled them to please Dedran to a larger extent and he would suffer no interference by others in case his valuable asset was damaged beyond further use.

  Laris did her show in the first half of the performance, a flamboyant turn on the trapeze with the carra. The act was half serious, half clowning, always skilled, and greeted as ever by loud laughter. Then she changed into a boy's costume and disguise to enter the tigerbat cage. Dedran had found four more of the creatures in the intervening years but her special friend was the oldest and largest of the tigerbats. He ruled the miniature swarm.

  As part of her act they acted out a tiny play of a lad who found one of the creatures trapped and aided it. He was then rescued in turn when a swarm struck. Throughout her act there were gasps and cries from the audience. She finished, sent the tigerbats from the center cage, and turned to bow deeply. The applause was generous and Dedran nodded approvingly as he passed her. She'd been an excellent investment.

  Laris watched as he ran lightly into the ring. She knew what he'd thought. She made sure he felt that way by keeping her head down, working hard, and being utterly discreet. What he did not know didn't hurt him. He did know of the small amount of quarter and half credits she had hidden in her cabin. Dedran would not have been pleased to learn that she had a far larger stack of credits saved about which he knew nothing. Enough to keep her and Prauo for many months at the subsistence level of most worlds should she decide to flee.

  He'd have been still less pleased to know that she read as widely as she did. She regularly invested a credit here and there in unmonitored library access. Using her reading, overheard comments, newscasts, and the work Dedran sometimes required of Laris and her cat, she'd started to build a theory-that Dedran worked for the Thieves Guild. The war and destruction of two planets, the devastation of many others, had not been good for guild profits.

  And even worse had been the patrol, a neutral force to monitor human-settled worlds and crewed often by ex-military and survey officers. It had been started soon after the human race had exploded outward. When war began it had been scaled back. In the three years since war's end though, it had grown again, and with such a reputation that even some worlds with races other than human asked for the patrol's intervention at times. As a result a trickle of people of other races were being accepted for patrol training. And the patrol did not like the Thieves Guild.

  Laris changed to her ordinary clothing, spent time with Prauo, and then left reluctantly. She must begin the pulldown. She got it started but managed to disappear long enough to access a newscast. Her mouth stretched in an unpleasant grin. No wonder Dedran had tried to call off tonight's performance. The headlines were screaming about a murder.

  Since the murdered man had been not only an ex-beast master trainee but also the nephew of a very influential member of the government, the local surface patrol were out in force. Laris slid through the crowd and returned to her work thinking hard. She dared not let those here find the tissue samples. She'd be implicated. Dedran and Cregar would bribe their way free and up ship. She'd be the one left and blamed.

  But she could not allow Dedran to know that she knew of the hunt. Nor could she hide the samples in any place which might alert him that she had other hiding places he had not found. She drifted onto the ship unobtrusively, retrieved the samples, and placed them on the matter turntable under a heap of cage cleanings. Then she went back to her work. It was close to dawn when spaceport security descended upon the Queen of the Circus. Whoever Dedran usually paid off, it hadn't worked this time.

  They began at the entry port and worked forward using some instrument which they clearly expected would tell them if anything was to be found. Laris glanced at Dedran. His face was blank but his body language, to one who'd known him four years, bordered on desperation. He caught her eye questioningly. She allowed her lip to curl a fraction in reply. His tense posture slacked a fraction as he nodded at her.

  She relaxed. Good. He'd accept the samples' destruction. It was what he wanted, given this over-thorough search. She opened the tigerbat cage as requested, persuaded the four to move to a second enclosure while security began to check the first cage. The fifth tigerbat caught her tiny hand signal. He spun on wing-knuckles and fled down the corridor. She raced in pursuit. They spun past the engine-room door; she slowed, glanced back, good, they were out of sight for a few seconds. Her hand shot out, palmed the door ajar, pressed a switch, and thumbed the door shut again.

  Then she was back into their view and she moved up, cornering the animal at the end of the corridor. She pretended to strike him several times while he uttered pitiful cries. It was part of one of their acts and he trusted her. He cowered as he had been taught. Laris led him back to his cage. Security got to the matter chamber and found what they had found elsewhere-nothing. Laris breathed out. Their machine could find no trace of samples, now only component atoms. She watched them leave, Dedran ushering them politely. She'd have to admit what she'd done but she thought he'd accept the loss of samples at this time.

  Chapter
Two

  Dedran was coldly furious, but not at Laris. His anger was reserved for those who'd taken his money and failed to keep port security from his ship. He'd lost the samples, and worse, the authorities were still suspicious of him even though nothing had been found. He raged at Cregar in a corner where only the girl could overhear.

  "You deadglow, I wanted the man knocked out, unconscious, not killed. That way we could have had a live beast."

  Cregar's voice was cold. "Don't be more stupid than you can help, Dedran. He was a beast master. Alive, you couldn't have hidden one of his animals from him anywhere. That's what being a beast master is."

  "You could have left him injured. Head injuries would have stopped that."

  Cregar snorted. "Fer Crats sake, Dedran. Injuries would have stopped it so long as he was sick. His uncle would likely have been even quicker to start searching with a half-dead nephew urging him on. And I can tell you somethin' else the doctors here would have told Uncle. That the boy would get better faster if the animal was found. And if we killed it and just took samples once they started searching, the boy would have felt it die. He'd have gone crazy. So don't call me names. You were the one who insisted we try here. I told you it was risky."

  Laris saw Dedran glance around; she shrank back further into the tigerbat den. "Sure it was risky." Dedran's voice was lowered. "But you know who gives the orders. Want to argue with them?"

  Cregar's reply was brief. "No."

  "Right, then we try Lereyne. There's one of the original lot there. He was left with only two of his team and he recently lost a beast in some accident. The boss says we try now, before he loses the last one. There's another on Arzor and we do that next."

  "Isn't that gonna be a touch obvious? Our ship lands on Meril and a beast master gets killed. Our ship lands on Lereyne, and a beast master's animal gets snatched."

  It was Dedran's turn to snort. "No one's that stupid except you." He was half turned from Cregar as he spoke. He saw nothing, but Laris, peeping from the den saw the other man's face. If that was her, she wouldn't be talking to Cregar like that. The man was a killer and right now he'd like to kill Dedran. She drew back deeper into the den. If either knew that she was listening, her life wouldn't be worth a tenth credit.

  Dedran continued. "The guild says that with all the fuss on Meril there's been a plan change. We go to Arzor for a few shows, get the lay of the land there. We'll go on to Trastor and set down there for a couple of months. We'll skip Lereyne until afterward."

  Cregar nodded slowly. "And I go solo to Lereyne and Arzor and use local talent to help with the snatches."

  "Smart man, you got it. And just so's the trail breaks, you leave when we lay over at Port Bhaiat on Yohal for a couple of days." He turned to leave. "An' this time do a proper job. No deaders behind you; in, out, and off-planet while the local yokels are still sucking their thumbs."

  Laris drew back as far as she could, putting her eye to a crack in the den wall. Dedran walked away; Cregar was looking after him with a thoughtful look on his face. Laris had seen that kind of look in the camps. It was the slow, careful consideration of one predator wondering if he could, or if the time was ripe yet to take a competing predator down. She shivered. In her mind eyes opened and watched Cregar with her. A thought formed.

  *He waits. He may challenge when he returns if he has succeeded. That way he will bring good news to sweeten Dedran's death.*

  Laris was stunned. The touch of the mind was familiar but not the blurred mix of picture and emotion she usually experienced *Prauo?*

  A feeling of laughter. *Who else, sister-without-fur?* The presence was gone again and she blinked.

  After that she hurried through her chores and returned to her cabin. Prauo lay along one of the two bunks, great purple eyes surveying her with calm amusement. For a moment as Laris stood in the doorway it was as if the sight of him was new again. She admired the sharply delineated black-on-gold markings. Prauo's body was gold, lean, with long, thick fur. His face, tail, and legs were sheathed in shorter black fur and light purple eyes looked from the black mask of his face fur.

  When Laris had found him he'd been the size of a half-grown Terran kitten. She'd assumed that's what he was, some mutant coloration of one anyhow. Four months he'd remained unchanged, then he'd taken to her bunk and appeared ill for several days. But during those same days he'd eaten and grown hugely. By the time that spurt of growth had halted he was some thirty pounds, long and lean with developing muscles and claws of which no tigerbat would be ashamed.

  The second development had been unobtrusive: the ability to look through her eyes and allow her to see through his. That, she had been able to hide from Dedran and Cregar. The next growth spurt had again put weight on him. He'd attained a little over fifty pounds. And to her amusement he could slide through almost any small gap by flexing his shoulders together. Dedran had found a use for that, and for the odd sucker-pads which had opened from small round growths on each of Prauo's mid-leg joints.

  The cat could climb even an overhanging plascrete or clearplas wall, and could slide through small gaps. He was intelligent enough to bring back anything of which he'd been shown a picture, just so long as he was bringing it back to Laris. She'd obeyed Dedran's orders on that. It was safer and it allowed them to build up their small savings. A Dedran pleased was a man who tossed her the odd half credit, a handful of quarter or tenth credits. It was these she saved in an obvious hiding place.

  But the first time Prauo had been out with her he'd also brought back a cheek-pouch filled with full credits found while he hunted the item he'd been shown. He didn't find the coins every time, but often enough to build her savings to a respectable sum. And now, with Prauo's loot from that first haul, was hidden a rag-wrapped bundle of small pieces of jewelry. Nothing too large, too valuable. All unidentifiably mass-produced but easily sellable by a girl who appeared respectable and without bringing suspicion down on her.

  That was something else Dedran had not discovered, that Prauo had cheek-pouches which he could keep tightly shut. He could eat and drink without revealing the items carefully stowed. The first time it happened Laris had been both surprised and amused. The big cat had shown nothing, returned with her, accepted food and drink while Dedran examined the stolen item with smug approval and then dismissed her. Once back in their cabin Prauo had made odd retching motions and deposited seven credits on her bed.

  After that he rarely returned from one of their forays without offering her some small gift. She'd examined the pouches. They weren't large but they would hold a small Astran apple at need. Laris often wondered what purpose they served. She'd never seen Prauo use them except when they were out with Dedran. But they hardly could have appeared for that purpose. She looked at the big cat now and moved to sit by him, her hand scratching around his ears as he purred.

  "So you've found something else you can do." It hit her then like a blow. He'd spoken in her mind. He'd been Prauo, her friend whom she loved. But he wasn't just a cat, he was an intelligent being. Her hand halted, fingers buried in the thick fur as she stared down at him. He looked up, purple eyes meeting her dark brown ones. He yawned widely, teeth closing with the snick of a steel trap.

  "Prauo?" Her voice shook. Was he still her friend or would he change now, see her as unimportant?

  His head thrust hard against her. *Never, sister-without-fur. We are kin. My life is yours. And besides,* the mind voice was warm with amusement. *How well do you think we should do if you appeared with me at some human office to say that this animal who lives in the circus is an intelligent being? That it should have citizen's rights? Better that Dedran and Cregar do not know. In time one shall come who will understand and listen. Until then let us wait and be silent.*

  Laris covered one of his paws with her hands. "That's smart. But listen, brother-with-fur. Do you remember anything now? Where you came from, how come I found you?"

  *Nothing. Only terror, then cold and hunger. So cold, so alone until you
came.* His head thrust into her hands.

  She hugged him savagely. "Not alone, not ever again. We stay together so long as you want. We don't tell anyone what you can do. Maybe as you say, we find someone who'll listen and believe. After that who knows what will happen. But until then we keep silent."

  *That is wisdom, and on keeping silent, my sister, there is no need for you to speak aloud. One might overhear. Speak with your mind to mine. I shall listen.*

  Laris concentrated on forming words silently. *Like this?*

  *Exactly like that.*

  She muffled giggles in her hands. *It feels strange.*

  *You will come to find it natural and it is safer-for both of us.* With that she could only agree.

  *Doesn't it feel odd, one day you can't understand what I say, the next you don't just know, you can speak to me?*