Андрэ Нортон - Beast Master's Circus

"What's this? Storm, look here. Someone's been hurt. There's blood and a lot of it."

Prauo had leaned around Tani and sniffed. *Cregar, sister. He dies. Dedran shot him, I think. I follow the blood-trail.*

Laris gulped. "Storm. Prauo says Dedran shot Cregar. Cregar must have been defusing the cages. He said he would. We have to find them both. Cregar's hurt bad, Prauo says. And Dedran may do something awful still."

Storm was judging disconnected circuits with a knowing eye. "This one was cleared all right, and a job well done too. Let me check the next one before you open it, Laris."

Dedran had left quietly. With no crowd to provide cover he had slipped along the cage row and then darted behind the sideshow tents. Behind him Cregar stirred. The other beasts—still in danger, and the kid too. He knew she'd come first to try to rescue the animals. He forced leaden arms up to where the last circuits remained working under Surra's prison. The deadman circuit was easily disarmed. Thanks be that Dedran couldn't resist boasting. Its greater danger lay in not knowing it was there.

Better not to emerge or try to stand. He dragged himself back under the cages and disarmed the switch beneath Minou and Ferarre. There. One last cage to go, then he could rest. It was strange. He'd been sure it was earlier in the day. But it seemed to be growing dark. Not that it mattered. Laris would come for the beasts soon. He must have them ready. He crawled, his breath tearing at his throat.

Laris was ahead, Prauo trotting now, tracing that painful trail and relaying it to the girl.

*He grows weaker, sister. I think he dies. But he has some purpose. He goes toward the third cage now.*

Tani had released the coyotes who frisked about her, leaping to nuzzle her hands. They sent satisfaction that they were free, assurances that both were well, and that neither had been ill-treated. The human female with the strange cat had been kind to them. In the midway Prauo gathered speed as he followed Cregar's trail; Laris raced after him ahead of the others. Storm, carrying Surra and distracted by Tani's reunion with her coyotes, was well back when Prauo realized where Cregar was headed. The girl vanished from Storm's sight as she dived between two large cages in a shortcut.

Cregar reached the last cage and stared along the ground. He felt the vibrations of someone coming. He peered out in time to see Prauo appear at the end of the cage row. Where the cat was, the girl would not be far behind. The last cage—it was still wired to that final circuit! She would try to free the meercats. He would be left watching as she and the small ones who'd trusted him died, smeared bloodily across the midway when the deadman's switch took its toll.

She was coming. He saw the small figure trot forward. Storm had rounded the cage some distance away, Tani and Logan at his heels. They saw a terrible figure appear then. Swaying, covered in blood, both new and part-dried, Cregar rolled from under the cage and forced himself to his feet. His eyes blurred as Laris moved toward him. His sister. She was coming. His small, much loved sister. He couldn't let her die.

Terror for her accessed the last of his strength as he tore open the cage panel. He leaned in scooping up the sleep basket in which Hing was feeding her babies. In his fear for them he was sending. Hing read the message, *Lie still! Danger!* and she chittered the babies into a frozen stillness in his arms.

Cregar paused a fraction of a second, then leaped backward with them. They passed through the alarm circuit. With it shut down there was no pain for the meercats. But the circuit noted they had left, the switch triggered, and the cage blew up in a great smashing explosion. Cregar had known it would. Even as he leaped he had spun, cradling the trusting meercats in his arms, his back hunched over them, his own flesh and bone between them and harm as he flung himself forward. One pace, another—then the explosion came and he fell.

He went down still curled about the startled meercats. The scythe of splinters slashed across the alley of cages but it met only their backs. Further down the row Prauo had read Cregar's knowledge in the last second and dived at Laris. They rolled entangled beneath a cage. Storm, carrying Surra, with Tani and Logan beside him, had been far enough back to miss the deadly spray. Now they came running as Laris and Prauo crawled out.

"Are you hurt?"

"No." Laris brushed him off. "Cregar, Cregar?" She reached the fallen man and would have turned him over but Storm had laid down his cat and now he caught the girl's hands.

"Don't. You could make the injuries worse." Hing squirmed chittering from under Cregar and scampered to her human. The babies followed. Storm scooped them up and handed them gently to Tani. Then he knelt, his hands checking with the experience of many battlefields. Cregar opened weary eyelids and gazed up at the blurred figure.

"Deadman ... tied to ... kill-bar circuit." Hing returned, patting his bloody face with small anxious paws. Cregar's memory turned back. "Las? Lara?" He appealed to Storm. "My team ... are they ... okay?"

"They are unhurt," Storm said steadily. The man was dying. Whatever sins he'd committed, so far as Storm was concerned, he'd paid for them with the lives of Hing and her family. "Rest easy, beast master. You saved them all. You've done well."

"Shal?" Cregar could see only a blur of light now. "Little ... sister ... Shal. I love ... Shal?"

Laris was holding his groping hand in hers, tears pouring down her face. This was the one who'd saved her from Baris. The only one who'd been kind to her since she joined the circus. He'd saved the animals. Her grip brought him back a little. His gaze cleared and he knew her.

"Laris? My cache, yours." His eyes turned desperately to Storm. "You witness. Hers!"

"I witness. Whatever you have is to go to Shallaris Trehannan." He saw the man's eyes open in amazement. Storm nodded to the frantic question in these eyes. "Yes. She is. You saved her."

Cregar forced out the final words. "Good girl... not blame." He fell mute, appealing to Storm.

"We know. I'll see she's all right, beast master, it's Dedran who'll pay." Cregar heard the words. It was good. All good now. He'd saved his own blood unknowingly. Saved his team, saved his heart, laughter, the inner vision by which a beast master lived. Darkness was coming. Time for Jason Regan Trehannan and his team to hunt. He could see them. They were around him, with him. He could feel their minds holding him up.

Storm was silent, waiting. He saw the body stiffen a little, then as the eyes became blank windows staring up, it seemed to slump and flatten. Storm had seen it often enough. The man was gone, his spirit fled for judgment. Well, at the last Cregar had paid blood price. May the faraway gods open the Warrior Path to him.

Hing pattered back to Storm, swarmed up his pants leg, and cuddled close. Laris was on her knees still holding the limp hand. Logan was beside her. Tani, her arms full of meercat babies, was standing at Storm's back when a voice spoke.

"How charming. Now which of you is going to walk me to my ship?" Dedran smiled at them, needier rock-steady in one hand. Prauo appeared from under the cage behind him and departed the ground in one soaring black-and-gold leap. He landed, claws slashing away the needier. Dedran yelled as they included a generous amount of skin with that blow. Taken unaware and off-balance from the impact of almost eighty pounds of cat, he fell backward. The big cat landed sitting across the recumbent body.

Delicately he flexed claws, laid them across Dedran's eyes, and waited, watching Laris. *Sister? It will not keep him from talking to those who would hear.*

She hesitated. It would be sweet. The patrol could still drain the man of everything, deep-probe all his secrets. She looked at her friends. Storm was impassive. He'd accept her vengeance. Tani and Logan were less accepting. If she did this it would always lie like a dirt smudge across their friendship. Laris sighed.