Андрэ Нортон - Beast Master's Circus

"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.