Mercedes Lackey - The Wizard of Karres

The thespians all seemed to know what was coming, for they cleared back against the walls and scrims. Dame Ethulassia grabbed Pausert's elbow and pulled him back along with the rest, while some of the others did the same for Hulik, Goth, and the Leewit.

Suddenly there was a thunder of running feet, and backstage became very, very crowded as the biggest, meanest-looking, and strongest members of the circus converged on Cravan and Petey. If Goth's and the Leewit's eyes had been big before, they were dinner-plate-size now.

Himbo Petey spoke to them in a very low, very angry voice, explaining what had just happened. An animal growl arose from several of the throats, and postures went rather beyond "tense."

"These boys will help you identify them," he finished, gesturing to the riggers and the techs. "I want them off the ship, off the grounds, bag and baggage. Keep 'em off. And spread the word: we're lifting early. I want us derigged, packed up, and gone. We've got most of the loose money on this planet anyway."

Before Pausert could blink, they were gone. Petey looked around, his eyes lighting on the little witches. "We take care of our own," he said again, reassuring them in a surprisingly gentle voice. They nodded, though their eyes were still enormous. "Good. Miss Hulik? Would you and the rest of your crew take them to their cabins on your old ship? And when you get there, close and dog down the airlock. Don't come out until we're out of orbit. Girls, don't bother to change out of your costumes until you're in your own cabins; just bring them back at rehearsal tomorrow."

"Yessir," they said in chorus.

Cravan looked around as well. "You heard the Showmaster," he said firmly. "Break and stow, we're lifting early. Quicktime!"

Pausert joined the girls, and they all started to move away. Cravan shot a look at them.

" Quicktime, Mister Pausert!" he barked.

They ran.

* * *

"Are we in trouble?" asked Goth quietly, when the lock had been secured. "With the show, I mean."

"Oh no," Hulik replied. "No, not at all. However, your would-be kidnappers are."

"You think they were going to kidnap us?" the Leewit asked, looking more interested than frightened.

Hulik shrugged. "It's what I would do, if I were the kind of wretched scum that they are," she replied. "Kidnap you, and use you to get the rest of us without a fight. That is, if I hadn't bothered to look into the reports of the last lot of ISS agents who tried to take us."

"Do you think we should tell Himbo Petey what's really going on?" Pausert asked, feeling guilty again.

" No!" said Hulik and Hantis at once, and very vehemently.

They exchanged a look, and Hulik elaborated. "Look, Captain, Petey has a perfectly good explanation for what those men were going to do. Those men can claim to be ISS until they're blue in the face, and it won't do them any good, because you and the little Wisdoms would have convinced me. And I know the truth."

Goth blushed a little. The Leewit looked so innocent that it seemed as if a halo might descend on her head at any moment. Pausert rubbed his jaw. "Well, yes," he said. "But they weren't—"

"If you can explain to me how planning to kidnap two children and use them to get their friends and guardians to surrender, possibly torturing one or both girls to make us frantic to do what they asked is any different, I'd like to hear it." There was more than a touch of frost in Hantis' voice.

"Anyway, it's all done with now," said Hulik. She turned to Pausert. "You know, we might as well go open all the com channels and find out what's going on."

"That sounds like a good idea."

What was going on was a lot of frantic work, apparently. When Petey said quicktime, he meant it. All of the decorations, the bunting and banners and synthasilk sheathing, were already stowed away, and the full breakdown was, impossible though it seemed, half over. Goth put the viewscreen on channel-flick, so they could see what every camera that was broadcasting was showing.

"Look!" said Goth, suddenly, freezing the view.

The four "new men" were being ungently escorted to the other side of the showboat's gates, with some of their escorts carrying what must have been everything the men owned. Once they were tossed beyond the perimeter, their belongings were unceremoniously dumped—a fair amount of it on them. There was no sound on this particular camera, but it was obvious from the gesticulations that there was a lot of angry shouting going on. But the escort-party wasn't moving, and those who hadn't been carrying baggage were handing out clubs to those who had been.

The four men seemed to come to their senses. Sullenly, they shut up and began loading themselves with their baggage, then dragged it out of the camera's view.

"What about their ship?" the Leewit asked. "I mean, Petey's still got their ship! Won't the law come after him for that?"

Goth unexpectedly grinned. "Nope. I'm the one that worked our contracts, remember? There's a clause in there that says that if any of us break the Code of Conduct, Petey can throw all of us off and take our ship. Bet that's in their contract, too. And I betcha Petey's transmitting the contracts to the police right this minute. If they want the law after us, they'll have to break cover—and remember, they got no proof that we're anything but what we say we are, so I betcha the law won't move until they can prove they're ISS, and then it'll be too late."

"But what if we break the Code?" Pausert asked, now more worried than ever.

Goth rolled her eyes. "Oh please, Captain! It's all heavy stuff! Murder or attempted murder, theft or attempted theft, kidnap or attempted kidnap. That kind of thing. Believe me, I looked at it, hard. Petey'll call it 'attempted kidnapping,' and the local law'll probably agree."

"It's a bit rough on four incompetents," said Pausert. "The Empire's judges don't look kindly on the kidnapping of minors."

"I don't know if it is that harsh," Hulik said, grimly. "ISS agents can be cashiered to the hinterlands for other reasons than just sheer incompetence. And it would take a certain sort of mind to think that kidnapping and torturing a little girl is a good way to get a job done."

"You should have let me bite them," growled Pul from the floor.

Whoever the would-be kidnappers had been working for, they were either unsuccessful in persuading the authorities of their wrongs, or else they decided not to even try involving the locals, for there was no pursuit and not even a query from the law. The Petey B lifted and got into and out of orbit with no more trouble than usual, and things went back to normal.

Pausert was left to ponder something remarkable: their little silver-eyed vatch, of the untamable sort, was not only behaving itself, it was cooperating and making itself very useful. He was not at all used to thinking of a vatch as useful.

The Petey B was well out of orbit and into interstellar space when Silver-eyes caught up with them again. Pausert just had time to notice it was there, when it announced itself.

I deserve feeding!it said cheerfully.

That you do! Pausert agreed. If you can lure something big, dumb, and juicy here—

The vatchlet vanished, but it wasn't gone long. And the vatch it brought with it was exceedingly big, slow, and evidently not much brighter than a cow. Pausert felt not a trace of guilt over tearing a couple of head-sized chunks out of it before it fled, protesting. Silver-eyes feasted, growing a bit in size.

I like you, Silver-eyes announced. I've decided that helping real things I like is more fun than playing tricks on dream things.

Maybe that's because just playing tricks is too easy for you, Pausert suggested.