His lips twisted into a sneer. In a refugee camp there were always those who'd take any job, accept any condition to be free of the place. He'd known the girl's fears. But she'd still followed him. Signed a false closed bond and held to it. His glare became a scowl. He hoped to leave the circus behind if his patron's plans worked out well. He would take the girl—someone with her skills was worth real credits to arena buyers if he faked her signature on an open bond. He had to be careful there. Between officials, the patrol, and do-gooders who checked on bondservants, he dare not make the wrong move. Not yet. But the closed bond under which he held her did not allow the bond's sale to someone else. An open bond would permit that.
He wanted the money he could get for her. But the guild had no time for what its members wanted. He had a job to do and until it was completed he dare not take time for his own wishes. Not that it mattered anyway. There were months yet before her bond was completed and where would she go then? No, she'd sign for another year. Surely by that time he'd have taken a few live beasts. He must.
A small shiver ran down his spine. The guild was becoming impatient. The latest message from his patron had indicated that Dedran's position could be in danger if he didn't produce something soon. And the guild had a simple way of seeing that an out-of-favor member told no tales. The lean man shivered again as he ran into the ring, spinning to bow and garner the audience's attention in his upraised hands. Cregar had better not fail or it could be the death of all of them.
He switched off his thoughts, concentrated on the clapping fools around him, and signaled the next act. He had a show to give and that too was part of it. Lull the idiots, then strike. He'd use the girl to open a gap in beast master armor. She was quick. She'd make friends. Then return to give him what Cregar needed to take the animals once the circus was safely away. He settled to the whirl of acts about him.
Laris came on again in her boyish guise as the tigerbat cage was pushed in and connected to the larger cage where she'd display their play. Her old friend was first out and she saw the crowd stiffen. She faced it, then turned her back as it ran on its wing-knuckles to lie on the ground, pulling the light branch across its lower body.
She turned back, miming her shock, her fear at the sight of the deadly beast—and tigerbats were deadly, in that there was no fakery. To the Terran eye they looked like an amalgam of tiger and large bat, hence the name. They stood some five feet tall, and one on the attack appeared to be all reaching teeth and long sickle-like claws. They'd been a horror to the settlers on their original world, although by now they had been almost wiped out there. Still, enough people on other worlds had seen depictions of them and their depredations to know how truly dangerous they were.
Laris mimed her fear, showing to the crowd then her growing realization that the savage beast was trapped and no threat to her. She was triumphant, raising her weapon to kill, then slowly finding sympathy for the injured beast, freeing it, and standing to watch it dart away.
In the front ringside seats, a ranger leaned over to speak to Storm. "He's clever, but aren't those things dangerous?"
"Dangerous enough alone and lethal in a major swarm. I doubt they'd have that here. A real swarm has a hundred members or more."
The man returned to his seat and Storm concentrated. Beside him he could feel Tani doing the same as her hand slid into his. Her whisper came to his ears alone.
"That's the girl from the trapeze act, isn't it?" She caught his nod. Her senses extended to touch the animal in the cage. "Friendship. It trusts her. She is kind."
"How many of them?"
"I feel five, no more."
Storm nodded slightly. That was the number he could feel as well. Enough to tear the girl to pieces in seconds if they attacked in swarm-rage. But he sensed no anger. Only anticipation, enjoyment. They liked what they would do. He watched the act. It was clever. The whole tiny play was a timeworn idea, the person who saves an animal only to have the beast save them in turn. But it was well done and tigerbats could be genuinely lethal to the person who acted with them. She was skillful. From his ringside position he could sense that she was in no danger from these.
She took her bow and the tigerbats ran down the tunnel to the smaller cage. It was rolled out and the carras returned with two Terran dogs to put on a clown show which had everyone laughing as the main cage was swiftly dismantled and removed.
Storm and Tani came out after the performance still smiling. His father looked at him in resignation.
"I suppose you want to see the girl and her animals. Go on then. I'll get a ride with Put Larkin. He'll drop me off. It's a fine night. I can walk down our road."
Tani fidgeted and Storm gave one of his rare smiles. "It looks as if I should. Tani wants to see the animals." He glanced at Logan, his younger half-brother. "And I suppose you do too?"
"Darn right." He showed off a little. Storm and Tani weren't the only ones who could see through a disguise. "Except that it's the girl I'd like to see. Anyone who can sit around in a cage full of tigerbats and look casual is someone worth meeting."
Tani giggled. "She isn't bad looking but don't you think she's too young for you?"
Logan flushed. "I think she may be older than she looks, and anyhow, I'd just like to see her act again. She's good." His voice went up enthusiastically. "Did you see her on that trapeze?"
Tani nodded. "She was good. You're right. And I loved those little animals with her in that act. Storm?" She turned to her husband. "What were they?"
"Carras. They're a bit like Terran monkeys, aren't they? They have similar habits too, but nicer natures." His voice lowered. "What did you sense from them?"
"Pleasure," Tani said softly. "They like the girl and they enjoy their act with her. They were having fun in that clown act too. They aren't abused, Storm. They're working for the fun of it and the food treats."
Her husband nodded. It was something Kelson, head of the ranger group, had asked them to find out. He looked down at Tani. They'd been married only a few months and he was still a little incredulous at his good fortune. After so long walking alone save for his beast master team he'd never thought he'd find someone who would slip into place with them all. But Tani had. She was not officially trained but her gifts were, if anything, a little stronger than his own.
Her team, together with his group, had been left at the main Quade ranch. Tani wanted to walk the animal cages, study their inhabitants, and maybe arrange to take samples from some of them to send on to the interstellar ark her aunt and uncle ran. It preserved species against permanent destruction and the Terran dogs should be immortalized in its tissue-sample banks.
They made their way slowly through the crowd. It was a good-natured bunch here this evening, Storm thought. But then with some of the port VIPs present, the rangers and security were also out. Few of even the most enthusiastic brawlers would be silly enough to start trouble here. Tani danced ahead and his face softened again as he watched her. It had been barely six months since the end of Arzor's problem after Xiks had seeded the deadly flesh-eating swarms of clickers in Arzor's lands of the Big Blue.
He knew she still had nightmares sometimes about the clickers and no wonder. He had a few himself. But Tani had almost recovered from the trauma the clickers had caused her. Last week she and Storm had been off hunting with the Djimbut tribe of the Nitra, the Arzoran natives with whom Tani had made such firm friends while she and Storm sought out the origin of the clickers. The swarms had slain natives and settlers alike and in the end, both peoples had combined to destroy them. Tani and her beast team of coyotes and Mandy the Ishan paraowl had accounted for a full bag of grass hens on the hunt last week.