They reached the cabin, she slid the door shut, and Logan started talking. Laris bit back a groan as she saw where his warnings were leading. He was afraid for her. But he was revealing at the same time just how much was known. Dedran would be interested, furious, and afraid. Someone out there was stealing animals. The smart ones. Prauo might be taken, or her tigerbats, Logan insisted. She must be careful. These people had killed again and again.
She couldn't shut him up too abruptly. Dedran would listen to this. If he was suspicious of her she could do nothing and might not survive. Laris waited until a suitable place in Logan's warnings.
"So I had to let you know before you left." She laid a finger softly against his lips. He had more to say but she'd prefer Dedran didn't hear it.
"You're kind. Thank you but I'll be safe here." She pointed at the door, raising her eyebrows. Now if only he didn't say the wrong thing. Logan assumed she wished to show him the animals to demonstrate their safety. He nodded.
"Of course. It's unusual for anyone to have five of them." She had the door open and was leading him out quickly, before he opened his mouth again and said something Dedran could use. She was too late.
Logan halted in the doorway to talk again. "You will be careful. Storm's got me tucked away up at the Peaks ranch with his beasts. Tani's with the Djimbut clan in the lower foothills. We're safe but I worry about you."
Laris kept her voice steady with a huge effort. He'd just told Dedran everything the circus boss would need to know in order to find Storm or Tani's teams. "Don't worry. I'll be all right." Too true she would be. Because Cregar was going to be at High Peaks just as soon as the circus was on Lereyne and innocently doing shows for the local population there.
Logan gathered her into the circle of one arm. "Are you sure? There'd be no objections if you wanted to come back with me." He stopped abruptly. Damn. She couldn't do that. Brad had said the girl was bonded to Dedran, no matter that the man had referred to her as his ward.
Laris was thinking quickly. Dedran wouldn't release her. The bond had several months yet to run. The circus boss would see to it that Laris didn't take Prauo. She had no proof of ownership and he could delay legal attempts to repossess Prauo, up-ship, and then claim Prauo had died on the trip. Apart from that, Cregar was planning to steal Storm's or Tani's beasts. If he succeeded she might be the only one standing between Dedran and a dead team.
She remembered Hing and her troop. Small, merry, and so charming, Laris had been constantly giggling whenever she watched them. Surra, beautiful in her pride and dignity, so gracious toward her mate. And the eagles, Baku who had unbent sufficiently to accept a piece of meat from Laris's hand. No, if Dedran succeeded she must be at the circus. Her presence might save them still. She mourned inside but she must not show that.
She smiled, her mouth stretching upward but her eyes miserable. "No, I couldn't leave the circus. I have a place here. And anyway, I'm quite certain I'll be safe. Now come and see the tigerbats before you have to leave."
Logan followed her. He admired the five carnivores who watched him sleepily. The largest came to be stroked.
"It's amazing how gentle he seems when you know what they can do."
"They aren't vicious," Laris objected. "They're just predators. Kreel is quite clever." She sighed. "I wish one day they could go back home. I know they couldn't ever be free to swarm again. But if they had a really large pen so they could have a few babies..."
Logan gaped. "Some are females in there?"
"Of course." She pointed at the two smaller tigerbats. "They are. I have to put a contraceptive in their water so they can't breed. We've only had them a year and they're two. Too young to breed safely as yet. But it would be so nice for them if they could have a family one day."
Without thinking Logan hugged her. "You have a good heart." Laris stiffened then relaxed in his arms. He lowered his mouth to hers and for long seconds they clung. Then she freed herself gently.
"I have to take you down the ramp. Dedran will be expecting to see you leave." He allowed her to walk with him to where Dedran was indeed waiting. The tall man glared as they came in sight.
Logan took her hand and held it briefly. "We shall look forward to seeing you again if you land here." He nodded politely to Dedran. "You too, Honored Sir. But I must hurry, there's always work." He turned to look at Laris, his face hidden from the circus boss. Out of the man's sight Logan's lips framed words. "We have a place for you always." Then he was hurrying down the ramp to where Kelson waited impatiently. The ship's ramp whined as it was raised to close. The last sight Laris saw was Logan's hand waving as they drove away. She made her face blank as she turned.
Dedran caught her by the shoulder. "Don't get ideas, girl. That fancy first-ship family would never touch you if they knew what you were."
Laris spun. "What was I?" she snarled despite herself. "I was an orphan like a million from the war. I was bonded illegally and we both know it. I've never done anything to be ashamed of."
Dedran smiled at her furious face. His own eyes were cold and dead. "Dear, dear. Is that what you think? And how would your fancy friends like to hear that you've been up to your little neck in espionage, theft, and murder? I can prove you've helped me often enough with the first two. And you knew what Cregar did on his trips. It was you who cared for the animals and took samples when they died. Try convincing any authority you were innocent." He smiled again as her defiance wilted, shoulders hunching in surrender. She'd showed signs of becoming too interested in the Quade boy. It felt good to remind her that she was merely property.
"Get on with your work. We have clearance to lift." He walked arrogantly away, pausing at the end of the passage to make sure she was obeying his instruction.
She kept her cowed look as she headed for the animal hold. Let the circus boss believe he had convinced her there was no hope of using the Quades to escape Dedran's grip. But inside she was recalling something she'd accessed in the library at Yohal. There was a law on all Terran-settled planets stating that a bond-servant could not be held accountable for her master's misdeeds or her own under orders if she had no opportunity to inform, she feared crippling reprisals if she attempted to inform and failed, or—if she was in danger of death, or if she was saving another under that same threat. Laris could plead three of the four; the last for Prauo.
She'd also been bonded illegally young as she could prove with the camp records. She could claim duress on a minor which would be even more convincing. Cases she'd read showed that courts tended to look even less favorably on punishing a child forced into crimes. She set about her chores with a lighter heart. Her reading skills might save her yet.
Chapter Seven
Laris worked on, knowing that Dedran would be listening to the record of her talk with Logan. In a few days he'd ask her to expand on the Peaks ranch. Her bond-master and Cregar would want to know all she could tell. Well, she had an idea there. She started to think it out as she cleaned cages, fed and watered their occupants. What she had in mind just might work. It would delay an attack on Storm's beasts if some of the things Logan had told her were true.
She smiled savagely to herself. It would take careful handling. She'd have to make Dedran think it was his idea. But if she said just the right things the circus boss could take the bait. Cregar was under orders and why should he know any more about Arzor than the circus boss knew? She'd accessed the information available in the ship's library often enough to know all the library had about Arzor.
Laris had listened to Logan as he talked about the natives of Arzor. He'd told her old stories, native customs. And something of the vast and often savage desert lands in which the wild Nitra clans lived. The ship records had said almost nothing about Arzor, save to note that the natives were mostly friendly. The men would accept that.