Beast Master's Quest Read online

  “No, what?”

  “No, he couldn’t. I just remembered, it was only that short time while he was so tiny. I heard him, but after that no one else could. It wasn’t until his last two growth spurts that he could make other people hear what he said.”

  She remembered the last one. It had occurred after Dedran had died and after the Quades had taken them in. With that final change Prauo had grown yet again in size, and his ability to mind-send had become comprehensive, real conversations with others as well as with Laris. That had fascinated Brad Quade, Logan’s father. He’d made inquiries again, but still they had discovered nothing of Prauo’s possible origins.

  *If I come from another world, it must be far away*—Prauo had been chasing his own mind-prey—*else your people would know of it, or hear rumors at least. So if I was stolen from there, how is it that no Terran appears to have heard even talk of some such place?*

  Laris and Logan looked at each other. Prauo made sense there. So why was it that no one had heard of his world? Possible reasons popped up immediately.

  Logan was thinking it out as he spoke: “A world which was illegal for landing for some reason. Or one which looked too dangerous to bother with officially . . .”

  “Officially!” Laris said quickly. “What about the Thieves Guild?” Then she remembered various conversations at the circus and contradicted herself. “No, not them. I once overheard Dedran talking to Cregar. He said they’d sneaked samples from Prauo but they hadn’t been able to clone anything with a mind.”

  Logan’s voice was suddenly sharp. “With a mind? You mean the clones died as cubs?”

  Laris tried to recall the words. “More that they were just animals and couldn’t even seem to be trained very well, as if they had the instincts of animals but didn’t build on them to learn anything. They’d grow to the size of a carra, then they’d die off slowly. As if they needed something which wasn’t being provided. Maybe there’s some food on Prauo’s world they had to have at birth, or maybe their mother’s milk for the first few weeks to provide antibodies or something.”

  “Maybe.” He noticed they had almost reached the main ranch house. “But right now let’s not tell Dad about my fall, okay? We’ll mention the bull, though, in case he wants it run down and not just off our lands.”

  Laris nodded agreement. Then, noticing that the corral held a familiar mount—Destiny, Tani’s three-quarter-bred duocorn—she grinned. “He’ll have something else to think about, anyhow. Look, Destiny’s here, which means Tani and Storm must be back.”

  Logan beamed. His older half-brother, Storm, married to Tani, with both of them mostly living now at the smaller Peaks ranch they owned jointly, were always welcome visitors.

  “Race you?” Logan nudged his mount into a flying gallop for the corrals, forgetting the repaired saddle. Within the house Tani, Storm, and Logan’s step-father, Brad Quade, heard the pounding hooves. They walked to the door just in time to see Logan part company with his saddle for the second time that day as the repairs gave way. Logan slid ungracefully over his mount’s tail, landing still sitting on the saddle but with his legs stuck out in front of him. He rose, ruefully rubbing the seat of his pants.

  Storm had neatly snagged the flying reins and now handed Logan’s shying mount back with a bow.

  “I think you lost something, younger brother.”

  “Yeah, my mind. I should have remembered that girth.” He clasped his brother’s shoulder affectionately. “How long are you here for?”

  “Two or three days. Tani wants to talk to her aunt and uncle, and our com-caller won’t reach off-planet. Brad’s the one with the major transmitter.” Behind them Tani and Laris were hugging each other.

  Tani kept her voice low.

  “Have you made up your mind about staying here for good yet?”

  Laris’s voice was equally soft, but more anxious. “I still don’t know. Prauo likes Arzor—good hunting and lots of open land—but I’m used to moving on. The truth is, I think Logan isn’t sure he wants to stay here for good, either. Oh, he loves working for the Agency, but that job isn’t going to last forever. Not now that the Arzoran government has new Patrol-approved legislation in place which deals with a lot of the old problems between settlers and natives.” She observed that the men were moving in their direction and whispered quickly to Tani, “Talk to you more later.”

  She turned, smiling at Brad. “Mr. Quade, did Logan tell you about the frawn bull we found?”

  Brad Quade, wealthy Arzoran frawn rancher, member of one of the First-ship families, and something of a power on the planet, grinned like a boy at her. “Oh, he told me—all the boring bits. I’ve seen that saddle. I’ll expect you to tell me the exciting stuff over dinner.”

  He hooked her arm in his and smiled down at the girl he genuinely liked; that she was Logan’s choice met with his entire approval. It didn’t hurt that she was a nice-looking child. Her cap of dark hair crowned a well-shaped head, while her dark brown eyes held a cautious warmth.

  In fact, he considered he had two good-looking women in the family—if his son was smart enough to attach this one as his stepson had wed Tani. Storm’s wife, Tani, was half-Cheyenne and had the looks of both the Indian and Irish races from which she came. Black hair from the Cheyenne, eyes of gray or green—according to her mood—from the Irish, as well as the fine bones and clear skin of the Celtic heritage. He smiled at them both, addressing Laris.

  “I may have some more good news for you, my dear, once Tani has finished talking to her aunt and uncle.”

  He saw her interest and teased gently. “No, I’m telling you nothing yet. Wait until after Tani’s made her call and we’ve eaten. Then we can talk.”

  Behind him Prauo sniffed silently and sent, *His news is good. He smells of approval. He is pleased to be able to tell you whatever it may be.*

  *So long as it’s good news,* Laris sent back, *I can wait for that.*

  When they entered the house Tani promptly vanished. Her aunt should be calling from the Lereyne network com-caller any moment and she was eager to hear the news. It wasn’t only that her aunt and uncle had raised her almost half her life. Their home—Ifana’s Legacy, the huge old ex-merchant spaceship known all over human-settled planets as “the ark”—had been her home, and the genetic work which was done there had been her own occupation for years.

  The ark and its staff heard things, often before—or even instead of—Terran Command, and sometimes in greater detail. Tani had asked Aunt Kady and Uncle Brion to collect any rumor which might apply to Prauo. The spacegram she’d received by retransmission from the main ranch two days ago had indicated her kin might have something to tell her on that subject.

  She returned after having talked briefly in real-time. The information Kady had sent was contained in a high-speed transmission that Tani had left the machine to translate and download in print. It was only the ghost of a hint of a rumor, but it had possibilities. The question was, would anyone be able to follow it up?

  Tani ate absentmindedly, and once the meal was over she vanished again, returning with her printout on the reusable plastic sheets. Brad sat back sipping swankee and waited for her to begin. Seeing his attention, the talk faded into silence as the others also waited.

  Tani looked at Brad. “I think you have something for Laris first. Tell her, then I’ll read my ’gram, all right?”

  Brad nodded, turning to look at Laris. “I’ve been checking up on what I could find out about your family. You knew Cregar was your uncle?”

  Laris swallowed. She’d discovered that only as Cregar lay dying—murdered as he’d tried to save Laris and some of the genetically-enhanced beasts belonging to Tani and Storm. Neither had known until that moment that Laris was the daughter of his beloved baby sister. There’d been just enough time for Storm to tell Cregar who he’d saved, to see him smile acknowledgment before taking a warrior trail into death’s long night.

  “Yes, but you said afterwards that all the others were
dead.” Her expression wavered between fear and hope.

  Brad nodded slowly. “They are, I’m afraid. But some of your family, while not extremely rich by some standards, were reasonably well-off. They had an off-planet account and, more, they also owned a ship.”

  There was a startled gasp from around the table. Storm put that into words. “You mean a spaceship? What sort? How did it survive the war and who’s had it until now?”

  Brad grinned. He loved being the bearer of good news. “I do mean a spaceship. It’s an old Garand, the sort smaller merchants often used, with those engines using anything for mass-conversion. The Garands aren’t fast, but they cost little to run and they’re reliable.”

  Everyone nodded at that, including Laris. The circus ship had been one of the Mega-Garand class, a far larger type, but similar in many ways. It was for its cheap running and reliability that Dedran had chosen it as circus transport. The Garand-class starships tended to last for generations; once built it was not uncommon for them to be still flying a hundred or more years later. So that over the generations there were huge numbers of them playing their trade between the human-settled worlds.

  Brad was continuing. “It survived because Laris’s family had leased it to a partner who was using it to long-haul supplies to troops at the far fringe of the war. The war ended, he returned, and we know what he found.” They did. The Xik had killed all life on several worlds during the war; Laris’s world had been one of them—as had Terra.

  “The captain’s partner’s planet was dead. Some refugees had been evacuated, but no one knew where they’d gone and records were either unreliable or nonexistent. He must have been an honest man, though. He died recently and left the ship and half the monies owing to any member of the Trehannan family still living, if he or she could be found. And as he had no family himself, he left his own estate to be used to find them. Anything left from his estate after that search was to go to the Trehannan heir as well.”

  Storm was skeptical. “How long were the authorities to look?”

  His step-father chuckled. “Forever, I guess. It all went into a trust with the interest being used to fund the search. Somewhere along the line someone tripped over my own checking on Laris. They contacted me last week, we talked, and I had a final confirming spacegram last night. I decided to wait until everyone was here.” He turned to Tani. “Don’t you have something to talk about as well before we get into how much Laris is inheriting?”

  “I do,” Tani started, “Aunt Kady was down in a bar on Trastor—” She was interrupted by hoots of amusement. The idea of Tani’s scientist aunt roistering in a spaceport bar amused everyone at the table.

  “Will you listen, you clowns! She was collecting one of the techies who’d had a bit too much to drink. The bar called the ship about him and Kady went to bring him back. She’d poured sober-up into him, dumped him in the fresher with a clean overall, and while she was waiting for him to clean up she overheard some old man rambling on. You know my aunt; she’s interested in everything and she had nothing else to do, so she listened. She sent a high-speed squeal of what the man said. I’ll read it to you.”

  Her first words drew incredulous gasps from everyone, so that all gazes were fixed on her now as she read on slowly and clearly.

  Chapter Two

  “Place with cats,” Tani read the words out to them. “Big, big cats, thousands of ’em. Funny buildings. Ruins melting in the rain, an’ little mice things. Muh bes’ friend, Gerry was, even if he was Tiffy. Dead now. But what he seen before he died, he tol’ me. All the cats, watching the ship, he come back ’n’ died, stupid accident. Miss him, should’a died too, then I wouldn’t be so lonely, poor Gerry, all gone, no records, no nothin’. Gimme ’nother drink?”

  Tani looked up. “Kady said that after that she did buy him another drink. It was the last one he needed to put him to sleep, unfortunately. She described the man as possibly a former spaceman, at least seventy. The bartender said the old man was known only as Harb. He thought that might be his last name.”

  Storm was disgusted. “Ramblings. What do we get from that?”

  Brad smiled. It was a wicked grin which said to everyone around the table that he knew something they didn’t. Tani pounced.

  “What is it? You heard something in that we didn’t. What do you know?”

  “Tiffy,” Brad said and waited.

  Logan was onto that. “It’s a name, a title, something you’ve heard before that may give us a lead?”

  “That’s right, son. It was a long time back. Maybe twenty years before the Xik war started. Before you were born. There was a small group formed on Lereyne, but a couple of its directors were based here on Arzor. Its full name was the Thorson-Frederickson Combine, but it used only the initials TF in its logo. Those who knew about it usually called the combine and those who worked for it ‘the Tiffies.’ I was asked to invest but I turned them down. I didn’t like their chances, and although what they were doing wasn’t quite illegal it was pretty close to the line.”

  Logan remembered the phrase in Kady’s ’gram. “So that was it. Illegal surveying.”

  “Well, surveying,” Brad confirmed. “In those days it was heavily frowned on to survey without proper scouting—but it wasn’t completely illegal, not unless you didn’t declare to the authorities any Earth-type planets or intelligent races you found.”

  Storm looked up. “That’s what the beast master training was for originally. They had an institute to train first-in scouts and their teams for dealing with new worlds. If survey found a Terran-livable world, it was a lot cheaper to drop a beast master and team, collect them a few weeks later, and get a preliminary report.” He recalled another phrase from Kady’s report and frowned.

  “ ‘Ruins melting in the rain,’ the old man said. That implies there’d been intelligent life there. A planet showing ruins would be interdicted until specialists could arrive. I’ve never heard of such a world.”

  Brad nodded. “He also said ‘little mice in the ruins.’ That implies a possible landing—you might see ruins from orbit, but you’d be unlikely to see something as small as mice—unless he was referring to larger creatures they could see from space on the ship’s viewscreens.

  “To sum up: Harb’s friend, Gerry, was in the Thorson-Frederickson Combine when it surveyed this planet. They may have found a Terra-type world, with ruins suggesting there was once—and still could be—intelligent life there. It’s clear it was never officially reported. Then Gerry was killed in an accident sometime afterward.”

  “The question is, are we sure it was never reported?”

  “No,” Storm said slowly, smiling at Tani. “The question is, was that Prauo’s world? If not, it’s interesting but doesn’t tell us anything we need to know.”

  Tani shrugged. “Lots of big cats, he said. ‘Thousands of them.’ How many Earth-type worlds would produce a major feline-appearing population?”

  Brad broke in: “That would depend on how big the animals were and how close a look this Gerry got. ‘Thousands’ could well be an exaggeration; he might have simply seen a number of cats together. And size is subjective. Besides which, we’re hearing this filtered through the memories of another man who may not be completely reliable.” Everyone grinned at this understatement. Brad turned to Tani again. “Did you ask Kady to go back and see if she could find out anything more?”

  “Of course. She said she would as soon as she could find the time. She’ll send the information then. I set the com-caller on automatic receive and translate, download, and print. It doesn’t matter when she sends; we’ll have the message at once. We just need to keep an eye on the com-caller.”

  Brad rose. “I can do better than that. I’ll hook it into the ranch alarm. If a message comes in, the alarm will let us all know it’s arrived.” He left to hook up the alarm, while around the ancient table the others argued over the possible meanings in some of the old man’s words. They stopped after another hour, when it was generally agreed t
hat more information would help.

  Laris went out to the corrals to lean on the smooth top rail and consider the sunset. It flamed shades of lavender and purple across the sky, soothing her with the colors and the feeling that if one day was ended, another still held so many new possibilities. Prauo stood at her side, leaning his big head against her hip. Her hand slipped down to stroke his skull gently between his eyes, which mirrored some of the amethyst shades of the sky.

  *What do you think, brother-in-fur?*

  *I have no way of knowing, and yet . . . * His mind-voice was wistful.

  *And yet you find you may be interested more than you thought?*

  *Yes.* He felt the sudden leap in her heartbeat, the flicker of fear in her mind, and hastened to reassure her. *Sister-without-fur, we are one. How should I love another more than you? I have no need for a people, but I would like a world. I would wish to see from what soil I sprang, feel home wind comb through my fur.* There was a glimmer of amusement in his sending. *Perhaps hunt these mice the old man spoke of, through the ruins his friend saw. Do you not wonder what this world was—and what humans might make of it?*

  Laris was caught by something in his mind-voice. “Wonder what?” she said aloud.

  Brad’s voice spoke from behind her. “What are you both wondering?”

  Tani repeated Prauo’s sending and received a smile from Logan’s father in return. “That’s an excellent question Prauo asks. If the world holds no intelligent life and is Earth-type, it could be colonized. If that’s so, then the finders could receive a very good fee. Sufficient to keep you comfortably for several years or to buy a good-sized piece of land. If it holds intelligent life, they may be your friend’s kin. Terran High Command would want to talk treaties and, again, the finders would receive a good fee. Either way, I would say we win. It could be worth investing as much as a year in searching for this world.”

  Laris grinned. “If we found this world.”

  “Of course. There’s always an ‘if’ in life. But Kady may find out more, and I’ve started checks on the TF combine. It folded at the start of the war, and their headquarters had shifted to Ishan by then. But there may still be old records to be found, and a few of the company staff might have survived.”