"Yes, Renoit," she said with a smile. "You already know Faalken," she said, motioning to him.

"A Knight. A good bodyguard and strongman you will make, my friend, yes. A carnival needs good strapping men to protect it."

"This is Azakar, another Knight," Dolanna said, stepping up to him.

"This is a man destined for the stage," Renoit said appreciatively. "Such arms. Such a chest! He could pick up the mast!"

"With help," Azakar said calmly.

They moved forward. "This is Miranda, an aide to her Highness."

"What do you do, my dear?" he asked immediately.

"What do you mean?" she replied.

"What can you do?" he asked again. "All who travel on this ship must contribute to the carnival."

"I'm very good with my hands," she said.

"Ah, but you have the body of a dancer," he said, looking her up and down deliberately. "You will dance for us, Miranda, yes, and many hearts will flutter with the swaying of your hips."

"As you know, her Highness travels with protection. Binter and Sisska provide that," Dolanna said, introducing the two Vendari, who were hidden behind illusions of large, imposing human bodyguards. "Because of the situation, these two you may not have, Renoit. Their duties prevent them from being too far from their charges."

"That, I can live with, yes," Renoit agreed. "But you can also serve the Dancer with your swords as well as the Princess."

"We would be honored to do so, Captain," Binter said in his deep voice.

"The honor is ours," Sisska agreed.

"This is Allia. I'm sure that she can excel in whatever task you give her," Dolanna said, motioning to the Selani.

"A Selani," he said in surprise. "A great honor it is to have you here, maiden, yes. Many skills you can show to my performers, and many things you can do to astound the audience."

"If Dolanna so orders it," Allia said tightly.

"I do so order it, Allia," the Sorceress said with hard eyes. "This is Tarrin. His worth to you will be more clear once we leave Dayise, and we can show you his true talents."

"Tall, slim. Good legs. This one is an acrobat, yes," Renoit said speculatively, looking at him.

"More than you realize, Renoit," Dolanna promised in a light voice, moving down the line. "This is Kerri. I think it would be best for her to be known so. Her longer name may incite worry among your crew."

"Quite so," he agreed, assessing her. "And what skills do you possess?"

"I can juggle and perform sleight of hand," she replied calmly.

"Jugglers I have, and there are no shortage of magicians here. No, your body cries out to move to the beat of a tamborine. You will dance for us, Kerri, and make men's knees turn to water."

"I will not," she said in sudden icy fury. "I will not abase myself in front of a crowd of lecherous-"

"Dancing is beauty, young Wikuni," Renoit cut her off. "Your beauty begs to be appreciated. You have the body of a dancer, and a crime it would be, yes, to deny it the chance to shine."

"Kerri," Dolanna said sharply. "You agreed-"

"I never agreed to being put on display," she seethed.

"We will talk about this later," Dolanna promised, giving the Wikuni a flat look, then she moved on to let Keritanima fume. "This is Dar. He may appear young, but he has a talent which no other performer can match."

"And what would that be, Lady Dolanna?" Renoit asked, giving him a curious look.

"He is a Sorcerer, Renoit, whose aptitude in the art of Illusion is quite profound."

"Yes, that is a skill any carnival would jump to possess," he agreed. "As you know, Lady Dolanna, bringing your group aboard is not safe for me. I must insist on the full amount we bargained, up front. And there is the matter of lost revenue if we leave tomorrow. Vordeaux does not expect us for another ride."

"Vordeaux is not on the travelling manifest, Renoit," Dolanna told him. "Because of our haste, we can only stop twice, and only then to allow the newcomers the chance to perfect their places in your performances. You will be compensated for the missed bookings."

"Where would you like to stop, then?" he asked curiously.

"Tor, and Shoran's Fork," she replied. "Both are large enough to take on all the supplies we will need, and provide enough of an audience for our new performers to become accustomed to performing before crowds."

"I will have to send a letter of regret to Countess Jiselle," Renoit said with a sigh. "Jan, show our new members to quarters," he called. "Lady Dolanna and I have some business to discuss."

A young woman, tall and slender, a bit flat-chested and narrow-hipped, scurried over. She had the body of an acrobat, all wiry toned muscle and exacting movements. She was rather pretty, with tawny hair that reminded him of Triana and a narrow face with a small nose and eyes. A very faint scar ran over her left brow. She wore plain trousers and a canvas shirt tied at her ribcage to expose a midriff of knotted muscle. "Certainly, Renoit," she said in a Tykarthian accent. "If you'll follow me," she said, motioning towards the sterncastle and the stairs going below decks.

"I am not going to dance," Keritanima promised in a hissing voice. "I won't! I'll jump overboard first!"

"Good luck changing his mind," Jan told her with a chuckle. "Renoit has a miraculous eye. He can always spot what someone can do best right off. If he says you'll do best dancing, then you're probably a very good dancer."

"Of course I am, but I'm not going to dress in a skimpy costume and shimmy my tail for the enjoyment of drunken lechers."

"You make it sound so dirty," she giggled. "It's alot of fun. I wish I could dance, but Renoit keeps me with the acrobats. He says I don't have enough chest to be a dancer."

"I never realized that dancing invoved your breasts," Keritanima said in an icy tone.

"I'm sure it doesn't, but it's what we'd call window dressing," she said, looking back and winking.

"This from the same Wikuni that wore dresses low enough to show her belly button at the bottom of the neckline," Tarrin noted to Dar.

"That's entirely different, Tarrin," she said waspishly. "I wasn't jiggling my breasts in your face either."

"Poor me," Tarrin said with a wink to Dar, which earned him a punch in the shoulder from the Wikuni.

"All these cabins are empty," Jan announced, pointing down a hallway that Tarrin realized was where the hold should have been. But since the ship carried only people, they had converted the hold into more quarters. No doubt that they only had enough hold to carry the materials they used in their carnival. "Everyone can have a room. They're not luxurious, but they're big enough."

"Thank you, Jan," Faalken said to the young girl. "Alright people, pick a room, but leave the ones closest to the intersection open."

Tarrin took a room between Keritanima and Allia, staying as near to his sisters as possible. They always seemed to do things that way, even when they weren't thinking about it. The room wasn't all that big, but it was clean, it had a sturdy, good-sized bunk built into the side of the wall, and a table and chair which were bolted to the floor. A large chest stood in the corner of the room, also nailed down to keep it from sliding during rough seas, which was more than large enough to hold everything he owned with plenty of room to spare.

He sat down on the bunk, feeling its firmness, and wondered about what they were doing. After trying to stay inconspicuous, now he was going to be performing before live crowds. He still wasn't sure how to take that. It didn't make him nervous, but he didn't know how he was going to react to it. He really didn't. He was certain that he could do it, in his natural form, he could out-tumble any human alive, but he wasn't sure how it would feel. He had never done it before, showed off to people who had paid to see him do it.