by SA Sidor
“I am lucky to have you watching me,” I said.
“Watching is not enough,” she said. “Consider what I’ve said. Your chance may pass.”
I nodded solemnly and stood upright.
Cassi swept into the room and hooked my arm. She batted her lashes at her mother and danced me into a corner by her twin brother. Claude never even raised his head from studying the tip of his glowing cigarette.
“Was Mother seducing you? She seduces everyone, you know? Don’t feel special,” Cassi said. Is she teasing me? I asked myself. I must have seemed aghast.
Cassi laughed. “I’ve injured your feelings, Rom. I’m sorry. Perhaps I was a bit too forward and, maybe, accurate? I know you’ve heard all the rumors about Vivienne Adderly.”
“Which rumors are those?”
“That she is a powerful witch. That she shares her bed with demons in various forms. That she vigorously entertains the devil himself?”
“I only heard the first part,” I said.
“The second part is usually the best part. The first part is introductory, a bit like a lesson. The last part can be dangerous because it might turn sad, or end up leaving you quite unsatisfied. But the second part is what I like – the heart of things. You look as if I’m a raving madwoman. Try living up here with them and those terribly sad stuffed animals. See if you don’t go a bit mad.” She nibbled the edge of her fingernail.
Claude groaned something unintelligible as he lazily arched his back.
Cassi slapped him smartly on the head. He reached out a crabbed hand, only missing scraping her face by a few inches. She dodged, hissed, and kicked him hard in the leg. He winced and glared at her, but it was all in good fun. Shaken from his brooding, he brushed the cigarette ashes down the front of his suit and sauntered off to join the other hunters.
“What did he say?” I asked.
“Who knows? Claude’s always chattering. Ooo! Will you look at this window? What happened here?” She traced the cold scratches with her nails.
“The Beast happened,” I said. “You and I need to talk about it.”
“The Beast scratched this window last night?” Cassi hunched toward the glass, studying the marks. “It put its hand… or paw–?”
“The claws were a sight! Bones – long bones compose the hand. Its feet are hooves. I heard them clip-clopping on the ledge. But we saw the claws clearly, Orcus and I,” I said.
“Orcus?” she asked.
“Yes, he was here with me. We both heard the Beast. I have keen ears. We followed the noise to this room. The thing appeared. See the trace of demonic spittle on the window?”
“Demonic… spittle is it? This smudge right here? Yes, I see.” Cassi looked as if she did not see at all. Confusion made her quite attractive, the way her brows curved and her lips parted as if she wanted to say more but could not decide how seriously I was to be taken.
I said, “Cassi, I would not joke with you. I’m not without humor. But this is a matter of life and death. Orcus saw it as I did.”
“Orcus? My dog?”
“Do you not trust him?”
“I would trust him with my life.”
“Well, then. There you have it. The threat is real. The question is: what do we do?”
Suddenly she roared with laughter. “Oh, Rom, you had me believing you. You really did.”
“What did I say?”
She took firm hold of my shoulders, staring at me fixedly. “Stop it. You are too charming. I must admit that you are also exactly the remedy I so sorely needed.” A quick kiss on the cheek sealed my perplexity. I was swirling in a whirlpool of emotions. Not the least of which was fear.
“Attention! Attention!” Oscar clapped his hands. “You hunters are here for one good reason. In case you have not guessed it, I will make things clear. We will form three teams for the hunt. The Beast is our objective. I do not wish the target dead. Before we talk of it, let’s discuss your prize for a successful capture. Knowing the reward, you will heed me intently.”
“What’s he yapping about?” Billy whined to Pops.
Pops held a finger up to his lips.
Oscar continued his speechifying. “I know you came here for cash. And cash you may have, if that’s your choosing. But I am offering a most unique prize. A piece of legendary status. Claude, wheel it in now.”
“Poor Claude,” Cassi said, hiding behind her hand. “The servants fled this morning when they heard that Father intends to apprehend the Beast and bring it home. Claude has been forced to work. See the strain on his face.”
Claude tugged a thick rope attached to a rectangular platform with a wheeled base. His boots slipped, seeking purchase on the highly polished floor. The object lay secreted under a large canvas but it obviously weighed hundreds of pounds. Claude turned the color of a fine Bordeaux. The crowd gathered around the specimen. Claude touched the canvas.
Oscar said. “I will unveil it.”
Claude stepped aside, sweeping his hair off his face and digging into his pockets for the materials to roll another cigarette.
“Good job, Claude,” Cassi called out.
He snarled at her and parked himself on the window ledge again.
McTroy and Evangeline moved nearer the cloaked mystery. Yong Wu, whom I had not seen entering the trophy room, cautiously stayed back. When he saw me he lifted his shoulders in a shrug which I returned in kind. We waited for Oscar’s revelation. Oscar enjoyed being at the center of all things. He had an insatiable desire for other people to envy him, to make them wish they had his wife, treasures, and trophies. It was not wealth he delighted in so much as inspiring other men’s jealousy.
Oscar flung his half-smoked cigar into the fireplace and grabbed the canvas.
With a snap of the wrists he ripped it off.
“You may kneel if you so desire,” he said.
“What the dang hell is that?” Billy said. “A goddamned cow?”
“Precisely! You have nailed it, my unschooled friend!” Oscar chuckled. “Dr Hardy, educate these heathens as to what they see.”
I was taken aback. I was not too sure what I was seeing either. But I had my suspicions.
Oscar waved me in for an intimate look. “Come, come. Don’t be shy. This is why you are here, after all. You are my expert witness. I will give you a hint. No, two hints. Let me see…”
I approached the artifact.
“The hints are Egypt and mountain,” Oscar said.
The artifact reached higher than my chest. “May I touch it?”
“I insist,” Oscar said.
It was warm as if it had been sitting in the desert sun.
“This is a golden bull. The Egyptian cult of Ptah worshipped the bull. They made idols to which they prayed and sacrificed. It is a large specimen.” I peered at the metal. “Molded. But fashioned without extra decoration. It was made quickly, perhaps, in haste…”
I walked around the ancient idol.
“You are doing well, Doctor. Please continue,” Oscar said.
“It is old but in excellent condition. The gold appears solid and not merely gold leaf.”
“Correct again!” Oscar shouted.
“I would conclude, without knowing any provenance, that this is an example of an Apis Bull idol from the Egyptian empire. The Frenchman Auguste Mariette excavated near Memphis, at Saqqara, where he discovered the Avenue of Sphynxes and the Serapeum of Saqqara. Inside he found a burial place – a temple – dedicated to Apis Bulls.” Who expected to locate a piece of Egyptian history in New Mexico?
“You have the Egypt. But what about my mountain hint?”
“I’m afraid I’m at a loss.”
“Doctor,” Oscar said. “What is another word for bull?”
Another word for bull?
“A calf is a young bull,” I said.
Oscar said, “You have it, Doctor. Thank you.”
“I have it?”
“Yes. This is
not a golden calf. This is the Golden Calf.”
“Mount Sinai!” I ran my hand over the warm, wavy gold of the bull’s head. “From the story of Moses…”
Oscar recited the following passage from memory: “And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf…”
“That’s a damn lot of earrings,” Billy said.
“You have found the Golden Calf of the Israelites?” I said to Oscar.
McTroy said, “And Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.”
“You know your bible, McTroy,” Oscar said.
“The Golden Calf was destroyed,” McTroy said.
“Yet there it sits,” Oscar said. “Destroying it makes a good story. Could you throw away beauty like this? Imagine how tempting it would be to save it, in secret.”
“Hey Doc, is it fake?” McTroy asked.
“I would need to study it further–”
“If it is real, Dr Hardy, what is its value?” Oscar asked, making a temple of his fingers.
“The Golden Calf is priceless, if authentic. It’s the ultimate symbol of wealth and idolatry. The only other ritual relic of a similar magnitude is the Ark of the Covenant, which was also lost to time. Any Egyptologist would be a fool not to want them both.”
“Lost to time,” Oscar said. “But it’s here for the taking, if any of you catch the Beast.”
“What if we just want the cash?” Billy asked.
“Then $100,000 is the price I will pay,” Oscar said.
Billy whistled and slapped his knees. “Damn!”
“What if we melt the statue?” the fat man in the beaver skins said. “What’s it weigh?”
“That would be an insult to history,” I gasped. “A travesty against knowledge!”
“Nearly two hundred pounds,” Oscar said. “You’d lose money if you melted it. But once we make our exchange, I wash my hands of this golden bull.”
“You don’t want the Beast killed. What if I shoot it and it falls off the mountain or down into a crevasse?” Gavin Earl said. He lit his pipe and tossed the match to the floor. Oscar ground the match under his heel.
Then he said, “If the loss of the body is no fault of yours, you will be paid. However, I must verify the kill. There is no other way. If you choose to kill the Beast when capture is a viable option, you will be paid $10,000. I am the sole judge in this matter.”
“What makes you the judge?” Billy asked.
“It’s my bull,” Oscar said.
“You offered the men in the Starry Eyes $10,000 for a capture and $1,000 for a kill. Why did the price change?” McTroy said.
“The men down in Raton are fodder,” Oscar said. “They will neither capture nor kill the creature. They will pen it in, or drive it up the mountain toward us.”
“How did you obtain the idol?” When Evangeline spoke, every man turned his head. She walked around the artifact. I knew she wanted the bull to be a part of the Institute for Singular Antiquities. What could be more singular than this? Yet she had a wily sense of business and a familiarity with the levels to which men lie for profit.
“I bought it,” Oscar said. “The Golden Calf elicits strong feelings in the hearts of people. Some see proof of their God. Still others see–”
“Others see gold,” Evangeline replied. “You have papers? Documentation of where the bull has been all these years?”
“I do,” Oscar said. “Dr Hardy is free to examine them.”
“I could get started immediately,” I said.
Oscar smiled. “You may examine them when the Beast is in that cage.” Oscar pointed to the iron prison within the trophy room. “Not a moment before… I am not here to host a symposium on ancient history, or to talk of lucrative business deals. Madam, I want to hunt.”
Evangeline checked me in the crowd of men. She did the same with McTroy and Wu.
We three nodded.
“Then let’s hunt,” she said.
11
You’re All Going to Die
Jingle was a white horse with flecks of gray scattered like buckshot through his hair. I almost lost sight of him against the backdrop of snow. I hadn’t been riding since our last journey into the Gila Desert, but, despite the promise of a sore bottom at the day’s end, it felt good to have a strong animal under me. He had long thick lashes and a dark eye that minded me when I leaned in close for a talk. If horses smile, he was a smiler.
“There’s a good Jingle,” I said. “Let’s not tumble today. Help me be better than I am.”
He shook off a spray of glittering snow and stamped his foot.
I like to think we understood each other.
Wu rode up alongside me on his pinto, Magpie.
“It is a good day to ride,” Wu said. “I don’t like being cooped up in that house.”
“I agree with you, Wu. Far better to venture out into the wilderness.”
“The Beast does not worry you?”
“I saw him, Wu.”
“You did?” Wu looked properly frightened.
“Last night he crept his way up to Nightfall. Let’s say that I would rather hunt the creature outside than have it hunting me inside. McTroy thinks I was dreaming, and I suspect Evangeline might agree with him.” I stared hard at an enormous brown mound yards ahead of us plowing through a snowdrift, sending up puffs of white and clouds of steamy exhalation. Alarmed, I pointed and asked, “Is that a grizzly bear?”
Wu nodded.
“It belongs to Dirty Dan. He’s the trapper who’s tracking for Gavin Earl’s team. Dan lives in the mountains all year round. The bear is his pet.”
“You cannot be serious.”
“Oh, yes. It is not a very big grizzly. But still…”
The burly mountain man was checking his pack mule and his gear. He wore snowshoes and carried an oak staff for checking the depth of snow on the trail.
“What does one do with a bear?”
Wu shrugged. “McTroy said Dirty Dan is wanted for murders across three states.”
Upon closer inspection, the man and his pet bore some resemblance.
Oscar addressed us from his stallion. “We have four trails. Copper, Bronze, Silver, and Gold.” He indicated the locations of the trailheads. “The trails all branch off my road, the only road on this mountain. Each trail has a sign painted with its namesake’s color. The Bronze Trail leads back down into Raton. We will not use it. The men of Raton will keep the Beast from going down, except perhaps for a snack. We will have him to ourselves. One team, one trail. You will hunt along your trail only on the first day. Vivienne will now draw random lots from her purse.”
A smiling Vivienne, sitting in her wheelchair, held up a large purple silk purse, decorated with glittery-scaled dragons. On her lap was the fox fur blanket. The weather colored her face. She averted her gaze and plunged her hand into the purse like a girl searching for candies. A girl with a very sweet tooth.
“First draw is for my team,” Oscar said. “Our tracker is Smoke Eel.”
The gray-haired Indian who was snoozing at breakfast nodded in acknowledgment.
Oscar continued, “He comes from the Canadian Northwoods and may have special knowledge of our quarry. But it is too soon to tell how valuable his experience will be. Don’t bother asking him what he knows, because he is a mute. Mind you, Smoke Eel hears perfectly well. He can write messages in the notebook he wears around his neck. Just remember, he works for me and me alone. He is not here to help you claim my prize. If
I think his advice is worth sharing, then I will share it. Claude and Cassi complete my team. What’s our trail, Viv? Pick a good one for us, darling.”
Vivienne withdrew her hand and held up the gold card for all to see.
“Gold!” she said.
“Why can’t we have the Gold Trail?” Billy said. “I wanted the Gold Trail.”
Gavin laid a hand gently on his shoulder. “Be quiet, Billy.”
Billy kicked a chunk of ice. He practiced his quick draw versus a stunted pine.
“Very well,” Oscar said. “Second team is Gavin Earl, Pops, Dirty Dan, and the Kid. What is their draw?”
Vivienne dug into the purple silk. The tip of her tongue touched her upper lip.
“Silver! A silver card!” She held it up high.
Oscar nodded solemnly.
“McTroy, that means you, Evangeline, the doctor, and Wu will take the Copper way.”
Oscar passed out maps for each team.
“If you capture, wound, or kill the Beast, you will signal by firing three shots. Bam! Bam! Bam! In an equally spaced sequence. Sound carries on the mountain. Upon hearing the signal, the other teams will return promptly to the lodge. The shooters will also send a member of their party to the lodge with a marked map marked telling us your location. We will rally and transport the Beast, dead or alive, back to my iron cage. Then the prize will be paid in full. Any questions…? No? We are all very eager to start. Smoke Eel will ride out first. Good luck. Good hunting. And may the best team win!”
Oscar lifted his hand ready to wave the teams on their way.
I heard the scratching of nails on stone. A blackness moved swiftly along the mounds of shoveled snow bordering the walkway to Nightfall’s doors.
“Ah, my hunting companion wants to join us,” Oscar said.
