House of Midas

by Chloe Garner

  “Everyone is watching you,” she said up to Palk as the kalt moved in a new direction, trying to stay face-front to her. “Be in control of this animal.”

  The cord firmed in his hands as he sat straight, finding his balance again. The kalt threw its head up, threatening to jump, and Palk gave it a firm pull in the other direction, keeping the animal’s nose low for a moment, then easing the pressure.

  It bobbed its head for a moment, still trying to face Starn, then jerked away, stepping quickly sideways three or four steps before Palk found the spot Tannish had been telling him about where the animal was sensitive. It eased and stopped, turning its head on its stout neck to look at him.

  “Yeah,” he said to the creature. It shuffled, just enough to unseat him a little and prove the point, but mostly stayed still.

  “You got the magic,” Tannish said to Starn. “You should teach all the new boys.”

  “Wouldn’t work on any of them but him,” Starn answered. “You gave him a new kalt.”

  “Biggest one we brought with us,” Tannish said. “His first run. He’s just been out with the bobnots the whole time.”

  “Palk is the first boy to try to ride him?” Starn asked. Tannish grinned.

  “No one else wanted to do it.”

  Starn nodded.

  “Too smart for his own good,” she said, stepping forward. The kalt backed a step and she put a hand out. “You know when you see, don’t you?”

  Palk wondered what that meant. The kalt didn’t seem any more likely to trust Starn than it had been a moment ago, but for now, Palk was in charge. He asked for and got a quick motion out of it, forward-ish and then in a circle, before the kalt rebelled again and started spinning in tight loops. Palk wrestled it, trying to get that strong neck around so that the kalt’s nose wasn’t buried under Palk’s foot, and eventually he won again, but he was sweating and his arms and back were sore.

  “You up for doing that all day tomorrow?” Tannish asked. “I expect we’ll break camp tomorrow morning.”

  Palk glanced at Starn, who shrugged.

  “I’ll be here in time,” she said. “For now, though, I’m going to go sleep. Will you get down from there so I don’t have to worry about you breaking your neck?”

  “I’m not going to break my neck,” he said, swinging his leg up and over the kalt’s wide, flat shoulders. It was easily as big and as sturdy as any bobnot, but his head went up instead of out from his shoulders, and he had four ball-in-socket joints on his legs that made him mobile in almost any direction. Soft feet surrounding a rocky-hard middle made him nimble but able to walk on the toughest terrain. Palk’s experience was slight, but he was impressed with the build of the animal in a lot of ways.

  “You need to go get on the list with Elli, anyway,” Tannish said. “You’re going to be sore tomorrow, though, man.”

  Palk laughed and shrugged.

  “Going to happen sooner or later.”

  Starn followed them up to the crest of the hill where the main tents were and waited while Palk got on the necessary lists and got a bedroll and supplies.

  “This is my wife, Starn,” he told the administrator, who glanced at Starn cursorily and nodded.

  “She’ll be in the wagons,” the man said.

  “No,” Starn said. Elli looked at her longer this time before looking back down at the list in front of him.

  “I’m afraid that’s the only method of transit available for you. We don’t use coaches for the big livestock runs.”

  “I’m going to ride,” Starn said. Tannish guffawed.

  “You saw how he did, girl. You think you’re just going to get up on a kalt and ride all day with no training at all?”

  “That’s exactly what I think,” Starn said. “I’m going to ride tomorrow.”

  “You’ll have been up all night,” Palk said quietly and she shrugged.

  “So it’s going to be a long day. I don’t want to be nocturnal, anyway.”

  Elli looked at Tannish, a quiet, bored expression in his eyes, and held his hands out.

  “There are kalt to spare,” he said. “It’s up to you and Gamm whether she rides. I am not authorized to issue her a bedroll, so she’ll be sleeping in the wagons, either way.”

  “That’s fine,” Starn said. “But I’m not riding in them.”

  Tannish spread his hands with another big grin.

  “Fine with me, man. She falls off, it’s up to her to catch her kalt and get back on.”

  Starn gave him a sharp little smile.

  “I won’t fall off.”

  He laughed.

  “I need to get some sleep before tonight, though,” Starn said. “Can you tell me where to find the wagons?”

  “Sure, sure,” Tannish said. “Then I’ll go show your boy where he’s going to bed down tonight. Tannish does everything Gamm doesn’t have time to do.”

  He waved at Elli as they left, leading the way in good humor off toward the far side of the hill and the large wooden wagons parked there.

  *********

  The day was long. Starn woke up late, just in time to walk down to Transit, and Palk went to bed shortly after that, feeling the work that he’d done. It had been good, clean work, moving equipment, packing things, holding animals while more experienced men inspected them for health, riding down on the infernal kalt’s back pushing a huge swath of livestock toward Transit, where they were re-inspected and counted and money changed hands as the livestock started the long process of loading onto the train. Certain of the boys were employed just at handling the livestock, while others were more general, adding their hands where they were needed, and doing a lot of chasing when little groups of animals broke loose from the body of the main herd. Then there was Galp.

  Galp was a short man with a shorter temper who oversaw the enforcers, a small group of men whose job it was to keep other rancher’s boys away from the livestock. Palk found that he’d been assigned to that group, and Galp wasn’t thrilled.

  To Palk’s eyes, Galp wasn’t often thrilled about anything.

  “Another mealy-mouthed worm that I’m going to have to turn into a functioning asset,” the man had muttered when Tannish had dropped Palk off before the drive.

  “That’s me,” Palk said, watching Tannish go. The Drint had given him a vague warning, but nothing strong enough to make him prepare for this.

  “Well, go on then, which of the boys married your sister and got you the slot here,” Galp said.

  “I just asked Gamm for a job and he gave it to me,” Palk said simply. This rubbed Galp the wrong way, from the curl of his nose, but he didn’t say anything else about it.

  “You know the working ends of a kalt?”

  “Not really,” Palk said. “But I’m working on it.”

  “How about a cracker?”

  “Not sure what that is,” Palk admitted. Galp sighed and went over to a box, where he got out a short, thick whip.

  “Works on animals just as well as it does on people,” Galp said. “Someone gets too close, that’s your first line of defense.”

  “What exactly are we enforcing?” Palk asked.

  “The Tiedmonts’ rights to their own property,” Galp said.

  “Against what?” Palk asked.

  “Anyone and everyone,” Galp said. “That a problem?”

  Palk shook his head, feeling out the weight of the whip. It was a meaty thing, one that he was going to have to spend some time with to get it right, but he suspected that the greater portion of its effectiveness was in its deterrence.

  “Not with me,” he said. “I prefer not to kill people just for looking at me funny, though.”

  “You think I don’t take this seriously?” Galp asked. “It’s not a game. You have a split second, most of the time, to decide who’s overstepped a boundary innocently and who’s going to make off with the body of one of our taims. It’s no game.”

  “That happen a lot?” Palk asked.

  “How much money have you got in
your pocket, boy?” Galp asked.

  “They’re empty,” Palk said. Starn still had all the money. Galp shook his head.

  “Broke mealy-mouthed worm,” he said. “You get paid, what, two-three Kennar a day out here?”

  Palk shrugged. He didn’t actually know yet.

  “One of the Tiedmonts’ taims is worth a hundred,” he said. “If they know how to pick them. The breedingstock rams might be worth double that. That’s a year’s pay, boy, for one of those mean animals. A stilth is worth fifty. A bobnot a hundred or more. A good kalt might be worth five hundred. We always have someone looking to take off with Tiedmont property. If we don’t see them, it’s just because we haven’t spotted them, yet.”

  Palk was going to observe that, by those numbers, he was being underpaid, but he kept his mouth shut.

  “Is a Tiedmont stilth worth more than a Dandy stilth?” he asked, picking words almost at random.

  “Damned right,” Galp said. “We breed the finest stilth in the district, and the buyer pays for that, sure enough.”

  Okay, then.

  “So how do you find the people who are going to try to steal them?”

  “With your eyes, boy,” Galp said. “You keep ‘em open, you might make it a whole season.”

  Palk sighed, then nodded.

  “I can do that.”

  “You’d best,” Galp said. “As much as you’re going to eat, at your size, you’d better justify your board.”

  An odd observation, but Palk let it pass.

  “Am I ready, then?”

  “You stay with me, for now,” Galp said. “I tell you what I see. You see it too, got it?”

  “I can do that,” Palk said.

  And so they’d gone to Transit and dropped off a horde of animals eventlessly.

  The kalt almost threw him twice, but Palk was better on it with Galp around than he had been with Starn watching. Each time he lost control of the animal, Galp was close by, watching, critiquing.

  It was a tough job, but Palk was up to it, and that was rewarding all by itself.

  He slept hard, and at dawn Starn woke him.

  “I think they’re starting to get ready,” she said. “I found Tannish and he got me a kalt.”

  “How did your night go?” Palk asked, stretching out muscles that weren’t ready for use yet. Mostly he’d held up well, but there were a few spots in his legs that were past the warning stage for overused. The ones he used trying to stay astride a kalt, specifically.

  It was going to be a very long day.

  “Thirteen Kennar,” she said. “And the bartender said I could come back and work any time I like.”

  He grinned, standing.

  “That animal,” he said. “It’s evil, I swear.”

  “You’re just not smart enough for him,” Starn teased. “Just you wait. I’m going to do just fine.”

  He gave her a sarcastic look.

  “You’re going to fall asleep on it, and it’s just going to step out from under you like it was nothing.”

  She laughed.

  “Not likely.”

  He got up and folded up his bedroll.

  “How was the wagon?” he asked. She shrugged.

  “Full of new wives,” she said. “Glad I’m not riding in it today. They were… friendly.”

  He laughed.

  “I can see how that would be awful.”

  She nodded seriously.

  “All of the men around here get married by correspondence,” she said. “A lot of the women have never been out of their home town before, and the optimism is… it’s awful.”

  Palk laughed louder now, holding the tent open for her and looking around for Tannish. He didn’t see the Drint anywhere, but that wasn’t particularly surprising.

  “Awful. Because there’s nothing optimistic about you at all.”

  “I’m not an optimist,” she said. “I simply know my capability. They’ve got big dreams and this romantic idea of what being married is going to be like.”

  “And you don’t?” Palk asked, putting his arm around her. She glowered at him.

  “I know what I’m getting into,” she said.

  “Do you?” he asked. “Based on the four days we can remember, you’ve got a better handle on life than any of them.”

  “You didn’t meet them,” she said. “Would you travel across the country to marry a man you’d never met, because your parents can’t afford for you to keep living at home, and be all starry-eyed and excited about it?”

  “Not a big fan of marrying strange men, no,” Palk said, enjoying himself. The morning air was crisp and the livestock were calm and abnormally quiet in the early hours. Starn elbowed him in the ribs and he made an appropriate noise to indicate it was a good shot.

  “I’m not just some wife, here hoping that someone’s going to take care of me,” she said. “I don’t belong in a box with them.”

  “Do you need me to tell you that you don’t?” Palk asked. “We both know that you’re something completely different from anyone else here.”

  She relaxed slightly in his arm.

  “Sorry. I had my butt pinched half a dozen times last night, and men kept trying to buy me drinks. I’m about fed up with being underestimated.”

  “I don’t underestimate you,” he said, not teasing nor patronizing. It simply was. She frightened him, no matter how he looked at it, and while that was exciting to him as well, it didn’t change the whole fear thing. He had no idea what she was capable of. “And I don’t appreciate other men pretending like they’ve got a shot with you.”

  This made her laugh. He pressed on.

  “I’m serious. After all the work I put in to win you in the first place that’s just insulting.”

  She elbowed him again, and he arched away.

  “So let’s go see this beast of a kalt that Tannish has you on,” he said. “I can’t wait to see you fall.”

  “Ha,” she answered. He headed for where he’d left the kalt that he’d ridden yesterday and found a handful of kalt in the same pen. They stood on the fence and watched them for a minute.

  “They’re very smart,” Starn said after a minute. “You see that, right?”

  “Wily,” Palk said with suspicion.

  “They have mischief in them, that’s for sure,” she said. “But I do think that you could make an ally out of one, with the right effort.”

  Palk nodded.

  “I could see that. A lot of the boys are really attached to theirs, and it seems like the Tiedmont people work hard to keep the boys with their individual kalt.”

  She nodded.

  “That one, there. That’s the one Tannish got for me.”

  It was shorter, narrower, and slighter than Palk’s kalt, but still quite a large animal among those in the pen.

  “You think?” Palk asked. She nodded.

  “I know. I’m almost as big as you are, to them, and that’s a doe. He’d match me up with a female, just subconsciously. She’s going to be a lot easier to ride.”

  That figured.

  “No fair, if he makes it easy for you,” Palk complained.

  “You’re the big ranch hand,” she said. “I’m just the optimistic mail-order bride,” she said. He made a face, and she ducked through the fence, going and wandering among the kalt for a minute.

  Most of them went on alert as she got close, keeping their bodies pointed at her as she went by, but the female seemed unconcerned. Starn got close enough to touch her, running a hand down her short neck and over her shoulder, as the rest of the kalt kept a healthy distance.

  “We’re going to be fine,” Palk heard Starn say.

  Strange that he could be more jealous of an animal than the men in Transit who had laid hands on Starn the night before.

  “You ready, man?” he heard Tannish call. He turned.

  “I think so.”

  “Galp is expecting you out at the east flank. I wouldn’t be late, man.”

  “Got it,” Palk said, goin
g into the pen and recovering the hulking kalt he rode and fastening the limited equipment to the animal so that his bedroll was attached to his seat and his cracker was along the animal’s neck where he could get to it.

  “You ready?” he asked Starn. She was already mounted up, looking comfortable. “Show off,” he muttered. She grinned.

  “Lead on, husband.”

  Something about that prickled the back of his neck and he turned his face away.

  “Gonna be a long ride,” he said.

  “Worry about yourself,” she answered. He laughed at this, and they set off.

  *********

  The ranch came into view long before they got there, taking up the entire flat bottom of a river valley that might have once flooded yearly, but now looked mostly dried out and perfect for the number of buildings and fenced-off pastures the Tiedmonts had built there. The hands began letting the remaining livestock wander loose as they got close, just keeping a few of the most prized animals in formation.

  “Didn’t get the price the Tiedmonts wanted,” one of the boys explained to Palk. “We bring ‘em home, if they don’t get the premium the Tiedmonts are asking.”

  “Good for them,” Palk said.

  “They seem to sell enough,” Starn agreed. The boy gave Starn a look that Palk couldn’t read, then continued on, scouring the hillsides for anything out of place.

  The buildings of the ranch were wood, mostly red in color, but gray in a few of the buildings where it seemed less important that they keep up well, like the run-ins in some of the pastures. The ranch house was three stories and sprawled to shape two long sides of a box, with water troughs and hitching rails scattered around the yard it described. The scope of the build was luxurious, but nothing else about it was anything other than hard-nosed functional. Several men came out to greet them while the last of the boys took the small herd of bobnots and the cluster of taims toward one of the barns.

  “How did we do?” the biggest of the men asked. He was heavy, not quite as tall as Palk but easily weighing ten percent more, and he walked in a way that suggested ownership of power.

  “Did well,” Gamm answered. “Sold most everything we wanted to. Buyers came through, even after the year everyone has had.”