House of Midas

by Chloe Garner

“What’s the news?” the heavy man asked.

  “Things are getting worse,” Gamm said. “Meat prices keep dropping and fiber for clothes is getting more out of reach for a lot of people. A lot of the tailors who normally demand our taims are going out of business.”

  The heavy man nodded.

  “Bad days. Any losses on the way?”

  “We’ll do the counts once everyone gets settled away,” Gamm said, “but Galp didn’t report anything.”

  “No,” Galp said. “No losses on my watch.”

  The heavy man’s eyes found Palk.

  “New boy,” he said.

  “Yeah,” Galp answered. “Got a lot to do to get him in shape, but I’ll get him there.”

  “I always say that a ranch is no place for a boy with light skin,” he said, tipping his head back to look at Palk. “You hold up under the sun or are you gonna be asking for work in the shade all summer?”

  “I don’t think I have a problem with the sun,” Palk said.

  “He’s a wanderer,” Gamm said. “Doesn’t know much of anything, but he knows a gun from a cracker, and that’s a lot.”

  “Military man, are you?” the heavy man asked.

  Military. Guns. Fighting. Tactics. Following orders.

  “That would make sense,” Palk said. The heavy man nodded.

  “We don’t fire many people, but if you don’t pull your weight, we will let you go, boy.”

  “I understand,” Palk answered. The man’s attention turned to Starn.

  “And a lady rider,” he said. “That’s not something you see every day.”

  “Kalt likes her,” Gamm observed. “Tannish said it was hell getting the boy up onto one.”

  Palk wanted to point out that they gave him an unbroken kalt who was the biggest they had, but he kept his mouth shut.

  “They aren’t that challenging to ride,” Starn observed, keeping her eyes steady on the big man. He smiled.

  “You two together?” he asked.

  “This is my wife,” Palk said. The man nodded.

  “Congratulations. Not many wanderers can make that kind of a statement.”

  “I’m very lucky,” Palk said. The man laughed.

  “Make sure they get a decent bunk, Gamm. If he’s working for Galp, he’s going to need it.”

  “Right,” Gamm said. “We had eight new boys show up this trip. Elli is getting all of them sorted out right. Six new brides.”

  “The family keeps growing,” the man said, moving away from Palk and Starn to go back to talk to Gamm. Tannish signaled from Gamm’s far side that that was their sign to leave. Palk wrestled his kalt into turning around and followed Tannish out of the yard and toward the barn.

  “Not bad, man,” Tannish said. “I thought for sure Parlance Tiedmont would send you home on a bask. He actually smiled at you.”

  “He’s not as tough as he likes people to think,” Starn said. “It’s a family business, and he thinks of the people who work here as part of that family.”

  “If you say so, girl,” Tannish said. “I need to go check on my brothers and make sure they didn’t get into any trouble while I was gone. Elli’s office is the door at the end of the main house over there,” he pointed. “You should go see him and get your bunk settled.”

  “What then?” Palk asked.

  “Then you go ask Galp whether or not you’re going to get to sleep tonight,” Tannish said with a grin. “I bet he puts you on night watch, tonight, just for spite.”

  Palk nodded.

  “I’ll do what I have to do.”

  “Man’s about as mean as they come,” Tannish said. “I wouldn’t work for him for anything, but he keeps the animals from going missing. You’ve got to give him that.”

  Tannish nodded and picked at his teeth for a second, then hopped off of his kalt and pointed.

  “Take the kalts in there. Someone will show you where to put them. You should untack them and get them some dinner, then go see Elli. Right?”

  “Got it,” Palk said.

  The barn was clean and smelled of fresh animal scents, grain and hay and the healthy smell of the animals themselves. A young man, just a wisp of a boy really, was standing in the middle of it, just enjoying the quiet of it, watching his charges.

  “Tannish said you’d tell us where these go,” Palk said, leading his kalt through the doorway.

  “Oh. Yes. You got Biscuit. I didn’t know they were going to put someone on him this trip.”

  “Biscuit?” Palk asked. The boy nodded.

  “That’s his stall, there. He likes a rub down his chest before he eats, but you have to watch or he’ll knock you against the wall.”

  Palk glanced at Starn, who grinned.

  “How about this one?” she asked.

  “Babe,” the boy said. “She’s that way with the does. Did she go well for you?”

  “She was lovely,” Starn said. “I want to be sure she gets enough to eat. Is she okay just in with a lot of kalts?”

  “She’ll take care of herself, sure enough,” the boy said. “Her equipment will go in that room there, and Biscuit’s goes on the pole out front of his stall.”

  The boy’s hands went quiet and Palk nodded.

  “Okay,” he said.

  “You’re tall,” the boy said.

  “Yeah, they tell me,” Palk said. The boy gave the huge kalt a quick look over.

  “He held up pretty well. I was worried he’d be fighting.”

  “Does he do that a lot?” Palk asked. The boy gave him a bright grin.

  “He fights with everyone and everything, if you don’t work him hard enough. He gets bored. Too smart, that one.”

  Palk nodded.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  The boy laughed and nodded.

  “He’s my favorite. I wanted to be the one who rode him first, but I know he’d have crushed me just for trying.”

  Palk laughed to himself, just a little, then went to put the kalt away, waiting for Starn to finish, then walking across the yard to Elli’s office.

  The man was already busy at work, up to his elbows in paperwork and looking quite content. He looked up when Palk and Starn entered.

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  “We need lodging,” Palk said. “You’re supposed to be the one who assigns it.”

  “I am,” Elli said. “Who is this?”

  “This is Starn, my wife,” Palk said, wondering at how Elli had forgotten in the space of a couple of days.

  “So you’ll be looking for married lodging,” Elli said, pawing through a drawer and coming up with a stack of papers that he thumbed through. Palk wasn’t convinced whether or not they were relevant to the conversation.

  “That’s what we’d prefer,” he answered. Elli nodded without looking at him.

  “You find your way around yet?”

  “No,” Palk said. Elli sighed, shoving himself up out of his chair.

  “Then I’ll have to show you. Come on.”

  He grunted as he passed Palk and Starn.

  “Don’t suppose you’ve got matching luggage you brought,” he said.

  “No, just ourselves,” Starn said. He nodded.

  “At least there’s that.”

  He led the way around the far side of the ranch house to a set of parallel buildings.

  “Married housing at this end. They prefer it quieter, in general, and some of the women get downright feisty if you’re up too late at night drinking or shouting. Just warning you. The single men are down that way as far as they go. Chow is in the main house, come in through that door. Try not to be in the house unless it’s actually meal time. Got it?”

  “Thank you,” Palk said. Elli opened the door to one of the sections of the long bunk houses and took a step back. Palk found the lamp on the wall and turned it up, stepping into the single room and looking around.

  The room at the tavern had been nicer, but not by a lot. There was a bed and a chest, a sink with a small tap and a h
ole in the floor with a cover over it.

  “I’m going back to work,” Elli said. Palk looked at Starn.

  “This is it,” he said quietly. She nodded.

  “It’s not bad,” she said. “It’s ours.”

  She closed the door and they just stood for a minute.

  “It isn’t bad,” Palk said. He didn’t know what she was going to do with herself while he was gone, but he tried not to worry about it too much. She would think of something he never would have considered. Trying to fill in an answer was likely to be worse than not thinking about it at all.

  He put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed her, then let go.

  “I need to go find Galp,” he said. “I bet Tannish is right. I bet I work all night.”

  “I need sleep,” she admitted. “I’m dead on my feet, here.”

  He’d forgotten. He kissed her forehead and looked around the room once more, then left.

  He was feeling the ride everywhere in his body. His back was sore, his legs were sore, his shoulders were sore. He’d fought the kalt most of the way back, and even if he hadn’t, he could feel the sharp soreness in his inner thighs that would have been there, regardless. It was almost hard to walk, it was so acute, and he was going to have to go do it again, he could feel it. Galp was that kind of a man.

  He walked the long way around the ranch house, taking in the territory he could see as the sun began to set. There were few animals in sight that weren’t fenced in, but there wasn’t much grass in sight, either. It was dry, here, and hot. So long as they had access to water, the animals would wander a huge distance to find enough to feed all of them.

  Galp was leaning against the barn when Palk found him, smoking something on a long thin piece of straw.

  “What’s next up?” Palk asked.

  “I want you out riding the outer fences with Grindoth. You’ll need a few days’ provisions. You can get them at the house.”

  Palk stared at him for a moment, then sighed and nodded.

  “Okay. Where do I find Grindoth?”

  “He’s probably drunk back at the bunks, hoping I don’t catch him,” Galp said, chewing on the straw, then breaking it shorter and taking another slow drag on whatever it was that was burning out at the end. The man grinned at Palk. “I prefer to give the tougher assignments to the boys who really aren’t living up to my expectations. You’ll like Grindoth. He might be worse than you.”

  Palk sighed. He could try to get himself set up on his own, but he had no idea what the term provisions might mean, specifically. He would do a lot better if he could get the other boy to help him, but he didn’t relish being the bearer of bad news like that.

  “Which house?” he asked. Galp shook his head.

  “Dunno. He should have reported in when we got here, and he didn’t. Tell him he’s on a thin path, right now.”

  “Right,” Palk said. He waited another moment, then turned and walked back around to the bunks.

  “I’m looking for a boy named Grindoth,” he said to the first person he passed. The man thumbed behind himself.

  “Bunk seven,” he said. “Don’t get too close. He bites.”

  “Charming,” Palk said, continuing on. He hoped the bunks were numbered in order, because while they were clearly labeled, he couldn’t read any of those labels. He went into the seventh bunk house and looked around for a drunk man who might bite. He found three, sitting at a table playing cards.

  “Which one of you is Grindoth?” he asked.

  “Who wants to know?” one of the men growled.

  “The guy who’s here to tell him that Galp’s in a bad mood and that he should have checked in an hour ago if he didn’t want to spend the next few days riding fences.”

  A different man groaned.

  “He knows exactly when to do this to me,” he said. “I swear I’m going to kill him in his sleep, one day.”

  He threw his cards on the table and shouldered past Palk.

  “Well?” he asked, standing in the doorway and looking back at Palk. Palk raised his eyebrows. “You coming?”

  “Right behind you,” Palk said, turning and following at his own rate. The blue-skinned man shoved a hat onto his head and walked across the yard with the quick pace of a man whose temper hadn’t settled yet.

  “You need a hat,” he growled as Palk caught up with him at the ranch house. “You’ll melt your skin off, otherwise. Didn’t think Tiedmonts hired albinos.”

  Palk just looked at him, and after a minute Grindoth growled at him and went into the ranch house.

  “Rosie!” he thundered. “Rosie, get your fat butt down here.”

  A woman appeared out of another room, wiping her hands on a cloth.

  She was stunningly beautiful, a Drint with a lovely figure and even green skin, thick black hair and eyes that went from Grindoth to Palk like she might have killed one of them.

  “What do you want, you drunk slob?” she answered.

  “We’re going out,” Grindoth said, throwing himself down onto a chair and putting his feet out as far as they’d go. “We need stuff.”

  The woman looked at Palk.

  “You’re new.”

  “Yup.”

  “They say you’re married.”

  “Are you now?” Grindoth asked. “Your woman an albino, too?”

  Palk ignored him.

  “I am,” he said to Rosie. She nodded.

  “Wish more of you boys came with a woman who taught them some manners. Ranch would just run better.”

  Palk shrugged and she smiled.

  “How long are you supposed to be out?”

  “We’re riding fences,” Palk said. “All I know is it’s supposed to be a few days.”

  “Galp is a horrid man,” she said, tucking the cloth back into her skirt. “You just get here and he sends you out, to leave your wife completely on her own. He does it on purpose, you know.”

  “I figured,” Palk said.

  “Less talking, more fetching,” Grindoth said.

  “You eat a normal diet?” Rosie asked Palk.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know what normal is.”

  “Bread, meat, beer?”

  “I don’t think I drink,” he said. She laughed.

  “Everyone drinks. Easier to get beer than clean water, most of the time. It’s weak stuff. Not for getting drunk on.”

  “That’s fine,” he said. She nodded and disappeared. Palk stood for another moment while Grindoth put his hat down over his eyes.

  “You make me cagey, boy,” Grindoth said after a while. “Either sit or go away.”

  Palk glanced at him then sat in another chair.

  Rosie came back in a few minutes with two burlap bags. She dropped one of them rudely on Grindoth and handed Palk the other.

  “It’s not a lot. You’ll want to meter out the beer to make sure you have enough the whole time, but it should make it.”

  “Food tight here?” Palk asked. She laughed.

  “Oh, no. It’s that you don’t want to carry any more than you have to. I promise.”

  He nodded.

  “Thanks. Oh. I should probably take a hat.”

  “There are a few in the closet in the hall, there,” she said. “You’ll want to buy a good one, the next time you’re in Transit, though. It will be your best friend, out there.”

  “Thank you,” he said, nodding to her. She gave him a friendly little smile, then walked past Grindoth, kicking his feet on the way past. Grindoth grunted, but didn’t move.

  “You ready?” he finally asked after Rosie was gone.

  “When you are,” Palk said, bemused. Grindoth folded himself back up out of the chair and rolled his head back and forth.

  “Damned Galp,” he said. “I ought to put in for a change to something else.”

  “What else would you do?” Palk asked.

  “Anything to get away from Galp. The man’s got it out for me.”

  Palk shrugged, finding the stash of
worn-out hats in the closet where Rosie had said they would be, then following Grindoth back into the main yard and through to the barn. The boy there was still sitting on a stool, enraptured with the animals around him.

  “You’re taking Biscuit out again?” he asked Palk.

  “Sentimental childishness, naming the beasts,” Grindoth muttered.

  “Going out again, yeah,” Palk said.

  “He’s ready,” the boy said, glancing at Grindoth. Palk smiled at the concern on the boy’s face as he watched Grindoth pull another kalt out of a stall and sling a pack saddle over the animal’s back.

  “I need the rest of my supplies,” Grindoth said. The boy scampered away, and Palk went to go get Biscuit.

  “Someone needs to smack that boy across the head, the way he thinks,” Grindoth said. “They’re just animals.”

  “I’m not so sure,” Palk said, casting a level gaze at Biscuit that the kalt returned, fierier.

  “You hit them hard enough, they do what they’re told,” Grindoth said. “Anything else, I don’t care.”

  Palk looked over, unconcerned as Grindoth mounted up.

  “You’re a bad person,” he said. Grindoth shrugged.

  “What my ma said, too,” he answered, booting the kalt and snatching the parcel the stable boy offered up to him on the way by.

  “I’ll keep an eye on him,” Palk said. The boy peered out the door then looked at Palk like he was surprised he was still there.

  “What? Oh. No. Needles can take care of himself. He’s a bad kalt.”

  “They come in bad?” Palk asked without adding the second half: and Biscuit isn’t one of them?

  “Oh, yeah,” the boy said. “Needles killed a kalt a little while ago. Has to be kept by himself all the time, or he’ll try it again. Biscuit is just too smart. He wants to make sure you know it.”

  Palk grinned that the boy had recognized Palk’s skepticism, then led Biscuit out of the barn and mounted, just about falling in the dirt twice as Biscuit jogged sideways.

  “Stupid animal,” Palk growled without meaning it. “Gonna make me look bad.”

  If he hadn’t known better, Palk would have sworn the look in the animal’s eye was agreement.

  Belatedly, Palk wondered if he should have gone back and woken Starn to tell her he was leaving for a while, but Grindoth was already headed for the crest of the first hill and Palk had a way to go to catch up. He braced himself, asking Biscuit for speed, and was shocked when the kalt poured it on.