Aurum: The Golden Planet

by Sharon Joss

  Corey wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “You can’t be thinking of going after them.”

  Wayne ignored him. The idea of catching up to K’Sati and Harkness had driven all other thoughts from his mind. Golden Boy was beyond salvage, he could see that. He could turn this to his advantage and walk away with another man’s gold in his pocket. Enough gold to buy a ticket off this stinking planet, and a whole new life.

  “I say we go after them.” He glanced at Nevers, who immediately understood his proposal.

  “I’m in.”

  “Me too,” Lyle agreed.

  He knew Corey didn’t want to come, but wouldn’t dare say it. “You can stay here and wait for those longteeth to come back or come with us. What’ll it be?”

  CHAPTER 26

  Renly.

  He jerked himself awake and peered around in the pre-dawn darkness. Garrett’s voice sounded so close, so clear. He could almost feel the vibration hanging in the air. Garrett was still alive!

  The twin suns shone directly overhead when they reached the mining camp. Renly frowned, unable to correlate the refuse heap and scattered rock piles with any sort of order he would associate with a real camp. Only the presence of the dejected-looking, blindfolded traggahs told them they were in the right place.

  They trotted across the packed dirt clearing to the picket line. K’Sati called softly to them, and both traggahs whickered softly in recognition; even before he reached them, he sensed their change in spirit.

  Silverbeard shoved his head blindly into his chest, taking great snuffs of air as if to reaffirm his presence.

  “Take it easy, boy.” He rubbed his hands over the eager traggah’s snout and the soft plush of his neck. He reached to untie the blindfold, but K’Sati stopped him.

  “No,” she murmured. “We do not want them spooked if the craggon comes back. We must wait until after we are well away from here.”

  He nodded. He hated seeing them so helpless, but the stink of craggon pervaded the air around them. The entrance to the craggon’s cave had to be close; the air was thick with the ammonia and the fetid reek of shit. Paul and Garrett couldn’t be far.

  But where?

  He asked K’Sati to stay with the traggahs, and set out to inspect the clearing, which was only about sixty feet across. He found no tent or shelter of any kind; only trash. Bits of charred wood and the remains of prepackaged Terran food littered the clearing. There were no metal tools of any kind; only some pointed sticks and bits of filthy canvas. Four large empty water skins lay near a wooden trough for the traggahs.

  K’Sati caught his attention and pointed toward a narrow pathway leading between a cleft in the rocks. He motioned her to wait, and started down the track.

  He froze. Coming toward him were two figures. In the lead, was a mandragon; behind him, was Paul.

  The mandragon appeared more man-like than those he’d seen at the Gold Ball. His cranial features retained a recognizably humanoid shape, although his skin had thickened and hardened into scales.

  The mandragon turned and their eyes met.

  It was Garrett.

  They’d come to a standstill, some ten feet apart. He didn’t recognize his brother by his features; the dragon pox had already robbed Garrett of his expression, but his complexion had not yet acquired the dark bronze color or the reptilian sheen. His jaw line, once heroically square, had not yet achieved the unnatural length of a full-fledged mandragon, but would never be mistaken for human. Only his body posture and his brother’s distinctive bow-legged walk made him recognizable. That and the fact that he returned Renly’s stare with an air of aloof disbelief..

  Even from this distance, the stench of dragon feces hit him like a blow.

  Renly coughed. “You saved my life once, Garrett. I’m here to return the favor.”

  “I didn’t believe Paul when told me, but here you are.”

  Only the barest trace of Garrett’s remembered voice remained. His frozen lips bore the teeth-baring grimace of all mandragons. Renly wanted to say or do something to break through his brother’s cold demeanor, but didn’t know what to say.

  He tried again. “I, I came because you called me,” he stammered. Garrett’s eyes had changed, too; they were yellow now, just like Sully’s. Even now, as they stood face-to-face, he couldn’t believe he was speaking to Garrett. His brother’s gnarled deformed hands and blackened, eagle-like talons bore no resemblance to human hands. “I’m here to rescue you, Garrett.”

  Garrett laughed broadly, showing off his lower tusks.

  Revulsion filled him. Something was wrong with Garrett. Something more disturbing than the physical changes. More than anything, he wished he’d never found his brother.

  “I don’t need rescuing, Renfield. I need strong backs. But since Paul didn’t bring any, you’ll have to do.”

  The words hit him like a slap. He’d forgotten about his brother’s way with words. Renfield. He’d forgotten that hated childhood nickname, too. And how he’d earned it by doing by doing anything and everything his brother wanted; anything, just to be allowed to tag along with his brother and his friends. Garrett’s little Renfield, Paul and the rest of his brother’s friends called him.

  “Let’s go. I’m taking you back to Earth. If we leave now, we can make it back to the coast before the last transport leaves. ”

  Garrett’s eyes flicked to a movement behind him, and Renly felt K’Sati’s hand on his arm. “Is that him?”

  He nodded, not liking the gleam of interest in Garrett’s eyes.

  “Welcome.” Garrett nodded his head in Paul’s direction. “You must be the lovely K’Sati. I approve, dear Renfield. Heartily so.”

  Renly fought to control his reaction. He was embarrassed for K’Sati; that his brother would leer at her, but then of course he’d always been that way, hadn’t he? Always the one with the pretty girl on his arm? Always the guy who…

  K’Sati gave his arm a small tug. “The traggahs have been watered, but there’s no food for them. We cannot stay much longer.”

  “I’m not leaving, little brother. And if you want to go, you’ll have to walk. We need those traggahs.” The old arrogance in Garrett’s voice came through loud and clear.

  “What are you talking about? You’ve got the dragon pox, Garrett. The sooner we get you back to Earth, the sooner you can get your life back.”

  Garrett’s lipless grin widened in a cruel approximation of a smile. “Oh look who’s talking. What a hypocrite. You’ve got a blue ring around your iris, just like hers. That’s what you get from sleeping with the locals. I’d guess you’ll be sporting horns before long, Renfield.”

  He shoved his hands into his pockets to keep from checking his forehead. He’d felt the knots forming beneath the skin, but refused to consider the possibility. He realized Garrett was deliberately baiting him; just as he’d done when they were children. Of course, the ten-year age difference between them had always favored Garrett. For the first time in his life, he saw his brother as a manipulator. Coldness seeped through him, washing away the sting of his long-forgotten childhood humiliations.

  “You’ve insulted K’Sati, and you’re doing a pretty good job at embarrassing me. I came halfway across the galaxy for you. What the hell do you want?” The sight and smell of him bore little resemblance to the witty, urbane brother he’d so loved.

  Garrett’s yellow eyes narrowed. “You’re right. I do need your help. And your girlfriend’s too. Come with me and I’ll show you.” He turned back the way they’d come, and he and Paul set off down the trail

  With a swift motion, Renly ran his hand across his forehead. Of course there were no horns there. Just those tender, itchy spots beneath the skin. He made a silent appeal to K’Sati and saw the truth in her eyes. She knew. His stomach lurched. Oh god. But now was not the time for self-pity.

  “I’m sorry about that. He’s not himself.” But it was Garrett. Unmistakably so. How could he have forgotten his brother’s sneering condescension? His bullying? T
hat hadn’t changed a bit. “He’s sick.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  He sighed. “If I had an ounce of smarts, we’d leave right now.”

  “He doesn’t care about you, Renly. Let’s go.”

  He shook his head. “Take Neatfoot and go. I don’t like the way he looked at you, but he won’t hurt me. I’ll help him out with whatever he needs, and then I’ll catch up to you.” He turned to follow his brother down the trail, but she grabbed his arm.

  “He is not bonded to you! He is not bonded to anyone. ”

  “He’s my brother.”

  “You mean nothing to him. How can you not feel his contempt for you? If you get in his way, he will hurt you.”

  “You’re wrong. He’d never hurt me.” But even as he said it, he wasn’t so certain. For the first time in his life, he felt uncertain about his own feelings for Garrett.

  “He is not the brother of your childhood. He is mandragon now. You cannot save him. In a few more weeks or months he will be like those pathetic creatures at the spring.”

  “I’m going after him.”

  “No, you have to listen to me! My father was Terran; he also went into the Forbidden Zone for the gold and became a mandragon.”

  He hesitated, watching the retreating backs of Paul and Garret as they made their way down the trail.

  She tugged on his vest. “You know the Khirjahni traditional greeting, right?”

  The words came out automatically. “I am but one of many. I am herd.” Saying the words aloud brought him a curious sense of comfort. He felt rather than heard Silverbeard’s whicker against his mind. K’Sati and Neatfoot were there, too.

  “Remember that, Renly. We are herd, you and I.” She stared into his eyes, her face rigid with intent. “As the Khirjahni are to traggahs, the Th’Dorrans are to the craggons. They have a traditional greeting too. They say, ‘are you predator or are you prey?’ And the ritual Th’Dorran response is, ‘when I taste your blood, you will know.’

  “So?” He wrenched himself away from her.

  “Think about it,” she said. “He will take as he will from you by whatever force is necessary. It is his nature. Your brother is a predator now. You are herd. He will use you for whatever he needs from you, and then he will find a way to trap you or kill you, because otherwise, you will try to take his gold from him.”

  “Don’t worry.” He caressed the side of her sweet face. She had been orphaned at a young age. She’d never known a family; she’d never had a brother or sister.

  “You don’t know him. Not like I do. He knows I don’t care about his gold. Once I help him out of this jam, he’ll come back to Earth with me.” He started down the trail after his brother. He glanced back at her, but she hadn’t moved. He hated seeing that look on her face. Like he was abandoning her. “Take Neatfoot and go,” he added, lamely. “This shouldn’t take long.”

  CHAPTER 27

  The stench intensified to eye-watering levels once they entered the lava tube. Renly held a bit of flannel from his pack up to his face, but his eyes streamed tears from the heavy concentration of ammonia in the air. Garrett handed him a flashlight, but told him to be careful not to knock it against anything.

  “The sound of metal against stone drives them crazy. They can hear the sounds of metal against stone from miles away.”

  The walls of the tunnel were smooth from centuries of craggon hide scraping against stone. The packed earth beneath their feet was uneven and slippery as wet tile. Garrett explained the mixture of lava powder, craggon feces and urine baked in the steamy heat of the cavern into an impermeable, stinking adobe-like surface. At one point, the tunnel sloped so steeply, they simply sat and slid into the main cavern. Paul eagerly raced ahead of them and disappeared, but Renly didn’t like the being here one bit. The slickness of the slope would make it impossible to get out the same way they entered. If the craggon came back, they’d be trapped. Claustrophobia and panic churned his gut. Beneath the craggon-skin vest, his shirt was already damp with sweat.

  “How do we get out?”

  “This lair is riddled with lava tubes; there are a couple smaller tubes that lead to the surface. Too small for the craggon to get out through, but this is the fastest way in, as long as she’s not home.”

  Garrett flashed his blue-tinted lantern around the cavern, which was a good forty degrees warmer than the outside temperature. At its widest point, the cave stretched sixty feet across and perhaps fourteen feet high. In a grotto to the left, near the back, and Renly their lights reflected off a steaming dark pool of water. A slow plink dripped; echoing softly across the darkness. Mist rose from the superheated pool and filled the cavern with a foul-smelling fog. The walls wept with dank sweat, and the thin film of moisture on the floors made them slick and treacherous. Like the tunnel, the sides and floor of the cave were smooth-packed with centuries of fossilized urine and feces.

  “This is his where she sleeps.” Garrett’s ghastly face appeared even more monstrous by lantern light. “This way.”

  Renly fought back a gagging reflex, and followed his brother around the edge of the cavern, around the worst of the piles of fresh dung. They passed through several smaller caverns. In one, a filthy straw pallet, wads of old clothing, and the remains of food packets stacked in one corner gave evidence that Garrett had been spending a lot of time down here.

  “Don’t tell me you live here,” he said.

  “Better here than freezing to death topside.” Garrett actually sounded offended. “After a while, you get used to the smell. Besides, down here, every day is like Christmas.” He kneeled beside a rough-hewn wooden chest, approximately the size and shape of a child’s coffin. “Check this out.” He lifted the lid.

  A mother lode of gold nuggets filled the sturdy box. Solid gold nodules, from the size of his big toe to as large as a tangerine, gleamed in the dim light. He ran his hand across the surface of the trove and whistled softly.

  “Okay, you’ve made your point; that’s a lot of gold. But what about the craggon? What about the pox, Garrett?”

  Garrett closed the lid. “The advantages of the pox is it makes them think you’re one of them. They don’t see you as prey anymore. The body’s chemistry changes, and they think you’re some kind of youngling. So long as I keep real quiet and stay out of her way, she doesn’t pay any attention to me. So I sleep when she sleeps, and as soon as she leaves, I go back to work.”

  Renly flashed his light over the filthy bedding and empty food packets. “How can you live like this?”

  “Don’t judge me until you see what I’ve got to show you. Then you’ll understand. Come on.”

  With a growing uneasiness, he followed his brother deeper into the maze of tunnels until they rounded a curve in the rock and reached another cavern. He stopped, stunned by the sight before him.

  Paul lay on the fetid floor, his body curled protectively around a huge, partially exposed boulder of what appeared to be solid gold. Paul had his eyes closed, as if in some sort of trance.

  Renly frowned, unable to make sense of what he was seeing. Like a cat cleaning itself, Paul was licking and gnawing at the filthy, feces-hardened clay that encased the nugget. The partially-exposed surface of the gold nugget protruded some twelve inches from the crud. Like an iceberg, there was no way to tell how much more of the nugget was beneath the surface, but it looked far too big to be called a nugget. The entire surface of the gold had been scored with marks. Teeth marks.

  Garrett and Paul had both gone mad. He was filled with a despair unmatched by anything except that horrid time of his childhood. Living down here in this filth and darkness had affected their minds. The fumes alone were probably toxic enough to kill brain cells. He fought to control his growing sense of panic. He had to leave this place as quickly as possible.

  Garrett knelt down and caressed the exposed gold like a proud papa. “What do you think?”

  “You’ve already got more gold in that box back there than you’ll ever need.
Let’s take it and get out of here!”

  Garrett shook his head. “There’s a lot more than one box, little brother. You don’t get it. The craggons have been using these lava tubes as lairs since forever. These mountains are chock full of gold and precious metals. When the craggons enlarge and extend the lava tubes to make their dens, they uncover the gold. Don’t you see? They do all the work! This gold has been here for a couple million years, just waiting for someone like me to come along. I’m not leaving without it.”

  “You’re talking crazy.” Renly snorted in disgust. “Think about what you’ve done to yourself. And Paul. I want no part of this.”

  Paul grinned woozily up at them. “Hey, this is top grade dream dust. You should try it.”

  Dirt eaters. The term was an apt one. “You’re both sick. You tricked me into coming here. And now you want me to, what, become like you?”

  Garrett’s eyes glittered in the dim light. “You were always such a prude. Renfield.”

  “You don’t need me. I’m leaving.” He shook his head in disgust, the bad taste in his mouth grew worse. He’d given up his home planet for this? He stared at Garrett’s monstrous face. “I’m leaving.”

  “Oh contraire, dear brother,” Garrett’s tone oozed sarcasm. “I need you to help me get this gold to the surface. I figure this baby is going to run at least three hundred pounds. It’ll break every record at the Gold Ball. We’ve only got a couple days before the end of the Festival. The nugget I sent back with Paul was supposed to buy traggahs and a carry pack. Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite as planned, but now that you and the girl and the traggahs are all here, I think we’ve got a chance.”

  His heart skipped a beat. “No.” He would not let them touch her. Garrett always had an ability to coerce others into doing what he wanted. And he always ended up taking more than they were willing to give. In a flash, the memory, long forgotten came back to haunt him.