by Sharon Joss
Corey shook his head. “Nah, you guys go ahead. The little girl and I were having a discussion.”
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Nevers chimed in. “The girl belongs to Wayne and he doesn’t like to share, isn’t that right?”
“I said shut your fucking trap, Nevers.” He turned to Corey. “Ya lay a hand on her and I’ll take you apart with my bare hands and leave you in that cave for craggon fodder. Understand?”
Corey nodded, but he didn’t look happy.
Wayne grasped the K’Sati’s arm until she winced. “Who else is down there?” He shook her. “And don’t lie to me because I’ll know.”
She stared at him, her eyes flat. “Where’s Golden Boy?”
He backhanded her; savoring the satisfaction as she hit the dirt, even as he rubbed his hand in pain. He’d forgotten those damn horns kept him from really getting a good lick in. Like as broke a bone or two in his hand. “It’s too late for Golden Boy, and it’s too late for you, bitch.”
But even as she scrambled to her feet again, she had that same mutinous look in her eyes. He laughed. “Hoo, look a you, girl. I bet ya anything she’d love to kill me right now, wouldn’t ya?” He gave Corey a final warning. “You touch her you’re dead.”
He turned and led the way back down the trail. It no longer mattered whether Corey would ignore his orders or not. Not one of the three one of them would be coming back with them. People disappeared into the forbidden zone all the time. It’s not like anyone was going to come looking for them. And if the gold in the cave was as plentiful as everyone said, he’d be set for life. More than enough to pay for his ticket off this planet and away from Duprees and Arkady forever.
The idea appealed to him; his conviction grew with every step. Of course, everything depended on how much gold they found in the cavern, but Nevers claimed that the dream dust junkie, Jason Brown had brought a six-pound nugget to the assayer’s office earlier in the week. He’d gotten that nugget from somewhere, and Wayne was willing to bet this was the place. A hundred to one, junkie Jason was a buddy of the Harkness brothers. It was the only explanation that made sense. He had to have a regular supplier somewhere, and mandragons were the only ones with access to both gold and dream dust. Jason Brown had to be the guy K’Sati and Harkness were following. He was one of the men in that cave; Wayne was certain. That made the mandragon, Harkness’ brother, the only other person down there. He remembered his encounter with Jason in the stables. The guy was a lightweight. The three of them would have no problems dealing with the junkie and a mandragon.
He paused just outside the entrance. “Way I figure it, we’re facing a mandragon and that pathetic little junkie, Jason Brown. I want to go in real quiet and if we can, sneak up on them. If they hear us, they’ll assume its Harkness coming back. They won’t be expecting three of us at all.”
Each of them had the laser lights they’d brought with them from the sleds. “I don’t know what it’s going to be like down there, but I expect there will be at least a lantern or two will already be lit. If they spot us first, follow my lead.
“How we going to split up the gold?” Lyle asked. “I don’t want to give any of my share to Corey.”
“Far as I’m concerned, we gave Corey every chance to come with us. I think a three-way split of whatever we find works good for me.” Wayne studied men’s faces for their reaction. They were taking all the risk, and the stink wafting out of that hellhole was the price of a share.
The men nodded in solemn agreement. Each of them covered their nose and mouth with their shirts and descended into the craggons lair.
CHAPTER 31
Renly lay still, waiting until Wayne and his men were out of earshot. K’Sati kneeled beside him, hovering over him, her warm breath soft on his face.
She murmured into his ear. “Are you alright?”
Her hands cupped his face and he leaned into their roughness. Warm, capable, trustworthy hands.
He kept his eyes closed. No, not right. Not right at all. All the unspent fury he’d walked away from when he’d left Garrett to his stinking gold had been snatched away when he saw K’Sati.
It didn’t matter anymore that his long-cherished beliefs in his brother the hero had been based on one big fat lie. The lie had not been of Garrett’s making. Not completely, at any rate.
The bigger lie had been that he’d allowed fear to take over his life. Don’t go out, bad people are out there. Don’t eat that, it can make you sick. Pain is a symptom of illness. You. Might. Die.
All bullshit. Like now. He could barely catch his breath. He had at least two broken ribs and his mouth was full of blood, but he knew with absolute certainty that whatever was broken or battered or bruised right now didn’t matter. Pain would not kill him. Wayne would. Wayne would kill them both.
He opened his eyes. Her lips were smeared with his blood. “Where’s the guard?”
She glanced across the camp. “Twenty feet. Between us and the traggahs. He has a gun.”
His pack was beneath him, where he couldn’t reach it. “Help me up.”
She tensed. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to distract this guy. While I do that, I want you to release the traggahs.”
“No! He will kill you.”
He shook his head. “We’re already dead. Maybe this won’t work, but we’ve got to get out of here.” She’d been right to fear Wayne. No doubt he planned to kill them both in the most painful way possible. Their only chance lay with the guard. There was no way of telling how much time they had before Wayne and the others came back. “I’ll be okay. Get out while you can.”
He reached for her, but she was already gone. Over to where the guard with the gun was standing.
Oh no. She was trying to help him by distracting the guard. He rolled over to his stomach, and got to his knees. The guard gave him a brief glance, but K’Sati smiled and touched the guard’s arm, keeping his attention riveted on her.
She was flirting with him! He had never seen her act like this. She lowered her hands, giving the guard an eyeful of her naked breasts. Unsurprisingly, she he had the guard’s complete attention.
He turned his back to them, and slipped the stonewood club from beneath his belt.
With her hands cuffed, she was helpless to resist the guard’s attentions. The horror-stricken look on her face and fixed grin revealed to him how hard this was for her, but the guard wasn’t looking at her face.
He used the club as a brace and pulled himself to his feet. Gripping the club in both hands, he hefted it. K’Sati had the guard turned to that his back was to him. The guy was three big strides away.
He took a deep breath. He would only have one chance at this.
The guard must have seen something in K’Sati’s face, because he turned before the blow connected, and managed to grab the club by its length. The guard was burly and able to twist it out of his grasp with ease.
Renly didn’t hesitate. He lowered his head and used his momentum to shove the man off balance with his shoulder. The both of them went down and the club went flying. K’Sati screamed.
Renly struggled to get to his feet, but knew he was too late.
The guard reached for his gun.
CHAPTER 32
Wayne flashed the laser’s narrow light beam around the main cavern. The air was warm here. Warmer than anything they’d experienced since setting out on this blasted expedition, at any rate. The reek of ammonia and feces had tears streaming from their eyes, but he was pleased to note Nevers and Lyle weren’t put off by a little stink. Nevers pointed his light along a two-inch wide crack in the cavern wall gleaming with a rich vein of gold. Holy crap.
The sounds of voices reached them and they followed the sounds into a smaller cave; this one with a bed and crude furniture, then on through a short tunnel toward a light shining from a cave ahead of them. He didn’t have to say a word as all three of them stalked silently toward the sounds of quiet scraping.
The sight of
Jason Brown and the mandragon chewing at a massive chunk of gold both disgusted and thrilled him. They were both high; nearly oblivious to everything around them. And subduing the both of them had been ridiculously easy. They handcuffed Jason, but the mandragon’s thick arms were too thick for cuffs. Wayne instructed Nevers to watch him with his gun.
Jason was wacked out of his skull. The mandragon appeared coherent, but obviously not too happy about their presence. The gold gleamed bright as the sun in the laser light.
“Damn sweet. Will you looky here,” Lyle’s voice carried a reverent tone.
“No shit.” The sight of such a treasure took his breath away.
“What’s wrong with them,” asked Nevers.
“They’ve got the pox,” Lyle answered. His eyes never left the gold. “In another few months, Jason will be a mandragon just like the other one. Makes you sick, don’t it?”
“His name is Paul. Paul Hite.” The mandragon’s voice reminded Wayne of a talking crow he’d seen once back on Earth.
“You must be Harkness. We got your brother right outside.”
The mandragon didn’t respond.
“What do we do?”
Lyle’s eyes had gone glassy. Whether from the ammonia fumes or the allure of the gold, Wayne couldn’t tell. “Find us some tools we can use to dig that big chunk out. Come on, anything.”
He gave Nevers his gun and told him to keep an eye on them, while he and Lyle searched the place. They went back to the sleeping quarters and found four wooden crates filled with gold nuggets.
He let out a low whistle. None of the nuggets was bigger than his fist, but the chests were full and more importantly, portable. They could take the crates with them and leave immediately.
Wayne grinned and reached into the crate for a few heavy nodules. “There must be a hundred pounds of nuggets in each one of these.” Most looked like solid gold; only a few carried any sort of quartz or inclusions. The weight felt good in his hand.
Lyle grabbed a handful as well. “We’ve got to take these with us.”
Lyle began to fill his pockets with nuggets, but Wayne stopped him. “No, wait. We’ll take these chests with us. Load ‘em on the traggahs. Divvy it up when we get back to the sleds.”
“I’m not leaving without that big rock back there,” Lyle warned.
”Suit yourself.” Wayne flashed his light around the squalid cave. “I don’t see anything here we can use to dig with, and there’s no telling how big that gold rock is. I don’t want to spend any more time down here than I absolutely have to, especially since these crates are already packed and ready to go. And I’m not waitin’ around for the resident craggon to come back.”
Lyle nodded noncommittally. “Let’s go talk to Nevers.”
They trooped back to where they’d left Nevers watching over the mandragon and Paul.
He frowned at them. “Where are the tools?”
The mandragon’s fixed smile widened. “You’re the only tool here, civilian. You want to call down the craggons? You use a metal tool in here and they’ll be down on you quicker than lightning. This is how you do it.” Using his lower tusks, the mandragon gouged a bit of dirt away from the nugget and ate it.
Wayne’s stomach lurched in disgust. This golden boulder was covered with similar marks, just like the big nuggets at the Gold Ball. He’d always wondered about the marks. The longer they stayed down here, the greater their chances for catching dragon pox grew. Oh god, he did not want to be down here one minute longer than absolutely necessary.
He turned to Nevers. “If you and Lyle want to risk catching the pox to stay down here and dig that nugget out, you’ve got my blessing. I’ll take the crates and go.”
“Like hell you will.” The mandragon leapt at him, but Nevers used the butt of his gun to knock him back. “This is not your gold; it’s mine.”
“You don’t get a vote here, Harkness.” Wayne took his gun back from Nevers. “The way I see it, you can keep quiet and stay out of my way or I’ll just shoot you now and let you rot down here where you belong. You’re nothing but animals, the both of you.” He glanced at his men. “You guys coming? No amount of gold is worth risking the pox for. There’s more than enough in those crates for each of us.” He nodded toward the mandragon and Paul. “Is that how you want to end up?”
“Wait,” Lyle said. “There’s a hot spring in the main cavern. We can use the water to dissolve this crap.” He poured water from his water skin over the nugget and pawed the mud away from the edges. “See? We’ve got other skins we can fill from the spring; once the water penetrates the dirt around that thing, it’ll pop right out. Take us a day, at most.”
Wayne wiped his sweaty face. Lyle was a pretty smart guy. With the three of them working, it probably wouldn’t take long at all.
The mandragon made a rasping sound deep in his throat. Wayne realized it as laughter.
“What’s so funny?”
“You can’t work while the craggon’s here.”
“Ah shit, he’s right.” Lyle shrugged. “So, we’ll work around ‘im. Isn’t that what you do anyways?”
Wayne didn’t like Lyle making assumptions about what they were doing. It wasn’t right. He was the one in charge here, not Lyle. He made his decision.
“Do what you want. I’m taking those crates and leaving.”
The mandragon’s laughing croak sounded again. “Not so fast, big guy. Craggon’s coming.”
CHAPTER 33
K’Sati tripped and skidded on her hands to reach Renly’s club. The stonewood was heavier than it looked, and the handcuffs restricted her movement, but she scrambled to her feet, determined. She ran toward Corey’s back; the club raised over her head, ready to strike. Behind her, the blindfolded traggahs whistled a warning. Corey already had his gun out. Great stars, he was going to shoot Renly!
She swung the club at the back of his head with all her strength, but struck only a glancing blow off his shoulder. He grunted with the impact and the shot went wide.
Renly lowered his head and plowed into the man’s stomach. They rolled in the dirt, but handcuffed as he was, Renly was no match for the bigger man. She brought the club down into the middle of Corey’s back with everything she had.
Corey grunted and his whole body stiffened into a spasm. He dropped the gun
Renly shouted at her, “Go, K’Sati! Get out of here!” He squirmed out from beneath Corey’s dazed form.
But she would not leave without him. As she raised the club to strike Corey again, a large shadow passed overhead. Instinctively, she ducked; then froze.
In a whoosh of air, a yellow craggon landed in the middle of the camp its attention riveted on Corey, as he convulsed helplessly in the dirt. She tossed the club toward Renly, then raced to the blindfolded traggahs. She had to free them. She opened the gate and reached for Silverbeard’s reins. In a single motion, she slipped off the bridle and whipped off his blindfold. The traggah bucked once at the sight of the craggon, then laid his ears back and took off at a dead run.
The craggon already had Corey trapped beneath one claw. It made a half-hearted snap at the traggah as he raced by, but was more interested Corey. And Renly.
K’Sati stood frozen, staring at the huge winged monster, helpless to do anything. Each one of its deadly curved black talons was as big as her whole hand. With Corey in one claw, the craggon hopped at Renly, who scrabbled away in the dirt, trying to reach the gun. She remembered craggons were carrion-eaters, but this one looked keen on killing both men.
Finally, Renly got his hands on the gun. He tried to run, but the craggon managed to snag the strap of his heavy pack in its claw. Renly was dragged off his feet, unable to flee. As the huge beast snaked in to deliver a killing bite, Renly fired a shot directly at the craggon’s face.
The bullet glanced off the craggon’s thick scales.
Another craggon screamed from close by, galvanizing her to action. Fueled by adrenaline and fear, she slipped the blindfold off Neatfoot and swun
g herself up onto the mare’s back in a smooth motion. She grabbed a handful of mane, and dug her heels into the Neatfoot’s side.
Two more shots rang out; this time the yellow craggon bellowed in pain and anger as loud as anything she’d ever heard in her life. Neatfoot whistled in terror, and they raced away. Her last glimpse of the camp showed a second craggon landing beside the big yellow, blocking her view of Renly.
CHAPTER 34
The mandragon’s jaws widened. “Prepare yourselves, boys. We are about to have company.”
“Yeah, right,” Wayne smirked. “I don’t hear a thing.” This guy was nothing like that wimp brother of his. He’d seen other mandragons before, but always made sure he kept his distance. This creature’s frozen expression made him impossible to read, but he had a crafty gleam in his eye. He would have already figured out what they were planning to do to him and his little junkie pal.
“Oh, right. I keep forgetting how bad human hearing is. Somebody upstairs just fired a shot.” He cocked his head for a moment, as if listening.
“Shut your trap.” But he tightened his grip on his the handle of his holstered gun. Nobody ever told him mandragons had better hearing than Terrans. He was pretty sure this guy was playing them for fools, but not absolutely certain.
“Craggons are very territorial, you know. She will hunt and eat anything down here that doesn’t smell like craggon.” The croaking laugh sounded again. “You’re welcome to help yourself to all the mouthfuls of dirt you want. Of course, it takes a few days for the pox to take hold and cover that Earth stink you’re wearing.”
Wayne wiped the sweat off his face. The humidity in this stinkhole was getting to him. And this unnatural creature’s smart mouth gave him the creeps. Like talking to a damned animal!