Page 79 of Trickster King

“Roughly two thousand dollars, Your Majesty.”

“And there’s sixteen ounces to a pound?”

“That’s correct.”

“And he’s pulled out numerous pounds of gold?”

“We estimate he found at least twenty five pounds worth of nuggets, Your Majesty. He couldn’t take a step without spotting something. We’re going to be testing him for a latent earthweaving talent. The earthweaver I asked indicated the collapses may have revealed a vein, and it’s quite possible to pull hundreds of pounds of gold out of a vein when it’s coming up in nuggets like this. It’s possible that the gold was seed gold from the first magic waves of this era.”

“Seed gold?” I asked. “What’s that?”

“There would have been smaller nuggets or flakes of gold in the area, and the surge of magic made them grow. It’s called seed gold because the gold grows like a germinated seed. Your samples are being tested to see if it’s seed gold or purely natural. Seed gold has higher value because it was only made during the magic waves before the war,” Randy explained. “Seed gold is worth five to ten thousand an ounce, depending on the strength of magic imbuing the gold.”

How interesting. I hadn’t realized the surges of magic had changed even things like gold. “What are the rules for finding gold in Texas?”

“If the owner of the land has not waived their finder’s fee, the landowner is to receive a quarter of the sales value as a finder’s fee,” Randy announced.

“Maybe I should change professions and become a miner, babe.”

“No,” my wife replied. “We’ll plan trips to come to the mine to help feed our grain guzzlers, but you are not playing in the mud without me—and definitely not when the mine is as dangerous as it is.”

“It sounds safer than dealing with nasty politicians every day,” I grumbled.

“He does make a good point, Your Majesty.”

“Don’t side with him, Randy,” my wife complained. “Also, please notify the RPS that we’re going to need someone to watch the kids tonight. My husband requires some loving care from me. We’re also going to need some two-player board games and a deck of cards.”

“Easily arranged, Your Majesty. I expect the children will be tired out from helping with the rescues. Eddie is going to insist.”

“Pat, you’ve created a monster. He’s going to be a sweet and loving monster, but you have created a monster. I don’t think Texas is ready for a clone of you but even worse.” My wife jabbed me with her elbow. “You ran off to corrupt our boy, didn’t you?”

“Honestly, I ran because I could, it seemed like a good idea, and the kids agreed to cooperate. It’s just a little corruption. We managed to instill compassion into him, and with that gelding’s fracture and his condition, if Eddie hadn’t been willing to do the work, I might have euthanized. Black Sand’s prognosis is better than I expected, though, but it was borderline. I’m going to end up spending my gold find on caring just for him.”

“But he’s a young horse, right?”

“Broken to saddle too early, but they corrected the spinal problems. Eddie should have Black Sand for a long time. He’s got a good color, too, so it’s a pity they gelded him.”

“I heard. Smokey black. I’ll look to see if his sire is still around, and if he’s associated with the illegal rodeo ring, I’ll see about adding him to our herds.”

“Don’t forget the mare.”

My wife chuckled. “I won’t forget about the mare. Anyway, I’ll be doing some work during the day while you’re working with your rescues. The physicians don’t want me handling horses with the fungal problem, and even being on a ranch at all is pushing their buttons. However, as we have live samples of the fungus, we’re making progress on getting it out of our fields. Have you had any infection symptoms?”

“Not a one. I’ve been keeping my inhalers with me.”

“Which reminds me. I have a new set because your old ones went for a swim. The physicians don’t trust them not to shoot spores into your lungs. They’re to be disposed of.”

“I wasn’t going to put those anywhere near my mouth after swimming in contaminated water,” I admitted. “Do you think Senator Padrino is going to forgive me for making him drive all this way to fetch my new cattle?”

“Considering he is already on route to his ranch to make sure he’s got the space for all the animals coming, I think you’ll be fine.” My wife nudged me with her elbow again. “Do you need to do more shopping to get it out of your system?”

“Outside of furniture for Eddie’s bedroom, I think I’m done shopping for a little while. Don’t tell the therapists this, but I feel a little dirty. I have had zero respect for money this week.”

“But it was for a good cause. You’ll get over it eventually.” Laughing, my wife checked her phone. “The RPS does not like your mine. They’re sending me their complaints. You have five hundred or so head of cattle, and judging from the brands, there are probably a bunch of stolen animals. There are also a lot of cattle without tags or brands, so they’ve been busy while unsupervised. They’ve spotted a herd of thirty or so horses, probably feral at this stage. I’ll delegate that nightmare to someone else. We’ll send the confirmed stolen animals back to their owners unless they refuse to pay the vetting fees. You can figure out what to do with the rest of them later.”

“As long as they let me dig in the dirt looking for more gold, they can hate the place all they want. I don’t want any animals kept there, though. I’ll repurpose it for something. Perhaps forested land? There’s certainly enough water to allow for a good stock of trees. We can turn it into a forest once we’ve identified where the veins of gold are at. We can have small dig sites among the trees. Once the ground is safe for horses, we can make it into a trail park for riding horses.”

My wife made a thoughtful sound. “A forested wildlife preserve might work. Randy, find someone to talk to an environmental group about the consequences of trying to set up a forest there.”

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