Lockhart's Legacy (Vespari Lockhart Book 1)

by J. Stone

  Wynonna set off north, and Lockhart slowly stumbled on after her.

  “Good luck to you,” the old hermit called after them.

  Lockhart nodded again, though Wynonna didn’t even look back. Polite was not a trait he would’ve applied to her. Focused was. That might make her a good vespari in time, but her fixation might also get the both of them killed if she didn’t learn to get a proper perspective. It would be something he’d have to watch out for.

  As they walked, Lockhart’s mind drifted to the Caustic Brand. With each passing day, he wondered whether he would kill the beldams in time. If not, he wanted to be certain that Wynonna would be alright without him. He knew he needed to start making preparations should the worst come to pass. She’d been reading his journal, examining his drawings, and taking in his notes every time they camped. She was already a good shot. She might even be better than him. In truth, the biggest thing she needed to work on was her attitude.

  Wynonna was headstrong. Independent. Not terrible traits, but she didn’t have the experience to yet deserve them. He suspected she had only gotten lucky with the dracmoloch. It had been her first test, and though she passed, Lockhart wasn’t yet convinced.

  Seeing her react to the ghoulish versions of her family, he saw that her emotions still ran deep. He wondered what Wynonna would sacrifice to get the revenge she wanted. The Gentleman had wounded her deeper than he himself had ever hurt. Losing Levi all those years ago had similarly prompted him into this life, but he’d long ago left that frustration and rage. He’d transformed his anger into a desire to protect anyone and everyone he could. Wynonna had found no outlet for her fury.

  It would consume them both if it she allowed it to fester, but Lockhart had no idea how to help her with it. All he could think to do was teach her to harness it and direct it toward saving lives, one monster at a time. He hoped that he could hurry and find the beldams, so he could devote more time to that effort. He would have to wait and see what Layton had in store for them.

  ***

  The town looked empty. No one moved from one building to another. The structures weren’t in good condition either. Something had battered many of them, and their frames were one of the last remaining components. The roofs had largely collapsed, the windows had all been shattered, and the doors were off their hinges.

  “I’m guessing this isn’t how this place is supposed to look,” Wynonna said.

  “Mm,” Lockhart muttered, his hand hovering over the grip of his revolver.

  “What do you think did all--”

  Before Wynonna could finish the sentence, a loud crunch sounded from further inside the town. They both saw an enormous hand reach up over a roof and grab part of one of the structures. The hand pried the chunk of the building loose and disappeared behind it once again.

  “Uh…” Wynonna muttered.

  “Shh,” Lockhart told her, grabbing her arm and pulling her toward one of the dilapidated buildings.

  Another loud sound thundered in the town. A quaking of the ground accompanied this one. Footsteps. The creature, whatever it was, stomped through the town, nearing them.

  “I smell you!” a voice growled. He didn’t recognize it. Not a beldam.

  “Smell good!” a shriller one shrieked. “Eat you!”

  Wynonna just looked at Lockhart, who raised his finger over his lips to keep her quiet. They both just stared at each other, trying to be as silent as possible. She shrugged her shoulders up at him when nothing more happened, but the silence didn’t last. A thunderous blast erupted behind them, and part of the building that they’d been hiding behind exploded out in a burst of wooden shrapnel. They were lucky to avoid the blast, but Lockhart didn’t linger on that. The vespari grabbed Wynonna and tugged her away, just as a hand the size of his entire body slapped down where she’d been.

  “You the ones!” the shrill voice screeched.

  “Get ‘em, dummy,” the other voice shouted.

  Lockhart looked up to see the two heads that the voices came from sat on the same body. An ettin. A monstrous creature with two heads and multiple arms. This one had three total with two on one side and one on the other. Instinctively, Lockhart raised his revolver up and fired a shot, but the ettin managed to block it inadvertently. In two of the ettin’s hands, it held a cannon. Wielding it like it was a simple gun, the creature had raised it just in time to stop and deflect the shot. The ringing sound of the bullet hitting the metal was enough to make one of the heads shriek and conceal its face behind the cannon, and Lockhart took that as a good enough opportunity to pull Wynonna away and flee from the ettin. They didn’t stop until they’d passed around behind another building, using it as a source of cover.

  “What was that thing?” Wynonna asked through heavy pants.

  Lockhart took a deep breath and replied, “Ettin.”

  “I’ve never even heard of that! How have I not heard of that? It’s huge! And it’s using a damn cannon like it’s a pistol!”

  “Th-th-that it is.”

  “So, why haven’t I heard of it?”

  “They’re all s-supposed to be d-d-dead.”

  “Well, it clearly ain’t dead, Cory.”

  A blast exploded on the other side of the building they were using as cover. Lockhart gritted his teeth, grabbed Wynonna, and forced her to the ground. Just as they both hit the dirt, bits of wood and other debris flew past their heads.

  Once the explosion was finished, Wynonna lifted her head and looked her mentor in the eye. “A cannon, Cory! Why does he have an actual cannon?”

  “Can’t s-s-say,” he replied, edging around the side of the building to get a glimpse of the ettin.

  He could see the two-headed creature reloading its cannon with whatever junk it could find. In this case, that happened to be the smashed parts of what looked to have once been a livery stable. One head focused on the task with two of its hands, while the other head glared at his counterpart. Its free and final hand waved for the other head to hurry with its task.

  “Come on,” he said to his other half in his deep, booming voice. “They still squirming. Reload more fastly!”

  “I work fastly as can,” the head replied in its quick, shrill voice. “They try shoots us!”

  “That’s why we shoots thems first.”

  “You so smart,” the other one said with an odd little smile.

  “Load, dummy!”

  The shrill counterpart of the ettin finished loading the weapon and then lowered the cannon toward them. Seeing what was coming, Lockhart waved Wynonna back. They both ran to the next building, as the cannon fired, destroying their previous cover almost entirely. Only the brick fireplace remained, and had they been there, they wouldn’t have been so lucky.

  “We waits here for yous,” the deep voiced head announced. “Pretty ladies brings us here. Pretty ladies says theys rewards us for shootsing yous.”

  “Big reward! Big meal!” the shrill one squawked. “Bet you taste good!”

  “I get first bite,” the other shouted.

  “The beldams?” Wynonna asked as the ettin argued with itself. “Not exactly pretty judging by your drawings, but…”

  Lockhart nodded. “Has to b-be.”

  “So, they left it here for you,” she muttered. “Somehow… Fine. Doesn’t matter. How do we kill this thing?”

  The vespari raised his pistol. “Ettins aren’t too s-s-special. Just need to lodge a bullet in e-each of its brains.”

  Wynonna nodded and gripped her rifle. He wasn’t sure how much ammunition she had, but after his last shot, he was down to four bullets. Thankfully, Wynonna had finished carving into the final bullet, because he was sure he was going to need it. He’d never taken down an ettin before, but he’d heard tales. His master had been responsible for one of the last recorded kills of their kind, and he’d told the story constantly. Lockhart wasn’t interested in a story. He just wanted to survive the experience.

  “We should split up,” Wynonna told him. “We’re at a
big disadvantage with that cannon of theirs.”

  “Agreed,” Lockhart replied. “I’ll t-try to draw its fire. You find a place and take the sh-sh-shots.”

  His apprentice smiled and nodded. “Right. I can do that.”

  Wynonna seemed far too excited, but he supposed her reaction didn’t much matter. Lockhart waved for her to go one direction, while he turned and headed in the opposite. As the vespari darted across the gap between the destroyed buildings, he made sure to pause long enough for the ettin to catch sight of him.

  “I see yous!” the loud head roared. “Reload next shot, dummy!”

  Cannonballs for the ettin to use in its weapon didn’t exactly line Layton’s streets, and as such, the monstrous creature used whatever it could get its hands on. The bits of debris from the buildings it destroyed sufficed in this instance. The side with two arms held the cannon and worked to stuff the opening with the other, while the hand on the opposite side handled the black powder that they kept in a pouch.

  Lockhart continued around the next building, trying to find a location where a bombardment would be less disastrous. He wasn’t flush with options, but he did find one location that he thought would suffice. Before the ettin devastated the town, Layton had a sheriff, and his office was still mostly in one piece. Lockhart assumed that there had to be some semblance of cages inside. Whether they would hold up to the blast of the cannon, he wasn’t sure, but it seemed his best hope. Just as the ettin finished preparing the cannon, Lockhart ducked behind the sheriff’s office.

  “Yous no hide from us,” the loud ettin told him. “We breaks weak buildings.”

  “Break and smash!” the shrill one echoed.

  “Shut up, dummy. Shoot!”

  Lockhart braced himself for the explosion of the cannon, but it didn’t come. Instead, Wynonna’s rifle fired, followed by a terrible scream. Lockhart gripped his revolver and peeked out to see whether his apprentice had succeeded in hitting one of the ettin’s heads. The creature wailed and flailed about, but half of its body was somewhat limp. The two arms still gripped the cannon, but the third arm fell down its side, dropping the pouch of black powder, and the limb swung there as the ettin moved back and forth in the street. That side’s foot dragged through the dirt, only half lifting along with the other. The head on this side fell over to its shoulder, its tongue hanging out, and a bloody hole square between its eyes. Wynonna did have good aim; that was for sure.

  The problem was that with how the ettin was moving now, it was going to be even harder to get that second shot. Lockhart didn’t know where Wynonna had chosen for her firing position, but the ettin seemed to find her just fine. Rage in its eyes, it turned toward a specific spot and hurled the cannon rather than firing it.

  “Snap bones! Rip flesh! Chew meat!” the shrill and only remaining head screeched. “I make pay! Yous die!”

  The whole cannon landed in one of the dilapidated structures of the town, and the ettin wasted no time. It charged toward this spot, as the building collapsed down on where Lockhart assumed Wynonna had to be. She’d be at the creature’s mercy. He needed to intervene before the ettin got to her.

  The vespari moved out from behind the sheriff’s office and toward the monster. He aimed his revolver up at the ettin and fired. The bullet lodged in the creature’s abdomen, but it kept moving. Lockhart fired another shot, intending to hit the ettin in the head, but its flailing arm managed to absorb the runed bullet. The ettin wailed but continued forward all the same.

  Snot slopped from its nose and tears dripped from its eyes as it charged. The pain of its other half being dead was clearly affecting the ettin, and it would take more than a bullet in its arm to slow it down. Lockhart only had two shots left. Hitting the head seemed a difficult task with the ettin moving so erratically, so the vespari decided to focus on another target.

  Lowering the revolver, Lockhart fired one of his two last remaining bullets into the ettin’s good leg. Finally, the creature stumbled and fell to the ground. Its attention diverted immediately to Lockhart. The vespari stepped out in front of the building where Wynonna was and then kept moving away from it. If she was still alive in there, he had to give her as much time as possible to recover. That meant moving the creature away from her.

  “Crush yous!” the ettin’s shrieking head shouted at him, as it got to its feet and ran after him.

  Despite the creature’s injured leg and its other partially dead leg, the ettin moved faster than him. Realizing this, he whipped his revolver around, intending to fire his last remaining shot. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quick enough. The ettin grabbed Lockhart in its two good arms, constricting him in a vice like grip.

  Before the monster could follow through with its threat to crush him, Lockhart squeezed his arm free and aimed his revolver toward the ettin’s last remaining head. Seeing this, the creature released him just as he fired, causing the bullet to instead lodge inside the ettin’s shoulder. He was out of bullets, but at least the monster no longer had a grip on him. He stumbled to the ground and fell backward, looking up at the ettin, fearing it would use those enormous legs and feet to stomp the life from his body.

  “Hey, ugly!” Wynonna shouted.

  Both Lockhart and the ettin looked to her, finding that she had indeed survived the collapse of the building and made her way out, but she had also found the cannon. Much too heavy to use like the ettin had, she had still found a use for it. She’d balanced it on a still standing portion of the building, aiming it square at the ettin. Lockhart knew exactly what she intended, and he had to get away from the creature before she did it.

  Wynonna struck a match against her jeans and set off the cannon. As she did, Lockhart scurried away, avoiding the myriad bits of wood and metal that the ettin had shoved inside the cannon. The vespari shielded his face, and only once the explosion had subsided and the smoke had dissipated did he turn to see the monster stumble, mutter something incoherent, and then fall, sending a blast of dirt into the air.

  “Got him,” Wynonna said with a little laugh, wiping the beads of sweat from her forehead. “Ha! I just killed an ettin. Wild.”

  ***

  “Are y-you alright?” Lockhart asked, standing up and moving to Wynonna.

  “I’m fine,” she said. She nodded to the ground. “But, I’m out of matches. Plus, my rifle’s ruined.”

  The vespari looked down to his own weapon and then stowed the revolver back in its holster. “I’m out t-too.”

  Wynonna stepped out of the rubble, past the cannon, and into the street. She kept going, moving toward the ettin’s fallen body. “He really dead?” she asked.

  Lockhart joined her in looking down at the monstrous creature. The ettin had dozens of metal and wooden bits sticking from its body. One protruded from the higher pitched head.

  “I think h-he’s done,” he told her.

  “Good,” she said. “Cause I need a break.”

  Wynonna raised a hand to her forehead to block the light of the sun and surveyed the town. The ettin had pretty well destroyed most of it, but she found one building, which still stood well enough. She headed toward it, and Lockhart followed along after her, just as in need of rest as her, if not more so.

  The two of them entered what had to have been an inn at one time. The only room they could really get to without too much trouble was a little dining room, which suited their purposes just fine. Wynonna found a couch and flopped down on its soft blue cushions, leaning her head back against the wall behind her. Lockhart followed suit, finding a wooden chair. He dropped his bag on the floor along the way and slumped into the chair, eliciting a creak as he did.

  After a few minutes of silence, Wynonna raised her head and looked at Lockhart. “So, these beldams of yours sent an ettin after you.”

  “Yes,” he replied.

  “Think that means we’re getting close?”

  “Could b-be.”

  “And now we’re out of bullets.”

  Lockhart just nodded.


  “How do you expect to take them out then?”

  “Can s-scavenge the town,” the vespari suggested. “Otherwise, h-h-have to find another town. Another m-merchant.”

  “You have many silver rounds left?”

  Lockhart shook his head.

  “Why am I not surprised?” She paused a moment before continuing. “And you’re weak. Getting weaker.”

  He examined her. She had a point to make, but he wasn’t sure what it was. “And?”

  “And, when do I get my tattoos? I think that the ettin proved I’ve earned them. Especially with this hex of yours. Until we can find the beldams and remove it, you’re only going to get weaker. I need to be stronger to make up for it.”

  “I know.”

  “I need the tattoos. You said they’d make me stronger.”

  “I know,” he repeated.

  “Then, you’ll give them to me?”

  Lockhart paused, took a deep breath, and replied, “Y-y-yes.”

  “Finally,” she said with a grin. “When do we start?”

  The vespari nodded toward his things. “Bag.”

  Wynonna hopped up from the couch, walked over, and grabbed Lockhart’s bag for him, bringing it back to him. “What now?”

  Lockhart looked through his things and pulled out a needle. From a pocket in his duster, he also grabbed a bottle of ink. “We begin.” Uncorking the bottle, he continued, “You know th-th-they’re going to have to b-b-be on your--”

  Lockhart looked back up to see that Wynonna was fully aware where the tattoos went. She had already taken off her poncho and shirt and stood there with her hands on her hips, bare chested, breasts and all.

  “I know where they go,” she said, sitting down in front of him. “I’m not shy. Let’s do this.”

  Wynonna pulled over a chair, sat down, and edged up to him, while he dipped the needle into the ink. He then placed the bottle down and prepared to start. Knowing he would have to press his hand against her skin to hold her still, he wasn’t sure where to begin, and flustered by seeing his apprentice exposed like this, he waivered.