by J. Stone
“Fine.” Lockhart pointed off in the distance. “I saw a d-doctor’s office on the w-way in. M-maybe we can find something there.”
***
Lockhart and Wynonna found the town doctor hiding similarly to how they’d found the barber. Upon convincing her that the threat was over, she managed to stitch the two of them up and pull all of the chunks from Lockhart’s back. The haggard vespari didn’t want to linger in Columbia longer than they had to though, so as soon as the doctor finished with them, they set out for the Howling Gorge.
He knew he didn’t have much time to waste, as the mark was wearing him down more and more with every passing day. He wasn’t done yet though. Even if not for the fortune teller’s prophecy prompting him to hurry, he knew he had to keep going.
Luckily, the Howling Gorge wasn’t very far from the silver mining city. Only about a day’s journey if they moved quickly. From Columbia, the pair traveled east. As the sun dipped down behind them and night overcame the desert, a chill frost took the place of the scorching day. They could see their breaths form before their eyes, and when the sun had completely vanished, a snow started to fall. It melted immediately upon hitting the sands and the cracked dirt, but it made navigating all the harder.
Feeling especially thin from the mark, Lockhart refused to stop for the night. Wynonna said nothing to dissuade him from this endeavor. He suspected she felt bad about what she’d done, even if she couldn’t admit it to him. So, they continued through the snow, ignoring the cold, ignoring their exhaustion, and largely ignoring one another. They would finish what they’d set out to do, even if it killed them.
Through the night, Lockhart felt himself grow somewhat envious that Wynonna had been the one to kill the revenant. Because she had the tattoos now, she had been able to collect the Gentleman’s energy in those inky runes. Her tolerance to pain and discomfort had to be making her wounds negligible, and she was likely having an easier time in the cold of the snow too. She also probably had more energy in general, not yet needing sleep, but he refused to slow down either. He’d come this far, he was going to keep moving until his last breath.
Chattering teeth, numb fingers, and only a vague sense that they were heading in the right direction, they kept moving until morning. Light shone in their faces as the sun crept over the horizon. As it did so, they caught sight of it. The Howling Gorge. The sun rose through the two outcroppings of earth that years of a river’s streaming water had split. As they moved closer, they heard the wind screeching in piercing tones, which was what gave the gorge its name. Wherever the beldam hid, they were near.
When the light rose to a high enough point to make out the whole of the gorge, they paused to search either side for caves where the beldams might be hiding. The monstrous women seemed to prefer natural structures such as those if his experience was anything to go by. That’s where he’d first met them, and that’s where the dreamscape had always taken him. Besides, he saw no buildings anywhere in the area that they might’ve been occupying.
“Where do you think they are?” Wynonna asked.
Lockhart studied the horizon, searching for a sign of the beldams. A faint light flickered in the distance. He pointed toward it.
“There,” he told her.
Wynonna squinted, holding her hand against her forehead to block the light of the rising sun. “You sure?”
Lockhart nodded. “It’s them.”
She didn’t question him any further, and the pair kept moving, but each step made the vespari more nervous. Killing beldams under the best of circumstances was difficult. This was not that. There were four of them in total, he only had six bullets left, and Wynonna didn’t even have a gun. The odds were stacked against them.
Lockhart did wonder if the coven had changed any since his last encounter with them though. Petronila had finally revealed herself and her scheming to an extent. She and Alviva had come to blows, so it was possible that he would be walking into a slightly different environment than he had experienced thus far. Whether this would be good or bad, he didn’t know.
All he knew for certain was that one way or another the beldams had to die. He’d related everything to Wynonna on how to kill them should anything happen to him. She knew that the runes carved into it changed the water in his canteen, and she had done the same to her own canteen. He hoped this would be enough.
Given the fortune teller’s message about his death, he was more worried than he normally would’ve been. Despite that, he refused to give up or back down. Stubborn and unrelenting to the end, he wouldn’t go out without a fight. He would do everything in his power to kill the beldams before they could harm a single other innocent person.
He’d sworn on Levi’s grave all those years ago that he would not allow evil things to prey on those who could not defend themselves. He had not always succeeded in this endeavor, but allowing these vile creatures to escape would be his greatest failure. Arriving at the cave entrance, he once again renewed his commitment to this vow.
Lockhart stopped there, examining the light he’d seen at a distance. It was a reflection off the rock wall, and it was similar to the magically manifested lights he’d seen back in the beldam’s first cave. This was indeed the place.
“So, what’s the plan?” Wynonna asked him.
Lockhart leaned down and retrieved the knife from his boot. “Here,” he said, handing it to her. “You’ll n-need this.”
His apprentice took the weapon and gripped its handle tightly in her hand. “Will this slow them down much?”
He nodded. “The runes w-will burn them, but th-they’ll fight it. If you st-stick ‘em, don’t linger. Pour the w-water as s-s-soon as you can.”
Wynonna grabbed her canteen, twisted the lid off, and checked the water she had in it. “Anything else?”
Lockhart pulled out his silver and pearl revolver, checked the ammo, and then checked his canteen as well, storing it back in his duster pocket when he found it looked good. “We stick t-t-together. We’re stronger a-as a team.”
His apprentice looked down at the ground. “Cory, I--”
“Let’s go,” he told her, cutting her off.
Wynonna didn’t try to say anything further, as he entered the cave. She simply followed and tried to stay quiet just as he himself did, so that they would not alert the beldams. Immediately upon entering the cave, however, Lockhart could hear screaming. Though he couldn’t make out what they said, he knew the voices. Petronila and Alviva. Just like in the dreamscape, they were fighting. He decided it would serve as an excellent distraction, but that still left Estrild and Mabilia.
Lockhart didn’t have to wait long to find the former of that pair. A flood of foul, sweet, and rotten odors assaulted his nose all at once, and it was all he could do to not vomit in response. He clutched his mouth and nose both in attempt to suppress the smell, but it was hardly effective.
Venturing forward into a wider portion of the cave, he found the source of the terrible odor. This was where the beldams had stored and discarded some of their kills. Mostly local wildlife, but he also spotted some higher forms of monsters in the mix. At least they’d done him the favor of taking the creatures out. Unfortunately, several human bodies sat discarded with the rest. He swore that they would be the beldams’ last victims.
It was here in this foul room that Lockhart found Estrild. Gripping a severed leg and taking chunk-sized bites out of it, she paced back and forth in the room, talking to herself in shrill whispers. She looked more wild and frantic than he’d ever seen her before, and she hadn’t taken notice of them yet, so Lockhart ducked down behind a particularly disgusting pile of rotting meat. Wynonna ducked down beside him, pinching her nostrils closed. Given her facial expression, the revenant's pain suppression didn’t help against bad smells. She remained quiet though, so they could both attempt to hear what Estrild was saying.
“Stupid! Weak!” she repeated, hitting herself over the head with the haunch in her hand. After taking another bite, she tur
ned around and continued, “Can’t leave. Can’t stay. Dangerous! Vespari still alive. Still angry. Alviva angry too. And Petronila. All angry. Don’t be involved. Be ignored. Stay out! Need to leave. Can’t stay. They fight. No time to fight! Need to leave.”
Estrild went on in this way, repeating the same series of things, hitting herself with the meat, and then taking bites out of it. Clearly, the fight that had started in the dreamscape had continued on, with the two beldams presumably fighting for dominance of the coven. The other two had stayed out of it, but Lockhart saw no sign of Mabilia. He would have to keep an eye peeled for her.
Given that Estrild was alone in this room, it was the perfect opportunity to take her out without worrying about the other beldams. Lockhart gestured for Wynonna to follow him out there, and as Estrild turned away from them in her pacing, they both stood and walked through the meat and bones toward the beldam, avoiding making a noise. Along the way, Lockhart grabbed his canteen and removed the lid.
He turned around to Wynonna, indicating for her to use the blade on Estrild. His apprentice nodded and held the blade out in front of her, as they approached the beldam. When Lockhart turned back to face Estrild, however, the beldam did the same. Her eyes bulged, and she shrieked, waving her hands up in the air.
Wynonna wasted no time though. She stepped forward and plunged the knife into the squat beldam’s neck. Estrild started to shiver, and the wound in her neck forced several disturbing guttural sounds to emanate from her. Before the beldam could try to cast any spells or escape from the blade, Lockhart splashed a bit of the water from his canteen into her face, dripping down into the wound.
Immediately, Estrild’s greasy skin began to change. A blackish necrosis with flecks of red spread over her where the water had landed. As Wynonna pulled the knife out from Estrild’s neck, the necrosis seeped inside the wound as well and started to devour her from the inside. The beldam screamed, the shrill sound echoing throughout the cave. There went their element of surprise.
Lockhart restored his canteen’s lid and shoved it back in his pocket, as Wynonna kicked Estrild back into a pile of the discarded offal of their kills. The necrosis now completely encased the beldam’s skin, and her body started to split into chunks. Behind them, Lockhart heard a loud stomping, and the bickering of Petronila and Alviva seemed to have stopped entirely. The other beldams were coming for them.
The enormous and monstrously strong Mabilia was the first. She took a quick look around the room, spotting Estrild’s body behind them. She clenched her remaining hand into a fist.
“Estrild!” she shouted. “You will pay, vespari!”
Mabilia leaned down, grabbed a handful of the discarded body parts, and hurled them across the room at a frightening speed. Lockhart managed to move from their path, but Wynonna was not as lucky. The disgusting meat and bones hit her and knocked her back into another pile of the rotten and festering body parts. Lockhart lost sight of her under the gore and refuse, but he assumed she would survive. Mabilia was the more pressing concern.
He raised his revolver at the beldam and fired. Two shots. Both lodged in her chest. Mabilia, however, charged at Lockhart, ignoring the bullets, and she knocked him away with the back of her hand, into the cavern’s rocky walls. He hit them hard and landed with a thud on the ground. The impact caused him to drop his revolver and completely lose sight of it in the disgusting body parts. Mabilia didn’t give him much time to react anyway, as she grabbed him with her one remaining hand and squeezed him in her fist.
“I will crush you, little man!” she spat. “You took my hand! I will take your life!”
Lockhart tried to wiggle enough to grab his canteen from his pocket. Mabilia only squeezed all the harder and laughed. She tightened her fingers so hard that he felt his ribs start to crack in his chest.
“You won’t be saved this time!” she shouted. “The others aren’t here to stop me.” Mabilia raised up her handless arm to show the injury to him. “Look what you did to me! I will make you suffer for this before you die!”
As Mabilia dropped her stump of an arm back to her side, Wynonna appeared and pressed the blade of the knife directly into the still healing wound. The enormous beldam screamed, flinging Lockhart across the cave and breaking one of his arms in the tumble. Wynonna held firm, however, still gripping the handle of the knife and somehow keeping Mabilia from throwing her aside.
The beldam raised up her freed arm, preparing it to come down on Wynonna. Lockhart’s apprentice was too quick for her though. She had her canteen ready, and she splashed the beldam with it. Unfortunately, the water only landed on one of Mabilia’s legs. Not enough to kill her as there were no wounds there, but the beldam felt the pain.
Mabilia reared back, dislodging the knife from her hand’s stump, and she flailed around. Again, the beldam knocked Wynonna away, but the hit was incidental, not doing as much damage as it could’ve. The water had made her wild. Feral and almost like their wraith counterpart. If they didn’t kill her soon, she was going to be too dangerous to deal with.
Lockhart surveyed the room, searching it for his revolver. The silver of the weapon glinted, catching his eye. It wasn’t near, but he could still get to it. Rolling to his side, the vespari then managed to get to his feet. Severely wounded by the beldam’s attacks, he collapsed immediately, but he pushed through the pain and exhaustion.
He fell and stumbled just before reaching the gun. He landed wrong on his broken arm, sending a jolt of pain through his whole body. Squelching a scream, Lockhart instead channeled it and forced himself to crawl forward. Gripping the gun in his hand, he twisted around to face Mabilia.
The beldam had overcome her own pain and was running toward him once more. Lockhart aimed the revolver at her head but then thought better of it. He dropped his aim down toward her leg where the water and the forming black and red necrosis still resided. He fired a third bullet into her thigh and watched as the necrosis seeped inside her as well.
Mabilia fell and slid forward, stopping only a few feet away from him. She wasn’t dead yet though, and she wasn’t done. The beldam flailed her arm toward him, as the necrosis raced up the limb. She reached forward and grasped at his legs, but Lockhart managed to squirm away and kick her huge arms, blocking himself from falling into her clutches once again. She continued to reach, but with each attempt, her arm grew weaker and the necrosis grew in size until it covered her whole body, just as it had done to Estrild.
Her body finally came to a stop, and Lockhart took a few deep breaths. Giving him no reprieve, however, Alviva and Petronila both appeared next. They glared at one another, clearly sharing no concern for the other, but they put aside their differences in that moment to deal with the vespari in their home.
Lockhart forced himself to his feet, leaning his shoulder against the wall. Two beldams down; two to go. Three runed bullets left. One arm broken. Ribs cracked and grating against each breath. And Wynonna still hadn’t recovered from Mabilia’s last hit. He found himself alone against two angry beldams. The other two hadn’t relied on their dark sorcery; he didn’t expect the other two would follow this pattern. That said, he didn’t think they would resort to it so quickly either.
Proving him wrong, Petronila clenched her hand into a fist, causing it to erupt in a dark blue light, shining almost like metallic sapphires. Lockhart felt his life drain out from him. He became light headed, and he dropped to his knees. His eyes drooped, and he felt himself partially fade into the dream, which they continued to use against him. He felt stuck somewhere between the two though. He could still see and hear what was going on in the real world, but the draining feeling of that dreamscape plagued him.
“Kill him now!” Alviva demanded of Petronila. “He must die!”
The slender beldam continued to clutch her hand into a fist, and the blue energy seeped directly out of the tattoos on Lockhart’s chest. This energy looked similar to the smoke wafting from a flame, except it didn’t simply rise. Petronila dragged the smoke-like
energy from Lockhart, funneling it back to herself.
“What are you doing?” Alviva demanded of the slender beldam.
“His power will be mine!” Petronila hissed.
“I lead this coven! Not you! I gave you an order! Kill him!”
Petronila released her hand, as the metallic blue energy dissipated. “Enough!” she shouted. “I have had enough of you!”
She rose up to her full height once again and slashed her longer fingers at Alviva. The fat beldam roared in pain and then charged wildly at Petronila. The slender beldam clenched her fist once more, but this time a metallic orange fire erupted. When she opened her palm and aimed it at Alviva, a flame exploded forth, searing her whole body. Covered in flames, Alviva rolled around in the discarded body parts, attempting to put out the fires.
Her chief rival dealt with, Petronila returned her focus to Lockhart. She clutched her hand once more, forcing the metallic blue energy to seep forth from him and into her hand. She closed her eyes and smiled, drooping her shoulders into a relaxed position.
“Ah,” she said in an almost soothing voice. “Mabilia. There you are.”
Lockhart felt more energy drain out of him. This time, it was a large chunk.
“He didn’t even get to enjoy your power, did he?” Petronila said to what Lockhart presumed was Mabilia’s energy seeping out of him. The beldam was right. With the Caustic Brand staining his chest, he wasn’t able to tap into the power he inherited from Mabilia when he killed her. In the case of the beldam, that would have meant resistance to spells for a brief time. It would have proved useful in that moment, as the energy continued to seep from him. He wasn’t sure how many monsters were left stored in those tattoos, but based on the expression on Petronila’s face, she wasn’t finding what she wanted.
“Where is she?” the beldam asked, opening her eyes.
“What?” Lockhart asked back.
“Where is Estrild?” Petronila shouted. “I need more!”
