Rise of the Seventh Reich

by Jeremy Croston

  “My name is Maria and I’m Castor’s mother,” my mom introduced herself to Cassie.

  I’d never really seen the Irish witch at a loss for words, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she kind of gawked rudely while my mother continued speaking. “As I just told my son, this is my one chance to visit and protect. After this, my love and watchfulness will just be on the other side. I am just so glad I got to see you, my sonido.”

  Damnit, a tear trickled out of my eye. I tried rubbing it back but both ladies noticed. Thankfully, no one said anything and moved on. “Thank you for your help,” Cassie finally said.

  “Witch,” some of the kindness in her tone left. “You have caused a lot of conflict within Castor; conflict that in unnecessary.”

  “I never meant to hurt your son, ma’am.”

  “I know, that is why I am here. Though a mother’s intuition knows best, I am trusting Castor’s feelings when it comes to you. His inner spirit says you are worth fighting for, no matter how black you are tainted with,” my mother told her rather sternly.

  That last comment stung Cassie, that much was easy to tell. She didn’t fight back or deny anything and honestly, how could you? How could you hide what you were from a spirit who sees all on the other side?

  “Before I return, there are things I must share to help this journey. Castor,” she started with me. “You cannot be afraid of who and what you are. Your family, on your father’s side, is proud, honorable. Do not be afraid, my child. Be proud and embrace your beauties.”

  “Thanks, mama,” I said, returning to my Spanish side.

  “Cassie, my blood that runs through my son’s veins is special. With the right person, magic runs deep and can be used in combination. I am trusting you to be that person.”

  “How can I help?” Cassie asked.

  My mother left my side and went over to her. A few exchanges passed between the two of them, but they weren’t talking loud enough for me to hear. Something my mother said to Cassie didn’t seem to sit right, but she didn’t push. At the end, it seemed things were worked out, whether the resolution was the one either lady wanted. At least they were bringing me back into the fold.

  “Castor, it’s time for me to return home. One day, we will meet again and we will be able to live in harmony.”

  I couldn’t control my emotions. “Will I still be able to talk to Father and Luka?”

  “As you get older, those connections will lose their hold. Enjoy the time you have,” she explained.

  “No, you’re not allowed to go,” I declared, probably sounding very childish.

  My mom chuckled. “I don’t want to, my son. I have to, but I don’t want to.” She reached in and for just the briefest of moments, I was able to feel my mother give me a hug. It was the best feeling in the world.

  And just like that, Maria, my wonderful mother, was gone.

  “Are you okay, Castor?”

  “I need a few moments.”

  With that, I walked off into the woods with the moon high overhead, to gather my thoughts and try to put everything together.

  ****

  I’d lost my mother, again.

  I knew I was being stupid, she’d died a long time ago, but the fact that I could see her, talk to her, even get a motherly hug, the wound that I never had to really deal with reopened and left me in a place that I didn’t feel comfortable in. When Abigail and Julia told me about my family, it was when I was almost a teenager and, by that time, I was too tough to deal with emotions. Today was a totally different story.

  That didn’t even include my feelings on the fact Luka and my father would one day leave, too.

  My heart hurt.

  So many people ripped those who did nothing out of this world and had to pay no penalty for their crimes. It was in that moment I knew I’d never rest until those responsible within the church paid the price. Koenig, for all of his reprehensible ways, never pretended to be good. Not like the charlatans within the church who spoke of God and His word one day and then the next committed unspeakable acts of murder.

  Julia was hunting Pollard. As for the rest, they would be mine to find.

  “Castor, are you okay?”

  Cassie was back. “I’m fine,” I answered shortly.

  “Then why is your aura slowly shifting into a very dangerous red state?”

  My hate was weakening my natural defensives and the inner daemon was using that to break free. I had to calm myself down; deep breathes would do the trick. I just needed to focus; inhale and exhale. A few more times… inhale and then let it go.

  This was bad. I hadn’t even noticed that everything had a red hue to it until my sight returned to normal. I’d almost lost myself and I would’ve been helpless to stop it.

  “I need help,” I said quietly

  “Your mother told me how; I’ll do my best to protect you as she did.”

  I didn’t know what that entailed. “I’ll never understand magic, so I’ll leave that part to you.”

  “It’s not that easy,” she mumbled, but left it at that. “Everything’s that happened tonight, I feel we would be safer on the move.”

  “Everything okay?”

  “There are spirits that have been awoken by that display. For the time, let us not rely on my gifts and just use our God given skills,” Cassie instructed.

  Got it, no magic.

  That was a suggestion I could get behind. With the cabin in ruins, we did a quick search and grabbed anything that we’d be able to use and that was within reach. The fire that was bear had caused was still smoldering, but the temperature combined with the light snowfall was keeping that under control. We grabbed a couple of thick, fur coats and some dried food. Everything else was either destroyed or unattainable without the use of magic.

  We hiked through the forest and the uneven terrain until dawn. With the sun rising, a sense of peace could be felt; the night was where the evil lurked and with the light shining down, we’d be okay.

  Until the next night.

  We happened to stumble upon a little family set up about halfway through the morning. A set up of three houses, a barn, and a stable; it looked like a decent place to maybe stop and get some local hospitality. Unfortunately, when we got there, it seemed that whoever once claimed this as home vacated. There was an ominous feeling that whoever left hadn’t done so by free choice. The same evil we were trying to escape had already been here.

  “Something’s not right, Cassie.”

  “Maybe the Baal Bear had strayed this far south and pillaged…” she started. “No, none of the buildings showed damage. Something else in lingering; almost like an old, forgotten soul.”

  There were no signs of life. We entered the cluster of houses and tried to make the most of this little respite. I got out the dried meat and pulled up some water from the working well. It was cold and clean; a refreshing break we’d been given.

  As soon as I pulled the bucket out a second time, we were greeted by a not so friendly voice. “I vill give you two seconds to get out of my homestead.”

  The English was proper to go along with the Russian accent. The one who approached us was something else, too. A large, burly man with dark curly hair was walking with two young pines trees on his shoulder. His tunic was unbuttoned about halfway down with the dark hair fully covered on his exposed chest. Muscles littered his body from his biceps down to his legs. Whoever this was, he was not a normal mortal nor did he appear to be a potential ally.

  “Put down bucket and go,” he commanded.

  “We will not,” Cassie snapped back.

  Of course, the Baal Bear attacks and she freezes up. Old Grizzly Treelimbs walks out of the woods and she’s ready to fight. I didn’t even have words.

  He dropped his cargo onto a small clearing. “Vitch, I vould not talk back.”

  As he spoke, the air began to sizzle. All the hairs on my arm stood on end.

  “You’re Perun,” Cassie said, as if that meant something.

  �
�I no longer acknowledge that name.”

  I had no idea what a Perun was, but it meant something to him. “We just need a break, man. We just killed some god awful bear some miles back and-”

  “You killed the Baal Bear?” he asked, interrupting me.

  “Yeah? What about it?” I voiced loudly.

  The stranger didn’t say anything more. Instead, he walked right past us and into the smaller of the three houses. I was concerned for a minute that we were going to be in really big trouble as I didn’t think I had the oomph within me at the moment to tap into old Vlad’s curse. However, when he came back out, he wasn’t carrying any weapons and he didn’t seem as hostile as he was moments prior.

  “Veapon not lie,” he said, pointing at my flail. “You can stay the night under my protection.”

  He didn’t even give us time to properly thank him before he picked up the trees again and stormed over behind the main house. We didn’t move for a few moments, not until we heard a loud chopping noise.

  “I think that little house is ours, if we want to stay.”

  “Castor, it would be wise to accept his offer.”

  It’d been a very long night and I wasn’t interested in any weird explanations. With a shrug, I walked into the small house with Cassie right behind me. There was one bedroom off the kitchen with a little sitting area set up off the other side. Like a gentleman, I offered the bed to Cassie and made myself at home in the other room. It didn’t take long to get comfortable and finally get some decent shut eye.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  **Crimea Region; 1942 the year of our Lord**

  T he sun was still out, shining through the window. Judging by its position, we’d slept until midafternoon. Well, I’d only slept until midafternoon; Cassie’s snores were a surefire sign that the witch was still very much asleep and not even close to waking up. I stretched and went back outside to gather some fresh air.

  “You awake?”

  Perun was sitting on a tree stump, sharpening a very ominous looking axe. “I’m a light sleeper these days.”

  “Hmph.”

  It seemed that was all I was going to get. I turned back around to explore the area a tad more, mainly because I didn’t want to be anywhere near the large, angry man with a giant axe. As I went to leave, he gruffed again. “Sit. Ve talk, man to man.”

  I wasn’t about to argue. “Okay, sure.”

  He sat the axe on the ground. “I know your family, some good, some not so good. Vhich are you?”

  “I’d like to think I’m good.”

  “Hmmm, maybe. Dark aura, company of vitch; you remind me of him.”

  “Who?” I asked.

  “Vlad. Not good man. He made deal vith Satan and nearly ruined Earth. I did nothing before; I von’t make same mistake again.”

  Just who was this guy? “You know me but I don’t know you. That doesn’t seem right, does it?”

  “I am Perun, one of the lost souls. You need to know nothing else.”

  Again, it wasn’t like I could force him to talk. “Why are you helping us then if you think I’m bad?”

  “I never said you vere. Vlad vas bad, you are unknown.”

  “Fair point.”

  He stuck out his gigantic hand. “Let me inspect veapon.”

  Unclipping the flail, for some strange reason I gave it to him without any pushback. Perun eyed it for a moment before slinging it forward to extend the length of the chain. Once it came back, he turned it over a few times before handing it back. “Good veapon.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I can improve it.”

  “How so?”

  Perun stood up and went towards the barn. He didn’t have to tell me to follow, it was just one of those assumed things that you better be there when I turn around. When he hefted the front door open, I could see it wasn’t a barn in the traditional sense; it was a forge. A large black hammer leaned up against an anvil which was beside the forge itself. It appeared to have not been used in quite some time, but the fires lit up the moment Perun slapped the side of it. He placed goggles over his eyes and grabbed a rod of metal from the barrel beside the anvil.

  “Boy, toss me flail.”

  “Here ya go.”

  He snagged it out of the air. “Go. I call you vhen finished.”

  I left the barn and went back out into the homestead. Cassie was standing out front of the little cottage we were using and saw me. I figured it’d be best to go over and figure out what we should be doing while we were here for the night. She still was yawning and rubbing her eyes when I approached.

  “I could’ve slept another few hours,” she complained.

  “If you did that, you might’ve missed Perun presenting me with an upgraded weapon.”

  That did it. “What do you mean?”

  “He’s in the forge, err barn, working on my flail. I’m kinda concerned he has Maria, but hey, he scared me.”

  “You named your flail after your mother.”

  “Seemed appropriate.”

  Then, something important must have dawned upon her. “Perun’s forge is running again?”

  The way she asked the question, it seemed to be a very big deal. I just didn’t know the reason why. “Yeah, it looked as if it’d been off for some time, but boom, the flame came right back on when he punched it.”

  Cassie’s mouth dropped. “You saw him ignite it?”

  “Yeah, it wasn’t any big deal.”

  “Castor,” she remarked, half annoyed. “You witnessed something no mortal in a thousand years has seen. Perun working on your weapon is the sign of the Almighty, himself.”

  “I get there’s something different about him; he called himself a lost soul, but we’ve met all sorts of weirdos so far. Hell, my family is full of them.”

  “One day, maybe soon, you’ll realize the gravity of what’s occurring here.”

  It was my turn to be annoyed. “Why can’t you just tell me for crying out loud?”

  “You’re not a newcomer to this, Castor. It’s time you started learning on your own, as the hunters in your family had done centuries earlier.”

  Wow, it was both a brutally honest assessment and probably something I should’ve heard a lot sooner. “You’re right,” I admitted.

  Cassie had been preparing for a fight, not an agreeance. “I didn’t mean for that to come across so harshly. If you want to be able to defeat Koenig, you’re going to have to become self-sufficient. Koenig’s a brilliant man who never asks why. He asks how and probes until he finds the answer on his own. He’s resourceful and cunning. Me feeding you answers won’t prepare you properly,” she explained.

  “The vitch is right.”

  Oh great, Perun was back. “I agreed to that.”

  “I improved veapon greatly but if you vant it, you need to figure out who I am before sunset.”

  “Do I get any help?” I asked.

  “No. You vant veapon, you do this alone.”

  Perun left as quickly as he came. “Time to find out if I have the brains to do this, huh?”

  “You have good instincts, Castor. I believe you’ll do this.”

  I nodded and Cassie went back into the cottage, leaving me to my thoughts. I’d foolishly given up my best way of protecting myself and now it was up to me and my wits to get it back. I needed to figure out who Perun was and fast. The sun was beginning its descent, so time was not on my side.

  Luka, you there?

  I am, but I do believe this may count as cheating, my grandfather joked.

  I could really use some help.

  Try reaching out to the shaman, he suggested.

  Of course! Francisco said I could contact him the same way I reached out to Luka and my dad. Now seemed as good of a time as ever to try. Francisco? Can you hear me?

  There wasn’t a verbal answer; instead I began to smell something odd. It was a unique combination of wood and cinnamon, maybe? The stronger the smell got, the lighter my head began to feel. Castor, I am here.
<
br />   What is that awful smell?

  In order to enter this realm, I need protection against spirits that may attack me.

  That sounded pretty terrible. Do you know who Perun is? I came right out and asked.

  Why are you asking?

  I noticed that in this form of communication, there wasn’t the normal broken English or Spanish interjections when talking to Francisco. It seemed very, smooth. He’s given us protection for the night and I have no idea who he is.

  He also challenged you to a test of intelligence, hasn’t he?

  I forgot; nothing was a secret in this realm. Yep.

  I won’t help you cheat; however, I will give you a clue to start your quest.

  I would take anything at this point, even just a clue.

  Perun’s forge. His story starts with his forge.

  With that, Francisco must’ve cut the connection because I was left alone, standing in the middle of a Russian winter with no one around. The forge, huh? I had nothing else to go on, so it was off to the barn I went.

  The forge was off again as I entered, but the heat was still dialed up. My flail was gone, too. Well crap, I at least wanted to be able to pilfer back my weapon if I couldn’t figure this out, but Perun seemed a bit smarter than I maybe first gave him credit for. Looking around, nothing really struck me right away as something that would be this monumental clue. Where were the lights and the angels singing aha! as I snooped around different areas?

  Just as I was about to give up and go back to plead with Cassie to help me, the hammer seemed to stick out a bit more this time. Maybe it was my imagination? Upon further examination, I saw that’d it had been well used. There were small chips and scratches that one wouldn’t see from even a normal distance, yet at this range, the usage marks were everywhere. In the middle of the head was a very simple etching; a lightning bolt. I chuckled to myself, this was something like you’d see on an artifact dealing with the Greek deity Zeus or the Germanic Thor.