Heroes of Perpetua

by Brian Clopper

  She headed down the corridor, uncertain just what to do. Should she move through the castle and search every room?

  Lou passed a closed door on her left. She came back to it and cautiously tried to open it. No such luck.

  The Well had to be big, so it likely wasn’t in some random room. She needed to head down and find a large chamber or receiving room or something.

  Of course, it being a well, it was likely on the ground floor or lower. Who built a well in an upper floor?

  She raced down the hall, past five other closed and locked doors, eventually finding an open stairwell at its end.

  Lou leaned out into the stairwell and listened. Distant sounds of battle, but nothing seemed to be charging up the stairs.

  She took the steps quickly. She passed another floor and peered down the corridor. A few closed doors like the other. Nothing stood out.

  She continued downward. The next floor had some activity. Two of the gauntwing guards were racing down the passage, heading away from her.

  Lou ducked out of view and then ventured on. After two more floors, the stairwell ended on what she assumed was the ground level.

  The corridor was twice as wide as the others and only had two doors before it curved out of sight. She moved forward.

  She passed the doors. The one on the left was half open. She peered in to see a simple cot and chest along with a nightstand. A sword lay on the bed, but she recalled what Hugo had said about carrying a weapon as a ghost being a bit of a failure.

  Footsteps ahead made her freeze. They were getting louder and sounded heavy, like big-savage-gauntwing heavy. And it sounded like more than one.

  She reversed course, intending to hide in the open room—only the door was closed when she got there. Had she slipped it shut on reflex? She didn’t recall doing that, but her thoughts weren’t the most reliable in this ghost state, even though she had made herself more solid. The footsteps were practically on top of her. She jiggled the door handle to find it locked. Someone was inside. How had they gotten in and not seen her in the hall? Unless they’d been in the room out of view and simply closed the door as she passed.

  She saw the lighting flicker ahead, meaning several tall, dark, and uglies were between her and the nearest magic torches now.

  Lou decided ghosting into the room that may or may not be occupied was her only option. She darted through the door, thankful the wood had not been any of the stubborn variety that Hugo had mentioned. Her travel was smooth and effortless.

  She scanned the space, noting there was a side room attached, its door shut. No one else was here.

  She pressed her head against the door. The footsteps continued past, not stopping at all.

  The door to the side room creaked open, and a person stepped out.

  Lou gasped. It was her father.

  He smiled.

  It was definitely him—scruffy beard, tousled hair, glasses that never perched on his nose at a clean horizontal. Every wrinkle around his eyes was present and accounted for. Even his slight slouch and thin physique were unmistakable.

  But he was not quite himself in one key aspect.

  “You’re a ghost,” she said.

  “Yes, that’s true, but it’s me, Lou. I’m back.”

  “From the dead?” She stiffened. Her mind was even foggier now. How could he be here?

  “Well, I’m still dead, but a spirit.”

  “But how are you here in Perpetua?”

  He grinned. “A wizard made of mud brought me over. He didn’t tell me why because he immediately acted confused and afraid of me. He ran off.”

  “But how are you here in this castle?”

  “I was captured by shadow creatures, nasty winged snake things.”

  “Gauntwings.”

  She surged forward with her arms outstretched to hug him.

  He backed away and held up his hands. “Don’t. Spirits getting tangled up in each other isn’t pleasant.”

  “You were with other ghosts?”

  He stiffened and looked away. “In the Well. The gauntwings tossed me in, and it’s horrible. The souls are so lost and fused together. I barely escaped with my mind intact.”

  “You know where the Well is? You can take me there?”

  He frowned. “Why would I want to do that?”

  “Because I’m here to destroy it and free the spirits inside.”

  Her father quivered, his appearance becoming blurry for a second before returning to sharp clarity. “I don’t want to go back. I want to run away with you, but if you see no other alternative.”

  “We’re here to end the baron. Cutting him off from his magic battery is the only way we can hurt him.”

  Her dad hesitated. “I can take you there, but do you really think you’ll succeed?”

  “I have to.”

  He marched to the door. “I’m so glad your magic allows you to talk to the dead. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to chat. I’ve missed your voice.” He opened the door and entered the corridor.

  She followed but was on guard. Why hadn’t he simply ghosted through the wood?

  He headed in the direction the unseen owners of the footsteps had been coming from. “I take it you borrowed the ghost magic from your friend, the tall one?”

  “How do you know all this?” She slowed and squinted at him.

  They crossed a wide foyer that opened up into a large chamber. Tall columns at the chamber’s entrance blocked a decent view of just what she was walking into. Where were all the gauntwings?

  “The wizard told me. You were given the gift of the spirit tongue, while the other boy can talk to nature, and there’s the ghosting child.”

  The wizard doesn’t know I’m just a ghost, and that I can’t talk to the dead. She shivered as a horrifying thought entered her chaotic mind. This wasn’t her father.

  They marched into the chamber.

  It was a vast domed space, like the interior of a cathedral. Dark columns stood arranged in a circle along its edges. A pit sat at the center, looking like a large wishing well. In place of a roof, a wooden cage that mimicked the contours of a light bulb stood two stories tall. She noted the wood’s distinctive orange coloration, although it was a slightly darker shade than what they’d come across in the wild.

  Her would-be father turned to her. “Here it is. And unguarded, as your friends outside are presenting quite the distraction.”

  “Dad, I missed you.” This was absolutely not her father. How did he know about what was going on? He was either Vua or the baron in disguise.

  “I missed you, too.”

  “I almost bought all forty issues of Blue Devil on eBay the other day, but I got outbid.”

  “Blue Devil?”

  “The comic book series from when you were a kid. You only had a couple issues.”

  “Ah, yes. That. My mind isn’t always thinking straight as a spirit. Have you noticed that? Thoughts get slippery when you’re a ghost?”

  She didn’t answer.

  He arched an eyebrow. “So what’s the plan? We wait for your friends and together you destroy the Well?”

  Lou looked over at the structure. A tangle of spirits surged up from the Well and tumbled about within the wooden cage. Despite there being numerous openings in the wooden framework, none of the spirits emerged.

  “Why’d you open the door?”

  He strode toward the Well, his posture more rigid. “What’s that?”

  “When we left the room, you used the door. Why didn’t you simply ghost through it?”

  He smiled. “Because I’m weak. I did just escape from there.” He pointed at the Well. More spirits were visible now, their expressions melting into portraits of pain and fear.

  She stopped. “Wrong. You’re pretending, just like you’re pretending to be my dad.” She held back her tears.

  He froze, keeping his back to her. He then transformed and, in seconds, Baron Orb stood revealed. He spun about as color returned to his appearance. His blue and pur
ple tattoos on his head looked raised and in some places like tiny roots reaching out. Was his changed appearance due to being so close to the spirits? “You are crafty. I assume I answered your insipid book question wrong?”

  “My dad would know Blue Devil only ran for thirty-two issues.”

  “Clever.”

  “And you thought I still had my original powers. I don’t.”

  “My dear, you really must stop divulging info to your enemy. It takes away any advantage. Not that you ever had the upper hand.” He glowered.

  From several doorways, gauntwings entered, forming a circle around her and the Well.

  Vua approached, dragging the tied-up wizard behind her.

  “How did you know about my dad?” Lou asked the baron.

  “A simple memory spell I cast. Plucked it from the wizard.” Vua jerked the rope, sending the golem tumbling forward to grind to a stop between them.

  He looked brown and gray in equal amounts. So somewhat hydrated. Hopefully, enough to run, she thought.

  Vua sneered. “I gather he didn’t know about your magic switcheroo. So you have Hugo’s power, huh? Guess he’s the one out there directing the animals around.”

  Lou hated how she said his name with such familiarity.

  Baron Orb threw a ball of red magic at his daughter. It struck her in the legs, knocking her over.

  She hit the stone floor hard. When she crawled to her feet, her bottom lip bled. She wiped it clean and glared at her father.

  He walked toward the Well. “Vua, don’t share with the child. It makes you weak.”

  Lou studied the girl’s expression. She detected a wounded look for just a second then Vua again projected a hardness.

  “You will fail.” Baron Orb examined the spirits flailing about in the cage, their movements having grown much more frantic the closer he’d gotten.

  He motioned for a gauntwing guard to approach. The brute lumbered toward the baron.

  Orb held his hand to the cage. A spirit pressed against its prison, pulled unwillingly toward the hand.

  Suddenly, the spirit shot out of the cage and into the baron’s hand. He made a fist and when he opened his fingers, the magic formed a sword.

  He brought the blade up and down through the guard with a ferocity and speed that made Lou gasp. The gauntwing’s halves dropped to the floor, twitching twice before growing still.

  The brutality of the act caused her fear to rise.

  The baron looked at a trio of the snake beasts. They flew over and carted away the sections of their brethren.

  The villain absorbed the sword back into his body. “A wasteful example, but one I wanted you to see. Every night, I expend a little magic to bring back any gauntwings who have fallen. There is no true end to my army. They all come back.”

  He snapped his fingers and concentrated.

  A single gauntwing flew to him and hovered just over his left shoulder.

  Orb didn’t even look at it. “This one, your friend corrupted.”

  The creature shifted to a key shape then back to its serpent form.

  “But with my generous rebirth, its loyalties are reset. I think it only fitting that this one bring an end to the tall boy. Hugo, was it?”

  Lou’s fear expanded. She wondered if either of the two could see it. The emotion felt far more substantial than her ghost form. If she looked down, would she see a growing black stain on her chest?

  Orb raised a hand and flicked his wrist.

  The gauntwing Hugo had named Key rocketed out of the chamber, a dark missile that would seek and find its target.

  Vua approached her and whispered a spell in her ear.

  Lou’s body crashed to the ground. She tried to lift her arms, even her fingers, but she couldn’t.

  Vua smirked and strolled over to her father.

  The baron nodded his approval. “Let’s finish this pathetic uprising. A true pity Neruno chose to not face me and send you children in his place. It matters not, none of you will see tomorrow.”

  He turned his back on Lou and stared into the Well, seeing not others but only power.

  Chapter 26

  Hugo Avoids a Key Dilemma

  Grizzly mowed through three of the guards as Hugo stabbed his sword into a bat creature. He pointed the blade at the ground and shook the carcass off, resorting to scraping it free the last few inches with his sneaker. It landed gaping wound up. These things weren’t disappearing like they had on Earth.

  Nelson fumbled with his axe. It was truly too big for him, but they had to work with what they could find. Their current arms had been pillaged from fallen enemies. Initially, Nelson had tried to knock back his attackers with a borrowed shield but had thrown it aside and gone on the offensive.

  Hugo didn’t have the heart to tell his friend he was being too ambitious. He searched the battlefield for a better weapon, a short sword or manageable spear.

  Three bat gauntwings flew at him only to be intercepted by a flock of their allies. The white-beaked birds took down the bats with a vengeance.

  From what he could gather, none of the animals liked the baron and his army. Gauntwings took their prey, leaving many with few choices. If he shared that with Nelson, the egghead would probably launch into a lecture about out-of-whack ecosystems and over-predation. Although, Hugo was no slouch when it came to science. He knew how to use over-predation in a sentence. Did Nelson?

  He smiled and jumped past several down-but-not-out snakes writhing and lunging at him from the ground. He kept close but not too close to his friend. Seeing that Nelson was on the warpath, his sights set on the biggest bad guy to date, Hugo shouted. “Behind you!”

  Nelson acknowledged him and then swung his axe down, landing it in the gut of the massive guard. He pulled and pulled to dislodge the blade but couldn’t.

  The gauntwing roared at its attacker and slashed its claws down. Nelson abandoned his weapon and dove, executing a somersault before jumping back to his feet. Several ants charged after him on orders from Hugo not to let his friend out of their sight. The two in the lead used their pincers to cut down several snake gauntwings about to get the drop on Nelson.

  Hugo knew they’d been lucky so far but was still impressed with his friend. Nelson wasn’t athletic, but he was performing admirably. “Unnecessary somersaulting, five-yard penalty.”

  Nelson ignored his quip.

  He surveyed his army. They were making progress. The gauntwings appeared to have lost half their ranks, while he could only recall sacrificing a few of his own soldiers. Far more of the ants than he liked, but he would be sure to tell their queen how they’d fought with such integrity.

  None of their takedowns resulted in bloodshed, which made it a little easier. These things were likely not real. Maybe just magic. He pictured the wizard churning them out on an assembly line, embedding each with a simple intelligence.

  Although, they were more than just mindless machines. Key had been something different. He’d rebelled against his master’s orders. And now he was gone. Hugo dispelled the swelling guilt and watched his friend.

  Maybe ten guards were left. He couldn’t tell how many bats and snakes, as they darted about overhead with too much speed to get an accurate headcount, but it was definitely far fewer than they’d started with.

  Hugo charged forward through a gap. “We got a clear shot of the entrance, Nelson. Let’s go.”

  Nelson scooped up a sickle and awkwardly swiped at a bat gauntwing, parting it from its left wing. How the boy hadn’t lost his glasses in all the craziness, Hugo had no clue. “What about Lou?” He looked up at the sky.

  Hugo raced across the wooden bridge. “She’s been gone a while. We need to go in and get her. Maybe if I send our army back into the woods, that’ll lure the gauntwings away.”

  He broadcast just that, urging his soldiers to retreat not in cowardice but to simply lure their combatants away and into a setting they knew all too well.

  His army fell back, and the gauntwings gave chase.


  A guard jumped Hugo, knocking his sword out of his hand. The gauntwing stabbed at him with a knife. He hit its wrist hard, causing the beast to lose its blade.

  The pair crashed into the handrails and off the bridge. They landed in the water, pawing at one another as Hugo’s sword sank into what he assumed was a moat.

  Please let there not be an aquatic gauntwing lurking in here, he thought as he kicked free of his attacker and swam to the surface.

  He surged out of the water and quickly paddled to the shore.

  Two of the squid wolves splashed into the water and tore the guard to pieces in seconds. They fled the moat, making a point of shaking their coats dry so that Hugo could register their distaste at having to get wet for his sake.

  Nelson met up with him and tried to hand him a spear. “You’re soaked.”

  Hugo fumed. If he’d kept his ghost powers, he could’ve dried himself almost instantaneously. He snatched the spear and threw it down in disgust, then spent a moment wringing out his shirt and stomping his feet to remove as much water from his sneakers as he could. Only then did he pick up the spear and look for his friend.

  He couldn’t help noticing how clear the area was now. Aside from a few snake gauntwings heading into the tree line, his army’s retreat had done the trick and emptied the area.

  Nelson had already crossed the bridge by now and stopped at the abandoned entrance to the stronghold. As soon as Hugo caught up with him, they entered together.

  The open area was empty. Nelson pointed at the two smaller buildings. “Should we?”

  He waved them off. “We check the big one first.” He pointed at the taller of the two castle structures.

  They walked to the front door, Nelson nervously eyeing the numerous window slots on the castle’s exterior. “Surprised they don’t have archers at the ready.” He hiked a thumb back at the nearest corner turret and exterior high wall. “And no pouring of hot sand or boiling water? A bit of a letdown.”

  “I guess Orb thought the gauntwings would be enough. Are you complaining about us getting a break? Is this adventure just not dangerous enough for you?”