Chapter Twenty Eight

George Crow fought two paleskins at once. He held a long knife and slashed at each of them as they feinted forward. The one on the left pirouetted around the outstretched weapon and came at George Crow's side, punching him. George Crow felt the crack of a rib and buckled over. The other Paleskins jumped high over the long knife. George Crow tried thrusting upwards, but it moved too quickly and landed behind him, hitting him in his kidney. The pain caused George Crow to buckle to his knees. He managed to hold his weapon as the two descended on him. He tried turning it inward to the Paleskins at his left. The blade caught its calf, but the blow did not have enough force behind it. One of them bit into George's neck before being thrown suddenly from him, smashed in the skull by a thick headed war club. Rising Bison stood over George Crow and brought the club down on the other Paleskin, smashing it into the ground. He swung once more for good measure.

"I am done," George Crow gasped. He took shallow breaths to avoid upsetting his broken ribs.

"No, you're not. You're just done with this fight. Play dead. And don't tell me it's dishonorable. Any Paleskins come to feed on you, stab them in the heart."

George, unable to talk without wincing, nodded slightly.

Rising Bison ran on and found a Lakota taller than he, newly awakened, fighting alone. The man's bulky arms swung over hand and landed against the crown of a Paleskin's head, knocking it back. Rising Bison finished the job with a swift jolt of his club. "Take this," he said, and handed the huge man a long knife, "and follow me." They concentrated on rescuing the women and the old who could not easily fight. One Paleskin got in their way and the large man nearly lopped off its head with a single swing. "What is your name?" Rising Bison asked.

"Johnathan Smith," the man said. At the introduction, Papa No Clouds joined up with them. "That's a stupid name," he said.

"I'm sure we can come up with a better one," Rising Bison said. "Go fight. I am needed elsewhere."

The fight was tough for the Lakota without weapons. They started off at a disadvantage, being corralled and surrounded, and they were being picked off like cornered salmon by a bear. It would have been a hopeless battle, except the Paleskins lost their leadership. They broke off in bands of two or three or went solo. The nearly hundred years in captivity had softened them. The only challenge they faced was not making the Sisters angry. Without formal training, they fought on instinct alone.

Rising Bison's companions split off to form other small war bands they could command to fight together. Many that joined wrestled with fuzzy minds as their memories slowly returned. The older of them fought well from the start. The more recently deceased were less prepared.

When they found women or the young, they urged them to escape. "Run around the fighting, get to the Canyons south of here, and hide. We will find you after." Shoots Paleskins stayed with these refugees to make sure no one followed. Three stronger awakened Lakota helped him guard the rear of their escape. Hundreds passed by before his band met a group of Paleskins led by a giant man made of several skins.

The Patchwork man flanked Shoots Paleskins while the three Lakota fought off the lesser vampires. Shoots Paleskins traded his bow for an axe and smashed it into the enormous creature over and over. William withstood the blows and knocked Shoots Paleskins to the ground. He straddled the Lakota and used his enormous fists to smash at the Elder's chest.

Shoots Paleskins hacked back with his weapon. The axe blade sparked against the chains. Marks of black oil stained the Patchwork man's outer clothing where the blade found its way through. One blow struck the chain in a weak spot and it separated. Further strikes caused the link to detach, and the chains loosened around William's body. The brute continued to beat down. He ignored the swings of the axe, which began to weaken.

By the end, the three large Lakota managed to kill the Paleskins and protect the other fleeing Lakota. They reached Shoots Paleskins too late. His broken body faded in their arms, the way of the twice-dead. A pile of chains rested nearby. In the distance, the patchwork man now ran far from them. They chose not to pursue. They marked the place where their friend had fallen and went back to the larger battle to help.

***

Lakota and Paleskins fought around Seal. She called for Javin, but the combatants drowned her out with their struggling and angry yells. Seal wondered if this had all been a waste. She had freed her people, restored their memories only to have the attacking Paleskins made stronger as the freed Lakota were fed upon.

Seal hid behind a tipi when a grotesque Paleskin pulled it down. He stood there, mouth wide open, drool running down to his neck. He was balding, his hair hanging to one side of his face. She recognized him from the field of ghost bison. She ran. He took a few steps and then stopped in his tracks as Seal ran straight into the arms of the waiting Sisters. Merrivale and Evadine were together again and had come looking for her.

After assigning orders, Rising Bison headed towards the cottonwood tree where the girl had been tied, to rescue the two children. Whatever happened today, they had to survive. He and a band of unarmed men rushed in and saw the two Sisters coming towards the fleeing girl. The leader of the Elders ordered them to pick up anything they could use as a weapon, mostly rocks. He charged towards the two Sisters, his war club raised above his head. He separated Evadine from the one that was blind. The other Lakota concentrated on her. Seal ran past them and hid behind a boulder. She looked on helplessly at the battle between Evadine and Rising Bison.

Evadine kicked high at Rising Bison, hitting him hard in his thigh. He swung his war club and she ducked, then struck his arm again with a hard kick. He lost feeling in it. She kicked again at his exposed knee. Pain shot through his body. She kicked again at his stomach and he flew back against the cottonwood tree. Evadine barreled towards him and he swung with his weakened arm, but the clubhead flew over her as she ducked. She pinned his arm, now crossed over his body against him, and drove him against the pole, knocking his breath away.

He tried to slip to the side, but she followed his motion and kept the pressure on his chest, keeping him from taking a breath. He tried punching with his off arm. It glanced weakly off her face. She returned his blow with a headbutt. She loosened her hold on him and he rolled around the pole, trying to put it between the two of them. She circled around. He swung his club wildly, causing her to back up. Her feet tripped on the body of her lifeless sister. She fell forward on her hands and he buried the giant war club into the back of her head; he heard a cracking sound. Rising Bison swung repeatedly until Evadine was no more. He looked up, his eyes still blurry, and saw the bodies of the men he had led. The final Sister was nowhere to be seen.

***

The surrounding band of Lakota had repeatedly thrown stones at Merrivale. She slashed wildly with her hands as rocks pelted her. One drove a larger stone into the side of her head, but she did not fall. She grabbed at and killed three of her attackers in quick succession, but their relentlessness weakened her. Merrivale needed her sister.

She heard a guttural roar behind her. It was met with the screams of the men attacking her. Then they went silent. "It's okay, Merrivale. Let me take you to safety."

"Creighton? Is that you? Evadine. We have to help her."

"She's dead, I'm afraid." He took her arm and led her away. Creighton looked back at the pole, still within eyesight. Evadine struggled with Rising Bison. Creighton knew the man and knew he was skilled. Whatever fate had in store for Evadine, Creighton did not care. He led Merrivale safely away, and they disappeared from the fight between the Lakota and the Paleskins.

The battle continued and the empty space around the cottonwood pole filled with combatants. Seal stood by Rising Bison. Others joined him. They formed a circle around her as protection, but a tall giant, wrapped in bandages, broke through their lines. He knocked Lakota aside with the stiff swings of his arms. He was impervious to their fists. Their bodies went flying everywhere. A flood of Paleskins followed behind him. Karl knocked Rising Bison from his feet. A Paleskin dove on him. He fought it off. Another came. He killed that one. The mummy nearly reached Seal, but Echo stood in his way.

Echo struck repeatedly at the creature. It grabbed Echo's main weapon, wrenching it away and tossing it. They wrestled, and the mummy easily flipped him to the ground. He picked Echo up and threw him down again. Echo heard a thud next to his ear. He recognized his own small axe, the one Javin stole from him. He grabbed it and began hacking away at the mummy. A shadow flew over him and landed on the back of the mummy. The mummy stood up and Echo followed, continuing to beat away at the disoriented beast. The mummy ignored the blows and tried to reach for whatever latched itself onto him. His stiff arms were not flexible enough to reach his attacker. Karl and Echo heard a hissing sound. The mummy spun around, comically, like a cat trying to bite its own tail.

Echo finally saw his savior. Javin rode the creature's back, arms twisted in the wrappings to keep hold. Sparks shot from the mummy's head. Javin had tucked his largest fireworks into the hard bandages. "Things are about to get lit," he yelled.

"Get off that thing!" Echo said. Javin leaped away and landed on his back. Echo surged in with the small axe and hacked away at the creature's chest when the fireworks finally exploded, blowing a hole in the back of Karl's head. The lumbering monster fell to his knees and Echo finished him with a blow to the neck.

"Thank you for giving my axe back to me," Echo said.

Javin shrugged. "Actually, I was trying to hit that thing." He tucked his dad's lighter back in his clothes and ran off to find Seal. He spotted her in between more fighting Lakota and Paleskins. He yelled to her. She did not hear him until he reached her. He grabbed her hand in his. She felt something cold and hard and saw the Spiritseeker, now destroyed, its feeding spikes melted.

"We have to give it back to the sky. It can't touch the ground again. How good are you at catching?"

"I can juggle so I can catch," he replied. He stepped back. Seal took the ball and threw it straight up into the air as high as she could against the crackling sky. The ball arced and Javin tracked it. He faded back. The ball moved unnaturally, as though blown by an invisible wind. As he drifted, he reached the fighting mass of Paleskins and Lakota. He ignored them and kept watch on the descending ball. A body knocked him to his knees. He tried keeping his eyes on the ball and struggled to push against the embroiled figures around him. He watched. He pushed. He lifted himself, then he fell again. He didn't think he could reach the ball.Could he still catch the ball?

Seal yelled out, "Don't let it hit the ground!"

A rough hand appeared, blocking Javin's view of the descending ball. It was the hand of Rising Bison. He saw the ball falling. He knew, the way a man knows things in dreams, that it must not touch the ground. It landed in his outstretched hand. He lifted it high over his head with both hands and offered it to the sky.

A booming voice called from the sky in the Lakota language. All the Lakota heard it and looked upward. The Paleskins looked around in confusion. The shriek of a raptor called from above, followed by a blazingly fast object scudding across the sky. To Javin's eyes, it looked like a plane. Seal recognized it as the shape of a giant eagle. As it passed over them, the ball rose from Rising Bison's open hands like a seed taken by the wind, and it was gone. The gray sky gave way to cracks of light which spread from the wide wings. Those cracks grew and filled in with sunlight until no more of the dull sky remained as it burned away. Rays of sunlight warmed the ground for the first time in over one hundred years.

The weakest of the Paleskins, the ones who had not fed during the battle, instantly fell to their knees. They grabbed their heads in pain and shielded their eyes. The light burned through them and left them to ash.

The Paleskins left standing were now a minority. Their gem and metallic flaked skin glinted with sharp beams of light, half blinding them. The rebelling Lakota quickly overwhelmed them. Men, women, and children alike swarmed them. Echo's knives were the last to fall that day. His two weapons buried deeply into the balding Paleskin that had chased Seal. Poor Zintkala was avenged. The battle was over. The Lakota had won.