Magnificent Guns of Seneca 6 (32 page)

He stepped onto the dead woman's back and his boot wobbled from the extra weight, pulling him so close to the flames on his right side that he felt the hair on his arm burning.
 
He righted himself and raced ahead, collapsing against Haienwa'tha's open arms.
 

"Get out there and catch these kids," Jem said.
 
"I'll pass them to you two at a time."

"No," the boy said.
 
"You go."

"God damn it, boy, this is no time to argue!
 
Get your ass out there now!"

"This is
my
fault!" Haienwa'tha screamed.
 
"Now go or we will both stand here and burn together."

"Stupid stubborn son of a goddamn jump on top of me and make me run into a burning adobe hut pain in my ass is what you are," Jem muttered as he crawled through the window.
 
He grabbed the smallest child with one arm and lowered her toward the cannon.
 
The little girl's entire body was soaked and it was all he could do to hold onto her as her small feet swung perilously over the great expanse.

The woman grabbed the little girl and kissed her face over and over as she handed the child to the woman perched on the cannon behind her and waved for Jem to keep going.
 
Jem dropped down onto the barrel and squeezed it with his thighs.
 
He reached up and said, "Come on, Squawk!"

A pair of tiny legs emerged from the window first and Jem reached up to take the boy by his waist.
 
"Don't look down, partner," Jem said.
 
He twisted to hand the boy to the woman behind him and reached back up.
 
The next child came out the same way.
 

The smoke billowing out of the window grew darker and more dense.
 
Jem called out for Haienwa'tha to hurry up but there was no response.
 
"Come on!
 
What the hell are you doing in there?"

The children inside had stopped screaming.
 
Jem raised his hands to his face and cried out, "Squawk!"

Suddenly, the boy's hands emerged from the black smoke and he climbed through the window with the last child clinging to his back.
 
He groaned with effort as he lowered himself down the window frame, hanging from it by the tips of his fingers.
 
"Climb down!" he shouted at the boy.
 

"No!" the child squealed.
 

"Just like a tree.
 
It will be okay.
 
You will not fall."
 

The boy lowered himself to Haienwa'tha's waist and looked down at Jem with eyes wide enough to see white on all four of their sides.
 
Jem reached up and latched onto the child's torso, even as he shrieked and tried to hang onto Haienwa'tha.
 
The entire cannon shook and the women behind him cried out.
 
Jem passed the boy back and turned to look up, "Come on.
 
I've got you."

Haienwa'tha's arms were useless.
 
Flames licked at his fingers like hungry dogs, but he could feel nothing.
 
There was no strength left in him to push away from the wall or to get down to the cannon.
 
It was time to let go.
 

He closed his eyes.
 
Father,
he thought.
 
I failed.
 

Haienwa'tha, the eldest remaining son of the great Chief Thasuka-Witko, let go of the burning window and released himself into the wind.
 
He felt El-Halcon's hands swipe against him, trying to grab something, anything, but missing.
  

He surrendered to the fall and the inevitable impact, knowing it would launch his spirit out of his broken body and into the sky.
 
He had just closed his eyes when someone snagged him by the arm and started to scream, "Grab me!
 
I'm going to fall too!"

Lakhpia-Sha had both of his arms wrapped around Thathanka-Ska's waist, holding him over the edge of the cannon.
 
Jem Clayton had his hands around one of Lakhpia-Sha's legs, clutching it to his chest.
 

Thathanka-Ska screamed "I've got you!
 
Nobody let go of me!
 
Oh no, oh no!
 
We're going to fall and die!"
 
The boy wailed until he was breathless in fear while he held onto his older brother's wrists, making more noise than all the others combined, more noise than the cannon as it began to lower them all safely toward the ground.
 

***

Jem stabbed the dirt between his legs with his knife.
 
He took it out and looked at the reflection of the twin moons above on the surface of the blade, then he did it again.
 
He still smelled like fire and felt like the stench of burning bodies was sunk into his clothing with it.
  

He did not look up to see who was coming toward him.
 
He did not care until he caught her smiling shyly at him from the corner of his eyes.
 
Ichante's floppy hat was gone and in its place, her dark blonde hair was washed and braided with flowers.
 
She wore a long white dress of soft cotton that revealed her curvy figure in the moonlight.
 
"I look like a
girl
," Ichante said.

Jem nodded and laughed, "That you do."
 
He looked her up and down, "Who'd have thought it?"

"They insisted on washing my road clothes and this was all they had here."

"So you do take a break from being a badass every once in awhile, huh?" he said.

"Not often," she said.
 
She sat down beside him and folded her legs, forgetting to pull her dress down over them.
 
"The little one told me how you came to be called El-Halcon.
 
It is something I would not have believed until today."

"You want to know about that name?
 
I'll tell you.
 
When I was twelve years old a Beothuk raiding party came into my town.
 
One of them tried to get in my house and I shot him dead right on my front porch.
 
Come to find out, that young man I killed was Goyathlay, the oldest son of Thasuka Witko.
 
You think I ever told him that?
 
No I did not.
 
You know why?"

"No," she said softly.
 
"Why?"

"Because I was afraid.
 
And I wanted to be his friend after he gave me that
special
name.
 
But he wouldn't have been my friend if he knew I killed his boy, now would he?
 
I never said, and now he's dead and that's that.
 
I'll never get the chance to, so I guess I'll be a coward forever."
 
He whipped the knife at the ground ahead of him so hard it sunk all the way to the handle and he slumped forward on his elbows.
 

Ichante slid closer to him and put her chin on his shoulder.
 
Her lips were close to his ear when she said, "And yet you've given him back his other son's lives how many times now?"

"Don't change anything," Jem said.

"Was Thasuka Witko the man they say he was?"

"Hell yes," Jem grunted.
 
His voice was thick in his throat, making it tough to talk.
 
"If not even more than that."

"Then he would have understood," she said.
 
She kissed him on the cheek and put her arms around him and he did not push her away.
 

***

Thathanka-Ska was pacing nervously outside the sick tent.
 
Hehewuti and Lakhpia-Sha argued over which medicines to give each of the patients, but one by one, each of the injured was tended to.
   
One by one, the children fell silent and began to sleep.

The girl named Kachina came out of the tent and breathed in the night air.
 
There were dark circles under her wide eyes, a temporary imperfection on her otherwise flawless features.
 
"He is awake and asking for you," she said.

Thathanka-Ska thanked her and entered the tent.
 
It smelled of strong medicines and pastes made from herbs and roots.
 
Lakhpia-Sha was huddled in a corner mixing great batches of something green and bubbling in one of the cooking pots.
 
He did not look up as Thathanka-Ska crossed behind him to where Haienwa'tha was lying.
 
"How are you?" he said.

"Never better," Haienwa'tha said weakly.

"Liar."

"I need to tell you something."

"No, you listen to me," Thathanka-Ska said.
 
"You were wrong about the vision.
 
You were wrong about everything."

"I know," Haienwa'tha said.
 
"That is what I was going to say.
 
I was wrong and I failed you.
 
Failed all of you, and now the tribe is doomed because of it."

"Be quiet," Thathanka-Ska said dismissively.
 
"What I mean is, you were wrong about me not believing.
 
I've been thinking about it and I was never the one who did not believe.
 
It was
you
who did not believe and I was the one who had to come with you to make you finally see it."

"See what?" Haienwa'tha said.
 

"It's you.
 
You are the leader we've been looking for.
 
I've
always
believed that."

"You are insane."

"And you are the Chief.
 
You be big Chief," Thathanka-Ska said with a laugh.
 
He cocked his thumb over his shoulder and said, "We can talk more later.
 
There are others who want to see you."

Haienwa'tha sat up on his elbow and winced at the pain in his side.
 
A young girl and boy carried in a small tray of freshly made frybread.
 
They set it beside him, bowed nervously, then turned and ran away.
 

One of the women from inside the dwelling came in next, carrying a blanket.
 
Her face was red and peeling from burns she'd received in the fire, but she smiled at him and laid the blanket at his side.
 
He thanked her and she lowered her head and said, "Bless you."

There was another child waiting at the tent flap to come in, eyeing him eagerly.
 
She was holding a necklace of polished stones.
 
Haienwa'tha looked up at his brother and said, "How many more are there?"

"All of them," Thathanka-Ska said.
 

"All?" he whispered.
 
He bent forward to look through the tent flaps and saw the women of the Hopituh Shi-nu-mi lined up outside of it, all of them carrying some sort of gift.
 
Even old Hehewuti was there.