An arrow slammed into Custer’s left thigh, piercing through flesh and muscle into the ground beneath. He didn’t feel any pain. He didn’t feel the burning heat from the satchel Autie had placed in his lap. All he felt was in his mind, disbelief and shock about what was going on all around him.
Gall saw Sitting Bull and the strange half-breed from the Sun Dance appear to the south, both holding up glowing skulls. He signaled, indicating for the warriors not to attack the half-breed. Then he reached into his satchel and grabbed hold of the hot skull. He almost laughed at the pain. The Sun Dance had prepared him for this. He held the glowing skull aloft and moved forward.
Buffalo Calf Woman slammed an awl into a dead soldier’s left ear. Pulled it out, and then jammed it into the right, piercing the eardrum. He should not hear in the afterworld. Because he had not heard clearly in this world. Not heard the Great Spirit warning the whites to leave the People in peace.
She looked up and saw mighty Gall striding forward, glowing blue object in his hand. She opened the satchel she’d taken from the blue-coat. She blinked at the bright blue glow, and then reached in. She grabbed bold with both hands and held it aloft. Then she headed in the direction Gall was going.
The boy who had shot Custer as he tried to cross Little Bighorn, Walks Alone, saw Gall and Buffalo Calf Woman. Where was Crazy Horse? He wondered, as he pulled out the skull the great warrior had given him. He stood up, ignoring the warnings from the braves around to stay down. There were still soldiers alive on the bill, firing.
None would hit him, Walks Alone knew. He headed up the hill.
Two Moons notched an arrow and fired it high into the sky. firing a second before the first impacted. He paused as he noted the people moving forward with the skulls. He put down his bow and opened the satchel he’d taken from Bloody Knife. He removed the skull, gasping as it burned his flesh, and moved forward.
Crazy Horse turned to the south. Toward the firing. His warriors spread out on either side. He could hold them back no longer. Their vengeance against those who had invaded their land, killed their families, brought disease and death, was unstoppable now.
Crazy Horse reached into the satchel tied to his pony and pulled out the talisman given by his “brother.” He kicked his pony in the side and raced forward.
Sitting Bull halted, fifty yards short of the last stand being mounted by the whites. He could see the Son of the Morning Star, still alive but wounded in several places, leaning back against the saddle of a dead horse.
Bouyer saw Custer also. He stopped next to Sitting Bull as Buffalo Calf Woman and Walks Alone joined them. The skulls seemed to sense each other’s presence, their glow becoming brighter, unbearable to gaze on directly.
And then Crazy Horse and three hundred warriors crested the hill behind the last stand and swept down.
The dolphin Rachel leapt out of the dark water and landed with a splash directly in front of Eric Dane and Amelia Earhart. The Space Between was the name Earhart had given to this strange place — a transit point for the portals between parallel Earth timelines and time itself, consisting of a circle of black land surrounding the Inner Sea which they were on, enclosed inside what appeared to be a massive semicircular cavern.
“Let’s go,” Dane said. He didn’t wait for a reply as he moved forward in the Valkyrie suit, floating ten feet above · the water, following Rachel’s dorsal fin. The dolphin paused, arched her back so she could see that they were following, and then continued ahead. They were both ensconced in the hard, white suits that they’d stolen from the Shadow’s emissaries.
Dane saw their destination. A narrow portal column, streaked with red, flickering to solid black, then gray with red, then black, still filled with the red lines.
“That’s not a locked-in portal,” Earhart said.
Dane didn’t respond. He moved forward, hit the portal and disappeared.
Earhart followed.
“Angels,” Custer whispered. “Come to rescue” me.” He dropped the pistol he couldn’t fire and reached up with · both hands toward the white figures that had just appeared in front of him. All around the dying colonel were the dying remnants of half of the Seventh Cavalry.
Dane saw the massacre all around as a wave of several hundred warriors washed over the vestiges of Custer’s command. But all veered away from the strange vision of · he and Amelia Earhart in the Valkyrie suits and Custer nearby with a glowing skull in his lap.
Dane slowly turned and saw a handful of people approaching, glowing blue skulls held in their hands. He raised his white arms wide, welcoming them, spreading · out the metal net he had taken from the sphere.
The screams of the last dying soldiers echoed in his ears. He didn’t want to believe he’d become jaded to death; he wanted to believe that this battle had been inevitable anyway and he was here to cull something good out of a futile massacre.
Sitting Bull walked up and dropped the glowing skull into the net. Then Buffalo Calf Woman. Walks Alone. Crazy Horse. Gall. Two Moons. And then Mitch Bouyer with two skulls.
Eight.
“Eric.”
Dane had almost forgotten Earhart was with him. He turned.
George Armstrong Custer was looking at him. His face Was pale, his body wounded in several places.
“The ninth,” Earhart said. Custer was the only one of · his command left alive. And on his lap was the ninth skull.
Dane felt Custer’s shock and confusion. ‘’Take it,” he ordered Earhart.
With a clawed hand she reached down and lifted the skull from Custer’s lap. Dane wanted to say something to those around, but he knew the portal might not last. He turned to it, hit the blackness and disappeared.
Behind him Amelia Earhart hesitated. Her thoughts and feelings were jumbled. She saw her lines in Bouyer’s face. Her son, but not her son. Standing on a hillside littered with bodies. He was half of one people, half of the other. What would happen to him, she wondered? He didn’t even know who she was.
The portal flickered and she entered it.
Dane Went directly to the sphere’s power room carrying the skulls.
Earhart took her place in the control room, entering the command Pod. There was no need for them to talk, to discuss what came next.
Staying in the Valkyrie snit, Dane removed the nine glowing skulls and placed them in the alcoves that were on the same level as the portal map. When he was done, he went to the center and exited the suit; The power flowing in from the skulls was intense, much stronger than What he had just experienced from the crew of the doomed submarine Nautilus from another Earth timeline who had given their lives to get him this far. He let his hands flow among the portal strands, letting his own timeline attract them with its draw.
His hands wrapped around a strand that felt familiar in a way he couldn’t explain. Then he realized he’d touched this one before, when he’d cut off the portal the Shadow had been using to drain power from his world, this sphere had come through.
“I’ve got power,” Earhart said. “I see the portal. It’s big enough. You’re sure it’s the one back to your timeline?”
“I’m not sure of anything,” Dane said. “But, yes, this is the one.”