After half a day of travel, a stand of tattered tipis rose from the distance. They stood in front of a fenced-in compound. Beth investigated the shelters. All of them sat abandoned. Some had shredded blankets or straw filled pillows and long forgotten implements once carried long ago. She called Seal over to look at the interesting finds. They took care not to disturb anything inside. Seal realized this was an outpost where the government once handed rations to her people before moving them to reservations. It was a dirty place with a poor history.
As they passed through the gate, a mixture of buildings lined the way. A long building to their right was the barracks. Wooden beams mixed in with scattered refuse piled against it. Seal guessed one building was a post office, another possibly a general store. At the center of the fort sat the largest house, flanked by smaller storage buildings. Painted freshly white, it was in the best condition. She guessed Pavel Sted lived there.
Unlike the other buildings in the fort, it had all its windows. A red door stood out brightly. A long pole stuck out of the center of the building’s roof with a flag hanging from it. It had one star in the center, surrounded by two full circles of stars.
“This is where our father lives,” Creighton said. He motioned for her to knock on the red door.
Seal walked up the stairs, then hesitated. “Is it safe?”
“Safest place here.” The three hung back. Beth agreed to be tucked into Seal’s clothes. Seal knocked three times on the door. No one answered. She rapped on it again, but before her knuckle could hit once more, a man, slightly taller than Seal, answered. His teeth were brown and ruined. His eyes were so wrinkled that he retained a constant squint. You could barely tell they were open.
“Who are you?” the man asked.
“My name is Cecile. I am here to see Mr. Pavel Sted.” She stood aside and motioned towards her companions to show she wasn’t alone.
“Your purpose,” the man meanly replied. Seal took a step away, dodging the spittle flying from his mouth.
“Let in,” William said, vouching for her.
The man ignored him and repeated, “State your purpose.” He glared at each of the creatures standing behind. “And you three know better than to interrupt.”
“I am trying to save my sister, and I lost my friend. I was told I could find help here.”
The man did not respond.
He looked her over in a way she found creepy. “Come.” He pushed her inside. “You three go elsewhere. I will summon you when you are needed.” He pointed to William’s black oil stains. “And go clean that one up if he ever hopes to come in here.” He shut the door and barred it.
She heard Beth whisper, “He’s no good.”
“Come in, girl.” Seal followed him reluctantly.
“Have a seat”. He pointed at a chair across from a desk. The chair creaked and wobbled under her. The man walked to the opposing side of the desk and settled into a larger chair with a high wooden back. He opened a book with blank pages and no lines and took out a quill pen. “We get so few visitors here that I like to write their descriptions,” he explained.
“What is your full name?”
She answered, and he wrote Ceeseel Kip. She could see him spell it wrong, but she didn’t correct him.
“Hmmm…. Four feet. Eight Inches or thereabouts. Unwashed. Your skin.” He looked her over. “Lakota, maybe?”
Seal nodded. His face twisted with undisguised contempt.
“Dirty blood confirmed.”
“What sort of clothing is that? Never mind. Cheap. No value. You weren’t wealthy.” He laughed cruelly to himself.
“Sir,” Seal interrupted him, “I need help. Are you who my three companions said could help me?”
“Also impatient,” he said, as the scratching of the quill continued against the paper. He wrote a few more things without saying them aloud and then threw down his pen.
“Girl, I am master of this fort. I have always been.”
Seal hesitated, unsure how to address him. “Are you Pavel Sted?”
“Call me Captain.” He chuckled.
Seal heard a whisper come from the front of her dress, “I wanna leave.” Seal tapped her hand on her chest where Beth hid to quiet her. She hoped the man had not heard.
“You came alone? That would be impressive for a grown man, much less you… to slip through so far.”
“I had help,” Seal said.
“And luck,” Beth whispered.
“You mean those wretches? A lot of help they were, I’m sure. I’m surprised they came. They have been unwelcomed for years.”
“Let me judge my own creations… Captain.” The last word pronounced with thick disdain and notable sarcasm. Another person stood in the doorway that led further into the house. He dressed in a fine black suit and blended into the dark hallway. His eyes were bright blue, a color she had yet to see since entering this underworld. He talked in a tight-lipped manner, but he carried authority. Seal thought him handsome, maybe even beautiful.
“Oh sir, yes, sir. Just having some fun, ya know. Few visitors around these parts, these days, especially since this is the first living one in a…”
Seal’s spirits shrank. That meant Javin hadn’t visited here yet. She felt as though she ran on a treadmill to nowhere.
“Enough fun for you today, then. Go help my sons with whatever they are doing and stay gone until the morning. I’ll meet with all of you then. Now go while I show Ms. Kipp around.” The servant hurried out the front door.
“Forgive him,” the man said. “He came with the place. He used to be its… sergeant in arms. I believe that’s what they called him. A terrible man in life, but he has his uses here as my servant, so I keep him around. But all this preamble and no formal introduction. My manners have become poor in my isolation. I am Pavel Sted.”
“Ask him about Javin,” Beth whispered from underneath Seal’s dress.
The man turned to regard her. “Ahhh, the talking doll with your Sister’s spirit. I have heard about her. I have heard about you and the boy. His name is Javin, yes? He is safe.”
“How do you know all this? Where is he?” Seal asked.
“I have allies. He is west of here. You will find him soon. He is with a band of protectors. We are not friends with them, but we have a common enemy. I sent them to keep him safe. They are strong and he will be okay.”
“And are you a… a Paleskin?”
Beth peeked out and looked him over. He did not appear like a black spot like the three. He was more of a void. “He doesn’t feel like a vampire,” Beth offered, “but he doesn’t feel like a person either.”
Pavel Sted opened his mouth and bared his upper teeth. No fangs. “Always good to be careful. I am your ally. But you have enemies here, as a living being. Come with me and I will tell you more.”
He led Seal through the dining room. Its opulence made her realize the entranceway had been little more than a mud room. Tapestries, painted animal skins, and native art of all types covered the walls. The dining chairs were lined with beaver fur, and the intricately carved dark wood table was freshly polished. Place settings of China and silver utensils were neatly laid out. Seal followed the man into a kitchen.
A pot hung half over a fire with an unidentifiable stew inside. “It’s all preserved meats and root vegetables. We can manage only so much, and I eat extraordinarily little nowadays. The stew isn’t from today, but it is still good.” He ladled a bowl for her and took another pot that also hung above the fire. He poured clear water into a waiting mug. After sliding it over to Seal, she looked in at the floating debris, which slowly gave the water a darker color.
“Dried flowers, licorice root, some herbs that used to grow here. It will give you strength and calm you.” Seal reached into her dress and pulled Beth out and took a sip. The hot tea smelled stronger than it tasted. The nine-inch buckskin doll stretched herself on top of the counter’s surface, feeling her first freedom in a while.
“How fascinating. May I touch you?”
Beth recoiled but then looked into his blue eyes. “He smells like fresh air and apples,” she said. Seal smelled it too and suspected Pavel wore cologne. He was impeccably clean.
“You can shake my hand,” Beth finally decided. Pavel reached out and used his thumb and index finger to greet the buckskin doll’s offered arm.
“Ms. Kipp, you and I have something in common. We are trapped and we both want to go home. And I can tell you how, but it is not without danger.” He poured more hot water into her half-empty cup. “Do you want more stew?” Seal shook her head. The stew, though fine, did not sit well in her stomach. She felt let down by not finding Javin.
“I came here to fight a great evil. They are called the Sisters. The three of them brought an army of Paleskins into these Hunting Grounds and conquered these lands. This causes me great angst. I tried to stop them, but failed. The three you came with helped me with my fight. I helped gather the seven Elders that now protect your friend. But we are still not enough. You, I believe, are the last piece required.”
“I don’t understand,” Seal said.
“I don’t believe in accidents. This is fate. The hand of God, or gods. Take your pick. I don’t believe in just one. This land opened briefly for you and your friend. There must be a reason for that. Do you have any clue what that reason may be? Have you had any visions?”
Seal recalled her experience with the bison on the road, and her dream with the bison calf. She felt the urge to talk about everything, including her dream, but fought to keep it to herself. It was hard not telling Pavel all her secrets.
For much of this journey, during the quiet moments, she thought over and over about why she ended up here and what her dream meant. “I am only trying to get home with my friend, and I came to see if you could help save my sister.”
The man across from her sat silently for quite a while. Seal waited patiently.
“I can help,” he finally said. He decided to trust her. “But you must fetch something for me that will allow me to do this.” He described an object he called ancient; a sphere the size of two cupped hands, with sharp spikes all around it.
“You must get it from the head of the Sister’s Palace where they keep it. You will recognize their stronghold as the carved monument of one of your people’s former leaders.”
Seal remembered the unfinished monument on the internet. Her parents said its construction would never get done.
“It is a dangerous journey, but your companions are strong. They know ways to get you in. They cannot hold this artifact as it will drain life from them. No dead can touch it for long. But do not let it pierce your skin. That is most important. With it I can save your sister and send us home.”
Seal listened while he told her more about the three sisters, Perdita, Merrivale and Evadine. “They have few weaknesses. They are cunning and they are immune to the effects that you would have read about in stories. That only works on lesser Paleskins. They are something more than that, and they can only be destroyed if you bring me the ritual ball.”
“Is this the only way,” Seal asked, “If I try to steal from these evil sisters?”
“It is the only way I know. They don’t know the real power of this object. Even if you found your friend and walked all the way back, you would find the way closed.”
“You can’t,” Beth cried. “It is dangerous. We will lose each other.”
“It will be okay,” Seal reassured her sister. Deep down, she knew she was lying the way her parents would tell them something that wasn’t true to keep them calm. “I will never let you go.”
She turned back to Pavel. “You can really make her real again? And not like William? “
“Yes,” I can, he said. “But only with the ball.”
“Are you sure Javin is with these protectors? Could they not help us?”
“That is a possibility,” he mused. “But it will waste precious time. The Sisters search for you. No matter what, don’t let them catch you. Sneak in. Sneak out. I will send word and make sure Javin can rendezvous with you once it is safe for everyone.” Pavel sounded confident.
“I don’t find any of this soothing,” Seal admitted. She felt fear, and the story did not feel right to her. Seal did not think it would be easy sneaking in. But if it saved Beth and returned them home, what choice did she have?
“You can rest and think about it. Let me show you to a room.”
He brought Seal upstairs to a bedroom with a bed larger than Seal had ever seen in her life. He left her to her privacy. She removed her black pajamas and changed into a soft robe left for her. It would be the first piece of white she had worn in a year. She looked into the bag she had found at the abandoned gas station. The one she used to burn her pursuers. Inside were seeds, roots, small feathers, a smooth stone, and a black and white photo of one of her people. She recognized what she held was sacred and knew, though it was useful, she had no right to use it further. She hid it behind the bed.
A small basin sat on a pedestal. She filled it with water from the pitcher next to it and washed the dirt from her face, arms, and legs. Then she collapsed onto the bed and sank deeply into it. It reminded her of their couch, only more comfortable. Seal closed her eyes and fell asleep feeling safe for the first time since meeting the giant white bison calf.
After several hours, Seal awoke, unsure how long she slept. The task Pavel had offered to her would not be easy. The sisters were cunning and strong. Her ancestors were enslaved. Was Javin an insurance policy if she failed? Was she being used?
She thought about that last night before coming here, recalling the crawlspace and searching for her grandfather’s snowshoes. Her first menstruation. The earthquake that had destroyed her home. Javin and her running through the burning sunflowers, and the fall that brought her to her sister, who now inhabited a doll. This was the chance to save Beth.
The white bison calf called her Behitha, which meant a beginning. A beginning to what? As Beth stirred, she turned to her sister and asked, “What are we supposed to do other than foolishly go to the most dangerous place I can think of? At the request of someone we just met today? Our ancestors at the motel said come here. He says go there. Do we just follow?”
Beth knew her sister just wanted her to listen.
“How can someone with no magic or strength beat three powerful vampires, an army of undead, and escape the afterlife?” Everyone here wanted to escape this cursed world. They were all stuck. She wanted to see her parents again and bring Beth back home with Javin.
“You have what dad taught us,” Beth said.
“He only told us stories. What good are stories here?”
“You said the bison in your dream called you storyteller,” Beth reminded.
“But stories aren’t shields. They aren’t weapons.” Seal cuddled Beth close to her as she closed her eyes to get more sleep.