“But before she drank the potion, Bright Star had two requests of your mother. The first request of her dear friend was the honor of naming her newborn girl child. She knew that because of the storm it would be some time before the raging river quieted enough for your mother to be able to leave Spirit Mountain and cross back to her people. As in all things, Bright Star, being a priestess, saw the storm as having come for a purpose and having meaning, and so she named you Raging River.”
River wiped back her tears. “What was the second request?”
“Bright Star drank down the potion that would release her from the fangs of terrible pain, and then, before that potion let her slip into death, she kissed your cheek and named you priestess to take her place.”
It felt to River like the sky had fallen in on her. The enormity of it all was crushing. It felt as if she didn’t know herself, as if she had never known herself.
River also sensed the room slowly spinning around her, and it wasn’t from the story. It occurred to her that she should have asked what was in the drink she had been given before so thoughtlessly downing it all.
“Can you tell me what it is a priestess is supposed to do?” Raging River asked. “I know my place of authority with our people—and I very rarely use that authority—but I don’t know what it is, actually, that a priestess is supposed to do. What is it I’m meant to do?”
She Who Knows the Moon considered for a time. “It is said that the duty of a priestess is to speak with our ancestors.”
“They’re dead. You mean I’m supposed to speak with their spirits?”
“Spirit Mountain has none but the dead. It is the duty of the priestess to go to Spirit Mountain, so that can only mean it must be her duty to speak with their spirits.”
“When is the priestess supposed to go there?”
“When she is needed.”
“How do I know when I’m needed?”
“Only the priestess can decide that.”
“How am I supposed to know what to do once I get there?”
“Only the priestess can know that.”
River sighed in frustration. “Well, I’ve already decided I must go there. It’s the only way I can think of to call the Sky People. Is that my purpose? To call the Sky People?”
She Who Knows the Moon stared deeply into River’s eyes. “Only you can decide that, child.”
“Well, I guess I’ve already decided I must call the Sky People if I am to have a chance to save our people. But how can I call the Sky People? You are named She Who Knows the Moon, so you, of all people, should be able to tell me how I can do that.”
The old woman offered a sad smile. “I’m afraid that time steals away knowledge. If there was once a way, the knowledge was lost long ago, long before I was ever born.”
“Can you at least tell me if the Sky People are real?”
“Child, I cannot tell you if the Sky People are real or if they are only a story invented to make people follow a law created by mere men.”
“If it was a law created by men, they were very foolish men.”
“Is it so foolish to say we must not kill?”
“It is if it means we have to forfeit our precious lives.”
Raging River could hear the full force of the storm sweeping into their village. Thunder crashed down and shook the ground. She needed to hurry on her way.
But as she started to get up, River felt that her limbs were so weak that she couldn’t make them move. The woven rug under her seemed to be spinning, and then it seemed to come up to meet her.
River realized she was lying on the floor.
“What was in that drink you gave me?” she asked with slurred words.
“Something to make you sleep and not go out into the fangs of a storm. Storms have meaning, and you must not test this one. You will wake at dawn and then, when it is safe to go, you will be wide awake and able to leave.”
As her eyes were closing, River wondered if evil spirits had called the storm to prevent her from calling the Sky People. And then the sweet darkness caressed her away.
Chapter 9
Standing outside the woven cloth over the doorway to the home of She Who Knows the Moon, River looked out at the first hint of pale violet at the horizon. She adjusted the war hammer she had stuck through her leather belt as she watched the early light of a new dawn gradually brighten. It wouldn’t be long before she could greet the new sun.
She adjusted the pack the old woman had made up for her and filled with provisions she would need for her journey. She felt sad to be leaving her friend as well as leaving her village, but she was also filled with a sense of urgency. The Wolf People would be coming. If she delayed, they would kill every one of her people before she could even try to get the help of the Sky People and hope to return in time.
The other thing that was always in the back of River’s mind was Morning Flower. She had to get her little sister back from her captors. She didn’t know how she was to do that, she only knew that she had to find a way.
With no time to waste, River slipped the bow over her shoulder, checked that her quiver was full of arrows, and then started making her way through the narrow passageways of her village. Despite her fears and the reason for going, it felt good to at least be on her way. She had talked enough about what needed to be done. She had argued enough with her father and everyone else who thought she was wrong.
She was priestess. It was time to prove to herself that she was worthy of the title.
Instead of sitting around like everyone else, waiting for killers to come kill them, at least she was doing something. She didn’t have any idea how she could call the Sky People, but if her people were to survive, she knew that somehow, she must.
She hadn’t gone far through their village when Big Dog trotted up, tongue lolled off to one side. His tail started wagging and his head dipped with his ears laid back with joy at the sight of her. When he reached her, he rubbed playfully against the side of her leg. She gave his shoulder a pat to let him know she was glad to see him as well.
“Go home,” she told him, pointing. He sat down and looked up at her. When she started out again, he got up and trotted along beside her. She pointed back. “Big Dog, go home. You can’t come where I’m going.”
Big Dog clearly didn’t care what she said. He was going, whether she permitted it or not. He was stubborn, and she knew that if she tried to make him stay home, he would wait awhile and then follow her at a distance. River sighed as she walked with Big Dog at her side. She thought that maybe, after a time, he would let her go and turn back for home. If he didn’t, she supposed it couldn’t hurt to have the company.
No one met her to wish her well on her journey. It felt like the whole village was against her. When she saw people in the passageways between homes, they looked away and turned their backs before disappearing. Everyone was angry with her. It was a lonely feeling.
She understood how Bright Star, the woman who had given Raging River her name and then named her the priestess, felt apart from her own people. River understood why she lived such a lonely life. Being the priestess was a great honor, but it also carried a price of loneliness. At least River’s mother had been her friend.
And at least River had Big Dog for a friend. It felt good to have such loyal companion with her. It was hard to remember back to when he was a pup so small that she could hold him in her hands. Now fully grown, Big Dog was fiercely protective of her, so besides being good company, he was the only one willing to fight to protect her. She decided that his insistence on coming along was probably wiser than her thinking he should stay behind.
As the bright rim of the sun broke above the horizon out beyond the grasslands, the buildings of the Sun People glowed a reddish violet color. It was a familiar, beautiful sight, but she didn’t take the time to admire it. Instead, after greeting the new dawn as she worked her way out of the village, she was finally able to turn her back to her home place and the new sun and head out toward th
e mountains.
Those mountains, looking so distant out ahead of her, reached up into the sky to be brightly lit from halfway up by the first rays of the new dawn. At night, when the sun went behind those mountains, they became a dark, jagged mass.
At first, after leaving the village behind, she walked beside the meandering stream in the valley between the sparsely wooded hillsides. The stream was full from the rain and rushing swiftly. She loved the sound of the rushing water, but she knew it could hide the sounds of danger, so she continually scanned the hillsides for any sign of the Wolf People warriors.
River had to be careful in selecting spots when she needed to cross in order to avoid difficult terrain that would slow her down. The ice-cold water coming down from the mountains was up to her knees when she had to wade across gravelly spots. The current was strong, making it difficult to keep her balance. Big Dog simply jumped in and bounded across or swam to the opposite bank. He loved the cold water. When he shook it off on the opposite side, River tried to stay clear lest he soak her.
Broad sandy areas beside the stream in many places made for easy traveling. Big Dog made frequent side excursions to smell the bushes and rocks and mark them as his. He thought this adventure out into the countryside was great fun. River wished she could enjoy it as much as he did, but with the worries on her mind, she couldn’t.
Farther upstream, the water had cut steep walls through the hills. Ordinarily there was room to walk between the stream and the walls, but with the height of the water from the storm, the water ran from wall to wall on either side, so she was forced to start her climb up the hillsides.
Finally reaching the top of a high hill, she was rewarded with a good view back out over the grasslands. Down below, far away, just before the sea of grasslands stretched to the horizon, she could see her village. People moved through passageways, going about their business. She wondered if those people would still be alive when she returned.
When River turned around, a man was standing not far away, watching her.
Chapter 10
When she first saw the man out of the corner of her eye, it nearly scared River out of her skin. Her first thought was that it had to be one of the Wolf People come to kill her. He looked to be a warrior. She feared they might have surrounded her.
River had an arrow nocked and aimed at him before he took the first step in her direction. Big Dog was watching him but wasn’t growling. She had always been taught to trust her dog. She held her aim as she gathered her wits.
As he came closer, she saw at last that it was the tall, strong figure of Walking Stag, but he looked different. He had red cloth tied around each upper arm. He wore a sleeveless buckskin vest. His long hair was pulled back and wound into a braid with the same red cloth. He carried a spear, also with a piece of red cloth, tied around the shaft behind the balance point. Black lines had been painted up across his cheeks.
She had never seen him with the red cloth and black paint before. She thought it suited him well. It made him look formidable.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded as she lowered her bow and replaced the arrow in the quiver.
Big Dog sat protectively beside her. Even though he knew the man well and wasn’t growling, she supposed he had never seen him looking the way he did now and that made him suspicious.
“I have come to watch over you until you reach sacred ground.”
She frowned at him. “Protect me from what?”
“You say the Wolf People are coming. I thought I would help protect you from them until you can go to call the Sky People.”
Raging River was at once angry and grateful. She was angry that he would follow her, but she was grateful that he had. She was even happier that he believed she would call the Sky People.
“And what if the Wolf People come to capture me? You fear breaking our law, so they will take you and torture you and stake you to the ground for animals to eat.”
He firmly set the butt end of his spear on the ground. He stared off to the dark mountains where she was headed.
“I thought about the things you said. You charged me with protecting our people. You are one of our people.”
“I charged you with gathering together other strong men and preparing them to defend the village.”
He studied her eyes before answering. “Why would you choose me? Is it because you favor me? Or is it because Chief Standing Bear said that you are to be my wife?”
Even though she was in a hurry, River wanted to disabuse him of any such idea.
“My father said what he did because you were the only young man in his line of sight at the moment, not because he meant anything by it.”
“Maybe he did mean it. He is your father and our chief. He would want you to have a strong husband.”
“Even if he did mean it, it is not for him to choose the husband of the village priestess.”
He sheepishly looked away. River hadn’t meant to shame him, but she didn’t have time for this. She started walking west.
Walking Stag, looking to put his feelings aside, jumped to catch up and walk beside her.
“Then why did you choose me?” he pressed.
“I chose you because you frequently stand close to Chief Standing Bear.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you seek to be a leader. Since you long to be a leader, I gave you the task a leader should have. That task is to prepare other men and protect our people. It is a task of responsibility, a task for a leader.”
“I see. Well… thank you.”
“I gave you that task to protect the village. I did not tell you to follow after me.”
He lifted his chin as he looked ahead. “You are the priestess and have an important job to do to protect our people. If you are killed, you can’t do that job and you won’t be able to save our people. I know what you said I must do, but I decided I should come and make sure you didn’t have any trouble, at least until you get to sacred land. Once I make sure you are safely to Bitterroot River, then I will go back to do as you asked of me.”
River nodded as she kept walking. “Have you collected men?”
“Yes. Many trust in me and want to follow what I say. But I am not sure what to tell them. We are not killers.”
“You are sons and brothers and fathers, are you not? And you love the people of our village, do you not?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Picture in your mind their terror as they are being killed by the Wolf People for no reason. Imagine the blood, the pain, of those you love. Does that not make you angry?”
Instead of answering, he asked a question. “Is that how you were able to kill Great Hawk?”
River thought how to answer. Finally, she tapped the center of her chest as she looked over at him.
“In here, my heart burned with fear for my little sister. In here, I also burned with hatred for men who would harm her. That is what you must do.” She reached over and tapped the center of his chest. “You must have righteous hate here, in your heart.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything for a time.
“I just don’t know if we can do that,” he finally said.
River shrugged. “Then everyone you love will be slaughtered or taken captive to be tortured and then killed. You will see it happening before your eyes before one of them rushes up to you, screaming a battle cry, and cuts your belly open to make you die slowly so that you will see it all happen to your people.”
Walking Stag let out a long breath. “You are making me angry to hear such things.”
“Good. You keep thinking about that as you go back. Work the injustice of it in your mind like you would finger a worry stone. You keep getting angrier until you no longer care about the law as much as you care about those you love. You tell the others you gather what I told you will happen and that you will not allow it, and that they must not allow it, or you all will be a willing party to the killing of our people. You make sure they are so angry they
will want to kill men who would do such things.”
He nodded. “Will you be back by then?”
She looked over. “I hope so.”
He nodded again. “I hope so, too. Somehow, you give me fire in my heart.”
River smiled. “This is not pleasant business, Walking Stag, but when I saw all the blood shooting out of Great Hawk’s neck as he was taking Flower away from us, it felt good. I wanted to kill them all and save Morning Flower. But to think back on it, it was not pleasant business, killing a man.
“Remember, these Wolf People who come will come for one purpose only. They will be coming to kill us all. You and your men keep that in your mind, and keep rage burning in your hearts.”
“Raging River in our hearts?”
She smiled a little. “If it helps you, then yes, keep Priestess Raging River in your hearts as you defend our people. You all have the skills necessary, just as I did. We all hunt and take large animals. We all use arrows, spears, and knives. Our skill with them is what feeds our people. Use the skills you already have to protect them.”
By the time they reached Bitterroot River, it was late in the day. Beyond a broad river valley ahead, she could see the dark shape of Spirit Mountain rising up before her. The sun was already behind the mountain, leaving the light to grow dim.
“It will be dark soon,” Walking Stag said. “We should make camp here for the night.”
“No,” River told him. “I must get to Spirit Mountain and call the Sky People. There is no time to spare. I will cross the river now and keep going until it is too dark to travel any farther. That way I will be closer when there is light in the morning.”
He sighed, not liking the idea, but he nodded his understanding of her purpose. He pointed with his spear toward the tall marsh grass.
“I see the crossing canoe.”
After they untied the canoe that was always left there for just this purpose and righted it, they dragged it to a bank where she could get in. He helped get Big Dog in it with her.
The Sky People Page 4
