The Sky People

by Terry Goodkind

  To her left, but back half a step, her father stood tall and proud in his finest deerskin vest, which her mother had decorated in designs made with beads. Half a dozen steps behind him were his advisors, close enough to hear, but not close enough to interrupt. River hadn’t wanted to present the impression that she needed to have a strong force standing with her.

  She wanted to be the strong force.

  To her right stood the tall figure of Tom, the Sky man, in his dull black outfit with the smooth designs on it. His mask was open so that the Wolf People could see his face and not think he was some kind of evil monster, but know that he was a man, like them. Well, not like them, but a man nonetheless.

  All of Walking Stag’s men were positioned as Tom had suggested. There were discrete units of men, each with spears and shields. Each line of men was positioned at an angle, with spaces separating each block of men. Each unit was stepped back as they were positioned farther out from the village. In the center, closest to the village, were the archers as the last wall of defense.

  All of the men in each rank had spears leveled in the exact same position. It looked seriously menacing seeing all those men in precise formations, shields overlapping, with their spears sticking out, ready to kill.

  Tom said that the angled formations created a funnel that was designed to force the enemy together into what he called the kill zone. Once they charged in, the formations would close around them, driving them together for the archers. It was clear that Tom knew what he was talking about and it had given Walking Stag a great deal of confidence.

  In addition to the painted lines and symbols Walking Stag had designed, all of the men had the black masks River had painted across their eyes, the sign of their priestess. For the first time, she thought that the warriors of the Sun People looked intimidating.

  Chief Three Fingers, along with his war chiefs, all of them in wolf furs and different feathers denoting their rank, along with several dozen of the strongest warriors painted in frightening war paint, came to a halt as a large, aggressive group in front of River, her father, and Tom. In order to keep herself from trembling, she reminded herself that her name was Raging River. She held that rage in her heart.

  Back a short distance was a great mass of Wolf People warriors standing at rest, all with spears and axes and other weapons. Behind all those warriors, there were old people, young people, and even a great many women, all come to watch the war. Come to watch the great victory of their warriors. To these people it would be a game, a slaughter, with no risk to themselves.

  River bowed her head out of respect as the enemy came to a halt before her. “Chief Three Fingers, I am honored to face you again.”

  That puzzled him. “You find it an honor to die at our hands?”

  River considered her words carefully, words she had lain awake all night going over in her head.

  “Yes, an honor because I respect your strength.”

  Everyone waited in rapt silence until she went on.

  “I do not deny that I killed your son. Great Hawk has been here before and taken the lives of my people. Great Hawk then hid in the tall grass like a coward in order to take my sister. It is easy to look like a big strong warrior when your quarry is a little girl.”

  There were grumbles from the warriors behind the chief.

  “Like the lives of our people that Great Hawk has taken in the past, her life belongs to her, not to him or anyone else. It was my duty to protect my defenseless little sister. So, I killed him. For that matter, it is my duty to protect all of my people. So, I killed him. Given the chance, I would do it again.

  “I know that it hurts your heart and angers you that your son was killed, and even more that he was killed by a mere woman. But he was a warrior against a child, so being killed by a woman was no less than he deserved.

  “It is only natural that you would be angered by the loss of your son as well as the other warrior with the tall feathers I killed yesterday. I am angered by the loss of so many of my people.

  “You can take my life for revenge if that is your wish. I am not strong enough to stop you. Just as my little sister was not strong enough to fight off Great Hawk.

  “I ask of you only to hear me out, first.”

  Chief Three Fingers, even though he looked angry, gave her a nod to grant that last request.

  River gestured to Tom standing beside her. “I called the Sky People and they have come to lift the law that has resulted in the death of so many of our people. We no longer live by that law.

  “We will no longer be victims.

  “Know that if you choose to take my life, then that will be the beginning of a war, and all of those Sun warriors behind me will fight.

  “Do not mistake as weakness our past adherence to a misunderstood law that cost so many of our lives. It takes great strength to face death to uphold a belief, even if that belief was a false one.

  “You have not yet faced our strength.

  “If you choose revenge, it will be the beginning of a war, a war the likes of which you cannot begin to imagine. It will not end today. Instead, the battle that begins today will be but the beginning of war as you have never seen it.

  “We will show no mercy.

  “Your people will never sleep safely again, for in the night we will come with knives to slice your throats. You will never again drink water to quench your thirst without wondering if this time it is yet again poisoned. You will never again be able to hunt without our warriors lying in wait to cut down any hunting party. You will never again sleep in the warmth of your tents without wondering if this cold night will be the night we send burning arrows out of the darkness into your warm tents to light them all afire. You will never again be able to watch your children at play without an arrow coming out of nowhere to take their life. You will never again be able to eat in peace without wondering if we have slipped into your stores and poisoned them. You will never again be able to lie with your wives without the fear that while you are preoccupied we will drive a spear through the both of you at once as you lie together.

  “Right now, you see us as weak. If this war starts, you will see us in your nightmares. The Sun People will haunt your every thought, your every waking moment, your every action, your sleep. You will never again have a moment at peace.

  “It will not stop until there is not a single one of your people to ever again wake to see the sun. This is the way of war, and what the law given to our people was meant to prevent, but it did not work. So, if you decide to take my life, it will be the beginning of a war to the death of the last one of you. And like all war, it will be a tragic loss of lives.

  “Sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers will all die to no end. We will be ruthless and savage. Like the sun we were named for, we will come for you every day. My people will have their revenge and kill your people. Your people will in turn want yet more revenge.

  “If you want to kill me and lust for that terrible war to begin, then it will. It is your choice.

  “But be warned. Once started, this war will be to the death. We fully intend that if this war starts, we will not stop until we wipe every last one of the Wolf People from existence.”

  River let that all sink in a moment before going on.

  “But if you want instead to live in peace, without your people and my people having to live in constant fear of dying for nothing, then we must set aside revenge and blame because revenge and blame has no end until one side is killed to the last person.

  “That is the way life has been. We understand that life was difficult and so it was the strongest who survived. That was the way to be the ones who lived. But that time must come to an end. We must grow beyond that way of the past. We must rise above our past. There must be a new way.

  “For peace, we must all instead decide that we are brave enough to say enough, and we will have peace. We both have bloodlust and revenge in our hearts. We must be brave enough to set that lust aside so that it will
one day die out, even if only in those new born in a world without war. We must be brave enough to let all our people live their lives in peace. We must be brave enough to let others live their lives in peace.

  “We must value life above all else.

  “If you want to live your lives in peace with love of life, then the only way is for the killing to stop. Here. Now. There is no other way.”

  River looked out at all the grim faces watching her, waiting to see what she would say next. She went on and said the last thing that any of them would have expected.

  “We have prepared a great feast today, with roasted boar, venison, turkey, smoked fish, baked bread, along with many other delicious foods. If you wish to live in peace from now on, then we invite you to come into our village as our friends and have a great celebration feast with us as the end of war and killing.

  “It will be only the first of many celebrations of our people trading with each other, and having gatherings and feasts together, even finding wives and husbands in the village of the other. It will be the beginning of a common goal of the joy of life. Such a peace will make the Wolf People and the Sun People stronger together than we have ever been apart.

  “Any hotheaded young warrior can say ‘There will be war.’ Only the strongest chief can say ‘There will be peace.’

  “So, choose, great chief. War and endless killing, or a great feast to celebrate the first day of a lasting peace between our people. A joyous day when we can shed tears of joy instead of tears of sorrow and pain.

  “Yesterday you said I was brave. I believe you are brave and a great enough chief of your people that you could be the first chief to make peace.”

  After the silence seemed to stretch on forever, Chief Three Fingers finally looked from her to her father, Standing Bear.

  “Your daughter is strongheaded.”

  “You are not telling me anything I do not know.”

  “Daughters are difficult,” Chief Three Fingers said. “I had three sons and one daughter. The sons together were not as much trouble as the one daughter.”

  “I have no sons, but I have two daughters.”

  Chief Three Fingers grunted. “Then you must be a strong man who can raise two daughters.”

  “My youngest, Morning Flower, is still too small to cause me much burning in my stomach, but I can tell you, this daughter here has been a constant test of my good humor. Worse, she was named priestess without my knowledge or permission.”

  Chief Three Fingers grunted again as he nodded. “That must have caused you many sleepless nights.”

  Standing Bear nodded in agreement. “To this day.”

  Chief Three Fingers thought in silence for a time, then nodded to himself.

  “Though raising this one must have been a trial for you, I think you should be proud of her. She is a worthy priestess. I wish we had one so wise and so brave.”

  Standing Bear only smiled as he waited. It seemed that everyone was holding their breath.

  “The Wolf People choose to end the killing here, today,” Chief Three Fingers announced in a loud voice as he turned from side to side so all could hear him. “The Wolf People choose to be brave enough to let go of revenge and war. A wise chief knows that it must stop somewhere.

  “It stops here, today.

  “The Wolf People choose to feast with our new friends, the Sun People, to celebrate the peace of our lives together into the future.”

  Silence rang across the countryside for a long moment, and then the warriors on both sides erupted in cheers and shouts of joy, throwing their spears, war hammers, and bows into the air.

  Both chiefs embraced.

  River thought she saw tears in their eyes.

  Tom gripped River’s hand and gave it a squeeze.

  Chapter 22

  The celebration feast was more than River could have hoped it would be. She had expected everyone to be reserved and hesitant. They were not.

  One of the Wolf war chiefs jumped on his horse and raced back to their village to tell everyone the news. By late afternoon, the whole Wolf People village, it seemed, had rushed to come to the celebration. There were so many people the village of the Sun People couldn’t hold them all, so the feast spilled out to the surrounding countryside. Some of the Wolf People brought tents and game and many of their specialties and started cooking to help supply all the people with food.

  Other Wolf war chiefs brought back the grinding stone and placed it in the large square to cheers from everyone.

  It was a joyous feast beyond what anyone could have expected, even River. Warriors from each side embraced and compared their war paint designs and wrestled with their arms in contests of strength, laughing with each other over who won each match. Women from both peoples hugged and chatted. Children joined together in games, laughing and cavorting.

  River found Chief Three Fingers and Chief Standing Bear sitting side by side on a wall in the center of the village, watching the roasting of a wild boar, waiting to be the first to have their choice of meat. They invited River to come sit with them. Chief Three Fingers moved over and patted the wall, inviting River to sit between them.

  “It is only fitting,” the chief of the Wolf People said, “that you sit in the first council of the two great chiefs.”

  “I would be honored,” River said.

  As she sat down, she called Big Dog. He came eagerly, tail wagging, happy as could be with all the people. Everyone was giving him tasty morsels, so he was a happy dog.

  Big Dog put his nose up to Chief Three Fingers, smelling this new person. The chief held out a hand. River held her breath, hoping the chief didn’t lose another finger.

  Instead, Big Dog licked his hand.

  Chief Three Fingers chuckled and then scratched behind Big Dog’s ears, something he loved.

  “He is different than all the other dogs of your village,” Chief Three Fingers said. “All the others are smaller, with short, brown hair and skinny tails. This one is a wolf dog, you know. He has a lot of wolf in him.”

  “So I have been told,” River said.

  “You know, I had a big strong dog that was mated by a wild wolf one time. She went off to give birth, as dogs like to do. When she came back, nearly a full moon later, she carried her pups back, first moving one, then the other, then another, bringing them back home.”

  “And Big Dog looks just like the pups you raised from your dog,” River said.

  Chief Three Fingers laughed a deep jolly laugh. “You jumped ahead. I was going to surprise you by telling you that!”

  Chief Standing Bear leaned around her to speak with the other chief. “It is hard to surprise this one. I can never tell a joke without her telling me the end before I get there.”

  Walking Stag came up then and held out his hand to River. “We are having a dancing ring with some of the warriors from the Wolf People, and some of our women and some of theirs. Will you come and be part of it?”

  “Oh, I don’t know—”

  Chief Three Fingers elbowed her. “Go. Dance. My daughter is there. Her name is Laughing Fox. As much sleep as I lose because she thinks she knows more than me, she makes my heart happy when I look upon her. She would love to meet the woman who brought peace and this great feast. She badgers me all the time, telling me that we should make peace. She talks to me as if she knows more than her chief and father.”

  River’s father leaned in again. “You too? I thought I was the only chief who had to bear the burden of a daughter who thought she knew more than the chief.”

  Chief Three Fingers let out a long-suffering sigh. “We are both troubled men. But we are lucky men, I would say.” He looked back up at River. “Now Laughing Fox is joyous that we are at peace… because of you. Go, dance, talk to her. You two can plot against your fathers together.”

  River had to laugh. She touched the arm of each chief, then went and met his daughter. Walking Stag was all grins that River was joining him.

  Talking as best they could while danc
ing, River and Laughing Fox found that they had a lot in common. They made plans for something River had wanted very much to do for a long time. Laughing Fox liked the idea.

  Once the plans were made, they went back to dancing with the boys. They laughed with a joy none of them had ever before known in their lives.

  And then River saw Tom signal to her.

  Chapter 23

  As he put his big round mask on over his head, River’s heart sank. She knew what it meant.

  She ran to him. “Is it time?”

  He gave her a brave smile. “I’m afraid so. The initiation of the quarantine is going to begin shortly. My command tried, wasn’t able to delay it. I can’t be here any longer or I will be… well, let’s just say I would like to have a long life, as I still have a great deal more I would like to see.

  “In a short time, as you celebrate, I will be up on my ship among the stars. Once that happens, your people will never again have to fear that you will be visited by anyone who might cause them trouble.”

  River’s hand clutched his arm. “I would never fear you coming down from the stars.”

  He smiled as he touched her cheek. “You did good, River. No, you did better than good. I would never have expected all that I would see and experience when you called me down from the sky.

  “You are a worthy priestess. Your people are lucky to have you. Everyone is lucky to have you. From now on, your laws and your ways are your own. Life is what you make of it. I have great confidence after seeing how you handled everything, and how everyone reacted to reason. That is the mark of an intelligent species. I can’t tell you, River, how proud I am of you.”

  River swallowed back the lump in her throat. “Is it lonely, up among the stars?”

  He looked into her eyes for a long moment. She saw a deep sadness there.

  “It never was before. It will be now.”

  She put her hand over her mouth for a moment to stop her jaw from trembling.

  “I can’t stand to see you go.”

  “I’ll tell you what. You wear that armband. As long as it is on you during the quarantine operation, it won’t be destroyed. In a few days, when the quarantine procedure is complete, it will be safe to take off as you like.