Off in the distance she could see the pointed tents of the Wolf People village. Those tents filled the valley between green hills. Smoke rose from a great many cook fires. All the tents gathered together reminded her of nothing so much as a field of white mushrooms sprouted up out of the ground beside the meandering stream.
The Wolf People moved their tent village to other locations from time to time to take advantage of different seasons. If they stayed in one place too long, the game would all be gone, so they moved on. Sometimes they moved into the territory of other peoples, which caused conflict. Sometimes they moved closer to or farther away from the Sun People village. The houses in River’s village were made of mud brick, so they couldn’t move. They were at the mercy of the Wolf People.
“This is your village?” Commander Tom asked.
“No. This is the home of the Wolf People.”
“The Wolf People?” He frowned over at her. “We need to get to your village so I can straighten out the problem caused by Rebecca Collins. That’s the reason you wanted my help, remember?” He looked down at his armband. “I’m running out of time.”
“I’m not going back to my village until I rescue my little sister. I told you how they took her. I failed her. I need to get her back.”
“We don’t have time for this,” he insisted.
“The sooner I rescue her, the sooner we can get to my village.”
Commander Tom sighed as he rested a hand over the one holding his horse’s mane as he gazed out at the field of off-white tents. He did not look pleased about what she was doing.
“If I don’t take care of the problem caused by Rebecca Collins before I have to leave, no one will ever come again to help straighten things out. You, yourself, said that a great many people died because of those laws and that many more will. I am your last hope, River, and I don’t have much time left.”
River moved her horse sideways a couple of steps to reach out and touch Tom’s arm. “This is my little sister. I have to save her. Hasn’t anyone ever meant the world to you?”
His expression finally relaxed a little as he looked out at her from inside his round mask. “What do you have in mind?”
“What is level Q-seventeen authorization?” she asked. “I heard the voice in your mask say that you have level Q-seventeen authorization. What does that mean?”
He stared at her for a long moment.
“There are very few people like me—commanders who patrol remote areas on their own. There is often no one close enough to help us should we encounter problems, such as this problem here. Because of that, we must be able to operate alone.
“We are highly trained in everything we might need to do in our mission. I operate with a whole book of regulations of what I can and can’t do. Level Q is the section involving the use of force. It runs on an escalating scale. When my command authorizes Q-seventeen, that is the highest level. It means I have the authority to kill anyone or anything, entirely at my discretion alone.”
River nodded. “That’s what I thought.”
“Why do you ask?”
“Because my little sister is in there and I may need to Q-seventeen people to get her out. You lost your weapon back on Spirit Mountain.” She pulled the war hammer from her belt and handed it to him. “Here. You may need to Q-seventeen someone, too.”
He couldn’t help smiling. “Do you have some plan to get your sister out?”
“There is a sacred place, the walls of Rock Canyon, where all peoples go to draw the stories of their people. It is for all to see and the one place where there is no fighting or killing. I don’t know why, but since the time of our ancestors it has always been this way. It is a place respected by all. Because of the story pictures drawn there, all peoples know of the Sky People. The Sky People are feared by many.
“If you put the black part of your mask back down over your face so that they see only your round mask, I think that seeing one of the Sky People before them, they will be frightened enough that with the surprise of the moment, we can get in there, get my sister, and get away.
“I know that when I first saw you I was too frightened to move.” She smiled. “That was before I knew you, of course. I think we can use that fear to our advantage.”
He thought about it a moment. “That’s actually not a bad idea. Keep in mind, though, that surprise only works for so long and then it turns to anger.”
“Then we should get this done as quickly as possible,” she said as she urged her horse ahead.
Tom hurried to ride beside her. Big Dog galloped along right next to them. It was a brief ride that took them to the first encounter with guards at the outer fringes of the tents. Those men lifted their spears, holding them up above their heads to signal that the riders must stop.
When they saw Tom coming, the men’s eyes grew wide. They stepped back, afraid of what they were seeing.
“Where is the girl that was captured a few days ago?” River asked.
They stared at her as if she, too, were one of the Sky People. They looked too fearful to speak.
River pointed over at Tom sitting tall on his war pony. “This is one of the Sky People. He has come to see the girl that was captured. Tell me where she is, or he will burn your entire village to the ground. I won’t ask again.”
Several of the men fell to the ground, bowing forward dreading they would be struck down. One of the others, not knowing if he believed her, but fearing that she might be telling the truth, stepped back and pointed with his spear.
“There, over that way. The tent with the small red cloth tied to the top. That is the tent where she is being held.”
“Held for what purpose?”
He hesitated a moment. “She is being held until a man wishing for a wife can pay the proper price for her.”
He then fell to his knees with the others. “We bear no ill will to the Sky People and beg that they not harm us.”
Now that River knew where her sister was being held, she didn’t waste another instant. She charged past the men, causing them all to scatter.
Chapter 18
Tom rode to her right flank as she raced into the village in the direction the guard had pointed. As she wove her way in among the tents, she pulled her bow off her shoulder and drew an arrow from her quiver. She nocked the arrow and then held it in place with the fingers of the hand holding the bow. Holding on to her horse’s mane with her other hand, River leaned forward over the withers as her horse raced ahead, leaping over cook fires.
A number of people stared as she rode past, not knowing what to make of a woman on a war pony. While they had no idea of who she might be, they recognized the three fingers painted on the horses’ flanks, marking them as belonging to the Wolf People. These onlookers would never suspect someone, especially a woman, from the Sun People to ever dare to ride in among them on one of their own war ponies.
Mostly, though, people stared at the dark figure of Tom in his big round mask up on another one of their war ponies. It made no sense to them, but it frightened them. While a few people stood staring in shock and others ran screaming, most were so terrified of Tom that they fell to their knees to bow forward as if begging for their lives to be spared.
Big Dog, aroused by the prospect of getting to take down anyone who might try to hurt River, ran out in front of her, barking the whole time. He veered toward people to one side, snarling at them as they ran away, and then he charged to the other side. The wolf in him was readily apparent. He was a frightening sight with his fangs bared. Afraid of being bitten, many people fled before they even had a chance to see Tom. Big Dog provided an unexpected benefit of clearing many people out of their way before River and Tom even got there, making their progress that much quicker.
River at last spotted the pointed tent with the red cloth on top. She cut her horse to the right, in the direction of the tent. Her heart pounded with the fear of being in among so many Wolf People. If their panic and surprise gave way to anger, she would be in a g
reat deal of trouble.
An angry-faced man jumped out to block her way. He waved his arms and then raced forward to try to grab her leg and drag her off her horse. River put an arrow through his chest and charged her horse right over him.
At the tent with the red cloth, River and Tom rode around the outside to drive people away. Once they had scattered, Tom grabbed a flap of the tent material and pulled it away as they continued on around. It ripped the places where it was joined and then tore the whole covering away from the tent poles. He dragged it out of the way and dropped it.
Flower was cowered in the center, not knowing what was happening. She screamed in recognition when she saw River up on the horse. She was tied hands and feet, with the rope connected to a stake so that she couldn’t escape.
River leaped from the horse, pulling her knife at the same time. Fast as she could, she raced in to Flower and cut the ropes around the girl’s hands and feet. Overwhelmed to be free, Flower tried to throw her arms around River.
“Hurry!” River yelled, not wanting to take the time to hug her little sister. As overjoyed as River was to have found Flower, they still had to escape. There was no time for a joyful reunion.
River leaped up on her horse, then stretched down and grabbed Flower’s hand. A powerful-looking man without a shirt raced up behind Flower with an axe, clearly intending to split her head. Flower squealed in fright as she shuffled sideways, trying to avoid the man’s axe even as River held a tight grip on her hand.
Tom swooped in. He swung the war hammer as if he had used one from atop a horse his whole life. The stone hammer made a terrible sound as it crushed in the man’s head. The man toppled back. His misshapen head smacked the ground with a wet thud.
River gave a mighty pull on Flower’s arm, yanking her off her feet and swinging her up and around to land behind her on the horse. Flower threw her arms around River’s waist.
“Let’s go!” Tom yelled, as people were converging on them from every direction. His voice was louder than his normal voice and reverberated like a spirit calling out from the afterlife.
Without delay he led them charging through the crowd. Big Dog helped scare people out of the way.
As they raced away, River took the lead so that Tom could handle any trouble that might come up from behind. From the corner of her eye, she saw men in a distant corral mounting horses.
She raced through the confusion of tents, heading in the direction of her own village. Finally they broke out of the cluster of tents, but suddenly came upon a wall of men with spears. Their chief stood at the center of his line of warriors. When he held up a hand for them to halt, she saw why he was called Chief Three Fingers.
He had on a vest made of wolf fur with hawk feathers at each shoulder. His war chiefs to each side likewise wore wolf fur to denote their rank. His face was as weatherworn as her father’s and just as creased and brown.
It looked to River like he wanted to say something. Of course, what he might want to say was that they were to be put to death.
River and Tom pulled their horses to a stop before the wall of warriors. She didn’t want those men to use their spears on Big Dog, so she leaned down and told him to sit.
“You are brave to come into our village,” Chief Three Fingers said to her. He looked to Tom. “I see you have one of the Sky People with you. This is bad business. What do you think to accomplish?”
She kept her eyes on the chief, but she could sense people gathering to the sides and behind them.
River reached around and put a comforting hand on Flower’s back. “Your people stole my sister. I am the priestess of the Sun People. I vowed to get her back.”
He wore as grim an expression as she had ever seen. Wolf People had always been the stuff of her nightmares. The look of these men only reinforced her fear of them. Chief Three Fingers looked as if he had never smiled in his life.
While these men might have been afraid of Tom, they also found bravery in their numbers. They looked like they had no intention of fleeing as others had. These were fearless warriors who were always eager for a fight.
River didn’t know what to do, so she decided to do the worst thing she could think of.
“I am the one who killed your son, Great Hawk.”
He looked genuinely surprised. “That was you?”
“Yes. Did not your warriors tell you that it was a woman who killed your son? I would do it again to protect my sister from cowards who hide in the grass to steal women.”
The warriors to each side of the chief murmured in anger. They looked eager to drag her off her horse and rip her apart.
“What do you think you can do now, Priestess, with all of us here to stop you?”
“You want your revenge on the Sun People for the death of your son, am I right?”
He gave her a single nod. “We are going to kill all of your people for what you have done.”
“I’ll tell you what. I will give you your chance to kill us all. I will go back to my village and tell them that you will come tomorrow to kill everyone. But know that the Sky People”—she gestured to Tom—“have released us from our law. Now that the Sun People are released from their law, we will prepare to fight you when you come.
“Tomorrow, when you come, we will have a war. A real war.
“How would you like that? You can see then, if your brave warriors really can fight, or if they can only kill women and children. Do you think they are strong enough to fight, instead of murdering innocent, helpless people?”
He held up his hand with three fingers to silence the men to either side. “My brave young warriors are strong enough to fight anyone. Law or no law, the Sun People will not fight. They will cower as they always do when they see us, and then they will die.”
“If you are so sure of that, and if you really believe that your young warriors are strong enough, then you will let me go so I can tell my people that you will come tomorrow. We will see, then, if the Sun People will fight you or not. Unless you fear that they will?”
Chief Three Fingers leaned to one side, then the other, discussing it first with his war chiefs wearing wolf furs to one side, and then the war chiefs to the other.
He finally turned his attention back to River. “Because you have shown bravery, more than I have ever seen from any of the Sun People, or even many others, we will let you pass. But because you have killed my son, tomorrow we will come, and we will kill you and then all the rest of the Sun People.”
River didn’t know if Chief Three Fingers was letting her go because he meant what he said about her being brave, or if it was because he was worried what the Sky man on the horse beside her might do. Whatever the reason, River was only too eager to leave.
With a signal from Chief Three Fingers, the men to each side all pulled back out of the way. Once there was a wide opening, River urged her horse ahead at a walk. Tom walked his horse beside her. Flower squeezed her eyes closed and pressed her head against River’s back. Her arms tightly hugged River’s middle.
They rode for a time before she had the courage to look back. When she did, the Wolf People village was far behind and no one followed them.
Tom pressed the side of his round mask and the black portion vanished up into the top of the mask. River could feel Morning Flower trembling to be so close to one of the Sky People.
“It’s all right,” she whispered to Flower. “He is a friend.”
Her stomach felt like it was twisted in knots from the encounter with all those warriors. When Tom smiled at her, it melted away what was left of her fear and made her feel like all of the Sky People were smiling down on her.
Chapter 19
By the time they reached the Sun People’s village, the sun had set, but there was still a blush of deep color in the sky behind Spirit Mountain.
Sentries would have alerted everyone that she was coming with a stranger on war ponies, so River was not at all surprised to see that all of the Sun People, it seemed, had come out in the darkn
ess to line the broad, main passageway into the village. As they rode through torchlight, people were treated to a sight they would never have expected to see: River riding home on a Wolf war pony, bringing Morning Flower—a captured girl—back from captivity with the Wolf People, something that had never been done before.
But if that was startling, the unnerving sight of one of the Sky People as her companion was astonishing and terrifying.
People fell to their knees in waves, bowing down before the dark figure with the big round head. Many of those on their knees trembled in terror of what might befall them at the hands of a mysterious Sky person. While they all knew that River had vowed to call the Sky People, she doubted that there had been one among them who had believed she could actually do it.
In the main square, on the far side of a fire burning in the fire pit at the center, her father, Chief Standing Bear, had come to wait with other revered old men who were his advisors. She was pleased to see that Walking Stag was there to the side, now covered in war paint unlike any she had ever seen before.
Charged by River with the task of assembling strong men who could defend the Sun People, he had created a war paint design for him and all the young men assembled. She had to admit, he had done an admirable job. They all looked frightening. Walking Stag had never looked more handsome.
Despite the war paint and the weapons, River didn’t know if they were yet committed to actually fighting for their lives. They had been raised since birth to never kill, no matter what, or they would be cast into darkness in the afterlife, never to see the sun again. Painting their bodies was one thing, fighting and killing was quite another.
River slipped down off her horse and then helped Flower down. Once down, Morning Flower raced into her mother’s welcoming arms. Her father smiled down at his youngest daughter, tearful to be reunited with her people, then dropped to a knee and bowed his head as Tom dismounted.
River walked with Tom to stand before Chief Standing Bear as he returned to his feet.
The Sky People Page 8