The Sky People

by Terry Goodkind

“Chief Standing Bear,” River said, “I hope you will be pleased that as priestess I have called the Sky People to help us and I have freed your daughter from the Wolf People.”

  When her father looked from her to the open mask of the tall, dark figure beside her, River held a hand out to the stranger.

  “Chief Standing Bear, this is Tom-just-Tom.”

  Her father again bowed his head. “Welcome, Tom-just-Tom.”

  He waved a hand. “No, no, it’s just… Never mind.” He took a breath. “As I told Raging River when she told me that her friends call her River, those who are my friends call me Tom. I am a friend to the Sun People, as are all Sky People. I would be honored if you call me Tom.”

  “Welcome, Tom,” her father said, starting anew. “It has been since the time of our ancestors since the Sky People came to give us our laws. I hope my daughter has not angered you with her foolishness. I hope you will be pleased to find that our people have always followed the laws the Sky People have given us, even if River has failed in that duty.”

  Tom smiled. “No, I’m not at all angered that Priestess Raging River called me to return. The opportunity to once again visit the Sun People is a rare one.”

  River held out her arm to show them the armband she was wearing. She tapped it with a finger.

  “I called the Sky People with this. It is from Spirit Mountain.”

  Her father squinted down at it. All the advisors to each side leaned in to squint at it with him. They murmured their wonder to each other.

  Her father turned his attention to River once more. “How is it that you came to rescue Morning Flower?”

  “When I called the Sky People so that they may tell us about our laws, we were attacked by two Wolf People warriors. We had to kill them to defend ourselves.”

  Worried whispering spread out through the crowd at hearing this. Everyone watching feared that Tom might bring the wrath of the Sky People down on them.

  “You have killed yet again?” Her father moaned.

  River nodded. “We had to. We took their war ponies in order to make better time. By my decision, I rode into the Wolf People village and together with Tom’s help, we rescued Morning Flower.”

  Her father was shaking his head with incredulity. “And the Wolf People simply let you ride out with Flower? Their warriors did not try to stop you?”

  “Well, yes, they stopped us. I spoke with Chief Three Fingers—”

  Her father’s eyebrows went up at the very idea. “And he let you leave?”

  “Well, yes.”

  “They are Wolf People. Why would they let you leave with their captive?”

  “Because I invited Chief Three Fingers and his warriors to come here to the Sun People village tomorrow to have a great war with our brave warriors. He said that if we do not fight, then they will slaughter every last one of the Sun People. He let me go so I could tell you.”

  Her father was stricken speechless with alarm.

  “We cannot fight them!” one of his advisors cried out. “The Sky People who gave us our laws say that we must not kill!”

  “That’s right,” Chief Standing Bear said. “It is against our laws to kill. By inviting the Wolf People here to wage a war on us, you have condemned us all to death!”

  Tom finally lifted a hand to get everyone’s attention. He waited for silence to settle over the square.

  “It is not our way to give laws to others,” he said. “We believe that other people should live as they choose, even if the way they choose to live is not what we would wish. It is our law to leave others be.

  “The Sky People who came here in the past violated our laws by trying to give a law to your people. We believe that what your people were told so very long ago was wrong. I came to set it right.”

  “How could they be wrong? They were Sky People.”

  Tom clasped his hands a moment as he considered how to make them understand. “Were you afraid when you saw me?” he finally asked the chief.

  Standing Bear looked around self-consciously. “Yes. I admit that I was and still am fearful of what you will do to us.”

  “When people are afraid, they often misunderstand things. It is likely that your ancestors were afraid, too, and because they were so afraid, they misunderstood what they were told. Yes, it is wrong to kill people, to murder them, that is all those who came before meant.”

  “So, then our laws are right. We must not kill.”

  “You see, that’s where the misunderstanding comes in. Yes, killing is wrong,” Tom said, leaning in, “if it is murder. But it is not wrong to kill if absolutely necessary to defend yourself or your loved ones from being murdered. Killing in self-defense is not murder. Murder is wrong, not self-defense.”

  Her father looked bewildered. “The Sky People gave us the law—that if we kill—Father Sun would never return, and our people would die in the forever darkness.”

  Tom considered for a moment. “Do you say things to your daughter—tell her what to do—because you don’t believe in her and think she is too foolish to understand anything?”

  “No. I say things hoping to keep her safe, to keep her from making mistakes, or to teach her so as to make her a better person.”

  “And sometimes does she misunderstand your meaning, and take it for something else?”

  “Oh yes,” he said, nodding that it was one of the great miseries of his life. “Sometimes she takes what I say all wrong. This is very frustrating for a father.”

  Tom’s smile widened. “It is the same way in this. The intention was good—to say that people must not murder one another because their life is sacred.

  “But by that same truth, your life is sacred as well and others may not take your lives.”

  “But if we kill in self-defense, then we have taken a sacred life.”

  “If they murder or attempt to murder, they have violated the highest law of life itself and then they have forfeited their right to their own life. You have the right to defend yourself and if necessary kill them to preserve your own life or the innocent life of those you love and protect.”

  “That’s called Q-seventeen authority,” River said.

  Her father frowned in confusion. “Q-seventeen?”

  “Yes,” she said. “It is often difficult to understand the things Tom says. Believe me, I have had a difficult time of it. His language is sometimes strange to my ears. But I learned that to kill because it is justified to protect yourself or other innocent people, it is called Q-seventeen authority.”

  The frowning chief looked from her up to Tom. “Is what my daughter says true?”

  Tom made a face. “Well… yes. Our people—the Sky People—call this Q-seventeen authority, but that is only our way of speaking, our language. You simply call it self-defense.

  “The point is,” Tom went on, “the Wolf People do not have the right to take your lives, just as you have no right to go out and kill them. That’s murder.

  “When they come to make war and kill you, your duty is to protect your own lives even if it means you must kill them. Sometimes the threat of force—making others believe they will die if they try to harm you—is the best way to discourage them from killing. Then no one fights, and no one dies.”

  Walking Stag took a step closer. “Does this mean that when the Wolf People come tomorrow, and they try to kill us, it is our right to fight back and kill them if we must to make them stop?”

  “That’s right,” Tom said.

  “It’s more than right,” River told Walking Stag. “They have no right to our lives. We must fight back, or we are betraying the true meaning of the law the Sky People gave us.”

  The frowning chief looked to Tom. “Is this true, then, as my daughter says?”

  “It is,” Tom said with a nod.

  He looked like he still feared to accept the simple truth of it, so River urged Big Dog forward and had him sit before the chief.

  “When I found Big Dog as a pup and raised him by my side, what is it you
always told me?”

  Her father smiled slightly at the memory. “I told you to always trust your dog.”

  “And what did you mean by that?”

  “I meant that your dog will know if someone is a bad person and means you harm.”

  “When those Wolf People warriors up on Spirit Mountain followed me and tried to kill me, Big Dog attacked them to protect me. When we went into the Wolf People village to rescue Flower, Big Dog scared people who tried to harm me away from us and he would have killed anyone who tried to kill me.

  “Big Dog just naturally follows the law as the Sky People intended it, as our sun father meant when he created us. Big Dog is a friend to good people and would never harm them, but he will fight anyone who intends me harm. He will kill to protect me. It is his nature, as nature intends. Good should always fight against evil when it tries to harm you.”

  “Raging River has it right,” Tom said.

  Her father was nodding. “I think we understand now. We have been as foolish as children, and in that foolishness, have let others kill our people.”

  Tears welled up in his eyes as he gazed out over all the people watching. “No more,” he said in a strong, clear voice of the chief that rang out over all those gathered. “We do not murder, but from now on we will fight to protect ourselves and the lives of those who are innocent. To the death if we must.”

  Tom grinned. “Chief Standing Bear, you are a good and wise chief. You understand what I have come all this way to tell you. You understand what your ancestors misunderstood. You are a wise chief to correct the mistakes of the past.”

  The chief frowned. “I have always wondered something. Where do the Sky People come from? Where is it that you live?”

  Tom pointed up at the sky. Everyone looked up with him.

  “I come from out there, among the stars.”

  “Then you look down on our people, the way our Sun Father intended.”

  Tom nodded as he smiled. “That’s right. And just as Father Sun does not tell you how to live your lives, neither do we.

  “But my time here grows short. Now that I have set things right again, I will soon have to leave.”

  “But the Wolf People are coming tomorrow for a war,” River said. “You can’t leave us before then. I started this war when I killed trying to save my sister and then when we rode in to their village and we stole her back. You must be here tomorrow. I need your help. Please. It’s important.”

  He rested a hand on her shoulder. “I can stay at least that long.”

  “But they are coming for war,” her father said in a worried voice.

  Raging River showed him a cunning smile.

  “I have a plan.”

  Chapter 20

  It was a clear, bright day for war. River had let Tom sleep in her small home while she spent the night with She Who Knows the Moon. The old woman was eager to hear all that had happened.

  River had been up for hours, painting black bands across the eyes of all the warriors. She told them that it was the mask of the priestess and would give them power. Men often believed what a woman told them. She hoped they believed it when they went into the battle. She hoped it would help them.

  They had all been in the square and had heard what Tom had told them. They had heard what their chief had told them, that they would protect themselves.

  She called to Tom from outside her small home. He pulled back the covering of the doorway and smiled to her.

  “Oh good,” he said. “I was just getting up.”

  He was pulling together parts of his dull black outfit. It made a strange sound as the open pieces joined together and became one. It seemed like magic, but he had assured her that he had no magic.

  River was taken by surprise to see him without his big round mask. She was used to him in it all the time. Without the big round mask, she could see that he had the head of a normal man. She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised by that, but she was, just a little. She was also surprised to see that his hair was a lighter color than that of her people. She had never seen hair like his before, and like everything else about him, she found it captivating.

  “I’m sorry if I called you too soon,” she told him. She hadn’t wanted to disturb him, but she was worried without him nearby.

  He was holding the round mask under an arm. “No, no. I was talking with Control. My time is running out.”

  Big Dog went right up to him, tail wagging, looking for attention. Tom smiled broadly and scratched Big Dog under the chin. Big Dog barked once. It was his “Let’s play” bark.

  “Not now, Big Dog. Maybe later.”

  River didn’t know that the Sky People understood dog barks, but clearly Tom did, because that was exactly what Big Dog wanted. Tom took a deep breath, as if the air was the best he had ever breathed.

  “Boy, something smells good. I’m starving.”

  “You will have to wait until later,” she told him.

  “It’s been a long time since I had such a good night’s sleep in such a wonderful place. I wish I could stay here forever.”

  “I wish so as well, but it may not be wonderful for long. The Wolf People will likely start out at dawn, so they will be here soon.”

  “Right. Time for a war.”

  “Do you think my plan will work?”

  He gripped her shoulders and faced her squarely. “You are the only one who can make it work. This is your time. I will be there beside you. I believe in you.”

  River couldn’t help smiling. Then, she couldn’t resist hugging him. It was more of a brotherly hug, she told herself. He hugged her back and it was wonderful. Then they separated.

  “Walking Stag is a lucky man.”

  River frowned. “Why would you say that?”

  Tom laughed. “Because he is, that’s all.”

  He slipped his big round mask down over his head a little crooked, then turned it straight. The ring on the top of his dark outfit and the one on the mask slid together until she heard a click. He finally looked normal again.

  Together River and Tom went to the edge of the village and watched as Walking Stag put all his young warriors in a line, preparing to fight. Tom walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

  “Good job, Walking Stag. Good job. They look very fine.”

  Walking Stag beamed. “Thank you.”

  “But do you mind if I make a few suggestions?”

  “I’m sure you know more about fighting war than I do. It would be an honor to have any suggestion from a Sky man.”

  “All right, then, here’s what we want to do. The object is to gain an advantage before any fighting starts. What you want to do is look formidable so that they have second thoughts about attacking.

  “Right now, your men are all lined up right here in front of the broad passageway into your village. That’s fine, and I see why you did it—to protect the village and your people—but let’s move them to positions where they will be more effective at fighting if your priestess can’t stop the war, what do you say?”

  Walking Stag was eager for the help. River suspected the young warrior was nervous because he was in charge and had no experience. She was glad to see that he had no jealousy and instead listened carefully, taking Tom’s suggestions seriously. Listening and learning was the mark of a wise man. She had chosen Walking Stag for the task because she had believed he was the right man, and now he was showing that he was.

  As River watched, her father joined her.

  “What is he doing?”

  “He is making it to give the Wolf People fear of attacking, and if they do and there is a war, we will have a better chance. I think he is positioning the men in a way that they can trap and overpower the Wolf People warriors if they come in to attack.”

  Her father nodded. Then he pointed off toward the horizon.

  “They come.”

  “How do you know? I can’t see them.”

  “I can see the hint of dust they raise.”

  “When
they come,” River said, “I would like to be the one to speak to them. Chief Three Fingers knows me. He said I was brave. I think that it would go better if a woman talked to him.”

  “You want to speak for us? Why is a woman better?”

  “Because what a woman says is less of a challenge than the same words coming from a man, and more believable as truth.”

  “Do you really think it makes that much difference? When they have their mind set on war, what difference could it make? I am the chief of the Sun People. Chief Three Fingers will expect to talk to our chief, man-to-man.”

  River smiled as she patted the flat of her hand on her father’s chest.

  “Yes, there is no question that you are brave, but please, Father, I am the priestess. Besides, all of this is my doing. I am the one who killed Chief Three Fingers’s son and angered them to war. If I am the one facing him, maybe instead of war he will kill me and be satisfied.”

  “You do not think we can win a war with them?”

  “It doesn’t matter if I believe it. Chief Three Fingers must believe it. If I can make him have reason to fear war, then maybe there will be no war. If killing me will be enough to satisfy his bloodlust, then so be it. I would make the sacrifice of my life if it will prevent a war in which many people die.”

  He looked down at her for a long time, the creases in his face looking more tight than usual.

  “Chief Three Fingers is right. You are brave. Foolish at times, but brave. I will let you speak for us, but I will be right beside you. If it goes badly, then maybe our priestess and our chief will be all the blood he needs today.”

  Chapter 21

  River stood tall as she waited for Chief Three Fingers and his war party to approach. On her left arm she wore the Sky People armband she had gotten up on Spirit Mountain. Tom had told her that she should keep it. He had even shown her how to make it light up with lines and symbols—he said just for the fun of it.

  To River, it was as close to a spiritual object as she could imagine. In her most desperate hour, it had called the Sky People. It had brought Tom, the most amazing, kind, beautiful man she had ever met. It felt good on her arm.