they
were marching to this place, a soldier had taken White Bear's
deerhorn-handled knife from Redbird. It was the same soldier who had
come with Yellow Hair today, the one with the red face and the yellow
mustache. It would be well if Yellow Hair could get it from him so they
could bring it back to White Bear. It would give him strength.

"I brought money with me," Nancy said. "I will buy it back from him if I
have to."

_I'll get it back from him if I have to kill him._

* * * * *

Redbird's eyes blurred as she stared at White Bear's face, as pale as
the moon. She wanted to scream, to throw herself weeping on his form.
Her longing to see him open his eyes, to hear his voice, was so strong
it hurt her. She remembered the night of his vision quest, when she was
sure he would freeze to death. She thought of the summers they had been
apart, the nights they had lain together. She thought of poor, dead
Floating Lily and of blue-eyed Eagle Feather, left in Wolf Paw's
keeping.

_O come back to me, White Bear!_

She had never tried to heal anyone this close to death. When she and
Yellow Hair arrived, the grandfather said that White Bear had sometimes
opened his eyes and spoken. But each day he had been awake a shorter
time.

Redbird saw that White Bear was already wandering in the other world. A
thread no stronger than a strand of spider's silk linked his spirit with
his body.

She let the love she felt for White Bear flow through her, giving her
strength. She felt the eyes of Yellow Hair, the grandfather and the old
servant upon her, but she ignored them. She squatted down on the floor
beside White Bear's bed and unrolled the blanket in which she carried
her medicines and supplies and the possessions White Bear had left with
her at the Bad Axe.

Her eye fell on the bundle of talking papers White Bear had cherished
so, that he said was called something like "The Lost Land of Happiness."
There was power in that bundle of words. Gently she laid it on his left
side, near the wound. On his right she placed the knife that Yellow Hair
had been able to retrieve for her.

Arranging the three medicine bags on the floor, she took pieces of elm
bark from the largest one and gave them to Yellow Hair.

"Make a tea for him from this. It will give him strength when he
awakens."

She forced herself to turn her back on White Bear and go out of the
house. With her she carried the blanket and the m