shed. And hungry. A
cure for that was quickly produced for her; and now she was sitting on a
pale eyes' chair at a pale eyes' table, devouring slices of fried pig
meat and fluffy cakes brought to her by the old servant.

Seated across from her was a fat, smiling woman she had met once
before. This woman had tried to comfort her the day Floating Lily was
killed. This, she knew, was White Bear's aunt.

Yellow Hair, tears streaming from her turquoise eyes, appeared in the
doorway of the room where White Bear lay.

White Bear, she said, wanted Redbird to come to him.

Redbird's hunger vanished. She went rigid.

_Yellow Hair weeps now, but I will weep forever after._

She heard the suffering in Yellow Hair's voice and knew that her heart
was hurting because she believed Redbird was going to take White Bear
away from her.

Redbird knew better. She had defiled her powers by using them to destroy
White Bear's uncle, and now she must pay for it.

The lance twisted in her heart as she stood up at the table.

The fat woman stood up when Redbird did, came around the table and
hugged her. She smelled of fresh-baked bread.

Redbird walked past Yellow Hair to enter the bedroom. White Bear was
reclining with pillows behind his head in the bed where he had lain for
so many days. His chest was bare except for the white bindings that
protected his wound. The wrappings made his olive skin look darker, and
above the cloth Redbird could see the start of the five shining scars
that ran down his chest.

The leaves had been cleared away from the quilt that covered him. His
bundle of talking papers telling the story of the first man and woman
and how they lost their land of happiness was on the table beside his
bed. Next to it lay the knife Star Arrow had given him when he was a
small boy.

When he saw her his face glowed and he held out his arms to her. She
rushed to him, and heard a cry of pain behind her. The door of the
bedroom shut softly.

She threw herself across the bed, longing to hold White Bear. His arms
around her were not as strong as she remembered them, but his embrace
was firm.

"You came to me while my spirit wandered on the prairie," he said.

"The Redbird guided me to you."

"Before you came I saw many things."

"What things?"

He said, "The pale eyes will spread across the Great River and even
into the Great Desert. There will be no place left for our people."

"If we go far enough west--" she began.