"No," he said. "They will go as far as the western ocean. The Turtle
warned me about this." He stroked her hair lightly, and she rested her
head on his shoulder.

She had a heart-crushing feeling that she would never lie like this with
him again.

"You are so much better today," she said.

"You, too, know the way of the shaman now. You healed me."

She lifted her head and looked into his eyes. This was the moment when
they must decide.

"I am the only shaman our people have now," she forced herself to say.
"The few who are left need me. I must go back to them."

His eyes shut tight suddenly, as if his wound was paining him.

"Stay here with me," he said.

His words struck her and tore through her, as his uncle's bullet had
torn through him.

"I could never stay here. When you are well enough, will you not come
back to your people?"

He shook his head. "We cannot fight the pale eyes and we cannot run from
them. They will destroy us. Unless we learn to live as the pale eyes
do."

"That destroys us too."

"That saves us!" His nostrils flared and his dark eyes glowed. "I can
use the power this wealth and this land gives me to fight for our
people. And you can do it with me. And Eagle Feather. I will show the
people how to make use of pale eyes' ways. I will share my land with
them."

Her heart felt as if it were being ground between stones. This, she
understood, was what she must suffer because she had used her shaman's
powers to hurt another. She was going to lose White Bear. She had saved
him from death. He was going to live, but not with her.

The claws of that giant Bear that was his other self seemed to stab into
her chest and tear her in two. She could not live with this pain. She
must surrender to White Bear.

_Yes, I must stay with him. I cannot leave him. Eagle Feather needs him.
We will be safe here, and comfortable, and at peace._

She would send for Eagle Feather. The fat aunt and the grandfather would
love them and care for them.

She tried to see herself living here with White Bear. For a moment the
picture was clear in her mind. Then it dissolved in blackness as she
realized that taking herself out of the Sauk tribe would be like pulling
a medicine plant up by its roots without its consent.

She would die. It would be a slow death that would be worse than the
pain she was suffering now.

And then another thought struck her.

_Children!_

Her heart felt heavy as a mountain.

S