e walls. Hard-faced long knives in
blue jackets surrounded the Sauk, pointing rifles at them. Redbird drew
the sling in which she carried Floating Lily around from her back to
hold her tight. With one hand she pulled Eagle Feather, who stumbled
under a heavy blanket roll, close to her.

"You will all camp in the field beside the fort," said Wave. "If anyone
tries to escape, those left behind will be punished."

Redbird heard a wordless cry from behind her. She turned and was
astonished to see a group of gray shadows standing in a meadow outside
the fort. She saw they were Sauk women, some holding babies, some with
small children standing beside them.

Redbird swung Floating Lily around to her back and rushed to the silent
women, praying that among them she would see Sun Woman or her sisters.
She moved more slowly as she realized that the eyes of each silent face
she peered into were lifeless and the mouths slack.

These few, she grasped with horror, were all that was left of the people
who had tried to cross the Great River at the Bad Axe. Just as White
Bear had predicted.

She came to Water Flows Fast, barely able to recognize her. She had
changed terribly, a change that had begun when the long knives killed
her husband, Three Horses, at Old Man's Creek. The older woman's face
had lost its roundness. Her cheeks sagged and her head shook with a
constant tremor.

"Is it really you, Redbird? In the flesh? I am not on the Trail of
Souls?"

Redbird drew Water Flows Fast to her.

"Redbird, they killed everybody. They kept killing and killing. They
would not stop. Even babies. I don't know why I'm still alive. My
children are dead. They tried to swim away, and the long knives shot
them in the water."

Wild Grape, Redbird's younger sister, rushed up to her. They fell into
each other's arms, weeping. Redbird had never loved her sister as much
as she did at this moment.

Wild Grape said, "I saw Robin's Nest die. She stood before a long knife.
She was holding her baby son. She begged for her life. He just smiled
and shot her. She dropped the baby, and the long knife shot him on the
ground. They would have killed me, but a long knife chief came along and
stopped it."

"And Iron Knife?" Redbird asked. "What about Iron Knife?"

Wild Grape drew back and looked at Redbird with huge eyes. "Redbird, one
of them cut off Iron Knife's head."

Redbird screamed as Wild Grape babbled on.

"Yes, with a knife this big." She h