Redbird thought, but they had
killed his spirit. She would try to heal him. Nothing would bring back
Floating Lily, but perhaps she could give new life to this man.

When they stopped to sleep that night she lay on her back on the ground
staring up at the sky, Eagle Feather snuggled close to her, Wolf Paw and
Wind Bends Grass nearby.

A bird appeared on a tree limb overhead.

Even though it was night, she could somehow see that the bird's plumage
was a red as bright as the strip of blanket she had left on Floating
Lily's grave. Around his eyes was a black mask, and on his head a crest
of red feathers.

The bird flew to a more distant tree limb, and she felt that he called
her to follow him. She stood up, and none of the sleeping people noticed
her. She walked past a long knife on guard with a rifle, and he looked
right through her.

The bright bird darted into a black opening in the hillside above the
river, and Redbird followed. In the cave all she could see was the glow
of red wings far ahead of her. There were many twists and turns, and she
went down very far.

She began to see light ahead. It appeared so gradually that her eyes
adjusted to it easily, and when she came to a chamber that was brightly
lit she was neither dazzled nor blinded.

The walls of the chamber rose high above her, hard and smooth and clear
as ice, and they glistened with a light that seemed to be everywhere
behind them. She heard a murmuring and a rustling, and saw in niches cut
into the wall many kinds of creatures, plants and animals and birds. She
looked down at fish swimming restlessly in the dark pool that formed
most of the floor.

In the center of the pool was an island, and on the island a huge
ancient Turtle squatted on four wrinkled, gray-green legs.

_Welcome, daughter_, said the Turtle.

22

Renegade

Raoul sat on the edge of his chair in Fort Crawford's assembly room,
waiting for the guards to bring in Auguste. In a row beside him sat
seven other militia officers, all of whom had been witnesses against the
Indian leaders.

Raoul discovered all at once that he was trembling with anticipation.

_Let today be the day_--it was almost a prayer, but he did not know who
would hear such a prayer--_let them string him up today_.

_Let me see that damned mongrel die._

Today the commanders of the army that had defeated Black Hawk would tell
the Sauk and Fox leaders their fate. The less important Indians were to