llage was not trying to hold him. Sun Woman, Owl Carver, Black
Hawk, were pushing him out, as they would a man who was so wicked he
could not be allowed to live with the people. He felt utterly alone.

What did he know of the pale eyes? Only the little that Pere Isaac had
taught him. And that they were great land thieves. Always they were
scheming to take land away from the people who had held it since the
Great River first began to flow from the Turtle's breast. Why must he
live among his people's enemies?

Owl Carver sprang from his seat. He leaped at White Bear and crouched
before him. His eyes opened wide as those of his totem bird. White Bear
felt himself pulled toward their black centers, as if they were
whirlpools in the Great River. Owl Carver's long white hair fanned out
like wings on either side of his head.

"_You will listen!_" Owl Carver said in a soft voice of terrible
intensity. "_You will hear!_"

Silently White Bear stood looking at the shaman.

"You are the son of my spirit as much as you are the son of Star Arrow's
body. I tell you to live with this man as I told you to go to the sacred
cave in the Moon of Ice. This is a far greater test for you. Going to
live with the pale eyes will be like journeying to another sacred cave.
And you will bring back other visions."

White Bear saw in the blackness of Owl Carver's eyes that if he defied
this decision he would lose his place in the tribe. There was no way to
break free from the current that was sweeping him away from Saukenuk.

White Bear felt as if something in him had broken. He held his face
expressionless. He did not want to show his hurt before the tribe. But
he knew he would soon be unable to stop himself from weeping.

Among the witnessing people he saw anguish and determination struggling
in Sun Woman's face. Others looked at him only with curiosity, not
sympathy. In all the people around him, the only face that shared his
unrelieved wretchedness was Redbird's. His gaze met hers, and the pain
they felt together deepened his despair.

Black Hawk spoke in a low voice over his shoulder to Wolf Paw, who stood
up. As he left the circle before Owl Carver's medicine lodge, Wolf Paw
glanced at White Bear, and White Bear saw the light of triumph in his
eyes.

Black Hawk held a hand out to Star Arrow. "If we let you take White
Bear, you must one day let him return to us, bringing his new knowledge
to help the Sauk."

Owl Carver moved from his