her and was good to her, but if she tried to interfere
in his holy calling, he would be furious. He would never agree to bring
Gray Cloud down from the cave before he came down on his own. Such a
thing was against the way of the shaman.

She was still wondering what she dared say when she came to her family's
wickiup and found Owl Carver standing beside it, hands clasped behind
his back, staring eastward toward the Great River.

As she shuffled through the snow toward him, he turned and held out his
hands. When she reached him, he put his hands on her shoulders. She
peered into his face, hard to see now that night had fallen, and tried
to read it.

Owl Carver's face was flat. His long white hair was bound at his
forehead with a beaded band and fell from there to his shoulders,
spreading like a white shawl. His necklace of little round, striped
shells of the water creatures called megis rattled in the wind.

She trembled inwardly in his presence. The shaman of the tribe could
both heal and kill.

"How can he live in this blizzard?" she said, almost weeping.

"Did you not see the lightning, my daughter, and hear the thunder? Do
you think that merely betokens a young man freezing to death? Hear
me--once in a thousand years a man comes among us who is capable of
being a Great Shaman. Of being to other shamans, like myself, what
Earthmaker is to the lesser spirits of beasts and birds. But to be
known, and to discover the greatness of his powers, such a man must be
as greatly tested. I saw in Gray Cloud a man beyond the ordinary."

Owl Carver's willingness to talk made Redbird feel bolder. "Surely Gray
Cloud has been in the sacred cave long enough, my father. Will you not
go now and bring him down?"

He pushed her away, staring at her. "Earthmaker decides what is enough.
A man must _suffer_ to be worthy of the power his spirit guide bestows
on him. When I first began to walk the shaman's path, I wandered far
away into the great desert of the West and nearly died of hunger and
thirst. I did not suffer as much as Gray Cloud is suffering. But that is
because he can be a much greater shaman than I, if he lives. If he does
not live, he is like a foal born lame in the springtime. The wolves must
get him. It is Earthmaker's way."

Frightened though she was, Redbird forced herself to speak up. "There is
suffering that even the strongest cannot bear."

Owl Carver took a step toward her, his eyes round with anger. "Remember