what the law of the Sauk and Fox decrees for anyone who disturbs a man
on a spirit journey, even to help him. They take you to the Great River.
In the summer they would throw you in with rocks tied to you. In this
season they chop a hole in the ice and they push you in. The current
flows swiftly under the ice. It carries you away from the opening, and
you drown there in the cold and dark."

Redbird shrank back. Owl Carver had felt her pain when she first came to
him, but now he was angry. She sensed that behind that anger there
lurked fear. Fear that she might risk her life for Gray Cloud.

"Your mother has been calling for you," he said. "Go and help her with
her work."

Afraid to say any more, Redbird hurried past him and lifted the heavy
buffalo skin that covered the doorway of the family's wickiup. She
looked over her shoulder once and saw that her father was once again
looking toward the river where Gray Cloud had gone. Owl Carver held his
hands behind his back, knotting them together.

He was afraid for Gray Cloud, too. As she sensed that, her heart sank
further.

Entering the wickiup she saw, silhouetted against the light of the low
fire in the center, a figure rising up big as a buffalo, her half
brother, Iron Knife. Redbird took his hands in greeting.

"Gray Cloud will be well," Iron Knife said in a low, gruff voice.

Iron Knife was always kind to her. She was grateful for his words, but
she knew they were no more than a well-meant wish. Though Iron Knife was
the son of Owl Carver by his first wife, he had not a trace of the
shaman's ability to foretell events. Iron Knife could see only with his
eyes, hear only with his ears. His mother had died giving birth to him,
and there were those who said the spirits had chosen to give him no
gifts because he had killed his mother. Redbird had even heard that
while in mourning Owl Carver had predicted that Iron Knife would one day
be killed by a man whose mother had also died giving birth to him. No
one dared speak of these things in Iron Knife's presence.

Redbird knew she had more of the shaman in her than Iron Knife. She
knew, as her father did, that right now Gray Cloud was in terrible
danger.

"Where have you been?" Wind Bends Grass called out from the shadows. She
and Redbird's sisters were already bedded down for the night on
buffalo-robe pallets along the wall of the wickiup. Wind Bends Grass and
her two little girls, Wild Grape and Robin's Nest, slep