Redbird could not stand up. She felt no strength at all in her trembling legs.
"Eagle Feather!" she cried. She called her son again and again.
He came and stood before her. "Is Floating Lily dead? Did they kill her?"
"Yes," said Redbird.
Eagle Feather began to cry. "Why did they kill my little sister?"
Redbird felt a touch on her shoulder. Wolf Paw"s hand. His forehead was gashed and blood was running down into one eye that was swollen and shut.
"I thought they killed you," she said.
"It would have been good if they had."
"No," she said, "do not wish that."
Redbird sensed a silence and realized that Yellow Hair was no longer crying. She and Wolf Paw were staring at each other.
Now, thought Redbird, Yellow Hair could have her revenge for her father"s death, for her own suffering. All she had to do was tell the villagers who Wolf Paw was, the leader of the war band that had attacked Victor. The brave who had kidnapped her. The long knives could not--would not--stop the people from killing him on the spot.
Yellow Hair sighed and put her arm around Redbird"s shoulders. Perhaps she didn"t want revenge. Redbird was too sick with grief to wonder much about it.
Wolf Paw said, "Four others are dead, and many more are hurt. We will carry our dead away from this place. I think the long knives will let us bury them farther along this trail."
Holding Floating Lily"s body tightly, Redbird let Wolf Paw take her by the elbows and lift her to her feet. She felt Yellow Hair"s arm still around her shoulders. She began to cry quietly.
Wolf Paw said, "Even though you grieve for your baby, the people who are wounded need your help. Sun Woman taught you, and you were White Bear"s wife and Owl Carver"s daughter. You are the only one who knows what to do."
"I have hardly any medicines left," she said.
"You can pray for those who are hurt," Wolf Paw said. "And when we bury the dead, you can speak to their spirits for us."
_You must be the spirit walker for the British Band._
A long knife rode over and spoke to Yellow Hair. Redbird understood that he was telling her that she could not stay with the Sauk prisoners.
In the way they had learned to talk to each other Yellow Hair told Redbird that she would have gladly died to save Floating Lily. She promised to do what she could for the remaining people.
"You, me, sisters," Redbird said.
Yellow Hair put her arms around Redbird, pressing Floating Lily between them. She bent and kissed Redbird on the cheek, her tears wetting Redbird"s face.
Redbird glanced up at the long knife who had spoken to Yellow Hair. His mouth under his yellow mustache twisted in scorn.
Yellow Hair began to sob again, and her arms tightened around Redbird.
Redbird felt White Bear"s aunt and uncle gently trying to pull Yellow Hair away from her.
The mounted long knife shouted angrily. Would they shoot Yellow Hair if she didn"t leave?
Frightened for Yellow Hair, Redbird twisted her arms and shoulders and broke free from her.
The fat woman and the sandy-haired man drew Yellow Hair away. But her sobs became louder, turned to screams.
"My baby!"
Redbird knew those pale eyes" words. And it was true, she thought. Had not Yellow Hair been in the birthing wickiup with Redbird? Had she not been present for every instant of Floating Lily"s early life? Was she not also White Bear"s wife?
_She feels the same pain I do._
Yellow Hair"s screams died away as White Bear"s aunt and uncle half carried her away from the trail. Her cries were drowned out by the shouts of the long knives, ordering the Sauk to get to their feet and start walking again.
As Redbird, holding Floating Lily, stumbled down the trail she looked at the crowd in the field. They were not shouting or throwing rocks now.
They just stared. Perhaps they were satisfied.
Her eyes met those of the brown-bearded man who had torn Floating Lily from her arms. He saw her holding her dead daughter, and his face was still red and rigid with hatred.
She had understood enough of his tongue to understand what he had shouted at her: _You kill my wife_.
At the sight of him she felt heavy as a stone. There was nothing she could do that would bring Floating Lily back. Her baby"s little feet were on the Trail of Souls. Only death would free Redbird from pain.
Wolf Paw, once again carrying Eagle Feather, walked beside her. She sensed someone walking on her other side and turned to look. She saw a shrunken, wizened woman with a sad face. It took her a moment to realize that it was her mother, Wind Bends Gra.s.s.
Many footsteps later, when their trail pa.s.sed through woods, the long knives let them stop. They unstrapped small shovels from their saddles and gave them to some of the men. The Sauk men dug five deep graves and placed the bodies--three women, one man, and a baby--sitting upright in them.
Wolf Paw dug Floating Lily"s grave, letting Eagle Feather do part of the work.
Before covering Floating Lily with earth, Redbird tore a small strip from the red blanket the fat woman had given her and set it beside the grave.
When the five were buried Redbird saw the eyes of all the people turned toward her, and she knew they expected her, in spite of the grief that was killing her, to complete the rite.
First, she sang.
"In your brown blanket, O Earthmaker, Wrap your children and carry them away, Fold them again in your body ..."
When she had finished the song, she spoke to the dead.
"You are innocent of wrongdoing," she said. "You have no debt to pay, no promise to keep. You have kept faith and walked with honor the path that led to these graves. Do not linger here in hope of avenging yourselves on those who killed you. Great happiness awaits you in the West. The Owl spirit will show you how to set your feet on the Trail of Souls. Go now, begin your journey."
After she had spoken, the people broke willow wands from trees growing by the water and set them upright on the mounds of earth. Redbird took the piece of red blanket and tied it to the end of the wand over Floating Lily"s grave.
_Your path on this earth was a short one, my daughter. But the earth is not a good place for our people just now. And many, many of your Sauk brothers and sisters will journey with you on the Trail of Souls. Go now into the West, and your father and brother and I will one day follow after, and we will all be together again._
As she stepped back from the grave she remembered how, two days ago, far to the north, she had seen this grave in her mind and had fainted. With a sinking heart she understood how terrible were the shaman"s gifts she had longed for all her life.
The long knives had sat silently beside the trail, letting their horses graze while the people buried their dead. They did not seem worried that anyone might try to escape. After all, where could a Sauk go in this country? Once they might have walked freely anywhere this side of the Great River. Now all who lived in this land hated them.
Redbird could not tell whether the long knives were ashamed that they let these people in their care be killed. Maybe they were pleased, maybe it did not matter to them. When the people came out of the woods, the long knives stood up, silent and expressionless, and mounted their horses again for the journey south.