As they plowed steadily onward, Redbird saw figures moving about in the village. They must be terribly sleepy, she thought. Dawn was still a long way off. Still, more and more people were running back and forth among the wickiups. They were crowding in this direction, coming to meet Gray Cloud and Iron Knife and Redbird. A ma.s.s of people, dark against the moonlit snow.
In the front rank walked Owl Carver himself. The sacred necklace of megis sh.e.l.ls swung on his chest. In one hand he held his medicine stick, a cedar staff decorated with feathers and beads, topped with the carved head of an owl. His long white hair spread out over his shoulders.
She could hear a murmuring of voices, and above them, the shaman, her father, singing:
"Let the people welcome him.
He has walked the spirit trail.
He comes back From the sky, From the water, From under the earth.
He comes back from the seven directions.
Let the people welcome him."
Owl Carver was dancing as he approached them, a slow, heavy shuffle alternating with sidesteps, his upper body rising and falling. His hands, one holding his medicine stick, the other a yellow and red gourd rattle, were lifted high over his head. The necklace of small black and white sh.e.l.ls bounced on his chest.
Iron Knife, carrying Gray Cloud, came to a stop before Owl Carver.
Redbird, not wanting people to know how she cared for Gray Cloud, drew away from Iron Knife and tried to melt into the crowd.
Taking a few more steps, Owl Carver placed himself facing east, with Iron Knife and Gray Cloud on his right. He danced in a sunwise circle around them, from east to south to west to north, bobbing his head and singing.
"The Great Wise One has sent him.
He has walked the spirit trail.
He brings wisdom From the sky, From the water, From under the earth.
He comes back from the seven directions.
The Great Wise One has sent him."
Nine times Owl Carver danced around Gray Cloud and Iron Knife in the circle that represented the sun, the horizon and the cycles of life and the seasons.
Then in his normal voice, not breaking step, he said, "Bring him to my medicine wickiup."
He turned abruptly and danced through the crowd that had gathered. The people parted to let him through and they stared at Gray Cloud"s body in Iron Knife"s arms.
The people who had followed Owl Carver had stamped down a path through the village. No longer needing Sun Woman"s snowshoes, Redbird bent and unstrapped them from her feet. She was suddenly so exhausted by her efforts and by the fear and sleeplessness of two days that she could hardly stumble along behind Iron Knife. She felt that at any moment she might faint.
The light of the full moon, shining down from directly overhead and reflecting on the snow, seemed to make the whole village almost as bright as day. Sighing, Redbird looked up and saw Wolf Paw staring at her from beside the path.
His black eyes pierced her like arrowheads. Under his sharp nose his mouth was tight.
She nodded her head at him, hoping he would understand that she was saying that they should keep each other"s secrets.
"Redbird!" A hand seized her arm roughly, and pain shot through up to her shoulder.
Her mother, Wind Bends Gra.s.s, glared at her furiously.
"Why did you leave our wickiup?"
Redbird felt that if she stopped walking to talk she would never be able to move again. She pulled her arm free. Her sisters, clinging to either side of her mother, stared up wide-eyed at her as if she herself had returned from a spirit journey.
Her mother walked beside her, scolding her in a shrill voice, but her words meant nothing to Redbird. She only wanted to see Gray Cloud brought safely to the shaman"s wickiup.
Someone else took her arm, squeezing it gently, and she looked up into Sun Woman"s face. Tears streaked the strong cheekbones.
"You saved his life," Sun Woman said, so softly only Redbird could hear the words.
"I did nothing," Redbird protested. Silently, Sun Woman took the snowshoes, the water bag and the blanket roll from her.
Owl Carver stopped at the doorway of the medicine wickiup. He danced from one foot to the other, shaking his staff.
He nodded at Iron Knife, and motioned him to carry Gray Cloud into the dark interior.
Redbird followed. The owl-headed stick barred her way.
"Go with your mother," Owl Carver said softly. "You have done enough this night."
She could not tell whether he was praising or reproaching her.
_Will he live?_ she wanted to ask. But his solemn face forbade her to speak.
She turned away from his remoteness and faced her mother"s anger. Her heart was still full of terror for Gray Cloud, but she knew that the instant she lay down she would fall into an exhausted sleep.
It seemed that no time had pa.s.sed when Wind Bends Gra.s.s shook her awake.
"Your father calls the people together," she said in a voice still hard with anger.
Redbird"s eyelids felt as if they were made of stone. She forced herself to sit up, and then with immense effort got to her feet.
She was still fully dressed, even in her fur cloak and mittens. She had collapsed in the wickiup without removing anything. The wickiup was now empty. Her mother and her sisters had gone ahead without her.
Her heart hammered in her chest. Owl Carver might be calling the people to tell them that Gray Cloud was dead.
Outside, the air was still deathly cold, but the sun was a bright yellow disk rising above the distant gray line of trees that marked the bluffs overlooking the Great River. The light made her blink, and she turned away from it. She stumbled in the direction all the other people were going--to the medicine wickiup in the center of the camp circle.
She found that the open area before the wickiup was crowded, and she could not get close. The s.p.a.ces between nearby wickiups were also filled with people, all waiting for Owl Carver to speak.
She seated herself between two women, both of whom had small children on their laps. Redbird knew one of the mothers, Water Flows Fast, a stout woman with a round, cheerful face and shrewd eyes.
Water Flows Fast said, "You are the daughter of Owl Carver. You should go up and sit close to him." Redbird sliced her hand flat across her body to say no. She knew Water Flows Fast to be a keen observer and a gossip, always looking for signs of trouble in other people"s families.
The less Redbird said to her, the better.
Redbird looked over her shoulder and saw that now there were many more people packed in behind her. Everyone was talking at once, and the hundreds of voices beating upon her ears made her head hurt. About five hundred people were here, everyone in this camp, which was one of four that made up the British Band of the Sauk and Fox tribes that would come together in Saukenuk after the winter snow and ice melted.
The medicine wickiup was built on a low hill in the center of the camp, and when Owl Carver appeared, everyone who was standing sat down.
Redbird"s eyes devoured Owl Carver"s face, trying to read in it whether Gray Cloud was alive or dead.
Another man emerged from the medicine wickiup to stand beside Owl Carver. His head was bare even on this terribly cold day, and he wore his hair in the manner of a brave, his dark brown scalp shaved except for a long black scalplock that coiled down the side of his face. His eyes were shadowed and sad-looking, and there were heavy blue-black pouches under them. His cheekbones jutted out and his mouth was wide, curving down at the corners where it met deep furrows that ran from nose to chin.
Redbird"s heart beat faster as she saw that to honor this moment he had attached a string of eagle feathers to his scalplock and wore strings of small white beads around the rim of each ear. He stood with his arms folded under a buffalo robe, skin side out, painted with a red hand proclaiming that he had killed and scalped his first enemy while still a boy.