She sobbed till she thought her ribs would crack. Her throat burned; her voice rasped. She pressed her forehead against his chest. She heard him groan in pain, but he was hurting her more than she could ever hurt him. "How can you ask me to stay where they killed Floating Lily? How can _you_ stay here?" "What would you have me do?" A sudden thought occurred to her. "The pale eyes give gold for land. Take pale eyes gold for this land, and you can take the gold with you to the Ioway country and share it with our people." "No, Redbird," he said sadly. "What could we do with gold, out there in Ioway? Sometimes the long knives have given our chiefs gold in return for land, yes. In no time the gold melted away. Gold by itself is like seed corn. Without the right ground to plant it in, it is soon used up and gone. The only way I can use the wealth my father Star Arrow left to me is to stay here and work with it." She had stopped crying. This hurt too much for tears. Only when Floating Lily was killed had she felt more pain than this. For a moment she could not bring herself to say the words she had to say. From somewhere she summoned the strength to speak. "Then I must leave you." Each word, she felt, was an arrow fired into him. His arms tightened around her. "I beg you to stay." _Spirit of the Redbird, help me to do what I must._ It would hurt less if she acted at once. She pushed herself away from him. She stood up and crossed the room to the closed door. "May you walk always in honor, White Bear." "No, Redbird, no!" _He_ was crying bitterly now, and he rolled over and buried his head in his pillows, beating the bed with his clenched fists. She could not bear to leave him weeping like this, like a child she was abandoning. She would rather see him angry. Then the spirit Bird, whom she had called on for help, sent her a message. She saw Wolf Paw, as he had looked when he was proud and undefeated, with the red crest on his head, a red blanket wrapped around him and black paint around his eyes. _Why did I never see it before?_ Wolf Paw wore the markings of the Bird she was named after, the Bird that was her spirit guide. Neither she nor he had been aware of it. But it must mean that they were destined for each other, and that what had already happened between herself and Wolf Paw _had_ to happen. To live out her life with Wolf Paw and never to see White Bear again was like being told she would never again see a day with sunlight. But it was as the spirit Bird had sung to her-- _What must happen, must happen_. She breathed deeply. She hated having to tell White Bear about Wolf Paw. If he had been willing to come with her, she would not have had to say anything. Wolf Paw would not have tried to hold her. And if she gave birth a moon or two too soon, White Bear would have forgiven her. But now she had to use Wolf Paw to hurt White Bear. To hurt him so as to heal him.