Quorr's words came back to Nelson. If we sin, we are banished into the bodies of the little hunted things that are born only to be eaten.
He saw the look that came over Shan Kar's face and knew that he too was thinking of that.
But Shan Kar straightened his shoulders and told Sloan, "That is an empty boast. You can never take Vruun or the Cavern without us."
"He's right," Nelson put it edgedly. "I've been a day and night in the forest. The Clans are out in full force, waiting. They'll pull you down and tear you to pieces in the woods."
Sloan smiled and shook his head. "Oh, no," he said. "They won't, because there won't be any woods."
Nelson stiffened. He knew Sloan, and he knew that something particularly horrible and efficient had been planned. "What do you mean?"
"Simple," Sloan answered. "The prevailing wind blows north toward Vruun and in this dry season the woods are like tinder. All it needs is a few little matches."
"Fire!"
The mind of Eric Nelson, which was a human mind, recoiled in horror from the plan, so beautifully simple, so unutterably cruel. And his body, which was the body of a wolf, was shaken to its very core by a fear that was as old as the first four-footed creature who fled from a rush of burning lava.
"But you can't do that!" Shan Kar said unbelievingly. "The suffering, the destruction-"