Nsharra looked at the wolf that was Eric Nelson, standing there rocking with exhaustion.
Nelson heard her swift question. "Tark, what of him?"
"He failed to save Barin and he goes back to Vruun as the Guardian ordered," Tark answered grimly. "With us."
"He fought the other outlanders — tried to kill them when he learned their crime!" Ei put in swiftly. "He is not one of them now."
"I think you speak truth, Winged One," retorted the wolf. "Yet the Guardian's word holds. He goes back to Vruun for judgment."
"I am willing," Nelson told them dully. "I can go nowhere else than Vruun."
He had known that from the first. Had known that, even if he failed to redeem his own human body, he must go back to it because he would rather die in that body than live in another shape.
Nsharra leaped onto Hatha's back. "We go now and we will spread the warning as we go."
They started through the forest, Nelson loping with Tark behind the great stallion, Ei winging fast and far ahead of them. And all through the dark forest, Nelson heard the warning ahead of them, spreading, spreading, across the river, up the hills.
Run! Run, Clan-brothers! At dawn the forest bums!