Walden nodded. "He's been spending most of his time there lately."
"Do you think it's wise, letting him wander around alone?"
Trouble. Always trouble. Just because there was one young boy, Eric, asking only to be let alone. And the old council members wouldn't rest until they had managed to find an excuse to put him in an institution somewhere, where his actions could be watched, where there wouldn't be any more uncertainty.
"Eric's all right."
"Is he? Prior tells me he leaves the museum every day. He doesn't come here. He doesn't visit his family."
The thin man, Drew, broke in. "He goes to the hills. Just like the others did. Did you know that, Walden?"
Walden's mouth tightened. It wouldn't do to let them read his hostility to their prying. It would be even worse to let them know that they worried him.
"Besides," Drew added, "he's old enough to be thinking about women now. There's always a chance he'll—"
"Are you crazy?" Walden shouted the words aloud. "Eric's not an animal."
"Isn't he?" Abbot answered quietly. "Weren't all the old race just animals?"