cover rebounded from the wall to rap him sharply. He cursed as the edge jarred his hand with pain.
' Tis evocative, but hardly likely,' a voice commented from the speaker. The comm screen glowed to life with the image of a white-haired, male elf. 'Good evening, archdruid, Your Corrupt Highness. Ah, Sir Winston, I'm very glad you're here as well.' 'Who are you?' Gordon asked belligerently. Sudden suspicion bored in on Glover. ' 'What do you want?'
'Much cooler, archdruid. As to what I want, shall we just say that I hope you're as cool in hell. Going down.'
The elevator began to plummet. The initial lurch of car threw its occupants off balance. As Glover recovered he could see fear etched in the faces of his companions. Even Gordon's bodyguards were afraida151their reinforced bones would not save them from a forty-story plummet.
'No need to bother with the emergency brake,' the elf said jauntily. 'It's disconnected.'
One of the bodyguards slammed the button with his fist anyway. As predicted, there was no response. The guard slammed it again and again, denting the surrounding panel with the force of his blows. 'Do something, Glover! Save us!' Gordon's voice was shrill with panic. Glover blocked it out and concentrated. Raising his personal protection spell only took the archdruid a momenta151a moment in which the elevator car gathered speed in its downward rush. Glover knew that maintaining the protective spell would make other magic difficult, but he was sure he would need the safeguard.
Glover raised his arms above his head and spread them. He focused his energy and blew the roof from the elevator car. Fluorescent panels, structural members, and supporting cable volatilized. The sound of the car's downward passage no longer muffled, a rushing sound filled the car.
Gordon grabbed Glover's shoulder, dragging down one arm. 'What in heaven's name are you doing?' 'I'm leaving. The land needs me.' 'What about me? The land needs me, too!' 'There are others of royal blood.' Glover struck the grasping hand away and pressed his palms together at chest level, fingers pointing out. He rotated his wrists until his fingers pointed up, and the elevator car dropped away. He remained floating in the shaft.
The decker's frustrated cursing joined the screams of Gordon, the howls of the bodyguards, and the desparing wail of Neville. The din grew fainter as, driven by his will, Glover shot up the now-vacant shaft.
Sam watched as an arcane bolt caught the last of the three drones that had escorted him. Its armor bubbled and darkened. With a burst that sent shards of the device in all directions, the drone exploded, its ammunition cooked off in the magical heat.
A fragment whizzed past his head, scoring his cheek before its tumbling flight buried it several centimeters deep into the wall behind him. He cried out from the sudden pain.
Hyde-White turned to face him. Red-rimmed eyes bored into his own.
'So it is you. You should have heeded the warning, Samuel Verner, You've only brought death upon yourself by coming here.'
'Don't be so sure, monster,' Sam blurred.
The druid laughed, a deep booming sound. 'Monster? Is that anyway to describe a person who only seeks the well-being of his fellows?'
Hyde-White's reaction puzzled Sam. The savagery of the druid's fight with the drones had been unexpectedly replaced by a calm, and somehow sinister, playfulness. Sam didn't know Hyde-White's game, but every minute the druid talked gave Sam a chance to think of something to do. Unfortunately, every minute also increased the chances that the druid would get reinforcements.
'Your deeds speak loudly enough of your nature.
For all that you look like a man, you're not human.'
Hyde-White sighed. He looked around for a moment, then sauntered to a chair that remained mostly intact and threw himself down.
'You had me fooled for a moment. I suppose I should have known better. I have been an initiate of my magical tradition for more years than you have walked this wounded earth. It was ridiculous to even entertain the thought that you might have penetrated the mask. I expect I was misled by your potential.' Sam was confused by Hyde- White's ramblings. 'You look so perplexed. It's quite a wonder.' The fat man chuckled. 'Since your death is inevitable now, the mask doesn't matter anymore. Shall I let you see the truth? You won't like it, and I suppose you might even find it a little frightening, which is all to the good. Fear adds a wonderfully subtle flavor.' Hyde-White stood up again and stretched languidly.
The stretch seemed to go on beyond the bounds of his flesh. He grew taller and slimmer. His arms lengthened, as did his legs, and the clothes covering his body changed to become a white pelt. Wrinkled, liverspotted hands widened and darkened as fingers elongated into taloned digits. His facial features melted and re-formed into a bestial visage.
The thing that had hidden in the shape of HydeWhite looked down at Sam and smiled a carnivore's smile. Like a stage magician signalling a completed trick, he gave a twisting Sick of his hand and said, 'You see, I haven't been human for decades.'
Sam stumbled back from the divider behind which he had crouched, and bumped into a wall. He straightened up, letting the wall take some of his weight. Otherwise, he feared his knees would buckle.
The stench of decay and corruption emanating from the furred apparition was almost overpowering. Sam had expected the smell after his invasion of the sanctum, but he hadn't expected to see what he was seeing. Like the odor, the being's silhouette was familiar from his troubled dreams and frustrated attempts to enhance his magical power. He had seen a similar creature when they had raided the Circle's murder ritual. Both Willie and Dodger were right and wrong. Hyde-White was a wendigo, but he was very much alive.
'You were the Man of Light.'
It was the wendigo's turn to look confused. 'The what?'
'The one who blocked my path to the totem realms.'
'Ah. You use the past tense, implying that you have breached the barriers I set in your mind. This is unfortunate. When I touched your astral form on the Solstice, and learned who you were, I sought to save you from yourself. You have been very persistent, as I should have expected from one with so strong a will. Perhaps I was not so foolish to worry about your ability to pierce the mask.'
Sam shuddered as the wendigo spoke. All lingering thoughts that the Man of Light was something he had dredged from his own subconscious vanished. His mind had been violated, his memories subverted by the wendigo. He felt sick and revulsed. He felt hatred. 'You bastard! I'm not a toy for you to play with. I'm a man, you godless, soulless beast! You fragged with my mind just to frighten me away from the power I needed to stop you.'
'Stop me? A pup like you?' The wendigo laughed. 'That's rich. But then, she said you had a strange sense of humor.''
The muscles in Sam's face went slack. He felt chill all over as he remembered his not entirely strategic reason for selecting Hyde-White as the first target. 'Janice,' he whispered.
'Of course, Janice. You knew she was here, didn't you?' The wendigo paused to study Sam's expression. 'I see you did. So it was she who motivated you to come after me. So much for noble motives. It does always seem to be kinbonds that motivate the hunters. I, of all people, should not have forgotten the power of that draw.'
Indignation fueled Sam's anger. 'How dare you call yourself a person? You're a murderer, an eater of human flesh, and a corrupter of minds. You have forfeited any claim of humanity. God as my witness, you have forfeited your right to life.'
'What right have you to judge me?' The wendigo pointed an accusing finger at Sam. 'You are of the blood of man, a scion of the long line of corrupters of the earth itself. The human race has fouled its nest since its infancy. Humanity is the true despoiler, and I am relieved that I am no longer a part of that desecration. Were you able to understand your place in nature as I do mine, you would see the truth.
'By blood, I am born of the earth and I act as my blood directs. By temperament, I have responded to the atrocities your precious humanity has visited upon its collective mother, and have learned to call the corrupted spirits of the earth. I will see the vermin of humanity scoured from the face of the planet they have defiled. I will turn the corruption back upon the real evildoers. All you need to do is look around yourself to see that I speak the truth. If you were truly moral, you would join my crusade.'
Sam felt the tug of the wendigo's words. He, too, hated what man had done to the environment. He felt his
