"All right, you've told him. Now get out and leave us alone."

She was on her knees beside the sobbing actor, her arms around his ma.s.sive shoulders, cooing soft words to him. She looked at Kendrick past the magnificent s.h.a.ggy head, her eyes ablaze.

"He needs me!" she cried triumphantly.

Kendrick felt as if he had narrowly missed being struck by a train. He also felt nauseated. He said, "Yes. He needs you. G.o.d help him."

He left the room. The first broad drops of rain were making dime-sized splotches on the tarmac, making it smell of wet tar.

Kendrick looked instinctively to the east. Just gray cloud ma.s.sed there now, all the way to the horizon. But somewhere behind it He shuddered. Morna had been wrong, of course, when she'd said he had never needed anybody or anything. He stared at the clouds, as if able to see through them to Kirinyaga, waiting there with her fangs bared and gloaming.

Waiting. For Kendrick.