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FIVE
Roland and his mates had learned about todash (what there was to learn) from Va
He taught them physics-what physics there was. He taught them chemistry-what chemistry was left. He taught them to finish such sentences as "That tree is like a" and "When I'm ru
He had taught them the Seven Dials of Magic, refusing to say if he believed in any of them, and Roland thought it was tangential to one of these lessons that Va
Roland thought yes, but he had twice had the pink bend o' the rainbow in his own possession, once as a boy and once as a man, and although he had traveled in it both times-with his friends on the second occasion-it had never taken him todash.
Ah, but how would you know? he asked himself. How would you know, Roland, when you were inside it?
Because Cuthbert and Alain would have told him, that was why.
Are you sure?
Some feeling so strange as to be unidentifiable rose in the gunslinger's bosom-was it indignation? horror? perhaps even a sense of betrayal?-as he realized that no, he wasn't sure. All he knew was that the ball had taken him deep into itself, and he had been lucky to ever get out again.
There's no ball here, he thought, and again it was that other voice-the dry, implacable voice of his old limping tutor, whose grief for his only son had never really ended-that answered him, and the words were the same:
Are you sure? Gunslinger, are you sure?
SIX
It started with a low crackling sound. Roland's first thought was the campfire: one of them had gotten some green fir boughs in there, the coals had finally reached them, and they were producing that sound as the needles smoldered. But-
The sound grew louder, became a kind of electric buzzing. Roland sat up and looked across the dying fire. His eyes widened and his heart began to speed up.
Susa
Dreaming. But not just dreaming. This was todash, the passing between two worlds. Supposedly the Ma
They could get caught between and fall, Roland diought. Va
What else had he said? Roland had no time to recall, for at that moment Susa
Roland stayed where he was for a moment, torn. But in the end, his course was clear enough. He couldn't wake them up while they were in the todash state; to do so would be a horrible risk. All he could do was follow Susa
You might also do some thinking about what happens next. That was Va
Suppose you come back here and they're gone? It happens, Va
It was nothing he could worry about now. Right now there was Susa
SEVEN
On the north side of the road, old trees with enormous trunks stood at considerable distances from each other. Their branches might entwine and create a solid canopy overhead, but at ground level there was plenty of room for Susa
Not Susa
Roland didn't care if she called herself Queen o' Green Days, as long as she came back safe, and the other two were still there when she did.
He began to smell a brighter, fresher green: reeds and water-weeds. With it came the smell of mud, the thump of frogs, the sarcastic hool! hool salute of an owl, the splash of water as something jumped. This was followed by a thin shriek as something died, maybe the jumper, maybe the jumped-upon. Underbrush began to spring up in the duff, first dotting it and then crowding it out. The tree-cover thi
The wheels of the chair had passed over the duff without leaving any trace. As duff gave way to straggling low growth, Roland began to see broken twigs and torn-off leaves marking her passage. Then, as she reached the more or less level low ground, the wheels began to sink into the increasingly soft earth. Twenty paces farther on, he began to see liquid seeping into the tracks. She was too wise to get stuck, though-too crafty. Twenty paces beyond the first signs of seepage, he came to the wheelchair itself, abandoned. Lying on the seat were her pants and shirt. She had gone on into the bog naked save for the leather caps that covered her stumps.