Wolves of the Calla

While she made her rough toilet, washing off the mud and blood, Roland retreated back the way he'd come, ignoring the more frequent pains in his hip and moving with all his guile. He had watched her go through this three times before, and once had been enough to see how gruesomely sharp her senses were while in this state.

He paused at her wheelchair, looking around to make sure he'd left no trace of himself. He saw a bootprint, smoothed it away, then tossed a few leaves over it for good measure. Not too many; too many might be worse than none at all. With that done, he headed back toward the road and their camp, not hurrying anymore. She would pause for a little housekeeping of her own before going on. What would Mia see as she was cleaning Susa

Not as clever as she, maggot. Now, as if the ghost of Va

Yes. She had shown him cleverness as three women. Now there was this fourth.

NINE

When Roland saw the break in the trees ahead-the road they'd been following, and the place where they'd camped for the night-he took two long, deep breaths. These were meant to steady him and didn't succeed very well.

Water if God wills it, he reminded himself. About the great matters, Roland, you have no say.

Not a comfortable truth, especially for a man on a quest such as his, but one he'd learned to live with.

He took another breath, then stepped out. He released the air in a long, relieved sigh as he saw Eddie and Jake lying deeply asleep beside the dead fire. Jake's right hand, which had been linked with Eddie's left when the gunslinger had followed Susa

The bumbler opened one eye and regarded Roland. Then he closed it again.

Roland couldn't hear her coming, but sensed her just the same. He lay down quickly, rolled over onto his side, and put his face in the crook of his elbow. And from this position he watched as the wheelchair rolled out of the trees. She had cleaned it quickly but well. Roland couldn't see a single spot of mud. The spokes gleamed in the moonlight.

She parked the chair where it had been before, slipped out of it with her usual grace, and moved across to where Eddie lay. Roland watched her approach her husband's sleeping form with some anxiety. Anyone, he thought, who had met Detta Walker would have felt that anxiety. Because the woman who called herself mother was simply too close to what Detta had been.

Lying completely still, like one in sleep's deepest sling, Roland prepared himself to move.

Then she brushed the hair back from the side of Eddie's face and kissed the hollow of his temple. The tenderness in that gesture told the gunslinger all he needed to know. It was safe to sleep. He closed his eyes and let the darkness take him.

Chapter IV:

Palaver

ONE

When Roland woke in the morning, Susa

"Roland," Eddie said, "I think we need to talk. Something happened to us last night-"

"I know," Roland said. "I saw. You went todash."

"Todash?" Jake asked. "What's that?"

Roland started to tell them, then shook his head. "If we're going to palaver, Eddie, you'd better wake Susa

He watched with more than ordinary interest as Eddie shook Susa

"We need to talk, Suze," Eddie said.

"All you want, but not quite yet," she said. "God, but I'm stiff."

"Sleeping on hard ground'll do it every time," Eddie said.

Not to mention hunting naked in the bogs and damps, Roland thought.

"Pour me some water, sug." She held out her palms, and Eddie filled them with water from one of the skins. She dashed this over her cheeks and into her eyes, gave out a little shivery cry, and said, "Cold."

"Old!" Oy said.

"Not yet," she told the bumbler, "but you give me a few more months like the last few, and I will be. Roland, you Mid-World folks know about coffee, right?"

Roland nodded. "From the plantations of the Outer Arc. Down south."

"If we come across some, we'll hook it, won't we? You promise me, now."

"I promise," Roland said.

Susa

"More dreams," Eddie said.

"Me too," Jake said.

"Not dreams," the gunslinger said. "Susa

She looked at him candidly. Roland did not sense even the shadow of a lie in her answer. "Like a rock, as I usually do. One thing all this traveling is good for-you can throw your damn Nembutal away."

"What's this toadish thing, Roland?" Eddie asked.

"Todash," he said, and explained it to them as well as he could. What he remembered best from Va

"Sounds to me like these guys would have been right at home down in Needle Park," Eddie said.

"Anywhere in Greenwich Village," Susa

" 'Sounds Hawaiian, doesn't it?' "Jake said in a grave, deep voice, and they all laughed. Even Roland laughed a little.

"Todash is another way of traveling," Eddie said when the laughter had stopped. "Like the doors. And the glass balls. Is that right?"

Roland started to say yes, then hesitated. "I think they might all be variations of the same thing," he said. "And according to Va

Jake said, "We really flickered on and off like… like light-bulbs? What you call sparklights?"

"Yes-you appeared and disappeared. When you were gone, there was a dim glow where you'd been, almost as if something were holding your place for you."

"Thank God if it was," Eddie said. "When it ended… when those chimes started playing again and we kicked loose… I'll tell you the truth, I didn't think we were going to get back."

"Neither did I," Jake said quietly. The sky had clouded over again, and in the dull morning light, the boy looked very pale. "I lost you."

"I was never so glad to see anyplace in my life as I was when I opened my eyes and saw this little piece of road," Eddie said. "And you beside me, Jake. Even Rover looked good to me." He glanced at Oy, then over at Susa

"We'd have seen her," Jake said.

"Not if she todashed off to someplace else," Eddie said.