Song of Susannah

“I don’t know!”Mia screamed, and below them the jackals hidden in the rocks screamed back, only their screams were laughter.“I don’t know, I don’t know who I am, does that satisfy?”

It did not, and Susa

This is what Susa

Baby-doll, you need to think bout this a little, seem to me.Shecain’t, she stone dumb, cain’t read, cain’t cipher more than just a little, ain’t been to Morehouse, ain’t been to nohouse, but youhave, Miss Oh-Detta Holmes been to Co— lum-bee-ya, lah-de-dah, de Gem ob de Ocean, ain’t we jus’ so fine.

You need to think bout how she pregnant, for one thing. She say she done fucked Roland out of his jizz, then turn male, into the Demon of the Ring, and shot it into you, and den you carryin it, you tossin all those nasty things she made you eat down yo’ throat, so whereshein all this now, dat what Detta like to know. How come shesettin there pregnant under dat greaser blanket she wearin? Is it more of dat…what you call it…visualization technique?

Susa

Dat she do,Detta mused.She acklike a Mommy, she wrapped around it root and branch, you right bout dat much.

But maybe, Susa

A cold hand reached out and seized Susa

She still scared Susa

Dis Mia make a mighty pow’ful ally her ownself, if you c’d get her on yo’ side. Ain’t hardly nothin in the world as pow’ful as a pissed-off Mommy.

“We’re going back,” Mia said. “I’ve answered your questions, the cold’s bad for the baby, and the mean one’s here. Palaver’s done.”

But Susa

Part of her is me, because she has access to my memories. Eddie’s ring, the people of River Crossing, Blaine the Mono. But she’s got to bemorethan me as well, because…because…

Go on, girl, you ain’t doin bad, but youslow.

Because she knows all thisotherstuff, as well. She knows about the demons, both the little ones and the elementals. She knows how the Beams came into being—sort of—and about this magical soup of creation, the Prim.As far as I ever knew, prim’s a word you use for girls who are always yanking their skirts down over their knees. She didn’t get that other meaning from me.

It occurred to her what this conversation was like: parents studying their new baby. Their new chap. He’s got your nose, Yes but he’s gotyour eyes, and But my goodness,where did he get that hair?

Detta said:And she also got friens back in New York, don’t forget dat.Least she want to thinkthey her friens.

So she’s someone or something else, as well. Someone from the invisible world of house demons and ill-sicks. But who? Is she really one of the elementals?

Detta laughed.She say so, but she lyin bout dat, sugar! I know she is!

Then what is she? Whatwasshe, before she was Mia?

All at once a phone, amplified to almost ear-splitting shrillness, began to ring. It was so out of place on this abandoned castle tower that at first Susa

Mia, daughter of none, mother of Mordred, knew that ringing for what it was immediately, however. Shecame forward. Susa

“No!” she shouted, and threw herself at Mia.

But Mia—pregnant or not, scratched up or not, swollen ankles or no swollen ankles—overpowered her easily. Roland had shown them several hand-to-hand tricks (the Detta part of her had crowed with delight at the nastiness of them), but they were useless against Mia; she parried each before Susa

Sure, yes, of course, she knows your tricks just like she knows about Aunt Talitha in River Crossing and Topsy the Sailor in Lud, because she has access to your memories, because she is, at least to some extent,you—

And here her thoughts ended, because Mia had twisted her arms up behind her and oh dear God the pain was enormous.

Ain’t you just the most babyish cunt,Detta said with a kind of genial, panting contempt, and before Susa

There was a moment for Susa

“Don’t you mess with me!” Mia panted in her ear. Susa

There was no doubt about that, Susa

She was pushed through the rip in reality. For a moment her skin seemed simultaneously on fire and coated with ice. Somewhere the todash chimes were ringing, and then—

—she sat up on the bed. One woman, not two, but at least one with legs. Susa

“Hello? Hello!”

“Hello, Mia. My name is—”

She overrode him. “Are you going to let me keep my baby? This bitch inside me says you’re not!”

There was a pause, first long and then too long. Susa

“Hello, are you there? Gods,are you there? PLEASE TELL ME YOU’RE STILL THERE! ”

“I’m here,” the man’s voice said calmly. “Shall we start again, Mia, daughter of none? Or shall I ring off until you’re feeling…a little more yourself?”

“No! No, don’t do that, don’t do that I beg!”

“You won’t interrupt me again? Because there’s no reason for unseemliness.”

“I promise!”

“My name is Richard P. Sayre.” A name Susa

“Yes!” Eager now. Eager to please. “The Dixie Pig, Sixty-first and Lexingworth.”

“Lexington,” Sayre said. “Odetta Holmes can help you find it, I’m sure.”