The Dark Tower

When she spoke again, she worked very hardto sound calm, and thought she succeeded tolerably well. “It’s something fromthat crack in the earth, do you think?”

“It might be,” Roland said. “Or it might besomething that got through from todash space. Now hush.”

The gunslinger went on more quickly,finally reaching jogging pace and then passing it. She was amazed by hismobility now that the pain that had troubled his hip was gone, but she couldhear his breathing as well as feel it in the rise and fall of hisback—quick, gasping intakes followed by rough expulsions that soundedalmost like cries of a

The overhead globes pulsed faster now, thepulsation easier to see because there were fewer of them. In between, theircombined shadow would stretch long ahead of them, then shorten little by littleas they approached the next light. The air was cooler; the ceramic stuff whichfloored the passage less and less even. In places it had split apart and piecesof it had been tossed aside, leaving traps for the unwary. These Oy avoidedwith ease, and so far Roland had been able to avoid them, too.

She was about to tell him that she hadn’theard their follower for awhile when something behind them pulled in a greatgasping breath. She felt the air around her reverse direction; felt the tightcurls on her head spring wildly about as the air was sucked backward. There wasan enormous slobbering noise that made her feel like screaming. Whatever wasback there, it was big.

No.

Enormous.

Eleven

They pelted down another of those shortstairways. Fifty yards beyond it, three more of the pulsing globes bloomed withunsteady light, but after that there was just darkness. The ragged tiled sidesof the passage and its uneven, decaying floor melted into a void so deep thatit looked like a physical substance: great clouds of loosely packed black felt.They would run into it, she thought, and at first their momentum would continueto carry them forward. Then the stuff would shove them backward like a spring,and whatever was back there would be on them. She would catch a glimpse of it,something so awful and alien her mind would not be able to recognize it, andthat might be a mercy. Then it would pounce, and—

Roland ran into the darkness withoutslowing, and of course they did not bounce back. At first there was a littlelight, some from behind them and some from the globes overhead (a few werestill giving off a last dying core of radiance). Just enough to see anothershort stairway, its upper end flanked by crumbling skeletons wearing a fewwretched rags of clothing. Roland hurried down the steps—there were ninein this flight—without stopping. Oy ran at his side, ears back againsthis skull, fur rippling sleekly, almost dancing his way down. Then they were inpure dark.

“Bark, Oy, so we don’t run into eachother!” Roland snapped. “Bark!”

Oy barked. A thirty-count later, he snappedthe same order and Oy barked again.

“Roland, what if we come to anotherstairway?”

“We will,” he said, and a ninety-countafter that, they did. She felt him tip forward, feet stuttering. She felt themuscles in his shoulders jump as he put his hands out before him, but they didnot fall. Susa

But there was no choice. She could hear thething behind them all too clearly now, not just its slobbering breath but asandpapery rasping sound as something slid across one of the passagewaywalls—or maybe both. Every now and then she’d also hear a clink and aclitter as a tile was torn off. It was impossible not to construct a picturefrom these sounds, and what Susa

And closing it much more rapidly now.Susa

Except… wait a minute.

Its barrel.

Its long barrel!

Susa

Oh dear God give me time, shethought. I don’t want to go like this, getting shot’s one thing, but gettingeaten alive in the dark—

That was another.

“Go faster!” she snarled at Roland,and thumped at his sides with her thighs, like a rider urging on a weary horse.

Somehow, Roland did. His respiration wasnow an agonized roar. He had not breathed so even after dancing the commala. Ifhe kept on, his heart would burst in his chest. But—

“Faster, Tex! Let it all out,goddammit! I might have a trick up my sleeve, but in the meantime you give itevery-damn-everything you got!”

And there in the dark beneath CastleDiscordia, Roland did.

Twelve

She plunged her free hand once more intothe bag and it closed on the flashlight’s barrel. She pulled it out and tuckedit under her arm (knowing if she dropped it they were gone for sure), thensnapped back the tab-release on the Sterno can, relieved to hear the momentaryhiss as the vacuum-seal broke. Relieved but not surprised—if the seal hadbeen broken, the flammable jelly inside would have evaporated long ago and thecan would have been lighter.

“Roland!” she shouted. “Roland, I needmatches!”

“Shirt… pocket!” he panted. “Reach forthem!”

But first she dropped the flashlight intothe seam where her crotch met the middle of his back, then snatched it up justbefore it could slide away. Now, with a good hold on it, she plunged the barrelinto the can of Sterno. To grab one of the matches while holding the can andthe jelly-coated flashlight would have taken a third hand, so she jettisonedthe can. There were two others in the bag, but if this didn’t work she’d neverhave a chance to reach for one of them.