The Dark Tower

“Just a glammer,” said the old man. “Areyou going to kill me? Go ahead. All I ask is that you make quick work of it.I’m not well, as you must see.”

“Was any of what you told us true?”Susa

His old eyes looked at her with wateryamazement. “All of it was,” he said, and advanced onto the bridge, wheretwo other old men—his assistants, once upon a time, she had nodoubt—lay sprawled. “All of it, anyway, save for one lie… and this.” Hekicked the baskets over so that the contents spilled out.

Susa

“It’s all right,” she said, but her voicewas still trembling. “I was just… startled.”

The wicker basket which had seemed tocontain all sorts of freshly cooked roasts was actually filled with decayinghuman limbs—long pork, after all, and in bad shape even considering whatit was. The flesh was mostly blue-black and a-teem with maggots.

And there were no clothes in the otherbasket. What Fimalo had spilled out of it was actually a shiny knot of dyingsnakes. Their beady eyes were dull; their forked tongues flickered listlesslyin and out; several had already ceased to move.

“You would have refreshed them wonderfully,if you’d pressed them against your skin,” Fimalo said regretfully.

“You didn’t really expect that to happen,did you?” Roland asked.

“No,” the old man admitted. He sat on thebridge with a weary sigh. One of the snakes attempted to crawl into his lap andhe pushed it away with a gesture that was both absent and impatient. “But I hadmy orders, so I did.”

Susa

“Are you going to kill me?” Fimalo asked.

“Nay,” Roland said, “for your duties aren’tdone. You have another coming along behind.”

Fimalo looked up, a gleam of interest inhis rheumy old eyes. “Your son?”

“Mine, and your master’s, as well. Wouldyou give him a word for me during your palaver?”

“If I’m alive to give it, sure.”

“Tell him that I’m old and crafty, whilehe’s but young. Tell him that if he lies back, he may live awhile yet with hisdreams of revenge… although what I’ve done to him requiring his vengeance, Iknow not. And tell him that if he comes forward, I’ll kill him as I intend tokill his Red Father.”

“Either you listen and don’t hear or hearand don’t believe,” Fimalo said. Now that his own ruse had been exposed(nothing so glamorous as an uffi, Susa

“That’s our worry,” Roland said, andSusa

Fimalo made a gesture of acquiescence.

Roland shook his head. “Don’t just flap thyhand at me, cully—let me hear from your mouth.”

“I’ll pass along your message,” said Fimalo,then added: “If I see him, and we palaver.”

“You will. ‘Day to you, sir.” Roland beganto turn away, but Susa

“Swear to me that all you told us wastrue,” she bade the ugly ancient sitting on the cobbled bridge and below thecold gaze of the crows, who were begi

The old man raised his right hand to her,palm out, and Susa

She didn’t understand the reference, andremained still.

“He really has gone on to the Dark Tower.He’s like the dog in some old fable or other, wanting to make sure that if hecan’t get any good from the hay, no one else will, either. I didn’t even lie toyou about what was in these boxes, not really. I simply showed you the goodsand let you draw your own conclusions.” His smile of cynical pleasure madeSusa

“I told you only one outright lie,” saidthe former Austin Cornwell. “That he’d had me beheaded.”

“Are you satisfied, Susa

“Yes,” she said, although she wasn’t; notreally. “Let’s go.”

“Climb up in Ho Fat, then, and don’t turnthy back on him when thee does. He’s sly.”

“Tell me about it,” Susa

“Long days and pleasant nights,” said theformer sai Cornwell from where he sat amid the squirming, dying snakes. “Maythe Man Jesus watch over you and all your clan-fam. And may you show sensebefore it’s too late for sense and stay away from the Dark Tower!”

Six

They retraced their path to theintersection where they had turned away from the Path of the Beam to go to theCrimson King’s castle, and here Roland stopped to rest for a few minutes. Alittle bit of a breeze had gotten up, and the patriotic bunting flapped. Shesaw it now looked old and faded. The pictures of Nixon, Lodge, Ke

Masks off, masks off, she thoughttiredly. It was a wonderful party, but now it’s finished… and the Red Deathholds sway over all.

She touched the pimple beside her mouth,then looked at the tip of her finger. She expected to see blood or pus or both.There was neither, and that was a relief.

“How much of it do you believe?” Susa

“Pretty much all of it,” Roland replied.

“So he’s up there. In the Tower.”

“Not in it. Trapped outsideit.” He smiled. “There’s a big difference.”

“Is there really? And what will you do tohim?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you think that if he did get control ofyour guns, that he could get back inside the Tower and climb to the top?”

“Yes.” The reply was immediate.

“What will you do about it?”

“Not let him get either of them.” He spokeas if this should have been self-evident, and Susa

“You were thinking of trapping Mordred,back at the castle.”