The Dark Tower

Weeping, with tears ru

And the baby turned its head to thesound of his mother’s voice. Susa

Still holding the newborn up to his face,Scowther looked at Sayre. There was a momentary pause during which Susa

Sayre nodded, almost imperceptibly, andScowther lowered baby Mordred, still wailing (and still looking over hisshoulder, apparently for his mother), into Mia’s waiting arms.

Mia turned him around at once so she couldlook at him, and Susa

Bitch ain’t nevah comin back,Detta said, not without sympathy. Gittin this far n den gittin shed of itdone broke her. She busted, n you know it as well’s Ah do!

“O, such beauty!” Mia crooned. “O, see thyblue eyes, thy skin as white as the sky before Wide Earth’s first snow! See thynipples, such perfect berries they are, see thy prick and thy balls as smoothas new peaches!” She looked around, first at Susa

Panting harshly, she covered the baby’sbloody, staring face with kisses, smearing her mouth until she looked like adrunk who has tried to put on lipstick. She laughed and kissed the chubby flapof his infant’s double chin, his nipples, his navel, the jutting tip of hispenis, and—holding him up higher and higher in her trembling arms, thechild she meant to call Mordred goggling down at her with that comic look ofastonishment—she kissed his knees and then each tiny foot. Susa

Three

Yon child’s my dinh’s doom, Susa

With her speed—her unca

And that link could kick back in,sister—don’t you think you better make your move while you still can?

But she couldn’t, that was thething. She was frozen in wonder, held in thrall.

“Stop that!” Sayre snapped at her. “Yourjob isn’t to slurp at him but to feed him! If you’d keep him, hurry up! Givehim suck! Or should I summon a wetnurse? There are many who’d give their eyes forthe opportunity!”

“Never… in… your… LIFE!” Mia cried,laughing, but she lowered the child to her chest and impatiently brushed asidethe bodice of the plain white gown she wore, baring her right breast. Susa

Mia stroked the chap’s tangled andblood-soaked black curls, still laughing. To Susa

There was a clumping on the floor as arobot approached. It looked quite a bit like Andy the MessengerRobot—same ski

“What’s that fucking thing for?” Sayresnapped. He sounded both pissed off and incredulous.

“An incubator,” Scowther said. “I felt itwould be better to be safe than sorry.”

When he turned to look, hisshoulder-holstered gun swung toward Susa

Four

Susa

Susa

Tumors swelled along the black thing’ssides, then burst and extruded legs. The red mark which had ridden the heel wasstill visible, but now had become a blob like the crimson brand on a blackwidow spider’s belly. For that was what this thing was: a spider. Yet the babywas not entirely gone. A white excrescence rose from the spider’s back. In itSusa

“What—?” Mia asked, and started up onher elbows once again. Blood had begun to pour from her breast. The baby drankit like milk, losing not a drop. Beside Mia, Sayre was standing as still as agraven image, his mouth open and his eyes bulging from their sockets. Whateverhe’d expected from this birth—whatever he’d been told toexpect—it wasn’t this. The Detta part of Susa

For a moment only Mia seemed to realizewhat had happened, for her face began to lengthen with a kind of informedhorror—and, perhaps, pain. Then her smile returned, that angelicmado