The Dark Tower

“Is he not beautiful?” she cried. “Ismy son not beautiful, as fair as the summer sun?”

These were her last words.

Five

Her face didn’t freeze, exactly, but stilled.Her cheeks and brow and throat, flushed dark with the exertions of childbirthonly a moment before, faded to the waxy whiteness of orchid petals. Her shiningeyes grew still and fixed in their sockets. And suddenly it was as if Susa

Susa

(hollow men stuffed men headpiece filledwith straw)

and Lewis Carroll

(why you’re nothing but a pack of cards)

before Mia’s dan-tete raised itsunspeakable head from its first meal. Its blood-smeared mouth opened and ithoisted itself, lower legs scrabbling for purchase on its mother’s deflatingbelly, upper ones almost seeming to shadowbox at Susa

It squealed with triumph, and if it had atthat moment chosen to attack the other woman who had given it nurture, Susa

Just then a ridiculously Englishvoice—it was the plummy intonation of the lifelong gentleman’s gentleman—said:“Pardon me, sirs, but will you be wanting this incubator after all? For thesituation seems to have altered somewhat, if you don’t mind my saying.”

It broke Susa

“What the dev—” he began, and thenshe pulled the trigger with her middle finger, at the same time yanking back onthe shoulder-rig with all her force. The straps binding the holster toScowther’s body held, but the thi

“Kill her!” Sayre screamed, reachingfor his own gun. “Kill that bitch!”

Susa

Susa

Sayre leaned forward, pointing the gun atthe makeshift double bed just beyond Mia’s deflating body. There were alreadythree smoking, smoldering holes in the groundsheet. Before he could add afourth, one of the spider’s legs caressed his cheek, tearing open the mask hewore and revealing the hairy cheek beneath. Sayre recoiled, crying out. Thespider turned to him and made a mewling noise. The white thing high on itsback—a node with a human face—glared, as if to warn Sayre away fromits meal. Then it turned back to the woman, who was really not recognizable asa woman any longer; she looked like the ruins of some incredibly ancient mummywhich had now turned to rags and powder.

“I say, this is a bit confusing,”the robot with the incubator remarked. “Shall I retire? Perhaps I might returnwhen matters have clarified somewhat.”

Susa

Susa

Susa

“Madam, I wonder if you could tellme—” began the robot, and Susa

“I HAVE BEEN BLINDED BY GUNFIRE!”the robot bellowed, still in its absurd would-you-like-another-

cup-of-tea-madam accent. “VISION ZERO, INEED HELP, CODE 7, I SAY, HELP!”

Sayre stepped away from it, hands heldhigh. Susa

She smiled at this amusing idea, unawarethat she smiled. It was without humor and without mercy and meant only onething: she wished she could get him to lick her stumps, as he had forced Mia tolick his boots. But there wasn’t time enough. He saw his doom in her grin andturned to run and Susa

Susa

No, you ca