The Dark Tower

Jake rose and walked slowly along themarks, bent over at the waist like a boy with a stomach-ache. The scratches inthe talus went around a boulder. There was dust on the stone, and scratches inthe dust—as if something bristly had brushed against the boulder on itsway by.

There were also a couple of stiff blackhairs.

Jake picked one of these up, thenimmediately opened his fingers and blew it off his skin, shivering withrevulsion as he did it. Roland watched this keenly.

“You look like a goose just walked overyour grave.”

“It’s awful!” Jake heard a faint stutter inhis voice. “Oh God, what was it? What was w-watching us?”

“The one Mia called Mordred.” Roland’svoice hadn’t changed, but Jake found he could hardly bring himself to look intothe gunslinger’s eyes; they were that bleak. “The chap she says I fathered.”

“He was here? In the night?”

Roland nodded.

“Listening…?” Jake couldn’t finish.

Roland could. “Listening to our palaver andour plans, aye, I think so. And Ted’s tale as well.”

“But you don’t know for sure. Those markscould be anything.” Yet the only thing Jake could think of in co

“Go thee a little further,” Roland said.

Jake looked at him questioningly, andRoland nodded. The wind blew, bringing them the Muzak from the prison compound (nowhe thought it was “Bridge Over Troubled Water”), also bringing the distantsound of thunder, like rolling bones.

“What—”

“Follow,” Roland said, nodding to the stonytalus on the slope of the path.

Jake did, knowing this was anotherlesson—with Roland you were always in school. Even when you were in theshadow of death there were lessons to be learned.

On the far side of the boulder, the pathcarried on straight for about thirty yards before curving out of sight oncemore. On this straight stretch, those dash-marks were very clear. Groups ofthree on one side, groups of four on the other.

“She said she shot off one of its legs,”Jake said.

“So she did.”

Jake tried to visualize a seven-leggedspider as big as a human baby and couldn’t do it. Suspected he didn’t wantto do it.

Beyond the next curve there was adesiccated corpse in the path. Jake was pretty sure it had been flayed open,but it was hard to tell. There were no i

Oy approached, sniffed, then lifted his legand pissed on the remains. He returned to Jake’s side with the air of one whohas concluded some important piece of business.

“That was our visitor’s di

Jake was looking around. “Is he watching usnow? What do you think?”

Roland said, “I think growing boys needtheir rest.”

Jake felt a twinge of some unpleasantemotion and put it behind him without much examination. Jealousy? Surely not.How could he be jealous of a thing that had begun life by eating its ownmother? It was blood-kin to Roland, yes—his true son, if you wanted to bepicky about it—but that was no more than an accident.

Wasn’t it?

Jake became aware that Roland was lookingat him closely, looking in a way that made Jake uneasy.

“Pe

“Nothing,” Jake said. “Just wondering wherehe’s laid up.”

“Hard to tell,” Roland said. “There’s gotto be a hundred holes in this hill alone. Come.”

Roland led the way back around the boulderwhere Jake had found the stiff black hairs, and once he was there, he began tomethodically scuff away the tracks Mordred had left behind.

“Why are you doing that?” Jake asked, moresharply than he had intended.

“There’s no need for Eddie and Susa

How do you know that? Jake wanted toask, but that twinge came again—the one that absolutely couldn’t be jealousy—andhe decided not to. Let Roland think whatever he wanted. Jake, meanwhile, wouldkeep his eyes open. And if Mordred should be foolish enough to show himself…

“It’s Susa

“Because she’s its mother,” Jake said. Hedidn’t notice the change of pronoun, but Roland did.

“The two of them are co

“Sure.”

“And try to guard your mind—that’simportant, as well.”

“I can try, but…” Jake shrugged in order tosay that he didn’t really know how one did that.

“Good,” Roland said. “And I’ll do thesame.”

The wind gusted again. “Bridge Over TroubledWater” had changed to (Jake was pretty sure) a Beatles tune, the one with thechorus that ended Beep-beep-

mmm-beep-beep, yeah! Did they knowthat one in the dusty, dying towns between Gilead and Mejis? Jake wondered.Were there Shebs in some of those towns that played “Drive My Car” jagtime onout-of-tune pianos while the Beams weakened and the glue that held the worldstogether slowly stretched into strings and the worlds themselves sagged?

He gave his head a hard, brisk shake,trying to clear it. Roland was still watching him, and Jake felt anuncharacteristic flash of irritation. “I’ll keep my mouth shut, Roland, and atleast try to keep my thoughts to myself. Don’t worry about me.”

“I’m not worried,” Roland said, and Jakefound himself fighting the temptation to look inside his dinh’s head and findout if that was actually true. He still thought looking was a bad idea, and notjust because it was impolite, either. Mistrust was very likely a kind of acid.Their ka-tet was fragile enough already, and there was much work to do.

“Good,” Jake said. “That’s good.”

“Good!” Oy agreed, in a hearty that’ssettled tone that made them both grin.

“We know he’s there,” Roland said, “andit’s likely he doesn’t know we know. Under the circumstances, there’s no betterway for things to be.”

Jake nodded. The idea made him feel alittle calmer.

Susa

“Only a little while,” Roland said.

“And how are you feeling?”

“Fine,” Roland said. “I woke up with aheadache, but now it’s almost gone.”

“Really?” Jake asked.

Roland nodded and squeezed the boy’sshoulder.

Susa

“Well, come on in here,” she said, “andwe’ll see what we can do about that situation.”

Three

Susa

“Hello! I’m three-quarters filled withGamry Bottled Gas, available at Wal-Mart, Burnaby’s, and other fine stores!When you call for Gamry, you’re calling for quality! Dark in here, isn’t it?May I help you with recipes or cooking times?”

“You could help me by shutting up,” Eddiesaid, and the grill spoke no more. He found himself wondering if he hadoffended it, then wondered if perhaps he should kill himself and spare theworld a problem.

Roland opened four cans of peaches, smelledthem, and nodded. “Okay, I think,” he said. “Sweet.”

They were just finishing this repast when theair in front of the cave shimmered. A moment later, Ted Brautigan, DinkyEarnshaw, and Sheemie Ruiz appeared. With them, cringing and very frightened,dressed in fading and tattered biballs, was the Rod Roland had asked them tobring.