Stop that, he told himself. It’s nonsense, and you know it.
“Will they send more, Roland?” Rosa asked.
“They may have no more to send,” Roland said. “If they do, there’ll almost certainly be fewer of them. And now you know the secret to killing them, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she said, and gave him a savage grin. Her eyes promised him more than kisses later on, if he’d have her.
“Go down through the corn,” he told her. “You and Zalia both. Tell them it’s safe to come up now. Lady Oriza has stood friend to the Calla this day. And to the line of Eld, as well.”
“Will ye not come yourself?” Zalia asked him. She had stepped away from him, and her cheeks were filled with fire. “Will ye not come and let em cheer ye?”
“Perhaps later on we may all hear them cheer us,” Roland said. “Now we need to speak an-tet. The boy’s had a bad shock, ye ken.”
“Yes,” Rosa said. “Yes, all right. Come on, Zee.” She reached out and took Zalia’s hand. “Help me be the bearer of glad tidings.”
SEVENTEEN
The two women crossed the road, making a wide berth around the tumbled, bloody remains of the poor Slightman lad. Zalia thought that most of what was left of him was only held together by his clothes, and shivered to think of the father’s grief.
The young man’s shor’leg lady-sai was at the far north end of the ditch, examining the bodies of the Wolves scattered there. She found one where the little revolving thing hadn’t been entirely shot off, and was still trying to turn. The Wolfs green-gloved hands shivered uncontrollably in the dust, as if with palsy. While Rosa and Zalia watched, Susannah picked up a largish chunk of rock and, cool as a night in Wide Earth, brought it down on the remains of the thinking-cap. The Wolf stilled immediately. The low hum that had been coming from it stopped.
“We go to tell the others, Susannah,” Rosa said. “But first we want to tell thee well-done. How we do love thee, say true!”
Zalia nodded. “We say thankya, Susannah of New York. We say thankya more big-big than could ever be told.”
“Yar, say true,” Rosa agreed.
The lady-sai looked up at them and smiled sweetly. For a moment Rosalita looked a little doubtful, as if maybe she saw something in that dark-brown face that she shouldn’t. Saw that Susannah Dean was no longer here, for instance. Then the expression of doubt was gone. “We go with good news, Susannah,” said she.
“Wish you joy of it,” said Mia, daughter of none. “Bring them back as you will. Tell them the danger here’s over, and let those who don’t believe count the dead.”
“The legs of your pants are wet, do ya,” Zalia said.
Mia nodded gravely. Another contraction had turned her belly to a stone, but she gave no sign. ” ‘Tis blood, I’m afraid.” She nodded toward the headless body of the big rancher’s wife. “Hers.”
The women started down through the corn, hand-in-hand. Mia watched Roland, Eddie, and Jake cross the road toward her. This would be the dangerous time, right here. Yet perhaps not too dangerous, after all; Susannah’s friends looked dazed in the aftermath of the battle. If she seemed a little off her feed, perhaps they would think the same of her.
She thought mostly it would be a matter of waiting her opportunity. Waiting… and then slipping away. In the
meantime, she rode the contraction of her belly like a boat riding a high wave.
They’ll know where you went, a voice whispered. It wasn’t a head-voice but a belly-voice. The voice of the chap. And that voice spoke true.
Take the ball with you, the voice told her. Take it with you when you go. Leave them no door to follow you through.
Aye.
EIGHTEEN
The Ruger cracked out a single shot and a horse died.
From below the road, from the rice, came a rising roar of joy that was not quite disbelieving. Zalia and Rosa had given their good news. Then a shrill cry of grief cut through the mingled voices of happiness. They had given the bad, as well.
Jake Chambers sat on the wheel of the overturned waggon. He had unharnessed the three horses that were okay. The fourth had been lying with two broken legs, foaming helplessly through its teeth and looking to the boy for help. The boy had given it. Now he sat staring at his dead friend. Benny’s blood was soaking into the road. The hand on the end of Benny’s arm lay palm-up, as if the dead boy wanted to shake hands with God.
What God? According to current rumor, the top of the Dark Tower was empty.
From Lady Oriza’s rice came a second scream of grief. Which had been Slightman, which Vaughn Eisenhart?
At a distance, Jake thought, you couldn’t tell the rancher from the foreman, the employer from the employee.
Was there a lesson there, or was it what Ms. Avery, back at good old Piper, would have called fear, false evidence appearing real?
The palm pointing up to the brightening sky, that was certainly real.
Now the folken began to sing. Jake recognized the song. It was a new version of the one Roland had sung on their first night in Calla Bryn Sturgis.
” Come-come-commala
Rice come a-falla
I-sissa ‘ay a-bralla
Dey come a-folla
We went to a-rivva
‘Riza did us kivva …”
The rice swayed with the passage of the singing folken, swayed as if it were dancing for their joy, as Roland had danced for them that torchlit night. Some came with babbies in their arms, and even so burdened, they swayed from side to side. We all danced this morning, Jake thought. He didn’t know what he meant, only that it was a true thought. The dance we do. The only one we know. Benny Slightman?Died dancing.
SaiEisenhart, too.
Roland and Eddie came over to him; Susannah, too, but she hung back a bit, as if deciding that, at least for the time being, the boys should be with the boys. Roland was smoking, and Jake nodded at it.
“Roll me one of those, would you?”
Roland turned in Susannah’s direction, eyebrows raised. She shrugged, then nodded. Roland rolled Jake a cigarette, gave it to him, then scratched a match on the seat of his pants and lit it. Jake sat on the waggon wheel, taking the smoke in occasional puffs, holding it in his mouth, then letting it out. His mouth filled up with spit. He didn’t mind. Unlike some things, spit could be got rid of. He made no attempt to inhale.
Roland looked down the hill, where the first of the two running men was just entering the corn. “That’s Slightman,” he said. “Good.”
“Why good, Roland?” Eddie asked.
“Because sai Slightman will have accusations to make,” Roland said. “In his grief, he isn’t going to care who hears them, or what his extraordinary knowledge might say about his part in this morning’s work.”
“Dance,” Jake said.
They turned to look at him. He sat pale and thoughtful on the waggon-wheel, holding his cigarette. “This morning’s dance,” he said.
Roland appeared to consider this, then nodded. “His part in this morning’s dance. If he gets here soon enough, we may be able to quiet him. If not, his son’s death is only going to be the start of Ben Slightman’s commala.”
NINETEEN
Slightman was almost fifteen years younger than the rancher, and arrived at the site of the battle well before the other. For a moment he only stood on the far edge of the hide, considering the shattered body lying in the road. There was not so much blood, now—the oggan had drunk it greedily—but the severed arm still lay where it had been, and the severed arm told all. Roland would no more have moved it before Slightman got here than he would have opened his flies and pissed on the boy’s corpse. Slightman the Younger had reached the clearing at the end of his path. His father, as next of kin, had a right to see where and how it had happened.
The man stood quiet for perhaps five seconds, then pulled in a deep breath and let it out in a shriek. It chilled Eddie’s blood. He looked around for Susannah and saw she was no longer there. He didn’t blame her for ducking out. This was a bad scene. The worst.
Slightman looked left, looked right, then looked straight ahead and saw Roland, standing beside the overturned waggon with his arms crossed. Beside him, Jake still sat on the wheel, smoking his first cigarette.
” YOU!” Slightman screamed. He was carrying his bah; now he unslung it. ” YOU DID THIS! YOU!”
Eddie plucked the weapon deftly from Slightman’s hands. “No, you don’t, partner,” he murmured. “You don’t need this right now, why don’t you let me keep it for you.”