Wolves of the Calla

Eddie glanced around. 'Where's Suze?'

'Probably went after her chair,' Jake said. But before either of them could explore the question of Susannah Dean's whereabouts any further (and by then it was probably too late, anyway) , the first of the folken from town arrived. Eddie and Jake were swept into a wild, impromptu celebration—hugged, kissed, shaken by the hand, laughed over, wept over, thanked and thanked and thanked.

TWENTY-ONE

Ten minutes after the main body of the townsfolk arrived, Rosalita reluctantly approached Roland. The gunslinger was extremely glad to see her. Eben Took had taken him by the arms and was telling him—over and over again, endlessly, it seemed— how wrong he and Telford had been, how utterly and completely wrong, and how when Roland and his ka-tet were ready to move on, Eben Took would outfit them from stem to stern and not a penny would they pay.

'Roland!' Rosa said.

Roland excused himself and took her by the arm, leading her a little way up the road. The Wolves had been scattered everywhere and were now being mercilessly looted of their possessions by the laughing, deliriously happy folken . Stragglers were arriving every minute.

'Rosa, what is it?'

'It's your lady,' Rosa said. 'Susannah.'

'What of her?' Roland asked. Frowning, he looked around. He didn't see Susannah, couldn't remember when he had last seen her. When he'd given Jake the cigarette? That long ago? He thought so. 'Where is she?'

'That's just it,' Rosa said. 'I don't know. So I peeked into the waggon she came in, thinking that perhaps she'd gone in there to rest. That perhaps she felt faint or gut-sick, do ya. But she's not there. And Roland… her chair is gone.'

'Gods!' Roland snarled, and slammed his fist against his leg. 'Oh, gods!'

Rosalita took a step back from him, alarmed.

'Where's Eddie?' Roland asked.

She pointed. Eddie was so deep in a cluster of admiring men and women that Roland didn't think he would have seen him, but for the child riding on his shoulders; it was Heddon Jaffords, an enormous grin on his face.

'Are you sure you want to disturb him?' Rosa asked timidly. 'May be she's just gone off a bit, to pull herself back together.'

Gone off a bit , Roland thought. He could feel a blackness filling his heart. His sinking heart. She'd gone off a bit, all right. And he knew who had stepped in to take her place. Their attention had wandered in the aftermath of the fight…Jake's grief… the congratulations of the folken … the confusion and the joy and the singing… but that was no excuse.

'Gunslingers !' he roared, and the jubilant crowd quieted at once. Had he cared to look, he could have seen the fear that lay just beneath their relief and adulation. It would not have been new to him; they were always afraid of those who came wearing the hard calibers. What they wanted of such when the shooting was done was to give them a final meal, perhaps a final gratitude-fuck, then send them on their way and pick up their own peaceful farming-tools once more.

Well , Roland thought, we'll be going soon enough. In fact, one of us has gone already. Gods !

'Gunslingers, to me! To me!'

Eddie reached Roland first. He looked around. 'Where's Susannah?' he asked.

Roland pointed into the stony wasteland of bluffs and arroyos, then elevated his finger until it was pointing at a black hole just below the skyline. 'I think there,' he said.

All the color had drained out of Eddie Dean's face. 'That's Doorway Cave you're pointing at,' he said. 'Isn't it?'

Roland nodded.

'But the ball… Black Thirteen… she wouldn't even go near it when it was in Callahan's church—'

'No,' Roland said. 'Susannah wouldn't. But she's not in charge anymore.'

'Mia?' Jake asked.

'Yes.' Roland studied the high hole with his faded eyes. 'Mia's gone to have her baby. She's gone to have her chap.'

'No,' Eddie said. His hands wandered out and took hold of Roland's shirt. Around them, the folken stood silently, watching. 'Roland, say no.'

'We'll go after her and hope we're not too late,' Roland said.

But in his heart, he knew they already were.

Epilogue: The Doorway Cave

ONE

They moved fast, but Mia moved faster. A mile beyond the place where the arroyo path divided, they found her wheelchair. She had pushed it hard, using her strong arms to give it a savage beating against the unforgiving terrain. Finally it had struck a jutting rock hard enough to bend the lefthand wheel out of true and render the chair useless. It was a wonder, really, that she had gotten as far in it as she had.

'Fuck-commala,' Eddie murmured, looking at the chair. At the dents and dings and scratches. Then he raised his head, cupped his hands around his mouth, and shouted. 'Fight her, Susannah!Fight her! We're coming! ' He pushed past the chair and headed on up the path, not looking to see if the others were following.

'She can't make it up the path to the cave, can she?' Jake asked. 'I mean, her legs are gone.'

'Wouldn't think so, would you?' Roland asked, but his face was dark. And he was limping. Jake started to say something about this, then thought better of it.

'What would she want up there, anyway?' Callahan asked.

Roland turned a singularly cold eye on him. 'To go somewhere else,' he said. 'Surely you see that much. Come on.'

TWO

As they neared the place where the path began to climb, Roland caught up to Eddie. The first time he put his hand on the younger man's shoulder, Eddie shook it off. The second time he turned—reluctantly—to look at his dinh. Roland saw there was blood spattered across the front of Eddie's shirt. He wondered if it was Benny's, Margaret's, or both.

'Mayhap it'd be better to let her alone awhile, if it's Mia,' Roland said.