Chapter IV A Bowl (1/2)

On a day in Full Earth so hot that it seemed to suck the breath from his chest before his body could use it, Roland of Gilead cae in the Desatoya Mountains He was travelling alone by then, and would soon be travelling afoot, as well This whole last week he had been hoping for a horse-doctor, but guessed such a felloould do hiood now, even if this town had one His mount, a two-year-old roan, was pretty well done for

The town gates, still decorated with flowers fro, but the silence beyond theer heard no clip-clop of horses, no ru cries from the marketplace The only sounds were the low hu, at any rate; they were a bitsound, and the faint, dreamy tinkle of small bells

Also, the flowers twined through the wrought-iron staves of the orna dead

Between his knees, Topsy gave two great, hollow sneezes-K'chow! K'chow!-and staggered sideways Roland dismounted, partly out of respect for the horse, partly out of respect for hi under Topsy if Topsy chose thisat the end of his path

The gunslinger stood in his dusty boots and faded jeans under the beating sun, stroking the roan's ers through the tangles of Topsy'sat the corners of Topsy's eyes Let theots there after Topsy was dead, but not before

Roland thus honoured his horse as best he could, listening to those distant, drea sound as he did After a while he ceased his absent grooate

The cross above its centre was a bit unusual, but otherwise the gate was a typical example of its type, a western commonplace which was not useful but traditional-all the little towns he had come to in the last tenrand) and one rand) None had been built to exclude visitors, certainly not this one It stood between talls of pink adobe that ran into the scree for a distance of about twenty feet on either side of the road and then siate, lock it with many locks, and all that meant was a short walk around one bit of adobe wall or the other

Beyond the gate, Roland could see what looked in h Street-an inn, two saloons (one of which was called The Bustling Pig; the sign over the other was too faded to read), aHall There was also a s with a modest bell-tower on top, a sturdy fieldstone foundation on bottoold-painted cross on its double doors The cross, like the one over the gate,place for those who held to the Jesus-ion in Mid-World, but far fro could have been said aboutthe worship of Baal, As else in the world these days, had moved on As far as Roland was concerned, God o" the Cross was just another religion which taught that love and ether-that in the end, God always drank blood

Meanwhile, there was the singing hum of insects which sounded almost like crickets The drea, like a fist on a door Or on a coffin top

Soht Ware, Roland; this place has a reddish odour

He led Topsy through the gate with its adornh Street On the porch of the ated to discuss crops, politics, and the follies of the younger generation, there stood only a line of e beneath one, as if dropped fro-departed) hand, was a charred corncob pipe The hitching-rack in front of The Bustling Pig stood empty; the s of the saloon itself were dark One of the batwing doors had been yanked off and stood propped against the side of the building; the other hung ajar, its faded green slats splattered with ht have been paint but probably wasn't

The shopfront of the livery stable stood intact, like the face of a ruined woood cosmetics, but the double barn behind it was a charred skeleton That fire ht, or the whole daone up in flames; a jolly spin and raree for anyone around to see it

To his right now, halfway up to where the street opened into the town square, was the church There were grassy borders on both sides, one separating the church fro Hall, the other from the little house set aside for the preacher and his family (if this was one of the Jesus-sects which allowed its shamans to have wives and families, that was; some of them, clearly administered by lunatics, demanded at least the appearance of celibacy) There were flowers in these grassy strips, and while they looked parched, most were still alive So whatever had happened here to eo A week, perhaps Two at the outside, given the heat

Topsy sneezed again-K'chow!-and lowered his head wearily

The gunslinger saw the source of the tinkling Above the cross on the church doors, a cord had been strung in a long, shallow arc Hung from it were perhaps two dozen tiny silver bells There was hardly any breeze today, but enough so these small bells were never quite still and if a real wind should rise, Roland thought, the sound made by the tintinnabulation of the bells would probably be a good deal less pleasant; ues

"Hello!" Roland called, looking across the street at what a large falsefronted sign proclaimed to be the Good Beds Hotel "Hello, the town!"

No answer but the bells, the tuneso No answer, noHe was being watched The tiny hairs on the nape of his neck had stiffened

Roland stepped onward, leading Topsy towards the centre of town, puffing up the unlaid High Street dust with each step Forty paces further along, he stopped in front of a low building le curt word: LAW The Sheriffs office (if they had such this far from the Inners) looked remarkably si shade of dark brown above a stone foundation

The bells behind him rustled and whispered

He left the roan standing in the middle of the street and mounted the steps to the LAW office He was very aware of the bells, the sun beating against his neck, and of the sweat trickling down his sides The door was shut but unlocked He opened it, then winced back, half-raising a hand as the heat trapped inside rushed out in a soundless gasp If all the closed buildings were this hot inside, he mused, the livery barns would soon not be the only burned-out hulks And with no rain to stop the flames (and certainly no volunteer fire depart for the face of the earth

He stepped inside, trying to sip at the stifling air rather than taking deep breaths He immediately heard the low drone of flies

There was a single cell, co open Filthy skin-shoes, one of the pair co unsewn, lay beneath a bunk sodden with the sa Here here the flies were, crawling over the stain, feeding from it

On the desk was a ledger Roland turned it towards him and read as embossed upon its red cover:

REGISTRY OF MISDEEDS amp; REDRESS

IN THE YEARS OF OUR LORD

ELURIA

So now he knew the name of the town, at least-Eluria Pretty, yet somehow ominous, as well But any naiven these circumstances He turned to leave, and saw a closed door secured by a wooden bolt

He went to it, stood before it for arevolvers he carried low on his hips He stood a(Cuthbert, his old friend, liked to say that the wheels inside Roland's head ground slow but exceedingly fine), and then retracted the bolt He opened the door and i a body (Eluria's Sheriff,into the rooed out, victim of a MISDEED in need of REDRESS

Nothing

Well, half a dozen stained juer-term prisoners probably required to wear, ts, a quiver of arrows, an old, dusty motor, a rifle that had probably last been fired a hundred years agog and a er's e closet

He went back to the desk, opened the register, and leafed through it Even the pages arm, as if the book had been baked In a way, he supposed it had been If the High Street layout had been different, he ious offences to be recorded, but he wasn't surprised to find none here-if the Jesus-man church had coexisted with a couple of saloons, the churchfolk must have been fairly reasonable

What Roland found were the usual petty offences, and a few not so petty-a , the Distressal of a Lady (which probably meant rape) The worth to be hanged Roland had never heard of it One note towards the end read Green folk sent hence Itto Roland The most recent entry was this: 12/Fe/99 Chas Freeborn, cattle-theef to be tryed

Roland wasn't fa stretch froht stand for Full Earth In any case, the ink looked about as fresh as the blood on the bunk in the cell, and the gunslinger had a good idea that Chas Freeborn, cattle-theef, had reached the clearing at the end of his path

He went out into the heat and the lacy sound of bells Topsy looked at Roland dully, then lowered his head again, as if there were soh Street which could be cropped As if he would ever want to crop again, for that matter

The gunslinger gathered up the reins, slapped the dust off theainst the faded no-colour of his jeans, and continued on up the street The wooden knocking sound grew steadily louder as he walked (he had not holstered his gun when leaving LAW, nor cared to holster it now), and as he neared the town square, which must have housed the Eluria market in more normal times, Roland at last saw movement

On the far side of the square was a long watering trough, made of iron-wood from the look (what some called "seequoiah" out here), apparently fed in happier times from a rusty steel pipe which now jutted waterless above the trough's south end Lolling over one side of thisclad in faded grey pants and ter in a well-chewed cowboy boot

The cheas a large dog, perhaps two shades greyer than the corduroy pants Under other circumstances, Roland supposed thesince, but perhaps the foot and lower calf inside it had swelled In any case, the dog ell on its way to si the obstacle away It would seize the boot and shake it back and forth Every now and then the boot's heel would collide with the wooden side of the trough, producing another hollow knock The gunslinger hadn't been so wrong to think of coffin tops after all, it seemed

Why doesn't it just back off a few steps, juh, and have at hi out of the pipe, so it can't be afraid of drowning

Topsy uttered another of his hollow, tired sneezes, and when the dog lurched around in response, Roland understood why it was doing things the hard way One of its front legs had been badly broken and crookedlyout of the question On its chest was a patch of dirty white fur Growing out of this patch was black fur in a roughly crucifor for a spot of afternoon communion

There was nothing very religious about the snarl which began to wind out of its chest, however, or the roll of its rheu sneer, revealing a goodish set of teeth

"Light out," Roland said "While you can"

The dog backed up until its hindquarters were pressed against the chewed boot It regarded the oncoround The revolver in Roland's hand held no significance for it The gunslinger wasn't surprised-he guessed the dog had never seen one, had no idea it was anything other than a club of some kind, which could only be thrown once

"Hie on with you, now," Roland said, but still the dog wouldn't move