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23

THEY STOOD IN THE high grass at the edge of the Great Road, looking at the speaking ring

Stonehenge, Susannah thought, and shuddered That&039;s what it looks like Stonehenge

Although the thick grass which covered the plain grew around the bases of the tall gray monoliths, the circle they enclosed was bare earth, littered here and there hite things

"What are those?" she asked in a low voice "Chips of stone?"

"Look again," Roland said

She did, and saw that they were bones The bones of small animals, maybe She hoped

Eddie switched the sharpened stick to his left hand, dried the palain He opened his mouth, but no sound caain "I think I&039; in the dirt"

Roland nodded "Now?"

"Soon" He looked into Roland&039;s face "There&039;s so we can&039;t see"

"It&039;s not here right now," Roland said "At least, I don&039;t think it is But it will come Our khef - our life-force - will draw it And, of course, it will be jealous of its place Give un back, Eddie"

Eddie unbuckled the belt and handed it over Then he turned back to the circle of twenty-foot-high stones Soht He could smell it, a stench thatsofas and ancientbeneath half-liquid coats of mildew It was familiar, that smell

The Mansion - I s me over to see The Mansion on Rhinehold Street, in Dutch Hill

Roland buckled his gunbelt, then bent to knot the tiedown He looked up at Susannah as he did it "We may need Detta Walker," he said "Is she around?"

"That bitch always around" Susannah wrinkled her nose

"Good One of us is going to have to protect Eddie while he does what he&039;s supposed to do The other is going to be so e This is a demon&039;s place Demons are not human, but they are male and female, just the same Sex is both their weapon and their weakness No o for Eddie To protect its place To keep its place fro used by an outsider Do you understand?"

Susannah nodded Eddie appeared not to be listening He had tucked the square of hide containing the key into his shirt and noas staring into the speaking ring as if hypnotized

"There&039;s no tientle or refined way," Roland told her "One of us will - "

"One of us gonna have to fuck it to keep it off Eddie," Susannah interrupted "This the sort of thing can&039;t ever turn down a free fuck That&039;s what you&039;re gettin at, isn&039;t it?"

Roland nodded

Her eyes gleamed They were the eyes of Detta Walker now, both wise and unkind, shining with hard aus Southern plantation drahich was Delta&039;s trade-it it But if it&039;s a boy demon, it&039;s mine That about it?"

Roland nodded

"What about if it swings both ways? What about that, big boy?"

Roland&039;s lips twitched in the barest suggestion of a sether Just re, distant voice, Eddie murmured: "Not all is silent in the halls of the dead Behold, the sleeper wakes" He turned his haunted, terrified eyes on Roland "There&039;s a monster"

"The de between the doors - between the worlds So its eyes"

Susannah cast a frightened glance at Roland

"Stand, Eddie," Roland said "Be true"

Eddie drew a deep breath "I&039;ll stand until it knocksto happen"

"We all goin in," Susannah said She arched her back and slipped out of her wheelchair "Any deoan find out he&039;s fuckin wit&039; the finest I th&039;ow hiit"

As they passed between two of the tall stones and into the speaking circle, it began to rain

24

As SOON AS JAKE saw the place, he understood two things: first, that he had seen it before, in dreams so terrible his conscious mind would not let him remember them; second, that it was a place of death andon the far corner of Rhinehold Street and Brooklyn Avenue, seventy yards from Henry and Eddie Dean, but even fro theer invisible hands, lie thought there were talons at the ends of those hands Sharp ones

It wants o inbut it&039;s madness not to Because somewhere inside that place is a locked door I have the key that will open it, and the only salvation I can hope for is on the other side

He stared at The Mansion, a house that al heart It stood in the center of its weedy, rioting yard like a tumor