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9

IT WAS THE TWINS, Bill and Till, who actually didup the tale smoothly whenever the other left off Every now and then Aunt Talitha would add so, and the tould wait respectfully until they were sure she was done Si didn&039;t speak at all -at the pieces of strahich bristled up from the wide brim of his sombrero

They knew little, indeed, Roland realized quickly, even about the history of their on (nor did this surprise him; in these latter days, memories faded rapidly and all but the most recent past see Roland was not surprised by this, either

In the days of their great-great-grandparents, River Crossing had been ined: a trade-stop at the Great Road, oods were soed It had been at least nos as Baronies and Estates o&039; Land had been passing

There had been buffalo-hunters in those days, although the trade had been dying out; the herds were small and badly mutated The meat of these mutant beasts was not poison, but it had been rank and bitter Yet River Crossing, located between a place they sie of Jimtown, had been a place of some note It was on the Great Road and only six days travel froe "Unless the river were low," one of the twins said "Then it took longer, and rounded all the way upriver to To of the city&039;s original residents, of course, or the technologies they had used to build the towers and turrets; these were the Great Old Ones, and their history had been lost in the furthest reaches of the past even when Aunt Talitha&039;s great-great-grandfa-ther had been a boy

"The buildings are still standing," Eddie said "I wonder if the machines the Great Golden Oldies used to build them still run"

"Mayhap," one of the twins said "If so, young fella, there don&039;t be ary man or woman that lives there noho&039;d still kno to run emor so I believe, so I do"

"Nay," his brother said argumentatively, "I doubt the old ways are entirely lost to the Grays &039;n Pubes, even now" He looked at Eddie "Our da&039; said there was once electric candles in the city There are those who say they ine that," Eddie replied wonderingly, and Susannah pinched his leg, hard, under the table

"Yes," the other twin said He spoke seriously, unaware of Eddie&039;s sarcasht, heatless can-dles with ary wicks or reservoirs for oil And I&039;ve heard it said that once, in the old days, Quick, the outlaw prince, actually Hew up into the sky in a reat fall, like Icarus"

Susannah&039;s mouth dropped open "You know the story of Icarus?"

"Ay, lady," he said, clearly surprised she should find this strange "He of the beesings"

"Children&039;s stories, both of them," Aunt Talitha said with a sniff "I know the story of the endless lights is true, for I saw theirl, and they low from time to time, ay; there are those I trust who say they&039;ve seen die years since I have myself But no man ever flew, not even the Great Old Ones"

Nonetheless, there were strange erous things Many of theht still run, but the elderly twins reckoned that none now in the city kne to start them up, for they hadn&039;t been heard in years

Maybe that could change, though, Eddie thought, his eyes glea eIt could be just athe ON switches I mean, it really could be that simple Or maybe they just blew a bunch of fuses - think of that, friends and neighbors! Just replace half a dozen 400-aht the whole place up like a Reno Saturday night!

Susannah elbowed him and asked, in a low voice, as so funny Eddie shook his head and put a finger to his lips, earning an irritated look from the love of his life The albinos,its thread back and forth with the unconscious ease which probably nothing but lifetienerations ago, they said, the city had still been quite heavily populated and reasonably civilized, although the residents drove wagons and buckboards along the wide boulevards the Great Old Ones had constructed for their fabulous horseless vehicles The city-dwellers were artisans and what the twins called "manufactories," and trade both on the river and over it had been brisk

"Over it?" Roland asked

"The bridge over the Send still stands," Aunt Talitha said, "or did twenty year ago"

"Ay, old Bill Muffin and his boy saw it not ten year agone," Si agreed,his first contribution to the conversation

"What sort of bridge?" the gunslinger asked

"A great thing of steel cables," one of the twins said "It stands in the sky like the web of soain before I die"

"Probably fallen in by now," Aunt Talitha said disood riddance Devil&039;s work" She turned to the twins "Tell theerous now - apart from any haunts that may den there, that is, and I&039;ll warrant there&039;s a power of eet on, and the sun&039;s on the wester"

10

THE REST OF THE story was but another version of a tale Roland of Gilead had heard h hih with ress distorted by the odd changes - both te place in the world, and it could be sule compound sentence: Once there was a world we knew, but that world hasknew of Gilead no more than Roland knew of the River Barony, and the naht ruin and anarchy on Roland&039;s land,to the were siht, to be coincidence

A great civil war - perhaps in Garlan, perhaps in a more distant land called Porla - had erupted three, perhaps even four hundred years ago Its ripples had spread slowly outward, pushing anarchy and dissension ahead of theainst those sloaves, and anarchy had coht follows sunset At one time, whole armies had been on the roads, sometimes in advance, sooals As tienerated into roving bands of harriers Trade faltered, then broke down entirely Travel went froer In the end, it became almost impossible Communication with the city thinned steadily and had all but ceased a hundred and twenty years ago

Like a hundred other towns Roland had ridden through - first with Cuthbert and the other gunslingers cast out of Gilead, then alone, in pursuit of thehad been cut off and thrown on its own resources

At this point Si roused himself, and his voice captured the travellers at once He spoke in the hoarse, cadenced tones of a lifelong teller of tales - one of those divine fools born to eous as cobwebs strung with drops of dew

"We last sent tribute to the Barony castle in the tiran&039;da," he said "Twenty-six on of hides - there was no hard coin anymore by then, o&039; course, and &039;twas the best they could do It was a long and dangerous journey of alhty wheels, and six died on the way Half fell to harriers bound for the war in the city; the other half died either of disease or devilgrass

"When they finally arrived, they found the castle deserted but for the rooks and black-birds The walls had been broken; weeds o&039;ergrew the Court o&039; State There had been a great slaughter on the fields to the west; it hite with bones and red with rusty arran&039;da said, and the voices of demons cried out like the east wind from the jawbones o&039; those who&039;d fallen there The village beyond the castle had been burned to the ground and a thousand orthe walls of the keep Our folk left their bounty o&039; hides without the shattered barbican gate - for none would venture inside that place of ghosts and ain Ten more fell on that journey, so that of the six-and-twenty who left only ten returned, -worm on his neck and bosom that never left until the day he died It were the radiation sickness, or so they said After that, gunslinger, none left the town We were on our own"

They grew used to the depredations of the harriers, Si continued in his cracked but melodious voice Watches were posted; when bands of riders were seen approaching - al the Great Road and the path of the Beaed endlessly in Lud - the townspeople hid in a large shelter they had dug beneath the church Casual daes to the toere not repaired, lest theybands curious Most were beyond curiosity; they only rode through at a gallop, bows or battle-axes slung over their shoul-ders, bound for the killing-zones

"What war is it that you speak of?" Roland asked

"Yes," Eddie said, "and what about that drued a quick, alod-drums," Si told them "Ary word or watch The war of the city, now "