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13

EDDIE&039;S FEAR LEFT HIM in its place cae yet welcome coldness He dropped Susannah&039;s wheelchair to the cracked ce the support cable, not even both-ering with the handrail Jake hung head-down over the gap with Oy swinging at the end of his left hand like a furry pendulu

Eddie opened his legs and seat-dropped to a sitting position His undefended balls smashed painfully up into his crotch, but for the moment even this exquisite pain was news from a distant country He seized Jake by the hair with one hand and one strap of his pack with the other He felt hihto over in a daisy-chain

He let go of Jake&039;s hair and tightened his grip on the packstrap, praying the lad hadn&039;t bought the pack at one of the cheap discount outlets He flailed above his head for the handrail with his free hand After an interminable moment in which their combined outward slide continued, he found it and seized it

"ROLAND!" he bawled "I COULD USE A LITTLE HELP HERE!"

But Roland was already there, with Susannah still perched on his back When he bent, she locked her arms around his neck so she wouldn&039;t drop headfirst froer wrapped an arm around Jake&039;s chest and pulled hiain, Jake put his right arony of fire and ice

"Let go, Oy," he gasped "You can let go noe&039;re - safe"

For a terrible moment he didn&039;t think the billy-bumbler would Then, slowly, Oy&039;s jaws relaxed and Jake was able to pull his hand free It was covered with blood and dotted with a ring of dark holes

"Oy," the bumbler said feebly, and Eddie saonder that the anie eyes were full of tears He stretched his neck and licked Jake&039;s face with his bloody tongue

"That&039;s okay," Jake said, pressing his face into the war himself, his face a mask of shock and pain "Don&039;t worry, that&039;s okay You couldn&039;t help it and I don&039;tslowly to his feet His face was dirty gray, and he felt as if souts His left hand stole slowly to his crotch and investigated the da vasecto to faint, Eddie?" Roland asked A fresh gust of wind flipped his hat frorabbed it and ja Roland the look of a half-crazed hillbilly

"No," Eddie said "I almost wish I could, but - "

"Take a look at Jake," Susannah said "He&039;s really bleeding"

"I&039;m fine," Jake said, and tried to hide his hand Roland took it gently in his own hands before he could Jake had sustained at least a dozen puncture-wounds in the back of his hand, his palers

Most of them were deep It would be impossible to tell if bones had been broken or tendons severed until Jake tried to flex the hand, and this wasn&039;t the time or place for such experiments

Roland looked at Oy The billy-buhtened He had made no effort to lick Jake&039;s blood froh it would have been thein the world for him to have done so

"Leave hihtly about Oy&039;s body "It wasn&039;t his fault It washi to hurt him," Roland said He was positive the billy-bumbler wasn&039;t rabid, but he still did not intend for Oy to taste any more of Jake&039;s blood than he already had As for any other diseases Oyin his blood well, ka would decide, as, in the end, it always did Roland pulled his neckerchief free and wiped Oy&039;s lips and muzzle "There," he said "Good fellow Good boy"

"Oy," the billy-bu over Roland&039;s shoulder, could have sworn she heard gratitude in that voice

Another gust of wind struck the dirty, and fast "Eddie, we have to get off the bridge Can you walk?"

"No, roin and the pit of his stomach was still bad, but not quite so bad as it had been a ht Let&039;s an to take a step, and stopped Athem expressionlessly

The newcomer had approached while their attention was focused on Jake and Oy A crossboas slung across his back He wore a bright yellow scarf around his head; the ends strea wind Gold hoops with crosses in their centers dangled from his ears One eye was covered with a white silk patch His face was blotched with purple sores, soht have been thirty, forty, or sixty He held one hand high over his head In it was so Roland could not ular to be a stone

Behind this apparition, the city loo day As Eddie looked past the huddles of brick buildings on the other shore - warehouses long since scooped empty by looters, he had no doubt - and into those shadowy canyons and stone mazes, he understood for the first time how terribly mistaken, how terribly foolish, his dreams of hope and help had been Now he saw the shattered facades and broken roofs; now he saw the shaggy birds&039; nests on cornices and in glassless, gaping s; now hr allowed himself to actually smell the city, and that odor was not of fabulous spices and savory foods of the sort his ht home from Zabar&039;s but rather the stink of a ht fire, smoldered awhile, and then been put out with seater He suddenly understood Lud, understood it co pirate who had appeared while their attention was elsewhere was probably as close to a wise old elf as this broken, dying place could provide

Roland pulled his revolver

"Put it away, my cully," the man in the yellow scarf said in an accent so thick that the sense of his words was almost lost "Put it away, my dear heart Ye&039;re a fierce trim, ay, that&039;s clear, but this time you&039;re outmatched"

14

THE NEWCOMER&039;S PANTS WERE patched green velvet, and as he stood on the edge of the hole in the bridge, he looked like a buccaneer at the end of his days of plunder: sick, ragged, and still dangerous

"Suppose I choose not to?" Roland asked "Suppose I choose to sih your scrofulous head?"

"Then I&039;ll get to hell just enough ahead of ye to hold the door," the led the hand he held in the air "It&039;s all the same jolly fakeuessed that was the truth The ht have a year to live at most and the last few months of that year would probably be very unpleasant The oozing sores on his face had nothing to do with radiation; unless Roland was badly deceived, this es of what the doctors calleda dangerous man was always a bad busi-ness, but at least one could calculate the odds in such an encounter When you were facing the dead, however, everything changed

"Do yer knohat I&039;ve got here, my dear ones?" the pirate asked "Do yer ken whatcher old friend Gasher just happens to have laid his hands on? It&039;s a grenado, so pretty the Old Folks left behind, and I&039;ve already tipped its cap - for to wear one&039;s cap before the introductin&039; is complete would be wery bad manners, so it would!"

He cackled happily for a rave once more All humor left it, as if a switch had been turned soer is all that&039;s holdin the pin now, dearie If you shootYou and the cunt-monkey on yer back will be vaporized The squint, too, I reckon The young buck stand-ing behind you and pointing that toy pistol in ht live, but only until he hits the water and hit it he would, because this bridge has been hangin by a thread these last forty year, and all it&039;d take to finish it is one little push So do ye want to put away your iron, or shall we all toddle off to hell on the sa to shoot the object Gasher called a grenado out of his hand, sa tightly the un

"Ah, good!" Gasher cried, cheerful oncecove, just lookin at yer! Oh yes! So I did!"

"What do you want?" Roland asked, although he thought he already knew this, too

Gasher raised his free hand and pointed a dirty finger at Jake "The squint Gio free"

"Go fuck yourself," Susannah said at once

"Why not?" the pirate cackled "Giht off and stick it right in - why not, for all the good it&039;s a-doin h it without it burns ullywash!" His eyes, which were a strange calray, never left Roland&039;s face "What do you say, ood old mate?"

"What happens to the rest of us if I hand over the boy?"

"Why, you go on yer ithout no trouble from us!" the man in the yellow headscarf returned promptly "You have the Tick-Tock Man&039;s word on that It comes from his lips tocove, too, what don&039;t break his word once it&039;s been given I can&039;t say ary word nor watch about any Pubies you ht run into, but you&039;ll have no trouble with the Tick-Tock Man&039;s Grays"

"What the fuck are you saying, Roland?" Eddie roared "You&039;re not really thinking about doing it, are you?"

Roland didn&039;t look down at Jake, and his lips didn&039;t move as he murmured: "I&039;ll keep my promise"

"Yes - I know you will" Then Jake raised his voice and said: "Put the gun away, Eddie I&039;ll decide"