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"I&039;oing to like it even less, but it&039;s going to be very dark down there"

He tied the two lengths of rawhide together and formed one end into a wide loop which he slipped over Oy&039;s head He expected Oy to bare his teeth again, perhaps even to nip hiold-ringed eyes and barked "Ake!" again in his impatient voice

Roland put the loose end of his e of the sewer shaftif that hat it was He felt for the top rung of the ladder and found it He descended slowly and carefully,half a hand and that the steel rungs were slimy with oil and some thicker stuff that was probably ht between his shirt and belly, panting steadily and harshly The gold rings in his eyes gleaht

At last, the gunslinger&039;s groping foot splashed into the water at the bottoht far above hiht The tunnel arm and dank and smelled like an ancient charnel house So hollowly and monotonously Farther off, Roland could hear the rurateful Oy out of his shirt and set hi the sewer tunnel

"Now it&039;s all up to you," he murmured in the bumbler&039;s ear "To Jake, Oy To Jake!"

"Ake!" the bumbler barked, and splashed rapidly off into the darkness, swinging his head fro neck like a pendulum Roland folloith the end of the rawhide leash wrapped around his diht hand

24

THE CRADLE - IT WAS easily big enough to have acquired proper-noun status in their er than the one where they had coood look at it, Susannah realized how old and gray and funday the rest of Lud really was The Cradle was so clean it alraffiti daubed its blinding white walls and steps and colu else was absent here As they drew closer, Susannah sahy: streams of water coursed endlessly down the sides of the Cradle, issuing from nozzles hidden in the shadows of the copper-sheathed eaves Interval sprays created by other hidden nozzles washed the steps, turning them into off-and-on waterfalls

"Wow," Eddie said "It makes Grand Central look like a Greyhound station in Buttfuck, Nebraska "

"What a poet you are, dear," Susannah said dryly

The steps surrounded the entire building and rose to a great open lobby There were no obscuring etation here, but Eddie and Susannah found they still couldn&039;t get a good look inside; the shadows thrown by the overhanging roof were too deep The Tote, two by two, but the corners were reserved for creatures Susannah fervently hoped never to ons with scaly bodies, clutching, claw-tipped hands, and nasty peering eyes

Eddie touched her shoulder and pointed higher Susannah looked and felt her breath co astride the peak of the roof, far above The Toteiven doh A battered cowboy hat was shoved back to reveal his lined and careworn brow; a bandanna hung askew on his upper chest, as if it had just been pulled down after serving long, hard duty as a dust-muffle In one upraised fist he held a revolver; in the other, what appeared to be an olive branch

Roland of Gilead stood atop the Cradle of Lud, dressed in gold

No, she thought, at last reain It&039;s not hier, and the resemblance between him, who&039;s probably been dead a thousand years or more, and Roland is all the truth of ka-tet you&039;ll ever need to know

Thunder sla clouds across the sky She wished she had olden statue which stood atop the Cradle and the animals which surrounded it; each of these latter appeared to have words carved upon theht be knowledge worth having Under these circumstances, however, there was no time to spare

A wide red strip had been painted across the pavement at the point where The Street of the Turtle emptied into The Plaza of the Cradle Maud and the fellow Eddie called Jeeves the Butler stopped a prudent distance from the red mark

"This far and no farther," Maud told them flatly "You may take us to our deaths, but each ods anyway, and I&039;ll die on this side of the dead-line no matter what I&039;ll not dare Blaine for outlanders"

"Nor will I," Jeeves said He had taken off his dusty bowler and was holding it against his naked chest On his face was an expression of fearful reverence

"Fine," Susannah said "Now scat on out of here, both of you"

"Ye&039;ll backshoot us the second we turn fro voice "I&039;ll take my watch and warrant on it, so I will"

Maud shook her head The blood on her face had dried to a gro-tesque er - that much I will say"

"We only have their word for it that that&039;s what they are"

Maud pointed to the big revolver with the worn sandalwood grip which Susannah held in her hand Jeeves looked and after a moment he stretched out his hand to the woerous killers collapsed They looked htened, confused, and lost so long in the woods that they had grown old there Her hate and fear of the sadness

"Fare you well, both of you," she said softly "Walk as you will, and with no fear of harm from me or my man here"

Maud nodded "I believe youWinston But listen to me, and listen well: stay out of the Cradle Whatever reasons you think you have for going in, they&039;re not good enough To enter Blaine &039;s Cradle is death"

"We don&039;t have any choice," Eddie said, and thunder banged over-head again, as if in agree I don&039;t knohat&039;s underneath Lud and what isn&039;t, but I do know those dru - a song - that was made in the worldfaces and raised his aret it? You&039;re killing each other over a piece of le!"

Susannah put her hand on his shoulder and nored her for thefroain

"You want to see et back to whatever funhouse it is you call hoood look at your friends and relatives"

"You don&039;t understand," Maud said Her eyes were dark and somber "But you will Ay - you will"

"Go on, now," Susannah said quietly "Talk between us is no good; the words only drop dead Just go your way and try to reht of those faces long ago"

The two of them walked back in the direction from which they had come without another word They did look back over their shoulders fro hands: Hansel and Gretel lost in the deep dark forest

"Leer safe, stuck it back in the waistband of his pants, and then rubbed his red eyes with the heels of his hands "Just lemme out, that&039;s all I ask"

"I knohat you mean, handsome" She was clearly scared, but her head had that defiant tilt he had conize and love He put his hands on her shoulders, bent down, and kissed her He did not let either their surroundings or the oncoh job When he pulled back at last, she was studying hi eyes "Wow! What was that about?"

"About how I&039;uess that&039;s about all Is it enough?"

Her eyes softened For a ht or , but of course the tiht be pregnant now than she could pause to read the words written on the sculpted Portal Toteh, Eddie," she said

"You&039;re the best thing that ever happened to me" His hazel eyes were totally focused on her "It&039;s hard forwith Henry uess - but it&039;s true I think I started loving you because you were everything Roland took me away from - in New York, I mean - hut it&039;s a lot o hack anymore Do you?"

She looked at the Cradle She was terrified of what they ht find in there, but all the sao back I want to spend the rest ofas you&039;re withyou started loving s he took you away fro you because you set ht, then shook her head slightly "No - it goes further than that I started loving you because you set me free of both those bitches One was a foul-hteous, po Comes down to six of one and half a dozen of the other, as far as I&039;m concerned I like Susannah Dean better than either one and you were the one who set me free"

This ti her palently When he put a light hand on her breast, she sighed and covered it with her own

"I think we better get going," she said, "or we&039;re apt to be laying right here in the street and getting wet, from the look"

Eddie stared around at the silent towers, the broken s, the vine-encrusted walls a final time Then he nodded "Yeah I don&039;t think there&039;s any future in this town, anyway"

He pushed her forward, and they both stiffened as the wheels of the chair passed over what Maud had called the dead-line, fearful that they would trip so happened Eddie pushed her into the plaza, and as they approached the steps leading up to the Cradle, a cold, wind-driven rain began to fall

Although neither of thereat autumn storms of Mid-World had arrived