"Aye, lady. It has. And left no one to replace the machines which hold up the last magic in creation, for thePrim has receded long since. The magic is gone and the machines are failing. Soon enough the Dark Tower will fall. Perhaps there'll be time for one splendid moment of universal rational thought before the darkness rules forever. Wouldn't that be nice?"
"Won't the Crimson King be destroyed, too, when the Tower falls? Him and all his crew? The guys with the bleeding holes in their foreheads?"
"He has been promised his own kingdom, where he'll rule forever, tasting his own special pleasures." Distaste had crept into Mia's voice. Fear, too, perhaps.
"Promised? Promised by whom? Who is more powerful than he?"
"Lady, I know not. Perhaps this is only what he has promised himself." Mia shrugged. Her eyes wouldn't quite meet Susannah's.
"Can nothing prevent the fall of the Tower?"
"Not even your gunslinger friend hopes toprevent it," Mia said, "only to slow it down by freeing the Breakers and - perhaps - slaying the Crimson King. Save it!Save it, O delight! Did he ever tell you that was his quest?"
Susannah considered this and shook her head. If Roland had ever said that, in so many words, she couldn't remember. And she was sure she would have.
"No," Mia went on, "for he won't lie to his ka-tet unless he has to, 'tis his pride. What he wants of the Tower is only tosee it." Then she added, rather grudgingly: "Oh, perhaps to enter it, and climb to the room at the top, his ambition may strike so far. He may dream of standing on its allure as we hunker on this one, and chant the names of his fallen comrades, and of his line all the way back to Arthur Eld. Butsave it? No, good lady! Only a return of the magic could possibly save it, and - as you yourself well know - your dinh deals only in lead."
Never since crossing the worlds had Susannah heard Roland's trade of hand cast in such a paltry light. It made her feel sad and angry, but she hid her feelings as best she could.
"Tell me how your chap can be Roland's son, for I would hear."
"Aye, 'tis a good trick, but one the old people of River Crossing could have explained to you, I've no doubt."
Susannah started at that. "How do you know somuch of me?"
"Because you are possessed," Mia said, "and I am your possessor, sure. I can look through any of your memories that I like. I can read what your eyes see. Now be quiet and listen if you would learn, for I sense our time has grown short."
Four
This is what Susannah's demon told her.
"There are six Beams, as you did say, but there are twelve Guardians, one for each end of each Beam. This - for we're still on it - is the Beam of Shardik. Were you to go beyond the Tower, it would become the Beam of Maturin, the great turtle upon whose shell the world rests.
"Similarly, there are but six demon elementals, one for each Beam. Below them is the whole invisible world, those creatures left behind on the beach of existence when thePrim receded. There are speaking demons, demons of house which some call ghosts, ill-sick demons which some - makers of machines and worshippers of the great false god rationality, if it does ya - call disease. Many small demons but only six demon elementals. Yet as there are twelve Guardians for the six Beams, there are twelve demonaspects, for each demon elemental is both male and female."
Susannah began to see where this was going, and felt a sudden sinking in her guts. From the naked bristle of rocks beyond the allure, in what Mia called the Discordia, there came a dry, feverish cackle of laughter. This unseen humorist was joined by a second, a third, a fourth and fifth. Suddenly it seemed that the whole world was laughing at her. And perhaps with good reason, for it was a good joke. But how could she have known?
As the hyenas - or whatever they were - cackled, she said: "You're telling me that the demon elementals are hermaphrodites. That's why they're sterile, because they're both."
"Aye. In the place of the Oracle, your dinh had intercourse with one of these demon elementals in order to gain information, what's calledprophecy in the High Speech. He had no reason to think the Oracle was anything but a succubus, such as those that sometimes exist in the lonely places - "
"Right," Susannah said, "just a run-of-the-mill demon sexpot."
"If you like," Mia said, and this time when she offered Susannah a pokeberry, Susannah took it and began to roll it between her palms, warming the skin. She still wasn't hungry, but her mouth was dry. So dry.
"The demon took the gunslinger's seed as female, and gave it back to you as male."
"When we were in the speaking ring," Susannah said dismally. She was remembering how the pouring rain had pounded against her upturned face, the sense of invisible hands on her shoulders, and then the thing's engorgement filling her up and at the same time seeming to tear her apart. The worst part had been the coldness of the enormous c**k inside her. At the time, she'd thought it was like being f**ked by an icicle.