"Are they of wood, do you think, or just made to look that way? I'm particularly interested in the one called Damli."
Susannah redirected the binoculars there, then handed them to Eddie. He looked, then handed them to Jake. While Jake was looking, there was an audible CLICK! sound that rolled to them across the miles... and the Cecil B. DeMille sunbeam which had been shining down on the Devar-Toi like a spotlight went out, leaving them in a thick purple dusk which would soon be complete and utter dark.
In it, the desert-dog began to howl again, raising the skin on Jake's arms into gooseflesh. The sound rose... rose... and suddenly cut off with one final choked syllable. It sounded like some final cry of surprise, and Jake had no doubt that the desert-dog was dead. Something had crept up behind it, and when the big overhead light went out-
There were still lights on down there, he saw: a double white row that might have been streetlights in "Pleasantville," yellow circles that were probably arc-sodiums along the various paths of what Susannah was calling Breaker U... and spotlights running random patterns across the dark.
No, Jake thought, not spotlights. Searchlights. Like in a prison movie. "Let's go back," he said. "There's nothing to see anymore, and I don't like it out here in the dark."
Roland agreed. They followed him in single file, with Eddie carrying Susannah and Jake walking behind them with Oy at his heel. He kept expecting a second desert-dog to take up the cry of the first, but none did.
FOUR
"They were wood," Jake said. He was sitting cross-legged beneath one of the gas lanterns, letting its welcome white glow shine down on his face.
"Wood," Eddie agreed.
Susannah hesitated a moment, sensing it was a question of real importance and reviewing what she had seen. Then she also nodded. "Wood, I'm almost positive. Especially the one they call Damli House. A Queen Anne built out of stone or brick and camouflaged to look like wood? It makes no sense."
"If it fools wandering folk who'd burn it down," Roland said, "it does. It does make sense."
Susannah thought about it. He was right, of course, but-
"I still say wood."
Roland nodded. "So do I." He had found a large green botde marked PERRIER. NOW he opened it and ascertained that Perrier was water. He took five cups and poured a measure into each. He set them down in front of Jake, Susannah, Eddie, Oy, and himself. s
"Do you call me dinh?" he asked Eddie.
"Yes, Roland, you know I do."
"Will you share khef with me, and drink this water?"
"Yes, if you like." Eddie had been smiling, but now he wasn't. The feeling was back, and it was strong. Ka-shume, a rueful word he did not yet know.
"Drink, bondsman."
Eddie didn't exactly like being called bondsman, but he drank his water. Roland knelt before him and put a brief, dry kiss on Eddie's lips. "I love you, Eddie," he said, and outside in the ruin that was Thunderclap, a desert wind arose, carrying gritty poisoned dust.
"Why... I love you, too," Eddie said. It was surprised out of him. "What's wrong? And don't tell me nothing is, because I feelit."
"Nothing's wrong," Roland said, smiling, but Jake had never heard the gunslinger sound so sad. It terrified him. "It's only kashume, and it comes to every ka-tet that ever was... but now, while we are whole, we share our water. We share our khef. 'Tis a jolly thing to do."
He looked at Susannah.
"Do you call me dinh?"
"Yes, Roland, I call you dinh." She looked very pale, but perhaps it was only the white light from the gas lanterns.
"Will you share khef with me, and drink this water?"
"With pleasure," said she, and took up the plastic cup.
"Drink, bondswoman."
She drank, her grave dark eyes never leaving his. She thought of the voices she'd heard in her dream of the Oxford jail-cell: this one dead, that one dead, ('other one dead; O Discordia, and the shadows grow deeper.
Roland kissed her mouth. "I love you, Susannah."
"I love you, too."
The gunslinger turned to Jake. "Do you call me dinh?"
"Yes," Jake said. There was no question about his pallor; even his lips were ashy. "Ka-shume means death, doesn't it?
Which one of us will it be?"
"I know not," Roland said, "and the shadow may yet lift from us, for the wheel's still in spin. Did you not feel ka-shume when you and Callahan went into the place of the vampires?"
"Yes."
"Ka-shume for both?"
"Yes."
"Yet here you are. Our ka-tet is strong, and has survived many dangers. It may survive this one, too."
"But I feel-"
"Yes," Roland said. His voice was kind, but that awful look was in his eyes. The look that was beyond mere sadness, the one that said this would be whatever it was, but the Tower was beyond, the Dark Tower was beyond and it was there that he dwelt, heart and soul, ka and khef. 'Yes, I feel it, too. So do we all. Which is why we take water, which is to say fellowship, one with the other. Will you share khef with me, and share this water?"
"Yes."