Gardener was walking away; everybody else watched him. It was time. Jack kicked off away from his shelter of rock and, bending over while he clasped Richard's skimpy forearms, raced down the beach. His feet kicked up scallops of damp sand. The three joined pillars of rocks, which had seemed so close while he talked to Speedy, now appeared to be half a mile away - the open space between himself and them would not close. It was as if the rocks receded while he ran. Jack expected to hear the crack of a shot. Would he feel the bullet first, or would he hear the report before the bullet knocked him down? At last the three rocks grew larger and larger in his vision, and then he was there, falling onto his chest and skidding behind their protection.
'Speedy!' he said, almost laughing in spite of everything. But the sight of Speedy, who was sitting down beside a colorful little blanket and leaning against the middle pillar of rock, killed the laughter in his throat - killed at least half of his hope, too.
2
For Speedy Parker looked worse than Richard. Much worse. His cracked, leaking face gave Jack a weary nod, and the boy thought that Speedy was confirming his hopelessness. Speedy wore only a pair of old brown shorts, and all of his skin seemed horribly diseased, as if with leprosy.
'Settle down now, ole Travellin Jack,' Speedy whispered in a hoarse, crackling voice. 'There's lots you got to hear, so open your ears up good.'
'How are you?' Jack asked. 'I mean . . . Jesus, Speedy . . . is there anything I can do for you?'
He gently placed Richard down on the sand.
'Open your ears, like I said. Don't you go worryin bout Speedy. I ain't too com'fable, the way you see me now, but I can be com'fable again, if you does the right thing. Your little friend's dad put this hurtin on me - on his own boy, too, looks like. Old Bloat don't want his child in that hotel, no sir. But you got to take him there, son. There ain't but one way about it. You got to do it.'
Speedy seemed to be fading in and out as he talked to Jack, who wanted to scream or wail more than he had at any time since the death of Wolf. His eyes smarted, and he knew he wanted to cry. 'I know, Speedy,' he said. 'I figured that out.'
'You a good boy,' the old man said. He cocked his head back and regarded Jack carefully. 'You the one, all right. The road laid its mark on you, I see. You the one. You gonna do it.'
'How's my mom, Speedy?' Jack asked. 'Please tell me. She's still alive, isn't she?'
'You can call her soon's you can, find out she's okay,' Speedy answered. 'But first you got to get it, Jack. Because if you don't get it, she be dead. And so be Laura, the Queen. She be dead, too.' Speedy hitched himself up, wincing, to straighten his back. 'Let me tell you. Most everybody at the court gave up on her - gave her up for dead already.' His face expressed his disgust. 'They all afraid of Morgan. Because they know Morgan'll take they skin off they backs if they don't swear allegiance to him now. While Laura still got a few breaths in her. But out in the far Territories, two-legged snakes like Osmond and his gang been goin around, tellin folks she already dead. And if she dies, Travellin Jack, if she dies . . .' He levelled his ruined face at the boy. 'Then we got black horror in both worlds. Black horror. And you can call your momma. But first you has to get it. You has to. It's all that's left, now.'
Jack did not have to ask him what he meant.
'I'm glad you understand, son.' Speedy closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the stone.
A second later his eyes slowly opened again. 'Destinies. That's what all this is about. More destinies, more lives, than you know. You ever hear the name Rushton? I suspect you might have, all this time gone by.'
Jack nodded.
'All those destinies be the reason your momma brought you all the way to the Alhambra Hotel, Travellin Jack. I was just sittin and waitin, knowin you'd show up. The Talisman pulled you here, boy. Jason. That's a name you heard, too, I spect.'
'It's me,' Jack said.
'Then get the Talisman. I brought this l'il thing along, he'p you out some.' He wearily picked up the blanket, which, Jack saw, was of rubber and therefore not a blanket after all.
Jack took the bundle of rubber from Speedy's charred-looking hand. 'How can I get into the hotel, though?' he asked. 'I can't get over the fence, and I can't swim in with Richard.'
'Blow it up.' Speedy's eyes had closed again.
Jack unfolded the object. It was an inflatable raft in the shape of a legless horse.
'Recognize her?' Speedy's voice, ruined as it was, bore a nostalgic lightness. 'You and me picked her up, sometime back. I explained about the names.'
Jack suddenly remembered coming to Speedy, that day that seemed filled with slashes of black and white, and finding him sitting inside a round shed, repairing the merry-go-round horses. You be takin liberties with the Lady, but I guess she ain't gonna mind if you're helpin me get her back where she belongs. Now that, too, had a larger meaning. Another piece of the world locked into place for Jack. 'Silver Lady,' he said.
Speedy winked at him, and again Jack had the eerie sense that everything in his life had conspired to get him to precisely this point. 'Your friend here all right?' It was - almost - a deflection.
'I think so.' Jack looked uneasily at Richard who had rolled on his side and was breathing shallowly, his eyes shut.
'Then long's you think so, blow up ole Silver Lady here. You gotta bring that boy in with you no matter what. He's a part of it, too.'