Wolves of the Calla - Stephen King [187]
“Aye,” Zalia said.
Tian dropped the harness and hugged her. She hugged him back, briefly and hard, then turned to Roland and his friends once more.
Roland was smiling. Eddie was visited by a faint sense of unreality, as he always was when he observed this phenomenon. “Good. And will you show Susannah how to throw it?”
Zalia looked thoughtfully at Susannah. “Would she learn?”
“I don’t know,” Susannah said. “Is it something I’m supposed to learn, Roland?”
“Yes.”
“When, gunslinger?” Zalia asked.
Roland calculated. “Three or four days from now, if all goes well. If she shows no aptitude, send her back to me and we’ll try Jake.”
Jake started visibly.
“I think she’ll do fine, though. I never knew a gunslinger who didn’t take to new weapons like birds to a new pond. And I must have at least one who can either throw the dish or shoot the bah, for we are four with only three guns we can rely on. And I like the dish. I like it very well.”
“I’ll show what I can, sure,” Zalia said, and gave Susannah a shy look.
“Then, in nine days’ time, you and Margaret and Rosalita and Sarey Adams will come to the Old Fella’s house and we’ll see what we’ll see.”
“You have a plan?” Tian asked. His eyes were hot with hope.
“I will by then,” Roland said.
Four
They rode toward town four abreast at that same ambling gait, but where the East Road crossed another, this one going north and south, Roland pulled up. “Here I leave you for a little while,” he told them. He pointed north, toward the hills. “Two hours from here is what some of the Seeking Folk call Manni Calla and others call Manni Redpath. It’s their place by either name, a little town within the larger one. I’ll meet with Henchick there.”
“Their dinh,” Eddie said.
Roland nodded. “Beyond the Manni village, another hour or less, are a few played-out mines and a lot of caves.”
“The place you pointed out on the Tavery twins’ map?” Susannah asked.
“No, but close by. The cave I’m interested in is the one they call Doorway Cave. We’ll hear of it from Callahan tonight when he finishes his story.”
“Do you know that for a fact, or is it intuition?” Susannah asked.
“I know it from Henchick. He spoke of it last night. He also spoke of the Pere. I could tell you, but it’s best we hear it from Callahan himself, I think. In any case, that cave will be important to us.”
“It’s the way back, isn’t it?” Jake said. “You think it’s the way back to New York.”
“More,” the gunslinger said. “With Black Thirteen, I think it might be the way to everywhere and everywhen.”
“Including the Dark Tower?” Eddie asked. His voice was husky, barely more than a whisper.
“I can’t say,” Roland replied, “but I believe Henchick will show me the cave, and I may know more then. Meanwhile, you three have business in Took’s, the general store.”
“Do we?” Jake asked.
“You do.” Roland balanced his purse on his lap, opened it, and dug deep. At last he came out with a leather drawstring bag none of them had seen before.
“My father gave me this,” he said absently. “It’s the only thing I have now, other than the ruins of my younger face, that I had when I rode into Mejis with my ka-mates all those years ago.”
They looked at it with awe, sharing the same thought: if what the gunslinger said was true, the little leather bag had to be hundreds of years old. Roland opened it, looked in, nodded. “Susannah, hold out your hands.”
She did. Into her cupped palms he poured perhaps ten pieces of silver, emptying the bag.
“Eddie, hold out yours.”
“Uh, Roland, I think the cupboard’s bare.”
“Hold out your hands.”
Eddie shrugged and did so. Roland tipped the bag over them and poured out a dozen gold pieces, emptying the bag.
“Jake?”
Jake held out his hands. From the pocket in the front of the poncho, Oy looked on with interest. This time the bag disgorged half a dozen bright gemstones before it was empty. Susannah gasped.
“They’re but garnets,” Roland said, almost apologetically. “A fair medium of exchange out here, from what they say. They won’t buy much, but they will