"Thank God," Eddie muttered. Then, louder: "ThankGod! Let's go up there. We can meet you on the East Road - "
Both of the bearded men were shaking their heads, Henchick with a kind of stern sorrow, Cantab with a look that was almost horror.
"We'll not go up to the Cave of the Voices in the dark," Henchick said.
"Wehave to!" Eddie burst out. "You don't understand! It's not just a question of how long the magic will or won't last, it's a question of time on the other side! It goes faster over there, and once it's gone, it's gone! Christ, Susannah could be having that baby right now, and if it's some kind of cannibal - "
"Listen to me, young fellow," Henchick said, "and hear me very well, I beg. The day is nigh gone."
This was true. Never in Roland's experience had a day run so quickly through his fingers. There had been the battle with the Wolves early, not long after dawn, then celebration there on the road for the victory and sorrow for their losses (which had been amazingly small, as things had fallen). Then had come the realization that Susannah was gone, the trek to the cave, their discoveries there. By the time they'd gotten back to the East Road battlefield, it had been past noon. Most of the townsfolk had left, bearing their saved children home in triumph. Henchick had agreed willingly enough to this palaver, but by the time they'd gotten back to the rectory, the sun had been on the wrong side of the sky.
We're going to get a night's rest, after all,Roland thought, and didn't know whether to be glad or disappointed. He could use sleep; that much he did know.
"I listen and hear," Eddie said, but Roland's hand was still on his shoulder, and he could feel the younger man trembling.
"Even were we willing to go, we couldn't persuade enough of the others to come wi' us," Henchick said.
"You're their dinh - "
"Aye, so you call it, and so I suppose I am, although it isn't our word, ye ken. In most things they'd follow me, and they know the debt they owe your ka-tet out of this day's work and would say thank ya any way they could. But they wouldn't go up that path and into that haunted place after dark." Henchick was shaking his head slowly and with great certainty. "No - that they will not do.
"Listen, young man. Cantab and I can be back at Redpath Kra-ten well before full dark. There we'll call our men-folk to the Tempa, which is to us as the Meeting Hall is to the forgetful folk." He glanced briefly at Callahan. "Say pardon, Pere, if the term offends ye."
Callahan nodded absently without looking up from the book, which he was turning over and over in his hands. It had been covered in protective plastic, as valuable first editions often are. The price lightly penciled on the flyleaf was$950. Some young man's second novel. He wondered what made it so valuable. If they ran into the book's owner, a man named Calvin Tower, he would surely ask. And that would only be the start of his questioning.
"We'll explain what it is ye want, and ask for volunteers. Of the sixty-eight men of Redpath Kra-ten, I believe all but four or five will agree to help - to blend their forces together. It will make powerful khef. Is that what ye call it? Khef? The sharing?"
"Yes," Roland said. "The sharing of water, we say."
"You couldn't fit anywhere that number of men in the mouth of that cave," Jake said. "Not even if half of them sat on the other half's shoulders."
"No need," Henchick said. "We'll put the most powerful inside - what we call the senders. The others can line up along the path, linked hand to hand and bob to bob. They'll be there before the sun goes rooftop tomorrow. I set my watch and warrant on it."
"We'll need tonight to gather our mags and bobs, anyway," Cantab said. He was looking at Eddie apologetically, and with some fear. The young man was in terrible pain, that was clear. And he was a gunslinger. A gunslinger might strike out, and when one did, it was never blindly.
"It could be too late," Eddie said, low. He looked at Roland with his hazel eyes. They were now bloodshot and dark with exhaustion. "Tomorrow could be too late even if the magichasn't gone away."
Roland opened his mouth and Eddie raised a finger.
"Don't say ka, Roland. If you say ka one more time, I swear my head'll explode."
Roland closed his mouth.
Eddie turned back to the two bearded men in their dark, Quakerish cloaks. "And you can't be sure the magic will stay, can you? What could be opened tonight could be closed against us forever tomorrow. Not all the magnets and plumb-bobs in Manni creation could open it."
"Aye," Henchick said. "But your woman took the magic ball with her, and whatever'ee may think, Mid-World and the Borderlands are well shed of it."