Suddenly Roland found himself hoping that they wouldn’t meet Eddie. He might sense the difference even if Susannah herself didn’t. And that could be bad. If Roland had had three wishes, like the foundling prince in a child’s bedtime story, right now all three would have been for the same thing: to get through this business in Calla Bryn Sturgis before Susannah’s pregnancy— Mia’spregnancy—became obvious. Having to deal with both things at the same time would be hard.

Perhaps impossible.

She was looking at him with wide, questioning eyes. Not because he’d called her by a name that wasn’t hers, but because she wanted to know what they should do next.

“It’s your city,” he said. “I would see the bookstore. And the vacant lot.” He paused. “And the rose. Can you take me?”

“Well,” she said, looking around, “it’s my city, no doubt about that, but Second Avenue sure doesn’t look like it did back in the days when Detta got her kicks shoplifting in Macy’s.”

“So you can’t find the bookstore and the vacant lot?” Roland was disappointed but far from desolate. There would be a way. There was always a—

“Oh, no problem there,” she said. “The streets are the same. New York’s just a grid, Roland, with the avenues running one way and the streets the other. Easy as pie. Come on.”

The sign had gone back to DON’T WALK , but after a quick glance uptown, Susannah took his arm and they crossed Fifty-fourth to the other side. Susannah strode fearlessly in spite of her bare feet. The blocks were short but crowded with exotic shops. Roland couldn’t help goggling, but his lack of attention seemed safe enough; although the sidewalks were crowded, no one crashed into them. Roland could hear his bootheels clopping on the sidewalk, however, and could see the shadows they were casting in the light of the display windows.

Almost here,he thought. Were the force that brought us any more powerful, we would be here.

And, he realized, the force might indeed grow stronger, assuming that Callahan was right about what was hidden under the floor of his church. As they drew closer to the town and to the source of the thing doing this…

Susannah twitched his arm. Roland stopped immediately. “Is it your feet?” he asked.

“No,” she said, and Roland saw she was frightened. “Why is it so dark ?”

“Susannah, it’s night.”

She gave his arm an impatient shake. “I know that, I’m not blind. Can’t you…” She hesitated. “Can’t you feel it?”