Roland smiled. It made him younger. It seemed to fill the cave with its own light. All of Eld’s ancient power was in that smile: the power of the White.

“Yes,” he said. “We go.”

And then he said again, all the affirmation necessary in this dark place.

“Yes.”

Bangor, Maine

December 15, 2002

Author’s Note

The debt I owe to the American Western in the composition of the Dark Tower novels should be clear without my belaboring the point; certainly the Calla did not come by the final part of its (slightly misspelled) name accidentally. Yet it should be pointed out that at least two sources for some of this material aren’t American at all. Sergio Leone ( A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,etc.) was Italian. And Akira Kurosawa ( The Seven Samurai) was, of course, Japanese. Would these books have been written without the cinematic legacy of Kurosawa, Leone, Peckinpah, Howard Hawks, and John Sturgis? Probably not without Leone. But without the others, I would argue there could be no Leone.

I also owe a debt of thanks to Robin Furth, who managed to be there with the right bit of information every time I needed it, and of course to my wife, Tabitha, who is still patiently giving me the time and light and space I need to do this job to the best of my abilities.

S.K.

Author’s Afterword

Before you read this short afterword, I ask that you take a moment (may it do ya fine) to look again at the dedication page at the front of this story. I’ll wait.