Roland said. "I have what I need here to cure it."
"Say true?" she asked doubtfully.
"Yar. And these, which I never lost." He reached into his pocket and showed her a handful of aspirin tablets. She thought the expression on his face was one of real reverence, and why not? It might be that he owed his life to what he called astin.
Astin and cheflet.
They loaded their kill into the back of Ho Fat's Luxury Taxi and dragged it down to the stream. It took three trips in all.
After they'd stacked the carcasses, Roland carefully placed the head of the yearling buck atop the pile, where it looked at them from its glazed eyes.
"What you want that for?" Susannah asked, with a trace of Detta in her voice.
"We're going to need all die brains we can get," Roland said, and coughed dryly into his curled fist again. "It's a dirty way to do the job, but it's quick, and it works."
FIVE
When they had their kill piled beside the icy stream ("At least we don't have the flies to worry about," Roland said), the gunslinger began gathering deadwood. Susannah looked forward to the fire, but her terrible need of the previous night had departed. She had been working hard, and for the time being, at least, was warm enough to suit her. She tried to remember the depth of her despair, how the cold had crept into her bones, turning them to glass, and couldn't do it. Because the body had a way of forgetting the worst things, she supposed, and without the body's cooperation, all the brain had were memories like faded snapshots.
Before beginning his wood-gathering chore, Roland inspected the bank of the icy stream and dug out a piece of rock.
He handed it to her, and Susannah rubbed a thumb over its milky, water-smoothed surface. "Quartz?" she asked, but she didn't think it was. Not quite.
"I don't know that word, Susannah. We call it chert. It makes tools that are primitive but plenty useful: axe-heads, knives, skewers, scrapers. It's scrapers we'll want. Also at least one hand-hammer."
"I know what we're going to scrape, but what are we going to hammer?"
"I'll show you, but first will you join me here for a moment?"
Roland got down on his knees and took her cold hand in one of his. Together they faced the deer's head.
"We thank you for what we are about to receive," Roland told the head, and Susannah shivered. It was exactly how her father began when he was giving the grace before a big meal, one where all the family was gathered.
Our ozon family is broken, she thought, but did not say; done was done. The response she gave was the one she had been taught as a young girl: "Father, we thank thee."
"Guide our hands and guide our hearts as we take life from death," Roland said. Then he looked at her, eyebrows raised, asking without speaking a word if she had more to say.
Susannah found that she did. "Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallow'd be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation; deliver us from evil; Thou art the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, now and forever."
"That's a lovely prayer," he said.
"Yes," she agreed. "I didn't say it just right-it's been a long time-but it's still the best prayer. Now let's do our business, while I can still feel my hands."
Roland gave her an amen.
SIX
Roland took the severed head of the yearling deer (the antlernubs made lifting it easy), set it in front of him, then swung the fist-sized chunk of rock against the skull. There was a muffled cracking sound that made Susannah's stomach cringe. Roland gripped the antlers and pulled, first left and then right. When Susannah saw the way the broken skull wiggled under the hide, her stomach did more than cringe; it did a slow loop-the-loop.
Roland hit twice more, wielding the piece of chert with near-surgical precision. Then he used his knife to cut a circle in the head-hide, which he pulled off like a cap. This revealed the cracked skull beneath. He worked the blade of his knife into the widest crack and used it as a lever. When the deer's brain was exposed, he took it out, set it carefully aside, and looked at Susannah. "We'll want the brains of every deer we