"If it happens, it happens." He laughed, but it was nothing like his usual light, merry laugh. It was a harsh, bitter kind of bark that sounded more like it should have come from Roland's mouth - and under that harshness, just a hint of a quaver, like tears might have choked it for a moment. "That's ka, isn't it? Ka like a fucking wind."

He'd cried on her once before. He didn't particularly want to do it again. Instead, he clamped his jaw tight, screwed his eyes shut, and sat for a moment with his fists clenched tight enough that his nails bit red crescents into his hands. Breathe in, breathe out. In and out, in and out, until he had control of himself again.

"Anyroad," he said at last, with something like his old sharp humour, "this is exactly what sai Lookout was good for. Who knows how to deal with death better than the dead?"