The Wind Through the Keyhole
Chapters - Stephen King
Part 1: Starkblast
Chapter 1
Roland Deschain's ka-tet - Jake Chambers, Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, and Oy - travel along the Path of the Beam after leaving the Green Palace. Jake ranges ahead, scouting with Oy, while Roland notices the bumbler repeatedly facing northwest and scenting the air, behaviour that stirs an old memory he cannot quite place.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy
Chapter 2
The ka-tet crests a rise and finds Jake Chambers sitting on a large red-and-yellow ferry raft with an old ferryman named Bix on the River Whye. Roland Deschain, Eddie Dean, and Susannah Dean descend to join them and share a meal of fish-filled popkins. They learn Bix has waited years for passengers to cross.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy, Bix
Chapter 3
Roland Deschain's ka-tet boards Bix's cable-operated ferry to cross the River Whye. They take turns telling the old man about the destruction of Lud and Blaine the Mono. Midway across, Bix notes Oy's behaviour and recognises that the bumbler is sensing an approaching starkblast, a deadly freezing storm.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy, Bix
Chapter 4
Bix explains the crossing mechanism and warns them about the coming starkblast. He directs them to follow the old Calla road to a deserted village with a stone meeting hall where they can shelter. Roland Deschain recalls seeing carts of frozen bodies as a boy and explains to the others just how lethal a starkblast can be.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy, Bix
Chapter 5
The ka-tet crosses the river and bids farewell to Bix, who embraces each of them. Bix warns them to take the starkblast seriously and mentions an annoying robot named Andy before they part ways. They set out on the old Calla road toward the deserted village, hoping to find shelter before the storm arrives.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy, Bix
Chapter 6
Roland Deschain explains the starkblast to his companions as they walk - temperatures plunging forty limbits below freezing in under an hour, ponds freezing instantly, birds turning to ice in the sky. He tells them that bumblers have always had the ability to sense these storms, which is why Oy has been behaving strangely.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy
Chapter 7
The ka-tet finds a broken signboard reading 'GOOK' - the name of the deserted village. Eddie Dean jokes about it, but Jake Chambers points out that Oy has begun turning in tight circles, a sign the storm is imminent. They hurry toward the stone meeting hall at the south end of the village.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy
Chapter 8
They explore the stone meeting hall and find it suitable for shelter, with a large fireplace. Susannah Dean opens the chimney flue and is covered in soot, prompting a spectacular outburst of profanity. Roland Deschain sends Eddie Dean to find the town well so Susannah can wash, while he and Jake Chambers begin gathering firewood from the abandoned buildings.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy
Chapter 9
Eddie Dean and Susannah Dean find the town well and a rusty bucket. They draw water and Eddie begins cleaning the soot from Susannah's face. Then they hear ominous thudding sounds from the northwest - the sound of trees contracting as the starkblast's cold rolls over them - and rush back to the meeting hall.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean
Chapter 10
The ka-tet frantically gathers firewood as the starkblast approaches, the temperature dropping rapidly. Eddie Dean's last load of wood jams in the doorway, and Oy sits transfixed in the street, refusing to move. Jake Chambers scrambles over the woodpile and runs outside to retrieve the bumbler.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy
Chapter 11
Jake Chambers grabs Oy but the starkblast wind lifts them both off the ground. Roland Deschain catches Jake's arm and hauls them inside. The entire ka-tet throws themselves against the door to close it against the gale while Jake drops the bar into its clamps. Roland sternly reminds them that Oy was Jake's responsibility.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy
Chapter 12
The starkblast rages for hours. A tree smashes through the roof, letting in freezing air. The ka-tet huddles around the fire as Roland Deschain calmly lays out supper. He tells them the worst of the wind will pass by morning but the cold will persist. He reflects on their shared bond as ka-tet and the comfort of stories and companionship against the storm.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy
Chapter 13
Susannah Dean wakes from uneasy dreams and joins Roland Deschain and Jake Chambers by the fire. Eddie Dean follows. The wind still howls but is lessening. Roland reminisces about his love for the wind's sound and how it reminds him of old times. Jake asks for a story, and Roland agrees to tell two nested tales - one true, about Jamie DeCurry and a skin-man in Debaria, and one his mother read to him as a child: 'The Wind Through the Keyhole.'
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy·Mentioned: Jamie DeCurry
Chapter 14
Roland Deschain begins his tale. Young Roland's father, Steven Deschain, summons him to his study and orders him to stop nursing the broken Cort. Steven sends Roland and Jamie DeCurry to Debaria to investigate a shape-shifting killer called a skin-man that has murdered twenty-three people. Roland and Jamie board a small train called Sma' Toot and travel west, witnessing growing disloyalty to Gilead along the way.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy, Steven Deschain, Jamie DeCurry·Mentioned: Cuthbert Allgood
Chapter 15
Roland Deschain and Jamie arrive at Serenity, a women's retreat, where the enormous Prioress Everlynne feeds them and introduces the injured Sister Fortuna. Fortuna describes being attacked by the skin-man in the form of a scaled, alligator-like creature that killed her companion Dolores. Everlynne drove it off with an old gun. They then ride into Debaria and meet High Sheriff Hugh Peavy, who tells them the story of how he once helped Steven Deschain defeat the Crow Gang, returning a bullet dug from Steven's arm as a sigul.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy, Jamie DeCurry, Hugh Peavy, Everlynne
Chapter 16
High Sheriff Peavy draws a chalk map of all the skin-man's attacks, and Jamie deduces the killer is likely one of the salt-miners. Roland and Jamie spend the night in the Debaria jail, planning their investigation. Before dawn, the jing-jang wakes Roland with a frantic call: Canfield, a newly signed cowboy, reports a massacre at the Jefferson Ranch. They ride out with Peavy and his men to find a scene of horror. In the bunkhouse the butcher's bill comes to eighteen - sixteen proddies, the cook who died at his stove, and Jefferson the rancher himself, torn limbless. The rancher's wife and two daughters were killed separately, slaughtered in and around the big house as they tried to flee. The huge tracks left behind shift between human and bear, and Roland and Jamie set out to follow them before the strengthening wind can scour them away.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy, Jamie DeCurry, Hugh Peavy
Chapter 17
Roland Deschain and Jamie find a surviving boy, Bill Streeter, hidden under a pile of old tack in the ranch's hostelry. Jamie tracks the skin-man's prints as they shift from bear to bull to cat to human, and discovers the creature arrived and left on horseback, narrowing their suspect pool to miners who can ride. Roland hypnotises Young Bill using a shell trick and learns the boy saw the skin-man's bare feet with a blue ring tattoo around one ankle, and a mysterious white mark.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy, Jamie DeCurry, Hugh Peavy, Bill Streeter