Wizard and Glass
Chapters - Stephen King
Section: Argument
The Argument recaps the events of the first three Dark Tower books. Roland Deschain pursued and caught Walter, drew Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, and Jake Chambers through magical doors from New York into Mid-World, and the group followed the Path of the Beam toward the Dark Tower. They passed through the city of Lud, where Blaine the Mono threatened to kill them all in a suicidal crash unless they could stump him with riddles. Roland proposed a desperate riddling contest with their lives as the wager.
POV: Roland Deschain
Part 1: Riddles
Chapter 1: Beneath the Demon Moon (I)
Roland Deschain's ka-tet rides Blaine the Mono southeast along the Path of the Beam, engaged in a riddling contest for their lives. Roland poses riddle after riddle from the Fair-Day traditions of his youth in Gilead, but Blaine answers every one without hesitation. As they pass Candleton and Rilea, stopping at the Falls of the Hounds where Blaine recharges his batteries from the Beam's power, despair grows among the group. Roland runs out of riddles and calls on Jake Chambers to try the harder ones from his book of riddles, while Eddie Dean falls into a deep, trance-like state of concentration.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy, Blaine the Mono·Mentioned: Cort
Chapter 2: The Falls of the Hounds
Blaine stops at the Falls of the Hounds to recharge his batteries, revealing the massive stone dog-head sculptures jutting from the waterfall. He blasts them with the deafening sound of the falls, then draws electrical energy from the Beam through the stone heads. Roland Deschain continues riddling but grows increasingly exhausted, while Eddie Dean remains in a deeply preoccupied mental state. Jake Chambers notices that Blaine healed his injured hand using the Barony Coach's hand-scan technology, and Blaine makes a mistake about Edith Bunker, hinting that the computer has blind spots.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy, Blaine the Mono
Chapter 3: The Fair-Day Goose
Eddie Dean emerges from his trance-like state with a revelation. Remembering how Roland Deschain once told Jake Chambers to move his flint closer and how his brother Henry said Eddie could talk the devil into setting himself on fire, Eddie realises Blaine's weakness is not hard riddles but silly, illogical jokes. He begins posing nonsensical riddles and schoolyard jokes that Blaine struggles to process. The mono's systems begin failing as it tries to compute the answers, and Eddie relentlessly continues until Blaine crashes at the Topeka terminus, screaming in rage. The ka-tet survives and climbs out onto the roof of the dead mono.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy, Blaine the Mono
Chapter 4: Topeka
The ka-tet emerges from Blaine's wreckage in Topeka, Kansas - but a version of Kansas from another world, where a superflu has killed everyone. They find the city littered with corpses and abandoned cars, including unfamiliar brands like the Takuro Spirit and a bumper sticker for the Kansas City Monarchs instead of the Royals. Roland Deschain hears a strange warbling sound - a thinny, a place where reality has worn thin - and nearly collapses, overwhelmed by memories of Susan Delgado Delgado and the Big Coffin Hunters. In Gage Park they discover a children's train identical to Charlie the Choo-Choo from Jake Chambers's book.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy·Mentioned: Susan Delgado, Eldred Jonas, Roy Depape, Clay Reynolds
Chapter 5: Turnpikin'
The ka-tet explores the dead Topeka, finding a wheelchair for Susannah Dean and making their way to the Kansas Turnpike. They discover more evidence this is not their world but a parallel version. Walking along the empty highway toward a green glow on the horizon, Roland Deschain begins telling the story of his youth - how his father Steven Deschain sent him, Cuthbert Allgood Allgood, and Alain Johns Johns to the distant Barony of Mejis on the Clean Sea, ostensibly to count supplies for the Affiliation but really to keep them safe from the growing conflict with John Farson. The warbling of the thinny accompanies them as Roland's tale unfolds.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, Oy·Mentioned: Cuthbert Allgood, Alain Johns, Susan Delgado
Part 2: Susan
Chapter 1: Beneath the Kissing Moon
Roland Deschain's flashback begins. Under the Kissing Moon, Rhea of the Coos of the Coos - an old witch living on a hilltop east of Hambry - receives an ironwood box from the Big Coffin Hunters containing a glass ball that pulses with rose-coloured light, one of Maerlyn's Rainbow. Rhea is captivated by its visions, glimpsing a young rider she cannot identify. Susan Delgado Delgado, a beautiful sixteen-year-old, arrives at Rhea's hut for a ritual: Mayor Hart Thorin wants Susan as his gilly, and Rhea must prove her honesty - verify her virginity. The degrading examination is performed while the glass ball pulses beneath Rhea's bed.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Rhea of the Coos, Susan Delgado·Mentioned: Eldred Jonas, Roy Depape, Clay Reynolds, Hart Thorin
Chapter 2: Proving Honesty
Rhea of the Coos subjects Susan Delgado to the proving-honesty ritual, a humiliating physical examination to verify her virginity for Mayor Thorin. Susan endures it with her father's stoic courage, though she is repulsed by the old witch. While fetching firewood, Susan peeks through a window and sees Rhea entranced by the pink glass ball. The hag also places a post-hypnotic suggestion in Susan's mind, a compulsion to cut her hair at an unspecified future time. Susan passes the test and is declared honest, meaning Thorin may take her to bed come the Demon Moon, though Susan has a reprieve of several months.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Rhea of the Coos, Susan Delgado·Mentioned: Hart Thorin, Cordelia Delgado
Chapter 3: A Meeting on the Road
Walking home from the Coos after the proving, Susan Delgado meets a young stranger on the road: a courteous boy travelling under the name Will Dearborn. Despite her caution about being seen alone with a stranger, she lets him walk beside her. They pass Citgo, the abandoned oilpatch, where the few still-working derricks groan and squeal in the dark, and they talk quietly as they go. Will is well-mannered and altogether unlike the local boys, and his quiet seriousness unsettles her. At her doorstep he asks if he might kiss her, and Susan surprises both of them by lifting her face and kissing him first, a brief, light kiss that she will remember long afterwards. She watches him walk away down the lane and then steps inside.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Susan Delgado·Mentioned: Eldred Jonas
Chapter 4: Long After Moonset
Roland Deschain lies awake recalling his father's revelations about Marten, the Good Man John Farson, and the coming conflict. Steven Deschain sent the boys to Mejis partly for safety but also on a real mission - to count resources the Affiliation might need. Roland remembers the whore who took his virginity but wouldn't kiss him. Meanwhile, Susan Delgado returns home to her Aunt Cordelia, who has brokered the gilly arrangement with Thorin. Susan lies awake thinking of Will Dearborn, feeling the first stirrings of desire. Both young people are tormented and exhilarated by their brief encounter.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Cuthbert Allgood, Alain Johns, Susan Delgado, Cordelia Delgado·Mentioned: Steven Deschain, Walter o'Dim
Chapter 5: Welcome To Town
Roland Deschain, Cuthbert Allgood, and Alain Johns present their credentials to Sheriff Herk Avery and then attend a welcoming dinner at Mayor's House. Roland notices Eldred Eldred Jonas and the Big Coffin Hunters for the first time, recognising danger behind their hired-gun swagger. At the dinner, Susan Delgado appears wearing a sapphire loaned by Thorin, and Roland realises with shock that she is the Mayor's promised gilly. They exchange tense words, and Roland's jealousy and judgment wound her. The evening also introduces Cordelia, Chancellor Kimba Rimer, and the web of political intrigue surrounding Farson's influence in Mejis.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Cuthbert Allgood, Alain Johns, Susan Delgado, Eldred Jonas, Roy Depape, Clay Reynolds, Hart Thorin, Cordelia Delgado
Chapter 6: Sheemie
At the Travellers' Rest, Sheemie Ruiz, a simple-minded but kind-hearted potboy, stumbles and slops a bucket of camel piss across Roy Depape's boots. Depape draws his pistol and uses it to pistol-whip Sheemie's father, Stanley Ruiz, then orders the boy to lick the boots clean. Sheemie kneels and pokes his tongue out to obey, but before he can touch the leather Cuthbert Allgood's slingshot ball smashes the second finger of Depape's gun hand and the pistol tumbles to the floor. Reynolds gets the drop on Cuthbert from behind, only for Alain Johns to slide a knife up to Reynolds's throat. Eldred Jonas walks in and covers Alain in turn, and just when the four-sided standoff seems certain to end in blood, Roland Deschain presses the point of his own knife into Jonas's back. Sheriff Herk Avery bustles in and defuses it all, ordering handshakes and marching the lot of them off to the Town Gathering Hall to settle the matter in his own ledger. Sheemie kisses Cuthbert's hand in tearful gratitude and from that moment becomes wholly devoted to him, while a slow grudge takes root between the boys and the Big Coffin Hunters.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Cuthbert Allgood, Alain Johns, Sheemie Ruiz, Roy Depape, Clay Reynolds, Eldred Jonas
Chapter 7: On the Drop
Three weeks after the welcoming dinner, Susan Delgado rides Pylon furiously along the Drop after a bitter quarrel with Aunt Cord over Thorin's silk riding blouses. She cannot stop thinking about Will Dearborn despite her anger at his judgmental words. Meanwhile, Roland Deschain and his friends have been counting horses and supplies, discovering far more than should be present - horses being gathered for John Farson's war effort. Roland and Susan begin meeting secretly, their attraction undeniable despite the danger. Roland realises the scope of the conspiracy in Mejis, with the local gentry betraying the Affiliation.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Cuthbert Allgood, Alain Johns, Susan Delgado, Cordelia Delgado·Mentioned: Hart Thorin
Chapter 8: Beneath the Peddler's Moon
Roy Depape rides east along the boys' backtrail, investigating their true identities. In the mining town of Ritzy, he encounters a drunken old man who recognises that one of the boys comes from the Eld line - marking them as gunslingers' sons, not mere drovers' boys. Depape returns to Hambry with this intelligence. Meanwhile, Roland Deschain and Susan Delgado grow closer but maintain distance in public. Eldred Jonas grows suspicious of the boys and begins planning how to neutralise them before they can interfere with his mission to deliver Farson's goods - horses, oil tankers, and the Wizard's Glass.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Roy Depape·Mentioned: Susan Delgado, Eldred Jonas, Clay Reynolds, Cuthbert Allgood
Chapter 9: Citgo
Roland Deschain arranges a secret meeting with Susan Delgado at the Citgo oilpatch, using Alain Johns to slip a note into her horseshoe bag. At Citgo, Roland shows Susan what he has discovered: the working oil derricks are being maintained and the oil stored in tankers for John Farson's forces. He tells her the truth about who he is - not Will Dearborn but Roland Deschain, a gunslinger's son sent to count the Affiliation's resources. Susan is stunned but believes him. They share a deeper bond through this honesty, and Susan agrees to be his secret eyes and ears in Hambry, beginning her role as spy.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Susan Delgado, Alain Johns·Mentioned: Cordelia Delgado, Hart Thorin
Chapter 10: Bird and Bear and Hare and Fish
On the most important day of Susan Delgado's life, her Seafront maid Maria fetches her to refit a Reaping dress chewed up by the Mayor's dog. While Susan is being measured, Hart Thorin creeps in and gropes her against the sewing-room wall, leaving her sickened. At home, Aunt Cordelia dismisses the assault and insists Susan must still honour her gilly promise. Distraught, Susan rides to a willow grove by Hambry Creek. Roland, who has glimpsed her riding bareback across the Drop, follows and finds her weeping. They make love there, losing their virginities together, and afterwards talk quietly of children and the danger ahead. Susan then wakes in a hypnotic trance and tries to cut off her own hair with a stone, and Roland realises Rhea has planted a command in her mind.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Susan Delgado·Mentioned: Alain Johns, Cuthbert Allgood
Part 3: Come, Reap
Chapter 1: Beneath the Huntress Moon
As the Huntress Moon rises, Roland Deschain and Susan Delgado are deep in their secret love affair, meeting in abandoned boathouses and shacks. They use Sheemie Ruiz as a go-between at first, then devise their own system of signals. Cuthbert Allgood and Alain Johns watch Roland's obsession with growing alarm, fearing he has lost focus on their dangerous mission. Meanwhile, Rhea of the Coos of the Coos has become addicted to the Wizard's Glass, spending hours staring into it, her body wasting away. She discovers Roland and Susan's affair through the glass and burns with jealous hatred, beginning to plot against them.
POV: Roland Deschain·On page: Susan Delgado, Cuthbert Allgood, Alain Johns, Sheemie Ruiz, Rhea of the Coos