The Blade Itself
Chapters - Joe Abercrombie
Part 1
Prologue: The End
Logen flees through the forest from Shanka, having become separated from the Dogman and the rest of his band. After killing one Flathead, he is tackled by a larger one and they tumble to the edge of a gorge. Hanging from a root with the Shanka biting at his leg, Logen flings himself into the river far below and is swept away into darkness.
POV: Logen Ninefingers·Mentioned: The Dogman
Chapter 1: The Survivors
Logen washes up alive on a riverbank, battered but unbroken. He returns to the abandoned camp where he finds his boots, coat, pack and beloved cook pot, but no sign of his companions. Convinced that Threetrees, Black Dow, the Dogman, Grim, Forley and the others are dead, he sets off alone towards the mountains.
POV: Logen Ninefingers·Mentioned: Rudd Threetrees, Black Dow, The Dogman, Harding Grim, Forley the Weakest
Chapter 2: Questions
Glokta descends into the bowels of the House of Questions to interrogate Salem Rews, a merchant accused of tax evasion. With Frost as muscle and Severard running errands, Glokta works to extract a confession. When his Superior Kalyne rages at him for targeting the powerful Mercers' guild, Glokta pacifies him with a box of confiscated money and secures permission to continue his investigations.
POV: Sand dan Glokta·On page: Practical Frost, Practical Severard
Chapter 3: No Choice at All
Logen survives the crossing of the High Places and makes camp in the forests below, where he hunts a deer and consults with three spirits at his fire. They tell him of Bethod's wars and of a powerful Magus seeking him in the moors to the south. Remembering his dead family - his father, wife and children slaughtered by the Shanka - and his old companions Threetrees, the Dogman, Tul Duru, Forley and Grim, Logen resolves to head south and find the Magus.
POV: Logen Ninefingers·Mentioned: Rudd Threetrees, The Dogman, Tul Duru Thunderhead, Forley the Weakest, Harding Grim
Chapter 4: Playing With Knives
Jezal spends a spring afternoon fleecing his fellow officers at cards, then endures a punishing fencing session under Varuz, who whacks him with a stick and sends him running to the Tower of Chains. That evening, a drunken night out with West, Kaspa and Jalenhorm is interrupted when they witness Glokta and his Practicals Frost and Severard abducting a prisoner from the street on Inquisition business.
POV: Jezal dan Luthar·On page: Collem West, Lord Marshal Varuz, Lieutenant Kaspa, Lieutenant Jalenhorm, Sand dan Glokta, Practical Frost, Practical Severard, Crown Prince Ladisla·Mentioned: Bremer dan Gorst, Arch Lector Sult
Chapter 5: Teeth and Fingers
Glokta interrogates Sepp dan Teufel, the Master of the Royal Mints, in a dingy cell beneath the House of Questions. With Frost holding the prisoner and Severard assisting, Glokta uses a cleaver to remove fingers one joint at a time until Teufel breaks and agrees to sign his confession.
POV: Sand dan Glokta·On page: Practical Frost, Practical Severard
Chapter 6: The Wide and Barren North
Logen waits on the barren moors for the Magus the spirits promised him. Instead, a sickly young apprentice named Quai arrives on horseback, sent by his master Bayaz, the First of the Magi. Logen shares his last food with the feverish apprentice, and the next day they set off south together. When bandits ambush them on the road, Logen spits a fire spirit in one man's face and kills all four attackers, though the horse bolts and they are left to continue on foot.
POV: Logen Ninefingers·On page: Malacus Quai·Mentioned: Bayaz
Chapter 7: Fencing Practice
Jezal is humiliated again in sparring by West, who easily outmanoeuvres him despite Jezal's speed. Varuz berates his overconfidence and adds an hour on the balance beam to his daily routine. Afterwards, West saddles Jezal with escorting his sister Ardee around the Agriont. Jezal is immediately charmed by her sharp wit and dark good looks, and during their walk they encounter Glokta limping through the park, who reveals he once knew the West family.
POV: Jezal dan Luthar·On page: Collem West, Lord Marshal Varuz, Ardee West, Sand dan Glokta·Mentioned: Bremer dan Gorst, Bayaz
Chapter 8: The Morning Ritual
Glokta endures the agony of his morning routine - waking in soiled sheets, being helped to the bath by his servant Barnam, and choking down porridge with his ruined teeth. Frost escorts him to the office of Sult, who reveals that Lord Chancellor Feekt has died and a new appointment is imminent. Sult has manoeuvred to place his own candidate using Teufel's confession, and now promotes Glokta to Inquisitor Exempt - answerable only to the Arch Lector himself - with orders to dig deeper into the Mercers' guild.
POV: Sand dan Glokta·On page: Practical Frost, Arch Lector Sult·Mentioned: Crown Prince Ladisla, Ardee West, Jezal dan Luthar
Chapter 9: First of the Magi
Logen carries the dying Quai forty miles along a lakeside road and over a fortified bridge to the Great Northern Library. After mistaking a white-bearded servant for the wizard, he meets the real Bayaz - a bald, powerfully built old man who had been posing as a butcher. Bayaz casually humiliates Bethod's son Calder when the prince arrives demanding the wizard attend his father at Carleon, then welcomes Logen with the promise of food, a bath and safety.
POV: Logen Ninefingers·On page: Malacus Quai, Bayaz
Chapter 10: The Good Man
West stands guard at a sweltering audience session where Lord Chamberlain Hoff dismisses a dispossessed farmer and the head of the Mercers' guild alike. A delegation from Bethod arrives, led by the translator White-Eye Hansul and the towering, hooded Fenris the Feared, who unsettles everyone in the room. Finally, Sulfur presents himself as herald of Bayaz, producing a letter that alarms Hoff into arranging a private meeting with Sult, Varuz and High Justice Marovia. Afterwards, West gives his purse to the rejected farmer and frets about Ardee spending time with Jezal.
POV: Collem West·On page: Fenris the Feared, Yoru Sulfur·Mentioned: Arch Lector Sult, Lord Marshal Varuz, Bayaz, Ardee West, Jezal dan Luthar
Chapter 11: On the List
Glokta leads Frost and Severard on night raids to arrest members of a conspiracy, only to find every name on their list has been murdered by a professional assassin. Convinced that someone within the Inquisition leaked the list to the Mercers, Glokta meets Sult in a park, who devises a plan to use the prisoner Rews as bait to catch the killer and expose the traitor. Afterwards, Varuz approaches Glokta and asks him to speak with his student Jezal about his lack of dedication to fencing.
POV: Sand dan Glokta·On page: Practical Frost, Practical Severard, Arch Lector Sult, Lord Marshal Varuz·Mentioned: Jezal dan Luthar
Chapter 12: An Offer and a Gift
Jezal endures another gruelling training session with Varuz, during which West is distracted and unhelpful. At the Open Council, Jezal stands guard as delegates from Dagoska and Angland argue over funding, until the King himself arrives. Fenris the Feared, Bethod's monstrous tattooed champion, delivers a terrifying demand for Angland and offers single combat, stabbing himself through the arm to demonstrate his invulnerability. Jezal makes an inadvertent quip that draws the Feared's chilling attention, before the Lord Chamberlain dismisses them.
POV: Jezal dan Luthar·On page: Lord Marshal Varuz, Collem West, Lieutenant Kaspa, Lieutenant Jalenhorm, Fenris the Feared, Ardee West·Mentioned: Bremer dan Gorst
Chapter 13: The King of the Northmen
Logen settles into life at the library, enjoying being clean and well fed, and shares an honest account of his violent past with Quai. Bayaz gifts Logen a sword forged by the Master Maker, then Bethod arrives with his son Scale and the sorceress Caurib to demand Bayaz's support for an invasion of Angland. Bayaz feigns agreement before revealing he lied, and after a tense confrontation in which Logen faces down Scale, Bethod departs swearing vengeance.
POV: Logen Ninefingers·On page: Bayaz, Malacus Quai·Mentioned: Rudd Threetrees, Tul Duru Thunderhead, The Dogman
Chapter 14: A Road Between Two Dentists
Glokta follows Severard through the filthy dockside streets to a magnificent but decaying merchant's palace that will serve as their secret base of operations. In the cellars, decorated with a mural of the Master Maker, Glokta finds a comfortable chair and a captive assassin. He interrogates the man with theatrical menace, likening himself to a dentist of a different sort, before Frost and Severard begin the brutal work of extracting teeth - and information.
POV: Sand dan Glokta·On page: Practical Severard, Practical Frost
Chapter 15: Flatheads
The Dogman waits at a rendezvous point with Tul Duru, where they are surprised by Black Dow and Grim. When Threetrees and Forley arrive, Dow demands they head south, but Threetrees asserts his authority as Logen's named second. After a tense stand-off, the band discovers a group of twelve Shanka and ambushes them in a scrappy but successful fight, though Threetrees warns that thousands more Flatheads will soon be heading south.
POV: The Dogman·On page: Tul Duru Thunderhead, Black Dow, Harding Grim, Rudd Threetrees, Forley the Weakest·Mentioned: Logen Ninefingers
Chapter 16: The Course of True Love
Jezal arrives for training only to find Glokta waiting instead of Varuz, and the crippled Inquisitor delivers a cutting lecture about laziness and wasted talent. A chance encounter with the eccentric Sulfur further unsettles him. Jezal visits Ardee, who is drinking alone, and when he mentions giving up fencing she savages him with a furious tirade about his privileged self-pity. Stung by her words and Glokta's, Jezal resolves to prove them both wrong and win the Contest.
POV: Jezal dan Luthar·On page: Sand dan Glokta, Yoru Sulfur, Ardee West, Collem West·Mentioned: Lord Marshal Varuz
Chapter 17: How Dogs are Trained
Glokta springs a trap on Gofred Hornlach, a senior Mercer attempting to flee the city by ship. With Frost and Severard at his side, he captures the merchant and brings him to their secret cellar beneath the painted mural. Through a combination of bluffing about the evidence they hold and relentless intimidation, Glokta breaks Hornlach's resistance and begins drilling him to confess before the Open Council - repeating the questions over and over, as one trains a dog.
POV: Sand dan Glokta·On page: Practical Frost, Practical Severard
Chapter 18: Tea and Vengeance
Logen rides south through the North with Bayaz and Quai, wary of pursuit after their confrontation with Bethod. After a campfire lesson in plants and the laws of magic, they are ambushed by a band of Bethod's men led by the Named Man Blacktoe. Logen fights desperately, killing one man before Bayaz unleashes a devastating wall of fire that destroys the trees and most of their attackers. With the survivors broken, Logen is forced to grant a mercy killing to the trapped Blacktoe before they press on, the sword he never wanted back in his hand.
POV: Logen Ninefingers·On page: Bayaz, Malacus Quai·Mentioned: Rudd Threetrees, The Dogman