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    The Eyes of the Dragon
    The Eyes of the Dragon
    The Eyes of the Dragon
    Ebook467 pages7 hours

    The Eyes of the Dragon

    By Stephen King

    4/5

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    • Fear

    • Betrayal

    • Loyalty

    • Power

    • Friendship

    • Chosen One

    • Quest

    • Hero's Journey

    • Good King

    • Reluctant Hero

    • Evil Sorcerer

    • Power of Friendship

    • Wise Prince

    • Poisoned Chalice

    • Unfavorite

    • Magic

    • Adventure

    • Power Struggle

    • Power & Corruption

    • Revenge

    About this ebook

    “It is just not possible to stop turning the pages” (The Washington Post) of this bestselling classic tale—an epic fantasy as only #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King could envision it.

    Once, in a kingdom called Delain, there was a king with two sons…

    ​Thus begins one of the most unique tales that master storyteller Stephen King has ever written—a sprawling fantasy of dark magic and the struggle for absolute power that utterly transforms the destinies of two brothers born into royalty. Through this enthralling masterpiece of mythical adventure, intrigue, and terror, you will thrill to this unforgettable narrative filled with relentless, wicked enchantment, and the most terrible of secrets…
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherScribner
    Release dateDec 19, 2017
    ISBN9781501141195
    Author

    Stephen King

    Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes Never Flinch (May 2025), the short story collection You Like It Darker (a New York Times Book Review top ten horror book of 2024), Holly (a New York Times Notable Book of 2023), Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. 

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    Reviews for The Eyes of the Dragon

    4/5

    2,739 ratings103 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title incredible and engaging, with a major presence from the character Randall Flagg. It is one of King's best and most under-rated novels, capturing the same vein of descriptive horror that you expect from his work. While some readers find the excessive details unnecessary, overall it is a great book that is a pleasant surprise and unlike any other Stephen King novel. It is exciting, compelling, and thrilling, making it a favorite among readers.

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5

      Feb 12, 2018

      On my continuing saga of re-reading King's books in chronological order. I actually wasn't looking forward to this much as it was the first one that I had absolutely no recollection of the story. I couldn't bring to mind one thing about it though I do certainly remember reading it and have a faint remembrance of enjoying it. King really brought something new to his readers with "The Eyes of the Dragon" as this is his first book not for adults. In the '80s there really wasn't such thing as Young Adult books, but by today's standards, this would be classified as YA. Most of the book is suitable for children but the beginning is somewhat bawdy, making it hard for me to recommend for younger than teens.This is not a traditional fantasy, but more of a fairytale with Kings, princes and a bad magician. King writes in the all knowing voice of "the storyteller" often speaking to the reader telling them to make up their own mind on certain matters. It is a good story, well-written (with touches of Tolkien in style) and will delight the fairytale fan. But it is not like his other works; it starts off dramatically then turns into a slow-paced ponderous tale, making the reader think about the nature of man. Only one character is truly evil, many of the others are what I usually call "grey". Slower than one expects from King but quite a good tale.As to connections with his other books, it connects to "The Stand" via Flagg and is part of "The Dark Tower" universe having the magician Flagg and a King Roland.
    • 4/5

      Feb 12, 2018

      This one's very fun. It's aimed at a younger sort of audience, I think, than Stephen King's other stuff like The Stand, so the tone is quite light. I like the narrative style -- the storyteller flavour of it. The story itself is quite simple, really, and quite fairytale ish, but the little details are really awesome -- the things that are mentioned early on and later become relevant, such as the doll's house. I found the presence of Flagg interesting, too.

      It's nothing terribly substantial, and the characters aren't as well fleshed out as in The Stand, but for what it is it's very good. It's easy to read, and I read it very fast.
    • 4/5

      Feb 12, 2018

      The Eyes of The Dragon by Stephen KingI do not love King as much of his work that I have attempted to read is simply too graphic for me and I do not like that he makes children & animals the conduit for many of his stories. That being said I loved this fantasy tale of darkness & light; of good & evil. I have not read this book before but the story seemed a familiar one to me.This tale is about an evil magician who has lived for thousands of years & is bent on destroying the kingdom of Delain once again as he has many times in its history. Each time Delain has a worthy King or Queen, Flagg for that is the magician's name, would return and bring the kingdom to it's knees.This story concerns the reader with Roland the good, the current King & his two sons: Peter, the very bright & engaging Prince who will be King and his younger brother Thomas who is not quite so bright, fears everything, is very needy & not nearly as sure of himself as is Peter.Things are going too well within the kingdom of Delain to serve Flagg. They have a sound economy. The people are happy with their King & the Prince who will be King & with their lives in general. But Flagg needs a King he can easily manipulate in order to bring the kingdom to its knees. So he kills King Roland, sees that Prince Peter is blamed for the crime & sent to the tower. Now he has a very malleable King Thomas to work with.This book is a page-turner & this reader could not put it down. I highly recommend it to those of you who are looking for an entertaining read & who enjoy a bit (or a lot) of surrealism or magic realism.
    • 5/5

      Oct 29, 2018

      Almost makes me wish King had written more "pure fantasy".
    • 5/5

      Dec 5, 2022

      Oh no! It's not horror! The horror of something that's not horror being written by an author whose talents extend past the pigeonhole his "diehard" fans put him in!

      It's a great book. Full stop.
    • 5/5

      Sep 1, 2022

      A Stephen King novel unlike any other. One of my favorites.
    • 5/5

      Aug 15, 2022

      One of my absolute favorites! So unlike King's usual works. I have read this one twice.
    • 5/5

      Jul 8, 2022

      It had me hooked from the start I’ve been a big SK fan
    • 5/5

      Jul 15, 2021

      I was not sure about this book in the beginning but it turned into a great one. It was exciting - an edge of your seat ride about old foes, character, love and history that felt compelling and thrilling!
    • 5/5

      Jul 10, 2021

      Despite a weaker last part, most of the book is incredible. SK is delightful as the omnipresent storyteller constantly engaging his readers, twisting the expectations of the fairy tales. Randall Flagg has a major presence in this book, even more so than in the Stand and every line that gets into his psyche is golden.
    • 5/5

      Apr 20, 2021

      I really enjoyed reading your book. I read enthusiastically and understood the story. ... If you have some great stories like this one, you can publish it on Novel Star, just submit your story to hardy@novelstar.top or joye@novelstar.top
    • 5/5

      Mar 1, 2021

      One of King's best and most under-rated novels! Much less wordy than some of his other novels.
    • 5/5

      Sep 1, 2020

      This fantasy novel from King was a pleasant surprise as it captured the same vein of descriptive horror that you expect from his work.
    • 3/5

      Apr 11, 2020

      So many details. So, so, so, so many unnecessary details.
    • 3/5

      Oct 16, 2024

      It was okay. It was a nice departure from King's usual fare, and as a fantasy novel, it delivers a nice story with tension building throughout.

      What was good:

      • The fantasy setting. King doesn't get bogged down in world-building, but still his world is believable. It also has a bit of its own history that gets fleshed out, and that was nice to see. Its vaguely Medieval feel lets it feel right at home in the high fantasy genre.
      • The minor and supporting characters. They are interesting and nuanced. The villain is super creepy, even if some parts of him don't make sense. (He's super powerful and magical and demonic, yet he'll still follow their laws? A minor point. He's still a great villian.) Peter's friends have an intersting arc, too, and I enjoyed following their story.
      • The heroic dog. There's a dog, and some parts of the story are told from the canine perspective, which is amazing. Animal viewpoints, even in fantasy, are rare. All too often, they are either saccharine or too anthropomorphized. This felt real.
      • Themes of forgiveness. Characters make mistakes (except Peter) and grow from them.
      • Themes of courage. Often a must in fantasy novels, but difficult to do well.
      • It's memorable. Still thinking about it all this time later.
      • It's unique. I've never read anything quite like it.

      What was bad:

      • The plot. It's an incredibly simple story. This is disguised by the fact that it jumps around so much chronologically. It feels as though it's building to something that never happens. For a good long while, I thought that whole business with Peter being arrested for a crime and trying to clear his name was the setup for the book's main plot. Turns out, that's pretty much just the whole plot.
      • The tone. It feels like a children's tale. Nothing wrong with children's stories, except that this isn't meant for children. Marital sex (and impotence and a "flaccid penis") and rape and wife-beating and all sorts of things that usually aren't found in children's fantasy stories abound in this tale. Yet the narrator also talks directly to the reader in a folksy homey sort of way, kind of like the narrator in The Hobbit (which is, by contrast, an actual children's tale).
      • The content. This was gross. I mean, really super gross. Way too many references to bodily functions, especially (but not exclusively) "boogers." People keep having them, eating them, looking at them, and thinking of them. Even when mucous isn't involved in a scene, people keep talking about it. There's nothing like a little random mention of "boogers" to turn even the most mundane conversation inane. Is this a Stephen King thing? Are his other books like this? It felt weird and out of place here. Worse, there is a sad scene when Peter gets spat on by strangers. If I hadn't just read umpteen references of gratuitous, gross bodily functions by the time I reached that part of the story, I might have felt something a little more deeply in the scene where this stuff actually mattered.
      • Peter. Oh dear. He's the hero of the story, and I don't like him—not as a person, and not as a character. This made it hard to read the book, since he is the center of this relatively simple story. As a character, he is too perfect. He never does anything wrong. He instinctively knows things. He can out-reason or out-fight everyone else in the tale (except the main villain, at least at first). People he defeats are overcome with hero-worship for him. The wise, stern authority figure (who truly believes that Peter is a spoiled brat who murdered his father) still respects him, even reveres him, enough to donate money for bribes to get him luxuries in prison. People are falling over themselves telling each other how wonderful he is. And Peter, even as a young boy, still instinctively knows exactly what to say to sound wise and strong and dignified while still getting his own way. Granted, I liked Peter too at the beginning of the story. He reminded my of the heroic boy from the Narnia series (also named Peter) in that he was strong and wise and kingly. But this isn't as well-done as Narnia, nor is C. S. Lewis ever as preachy as Stephen King manages to be here. As for Peter (this Peter, not the Narnian one) as a person, well, the thing is that he *does* fall short. He may be a great son and wise ruler, but he is a lousy brother. He ignores his brother for much of their childhood, he doesn't notice his pain, and he doesn't try to engage him in any kind of meaningful conversation (so far as we know). In one scene, he wants his brother to join him for something nice. The brother doesn't understand, so Peter just leaves him out. He doesn't even try to connect with him or explain it to him. Full stop. And in the future, he doesn't even invite him. Sure, Peter may not have been evil-ambitious enough to overthrow the king, but neither was he humble or gentle or even kind enough to be close to someone he outranked. And in all Peter's years of imprisonment, he never seems to hold himself accountable for this. I'm not blaming Peter for his brother's sins, per se, but I do blame him for ignoring his brother's suffering all those years and for the role he played in isolating him. He left him vulnerable to be exploited.
      • The ending. Wow, what a cop-out! 'Nuff said.
    • 5/5

      Dec 30, 2024

      My first Stephen King book. I bought this one because I didn't really want a thriller/horror book. And this was totally it.
      I now understand why King is considered one of the best writers of our time.
      I read this book and I wanted to keep reading. It felt like a bed time story, told by a grandfather, by the fireplace, on a winter night.
      Safe, good versus evil, not really politically correct.

      Most of the time I was thinking "If I have children I want to read them this book as bed time stories".

      If like me you wanted to try King and were afraid of his "scary" books, this might be the one to try.

      It's a coming of age story about a prince who has to be king after the evil court magician kills his father...
    • 5/5

      Sep 26, 2022

      Dragons, magicians, kings and servants. What does that have to do with a Stephen King novel? Absolutely everything. I was unaware of his writing a book in this genre and remain firmly a fan. While this is a strong pivot from his typical writing, it was definitely one worth reading. I sat and read it from cover to cover in one day.
    • 4/5

      Aug 5, 2023

      this is a book i liked more then most people do. before i read this i always heard many consider this to be one of the worst books king has written or just not highly liked by many. its written more as a young adult book wish i can understand why people would not be into it especially when it released as this book came out around the time that his most popular horror book released being IT.

      anyways i can say for myself i really enjoyed this one for what it is. its a simple fun medieval fantasy story but instead of it being about a dragon slayer adventure its about someone being wrongly accused and sent to jail on top of a tower and he is trying to escape. think of it as shawshank redemption but in the medieval ages. i think its cool idea and the characters have some good dialog and the way its written is easy but also charming. i dont know a good way to describe it but it has a very fairy tale like charm to it and i really liked it as it was a fun read.

      so i will go out and say this story is nothing crazy mind blowing but i still enjoyed it. just dont go into this book as the next Lord Of The Rings or a Wheel Of Time book because you probably will not like it as its not a huge fantasy epic. but if you need a palette cleaner that is not long and is more of a prison break story then an adventure across the land then this book will be good for that. i have to respect king for writing a book like this. it shows he is more then just a horror writer and the fact he wrote it for his kid is cute.
    • 4/5

      Nov 6, 2023

      I had a great time with this book. Pure entertainment. Flagg was a perfectly wonderful villain!
    • 4/5

      Sep 25, 2022

      This traditional fantasy is a little off-kilter for Stephen King. Rumor has it he wrote this for his young daughter who was turned off by the somewhat adult and rather gruesome themes in his other books. King fans looking for his typical fare will be disappointed. But if you're looking for a decent fantasy story, you won't be. There is nothing spectacular about this one. It reuses some common fantasy tropes, but how many truly original fantasy ideas are still out there waiting to be discovered these days? For my money, I felt the pacing was a little off. Seemed like the first 2/3rds of the book dragged along very slowly only to speed up in the last third. Also the ending (like a lot of King's books) left me partly unfulfilled, but only partly. Namely: I felt it ended just as it was getting good.

      What does this have to do with the Dark Tower (DT) saga?

      This book gives us a little background on Randall Flagg from The Stand (originally published in 1978), and Flagg is a major antagonist in the Dark Tower series. However, at the time this book was written (1984) Flagg wasn't involved in DT, yet. DT Book 1, The Gunslinger, was originally a series of short stories published between 1978 and 1981, but Flagg doesn't even get mentioned until 1987 in The Drawing of the Three, and even then it's just a passing reference to a man named Flagg being pursued by Thomas and Dennis (all three characters in Eyes of the Dragon). Flagg doesn't really show up until The Wastelands in 1991, which coincidentally was published a year after the unabridged version of The Stand was released, so Flagg was certainly front-and-center in King's mind during that time period.

      However, at the time Eyes was written, the only direct connection to the Dark Tower is the fact that King chose to name the old king in this story "Roland" as a possible homage to Roland of Gilead, yet this is never explained. Frankly, I found it confusing. Later in the Dark Tower novels, King inserts a couple references back to people and places from this book, but never anything that needs further explanation to understand the overall story. So other than a little extra background on Flagg, this has nothing to do with the Dark Tower.
    • 4/5

      Sep 17, 2022

      Digital audiobook performed by Branson Pinchot
      3.5***

      From the book jacket: A tale of archetypal heroes and sweeping adventures, of dragons and princes and evil wizards…

      My reactions
      Well, this was a fairy tale I never expected from Stephen King. The dedication states he wrote this for his daughter, Naomi, who “ loves me, but has very little interest in my vampires, ghoulies, and slushy crawling things.”

      I was reminded of a number of classic fairy tales, adventure quests and such that enthralled and entertained me when I was a child. Heck, I came to Harry Potter as middle-aged adult and loved those stories as well. This story speaks directly to the child that still dwells inside me. It allows me to suspend disbelief while I cheer for the hero and hiss at the villain.

      King has a new book out this month, title Fairy Tale. I haven’t checked to see if it is a continuation of this story or a totally new effort. I know I’ll read it, and I’ll find out then.

      Branson Pinchot was absolutely marvelous performing the audiobook. I particularly liked his creepy, sibilant voice for the villainous Flagg. 5***** for his performance.
    • 4/5

      Feb 1, 2022

      For a fictional fantasy world, this book I really did enjoy.

      The imagination of Steven King pulled me right into the fictional, far off, quasi-medieval land of Delain. With his written words, I could see and feel the settings, hear the dialogue of the characters, root for the heroes and boo for the villain.

      The storyteller in this book kept me laughing out loud, excited me and angered me through the story. He was a plain spoken, but frank storyteller and I found that was the best part.

      This book might be characterized as a 'youth read', but at 46, I must still be a youth at heart.
    • 4/5

      Nov 30, 2021

      Written for his young daughter and it shows. Amazing flexibility as a writer to be able to try out this genre with some success.
    • 4/5

      Jan 30, 2019

      This was way better than I thought it would be. King’s known for horror, not high fantasy. Before this point, the only other fantasy he wrote (if you don’t count The Gunslinger, which goes beyond genres) was The Talisman. And after this point, he didn’t go back to it for a long time. So I thought it would be a disaster. When an author writes outside their wheelhouse, you get wary. But it was also written in 1987, around the same time as It, Misery, and Skeleton Crew. And before he got sober.

      The whole book has a fun storyteller vibe, like an old man in a tavern telling you the saga of King What’s-his-face. And since it’s a secondary world, you don’t have to worry about those Stephen King cliches.

      However, the weird thing is the story never seems to start. It keeps describing characters, giving anecdotes, showing the history of the kingdom, etc. but you’re halfway through the book and the inciting incident hasn’t occurred. The narration consistently feels like it’s building towards something all throughout, which is disconcerting.

      But overall, yes, I recommend it. It’s a good book even for the non-Stephen King fan and I plan on reading the sequel.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5

      Oct 6, 2014

      Mr. King is one of my favorite authors. But for some reason I could not get into this book. It's a good fantasy story, but just not quite up to King's usual work.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5

      Oct 3, 2014

      this is probably the 100th time i have read this book and it never, ever, disappoints. perhaps i have a soft spot for it, as it is the first 'no pictures" book i have ever read almost over 25 years ago. the characterization is phenomenal and you become a part of not only the characters but are invited into their psyche. it's a magical, mystical, mysterious read with moments of sincerity mixed with darkness. it's luxe and i love it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5

      Aug 26, 2014

      If you compare this book to most of Stephen King's other books, you'll find that, in spite of keeping some of his trademarks, The Eyes of the Dragon is actually rather refreshing. You can see that several elements of this book were created based on books that he already wrote, and yet King manages to create a brand new world with original characters, and yet not straying too far from the Hero's Journey formula. The characters of this book, from the main ones to the regular citizens are very human and very realistic. The hero and the villain have very distinct points of view and unlike several other books, they are not too aware of each others thoughts.

      I wouldn't go as far as calling this book a "masterpiece", but it was one of the best books from Stephen King that I read so far.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5

      Aug 13, 2014

      Surprisingly well-written, but the typos pulled me out of the story more often than the narrator did.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5

      Oct 14, 2012

      Many people I know have not heard of this book. A fantastic tale for grown up and kids alike, full of real heroes and unlikable characters you want to hate...and some you want to pity as well. Its about keeping hope in the darkest of places and never forgetting that anything can be done with the help of true friends willing to risk everything. Have re-read it many times since adolescence. You want to keep turning the page with this book...hating what happens to the hero and reading on desperately hoping he is redeemed against all odds.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5

      Sep 28, 2012

      audiobook from the library - A classic fairy tale-style story. Drunken kings, kind queens, ferocious dragons, noble and not-so-noble princes, evil magicians, loyal butlers, etc. etc. It's usual Stephen King style, which means the whole thing could have been told in half as many words. But it was still good.

      Be warned if listening to this as an audiobook - the narrator is great but there is a lot of yelling and screaming.

      1 person found this helpful

    Book preview

    The Eyes of the Dragon - Stephen King

    1

    Once, in a kingdom called Delain, there was a King with two sons. Delain was a very old kingdom and it had had hundreds of Kings, perhaps even thousands; when time goes on long enough, not even historians can remember everything. Roland the Good was neither the best nor the worst King ever to rule the land. He tried very hard not to do anyone great evil and mostly succeeded. He also tried very hard to do great works, but, unfortunately, he didn’t succeed so well at that. The result was a very mediocre King; he doubted if he would be remembered long after he was dead. And his death might come at any time now, because he had grown old, and his heart was failing. He had perhaps one year left, perhaps three. Everyone who knew him, and everyone who observed his gray face and shaking hands when he held court, agreed that in five years at the very most a new King would be crowned in the great plaza at the foot of the Needle . . . and it would only be five years with God’s grace. So everyone in the Kingdom, from the richest baron and the most foppishly dressed courtier to the poorest serf and his ragged wife, thought and talked about the King in waiting, Roland’s elder son, Peter.

    And one man thought and planned and brooded on something else: how to make sure that Roland’s younger son, Thomas, should be crowned King instead. This man was Flagg, the King’s magician.

    2

    Although Roland the King was old—he admitted to seventy years but was surely older than that—his sons were young. He had been allowed to marry late because he had met no woman who pleased his fancy, and because his mother, the great Dowager Queen of Delain, had seemed immortal to Roland and to everyone else—and that included her. She had ruled the Kingdom for almost fifty years when, one day at tea, she put a freshly cut lemon in her mouth to ease a troublesome cough that had been plaguing her for a week or better. At that particular teatime, a juggler had been performing for the amusement of the Dowager Queen and her court. He was juggling five cunningly made crystal balls. Just as the Queen put the slice of lemon into her mouth, the juggler dropped one of his glass spheres. It shattered on the tiled floor of the great East Court-room with a loud report. The Dowager Queen gasped at the sound. When she gasped, she pulled the lemon slice down her throat and choked to death very quickly. Four days later, the coronation of Roland was held in the Plaza of the Needle. The juggler did not see it; he had been beheaded on the executioner’s block behind the Needle three days before that.

    A King without heirs makes everybody nervous, especially when the King is fifty and balding. It was thus in Roland’s best interest to marry soon, and to make an heir soon. His close advisor, Flagg, made Roland very aware of this. He also pointed out that at fifty, the years left to him in which he could hope to create a child in a woman’s belly were only a few. Flagg advised him to take a wife soon, and never mind waiting for a lady of noble birth who would take his fancy. If such a lady had not come into view by the time a man was fifty, Flagg pointed out, she probably never would.

    Roland saw the wisdom of this and agreed, never knowing that Flagg, with his lank hair and his white face that was almost always hidden behind a hood, understood his deepest secret: that he had never met the woman of his fancy because he had never really fancied women at all. Women worried him. And he had never fancied the act that puts babies in the bellies of women. That act worried him, too.

    But he saw the wisdom of the magician’s advice, and six months after the Dowager Queen’s funeral, there was a much happier event in the Kingdom—the marriage of King Roland to Sasha, who would become the mother of Peter and Thomas.

    Roland was neither loved nor hated in Delain. Sasha, however, was loved by all. When she died giving birth to the second son, the Kingdom was plunged into darkest mourning that lasted a year and a day. She had been one of six women Flagg had suggested to his King as possible brides. Roland had known none of these women, who were all similar in birth and station. They were all of noble blood but none of royal blood; all were meek and pleasant and quiet. Flagg suggested no one who might take his place as the mouth closest to the King’s ear. Roland chose Sasha because she seemed the quietest and meekest of the half dozen, and the least likely to frighten him. So they were wed. Sasha of the Western Barony (a very small barony indeed) was then seventeen years old, thirty-three years younger than her husband. She had never seen a man with his drawers off before her wedding night. When, on that occasion, she observed his flaccid penis, she asked with great interest: What’s that, Husband? If she had said anything else, or if she had said what she said in a slightly different tone of voice, the events of that night—and this entire history—might have taken another course; in spite of the special drink Flagg had given him an hour before, at the end of the wedding feast, Roland might simply have slunk away. But he saw her then exactly as she was—a very young girl who knew even less about the baby-making act than he did—and observed her mouth was kind, and began to love her, as everyone in Delain would grow to love her.

    It is King’s Iron, he said.

    It doesn’t look like iron, said Sasha, doubtfully.

    It is before the forge, he said.

    Ah! said she. And where is the forge?

    If you will trust me, said he, getting into bed with her, I will show you, for you have brought it from the Western Barony with you but did not know it.

    3

    The people of Delain loved her because she was kind and good. It was Queen Sasha who created the Great Hospital, Queen Sasha who wept so over the cruelty of the bearbaiting in the Plaza that King Roland finally outlawed the practice, Queen Sasha who pleaded for a Remission of King’s Taxes in the year of the great drought, when even the leaves of the Great Old Tree went gray. Did Flagg plot against her, you might ask? Not at first. These were relatively small things in his view, because he was a real magician, and had lived hundreds and hundreds of years.

    He even allowed the Remission of Taxes to pass, because the year before, Delain’s navy had smashed the Anduan pirates, who had plagued the Kingdom’s southern coast for over a hundred years. The skull of the Anduan pirate-king grinned from a spike outside the palace walls and Delain’s treasury was rich with recovered plunder. In larger matters, matters of state, it was still Flagg’s mouth which was closest to King Roland’s ear, and so Flagg was at first content.

    4

    Although Roland grew to love his wife, he never grew to love that activity which most men consider sweet, the act which produces both the lowliest cook’s ’prentice and the heir to the highest throne. He and Sasha slept in separate bedrooms, and he did not visit her often. These visits would happen no more than five or six times in a year, and on some of those occasions no iron could be made at the forge, in spite of Flagg’s ever more potent drinks and Sasha’s unfailing sweetness.

    But, four years after the marriage, Peter was made in her bed. And on that one night, Roland had no need of Flagg’s drink, which was green and foaming and which always made him feel a little strange in his head, as if he had gone crazy. He had been hunting that day in the Preserves with twelve of his men. Hunting was the thing that Roland had always loved most of all—the smell of the forest, the crisp tang of the air, the sound of the horn, and the feel of the bow as an arrow left on a true, hard course. Gunpowder was known but rare in Delain, and to hunt game with an iron tube was considered low and contemptible in any case.

    Sasha was reading in bed when he came to her, his ruddy, bearded face alight, but she laid her book on her bosom and listened raptly to his story as he told it, his hands moving. Near the end, he drew back to show her how he had drawn back the bow and had let Foe-Hammer, his father’s great arrow, fly across the little glen. When he did this, she laughed and clapped and won his heart.

    The King’s Preserves had almost been hunted out. In these modern days it was rare to find so much as a good-sized deer in them, and no one had seen a dragon since time out of mind. Most men would have laughed if you had suggested there might still be such a mythy creature left in that tame forest. But an hour before sundown on that day, as Roland and his party were about to turn back, that was just what they found . . . or what found them.

    The dragon came crashing and blundering out of the underbrush, its scales glowing a greenish copper color, its soot-caked nostrils venting smoke. It had not been a small dragon, either, but a male just before its first molting. Most of the party were thunderstruck, unable to draw an arrow or even to move.

    It stared at the hunting party, its normally green eyes went yellow, and it fluttered its wings. There was no danger that it could fly away from them—its wings would not be well developed enough to support it in the air for at least another fifty years and two more moltings—but the baby-webbing which holds the wings against a dragon’s body until its tenth or twelfth year had fallen away, and a single flutter stirred enough wind to topple the head huntsman backward out of his saddle, his horn flying from his hand.

    Roland was the only one not stunned to utter movelessness, and although he was too modest to say so to Sasha, there was real heroism in his next few actions, as well as a sportsman’s zest for the kill. The dragon might well have roasted most of the surprised party alive, if not for Roland’s prompt action. He gigged his horse forward five steps, and nocked his great arrow. He drew and fired. The arrow went straight to the mark—that one gill-like soft spot under the dragon’s throat, where it takes in air to create fire. The worm fell dead with a final fiery gust, which set all the bushes around it alight. The squires put this out quickly, some with water, some with beer, and not a few with piss—and, now that I think of it, most of the piss was really beer, because when Roland went a-hunting, he took a great lot of beer with him, and he was not stingy with it, either.

    The fire was out in five minutes, the dragon gutted in fifteen. You still could have boiled a kettle over its steaming nostrils when its tripes were let out upon the ground. The dripping nine-chambered heart was carried to Roland with great ceremony. He ate it raw, as was the custom, and found it delicious. He only regretted the sad knowledge that he would almost certainly never have another.

    Perhaps it was the dragon’s heart that made him so strong that night. Perhaps it was only his joy in the hunt, and in knowing he had acted quickly and coolheadedly when all the others were sitting stunned in their saddles (except, of course, for the head huntsman, who had been lying stunned on his back). For whatever reason, when Sasha clapped her hands and cried, Well done, my brave Husband!, he fairly leaped into her bed. Sasha greeted him with open eyes and a smile that reflected his own triumph. That night was the first and only time Roland enjoyed his wife’s embrace in sobriety. Nine months later—one month for each chamber of the dragon’s heart—Peter was born in that same bed, and the Kingdom rejoiced—there was an heir to the throne.

    5

    You probably think—if you have bothered to think about it at all—that Roland must have stopped taking Flagg’s strange green drink after the birth of Peter. Not so. He still took it occasionally. This was because he loved Sasha, and wanted to please her. In some places, people assume that only men enjoy sex, and that a woman would be grateful to be left alone. The people of Delain, however, held no such peculiar ideas—they assumed that a woman took normal pleasure in that act which produced earth’s most pleasurable creatures. Roland knew he was not properly attentive to his wife in this matter, but he resolved to be as attentive as he could, even if this meant taking Flagg’s drink. Only Flagg himself knew how rarely the King went to his Queen’s bed.

    Some four years after the birth of Peter, on New Year’s Day, a great blizzard visited Delain. It was the greatest, save one, in living memory—the other I’ll tell you of later.

    Heeding an impulse he could not explain even to himself, Flagg mixed the King a draught of double strength—perhaps it was something in the wind that urged him to do it. Ordinarily, Roland would have made a grimace at the awful taste and perhaps put it aside, but the excitement of the storm had caused the annual New Year’s Day party to be especially gay, and Roland had become very drunk. The blazing fire on the hearth reminded him of the dragon’s final explosive breath, and he had toasted the head, which was mounted on the wall, many times. So he drank the green potion off at a single gulp, and an evil lust fell upon him. He left the dining hall at once and visited Sasha. In the course of trying to love her, he hurt her.

    Please, Husband, she cried, sobbing.

    I’m sorry, he mumbled. Huzzz . . . He fell heavily asleep beside her and remained insensible for the next twenty hours. She never forgot the strange smell that had been on his breath that night. It had been a smell like rotten meat, a smell like death. Whatever, she wondered, had he been eating . . . or drinking?

    Roland never touched Flagg’s drink again, but Flagg was well satisfied, nevertheless. Nine months later, Sasha gave birth to Thomas, her second son. She died bringing him forth. Such things happened, of course, and while everyone was saddened, no one was really surprised. They believed they knew what had happened. But the only people in the Kingdom who really knew the circumstances of Sasha’s death were Anna Crookbrows, the midwife, and Flagg, the King’s magician. Flagg’s patience with Sasha’s meddling had finally run out.

    6

    Peter was only five when his mother died, but he remembered her dearly. He thought her sweet, tender, loving, full of mercy. But five is a young age, and most of his memories were not very specific. There was one clear memory which he held in his mind, however—it was of a reproach she had made to him. Much later, the memory of this reproach became vital to him. It had to do with his napkin.

    Every first of Five-month, a feast was held at court to celebrate the spring plantings. In his fifth year, Peter was allowed to attend for the first time. Custom decreed that Roland should sit at the head of the table, the heir to the throne at his right hand, the Queen at the foot of the table. The practical result of this was that Peter would be out of her reach during the meal, and so Sasha coached him carefully beforehand on how he should behave. She wanted him to show up well, and to be mannerly. And, of course, she knew that during the meal he would be on his own, because his father had no idea of manners at all.

    Some of you may wonder why the task of instructing Peter on his manners fell to Sasha. Did the boy not have a governess? (Yes, as a matter of fact he had two.) Were there no servants whose service was dedicated wholly to the little prince? (Battalions of them.) The trick was not to get these people to take care of Peter but to keep them away. Sasha wanted to raise him herself, at least as much as she could. She had very definite ideas about how her son should be raised. She loved him dearly and wanted to be with him for her own selfish reasons. But she also realized that she had a deep and solemn responsibility in the matter of Peter’s nurture. This little boy would be King someday, and above all else, Sasha wanted him to be good. A good boy, she thought, would be a good King.

    Great banquets in the King’s Hall were not very neat affairs, and most nannies wouldn’t have been very concerned about the little boy’s table manners. Why, he is to be the King! they would have said, a little shocked at the idea that they should correct him in such piddling matters. Who cares if he spills the gravy boat? Who cares if he dribbles on his ruff, or even wipes his hands on it? Did not King Alan in the old days sometimes vomit into his plate and then command his court jester to come nigh and drink this nice hot soup? Did not King John often bite the heads off live trout and then put the flopping bodies into the bodices of the serving girls’ dresses? Will not this banquet end up, as most banquets do, with the participants throwing food across the table at each other?

    Undoubtedly it would, but by the time things degenerated to the food-throwing stage, she and Peter would long since have retired. What concerned Sasha was that attitude of who cares. She thought it was the worst idea anyone could ever plant in the head of a little boy destined to be King.

    So Sasha instructed Peter carefully, and she observed him carefully on the night of the banquet. And later, as he lay sleepy in his bed, she talked to him.

    Because she was a good mother, she first complimented him lovingly on his behavior and manners—and this was right, because for the most part they had been exemplary. But she knew that no one would correct him where he went wrong unless she did it herself, and she knew she must do it now, in these few years when he idolized her. So when she was finished complimenting him, she said:

    You did one thing wrong, Pete, and I never want to see you do it again.

    Peter lay in his bed, his dark blue eyes looking at her solemnly. What was that, Mother?

    You didn’t use your napkin, said she. You left it folded by your plate, and it made me sorry to see it. You ate the roast chicken with your fingers, and that was fine, because that is how men do it. But when you put the chicken down again, you wiped your fingers on your shirt, and that is not right.

    But Father . . . and Mr. Flagg . . . and the other nobles . . .

    Bother Flagg, and bother all the nobles in Delain! she cried with such force that Peter cringed back in his bed a little. He was afraid and ashamed for having made those roses bloom in her cheeks. What your father does is right, for he is the King, and what you do when you are King will always be right. But Flagg is not King, no matter how much he would like to be, and the nobles are not Kings, and you are not King yet, but only a little boy who forgot his manners.

    She saw he was afraid, and smiled. She laid her hand on his brow.

    Be calm, Peter, she said. It is a small thing, but still important—because you’ll be King in your own time. Now run and fetch your slate.

    But it’s bedtime—

    Bother bedtime, too. Bedtime can wait. Bring your slate.

    Peter ran for his slate.

    Sasha took the chalk tied to the side and carefully printed three letters. Can you read this word, Peter?

    Peter nodded. There were only a few words that he could read, although he knew most of the Great Letters. This happened to be one of the words. "It says GOD."

    Yes, that’s right. Now write it backward and see what you find.

    Backward? Peter said doubtfully.

    Yes, that’s right.

    Peter did so, his letters staggering childishly across the slate below his mother’s neat printing. He was astounded to find another of the few words he could read.

    "DOG! Mamma! It says DOG!"

    Yes. It says dog. The sadness in her voice quenched Peter’s excitement at once. His mother pointed from GOD to DOG. These are the two natures of man, she said. Never forget them, because someday you will be King and Kings grow to be great and tall—as great and tall as dragons in their ninth moltings.

    Father isn’t great and tall, objected Peter. Roland was, in fact, short and rather bowlegged. Also, he carried a great belly in front of him from all the beer and mead he had consumed.

    Sasha smiled.

    "He is, though. Kings grow invisibly, Peter, and it happens all at once, as soon as they grasp the scepter and the crown is put on their heads in the Plaza of the Needle!"

    They do? Peter’s eyes grew large and round. He thought that the subject had wandered far from his failure to use his napkin at the banquet, but he was not sorry to see such an embarrassing topic lost in favor of this tremendously interesting one. Besides, he had already resolved that he would never forget to use his napkin again—if it was important to his mother, then it was important to him.

    "Oh yes, they do. Kings grow most awfully big, and that’s why they have to be specially careful, for a very big person could crush smaller ones under his feet just taking a walk, or turning around, or sitting down quickly in the wrong place. Bad Kings do such things often. I think even good Kings cannot avoid doing them sometimes."

    I don’t think I understand—

    Then listen a moment longer. She tapped the slate again. Our preachers say that our natures are partly of God and partly of Old Man Splitfoot. Do you know who Old Man Splitfoot is, Peter?

    He’s the devil.

    Yes. But there are few devils outside of made-up stories, Pete—most bad people are more like dogs than devils. Dogs are friendly but stupid, and that’s the way most men and women are when they are drunk. When dogs are excited and confused, they may bite; when men are excited and confused, they may fight. Dogs are great pets because they are loyal, but if a pet is all a man is, he is a bad man, I think. Dogs can be brave, but they may also be cowards that will howl in the dark or run away from danger with their tails between their legs. A dog is just as eager to lick the hand of a bad master as he is to lick the hand of a good one, because dogs don’t know the difference between good and bad. A dog will eat slops, vomit up the part his stomach can’t stand, and then go back for more.

    She fell silent for a moment, perhaps thinking of what was going on in the banqueting hall right now—men and women roaring with goodnatured drunken laughter, flinging food at each other, and sometimes turning aside to vomit casually on the floor beside their chairs. Roland was much the same, and sometimes this made her sad, but she did not hold it against him, nor did she tax him with it. It was his way. He might promise to reform in order to please her, and he might even do it, but he would not be the same man afterward.

    Do you understand these things, Peter?

    Peter nodded.

    Fine! Now, tell me. She leaned toward him. Does a dog use a napkin?

    Humbled and ashamed, Peter looked down at the counterpane and shook his head. Apparently the conversation hadn’t wandered as far as he had thought. Perhaps because the evening had been very full and because he was now very tired, tears rose in his eyes and spilled down his cheeks. He struggled against the sobs that wanted to come. He locked them in his chest. Sasha saw this and admired it.

    Don’t cry over an unused napkin, my love, said Sasha, for that was not my intention. She rose, her full and pregnant belly before her. The delivery of Thomas was now very near. Your behavior was otherwise exemplary. Any mother in the Kingdom would have been proud of a young son who behaved himself half so well, and my heart is full with admiration for you. I only tell you these things because I am the mother of a prince. That is sometimes hard, but it cannot be changed, and i’ truth, I would not change it if I could. But remember that someday lives will depend on your every waking motion; lives may even depend on dreams which come to you in sleep. Lives may not depend on whether or not you use your napkin after the roast chicken . . . but they may. They may. Lives have depended on less, at times. All I ask is that in everything you do, you try to remember the civilized side of your nature. The good side—the God side. Will you promise to do that, Peter?

    I promise.

    Then all is well. She kissed him lightly. Luckily, I am young and you are young. We will talk of these things more, when you have more understanding.

    They never did, but Peter never forgot the lesson: he always used his napkin, even when those around him did not.

    7

    So Sasha died.

    She has little more part in this story, yet there is one further thing about her you should know: she had a dollhouse. This dollhouse was very large and very fine, almost a castle in miniature. When the time of her marriage came round, Sasha mustered as much cheer as she could, but she was sad to be leaving everyone and everything at the great house in the Western Barony where she had grown up—and she was a little bit nervous, too. She told her mother, I have never been married before and do not know if I shall like it.

    But of all the childish things she left behind, the one she regretted most was the dollhouse she had had ever since she was a little girl.

    Roland, who was a kind man, somehow discovered this, and although he was also nervous about his future life (after all, he had never been married before, either), he found time to commission Quentin Ellender, the greatest craftsman in the land, to build his new wife a new dollhouse. I want it to be the finest dollhouse a young lady ever had, he told Ellender. I want her to look at it once and forget about her old dollhouse forever.

    As you’ll no doubt realize, if Roland really meant this, it was a foolish thing to say. No one ever forgets a toy that made him or her supremely happy as a child, even if that toy is replaced by one like it that is much nicer. Sasha never forgot her old dollhouse, but she was quite impressed with the new one. Anyone who was not a total idiot would have been. Those who saw it declared it was Quentin Ellender’s best work, and it may have been.

    It was a country house in miniature, very like the one Sasha had lived in with her parents in rolling Western Barony. Everything in it was small, but so cunningly made you would swear it must really work . . . and most things in it did!

    The stove, for instance, really got hot and would even cook tiny portions of food. If you put a piece of hard coal no bigger than a matchbox in it, it would burn all day . . . and if you reached into the kitchen with your clumsy big-person’s finger and happened to touch the stove while the coal was burning, it would give you a burn for your pains. There were no faucets and no flushing toilets, because the Kingdom of Delain did not know about such things—and doesn’t even to this day—but if you were very careful, you could pump water from a hand pump that stood not much taller than your pinkie finger. There was a sewing room with a spinning wheel that really spun and a loom that really wove. The spinet in the parlor would really play, if you touched the keys with a toothpick, and the tone was true. People who saw this said it was a miracle, and surely Flagg must have been involved somehow. When Flagg heard such stories, he only smiled and said nothing. He had not been involved in the dollhouse at all—he thought it a silly project, in truth—but he also knew it was not always necessary to make claims and tell people how wonderful you were to achieve greatness. Sometimes all you had to do was look wise and keep your mouth shut.

    In Sasha’s dollhouse were real Kashamin rugs, real velvet curtains, real china plates; the cold cabinet really kept things cold. The wainscoting in the receiving parlor and the front hall was of cherished ironwood. There was glass in all the windows and a many-colored fanlight over the wide front doors.

    All in all it was the jolliest dollhouse any child ever dreamed of. Sasha clapped her hands over it with real delight at the wedding party when it was unveiled, and thanked her husband for it. Later she went to Ellender’s workshop and not only thanked him but curtsied deeply before him, an act that was almost unheard of—in that day and age, Queens did not curtsy to mere artisans. Roland was pleased and Ellender, whose sight had failed noticeably in the course of the project, was deeply touched.

    But it did not make her forget her old dear dollhouse at home, as ordinary as it seemed when compared with this one, and she did not spend as many rainy afternoons playing with it—rearranging the furniture, lighting the stove and watching the chimneys smoke, pretending that there was a high tea going on or that there was to be a great dinner party for the Queen—as she had before, even as an older girl of fifteen and sixteen. One of the reasons was very simple. There was no fun making ready for a pretend party

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