The Dark Tower Companion: A Guide to Stephen King’s Epic Fantasy (8 page)

The book opens a few months after the ending of
The Drawing of the Three
. Roland, Eddie and Susannah, the latter two now living as husband and wife, have moved sixty miles inland from the Western Sea and have set up camp in a place they call the shooting gallery while Roland teaches them the skills they need to become gunslingers. In addition to teaching them to shoot, he shows them how to navigate by the stars, how to hunt and how to get every possible use from what they kill, including tanning and curing hides for clothing and other provisions.

Most important, he needs to teach them how to kill. Eddie was forced to learn this lesson in Balazar's headquarters, but Susannah—the first-ever female gunslinger (Aileen Ritter from the Marvel comics notwithstanding)—has fired only at inanimate objects. Like Cort, Roland is a harsh teacher. He belittles and berates his charges until they are so angry with him they're almost ready to kill him. He needs to get them riled up to see how they will perform under pressure.

Their training comes in handy the day they encounter Shardik, the Guardian of one of the twelve Beams that hold up the Dark Tower. Shardik is a seventy-foot-tall robot, built by North Central Positronics in the days of the Great Old Ones. Though a lot of what Roland heard about the Tower and the nature of his world was thought to be a myth, he is beginning to realize there was a lot of truth in those stories.

If there's a Guardian around, that means there's a portal nearby. If he can find it, he will have his trajectory. All he needs to do is put his back to the portal and follow the Path of the Beam and he will end up at the Dark Tower. He has no idea how far that is—the distance could be great since Mid-World seems to be expanding—but for the first time in his long life, he no longer has to cast about. These Beams have been flowing along the same paths for so long that they leave a clear sign of their presence in the herringbone pattern of the clouds, the direction needles on trees grow and the pattern of shadows on the ground.

First, though, they have to deal with Shardik. He has had an innate hatred of people ever since the Great Old Ones tried to destroy him. His batteries are running down, he is infected by parasites and he is going insane. He is on a rampage when he stumbles upon Eddie Dean, who has recently become compelled to whittle. He goes off by himself to do this because his brother always made fun of him when he carved as a boy and he's afraid that his new friends might treat his hobby the same way. Eddie scrambles up a tree, but the bear is immense.

When Susannah shoots the satellite dish atop Shardik's head, the Guardian is disabled and begins his final process of dying. Roland, Eddie and Susannah follow the bear's trail back to the portal, where they dispatch a number of other robotic animals, one of which almost kills Susannah.

The time for training is over. Now that they have a direction, they must move on. However, Roland has a confession to make: he thinks he's going insane. He's in worse condition than when he was suffering from infection on the beach. He hears voices chattering so loudly that he can't think straight. He considers himself so dangerous to his friends that he surrenders his gun and his knife. Susannah and Eddie are dismayed by this development. Their chances of surviving alone in Roland's world are slim.

Eddie's compulsion to whittle settles in on a single object: a key that he sees in the fire (along with a rose) after Roland casts off the jawbone he took from the golgotha after his palaver with the man in black. He believes this is Walter's jawbone. Something external and powerful is guiding Eddie so that he will be prepared when the time is right. This is one of the fundamental and
ongoing mysteries of Roland's quest for the Dark Tower. Something or someone—in a word,
ka
—wants him to succeed and regularly presents him with tools—including people—that will help him.

Dreams play an important part in the Dark Tower series and in
The Waste Lands
. Eddie begins to dream of New York—specifically the part of Manhattan known as Turtle Bay. He sees people from his past—Jack Andolini and Enrico Balazar—and places laden with Tower symbolism. His dream takes him to Second Avenue and 46th Street, which is occupied by a deli. When he goes through the door, he finds himself standing before an enormous field of roses and, in the distance, the Dark Tower. He is the first among his group to see their objective, even if only in a dream. He also gets the sense that something is wrong with the Tower and that they have an adversary. This dream is enough to inspire Eddie to adopt the quest as his own. He's no longer a prisoner in Mid-World.

Jake Chambers is suffering from the same condition as Roland, only for him it's more personal. The eleven-year-old boy, an all-A student at a prestigious private school, is living with the knowledge that he was supposed to die on May 9, 1977. He awoke that morning with the foreknowledge of when and where it would happen and, up until the moment passes, he's sure it will happen. When it doesn't, he's cast adrift. He becomes a walking dead person, as far as he's concerned. The conflict raging inside his head prevents him from concentrating on his schoolwork, and he becomes obsessed with doorways, convinced that one of them will lead him back to Mid-World, which is where he thinks he's supposed to be.

His subconscious mind generates a term paper called “My Understanding of Truth” for his English comp class that is full of symbolism he doesn't understand, though his teacher claims she does. It contains references to his experiences in the desert with the gunslinger and to people who he has never met, including Eddie and Susannah. It talks about doors and towers, has quotes from T. S. Eliot and Robert Browning, and contains clues about what will happen after he rejoins Roland, including references to riddles, Blaine and a train.

He is mortified when he reads the essay, which he does not remember writing. He runs away from school and ends up on Second Avenue at the Manhattan Restaurant of the Mind bookstore, where he meets the owner, Calvin Tower, and his only friend, Aaron Deepneau. A children's book called
Charlie the Choo-Choo
catches his attention, as does a raggedy book of riddles titled
Riddle-De-Dum!
He buys the first and is given the other because of its poor condition. The answers section has been removed.

Charlie the Choo-Choo
seems to be an ordinary book about an anthropomorphic train with a friendly engineer. After Charlie is replaced by a faster, sleeker model, he comes to the rescue when the newer train breaks down. However, Jake finds the story ominous. He doesn't trust Charlie. He thinks he looks downright evil. Other things in the book strike him—a girl named Susannah and a character named Martin (i.e., Marten). He will subsequently learn that both Eddie and Susannah owned and lost copies of this book when they were young. The implication is that
ka
has been trying to put the book into their hands and some other force is trying to keep it away from them.

He continues down the street, following Eddie's dream route, and ends up at the same address, the corner of Second Avenue and 46th. He expected to find the doorway to Mid-World here, but the deli is gone and the lot is empty, a construction site. The fence around the lot is covered with graffiti that references Beams and the Turtle (one of the Guardians of the Beam). In the empty lot, he hears sweet sounds, millions of voices, and finds a key that is the same shape as the one Eddie is trying to carve. He also sees the rose from Eddie's dream and understands that it is in danger—there's a worm and a shadow over it. Once he has the key, the nagging voices inside his head are silenced.

Jake and Eddie have never met each other and Eddie has no proof of Jake's existence. When Roland ranted in his fever delirium while on the beach, Eddie remembers him saying that he was alone under the mountains. However, because they are destined to be
ka-tet
, they form a connection, passing messages back and forth across the dimensions. Jake tells Eddie that the key he's carving should calm Roland's voices. When it does, the gunslinger weeps with relief. Until then, he had thought that only death would grant him peace.

In Jake's dreams, Eddie is about the same age as he is, which makes sense given that they're from different decades. He sees Eddie shooting baskets and understands intuitively that this is where he is supposed to go, though he knows only that it is in Co-Op City in Brooklyn. Eddie assures Jake that he will find his destination the same way he found the key.
Ka
will provide. He awakens to find his knees scraped the way they were when he fell in the dream.

The next morning, when he sets out, he knows he will probably never see his parents again. Reuniting with Roland is more important. He takes a few belongings and steals his father's gun and ammunition. He wanders Manhattan, unconsciously following the Path of the Beam southeast, killing time until his appointment in Brooklyn and trying to keep from getting picked up for being truant.

He makes his way to Brooklyn and finds Markey Avenue, an address that popped into his head unbidden. There he sees Eddie and Henry shooting hoops. He studies the two boys long enough to understand their dynamics. Eddie is smarter and more skilled than Henry, but he knows that his older brother is insecure and knows how to handle him to keep him from lashing out. The two boys set out on an adventure to go see the Mansion in Dutch Hill, an abandoned house several blocks away that is supposedly haunted.

Jake follows. Henry and Eddie can't make themselves get close to the house, but Jake knows it is where he needs to be. There's a demon inside—a doorkeeper who wants to prevent anyone from crossing over. The house is a physical manifestation of this doorkeeper and once Jake is inside, it turns on him, seeking to devour him.

Eddie senses that Jake is getting ready to cross over, so he redoubles his effort to finish the key. Years of insecurity caused by Henry's constant put-downs have him doubting his ability to get it right, but Roland has faith in him and both encourages and chides him. Susannah isn't happy with the way Roland treats her husband, but they are growing to accept his coldness and single-mindedness.

Their route along the Path of the Beam gradually becomes a coach road and then one of the Great Roads. They see signs of past civilization and encounter a number of billy-bumblers. The designated place for Jake's return is a Stonehenge-like circle of stones where a demon dwells. Roland knows these places are “thin,” a common theme in King's books. Eddie finalizes his key and draws a door in the ground, labeling it
THE BOY
like the doors on the beach and the one in the Mansion are marked.

Roland and Susannah have to distract the demon to keep it from going after Eddie. The only way to do this is with sex, and which one of them gets called into action will depend on the demon's gender. When it proves to be male, Susannah relies on the Detta aspect of her personality to get her through this ordeal. Roland gets his chance to atone for letting Jake fall by jumping through the doorway once it is open on both sides. He seizes the Speaking Demon and crams it into the mouth of the doorkeeper, thus taking care of both threats, and pulls Jake upward to safety. He promises he will never let Jake fall again, though he's not entirely sure he believes himself. The success of this mission is a personal victory for Eddie. He thinks he's defeated the voice in his head, too—that of his nagging older brother.

The
ka-tet
is complete—in human form, that is. The quartet acquires a fifth member with the arrival of a billy-bumbler—a doglike animal that has been cast out from its herd, probably for being too smart. It is a rare example
of its kind that remembers when bumblers were friends of men. Jake dubs him Oy after the bumbler's efforts to mimic the word “boy.” He and Jake become fast friends. Oy tolerates the others but is nervous around them—especially Roland.

They are now in the geographic region called Mid-World. Roland remembers hearing about a huge city at the edge of Mid-World when he was young. That city, Lud, is 160 wheels (approximately 175 miles) down the Great Road. They see its skyline from the top of a ridge, and Eddie hopes they will find someone there who will tell them what they're supposed to do. The ominous drumbeats they hear in the distance aren't encouraging.

Before they get there, they arrive in River Crossing, a humble town consisting of a few dozen buildings, a church and a jail—the closest thing to civilization Roland has seen since he passed through, and eradicated, Tull. The town's residents, when they decide to emerge from hiding, prove to be a handful of very old people—well beyond being octogenarians. They invite the gunslinger and his companions to dinner and tell them what they know about the conditions in Lud, where a civil war that spread from a distant Barony has been raging for more than a century.

The Great Old Ones built Lud many centuries ago, but most of the technology has failed. What little might remain is beyond the abilities of the residents to operate. The two factions, the Grays and the Pubes, don't even remember what they're fighting over. The Grays were harriers who besieged the city and the Pubes are Lud's former residents, who used the weapons of the Great Old Ones to fend the Grays off until they ran out of ammunition. The matriarch of River Crossing, Aunt Talitha, recommends that the
ka-tet
go around Lud rather than through it, because Jake will be an attractive prize for the people of Lud, since there are few children born there anymore.

Roland ignores this advice for two reasons. He doesn't want to get in the habit of making detours, prolonging his journey and taking him off the Path of the Beam. He also believes that they are meant to go to Lud and if they try to go around it,
ka
will push them back on track. He believes they will find a train that will take them closer to their final destination. Jake thinks that this train will be called Blaine, whose name he included in his term paper.