The Eyes of the Dragon

Flagg gives Roland the poisoned goblet of wine. Roland is touched by the gesture and drinks it happily.

The narrator explains how magic works in the world. While invisibility is impossible, Flagg can make himself “dim.” He can make himself seem to be so deeply uninteresting or not noteworthy that people do not notice him. Flagg makes himself dim to take the poisoned goblet of wine to Roland’s rooms. As he walks there, he imagines a future when Thomas is king. It will be parties every night until the people revolt. Flagg is so overconfident as he carries out his regicide that he never considers that anyone might see him, but Thomas does; he watches it happen through the eyes of Niner, the dragon Roland killed and hanged as a trophy on his wall.

The narrator returns to Thomas’s story. Thomas is jealous of Roland’s love for Peter, and it angers him that all of Peter’s ideas turn out well, even when they sound silly. Peter asks Thomas to help him make their father a Bendoh set, which is like a type of chess set. Thomas doesn’t help because he thinks it is stupid, but Roland loves the set Peter makes him. Along the same lines, Peter asks Thomas if he wanted to join him in buying their father a glass of his favorite wine every night out of their own allowance. Thomas thinks the idea of buying the King’s wine for the King is very stupid—Thomas himself had been caught stealing wine by the Chief Vintner—but Roland ends up loving the gesture, and Thomas would watch his brother and father enjoy each other’s company bitterly through the eyes of the dragon.

Flagg shows Thomas the secret passageway to the eyes of the dragon out of an instinct for mischief. He had been nurturing a relationship with Thomas over the years by pretending to be his friend when Thomas feels down. Normally, Thomas is afraid of Flagg, but when he is depressed, he welcomes the company. Flagg especially likes to show Thomas things that scare him because Flagg knows children collect their trauma until that trauma poisons their mind.

Once, Flagg showed Thomas the top of the Eastern Tower. For a moment, Thomas looked out over Delain in delight, but then the place was swarmed by bats, causing Thomas to have nightmares about bats for the rest of his life. Another time, Flagg showed Thomas the royal treasury, full of loot from the defeat of the Anduan pirates. Flagg explains that the treasure belongs to anyone who is king, and all that treasure will one day be Peter’s. Finally, one year before killing Roland, Flagg showed Thomas the secret passageway to the eyes of the dragon. The narrator wonders whether this time Flagg’s instinct led him astray.

The narrative returns to the day Flagg shows Thomas the secret passageway. Thomas is feeling low because he has just attended a lunch in which Roland spent the meal praising Peter. Flagg recognizes that Thomas is down and offers to show him a secret of the castle. Thomas is wary because he remembers the bats, but he is convinced when Flagg tells Thomas he will be able to see his father through “the eyes of his greatest trophy” (82). Flagg leads him through a door Thomas never noticed before because it is used by the servants. Inside the passageway, Thomas knows where he is because he can hear his father’s dogs barking in a kennel near his father’s rooms. Then, Flagg shows a secret door that is opened by pressing a stone.

Through this secret door is a dark space where there are two panels. Opening the panels reveals light on the other side. Thomas looks through these two holes and notes that it is like looking through smoked glass. He sees his father sitting in his sitting room. It is the room where all his hunting trophies decorate the walls, including wolves, bears, and even a featherex (a kind of phoenix). Thomas realizes he is looking through the eyes of Niner the dragon. He feels a little guilty for spying, but he is also excited. Flagg explains that Thomas can come back on his own, but he warns him not to get caught.

Thomas returns to the secret passageway regularly. He watches his father when he is alone but only for short periods because the greenish-gold tint of the dragon eyes gives him a headache. Watching his father leads Thomas to hate him because Roland is not his best self when he is alone. He picks his nose, farts, and pisses into the fire. After Peter brings him his nightly glass of wine, Roland keeps drinking, often until he becomes embarrassingly drunk. He talks to the mounted heads on the wall. Thomas finds this pathetic; part of him wants to go to his father and give him company, but he likes spying more.

Once, as Thomas spied on his father, Roland was even more drunk than usual. He paced the room angrily and knocked over chairs and tables. He threw things and threatened to kill the animal heads again. He turned to Niner, and screamed at the dragon, “Why do you stare at me?” (95). The outburst scared Thomas, and he ran away. That night haunts Thomas and, for a long time, he does not return to the secret passageway. He does not return until the evening Flagg brings the poisoned wine.

On the night of the regicide, Thomas watches Roland and Peter share their nightly glass of wine. They are very affectionate and open with each other, which angers Thomas. Peter leaves early—Peter is 17 years old now, and there is a girl he spends his time with. After, Roland peacefully drinks beer. After an hour, Flagg arrives. At first, Thomas does not see Flagg, but after looking in Flagg’s direction he sees the magician carrying two wine glasses on a tray. Flagg claims he wants to express his love for Roland. Thomas senses something is wrong, but he says nothing. Flagg and Roland toast Peter, and Flagg adds a second toast, suspiciously: “To the King!”

Roland notes that the wine tastes weird. Thomas leaves and heads back to his rooms. He contracts a terrible fever, and by the time he recovers, his father is dead, Peter is imprisoned in the Needle, and he is king. The narrator ends the chapter asking the reader to guess who his closest advisor is.

The night of the regicide, Flagg returns to his basement rooms and consults his spell book while the others sleep. After eight hours, Flagg grabs a mouse from his collection of caged animals and poisons it with the Dragon Sand. He then puts the rest of the Dragon Sand in a packet that is only partially enchanted, which means that the packet will only hold the sand temporarily before it begins to smolder, and places the packet inside a box with Peter’s name engraved on the top—a gift from Sasha that Flagg stole long ago. Flagg makes himself dim and delivers the poisoned mouse and the box to Peter’s rooms while Peter is still with his lady friend. He plants the mouse and box in a small compartment behind a bookcase where Peter keeps his small treasures. He opens the box, tears one corner of the packet to make it look like the mouse chewed on it, and then closes the compartment. He goes to bed believing no one has seen any of the deceptions he has enacted.

Over the next three days, Roland starts feeling much better. Then, after dinner on the third day, Roland has indigestion. He belches, and the belch is so terrible that everyone at dinner falls silent. Then, he falls over and smoke begins to drift from his mouth and eyes. Peter runs to his father as more smoke pours out of the King’s body. Roland’s last word is “Dragon!”

Roland’s body cools down. Finally, he dies, and a green flame escapes from his mouth. Flagg announces the news. At first, everyone is silent. But then someone in the crowd says “Murder!” and there is a gasp.

The court physician declares it murder by poison. Flagg organizes a search of the castle to find evidence of the crime. Peter takes over the search, and they look everywhere except Peter’s and Thomas’s rooms. Flagg knows that, because Peter is so beloved, it will be difficult to convince everyone of his guilt, but Flagg also knows that the right evidence is enough to plant doubt in people’s minds. He knows that people distrust kings and princes and will be quick to condemn Peter if his plan works.

Peter’s butler is named Brandon. Brandon’s son Dennis helps his father with his duties and will one day replace him. Dennis likes Peter. He remembers Peter scolding him only once (for forgetting to bring a napkin with a meal). He also looks up to his father and believes in the honor of service. When Roland dies, Brandon tells Dennis that they must go on with their duties as normal.

The morning after, Dennis tidies up Peter’s rooms as he always does, but this time Dennis hears a small sound and sees smoke coming from behind the bookcase. He moves the bookcase, finds the compartment, and hears a small animal suffering. He opens the compartment and, as Flagg had hoped, beats out the fire with his bare hands.

Dennis finds the smoldering packet and a small mouse. Something terrible is happening to the mouse; smoke rises from its fur. Dennis decides to ask his father what to do, so he puts the mouse in an ash bucket and heads home. On the way, he remembers that Roland was killed by a poison that was hot, and he begins to suspect Peter was involved.

Brandon returns home with news that the planning for Peter’s coronation has begun under the direction of Anders Peyna, Delain’s Judge-General. Brandon hears that Dennis arrived home with an ash bucket and seeks out his son. They speak in private in Dennis’s room. After an hour, Brandon comes out of the room ash white. Both Brandon and Dennis leave and do not return for over 24 hours, which makes Dennis’s mother think that they have been killed or thrown into the dungeon.

It is a terrible 24 hours in Delain for many people. Peter is not crowned at noon as expected and, by the end of the day, he is to be tried in the Hall of the Needler for the murder of the king. Construction for the coronation abruptly ceases at 11:00 in the morning. The home guards change their dress from ceremonial uniforms to combat uniforms and exchange their ceremonial swords for short swords. Rumors begin to spread that Peter has died by suicide or was murdered also, or Roland is still alive. People go to bed that night anxious and unsure. A new rumor spreads as well: Peter murdered the king. After seeing her husband and son so worried in the morning, Dennis’s mother believes it.

The narrator returns to Dennis and Brandon’s private conversation. Dennis asks his father what kind of poison killed the king. When he sees the mouse with its crispy fur and smoke still coming out of its eyes and mouth, Brandon thinks aloud, “Just like the King” (122). Dennis tells his father the full story, and Brandon says they must go to the Judge-General to tell him the story too. Dennis does not want to because Peyna is the most powerful person in Delain after the king and orders jail terms and beheadings, but Brandon assures Dennis that Peyna is also a fair man.

The narrator again jumps ahead and tells the reader that Peter is tried, found guilty of regicide, and sentenced to life imprisoned at the top of the Needle.

Then the narrator returns to detailing the events that led to Peter’s trial and imprisonment. When Peyna sees the mouse, he decides to postpone the coronation. He does not yet believe Peter is guilty, but he does not think a king should be crowned while his reputation is stained. Once Peter is summoned, Peyna explains the situation to him bluntly. Peter is stunned and bursts into tears. Peyna thinks that if Peter denied the accusations or looked confused, he would never have believed the charges to be true, but because Peter cried, he now looks guilty. Peyna decides to investigate the matter further and sends the home guards to search Peter’s rooms.

Peter swears he owns no box such as the one Dennis describes. When the box is found in the compartment, he looks especially foolish. The guards also find the poison packet and place it on Peter’s desk. Then Peyna sends for the man who knows the most about poison in Delain: Flagg.

Peter explains to Peyna that the box used to be his but that he hasn’t seen it for over 11 years. During the conversation, he notices that Peyna no longer calls him “Your Highness.” Peter begins to wonder whether it is possible that people might think he killed his father. He asks Peyna directly, and Peyna thinks that he didn’t before, but now he is beginning to wonder.

Flagg arrives in Peter’s rooms in mock desperation and anger. Peyna does not like Flagg but needs his knowledge of poison. When Flagg asks Peter why he is summoned, calling Peter “my King,” Peyna corrects him: “Don’t call him that!” (129). Flagg recognizes with delight that the seed of suspicion has been planted.

Peyna asks Flagg to determine whether the poison in the packet is the same one that killed Roland. Flagg pretends to ponder, then asks for obsidian. Flagg makes a big show of testing the poison. He announces that it is Dragon Sand and that he once had some but it was stolen from him.