77 pages • 2 hours read
Patrick RothfussA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
In this short prelude, the author writes about three different types of silence at the Waystone Inn: a hollow quiet caused by “things that were lacking” (1), such as people and music; a “small, sullen silence” (1) from a pair of men huddled at a bar avoiding talk about troubling news; and the kind that wraps around the others, which a red-haired man at the bar caused. The man, Kote, owns the Waystone, and this heavy, deep silence is “the patient, cut-flower sound of a man who is waiting to die” (1).
Old Cob tells a story at the inn to five people who make up the usual crowd. It’s about Taborlin the Great, who escaped the fierce Chandrian unscathed. Thanks to a token from a tinker, he possesses the ability to call out the names of things, which saved him.
The man Carter then enters dramatically, smeared with blood, saying that a giant spider-like creature just attacked him, though it is now dead. Kote identifies it as a scrael and says he’s surprised to see one this far west. The men think it’s a demon, but Kote explains that there’s an easy way to tell: “Iron or fire” (9).