The Dark Tower Companion: A Guide to Stephen King’s Epic Fantasy (63 page)

He comes to Mejis to perform two tasks. The most important is to watch over the pink Bend o' the Rainbow that Farson uses to spy on the Affiliation. The glass is dangerous, so Farson can't keep it all the time. Jonas follows Kimba Rimer's advice and puts it in the hands of the witch Rhea. He and his fellow Big Coffin Hunters also oversee the Citgo oil field and the transportation of oil west, where Farson will use it to power his weapons against the Affiliation. His cover story is that he is the new chief of Mayor Thorin's security forces. He does double duty as a replacement deputy for Sheriff Avery after one of his deputies breaks a leg.

The maids at Mayor's House call him “Il Spectro” because he can fade into the shadows. He wouldn't necessarily be welcome during peacetime, but he's a handy man to have during a battle. Reynolds has seen him go crazy before. He fosters a friendship with Cordelia Delgado because he identifies her as the kind of woman who enjoys gossiping. He is attracted to Coral Thorin because she is just as cold-blooded as he is and the sex with her is amazing.

He is a master at the game of Castles and always plays to win—it's his
nature. He calls things the way he sees them. Only his vow of vengeance against Roland, Cuthbert and Alain prevents him from riding away from Mejis when intuition tells him things are going bad—something he has done often in the past. He's proud of the fact that he's never double-crossed an employer and that he has never broken a promise to himself, regardless of who else he's lied to. Roland shot him to death.

Physical description: A tall, skinny, oldish man with shoulder-length white hair and a mustache so long that its ragged ends hang to his jaw. He has large, red-rimmed, cautious eyes that look watery at first but are dead of emotion. They're the same faded blue as Roland's. He is deeply tanned from spending time outdoors. At times he resembles either a wolf or a wolverine. His voice is reedy and quavery, like that of a man on the verge of tears. His back is covered with criss-crossed scars from a whipping received in Garlan.

J
ONSON
(1, M)

A penitent in Sylvia Pittston's church in Tull.

J
OSHUA
(4.5)

Ardelia Smack's brother. He died in the Endless Forest twenty years before Tim Ross's adventure. He bought a gun from a traveling salesman that Ardelia passes on to Tim.

J
USTUS
(M)

A scout who leads the gunslingers of Gilead into a trap while supposedly taking them to one of Farson's outposts. He spreads fear by telling stories about Farson's reign of terror in Cressia. He also comes up with the idea of attacking Farson's stronghold in the Shavéd Mountains, which is where Farson's men are planning an ambush. After his treachery is exposed, Farson's men kill him, as well as most of the gunslingers.

K
A-TET
OF
N
INETEEN
(5, 6, 7)

People whose names have nineteen characters.

K
ELLS
, B
IG BERN
(4.5)

Jack Ross's woodcutting partner and childhood friend. Son of Mathias “Slim Saw” Kells, a carpenter who beat Bern's mother and who was killed by a vurt in the woods, and grandson of Limping Peter. Good-humored and laughing when sober, but angry and quick with his fists when drunk. He was best man at Jack Ross's wedding, but he fancied Nell and went on binges after the
wedding. He sobered up after meeting Millicent Redhouse, who died in childbirth six seasons later. After a dragon supposedly kills Jack Ross, Kells asks Nell to marry him, but grows angry and possessive. He makes Tim Ross quit school and go to work and beats Nell. Tim learns that he killed Jack Ross in a fit of jealousy and hid the body in the woods. After he kills Widow Smack, Nell Ross kills him with Jack Ross's ax while he is trying to strangle Tim.

K
ELLS
, M
ILLICENT
“M
ILLY
” (4.5)

Bern Kells's wife. Born Millicent Redhouse. A small woman, barely five feet tall. When Tim Ross was three or four, she died giving birth, six seasons after she married Kells. Their child died soon thereafter. Her dying wish was that Kells keep his promise to stop drinking.

K
ELLY
, T
AMMY
(7)

Pimli Prentiss's housekeeper at Algul Siento. A large woman who despises men—especially Tassa, the houseboy. Fire-Response Team Bravo flattens her.

K
ENNERLY
, J
UBAL
(1, M)

Tull's hostler. A man who will make something up if he doesn't know the truth. He has an incestuous relationship with his daughter. Roland shot him.

K
ENNERLY
, S
OOBIE
(1, M)

Jubal Kennerly's teenage daughter.

L
AMLA OF
G
ALEE
(7)

A taheen who is part of Flaherty's posse chasing Jake under the Dixie Pig. He has the head of a stoat. His narrow feet end in sharp claws that could cut a grown man in half. He knows about the mind-trap but doesn't know how to turn off the projector without shooting it. After Roland and Eddie kill everyone else, Lamla asks for pardon. Roland refuses, shooting him dead after the taheen damns him.

L
AND
-P
IRATES
(4.5)

Roving bands of outlaws who plied their trade in the lands far west of Gilead.

L
ATIGO
, G
EORGE
(4, 5, M)

One of John Farson's six chief lieutenants. A pale man with blond hair. He has the dour, frowning face of a man who hasn't seen anything good in years and speaks in the clipped tones of someone from northern In-World. He was known to
Steven Deschain, who described him to Roland, Cuthbert and Alain before they went to Mejis. He paid the Big Coffin Hunters a huge cash advance and promised a piece of the war spoils if the Affiliation's major forces were wiped out in the Shavéd Mountains. Roland spares his life at Hanging Rock, counting on him to lead his men into Eyebolt Canyon, where they are all killed by the thinny.

L
ENGYLL
, F
RANCIS
“F
RAN
” (4, M)

Owner of the Rocking B Ranch, the second largest in Mejis, and president of the Horsemen's Association. He's about twenty years older than Cordelia Delgado, who claims she had an affair with him. He owns the biggest generator in town, but it doesn't run anymore. He probably killed Pat Delgado and took pages from his stockline book to cover up the truth about the horses in Mejis. His first wife made a cap for Susan Delgado's christening. He owns a machine gun. Roland believes that he realized too late in the game that the stakes were much higher than he thought. He announces the arrest of the boys from In-World at the Town Gathering Hall. Roland shoots him in the forehead.

L
EWIS
(6)

One of the Manni of Calla Redpath.

L
ITTLE
B
LAINE
(3, 4)

The original voice of Blaine the Mono. The voice of the insane computers of Lud overwhelm him.

L
ITTLE
C
OFFIN
H
UNTERS
(4)

Title given to Roland, Cuthbert and Alain after their confrontation with the Big Coffin Hunters.

L
ITTLE
D
OCTORS
(L, 6, 7, M)

Also known as Grandfather-fleas or
can tam
. Clattering, blood-drinking parasites the size of mice. They are generally present when Type One vampires are around. They are vulnerable to billy-bumblers. In Eluria, they healed the injured so the Little Sisters could drink their blood.

L
ITTLE
S
ISTERS
(L, 6, M)

A sisterhood of vampiric nurses who feed on patients healed by the little doctors. They wear white habits with a red rose on the breast and move their tent from town to town. Roland encounters six sisters (Mary, Louise, Tamra,
Coquina, Michela and Jenna) in Eluria. They have power over animals but Christian
siguls
harm them.

L
ONDON
, J
ACK
(7)

Dr. Gangli Tristum's personal assistant in Algul Siento.

L
OS' THE
R
ED
(7)

Another name for the Crimson King.

L
OUISE
(L, M)

One of the Little Sisters of Eluria.

L
OW
M
EN
(
AND
W
OMEN
) (5, 6, 7)

Soldiers of the Crimson King. Also known as
can toi
and the fayen folken. Sometimes they call themselves regulators and many have the same hand tattoos as the Big Coffin Hunters. They are human-taheen hybrids, a little smarter than Type Three vampires. In their natural form, they resemble taheen more than humans. They have red circles of blood that do not ooze or clot in their foreheads, the Eye of the King. When they are in Keystone Earth, this mark dries up temporarily.

They are jealous of the Breakers they guard at Algul Siento, whom they consider “finished” humes. Low men worship the human form and consider it divine. They believe, with a religious fervor, that they are in the process of becoming human and will replace humans after the Tower falls. They wear masks grown from human skin to make themselves look human. Pimli Prentiss thinks they all look like Clark Gable, with thick lips and batty ears.

Up close, the illusion of humanity breaks down. They have hair around their eyes that is only partly concealed by these masks. There are also unnatural wrinkles at the neck and behind the ears. Up very close, a person could see dozens of little moving cilia in the nostrils. The masks seem to breathe.

Their primary job is to track down and “recruit” Breakers. They also pursue Father Callahan after he starts killing vampires, with whom they have a loose affiliation. They use graffiti, lost pet posters and sidewalk chalk drawings of astrological symbols to communicate with one another. They drive outrageous cars. Their clothes are loud and gaudy and usually clash. Their hats cast shadows over their faces but, more important, shield them from the psychic powers of those they pursue. They consider turning pictures upside down to be the height of humor.

Crossovers to Other Works:
The low men were introduced in the novella “Low Men in Yellow Coats” in
Hearts in Atlantis
, where they were chasing Ted Brautigan after he escaped from Algul Siento. They also appear in the short story “Ur” and their cars pop up in other works, such as
From a Buick 8
and “Mile 81.”

L
UKA
, S
TEG
(4.5)

A gray-bearded man, the oldest of the miners brought back from Little Debaria because they knew how to ride horses. He was in Beelie Stockade for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his wife and children, but both of his children died. He tells Roland about the crack in the bottom of the new mine that emits a pulsing green glow and invites people to come in. The skin-man kills him in the Debaria jailhouse.

L
USTER
(3, 4, 5)

A member of the Pubes in Lud. A dwarf who looks like a child from a distance. Eddie calls him Little Lord Fauntleroy. He is the first person Susannah Dean kills.

M
AERLYN OF THE
E
LD
(M
ERLIN
) (1, 3, 4.5, 5, 6, M)

Court mage to Arthur Eld, an eternal creature. Susannah Dean thinks he's the Ageless Stranger. Tim Ross finds him in a cage in the form of a tyger, where he has been trapped for a very long time, put there by an emissary of the Crimson King, who caught him by surprise when he was drunk. Tim releases him with a few drops of magic potion.

When Tim asks Maerlyn if he is an eternal being who lives backward in time, he neither confirms nor denies it. He is said to keep a magic house in the Endless Forest where time stands still, but he confirms Mia's story that he retired to a cave with nothing but a table and a pallet on the floor, though that's a story no one will believe. Some people think Marten Broadcloak is Maerlyn, turned evil by the glammer of the Wizard's Rainbow or other artifacts of the Old People, but Marten denies being Maerlyn (as does Richard Fannin, another of his guises) and Maerlyn has only contempt for Marten. He predicts that Tim will become a gunslinger.

Physical description: An old man whose white waist-length beard sparkles with rubies, emeralds, sapphires and diamonds. He wears a yellow conical cap. His face is gaunt, but illuminated by gravity and kindness. His body is so thin it's almost skeletal.

M
AGGIE
(1, M)

Woman who worked in Hax's kitchen in Gilead.

M
AN IN
B
LACK
, T
HE
(T
HROUGHOUT
)

A magician and minion of the Crimson King. When he visits Mejis as John Farson's “underliner,” Roy Depape says he looks like other people and laughs like a dead person. Eldred Jonas thinks his titter is the kind one might hear in a lunatic asylum. He can't be seen until he's ready to be seen—he has the power to be dim. To Eldred he appears as a man of medium height (shorter than Farson), powerfully built, with bright blue eyes and rosy cheeks. His teeth are pointed at first, but not a few minutes later. His hair is cropped so short it's only a fuzz. He often wears a hooded black robe.

Roland picks up his trail sometime after the battle of Jericho Hill, believing he has information that will lead the gunslinger to the Tower. The man in black knows Roland is following and toys with him, leaving traps that include the people of Tull—where he raised Nort from the dead—and Jake at the Way Station. After Roland catches up to him at the end of the tunnel through the mountains, he admits to being Walter and does a tarot reading for Roland. See also Walter o'Dim, Marten Broadcloak, the Ageless Stranger and Randall Flagg.