Flagg’s medicine begins working again (because now Flagg earnestly wants Roland to get better). Once Roland is better, Flagg prepares the Dragon Sand. He extracts a few kernels of sand with extreme caution and transfers them to a goblet of wine. To pass the time, Flagg reads a spell book bound in human skin and written in the distant Plains of Leng by a man named Alhazred.

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