"Hour of Contempt" by Andrzej Sapkowski, summary

This book chronicles the collapse of alliances between rulers and sorcerers, when the cold calculations of monarchs finally supplant previous agreements. The witcher Geralt desperately tries to protect Ciri from foreign political advances. The novel "Hour of Contempt" was published in 1995.

In 1995, the work won the prestigious Polish Janusz Seidel Prize.

The book is part of the fantasy series "The Witcher," occupying fourth place in its overall chronology and second among the novels of the Pentateuch. The first collections were "The Last Wish" and "The Sword of Destiny." Later, the author published "Blood of Elves," and the direct continuations of the story were "Baptism of Fire," "The Tower of the Swallow," and "The Lady of the Lake."

News on the highways and the office in Dorian

The royal messenger Aplegatt rushes hastily along the highways of Temeria with secret verbal orders from the crowned heads of state regarding a swift attack on enemy border outposts. War is already near. In a roadside inn, the messenger accidentally sees the sorceress Yennefer and the ash-haired Ciri. The sleepy girl suddenly predicts the rider’s inevitable, quiet death from a gray-feathered arrow amid the scorching midday sand. Dawn urges them on their way.

Meanwhile, Geralt of Rivia searches for the masterminds behind the assassinations at the murky office of detectives Codringher and Fenn in the town of Doryan. The investigation reveals elven origins. Archival scrolls link the child’s lineage to Ithlinne’s prophecy of the Elder Blood and the rebellious Princess Falka. Codringher advises abandoning his guardianship. Instead of helping, the lawyer cynically suggests the witcher hide in the fortress of Kaer Morhen and plant an innocent orphan of a similar age on the powerful pursuers, in order to save his beloved in the coming era of universal cruelty. The white-haired warrior angrily rejects the forgery. Having overtaken the gang of the mercenary Ralph Blunden, nicknamed the Professor, on the highway in the village of Ankhor, the Rivian cold-bloodedly cuts down the leader and two of his henchmen in mere moments, right before the terrified innkeeper’s eyes. The killers are shown no mercy. Three days later, a stray arrow from the Scoia’tael archer Yaevinn catches the galloping messenger Aplegatt right in the middle of the scorching highway.

Gors Velen and the Escape to the Farm

Yennefer brings her ward to the coastal town of Gors Velen, determined to enroll her in the Aretuza School on the island of Thanedd. Banker Molnar Giancardi extends a generous loan to the sorceress. Leaving his mistress to handle her financial affairs, the young clerk Fabio Sachs leads the curious princess to explore the bustling marketplace. The marketplace crowd is bustling. A showy street trapper brazenly deceives gullible townspeople, passing off a starving swamp creature locked in a rotten cage as a deadly, poisonous basilisk from the distant southern deserts. Ciri loudly exposes the deception. The enraged creature suddenly breaks through the rusty bars, attacks the people, and the princess, with deft swings of her drawn sword, calmly stabs the beast to death amidst the general panic. The victory is attributed to the squire.

Aretuza’s rector, Marguerite Laux-Antil, and Archmage Tissaia de Vries apprehend the intruder on a city street and escort her to the baths to see her mentor. The friends wash away their fatigue in the warm pool. The women carefreely discuss lovers, strict school discipline, and the brutal punitive squads of the mercenary Black Rayla. The conversations tire the orphan. Having overheard the exact location of the witcher camp on the Hirund farm from the elder witches’ conversations, the headstrong girl secretly leaves the inn on horseback through the back gate in the dead of night. The fugitive gallops off.

Amidst the river swamps, the fugitive is overtaken by an ominous, spectral cavalcade of the Wild Hunt’s undead, riding on the translucent skeletons of war steeds. The ghosts scream furiously. A menacing skeleton leader in a rusty helmet calls the rider a starry daughter of Chaos, urging her to join the eternal, destructive ride. The frightened horse carries the fugitive straight to the dam of the halfling Bernier Hofmeyer. The white-haired hunter and the sorceress, arriving at the cries, swiftly dispel the illusion with a battle spell, save the unconscious child, and, after much mutual recrimination, finally make peace at dawn by a pond with water lilies. Troubadour Dandelion composes a new ballad.

Reception at Arethusa

In the evening, the opulent Aretuza Palace opens its doors to the numerous participants of the Grand Gathering. A velvet-clad congregation of mages strolls leisurely among the tables, displaying a false air of hospitality and constantly exchanging barbs. Intrigues are woven everywhere. Sabrina Glevissig and Marty Sodergren openly flirt with Yennefer’s companion. The hostess of the evening treats her guest to illusions.

Soon, the powerful sorcerer Vilgefortz of Roggeveen takes his guest to an art gallery for a detailed conversation about the nature of magic and the vicissitudes of fate. A portrait of Lara Dorren, the ancestress, hangs on the wall. The Chapter Leader insistently urges his interlocutor to abandon his illusory neutrality in the face of the impending bloodbath and side with the true victors for the sake of saving the orphan inextricably bound to him by the threads of destiny. The witcher rejects the deal. The monster hunter spends the rest of the night in his beloved’s bedroom, quietly dreaming of a simple log house. The sorceress listens to his innermost thoughts.

The Thanedd Rebellion

At dawn, conspirators loyal to the northern kings, led by Philippa Eilhart, chain the collaborating sorcerers in dimeritium chains. The traitors are led out under escort. Blinded by a spell, the Rivian accidentally encounters Dijkstra on the stairs, demanding the voluntary surrender of the young heir of Cintra to the Redanian crown. The hunter cripples the Redanian spy. After breaking the corpulent spy’s leg with a powerful blow, the witcher rushes to the rescue of his charge.

In Garstang, the enraged Archmage Tissaia de Vries suddenly lifts the protective blockade of the hall and completely dispels the dimeritium shackles of the arrested conspirators. The castle dungeons burst open. Francesca Findabair admits Scoia’tael troops led by the Nilfgaardian knight Cahir and the renegade mage Rience. A furious battle ensues. The princess, brought by sorceresses, suddenly falls into a prophetic trance, heralding the beginning of a full-scale invasion of imperial troops across the Yaruga River and the terrible death of the Redanian King Vizimir at the dagger of an assassin. Fire rages everywhere. The mentor forces her charge to flee through the ruined passages.

Steel meets the enemy. With a swift blow, Geralt decapitates the traitor Terranova who has overtaken the fugitive. Ciri herself viciously hacks down the pursuing knight in a helmet with the wings of a bird of prey, knocks off his armor, and suddenly spares the unarmed, stunned youth. The princess takes refuge in the tower. At the foot of the ancient structure, the witcher’s path is blocked by Vilgefortz, who breaks the witcher’s blade with an iron staff, mercilessly maims the defender, and leaves him bleeding out on the broken stone slabs near the stairwell. The tower portal explodes. Tissaia de Vries and Triss Merigold manage to carry the crippled warrior to the sacred elven forest of Brokilon.

Fires of War and Conspiracy in Loc Grim

In the east, enemy forces devastate Lyria and Aedirn. The invaders mercilessly burn flourishing cities to the ground and carry off thousands of civilians into slavery. Betrayal shatters the northern coalition. King Henselt leads troops into Upper Aedirn under a secret agreement with the invaders. Temeria hastily signs a peace treaty. Francesca Findabair agrees to accept the puppet elven kingdom in the Valley of Flowers from Emperor Emhyr var Emreis at the terrible price of officially abdicating the soon-to-be-destroyed "squirrel" guerrilla brigades. Realizing the scale of their actions, Archmagister Tissaia de Vries slits his wrists.

In the southern palace of Loch Grim, the ruler of the empire hosts a lavish reception for the false princess. The courtiers bow their heads. The monarch grants the impostor titles, secretly instructing his bloodhounds to track down the true princess and eliminate the conspirators. To save his ward, the witcher saddles his horse. The faithful troubadour Dandelion sets out on a long journey with his old comrade.

The Korat Desert and the Rats

A malfunctioning portal from the ruined Tower of the Seagull throws a lonely, fleeing Ciri into the vast, scorching, rocky frying pan of the Korath Desert. Lifeless aridity reigns all around. The weakened fugitive suffers from a severe thirst, subsists on ants, and patiently licks the murky morning dew from basalt boulders. Soon, a unicorn appears. The young horned creature saves her exhausted companion from certain death near a hidden underground spring, but then suffers a dangerous wound from the poisonous, jagged claws of a huge sand monster in a deep stone crater. The wound festers fatally. To save her friend, the princess draws forbidden energy from the fire, is frightened by a bloody vision of the avenger Falka appearing in the flames, and completely renounces her magical powers. Her strength drains from her body.

The exhausted, half-dead captive is soon picked up by hunters prowling the wastelands. In a village tavern, a gang of daring young bandits nicknamed the Rats storms the tavern and frees their captive comrade, Kayleigh, mercilessly slaughtering the guards. Ciri helps the prisoner. Staining her blade with human blood for the first time during her headlong escape, the orphan accepts the bandits’ gifts and names herself Falk. The brutal outlaws drag the outcast down. Meanwhile, the imperial detective Stefan Skellen issues a merciless order to the local prefect to hunt down and hang all seven without mercy.