The Tower of the Swallow (the Witcher, #4)

Andrzej Sapkowski's The Tower of the Swallow continues the intertwined stories of Geralt of Rivia, a professional monster-hunter known as a witcher; the sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg; and Ciri, the young woman whose magical Elder Blood lineage makes her a target for emperors, sorcerers, and criminals alike. The narrative unfolds across multiple timelines and perspectives, anchored by Ciri's nightly storytelling to an elderly hermit in a remote swamp.

On the night of the autumn Equinox, violent supernatural phenomena sweep the continent, including the spectral Wild Hunt galloping across the sky, and powerful figures everywhere awaken from terrible nightmares. In the Temple of the goddess Melitele, the sorceress Triss Merigold, an ally of Geralt's, the priestess Nenneke, and the scribe Jarre share a vision of Ciri with blood on her face. Far to the south, in the Pereplut Marshes of Ebbing, the elderly hermit Vysogota of Corvo discovers an unconscious teenage girl beside a black horse. He treats a deep, infected facial wound and, after days of fever, saves her life with a dangerous herbal mixture. She identifies herself as Ciri, reveals she is being hunted, and discovers her permanent, disfiguring scar. An unexplained discrepancy troubles them: Ciri insists she was wounded on the Equinox, but the wound's condition suggests she was injured three days later. Through their exchanges, they discover they are both educated fugitives; Vysogota was once a professor of ethics, exiled under death sentences from both the Northern Kingdoms and Nilfgaard for his controversial writings. Ciri begins telling him her story over many nights by the fire, establishing the novel's primary narrative frame.

Ciri describes her time with the Rats, a gang of young outlaws among whom she lived under the alias Falka. An intermediary named Hotspurn warns the gang that the bounty hunter Leo Bonhart is nearby and that Emperor Emhyr var Emreis plans to marry a woman presented as Cirilla, Princess of Cintra. Ciri, the real Cirilla, erupts with fury but conceals her identity. The Rats ride to confront Bonhart. Before dawn, Ciri slips away from the gang and from her lover Mistle, sharing a tearful farewell. After Hotspurn dies in a bandit ambush, Ciri claims his black mare, names the horse Kelpie, and races to warn the Rats. She arrives too late: Bonhart has slaughtered all six members. He overpowers Ciri but chooses not to kill her, instead forcing her to watch as he severs her companions' heads for the bounty.

Bonhart keeps Ciri collared and chained. He takes her to the swordsmith Esterhazy, who recognizes extraordinary ability in her and offers her a priceless gnomish blade she names Swallow. Bonhart then forces her into arena fights in the town of Claremont. Dosed with fisstech, a powerful narcotic, she kills several armed opponents despite initially refusing to fight. She attempts to end her own life but cannot. Bonhart taunts her, revealing he knows she trained at the witcher stronghold of Kaer Morhen.

In a parallel storyline, Geralt's company deserts from Queen Meve's army after Geralt is conscripted following a battle. The group consists of Geralt; the troubadour Dandelion; the vampire Regis; the archer Milva; and the Nilfgaardian Cahir. They cross the Yaruga river seeking druids who might help locate Ciri. Meanwhile, Emperor Emhyr berates his intelligence chief Vattier de Rideaux for failing to find Ciri or the renegade sorcerer Vilgefortz. Vilgefortz's agent Rience contacts Vattier, offering intelligence in exchange for information about the imperial coroner Stefan Skellen. Vattier's mistress, Carthia van Canten, secretly relays every detail to the Nilfgaardian sorceress Assire var Anahid, a covert ally of Northern sorceresses, who passes it to the sorceress Philippa Eilhart in Redania.

The company reaches Riedbrune, where Prefect Fulko Artevelde detains Geralt. A young prisoner named Angoulême, an orphan from Cintra turned bandit, reveals that a half-elf hired the brigand Nightingale to assassinate Geralt using information from magical surveillance. The company splits: Geralt, Cahir, and Angoulême confront the half-elf Schirrú at a mine near Belhaven, where Schirrú reveals he works for Vilgefortz. A chaotic battle erupts when local partisans attack, and Schirrú escapes in the confusion. Cahir is badly wounded. During their recovery, he confesses he carried Ciri from burning Cintra as a young officer and believes himself in love with her.

Regis directs Geralt to a cave beneath Devil Mountain, where the elven Sage Avallac'h explains Ciri's heritage: She descends from Lara Dorren aep Shiadhal, a legendary elven woman whose union with a human sorcerer produced the Elder Blood lineage. Ciri carries immense genetic power desired by both Vilgefortz and Emhyr. Avallac'h warns that Ciri can handle herself and that someone else will aid her. Through a vision in the cave walls, Geralt glimpses Yennefer in chains and realizes his companions in Myrkvid forest face immediate danger. A knocker, a goblin-like cave creature, carries him there at breakneck speed. Geralt fights alongside knights of Toussaint to rout brigands massacring pilgrims and druids. The captured criminals, including Schirrú and Nightingale, are burned alive in a Wicker Hag, a giant wicker effigy, despite Geralt's pleas; his witcher medallion perishes in the flames.

The Redanian spymaster Dijkstra secures indirect financing from the neutral kingdom of Kovir to fund cavalry against Nilfgaard, routing gold through trade companies co-founded with Nilfgaardian merchants so that the empire effectively finances its own enemy.

Yennefer's storyline unfolds on the Isles of Skellige. Having fallen from the sky into fishing nets after a desperate teleportation, she compels Yarl Crach an Craite's cooperation by invoking his bloedgeas, a blood oath sworn to Ciri's grandmother Calanthe. Using a sacred diamond to build a megascope for magical communication, she learns that Ciri may have survived by passing through a portal on Thanedd Island. She sails for the Sedna Abyss, using herself as bait. A supernatural storm destroys one longship; Yennefer vanishes. A flashback reveals that Vilgefortz captured her with a spell. He tortures her to psychically locate Ciri. Yennefer resists but involuntarily reveals an image of Geralt and his companions, which Vilgefortz uses to dispatch assassins.

The climactic sequence begins in the village of Unicorn, where Skellen's mercenary band has tracked Ciri. Bonhart arrives with Ciri still chained. Skellen, Bonhart, Rience, and Vilgefortz, speaking through a silver communication device called a xenogloss, negotiate over her fate; Vilgefortz wants only her womb for the Elder Blood. Ciri unleashes a devastating psionic attack and escapes with the help of Neratin Ceka, a spy planted by Vattier, though Bonhart kills Neratin and Skellen wounds Ciri's face with a thrown steel star.

Back in the marshes, Vysogota locates the Tower of the Swallow from scholarly texts: It stands by Tarn Mira lake, roughly 300 miles south. Ciri resolves to reach it despite approaching winter. On Samhain Eve, the last night of October, she rides to the nearby village of Dun Dare, where four of Skellen's sentries terrorize the populace, and kills them all. Vysogota, alone in the marshes, hears the wail of a beann'shie, an elven death omen, and collapses from a heart attack, his last words a prayer for gods he does not believe in to protect Ciri.

At Tarn Mira, Ciri faces her pursuers on the frozen lake. She fastens ice skates that belonged to Vysogota's daughter and circles her enemies in the fog, cutting them down. Rience's panicked magic fractures the ice; Ciri severs his fingers as he clings to the edge and sends him into the water. Bonhart, separated by thin ice, watches helplessly as the Wild Hunt, a host of spectral riders, commands him to leave, declaring Ciri is theirs. The Tower of the Swallow materializes from a barren hillock: a majestic black basalt tower beneath the aurora borealis. Ciri rides Kelpie through the entrance. Inside, she passes through a succession of opening doors, experiencing visions of Yennefer in chains, Geralt, and the spirit of Vysogota, who confirms that the Elder Blood gives her power over time and space. The tower vanishes. Ciri emerges into a warm spring landscape where two unicorns stand by a lakeside and a fair-haired elf greets her with a smile, asking what took her so long. She has passed through the portal into another world entirely.