Contents
Chapter 6
Overview
Una and Owen endure a grueling ride north as Owen’s panic and Una’s nightmares expose their wounds. In towns they face awe, fear, and hostility; Una maims a man who assaults her, then regrets her own mercy. Their near-intimacy collapses under Owen’s dread, driving him to write a flattering legend. They finally sight Cloven Hill, where the grail and dragon await.
Summary
Travel proves slow and punishing as Una and Owen leave the Queen’s Wood. Owen, sore and anxious, pries at small talk; Una deflects, misnaming him as Roving Folk and sharing little about her past. On exiting the woods, Owen suffers a panic attack; Una steadies him wordlessly, an intimacy that unsettles them both.
They press into colder, open country. At night Una thrashes with grief-laden dreams, once waking with her hand at Owen’s throat; she warns him to keep his distance. Owen thereafter ignores her pleas in sleep. In a town they meet stares rather than welcome; Owen secures food and a public bath. There, Una speaks frankly about being treated as not-a-woman to fit her role, and Owen glimpses her scars and humanity.
Owen begins collecting tales of Una, and, by retelling them, coaxes corrections that reveal her history, including an affair with Morvain. Una refuses to discuss the Black Bastion. Owen shapes these fragments into a heroic narrative, even as thoughts of dragons and Una’s foretold death trigger fresh episodes of panic that Una quietly soothes.
Farther north, poverty and resentment harden. In a brutal village, a scarred man seizes Una’s hair; Una moves to kill but, jolted by Owen’s cry, instead severs the man’s hand. They leave under hostile eyes. Later, Owen calls it mercy; Una condemns it as worse, reflecting on conquest, dispossession, and her role as the queen’s blade, feared as the Knight of Worms. She binds Owen’s bleeding hand with unexpected gentleness.
A charged moment between them tilts toward desire, but Owen recoils, remembering he is leading Una to her death. The distance returns. He pours his turmoil into a propagandistic passage portraying universal adoration of Una as she rides for the grail. Six days on, Una points out Cloven Hill—the place of the grail and the last dragon—bringing their quest to its threshold.
Who Appears
- Una (Sir Una Everlasting)War-worn champion; comforts Owen, suffers nightmares, maims an assailant, reflects on conquest’s cost, binds Owen’s wound, leads toward Cloven Hill.
- Owen MalloryTraumatized translator; endures panic, gathers Una’s stories, nearly shares intimacy, recoils, writes hagiography, continues north toward Cloven Hill.
- Scarred villagerHostile northern man who grabs Una’s hair; loses his right hand to her blade.
- Griddle-cake sellerFrightened young woman who sells Owen cakes and directs them to a bathhouse.
- Bathhouse attendantsPractical women who provide a shared bath; briefly witness to the travelers’ respite.
- The geldingUna’s aging mount; steady but ornery, carries them through difficult terrain.