The Tombs of Atuan

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender-based discrimination, racism/xenophobia, religious discrimination, and death.

Arha falls ill. As she lies in bed, she tries to devise more elaborate executions for the next group of prisoners, feeling pressured by Kossil to make the deaths more gruesome. However, she dreams about the three prisoners she sentenced to starvation and wakes every night screaming, “They aren’t dead yet! They are still dying!” (38).

One morning, Penthe visits. She tells Arha that she did not want to be a priestess, but her family was poor and had too many children to feed, so her father sent her to the Godking’s temple. She dismisses Arha’s devotion to the temple, saying that the Godking is only a man for whom she feels no awe or devotion. Secretly, Arha agrees that the Divine Emperors of Kargad are upstarts, stealing worship from the true gods, but she is deeply unsettled and frightened by “the solidity of Penthe’s unfaith” (41).

By the time Arha returns to her duties, the three prisoners have died and been buried in the cavern. Thar teaches her the passages of the Undertomb, which Arha memorizes by touch.