The Tombs of Atuan

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

Arha keeps Sparrowhawk prisoner in the Painted Room. Kossil does not ask about him again, perhaps thinking he is already dead. Realizing she cannot request food for a dead man, Arha stops eating, instead hoarding most of her meals to take to him in secret. She grows weak, though she is used to fasting for several days at a time. On the fourth day, she brings food to Sparrowhawk and questions him about the Inner Lands. He describes the city of Havnor, where great palaces and towers of white marble house the richest princes and merchants of Earthsea.

Sparrowhawk mentions Erreth-Akbe, and Arha tells him what she knows of the story. Sparrowhawk adds that Erreth-Akbe was a dragon lord, or a person who can speak the language of dragons, earning their respect. Sparrowhawk is also a dragon lord. Again, Arha accuses him of being a petty thief who pretends to know everything to make her feel small and ignorant. She says that she knows the only true thing: the silence and darkness of the Tombs.

Arha claims she will only keep him alive so long as he can tell her things and entertain her.