Part 1, Chapter 20 Summary

They cremate the King, betroth Redival to Trunia (the wedding is a month later), the strangers depart, and Orual's real reign begins. The Orual part sleeps deep within like a reverse fetus, daily growing smaller and less alive. Tales and songs about her reign are exaggerations, conflations with another northern queen, and pure imagination. Orual fights only three wars, never assumes she is a great general, but in a war with Essur does kill seven men ambushing Bardia and is wounded. Her true strength lies in: 1) good and complementary counselors in the Fox and Bardia, who come to admire one another, never flatter her, and indeed do no think of her as a woman; and 2) her veil, which makes people pay attention to her voice and creates a myth of what it conceals. On assuming the throne, Orual moves her quarters...