The Sworn Sword — Dunk IX

Dunk names the quarrel his own: trial by combat, him against the Longinch, in the middle of the disputed stream. Steel in the water; Dunk half-drowned; and at the end Ser Lucas Inchfield floats and Ser Duncan the Tall — barely — does not.

The chapter retold

Dunk finds his answer in the oldest device the Faith allows: he names the quarrel his own and demands trial by combat, himself against Ser Lucas Inchfield, in the middle of the disputed stream, before the eyes of gods, knights and diggers alike. What follows is steel in the water — Dunk cut, battered and half-drowned by a taller, colder, better-trained man — and at the end of it the Longinch floats face-down in the Chequy Water and Ser Duncan the Tall, barely, does not. The chapter answers the whole novella's tension with a hedge knight nearly drowning to keep two old fools' quarrel from killing anyone else.

This movement: The Chequy Water

• Two armies meet at a stolen stream: five men behind a chequy lion, thirty-three behind a spotted spider — and the marches a spark away from smallfolk slaughter.
• Dunk makes the quarrel single combat: himself against the Longinch, in the middle of the disputed water, before the eyes of gods, knights, and diggers.
• Steel in the stream: Dunk is cut, battered, and half-drowned — and Ser Lucas Inchfield is dead in the water at the end of it.
• Peace the old way: Ser Eustace weds Lady Rohanne, the stream flows to Standfast again — and the Red Widow settles a hedge knight's fee with a kiss and keeps a lock of his hair.

The fallen — spoilers

• Ser Lucas Inchfield — The Longinch, drowned in the Chequy Water on the point of a hedge knight's dagger — a trial the gods judged wet.