Chapter Text
A parched wind blew from the south-east, swirls of air thick with dust. Dawn was breaking, the dull red sun pushing at the hazy sky and promising only more days of oppressive, arid heat to come. Somewhere in the village a dog whined.
On such a morning the view of the great Sea of Sand held little romance. Beyond the ragged fringes of the farms lay the band of thin grey scrub, then the rolling dunes stretching for league after league to the remote, jagged peaks. It was a vast, inhospitable wilderness, harsh and deadly.
The woman stood on the roof looking out to the shadowed mountains, her mood as bleak as the landscape she surveyed.
There had been a time when she had loved this place. Bitter tears stung her eyes as she recalled her first night in this house, when they had stolen up here to enjoy some cool respite at the end of a sweltering day. Her beloved had offered her choice fruits from an iced plate, and they had marvelled together at the endless stars, seeing them as if the heavens were newly made for them in their happiness. She had known then that she was blessed, and had truly believed that she would never be lonely again.
How wrong she had been.
Her gaze dropped to the track of beaten earth that passed along the side of the building, too far below and yet not far enough. The fall would certainly injure, but would not kill outright. It was, anyhow, a useless thought. To run from here would require a strength of spirit that she no longer possessed; the beast had seen to that. And a more permanent escape, although she dreamed of it every day of this wretched existence, was not a path she could take as long as there was one person still alive who loved her.
Whatever the cost to herself, he must never know of her misery. If he learned the truth of it he would run to her, desperate to set her free. Then the beast would see him dead, and would delight in the killing. She had seen enough of the beast’s cruelty to know that he did not make such threats idly, and she bore scars aplenty to remind her, should she for a moment manage to forget. Not for nothing did he inspire fear in all who knew him. Even if he did not have the law on his side, there would be none from the village to challenge him on her behalf.
The woman turned her face up to the sky as if seeking something she knew she could never find. All she could do was survive, aiming at the start of each day only to reach the end of it. Beyond that, there could be no hope. She could do nothing to help herself, and who else could possibly save her? Avenging heroes belonged in stories and songs; there was no place for them in the reality of her life.
She shut her eyes and clenched her fists, tight, as she heard the voice from below calling her name: once, twice, and the third time with increasing anger.
So it begins, she thought. Another day of trying to circumvent his wrath when I know that my efforts are bound to be futile. If all he wants from me is my suffering, how can I expect to avoid it?
As she turned to the doorway, the restless dog let out a sudden howl, a fitting echo to her own weary despair. The man whose name she would not speak, the man she would never acknowledge as her rightful husband, awaited her. The thought of facing him filled her with dread, yet face him she must, for what other option did she have? She blinked the scouring dust from her eyes and forced her leaden feet towards the stairs.