Before all things began, there was Tewolgow Bras—the Great Darkness. Silent, cold and perfect. And then the gods appeared, bringing life and chaos. – Breithan Histories Vol1, B. Sweek

Branches whipped my face as I ran, scoring fresh lines of pain across my skin. Melody’s hand was clasped tightly in mine. Her skin was slick with sweat—a mixture of fear and exertion. We ran blindly; our path lit only by the twin full moons in the cloudless, dark sky above. Our breath curled like smoke in the frigid winter air. I could hear Melody’s continuously muttered words; her thoughts and fears spilling from her lips as she dragged me along. Neither of us risked a glance backwards. We could hear the pounding of hooves as our pursuers closed in.

I stumbled, my hand slipping from Melody’s grip, and landed on sharp stones on the dirt road. Pain sang through my knees, the stones biting into my palms. Melody paused in her desperate flight, turning back to drag me back to my feet. 

“We have to keep going, Sarah, please!” Her voice was laced with desperation. 

I clambered to my feet. A sharp agony shot through my legs, and I felt the dampness of blood trickling down my shins beneath my dress. Words had long since failed me, leaving my tongue an uncomfortable, dead weight in my mouth. I gave Melody a nod instead and staggered forward once more. Melody accepted this, knowing she would not hear a single utterance from me under these conditions.

The heavy sound of hooves on the rough road neared. Burning torches cast long shadows in front of us as the mounted men caught up to us.

A voice, callous and irritated, called out behind. 

“Melody! Get back here! Let’s be reasonable and talk this out. No need for such a fuss,” the male voice said. 

The narrow track, hemmed in by the bare trees, headed away from the village and out towards the northern marshland. We hurried onwards. My muscles screamed at the exertion, and my lungs burned, struggling to draw a full breath. My thin dress stuck to my back and chest with sweat; my skin was frozen by the night air and hot as a furnace from within.

Melody’s constant talk wheezed in the frigid air, assuring herself things would be fine.

“Keep up, Sarah, please. Just a bit further. Got to get to the marsh and we’ll lose them.”

I didn’t understand what Melody’s plan was. The marsh certainly wasn’t a haven for anyone. Even in the height of summer, when it hadn’t been raining for weeks, the ground was dangerously soft in places and stray cattle drowned. What she planned to do when we reached the marsh was beyond me, but I went along with her. The thought of abandoning her didn’t occur to me.

The trees opened out as the ground became softer, and then we faced the open expanse of the marsh. Melody slipped as the terrain turned to mud below our feet, dragging us both to the ground with a startled cry.

The five riders emerged from the track, torches held aloft. The horses snorted and stamped their hooves, their flanks steaming.

From the slippery ground, I looked at Melody, her dress was torn and caked in mud. She looked like a ghost, her dress shimmering in the moonlight and her face ashen despite her exertion. Blood had soaked through the skirts in a dark stain, more so now than when she had, not too long ago, burst into my home, weeping. The flowers that were woven into her golden hair for the ceremony that day had long since fallen away in our haste. The torchlight spilt over her face, and I recoiled as I saw the blooming bruises. 

One rider pulled her attention, as he jumped down from the saddle and strode towards us. The Baron. He was short, in his later years, his clothes well-tailored and clean. His white hair was balding, clinging to the sides of his head. He was Melody’s new father-in-law for all of one afternoon.

With a sniff, he crouched down and looked his son’s bride over with disdain. 

“Let’s end this nonsense. Come back with us and we’ll talk this over; it’s just a misunderstanding.” He smiled, but his eyes remained cold as they raked over Melody’s chest. “You can’t blame a man for getting carried away on his wedding night, not when you’re such a gorgeous thing.”

All I could do was stare. My mouth was unwilling to move, despite the desire to shout at the leering bastard. A husband didn’t rape his wife on their first night as a married couple. I wanted to scream. But the words wouldn’t come. My mouth was dry and numb; my breathing laboured. I dug my fingers into the slimy mud where I sat, hunched in frustration.

Melody shivered, tears rolling down her face as she shook her head. 

“I’m not going anywhere with you or Jedan. I’m going to the priest, to have the marriage annulled,” she spat back, and my heart sang at her righteous anger. If I could have, I would have cheered and encouraged her to vent her hurt. 

“That’s not going to happen.” Another of the riders spoke and urged his mount forward into the light. A deep hood covered the thin face of Catherack, the priest from the Church of the New Dawn. The shining metal mask that covered the top half of his head caught the light. “I’ve bound you in marriage, and the union has been consummated, so an annulment is out of the question.”

A shiver scurried like a crawler down my spine as he spoke. The ceremonial masks the Church wore—cold, expressionless, lifeless—wore disturbed me. Catherack had overseen the building of the new church over the last year and had single-handedly seen to the removal of all the village’s old shrines. If anyone was found praying to the gods in the old ways he would intervene with his crowd of goons and ‘correct’ them. He hadn’t liked me from the start, and I was fine with that. I saw him for the manipulative zealot he was, even if no one else did.

Melody made a strangled noise. “Consummated? That’s what you’re calling what he did to me?” Her voice rose to a hysterical pitch as she spoke, clutching her stained skirts before her. She was shaking. I put my arm around her shoulder, pulling her tight against my chest. My chestnut hair fell across her face as she wept, her tears hot on my olive skin.

Jedan, a younger man, dropped from his horse and walked over to us, ignoring me. He had his father’s look about him, with hard, cruel eyes and ashy blonde hair.

“Get up,” he said, roughly grabbing Melody by the arm. She struggled, screaming like a banshee, and lashed out in his grip. Her scream broke me from my rigid state, and I lunged forward to her aid. Voices raised as the two men struggled with us; the other riders jumped down to assist. Only Catherack stayed in the saddle, watching. Melody clawed and bit like a cornered animal, her eyes wild, as I tried to free her.

Someone grabbed my hair, yanking hard enough to fill my vision with stars. I jerked to a halt. An elbow smashed into my face, and I fell, twisting, and hit the ground, bruising my hip and shoulder. Tears blurred my vision as I searched for Melody.

“Grab her!” Jedan yelled as Melody broke free, her hair whipping wildly and her dress tore. My hip screamed with pain as I tried to get up. All I could do was watch in horror as Jedan punched Melody in the face. Blood sprayed in an obscene arc as she fell backwards, her head landing on a cluster of rocks beside the track. 

The sound of skull hitting stone made my stomach lurch. Melody lay as still as a corpse. 

“No!” The single word burst from my lips. Melody’s unseeing eyes stared back at me, her mouth slack as though she were trying to call out to me one last time. My heart shattered in my chest, leaving it hollow.

The Baron’s face twisted into a snarl. “For fuck’s sake, Jedan. How many times must I clean up your shit?” He dragged a hand over his thinning hair. “We can’t keep doing this, son. If you can’t learn to control yourself, I’m going to have to send you to your uncle in Sintralia. People are going to start putting two and two together!” His total lack of regard for what had happened to Melody made my teeth clench.

Jedan cursed under his breath, his fists clenched until his knuckles paled. “They never listen. They never fucking listen to me!” His dark eyes fell on me, full of madness and venom. He pointed at me, and I jerked back at the gesture. “That one’s going to talk. Look at her, snivelling in the muck. All these bitches do is—”

“Enough,” said Catherack. He looked down his long, hooked nose at me, shadows dancing across his mask in the torchlight. His exposed jaw tightened. “Sarah won’t say anything. That one is odd as it is. I doubt anyone would believe anything she told them.”

Jedan’s father huffed, giving a shrug. “I find it safest to kill them. Leave no witnesses. If you want my purse to remain amenable to you and your cause, you’ll agree to that. Especially with the pitiful dowry we had for her.” 

Catherack whirled to face the Baron at those words. So, he was in their pocket, proving he was a shit all along. 

“You bastards,” I hissed, my voice trembling.

The priest fixed me with a long, stony stare; his lips pressed together in thought. “Her,” he said with a lift to his lips that would have been a smile on anyone else. “We say Sarah was jealous and killed Melody in a fit of rage.”

The Baron gave me a sceptical look. “Will people believe that? She looks harmless enough to me. I don't think I’ve heard her say a word in fact.”

Catherack chuckled. “She’s an odd one, alright. People go out of their way to avoid her if they can. With no family left, we won’t have anyone push back if we blame her for Melody’s death. Look at her, she’s a friendless spinster in her thirties. Melody was the only friend she had, and she married today to your son today and was about to leave the village. About to leave her. Alone. People will believe that we found them like this, after Jedan came looking for his lovely wife. Then your son is free to carry on.” 

Tears rose at the callousness of his words, and the truth of them. I had been jealous. The thought of losing Melody had wounded me, but I would never harm her. I glanced at the marsh to my left. In the dreadful calm of my mind, I knew I had a choice to make. Either I stayed and let Catherack and the Baron blame me for Melody’s murder, most likely meaning my own death, or I could run. I’d likely die either way, but at least one option gave me control over my demise. I could adhere to this logic. I looked up at the priest again, his yellow robes showing beneath the heavy cloak protecting him from the cold. He stared at the Baron, who nodded his agreement.

One of the Baron’s men yanked me to my feet, holding me from behind by my arms with a tight grip. My face throbbed with my heartbeat where the elbow had struck me; my vision blurred in one eye.

Jedan walked towards me, his eyes cold in his disarmingly handsome face. I saw his hand twitch close to the sword that hung from his belt. I knew his intent. He was a bloodthirsty beast, denied his kill.

“So that means I can act as a vengeful husband.”

The Baron groaned, but didn’t move to stop his son. “Jedan, let her be. We’ll throw the body in the marsh and take that one back to the village. Don’t make this any worse for yourself than it already is.”

The hands holding me tightened as Jedan stalked closer, breath blowing against the back of my head. I had one chance to get away. I flung my head back; my skull connected with the face of the man behind me. His nose crunched, fresh blood sprayed down my neck, and stars sparked across my vision with sickening pain. He let me go, and I threw myself to the side. Scraping my hands and knees against the ground, I scrambled up and ran into the marsh.

Startled yells rang out behind me, drowned out by the splashing of mud and the pounding of blood in my ears. The moons shone on the stagnant pools as I ran between them. I pinned my hopes on the fact that they wouldn’t risk their valuable horses in the marsh, that my life was worth less than the animals to them. Stinking, heavy mud clung to my feet in a handful of strides. The cold stole my breath as I ran into the open. I didn’t stop. Even when I stumbled, I got back up and ran onwards under the light of the moons. I wouldn’t stop, not unless an arrow hit me.

“I’m sorry, Melody,” I whispered with ragged breaths, hot tears streaming down my cheeks.