Sanctuary.
By HuntressDiana
A response to challenge 10 at the Dancing Dove forums. Onua belongs to Tamora Pierce, as does any mention of characters you recognise. Carin, Teraon and Haren belong to me however.
"Onua, you can't!"
"I must!" The tearful young woman wrenched her arm from her friend's grasp.
"Why? Why must you keep going back to him when he treats you like that?"
The young K'mir froze in the doorway. Her shoulders were slumped in the dejected posture of one who has no hope left, and only wishes to escape the next blow.
"Please, I'm begging you Onua, as a friend; don't go back to that man."
Onua Chamtong turned around, the firelight lighting her face up. Although she wasn't as beautiful as Kalasin, nowhere near, she wasn't a hag. But now, her clear eyes were red from weeping, and one of them clearly bore the mark of a fist around it. Her cheek was raw, as if it had been dragged along the floor. An arm was cradled gently against her chest and a wheezing sound came from her lungs.
Carin walked towards her slowly, and reached out a hand. Onua flinched at even that friendly gesture. But Carin steered her towards the fireplace, where a bowl of water and cloths sat warming. Tenderly, as if ministering a small child, the woman dabbed at the younger woman's cuts and bruises. Before she could finish, the door opened and a young man burst in.
"Where is she?" He caught sight of Onua cowering behind her friend. "Horse Lords!" He strode across the small room to her side, and knelt on the hard floor. His thumb gently stroked her cheek, pulling away when she bit her lip in pain.
"Onua, Sister. Stop it. You can stop him from doing this. I cannot."
"I know Teraon, you tried once and it came off worse for you." She sat up straight, looking more like the proud girl he remembered from his youth.
"You were forced into this marriage. No one will think any the less of you if you leave." When she shook her head mutely, he stood and began pacing the floor. "Onua, do you think that the clan don't know what goes on? They all know, or suspect, but honour prevents them from stepping in until you ask for help."
"And yet honour forbids me to ask for their aid." Her voice was rough, from crying and screams, he suspected. "I have no rights here as a woman."
Teraon sat and took both her hands in his.
"So go somewhere where you do have rights. Follow Thayet jian Wilima, go to Tortall."
"Tortall?" Onua's eyes misted over with the thought of a land where she didn't have to live every second of her life in squalor and fear. Where her husband didn't beat her and abuse her, mentally and physically. Where a Noble lady was the King's Champion, and a K'mir, or a half K'mir anyway, was Queen. Could she find sanctuary there?
Her dreams were shattered by a pounding on the door,
"Woman! You can't hide in there forever. Teraon, send that whelp of a sister out to me!" The rattling came again. "You have no business interfering with my wife. Come out whore!"
Teraon made for the door, only to be held back by the two women.
"No!" His wife whispered urgently. "You must not go. The same goes for you Onua. Leave for Tortall, anywhere has to be better than here for you."
A small smile spread across Onua's face.
"I'm not going out there Carin." Her eyes were alight with hope, something that had been missing from them for many a year.
"Do you hear that?" She yelled, sounding fierce and resolute. "Go away!"
"You wouldn't!" Her husband opened the door violently, and before her brother or sister in law could stop him; he dragged Onua outside and smashed her face against the hard ground.
"You can't leave me." His voice was a harsh rumble. "Where would you go?"
Onua smiled to herself, even though her face was pressed into the dirt, her eyes lit upon the western stars.
"Sanctuary." She breathed. "Tortall."
"Tortall." He scoffed. "You would go to that heathen land, where a whore is the King's Champion?" He leant down close to her, as she lay there on the floor. "Even they wouldn't accept you, even if I were to let you go. And I won't, woman. You're mine!"
Teraon and Carin ran out of their home, each clutching a weapon. Carin held the re-curved bow used by the K'mir tribes and Teraon brandished his dagger. Her husband released Onua, leaving her on the floor and turned to face the two.
"You have no rights to her." He spat. "Stay back or the law will be upon you."
Carin's eyes flickered behind him; Onua was pulling herself laboriously to her feet, every inch of her ached.
"They have no rights to me." She said softly in agreement, her voice slightly hoarse, but filled with conviction. "And no longer do you."
"What? You wouldn't dare…"
She raised an eyebrow.
"Wouldn't I?" She drew herself up to her full height.
He lunged at her, beyond reason now, he attacked her viciously, punching and kicking her with little finesse, but with great power behind the blows. She cried out once, as her arm snapped in two, but after that she bit her lip and refused to cower before him, as she had done so many times before.
"Onua!" Teraon made to go towards her, but his wife held him back.
"No, she must defeat him this time, or she will never be truly free of him." She counselled, although she too was eager to go to the aid of her lifelong friend.
Onua crumpled, but as she lay there on the floor, her husband stepping over her to kick her in the ribs, she rolled away, and kicked out herself. Her foot hit his knee, and he buckled before her. Cradling her broken arm close to her chest, she kicked him once more, using all of her strength, in the chest this time. She was lucky. Her foot hit his breastbone, and then slid up to his neck, winding him and hampering his breathing.
"Teraon!" her hand shot out; and he slapped the hilt of the dagger into her palm. She flicked it high in the air, and caught it neatly, pressing the blade to her husband's throat.
He froze, in mid motion, as he tried to get up.
"Stay there." She commanded, her grey-green eyes alight with righteous fury. "How do you like it? Held down by someone more powerful than you."
"You won't kill me." He said, although his voice quavered slightly as he felt the knife press even deeper into his neck. "You can't."
"Why can't I?" She asked. "Because I'm a woman?"
He nodded mutely. She stepped back slightly in disgust.
"Listen to me closely." She spoke low, threateningly. "I was betrothed to you, against my wishes, when I was a young girl. I suffered for years, you beat me, you broke me, and I let you. I had no choice in the matter. But now I do. And I choose freedom; away from you. You will never lay a hand on me again." Her voice was filled with icy power. "Do you understand what I am saying?"
She took the knife away from his neck, and he swallowed in relief. She turned her back on him, as he knelt there in the mud, calling out for all the members of the clan who had gathered around the fight to hear.
"I am no one's property, and you will never hit me again."
Her voice was loud, and although her body was broken and wounded, her spirit had been resurrected, and was powerful. It showed in her body, in her posture, how she stood, the knife in her hand. She was no longer the victim, now she was the more powerful of the two. Years of injustice had not been put right, but the scale was tipping in her favour at last, Chavi West Wind be thanked.
She walked away easily, followed by her brother and friend, after they had each spat in contempt at him.
"Congratulations my sister." Teraon said quietly as they walked away.
"The battle isn't over yet." Onua said softly, she had lived with that man for many years, and she knew how his mind worked. "I just shamed him, he wants revenge on me even more than ever before. He'll leave it a while, to lick his wounds, but then he'll be back."
"We must use that time wisely then. You must leave now."
She nodded in agreement. While Teraon ran to get her a horse, the women hurried into their house, Onua packed some food and found her weapons, Carin went to pack some of her own clothes for Onua. The two women were about the same size, although Carin was smaller and slighter than Onua, they would have to do.
Onua sat down at last, by the fire, and cradled her wounded arm against her chest. Slowly, for she was very tired, she pushed her Gift into the wound, knitting the bone and healing the muscle. She left the skin bruised and torn, for she was running low on her Gift.
Carin paused in the doorway, sweat dripped from her friend's face, as she struggled to repair what her husband had broken. She knew that this might be one of the last times she would see her childhood friend. The pair had been so close in youth, and when Carin had been betrothed to Teraon, Onua had rejoiced, knowing that she would become her official sister. But then that happy, rejoicing girl who had laughed and played with the family's animals had been betrothed to Haren, who was several years her elder. In a matter of weeks, that joy had been crushed, and had stayed crushed for so long. But now, as Onua spotted her, Carin knew that it was crushed no longer. Although Onua was still wary, she was more confident now. She saw her glancing towards to door, still looking for Haren, fearing that he was going to come after her. But although there was fear, there was no longer the abject terror or defeated acceptance that there had been previously.
"When will you go?" Carin asked, stepping into the room as Onua swayed in her chair. "You cannot go tonight, you'll fall off your horse."
Onua sighed, knowing that her friend was correct.
"I will leave in the morning then." Shakily she climbed to her feet and made her way to a window looking west. "It will take me a long time," Hearing Teraon coming into the room, she extended both her hands, feeling her brother and the woman who was her closest friend take a hand each, "but I promise to you now my brother and sister, that I will reach Tortall and I will never let a man beat me again."
For all her brave words, Onua still shed tears when she crept out of the village before dawn, after embracing her family tightly. All of them were acutely aware of the fact that, even if she did reach Tortall safely, there was little hope of her ever returning.
For the two left behind, an odd mix of triumph and sorrow swept over them. Teraon was the first to tear his eyes away from the small figure moving slowly into the early morning mist and he ran to the shrine in the centre of the village and fell to his knees before the small wooden statue of a goddess.
"Keep my sister safe, gentle lady. I beg you Chavi West Wind, see her safe to Tortall."
The challenge response initially finished after Onua said "Tortall… Sanctuary" but as I was reading through this to post it on I felt it wasn't quite finished, so the rest was added on.
I hope you liked it, and please, do let me know in a review what you thought.
HuntressDiana