I'm a little tired of rape-as-worldbuilding in fantasy and historical fiction. This isn't exactly a judgment or critique of Buehlman here. In his defense, he was probably writing this in a pre-HBO's Game of Thrones world, which is what pushed a lot of people to the end of their patience for it.

Rape as a shortcut for showing the brutality of the setting. Rape as an easy way to let us know a morally gray character, like Thomas, isn't too far gone for us to root for, by giving him a chance to protect an innocent girl. Rape as a ticket for ethically pure violence we can cheer for when he slaughters the evildoers.

It doesn't break the book for me. It just feels a little cheap.

I like how, even though Marie's role at this point is to powerlessly accept her punishment from Eleanor, we get this clear glimpse into the strength of her inner personality:

And it was true, the religion she was raised in had always seemed vaguely foolish to her, if rich with mystery and ceremony, for why should babies be born into sin, why should she pray to the invisible forces, why would god be a trinity, why should she, who felt her greatness hot in her blood, be considered lesser because the first woman was molded from a rib and ate a fruit and thus lost lazy Eden? It was senseless. Her faith had twisted very early in her childhood; it would slowly grow ever more bent into its geometry until it was its own angular, majestic thing.