Pahnyakin Rising (15 page)

He pointed at Dodge.  “Are you part of this?  Did you tell her to do this?”

“I’m not getting involved,” Dodge muttered.  “She got herself in the mess and is going to get herself out of it.”

“What happened to ‘her problems are my problems,’ huh?”

Dodge shrugged.  “Sometimes there’s no reasoning with her.  You know that.”

It was remarkable how apathetic Dodge was toward the situation.  Dresden expected to feel her body tremble, but she was fearless.  She expected the pain, welcomed it, perhaps as some form of cruel punishment for not listening to Dodge in the first place.  All she had to do that night was stay home.  But she had to have everything her way.  She couldn’t be patient and it cost her everything.

She didn’t learn from her mistakes.  She wanted to push the limits on everything and everyone around her, no matter how reckless it seemed.

Dresden didn’t wait for Shepherd to take the first swing.  She balled her fists and landed two punches on his solid jaw before he was able to throw one of his own.  Dresden yanked her head to the side and Nick’s fist whooshed and barely missed her ear. 

“You’re not going to win this,” he growled.  “You may have gotten a few lucky hits in last night, but not today.”

She didn’t answer.  Dodge stood to the side with his arms folded across his chest.

Nick and Dresden circled one another until he was able to snatch a tuft of her hair in his hand and pull her face into his left knee.  The girl moaned and stumbled backwards.

“Watch his movements, Dres,” Dodge encouraged the girl through his fading frustrations.  “You have to know what he’s going to do before he does it.”

She nodded and stood upright.  With her shirt sleeve, she wiped a spot of dark blood from under her nose and stepped forward. 

The teenager went in swinging once again but was blocked.  Outside the fence, the crowd cheered, amused by the gladiator match in the arena.

“Swing now,” Dodge called to her. 

Dresden made her move with her left fist and her knuckles made contact with Shepherd’s ear.  He kicked her feet out from under her and stomped on her sprained ankle. 

As she curled over in pain, it took all Dodge had not to become involved. 

“Dresden, get up.  You have to get up.”

Nick gloated to Easton’s people as he walked around the girl.  He kicked her in the spine and she screamed.

“Get up, Dresden,” Dodge urged. 

“I could’ve thrown you to the Rising the moment they brought you here,” Nick snarled.  “And I could’ve done it again last night.”

“But they’d hate you more,” Dresden grunted through the immense pain she was experiencing.  “You know you can’t throw me out, not until you can prove I’m not supposed to take your place.”

“And you think you’re supposed to?”

He kicked the side of her thigh as she attempted to stand and she crumpled back to the earth.

“You had the chance to lead.  You failed.  You don’t get to just come walking back and expect these people to fall head over heels for you.  Half of them hate you for what you’ve done.  And the other half…”

He laughed.

“The other half…I’m going to weed them out.  I’m going to make sure they know
you
are the reason they’re going to die in Pahnyakin hands.”

And it was at that moment that Dresden knew beyond a doubt, with everything in her aching heart and soul, that she could not lose the fight with Nick Shepherd.  If Dodge’s story was true, if she already caused any of Easton’s people to die, if she stole parents from children and husbands from wives, she could not let death continue to ooze through town.  She refused to let tyranny rule, and she refused to let anyone else die because of her.  Whether or not she was fated to lead was inconsequential to the girl.  If someone did not stand up to Shepherd and his wrongdoings, the people of this town would be slaughtered.   

Shepherd extended his arms and welcomed only the cheers from the explosive crowd.

Dresden rolled over on her side and wrapped both hands around the leader’s left calf.  She yanked as quickly and as hard as she could, until Nick slid face-first against the browning grass.  Dresden stood over him as he rolled to his back.   His face was covered in blood and dirt.

“You can’t do this to people,” she shouted.  “You can’t kill everyone who disagrees with you.  Maybe you should try being a better leader if so many people hate you.  Get up.”

“What?” Nick asked with a slanted brow.

“Get up,” she repeated.  “It’s not a fair fight if you’re rolling around on the ground, and I’m not going to beat you this way.”

She stepped back and rolled the sleeves of her flannel to her elbows.  Shepherd cautiously stood from the ground and looked to Dodge.

Dodge stood motionless as he looked onward.

No sooner than Nick stood did Dresden attempt to knock him in the mouth.  He blocked her punch and took one of his own.  Without thinking, she lifted her forearms to shield herself.

“Good,” Dodge called. 

“Where were you?” Nick demanded. 

She shook her head.  “You wouldn’t believe me.  Nobody would.”

“You’re one of them now, aren’t you?”

“If you really thought that,” she said, spitting a glob of blood to her right, “then you’re a worse leader than everyone makes you out to be.”

“I do what I have to do.”

“For yourself,” she nodded.  “But do you really care about these people?” 

She motioned to the fence. 

“Do you care about them?  Do you care if they live or die, or do you just care if
you
live or die?”

“Does it matter?” he asked with a smirk as the two circled one another.

“A real leader will stand in front of his army.  It sounds like you make sure you’re at the tail end.  You’re not going down until everyone else has, right, Nick?  You’ve always been that way.”

“Is that worse than what you did?  Is self preservation really worse than promising everyone things will be okay?  You know what I think?  I think you
knew
they were planning an ambush.  I think you were trying to rile our people up.”

“No,” she replied with a hiss.  “I’m not you.  I don’t
use
people to get what I need.”

He chuckled.

“What’s funny about that?” she asked.

“You said ‘need,’ not ‘want.’  What makes you think there was
anything
necessary about going after them?  There wasn’t then and there’s not now.  They come to us, yet you were so ready to travel to them.  Why?  You
knew
, that’s why.”

“This town is falling apart,” she screamed.  “If you don’t start taking your fights outside the gates, there will be no gates.  They’re going to take the gates next.”

Shepherd scoffed and looked to Dodge accusingly. 

“She’s one of them, isn’t she?”

“It’s common sense,” Dresden said.  “And I’m surprised they haven’t done it already.  But when they do, they’re going to take out this entire town.  I’m sorry these people had to live under someone like you.  I’m sorry for whatever it is that I did to cause any of this.  I never would hurt anyone.”

“You already have.”

Nick turned his head to speak to Dodge.  “Geez, man, your wife is a real piece of work.  Did you tell her to break out this whole remorse speech, or is she just trying to buy some time?”

Dresden’s heart stopped and, during a bout of near-syncope, she swayed.  She caught herself and struggled to remain upright. 

“Oh-ho-ho,” Shepherd laughed.  “This is something else, isn’t it?  You mean to tell me you don’t remember your own husband?”

“Stop,” Dodge barked. 

“We were married?” Dresden managed to exclaim with what little breath she could take in.  “You didn’t think I had a right to know that?”

“Dresden,” Dodge stammered.  “It wasn’t important.”

She threw her hands in the air.  “What’s not important about that?”

“Because you’re not the one who loves me.  That’s why it’s not important.  It would’ve just been weird to tell you.  You know it would’ve just complicated everything and made it hard for you to—.”

“Oh, don’t you dare do that,” she snarled.

“Do what?”

“Don’t act like you have my best interests at heart when you’re just too disrespectful and cowardly to tell me the truth.  You’re looking out for number one—which will
always
be you because you don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

Her remarks cut him to the bone, even though he knew she masked her pain with anger until she couldn’t handle it anymore and was forced to break down.

“That’s not true,” he replied quietly.

His expression turned worrisome.

“Dresden,” he warned.

“No, Dodge,” she responded.

She never saw the hard blow to the right side of her face.  It knocked her to the ground again.  Her head bounced off the hard terrain and her surroundings faded in and out.  Her eyes were heavy.

Nick faced the crowd once more and motioned for their cheers to grow in volume.  Most of the people in the stands and alongside the fenced arena were clapping and whooping.

Dodge ran to Dresden’s side and knelt down. 

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She couldn’t reply.

“Dresden,” Dodge’s voice quivered.  He lightly slapped at her reddened cheeks and shook her shoulders.  “Dresden, say something.”

It was one of his rules of fighting.  She should have known better than to turn her attention away from her enemy, but it just so happened that the news of matrimony to someone she had known since childhood took precedence somehow.  It didn’t make much sense, to value what Dodge had to say over her safety, but such powerful, distracting emotions often make little sense at all. 

She opened her eyes and groaned. 

“Are you okay?” Dodge asked again.

“Help me up,” she whispered.  “I have to finish this.”

Dodge shook his head and blew air out of his widened nostrils.  “No way.  We’re done here.  You’re hurt.”

“Help me up,” she demanded in a raspy bark. 

“I can’t let you do this,” Dodge said.  “I can’t sit back and watch you dig yourself a grave.”

Dresden’s torso wobbled to and fro as she sat up.  Her brain was throbbing and her legs were shaky as she forced herself to stand.  The crowd roared and Nick flexed his muscles, accepting cheers that were not meant for him.

“Shepherd,” she choked in a whisper.

He couldn’t hear her.

Dresden closed her eyes and inhaled sharply.

“SHEPHERD,” she screamed until her throat was raw.

Nick turned with a look of entertainment on his filthy face.  How much more did she want?

‘Watch for weakness,’
Dodge’s voice calmly whispered in her head.
‘Stop feeling. There is no remorse here.’
  

  Every last ounce of energy Dresden had within was in her final punch.  She yelped as her fist smashed against Shepherd’s already-broken nose. 

Nick’s eyes rolled upward until Dresden could only see the whites.  The world she viewed was slow motion.  Shepherd was falling to the ground with his arms wide open and the crowd was a garbled echo.  The girl could not keep her eyes open.

Dresden tried to walk to Dodge, but her knees gave out.  As she tripped forward, she saw his blurry figure racing to break her fall.

-17-

Dresden could vaguely recall Charlie leaning over her body, inspecting her eyes with a black direct ophthalmoscope.  She faded in and out of consciousness, even as Dodge carried her home, doing the best he could to cradle her head and neck in the nook of his left arm.  He began breathing heavily at some point of the few-blocks walk. 

He laid her on the couch.  She whimpered when her head made contact with the pillow he used the night before.

“You’re gonna be okay,” he promised, though it wasn’t his promise to make.

Dresden’s breaths were slowed and deep.  She could hold air for twenty seconds before releasing it and would not inhale for another twenty. 

“I need you to stay awake, Dres,” Dodge urged, rubbing her left hand between both of his.  “Stay up and talk to me.”

“I can’t,” she mumbled.  “So tired.”

She closed her eyes and was sure she was instantly in a dream, but Dodge shook her to. 

Pierre squawked from the extra bedroom. 

“Peek-a-boo,” he repeated in a high pitch. 

Dodge slinked against the front of the couch and squeezed Dresden’s hand. 

“Dresden, talk to me.  Tell me about those teddy bear pancakes.”

She smiled and blinked slowly.