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Fight to the Death
Several nights later Yesenda had just drifted off to sleep in her cell when her nightmare began.
“Get up!” someone said in the dark.
Yesenda felt a splash of cold water on her face. A hand clasped over her mouth, and she was unceremoniously dragged from the bed by her hair. She hit the floor with a hard thump. Yesenda groaned at the shooting pain along her hip when she slammed onto the cold stone floor. She tried to rise but a foot pressed down on her chest pinning her down. Yesenda could not see her attackers clearly, but she heard the whispered giggles, and she knew it was them. Her tormentors, Una and Eilidh seeking vengeance for her interference.
Una said, “After your show of bravery in the refectory, we need to teach the other girls that no one crosses us without paying dearly for it. Now that your father is dead, that makes you a worthless bitch like the foreign slut you tried to help.”
Yesenda tried to move, but she could not with the weight confining her chest. She felt around for her stick that she kept near the bed but could not reach it. In the dark, she could just make out their shadowy figures and clearly, they meant to frighten her.
What they failed to realize was Yesenda had spent most of her time in the company of her father and his warriors. She had learned a thing or two about fighting and she would die before she lay helpless on the ground.
They had pinned her chest down, but her legs were free.
That was their first mistake.
Yesenda twisted her hip and with as much strength as she could muster; she raised her leg and kicked Una behind the knee. The girl toppled over, losing balance and hit the wooden frame of the bed, hard.
With the foot off her chest, Yesenda could breathe easier, and she twisted her hip to the opposite side and kicked Eilidh straight in the face. She heard an‘oomph’sound as the sole of her foot connected with flesh. Yesenda scrambled to her feet and pushed Una out of the way. Una grabbed Yesenda by the neck and did a choke hold, pulling her back down to the floor.
Yesenda countered with a grapple move and rolled them, so she was straddling Una and keeping her pinned to the floor. Whether it was the shock of being attacked at night, or the months of pent-up frustration and grief, Yesenda was not sure, but she unleashed all her fury with her fists.
Una screamed in pain, yelling, “Get her off me!”
Eilidh tried to come to her rescue and pulled Yesenda’s hair so hard Yesenda felt the burning in her scalp.
That was all it took. Something snapped in Yesenda that night and suddenly she did not care if she lived or died. All she cared about was beating the two girls to a pulp.
Yesenda reached behind her, grabbed Eilidh's face and dug her nails into her cheeks, drawing blood. Eilidh released her grip on Yesenda’s hair and cried out in pain, frantically trying to pry Yesenda’s fingers from her face. Yesenda pulled her down until she, too, was on the floor alongside Una, then she lashed out in the dark with her fists. Yesenda heard their shouts of pain as her fists wreaked havoc. She heard their panicked cries.
“Let’s go, let’s go before Sister Bissett finds us.”There was an edge of desperation in their voices. Eventually Una got free and tried to pull Eilidh out of the room.
But not done yet, Yesenda reached out, yanking one escapee back and punched her in the nose. Then she lunged forward, grabbed Una’s leg, and bit down hard into the flesh. Una screamed in pain.
All the while, Yesenda fought like a wildcat. She used every inch of her body to lash out at her two tormenters.
Before long, footsteps were heard running down the hallway. The door burst open, admitting light into the room. Yesenda rolled and grabbed her stick on the other side of the bed and held it out in front of her, ready to take on whoever else was coming through that door. She had a feral look on her face, like she was ready to fight to the death.
However, it was not more attackers but someone else entirely. The light illuminated her face and caught the burnished tint of her hair.
“What is the meaning of this?” Abbess Murdina demanded.
“She tried to attack us,” Una said.
Yesenda closed her eyes momentarily, knowing she would most likely be punished now for fighting. She lowered her head and stared at the floor. Then lifted her eyes when the abbess asked, “Then why are you both in her room? Did Yesenda summon you here so she could attack you in the middle of the night?”
They tried to answer but came up empty.
“Yesenda, what happened?” the abbess asked.
Yesenda kept panting as she glared at the girls. She noticed both looked terrible. They had cuts and abrasions to the face and neck, and both were sporting swollen eyes.
Yesenda said, “They came into my room uninvited. I wanted to make it clear they were not welcome.”
Yesenda saw a flash of amusement cross the abbess’s face before she hid it.
The abbess cleared her throat and said, “My patience is done with you two, Una and Eilidh. You can be sure I will send a missive to your parents in the morn. In the meantime, there will be no more moving about rooms at night. Go back to your beds now.
