CHAPTER 10

Weeks went by, and even though Lexa had become invincible again in fight and monopolized by her function of Commander, reassuring Titus and Indra, that did not mean she forgot Clarke who, when she was alone, filled all her thoughts. But Lexa had also become cold and bitter, and her close relations had to suffer when her orders bit like a whip and her glacial look struck them.

And then one day, during a meeting with the generals, the door of the throne room burst open, letting Octavia in without being announced, sweating and out of breath, who fell on her knees at Lexa's feet. With a hand gesture, the Commander stopped the door guards who had rushed in behind Octavia, and that she had visibly neutralized to enter.

"Moba, Heda! Em ste meija! Sorry, Commander! It's important!"

"Chit's gon daun? What's going on?"

"Klark kom Skaikru had been kidnapped!"

Lexa jumped off her throne, the breath of fear seizing her heart.

"Gouva yu klin! Explain yourself!"

"Clarke went into the forest with two guards in order to look for plants, as she does it every other day... When I saw she didn't come back, I started looking for her. I found the two guards on the ground, the bag of plants abandoned, and Clarke had disappeared. One of the guards could tell me before dying it was the Azgeda, he had recognized their traditional scarifications."

All the generals could see Lexa's jaws tense, her look fill with incandescent rage and her hands begin to slightly shake while the image of Costia's bloody head suddenly imprinted itself in her mind. All of them knew the tragic story of Lexa's lover, and all hung onto Lexa's every word, terrified in advance by her reaction. Against all odds, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and sat back down in her throne.

"Gustus, make all your spies talk in the Azgeda capital! I want to know who did it and where they took her. She musn't be there, they wouldn't have taken the risk of being so noticeable. I want an answer tonight! And send one of our best trackers with Octavia, if they were careless, maybe we can follow their track."

"Sha, Heda."

Clarke had been knocked out. When she woke up, she was fastened to a chair, a gag in her mouth, the ties biting her wrists. She looked around her and noted she must have been in a great tent. Some men entered, all wore the Azgeda ritual scars. What Lexa feared had become reality.

"Here's Lexa's whore, as promised," said one man in trigedasleng.

"Well, leave us," ordered a blonde-haired warrior, his steel-blue eyes cold and calculating.

The man observed for a while the prisoner with a sadistic little smile, then he kneeled at her level.

"Heda has good taste," he commented while making his fingers run down Clarke's cheek who lowered her head to escape the touch. "But she obviously didn't learn her lesson. She's not as wise as we heard."

"Tell me, Clarke, I've always wondered, how's she in bed?" he resumed, removing the gag.

Clarke spat in his face by way of answer.

"You're a pig! I'll say nothing, anyway I know nothing!"

He got back on his feet and wiped his face without ever losing his smile. He unsheathed a dagger from his belt, and with a quick move, stuck it into Clarke's shoulder.

Clarke yelled, the pain so intense she nearly fainted.

"Tell me, Clarke," the man went on, "how many men are in Heda's army?"

"I don't know," she said in a sob, the blood beginning to drip from the cut.

He took the handle of the dagger and gave the blade a quarter-turn, making Clarke start in her chair and let out a strident cry.

"How many men in Heda's army?"

"I... I don't know..." she wept. "We've never talked about it."

The man took another dagger, and cut nearly languorously Clarke's tee-shirt from top to bottom, incising the skin which began to bleed.

"So... How many guns did you supply to her army?"

Clarke had no idea of the answer, only Marcus Kane had dealt with these details.

"I don't know... It's chancellor Kane who took care of the weapons."

The man frowned and his dagger drew a long slit on Clarke's cheek who clenched her teeth.

"Well. A question you should be able to answer now. How many guns do you have and where do you put them in your camp?"

He gave his dagger a quarter-turn in Clarke's shoulder who yelled again. This time, the blood flew freely from the wound, and she fainted.

Outside, Lexa was listening to Clarke's unbearable cries while biting her lip. They had easily found the trail of the abductors and were waiting for the right moment to intervene. Clarke's last scream of pain brought an end to the Commander's patience who waded in. With a roar, she leaped out of her hiding place, her swords slicing the two men on guard before the tent, while her warriors dealt with the rest of the Azgeda. She rushed in and as she was about to decapitate the man in front of Clarke, she stopped her gesture at the last moment.

"Roan?"

"Heda," he said plainly, kneeling as a sign of submission when he immediately understood it was useless to respond, Lexa's blade weighing on his throat.

Rage flooded in Lexa's eyes who struck him violently with the pommel of her sword, breaking Roan's jaw, Queen Nia's son, prince of Azgeda.

She finally turned to Clarke, and repressed a cry of amazement. There was so much blood everywhere that she thought she had arrived too late, but she saw her chest slightly rose. She restrained herself from throwing herself on Clarke and holding her in her arms for fear of accentuating her wounds.

"Em ste kiken! Ai gaf fisa in! She's alive! I need a healer!" she ordered to Gustus who had just joined her.

The two healers who had accompanied Lexa and her men finally arrived in the tent and hastened to examine her. One of them abruptly removed the dagger from Clarke's shoulder and compressed the wound.

"She'll live. None of her injuries is mortal, Heda," the other healer reassured.

Lexa gave a sigh of relief, then turned to Octavia.

"Octavia, I'm making you responsible for taking Clarke back to Arkadia escorted by half of my warriors. I'll deal with this Azgeda louse and I'll send you Abby to treat Clarke."

"Sha, Heda."