Rumors
Chapter ten
Lincoln pulled her a fraction tighter to his body, and she could feel the hard lines of his strained muscles, through the layers of his clothes. He was trying to cover her up, and protect her all at the same time. Kat understood she was only in her underwear, but at that moment, her modesty seemed silly compared to the danger they were most likely in.
"She is a pathetic hunter," The boy said, speaking in a language she didn't understand. She blinked in surprise, having never heard Lincoln use anything other than English.
Lincoln cut his gaze to the younger male, not bothering to respond to his comment. "What do you want," he asked instead, using the same language the boy used, but his eyes turned towards the man, who was behind her.
Kat turned her head to the side, trying to get a better view of the person. She had only been able to see the boy, the two on either side of them, and the one that stood off to the side behind Lincoln. They all looked rather intimidating. As much faith as she had in Lincoln's abilities, she wasn't sure he could take on all five of them.
"Chief Indra demands your presence in Ton DC. You and the girl," the man behind her spat with disgust, speaking in that language as well.
She had no idea what they were saying, but the way Lincoln tensed up suddenly, told her it most likely wasn't good. She lifted her chin, looking up at his face, and trying to read the hard expression there. Worry had his brows furrowed, and the tightness in his jaw line told her that he was trying to keep himself in check.
"And if I refuse," Lincoln asked, even though he knew the answer.
"We kill the girl, and drag you back anyway," the man answered.
Lincoln gritted his teeth, his jaw working as he tried to figure a way out of this, without getting any of them killed. He wanted to keep Kat safe most of all, but looking between the men that he could see, he couldn't bring himself to attack them either. At least not without provocation. With Penn and Artigas there, both of whom he had gotten to know well during hunting trips, and time spent around the fire. They were comrades of his, and hunting brothers. He couldn't attack them, when they were just doing what they were told. The other two, however…
"Lincoln," came a warning from behind him, and he flinched at the sound of his name.
Kat looked over at the tallest grounder out of the group of five. He looked to be taller than Lincoln if that was even possible. The sound of his gruff voice repeating Lincoln's name a second time, as if in warning, had her turning her head to look at the man, who clutched her desperately to him. Surprise, had his eyes widening a fraction, and Lincoln slowly turned his head to finally acknowledge the man that had been out of his peripheral vision.
"Nyko," Lincoln said softly in return, and his frame slowly relaxed against her. Not completely, but enough to tell her that he was no longer considering on taking all five of them.
Lincoln turned his head down, and looked at her then, and the expression she saw there, was unreadable. Her eyes searched his face, trying to catch sight of any hint as to what he was thinking, but his face was chiseled into a hardened mask. Her fingers curled around the fabric of his shirt, and she was ready to say something, anything, but the words died in her throat.
He reached for her hands, placing his over her own, and helped pry her fingers free. He lowered them down between them, his larger hands engulfing hers, as he stared down at her. "Get dressed," he said softly, and indicated to her pile of clothes.
He released her then, and Kat took a step back, her eyes moving to him, and then to the other men. None of them leered at her naked form, now that she was no longer being shielded by Lincoln's body. The boy, who had spoken first, was determinedly looking away from her, while the others were just ignoring her presence all together, to keep their attention on Lincoln in case he tried anything. Kat swallowed, and she turned away from Lincoln, and quickly did as he said.
The boy moved forward then, keeping to a safe distance between him, and them as he retrieved her spear from near the river's shore. The one named Nyko approached them next, his larger size stepping up to Lincoln, and she realized they were about the same height. He was just heavier, in a broader, muscular way that made him look so much larger than he was.
Nyko looked to Kat then, his eyes moving over her, before turning his attention back to Lincoln. "Come friend," he said, and his tone was resigned. The larger man moved forward, leading the way back into the forest.
Kat stood there, watching as the boy moved to catch up to him, and her eyes shifted in the direction the cave would be. Which would also be in the direction, the dropship was. They weren't going home.
Lincoln took hold of her hand when she lingered there, and Kat found herself being led away from the river. The dropship, her friends, and the cave were all left behind them now. The three remaining grounders took up the rear, and Kat turned around, keeping close to Lincoln's side as they were corralled between the group of men, and headed Northeast.
Kat tried to keep track of the direction they walked, and where the sun sat in the sky, and how much time passed for them to get there. For the entire walk, Lincoln gripped her hand, and kept her close to his side. She didn't mind the strength in his hold, as it helped her stay grounded. If she had been by herself, she would have been truly terrified of the situation she was in.
From the trees, they stepped into a clearing that had been made into a village. Kat was surprised, having seen them pass a statue of a man sitting on a chair, that was vaguely familiar, but she couldn't fathom where she had seen the image before. And then they had walked into a village, that was made up of several small shacks.
Grounders stood outside their homes, watching as Lincoln and she were paraded through the center, along the dirt path that ran between each hut. They came to a stop before a building that was larger than the rest, and a woman with a fierce expression on her battle-scarred face glared down at them. While they were indicated to stop and wait, Nyko moved to join the woman, who was standing with two more men.
They could have been guards, not that the woman looked like she needed anyone to protect her. But if this was their leader, it would make sense for her to have a guard, right? Kat looked between the four of them, unsure of who she should focus her attention on most.
She tried not to look as scared as she felt. Her eyes, wide with fright were taking in the faces of the crowd, that had moved closer to get a better look at her. They kept whispering, and pointing in her direction. They would touch their hair, and point at her some more. Many times, she heard them say the word Skaikru, and she wasn't exactly sure if that meant her, or something else.
Next to her, Lincoln was looking up at Indra with that unreadable expression, his hand still holding Kat's, despite the curl of the older woman's lips when she saw it.
Indra turned her eyes to Kat then, her expression narrowing. Kat wanted to let herself be cowed by that look, to cower under its harsh stare. But the stubborn side of her wouldn't let her, and she found herself glaring back, despite the fear making her heart hammer in her chest hard enough, that it physically hurt. Briefly she wondered if it was possible to die of fear.
"So, this is what you have been doing instead of following orders," Indra asked after a hush had fallen over the other villagers.
Kat had the impression that they were at their execution, waiting for the verdict on how they would be dealt with. Only she couldn't understand a word of what was being said.
"I was following my orders," Lincoln answered, his eyes holding Indra's stare, and not letting it show how unsure, and worried he was about the situation they were in.
"Penn said you were doing more than that, with this girl," Indra said in response, and her eyes slanted back towards Kat, making her straighten in alarm. There was a lot of hate, and disgust in that stare alone.
"Kat is different than the others," he said, trying to reason with the chief, even though he knew it was pointless. She had no compassion for sky people, and he doubted anything he said would change her opinion.
Kat looked over at Lincoln when he mentioned her name, it being the only word she really understood as they talked back, and forth in their own language.
The woman than said something else, and Kat heard her named mentioned once more. Beside her, Lincoln stiffened, and his expression was furious. Around them the crowd laughed, finding what the older woman had said to be amusing. Kat realized that the woman had either made fun of her, or insulted her in their language.
Kat curled her lip, feeling her hackles rise as her temper started to override her fear. It was like landing in the dropship all over again. These people didn't know her, and yet they judged her, just like everyone else.
Taking a wild stab at the conversation, Kat stepped towards the woman. She was aware of Lincoln's hand tightening around hers, as he attempted to pull her back to his side, but she dug her heels in. She was already mad, and if this had been some cartoon, steam would have been pouring from her ears with the sound of a whistle. She wasn't about to stand there, and let these people talk about her in their fancy little language. She wasn't going to stand there, and let Lincoln fight this situation all on his own. Because clearly it was her presence that had everyone so hostile.
"Yea well you should hear what they called me back at the skybox," Kat said with a twist of her lips, looking up at the woman. She was only guessing that the woman had called her some name, an insult to who she was. By the hush that fell over the crowd at her words, she realized they understood what she was saying. At least some did by the mixed emotions that appeared on their faces. This only made her madder. "They called me Killer, so anything you have to say about me, or too me, is weak compared to the shit I went through up there."
Kat should have been terrified by the enraged expression on the chief's face, but she was too mad. Her expression was hard, drilling into the other woman, as if to dare her to try her. And if the woman took the bait, Kat knew there would be nothing to stop from having her head cut from her shoulders by the wicked looking blade that was attached to the woman's hip.
Before Indra could respond however, Nyko stepped forward, and whispered something to her. Indra snorted, her lips curling as she forced herself to step back.
"We'll see just how weak you are Skaikru," she said in a thick voice, her English remarkably clear with little hint to an accent. "The Commander demands your presence, Katarina of the Skaikru."
Commander?
Kat wasn't sure if she should be more frightened that there was someone who was this woman's boss, or that said person wanted to see her. Kat wasn't given a chance to respond before Nyko indicated for her to follow him.
Beside her, Lincoln refused to let her hand go, and when he tried to go with her, two men stepped forward to forcibly push him back. Kat whirled around, ready to help him, even if it got her killed, but they had only grabbed him by the arms, keeping him from trying to follow her.
"Come on girl," Nyko's voice rolled over her, and she turned her head to look at him.
"I won't leave him," she argued weakly, trying to act much braver than she felt. What would they do to Lincoln? Was there some kind of law that forbade him from fraternizing with a Skaikru? Or whatever that was.
"He will be fine," Nyko said to reassure her, and it really didn't help. "It will be worse however, if you refuse."
Kat swallowed around the lump in her throat at those words. She took one last look at Lincoln, but he was blocked now by Indra who was rapidly talking to him in that language again. Sighing, as there was no choice in the matter, she reluctantly followed the larger man to the other end of the village.
The walk was silent, not that the march to the village had been real lively. But now, Kat was positive that she was walking to her death. A part of her rebelled at the idea, while a smaller more familiar part of her was used to this weight. Was used to the cloud that hung over her like some bad omen.
Nyko led her to a hut that wasn't much smaller than the one they had been outside of in the center of the village. This one, sat near the tree line on the outskirts of the village though. Way out of the way, and most likely meant that no one would hear her screaming if things went bad. There was a symbol that was painted on the outside of the wall, and Kat couldn't tell what it represented, but the fact that this building out of all the others had something to separate it from the rest, told her this was the end of the road.
They had reached the Commander.
Nyko parted the door for her, and Kat ducked inside without a backwards glance. She stepped into a large opened room. The first thing she saw was a woman sitting in a throne like chair staring at her with an impassive look. She was beautiful, with thin sleek features, painted with red tribal markings along her cheeks. Her wild mane of black hair fell long passed her shoulders, and free around her face. The woman was dressed in several layers, as if she was prepared for the coming winter months already, and despite the heat that the room had as the sun warmed the shack, she seemed the least bit bothered by it.
The rattle of chains, drew Kat's attention to the far right, and she next saw a form huddled on the ground, chained to a wooden steak, and had apparently been beaten to a bloody pulp. Despite the gore and blood that covered his body, Kat recognized him. Of course, she recognized him, it wasn't like she would ever forget that look, no matter how swollen, and bruised it was.
"You know him."
It was a statement, more than a question, and Kat looked away from Murphy to stare at the Commander. She did her best to keep her features neutral, not wanting to give away what she was thinking at that moment. "Is this where you tie me up, and torture me for information too," she asked and struggled to keep the tremor from her voice.
The woman's lips quirked, and her eyes flickered over to Murphy, before regarding Kat with a cool stare. "Only if you lie to me," she answered.
Kat snorted, but quickly stifled the sound as she looked over at Murphy with a glower. "I know of him," she answered with a half-truth. Because she knew that if she said anything about what Murphy and Bellamy had done to Lincoln, they would most likely kill him after torturing him some more, and then they would kill her. While she really didn't feel sympathetic to Murphy's wellbeing after what he had done, Kat refused to be the cause of his demise. She had enough blood on her hands already.
Murphy stayed quiet, in the wake of her answer, his one swollen eye that was still somewhat visible stared at her, but with how bloody and bruised he was, she couldn't make out what emotions he was feeling. He dutifully stayed quiet, and Kat was grateful for that.
"Alright," the woman said after a moment, as she seemed to accept Kat's answer for now. "So, your people call you Killer? Who did you kill exactly?" The woman's eyes were watching her in a calculated manner, and Kat felt her spine go rigid at the strange questions. She had expected questions on her people. But then, Murphy probably had spilled all he knew, between torture sessions.
Kat looked away from Murphy to regard the small amused smile on the woman's face. Apparently, the Commander found it amusing that she was capable of killing anyone. Looking away, Kat tightened her hands into fists, trying to will her temper to stay calm. She had Bellamy's voice in her head threatening to lock her up, if she didn't calm the fuck down. Wells' voice was pleading for her to keep her words in check, so as to not have her head lobbed off for being disrespectful. The last thing she needed to do was to piss off the grounder's leader.
Kat found her attention drawing back to Murphy, who was sitting a little woozily against the wall. He looked like he was struggling to keep himself awake, and Kat hoped he would pass out, and that she wouldn't have to share this information in front of him.
"Well-?"
No such luck.
"I killed my father," she answered honestly, because she knew that being as truthful as she could, would be the only chance she had to make it out of here alive. She didn't know what Murphy might have told the woman already, and Kat did not want to get caught up in a lie. "He enjoyed beating my mother into submission. And for as long as I can remember that's how things were at home." Kat struggled to swallow as her throat tightened with the emotions she was feeling. At her sides, her hands were visibly trembling as she was forced to share this.
Murphy was wide awake now, and staring at her with his one good eye.
"I came home one day to find he had beaten her unconscious, and I just snapped," she said, keeping what happened that night as simple as possible. She hadn't talked about that night to anyone since she was arrested. She wasn't about to share it in detail with this woman, and with Murphy as an audience. Looking over at the Commander then, Kat found that the other woman was watching her with more interest, and less amusement now. Kat didn't understand what she found so interesting. "I was then arrested for murder, and locked up in the skybox. Sentenced to be floated when I turned eighteen," she finished her explanation rather abruptly.
"Your own people locked you up for protecting your mother," the Commander asked her, and there was disbelief in her tone, and a hardness that tightened the corner of her eyes.
"Yes," Kat butted in, before the woman could even attempt to call her a liar. "Because my mother loved her husband, and she defended him even until the end. So, I was branded a Killer and locked away for over two years. That is how I got the name."
Kat licked her lips as the other woman processed her words. She still looked unconvinced, but Kat had no other way of convincing her. She hadn't even been able to convince the council of her innocence. Why would a grounder Commander believe her?
"Now- I answered your question, I want you to answer one of mine," Kat spoke up, causing the woman to lift her brows at her nerve. "Why am I here?"
"You are here, because I want you here," the woman seemed amused again. The vague answer had Kat fuming. "And you are…?"
"Anya. Heda of the Trikru. You must be Katarina, correct?"
Kat swallowed, her eyes slanting in Murphy's direction, before looking back at the Commander. Anya no longer looked amused, with her lips pressed into a thin line, and her eyes staring coolly at her from across the room. Kat nodded her head once, and had to wonder where this was all going, and how exactly it was going to end.
"This boy mentioned you and Lincoln," Anya said, and she stood from her chair to approach Kat. She moved to walk around her, as if checking her out, and Kat tried to keep the other woman within her line of sight at all times, without moving her body. Kat visibly stiffened as the other woman mentioned Lincoln's name. Now she understood why she was here. This was because of her relationship with Lincoln.
"Are you two lovers?" Anya asked her when she stood in front of Kat again.
Kat couldn't swallow passed the lump in her throat. Her mind was working a mile a minute, with her heart thundering so hard in her chest, that she was afraid it might just rip its way out of her rib cage. "Where's Lincoln," Kat asked the woman.
Anya frowned at the question, her expression hardening. "This is not how this works. I ask the questions, you answer," she said with a sharpness in her tone that booked no argument.
Kat stood her ground, not letting herself buckle under this woman's stare. "Where is Lincoln," she asked again, her voice sounding stronger now.
Anya pursed her lips at the girl's stubbornness. The boy hadn't been lying when he mentioned how protective the girl was over the grounder. Katarina Mason. She was just a slip of a girl, with barely any meat on her bones. And according to the boy, had stood up against her own people to defend a grounder.
"Nyko," Anya called out to the man who had been lingering outside in case she needed his assistance.
He lifted the door, and suddenly Lincoln was striding into the room. He crossed the small distance between them, and Anya watched as he gathered the smaller woman into his arms.
"Lincoln," Kat whispered, her eyes wide. "Oh god you're okay!" She hugged him fiercely, and when she pulled away, her eyes searched him carefully for any signs of injury, until she was satisfied that there were none. One he was satisfied that she hadn't been harmed, he pulled her back into his arms, not caring who shared the room with them.
"Yes, very touching," Anya muttered with a wave of her hand. She made her way back to the chair she had been occupying earlier, and sat back down. As she watched the two of them together, her expression deepened into more of a scowl. They broke apart finally, to acknowledge her, but their hands were still holding onto one another.
"Your people are a nuisance," Anya said looking at Kat. "They crashed into our territory, and burned down one of our villages. We are on the verge of war, and the two of you..." she trailed off and her lips curled in disgust.
"They intentionally burned down a village," Kat asked, not really believing it. They were just kids, not warriors. She couldn't really see them just taking on a whole village like that without some reason.
"Is there any other kind," Anya snapped, her expression hard.
Kat held up her free hand defensively. "Look I don't know anything about a village being burned down. I haven't been there since-" she trailed off, not wanting to say what happened.
"Since your people tortured Lincoln," Anya filled in smoothly for her, and Kat blinked, her eyes looking over at Murphy in alarm.
"I told you not to lie to me. While you have been vague in answering my questions, I am well aware of your relationship with this boy. He was quite easy to break," she said, her own eyes turning on Murphy with a sneer.
"They are just afraid," Kat tried to explain, and she couldn't believe what she was saying. Trying to make excuses for what they did. "We're weak and afraid, alright. Our group is mostly a bunch of kids that were sent to earth in hopes it was survivable. We didn't ask to be sent here, we didn't have a choice. I'm sorry we landed in your territory, but it wasn't like we planned on it. The dropship crashed there.
"As for what happened with Lincoln- it was wrong. But they are just a bunch of scared kids, that had lost one of their own. Wells-" she struggled to say his name, her throat closing up as his lifeless body appeared before her eyes. "He- he was murdered, and their first pick was me, being the Killer in the group. If anyone is to blame for what happened to Lincoln, it was me. Because of me- they took him thinking he had something to do with Wells' death."
Anya crossed her arms over her chest, her dark eyes regarding Kat from her perch in the chair. It was a long time before she spoke, filling the silence with her carefully picked words. "I don't want a war," Anya said at last. "But blood must have blood. Katarina of the Skaikru-"
Beside her, Lincoln shifted, moving his body so that he stood protectively in front of her at those words. Kat was still trying to wrap her mind around what the other woman meant by blood must have blood, when she found herself bodily shoved behind him. The tension in his muscles concerned her, and she looked around wondering where the threat was.
Looking back at Anya, Kat could see the woman studying Lincoln's position in front of her. The woman didn't look surprised by his reaction to her words, just more annoyed by it.
Anya then directed her gaze over to Kat then, her expression falling back into a neutral expression. She seemed to come to some conclusion, before she started again, taking back her earlier words, with a new directive.
"You will go back to your people, and speak with your leader. I call for a meeting with Clarke of the Skaikru, to discuss a possible truce between our people."
AN: Alrighty, so I am aware its been forever and a day since I last updated. All I can say is that life has been hell. So I hope this chapter finds you all in good spirits, and that you all have a wonderful Christmas.
Let me know what you think? My attempt at writing the grounders... and I found it very rough. Hopefully I smoothed it out some.
Did you, love/like/hate it?
Inky out.
