Chapter 14
When Lyanna woke up again, she was alone in the tent. She did not know what had woken her in the first place, her body still felt tired, but the pain in her abdomen had receded to a dull ache.
Her eyes fluttered close again and her cheeks burned a little when she remembered how she had fallen asleep. She could still faintly feel the memory of Anya's beating heart beneath the tips of her fingers.
She opened her eyes again when she recognized that there was too much noise outside of the tent or at least more than there had been the day before. She sat up on the bedroll and tried to listen closer. It was definitely louder than it should be, but Lyanna could not identify the foreign sounds.
She got up finally and with a pleased expression, she noted that the pain in her abdomen did not flare up in protest yet. She knew it would be too soon to expect the wound healed, but she still had very limited patience when it came to recovering. Her already thin patience was further reduced with the knowledge of needing to get into training as soon as possible.
Lyanna went over to the entrance of the tent, with her feet still bare. She opened the tent flaps and looked outside, curious about what was happening.
She was directly faced with two men standing guard just outside of the tent and when she looked to the side, she saw what had been causing the noise. The commander's tent was being deconstructed currently. Her brows furrowed a little in confusion, wondering where the commander would be going and if she would be travelling along. Anya had not mentioned anything last night about an impending journey.
"The general is on the training pits" one of the guards addressed her when Lyanna remained standing there with a frown on her features.
The princess looked at the young man. She guessed him to be in his early twenties and his English had been accentuated, showing that he was not using this language on a daily basis. The knowledge that she was not able to speak their language had either already travelled through the camp or the general had instructed them personally to speak English with her.
Lyanna nodded to him with a grateful expression as she stepped back from the entrance of the tent. She did not feel like lying back down, but she could not walk through the village barefoot either.
Getting her boots back on turned out to be just as painful as she had expected and she knew that bending over would likely hurt for a while to come.
Lyanna returned to the entrance of the tent once she had her boots on "Can you show me to the training pits?" she questioned the guard who had spoken to her previously. She did not know their orders or if she should remain within the tent, but she knew that sitting around idly would only give her too much time to think again.
The young man nodded immediately "Of course, follow me" he ordered in a crisp tone and motioned her forward. There was curiosity in his gaze and Lyanna distinctly wondered just what they had been told about her. Lexa had not said much to Indra, but she could imagine that the little words probably would have been spun into a grand tale by now as little pieces of rumour were being added with every new mouth that retold who she was.
Lyanna wondered why the general was at the training pits, to begin with. She knew that Anya's body had been through a great ordeal as well and she thought that the woman should try to rest as well, instead of exerting herself and possibly acquiring other wounds in addition.
From the sound of iron clashing loudly against iron, Lyanna thought that she probably would have been able to find her way to the training pits without assistance, just by following the loud sounds through the village.
Most people of the village seemed to be going about their normal life and Lyanna let her gaze travel around. It was obvious the lives people were leading here were different from how she had grown up, but she did not agree with Thelonius that this should be something to look down upon.
She could even spot a few children among the villagers or at least she assumed they would be living permanently in the village as she thought it unlikely for warriors to bring their little ones with them during travel. She guessed the children to be no older than five years and they were playing with each other in the vicinity of who she assumed to be their parents. The adults she guessed to be their parents were busy skinning some kind of animal. Lyanna had no idea what the carcass used to be like as she was unfamiliar with the wildlife on the earth's surface. She had read a few books on it, but they all came from the old world and she was not sure if this knowledge was still correct or how much might have evolved since her people had sought to live under the surface of the earth. She was sure that Anya would easily be able to teach her though.
The sight which greeted her at the training pits was unexpected, to say the least. A small crowd of spectators had gathered around it, but a small path was cleared immediately for the guard and her.
Lyanna spotted Anya being engaged in a training duel with the commander herself. While the general was fighting with one sword, the commander was wielding two thinner and smaller swords at once. She also spotted the commander's personal burly guard on the other side of the training pit, holding the commander's large shoulder pauldron and her red sash for her.
"Does the commander fight often?" Lyanna asked the guard who was still standing beside her. Watching the fight was expressive, to say the least. Some of the attack and defence moves were executed too quick for her to see what exactly had happened before the two women had sprung apart again, back to circling each other in a defensive stance.
The young man shook his head slightly and his gaze was fixed on the fight as well "Not for everyone to see. The commander does not need to prove her strength on the training pits anymore".
Lyanna's gaze shortly flitted over to the young man next to her. His tone had surprised her. It had been laced with admiration. It was obvious that the commander had the goodwill of her people. Lyanna wondered minutely if the young leader was as loved by the whole coalition. Anya had thus far not told her much about the different clans which the commander had brought together under the banner of the coalition, but she was certain that either the general or the commander would impart her with this knowledge sooner or later.
She looked back to the fight and she winced a little in sympathy when she saw one of the commander's blades biting into Anya's upper arm as the brunette broke through the general's defence with apparent ease.
The simple beige shirt the general was wearing was starting to show the red blood flowing from the fresh wound and Lyanna ached to step forward and wrap it for the older woman. The amount of blood did not allow for deep worry though and the pair was still fighting as well.
She had to recognize that Anya's words from the last night must be true. There had been no way Thelonius would have been able to seriously wound the commander. She was unable to accurately judge if the commander and general had comparable fighting skills or if one of them was superior. But she guessed if one was superior, it probably had to be the commander.
Her expression turned into a grimace as she wondered how she should learn to fight like this. The way the two women were fighting appeared almost effortless and there was an air of grace around their movements. She had never held a weapon before her hands and she had high doubts about her ability to do it.
Once the fight came to an end Lyanna was greeted by the general. She noted that a layer of sweat had formed on the older woman's skin and her breathing was elated. Weirdly enough the sight gave her a little bit of reassurance that the woman was not as "strong" as she appeared, obviously the fight had cost her some effort as well.
Another feeling settled into her mind and Lyanna failed to identify it when something clenched inside her hotly for a moment at the sight of the general wiping the sweat from her brow and looking at her with a little smirk.
"I hope you watched intently as we will start your training as soon as your wound allows," the general said in a firm tone.
Lyanna inclined her head, shooing the weird feeling from her mind quickly. The argument from the previous night let her keep her tongue now and not once again give voice to her growing doubts.
"Has our tent been dismantled yet?" the older woman checked. She had not expected the princess to come to the training pits at all.
"When I left, it wasn't yet" Lyanna answered easily "So, we are travelling with the commander?" she checked. She was curious about where they would be going. Anya had mentioned shortly that the commander usually resided in one of their largest cities and she hoped to see it soon herself.
The general inclined her head "We will depart shortly" she announced and turned from the training pits. A young second had already taken the sword from her hands to sharpen the blade again for her. She placed a hand on the lower back of the princess and guided her away while the crowd around the training pits began to diffuse as the commander put her armour back on and there was nothing to watch anymore.
Lyanna looked at the bloody patch which had formed on the general's upper arm "Do you got anything to wrap that with?" she questioned.
"It is merely a graze" the general deflected and annoyance seeped into her tone quickly. She was not necessarily annoyed with the princess herself, but rather with her own body. The Mountain had taken much more strength from her than she wanted to acknowledge. With her full strength, she probably could have avoided any kind of injury while fighting with the commander.
Lyanna furrowed her brows in confusion. She did not understand why the general seemed to be in a bad mood, but she could see the tenseness in the other woman's jaw and the way her brown eyes were harder than they had been yesterday. She burned to tell the general that even a small wound could get infected. She guessed that the healers here must have developed things to fight off infections, but she did not know if they were as potent as the antibiotics she was used to from her own medical training with her own people.
She chose to change the subject instead "Where are we going to travel? To the city you mentioned?".
Anya shook her head in the negative before she answered, visibly exhaling forcefully and relaxing her stance while she did. Her words still came out a little clipped "The city is called Polis. And no, we are not going to the capitol now. We will travel to the Skykru camp."
Lyanna rose a brow questioningly at the older woman. She had not been expecting this kind of answer. She still did not know the contents of the message the commander had sent to Clarke's people.
"Skykru was given an ultimatum. To either leave our lands in the next three days or they will be wiped out" Anya explained easily.
"What?!" Lyanna retorted and blinked rapidly at the older woman, more than a little caught off guard by that response. She had also found Thelonius to present Skykru in a bad light, but she had gotten a better impression of Markus Kane and she did not understand how the commander had come to make this kind of decision now. She remembered Clarke's words of her people helping the grounders to bring down the Mountain Men together with their knowledge of technology, a knowledge the grounders did not have anymore.
Anya stopped in her tracks and looked around, no one had been paying them any intention. She could not fault the nightblood for not knowing yet that questioning the commander's decision could be dangerous and should be solely confined to safe places where no curious ears might listen on. She pulled the girl into the healer's hut quickly.
"You can dress my wound here," the general said, motioning to the stuff still left all around the healer's hut quickly.
Lyanna tilted her head to the side in confusion for a moment, before she sprung into action, choosing not to question the general's sudden change of opinion on the matter.
"You need to be careful with your words more" Anya explained after shrugging off the shirt quickly.
"Careful? How?" Lyanna checked with a frown. She got a wet piece of cloth and began gently cleaning the wound on Anya's arm. The general had thankfully been correct, the wound was rather shallow and would not need any kind of stitches.
"You cannot question any kind of decision the commander takes" Anya continued her explanation in a firm tone, her brown eyes remained kind though.
"I wasn't" Lyanna retorted and the frown remained on her features.
"You do not understand yet what the role of the commander truly is, but you will soon enough" Anya assured the younger woman "Lexa's orders and decisions are basically the laws. Speaking out against them or questioning them can easily be seen as treason. If too many people start questioning the commander, it is her rule which will shortly after being questioned."
Lyanna inclined her head to signal that she had understood. She sensed by the general's tone that this could be dangerous for Lexa "What happens if the commander's rule is questioned?" she wanted to know.
"Lexa put a law into effect that the clans can remove her from power if they all agree her to be unfit to rule" Anya answered immediately and her expression grew a little troubled.
"Remove her from power?" the princess echoed in a questioning tone. She was in the process of wrapping a bandage around the general's upper arm and finished quickly with it.
"A commander's rule always ends only one way" Anya explained in a heavy tone "in death".
