Chapter 2:

Niylah pulled back as realization crossed her face. "Wanheda," her voice reflected the surprise, "you should not be here."

"I know. Neither should she," I nodded in the direction of the makeshift travois I'd been dragging behind me most of the night. I'd bandaged Lexa up as well as I could and secured her body on it. Still nearly every bump along the way had me stopping to check if her wounds had reopened. The cover of darkness had allowed us to sneak out of Polis and to Niylah's outpost without being seen, but now we needed a safe harbor. I pulled the travois into the dimly lit outpost, so that she could see its passenger.

"Is that…"

"Yes," I interrupted her. "I need to know right now, Niylah. Will we be safe here? If not, I need to find another place."

"But she's dead. The conclave has already been called," she insisted.

I didn't allow myself to dwell on the fact that news had already reached her, and that it was pure luck that I hadn't happened on the messenger in the darkness, or worse, showed up at her doorstep while they were still here. "The conclave has been called, but she's not dead, and as of this moment you're one of only five people who know that," I nodded at Lexa, "six, if she wakes up." I met her eyes, "I need an answer, Niylah."

Niylah gave a short nod of her head, "bring her to the back. She won't be seen there, and she can rest." Her eyes quickly traveled the length of my body, taking in my appearance, "you look that you could use some rest as well."

It hadn't occurred to me until then that I'd been running steadily for over thirty-six hours, and with an abruptness that shocked me, fatigue suddenly seemed to take over every muscle in my body. Even with Niylah's help, I barely managed to lift Lexa's slender frame onto the bed. Her breathing was slow and steady, and I let myself focus on that. As long as she was still breathing, she was still with me.

Niylah scanned Lexa's wounds. "That… wasn't a cat," she looked up at me.

I shook my head, "no. Gunshot." I could barely speak in full sentences anymore.

"Skaikru?" She asked.

"No, but her advisor wanted it to look that way," there was no point in hiding it from her. In for a penny, in for a pound.

"Her advisor wanted her dead?" Niylah's confusion showed.

I shook my head. "He wanted me dead, and he wanted it to look like Skaikru had done it. He missed, she took one of the bullets that was meant for me." I sat down on the edge of the bed and almost reflexively reached to hold Lexa's hand in my own. "He was hoping Lexa would dissolve the thirteenth clan and declare war."

"Over Skaikru killing one of their own? Why would she…" her voice trailed off as she looked down at Lexa's hand clasped in both of mine. "Oh."

I followed her eyes down to where my fingers gently stroked the back of Lexa's hand. Shit. A blanket of silence fell over the small room, interrupted only by Lexa's slow, steady breathing.

"I have to watch the store," Niylah finally broke the awkward silence, and left – or perhaps fled – the small room.

"Niylah, wait," I raced after her.

She spun around to face me, "Clark, I know we never talked about what this is," she gestured between us.

"I know, and I'm…"

"Dula yu op hod em in? [do you love her?]" She interrupted me. When Niylah was upset or… excited, she tended to revert to her native Trigedasleng.

"Sha," I said finally, after a long pause, there was no point in hiding it. Not from her. She knew me well enough that she would know if I was lying. "I didn't…" I took a deep breath, "I didn't want you to find out this way."

"Dula em op hod yu in? [does she love you?]" She pressed, clearly hoping otherwise.

That was a good question. "Ai hofli em hod ai in. [I hope so.]" It was the most honest answer I had, at least until Lexa woke up.

I'd hurt her. I knew I would, but Niylah didn't deserve a lie. Not after everything she'd done for me. She took a step forward, taking one of my hands in hers, "hodnes laik kwelnes. Ai na ste kwelen. Em nou na. [Love is weakness. I can be weak. She can't.]" Tears hung in her eyes, but a fierce strength burned behind them, stubbornly refusing to let them fall.

"Niylah…"

She took a slow, shaking breath and steadied herself, "you should get some sleep. You're exhausted."

"Murphy will be back soon," I shook my head.

"I will wake you when he comes," she countered. She smiled, sadly before she nodded in the direction of the bedchamber, "she needs you."

-x-

I woke from a dreamless sleep to Niylah gently shaking me awake. I'd fallen asleep on the bed next to Lexa after checking her bandages again. The bleeding was down to a modest trickle. Enough that she'd have to have the dressing replaced regularly, but no so much that she was in any danger from blood loss.

"Murphy is back," Niylah whispered.

"Mom?" I sat up.

"No," Murphy appeared at the doorway, "But I got the next best thing." He shrugged out of his bag. "Antibiotics, anaesthetics, enough sutures to stitch two horses together, basic surgical tools, and this," he produced a small handheld radio. "Your mom's expecting your call. She's listening on a frequency that Pike's people don't use."

"Why didn't she come herself?" I asked.

"Things have gone to hell at Arkadia. Pike has anyone who is or ever has spoken against him locked up. Octavia is on the run… somewhere," he summarized, "Jaha has basically decided that he's the savior of all mankind and people are lining up to agree with him. All the walls have eyes and ears, and someone like your mom would be missed if she disappeared."

"What about you?" I asked.

"Me?" Murphy let out a wry laugh, "they didn't even notice that I was there, much less gone."

I gave my head a shake to clear it. Those were all things I would have to deal with, but they could wait. Highest priority was Lexa.

"Niylah," I turned to her, "I need some boiling water to sterilize these tools."

"Does she know who we're treating here?" I turned back to Murphy.

"No, and I didn't tell her," Murphy replied. "I figured 'plausible deniability' was the order of the day."

"Good call," I told him, "from here out, we keep the circle as small as possible. The fewer the people who know that Lexa is still alive, the safer she is."

I keyed the radio and set the microphone to voice activation, then laid it on the bed next to Lexa.

"Mom?"

"Clarke, thank God, are you okay? Where are you?" Mom's voice sounded tinny coming through the speaker.

"I'm fine, mom, and I'm not going to tell you where I am. If someone asks, you don't have to lie," I told her. "I need your help."

"Tell me what you need," her voice replied.

"Female…" it occurred to me that I didn't actually know how old Lexa was, so I gave my best guess, "early twenties. Gunshot to lower left quadrant. Exit wound in the back above the left ilium. Appears to be a through-and-through. Wound was cauterized on site with hot rebar."

"Seriously?" Mom sounded impressed.

I shrugged before I realized that she couldn't actually see me. "Yeah. It was all I could think of."

"Wouldn't have been my first choice, but I imagine it probably saved her life," she replied. "How badly is she bleeding?"

"Worse than I'd like, but it's manageable. No immediate danger of exsanguination," I replied.

"Okay, you're going to need to go in and take out any dead tissue, then work your way back out, stitching everything up as you work your way out. She's going to need a bucketload of antibiotics once you're done, but if it's a through-and-through, I should be able to walk you through it."

"Okay, what do I do first?"

"Sterilize a ten-blade and let me know when you're ready," she ordered me, "and make yourself comfortable, this is going to take a while."

-x-

I let out a long breath as I tied the last suture. After six hours holding a scalpel, my hands were cramped, and barely steady. Niylah had played nurse for the entire time even though she must have been exhausted herself. As I thought back to the way she'd cleaned and dressed my wounds the night we'd spent together, it occurred to me that her trading post must spend a fair amount of time doubling as an emergency medical clinic to those who were willing to trade for care. She was probably a pretty decent bonesetter.

"How do the sutures look?" My mom's voice called out again.

"Not my best work, but they'll hold. She'll have a nasty scar when all this is done, but the bleeding seems to have stopped."

"Good. Hang a bag of cefoxitin, and keep it coming. I sent three IV bags with Murphy. Use them all. When she wakes up, I sent you some neomycin pills. Keep her on those until she runs out. Check her pulse and breathing."

"Pulse at 54 beats per minute and strong. Breathing at 15 breaths per minute." I put my ear to her chest. "Breath sounds normal."

"That's good. Keep watching her to see if that changes, but it sounds like she's going to be okay," Mom told me.

"Can I reach you on this frequency?" I asked.

"Only in emergencies. Has Murphy brought you up to speed on what's going on here?"

"Mostly. Are you okay?"

"No. But Pike needs a doctor on staff, and for now, we don't have many," she told me, "I'll be fine."

"Good. We need to come up with a plan on our end, but for now, the less you know about where I am and what I'm doing, the better," I told her.

"Don't do anything dangerous," she cautioned.

"I don't think I'll have much choice on that one, if history is any indicator," I told her.

"Well, then don't do anything stupid."

"I won't. Head and heart," I replied.

-x-

The sun was just barely over the horizon when Lexa's eyes fluttered open. She took in a couple of sharp breaths, and groaned as she aggravated her wounds.

"Shhh," I rushed to her side and took her hand. "It's okay. You're safe," I unconsciously mimicked her words from so long ago.

"Klark," a small smile appeared on her face as she visibly relaxed. "I'm not… dead?"

"No, but you gave it your best shot," I reached up to gently brush a stray hair from her forehead, "beja nou dula daun gon Ai nodotaim [please don't do that to me again]," I said gently.

"I will try," she replied, matching my gentle tone.

"What happened?" Her eyes finally seemed to focus enough to take in her surroundings, "where am I?"

She closed her eyes, almost meditatively for a moment before they snapped open. A look of panic spread across her face "What's wrong? Ai no nou sen heda in."

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," I tried to calm her down.

"I can't hear the commanders," she repeated. "I've lost the commanders." It was about the closest to tears I'd ever seen her, and I'd seen her talk about the beheading of the love of her life. I'd seen her impale one of her closest friends and confidants. I'd seen her mourn, in her way, the deaths of hundreds in TonDC, yet none of them seemed to affect her the way the sudden silencing of the voices in her mind had.

"It's okay," I whispered.

"It's not," a panic was starting to set in, "I can't hear their voices."

"Then hear mine," I cupped her face in my hands. "Sen ai bouz op."

She seemed to relax, but only slightly. "Why did you do this to me?" She demanded.

"I did it to save your life," I told her. "You're safe."

"The next commander…"

I shook my head, "I wasn't saving the commander's life. I was saving yours."

"Do you even know what you've done, Klark?" She demanded, "as we speak, each of my novitiates is fighting to the death until only one remains. By saving one life, you've killed eight others."

"That would have happened anyway," I countered. "If I'd done nothing, you would have died, and your novitiates would still be fighting to the death. I had a lot of very bad options, and no time to make a decision. At least this way, I get to keep someone I lo— someone I care about." I let myself put on a wry smile, "you want to know why I saved you? Because I need you." I heard voices from the front room of the trading post. I ignored them. Niylah would keep whoever it was from coming back here.

"Hodness nou laik kwelnes [love is not weakness]," she said softly. "You were right."

"Clarke," Niylah stepped into the room. "There's been a development."

"What happened?"

"That was a messenger. The conclave is over, a new commander has been chosen," Niylah replied.

"We expected that," I told her. That seemed quick, though. Lexa talked of her conclave as if it were something that could last days, and take several sessions.

"There's more. Kongeda is marching on Arkadia. They've declared war on Skaikru," Niylah continued.

I shook my head, "I don't understand, Aden promised…"

"Aden is dead, Clark," behind her, even Murphy winced at the bluntness of the statement. "Aden, the novitiates, they all lost the conclave."

"So, who is…" my question trailed off as a cold realization crept into my chest and squeezed until I could barely breathe, "Ontari."

She nodded, "her first act after her ascension was confirmed was to dissolve Skaikru's position on the coalition and declare war."

"I was sure… my spirit would choose more wisely than that," Lexa spoke weakly from the bed.

"Lexa… I'm…" Lexa held up a hand to silence me. She wasn't commander anymore, but old habits die hard, I guess. "You should be resting," I said lamely.

She ignored my comment and turned to Niylah, "did my novitiates die well?"

"I don't know. They didn't say."

Lexa nodded, accepting the answer for what it was: the truth. "A new commander has risen. If it is her decision that we march on Arkadia, then we must honor that wisdom."

"It will be a slaughter on both sides," I told her. "Skaikru will be exterminated, and thousands of Kongeda will die. I can't accept that this is ancient wisdom."

"We must," she replied, "she is the commander."

"She's not my commander," I told her, "we've been thrown out."

"She's mine," Lexa countered.

"Yu gonplei ste odon [your fight is over]. Do the dead have commanders?" I asked.

Lexa opened her mouth to speak, then closed it, her eyebrows arching slightly. Apparently, her current condition was an eventuality she hadn't considered, and it made her position relative to the new commander somewhat unclear.

"Surely there must be some way she can be deposed," I insisted. "If she's removed, you're the only remaining nightblood, right?"

Lexa hesitated a moment before she replied, "yes, the only one."

"So you weren't the first commander, how were the others replaced?" I asked.

"Almost all were killed in battle, some were killed in a single combat challenge," she said. "To my knowledge, I'm the only one to have stepped down alive from her position."

"Single combat, like the ice queen tried to do to replace you," I pressed.

Lexa's head bobbed forward. "Any warrior may challenge the commander. If she loses, then a new conclave is called."

"So you challenge Ontari," I said. "You win, you're the only nightblood left, so the conclave will be really short."

"It is not that simple," Lexa shook her head. "I would never allow someone to fight on my behalf, but Ontari has no such qualms. She would allow a devoted follower to kill the challenger before they'd finished uttering a challenge, and right now, she has the loyalty of all the krus. We would never get close enough to issue a challenge, much less survive one."

"But if you could, can you beat Ontari?" I asked.

"Once I recover my strength? Yes," Lexa assured me, "but I wouldn't be fighting Ontari."

The confusion on my face must have showed.

"Ontari now possesses all the memories, knowledge, wisdom, and instincts of all the commanders that preceded her," she smiled wryly, "including me."

"And you don't," I realized. "But Roan knew that, and challenged you. He almost won, and you said that previous commanders had been killed in single combat," I reminded her.

She nodded, "but whatever was done to kill them, I can assure you, would not have worked on the next commander. If Roan had killed me, the next commander would have beaten him easily." She shrugged again, "as I said, everything I learned, every fight I fought, every attack I landed, as well as those of every other commander, she has all of them now. She would be outmatched, this is true," Lexa agreed, "but I would be outnumbered."

"Okay. That's problem number two. Problem number one: how do we get Lexa close enough to issue the challenge? She's right, for better or worse, Ontari has the loyalty of all of the clans. How do we break that?" I asked.

"What if she started losing?" Murphy asked. At our confused glances he went on, "she only has the loyalty of her troops because they believe that the commanders are speaking to her and guiding her, right?"

"Go on," Lexa commanded. Old habits die hard.

"What if we can make it look like she's being outmaneuvered? This trading post will be behind their lines. From here, we can make it look like she's being attacked by Skaikru where she didn't anticipate it. We can hassle their supply lines. We can cut off roads and paths to keep the front lines fed and healthy," he continued. "We do it right, we can convince them that she doesn't have the help of the past commanders, maybe even that she's not the true commander after all. If we're really lucky, someone may challenge her and win before we have to."

"Many warriors will die," Lexa pointed out.

"How many will die if we allow war between the coalition and Skaikru?" I asked. "Yes, you may, and probably will, exterminate Skaikru, but you will lose hundreds – perhaps thousands – of warriors in the battle." I turned to Murphy, "What about Pike? What's stopping him from taking advantage of the situation to kill even more warriors?"

"We do the same to him," Murphy shrugged, "play both sides against the middle."

"A lot of Skaikru will die," I told him. "Are you comfortable with killing some of our own people?"

"We kill some of them, or we watch on the sidelines as the coalition kills all of them," Murphy shrugged, "that strikes me as a pretty clear decision."

"So, let me get this straight," I said, "you're proposing that the three of us…"

"Four," Niylah stepped forward from behind Lexa.

"Niylah, this isn't your fight," I told her. "You're safe here."

"It became my fight when Pike killed my family," Niylah answered. "If I can keep some families alive, I want to help."

"So the four of us are going to stand in the middle of the coalition, Skaikru, and whatever the hell is pulling Jaha's strings, and try to convince all of them that they're getting their asses kicked," I summarized. "Is that about right? A guerilla war on three fronts?"

"You have a better idea?" Murphy asked with a shrug.

I have to admit, he had me there. "Well, then I guess we'd better get started, hadn't we?"