"So, where did you and Clarke take the rover yesterday?"
Or not. Maybe Bellamy should've looked for someone a little less nosy. But quieter than Stevens was usually hard to find. It was a good, comfortable kind of quiet, or at least it usually was. "Jaha had something to show us," Bellamy replied vaguely.
"And?"
"And it didn't pan out. Sorry, Stevens, but I'm not supposed to talk about it."
"Sure man, no problem," Stevens said quickly. "Hey, uh, are we supposed to be here? Isn't this grounder hunting land?"
"Azgeda," Bellamy confirmed. "We're under truce, so it should be fine. Plus Clarke only gave us a day, and this is the best way to bring in as much as possible."
"Clarke might need to give you more than a day," a woman said from the foliage.
Bellamy spun to a sword inches from his face.
"Oh, that's not good," Stevens breathed.
Grounders, Azgeda, stepped out around them.
"Echo, we're at peace with Azgeda," Bellamy reminded her.
"Drop the guns," Echo ordered.
"Do it," Bellamy recommended. He and Stevens set their guns at their feet. Immediately, the warriors took the guns. "I have the seal from the king," Bellamy continued calmly. Slowly, he reached for the inside pocket of his guardsman jacket.
"The seal was to go to your fallen ship, which you destroyed," Echo snarled. "It was not to hunt here."
"There was never any discussion on that," Bellamy objected. "You hunt on our land, and we've never complained.
"We've never blown up your homes."
No, Bellamy wanted to say. You just hunted our Princess to kill her, and your king stabbed me in the leg. That had been a hell of a walk back to the rover, a walk Bellamy wasn't about to forget any time soon for multiple reasons. He also wouldn't forget Abby cleaning and stitching up his leg, and while he hated to admit it, there were quite a few people in medical who wouldn't forget that day either.
"It wasn't your home," Bellamy said instead. "It was our ship. The explosion was an accident."
But Echo didn't look convinced, and Bellamy could feel Stevens shaking beside him. Of course he had to be with Stevens. The guy was cool, but didn't have the same experiences with grounders that many of the Hundred did. This was going to be a tough one to get out of.
"Look, if you want us to leave we will," Bellamy tried again. "We haven't shot any game, and we can go somewhere else."
"No, you're coming back to Polis with us," Echo announced.
"Ok, great. Kane will vouch for us."
Echo sneered at him. "Blowing up ships? Sending Bellamy Blake to hunt on Azgeda land? We have some catching up to do."
Bellamy sighed. "Fine, but I won't tell you anything you don't already know."
Echo ignored him, instead giving an order that sounded a lot like "tie them up" to Bellamy. A moment later, when his wrists were rudely jerked behind his back, he discovered he'd been right.
At least his ability to understand Grounder was getting better.