Clarke's heart hammered in her chest as she followed Titus from the throne room to Lexa's chambers. She knew she shouldn't trust a single word from him, but the hope that emerged in her wounded heart at his statement was too insistent to be denied.
There is still time to save her…
Titus hurried to the bed, laying Lexa gently on her back upon the furs where only hours before the two of them had rejoiced in their love. Now Lexa lay upon them completely still. Her blood-so much blood, too much, Clarke's mind screamed-smeared on the white furs, shining wetly in the fading sunlight coming through the windows.
She pushed roughly on the older man's shoulder, demanding an answer. "Titus, what is going on? What do you mean there's still time to save her?!"
"Wanheda, we have had our disagreements in the past, but please know that I meant neither of you harm. This was the only way I could save you both. But we must-"
His response was cut off by a shout outside the door to the main suite outside of the bedroom. The two of them looked up fearfully, and Clarke's eyes scanned the room for anything that could be used as a weapon as adrenaline flooded her veins and she ran into the other room. Sounds of a struggle outside carried into the room for a few terrible seconds, and then there was a brief, guttural cry before something heavy hit the door, making it shudder in the frame. Clarke broke into a sprint, reaching for the door. She could block it for at least a few seconds at least. And when the traitors broke free… The best she could hope for was to sell her life as dearly as possible in vengeance.
But when the door burst open, Clarke froze in shock. "Octavia?"
Octavia Blake looked equally shocked to see Clarke for a moment, but then lowered the bloody sword clenched in her hand. She pushed the door fully open, and the gore-stained corpse of a Yujleda guard fell backwards into the room from where he had slumped against the door. "Clarke! You're alive!" The dark haired Skaikru second turned slightly, barking a quick command to those behind her. "Quick! Grab them and bring them inside!"
Clarke rushed to help as Octavia grabbed the dead guard by the straps of his armor, clearing his body out of the doorway and dumping it off to the side. Clarke was shocked when Murphy followed behind her, covered in cuts and bruises and holding a wicked-looking club at the ready. Indra quickly followed behind him with another Sangkru body, dumping it alongside the other on the floor and slamming the door shut. She took the scabbard from the shoulders of one of the corpses and passed it through the door handles, barring them all inside.
"The Commander?! Where is she?! Does she live?!" Indra asked Clarke frantically.
"In here," Clarke replied, gesturing for them to follow her back into the bedroom. "Indra, I don't know if…They put her to Wamplei kom Thuz Kodon."
The moment they rounded the corner, Indra growled something in Trigedasleng that Clarke had never heard before, but from her tone was certainly the most ferocious of curses. Titus had spread open a small bundle of sharp-looking instruments on a cloth next to Lexa, and was rapidly combining the contents of two vials into a small cup.
"I have bandages," Octavia said as she rushed towards the bed, dropping her sword in a nearby chair as she pulled a pouch off of her belt and set to work staunching the flow of blood from the deepest of Lexa's wounds.
"She looks pretty fucked up; we're going to need more than that," Murphy added, earning a glare from both Indra and Clarke. He stared intently at Titus with a scowl.
"Guard the door, Skaiboy," Indra ordered. "Let anyone through and I will come back there and kill you the same as our enemies and leave your corpse in the dungeon where we found you."
"You're the boss. We're all going to get killed unless we get out of here right now anyway." Murphy whirled the club in his hands, shrugging as he went back into the other room.
"Wanheda, Indra, quickly! I need your help," Titus called. He handed the small cup to Clarke. "Get this down her throat, as much as you can."
She took it out of his hand, barely registering the bitter smell coming from the thin green liquid within. Sitting half on the bed near Lexa's head, she slid her right arm under the lifeless woman, propping her slightly upright. She used the edge of the cup in her left hand to part Lexa's lips, tipping her head back and letting a little bit of the concoction slide down her throat.
Indra's eyes narrowed as she watched Clarke pour the rest of the liquid into the stricken leader's mouth. "Reshwan leaf. You gave her reshwan…"
"Reshwan?" Clarke asked, her eyes flicking between Indra and Titus as the last of the liquid left the cup.
"A poison," Indra spat, glaring at Titus. "It has no color or smell; assassins use it. Even in small doses it can bring even a Natblida to the edge of death. But if the antidote is given quickly enough it can be stopped. Though the few who survive the leaf often wish they had died."
"How...?" Clarke blinked in surprise as her memory supplied the answer. "The cloth you used to wipe the blade. You had the poison on it."
He nodded, but continued with his preparations, laying a small box with a sliding lid painted with a skull on the cloth before his fingers closed around the handle of a scalpel. "The only way I could hope to spare her was to have everyone believe her dead. But she took much of the poison, and it has been too long since the first cut. It may corrupt the Flame, if it has not done so already, which will certainly kill her. It has killed two other Commanders this way. We must be swift." He jerked his head at Indra. "You three, roll Heda onto her side, and hold her very still."
Clarke lowered Lexa back onto the bed, cradling her head as Octavia and Indra rolled her onto her side, her back to the Fleimkepa. Titus bent down and brushed the hair away from the Commander's neck before pressing the sharp point of the scalpel to the small, raised ridge of the scar beneath the infinity symbol etched just below the base of her skull. He broke the skin, carefully opening the scar with the blade and Clarke's stomach churned anew at the sight of black blood oozing from yet another wound on Lexa's skin. He shifted quickly, setting the scalpel aside to pick up the small box. Setting the box against her skin, he bent over the bed almost reverently.
"Ascende superius," he intoned.
A tiny silvery thread emerged from the wound in the Commander's neck. Another, and another emerged, like a spider emerging from its hiding place as the Flame came into view.
"What the...?" Octavia murmured, eyes wide.
"The Flame," Titus nearly whispered. "Keryon kom Heda. The Spirit of the Commander."
Clarke was speechless, and could only stare as Titus carefully took hold of a glowing blue chip attached to the end of the tendrils, which retracted them into itself as he deposited it into the waiting box and closed the lid. She had always assumed the Spirit-the Flame- Lexa spoke of was metaphorical, a legend constructed to both inspire and legitimize. But the light blue computer chip with its silvery threads was clearly anything but a myth.
Titus hurried to close the wound with needle and thread. His hands were stained with black blood as he finished, dropping the instruments back onto the bed.
"You must get her and the Flame out of Polis," Titus urged. "It is too dangerous to keep either of them here. If they catch you all will be lost."
"There is a passage that leads from the Commander's levels of the tower to tunnels below which run under the city. Very few know they exist; it will keep us from Ontari's hunters until we reach the outskirts," Indra replied. The general stepped forward, ignoring her own wounds to slide her hands underneath her sworn leader, lifting her frail body in her arms.
"We used them to get to you through the fighting," added Octavia. "We ran into Aden and the other Natblida fighting in the stairwells and sent them back into the tunnels. Hopefully those kids cleared a path and made it out."
"Good. The Natblida are deadly fighters and should increase your odds. I will do what I can to delay Ontari, but I do not know if I can continue to deceive her for long." Titus paused, and turned to Clarke. He extended the box containing the Flame to her with outstretched hands. "You must take this with you."
For a moment Clarke wavered, her eyes locked on the sight of Lexa in Indra's arms. She stepped forward, and gently laid her fingertips on Lexa's cheek, tracing a line down until they rested alongside the column of her throat. Her eyes welled with tears as she felt the faintest flutter of Lexa's pulse underneath her hand, thready and faint, but very much real. Her heart broke anew as she made her decision. Her gaze was firm as she locked eyes with Titus, then Octavia and Indra.
"No. I need to stay here."
"Clarke are you insane?! Ontari won't keep her word-" Octavia said, bewildered.
"If I stay I can buy time for our people. All of them, Octavia, not just Skaikru. Buy time to find those who oppose Ontari. And buy time for Lexa. If I leave with you she won't stop hunting us." Her eyes locked with Indra's. "Swear to me, General. You will protect her with your life."
Indra ducked her head in a brief bow. "Sha, Wanheda. Ai don swega klin gon ai koma."
Titus sighed heavily, but turned to Octavia, the box still in his outstretched hand.
"This contains our hopes, our sorrows, our triumphs and bitter defeats, Oktavia kom Skaikru kom Trikru. It is the soul of Trikru." Octavia hesitated a moment before taking the box from his hand, tucking it away into her pack. "You are the Fleimkepa now, Oktavia. The Spirit of the Commander cannot fall into Ontari's hands, even if Lexa is captured. Guard it well."
"Sha, Titus. It will be safe," Octavia reassured gravely.
"Guys!" Murphy poked his head around the corner, glancing at each of them before throwing another look back over his shoulder towards the door. "The hallway's clearing out and it's almost dark. My Grounder's a little rough but I'm pretty sure I overheard some goons in the hallway say they're all moving out of the tower and going to search the streets. If we're going to get out of here, we gotta go now."
Indra turned towards the door. "You first, Skaiboy. Put that club to use if we meet the enemy. Ai seken, you guard our backs."
Octavia chewed her lower lip for a second, looking at Clarke for a moment. "Stay safe, Clarke."
"You too," she said. "May we meet again."
And with that, Octavia turned on her heel, cautiously but quickly following Indra and Murphy out of the door and out of sight.
Silence pressed on all around Clarke. Within hours, she had gone from embracing love and hope for a quick resolution to the conflict between her people and Lexa's, to finding herself in the very center of a war with her lover lost into the night and on the brink of death. While she had bought them precious time, she was walking a very fine line, surrounded on all sides with no one to trust.
Clarke took a deep breath, trying not to stare at the black blood that soaked the bed. "Why, Titus? Why are you doing this? Since when do you care if a Commander lives or dies?"
The former Fleimkepa'sgaze was distant, looking inward for a moment before he replied. "I've served four Commanders as Fleimkepa, none of them half as wise or strong as Leksa kom Trikru. It is as I told Oktavia; the Flame is the soul and memory of my people. By saving Heda Leksa, I save the worthiest bearer of the Flame. And so this is how I will serve."
She turned to face Titus. "I hope you have a plan."
"Sha, Wanheda. I will finish the ritual. We will burn the Commander at dawn, and Ontari will Ascend."
"Lexa just left and so did the Flame," Clarke scowled, "we don't have her body and we don't have a chip. Ontari's not stupid, Titus."
"No, but she is rash," he instructed. "She wishes for power for power's sake, and has no knowledge of or respect for our customs. There is no one left in Polis who witnessed the last Ascension or has seen the Flame, and in her haste to command both Trikru and the Kongeda we may be able to deceive her. I can use this to our advantage. At least long enough for Heda to reach safety."
"How?"
"The less you know, the better."
"But-"
"Ontari will have eyes everywhere; if I am spotted in my false preparations, I will be killed. If you are with me, they will also kill you. They will likely interrogate you if they get any word of a plot to interfere with the Ascension. No, it is better you return to your chambers, and wait until you are called to attend the ceremony at dawn."
Clarke's shoulders dropped, but she saw the wisdom in Titus' argument. Ontari had underestimated her, and in order to fulfill her promise to Lexa to look after their people, she needed to survive and live to fight another day.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Titus," she said, throwing him a dark look before she turned to the door.
"As do I, Wanheda. As do I…"
Next Week, in Chapter Five:
"When next Ontari spoke, her voice was cold. "Ai laik Heda! For too long this Kongeda has known weakness. For too long have we endured these insults to our laws!" Her gaze lingered on Clarke with that statement. "I will be the one to lead us to glory! I will be the one to restore the old ways! And I will have the heads of any who oppose my efforts! Jus drein jus daun!""
-
Trigedasleng:
Wamplei kom Thauz Kodon= Death by a Thousand Cuts
Ascende superius= Seek higher things
Keryon kom Heda= The Spirit of the Commander
Natblida = Nightbloods
"Sha, Wanheda. Ai don swega klin gon ai koma." = "Yes, Wanheda. I swear on my honor."
Ai seken = [My] Second…
Kongeda= Coalition
-
Art by Foomatic