As Lexa flung the tent flap open her senses were immediately bombarded. All around her dark shapes moved in every direction, their movements tracked through the rain and dancing flames of the camp.
The rain felt cold on her skin and within a moment she was soaked. There were cries of fear and pain echoing all around her. A dark shape was lumbering towards her. She raised her sword but quickly lowered it.

The familiar face of Gustus appeared from the darkness.

"What is this?" Lexa demanded.

Gustus had a deep cut across his face and was cradling his arm.

"Azgeda Heda. He said panting. "There must be 100 of them."

Lexa swore and reached for her horn. She blew on it sharply three times, the attack signal. As she expected at the sound of the horn a least half a dozen white faced figures began to charge her and Gustus. Half of the advancing warriors were intercepted by her own warriors; the rest raced forward.

Lexa held her sword high and took on her battle sense, not a bit a fear in her heart. She cut down each of the warriors as they met her with clean strong strokes. She had always been significantly skilled at combat, a little known fact about her for she had been selected based on her intelligence and not stature. As she moved through the camp taking down all intruders in her path her fellow warriors came to her side. By this time several of their tents had been engulfed in flames, their owners killed in their sleep. The ground was littered with bodies; both Azgeda and Trikru. Lexa's heart sank as they rounded a corner of the camp to find the healer's carriage ablaze. The healer's bodies lay around the fire, their throats cut. This confused Lexa, to cut ones throat required more time than to merely stab or cut them. The Azgeda would have had to hold each healer steady and slit their throat carefully, as well each healer lay on their back, their faces visible.

"Why must they have killed them all?" Gustus spoke disgusted by what he saw before him. Slaying the innocent in games of war was highly frowned upon in their society. Lexa nodded in agreement but something still worried her, the tents around the healers lay un-scorched, their occupants beside her. Yet these men and women were massacred.

Suddenly with a battle cry two dozen enemy warriors emerged from behind one of the larger tents. Lexa and her men met them head on. The camp's ground was by this time not but churned mud, it made staying on ones feet incredibly difficult and after a particularly hard hit Lexa found herself on her back. The Ice Nation warrior was about to shove his sword through her heart when she kicked his knee as hard as she could. She went down and Lexa plunged her sword through his throat before his could rise. As the man before her drowned in his own blood Lexa looked around. All around her; her men fought Azgeda there were cries of pain and rage as men fought and died but somehow over the sound a high-pitched cry wavered above all the noise. A familiar cry.

"Costia!" Lexa yelled and she began to charge through the fight towards her tents. She pitied any who tried to stop her for her paid no attention to where or how she killed them.

As she rounded the last corner to her tent she slid to a stop and stared in horror. The tent was fully ablaze and had been for a few minutes. But she couldn't have been in there, she'd be dead. Lexa had just heard her cry.

Then movement caught her eye. Five Azgeda struggling to subdue a single form, the red hair caught the firelight. The soldiers were trying to drag the screaming and flailing healer into the darkness of the trees.

"Costia!" Lexa called her so the girl would know that all would be well. Brandishing her sword Lexa charged the men. Two of them released their hold on the healer and drew their swords. They were large warriors, yet they were surprisingly clean compared to Lexa who was covered completely in mud. As if they'd just entered the battle.

She met the first warrior and had him dead on the ground before the other could even swing his sword, but even that took up valuable time as Costia's form disappeared further and further into the trees. Her cries could no longer be heard but Lexa assumed she'd be knocked unconscious. A horn blew.

"Costia!"

The second soldier died as quickly as the first but at this time Lexa sensed figures approaching her from behind. To her horror she saw the Azgeda warriors running towards her, her own men hot on their tails. However, this wasn't a battle charge, this was their retreat. She could no longer see Costia and fought the urge to chase after her.
As the men ran by her Lexa took care to catch as many with her sword as she could, to the point where her sword stuck in the thigh of one of the men, as she pulled it out she caught a glimpse of a long heavy spear heading towards her face. She didn't have time to duck and the blunt end of it caught her full in the face. Though the clouds were dark and stormy that night she saw stars.

XXXXX

Her face was wet. That was Lexa's first thought as she rose back to conscious thought. Was it blood? No it was too cold to be blood. As she opened her eyes her vision was blurred, but not because of her aching head, she was laying face first in the mud. The weight of a dead man crushing her. As shoved the man's body off of her the suns rays blinded her. The great Commander shielded her eyes as she say up from her mud puddle. All around her lay the bodies of Azgeda and Trikru. A larger man with a spear in his lay directly beside her; her sword lodged in his stomach. She'd killed him before blacking out. Lexa got to her feet and pulled her sword free. To her surprise the man groaned and opened his eyes.

At the sight of Lexa the man began to laugh.

"So you did survive huh? Well we tried. At least you weren't our target."

Feeling rage build up inside her Lexa placed her sword to the man's neck.

"What do you speak of?"

The man laughed again, this time he spit out blood. Sensing he would not answer her Lexa placed her sword on his wounded stomach and began to push the sword in again, slowly.

"What was your purpose here?" She hissed.

The man struggled against the pain she was inflicting but was too weak to fight her off.

"Tell me!" Lexa yelled.

"That Healer of yours." The man said cringing. "The one you were just so close with. Nia is not the fool you are."

Feeling her heart begin to race faster Lexa shoved the sword deeper.

"Where did your men take her?"

The light was beginning to flicker in the man's eyes.

"Don't worry, Nia will keep her alive for some time. Now necessarily and the mint condition as you saw her last." The man continued to laugh.

Lexa forced the sword deep into the man's body until she felt it hit the ground beneath him. As his laugh faded away so did the light in his eyes. As the man died Lexa looked up at the tree line, where only a few hours ago Costia had been dragged in.

She pulled her sword from the man and turned to face the rest of her camp. The remains of her tent still smoked and around it a few tents still flickered. Lexa stared into the debris of her tent, she could scarcely make out the bed she had been so happily sleeping in before the world went to hell.

As she strode through the camp hatred filled her heart. So many of her men lay dead, some murdered in the very beds they slept, some burnt to death. But where were the surviving members of her party? She had seen them driving the Azgeda away. No. That had been the Azgeda retreating because they'd gotten what they'd come for. The one thing the Commander of the clans loved. Lexa kicked a burnt crate, its contents disintegrated into white ash at her foot's contact.

She'd been so foolish. How could she have been so careless to let her relationship with Costia be so well known? Nia had found her out and taken her. To hurt Lexa, enrage her, maybe cause her to make a mistake.

Lexa gripped the handle of her sword as if it were a lifeline. She could feel tears well in her eyes as she thought of where Costia was now or even if the healer was still alive.

No. Lexa thought. No. Do not let Nia get to you. Nia wouldn't dare kill Costia for she'd know Lexa's wrath would follow. But she'd been daring enough to attack the Commander's camp.

"Heda!" Lexa's thoughts came to a driving halt as Gustus' voice called her. Of course he was still alive. That man couldn't be killed if the gods themselves tried.

As Gustus approached her he held out his arm, Lexa took it and squeezed feeling the life be pushed back into her with his touch.

"I am so glad to see you alive and well Heda." Gustus said releasing her hand.

"As am I Gustus." Lexa said and she immediately began walking in the direction he'd come.

"How many are dead?" She asked gravely.

Gustus hung his head. "Most Heda." Out of the corner of her eye Lexa saw his fists curl. "Many were killed in their sleep or in the fires. The few Azgeda we captured told us they'd been following us for some time and had waited until the rain was at its heaviest to soak the tents in fuel and slit the guard's throats."

Lexa's grip on her sword handle intensified. This had been planned well in advance.

"Have we any horses?" Lexa asked through gritted teeth.

Gustus nodded. "We sent out a rider as soon as the sun rose to fetch reinforcements and horses."

"Did you speak of me?" Lexa asked assumed they'd declared her dead.

"We didn't Heda. We hadn't found your body and didn't wish to declare anything until we were certain. "

"Thank you Gusts." Lexa said gratefully not wanting the capital to be buzzing with news of her false death.

The two came over a slight hill to where about a dozen warriors were gathered and milling about without much purpose. At the site of Lexa they all dropped to their knees.

Lexa looked across at them; there were so few left, so many warriors, travelers, and healers dead. Once again Lexa felt the tears in her eyes at the thought of Costia. She had never felt the urge to cry in front of her soldiers before but she had a feeling that she would not be alone in shedding tears from the looks on their defeated faces. But somehow the looks of despair etched on all of her brave warriors gave her strength.

"Trikru!" Lexa shouted. The warriors all rose. "What passed here this night shall not go unnoticed. This was a travesty, no warrior should be killed in their sleep, no healer have their throat cut, no man burnt alive in their tents!" Lexa felt strain in her voice as she spoke. "What the Azgeda have done will result in great punishment for them all."

Her warriors began to grunt and nod their approval.

"Blood Must Have Blood." Lexa spoke clearly; the words that their people had spoken for generations and would never cease to have meaning.