Clarke
"We are going on a journey," Elody announced when Clarke was brought to her chambers.
"A journey?" Clarke asked, trying not to get too excited, but it was hard not to when she heard what came next.
"Yes," the queen confirmed. "Now that we are allies, I believe I should go with you and meet the rest of your people. I'm sure they will welcome me as a guest." It was not a question.
Clarke's heart was soaring. "Yes, of course," she said, nodding her head. "And the pharmaceuticals? If we could bring some of those, that would be so helpful to my people. We have very little in the way of supplies, and those drugs could save so many lives."
"And what will you give to me in return?" Elody asked.
"I'm sure something can be arranged." Maybe all this wouldn't be for nothing; if she could bring medicine- real medicine- to her people, then this alliance would be more than worth all the torture she'd endured.
"Wonderful," the queen said with a nod. "We should leave today, for Polis."
"Polis?" Clarke asked, recognising the name. "How long will it take to get there?"
"Only a day," Elody said with a shrug.
"What?" Clarke was surprised. She had assumed Polis was in Trikru land, not in the Ice Nation. "Where is it?"
"I can show you on a map if you like," Elody said, going to a drawer in one of her cabinets and pulling out a long roll of parchment. She spread it open on her desk and pointed. "We are here- Tawa." The area where she indicated was on a river, as she'd told Clarke previously, and there seemed to be several huge lakes not too far away. Then she pointed quite a bit southwest from where Tawa was, and said, "And that is Polis."
Clarke's father had taught her how to read maps, so she frowned as she looked at the distance, not to mention the terrain, between the two cities. "That looks a lot farther than a day's horseback ride," she said skeptically.
Elody laughed, perhaps the first laugh Clarke had ever heard from her lips, and she said, "We are not going by horse. That would take nearly two months." She rolled the map back up and tucked it away. Clarke wished she'd had longer to look at the document- it had laid out all sorts of clans and territories, and if she was able to get her hands on something like that, it could be invaluable to her people. She made a mental note to add it to her list of things to negotiate for.
What the queen said next made her stop in her tracks. "We will take the train."
"The… train?" Clarke managed, totally shocked. Suddenly something Lexa had said came back to her, and she could still hear the softness in her voice as she said, Polis will change the way you think about us.
"Are you afraid of trains?" Elody asked, breaking through her thoughts.
Clarke blushed a little. "No, I've never seen one. I just didn't know you had one."
"The world is large. We can't go everywhere by horseback."
It was a good point, but Clarke just hadn't thought about it before. She couldn't help but feel a pang as she thought about travelling to Polis- Lexa was supposed to take her to there, and maybe if she hadn't betrayed her, things might have happened that way. If she hadn't betrayed her, everything would be different. But now she would be going there with Elody, and that was just the way it was.
"If we go to Polis, won't that be risky?" she asked, trying to delicate. "If you've broken your alliance with Lexa, will you be welcome there?"
"I can go wherever I want to go," Elody said curtly. "Lexa is no concern of mine."
It was clear she'd offended her, so Clarke dropped the subject. Instead she said, "When are we leaving?"
"Now," Elody answered. "Fetch your things, and your attendant, and we will depart for Polis as soon as you are ready."
Clarke nodded her head and started for the door, but she paused; the now-familiar shadow of her guard did not fall into step with her. She cast Elody an inquisitive glance.
"I believe you are more keen for this journey than me," the queen explained. "You no longer need to be watched."
"Thank you," Clarke said. "I appreciate you trusting me."
"See that it is not misplaced," Elody warned, and Clarke nodded to her before leaving the room. She went right back to her own chamber and told Yana what was happening.
"The train!" the girl exclaimed with obvious excitement. "It has always been a dream of mine to ride the train. I'm so happy that I was chosen to serve you, Clarke of the Sky People."
"Hey, you don't serve me," Clarke said gently. "We're friends, remember?"
Yana smiled, but she seemed to be more amused by that comment than particularly convinced. "Come here, I will fix your hair," she said.
Clarke sat down in the chair and Yana moved up behind her, combing through her soft blonde waves before starting to section off braids. Her fingers were nimble and quick, and before long Clarke's hair was tight across her scalp, the braids curving in front of her ears and hanging down by her neck in a style that Yana seemed to favour.
"This will be your first appearance outside the Ice Nation, now that you are our ally," Yana said, coming around to the front of Clarke and inspecting her handiwork carefully. "I must make sure you look perfect."
Clarke couldn't help but smile at the girl's enthusiasm. Yana took out a small box that had a few compartments, each one containing a different shade of kohl. Carefully she laid down a base of black, sweeping careful lines from Clarke's cheeks forward, across her cheekbones, and partway under her eyes. She edged her eyes in black as well, before finishing it off with a few sweeps of blue.
"You look formidable," she said with a satisfied nod. "Where is your coat?"
"There, by the fire," Clarke told her, motioning to the peg where she'd hung Elody's elaborate gift of leather and fur. Yana brought it over and helped Clarke on with it, fastening all the buttons and smoothing out the sleeves, hooking the eyelets over her thumbs and cinching it at the wrists. She knelt down and checked the laces on Clarke's boots, which reached halfway to her knees, and then she stepped back and admired her work.
"Now I see you as you are," she said, the respect obvious in her voice. "You are Skaikruheda. You are Wanheda."
"I don't want that," Clarke said firmly. "Please… just call me by my name."
Yana seemed confused, but she bowed her head in assent. "Very well, Clarke."
Clarke was surprised at the fact that the train looked exactly like ones she'd seen in old photos and paintings; somehow she'd expected it to be different. For the first time in a very long time, she wished she had paper and pencils so she could draw what she was seeing.
As the train started to move south, she only felt that desire growing. Everything they passed, whether man-made or natural, was fascinating, breathtaking. She felt like a child staring out at the world in absolute wonder. They passed rivers, lakes, mountains, forests, meadows, waterfalls, and occasionally villages or small settlements. The contrast between their train and the primitive communities they passed was striking, and for some reason she couldn't quite pinpoint, it made her uncomfortable. She couldn't shake the memories of her earliest days on Earth, when she and Bellamy were still at odds- how he and the other kids that would become her friends had looked at her then, knowing she was from the privileged class. She wondered what they would think of her now.
Occasionally when they passed an area inhabited by people, sometimes there would be curious Grounders standing near the tracks, ready to watch the train pass by. The children often waved, and Clarke waved back. Yana was as excited as she was, and together the two of them marveled at everything. It had been so long since Clarke had felt her age, yet with Yana by her side, her enthusiasm contagious, Clarke acted more like the teenager she really was.
"This journey agrees with you," Elody remarked a few hours into the ride. Yana was dozing nearby, but Clarke's eyes were still fixed on the landscape. "Your cheeks are pinker."
"I'm looking forward to seeing my people again," Clarke answered, smiling warmly at the queen. "And to bringing them news of this alliance and all the good it will do for us."
"And then what?" Elody asked her. "Where will you settle, now that your heart is on firmer ground?"
The smile faded from Clarke's lips and she turned her eyes out the window, watching where the alpine forests, the white snow on the ground, was giving way to softer greens. "I don't know," she admitted.
"Your people established a camp based purely on random chance, did they not?" the queen asked. "Their village is centred around their crash site. And yet that is not your land- it belongs to Trikru. Do you think they will let you stay there forever?"
Clarke shifted uncomfortably, feeling all the carefree optimism of a few minutes ago fading away. "I don't know," she said again. "I've been gone so long… I don't know what relations are like between Camp Jaha and the Trikru."
Her heart was suddenly seized by fear- what had happened while she was gone? What if Lexa hadn't just betrayed her, but come back to wage war on the Sky People? Would she just let them leave peacefully at Camp Jaha, when it had technically been built on her land? What if she got there and everyone was dead?
"Why did your people not move into the mountain after it fell?"
Despite her uncertainty about all the possibilities of what could have happened after she left, she knew that relocating into Mount Weather wouldn't be one of them. She shook her head and said firmly, "I hope they took supplies from that place, maybe even converted some of it into a hospital, but my people would never have gone in there to live. We were all raised in a metal box floating through space. All we've ever wanted was to live under the sky."
"And what if you were offered land of your own?" Elody asked, her dark eyes looking intently into Clarke's. "Would you accept such a gift?"
Clarke was taken aback. Carefully she said, "I would consider it gratefully."
"Then consider it," Elody said. "There is ample land- fertile land- to the east of Tawa. You and your people could be safe and prosperous there."
"I appreciate that," Clarke answered. "Thank you so much. I promise you, it will be the first thing I bring up when I see my people again."
Elody nodded her head. Softly she said, "I do not have children, Clarke. I must look at other ways of expanding my empire… and of ensuring that someone competent leads it after I am gone."
Clarke held her breath. Was she saying…?
Before she could respond, the queen said, "Wait until you've seen your people. Then we will talk." She nodded her head to Clarke, and then she left her alone.
Turning her eyes back to the view outside, Clarke's mind was racing. She hardly knew what to think, but she couldn't help but feel hopeful. Months ago, she was still on the Ark, with only a dream of the Earth. Weeks ago, she was killing and then being tortured. Days ago, she was a prisoner. Now, she was travelling home to see her people, with boxes of medicine and a true offer of alliance.
What would tomorrow bring?