Chapter 13
She couldn't believe that it had been another three weeks. Erie had come and fitted her armor. It fit well. It was a type of hybrid armor that moved with her, but it looked like plate armor of old. It was similar, but it was a series of plates that had a thick leather underneath.
Erie and Huron had outdone themselves in both their speed and skill. The pauldron on her right shoulder was fully metal and bore the symbol of Wanheda on it. She smiled as she fingered the blue leather. Erie had gestured that it was a gift, and Clarke realized that they meant the color. She was amazed at the craftsmanship, but she was grateful for it as well.
Tomorrow was her first true fight in the Pits. She knew that it wasn't going to be easy. Nia wasn't going to take it easy on her. She couldn't. Especially since word was starting to travel around that Nia had Wanheda. Clarke knew that it meant people would be coming from all over to see her fight. Many would hope that she'd lose, and others would hope that she won.
It was going to be a test, of her armor, of her training, and of herself. She chipped that she had the resolve to do what she needed to do. She was apprehensive about the fight. She knew that it was going to be like the gladiators fights that she'd studied about ancient Rome. Two warriors would enter and only one would walk away. It wasn't necessarily to the death, but it was highly likely.
The other thing that was actually frightening her somewhat was the fact that once she was in her armor, Echo would be gone. She would want Echo to stay with her until she entered the ring of the Pits, but she knew that Nia wouldn't allow it. No warrior was allowed to have any coaches or help. The Pits were a punishment for the most part and Clarke was even lucky that Echo has been given time to train her at all.
She wasn't stupid. She knew that Nia wouldn't care if she died. It would work in her favor. But, Clarke was determined. She wasn't going to go down with a fight, literally. She was most going to have to deal with the mental anguish over harming someone. She knew that it was a matter of survival, but her healer brain wasn't going to care.
"What is wrong with you?" Echo asked her as she looked at Clarke.
"I might kill someone in the morning," Clarke told her.
"Yes, you could, or you might be. Tomorrow, it won't be blunt swords or weapons. And, whomever you end up fighting will be aiming to hurt you. It will be a test of your skill and survival. Depending on who you are pitted against, it might be a battle of wills. We won't know until we get to the Pits and see the draw."
"I don't think that you can get me an idea, could you?"
"With Nia, no. She wants to make sure that you have no clue what is going to happen. She can't wait to see you fail, Clarke. You know this."
"I know that, Echo. I am still not sure why she hasn't pulled me in front of her again. Does she not really care if I die that much?" Clarke inquired.
"Sit," Echo demanded.
Clarke walked over to her bed and sat down. She looked over at Echo. The taller warrior moved closer to Clarke, but she didn't sit down. They both knew that Echo couldn't comfort her fully. It didn't matter how much they both wanted it, now. They couldn't let it get back to anyone that they were close. If they did, Nia would do something about it. Echo was doing everything that she could in order to protect Clarke, but even she knew that in the morning, Clarke was going to be on her own.
"Tomorrow, you are going to have to fight. I know that you don't want to do that, but it will be better than having to go against Ontari. You think that her beatings and torture were bad, the Pits are going to be worse. Nia isn't going to give you much time to recuperate before she sends you back. She wants to make an example of you. She isn't going to let you be down for long," Echo explained. "But, we already knew that much. What we don't know is how word of your fighting is going to spread. The snows have stopped for the most part and the days are just starting to get warmer. With that, news were start to get out of Troi to the other villages. This means that you will develop a following, and Nia can't let it get to big without controlling it."
"Controlling it?" Clarke started to ask. "She needs me to make Lexa look weak. If I win a lot of matches, she can use that in order to start her coup against Lexa. She's already got Ontari to replace her. I'm just the icing on the cake."
"The what?"
"Nothing. It is an old world saying. I've never even had it to fully understand it, either."
"Do you have lots of these?" Echo asked as she finally sat down beside Clarke on the bed.
"We do."
"Do you use them a lot?"
"Sometimes, yeah, we do. But, others don't mean the same to us anymore, so they've fallen out of favor. On the Ark, we made some that don't make sense down here on the Ground. We still use them though and some are actually funnier now."
"Tell me one," Echo demanded.
"Go float yourself."
Echo looked taken aback. She didn't understand it and from her perspective, it was a really bad idea. Living in Azgeda, she knew that going to float, especially in the Winter, was a very bad idea. She knew how to swim, but it was a survival thing. If she fell into the water in the ice or snow, she knew that she had to get out quickly. She cocked her head and waited for Clarke's explanation.
"Stop thinking about it so much. For us, floating was a way to kill people and dispose of the dead. Floating was a punishment because we just released you, most of the time naked, into space. Your body would just float amongst the star but you'd be dead. Frozen to death in seconds once you were released. For us, it became and new way of saying jok. So to tell someone to go float themselves -"
"You were telling them to jok op?"
"Exactly," Clarke beamed.
Echo's smile grew a little more sinister. Clarke cocked an eyebrow and waited to see what the older woman was going to do. Echo got up and crossed the small room. She turned on Clarke quickly, though. She didn't attack her or say anything. She just stood there, slightly looking angry at Clarke.
"What?" Clarke asked as she saw the look in Echo's eyes.
"I think I owe you some laps as punishment, then, sekken."
"Oh, shit," Clarke replied.
"Skrish, indeed," Echo stated.
Clarke hung her head. She knew that she was going to be in trouble later. She'd told Echo several times over the course of the last few months to "go float herself." The adults on the Ark gave the kids leeway to a degree when it came to their language and the use of "float." It was mostly because it wasn't the actual word that they were using, but now that Echo knew what she meant, Clarke was worried about how her training was going to go when she wasn't in the Pits fighting. Echo wasn't a "parental" type adult in her life. She'd become her fos, and while Clarke might not fully understand that relationship in the way that Grounders meant it. She knew that she was in for a world of hurt for insulting her fos.
Echo however began to laugh. She smiled as she looked at Clarke punishing herself for the insulting language. She wasn't going to harm the girl for speaking out. Far from it. She approved it. The more vocal that Clarke got, the more she knew that Clarke was really trying to push herself and learn whatever technique that were doing that day. It was a way to measure her progress. The more vocal and "floats" she got, the more Clarke pushed to learn it. Echo had figured out the jest of the meaning of the words after the third or forth time that Clarke used them. She wasn't a fool and being a spy meant that she had to pay attention to the language that was being used around her. It could be code, and she needed to know what it meant. Not letting Clarke know that she understood was also part of Echo's training. Echo finally stopped laughing and took pity on young blonde.
"I'm not upset with you, Clarke. To be honest, I've know what those words meant for weeks. It was how I gauged how much harder to push you in training. You tend to let your words fly when you are upset and frustrated the most," Echo told her. "You also stick your tongue out to the right side of your mouth."
Clarke rolled her eyes and then her head. She looked up into Echo's eyes and saw that the woman was telling her the truth. The longer they looked at each other, though, the more that Echo changed.
"Tomorrow is going to be hard."
"I know that," Clarke answered.
"I don't think that you do. Nia isn't going to go easy on your. She's going to pull large men against you."
"Because I'm small?"
"There's that, but it is also because of the fragility of some men's egos. They think because they are bigger that brute strength will overpower you. They think because they are bigger and heavier that they will have the advantage over you. But, they will be wrong," Echo told her.
"Because I'm smaller, more agile, and quicker?"
"Yes, you will have to use that against them. Stay on the outside of their reach. Let them tire themselves out. Sneak in attack and get out, over and over again. It will make them crazy. They will make mistakes and you have to capitalize on that. You can't let the fact that it is another person distract you. Tell yourself whatever you need to, but you have to realize in that ring in the Pits, it is you or them. There is no grey alternative, as you like to speak about. It is either you of them that will walk out on your own power. I want it to be you, so you have fight with everything," Echo stated.
"You've been drilling me for that," Clarke replied.
"I know. I've been pushing you to make sure that you could hold your own in the Pits. I don't want you to fail, Clarke. Is that so hard to believe? I want you to win. I know that it is going to be hard for you, but I need you to survive."
"You don't need me to survive, Echo. You want me to survive. There is a difference," Clarke told her.
"Want, need, who cares? It is a fine line and one that you have to stay on the right side of in order to survive. I know that you don't like it, Clarke, but you have to fight as hard as you can tomorrow. You might have to hurt, maim or kill someone."
"I know that. I've come to grips with that. I don't like it, but I know that I have to do it in order to keep living," Clarke said.
Echo nodded. She was glad that Clarke was digging in and realized that she had to fight to survive. Clarke was willing to do what she had to do in order to keep breathing. Echo didn't need to know why, but she knew that things were somehow personal for Clarke. She hadn't pushed. Echo had her own reasons.
"You're stressed," Echo stated as she took in Clarke's posture and demeanor.
"Don't you get keyed up or something before you go into battle?" Clarke asked her.
Echo gave a small laugh. She knew what Clarke was talking about. People tended to get a little anxious knowing that the battle would happen soon. For some they found some "basic" ways of dealing with their excess energy. Other would just clean their weapons, armor, and possibly their tack before going to bed. Echo hadn't really pursued anyone or anything. She was trained to do a job. She was a spy, sometimes an assassin, and part of the royal guard. Her job in Nia's army was always changing and moving. She didn't have the luxury of being anxious often before a battle. She had to know where and when she was going to be. She was usually given a target, and she spent her time trying to figure out how she was going to accomplish her goal.
"I've never had the time."
Clarke scoffed. She looked at Echo and realized that she wasn't lying. Echo never needed to do anything to get rid of excess energy before a battle.
"I know that some warriors seek out a partner before they go into battle, and others after. I've never really had the opportunity because Nia has always had me moving. For Nia, the war is never over until she has absolute power over everything and everyone. So, my battles are never done, honesty. You are just going to be something new in my arsenal," Echo explained.
"And, how are you using me?"
"With the knowledge of Wanheda," Echo replied.
Clarke just looked at her. She knew that Echo wasn't lying. Since she'd found out that Clarke was a Night Blood, she'd been pushing Clarke in ways that would defy Nia. They were subtle, but she knew that she was going to be making her debute in the Pits, Echo was going to be making bigger gestures. Clarke also knew that it would be to people that Nia didn't expect. And, it was smart really. Echo was going to use Clarke to bring Nia down from the inside.
"The people aren't all loyal?" Clarke questioned.
"The people are hungry and cold, Clarke. But you already know this. They are frightened by her troops, but they want better lives. If they think that they can have it because Wanheda wills it, then they will stand up and fight back. They will fight for a life that is their own and not one that is dictated to them."
Clarke furrowed her brow at Echo's words. She could tell that there was more to it than that. There was something behind those words that Clarke just didn't know. She wondered if she should push to find out more, but she figured at this point that Echo would just clam up and shut down. They weren't there to talk about Echo's life and what she was doing for Nia. They were there to try to prepare Clarke as much as they could for her match in the morning. Realizing that she was still looking at Echo in wonder, Clarke relaxed her face and just nodded. Some secrets were meant to stay hidden.
"Are you sure that you are ready?" Echo questioned.
"No, I am not. I know I'm not. Who is ever ready to go into the Pits, Echo? You find me a warrior that isn't worried about going in there, and I'll show you a liar. There is no way to be fully prepared and I think that scares me more. I keep wondering if all this training was for naught, and that I'm going to go out there tomorrow and make a full of myself and somehow dishonor you in the process."
"The only way that you could dishonor me is to betray me to Nia," Echo told her.
"I would never," Clarke vowed.
"I know," Echo replied and smiled.
"Do you think that Ontari will still come for me in the morning?" Clarke asked changing the direction of their conversation, slightly.
"Why would she? You are to be in the Pits shortly after daybreak and breakfast. She should have no reason to see you."
Clarke cocked her eyebrow at Echo and shook her head before stating something that Clarke found painfully obvious, "What if Nia sends her for my morning beatings? We both know that Nia wants me to bleed. She wants me to hurt and turn to her for help. She needs me to overthrow Lexa. This is just her way of not killing me outright and hoping that I'll go full Azgeda."
She knew that Echo had to have thought about it. She knew that the spy wasn't that naïve. Ontari was still Nia's pet and did her bidding, thankfully on a short lease when they were in Troi. But, they both knew that if Ontari was allowed to do what she wanted, Clarke would have been fileted slowly and probably roasted in the town square for everyone to see. As it was, the daily beatings and other bits of torture that Ontari did weren't as bad as some of the other prisoners. Clarke had seen them. She knew. She knew that Echo knew that, too. Part of her wondered if the reason that Ontari was being "lax" in her beatings was because Nia ordered it so or if the Night Blood was fighting back in her own way.
Ontari was ruthless on the battlefield to the point of being a sadist. She didn't care who or what she hurt as long as they hurt. Ontari saw pain not only as a part of life but as a great motivator. And, who wouldn't with Nia as your mentor? She'd been trained since she was found to inflict the most pain possible on her enemies. But, did Ontari see Clarke completely as an enemy? They didn't know. And, it wasn't like they could ask her, either? To do so could and probably would bring treasonous charges on them all. Another part of Clarke wonder if she was being easier with Clarke because they were both Night Bloods, and she didn't want Clarke to go through what she had. But, then again, Clarke realized that most of it was because Ontari didn't see her as a threat.
"Nia needs me to help her slay Lexa. Ontari has to see me as competition for the Flame, should Lexa fall. Roan is still banished and hiding in Polis, doing only Lexa knows what for her and the Kongeda. We both know that there has to be some plot against Nia growing now that the Mountain has fallen. She is and always will be the greatest threat to the Kongeda. You know it. I know it. Lexa knows it. All the ambassadors know, too. But, here I am with you deep in the heart of Azgeda. I might be the great Wanheda in title but, I'm your student. So, tell me again, how this is going to work out for all us?" Clarke asked.
