Chapter 53 - The price of peace

It didn't take us long to arrive at the heart of the grounder's camp, and strangely enough, rather than a small group of people, no one else was showing any kind of hostile reactions, but then again, they respect the people that are strong from what I have seen. The two honor guards escorted me to the tent where their commander was resting and as soon as we arrive there, the two guards left without saying anything, leaving me alone with the guards that were guarding the tent of their commander.

The guards outside of the commander's tent let me enter without any objection, as they had been informed that I would be sent there as soon as I was escorted into their camp. Some already thought it strange that their Heda would spare any time for a sky boy that was rumored to be the reason why the most adored leader under Heda failed to capture our camp, but none of them thought too much about it and it was better to not question their leader's possible hidden agenda. After all, a small whisper or a rumor could be the end of their lives.

I decided to not be a jerk, even though they were still my enemy, so I nodded at them as a way of greeting them, as I entered the tent ready to face Lexa.

As soon as I entered, I noticed Lexa, who was sitting on her wooden throne, and the big, Gustus if I remember correctly, who stood beside her stoically as if he was preparing to shield his commander from what I may do, whereas Indra stood opposite of them and broke off the conversation as I entered. All three of them turned their heads slightly and glared at me.

"What do you think now? Does my army stand a chance against yours?"

Lexa leaned slightly towards me on her throne, when I stopped in front of her looking at her with a smile on my face. She was trying to intimidate me, and if I would have been anyone else, maybe, just maybe her attempt would have worked, but sadly for her, even if throws at me her honor guard, I'm more than sure that I would be able to defeat them and still walk it out alive, but I'm not here for that.

"Well, Heda, that depends on a lot of things and since I'm not a strategist that had studied tens or maybe hundreds of battle plans, I can't say for sure if your army would stand a chance against a wall of guns. But… I can say for certain that it would be a blood bath for your army to reach our line."

Indra muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "overconfident brat" under her breath, not too clear for a normal person to hear, but enough for both Lexa and Gustus to hear it, at the same time, I could see that the dark-skinned woman's expression was full of hate and anger when she looked at me. Even Gustus was slightly annoyed at how I talked now. Being gifted with an audience was a great honor, yet I obviously did not quite grasp the importance of this meeting, or at least that's how he sees it. Meanwhile, Lexa somehow doubted that I was trying to anger her, because her friend and mentor had told her everything about me, and doing something as stupid as that wasn't something I would do, yet really prove her wrong.

"You don't seem to think that highly of my army, do you?"

"I don't want to sound prideful or even make fun of your culture, but as I said earlier, throwing bodies at bullets works only when you have the manpower necessary to supply, otherwise you will just weaken yourself. Now, don't get me wrong, while I'm sure your people are gods in the forest, they won't be as efficient in an open battle as they are in the woods. Besides between the four of us, what do you expect me to say? Praise you? Beg for mercy? Maybe swear my allegiance to you?"

I have to give it to them since I didn't expect my words to dumbfound them in such a way, especially when I was supposed to be the prisoner who was going to be tortured and then executed, but if you think about they didn't expect this kind of response from a prisoner either.

It didn't take long for Lexa to regain her composure before she rises from her throne and walked in front of me.

"What are you willing to sacrifice for the lives of all of our people, your criminal friend included?"

"I have a better question. What do you want from me, Lexa?"

"I want you."

For a second I didn't know how to respond, but as I was deep into enemy territory, I decided to quickly say something before this woman gets angry.

"I'm flattered, but sadly, I have to reject your offer."

"You don't seem to understand your position. It's either that or death, so by any means choose wisely."

When I thought that Abby was bad, I was wrong. This woman was many times worse than her and now, she gave me an ultimatum. Give myself to her or go on a date with death.

"You win, I'm staying here with you, but I want to see my friend before he's released."

As soon as she heard my words, Lexa could only roll her eye when she thought how Titus would surely throw a fit when he hears of her decision. She had only once taken a second in her time as commander. Naively she had thought that as commander she would of course be superior in everything, so surely her second would have been the best as well. Sadly for her, that second died in the hands of the Ice nation when they ambushed her alongside her warriors. That was the day Lexa learned that love was a weakness and a chance for her enemies to weaken her.

"Fine by me, my new warrior."

Before Indra or Gustus could argue with their commander, Lexa motioned me to follow her out of the tent. It didn't take us long to reach the place where Finn was being held, only for him to widen his eyes when he saw me alongside the leader of the grounders.

I quickly untied his biddings before I helped him stay on his feet.

"Why are you here?"

"To save your ass, spacewalker. Now man up and go home."

"What about you? What are you going to do?"

"What about me? I'm obviously going to remain behind as part of the deal."

Finn tried to say something but no words left his mouth, but in the end, he turned and left, yet unknowingly to me, he was blaming himself for this whole thing, after all, if I wasn't here to save him he would have died regardless of what anyone from Camp Jaha may have done.

Meanwhile, Anya, who until now, was standing in the shadows, walked up to her friend as the two of them were looking at me and Finn.

"So, there will be an alliance?"

"Do you think I'm making a mistake?"

"I don't know, Lexa. I don't even know if we can trust them. They would have blindly shot into the forest at everything that moved when Clarke and I approach their camp at night, if not for Leon taking the lead and finding us, I would have been dead and most likely left to rot in the forest."

Lexa nodded as she had also wondered the same many times since the first time Trikru and Skykru met. Looking at Leon, she knew that there might be some people trustworthy among Skykru, but obviously, most were not to be trusted like for example the former prisoner they had who was ready to kill an innocent person to save himself. For a split second, two familiar faces appeared in her mind, Markus and Clarke are two members of Skykru, who were genuinely interested in peace between their people as well, rather than conquering and enslaving them or even annihilating the grounders, and then was Leon, the strangest one amongst the Skykru. Not only was he a peace lover, but at the same time, one of the most terrifying enemies, Trikru had ever met, yet for some reason, unlike Sheidheda, he didn't have any desire for domination. Everything he did was to protect his people and nothing more, which in Lexa's opinion was something unheard of, after all her people had always waged war amongst themselves (the tribes/clans/nation).

After a while, Lexa suddenly asked Anya something that was on her mind since the day she had taken the mantle of a leader. Besides, Anya was the only grounder to ever escape alive from within Mt. Weather.

"Do you think we need the Skykru to get into the Mountain?"

Anya looked surprised by the question and Lexa surmised with a flash of regret on her face because she already knew the answer.

"We are no match for the tech the Mountain Men wield. Not even Skykru could fight the Mountain heads-on. I know it's hard to accept it, but they are our only chance of getting our people out of that place."

"They will have their truce after the murderer dies. You know what do to."

"As you wish, Lexa."

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