Her Loyalties

Chapter Ten

Clarkes POV

"My name is Heda." Her words echoed around in my head, threatening to overwhelm me. The harshness in her tone was what broke me.

"Sorry Heda." I mumbled, trying not to let myself cry. "I should go." Lexa watched me run out of the door, barely holding in my tears.

She must have decided that she wanted nothing to do with me. I was a danger to her, a weakness she could bear if I stayed close to her. I really thought she felt something - anything. But apparently not.

Finn found me as I ran past the guards. He took my arm and forced me to stop.

"What's wrong?" He asked, concerned at my broken state. I couldn't tell him, he would never understand. We were standing outside someones tent and I mumbled that we should move away and not disturb who was inside. "No." He said. "This is our tent. The guards put it up for us."

"Oh." More tears slid down my cheeks and Finn pulled me closer, wrapping his arms around me and I buried my face in his shirt. A flicker of movement caught my attention and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lexa walking past.

She didn't look at me but I felt Finn's head lift to watch her go. He must have guessed that she was the reason I was so upset.

"Come on princess." He murmured when she disappeared. "Let's go." Finn took one of my arms and led me into the tent. With such short notice, the guards hadn't been able to do much but there was two beds that looked comfortable enough.

Finn helped me sit down on one and wrapped a fur around my shoulders. I leaned against him and he held me for a while. It seemed only seconds before a guard came in, but I knew it was much longer.

"Clarke Griffin." He said, ignoring my tear-stained face. "You and your friend are to be trained under Anya. You start tomorrow."

"Thanks." Finn said quietly. The guard nodded once and then hesitated.

"Clarke." He said. "Please forgive Heda for her behaviour. She is only doing this to protect you." Finn scoffed.

"Yeah, sure she is." He mumbled so that only I could hear. The guard left, closing the tent flap behind him.

"We should sleep." I whispered, my voice hoarse. "It's dark outside and we need to be ready for tomorrow."

Finn looked at me, and then nodded.

"Okay. Sure you're okay?"

Unconvincingly, I nodded. Finn sighed but got up anyway. He crossed the tent to his bed. Only taking the time to slip off my shoes, I curled up under the fur and closed my eyes.

Lexas stony expression she gave me when she told me to call her Heda swam behind my eyelids. Another tear escaped from the corner of my eye.

It was hours before I could fall asleep.

*

"Clarke!" Someone said loudly. I didn't respond. The person sighed, and then suddenly I was freezing cold. My eyes flew open and took in Anya, standing next to my bed with an empty bucket. 

"Why'd you dump water on me?" I spluttered, sitting up. Anya shrugged.

"Wake up in time tomorrow and I won't. Give me a minute." She disappeared outside and came back a second later with another bucket. I didn't have time to warn Finn - still asleep - before she dumped the bucket on him too.

He woke, jerking out of sleep and almost hitting his head on Anya's arm.

"What was that for!" He complained, dripping wet. Anya threw the bucket on the ground.

"Get up, both of you. Get changed and meet me outside soon, or expect your training to be even harder."

I glared at her back as she walked out of the door. However, I took her word for it that she would punish us, so I hopped out of bed and spotted the pile of fabric lying on the floor next to my bed.

Finn turned his back to let me change and I quickly pulled off my damp clothes. Not knowing where to put them, I eventually decided on hanging them over the corner of my bed. Hopefully that would dry them.

When I was changed, I waited outside the tent for Finn. He was quick, coming out after only two minutes. In the distance, I could see Anya leaning against a tree. It looked like she was sharpening a knife. Not wanting Anya to get mad at us, we jogged through the tents until we reached her.

"About time." Anya pushed off the tree and slid the knife into a sheath on her hip. Finn and I looked at each other. We had been as quick as we could. Obviously, Anya expected even faster.

"Where is Le - Heda?" Finn asked. "Wasn't she supposed to train us?" Anya glared at him, picking up that he almost used her name.

"Heda has decided that she has more important duties than training you." She said this while staring straight at me, and I suspected that this was not the only reason. "She passed this task onto me."

Finn knew that Lexa was the reason I was so upset, but he had no idea what happened. Maybe he thought I had offended her or something. I would have to talk to him later.

"Your first priority will be learning Trigedasleng." Anya said, making me focus on her again. "This is the language we speak. If you are to communicate with our people, you must know it."

I nodded along with Finn. This made sense. Anya led us over to the ring of logs we sat at yesterday and motioned for us to sit down. She instantly began talking.

"The most basic words you need to memorise are sha - yes, mochof - thank you, pro - you're welcome, hei - hello, leida/leidon - goodbye, and ai laik - I am. Do not pronounce ai laik - I like."

"Can we write them down?" I asked. She was speaking so fast that I didn't know if I could keep up. Anya sighed at me but pulled out a piece of what looked like parchment and a stick of charcoal. She threw them to me and I quickly scribbled down all she had told me.

"Make sure you get everything." Anya tells me. "I will not repeat myself." She starts speaking words we have to memorise and I sigh before following along with my pencil.