Lightning Only Strikes Once - Clexa

Chapter 77: A Cold Day In Hell

Clarke notices that the horses leave trails of deep little holes in the snow – they have some kind of specialised snow shoes with spikes, making her decide she really doesn't want to get kicked by one of them. At first, she thinks maybe someone will be able to track the group through that. But winter's started and the strong winds blow the snow over quickly, so that even when they stop for only an hour or two the trail quickly disappears. She tries to leave scratches and things on trees when she can do it without being noticed, but she knows even as she does it that it's futile. She can't leave enough, not with Ontari watching her, and someone noticing the marks would be a long shot anyway.

She doesn't even see the cave they enter – it's just another part of an icy mountain. Then Nia utters a sharp command and one of the gona goes forward to a bit of ice that looks exactly the same and knocks on it like he's requesting entrance. Instead of a door swinging open, though, the thin plane of ice hiding the cave cracks, bits falling off, and he clears all the ice around it. The entry is only just big enough for the horses to fit in, so they have to dismount. Clarke looks back at the last gona to enter, who has carefully taken out several waterskins he was keeping close to his body and is pouring them into one end of a pipe that passes over the inside of the cave opening. As she watches, the drips start hardening again and after only a few minutes the opening is blocked by ice once more. Clarke swallows hard. When Lexa told her that Nia had hidden palaces, this isn't what she expected. This is extremely well hidden.

The place below is mostly made of rock instead of ice despite being inside a mountain, to Clarke's relief, since she's getting pretty sick of the uniform whiteness of everything, the way the snow half-blinds her in the light. It's much warmer and more enclosed inside than she expected, but still unmistakeably palatial – the bedrooms are small, but there's a large throne room, and a huge dining room with a table, which Clarke is banned from for most of the day as Nia holds 'discussions' there over the radio. It's also where Ontari brings her that night, telling her Nia will speak to her shortly, and when she leaves Clarke in the room there's no Nia and no radio. Behind the table there's intricate wall-hangings, and in the centre a beautifully carved bow above a door, and Clarke trains her gaze on the decorations while she waits for Nia to arrive.

Then she hears a noise behind the door. Frowning, sure she shouldn't be doing this, Clarke opens it.

And comes face to face with Gustus. He's behind closely-set bars with a large lock on them, chains linking his wrists to the ceiling and making it so he can't even remove the filthy gag they've forced on him, covered in bleeding wounds and burn marks, and not wearing nearly enough for the weather, but Clarke recognises him immediately. And he recognises her, she can see it in his face. He gestures with his hands as much as he can move them, making desperate grunting noises through the gag, and she realises what he's trying to say – close it. Close the door. His eyes are swollen and red like he's been weeping.

Clarke hesitates for a second, then she whispers, voice shaking. "I'll get you out of here. I'll get us both out of here. Back to Lexa. We're not going home in a box." His eyes widen, and she shuts the door, walking back to the table, heart thumping with shock.

When Nia eventually turns up, she's grinning, and Clarke feels her heart drop. So far her journey with them has taught her one thing – if Nia or Ontari are smiling, something horrifying is about to happen. Maybe they're about to get to the torture part of the evening. "Greetings, Azplana," she says anyway, bowing respectfully.

"Greetings, Clarke kom Skaikru," Nia says, smiling her cat-like smile again. Clarke recognises this look from the journey here as well. It's when Nia is about to say something and watch for Clarke's reaction, so Clarke schools her face to perfect blankness. Nia waves a hand at one of the gona with her, and orders lazily, "Open the door behind me. Our guests know each other, I believe."