Lightning Only Strikes Once - Clexa

Chapter 85: Throw The Book At Them

"I think we should leave next week," Clarke tells Gustus quietly, watching as he scarfs down the food she brought.

She knows he still thinks she should leave without him, but he just nods his head jerkily. He has fresh red cuts all up his arms that are oozing blood and she wishes she could bandage them. The food she's giving him is holding off starvation, the water staving off dehydration, but his daily torture regimen is going to make him even slower than her with her healing ankle. What if they can't move fast enough? Luckily, most of the wounds so far are superficial (probably deliberately so, since the goal is pain), so while he might have some scars they're unlikely to seriously impair him if he can just have a few days to heal up.

"I've got nearly everything ready," Clarke says. "A way to get you out of the chains, a way to distract everyone, a knife Roan can use to take out the people guarding the exit... then we head south to the frozen lake, cross it, lose them or at least slow them there. They might go the long way around, but even if they don't they won't have a trail so they'll have to search all around the edge, and Roan has somewhere we can hide there, he says. Then we go to your friend in the village." She frowns. "I just don't want to go immediately because I need to know how Nia's attack over the border goes."

"If it goes badly, she may blame you," Gustus points out gruffly.

"She might," Clarke admits, feeling suddenly guilty. Can she really leave him to suffer for a week just because she wants to know if any of her friends have died? "But I did advise against going south, so it wouldn't make much sense. Look, we can leave now -"

"No," Gustus says, "You must find the Fleimkepa."

"What if I don't want to find the Fleimkepa?"

He studies her thoughtfully. "Heda did not trust him," he says. "But she did not trust Roan, either, and yet he helps us. Trust is not required to work together." He shakes his grizzled head. "And he is needed."

"I told you, Lexa isn't dead -" Clarke begins.

"You said your people had fierce weapons, weapons that can destroy this castle, leaving nothing," Gustus says firmly. "If that is so, we cannot use them while he is inside. Heda needs him, not because she trusts him or cares for him or requires his advice, but because he must pass on the Flame. He is useful."

"You don't like him either," Clarke realises.

Gustus looks like he's flushed under his beard. "He... disagreed with Heda's choice for me to continue as her guard. He thought our affection for each other weakness, and he thought I did not have the correct priorities."

Clarke looks at him. "Yeah. He thought pretty much the same thing about me. I don't really know how I feel about saving a trigger-happy hyper-religious idiot."

"Trigger... happy?" Gustus says, brow furrowing.

"Oh. It means someone who shoots first and asks questions later."

"Titus can barely use a bow," Gustus scoffs.

"No, a gun, a fayogon," Clarke says flatly. "He had a fayogon. He tried to shoot at Nia. He failed, obviously. He hates my people, he hated the Maunon, and guns are expressly against his religion – but he decided to use one anyway. I haven't even used a gun since I got here. He's a hypocrite and he's a danger and I don't want to bust him out." She looks at Gustus and sighs. Over the time she's been here, she's gotten oddly fond of Gustus. There's something about him that reminds her of Lexa, the impression he gives of being utterly supportive even when he disagrees, the way he acts as a solid, steady presence to lean on or bounce ideas off. And he's so loyal to Lexa that he nearly seems to glow when he talks about her, pride and love in every line of his face. "But if we need him, we need him. I'll do my best to find him tonight." She turns to leave, but is stopped by Gustus' voice.