Our People (the Third Book of the Her Weakness series)

Chapter 118

Lexa's POV

No sex? I thought the pain coming from my ribs are bad enough, but this...

"I can deal with pain," I say.

"I know you can, hodnes (love)." Clarke says gently. I love how she calls me hodnes, she knows how it makes me melt. "But I never want to be the cause of your pain, okay? No sex for a while until you get better."

I hum in understanding and nod. Now that Clarke has explained her reason for her sex ban, I get where she is coming from. I never want to be the cause of Clarke's pain, either and I did see her get hit by the shield as well. She was not hit as hard as I was, but I have no doubt she has a few cracked ribs as well. This is not just for me.

"What happens when the Commander gets horny? We all know she's thirsty for you," Raven teases.

Clarke shrugs, but the look she gives me and her dark eyes tell me she already has an idea. "I don't know. I guess we'll just have to find out."

We look up from where we are when we hear a yelp. The last pirate has been killed by Nakai, who is panting with exertion but smiling at the now dead person lying at her feet.

"Was it really necessary to behead him?" Lincoln asks, looking slightly paler than normal.

"Yes. I had been fighting him for a while and he was annoying." Nakai states.

"Who yelped? Because as far as I know, people don't yelp while being beheaded." Octavia asks.

"Ryder yelped," Nix says.

"I did not expect her to slice off his head." He says.

"It is not even all of the way off, that would take more chopping." Nakai says.

Her words make Ryder and Lincoln pale further. It is amusing to see that even after all of these years of fighting and being guards, there are still some things that make them squeamish.

"Enough nastiness," Raven says. "Does anyone see a map anywhere?"

"There is a big one hanging on this wall here." Lincoln points.

Clarke and I stand and walk over to it, squeezing each other's hands at every sudden jolt of our bodies. I can already tell it will take some time to get used to this pain. Though I know Clarke, and she probably brought some kind of painkillers so we just have to wait to get back to the house we are staying in.

We study the map and I frown. It is too large for us to take. There is a table below it and I begin searching through the mess of papers on them. There are a lot of crude drawings displaying human anatomy as well as some vulgar words written on them.

"What are you looking for?" Clarke asks.

"They are smart, Clarke. They used to be in the Floukru army. So they would have to have smaller maps to give their new recruits." I murmur as I search.

I smile victoriously when I find what I was looking for. I hand it to Clarke and she nods in approval. It is perfect, just the right size to be easy to carry. I gesture for the others to come over.

"Lexa found a smaller version of the map." Clarke says when they gather around us. "It looks like this is the larger barracks and the end of this tunnel. The other tunnels are much more connected and it'll be easy to get lost, so we'll have to be careful. I think I see where Pakstoka is. At the very end of the tunnels and areas and stuff, there's a pretty big cave that almost seems out of place because it's only connected to the other places by one tunnel."

I look at the map over her shoulder and quickly see what she means. "That will be the hardest place to get to. Pakstoka is not just a good fighter, he can be incredibly charming. It is how he got so many to support his cause back then, and I know he will be using his words now as well. This is both good and bad for us. Good because there will be many who may not agree with him but stay silent out of fear and respect. Bad because he will convince many to die for him."

It is silent for a moment, eerily so because of how many people are in this large cave, even if almost all of them are dead pirates. Raven is the one who breaks it.

"So what's the plan now?"

"We head for Pakstoka. If the leader falls, the rest of them will too." Clarke says confidently.

"So we need to head for where he is." I say. "We should find the best route. Luckily, the creators of this map were thorough and labeled some of the larger caves."

Clarke reaches into her pocket and pulls out a pencil. "We can trace the most direct route so we don't have to remember every twist and turn we plan to make."

"Good idea, Clarke. Mochof (thank you)." I say, taking the pencil when she hands it to me.

I swipe off an area of the table and set the map down after making sure none of the papers around it are in danger of falling on it.

We work together for nearly half an hour to figure out the best route. Like I feared, it will take a lot of moving from one cave to another in order to get there. This will be dangerous, and I make sure to tell that to the others in case any of them want out. For some reason, none of them do.

Clarke takes a moment to go around the room, checking up on people and making sure we are all okay. She bandages up a few cuts but none of us are hurt too badly (except for Clarke and I's ribs).

"We are all okay?" I ask, waiting for them all to nod. "Then let's start."

Next chapter will be fighting! Thank you all for reading and for your incredible comments! Stay awesome!