Chapter Text
They covered the last bit of ground to the trading post together, the sounds of their footfalls filling the otherwise slightly eerie silence. Furs skinned from various animals hung on either side of the entrance of the door, Murphy’s shoulder brushing against them as they passed. A sign in trigedasleng was pinned to the door, tilting to the right as one of the rusty nails was coming loose. Bellamy paused for a second with his hand pressed against the door before he pushed it forward, both of them grimacing slightly as it creaked loudly. Murphy was suddenly reminded of the last time he entered grounder civilisation and the disastrous consequences that had. He shivered slightly.
The interior of the trading post was dimly lit, a sharp contrast to the blinding light outside and for a moment Murphy could see nothing, the darkness engulfing them both.
“Hello?” Bellamy called out as Murphy blinked rapidly, eyes quickly adjusting to the soft light emitted from the dozen or so candles scattered around the room. He swivelled his head around quickly, taking in the odd assortment of items, ropes, cloths, rugged pieces of metal, Murphy even caught sight of what looked like a wooden cabinet at the rear end of the room.
“Looks like no one’s here,” he commented, even as Bellamy took no heed and wandered further into the room, shouting out hello again. Murphy sighed, eyes falling to the table next to him and began to fiddle with a delicate wooden box that had an infinity symbol on it.
He could still hear Bellamy shouting on the other side of the room. He rolled his eyes and was about to straighten up and tell Bellamy to give up when he felt something cool push up against his neck and he froze instantly.
“Don’t even think about it,” a cool voice whispered in his ear and he quickly retracted the hand that was edging towards the gun at his side. In one quick motion, she grabbed the top of his hair and pulled, forcing him to stand upright, the other hand still pushing the blade of a knife to his neck.
“Over here,” the grounder called out and Murphy watched as Bellamy turned, eyes widening as he spotted them. Even as his heart thudded loudly in his ears, Murphy felt a split second of satisfaction as Bellamy didn’t hesitate to pull out his gun, training it on the grounder’s face with a grim look of determination.
“Is this how you greet every customer you have?” Murphy deadpanned, wincing slightly as the grounder snarled and pressed down on his throat, hard enough to graze the skin and draw blood. “It would certainly explain how barren this place is.”
“Murphy,” Bellamy warned as he inched closer, eyes fixed on the knife at Murphy’s throat.
“Don’t take another step,” the grounder snapped and Bellamy halted instantly. Murphy could feel her warm breath tickle the back of his neck and he shuddered.
“We didn’t come here to do you any harm.” Bellamy had raised one arm in a placating manner. “We just wanted to ask you some questions.”
“You mean no harm yet you carry those?” The disdain was dripping from her voice and suddenly her actions made a little more sense. He had forgotten how fearful grounders were of guns, given they’d never even seen one up until three months ago. That didn’t mean Murphy would be forgiving her for cutting his neck anytime soon though.
Bellamy too seemed to understand. “We only have these for protection,” he explained and lowered his gun so it was now pointing at the ground, making Murphy feel even more uneasy.
“Not liking this plan Bellamy,” Murphy muttered and when Bellamy glared at him he added, “What? It’s my neck on the line!”
Bellamy ignored him and dropped the gun, letting it clatter noisily to the ground. There was a moment of tense silence before the grounder let him go, shoving him in Bellamy’s direction. He stumbled slightly and Bellamy placed a hand on his shoulder, grounding him. He left out a breath he hadn’t realised he had been holding.
“What do you want then?” The grounder had dropped her arm to the side but was still gripping the knife tightly, looking uneasy. Her blonde hair was swept to one side, accentuating the sharp features of her face, giving her quite a fierce look.
“We’re looking for someone,” Bellamy began carefully, “She’s a friend of ours.” Murphy just managed to hold back a snort at that.
“She’s got blonde-or well maybe red hair now, blue eyes, about the same height as you-”
“Many people pass through here on their travels,” she interrupted dismissively, “I don’t usually remember faces.”
Murphy frowned. He’d almost believe her if it wasn’t for the fact that she’d stiffened momentarily at the mention of red hair. He opened his mouth to accuse her of lying but paused when he saw a glint of silver on the hand that wasn’t holding the knife. It was one of their wristbands.
“Where did you get that?” he asked instead, pointing at the wristband. Bellamy glanced to where he was pointing, eyes widening as he did so.
When she didn’t reply, Bellamy took a couple of steps forward, the beginnings of desperation appearing on his face. “Please, I know you know something!”
The grounder took a step back, eyeing him warily. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said breezily.
Bellamy made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat. Behind them, the door creaked loudly and all three of them spun around to see two more grounders enter the trading post.
“Great, more grounders. Just what we need,” Murphy muttered.
The grounder grabbed Bellamy by the wrist, looking suddenly panicked. “Go to the back of the store. Pretend to be looking at something,” she hissed. She then spoke to them in trigedasleng at normal volume, gesturing towards the back of the room.
The two of them stared at her, perplexed. She shot them one last warning look before turning to converse with the two in trigedasleng. The two grounders that had entered the building appeared to be men and one of them turned a sharp gaze on Bellamy and Murphy. Bellamy grabbed Murphy’s arm and dragged him towards the back.
“We need to leave” Murphy hissed. Bellamy had grabbed the nearest item to him and was studying it intently. It would almost be convincing if it wasn’t a wooden spoon he was holding.
“No,” Bellamy muttered, “She knows something about Clarke.”
“I don’t care!” Murphy snapped, voice rising slightly above a whisper in his annoyance. Bellamy elbowed him in warning. “We have no idea what they’re saying to each other, they could be plotting our deaths for all we know. It’s not like she’s exactly trustworthy, she had a knife to my neck five minutes ago!”
“You’re drawing attention to us,” Bellamy whispered and Murphy glanced back across the room, making eye contact with the grounder that was staring earlier. He quickly averted his gaze to the other two just in time to see the male grounder showing some type of parchment to the female.
Murphy fixed his gaze on the table in front of him again. Bellamy inched closer until they were almost shoulder to shoulder. “I don’t trust her either,” he breathed. “But they’re ice nation. You can tell by the markings on their face. She wouldn’t be working with them.”
Murphy chanced another glance up only to see the two grounders leaving. He left out a sigh of relief and felt Bellamy relax beside him.
The woman, on the other hand, seemed anything but relaxed. She stood watching the door for a minute or two, shoulders tense, before hurrying over to them.
“Your friend that you’re looking for,” she began reluctantly, “She is the girl that killed the mountain men?”
Bellamy stiffened. “Yes,” he replied breathlessly, “You know where she is?”
The woman sighed. “She was here about two days ago and she comes at least once a week. I’m not sure where she goes or stays but it can’t be too far from here.”
“Why are you telling us this now?” Murphy asked suspiciously.
The woman fixed her gaze on him. “The two men that just left were ice nation and they came asking about her too. In our culture, we believe when you kill someone, you gain their power and the power Clarke has after killing the mountain men is huge. The ice queen wants this power.”
Murphy glanced at Bellamy, who looked slightly sickened. “And she’d get that power by-”
“By killing her,” the woman confirmed. “That’s why you need to find her first.”