“No.” Xena investigated her plate, lifting the silver two pronged fork and laying the fish open. It’s flesh was soft and fragrant, and the grains inside had absorbed the juices and softened. It smelled great. Xena picked up a bit of the fish with the fork and put it into her mouth, savoring it slowly before she swallowed. “I want to talk about you.” She ran her tongue over the fork prongs.
Gabrielle looked up from her plate, a trifle surprised. “Me?” She put her fork down and took a sip of her mead. “What about me? I think it would be a lot more interesting to talk about you.”
“Me?” Xena leaned on her elbow, resting her head against her fist as she gazed across the table. “You know all about me.”
“No I don’t.” Gabrielle laughed gently. “I bet if we knew each other for the rest of our lives, I’d still wouldn’t know all about you.” She set her cup down.
Xena took a mouthful of fish and chewed it. “You make a very good trout, Gabrielle.” She changed the subject. “Where’d you learn to cook?”
Gabrielle ate some of the grains. “Well.” She swallowed. “I guess it’s just something I took to. I wasn’t much good at anything else around the farm.” She admitted. “I can’t sew, or make baskets, or knit… my father told me I’d better find something I could do or he’d…” Gabrielle stopped speaking for a long moment. “Anyway, one of my friends in the village was the son of the innkeeper, and he got his mother to show me the ropes, a little.”
Xena watched her companion in silence, chewing her food and thinking. “Gabrielle?”
“Yes?” Warm, green eyes met hers.
“Were you happier back there, or right here?” Xena asked. “Doesn’t sound to me like you were having a picnic before the slavers got you.”
The blond woman cupped her hands around her goblet and sipped slowly from it. There were so many answers to that question, and she had to decide which one Xena deserved to hear from her. “It was all right.” She finally answered, with a half shrug.
“Didja want to stay there?” Xena asked.
“No.” Gabrielle answered, after a slight hesitation. “I always… Everyone made fun of me for it, really, but I always wanted to go out and see the world…you know, look at other places, meet people… “ She looked up at Xena. “So here I am. I guess I got what I wanted after all, didn’t I?”
“I guess you did.” Xena mused. “Probably not the route you wanted to take to get here, though.”
Gabrielle gazed into the depths of her cup. She thought about the last night she’d been at home, about the yelling and the anger that had made her trip to the river that next morning a welcome relief. “Sometimes you can’t pick your roads.” She said, her lips pressing into a thin line. “But…if I had to be on this road, I’m glad it lead here.”
“I’m glad too.” Xena said. “It’s been a long time… since I’ve had someone around who I could just… talk to.” She frowned at the now empty cup in her hands. “I’d forgotten what that felt like.”
Gabrielle got up and retrieved the mead bottle, filling Xena’s cup and then her own. She remained standing, wordlessly stroking Xena’s shoulder with her hand as the queen sipped. “I…” She paused, then took a breath and started again. “I didn’t really have many people to talk to at home either. Most of my friends were just… none of them wanted to do anything but stay in Potadeia, and get married, and have kids.”
“Ah.”
“They thought I was strange.” Gabrielle admitted.
“You are.” Xena told her, eyes twinkling. “But I like that.” She took Gabrielle’s hand and pulled her down to sit on her lap as she wrapped an arm around her. She picked up a bit of root from her plate and offered it to the blond woman.
Gabrielle put her arms around Xena and accepted the tidbit, giving her a hug just because she could.
Xena put down her cup and returned the hug and they sat there for a bit just wrapped in each other’s arms. She could feel the pressure of Gabrielle’s body wrapped around her and when she breathed in, the girl’s scent filled her lungs.
She ran a hand down Gabrielle’s side and felt a feather light kiss on the nape of her neck in response.
A crack of thunder startled both them. Xena surged to her feet in pure reaction, still holding onto Gabrielle as she pulled a knife off the table and crouched, all before her conscious mind slapped her in the back of the head and pointed at the window.
“Whoa.” Gabrielle yelped softly.
Another crack of thunder, and the entire exterior of the castle was blasted by a bolt of lightning, rattling the dishes on the table and sending a bit of mead sloshing from Gabrielle’s cup. With a crash, a pane of the window cracked and fell inward, and the room filled with the scent of the storm as the wind entered.
Xena released Gabrielle and took a step towards the window, then stopped as another bolt of lightning struck the outside of the stronghold, shattering the rest of the window panes.
Hail blew in, flying across the room.
“Um… your majesty… “ Gabrielle had never seen a storm this bad before. Even the one that had almost destroyed the sheep pen hadn’t been this violent. “I’m not sure…”
“I’m sure.” Xena grabbed the bottle of mead, and Gabrielle and bolted for the bedroom, ducking hailstones as she dove through the door and slammed it behind her. “Damned if I need Zeus to chase me into bed.” She checked the shutters, which had remained secure, set the bottle down, then threw Gabrielle into the huge bed and dove after her.
**
Maybe the storm outside lent a bit of extra danger. Gabrielle felt chills running up and down her body as she tumbled into the bed, barely having time to stretch out before the surface bowed under Xena’s weight as the queen joined her.
The low light outlined the queen’s body as she got between Gabrielle and the fire. Gabrielle reached for her as her own body reacted to the energy she could sense so close. Her hands touched bare skin and slid over it as Xena came to rest leaning half over her, the queen’s weight resting on her elbows.
“Well now.” Xena’s voice was pitched low. “This is good a place as any to ride out the storm, isn’t it?”
Gabrielle could feel Xena’s breathing under her hands, and felt a fire ignite in her guts as her fingertips explored the powerful contours. “Yeah.” She answered briefly, almost not hearing the rattling of the windows as the hail slammed into them.
Her own heartbeat fairly drowned it out, increasing when Xena leaned closer and took the laces of her shirt in her teeth and ripped them out. She felt the faint sting as the end of one hit her in the throat, then the chill as one sleeve was pulled down off her shoulder, exposing her chest.
This time was different. Gabrielle welcomed the lips that caressed her throat. This time she only felt excitement, and the building need, and a desire that set her skin on fire. Fear was never a part of it. She traced the outlines of Xena’s breasts with teasing fingers, listening for that low, rumbling purr and smiling when it came, moments later.
Xena’s hand slid down her other shoulder, peeling her shirt off and down around her waist. Gabrielle ducked her head and traded touch for touch, nibbling her way along Xena’s neck and tasting her skin with abashedly abandoned licks.
It felt so good. Everything felt so good, and the craving for more grew. She slid her lips along the silky surface of Xena’s skin, teasing her sensitive nipple as she felt a touch move slowly up the inside of her thigh.
Xena nipped her playfully on the navel and she squeaked.
They both laughed.
Gabrielle ran her fingers through Xena’s hair, loving the feel of it against her skin. She pulled gently and tilted her head, finding lips that met hers, and a tongue that teased between them, curling around her own. She shifted a hand lower, down across Xena’s belly, and felt the muscles under her touch tense.
There was a scar there. Gabrielle made a fuzzy note to ask about it. Later.
Xena’s thigh slid between hers, and she found herself rolled over onto her back, being gently explored. It put her in an excellent position to do some herself, and she let her fingers and lips wander, touching and tasting everything she could reach.
A rumble of thunder rolled through the stronghold, and it matched the rumble of pleasure that came, unexpectedly, from both of them.
It was hard to concentrate, Gabrielle felt her body arching almost out of her control as she continued her touching, hearing a second, low groan from Xena as the queens’ body pressed against hers. They were both sweating, despite the chill, and her tongue tasted salt on Xena’s skin as she planted feather light kisses down the centerline of her torso.
She wasn’t sure if it was luck, or just the natural melding of their mutual need, but she felt Xena’s body tensing as her own responded to a building tide of desire and their voices rose in conjoined howls. Gabrielle held her breath as rippling waves of convulsions moved through her and she felt Xena’s muscles clamp down over her as the queen shared the moment.
It was awesome.
Gabrielle waited for the intensity to subside, and she nuzzled Xena’s skin, sliding her body against the queen’s in an ecstasy of giddy passion. She felt like no amount of contact was close enough, and she wrapped herself around Xena’s, wanting to feel her all over.
“Mm.” Xena’s lips were close to her ear. “Niiiiicce…. Let’s try that again.”
Oh yeah….Gabrielle chuckled weakly. If this is what being a love slave meant, boy, was it ever underrated.
The hail beat petulantly against the leaded windows, and the wind moaned, it’s power impotent against the fire within.
**
Xena woke to find sunlight hitting her in the face. She blinked her eyes open in surprise, squinting at the window which showed an already bright sky. The storm had ended, apparently, and the weather cleared, all while she’d slept.
The air was cold, though, and she realized the storm must have brought in the beginning of winter weather. She could taste the dryness on the air, though where she was she was very comfortably warm and cozy.
The down cover helped, but finding Gabrielle’s body draped over her provided the real warmth and she gazed down at the tousled blond head in bemused affection. It was resting on her shoulder, and Gabrielle had one arm thrown over her and one leg, pinning her down with a light, but very perceptible pressure.
She closed her eyes and just let herself feel the trust in that embrace.
It was a first, in a lifetime of experiences, and she reveled in it. No matter what she’d expected love to be like, it had never been this. She shifted slightly, and kissed Gabrielle on the top of her head, feeling her nestle closer in unconscious reaction.
Ah. It had been a very long time since she’d felt peace like this. Xena let her eyes drift open, and study the ceiling. If she ever had. She halfway remembered a time, when she was very young before the terror came to Amphipolis. A warm kitchen, her mother.. her brothers.
Laughing.
But it had been a very long time ago, and she’d lost the ability to even want to go back to a time when all she’d cared about was being warm and well fed, and happy. Xena’s brow creased lightly. But in a way, Gabrielle touched that part of her, and made her remember what it had been like to have family.
Was that good? Xena slowly rubbed Gabrielle’s bare back. Caring about something meant risking the loss of it. She’d learned that the hard way. But wasn’t the risk worth it? Hadn’t she been alone long enough? She let out a breath, acknowledging the long ignored loneliness she’d surrounded herself with quite deliberately.
Well, Gabrielle was hers. Xena examined the girl’s profile. Willingly hers, as well as hers by right of ownership and unlike all her other previous bedmates, this one was worthy of being trusted and loved in return because she’d proven herself so.
So.
Now what was she going to do? She couldn’t have Gabrielle keep on as her chambermaid, much as she loathed the idea of allowing yet another slave into her quarters. She had to find a position for Gabrielle that was in keeping with her status of being Xena’s lover.
She could, Xena acknowledged, merely just name her as her consort, but… Her eyes studied the slightly rounded jawline. That would be a waste of resources. The kid was smart, and she had a talent Xena knew she herself was sadly lacking in.
Xena decided to think about the answer to her little blond riddle for a while before she made any decisions. In the meantime, she’d have Stanislaus find a new slave to clean the floors, after she got herself back into her routine today. She knew the break in the weather removed any excuse for her to keep shy of her duties, and there were things to do and people to harass after her one day’s truancy from statehood.
And she was already late in starting. Xena observed the splash of sunlight creeping across the floor. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept past sunrise, but then again… a wicked grin appeared. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d spent most of the night making love, either.
Ah well. Xena gave the window a last glance, and acknowledged the fact that she had to get up and go be queen. Gently, she tickled Gabrielle’s back, watching the sleeping girl’s face slowly acquire tension as her body twitched.
After a moment, Gabrielle’s eyes opened, and she blinked a few times, then tilted her head up. “Mm.” She peered sleepily up at the queen. “Hello.”
“Good morning.” Xena put a fingertip on the slave’s nose. “You’re going to have to find a different pillow. I have to go tyrannize the masses.”
Gabrielle looked down. “Oh. Sorry.” She eased off the queen, rolling onto her side and leaning on her elbow. “Um… yeah. I’ve got a lot to do… the outer room’s a mess.”
“I’ll get someone to take care of that.” Xena told her. “I’ve got something else for you to do, since you’re so smart, as well as cute.” She smiled as a blush worked it’s way up from Gabrielle’s neck, showing a charming pink in the sunlight. “I want you to go around the stronghold...find out what people are really thinking.”
Gabrielle hesitated, then cocked her head to one side. “What makes you think I can?”
“Beeecaauuusee…” The queen ran a fingertip around her bedmate’s lips. “If you can do it with me, you can do it with anyone. There’s something still going on, and I want to know what it is.”
Slowly, Gabrielle nodded. “Okay.” She reached out and took Xena’s hand, bringing it to her lips and kissing it. “I’ll do my best.” She folded her fingers around the queen’s and rubbed the backs of her knuckles against her cheek. “I don’t know if anyone will talk to me downstairs, though.”
“Maybe not.” Xena murmured. “But you can bet all the nobles will. They’ll offer you the world, my little lamb.” She flexed her fingers, squeezing the girl’s. “Anything to get at me.”
“My world is nothing without you in it.” Gabrielle replied simply. “So they don’t have anything to offer.”
Aw. Xena considered herself thoroughly charmed. “You’ve got the soul of a poet, Gabrielle. Where’d you find it?” She teased. “Someone leave it by the river somewhere?”
Gabrielle smiled wistfully.
The queen chuckled, and gave her a slap on the butt. “All right. Move. I’ve got to go see what damage that damn storm did last night. Let’s go surprise the court and see what trouble we can get into.” She pulled the covers back and slid out of bed, taking a moment to stretch fully in the cool air. “Ahhhh.”
“Wow.”
Xena turned and put her hands on her hips, cocking an eyebrow wickedly. “Why, Gabrielle. Losing your down on the farm shyness already?”
“No.. I mean..” Gabrielle scrambled out of bed and circled the queen, peering at her back. “Your back’s better.”
Xena shifted a shoulderblade, flexing her arm experimentally. It no longer hurt. “Ah.” She rotated her shoulder, then extended her arm across her body carefully. The motion didn’t even produce a twinge. “Well, what do you know? I guess a day spent in bed can heal anything.” She chuckled, shaking her head and walking towards the bathing room. “Too bad I didn’t think of that before the fight.”
Gabrielle watched her go, mesmerized by the smooth power rippling under Xena’s sun dappled skin. The wound on her shoulder was closed, only a dark line of stitches marking where it had been. There was no swelling, and no redness, and soon even that dark line would be gone, leaving behind only the memory of the horror that had, in a way, brought them together.
Then she remembered the other scar, and trotted after the queen, questions already tickling her tongue. Her world was changing yet again, only this time she found herself a part of the change and liking it.
**
Part 11
Xena paused as she got to the entrance of her audience chamber and straightened her sleeve before she continued into the room. It was fairly full, but her sensitive ears heard conversations cut off in mid word as her presence became known. She watched the faces turn to her, watched the depth of the bows, and a tingle of warning ignited in her guts. Giving the crowd a graceful nod, she proceeded into the smaller, private chamber behind it to get her security briefing she knew would be waiting for her.
Sure enough, Alaran was there already, gazing out the window with a frown on his face. He turned as Xena entered and bowed, then straightened as the queen approached. “Mistress.”
Xena gave him a nod, and then took her seat, lacing her fingers together and lifting her eyebrows. “Well?”
Alaran pursed his lips. “Mistress, I hardly know how to tell you this.”
“Well.” The queen tapped her thumbs. “You can either open your mouth and start talking, or I can skin you and make you scream the news. Pick.” She decided to smile, indicating that she wasn’t really serious.
Her security chief didn’t seem reassured. “Mistress, there has been… many of the soldiers have gone.”
Last thing on earth she’d expected to hear. “What?” Xena leaned forward slightly.
“Brego’s men, my liege.” Alaran said. “Yesterday… during the storm. They snuck out of the city.”
Xena stood up suddenly, startling a flinch from her security chief. She paced over to him, resisting the urge to grab him by the front of his tunic. “Are you telling me half the army defected?” She spoke softly, but even she could hear the edge in her tone. Alaran surely could, and his skin paled visibly. “Half of *my* army?”
Alaran swallowed. “They... did not view themselves as your men, Mistress.” He told her, lifting his head bravely. “They looked to Bregos as their leader, and… “
“And?” Xena said.
“Did not wish to serve under you.” Alaran finished quietly. “They escaped out through the kitchens.”
Xena turned and walked to the window, putting her hands on either side of it in what she considered a very admirable show of restraint. “So they had help.” She remarked. “Everyone was in on it, eh?”
“Not everyone, Mistress.” Alaran said. “It was discovered by one of your men, before dawn, and he came for me.”
Xena’s pale blue eyes regarded the sunlight. “And you waited to tell me.”
Alaran remained silent. Xena turned and looked at him. “Mistress, you did say…” He started to speak.
Xena crossed the distance between them in the blink of an eye. She grabbed him and lifted him up, letting her temper loose at last. “You stupid bastard.” She snarled, whirling and slamming him against the wall. “You’re not worth the cloth on your back.”
His nostrils flared. “Mistress.”
“How much did they pay you off, Alaran? Offer you a homestead?” Xena held him in place with little effort. “What’d they buy you with? Cow shit? That’s what you’re worth.” She half turned and threw him to the ground.
“No! Mistress!” Alaran held a hand over his head, protecting it as she pounced. “You wrong me!”
Xena kicked him with all her strength, hearing the crunch as he hit the wall. She caught him as he rebounded and lifted him up again, catching him around the throat with both hands. “Wrong you?” She squeezed. “You’re responsible for my security. You let half the army defect, and allowed insurrection in the slaves’ quarters. Wrong you?”
He gagged, and tried to breathe.
“I’ve gotten more good information from my chambermaid in the last half moon than I have from you. Why is that?” Xena asked acidly.
“M…”
Blood was pouring from his nose. “You let me almost get assassinated, twice in that period. And you say I wrong you?” Xena’s voice dropped to a harsh whisper.
Alaran closed his eyes, and bowed his head, accepting what he knew was coming.
Xena released him, and let him drop to the floor. She knelt next to him and grabbed him by the hair, forcing his head back. She gazed dispassionately into his eyes, bloodshot and frightened, hopelessness shining from them. “Now.” She said. “Tell me the truth.”
**
Gabrielle crossed the huge lower hallway, pausing for just a moment to appreciate its grandeur again as she headed for the stronghold’s archives. Xena had told her to go there, to begin her listening.
Xena. Gabrielle found herself smiling at the name, as she turned down the first corridor, counting the doors to the fifth one. It had been so amazing waking up in the morning with her, and feeling the gentleness in her touch.
Amazing. Gabrielle pushed the door open and peered inside. The smell of parchment hit her, and she suppressed a sneeze as she entered the room and looked around. Near the windows were a row of wooden copy desks, and their occupants looked up as she came in, watching her curiously. “Hello.”
The one nearest the door got up and came over. He had on a sturdy work tunic, stained with ink, and he carried one quill with another tucked behind an ear. “G’day m’lady.” He greeted her. “Something I can do for you, or for her Majesty?”
Gabrielle straightened a little inside her black and gold livery. “Matter of fact, yes. Her majesty would like the tax records for the last harvest season, please.” She said. “Thank you.”
The man smiled and gave her a half bow, then turned and started rummaging through the shelving. Each shelf held rolls of parchment, and he took one, and then another, examining its contents carefully. Gabrielle left him to search, as she walked through the room.
Some of the shelves had hand lettered labels, scraps of parchment stuck to the edges, or bits of wood with more permanent markings nailed to them with half spikes. Records of the surrounding lands, mostly, she saw listings of properties, and marriage rolls… Curiously, Gabrielle took hold of one of them and opened it, scanning the names in many hands written inside.
She had been one of the very few in her village who could read and write. The only reason her father had allowed her to learn from the old reeve was because he’d hoped to push her into being the village teacher, once the old woman who’d served as that for many years finally passed on. It was a relatively good position, and her father had figured it would make her worth more in marriage.
Learning to read had been like opening the door to the world to her, after she’d scraped together quarter dinars for almost a year and purchased a tattered old scroll at market which held a precious thing inside.
A story. A story of a place far away, and of people who didn’t live in her village, or think like her, or act like the people all around her acted.
Gabrielle remembered how she’d daydreamed about that story, and how it had ignited her imagination into thinking of different ways for the story to end, or different things for the people in it to do, or… It had triggered her first halting attempts at making her own tales up and given her a small golden bright spot in an otherwise pretty bland life.
She put the scroll back and wandered on, towards the back of the room where the shelves were dustier and the parchment older. Near the last of the cubbies she found a stack of very tattered scraps, and she picked one up, examining it curiously.
A sketch looked back at her, of a small village seen from a hillside above it. It was done in some kind of ink, the lines faded into almost obscurity in places. The rolling land it nestled in seemed vaguely familiar to her, but she knew the outline of the huts and of the streets was of some place she’d never been.
She turned it over, and saw a few letters on the back, and she leaned closer, turning the parchment towards the window to see better. ‘Amph’. She mouthed the word softly, wondering if it could possibly be short for Amphipolis, where Xena had said she was from.
“Wonder if she even knows this is here?” Gabrielle murmured to herself, tucking parchment under her arm as she leafed through a few of the others. She stopped when she came to one, blinking in true startlement as she recognized a crude sketching of Xena herself, a wilder, younger visage than the one she’d woken up to, under lettering offering a thousand dinars for her capture.
Wanted. Gabrielle stared at the words in fascination. Murdering Warlord.
Soberly, she tucked that parchment under her arm too, marveling at the incredible paradox the queen was. She turned and wandered back over to the desks, where her friend the scribe was assembling a neat stack of sheets, binding them together with a bit of gut. He turned and presented them to her, with another little bow.
“M’lady, as you requested.”
“Thanks.” Gabrielle took them. “What’s your name?”
The scribe looked a little surprised at the question. “Dirk, m’lady.”
Gabrielle took his hand in hers. “Hi, Dirk. I’m Gabrielle.” She said. “It’s nice to meet you.”
If an asp had started dancing on her shoulder, she doubted he could have looked more surprised. He gingerly clasped her hand, and ducked his head. “My honor, m’lady. We have heard your name.”
I just bet. Gabrielle found herself wryly grinning. “Thanks.” She freed herself from his grip and gave his brother scribes a smile, and then she turned and left the records room, resolving to return at her soonest free time to do a more thorough exploration of its secrets.
The hallway was busier now, and she found herself the covert center of attention as she walked across the open space, heading for the queen’s audience chamber with her records. One of the dukes, one she recognized as more or less friendly to Xena, approached her.
It was amazing; she marveled silently, how accurately Xena knew these people. She paused as the man came up to her and looked inquisitively at him. “Sir?”
“Good morning to you, young mistress.” The Duke gave her a fairly courtly bow. “I am Duke Lastay, and have the honor to be in the queen’s service.”
“Yes, sir, I remember you from the festival.” Gabrielle responded. “Can I do something for you?”
“Not at all... it is I who wish to do something for you. May I carry your burden? I take it you go to the queen’s side?” Lastay offered. “She has heard the terrible news, and must be in a dark temper.”
Gabrielle’s ears perked up. She almost asked him what he was talking about, but paused, thinking better of it, and handed him over the records instead. “Thank you, sir, yes I was headed there.” She told him gravely, joining him as he started to walk towards the audience chamber. “Have you heard further details?”
Lastay shook his head, pursing his lip in concern. “Only what we all know, young mistress. I fear that more evil is afoot for our queen, for why else should half the army choose to leave us? For no good reason, of that I’m sure.”
Half the army????? Gabrielle felt her eyes widen. Surely it wasn’t…. No, she’d seen Brendan from afar as she’d walked from the tower. So, not Xena’s favorites... not the one’s she’d rewarded so well just two days prior. The only other possibility stared her in the face. “Sore losers, maybe?” She suggested softly.
Lastay sighed, and shook his head. “More than that, I fear. Our queen has made many uneasy. Her reign… ah well.”
“Well, I thought she showed how strong that was the other day.” Gabrielle said.
“Ah, but in doing so, she showed again how solitary her crown is, with no heir. What if the worst had happened?” Lastay asked cannily. “Our culture is built on continuity. With her gracious majesty, that is difficult to ascertain.”
Gabrielle pondered that. “Well.” She shrugged a little. “I mean, Xena’s the queen because she’s the strongest. Even if she had a baby, that baby wouldn’t be strongest, and how long would it last with everyone trying to kill everyone else?” She looked up at Lastay, whose mouth had dropped open slightly. “Someone would just take over, because they were the strongest. So maybe the queen feels like, what’s the point?”
They approached the doors to the outer chamber, and the guards on either side moved to open them so they could pass inside. Lastay was silent as they entered, drawing the eyes of all those standing around waiting in various poses of alarm. “What’s going on?” The Duke asked sharply.
A loud crash answered him, from the inner chambers.
Everyone looked at him, then at Gabrielle. With a queasy feeling, Gabrielle took the records from Lastay’s hands and walked towards the door.
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