© Copyright 1996-1999 by Clayton J. Powers

"Heystasia," Tryphoîn complained to his wife. "This land is so terrible I don't know how much longer we can survive here. It's so dry! That mountain over there is blocking all our rain!" Tryphoîn shot his thumb over his shoulder towards the mountain in disgust.

"Well Tryphoîn, you're wedded to the idea that you could grow crops on this land. I don't know why you don't grow sheep like everyone else. I mean your father's money, that you used to start this little dive, is getting ready to run out! I had to send our two boys to go be shepherds with a neighbor to get the money we need to by food because you keep wasting your dad's money on seed grain."

"Dad GAVE me that money with the clear understanding that I would use it to grow grain, not raise sheep. He needs the grain to feed his cattle for beef! I can't let him down."

"He's just as silly as you are. None of the male members of your family has any sense! AT ALL!" Heystasia griped.

"OK! So we're dreamers! That's not bad. Besides, we got a Priest of Demeter in the family. We GOTTA have an in!!" The man always lived in hope and his face showed it.

"I dunno Tryphoîn. I dunno." Heystasia shook her head and looked at her husband. All right, impractical he might be. He might have blinders on that were so tight that the flow of blood to his brain was cut off, but he was kind and loving to her and her children, so she was going to stay. They'd figure out a way to survive.

In bed that night, Tryphoîn listened to the crickets and watched the flame on the oil lamp flicker. He was thinking, dreaming really, even though he was wide awake--dreaming about the valley on the other side of the mountain. He walked there and saw it. from around its edge. The land around that lake was fertile and could be wonderfully productive. Local priests had told Tryphoîn that the land was especially blessed by Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest, and that all this ground needed was to be pierced by the plow. Once it had been plowed, rich bounty would flow unchecked to those who did the work to till it. The tilling would be doubly sacred for the valley was beloved of Zeus himself for its incomparable beauty.

However, the land and the lake were forbidden to people. Totems of warning were seen in every pass into the valley; they were carved into living rock by a hand that surely could not have been human. These warnings were cryptic in the extreme. One such warning said "The plow shall not cut this land, else consequences will envelop all who try! The priests said that the totems were from the gods themselves and that to disobey them would mean death. Tryphoîn couldn't believe it. It was totally ridiculous that many square miles of wonderful property couldn't be used to their, no HIS benefit.

"Gods! there has got to be a way to get to use the land around that damn lake." Tryphoîn whined. There has just got to be. We could be the wealthiest farmers in all of Illyria."

"SH!" Said Heystasia holding her finger against his lips. "We can't do that. Even your cousin the priest told you that you couldn't go in there. Forget about it. You'll feel better."

"It just don't make sense! I'm just gonna do it!" Tryphoîn declared.

"Look Tryphoîn, I love you, so listen. If you do this silly thing, you'll be doing it alone. Nobody wants to be struck down by one of Zeus's lightning bolts."

"Well I just don't believe that the Gods would care so much about a piece of land. They have Olympus don't they?"

"Tryphoîn you're obsessing about this." Heystasia grabbed and hugged her husband and tried to make him relax.

"What's that?" Tryphoîn asked.

"What's what?" Heystasia replied.

"That smell! It smells like freshly cut hay."

The room was immediately filled with a soft, greenish-white light, and a vision appeared at the end of the bed. It was a woman in soft homespun robes with a friendly countenance. Her eyes were soft, brown and comforting. She wore a simple headdress of woven wheat stalks.

"Tryphoîn, your prayers have been answered."

"Who--who are you?" Heystasia asked chilled with fear. Her husband nodded vigorously.

"Why, I am Demeter! I am here to grant you your prayer."

Immediately, both people began to cower and grovel towards the greatness that stood before them.

"No, no, please!" said he Goddess of the Harvest, raising her hand to stop the couple from supplicating.

"Why, my lady, did you come to us?" Tryphoîn asked, his voice quivering

"Because you worship me very well, Tryphoîn. You have tried to make my harvest grow in ground that the other gods hadn't meant for grain to grow. That is high trust in me indeed, Tryphoîn. To reward you, I have interceded with Zeus to allow your village to use the lake and the land around it, so that you may grow rich and fat in my bounty."

Tryphoîn's eyes widened with delight and his wife hugged him and giggled with glee. After a moment, Tryphoîn's eyes clouded and he turned to the goddess and asked: "But my Lady, who will believe us? My cousin is one of your priests. He runs a small temple. Why didn't you go to him?"

"I see your fear, Tryphoîn. Come." Demeter raised her hand and the glow intensified. Miraculously the roof of the house parted and the goddess and the two people floated into the air! They flew out of the house and then gently landed in the village square. A sound like a bell spread throughout the village and the curious residents emerged from their modest dwellings. When they arrived they all watched the grand apparition that stood in front of them in awe. Demeter implored them to not be afraid, and like a friend she walked among them and told them the wonderful news. Great rejoicing rang out.

"Listen to Tryphoîn! He is my beloved! He will lead you to wealth, plenty and serenity!" sang the goddess, and even Tryphoîn's cousin the priest, though he had lost his job, could not help but join in the fun. "I will go now, my people. Work hard, enjoy yourselves in your new land. Remember me." The goddess suddenly grew to gigantic height and with a beneficent gesture she evaporated.

The little village celebrated as it had never celebrated before. Immediately a bonfire was lit and the villagers danced, sang and made merry.

Tucked in a little corner of a building of the village there was a small alcove. This alcove had a full view of the bonfire but was screened from view itself by the shadow that the building cast. A small sphere of greenish white light appeared and Demeter again stood in the shadow's darkness. Somehow, this time, she was different. The soothing look in her eyes was replaced by a cold hardness. A smirk appeared across her warming lips. Slowly, the Goddess of the Harvest began to transform, growing, changing shape, changing attitude, until the gentle Demeter did not stand in the alcove any longer. Instead there stood a tall muscular man dressed head to foot in a black velvet robe. At his waist hung an ornate sword. On his ear an earring stood out. It was shaped like a sword as well. The face beneath the hood was partially obscured but not the mouth. Its sensuous lips was surrounded by a neat, black goatee. On those lips was a satisfied smile. The man looked up at the celebrating village and watched while his posture began to radiate pride. Then the man looked down, hiding his eyes from view. He looked at the back of his black, studded, gauntleted hands and watched as he formed a fist with one of them. Raising them, the figure punched the palm of his open hand and quietly rejoiced: "YES!" Then he disappeared, the whisper hanging in the air like a fog.

Demodocus awoke early and looked to the animals then set up his altar in the hall and began a service. Gabrielle was up as well and she joined him and watched fascinated. Gabrielle had heard from someone during her wanderings that there were no such thing as atheists in the front rank. Gabrielle now realized what that meant. Although Gabrielle was not a religious woman, she was afraid for Xena, so she prayed and prayed hard. Her friend had always come through severe crises on her own strength and resourcefulness. Xena had even beaten a dose of poison that would have killed a lesser person by going with the venom and fighting it all the way. Now Xena was helpless, at first abused by a god she did not worship, and now dependent on a man she did not know. Xena was almost the complete embodiment of pride, now that pride had been ripped from her for the sole reason that a god wanted to have a little fun. Surely the Fates, who had saved Xena so many times, would not be so cynical as to let Eros get away with his crimes. Gabrielle stated to herself, "Not if I have anything to do with it."

"Gabrielle?" At the sound of Xena's voice, Gabrielle bolted from the service, grabbed bread and water and hurried to her friend's side. Gabrielle wanted to cry, for Xena's appearance was terrible. Xena was pale and somehow looked smaller. The warrior's face was pinched, her perpetual look of confidence gone. "Gabrielle, are--are you all right?" she asked uncertainly.

"Yes, Xena, I'm fine. Demodocus is fine. You have nothing to worry about. You just get better, OK?"

"Gabrielle, I remember everything! I was going to kill you. I was just so angry I couldn't stop myself. I had to kill the priest. I had to kill the priest. I don't know why. How could I have done it! I couldn't kill you, Gabrielle! I would rather kill myself than hurt you!! It was just like when I got Lycias killed." Deep, racking sobs shook Xena. her beautiful face worked and tears poured out of her blue eyes.

To Gabrielle's absolute horror, Demodocus had been right. The Xena she knew and cared about was no longer there. "It's all right, Xena. Please don't torture yourself. You weren't responsible for yesterday."

Demodocus must have been listening, for the priest slowly came around the screen. He had a big smile on his face. Gabrielle looked at him, her frightened eyes searching the man's craggy features for an answer. She saw none. Turning back to Xena Gabrielle saw that she could no longer look anyone in the eye. When Xena tried she just closed her eyes and buried her head in her pillow. Gabrielle reached down and touched her friend on the shoulder straining mightily not to cry herself. She rose, turned to Demodocus, and grabbed him by the upper arm very strongly, "Please help her!" Gabrielle hissed, her voice choked with emotion.

Demodocus put his hand on Gabrielle's shoulder, squeezed and gazed deeply into her eyes. "I'll do what I can, but don't worry, her heart is monumentally strong. Take a look in on Lyla will you? I need to be alone with Xena." Gabrielle wiped a tear from her face--nodded, and went upstairs.

"Demodocus. I didn't hurt you did I?" Xena asked with a terrified look. "You never did anything to me All you were trying to do was to find out what was going on. I feel so awful about it! Why did I do such a silly thing?"

"Xena, I'm fine; Gabrielle was right. You were not responsible for your actions. There's no need to feel any shame." Demodocus said in a sweet, soothing tone.

"OF COURSE I WAS RESPONSIBLE! I decided I had to kill you and I went about doing it!! It was criminal and I deserve to die for it!" Xena's eyes flashed in anger, but that anger was directed towards herself. "I deserve to die for that act just like I deserve to die for all those poor people I killed for nothing but my own stupid lust for revenge!" Xena pushed her head back into the pillow and yoweled in pain; she squirmed with the overpowering emotion she was feeling.

Demodocus grabbed her by the shoulders and with surprising strength he pushed her down into the bed and yelled, "LOOK AT ME! YOU LOOK AT ME, XENA!" Xena reluctantly complied, her eyes still burned with self hatred. "I'm a physician so you listen now, and answer me when I want you to. You were not responsible for the attack on me! The god Eros took away the control of your emotions! Then he overloaded you with anger! Nobody could have resisted that! As for most of the others you killed, you were doing what you thought was best for your village at first and your men later. It was hubris that made you kill when you didn't have to, and you've stopped that. Greece is a lawless nation. People live out of the protection of cities at their own risk. Where there is no law there is no culpability. Life IMPROVED for most in the areas that you conquered. Death would not be anywhere near as great a punishment for these actions than what you have meted out to yourself already. So quit feeling sorry for yourself; you've got work to do!"

Xena's eyes widened in shock. Toughness in a priest was the last thing she expected. Demodocus' tactic had worked. Xena's mind was diverted from her shame. She stopped crying and calmed down. "Eros did you say? Eros made me go mad?" She asked mournfully.

"That's BETTER! Yes, Xena, he played on all the anger you have because of your past and then added to it. He also knew that you take responsibility for nearly everything, as well as your need to prove that you are the best so that you can get attention--especially from Atreus."

"I do not! I can delegate! I wouldn't have been a successful warrior without it!" Xena exclaimed defensively.

"Then why are you killing yourself by trying to save everybody in trouble and why do you treat Gabrielle like a five year old so much?"

Xena looked hurt and tears came to her eyes again.

"Nononono! Xena, your life experience did that to you. You've had so many important losses in your life that you're afraid you can't take any more. Again you are not responsible for it. It's Eros again! Xena, you can stand up to him. Give me time to show you how." Demodocus touched Xena on the head and a tear came to his eye. He prayed that the Maiden would help Xena learn to accept and start to love in herself what she hated. When Xena calmed again, he asked her about the day she saw Oechalia. It took awhile, because Xena was very brittle, but finally Demodocus got the information that he needed.

"Xena the little man that flew around you was the god Eros. He is the only god that can force people to act the way he wants them to act. He does it by manipulating a person's feelings. He found your unresolved grief over all your losses, the rage over all the times people you cared about betrayed you, and the anger you hold against your family. He also exploited the shame you feel over your past conduct. This was cruel abuse and you need not have tolerated it. You were ignorant of the way to deal with those unresolved issues."

"But I thought the dream that the Mystic Elkton placed me in and the battle against my bad self that I had while under its influence had ended that problem."

"Xena, that was commendable on Elkton's part, but you only did part of the job you had to do. You acknowledged the part of yourself you don't like but then used your will to control it. That won't work now. Gabrielle told me that before that incident you were having repeated nightmares and painful incidents from your past would flash before your eyes while you were awake. Did they stop? Are you sleeping well now?"

"No! They've started again!" Xena tried to hide her pain, but it was impossible.

"That's evidence that you cannot cope with your bad side. Xena, what is done is done. You cannot go back to your past, but there are two ways you can bring those visions, and the things you hate about yourself under control."

Xena wiped away a tear and looked at the physician skeptically. She was convinced that these terrible visions were her lot and that she deserved them.

"Xena, Gabrielle said to me that you were the bravest mortal that ever lived. Xena, humanity needs you. I must get you ready to help me face Eros, or he could drive all of the people of the world mad. I implore you to muster that courage to the most important cause you will ever have in your life, you're own redemption. I guarantee you one thing. You WILL be terrified. You will need all that courage to do two things, Talk about what you felt during all of the worst incidents in your life, and use the gods to help you forgive yourself for every misdeed that you think you've committed. That means you must learn to LOVE the parts of you that you most hate. We don't have time to go into depth--that might take years, so how did you feel when your father abandoned your family?"

Xena's eyes went wide and then they softened in pain. Demodocus watched and prayed that Xena would not quail from her task, for what he had asked her to do was superhuman. He closed his eyes and turned his face upwards, then he opened his eyes and looked back down at Xena's face. To his enormous relief, he saw the woman's jaw was set; her cheek were muscles working and her eyes burning with resolve.

"It hurt, Demodocus! IT HURT SO MUCH!!" she exclaimed her voice cracking with the pain. "I wish I could have killed him!"

For hours and hours straight Demodocus talked to Xena. Gabrielle took what time she could from her tending of Lyla and her child to listen in. What she heard was detailed discussion about Xena's family and how she felt about it. From time to time Xena screamed awful, wrenching screams that sounded like she was buried deep in the bowels of Tartarus. These awful sounds were followed immediately by the voice of the priest, gently comforting her. Gabrielle once heard him say, "Xena, the war took your life away. You couldn't do anything about it and your dad wasn't there to love you. Your mother wasn't much more loving. Is it any wonder why you stopped feeling? It was the only thing you could do." Then Gabrielle heard Xena softly sobbing. Gabrielle tried to go on with her chores but she had to continue listening with tears in her eyes as well.

Gabrielle overheard early the next day that Xena was really hung up over the maniac Callisto and the responsibility Xena was claiming about her.

"Do you think that you see yourself in Callisto?" The priest asked.

"Yes!" Xena yelled angrily

"Crap! that is just self hatred and laziness, Xena!

"I am not lazy!

"Quit lying to yourself. Yes you are lazy, or you would have looked into yourself to see that Callisto is an adult and responsible for your own actions and let yourself off the hook. You're too powerful for that kind of evasion! That's taking the easy way out!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Xena bellowed. The yell was followed by a grunt of exertion and the whoosh of something flying through the air rapidly. There was a wet sounding thwack and a cry of pain and Demodocus came flying on his back head first through the screen. He landed on the back of his shoulders and slid all the way across the room.

Gabrielle saw it and dropped her bowl of oranges and ran over to the now supine priest.

DEMODOCUS! Gabrielle yelled looking for her staff. "Are you all right?"

When Gabrielle arrived, Demodocus was already rising to his elbows. To Gabrielle's amazement, he was laughing.

Reaching up to rub his chin and rolling his eyes Demodocus looked up at Gabrielle saying, "Maiden! What a right hand! It came so fast I never saw it. Don't worry, Gabrielle, I was expecting that. I know my Warrior Princess. She'll be feeling just awful now. I just hit another sore spot that's all. She had to get rid of that anger somehow and I was the closest thing to her. Better she take a crack at me than start marauding again."

"Is she getting better?" Gabrielle's amazement if anything increased.

"Oh yeah, she is. Like I said, Xena is already incredibly emotionally tough. But she needs work." Suddenly the priest's eyes went wide and he snapped his fingers. "I got an idea. I want to borrow your staff. Take a couple of those small flour bags in the kitchen and put them over each end of the staff then tie them on. Tack the bag onto the staff as well, then find another pole that could be used as a staff and do the same thing. Then bring them out front will you?"

The priest stood and, well, swaggered back to the screen and picked it up. When he brought it back to Xena's bed she was still standing there in her shift panting. When the priest came in she looked up with a look of great regret on her face. "I'm sorry, Demodocus. You didn't deserve that."

"And you deserved that of yourself?" Demodocus snapped. "Get dressed! He bent and took Xena's dress off a chair and threw it at her. He followed the dress with her armor. You need some exercise. Meet me outside, and snap it up!"

Xena and Gabrielle arrived on the front lawn of the road house at the same time. Gabrielle was carrying the staffs with the flour bags attached. Xena looked at her friend and raised and eyebrow. "Don't look at me, Xena. I have no idea what he's up to." Gabrielle replied and put down the staffs.

When Demodocus came out, both women were shocked to see that he was wearing leather armor and a small skull cap helmet.

"Demodocus?" Gabrielle asked. One of Xena's eyebrows crawled up her forehead up into her hairline.

"Gabrielle, what's the second half of the Maiden's job description?"

"She's the Goddess of Wisdom--" Gabrielle's face lit up in awareness. She laughed, "AND WAR!!!"

"Correct! Just because I'm a physician and a priest that doesn't mean that I've been just sitting on my duff saving souls, stitching cuts and running rituals. We Priests of the Maiden undergo significant military training and I was a company commander in the Athenian Army before I received my calling. Athena hates war but demands preparedness to defend what's right. I intend to do that right now."

"No wonder you handled yourself so well the day before yesterday." Gabrielle marveled.

Xena looked down, with an expression that Gabrielle had not seen on her friend's face before--shame.

The priest bent and picked up one of the staffs and threw it at Xena, who looked up and snatched it out of the air just before it hit her in the face.

"What are you doing?" she asked. There was a look of concern and a touch of regret on her face. "You really don't want to do this."

Demodocus stood at En Garde. "No? Buried under that armor, spiritual or other wise there is a wonderful woman who has been victimized. Your enemies taught you how to be a warlord. I told you earlier today that I would rather die than let you surrender to baser instincts they built into you. If it means beating some self love into you then so be it. So when I hit you, I'm not doing it. Atreus is doing it. Ares is doing it! CALLISTO's doing it! YOU are doing it!" With that, he made a quick, hard jab at Xena's stomach and let the blow come up and hit her on the chin. The blow was hard enough to pick her off the ground. Xena looked stunned but didn't defend herself.

"Bitch!" The priest yelled, then he slugged her on the right ear with the other end of the staff. Xena still did nothing but the look of regret was off of her face.

"Whore!" The priest yelled again. He brought his stick in hard behind Xena's left leg sweeping it up off the ground and causing her to fall. Xena dropped her stick. It landed on the ground beside her. Xena lay there, but her eyes were shooting lightning bolts now.

"MURDERER!!!" The priest now had the staff up over his head and started to bring the padded end down onto Xena's face, when Xena's eyes spit fire and she let out tortured scream of NOOO!!! Xena pulled her legs over her head with such force that she completed a backward roll onto her feet. Now from a crouch, she exploded into the air over Demodocus's head with a trick called a punch front; she did a front somersault with a half twist and landed on her feet behind the priest. She had picked up the fallen staff and got in a powerful blow to the right side of the priest's body.

Gabrielle watched entranced and horrified. Of all the fights she had seen, this one was the most important, for the stakes were far higher than any battle she had witnessed Xena fight before. Xena could kill this man easily, or so Gabrielle thought.

The priest had somehow anticipated the coming of Xena's blow to his side and he rolled with it. Demodocus pushed himself farther sideways into a cartwheel and came up grinning; turning he yelled at Xena, "SO YOU THINK YOU'RE NOT SO BAD AFTER ALL!!" Callisto thought you're a baby murdering HARLOT!" He charged.

Xena was taken aback and had let her guard slip a bit. Barely, she parried a blow that the priest had intended for her head, but Demodocus followed by pushing out on the bottom end of the stick and the flour bag came up and struck Xena on the chest. The concussion knocked Xena backwards but she took the momentum and turned it into a whipback, a back flip with straight legs. Back on her feet, Xena brought her stick up between the priest's legs. The priest doubled over, but he was feigning. When Xena tried to bring her staff down on his back, he took is stick and swept her feet out from under her again.

Demodocus began once again to bring his stick down on Xena's head but this time she blocked the blow with her stick and kicked the priest with both feet onto his chest. Demodocus landed on his back but he kicked both feet up into the air and returned to his feet. It was a mistake. In the time he had taken to regain his feet, Xena had rushed in and caught him on the jaw with her stick. He absorbed the blow and counterattacked, but Xena barely held him off.

Gabrielle was amazed. The priest was highly skilled at staff fighting, and he was a tactical master. Gabrielle could see however, that Xena was more talented, quicker and stronger. The priest could take a blow and come back quickly and effectively, and he also seemed to have unlimited wind, but the priest's skills could not save him forever. Demodocus mistepped and Xena got in 5 unanswered blows. On the first blow Xena yelled "I"--AM" on the second blow, "--NOT " on the third, "--A" on the fourth, '--MURDERER!!" on the final strike. The effect on Xena of this sequence was incredible. At the first blow she was desperate, grim, hurt and determined to do her tormentor damage, but after her final awful shout, she clearly began enjoying herself! A huge smile came to her face. She even started to chuckle.

Demodocus was rocked but came back quickly. Gabrielle shook her head. The priest was incredibly tough. He feinted low, spun and got in a shot to the side of Xena's head. "But you were a lousy daughter! You could never please Atreus!" he yelled.

"I DON'T CARE!" Xena bellowed. Demodocus was still out of position from his strike, so Xena kicked him in the head. As the priest staggered, Xena leapfrogged over him, spun and clobbered him on the back of the neck driving the priest to the ground. She kicked the priest onto his back and then held her staff to his face.

"Damn woman you are SOO good!" The supine priest cried while holding his head and wiping a trickle of blood from his nose. Then he smiled. "If only you felt about yourself the way you can fight."

Xena tipped her head back and roared with laughter. "You're right! YOU'RE RIGHT! I HAVE been too hard on myself!! She put down the staff and bent down and picked up the priest by an arm, then she backed off a couple of paces. "I was piling on myself. What happened to me was painful enough. I don't need to add any more pain. I feel much better! Demodocus, don't you dare get modest on me now. You're a bloody genius with that staff."

Suddenly, it was Demodocus' turn to be sheepish. He looked down while rubbing the back of his head and said, "Well...I." When Xena saw this reaction she got a look on her face that Gabrielle had never seen from her before. It was a hooded look, but under the drooping eyelids Xena's eyes were glittering. Xena's body language changed as well. The forbidding Warrior Princess was gone. In her place a softer, completely different woman appeared. Gabrielle couldn't believe the change in her friend. It was if a new kind of beauty emerged from the armor and draped itself on the big woman's shoulders. On Xena's mouth was a sly, crooked, little smile. Xena pulled herself to her full height and took a long, slow, slinky step towards the priest who was still rubbing the back of his head. Demodocus looked up and saw her approach, then his face opened into utter surprise as Xena slapped the helmet off of his head, grabbed him by his striped hair, and kissed him hard on the mouth.

After that kiss the atmosphere changed. The pall of worry that pervaded the inn lifted. Demodocus had gently pushed himself away from Xena and told her to get something to eat and relax for a bit. Xena had no look of regret on her face from her spontaneous advance, but Demodocus seemed to shut down slightly. He remained his witty, upbeat self though. He had then gone over to Gabrielle and told her to take Xena for a walk alone and just be with her for a while. "She needs to rest for a bit," he said. "She's a lot better, but she still needs work. Get her a meal and talk to her for a while. She needs to talk to you, Gabrielle because you are the closest person in the world to her. She also needs to talk to a woman. Don't forget Gabrielle, she still has much to do to heal and that will take years. I hope that I have just gotten her on the path. A few hours more work with me, and she'll be ready for Eros. I hope we can beat him to his next target." He concluded his talk with, "OK, I have to go tend to Lyla and her daughter then celebrate the Maiden, and oh! Take a shot of willow bark tea for these bruises." He gave Gabrielle a wry, modest grin, and hobbled off with a stiff, bowlegged gate.

Xena went to the stable, got Argo out and gave her a run. Xena hadn't enjoyed herself on horseback so much in many years. I was as if a great darkness in her heart had become a little lighter. After she rode Argo very fast for several miles, Xena stopped and dismounted. She looked around and discovered to her shock that it was really, really beautiful. All of the doubts that she had about her own value seemed less supportable. Maybe Demodocus and Hercules were right.

And Demodocus? All Xena knew was that she had never felt the way that she felt when she was with that priest. He had saved her life as surely as she had saved the lives of hundreds of others. Of that she was absolutely sure. She felt deeply drawn to that amazing man with the stripe in his hair.

"Athena! Mighty Maiden!" Began the priest in a small grove of trees where he had set up his altar. He was on his knees--eyes closed. His hands were over his head imploring his patron to harken to his call. "Hear me, hear me! Why have you given me this gift? You make me see everything in a persons soul, and then you ask me to move on and leave the beauty I see in all I have touched behind. The heart of Xena is so beautiful and so powerful. She has beauty inside and out that in my experience rivals only you! I love you with all my being, oh Maiden, but you are a Goddess on Olympus. She is here, on Earth, NOW! You have been here, you have felt what's in her heart. If you demand that I leave her alone, I will do so, but please give me the wisdom to accept that choice, or do not make me take that decision at all."

At the same instant, Xena rode Argo as hard as she could in a bracing gallop, and she finally concluded the run by riding up to the stables as fast as the palomino could be pushed. Xena needed the run as much as the horse because she had gone through an amazing experience in the last two days. Now she had a short time to sort things out in her head. Xena had never really thought herself an emotional person. She had thought that all of the bitter experience of her life had taken away all the time she had to feel. Now because of that odd little god Eros she was flooded full of strange feelings. Demodocus had told her that those feelings were always there but the god had taken away her means of suppressing them. The god had put her in a position of being helpless, and she hated that. Demodocus had helped her restore her power over herself. What did that mean?

"XE-NA!" Gabrielle's calling voice came from her left.

Xena slued her horse towards the voice. She gently touched Argo with a spur mindful of the stitches and the bandages that the priest had placed on the horses' flanks. "C'mon, lady!" Xena urged and with a familiar nasal grunt the cavalry horse bolted forward towards Gabrielle, who was waving at them vigorously. When horse and rider arrived, Xena hauled in the reins skidding them to a halt. Gabrielle grabbed Argo by the halter and petted the animal on the blaze.

"You wanna tell me about what happened with Demodocus?" Gabrielle inquired with a smile.

"You know how you're complaining all the time about me not wanting to talk girl talk?" Xena asked with a little smile on her face.

"Ye-ah?"

"C'mon then." and Xena jumped lightly from Argo's back and tied the mare off.

The pair went over to a nearby shady tree and sat down. Gabrielle had watched her friend carefully and was relieved. It was still Xena! Maybe not as intense, maybe not as wary, but Gabrielle could see the power behind the blue eyes again. Xena was BACK!

"I won't mess around, Gabrielle. I want him." Xena looked at Gabrielle with the same hooded look she had when she had kissed the priest. "I did notice him on the boat, y'know, but I had taken him for just another bastard wanting to cop a feel."

"He isn't that is he?!" Gabrielle grinned looking down. "He's pretty amazing, just as amazing as you maybe--different but amazing."

"Oh he's far more than amazing, Gabrielle." Xena said with a wistful look in her eye. "You didn't go through what he did with me. It's just like he's known me from childhood. There's another thing, he's tough--VERY tough. He refused to let me weasel away from responsibility for anything that I had done, but he refused to let me take responsibility for anything that was done to me. The man has guts! He risked his life when he was with me. I could have killed him ten times in there, but he knew instinctively how to stop me before things got out of control. When I was becoming really violent, all he needed to do was touch me and I calmed down. He only let me hit him once, and he just did that to prove a point. He's incredibly sensitive and emotional. I, well, never met a man like him before in my entire life."

"Tell me about it, he had you really working hard with the staffs, Xena. He's a great fighter."

"Don't I know it." Xena acknowledged with a look of admiration, and a bit of pain, on her face.

"Did you learn anything about him?" Gabrielle asked. "He told me a lot, but I could tell he wasn't interested in me." Gabrielle let out a small sigh. Her soul would have to keep looking for its other half.

"Oh, yes he did. He is the first man I've met in many years that I can trust implicitly and completely. I read him as well as I could and I could just tell he was absolutely dead honest with me. Don't worry! He's absolutely not like Petrocles. You know me. I didn't even trust Hercules for a long time, but then when I met Herc I was a very different woman. Demodocus is holding something back though. I don't know Gabrielle, we are so very, very different."

Gabrielle nodded, but let Xena talk.

"Another thing, I feel SAFE with him." Xena said with a slightly astonished look on her face.

"Safe? YOU feel safe? Do you mean like he's protecting you? You've never let anyone protect you in your life. You certainly don't let me protect you. As if I could protect you anyway!" Gabrielle humphed.

"Not that way, Gabrielle. Let's see--You're a lot better at words than I am. Well, suppose my life were a cyclone..."

"Suppose!? Hah! It is a cyclone!" Gabrielle needled. Xena, smiling, elbowed her friend gently in the ribs.

"I'm sure you know that its quiet in the center of a cyclone. Well, that's how I feel when I'm with him. Even when I was with Marcus I never felt so quiet and warm."

"What do you think, Xena? You gonna ask him to be with you?"

"I don't know. I still need to do what I have to do. Besides, I don't know what he feels about me."

"Xena, I can tell that he cares about you, he's told me as much, but he's torn between you and his purpose in life. I don't know whether or not he knows what to do. "

Xena looked at Gabrielle earnestly. "Demodocus showed me that I had problems that I never knew I had. Well, I know my problem with Demodocus, and you already know what I do with my problems."

Gabrielle nodded. "You confront them!"

Demodocus was now prostrate on the ground, his arms over his head pointing towards his altar to the Maiden. His body was shaking with emotion. His breaths were coming in long, hard rasps. After a few moments, he gracefully rose to his knees and looked at the altar with a tear in his cheek, a crooked smile on his face, and his eyes afire.

Unexpectedly behind him Demodocus heard an obscene cackle followed by a high, boyish voice. "So you want that big bitch Xena don't you, priest?" The priest, shocked, turned and saw a small form hovering in the air several feet away from him.

"Does her presence flood you with desire?" The apparition asked.

"I'm too old for that kind of play, Eros!" Demodocus exclaimed "But I do admire your persistence!" The priest then yelled for Xena as loud as he could.

"Thank you for calling her priest! You'll just double my fun!" The god flitted around giggling uncontrollably. "Where is Athena, that big bastard whore of Zeus's anyway? Why isn't she here with her favorite customer? Busy having too much fun with dad?"

Gabrielle heard the priest's voice. "Xena?" she asked turning to her friend.

"I heard him, Gabrielle! C'mon!" Xena quickly drew her sword and ran like Hermes towards the shout, Gabrielle right behind.

Eros was taunting Demodocus. It was a baldfaced attempt to get the priest to act out his anger. The priest was getting mad, but Eros demands action to be worshipped.

"You wanted to make me angry, Eros? Well, you succeeded. But you really underestimate me to think that I'd actually do something that you wanted me to do." Demodocus smirked but his eyes flared with anger. "I KNOW what you need, and you're not going to get it from me or Xena!"

There was a shuffle behind the hovering god followed by the pounding of footfalls. Xena and Gabrielle had arrived. When Xena saw the figure hovering in the air in front of Demodocus, her eyebrows went up in recognition. Gabrielle's mouth opened wide in shock and wonder. She felt oddly compelled to the little figure. This was a feeling with which she was not familiar. The little god cackled then turned towards the women. He had felt them arrive.

"AH! Priest! I see that your friends have arrived." Eros flitted over to the women, Gabrielle gained his attention first.

"My aren't you a pure one! Just the type of innocent I love to have fun with." Eros blurted, a lascivious look on his face.

Xena became alarmed at the blatantly sexual innuendo and began to interpose herself between the god and her best friend, but Demodocus called.

"Hold it Xena! WATCH!"

The little god reached towards Gabrielle's face. At first Gabrielle looked very interested, perhaps a little aroused. Her eyes even became hooded, but then they opened wide and a look of indignation came to her. She knocked the god's hand away with her own hand.

"Hey!" Gabrielle said indignantly, "I'm nobody's quickie! Just because you're a bit interesting that doesn't mean that I'll do something that's not good for me! Forget about trying to make me have a temper tantrum. I know all about you, Eros. Try somebody else. Or even better, go back home to your mother Aphrodite"

Eros became enraged. "NO NO NO NO! I can't even get to a little widow girl!!"

"Ah, WOMAN?" Gabrielle corrected.

Eros got even madder. He whirled around in an attempt to get to Xena, someone he had dominated before, but he couldn't find her at first. She had gone over to Demodocus who now was wearing a big smile. Xena stood next to him and tapped him on the shoulder. Then she offered him her hand. With surprise and pleasure the priest took it. Xena turned to him and said, "You know, Gabrielle never ceases to amaze me."

"I knew that the minute I met you two."

Xena smiled at the priest. "When did you find out that you were available?"

"Talked to the Maiden this morning. She said it was a good idea for us to get together. She doesn't necessarily consider imitation to be worship."

Eros came back over to the Priest and Xena "OOOOH You DO want to do it! C'mon let me help! Xena you were soo good to me before. Don't you want to help me again?!"

"Forget it." Xena said in a low voice dripping with contempt. "You're not going to get to me again. You're such a baby. PA-THETIC!"

Now the god was thoroughly enraged. His face showing intense fear of Xena, Eros pointed at the priest and screeched. "You'll pay! You'll forget something and then you'll hurt real bad!" You too, Xena! I'll get you back!" Then with a theatrical flash of light and a loud pop, Eros disappeared.

"Xena, C'mon! I'm sure he's going to take another crack at weak hearts. Fortunately we have time. Eros has to stew for a bit. He's pure emotion, so he can't calculate very well. He has to calm down before he decides on something. It can't be too long, but we needn't hurry unnecessarily. I do hope that the King's troops have arrived."

Xena chuckled. "You're a cool customer. I like that."

The priest shrugged, and smiled widely.

Demodocus looked for Gabrielle smiling. "Gabrielle!" he called. "See what I told you? You don't have any weaknesses. Eros had to pass you by. Wonderful performance!"

Gabrielle blushed but warmed to the praise. She smiled but said nothing, which surprised Xena a bit.

Xena looked at her new friend and physician and told him, "You've got a plan and I think I know what it is."

When the three arrived at the road house, the King's troops had indeed come. They found a captain there who told the party that he had 25 men in Oechalia and another 35 in Hypata to bury the dead. Demodocus told him to take at least ten of his mounted men in pairs and send them to all of the nearest towns and check for trouble. These details were to send a man back to Hypata to report anything. Shortly, Demodocus had Lyla packed up and on her way back to Chalsis and the clinic in Athens.

After several hours of hard work, Xena and Demodocus had completed their preparations. Gabrielle saw that the priest had his apothecary open and he was mixing a powder from the drug bottles along with another substance that he had taken from the scientific kit the priest had told her about previously. Xena watched him avidly, asking questions from time to time. The big warrior woman and the elegant priest were so engrossed in what they were doing together that Gabrielle felt that she might be intruding. However, Gabrielle did ask some questions, and she did receive some answers. When they were finished, all the three could do further was wait for news, eat, and maybe get a little tense sleep.

The army detachment had bivouacked not far away from the road house, and as was always true at an army camp, someone was a musician. This trooper was a Thracian for his instrument was a guida. Xena couldn't resist hearing this touch of home so she went out on the roadhouse porch, took off her armor and sat back on a handy couch and tried to relax. From inside, Xena heard Gabrielle say to Demodocus that it was time to go to sleep. Xena thought that Gabrielle sounded a little too loud, as if Gabrielle was really talking to her. Demodocus acknowledged Gabrielle and came out onto the porch, torch in hand, and took in a big breath. He was, as usual, relaxed and appeared to Xena to be very aware of his surroundings. He let the breath out, hung up the torch, and sat on the porch next to Xena.

Xena's nostalgic mood deepened. Her eyes far away, she began to sing in her rich contralto:

Xena looked softly down on her friend. "I had some choice, I could have run. I did run from the way I once was."

"I don't think so, Xena. You were given incredible courage, more courage than any hero in history and not only were you granted this courage but you were granted compassion also. You KNEW that Cortese would either kill or sell off all of your family and friends. It was your compassion that made it impossible for you to stand by and do nothing. Thank the gods for that baby, Hercules, and Gabrielle--especially Gabrielle. Without her you might have slipped back. Her love for you saved you from yourself."

"I understand that now." Xena replied. "When Gabrielle told me in Lyceus' tomb that I wasn't alone anymore, I really couldn't believe it. I was very unfair to her at first; she was so green and naive. But she saw something in me. Now she is my rock. I can trust her with anything. She can still be annoying, but I always listen to her now. She's my family." Demodocus nodded, but Xena continued.

"You're in love with me aren't you, Demodocus?"

"It's that obvious?" the priest said self consciously. "Well, I guess you are good at reading people."

"Oh yeah, it's that obvious. It won't work you know."

"I know Xena, we have two different missions in life. It wouldn't be realistic for either of us to give up what we have to do."

"You're right, but we don't have to live together to be friends, even more than friends. I just don't want you to go out of my life. I've never had a friend that knew me better than I knew myself before, especially one who looks like you do."

Demodocus replied simply, "I don't want you out of my life either, Xena. You have such a great heart. Thank you for the compliment. That's high praise coming from you. You're not bad looking yourself you know."

Xena smiled and rubbed Demodocus's head. "Don't get modest on me now. Doesn't become you."

Demodocus rose and gently put his hand under Xena's chin and tilted her face towards his own. The priest said, "You're lightning in a bottle." and he kissed her very passionately.

Xena responded to the kiss with intense ardor. She rose, her mouth opening and her tongue reaching deeply. Demodocus responded by taking his fingers and following every line of Xena's face as if he were trying to draw out all the poison that remained in her soul. Xena, the warrior in her now lost, reached up with both hands to caress her new lover's head and moved it to and fro while watching the priest's reaction with every movement. Demodocus pulled back and before Xena could complain, he swept her into his arms. Xena is a big woman, but the priest's wiry strength was great and he handled her weight easily.

Both were now staring deeply into each other's glittering eyes. The priest turned and kicked open the door and carried Xena, still stroking his hair and caressing his face, into one of the inn's rooms on the first floor. The priest gently set his wonderful burden gently down onto the floor, where he again encased her in another powerful embrace. Their tongues flitted against each other's. Xena chuckled deeply which seemed to excite Demodocus even more. The priest had deftly untied the leather lacing of Xena's dress and then he did the same with the linen shift underneath. Xena untied the lacing on Demodocus' shirt and then pulled it down until his arms were free. Demodocus stood back and looked at Xena with almost a look of wonder and awe, but his clouded brown eyes once again fixed on her brilliant blues. In an instant the brass fittings holding the dress' straps fell away and Xena shrugged both the dress and her shift to the floor.

Demodocus sat back on the bed staring at Xena, utterly stunned. Xena took her long black hair and draped it in front of her, and let the priest look. Xena's beauty rivaled all the greatest of the statues that Demodocus had ever seen. She was lean but not overly so, and perfectly proportioned. Her muscles, gained from long years of very hard work, were clearly seen and elegant in shape. Every inch of her seemed as if her body had been planned by some unseen sculptor, each sinew had a reason, each limb was an invitation.

Xena bent and pulled off her boots, then pushed the priest onto his back and roughly removed his boots and trousers, somehow both at once. Demodocus again sat up. Kneeling in front of him, but not allowing her gaze to leave the priest's chiseled face, Xena felt Demodocus' arms and chest slowly and carefully. The man's body was lean and very hard. His muscles were long, as befits someone who runs. His chest was covered with chestnut hair sprinkled with a smattering of white. On Demodocus' belly there was a scar, a scar that Xena knew immediately was caused by a sword. She ran her finger along it, her bond to her fellow veteran growing deeper with every inch the scar traveled.

"You weren't thinking that my stripe went all the way down there did you, Xena?" The priest mocked gently.

Xena shrugged and smiled while letting out her low chuckle. Putting her finger to his mouth to shush him, she bent over Demodocus and pulled him onto the bed; then she joined him astride his waist.

The lovemaking went on in silence except for the muted sounds of pleasure and excitement. At first their passion was intense and very focused then, gentle and languorous thereafter. Each partner tried things and explored each other as if they were continents yet unknown. Each had contrasting styles, but both seemed to know when to become aggressive or passive, and both seemed to have unlimited endurance. The ecstasy went on hour after hour.

Finally, the evening reached a prolonged yet explosive conclusion; finished, they both fell into a tender embrace, eyes still locked in wonder and affection.

"I can see why Eros was after you." Xena opined a crooked grin of utter satisfaction on her face.

"Sh, My Princess, you glorious Lioness! Lay back and sleep, for tomorrow may be hard and deadly. The Maiden has given me the greatest gift that she can bestow, and I intend to keep her alive."

Xena looked at her new lover and knew immediately that Demodocus would do exactly that. She rolled towards him, wrapped herself around him, kissed him long and hard, and then fell immediately to sleep.

The next morning Gabrielle awakened before her two friends. This was unusual for it was always true that Xena was up and about before the sun rose, and she always let Gabrielle sleep for a while. Gabrielle was ecstatic for this change in routine because she thought that it was high time that Xena received the kind of attention that she deserved. It was clear that before Xena had saved the baby, she had been a woman of experience who never lacked for male company, but afterwards she seemed to be looking for ways to deprive herself of her emotional needs so that she could make up for her past. Perhaps she had used the men in the past much as Petrocles had used her at one time. Now that Xena was gone, replaced by a woman who while retaining every bit of her power, was more human and accessible.

The reason why Demodocus had denied himself was very different. His gift gave him a great responsibility. He could be emotionally intimate with anyone he chose merely by touching them. This intimacy could not be reciprocated. He thought of himself as the guardian of his patient's feelings. He would normally never allow himself to become involved emotionally with them for fear of losing his compassion and objectivity as a physician and spiritual counselor. With Xena he felt differently. He had finally found a person who rivaled his own power, and who had great reserves of compassion within her. Equally intelligent, they had totally contrasting and complimentary styles. To Gabrielle's mind their relationship was right and inevitable. She thanked the gods that she was there to celebrate it.

When Xena came out of her room the next morning, Gabrielle made sure that there was plenty of food available. When Xena came into the great hall, dressed in Demodocus' ceremonial robe, Gabrielle gave her a hug and told her how happy she was for her. Xena herself looked as soft and as happy as Gabrielle had ever seen her.

"Thank you, Gabrielle, that means a lot coming from you."

"Well?" Gabrielle inquired with a sly look.

"Well, what?" Xena replied with an even slyer look.

"Well, you know! Well?" Gabrielle beamed.

Xena chuckled. "I'll tell you later."

Both looked up for Demodocus had arrived ready to go. "Ladies," he said and he grabbed two oranges and headed to the door but he was stopped short. Outside he heard the pounding of hoof beats which concluded in the sound of the horse skidding to a halt. Within seconds came a pounding on the front door. Demodocus opened it and in the doorway stood a very young soldier in Catreous' army.

"Sir! Demodocus, Sir?"

"Go ahead, son."

"There is a major riot going on in Achelous, about ten miles west of here, Sir! Orders?" barked the soldier.

"Demodocus, may I?" It was Xena.

"You're the general, Xena." Demodocus said.

"Get fifteen men, well mounted and armed with lances. Issue three days rations and saddle two more horses. Bring them here in five minutes. MOVE!" Xena told the soldier.

Demodocus stepped aside to allow the trooper to see his new commander. The young man's eyes grew very wide at what he saw. He wasn't used to being commanded by a goddess in a translucent blue robe. Xena looked at him with a glare, but the trooper was sharp. He recovered his wits, then bellowed, "Yes, Ma'am!" turned on his heel and left.

"Gabrielle you're riding." Xena barked. "Demodocus load up your mule. Gabrielle help Demodocus. I have to get dressed." Xena raced into her room Demodocus' robe fluttering behind her has she discarded it. The priest caught it before it hit the ground.

"This happen often?" Demodocus asked Gabrielle with a smile.

Gabrielle nodded. She had turned a little green when she heard the news about her riding. She turned her head towards the priest who said, "I can handle my stuff, Gabrielle, you pack up what food you can. Maude can carry it easily." Gabrielle turned and was gone too.

Demodocus had gotten both his mule and Argo saddled and out of the stable in quick time. Gabrielle came tearing out of the back door laden with the rations. Demodocus had already mounted and had one of Maude's panniers open. Gabrielle dumped her load into the open box and shut the lid. She turned and confronted the horse that the troopers had brought. It was a big. very big, gray gelding. She turned, stuck her foot in the stirrup and mounted. The big horse providentially proved to be as placid as a water buffalo. Behind them they heard a crash, and both people swiveled their heads to see what had happened.

It was Xena kicking open the roadhouse's side door. She came tearing out of the building at the dead run. Demodocus was holding Argo by the reins. The moment Xena came into view, she blew two quick whistles and Argo reared pulling the reins out of Demodocus' hands. The priest at first looked alarmed as the horse broke free, but watched marveling as the palomino trotted over to about ten feet from, and perpendicular to the nearest hitching rail. The horse's head was away from the rail. Xena took a flying hurdle and her left foot hit the hitching rail. Ululating, she pushed off into a front flip, her hair and her saddlebag fluttering. She landed perfectly on the saddle and dropped the bag over Argo's withers. Xena reined the palomino in, pointed at the troopers who watched this performance with eyes wide, and yelled, "FOLLOW ME!" while sweeping her open hand towards the west. Argo then bolted into a gallop with the fifteen troopers falling in behind her.

Demodocus watched open mouthed. "Doe she do that often?" He said with a stupefied look on his face.

Gabrielle looked at the priest, still swaying on the back of the gelding and answered grinning, "Only when a fight's coming, or she feels really good!"

Demodocus shook his head laughing. "Who have I gotten myself involved with!?" Demodocus exclaimed. He then urged his brown colt into a resolute trot with Maude and Gabrielle swaying right behind him.

The trip seemed to take forever. Gabrielle thought that it was really something to watch Xena at work. She had never seen her friend command troops before. For the first time she saw that Xena really loved what she had done in the past for so long. Xena was strong and observant, but she took the time to talk to each of the fourteen men and the sergeant that commanded them. Gabrielle saw that she talked to each of the men differently. Xena used her skill at reading people masterfully, she was sharp with some, maternal with others, seductive with still others. Gabrielle could see the confidence of the men climb by watching their body language. The men sat their horses straighter, their eyes seemed brighter, and they laughed more easily. Gabrielle then saw Xena order one man to gallop ahead as the point and two more, one to each flank, to screen for any suspicious movements.

Demodocus watched carefully as well, and an expression of wistful sadness came to his face. He saw that Xena threw all of herself into leading. He thought that no wonder her armies were the juggernauts they once were. Demodocus was sad for he now knew the depth of the tragedy of Xena. The one thing in her life that she loved above all else was what nearly killed her soul. As a result of this conclusion the priest muttered a prayer to the Maiden to give Xena the wisdom she needed to keep using her love of the military life responsibly.

About mid-morning the man Xena had sent ahead to ride point came galloping back to the column with a report, "Ma'am! There's a header of smoke around that bend. I investigated. The town's on fire. All of it!" The trooper barked.

"Any more?" Xena commanded.

"Yes! There's a large group of people, several hundred I think, that are having some kind of party on the other side of town. People were being ritually killed and I saw all kinds of terrible perversions, Ma'am. It was disgusting!" The young man shook with outrage.

"Calm down, Iohippus!" Xena snapped. "That is the god Eros messing with your head. He wants you to act on your anger. You will not do that. That's an order! Either I or king Catreous will have your head if you act on one feeling. Now that was a fine report. Good work. Get back to the column."

"Yes, Ma'am!" replied the trooper with a big smile.

Xena reined Argo around to face the column as Demodocus trotted up. "What do you need the men to do?" Xena asked the priest.

"Xena, you need to keep the people off of my back long enough for our little surprise to work. Please don't kill any more than you have to." Demodocus replied.

Xena spurred ahead to the column and ordered, "Take the heads off of your lances. Tie your bedrolls around the head." The troops did so. "Now break ranks and gather around me." The men did what they were ordered. "The people we are attacking are innocent dupes of the god Eros. Do not kill anyone unless you are in dire risk of your own life. Break legs if you must but do not kill! Do you understand me? Remember these are your countrymen." The troops all nodded. "Next, do not allow yourself to lose control. You will be subjected to extreme feelings; all right feel them, BUT DO NOT GIVE IN! If you do, the god will have you and you may end up dead. Obey your orders to the letter. Fall back on your professionalism. I've been impressed with you men in the day we've known each other. You're well trained and disciplined. Can I trust you won't let humanity down?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" the men yelled.

"Good!" Xena then turned to Demodocus with a raised eyebrow.

"Right, Xena! C'mon, Gabrielle!" The priest and Gabrielle rode up the road by themselves.

"Section! Column of twos!" Xena, barked and the men and horses formed up.

"By the right flank, FORWAAARD--YOOOOO!!!" and with a grand sweeping gesture of her free hand, Xena led the cavalrymen off the road and out of sight.

The little town had been destroyed already. Both Demodocus and Gabrielle tried to accept their anger over the carnage that they had seen. "Gabrielle, just allow yourself to get mad; let it go through you." Anticipating Gabrielle's question the priest said "No Gabrielle don't get used to it. You see, Xena did."

Gabrielle looked at the priest with a tear in her eye and nodded. In a few minutes both of them had passed thorough town and began to climb a small rise. They could hear the sounds of screams of terror, revelry, arousal and rage. The two looked at each other. Gabrielle was scared and told the priest so.

"It's OK, Gabrielle, just let it be so. Fight it and Eros will have you. You beat him before and you can beat him again. Just don't get carried away by what you see. Just do what we discussed and you will be fine." The priest put his hand on Gabrielle's head and felt immediately that Gabrielle was doing just fine.

Gabrielle turned to the priest and muttered, "Oh, I hope so."

They tied their horses and Maude to a tree and unloaded the mule. Gabrielle carried the priest's small altar while the priest slung a very heavy bag over his shoulder. When they were done they crept up the small rise and looked over. What they saw revolted them both. Gabrielle was especially affected by what she saw.

Eros had clearly not gotten what he wanted from mere violence. Xena had stumbled on some kind of a sex orgy earlier, now Eros had combined the two. Hundreds of people were milling around a central point near the road in a grove of trees. Many of them were engaged in raw animal sex. Many others were in the process of torturing the remainder. Some were even mixing the sex and violence. What Demodocus and Gabrielle were seeing were people who had totally lost control over their feelings and had surrendered to their baser instincts. Gabrielle wondered what had happened to their humanity.

"Demodocus, there must be three hundred people down there. There are only eighteen of us! Granted one of them is Xena, but how are we to stop this?" Gabrielle asked in a very worried tone.

"Just follow my lead and do what I tell you, Gabrielle. Remember what we discussed last night. Just don't act on any feelings. OK?" The priest reached out and patted Gabrielle on her back. "All right?" Demodocus asked and Gabrielle nodded. "Right!" the priest exclaimed and he stood and walked towards the clearing with Gabrielle close behind.

After a few minutes the pair arrived at the clearing, where the horrendous activity was at a fever pitch. In the center of this human maelstrom sat the little god who was involved in unspeakable acts with at least five people. He was so distracted by his pursuit of pleasure that he failed to notice the approach if his greatest mortal foe.

Demodocus put down the bag he was carrying and Gabrielle quickly set up the priest's portable altar. Demodocus unloaded the bag which contained many small terra-cotta jars, all of which had been gathered from the road house they had left earlier. When the priest was finished, he stood and faced the god.

"Eros!" he called. "EROS! You lascivious child! Stop what you're doing and pay attention!"

Eros started. He swept away the women who were servicing him and he looked towards the offending voice. Seeing Demodocus he immediately flew into a temper tantrum and floated up into the air.

"You stinking priest! How dare you block me from my purpose!" Eros screeched. He was bobbing up and down in the air as if he were on a spring. He started whining and crying uncontrollably. Finally mastering himself, Eros pointed at the priest and bellowed, "You get that bloodless whore Athena to leave me alone or you'll rot in Tartarus for an eternity! I have too many servants here for you to do anything against me!"

"Eros, you're wrong. Without us you cannot exist. Humans are not animals you can control at your silly whim. We can think. We can act rationally. We need you true, but we are not your slaves. YOU CANNOT HURT US!" The priest exclaimed in an earnest tone. "Get ready, Gabrielle." the priest whispered out of the side of his mouth. She quickly tied a slip of fine silk cloth over her nose and mouth. The priest did the same. Then Gabrielle leaned her staff against the altar table and picked up several of the many terra-cotta jars that lay stacked at her feet. "You're powerless over us if we do not require you!" Demodocus yelled pointing. "YOU CAN-NOT BE ALL THINGS!"

This sent the little god totally over the edge. Giggling uncontrollably, Eros slowly spun on his axis and screamed, "SERVANTS STOP!" The torture and perversions stopped and all the people, most in varying stages of undress, turned their faces towards the god. Eros turned and pointed at Demodocus. "This meddlesome bastard is stopping your fun. How dare a mere mortal interfere with your worship of me. DESTROY HIM!" The people, even the badly wounded, stood and started walking towards Demodocus and Gabrielle, with bloody murder on their minds.

"Now, Gabrielle!" Demodocus yelled. Gabrielle started throwing the jars into the mob as quickly as she could. When the jars hit the ground they exploded with a brilliant flash and a huge gout of gray brown smoke emerged from each explosion. Again and again the pops went off and the berserk crowd jolted in surprise but continued in their advance. Suddenly, behind the ridge that lay east of the clearing there was heard a high, nasal, and bizarre keening sound. Immediately thereafter came the awful tearing noise, "ALALALALALALALA!!" This horrifying din was accompanied by the thunder of many horse's hooves. The advancing crowd stopped and turned, and almost as one their jaws dropped in shock.

Xena and her cavalry came roaring over the ridge as if they were landslide. Xena, her sword swinging over her head like a banner, rode Argo on the right flank of a single line of troopers all of whom, their padded lances presented in front of them, rode side by side. All, including Xena, wore silk cloths over their mouths and noses like Demodocus and Gabrielle. One of the men had no lance. It was the guida player from the camp the night before. He played the Thracian bagpipe as loudly as he could which added to the terror by its frightening screech. "C'MON BOYS! HIT 'EM!" Xena yelled.

Xena had used the ground brilliantly. She had found a covered approach to the grove of trees. Using the dead area behind the ridge as a refuge, she had deployed the troopers stealthily and prepared them for the charge. Demodocus had told her to attack as soon as she heard the first explosions of the extemporized grenades the priest and she had made the night before. On the charging troopers came. A lot of the berserk crowd ignored the cavalry and continued their rush against the priest. However, for over half of them, Eros' destruction of their emotional control had been too successful. They broke and fled in uncontrollable panic.

The troopers hit the crowd of berserkers like a sledgehammer. The padded ends of their lances knocked many to the ground and many of those who remained upright found themselves on the wrong end of a trained cavalry horse's kick. The formation rode through the mob scattering many. On the other side of the mob, the disordered troopers retired to reform but without Xena. Xena had ridden towards Demodocus and Gabrielle, where on her arrival, she dismounted with her usual flipping flourish and joined her friends in defending the priest's vulnerable position. Without their leader, the troopers reformed and charged again.

Inevitably some of the berserkers filtered through to the priest's altar but Xena handled them one by one. Gabrielle threw the grenades until they were expended, then picked up her staff and joined Xena in the fight. Xena had replaced her sword in her scabbard and fought hand to hand. Gabrielle's now frightening skill with her staff added to the scattered bodies. Many of the berserk attackers flew over the head of the priest, either thrown by Xena or hammered by Gabrielle.

Demodocus was now deeply enmeshed in his ritual of manifestation. "Mighty Maiden! Mistress of Wisdom! Daughter of Thunder! Teacher of Right in War! Come to me and claim your errant brother! The Humanity you love begs you to add your mighty hand to this battle for the right! Help me bring peace to these broken and disturbed souls! Banish Eros to your control! Come to me and take the imp into your custody!"

"NONONONONONONONO!!!" Eros wailed. The little god was now beside himself in impotent rage. All of his attempts to dominate the hearts of his attackers had failed. The troopers, whom he had thought to be weak turned out to be devastatingly strong and Xena had proven the strongest of all. Her power was so immense he felt that she was even beginning to affect him, A GOD! Unable to do any more, his pleasure thwarted, his desire to control all defeated, Eros slipped to the ground crying and beating the ground in frustration.

Xena was enjoying herself. She was chuckling and laughing loudly. Many of the people that had rushed the priest had become dazed and unfocussed. The smoke bombs they had made, which contained valarian powder, had worked. The tranquilizing herb had burned in the explosions and the inhaled smoke had calmed and confused the people who had charged. The fumes had exacerbated their rational failure making them even more vulnerable to her, and Gabrielle's, martial skills. Most of the affected had either fled or were down injured or unconscious. Gabrielle herself had been caught up in Xena's mood for she reveled in the fight as much as her friend did.

At last Demodocus' chanting ritual had reached its climax. Turning to the maelstrom around him, suddenly his eyes opened wide and he yelled "ATHENA COMES!!" and pointed upward to the west. There appeared a globe of translucent blue light that flew silently towards the priest. All who looked stopped what they were doing for the light was in their minds as much as it was in the air.

Xena took a final swipe at a charging man and knocked him back on his behind and saw that the charge of the others had stopped. Turning she saw the light and an incredible warm feeling came to her mind and body. It was the same feeling that had suffused her when the goddess had relieved her of Eros's planted rage and she watched with joy and relief. Gabrielle looked and felt as if a friend had come. Gabrielle knew that Athena was really here.

The globe of light stopped in front of Demodocus and it changed into the familiar shape of the goddess that they had seen before, tall straight and clothed in a translucent blue robe. Her blonde hair cascaded down her back, while her gray-blue eyes glittered.

"You call me again, my Eyes," she said simply. Demodocus simply raised his hand and pointed at the prostrate Eros who was still rolling on the ground in his infantile tantrum. The goddess turned and said questioningly, "EROS!?"

The little god had again flitted into the air and spun to face his accoster. "NO ATHENA, NO! You can't take me back to Olympus! I'll die there! I won't let you do it!"

"Oh you irresponsible imp! I will not allow you to reign unchecked to destroy my people any longer!" With that Athena began to grow larger and ever larger. Her robe evaporated. A golden Mycenean helmet appeared on her head and a great spear appeared in her right hand. A blue cloak flew in the wind attached to a golden chain around her neck. In a trice, the apparition grew to a height of at least 50 feet. Magnificent in her nudity, the Goddess of Wisdom and War became the exemplar of the warrior woman in the flesh. She bent and picked up the little god gently between her thumb and forefinger as if the God were some kind of insect. She held Eros up to her eye and exclaimed, "I shall take you home to Father Zeus so that he might punish you for disturbing my modesty." The little god kicked and fussed as if he were an infant baby. Then the Goddess simply disappeared.

Xena had watched all that had occurred with amazement. She had seen the Titans, worked with Hades, and was friends with Hercules and nothing she had seen could top what had just happened. Never had she expected in her life that she would see a god capture another god. Also she also never expected to see a god act so clearly in a responsible manner for the interests of humanity rather than her own whim. Xena was deeply impressed. She turned and looked at Demodocus who now lay prostrate on the ground arms outstretched in supplication to his patroness. In a moment he finished his prayer and stood. Xena ran over and gave him a hug followed by Gabrielle who did the same.

Before anyone could say anything what appeared to be a gust of wind hit them. Turning, all were shocked to see that the goddess had returned. Once more she had come in her modest attire and size. Quietly she pointed at Xena and said "Mighty One! Harken to me if you will." Demodocus and Gabrielle looked at the goddess in surprise and awe.

Xena walked quietly over to the goddess. Gabrielle had seen her friend confront other gods. Xena had always been defiant but careful. She acted very different with Athena. Gabrielle tried to figure out why, perhaps it was because she had helped her when she was mad with rage.

"Treat me as an equal, Xena." The goddess said simply. Xena's mouth opened wide; surely no god could possibly mean that.

Athena continued. "Xena, the moment you saved that baby from the evil Darfus you began to serve me. From that instant, my you broke the hold of my rival brother Ares. My Eyes showed to me the wound that slashes across your soul that Ares and the Fates have inflicted upon you. It has made your life difficult and painful. Yet you have borne that pain with courage that equals every god. Although you have been serving me for a long time, you have yet to acknowledge that fact.

I tell you now, Xena, that you are fated to greatness. I have watched you since your birth, but other gods have deemed it necessary that you suffer. I can help you end that suffering. I wish to help you for you now represent everything that I do, but until you acknowledge me as your patron by your own volition, you will still suffer and Ares will still hound you until your death. If you acknowledge me, your life will become more magnificent than you can imagine. Xena, as your friend, I ask you to trust me to protect you so that you can surrender to your fate and reach the heights of which you are capable of reaching."

"Athena I..." Xena tried to say but emotion filled her until she could no longer speak. Athena though held up her hand to silence her.

"Xena, my beloved sister in arms. I will return home now for you and my Eyes have much work ahead to repair the spirits of these unfortunate mortals that my cruel brother Eros has broken. You need not say anything now, but if in future you merely ask for me to come, I will be there with you arrayed for battle. I leave then to allow you to make your decision. Adieu!" Athena reached out and put her hand on Xena's shoulder and her magnificent gray-blue eyes peered deeply into Xena's electric blue eyes. Xena swelled with admiration and nodded, and Athena evaporated.

Demodocus walked up to Xena and swept her hair from her eyes. "Xena that decision is only the beginning! The Maiden is patient. Take whatever time you need. Do not worry about my opinion of you however. Whatever your decision may be it will not alter my opinion of you. I will care about your fate forever." Xena looked at her lover and a tear came to her eyes and she kissed the priest very long and hard.

The Maiden had been right. There was a lot of work to do. Many people had been injured physically as well as emotionally. Xena treated the physical wounds while Demodocus handled the spiritual wounds. Several of the fifteen troopers, who had all emerged from the melee unharmed were dispatched as runners to bring wagons and assistance to help bring the people to Chalsis on to Athens if Demodocus deemed it necessary. It took days but the job was done.

Back in Chalsis, Xena, Gabrielle and Demodocus stood on the dock waiting for the final call for the boat to Athens to board. Xena walked over to the priest and began to speak, but she looked down towards the ground, her words refusing to come.

"You don't have to say, Xena; it was my intense pleasure to help. You already know what I feel about you." Demodocus picked his friend's chin up and looked into Xena's eyes. It's a shame that our missions take us apart, but fear not, I think of you every second that I am awake."

"Demodocus," Xena said at length, "I cannot thank you enough. I now can see my future if I choose to do so. Without you Athena would have not come to me. I now need time to take stock and think about what the Maiden told me. I can't forget you, and I trust you and I will cross paths and spend time together again. If you need me, I will be there, and you can be sure that I will be in Athens again soon. We still have a lot of fun to share with each other. Demodocus, I love you!"

"I know, Xena!" Demodocus exclaimed and the lovers embraced and kissed. "Until we meet again my Lioness!" Demodocus said and he boarded the boat home.

When Demodocus boarded, Xena turned and joined Gabrielle who also stood on the dock. As the ship was pushed away from the quayside and the great square sail was sheeted home, both Xena and Gabrielle waved at the retreating form of the remarkable priest with the stripe in his hair.

"Xena, of all the events I have been through with you, this last adventure was the most incredible. What can I say about Demodocus? He is an incredible, wonderful man. You are doubly blessed to meet him and to know that if you decide correctly your fate is assured."

Xena nodded. "My mother was right all those years ago. A goddess was looking over my shoulder. That is quite a thing to come to terms with. What do you say we go off on a trip to rest and think, Gabrielle?"

Gabrielle shrugged, "Sure!" she said, but her answer was interrupted by a horse sliding to a stop behind them.

The rider jumped down and asked, "Which one of you is the Warrior Princess?"

"I am!" Xena replied with a grave look on her face. The rider handed her a piece of parchment and Xena read it.

"It's from Melosa!" Xena ejaculated. "An unknown army is raiding amazon land near Larisa. She needs our help."

Gabrielle shook her head. "It never ends does it?"

"Nope." Xena said, and both friends went to get Argo.

Tudhalias, named after a famous Hittite king of several generations earlier, was a member of the Imperial family, but a distant one. For fifteen years he had tried to play his initial position as a minor functionary in the Hittite Foreign Ministry into ultimate power and he had finally succeeded. That success was sweet indeed. However cunning as he was, Tudhalias was not a subtle player of the political game. He was a bully, but a sophisticated bully. For those fifteen years he had taken his position as the personnel chief of the ministry to place people who were beholden to him in slots of great authority. He lavishly supported those who supported him, and he had discreetly but brutally murdered those throughout the government who opposed him and his ambitions. Finally, he had reached the position of Foreign Minister under an earlier Emperor and made sure that he had immense influence over his sovereigns.

Subtle he wasn't, but Tudhalias wasn't stupid either. He knew that the destiny of the Hittite people was to conquer all of their neighbors, but the country wasn't ready for war. Tudhalias had made sure that he had the right people in the right places, and he had the right Emperor in Mursili on the throne for his design to be carried out. Unfortunately for him, the Foreign Minister's scheme was scotched. Mursili had suddenly died leaving his son Suppiluliumsa on the throne.

Suppiluliumsa was not the Emperor that his immediate predecessors had been. All had been malleable, especially Mursili, but this Emperor was not. He was headstrong and impossible to manipulate, but he was a political weakling. He believed in peace first and foremost. He believed that the way to peace was reasonableness and compromise. He began to undertake steps to settle a simmering border dispute with the Assyrian Empire. The first and the most important step was the ceding of a huge area of land to the Assyrians which included vast deposits of copper and iron, both vital to any war effort. These steps were viciously opposed by both the Army and the Foreign Ministry.

Fortunately for him, Tudhalias had great influence over who rose to the top of the Army which was under his administration. He had made sure that his supporters were shot through the organization, so it was easy to find an ambitious soldier to kill the Emperor. It was just as easy to find a man who would kill the assassin and Tudhalias' most dangerous rivals. Support for the Foreign Minister's seizure of power was very strong. Tudhalias hated to think of the gory details of how he came to power. The end justified the means. HE was the man prophesied to lead Hatti to its destiny, and if the people didn't want to reach for that destiny, he would force them to reach. If the Hittite people failed in his ambition for them, then they as a people, did not deserve to survive.

"Let them be eaten by Jackals, if we fail" Tudhalias thought as the chariot continued down its route. In his years as Foreign Minister he had made sure that plenty of armaments has been stockpiled to carry out his ambitions, but he had not prepared the people. The people were as of yet weak and soft, used to two hundred years of peace on Hatti's borders. Now Tudhalias had the power to force the mob to change its mind. War would be the object of the entire society, and he would show the society that there were monsters out beyond their frontiers and that belief in peace will only lead to Hatti being eaten by those monsters.

The first thing that Tudhalias did on his rising to the throne was to begin conscription--the forcible induction of men into the army. The second thing he did was to round up all the scrolls of authors that were not Hittite and to order all town scribes, on pain of death, to copy out scrolls that the government had given them. These scrolls were to be read out every day in all town and village squares. Bards were forced to read material approved by Tudhalias, and anything that any bard wrote had to be approved by the local magistrate, all of whom owed their careers to Tudhalias. The primary content of these scrolls was that the Hatti were the greatest people in the world and that all other peoples were subhuman, to either be exterminated or enslaved. War was the only way that the Hatti could be purified to reach the destiny the Mother Goddess had proclaimed. Anyone who spoke against Tudhalias was speaking against the Chief God of the Hittites and was immediately to be crucified as a heretic.

Finally, the review of his troops was over. He ordered the charioteer that drove him back to the palace--the mighty palace that rose on a huge hill overlooking the edge of a vast, fertile plateau. This was his city--The City of Hattusas. On the road that led up to the looming bulk of his city, he passed a small shop in a small settlement just outside the walls. Several of the infantrymen of the Imperial Guard Division, in their fir trimmed amphora helmets , and black and silver armor had just arrested someone. One of the troops saw the Emperor and fell on his face in salute. (all troops took an oath to Tudhalias' person) Tudhalias ordered a halt.

"Rise my friend and fear me not!" Tudhalias said in as godlike a manner as possible. What is happening here?

In a few moments, the Sergeant of the small party had emerged out of the shop carrying an old man by the scruff of the neck. The Sergeant's eyes went wide when he saw his God. Tudhalias, with a beneficent smile on his face, held up his hand and asked: "What has this man done?"

"Sire!" the Sergeant said. "This is a scribe. He was discovered copying out forbidden scrolls. We were given this information by his son."

"Oh, really?" the Emperor said. "Sergeant, have the rest of your men turn out the people from the surrounding buildings." This was done.

Turning to his charioteer he also said: "Put the scrolls on the chariot, I will read them later."

The people were brought out and all fell on their faces in supplication.

"My people, this man has been copying lies about the world and about me! These words will poison our purity in the struggles to come! This is what we do to criminals like these!"

Tudhalias V took a small dirk from his belt, turned, and stabbed the old man in the belly and twisted the blade. Withdrawing the knife, he then ordered the scribe to be nailed to the wall of the shop. The Emperor's viciousness had the effect he wanted. The townspeople were terrified. There were no courts or rights in Hatti. The Emperor could do what he wanted. Tudhalias then ordered a bowl of water from a nearby well and calmly washed his hands of the incident. Ordering the squad of soldiers to return to their duty, Tudhalias was driven to his palace.

After a sumptuous feast, it was Tudhalias' custom to read for enjoyment in his lavish bedroom. He ordered the illegal documents brought in. After the household slave left, he picked one of the scrolls up, opened it, and began to read.

"Formidable woman! I wonder if she's as dangerous as she seems?" Tudhalias said to nobody when he reached a compelling passage. Nah, she's got to be a fantasy."

When he was finished, Tudhalias had a satisfied look on his face, a sure sign that what he had read was very good. ."In a way its a shame that I have to ban this Bard's stories. This stuff is entertaining." He said."

Yawning, he threw the scroll on a nearby divan and went to take a nap. The title line of the scroll read in Greek: "'Hooves & Harlots', by Gabrielle of Potidaea."

The nap refused to start. For reasons Tudhalias could not fathom, sleep never came easily to him. He wondered to himself whether or not the Gods had decided to keep him ever vigilant and never to know the world of dreams. Dreams were a waste of time, but memories were never so. He cast his mind back to his life in the small town in which his father, Labarna, was the chief elder on the town council. Tudhalias not only admired his father greatly but he feared him also. Labarna was always telling him, usually when he was drunk, that life was terribly hard. Then the scroll he had just read infringed on his mind. Centaurs! CENTAURS! The thought of the beast made his skin crawl in revulsion. His father hated them too. Labarna hated as well as anything that interfered with of the life of the race of the Hatti. Tudhalias thought that the centaurs were abominations at best and dangerous to the purity of humanity at worst. He couldn't understand why anyone would want to be near the beasts let alone let them live in peace with them like the Greeks did.

Tudhalias remembered an incident from when he was a young teenager involving a pair of centaurs and the lickspittle Greeks that accompanied them. The beasts boldly walked into town with their "companions". They were supposed to be traveling performers newly arrived in Hatti from the Ionaian settlements on the coast. They set up a stand in the middle of town from a wagon that the beasts were pulling. In that stand were all kinds of herbs and medicines that the people were hawking as the centaurs did dances and tricks that several of the townspeople watching, including his father, Labarna. Labarna, the town chief, considered the performances disgusting and dangerous to public order, but much to his father's dismay, many people actually seemed to be enjoying the program. They applauded the centaurs dancing and the music played by the women of the troop. One of the men after a while even had the audacity to deliver a short oration singing the praises of Athens and its experiment in democracy.

By that time Labarna was beginning to anger, but there was little he could do because there was, as yet, no controls on speech in the Hittite code. So he waited and fumed. After a bit the owner of the town pharmacy came up to Labarna.

"Labarna," the pharmacist said. Those "things" are selling herbs at prices way under mine. They stay here and they'll destroy my business! The very idea gives me the willies."

The man shuddered visibly and left. Labarna nodded, and a few minutes later a second man came up. He was the owner of the livery stable.

"Labarna!" The man snapped evidently upset. "I still have the town contract to muck the streets yes?"

"Sure Oilin." said Labarna.

"I still can sell the horse manure for a profit. Yes?"

"Yeah. Why?" Labarna answered looking puzzled.

"Then how am I gonna sell THAT!" Oilin said with a look of loathing on his face while pointing at the street UNDER the centaurs.

"Nobody is going to buy that. Everybody will know that that crap came from those animals." the stableman said.

More and more of the most important businessmen of the town came to the chief elder and complained, until he finally had enough. "I'm not going to stand by and watch my town destroyed by these creatures." Labarna told his son.

"Dad, why are you so upset? Everyone seems to be having such fun." Tudhalias remembered saying.

His father slapped him hard on the mouth: "Because they're stupid and weak, and because I told you so!" Labarna yelled. "Now watch how to lead."

Labarna accosted one of his scribes and led him forcefully to a nearby shadow. The town chief told the man to put his purse in the pocket of one of the centaurs when they took a break and then accuse him of stealing. Tudhalias shook his head in admiration. This would get rid of the problem and make a point about how untrustworthy Greeks and centaurs were. This was sure to undermine the trusting nature of the villagers and, after a hearing, make his dad look like a very strong leader.

In a trice the deed was done. The scribe planted the purse deftly onto the person of the lead centaur, named Ixionites, by bumping into him, then made a big show if missing the purse. When the centaur protested the purse fell out of his pocket and lay on the ground. The Greeks reacted just as Labarna had hoped; they resisted the arrest yelling that someone had framed him. Labarna knew that this would make the case against them much stronger. There was a great commotion but after a while the fooled townspeople, assisted by town soldiers, subdued the centaurs and their human friends and they were dragged in front of Labarna.

"Now you say that this "animal" picked your pocket?" Labarna asked?

"Yes, he must have! I just missed it a minute ago when I walked by him and there it is!" The scribe said pointing to the ground.

"Who is in charge of this group?" Labarna asked.

"I am, " A man said, his blonde curly haired head held high in defiance. "My name is Andreas the director of this troop."

"Ah then, you are responsible for the behavior of your animals?" Labarna said.

"This is NOT an animal, this is a centaur and a friend of me and my family for years. The others are members of his family. I would trust him with my life. He is NOT a thief!"

"Then how do you explain THAT?" Labarna exclaimed pointing at the purse."

"I can't, but if we were home we would certainly get justice. A magistrate would investigate the charge. There would be a trial too!" Andreas exclaimed.

"Well then what do you think this is, Greek?" One of Chief's retainers called out.

"This is not Greece, This is Hatti!" Labarna said. "We do things much differently here."

There was a system of justice in Hatti but it only applied to the Aristocracy. The peasants were ruled by decree. Although trusting, the common people had no conception of the individual as the Greeks did, the mob did pretty much what they were told to do.

There was a loud rummaging sound coming from the Greek's wagon. In a trice one of the town soldiers came out and reported."

"These people don't have the proper permits." He said.

Labarna's eyes lit up. The Hittite Empire had detailed laws about how much a businessman had to pay workers and how much he could charge for goods and services. Regular reports had to be sent to the capital or the wrath of the Emperor in the form of the central army would come to town to enforce the order. It also would enflame the businessmen, several of whom had already complained to him.

"Do you have the fees? Greek?"

"What fees!?"

Labarna went on and on delineating all the costs of doing business in Hatti and all of the fines that the government demanded.

"We can't pay!!" Andreas exclaimed "If we can't work and perform its impossible to pay the schekles you demand!"

"Then the answer's clear. Labarna said. "The property of these people is immediately forfeit. Since this property is clearly not worth the amounts that are owed to the town and to the Hittite businessmen they fraudulently undercut, and since they're not Hittites then these people are to be sold into perpetual slavery, the auction price to be used to pay off their debts. As for their trained beasts, since they're not human they do not deserve the mercy that I've shown their owners. Therefore, they're to be slaughtered immediately and buried in unconsecrated ground. So let it be written, so let it be done!"

Tudhalias remembered tugging on his father's robe. "But father? Why did you order the death of the centaurs. They did nothing, and they're half human!?" He asked.

Tudhalias remembered his father rewarding his question with a backhanded blow to the ear, hard enough to make his head spin. "

"Shut up and watch! You don't want to grow up to be a woman, do you? You'll be a strong leader yourself someday."

At the pronunciation of the sentence the men attacked their guards and the centaurs began to kick at their restraints. One of them finally broke his hands free and struck out hard. Rearing and kicking the man horses struck out and succeeded in hitting their tormentors with some devastating blows. Since the men in the troupe were acrobats all were very athletic and were able to break free. Several were able to overpower some of the guards and get their swords. With these weapons, the Greeks were able to cut the remaining fetters of their centaur friends and soon townspeople were flying from their blows.

Labarna didn't panic, neither did he show any other kind of fear. He merely tapped an aide on the shoulder and the man ran off for the town garrison. The centaurs were fighting, as was a great characteristic of the species, with great valiance. Within minutes however, troops began to pour in from the barracks and archers appeared on the roofs of all of the nearby buildings. Labarna turned his back on the melee and walked away dragging his son by the scruff of the neck. Within seconds both centaurs were dead, riddled with arrows. When the arrows struck their friends down, the Greeks hearts failed and they laid down their weapons.

"Weaklings! They deserve their fate! You die rather than give up! D'ya hear me Tudhalias? You die rather than give up!" Tudhalias remembered his father scolding him.

The Emperor of the Hittites reverie broke when he saw in his memory the image of the two centaurs, beheaded, hanging head down from blocks with stringers through their fetlocks, with a sign tied to their backs: "This is what happens to thieving beasts!" The sign said.

"Father was right." Tudhalias thought, his resolve reinforced by this memory. "To lead means to be tough."

He then clapped his hands and his body servant came in. Tudhalias said something to the little man and the servant retired. Within moments the servant returned in with three absolutely luscious, scantily clad young women who slinked over to the Emperor's divan and began to caress him. Finally, the Emperor began to relax.

The men marched around a corner and were stopped by guards with crossed spears. Kumarbi waved his hand perfunctorily and the men snapped to attention pulling their weapons away from the door. Entering, they found their Sovereign emerging from his private apartment with a concubine on each arm. The Emperor of the Hittites waved the girls away and walked behind his ornate ebony desk. He sat and turned to face his advisors.

"SIRE!" The three high officials barked at once.

"Report!

"Sire!" Said Kumarbi. "Intensive conscription has begun. I've been sending Imperial Guard squads to every village and started taking all males of recruiting age. This process is going well. However, there has been some resistance in some towns, especially in the areas near the borders. Those who have associated with the Greeks or the Assyrians have been giving us problems."

"What are you doing about it?" Tudhalias asked.

"Two things, Sire." Kumarbi replied. "I've implemented the plan that you ordered last month. In cooperation with Uhhamuwa, I've placed Imperial Guard personnel under cover as Priests of the Sun God to assist the State Priests of Hebat track of the people's opinions and private actions. These men are responsible for discovering and arresting possible opposition. Under your secret decree of the same time, these people are quietly eliminated. As with the State Priests of Hebat, these men tell the people that they must have dissatisfied Hebat somehow explaining their permanent absence. It has proven effective.

"Training?"

"Sire! A centralized training facility has been established in every major region We should be processing close to 50,000 men per month by now. Newly trained men are now assigned to the border fortresses for additional training and experience."

"Excellent, Kumarbi!" Exclaimed the Emperor. "Have you estimated the final size of the army yet?"

"Yes Sire, if we keep the minimum age requirement at 16 and the maximum at 35 years of age, approximately 750,000 troops, 600,000 combat ready. The rest will be supply and administrative troops and town garrisons."

'That's NOT ENOUGH!" Tudhalias barked.

"Sire, that is the maximum that we are capable of recruiting and training in this cohort. We shall have to wait for a year for more 16 year olds to be available. If we wish to have more men available now we shall have to hire mercenaries." Said Kumarbi.

"Arnuwanda!" Tudhalias snapped "Treasury!"

"100 million talents in gold, Sire. The tax increase you ordered has been implemented. We are now collecting 5-6 million talents per month. We can increase the taxes about 5% more without difficulties."

"Good, we don't want to soak the mob too much too early...Bad politics," said the Emperor with a smirk on his lips. "We'll go with what you have for now Kumarbi. We'll hold off on the mercenaries until we need them. He then looked up into the eyes of the Chief Priest.

"Sire, I have my priests overlooking every scribe and bard in Hatti," said Uhhamuwa. "They are now copying out your decrees and reading them to the people. The priests are now organizing 'Education' meetings in which all people are required under pain of imprisonment to attend. I do believe that your campaign to frighten the populace is working very well. Once we start using the scapegoat strategy, I'm sure we will have the entire Empire behind us when we strike."

"Wonderful!" The Emperor exclaimed slapping his hands on the top of his desk, the soft clay tablet and writing stylus that lay there jumped into the air. Standing, the Emperor walked around the desk and stood directly in front of Kumarbi.

"What about Hattusilis?" the Emperor said looking into his chief Lieutenant's eyes.

Crown Prince Hattusilis was the Emperor's, and the Government's biggest problem. Hattusilis was the son of Suppiluliumsa's late elder brother. Since the late Emperor had no immediate successor, he had signed a will naming Hattusilis his heir until such time as he could produce offspring himself. Tudhalias' coup had knocked the whole succession arrangement to rubble. Hattusilis was the second most important member of the list of men to be liquidated that the conspirators had drawn up. However, there is no such thing as a perfectly implemented plan, and when the assassins arrived at the Crown Princes' house, Hattusilis was gone. By pure chance, Hattusilis had taken a chariot out for a run, and when he returned he found his home full of the Imperial Guard and smelled a rat.

Hattusilis was dangerous to Tudhalias because he was a tremendously popular figure, handsome, intelligent and compassionate. He was a staunch advocate of peace with the neighbors of the Hittite Empire, as well as the use of the Government's power to increase popular prosperity. The late Emperor and Hattusilis had been best of friends and Hattusilis would have been Suppiluliumsa's closest advisor had Tudhalias not struck. But now he was gone, in the hills somewhere, scheming to get Tudhalias' crown. Tudhalias knew that Hattusilis had to be found and destroyed, or risk the work of fifteen years.

"Sire! We haven't found him yet. We have 10,000 troops looking for him. We WILL run him down," said Kumarbi.

Clearly not satisfied, Tudhalius's eyes widened as if to fire off a rejoinder when his eyes exploded from his head then rolled back showing only their whites. Suddenly, his body went rigid as a plank and he keeled forward into the arms of Kumarbi who gently laid him upon the floor. The Emperor's body lay there rigid, his limbs in spasm, foam forming on his lips.

"By Hebat!" Shouted the shocked priest. Although Uhhamuwa knew about Tudhalias' seizures this was the first time he had ever seen one.

"Worry not!" said Kumarbi, who had known his Emperor for a longer time. "These spells pass. He's told me that he is possessed by Warunkatte at times like these, and he is as sharp as a tack later."

That was indeed true. Deep down in the mind of the Emperor he was in close contact with his God of War, Warunkatte. The God was huge and dressed in a full body suit of black armor with an elaborate fringe of fir around his Amphora like helmet. His image towered over the image of the Emperor in his dreamlike state. From beneath the visor of the God, Tudhalias could see two glowing red coals, presumably eyes.

"Delicious Tudhalias, Just delicious!" The Hittite God of War exclaimed. "Who would have thought that any king would succeed in preparing an entire society for war? I cannot imagine more fitting worship. When will you be ready for your aggression?

"About eight months, my Lord! We need to draft and train the troops. Remember, the Empire was soft and complacent. I've given the people the enemy that they need. They'll fight when the time comes," said Tudhalias.

"Who are you going to hit first--the Assyrians?" asked Warunkatte.

"No. We have information from scouting parties that we sent to Greece that all their cities are greatly distrustful of each other, and that the Mycenean Suzerainty is at the point of collapse. We will take the Ionian colonies, and then the seaports of Asia minor. When that is done, we'll launch a gigantic amphibious offensive at mainland Greece, and once we are ashore, we drive inland smashing all the Greek cities in detail. With the Ionian and Greek ports, we have control over the entire Eastern Mediterranean. Then we can take on the Caananites, Assyrians, Babylonians and finally the Egyptians. The known world will be ours. What better gift to sacrifice to the mighty God of War?

"Can you defeat the Greeks? They have a mighty reputation." said Warunkatte.

"They love war it's true, my Lord, but they forget something. They see war as an end in itself. That's a mistake. War is about POLITICS, my Lord. That's how I'll defeat them."

The God of War sounded petulant: "What about my battles? You're not going to beat them without fighting are you?"

"Don't worry, there'll be plenty of blood for you my Lord, but I intend to use my power wisely, for we'll need plenty of men to preserve our gains." The Emperor said.

"Just you see to it, Tudhalias! Battle is a fickle thing, and you'll need my help, see to it you please me." Warunkatte admonished pointing a finger.

"My LORD!" shouted the Emperor.

The Hittite God of War waved a hand and the Emperor of the Hittites returned to Earth. When the human vanished from the divine plane, Warunkatte erupted into gales of rich, bitter laughter. Bending with mirth the apparition reached up to his visor and lifted it revealing the incredibly handsome, but oily face of the GREEK God of War--Ares.

"At last! AT LAST! I have the weapon with which I can beat XENA!!"

And again sheets of laughter broke from Ares' belly as the apparition disappeared.

Tudhalias recovered. Sitting, he clasped the shoulder of his most trusted lieutenant and turned him so that he could look him in the face. "Warunkatte is with us!!" The Emperor exclaimed with glee.

Uhhamuwa jumped with joy. "We can't lose!!" he yelled, and the others in the group either laughed or smiled so widely that their cheeks hurt. All could see unlimited power and unlimited riches laying at their feet for the taking. All they needed to do was to wait and to build.

"Look!" Shouted the new leader of the town while pointing at the no trespassing sign. Here is the sign the Gods placed here so long ago to keep us out of our legacy. Now Demeter manifested herself to us all to say that this is now OUR land. Seth, bring sledge hammer and chisel and we'll tear down that sign."

Seth, the town blacksmith, came with the requested tools and while Tryphoîn held the chisel, he hammered the stone to fragments. Other men took saws and axes to the trees that held signs and still others fanned out and destroyed what signs they could find. That job finished, the column reformed and walked up the mountain pass until they found the edge of the ridge and could look out upon their new home. It was so beautiful that many wept with joy and pride at what they saw. Many ran down the opposite side of the ridge to find the choicest plots for them to farm. As each person passed their new spiritual leader the shook his hand and clapped him on the back. Surely their lives were to be wonderful from now on.

Soon saws and axes buzzed and rang with feverish activity as hundreds of acres are cleared and prepared to be plowed. Houses and barns began to go up--silos and corrals too. Their approaching new life was irresistible. The pace of work spiraled ever faster. For weeks the new buildings were built, livestock brought in, livestock brought in, and new plows were forged out of scrap iron in the new blacksmith shop. Everyone sung the praises of Demeter, the new patroness of the bounty in which they all expected to share. Before long the new fields had been hacked out of forests and the land was ready for the plow.

Finally, Tryphoîn's cousin the priest of Demeter read in the heavens that the stars were in a propitious place and he saw great things in the organs of a slaughtered goat. He deemed it fitting and timely that a great prayer ceremony be held to consecrate the piercing of the land so that the first crop of winter wheat could be planted. So the next morning a gold plated plow was hitched to the strongest oxen that the tow possessed. A great altar had been built and bulls and some of the seed wheat were sacrificed to Demeter. The revelry continued from dawn until noon when all activity stopped and the townspeople gathered in front of the altar where the ceremonial patch of ground was to be plowed. On that ground the oxen and plow, driven by Tryphoîn's cousin, was to bite the consecrated ground to begin the winter wheat crop.

Tryphoîn, ably coached by his cousin, conducted the ceremony. In his oration, (nobody could believe that he turned into such a good speaker.) Tryphoîn said that truly that humans were blessed unlike all of the creatures of the Gods, for people, and people only could reap Demeter's bounty from such wonderful land. He went on additionally to say that his village was the favorite of all the Gods, for no other village had ever been so favored by the Gods in his, or anyone else's memory. Concluding his remarks, Tryphoîn said:

"Gentle Demeter, let us then bend ourselves to our holy work. Let us then sweat and toil under Apollo's brilliant sun to make the rich crop that you have promised to us, your humble worshippers, grow. For without you, and your mighty sister Hera whose intervention provided us with the strong men's backs needed to till this lovely soil, our wives and sons could not begin to plant the treasure of new wheat here. Wheat, glorious wheat, golden in its bounty, which will provide us bread and joy everlasting!"

With that Tryphoîn made a sweeping gesture towards the team of oxen and his brother whipped them into motion. Leaning with all his considerable weight upon the handles of the golden plow the Priest of Demeter pierced the ready soil and the first furrow in the fabulous new land appeared.

In the back of the crowd, a strange look suddenly appeared on the face of one of the worshippers. He looked up and craned his neck around as if listening. He elbowed his wife in the side and said: "What happened to the birds? They were singing their heads off just a second ago. There's dead silence now." The man's wife turned to him and shrugged.

Dogs began to bark and whine. The oxen drawing the ceremonial plow stopped and began to low loudly. Horses became fractious and began battering the gates of their newly constructed corrals with flying hooves. The people began to look around in their seats in great surprise. Then the silent birds erupted in screeching and huge flocks burst out of the nearby woods in desperate flight. Then the ground began to shake.

The earthquake came slowly at first but then built quickly in intensity. Looks of terror appeared on the faces of the dumbstruck crowd. The newly built houses and buildings began to fall as the shaking grew ever worse. Screams began to emerge from the frightened people. Tryphoîn, his wife, and his cousin looked from their improvised stage first in shock, then in dismay, then in terror. They heard another noise, a low rumbling moan could be heard from beneath the townspeople's feet. Soft at first, soon the noise became so loud that it was felt rather than heard. Men, women, and children vibrated with the noise. Those who weren't petrified with fright began to run for their lives.

Tryphoîn looked down. Beneath the raised platform on which he stood, a huge crack began to form in the newly plowed earth. From that crack the din that had vibrated them all could now be understood. It was a mighty howl of anguish and rage from a pair of lungs that were far, far larger than any human's. Another crack formed some distance right of the first and yet a third started some distance to the left. The ground around the cracks began to heave upwards while the awesome scream grew louder and ever louder.

Finally, first from the right crack, and then from its opposite, fingers as big as tree trunks began to emerge from the ground. An immense knee appeared also, throwing dirt high into the air. From underneath the dais greater rumbling came. In the distance, Tryphoîn saw what appeared to be a foot appearing out of the ground, but to his complete disbelief, the foot wasn't a foot at all, but a gigantic serpent, with mouth snarling and tongue flicking. The serpent was attached to a massive shin at right angles, its head where the toes of the foot should have been. Then, incredibly, Tryphoîn and his wife were flying through the air! A gigantic hand had reached over, picked up the dais on which they stood, and had thrown both the platform and them away. An immense head and naked chest exploded up out of the ground in the place where the platform had been. The monster, for that was what it was, sat up, blew the dirt from its mouth, blinked, and roared in a voice that could be heard throughout the valley: