The Cave of Choirs: No Doubt (Prologue & Chapters 1-2)

No Doubt (Prologue & Chapters 1-2)

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

Posted January 27, 1998; revised January 31, 1998

Xena: Warrior Princess and the names, titles, and backstory used in "No Doubt" are the sole property of Universal. The author intends no copyright infringement through the writing of this fan fiction.

This story may not be sold and may be archived at public sites only with direct permission from the author. Any archive must carry this entire copyright statement.

Disclaimers

No sex. Some direct violence, lots of implied violence (you know, like they used to do in old plays [mass slaughter off stage right]). Lots of graphic aftermath of violence, one particularly icky scene of healing. Lots of angst. Strong language advisory: If you speak Cantonese, I apologize in advance and afterward, too, but that extremely nasty phrase is there for the sake of Literary Necessity. Truly! Talking Heads Alert (Big Time): Let's face it, just like Gabrielle, I don't do action scenes very well.

Notes

This story begins as the Xena: Warrior Princess episode, "The Debt," Part II ends. All of the events in the Prologue actually happen in real time during the final scene of this episode, so they're happening very fast indeed. It should actually take you longer to read the Prologue than the events themselves should take, since most of what you're reading is going on inside the heads of Our Heroes at the same time as the action is taking place.

For historical purposes only, I will say that this story takes place before my Solstice story, "Almost Home." That story was written with the events in this one in mind, but they're totally separate stories.

Depending on how you have your browser set, words in smaller type and/or enclosed in <brackets> indicate actual thought by a character rather than general narration.

Prologue

Fragile.

Of all the words that Gabrielle had used to describe Xena over the years she'd known her, that word had never entered her mind.

But now, seeing her hesitant step and trembling body, hearing the low, exhausted rasp and heart-rending tremor of her voice, Gabrielle could think of only one thing.

Fragile.

"... and I made him small again ..."

What had happened to the calm, strong woman she'd left in the destroyed throne room only minutes before? Something had injured Xena more grievously than even she had managed to do in the past few days. Xena needed her. <How could she let me touch her after ... damn, my leg hurts. What now?!>

Pushing her own pain and hesitancy aside, she reached once again for the woman she had called best friend, steeling herself for the rebuff that never came.

"Xena," she called softly, wrapping her arms around broad shoulders inexplicably slumped in ... defeat? "... your not killing him made you exactly what Lao Ma wanted you to be ..." She stopped, feeling the shudder pass through the warrior's body. The look in Xena's eyes was unfathomable.

A shy, child-like trace of a smile came to Xena's lips.

"... a memento of Lao Ma ..." the warrior whispered as she gazed at the leather-bound volume she held in front of her. Suddenly, Gabrielle felt Xena slip further from her, seemingly gripped in some personal terror, and saw the smile turn wistful and dispirited.

"We'll take good care of this," Gabrielle soothed, wrapping her arm around the book to clutch Xena's hand. She felt her friend (her friend!) lean into her in sudden exhaustion. Pulling dark hair away from the warrior's savaged neck, wincing at the wounds she'd as good as given herself, she let the words slip out before she thought.

"I love you, Xena."

It didn't come out right. It sounded ... forced. It sounded anxious and pleading. It sounded like she felt. <Damn.>

The warrior's visible double-take made Gabrielle wince again, but Xena recovered enough to say softly, "I love you, too, Gabrielle," something Gabrielle had never actually heard her say out loud. Xena continued to lean on the young woman heavily, trustingly following her lead through the rubble of the room.

As they climbed through the gaping hole in the throne room's wall, Gabrielle felt, rather than saw, the slight snarl that came suddenly to Xena's lips ... felt, rather than saw, another shudder pass through the debilitated body that clutched the leather book so desperately.

"It's back."

Gabrielle jumped at the voice ... Xena's voice ... which suddenly held no roughness, no tremor. It was cold and firm and frightening ... she'd heard the tone too many times before. Almost immediately, however, she felt Xena's body lose strength and balance, nearly all of it. <By the gods, what have I done?> The agitated bard closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Feeling a bit more steady, she began leading Xena away from the devastation the rapidly weakening warrior had herself so recently caused.

Confused.

She'd never felt more confused in her life. She wasn't used to it. She couldn't clear her head of it. <What's happening to me?>

Time seemed to slow, though she knew her thoughts were coming faster than the wind.

"Don't worry ... as far as I'm concerned, this is over."

She remembered feeling calm and strong as she'd assured Gabrielle that she would follow her soon out of the destroyed palace. She remembered turning and hearing the words of the monstrosity before her, remembered feeling sickened by the knowledge of what she herself had wrought so long ago, remembered him giving her the hair broach from Lao Ma, remembered falling deeper and deeper into despair as he taunted her, until an appalling realization surged through her tense body. She realized ... realized ... something so repulsively devastating that even her disciplined mind, so used to the atrocities perpetrated by herself and by others, could not call it to current memory ... notwithstanding it had happened mere moments before.

She heard a slight noise behind her, but did not turn, recognizing somehow the familiar sounds and rhythms of Gabrielle's movements. <How do I know it's her? Everything else is so ...>

Her mind filled with a benumbing roar. All she knew for sure was that Gabrielle was standing behind her and she stood in front of Ming Tien, who sat staring at her in icy silence from his ornate Dragon Throne. She found herself, as if returning from outside her body, panting slightly and telling him, "You're powerless now. You've lost face in front of your people. They won't follow you any more."

She stopped speaking, suddenly and inexplicably unnerved. Never moving her eyes from the mad emperor, she groped blindly through the debris on the dais where Ming Tien had flung Lao Ma's book.

As she touched the binding, she experienced a moment of clarity so powerful that it staggered her. Abruptly, she knew what Lao Ma's message had meant. How could she have misinterpreted it so completely? <Have I been so very blind? Again?>

She turned slowly. Gabrielle's expression was tight, concerned, afraid ... guilty ... as she paused at the gaping hole in the throne room's wall with that familiar ... oddly awkward and exaggerated ... habit of holding her right hand stiffly out and away from her body for balance. Xena started to walk away from the throne, but she felt as if she were moving through a thick, unyielding, swamp-like muck. Her legs were so very heavy. The book was so very heavy. Gabrielle was so very far away. She tried to tell her friend what was happening, tried to reassure her that she had been right all along. Speaking was so very hard.

"... and I made him small again ..."

She was so very tired ... and ...

Confused.

Xena saw Gabrielle's look of guilt and fear give way to compassion as she felt the steadying reach of small, strong arms. The tired warrior heard a gentle voice call her name softly and say, "Your not killing him made you exactly what Lao Ma wanted you to be ..."

<Those words!> Those words brought a sick trembling to her body and a pain to her heart, but her mind was still catching up, sorting things out ... the reason why her body had reacted so violently to Gabrielle's words was just out of her circle of thought ... tantalizingly near. She felt Gabrielle's grasp tighten in reaction to her renewed trembling.

Feeling something large and solid in her arms, she looked down in surprise to find Lao Ma's book. <Lao Ma. Lao Ma's book.> A tiny bit of happiness floated to the surface of her consciousness and a slight smile came to her lips.

"... a memento of Lao Ma ..." she heard herself whisper. <Memento? Memento ... didn't I have another memento?> She looked wistfully at the leather-bound volume she held in front of her, wishing its author were with her in its stead. Her mind raced, out of her control and direction.

She would love ... would have loved ... that the young woman was with Xena. She would love ... would have loved ... the bard's stories and would laugh ... would have laughed ... out loud to learn that her Warrior Princess was a reality at last.

This thought hid another, which crept upon her stealthily until it took her breath with what she'd just done so ... so methodically ... mere moments before. She relived the final rush of rage through her coldly mindless body ... her left hand curled once more around the hair broach and vibrated to the grating crunch of skull and the sudden softness beyond. Her mind, so lately confused, flashed to its accustomed clarity as it wrestled her latest horror to the ground and examined it with a concentrated detachment.

As she felt Gabrielle move closer, she heard Lao Ma's voice ringing once again through her mind.

"That could be a very useful weapon ... if thrown at the right body part."

Bewildered, she stared at the book so hard she seemed to see Lao Ma's face.

<... so what DID your message mean ... and what DID you want me to be? Would you have done this if you'd know what I've been doing with my li... yes ... of course ... the greater good ... whatever it takes ...>

As if from a long way off, a reassuring voice cut through her consciousness. "We'll take good care of this."

Time moved again as she felt the press of the book that Gabrielle tucked back into her arms.

She felt her own exhaustion ... her burning muscles ... and leaned instinctively into the strong, young arms enfolding her. <Tell her. Tell her the truth.>

Kind hands soothed her and stroked her hair. She let the feeling of safety wash over her one last time as she gathered her waning strength to tell Gabrielle what had happened. She heard the voice again ... Gabrielle's voice, but it still seemed so far away.

"I love you, Xena."

She jerked her eyes away from the book to stare into unwilling pain ... unfocused need ... unending regret. <Oh, gods ... you're scaring her. Stop staring and tell her. Tell her the truth ... the truth she needs to hear.>

Softly. Haltingly. "I love you, too, Gabrielle."

The other truth would have to wait.

As she wearily followed the young woman's lead, a final moment of awful illumination broke through Xena's fatigue.

Something that had LEFT her ... something dark ... had returned with a vengeance.

A part of her mind laughed mirthlessly at its own word choice as it sent a slight snarl to her lips. Her weary body quivered with the burden of unwelcome self-knowledge.

She stared ahead, unseeing, as Gabrielle steered her out of the throne room.

"It's back."

The voice ... her voice ... held no roughness, no tremor. It was cold and firm and frightening ... what Gabrielle called her warlord voice. Almost immediately, however, her body's weakness overwhelmed her again. She thought she would fall, but an outside strength held her firm and lead her through the devastation she herself had so recently caused.

Chapter 1

"What ... what's back?" Gabrielle asked fearfully. "Xena?"

"All of it. It's ALL back." Xena's voice was once again raspy, exhausted ... and something else ... defeated? That was the second time in moments that Gabrielle had thought of that word.

<No. Not defeated. Not Xena.>

"Xena ... unh ... you ... unh ... you need to tell me what you're ... unh ... what you're talking about ... unh ..." She stopped talking for a few seconds, but Xena made no move to respond. "Xena ... what ... unh ... what are you talking ... hang on, we have to ... unh ... climb over this ... gods, really, really big ... stone to get off the palace grounds ... unh ..." Gabrielle grunted with the exertions of climbing over the mounds of rubble and pulling along her much larger, much heavier, and much weaker companion. She stopped to gasp for air and rub her painful leg.

"Xena ..." Gabrielle gently deposited the warrior on the end of the very stone they needed to climb. "What are you saying is back? What's ..." She stopped, seeing that the warrior was in no mood or condition to answer. "Just sit down here for a minute or two, and then we can make it over that stone."

She spoke conversationally, no longer expecting a reply. "I'm worried that everything's going to come crashing down around us ..." The sudden image of weirdly curling tongues of painful fire and crashing wood and stone struck her with an overwhelming grief on top of grief. <Gods. Will it never end?> "... but ... we BOTH need to rest a minute. We're nearly off the grounds. We're relatively safe here, I think ... just rest ."

Gabrielle slid down to the ground in front of Xena's knees and started to lean back on them. Thinking better of it, she shifted, leaned back against the stone itself, and breathed deeply. Her leg really hurt. <After I get Xena settled I guess I should take a look. Gotta get rid of this idiot silk robe ... can't see anything down there without undressing and can't maneuver worth a damn, either. I need to ...> A large hand suddenly rested itself gently on her head. She closed her eyes and cleared her throat.

"Xena?"

"Mmmm?"

"How ... how long has it been since you've had anything to eat or drink?"

"Since before ..." <Gods! They didn't give her anything to eat or drink ... and I was sitting there eating and ...> "... I came to the palace." Xena's voice was tired and raw. "They ... well, they did feed the prisoners some sort of slop or another, but I ... I wouldn't take it ..." The warrior's voice faded.

Gabrielle looked up quickly. "Xena ... that ... that's one of your strictest rules -- take food and water whenever you can get it, even if you don't feel like eating ... well, right after making sure that it isn't poison, that is." She saw the tiniest spark of amusement in the exhausted blue eyes. Not sure she really wanted to know the answer, she asked the question anyway. "Why, Xena? Why didn't you eat?"

"Because ... well, first of all I was too angry to eat." Xena felt the ragged breath escape her friend. "Mainly, though, those body yokes are designed to make the wearer totally dependent on the guards for the most intimate actions -- to make you feel like a kept animal, less than human. You can't reach beyond the edges of the yoke, so you can't feed yourself or ..."

"Scratch your nose ..." Gabrielle whispered.

Xena smiled. "Yeah, that, too. Well, anyway, mealtimes in the dungeon consisted of standing in line for the privilege of kneeling in that water before a guard who pushed something into your mouth and then poured a little water in, laughing while you choked it down." She took a deep breath and swallowed hard. "I ... wouldn't do that."

Gabrielle paused to try to steady her voice and breathing before she spoke again. "No wonder you're so weak and tired ... come on, we have to get you out of here," she said carefully as she stood, preparing to help Xena up and over the large stone that blocked their path. She noticed the warrior's eyes wandering around the destroyed palace grounds, finally coming to rest on a half-buried, barred window. A sharp tremor passed through the battered body.

"Gods, the other prisoners!" Xena's voice was barely more than a whisper, but her distress was evident. "They're trapped down there, Gabrielle! They ..."

"It's all right! While you were in the throne room with Ming Tien, I sent some of the palace workers down to release them ... rather, asked one if he could get some of them to volunteer to go, and they did. See?" She pointed at a ragged, filthy group of what could loosely be described as humanity. "They're safe." She watched as the last of the locks were struck from the yoke-like stocks restraining the prisoners.

"Gabrielle ... Gabrielle ..." The warrior seemed overcome by her emotions, which frightened Gabrielle all over again. "Th-thank you for thinking of them ... for saving them ..."

"I didn't save them, Xena, those people over there did ..." Gabrielle stopped as Xena suddenly straightened her back and spoke firmly.

"Before they go anywhere ... contact anyone ... they have to get rid of those clothes ... burn them ... and get a thorough cleaning themselves. Me, too ... for that matter, you ... and any of the volunteers who actually went into that water."

"Hmm?"

"You know water can carry disease ... well, THAT water had human waste and dead bodies and the gods only know what else floating around in it. You saw the sickness when you were there."

"Yes, the smell gagged me even before I saw the ... but that was the least of my worries at the time ..." Gabrielle's voice trailed off and her face suddenly went dark with the memory of that awful place and the fact that Xena was there only because Gabrielle had PUT her there.

"Well, we've got to get cleaned of it before we come in contact with other people and their homes ..." Xena rose unsteadily as she saw some of the prisoners start to leave the grounds. "Gabrielle, stop them. Stop them now!"

Gabrielle ran to the cluster of people and tried to get them to understand, through her rudimentary Chin, what she wanted. They looked at her with open hatred, which stopped her momentarily, but Xena needed her and she wouldn't be stopped for long. She managed to get them all to wait, then got the courtier who had organized the rescue, and who spoke a little Greek, to follow her to Xena's perch.

"Xena, this is Tik Li ... please, explain it to him, will you?"

Taking a deep breath, the warrior addressed the man in his native tongue. "Tik Li, I am Xena."

"Yes, I know who you are ... I saw what you did in the throne room." Xena grimaced at the wide-eyed look on the man's face. "Are you a goddess?"

"No, Tik Li, I am a woman ... a very tired, sore, and hungry woman." Xena gestured to the released men. "You must not let them disperse yet."

"Why is that, my lady?"

"I'm no lady, Tik Li. Call me Xena."

"Yes, m ... yes, Tsi Na."

"The fouled water they've been living in carries sickness to the body. They must be cleaned of it before they touch others. You, too, and all your friends who have touched the water must be purified."

"As you say, my ... Tsi Na." He hesitated as he looked directly into the warrior's ice-blue eyes.

"Is there a problem?"

"The men ... they ..." Tik Li stole a quick breath and started again. "It's the young one with the hair of light." He gestured discreetly toward Gabrielle, who looked at him intently. Xena's eyebrow went up.

"Just say it."

"They ... well, the courtiers saw her at the side of the emperor. The prisoners know she is the one who betrayed ..."

Xena cut him off abruptly. "That is between the two of us. It is not your concern or theirs." She touched his chest with her index finger. "You got that?"

Gabrielle did not understand most of the words in this exchange, since both parties were speaking rapidly and in a different Chin dialect than she had learned, but the coldness of Xena's voice and the meaning of her gesture came through without translation. <So this is how it feels, Xena.> She shivered as Tik Li looked at her, but did not look away.

"It is clear to me, Great One ..." Xena grimaced again at the honorific, but Tik Li didn't seem to notice. " ... but the others ..."

"Then let me put it in terms the others will understand more easily," Xena said in a rich, calm voice. "The first one who touches her dies like a dog."

"You are right, Great One," Tik Li nodded cautiously, unable to avoid the ice daggers being thrown his way by the warrior's blue gaze. "They will understand your terms with no trouble." He cleared his throat. "How may I best perform the purification?"

"Try to find some clean shirts or tunics, some sort of mild food ... jook perhaps, water for drinking and bathing, and a large amount of alcohol. Bring it all to the courtyard. While you do that, send the prisoner ..." she shook her head and corrected herself, "... the former prisoner from Lao to me."

Tik Li nodded slightly and turned back to the crowd. He spoke and gestured for a few minutes, then left. The men at first grumbled, then stiffened, then bowed toward Xena. Soon the man from Lao who had befriended her in the dungeon approached her.

"It is good to see you alive, Warrior."

"It is good to BE alive, friend," Xena said quietly. "You know about the purification? Everyone understands ... everything?" The man nodded and looked quickly at Gabrielle, who stood her ground silently. "Please ... get them to strip all the burnable wood from the immediate palace grounds and start a large fire over there." She began to tremble visibly as the man turned to his task.

Gabrielle moved closer. "Xena, are you cold?" At the warrior's slight nod, Gabrielle guided her close to the new fire. "You can't take stripping and getting wet in this weather. Let me get you a bath inside ..."

"No, Gabrielle, we have to do this first ... a regular bath can come later. You, too. In fact, I'm more worried for you than for me." Xena managed a wry grin. "That grease and mud I smeared all over myself actually protected me a little from that water. You, on the other hand ..."

Gabrielle waved dismissively. "It doesn't matter ..."

Chapter 2

"It matters to ME," the warrior said softly. Ignoring the look that Gabrielle shot her, she continued. "Look, here comes Tik Li ... and several friends."

The group was hauling some shapeless sacks, small bowls, waterskins, piles of servants' tunics, soap, rags, leather buckets, kettles of water for boiling, and many large, brown, clay pots from a storehouse near the palace kitchen. In the distance, other people could be seen hauling more water to the site.

Everyone stopped for a moment at the sound of a groaning crash from the throne room ... then went about their tasks again, sparing no more looks in the direction of the noise. Gabrielle looked instead toward Xena, whose eyes hadn't even flickered toward the sound. <Never saw the emperor leave. Huh.> She shrugged and turned back to the activity at hand.

At Xena's instruction, the volunteers put the kettles of water on the fire to boil, adding rice from the sacks to one of the kettles as the water got hot. Speaking in as strong a voice as she could muster, Xena addressed the crowd.

"Take off all of your clothes ... everyone, not just the former prisoners." Seeing the looks of dismay on the faces of the courtiers, she commanded sharply, "Yes, all of you. Your clothing carries as much disease as our filthy rags. Strip ... now!"

They all suddenly seemed to decide that it would be a good idea to make quick work of removing their garments and throwing them on the other side of the bonfire to burn. The shared cold and misery of the group left them with little interest in each other's nakedness and no shame for their own as they huddled close to the bonfire.

Looking down at her sore left leg, Gabrielle was surprised to see it beginning to swell and discolor from the knee down. A festering sore on the inside of her calf was the apparent cause. <That wasn't festered last night. Must be the water. I'll clean it up when I take care of her ... wounds. Damn.>

She turned back to the rest of the group and gasped softly, unable after all to ignore their poor physical condition. Even Xena had lost weight, and she'd only been there for a few days. <Xena ...>

"All right, everyone get a drink of water, but share just a few of the waterskins for now," Xena commanded wearily. "Remember not to drink too fast or you'll just lose it again." Gabrielle grabbed one of the waterskins and held it for her friend.

As soon as Xena felt the water touch her lips, she craved it mightily and pulled anxiously at the container, despite her own instructions. From far off, she heard Gabrielle tell her, "Xena ... Xena, slow down a little. Rest a minute ..." Reluctantly, she let the waterskin go as she felt the cold water hit her empty stomach.

"Thanks, Gabrielle ... that's so good."

Feeling as if she were going to be sick herself, Gabrielle passed the waterskin on to the others. <How could you sit there in that Tartarus-born hole and forgive me for this? Xena ...>

"OK, are the waterskins empty?" Xena's voice sounds a little stronger now. "Good ... then toss 'em onto the fire, too. Let's get this over with." She nodded toward the buckets. "Spread those out among everyone ... fill them from the heated water."

With the buckets, the shivering group wetted each other down with hot water. Some of them reached for the soap, but Xena stopped them.

"No, not yet ... open the wine pots and fill the buckets with some of it." She gestured to Gabrielle, who broke open one of the brown pots, filled a bucket, and returned to stand by her.

"Now, pour it over each other like this," She said loudly, then instructed Gabrielle quietly, "Pour it over my head and make sure I'm completely wetted with it."

"Xena, it will hurt y..."

"Do it, Gabrielle. We have to." Nodding, Gabrielle poured the cold liquid over Xena's hair and skin. The sting was almost more than she could bear, but Xena showed no outward signs of her pain. Briskly, the warrior started rubbing the wine into her skin, all over ... not sparing her wounds. As she reached to work the alcohol through her hair, she gestured to the rest of the group and said, "Don't dawdle."

Hesitantly, everyone doused each other and rubbed the wine into their skin and hair as Xena had demonstrated. Many in the group cried out in pain at rubbing the alcohol into open wounds, only to be shamed into silence when they realized that their hero had not uttered a sound when she'd done the same thing. Gabrielle, who had moved away from Xena a bit to pour the wine over herself, winced when the alcohol hit her leg but turned quickly back to Xena.

The warrior took a deep breath, trying to shake off the stinging sensations. "Now, rinse with more water and soap yourselves quickly ... and build up that fire, someone." As one of the courtiers complied, she nodded to Gabrielle, who carefully poured warm water over her and helped her with the soap.

"Xena, your hair ..."

"Just soap it quickly, Gabrielle ... I'm losing it ... we have to wrap this up. We can wash our hair again later." Nodding again, Gabrielle made sure that Xena was able to work the lather through her dark tresses before starting on herself. Soon, everyone was covered with soap.

"OK ..." Xena stopped for a shivering breath. "Rinse with more water, then quickly with the remaining wine, then a final rinse with water."

They poured more buckets of water and alcohol over each other and gave themselves a final, welcome, hot water rinse. Even shivering in the cold, everyone managed a smile at the feel of the rags that they used for drying and the smell of clean clothing in the form of the simple, servant's tunics.

"Xena? Are you OK? Can you sit by the fire by yourself for a little while?" Gabrielle let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding when Xena nodded. "Good ... I'm going to get my things from that little building near the throne room," she announced as she put on her clean tunic.

Xena looked up sharply, feeling oddly pleased that her friend seemed more like herself with her hair falling loose once again around her shoulders.

"Be very careful ... everything could give way ..."

She watched as Gabrielle nodded and turned toward the building. <Somebody should go with her ... Damn! What's wrong with her leg? I thought it was just all that junk we were climbing over ...> In deep thought, she sat staring after the young woman, ignoring the activity around her.

The courtiers turned to the kettle of hot water and rice, which now formed the slushy porridge known as jook. Bland but nutritious, it was an idea first meal for the malnourished people. Some of the courtiers distributed the remaining waterskins, while others ladled portions of jook into the small bowls and carefully made sure that everyone got a share.

After rescuing her belongings, Gabrielle came out of the teetering structure to see Xena staring right at her and relaxing visibly when she came into view. Hurrying back to the fire, she looked at her shivering companion with great concern. Reaching to wrap the clean tunic more tightly around the trembling body, she said,

"Xena? Did you get anything to eat?" When Xena didn't respond, the bard turned to find Tik Li wordlessly presenting her with a bowl of jook that he'd been holding for the warrior.

"Th-thank you," Gabrielle pronounced carefully but hesitantly in Chin, feeling a flood of relief when the courtier smiled gravely and turned away. She checked the temperature of the porridge and, satisfied that it was not too hot, held the bowl up to Xena's lips.

"Here, take a little of this, OK?" She watched anxiously as Xena obediently drank some of the jook and began to chew and swallow. The warrior closed her eyes at the pleasure of the food.

"Thanks, Gabrielle ... I don't remember rice tasting so good." Xena opened her eyes and smiled into the girl's unhappy gaze. "Can I have some more?" She put one hand on the bowl, drank a little of the liquid, and let herself enjoy the warm sensation of swallowing it.

"Please ... please, Xena, I'm so wor ... I ... you ... you have to get inside and eat and rest. Tik Li offered us a little place we can use for a couple of days." Gabrielle gestured in the general direction of the town at the foot of the hill. "We need to take care of ... your neck and ... and ... whatever else ..." Her voice trailed off.

"Yes, let's go ... I think we both need a little taking care of, don't we?"

The clear tone and the question itself startled a nervous glance out of Gabrielle as she reached down and helped Xena to her feet. She had started to guide the tired woman toward the palace gateway when she felt a little resistance.

"Tik Li," Xena called to the courtier, who was moving among the freed prisoners.

"Yes, Great One?" Tik Li jogged up, a bit breathless from his labors.

"Gabrielle tells me you've offered us a place to stay."

"Yes, Great One ... it's only a little hut ..."

"Tik Li, Gabrielle and I live most of our lives on the road," Xena said quietly. "ANY roof is a luxury. I am deeply grateful for your kindness ..." She continued with a formal speech of gratitude she had learned during her previous stay in Chin.

The nobleman seemed overwhelmed by the honor this strange woman of power accorded him. "Great One, I ..." He stopped momentarily at the exasperated look that came over Xena's features at his continued insistence on the use of the honorific.

"Please, Tik Li ... my name is ..."

"Tsi Na ... yes, Great ... yes, I will try to remember." His wry smile revealed his embarrassment. "I have sent someone ahead to ensure that the food and supplies requested by the young one with the hair of light are there."

"Her name is Gabrielle."

"Yes, of course ... Gah Bei Yal." The courtier bowed toward Gabrielle and smiled sincerely into the troubled young face. He didn't understand her actions toward the warrior, but he understood bravery and kindness, and she'd shown him both as she moved without hesitation among those who had expressed open hatred of her, helping them whenever she could. Warily, Xena watched as he drew closer to the bard and began to speak in halting Greek.

"Young one ... Gah Bei Yal ... I am ... regretfully ... if I caused fear growing for you in the before time."

"Do not ... trouble ... yourself, Tik Li ... I understand ..." Gabrielle replied slowly and clearly in Chin, and mumbled in Greek, "... better than I'd like to, actually." She bit her lip, but did not break their gaze.

Continued (Chapters 3-5)

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