CHAPTER 2
"On three."
"Why three? It's always three. Why not two. Or pull?"
"This isn't the time for debate. You're bleeding on the floor."
"It just doesn't make sense how three became the accepted number for things to happen. We'll jump on three. I'll just pull this cheap knife out on three."
"Fine, if it will make you feel better, if it makes this whole process a little smoother for you, how about I don't use three?"
"Thank you. That's all I'm asking."
Gabrielle tightened her grip on the dagger's hilt. "One... two... pull!"
Xena hissed. "Sweet mother of Zeus!"
Holding the knife up to the candle, Gabrielle noticed the imperfect blade and ran her finger along the edge. "It really is cheap. Don't think it's been sharpened in years. Cuts from dull blades always hurt the most."
Xena, bent and twisted to look at her wound, lifted her face to Gabrielle's. "Gee thanks."
"Well, I thought it might make you feel better. It was a pretty small cut for you to make a sound like that." She smiled at Xena's expense. "It's pretty filthy, too. A lot of rust and dirt. Let me have a look, we'll have to clean it."
She knelt beside the bed and began cleaning and stitching the wound. There was more dirt than she would have liked, and she clicked her tongue, a trait inherited from her mother. Blood, speckled with earth, pooled slowly on the linen beneath Xena's stomach, its edges drying quick to a crusted brown. As a child, the sight used to make her uneasy, but blood seemed almost beautiful now. Its colour, so unlike anything else. It did not take her long to finish, having become a master at repairing her friend, both physically and mentally.
Xena sat up and pulled on her shift, not bothering to examine Gabrielle's work. With her back turned, Gabrielle slowly put away their medical supplies, grinning madly at Xena's faith in her skills. She had tamed her insecurities, or so she liked to think, but silent praise from her stoic friend was as rare as diples; something to be savoured.
"So who exactly is this man?"
"Who?" Gabrielle asked, not sure which conversation Xena had picked up from.
"The one with answers to the question we don't know."
"No idea."
"No idea?"
"Well I've never met him, just seen him staring a few times."
"Not that I don't trust this, but I don't trust this. He sounds like an admirer, not some sort of political mastermind."
"He winked. Twice."
"Ok, he
reallysounds like an activist now."
"Trust me, I have a plan."
"What? Are we just going to walk right up to him and say, 'Hey, tell us what's going on'?"
Gabrielle shrugged and had the decency to look sheepish. "Well, not in those words..."
---
"Excuse me sir, but I was just curious as to the present state of the-"
"Tell us what's going on!" Xena interrupted.
The dinner rush had ended, providing them opportunity to meet with Gabrielle's 'contact'. The crowd was thin until the late night drinkers arrived, and the noise was atmosphere for privacy and conversation. Theron, sitting where Gabrielle had first seen him, gently rolled a tankard between his worn hands.
He turned on his stool and smiled proudly. "I knew. I just knew. As soon as you entered, I said to myself, 'This is it. These are the people who will save Greece.' I just knew..."
Xena and Gabrielle exchanged a look, one of sudden panic and deepening concern. They eyed the various mugs around Theron; one for each hour since his noon arrival.
"He's a lush!" Xena whispered, receiving an elbow to her ribs.
"Well I'm not so sure about
savingGreece per say, but we have had our fair share of troubles. I'm Gabrielle, and this is my friend, Xena. It's a pleasure to meet you...."
"Theron. My name's Theron."
The three shook hands, and Theron gestured to an empty table, leaving his drink on the bar.
Xena pointed. "You're forgetting-"
"It's warm by now. Not much of a drinker, I'm afraid."
Gabrielle walked beside Theron, leaving Xena to consider the man and his prop. A drunk that does not drink. How funny, she thought, and understood this to be the first of many false impressions the upcoming days would present her.
Gabrielle was busy answering questions when Xena joined the table, and Theron sat forward nodding and nodding.
"And where are you from? Originally?"
"Potidaea, myself, and Xena's from Amphipolis."
Theron's head stopped bobbing and he seemed to consider this latest news with a foul taste. "Oh? Yes? Yes? Well, that uh... that... that I didn't know."
"Problem?" Xena asked, her tone flat and suspicious.
"Well, it's just... when was the last time you visited? Home, I mean. Or gotten a letter, maybe?"
"Solstice?"Gabrielle looked to Xena for affirmation, who nodded.
"What's going on, Theron? You're starting to worry us."
"No, no, not to worry. I don't mean to cause worry, but things have happened while you were away. The whole of Greece is changing, and it's going to keep changing one way or another. Tyranny or freedom, they're saying. And I for one am for freedom."
"Philip," Xena said.
Gabrielle frowned at the name, now having heard it twice in the same day. "Just who is this
Philip?"
"Philip II, King of Macedonia." Theron answered, happy the conversation had moved past niceties. "And if he gets his way, King of Athens, of Sparta, and here, right here... as King of Thebes."
"And our homes? You've yet to say..."
He hated to bear such news, to repeat what had been repeated. Surely, words were changed and added from mouth to ear. What truth was left? What could he say? "I've heard it was a peaceful acquisition. A few swords and shouted words, but the people were unhurt. Their lives are relatively untouched. I promise you, this is what I've heard."
Xena's thoughts turned instantly to her mother and brother. They were fine, she assured herself. Politics were slow to trickle into the furthest towns and villages; the majority likely having heard nothing of new democracies or rulers. Theron was accidentally right, their lives were untouched. But if all of Greece were under Philip's thumb, lives
wouldchange and Xena suddenly realized Theron's panic.
"He's taken our homelands and that makes you nervous. You're wondering just where our loyalties lie - with home or with Greece."
"Aren't they the same?" Gabrielle asked. "Can I not be one and save the other?"
Theron patted the table and raised his eyes. "I'm afraid not, my dear. Maybe once, but not now. Certainly not now. Fear sits in place of practicality and if you're not us, you're them. I've tried to sit neutral, but neutrality is worse it seems. Pacifism mistaken for cowardice. So I'll fight with my neighbours if asked of me. And with Philip's advances, I think it will be asked of us all sooner than hoped."
Gabrielle identified with Theron, not being one for war herself. "The south of Greece is disconnected and weaker for it. Leaders make and dissolve alliances so often it's impossible to say friend or foe. Maybe if Greece were united under one rule, we would all benefit. Who would dare attack Athens if they knew all of Greece would support?"
For a moment, Xena considered Gabrielle's point, yearned for it to be truth. She knew better, or knew worse more accurately. "Unity through force never lasts. People start to remember before. Before this. Before you. They'll fight, yes, but for independence, not reinforcement. They'll fight until you falter. Until you show weakness in your leadership. And suddenly you find yourself on the opposing side of unity."
She was a philosopher, Theron thought. Full of wisdom that had come from years and years of living. He knew crops and how to smell a coming storm in the wind. What colour eyes his sister had been blessed with. And how to brace a roof or steep tea. But what good were these? Who would benefit? For as certain as he was of war, he did not raise his nose to the breeze to call it. He was as surprised and outwitted as the next man.
"How much do you know?" Xena asked.
"As much as any man here. Which, I'm afraid isn't much. It's coming. We just don't know when or how many."
"We'll leave for Athens in the morning."
"That late?" Gabrielle asked. That early? thought Theron.
"Supposing we can stay ahead of an entire army, then yes, that late. If he's preparing to war against all of Greece, his men will be loaded with so much gear and wagons that it will take weeks or months for them to even dream of seeing Athens."
"I've never been myself," said Theron.
"You're welcome to join," Gabrielle said, "it's slow and tiring but the ground is soft and the stars bright."
Xena accepted Theron's nod for confirmation, already altering their schedule to accommodate a third. They knew so little of him, yet Gabrielle's invitation was neither forced in its offering or acceptance. Her partner trusted until reason was given not to, a trait Xena both admired and refuted. The market incident was fresh on her mind, and her skin, and she could not dampen her suspicious nature. Worse case, she thought, they could always abandon Theron on the roadside. She almost smiled, imagining Gabrielle's face if that were to occur.
"Why not stay and join the men here? I've heard much of your Sacred Band." Her eyes cast to the soldiers Gabrielle had suspected the night prior.
"I'm afraid I'm only half of what's required." He shared a smile with Xena, who understood what he was alluding to. "There's no place for a Theban in the Athenian army, but if rumours are truth, perhaps we will join together. I'll come, if you don't mind. I'd like to hear it through my own ears."
Xena nodded. "Tell a story of battle tonight, Gabrielle. One of victory and heroes."
"Xena?"
Xena scanned the coming patrons of "The Bard and Bawd", noticing the shuffling of their feet and the dim in their eyes. "Greece needs inspired warriors. When war comes knocking on their doors, they need to protect their families. Their
homes,' she emphasized, casting a stare towards Theron. "Heroes, Gabrielle. They need heroes and possibilities. And hope."
She left, carelessly and subdued. Her shoulders shifted and Gabrielle, the only one able to notice, understood how hopeless the whole thing truly was.
"You tell stories then?" Theron asked, excited and apparently forgotten of Xena's looming request. Gabrielle nodded. "So, if you're the bard, does that make her the-"
With a raise of her brow, she stopped him before he could finish the obvious joke. The name of the bar struck her as funny when they arrived, but she knew her best friend not to share the humour. "I wouldn't."
Gabrielle was the first bard to recently take stage at the tavern, or ever; she was suspicious as to the latter. Her story was not of Hercules, or Xena, humans with, or who appeared to have, divine strength. She spoke of David and Goliath, a plot relatable to her present crowd. They listened in silence, hoping to find a little of themselves. When finished, she bowed her head and left for the seat Xena had saved her.
"Very nice," she said. "You might have gotten through to them. Maybe lit a spark or two."
"It might not come to that, to them having to fight. We won't know until Athens. They'll know for certain..." Xena grasped Gabrielle's hand in hers, smiling softly and sadly. Both understood. "Are we ready for this?"
"Are they?" Xena replied, looking not at the men before them, but through the window, past houses, fields and woods, towards the north. Towards Phillip. Towards conquered lands and conquered people. And where their families lived, unknowing of the death outside their doorstep.
---
"I was a child the last time I visited Athens," Gabrielle said, brushing her hair in the mirror.
Xena stopped arranging their bedding. "The Academy?"
"A child," she repeated, catching Xena's eye in the reflection. "And I can't be sure that what I remember..."
"Greece's very history is built on war. One man overthrowing another. One group deciding another shouldn't lead. What's different about this time, except that we bear witness?"
"Exactly. Maybe we should do nothing. That would be nice, wouldn't it? Doing nothing, and letting things lay where they fall?" She placed her brush on the small table and sat beside Xena on the bed.
Xena reached for her hand. "That's not us."
"I know."
"We'll decide what to do when it presents itself. There's usually no real difference between sides except the colour of their mounts. Opposing horses. That's all it really comes down to."
"You're not making this easier."
"I know."
To Be Continued...