~ The Joining ~
by Kamouraskan
Part 4
Chapter 1
The march home was a dismal affair, as the litters and casualties were brought slowly through the village to the hospice. Saras, regardless of her loyalties, had followed instructions. She had examined James and had put him prominently on display while waiting for the rest to arrive. It didn't take long before there was a crowd of Amazons staring dumbfounded as the injured continued to be carried in. Several older Amazons began to work their way among the crowd of watchers, whispering and commenting. Finally the Queen arrived, untouched and unhurt, for she'd refused to join the charade. She stood, staff in hand, waiting.
Robin had positioned herself behind the crowd, and she could see that Gabrielle was as angry as she had ever seen her. Gone was the gentle bard; this was a furious Queen. She wasn't surprised when the pompous Amazon, who had nearly barred their entrance to the tribal grounds on the first day, stepped forward. Behind her were several younger Amazons, and there was a shocked expression pasted onto each of their faces.
"Are you here to take responsibility for what you have brought my people to?" the big warrior accused.
"Raza, what a surprise," Gabrielle answered coldly. "And what are you claiming I've done?"
"You have tried to remake a nation of warriors into submissive fools. You have contaminated our sacred grounds by allowing men to wander it at will. You were never entitled to the mask you wear, and now, by bringing us to defeat in battle, you have proved yourself unworthy of it as well."
Robin assumed that Gabrielle would know to interrupt before a challenge was properly issued, and looked about for Xena. But the Queen had had enough of this and cut in on the speech.
"Interestingly, the only injury to my forces was one of those males contaminating the land. And he shed it saving the life of one of our trainees," she replied coolly.
"The only injury? What do you call these?" Raza pointed to the bloody bodies that lay around them.
"I call them the mercenaries hired by your dinars," Gabrielle's voice carried across to the crowd of onlookers. "I call them the traitors who were banished for following the murderess, Valasca." She strode over and reached into the pallets, tearing off the gag on one of the renegades, who obligingly babbled, "She promised us we could return to the Nation, Raza promised us..."
The rest of the pallets were turned over to reveal men wrapped and immobilized by their supposed bandages. Gabrielle continued mercilessly, " I call them men, that YOU hired, women YOU ordered to fire, in AMBUSH, upon your own SISTERS! But even in this despicable treachery, you were incompetent." Her eyes blazing, Gabrielle was barely aware that her loyalists had now moved to stand behind her. But her words reflected their presence.
"Those soft troops you just criticized, took less than a QUARTER of a candlemark to find, defeat and capture, WITHOUT any injury, all of the forces you had under your command. This would be YOUR leadership?" Gabrielle slowly moved her eyes from Raza and spoke only to the gathered tribe. "Amazons, do you wish to support THIS woman as Queen?"
Raza was now standing entirely alone, as her supporters had long since melted away.
She had stood motionless, as the small, enraged woman in front of her had torn apart her greatest dream at the very moment she thought it had been accomplished. She needed almost no provocation, and Gabrielle was counting on it. The Leader of the Nation calmed herself, and gripped her familiar staff.
"So, Raza, you still want to challenge your Queen?"
Gabrielle had made her evaluation of her opponent. About a foot taller and almost twice her weight, all of it muscle. Left-handed.
Raza had never sparred with her, and she knew that the renegade's plan had centred on gaining her own choice of weapons, not wanting to face the Queen's staff. Gabrielle had saved choice of weapons, but was she prepared to take on this mountain with a staff? One of the village's best swords, and those vicious little throwing knives she was so skilled with? And had she already palmed one?
Yes, Gabrielle could see that the fingers of her right hand were fully extended, hiding the blade. The Queen took a moment to glance over the crowd, finding her lover immediately. Xena gave her a quick nod, the picture of confidence in the skills of her bard, but Gabrielle saw the pain in the eyes of a small Amazon standing in front of the warrior, and realized that Xena was unconsciously clutching the poor warrior.
Xena was a mixture of outer stoicism and inner turmoil. One part quietly evaluating each combatant's stances and positioning, the other screaming silently, 'the knife...in her right hand...she's going to throw it and go for your right shoulder with the sword…'
'She knows that', she told herself. 'You know, she knows that...'
Her bard's voice, beautiful to her even when laced with sarcasm, called out, "Are you going to fight? Or have you hired someone to do that for you as well?"
Then suddenly, the challenger broke. With a cry, and an upraised sword, Raza charged forward. Gabrielle batted away the thrown knife and dropped her right side, then used her staff to pivot away from the whistling sword. She had no chance to strike, but was just grateful she had survived the first rush. As she turned and prepared for the next attack, she once again looked to her warrior.
"Xena you're hurting her..." she called to her. The warrior didn't understand, until she looked down at her hands and saw they were gripped like talons into the shoulders of the Amazon in front of her, that the girl would have fallen to her knees in pain if the warrior hadn't been holding her up. She quickly released her grasp, and the small Amazon looked up with relief and gratitude. Xena returned the look with embarrassment and mute apology. 'How did she do that?' Xena thought. 'How did she take a moment in a fight for her life to stop me from hurting someone?' And not for the first time thought, 'But that's who she is. Despite what I've done to her.'
Gabrielle stumbled under the force of the second of the two upper body blows. Her ears were throbbing from the crack of the flat of the blade against her staff. Aware that the larger woman was forcing her into a crouch, she managed to push against both legs in time to leap as the blade swept across along the ground. Knowing that Raza had thrown all her weight to the move, Gabrielle was able to give a hard strike along the renegade's outer thigh and use the momentum of the blow to move away from her. Even in her pain, Raza moved to palm another of her knives, and Gabrielle knew that she had to knock that dangerous right hand out of commission.
'Damn me to Tartarus. This is my fault.' Xena thought. Flashes of Gabrielle as she had first seen her. That innocent little girl, who was supposed to be farmer's wife. 'She's been brought to this moment because of me. Forced to fight, to die or kill, because of a crown and mask she never asked for. And even if she wins, she'll never wash off the blood. I'll have stood here and done nothing. Nothing but watch like she was an animal in a ring.'
Raza was already panting heavily, Gabrielle noted, and concentrated on her own breathing, knowing that her seeming calm would further enrage the other warrior. 'And the Queen mustn't sweat', she told herself, not enjoying the irony. 'But all the Queen wants, is to be so far from all of this, to be beside a flowing stream in the arms of her lover. But,' she reminded herself, 'you won't have that chance if you don't focus.' She forced herself not to look to where the knife was, remembering to watch the eyes...
'The eyes, Gabrielle, the eyes will tell,' Xena thought. 'She won't try the same thing twice, this time the sword will be first..."
Raza looked to the apparently confident woman waiting for her, and knew she had to rattle the smaller woman if she was to win. She called to her, "This isn't a practice, QUEEN," she sneered. "It's kill or be killed. Can you do that?"
Gabrielle gave no sign that she heard the taunt; she stood silently, her weight ready to shift the moment she could read the attack.
But in her mind she knew the effect those words would have on her love, and she spared a quick glance at the warrior, knowing that those around Xena only saw her mask. 'God's, she must be frantic', and she willed her green eyes to meet blue and say through them, 'it will be all right, love, everything will be all right,'
That done, she turned and forced her anger to rise. She looked at Raza, not just as the attempted murderer of HER Amazons, but as the thing that was hurting her lover, an obstacle to them being together.
Xena had felt Gabrielle's gaze like a caress, and in that second felt her heart rate begin to return to normal. 'She WILL be all right,' she knew. 'She is the Queen. She's the valiant woman I am proud chose me. She will be fine.' She watched as Gabrielle's eyes darkened, and instead of fearing that expression, cheered her on. 'Get her...'
As Gabrielle had anticipated, the sword came first, but instead of evading it as Raza had expected, Gabrielle only stepped back, leaving herself open, and in her greed and eagerness, the renegade tried to switch plans in mid attack and arrived, prepared for neither. As she pulled back her throwing arm, she gave the Bard the second she needed, and moving faster than Raza could have ever expected, made a light thrust to the sword arm, and knocked it out of position. A quick shift of her hands spun the staff and let her put the whole of her momentum into a blow to the right elbow. There was an audible crack, and the knife fell from the useless fingers. Raza withdrew, only her eyes indicating her fear and pain.
'Damn this woman, Damn her to Hades', and swinging her sword wildly, Raza rushed again.
There was no fire in Gabrielle's eyes, but the chin showed her determination as she turned from defence to a systematic attack, striking the larger woman almost at will. In her mind, she calculated the centre of gravity, and when Raza attempted to slice her in the midst of a pivot, Gabrielle saw her chance and swept her feet from under her. Ignoring the cheers, she placed her foot on the renegade's stomach, and the end of her staff at her throat.
"Yield," she demanded.
The panting Amazon shook her head. "You can't end it this easily. Kill me, or let me stand to fight."
Gabrielle looked into her eyes, and knew that the warrior would not yield, not yet. She still had no more options than when she had begun this joust. She could call for her guards, and Raza would be arrested and dragged away, to sit for days and then be executed for treason. In her name, and in cold blood. Banishment had never been an option for this dangerous traitor. She could force her to fight her champion, but that would be just another form of execution. She had defended her throne, as a true Amazon, why wasn't that enough? But kill her in battle? Could she? And wouldn't that give Raza a victory as well?
Robin and Xena were right. Raza and what she stood for had to be crushed. For the mask and for the nation. It was better she died now. Gabrielle stepped back.
'Gabrielle NO!' Xena moaned as Gabrielle released the renegade to the murmurs of the crowd. 'Why wouldn't you leave her to me?' Every thought that had flashed through the Queen's mind might have been shouted aloud, the warrior knew her so well.
Raza slowly stood, and this time began her attack cautiously, but with even less success. The bard gave a demonstration of how to blow by blow, limb by limb, immobilize your opponent. Dazed, jeered at by the crowd, the renegade could feel the pain on top of the humiliation. Once again she was knocked down and the Queen stood above her fallen opponent, seemingly untouched, grim faced. Raza lay in agony, bleeding and bruised and she watched, shocked, as the woman she despised for weakness and peacemaking, began to slowly grind the heel of her boot into the soft bones of her hand.
"Yield." she demanded again and Raza screamed, "Yes! I Yield!"
This was it. Gabrielle kept her face expressionless, but her mind was racing to the next phase. 'Am I fooling myself? If I let others kill her, is it just so I can convince myself that my hands are clean? Yes. It is. But it will be up to Raza, she'll have the choice...'
She turned her back on the Amazon, ignoring the surreptitious scrabbling of the weakened hand for the last knife. She continued to walk, not turning her head to see her opponent raising herself to stand. She willed her back muscles not to tense, and closed her eyes as she heard the sound of the chakram being thrown and almost simultaneously, the twang of the archer's bows. 'What would be first to strike?' she thought. There was the clash of metal striking metal as the throwing blade was knocked from the air only inches from her unprotected back by Xena's weapon, then arrows from several archers struck a battered human body. The blade clattered to the dirt, the body fell limply, and the crowd released its breath.
Arms were around her, and Gabrielle opened weary eyes to see her lover, who said, "You gave her a choice, love."
"Really? I knew what she would choose."
"Yes, but you still gave her that choice. It was her decision."
And it was hard to see who was holding whom as they moved into the crowd.
Chapter 2
Not anxious about the eventual outcome of the fight, James had left the scene early, finding himself drawn towards the Communal baths.
There was definitely something still wrong. He noticed that he seemed to be drawn to follow a set of drag marks that led to the doors of the springs. Stepping inside, he found himself looking down at an unconscious Hercules and a bound Solari being held at knifepoint by a wild looking Amazon warrior.
"Oh, hi," said Solari, as casually as one could with a blade pressing into your throat. "James? Have you met Raza's big sister, Andrea?"
Clearly surprised, Solari's huge captor flashed crazed eyes towards James, but then her face lit up with a feral grin.
"Both sons of Ares have been delivered into my hands and our lands will be cleansed!" she chanted." Praise Artemis!"
Solari said, "Nothing personal. Andrea has never been really enthusiastic about guys in general."
James smiled uncertainly. "I could always come back..."
Andrea tugged the smaller Amazon forward. "Don't move, or this bitch will be smiling with her throat."
Solari struggled with her bonds to look up at the broadly built Amazon. "Don't you think it's kinda ironic that you keep using the threat of killing a woman, to capture men?"
"Silence! They will die, and our lands will be purified once more! It doesn't matter the method." She beckoned to James.
James didn't move. "Solari, weren't you supposed to be...?"
Solari was embarrassed. "Hercules' Knife at the Throat? No one told me it was a job description. Now I know how Gabrielle feels." She lifted her chin slightly to reveal a series of cuts, some weeping blood. "She forced Herc to drink some of that stuff they gave the Centaurs. I think we both hoped it wouldn't have any effect on him, but..." She indicated the unconscious demi-god at their feet.
James tried to evaluate the threat. Andrea was big, really big, all over. To overpower Solari and drag Hercules all this way... and calling for help would only result in Solari`s death. He definitely needed an edge, or at least an equalizer. Shrugging his shoulders, he gave Solari a look that was returned when his eyes flickered towards the mineral springs.
Andrea smiled as he slowly approached, and when the hand holding the knife relaxed slightly, Solari clamped down with her teeth.
James jumped forward, using his head as a battering ram, and managed to knock Andrea away from Solari and they both plunged into the spring. Almost blacking out with shock of the water hitting his injured shoulder, he forced his body to drop into the depths of the pool, hoping that the greater floatation of the mad woman would keep her near the surface. His panicking mind saw vivid images of a knife slicing his flesh to bloody ribbons in the swirling water.
He touched bottom, and saw a shadow pass above him. He began to pray that Andrea was too much of an obsessive to think of simply waiting for him to rise for air. And some God must have listened, because she wasn't waiting for him to surface. The crazed Amazon was fighting her buoyancy, and slowly descending, feet first. He braced himself against the floor and the sides of the pool and kicking forward as hard as he could, thrusting against the feet of his attacker, launching her against the rocky sides of the spring. Her size and the mineral content in the water propelled her like a cork.
Reaching the surface, gasping for air, he scrambled to pull himself out. Solari called over to him, "Take your time. I don't think there's any rush now."
He followed her eyes. Andrea was floating lifelessly on the surface, blood flowing profusely from her dented skull. Noticing James' expression, Solari said, "It's not like she wasn't already cracked, you know."
Seeing that her attempt at humour had not succeeded, she hopped over to where he clung, panting, to the side of the pool.
"Hey, you did really good, you had no choice."
He looked up at Solari, his mind racing through the tribal regulations. "A male, has just killed an Amazon, on Amazon tribal grounds."
Realization struck Solari. "Oh, shit."
Chapter 3
"Hi," said James to Robin, waggling his chains and manacles to indicate she should sit, though there really weren't any seats in his cell.
Robin continued standing. "I can't believe Gabrielle had you put in chains! What am I saying? I can't believe she arrested you at all!"
James was relaxed. "I know. About now, I miss that little bed in the hut."
"These are supposed to be your friends..."
"OUR friends."
"You're in chains!" she shouted in exasperation.
"Gabrielle is hoping that if she follows protocol leading up to the trial, there won't be so much resentment if she conducts the defence herself."
"Trial? You were defending yourself and two of her best friends!"
"It doesn't matter. There are certain laws that are truly sacred. A male, on Amazon lands, killed an Amazon. Anyone else would have already been lynched."
"She was a traitor to the Queen!"
"At the time of her death, still a member of the Nation. The law is clear. I shouldn't even be getting a trial."
Robin paced about the cell. "What kind of trial, who is the judge?"
"I shouldn't call it a trial. It's more of an encounter session with the whole tribe. Personally, I thought it was just a delaying tactic until you and I could be sent back by Aphrodite."
"Then let's go! Now!" James' reasonableness was beginning to grate.
"Gabrielle has to ask Artemis to allow Aphrodite on site. And she can't, if it's to let someone escape Amazon Justice."
Robin exploded. "Andrea wasn't declared non-Amazon, Gabrielle can't call on Artemis... are they going to let you be executed because of technicalities? You saved two lives! They should be having a feast in your honour!"
"I'm putting my life in the hands of two of the smartest people I know. I've done stupider things."
There was a commanding voice at the door, some banging of locks, the cell door opened and Gabrielle and Xena came in.
"James," began Gabrielle apologetically, ignoring the glare that Robin was giving her.
"It's OK, 'Ri, I've just been explaining everything to Robin. I know you're trying everything you can."
Xena grinned. "I've been offered three different escape plans just walking over here. Solari has over a dozen volunteers for her tunnel alone."
"See Robin, they want to dig me a tunnel. Isn't that much nicer than a feast?"
"Yeah," Robin groused as she paced. "Very thoughtful."
Xena squatted comfortably against the far wall, and said, "Gabrielle's been spending all her time in the library..."
James interrupted "I have the library in my head and I can't find anything."
"You're not the Amazon Queen," Xena observed.
"People keep telling me that." He looked towards Gabrielle.
She smiled and began hesitantly, "I think I've got something, but..."
"I like it. Whatever it is," James said immediately.
"Good." Xena smiled, using all of her teeth. "She was worried you might have a small," and she spread her thumb and forefinger apart, "little, objection."
James began to worry as he contemplated that smile. "Why would I object?"
"Well," Xena was clearly enjoying herself as she explained, "The law is clear. Any male, who kills an Amazon, on tribal ground, is to be put to death. Andrea was clearly an Amazon, and you certainly killed her. For a moment she thought we could claim that water wasn't tribal ground..."
Gabrielle interrupted now, "but the tribal lands are defined by the boundaries..."
"So, somebody definitely killed an Amazon on tribal lands, " Xena continued, "that only left...."
All three women stared at James. He smiled wanly.
"This doesn't involve surgery, does it?"
Xena crossed her arms comfortably. "I thought you said it didn't matter?"
"Ah, not recently, but I had hopes, eventually, you know...."
Xena grinned. "Well. We'll see what we can do."
Chapter 4
The tribe was gathering around the main ceremonial campfire. All were in full regalia.
Gabrielle was resplendent in her Queen's leathers, but James was not ogling her. He had eyes only for Robin, who had been convinced by Gabrielle that as an Amazon trainee she should dress to show proper respect for her new status. She complained that she felt like Peter Pan in a bondage movie, but James had been too tongue-tied to comment. Ephiny dragged him away from watching her.
"The trial? Your life is on the line? Remember?"
"Right."
"This is how it works. There are sixty of these peat stones. Each burns for a short time. The law is read, the accusations are made. You or your defender gets to distribute each of the stones, and one by one they are tossed into the fire. Each witness can speak for only as long as they burn."
"How long is that?"
The Regent was silent for about a minute. "That long."
She held up the bag of stones and cocked her head.
"Give them all to Gabrielle," he said confidently.
"Smart man."
"Yeah, but for how much longer?"
Ephiny grinned again and carried the bag over to Gabrielle.
Continued in Part 5