A young Amazon warrior dropped lightly from the trees overhead into a small, sun-dappled clearing in the center of an unnamed stretch of forest. The only sounds to be heard were the small birds calling to each other as they fluttered from twig to twig and the gentle sighing of the late afternoon breeze through the leaves. The warrior herself made no noise as she walked towards the center of the glade, the thick moss absorbing her passing footfall. Multi-toned greens and browns surrounded her on all sides, with little jagged patches of blue from the sky showing through the gaps in the leaves over her head.

She had searched for almost two full seasons to find this place, and she didn't want to disturb the sense of peace and tranquillity she found there. The little clearing had been hidden deep in the forest, far from the usual paths and tracks that other travellers might have taken. Dropping to one knee, she reached out and brushed her fingertips lightly over the piled stones of a single, large grave. The headstone was mostly rough-hewn, though someone had taken special care to smooth the one side where an inscription had been engraved by the hand of some master stone-smith. There was no name or date of passing carved into the stone, but she knew she had found the right place at last.

Lowering herself to sit cross-legged beside the grave, she placed one hand on the rocks as though making contact with the occupant. Letting the peace and silence of the glade gradually fill her, she wiped a tear from her cheek and began to speak quietly, knowing she would be heard.

The woman paused, not quite sure how to continue. In the quiet of the forest clearing, surrounded by all the small sounds of life, she found her mind drifting back over the cycles to the very beginning.

"Hera's tits!" Gabrielle cursed mildly. "You can't turn your back on anything around here."

"Now what's the problem?" Xena asked from her position near the saddlebags. Reaching for one of them, she put the herbed soap, in its special waterproof bag, into the side pocket.

"While we were bathing, something snatched our evemeal right off the spit," the bard explained.

Xena looked up, not quite believing the other woman. Glancing around the flat meadow where they were stopping for the night, there were no obvious signs of anything having been near the camp. Climbing to her feet, the warrior walked over to where Gabrielle stood, her hands still on her hips, looking irritated. Xena fought to keep the smile from her face. She knew how the bard loved to eat, and having their meal stolen was right up there with any number of dreadful crimes as far as the blonde was concerned. Xena wasn't too worried, though. Finding another pheasant would be a simple matter, after all. But the dark-haired woman hated a mystery as much as Gabrielle hated missing a meal.

Xena dropped down on one knee next to the still fuming bard looking over the small area of bare ground, perhaps two paces wide, she had cleared around the firepit before lighting the fire. There in the dirt, she could clearly see the boot-prints of both herself and Gabrielle, as familiar and known as her own face. But there was one set of prints that didn't belong among the clutter and scuffing caused by their own feet -- several barefoot prints of someone quite small, a tiny adult or, more likely, a child. They had crept nervously into the camp, crouched by the fire and then run back into the forest surrounding the meadow. From where the two women had been bathing, the tall reeds on the edge of the stream would have blocked their view of the camp itself, and the noisy water-fight they had engaged in probably covered any inadvertent sounds the little intruder might have made.

"It wasn't a something, Gabrielle, but a someone," Xena said, as she tried to guess the age of the youngster from the size of the blurred prints they had left behind. "Probably a child, from the looks of these footprints."

"A child? Out here?" Gabrielle said. "We're leagues from the nearest village, and we haven't even seen a farmhouse for the past several days. What would a child be doing in the middle of nowhere?" The bard's irritation had quickly changed to compassion at the thought of a child lost in the nearby forest.

"We can ask them later, when we find them," Xena replied, climbing to her feet again and dusting off her knee. Not bothering with her armour or greaves, she quickly strapped her sword around her waist and headed into the forest, following the slight traces made by the little one's passing.

Following the tracks carefully, they entered a thick and overgrown section of the forest. In the rapidly waning light, the going was difficult, Gabrielle occasionally stumbling on a concealed tree root or fallen branch. Xena's eyes constantly scanned the route they were pursuing, noting the minute signs of someone having been this way recently. Leaves bent back the wrong way, small, broken twigs, a random print barely showing on the scuffed leaf litter all served to lead the two women deeper into the forest. Stepping into a tiny clearing, little more than a break in the trees, both women spotted the torn apart remains of their meal.

"Well, they were here," Xena noted quietly, still looking through the gaps in the trees trying to find their tiny quarry. "Must have heard us coming."

The blonde leaned against the warm side of the warrior, her eyes flicking from the partially stripped carcass of the pheasant to the close woods surrounding them. "So, how do we find them now, Xena? If we keep tracking through the forest, they'll just move further into it, and the light is almost gone."

Xena thought for a moment, one arm draped loosely over Gabrielle's shoulders, the other hand rubbing her chin gently. "The smell of food tempted them out the first time; maybe it will again," she said.

The plan the tall woman had in mind was a simple one. On the journey back to the campsite, Xena had checked her other traps and found a small rabbit already caught in one of them. It was barely half-grown, not even a snack for either of the women but more than enough to tempt a hungry child. Gabrielle tried not to watch as Xena had quickly skinned and dressed the tiny body. Once the rabbit was spitted over the glowing coals of their fire, Xena headed back to the forest and hid herself in the branches of a tree right on the edge of the meadow. Gabrielle ducked into the tall reeds by the stream, peering through the gaps to watch their campsite.

Two candlemarks passed slowly, the moon rising over the top of the forest to bathe the meadow in its pale silvery light. Gabrielle was starting to think the child was not going to be tempted a second time when she spotted movement under the last of the trees near their clearing. Like some wild animal, the small child crept from the cover of the brambles, nervously edging its way towards the fire and the scent of the now over-cooked meat. Stopping frequently to sniff the air, the child gradually came closer to the camp. Gabrielle had to force herself to breathe as the child crouched just inside the circle of light created by the last of the fire's glow.

It was hard to guess the child's age, but the bard thought it might be nine or ten summers old. The child moved slightly in the fire's light, and Gabrielle was able to see it was a girl-child, wearing nothing more than a thick coating of grime, mud and dust, her matted, tangled hair some unknown color and filled with leaves and twigs from the forest where she obviously slept. Through the covering mud, she could just make out a long, shallow scar running almost the entire length of one thigh. It appeared long healed and didn't seem to hinder the child as she shuffled forward on her knees, reaching for the lightly blacken carcass of the rabbit on the spit.

Standing carefully and moving out of the reeds as silently as she could, the bard tried to approach the girl-child, now absorbed in stripping the meat from the rabbit as quickly as possible and stuffing it into her mouth. Gabrielle had only taken a couple of paces from the edge of the reed-bed when the child's acute hearing gave away her presence. Grabbing the still spitted rabbit from over the coals, the child bolted back across the field, heading into the safety of the forest once more. The bard was barely halfway across the meadow herself when she heard Xena's triumphant 'gotcha' floating back on the evening breeze. By the time she had gotten to the warrior's side, she was presented with the sight of a snarling, spitting bundle of terrified energy trying to escape from Xena's strong grip.

"Feisty one, isn't she," Xena said, pulling the child tight against her long body to try to protect herself from various extremities being flung viciously in all directions.

"Scared witless, more likely," Gabrielle replied. The bard reached up to the child's face to get her attention and perhaps to calm her down a little. The little head shot sideways and surprisingly strong white teeth snapped closed on the bard's fingers. Wrenching her hand away, Gabrielle quickly backed off, holding the bitten fingers gently in the palm of her other hand. "By the gods, the little vixen drew blood," she exclaimed, examining the deep, bleeding cuts the child's teeth had made across three fingers.

"Maybe she just wanted to see what a bard tasted like," Xena said, a wicked twinkle in her sky blue eyes.

Gabrielle couldn't stop the deep blush from creeping up her face until her ears were flaming. Managing to get herself under some control, though the redness was still blazingly apparent, the bard said, "Xena, stop that. Let's just get her back to camp."

"Good idea. I can take a look at those fingers of yours once we have this little one settled down a bit," the warrior replied. Lifting the still struggling but tiring child into her arms, Xena and Gabrielle moved back towards the campsite and the possibility of some answers.

"Do you really think it was necessary to tie her up?" Gabrielle asked as Xena carefully cleansed the cuts on her fingers.

"Would you rather one of us have to hold her all the time?" the warrior replied. "Every time I put her down, she tried to take off into the forest again."

Gabrielle gave into the logic of the situation, but nothing said she had to like it. Glancing over, she could see the child watching them suspiciously as she wriggled against the rawhide bindings Xena had used to tie her to a large log next to the fire. Simply tying her wrists together had not worked because as soon as they had taken their eyes from the child, she had start gnawing at the rawhide. It would not have taken her long to chew her way though them, so Xena had resorted to binding each wrist to the log and then tying her ankles to stop her from kicking them as either woman passed by. You know, under all that grime, she might be quite a pretty child, the bard thought to herself. This close, Gabrielle could see the blazing jade green of the girl's eyes, flecked with gold, and the bard guessed she had reddish hair under all that dirt.

"Okay, all done. They shouldn't even leave a mark once they're healed," Xena said, as she finished cleaning the bard's bitten fingers. "At least we know she has healthy teeth," the warrior deadpanned.

"Funny, Xena. Very funny," Gabrielle replied sarcastically, gently moving her fingers to see how much they hurt. Hardly at all, she decided, even though the bites had been fairly deep.

As Xena put away the small herbal kit she used to treat their cuts and scrapes, Gabrielle approached the girl-child still regarding them distrustfully from behind hooded eyes. "Hi. Can you tell us your name?" she asked gently.

The child simply stared back, her lips compressed firmly together.

"I'm sorry we had to tie you up like this," the bard continued. "I know you're frightened, and the forest probably does seem safer to you, but I promise, neither one of us wants to hurt you." Gabrielle watched for any reaction from the child. There was nothing but suspicion and mistrust blazing back from those jade green eyes. "It would be easier if I knew what to call you. I'm Gabrielle," she explained pointing to herself. "And that is Xena," she said, nodding her head towards the tall warrior sitting on their bedroll nearby. At the mention of Xena's name, the girl glanced briefly at the other woman and something flashed across the child's expression. It was too quick for the bard to put a name to it, but she felt that the child somehow knew who the dark-haired woman was.

Picking up a spare blanket, the bard carefully draped it around the girl's still bound body, tucking it gently over her shoulders to keep the early morning dew from chilling her. She reached out her hand, meaning to ruffle the child's hair. Remembering her bitten fingers, she decided against it. Patting her leg instead, Gabrielle said, in the same quiet voice she had been using all night, "We can talk some more in the morning. Maybe you'll even tell me your name then, eh."

Crossing over to the warrior, who was now stretched out comfortably on the bedroll they shared, Gabrielle looked back at the girl as she fought against the need for sleep, her head dipping and then snapping upright again. Even terrified and bound, the bard felt she would be asleep before too much longer.

"Come to bed, Gabrielle. There isn't much more we can do for her tonight," Xena said quietly, patting the bedroll beside her.

Dropping gracelessly, the bard sighed deeply. "I know, Xena, but I thought I might be able to at least find out her name." She snuggled up against the warrior's side, head nestled into the hollow of the other woman's shoulder. Gabrielle relaxed as she felt Xena's arm along her back, one hand lightly brushing the exposed skin. Stifling a mighty yawn, she said, "I wonder who she is and how she got here?"

Softly kissing the bard's creased forehead, Xena replied, "I don't know, but we had better get some rest because something tells me tomorrow is going to be a long day."

Within a candlemark, the two travellers and the unnamed girl-child were sound asleep, but two sets of ears twitched and sharpened as they listened to the occasional sounds coming from the night quiet forest and the gentle snores issuing from Gabrielle's mouth.

The bard woke the next morning to a chorus of bird-song as they greeted the start of a new day. She was more used to waking early now than she had been in the beginning, but she was also much more used to the fast pace Xena kept to and had developed strong, muscular legs from all the leagues they had travelled over the cycles. Without even moving, the bard knew Xena was long gone, probably waking before dawn as she usually did. It was a rare morning indeed when Gabrielle managed to wake before the warrior, and that only happened when Xena had been injured in a battle of some kind.

Xena always made a point of covering the bard completely when she rose because she knew how Gabrielle hated to wake to cold, dew drenched cheeks. Pulling the blanket from her face, the bard quickly glanced around the campsite to locate the warrior. As usual, Xena was standing in the middle of the meadow drilling with her blade and loosening up her muscles made stiff from a night of sleeping on the hard ground. Gabrielle always found watching the drills fascinating because Xena appeared to almost dance her way through them. The graceful line of her body and the early morning sunlight flashing from her sword generally left the bard thinking the other woman was some gift from the gods, she looked so incredibly beautiful.

Gabrielle had been entranced watching the drills on many a morning, but today there was something else to take her attention. The girl-child they had found the night before had somehow twisted herself around so she could watch the warrior training. From where she lay, Gabrielle could just see the child's face, and the unguarded expression of longing was plainly evident.

As the bard rose from the bedroll, the child caught the movement from the corner of her eye. Gabrielle watched as a door appeared to close on the girl's face, wiping all expression from her eyes. But something still lingered in the way she kept glancing at Xena. Perhaps Xena can get her to talk, Gabrielle thought. There is just something about the way this little one keeps watching her that looks familiar. The bard put that thought away in her memory for the moment and started to attend to her usual morning routine.

By the time Gabrielle had set a pot of broth heating, washed the sleep from her face and gotten the bedrolls folded and strapped to the saddle-bags, Xena had finished training and was donning her armour and greaves in readiness for the day ahead. Although the warrior appeared concentrated on what she was doing, she was well aware of a pair of jade green eyes which were following her every move. After bouncing briefly on her toes to settle her armour comfortably, she approached the child to release her bindings.

Maintaining a firm but gentle grip on the child's arm, Xena led her over to the clump of bushes the two women had been using as a privy. The girl seemed to understand as she had seen first Xena, and later Gabrielle, go into the bushes and squat down. That little chore taken care of, the next thing on Xena's list of duties was to try to get the child a little cleaner. This was to turn into a battle unto itself.

Over the sound of the child's terrified howling, Gabrielle shouted, "I have never seen anyone so afraid of the water before." The two woman had thought to try to bathe the girl-child in the stream where they had cleaned themselves the evening before, but as soon as Xena had started moving in the direction of the water, the child had erupted into the same snarling bundle of ferocious energy the warrior had captured in the beginning. Even standing in the middle of the camp and sponging her down with water heated over the fire raised the most amazing screams and howls of pure fear from the girl.

"Maybe she fell in at some time and that's what's frightened her," Xena offered as the child tried to squirm out of her grip.

Gabrielle snorted as she grabbed one leg and tried to removed several layers of ground-in dirt and grime. "Even of warm water, standing here, paces away from the stream?" she asked.

Xena just shrugged her shoulders as she readjusted her grip again. The noise didn't abate until Gabrielle finished and finally emptied the bowl she had been using to rinse the filthy rag after each pass over the girl's mud-splattered body. The warrior wrapped her arms around the shaking child, making gentle shushing noises in her ear until she felt the girl slowly relaxing against her chest.

"I don't know what we are going to do about her hair, Xena. I doubt she will stand still long enough to let us even try to get it clean again," Gabrielle said as she came back into the camp.

Xena felt the girl push back against her chest as the bard reached out to touch her hair. Tightening her hold around the child a little, Xena replied, "I think we might have to simply cut it off. Looks too matted to get it clean anyway, even if she was willing to sit still for it."

"Okay. Just let me find the knife," Gabrielle said, as she started searching through their saddlebags looking for the small, sharp knife they used to trim their own hair.

Xena explained, as simply as possible, what they where going to do, hoping the child would somehow understand. As Gabrielle began to carefully cut the child's hair as close to the scalp as she could get the small blade, Xena felt two small hands clutching her thighs strongly. The girl was still shaking but seemed to be settling, so long as Xena held onto her. It took some time but eventually Gabrielle managed to get it off in one large, tangled mass.

"Ick," the bard said, screwing her face up in disgust. "How on earth she put up with that for so long is beyond me." Tossing the matted bundle to one side, the bard gently rubbed her hand over the remaining hair, trying to ignore the toss of the child's head as she attempted to throw the bard's hand off. "You know, Xena, I think she is a redhead. This should grow out fairly quickly," she said, looking into the girl's eyes. "I've got an old skirt in one of the bags that I can probably get to fit her."

"If you can get her to wear it, you mean," Xena said. She was gradually loosening her grasp around the child to see if she was going to bolt for the forest again. The warrior didn't like the idea of having to keep her tied all the time, but until they could 'tame' her, it may well be their only choice. The child made no move to leave, even when Xena's arms were finally resting on her thighs as she squatted behind the child. Only when she started to stand up did the girl suddenly turn, wrapping her small arms about Xena's hips.

Gabrielle smiled at the perplexed look on Xena's face as she returned with the skirt neatly folded in one hand. "Looks like you have woven your magic over another one," she said.

Xena just grunted in response. It wasn't that she didn't like children, she just wasn't all that experienced with them, even though she did have a son of her own living with the centaurs. "Why can't they get attached to you for a change?" she asked, exasperated.

"Maybe I just don't look the motherly type," the bard giggled back.

Xena levelled one of her best I'll-get-you-for-that looks at the still chuckling woman as she approached, skirt in hand. Taking the leather from the bard, she tried to wrap it around the girl. The child wriggled and pushed the material away until Xena squatted down again to explain she had to wear it. The girl listened solemnly but would not let the warrior wrap the skirt around her small body. "I know you're not used to wearing clothes, but you have to put something on," Xena said reasonably.

The child shook her head and then hesitantly fingered one of the thick leather straps that made up the lower part of Xena's clothing.

Gabrielle stood back smiling even more broadly than before. "Yep. Definitely bewitched, that one. Looks like she wants a skirt something like yours."

"Then I'm glad this is an old skirt, Gabrielle," Xena replied as she drew her breast dagger from her bodice and began to slash through the leather. It took no time at all before Xena had a cut down version of a skirt that bore a vague resemblance to the one she wore. Holding it up for the child to see, she had no trouble getting her to put it on. "Care to sacrifice one of those dreadful tops of yours as well?" Xena asked, a lop-sided grin on her face.

"Ummm, somehow I don't think so," Gabrielle replied, looking at the remains of her skirt now gracing the excited girl's hips as she turned from side to side, feeling the leather straps brushing against her skin. "She's nowhere near her womanhood, so we might get away with leaving her bare-chested for the moment. The Amazon girls I've seen rarely wear a top of any kind until after their Pleasures of Womanhood ceremony anyway."

"Well, we've gotten her a little cleaner, dressed and she doesn't look like she is about to take off into the forest again. Now, what do we call her?" Xena asked. The warrior was looking down on the child, leaning against her knees, as she ran her hands over the cut down leather skirt. Beneath the soft childish giggles, Xena could hear strings of nonsense sounds being linked together like words. The tall woman spoke or had a passing acquaintance with several foreign and not so foreign languages. The words the child spoke were like nothing Xena had ever heard before, but occasionally a word which did make sense would come through.

Gabrielle crouched down in front of the child, a look of sadness crossing the bard's face as the girl pushed back against Xena's knees in fear. Pointing to herself, she said, "Gabrielle. My name is Gabrielle."

The girl simply stood, one arm wrapped tightly about the warrior's strong thigh, her face closed to all expression once more.

Determined not to give up, Gabrielle pointed at the dark-haired woman, saying, "Xena. And that is Xena."

Xena nodded as the child's eyes caught her's. "That's right. My name is Xena," she said, touching her breastplate with one finger. Pointing at the child, Xena asked, "And your name is?"

The child said something and it was only because Xena's hearing was hyper-acute that she heard it at all, being just the barest whisper of sound. Shayna.

"Shayna? Your name is Shayna?" The warrior asked gently.

The girl nodded in reply, a grin splitting her face as though she had accomplished something miraculous.

Looking at Gabrielle, still crouched in front of the child, Xena said, "Well, we have something to call her, at least."

"I just wish she wasn't so afraid of me," Gabrielle stated rather flatly. "I'm usually so good with kids." The bard's stomach chose that moment to announce its hunger, burbling loudly from the woman's mid-section.

"Keep making noises like that and she might take off for the forest again," Xena laughed. "And I wouldn't be too far behind her."

The bard just shot a look of pure disgust at the tall woman before turning back to the fire and their very late breakfast.

The little group had gotten away from the campsite somewhat later than Xena had originally planned. For some reason, Shayna insisted on being as close to the warrior as possible and refused to stay with Gabrielle, rolling her eyes in fear every time Xena tried to get her to stay by the bard's side. Giving in to the inevitable, Xena had let the child trail along behind her as she caught and saddled Argo, attached their saddlebags and made sure the campsite was as clean as they had found it. It was not something every traveller did, but it was a point of pride for the warrior to always leave things the way she found them or better.

Shayna had been fascinated with Argo from the moment she first laid eyes on the mare. In return, the horse was just as taken with the little person with gentle, patting hands and soft, whispery voice, whuffling in the girl's ear and lipping the closely chopped red hair. The child had walked all around the mare, even under her, running her hands over Argo's golden coat and along her muscular legs. Xena was just thankful the mare was trained to stand still when anyone was around her. Any other horse might have bucked or kicked, especially when the girl had stood at the back of the animal running her curious fingers through the mare's long flowing tail.

They were finally on the road again, and Xena was getting a chance to think. It was obvious from the sound of Gabrielle's footfall and the expression on her face, whenever the warrior glanced back, that she was not happy that the child was so afraid of her. And however much Shayna was frightened of the bard, she was equally taken with Xena herself. The warrior understood this even less. Gabrielle was so obviously gentle that children usually gravitated to her like bees to honey. Finding out she was a storyteller too more often than not cemented the relationship, a useful skill whenever they needed information. Children rarely missed anything and were more than happy to tell Gabrielle all about it once she had told them a story or two in exchange. Xena, on the other hand, with her often dark, foreboding expression, heavy leathers and weaponry, was more used to children being terrified of her. It was something she had simply come to accept since her change of heart.

Yet here was a little wild child, walking calmly beside Argo, one hand clutching Xena's ankle as her foot rested in the stirrup. The warrior shook her head, not quite believing the trust this girl was placing in her. Something caught her attention, pulling her from her mental ramblings. The small hand on her ankle suddenly disappeared and Xena saw a fleeting glimpse of Shayna's back as she ducked into the bushes beside the roadway. Focusing her hearing and breathing in deeply on the light morning breeze, she picked up the faint sound of creaking leather and the smell of long-unwashed bodies. Just what I need right now, she thought happily -- a nice little fight to get the juices flowing.

Shooting a quick glance over her shoulder towards Gabrielle, she saw the bard had picked up on the warrior's tension and the sight of Shayna disappearing into the undergrowth. Having travelled together for close to three cycles now, the blonde-haired woman knew what the signs meant and had swung her staff across her body in preparation for a fight.

Xena sat in her saddle, waiting for the trouble to come to her. She didn't have long to wait. Her ear caught the sound of the tightening bowstring long before the arrow was loosed in her direction. Letting her body react without thinking, she snatched the arrow from the air, a hand-span from her chest. Looking at it briefly, she tossed it to one side and jumped from the saddle. A second arrow came at her and once again she plucked it from its flight as easily as if she was catching a fly.

She heard the bowstring a third time and waited calmly for the arrow to follow. It came, but not at her. The arrow lanced towards the bard standing several paces behind the warrior. For a moment, she was terrified the arrow was going to make contact with Gabrielle's body but instead heard the sound of the iron arrowhead hitting wood. Looking back, she saw that the bard had quite deliberately caught the arrow in the center of her staff. Xena nodded at Gabrielle and the grim, determined expression on her face.

Obviously deciding the arrows were going to be of no use against the two women, the troublemakers erupted from their hiding places en masse and bore down on them in one solid wave. Xena whipped her sword from its back-sheath and pulled her chakram from its hook with her left hand. Most of the men came at her, thinking she was the more deadly of the fighters, and they were right, but several ran past her aiming to take Gabrielle down. Xena tried not to concern herself too much with the bard, letting her honed and trained body react to the danger bearing down on her like a runaway chariot. Whenever she could, she glanced back to check that the other woman was holding her own and was pleased to see she was. Gabrielle had become extremely skilled with her staff and had even learned some of the kicks and punches Xena used herself.

The battle raged for several bloody minutes, neither side quite gaining an upper hand, though men were dropping regularly from the end of Xena's sword or the side of Gabrielle's staff. The warrior's chakram flicked out and dropped a man in his tracks who was about to skewer Gabrielle through the spine from behind. The bard nodded a brief thanks at Xena before taking after her next opponent.

Xena had fallen into a steady rhythm of twist, parry, lunge and thrust watching the men fall around her. Perhaps a dozen of them lay dead or dying on the road but there still seemed to be more to take their place. Suddenly, out of nowhere came a third fighter to tip the odds in their favour. It was a little blur of enraged energy, slicing at the back of the men's knees and thighs with a long knife, effectively ham-stringing several of them. The child was lightning fast, her small body ducking through tiny gaps between the men, causing a couple of them to actually run their swords through their own allies in an effort to stop the little wildcat armed with the knife. It was almost comical to watch, and Xena couldn't help grinning through the fear she had for the girl accidentally getting hurt.

As fast as Shayna had woven her deadly way through the men surrounding Xena, she was off to complete her gruesome chore on the few fighters still trying to bring Gabrielle down. The warrior turned her full attention back to the half dozen or so men still standing in front of her.

By the time the last two had turned and bolted back into the forest, leaving their weapons behind in terror, Gabrielle and Shayna had finished off their own little group of troublemakers, though the bard did have to stop the child from trying to slit the throats of the downed men.

"You all right, Xena?" the bard asked as she approached.

The warrior quickly glanced over her body, and other than a fine sheen of sweat, there wasn't a mark on her. "I'm okay, though you seem to have taken a bit of a hit," Xena replied, noticing the bleeding cut on the bard's upper arm where a sword-point had sliced through the flesh. The bard had not felt it in the heat of battle and the rush of adrenalin. Reaching into the saddlebag, Xena quickly tied a scrap of rag around the wound to stop the bleeding. "I'll stitch that for you as soon as we are safely away from here."

Dropping to one knee, she carefully examined Shayna for any sign of a wound. Blood was congealing on her face and bare chest and still dripping from the end of the knife she held in one hand, but the child had come away from the fight with no injuries at all. Xena felt her shoulders relaxing once she knew for sure the girl had not been hurt. Holding out her hand, the warrior said, "Can I have the knife now, Shayna?"

The child shook her head and quickly slid the blade into the waistband of her skirt, keeping one hand over the handle so Xena couldn't take it from her.

The warrior looked a little cross and placed her own hand over the child's. "Shayna, it isn't safe for you to have such a large knife. Please give to me."

Gabrielle stifled a giggle behind one hand when the girl shook her head more emphatically to show she had no intention of handing over the weapon. "I'd say let her keep it, Xena. The people on the pointy end of it are in more danger than she is, if her display earlier is anything to go on."

Xena grunted but didn't break eye contact with the child in front of her. "She's a kid, Gabrielle, and kids don't have knives," she stated flatly, matching her will to that of the girl.

"Kids don't live wild in the forest either, but Shayna has and managed to survive quite nicely," Gabrielle answered seriously.

"Whose side you on, anyway?" Xena asked grumpily. She couldn't believe she was losing a battle of wills with a ten-cycle-old child. "Oh, keep the knife then, if you must," she said a little testily, as she rose to her feet and remounted Argo. As soon as she was settled in the saddle, she felt a hesitant hand inching around her ankle again, as though the girl was afraid Xena was angry with her. Looking down at the child, Xena smiled, "It's all right, Shayna. I'm just not comfortable with you having an edged weapon, that's all. But it looks like I'm not getting a choice, considering who your champion is."

Trying not to hear the muffled giggles of her travelling companion, Xena clucked her tongue at Argo and they moved away from the scene of the battle and on down the road.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, owwwch" Gabrielle muttered through clenched teeth.

"Apollo's boots, Gabrielle. I've hardly touched you yet," Xena said. "It's just a little pain. You've had worse, you know."

The bard glared at the warrior seated next to her. "Lots or little, it's still pain. And I'm getting my ouches in now, while I still can," she replied.

Xena just shook her head and continued cleaning and stitching the wound Gabrielle had gotten in the fight earlier in the day. She was very aware of a pair of curious eyes watching her every move from over her shoulder. Cutting the end from the last stitch, the warrior was surprised when a small, gentle finger moved past her head and softly stroked the now closed wound.

"Ouchie," a whispery voice said.

Xena's head snapped around to see the look of concern on Shayna's face. "Yes, that's right. Gabrielle has an ouchie," she said.

"Aabriel a ouchie," the girl repeated softly.

"Hmmmm, maybe you can talk but you've just forgotten how after not being exposed to words for who knows how long," the warrior observed, almost to herself.

"And she has found the perfect teacher in Xena, Silent Princess," the bard remarked, grinning. It was an old joke between them about the way Xena was more prone to silences than to the nearly endless conversation Gabrielle had sprouted during their early days on the road. Over the cycles they had travelled together they had managed to find a happy medium between the two, though every once in a while, Gabrielle still thought Xena spoke too little and Xena felt Gabrielle chattered too much.

"Well, I will admit, the thought of two chattering women is enough to give me chills up my spine," Xena replied as she put away her healing kit.

"Xeeena!" the bard said dangerously.

Leaning down to kiss the blonde woman on the top of her head, Xena replied, "You've grown up a lot, Gabrielle, and I really do like listening to you tell your tales when we are travelling. Helps the time pass more quickly."

Mollified for the time being, Gabrielle watched as Shayna crept, a little at a time, towards her staff leaning on a tree on the other side of the campfire, and ran one hand over the hard wood of its shaft, delicately fingering the sleeve of white leather near one end. Looking at the bard from the corner of her eye, she picked it up and carried it over to Gabrielle. As soon as the woman had taken it from the child's outstretched hands, she backed off quickly and hid herself shyly behind Xena.

"What was that all about?" the bard asked.

"Maybe she thinks you need to keep your 'weapon' near you all the time, the way I carry my sword," Xena offered, after thinking for a few moments.

"Maybe it is some kind of peace offering," the bard said hopefully, as Shayna peeped around the edge of Xena's leather skirt. Smiling at the young girl, Gabrielle hoped she was finally getting over whatever it was that made the blonde seem so frightening to her.

The child quickly ducked back behind the warrior's sheltering skirt before slowly peering out at the bard again.

"Well, let’s see if you two can make friends while I go and get something for all these appetites I suddenly find myself saddled with," Xena grinned, ignoring the glare the bard threw in her direction.

It was soon apparent to the tall warrior that leaving the child in camp while she went hunting was a lost cause. She couldn't get the child to stay with the bard, even though Gabrielle tried everything short of tying Shayna to the tree they were camped under. The girl clamped herself to Xena's thigh, tears filling her green eyes in the most woeful expression the warrior had ever seen. It would have taken a heart much harder than hers to keep saying 'no' to the child.

"Okay, okay. You can come with me, but only if you stay quiet," Xena said, and watched the child dancing ahead of her and into the surrounding forest. Shrugging her shoulders at Gabrielle with a what-was-I-to-do look on her face, the warrior followed the girl into the woods.

Gabrielle briefly watched Xena's rapidly retreating back as she headed into the forest before turning and starting to pull their cooking pots out of the saddlebags.

Xena looked at the last handful of sweet berries rolling around in the bottom of her bowl before quietly tipping them into the small container the child was eating from. Seeing the gentle expression on Gabrielle's face, she smiled back. "She seems to like them," the warrior commented, trying not to sound too defensive as she spoke.

"It's all right, Xena. She was pretty hungry, after all. This is probably the first decent meal she has had in ages," Gabrielle replied.

The bard had made a hearty stew with some of the meat from a small deer Xena had caught in the forest, adding turnips, onion and carrots to it as well. Serving up a bowlful to the child, she tried not to look as the youngster had almost dived into the hot food with both hands. Shayna had quickly stopped, though, when she noticed Xena tidily spearing bits of meat and vegetables from the bowl with the point of her knife and using a piece of flatbread to spoon the thick juices into her mouth. Copying the warrior, the child had pulled her purloined knife from the waist of her skirt and carefully stabbed at the stew. Xena's almost unconscious nod of approval just about guaranteed Shayna would probably continue to eat from the point of a knife from that moment on.

"Just how many helpings did she end up having?" Xena asked.

"Four full bowls of the stew and two of the berries, though where she put it all is something of a mystery," Gabrielle replied, shaking her head in disbelief at the child's appetite. "Shayna?" the bard said.

The child looked up blandly at Gabrielle, smearing the last of the berry juices across her already very grubby face with the back of her hand.

"Thank you for finding the berries. They were very nice," Gabrielle said quietly.

A tiny smile crept slowly across the girl's face before she hid herself behind Xena's broad shoulder.

A soft light had filled Xena's blue eyes as she looked down on the child, Shayna's cheek resting comfortably against her back. "S'pose we had better see about getting her cleaned up again. She still has a lot of that blood on her from this morning, though you would hardly notice for all the berry juices dabbed over her right now," the warrior said.

"You up to another screaming fit when she sees the water?" the bard asked seriously, gathering their bathing supplies from the saddlebags.

"Maybe all the sudden strangeness last night and this morning was too much for her and that was why she didn't want to go into the water. She does seem more settled with everything now. We might have a better chance of getting her properly clean this time," Xena replied, glancing down at the girl as she tried to hide a yawn behind her hand.

Xena's hopes were soon to be dashed, however. Shayna was quite happy to follow the warrior to the water's edge, but as soon as Xena started to strip her leathers and boots off, the girl's eyes filled with tears. When she began to take the cut down skirt from the child's waist, Shayna whimpered in fear, grabbing tightly to the warrior's leg and trying to pull the tall woman away from the stream's bank. "It's all right, Shayna," Xena said, gently peeling the girl's hands from her thigh and slowly walking backwards until she stood calf-deep in the water. "See, there's nothing to be afraid of here."

The girl keep shaking her head, her arms outstretched as though, through sheer force of will, she could drag Xena from the stream.

Xena took several more steps backwards, her eyes never leaving those of the obviously terrified girl. Sinking into the cool water, she sighed with pleasure at the feeling of its gentle brush against her skin. Sitting neck deep in the stream, she opened her mouth to continue trying to encourage the child to overcome her fear and take the first step into the water. Xena barely had a chance to say a single syllable before Shayna reacted to the sight of her bobbing gently in the evening dark waters.

"NO, MAMA!! DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE AGAIN!!" the child suddenly shouted, collapsing onto the ground in a sobbing heap.

That had the warrior out of the water in a flash. Gathering the youngster in her dripping arms, she quickly comforted the child. "It's fine, Shayna. I'm right here. Nothing's wrong," she said over and over to the girl in her embrace. "I don't know what happened, Gabrielle," the visibly upset Xena said to the bard as she squatted down beside the tall woman and the distraught child.

"I don't know either, Xena, but I'm willing to hazard a guess that her mama may have drowned," Gabrielle offered, as much to comfort her lover as to try to explain the girl's reaction. "So, what do we do now?" she asked as the child's sobs finally hiccupped into silence.

"I'm not sure, but we can't have her going to pieces like this every time I try to bathe," Xena said.

"Find yourself a new partner, then, if you intend to give up washing," the bard answered cheekily.

Smiling for a moment to acknowledge Gabrielle's attempt to lighten the mood, Xena thought seriously for several heartbeats before replying. "However much I may hate to do this, I think I am just going to have to force the issue."

"How?" Gabrielle asked, though she already knew in the pit of her stomach what the warrior had in mind.

"By doing this," Xena stated unemotionally. Picking up the child in her strong arms, she quickly walked into the water until both she and the child stood shoulder deep in its coolness. The girl reacted exactly as Xena thought she would. Shayna screamed for all she was worth, struggling against the tall woman's grasp to get back out of the water. Xena simply tightened her grip, refusing to move. She could feel the youngster's heels thumping painfully against her thighs, but she never wavered and kept a soft stream of gentle words and 'it's okays' flowing in the frightened child's ear. After what seemed like an age, though it really wasn't more than half a candlemark, Shayna stopped fighting, floating limply in the water surrounded by Xena's arms.

Gabrielle sat on the bank of the stream, watching silently as the girl fought against Xena's superior strength. Once the child had quietened, she entered the water, slowly approaching the pair from behind. Drawing alongside, she saw Shayna's eyes fluttering into sleep as sheer physical exhaustion claimed her young body. "If you hold her, Xena, I'll see what I can do about getting some of this grime off her," the bard said.

The warrior simply nodded, readjusting the child's position until she was gently cradled in the tall woman's muscular arms. Xena gazed down on the child she held, wondering exactly who she was and who her mother could have been. I can't remember when I last saw a child so strong and so determined, unless I think of myself, she thought as she watched the bard carefully washing the girl. She'll make a great warrior one day, she mused, then mentally shook her head. Don't go there, oh great Warrior Princess. Not everyone wants to be a warrior, and this little scrap of childhood deserves to make up her own mind. Xena forced herself to stop thinking and instead concentrated on cradling the child securely so the bard could clean as much of the filth off her as possible. Looking down at the child once more, a single thought rose unbidden from the depths of her heart. If I ever have a daughter, I want her to be just like you.

Shayna barely stirred as Gabrielle efficiently scrubbed cycles of dirt from the child's skin. The youngster had so worn herself out struggling against Xena she hardly had enough strength left in her arms to push the bard away. She made a token effort, even though it was obvious she was rapidly sliding into the grip of Morpheus.

Glancing up momentarily, Gabrielle noticed the tiny smile ghosting its way across the warrior's face and the expression of gentle love glowing in those impossibly blue eyes. Looks like someone has grabbed your heart, my big, tough warrior, she thought, chuckling to herself, barely keeping the smile from her own face, a smile she was sure the other woman would spot in a heartbeat. "Might as well wash you while I'm standing here," the bard commented, already running the soapy sponge over Xena's broad shoulders and down her back.

Xena nodded, her eyes never leaving the sleeping face of the child for a moment.

Xena briefly glanced over to the small lump under the blanket near her where Shayna was curled up in restless sleep. Gabrielle was stretched out along her side, head pillowed against her upper arm. Xena had been listening to the bard as she told a newly created story about the battle they had been in earlier that day. The warrior grinned as Gabrielle wound up the tale. Never does take her long to put our adventures into words, she thought, though I wish she wouldn't make me look so good in them. Anyone would think I can't be hurt, and that might be dangerous for us later down the track.

"Xena? Those men we fought today? There seemed to be an awful lot of them," Gabrielle said. "I mean, we're leagues from anything, so where did they all come from?"

The warrior pulled herself from her mental wanderings to address the question. "Either they were a large raiding party, which I doubt. Nothing around here to raid," she explained, feeling the other woman nodding in agreement. "Or there is an army around here somewhere."

"What do you think we should do?" the bard asked, already knowing the answer.

"I think we should go back and see what we can find out. We may be days from any villages here, but sooner or later an army is going to reach them, if that's what's out there," the warrior replied.

"What about Shayna?" the bard asked quietly.

Xena looked over to the child again, a shadow flashing across her face. "She won't stay with you, so that leaves out any ideas I might have about leaving you both here," she said.

Gabrielle tossed a light backhanded slap against the warrior's stomach. "Even if she would stay, I'd be going with you. I am not letting my best friend and partner go wandering off into who knows what kind of trouble without me," the blonde replied with some heat.

Xena laughed lightly before gently kissing the top of the bard's head. "I guess she comes with us then," she said. "And I hope I can keep us all out of trouble," the warrior mumbled almost silently under her breath.

The bard turned to snuggle against the other woman's side, draping one arm over her chest just under the swell of her breasts, one knee nestled between the warrior's. Xena found herself smiling as the blonde settled herself to sleep. No matter how she tried to explain it to Gabrielle, the bard always insisted on pinning Xena to the bedroll each night. It made getting up in the morning a trifle difficult, as she had to wriggle her way from under the other woman's light weight, Xena forever blessing the fact the bard was a heavy morning sleeper. It also meant the occasional abrupt awakening for the younger woman as Xena leapt from the bedroll to deal with some intrusion into the camp at night, more often than not a raider or some other thug bent on shortening both their lives. The bard had adapted over time, though, and generally was able to wake herself with enough speed to be of some help and then complain about the bruises later.

Xena listened as Gabrielle's breathing quickly evened out and settled into a slow, deep rhythm, the muscles relaxing against her as Gabrielle slipped further into sleep. Xena had grown so familiar with the way Gabrielle slept that she could almost count the number of breaths it would take before the other woman would begin to gently snore in her own characteristic fashion. She watched the stars overhead as they wheeled across the heavens, wondering if she would sleep through the night herself or be awakened by some nightmare from her past. Having the bard tucked against her side as she journeyed through the realm of Morpheus had eased all but the very worst of her night horrors, but she still suffered from them, even now.

Xena was just sliding into sleep, the last muscle twitches briefly jerking a hand or a foot as she relaxed, allowing the tension in her body to unwind, when she felt the hesitant touch of a small finger brush her cheek. Not moving, the warrior opened her eyes to see Shayna kneeling next to her.

"What do you want, Shayna?" she asked quietly so she wouldn't wake the bard lying beside her, though the other woman was probably deep enough into sleep that it would have taken a chariot rumbling through the camp to rouse her.

"Shayna sleep Mama?" the child whispered, patting the bedroll next to the tall woman, making sure her meaning was understood.

The warrior indulged in a small, long-suffering sigh before answering. "Okay. You can sleep with us, but just for tonight," Xena warned, lifting one edge of the blanket so the girl could lie down next to her. "And I'm not your mama. My name is Xena," she said gently.

The girl happily tucked herself against the warrior's other side, tangling her smaller arms and legs around Xena as tightly as the bard did every night.

"By all the gods on Mount Olympus, some warrior I am. Always had a weakness for women and children," the tall woman muttered to herself as Shayna dozed off again. "Guess I'm not getting up early in the morning," she yawned, dropping into sleep before she had even closed her mouth.

Gabrielle watched Shayna's short legs as they half-trotted beside Xena, mounted on her horse. The child's hand was, as always, wrapped protectively around the other woman's ankle. She knew from her own moderate pace that the warrior had reined the mare to a slow-ish walk so the child would have less trouble keeping up with them. It was another small sign of Xena's caring. She had done much the same thing when the bard had first started travelling with her and it was obvious she couldn't keep up with the taller woman's usual break-neck pace across the countryside. Xena, you're just a big silent softie, she thought cheerfully to herself. Always looking out for others and never saying a thing about it.

The bard couldn't help the grin that broke out on her face as she remembered the sight she had awakened to that morning. The moment she had returned to awareness, she knew Xena was still stretched out on the bedroll beside her. For one lurching heartbeat, she had thought the warrior must have fallen ill during the night because she could think of no other reason Xena would still be in bed at that time of day, well after dawn. Gabrielle had popped her head from under the blankets to be greeted with the sight of Xena's blue eyes staring down lovingly at the tiny red-haired bundle curled tightly against her side, the child's arms and legs tangled about Xena's body in such a way as to make getting up impossible, at least not without waking the sleeping child beside her.

Gabrielle had also been pleased to see that the child didn't appear to be quite so afraid of her now. Shayna wasn't being too friendly yet, but she had willingly sat beside the bard for a short time while Xena had practised her morning sword drills. The expression on the warrior's face when the child had gotten up and tried to copy the graceful and deadly movements with the tall woman had been absolutely priceless. Gabrielle had kept her amusement to herself, knowing it would not only embarrass the warrior, it might also alienate the child as well. But the little scene had looked very cute, nevertheless.

Ahead of the bard, Xena felt the hand on her ankle tighten briefly and looked down at the child walking by her stirrup. All her senses had been alert, scanning the surrounding forest for trouble. If there had been one scouting party from some large army, then there was bound to be another. Shayna pointed along the road towards the spot where they had battled with the thugs the day before. Xena could just make out the bodies lying in the dust. Drawing closer, she saw those men who had only been wounded, or simply knocked into unconsciousness by Gabrielle's staff, were long gone, probably helped away by their own compatriots. The warrior was a little surprised Shayna showed no sign of revulsion at the sight of the fly-blown corpses or the pools of dark blood gathered on the roadway under them. It seemed to be quite the opposite, in fact, as the child flitted from one dead man to another, pulling weapons from belts or long stiffened fingers.

Once she had all the weapons she could find in one pile, she took the warrior's hand and led Xena over to them. "Shayna good?" she whispered up at the tall woman.

Xena nodded at the girl before starting to examine the bodies of the men on the road. Gabrielle crouched beside her as she searched one man for any sign of a standard or crest showing which army, and warlord, he worked for. "What was that all about?" the bard asked, glancing back to see the child still standing guard over the weapons, her own knife drawn and held ready. In one way, she looked for all the world like a miniature Xena, right down to the coldness in her eyes and the set expression on her small face. Where did one so young learn to be so disciplined? the bard wondered before turning her attention back to the dark-haired woman by her side.

The warrior's eyes never lifted from the man she was searching. "I'd say her mother must have taught it to her. Sensible move if you are all alone and have a child with you. Never know when someone newly dead might not be quite as dead as you think," Xena explained.

"How do you know her mother was alone?" the bard asked, curious as to how Xena had reached that particular conclusion.

"If they were with other people, do you think they would have simply abandoned Shayna in the forest if her mother had died?" Xena replied.

Looking back at the child once more, Gabrielle said, "Probably not. Whatever happened though, she is a real survivor, if nothing else."

Gabrielle dragged her eyes away from Shayna and watched Xena turning men over, checking under armour and tunics for crests or standards. "Any idea who they worked for?" she asked as the warrior came back towards her.

"None," the warrior replied. "There isn't a single thing on any of them that would tell us who's in charge."

"That makes it more difficult, doesn't it?" the bard commented.

"It won't make it any easier, that's for sure," Xena said. Knowing who the men followed would have given the tall woman some idea of how to deal with him when they eventually found the main body of the army. The warrior started circling around the battle site looking for the tracks of the men who had survived the fight the day before. She quickly found what she was searching for as the thugs had made no attempt to hide their passing. From the amount of blood splashed on the ground and over the brambles, some of the men had been very badly wounded indeed, and she would be most surprised if had they lived long enough to get back to the camp.

Taking Argo's reins in her left hand, Xena headed after the men, following the clear bloody trail they had left behind. Shayna tucked herself against the warrior's side, walking almost under the mare's head in the process. The tall woman tried not to notice how close the child was to her but was grateful for the small fact she had chosen not to walk on the side of her sword arm. Whoever had taught the child had obviously done a good job in that respect.

It hadn't taken as long to get to the main encampment as Xena had first anticipated. Aside from the blood stains marking the way, they had also found the bodies of three men simply left to rot in the forest where they had died. Gabrielle had shaken her head in disbelief when she realised no effort had been made to bury the dead men, not even a token covering of leaves. It probably wouldn't be long before the forest scavengers found the bodies and tore them to pieces, scattering their remains over a wide area. She felt little sympathy for the men themselves but she knew, somewhere, there had to be wives and children who would never know what had become of their husbands and fathers. That aspect of life always saddened her a little, but there was not a great deal she could do about it. Over the cycles she had learned to live with it most of the time.

Each time they had come across a dead man, Shayna had dashed ahead of them to do her weapon-stripping routine before letting Xena get close enough to examine the bodies. The warrior had tried not to be annoyed with that because it did appear to be an important part of the child's thinking, but it was slowing them down somewhat.

Eventually, however, they reached the camp and got their first good look at it from the cover of the trees on top of a small ridge. Xena's face hardened into stone as she realised exactly what kind of camp she was looking at. This was not some warlord's army or even several raiding parties joined together in some strange alliance. This was a slaver's camp, a well-run, though slightly disorganised-looking, slavers’ camp. And Xena hated slavers more than anything else she could bring to mind.

In the center of the camp was a single large tent with several wooden cages mounted on wagons behind it, though only one cage seemed to be occupied. Xena recognised the captives but chose to say nothing for the moment, knowing what Gabrielle's reaction would be. More, smaller tents ranged around the central point in widening rings, campfires set between every third or fourth tent. On the far side of the camp there appeared to be a mess tent and a covered wagon for the healers, judging from the bandaged men lying on rough stretchers in front of it. Xena also noticed several women wandering, without escort, from place to place. Probably camp followers, she thought to herself. Though she didn't approve of women having to sell themselves, everyone had to earn a living somehow and if that was all you had, she was in no position to condemn them.

Gabrielle's fingers suddenly clutched at the armoured woman's wrist, her other hand pointing towards something in the center of the encampment. "Look. Over there, Xena. They've got Amazons in that cage near the large tent," the bard gasped, amazed the slavers had managed to catch the forest women at all.

"I see them," the warrior answered simply.

"We've got to get them out," the bard said with some urgency. Gabrielle might not have spent a lot of time with the Amazon Nation, but her sense of responsibility to them, as their Queen, was very strong indeed. Even without a clear plan in mind, she was all ready to dash into the camp and just take the slavers on.

"Calm down, Gabrielle. We'll get them out, but first we need to think about what we are going to do. There are just too many of them for an all-out battle," Xena said reasonably. She smiled over at the flushed bard, courage and determination written in broad strokes across the blonde's face.

The other woman nodded in understanding and followed the taller warrior to the comparative safety at the bottom of the ridge where they couldn't be seen by the sentries surrounding the slavers’ campsite.

Xena led the little group deeper into the forest until she found a small clearing some distance from the encampment. Squatting in the center, Xena began to scratch the layout of the camp onto the ground with a stick. "I'd say there are more than four hundred men in that camp," she noted, "too many for us to take on in broad daylight." The warrior cast a meaningful glance at the child seated beside her, getting a nod of understanding from the bard. "Looks like a big operation, with all those cages and wagons we spotted at the back of the large tent. Probably been sending parties of men out into the surrounding countryside to capture people and only sending them on to the various slave markets when they had a sufficient number to make a decent profit."

"How many Amazons did you count in that cage?" Gabrielle asked.

"Fifteen, I think. There might be more in some of the tents around the camp, though," Xena replied unemotionally.

Gabrielle shuddered at the thought of any of her sister Amazons being in some slaver's tent and what would definitely be happening if that were the case. Pulling her thoughts back to the here and now, she said, "With only one cage full right now, it might be a while before they try moving any of them."

The warrior thought back to the days when she led her own army of men, remembering how some warlords treated the forest women, and the sort of prices the female warriors commanded at the slave markets. The rarity of their capture and the skills they possessed usually meant a lot of dinars would change hands on those occasions there was even one Amazon for sale. A whole wagon load would represent a small fortune to whomever had captured them. "No, something tells me they will be moving them out fairly soon," the dark-haired woman replied.

"What? Are they worth that much?" Gabrielle asked.

"That, and the fact we'll help the slavers see it would be a very good idea to get that wagon on the road. The sooner those Amazons are away from the camp, the better those thugs will like it," Xena answered, a truly evil smile crossing her face.

"How many are you planning to kill then, to get them to do that before they are ready?" the bard questioned seriously.

"None," the warrior replied, a nasty edge in her voice. "But by the time we are finished with their 'manly virtues' they are going to wish they had never seen an Amazon warrior, let alone captured a whole group of them."

Gabrielle simply shook her head, not understanding what the tall woman had in mind. Standing to follow Xena and Shayna deeper still into the forest, she had to trust that the warrior knew what she was doing.

Eponin stared through the bars surrounding her and her sister Amazons, trying to make sense of the guard patterns and how often the sentries were changed. Since their capture earlier in the day, nothing had happened to them beyond their minor wounds being seen to by one of the healers and a rather nasty chat she'd had with the leader of the slaver operation, a cruel looking man who called himself Viper. After her little 'discussion' with the man, she was now sporting a large bruise along the left hand side of her face which all but closed one eye. In a way, she considered herself lucky to have gotten off so lightly. Badly marked goods did not fetch a high price at the slave markets, even if those goods were of Amazon origin.

In the gathering darkness, the woman glanced back at her fellow captives, five warriors and the ten young craft-women they had been escorting back to the Amazon Nation from Athens. Not one of the young women was more than eighteen summers old, and all had just completed some very advanced training in their various specialities. It should have been a fairly easy job to do. Go to Athens, pick up the women, escort them safely home. Shouldn't have taken more than a moon, maybe five seven-days, there and back. Eponin found herself shaking her head for what seemed the hundredth time that day.

Solari spotted the shaking head and wriggled over to sit by the other woman's side. "I'm sorry, Eponin," she started.

"It's all right, Solari. We weren't to know it was a trap," Eponin cut in, gently squeezing the upset warrior's fingers. "I'm just happy no one took anymore hurts than a few bruises and scrapes."

"But if we had left when you wanted, we could have avoided this altogether," Solari mumbled.

"It was just one extra day, and we all wanted to buy something special for people back home," the other woman explained, thinking of Amaran and the tortoise-shell combs she had bought for her lover. "For all we know that trap had been waiting for days before we arrived, so it probably wouldn’t matter if we had left on the day we originally planned." Eponin had a brief mental flash of the ground falling away under them and the thumping jolt she had received when she, and everyone else, finally hit the bottom of a very wide and surprisingly deep pit trap. It had been well concealed on a wide track leading to a popular watering hole, its cover strong enough to allow some of the lighter forest creatures to scamper across it. The sight of the small tracks criss-crossing the layer of leaves had tricked them all into thinking the path was safe and solid underfoot. Walking together as one large, clumped group, chattering and catching up on the news and events, had not helped one bit either. Sooner or later, someone was going to fall into that pit trap. It was just unfortunate that it happened to be them.

The explanation didn't ease the warrior's guilt, but she stopped trying to take the blame for their entrapment, at least out loud anyway.

Eponin could see from the look on Solari's face she still thought it was somehow her own fault they had been captured in the pit trap. Deciding to give the woman something else to think about, she asked, "What do you make of the guard pattern?"

Solari took a moment to shake the depressing thoughts from her mind before answering. "Seems pretty regular so far, and I have been watching as closely as you," she said. "But this cage might make it a bit tough to break out of here."

Eponin nodded in agreement. She had spent some time wondering how they were going to get themselves out of the blasted cage. The guards and sentries would be a breeze after that. The warrior found herself looking over the wooden cage again. It had obviously been built especially for the purpose of holding reluctant slaves until they could be transported to the markets. Heavy ironwood made up the bars, and instead of simple rawhide thongs strapping them together, they had used strong iron bands fitted every hand span or so over the entire structure. The only real way in or out was through a small door on one end and even that had been built so a person had to crawl through it. No exactly designed for mass escapes, she thought to herself. Even the wagon supporting the cage had been made of ironwood, making escape through the wagon-bed impossible.

She watched the slow movement of men around the camp as the smells of evemeal began to fill the air. The guards she had been expecting to check on them had not shown their faces around the back of the tent for some time. Eponin assumed they must be getting their own meals and couldn't be bothered looking in on the captives when it was clear escaping from the cage was going to be highly unlikely.

The warrior heard the faintest whisper of noise coming from underneath the wagon. It sounded for all the world like armour scraping quietly over dry grass. Eponin shook her head, thinking the sound was probably just rats. She had seen one or two scurrying from tent to tent as the sun had set and the shadows between them had grown longer and deeper. The warrior found herself suddenly jumping when an unexpected hand pressed firmly against the back of her shoulder through the bars. Swinging around abruptly, she was struck completely speechless, seeing Xena's face grinning evilly at her from the other side of the bars, her sky blue eyes sparkling with wicked delight at having surprised the other woman.

It took her a moment to get her bearings again. The instant her heart crawled back down her throat and into her chest where it belonged, Eponin found the breath to speak. "Xena," she whispered in a rush. "What are you doing here? How did you find us? Where's Gabrielle?"

"Came to help. Didn't know you were here until I saw you. Up on the ridge watching," the tall woman answered succinctly. As she had been speaking, the warrior was carefully untying a medium-sized sack from her waist and just as cautiously pulling out handfuls of smaller bags. "Start handing these out to everyone," she said. "Don't crush them against yourselves, though. They've got Vespas inside."

"Vespas?" one of the young women asked, holding her small bag between two fingers, a little nervous of whatever was inside.

"Small hornets, native to this area. They've got a sting like fire," Xena explained. "Should be fairly quiet at the moment, though. Gabrielle and I smoked them from the nest and took those that had fallen to the ground in shock. So long as you don't crush the bag or shake it about too much, they shouldn't start buzzing and give you away."

"What are we supposed to do with them?" the young metal-smith questioned, tucking the bag into her empty belt pouch.

"Protect yourselves," Xena replied, making sure the last little bag she wanted was still inside the sack. "Let's just say Artemis helps those who help themselves. Explain it to them, Eponin." Waiting until the other woman nodded, Xena continued. "We're going to be close by, moving about the edge of the camp. Once they have you on the road, we'll have a better chance of getting you out of this thing," she said, tapping one of the bars. "When it happens, be ready to move fast."

Xena ducked down again and slid under the wagon, disappearing from Eponin's line of sight. Listening to the scrape of the warrior's armour, she was surprised to hear Xena moving towards the large tent and not out of the camp as she expected. Peering through the bars, she watched the tall woman roll under the edge of the tent, only to re-appear a few heartbeats later. With a nod of her head, Xena crawled off into the darkness and was soon lost from view.

Turning back to other women, she began to explain how they would use the Vespas to protect themselves, getting quite a deal of muffled laughter from the young women. Eponin smiled broadly. It felt good to have a few options again.

Xena eased her way passed the last sentry before leaving the camp, making sure he was still out cold. She had taken a few moments to prop him against a tree, arranging his limbs comfortably before crossing the sentry line. Anyone stumbling across him would think he had merely fallen asleep at his post, and aside from a dull headache, he might think the same thing too; she had been very careful about not being heard as she had approached from behind.

Quickly working her way back up the ridge, she was soon by the bard's side once more. Looking down at the slave wagons she could see the Amazons clustered together as Eponin explained how they could use the hornets Xena had given them as a way to protect themselves.

"Do you think the young ones will be able to pull it off?" Gabrielle asked, feeling a little apprehensive for the women below.

The warrior's head did a half turn as the faint sound of softly moving feet brushing through the leaf litter reached her ears. Shayna silently eased in beside the tall woman, slipping her knife back into its place under the waistband of her skirt. "Nothing, Mama," she whispered, taking the piece of jerky Xena handed to her.

Xena glared at the smug expression on the bard's face before answering. "Good girl," she said. Shayna had been determined to follow the woman into the encampment until Gabrielle had explained, in a stroke of near genius, how they needed someone to guard their backs. The child had willingly moved further away from the slavers’ camp, hiding herself in a clump of dense bushes to watch for any sign of guards or sentries. Xena knew the sentries didn't patrol that far out, and with darkness falling, any scouting parties should have long returned to base. Grateful the bard had given her one less thing to worry about, Xena had headed for the slave wagon.

"Now what?" Gabrielle asked around a mouthful of chewy meat.

"Now we watch and wait. There isn't a lot we can do until they start moving the Amazons onto the road," the warrior replied, her eyes never leaving the set-up below them.

The two women and one girl-child made themselves as comfortable as they could on top of the ridge, Shayna curled up next to the warrior, her head on Xena's strong thigh. By the time the moon rose over the horizon, the youngster was asleep, twitching occasionally as she dreamed. Xena and Gabrielle watched the camp, making quiet comments to each other now and then, the warrior's hand gently stroking the soft shoulder of the child. It was almost an unconscious gesture, but the bard noticed, never saying a word about the obvious, growing feeling developing in Xena for the small child by her side.

Viper strode into his tent, his strong, well-muscled body moving with all the deadly grace of the creature he styled himself after. Close to his heels followed his second, a man of dubious reputation, to say the least, but someone the slave leader trusted most of the time. Reaching the small travelling desk he used, Viper pulled a rough map from its case and unfurled it on the table. Tapping the general area they were in, he said, "We might have to think about moving on before the next full moon, Artalus. We've just about picked clean everything for several days’ walk around here."

"Aye, we might at that. Though those forest women were a real bonus. Think we might get any more?" Artalus asked as he eyed the map, wondering where they would be headed next.

"Oh, I'm sure we'll get some more of them," Viper replied. Moving his finger in a north-westerly direction, he finally stopped it over a large area of forest quite some days walk from their current position. It had been newly outlined in strong, black ink. "I had a little chat with the leader of that group we captured this morning, and using some very persuasive logic, she pointed out exactly where the rest of those women live."

Artalus chuckled evilly, knowing exactly what kind of logic Viper had used against the Amazon woman. He had used the same kind himself on many occasions in the past and would probably use it again sometime in the future. "Are you sure she was telling you the truth? You know how they try to keep their lands hidden from the rest of us enterprising types," the man queried.

"I'm sure. Told her in no uncertain terms if there were no Amazons to be found in that patch of woods, I was going to throw those pretty young things she was escorting to the rest of the men," Viper replied. He suddenly burst into loud, braying laughter. Bringing himself back under control, he continued, "Can't say I think a great deal of their much talked about Amazon courage, though. She actually started shaking with fear when I told her what the men would do to them. Couldn't get to the map fast enough to show me the way." Rolling the map again and sliding it into its case, Viper looked at Artalus waiting for his orders. "Might just do it anyway. Gotta get them all broken in just right before we sell them at the markets. From what I've heard, it just isn't natural what those women do together. Never know, they would probably get to like the feel of hard man-flesh screwing them, considering they've had to make do with each other for so long." Viper stared at the canvas over his head for a moment. "Then again, it wouldn't matter if they don't, just so long as we break their spirits enough to make them biddable to their new owners."

"I'll pass the word along for tonight then," Artalus said, turning from his leader, eager with the thought of all those fresh women to try out. Most of them would probably be virgins, too. He'd heard rumours the Amazons could do things to a man he would never forget.

"No. Wait," Viper suddenly cut in. "They're going to be with us for a while. I want them close by just in case that bitch lied to me about where the Amazon lands are." Tapping his chin with one finger, thinking deeply for a moment, he said, "Just bring their leader to me tonight. Fear and anticipation can do wonders for getting people into the right frame of mind. By the time she gets back to them and they see what a real man can do, they will be that much easier to handle."

"As you wish, Viper," Artalus replied, disappointed he wasn't going to get his own hands on some of that firm young Amazon flesh right away. Oh well, there will always be another night, he thought. Sooner or later, his leader would pass one of them along to him, once Viper had violated the first fruits of their virginity. Sometimes it was good being Viper's second in command.

Turning towards the door flap, he quickly made his way down the side of the tent towards the back and the wagons parked there. Artalus could see them in the thin moonlight, sitting clustered together against the night's chill. One or two of the younger ones looked about nervously, but the five warriors simply watched his approach coldly. He smiled cruelly to himself. Those expressions would soon change once Viper had finished repeatedly raping their leader. He never doubted for a heartbeat that was what it would be, too. As slaves, they might as well get used to that simple fact now.

Turning the chunky key in the rusting iron lock, he quickly had the small door open. Pointing his finger at Eponin, he snarled at her. "You. Get out here. Viper has decided you're to grace his bedroll tonight."

The warrior woman crawled through the cage door, her eyes never leaving those of the second. She was fully expecting some kind of physical admonishment, and she was not to be disappointed. One arm was suddenly grabbed, yanked backwards and pulled up her spine until she was sure her shoulder would be broken. Relaxing into the pain, she tried to keep it from showing on her face.

"And you had better be properly grateful for his time, or the next fuck you get will be me, and I won't be half as nice about it as Viper," Artalus growled in her ear, his free hand groping crudely at her breast. "Whatcha got to say for yourself, harlot?" he asked, pulling Eponin's arm up another fraction.

"Yes. I'll be properly grateful for the time he spends with me," Eponin said quietly, hiding the pain in her voice beneath her softly spoken words.

"Good. Now march," he said, dropping the woman's arm. He did notice how the Amazon hadn't immediately clutched at her abused shoulder or shown any other sign of the wrenching her muscles had just taken. Maybe these Amazons are tougher than we realised, he wondered for a moment. Couldn't be. They're just women, after all. Nothing tough about a bunch of women all playing at being warriors. Viper will soon sort this one out and the rest will just fall into line, he thought as he walked behind Eponin.

The young craft-women and older warriors watched as Eponin disappeared around the corner of the tent. The metal-smith turned to Solari, "Do you think she will be all right?"

"She'll be fine," Solari replied, a grin already forming on her lips. "I'd be more worried about Viper surviving the experience, if I were him."

Eponin walked ahead of Artalus, her mind racing. Gotta make this look convincing, she thought. The slave leader had bought her shaking-in-fear performance without question earlier in the day. He simply thought of her as another terrified woman and not the warrior she knew herself to be. Sometimes you really can make prejudice work for you, one of the lessons she had learned from watching Xena. She merely had to keep it up for a while longer and somehow protect the rest of the Amazons. Looks like I have something of the bard in me after all. Gabrielle would be proud, Eponin thought as she grinned secretly to herself.

She hesitated for a moment as they reached the front of the tent, appearing to be fearful of whatever may be about to take place inside the canvas structure. Artalus didn't lose the opportunity to prod the Amazon in the back, forcing her to step through the door flap. He wouldn't have minded watching Viper break this woman's spirit, but his leader rarely allowed that to happen. He liked to keep some secrets to himself. Not that she seemed to have a lot of courage to begin with. They had barely entered the tent and already he could see all the small signs of someone trying to control their fear and not doing a particularly good job of it.

"The Amazon slave you requested, Viper," Artalus said respectfully to the man's half-turned back.

"Fine. That will be all," the other man replied, flicking his fingers towards the door. He was well aware Artalus would take the guard post at the door just so he could hear everything going on inside the tent. Viper didn't mind but knew the day was coming when he would have to kill his second for simply knowing too much. It was one of the many ways he had of staying at the top of a very vicious command tree.

Viper took his time, fussing unnecessarily with some parchment on his travelling desk before slowly turning and appearing to notice the Amazon standing in the center of the tent. He could easily see the tension across her bunched shoulders and the way her hands were twitching against the leather of her short skirt. The darting manner of her eyes flicking all about the room, trying not to rest on him for more than a heartbeat, made it clear she was already very frightened. He felt the slow tightening deep in his groin. He was really going to enjoy this.

Circling behind Eponin, he noted her shallow breathing and the faint clenching and unclenching of her jaw. If this was the best the Amazons could offer by way of warriors, capturing the rest of them was going to be a walkover, he marvelled. Viper allowed one hand to gently stroke the woman's shoulder as he returned to face her, secretly delighted at the flinching response his touch received.

"I can make this easy for you or I can make it hard. The choice is entirely up to you," Viper whispered, moving his face towards the woman, brushing his unshaven cheek against hers until he could softly flick her earlobe with the tip of his tongue.

"Please," Eponin begged quietly. "Don't hurt me." If things hadn't been quite so serious, the warrior was sure she would have thrown up by now from the smell of this man's unwashed and very odorous body alone. As it was, she could almost taste the bile at the back of her throat. She swallowed several times, forcing her stomach back under control.

"Oh, I have no intention of hurting you," Viper said very, very gently, watching the tension in Eponin's shoulders relax just a fraction. "Unless you displease me in some way." The snarling tone he put into the words cranked the tension back up again and sent a small shudder through the woman's body. He stepped back several paces, the Amazon taking her first deep breath since entering the tent.

Eponin decided that now might be a good time to start another Amazon mystery. "Lord Slaver. Please. For your own safety, our patron goddess Artemis has sworn her protection to all her warriors. It is painful death to any man who dares to touch us," she explained, looking fearfully at the matting at her feet.

Lord Slaver, I like that. Might use it in future, Viper thought quietly to himself, as he let the woman's words sink in. He snorted, Artemis protecting a bunch of weak, terrified women! The gods barely shifted their lazy backsides from their domains, no matter what the prayer being offered. And the goddesses were even worse. No, there would be no intervention from the Mount in this case. He had heard all kinds of prayers and promises made to various gods over the cycles when he was molesting women, and not one had ever been answered. He very much doubted any god or goddess would start now.

"Something tells me she won't be interfering with a man at his job," Viper said nastily. Taking a moment to pull the short leather vest from his shoulders and tossing it to one side, he locked eyes with the petrified woman, snapping out a command. Might as well get the slave used to taking orders. More than anything, he was hoping she would show some kind of defiance, however small, just so he could have the pleasure of punishing her. "Remove my boots, slave."

Eponin slowly dropped to one knee and began to unlace his boots. She had to force her face to remain expressionless as the stench of his bare feet settled on the back of her tongue. Placing his boots beside her, she waited on her knees for his next command.

"Now, kiss the feet of your master, Amazon slave," Viper snarled.

As the warrior leaned forward to comply with the man's order, she closed her mind to the smell and instead concentrated on hiding what her right hand was doing.

A shiver of delight worked its way through Viper's body as he felt the soft kisses this so called warrior was placing over the tops of his feet and across the insteps. Already, he could feel himself growing hard under his trousers, their tight confines making him a little uncomfortable. "Enough," he whispered. "Get over by the pallet."

Rising from her knees, Eponin couldn't miss the obvious bulge in the man's leather pants. She kept the smile from her face at the thought of him not having that for much longer. She stood passively beside the rough bed, watching the bulge grow larger and more turgid as Viper came towards her, his eyes raking lewdly up and down her body. Still pretending at fear but allowing a small spark of something the man was sure to mistake for desire flicker over her face, Eponin slowly reached towards his trousers. "May I remove those for you, Master?" she asked, the last word almost catching in her throat.

Viper simply nodded. He might not have gotten the pleasure of breaking her spirit; it was obvious she had none to begin with, but he had heard the same stories as his second about the carnal delights an Amazon could bring a man. He stood quietly, holding himself in check, as the woman nestled against his side, her still covered breasts rubbing sensually over his bare ribs. Nimble fingers soon had the ties undone, and Eponin slowly slid his pants around his ankles. Viper stared down at his now free erection, bobbing briefly in the candlelight. The warrior seemed to almost ooze her way back up his body. He closed his eyes as Eponin's lips made contact with his own.

Eponin was concentrating fiercely to stop herself from pushing Viper's disgusting body away from her. She locked her mind on the last kiss she had shared with her lover back at the Amazon village, trying to pretend for the few moments she needed that it was Amaran she was kissing and not this slaver. She softly walked the fingers of her right hand down his abdomen, gently cupping his massive erection. Then she squeezed it, hard.

Viper had the briefest flash of pleasure as strong fingers grasped him firmly. Then something hit him full force in the crotch, tearing an agonising scream from his throat, pitched so high it was completely soundless. Thrusting the woman away violently, he clutched at his rapidly wilting man-hood, a raging fire burning its way from his groin to his brain. The last thing he saw before the overwhelming pain caused him to black out was Eponin seated on the ground, a tiny, savage smile on her face.

Eponin sat on the floor, watching with undisguised glee as Viper turned the most amazing shade of white, eyes overflowing with tears, completely slack-jawed with the shock of the Vespa sting. It was only after he had toppled to the ground unconscious that she carefully opened her hand to see the little hornet still trapped by its wings between her second and third fingers. She very cautiously returned it to the small bag in her belt pouch where she had withdrawn it while kissing Viper's noxious feet. Now to complete the mystery, she thought as she climbed back onto her feet.

Artalus stood at his post by the closed door flap, listening to the sounds coming from inside. He could feel his man-hood starting to rise and he hoped Viper would finish raping the Amazon quickly so he could go and find one of the camp women to fill his own need. He snorted briefly to himself. The slave leader never did anything like that quickly. He liked to take his time and violate them repeatedly just to reinforce the notion they were now truly slaves and had no more say in what happened to their bodies.

He heard Viper order the woman over to the bed and didn't think it would be long before the first pain-filled and terrified scream came rushing from the Amazon's mouth. He'd already listened to the woman begging not to be hurt. The second jealously knew the other man was very much over-endowed in that particular area. It always hurt them whether they were willing or not. The bulge in his trousers grew a little more at the thought of what Viper might be doing to the woman. Something heavy suddenly hit the ground inside the tent and Artalus assumed the slave leader had thrown the woman to the floor, impatient to get on with his pleasure.

He couldn't keep the shocked expression from his face as the woman appeared by his side, tears rolling freely down her cheeks. Muttering incoherently, she dragged at his arm to pull him into the tent with her. "All right. All right. I'm coming," he said as he followed the distraught Amazon inside.

Artalus's eyes bugged at what he saw in front of him. The woman had scurried around to the top of Viper's body, cradling his greasy head in her lap. The slaver lay on the floor next to his pallet, naked and covered in sweat, his face whiter than the first snows of winter. "What happened here?" he asked incredulously.

"I told him. I did warn him, truly I did," Eponin started saying, garbling the words a little in her distress.

"Warned him of what?" Artalus snapped, dropping to one knee beside the still unconscious man.

Eponin seemed to make some effort to get herself back under control to try to explain what had happened. "I warned him that Artemis protects all the Amazons and will kill anyone who tries to touch us. He didn't believe me and then this happened to him."

The second gulped, his own erection shrivelling back to nothing. At that instant, he was wishing there was some way of tucking his balls inside to stop Artemis from exacting the same punishment on him for his thoughts about young Amazon flesh. Pulling at Viper's hands crabbed together in his lap, he exposed the slaver's man-hood and the damage he thought the goddess had inflicted. It did not look good. The entire area was a fiery red, already swelling so badly it might be several days before the other man could possibly wear even the loosest of trousers. He was certain if his balls got any larger they would probably burst open.

Eponin, on the other hand, couldn't have been more delighted with the effect of the Vespa on Viper's only claim to fame. It must have stung him several times in quick succession for there to be so much swelling. She kept the smile from her face, though, and tried to look as pitiful as possible, but it was getting more and more difficult to stop herself from simply breaking down and laughing hysterically. "Maybe we had better put him to bed," the warrior managed to choke out, the strongly suppressed laughter bringing more tears to her eyes.

Artalus mistook the tears for concern over the health, and possible continued existence, of the slave leader. "Yea. That sounds like the right idea," he replied. Flicking the covers back, the two of them quickly lifted Viper onto the pallet. Eponin made a bit of a show tucking him in, smoothing the blankets around his shoulders. "That's enough," the second snarled. "Back to the wagon with you."

The warrior pretended reluctance at being dragged from Viper's side, though not enough that Artalus would change his mind and leave her to care for the man. As they walked back towards the wagons, he asked, "Why didn't Artemis just kill him outright?"

"Maybe because we hadn't gotten very far. I mean, all we had done was kiss a bit. If he had actually touched me, she might have just wiped him off the face of the earth completely with a lightning bolt or something," Eponin offered. Now let that grow in your superstitious little mind, she thought as the second unlocked the small door and pushed her back inside the cage. The warrior all but dove into Solari's open arms, burying her face between her breasts, her shoulders heaving in frightened tears, her cries well muffled by leather and flesh.

The other Amazons clustered around Eponin in support as the second shook his head before walking away. He couldn't wait to pass the word along about what had happened. One thing he knew for sure, though -- there was no way on this earth he was even going to look at those Amazons if this was the sort of protection they had over them.

The gathered women waited until the man was completely out of sight before trying to question Eponin. Solari hugged the obviously traumatised woman tightly, gently asking what had gone on in the tent. All the Amazons realised the Vespa plan might not work, and from the expression on Eponin's face as she came around the corner it was clear she had undergone a terrible ordeal in the short half-candlemark or so she had been away.

The warrior raised her face from the protection of Solari's breasts, the tear stains on her high cheeks reflecting the light of the overhead moon. She fell backwards, landing against the bars of the cage, her hand firmly over her mouth as she tried to muffle the sound of her laughter. But the sparkling eyes over her fingers told the other women everything they needed to know. The plan had been a complete success.

Xena, Gabrielle and Shayna sat quietly in a thick patch of thorny bushes, several hundred paces back from the nearest sentry post. A full candlemark before there was even a hint of colour on the horizon, they had made a wide circle of the encampment, settling into the dark shadows of the overgrown brambles. They still had a clear view of the slave wagons at the back of the main tent but the angle was much better for watching the comings and goings at the front. And there had been quite a lot of coming and going since one of the men had escorted Eponin back to her companions after her short visit to the slave leader.

Xena was guessing a bit, but she assumed the little hornets had done their part of the job and now the Amazons would be safe from molestation. She had watched with almost immoral pleasure as any man inadvertently nearing the wagon would suddenly shy away when he realised exactly where he was, as though some terrible evil was emanating from the women trapped inside. The occasional finger pointing in their general direction from various fires around the encampment also put a smile on her face. She didn't think it would take long before the entire camp had heard some version of what had befallen the slave leader. Whether it was the exact truth or not was another matter altogether.

Very shortly after Eponin had been secured inside the wagon again, the same man had scurried over to the healer's wagon, quite likely dragging one from his bed. There had been a brief but very animated discussion between the two men before the healer had hurried back to the main structure. Xena would have given anything to know what was actually said, but the hand gestures alone conveyed quite a bit of meaning to her. She had woken Gabrielle at that point so she could watch what was going on as well, adding her own impressions about what might be taking place in the camp below.

Now that the sun had fully risen, both women sat in the brambles watching various healers entering and leaving the main tent. It was fairly clear each new healer who appeared was slightly more senior than the one before. When a man with a back bowed with age entered, they both knew the most senior healer of all had been called in to tend to the sick man inside.

"It's probably driving them nuts trying to figure out what is wrong with him," Gabrielle commented in a whisper as one of the junior healers ran back to the senior man's tent, quickly returning with several small bags in one hand.

"Well, the swelling and redness would cover any sign of a sting, especially if there was more than one, possibly confusing them, but they're all operating under the premise that a goddess did the damage and not some little bug," Xena replied quietly. "So long as they continue to think it has been inflicted by a god, the Amazons will be safe. Let's just hope they don't wake up to what they are really dealing with."

Shayna cuddled up against the warrior's side, content to sit quietly with the two women once Xena had explained their need for silence. "Who has ouchie?" she asked in her usual breathless undertone. She had watched the two women smoking the hornets from their nest and knew the tall warrior had given some to the women in the cage. Neither of the adults had been sure, though, just how much Shayna had understood of the plan they'd worked out the day before.

"A bad man," Xena answered, distracted, her eyes focused on two healers entering the tent together.

The child simply nodded her head. She knew about bad men because a woman warrior in dark leather, carrying a bright, shining sword, had taught her about them when she was a very little girl. In the child's dim memories, she knew the leathered person was her mother but she could no longer remember the woman's face. Shayna was assuming now that the raven-haired woman, dressed in the heavy, dark leather and wearing the pretty, swirling armour must be her mother. The almost off-handed care Xena showed towards the youngster merely reinforced that impression. As far as Shayna was concerned, she must have been very naughty because her mother had slipped away under the water of a fast flowing stream one stormy night, leaving the child to fend for herself. Now that she had been so good, remembering all the lessons she had been taught, her mother had returned. If she kept being good, Mama wouldn't leave her alone in the forest again.

The bard leaned towards Xena to whisper another question into her ear. As much as she wanted her answer, the excuse to get close to the warrior also played its part. Gabrielle adored the scent of cinnamon and hyacinth overlaid by the strong smell of leather that was so much a part of the woman she loved. "Xena?" she said. "I can understand how using the Vespas would stop those men from touching the Amazons, but how is it going to convince them to start the wagons on the road?"

Xena remained silent for a few heartbeats, gathering her thoughts. "Slavers, thugs, raiders and warlords can be a very superstitious group sometimes. If this lot think a goddess is protecting the Amazons, they are going to want to get them as far away as possible, if only to save their own miserable hides," she explained to the bard at her side. "And I did add a little something to help nudge that impression along," Xena admitted somewhat ruefully, not letting the other woman catch the expression in her eyes.

"I thought I saw you roll under the edge of the tent. Exactly what did you do in there?" Gabrielle asked, not sure if she really wanted to hear the answer. Xena could be quite nasty about the way she did things sometimes, a fact the bard had gradually managed to come to terms with. She didn’t always agree with the way she acted, but she did accept it was part of who Xena was as a warrior and ex-warlord.

"I dropped a handful of Assassin's beetles into the slaver's pallet, between the blankets," Xena said, so quietly Gabrielle almost didn't hear it at all.

"Assassin beetles? What are they?" the bard queried. She had never heard of any beetle like that before.

"Not assassin, Gabrielle. Assassin's," the warrior corrected. "It's a mildly poisonous beetle assassins use now and then. One bite won't kill you, but the poison can quickly build up in your body if you get enough of them. It confuses the mind pretty badly, and the rash can just about drive someone mad the way it itches. Fever gets quite high as well. Assassins like using them because the bite can make their victim look as though they have some other kind of sickness altogether."

"It won't kill him, will it?" Gabrielle asked, surprised the warrior knew about the beetles at all. Then again, she seemed to know about a great many unexpected things.

"Not if they get him out of that pallet soon enough," Xena whispered back in reply.

"How soon is soon enough?"

Xena let herself look at the blonde-haired woman sitting beside her. "Three, maybe four days. Plenty of time for the rest of the camp to want those Amazons gone," she replied. What the warrior didn't explain was if he lasted four days, his mind would remain permanently confused. Xena had been careful about how many of the tiny beetles she had slipped between his covers, but everyone reacted a little differently. What would only cripple one man might actually kill another. But the gentle bard didn't need to know that much. It was sufficient that she alone knew.

Artalus sat at his leader's travelling desk, trying not to listen to the low moans of pain coming from the man on the pallet. For the moment they were alone, the old healer and his juniors returning to their wagon to attend the injuries and sickness's of their other patients. He tried not to look at Viper lying on the bed. The healers had been forced to tie his arms to the wooden sides of the cot to stop him from tearing at his own flesh when a strange rash had suddenly developed. It was soon clear that the rash must have been itching intensely because the slaver had managed to score deep, bloody scratches over several parts of his body trying to somehow relieve the itch. To Artalus' eyes, though, it appeared that the more the man scratched at himself, the worse the irritation became.

He certainly couldn't bring himself to even peep under the blankets at Viper's horribly swollen manhood. He had been forced to help hold the man down when the healer inserted a narrow, hollow reed so Viper could void his water. Otherwise, they all feared his bladder would burst from the pressure inside, the swelling of his member making it impossible for him to do it naturally. Every single man in the camp had heard the agonising screams of pain Viper had made when the old healer had forced the reed through the eye of his manhood. After that, there was no way Artalus could hide the fact something was very wrong with the slave leader. The camp was alive with rumours, and there was no way to stop them.

The guard on the door poked his head through the flap, pointedly not looking in the direction of Viper's pallet, and said quietly, "There are three of the Lieutenants here to see you, Artalus."

Sighing, because he knew what was coming, he replied, "Send them in." Hardening his expression, he tried to give the impression he saw Viper's unknown illness as nothing more than a passing concern.

The three men filed into the tent, the guard dropping the flap behind them to give, at least, the illusion of privacy. The slaver's second saw immediately these were the three in charge of the largest of the scouting parties. They were also the most ambitious. If there was even the faintest indication of a weakness at the top, these three in particular would always rush to try to fill the gap. The only reason one of them wasn't already in charge was because Viper had been just that much more ruthless in his climb to the leadership position. Artalus had never sought the leadership himself, being content to follow the path laid out by Viper. And as he had been following the other man for cycles, he continued to follow him now.

"What can I do for you?" Artalus asked almost pleasantly, appearing unconcerned about the sick man lying just a few paces behind him.

Before he got his answer, each of the Lieutenants took several heartbeats to have a long, long look at Viper tied to his pallet. In the time Artalus's mind had been turning over the problem, the delirious man had managed to kick the blankets from his body and now lay in full view of the three men. Viper was running with fevered sweat, the skin over his entire body blotched and reddened, several large patches weeping grotesquely from the rash. The deep scratches he had inflicted on himself stood out against his skin, making him appear as though he had been severely whipped. The thing that drew every eye, though, was Viper's distended and darkly bruised manhood, the narrow, flexible reed poking from the end and snaking it way over the side of the pallet to an open pot under the bed. Each of the men shuddered at the sight, one man's hand unconsciously moving to cover his own manhood.

"Is he going to be all right?" the tallest of the trio asked, his eyes never leaving Viper or his bloated member for a moment.

Artalus lied easily through his teeth. "Yea, the healers reckon he should be up and about in a seven-day or so. They don't think it's anything serious." There, think about that you bunch of vultures, he thought to himself. The last thing he wanted to endure was some kind of power struggle, when it wasn't even known if Viper was going to die or not. The second didn't want to put his loyalty behind some new leader if Viper somehow survived the illness. Sometimes it was a bad thing to be the slave leader's second. A very bad thing.

One of the other men, the one who had moved to protect his own balls, dragged his eyes away from the softly groaning leader to ask, "Is it true that Artemis did this to him because he wanted to, well, you know. With the Amazons." The man flicked his fingers vaguely in the direction of the wagons at the back of the tent and at the women contained in one of them.

Artalus surged to his feet in a rage, a vicious backhand throwing the man to the ground. Standing over him, the second snarled, "Where did you hear that piece of horse-shit?"

"It's all over the camp," whined the downed man in reply, gingerly wiping the blood trickling from the side of his mouth with edge of one hand. "One of the healers told me. Said you had told him that's what happened when the Amazon was in here."

Artalus stepped back to the desk, trying to control his anger at the healer for saying anything and his fear of what the rest of the men might ask of him if they thought Artemis really was on the move inside the camp. He wouldn't have minded getting those women onto the road and safely sold at the slave markets, but Viper had been clear about keeping them close by as insurance if there were no other Amazons to be found in the area marked on the map. Being a second was starting to look worse every heartbeat.

Forcing himself to settle behind the desk once more, Artalus decided to walk the thin line between prudent truth and god-fearing diplomacy. "It might have been Artemis," he said. "But can you see any goddess protecting those women just because they call themselves warriors?" He tried to put a mocking tone on the question, not sure if he had quite succeed.

The three men stood muttering together. None of them were particularly devoted to any god, but there were so many things about the Amazons they didn't know. Artemis may well have decided to protect them for reasons of her own. No one wanted to try and second-guess a goddess, especially one as clearly powerful as Artemis. The tall lieutenant finally spoke up. "Maybe it would be a good idea to get them women on the road, then. At least we might be safe from her disapproval."

"Forget it," the second snapped back. "Viper wants them here, and here they will stay." He thumped his fist on the table top in emphasis.

"But Artalus, look at him. That could be any one of us. You're not even safe. In fact, that goddess could be warming up her next surprise right now because you won't move those accursed women," one of the other men said, pointing nervously to the slaver thrashing feverishly on the pallet.

The second was well aware he might be next on Artemis's hit list, but he continued to stand by Viper's orders. If the man did recover, Artalus didn't want him thinking he had been betrayed by an ambitious second. Something like that would most definitely shorten his life-span.

The guard outside the door listened avidly as the argument raged back and forth for some time. He could hardly wait for his post to finish so he could add what he had overheard to the many rumours floating about the camp. He was not the only one with their ears straining to catch every word. Fifteen Amazons sat in complete silence waiting to see if the second would buckle under the pressure. Eponin had bet Solari fifty dinars they would be on the road by dawn the next morning. Judging from the increasing volume of the argument going on inside the tent, she was going to win that bet, hands down.

Eponin tried to ignore the feeling of road dust and grit working its irritating way under her clothing, but she was enjoying the smug expression on her face from having won her bet with Solari. She'd managed to pass a very pleasant first candlemark of their journey thinking of different ways of spending the money. Perhaps buying new tortoiseshell combs for Amaran to replace the ones taken from her when they had been captured. Only inlaid with something precious this time, maybe even a little silver or gold, if she could find any like that.

She glanced over towards Solari, the other woman carefully watching the forest around them as they passed. Shortly after they had rolled onto the main track to the slave markets, all the Amazons had heard the bird call coming from high in some trees. Xena knew they were on the road at last and was following, biding her time until she found a way of releasing them from the ironwood cage on top of the wagon.

"See anything, Solari?" she asked quietly, wiping a bead of sweat from the side of her face.

"Not a thing, but it wouldn't be like Xena to give herself away unless she had some plan up her bracer," the other woman replied in a cheery undertone. She was really looking forward to getting out of the close confines of the cage and back into the openness of the forest surrounding them. For the past few days, aside from blaming herself for their capture, she had felt very much like a trapped animal.

"Well, I hope it is soon. We're about as ready as we're going to be," Eponin commented. She looked over the way the women had arranged themselves on the bed of the wagon. Two warriors sat nearest the door. They were to help the young craft-women escaping through the small exit. The other three were sitting at the front, to act as a rearguard, if it became necessary. The crafters were seated on both sides of the cage between the two sets of warriors, ready to move as soon as Eponin, or Xena, gave the command. To the twenty or so guards spread around the moving wagon, it all appeared perfectly natural.

The candlemarks passed more slowly than the wagon was travelling, the summer sun moving higher into the sky, everyone growing a little tired and sleepy in the unremitting heat and humidity. Neither the men nor the wagon stopped for a nooning break, the women being fed and watered through the bars. Artalus's orders had been very clear and to the point. Take the Amazons, as swiftly as possible without killing the oxen, to the nearest slave market and then sell them for whatever price they could get. Several of the guards had heard a rumour Viper had taken another turn for the worse during the night, frightening the second into arranging for the Amazons’ sudden departure from the camp.

Not that any of them were going to breathe easy until the women were safely sold. Then Artemis's protective curse became the new owner's problem and not their own. Quite a few of the men were carrying amulets of various types tucked inside their trousers in the hope of warding the goddess's angry eye away from them and onto someone else.

The forest slowly thickened around them until the branches of the trees interlaced overhead, creating a shady avenue. The relief from the beating sun did little to sharpen the guard's watchfulness, however, the sticky humidity alone sending several into a kind of walking daze. Most of them had been on their feet since just before dawn without so much as a single rest stop, and this definitely contributed to their slackness.

Eponin felt a hard elbow gently jabbing into her ribs. Even she had lost the struggle to stay completely awake in the heat. The warrior glanced over at the crafter seated next to her, only to have her attention redirected towards Solari by a barely lifted finger. Raising an eyebrow in question, she waited as a guard drifted up to the cage to check on them after noticing the woman's abruptly lifted head, and then slowly moved back to his original position once more.

Solari turned her head slightly, looking back over the part of the road they had just travelled. "Just spotted the Queen almost completely hidden beside a tree, Eponin," she whispered. "Looks like Xena is about to make her move."

The woman nodded almost imperceptibly, wondering what the tall, dark-haired warrior was going to do. "Okay, everyone. This is it. Xena will probably make an appearance any moment," she murmured, her lips barely moving. No one actually moved but she could see the way all eyes were sweeping the surrounding woods, everyone's attention focused on the moment when the door would be forced open.

Two booted feet suddenly slammed onto the top of the cage. Eponin didn't even try to stop the chuckle that bubbled from her throat. Trust Xena to do things differently, she thought. The last thing she had expected was for the warrior to drop from the overhead branches right onto the top of the wagon, but Xena loved doing the unexpected.

The sensuous metal slither of a sword being drawn from its sheath sounded loudly in the startled silence of her landing. That utter stillness lasted only a heartbeat more before a wave of angry and confused noise rose up around the wagon. Xena quickly stepped to the back of the cage and spun the blade in her hand, connecting solidly with the rusting lock on the door. It gave way under the onslaught, wrenching one of the hinges from its housing as it snapped. Kicking at the wood, she knocked the door completely from the frame. "MOVE," she shouted at the women inside, already on their feet. The first warrior jumped from the cage, the next right on her heels. Satisfied the Amazons could look after themselves, Xena turned her cold gaze onto the men coming towards them.

A high, tight somersault had her on the ground and swinging her sword in its deadly, flashing arc, dispatching guards as fast her sword arm could move. Gabrielle came pelting into the fight from her hiding place a little way down the track, quickly downing two more of the guards before signalling to the Amazo