CHAPTER 7
Gabrielle relished final words from some of her favorite stories clarified by a royal Bard with a song flavored for a permanent home in the Penumbric library. She wondered of Xena and what their task would entail but was told Xena was scouting a distant territory and would be rejoining her at that evening's supper.
Sahara raced into the library, interrupting another Bard from telling his own tale. "Gabrielle! I have great news!" Sahara pushed past two more royal Bards trying to leave, bursting. "My comrade escaped the attack! She returned here and thought I was lost. She's alive!"
Gabrielle stepped back, nearly falling over as the girl reached, hugging for joy and laughing in relief. She seized Sahara's arms, holding her back and smiling. "That's wonderful and I'm very happy for you. " Gabrielle sighed noticing the royal Bards, politely bowing before retreating their library. "Have you seen, Xena?"
Sahara blushed. "She came back a few hours ago. Her mission was a success." She looked towards the door and whispered, "Didn't you know?"
Gabrielle shrugged. "What mission?"
"Xena rescued the lavender scepter !! Hera can't infect our province and Zeus can't steal our lands anymore."
Gabrielle turned to her scrolls, packing them in a wicker-weaved pouch. "I guess it was just a one woman job? That happens sometimes"
"Well Xena and another warrior. Claudius is still yelling, from the bruising they say."
Gabrielle gasped. "The Cyclops?!" She saw Sahara's face drop and, smiled in reply. "It's great to hear, you have your scepter back. It was just a surprise to me. Usually, Xena and I do all our missions together."
"Well, maybe you can tell us of some of your missions at the banquet this evening. My senior is allowing my attendance and since your Xena's friend, you'll be able to attend as well!"
"I can't wait. " Gabrielle noticed the royal Bard returning for her company. She lightly pushed Sahara to the exit. "Right now, I've Bard's duties to finish. I'll see you soon at the banquet for Xena, Sahara. I'm happy your friend is well"
Xena followed the warrior, to a large cave, for a mineral water bath healing waters he assured. He was not shy to join her efforts, cleaning wounds and floating in the heated respite.
"You're a wonder, Warrior Princess. Why risk your life for mine?"
Xena smiled. "Joxer would not be happy if I let his namesake die!"
Joxer grinned. "Some day I hope to have the admiration of your friend. Is he your betrothed?"
"No." Xena watched as the massive man poured two goblets of burgundy. "I wouldn't worry about him, you have many fine qualities, Joxer could only envy."
"We shall see, Princess." He passed her a goblet. "We shall see."
The banquet begin without the honored guest, in the evening Joxer and Xena entered Penumbra: cobblestone roads, hails from households, without wails from abandoned elders or homeless sick. Xena looked for less, but only found more to see, knowing there was no time to visit Penumbra, a flourishing community. Before she reached the center, the castle, Antigone crossed ahead meeting her people before returning inside. Looking to her side, Xena watched Joxer bowe away and then Antigone's guards surrounded her for brief parade inside.
"Welcome back, Xena." Antigone accepted the scepter from Xena and lead her to the throne room. "As agreed, Gabrielle and you are free. Thank you, Xena."
Gabrielle entered from a small door on the left, chuckling with fellow BARDS and enjoying her new garments. "Xena, you have to see this library." She collected a wicker satchel of extra scroll from the royal Bards then noticed Xena's tense stance.
"You have your scepter and now, I'll take my kidnapped friend as promised." Xena clutched her chakram and Gabrielle walked forward.
"Kidnapped? What's going on, here?"
Antigone announces from her throne. "Securing Gabrielle in exchange for Xena's aid, was exclusively for the benefit of Penumbra: man, woman, and child!" She stared at Xena. "I do for Argive and the preservation of it's peoples, not of GREED's purpose! To war and destroy is never the wisest of deeds. Sometimes it is necessary...but that option should be in the last efforts by a true leader, not the first. Warrior, I am not!" Antigone slide the scepter in a slot by her throne. "Clearly you seek a more gratuitous reward, Xena. So be it, Warrior Princess."
Gabrielle stepped forward. "We sought no bounty! We came at your request for help. I know Xena, who has helped many with far less than you. She consented to aid without your deceit! Why ask her here if you didn't trust us in the first place? You have many warriors!"
"But, I didn't ask for you, Bard. The Olympians desire Xena for their honored sacrifice." Antigone spoke as though addressing a larger crowd. "The task could only be preformed by the warrior princess, a task desparately needed by a person whose history suggest trust is an honor paried within her moods." Antigone nodded at a team of guards and watched them lay a chest of jewels at Xena's feet. "There's been no damage here! Take your bounty and leave in peace. EROS be with you!"
Xena looked away in disgust, leaving the chest on the floor for the exit. "Come on, Gabrielle."
Gabrielle stayed, shouting at Antigone, "What do you know of honor? This woman risked her life for you. And you're strangers to her which is more curtesy than you've shown!"
Antigone sighed. "To war and kill, this is your definition of honor? I ravage no villages, my people are fed by the food they secure, weakers are cared for and farmers know soldiers will help with the harvest. Seniors hunt and fish as practice to their protective purpose, and I? I walk amongst my people as any good leader should, knowing their trials and mending as best I can. Destruction leaves enemies and friends, it's true. But seek to build love from the materials Eros has given is a much more difficult path."
Antigone stepped to Gabrielle though her message was to Xena. "What do you know of that, traveler? There are those that destroy, the Warrior class. They prosper from loss and conflict in your world! And those that protect, give their strength in community for neighborhood from mine. Together with builders, they prosper in love and harmony, sharing the gambles with the elements, and each other. Though tragedy is fated to all at one time or another, we praise in the truth of Eros, not the self-promoting Olympians of your kind. And lastly, there are those who neither build or war, the Watchers. Most only write of what others do, promoting a language to wise if they derive any message at all. But, I hold you to known of those standards. Go in peace, Bard. EROS be with you!"
Xena and Gabrielle were blindfolded and escorted safely through descending twists and echoing caverns leading into the swamps of Dagman's bog. With her sword left at her feet, Xena quickly released herself and Gabrielle, feeding the fire the Penumbrics left before disappearing, then seething with thoughts of Antigone's speech.
Xena fiercely sharpening her sword at their camp. "We'll make for Solomanius first light."
"You know she's wrong about you, Xena!" Gabrielle turned away, hearing a single set of footsteps approaching but when she looked back, Xena was gone.
Sahara plodded forward, "Hi, I hoped I could catch you."
"Sahara, what are you doing here?" Xena passed from behind her. "Are you bringing another message from Antigone."
"No, I've come on my own." Sahara, warmed palms over the fire. "There's something you should know of your task with Antigone. The only persons who can pass without Claudius killing them, are female heirs to her royal thrown."
Gabrielle gaped and Xena returned to sharpening her sword.
"Don't you know what that means?", Sahara shouted. "You are a blood descendant of Antigone. You're task is the first for saving of our peoples! She honors you by offering you that challenge. Her own daughter was denied this and angrily fled from Argive many years ago."
Xena laid her sword by her side. "I'm sure Antigone has many a descendant to complete her games."
Sahara's eyes glistened. "I'm not enough to lead, should Antigone pass. If the cycle is not complete by a descendant before that..." She wiped a tear from her cheek. "The mystics will relinquish Argive to Hera."
Xena nodded no, and tossed an extra branch into their fire. "I think Antigone is playing with you, Sahara. If that much were at stake, she would not have let us go."
Sahara yelled, "She can't keep you in the city of gold!", and passed Xena a new scroll. "I borrowed this from the elders, it marks the path to your heritage. If you were not an heir, Claudius would have destroyed us all on the pass, long before Hera, at least that's what I've heard."
Xena lunged at Sahara, pinning her to the ground. "I don't know what game you're up to Ares. But, Antigone is far too clever to risk that child's life without the worthy chaperones that tailed us all the way. That oversized bonfire was warning me about the Dagman's ambush set ahead. And, Claudius was deliberately drunk. I saw the large urns of wine, the stench was everywhere in his liar, and I will not war on Argive for you!"
Sahara transformed to a chuckling Ares. "Close, I built the fire and loved your warmup afterwards. Pity you left two unfinished, but not for long." He nearly kissed her but suddenly tossed Xena to her feet before vaporizing in bluish-purple mist. "Don't blame the messenger, if you cant handle the message! And don't dismiss YOUR idea for ARGIVE. I like it, Princess. I like it a lot!"
Xena eyed Gabrielle using their fire to read the scroll. "Toss it in the flames. We've enough to carry with Argo staying with Solomonius" She turned unrolling a blanket bedroll.
"Good night Xena." Gabrielle tossed one of her empty scrolls into the flames, saving Ares' scroll for later. "I guess this is one tale, I can't write."
"It would risk their lives and ours." Xena remembered a pocket of gems, retrieved from Claudius's cave, payment for a home. "Eros be with you, Gabrielle." She caught her utterance as an odd reply. "I mean, Good Night!"
Gabrielle looked at the sky, her ceiling. 'What adventures would be next?', she thought. Once she wept for the empty drudgery of her mother's dishes then the joy meeting missions that brought her stories to heights, and now she wept for a warrior princess who wished never to be queen, only forgiven. Gabrielle listened as Xena's breathing chimed in sleep. She took Ares' scroll and made study of the parchment's drawing and when she was certain, tossed it into the flames. The key to Xena was in Amphipolis with Xena's mother, Cyrene. But, that needed to wait, Solomonius would undoubtedly needed favors and Xena needed time to lesson the stings from Antigone's Penumbra.
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