He'd been in Narbo for three days, and his discrete enquiries had gleaned for him the information that someone answering his sister's description had got off a ship about nineteen days previously ... maybe! - This is so frustrating! - his mind raged! From there he had a possible sighting near the warehouse quarter, but very tentative enquiries at Isumbras' establishment had been met with stoney silences and less than vague threats about what would happen to him if he didn't remove himself post-haste!

The dark haired man glared into his cup of wine, as he shoved the letter back inside his tunic, and tried to work out what he should do next. Things were a lot more complicated than he had expected. Not only couldn't he find much trace of Xena, but there was also no word of Gabrielle ever having been in Narbo. On top of that, he'd also heard rumours that there were other men asking the same, or similar, questions to the ones he sought answers for.

He took a long swallow of the wine and muttered to himself, "Okay," as he tried to concentrate his thoughts, "Xena and Gabrielle have disappeared and there's barely a trace of them to be found." He brooded on that for a moment, but unless he could get some information out of Isumbras he didn't think he was going to be able to get much of a lead to their whereabouts.

- So what does that leave me with? They're in trouble. - he thought yet again, - But how can I help them if I can't find them? - He banged his fist on the table in anger at the seemingly impossible task he's been set.

A shadow fell across him and Toris looked up to see two very oddly matched men before him. One was fair, short and muscularly compact. The other was a joke! He looked like a walking ironmonger's shop and had a face like a tame ape. It was the blonde who spoke for them, "Can we sit down?"

Toris wasn't really in the mood for company, but the tavern was full and the only seating free outside was at his table. He nodded and tried to ignore them as he sought to concentrate on his problem.

A harassed serving maid, found her way to the table and asked, "What's your pleasure gentlemen?"

The blonde grinned and answered gallantly, "A pretty girl like you shouldn't go asking questions like that of strangers," he smiled.

The serving girl laughed giddily and offered, "Oh sir, you know I was enquiring about what you fancied."

His grin broadened into a smile as he replied, "There you go again, well if I was to answer truthfully, would it shock you?"

She blushed prettily before giggling, "Oh sir, you are awful .. you know I was talking about what drink you would like."

"I admit I did, sweetheart," laughed the blonde man, "but as it brought a smile to your eyes it was worth the time to say it. Bring us some wine please," he said handing over a few coins.

The metal, next to him, rattled as if with embarrassment, "Do you have to do that with every girl we meet?" he questioned.

"What?" asked the blonde with a grin.

"You know," said the second man, true embarrassment now evident, "flirt with them."

"Of course," answered the blonde. "A kind word and a friendly smile can take you a long way."

"Yeah," agreed the tin can, "like right to the end of a jealous boyfriend's sword!"

"That was all just a misunderstanding," the blonde told him, "we straightened it all out."

"Oh yeah. Finally. After you agreed to pay damages," agreed his companion, "Just be careful what you do here," he warned. "We're trying not to attract unwanted attention .. remember?"

The serving maid returned with the mugs of wine and smiled prettily at the blonde, who seemed inclined to respond to her before his friend dug him in the ribs with a sharp elbow, "Remember why we're here," he muttered darting a glance at the dark haired man they shared the table with.

"Right," agreed the blonde.

Toris had done his best to ignore the by-play between the pair, but their bickering irritated him. He was trying to concentrate his mind on his problem, so he wasn't in the best frame of mind when the blonde fixed him with a hard stare and said firmly, "I hear you've been asking around town about some friends of ours."

Toris pointedly ignored him. He wasn't sure if it was if it was safe for him to say anything to them having no idea who they were. They could be some of Xena's enemies trying to find out who he was and just what he knew. - Which is, - he thought disconsolately to himself, - a big fat zero! - he looked at them blankly waiting for them to continue.

The tin can obliged. "Hey, look pal! Our friends have gone missing an' if your involved I'm gonna take you apart piece by piece." He reiterated his words with a pointing finger that he hastily shoved under the table when Toris turned his cold blue eyes upon him. - Wow, - came the suddenly worried thought, - he looks just like .... - he allowed the thought to trail off as he cocked his head to look quizzically at the raven haired man.

"Shut up, Joxer!" ordered the shorter man, all evidence of the happy go lucky Romeo now disappeared. He turned his serious gaze back on Toris, "Look. We know you've been asking questions about two friends of ours. All we want to do is pool some information. You know, maybe work together to find them if you're a friend too."

Toris looked at them uneasily. He was almost certain that the fool, - Joxer? Have I heard that name before? - was too big a joke to have had anything to do with Xena's disappearance. He doubted that the man would be able to harm a fly, let alone his ominously dangerous sister. But the blonde man looked as if he was more than able to hold his end up in a tight situation. Anyway, he hadn't been able to get anywhere on his own, it might be worth the risk. - I'll decide that when I know who they are .. and what they have to do with Xena. - he told himself before asking, "Just who exactly are you?"

"My name's Iolaus," offered the blonde holding out his hand, "I'm ...."

"He's Hercules' best friend, is who he is," contributed Joxer enthusiastically, "and I'm Joxer the Mighty, close friend and companion of Xena, the Warrior Princess and her bard, Gabrielle!"

"For Zeus' sake, Joxer," hissed Iolaus obviously angry, "do you think you could have spoken any louder? I don't think they heard you up at the garrison!"

"Ya think so?" asked his companion ingenuously, then realized that he was supposed to keep his connection to their friends quiet, "Oh, right." he said obviously abashed.

Iolaus turned back to the other man at the table and offered his hand again, "I didn't catch your name, friend," he invited.

Toris looked at them levelly. He'd heard of Iolaus of Corinth, knew some of the stories that linked him to Xena, but he didn't know anything about this clown, Joxer. However, if a man like Iolaus travelled with, and trusted him, he felt he should be able to ... to a degree. He held out his own hand and clasped the blonde arm to arm saying, "My name's Toris ... I'm," he hesitated a moment, licked his lips, before committing himself, "I'm Xena's brother."

Iolaus smiled but his muscles tensed as he said, still in a friendly enough tone, "Wait a minute. Xena told me her brother's name was Lyceus and that he died fighting a warlord by the name of Krykus,"

"Wrong. The warlord was Cortese and Lyceus was our younger brother," Toris told him angrily. He'd gotten over all the guilt and suffering of the past, but it still made him angry at times.

"Just testing," admitted Iolaus, "I needed to be sure. Xena's never really said a lot about you."

"Yeah. Well Xena and I hadn't seen each other for about eleven years, until our paths crossed when we both hunted down Cortese for what he had done." explained Toris flatly.

"Right," said Joxer, nodding his head suspiciously, "Gabby told me that story. Something about metal masks and you being on this warlord's payroll."

Toris got angrily to his feet and made a grab for Joxer, who toppled off the bench in his hurry to avoid Xena's brother. Toris looked at him coldly, his eyes almost the image of Xena's, but without the deep intensity that she transmitted. In a low, deadly voice he growled, "I was with Cortese's band so that I could get close enough to kill him for what he did to my brother, my village and my little sister."

Joxer gulped and swallowed quickly before saying hurriedly, "Gabby said that too," he agreed.

"Hey!" said Iolaus, trying to calm things down, "We're on the same side, here."

"That's right," nodded Joxer as he picked himself up and returned to his seat a little warily, "What brings you here anyway?" he said and then added with a cheesy worried smile, when he saw the storm clouds in Toris' eyes, "If you don't mind me asking."

Toris fingered the parchment under his tunic and answered slowly, "The girl .. Gabrielle .. sent me a letter. She said she thought Xena could be in big trouble and asked me to get to here as quickly as I could. She also said a man called Isumbras would probably know what had happened to her, but not to trust him."

"I got the same message," agreed Iolaus, "though she also said that I should try to find a healer by the name of Patroclese if I couldn't find her or Xena. She said she thought he might be able to help us."

"How come I never got a letter?" complained Joxer. "You'd have thought Gabby would have sent me a letter too. Perhaps she knew I'd be with you," he said to Iolaus, "Or maybe I was right and it got lost in the post. Gabrielle would never have left me out of something as dangerous and important as this." he muttered on to himself, ignored by the other two men.

"You must be telling the truth," said Toris at length. "She put that in my letter too." He sat back down and took a sip of his neglected wine. "What have you managed to find out?" he asked.

"Practically nothing," admitted the smaller man with a shrug of his shoulders. He swallowed some of his own drink before adding, "We think we know when Xena landed, and Joxer found a beggar who directed someone, who answered Xena's description, to Isumbras' warehouse. After that," he shrugged again, "nothing."

"We've tried to get in to see this Isumbras, but his men won't talk to us and in any case he seems to have disappeared," Joxer added before saying in a worried tone, "And we've found no trace of Gabrielle, or this Patroclese, anywhere."

"Have you found anything more helpful?" questioned Iolaus.

Toris looked despondent. They hadn't got any further than he had. He'd hoped that they'd managed to turn up something he'd missed, "No," he began in answer to the blonde's question when he was interrupted.

"But I have," said a voice that both Joxer and Iolaus recognised immediately.

"Autolycus!" groaned Iolaus, "What are you doing here?"

"And it's good to see you too, Shorty." greeted the suave thief, "How's the big guy? Is he here. No of course not or I'd have seen him by now," and went on before his somewhat rhetorical question could be answered, "So you're Xena's brother," he said to Toris, "I was wondering about you, but you look enough alike that I should have guessed."

Toris looked completely out of his depth as he surveyed the man before him. He was tall, slim, well built with dark, handsome good looks that boasted a moustache , a thin slither of a goatee beard and a devil may care attitude that irritated everyone around him.

"Hi, Autolycus," greeted Joxer, who had been ignored by the newcomer thus far.

"Who brought him," asked Autolycus in a disparaging way.

"No one brought me," said the tin plated man belligerently, "I brought myself."

"Oh well, I suppose he can't get into too much trouble, can he?" asked the stranger noting the uncomfortable looks the others were trying to hide. "Just who are you?" demanded Toris, his hand resting threateningly on the sword hilt at his belt.

"My! You are like your sister, aren't you?" smiled the infuriating man. "Very well, may I introduce myself?" he didn't wait for an answer, "I, am Autolycus, the King of Thieves," he told Toris as he smoothed his moustache with an aristocratic flourish of his right index finger.

"But what are you doing here?" demanded Iolaus impatiently. His relationship with the thief tended to be a little strained at best.

"Well," drawled the King of Thieves, "Firstly I was having a little trouble in Tressia."

"You took something that didn't belong to you," interpreted the smaller man.

"An exquisite jewelled dagger belonging to the King actually," Autolycus told him with a boastful swagger, "It was a masterly operation spoiled by one fatal flaw."

"You got caught," interpreted Iolaus again.

"Naturally, I needed to be somewhere less ... dangerous to my immediate personal well being," he told his audience.

"What were they gonna do to ya?" asked Joxer with a grin.

"Publicly disembowel me, was the announcement I heard," confessed the thief with a jaunty smile. "So when an Amazon delivered my invitation to this little party, how could I possibly say no!"

"What else made you come?" asked Iolaus suspiciously, feeling that however much the thief 'liked' Xena, he'd need a large inducement to make him risk his own safety for someone else.

"Well, on the way here, I started hearing these incredible rumours about some fabulous treasure that Caesar is supposed to have." Autolycus told him candidly.

"Treasure!" sneered the blonde, "I might have known you'd be more interested in something to steal than in helping us find the girls."

"On the contrary," replied the thief blandly as he tried some of Iolaus's wine, "Mmm. Not bad. Quite a nice fruity tang to it."

"Autolycus," growled the blonde, half rising.

"Alright, alright, I'm getting there Curly," the thief swayed out of the way of Iolaus's attempted grab, "I'll admit, with my varied interests in life, I did take the opportunity to investigate the treasure."

"I knew it!" declared Iolaus in disgust.

"Hey! What'd you expect?" put in Joxer, "The guy is a thief after all."

"King of Thieves," corrected Autolycus.

"Look!" interrupted Toris, beginning to lose his temper, "What's any of this got to do with my sister?"

"Just this," said the thief smugly leaning towards the others conspiratorially, "Did any of you jackasses realise that Xena disappeared right about the same time that the rumours of this fabulous treasure started to emerge?"

Iolaus looked at him, making the connection suggested by the thief's words, "So?" he encouraged him to elaborate.

"So, this 'treasure' left Narbo before first light on the morning after Xena disappeared. Caesar himself was with it and there was an elite guard of close to two hundred men, detailed to watch over a covered wagon, attached to the entire VIIth Legion that went with them. That wagon," he said disparagingly, "for those of you having trouble following this, contained the 'treasure'." He buffed his fingernails on his coat, "That's got to be more that a coincidence, don't you think?" he asked no one in particular.

The others sat in silence digesting the possibilities that this new information offered until Joxer queried, "What about Gabrielle?"

"Now of her," admitted Autolycus, "I could find no trace. But that treasure travelled to Nemausus. I'd bet my favourite lockpick that if we find Xena there, Gabrielle won't be far away."

"Is there any way of getting some verification on all of this?" asked Toris, wondering how far he could really trust his newly discovered companions.

Autolycus looked at him straight in the face and told him, "Short of finding Isumbras and getting the story out of him, then I'd say the only way we're going to find anything out, for sure, is by going to Nemausus."

"How long would it take to get there?" asked Toris, overcoming his doubts and eager to trace any clue that might solve the mystery disappearance of his sister and her friend.

"On horseback, pushing hard? I'd say we could probably do it in two days," ventured the thief.

"We?" questioned Iolaus, incredulously.

"Why sure," asserted the thief, "How else am I going to find out whether it really is a treasure or not?" then he added almost too quietly to be heard, "Besides, I like those two." He noticed the rather wry looks he was getting from Iolaus and Joxer and decided that a change of subject was definitely in order. "Where is Hercules by the way? We could probably use his help."

Iolaus finally recovered his cup of wine from the thief as he rose from the table with the others and answered, "If he'd known about this he'd have been here. But he's off tracking down some hydra that torched a village down in the south." He raised the cup to his lips and cursed when he found it empty, "Autolycus, you thief, you owe me a cup of wine."

The others chuckled as they headed down the street and made plans for their projected journey to Nemausus, while Iolaus and Autolycus wrangled intermittently. All four knew that if Xena and Gabrielle were truly captive of Caesar, they would have a difficult time in effecting a rescue.