Gabrielle's face was immediately cloaked in a worried frown, "It's got to be something to do with Xena," she said softly, almost to herself. "Oh gods! I hope Autolycus didn't get into trouble," she added in a worried tone.

"What's that about Autolycus?" demanded Hercules, realising that the swaggering thief was not there with them.

Gabrielle threw a look at the demi-god, then drawing a deep breath, standing straighter in her 'queenly' pose, and doing a good impression of one of Xena's 'looks', she answered, "I asked him to check and see if Xena was still at the palace. I needed ... need to know that Caesar hasn't taken her away somewhere ... or maybe killed her," she finished quietly.

"Hey, Gabrielle," Ephiny said moving to her side and rubbing her arm reassuringly, "you know that he's not about to kill her after all the trouble he's gone to capturing her and keeping her alive." She looked into her monarch's eyes and saw the uncertainty born of the knowledge that her best friend had already been close to death while in her enemy's hands. Ephiny told her firmly, "If he'd wanted her dead he's had plenty of opportunity ... for now he wants her alive. He might hurt her," she winced at the look of pain that flashed in the green of the bards eyes, "but he won't kill her. She's far too valuable to him."

"Yeah," muttered Gabrielle, her confidence returning a little as she fingered the slave collar at her own throat. "That doesn't explain where Autolycus is," growled Hercules beginning to pace back and forth in the room.

"Don't worry about him, Herc," grinned Iolaus from where he was sitting chatting with Toris, "You know that man's got more lives than a cat."

"Figure that turn out was for him?" asked Eponin as she flopped onto the sofa next to the blonde warrior.

Hercules stopped his pacing and looked at her for a long moment, "It could have been," he answered, worry tinging his voice, but I don't see why they would have been up on the palace roof ... not that I can see why Xena would be up there either," he admitted.

"He could have been chased up there," suggested Joxer from where he was sprawled on the floor with a pile of scrolls that Gabrielle had 'acquired' from Pompey's library. "Or he could have been doing some ... some thief thing and got caught at it,"

"Now that I could believe!" agreed Iolaus quickly.

"He wouldn't have," assured the bard although her confidence on the point seemed a little shaky.

"He would have!" said almost everyone else in the room in chorus.

Gabrielle threw her hands into the air, "Jeez guys! Cut him some slack will ya! He only went because I asked him to ... and he could be in trouble because of it."

Hercules stopped beside the small woman and gave her a hug, "It's alright, Gabrielle. We're concerned about him too."

"Speak for yourself, big guy," muttered Iolaus darkly and received a friendly punch in the arm from Toris, who frowned at the blonde, "Hey!" responded the warrior in mock annoyance.

"You know you don't mean that, so be nice," Toris told him dryly sounding so much like Xena that he drew all eyes to him. "What?" he asked plaintively.

Amidst much shaking of heads, the others turned back to their conversations, the uncanny resemblance between the innkeeper and the Warrior Princess impressed upon them yet again.

"How long has he been gone," asked Hercules, trying to judge whether there was anything to really worry about.

Gabrielle sighed and sat down on the unoccupied sofa with Ephiny next to her, "He left just after you did," she informed him.

Doing a quick calculation, the demi-god's brow creased with concern, "That's nearly six candlemarks. Apart from that first time, he's never been gone more than three before."

"Hey, quit worrying," Iolaus said again, but in a far less mocking tone, "I wasn't kidding when I said he's got more lives than a cat. If anyone can get out of that kind of fix it would be him ... you watch, he'll turn up before dawn like a bad dinar."

But he hadn't and the atmosphere within the suites, occupied by the group, became steadily more gloomy as they began to realise that the King of Thieves could have found himself more trouble than he could handle. Everyone felt helpless. They couldn't look for information on Autolycus without seeming very suspicious. They couldn't ask Pompey to, because as far as the Roman knew, the thief was safely 'detained' within the Amazon's private suites. If he found out that Autolycus had slipped away, then Gabrielle, Toris, Iolaus and Joxer would have found themselves locked securely in a dungeon. They were pawns in a battle for power and, knowing that, they had to keep the King of Thieves' disappearance to themselves.

They had spent the rest of that night waiting for Autolycus to return, and discussing how their tentative advances towards Graccus were going. Ephiny reported that the senator had been discrete in showing his interest to the oblique ideas that the Regent presented to him. It was clear that the erudite man felt no love or loyalty to either Caesar or Pompey, believing that both were destroying everything good within Roman society. However, he was far from foolish enough to make his opposition obvious, knowing that such a stance would likely prove to be suddenly very fatal.

"I think he will help us, so long as he isn't seen to do so," summarised Ephiny. "He's extremely smart and has survived a long time in this cesspool of a city, so he won't commit himself openly. But if we do things right, I think we'll be able to count on him coming up with the right offer at the right moment. I just need to prime him a little more ... but carefully. He won't risk being openly supportive of us when he knows there is likely to be trouble from such support."

They argued back and forth about the best ways to achieve what they wanted from Graccus, until the sun began it's daily ascent, and they knew that Autolycus wouldn't be returning ... at least not until darkness fell once more. The thief would not risk trying to get back into Pompey's well guarded palace in broad daylight.

With nothing else to do they adjourned to their beds for some much needed sleep. It was necessary to keep their strength up and their wits about them, if they were going to be able to execute the rescue they had planned. They also needed to find out someway of discovering what had happened to Autolycus.

Two more days had passed. Ephiny spent quite a bit of time with Graccus, ostensibly under the pretext of negotiating trade agreements between the Amazon Nation and the peoples of Rome. A good pretext as trade was an area that the senator had long been active in. During that time, the Regent made certain that given particular circumstances, Graccus would act in a way that would be helpful, without seeming to implicate him in any way in the actions of the Amazons.

If that had been the good news, the bad news was that they had been totally unable to get any word about Autolycus. There was nothing to be learned about him on the streets, at least the Amazons could not pick up his name in any of the gossip that was always rampant among the masses. Oh there was plenty of talk about the events up at Caesar's palace, but although everyone speculated about what had really happened, the official line had been that it was a training exercise to deal with any potential assassination attempts. Even Nebula had not heard anything about the capture of the King of Thieves, and if anyone within their company was going to hear something, it would most likely have been the pirate.

What they were aware of was the increased presence of troops loyal to Caesar around the city. Getting into the docks had proven difficult because everyone was closely scrutinised, as the legionaries searched for someone ... the group had little doubt that the search was for Autolycus.

Their other problem was Pompey. Generally he left them to themselves, secure in the knowledge that no one would be able to enter or leave his residence without being apprehended by his guards. However, once a day there was a cursory head count to make certain that no one had gone missing without him realising. So far they had managed to avoid the detection of the missing body, by using Merayne, a tall Amazon guard, who had short black hair and a slim boyish build. By appropriating a lock of Toris' hair, they had fashioned the woman a moustache and goatee beard and, with a little slight of hand, had managed to keep their gaoler ... er host ... from realising the deception.

Things were tense amongst the small group. Gabrielle fretted alternately between Xena and Autolycus, whilst the others worried similarly to an only slightly lesser extent. The little that could be accomplished, was being done by Ephiny and although that allowed her, Eponin and Hercules to get away from the tense atmosphere of the palace suites, more often than not, the demi-god elected to remain behind where he could act as a moderating influence on the tempers of his friends. Besides, within the sanctuary of their rooms was the only place that he could talk.

The evening torches had long since been lit, their steady flames casting long shadows around the sitting room of the men's suite. Gabrielle sat telling Ephiny, Toris and Hercules the story of Xena's affliction by the Furies at Ares' instigation, while Iolaus and Joxer sat throwing dice in a complicated game that they were inventing and refining as they went along to pass the time. Eponin was still with the warriors, sorting out guard rosters and making certain that weapons practice was being maintained to her rigorous standards. She would come up to the suite when she had finished.

- All in all, - thought Autolycus blearily as he stood unsteadily in the dark shadows of the bathroom doorway, - quite the domestic little scene. - He coughed loudly, unable to still the hacking assault that gripped him momentarily. Instantly all eyes flickered towards where he stood hidden by shadows.

"Autolycus?" questioned Gabrielle's sweetly concerned voice, moving quickly towards where he stood, but not quick enough to beat Iolaus, who had rushed to the thief's side and held him with a steadying hand.

"Thanks, Curly," the usually dashing thief said appreciatively, leaning heavily on the smaller man's shoulder, "I could use a 'little' support," he added weakly with a feeble attempt at his normally cutting humour. For once Iolaus didn't rise to the bait. The King of Thieves ... his sometimes friend ... was in poor shape and he needed help more than he needed banter. "Not going soft on me, are ya, shorty?" asked Autolycus, just before he keeled over unable to hold himself upright any longer.