"Hey! You should see the other guys!" he protested weakly, beginning to cough once more.

Gabrielle shoed Iolaus out of the way and laid the back of her hand against his brow, wincing at the fever she felt there. Taking a deep breath, she said, "Eph, I need that medical kit from our rooms, I think that's got everything I need in it. Hercules, I'm going to need you to push that arrow through ... I'm sure you know what to do. Iolaus can you find a poker to heat up ... use a torch ... get Joxer to help you. Toris can you get me a bowl of water and some linen that I can use for cloths and bandages."

Everyone went quickly about their assigned tasks as the bard and demi-god worked to get the thief's tunic off of him so they could clearly see what they were dealing with. "I thought I told you to keep clear of trouble," Gabrielle rebuked mildly trying to hide her wince as she viewed the heavy bruising across his chest, "What part of that didn't you understand?" she questioned.

"When did she get so authoritative?" Autolycus asked the big man beside him.

"Must be the queen thing," Hercules replied half smiling at the look of chagrin on Gabrielle's face.

"You didn't answer my question," insisted the honey blonde.

"I was being careful, Gabrielle. At least until tall, dark and deadly got herself into major trouble."

Toris returned with the water and cloth. The bard quickly began to wash the dirt and grime away from the arrow wound and the cuts and abrasions on the thief's face, "You can tell us all about it when we get though fixing you up," Gabrielle told him gently. "How's it going with the poker, boys?" she asked.

"It'll be ready when you are," Iolaus responded.

"Hey! ... Ouch! ... Mind what you're doing with that, it's hot!" protested Joxer.

Gabrielle looked at the demi-god, "I wish Xena was here. Not just because she's better at this than me, but she'd be able to take some of the pain away with that pressure point thing she does."

"It'll be fine," assured Hercules, his blue eyes showing confidence in her ability, "He's pretty strong ... a bit of pain won't hurt too much."

"Hey! That's me you're talking about. Me and pain don't ..." Autolycus gasped as the big man snapped off the fletchings of the arrow, "... mix ......" he finished as he lapsed into unconsciousness.

Hercules quickly pulled the shaft out from the exit wound and made room for Iolaus to apply the red-hot poker to cauterise the flesh. Autolycus writhed from the pain but didn't awaken. The bard took the time to apply a healing slave to the wounds then bound them firmly, before checking that his recently healed broken wrist hadn't received any further damage. Seeing that all was well in that area, she turned her attention to his injured face. With gentle hands she applied an astringent to cleanse the wounds and deftly inserted five stitches to hold the wicked looking gash together.

Autolycus began to show signs of coming around as she began to run her hands over his body checking for damage to his ribs, "You keep doing that," the thief mumbled with slurred words, "and I'll start to think you have designs on my body," he told her with a lascivious grin ... well one that he intended to be lascivious, it actually barely made wounded puppy dog! "Not that I can blame you," he added, "Ahh! The stories I could tell!"

"Be nice," Hercules told him.

"Don't worry," Gabrielle told him. "He's not the only one who can tell stories. Have I ever told you the one where Xena tricked him into stealing a lump of rock sugar, then hunted him down and caught him before he could escape?"

"Ah, Gabrielle ... I don't think they need to know about that," Autolycus responded, his voice beginning to return to normal as he recovered some of his strength.

"Or the time that Xena caught him disguised as an old woman after the golden statue of Pax was stolen ... or when he had himself captured and chained up so he could get a chance at stealing some diamonds from a mine," she continued with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Sheesh! Cut me some slack here. I'm an injured man. A victim of Caesar's goons .... Ow!" he finished limply looking for sympathy.

The bard patted him on the arm a mischievous smile playing over her lips, "I'll play nice if you will," she told him. "Look I'm going to mix you some herbs to help fight that fever and any infection you might have picked up. When you've drunk that, if you feel up to it, perhaps you can tell us what happened. We've been frantic with worry for you and Xena."

"Sure," answered the thief with none of his usual bravado. "I don't know a lot of the details, but I'll tell you my part of it and what I saw happening ... although I really could do with something to eat ... I don't think I've had anything in days."

Sending Joxer down to the kitchens for some broth, something that wouldn't cause any trouble because the palace staff had become used to the 'guests' requiring food at odd times, Gabrielle quickly put together a concoction that Xena had shown her how to prepare and got Autolycus to swallow it down, "By the gods! That's the most awful thing I've ever tasted," he complained.

"You should try some of Xena's other remedies. I don't think she believes they do any good unless they taste foul." the bard grinned. They waited for Joxer to return and allowed the thief to eat his meal in peace, before asking him to relate just what had happened two evenings previously.

Autolycus, relaxed as he lay back on the cushions that had been nested around him on the sofa, feeling comfortable and at ease for the first time in a couple of days. He replayed events in his mind before launching into his story, "I headed out for Caesar's and watched for my chance to get in. The guard routines were still in pattern, so I knew it would be an easy job to slip over the wall, same as I did before. I was just about to start when all Hades seemed to break loose and all the guards were pulled off the wall. It was obvious that something was going on, so I took the chance, climbed the wall and hid to get an idea of what was going down. The guards were spread all around the palace and it looked like someone had thrown a hornet's nest amongst them. The grate to Xena's cell was open and there was no guards there, so I figured whatever was going on must have something to do with her.

"I watched a while before I figured out that everyone seemed to be looking at the top of the building. It seemed like a dinar to a duck's feather that our Warrior Princess had slipped the leash and was up on the palace roof doing her best to avoid the Romans." He stopped his narration and took a long drink from the goblet of water that Gabrielle offered him, "Thanks I needed that. How'd you know?"

She shrugged, "I'm a bard. I tell stories ... a lot. I know how thirsty you can get."

"Sheesh! Should have guessed," grinned the thief looking more than a little tired.

"Hey, you okay? Do you want to leave this until after you've had some sleep?" Gabrielle asked solicitously.

He gave her a calculating look and swung a glance over the others who had been eagerly devouring his words, "Thanks for the thought, Gabrielle, but I'll sleep better for knowing that you lot aren't gnawing your fingers off with impatience."

"Very virtuous of you, I'm sure," the bard grinned openly at the relieved sighs from several of the others. "Just don't over tire yourself, 'kay?"

"My protector," smirked the thief as he settled back into his cushions and resumed his story. "Well with everyone's attention on the roof of the palace, I was able to slip along the wall and up onto the barracks roof. >From there I was able to get across to the main building's roof ...."

"Hey, that's a pretty large distance to get across without being seen," remarked Ephiny, visualising the layout of the drill-yard compound.

"Yeah, well ... I had to take a few risks and knocks," admitted Autolycus with a reluctance that didn't really fit his normal bravado.

"Oh, I get it," grinned Iolaus, "that's how you got those bruises."

"Only some of them, Shorty," the thief snapped in return.

"Well what happened?" demanded the blonde warrior, "How'd you get them?" He grinned, pleased to see that his 'friend' was looking better for his treatments.

"I ran into a wall," answered Autolycus almost too quietly to hear.

"You what?" pressed Iolaus, his grin getting wider.

"I misjudged the impact and hit the wall," snarled the King of Thieves, "Satisfied now?" he asked snarkily.

"Oh that's choice," laughed the short man slapping his knee in delight, "The professed King of Thieves running face first into a wall."

"It wasn't face first," protested Autolycus, touchy about his prowess being questioned, "my feet hit first."

As Iolaus continued to laugh, Ephiny gave him a rather annoyed look and explained tersely, being the only one other than the thief to have seen the area, "The gap between the barracks and the palace must be, what? twenty feet?" she directed at Autolycus.

"Twenty-five," he corrected uncomfortably.

"Right, so maybe a twenty foot difference in height between the two buildings," she asked and got a nod from the thief, "And a thirty foot drop from the barracks down to a lower roof?" Again she got a nod for the correctness of the estimate. Ephiny shook her head in disbelief, "So you swung across the gap?" Another nod, "You're mad!" she told him as the other looked on somewhat shocked at the thought of the velocity that he must have hit the wall at.

"I'm sorry," Iolaus apologised, "I shouldn't have said what I did."

"Hey, it's only what you heroes do all the time," smirked Autolycus basking in their unfeigned admiration. "Anyway," he continued, "once I was up on the palace roof, it wasn't too hard to find Xena, although she very nearly plastered my nose across my face for my trouble," he groaned as he was reminded of the painful bruising and two beautiful black eyes he was sporting, and just thanked the gods that nothing had been broken and ruined his perfect looks.

"You should know better than to sneak up on her!" admonished Gabrielle.

"Hey! It was dark and I wasn't certain it was her," protested the thief. The quickly changed the subject back to his narration of events. "So, she'd already managed to get free of that wooden spar they use to restrict her, and we decided to move to a different spot, before the Romans located us, so I could have a crack at her shackles ... you know Caesar must have a really good locksmith working for him, because those were some of the hardest locks I've tackled."

"But you managed to get them open, right?" demanded Toris.

"Weeell," the thief waggled his hand from side to side, "I got one of the manacles undone, before Xena told me time was up. Someone had got the authority to call in half a legion, which meant they could surround the palace and mount an extensive search of the roof. With the leg irons still in place, she wasn't in much of a position to move fast, so she ordered me out of there."

"You didn't stay to help?" asked an incredulous Joxer. "Joxer the Mighty would never have left a friend in distress," he informed them proudly puffing out his chest, trying to look the part of the warrior.

"Listen, Master of Morons, when was the last time you won an argument with Xena? Any of you?" he challenged, then added an exclusion for Hercules and Gabrielle, "You two don't count."

"He's got a point," muttered Toris, scratching his ear, "I haven't been able to best her in any type of dispute since she was about five or six."

Still feeling proddy about the perceived smirch on his honour and bravery, Autolycus continued, "So I told her the plan, kissed her and got my butt out of there, because she was adamant that my getting caught would make things even worse for her."

"You what?" demanded Hercules incredulously with a dangerous glint in his eye.

"Got my butt out of there," replied the thief apprehensively, replaying what he had just said in his mind. - Oh Zeus! - he cursed as he realised what he'd let slip. He hadn't meant to mention that around the demi-god, - He's going to kill me! - "Umm, c'mon Herc. It was just a ... " he swallowed hard "...friendly kiss. Just to let her know she's not been forgotten."

Hercules glared at the thief for a very long moment, "We'll talk about it when you're feeling better," he rumbled ominously.

"Umm, sure, big guy." He swallowed again convulsively, "Anyway, I headed back out the way I came in. I figured to jump from the palace down to the barracks roof. I also tried to distract the search parties attentions by yelling as I went. Trouble was they're carrying these dart crossbows that carry some kind of knock out drug and when Xena realised that they were going to shoot at me, she let out one of her battle cries and began attacking them like a demon possessed."

"Whoa! Back up," interrupted Iolaus. "You jumped the gap between the buildings?"

"Well, ah, yeah. It was the quickest way off, and like I said, I wanted to distract the guards to give Xena a chance to get away."

"But you already got banged up crossing that gap once?" protested the blonde man, an unexpected respect beginning to kindle in his mind.

"Yeah, well, I was moving from higher to lower ... and I rolled on impact and only banged up my ribs a little bit more ... no big deal," he said with true modesty for once.

Gabrielle, leaned over and lightly kissed him drawing jealous looks for the thief from Iolaus and Joxer and, surprisingly, from Toris. "You know, Autolycus?" grinned the bard.

"Aw, don't say it, Gabrielle," winced the thief in embarrassment.

"You've got a good heart," she smiled gently caressing his cheek. "Now what happened next?"

The King of Thieves gave a nervous look around the room. Every man there was looking daggers at him, "Hey it's not my fault women find me irresistible," he protested with a slightly smug grin.

"Don't push your luck, Slick," advised Ephiny with a firm squeeze on his good shoulder, "Just get on with the story."

The thief smirked with his usual cocky arrogance until he caught the withering look he was getting from Hercules. Clearing his throat he continued, "There wasn't anything else I could do to help her, I saw her take down two or three soldiers, one fell off the roof. It was obvious she wanted me out of there so that I didn't get caught, and the ground troops were beginning to tighten the cordon. If I hadn't left then, I'd have never got away," he told them plaintively.

"'S'okay, Autolycus," the bard assured him a sad look in her eyes, "You did what you had to do."

"Anyway, I had to cross the length of the barracks to the walkway and then over the wall. Nearly all of the guards' attention was focused up on the roof ... Xena was kind of doing a balancing act on the edge, daring the soldiers to come and get her. They couldn't dart her in case she went over, and anyone foolish enough to get close to her ended up dead real quick from the chain she was swinging." He gave the bard a sympathetic look as she blanched when he mentioned the balance on the edge of the building. He'd forgotten her fear of heights.

"Unfortunately, " he continued, "not all of them kept their eyes on Xena's show. I'd just made it to the wall, when some bas.... um, archer got a luck shot and winged me." He grinned at himself for avoiding the coarser language, "I made it down the wall, and scrambled away, but a squad of soldiers were hot on my tail. As I made a corner, I caught sight of movement on the roof and I saw Xena jump, but I couldn't hang around because the posse was just to damn close behind me." He gave a reassuring look to the bard, and hid the fear he had felt when he'd seen the Warrior Princess launch herself off of the building, "She'll be alright," he told Gabrielle with a certainly he tried hard to believe in himself, "She wouldn't have jumped without a reason. She probably had a way out of the tight spot on the roof ... you know what she's like."

"I know," agreed the bard softly, patting the injured man's hand, then changed the subject, "So what took you so long to get back here?"

Autolycus snorted with disgust, "That damned goon squad stuck to me like sh... , um, fleas to a dog," he adjusted nimbly. "I had to hole up in an a warehouse for a day ... I was hoping to get to the ship the next night, but they'd got the docks cordoned off and there was no way I'd have been able to slip past them with that arrow sticking out of me. So I spent that night and all of today in that warehouse, and slipped back here tonight, although it wasn't easy. There's a screen of Caesar's troops all around this area. They're being discreet about it but they're there. That's about everything there is to know," he concluded, taking a long drink of water and finally allowing the exhaustion to wash over him.

They discussed the news between themselves, and how it affected the situation, for some time. No one allowed themselves to think for a moment that Xena could have died from jumping off the roof ... rumour of that would have spread considering the animosity felt towards the dark haired warrior by almost everyone in Rome.

It helped that Xena was now aware of what they were trying to achieve and that they were working towards her freedom, but uncertainty still hung in the air like a cloud and continued to do so for another two days until Caesar returned to his city ... quietly this time, without the pomp of the triumphal entry shared with Veranius.

Xena grabbed another rock from the pile and started the well worn trek across the yard to the other heap. The five days since her abortive escape attempt had been filled with long hours of moving the stone from dawn until dusk, followed by watching two of the slave children, each night, receive five lashes apiece. - Tonight they'll be back to the first two again. - She inwardly winced at the thought of fresh lashes being applied to the barely healed flesh of the two girls, neither more than ten summers old. The sight of the callous brutality inflicted upon innocents, for her 'crime', caused her indescribable suffering. Yet she watched the beatings with an impassive face, hiding her feelings behind her stoic warrior mask, knowing that to show her pain would not help either the children or herself in an untenable situation.

For four days she had watched it happen, before being thrown back into her cell, each night, with the additional irritation of having a long leash from her collar, secured to the pit grate. She felt seething anger and frustration at her impotence in being able to either escape, or help the children being savaged as a lesson to her. She was further tormented by the knowledge that, if it wasn't for the fact she was needed fit for the fight against Hercules, Flaccus would have happily inflicted the punishment upon her, and maybe the children would have been spared.

Squinting up at the sky, she judged it to be about mid-afternoon, which meant that she had at least five more candlemarks of rock hauling to go. She stopped and shifted her grip on the stone and was shoved sharply from behind to get her moving once more causing her to stumble against the short chain that tethered her ankles together.

Since her escape attempt, the tight security surrounding her had been further increased. Her leg irons had a bare eighteen inches of chain, making each small step an exercise in concentrated effort. The manacles on the belt had been shortened to give her only just enough play to lift and carry the rocks ... eating and drinking was now a humiliating trial. Water was lapped like an animal, food was eaten directly off the plate, not being able to raise her hands high enough to manage in any other fashion. Ten guards surrounded her at all times, thirty stood guard on the walls with dart bows, ready to shoot her at the slightest wrong move.

She dropped the rock and carefully turned and made her way back to where the other pile stood, concentrating on moving without falling flat on her face. She glanced up at the window of Caesar's office. He was there watching as she knew he would be ... she'd felt his eyes upon her for some time now, and had known he was back, from the gossip amongst her guards. It was only a matter of time before he demanded her presence.

"Centurion," Caesar enunciated crisply, as he turned his back on the activities beyond his window, "I left you instructions to keep my personal property secure while I was away." His tone was cool and business-like, hiding the anger that he felt at having come close to losing the Warrior Princess.

Flaccus had been with Caesar many years. He prided himself on his loyalty to the man who had been his commander for more than ten years. He knew that he was a highly valued soldier, but he was not stupid and so knew that he was not irreplaceable ... the wrong words here could be the death of him.

On the other hand, he'd never been afraid to speak his mind to any man and he suspected that his blunt truthful manner was part of the reason that Caesar valued him. So, drawing a breath, he answered, "With respect, sir, I think you should have made that clear to your wife. She invoked her authority as your wife, and I had no option, but to follow her wishes. I took what precautions I could and as soon as the escape attempt was made, I acted to ensure that it wouldn't be successful. However, I accept full responsibility and await you judgement."

Caesar studied the centurion with calm impassivity for several heartbeats, knowing that Flaccus felt uncomfortable under his scrutiny. Finally he responded, "The responsibility was yours, centurion ...." he allowed it to hang for a moment, "but it was also mine. You did well to retake her ... unharmed I hope?"

"A few bruises ... nothing dangerous. She killed five and crippled two," Flaccus reported the butcher's bill.

"What of the other figure on the roof?" Caesar questioned intently.

"He was reported as wounded, but the squad from the VIIth lost him," reported the centurion in disgust.

Caesar hissed his annoyance. He wanted to know just who the mystery figure was, although he did have his suspicions, "I think it's time Xena understood what I want from her," he said at length, "With this fight in two days, I want to satisfy myself she's unharmed. I don't want anything addressed to her while I'm with her. If she speaks out of turn, discipline her, but don't speak to her. We've tried treating her like any slave and it hasn't worked. From now on she'll be treated like any other animal I own .... maybe she'll learn to accept her place as a slave after a while," he speculated, willing to patiently try any variety of approaches to break her spirit and sure that being degraded to non-human would cause a reaction within her, perhaps something they would be able to work on to weaken her ... eventually.

It was almost dusk when the Optio, Marcus Scaurus, called a halt to the day's labour. Xena moved slowly in the direction the guards pushed and prodded her, descending heavily to her knees when they kicked her feet out from under her. It was part of the evening ritual. She was always forced to watch the children's punishment from her knees.

She sat back on her heels, ignoring the bruising inflicted by the cobbled ground, waiting for the children to be brought out, terrified and sobbing in pitiful expectation of the painful beating that awaited them out in the drill-yard. The warrior's stomach knotted at the memory of the familiar event that she was powerless to prevent. She willed her fists not to clench, demanded that her body show no trace of the emotion that roiled within her gut. She knelt with apparent patient indifference.

After about half a candlemark had passed with no sign of the children, Xena began to allow hope to emerge, that their torment was over. Another candlemark passed and the Warrior Princess resisted the growing urge to shift her weight from her sorely aching knees, knowing that the guards would be heavy handed in their attempts to discourage movement.

It was now fully dark, the torches and braziers had been lit to illuminate the parade ground and still they waited. Unable to resist any longer, Xena shifted her position and received the expected blow from the baton in return. As if that had been a signal, life stirred within the doorway to the palace and Caesar appeared flanked by Flaccus and Titus.

He stood before her ... she ignored his presence, expecting threats or abuse from him. However, after closely examining her for injuries, he ... in his turn ... ignored her, turning to Flaccus and remarking, "She seems sound enough. You handled the situation correctly. See that she spends tomorrow with the Coliseum trainers. The whole day. The day of the fight she is to spend bathing and under the hands of the masseurs. Make sure she eats well, have her fed and watered by one of the kitchen slaves ...."

"Son of a bacchii!" swore Xena, "I can feed myself!" she growled not ready for that indignity and despising the way he spoke of her like an animal, some favourite pet to be groomed and cared for by handlers.

A casual backhand blow from Flaccus snapped her head to one side and left her spitting blood. Other than the blow, both Caesar and the centurions continued to ignore her as the Roman ruler outlined his plans to his subordinates, "We'll fight her for maybe another two years ... just matches against high quality opponents, and I'll give you a chance to break her between matches. When we finish fighting her we'll have her tendons cut ... that will ensure that she won't be able to run, then we'll see about breeding her. A few whelps from her and some good bloodstock should give me a decent stable of gladiators for many years."

Xena attempted to lunge forward, but was held firmly in place by her guards as Caesar swept back out of the yard and into the palace. Flaccus waited until his superior had left before turning back to his men and snapping, "See she's fed and watered, then put the animal back in her cage ... and make sure she doesn't get out." He watched as Xena was pulled to her feet and manhandled towards the kitchens.

- As soon as this fight is out of the way, slave, we'll see just how many sessions on the wheel it will take to break you! - he thought with anticipation.