"Mmmm? What? ... Xena are you okay?" questioned a sleep befuddled bard.
The warrior sighed heavily, "Absolutely wonderful, Gabrielle .. but I need to get up."
"Oh no, no, no, no!" retorted the honey blonde wagging a finger in front of her friend's nose. "You've just left most of your blood lying in Rome and there's no way, this side of Greece, that you're getting out of that bed. Right?"
"Gabrielle .." began Xena patiently as she struggled to get herself into a sitting position, fighting back the feeling of nausea and light headedness that she was experiencing.
"No, Xena ... we'll soon be away from Caesar's reach and while we're travelling by ship there's absolutely nothing to stop you from taking it easy and recovering from the whole ordeal." Insisted the bard trying to push her friend, gently but firmly, flat on the bed.
"Gabrielle .." tried the warrior a little more determinedly, resisting the bard's efforts at getting her to lay down and began to throw the bedclothes off as she struggled to get out of the cot.
"Xena, stop that. You'll break open your stitches and start that wound bleeding again. There's nothing urgent that Hercules and Ephiny can't deal with," the bard remonstrated.
"The ship's not moving Gabrielle," growled the warrior as she slapped her friend's hands away and gingerly eased herself out of the bed, holding onto it unsteadily as her world continued to spin. "Something's wrong .. we need to find out what the problem is."
The bard sighed in exasperation, "You get back into bed .. I'll go and find out what's going on," she temporized. She watched the warrior grudgingly sit back on the cot and she was half way to the cabin door when she thought to ask, "How do you know the ship's stopped, anyway?"
The Warrior Princess fixed her friend with a look that said, 'I have many skills', raised an eyebrow at the younger woman and told her smoothly, "I know about these things, Gabrielle. Trust me on this." She tugged one of the blankets around her nakedness as she watched the bard assimilate her words.
"Riiiight!" she drawled out at length. "Wait here .. I'll be right back."
Xena grunted something that could have been taken as assent and waited a good two heartbeats after the door had closed behind the bard, before dragging her protesting frame off of the cot to poke around the cabin in search of something she could wear. - I'll be damned to the lowest pits in Tartarus if I'll lay around .. at least until I'm certain that we're all safely away from Caesar and Rome! -
Teetering carefully over to the table, the raven haired woman caught sight of the chest that Gabrielle had found the fresh linen in. It looked the most likely place to find clothing so, moving with slow careful steps, she soon reached it and a brief search rewarded her a shift that seemed about her size.
Bracing herself, she struggled into the garment, biting her lip at the burning pain that movement of her left arm brought. A feeling of accomplishment set in as she finally settled the shift into place. She leant against the chest to give her head a chance to stop its wild spinning, and chanced to notice the heavy burlap sack that lay mostly hidden beneath the cabin's only chair. It was almost as if the bundle reached out and pulled her, because without conscious thought, she'd moved to the chair and had tugged the awkward sack out into the open.
Fumbling with the knotted neck, she felt a rising of excitement as her superhuman senses told her what she knew could not be within the bag. Finally she had it open and she plunged her hand into the rough darkness of the cloth, closing it around a cool piece of metal that felt so familiar to her touch.
Slowly she drew her hand forth gazing in intent elation at the silver and gold magnificence of her signature weapon. She knew in that moment that if she'd had to leave the weapon in Rome it would have meant abandoning part of herself .. a part that she was not always proud of, but one that she could never have accepted the loss of to Caesar.
She held the chakram up to catch the light of the cabin's lantern. Poor though it was, it was enough to sparkle on the honed edges of the circular metal that seemed to sing with life and power in her hands. It was back where it belonged, in the hand that it was destined to serve. It made her feel whole in some obscure way that she could never hope to articulate.
Laying aside the chakram, and drawing a deep breath, Xena tipped the rest of the contents of the sack onto the floor and allowed her eyes to scan the familiarity of her possessions. Sword, armour, daggers and leathers were all accounted for. She picked up the small breast dagger that she had taken from Gabrielle so long ago and allowed a smile to form as she breathed just one word .. a name, "Autolycus!"
Feeling rejuvenated just from the gift of her returned belongings, Xena shrugged her way into her leathers, returned the breast dagger to its traditional, snug berth and clipped the chakram to her waist before facing the cabin door to confront the return of the bard.
"Xena!" exclaimed the younger woman in exasperation, "You said you'd wait on the bed."
"No. You told me to wait there. I never agreed to anything," she smirked as she collected her boots from beside the bed and returned to the chair where she sat intending to put them on.
Gabrielle watched the warrior struggle with the need to bend and strain her tender back to lace the footwear on, before snorting angrily and moving to help. She batted Xena's hands out of the way and quickly snugged the laces tight on the right boot before tying them off, "You were right about being stopped," she informed the warrior, reaching for the left shoe. "We're at the mouth of the Tiber and ..."
"They've raised the chain to block off the channel," the dark haired woman finished for her. "Yeah, I guessed as much. I doubt that they did it to catch us though .. they won't hear what happened in Rome at least until dawn .. no it's because of the Carthaginians. A large part of their fleet is still at loose out there and the Romans don't want them sailing up to the heart of their city."
"Nebula said something about a chain," admitted the bard. "Just what is that, Xena?"
"It's a form of protection that can be used to control the traffic into and out of a river estuary like the Tiber. There'll be a couple of winches in the watchtowers that are used to raise and lower it when it's thought necessary," the warrior informed her as she pulled on her arm guards and bracers, savouring the feel of her missed accoutrements.
"Can Hercules break it?" questioned the honey blonde.
The raven haired woman thought a moment and then shook her head in the negative, "I doubt it. Chains like these are usually as thick as Herc's legs .. I don't think even he could make an impression on it."
"That explains them getting the boat out then. Nebula, Hercules, Eph, Malonda, Toris and Iolaus are going ashore to try and get things sorted out so that we can get out of here."
"WHAT!" snapped Xena, suddenly agitated.
"They were just leaving as I came back down to tell you what's going on .. why, what's the matter, Xena?"
Xena stood stomping into her boots to settle them. "Damn!" she swore, "What did they do with that brain cell they had between them? .. did they lose it on the way back from Graccus'?" She slipped her boot knives back into their accustomed places and reached for her sword .. although she ignored her heavy armour for the time being.
"Xena? What's wrong?" demanded the bard placing a concerned hand on her friend's arm.
The warrior sighed, "We've just come down from the port in Rome, Gabrielle. If we had official clearance to be leaving, the watch in Ostia would have been notified ready to drop the barrier. Because we were leaving under the cover of darkness without official knowledge, the garrison here is going to assume that we have something to hide and act accordingly."
"Oh," said the bard softly as the full implications of that registered. "So that means ...?"
"Right," breathed Xena in frustration, "As soon as our friends set foot on the docks they're going to be arrested unless they can give a very convincing reason not to be. And because we're stuck out here in the middle of the river under the watch fortifications, we're going to be sitting ducks for their ballista if Hercules or the others resist the guards!"
Hercules, Toris and Iolaus pulled steadily on the skiff's oars, quickly propelling the boat towards the dock steps. No one spoke, they had decided on the ship that their best course was to try and bluff the authorities here at Ostia into lowering the barrier and letting them pass. With that in mind they had chosen their delegation carefully. Nebula went as Captain of the ship and had brought the legal papers with her .. although Hercules was fairly certain that they were clever forgeries given the pirate's past. Ephiny and Malonda went as the dignitaries that would be angry over this impediment to their progress, Hercules, Iolaus and Toris went as ships crew and guards for the three women.
The short journey passed quickly and the three men were soon mounting the steps to be met by the harbour master and about twenty soldiers, many bleary eyed from hastily abandoned sleep. "Papers!" demanded the short, stocky officious little man in charge.
"Captain will be right up with 'em," drawled Hercules soothingly.
The harbour master waited impatiently as first Malonda, followed by Ephiny and lastly Nebula appeared on the dock. "Papers?" he demanded once more.
The tall, dark pirate captain handed over the documentation without a word and did her best to hide in the background. It was unlikely that anyone here would recognise her, but she didn't want to take unnecessary chances, and so had decided to leave the talking to Ephiny. As the harbour master scanned the papers, Nebula could see the Regent getting ready to present their case for right of passage.
"I am Ephiny, Queen of the Amazons," she drew herself up into an arrogant pose, brown eyes sparking with unfeigned annoyance. "By what right do you presume to stop the ship I am travelling on .. I have urgent business to attend to at home."
Royal indignation was usually enough to cause minor officials to quake in their boots. Amazon Royal indignation was enough to make most men quail and cry for their mothers. Marius Gessius was no exception to the rule. His face blanched white as he perceived the anger evident in woman's stance .. and news had filtered down from the city that this woman was Caesar's latest interest. However, the little man was also a stickler for protocol and was determined to take refuge behind the fact that the Amazon's ship had tried to leave the precincts of Rome, under cover of darkness, without the proper notifications from the officials in the city being sent down to Ostia.
Still he was not without some sense of self preservation, and attempted to grovel appropriately whilst sticking to the rules and regulations of his post, "Umm, most gracious majesty, forgive my humble self for my need to follow the dictates of my duty. I would not have stopped such an august personage as yourself if I had but had the required permits from the senate."
Brain whirling the blonde Amazon mentally cursed, - Artemis' arrows! None of us thought about permits! - "Well," considered Ephiny, prepared to act mollified by the petty official, "I'll refrain from making a complaint to Juli ... um I mean Lord Caesar .. if you drop your barrier and let my ship pass immediately."
"I .." the word came out in something of a squeak. The man was clearly petrified at the mere mention of Caesar's name .. especially her corrected use of his first name which intimated the closeness that Gessius had suspected .. however he cleared his throat and continued on gamely, "I'm sorry you majesty .. but I cannot lower the boom until either half a candlemark after dawn, or I get authorisation from the appropriate offices at the senate, or from Lord Caesar himself." A suspicious look suddenly edged onto his face, "Did Lord Caesar send such a permit with you?"
That had Eph groping for something to say, "Um actually .. err he said he was sending it down here by courier. He promised that it would reach here before we did," she defended strongly as her answer sprang to mind.
"Well then all we need to do is wait for the messenger with your clearance and as soon as it arrives we can lower the boom and let you pass," smiled the harbour master happily.
That was not at all what Ephiny had in mind. Waiting for a nonexistent messenger to arrive before the dawn would do nothing to get them away from the Tiber and Roman waters .. it also brought the prospect that a very real messenger with an entirely different sort of message might just arrive before they could leave. The Regent whirled back to Gessius and snapped, "That is not really acceptable, harbour master. I need to get back to my people in all haste. Anything could have happened to that messenger! His horse could have thrown a shoe .. or he may have been attacked by bandits!"
"Majesty!" objected Gessius with seeming shock. "We don't have bandits on Roman highways!"
Ephiny scowled bleakly .. she had no idea how to sway the pompous little man, "I need to consult with my advisor, a moment please." She turned her back on the portly official and signalled Malonda and Nebula to join her close enough to Hercules so that she could hear any advice he had to offer on the situation. In doing so she didn't notice that one of the soldiers had moved forward and had quietly imparted some information to Gessius, whilst throwing quick, excited looks over to where Nebula had waited, partially cloaked in shadow.
Conferring quickly the only thing the group could come up with was to use Ephiny's evident connection to Caesar .. and maybe the hint of a large bribe .. to try and pressure the harbour master into letting them pass. Toris and Iolaus, however, had watched the Romans with growing concern as they saw Gessius give whispered instructions to the soldier he was talking to, before the man edged his way back into the pack of guards and then tried to make an unobtrusive exit from the area.
"Something's going on," growled Toris to the blonde hunter, allowing his hand to drift down to the hilt of his sword.
"It might not be anything," muttered back Iolaus, but his own hand drifted to the comforting leather of his sword hilt in case they were required to fight their way out of an increasingly dangerous looking situation. "Don't doing anything sudden, Toris, wait for the situation to clarify."
Ephiny turned back to Gessius a forced smile on her face, "My dear harbour master," she said, hating the oily tone she was employing, "I have given my pledge to Julius," she used the name deliberately, "to return to his .. hospitality as soon as I can. But I need to make certain arrangements within my territories at home before I can do that. I'm sure you understand. But I have no wish to see you and your men inconvenienced by my needs and the tardiness of a negligent messenger, and so I would be honoured if you would allow me to make a large donation to any appropriate fund you care to name."
Gessius appeared to be a man torn. Like most petty bureaucrats the mention of money could often bring about a change of attitude towards rules and regulations, but he had growing suspicions about this group .. and then there was the news that Regulus had insistently imparted. With a disappointed sigh he told Ephiny, "I'm afraid there's really nothing I can do, your majesty, unfortunately we have no fund of the type you allude to, and I really must apply the rule of my office to this situation." He finished with confident finality.
- His attitude has changed, - Ephiny picked up the difference in tone immediately. - What's happening here? - "I don't think you know who you're dealing with here," she snapped testily. - Oooop! That was a mistake! - she acknowledged to herself as she saw the man stiffen perceptibly.
"Actually I think I do!" He snapped his fingers and his guards presented their weapons, "It seems that you are travelling with a notorious pirate, your highness. Until we can clear this situation up, I think perhaps you should accompany me to my offices." He turned his gaze to Nebula and her 'crew', "In case you should think of resisting, I should advise you that ballista teams have been notified of the situation here and have orders to reduce your ship to so much driftwood at the slightest sign of a problem here. For the good of yourselves, the ship and those still aboard it, I would advise you to surrender."
