"Wouldn't it be easier to climb up through the pit, sir, now that all the savages have gone?" asked a sweating soldier.

"It's not worth the risk of being infected with whatever the rest of the men have come down with," barked the centurion angrily.

"I wouldn't mind coming down with some of that," snickered a soldier who realised that his belief that he was far enough away from the officer was mistaken when the vine staff cracked hard across his shoulders.

"You want to explain that comment to the General?" growled the centurion, "My guess is that it would make you a prime candidate for the cross, Deccus! With that slave escaping we're all in the shit and you want to make it worse?"

"Not me sir, no sir! It just kinda slipped out!" replied the soldier hurriedly.

"Well stop the damn slacking and get that door down!" roared Flaccus.

The soldiers resumed their assault on the door with renewed vigour and the concentrated pounding from the bench finally did the desired damage as a crack split the wood of the obstacle. Within moments the split had grown and by throwing all of their weight into the impromptu battering ram, they were finally rewarded with the wooden obstacle sagging open enough for them to force their way through.

"Capullus, Tressis and Finallus search the house and see if you can find any other guards who aren't under the spell of this madness. The rest of you come with me .. we need to get to the General," ordered the centurion.

They moved through the mansion unhindered and Flaccus quickly led them to the doorway of the pit gallery, where they stopped to await further instruction. Within they could see Caesar still bound to the balustrade of the railing that surrounded the pit.

"Flaccus! Get in here and cut me loose!" he demanded. The centurion hesitated and threw a look at the pit where the sounds of a noisy and active orgy emanated. Noticing the glance, Caesar growled, "It's safe now. Just send one of your men in to cut me free."

The senior centurion nodded and barked crisply, "Deccus! Get in there and cut the General free!"

"Me!" squeaked the luckless Deccus.

Flaccus turned on him with a blood chilling glare. "You are really pushing your luck little man," he snarled, "now get in there and follow your orders!"

Swallowing noticeably, the soldier drew his dagger and advanced cautiously towards where his commander sat captive. It was one thing to joke about the chance to join the grunting lovers in the pit of sin, and quite another to be compelled to do so by some spell.

"You! Soldier .. Deccus, isn't it? Get over here now!" ordered Caesar, impatiently.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Deccus scuttled across the intervening space holding his breath, believing that it he didn't breathe he couldn't be infected if the spell was still operational. Quickly using his knife he sliced through the General's bonds and then dashed for the relative safety of the doorway where the rest of his active unit were standing.

Caesar rose from the ground and, after casting a disgusted look into the pit, he stalked away from it to join Flaccus and his soldiers. Sweeping past them he led the group of seventeen legionaries up into the great hall before rounding on his centurion. "I want them back! All of them! The slaves, the men, and the Amazons .. especially Ephiny!" he roared.

Flaccus remained calm and pointed out, "They'll have been on that ship of theirs candlemarks ago, sir."

"Very true, Flaccus," came the swift reply, with a deadly glint in his eye. "And that ship would have been brought to a stop at the barriers down in Ostia. If the harbour master did his job the ship should still be there until dawn. If we're really lucky he may even have had the sense to arrest whoever they sent ashore to try and negotiate their way out of the river. If the ship isn't there when you get there, I want the harbour master flayed as an example of what dereliction of duty will earn!"

"I haven't enough men here to capture them, sir," he said indicating his remaining few soldiers. "Your slave alone would take far more than this."

Caesar nodded, "Get out to the VII's encampment and get them mobilized. You take the mounted section straight to Ostia and you make sure that the barrier stays up until I can force march the Legion down there to pick up my property and everyone with them. I don't want any of them getting out of Italia alive!"

Hercules was not happy. He'd come to Rome to rescue his friends .. not to wind up in the same predicament! The truth was that he was frustrated. - If it wasn't for those ballista trained on the ship we'd be out of here before they could blink, - he snarled at himself. As it was he, Toris and Iolaus were locked in a cell that smelled of things he'd far rather not think about, while Nebula was locked up in the next one down the dimly lit corridor, and he had absolutely no idea where Ephiny and Malonda had been taken.

"It's no good fretting, buddy," remarked Iolaus from somewhere within the dim, dank cell behind him, "We can't do anything until we know that the ship is safe. I'm sure Xena will work something out and get us out of here."

The big man turned and faced into darkness and leant against the bars of their prison, "I should have seen that something like this would happen," he grumped moodily.

"Hey! You couldn't know that Nebula would be recognised! After all, she's spent all this time in Rome without anyone realising who she was," cajoled the blonde gently, trying to chivvy his friend out of his dark mood.

"I know that," agreed Hercules, "but I should have known that the harbour master wouldn't agree to lowering the chain for us. Our trip into the port was risky at best and definitely foolhardy. Something was bound to go wrong. I should have listened to Eponin and worked out a different way to get us out to sea."

Moving to the demi-god's shoulder, Iolaus stood next to him, leaning back on the bars as well. "Don't worry about it Herc. Knowing Xena she's already worked out a plan to get us out of this." He knew that was the wrong thing to have said when his friend sighed.

"She shouldn't have to. We came here to rescue her, remember ... not for her to get us out of a fix."

The shorter man grinned up at the large, "Fair's fair Herc. We rescue Xena ... she rescues us. No sweat .. we do it all the time, remember?"

"Trouble is," said Toris from the gloomy interior of the cell, "she's in no real condition to be leaping around at the moment. Fact being, she shouldn't be out of bed for at least a couple of days. She lost an awful lot of blood, Iolaus ... and before you say anything, yes I know how fast she heals .. but she's still in no shape to be heading a rescue party."

"She probably won't head it herself," Iolaus objected, drawing immediate looks of disbelief from the others. He tried again, "Look, she'd got Gabrielle, Eponin and Autolycus out there to help her," he pointed out patiently.

"Firstly," said Toris, "Xena won't let Gabrielle go into a dangerous situation without her."

"Secondly," put in Hercules, "Eponin's not in much better condition to be leading a raiding party."

"And thirdly," interjected Iolaus himself in a dejected tone, "Autolycus is ... Autolycus."

"Actually I was going to say that Autolycus might be a good man for the job," quipped Hercules.

"He'd be the right man to come and get us out," agreed Toris moving over into the gloomy light by the bars, "but they'd still need to take out those ballista and get that chain dropped."

"It could be done," Nebula offered from further down the corridor. She'd been listening to the quiet conversation the men were having, "I mean they have all those Amazons out there .. they've gotta be good at that kind of stuff."

"That's not really the issue here," insisted the raven haired man. "The problem is that Xena's going to insist on being part of any attack, and she's really nowhere near fit enough for it."

"Gabrielle will be with her," reassured the demi-god.

"How good is a bard with a stick?" questioned Nebula dismissively.

The three men looked at each other and, surprisingly, it was Toris who spoke, "Don't underestimate Gabrielle," he defended, "She can cause a lot of damage with that stick .. ask Eponin sometime."

"I will," agreed the pirate as she rattled the cell door in frustration, "If we ever get out of here."

- Very comfortable, - Ephiny admitted to herself as she surveyed the room to which she and Malonda had been conducted. The problem was that however well furnished and accommodating the room was, what couldn't be hidden was the fact that it was still a gaol. The Regent moved to the window and looked moodily out towards the river where she could see that their ship had suddenly blossomed lantern lights either side of the bow and at the top of the mast. She ignored the four guards who stood alertly below the window, a counterpart to the four who stood guard on the other side of the locked door.

"What are we going to do, Ephiny?" asked Malonda softly, from where she sat in a padded chair near a small table that bore a flagon of wine, some goblets and a large selection of fruits.

The blonde ran a frustrated hand through her unruly curls and sighed, "We wait. Xena and Eponin will figure something out. We can't risk doing something that's going to get the ship sunk and destroy our only way out of here."

Malonda favoured her with a dour, discontented look, "Both of them were pretty banged up, you know ... and we came here to rescue the great Warrior Princess, not wait for her to come get us."

Ephiny rounded on the head scout, "What's your problem, Loni? This isn't some silly kid's game of who's the best. Xena's saved our butts plenty of times. She's never sought to make anything out of it, but she's been there when we needed her .. so where do you get off with that attitude?"

"Hey look, Eph ... I'm sorry, 'kay? It's just that I get a bit strung out at the thought of our people having to be rescued by anyone. We're Amazons. We're supposed to be strong independent women, but if we keep having to be bailed out of trouble by her what does that make us?"

The Regent allowed a tight grin, "How about lucky that we have Xena to help us?" she questioned adroitly.

"She's not an Amazon, Ephiny," protested Malonda sullenly.

"As good as," retorted the Regent. She looked at the frown on the scout's face, "Look, Loni, Velasca once said that Xena was a true Amazon ... it's about the only thing the two of us ever agreed on. She may not be a part of the Nation in the purest sense, but she has the heart of an Amazon and we should be proud to call her friend .. for Gabrielle's sake, if nothing else."

Malonda could feel Ephiny's close scrutiny as she spoke those last words and sensed a building concern in the Regent over her trustworthiness. She gave an exaggerated sigh and a tight smile as she replied, "Then for the Queen's sake I will endeavour to restrain my hostility towards the ex-Destroyer of Nations."

The Regent continued to give the other woman a long hard look before finally relenting and returned, "You do that, Loni .. you do that."

Silence stretched for some while before Malonda once again broke it with the same question, "So, what are we gonna do?"

"We sit tight and wait." answered Ephiny as she stared into the night towards the ship once again.

The scout got up and joined her, "You know that the Harbour Master has probably sent a fast courier up to Rome to see what's going on, don't you?" The Regent nodded her head in agreement. "Then we can't afford to sit here for too long. We don't know if Caesar's free already and sending out people to find and stop us."

"The thought had crossed my mind," retorted the blonde dryly.

Malonda gave another sigh. "So if we're just gonna sit here, what do you think that Ep and the big bad warlord are gonna do?"

"Cut it out, Loni," admonished Ephiny tiredly.

"Sorry," came the contrite apology.

"If I were Xena, I'd be planning a way to take out the ballista, drop the barrier and find us."

"Think they can do it?" questioned the scout speculatively, as she squinted out into the darkness.

The Regent shrugged, "I wouldn't bet against it," she smiled.