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"Gabrielle, are you going to make me eat all these little round things with the red jelly stuff inside myself?" Xena asked, carrying her bowl to where the bard queen sat, across their evening campfire.

"Make you eat them? Xena, nothing I've seen yet could stop you from eating as many as I could make at a time and asking for more." Gabrielle responded, but her teasing was as automatic as the smile that didn't reach her eyes.

" Well, they're very good. I admit that." The warrior agreed. "So why aren't you eating any? I was only gone for a day, Gabrielle. What could have happened? Did something happen?" Xena looked her lover over from top to toe. As far as the warrior could see, Gabrielle looked perfectly well.

The bard queen looked at Xena and nodded. Then she bit her lower lip and swallowed hard. "Hercules was here, Xena. But he couldn't . . . . He had to get home to Corinth. He had news, Xena; he had very, very bad news. I promised I would tell you."

"Then tell me, Gabrielle. By the gods, tell me." Xena demanded, and was immediately sorry for her tone. The bard visibly struggled with and held her composure.

"Xena, I will tell you. It just isn't easy. Hercules and . . Iolaus went across the sea to Sumeria. They went to help the king and his sister there. As it turned out;  the king betrayed everyone. He allied with Dahak. And to get what Dahak wanted, the king tried to sacrifice his own sister. Hercules and Iolaus stopped him. Xena, there's no easy way to say this. I know because I've been looking for one all night and most of the day. Iolaus gave his life fighting Dahak. Xena, Iolaus died. But when Hercules returned to Sumeria to help Nebula, he learned that by some cruel trickery the demon had driven her half mad, and . . and taken possession of Iolaus. I don't know if I really understand that part. Hercules said Dahak wants us to believe Iolaus gave into it because of his envy."

Xena knew she was staring wide eyed at Gabrielle, because she couldn't seem to get her eyes to blink. She knew she was gaping at the bard, because her jaw wouldn't close, either. Her whole face and by slow degrees the rest of her body locked in place, unable to move. Through suddenly frozen vocal cords Xena finally managed a whispered response.

"No, no. I don't believe this. No."

"Xena, " Gabrielle began, reaching for her, and Xena grasped her lover's expressive hands, but shook her head no.

"Gabrielle, I don't mean that I don't believe you, or that we shouldn't believe Hercules. I don't think he would lie about anything, much less this. Gods! I wish I'd seen Hercules. He must be broken hearted."

Gabrielle nodded. "He is, but he says he's handling it better, now. I'm not so sure. He needs our help, that's clear. We have to eradicate this . . .monster, Xena, together."

"And we will." Xena answered her lover, hugging and trying to reassure the bard.  "Of course, we will, Gabrielle. Maybe I can find the way to do that;  if you tell me everything that Hercules told you. Can you do that for me?"

"The bard thing?" Gabrielle gave the ghost of her usual smile. "My love, of course I will. But try not to interrupt me. This is the first time I'll relate the tale, and since we don't know the ending yet. . . Actually, I've been working on it, but its going to come out a bit rough."

"I'll be as silent as a stone wall." Xena promised. "Go ahead."

Gabrielle gave the warrior a puzzled look, then sat back and took a deep breath. "Hercules and Iolaus, heroes and warriors both, answered a cry for help from a faraway land, Sumeria, far away to the east, between the two great rivers." She began, still looking at Xena. When the warrior smiled and nodded, Gabrielle continued.

"Some bards say it is between these two rivers that all life as we know it first took shape, long ago. Other bards say no, it was at the farthest end of the river Nile, deep in the Nubian countries south of Egypt. And still other bards have said that life as we know it began far to the north where the World Tree grows and spreads its great branches over all. Of the beginnings of all life, there are many tales, as there are of the endings of all life. This tale I tell you now speaks of beginnings, and endings, but its own ending is not yet known.

"The two heroes, Hercules and Iolaus sailed east from their homeland with the pirate queen Nebula, aboard her great ship. A proud woman and a secretive one is the pirate, but this voyage revealed a deep secret in her life.

Sumeria is her own homeland, she told our heroes, which she left behind many years ago. And not only did she leave the land, she left a royal princess' life. Her only brother ruled there as king. Gilgamesh was he by name, an ancient name in that land, given to heroes in many a tale and myth. This ruler was called Gilgamesh, son of Ra. He gladly welcomed the heroes, Iolaus and Hercules to his troubled land."

Xena listened silently and carefully to every word Gabrielle said. But even as she did, the warrior heard another voice within her mind. This was the voice of memory, and it drove a pain like dull, notched knives through her.

'. . You don't need to treat me like a hypocrite.' Xena heard herself saying to Iolaus. 'I don't give a fig for Hercules or his reputation. . . . No, stop. . . .all Hercules is fighting for is to prove that he can succeed without Zeus, and to get revenge on Hera for killing his family. . . .I don't need to hear Hercules should be here instead of you, Iolaus. Fact is, I think you're a better man than he will ever be.'

In memory, Xena saw Iolaus light up at her praise, her encouragement, her treachery and lies. She watched him fall in love with her, and drink in her playacting like unwatered wine. How he'd beam delight at her, in her bath, in her bed, in her arms. How he'd believed her lies. Gabrielle, after all she'd been through beside and because of Xena, still couldn't imagine the demon tricking Iolaus that way. The warrior could, and it tore at her heart. That particular chink in the hunter's inward armor she had walked through, years ago.

By the gods, did I start this, Iolaus? Xena wondered, shaking her head no in denial. By the gods, did I do this to you, Iolaus? You once said you'd forgiven me the wrong I did then. Do you feel the same way, now?

Xena looked at her bard queen, and heard Gabrielle gasp her name. The warrior reached out for Gabrielle, who pulled her into a warm, firm hug, then pulled briefly away. Xena stiffened, thinking wildly, that the younger woman somehow read her shame. Instead, Gabrielle gently lifted one finger to Xena's face and wiped a single tear sliding down. The fearless princess shuddered as the floodgates of her soul opened and the tears began.

"Xena, it's all right," the Amazon bard-queen reassured her warrior.  "I'm here."

h sunteleia