Something flashed and glittered before her face. Something blue and silver and golden as waves on the ocean. Xena blinked at it, but it wouldn't come into focus.
She lay cushioned on something warm and soft and furry, but she was still uncomfortable. She was hot, so hot, even though a cool hand touched her forehead, and her joints felt as if they were full of ground glass, and her mouth was so dry…
"Water," she whispered.
"She's awake! Give her water!" The voice was familiar. A wineskin was pressed to her lips, and water cold as ice trickled into her mouth. She swallowed gratefully, and her vision seemed to clear.
"Xena? What happened to you?" Another familiar voice- deep, rich, masculine. Lysander, she thought.
And jolted to full consciousness.
"No!" Xena cried, trying to sit up. Her friends had to stay away from her, they mustn't get too close or they'd catch the influenza, Callisto's deadly little present.
"Easy there," Calphas said, putting an arm around her even as she tried to pull away. He pulled her into a sitting position. "Don't overdo it."
Xena looked around. The warm pillowy object had apparently been Lysander's lap; the glittering blue mystery resolved into a sea-blue pendant and a tin whistle depending from a golden chain around Echo's neck. Not far off, an elderly man sat on Incitatus, scowling.
"Look," he said, "can we get going now?"
"We're not going to just leave a friend lying in the road, Tiresias," Lysander said.
"Fine. We're none of us getting any younger."
Xena began to cough, and Calphas pounded her helpfully on the back.
"What happened?" he asked. "How did you get ahead of me without a horse? And where are the others?"
Xena explained what had happened since they'd parted ways- how Joxer had turned out not to be Joxer, how Gorgidas and the driver had died, how Gabrielle had been taken from her. They stared at her gravely, and when she mentioned Callisto's name, Echo and Lysander exchanged a mysterious look.
"I have to go," Xena declared.
"Wait," Calphas said. "Give me just a minute or two. I've started brewing some tea for you."
"I don't need tea."
"It will ease the pain in your joints and loosen the congestion in your chest, so I say you do need it."
"Gabrielle…" Xena attempted to rise, and Echo pulled her back down.
"You can't save her if you collapse before you get to her, now can you?" the wood-nymph said gently. "And I may have something that can help you, too."
As soon as she had that tea in her, she was going, even if she had to 'borrow' Incitatus to get to town. She had no idea how she was going to defeat Callisto, or keep from infecting the few healthy citizens of Thebes, but that was beside the point. She had to go.
Echo beckoned to her husband, and he asked her to tell him what she wanted. She whispered in his ear. Lysander got up and scented the air, nostrils flaring. Then he trotted off into the woods.
"Where's that stupid goat off to?" Tiresias yelped. "We haven't got time-"
"You've got that much right," Xena said. She snatched the cup from Calphas hands and began to drink. The liquid scalded her tongue, and the vapors stung her eyes.
"How serious is this… influenza?" Calphas asked. "Tiresias, you can supposedly see the future- how much damage will this cause?"
The seer's face grew grey. "By the gods. It will kill millions. Tens of millions."
"There aren't that many people in the world!"
"There will be." Tiresias snapped suddenly, "Use the bloody boon Zeus promised you, nymph!"
"You can read minds now, too?" Echo said doubtfully.
"I can see the future, and the boon is needed now."
Echo took the blue pendant in her hands and pressed on it silently. For long moments there was silence, and Xena tried to drink the hot tea as fast as possible without gulping it.
There was a rush of displaced air, and a god appeared before them.
It was not Zeus.
"Dad's a little busy right now, short stuff," Ares said, crossing his massively muscled arms and smirking.
"I'm sure he is," Echo replied, rising. "Running the universe, seducing maidens…"
"So tell me what you want."
"He sent you?"
"Something wrong with me?"
"Oh, no, of course not. You're as handsome and fit as ever, and the new earring looks quite dashing. But you're hardly the messenger type."
"True," the god grinned, "but you usually don't keep such interesting company. I volunteered." He aimed his smile at the warrior princess. "Xena! You look terrible."
"What do you want, Ares?"
"Information." He reached down and hauled Xena to her feet, where she tried not to wobble. "It seems there's a new god running around. One who didn't spring from Dad's loins. You wouldn't know anything about that, now would you?"
"Echo, just ask for the boon! Young man, we are on a tight schedule here!" Tiresias bawled. He sounded, to Xena, like a rooster being strangled.
"Shut up, Tiresias, or I'll turn you into a woman again," Ares snarled. The sooth-sayer clapped his mouth shut.
"Well, I could use a boon right now," Echo said.
"Depends on what it is. I can't lift the plague on Thebes, if that's what you're thinking. That stays in place until King Oedipus learns a certain… inconvenient truth, and acts on it."
All this arguing. Couldn't they all stop yapping and let her go? Xena yanked her arm out of Ares' grasp and started stumbling down the road.
Lysander came dashing back and handed something to Echo- it looked like a bouquet.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Ares yelled. "Watch where you wave that!"
Xena paused. What could make a god so anxious? The flowers seemed unremarkable; they were a pale shade of mauve and resembled stunted tulips.
"Don't panic, I'm not going to use them on you," Echo said archly. She handed the bouquet to Xena, surreptitiously reserving one bloom and tucking it into her bodice as she did so.
"What's this?"
"Moly flowers. If you hold them in your hand and say the right words, you can make a god obey your command." Echo waited for the words to sink in.
Command a god. She could command Callisto to do her bidding. That mean the odds were suddenly tilting a little more in her favor.
"What do I do?" Xena asked. Echo whispered instructions in Xena's ear.
"Great," Ares grumbled. "Now she knows."
Xena tucked the bouquet into the front of her armor and started off.
"Xena," Ares walked swiftly to catch up with her," I can take you all right to Thebes, just tell me who this god is."
"Callisto," Xena growled. "And I'll deal with her myself."
The god arched an eyebrow at her, obviously thinking she couldn't deal with anything in her current condition. But a moment later, they were out of the forest and standing on the main street in Thebes.
The royal palace was to their left. The blue house with the precious yellow shutters was on the right.
"Take Tiresias to the king," Xena told Echo and Lysander. To Calphas she added, "I don't know where to send you, but…"
"It shouldn't be too hard to find sick people to treat," he said grimly, and started off.
Ares was nowhere to be seen, which was fine by her.
Xena squared her shoulders, passed the bouquet to her left hand, and took her sword in her right. Callisto would be expecting her, but not this soon.
It was time to go on the offensive.
