Unholy Matrimony: Birthright

It wasn't until Xena saw Gabrielle's face the next morning that she became sickened by what she'd done. Then it all came rushing back to her, all the vivid gore of the slaughter. Xena didn't even make it to her chamber pot before she lost the contents of her stomach. The remnants of the wine and lamb stew she'd had the previous evening splattered on the ground near Gabrielle's feet. The bard jumped back trying to avoid getting chunks of carrot on her boots.

"Xena, by the gods, you're sick." Gabrielle hunched down beside her friend and held back Xena's long black mane while Xena finished wretching into the pot she'd finally made her way to.

Xena tried to wave her companion off. "I'm fine, bad stew, that's all."

Gabrielle wasn't about to be dismissed so easily. She felt Xena's forehead. No fever. No sweat, no chills. Gabrielle went to Xena's basin and poured a little water in the bottom. She dipped a rag in the cool water and soaked it, then wrung it out, and brought it to Xena.

"Thanks," Xena grimaced but took the wet cloth and began cleaning her face. "I'll talk to the cook, meat must have been off."

"I hope not, the boys and I just had what was left for breakfast. It didn't smell bad. Xena, I think you might be coming down with something. Maybe you should take a couple of days off."

"Quit fussing, Gabrielle. My army marches tomorrow. I can't very well tell them that we've had a change of plans because I got a little belly ache." Xena threw the rag in her pile of dirties and then walked over to her war table. She'd spent the evening making adjustments to the map based on her own survey of the area between Elis and Tegea. Xena gave one last look at the map, committing every hill and valley to memory before rolling the map up and filing it away in a trunk with her other maps.

"Xena, I'm going to ask you to please reconsider. Come to the hospice. Help us there. Your gifts as a healer are nearly as good as your skills with a blade. You've always said you want to atone for your past deeds. Well, what better way than committing yourself as a doctor?"

Xena felt sick again. How did she tell Gabrielle what she'd done? Her friend would understand her killing the bandits who'd confronted her. Well, maybe not the one she'd cut down who was trying to flee, but the other ones, the ones that had attacked Xena, Gabrielle would excuse it, even though Xena had ridden out there with the purpose of confronting them. She'd been looking forward to dicing them up. And, she'd loved every bloody minute of it. But Xena knew beyond a doubt that Gabrielle would not forgive her for what she'd done at the bandits' camp. Their leader had recognized her on sight. He'd refused to raise a blade to her because of her legendary honor. He'd bargained that Xena wouldn't attack unless they attacked first. He'd ordered his men to drop their weapons. Xena had torn through four of his men with her sword before he'd realized his mistake. By then it was too late. Her chakram had already started taking out its targets which left only the leader and five others. They still maintained the confidence of their numbers. Fools. They tried to encircle her. Xena grabbed one and put the pinch on him, dropping him to his knees. The paralyzed victim watched in horror as Xena gutted four of his comrades. The leader, she knocked unconscious, then turned and removed the pinch from the one on his knees. But he was too spent to fight her, too drained to even run away. Xena tied his hands and feet. She found a chain among their arms and turned her attention back to the leader. She tied the chain around the leader's waist and then tossed a rope over a sturdy limb. She pulled the other end of the rope through the chain and then started hoisting him off the ground. The bandit that she'd pinched struggled against his ropes but Xena's knots were solid. When Xena had the leader positioned about two meters off the ground, she smacked her cold blade against his cheek, waking him. He immediately began kicking. Xena placed a swift jab at his inner thigh, his legs were no longer his. Xena turned to the lone thug on the ground. "Tell the other scum you know, what you've seen here today. Tell them that Xena: the Warrior Princess rides again. Tell them that in my empire there is no place for criminals, murderers, and rapists. Anyone who defies me will face my justice and the wrath of Ares!" Xena turned back to the bandit in the tree. He tried to flail at her with his arms but it was of little use. Xena knicked his right femoral artery with the tip of her sword. His life began pouring out on the ground beneath him. Xena cut the bindings she'd placed on the final thug and stepped back, letting him go. He hesitated unsure of whether or not she was really going to let him go. Xena arched one eyebrow and said simply, "run."

"Xena?" Gabrielle touched the warrior's forearm gently. "Are you okay, did you hear a word I said?"

"Yes, I heard you. And I'm no doctor. My healing skills are not gifts as you've the called them. They are hard won battle skills. I would have never learned the things I know if I had not first picked up the sword."

"Yes, Xena, you've lived by the sword, but that doesn't mean you have to die by it."

The fine hairs on Xena's arms stood on end. A shiver of pure ecstasy zipped along her spine, between her shoulders, up her neck, and across her scalp. He was here. He was waiting in the aether. Waiting for Gabrielle to leave so that he could have an audience with Xena alone.

At her core, Xena wanted to send Gabrielle packing and invite Ares wholly into her. But part of her wasn't ready to face him alone. The last time she'd seen him, they'd made warm sweet love, but now she was faced with the knowledge that he was to be a father. That he finally, after all these years, had an heir to his mantle.

"You can come out, Ares," Xena snarled.

"How long has he been here?" Gabrielle huffed.

"Long enough to know that you're still not a fan of our ways," Ares motioned back and forth between him and Xena.

"Your ways and Xena's are hardly the same," Gabrielle sneered.

Ares leaned into Xena and whispered. "Oooooh, she doesn't know about your recent handiwork, does she?"

Xena jerked her head around so quickly it caused her lips to brush along his. Electricity. Xena jerked away. How did he know? He hadn't been there. Hadn't seen. "What do you want Ares?"

"You are set to march tomorrow, I just thought I'd check in and make sure things are still going as planned." Ares waved his fingers and a plush red velvet settee appeared in the tent. "Xena you really can be such a Spartan, sometimes."

"Creature comforts are for the weak," Xena rolled her eyes at him.

"Oh, I've known you to indulge in a comfort or two," Ares winked at her.

"I don't know what you two are playing at, but I've got sick people to attend to." Gabrielle reached for the tent flap.

"Gabrielle, stay."

"Xena, I promised the nuns that-" Gabrielle protested.

"That was an order, not a request." Xena's voice was cold in a way that neither of them had heard in a long time.

"Excuse me? Xena, I'm not one of your soldiers. I'm your friend. And I don't take orders from you." Still, Gabrielle dropped the tent flap and turned to face Xena.

"You may not be in my army but as governor of this territory, I expect you to comply with my demands." Xena pulled her leathers over her shift. With Ares in the room, she suddenly felt very underdressed.

"Governor? Is Elis not a free and independent city any longer?" Gabrielle looked from Xena to Ares whose smirk she wanted to wipe from his smug face.

"It's part of the Grecian Empire now."

"The Grecian Empire or the Empire of Ares?" Gabrielle asked.

Xena wanted to scream, the Empire of Xena, but instead answered, "they are one and the same."

"I see. Well, in that case, may I be excused Governor?"

Xena didn't answer.

"Let her go, Xena." Ares commanded. And they both knew that he meant more than just giving Gabrielle the permission to walk out of the tent. It was time for Xena to unburden Gabrielle from the responsibility of being her conscience.

"You're free, Gabrielle. Go." Xena said and then took a swig from a wineskin to wash the taste of vomit out of her mouth.

When he was sure the pesky bard was out of earshot, Ares patted the settee. "You don't have to keep that exterior with me. I won't think you're weak if you sit here. Come Xena, tell me what happened."

Xena knew she shouldn't sit down, shouldn't be so close to him, Knew that his intoxicating presence would send her flying apart at the seams. She couldn't talk about the baby, didn't even want to think about his wife. Why had she left him love her the other night? That was what had done this. Letting him back into her heart and soul. But he'd seemed so vulnerable, so raw, so honest. She wanted him like that. Couldn't get enough of that Ares. No, she needed to needle him, to get a rise out of him. Angry Ares, she could handle. Violent Ares, even better. But warm, beautiful Ares sitting on a velvet settee. That was dangerous. Xena walked to the other side of the war table even and looked down and studied the grooves in the wood as if they were a map. "Those bandits were an obstacle. Better for me to handle it myself than to order my men to slaughter them, don't you think."

"No, it would have looked much cleaner if your men had done it, even if under your orders. But that's not what you wanted, was it? You wanted to kill them, I went to the scene. It was personal. Did you know their leader?"

How did Xena tell him that it was personal but not because of the bandits. It was all because of him. Her grief of losing him was causing her to lose herself. "It was just something that needed to be done and I didn't want to have to deal with it on our march to Tegea. It was an unpleasant necessity."

"Xena, you invoked the wrath of Ares. I couldn't ignore that. If it'd been another warrior, warlord, maybe, but not from you. You call down the wrath of Ares, and I'm gonna follow through. I went back and watched your life thread in the Fate's temple to see the terms of that invocation. And you didn't seem to be finding it unpleasant, at all. Why lie to me, now?" Ares leaned forward. "And why are you avoiding me? After the other night?"

"The other night? You mean the night you came in here crying like a little piglet that had been ripped from his mother's tit and I gave you some pussy to shut you up so we could get back to business? You wanna talk about that? And you call yourself a god! At least your father knew how to fuck a woman and move on. You know they laugh at you on Olympus?"

"Because of you!" Ares bolted from the settee and charged toward her.

"Yes, because of me. You need to get a grip on yourself. You're such a lovesick pathetic sap, it's a wonder you ever impregnated Gunnr, you're so hung up on this little mortal bitch you can't have."

"Impregnated Gunnr?" Ares stopped before he could reach Xena. She was jealous. That's what this latest rage had been about. She'd punished those bandits to mend her broken heart. "It isn't Gunnr who is pregnant. It's Kara."

"The serving girl?" Xena swallowed. She covered her mouth in horror at what she'd done. "But Hestia, Hestia said."

"Hestia was likely trying to hurt you or at least see if using me could hurt you. Xena, she isn't happy about you taking her temple."

"But she said-"

"Doesn't matter what she said. You have few friends on Olympus. And restoring me and Aphrodite didn't do your reputation any favors."

"It's your birthright. Whoever they put in charge when you were away mucked things up good."

"It's more than that, Xena. You didn't restore me simply because it's my birthright. You need me there. You want me there. Come here, Xena."

Xena shook her head. She balled her fists against the table willing herself not to be drawn into him again. Maybe he hadn't got Gunnr pregnant but it was a matter of time, she was his wife after all.

"Xena," he whispered and reached across the table and encircled her wrist with his hot touch.

"Fuck," Xena bit her lip. Ares never let his hand leave her wrist as he moved around the table and moved in behind her.

His lips moved over her ear, "it can be your children's birthright. Just say yes, Xena. Let me give you a child. An heir to our Empire. But more than that. A child to love. A child to raise. I've seen her in my mind's eye a million times Xena. Your blue eyes, my pouty lips. I want to know her Xena. I want to teach her to ride, to fight, to rule. Don't you?"

"Yes, gods, yes," Xena cried.

Gently, Ares lifted the back of Xena's skirt. Before he could undo his belt, Xena had reached around and flicked the catch for him. "I love you, Xena," Ares murmured as the cool air kissed his ready flesh.

Xena turned to face him. "Not like that. Like this." Xena kissed him full on the mouth as Ares pushed himself inside her. Atop her war table, they set to work making the Heir to War.