Hey everyone...I started a new job last week, and have had a heck of a time finding even a few moments in which to update. However, I think things are finally settling again, so hopefully I can be a bit more consistent. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your kind words and the support you have shown as this little tale unfolds. You folks are truly generous in your praise, and I thank you. Hope you continue to enjoy my postings, and review...it's like food and drink to this writer . spirit
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Gabrielle was awakened the following morning by a knock at her door. It took her several moments to ascertain where and when she was, then with a groan she dragged herself from the bed and padded across the room on bare feet to answer the summons. As she put her hand on the latch, Xena's voice shouted in her mind, " No Gabrielle…wait!," and the door burst open, throwing her back into the room. Even unprepared for the attack, she snapped into action. The force of the intruders' entry flung her onto her back, but she let the momentum carry her and she rolled with it, somersaulting and landing in a crouch as two men dressed in black from head to foot barged after her.
One pulled a khopesh from the folds of his flowing robes and advanced on her, while the other went directly to the cabinet that held her belongings, and began trying to force the lock. The bard sprang forward snatching her sai from her boots and faced off against the man with the sword. A deep laugh issued from beneath the burka, the eyes glittering with malice, in heavily accented Egyptian he said, " We come only for the shadowbox, do not interfere and you will not be harmed."
Gabrielle gripped her sai firmly and gave the man a feral smile, " I'm afraid that just isn't going to happen," and she leapt forward as his sword swept down. She caught the blade on the tines of her sai, and twisted, wrenching the sword from his grip and tossing it over her shoulder onto the bed she had just left. Undaunted, he drew a wicked looking dagger from his sash and rushed her. She spun out of his reach, close to the second man who was prying the door of the cabinet with his own knife. She pivoted and delivered a roundhouse kick to the side of his head, knocking him away from the cabinet, and sprawling across the floor momentarily stunned.
She danced under the slashing blade of the first man, crouching below his flailing arm, then popped up and jabbed him under the jaw with the hilt of her sai, sending him reeling. He recovered quickly, and with a growl of anger leapt at her, grappling with her as their weapons grated against one another. The second man meanwhile, pulled himself into a sitting position, shook his head to clear it, and then crawled over to the cabinet to renew his efforts to open it.
Even barefoot and in her sleep shift, Gabrielle was formidable. She wore a scowl of concentration as she dodged and parried the first man's attack. The sound of her sai ringing against the steel of his dagger as she jabbed and spun. She landed several blows to his torso, his breath wheezing now in consternation at her repeated strikes. She struck him a final time, hammering the hilts of both sai against his temple and he fell like a downed tree. But even as she turned to the second man, he managed to pop open the lock on the cabinet with a shout of triumph. Before she could stop him, he snatched the shadowbox, clasped his arms across it with a victorious grin, and bolted from the room.
With a moan, she gave chase. He thundered down the stairs with the bard in hot pursuit. He sped through the common room, tipping tables and benches into her path. She tried desperately to catch him, leaping over the obstacles with maniacal desperation. She couldn't allow him to escape with Xena's shadow, or all of this had been for nothing. Without it, Xena would not be able to return and the bard simply would not allow that to happen. With a burst of speed, she closed on the fleeing man, her fingers clawing at the trailing fabric of his robe….so close…and then the Assyrian slave that had shown her to her room the previous night, stepped out of the kitchen door and directly into her path.
She plowed into the young woman, losing her balance for only a moment, but it was enough for the thief to escape with a howl of jubilation. He dodged out of the main door and was gone. Gabrielle followed, hoping against hope that she could catch up. She caught fleeting glimpses as she hurtled after him through the winding streets and alleys, but finally she lost him in the bustle of a bazaar and slowed to a painful stop, hands on her knees and chest heaving from not only exertion, but despair.
Furious and heartsick, tears streamed down her cheeks leaving a scalding trail in the dust that coated her face. " Oh Gods…" she sobbed, sliding down the wall against her back until she sat in the dirt , her knees drawn up and her forehead resting on them as she let the despondency wash over her. She had failed…it was all over.
" Um… Gabrielle?…"
Choking on the anguish, Gabrielle rasped, " Xena…I'm so sorry. I tried, I really….so sorry…' and she continued to cry until Xena's voice said again, " Gabrielle love? You might want to look at this…"
The bard lifted her head to reply, and then gasped, her voice completely drying up in her closed throat.
Standing before her in the crowded marketplace, the struggling thief suspended from one huge fist, was a 20 foot tall avatar with the muscled body of a man, and the head of a falcon. The…she could only assume it to be another Egyptian god, gave the thief a shake and the shadowbox dropped from his nerveless, terrified hands, into the avatars' palm.
The falcons' eyes glittered like onyx, and the beak opened and a voice like honeyed mead rumbled from the massive chest. " I believe this belongs to you?" The huge hand, the size of a table top extended towards her, offering her the shadowbox. She stood, hastily wiping the tears from her face and gingerly accepted it, clutching it to her chest with a whispered, "Thank you…ummm?"
The avatar rippled like bands of heat in the desert, and the shape shrank and reformed into the image of a man, though he still held the hapless thief effortlessly off the ground. He was startlingly handsome. Skin brown and gleaming like the carapace of a beetle. Black hair, almost blue in its depth cut short and framing a face that was strong and aquiline in its agelessness. Eyes like chips of obsidian beneath sculpted brows that arched in humor. A smile, brilliant in its warmth, graced his countenance with gentle amusement. " I am Horus," he replied, and the thief fainted dead away at the news. " My brother Set, sent these to divest you of your hope," he gave the thief a little shake, then hurled him away as though he were a piece of used parchment. " My father took exception to his nefarious methods, and asked me to intervene."
The bard bowed humbly, " I thank you Horus, and your father for your help. I don't know what I would have done had Set gotten his hands on Xena's shadow."
Horus inclined his head graciously, " No thanks are necessary," he replied with a smile, " You were promised that none would interfere until the outcome of your friends ceremony was decided. It is a promise my father Ra intends be kept."
Gabrielle smiled warmly in return, " Be that as it may, I am still grateful my Lord."
Horus chuckled then, gesturing towards the bards state of undress, " None can fault you for the determination of your effort young one," he replied kindly, " May I suggest you return to your rooms? The time of your audience approaches, and I would hazard you would like to go to the temple slightly more…prepared for the trial that awaits."
Gabrielle blushed, and Horus laughed in delight, " Do not fear that ones accomplice either," he said waving a hand at the crumpled form of the erstwhile robber, " he has been….removed from your room and none shall hinder you further." He sketched a slight bow to her, " I hope all proceeds as you would have it young one….good fortune and good bye." With that, he melted away.
Bemused, the bard turned to retrace her steps grasping the shadowbox to her chest with trembling arms. She shook her head and said, " Xena? I think this is going to be one Tartarus of a day."
The warrior snorted and replied, " Let's hope that statement isn't prophetic eh?"