Hook, Line and Sinker Part II
Helena sat on the grass with all of the Amazon younglings and tried to answer all of the questions thrown at her. She never realized how much girls could talk until she met these four little girls. While she was answering questions and trying her best to listen to their stories, her eyes lingered on Varia sparring with another Amazon in the distance.
She wanted to learn how to use a staff like these Amazons and maybe she could defend herself and others from the slavers in Greece. From now on she wasn't going to let any girl be taken by a man who was greedy for money. She never knew the value of money until a price was put on her head like cattle. Helena stared at all the little girls and smiled. They were so oblivious to the outside world and perhaps that was for the best. They knew the Amazon way of life and that's it. No Greece, no slavers, no stupid Alexander, no coups and no soldiers –it was the good simple life that Helena wished she had.
She had nobody to play with except for a few boys that lived near her grandmother's tavern but even then, she wasn't allowed to be around them unless her grandmother was present. These girls were very lucky, Helena thought. They could play all day, learn how to swordfight and surround themselves with people of like minds. Must be nice.
Helene grabbed Helena's arm and Gaia grabbed the other. The two girls squished Helena in between them. "Your name is like mine!" Helene exclaimed and looked up at her blue eyes. "This veil is pretty. Where did you get it?"
"The Empress gave it to me." Helena looked up at the princess and saw a look of disdain across her face.
Gaia smiled and touched the black veil. "Can I try it on?"
Helena slapped her hands on her head to prevent Gaia from pulling the veil off. "No!" she yells and the two girls fell silent. She was still embarrassed that her hair was short like a boy's but noticed that some of the Amazons here had short hair and they seemed alright with it. "I mean, not right now…" she says and Gaia went back to her smiling self.
Indila crossed her arms and eyed Helena. "So, the Empress just gave those clothes to you?"
"She gave me a lot of dresses! And shoes too." Helena bats her long lashes and the princess' frown deepened. "I have enough dresses to wear a different one each day. My grandmother will be very surprised."
Helene stretched out her thin legs and they were half the length of Helena's. "You're really tall." She observed.
The princess persisted with her questions. "And you shared a hut with her? She didn't try to kill you?"
Helena frowns. "No, why would she do that?"
"Because she's a murdering bitch!"
Gaia, Helene, Alexa and Elaine gasped loudly. "Gods, Indila. You shouldn't say that," Gaia says eloquently and placed a hand over her chest.
"She's nice to me…" Helena felt awkward and her cheeks flushed.
Indila nodded. "I wonder why that is. She kidnapped me and threatened to kill me if Queen Gabrielle didn't come get me. She had her little Spartan bitches thrash me around like a ragdoll too!"
"Well, you're an Amazon so you should know how to fight, right?" Helena sassily retorted which enraged the princess.
Indila stood up, towering over the girls on the ground. Gaia and Helene slowly slipped away as did Alexa and Elaine. Varia stopped sparring with her friend and looked over at the princess and Helena, having a stare off together. Helena rose, almost the same height as the fourteen year old Amazon. Being only ten, almost eleven winters old, she was quite tall and lanky for her age.
"You have no idea what you're talking about," she said and Helena smirked. "I could throw you across this field with ease."
"Is that right?" Helena stepped forward, lifting her chin, glaring into Indila's eyes.
The princess contorted her face, hearing that same phrase from the Empress. Those eyes were so similar as well. The same snake-like eyes that resembled a challenge no matter what the subject was at the moment. That pearly white smile disguised with deceit yet so beautiful and enticing at the same time.
"I…I'm not going to fight you." She nervously said and Helena kept smiling. She brushed by her furiously and Helena spun around.
"We aren't done talking, princess!" Helena yells and the girls look at each other worriedly and Indila stomped away into the center of the encampment.
Varia, amused by the exchange, waltzed over to Helena. "I've never seen anyone talk to her that way," she nudges Helena's arm. "That was either very brave or very dumb," she chuckled and Helena half smiles, taking the backhanded compliment. "Hey you wanted to learn how to use a staff right?" she asked and Helena nodded vigorously. "I could show you."
"Really? You would do that?"
Varia shrugged and shoved her staff in Helena's chest. "You stood up to Indila so I guess you're alright..." she sees the gleeful look on Helena's face and frowns. "But you have to stop looking at me like that."
Helena's smile disappeared in an instant.
"Come on." She grabbed Helena's hand and led her to the field away from the girls.
"We aren't going to use swords, right?"
"Does it matter if we do?"
Helena sighs. "The Empress said I can't use them."
Varia raised her eyebrow. "You do everything the Empress tells you to?" and Helena quirked her mouth. "We won't tell her, I promise."
Leo and Xena approached the Macedonian camp in the outskirts of Isthmia. Xena looked at the Emperor's tent in the center of the small camp and felt her heart racing. She had hardly had time to talk to Alexander and knew he was up to something. Given that there weren't many men around she knew this wasn't a time for a battle brewing but something far more dangerous –politics. She hated politics.
She descended down the hill and Leo grabbed her arm. "That girl that you brought back," he began and she furrows her eyebrows. "She is important to you." And Xena refused to say anything more, knowing what he was hinting at. "She is yours, isn't she?"
"You are not here to discuss my personal life, Leo. We need to go talk to Alexander and see what he is planning." She snatched her arm away and trotted down the hill.
He followed, maneuvering through the rocky terrain. "Why doesn't she stay in Sparta with you? She would be the Princess of Sparta."
She quickly drew her blade and jabbed the tip into his chest plate and he halted the horse. "One more question out of you and I will slice you in half."
Leo was not afraid to die, especially by her sword. He would gladly give his life but preferred to die nobly and dying by her sword was not noble but Spartans were used to giving their lives for their leaders. He looked into her eyes seriously with no fear and she raised her eyebrows, threatening to drive the blade in his chest.
"I lost my daughter. I would do anything to have Eia back in my life. You should be grateful that you have a daughter who is alive." He gently pushed the limp sword away from his chest and trotted ahead of her. Xena lowered her blade and crinkled her eyebrows, frowning faintly.
Alexander stepped out of his tent with Ptolemy by his side and Leo approached them both. The emperor watched as Xena rode into the camp alone and sword sheathed at her hip of course. She stopped right in front of him and he cast a menacing smile.
"Xena, you've arrived early. I wasn't expecting you for a few more days. You must have ridden at the speed of lightening to get here."
She hopped off the horse and Leo did as well. The two Spartans stood in front of the Macedonian General and Emperor, glaring at their counterparts. "Let's skip all the small talk, Alexander." She pulled out the scroll that was sent to her. "What is this? A peace treaty? Don't play games with me, boy. I know you don't want an alliance of peace with me."
"And what if I did?"
"Then I'd say you are a liar." She crumbled up the parchment and threw at his feet.
The blonde teenager laughed and Ptolemy smiled with him. The two Spartans seemed less than amused. "That's a good one, Xena. You call me a liar yet you're the one who betrayed Darius and slaughtered his men."
"He's a fool to think that I'd ever ally with him in the first place. He brought that upon himself. Now, you are something else, Alexander. You try and negotiate a piss poor peace treaty and yet you allied with Persia." She sighed. "Bad move on your part. Let me have Arcadia and you can have Greece…for now."
"I can see that I won't be able to sway you with any offer that I present to you." He folded his arms and she cocked her head. "But while you are locked away in that stronghold of yours I called in some reinforcements."
She frowned and looked around. Macedonians came out of the trees clad in armor. She spun around and Persians also appeared out of nowhere and she unsheathed her sword, ready to attack them. Two against sixty men. Not bad, she thought. She was already planning her moves in her head and then the other Amazon Queens emerged from the woodwork too.
She couldn't believe that the Amazons would betray their superior Queen. Frawohena, Yo-Hono and Exosspia all glared at the Empress. "You're all traitors!" she yelled, pointing her sword at them. Frawohena did not let up her eyes but the other two turned their cheeks.
Alexander smiled smugly as he looked at all of his allies. "Queen Gabrielle is the one who chose to side with you, Xena. She is the traitor of her own people. The other queens seem to have made the right decision and sided with me against you."
"Leave Gabrielle out of this."
"Oh, the mighty empress actually cares about someone aside from herself!" he snickered. "Or perhaps you don't want to lose Corinth…again." He saw her lip quiver. "You had me going for a second there, Xena. There is not a kind bone in your body." She was surrounded by three parties and there was no way she could cheat her way out of this one. "I'm arresting you, Xena, for conspiring against Darius and wrongful treatment towards the Amazon Nation."
Now it was her turn to give a smug grin. "You can't arrest me because you lost a war, Alexander. That's not how this works."
Ptolemy nudged his ruler. "If…you don't come with me willingly then I will burn the Amazon encampment."
Her mind went straight to Helena. She didn't want to lose her daughter and thought of what Leo said to her earlier. If she lost Helena then she could never forgive herself. Gabrielle was another subject all on its own. She didn't want all of Gabrielle's hard work to go to waste because of her stubbornness. She also didn't want Gabrielle to worry over her like she had been doing lately which she thought was annoying. She was never one to side with Amazons but as soon as she saw the other Queens on the emperor's side, she knew that Gabrielle was going to be in big trouble whether she submitted to Alexander or not.
"So, what's it going to be? Your life or the Amazons? Your choice."
Leo held his sword tightly and had his back up against Xena's. "Do it," he whispered.
"What?!" she hissed.
"We are surrounded. You aren't going to win this fight, Xena." He peered over his shoulder and saw the conflict in her eyes. "I will take care of her for you," he says softer than a whisper.
Xena's hands clammed up and she glanced around at the Persians, Amazons and Macedonians. "What about Gabrielle?"
"She is your ally now. She belongs to Sparta."
Xena closed her eyes for a brief moment taking this all in and never felt so defeated in her life. She threw down her sword and Alexander smiled. He snapped his fingers and two of his men grabbed her arms and she didn't bother to put up a fight.
"You are being very cooperative. Should I expect your army to come out of the brush at any moment?" Alexander scanned the area, pretending to look for Spartans. "Take her to the caravan." He orders and the soldiers pushed her forward.
She walked by the Amazon Queens and spat in Frawohena's face.
"Make sure you gag her. I don't want to hear her manipulative serpent tongue during the journey."
Frawohena wiped the saliva off her cheek and Yo-Hono looked at her sisters with concern. "We should have told Gabrielle about this," Yo-Hono says to Frawohena.
"She banished Hjaquima to Hyperboria and she sided with Sparta after we all said no."
"But she can override us and that's what she did. Hjaquima attacked the Empress. Gabrielle had every right to punish Hjaquima."
Frawohena frowned at her sister and wiped her hand on her skirt. "You are feeling remorse over the Empress now, Yo-Hono?"
"No but Alexander gave her a choice: her life or our sisters. She chose to give herself up instead of leaving our sisters to perish by his hands. Why should we ally with someone who would destroy us with a snap of his fingers?"
She looked at the Iberian Queen. "And what do you say, Exosspia? Have we made the wrong decision?"
Exosspia bowed her head and looked over at Xena hoisted up on Ptolemy's horse and her mouth gagged, arms tied behind her back and a noose around her neck. "She had plenty of chances to kill us and she didn't."
"So you agree with Queen Yo-Hono then."
Yo-Hono frowns and runs to Leo before he was to head out of Isthmian territory. "Spartan!" she shouts and he glares down at her from atop his steed. "Are you heading to Sparta?"
"Why is it any concern of yours?"
"I want to see Gabrielle and tell her what happened to the Empress."
Leo looked at her questionably and eyed the two other Amazons behind her. "Why? You have betrayed your superior Queen and now you've betrayed your ally. Sparta is not on your side, Amazon. You belong to Alexander now."
He rode up the hill passing by Persian soldiers and Macedonians. Yo-Hono huffed and swiftly turned to her sisters. "We should have never sided with Alexander. We sided with him out of fear. We feared that he would attack all of our tribes so we submitted to him. Xena never attacked us."
"She killed Queen Cyane!" Frawohena screeched.
"More than ten summers ago, Frawohena." She folded her arms. "She hasn't killed any other Amazons since then. Alexander threatened to kill us all."
"Because of Xena and because Gabrielle sided with her. This is Xena's fault just as much as it is Gabrielle's. If Xena would have just stayed in her stupid stronghold then none of this would have happened and we would be united as a nation!"
"No!" Exosspia shoved her arrogant sister. "We left because you said so! We left our superior queen to fend for herself and nobody was there to aid her. The Spartans aided Gabrielle and our sisters we left behind. We should have never gone along with what you said, Frawohena. I admit that I do not like Xena but she hasn't harmed us in any way. You thought Xena was going to fight Alexander but she didn't. She gave herself up to save our people."
"If we tell Gabrielle about this she is going to banish us too."
Yo-Hono smiled. "I doubt that. She might banish you but not Exosspia and I. This was your idea."
"And you went along with it."
"Only because we thought Xena wasn't going to comply with the emperor. She did the complete opposite! Shouldn't we trust her now?"
Helena sat on the ground tending to Xena's horse's wounded leg and Gabrielle walked up to her with a smile on her face. She took the bandage off and treated the wound with a damp cloth while talking to the animal to soothe him so he wouldn't rile himself up and rear on his hind legs.
Gabrielle looked at the gash on the horse's leg and observed how Helena was meticulously cleaning it with such precision. "You're very good at that."
The girl whipped her head around and smiled at the Amazon Queen. "Thanks. My grandmother taught me."
Gabrielle's eyes widened. "Your grandmother, huh?" she knelt down beside Helena. "She is the one who takes care of you?" it was far easier to get information out of Helena than it was Xena and this information was considered like gold to Gabrielle. xena never mentioned once who was the person who took care of Helena.
"Yes. I know she is worried about me." Helena wrapped the horse's leg with a fresh bandage slowly and steadily.
"I'm sure she is." Gabrielle sat down and folded her legs. "But you're very safe here, I promise you that." She watched as the girl remained focused and attentive to fixing Xena's horse. "So, Helena," she began, "does your grandmother talk about your parents at all?" she inquires curiously to see if she could fish for more information.
Helena sighed and paddled the horse's leg now finished dressing the wound. She wiped her hands on a cloth and organized the basket filled with medicinal supplies. "Not really." She hated to say. "She didn't know my father but said my mother left when I was two."
Gabrielle nodded and listened intently. "Did she mention why your mother left?"
"Stupid Alexander's father," she threw the soiled cloths in the basket angrily and the Amazon Queen bit her bottom lip. "His father invaded Thrace and killed our king." Her cheeks burned just thinking of the retelling of the story Cyrene told her many times through her childhood. "My mother fought against King Phillip then she left and never came back."
Gabrielle raised her eyebrow at that story. If that were true then this war between Macedonia and Thrace was a long battle. Every day those two lands were always at war until now. No wonder Xena was so angry when Alexander sent a coup into Amphipolis. He now owned Thrace, Greece and Macedonia. He lost Arcadia only because Xena trampled her way through Corinth and conquered every stretch of land including Gabrielle's.
"Do you remember what your mother looks like?" she asks and Helena shook her head. "Do you think about her?"
"Sometimes," she stood up and rests the basket under her arm and on her hip. "Queen Gabrielle."
"Yes?" she stood up and stared into the girl's cinnamon colored eyes.
"Do you think that my mother misses me? I mean, do you think she cares about me?"
Gabrielle crookedly grinned. "I think she cares a lot about you."
"Then why did she leave?"
Gabrielle looked over at the gaggle of girls chatting amongst each other. She remembered having the same conversation with Gaia and her mother who left the Amazon Nation two years ago. Unfortunately Gaia's mother left to join a group of rogue Amazons and Gabrielle had no idea where those Amazons went and she sure didn't want to see them again. Unlike Gaia's mother, Xena actually cared about her daughter, although much like the conversation she had with Gaia, Gabrielle had no idea how to explain why a mother would leave her own child. She also hated seeing the confusion in a child's eyes and the hurt to go along with it.
"Well, I don't really have an answer for you," she tells the disappointed girl. "But maybe your mother left so she could protect Amphipolis and the rest of Thrace." That was probably a lie or perhaps it wasn't, she thought. If Xena really did drive Alexander's father out of Thrace then maybe that was her original plan; to protect her motherland. But it didn't look like that now. The Empress of Sparta, as Xena calls herself, was not merciful and certainly far away from her motherland now.
Helena brushed the veil behind her shoulders and looked at her mother's horse. "I guess." She wasn't really satisfied with the Queen's answer but it wasn't like she knew anything anyway. "Where is the Empress? I want to show her that I fixed her horse's leg." She smiled brightly.
What a switch of topics, Gabrielle thought. "She should be back tomorrow. I'm sure she will appreciate your help."
Helena walked with her down to the center of the camp. "I feel really bad that I hurt her horse. I didn't mean to. I really like horses. I was supposed to get one when I turned five but my grandmother said no because my grandfather died."
Gabrielle's eyes widened. This girl just kept spewing out information and she felt nervous listening to her. She half expected Xena to appear and grab her and Helena and rush them into a hut to yell at them both –preferably at her and not Helena.
"Your…grandfather?" she asks, deducing that the girl was speaking of Xena's parents.
"Yeah, he was the king of Thrace," she admits casually and Gabrielle's jaw dropped. "Where is the Empress? Why did she leave? Did she go meet someone?" she asks, more interested in her than talking about her family.
Gabrielle couldn't believe what she was hearing and it all made sense now. The Macedonians and Thracians obviously hated each other and now she knew why. Xena's family was obviously very important in Thrace and Alexander knew that which is why the two were always butting heads. This was a feud that had been going on for a long time.
"Queen Gabrielle?"
She blinked and gazed at the concerned girl. "Oh, um, she's on a political mission. She'll be back soon."
Leo rode into the camp, bypassing the Amazons at the entrance. "Amazon Queen!" he shouts and Gabrielle walked forward after telling Helena to stay behind her, which she didn't listen and followed instead.
She was waiting for Xena to appear at any moment and she frowns up at the horseman. "Where is Xena?"
"She was arrested by Alexander. We were surrounded by his men, Persians and your fellow Amazons," he said and her frown deepened. "She willingly gave herself to him to save your nation. You are in Sparta's debt, Amazon Queen."
"What do you mean my Amazons? Who are you talking about?"
"Your queens have sided with the emperor against you and the Empress." He eyed Helena. "I need to take her to Sparta with me."
Gabrielle grabbed Helena's shoulders. "She stays here."
"She is not an Amazon. She belongs in Sparta." He held out his hand and Helena backed away into Gabrielle.
"Xena asked me to watch her. I am in charge of her. She stays."
He scowled and retracts his hand. "I suggest you get a hold of your Amazon Queens and save your tribe from further damnation if that is even possible at this point. I have to round up the army and scouts to get Xena out of Macedonia."
Helena gasped. "Alexander took the Empress?" she lifts her head up to the queen. "You have to save her! He will kill her!"
Gabrielle smiles at her and looks up at Leo. "I will send you my best archers."
"I don't think that is necessary. Your people have caused enough damage."
"I'm not going to sit back and let Xena remain in the hands of Alexander. I want to help –I am going to help. She is my ally."
He knew he wasn't going to win this argument and he did need help but he certainly didn't expect the Amazons to be the ones to help. "Fine." He steered to the left. "I will be waiting in Sparta for your Amazons."
Chilapa walked to her queen as soon as Leo left the encampment. "Did he say that the Empress gave herself to the emperor to save us?" she whispers.
Gabrielle stared off in the distance with a blank face. "Yes, he did."
"Why would she do that?"
Helena turned around with big anxious eyes. "Queen Gabrielle, you are going to save her, right? She's your friend, isn't she?"
Gabrielle exhaled heavily. "Yes, she is my friend."