It was too quiet. The wind rustled through the tall grass, birds chirped in the air above, and wolves howled in the forest to the east. But there were no people. Some, Xena knew, would find such a place a true paradise. But she found it cold, empty. It was when she entered the castle gates that the eeriness of the situation truly set in. When she'd walked barefoot across the plain, the noises of the wild were familiar. Even the water rippling beneath the drawbridge sounded just as she'd expected. But the inner castle grounds sounded nothing like it should. There were no shoppers milling about the market. No vendors hawking their wares, throwing their voices loud enough to be heard above the throng. There were no pounding blacksmith hammers. No horses nickering in the stables. No bards singing their rhapsodies to anyone who would throw a dinar their way. It was dead. Xena touched her belly to remind herself that she wasn't completely alone. But even the baby didn't bring comfort because it represented the reason for her imprisonment.
Xena pushed open the double doors to the castle keep. She chuffed at the thought of living in a fortified castle in a world without enemies. It was an overkill only the likes of which Ares would design. A stone staircase spiraled its way up the tower. Xena counted eight floors to the top. Someone less athletic than the Warrior Princess would likely have found the climb exhausting but she reached the top without panting. The hallway she stepped into was darker than the stairwell which had the benefit of a skylight in its uppermost reaches. Xena crossed the corridor and opened the first door she found. It opened to a spacious bedroom with a massive, curtained four-poster bed carved out of ebony wood. Heavy, black velvet curtains hemmed with swirling silver filigree hung on the bed frame. Crimson red sheets covered the fat down mattress. The room had two windows. The west-facing window overlooked ripening wheat fields and the eastern window had a remarkable view of the silver river as it ran away from the castle grounds and raced through the forest. An arched doorway stood in the middle of the south wall, halfway between the massive bed and an ample sitting space outfitted with a long couch and two klismos chairs. The furniture in the sitting area was made of the same ebony as the bed. Greek-key patterns adorned the otherwise clean simple lines of the furniture. The upholstery was the same crimson as the sheets. Two black velvet pillows with silver filigree reminiscent of Xena's bicep cuffs sat at one end of the couch. Xena walked past the sitting area and pushed open the wooden door situated in the archway. It opened onto a modest sized balcony.
Xena walked to the edge and looked toward the southern horizon. From this new height and angle she could see past the lush vineyard. Green hills dotted with white granite boulders rolled all the way to the sea. A wisp of smoke caught Xena's attention. She traced the vapor with her eyes but it's source was obscured by the verdant hills. Could there be a village in the valley? There was only one way to find out. First, she would need some shoes and something to make a torch with. There wasn't enough daylight for her to make it to the source of the smoke before nightfall.
Xena walked back into the bedroom then padded over to the other side of the room where Ares had put the dressing area. It consisted of a large wardrobe, a basin for washing, and a vanity with a mirror and a low-backed vanity chair. Xena opened the right door to the wardrobe and found three beautiful gowns. They were dyed in the deepest sapphire, plum, and scarlet that Xena had ever seen. The only footwear was a pair of silk slippers and a pair of golden strapped sandals. Xena tried the other side of the wardrobe and found doe-skin leather breeches and a simple leather tunic folded neatly on a shelf. Brown leather boots sat in the bottom of the cabinet. Deciding that the ensemble would be better suited for traipsing across the countryside than her unarmored dress would be, Xena pulled the pants on and cinched them with the attached belt. Xena tried not to overthink just how Ares had known her exact size. When she'd finished dressing, she gave herself a once over in the mirror. Satisfied, she wondered if there were any weapons in the room. She'd heard the wolves howling in the distance and didn't really want to take off into the night without some steel at her side. A quick search of the room didn't bring up any weapons other than a decorative piece mounted over the massive empty fireplace. Xena walked closer to inspect the crossed swords. They were replicas of her sword and Ares' sword. Their blades were threaded through a mock chakram. The swords were made out of steel as was the chakram, but none of the edges had been worked. They were as dull as a cyclops' wit. Beautiful ornamentation but nothing she could use to defend herself in the wild. She hoped a search of the castle would turn up something more useful.
The master suite took up most of the top floor of the tower, but there was one room on the opposite side. Xena opened the door to find nothing more than an empty room. The room had only a single east-facing window which was quickly losing light in the late afternoon. The woods beyond were already shrouded in darkness. The room was equipped with a small hearth but it was cold and unlit. There weren't even logs sitting at the ready. There was no furniture, no rugs, no tapestry. Xena hoped she wasn't going to find the rest of the castle so poorly outfitted. When she turned to leave, she heard a whoosh behind her. She whipped around, half-expecting to find Ares standing there but was surprised to find that the fireplace had roared to life of its own accord.
Xena stared at the flames that burned in the hearth. No wood burned, just dancing orange flames. Xena walked closer to the fire. It emitted warmth just like a natural fire but it didn't have the rich smell and there was no smoke. Even more eerie than the lack of smell was the absence of sound. One of the things Xena loved the most about making camp in the evening was being lulled to sleep by the gentle popping of wood as it burned away in the night. Xena shuddered at the empty feeling the fake fire left in her stomach.
When Xena started making her way down the stairwell, she realized that the torches mounted on the wall now burned with the same unnatural flame. She guessed the big fireplace in the master suite was now alive as well. He clearly had the fires coordinated in some way, probably linked to the setting sun. She wondered what else in this world he had created would be different than what she was accustomed to.
Xena stepped into the hallway for the seventh floor. There was only one double doorway. Xena tried the massive black door banded with gleaming iron but it didn't budge. She looked for a keyhole but didn't find one. Her instinct told her that he had magically closed off the door. No mortal, not even the mighty Hercules would be able to cross that threshold without the permission of the God of War. King of the Gods, she reminded herself. But here his powers were diminished he'd told her. She wondered how all these enchantments worked if his powers were decreased. Or was it that keeping all these enchantments in place sapped his vital energy enough to make him more vulnerable? And just how vulnerable was vulnerable? He'd felt it when she hit him but was he so decreased that she could actually kill him? She doubted it. Ares wouldn't run that risk again. Not even for her. He'd given up his godhood once in order to save her life. But his life hadn't been in imminent peril from that quick decision. Now that he had not only his godhood back but the power of his father's throne, Xena knew there was no way he would chance losing it just to protect her. Xena's hand went to her belly as it occurred to her that he might be willing to take such a gamble if it meant the safety of their child. And none of it mattered anyhow. There was no way she would actually kill him. She'd already shown that by her actions during the Twilight. He'd pegged her good when he taunted her that she'd had every opportunity to kill him and she hadn't done it despite cutting down half his family. Xena snorted in disgust at her own feelings for him.
With the seventh floor a bust, Xena went down a level. Like the floor above it, the room contained only one door but Xena was able to open this one. She was surprised to find a library. Shelves filled with scrolls lined the circumference of the room. The smell of the leather and papyrus wrinkled Xena's nose. It was a comfort. Something that felt real. Something that felt of her world. Where had Ares amassed such a collection? Inside the ring that ran along the outer wall were two more rings of shelves. Xena imagined that if someone looked down on it from above it would look like a labyrinth of scrolls. Xena winded her way through the stacks. In the dead center of the room was a large table. A large suspended black iron brazier decorated with curling rams horns burned above the table bathing the room in orange light. Xena pulled a scroll from one of the shelves near the table. It was a language she didn't recognize, though the lettering was very close to Greek. She pulled another scroll and started reading.
12 Gamelion
My dear Hephaestion returned today with the supply train. How I missed his dimpled visage. My bed will be warmer tonight. Now that we are flush with grain and medicinals we can continue our march eastward. . .
Xena rolled the scroll back up. She didn't have to keep reading to know that she was holding in her hand the diary of Alexander the Great. Curious, Xena grabbed the next scroll. She untied the red silk ribbon and unrolled it. Xena recognized the Chinese lettering. She had learned some of the language during her tutelage under Lao Ma. She was able to translate enough of the characters to know that she held a copy of the Art of War by Sun Zu. Xena looked around the room in awe as she realized that she was sitting in the greatest military library the world had ever seen. No, not the world, she reminded herself. His world.
Xena put the Art of War back where she had found it and resumed her search for weapons. But as she was leaving a special section of the library caught her eye. The shelf stood out from the others because it was bordered on either side by two Amazonian staffs. Xena grabbed the first scroll and read.
I sing of Xena, a warrior true. A friend through and through. The Warlord Draco had burned his way through the valley until he'd reached my humble village of Potidea. Like most of the neighboring villages, mine had originally sought to appease him. But Draco wasn't the type to be satisfied with a few heads of cabbage and a small flock of sheep. No, he wanted the women and girls. First for the pleasure of his men, then for the coin we would make on the slave market.
Just when we Potideans had reached our darkest hour, when only the bravest of us dared stand against such brutality, a hero emerged.
Xena smiled and shook her head. How could Gabrielle have gotten it so wrong? It was Gabrielle, the young village girl, that was the true hero. She had stood up to Draco's men. It was she that had inspired Xena to get involved at all. Her bravery against brute force was something Xena hadn't seen much of. In her warlord days, how many villages had she razed? How many families had she torn apart? Countless. And there were never any Gabrielles. Xena had often wondered what would have happened if she'd met the young bard a year earlier. Would Gabrielle still breathe? Doubtful. Xena placed the scroll back with the others and wondered how Ares had managed to get his hands on so many of Gabrielle's works.
"On to the next floor," Xena told the child within her belly. "Hopefully, you father has seen fit to leave me at least one usable sword." The only answer from her belly was a rumble reminding her that she'd only eaten half of her lunch when Ares had shown up on the riverbank and kidnapped her. When her leather boots hit the landing for the fifth floor, Xena heard the door downstairs scrape across the stone as it opened. Xena stilled. If it were Ares surely he would just pop in wherever she was and not use the front door. But then again she didn't know what he'd meant by diminished powers either.
"Hallo?" A reedy voice called from below. Definitely not Ares whose voice was smooth and deep and warmer than the fires of Hephaesteus' forge. With cautious optimism, Xena headed toward the stranger. She'd been perturbed to find the castle grounds devoid of life. She was happy to know that she wasn't the only inhabitant of this world he'd carved out of oblivion.
When Xena made the turn from the second to first floor, she could see the man from behind. He was peering into one of the doors off of the main entrance. His body was as rail thin as his voice. His sandy brown hair was long and he wore a band around the forehead the way many young men of Thrace did. Xena guessed him to be roughly her height but he posed little danger to her. She could tell he was more accustomed to wrangling sheep than a warrior like herself.
"I'm up here," Xena called as she continued to make her way down the spiral stairs.
The man turned and did a double take. "Xena?"
Xena had reached the second to last stopped and looked at the man who clearly knew her. He looked familiar but she couldn't quite place where she knew him from. "Xena, what happened? I'm alive?"
The question took her aback. She studied him again. Was he one of her men? She had hand-picked most of them but she had given Tiro the assignment of shoring up the lower-level infantry spots. Maybe this man was one of them. His shirt was torn and she could see a hint of a silver tattoo peaking through the fabric. He wore a small ram's head pendant, the kind a lot of the villagers she'd grown up around wore. The kind her own father had worn. When her eyes landed on his belt, Xena froze. He wore the blood red ram's head insignia of the Voskos family. Their family had tended a large sheep farm near Amphipolis as long as Xena could remember. He was Mikos Voskos, Xena recalled finally. And, she knew precisely the last time she'd seen him. He was standing tall on the forward line with Gabrielle defending Amphipolis and protecting Eve from Athena and her Silver Archers. Xena also recalled pulling an arrow from his chest before they burned his body with the others after the battle. How was he standing here now, not a day older? Xena looked back at the hole in his shirt. It was in the same spot where the arrow had struck him down. The silver Xena realized was not a tattoo in the traditional sense. Instead, it was some sort of supernatural mark. "Mikos. I'm as confused as you." Xena wasn't sure how much to tell him about Ares' involvement. Most mortal minds could only handle so much of the bizarre machinations of the immortal world. And truly,she didn't know how Mikos was connected to this place. But if Xena knew anything, she knew the Fates could be fucked up. Was it possible that because he was destined to die protecting her child that he would do so again, albeit a different child? Xena had more questions than she did answers for him. So she smiled to try to put him at ease. "I just got here myself. I thought I was alone. You want to see if we can rustle up some food?"
Mikos could see the wheels turning behind Xena's bright eyes. He could tell she was developing theories but ones that she wasn't ready to share with him. He wondered why she would be here alone. That companion of hers was never too far off and the baby, Eve they called her, she wouldn't have just left her anywhere. Rumors had been circulating among the men that Ares was going to ferry Xena off to safety. Had the god done so? But why would he have brought me along, Mikos wondered. He'd always been faithful to the war god,the whole Voskos family owned their livelihood to him. Their great-great-grandfather had been granted their land by the god as a reward for 25 years of faithful service. Because of that land, none of the Voskos sons and grandson had ever had to leave their valley in the service of War. They'd taken the ram's head as their sigil not only because they were shepherds but also as a reminder of all they owed their sovereign Lord Ares. Mikos knew that even if Xena had answers to his questions, she wasn't ready to divulge them so he simply nodded and said, "I could use a bite to eat."
The two headed out into the courtyard, Xena taking the lead. She walked them to where she hoped the kitchen would be. Or at least where she would have put it if she'd designed the place. When she found the kitchen exactly where she thought it would be, Xena didn't know whether to be relieved that there was food on the table or pissed that she and Ares thought so much alike.