The desert had a stark beauty which in many ways reminded her of Xena. It had great beauty, but was also in many ways the most deadly place on earth. It could be capable of astounding acts of mercy, yet if wronged or mistreated you were instantly dead. Gabrielle drew the veil across her face once more to avoid breathing in to much of the sand stirred in the slow breeze, which carried the smells of water and grass from the banks of the Nile towards them. They had traveled for nearly a week seeking the encampment of the Egyptian. Gabrielle had wanted to go straight for the camp of the Romans via the Nile, but had decided against it in the end.
Achim, a man from beyond borders of Egypt and his wife Isra were her guides here in the desert. She turned to look towards the pair and their pack animals. Achim was a proud man, an independent trader and warrior, who specialized in trading luxury wares hidden amongst his camels' packs and who was a very dedicated worshipper of Isis it seemed. Gabrielle suspected that it was more the opinions of his strong willed Egyptian wife and former slave Isra, which he followed. They had shared the interesting story of their lives over the campfire after a few days of cautiousness on their part. Gabrielle was happy to have them along, they were great people and very knowledgeable in the recent history of Egypt and they liked her it seemed. Of course, Gabrielle hoped that Iaret hadn't given them some secret orders to get rid of her after her mission was done, because she liked both of them and Achim was by far not good enough with his scimitar to defeat her in a fair fight. Achim approached her camel, a very smelly beast.
"We will reach the camp within a few hours, Gabrielle", he said from inside his black desert clothing. Gabrielle was amazed that a man from such a male dominated society as the desert nomads of the east would accept her opinion or commands, but he seemed to have no problems with it. Again she suspected the hand of Isra in this behavior; she was truly a stubborn person.
"Good, I am tiring of sand and ice cold nights", she commented in his own language. She had spent the last week learning it. It seemed her amazing ear for languages still hadn't abandoned her.
"Yes, but as I told you, when we set out on our journey. The Romans control the Nile and the legion controls the only good landing spot near the Valley of the Kings. It was for the better that we traveled in this manner. This way we look like poor traders with a meager caravan instead of a warrior and her cohorts. And you agreed I might add", he explained.
"Of course I did, and it is still correct. I didn't intend to offend you my friend. I am just irritable when I can't bathe regularly. It's a habit I have picked up on my travels", Gabrielle said and managed to raise the speed of her camel by rapping it on its rump with a stick.
Suddenly she became aware of metal and leather sliding against each other. Sandaled feet were running across sand coming in their direction.
"Someone is coming", she whirled and yelled towards Achim and Isra.
Just as soon as she turned towards the noise, she saw what looked like a small group of roman legionnaires coming over the ridge of a dune.
"You there hold!" They yelled and ran towards them with their shields and spears gleaming in the sun.
Gabrielle cursed inwards. The battle lines had probably moved and they had crossed into the patrol area of the Romans. Achim and Isra quietly caught up with her. The agreement was that Achim should first try to talk them out of situations like this. However just to be ready Gabrielle made sure no unnecessary clothing covered her sai's or Xena's chakram. They waited patiently as the Romans approached. Gabrielle watched intently for signs that they were going to charge instead of stopping, but their advance slowed and came to a halt in front of them. The patrol leader stepped up towards them.
"What can I help you with?" Achim asked in very bad roman gave them a salesman's smile. Gabrielle smiled behind her veil; Achim was going to act the desert country bumpkin out to make a few dinars. She knew that his roman was almost without accent in everyday life.
"We are not here to trade with you! This is a war zone. You can't continue this way", the man explained in an irritated tone of voice.
"Oh that is not good. I was heading towards the harbor hoping to get a quick ride across the Nile so that I might head for Syria my home land", Achim explained slowly as if he had to think of each word one by one.
"The harbors up and down the Nile are currently closed. You'll have to go up to the Mediterranean coast to find a ship", the roman explained carefully as if he thought Achim slowwitted. Gabrielle reminded herself to use that tack herself some time in the future, it might come in handy.
Achim cursed for a while in his own language, when suddenly war cries resounded across the small valley between the sandy dunes. A large group of warriors on horseback swept in the gulch between the two surrounding dunes and headed towards the group. "Rebels", the patrol leader yelled and began issuing orders to his men.
Achim motioned for them to withdraw from the battle slowly, but the fates had decreed otherwise. The Romans noticed their withdrawal, but didn't begrudge them what they considered to be cowardice, but the attackers didn't seem to care which side they were on. A volley of arrows was loosened on both parties. The riders weren't concerned with precision, but instead rained death on them, hoping that some of the arrows would hit something important.
Harmless arrows rained around her. Then Gabrielle sensed it coming towards her as her body and reflexes suddenly warned her. She left philosophy and poetry composing behind and let her body react to the approaching sounds of two arrows. Her hands flew forward and caught first one then another arrow. However her camel wasn't so lucky. It caught an arrow in its forehead and immediately began falling to the side.
Gabrielle held the two arrows before her, when suddenly she felt her mount starting to tumble to the left. Knowing full well that a falling mount could easily crush her under it, she quickly leapt to the other side.
She landed effortlessly in the sand and threw the two arrows aside. She reached down and took up the chakram. Her eyes quickly saw a path for it to fly and threw it right towards a stone. With its typical howl the metal ring flew towards the stones and split in two smaller parts heading towards the front group of riding archers, who had stopped their horses to aim their weapons. She saw with a smile how the first half of the chakram neatly severed the bowstrings of all the archers, while the other headed underneath their horses and cut all their saddles free. The chakram reformed in the air and curved back heading towards her, while the archers all slid of their horses into a great mess of men and horses. She stepped forward and caught it, while taking stock of the battlefield. The Romans had taken the brunt of the volley of arrows, but their armors and shields had allowed all but two of the eight men to avoid injury. The Egyptians were numerically superior, but they had nine unarmed archers on the ground in front of them and only seven warriors seemingly ready to fight. Her head turned, but she couldn't catch a glimpse of either Isra or Achim in the mass of living and dead camels behind her.
"Attack", she heard the Roman leader scream, answered by a call to do the same from the Egyptians. She was at an impasse then her ears caught the sound of even more approaching Roman sandals and the lack of human breathing from the remainder of Achim's caravan. They had passed. Just like that. Gabrielle pushed the loss back into the mass of sorrow that coursed through her soul and forced her to focus. A plan formed in her mind. With a grim look on her face she ran towards the Egyptians after drawing her sai's. She cried: "Vengeance" in Amazon, another language where that word sounded hideous. She dove in the fight, hoping she didn't have to kill anyone, while still looking convincing to the Romans.
A man clad like one of the palace guards had done back, when they had fooled Marc Anthony and Brutus, ran towards her brandishing a short sword reminiscent of the Roman ones. They locked weapons and a dance of thrust and parry began. Finally she weaved right as he brought his sword down in an overhead strike and succeeding only in planting his weapon in the sand. Gabrielle gave him a precision kick in his side sending him sprawling in the sand besides his now dropped sword. She quickly followed up as he was trying to vault to his feet by jumping up, wheeling in the air and landing with her full weight on his chest. She heard a few ribs crack under the impact. He seemed to have fainted from the pain. However she never managed to ascertain his health as someone hit her across the back with a staff.
Gabrielle winced in pain but she had tried much worse and nothing except bruises would come of that attack. She rolled forward with the strike, came up on her feet, wheeled about and ended standing on the sand a few feet from her attacker. He was a large and burly man, who brandished the staff like only an amateur could do it. She knew; she had done the same in the beginning. He ran towards her and attacked by swinging the long staff in one hand towards her. Gabrielle dropped her sai's and grabbed the staff as the long end came towards her. She felt the jarring strength of the attack in her arms, but ignored it and instead quickly kicked sideway hitting the man's hand, while tearing the staff backwards and up. Now she had his staff. With a smile she whirled the staff about like the type of familiar friend the weapon was to her.
The man looked on the display and quickly turned to run. Gabrielle smiled and yelled: "Hey you forgot this" and threw the staff like a spear deliberately hitting the ground far in front of him. She bent down and picked up her sai's
A young Egyptian, almost a boy, ran towards her, brandishing a short sword. Gabrielle acted quickly and threw her body backwards while extending and stiffening her right leg. She felt her hard leather heel hit the boy on the chin and landed just to watch him land in the sand. She quickly rolled forward and slammed the length of her sai's into his chest.
She ran towards the last of the Egyptians standing near her. He brought his sword forward; she easily deflected it to the left and kicked him hard below the belt, where he had no armor. He leaned forward, groaning in pain. Gabrielle whirled her sai's so that the pummels pointed forward and hammered them in his head, hoping that he had a thick enough skull to resist the trauma. He immediately collapsed and lay still. She stopped barely out of breath and looked around the battlefield again.
The Romans had been reduced to half strength, when suddenly the reinforcements Gabrielle had expected for a while came over the ridge towards the battlefield. The remaining rebels quickly fled as well over twenty fresh legionnaires approached. Gabrielle ignored them, she ran towards the remaining camels looking for Isra and Achim. She found them. Isra had taken an arrow to the neck; she hadn't even felt any pain before dying. Achim had taken two arrows in the chest, one had clearly penetrated a lung, while the other had hit or come close to hitting his heart. Gabrielle grimly noted that there would have been no way for her or even Xena to heal such wounds. She would mourn her friends without guilt. She bent down and closed Achim's eyes, when a shadow of a legionnaire fell over her.
"Warrior, do you speak our language", he asked.
"Yes", she answered and rose to greet the man, who looked like the leader of the relief force. He wore the insignias and signs of a Roman commander, probably the leader of an entire detachment.
"Was this your caravan or?" He asked and looked over the carnage of camel and the two dead people.
"It was his, I only traveled with them on my way towards Persia", she explained and pointed towards Achim.
"Good. Take what is yours from the caravan, the rest will become the property of Rome", he stated and looked at her expecting her to protest. Gabrielle nodded solemnly and went over to collect her valuable possessions, which she always carried with her even into the camp of an enemy. When she had finished the roman commander still stood there. Gabrielle judged him to be well over thirty and a soldier with little interests in politics except when they involved him. He had seen many battles and had a hardened heart from them.
"I have heard from the legionnaires that you fought bravely and excellently. As it goes against my principles to leave anyone at mercy of the desert may I offer my protection and companionship until we reach our camp, there you can travel with the caravans towards Memphis and then continue on your travels", he asked and smiled.
"I thank you. I gladly accept your offer", she replied and followed him towards the soldier, who were still gathering prisoners soon to be slaves and their own wounded on emergency assembled litters. Soon they set out continuing on the same route that Gabrielle and her friends had traveled not an hour earlier. She felt another pang of regret for her two guides, whom she had been able to talk to and depend upon in the merciless desert.
They were walking through the hot afternoon sands. She walked besides the commander easily carrying her belongings in her two fur bags easily resisting the hammering sun using the tricks Xena and later Achim had taught her, when he suddenly spoke: "You seem to know what you're doing, yet you are not an Egyptian nor are you one of the Persians. Is it too much to ask where you're from? Excuse my curiosity I don't get to meet many good female warriors?"
Gabrielle looked at him and smiled underneath her veil. "It is not a problem. I am a Greek amazon my experience comes from my many years of traveling", she explained.
"Well, I must thank you again for your help. The men claim that if you hadn't used your strange weapon, then we would have come to a graveyard instead of to the rescue", he said and smiled thankfully at her.
"I only did what was right. And there was self interest in this as well. If I hadn't attack then I would have been just as much killed as my friends", she said.
"It is a most unusual weapon. I believe I've heard about something like it before but it was carried by a legendary warrior, who is long crucified and dead", he said and looked at her questioningly.
"Yes, the chakram of Xena the Warrior Princess. She is dead, but we amazons honor her memory as the greatest female warrior of all time by emulating her. I am one of the few, who has managed to master a copy of her chakram. However it doesn't have any of the magical properties of hers. In my case it is all skill and a little luck", she lied and hoped that he bought it.
"That makes sense. Many Roman emperors also try to emulate Caesar, but so far all have fallen short of his ability and grandeur at least if I am to believe my father", he told her and smiled.
Gabrielle shuddered at the memory of Caesar and their crucifixion. She would remember the intense pain, the ice cold air and even her final gasp of air. Even here in the hot desert that memory left her freezing cold.
"There it is", the commander exclaimed and pointed down into the Valley, where in the middle of the green areas and cliffs a roman fortress complete with wooden palisades lay nestled against a large mass of ancient ruins. Gabrielle was filled with a strange longing and hominess at the sight. "Déjà vu", she thought and looked up and down the valley. It seemed strangely familiar yet different.
"How long until the next caravan leaves for Memphis", she asked and looked towards the suntanned black haired commander.
"A little less than a week, they just brought us supplies and we haven't found any treasures here yet, so there isn't really anything to send home", he said and commanded one of his men to run ahead and tell everyone that he was bringing in some wounded men.
"Treasure", Gabrielle asked as if she had no idea, what was going on in the Valley.
"You haven't heard". She emphatically shook her head. "The governor wants to heighten his standing in Rome, so he is busy taking the buried treasures out of here and freighting them back home. He is very popular with the Emperor right now. That is why you were attacked by the way. The local yokels don't want us to take the treasures out of the tombs; they say it is because ancient secrets of their gods beyond what ever they want to see the daylight ever again. They're acting like there are a thousand demons waiting out there in the sand to rise and destroy Egypt every time we open a tomb. But we are safe down there… Not that you need much protection", he added with a smile.
Gabrielle had a sinking feeling; once again her looks were getting to a man. Was there no end to that phenomenon, or would she have to wait until she was old and gray before it went away. It would be years still before she would allow anyone man or woman deep enough into her heart to love them, or so she felt. Sometimes she suspected that her godlike friend had a hand in that, but Aphrodite had always denied that she had anything to do with her effect on certain men, even if Gabrielle wasn't sure that she had that affect on them before she had met her.
The legionnaires marched into the camp with no hassles. However the guards stopped her immediately. The walls weren't that tall and Gabrielle judged that she could get over them from both the outside and inside quite easily. The outside of the wall was patrolled by four men groups of legionnaires on an irregular timetable. The only other place there were guards, where at the gate and probably near the governor. Of course it was a military camp, so they would be every where inside, but she wasn't leading an army inside, she only had to find a way to stop the governor in his quest for godhood, if that was indeed what he was up to.
"She is our guest", the commander finally had found time to tell the guards that she could be allowed inside the camp and Gabrielle walked inside while opening her veil and slowly unwinding her turban. She heard the commander sucking in breath as he saw her like that and knew that he was now completely taken with her. She felt annoyed by this, but acted like she hadn't noticed for now. A love struck roman commander could as very useful to her as Marc Anthony had been to Xena. The commander offered to escort her to the place, where she could set up camp for the next few days.
Gabrielle suddenly stopped rooted to the spot as suddenly several ancient pillars came into view.
"Is something wrong?" The commander asked.
"No. I was just astounded by the size of these. I have never this close to such ancient ruins before", she lied.
"Well, I hope you can stand sleeping next to them then. Unfortunately we have no tents to spare and it is the only spot out of the way of all the army and workers as well as the digging is around here", he explained apologetically and guided her over to a spot next to some Egyptian traders, who also seemed to be camping out for a few days awaiting the next caravan back to Memphis.
"Would you care to join me and a few friends in my tent for dinner this evening or is it a problem", he offered while pointing out a big green tent across the single dirt road running through the entire camp.
"Not at all, I will join you later then. Is there someplace where I can get water and maybe buy some food", she asked and looked around.
"Well there are two wells here. We all use the one over there". He pointed over to the far end of the camp. "But if it is too far and you don't mind a little sand floating in it, then there is a spring filled basin just over there inside the ruins", he explained, when some one yelled: "Commander Plini". "That is me I am afraid. We will see each other later then", he said as farewell and ran towards the soldier, who had called for him, while Gabrielle set about making camp.