A/N: I know disclaimers usually warn about homosexual content, but I figured with this fandom- be warned for there follows here some hetero-sex, also violence and foul language and everything that smacks of fun.
XI.
The sand slips tidally beneath her waterlogged boots and she feels as though she is running through an hourglass. Her wounded leg throbs, the saltwater doing nothing to alleviate the sharp burning sensation that tingled from the nerves in her foot all the way to the base of her neck. Gritting her teeth, the warrior continues toward the tree-line where she had instructed the contingent to pull the boats ashore and take cover.
"Xena!" a soldier hales from the shadow of thick jungle overgrowth. When she clears through, she finds a quarter of the Athenian Navy working hurriedly to haul the barrels of Greek fire out of the bows. Some break down small saplings, others assemble them in rows, still others begin to tie the ends together with simple, effective square knots.
"Report," Xena barks to Titos, the acting lieutenant. She gathers her dark hair in one hand and twists it in her palm to wring the water out.
"We've got the litters nearly assembled," replies Titos, procuring the map of Salamis from his belt.
"Good. Break it down to four men per litter, that makes eight groups, one per each barrel of Greek fire" begins Xena, stooping down to her haunches to where Titos had unfurled the map over a cropping rock. She points to the tiny depiction of a peninsula that extends from the eastern shore of the island, "that's were Tetram gained the high ground. He won't give it up unless we force him. We're gonna surround him in flames."
"The wind will take the fire to Kamatero and Selinia," Titos argues.
"It may," Xena scrubbed a hand over her face, a battle seeming to wage behind her eyes, "spare one man, send him to Kamatero to warn its civilians. Gabrielle will ride to Selinia."
"Gabrielle? But, I thought Tetram had captured the bard-"
"I'm getting her back," returns Xena, "which brings me to the final leg to our plan. You're going to instruct the southern group not to light their section until Gabrielle and I had safely made it through-"
"You can't be serious! It's suicide!"
"Not lighting the oil will create a window that she and I can slip through. Give us a quarter candlemark to get through, if we don't make it by then, chances are we never will."
"But, you're the general-" Titos tries to reason.
"Exactly" Xena spits, grabbing Titos' collar and pulling him close to her face, "you have your orders." In Titos' eyes, Xena finds a golden highlight in that mossy iris and the colors remind her of a similar pair.
"I said pick it up," the brazen warrior snarled, dragging the former Royal Guard Captain by his hair so that he knelt before her. She kicked the hilt of his sword toward him, but the beaten man managed only to catch himself before hitting the sandy floor of the training yard.
"Pathetic," Xena hissed. She looked up at the gathered soldiers who had come to show their mutinous disagreement with the new captain Queen Artemisia had forced upon them. The demoted captain had stood pompously, his men behind him in ranks, and challenged Xena to a fight. She appreciated that sort of straightforwardness in a man, and even more in a soldier. There was nothing more sickening to her than a quiet subversion, which it looked like it might have become in the weeks since she had taken the captain's rank. However, as much as she esteemed this warrior, lessons had to be learned. Bending down, Xena took hold of his hair once more and forced him to look into her eyes. Blood poured from his nose and from his mouth, and between the swollen lid of his eye, she could tell that they were hazel, gold-flecked, rather beautiful.
"Shall I kill you?" Xena asked, looking up at her translator that stood cowed nearby. The interpreter repeated her words in Farsi.
The former captain nodded his head and Xena thought that she hadn't been properly understood. She repeated herself, tugging more harshly on the captain's hair.
"Baleh," the captain sputtered, "kill me."
Xena smiled, "You wish to die?"
"I have been shamed," his words reached her ears from the mouth of the interpreter.
"Fair enough," grunted Xena, releasing her hold on the captain and standing up. She drew the blade of her sword up, intent on a downward stroke that would cleave the man's head from his body. "Send a prayer to your War God," she said, ready to send her blade on its fatal arc.
"Xena!" came a stern, loud voice from above. Xena glanced up, the sunlight in her eyes, and cupped a hand over her brow. There, she found Artemisia standing on her balcony that overlooked the practice yard. "Release him," she ordered.
Xena emitted a sharp bark of laughter, "You heard him, my Queen, I've shamed him."
Artemisia maintained her regal pose, "Do as I say."
A scowl took shape on the warrior's face. Her sword still raised, she considered her options a moment. She could obey the Queen of Halicarnassus and defer to the sense of loyalty that seemed to run through the hearts of her people. Or, she could give into the hammering of blood in her temples, the insistent voice of war that said this man deserved to be put down, that he disobeyed his superior officer, that he would have killed you if the situation were reversed. Xena looked up at Artemisia once more and smirked. In one clean stroke, the former captain of the Royal Guard lay twitching in the blood-soaked sand.
"You were supposed to lead my Guard, not kill them!" Artemisia roared.
Xena stood in the middle of the royal chambers, her arms crossed over her chest, a bored look on her face. The Queen rounded on the warrior, her features flushed.
"Ibrahim was a good man, a good soldier, with a wife and five children who depended on him for their bread!" she continued.
"You're the Queen," said Xena, idly selecting an olive from a bowl that sat on a table, "give his family a stipend."
"This is what I planned, but that is not the point here!"
"It's not?" Xena raised an eyebrow, her voice dripping in feigned innocence.
"You know bloody well it isn't- You disobeyed a direct order! You undermined my authority in front of my subjects!"
"And you undermined my authority!" Xena yelled back, "I'm not gonna follow an order that I don't agree with. A leader of warriors must be tested and found strong, not weak. Your precious captain challenged me to a fight to the death. If I didn't kill him, I would lose the respect of your men! You want supreme control of the military? Fine, then give me my gold and send me back to Greece!"
"Don't think I won't!" Artemisia threatened.
"I know you won't," said Xena, lowering her voice into a honey-like cadence, "want to know why?"
"I am not so beholden to you," Artemisia lifted her chin with false bravado, her words like a bee sting.
"Yes you are," said Xena, pinning the Queen with her blue tempest eyes, "For all your royal fixings, you are a slave. You may know how to maneuver a few boats, but you do not know how to wage war. This makes you a slave to Xerxes, a slave to his war. Tell me, how is it being the Great Shah's personal whore-"
The sharp slap across her face surprised her. Xena touched her reddening cheek, "Hit a nerve did I?"
"How d-dare you!" the Queen stuttered, "How did you…?"
"Please, all the lavish attention Xerxes showered on the boy? The King of Halicarnassus was no father to Tetram, in fact the kid's got a greater royal claim, doesn't he?"
"Quiet," Artemisia ordered, tears now streaming down her face, the ink beneath her eyes running in black rivers.
"But, you know what they say, once a bastard always a bastard," Xena caught the Queen's hand this time when it came flying toward her face. The warrior held Artemisia's hand firmly in her own, "He'll never assume the throne of the Persian Empire. And if your little secret gets out, he won't rule Halicarnassus either."
"Please, I beg you-"
"Don't beg, it doesn't become you," Xena cut across, releasing Artemisia's hand and striding toward the balcony that sat just beyond an arched threshold. Xena swept through the sheer silk that hung draped over the archway and breathed deeply in the fragrant night air.
"Xena, please," Artemisia followed her out, sinking to her knees at the warrior's feet. She grasped like a drowning woman at the leather fringe of Xena's battleskirt. "I'll double your sum, I'll give you the opals and the diamonds that belonged to my father before the war."
"I don't want it," Xena said and felt such satisfaction in the desperate look that found purchase in the depths of the Queen's dark eyes.
"What do you want? Name it and it is yours."
Xena paused as if to think about it. "I want to help you," she relented.
Artemisia looked at the Warrior Princess as one would while having a religious experience. "You do?" she asked in a very small voice.
"Yes, I do. I do not wish for you to be a slave, Artemisia," Xena tried to disguise the excitement she felt while laying the careful framework for a plan that had been long in the making, "give me command of your military, including your navy. We will make Xerxes suffer for his gross underestimation of you, for treating you like a common whore. At Salamis, we will make him pay."
"How?" Artemisia asked, accepting the strength of Xena's offered hand and standing.
"You'll see," Xena replied, bringing the Queen's hand to her lips.
Artemisia melted to Xena's flame, drawing the taller woman in and planting kisses to all planes of her face. "You are of heaven," she whispered.
Xena smiled, seeking the Queen's mouth with a gentle, passionate kiss.
Later, when Xena made love to Artemisia, she made sure it was unhurried and tempered by sweetness and not violence. And when the Queen lay amongst the silken sheets and cushions, breathing deeply in a sated sleep, Xena crept from her side. She stole down the passageways that led to the barracks and knocked twice on the wooden door.
It was opened by Kain, a brutish soldier in the Royal Guard. Upon seeing who his visitor was, Kain rushed forward and pinned Xena against the opposite wall, devouring her mouth with his own. His beard scratched against Xena's cheek and she instructed herself not to recoil at the man's scent.
"Down boy," she muttered, biting down on his bottom lip.
"I have dreamed of your cunt," said Kain, lifting Xena up and settling himself between her thighs.
"Mmm," Xena purred, reaching down and securing his bulge in her palm. The man was, she admitted, well-endowed and she didn't mind too much having to manipulate him. She squeezed lightly and felt Kain's breath hitch and moaned when he bit down into her neck.
"No more games, Xena," he grunted, "I want you now."
Xena smiled a vicious smile, knowing that she had to relent this time, "I need you to deliver one more message." She wrapped her legs around his waist and unbuckled his belt.
"Anything, Princess," he was so hard against her.
Unbuttoning his trousers, Xena took his cock out squeezed the head, missing the way a man felt and how easy men were to undo and conquer. "I want you to go to Hellespont, find my man, Cyr of Corinth" she pressed Kain's manhood against her.
"Yes," he hissed.
"Tell him to march my army to the coast of Athens, across the bay from Salamis. Tell him to meet me there." She moaned and bit her lip when he entered her, utterly filled with the power of conquest. Behind her eyes fell a curtain of blood, and she felt the lust of War flowing through her with strength, with finality and with purpose.
A fleet of arrows raining down upon them breaks Xena's thoughts.
"Take cover!" she screams, "Go to your posts!"
The soldiers take up their litters of heavy oil barrels and make haste through the jungle. Xena reaches out and snatches Titos' arm.
"Wait for my signal," she commanded.
"Aye, General," Titos saluted.
When most of the men had departed, Xena sprinted out of range of the Persian archers and leapt into the higher branches of a cypress tree. From the perch, she could make out the side of the cliff that provided the most direct route to where Tetram's army sat.
"Hold on, Gabrielle," she whispered, "I'm coming."