Chapter Three

The Mountains

"Please my Archduchess do not blame us lords, but I do not have any leads as of yet." Xena sat on her throne watching him. He couldn't get a read on her none of the lords could. It disturbed them a bit, if they were properly charged with treason their families could lose their last claims to power.

"I will give you more time Lord Abiel, while I had hoped that people would be more forth coming to brag about their plans it would seem this is not so." Lord Abiel had been hard at work to find out information by the next meeting of the lords while the Archduchess was in town. As of now the time frame put two months in between each meeting as Ubel hated to deal with his lords.

"Thank you Archduchess, you are merciful." Xena nodded.

"Yes quite merciful, as there was another warning attack just last night." The lords stiffened considerably wondering just how merciful, she would be. "And so we have a problem dear lords a conflict of sorts, none of you have information, there's still attacks, and I cannot have made an empty threat." They gulped.

"Please my Archduchess I assure you it was none of us," Lord Abiel told her. He wasn't a stupid man, they weren't allowed to enter the castle with more than one men. Those men were probably taken out by now. The hall itself was surrounded by only the most loyal, her ladies and waiting were trained and positioned behind her, and not to mention nine months pregnant or not the Archduchess was a very formidable warrior.

"Now, let us come to a compromise shall we?" They nodded.

"I suggest you all talk to your contacts, don't think for one second I'm not aware that you have plotted to take the throne from Ubel, which stands to reason you will try and take it from me." They gulped more. "So until I have answers which each attack I will be imprisoning one of you lords, and your family will be put on house arrest no visitors, no servants will leave your property or enter."

"My Archduchess how will we control our lands?" Lord Abiel asked.

"Your lands will be if you're lucky temporarily managed by the crown, and to show my mercy, but perhaps off some reassure for myself you will be imprisoned in Arcadia. Unless strict proof occurs your movements will be restricted, but you will not be handled as common criminals."

"How can I convince you to give me yet another chance my lady before you do this?" Lord Abiel asked. "Has my daughter Nava not served you faithfully since her appointment?"

"Most faithful, but I'm told Glacial puts a lot of stock on family, so if I come to imprison nearly all of you I will start taking sons, and I will start firing your daughters. As much as I love them, I have to think about the safety of the people first." They gulped.

"Will you kill us my Archduchess?" Lord Abiel asked. No one wanted to be the one to ask, but it had to be done.

"If you don't want to know the answer to that I would be running out of this room trying to find out who's behind this." Lord Abiel and the other lords took the hint. "Except you Lord Egan, you'll be my first prisoner." Lord Egan gulped as the other lords looked helpless as he was surrounded and taken away.

"I will have news my Archduches," Lord Abiel declared. Xena nodded. After the meeting her court departed for Sultry where Drake was to arrive via portal with the children. There wasn't enough time to travel normally to Sultry for the birth of their child. They were crossing over the mountain range when they were hit by large spears of ice. Xena's dragon was hit through the wing sending her hurling towards the ground while her dragon also fell. Daphne caught her but she was hit next and they all went hurling towards the ground.

"AH!" Xena cried out as she hit a pile of snow hard. The sound of more bodies hitting the earth joined them. Xena didn't move as the pain vibrated through her body. She didn't know how far she had fallen or if the snow had even softened her fall a little.

"My Queen!" Lady Nava cried. Xena groaned so she could find her. Her ladies of Arcadia and Glacial appeared over her.

"My Queen can you move your toes?" Lady Emily asked. Xena wiggled her toes.

"Yes," She responded quietly. They sighed in relief.

"Her spine is intact." Slowly they moved various body parts and they found her leg was broken.

"Where's Daphne?" Lady Saffron asked. Xena felt movement under her body.

"Oh I think she's under me, move me quickly, she broke my fall," Xena cried. They managed to move her and found poor Daphne with a cut going down the side of her face and a broken sword arm and a few broken ribs that made breathing difficult for her.

"You guys are lucky you were close to the ground but it was still a pretty big fall," Lady Clara commented.

"Why the hell did ice spears shoot at us?" Xena asked. "And where are we?" She looked around they were surrounded on all sides by a high cliff and spikes of ice had just finished creating a roof over them. They didn't want anyone to find their bodies. "And why are you all right?"

"We caught the Glacial ladies and they soffened our fall. We fell into wet mush," Emily told her as she shivered and used a scrap of cloth from her dress to clean Daphne's cut.

"We didn't," Lady Blair told her as she held a ripped piece of cloth from her own dress to her head.

"We are in the Glacial-Sultry Mountains and we were hit with the air defense to protect Glacial from Sultry dragons." Xena frowned.

"Help!" Someone yelled. They all turned towards the sound of the voice and spotted Lord Egan hanging from a spike by his belt.

"Can someone help him?" Xena asked. "I have a few questions to ask him." Lady Nava looked at Lady Polara. Ice climbing was a sport in Glacial, she was the only female in decades who could do it well.

"Spread out let's see if anyone's pack fell," Lady Blair ordered her ladies.

"No, you all rest, Lady Clara can lead the others for that." They nodded. Lady Clara stood up with Agnes, Elizabeth, Sonya, and Tabitha. They began their search for supplies. Soon Lady Polara came back with Lord Egan who hugged his daughter Lady Eirlys.

"My Archduchess please do not kill me or hurt my daughter, my family is loyal to you, I swear it," He cried. Out here he knew he was at her mercy, his son would be left destitute and his daughter just as much. His family was very powerful with the amount of money they possessed but they had been dying out. It was up to his son and daughter to reproduce a large number of viable children to survive infancy.

"Please my Queen, my father is old and my brother will not make a good Archduke. His only focus is rebuilding the family, there are only three of us left," Lady Eirlys cried.

"Then tell me why we were attacked," Xena told him.

"I don't know my Archduchess, not over me, my son is easily convinced of things, my death would be more profitable than yours for the other lords. Without me they wouldn't even have enough power to activate this defense."

"Could Evzenek give them enough power?" Lord Egan shook his head.

"My Archduchess chose a just and honest Regent when she is away, but he is weak, he could not do this with anyone's help. He just cannot match it." Xena saw truth in his eyes.

"Who else could activate the defenses?" Xena asked. Lord Egan frowned.

"Only the crown, females are weak, only men are powerful and if they aren't noble Ubel had them killed for fear of usurping him."

"I am the crown and I did not activate those defenses."

"If someone is responsible my Archduchess, Lord Abiel will find them, please give him time." Xena frowned and nodded.

"Someone open a portal to Sultry we must get back to civilization and send someone for Lords Abiel and Maccus."

"Excuse me Archduchess, but magic cannot be performed here in the mountains in Glacial or Sultry."

"He's right, there's an ancient spell at work up here, so that we don't send melted snow flooding down into Glacial or Sultry. There are many reported disasters in our history books. One year before the spell, during a fight it so happened that a block of ice was formed in one of the volcanoes on Sultry's side and it blew a crater into the mountain," Lady Lalania informed her. Xena sighed as she held her stomach.

"How do we get out of here?" Lord Egan looked around.

"If I'm not mistaken we're under the defenses, they form a ring, normally the soldiers wait here protected by the roof and the survivors of the army end up on the other side where we would come out and slaughter them. There should be a tunnel around here, I will go look." They nodded as Lady Clara came over with the others and a few packs.

"All right we've got the medical pack, my pack, your chakram my Queen, and some bread and cheese." They used the supplies in the medical pack allotting the one blanket to Daphne after Xena insisted before splitting the bread and cheese among them and Lord Egan. He found the tunnel hidden before a boulder. Lady Clara and Lady Blair checked the other side and found dresses, so they made two litters for Xena and Daphne.

"All right let's get this leg straightened and a split on you." Xena nodded as two ladies went behind her for support and Emily straightened her leg. She bit down hard on a piece of wood while it was done. There was nothing in the world that prepared you for the pain of resetting a bone just like nothing prepared you for labor. Xena was worried she hadn't felt her child move since right before the attack and she had taken a big fall. So far she felt fine in the sense she wasn't experiencing labor pains. But Xena had heard stories of women who didn't feel their baby move a while and when the time came to be born they were stillborn.

"So which way to Sultry?" Lady Emily asked. She wasn't interested in getting back to Glacial for medical attention.

"This way," Lord Egan told them. "You can only enter and exit from the north face so that we always see the enemy coming. They nodded.

"How are we on weapons?" Xena asked.

"A few daggers, Daphne's sword." They immediately produced wooden spears with shards of ice attached at the ends.

"That will have to do," Xena commented. In an effort to keep each other warm, her ladies of sultry had paired up with her ladies of Arcadia. The ladies of Glacial were of course unaffected and to some degree she was not as well.

"How far is it to the Sultry side of the mountains?" Lady Emily asked Lord Egan.

"Walking distance is several hundred kilometers I'm afraid." They frowned. "But we should be able to hunt easily enough if you know where to look and make shelter." They walked for hours with no sign of any hostile forces. Eventually they encountered ice soldiers that had be beheaded before they broke apart.

"I don't know how we can last much longer, they're everywhere," Lady Blair sighed motioning to the snow all around them.

"Let's just rest," Xena told them. "Set up a camp and I'll take first watch." They all argued about her taking first watch but she of course won out. Lady Clara and Lady Eirwen however were in charge of hunting while they set up camp in a nearby cave.

"Tabitha will stay by your side at all times in case your labor starts." Xena nodded her agreement as Tabitha sat down next to her. It seemed only yesterday they were grooming her to become a beautiful lady with lethal combat skills.

"How are you feeling my Queen?" Tabitha asked as her ladies set up a series of traps or collected firewood. They would have to eat snow for water if they didn't find a suitable container. Unfortunately that act would drain some of them of energy.

"Fine," Xena lied. She wasn't fine, she was worried for her child, worried that she wasn't in pain. At least if labor had begun there was a chance her child might live, now she did not know.

"Is the baby all right?" Tabitha asked her. No one had said a word about the child not even her Queen had even complained about not making it back to Sultry for its birth. Xena had seen each of her ladies look at her in concern especially Lady Agnes and Lady Eirwen who reportedly had a child of her own once. They even watched the way she cradled her stomach but still they didn't speak. Tabitha however was not so experienced in the ways of womanhood and childbirth.

"Tabitha!" Lady Agnes snapped. Tabitha jumped and hurried over to her. Xena say a word as she sat at the entrance pretending not to hear Lady Agnes talking about sensitivity. She could see most of her ladies gathering wood. Lady Clara and Lady Eirwen were out of sight however looking where Lord Egan had instructed for food.

"No snow for us, we've got a stump," Lady Isabella grinned. Xena grinned as well. Soon Ladies Clara and Eirwen came back with two rabbits and snow had been melted into a container made from a log. It was the middle of the night when Xena agreed to switch with Lady Nava so she could sit by the fire. They helped her move and lay down within the hour she had back pain and she was sure she was bleeding. Her child hadn't moved in hours and she dreaded the coming hours. It was Lady Emily going to relieve Lady Nava who noticed her tense body.

"My Queen!" The others were awake sending Lord Egan to guard the entrance while the women helped her give birth. Everyone was not surprised when a cry filled the cave. Xena's son was alive. Xena simply held him close and let him suckle.

"No ice or fire, I guess he's normal."

"I didn't come out on fire either according to my mother," Xena pointed out. They shrugged. Lord Egan gave his jacket to his future Archduke. They spent one more day in the cave and fought off an attack. Daphne was able to at least walk, and was determined to hold a spear in her right hand. Xena tried to keep herself as warm as possible but like the ladies from Sultry it was very hard to make yourself warmer when magic was banned. In her case even harder as her body simply kept a normally low temperature in Glacial. The baby however was clearly not prone to Glacial powers as his lips were blue. They stopped several times to build a fire if they intended to go on.

"Oh no your temperature's shot up all of a sudden," Lady Emily cried. The others looked concerned as Xena was now feverish. Lady Crystal now held the baby to help him stay warm longer. A sudden chill went through the air as Lord Egan suddenly raised his own spear to defend them. The others followed suit with Lady Crystal moving closer to Xena. She handed her the baby and moved to protect them.

"Help me up now!" Lady Crystal did so as Xena gritted her teeth, the world was spinning and the pain in her leg excruciating but she had to protect her son. Before she could blink they were every where wave after wave after wave of ice soldiers attacked them. The ladies of Sultry were knocked out quickly having already been injured. The ladies of Glacial were no match for so many and the ladies of Arcadia held their own with Lord Egan until finally sheer numbers split them up and exhaustion took over. They each were defeated. Xena fought as many as she could but even she was at a disadvantage with a broken leg and a fever. She wasn't even sure when and why she had hit the ground just that her son still lived for the moment as he cried. She couldn't do anything but fade out of consciousness, but before she did, she saw Linnea.