AN: thank you all for reading, ya'll are dolls. Enjoy ;)
Chapter 9 –Fight Club
Early the next morning all of the girls continued their training with Xena's soldiers. While the girls were training, Xena was absent from the morning session, getting her elite troops gathered to go into the city today. She needed to find the rest of the councilmen and luckily she knew where they all lived. Although, she suspected that the men might know something is wrong because she hasn't had a meeting with all of them since she came back. Certainly, they would know something is amiss when they find out their colleagues, Vahid and Awat, were missing in action.
Gabrielle raised her sword to her male opponent, who was a lot taller than her and stronger. The tactics she used on Xena yesterday weren't really working with this soldier. He knew all of her moves and that really made her question her sparring lesson with Xena yesterday.
Xena was a very skilled fighter too, a very good one, so Gabrielle assumed, otherwise how could she have lived so long as a ruler of Greece and now Persia? She not only nearly broke Xena's nose but she also injured her in several spots on her body too. Was she being careless during the fight or was she playing another one of her mind games?
Perhaps, Xena wanted Gabrielle to triumph in the spar? Gabrielle concluded that was the only reason why Xena was allowing herself to be beaten so badly. But no, there was something else –something that she just thought of. Maybe Xena didn't allow her to win, but maybe she was rusty and out of practice. How long had it been since Xena had been on the battlefield, Gabrielle wondered?
Xena must have had a lot of men in her army, thousands of men at her beck and call. And so perhaps, just maybe, Xena had grown lazy and complacent. Her men did everything for her while she stood off on the sidelines, watching the battles from afar.
The Persian soldier then wacked Gabrielle in her shoulder with his elbow and she winced, stumbling backwards. She allowed herself to become distracted by her thoughts of Xena, again.
He sighed and held out his hand to help her up. "That is the third time you let yourself open for an attack, Gabrielle."
She nodded and rubbed her shoulder. "Sorry. I have a lot on my mind," she lamely said.
"Gabrielle!" Xena called and the blonde immediately snapped her head around. "Come with me." She instructed then walked back into the palace. Gabrielle dropped her sparring sword and quickly ran after the sultana.
Astremia lowered her sword and gawked at Gabrielle following the sultan into the palace. She grimaced and turned to Penelope. "Did you see that?" she asked.
Penelope wiped her brow and frowned. "See what?"
"The sultan and Gabrielle," Astremia shook her head and stuck her blade into the sand. "She has become very chummy with the sultan lately. Why do you think that is?"
Penelope shrugged and breathed heavily, taking a break from sparring with her partner. "Why are you so worried about it? Gabrielle keeps getting herself in trouble. Maybe the sultan is punishing her," she snickered.
"Or the sultan knows something that we don't. Maybe Gabrielle is the sultan's sex slave after all," she laughed and Penelope rolled her eyes.
Gabrielle rode alongside Xena through the streets of busy Jerusalem. She kept eyeing the women and children. There were so many children and so many women. She wondered where all the men were. Some of the men she saw were either very young, probably the same age as her, or they were incredibly old.
Xena trotted through the street and the citizens immediately parted a path for her and her men to come through. "We will take the back street to find the councilmen." She turned abruptly and head down a very narrow street, ducking her head underneath the archways.
Gabrielle raised her eyebrow and adjusted the veil around her face. She still couldn't understand how Xena could wear this thing. It was so hot and itchy. "What are you going to do once you find these men?"
Xena smirked. "You'll see."
Her cryptic riddles were not to Gabrielle's liking. She sensed trouble brewing and wondered why Xena invited her to this little search party escapade anyway. If Xena was preparing for war, Gabrielle couldn't understand why she wanted to find her councilmen, but she guessed she had a reason.
Suddenly Xena halted her horse coming to a large apartment complex. All her men surrounded the complex and Gabrielle's eyes darted back and forth, watching these elite soldiers line up with their bows and arrows.
Xena shouted, "come out now!"
No answer.
"Come out or I will break down your door!" she shouted again. The door on the first floor opened and a woman came out with her two small girls. Xena frowned and then unsheathed her sword. Gabrielle's eyes widened.
"Ahmad!" Xena yelled, "I know you're in there with your little friend, Rashid!" she snickered and the two men appeared behind the woman and two children. "Stop hiding behind your wife and children," she growled.
Ahmad grabbed his young wife and daughters, clinging to them. Xena rolled her eyes and pointed the blade at the man. "Your majesty does not normally make house visits..." he said calmly.
Xena smiled hid beneath her veil, "well today must be your lucky day. Let your wife and children go. I don't want them, I want you and Rashid."
Rashid grabbed the dagger on a table beside the door and hid it behind his back. Xena wagged her blade, motioning Ahmad to move his wife and children out of harm's way. Rashid gripped the dagger in his hand and huddled close to his colleague.
"Step out of the house slowly," Xena said calmly and watched Ahmad coming out of the complex, still with his wife and children. "Show me your hands!" she yelled and he lifted one free hand. "Both hands..." she hissed.
Rashid furrowed his eyebrows and eyed the sultan. He hid behind Ahmad, remaining completely oblivious to the sultan. He grit his teeth and threw the dagger directly at Xena.
Xena saw the dagger and blocked it with her sword, knocking it into the ground. The soldiers reacted immediately and pulled their bows out and began shooting at everyone. Xena's eyes widened when she saw one arrow hit Ahmad's wife.
"No!" she shouted and then swung her sword around and sliced through one of her soldier's bows. "I did not order you to shoot!" she growled and then kicked one soldier off his horse.
Gabrielle's eyes widened in horror seeing the woman lying on the ground, bleeding out profusely and her two daughters calling out to her, huddling over her. She glanced up and saw Rashid running out of the home and down the street with Ahmad.
Xena narrowed her eyes and pointed her sword at the two escapees. "After them!" she demanded and her men began riding after the councilmen. "I want them brought to me alive! Alive, do you hear me?!" she yelled out.
She hopped off her horse and sheathed her sword. Glancing over at the terrified look on her trainee's face, she frowned. "Gabrielle, come here!"
Gabrielle shook her head then dismounted the horse and ran over to her. Xena knelt down by the injured woman and the children lifted their teary eyes, frightened of the sultan leering over them both. Gabrielle frowned sadly seeing the horror in the girls' eyes.
Xena took off one of her gloves and touched one of the girls' shoulders. "Can I look?" she asked politely and the girls stared at her, dumbstruck.
Gabrielle saw that the two girls were too horrified to even speak to Xena, which was reasonable. She knelt down beside Xena and the wounded woman. "The sultan wants to help your mother. Will you let him do that?" she asked sweetly and the girls looked at her then slowly backed away from their mother.
Xena blinked, staring at Gabrielle. She was a very charming girl, she realized, and she was good around children as well as other people. She focused her attention on the woman and broke the arrow in half, then tossed it aside. The woman groaned in agony. Xena reluctantly dug her fingers inside the open wound.
The two girls heard their mother crying out in pain and shielded their eyes. Gabrielle smiled weakly and pat both of their shoulders lightly. Xena then pulled out the large arrowhead and sighed, wiping her moist bloody hand on her black garb. She then tore a piece off of her robes and wrapped the woman's shoulder as quickly as she could. It was not a very good patch job, but it will have to do.
Xena sighed and slipped her leather glove back onto her hand. "You need to go see a doctor, but not here. You need to leave Jerusalem and never come back."
The woman looked into the sultan's bright blue eyes and raised her eyebrow. Seeing those eyes, she knew something was different about the sultan. Xena averted her eyes and stood up. "Do you understand me?" the sultana repeated.
She nodded and Xena turned to walk back to her horse. The two girls ran to their mother with big smiles on their faces, clinging onto her dress. All three approached the sultan and Xena was busy fixing her glove on her hand with her back turned.
"Thank you," the woman said and Xena turned around slowly, lowering her eyes silently.
"Don't come back here," she said lowly.
The woman and her daughters fled the area and Gabrielle folded her arms, glaring at Xena. She came up to her and cleared her throat. "What exactly are we doing here? Why are you hunting these councilmen like a cat hunts a mouse?"
Xena smirked. "A troublemaker, a storyteller and an analogist. You are something else."
"What is going on?" Gabrielle said with a large frown.
"Those men are traitors. They planned to kill me so I will make sure that does not happen," she grinned deviously.
Gabrielle saw Xena's cheeks rise and the subtle wrinkles around her eyes appear, which only meant she had one of those eerie grins. "So, you're going to kill them?"
"Clever girl," Xena chuckled. "You want to be a warrior, Gabrielle, so you will be my warrior. My warriors do as I say and don't talk back to me. You will do the same, you understand?"
The blonde raised her eyebrow, not quite sure how to answer that. If she rebelled then things definitely wouldn't end well for her and if she said yes, she'd only be lying to herself and Xena. So many lies and Xena doesn't like liars.
"Yes," she finally said and Xena kept eyeing her, inching closer to her face.
"Xenophon!" one of the soldiers shouted. He and the rest of the men on horseback came back with some baggage. Ahmad and Rashid were tied and being drug along behind.
Xena smiled and stepped forward, folding her arms. She pinched Rashid's cheeks together and his breathing became labored as he glared into her eyes. "Rashid, I thought you were one of the good ones. You disappoint me," she tisked, wagging her head.
"I'm sure you know why I have come for you and if you don't, you will soon join your friends, Vahid and Awat," she winked and his eyes grew in fear. "Take them to the palace," she stood and walked to her horse and Gabrielle.
"Come Gabrielle, we have a lot of work to do." Xena smiled and mounted her horse. Gabrielle frowned and then she too, mounted her steed, yanking the reins, trotting alongside Xena. "Find the rest of the councilmen and bring them to me!" she ordered her men then rode off back into the city.
Upon returning to the palace Gabrielle followed Xena down a dark staircase underneath the fortress. She took her veil off and coughed at the awful smell. "It reeks of rotting corpses down here," Gabrielle covered her mouth with the veil.
Xena raised her eyebrow and kept walking in silence. They finally were in the long torch lit pathway and Gabrielle looked around the small narrow hallway. It was so dark in here and so creepy at the same time. She didn't know why they were down here, but she feared that she was getting into something that she would not be able to get out of.
They entered a large room and Gabrielle's jaw dropped. She saw a lot of strange torture devices down here and a large...crematory as well. She uncovered her mouth and walked around, not sure whether to be in awe of everything or mortified.
"What is all this?" she hesitantly asked.
Xena took off her gloves, allowing her skin to breathe for awhile until her men brought the traitors of course. "A place of no return, Gabrielle," she said so calmly that it made Gabrielle very uncomfortable.
"You torture people?" the blonde looked at the pulleys and lever systems hung from the ceiling. God only knows what Xena does to these people. All the tales she heard of the emperor in Greece seemed to be true, at least somewhat. She was beginning to realize that Xena was a very strange person and not just because she dressed like a man.
"It's not torture if the perpetrator deserves it. They commit a crime and should be punished."
Oh, so does that mean that everyone receives the same punishments then? "So if someone steals...a piece of fruit, do you torture them like...this?" she looked at a wheel with chains on it and cringed. She didn't want to know what that was used for.
Xena smiled softly. "Do you really think that I am so terrible, Gabrielle? I am reasonable and fair, despite what others say about me. They don't know me and...neither do you."
"Sultan Xenophon!" the soldiers brought in the other five councilmen along with Rashid and Ahmad. "We have everyone that you asked for."
Xena grinned and all of the men were thrown onto the ground with their hands tied behind their backs. She unsheathed her scimitar and walked along the line of traitors. "You seven have disappointed me greatly. You should have never listened to Vahid and Awat. Oh but, you can't now, can you?" she chuckled. "Because they're dead!"
She saw all of their eyes widen in shock. "Yes, they're dead. I don't like liars and I don't like traitors." She stopped in front of Rashid and tapped her blade on the top of his head. "And you..." she smiled down at the young councilman. "You are so young. You have your entire life ahead of you."
Rashid frowned up at the sultan and spat at her feet. Xena squinted her eyes and lifted the young man's chin with the tip of her sword. "You disappoint me the most, Rashid. I was considering letting you go with some minor conditions of course but then...you threw that dagger at me."
She knelt down, inches from his face. "Bad choice," she hissed and he held his breath, shaking nervously.
Gabrielle had seen only two sides to Xena. One being a mentor to all the girls, posing as a man and two, a woman caring for her children. She had never seen this side before and wasn't sure she wanted to stick around for it. Yes, she wanted to be a warrior, but be a warrior for a person like this? She wasn't too sure.
"You're going to kill all of them?" Gabrielle blurted out.
Xena smiled, "of course I am. I can't have them talking, now can I?" she turned to her troops and began instructing them to hang each one of them from the ceiling against the far wall of the room. The men were drug off, grunting and pleading for their lives.
"It will be a slow death for them," she said and Gabrielle slowly looked up at her. Xena grinned and peered down at the bemused blonde. "Something the matter, Gabrielle?"
"No..." she lied and folded her arms. She watched as the Persian soldiers hoisted each man up with shackles around their necks, slowly being lifted off the ground. She heard them choking slightly, but not enough to kill them, not yet anyway.
All she could think was, by God, this woman is insane.
"Would you like to watch?" Xena asked in a sly tone and Gabrielle shook her head silently. "You're right, it will be very boring. This could take hours." She smiled and Gabrielle blinked her eyes several times as her mouth gaped.
They left the torture room from beneath the palace and walked in the large hallway, leading towards the west wing. Gabrielle took off her helmet and veil, finally able to breathe. Although, she still smelt the stench from that room wafting in her nostrils.
"I guess I should go back outside with the rest of the girls..." Gabrielle suggested, sort of anxious to get away.
Xena frowned. "Leaving so soon, Gabrielle?" she said slyly and her trainee sighed lightly. "Have dinner with me tonight," she smiled.
Eat with you? Dinner? In your room? Dear God why is this happening to me? "Sure..."
"Kara will come for you. You are free to go," Xena waved her hand and walked off to the west wing to go to her room for the remainder of the day.
Gabrielle finished washing her long hair and wrapped the towel around her body. She sighed heavily and dried her wet hair roughly with a soft towel and rubbed her face, grunting. She really felt like she still smelled like that dungeon from earlier. Rotting corpses for sure. Torture, death and dinner all in one night. Great.
She took the towel off her face and saw she was surrounded by a group of girls. "Uhh...hello girls...?" she looked at the expressions on their faces and wasn't sure if they were confused or angry. Maybe both?
Astremia folded her arms, stepping closer to Gabrielle. "You've been spending a lot of time with the sultan lately."
Gabrielle backed up slowly and the other girls circled around her. "So?" she smiled nervously.
"Are you the sultan's pet now?" Penelope asked.
Gabrielle scoffed, "no! What –what is this about?"
"We saw the way you were sparring with the sultan yesterday," Astremia said with a chagrin. "You were really handing it to the sultan," she chuckled. "Didn't know you could fight so well, Gabrielle." She shoved the blonde backward.
"Hey!" Gabrielle groaned and then the other girls shoved her into the wall.
"You some kind of sex slave for the sultan now, Gabrielle?" Astremia laughed and shoved her again.
"Knock it off!" Gabrielle warned and tried to leave the area but the group of girls enclosed around her. "Come on, I have somewhere to be."
Penelope smiled. "Somewhere? Somewhere to be with the sultan?" she hinted and pushed her down onto the ground. "Why are you hanging around him so much? Are you sucking his cock to get special treatment, huh, Gabrielle?"
Gabrielle growled and kicked Penelope in her shins and quickly got to her feet, putting her hands up by her face. Astremia frowned and came for her and Gabrielle socked her in the jaw. Francesca gasped and grabbed Gabrielle's arms and tossed her aside into the next wall.
Astremia rubbed her jaw and pushed the other girls out of the way and jabbed her elbow into Gabrielle's mouth and chin. Gabrielle groaned and spat out some blood and wiped her lips. "You are a piece of work, Gabrielle!" she hissed.
Helena came into the baths and saw Gabrielle's bloody mouth. "What is going on?!" she quickly ran in and pushed everyone aside to get to her friend. She touched Gabrielle's face and frowned sadly. "Gabrielle..."
She spun around to the group of girls with a scowl. "How could you do this? We're supposed to work as a team, not against one another!"
Astremia rubbed her sore elbow and glared at Helena and Gabrielle. "Your friend is getting special treatment from the sultan. You shouldn't hang around her because then you too will become the sultan's sex slave." She then left the room with the rest of the girls.
Gabrielle sat on her bed while Helena cleaned her mouth with a damp cloth. "I'm so sorry they did this to you..." Helena shook her head, ashamed of her teammates' behavior.
"Just forget it, Helena. It's nothing to be worried about." She pushed her friend's hand away from her mouth and still could taste blood from her busted lip.
Helena sighed and set the cloth down on her bed and folded her arms, looking deeply into her friend's eyes. Confused and...confused, very confused. "Gabrielle, why are they calling you a sex slave? Is that really true? Are you the sultan's slave?"
Gabrielle frowned. "No, I'm not. It's not like that."
"Then what is it like?" Helena pried.
Complicated, she thought. "I can't tell you..." she muttered.
Kara entered the room and everyone turned around. "Gabrielle, the sultan wants you now."
Astremia scoffed. "Of course, Gabrielle is at the beck and call of the sultan." She licked her lips teasingly and her hands roamed across her abdomen and down in between her legs.
Helena cringed and Gabrielle rolled her eyes then threw a pillow at Astremia. "You are disgusting." Gabrielle spat then grabbed her shoes and hurried out of the sleeping quarters to go with Kara.
Xena sat at her desk flipping through two books trying to get information to draw a map to plan her attack against Anatolia, Rome and eventually the Mongolian empire. She frowned and flipped through the pages of one book tapping her pen against the desk. She lifted her eyes and saw both her sons sparring together with wooden swords.
"I really don't think that Alexander should be sparring with his broken arm," she said.
Solan smiled and slowly swung his wooden sword around waiting for Alexander's sword to clash against his. "Don't worry mother, I am going easy on him."
Alexander thrust his sword into Solan's gut and his brother dropped his sword, backing up into his mother's bed, pretending to be severely wounded. "I win!" he cheered.
"Oh, you got me, Alexander," Solan wrapped his arm around himself and feigned moaning and whining. "You really got me." He grinned and grabbed his kid brother, tickling him profusely.
"Solan, stop!" Alexander laughed uncontrollably and dropped to his knees."Please, I'm begging you!" his brother then stopped tickling him and his laughter slowly died down. "When will I get to train with real swords like you and Belach?" he whined.
Xena frowned and set her pen down, glaring over at Solan. "Training with real swords? I told you that you couldn't train with real weapons until you were fifteen."
Solan folded his arms and grimaced down at his brother. "Nice going," he grumbled and Alexander shrugged his shoulders sheepishly. "Look mother, father allowed me to train with weapons on my thirteenth birthday."
"Oh really," Xena nodded her head repeatedly, chuckling softly under her breath. "Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore because you are living with me now and you will not use any more weapons."
Solan gasped and ran over to stand behind her chair. "But mother, I am really good! You could train with me and I'll show you!"
"No!" Xena slammed her pen down and rose from her chair. Solan began backing away with a sad frown upon his face. "I said no, do you understand me?"
Kara opened the door and Gabrielle stood beside her, trying to hide her busted bottom lip. "Mistress, I've brought Gabrielle."
Xena sighed and motioned for Gabrielle to come inside. "Solan, take your brother to his room please," she said and Solan frowned and marched off, grabbing his brother's arm on the way out.
Alexander smiled upon seeing Gabrielle. "Hey, are you going to tell me the rest of that story?"
"Not right now, Alexander," Xena called out. Then Solan pulled his brother out of the room and Kara smiled, closing the door to the leave the two alone.
Gabrielle folded her arms and pretended to scratch her cheek in order to hide her lip. "You have really sweet boys," she said and Xena sighed heavily.
"Sometimes," the sultana said and rounded her desk, grinning at her trainee. "Come sit with me," she gestured to the table and Gabrielle nervously walked over to the table, still concealing her mouth. Xena frowned, "what's the matter with your mouth?" she asked.
Gabrielle shook her head, "nothing, it's nothing."
Xena came closer to her and snatched her hand away from her face. Her eyes widened and saw Gabrielle's swollen bottom lip with a large cut. "Who did that to you?"
And she cares why? "Nobody...I –I tripped and hit my mouth on a chair..."
Xena raised her eyebrow and touched Gabrielle's lip, examining it carefully. Judging by the cut, Xena knew that Gabrielle in fact did not hit herself on a chair like she just said, or rather lied. "A chair did this to you?" she asked and Gabrielle nodded. "I don't like it when people lie to me..."
She lifted the blonde's chin and saw a bruise on her jaw as well. "Who hit you, Gabrielle?"
"I –I can't tell you..." she said, lowering her eyes, feeling more embarrassed now than she did in the baths with the other girls earlier.
"If I ask you a question I expect you to answer me truthfully," Xena smiled slyly and felt the heat radiating off of the blonde's face. "You are indebted to me and I am a fair woman, Gabrielle. Now, tell me who did this to you. I can't have rogue trainees in my palace."
I can't tell you because the reason why those girls cornered me is because of you. It's all your fault and it's your fault I'm in this mess to begin with.
Gabrielle remained silent and Xena let out a heavy sigh then sat down at the table. "It's alright, Gabrielle. I will find out who they are sooner or later." She smiled and Gabrielle put on a fake smile. "Sit."
Xena leered over at her guest and scooped some rice onto both of their plates. She scooted the bowl of stewed meat close to Gabrielle. "Do you like lamb, Gabrielle?"
Gabrielle anxiously scratched her head and said nothing. Xena sighed and scooped some of the lamb onto Gabrielle's plate and pushed it near her. Gabrielle looked down at the food and suddenly didn't feel very hungry anymore, but she was Xena's guest. Maybe if I stay really quiet nothing strange will happen. This is already uncomfortable enough as it is, she thought.
The sultana smirked and spooned some of the rice onto her spoon and stared at Gabrielle intensely. "This is going to be a very boring dinner if you won't talk." She chewed her food slowly and finally her blonde guest decided to eat some of her food. In silence.
Oh so you want me to talk now? You don't like it when I talk a lot, but suddenly you want me to. Interesting. Gabrielle sighed heavily and put the spoon back onto the plate. "Why did you invite me to have dinner with you?"
"She finally speaks," Xena smiled softly. "It is not the lamb I smell but your fear. You are afraid of something or someone. We've already established you are fearful of me, but Gabrielle, you don't have to be afraid of me. I told you I wasn't going to harm you." She winked and saw that made her guest even more uneasy.
Sighing, she continued, "I thought we could...get to know one another since we will be spending a lot of time together. A lot," Xena grinned and kept eating her food. Gabrielle furrowed her eyebrows and cringed. "So, you are from Potidaea. That is a nice village."
"Yes...I suppose it is."
"What was your life like before you came here?" the sultana asked and sipped her water.
Gabrielle smiled remembering all of the good times she had with her younger sister and her parents. She began questioning why she left her home in the first place. Now she was stuck here and in debt to this woman, a very strange woman at that.
"It was nice. My sister and I used to tell stories to the kids in the village all the time. I used to have this horse that I loved, but my father always thought he was a little dumb. I only rode him twice until my parents gave him away when I was thirteen." She kept smiling and then thought of everything that happened after her eighteenth birthday and those times weren't always so cheery.
Xena nodded. "Sounds like a nice life. Why did you leave?"
Gabrielle sighed. "I wanted to do more with my life than be a farmer's daughter, I guess."
"You were going to be married off then," she interrupted and Gabrielle's eyes widened. Xena smirked. "It's why all girls like you want to leave their home." She drank the rest of her water then decided to switch to wine.
Gabrielle nodded slowly and then took a good look at Xena. She kept herself so hidden, but some people knew her secret. What happened to those people if they ever squealed? Somehow, she didn't want to find out, especially since she was now one of those people. But, she had some questions of her own that she wanted to ask.
"Um...why do you dress like a male sultan?" she blurted out and Xena narrowed her eyes.
"If you haven't noticed, there are no female rulers in this world, Gabrielle. And if there are they are assassinated or gotten rid of quickly. People listen to men, not women." She explained and Gabrielle already knew that part, but she was still so confused.
"How were you able to keep this up for so long? You've been an emperor for over a decade. Some people are bound to know your secret." She folded her arms and Xena tapped her fingers on the dinner table leisurely.
Xena chuckled softly and reached for her wine. "Those who know understand not to tell anyone or I will kill them." She said flatly without remorse and Gabrielle rubbed her chin in deep thought. "Any more questions?" she sneered.
Gabrielle leaned on the table and began thinking about all the treaties with Ankara and the short trip they took. That was not a usual trip, in fact, it looked like nobody was expecting her to come. "Yes, in Ankara...one of your sons was there. Someone knows your secret in Ankara." She saw the dark haired Anatolian talking with Xena multiple times in heated arguments or privately in a yurt. "The father of your children perhaps?" she pried then saw a dark frown on the sultana's lips.
"My sons' father knows not to tell anyone." She answered curtly.
The blonde nodded. "You don't have a relationship with him anymore?"
"Why are you so curious to know about my personal life, Gabrielle?" Xena was now getting a little heated talking about Borias. The two have not been together since Solan was two years old.
At that point in Xena's life she decided that she could no longer stay with Borias and his wife in Persia. The triangle they were in was beginning to put a strain on everyone so she decided from that point on she was going to leave and never come back. Of course, Natassa didn't mind, but Borias did. She took Solan with her and left for Greece to start a different life, a new life. And when she arrived in Greece she realized that nobody was going to take her seriously especially with the reputation she got in Persia so she decided to take up a new persona –the male persona.
Within one year, she was able to gather an entire army that bent to her beck and call. She established a new regime to take over Greece to combat the Pope's holy empire and start a new one. A Greek empire had not been active in thousands of years, but she made it happen in a matter of three years –invading, pillaging and slaying all across Greece until everyone surrendered unto her. At that point, Solan was five and she had to constantly keep him hidden from other people, especially those close to him like his father, who tried several times to see him but Xena always slammed the door in his face.
Under her new reign as emperor of Greece, this caused a stir between the Romans and Persians. They feared there was going to be another revolt from the Greeks and tried several times to overthrow her, but it didn't work. Her army was far too strong and the Romans had grown lazy and complacent and the Persians were not concerned with Greece as their empire was far larger.
Gabrielle twiddled with her thumbs on the table. "I want to know more about you since we will be spending a lot of time together..." she threw Xena's words right back at her.
Xena smiled and sipped her wine. "Clever girl."
Solan sneaked out of the palace with Alexander in tow. He made sure he wasn't going to let his little brother out of sight this time. He smiled and then went for the stables outside, making sure none of the guards saw them. He glanced upward and saw two guards walking along the walls and ducked down.
Alexander looked around and frowned. "Where are we going?"
Solan grabbed his mother's large black stallion and tried to soothe the animal so she wouldn't make any noise. "You wanted to go to the beach right?" he smiled and saw his brother's face light up instantly. Solan picked up Alexander and placed him on the saddle.
"Wait, won't mother be upset about this?" the younger brother asked with a subtle frown of concern.
Solan smiled and hopped onto the horse. "It'll just be for a little while. We'll be back before she notices, I promise."
"Well, okay," Alexander sighed. "I trust you, Solan." He grinned happily and wrapped his arm around his brother's waist. Solan rounded the horse to the back exit of the palace and rode off heading towards the beach in the darkness.
An awkward silence filled the room and Gabrielle was able to finish more than half of her food, but she wanted to know more about Xena, a lot more. She tapped her fingers on her knee and looked over at Xena who was now drinking silently to herself.
"You know, my sister saw you when she was a little girl." Gabrielle said.
Xena smiled, "I'm sure she has."
"We were on a trip to Delphi to visit relatives and my mother sent her to buy food from the market in the square. She saw you on your horse in the middle of the square. She was so horrified that she dropped all of the money our mother gave her and ran back to my cousin's house." She said and Xena lowered her eyes. "I was curious and decided to go to the square to see you, the emperor, for myself, but by the time I got there...you were gone."
"Curious about me even as a child, Gabrielle," Xena winked. "I should be flattered."
Solan and Alexander arrived on the beach and sat on the cool sand, looking at the dark ocean in front of them. Alexander sighed heavily and smiled, staring at the stars above the dark waters. Solan chuckled and laid back on the sand comfortably.
"Aren't you going to get in the water?" Solan asked.
Alexander shook his head. "Mother will kill me if I ruin these clothes."
Solan rolled his eyes. "She can get you new ones, Alexander."
"This is my third set of clothes this month. She will definitely kill me if I ruin these!"
"I never understood why she was always so stingy with her money. She is probably the richest person in the world!"
Alexander giggled lightly and nodded. "Yeah, she's so weird. Except, I really like when she gives me gifts for my birthday!" Solan shook his head and glanced up at the stars. "Is it possible to have two birthdays?" he pried and his brother nudged his arm playfully.
Solan let out a big sigh and closed his eyes, listening to the waves and felt the cool breeze on his skin. His ears perked up once he heard voices and horses nearby. He shot up and frowned, looking around the barren beach.
"What's wrong, Solan?" Alexander asked.
"Stay here," Solan went to his mother's horse and pulled out a short sword then began treading along the sand slowly, watching every corner and eyed the trees on the seawall. He crawled on his knees into the trees and followed the muffled voices.
"We should keep going. Xenophon's palace is right up that hill," Gregory said and the Templar Knights rode along in the dark woods.
Solan frowned and hid behind a few trees, following the large army of knights. He crept up behind a brush and held onto the hilt of the short sword.
"Maybe we should not attack the palace, sire. It is surrounded by innocent people," Joseph advised his Templar master.
Gregory nodded, "we will invade the sultan's palace. We will not harm the innocents. The sultan should really get a better court," he chuckled. "Not even his own people like him."
Solan gasped then ran out of the woods to his brother. Alexander was busy drawing in the sand with his finger until his brother grabbed his arm, lifting him up roughly. "Hey!" he groaned.
"We need to go back," Solan urged and put his brother on the horse and he mounted it soon after.
"What's going on? I thought we could stay a little longer?" Alexander frowned sadly, a little disappointed that this trip was getting cut short.
"Well, we can come back another time," Solan kicked the horse and rode off through the woods, trying to bypass the Templar Knights.
Joseph frowned and heard loud horse hooves behind him. He turned over his shoulder and saw a large black stallion heading in the same direction as them. In the darkness he couldn't make out who was on the horse, but instantly recognized the crest on the horse's royal drapery around its neck.
"The sultan's horse!" he shouted and Gregory snapped his head around.
Gregory saw the horse riding off in the dark woods through a narrow path. "Follow the horse, and take Lindel and Morsis with you." He nodded and Joseph growled then the three Templar Knights rode off following the horse.
Solan looked back and saw a few Templar Knights on their trail. "Dammit," he grunted and rounded a corner and Alexander frowned then turned over his shoulder to see Templar Knights following them.
"Are those Templars?!" Alexander said and Solan ignored his brother's cry.
"Stop!" Joseph yelled and rode faster, following the dark riders.
Solan narrowed his eyes, "Alexander, duck," he said and they rode underneath a large branch and heard his brother gasp and leaned over into his brother's backside, gripping onto him as tightly as he possible could.
Alexander looked behind them and still saw the knights following them. "They're still after us!" he shouted in Solan's ear. Solan then steered the horse to the left and right, weaving through the trees and Alexander's eyes widened. "Dear god," he muttered. "You are crazy! How did you learn how to ride like this?!"
Solan smirked, "watching mother." As they kept riding Solan heard a whistling sound and saw an arrow pierce a tree they just passed. His heart sank to his stomach and his eyes widened in fear. He heard his brother panicking behind him.
"Now they're shooting at us! We're gonna die," Alexander breathed heavily.
Solan growled, "we are not going to die! Now, hang on!" he saw the palace gates right ahead and turned to see the knights still hot on their trail. He rode faster and knew that the guards weren't going to open the gates especially since they had no idea that he and Alexander had left. He frowned and leaned forward into the horse's mane, eyeing the gates ahead.
Alexander saw the iron gates of the palace ahead and feared the worst. He shook his head and gripped onto his brother. "Solan...what are you doing?" he asked. "Solan!"
Solan smiled and yanked on the reins of the horse and leapt into the air. Alexander shut his eyes tightly and they jumped over the gates into the palace grounds. The guards on the wall looked over and began shouting at both of them. Solan panicked and the horse wouldn't stop and they were heading straight for the large double doors at the entrance.
The horse galloped up the stairs and charged right through the doors inside the palace. Solan groaned and pulled on the reins and the horse reared on its hind legs and both boys fell off the stallion and onto the hard marble floor.
Alexander rolled over onto his stomach and winced at his broken arm. Solan rubbed his head and sat up, looking over at his brother laying on the floor. "Alexander!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," the younger brother stood up and brushed off some dirt from his clothing. He pointed his finger up in Solan's face. "You are crazy!" and Solan smiled proudly, feeling very accomplished. "And now my clothes are dirty! Great!" he huffed.
Dajan came running down the hallway and saw Xena's two sons covered in sand and dirt and...Xena's horse? He frowned, "what are you two doing?!"
"We can explain. I need to see my mother," Solan ran off and then saw his mother marching towards him, wearing a veil around her hair and her long black robes. Although since it was late, nobody was out here and she wasn't wearing a face veil and once he saw the horrid expression on her face, he wished she would have.
Xena gasped once she saw her horse inside the palace and Alexander brushing dirt off of his clothes. Then she saw the sheepish grin on Solan's face. She grabbed her son by his ear and he winced. "You better start talking," she hissed.
Gabrielle caught up with Xena and then lifted her eyebrow, a bit confused to see a horse inside. Although, she had seen stranger things in her life, especially living here that's for sure.
Solan cringed as his mother kept pulling on his ear. "Okay, okay but could you let go of my ear?" he begged and she released him. "Thank you..." he rubbed his ear and then explained, "before you get angry, Alexander and I were escaping from Templar Knights. They were chasing us."
"Yeah and shooting arrows too!" Alexander added and Solan rolled his eyes and Xena walked closer to him, towering over him.
"You left the palace?!" Xena snarled and Solan scoffed.
"Didn't you hear what I said?! Templar Knights were chasing us!"
"This is exactly why I forbade you to never leave the palace without my permission!" Xena growled and grabbed her horse then marched to the doors. She looked outside at the gates and was able to see lights from afar. Must be the Templar Knights, of course. And Solan just lured them over here, making them very suspicious.
"Dajan!" she yelled and her adviser came to her aid. "Take my horse to the stables."
She whipped around and then grabbed Alexander's hand and Solan's arm and stormed down the hallway to the west wing. "Gabrielle!" she called out and the blonde hurried behind them.
Alexander had a hard time keeping up with his mother and Solan tried resisting her, though she gripped tighter. Solan groaned and tried to pull way. "You're hurting my arm!" he griped.
They came into her bedroom and Gabrielle followed them inside and slowly closed the door behind her. Xena let go of Solan's arm and he frowned, rubbing his bicep.
"How could you do a stupid thing like this, Solan?!" she yelled.
"Mother, I came back with Alexander in one piece. Nobody got hurt!"
"You disobeyed me!" she snarled in his face and he folded his arms defiantly. "I don't know what kind of rules your father has in Ankara but in my house you will abide by my rules."
He grunted lowly and lowered his eyes. "I'm not a kid anymore, mother."
She bent down, cleaning off Alexander's face with a rag and then glared up at her eldest son. "Yes you are. And I don't know why you keep disobeying me, Solan. You were never like this before until you started hanging around Belach."
Solan rolled his eyes. "This is not about Belach! You're embarrassing me..." He scratched the back of his neck and looked over at Gabrielle who stood at the door in silence, watching this horrible conversation.
She laughed, "embarrassing you?!" she stood. "You're embarrassing me! Whatever I say, you do the opposite! And Alexander follows your example, Solan. Your bad behavior you learned from Belach has rubbed off on you. I should have taken you away from Ankara a long time ago," she sighed and pinched her nose.
"Go to your room and take Alexander with you," she pushed her youngest son gently towards Solan. "And don't even think about leaving." She warned and Solan frowned and grabbed his brother's hand and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
Gabrielle jumped and she wrapped her arms around herself. She saw Xena shaking her head and she ripped the veil off of her hair and sat down in a chair with her arms folded and biting her fingernail. "You...were pretty hard on him."
Xena lifted her eyes and glared at the petite blonde. "Did I ask for your opinion?"
Gabrielle quirked her mouth and sighed heavily. "No...but," she began and saw Xena's eyes darken. "...if you keep punishing them both they're going to keep rebelling against you."
Xena chuckled and shook her head. "Do you have children, Gabrielle?"
She wagged her head.
"Then you don't get to tell me how to parent my children." She sat in the chair, brooding and staring at the wall, shaking her ankle impatiently.
Gabrielle frowned. "Children deserve some freedom."
Xena sneered, "oh, like you, huh?" she smiled. "You are making it sound like I am a prison warden."
Well, you kind of are –a warden of yourself and others. "I didn't say –"
"Forget it. Just go back to your quarters. I have to set a barricade around my palace now."
Gabrielle hung her head then made her leave. She had a bad feeling about what was to come for tomorrow's training, if there was going to be any session after what just happened.