Chapter 14

Eli disappeared along with everything else, so that all she could see was a bright splotch of light in the center of her eye where Eli had just stood. She blinked, and her eyelids scraped over rough scales. The surface of her eyes had been blistered by Eli's powerful light; She couldn't see a thing. She felt around her. The earth was gritty and solid beneath her, but she did not remember falling off her horse. She stood up, wincing a bit as she felt for her horse. Finding him, she mounted smoothly. Her eyes would heal. Until then, she must trust her horse to guide her away from the Zhu family. Hopefully he would not take her back to its former owners. She didn't know what she could do against 500 men, especially if she was blind. She would have to listen hard and with constant vigilance to avoid being carried straight into the enemy's camp. She wasn't as worried about Eli. He could blind her body, but… wait. A flutter of panic jumped in her stomach as she realized that her spiritual eyes were blinded as well. How could Eli have done that? She had thought he said that he would not take possession of her soul, though maybe he had worked in a loophole that allowed him to manipulate her soul while still allowing her free will. She certainly had that, as she was resolutely riding in the same direction she had been going before… away from Bao and her hurting family.

She was riding at a trot when she was hit hard in the face. She toppled over backwards, landing on the back of her neck and shoulders. Immediately she was up on her feet in a tense fighting position. She listened hard, but all she could hear was the sound of her horse continuing on without her. She whistled, and it slowed to a stop. Thank the gods. She listened some more, but her ears were filled with the silence of a rustling field… and of a tree. Suddenly it came to her, and she felt around until she had found the branch that had hit her as her horse had passed under it. She whistled again and her horse came back to her. Whoever had trained him had known what they were doing. Apparently she didn't though. Of course she needed to be prepared for low branches when riding blind. She re-mounted and lay forward on the horse's neck. She would just have to ride laying flat until she could see again.

She rode on like this, bouncing up and down uncomfortably, unable to sit low in the saddle and meld with the horses movements in the position she was in. It jostled her brain, yet she still had to catch herself a couple times as she slipped down the horse with sleep. She didn't stop until the horse stopped, not knowing if it was day or night. Without the sun and moon she had no way to gage the time, and as always she was in a hurry, running away from her mistakes. She was making a lot of them lately… though by 'lately' she meant within the last 400 years of course. Xena rolled her unseeing eyes.

At night she would wrap the reins around her wrist and lay down in the soft cold snow. Luckily it had been almost as cold when she had left the Zhus, so she was well dressed for the weather. Winter had come, and at night she would nestle down into a bed of snow while her horse would snort and stomp on the ground. She didn't trust this new horse to its own devices. Unlike Argo, who would barely leave her when she told him to, this horse was not familiar with Xena and his loyalty had probably not yet been won. During their rides Joxer – as she had named him – would stop occasionally to strip off the bark of a young tree or nibble at tufts of exposed dead grass. She didn't have to worry about water as it was frozen all around them, but she always made sure to melt some with a hot stone in a makeshift grass basket for her and Joxer so that they wouldn't freeze to death getting rehydrated. Hunting wasn't a big deal. She would simply listen to everything that was behind the sounds that she heard until she had singled out her prey. Then she would throw her well aimed chakram and it almost always hit its mark, though sometimes it would imbed itself in a tree that she hadn't known was in the way. She considered mistakes like that as minor setbacks, and would always eat eventually.

Days went by, then weeks, but still her eyes did not heal. In fact, the world around her seemed to be fading. She had to try harder and harder to hear but the sounds were slipping away. She took to curing all her meat over the fire in preparation of complete hearing loss. It was a good thing too for soon, though she did not know how soon, she was completely deaf. Xena was getting angry and cursed Eli, but even as she was determined never to give in to his demands the world was slipping away even more, and her surroundings slowly grew numb to the touch; she couldn't feel anything. On she rode, always keeping track of where the reigns aught to be and wrapping them around what she hoped was her hand. Xena stayed seated on the horse for fear of never making it back up onto its back. She fed herself handfuls of cured meat from her saddlebag though she didn't know it between the air and her hand. Time went by as it brought to her a reality check. She would have to give in to Eli's command. She hated her dependency on her lost body, but clearly it was her only link to the world, and it looked as though nobody else would intervene. Once again, she found herself unwillingly wondering where Aphrodite was as she cried out for Eli.

Immediately, he appeared.

The light that came from him was much softer, and there was a look of relief on his glowing face.

"Hello, Xena." He said wearily. "It's been too long."

"It will never be too long." She said nastily. She didn't mean it, but she was wounded and cornered, and that made her feisty.

"So you're turning back?" Eli was unfazed by her comment. He could see right through her.

"Yes." She said, defeated. She didn't say anything more.

"I will give you your senses back, then." He offered.

"How kind of you." Her voice became flat as she tried to keep the sarcasm out. She was unsuccessful.

Eli only smiled again and reached out with his right hand. Xena closed her eyes as he touched her on the forehead and warmth began to seep into her. It was the first thing she had felt in a while, and she embraced it with urgency, focusing completely on the pure feeling. As Eli faded soft fire light took his place, and the warmth took the form of a soft bed that enveloped her. She blinked and the scales on her eyes fell away to reveal anxious faces surrounding her. She smiled at them and relief broke their creased features.

Xena counted two men and a woman, all holding candles that cast shadows on their gaunt faces and put their nightgowns into flickering relief.

"We herd ya cry out for Eli." The woman said gently, setting down her candle and kneeling at Xena's side. "Ya been out fer days, hands out like ya were ridin' a pony, legs all straddling-"

"Annika!" The woman's mouth snapped shut at the rebuke. She opened it again.

"Am told ay got a big mouth." She shouted out one loud "Ha!" and switched gears "How are ya?"

Xena shivered. It was cold in the room despite the fire that crackled nearby, and she didn't like the idea of her sleeping fitfully in her twisted sheets, knees wide and bent toward the ceiling as she clicked her tongue and bounced her hips forward, urging on a horse that was long gone.

"Where am I?" She asked. One of the men opened his mouth, but Annika was already chattering on.

"Oh mai dear yer in Kirkiz acourse! It's a darn cold place full o' nothin' but its home! Thank Eli we found ya or you'd be lawng gawn what in the middle a winter like an' all. What were ya thinkin' going out in a cold like that?" She glared at her sternly. Xena noted that Eli's faith had spread so far north. When she did not reply Annika continued, "Found yer horse standin' not ten paces away all tackled up and all, starved half ta death but refusin' ta leave yer side! Mighty good friend ya got there, that's fer sure." Xena let her face break into a smile, but closed her eyes. She was exhausted and this woman made her head hurt. Not only did she talk a mile a minute, but she spoke a commoner's dialect of the language of Kirkiz, something that she had been exposed to only briefly while riding from Lao Ma's palace to where she and Borias had met Alti and the Northern Amazons. They hadn't stayed in Kirkiz very long as it had been desperately poor and had little to plunder. But, being driven as she was, Xena had learned as much of the language as she could during her journey through the land. She could understand most of what Annika said, at any rate.

"The poor girl is tired Annika, let her rest." Xena looked her relief at the speaker then closed her eyes again.

"Oh aright then, if ay must." Annika and the others shuffled out of the room and shut the door. Xena turned on her side and felt the weight of her body melt into a puddle on the soft straw bed. She didn't even notice when she fell asleep, but lay there pondering over what she would find back at the Zhu's farm. That was a reunion she wasn't looking forward to.