Xena grabbed Argo's reins and they began to head off in the direction of the East Mountains. "Are you going to leave me like this?" Krellus asked, "It's very uncomfortable." He was still tied at the hands and feet, lying on his stomach across Argo's saddle.

"Oh is it?" Xena said sarcastically, "I like it that way. Then you won't get any crazy ideas."

Krellus sighed, deciding it wasn't worth the fight. "Xena," Gabrielle said quietly, "it's probably going to be a long journey, are you sure he'll be ok like that?"

"Oh he'll be just fine," she said back softly.

The sun had worked its way halfway down the western sky, with no sign of Cora. "Let's stop here for a break," Xena said, tying Argo to a tree.

"Great, can you let me down now?" Krellus asked.

"Not just yet," Xena said as she grabbed Gabrielle's arm and led her a few feet away.

Gabrielle glanced at Krellus then back, "Xena?"

"Sh!" Xena covered her mouth, "listen to me real quick, Gabrielle. Have you seen any sign of the Suryllus girl?"

Gabrielle peeled Xena's hand from her mouth; with a hesitant voice she replied, "Now that you mention it, no I haven't."

"I think he's leading us down the wrong path to buy himself time to get that ransom."

"Oh no, we've already traveled half the day to get to where we are now."

"I guess we'll just have to force the answer out of him." A twig snapped a few feet away; they both turned to see what was coming. "It's a party now," she said, looking at five more of Krellus' thugs charging in their direction.

"Sure looks that way," Gabrielle swung her staff into her fighting position.

Three of the men attacked Xena, knowing that she would be much harder to take down than Gabrielle. The first man charged towards the warrior princess, rapidly swinging his mace off to his side. He took a shot at her, only to have her sword catch the chain, allowing her to rip the weapon out of his hand and toss it behind her. He stood there slightly shocked, enabling her to give a swift roundhouse kick to the side of his head knocking him to the ground, unconscious.

Gabrielle was managing well on her own, deflecting the attacks coming from the swords of the two men she fought off. She managed to catch a break, and swept the feet out from under one man as he paused for a moment to get a better grip on his sword. She quickly turned her attention to the other man standing, barely deflecting an overhead blow, holding her staff horizontally overhead. She threw the man back as hard as she could, then twirled her staff and jabbed him in the abdomen, dropping him to the ground. The first man she'd taken to the ground was back on his feet behind her and wacked her in the back of the head with the butt of his sword, knocking her unconscious. He raised his sword overhead, preparing to plunge it into the motionless woman below.

"NO!" Xena screamed, seeing the unfortunate blow. She quickly pulled her chakram off her belt, still fending off her attackers, and threw it at the man, splitting his sword in two. The man, bewildered, stumbled backwards, looking at his useless sword on the ground. He shot a terrified look at the warrior and took off in the opposite direction, tripping over himself in his haste.

Tired of the men she was fighting, Xena made one swift swing across the center mass of them both, delivering a fatal blow to both their abdomens. She then quickly re-sheathed her sword, caught her chakram, hooked it to her belt and ran to Gabrielle's side to see if she was ok.

She dropped to her knees beside the young bard, "Gabrielle?" She frantically rolled the woman onto her back, then checked for a pulse. As she scrambled to find a pulse, the beautiful blue eyes fluttered open, "Oh thank the gods."

"Oh," Gabrielle winced, "my head."

"You ok?" Xena asked hopefully.

"I - I think so?" Gabrielle said, slowly sitting up. She rubbed a fast growing knot on the back of her head, "What just happened?"

"You got a good blow to the back of the head, here, let me see," she gently tilted the girl's head to get a better look. Moving some hair out of the way to see the injury more clearly, she commented, "Well it didn't break the skin, but you've got a nice bump. You'll be fine, just in quite a bit of pain for a little bit."

"Ok, I'm good then."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure Xena, let's go get the real information out of Krellus."

She helped Gabrielle to her feet and they made their way back to Argo. Xena was slightly surprised to see that he was right where they'd left him; she'd thought that the men that attacked them were a diversion to free him.

Xena left Gabrielle leaning against a tree and, in her rage, pulled Krellus down from Argo, violently hurling him to the ground below, landing him so hard that his hands and feet unbound. A gasp of air left his chest; he tried to regain his breath as she pulled him up to his knees by his collar. "Where is she?" She snarled angrily.

Gasping for air, Krellus replied, "Where is...who?"

"I'm done dealing with your little games Krellus, I know this isn't the direction you sent your men with Cora."

"Oh...is that..." he coughed, "so?"

"I'm not stupid Krellus, and if you're not stupid you'll tell me where your men took her."

He had mostly caught his breath at this point, "Or else what?"

Xena shot an angry look down at him and, without so much as a word, she used her expert knowledge in pressure points to put the pinch on him. He began to struggle for air, turning red, and began to gurgle on his own spit. She raised an eyebrow, somewhat sadistically and said, "I've just cut off the flow of blood to your brain. Now tell me what I want to know, Krellus, or you'll be dead in seconds!"

His eyes widened and he strained to get any words out, "Ok...ok...in a cave, about a day's travel from here...by her house..."

"Are you sure?"

"Y-y-yes," he said as blood started to trickle from his nose.

"Good," she said, jabbing him in the neck, disabling the pinch. He collapsed onto the ground, gulping for air. "Now," she said matter-of-factly, "You're going to take us there; no more tricks. Next time, you won't be so lucky." She slid her foot under his stomach and rolled him to his back, "Understand?"

Still trying to regain his breathing, he simply nodded. "Good," she said. She lifted him to his feet and tied a rope to restrain his hands, securing the other end onto Argo's saddle, "We're going to let you walk to give Argo a break. If you try to run, I'll let my chakram chase you down. Do we have an understanding?"

"Yes," he said, angry he'd been defeated.