Chapter 11

Xena moved to her lover's side. "What is it?" She knelt down, her hand resting on Gabrielle's shoulder. Gabrielle's eyes blazed with desire as she pulled Xena down towards her.

"Gabrielle!" Xena spoke sharply, her heart aching to refuse the bard's need.

"Mmmm. Let me tell you about what I dreamed you were doing to me." Gabrielle's hands tightened around Xena's neck.

"Toss me the water skin." Xena said curtly, her eyes never leaving the emerald eyes sharp with the edge of passion.

Ankh reached beside the log and tossed the half -full water skin over to the warrior who was intent on her lover's face. Xena grabbed the skin and pulled the stopper out. She poured the contents over Gabrielle's head. The bard's hands released Xena as she tried to cover her face.

"Xena." Gabrielle sputtered out. "What are you doing?" Xena was relieved to see the burn of desire replaced by the spark of anger.

"Just wanted to make sure you knew what you were doing." Xena murmured as she kissed her lover's forehead.

"You woke me up to tell me that?" Gabrielle sat up, brushing dripping bangs back from her face.

"She didn't wake you." Ankh said softly. Aillia has gone too far this time she thought as she caught both the bard's confused gaze and the warrior's determined one.

"Very well Xena, I will tell you anything you want to know." Her entire body sagged, Xena couldn't not tell if it was from relief or defeat.

"Gabrielle, since you're up, maybe you should hear this too." Xena pulled the blanket up around the younger woman's shoulder's.

"Maybe I can get caught up?" Gabrielle snapped, still slightly annoyed at the impromptu bath she had just received. "You have been enthralled by desire. Desire for the warrior above anything else." Ankh replied.

"That's not an enthrallment- She's my lover." Gabrielle said, her brows furrowing slightly. There was truth to the statement, she hadn't wanted Xena in the way that coursed through her since all the tragedy that had come their way.

Gabrielle thought for a moment. It could be true, even now, the nearness of her lover caused a deep need to start pulsing in her veins.

"Keep talking." She said as she followed Xena over towards the fire. She settled against Xena, and gazed at Ankh. Ankh could not meet their eyes, she stared into the fire and began speaking about her past. Gabrielle shuddered, the voice that came from Ankh was distant and removed, like she was telling a tale that she knew only because it was necessary.

"I was a Captain in the Royal Guard when I was accused of killing a slave girl, an officer and attacking the son of the manor." Ankh sneered at the memory. "And I did. By the gods, I would have killed that bloodless gutless little slag if I could. He and his personal guard were...toying with one of the servant girls. They told me to mind my own business, she was just a slave after all. Cowards all of them. I killed the man that was currently...engaged with her. I went for the scum, the son, but tripped over the girl as she rolled out from beneath the officer's body."

Ankh's eyes closed as she took a deep breath. She could still hear the girl's screams in her ears, and the look of terror in her eyes when she met Ankh's gaze. Ankh had tumbled backwards and landed beside her. Her terror filled eyes never left Ankh's face. Ankh remembered the warm spray of blood hitting her face and the screaming abruptly stopping. The girl's limp body fell forward against her and Ankh saw the crossbow bolt in the girl's throat as she moved to set her down before trying to battle her way through the guards that rained blows upon her body at the gleeful command of the Lord's son. He had wanted her to replace the slave girl in their entertainment, except all the commotion had drawn guards from all over the castle. Too many witnesses at that point.

"I was thrown in the dungeon, for the murder of the officer and the slave. The story became that the son and his entourage found me terrorizing the girl and leapt in to defend her. I killed the first poor unfortunate officer and then the slave before turning on them. I killed the slave allegedly to prevent her from testifying against me. I was to be executed, and that slug came to me in the dungeon and gloated. Bought another slave girl in and took her before my eyes and then came for me. Even chained I attacked him as soon as he got close enough. That was added to my list of crimes, he was taken away and I was beaten nearly to death." Even now, Ankh burned with rage at the memory of the dung that called itself nobility.

"A few of my soldiers took my body from the keep and left it in an alley. It was all they could do without getting caught." Ankh sighed, absently brushing wavy dark hair away from her face.

"An old woman found me and dragged me back to her shack along the wharf. She healed me and told me that it was to be as such. I had other battles to fight. I became a mercenary of sorts, she told me where and when people who dealt in shadows and profit from other's misery would meet, and I would dispatch them. There were others that worked for her in the same way. One day she finally called us all together to battle the evil they only called the Ice Princess of the mountain. The people in that party would go on to become my closest friends and allies. They are the one's I must save now. And they are being held by the Ice Princess we thought we defeated so long ago."

Gabrielle glanced over at Xena, and when her lover caught her eye, she saw the same shadow of sadness that arose only when Xena was thinking of her days as a warlord, and the pain she had bought on innocents. More recent than that, the pain she had caused her lover.

"What about the scar?" Xena asked, her voice betraying nothing as she turned away from Gabrielle.

"Given to me by the lady of the mountain. No one had ever seen the Ice Princess. I met a woman who told me that she had been living beneath the castle of ice carved into the mountain and she knew that one day I would come. She looked like me, it was like staring into a mirror, except her hair was as white as the snow that surrounded the mountain. I was young and foolish when it came to desire's call. I stayed with her there beneath the castle for days. Until I heard someone calling my name. I followed the sound and found the rest of the party in cells. None the worse for wear, but justifiably angry with me. Each of them had been captured as they ventured to find me, until all them were captured one by one. I released them, and went back to find my lover, so she could aid us in our battle. One more kiss, she had said, there is plenty of time for battles.

"I was in her embrace when my friends attacked. They knew who she was. The Ice Princess. They had seen tapestries that detailed her conquests and atrocities. She escaped easily and we retreated. We were outnumbered and I wasn't exactly high on my companion's list of trustworthy comrades. The old woman at the wharf took one look at me and pulled me aside. She told me that the Ice Princess could only be defeated by her own blood. I thought she meant by a weapon tipped with her own blood, no. By kin. I had not been raised by blood parents, I was taken in as an infant. My 'sister', as I discovered, had been taken in by the old woman, and taught the ways of Hecate for healing. It didn't quite happen that way, she became attracted to the darker side of power and obtaining it with the bloodier forces of Hecate. So that I would not be swayed by the dark face of the moon that was Hecate's power the old woman gave me a necklace made of Artemis's threads.

"The ensuing battle when we returned was neither pleasant nor short. The Ice Princess, Aillia, sneered at me and told me I was a fool to fight for the greater good of idiot villagers. Hadn't I learned anything from the Guard? I did not kill her. When I bent down to take her to the old woman, Aillia slammed her fist into my chest. I remember only the force of the pain before I collapsed. When I awoke, I was left with this." Ankh pulled the tunic off over her head and pointed to the scar on her chest. "Her blow burned Artemis's threads into my flesh."

Xena looked at the intricate scar that threaded over the woman's sternum down across her upper ribs and swirling up and around to curl around her collarbone.

"It is a mark of possession." Xena said simply, noting the fine detail of knots overlapping in several areas.

"I know." Ankh replied as simply.

Gabrielle looked from one warrior to the other. "What do you mean?" She asked, not commenting on the other marks that littered Ankh's torso and neck. Or the red burn that marked her throat.

"When she burned this into Ankh's chest, she did two things, she was mocking the 'protective' power of it, meaning she could get through it at any time, and two, she made sure that it burned across Ankh's chest. Her life force beats behind that scar. So that is who was responsible for you being left by the side of the road and who is most likely responsible for the heightened sensitivity, shall we say, to heated emotions?" Xena explained, turning to catch Ankh's eye for the last sentence.

"Yes. I have until the equinox to rescue my friends. If I fail, they die, and I am Aillia's once more." Ankh murmured, pulling the tunic back over her head. Xena thought for a moment. Again, she realized, Callisto being chosen was no mistake. Aillia must have found a kindred spirit in Callisto. All this woman wanted was to destroy everything around Ankh and possess her for the rest of her life.

"You need to tell Gabrielle the rest of the what is going on. We need to figure out how we are going to handle this. She needs to know everything." Xena said, laying her hand gently across Gabrielle's own.

"There's more?" Gabrielle asked incredulously.

"I am under the same spell of enthrallment that you are. Except, it is with someone else. Someone Aillia chose to disrupt what trust we have been developing." Ankh spoke, fastening her light eyes on Gabrielle's.

Gabrielle offered a small confused smile and waited.

"It is Callisto. I...I am sorry." Ankh finished quietly. Gabrielle drew in a sharp breath, she felt like someone had punched her in the gut. She felt emotions racing to the surface as her hand clenched Xena's, she looked into the eyes of her lover and knew it to be the truth. "Callisto."