Chapter 25
Aillia screamed to the remaining troops the ones behind the altar when Zanten fell. "Destroy them or forfeit your lives!" She turned molten eyes to Sharia, "Kill her, kill that blonde she-spawn, the one holding up your lover. Rip her from limb to limb and then bring me Ankh." She snarled, pointing to the two women, Ankh leaning against Callisto.
Sharia did not even need for Aillia to finish, the sight of Ankh leaning against that toothpick in leather, the mere thought...Sharia's rage was already spilling through her, she was transformed before she had gone two steps. Aillia turned to Dhomb, locking her eyes onto his. "Aren't you going to vindicate the death of your lover," she sneered. Dhomb reached for his mace and ran towards Aillia. One flick of her wrist and he was flung back away from the altar.
"Traitor." She hissed. He landed none to gently against the packed floor. He looked up to see his own troops descending upon him.
"There is no sanity left." He thought as he rose, mace swinging.
Xena saw Sharia moving towards Ankh and Callisto, she also saw Aillia moving up to the altar, lighting the incense, muttering as she focused on Ankh, her hands casting small designs in the air. Xena flipped through the air, landing beside Gabrielle and kicking off one of the soldiers. An arcing sweep of her staff, Gabrielle knocked the other two to their backs. One two, staff against their jaws and they were out.
"Gods, Sharia has transformed..." Gabrielle whispered when she saw the black and white serpentine form slithering across the temple floor.
"Gabrielle, stay here, I'm going to try and stop Aillia. Ankh won't be able too. If I fail, get out. Don't be here in the temple if the casting goes as it should." Xena gripped Gabrielle's shoulder.
"Have you still not got it figured out yet? I don't leave without you." Gabrielle wrapped her hand around Xena's wrist. Xena glared into those exploding emerald eyes, then sighed.
"Fine, but if I am right behind you, running, you better move."
Gabrielle smiled and gave her wrist a quick squeeze. "That is not something you have to tell me twice."
Xena moved towards the altar. Gabrielle saw Dhomb being attacked by several of the soldiers and she moved in, striking down two as she moved in behind them.
"Need some help?" She called as she swung her staff again.
"Oh, no, just reminiscing with old friends." Dhomb grinned back as he swung his mace for emphasis. The remaining soldiers were knocked forward by Gabrielle's blow and then removed from the battle equation when they ran into Dhomb's mace head.
"Glad you have it under control. Looks like you got kicked out of the Hecate and me fan club." Gabrielle moved beside Dhomb.
"The dues were too high anyways." Movement caught Dhomb's eye, he saw Callisto sneer at the rampaging form of Sharia. He saw Callisto and Ankh begin to shimmer and then solidify in time for Sharia's claw rip across Callisto's shoulder. He saw Aillia still casting, the godling probably couldn't use her powers here. Not likely all of them. Callisto winced at the tearing of her flesh. Her eyes narrowing as she pointed her hand at the scaly creature. The fireball hit Sharia full force and then dispersed harmlessly. Callisto furrowed her brow. Dhomb wished he could tell the blonde warrior that Sharia was not of the mortal plane, sired by a legion of demons, raised in the depths of chaos itself. Sharia wrenched Ankh out of Callisto's weakened grasp and slapped Callisto away. She gripped Ankh by her throat, her massive claws digging into the soft flesh. Gabrielle and Dhomb both winced as Sharia brought her still closed fist back across Ankh's left cheek then her right. Ankh's head whipped from side to side from the force of the blows. Neither one of them could hear the litany that accompanied the blows but Dhomb could guess. Gods, how could he never have known? Because Ankh kept it hidden? Healed herself? How many times had he healed her and have her tell him it was from a battle? Why did he never make the connection between the exceptional warrior who rarely suffered a scratch in every battle he saw her in to the woman who would come to him and need to be healed from broken ribs and bruised organs? Callisto landed on her feet and immediately ran shrieking back towards this behemoth bitch that continued to rain blows down on Ankh.
"Ne' sempes..." Ankh tried to choke out, to release Sharia's tightening grip on her. Her head felt like a practice bag, she glimpsed Callisto flying through the air towards her and saw her snatched mid leap by Sharia's claw. Ankh tried to gather her thoughts, focus her aching head, her fist tightening around the sword that still barely dangled from her hand.
"I am going to rip you into small bloody pieces and scatter you from here to Athens." Sharia growled at Callisto, her sharp claws digging into Callisto's flesh.
"Oh, that's original. Rip me into small bloody pieces, do I look like a doormat to you?" Callisto replied through clenched teeth, trying to writhe out from the asphyxiating grip. Her eyes began to glow as she summoned the force of her power to break out of the tightening grip. She would wonder later how this creature could withstand her.
Sharia's lips curled back over fangs. "She is mine." She said as she turned to look at Ankh. Bringing her towards her face, she closed her mouth over Ankh's neck, then over her shoulder, causing Ankh's body to jerk slightly. Blood began to seep from the places where Sharia's teeth pierced Ankh's flesh, small red rivers forming where she dragged her fangs. Callisto snarled, the grotesque parody of Sharia's actions on Ankh's body making her want to scream. She would not sit by and watch someone she loved be hurt again. She glowed as she felt the heat explode from her body. Sharia pulled back and gazed at the blonde warrior trapped in her grip, scowling at the pain this little creature was causing her, her lips grossly red from Ankh's blood.
"Enough." She flung Callisto away from her, hurling the blonde woman through a pillar and into one of the temple walls. Callisto's form slid limply to the floor.
Sharia looked back at Ankh. "Now, where was I lover?"
"Going back to your family - going back to no where." Ankh choked, barely driving her sword through Sharia's chest. Through that small slit that led to her heart, covered over by scales, no one but she and Sharia knew of this vulnerable point.
Sharia's eyes widened as the blade pierced her heart. "How could you?" She moaned, her rage ebbing away in the crimson river, tranforming back into the striking woman Ankh had seen all those years ago. Ankh fell where Sharia dropped her, on her knees, gasping for breath, her hand at her neck, trying to staunch the warm flow of blood that was running over her hand. She needed to calm the dizzying sensation from lack of oxygen blood or both. Sharia collapsed, her hands clutching the sword jutting out from her chest. Ankh looked at the beautiful face before her, heard the last rattling wet breath she took and saw the mask of death settle over those beautiful porcelain features. She stumbled to her feet, towards the still form of Callisto.
Aillia turned away from the altar when Sharia fell to the ground. "Hecate- Noooooooo!" Xena had her Chakram poised when she saw the fires around the altar flare, and Aillia's body fill with incandescent light. She shadowed her eyes with the back of her hand, until the woman's figure burned so bright she could not see. A flash, and then only the altar remained.
Callisto opened her eyes, her senses reeling. She saw a figure staggering towards her, with a shriek she thrust her dagger forward.
Ankh felt the blade pierce her flesh, she looked into Callisto's brown eyes where emotions warred. Ankh fell again before the blonde warrior, clutching the wound in her stomach, she felt like she was exploding into a million shards of crystal fire. She slipped into darkness like a stone slipping beneath the river.
Xena, Gabrielle and Dhomb turned at Callisto's shriek, they saw Ankh stumble and fall at Callisto's kneeling form. "What is going on?" Xena asked Dhomb warily as they moved towards Callisto, her hand still on her Chakram.
"Hecate doesn't like failures, no matter what." Dhomb explained hurriedly as he rushed towards Ankh's still form.
Gabrielle turned to Xena, "He's ok. I think he finally figured out exactly what was going on. Better late than never, right?" She lay her hand on Xena's arm.
Xena just nodded, following Dhomb. Callisto knelt, staring down at the woman laying before her.
Callisto whipped her head up. Xena was walking towards her. Callisto reached for her sword, gone...Her dagger buried in the stomach of the woman before her. Callisto leapt to her feet, snarling at the Warrior Princess. Her hands glowed impotently, she could not release her fireballs in here...Something was not right here. She could not shake this feeling of unease. She watched a tall handsome man approach them, watched as he cradled the woman's body in his arms. Callisto stared at the bloodied beaten woman. Recognition pierced her brain like a needle. She knew the curve of that neck, the slope of those bruised cheekbones, the taste of now pale lips.
"What trickery is this?" She snapped at Xena who had stopped when Callisto had gotten to her feet. Something was shifting beneath the surface, struggling to break free in those brown eyes.
"Callisto." Came the ragged whisper from the wounded woman, Callisto looked down and saw the briefest flash of sorrow in silver eyes before the woman sank beneath waves of unconsciousness again.
"I have to tend to her. She is so cold, but sweating as if she were on fire." Dhomb said, looking into the maddened brown eyes of the blonde warrior.
"Ankh." Callisto whispered, the name breaking across her memory and her heart in the same moment. She looked at Dhomb, Xena, and then Gabrielle. Her hands ached to touch Ankh's face, but instead they were warm with her blood...She wanted to kiss Ankh back into consciousness, what had she done? Callisto threw back her head and gave another unearthly shriek. She leapt and flipped over Dhomb's head. Snatching her dagger from Ankh's stomach and her sword from the soldier's throat, she exited the rear doors of the temple disappearing back into the moon filled night. Her shriek hung in the temple, over the dead and the dying.
They all watched her go. "Will she be back?" Dhomb asked, turning to look at Xena and Gabrielle.
"I don't know, I suspect she will want to." Xena answered softly, Gabrielle sidled up beside her and wrapped her fingers through the warrior's.
Dhomb set Ankh down gently, "I am going to tend to what wounds I can. Enough so she can travel back to the camp. It lies in the forest behind the temple."
"Should we go back to the camp?" Xena asked tersely.
"It is safe. All the 'commanders' are dead, save me." He replied grimly, his face unreadable.
Gabrielle leaned up and whispered into Xena's ear, "His lover was the man attacking Ankh that Callisto killed." Xena looked at the bard and then back at Dhomb.
"I'm sorry." She said.
"Don't be, we were all duped by Aillia's, and she puppeted Sharia well enough. If he hadn't died then he would have murdered Ankh in cold blood. She was at least trying to save all of us and we repayed her with this." His fingers moved swiftly over her wounds.
"We should be all set. Ready?" Dhomb finally said, lifting Ankh once again.
Xena and Gabrielle nodded and followed him out of the temple back into the woods.