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REMAINS OF A NATION by Mike Dobler     An Unexpected Detour   Gabrielle rose up out of her dreams and felt the warmth of the sun on her back. She opened her eyes, just a little bit. The brilliant light blinded her for a moment. Then she smelled it. A rich, toothsome smell that permeated the surrounding forest. She heard the sound of footsteps moving behind her and the merry crackling of a campfire. Blindly, she reached back and felt the empty space where her husband should have been.   “Where does he find the energy?” she mumbled as she rolled over. She smiled wearily as she watched him, moving about the tiny fire. Two small pots and the coffee pot sat near the flames, bubbling merrily as David continued with his preparations. His eyes were hidden behind the red lenses of his sunglasses. He crouched before the fire, adding some of his mixed herbs to the contents. He took a swallow of coffee from a metallic mug and sighed as he stirred the food.   “Don’t you ever sleep?” Gabrielle asked. “I mean, we were up pretty late last night?" She smiled at the memory.   “What can I say,” David said cheerfully. “The combination of simple food, fresh air and you! I feel invigorated!”   “You suck,” Holding her blanket up to fulfill the requirements of modesty; Gabrielle crawled towards the fire to inspect the food cooking in the pots. She frowned as she studied the pale meat simmering in the broth.   “Where did you find this?” she asked as she stirred it experimentally.   David smiled. “I’ve been wabbit hunting,” he said in a strange voice.   Gabrielle rolled her eyes and then looked at the second pot. She stirred it, feeling something at the bottom. Expertly she caught it with the spoon and drew it out.  “What do you have in – “she squealed in fright when David’s glass eye emerged from the water, seeming to stare at her.   David laughed out loud as Gabrielle scooted away, now fully awake with her heart hammering in her ears.   “I’m sorry,” David continued laughing. “I have to keep it clean, and since there’s no antiseptic around, I have to boil it in water every few days.”   “That was not funny,” Gabrielle growled.   David fished the prosthetic out of the water and cleaned it with a small clean cloth, and then, once it was cool, he slipped it back into the empty socket, blinking experimentally.   Gabrielle watched him with a mixture of wonder and horror. She had never seen the injury to his face without the prosthetic eye before now, and it drove home the pain that he must have suffered.   “Does it hurt?” She asked, suddenly realizing that she had never posed that question before. She stared at the raised jagged scar covering his eye.   David smiled and shrugged. “Sometimes, when I don’t have it in, it itches.”   “The wound?” Gabrielle asked.   “No, my eye.” David grinned.   “How can it itch if it’s not there?” Gabrielle asked.   Again David shrugged. “It’s called Phantom Limb Syndrome. It’s when you continue to feel something that isn’t there. It’s common among amputees. I had a friend who lost his lower leg. He was always complaining about how much it hurt.”   Gabrielle frowned, unable to understand. “Sorry I asked,” she mumbled.  David smiled and served the stew in two small metal dishes.   “I don’t understand it either, though I have a few thoughts,” David confessed.   “Oh?” Gabrielle asked. And so began another long conversation about another obscure subject. It lasted through breakfast and most of the morning travels. The talk moved from that to other matters, and still others.   They moved steadily deeper into unfamiliar countryside. As they had planned, they were making their way, over land towards the ancient kingdom of Kehmet – or Egypt – as David knew it. As they traveled, they passed many of the places that Gabrielle had visited during her travels with Xena. David watched her carefully at those times. Her emotions were mixed. In some cases, a certain village or landmark seemed to raise her spirits, while others brought them down. David began to tie in places with events from the scrolls Gabrielle had written, adding topography to the words and faces. His picture of Gabrielle’s life with Xena and before the Chronos Stone became more and more defined with every mile they traveled. So, too, did his understanding of the relationship his new wife had shared with the fabled Warrior Princess. He understood now that the relationship had gone beyond friends and beyond family. There was a dedication to each other that had permeated their very existence. Each of them had become so attuned to the other that they had, in essence been one whole complete being, reduced when the other wasn’t present.   The day was warm and sunny, and passed uneventfully as the two of them made their way through the countryside, and back through many of Gabrielle’s memories. As the shadows began to lengthen, the pair came to the crest of a gentle rise and looked down into the small clot of buildings that indicated a village.   Gabrielle looked at the sight and smiled in recognition.   “That’s Tripolis!” She exclaimed. “It’s where Xena and I held off the Persian Cavalry advance!” She looked back at David, suddenly a bit sheepish. “Well, Actually, Xena did most of the work on that one.”   David smiled. “And what did you do?”   “I was dying from a poisoned arrow wound at the time,” Gabrielle confessed. Her smile brightened suddenly. “Got a new pair of boots out of that whole mess, though!”   David grinned. “And that’s what’s really important, isn’t it? As long as you get something out of it!”   Gabrielle smiled smugly. “Absolutely. That’s why I married you, after all.”   David’s eyebrow’s shot up. “Oh? Something you’d care to share with the rest of the class?” He put his hands on his hips and stared at her through the mirrored red lenses on his nose.   She looked back at him and her eyes flicked to the large knapsack carrying their supplies, and then back at him again. A sly, mysterious smile began to spread across her lips. She turned and began walking down towards the village.   “Well,” David huffed. “What’s in it for me?”   “More of last night,” Gabrielle said, looking back at him again. “Or did you forget about that already?”   David shook his head and grinned. “I’ve created a monster.” Tripolis was a smallish cluster of shops and homes surrounding an inn that was not much larger than the barn on Gabrielle’s old homestead. Still, it seemed well maintained and comfortable, with windows on an upper floor looking out over the rolling hills.   The entire cluster of buildings was surrounded by several large farms. A few people could be seen moving across the packed dirt path that served as the main road through the town. A single horse cart rattled up the hill past them, driven by a wizened old man wearing a dirty gray tunic and tan breeches. His eyes stared out at the two strangers from beneath the wide brim of his straw hat.   David and Gabrielle felt unusual intensity from those clear, old eyes. They both stopped and looked after the passing cart.   “That was interesting,” Gabrielle commented.   “That’s one word for it,” David replied. “I was thinking ‘hostile’, myself.”   Gabrielle shook her head. “Why should he be?” she asked. “The last time I was here was thirty years ago, and Xena and I were the only ones here?”   David’s smile began to reassert itself. “Perhaps he didn’t approve of your clothes?”   Gabrielle looked down at her garments. Red Amazon style halter, skirt, boots, and her small bag, all a bit worn, but still in decent shape. They were perfect for the hot summer days when she was traveling. She looked back up at David and shrugged.   “What’s wrong with my clothes?” She asked.   David’s grin expanded. “Nothing from where I stand.”   By contrast, he was dressed in a faded pair of blue jeans, tough black boots, a gray tee shirt and long dark gray weather beaten duster that flapped in the breeze as he stood before her.   Gabrielle gave him a reproachful glance and sighed. “You’re a pig, sometimes. You know that?”   “I just call them as I see them,” David replied smiling. “If that makes me a pig? Then oink oink to you, sweetheart.”   Gabrielle laughed and the two of them continued into the village.   Their mirth slowly faded as they moved down the worn path towards the inn. All activity seemed to slow to a halt as eyes fixed on them from every nook and cranny of the village.   David saw a tinker, peeking out from between several small well made pots and pans. His eyes fixed on David only for a moment, and then on Gabrielle and they went dark.   Several local women scooted to the opposite side of the small street, glaring at her with obvious spite.   In every instance, the men and women would look at David with curiosity or trepidation, but then they would fix on Gabrielle with suspicion or outright hostility.   David watched all of this from behind his glasses, a feeling of vague dread knotting in his belly.   “What the hell is going on here?” he asked quietly. Gabrielle shook her head, her own eyes scanning the people as they walked.   “I don’t know.”   David felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as eyes followed them down the main street and into the front door of the inn.   Again, all activity ground to a halt when Gabrielle and David pushed their way into the main common room and paused, looking about for a place to sit.   The tavern smelled of wine, ale, sweat and various food dishes all mingled together with the pale haze of tobacco smoke drifting a few feet off the floor. There was no sound for a few moments except a muffled cough or a furniture creak.   “Is it me?” David asked quietly. “Or did the temperature just drop about twenty degrees?” He removed his sunglasses and scanned the myriad of faces staring back at them. Then he took the front and stepped down towards two unoccupied stools at the bar.   He politely held out the stool for Gabrielle, pushing it under her as she sat. That was when he noticed a young man, about her age, staring at her with undisguised contempt.   “Can I help you with something?” David asked, locking his gaze on the intrusive man.   The man blinked and turned away after a few moments.   David settled down on the stool next to her, his eyes gazing back over his shoulder at the people. Conversation resumed slowly, but only as loud as hushed whispers would permit.   The innkeeper, a tall, lanky, middle aged man with thinning gray hair stepped over to them absently wiping a cup.   “Would you be wanting a meal, then?” he asked unenthusiastically.   “Yes,” David replied. “And a room for the night, if you don’t mind?”   Usually, any innkeeper would be delighted at the prospect of having travelers staying in his establishment. It meant money for several meals, and for the room. However, in this instance, the innkeeper merely shrugged. His face remained completely neutral.   “Don’t have no room available,” he lied.     Gabrielle looked at David who matched the innkeeper’s gaze with a stony one of his own. David’s eyes flicked to the steaming bowls of mutton on the counter behind the innkeeper.   Instantly, David’s expression changed, and he smiled.   “Fine. Two bowls of stew and two ales, if you please?” he said pleasantly.   The innkeeper was about to repeat his lie, but saw the bowls behind him. He sighed in resignation and nodded.   “Ten dinars,” he said as he set the bowls down.   David set five coins on the table. And fixed the innkeeper with a knowing look.   “We may be out of sorts, here,” David said. “But we’re not ignorant.”   The innkeeper swallowed hard and then scooped up the coins and set two mugs of ale before them.   Gabrielle and David ate in silence, feeling the eyes of the other patrons burning into their backs.   A hushed discussion was gaining intensity somewhere behind them and David strained his ears to make out what was being said.  Apparently, two or three individuals were arguing about which one of them would broach some subject or other.   Finally, David could stand it no longer. He took a long drink of ale, choking down the bitter stuff and turned slowly on stool.   Three men sat at a small table nearby, hot in the middle of their argument. His eyes fell on them and all three ceased.   “Something on your mind?” David asked   One of the men, a strong looking one with a thin coating of soot covering his arms, rose to his feet. He, along with the others in the room stared at David nervously.   Gabrielle also turned and placed a hand on David’s shoulder. Trying to calm the slow boil she could almost feel through his clothing. She also looked at the young man, obviously a blacksmith, and subtly shook her head. She was attempting to warn the young man off, but instead, his own gaze darkened at her eye contact.   “Why have you brought that in here?” he asked angrily, flinging a finger at Gabrielle. “Her kind isn’t welcome here!”   David’s expression remained hard.   “Her ‘kind’?” He repeated as if the word had a foul taste in his mouth. “What do you mean by ‘her kind’?”   “You know quite well!” The man snapped back.   “Pretend I don’t,” David replied, his voice like granite.   “Amazons,” Gabrielle whispered, barely audible.   David’s stony gaze didn’t waver, and his eyes darkened a bit with anger. “We have no quarrel with you, friend. All we want is a meal and a place to spend the night before we move on?”   That statement didn’t seem to satisfy anyone in the room. The young blacksmith refused to be intimidated. Inwardly, both David and Gabrielle knew that there was no way they would get out of this place without a fight.   “Bed your harlot in the forest where she belongs,” The blacksmith growled.   David stood up so quickly that everyone in the room, including the blacksmith took a step back in surprise.   “Watch it, friend,” David growled. “You’re talking about my wife.”   “David?” Gabrielle rose, keeping a hand on his shoulder. “They obviously don’t want us here. Let’s just go, okay?” She looked at the blacksmith. “We aren’t looking for trouble here.”   David’s fingers twitched reflexively as he fought to cool his temper.   “Fine,” he said, forcing a deep breath. “The ale wasn’t that good anyway.”   Slowly, they began edging back toward the door. David kept Gabrielle in front of him, the better to protect her if one of the patrons got ambitious. The small door suddenly seemed miles away.   As they passed the table where the blacksmith stood with his friends, he quickly grabbed his mug and swung it at the back of Gabrielle’s head.   Just as quickly, David’s arm shot up and deflected the blow, wrapping the young man’s wrist and twisting the mug out of his grasp.   David’s eyes locked on the blacksmiths.   “Now, we have a quarrel,” he said, and his uppercut sent the young man sprawling across the table beyond. His two friends dove for cover and the entire scene dissolved into a rush mass of bodies, some struggling to get out the small door, while others arrayed themselves around the two strangers.   Instantly, David’s bow was notched and bent, panning about the room.   “The next one makes a move on my wife, gets his skull pinned to the wall!” He barked. The bowstring creaked slightly under the tension. “You want us gone? We’re going. You want it ugly? I’ll be more than happy to stick around!”   The various men standing about the room saw the weapon in David’s hands and the two sais in Gabrielle’s as well. They thought better of it.   Several men that had been blocking the door stepped warily aside and allowed them to pass, while the others either stood passively or raised their hands slightly in gesture of surrender.   David slowly backed out the small door after his wife.   Once out in the fading light of the evening, David let the tension on his bow ease and followed Gabrielle at a brisk walk towards the far end of the village.   “What the hell was that all about?” David asked as he slipped the arrow back into the holder on his bow. Gabrielle slid her sais back into her boots.   “I don’t know,” she admitted. “We’re on the borders of the old Amazon lands. But not enough of us made it out of Helicon to maintain it. Most of my sisters ended up joining the remnants of other tribes. As far as I know, there aren’t any Amazons left in these parts.”   “Well,” David said as he still watched the door of the inn. “Either way, we might want to put a little distance between us and this place before nightfall. I have a hunch that some of our friends in there won’t object to a little night time hunting, if you know what I mean?”   Gabrielle nodded. “There’s an old abandoned store house just on the other side of a small river, a short way up the road. It was where Xena hid a weapons cache a long time ago - and where she held of the Persians. If no one’s using it, we should be able to stay there for the night.”   “Fine by me,” David agreed, anxious to put some distance between them and this hostile place. “Lead the way.”   They passed the rotting and burned out remains of the original village as they traveled. Everything had nearly been reclaimed by the wilderness after all those years. Only the occasional rotting stump of a timber or the vine-covered outline of a foundation could be seen to mark the spot where the village had once stood.   They continued along until Gabrielle stopped at the edge of a narrow depression. Slow moving water could be seen meandering through the mud at the bottom. The ruined foundation of a bridge could be seen beneath the tall grasses, but the wooden structure had long ago fallen away or been dismantled. Across from that were two old wooden doors, one of them hanging slightly ajar. The entire structure was half dug out of the hill on the far side. Low and squat, it seemed more like a storm shelter than a storage shed.   “Looks like a pill box,” David commented.   The two of them scrambled down the steep bank and back up the other side.   Images and voices from Gabrielle’s past began to echo in her mind as she approached those old doors. Her eyes glanced about, as if she were expecting a ghost to rise up out of the mists beginning to snake across the damp earth in the cooling of oncoming night.   They entered the building, and instantly Gabrielle saw everything as it had been all those years ago. Her breath caught and she paused at the door. She started slightly when David put a hand on her shoulder.   “Ghosts?” he asked knowingly.   She nodded. When she looked back again, she saw it all as it was.   No one had used the place for many years and dust had settled thick up on everything. A part of the roof had fallen in at the back of the structure. The debris now rested mostly on the little shelf where Xena had concealed a wounded Gabrielle before the fateful battle. The ladder was gone. Some of the timbers jutted out precariously overhead. And the whole structure creaked ominously in the wind.   Bits of old tackle, tools, and rope hung or lay strewn about the floor, and several old crates were stacked neatly against the wall on their left. Gabrielle went over to one of them where two of the timbers had been ripped free and smiled as her hand touched the old wood.   Curiosity overcame her nostalgia and she pushed the empty crate aside, looking down at the top of the one beneath it. She pulled one of her sais out and pried at the lid.   “What are you doing?” David asked.   “This was Xena’s old weapons cache,” Gabrielle explained. “She hid these here in case she ever recruited another army. Doesn’t look like anyone’s touched them since we were here last?”   The old lid creaked as she pried it up, then she flipped the lid off and looked inside.   Lying neatly in intertwining rows were at least a dozen old bows fashioned from horn and steel.   Gabrielle reached in and drew one of them out, holding it up to examine it closely.  A low whistle escaped David’s lips.  She handed the weapon to him for examination and continued rummaging about within the crate.   David studied the carved workmanship of the handle and nodded in appreciation. The design was intricate and meticulously crafted.   He planted the steel end of the bow in the packed earth and bent it experimentally a few times.  There was a dry cracking sound as the old bone began to weaken under the stress.   “This is nice,” he acknowledged. “But I’m afraid it would snap under pressure.”   “I’ll bet this one won’t,” Gabrielle said, lifting another bow, of the same general design, but more intricately crafted. The steel and horn handle were a deep oily black, filigreed in gold.  David, unwilling to set the point of this bow into the ground, rested his knee on the crate and flexed the bow experimentally.   “I believe that you’re right,” he said with a grin. He looked at the crate. “Any bowstrings in there?”   Gabrielle pulled out several, but they were shrunken and dried out, completely useless.   “Well,” Gabrielle said regretfully. “I guess that’s that.”   David smiled and held up his finger.   “Maybe not,” he said. He rummaged about in his knapsack and came out with a small plastic sealed packet. Breaking it open, he withdrew a long length of nylon cord.  He gauged the length and then checked the ends of the bow. Smiling smugly, he expertly strung the old bow and handed it to her.   “Good as new,” he said proudly.   Gabrielle took the weapon and drew back on the bow, testing her strength against the draw.  She smiled after a few minutes.    “All you need is arrows,” David nodded.   Gabrielle pulled a bundle of the projectiles from the bottom of the crate and held them triumphantly.   David frowned at them. “Hey, those look pretty good.” He said. He took one and examined it. “Damn, these are nice.  How many of them have you got in there?”   Gabrielle looked back down into the crate.  When she spoke, her voice sounded mildly muffled.   “The entire bottom of the crate is stocked with them,” she said. “Why?”   David slid in next to her, reaching down into the crate and removing several bundles.   “My own supply is beginning to run low,” he said regretfully. “Which sucks.” He notched one of them to his bowstring and tested it. They were a little longer and heavier than his arrows, but otherwise, they were superbly manufactured.   “I can’t wait to try these out,” David said, grinning.  Gabrielle laughed quietly listening to the night noises beyond the earthen walls.  Her smile faded when she realized that all the familiar night noises were fading to silence.   “What?” David asked. Gabrielle clamped a hand on his forearm and put a finger to her lips.   David stood still and listened as the night noises faded to silence. A few minutes later, the noises resumed, regaining their previous volume.   Gabrielle’s eyebrows rose inquisitively.   “Something just went past us,” She whispered.   David nodded. The two of them crept to the closed doors and peered out just in time to see several shapes vanish into the high grasses at the opposite side of the small creek.   “They’re heading towards Tripolis,” Gabrielle said.   “It’s a raid,” David growled. “Part of me wants to let them go.”   “David?” Gabrielle asked.   “Only for a second,” David smiled. “Let’s go see if we can surprise the surprisers, shall we?”   He shifted his pack and the two of them jogged down the path after the mysterious figures. By the time they reached the torch lit outer edge of Tripolis. People could be seen running helter skelter between the small buildings. Three of the shops were already alight, the fires licking the interior mud and wooden walls.   David saw several individuals tangling in the street. The attackers were small and lithe, wearing patches of old armor and elaborate feathered masks.   “Those are Amazons!” Gabrielle cried out in disbelief.   “Right now,” David replied. “They’re raiders.”   The two of them ran into the fray.   A twinge of moral conscious began to prick at him. He had never been one to hit a woman. Now he was running into a fight against highly trained, fighting women. In the back of his mind, he wondered if he could actually strike back at them, since they were all women.   He saw one figure standing over another with a raised dagger.   At the last second, before he impacted the female figure from the blind side, he recognized the young blacksmith that he had punched earlier.  Then he slammed into the woman at full speed, sending the two of them tumbling in a tangle. The Amazon warrior’s dagger went skidding into the shadows.   When David rolled back to his feet, he grasped a long wooden staff and spun it expertly, clearing an area of six feet in all directions as he searched for the next target.   Two more masked figures charged at him with cries of rage. David met the attack head on, swinging the makeshift staff quickly and accurately, sweeping the feet out from beneath one and rocking the second with a blow to the side of the head.   The blacksmith, realizing that he had been saved, scrambled to his feet and sought out his savior. His eyes went wide when he saw David fending off another attacker.   In the distance, they both saw several other figures darting back into the shadows, arms filled with various bundles of goods.   Another glance showed Gabrielle entangled with another of the raiding Amazon figures. She seemed to be holding her own, but David wasn’t convinced. He began fighting his way back toward her and was surprised when the same blacksmith he had just assisted intercepted one of his attackers.   David looked at the young man in surprise. He merely shrugged quickly.   “I owed you one,” The man said quickly and then resumed running towards Gabrielle and her opponent.  David ran after, but the blacksmith got there first, bowling over Gabrielle’s attacker.   Gabrielle paused in surprise before leaping over the two tangled figures and kicking another squarely in the chest. That one went skidding across the street before rolling to her feet and stumbling into the shadows at a run.   The raiders were in retreat, their surprise foiled.   David felt more than heard the approaching attacker from behind. His instincts took complete control. He spun with lighting speed, wrapped the wrist that descended and twisted, driving the weapon involuntarily into the belly of the attacker.   The female figure doubled over and the mask fell from her face.   “Oh shit!” David gasped as the figure looked back up at him, the young, pale blue eyes wide in surprise and shock.   The attacker was small with long waves of blondish hair and delicate features.   David’s hands held the narrow shoulders and his eyes went wide.   “Jesus,” He breathed. “You’re just a kid?”   The girl dropped to her knees, the hilt of her own blade protruding from her gut.   Her mouth opened as she tried to speak, but only a trickle of blood dripped from her lips.   “Oh no,” David sank down with her as she collapsed.   The girl lay back, her hands clutching at the knife in her body, her eyes wide with fear and realization.   “Easy,” David soothed desperately. “Just take it easy now.” He turned his head away.   “Gabrielle!” he shouted in panic.   Instantly, she was kneeling at his side, inspecting the wound.   The young woman looked at Gabrielle and one bloody hand shot up to grasp her arm, pulling her close. She whispered something inaudible to her. Gabrielle froze in surprise and then nodded.   “You’ll be alright,” David was whispering desperately. His hands were suddenly trembling as if he didn’t know what to do. “It’s going to be okay. Everything’s going to be okay.”   The girl’s eyes looked up at him without pain.   “No, no,” David said quickly, pointing two fingers at his own eyes. “Look at me…look right here…don’t go. Just stay here. Stay here with me….come on, look at me….stay…stay….stay…stay…” his shaking voice faded when he realized that the pale blue eyes had gone black as the pupils dilated. The girl was dead.   David slowly stood up, backing away from the grisly sight, his one bloodied hand rising to his temples as he stumbled back against a storage barrel.   Gabrielle was looking at him in concern. David’s mouth moved, but the words wouldn’t form. He looked pleadingly at his wife as he tried to speak.   “She came at me from behind,” David finally stammered. “She was….and I just….it was instinct and I twisted. She should have dropped…” He fell back on the ground, staring at the body, a string of self deprecating whispered curses flowing from his mouth.   One of the men from the fight looked down at him.   “Don’t beat yourself up about it, stranger,” he said gruffly. “They came after us. She got what she deserved.”   David’s desperation was suddenly replaced with bitter anger and he leapt to his feet, grabbing the man by the neck and leading him to stare down at the corpse.   “Look at her!” he roared. “Go on, LOOK! She was all of fifteen! Someone’s daughter! Someone’s sister! She’ll never grow up! Never have children! Never know what it feels like to be in love - have her own family!”   He shoved the man away and looked at the myriad of faces staring at him through the smoke and haze.   David’s eyes were wide with desperate fear. “Because of me,” he finished in a haunted whisper. His wide eyes sought something in the faces of the villagers, but saw nothing. He backed away slowly and turned, walking back towards the outskirts of the village.   It was the first time in their entire relationship that Gabrielle had seen her husband flee.   She rose to her feet and took a few steps after him. Then she turned back to the others.   “Put her in a cart and bring her to the old storage barn at the edge of town.” She ordered. “And be gentle with her.” The glacial gaze brought terrible images of retribution to the minds of all that looked at her. Then she turned and ran after David.   A middle aged man, obviously one of the village elders, approached Gabrielle. His eyes were dark and thoughtful, and his hands were at his sides. He nodded in greeting.   “I must thank you for your aid,” he said  “Though I am somewhat confused. Why did you turn against your own people?”   “If the remaining Amazons in this region have sunk to robbing and pillaging their neighbors, then they are no longer my people,” Gabrielle replied quickly, her eyes drifting in the direction that her husband had gone.   Another man stepped over to the elder, his sword was tainted red with blood.   Lord Festius,” he said angrily. “The men are armed and ready. We can set out at first light.”   “Very well,” Festius replied.   “What do you plan to do?” Gabrielle asked, feeling a knot of dread form in her belly.   “What do you think?” The man answered. “These Amazon bitches have been raiding al the villages in the area for over a year now! Tomorrow, we plan to end that for good!”   “War?” Gabrielle asked in astonishment. “You’re declaring war against the Amazons?”   “They started attacking us!” The man countered. “As far as we’re concerned, they declared war on us! We’re just giving them what they want!”   “Wait a minute,” Gabrielle said, holding her hands up. “There has to be another explanation. As far as I knew, there were no more Amazons living in this area?”  Festius nodded. “That was my understanding as well. Then, a little more than two years ago, we began to see signs of their return. At first, we welcomed it, and then the raids began.”   The man at Festius’s side cleared his throat impatiently.   “Why are discussing this with her?” He asked. “For all we know, she is in with them?”   “I saw her, and her companion battling as fiercely as any one of us, Globus!” Festius said with sudden vehemence. Then his voice dropped back to the soft calm of a moment before. “How many other raiders were slain?”   Globus suddenly looked a bit uneasy. “None, sir. We did wound several, but as far as I can tell, that one is the only casualty.” He pointed at the body being loaded into a small cart. “Still, once the stragglers arrive, we’ll be able to change that.”   “Wait,” Gabrielle said quickly. “Look, I understand that you’re all angry about this. I don’t blame you. But there has to be an explanation for all this? The Amazons would never condone this kind of action, let alone partake in it?”   “I agree,” Festius replied. “And yet, one of your sisters lay dead in our street? What are we to do? We cannot simply stand idly by while they ravage our stocks and supplies?”   “No, you can’t,” Gabrielle agreed, glancing back towards the edge of town again. “I have to take this young lady back home. When I do that, I can find out what happened to start all this, and maybe stop it?”   “Back home?” Globus stammered. He looked at Festius. “You can’t let her leave! Not after she has heard about our plans!”   Festius looked into Gabrielle’s eyes for a long moment and then shook his head. “She is free to go.”   “What?”   “She may bring the body of her fallen warrior back home,” Festius replied evenly. “If she is able to bring these attacks to a stop, so much the better.”   Gabrielle nodded. “Thank you.”   Festius’s eyes hardened slightly. “Understand this. We will give you one week to resolve this matter peaceably. Know that we have assembled all the fighting men from the neighboring villages. Our combined forces will easily overwhelm the remnants of your Amazons. I do not say this to threaten you. I merely state a fact. Pray, do not make us prove it?”   “I’ll do what I can,” Gabrielle nodded. She looked at the covered body on the cart and sighed. “I must go. In one week?”   “I can only hope,” Festius replied.”   Gabrielle stepped alongside the sturdy pony that was hitched to the cart and led the passive creature towards the outskirts of town.   She found David behind the far wall of the last building in the village, scrubbing his hands in a barrel of rainwater with manic intensity.   Gabrielle stepped slowly towards him, mesmerized and horrified at the pain she saw on his face.   The blood was gone from his fingers, yet he continued to scrub them as if he wanted to remove the flesh from his hands.   Gently, Gabrielle wrapped her fingers over his hands.   “David?” She asked gently.   “I must have used that move a dozen times since I got here,” he said in a shaky voice. “It was one of the first moves I ever learned. It paralyzes the fingers so that you can’t open a safety pin. She should have dropped the knife. That’s how it works. It’s simple. Disarm and disable. She should have dropped the knife!”  He tore his hands free of her grasp and fell back against the side of the shack, his hand rising to his forehead. As he slid down the wall, the tears flowed.   Gabrielle knelt down next to him and wrapped her arms about his neck, trying desperately to comfort a pain that she readily understood.   After a long time, a mule cart came walking up, led by the blacksmith. Gabrielle saw the pale cloth covering the body of the dead girl.   Gabrielle nodded to the young man once and then looked back at David.   “I have to take Yania back,” Gabrielle said gently.   David looked at Gabrielle with red rimmed eyes. “You know her name?” he asked in a hoarse voice. “How?”   Gabrielle smiled slightly. “She told me when she gave me her Right of Caste.”   David frowned, and then he remembered how Gabrielle originally got her title in the Amazon Nation.   “I’m coming with you.” David said.   “That’s not a good idea, David,” Gabrielle said softly. “They’ll put you on trial for her death.”   David nodded. “I think her sisters deserve to know how she died.”   “I can tell them,” Gabrielle said evenly. “And they cannot harm me, since I have been given her Right of Caste, it’s not allowed.”   She stopped when she saw the look in his eyes. It was the same look that she had seen when she had returned with him from the debacle at Mogador, after their encounter with the enigmatic Gurkhan.   “Don’t,” David said with a growl. “Don’t you dare!”   His eyes were weary, but filled with a grim resignation that she couldn’t remember ever seeing before.   Gabrielle nodded in understanding. She recognized the desperate need for absolution, one way or another.   “All right,” Gabrielle agreed. She knew how the Amazons treated murderers, or perceived murderers. A knot of inevitable dread began to freeze in her belly. “But, when we get there, you let me do the talking, agreed?”   David got wearily to his feet. “Agreed.”     A Matter of Honor  The cart bounced along the deeply rutted track that had once been another road leading into Tripolis. After a while, it became impossible to continue that way. The road had been overgrown with brush and brambles, sometimes vanishing altogether in a wall of foliage that they had to cut their way through.   Eventually, Gabrielle and David were forced to lift the crude stretcher out of the cart and leave their loaned beast of burden behind.   The latter part of the morning and into the afternoon, the land became hillier and thickly forested.  Thick green carpeted the land as far as the eye could see, and layers of deep green leaves blocked out most of the sunlight.   Gabrielle’s pace began to slow, as if she were becoming reluctant to continue and David could sense that it was more than their shared burden that was slowing them.   Her eyes continuously scanned the thick foliage about them, or watched in the trees above, as if she expected something to rise up from the green.   David noted this, and his own senses began to sharpen. His eyes also searched the trees from behind the mirrored red lenses of his sunglasses. She shifted the large pack at his back, checked his bow and quiver for the umpteenth time and adjusted his grip on the back end of the stretcher.  The trail they were following was little more than a deep furrow between lines of wild plants. It was more like a game trail that wound in between massive tree trunks.   “Sweetheart?” David asked as he followed. “Do you know where you’re going?”   Gabrielle stopped at a short crest in the rolling landscape, a slightly haunted expression on her face.   “I know exactly where I am,” she said quietly.  Her green eyes stared about her filled with images from her past.   David edged closer to her. “You okay?”   Gabrielle looked back at him, her green eyes wide.  She took a deep breath and sighed.   “I feel like I’m walking around in a deserted house,” she said. “Everything’s been abandoned.” She pointed. “This way.”   She led him through the forest, stopping occasionally to search the trees, as if she expected some ghost to rise up from the ground to confront her.   She paused as something crunched beneath her booted foot.  Gently, they set the body down. David stepped next to her and looked over her shoulder.   She held a badly deteriorating circular frame, strung with sinew and holding what was left of some flat decorated beadwork and wood.   “Reminds me of a Native American dream catcher,” David commented.   Gabrielle looked down at it, gently wiping some of the thicker muck from the surface, and then she reverently hung it back in its place, beneath a thick horizontal branch.   “What’s it mean?” David asked.   “It’s a warning sign,” Gabrielle said grimly. “It says, ‘turn back now’.”   David looked at the sign for a minute and shrugged. “Pretty decorative way to say ‘no trespassing’.”   They picked up the stretcher and continued down a gentle incline toward the sound of running water. The sounds of the birds and other animals seemed to fade away behind them, as if they were fearful of entering this area.   David noted that Gabrielle was becoming more and more apprehensive with every step. They reached a small, noisy stream, and there, they set the stretcher down again and rested. Gabrielle knelt before the water and drank, her eyes never leaving the thick wall of foliage on the opposite bank.   David knelt beside her and also refilled his water skin.   “I don’t know about you,” he said softly. “But I feel eyes boring into the back of my head.”   Gabrielle nodded. “We’re being watched.”   David’s finger surreptitiously unsnapped the tie down on his bowie knife.   “Good guys?’ David asked. “Or bad guys?”   “I don’t know, yet,” Gabrielle whispered. They took up the stretcher again and began following the stream up towards the base of a large cliff. They could see the white foam of a waterfall in the distance and heard its roaring as a gentle thrum from where they were.   David’s mirrored glasses continuously turned from side to side, watching for any potential threat. His mind screamed out “danger!” Still, there was no movement from the surrounding shadows.  “Left side,” Gabrielle said quickly.   David glanced in that direction and caught the subtle shift in the foliage as a branch quivered. He spied a shape slipping past an opening n the leaves. Whatever it was, it was definitely human in shape. Then he saw a similar shift in the shadows to his right.   “Right side, too,” he replied. “What’s the plan?”   “Just stay with me,” Gabrielle said. “We’re almost there.”   “Almost where?” David asked.  They emerged from the forest into a large clearing. All about them were the remains of ancient wooden buildings, most fallen to the ground in heaps of rotting timbers.   In the center was an old fire pit, charred logs could be seen, rotting at the outer edge.  David gazed about in surprise and let a low whistle escape his lips.   “Well, well,” he said as they gently set the stretcher down again.   She stood in the center of the ruins, her gaze alive with vivid remembrance.   David stood beside her, his eyes also scanning the ruins critically. “Looks like no one’s been here for quite some time?”   She said nothing. Her eyes scanned the surrounding ruins intently.   “Gabrielle?” David called quietly after her, and he followed.  “Hey? You doing alright?”   Gabrielle looked back at him and smiled, her expression was one of regret. She shuddered slightly.   “I’ll be alright,” she said.   “I hope so,” David replied. “Because we have at least two stalkers out there and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more of them.”   Gabrielle looked out past her husband and nodded.   Stepping away from the stretcher, Gabrielle raised both of her arms and clasped her hands over her head.   “What are you doing?” David asked.   “Put your hands over your head, like this,” Gabrielle instructed.  “But –“   “Just do it!” Gabrielle insisted.   Without understanding why, David raised his hands and mimicked Gabrielle’s posture.   The two of them backed toward the fire pit, which was as close to the center of the ruins as could be. Their eyes constantly scanned the high branches surrounding the village.  Back when Gabrielle had been here last, the forest had been kept at bay, so no one could approach the place without being seen by the Amazons who stood watch in the towers that lined the perimeter. Those towers were gone, and the forest had reclaimed most of the surrounding land.    Suddenly, the forms of several figures either rose from the tall grasses or dropped from the high branches with amazing grace and agility. All of them were female and all of them were armed.   In a matter of a couple of seconds, the two of them were surrounded.   David saw several archers wielding crossbows all aiming at him, and he squeezed his hands together harder.   “Hold your fire!” Gabrielle called out. “We surrender.”   Several f the women moved up closer and stripped Gabrielle and David of their weapons.   The one standing before David was young and slim, with wide blue eyes and long waves of blondish brown hair. She removed his bow, quiver and knife before patting him down for concealed weapons. As her search came close to the front of his pants, David smiled.   “You don’t know me that well yet,” he said sternly as he took a step back.   He felt the point of an arrow, or some other sharp implement in his side when he moved.   “On second thought,” He continued. “You seem like a nice girl?”  He submitted to the rest of the search.   Gabrielle watched him carefully and watched these young ‘Amazons’ even more closely. There was something in the way they handled David that made her nervous.   One of the women yanked David’s arms down roughly and pulled his knapsack off him almost flinging him to the ground.   “Take it easy,” David growled.   “Which of you is in charge here?” Gabrielle asked suddenly.   At the commanding sound of her voice, all the women froze, looking over at her. Gabrielle let her hands drop back to her sides and looked sidelong at the two young ladies watching her, and the swords in their hands. Poorly maintained swords, she noted.   One of the girls, a slender one with fiery red hair and fierce green eyes stepped up before her.   “I am,” she said with cockiness that Gabrielle actually found amusing.   “And this is how you treat a sister Amazon?” Gabrielle asked angrily.   “Sister?” the young woman replied. Then her cockiness seemed to melt as she gazed into Gabrielle’s eyes. She swallowed suddenly and took a step back.   “What is your name?” Gabrielle asked.   “Taryn,” the girl replied.   Gabrielle looked over at the others who had begun rummaging through David’s large knapsack.   “Leave my property alone!” she barked. Instantly, they all stopped.   “This man is a friend,” Gabrielle said to Taryn. “And he is under my protection. You will not harm him.”   “He is a man, trespassing upon our sacred lands.” Taryn replied as some of her confidence began to resurface. “It is up to Queen Alia, if he lives or dies.”   “Dies?” David asked, his eyebrows rising.   Gabrielle smiled coldly. “Queen Alia?” she asked in a tone that stopped just shy of mocking the person and the title. “We’ll see.”   Taryn looked back at the four women surrounding David.   “Bind him,” she commanded. “And bring his weapons.”   David’s wrists were bound before him, and his bow, quiver, knife, and sword were bundled together and taken away.   “Can I get a receipt for those?” David asked lightly.   The girl taking the weapons looked at him uncertainly as he smiled.   Four other women collected the stretcher and began moving off through the forest.   David shrugged. He looked expectantly at Gabrielle.   Hands shoved him roughly and the party began moving through the forest once more.   David held his bound hands before him, level with his belt.  He slipped his finger underneath the buckle and removed the small knife concealed there, sawing away at his bonds as they moved. Gabrielle looked back at him and saw the subtle movement. She smiled slightly and gave a subtle nod, showing that she understood. At the same time, she also told him, silently, to be patient.   As the party moved through the dense woods, David noted signs of recent occupation. Some of the thicker undergrowth had been cleared away in such a manner as to make it appear that nothing had been done, but still allow for passage. A few feet to either side, and a person wandering alone would have become hopelessly entangled in thick hedges and other clawing growths. He smiled as he felt the slight pop from the thongs about his wrists and quickly slid the blade back into concealment while holding the two cut ends with his little fingers.    They were higher up the ridge now, on a narrow series of switchbacks that led up to a wide flat shelf. Gabrielle could see several buildings resting in that plain, most of them crudely, though recently constructed.   “Yes,” She thought critically. “They are Amazons, or at least trying to be.”   Something in her gut began to knot uncomfortably as she continued up.   “What tribe are you from?” Taryn asked as they walked. Now that the man was bound and a prisoner, she seemed willing to be a bit more personable.   Gabrielle looked at the young woman, but said nothing.   The young woman eyed her darkly and smiled. “Very well,” she said. “You don’t have to speak to me, but you will speak to the queen.”   Gabrielle’s mind worked furiously as she remembered the old laws of the Amazon Nation, preparing for her confrontation with this new queen.   They entered the village, if it could be called that. As they moved down a main path between several buildings, David gave them a quick inspection and sighed inwardly.   “Amateurs,” he thought. “One good wind storm and half these shacks are going over.”   As he looked, it was apparent that several other structures had already collapsed recently. He remembered the fierce thunderstorm several days back, How Gabrielle had been nervous as the inner walls of the light tent rippled in the wind.   “If you like?” he said, leaning closer to the girl on his right. “I could recommend a decent builder to you?” Something sharp jabbed him in the back. He looked back at another dark haired young woman.   “You, on the other hand,” David retorted. “You’re on your own.”   He noticed a concealed smile on the face of the girl that had confiscated his weapons. She covered it up quickly as her big blue eyes flicked in his direction.   He continued to maintain a light attitude towards his captivity. He didn’t bother explaining that it was really a reaction to stress and he was actually quite concerned. He didn’t see any way out of this situation that wouldn’t involve a battle of some kind. And a fight was the last thing he was ready or willing to initiate.   “Hell hath no fury,” he muttered to himself.   The procession moved beyond the shanty’s and through a large clearing dominated by a central fire pit, reminiscent of the abandoned village below.   Opposite that was the opening to a cave. Two women, strong and proud, stood guard at the entrance, each holding a long, wicked looking spear. These women were obviously more important. They were cleaner, healthier, and the weapons they held were well cared for. They were also older than the average.   “Interesting,” David thought. His mind began to formulate theories, as it always did when presented with a puzzle.   They passed into the cave, which was lit by torches. After a good distance, they came out again, into a vast, circular chamber. Torches were spaced at regular intervals in the wall, and the noise of running water echoed musically about them.   David looked up towards the ceiling. It vanished in the deeper shadows.   “Nice place,” he said quietly. Unfortunately, the echo in the chamber amplified his voice and the sound carried to a large flat stage set towards the rear of the room.   “Why thank you,” a silky female voice said from the shadows. A figure emerged next to the large wooden throne on the stage. She was tall, slender, with dark skin and hair. She studied David with dark, almost hypnotic, brown eyes.   David was taken aback at how beautiful she was. The Queen stepped down to the floor and raised the cover that obscured the body on the stretcher. Her eyes went dark for only a moment as she fixed on David. Then, she folded herself into the throne and studied him for a long time.   “Strangers are not welcome in my lands,” she said simply. “Males, especially, are not welcome.” She waved a dismissive hand in David’s direction.   Gabrielle stepped forward. She placed her right fist over her chest and bowed. “Forgive me, but the last time I traveled in these lands, men were welcome in the company of one of us. He is my responsibility, and we have broken no laws in coming here.”   Alia’s gaze went hard. “You don’t consider murder a crime then?” she said. “He is the one who took young Yania’s life, is he not?”   Gabrielle was shocked. There was no way that the Queen should have known that.   Still, didn’t bat an eye. “He is.”   “Then he is subject to the punishments according to our ancient laws.”  Alia stated simply.   She seemed to consider for a moment, and then she looked at David again. “Why do you hide your face behind those?” She gestured to one of his guards. “Remove them.”   The girl that had searched David earlier stepped up before him and looked at the glasses nervously.   “It’s okay,” he whispered. “They’re hooked over my ears. Just pull them forward off my face.”   Gingerly she removed the glasses, revealing his deep, thoughtful brown eyes. “Mind you don’t break them, please?”   Then he looked up at Alia again. “Is My Lady satisfied?” he asked.   At that question, Alia’s eyes darkened dangerously, and David read a shift in the energy of her aura. Her fingers gripped the arms of the throne tightly.   “Satisfied?” she asked, barely containing her temper. “A sister lies at my feet, killed by your hands, and you ask if I am satisfied?”   She seemed on the verge of ordering his immediate execution when Gabrielle spoke up.   “Queen Alia,” she said carefully, glancing over at David. “Even in our darkest periods, we never held the victor responsible for defeating one of us in an honorable fight. Yania was part of the party that raided Tripolis. She attacked my friend, and forced him to defend himself. At the least, his returning of Yania’s body to her sisters should be honored. If I recall, he is the first to do so in our long history?” She stopped suddenly as something suddenly flipped in her belly.   “And that should free him of our justice?” Alia said coldly. “No man may leave here, regardless of his deeds.”   She nodded towards one of the guards who immediately drew a sword.   “What?” David said suddenly. “Not even a chance to defend myself? Not very sporting, Highness.”   “Sporting?” Alia’s smile was one of scorn. “You feel you deserve a warrior’s trial by combat?”   “And you don’t?” David replied. “Keep it short and simple, run me through and that’s it?”   “You don’t approve?” Alia smiled.   “If it involves me getting killed without the opportunity to defend myself?” David countered. “You better believe I don’t approve!” He glanced over at Gabrielle and saw the slightly pained, slightly confused look on her face.   “A peasant?” Alia continued.   “I never said he was a peasant,” Gabrielle said quietly, forcing the slight churn down.   “Noble?” Alia’s eyebrows rose. “Warrior?”   Gabrielle smiled and looked back at him. “Priest.”   Alia laughed out loud. “A priest with a sword, knife and bow? Which deity do you serve? Most priests I know are not permitted to carry weapons of that sort.”   “You wouldn’t know of her,” David replied.   “Her?” Alia’s laugh faded. “You serve a Goddess?”   “The Goddess of the Crossroads,” David said. “I am forbidden to speak her true name outside our temple.”   The idea that this “priest” served a female deity intrigued her. Alia held up a hand to stay her guard.   “Well,” she said thoughtfully. “I am interested in how a priest would fight without offending his Goddess.”   “As a rule,” David said with a sly smile. “I am forbidden from inflicting violence on another. Except in self defense.”   The statement was not entirely true. When David had first arrived in Gabrielle’s time, from his place two thousand years in the future, he had been forced to kill several men that had taken Gabrielle as a prize for the enigmatic warlord Gurkhan. It was a small line that David justified by telling himself he had been defending someone helpless at the time. It was a fine line that he walked along, but it seemed to suffice. A short while later, his magical abilities as a priest had been returned to him with no question of penance for the act.   “Indeed?” Alia rose from her throne and walked over to David, standing before him and looking into his eyes. Suddenly, her open hand slammed across David’s cheek with a loud whack.  David’s head rocked to one side. He licked his lip and looked back up into Alia’s eyes. “For Yania,” she hissed.   Gabrielle winced in sympathy at the blow.   “Ouch,” David said neutrally. “That wasn’t very nice.”   “What?” Alia said. “Why didn’t you defend yourself?”   She looked down at his bound hands and smiled. “Oh, I forgot.”   She wound up again and swung for his other cheek. Instantly, David’s hand rose and blocked the second blow easily.   David smiled.   “Happens once, shame on you,” he chided her. “Happens twice? Shame on me.”   The cut leather thong fell to the floor.   Instantly, the guards around him had their weapons drawn and pointed at him.   Gabrielle tensed visibly, but David seemed to remain perfectly calm.   Only Gabrielle could discern the tension in David’s posture, but that was because she had spent as much time with him as she had. To any other onlooker, he seemed completely unconcerned.   “How dare you touch me!” Alia hissed in outrage.   David shrugged. “You started it.”   Gabrielle closed her eyes and sighed. David’s mouth: A one-ingredient recipe for trouble. The churning lurched within her again and she suppressed a gasp in shock.   Alia, taken aback at David’s impudence, stepped a few paces back and glared at him. Then a wicked smile crept across her face.   “Take him out and throw him in the pit,” she ordered. Soft female hands grasped roughly to his arms.   David looked over at Gabrielle, who could only shrug.  David’s expression was one of concern, not for himself, but for Gabrielle. She subtly shook her head.   Gabrielle looked up at the queen, unsure how to proceed. The fact that she already seemed to know much about the incident told her she should choose her next words very carefully. Fortunately, Alia needed no prompting.   “This man has killed one of us,” she said evenly. She looked at Gabrielle intently and a smile just touched the corners of her mouth.   “Since Yania gave you her Right of Caste,” she said. “Then you shall execute the man at noon, two days from now.”   The entire world shrank in on Gabrielle as she stood there. Her eyes went wide in horror.   David was led out into the light of day and over toward the far edge of the flat clearing. There, dug out of the hard earth were four large, square holes, covered with rough bamboo doors.   “What is this?” David asked. “A remake of the Deer Hunter?”   “Shut up,” One of his escorts said.  Another of them lifted the bamboo trap door and David was unceremoniously shoved into the dark hole.  The lid slammed back down above his head.   Two of the guards stepped to the back of the small bamboo cage, each of them picked up a corner of a thick, woven cover.   David looked up through the bamboo bars and cocked his head.   “You know,” he said. “You put that on and it might get a touch stuffy in here?”   The two women pulled the cover over the top of the pit.   David sighed, looking at the dark, cramped quarters.   “What we have here,” he said in a thick southern drawl. “Is a failure to communicate?”   The cage was little more than the dimensions of a short shark cage. Nestled in a square pit not much larger. The earth around him was damp and dank, and the air was permeated with moisture. In the blazing sun, that moist air would get quite uncomfortable.   “Damned sweat lodge,” David muttered. He looked up at the cover above him.   “Hey!” he called. “I don’t suppose there’s any chance of a drink, is there?”   There was no answer.   “Didn’t think so,” David muttered again. “Oh well. I suppose there’s only one thing to do.”   He settled himself down as comfortably as he could, sitting cross-legged in the center of his confinement.  He took several deep breaths and closed his eyes, allowing his mind and body to descend into that blissful universe of meditation. Instantly, he felt the subtle pulling as his mind and spirit lifted from his body and back out into the light of the world above. Ordinarily, he would enter a dream walk. On this occasion, however, he needed information. An astral projection was the perfect way to move about the village undetected. His isolation in the dark pit provided the perfect opportunity.   In a matter of a few minutes, he was back in the cave. He materialized just in time to hear Alia pass judgment.   He could also hear Gabrielle’s thoughts.   “How did she know about the Right of Caste?”   David stared back and forth between the queen and his wife. He could see fine tendrils of energy flowing from the queen’s head, like faint wisps of smoke. One of them writhed back behind her, caressing the figure of another woman, standing in the shadows. Her face was covered by an elaborate mask in the image of a raven. The second one was snaking through the air and gently touching Gabrielle’s forehead. “I’ll be a son of a – “ David began.  Then he floated closer to his wife and concentrated on placing himself and his wife in a protective bubble.   As he watched, the tendril of energy suddenly broke free from Gabrielle and writhed impotently in the air as it was pushed further and further away from her.   The queen blinked in momentary surprise.   “This man is dear to you, I gather?” she asked. She blinked several more times and Gabrielle felt the sudden weight she hadn’t even realized she was feeling, drop away. Her mind sharpened instantly.   “He is a friend,” She answered warily. There was no way she was going to introduce him as her husband.   Alia seemed momentarily lost. Her eyes looked away from Gabrielle, and then back at her, as if trying to see through something.   “Your friend has murdered one of our sisters,” Alia said uncertainly. “One of your sisters! He must pay the price!”   “He is paying for it, my queen,” Gabrielle said desperately. “Every waking moment.”   Alia was unimpressed. She looked at Gabrielle again with renewed anger and a touch of something else. “My judgment remains. In two days, you shall carry out the sentence or share his fate. The choice is yours!”   She rose and departed, followed by the enigmatic warrior in the raven mask.   Gabrielle stood there, completely stunned. The dread roiled in her belly and she suddenly bent double and choked.   “What was that?” she thought to herself. “That’s never happened before?” The retching sensation passed and she got to her feet. Eyes stared at her curiously in the dim chamber. Finally, one of the Amazons stepped forward.   “Your quarters are this way,” She gestured towards the exit.   Her belly still churning slightly, Gabrielle followed the young woman out of the cave and to one of the ramshackle huts on the shelf beyond.   When she stepped inside, she grimaced. The hut was poorly built out of wood and mud, with a thatched roof, if it could be called that, resting precariously across the top.   The interior was furnished with a rough sleeping pallet, several chairs, a small table, and a central fire pit. In spite of the heat, a small fire crackled merrily in there now, driving the moisture from the air.   Gabrielle took the small pot of water from the table and doused the flames. The churning in her belly had subsided, but not vanished. She sat down on the nearest rickety chair and held her head in one hand, while the other rested across her lap. She breathed deeply a she fought to quell the nausea.   “Are you ill?” her escort asked.   Gabrielle waited a few moments and then nodded.   Her escort ducked back out of the shack. She returned a few minutes later with a bowl of some type of stew, a cup, and a jar of wine.   She dutifully poured the wine into the cup and set the food before her.   The smell of the cooked meat reached Gabrielle’s nostrils and she winced as she pushed the bowl away. She sipped at the wine and felt the churning ease a little.   “Thank you,” Gabrielle said gratefully. She looked up at the girl. “What’s your name?”   The woman stood proudly. “Sindis.”   “Thank you, Sindis,” Gabrielle repeated.   “It’s the least I could do,” Sindis replied gratefully. “I should thank you for bringing my sisters killer to us.”   Gabrielle looked back at the young woman and she knew.   “Yania was your blood sister, wasn’t she?” Gabrielle asked.   Sindis nodded. “Thank you for bringing her home. In two days, we will have justice, when you kill the animal that killed Yania.”   Gabrielle shook her head. “That won’t be justice, Sindis. That will be murder. Your sister died in a fair fight. More than fair, because she was able to attack from behind.”   “Then why did she fail?” Sindis asked, not wanting to believe it.   Gabrielle sighed. “Because David is one of the best fighters I’ve ever seen.”   “He defeated her attack and then killed her,” Sindis growled.   “No,” Gabrielle said gently. “He defeated her attack and tried to disarm her. Something went wrong.”   Sindis’s eyes darkened with bitter hatred. “I don’t believe you!” she hissed. “If that priest is as good as you say, then my sister should be alive right now!”   Gabrielle only held out a hand helplessly. “I don’t have an answer for you, Sindis.”   “I’ll have my answer when you kill him!” Sindis hissed.   She turned and stormed out of the shack.    Gabrielle thought about going after her, but she simply didn’t have the strength.   “Great,” she muttered. “Just great.”   “You’re room is a lot better than mine,” a voice echoed in her mind. “What are you bitching about?”   Gabrielle turned and saw the shimmering form of David materialize before her. He was dressed in the same way as when she had first seen him, long dark coat, blue jeans, boots, and gloves. A cigar was clenched between his teeth. That had been the one thing he missed from his time, his precious cigars.  His eyebrows bounced a couple of times as he took a long drag on the tobacco and then drew it away from his mouth, gazing at it thoughtfully.   “I need to find some wild tobacco, and soon,” his voice continued in her mind. “I really miss these.”   “David?” Gabrielle whispered in shock. “What?”   “Don’t speak out loud,” David said, holding up a hand. “Just think your words and we can talk as long as we need to. I don’t want to tip my hand to Alia before it’s time.”   “What are you talking about?” Gabrielle thought, trying furiously to keep her mind focused. “And what in Tartarus are you – how are doing this?”   “Astral Projection,” David replied easily. “A particular specialty of mine. I used to use it to freak out my friends, back in High School. Never thought it would come in handy like this, though?”   She frowned and before she could frame her thoughts into the question, David answered her.   “My quarters are a bit smaller and less hospitable. I feel like a reject from Cool Hand Luke.”   “Cool what?”   David shrugged. “Another reference to my time. Don’t worry about it. In this way, I can conserve my energy physically and still poke my nose about, undetected, see?”   Gabrielle nodded.   “It’s a good thing I did, too. It would appear that our friend Alia is a powerful telepath with empathic abilities. If I hadn’t put you in the same bubble as me when I did, she might have learned everything.”   Gabrielle remembered the heavy sensation, and how it so abruptly ceased.   “You did that?” she asked.   David nodded. He crouched down before her, so real and yet not real. She could even smell the pungent tobacco. She gazed at him in wonder.   “You’re full of surprises, aren’t you?” she asked appreciatively.   David shrugged. “It all comes down to energy. Physical, spiritual, magical, static, hell, it’s the same song, just a slightly different dance.” He grinned broadly. “If I know our little queen, she’ll leave me in my cell for the duration, hoping to bake me to a weakened state, and then try and dispose of me. Boy is she in for a shocker.”   “What do you know about her,” Gabrielle fumbled for the correct word. “Her kind?”   “Kind?” David repeated as if tasting the word for the second time in as many days. He nodded. “Yeah, her kind is a good description for this one.” He thought for a moment. “All I can tell you so far is that she is not the one really in charge here. She’s a puppet, leaching her strength and knowledge from someone else. I caught a glimpse of the real boss when I got back to you. Tall woman in dark armor, wearing a bird’s head mask. I think she’s the real power in this place. I could see the tendrils of energy extending from Alia in a couple directions. One of them was probing your mind. The other was fixed on Tall, Dark, and Feathery in the background.”   “That’s why you got yourself thrown in the pit,” Gabrielle realized. “You needed to be isolated in order to do this!”   David nodded. “Of course, I wasn’t hoping to get thrown into a four by four cell in the ground, but?” he shrugged. “I think, with the appropriate amount of pressure, I could mess with Alia’s world enough to bring the real leader out into the open.”   Gabrielle smiled compassionately. “You’re doing it again, you know?”   David’s looked at her. “Doing what?”   Gabrielle sighed. “Throwing yourself in between me and danger.”   David shrugged again. “What are you talking about? I’m the one scheduled to be executed in just over a day – and by my own wife, too!”   His gaze softened and he smiled, suddenly concerned. “You doing okay? You don’t look so hot.”  She waved a hand dismissively as she let her other one reach up and rub her temple. “I’m fine. I think.” She looked up at him and smiled. “Do what you need to do.”   “You’re sure?” David asked, and she could feel his hand resting gently on her knee as he knelt before her.   “I’m sure.”  David rubbed his hands together but there was no mirth in the action. “Well, time for the Twilight Zone to start. I just thought I’d pop in and let you know that I’m doing okay. I’ll check back with you later, after I’m done snooping about. Just relax for now.”   “David,” Gabrielle said nervously. “Please, be careful.”   David stood up, set the cigar in his teeth, smiled and waved as he faded from sight.     Prelude to Madness   Alia paced about her lavish chamber in frustration.   “I don’t understand it!” she said angrily. “I almost had everything I needed and then, nothing! I've never had that happen before!”  Off to one side, another figure, tall and proud, dressed in traditional warrior's armor, stood watching the Queen as she paced. Her face was hidden behind a mask in the shape of a raven’s head, covered in rich ornate feathers, all of them a deep blue or black.   “I still don’t know who she is!” Alia continued angrily. “Or who that priest is! There is something about him, though?”   “She is Gabrielle, Queen of the Amazons” The mysterious warrior said in a husky, slightly accented voice. “I know her.”   “She is Gabrielle?” Alia repeated in awe. “You said she was dead! You promised me that she would never return! How can you be so sure?”   A soft, menacing laugh echoed behind the mask. “Because, my dear Alia. Unlike you, I was at the beach of Helicon. And I remember her.” The last was spoken in more of a growl than any real human voice.   “So, what do we do now?” Alia asked. She paused and sniffed. “Do you smell something?”   The masked warrior’s head moved from one side to the other, then back.   “What are you talking about?” she asked. “Keep your wits, girl! We can still continue as planned. All we need do is prove that she is the one who abandoned our sisters at Helicon, and the tribe will tear her apart! It is this man and his actions that I am curious about.”   Alia was obviously distracted by whatever had intruded on her senses. She looked around the room nervously.   “Her companion?” she asked nervously. “What of him?”   “What did you learn?” The masked one asked.   Alia looked back at the masked one, her eyes wide. “Nothing!”   “Nothing?” The masked one repeated, obviously displeased. “How is that possible?”   Alia was at a loss. “I could see him before me, see the light of his soul, but there was nothing for me to read! It was as if he were nothing more than a dark hole where his thoughts should have been.”   The voice behind the mask was suddenly dubious. “You said that no man could hide his thoughts from you?” it asked. “That a man’s every experience was yours for the taking. Was that not the truth?”   “It is the truth!” Alia replied defensively. “I have never encountered a man like him! He must be a powerful priest if he can keep me at bay!” The masked warrior chuckled again. “I say we let this priest roast and then give him the trial he desires.”   “Trial by combat?” Alia replied. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”   “If he refuses to take a life,” The masked one continued. “And forcing Gabrielle to face him? That will also tell us just how important he really is to her. If he defends himself against her and she falls, then the tribe will be incensed, and if he doesn’t and Gabrielle kills him, her will would be broken. Either way, we win.”   Alia was about to ask another question, but she paused, sniffing in annoyance. “Can’t you smell that?” she asked. “It’s like leaves burning?”   The masked one shook her head. “Rest now. I want to get a closer look at our guests.”   The masked warrior turned and strode out of the chamber.   Alia lay down on a bed of pillows and closed her eyes. Suddenly, they opened again and she smelled that same pungent odor. She sat up, suddenly sensing the presence of another person in her chamber.   “Who’s there?” she called out timidly. The only reply was the subtle crackling of the torches burning in the sconces on the wall.  Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the flutter of fabric as one of the curtains moved. She was on her feet in an instant, her heart hammering in her chest. Quickly, she snatched up a dagger, lying next to her bed, and stalked to the spot. She pulled the curtain away, her weapon raised to strike, and only beheld bare stone behind it.   She let a shaky breath escape her body in one long, slow exhalation and turned back to her bed. That was when she saw the shadow slip quickly past the opening behind another curtain and vanish into the passage leading back to the throne room.   “Hey!” she cried out angrily. She gave chase, exploding into the throne room, weapon in hand and a wild look in her eyes.   The two guards at the entrance to her private chambers looked at one another uneasily.   “My Queen?” one of them asked.   Alia turned back to them.   “Did you see anyone else come out of here?” she asked nervously.   “Only your advisor, my Queen,” The guard answered nervously.   Alia let the knife drop to her side and sighed.   “Are you alright?” the second guard asked.   Alia nodded and smiled. “Just a bad dream.”  She retired back to her chamber, her heart still thudding between her ears and that nervous feeling writhing in her belly.   David’s projection slid quickly back into his physical body and his eyes blinked. He smiled and shifted about a bit, trying to look like he was slumped over with exhaustion. No sooner did he get into place, when the corner of the tarp was raised and a familiar masked face peered in at him.   He looked up wearily as cool night air flowed into the stuffy chamber.   “Can I get some water, please?” he asked meekly.   There was a soft chuckle behind that mask and the tarp fell back into place. David held his feeble gaze for a moment and then his expression melted into that ever-infamous mischievous grin that often filled his wife with fear.   “I guess not,” he muttered. Then he resettled himself as best he could and closed his eyes. The momentary breeze of fresh air helped him a bit as he sank, again into that blissful sensation.   Alia lay asleep in her bed, her face an expression of silent peace.   Her nose wrinkled as an odor began to permeate the room again. She rolled over and then her eyes snapped open and locked with the male prisoners’ dark gaze as he lay next to her on the pillows.   “Hi!” David said cheerily.  Alia squealed in fright and practically leapt to her feet. As the blankets fluttered back down onto the empty bed. Alia’s heart was thudding like a trip hammer. The dagger in her hand shook violently. As she stretched out her mind, she could sense nothing.   Then the two guards were at her side, weapons at the ready.   “Are you alright, My Queen?” one of them asked urgently.   Alia looked about the room, her nose still tingling with the scent of that burning leaf. She knew that the presence was still in her chamber, though she couldn’t locate it.   “Do you smell that?” she asked the guards. They looked at her, confusion on their faces.   “Smell what, My Queen?” the guard asked.   “You’re saying you cannot smell that?” Alia asked in a rising voice.   “I smell nothing, My Queen,” The guard answered.   Alia was seething with frustration. “Get out!” she hissed. “Now!”   As the two guards withdrew, Alia could see David leaning casually against the wall, waggling is hands after the guards as if pushing them to leave, and then he looked up at her, took a long puff from the smoldering roll in his teeth, grinned and waved. His eyebrows bounced on his forehead a few times and he faded away.   “Babe,” his voice echoed in her mind. “You messed with the wrong priest.”   David strolled causally throughout the compound, smoking contentedly as he explored the entire cave system. As he moved about, he noted that several of the women stationed within the complex detected the odor of his ethereal cigar, while others were blissfully ignorant.   “Got a few special women here,” he muttered. “Interesting.”   He worked his way out of the caves and through the village. When he found the holding cages his levity vanished in a moment.   He stood on a natural balcony with arches of weathered stone before him. Below, in a roughly circular chamber were dozens of long tables in a flat area. All about the edge of that chamber were dozens of smaller caves. It was not the natural stone formations that sent his humor plummeting. It was the children below, milling about like insects. Some of the older ones were off to one side, training with various weapons, while younger ones looked on or listened to lessons given by adult Amazon women.   All of the children were female. Not one boy could be seen in the throng of people below him.   “We’re in a God damned terrorist training camp,” David said in shock. His eyes roved about the large room. The ages ranged from as little as three or four years old, all the way up to late teens, with the elder girls training like possessed animals on various weapons. There had to be several hundred young women and children in that natural dormitory.   Quickly David turned and escaped from the place, his spirit floating through the complex as he sought more information. Then he felt a cool wind on his face.   “Nuts,” he said and he shot himself back into his body as quickly as he could manage.   When he sat up with a start and blinked. Looking up he saw the corner of the tarp removed and a longhaired silhouette of a head looking down at him.   “Hi,” David said thickly, still adjusting to the heaviness of his own limbs. He recognized her as the one who had jumped him back in the ruins, and had also removed his sunglasses in the main chamber.   The head shrank back in fright, but did not vanish.   David looked up, blinking in the moonlight. “Something on your mind?” he asked.   She hesitated for a while, her big blue eyes staring down at him in a mixture of wonder and curiosity.   David stared back her for a while and then a smile began to appear on his face. “As long as you’re up there,” he said casually. “Any chance of some water?”   “Are you really a man?” the young woman asked innocently.   David chuckled. “Last time I looked. You’ve never seen a man before?”   She shook her head.   “But you’ve been out of the village, patrolling the forest around here. Are you saying that there are no men in this entire area?”   She shrugged. “It was my first time outside the village,” she confessed.   “A village of women with no men around?” David smiled. “Hugh Hefner, eat your heart out.”   The young lady frowned.   David smiled. “Forget it. Is there any chance I could get some water, please?”   “I’m not even supposed to be looking at you,” the girl replied.   David smiled. “Well, you’ve already broken one rule. What’s wrong with breaking another one?”   She seemed hesitant to push her luck any further.   “Come on, kid,” David asked. “I’ve been cooped up in this rat trap all day. I haven’t given anyone any trouble. All I want is a glass of water. Is that really so bad?”   She looked about quickly and then dropped the corner of the tarp back down again.   David silently cursed his ill fortune.   A few minutes passed, and then the Tarp was lifted again and the girl thrust a small cup down to him.   David accepted the offering gratefully. “You little rebel you,” he said with a smile.   The girl looked at him for another moment.   “What are you called?” she asked.   David smiled and introduced himself. “And you?” he finished.   She seemed hesitant to reply and then she shrugged. “Ariadne.”   Ariadne,” David repeated. “Very nice to meet you, Mistress Ariadne.”   She grinned at his formal manners. Then her eyes darted up and away.   “Someone’s coming,” she said quickly. “I have to go now. I’ll come back again later, okay?” The tarp fell back into place, sending him back into darkness.   David shrugged. “Sure. I’ll be here, I suppose.”   He settled back down and closed his eyes, drifting back into his meditations.   He emerged from the pit in the bright light of the moon, watching as his mysterious new “friend” moved quickly and quietly from behind one fallen shack to another, out of sight of the two approaching guards.   “Well,” David mused as the one guard passed right through him. “I suppose I should be conscious for this.”   His eyes fluttered open as the tarp was pulled off and rough hands reached down, yanking him from his confinement. Even with the benefit of his meditations, his limbs were stiff and tingled incessantly. He found it difficult to walk, which only aided in his performance.  The two women escorting him half dragged, half aided him in walking as they brought him toward the main cave entrance.   Gradually, David began feeling the blood flowing through his limbs again, as they slowly came back to life.   He still made the two guards work for it, partially to keep up the appearance, and partly out of a twisted sense of spite.   They dragged him past the main audience hall and into the private chamber of the Queen. By then, David was able to stand on his own, though he still maintained a wobbly stance. He wanted to appear weak in the presence of the Queen and her guards.   Alia was standing next to a comfortable chair, her demeanor one of soft sensuality.   “You are most impressive, priest,” she cooed. “I have never met one with the ability to project his will as you do. Nor has any man ever been able keep my abilities at bay. I’m impressed.”   David recognized the setup immediately. Inwardly, he smiled. The energy pulsing around her left little to her intentions.   “Forgive me, Highness,” David said cautiously. “But I already know what you’re planning to do, and I must warn you. You are playing a dangerous game if you intend to try and read my mind.”   “Even now, you perceive my power,” Alia smiled, nodding. “Very impressive.”   She stepped toward him, that cold smile frozen on her face. Her eyes glinted hungrily.   “You do have a thirst for knowledge, My Lady,” David said. There was a hint of regret in his voice.   “Knowledge?” Alia smiled darkly. “Oh, not just knowledge, my dear.  But experience and skill as well. I read and absorb all of the experiences, not just the thoughts and the memories. It is as if I lived them myself. I gain the strength and abilities of those I read.”   David recognized that lust in her eyes and smiled again regretfully.   “Then I must tell you, in all seriousness,” David was almost pleading. “You do not want to enter my mind, especially in this way. The knowledge and experiences I possess will drive you mad.”   As expected, his warnings were futile.   She reached out a hand to touch his cheek, and he could perceive the aura around her, flaring like a sunburst as it built for the exchange.   “It’s all energy,” he thought, and he closed his eyes expectantly, clearing his mind. “Here we go again.”   Alia touched his face and felt a sudden jolt as she slipped into his thoughts.   The world went dark around her. Then, gradually, a light began to form, somewhere high above her, revealing a vast, barren landscape. The flat ground was riddled with endless cracks, like a jagged spider web laid flat and stretching out to infinity.   Dark clouds roiled and churned high overhead, and the entire scene seemed filled with barely restrained power. She felt it like a pressure within her own ears.   “I’m sorry,” his voice echoed around her. “I did try to warn you.”   “What is this?” Alia asked, looking about at the desolation. “How did you do this?”   “I am like you in many ways,” David replied.   He appeared behind her.   “I can read the thoughts of others, see the energy of their souls as it surrounds them. “He smiled. “At least, those are your words for it. I cannot absorb and experience those memories like you, but I do have the benefit of rather advanced training in this science.”   “Science?” Alia asked. “What do you mean, science?”   “Sorry,” David said, suddenly appearing off to another side. “Perhaps I should have said practice?”   “Stop that,” Alia commanded. So far, she was getting absolutely nothing out of this exchange, and that displeased her. In fact, she was used to having control over the minds she explored. This complete lack of control made her more than a little nervous. At the same time, the possibility of absorbing this skill was too tantalizing to resist. She knew she could break contact at any moment. That knowledge calmed her uneasiness a bit. She looked at David with challenge in her eyes.   David read the intent and tried one last time to convince the ambitious queen of her folly.   “Mistress,” he said as formally as he could. He stood now, dressed in a long black robe, edged in crimson. “Let me explain life to you, once. Have you ever heard of the Shamaness, Alti?”   “Indeed,” Alia replied eagerly. “She was one of the most powerful of us.”   David nodded. Then he smiled a cold hungry smile. “And now, she rots in a prison, in my world after I effectively blasted her mind and stripped her of her powers. If you do what she tried to do, I cannot guarantee you will emerge with your sanity intact.”   “You underestimate me,” she smiled.   “I think the reverse is true, actually,” David replied.   “I must learn this skill,” Alia said, gazing about the desolation. “I must have this skill!”   “And you can, over time, the correct way.” David was almost pleading now. “Not like this.”   “You will give me this knowledge,” Alia hissed as the pressure about them began to build.   David smiled.   “Get out.”   Alia’s hand snapped back as if she had received a jolt from the man before her. David stood still, composed. He smiled mournfully and shook his head when he saw the glare in Alia’s eyes.   “You really don’t want to do this,” he said sternly.   In an instant, she fastened upon him, both hands framing his face as she forced her way back into that strange limbo.   This time, the clouds above boiled and flashed with lightning as she faced David, her eyes glowing hungrily.   “You little Vampire,” David said angrily. “I tried to be nice and you still want to come in here and try and mind rape me like this?” His eyes were dark with anger at this second, more brutal violation. “Fine. You want what I have? You got it! And this time, you don’t leave until you’ve taken all I wish to give you!”   The desolate landscape exploded into a massive, grotesque barrage of sounds and images, most of them so completely unbelievable that they refused to register in any normal way within her bombarded mind.   Images from reality, David’s future world history and a modest sampling of the more violent and fantastic pieces of various genres of entertainment that he enjoyed all flooded into Alia’s mind with the reality of breathing.   If it had been traumatic in history, she saw it, if it was gory in the movies, she felt it as a complete reality.  Her mind was on fire with the images of war more horrible than anything she had ever experienced before, images of fire, death, destruction, mutilation and horror. It was a macabre collage of hell in a modern incomprehensible world, culminating in the horrific image of a massive mushrooming fireball extending to the heavens. The wall of death at its base spread for miles and miles, vaporizing buildings, foliage, and people.   Her mind, struggling to make sense of it all, began to incorporate images she could understand. Images of her homeland bathed in fire, people she had known, melting before her eyes, or demons from her childhood coming to life in monstrous detail. She tried desperately to break the contact, but her own body wouldn’t obey. She was trapped in the mind of this man with his nightmare images, all that he had beheld and survived. It made no sense and yet there it was.  She cried out in agony.   “Welcome to my version of Tartarus!” David’s voice boomed like thunder. “A place I know as Hell!”   Something wrenched the struggling queen free of her grip on David’s face. Her nails scraped against his flesh, drawing blood in several places. She sprawled on the bed, shaking like a leaf.   David blinked quickly as the contact was broken. His vision focused on the emotionless visage of the woman in the Raven mask. He glanced down at the Queen.   “I did warn her,” he began. His voice faded as he saw the figure of the masked woman trembling with rage. Her backhand struck just below his jaw and he felt the world tilt as he went flying. He landed in a painful heap.   “Kill him!” the masked one hissed in rage.   “You kill me,” David gasped. “And you’ll never get your puppet back!”   The masked figure turned back to the queen and knelt beside her. As the other two guards halted. When she turned Alia’s eyes to face her, the image of the mask seemed to terrify her in a way that it never had before. She screamed in horror.   “My lady,” The masked woman pleaded. “It’s me.”    Alia cowered in a corner, her eyes wide, seeing and yet not seeing.  Slowly, she rocked back and forth and began muttering with manic intensity.   “And then there came a tapping, as someone gently rapping, rapping on my chamber door…” she giggled.   The masked woman turned back to face him. “What have you done?” she demanded.   David staggered back to his feet and looked down at Alia critically. “It sounds like I just introduced her to Edgar Allen Poe.”   The masked one stood there, still shaking with barely contained fury. “You will undo this, now!”   “What?” David countered in a cocky tone. “So you can kill me straight away? I don’t think so! You want her back? You deal with me!”   In the corner, Alia looked up at David and smiled again. Her voice changed in pitch and accent suddenly.   “…Two days ago, I saw a rig big enough to haul that tanker. You want to get out of here? You talk to me…”   Then she grasped the masked woman’s leg in terror. Again, her voice and tambour changed maniacally.   “They bore him barefac’d on the bier; Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny; And in his grave rain’d many a tear – Fare you well, my dove!”   David couldn’t contain his amusement at that. “Well,” he said, rubbing his jaw. “I guess I should have expected that.”   The masked one stared down at her and then back at David.   “What was that nonsense?” she asked.   “That,” David’s smile grew in spite of himself. “Is Ophelia. A character in a play I read.” His smile melted as he saw that the masked woman and the two guards did not share in his amusement.   “Shakespeare?” he shrugged. “Well, you’re descendants will love it.”   Instantly, the masked woman had him by the throat and drove him back against the wall.   “You will undo this, now!” She hissed. “Or I will tear your little Gabrielle to pieces!”     The Price of Justice   David’s eyes were wide in a mixture of surprise and terror. How did this masked woman know Gabrielle’s true name? His toes barely touched the stone floor as she pressed her hand against his larynx. She released her hold and David fell to his knees. Before he had even taken a much needed breath, the woman’s foot slammed into his ribs with bone crushing force. What little air that remained in his lungs blasted out of him in a fiery rush of pain.   David rolled over, trying to get back on his feet, but the masked warrior’s foot caught him in the jaw and he flipped over with a grunt and tasted the coppery flavor of blood in his mouth.   The masked warrior stood over him, one foot coming down with dangerous pressure on his throat.   “I know who she is,” the voice said from behind the mask. “And I can be certain that you are more than just a porter for her luggage! I’ve heard a few stories about a man traveling with an Amazon Queen and living in the village of Poditea!”   Her foot pressed down harder and David saw white spots flashing before his eyes.   Suddenly, the pressure eased and blessed oxygen filled his lungs. He hacked hoarsely and rolled over, spitting some of the blood from his mouth.   David looked up at the woman still in shock. He staggered to his feet only to have them swept out from beneath him as the two guards contributed to his beating. Once the pounding ceased, He got to his knees and looked up at the masked warrior.   “I made a mistake,” he said quietly.   The masked warrior stepped before him and knelt, looking him in the eye.   “Oh?”   David nodded and smiled defiantly. “Yeah. I should have mind fucked you instead of the Queen.”   There was a soft laugh behind the mask as she rose back up. She turned and stepped a pace from him, then wheeled on him again. David saw her foot coming for his face, felt the impact and knew no more.   He woke up, folded uncomfortably where he had been dumped, back in his tiny hole in the ground. Groaning from the pain, he pulled himself back upright and leaned against the rough bamboo, his hand resting on the side of his head. He was dimly aware of the pale light in his prison. Looking up, he saw a familiar shadow peering down at him.   “David?” the voice asked timidly.   “Yeah,” David grunted. “Who’s that?”   “It’s me,” the girl replied. “Ariadne, remember?”   “Oh,” David nodded. “Hi, Rad. What's new?”   “I was wondering if you were going to wake up at all?” Ariadne said. Then she cocked her head to one side. “They beat you up pretty good, huh?”   “Yeah,” David nodded. “You could say that. I kind of pushed them into it a little, though.”   “How?”   David smiled. “A classic example of ‘open mouth, insert foot.’”   It took a few moments for the reference to register, and then she giggled quietly. “That’s funny.”     “It wasn’t at the time,” David replied, closing his eyes and letting the soreness in his limbs cool a bit. Then his eyes opened and fixed on the young girl intently. She started at that.   “Forgive me for asking, but why are you being so nice to me?” he asked. “And how is it that you seem to be able to get past the guards that are supposed to be watching me at all times?”   She said nothing for a long moment, and David knew that she was a plant.   “You were supposed to play nice and get me to speak to you about why I’m here, and what’s going on, weren’t you?” He smiled knowingly. “They were hoping I would reach out to that one kind face out of all the crap, and give up something vital, like who and what I am. How am I doing?”   Ariadne looked at him for a long moment, and then her expression changed to one of genuine shame. She nodded.   “Having a little trouble with your orders, are you?” David asked, his eyes reading the shimmer of her aura. He sighed and crossed his harms over his chest. “You aren’t a bad kid, Rad.” He consoled her. “The fact that you’re feeling like you do, confirms it.”   He let himself slide down to the ground and flexed his legs as he found a comfortable position.   Ariadne stared down at him for a long time with sad blue eyes.   “What’s on your mind, kiddo?” David asked, looking back up at her.   “Was Gabrielle as bad as everyone says?” Ariadne asked suddenly. “Did she really run away at Helicon?”   David smiled. “Got the brief on who my friend is, did you?”   Ariadne nodded.   “Well,” David sighed. “I wasn’t there, so I can’t say. But I can tell you about what I do know. Gabrielle is the kind of person that will do anything to help a friend, even if it could cost her own life. I’ve seen her do it, much to my considerable annoyance.” His tone changed to one of frustration slightly as he remembered waking up and discovering that she had run off to try and kill the enigmatic Gurkhan, leaving him behind. “Knowing what I know, I can’t see her doing anything like that, ever.”   “You really care about her, don’t you?” Ariadne asked.   David nodded. “Very much.”   Ariadne’s face took on a look of girlish curiosity.   “Are you in love with her?” she asked.   “You are fishing, aren’t you?” David grinned up at her.   “Well,” Ariadne said, suddenly taken aback. “Yeah, but not for the queen. I just want to know.”   “Tell you what,” David offered. “How about we do a little information exchange. You give me something, and I’ll give you something. What do you say?”   Ariadne’s eyes flicked up from the pit, and David recognized the subtle response of making eye contact, then she looked back down again.   “Okay,” she said eagerly.   “Fine,” David grinned. “You first. Who’s up there with you, pulling your strings?”   Ariadne stared at him in shock for a moment, and then looked up as another figure came into view, covered in dark Amazon armor and the familiar raven mask.   David laughed softly. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”   The masked warrior looked down at him and then dismissed the young Amazon woman. “You are quite shrewd for a man,” she said darkly. “I underestimated you.”   “So did my High School guidance councilor,” David shot back. “So what’s the game plan, baby? Leave me in here to rot and torture Gabrielle to death, or execute me first?”   “Oh, you’ll see,” the masked warrior replied evenly. “You mentioned something about a trial. You’ll get one.”   “Just tell me one thing?” David asked quickly. “Out of curiosity, why pin the hatred on Gabrielle anyway? If you knew her, as you say you did, you know she never would have betrayed you. Why do it?”   “Because she did betray us!” The masked warrior replied with barely restrained hatred. “Besides, the last we heard of her, she had gone in search of the Stygian Witches. No one ever returns from an audience with them.”   David mused for a moment and then looked back up at the masked face. “Trial, huh? Who’s the judge going to be? You?”   “In the absence of the queen,” The masked one replied. “I will have that honor.”   “And you’ll be completely impartial in all matters, I’m sure,” David retorted sarcastically.   The masked woman stared at him for a few moments and then turned and vanished as the tarp was dropped back in place.   David heard the footsteps stalk off, vanishing in the distance. He settled himself down and got ready to sink onto his meditation again. He knew he wouldn’t be able to visit with Gabrielle as he had planned. The beating in the queen’s chamber had taken too much out of him.   As he closed his eyes, he heard soft footsteps creeping back toward his cage. He took a deep breath and waited. The corner of the tarp rose, and Ariadne peered cautiously inside.   “David?” she asked in a whisper. If she had been playing at being afraid before, she was really terrified now.   “Hey, Rad,” David replied. “What are you doing?”   “I heard everything that the Queen’s advisor said,” she whispered quickly. “Did she really mean all those things about Gabrielle?”   “Every word,” David replied.   “And the bit about the Stygian Witches?’ Ariadne whispered in awe. “Did she actually see them?”   “That was how she ended up finding me,” David said evenly.   Ariadne seemed reluctant to speak for a moment. Then she asked quickly.   “Did you kill Yania?”   David sighed in resignation.  He nodded his head slowly.   “Yeah,” he said sadly. “Yeah, I did.”   Instantly, he saw the anger assert itself in her young face/    “Hold on, there,” David said cautiously. “I didn’t try to kill her. I just – something went horribly wrong and she died.”   “What do you mean?” Ariadne asked, her voice thick with betrayal. “What went wrong?”   “I don’t know,” David replied. “I’ve been playing it over in my mind, I don’t know how many times. I don’t know what went wrong. I just know that it did.”   A growl escaped Ariadne’s lips.   “Hey, now,” David’s voice dropped a notch. “You think I’m happy about it? Your sister’s face is going to haunt me for the rest of my life, no matter how long it is.”   Ariadne seethed for a few moments, her eyes boring into David’s with feral intensity.   “Did she die well?” she asked.   David looked sober. “She fought and fell with honor.”   That answer obviously didn’t please the young woman.   “Look at me,” David said evenly. “Your sister, Yania, was one of the fastest, best trained opponents I have ever faced. The fact that she was able - ” His voice faded to silence as a grim realization struck him. “Wait a second.”   Ariadne’s anger vanished in surprise. “What?”   “Tell me something?” David asked. “In your combat training, do you learn how to focus the mind beyond physical injury? To fight without feeling the wounds you could receive?”   Ariadne nodded. “Yes. It’s part of our most basic training.”   David smiled grimly. “That’s it then. Yania didn’t drop the knife because she was trained to ignore the pressure points that I exploited!” He looked up at Ariadne sincerely. “Mistress Ariadne,” he said formally. “No greater compliment can be given than to receive praise from an enemy. I tell you that Yania was one of the best of you, and her skill was as much a tribute to your people as it was a contributing factor to her fall. I did not understand, until this moment, just how close to dying I actually came when we met. She was a great warrior, and she brought honor to your tribe in battle.”   Ariadne let a soft sigh escape her lips at those words. She looked into his eyes. “You truly mean that?”   David nodded.     “So,” the young woman said darkly as she and two other guards entered her quarters. “You’re Gabrielle?”   Gabrielle looked up from her prone position on the wooden pallet that served as her bed.   She rolled up to a seated position and looked at the trio soberly.   “Yes,” She answered, already knowing what was about to come. “I am.”   The first girl fixed her with dark eyes. “The Amazon Queen who survived Helicon?”   Gabrielle rose to her feet. If another beating were coming, then she wouldn’t meekly submit to it.   “I wasn’t the Queen when the battle started,” she said slowly. “Not until after Varia tried to kill me.”   The first girl smiled sarcastically and nodded, then her fist slammed into Gabrielle’s gut.   Gabrielle bent double from the blow, her breath forced from her lungs.   She stayed down for a moment.   “I wouldn’t recommend you do that again,” she warned the trio.   The first one sneered and looked back at her two companions. They also stepped forward, raising their fists.   Gabrielle looked up and caught the first girls’ fist in the side of her face. She dropped to her knees from that second blow.   Gabrielle looked up again and locked eyes on the first one. She was young, about her age when she originally hooked up with Xena. She was also terribly ill trained.   The other two were about the same age. They oozed confidence that spoke to their inexperience.   “I warned you,” Gabrielle said darkly. Then her right foot shot out and caught the leader in the gut. She flopped backward against the wall. Instantly, Gabrielle was on her feet. She deflected the blow of the second guard before flipping her over easily and spinning in to grapple with the third. The two of them tangled, rocking back and forth before the first one picked herself up and struck Gabrielle at the base of the skull.   She collapsed, stunned, and then the three of them were on her, pummeling her with their fists and feet.   Gabrielle has enough sense to cover her head and ball up as the blows fell. Suddenly the blows ceased.   “What’s going on here?” a slightly muffled voice asked sternly. Gabrielle risked a glance up and saw a tall, proud, fully armored Amazon warrior, her face covered in a mask shaped like a raven’s head.   The leader of the trio stood at attention, swallowing nervously.   “We were, um, we just,” She stammered.   “Yes?” The masked warrior asked. Her voice had a taint of amusement. “You decided to pay a little visit on our guest?”   To that, the ambitious young warrior had no answer.   “Outside,” The masked warrior said sternly. “All of you.”   The three of them quickly exited, leaving Gabrielle alone with the enigmatic, masked woman.   “Thanks,” Gabrielle said appreciatively. Again, she felt the churning in her belly and she clutched at her midsection, trying to calm the pain.   Instantly, the masked woman had her against the wall, the raven’s beak of the mask an inch away from her nose.   “In the morning,” she hissed. “You’ll wish I had let them kill you.”   She practically threw the startled Gabrielle onto her sleeping pallet.   Gabrielle rolled over and looked after the strange woman.   “What did I ever do to make you hate me so much?” she asked.   The mysterious warrior merely let a soft, angry laugh issue from behind that mask.   Then she turned to the three young guards.   “She could have killed you all at any time, you fools!” She barked. Her backhand slapped into the cheek of the leader. She fell to the floor in a heap, her hand covering the large red mark that appeared on her face.   “Stop it!” Gabrielle shouted from within the shack. Her midsection was hurting too much for her to move.   The other two guards looked over at her in surprise. The last thing they had expected was for the woman that they had been beating to voice objection over their treatment.   The masked warrior looked back at Gabrielle and chuckled again.  She gave the fallen young woman a swift kick in the side and then stepped over her as she lay groaning on the mucky ground.   The masked one stopped at the entrance to the cave and looked back at the three of them.   “Pick her up and get back to your rooms.” She barked. “I’ll consider your punishments after I’ve had time to calm down.”   The two guards helped their beaten comrade to her feet and began to lead her away.  As they moved across the clearing, the two guards looked back questioningly at Gabrielle, watching them through the open doorway. She merely smiled grimly and nodded once in understanding.   Once the trio had departed, Gabrielle turned back and curled up on the sleeping pallet.   When she turned back she saw another figure standing in the entrance.   “If you’re looking for a piece as well,” Gabrielle winced. “I wouldn’t recommend it.”   The girl’s eyes widened just a bit, and then she shrugged.   “Nope,” she said. She looked back outside quickly. “I was sent here by your friend, David.”   Gabrielle pulled herself upright, ignoring the pain. “David? Is he all right? What happened to him?”   Ariadne shrugged. “He’s okay, I guess. The Queens Advisor beat him up pretty good, though. He must have really made her mad.”   Gabrielle smiled grimly. “Yeah, he’s real good at that.”  Ariadne looked around nervously. “I just wanted to tell you that he’s okay.”   Gabrielle nodded gratefully and then groaned as she felt the pain in her belly again.   Ariadne hovered at the doorway, looking back nervously. Then she cleared her throat.   “Would you tell me what happened at Helicon?” she asked, “I really want to know.”   Gabrielle looked up at her and straightened up, nodding.   “Come in and sit down.”   The night was long and terrible. David was prevented from getting any rest. Just as he would nod off, he was doused by buckets of water.   After the sixth time, David lost his cool for a moment.   “Enough already!” he bellowed at the top of his lungs. “I’m clean for Pete’s sake!”   His outburst only got him doused again.   The guard above smiled in amusement and ran to refill the buckets. While she was gone, David pulled his shirt off and managed to stretch it across cage, just above his head. Smiling at his handy work, He leaned back underneath the flimsy umbrella and closed his eyes.   The water cascaded down again, and some of it soaked through the cotton shirt, but it was not the instant deluge that was keeping him awake. Instead, the majority of the water simply rolled off against the wall and splashed harmlessly to one side. He smiled and folded his arms, nodding his head to his chest.   “Remove that,” A voice ordered.   “Sure,” David said angrily from below. “Reach in this cage and you’ll be leaving your hand in here with me. Go ahead bitch. Give it a shot!”   The two women looked down at the dirty cloth stretched over the middle of the cage below.  They exchanged nervous looks.  Tentatively, one of them knelt down and stretched her hand towards the fabric.   Instantly, David’s hand snaked up from the edge.   It was not the motion that caused them to squeal in horror. It was the dark brown human eye that seemed to stare at them from between the three fingers on that hand.  As they moved, it followed them. Now the idea of reaching into the cage was even less appealing.   The fingers gingerly set the eye down in the corner of the fabric, still seeming to stare at them from the prison.   “Just remember,” David’s voice sounded from beneath the cloth. “I’ve got my eye on you! Now leave me alone, or I’ll show you what other parts of me I can detach!”   The two young girls ran away in horror.   Beneath his makeshift lean to – David smiled smugly and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.   The raven masked woman strode into the Queen’s private chamber, bracing herself for the next wave of madness that might be enveloping her puppet at the moment. She was mildly surprised to see her seated comfortably at a small table, her finger tracing the pattern on the wood.   “It’s good to see you better, my Queen,” The masked woman said. “You had us all concerned for a while?”   Alia looked up with a strange smile on her face that seemed to belong to someone else.   “Thanks,” was all she said.   The masked figure paused, stiffening a bit. “You are feeling better, aren’t you?”   “Much better,” Alia rose walking with a swagger that was completely uncharacteristic for her. “I just have to work through a few more of these details.” Her voice drifted off, sounding a bit haunted. Then her eyes turned back to the masked warrior and she could perceive the madness still deep within her eyes.   Alia let a quick laugh escape her lips before she brought the emotion back under control.   “I was just sifting through all these images,” she said. “So many things I simply don’t understand?” She paced slowly, her fingers twisting before her as if she were organizing her thoughts.   “It’s nearly time, My Queen,” The masked woman said evenly.   “Time?” Alia replied. Then dawning exploded onto her face. “Yes, right. Okay, get the pilots in here for the briefing. They need to know what they’re going up against. Are the ground crews preparing the ships for takeoff?”   “I’m sorry, My Queen?” The masked woman stammered. “Pilots? What are pilots?”   Alia’s gaze darkened with some remembered horror that did not belong to her.   “Death from above,” She murmured. “Every time we tried to advance, the damn Germans would send fighters to strafe our formation! There we were, stuck on that damned mountain road, all because of a stupid cart and a couple of mules.” She paused and looked at the masked warrior. “Then Patton shot the mules and had the GIs get the cart out of the way. We still took fire from the planes, but at least we were moving again. We had to get up to the front. The Italians and Germans were falling back. We had to keep the pressure on!”   The masked warrior only shrugged in complete confusion. There was no doubt that this was another one of her delusions.  She sighed. In this state Alia couldn’t even draw on the emotional strength of her or any others that were in the village. She did not want to reveal herself until all was ready, especially now since Gabrielle was here. Once she and her strange male friend were out of the way, Queen Alia’s state of mind wouldn’t matter much. The masked warrior could easily slide in to replace her with a minimum of interference.   “My Queen,” She said gently. “I mean that it’s almost time for the trial?”   Alia paused, considering those words. Then her eyes brightened with excitement. “Oh, that! Yes! Absolutely! Let’s go!”   The masked warrior stared at the queen, expression unreadable behind the mask. “Are you sure you’ll be able to keep yourself focused?” she asked.   “You betcha!” Alia replied eagerly. “Besides, I need a little distraction.”   David was awakened from his slumber by another deluge of falling water.  He sat upright, coughing and spluttering. Looking up angrily, he saw two different guards standing above him. One of them held a long spear in her hand and was smiling with grim amusement.  David shook the water out of his eyes and rose to his feet, his glass eye safely back in the socket where it belonged.   He had known better than to leave it out all night long. Now, looking at the stony faces above him, he knew he had been prudent in his decision.   “Time for the show?” he asked as the lid was opened and the two guards helped him roughly up out of the cage.   The movement and stretching of his cramped muscles sent pain rifling through his body.  He forced his body upright and walked under his own power.  His hands were bound in leather thongs again, and David smiled in amusement.   “You kids will never learn,” he thought. He surreptitiously began to cut the bonds loose as soon as his hands were covering the buckle of his belt.  By the time they reached the large circle before the entrance of the cave, his bonds were nearly loose.   They stopped there, at the edge of the circle, waiting.   Dozens of the other Amazons came from all directions forming a perimeter around the massive central circle.   David looked over the crowd of young females all watching him expectantly.   Two more guards emerged from the opposite side of the clearing, preceded by a very tired, pale, and very angry looking Gabrielle. The tone of the entire crowd shifted to a darker note.   Gabrielle’s escorts shoved her roughly to stand at David’s side. She glowered at them angrily before looking up at her husband, bare chested and still soaked to the skin.   He, as well, looked at her in concern. He could see the pain fluctuating behind her eyes.   David gave a rueful smile as he saw the bags under Gabrielle’s eyes.   “Kept you from sleeping too?” he muttered quietly. Gabrielle only nodded, her eyes looking darkly over all the young “Amazon” women.   David nodded. “Next time,” he continued. “Let me pick the hotel.”   Gabrielle smiled grimly and a soft pained laugh escaped her lips.   Four Amazon women came out of the cave, bearing a small raised platform, while a fifth carried a small, but ornamental chair, obviously for the queen.   The five warriors set up the small platform quickly, then gathered their weapons – each one held a long, wicked looking spear – and took up positions at each of the four corners while the fifth one withdrew to a position behind the two prisoners.   A few moments later, Alia, followed by the mysterious masked warrior came out into the clearing.   David frowned as he watched the queen move to the seat and settle into it. Something about her movements was inconsistent from her actions before.  There was a subtle swagger to her walk and a confidence that she emulated that had not been present before. An “attitude” seemed to permeate her very being. Focusing his attention on her, he saw the ripples of energy from her aura, though the embryonic tendrils of her empathic need were not present as before. She was completely isolated in this newfound confidence, or madness.   “This is interesting,” he thought. “Last time, she was latched into the emotional state of her pet chicken. What’s changed?” He pondered this until the Queen began to speak.   “Bring the prisoners forward,” Alia said with a wave of her hand. “I want to look in their faces.”   The masked warrior’s head turned slightly in the direction of the queen. Apparently, this had not been a part of the proceedings in the past.   The two prisoners were thrust forward and stood before her. She eyed them with a combination of curiosity and madness, the latter being just barely subdued beneath the surface of her psyche.   David frowned; perhaps he had done more damage than he thought. He hoped not, but anger and insult had motivated his previous actions. He had neglected to consider future ramifications. That thought was now settling like a cold block of ice in his gut.   Alia smiled coldly as she watched his eyes.   “Yup,” she said uncharacteristically. “You just can’t figure it out, can you?” She leaned forward, again, an uncharacteristic posture, her fingers tapped against one another just forward of her knees, and she smiled. “You’re looking at me, wondering how much you messed my head up, and kicking yourself in the ass for doing it, aren’t you?”   “Kicking myself-?” David thought. The realization settled in with cold dread. In a sudden, horrifying moment, her posture, and her confidence, her arrogance and attitude – even the words she was using - all made sense. They were his!   “Oh shit,” he thought with a groan. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”   His mouth opened and closed several times before he could speak.   “My lady,” he stammered.   Alia chuckled knowingly and leaned back, throwing one arm over the back of the chair as she leaned to the opposite side. She looked over at the masked warrior. “See? This is the part where he tries to save his ass by offering a flowery apology.” She looked back at him sternly. “Don’t even try it, hotshot.”   Gabrielle was looking back and forth between Alia and David, realization slowly settling on her face.   “David?” she asked. “What did you do?”   Alia laughed again. “You wanna tell her, or should be just move on?” Then she rubbed her hands together in eerily familiar fashion. “Nevermind. Let’s just get on with it, shall we?”   Alia rose to her feet and looked out among the gathered Amazons.   “This man,” She began formally. “Has the blood of one of your sisters on his hands. Yania was cornered and butchered by the man before you. Now, Amazon justice demands his life in payment of that debt. As our law says, a life for a life!”   Instantly, there was a cacophony of cheers, and Alia smiled as she settled back into her seat. Weapons clashed on makeshift shields, or thrust into the air and back.   David looked about nervously. “This is not looking good.”   “What did you do?” Gabrielle asked in a hiss.   David shrugged. “It’s, um, complicated,” he said.   Gabrielle looked back at him, wincing slightly. “David, she sounds like you?”   Alia looked about the assembled throng. “Sindis! Step forward!”   The woman that pushed her way through the assembled throng was tall, with dark straight hair and deep, piercing pale blue eyes. Her face was delicate, but her stature and build were lithe and athletic. Just like Yania.   “Christ on a crutch,” he muttered.   Alia looked at Gabrielle hungrily. Then she smiled.   Another guard pressed a sword in Gabrielle’s hand.   “You will kill him, or Sindis will kill you both.”   Gabrielle looked down at the sword in her hand and then up at David.   David saw the pale taint of Gabrielle’s skin and he could almost feel her pain even as she tried to suppress it.   David shrugged helplessly.   Gabrielle looked up at Alia with grim determination. “Challenge,” she said simply.   Alia’s eyebrows rose in amusement. “You want to challenge me for the leadership of the tribe?”   “If I must,” Gabrielle answered. “Choose your weapon, or choose your champion.”   Alia sat back, smiling like a glacier. She turned and gestured to the masked warrior.   “If you would, Chief Advisor?’ Alia said simply.   Almost trembling with anticipation, the tall dark figure stepped forward and picked up a long staff.   She tossed the weapon to Gabrielle. She caught it easily and handed the sword to another of the nearby guards and twirled the weapon experimentally.   “I understand this was the first Amazon weapon you ever learned,” The voice said behind the mask. “Fitting that it should also be the last.”   “Who are you?” Gabrielle asked, her voice strained from the internal churning within her belly. She was struggling to stand upright and hide her discomfort.   “Don’t you know?” The masked woman asked in a mocking voice. “How quickly you seem to forget.”  One gloved hand rose and ripped the mask from her face. The mask went sailing behind her and Gabrielle stared in a mixture of wonder and horror at the face of the mysterious Amazon Chief Advisor.   The right side woman’s face was a mass of thick scars showing the tell tale signs of being caught in a fire. Her pale gray eyes stared at Gabrielle with steel rage.   Gabrielle recognized the gray eyes, the dirty brown short hair.   “Trudis?” Gabrielle gasped. “Is that really you?”   Trudis smiled and nodded once.   Instantly, Gabrielle’s memory shot back to that day in Hell. They were pinned down as the catapult shots fell, exploding around them. Nearly two thirds of the Amazon Nation lay dead or dying on the beach behind them and the only cover was at least a hundred yards away. Between the small hump and that relative safety was a killing zone. They knew that none of them would survive that mad dash.   Gabrielle felt dread settle into her gut.   “We’ll never make it,” Someone said.   Gabrielle looked about quickly. “We need a diversion.”   Trudis looked out at the killing field ahead, her gray eyes bright with nervous energy. “I’ll do it,” she said after a few moments.   “Gabrielle!” Another of the survivors said. “She’ll never make it.   Gabrielle looked Trudis in the eye. There was nothing to say.   “I’ll do it,” Trudis finally stated evenly.   Gabrielle nodded once in gratitude.   “Everyone ready?” she looked about. Then she gave Trudis the signal.   The young Amazon bolted to the left as fast as her feet would carry her. Instantly, the catapults and archers unloaded on her. Arrows whistled about her, and then she vanished in a blast of explosive fire. Gabrielle had a fleeting glimpse of Trudis sailing through the air, arms flailing, and then several more explosions seemed to engulf her.   After that there was no time to look. The surviving Amazons bolted for the cover of the berm.   Gabrielle stared at Trudis with amazement.   “Of all the people?” she said in shock. “Why?” Trudis spun the staff and stepped in. “Because you abandoned us!” the staves clashed loudly and Gabrielle stumbled back.   “I never abandoned you!” Gabrielle cried out. “You saved all of us that day! I had no idea you were alive!”   “You never came back to look!” Trudis replied and she swung again. This time Gabrielle felt the sharp sting of the staff across her back. She staggered forward and wheeled, bringing her staff up in defense.   “We couldn’t!” Gabrielle shouted. She blocked several more attacks before Trudis’s staff slammed into Gabrielle’s midsection. She doubled over as the churning in her belly exploded into all out agony.   She dropped to one knee, looking up at Trudis.   “We tried!” Gabrielle said. “Twelve of us died, trying to get to the fallen on that beach, even at night. Beleraphon never gave us the chance!”   She stumbled to her feet and staggered out of range of Trudis’s next swing.   “Liar!” Trudis screamed.   David watched the exchanges between the two women and his heart thundered in concern. Gabrielle hadn’t been hut that badly yet, but she was moving at half speed, and stooped over slightly, as if burdened by a heavy load. Her face was taught, set in a mask of concealed pain.   “What the hell is wrong with her?” he asked as he continued to saw through the bonds on his wrist.   Trudis took a series of hits, spun around and counter attacked with the same ferocity.  As Gabrielle backed away, David caught a hint of brilliant crimson. His eyes narrowed in alarm.  As Gabrielle continued to move, avoiding the attacks where she could, and deflecting the ones that came to close.   Then David saw the thin trail of bright red blood on her inner leg.   “Oh shit,” he whispered as the horrible realization hit him.  He looked quickly to his left and right, and saw Ariadne standing next to him. She looked up at him and held her hand up a bit, revealing the hilt of his katana, hanging at her back, beneath her cloak.   “No, no, no,” David was muttering. “Stop this!   Ariadne saw David sawing furiously at his bonds with the concealed blade in his belt buckle. She said nothing and gave him a single nod.   The bonds snapped free, and his hands were loose.   “Stop!” he shouted.   Gabrielle looked up at him in surprise, and Trudis stepped in with another vicious series of blows. Several struck her midsection in rapid succession and one devastating blow landed on the side of her head. She went down a few yards away from him. Trudis stepped forward, grinning madly as she raised her staff to finish the job.   “No!” David shouted again. He elbowed the two guards on either side of him, then reached over and drew his katana from Ariadne’s back.   The staff whistled down and severed on the razor sharp blade that suddenly appeared between her and her target.   David’s foot slammed into Trudis’s gut, sending her skidding back.   She spun back to her feet and grabbed a sword from another guard.   David held his sword in defensive posture; the edge curving down as it extended forward.   “It’s over,” David said in a growl. His eyes flicked down at Gabrielle, lying curled in pain on the ground, blood covering one of her legs.   “Our laws say a life for a life,” Alia said neutrally.   “And you have it!” David bellowed in despair. A sudden sadness welled up in him as he truly realized what was happening. There was a numbing pain spreading through his chest. “Don’t you see?”   Trudis looked down at Gabrielle, saw the blood, and looked back at the Queen.   Alia was rising to her feet slowly, a slightly haunted look in her eyes as she stared down at Gabrielle, sobbing as she gently convulsed.   David’s voice was thick with despair. “She was pregnant, you heartless bitch!”   Trudis took a step forward, and David pointed his sword at her, ready to cut her down.   “Don’t,” he growled, his eyes watering. His entire body shook with emotion that threatened to explode with homicidal fury.   The entire circle had fallen silent.   “Trudis,” Alia said evenly. “Step back. This challenge is done.”   Trudis turned to face Alia in shock, her own rage boiling.   “What?” she blurted. She looked back at the stricken Gabrielle and slowly began to shake her head. “No. This is not over! She must pay for what she did at Helicon!”   She raised her blade and stepped forward.   David interposed himself between her and her prey. Trudis struck with reckless fury. “I will have my revenge!” she screamed.   The blades clashed so hard that they threw sparks into the air. David beat the insane Amazon back a few paces and then, Trudis’s sword went spiraling out of her hand. An instant later, her feet left the ground and she crashed to the earth. When she rolled over, David stood above her, his sword pointed at her throat, tears in his eyes.   “Don’t make me kill you!” David growled hoarsely.   Several other Amazon warriors drew swords and stepped forward.   David readied himself for the mother of all duels, but the other Amazons moved to cover Trudis instead.   Even Ariadne held a weapon, watching the fallen Chief Advisor with a dark look.   “If he butchered Yania, as you say he did,” she said angrily. “Why did he not kill you now?”   David lowered his sword and ran back to Gabrielle, kneeling at her side and taking her hand. She grasped it with desperate strength as she lay there, tears pouring out of her eyes.   “It’s okay, baby,” he said gently. His voice trembled as he spoke. “It’s going to be okay.”  He looked up at Alia. She stood there, her madness completely gone for the first time since their encounter.   “It is over,” she said slowly. “A life that could have been, in exchange for a life that was.” She knelt before David and Gabrielle, looking at them both. “I did not want this.” She said helplessly. “Not like this.”   Then she rose, her own anger seething, and turned to face Trudis, now being held by four strong amazon guards.   “Take her to the pit,” she said angrily. “I will deal with her, later.”   The guards made it to the far edge of the circle, when Trudis struck in a blind fury. She ripped a dagger free from one of the guards and attacked Three of the guards were dead before they hit the ground, and the fourth staggered away, her hand desperately trying to cover the gout of blood from a wound in her throat.   Trudis charged with maddened fury.   David grabbed his sword and spun. The razor sharp blade slashed into Trudis’s midsection. She stopped short, her eyes going wide in shock and then raised her dagger to strike.   David’s upsweep caught Trudis just above the navel and ripped through her body, sending her flailing backwards. She twitched a couple of times and then lay dead.   David’s vision was filled with remembered horror at that sight. His breath came in ragged gasps.  His eyes were wide as he stared at the fresh corpse on the ground and he remembered another face. A young, innocent face. Yania’s face.   His eyes looked about the circle in shock before he turned back to Alia and knelt on one knee, raising his sword for her to take.   Alia took the weapon, and after a moment’s consideration, laid it back on the ground before him.   “There will be no more,” she said soberly, and she turned and reseated herself on the throne.   “Get a stretcher and take Gabrielle into my chambers. Have the Healer attend her.” Alia commanded quickly. When the crowd of shocked onlookers was slow to respond, she stood in a rage.   “Now! Your sister is in need!”   Instantly, several women laid Gabrielle on a stretcher and took her swiftly but gently into the cave. Another woman arrived a few minutes later, dressed in the garb of a Shamaness, or medicine woman.   David stood outside, pacing back and forth anxiously.   “It’s alright,” he was saying to himself. “There’s still a chance. The baby could be okay? Worse things have happened to pregnant women and they’ve kept kids? Debbie had something similar and she still carried Jesse Ann to term, right?” His entire being was in turmoil as he paced back and forth, his sword twirling absent-mindedly. “She’s young and strong, it could all work out. It could all work out.” Even as he kept repeating it, the emotion welled up in him again and the sword fell from his hands as he collapsed on his knees and wept.   Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up to see Queen Alia staring down at him.   “I need your help,” she said in a shaky voice.   “You’ve got to be nuts!” David replied scornfully.   “Yes,” Alia replied, and David could see the light of madness beginning to reassert itself in her eyes. “I am. Because of you. I need you to give me the rest of it?” “I need to understand all that you’ve seen, or I will remain mad,” Alia said, and she giggled maniacally for a moment. Then she put her fingers to her face and took several deep breaths. “You must help me stop this, or I could do more damage. You knew that when you did this to me.”   “Yes,” David said darkly. “Yes I did.”   Alia was struggling against her madness now, and she trembled. “Insane or not, I will still be Queen. Don’t condemn the others because of me, I beg you. There has been enough pain here today.”     Amends   David sat at the side of Queen Alia’s bed, looking down at Gabrielle, unconscious beneath the warm blankets.  His eyes drifted up to the Shamaness who was packing away her supplies. Eyes filled with desperate hope.   The Shamaness, an old haggard woman dressed in animal skins and covered in various Amazon holy symbols, merely gave him an understanding motherly smile and shook her head sympathetically.   “I have given her a simple tonic,” she said quietly. “To promote healing sleep. Her body will recover, but that was all I could do. The child was gone before she was brought into this place.”   She gave him a gentle nod and departed.   David’s eyes filled with fresh tears as he brushed a few stray locks of Gabrielle’s hair out of her eyes and studied her face.   The quiet sobs shook him as he stared down at her. “Did you even know?”   A hand touched his shoulder and he looked up to see Queen Alia staring down at him intently.   “If you are agreed to this,” she said, her voice strangely strained. “Then it must be done now. I cannot hold the madness back much longer.”   David’s eyes flashed bitter anger for a moment and then he saw something in the Queen’s face that made him stop.   She was before him, not as a ruler, but as a person, desperate to protect her people – Gabrielle's people.   Wearily, David nodded. He took one long look at Gabrielle and kissed her gently on the forehead. Then he followed the queen from her bedside and vanished into the inner chamber.   David had the Queen sit herself cross-legged, on a large cushion. He then assumed a similar posture directly in front of her.   “Ready?” David asked, holding his hands out to her.   Her eyes flashed with paranoid fear for a moment. David saw as she fought the irrational feeling back down and took a long shuddering breath. She closed her eyes for a moment, then fixed them back on him.   “Let’s do it,” she said.   To hear his own words, his own inflections from this person made the hair on David’s neck stand up.   He shook his head and took the Queen’s hands. “Just relax.”   Outside the entrance of the cave, Ariadne paced nervously, pausing every now and then to look into the entrance expectantly.   She had unwittingly become the queens door warden, since four of the five bodyguards were dead and the fifth had fled in terror at Trudis’s mad attack.   Now she desperately wanted to know what was happening within the confines of Alia’s underground palace.   After what seemed a short eternity, she finally heard footsteps shuffling towards the fading light of day.  The old Shamaness, Magda, seemed to melt into view, toting her bag of assorted tools. She nodded in greetings to the young Amazon woman and smiled in motherly fashion.   “What’s happening in there?” Ariadne blurted out.   Magda looked back and then smiled. “Go and see for yourself,” she said. “But do not disturb them.”   Ariadne needed no further urging. She took up a torch and strode confidently into the darkness beyond.    When she reached the Queens inner bedchamber, she stopped at the door and looked within. Gabrielle lay on her side, deep in sleep, wrapped gently in several warm blankets.   The queen and that strange man were no where to be seen.   She took a step into the room, and paused, her eyes looking around as if she were afraid she might be caught. Then she stepped back and began hovering at this entrance, just like she had at the other.   With a sigh, she crossed her arms and leaned back against the edge of the doorway, waiting.   Several hours later, the Queen emerged, followed by an extremely haggard and weary David.   They both saw Ariadne standing at the doorway, had a quiet conversation, and then David went and sat next to Gabrielle, his hand gently touching her cheek. There was an air of infinite sadness emulating from him, and the emotion in his eyes when he glanced at her, made Ariadne’s heart hurt.   “Ariadne,” Queen Alia said quietly. “Would you come with me?”   The queen gestured with another hand towards a second open doorway.  Nervously, the young Amazon followed the queen into her private inner sanctum.   This was the one place that only the Queen would go. No other was ever permitted there, except the Queens chief advisor.   Ariadne stepped into the lavishly appointed cavern and stood fidgeting nervously.   Alia seated herself on a small wooden chair and put her fingers to her temples.   “Come in and sit down,” she offered the young woman.   “Highness,” Ariadne answered dutifully. “I dare not.”   “Get in here and park it,” Alia said more sharply, and the effort made her wince.   Quickly, Ariadne stepped in and seated herself across from the queen.   “What can I do to serve you, My Queen?” she asked.   Alia raised a hand, and her voice died.   “Not so loud, if you don’t mind,” the Queen moaned. “I’ve got the mother of all hangovers.”   Alia looked up at the young woman and saw the frown of confusion on her young face. She smiled. “If you don’t know, I hope you never find out.”   Ariadne looked at the queen with concern. Her voice, mannerisms, even the words she was using were all different. She studied her sovereign closely.   Alia saw this and nodded. “It’s a long story.”   “The man?” Ariadne asked, suddenly uncertain about this stranger.   “Yes,” Alia said. “And no.”   When Ariadne shook her had, not understanding. The queen held her hand up again, begging patience.   “It’s going to take a little time for me to get my head together,” she said wearily. “In the mean time, I’m going to rely on you for a while.”   The young Amazon’s eyes went wide in surprise.   “I want you to gather all the Amazons together. Tell them to begin packing their belongings. In the morning, we will be returning to our original village, where we belong. When you’ve completed that task, return to me at once. I have some things I wish to discuss with you, understood?”   Ariadne nodded and rose, still in shock. “You mean that I-?” the question died on her lips.   “For now,” Alia nodded. “When you return, we’ll talk about the future.”   Ariadne bowed and stepped back.   “One more thing,” Alia said. “Leave David with his wife. They should not be disturbed for any reason.”   “As you wish,” Ariadne bowed again, placing her right hand over her heart in salute.   As she passed through the bedchamber, she saw David, his head on the bed next to Gabrielle. He was also asleep.  His hand still stretched out to hers, the fingers barely touching.  She paused and looked at them. Something warm and soothing settled over her heart, like a blanket, and she smiled. Then she departed quietly. <<>>   David felt gentle fingers curl around his hand as he slept. He hadn’t even realized that he had fallen asleep. His eyes opened and he raised his shaggy head to look into the drowsy eyes of his wife. She looked at him and smiled.   “Hey,” David said gently. “How you feeling?”   Gabrielle managed a weak shrug. When she spoke, her voice was thick from drowsiness.   “Sore, stiff, and tired,” she replied.   David smiled in relief and his other hand brushed some of her hair out of her eyes.   “You had me worried for a while there,” he stammered, as if he were at a loss for words.   Gabrielle looked at him. “What happened in the circle? What happened to Trudis?”   David’s relieved smile faded a bit. “I’m sorry, baby,” he confessed. “She’s dead.”   Queen Alia stepped around the hanging curtain, followed by a young, still mildly shocked Ariadne.   The Queen smiled gently.   “What happened?” she asked. “I know I didn’t win the trial. I couldn’t. I was in too much pain to fight well enough?”   She looked back at David.   He opened his mouth to say something in return, but Alia spoke first.   “The trial is over with,” she said. “And I owe you a huge apology.”   Gabrielle frowned.   Ariadne spoke up.   “We discovered that someone had actually poisoned you on your way to the camp. In the course of the trial, Trudis revealed herself, and her plot for revenge against you.”   Alia continued. “Once Trudis had confessed to poisoning you, I tried to stop the trial. She went mad and attacked you while the toxin had rendered you unable to defend yourself.” She looked first at Ariadne, and then at David.   “My new Chief Advisor, here, managed to sneak David’s sword to him, and he was able to protect you.”   David looked up in surprise at this version of events. His eyes bounced between Alia and Ariadne.   “When we saw David spare Trudis’s life, twice in the exchange, I knew that he hadn’t arbitrarily killed Yania. I ordered Trudis taken away, but she broke her bonds, killed the guards and attacked a third time. Your husband had no choice but to protect your life.”   Gabrielle squeezed David’s hand in reassurance.   “Gabrielle,” Alia said quietly. “May I borrow your husband for a moment? There is something I need to discuss with him.”   Gabrielle nodded. David kissed her gently on the cheek. “Rest. I’ll be right back.”   Still completely confused, David followed the Queen out of the chamber and into her private rooms.   “What in the hell are you doing?” he asked, mildly ruffled.  Alia turned and held up her hand. “Just relax, hotshot,” She said. The familiar words and inflections sent a chill of uneasiness up David’s spine.   David folded his arms and waited as Alia peeked out through the doorway. Ariadne was busy tending to Gabrielle.   “Okay,” Alia said. “Here’s the deal.”  She turned and stepped over before him.   “Magda seems to think that Gabrielle didn’t know she was pregnant.”   David’s expression changed from one of indignant impatience to mild disbelief.   “Didn’t know? What do you mean she didn’t know? How could she not know?”   Alia raised a hand to quiet his rising voice.   “Will you keep it down, for crying out loud,” she hissed at him. She glanced back out through the doorway and then sighed.   “I wouldn’t know, but you might,” She continued. “Was she acting strangely before the raid on Tripolis?”   David forced his mind to focus on remembering.  He ran through just about everything since their wedding and examined all of it carefully. Had she been more tired than usual? Less tired? Hungrier than usual? Less hungry? Moody? Other things? In the end, he had to slowly shake his head.   “Not that I can recall,” he finally admitted. “And she never mentioned anything?”   “That’s my point.” Alia replied. She looked at him sympathetically. “Look, I know that she was. Magda knows it. You know it, and Ariadne knows about it now, as well everyone at the trial who has brain one in their heads. The point is: Gabrielle doesn’t know it! She’s in pain, now. She’s weak and vulnerable. If she were to also learn that she had lost her child – your child? I just don’t think we need to tell her about it right now. Later, if you think it’s for the best, then fine. That’ll be between the two of you. You can do it when you feel the time is right, when you’re alone and have the time to deal with it properly. If you don’t agree, then fine, you can tell her here and now, in private, and no one here in this village will mess with you. Okay?”   David had to admit it. In a twisted way, the Queen had a point. Better to let her know when she was stronger and better able to cope with it. He finally nodded.   “Okay, fine,” he said. He turned back to the doorway and then paused. “On one condition.”   Alia’s eyebrows rose questioningly.   David sighed. “Try not to sound so much like me when you talk. It’s kind of creepy, you know what I mean?”   Alia began to grin in a disconcertingly familiar way. “You think it’s creepy? Think about it from my side of the tracks. I’ve got everything that you plugged into me, including a lot of your attitudes and vocabulary, among other things, all in a woman's body. You have any idea what that feels like?”   David looked back at her and his own smile began to twitch at the corners of his mouth.   “I won’t go there,” he said.   “Bright boy,” Alia countered.   The two of them emerged and David crossed over to Gabrielle’s bedside.   Ariadne looked up at Alia, who gave her a quick, subtle shake of the head.   “I’ll bring some food for you,” she offered. She withdrew after Alia gave her an affirming nod.   David knelt down beside Gabrielle again and took her hand.   “After you two have eaten and you’re feeling better,” the last part was directed at Gabrielle. “I’m going to need something from you two.”   “What?” Gabrielle asked, slowly turning to look at her.   “Later, hot stuff,” Alia said, then she caught herself.   Gabrielle frowned up at her, and then she looked at David and back at the Queen.   Alia smiled in embarrassment and backed away a few paces.   “Long story,” she said. “I’ll let your old man explain things. I’m going to go and sort a few things out.” She turned and strode out of the chamber, towards the outside. Before she was completely out of earshot, they both heard her say quietly.   “I really got to watch how I talk to the girls around here. Jesus!”   Gabrielle looked back at David, and in spite of her weariness, she managed to give him the look.   “David,” she said. “Just explain one thing to me?”   “Anything,” David agreed. He was having trouble coming up with something else to talk about.   “What exactly have you done to Queen Alia?”   “Oh,” David replied sounding like a small boy that had been caught in mischief. “That. Um, well, it’s kind of complicated.”   Gabrielle’s expression changed to that beautiful all knowing look. She smiled softly.   “Make it uncomplicated,” she said.   David took a deep breath, framing his words.   “Okay,” he said slowly. “Throughout history, people have always treated those few with extraordinary abilities as seers, healers, advisors, you follow?”   Gabrielle nodded.   “For a very select few with even more extraordinary abilities, people sometimes forced their needs upon the individuals and hampered their normal growth.  Alia is – was – one such individual.”   David sighed, his explanation was becoming complex, and he could see the impatience in Gabrielle’s eyes.   “Okay,” David began again. “Alia is – was – what we called a psychic dependant. She needed the mental strength and energy to function properly. She ended up latching onto the few Amazons that found her, and began leeching the experiences and psyche’s of those people. You follow?”   Gabrielle frowned. “Barely.”   David waved his hands back and forth, as if wiping a slate clean.   “Okay, okay,” He said, his own frustration beginning to take hold. “Take three: Alia, as a person is the equivalent of someone about nine years old – or she was.”   “But she seemed more than capable of ruling the amazons here when we first met?” Gabrielle countered.   “Yes,” David agreed. “But that was because she was leeching her strength and knowledge from another person. Trudis.”   “Trudis?” Gabrielle asked.   “Somehow, your old friend discovered what she really was. She managed to control Alia and twisted her into something she could manipulate. Possibly, Trudis was somewhat psychic as well, and knew how to give the puppet Queen just enough to get what she wanted.  Under Trudis’s influence, Alia began a systematic series of raids on the towns surrounding the ancient borders. They took whatever they needed. Food, weapons, supplies, and people.”   “People?” Gabrielle asked.   David nodded soberly. “They were able to increase their numbers quickly over the last few years by abducting young women from the villages and training them in the Amazon way – well, as much as Trudis understood it anyway.”   “What?” Gabrielle began to stir as her outrage started to build.   “Take it easy, now,” David said, gently restraining her. “That part’s being handled as we speak.”   “How do you know that?” Gabrielle asked.   “It’s what I would do,” David replied and his smile began to spread across his face. “And thus, it will probably be what Alia does.”   “Oh?”   “Alia needed to leech the strength and experience to maintain her control over the Amazons,” David explained. “But since she was taking it a little at a time, without the individual’s knowledge, or permission, the effects were only temporary. It was like getting a fix of a drug. You got the high for a while, but you always needed more. I gave her something quite a bit more permanent.”   Gabrielle’s momentary outrage was redirected at David. “Gave her what?”   David sighed and reluctantly tapped his temple. “The first time, she tried to take it from me by force, so I gave her everything negative and nasty I could recall. Most of it was completely incomprehensible to someone who’s never had the benefit of modern entertainment and my “history”. It drove her partially insane, but it also broke Trudis’s hold on her.”   Gabrielle’s eyes were widening.   “With her hold broken, Trudis had to push up her timetable. If Alia became uncontrollable, then Trudis was ready to declare Alia unworthy and usurp the throne. Unfortunately, we showed up and she had to switch her focus on getting rid of you. I think she knew you would be able to present a legitimate challenge to her claim if you were still alive. After that whole fiasco, Alia asked me to finish what I started. So, I did.”   “Did what?” Gabrielle persisted. “David. I love you. But if you don’t give me a straight answer, I’m going to kill you.”   David tapped his temple again. “I gave her the rest of it. The rest of me – or, my knowledge and experience. I gave her a copy of it all.”   “All of what?”   “He loaded my head with his brains,” Alia said as she stepped back into the chamber.   “Thank you Jesus,” David muttered quietly.   Gabrielle turned over and saw the Queen, leaning casually, and most uncharacteristically against one of the four posts, her arms crossed over her chest.   Gabrielle looked back and forth at the two of them. They were two completely different people, and yet, they were acting eerily similar.   David’s mischievous smile crawled across the delicate features of the Queen.   “Pretty wild, huh?” Her narrow eyebrows bounced once.   Gabrielle looked in horror at David. Alia seemed to sense the anxiety and pushed herself off the post.   “Oh, don’t worry,” she said quickly, seating herself at the foot of the bed. She tapped her temple in a mirror image of David’s earlier action. “I’m still me, in here. I just have a lot more than I’ve ever had before. It’s going to take a while for me to balance everything out.” She smiled, looking at David. “Though, I must admit that I like some of the ideas that your husband has, especially in matters of love.”   “Ah, man,” David moaned. “Lady, you promised.”   “Granted, he’s a lot more daring than I ever imagined I could be,” Alia continued mercilessly. “But I can see some of the benefits. I just need to get myself oriented correctly, more or less.”   “Oh?” David asked, sensing a sensitive spot he might exploit. Alia held up a finger.   “Don’t even go there.” Then she looked at Gabrielle. “Moving on. I need to have a long talk with you about certain aspects of Amazon culture. As thorough as David’s knowledge is about political science, he’s sorely lacking in some of the more esoteric aspects of polite society.”   “She needs to know how to rule a kingdom,” David translated, then he fixed a reproving look at Alia. “Christ lady, your talking like I did when Professor MacGhee made me read my final thesis out loud in his lecture hall. ‘Esoteric aspects of polite society’? Sheesh!”   Alia smiled gently and shrugged. Then something marvelous happened.   Gabrielle laughed out loud, though the act caused her to wince in pain with the effort.   In spite of the pain that the laughter created, she couldn’t stop.   “What’s so funny?” both Alia and David asked at the same time and in exactly the same pitch.   Gabrielle rolled over, grasping at her belly and caught her breath. “Oh, Gods help me,” she said. She looked at Alia and then at David and smiled. “I’ve spent the last few months trying to figure out how I’ll deal with one of you. Now?”   “Now just a second,” Alia said defensively. “I am nothing like him!”   Gabrielle looked back at Alia and smiled. “Oh, no. Not at all.”   “Hey!” David said defensively.   Alia sighed heavily, holding up her hands to get everyone’s attention.   “Okay, okay!” She said quickly.  “Gabrielle, please. If I’m going to get this right, I’m definitely going to need your help.”   Gabrielle looked at David, who nodded in agreement. Then she looked back at Alia.   “All right. What do you want to know?” <<>>  Five days later, Gabrielle and David stood before the elders of the village of Tripolis and presented them with a formal request for truce between the newly formed Amazon Nation and the surrounding villages.   Festius read the formal parchment dubiously.   “What kind of ruse is this, young lady?” he asked, staring down at Gabrielle from his raised bench. “These Amazons have plagued the surrounding villages for years, keeping us in a weakened state so that we could never properly protect ourselves. Now that we have combined our forces, they want peace?”   “That’s exactly what they want, sir,” David said respectfully. “Queen Alia asked us to deliver this treatise to your village first, since yours was the most recently attacked.  All unused property that was stolen will be returned, and those children that have been abducted will also be returned, unharmed.”   “There is one thing you must know,” Gabrielle added carefully. “There were many children, abducted over the past few years, that have grown accustomed to Amazon life. They may wish to stay with the tribe. If that is their wish, Queen Alia asked that you respect it. In return, she will also provide knowledge and techniques for farming and building that will improve your village and the others nearby. None of the existing villages will be forced to relocate off the ancient Amazon lands, and those within the borders, like Tripolis, will fall under the protection of the Amazon Nation.”   “It’s a good deal, all the way around,” David said gently. “I know it doesn’t make up for all the past indiscretions, but it’s a start.”   “If the Amazon Nation is so determined to make amends for past atrocities,” Festius replied. “Then why have they not sent a formal envoy?”   “With the recent events still so fresh,” Gabrielle said evenly. “They were afraid that their representative would be received with violence before she had the opportunity to speak with you directly.”   “Which is why we agreed to act as mediators in the initial discussion.” David finished. “Queen Alia’s Chief Advisor is waiting at the edge of town for permission to address you. If you wish to begin these talks, I can send the signal to invite her here?”   “Very well,” Festius said, still suspicious that this entire meeting might be some kind of elaborate trap. Send for Mistress – “ he paused. “What is the Queens Advisor called?” Gabrielle looked at David, who was slowly backing towards the door, that mischievous grin spreading across his lips as he drew an arrow from his quiver and notched it to his bow.   “I think you might know her, My Lord,” he said agreeably. “Her name is Ariadne.”   He ducked out the door, pointed his bow towards the sky and let the arrow fly. It whistled like a crying bird as it flew, the note drifting across the farm fields, fading to stop abruptly when the arrow finally impacted somewhere in the nearby field. Festius looked down at Gabrielle in shock, and then at another younger woman standing in the assembled crowd nearby. When Gabrielle glanced over, she immediately saw the family resemblance.   “Ariadne?” the woman asked, looking at Gabrielle. “Did he say her name was Ariadne?”   Gabrielle smiled. “He did. She’s your daughter, I believe,” then she looked up at Festius. “And your grand daughter, if I’m not mistaken?”   Festius rose to his feet in awe when David returned some time later, leading the young Amazon woman into the room.   Ariadne looked up at the old man and then at the woman pushing her way through the last few people before her. They stared at each other in amazement for a few moments and then embraced.   “We thought you were dead,” he mother said.   Festius descended the several steps and stood before Ariadne, his hand reached out to touch her cheek as if to reassure himself that this was real.   “I brought some friends with me,” Ariadne said nervously. She turned to David, who stepped from his place at the door.   At least a dozen small girls came in nervously, looking about the room.  From the throng of villagers, parents cried out in joy and ran to embrace their children while others looked about in vain, their eyes filled with hope.   “I have the list of names of the daughters of Tripolis who elected to stay with the Amazons,” Ariadne said quickly. “The Queen has given them leave to return here at any time, provided they will be welcome?” she looked up at her grandfather expectantly.   Festius smiled and nodded. “We have a lot to talk about,” he said. “Here and at home.” He suddenly stopped, uncertain. “If you would like?”   Ariadne nodded eagerly. “I would.”   David slid up to Gabrielle and nudged her gently. “Not bad, for a days work?”   The two of them quietly exited the building and began walking back up the road.   “What about you?” she asked him.   “Me?” David asked. “What about me?”   She took his hand and squeezed it. “The trial exonerated you in the death of Yania, but Alia told me you’re still having trouble with it?”   David’s expression sobered. “I still killed a kid, sweetheart. The Amazon Nation may have understood, but I still have to deal with it.” He sighed and slid his sunglasses on as the sun moved out of a batch of thick clouds. “It’ll take time – a lot of time, but I’ll be all right.”   “You want to talk about it?” Gabrielle pressed gently.   David looked down at her and sighed as they walked.   “I think that we need to talk about a couple of things,” he admitted heavily. He watched the earth moving beneath their feet for a few paces before he looked back at the village and that spot in the middle of the street.   “Where do we start?” he asked.   Gabrielle slid under his arm and looked up at him. “You talk about whatever you want to talk about, and I listen. We’ll see where it goes from there, okay?”   David sighed again. “Okay.” <<>>   Sindis stalked through the forest, her mind ablaze with anger. She understood the verdict. The Queen had said that the debt had been paid. David’s unborn child for the life of her blood sister, but somehow that had not quenched the fire in her heart for justice.   She paused at a hilltop, looking out over the soft waving plains beyond the line of the forest and simply stewed. Her blood sister was dead, and her killer walked out there, somewhere, alive and well.   It was long past dusk when she turned back towards the village. She had a few things to pack up before they moved back to their traditional village.   “Such fury,” A voice cooed from the shadows behind her.  She spun to face the stranger and only saw the shapes of ancient trees, their shadows lengthening in the fading light.   “So passionate,” the voice said again, barely a whisper. It was soft and feminine, but filled with power. Sindis scanned the shadows, but still saw nothing.   “Who’s there?” she demanded, her sword sliding out of its sheath.   “You desire vengeance?” the feminine voice asked, this time seeming to drift out of the trees on her left. Then it emerged again on her right. “A chance to balance the loss?”   “Show yourself!” Sindis cried. A touch of panic caused her voice to quaver. “Who are you?”   “A friend,” the voice said again, this time from the branches above her. “Someone who has your interests at heart.”   There was a subtle touch of amusement in that ghostly voice. It terrified her and thrilled her at the same time. It was a melodic voice, soft and gentle with a crisp subtle accent. But the words fell like ice on her heart and chilled her veins.  Sindis felt a cool breeze on her back and spun around, seeing nothing but the trees looming over her like old gnarled figures that stretched out towards her with long, twisted fingers.   “Do you want your revenge?” the voice asked, this time at her right.   “The Queen has forbidden it!” Sindis replied, forcing her voice to remain calm.   “And if you were free of the rule of your Queen?” The voice asked. “If Alia no longer held sway over your actions?”   “If you attack my people, they will fight to the last defending our queen, myself included!” Sindis challenged.   Gentle laughter echoed around her, almost making her dizzy.   “We do not speak of the Queen,” it said. “If you were free of her rule – of the rule of all mortals – what would you do?”   “What are you offering?” Sindis asked.   “What would you do?” The voice persisted.   A wave of dark anger swept over the young Amazon woman and she smiled a smile that would have frozen a stream.   “I would slit his throat in the temple!” she growled. “I would utterly and completely destroy him!”   “We can give you that power, child,” the voice said amicably. “We can set you above the rule of your sovereign. Above the rule of all mankind for eternity. You have but to ask?”   “How could anyone do that?” Sindis asked.   “Do you want it?” the voice asked. “Do you want to walk in the darkness, free from the constraints that bind you?”   The voice was bouncing all about her now. She spun around, trying to find the source of that mysterious, beautiful voice. IT seemed to be right beside her, yet infinitely distant at the same time.   “Do you want it?” it asked, whispering from the shadows as it taunted her. “Do you want it?”   Sindis lowered he weapon and stood proudly.   “I do,” she finally admitted.   The melodious laughter echoed maddeningly around her for some time, and she spun around, feeling the welling of terror in her chest.   She caught a flash of something rushing towards her, clothed in white. It moved as fast as lightning. She saw two brilliant red eyes, felt something cold and strong grasp her about the waist, while cold fingers tugged her hair, forcing her neck back. Then there was a flash of pain and a sudden wave of pleasure so intense that she fell into it. The world around her vanished into absolute blackness. The last thing she heard was the trip hammer of her own heart slowing, and a gentle sucking noise. Then all was silence. END