Wellspring of Wishes

CHAPTER THREE

Xena dismounted and studied the approaching Amazons. A few frowned; most were openly curious. The queen they'd met the day before lifted her chin and hooded her reaction behind a veil of regality. "Welcome, Queen Gabrielle. Xena." Felice looked over the two. "I see you made it through the night." Xena reached up, guiding Gabrielle's dismount with a gentle hand on the bard's back.

"Your forest is beautiful," replied Gabrielle. "I can see why you'd want to make sure it remained undisturbed."

Felice nodded and gestured. "Have you eaten?" Gabrielle shook her head. "Come to our communal hut to break your fast."

A young Amazon stepped forward as Xena's collected Argo's bridle. "I will stable your mount." The girl could not have been much over twelve summers old, with copper-colored skin and honey-

streaked brown hair, gathered in a braid that fell halfway down her back. She put her hand out. Xena looked to Gabrielle and then Felice. The first frowned, then shrugged. The second tilted her head to one side and Xena had the distinct impression that if she made a scene their welcome would sour rapidly. "Thanks." She carefully tranferred the reins to the young woman's hand.

The girl nodded and walked Argo slowly away. Xena couldn't help watching the mare being led to the stables, and kept only half an ear on what Gabrielle said as she continued to exchange pleasantries with Felice. "Xena and I really appreciate the chance to spend some time with you and your Amazons, Queen Felice. We didn't expect to find anyone out here."

Felice's face shifted slightly and Xena recognized the gesture as a smile from an extremely reserved personality. "It can't be easy traveling all the time. I understand why some of us must do it." She looked over as Xena turned and met her intense stare by squaring her shoulders.

Sensing a tension between her partner and the Thracian queen, Gabrielle put a hand on the queen's arm and gestured. "Can we meet a few people? I'm starved," she said with a chuckle.

Felice jumped grabbing her dagger from its waist loop, surprising Gabrielle, who pulled her hand quickly away. Wow, thought Gabrielle. Just like Xena when we first met. The bard decided it would be prudent to keep her hands to herself until they knew each other a little better.

Xena walked behind Gabrielle as Felice led the way. She watched other Amazons converging on the hut and noted the nods, and acknowledgements given to the Thracian queen. Few people spoke to her, and only a couple women smiled.

Felice was highly respected. No one spoke to her, but no one neglected to give her preference or sketch a bow as they all moved toward the serving line. The woman's bearing suggested a resignation to her post, tinged only slightly with pride. She never failed to take the lead when an Amazon stepped aside offering it.  

Collecting food onto their trays, Felice, Gabrielle and Xena moved quickly through the line and Felice indicated a table on a raised platform near the rear of the hut as she led the way.

Xena had trouble keeping her eyes from straying to the queen's face. The dark-haired woman was really unremarkable in build, but there was a quality... Xena couldn't quite put her finger on it, until she recognized herself in the queen's behavior. A woman reserved emotionally because leadership demanded it. It only happened when someone spent years isolating herself out of necessity. Not only because of a physical distinction being the biggest, strongest, but the distinctive emotional separation which accompanied the honor.

The observation created a kindred wave of emotion in the warrior and she stepped to the side holding Gabrielle's chair to get a better look at Felice's face as the queen sat down. Gabrielle sat and looked from the queen to Xena.

Queen Felice noticed Xena's movement and when she turned, her honey eyes met the warrior's. There was a silent pause, with both women's hands braced against the table, but none of the previous meeting's hostility. Then the queen broke the connection, turning back to face her sister Amazons. Without looking at the bard, she noticed the blonde reaching for her fork. "I have a few words to say then we can eat," she told Gabrielle.

Quickly the bard put down the fork, looked over to Xena, and then back to Felice as the woman stood, clearing her throat. In her right hand she held the mead goblet aloft, and in her left, the platter of fresh harvest vegetables brought to her by a serving Amazon. When the woman stood the sounds in the room died instantly. Xena smiled, thinking she'd seldom gotten her men to this level of silence in ten years of meals. Then again, she acknowledged to herself, she stood on less ceremony than most. Always had, and, she suspected, always would. She looked over to the bard.

The bard was in full memorization mode if Xena correctly interpreted her posture and the tilt of the blonde's head. It suddenly struck her exactly how important Gabrielle found her connection with the Amazons. Here, not even among her own adopted village, she was carefully taking cues from Felice, and devoting her attention to details. Her face was light with curiosity and she intertwined her fingers, obviously wishing for her quill. Earlier, Gabrielle had made the mistake of touching Felice. Gabrielle was a touching person in general and didn't think half the time of putting her hands or arms in contact with others as she tried to gauge their mood, gain attention, or simply, to draw their attention to a question.

But now she was calm, eyes wide and clearly focused on Felice's actions as well as what the older woman said.

Xena paused in her observation of Gabrielle to listen to Felice speak. The queen's voice was very full-throated, expressive. She exuded command and strength. "We offer praise to Artemis, our goddess, our protector, for the fields which daily feed us, and the hearts which daily love us. Blessed be the Huntress." An appropriate prayer for a meal, Xena supposed, as Felice sat down once again to a chorus of "Hear, hear!" The Amazons throughout the hut turned to their meal.

Gabrielle's face shifted into the musing smile Xena associated with her finding something more deeply pleasing than she expected. The action, which usually also pleased Xena, since she delighted in bringing unexpected joy to the bard's world, now brought a frown to the warrior's lips instead.

She hid the disturbing reaction by falling to the task of eating. She tried not imagining the day Gabrielle would choose the Amazons over her, but it would come. In her heart she felt it was inevitable. It was what had prompted her to start the conversation with Gabrielle on the road to this village. The Amazons offered stability. What did Xena offer? With her there was danger around every corner; a life on the move. What's not to love about one and hate about the other, huh? But she could not settle in one place. Her path, she knew, would never rest, until she could fully repent.

During the meal several Amazons came to the head table, to speak business with their queen, and to offer greetings to the visiting women. An Amazon in light armor stepped forward, saluting Felice. Her left shoulder was wrapped with a ceremonial cord and she wore a sword on one hip, a coil of hemp on the other.

"My queen, the outpost reports are in from the night watches."

"I'll see them in my hut after the meal." Felice looked up only momentarily from her meal. The brunette Amazon shifted on her feet, and remained with her hands clasped behind her back. "Hello," she offered as an afterthought to the two visitors.

"Hello," responded Gabrielle, now very interested why this one wasn't moving on. Felice had obviously dismissed her from her mind.

"Where are you two from?"

"Corinth." Xena looked up at the Amazon with straight jet-black hair and intelligent brown eyes and too, wondered why she was still standing there. A soldier knew when he or she had been dismissed.

"Are you staying?"

Felice's head shot up, having heard the inquisition-style tone in the Amazon's question. "Mika!"

Mika looked back to Felice and said plainly, "It's my job." Quickly she turned on her heel and left. Xena had a sneaking suspicion there was something left out of that quick exchange. When she looked down to Gabrielle, she realized the bard thought so too.

They turned back to their meal and listened as another Amazon came up and greeted them.

"You're from Corinth, Queen Gabrielle?" At the blonde bard's nod, the woman, a hazel-eyed blonde Amazon, went on. "My brother lives near the Amazon village there."

Gabrielle smiled. "Have you seen him?"

"Not in many seasons."

"Would you tell me his name? Perhaps I can take a message to him."

The woman shook her head. "I doubt he would want to hear from me." She paused as she considered her next words. "Would you simply tell me if you know whether or not Bolmia survived the war with the Persians?"

Xena shivered, remembering her battle with the Persians. So they had struck elsewhere before her stand with Gabrielle. The bard looked to her with question. She shrugged, uncertain how to answer.

Gabrielle decided. "I will find out for you if you like. To whom should I return a message?"

"I am Vera." She looked at the dark warrrior next to the bard. "Are you really her?" Xena shook her head, confused. "Xena, I mean."

"Yes, I am."

"A queen's consort?"

Xena frowned, her face growing dark as she felt judged. "A problem with that?"

Vera backed up. "Well, no. It's just weird, isn't it? I mean you led the most powerful army Greece has ever seen."

Gabrielle put a hand on Xena's as it fisted around her fork. Immediately the warrior released her grip. "Thanks for saying hi, Vera. I'll see if I can find out anything about your brother." Bowing her head quickly, Vera left. More Amazons stepped forward to offer more greetings.

Xena tried not to react when the fifth or sixth Amazon referring to her as the "Corinthian queen's consort". Especially as it was usually followed in hushed speculations as they walked away: "She's not Amazon, is she?" and "Isn't that odd?"

Gabrielle shifted in her seat. "I'm nearly finished," she leaned toward Xena and whispered. "Do you want to go?"

Xena looked quickly at Gabrielle's eyes and those deep green eyes told her in an instant that the bard had seen and heard everything. Quickly she shook her head. "Not right away."

"I'll ask Felice for a tour of the village, then we'll go."

"Stay. Learn what you need to." Xena replied in a desperately hushed tone.

Gabrielle took a moment to consider what Xena said, but the warrior still saw the instant the decision was made. She lifted her juice and drank when the bard turned to Felice on her other side and whispered, "Can you tell us how to get back onto the road for Corinth?"

"You do not wish to remain for the bonding?"

Gabrielle frowned. "I'm sorry, but..."

"You and your consort were bonded elsewhere then? That is unusual." Felice put down her fork and sipped her drink waiting for a reply.

Gabrielle was strangely tongue-tied. "Bonded elsewhere? Um, no. Xena and I --" Bonded? Could it be? What would Xena say? What would my parents say?

"You were bathing in the spring of Artemis when we came upon you. The goddess only reveals it to those she wishes to bless with union."

Xena put a hand on the bard's near shoulder, drawing the blonde's eyes, as well as Felice's gaze, to her. "The Artemis spring?"

Gabrielle turned back to Felice. "I'd heard that was a myth."

"Only a special few ever see it, and those who do are immediately joined."

Xena shook her head. "It was just a pool of water. Obviously one your hunters miss frequently."

Felice stood. "If you don't believe, that's fine. But I tell you, the goddess has shown you her blessing." She looked down at Gabrielle. "To turn away a blessing from Artemis could harm your own village's future." She wiped her hands on a small towel and tossed it to the tabletop. "You are a queen, a Chosen of the goddess. It is your duty." With that Felice turned and walked away.

A young Amazon with leather laced through her braid, wearing a dark blue chiton stepped forward, looking at Gabrielle. "The queen is leaving?"

"Queen Felice is mistaken, I'm certain," Gabrielle tried. "It wasn't the Artemis spring."

"She is never mistaken. She has ruled as queen her entire adult life. Longer than anyone in the entire history of our village."

Gabrielle grasped Xena's hand. "Maybe it would be best if we left?"

"Please do not," the young Amazon pleaded. "Queen Felice can ask you some questions. You will learn about the spring. What it can do. What it means."

Gabrielle looked over her shoulder at Xena. The warrior faintly shrugged. "Well?" Xena said nothing. The bard turned back to the young Amazon waiting for a sign. "Please tell her I misspoke. We would like to talk more with her."

"I will."

"What's your name?"

"Delen. I chose it when I was joined to the Nation."

"That's a lovely name." Pause. "You weren't born among the Amazons?" Gabrielle put a hand on the young woman's shoulder.

"No. I was liberated from my father's home when I was seven. My mother is Ansala, the healer."

Xena looked at the rest of the room, anywhere but the bard's face at that revelation. Gabrielle's shocked gaze tried to meet hers. The warrior looked past the bard and said to Delen, "Thank you for conveying the message to Queen Felice."

Unaware of the situation, Delen simply nodded and smiled. "Certainly." She offered a deep bow, backed up, turned around and left them alone.

Forestalling Gabrielle's questions, Xena pressed her hand into the bard's and said quickly, "Let's go for a walk. Work off some of this breakfast."

Gabrielle followed as Xena led the way. The bard was unresisting and walked as if she might stumble at any moment. Xena put her other hand under the bard's elbow to steady her, and held her close, appearing to everyone else to simply be hugging the young Corinthian Amazon queen. She guided them to the quiet of a space between two close huts. The privacy she'd sought was definitely needed, as Gabrielle burst out in a shocked whisper the instant they were alone, "Captured in a raid? How barbaric."

"Gabrielle, the Amazons don't deal with males that often. How did you think they continued their heritage?"

The bard paused. "But --"

"It's true a lot of Amazons are widowed wives from surrounding Greek villages, but where did you think the younger ones came from?"

Gabrielle sat down on a nearby rough-hewn bench. "Children."

"Very few Amazons are blood related to other Amazons, Gabrielle. Didn't you realize that?"

"But Terreis and Melosa."

"Were unusual. Ask Ephiny sometime how the two came to be in Corinth. They're actually from Boeotia."

Gabrielle nodded. "I really don't know a lot about these people I'm supposed to be leading, do I?"

Xena crouched next to the bard. "Not surprising. Amazon history's interesting though. I thought once of being an Amazon too."

The issue became personal for the bard with that revelation. She ventured a guess, "After leaving Hercules?"

"No, after leaving Amphipolis when they threw me out 12 years ago. Where else was a young woman with warrior skills going to be appreciated?"

The frank, blunt answer filled in all the gaps for Gabrielle. She looked around for something to sit on, found a log rolled near the wall of a hut and settled to it. "What happened?" She looked up at the warrior and hoped for a nice, neat answer, knowing inside she wasn't going to get one. "What changed your mind?"

Xena leaned against the nearby hut wall and crossed her arms, then uncrossed her arms, fidgeting as much with the question as with the bard's steady expectant gaze. "A man I had led in Amphipolis came to me and said he'd fight with me.

"I tasted command, power, acceptance, Gabrielle." The warrior's eyes took on a faraway look, as she remembered those times, at once invigoratingly adventurous and terrifyingly dangerous. "I had thought only the Amazons could give me that, but here was this man who wanted to fight by my side. So I turned to lead the army he helped me recruit. Within a year I was leading a force of 5000 across southern Greece." She nodded back toward the dining hut. "Look at what Vera said. My name was known everywhere in Greece and beyond. I thrived on it. Fed on it, buried myself in it. It was fulfilling to hold so much power and knowing that I could do anything." Gabrielle nodded. One night when their lovemaking took a particularly dominating turn and Gabrielle had asked to stop, Xena had tried to explain the lure; Gabrielle herself had seen how attractive and easy Xena found violence, control, and power. The warrior turned away from Gabrielle, and commented solemnly, "It doesn't excuse what I did. I'm just telling you how it happened."

Gabrielle stood and walked to the warrior, grasping her arm in comfort. "I know. The Amazons admire you, y'know."

"They wouldn't if they really knew what I had done, instead of the cleaned up rumors."

"That's what legends are all about." She swallowed and sweepingly gestured, encompassing the Amazon camp. "Seems I too was under the impression of a few legends too many." She leaned back against the hut wall and closed her arms around herself. "I should know the answers. But Xena, I don't. How can I be so judgmental?"

"But things change," reminded Xena. "You can change them."

Gabrielle pushed away from the hut wall and waved the warrior off. "I'm nothing."

Grabbing the bard's hand as it fluttered, the warrior pulled her to her quickly. "No." Xena's voice was rough, determined. "Listen to me." Gabrielle met Xena's eyes as the warrior shook her head. "You have the power to do anything you want. If you want to stop raids that get new Amazons, you'll find a way to make them stop."

Sitting on a bench, the bard hung her head. "You seem so certain of that."

"I am certain of it. More than anything in my entire life, Gabrielle, I've felt what the power of your heart can do." She knelt at Gabrielle's knee. "Look at what you did to me." She grasped the bard's hands tightly. "As much as you love me, know that I love you just as much in return." She stood and drew the bard into a reassuring hug. "I'll do anything to help you."

Gabrielle hugged the warrior tightly. "This is important to you."

"It's important to me that you never give up," Xena replied. She lifted the bard's chin. "The minute you give up, I'm lost." She lowered her lips to the bard's and sought to quiet her uncertainties with a gentle kiss, as a gift instead of need, filled more with love than with passion.

They stepped from the quiet into the hustle of the Thracian Amazons' village. Following breakfast the village's day was definitely underway. Xena and Gabrielle noted the children at laundry basins and women hanging the wet leather and linens. They walked side by side back toward the dining hut. Delen was stepping out, having gone inside to look for them. As the tall warrior and the short blonde queen approached she waved them to her. Gabrielle and Xena walked up shoulder to shoulder. Delen spoke before they could. "She's anxious to meet with you both. She says she'll explain when we get there."

"What's going on?"

"I'll let Queen Felice fill you in."

"Has something happened?"

"We've had a scout from the western forest report an army coming this way."

Xena's ears perked up. "Whose army?"

"The Persians."

Gabrielle and Xena exchanged looks of surprise. Apparently the warrior's display at Tripolis hadn't been enough to keep the bloodletting army out of Greece for good. Xena grabbed Gabrielle's hand and requested brusquely, "Take us to Queen Felice."

Startled, but compliant, Delen nodded and moved to the front. She too hurried her step without appearing to do so. Only Gabrielle, with her shorter build had to put a quick spring in her step to keep up with her long-legged partner. Only Gabrielle realized Xena was distinctly worried.

Why had the Persians returned? The battle she and Xena had fought had seemed so final. Gabrielle, though ill from the poisoned arrow, had helped out as best she could. The warrior had been a magical thing, all fury and power and frightening. The Persians in that campaign had vanished, fleeing to their boats leaving no trace. The bard wondered the entire way to the queen's hut. Delen only nodded to the guards before pushing through the door and entering, Xena and Gabrielle were close on her heels.

Felice stood bracing her broad-shouldered body over a long table on which a large map was unrolled. Her hands were balled into fists and Xena noted a freshly splintered staff in the far corner. She studied Felice's face and knew the queen was just barely reining in her feelings. When Delen stood beside her, Felice reached out and took the woman's hand as she placed it on the map. Xena spoke first:

"When were they spotted?"

Felice looked up and Xena watched her pull her hand from Delen's. There was a time for solace and then there was a time for strength, Xena mused. Felice obviously was readying herself for strength. "The scout arrived just after you this morning."

"The western forest?" Gabrielle asked. "What's over that way?"

"There are a handful of Greek villages. She reported that some of the men were not Persian, but Greek."

"They're recruiting," Xena stated flatly. "For an attack."

"On us." Felice nodded. "I know of your skills, Warrior Princess. I would not ask assistance of guests, except..."

To ask would be humbling, Xena completed for the queen in silence. "Then don't. I'll do it anyway."

"I have my own troop commanders, but the Persians... we've never fought them."

Xena nodded. "Just take me there. I'll do what I can."

Gabrielle grasped Xena's arm, already feeling the growing tension, and battle-readiness the warrior let flow through her blood in advance of conflict. "I'm going with you."

"No."

"Yes."

Felice interjected. "Queen Gabrielle, I think it would be helpful if you worked with the healer."

Gabrielle looked from Xena to Felice, then back to Xena, who nodded. "I wish things were simpler," she said quietly. Then she let go of Xena's hand and turned to Felice. "Show me to your healer's hut."

"Go," Felice told Delen, who led Xena out of the hut. The Thracian queen then turned to Gabrielle. Felice led the way through the village. Around them, currently not on alarm, until a plan was in place, the Amazons continued to go about their business.

Chapter 4