Tempting Fates

Part 13

They had barely cleared the gates of the orchards when the ground shook under them again, and down the sloping road from the ridge came tumbling rocks and debris to shower them and panic both flocks and townsfolk. 

Xena saw the flow of debris coming out of the darkness and yelled a warning back over her shoulder, busy with keeping Tanto from bucking both of them off his back as he felt the earth shift under his hooves and let out a scream of protest.

“Stay behind the wagons!” Hercules called out. “Hold onto the sides!”

Tanto turned in a tight circle, ears pinned back to his head, as the motion continued for an endless moment and then finally, faded out. 

“Keep a tight hold on me.” Xena said, as she exhaled, and got the stallion moving up the road again. “No telling what this boy’s gonna do.”

“Easiest thing I’ve had to do all day.” Gabrielle had tied Spot’s leading rein to one of the brass rings on Tanto’s saddle and took a snugger grip on Xena with both arms, resting her chin on the edge of the scabbard lying diagonally across her back under her cloak.

Their progress, to her, seemed agonizingly slow. The night was very dark, and she was just barely aware of the paler stone surface under Tanto’s hooves as Xena leaned forward and stared into the shadows ahead of them, the sky overhead filled with lowering gray clouds. 

Gabrielle turned her body and looked behind them, seeing the two oil lamps in the front of the first wagon swinging back and forth and casting shadows up past the toiling form of Hercules, his face in darkness as he walked stolidly forward pulling the three massive, full wagons behind him.

She could see the outline of Iolaus coming up alongside, walking up from the second wagon to the first, his face lit with the torchlight as he tilted his head to speak to someone inside the wagon, his hand clamped around a branch he’d picked up as a walking stick.

Behind that, she could hear the bleats of the sheep and see glimpses of their pale wool coming through the orchards on the far side of the road, and hear the calls of the shepherd boys, faintly shaking with fear.  All the rest of the speech, the yelling, and the arguments had stopped, breath saved for the climb.

At least, she thought, the ash seemed to be thinning out, mostly arriving now as clumps and flurries, brought by gusts of wind that were changing direction in a disconcertingly random manner.

Far off, she could hear a rumbling sound.

Xena suddenly reached over her shoulder and took hold of her sword hilt, drawing it as Gabrielle shifted her head a little and moving to her right to see past and up the road. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing yet.” Xena muttered. “Just in case more rocks come flying our way.”

Ahead of them Gabrielle could see the faint outline of the road, and then overhead, in the distance, she could see now the edge of the sky past the ridge and it had taken on a faintly copper glow.  On either side of them, she could just see discarded objects, boxes and cloth, and a flash of bronze from an ewer.

Behind them she heard a boy shout, and then unexpectedly there was the sound of hooves coming fast and Tanto shied as a wooly form came out of the darkness, eyes white in terror, bleating as it ran past and into the shadows ahead of them, with a short, lithe form chasing after it.

“Let it go!” Xena called out.

The boy ignored her and kept going, bare feet thumping against the stone of the roadway, long crook held in one hand, disappearing up the road around a small bend following the escaping sheep. 

“What’s it running from I wonder?” Xena mused. “I didn’t see any predators in the area.”

“The sheep?” Gabrielle asked. “Could be pretty much anything but probably a wagon or someone walking bumped it.” She resettled herself behind Xena and exhaled. “Do you think..”

“Hold on.” Xena straightened up in front of her and cocked her head.  This close, even in the darkness Gabrielle could just see the twitching of her ears, and she almost held her breath, straining her own hearing to sort out what was on the wind.

Xena sheathed her sword, and then she reached down and untied Spot’s leading rein and let it drop. “Hang on.” She tightened her hold on Tanto and urged him forward, and the stallion went from a walk to a canter willingly, his feet thundering on the roadbed as they headed up the slope.

Gabrielle felt a sense of relief in the motion. It soothed the tension of impending doom in her, and would bring a resolution in a more expedient manner to whatever it was they were going to have to face that the alarm from the townsman had raised.

Ahead she could now see the ridge faintly outlined against the sky, and for a moment she could see a flicker of motion and then, over the noise of Tanto’s running, she heard the sound of yelling, a high pitched, youthful noise full of the sharpness of fear.

Surely, what Xena had heard minutes earlier.  The speed and the wind had lifted their cloaks and they were streaming out behind them, fluttering as they thundered up and towards the top of the escarpment and Gabrielle craned her neck to look out over Xena’s left shoulder as they topped the rise and came up onto the flats on the escarpment that overlooked the valley beyond.

Xena pulled Tanto up sharply, swerving at the last moment to avoid hitting the boy shepherd who was standing stock still, his arm thrown out and finger pointing. The horse stopped sideways, and they both looked out over the valley, which was lit with an angry, orange glow, the entire top of the mountain boiling over with it.

In the east, the blackness of the sky was lightening with a cloud obscured pre-dawn and from the mountain itself, a thick, roiling, flame infested cascade was emitting from a huge gap in the top of the cone, heading down the side and towards them.

For a very long moment, they were all shocked into stillness.  Even Xena, and as the wind shifted yet again and brought them the stench of burning reek Gabrielle felt the breath come out of her body where she was gripping her in an exhale of disbelief.

But only for a moment.  “Kid!” Xena bellowed, and pointed to the north, along the ridge. “RUN! Keep running! Don’t stop!” She moved the horse over a step and booted him in the shoulder, breaking his frozen terror. “MOVE!”

Then she yanked Tanto’s head around and they were plunging back down the slope, slipping and sliding on the ash covered surface as the horse struggled to keep his balance and stay on course.  Below them, they could see Spot trotting slowly upward, following their path and behind Spot, Iolaus was running to catch up.

“What is it?” Iolaus yelled, spotting them.

“Death!” Xena hollered back. “If you don’t get up here NOW!!”

“Herc!”

“I heard!! Get outta the way!” The demigod boomed. “People, keep up!”

“Getting!” Iolaus redoubled his speed and raced up past Spot, catching her leading rein with one hand and then, slowing for a moment, he reached up and grabbed the trap harness, pulling himself up onto the mare and urging her forward and towards where Tanto was now standing still, restlessly moving his feet and bugling.

Satisfied that her warning was being taken seriously, Xena turned Tanto again and urged him back to the summit scrambling up and over the top of the ridge and moving past it, controlling the animal’s terror as the catastrophic avalanche started across the valley towards them.

Once there, she sidestepped the horse over and cleared the road for the oncoming wagons and paused, staring across the plateau at the ground level roaring cloud coming towards them.  “Damn.”

Gabrielle turned her head and looked down the slope, where Spot was almost reaching them, and behind her, Hercules was leaning forward and almost running, the lines and traces straining visibly as the wagons lurched along twisting and leaning side to side.

The townsfolk were hastening alongside, holding onto the side of the wagons to help them move upwards, and in a panic at the back were the herd animals, following the wagons because that’s what they naturally did, stringing out in a line all the way back down out of sight in the gloom.

People were crying out in fear, not really understanding what there was to be afraid of yet.  A woman stumbled and fell, rolling helplessly down the slope and after a few looks, the rest moved on with out her. “Xena.”

“We can’t.” Xena said, in a very quiet tone.

Gabrielle let out a tiny, soft breath. “I know.” She said. “Are we going to make it out of here?”

Spot scrambled up next to them, pulling the wagon, and Iolaus leaned to look past them, as the dawn showed what was coming their way. “Zeus.” He said, after a shocked pause. “HERC!!!!”

“Lets get out of the way.” Xena grabbed hold of Spot’s bridle and they moved north on the narrow path that lay between the town and the city.   She turned to study the fire lit wave and they all felt the rumble of it’s oncoming presence, moving fast, faster than she’d imagined it would.

A glance at the lower level, where the city was spread out along the valley, stretching out below them, the road eerily empty, the gates closed.  To the south – dense trees and brush.

Then with a clatter of wooden wheels and a rush of motion behind them the wagons came trundling up over the ridge onto the escarpment, the townsfolk panting and stumbling and Hercules paused as he let the wagons slow and looked across the valley.

Then he turned his head and looked at Xena.

“We c..cant go on.” One of the traders gasped. “It’s too much.”

Bettina hopped off the back board of the first wagon and looked. “By the gods.” She said, into the sudden silence as the townsfolk saw what they were facing. “It’s the end of things.”

“C’mon, we’re moving.” Hercules threw himself back into the harness and started pulling the wagons forward. “Hold on if you can, jump in if you can’t – no one who stays here lives.”

They scrambled in panic. The sheep came flowing up over the ridge and seeing the valley below them, knowing it’s shape they bolted for it, with the boys chasing after them.

“I’ve got em.” Iolaus took hold of the reins hanging from either side of Spot’s harness and turned her, sending the horse forward after the boys. “Be right back.” He yelled as they broke into a gallop, the fancy trap bouncing and jumping behind them. “Hey!  Hey! Stop! Let them go!!!”

“Xe.”

“Yeah.” Xena said. “He’s got room to pick those kids up we don’t.” She backed Tanto out of the way as Hercules pulled the wagons past, and trotted to circle around the back, reaching out to help a man struggle up to land splayed across the edge of the wagon. “Grab him.”

Someone did.  Behind the last wagon the largest crowd of the townsfolk were just catching up, breathing hard, staring across at the mountain, gasping in shock and fear. “Just keep moving.” Xena said, bringing up the rear behind them. “We have to move faster.”

“Lets go everyone.” It was Petar, with his stable crew, four of them striding along hoisting a black shrouded flat surface on their shoulders. “March. We’ll make it through.” He glanced at Xena as they marched by ducking his head at her respectfully.

Xena watched their grim, stolid faces as they broke into a jog to keep up with the wagon, encouraging the flagging townsfolk and as they passed and cleared the view, they followed, bringing up the rear. 

Gabrielle looked down the slope as they moved away from the path to the north and in the faint gray of dawn she saw figures below them, bent over, one on their knees, too far away for her to even identify if they were men or women or if she knew them.

Then Tanto was trotting, and she held on to Xena, feeling helpless, turning her head to watch for Iolaus and Spot, who were coming even with the boys, circling them and waving as the sheep scattered away from the cart, frightened and started running in the wrong direction. 

They picked up speed, the wagons, now on a relatively flat surface picking up their own momentum as Hercules powered forward on the ridge road and they had almost reached the turn off to the city when the mountain suddenly exploded again, and now in the dim light they could see debris heading their way.

Flung high in the air, superheated rocks began falling from the skies and as they hit the ground, the set it alight, yellowed grass from the harvest bursting into flame. “Get on the far side of the wagons!”  Gabrielle called out, as she instinctively ducked her head, a small rock pelting her on the shoulder and bouncing off past Tanto’s haunches.

Xena pulled out her sword and swerved Tanto to the east of the townsfolk, getting between them and the flying objects as they scrambled to get the wagons between them and this new danger.  “If you have boxes, get them up!” She ordered. “Don’t let those rocks fall into the wagons!”

Torn between watching out for Iolaus, and yelling instructions at the townsfolk Gabrielle felt in herself a moment of utter frustration as the wagons rolled along, seeming to move at the barest creep and she sensed time moving inexorably forward. “Ggggggrrrrrr.” She issued a rumble of irritation.

“I hear ya.” Xena searched the sky intently, sending Tanto forward in time for her to reach up and deflect a glowing orange stone, sending it bouncing down the road to the city. “Wish I had one of Jessan’s big bastards here I need to be taller.”

Gabrielle heard the words, and the seemed to echo in her head just slightly, clearer than she would have thought possible given the chaos of the wagons and the sounds of the townsfolk calling out and crying.

They were cantering along the line and between one breath and the next, when Xena had just swiped another flaming stone away from the second wagon another horse was at their side, towering over Tanto and making the stallion start and nearly bolt. “Hey!” Xena yelled in shock, rapidly sheathing her sword. “What the…”

The horse arched his neck around and looked at her, flames reflected in the depths of his dark liquid eyes. He was black as night, had no harness, and as Xena drew in a breath of surprise, she recognized him.

“Is that..” Gabrielle did, at the same time.

“Yeah. Can you..”

“I can sure try.” Gabrielle unwound her grip on Xena’s middle and grasped the back of Tanto’s saddle, clearing the way for Xena to swing her leg over the horse and grab hold of the newcomer’s mane, shoving off from the saddle and onto the big beast and wrapping her legs around his thick barrel.  “Be careful!”

Now towering over her, Xena waved, and urged the massive horse forward, drawing her sword again and smashing an incoming pair of rocks.

Gabrielle slid forward and got her boots in the stirrups, grabbing for the reins as Tanto snorted and hip hopped under her. “Stop that!” She got the stallion under some kind of control and started riding him near the wagons, shouting instructions.  “Petar!”

“Here!” The stablemaster responded, ducking between the second and third wagon and jumping over the ropes that held them together.

“Get on those wagons and get whatever they have that is not burnable up as a blockade.” Gabrielle said. “You need shields!”

“Shields!” Petar yelped. “Yes! To deflect the firestones!” He turned and climbed up onto the second wagon, yelling instructions at the stableboys. “Come!” He waved them forward. “We will be warriors this night!” He reached down and hauled one of them up next to him. “Bring the alter top to the front, where the children are. That will not burn.”

His voice sounded exultant. The stableboys scrambled to do his bidding, now energized as they ran alongside the wagons and started to climb up their sides.

Gabrielle took a breath. Then she turned and urged Tanto forward into a canter as they heard another explosion across the plateau, and felt a rumble through the ground, and now the ground cloud that was flowing from the mountain was close enough to see it’s breadth.

Would they make it?

Below on slope to the city she could see Iolaus hauling the shepherd boys onto the cart as it moved away from the city, and they, too, could see the approaching cloud and the danger and were no longer protesting. The cart turned more radically towards them and started moving a lot faster, Spot accelerating into a gallop as the boys held on for dear life, and Iolaus laid down flat on Spot’s back, encouraging her.

Ahead of her, she saw Xena, on the back of the big black stallion she knew came from Ares, as he galloped with long, easy strides across the ground. She came even with Hercules just in time to knock aside an irregular shaped flaming piece of debris and as a second closed in she went from a seated position to standing on the animal’s back, wrapping both hands around her hilt and slicing the air so fast the blade was merely a blur.

“Faster!” Gabrielle yelled, cupping her hand around her mouth to project the sound. “It’s catching up to us!” She could hear the hissing sound of burning now, and the smell of burning stone that lit the very worse of her memories. 

But there was no time for memories now.  A lesson that life, and Xena had taught her, that there were times in life when you had to put all of what had ever happened and what would happen aside, and just be, and do. 

Now was that time. She raced alongside the wagons and caught up with the first one, in time to see the stableboys wrestle the wrapped long piece of something heavy over the edge of it, scrambling into the wagon and dragging it so it laid across the back and covered the heads of the cowering children who were huddled in the bottom of the wooden deck.

They pulled off the cover and in that moment several things happened.  Xena let out a yell of warning, and a sharp whistle, Tanto pulled up unexpectedly and almost sent his rider catapulting off, and a huge chunk of bright orange debris flashed past the stallion’s head and landed on the altar stone, only to be flung off with a violence that sent it flying far off in the other direction to set a tree on fire.

The stableboys stared at the altar, and at Gabrielle who had recovered her seat, and at the giant, red eyed stallion who was now rearing up and striking the rocks with its hooves.

Yeah. Gabrielle got Tanto moving again and they raced along the escarpment, as the debris rained down on top of them, and Spot hauled the cart at the top of her speed and the deadly fire shot gray wave of ruin coming down the slope of the mountain surged forward to intercept them.

The wagons moved faster, and now, near the front wagon, Gabrielle could see Hercules at a full run, his hands balled into fists, his jaws clenched, and a fire reflecting in his eyes as he used all of that strength he had in him to do what he could do.

Gabrielle rode alongside the wagon and yelled encouragement, committing to memory all the details in the moment, of the smell, and the sound, and the feeling of that gallop against her skin, and focusing on the ridge point ahead of them as the goal they were heading for.

Xena stood up on the black horse’s back and let the horse run undirected, deflecting the constant stream of debris that was now raining down around them, staying even with Hercules, carving a path in the rain of destruction and ignoring the onrushing flow of fire coming at them, aware that it was hitting the city, aware of the rumbling roar, keeping her focus intent on keeping that sword moving, keeping it intercepting the deadly rain.

In a rush of motion, Spot’s path converged with theirs, and the cart was careening ahead of them, with the shepherd boys holding on for dear life as they bounced in and out of the shallow deck.

The wagon surged past the ridge and Xena immediately dropped down onto the back of the black horse and turned him, galloping back to where Gabrielle and Tanto were and whirling to ride alongside them as the fire cloud enveloped the city and flowed past it, racing after them in a mindlessly voracious thundering roar and incredible speed as they surged past the edge of it by only steps and were past the ridge and it was flowing behind them to cast itself over the escarpment and down to the sea.

“Cave!” Iolaus hollered. “Shelter!”

Ahead of them was a craggy upthrust of rock, and an overhang and despite the slope Hercules hauled the wagons in that direction without hesitation and then they were under a granite slab with a rock slope to catch the falling fire debris that could do no harm, and they stopped.

Around them the sound and noise of the oncoming wave shattered the air, a cascading rumble as though of thunder as the ground shook around them.

The wagons settled into stillness, the people caught up, grabbing hold, stumbling, gasping and scurrying behind the wagons, putting the wood and iron structures between them and the horrific sound behind them, none of them curious to see what was happening, just grateful to be stopped, and under stone safety, reaching out to family and clustering together.

At the head of the wagons, Hercules stood, and with studied, deliberate motions divested himself of the horse collar and trappings he’d wrapped around his body, grimacing a bit at the welts and marks they’d left on his skin. The leather overtunic he’d worn had survived but was covered in ash and dirt and he stood and stamped a few times to put himself in order.

Iolaus slid off Spot’s back and led her forward a few paces, wincing as he walked. “Note to self.” He said. “Don’t ride on trap harness.” He came over and beat some of the ash off Hercule’s back. “Oh, boy.”

“Been a day.” Hercules commiserated. “Let’s go see what’s coming after us.”

“Hopefully nothing?” Iolaus sighed, plaintively. “I mean, c’mon.” He followed Hercules as he headed around the side of the wagon towards the entrance to the cavern.

Xena was the last one into the shelter and she had to duck to enter, glad to do so and get out of range of any of the remaining flying projectiles. She paused just inside the overhang and made a quick scan of the space, spotting Gabrielle on the far side of the wagons still mounted on Tanto and the trap with Spot in harness ahead of her.

So far, so good.

So far.  With a careful exhale, she tugged the black horse’s mane and turned him around to face the opening, peering out to watch the flow of destruction flowing past, aware in a flickering realization there were figures that were people, and possessions, and animals in the process of being immolated and if she hadn’t actually been in Tartarus, she would have imagined it to look just like this did.

Maybe, she thought, this was where that legend came from.  She saw a slowly rotating set of four thin legs come up and then crumble as they dissolved into the gray mass. The horror of it, she had to admit, stunned her, exhibiting a ferocity of disaster there was no mitigation for.

You could only run from this. She thought for a moment about the people she’d left sitting on the docks in the town and hoped briefly, that at least they’d never seen it coming.

The black horse nickered softly and lifted his head, spreading out his wide nostrils and breathing in the air, then giving his massive head a shake, shedding flakes of ash off his poll and mane.  His ears flicked backward and then forward in the expressive language of any ordinary horse.

“Yeah, that’s crazy huh?” Xena sidestepped him a few paces over and straightened, her eyes darting back and forth across the light slope they’d come up. She shifted her grip on her sword, and glanced briefly at it, it’s metal surface coated in char and full of dents she’d have to hammer out. “Crazy time for sure.”

Gabrielle stood up in her stirrups and raked the hair out of her eyes, blocking out the clamor from the townsfolk as she looked behind them, then carefully turning Tanto around so she could face the opening where she could see Xena outlined in the gray light from outside, leaning over so she could look past the imposing figure of the black horse to see what was happening beyond.

She urged Tanto past the back of the last wagon to get a better look, moving out past the townsfolk where she could get a clear view of the horror moving past, then a moment later wishing she hadn’t.

A gray scour, was the closest thing she could describe it as, a ground based rumbling cloud that cascaded down from the mountain after the initial wash of gray debris and rolled across the plain, and as she watched the scour surged and came up and washed over the city, an uncaring, unstoppable wave that poured over the buildings they’d been in just the day before and pushed debris ahead of it.

Just the day before, they had walked the streets, and been rained on, and talked to the baker and felt the shifting frenetic emotions of the crowds that went about the normal everyday business of life. She hadn’t really liked the city. Save the baker himself, she’d found them annoying.

Were they gone? Could anyone survive that?

Embedded in the onrushing flow, she could see the red of fire and knew the answer.  The wind was thankfully at her back, or else she knew the smell of it would be washing over them and Tanto shifted under her, his gray ears pinned back against his head.  “Let’s go see what mom thinks, buddy.” She gently nudged him towards Xena.

The stallion had no real desire to move any closer to the noise, but Xena meant safety to him so he carefully picked among the loose stones of the cave and they came up next to where the big black horse was standing, to all intents and purposes unimpressed by the sight, his red tinged black eyes taking in the scene calmly.

Tanto extended his head and touched his nose to the black horse’s seemingly taking comfort from his presence and in much the same motive, Gabrielle reached out and touched Xena’s leg. “Are we okay here?” She asked raising her voice a little to carry over the rumble of the wave.

“That’s what I’m trying to decide.” Xena responded at once. “I’m watching how far it’s spreading.” Her eyes were fastened on the scene. “Kinda like water.” She observed, with somber composure.

“Finds its own path.” Gabrielle concluded, glad to have some small piece of thought she could focus on that wasn’t all the people who were buried under that flood of deadly debris.  There was, she blinked a few times, looking at the scene, there was a similarity there to the spring floods in their own mountains from snowmelt.

“Yeah.” Xena agreed. “Takes the easiest route.”

Hercules came up next to them, with Iolaus and for a long moment the four of them just stood there, staring out over the slope, as the gray, seemingly never-ending destructive surge continued to roll over the city, and then downhill, hitting the edge of the escarpment and surging over it to pour down the road to the town.

Ahead of it was swept everything. Trees burst into flames as it touched them, collapsing under the pressure and grass was obliterated. Anything caught in front of it was gobbled hungrily as though the mountain itself was ravenous.

Gabrielle felt the tension in Xena’s leg relax, and she exhaled, concluding that meant that the immediate danger was, in fact, over. 

“Damn.” Hercules said, succinctly. “That is a whole lot of destruction.”

The rising sun came bleakly over the scene, showing deep blood red through the haze, outlining the mountain still fitfully emitting streams of yellow and red and orange along with the gray that had scorched the entire side of it facing them, and the ground between them in a broad swath of ruin.

“We’re high enough.” Xena finally said, quietly. “It won’t come past here.”

“Yeah. I’m glad.” Hercules responded in that same quiet tone. “They couldn’t have kept going much longer.” He glanced behind them at the townsfolk, who had collapsed around the wagons, some of them huddled underneath them, the wagons themselves having barely made it with pieces hanging off them.

“Look at that.” Iolaus almost whispered, as the trees in the area, and the forest, aflame, sent sparks into the air. “I’ve never seen anything like that in my life.”

Gabrielle could see the outline of the city, buried in debris, and as she slowly let out her breath, she tried to absorb the level of ruin. “Yeah.” She murmured. “Me either.”

Xena reached over and put a hand on her shoulder, and just left it there, a gentle pressure. From the corner of her eye, Gabrielle could see the char and burn on her fingers, and a quick glance over showed all her visible skin dusted likewise, and black rimmed holes in the fabric of the clothes she was wearing.

She had lost her cloak. There were burn marks along her face.

But those were superficial and the cloak was easy enough to replace. Gabrielle turned her attention away from the destruction and glanced around, looking back at the townsfolk. “Okay. So what’s our plan from here?” She asked. “We should probably see if everyone’s okay.”

They all shook themselves a little and brought their thoughts back to the immediate presence. “Right.” Iolaus plucked at his sleeve, half burned off from debris fallout. “Let’s go see what we need to do to get things organized.” He turned and headed back towards where the townsfolk were sheltered, and Gabrielle slid off Tanto’s back and followed.

Xena dropped down off the back of the big black horse and took hold of Tanto’s reins.  “Thanks buddy.” She gave the larger animal a scratch on the shoulder. “I think you can go home now.”

“Wherever that is.” Hercules remarked wryly. “I assume he came from Ares?”

She shrugged. “He rode to war with us.” Xena ruffled her fingers through the horse’s mane, ridding it of debris. “He’s a good boy.”

The black horse turned its head and regarded her with what could only be described as benign affection.  He snuffled her shoulder and for a moment they exchanged breaths.  Xena went to her saddlebags attached to Tanto’s saddle and fished out a piece of wrinkled pear, offering it to him.

The horse looked, if anything, amused, but he nibbled the pear, and then bumped her, and walked away, moving out of the shelter of the cave and up into the path away from where they were.  As Xena and Hercules watched he reached the summit of the ridge and then just faded out.

Hercules turned his head and regarded her. “I think he likes you.” He said, as though disappearing horses were a daily occurrence. “Does he have a name?”

“Not that I know of.” Xena exhaled. She took a cloth from her saddlebag and wiped her blade down as best she could, then sheathed it, feeling the slight grinding along the palm of her hand from the dents in its surface. “If he shows up again maybe I’ll give him one.”

They both turned and looked out over the valley again, as the rumbling slowly eased, and the river of destruction slowed and settled and became the new reality.

Hercules exhaled. “Thanks for being a shield.” He clapped Xena on the shoulder. “That was a lot of work.”

“Not as much as your hauling.” Xena responded. “I just didn’t feel like you getting pegged in the noggin was going to end up with us in any good place. The rest of us couldn’t haul that wagon and that horse collar was too small for my big horsey friend.”

“No time to think about anything else. Another quarter candlemark and we’d have been caught in it.” He responded calmly. “I really wasn’t in the mood to be fodder in anyone’s scam today.”

“Hear ya.”

They both turned and started back toward the wagons, with Tanto trailing after Xena.   The cavern, such as it was, was shallow but deep enough to give space for the three conveyances, not really a cave as such just an outthrust of rock overhead and a rock-strewn scrub grass covered ground without much else.

The townsfolk were recovering from their mad run up the slope and across the ridge and now some were clustered around where Iolaus and Gabrielle were standing sorting through supplies and bringing some order to the proceedings.

The shepherds were sitting on the ground near the trap, looking glum, having lost their charges and to one side Xena could hear the owner of the sheep wailing at losing them, their only currency.

Several townsfolk had gone to the opening and were looking out. Bettina was one of them and she turned and trudged back over to where Xena was standing and looked up at her. “That man who came, he was right.” She said. “That came from Tartarus. From the mouth of Hades.”

“No.” Xena just shook her head. “Tartarus isn’t like that.” She felt the silence after she finished speaking and after a moment, she looked at Bettina who was staring at her with a mixture of skepticism and doubt. “What that mountain did, it’s done before.”

The woman turned around and just walked away, and Xena shrugged.  “Where’s the best place for these folks to go?” She asked Hercules. “We can’t stay here long. There isn’t going to be any hunting for leagues. And we wouldn’t have even had water if you hadn’t hauled it.”

 “Lemme think about that.” He said, scrubbing his fingers through his hair. “North. We can’t go south. Let me see if I remember what the first decent size place north is.” He walked over to the trap and started rummaging in the packs he’d brought.

Xena found a large boulder near the back wall of the shelter and sat down on it, content to watch the activity for a few moments. But after that she pulled her sword out of its sheath and removed her sharpening stone from the pouch at her belt and set to work on its edge.

Petar came over and knelt next to her. “May I help?”

Xena paused and glanced at him. He had his hands clasped on his knee and there was supplication but no expectation in his expression. “Yeah.” She decided. “In that wagon there’s an armorer’s kit. Can you grab it and bring it over here? I gotta bang out some of these.” She pointed at a dent.

“Of course.” He got up and hurried over to the trap, moving around the other side as to not disturb Hercules and peering cautiously under the ground cloth that was covering it.

The cloth had burn holes in it but was mostly intact, and Xena made a mental note to thank Gabrielle for thinking of doing that.  She steadily worked the burrs out of the edge of the metal as she watched the stable hands moving around in the second wagon, carefully looking at its structure around where they had placed their precious altar top.

The smallest of the children, sheltered there, were curled up in sleep.

One of the sheep herder boys had gone to a hanging net inside the third wagon and pulled it out, looking around and then trudging over to where Spot was quietly standing, putting handfuls of the hay inside the net down at her forefeet.

Spot snuffled at the boy’s ear and faintly, he smiled, then he headed over to where Tanto was standing behind where Xena was perched, his lips pulling at the very sparse ground cover.  He regarded the horse, then he picked up a rock and pounded the edge of the hay net into a crack near Tanto’s head and walked off.

“Thanks.” Xena called after him.  The boy turned and looked at her, and then after a moment, he waved a little and then kept moving away.

Tanto gave up the scrub and pulled some stalks of hay out, and munched them, watching her as she worked.

**

Gabrielle leaned against the cart, finding it hard to believe it was just midmorning, not even yet noon when it felt like the day had already lasted far longer than that. She reached over the side of the cart and removed the waterskin from her pack and took a sip from it, watching over the activity in the cavern.

There were a total of fifty people that had made it to the top of the ridge with them. She thought that they had started with more, but one of the carters had told her he’d seen several drop back and fall on the slope, and some had been unable to keep up when they got to the steep part of the hill.

Everyone was really too tired to feel anything about that. They had all gone out to the edge of the cavern and looked out and down to what had been the city, and the thick, gray, steaming ground cover that filled the space between the city and the path that had led to their homes.

The heat, for those who had gone down the slope a little to see it closer, was unbearable. The rumbling and crunching was still audible as the material still moved forward, the effluvia not yet quiesced from the mountain, they could see a thick cloud around the top again, and flashes of vivid orange from time to time.

There was no going home. They couldn’t even approach the escarpment, and it was a mystery as to when if ever, the path would be able to go down to the sea again.

Everything was gone. Gabrielle felt some sympathy for these people, remembering when her own home village had been destroyed by raiders and left destruction in its wake. But she also remembered in that case, there was retribution taken, and the men who had killed had themselves been killed for it, many by the edge of Xena’s sword.

Here there was no retribution to be taken. This was not an enemy that could be faced. These were just survivors who had lost most of what they had, in some cases, lost family, and friends, and weath and livestock and there was nothing to be done but find another place and start anew.

That hurt. Gabrielle could feel it. She could see the men, and the women, in mid speech, turn away and pause, when tears would take them over because the grief was new, and overwhelming and she knew what that felt like.  So now she rested her forearms against the trap, listening to Spot munching on hay, smelling the burned scent of where the debris had hit everything and wishing, just wishing, she was home.

She really didn’t want to carry the weight of the grief of these people.

Footsteps crunched lightly behind her and then Xena was there, pressed up against her back, draping her arms over her shoulders and bringing the only comfort she could in the situation which was her presence, and their love. And that was a port in their current storm.  She turned in the circle of Xena’s arms and returned the hug, surrendering herself to it.

There was such peace there. She could forget the people around them and the problems they were facing and the what challenges they would find in getting this group of townsfolk to a place where they could start over and just think about how beautiful Xena was, and how very, very brave, to ride between the escaping group and utter devastation.

She stood there breathing for a few minutes, aware of the faint disassociation and the brief flashes of memory that were starting to assemble in her mind and how this would, at the end of the day, become a story she told, imagining her doing that, at home, in the meeting hall in the Amazon village, surrounded by enthralled warriors and bright eyed kids.

Including hers.

It made her smile, and she felt her body relax as she imagined a future state for them, full of Dori’s squeals and the taste of Cyrene’s ale and the smell of evergreens and the cool air of fall in the mountains.

She tilted her head and looked up at Xena, who was watching what was going on over her head with a faint smile on her face, content to stand there as long as Gabrielle had a mind to. “Do we have a plan?”

“I think so.” Xena replied. “Herc remembers a pretty big town two days north of here, where he thinks there’s a place for them. Then we can cut west around the back side of that mountain and pick up a ship to cross the Adriatic.

“Will that be safe?”

“If we stay on the lower slopes, yeah.”

“Another ship huh?” But Gabrielle smiled. “Just kidding I’m fine with it. Faster way to get home because there’s no telling how much trouble we’ll get into if we go by land.”

Xena made a little grinning face. “Probably true.” She admitted. “The stable guys want to come with us.”

Gabrielle started laughing silently. “That’s a surprise.”

“I may just give them directions.” Xena said. “But I think if we stop at that town, they might find that a better landing.”

“Keep telling yourself that hon.” Gabrielle bumped her head against Xena’s chest.

“No seriously.”

“So what did you tell them about that big horse that showed up from nowhere and vanished?” Gabrielle changed the subject. “Don’t tell me no one mentioned him.”

“I didn’t.” Xena replied with dignity. “What am I supposed to tell them, Gabrielle?” She saw the twinkle in the eyes looking up at her. “I don’t know where he came from, and I don’t know where he went back to.”

Gabrielle was briefly quiet. “I think Ares sent him.” She then said. “I think he said, he couldn’t be involved, but if asked, he would probably say it was a loophole because no one said he couldn’t send a horse.” She concluded, with a frown. “But you can’t really tell people that because it sounds weird.”

Now it was Xena’s turn to laugh silently. “What are YOU going to tell people about that horse when you tell that story, Gabrielle?”

“That you have animal magnetism.” Gabrielle lifted the water skin. “Here, have some water. I hope there’s a spring or a river in our path because those casks are not going to last long.” She handed off the waterskin and they separated, coming to stand shoulder to shoulder behind the cart as they watched Hercules and Iolaus argue with the men of the town.

**

It felt like the day had already lasted two days at least, and the outside view, dank and gray and full of smoke and steam was singularly unappealing.  Gabrielle studied the sky, and through the overcast she caught a brief glimpse of the sun hidden in obscurity, but definitely trending to the west.

So this long day was drawing to a close at last. They had a dark night to get through, and then in the dawn they would leave the shelter and move on.

Across the overhang, the men of the town were working on making the wagons as roadworthy as they could, repurposing staves from one of the expended barrels of water to brace the battered axels and rope to stiffen the spokes of the wheels that had started to come apart in the wild race up the slope.

The wagons had been unpacked to be reorganized, and the bales and boxes made a small corral for the children, who were sitting in bewildered exhaustion, not really understanding what had happened to their orderly lives, tired and hungry and scared.

She pondered them, remembering in her own past when the upheaval of hers and Xena’s lives had put their own daughter in the same situation of danger and uncertainty and disruption.

But Dori was different. A faint smile appeared on her face. Dori had accepted all of the things the Fates had sent their way with a child’s wonder.  She would not have been sitting there in that circle of children, she would have been roaming around, stealing a ride on a horse, looking around for the sheep, asking her mother a thousand questions about mountains that blew up.

Gabrielle chuckled and turned, roaming herself along the wall of the shelter they were in, moving along the edge of it and exploring some of the rocky niches and folds in this upthrust of stone until she found a bend just inside the overhang.

A flat bit of ground, covered in dusty scrub grass, with a little angle that let you stand against the wall there, and just look out at the desolation, partially out of the view of the rest of the cavern.  With a grunt, she went back over to the small trap standing nearby.

They had moved the two horses to the far end of the shelter, and Xena had tidied up the ground they were standing on and was talking to Petar, while some of his stable hands loitered in the background, ears pricked to catch any of the conversation.

The townsfolk were collecting what supplies they had on the end of one of the wagons and sorting out anything edible they’d brought with them and Gabrielle thought she could smell the acrid bite of salt cured fish in the air.  She retrieved her saddlebags and Xena’s from the trap and slung them over her shoulders then carried them back over to the little niche she’d found.

Kneeling down on the scrub grass, she removed some of the camping gear from their pack and spread out one of the hides in the space, pausing to look up as she heard the far off rumbling of thunder.  A gust of wind blew across the cave entrance, the stench of the volcano strong on it but also a cold edge that smelled of rain.

Gabrielle removed a second hide from the pack and wedged the edges of it into cracks in the rock wall to make a windbreak, lining the packs up against the bottom of it and then settling down with her back to the stone, glad of a chance to just sit down.

She pulled her pack over and dug inside it, removing her diary and a set of quills and ink and setting them to one side, then adding a neatly wrapped trail bar next to it.  She leaned back and extended her legs out across the hide, crossing her ankles and lifted her diary up and setting it on her lap.

This was one of those days where anything she wrote would just be slightly ridiculous but she unrolled her quill case and took out a quill and a carefully stoppered clay bottle of ink and flipped open the diary to a clean page and paused to think how to start.

Well. She wrote, after a moment. Here we are, with what remains of the town we were staying in, on a hillside, where we hid after escaping a horrible, destructive outflow from the mountain that destroyed everything from it to the sea.

Kind of a bummer day.

It all just started to spin out of control last night, after we got back from the city. Everyone was panicking. No one really knew what to do in the town, and some of them went up to the city because the priests of Illumos there promised to protect them.

Gabrielle brushed the end of the quill against her lips, the faint smell of mint from it’s surface making her smile just a little.

I don’t think that happened. You can’t even see the city anymore its covered with debris and fires everywhere. The fire river flowed all the way across from the mountain and down over the escarpment over the town too. Everything is black or gray or burning and you can smell it. The edge of it came all the way to the bottom of the little slope we ended up on.

Xena said, well, it was fast. They wouldn’t have much chance to know what was going on before it was done. I remember how fast it was coming when we were running and I think she’s right about that it was on us almost before we could get past it.

We’re going to guide the people from the town to another town a few days north of here, and then head home. They are really still in shock I think from what happened. Most of them are sitting quietly, just staring off – less than a day ago they were in their comfortable homes, with their families and their livestock and what must have seemed like an endless future in front of them.

It had been a good harvest, they said.

Now most of them are gone. All of their animals are gone. Some of the people were lost in the escape, and now they’re buried under the debris river. They lost everything but the people who made it here with them and whatever was in those wagons.

Life is hard. 

But maybe the town to the north will be welcoming and help them, and they can start over.

Gabrielle unfolded the waxed covering of the trail bar and took a bite of it. It tasted of berries, and nuts and the spices of home and was comforting all out of proportion to what it was. She chewed it slowly, savoring the familiarity.

Then she dipped the quill in and refreshed the dark liquid at its tip. At least, I guess they have the comfort of being able to blame.. something for bringing this on them. A god, or gods, or the Fates. They didn’t make a knowing choice to leave their homes behind and walk into the unknown for no logical reason – like I did.

Do they blame Hercules, still? For not stopping it? He saved as much as he could for them. As big as those wagons are, it would have taken three teams of six, or maybe eight horses or oxen to pull them. They should be thanking him but I heard them arguing about everything they lost.

The sound of horse hooves on the ground made her look up from her diary, to see Xena leaping onto Tanto’s back, the horse’s halter untied from the stake she’d pounded into the stone wall.  A moment later he was picking his way across the rock littered ground over to where she was sitting.

“What’s up?” Gabrielle asked, as the gray stallion arrived with his rider.

“I’m going to ride out north to the ridge line.” Xena said. “See if I can collect some firewood.” She glanced behind her. “Weather’s coming in.” She was neatly looping a length of rope into a precise circle and tying it to her belt. “If I find anything you up for doing something with it?”

“You think you will?”

“No. Everything with a single wit will have gotten the Hades out of here but you never know.”

“Maybe a sheep’ll have gotten away and is wandering around out there.” Gabrielle responded. “They don’t have much in the way of wits.”

“Maybe.”  Xena smiled, and made a clicking noise with her tongue, urging Tanto into motion. “I’ll see if I can bring some fodder back for them at any rate.” She ducked her head to exit the overhanging shelter and turned to the right, moving more quickly as she disappeared over the rise to the north of them.

Out of habit, Gabrielle pulled her bags over and hunted inside them, removing the worn leather satchel that held her cooking gear and all-important spice bag. A lemon rolled its way out as she rummaged, and she set it aside, it’s bright, tangy scent making her nose twitch.

Thunder rumbled again, this time sounding a bit closer.  She closed her diary and slid it inside her saddlebag along with the quill and ink and went to their travel case to remove the folding water bucket, shaking it open and taking it around the corner into the open ground.

She turned and looked at the upthrusted rock facing, then she walked over to a crease in the stone where the surface was weathered, and set the folding bucket down with its rim pressed against the end of the fold. She glanced up at the sky, which was growing darker and gave a brief nod.  “No sense in wasting a good rainstorm.” She dusted her hands off and went back inside.

**

Xena could feel the moisture in the air as she cantered along the ridgeline moving north in the direction they would travel in the morning.  It was wide open and desolately empty as far as her eyes could see, mostly stony or scrub covered ground on either side of worn wagon path but to the left, there was a line of short, twisted trees that might be useful.

Tanto seemed happy to be out from under the cave, and equally happy to be faced into the wind now coming from the north, which lacked the stench of the volcano’s eruption. Xena sympathized with that, and she settled into the ride, judging the rumbling of a storm coming in behind them.

The air was getting colder, and as she reached the ridgeline, it provided a windbreak as the branches of the trees whipped randomly in the wind.  She rode along the trees until she found a likely entrance into the thickly clustered trunks and pulled Tanto to a halt.

The trees were short here, with twisted branches from withstanding the sea winds coming ashore, and the ground had a somewhat sparse covering of grass that Tanto immediately took advantage of.   Xena loosely tied his halter reins to an outthrust branch and removed her ax from the ring on her saddle. “All right buddy, be right back.”

She eased between the trees and searched for dry, hard branches, reaching down to pull up already fallen ones and tuck them under her arm.  Being fall, the sap was already withdrawing and there was some good branches to choose from and it wasn’t long before she had a reasonably good collection, now braced along one shoulder.

 Her breaking a lower branch startled something into motion and she looked quickly up, to see a small hunting bird fly off and that gave her some hope there might be something she could find for them to eat.

The food supplies the townsfolk had brought had been limited. They’d loaded mostly cherished valuables in the wagons and Xena understood that from a human level but with all the scraps they’d collected they would have, at most, a meal for the night and some leftovers for the morning. 

She had no intention of taking anything from them – She and Gabrielle had travel bars with them and various snacks they’d stashed in their bags but something hot after the long day they’d had would serve them better. There had been no time for dinner the previous night and she was hungry.

With two big armfuls of likely firewood, she made her way back to Tanto and lashed the bundles to the back of his saddle and put away her ax.  Then she moved quietly a bit further north and started into a different section of trees, sliding one of her daggers out and holding it in her hand to the ready as she silently placed her boots and tilted her head to focus her hearing.

There wasn’t much depth to the forest, they went to the edge of the escarpment that further down had led to the town and here just fell down as seaside cliffs to the water below, but there was a dense layer of leaf litter and dirt and the faintest hint of squirrels and rabbits in the air and so she focused on listening for the scratch of nails against tree bark, and the low thump of paws against the earth.

Sounds came to her, but they weren’t the ones she expected.  Instead of small critters, something larger and clumsier was moving in the trees. Her nose twitched picking up the scent of woodsmoke, and she moved in the direction of those soft noises of motion and a faint mutter of speech.

Low and male.  More escapees from the volcano? Xena slid around the dense tree trunks and kept herself downwind, her clothes blending into the forest as the gray and shifting light filtered dimly through.  She closed in on the sounds, pausing a moment as she heard the faint thump of a rabbit very nearby.

“There!” A hissing whisper. “Get it! Throw yer knife!”

She quickly knelt and no sooner had her knee hit the earth a brown fur covered form bolted right into her arms and hit her in the chest.  She grabbed it by the back fur and then without compunction dropped her dagger and got hold of the rabbit’s neck, twisting it and breaking it as it scrabbled against her body.

It went limp.  She retrieved her dagger and waited, listening to boots crunching in the underbrush coming towards her.  No telling who the men were, after all. Could be refugees, could be roaming hunters, could be brigands.

“Missed it! Damn!” The whisper was a little louder. “It’s gone now, probably in a burrow. Forget it. Let’s go back.”

Xena stood up, sliding her dagger into her sheath and getting a piece of leather gut around the broken neck of the rabbit, securing it to her belt on the back of her left hip to keep it out of the way.  Then she stood next to the tree she was partially behind and just rested her hand on the trunk, breathing silently.

The boots retreated. “Yeah, lets just eat what we got.” The voice returned, this time not a whisper. “We can hunt tomorrow, when we get further outta here. Or we find some suckers to steal from.”  The words devolved into a chuckle, and two, and then two more voices joined in the laughter. 

“Yeah.” A different voice said. “We got plenty of that wine they gave us and that smoked goat.”

Xena stepped around the tree and moved after them, following the sound of the voices towards a crackling fire nearby, finding some vague familiarity in the tones of the men.  She stalked them until they stopped, finding a vantage point behind a larger, wider trunk of a thick old tree and peering past a sturdy branch to see their camp.

Five men. Dressed in basic tunics and trousers, with thick, good quality boots. On their arms were various silver and gold bracelets, and one, the tallest man, had a twinkling studded ring around his neck.  Xena stayed there very still for a moment, searching her recent memory for where she’d seen these men before.

They sat down on a fallen tree trunk behind a roughly made fire circle, the ground cleared for it, and a makeshift shelter built behind them out of finely embroidered waxed cloth shot through with silver thread. An odd mix of possessions for men camping wild in the brush.

The tall man extended his legs out and crossed them and braced his hands on the log. “Our timing was right on target.” He said, with a satisfied tone. “That was a good scam you pulled, Regas, saying we had to have solitude yeah? To pray and all that.”

“Needed time.” The man addressed said briskly. “We had to get out of there with the loot, before it was too late.” He brushed his hands off. “Good job you found that tunnel out past the gate, Baldar. It was close. But we got enough to last us a couple years!”

“It was a good haul.” The tall man agreed.  “Yeah, glad we sealed that up after us.”

One of the other men leaned forward and looked at the tall man. “Hey, can we burn those yellow robes now?” He asked. “We don’t really wanna be caught with them do we?”

“No one’s gonna catch us. Everyone back there’s not gonna say anything.” The shorter man next to him laughed and shoved him in the shoulder.

Xena blinked, and the recognition solidified. The priests of Illumos? She stared at them. Yes. The tall one and the one who had just spoken were the ones in the town getting people to go up to the city before the volcano exploded.

“Nah, hang on to them.” The tall man said. “We can pull this scam again – let it die down till after winter. We can roll it up again when we get to those nice little fish towns in the east.” He stretched. “We can tell em we were the only ones Illumos found worthy to save if anyone asks.”

Xena stood there breathing quietly, thinking about all the people up in that city who now lay dead in an endless layer of unspeakable, dense, spew who had put their faith in these men.  She hadn’t known most of them, but she felt sure she’d known some of them, the well-off men and women of the town, the merchants who had gone to the city for safety.

She felt no obligation to them. She had done all she could to help all who decided to listen to Hercules. She had not made their choices for them but had risked her skin and Gabrielle’s in getting those who wanted to go, out. She was not responsible for those who stayed behind.

But this deliberate fabrication, this holding out of false hope – that offended her internal sense of justice.  They had robbed those petitioners, as foolish as she felt they had been, and then left them there to perish while they escaped.

Was that something she would have done, in the worst of the times and the worst of the person she’d been? Xena studied the bark in front of her, tracing the cracks and the patterns in the skin of the tree.  No she would not have.   She might have set the entire town on fire and killed everyone in it if that suited her goals, but not that.

She couldn’t let that stand.  Not when they were cheerfully planning to do it all over again to some other unsuspecting town. The person she was now wouldn’t allow it.

With a faint nod, she studied the camp, found her path in the undergrowth, judging angles, deciding whether to step into the light of the fire and let them know what was coming or not.

Not. Xena smiled. They didn’t deserve to plead or explain or bluster, and she suspected they would bluster and posture and she had no time for that. 

She stepped silently out from behind the tree and slunk through the branches, letting the yellowing leaves of autumn slide across her shoulders as she circled the camp and came up behind the old trunk of the tree where the five men were seated, three on the log, two on the ground leaning back against it.

She broke two still green branches and folded them down to give her tall figure a clean view, and then she drew her sword from its sheath, this blade that had battled so fiercely the night before to keep flaming debris off the people escaping and she took a breath, her fingers closing in a familiar grip around that painstakingly crafted hilt.

Then slowly she let out the breath, and then in motion both fluid and ethereally unstoppable, she came out of the trees and let out a bloodcurdling yell, as she took a two handed grip and swung the sword in a powerful motion across the breadth of her body and in that one swipe took off the heads of the three men seated there before they could even turn to see what the sound was.

Their bodies fell over sideways, sprawling in the dirt, spouting blood from their necks as the two seated scrambled up in panic and one was spitted in the heart as he stood, and the second found Xena’s dagger bisecting his throat in mid scream.

It was all over in a hand of heartbeats and then Xena was left there standing alone, standing in that woodland wild camp, her sword held easily in her right hand, her victims tumbled in a lifeless heap in front of her.

The campfire crackled on, unfazed.  Xena waited a minute, to see if there were any other members of their little troop in the area to come running to rescue, but a silence fell in the area, any creatures still and hidden after the sound of the screams. 

She walked over to the waxed fabric tarp and cleaned her blade on it, leaving lurid red rust stains on its surface and feeling a sense, as she did sometimes, of a right choice.  Not right in the eyes of the law, or in the view of others, but in her own internal judgement.

She sheathed the sword and then walked to the other side of the camp, where a well-built, finely finished hand cart was sitting, covered securely in well waxed hides and tied and as she bumped her hip against it, the faint sound of coin hitting coin was distinct.

“Huh. Let’s see what we can do with this.” Xena turned and started scouring the makeshift camp, retrieving anything she thought might be useful to the townsfolk, and after carefully putting out the campfire, she looped the shoulder brace of the cart around her neck and lifted the shafts of the handcart, moving back through the trees.

**

Tanto was watching for her return, his head swung around to face the trees, one ear cocked backwards as a low rumble of thunder rolled across the sky.  He extended his neck as she arrived in front of him, snuffling her shirt curiously.

“Hey buddy.” Xena exhaled and tipped her head back, studying the sky, which was still a dark gray, almost opaque.  If she cocked her ears, she could hear in the distance the sound of wood fire, and on the wind she could smell the stench of burning – trees, grass, and on the edge, flesh. “Wish we were outta here, Tanto.”

Her stallion pulled a little on the reins that were fastening him to a nearby tree limb as if he agreed and Xena figured in fact that was probably the truth.  “Yeah, gimme a minute. I gotta figure out how to pull this thing behind us.”

She rooted in her saddlebag and found a coil of rope and quickly made a makeshift trace across the handrails of the cart, pausing when she heard in the distance the sound of hoofbeats. Then she quickened her efforts, and got the rope tied off to her saddlebow. 

A sharp tang of copper came to her nose and she glanced down, to see the front of her shirt liberally splattered with blood, and looking further down, dark crimson was splashed across her boots.  “Not much I can do about those, but I think I’ve got a spare in here…”  She rooted inside her bag and tugged out a folded, dark green tunic, which unfolded released the smell of home.

She stripped off her stained overshirt and stuffed it into the saddlebag, then pulled the fresh one on. “No sense freaking everyone out by showing up covered in gore, huh boy?

Tanto snorted.

“Yeah, I hear ya.” Loosening the reins from the tree limb, she got up on Tanto’s back and turned him, heading him back along the tree line, her ears listening to see if the hooves were coming closer.  “Stop that.” She tapped the horse on his neck as he kicked out a back leg, disliking the cart bumping along behind him. “C’mon this won’t take long.”

As they angled away from the tree line, the wind began to gust across the hillside and as she listened, the hooves she’d heard faded off into the distance, and she relaxed a little, urging Tanto a little faster as sporadic rain drops started to patter against her skin.

****

Iolaus settled himself down next to Gabrielle, leaning back against the wall and exhaling. “Y’know…” He said. “Sometimes I wish people weren’t so…”

“Peoply.” Gabrielle concluded. “Yeah, me too.” She offered him one of the trail bars. “What are they arguing about now? I would have thought the relief of escaping from death would have settled everyone for a while.”

Iolaus unwrapped the bar from its leaf protection and turned it around in his fingers a few times. “How to approach this town we’re heading for.” He said, taking a bite from one end. “They don’t want to seem like they’re beggars.”

Gabrielle looked at the group standing near the back wall of their rock shelter, and then she looked at Iolaus, her face silently expressive.

“Yeah, I know.” Her friend agreed mournfully. “I don’t know. I kind of get it. They want to feel like they bring something to the table I guess.” He chewed in silence for a moment. “It’s kind of how Herc and I felt when we came into the town. We weren’t looking for a handout. But we showed up with just us and a couple of backpacks.”

“You wanted to be seen to have value.”  Gabrielle smiled wryly, wiggling one booted foot. “Yeah, for a long time with the Amazons – ugh that was hard for me. I knew most of them tolerated me because of tradition.”

“They got over that.”

“Oh yea, they had no real choice.” Her eyes twinkled a little. “We went on a journey together and ended up in a good place. But I get where these guys are coming from too.” She scanned the cave idly. “What about those shepherds?” She asked with a little nod in the direction of the boys. “They have family here?”

They were along the back curve of the space, squeezed in where the roof of the enclosure came down to the earth, a little way from the rest of the townsfolk, just sitting with their arms clasped around their knees. They each had a small bag tied to their worn belts and no other possessions.

Iolaus sobered. “No.” He said. “They’re brothers, I guess, or cousins.  Their family were travelers, and their wagon got ransacked by ruffians on the road just past the city. There were three men and two women with them, all of them were killed. The kids ran away in the fight and ended up coming down the escarpment to the town.”

He glanced over and saw her raised eyebrows. “They were.. maybe six to seven years old?” He said. “Town felt bad for them, so they let them work for their keep with the livestock.”

After a moments silence, Gabrielle cleared her throat. “No one thought of adopting them?” She asked, keeping her tone mild.

“You know, I wondered about that.” Iolaus said honestly. “Good looking kids, hard workers, it surprised me but Bettina told me it just wasn’t something they did, with outsiders.” He said. “They lived out with the flock, mostly. Took shelter in a little corner of the inn barn sometimes.”

She drew in breath to say something, then just grunted softly. 

“Where did Xena go off to?” Iolaus changed the subject. “I saw her ride out.  Scouting?”

“Firewood.” Gabrielle said. “And maybe something for me to cook over it, with any luck, though she was pretty sure most animals would be long gone out of the area.”  She folded her arms over her chest and slowly exhaled.  “I think she just wants to be out of here.”

“Right there with her.” Iolaus agreed instantly. “Herc and I were talking about that, about leaving now and just riding through the night.” He hiked one knee up and circled it with his arms. “Some of those people are still recovering though. The elders.”

“Yeah.” She glanced outside, hearing the faint patter of the beginning of rain, the gray sky lowering in over them in an eerie counterpoint to the thick clouds of the night before. “Let me see if she’s heading back here. It’s getting gross outside.”

She stood and swung her cloak over her shoulders, sliding the hood up to cover her head as she stepped out from the overhang and moved into the clear area nearby, shading her eyes with one hand as she walked up to the little rise and peered over it, towards the edge of the escarpment.

Then she frowned. “What the heck?” She could clearly see Xena coming, riding on Tanto who was laden down with firewood but behind her was trundling a gilded hand cart being pulled along with a rope tied across her saddlebow. “What did she find?”   

She broke into a jog heading in that direction, as the rain started to come down a little harder, seeming full of the dust and ash from the mountain that left dark trails along her skin. As she neared Tanto, her eyes met Xena’s and without conscious thought she grimaced, seeing the expression clearly written there.

“What the heck, Xe?” She asked as she reached them.

“What the heck.” Xena answered. “Grab that shaft and keep it to one side of him would ya?” She had the rope in one fist, her arm extended out to the side. “Keeps hitting him in the ass. Let’s get this back to the rocks before it starts dumping on us and I’ll tell ya all about it.”

 “Got it.” Gabrielle deferred her questions and grabbed hold of one of the hand cart’s shafts to steer the conveyance to the side of the horse, feeling the weight as they maneuvered their way over the rocky ground towards the shelter. “Is that a different shirt?”

“Tell ya about that too.”

**

They reached the overhang just as the rain really started coming down, the rock wall providing some shelter from it as the wind was blocked by it’s bulk. “Get the wood inside.” Xena pulled Tanto to a halt near the entrance to the overhang and slid down off his back. “See if you can get Herc to come out here.”  She released the bundle of limbs on one side and handed it to Gabrielle, who turned to hustle it inside the shelter.

Iolaus met her as she ducked under the ledge, holding his arms out. “I’ll take that for you.” He grappled the bundle. “Is there more?”

“Yeah, I’ll grab it… can you ask Herc to come out here? Xe’s got something she wants him, and us to see.” Gabrielle turned and went back outside, as a heavy rumble of thunder boomed overhead.

“Oh boy.” Iolaus turned and dropped the bundle against the wall nearby and headed off. “Always something.”

“Always something.” Gabrielle hauled up and ducked out of Xena’s way as she came in and threw the second bundle of wood into the shelter. “What’s going on? You want to pull that cart in here?”

“Not yet.” Xena went and pulled one of the ground skins from their kit and shook it open, then she hastened back outside and threw it over the cart, covering its contents.   Once that was done, she came inside the shelter and led Tanto past their bedrolls over to where Spot was standing, watching curiously.

“What’s going on?” Hercules and Iolaus arrived together, edging around the piles of firewood as Xena came back over to where Gabrielle was standing just inside the overhang. “Where’d you find all that?” He regarded the bundles of wood. “That’ll be welcome to heat up some hot water. It’s getting chilly in here. Nice work.”

“Same place I found this.” Xena removed the dead rabbit from the thong on her belt and handed it to Gabrielle. “And something else.” She glanced past Hercules’s broad shoulders, but the townsfolk were all gathered behind the wagons, clustered around their food stores, ignoring them. Only the shepherd boys were looking their way, with mild curiosity.  “Remember I said Ares said it was a scam but not theirs?” She said, dropping her voice to a low tone.

Hercules nodded.

“I was hunting in that wooded strip north of here after I finished getting the firewood.” She said. “I heard voices. Other people hunting, who chased that rabbit right into my arms.”  She put her hands on her hips. “Then they fell back to their camp, and I followed them to see who they were.”

“Raiders?” Gabrielle hazarded a guess.

“Five men who were talking about getting out of the city.” Xena said. “They had a hand wagon full of coin and gold.”

“Ah.” Hercules grunted. “Five people who had some sense.”

“They had yellow robes and a temple treasure chest.”

There was a long pause in which they simply stared at each other. “The priests of Illumos?” Gabrielle finally said, her tone pitching far lower than usual. “Is that what you’re saying, Xe?”

Xena nodded.

“They took all that coin and left everyone behind in the city?” Hercules’s said, incredulously. “That was the scam???”

Xena nodded again. “They found a tunnel out from the temple and ducked out behind locked doors. Left the rest of them there. Said they told them they had to pray in private to Illumos to save everyone.”

“And they just saved themselves?” Iolaus and Gabrielle said at the same time, in the same tone.

“Yes.”

Gabrielle looked at the entrance, then she looked at Xena.

“Okay lets go find those guys.” Hercules said, firmly, and turned and headed for the entrance only to have Xena grab him by the belt and haul him to a stop. He jerked around and faced her. “Xena, they can’t get away with that.”

“They didn’t.” Her eyes met his, the words flat and final. “I executed them.”

Gabrielle put her hand on Xena’s back, this close now smelling the faint metallic hint of blood, the changed shirt explained without needing further explanation.  She thought about all of the people who had gone to the city, surrendering their fortunes and lives in trust to these men who had promised their god would save them.

They had believed them.  She drew in a breath and let it out. They had wanted to believe them. They had wanted to believe that paying coin, making an offering to this newly come god would protect them where appeals to the old gods would not.

Hercules folded his arms over his chest and nodded, his lips pressing into a firm line. “That was well deserved.” He said in a clipped tone. “Glad you did that.”

Iolaus just nodded.

“So.” Xena changed the tenor of the conversation, breaking up some of the grimness. “I now got a cart full of coin and gold and their gear outside. What do we do with it?”

“Oh.” Iolaus blinked. “Wow. How much is it?”

“I didn’t stop to count.” Xena waved them towards the entrance. “Let’s go take a look.”

**

Xena sat on the ground, leaning back against the rocks as she used a cloth and some of the rainwater to clean the blood off her boots. Next to her, the carefully wrapped blocks of coin and gold were tucked, covered with the ground sheet.

The supplies and trinkets the men had carried, sans the yellow robes, and the cart with one of the bundles of firewood had been pulled across the cavern and offered up to the townsfolk.

Hercules was seated next to her with a piece of parchment and a quill and Iolaus was tending a neat, rock encircled fire where Gabrielle was making use of the rabbit.

Across the cavern the townsfolk had made a fire as well, and one of the stable hands had gone out and used a bucket to catch the rain for them to heat up for tea.  The interior of the shelter had morphed, as the light outside faded to a cozier space.

Iolaus had retrieved both his and Hercules’ pack and brought them over to the wall near where Xena and Gabrielle had spread out their gear and they were working together in companionable silence.  The smell of spices and stewing meat was in the air and the storm outside, howling winds and lashing rain, seemed inconsequential.

“That’s a lot.” Hercules finally spoke up, after several minutes of scribbling. “I wish we could bring this back to the people who gave it to them.” He glanced up at Xena. “But that’s not a thing.”

“We should see if we can maybe ride ahead and see if we can use some of that to get a few teams of oxen or some big draft horses.” Xena did not look up from her task. “Pull those wagons for them.”

“Better them than me.” Hercules sighed. “That’s a good idea. But I don’t think hanging around here is a good thing either.”

“Probably not.”

Gabrielle came over and handed them both a travel bowl with her roughly made rabbit stew in it, augmented by some of the tidbits and dried fruits they’d stashed in their gear. “It’s not a lot, but its better than nothing.” She said, seating herself next to Xena and pulling her legs up crossed under her.

“Thanks Gabrielle.” Hercules set down his quill and parchment and fished his knife out of his belt pouch, stabbing a piece of the rabbit with it. “How about we start off tomorrow, I’ll pull the wagons and you and Gabrielle can ride ahead and see if you can get some livestock? They said it was two days, but that’s two days walking.”

Iolaus came and settled next to them with his bowl, and a wineskin he’d taken from their gear. “That sounds like a plan, buddy.” He said. “I think that’ll raise spirits if we can get teams to pull these wagons. They all appreciated the wood and supplies and the cart you ah.. found.. Xena.”

Xena had her bowl cradled in one hand and was consuming the meat and dried vegetables and fruits with some enthusiasm. “If we bring back animals, they can finish the journey themselves.” She remarked. “You two can just come on with us across to the other coast.”

Gabrielle watched both men as they looked up in some mild surprise. “Hm. If we split the loot among them that solves their problem of coming in with resources.” She said. “Can we do that?”

“We’d give them the balance of the loot, let them go make a new place.” Xena continued, chewing a piece of the rabbit. “Good thing for them.”

Hercules chewed his stew thoughtfully. “I like this plan.” He said after a long period of silence. “I couldn’t get past how they were going to start over new with almost nothing. Now they won’t be.” He glanced down at the parchment. “We have to figure out how to divide it up.”

“Equally by person?” Gabrielle suggested mildly.

“Probably has to be by household.” He said. “Split it up amongst the heads of the families, so each family gets a portion.”

“Mm.”  

Hercules saw the skeptical expression on Gabrielle’s face. “I know what you’re thinking.” He said. “But you can’t ignore the traditions of this part of the world.”

“Sure we can.” Xena scraped the last bit of stew out of her bowl. “I think everyone, including those sheep kids, and Bettina needs a fair share.” She looked at them. “And since I found it, I think that’s my call.”

Gabrielle casually leaned against Xena’s shoulder, muffling a smile as both Iolaus and Hercules were unable to refute that point and after a long moment, both of them shrugged sheepishly and nodded. Tomorrow was looking a lot brighter.

They had a plan. She could now imagine a good result.  She exhaled in pleasure, then she got to her feet and picked up Xena’s bowl with her own. “Let me go see if anyone wants to hear a story.”  She said. “I think something light and funny tonight. Nobody wants to hear more chaos.”

“No more chaos.” Iolaus agreed. “The tough times are moving into the past.”

“You had to say that.” Hercules frowned at him.

**

Continued in Part 14