Chapte 7B
“Please no! No, don’t do it for heaven’s sake. Stop. Please NOOOOOOOOOO!”
The scream bathed the dungeon in terror as Sarah made her way back through the corridor after her brief talk with Liu Xiu.
What the hell are they doing to that poor guy? She thought, sadly. Her heart was pounding as she tried to shut out the dreadful screams by putting her hands over her ears.
With quicker steps she made her way back to the tile that opened into her room. Once she’d pulled herself through she noticed Rada talking very loudly through the door.
“Just one more second Xena, I’m almost done putting on my shirt. I’m very shy and don’t like to show my naked body to strangers.”
Sarah chuckled and clapped the assassin on the back.
“Thought you said you weren’t going to stall for me.” She said.
“Well I thought about it and figured that if she came in here and found you gone she’d still kill me for letting you leave, so I took my chances and hoped you’d hurry back. Thankfully I was right.” She said in a lower voice than she’d been using just seconds before.
“Ok, I’m coming.” She said louder, and walked over to unlock the door.
When she opened it there was a disbelieving warrior standing on the other side wondering what was going on. But as she took in the scene before her things became very clear.
“You must think I’m completely clueless.” She said to Rada as she entered the room.
“What do you mean?” Rada asked, worry showing through in her voice by the tiniest bit.
“Ok, so you’re obviously not going to talk. Sarah how bout you? Wanna fess up?” She asked, standing over her victim.
“I…uh…I mean…” Sarah stammered, trying desperately to think of something to say.
“Oh don’t play dumb. It’s so obvious what’s going on in here a five year old could figure it out.” Xena said, waiting for her suspicions to be confirmed before she had to spell them out. Both girls simply stared on with fear in their eyes. “By the Gods! Fine, I’ll just come out and say it. You were sleeping together, weren’t you?”
“Oh, thank God.” Sarah said with a sigh of relief, and then realized that Xena had heard her. “I mean thank God we don’t have to keep it a secret.” She recovered putting an arm around Rada’s shoulders.
“Huh?” The Slav grunted, and Sarah gave her shoulder a hard squeeze. “I mean, yes, I’m glad we don’t have to hide our blossoming love.”
Sarah almost lost it when she heard the drab way the assassin forced out the word “blossoming”.
“I didn’t want to say anything because of the whole attempted murder thing that happened last night. I figured you would give me a hard time about it, but honestly I think things are better this way.” She said, feigning relief.
“Right, well, that’s great and all but we really need to get ready to leave. You’ve got about one hour to pack your things and I suggest you spend your time doing just that instead of… whatever it was you were doing before I got here.”
“Well it’ll be hard,” Rada said, “but I’ll try to keep my hands off her.”
Sarah let out a yelp from the unexpected squeeze to her ass. She gave a threatening glance to Rada who simply grinned at her. The Slav’s eyes were saying ‘smile, she’s watching’ in mockery of their ruse. And with that Sarah gave Rada a girlish slap to the gut.
“Not while Xena’s here.” She giggled.
“By the gods.” Xena said as she rolled her eyes and exited the room.
Sarah and Rada parted as soon as the door closed.
“What was that?” The young time traveler asked.
“What was what?” Rada returned.
“The ass grabbing. There was no need for ass grabbing.” Sarah said indignantly.
“I thought it made things more believable… and I thought it was funny.” She said with a small chuckle.
“Yeah, well try that again and I’ll let Xena in on what really went on here before she came in.”
“And what, let her kill us both?” Rada asked as if she had the upper hand.
“Huh. Speak for yourself.” Sarah said. “I’m immortal.”
Try as she might Rada had no retort to that. Deciding that Sarah’s ass was now off limits she resigned herself to grabbing at the girl’s chest the next time she wanted to embarrass her publicly.
Eve was nearly finished packing up her meager belongings when she heard a knock at the door.
“I’ll get it.” She said.
Standing on the other side were Sarah and Rada. The latter had her wrists tied together and a gag around her mouth.
“I know she was supposed to be tied up, but why’d you gag her?” Gabrielle asked as they entered the room.
“I thought it would be funny.” Sarah said smiling as she mimicked the assassin’s words from earlier in the evening. She suffered a few bite wounds on her fingers, but it was worth it to put the extra restraint on her.
“Well you should probably take it off, before the guards get here. Communication is going to be extremely important once all hell breaks loose in our little escort party.” The Bard said.
With exhaled disappointment Sarah moved to do as she bid.
“Does she have a knife to free her from the ropes around her hands?” Xena asked
“Not yet.” Rada answered once the gag was ripped from her mouth. She leered at Sarah.
“Here, this should be perfect.” Xena said as she reached into her cleavage and produced the breast dagger. Carefully she placed the blade between Rada’s wrists and positioned the horizontal hilt between her hands. “There’s no way the guards will notice it and all you have to do to be free of your bonds is give a couple of sturdy swipes to the rope. Just make sure you don’t lose it. It’s got a lot of sentimental value.”
“Oh that’s right,” Sarah exclaimed. “Gabrielle bought it right after you guys started traveling together, but you taught her that whole lesson about blood innocence and she ended up giving it to you… And because I’ve just proved what a total geek I am I ‘ll just shut up now.”
They all stared at her for a few seconds more when Xena finally broke the silence.
“Just don’t lose it.” She said to Rada, when they heard a knock at the door.
Taking a deep breath, Xena looked around at everyone.
“Ok, it’s time. Is everyone ready?” She asked and was met with a unanimous round of nods. “Come in.” She called to the door.
A well armored soldier entered the room and bowed. Ten similarly armored man waited outside the door.
“Xena, I am sergeant Yang. I will be leading the escort to the docks.” He stated. “The sun has set and if you are ready we should be on our way.”
“Very good, sergeant. We’re grateful for your assistance.” Xena said.
“If you and the other ladies would stand together, we will surround you on our way through the streets. You will be perfectly safe.”
“Whatever you think is best.” Xena agreed with a tense smile.
And with that they all moved out of the room and surrounded Eve. Xena to her front, Gabrielle in back and Rada and Sarah at her sides. The soldiers took their places around the core group and once all was settled the sergeant gave the order to march.
Ten to four and a half. That’s more than two men a piece. Sarah thought. I’d be so screwed if I could still die.
Things moved along rather quickly as they walked through the palace and outside the walls. At first the group stuck to the path, but after a while the sergeant gave the order to deviate from the road and go through the forest.
“Are you sure this will get us to the docks, sergeant?” Xena asked, more to her group than the soldiers. It was merely her way of warning them all that the attack was about to begin.
“Yes, the trees will be much better for hiding from the villagers than the road.” He said.
They were barely under cover of the trees for five minutes before the sergeant gave the order for them to stop because he’d heard something. He spent a few minutes pretending to listen to something then gave a yell to signal the beginning of the slaughter.
The effect of his voice was that of a gun firing at a foot race. Everyone started moving. The soldiers drew their swords just as Xena and her crew drew their own unique weapons and they all dug into the fight. The Warrior Princess dispatched her immediate foes swiftly then turned around to take one from Rada and one from Sarah before flipping over to Gabrielle. As Sarah swung her bat furiously she wondered if everyone else was having as tough of a time as she was. Obviously Xena wasn’t because she’d already moved in on her and Rada’s action. But surely everyone else wasn’t having such an easy go of things.
She was actually proud of how well she was performing against her foe. Every swipe of the sword was deflected, and some were even answered with a swing of her own. After a few moments of extreme concentration she finally got an opening. Her attacker lifted his sword above his head and hammered it down into the ground. Sarah twirled to the side then brought her bat down on the back of his head, knocking him unconscious. When she saw that he wasn’t getting back up from the blow she screamed victoriously into the air.
“Woo Hoo! Yeah!” She danced around his limp form. “That’s right! Thought you’d pick on the history geek, huh? Who else wants…” She turned around to see that the rest of the men had obviously been taken out a while ago as Rada was picking at her nails and the other three women were staring at her. “…some.” She finished quietly.
“So, I guess you guys are ready to go, huh?”
Xena, Gabrielle and Eve shook their heads in confusion and started walking. Rada stayed behind a few steps with Sarah.
“Do you practice being this pathetic, or does it just come naturally to you?” She asked as she clapped a sympathetic hand to Sarah’s back.
“Oh it’s all natural.” Sarah assured her as they followed the pack.
It wasn’t long before they reached the docks and they were just in time. There was a boat for Greece about to launch.
“Hurry up, or we’ll miss it.” Xena yelled out to the rest of them.
They all ran as fast as they could and caught the deck hands just before they finished removing the ties that held the vessel to the dock.
“We’ve got five for passage to Greece.” Xena called out.
“Four.” Rada yelled in correction, then in a softer voice said “I’m staying remember, got a little debt to settle.”
The deckhand they were speaking to nodded, “We can take four.” He said. Xena slipped a few coins into his hand.
Eve boarded first, followed by Gabrielle, then Xena. It was the messenger who noticed that Sarah wasn’t moving.
“Sarah, come on, the boat is gonna leave any minute now.” She said, causing the warrior and bard to turn and see what the hold-up was.
“Actually I figured I’d give you some breathing room. The boat’s probably gonna be crowded and sharing a hammock with a woman of god just seems wrong.” Sarah joked.
“Sarah, stop with the jokes already and get you’re troublemaking ass on the boat right now.” Xena said as the last ropes were being secured to the rigging.
“I um… I can’t Xena.” She said, half afraid the warrior would violently drag her ass onto the boat, and half afraid she wouldn’t. “Somewhere along the way my conscience got the better of me and I decided I couldn’t just be the catalyst for this war without helping to save as many lives as possible. I talked things over with Liu and now I have a post protecting the women and children. So I can’t leave.”
The ramp to the ship was being pulled away.
“Wait!” Gabrielle yelled at the deck hands. “Sarah, I know we’ve given you a hard time these past few days, but you cannot stay behind. A war is about to break out here and you have no idea how long your new gift is good for. Please get on the boat.”
It touched her to see that Gabrielle cared, and she knew that a couple more admissions like that would be her undoing.
“Take care of each other.” She said to them. “I didn’t come back and save your asses just so you could screw it all up.”
And with that she turned to Rada as the ramp was pulled away and the boat was pushed off.
“You want company on the way back?” She asked.
The Slav regarded her with a puzzled expression. “So, what, you’re like a hero now?” She asked.
“Oh definitely not. I’m still just as pathetic as I was an hour ago. Only now, I’m a spineless sympathetic to boot.”
“Huh-ha.” She laughed and put a hand on Sarah’s shoulder as they turned to walk back into town. “You know if we both survive this I think we’ll make good friends…or at least good drinking buddies. I’ll teach you how to handle the ale.”
“Ha.” Sarah put her arm around Rada as well while they walked. “Believe me I don’t need any lessons on that front.”
Back on the boat Xena was at a loss for what to do. The boat had drifted quite a few yards away and there was no turning it back. They were so damn close to escaping with everyone then Sarah had to go and pull something like this.
“Of all the stupid, self important, pointless things to…” She ranted.
“Xena.” Gabrielle interrupted.
“Gabrielle, I know what you’re going to say, but she made her own decision and we just can’t risk taking Eve into a war zone or leaving her alone with a boat full of seamen.” The warrior said.
“But Xena that’s just it, where did Eve go?” The bard asked.
“What are you talking about she was right…” as Xena turned around to point at Eve her finger landed on a passed out drunk that probably had no idea he was on his way to Greece. “…behind us.”
Quickly they ran to the side of the boat and scanned the waters leading up to the docks. There, leaving a trail of bubbles in her wake, was the Messenger of Eli swimming straight for the war zone.
To be continued…
The scream bathed the dungeon in terror as Sarah made her way back through the corridor after her brief talk with Liu Xiu.
What the hell are they doing to that poor guy? She thought, sadly. Her heart was pounding as she tried to shut out the dreadful screams by putting her hands over her ears.
With quicker steps she made her way back to the tile that opened into her room. Once she’d pulled herself through she noticed Rada talking very loudly through the door.
“Just one more second Xena, I’m almost done putting on my shirt. I’m very shy and don’t like to show my naked body to strangers.”
Sarah chuckled and clapped the assassin on the back.
“Thought you said you weren’t going to stall for me.” She said.
“Well I thought about it and figured that if she came in here and found you gone she’d still kill me for letting you leave, so I took my chances and hoped you’d hurry back. Thankfully I was right.” She said in a lower voice than she’d been using just seconds before.
“Ok, I’m coming.” She said louder, and walked over to unlock the door.
When she opened it there was a disbelieving warrior standing on the other side wondering what was going on. But as she took in the scene before her things became very clear.
“You must think I’m completely clueless.” She said to Rada as she entered the room.
“What do you mean?” Rada asked, worry showing through in her voice by the tiniest bit.
“Ok, so you’re obviously not going to talk. Sarah how bout you? Wanna fess up?” She asked, standing over her victim.
“I…uh…I mean…” Sarah stammered, trying desperately to think of something to say.
“Oh don’t play dumb. It’s so obvious what’s going on in here a five year old could figure it out.” Xena said, waiting for her suspicions to be confirmed before she had to spell them out. Both girls simply stared on with fear in their eyes. “By the Gods! Fine, I’ll just come out and say it. You were sleeping together, weren’t you?”
“Oh, thank God.” Sarah said with a sigh of relief, and then realized that Xena had heard her. “I mean thank God we don’t have to keep it a secret.” She recovered putting an arm around Rada’s shoulders.
“Huh?” The Slav grunted, and Sarah gave her shoulder a hard squeeze. “I mean, yes, I’m glad we don’t have to hide our blossoming love.”
Sarah almost lost it when she heard the drab way the assassin forced out the word “blossoming”.
“I didn’t want to say anything because of the whole attempted murder thing that happened last night. I figured you would give me a hard time about it, but honestly I think things are better this way.” She said, feigning relief.
“Right, well, that’s great and all but we really need to get ready to leave. You’ve got about one hour to pack your things and I suggest you spend your time doing just that instead of… whatever it was you were doing before I got here.”
“Well it’ll be hard,” Rada said, “but I’ll try to keep my hands off her.”
Sarah let out a yelp from the unexpected squeeze to her ass. She gave a threatening glance to Rada who simply grinned at her. The Slav’s eyes were saying ‘smile, she’s watching’ in mockery of their ruse. And with that Sarah gave Rada a girlish slap to the gut.
“Not while Xena’s here.” She giggled.
“By the gods.” Xena said as she rolled her eyes and exited the room.
Sarah and Rada parted as soon as the door closed.
“What was that?” The young time traveler asked.
“What was what?” Rada returned.
“The ass grabbing. There was no need for ass grabbing.” Sarah said indignantly.
“I thought it made things more believable… and I thought it was funny.” She said with a small chuckle.
“Yeah, well try that again and I’ll let Xena in on what really went on here before she came in.”
“And what, let her kill us both?” Rada asked as if she had the upper hand.
“Huh. Speak for yourself.” Sarah said. “I’m immortal.”
Try as she might Rada had no retort to that. Deciding that Sarah’s ass was now off limits she resigned herself to grabbing at the girl’s chest the next time she wanted to embarrass her publicly.
Eve was nearly finished packing up her meager belongings when she heard a knock at the door.
“I’ll get it.” She said.
Standing on the other side were Sarah and Rada. The latter had her wrists tied together and a gag around her mouth.
“I know she was supposed to be tied up, but why’d you gag her?” Gabrielle asked as they entered the room.
“I thought it would be funny.” Sarah said smiling as she mimicked the assassin’s words from earlier in the evening. She suffered a few bite wounds on her fingers, but it was worth it to put the extra restraint on her.
“Well you should probably take it off, before the guards get here. Communication is going to be extremely important once all hell breaks loose in our little escort party.” The Bard said.
With exhaled disappointment Sarah moved to do as she bid.
“Does she have a knife to free her from the ropes around her hands?” Xena asked
“Not yet.” Rada answered once the gag was ripped from her mouth. She leered at Sarah.
“Here, this should be perfect.” Xena said as she reached into her cleavage and produced the breast dagger. Carefully she placed the blade between Rada’s wrists and positioned the horizontal hilt between her hands. “There’s no way the guards will notice it and all you have to do to be free of your bonds is give a couple of sturdy swipes to the rope. Just make sure you don’t lose it. It’s got a lot of sentimental value.”
“Oh that’s right,” Sarah exclaimed. “Gabrielle bought it right after you guys started traveling together, but you taught her that whole lesson about blood innocence and she ended up giving it to you… And because I’ve just proved what a total geek I am I ‘ll just shut up now.”
They all stared at her for a few seconds more when Xena finally broke the silence.
“Just don’t lose it.” She said to Rada, when they heard a knock at the door.
Taking a deep breath, Xena looked around at everyone.
“Ok, it’s time. Is everyone ready?” She asked and was met with a unanimous round of nods. “Come in.” She called to the door.
A well armored soldier entered the room and bowed. Ten similarly armored man waited outside the door.
“Xena, I am sergeant Yang. I will be leading the escort to the docks.” He stated. “The sun has set and if you are ready we should be on our way.”
“Very good, sergeant. We’re grateful for your assistance.” Xena said.
“If you and the other ladies would stand together, we will surround you on our way through the streets. You will be perfectly safe.”
“Whatever you think is best.” Xena agreed with a tense smile.
And with that they all moved out of the room and surrounded Eve. Xena to her front, Gabrielle in back and Rada and Sarah at her sides. The soldiers took their places around the core group and once all was settled the sergeant gave the order to march.
Ten to four and a half. That’s more than two men a piece. Sarah thought. I’d be so screwed if I could still die.
Things moved along rather quickly as they walked through the palace and outside the walls. At first the group stuck to the path, but after a while the sergeant gave the order to deviate from the road and go through the forest.
“Are you sure this will get us to the docks, sergeant?” Xena asked, more to her group than the soldiers. It was merely her way of warning them all that the attack was about to begin.
“Yes, the trees will be much better for hiding from the villagers than the road.” He said.
They were barely under cover of the trees for five minutes before the sergeant gave the order for them to stop because he’d heard something. He spent a few minutes pretending to listen to something then gave a yell to signal the beginning of the slaughter.
The effect of his voice was that of a gun firing at a foot race. Everyone started moving. The soldiers drew their swords just as Xena and her crew drew their own unique weapons and they all dug into the fight. The Warrior Princess dispatched her immediate foes swiftly then turned around to take one from Rada and one from Sarah before flipping over to Gabrielle. As Sarah swung her bat furiously she wondered if everyone else was having as tough of a time as she was. Obviously Xena wasn’t because she’d already moved in on her and Rada’s action. But surely everyone else wasn’t having such an easy go of things.
She was actually proud of how well she was performing against her foe. Every swipe of the sword was deflected, and some were even answered with a swing of her own. After a few moments of extreme concentration she finally got an opening. Her attacker lifted his sword above his head and hammered it down into the ground. Sarah twirled to the side then brought her bat down on the back of his head, knocking him unconscious. When she saw that he wasn’t getting back up from the blow she screamed victoriously into the air.
“Woo Hoo! Yeah!” She danced around his limp form. “That’s right! Thought you’d pick on the history geek, huh? Who else wants…” She turned around to see that the rest of the men had obviously been taken out a while ago as Rada was picking at her nails and the other three women were staring at her. “…some.” She finished quietly.
“So, I guess you guys are ready to go, huh?”
Xena, Gabrielle and Eve shook their heads in confusion and started walking. Rada stayed behind a few steps with Sarah.
“Do you practice being this pathetic, or does it just come naturally to you?” She asked as she clapped a sympathetic hand to Sarah’s back.
“Oh it’s all natural.” Sarah assured her as they followed the pack.
It wasn’t long before they reached the docks and they were just in time. There was a boat for Greece about to launch.
“Hurry up, or we’ll miss it.” Xena yelled out to the rest of them.
They all ran as fast as they could and caught the deck hands just before they finished removing the ties that held the vessel to the dock.
“We’ve got five for passage to Greece.” Xena called out.
“Four.” Rada yelled in correction, then in a softer voice said “I’m staying remember, got a little debt to settle.”
The deckhand they were speaking to nodded, “We can take four.” He said. Xena slipped a few coins into his hand.
Eve boarded first, followed by Gabrielle, then Xena. It was the messenger who noticed that Sarah wasn’t moving.
“Sarah, come on, the boat is gonna leave any minute now.” She said, causing the warrior and bard to turn and see what the hold-up was.
“Actually I figured I’d give you some breathing room. The boat’s probably gonna be crowded and sharing a hammock with a woman of god just seems wrong.” Sarah joked.
“Sarah, stop with the jokes already and get you’re troublemaking ass on the boat right now.” Xena said as the last ropes were being secured to the rigging.
“I um… I can’t Xena.” She said, half afraid the warrior would violently drag her ass onto the boat, and half afraid she wouldn’t. “Somewhere along the way my conscience got the better of me and I decided I couldn’t just be the catalyst for this war without helping to save as many lives as possible. I talked things over with Liu and now I have a post protecting the women and children. So I can’t leave.”
The ramp to the ship was being pulled away.
“Wait!” Gabrielle yelled at the deck hands. “Sarah, I know we’ve given you a hard time these past few days, but you cannot stay behind. A war is about to break out here and you have no idea how long your new gift is good for. Please get on the boat.”
It touched her to see that Gabrielle cared, and she knew that a couple more admissions like that would be her undoing.
“Take care of each other.” She said to them. “I didn’t come back and save your asses just so you could screw it all up.”
And with that she turned to Rada as the ramp was pulled away and the boat was pushed off.
“You want company on the way back?” She asked.
The Slav regarded her with a puzzled expression. “So, what, you’re like a hero now?” She asked.
“Oh definitely not. I’m still just as pathetic as I was an hour ago. Only now, I’m a spineless sympathetic to boot.”
“Huh-ha.” She laughed and put a hand on Sarah’s shoulder as they turned to walk back into town. “You know if we both survive this I think we’ll make good friends…or at least good drinking buddies. I’ll teach you how to handle the ale.”
“Ha.” Sarah put her arm around Rada as well while they walked. “Believe me I don’t need any lessons on that front.”
Back on the boat Xena was at a loss for what to do. The boat had drifted quite a few yards away and there was no turning it back. They were so damn close to escaping with everyone then Sarah had to go and pull something like this.
“Of all the stupid, self important, pointless things to…” She ranted.
“Xena.” Gabrielle interrupted.
“Gabrielle, I know what you’re going to say, but she made her own decision and we just can’t risk taking Eve into a war zone or leaving her alone with a boat full of seamen.” The warrior said.
“But Xena that’s just it, where did Eve go?” The bard asked.
“What are you talking about she was right…” as Xena turned around to point at Eve her finger landed on a passed out drunk that probably had no idea he was on his way to Greece. “…behind us.”
Quickly they ran to the side of the boat and scanned the waters leading up to the docks. There, leaving a trail of bubbles in her wake, was the Messenger of Eli swimming straight for the war zone.
To be continued…