ForevaXena's FanFic . . .

FanFic Collaboration
Part 2

by Diamonddog

Disclaimer: Xena, Gabrielle et al belong to MCA/Universal and Ren Pics.

Copyright © 2000: This is an ongoing collaborative work written by members of the "ForevaXenites" mailing list.
http://www.egroups.com/subscribe/forevaxenites

Violence disclaimer: There may be some of that along the way.  After all, consider our subject!

Love/Sex warning: This is designed to be a "subtext friendly" story.  There may well be references to love/sex between our 2 female leads.  If you are under 18 years of age or if this type of story is illegal in the state or country in which you live, please read no further.

Ephiny slid a comforting arm around her queen.  "And you have no idea who this ‘Keeper of Souls’ is or what claim it has on Xena’s soul?"

Gabrielle shook her head sadly.  "No.  It was just this awful stench, then the arrows, and then..."  The bard’s lips tightened, refusing to repeat the words and bring the memories of that moment to the fore of her thoughts.  Ephiny’s arm was reassuring, but she missed her warrior fiercely.

"And Xena’s soul told you about the seer?"  Ephiny spoke calmly and evenly, carefully avoiding any inflection in her voice.  Gabrielle was on the edge of collapse.  Her queen’s hand shook as she brought the watered-down wine to her lips.  Ephiny hoped that the bard would sleep now that Xena’s body was under guard and the cathartic first-telling of the warrior’s last moments was complete.  The bard was physically exhausted from her long journey to the Amazon lands, and the emotional toll that her solitary trip had exacted was etched in dark circles beneath her eyes.

This was the second time that their queen had brought her champion back pale-skinned and seemingly lifeless.  Repetition bred neither comfort nor confidence, however.  The knowledge that Xena’s fate lay in her hands had added a weight to Gabrielle’s shoulders and a sere shadow to her gaze.  She peered at Ephiny from eyes whose legendary luster had dimmed to shadows.

"Yes, Xena ‘spoke’ to me when our souls touched.  I need to find a seer named Karmen.  That’s the only way that I can save her from the Keeper of Souls."

"That’s the only way Xena knew, you mean."

Gabrielle’s brows, glinting in the torchlight of the queen’s hut, furrowed.  "Are you suggesting something else?"

Ephiny’s shrugged slightly.  "Nothing specific.  I just meant that the Amazons include many women who were not born into the tribe.  They joined us later in life after their families had been killed or they were abused or they had escaped from slavery.  Many of them had entire lives before they became our sisters.  I just thought perhaps one of them might have heard of Karmen or the Keeper of Souls?"

Gabrielle started to stand.  "Then let’s..."

Ephiny’s hold on the bard’s shoulders tightened, restraining her.  "Not tonight," she said gently.

Gabrielle’s eyes regained some of their sparkle as they flashed at the Amazon regent.  She opened her mouth to protest.

"No, Gabrielle."  Ephiny’s firm hold and firmer words were softened by tenderness.  "You’re tired.  You’re not thinking clearly because you have been driving yourself so hard to get to a place of safety.  Well, you’re here now.  Let us protect you this evening.  You need to get some rest so that you hear what your sisters tell you with a clear perspective.  Tomorrow." 

The bard’s jaw set stubbornly.

Ephiny drew a deep breath and leaned closer, whispering, "Xena would agree with me."

The mention of the warrior’s name broke Gabrielle’s resistance, but it also toppled the fragile dams holding her emotions in check.  The bard acquiesced to Ephiny’s request with a slight nod, but tears welled in her eyes and then streamed down her cheeks.

Ephiny folded the small queen against her body and held her as she sobbed.  The regent knew that sleep would follow quickly.

Rested but restless, Gabrielle tapped a finger on the arm of the throne that Ephiny had insisted that she assume for the interviews.  She swiveled, frowning up at her regent.  "Have we spoken with everyone?"  Her voice betrayed her mounting frustration.  Ephiny was not so sure this had been such a great idea.

"Not quite.  There is a hunting party due back later today, and the shaman’s new apprentice is in meditation at the shrine of Artemis.  She has just come of age and is preparing to be accepted as an Amazon as well as one of Artemis’ dreamers."

"Artemis’ dreamers?"

Ephiny nodded, smiling at the tiny glow of curiosity that had crept back into the queen’s subdued gaze.  "Some shamans have the gift of the goddess’ tongue and can speak with her voice when she desires.  Others have the gift of rites and can pierce the veil between this world and the worlds beyond our vision.  Once in a great while though, a dreamer is born among us.  In the past, they have appeared just before times of great upheaval, when we Amazons needed to see the horizon in order to preserve our ways."

"See the horizon?  You mean that she can see the future?"  Gabrielle leaned forward, her features lit with an excited glow as her malachite stare transfixed Ephiny intently.

"More like she gets visions in her dreams."  The regent struggled not to fidget beneath the queen’s continued scrutiny.  She could see where this was going.

"How long do these meditations last?"

Ephiny shrugged.  "Until she receives a sign from Artemis or Serana says that she has been there long enough."

Gabrielle smiled as she jumped to her feet.  "I’m going to speak to Serana."  She turned to Ephiny, canting her head to one side.  "And speaking of Serana, why didn’t she come to talk with me?"

Ephiny fell into step beside her queen.  "She is waiting outside the shrine.  She said that she could not leave until Cassandra’s meditation had ended."

"Well, then if she can’t come to us..."  Gabrielle was already hurrying excitedly towards the door.

Ephiny laid a hand on Gabrielle’s shoulder.  "There is no reason to believe these events are connected, Gabrielle.  Cassandra cannot control her dreams.  She may not be able to help you."

Gabrielle patted her regent’s hand cheerfully and continued walking.  "Oh, c’mon, Ephiny.  Everything is connected.  I’ve spent the last few seasons traveling with Xena.  I stopped believing in coincidence a loooong time ago."

Ephiny found Gabrielle’s optimism infectious and irresistible.  She smiled and allowed some of her queen’s hope to seep into her rich brown eyes.  "With you and Xena, I’ll be the first to admit that anything is possible, Gabrielle."

Gabrielle brightened at that, and each step only improved her mood as she strode through the village, acknowledging each Amazon by name as she passed.  Just having a place to start her quest for Xena’s soul had lifted a terrible cloud from her heart, and, unlike her more cautious regent, Gabrielle had no doubt that she was heading in the right direction.

"The Keeper of Souls..."  Serana glanced from the entrance to the vine-shrouded glen back to the small silver-tongued Amazon queen who had just finished recounting the story of her champion’s selfless sacrifice and the queen’s intent to rescue her hero.

"Have you ever heard of... it?"  Gabrielle settled for a neutral pronoun.  She was not sure if it was a sorcerer, a god, a spirit, a man, a woman, or something that defied mortal description.

Serana towered over Ephiny and Gabrielle as she took a step closer, her sun-bronzed features dark beneath the thick foliage interlocking far above their heads and shielding the glen and its surroundings from the midday sun.  "It sounds vaguely familiar.  I may have stumbled across the name during my apprenticeship with Talia.  All apprentice shamans are required to read the tribe’s scrolls before they become true shamans of the tribe."  Noting the curious question in her queen’s eyes, she added softly, "Talia was the shaman of the tribe before me.  She died six seasons before you received the right of caste."

Gabrielle saw an ancient shadow pass through Serana’s burnished gray eyes.  She understood the loss that fleeting darkness betrayed and placed a gentle hand on the shaman’s arm.  "I’m sorry."

The shaman stared at her evenly for a long moment then nodded grimly.  "It was a long time ago, but thank you, my queen."

Gabrielle’s brows dipped in thought.  "Has Cassandra read the Amazon scrolls?" she asked.

"She finished them several weeks ago.  I would not have allowed her to come to the shrine of Artemis if she had not."

Gabrielle’s smile was brilliant.  "Then it’s possible she might remember exactly which scroll contained the reference to Keeper of Souls?"

"It’s possible.  Cassandra is an amazing gir... young woman.  I think she will be an impressive shaman."

"How long..."

"I don’t know," Serana interrupted the queen’s question.  Her eyes narrowed as she glanced again at the entrance to the natural shrine.  "I would have thought Artemis would have been more interested in Cassandra.  I expected a brief ceremony.  I was sure that Artemis would bless her with a sign quickly.  There’s something ‘special’ about the girl.  If I can see it, I thought Artemis would, too, but who can know the mind of a god?"

Gabrielle realized that she had spent far too much time in Xena’s company when the only remarks that popped into her brain were disparaging, at least as far as the Olympians went.  She decided to change the subject before Xena’s influence and her bardly tongue conspired to get her into unnecessary trouble.  "How long has she been in there?"

"Almost three days," sighed the shaman.  "When the moon rises this evening, I will end the ceremony and try to determine what has offended our divine patron."

Gabrielle bit her lip, again struck with an overwhelming urge to say something inappropriate about the gods.  Wrestling for self-control, she tried to divert the subject again, wondering what in Tartarus was coming over her.  "What happens if..."

"Serana?"  The voice that interrupted was young and quavered, but still its rich, liquid thickness halted the conversation and drew all eyes to the glen and the lean, muscular frame of the apprentice shaman.

Cassandra stood in the arch of ancient tree limbs that marked the entrance to the shrine, naked and shameless, eying them as she leaned against one of the trunks, breathing heavily.  Though partially concealed by the shadows of the shrine, the bloody gashes on her legs and arms stood out garishly.

"I think something went wrong," she observed dryly as the three Amazons rushed to help her.

After a visit to the healer’s hut, they adjourned to the communal dining hall.  The first stop was for Cassandra, but the second was definitely for Gabrielle.  Her stomach had begun to grumble gently as the healer had stitched the first of the apprentice shaman’s injuries but by the time the healer had finished Gabrielle’s belly had been rumbling like a volcano.

The young shaman had ignored the attention of the stern-faced healer as her wounds had been tended, answering the healer’s questions distantly, her pale blue eyes glowing with an aloof surety, surprising Gabrielle with both her composure and confidence.  When the healer had asked about the beast that had clawed her though, the young woman’s lips had tightened.  Her bright expression had vanished like a passing summer shower.  She had tossed her closely cropped, dirty blonde mane and stared silently out the hut’s open window.

The healer had not seemed ruffled by the young Amazon’s behavior.  Though she cast a disapproving look at Serana, she had simply worked in silence.  Relative silence anyway.  The crescendo of Gabrielle’s gastric symphony had provided a merry source of amusement that helped ease the tension between the healer and her incommunicative patient.

Once in the dining hall, sitting at a small table set apart from the others, Serana’s darting hawk-like gaze settled on her student.  "What happened, Cassandra?"

Cassandra leaned forward and spoke softly, drawing the others deeper into the table as they listened intently.  "I fell asleep, and I dreamed."  Her emphasis on the word "dreamed" bordered on reverence.  Ephiny and Gabrielle nodded their understanding.  Serana merely stared expectantly.  "It was not like the other dreams though.  They’re usually so strange, filled with omens and images that appear as one thing but mean another.  This one was different.  She was as crystal clear and as real to me as you all are now."

"She?"  Gabrielle asked.  Her heart beat faster.

Cassandra nodded.  "A warrior.  She had the bearing of an Amazon though her armor was unlike any Amazon I have ever seen."

"Piercing blue eyes and dark hair?"  Gabrielle inquired, trying to keep the excitement from her voice.

Cassandra nodded.  "She was striking."

Gabrielle’s left brow shot up, drooped, and her right vaulted instead as she sent a triumphant look at her regent.

Ephiny rolled her eyes.  She should have expected something like this, she supposed.  Everything did seem to happen with reason and relation where Gabrielle and Xena were concerned.  Why shouldn’t the apprentice shaman’s coming of age ceremony coincide perfectly with the mysterious assault of the Keeper of Souls?  The gods worked in mysterious ways.

"What happened?  Did she say anything?  Did she mention someone named Karmen?"  Gabrielle’s questions tumbled from her lips in rapid-fire succession.

Cassandra cocked her head at her queen’s excitement.  "She never spoke.  She hardly moved, and I could see chains on her arms and legs.  But I could tell she was in pain... terrible pain, and I understood she needed help.  Something was chasing her.  She did not have much time.  So I... helped..."

"What?"  Serana hissed, her copper eyes flashing.  "What did you do, Cassandra?"

Cassandra did not shrink from her mentor’s anger.  She met it evenly, staring at Serana without guilt or remorse or even concern.  "I did the only thing I could think of.  I cast one of the rites."

"Which rite?" Serana snarled through gritted teeth.

"It was not one of the rites that you taught me."

"Not one of the..." Serana’s eyes widened.  "What did you do?"

The harsh growl provoked no more reaction from the young shaman than the hissing.  She gazed unflinchingly at the livid shaman whose fingers had turned white as she gripped the edge of the table.  "I cast one of the ancient rites... to hide the warrior’s soul from whatever it was that was chasing her."

"And?"

Cassandra shrugged.  "I think it worked.  Whatever showed up afterwards was certainly unhappy with me.  If it had not been for the arrow, the thing would have ripped me to shreds."

"The arrow?"  Ephiny frowned.  There had been no archers near the glen.  The hunting party had headed out in the opposite direction.

Cassandra noted Ephiny’s doubtful expression.  "The arrow is still at the shrine.  Whatever that foul-smelling thing was, it left when the arrow struck it."

Gabrielle held up her hand.  "Wait, wait, wait.  Exactly how was this rite supposed to hide Xena’s soul?"

"Xena?"  Cassandra’s pale eyes widened with recognition.

"Yes, that was Xena," Gabrielle acknowledged hurriedly.  "What happened to her soul?"

"I don’t know exactly," the shaman admitted carefully.

Gabrielle groaned.  "How not exactly don’t you know?  Do you have any idea where it is?"

Cassandra’s head canted curiously at her queen’s exasperated tone and flashing emerald eyes.  "I thought the rite was supposed to hide the soul within the hearts of those who were closest to her."

"Those?  You mean bits and pieces of Xena’s soul are floating around inside other people?"  Gabrielle closed her eyes and tried not to imagine exactly what that meant.  She sure hoped this was what Xena had planned when she paid the shaman-in-training a visit.

On the bright side, at least the Keeper of Souls had lost her warrior.

"It’s only temporary, my queen," Cassandra offered, mistaking Gabrielle’s thoughtful silence for anger.

Gabrielle sighed.  So much for the bright side.  "How long will it last?"

"Until the next full moon."

One moon.  They had twenty-eight days to find Karmen and free Xena from whatever debt, real or otherwise, that she owed the Keeper of Souls.  It seemed an impossibly long time to be separated from Xena yet an impossibly short time to find the mysterious seer and rescue Xena’s soul.

Gabrielle lifted her head.  She would find a way to get her love back.  Her shoulders straightened, and her jaw set stubbornly.  "We don’t have much time."  Gabrielle’s emerald gaze simmered.  "Cassandra."

"Yes, my queen?"  The young shaman's response was clipped and respectful.  She stared at Gabrielle like a soldier awaiting her orders.

"You obviously remember quite a bit from the scrolls that you read," Gabrielle observed dryly, a hint of a smile crooking at the corners of her lips.

"I have a good memory, my queen," the young shaman said matter-of-factly.

"Did you ever encounter any references to a being called the Keeper of Souls?"

The young woman cocked her head thoughtfully.  "The name sounds very familiar.  If I did read about it, I am sure that I can narrow it down to a dozen scrolls to check."

"Excellent!"  Gabrielle’s smile warmed them all.  "Then I guess our next stop will be the scrolls."

Ephiny nodded unenthusiastically.  She preferred action to an afternoon ensconced among the musty writings that recorded the long history of the tribe and the nation, but if this was what was needed to reunite their queen and her champion, so be it.

The scrolls were kept in one of the central huts of the Amazon village.  Smaller than most of the living quarters, two opposing walls had been fitted with shelves of box-like cubbyholes, each filled with a score or more scrolls.  Gabrielle had been there many times when she and Xena visited the Amazons.  While Xena had been sparring and hunting with the warriors, Gabrielle had spent many pleasant days reading various historical accounts of the tribe from the bards and shamans and queens who had lived them.  Some days she would get so lost in the words and times of her long-dead sisters that Xena would find her here after a long day, her legs tucked beneath her as she read by the light of an oil lamp.  Xena would sit down beside her and sharpen her sword, just as she did every night by their campfire when they were traveling.  Gabrielle would pick something exciting from her day’s perusal and read to her laconic friend, listening until she heard the sound of the honing stone cease its rhythmic scraping, knowing that Xena’s blue eyes were intent upon her, so caught up in the story and her bard that the sword lay forgotten by her side, still close to the warrior’s hand but far from Xena’s thoughts. 

Gabrielle sighed at the beautiful memories this place held for her but promised that she and Xena would return here again someday.  She would read, and the warrior would be transported to some far away moment in history or imagination.  And then they would kiss...

"My queen?"

Gabrielle snapped away from her daydream and met the curious blue eyes of the young shaman.  Cassandra had efficiently segregated a small pile of scrolls from the rest and they rested on the writing shelf mounted to the wall between the scrolls.

"One of these?"

Cassandra inclined her head.  "I believe so, my queen.  Of course, I cannot guarantee it, but these scrolls contained some of the more enigmatic references that I recall from my reading.  I am fairly sure the Keeper of Souls, if that is indeed the reference that I recall, should be among them."  Even though the words were spoken with little inflection or intonation, Cassandra’s rich voice betrayed a cool competence that would have been arrogance on an older woman.  Her youth gentled away the pride and, instead, lent it an air of intensity that matched the young shaman’s pale blue eyes.

Gabrielle looked at the hundreds of scrolls lining the walls to either side of them.  If Cassandra remembered enough of them all to narrow their search down to the small stack on the writing shelf, then Serana was right.  The young woman was quite remarkable. 

Now that Gabrielle thought about it, she wondered why she had never noticed the tall dirty blonde youth before.  She wondered how Cassandra had come to be among the Amazons.

Gabrielle clapped her hands together and approached the culled scrolls.  "Any preferences?"

"Preferences?"  One of Cassandra’s slender corn silk brows, much fairer than her dirty blonde mane, rose archly as she glanced between Ephiny and Gabrielle.

"Which scroll do you want to read first?"  Gabrielle clarified.  She wondered exactly what thoughts were scudding behind those cerulean veils and realized with a frown that she always seemed to be wondering what thoughts were going on behind a pair of intense blue eyes.  Something with blue eyes?  Or just more of that coincidence that she did not believe in?

Cassandra made her selection from the stack of carefully bound parchment history, sat down near one of the slatted windows, and began to read.  Gabrielle and Serana did the same, and Ephiny, sighing heavily, finally followed their lead.

Except for the soft sound of Ephiny’s lips as she mouthed the words she was reading and the occasional rustle as a scroll was advanced or exchanged, a studious quiet fell upon the repository of Amazon wisdom.  Even the sounds of the village outside faded away after the evening meal was concluded and the successful hunting party returned to joyous hoots and howls.

Startling her companions, Ephiny suddenly jumped to her feet.  "I think I found it!"

Gabrielle and Serana moved closer to the regent to share her discovery, but Cassandra seemed distracted by the scroll she was reading.  Alternatively looking up and then back down, she seemed unwilling to join the other three until the odd glances she drew from them caused her to slowly lower the scroll.  Regaining her feet with a graceful uncoiling of long, muscular legs, she moved to Serana’s side though she kept the scroll she had been reading clenched firmly in her hand.

The queen and the shaman crowded beside Ephiny, trying to read over the regent’s shoulder as she read with the slowness of someone unused to the act.  None of them noticed the distraction of the young shaman.

"And for those who violate this Law..." Ephiny read.

"What law?" Gabrielle interrupted impatiently.

Ephiny lowered the scroll slightly and turned to the queen.  "I’m not sure.  This scroll is really old, and parts of it are too faded to make out..."

"Go on," Gabrielle ordered sharply.

Ephiny raised an eyebrow at her queen’s tone then shrugged and began again.  "Okay... ‘And for those who violate this Law, the Amazons need execute no punishment, for it falls to the Keeper of Souls to exact payment.  Out of color, out of time, out of space, out of substance, the Keeper of Souls lies, and the price for ignoring the Law is the mandate of a will too terrible to court.  Amazons, you are warned.’ "

Gabrielle frowned.  "The old bards weren’t really concrete, were they?"

Ephiny shrugged.  "Sounds like Xena pissed off the wrong..."

Multiple interruptions cut Ephiny’s undiplomatic observation short.

"I think you all should see this..." Cassandra began, lifting the scroll she still held tightly in her grasp.

"Gabrielle!!!"  A desperate, high-pitched cry came from outside the hut, rising above a furor of bird calls and a whoosh of arrow volleys as the Amazon sentries signaled that an intruder had breached the outer defenses and was entering the village.

Ephiny dropped the scroll into Serana’s waiting hand and followed her queen as Gabrielle raced from the hut to find out who would dare invade the Amazon village while their queen was in residence.

Her emerald eyes narrowed as she saw the long  xanthic tresses and bright fawn-colored eyes of the chain and leather clad hellion galloping directly into the village.  The warrior absently caught an Amazon crossbow bolt in her hand and tossed it aside, but her eyes were focused ahead, darting as they sought their target.

"Callisto!"  Gabrielle hissed the word between her teeth as she strode deliberately into sight of the blonde psychopath.

"Gabrielle!"  Ephiny moved to put herself between the blonde and her queen, but Gabrielle’s hand closed tightly around her regent’s arm and pulled her back roughly.

"Stand down, Amazons!"  Gabrielle yelled above the din, then added so softly that only Ephiny’s eyes widened in shock, "The bitch is mine!"

The Amazons obeyed without question.  Gabrielle had demonstrated both her courage and her wisdom to them time and time again.  They had no reason to doubt her.

But Ephiny was very worried.  Something was wrong with Gabrielle.  She had never seen the emerald eyes narrowed so menacingly nor the tiny crook of... by Artemis, was it anticipation on their queen’s lips?

Callisto pulled up her horse sharply a few yards from Gabrielle and somersaulted off to land a few feet in front of the Amazon queen, her intense gaze roaming up and down the queen’s compact body.  Her lips were curiously devoid of the reckless grin that had marked her previous encounters with the Amazons.

"Gabrielle..."  She breathed the bard’s name like a prayer to the gods.

Seemingly unmoved, Gabrielle turned without warning and drew the sword resting at Ephiny’s hip, brandishing it meaningfully between them.

Ephiny’s mouth dropped open, but Gabrielle took two steps towards the blonde warrior and one step out of her regent’s reach.

"Callisto..." she smiled, but it was like no smile the Amazons had ever seen on their gentle queen’s lips.

The blonde warrior’s eyes widened at Gabrielle’s expression then a knowing light seemed to smooth the surprise from her features.  With snake-like speed and practiced grace, Callisto drew her own sword.  From positions in the trees and on the ground, Amazon archers raised their weapons and pulled back drawstrings, aiming at the blonde warrior’s heart from every direction.

No one breathed as the psychotic warrior and the Amazon queen stared at one another less than ten paces apart.

Then Callisto threw her naked blade to the ground at Gabrielle’s feet.

Ephiny gasped then frowned.

From the corral that skirted the opposite side of the village, Argo’s shrill whinny split the breathless silence that had once again fallen as the unarmed warrior and the sword-wielding bard faced one another. 

Callisto glanced in the direction of the corral.  Her brown gaze softened momentarily before she turned back to Gabrielle.  The bard’s hand had not loosened its grip on Ephiny’s sword.  Her emerald eyes flashed dangerously over a strangely feral smile.

"I didn’t come here to fight, Gabrielle," Callisto said softly, her voice soothing, lacking the odd manic cadence that went so well with the coincidentally absent psychotic gleam that usually shined from her soulless brown eyes.  "I came to help you."

"Help me what, Callisto?  Introduce me to Hades?"  Gabrielle took another step towards the warrior.

Callisto held up her hands, her chain-laced gauntlets jingling loudly against the unnatural quiet of suspended breathing.  "I’m unarmed, Gabrielle."

The Amazon queen smiled wickedly.  "Good, then it will be that much easier to kill you."

Ephiny frowned but did not intrude.  She was not sure what was going on, but Gabrielle had never disappointed her.

Gabrielle advanced warily, but Callisto did not move or lower her hands.

"I came to help you, Gabrielle," Callisto insisted evenly then looked at the Amazons ringing her.  "Where’s Xena?"

Gabrielle’s eyes narrowed.  "I don’t need Xena to defeat you, Callisto."

Callisto’s brows rocketed upwards at the remark.  An amused smile threatened the controlled curve of her lips, but she managed to beat it back, watching intently as Gabrielle moved within striking distance.

To the horror of Ephiny and the other Amazons, Gabrielle brought the sword in an upward slash meant to disembowel the blonde warrior where she stood.  The Amazon queen’s unfamiliarity with the weapon and Callisto’s cat-like reflexes conspired against the dark anger in Gabrielle’s eyes.  Callisto stepped back as the sword began its upward arc, dodging the clumsy blow easily, then pinned the flat of the blade between her palms.  With a quick jerk, she pulled the blade from the Amazon queen’s grip and sent it spiraling over their heads to land, point buried, somewhere behind the warrior.

Gabrielle’s eyes flew open in stunned surprise as the maneuver pulled her center of gravity forward and she stumbled into Callisto.  The ash-blonde warrior smiled, catching the bard gently, righting her, and then taking a step backwards with her hands raised in surrender before the archers loosed their arrows.

Gabrielle’s hand flew to her temple.  She glanced into Callisto’s concerned brown eyes and fainted.

Callisto leapt forward and caught the bard, cradling her gently to the ground.  "I know it’s hard to believe, Gabrielle," she whispered to the insensate Amazon queen, "But I’ve let the hatred go, and what I found in its place was you.  I love you, Gabrielle.  If I have to spend the rest of my life trying to prove it I will."

Ephiny overheard the last bit of Callisto’s whispered vow to their queen and paled.  Oh, something was so not right about this scene.  She was not even sure where to begin.

Gabrielle had tried to kill an unarmed enemy.  The ex-psychotic enemy in question was murmuring words of love and remorse into her unconscious ear.  Argo was shrieking equine challenges from the corral like a territorial stallion, her hooves furiously thrashing at the eight-foot wall of the barricade that protected the Amazons’ horses.

Ephiny was about to put a hand on the warrior’s shoulder, still trying to reconcile the image of Callisto stroking the queen’s golden locks away from her face with the mad warrior whose only obsession was the death of Xena.  Warned by an inner sense, she looked up in time to see Argo clear the eight-foot barricade with a leap that left several inches between her tucked forelegs and the corral’s crossbars.

Impossible.  A horse would need wings to clear that height!

Slack-jawed and thoroughly confused, the regent stared as Argo bore down on Callisto, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the still form the blonde warrior held so tenderly was Gabrielle.

Or maybe the horse did know.  At the last moment, Argo jumped the kneeling warrior and the supine queen, one hind foot dropping a hair’s breadth just as she cleared them, striking Callisto’s brow as the warrior raised her head a heartbeat too soon.

Argo skidded to a stop and whirled on her hind legs, but calmed when she saw Callisto, brow bloodied, lying unconscious beside her mistress’ bard.  The broad-chested palomino tossed her head, flaxen forelock flying wildly, but she did not offer to trample the blonde warrior or resist when one of the Amazons slipped a halter over her head.

Ephiny ran a hand through her curly locks and shouted at the sky in frustration.  "What in the name of Tartarus is going on here?  Has everyone lost their minds?"

There was a moment of silent twilight before Cassandra’s impassive voice filled the clearing.  "More like everyone has gained some soul..."  She stepped in front of the regent, still gripping the same scroll tightly.  "I found the rite that I performed.  I know what happened to Xena’s soul."

Ephiny groaned and pressed her fingers to her forehead.  "I know I don’t want to hear this."

Cassandra stared at her evenly, saying nothing.

Ephiny rolled her eyes then bellowed in frustration.  "But tell me anyway, for Artemis’ sake!"

Cassandra nodded, her composure untouched by the regent’s outburst.  "Xena’s soul has been split into three parts- ways, means, and heart."

Ephiny frowned, still confused, her temper swelling.

Cassandra moved into the center of the clearing and turned to stare back at the regent.  "Ways," she repeated, pointing at Gabrielle.

Ephiny winced.

"Means," Cassandra continued, unaffected by the discomfort the regent was experiencing.  The young shaman pointed at Argo.

"And heart!"  She indicated the unconscious warrior with a flourish.

She strode forward until she stood inches from the regent.  "The rite temporarily transferred them to those who were closest to her then bound them together.  On the one hand, it makes her soul unrecognizable to the Keeper of Souls.  On the other..."  She completed the sentence with a wave of her hand that included the two unconscious women and the fidgeting horse.  Cassandra paused, allowing the import of her words to be absorbed before adding, "The rite will last for one moon and cannot be performed twice on a single soul."

Ephiny shook her head.  This could only happen to Gabrielle and Xena.

PART 3

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