When they emerged from the cave under Vulcan mountain, it was night. It surprised Xena to realise how long she had been under the mountain. That wasn't her major concern, however. Xena had a naturally suspicious nature, and Alani bothered her. The woman had saved her life. But she seemed to have no reason for doing so. She had volunteered nothing about herself: Xena had to ask her name. The casual reference to Hercules and Iolaus might mean something, but it was common knowledge in Greece that Xena was a friend to both of them: mentioning their names could easily be a trick to gain her trust.
The woman seemed to assume Xena wouldn't object to her company. It was in silence that she walked with Xena while the warrior reclaimed her horse. Xena went on a little further, to put some distance between herself and Vulcan Mountain, then made camp. Over the campfire, they talked.
"Are you going to tell me what you were doing in that cave?" Xena asked her.
Alani's hands were clasped in front of her chest. "I was sent there. Presumably to help you." As Xena's eyes narrowed, Alani added, "Look, I don't mean to sound mysterious. But that really is all I can tell you."
"Sent? By who?"
Alani reached inside her shirt and pulled out her pendant. It was highly polished and gleaming in the firelight. "I'm a priestess, Xena. I was sent by my goddess."
Xena looked sceptical, her eyes taking in Alani's clothing: not standard garb for a priestess. "You're no Hestian Virgin, that's for sure."
"No, I'm not. I realise I don't look the part of a priestess right now, but it is true. I was on my way to Athens when I was told to come here."
"Athens. That's where I'm headed." Xena had a feeling Alani already knew that.
If she did, she gave no sign of it. "Perhaps we could travel together."
"I travel alone."
"Xena, we both know that's not true."
"It is now."
"You don't trust me. Fine. I'm used to that. But if we're both going to the same place, you'll see me there anyway. Why not go together?"
"Athens is a big city."
"I'm talking about Iolaus' farm."
"You're going there? Why?" Xena was still suspicious.
"I just heard about Hercules." Alani looked down briefly, avoiding Xena's eyes, then met her gaze again. "I know Iolaus. He'll have found some way to blame himself. There's something I can tell him that will help." She frowned to herself. "I… I might be the last person he wants to see right now. But I've got to try."
Xena's gaze softened. "You talk like you're his friend. Why wouldn't he want to see you?"
A wry smile. "We…disagree about many things." Alani lifted her pedant and silently showed it to Xena. Xena examined it closely. There was no question it marked her as a priestess, but that didn't explain… Then Alani turned it over. The etched symbol on the reverse side was a stylised triple moon: )O(
"I see," Xena said.
"By Hera's crown!" someone shouted: a voice filled with fear that carried across the whole battlefield. In the sky above them, blocking the sun, its shadow spread across the ground like a cloak of death, Ares' dragon flew slowly toward the city of Mycenae.
Xena watched, her mind exulting. The dragon would wipe out whatever was left of Hera's pathetic army. Then she saw a spear fly out from the lines of that army: a spear thrown with more than mortal strength. It was closely followed by a second. The dragon screamed in pain and searched out its attacker.
Numbly, Xena watched Hercules battle the dragon. She saw it all: Iolaus' desperate attempts to distract the creature, Leipephile protecting her father, Hercules, on the dragon's back, hacking away at its neck. She saw the dragon die. Saw Hera's eyes hovering above her city, felt the goddess's victory cry.
Rage filled her. There was only one thing left. Xena accepted the bow and arrow handed to her. She took careful aim. In the same instant she loosed the arrow she saw and heard Hercules' annoying friend cry warning. But his warning played straight into her hands as the demigod turned. For an instant their eyes met and she saw recognition in his face. Then her arrow found his heart. She laughed. Hercules was dead, her revenge complete.
Beside her, Ares joined her laughter. "Well shot!" he congratulated her.
Xena woke, her mind screaming denial of the nightmare images. She stared into the darkness, her breath coming too quickly. Why? Why that same dream, over and over? She hadn't even been at the battle! Just a dream. Not real, she assured herself. Then why did it seem so real? Somehow, there was more to this than Gabrielle's tale.
Xena sighed heavily and turned over on her blankets, almost afraid to sleep again. She had lost so many people in her life. Lyceus. M'Lila. Solan. Lao Ma. Marcus.
…Marcus. There was someone she hadn't thought about in a long time. What had he told her? "Whenever the living think of the dead, the dead can hear their thoughts." The words came back to her like a mantra, long ignored, never forgotten. It was comforting, somehow.
Hardly even aware of it, Xena drifted back into the arms of Morpheus…
She leapt into the battle with a piercing warcry. Sword in had, she cut through the marauding warriors: these men who just a few day s ago she had commanded. She caught Hercules' eye as she fought: a moment, no more. Then, as the bodies piled up around her, she saw Darphus.
…The battle was over. Xena washed the blood from her hands. That was one army that would never slaughter innocents again. Turning around, she saw Hercules watching her.
"I'm glad you came back," he said.
She didn't understand this man. Twice she had tried to kill him, yet he spared her life. Why? "I had to come back. They had to be stopped."
Something in her answer surprised him, Xena could see it. "Is it over now?" he asked her. "All of it?"
She remembered what she had done to him, and to his friend. She remembered the villages she had destroyed as her army crossed the countryside. She remembered the gauntlet. And suddenly she realised that it was over. That the bloodlust that had ruled her heart since Caesar betrayed her and M'Lila died was gone. Gone so suddenly and completely that she hadn't even noticed. But he had.
"Yes, it's over."
"So…what now?"
Xena looked up at him. The question scared her. For the first time in years, the future was her own. She had nothing driving her on, no army behind her. She was alone. Or…not quite alone. Hesitantly, she took the next step. "What do you say we find out together?" she asked him.
Xena turned over in her sleep. In the light of the campfire her cheeks glistened with tears. Tears held back by anger while she was awake. Even at night, her sword was within reach. Obeying some subconscious impulse, the sleeping warrior's hand reached out toward the hilt. In her dreams, she remembered another day, another sword…
"It should be me," Xena insisted.
Hercules looked at her, one of his hands firmly on the Sword of Hephaestus. "Why?"
He was being impossibly dense. "The world needs Hercules," she replied. To herself she could admit that her motives were more personal, but she didn't think he'd accept a personal argument.
"It needs Xena, too," Hercules told her.
"Oh, come on!" Xena protested. "People would hardly miss me." Except maybe Ares. And Gabrielle. And there are plenty of people out there who would celebrate the death of Xena. But if Hercules died…? "You give hope to so many."
He shook his head. "You underestimate yourself."
That was why she loved this man, because when he knew he was right, he wouldn't budge an inch, whether against a god, a warlord, or even his best friend. But to find that same determination turned against her was infuriating. "Hercules," she snapped, "you're not using your head."
But he even had an answer for that. "Sometimes in life you go with your heart, not your head."
"What does that mean?"
"It means I can't let you die if I can do anything to stop it." He walked ahead of her, effectively closing the subject.
Xena watched him go, her heart a confused mixture of love and fear and grief. She was going to have to fight him. Because she felt exactly the same way. Xena had no wish to die. But one of them had to, and whatever happened, she couldn't let it be him.
The crazy thing, Xena realised, waking this time with the more pleasant memory on her mind, was that she'd proved Hercules right. When they'd teamed up to free Prometheus it had been soon after she had turned her life around, too soon for Xena to conceive of the difference she might make in the world. Now she could look back on the past twenty years with some pride, knowing that the good she'd achieved outweighed her mistakes.
But her feelings for Hercules hadn't changed. She would have given her life willingly to save his. She hadn't been allowed the chance.
Sighing heavily, Xena rose. There was a long way to go today if she was to reach Athens by nightfall. Her dreaming had given her a brief reprieve, but as she checked her pack and saw the gleaming, mysterious key amongst her belongings, she felt a renewed surge of black rage at Ares. Her lips settled into a thin line of determination. Ares would pay. She would deliver Justice. Like the tides, nothing would hold her back.
They came over the rise walking on opposite sides of the horse. The farmhouse looked like an oasis after hours on the road; they had skirted the city of Athens in the hope of reaching the farm in time for lunch. Xena quickened her pace a little as they approached. She noticed that, despite the woman's determination to come here, Alani seemed a little reluctant now they had arrived. Well, the mystery would be solved soon enough, she assumed.
They had almost reached the house before Iolaus saw them. He called to Gabrielle, telling her Xena was back, then hurried outside. Xena looked tired. With a chill of premonition Iolaus wondered if she had really considered the cost of what she wanted to do. He forced a smile of welcome as she met his eyes.
"Xena," he said warmly. "Find what you wanted?"
"Yes, I did." Xena's eyes moved past him to where Gabrielle stood in the doorway. "We can talk about this later, Iolaus."
He followed her gaze to Gabrielle and nodded, understanding. Then he saw Alani. Until that moment, he she had been hidden from his view by the horse. As Xena strode toward the house, she came forward to take the horse's reins. Iolaus recognised her. For a moment he couldn't find his voice. "Alani?" he breathed. "By the gods…"
"Hello, Iolaus," she said, meeting his shocked gaze with a serious look. Then she smiled. "Don't say I've managed to surprise you?"
Surprised didn't begin to describe it. Alani was the last person he would have expected to turn up in Xena's company. Then again, if Alani excelled at anything, it was doing the unexpected. Iolaus smiled a welcome and said, "I should have guessed you'd turn up now. I didn't realise you knew Xena."
"I don't."
Surprised again. "Really?" Iolaus cast a meaningful glance over his shoulder. "Does she know who you are?"
Alani shook her head. "She didn't ask…and I'm used to keeping it to myself."
"You just enjoy being mysterious," he told her, half teasing. "Come on. Let's see to the horse."
"Found yourself a new sidekick?" Gabrielle asked Xena playfully.
"No, I don't think so. She isn't talkative enough." It was enough to make Gabrielle smile and Xena felt relieved. Curiously she asked, "Don't you know Alani, Gabrielle? She told me she was on her way here."
Gabrielle watched the newcomer with her husband. "No. Never seen her before." She shrugged. "Well, Iolaus obviously knows her." Gabrielle didn't sound either curious or concerned.
"She wears a pendant," Xena mentioned. "With the sign of Hecate."
Gabrielle looked interested. "I'll bet hers is an interesting story, then." She looked up at her warrior friend and suddenly laughed aloud. "Oh, come on, Xena. Whoever she is, I'm sure Iolaus will tell me later. Why make a mystery of it?"
"Because she was at Vulcan mountain." As they walked into the house, Xena began to tell Gabrielle what had happened.
"…And we all thought it was over. Then I just happened to be looking that way and I saw the archer. I shouted, tried to warn him, but it was too late. Hercules…" Iolaus' voice trailed off and he swallowed, hard. Alani had asked him what happened at Mycenae. It was a hard story for him to tell.
Alani's look was sympathetic. "You think it's somehow your fault, don't you? Because your words changed his mind?"
Iolaus frowned. "Must you read my thoughts like that?"
Alani smiled. "I won't deny that I can, but I didn't that time. Though I think you just answered the question. Iolaus… you mustn't blame yourself. Hercules never did anything he didn't want to do. You might have helped him make the decision, but he would have reached it anyway. Without you."
"I'll never know, will I?" It was a confession and Iolaus looked away.
Gently, Alani said, "The last time I saw Hercules…it was last year at the midsummer festival in Eleusis."
"What were you doing at a festival of Demeter?"
"Looking for Hercules. The point is, when we parted… I knew the next time I saw him would be in the Elysian Fields. I thought it was my death I'd foreseen. I was wrong. Does that make it my fault, because I didn't warn him?"
Iolaus answered at once. "No, of course not. You know how stubborn Hercules was. If he was going to do something, no vague warning, even from you, would have stopped him."
Alani nodded. "Exactly. So why are you blaming yourself? It was fated to happen, Iolaus. Fore-ordained."
"How can you talk like that, Alani? Don't you care at all?" Iolaus' words were hasty: when she met his eyes again he regretted them.
Alani's eyes were full of tears. "I hardly ever saw him, but knowing I never will again isn't easy. I'll miss him, Iolaus."
Both of them looked up at the sound of Xena's voice from the other side of the room: "Stop it, Gabrielle." The words were like a whipcrack.
Gabrielle looked up at Xena. There were tears in her eyes. "Oh, I know I can't change your mind. I know when you're bent on murder nothing's going to stop you. I just can't believe we're going through all this again!"
Xena didn't have to ask what Gabrielle meant. The events of that year long ago were rarely spoken of, but neither of the women needed reminding.
Xena had travelled to Ch'in to kill Ming Tien, but at the end, when she had understood Lao Ma's message: "The Green Dragon must be made small," she had realised it wasn't necessary. She had destroyed him instead, robbed him of his power. It was only when he called her back…
"You probably heard I had Lao Ma executed. I just wanted you to know it's not true."
Xena dared to let herself hope. "Really?" she asked.
Ming Tien's mouth twisted in a cruel smile. "No. I did it myself."
Horror didn't describe what Xena felt then. And she told him, "Lao Ma was your mother!"
"I knew that the whole time," Ming Tien told her contemptuously. "That's why I did the execution: I knew she wouldn't use her powers to hurt her little boy."
Xena listened, guilt and fury warring in her heart. She had created this monster. She had caused Lao Ma's death.
Ming Tien drew something from his robe. "This belongs to you." It was Xena's hair brooch: special to both her and to Lao Ma. "Lao Ma's last request was that it was returned to you. Turns out she was just a sentimental fool."
Xena's mind was spinning, trying to grasp the message. Lao Ma had been anything but sentimental. Then she remembered. Lao Ma had shown her how such a simple object could be a useful weapon…"If thrown at the right body-part."
When she first received Lao Ma's message, Xena had assumed she would have to kill the "Green Dragon". It was just possible that Lao Ma had known she would: when Xena left Ch'in she was still the monster of war Ares created. Lao Ma hadn't known she had changed. This second message, though was not so ambiguous.
Ming Tien was still speaking. "Remember this? Mother's book of wisdom. It failed her in the end. Her philosophical sense of peace fell apart. She cried like a baby."
Only one thing had ever been able to move Lao Ma that way. Not pain, not defeat. Only her son. Lao Ma had realised her son had to die, so she had wept. There was no doubt left in Xena's mind: Ming Tien had to die.
This wasn't murder. This was execution: the death warrant signed by Lao Ma herself.
"I still don't believe I was wrong to kill him, Gabrielle. What I did wrong was lying about it to you. But this isn't the same thing at all. Can't you understand that?"
"I know it isn't the same, Xena. In Ch'in you wanted to kill a man. This time you're going after a god."
Xena finished the story of her challenge at Vulcan Mountain for the second time. In the silence that followed she stole a glance at Gabrielle: she could see the bard's busy mind filing away the details for a later re-telling. Xena stifled a smile. Some things never changed.
How often had she sat in this room listening to Gabrielle's stories, or offering the tales of her own recent adventures? This place, with its whitewashed walls and beeswax candles scenting the air had became Xena's haven, the closest thing she had to a home of her own. At first sight, this night was just like a hundred others, friends gathered around a table, talking. But it was different. Nothing would ever be quite the same again.
"The Eye," Alani repeated. "That's what he called it?"
"Yeah. Poetic isn't it?"
"Poetic? No. It tells you it will affect anyone on a line of sight. Or maybe any god. I'm not sure."
Xena gave Alani a piercing look. She hadn't thought of that.
"It might also describe its shape, but don't rely on that. The tools of the gods can be anything. Shape and size don't matter."
Xena agreed. "This doesn't look much like a key, either." She lifted the ring of silver and turquoise from the hook at her waist.
Alani looked at it, then glanced at Xena, asking permission with her eyes before she reached out to take it from her. She turned the delicate circle in her hands. "It feels…almost alive," she said quietly.
"May I?" Iolaus took the ring from Alani.
Xena was frowning slightly. "I know how it feels. It worries me. How am I going to fool Ares? If I can feel the power of that thing, he certainly will."
Iolaus handed the ring back to Xena. "He's a god, Xena. I think that's the least of your worries."
"No, I can keep my thoughts to myself, Iolaus. And I can fight Ares if I have to."
Gabrielle caught her gaze and held it, saying nothing. Xena read the plea in her eyes. Neither of them would speak of it again.
Alani was watching the interaction between the two women. "You know," she said suddenly, "the best place to hide is in plain sight."
"What do you mean?" Xena demanded.
"If you really can hide your thoughts from Ares, he might not be that hard to fool. If you'll trust me, I can disguise that key for you."
Xena's look was cynical. That's the thousand-dinar question, Alani. Do I trust you? She glanced at the only person in the room who knew Alani: Iolaus.
Iolaus shrugged. "As far as I'm concerned, Alani can be trusted."
Alani smiled at his careful phrasing. "Well, there's a first time for everything," she teased. Iolaus smiled at her briefly.
"Alright," Xena decided. "What do you want me to do?"
"I need your chakram. And I need you to trust me. That's all."
Xena's chakram. The most deadly weapon in her arsenal, and certainly the most unique. She wasn't the first to use one, but no one before her had ever handled one with such skill. No one would again. Alani ran a finger along the razor-sharp edge. The decoration was interesting: the steel inlaid with brass and jewels. Someone had spent a great deal of money on this weapon. She laid the chakram on the table and turned her attention to the "key". Intricately woven silver wire and turquoise jewels. She laid it over the chakram carefully: they were about the same diameter.
"What are you going to do?" Gabrielle asked her.
Alani merely smiled. "Watch." She lifted a hand and touched her pendant briefly, closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths. What she wanted to do would take concentration. She felt the response of her goddess and let out her breath with relief. Then she reached out to touch the key.
Xena, watching, saw the relief flash across Alani's face and wondered what it signified. She tried to watch what Alani was doing. Afterward, she couldn't recall or describe what she'd seen. Her memory insisted that nothing had happened: everything changed in the time it took her to blink. Common sense told her that wasn't possible.
When Alani stepped away from the table, Xena moved forward and lifted the chakram. It was warm to the touch. Somehow the intricate silver of the key was embedded in the chakram's steel. Xena could see the pattern of the wires, a barely-visible pattern on the polished surface, only because she knew it was there. She gripped the chakram testing its balance. It seemed as perfect as ever.
"Hidden in plain sight," Xena said. She was impressed.
The steady rhythm of the sharpening stone against the steel of her sword was soothing. Clouds covered the moon, and the windows of the farmhouse were shuttered, leaving barely enough light to see, but she kept working, long after the edge was razor-sharp. Leipephile didn't even look up when she heard Iolaus coming. In silence he sat beside her, leaning back against the trunk of the tall cedar and looking up into the dark branches. Leipephile kept working.
Eventually, Iolaus broke the silence. "When you were five years old, you tried to climb this tree. Do you remember?"
Leipephile put the sharpening stone aside. "What do you mean, I tried? I did climb it. All the way to the top."
He smiled in the darkness. "And then you couldn't get down."
"I remember. Even Hercules looked tiny from up there. I was so scared."
"Hercules talked you into trying to climb down."
Leipephile could find no safe reply to that. Hercules had been the one who convinced her she was brave enough to try, but it had been Iolaus who promised to catch her if she fell. Even as a frightened child, she had never doubted he would be there if she needed him.
"You were so determined to prove you could do it, you didn't think about the consequences," Iolaus said. Then he shut up, letting her think about that for a while.
It worked. Leipephile shifted slightly, turning to face him. "You'd think I'd have learned my lesson, wouldn't you?"
"No. You're too much like me."
Leipephile chuckled at that. "I always wanted to be like you. That's why I…"
"I know," he interrupted. "You don't have to prove yourself to me, Leipe. I already know what you are."
"And what's that?" she challenged.
"My daughter. Brave. Clever. Determined." He grinned. "And reckless, and foolish at times as well." He was hoping to get another laugh from her, but she was quiet. "The first time I went to war…it was stupid. Two cities fighting over a worthless stretch of land they could easily have shared. Jason was new to his throne. He had to get involved because one of the cities was an ally of Corinth. Herc and I went along for the glory. We were dumb kids. Thought we knew everything. I had to lose two good friends to learn what I tried to teach you years ago." Iolaus wished it wasn't so dark. He wanted to be able to see her. "Leipe…I know that at Mycenae you saw some things… I wish I could have protected you from that, but that's the way the world is. You have to deal with it, and move on. It's not going to be easy, but…"
She lifted the sword up before her eyes. It glittered in the scant light. "I used this at Mycenae," she said quietly. "It's a good sword. I think I'll give it to Xena. She lost hers at Vulcan Mountain."
"I'm sure she'd be grateful," Iolaus answered. Where was she going with this?
"I think I should go away."
The words, quietly but firmly spoken, surprised Iolaus. "I thought you'd had enough of adventure for now."
"You're right, Dad. I need to deal with it. I don't think I can do that here. I was wrong to follow Hercules to Mycenae. I know that. But the reasons I did it haven't changed. I don't belong on a farm."
Iolaus had no wish to admit it, but Leipephile was right. Even so… "I won't have you on the road alone."
"I'm not that stupid, Dad. How far is it to Amazon territory?" Xena's idea, Leipephile's decision.
"About two days, by sea. Longer, overland. Leipe, you don't really know Amazons…"
"And you do? I know Ephiny."
Iolaus shrugged. He knew Amazons a lot better than he was prepared to discuss with his daughter. It was a pointless argument, anyway. Leipephile always got her way around him. "Yeah, I guess you know Ephiny. And she'd make you welcome, for Gabrielle's sake. If…" he added firmly, "…you're certain this is what you want."
"I just know I'm not going to be happy staying here."
Iolaus sighed. "Just…let me be the one to tell your mother, OK?"