WARNINGS AND DISCLAMERS

Xena could see them whipping Gabrielle as she was coming down the road toward them. They had torn her top from her and were whipping the bare skin of her back.

The warrior started screaming for them to stop, but they ignored her shouts. She could hear the bard scream as they continued to whip her.

The warlord's anger hit full force and she was bearing down on them when she heard a shout for her to stop. She didn't slow until she seen an arrow suddenly sticking out of the ground at the bard's feet. "XENA you'd better STOP or the next arrow will be aimed for her heart." A man's voice yelled from hiding.

Xena pulled Argo to a halt and sat there watching, knowing there was nothing she could do unless she wanted to see the bard die right in front of her. The warrior's face was tear streaked, but the tears had now been replaced with a savage fury. She sat on Argo and watched as the bard hung from her wrists and sobbed.

"Xena I told you not to come after me, now get out of here!" the bard sobbed.

Brantius stepped out of hiding and struck the bard across the mouth. "Shut up whore I want to talk to the bitch now."

It was all that Xena could to do to sit there and watch the bard suffer and be treated like this.

"Hello warrior bitch. You know I've waited a long time for this. If I'd known it was this easy to get you to come to me, I'd have done this a lot sooner. I haven't had this much fun since I met you the last time. I always knew you'd be good for a laugh or two." He said as he chuckled merrily to himself.

"Alright Brantius I'm here, now let her go." The warrior said through gritted teeth.

"What's your hurry warrior? You ready to die so quick or just in a hurry to see your whore die?" Brantius chuckled.

"Brantius you hurt her and there'll be nothing to stop me from killing you." The warrior warned again.

Brantius snickered and leered at the bard, his eyes locking on her exposed breasts. "Nice Xena! Where did you ever find the whore anyway?"

"I'm here like you asked Brantius, now let her go." Xena said coldly.

Brantius reached over and squeezed the bards exposed breast roughly and Gabrielle screamed. Brantius' eyes cut to the warrior as he seen her flinch. "No, No, warrior bitch stay still now or she dies."

"I swear..." Xena seethed.

"Xena face it there's nothing you can do but watch!" Then he planted a wet kiss on the bard's mouth.

"Xena I haven't made up my mind if I'm was going to let her go or not, but this has been so much fun I think I want to play some more before I decide." The warlord was still laughing at what he perceived as the warrior's weakness. "I'll tell you what I've decided to do... for now anyway. I'm going to let her live because we're going to continue our game for a while."

"Brantius..." the warrior started to threaten.

"Forget it Xena, she's mine and you're going to watch or she's going to die; the choice is yours. You just sit there on that horse of yours and don't you even twitch or the archer's will kill her." Brantius warned.

"Warrior I'm leaving only one man behind who'll know where we are taking your whore. He's been instructed to tell you where we've taken her in a half candlemark. I'm also leaving some archers behind with him, but they won't know where we have gone unless the one man lives.

The archers have instructions to kill him if you move before the half-candlemark is up. We don't want him spilling his guts too soon, because of one of your neck pinches. And I don't want you ruining my game warrior bitch. Just so you know... when the game is over you die." He laughed as he walked over and cut Gabrielle down and dragged her away.

In just minutes all the men were gone except for one standing about 10 feet in front of her. He looked like he was afraid that he was going to die one way or another.

Xena had never seen the archers that had remained hidden, so she wasn't sure how many archers there were to start with or how many Brantius had left behind. The warrior was afraid the man would die before she could get to him to get the information she needed, so she was left with waiting.

Xena was sure he would die though; he'd only live long enough to tell her what she needed to know to find Gabrielle. This man standing in front of her was the one that she'd seen whipping Gabrielle. Besides if the archer's didn't know where Brantius went it would be just that many less she'd have to deal with when she caught up with him again.

Xena used her time trying to come up with a plan to stop the game that Brantius seemed determined to play out with the bard's life. Xena also knew it would start getting dark before long and felt sure that Brantius would end the game before then and knew that it didn't leave her much time to come up with something.

When the time was up Xena slowly moved Argo toward the man, who had started to sweat profusely. The warrior stopped next to the man and looked down at him. "Ok, let's have it," she said evenly through slitted eyes.

The man related the message he'd been given and Xena pulled her sword and dropped the man where he stood. About a half dozen arrows immediately came streaming in toward her and she kicked Argo in the direction the now dead man had indicated.

Again the warrior watched as the bard was being whipped as she approached. Brantius was playing this game so that she never had enough time to get to the next location in time. It became painfully clear that Gabrielle would die if she didn't come up with a plan very soon.

The scene played out the same as the last one. Brantius inflicted his own brand of torment upon the small bard as Xena was taunted, tormented and forced to sit and just watch. The warrior felt like her heart was being wrenched from her chest.

Again the man whipping Gabrielle was the one left behind with the next location and more archers. Xena again put the man out of his misery and raced to the next location she was given.

This time Brantius had changed the rules on her and they were nowhere to be seen. Damn, I should have been expecting him to eventually lie so he could get away. The warrior chided herself.

Xena was left with no option now but to back track to near the last location and try to pick up their trail. Brantius had successfully slowed her down, by the time she could pick up his trail he'd have a couple candlemarks head start on her.

Xena knew that Brantius would come looking for her at first light to start the game all over again. The warrior also knew that the bard wouldn't be able to endure much more, so she had to find Brantius and put an end to this game tonight before that could happen. Xena was really worried about what would happen to the bard between now and daylight.

Xena found the tracks and did the best she could to follow the tracks as fast as possible, she knew she had less than a candlemark of light left and then she'd be trying to track them in the dark.

The tracks the warrior found said there was only about 15 horses that had left from that location. Far fewer than she'd actually expected there to be; things were already looking better.

About two candlemarks before daybreak Xena found there camp. She didn't see Gabrielle, but had to hope that she was there somewhere and that she was still alive. The warlord was now in full control of the warrior; if she had her way there wouldn't be anyone left alive. If they got lucky and lived they'd never want to ever cross her path again.

Xena checked the perimeter of the camp and found only four guards, which she quickly and quietly sent to Hades. The raven-haired warlord knew that left about ten to still deal with.

The warrior would have liked to take them all on at once in the open, so she could make sure they suffered plenty, before they died. The problem was that it left anyone of them too much time to get to Gabrielle before she could and kill the bard if she was still alive.

The warrior was quietly checking the half dozen tents that were set up. She'd already checked three and taken care of the two occupants of each, when she finally found Gabrielle tied by her hands hanging from the center pole of Brantius' tent.

Xena checked Gabrielle and she was alive, she was breathing evenly and had a strong heartbeat. But the bard was either asleep or unconscious, but seemed safe for the moment. Xena hated to, but left Gabrielle where she'd found her so any guards she might have missed wouldn't know the warrior was there until it was their turn to die

Xena quietly walked up to Brantius asleep on his cot. The warrior quickly tied and gagged him. Then she bent over and whispered in his ear, "Your time is coming, I'm just saving you for last... I promised you that you'd die for touching her." Then the warrior was gone without another sound.

The warrior finished checking all the other tents and sent their occupants on their way to meet Hades and then she openly sauntered back to Brantius' tent.

Xena entered the tent and Brantius' eyes went wide with fear as he looked into steel blue eyes that looked like they were on fire. "Brantius... now you've lost two armies by my hand, but you'll not have a chance to gather another one."

The warrior lifted him from his cot and dragged him out of the tent. She hung him by his wrists from the nearest tree she could find and striped his tunic from his body leaving him as naked as he'd left the bard. Then the warlord left him hanging there while she went back to his tent to check on Gabrielle.

Xena carefully cut the small honey-blonde down from the pole and lifted the bard into her arms. Gabrielle didn't wake up and only moaned as Xena placed her in Brantius' bed. The warrior princess turned and picked up Brantius' sword and then left the tent.

Xena returned to the tree to take care of the now EX-warlord. "Brantius I'm sorry that I don't have the time to be as generous to you as you were with Gabrielle. I have to take care of my friend that you hurt and I don't want to waste the candlemark between the 20 lashes, so I'll give them to you all at once and get this over with." With that said she backed off and uncoiled her whip and counted out the first 20 lashes making sure that Brantius felt every one.

Xena then coiled her whip and walked back up to Brantius and stared into his dark brown eyes.

Brantius found himself staring into the coldest blue eyes that he'd ever seen, they reminded him of icebergs with just as much feeling. He had never seen eyes with that much bloodlust in his life and he shivered.

"Just so you know Brantius... when I'm finished... you die." With that Xena backed off and delivered the last 20 lashes. She made sure he was screaming before she finished. As the warrior princess and a warlord she'd learned the best ways to make each and every stripe count.

When the warrior finished this time she again coiled her whip, but this time put it away. Xena took out her breast dagger and started toward Brantius, but much to his surprise she only cut the rope holding him and walked back over to where she'd left his sword.

"Brantius, I'm going to give you more of a chance than I know you would have given me." With that said Xena picked up his sword and tossed it to him. "You can defend yourself and maybe kill me or you can die like the coward you are." The warrior said with fiery hate jumping from her eyes.

Brantius was only too aware that the warrior princess was better than he was with a sword and that he was going to die, but he could at least get a few more digs in before he went down. "Hey Xena! I found out that woman wasn't your whore." He said in a taunting voice.

Xena cut her eyes at him trying to figure out what his angle was this time. "Yeah! Well how do you know so much Brantius?"

"Xena even you know with the proper persuasion people will give you their life history or anything else you want to know, and your friend was most cooperative." Brantius chuckled knowing full well that it was probably one of his last.

"Brantius, I never realized you were so talkative. Please tell me more." The warrior said with a smirk and grin of her own. She'd known Gabrielle for over two cycles there was no way that this vermin could know more about the bard than she did.

"It's hard to believe that the warrior bitch would actually be traveling with a virgin and she doesn't even act like she knows it." Brantius roared with laughter at the momentary look that crossed the warrior's face.

"Brantius you're a liar. She was married and she's no virgin." Xena was having her own chuckle now and very much curious where Brantius was going with his lies.

"Xena... your friend told me she was married." Brantius said as he again started laughing.

The smile died from the warrior's lips and she glared with hatred at this man in front of her. "Then you must be admitting that she told you that she was no virgin."

"Oh, quite the contrary warrior bitch. It seems her and the hubby never got a chance before someone named Callisto run him through with a sword." Brantius was almost in tears laughing now. He may die, but damn if he wasn't going to die happy.

"Brantius if you tortured her, she'd probably have told you anything." Xena rebutted his laughter.

"Xena that's the best part! I was saving this for last." An evil looked swept his face as he continued to taunt. "Even I realized she could have been lying to me, so I fucked her to find out for myself and DAMN if she wasn't telling the truth... she really WAS a virgin. I'd never bedded a virgin before and gods did she scream the first couple of times. She was so good and so tight, I can't believe you never tried it out yourself." Brantius could hardly contain his laughter to finish taunting the warrior.

"Brantius you're a liar!" the warrior screamed at him in indignation and disbelief.

"I may not have taken an army from you and I may not be able to take your life, but by the Gods I took your whore. Don't worry though I've gotten her all broke in for you now; you shouldn't have any trouble at all. She'll make a nice obedient whore." By the time Brantius finally finished his little speech he was roaring in laughter at the shocked and outraged look on Xena's face.

Xena screamed as she drew her sword and advanced on him. Brantius wasn't such a bad swordsman; it was just that the warrior princess was better. With the bloodlust and fury she felt the fight only lasted a couple of strokes and the man's head went flying from his body.

Even when the man laid dead at her feet with his blood pouring out all over the ground she could still feel the fury, the anger and the battlelust burning and raging through her veins. Xena stood there for several minutes trying to get her rage under control knowing the small bard was needing her help and she didn't have time to deal with this right now.

Always before there were men and women in her army with the same burning in their veins and each could work off the burning lust against each other. Then, of course, there were always plenty of slaves and victims from the villages they'd conquered. She was sure that some of her me n satisfied themselves with the victims, although she usually sought out another warrior to share her burning blood with.

Doing her best to bury the warlord and the battlelust she returned to Brantius' tent to check on the still unconscious bard. Xena gently picked the bard in her arms and carried her back to where she'd left Argo. She whistled and in seconds the mare was at her side.

She never tied the mare when she was going into battle just in case she wasn't able to return and set her free. Xena knew if she tied Argo to a tree that she would stand there and starve to death before she would try to free herself.

Xena kept the bard cradled in her arms as she had the mare lay down. The warrior still holding the bard tightly to her stepped across the horse over the saddle and had Argo stand beneath her. Xena used subtle knee commands to direct the mare to a suitable campsite where she knew that she and the bard would be safe for a while.

² Copyrighted January 1998 by DelShannon