Goddess of Battle
Chapter 8
Gabrielle had never felt more humiliated; she had never been treated this way before. Her encounter with Dahok was unlike this. He had raped her, mind, body and soul, to bring his child into the world, yet in his cowardly ("only a coward would force a woman, Gabrielle...", Xena had said before) perverse way, he had still treated her like a human being.... The captain of this ship was different. He subdued her in an instant - then pinned her face to the deck of the ship with his boot. She felt owned, almost as if she were not a person but an animal to be subdued, trained, or destroyed all at her masters will. The way he had ordered her, without so much as raising his voice... the command in his voice. His men... they instantly obeyed his every order. She had no doubt that any one of them would kill anyone or anything at his decree... or themselves if he so wished.Her bath was a nervous experience to say the least. She began by cleaning up the mess she had made ("that son of a bacchi who jerked me around - if he had only let me hold onto the rail till I had finished - serves him right, getting a face full..."). Pulling up the last bucket of water, she turned with it to go back into the cabin and caught the eye of the master of the boat. His gaze locked to hers without a waiver. No pity, no remorse... like looking at a cobra - no emotion. Gabrielle set the bucket down, her eyes never leaving his; then slowly started to disrobe. He turned away as before, although this time there was no voice accompaniment.
She removed her top (strange feeling, must be the sea breeze, yea, look, goose bumps) and froze. The men were moving around her - but not paying attention to her undressing. "Not paying attention!? Gods, Iolaus (or for that matter, Joxer...) would be having a fit by now! I DO have a great body..." She then noticed, that, even though they looked at her in passing, they didn't seem to see her nudity. "What gives? These guys eunuchs, or something? No way..." She slowly undid her skirt, letting it fall to the deck. Except for a necklace, she was naked as the day she was born. She thought, "Xena may be tall, dark, and beautiful, but I'm sexier..." Only apparently not aboard THIS ship.
Resigning herself to the strange environment, she sat down on the deck, and did exactly as she was instructed. She bathed. Methodically. As she finished and dressed in the silks that had been placed before her, she thought, "All dressed up and no where to go." That brought a momentary grin to her face, to be quickly replaced with worry. She looked up through the rigging, catching the sun. "Oh, gods, Xena.... where are you?"
"Where are you, Gabrielle?" Xena asked herself. Thesally was behind her and the open sea beckoned ahead. Even the winds cooperated, strong but not the winds preceding a storm. Without looking below her, she knew Cecrops was manning the helm while Ulysses unfurled the sails. High in the crows nest she searched the horizon praying to catch a glimpse of another ship. Any ship heading or coming from the same direction.
"If they are who you think they are... how do you expect to find them?" Ulysses called up from below.
Giving up on her search, Xena slid down a rope to the deck, landing in front of Ulysses. "I traveled through those lands, many years ago. I was returning from the kingdom of Chin. I never came across any of them, but I did hear rumors of a place called Petra, they are supposed to have a fortress called the Citadel. I thought that would be a good place to start - IF we can't catch them before they make land. I only hope the rumors are true."