Chapter Two
At Sea
It didn't take long for Gabrielle to learn several important lessons about working on a sailing ship. The first was to wrap her hands from wrist to fingertips with strips of canvas. The hemp ropes used for everything was so rough that blisters would form, then quickly rupture, and soon her palms and fingers would be bloody and raw.
The second thing she learned was that the muscles that served her well while on the road, and occasionally while battling thugs and warlords, were not the ones used for pulling on ropes that raised and lowered the sails. She had never experienced such a persistent aching in her back, shoulders and arms.
She also learned that wooden sailing ships were not watertight, and that bailing water from the bilge of the vessel was a constant chore. That, and the need to keep applying and reapplying the black, sticky, oily and foul-smelling goo to the places where water seemed to want to leak through.
And that even though the cold wind on deck cut through her coat and leggings, below deck, below the water line, was almost as cold. But whenever she considered the alternative -- staying in Italia with the risk of recapture and slavery, she did the work assigned to her without complaining.
The only real irritation she felt was that Xena rarely worked with her and the crew. She spent most of her time conferring with the captain, either on deck looking out over the water, or in his cabin. And if he hadn't been so grizzled and unattractive, and if she wasn't so confident in Xena's loyalty to her, Gabrielle would have thought there was something going on between them.
But the winds were fair and they seemed to be making good time. More than once Captain Santilla told them that they were ahead of schedule, and with luck, they would be in Messina a day or two sooner than planned. But as dawn broke on their fourth day at sea, in the distance another ship was spotted, and it seemed to be heading directly toward them.
"Any idea who it might be?" Xena asked, deferring to Santilla's experience.
"Hard to say from this distance. She's a big ship, twice the size of the Poseidon. If I were to guess, I'd say one of the smaller, faster Roman warships. But until she draws nearer...."
They continued to watch, and as the ship gradually got closer to them and details were easier to see, Captain Santilla began to worry.
"She's a fast ship, no doubt. Her speed is at least twice of ours. And the red sail -- Roman for sure."
"So we can't outrun it?"
"No. I'm not sure what we can do. Just hope when they board us they will look around, decide we aren't smugglers, and let us go."
"You don't have papers, bills of lading, manifests?"
"I do, but if they decide they are forgeries.... Well, I guess we fight and die, or are sold into slavery."
"No!" Xena declared. "That will never happen."
"What can we do? You have a plan?"
"Maybe."
As they watched the Roman ship get closer, many of the crew began to pray to Poseidon to save them; Xena only shook her head.
When the ship was close enough that soldiers on board could be seen preparing to board the Poseidon, Xena shucked off her coat and handed it to Gabrielle.
"Clear a path," she said to the men. And as they spread out, leaving a clear path between Xena and the approaching ship, Xena took her Chakram from its clip, eyed the ship, then ran forward five steps and launched the weapon so hard she spun in a complete circle at its release. And even though it seemed to disappear, the loud singing of it could be heard.
"What...?" Santilla started to say.
"Wait for it," Gabrielle said, a smile on her face.
At first there was nothing but the faint singing of the Chakram, then they saw the sail of the Roman ship began to fall the ropes holding it had been cut. Then the singing got louder as the disk returned to Xena, and when she caught it, she spun around in another circle and at the same time replaced it on its clip. And as the Poseidon pulled away from the Roman ship a cheer went up from the crew.
"Back to the ropes," Santilla yelled to them. "They still have oars!"
For once, Gabrielle stayed with Xena and Santilla, feeling her place was next to her.
"Never have I seen such a weapon used so wonderfully," Santilla said to Xena. "How can you throw it so far, have it return to you, and catch it without cutting your fingers off?"
Xena smiled at Gabrielle. "Shall I, or do you want to?"
"She has many skills," Gabrielle said to Santilla. "But I have to admit, I've never seen her throw the Chakram so hard and so far."
"So, will they be able to catch us now?" Xena asked.
"It's still possible. I only see one bank of oars, but there are at least twenty oars to pull. And they will be able to come directly at us, while we will have to zig zag to catch the best wind. It will take them a while, but eventually they will."
"They have that many slaves onboard?" Gabrielle asked.
"No slaves on a warship," Xena told her. "They will be using soldiers. It's too risky to have slaves, they might take advantage during a battle and turn on the Romans."
"So what happens when they get close enough to board us?"
"I'll think of something," Xena replied. "I always do."
As the day passed, the crew of the Poseidon worked the ropes, moving the sail to best capture the wind, while Santilla manned the steering oar to help turn the ship. And despite the cold, everyone was drenched with sweat, including Xena, who knew that being short more than half the crew was causing the rest of them to do double the work. But despite their best efforts, the Roman warship was steadily gaining on them, and before the sun set the Poseidon would be within range of the archers, who would fire arrows with burning tips into the sail.
"Any ideas?" Gabrielle asked Xena during the brief rest before the sail had to be readjusted.
"Still thinking."
Gabrielle nodded. "So, just how many soldiers do you think we'll be fighting when they catch up to us?"
"Twenty. Thirty, maybe. Too many for this small crew and the limited weapons to battle."
"Xena, I want you to know right now -- I will NOT go back into slavery. I will fight to the death before I let them capture me."
"I understand. But what if it comes down to the others being captured, or dying because we refuse to surrender?"
"I can't think about the others. I'm sorry, but I can't. And I know that somehow, in some twisted way, that goes against the whole Greater Good philosophy, but ... I can't. I just cannot will not, be a slave again."
Xena put her arms around Gabrielle, whose arms went around Xena's waist, her head against her breast. Nothing more was said.
"They're gaining on us faster than I thought," Santilla commented, hoping Xena had come up with some defense.
"So I see."
"Any thoughts on we can do to slow them down some?"
"Only one thing I can think of. Let them get close enough that they are just out of arrow range, and try to get from in front of them. We need to be to one side or the other."
When the Poseidon was where she needed to be, Xena once again took a running start to launch her Chakram, but this time she put a slight spin on it with her wrist, and as it sung its way toward the Roman ship, it slowly was rotating from horizontal to vertical in a slow circle. And as it got close enough to the ship it was vertical, and one by one, sliced into the first four or five oars on the port side of the ship.
"You didn't cut them off," Santilla said.
"Didn't need to," Xena answered. And as they watched the next pull on the oars, the stress broke off the paddle ends of the oars. And as previously, Xena snagged the Chakram out of the air.
"You never miss?" he asked.
"Nope. It goes where I want it to, and then comes right back to me."
"It will take them time to move the good oars to balance the broken ones," Santilla said.
"By the time they do, hopefully it will be too dark for them to see us."
And as he predicted, by sunset, the Roman ship was barely seen in the fading dusk, and the Poseidon was almost as invisible.
While Xena kept an eye out from the stern, Santilla sought out Gabrielle. "That Xena is one amazing woman," he said.
"No argument here."
"That weapon she has -- the Chakram, where did she get it?"
"It's funny, but she's never talked about that. But over the years, from the few things she's said, I'm pretty sure she got it from Ares."
"The god of war? HE gave it to her?"
"I believe so. There was a time when she was his number one warlord, and I think he gave it to her as either a reward for doing such a good job, or as an incentive to keep on making war on just about everyone."
"She was given a weapon from a god?"
"Yep. Now I can't say for sure, but I think it's a good bet that it was forged by Hephaestus himself."
"The maker of the weapons of the gods?"
"The very same."
"But she handles it so - devastatingly. I don't understand how a mortal can control a weapon of the gods."
"That is a puzzle. Personally, I think her father may BE one of the gods. I mean, look at her arms: they aren't that much larger than mine, but she has the strength of men twice -- three times her size. And she leaps almost as if she can fly! You have NO idea of the things I've seen her do."
"But who? Do you know who her father is?"
"Again, I'm only speculating, but my money is on Hades."
"Someone praying to Hades?" Xena asked as she joined them. "Hoping to avoid Tartarus?"
"Just talking," Gabrielle said. "So what about the Roman ship?"
"They can't see us so long as no one lights a fire. But as long as they keep their cooking fires on deck, we can see them." Then turning to the captain she said, "Santilla, you need to stop your men from adjusting the sail. We need to go with the wind as fast as it will take us."
"But that means we will be going west rather than south to the strait, and to Messina. We will have to go completely around the big island to get into the Ionian Sea."
"Then that's what we'll do. We need to stay completely out of sight from them. You know we can't fight them. All we can do is stay ahead, and hope they won't know where we went. I know it will take us longer to get to Prevaza, but that's the way it is."
"But what of our provisions? I was counting on stopping there to restock...."
"Then we'll have to stop at some other fishing village!" By now Xena was getting irritated with Santilla's protestations.
"You might as well do as she says," Gabrielle said as Xena left them to return to the stern.
"I learned a long time ago that when she makes up her mind about something, it's usually for the best. And do you REALLY want to cross her?"
After a few moments, Santilla yelled out to the crew, "Full sail, straight ahead!"