Chapter Nine
Celebration
As the wine flowed freely on the balcony and there was laughing and celebrating, Doctore ran to assist Xena, who was beginning to falter, as her two dead opponents were dragged from the arena. The balcony emptied as the party moved indoors, while Xena dropped her two swords and allowed Doctore to put one arm of hers around his shoulder and help her walk from the arena. Once they got into the dining area that doubled as the hospital, the physician put folded rags on both the entry and exit wounds to staunch the blood flow, then wrapped her with another, holding them in place. He then started to clean the blood from the rest of her. Just then a slave ran to Doctore, spoke to him then left again.
"Unbind her wounds," he told the physician.
"But the bleeding must be stopped," he protested.
"Dominus wants to put her on exhibition with her wounds showing and blood still running."
Reluctantly, the physician removed the bandaging. Fortunately, the bleeding had mostly stopped with only a trickle coming from both sides.
"Are you able to walk?" he asked her.
Xena nodded at the physician, then said to Doctore, "I don't suppose they want to see me armed."
Doctore smiled at her attempt at humor but shook his head. The two of them walked to the locked lattice gate, which was unlocked by a guard, letting them into the passageway to the rest of the villa.
"No chains?" she asked the guard, but Doctore answered, "Not this time, it would spoil the effect. Besides, with the guards and your wounds, they know you are no danger to them."
Xena laughed, which caused pain in her side. "If they only knew," she said, grimacing slightly.
When they entered the main room where everyone had gathered to feast and to drink, applause broke out for Xena. Doctore stood back, allowing Xena to continue to the center of the room, and to accept the acclaim of the crowd. She first nodded to Batiatus and Lucretia, then turned slowly, almost looking at everyone, but there was only one face she searched for. And again off to one side, holding a tray with bottles of wine was Gabrielle.
Their eyes locked momentarily, but Gabrielle's expression was pained and troubled. Xena couldn't understand why Gabrielle didn't realize why she had to be the gladiator Batiatus expected her to be; couldn't understand why Gabrielle didn't realize what had to be done despite its ruthlessness and violence.
But Gabrielle wasn't thinking about the why, but the here and now. From the balcony, watching Xena do battle, she looked unpleasant enough, but seeing her now, as her eyes traveled up and down, was almost overwhelming. There didn't seem to be a spot on Xena that wasnt covered with red. And embedded in the sticky, drying blood was red tinged sand. Nothing but blood and sand was embedded in her hair, on her face and chest, and covering her belly, arms and legs. Only her back was relatively blood-free, but the sand stuck to it from the sweat that had soaked her. The wound through her side still trickled with blood, both front and back.
Batiatus was playing the room, going from one small crowd to the next, laughing, demanding the slave girls bring more wine, and pointing out Xena to them and how he'd had seen to her training. All the while, Xena stood still, on exhibition, trying find Gabrielle in the crowd, but she had to circulate, pouring wine into empty goblets. And when she did finally see her, Xena realized Gabrielle, as all the slave girls, was naked. Again, their eyes momentarily met, then Gabrielle turned and was gone, ordered to fetch more wine. And as Xena watched Gabrielle's back and bare ass as she walked away, she felt a stirring in her loins she hadn't felt since the night before their capture.
Xena had no idea how long she stood in the one spot, her body had all but shut down, trying to heal itself, not only from the trauma of being stabbed and the loss of blood, but from the mental as well as the physical exertion. Suddenly, she was aware of Lucretia standing in front of her, looking intently into her face.
"Batiatus," Xena heard her say. "I believe your warrior is about to fall onto her face. Perhaps you should have the physician look to her."
Batiatus walked over to inspect his Amazon Warrior, and when he looked down, she saw her left leg was covered with blood and her feet were in a puddle of blood.
"Doctore!" he yelled out, and he came running. "Take her to the physician. We can't let our newest money-maker fall ill."
"At once, Dominus," Doctore answered, and again put one of Xena's arms around his shoulders and, accompanied by two armed guards, took Xena back to the gladiator quarters, with a slave girl following behind, wiping up the bloody footprints as they went. And returning from the wine room, watching Xena all but dragged away, Gabrielle couldn't help but shed pent up tears, tears she knew better than to let be seen.
As soon as they were back in the gladiators' quarters, Xena was taken to the bath and was slowly lowered into it. Almost immediately the water took on a reddish tint. Xena breathed a deep ragged breath, and as she had done before, she submerged herself until her head was resting on the bottom. But she barely got to a twenty-count when she had to rise up to take a new breath. She looked up and Doctore and the physician were there, hands out, to help her out of the bloody-watered tub. The physician bandaged her wounds and Xena, insisting she was fine, limped to her small room to rest and recuperate.
She slowly laid down, being careful not to aggravate her injuries. She hoped she could sleep, but the images of Gabrielle would not leave her mind. Images of her perfect naked body full and rounded breasts, her flat belly, her dark blond pubic triangle, her muscle-toned back, and her deliciously shaped ass that was the last thing Xena had seen of her that day. And without realizing it, Xena's hand crept to her crotch and began gently massaging her center of pleasure.
When she realized what she was doing, she immediately stopped. She knew this would not satisfy her, not this time, not alone. But she had to wait until all were asleep, and it seemed to take them forever to settle down. When she finally heard only snoring she carefully got up from the bed, left her room, and went into the room Barsis and Philox shared. Both were sleeping, Barsis flat on his back, exposed, while Philox was on his side.
Xena reached down and took Barsis' penis into her hand, which woke him up immediately, and as she stroked it, it grew to full size almost as immediately. Xena then straddled him and guided his fully erect organ into her, barely aware of his moans of pleasure. She rested her palms on his chest to steady herself as she began to move up and down. He in turn massaged her breasts. But the pleasure she wanted wasn't there. Some something was missing. Perhaps because it had been so long since she had been with a man
"How long has it been?" she wondered, as a part of her mind drifted back in time. "Was it with Marcus? Was it that long ago?"
Just then she heard Barsis' not-so-muted groans of pleasure as he released his seed into her. But it was too soon for her. She could feel her own orgasm coming, but with his loss of erection, she looked over to Philox, who had awakened and was watching them. And leaving Barsis, Xena went to the willing Philox's bed, and guiding him into herself as she had done Barsis, she began sliding up and down on his shaft, faster and with more intensity, ignoring the pain in her side, trying to relieve the ache in her loins.
When her orgasm finally arrived, Xena cried out, unable to stifle her moans, and her fingernails dug into Philox's chest, leaving ten spots of torn flesh and blood, but he never felt it as his quickly followed hers. Xena stayed only long enough for Philox to lose his erection, then forced herself to get off him. She wanted so much to feel that warm, comforting aftermath of lovemaking she had felt on occasion with Borias, often with Marcus, but always -- always with Gabrielle. But it was not here, not with these men, and she had to get out of there.
Just as she got to the door, Xena said to both of them without looking at either, "If word of this leaves this room you will beg for death before I am finished with you."
Xena detoured to the bath tub and got in until the water was just below her wounds, and washed away the semen that was trickling down the insides of her thighs. She then went back to her bed, sexually satisfied for the moment, but feeling guilty for her betrayal of Gabrielle. It took more than a few moments for her to fall asleep, seeing in her mind's eye Gabrielle's face full of hurt and disappointment.
As Batiatus and his guests continued to drink and to feast, Gabrielle found herself too busy to think about Xena. There were fresh bottles of wine to get, goblets to be filled, spilled wine and food to be cleaned from the floor, and trying hard to ignore the hands that were always groping at her breasts, her ass and her crotch.
Eventually, the drunken guests retired to their sleeping chambers leaving only Batiatus and Lucretia in the room, other than the ubiquitous slaves that were always present, and almost always unnoticed. Batiatus had consumed as much if not more wine than anyone in attendance, and was in an amorous mood, kissing and fondling Lucretia, trying to stay on his feet.
Lucretia ordered several of the women slaves, including Gabrielle, to half carry him to their bedroom, and after stripping off both his and her clothes, she ordered them to let him fall onto the bed. And while they stood by, waiting and watching, Lucretia tried to get him hard enough to fuck her.
But he was too drunk to get the full erection he needed. "Marsa!" he yelled out. When she didn't come running he said to Lucretia. "Where's she? I need her 'ssistance."
"Marsa was taken ill and I ordered her to remain in her quarters," Lucretia lied. "We couldn't have her vomiting on our guests."
Batiatus nodded, then said, "The new girl, Gabrel, Xena's lover, where's she? She'll do."
Lucretia motioned to Gabrielle and said, "He needs your mouth to make him hard."
Fighting revulsion and loathing, Gabrielle again got to her knees as Batiatus grabbed her hair and thrust himself into her mouth. This was only the second time she had ever done this. The first was on her wedding night with Perdicus. It was something she had never even thought about until he told her it was what a wife was expected to do. It wasn't as bad as she anticipated, and she did love Perdicus and wanted to please him.
But Dominus was not Perdicus and her only way to get through this was to keep her eyes closed and to think "Perdicus, Perdicus, Perdicus" with each stroke that nearly gagged her, over and over and over for what seemed to Gabrielle to last forever. When suddenly Batiatus pushed her aside and mounted the waiting Lucretia. But as he fucked her, his stamina was flagging as she urged him on to completion. And when it was obvious he couldn't finish, Lucretia said harshly to Gabrielle, "Your finger into his ass, quickly!"
Gabrielle was stunned at the demand, and hesitated.
"Do it - - NOW!" Lucretia shouted, and with utter disgust, Gabrielle put her index finger into her mouth to wet it, then inserted it as far as it would go, and several moments later Batiatus screamed out his pleasure as he ejaculated. Then as he fell into a drunken stupor, she pulled her finger from him, not looking at it, not wanting to even imagine what was there.
"Get out of here," Lucretia ordered. "All of you. There is cleaning to do." And she too fell asleep, a victim to the wine.
And as Gabrielle and the other women left, she remembered what Antea had said: "My dear, you have no idea what goes on within these walls."