Chapter 11
"It can’t be true Iolaus! I won’t believe it!"
"Hercules, it has to be her! Who else could it be!" Iolaus didn’t like the conclusion he had reached any more that his friend did, but he couldn’t fly in the face of the facts, just because he didn’t like them.
"How can you say that! You knew her too – she isn’t capable of doing all those terrible things – she’s not like that!"
"I don’t want to believe it either, but what else are we to think? Just how many tall, green-eyed, redheaded women do you suppose Ares associates with!"
"Then he’s forcing her to do these things – he’s just using her as a figurehead, whispering his orders to his armies into her ear! It has to be!"
Iolaus ran his fingers through his hair and shook his head. "I hope you’re right."
"I have to be, Iolaus – you know she’s no warrior!"
Iolaus looked up at his tall friend. "How do we know that, Herc? We knew her for just a little over a week – and two of those days, she was unconscious. She didn’t say much of anything about her past – other than that she had been raised by the steppe people. And think for a moment – why would her father give a war stallion to a girl of only twelve?"
"But a warrior, Iolaus?"
"What about the business with the knife?" Iolaus had to play the part of the devil’s advocate – even though it hurt him to do so.
"Any woman in this day and age needs something to protect herself." Hercules was not going to give in easily. "Besides, if she was a warrior, she should have been able to make a better show of throwing us off of her when she thought we were attacking her."
"She had a concussion! Gods! She could barely stand upright, let alone fight off two strong men! And, Herc – that wrestling match she and I got into – I’m not so sure now that she was kidding about letting me win – she had some pretty good moves."
Hercules’ resolve wilted in the face of Iolaus’ logic. He sat down and put his head in his hands. "Why didn’t she tell us? Why didn’t she tell me about Ares?"
Iolaus put his hand on his friend’s shoulder. "I think she tried. Remember back at the stream, when we were chasing her? Well I did catch her and… I kissed her."
Hercules raised his head sharply in surprise.
"And she turned me down. And then, when she tried to tell me something about Ares – I stopped her. I thought she was trying to tell me about being raped, and I wanted to spare her the pain. Maybe she was trying to tell me something else about Ares."
Hercules hung his head. "That she wanted to be with him."
"I don’t know. But Herc, she did tell me one thing – that she was in love… with you."
Hercules looked at Iolaus in confusion. "But if that’s true…"
Iolaus squeezed his friend’s shoulder and smiled. "It is – count on it."
"Then why did she go with Ares?"
"I don’t know. But I think she deserves the chance to explain things to us… to you. And she owes you at least that much."
Hercules nodded. "Alright." He squared his shoulders and rose to his feet. "Then let’s go find her."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Strife was not a happy camper.
His great lust for Jessa had been replaced with an even greater hatred.
That little bitch was horning in on his act – and somehow, she was twisting Uncle Ares around her little finger – he had never before acted like this with other women – not even Xena. Jessa had warped his mind, turned him into a panting, foot-licking wimp at the mercy of his lust for her. That had to be what it was – Strife couldn’t believe that it could be anything more – that it could be… love. Ares didn’t operate that way with women – it was not his normal ‘modus operandi’. His attitude had always been – as Ares was so fond of saying – "Use ‘em… abuse ‘em… and then, lose ‘em".
No, she must be doing something nefarious to Ares, something diabolically evil! Something that only the strongest of minds could resist – why he himself had almost succumbed to the madness of lust that she had sent into his own mind!
Poor Uncle Ares! He was oblivious to what she was doing to him!
There seemed to be nothing that Strife could do to change Ares’ mind about that bitch-witch – at least not, and survive with his skin intact. It was hopeless.
Unless…
Yes! Of course! Why didn’t he think of this before! It was certain that if any one could help, she could! She should be more than willing – after all, she was Ares’ sister – and even besides that, us gods have got to stick together! Especially against scheming mortal sluts like Jessa!
Strife’s moral resolve strengthened at the beauty and brilliance of his magnificent, foolproof plan.
Yes! It was up to him to save his Uncle! And save him, he would! Even at the very cost of his immortal life!
Uh – well – let’s not get too carried away.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Hercules and Iolaus had been moving upstream for miles through the steady flow of fleeing peasants on the road leading to the village of Ontonia.
"You’re going the wrong way!" An old man warned them. So had they been warned, over and over.
"It’s that monster! The one they call the Bloody Phoenix!" he said, "They say that her eyes shoot green fire!"
"And if you touch her fiery hair, your blood boils away!" they were informed by a harried-looking peasant woman carrying one squalling child in one arm, and holding another, screaming even louder, by the hand.
"Yeah, so we’ve been told," Hercules said.
"Wait a minute, " Iolaus said, "I thought she spat molten lava from her mouth!"
The old man and peasant woman gasped. "That, too?" the old man exclaimed in shock. "Come on," he said to the woman, "We’d better hurry!" They disappeared into the fleeing crowd.
"See Iolaus! See how things get so blown out of proportion when news travels by word of mouth! How can we trust anything we’ve heard about Jessa’s army!"
"Well, that burnt-out village we passed through yesterday spoke volumes – without a word being said."
Hercules could not argue with that. "Come on, that army can’t be far now."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Is that her?"
A small group of mercenaries were lined up to sign up with the army of the Bloody Phoenix.
"Yeah! Gods, look at her! I thought she’d be some Pegasus-faced hag with more muscles than the gods ever intended even a mortal man to have! But look at her! She’s gorgeous!"
"Yeah! I wonder if she needs a new First Officer," someone snickered obscenely, "I know I’d sure like to serve under her!"
The mercenaries all snickered lewdly.
"Watch your mouths!" warned the recruitment officer, "And don’t be getting any ideas about moving up in the ranks by moving up on her! You don’t want to get on Ares’ bad side – believe me!"
"Then it’s true? She’s got an inside track with the god of war himself?"
"Yeah! Look! Look! I think she’s talkin’ to him right now!"
Jessa was standing just outside of her tent with a sheaf of parchment papers in her hand. She seemed to be deep in discussion, but no one else was to be seen.
"I don’t see anyone!"
"Of course not, stupid! He’s a god!"
"Then how does she know he’s there!"
"What’s the matter with you! Din’t yer parents give you any proper religious learnin’! The gods only appears to those they wants to!"
"Then how do you know she’s really talkin’ to him? How do you know she’s not just jerkin’ yer chain – fakin’ it! Or maybe she just thinks she sees him! Maybe she’s crazy!"
"Crazy or not," the recruitment officer informed them, "You don’t want to get on her bad side. To touch her – is to die!"
"You mean it’s really true – that if you touches her hair – your blood boils!"
The officer laughed. "You touch any part of her and all of you boils! In a great – big – stew-pot!"
"Yeah," a passing guard corroborated, "If Ares doesn’t get you first! Look over there."
The mercenaries turned to look at what the guard was pointing to.
"So? It’s a burned-out tree stump."
"Look closer!"
They approached the stump.
"Gods above!"
It wasn’t a tree stump. It was the bodies of three men, tied together and burned nearly beyond all recognition.
"The tall one sneaked into the commander’s tent one night," the guard elucidated, "Thought he would get himself a little ‘midnight snack’! He came flying out of the tent – burnin’ like he was soaked in pitch! Gods! I never heard a man scream like that!"
The new mercenaries exchanged glances of horror.
"What about the other two?"
"They were the men guarding her tent."
The mercenaries took a few moments to absorb that. (Most mercenaries are a bit on the slow side, after all.)
"You mean she sleeps with Ares?"
The guard snorted. "I’ve heard the sounds that come out of that tent at night – the moaning… the screaming – what do you think!"
"How do you know she’s not with someone else?"
"Because no one else is allowed in that tent at night – I know, I’m one of her new personal guards! Besides, the sounds she makes," he shook his head in awe, "Only a god could cause a woman to scream like that!"
The mercenaries looked at one another in wonderment.
Suddenly, the sounds of alarm and screaming men came from across the camp.
"What’s all that racket!" the guard shouted. He unsheathed his sword and ran towards the commotion. He rounded a corner around one of the tents.
A flying body slammed into him, knocking him flat.
A tall, good-looking man picked the body up off of him.
"Sorry," the man apologized politely, "I meant to hit that guy." He heaved the body and knocked down a charging warrior.
"Watch your back Herc!" a blonde man warned. He was currently battling two men – with a sword in each hand.
The tall man ducked and an arrow whizzed by, over-head. Hercules reached up and plucked it from the air. "Thanks Iolaus!", he said. Throwing his arm back over his shoulder, he snapped his arm forward, throwing the arrow like it was a dart.
One of the soldiers battling Iolaus howled, clutching his backside.
Iolaus finished off the other man. He tossed his friend one of the swords and they stood, back-to-back.
"I don’t think these guys are getting the point Iolaus!" Hercules commented.
"No!" his friend agreed, "Guess we’ll just have to be a little more persuasive!" He yelled and lunged at the soldier that was lunging at him. The soldier twisted aside to avoid Iolaus’ sword and now found himself tottering precariously on one foot, arms flailing, trying to regain his balance. Iolaus blew in the soldier’s face. The soldier fell over.
"Hoo-boy!" the blonde man said aloud to himself, smelling his breath by blowing into the palm of his hand, "Maybe I should’ve skipped that salami at lunch!"
"Iolaus!"
The blonde man spun around. Hercules was fending off the swords of two warriors using only his wristbands and, at the same time, he had a man on his back that had a chokehold on him.
"YAAAaaaaaa!" screamed Iolaus, as he charged across the compound. The two swordsmen whirled around to face him.
"Eeeeeee – yaaaaa!" Iolaus jumped into the air and slammed his feet into both soldiers’ faces, simultaneously. They flew backwards, in opposite directions, and slammed to the ground, unconscious.
"Thanks Iolaus," Hercules said, acknowledging his friend’s assist, "But it was this guy I needed help with," he reached back over his head, and, grabbing the man by his armor, threw him clear across the compound into a pile of spears that were stacked neatly into a tee-pee shape. The stack exploded into a pick-up-stick tangle on the ground.
Hercules rubbed his neck. "He was giving me a sore throat."
"Here they come again!" warned Iolaus.
Five screaming guards were charging towards them.
Hercules quickly glanced around for a weapon. He spotted a length of rope. Snatching it up, he gave one end to Iolaus. Then, he crouched down, cupping his two hands together. Iolaus placed one foot there. He looked over his shoulder at the bellowing warriors.
"Now!" he yelled.
Hercules stood up, hefting Iolaus up, into the air.
The startled guards stopped, dumbfounded, as they watched the somersaulting blonde man hurtle over their heads.
Iolaus hit the ground running. He raced, around the guards, back towards Hercules, clockwise, while Hercules ran towards him, counter-clockwise. They passed each other twice – completing one-and-a-half full rotations – before the dazed soldiers could react. (What did I tell you about mercenaries?)
"Now!" shouted Hercules. The two friends, on opposite sides of the group of guardsmen, abruptly yanked on their end of the rope, lifting them at the same time. The stunned soldiers’ feet were flipped out from under them, and they came crashing to the ground in a snarled heap, feet tied together.
Grinning from ear-to-ear, Iolaus leaped over the squirming heap of armor and high-fived his friend before his feet even hit the ground.
"Way to go, Herc!" he congratulated.
Hercules swung his fist, aiming right for his friend’s face.
"Duck!" he shouted.
Iolaus ducked.
Hercules’ follow-through smashed right into the face of a guard that had been intent on slicing Iolaus’ head off. The man spun around on his heels, twice, before he fell. If it had been a cartoon, there would have been little tweeting birdies flying circles around his head.
Iolaus stood back up. "Hoo! Thanks Herc!"
"Look out!"
Now, a mounted warrior was charging them – the spiked ball of a mace twirled around his head.
"This way!" Hercules cried.
The two men dashed through the narrow alley between two pitched tents. The mounted warrior followed without hesitation, screeching a war cry. He broke back out into the open at the end of the alley. Hercules and Iolaus were calmly standing, shoulder-to-shoulder, several dozen yards away, arms crossed, calm, confident smiles on their faces. They were standing just beyond a picketed line holding several horses. The warrior saw the waist-high picket line, but it was too late to stop the galloping horse. The horse careened, full-tilt, into the taut rope, tripping over it. The squealing horse, with rider still in the saddle, went soaring.
Hercules watched, shaking his head in admiration. "Air Pegasus," he said, "The only way to fly."
"There they are!"
The two heroes (is there any shred of doubt left in your mind at this point, as to my right to describe them as such?) spun around. A large group of warriors, like a swarm of locusts, descended upon them.
"Uh, oh."
Hercules and Iolaus disappeared into the midst of the throng. The teaming horde seethed around a focal point of flashing swords, screams, and flying bodies.
"ENOUGH!" a voice shouted, "Stand down your weapons!"
Slowly, the broiling mob settled as the command percolated into the minds of the soldiers. (Everyone knows that thought, in a mercenary’s mind, travels at the speed of blight.)
One last body flew through the air – to land at the feet of the Bloody Phoenix.
"What’s the meaning of this! How did you worthless, simpleminded (see – she agrees with me), louts allow anyone to get this far into my camp!" The Bloody Phoenix was fuming – her eyes almost did shoot green fire at the chagrined mob of soldiers.
"Bring them to me!"
The mass of warriors parted – revealing the two heroes.
The camp’s commander blanched.
"Hercules," she whispered.
"Jessa," he replied.
Hercules and Iolaus approached her.
"So it is you," Hercules said, "I didn’t want to believe it."
"What are you doing here?" Jessa’s hands were beginning to shake.
"I had to come see for myself – to see if what I had heard were true. It looks like it was."
Jessa broke off her gaze.
"Jessa, what do you think you’re doing! Raising an army! Burning villages!"
Jessa raised her chin. "It has to be done! For the greater good!"
"The greater good! What ‘greater good’!"
"The people of this land need a leader – someone to protect them from the worthless rabble of robber barons, wandering bandits, thieves!"
"And who’s supposed to protect them from you!"
"Once I have unified this land, there will no longer be any more small, independent, anarchistic sovereignties that are constantly bickering amongst themselves – causing unnecessary bloodshed and high taxes on the poor commoners which they must take to support their armies!"
"You talk of unnecessary blood shed! Look around you, Jessa! Just what is it that you think your army does when they march off – on your orders – to some hapless village that you know only by it’s name inked next to a tiny little dot on one of your maps!"
"The villages are only attacked when it is discovered that they have broken the law – by withholding their tribute or by harboring my enemies! And my troops are under strict orders to spare the women and children! I know for a fact that no woman or child has ever been killed by my soldiers – they know they themselves would face death if they did! None have been harmed!"
Hercules looked at her with a face of stone. "I’d like to take a poll amongst the women your army has encountered, as to just how many of them have not been ‘harmed’."
Jessa’s eyes shifted uncomfortably. She suddenly became aware of the mass of soldiers surrounding them – and the looks on their faces.
"Bring them to my tent!" she ordered. Turning on her heels she preceded them.
Once they were inside, she rounded on them in fury.
"How dare you come into my camp and challenge me in front of my troops!"
"Somebody had too! What’s gotten into you!"
"I can tell you," Iolaus interjected, "Ares – that’s what’s gotten into her." (I didn’t mean it in that way! Get your mind out of the gutter!)
Jessa lifted her chin, a defiant look was on her face. "He’s guiding me, teaching me, yes. Who better to learn warfare from than the god of war himself!"
"And from whom better to learn malevolence, malice, bloodthirstiness, and deception!" Hercules stated in a hard voice.
"He loves me!" Jessa cried, still defiant.
"He loves you!" Hercules repeated incredulous, "Jessa, that fiend never loved anything in the entirety of his vile existence except the foulness of whatever warfare and trouble he could inflict upon the mortal world!"
"No! He does love me!"
"Gods above, Jessa," Iolaus pleaded, "Can’t you see what he’s doing to you! He’s warped you, twisted your mind, manipulated you into some kind of creature that he can use to fulfill his lascivious desires – both his lust for blood, and his carnal lust for you!"
Iolaus reeled back from the vicious slap Jessa delivered.
"How dare you! You know nothing about it! About him!"
"You’re wrong," Hercules said as he helped steady his staggering friend, "Jessa you’ve only known him for months! We’ve known him for years! You don’t have any idea of the horrific things he’s done! He’s a monster!"
"I love him!" she cried, as if that justified everything.
"Gods, Jessa!" Iolaus cried in agony, "Don’t say that! It can’t be true!" With eyes filled with unshed tears, he turned to face his tall friend.
"Oh, gods, Hercules, look what he’s done to her!" He looked back at Jessa. "Looks like Ares has managed to put the genie back in the bottle after all."
Jessa gave a small gasp. Her defiant face trembled, on the verge of collapse.
"Jessa," Hercules’ voice was full of pain. He stepped up close to her – looked into her eyes. "Oh, Jessa… whatever has happened to you? To us?" He reached out and touched her face.
At his touch, Jessa began to tremble – her whole body shook. She gasped.
Hercules caught her as she started to collapse. He took her into his arms and held her close.
"Jessa… Iolaus said that you had told him that you loved me – was he mistaken?"
Jessa was weeping into his chest, her hands clutched desperately at the fabric of his shirt. "I thought I loved you…"
"But now – you don’t?" Hercules closed his eyes and waited for the answer.
"Ares said it wasn’t real – he said it would fade."
"And did it?" His eyes were still shut – his brow furrowed in anticipated pain.
"Gods above strike me dead, if I didn’t believe so! Until this very moment I thought he was right. But when you touched me," she exhaled in a long shuddering breath, "Gods, when you touched me, I thought I would die from the resurgence of love that has rekindled in my soul!"
Hercules’ body shuddered at the release her response gave him. He kissed her – so passionately, that they both forgot that the rest of the world even existed. Hercules could not stop himself – nor did Jessa want him too. All they felt was each other – all they craved was each other – all they knew was each other. Their own two, intertwined bodies made up the universe in its entirety.
"JESSA!"
Their universe exploded.
With a horrifying roar, Ares flung himself on Hercules. The air was rent by Jessa’s soul-shattering scream.
The furiously battling half-brothers rampaged tumultuously within the tent. Furniture splintered, glass shattered, and the entire tent shuddered on the verge of collapse.
Jessa screamed again as Iolaus seized her and dived for the doorway – he burst through the opening and hit the ground rolling, with Jessa in his arms. A moment later, the tent did collapse.
Heaving and shuddering, like a living thing caught in the throes of a violent death, the tent suddenly exploded as a fiery, gaping hole burst open, spewing sparks and burning shreds of canvas high into the air.
With the shirt burned off his back, Hercules erupted forth from the mouth of the canvas volcano, and soared far to crash down onto the hard ground, knocking the breath from him.
Soldiers, drawn to the scene in alarm over the explosion, watched in horror as the man rolled and struggled with an unseen foe.
"Gods above! Ares has got him!"
Hercules was suddenly lifted off the ground and hung there, suspended in the air, as if held over the head of his invisible foe. Soldiers scattered in panic as he was thrown viciously to the ground again within their midst.
"NO!" Jessa was again struggling with Iolaus. The blonde man cried out in pain as Jessa pricked him hard in the side with her dagger, drawing blood. In his surprise, he released her. She ran for the battling brothers.
Throwing herself on them, she frantically tried to separate them – screaming at them all the while to stop.
Suddenly, she was sent flying – she smashed into a group of soldiers – bowling them over. She collapsed to the ground, her face covered with blood.
"Jessa!" Hercules rushed to her side.
Ares was hot on his heels and he shoved Hercules away from Jessa’s prone body. "See what you’ve done to her!"
"What I’ve done to her! What about what you’ve done to her! It makes me ill to think of the way you’ve perverted her mind into a sick image of your own!"
"What about you! After she met you she had all of the vivaciousness bled right out of her! You had turned a strong, lusty, warrior-to-the-bone woman into a weak, simpering, puddle of mush!"
"You’re wrong! Her spirit was set free for the first time in her life!"
"You mean you killed her spirit! You snuffed it out just like you did the fire in her soul!"
"STOP IT! DAMN-it-all-to-Tartarus-and-BACK!" Iolaus was livid with outrage. "What’s the matter with you two! You’re bickering back-and-forth about who did what to the woman they love, when all the while they stand over her unconscious, bleeding body!" He furiously shoved the feuding brothers apart and knelt down by Jessa’s side.
He gently lifted her head into his lap. Someone handed him a bandage and he mopped at the blood on her face.
"It doesn’t look that bad – a cut just above the hair line – scalp wounds always bleed like the dickens and make it look worse than it really is."
He was handed another bandage, which he used to bind the wound, wrapping it around her head. Jessa moaned and opened her eyes. All she could see was Iolaus’ gently smiling face.
"Oh gods, Iolaus, please tell me they didn’t kill each other."
"Not yet," Iolaus said with a caustic glance at the former-combatants.
"Oh, thank the gods," she breathed, "Where are they?"
"Right here Jessa." Hercules knelt down on one knee by her side. Ares did the same on the other side.
"This ends now," she informed them firmly, "If you two start one more fight over me, I swear on the souls of my ancestors that I’ll kill myself! Do not make the mistake of doubting this!"
Though the two half-brothers scowled at each other, the assent could be seen in their faces.
"Fine! Now that we’ve got that settled… Iolaus, please help me get up."
With Iolaus’ assistance, she rose to her feet.
They were completely surrounded by every single occupant of the encampment.
Jessa looked at Ares. "We need some privacy."
There was a cluster of bright flashes and Ares, Hercules, Iolaus, and Jessa were gone.
The entire camp stood frozen, in shocked silence.
"By the gods!" one of the new mercenaries cried, "To have both a god and a half-god, hero fighting over you! She must really be hot!"
Email: fanficbeth@aol.com