Chapter 8

"Priestess Daphne!"

Gabrielle just barely remembered to turn around at the name and saw Princess Calandria and a young man walking up to her in the middle of the courtyard.

"Well, I guess you two will be more enthusiastic about the wedding arrangements now," Gabrielle grinned.

"Yes. This is Jason. Thank you so much for everything you did for us," the Princess gushed.

"I want to thank you, too. I don't know what I would have done if I'd had to watch her marry another man. Thank you for making the King change his mind," Jason said.

"I just showed him another way to look at it. He made the decision for himself. You might want to remember that when he's showing you how to be king. Keeping an open mind is very important."

"I'll do that. And thank you again, Priestess."

The happy couple nodded their farewells and returned to the castle.

Gabrielle turned around to continue in the direction she'd been walking in before being stopped. Xena came out of the royal stables, leading Argo by her reins.

"Ready to go?" Xena asked.

"Yeah. Maybe they've found my clothes and I can get out of this thing."

They headed out of the castle gates.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

They made good time and were back at the temple before nightfall. The real Priestess Daphne greeted them in the main room to find out how their mission had gone.

"King Pericles decided to let the Princess marry Jason and Jason will learn how to rule from the King," Gabrielle reported.

"That's wonderful. Love is safe again."

"Yeah. Well, we should be going," Xena interjected.

"Oh, you can't leave now. It'll be dark soon. Stay. You can get another meal and a good night's rest and head out in the morning. And one of my acolytes mentioned that you're a bard, Gabrielle?"

"Yeah, I write down all of Xena's adventures."

"Well, we have a library here that you might find interesting."

Xena scowled. She could think of many different words for the kinds of stories that Gabrielle would most likely find in a library in a temple of Aphrodite's, but 'interesting' wasn't one of them.

"Really? I'd love to read a few scrolls while we're here. Did anyone find my clothes yet?"

"No. Why don't you go to the library and you can read while you wait for them to turn up."

"Xena?" Gabrielle turned back to the warrior to make sure Xena didn't have other plans.

"Go ahead. I need to go stable Argo, if we're going to be spending the night again."

"Okay. I'll see you at dinner then."

"See ya then."

Gabrielle walked off down the hall with her twin and Xena watched for a few moments before turning to leave the temple again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Xena brushed down Argo's coat and tried to distract herself. It wasn't working. She just kept seeing images of Gabrielle as she'd climbed into that huge tub and when she'd been slowly removing that flimsy piece of clothing from her body. That had been pure torture. She'd very nearly offered to cut the thing off with her breast dagger, but she knew where that would have led.

Xena shook her head. She couldn't keep thinking about Gabrielle like this. It wasn't worthy of the bard's trust. Gabrielle saw her as a friend and looked up to her. If she only knew what her 'friend' was thinking about her.

Xena put the brush aside. She was only half done with the chore and Argo nickered at her in annoyance, but Xena continued to put the stuff away.

"Sorry, girl, but I've gotta talk to someone who can talk back to me about this. I'll come back and finish later."