Chapter Nine

Justice

At midday King Belos and Queen Gabrielle walked out of the palace onto the portico at the top of the broad stairway leading up to the palace. Xena was in her usual place just behind Gabrielle, on her right.

"Hear me!" the king shouted to the crowd. "Xena, the Warrior Princess, the one many have called the Barbarian Bitch, has volunteered to face you, to let you judge her concerning her crimes against you."

As King Belos stepped back, Xena walked from behind Gabrielle to the center of the portico, standing four steps away from the stairs leading down. As she looked out over the crowd of almost a hundred people, she could hear the mumblings and mutterings gradually growing louder. Then someone shouted out that she should be hanged. Another yelled for her head. Another, then another, called for flogging.

As the crowd grew louder, the individual shouts were drowned out by the single incoherent roar of the mob. Then someone threw a stone that hit Xena in the shoulder. Another stone bounced off her right leg. More rocks were thrown.

This was more than Gabrielle could stand. Unwavering, she walked toward the hail of stones, and then deliberately walked into the path of a rock that hit her in the forehead just above her right eye.

As though hit with a club, Gabrielle fell backward, to be caught by Xena. As blood poured from the wound down into her eye, Gabrielle struggled to stand. But when Xena tried to wipe away the blood, Gabrielle pushed her hand away.

"Help me to stand, " she commanded. Xena complied. And on quivering and unsteady legs Gabrielle walked to the edge of the portico. Silently she stood there for all to see the blood running down her face to drip off her chin and soak into her gown. The crowd was stunned into silence at the sight of their beloved queen wounded and bleeding. In the meantime, King Belos had ordered two guards to go into the crowd to capture the man who threw the stone.

"There are many of you who have called for the death of Xena!" she finally said. "I can understand why you wish this to happen, for it is true that she and her army have caused many deaths and much destruction throughout our land. But if that is so, then why have I heard no cries for the death of Ares, God of War? For if anyone is to blame for the death and bloodshed war brings, is it not Ares?"