Chapter Three

Interrogations

As the first of the men selected was escorted by the guards into a small anteroom next to the Throne Room, Xena stood in the center of it, a hostile look on her face. One solitary chair was the only furniture, which the guards forced the man into.

"Leave us," Xena demanded, and the two guards withdrew through the door they had entered. The second door was covered with a curtain. Behind which were the king and Gabrielle — there to listen should any incriminating evidence be told.

Xena only stared at the frightened carpenter, who tried but couldn't meet Xena's stare.

Finally Xena commanded, "Look at me!" As he did, the fingers of her hands speared the man's neck, throwing him against the back of the chair and causing him to begin gagging.

"You have only 30 heartbeats to answer my questions to my satisfaction. If you don't, you die."

He could only nod to indicate he understood.

"Were you involved in the attempted assassination of Queen Gabrielle?"

"N-n-no. I swear, I knew n-nothing about any assassination," he choked out as blood began to dribble out of his nose and into his mouth. "Nothing, you have to believe me."

"You LIE!" Xena screamed at him. "You have lied to me, and now you will die for it!"

"Please! On the lives of my dear children, I swear to you, I am innocent!"

Xena turned her back on the man as he continued to deny his involvement.

Then within ten heartbeats of his death, she spun around and speared his neck again, returning the flow of blood to his brain.

"Guards!" Xena shouted, "take this liar away and send him back to his worthless family."

Just before he was lifted from the chair, Xena bent down to him and snarled into his face. "If you repeat what has happened here you will watch your children die – slowly and painfully."

"Never! I will say nothing! I promise, you must believe me!" he pleaded as he was dragged from the room.

The king and queen entered the room with shocked looks on both their faces.

"How could you have been so cruel and heartless?" Gabrielle managed to ask first.