As yet another went down before her, she saw the pirate captain turn on her, recognition in his eyes as he glanced from her to
the flag that now flew on her ship. With a snarl of fury the Malaysian captain, angered by her earlier ruse, growled as he
raised his sword to her. When she reached for her wrist, Zara frowned when no metal star fell into her palm. Reaching for
the short sword strapped to her back, she turned on the pirates near her. With quick, easy strides, she first sliced one man
with her scimitar, then brought the short sword down to finish off another.
She hacked her way with each weapon through two more pirates and found herself facing the captain of the Prahu. Zara felt
her world suddenly move in slow motion. When she faced the pirate captain, she watched in surprise as a wooden board
suddenly flew through the air, knocking the sword out of his hand. She thought, Ghost? Is that you? Snarling a curse, the
man rose up, reached for a nearby battle hammer and came charging at the Moroccan captain. Standing at the ready, she
waited with joy in her heart to make him pay for his crimes.
Before she could even lift her weapons a blinding pain smashed into her back, a sudden ache pulsating at the top of her head.
Through the clamor of the battle Zara heard the metal clank of her swords falling to the deck and thought she heard Abu
calling her name. No longer armed, she stumbled on wobbly legs to face the pirate captain, barehanded. Near her, a man
cursed in a foreign language as he slammed her in the side of the face and she seemed to see stars explode in her vision.
Falling to the deck, she saw a large grinning pirate standing above her. She reached out blindly and was pleased to feel a
weapon near her right hand but before she could lift it, he smashed her hand against a wooden crate with a huge metal club.
Zara heard a scream unlike any other and realized it was her own. With her right eye swollen shut, she turned her head and
focused with her left eye. The large man lifted the club to dash her brains out, when there was a metallic singing through the
air, and he gurgled as a flashing chakram sliced through his windpipe, bounced off the crate and caromed away again. She
rolled to her knees, cradling her broken hand and she saw the glee in the pirate captain’s expression as he glanced at her limp
right arm, then at her bleeding face. As the darkness threatened to take over, the Moroccan captain looked up in time to see
Gabrielle standing on her ship holding the bloody chakram. The Greek warrior stopped and turned, and the pain in her eyes
was evident as their eyes locked. The healer’s lips moved in a silent plea to her lover, but no longer able to stand, the tall,
dark haired woman held her gaze, then shook her head and saw the small woman’s tears as she nodded and went out of sight
towards the small boat with Nadrah and the others.
This was the end. She could fight no more. Resigned to her death, Zara glanced up one last time at the clear blue sky. Then,
when the shadow of the pirate captain fell on her, she looked up at him, forced her eyes to focus on him, then she nodded
acceptance as she lowered her head, prepared for him to finish her. In that split second of time she surrendered herself
completely.
Gabrielle saw the men falling around her, some were pirates, but most were Zara’s crew. As promised, when the battle was
turning against them, she turned to jump back onto the Moroccan ship. When she heard the dusky captain’s scream sear
through her senses, she turned in time to see the metal club lifting from the tall woman’s arm, its force crushing her bones.
The warrior bard screamed herself and as she saw the large man raising the ugly club to kill her lover, she snatched the
chakram from her belt and hurled it across the intervening space. The whirling disk took the man’s throat out, bounced off a
crate and was back in the blonde’s hand almost in the blink of an eye.
The storyteller jumped onto Zara’s ship, then looked back. She saw the courageous woman on her knees, and the
Moroccan woman saw her. Their gazes locked. “Please,” Gabrielle whispered, tears in her eyes. “Don’t make me leave
you to die, too!” But the captain seemed to know what the Amazon had said, and shook her head. She smiled and looked
away to a large man approaching her with a weapon held high.
In an instant Gabrielle had the urge to turn back, to run to the tall woman’s aid. But then she looked behind her and saw Isa
waiting for her, his sword drawn as he prepared to drop the boat to the water. Badr sat holding a struggling child. Nadrah’s
panicked eyes stared in the direction where the captain had fallen, tears streaming down her cheeks, “Zara!” the little girl’s
shout rang through Gabrielle’s soul. One look at all of this and the Greek woman knew what had to be done. In a mad dash
she ran across the deck of the Moroccan vessel and jumped into the small boat on the other side as she heard Xena’s battle
cry ringing from the pirate ship.
Once she landed in the boat, Isa’s sword cut the ropes. Gabrielle had enough time to see Xena on the pirate sails.
“Ayiyiyiyiyiyiyi,” the familiar cry registered as the leather-clad warrior jumped from a sail, seeming to fly through the air, to
land… Gabrielle could not see where she landed because their boat hit the waters with a jarring force. Following Isa’s lead,
she grabbed the oars and began to work them, pulling until they began to move away from the Moroccan ship.
Xena knew the moment Zara was in trouble. At the intense pain in her arm coming over the link they shared between them,
the Greek warrior turned her attention away from releasing sails and untying rigging ropes. Other than lightly touching
Gabrielle and other humans, she had found as a ghost that she had great difficulty picking material things up or affecting them.
However Xena could manipulate some objects like wood and cloth and using these skills she could untie knots, causing rope
and sailcloth to fall from the rigging into the fight. Once she had been able to get a sail boom to drop on a group of the enemy
as well. What little she was able to do slowed the pirates down… but not enough. When she felt the captain’s agony, from
her vantage point in the sail, she looked down and searched the deck. When she found her target, the warrior princess
screamed her battle cry as she jumped down, landing within the Moroccan woman’s body.
Zara stiffened from the impact. Already surrendering, the Moroccan sighed as another soul entered hers. Remembering the
last time this had happened, she remained silent and allowed the Greek warrior to take control. As if born with superhuman
strength, her body spasmed once, before her eyes opened in time to see the battle hammer coming down toward her. With a
gleeful smile, Xena/Zara reached up and grabbed the wooden shaft in her hand and twisted the weapon out of the surprised
captain’s fingers.
“Ayiyiyiyiyiyiyi,” the strange cry came from the Moroccan woman’s throat as she jumped into the air from a kneeling
position. The now unarmed pirate captain fled in fear, as Xena/Zara was no longer in pain, her body moved fluidly as she
plunged into the battle once more, swinging the hammer one handed. Seeing her renewed strength, her men released a roar
as a surge of strength filled them and bolstered them to continue fighting.
Gabrielle and Isa rowed the boat a great distance before she felt Isa stopping his movements, leaving the rowing to her.
Screaming like a mad man, he stood and waved frantically as he released a yodeling battle cry. When Badr joined in, she
turned to see a third ship round the headlands of the bay. Its flag soaring high in the wind looked familiar to the blonde
warrior.
“Arabian?” she whispered as she felt the sweat pouring down her back. Moving at a swift speed, it broke its way through the
waves, aimed directly at the Prahu. As it passed, Gabrielle looked up in time to see the crew standing at the rail. Dressed in
black, they waived their scimitars high as they answered Isa and Badr’s yodeling cry, then shouted something she did not
understand.
“Yes, brothers!” Isa shouted as he jumped slightly, rocking the boat in excitement, “There is no God but Allah! Praise be to
Allah!”
“Sit down!” Gabrielle shouted at the screaming man. When his excitement kept him from hearing her, she reached up and
grabbed his shirt, forced him to sit. “Sit down and shut up before you make us turn over!” Gabrielle screamed. Suddenly
realizing her words, he only nodded as he took up his oars.
“We’ve got to get back there NOW!” she yelled as she began to turn the small boat around.
Even with Xena’s help, Zara’s body could not continue for long but somehow, she continued fighting. From somewhere
nearby, she heard a commotion and then saw black-clad men clamoring onto the deck like a swarm of fighting ants. At the
sight of the superior forces, the pirates turned, the fear clearly etched in their faces. Using their confusion to her benefit,
Xena/Zara leaped forward and grabbed the pirate captain. The Moroccan sensed that Xena was going to spare him, to show
him mercy and let the local authorities take responsibility for him, but from somewhere deep inside, she felt the captain’s
anger, heard her outrage for what had happened to the cabin boy and his crew. Remembering the hungry ghosts, Xena knew
what she had to do.
