Quietly and carefully they slipped into a room that was located down the hall. It seemed like as good a place as any to look for servant clothes. Sure enough, they found a chest full of clothes in the back corner of the room. “All right. Now pick out a dress,” Xena stated. While Gabrielle searched through the bin, Xena examined the room. It was a nicely furnished what looked to be a bedroom. It was clean and mainly was the color blue. It was lit by candle light since there was no windows. There was of course a bed – king size – and it had a sofa. It was a typical … Hiram. Xena looked at Gabrielle. “Have you picked one yet?” Gabrielle stopped searching and looked up. Clothes were scattered everywhere.
“I don’t like the selection,” she replied, whining. Xena sighed.
“Unless you want to get caught, I suggest you pick out a dress,” Xena stated seriously.
“If you can call them dresses,” Gabrielle mumbled sarcastically, and went back to looking. A few minutes later Gabrielle pulled one out from the pile and held it up. “You know...this would look good on you, Xena.” Without even really looking at it, Xena took the dress.
“I don’t care what I wear.” She walked over to the corner of the room and changed behind something (I don’t know what those portable dressing stalls are called that are like a wall that just sits there, but you get the idea.) Xena stepped out after a few minutes. She was wearing a white dress with long sleeves and a short bottom hem line which was laced with gold. It was tight for the upper part but loose for the bottom. She had a veil to cover her mouth and sandal like shoes.
“You know...that looks good on you.... It'll impress Ares.”
“Yeah...very funny.” She walked over towards Gabrielle and knelt down besides the chest. “And you’re going to wear...this.” She held up a dress.
“You’ve got to be kidding!”
“Why not? You got to pick my outfit now I get to pick yours. It's only fair. Besides 'it would look good on you',” she said imitating Gabrielle.
Gabrielle smiled a cocked smile and took the dress. She changed in the corner behind that thing I told you about and then stepped out. She was wearing a full body green dress. It had straps instead of sleeves. She too was wearing a veil and sandals.
“Now that I see this dress, it really isn’t that bad,” she said looking down at herself. “I mean at first I....”
“Gabrielle,” Xena interrupted, “before you start telling me a story, tell me, do we still have those blonde and black wigs?”
"Huh?"
"You know the one you had when you thought I died and you tried to play the part. And the one I wore for that beauty contest."
“Oh yeah....I think so. Why?”
“Because I’m wearing the blonde one and you’re wearing the black one.”
“Oh I see. No one will recognize us. All right. Let me see if I can find them on Argo's saddle bag.”
“After you’re done, put Argo away in hiding. Maybe by some waterfall or something. I thought I saw one while we were coming here. I don’t want Ares to find him.”
“OK.” She left the room. Xena walked over to a full sized mirror in the other side of the bed. “Well...it’s not really me...but it’ll have to do. And anyway, It’s not supposed to be me,” she said quietly to herself.
“I got ‘em, Xena,” Gabrielle proclaimed as she entered the room. She walked up to Xena and handed her the blonde wig, keeping the black one for herself. They both put them on then looked in the mirror.
“Well we certainly are disguised,” Xena remarked. “Are you ready?” She made the final touchups on her outfit.
“You know...one thing is going to give you away. You have to learn to act like a blonde."
Xena laughed. "And you have to be serious. Well I'm ready."
"Me too."
“Then lets go.” With that, they left the room and started down a long hallway.
Moments later they heard a voice from behind them exclaim, “Hurry! You don’t want to be late!” They turned to see a servant girl dashing down the corridor and rushing past them.
‘At least our disguises work,’ Xena thought.
Neither Xena nor Gabrielle had ever been in this temple, so they just followed the girl. She led them to a throne room. Dark, it was, made of stone. The throne was the only piece of furnishing within room. Even that was dark red. There was what appeared to be offerings that surrounded the throne. The objects ranged from food to flowers. Weapons hung from the wall. Total there was about ten servant girls present in the room. They were all lined in a straight line in front of the throne. Suddenly there was a loud gong. The girls knelt down. Of course Xena and Gabrielle did the same. They did not want to stand out in any way. Unfortunately, Gabrielle already did. She was the only one in a full length dress. All of the others wore outfits close to what Xena was wearing.
There was a flash of light as Ares materialized on the throne. One of the other girls stood up. “Lord Ares, is there anything we can get for you?” she inquired.
“Just my lunch,” he replied. She nodded left to get his request. Ares seemed tired, frustrated, and more importantly, distracted. This was an advantage for Xena. The girl returned, carrying a tray full of food. He took the plate and dismissed the girl. She returned to the line of girls. Xena glanced at her as the girl walked back to her place. It was interesting to see the way they had everything so precisely planned out, from every move to the order in which they stood. It reminded her of army ranks on a battle field – well what else could you expect from the god of war.
“All right. Get back to work,” Ares said as he began to eat the food. Each of the servant girls spread out to a different part of the room. Again Xena and Gabrielle just followed another girl. Mimicking her, they began to take the food and gifts scattered along the throne room and put them on top of ledges that were on three of the four walls of the room.
Eventually Xena began to feel uneasy. Someone was watching her. She turned to see whatever it was that was unnerving her. It was Ares. He had stopped eating, rested his head on the palm of his hand and was staring at her. She couldn’t work under anyone’s watchful eye, so trying hard not to draw attention to herself, she walked to the reverse side of the throne and began to fill the ledges there. She wondered if Ares recognized her or had he just never seen her before and was curious. There was no way to find out without getting caught, so she made up her mind to try her best to avoid him.
Once the floor was clean of gifts, the girls left the room and an army entered. Xena could not hear all that was being said on account of the girls’ chit chat and the volume at which the army was talking, but the last word she was able to make out was “war.” She decided that the room must be used for war councils. It actually didn’t matter to her if there was going to be a war. She had enough troubles of her own for the moment, and besides, it kept Ares occupied.
She had followed the girls to their sleeping area. When everyone was inside , she heard a click and turned towards the sound. It was the door. They were locked in. Minutes later Gabrielle walked up to her. “Now what?” she asked, looking around the room.
“Just … blend in.” When Xena saw the still worried expression on her friend’s face she said, “Don’t worry. We’ll be fine.”
Gabrielle smiled. “You may be fine, but I don’t know about me.” She paused and glanced around to make sure no one was close enough to her their conversation. She turned back to Xena and began to scratch her head. “I don’t know about you, but this wig is killing me.” They both started laughing.
“You’re new around here aren’t you,” said a voice from behind them. They turned to see the girl they had followed into the throne room.
“Yeah.... We are,” Xena replied.
“I’m Thea.”
“I’m...Celeste and this is...um....”
“Sara,” Gabrielle interrupted.
“Nice to meet you,” Thea stated.
“You too,” Xena responded.
"I just wanted to say that if you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask. I know how crazy it was on my first day here, so if there's anything you need, just ask."
Xena amiled. "Thank you."
After Thea went back to her bed Gabrielle turned to Xena.
“Celeste?”
“Yeah. What’s wrong with it? I’ve always liked that name...Sara.”
“You know, now we have to keep these aliases.”
“I know.” Xena looked around the room. Most of the other girls were already in bed or almost ready for it. Xena and Gabrielle were lucky. There were a few extra beds, so they wouldn’t stand out. “I think we’d better get ready....Don't want to draw attention now do we?”
“No, but there seems to be a small flaw in your plan.”
“And what’s that.”
“We don’t have any other clothes! And it’ll look awfully funny if we’re seen wearing the exact same pair of clothes day in day out.”
“Calm down. We’ll just have to borrow some.” She looked around the room. “Why don’t you ask Thea?”
“Yeah sure and tell her what? That we’re actually Xena and Gabrielle, but we just happen to be posing as some servant girls to avoid nine other gods who are trying to turn us into birthday gifts for their almighty god, Ares. Yeah, that’ll work.”
“Maybe. How bout just saying that we thought clothes were going to be supplied.”
Gabrielle said what Xena said to say, and sure enough, Thea gave clothes for both Xena and Gabrielle. She was just about Xena’s size, so there was no problem there. Gabrielle on the other hand was about four sizes too small for her clothes, but she dealt with it. By the time they got ready, they were the last ones to fall asleep.
In the morning Xena and Gabrielle were woken up at six a.m. They were assigned to make Ares breakfast, and help with the throne room cleaning like they had done the first day. It was fairly easy enough except for the minor problem that Xena couldn’t cook, but they survived. Things went on like this for three days, but on the afternoon of the fourth day something went wrong.
Gabrielle was setting up the throne room when suddenly she tripped, falling to the floor. Her wig went flying off in front of the throne, which would not have been so bad except Ares was present and sitting right in front of her when it happened. He was the first to see it. He walked up to her and grabbed her arm. After starring at her for a few minutes he said, “Gabrielle?!” Xena couldn’t tell if she was more in shock or if Ares was. But his look of surprise soon turned into a sly smile. He called his guard and whispered, “If Gabrielle is posing as a servant girl, chances are, Xena is too.” He looked around the room at the all the girls. “Make sure all the girls in this castle are in here and lock all possible ways out.” Ares got up and roughly pulled Gabrielle to her feet. She looked as if she would faint. Her handed Gabrielle to another guard in the room. The first guard returned with two other girls and locked the door.
“All right girls, I want you to line up single file facing me."
They did as they were told. Xena purposely got towards the end of the line. She tried her hardest to keep a confused yet calm look on her face. But the truth was, she was very worried. One by one the girls were taken by Ares. She couldn’t see what he was doing because they were blocked by the throne and one by one they were sent away. Xena guessed he was checking their hair since that was Gabrielle’s give away.
Eventually the time came for Xena’s turn. She took a slow step towards him and he took her hand, leading her behind the throne. She avoided looking into his eyes. Her blue eyes were kind of her give away. Xena felt her heart start to beat faster as he lifted her head with his hand till they were eye level and he was able to look into her deep blue eyes. Her mind was racing with thoughts. Should she run? If she did would the other gods still be outside? But most of all, did he recognize her?
Suddenly, in one motion, he pulled Xena’s wig off, pulled her close to him, and kissed her. She was literally frozen because of his sudden and passionate response. After the kiss he once again pulled her back to look into her eyes. “Hello, Xena.” He grasped her hands tightly and was not about to let go. “Charade’s up.”