CONQUERING THE CONQUEROR

pt.45

HEALER 1
Dear Gods, she's burning up.

The woman took the hand she'd placed on Xena's forehead away after feeling just how much warmer than normal she was.

HEALER 2
I'll get some cold water and cloths right away.

The second woman moved to get the items as the rest of the healers began to search for the reason why Xena could have been running such a high fever. This was made a bit more difficult by the fact that the Conqueror, while seemingly conscious, was hardly responsive to anything that the healers would ask.

HEALER 2
What do you think we're looking at here?

HEALER 3
I'm not sure just yet. We're gonna have to examine her first, then hopefully we'll have at least some idea. But first we need to get her temperature down, otherwise it won't matter what's actually wrong with her if the fever kills her before we can do anything.

HEALER 2
Yes, of course.

The second healer moved off and quickly returned with a bucket of water and several cloths that she placed on the floor by the bed as the third woman pulled the blankets that Xena had wrapped herself in away. Once the woman with the cloths had submerged one into the cold water and rang it out a little, she began running the cool, wet cloth over Xena's forehead, upper chest and arms in an effort to reduce the Conqueror's temperature to normal, with the first woman also doing the same for a few moments.

HEALER 3
Okay, you both keep running those cold cloths over her to fight her fever, and I'll see if I can figure out what we're dealing with.

Having been alerted of the troubling condition that Xena had been found in by the servant who had been delivering her morning meal, the room was in a controlled chaos as a handful of healers rushed into the Conqueror's quarters and immediately began their work to find and cure whatever was ailing the woman.

HEALER 1
Hey, have either of you seen this?

The two other healers paused in their respective tasks with one examining Xena's eyes for any change in her awareness and the other reapplying the cold water to her cloth from the bucket, to look at the lead healer.

HEALER 3
See what?

HEALER 1
Her side. I was lifting her shirt to run a cloth over what I could there and well, look for yourselves.

The woman pushed Xena's shirt up to just below her chest to show what she had discovered as the other two healers gasped at the sight when they saw a shocking amount of redness covering Xena's skin that was emerging from beneath the bandages that had been covering the injury to her side that she'd received while preventing Gabrielle from being killed by Velasca and her rebel followers.

HEALER 3
An infection. That would certainly explain her symptoms.

HEALER 2
The question is how could it have gotten so bad without being noticed before now.

HEALER 1
Sometimes these things can come on without any symptoms to cause real alarm. Plus you know that the lord Conqueror is a highly skilled healer herself, so it's likely that she already knew about the infection and had been treating it herself but hadn't realized just how serious it was before ending up in this condition.