"Your companions are safe, with the others." Eseios leaned toward her, looking directly into her eyes. "Safe from us. So they will remain. Now, you need to give your attention to what will happen to you. It is very easy to die, tonight."
Daniel felt a hot wave crest over him, and said in a low, dangerous voice, "Probably easy for you, too."
The man's dark eyes flicked toward him. "Always," he agreed. "Dying is the simplest thing in this world - what are you called?"
"Daniel."
"Daniel," Eseios repeated slowly. "You have the wolf in you. You know this?"
"Leave him alone," Sam snapped. "You were talking to me."
"I don't need your protection, Sam."
"The hell you don't!"
And suddenly their anger was directed at each other, sparking and bright as a cutting edge; if he'd been free of the hands holding him, Daniel knew he would've been going for her, and her for him. Fists pounding flesh, breaking bones, blood...
He sucked himself back from the abyss and saw Eseios watching them with that dark, unsurprised stare.
"You see?" he asked, and quirked pale eyebrows up and down. "So easy. The goddess will use that against you, be warned. The Company has learned to be stronger than such things. So must you." He put his hand on the pommel of the dagger thrust through his rag belt, and then deliberately took it away. "Sunset is coming, and she will hunt tonight. If you can remember nothing, remember this: do not go to her. She will call, but you must stay with us. There is strength in a pack."
"And what will you be doing?" Sam flung at him. Eseios chuckled. So did some of the men surrounding them.
"Hunting," he said. "Hunting her."
There was a low, menacing growl of agreement. Sam looked over at Daniel, who felt a frown grooving in his forehead.
"Vow that we have weapons, we may succeed." Eseios said, and held up Jack's MP5 in one hand, strap dangling. "Show me how this works."
"No." Sam's response was clipped, curt and immediate.
"If you don't, I will try anyway, and I may kill you." Eseios looked at the weapon closely, decided the open muzzle must face out, and aimed it straight at Sam. He was holding it wrong, but his hand was dangerously close to the trigger mechanism. "So?"
"Don't," Daniel said.
"Shut up, Daniel!"
Eseios was reading the weapon like a blind man reads Braille, fingertips sliding over the bumps and protrusions. The selector switch - Daniel couldn't remember. Was that safe position? Or firing? Eseios worked it, then put it back carefully the way it had been.
He slowly found his way back to the trigger.
"You want our help," Daniel said, watching those hands get closer to the right answer. "Don't you?"
"I don't require it."
"But you'd like our help. Even if we show you how to use those weapons, they're complicated. Are you going to learn everything that quickly? What about training? Are you going to remember that in the moonlight?"
Eseios didn't look away from Sam, who was glaring at him like a rabid animal. Daring him to shoot her.
"Eseios." Daniel put extra urgency into it, and got a glance. "We're not going to tell you how to use them. But if you give them back to us, we can fight for you. Right, Sam?" No answer. Her breath was coming faster. "Sam? Captain?" Doctor probably wouldn't get him anywhere, just now.
"Yes," she said. "We'll fight."
Eseios frowned. "Against the armies of the gods."
She smiled, with teeth. "It's what we do."
Eseios moved forward and pressed the muzzle against her throat. "Then you'd better be good at it."
He took the nylon strap of the weapon and slung it over Sam's head, let the MP5 hang heavy across her chest, then jammed the M9 into Daniel's hip holster the wrong way around. He looked up at the blank bricked ceiling again. Daniel checked his watch.
Time, or very close to it.
"When do we feel..." It was an academic question, asked in a dry, academic way, but he broke off when he realized nobody was listening to him. Not even Sam, who had her head tilted back as well, staring at nothing.
They were all doing it.
Maybe while they're doing that, I can get back to Jack and Teal'c, make sure they're okay...
A cold sensation, like a very concentrated wind, prickled the skin on the top of his head, and he couldn't help it, he looked up. The cold spread down, moving over him with slow surety, and after the first few seconds he closed his eyes to feel it more intensely. It was like... like...
Like nothing he could even put a name to. Every nerve shivered with interest, every tiny hair on his body trembled to attention.
He heard Sam let out a breath. A slow lover's sigh.
His heartbeat began to pick up speed and thud hollow as a drum. He remembered nights on Abydos, firelight and moonlight sharp enough to cut, Skaara's moonshine and the rhythm of drums as the women danced... as Sha're danced, eyes shining and secret under the veil...
He heard her voice whisper, Run, Dan'yel, and he didn't question it. It was only an excuse to do what his blood and bone ached to do, and he heard the others moving around him, smelled the warm odor of flesh and blood and sweat.
His fingers brushed cloth. He opened his eyes as he gripped Samantha Carter's wrist, and for a second they looked at each other, into each other.
Then she pulled free and loped after Eseios and the Dark Company, and he ran with her.
Hunting.
do not think this is wise, O'Neill," Teal'c said.
"You know what? Probably right. And yet." Jack closed his eyes and worked the thin strip of metal farther into the lock on the gate. "Not going to let Carter and Daniel run around out there alone."
Teal'c, leaning on the wall next to him, was facing out at the room where the others, including Briseis, were sitting and talking. Quite the tea party these people had going; Jack knew denial when he smelled it, and the place reeked with it. They were having dinner. Seemed like - not too surprisingly - the Dark Company folks had more supplies than Laonides' little starving band five or six neighborhoods away. Spoils of war Eseios and friends were out there right now, hunting down more victims to donate to the cause.
Not with my people, they're not. Plus, even though he didn't think Eseios and his group could figure out the MP5s and M9s in time to do much damage with them, especially impaired by moon-crazy aggression, he'd brought advanced weapons into this thing. Whoever ended up on the wrong end of them was his doing.
And he was worried - really worried - that when he found Daniel and Carter, there might not be a whole lot of choices left. For any of them.
He felt something catch in the lock, and concentrated on turning it. The flexible strip bent rather than levered. Dammit.
"O'Neill," Teal'c warned, and Jack turned with the lockpick back in his pocket and a welcoming, if ironic, smile on his lips.
Briseis had come calling. She was frowning at him.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Examining the fine craftsmanship." Jack reached out and rattled the bars. "Good work. And hey, I know prisons."
"It is not a prison," she said. "It is safety. You should know this. Have you not seen it? Seen the dead outside?"
"Trust me, it's a prison. Only difference is that instead of locking up the violent offenders, you're locking up the victims. I'm thinking cows in a pen. The cows may think it's for their protection, but hey, we all love a good steak."
She looked mystified, decided to ignore his words and went back to something she understood. "Eseios made the bars. He was a blacksmith, on Delphi."
"Are you not from Delphi, as well?" Teal'c asked.
"No. I was born on Sikyon. I came here with my father." Briseis looked away, but her voice stayed strong and steady. "When he - became violent, Eseios saved me. That was three Hunts ago. Since then, he has built this protection for us, and in the days he and the other members of his Company forage. They use what the gods have granted to find more food, weapons, anythin
g we can use. And they protect us."
Sounded like Eseios was a heck of a guy, except that he ran around killing people in the moonlight. Like Carter Like Daniel. "You know a guy named Laonides?"
That got her sharp attention, and a frown. "How do you know of him?"
"Spent the afternoon at his place."
Her eyes went wide. "Then you are fortunate indeed to live to tell it. There is a creature on my home world - an insect that lives in a hole, baits a trap and eats what falls into its web from ambush. Do you know this?"
"Trap door spider. Yeah, got `em back home, too."
"This is Laonides. He baits his trap with starving children, and preys on those who pity them. He poisons his visitors and steals from the dead." She shuddered, and Jack saw the gooseflesh coming up on her arms. "He came here twice, trying to treat with us. To trade food for women."
That didn't make any sense. "Food? He didn't have any food."
"Of course he does. He hoards it for himself and his favorites, starves the rest. He can always find helpless orphans, so he told my husband. He takes them in, feeds them just enough to keep them alive, and sends them out to forage for him and lead back victims. He loses one or two children a month, at least. It is of no importance to him. They are tools, nothing more." She rubbed her bare arms with her hands to drive away the chill. "He is an evil old man, Laonides. Eseios would have killed him, but I couldn't bear it. There is enough killing here. More than enough."
"Can't agree more," Jack said, and took a step toward her. She instantly backed away. "Briseis. Look, I think you're doing the best you can, but this can't last. You know that. Eseios said it before - the hunters turn on each other. He's maintaining control for now, but for how long?" He got an unwilling nod in return. "We need to go after the source. End this once and for all."
"Kill the goddess," she said. "Yes. I heard you say as much, but you don't know what it would take. Do you not think the Dark Company has tried? There were nearly fifty strong, the last time Eseios took them to war against her; barely twenty returned. No. The best we can do is make a life for ourselves, at as little cost as is possible."
"We have a saying back home; blessed are the peacemakers. Only problem is, a situation like this, the peacemakers get their asses killed. I'm sorry, Briseis, but you're wrong. Eseios is right. Fighting means life. Otherwise, all you're doing is compromising with death."
She was silent, considering him.
"If you unlock this gate for me, my friend and I will go. And we won't come back until Artemis is dead and you're free to make a life for yourself, or go home."
"Home," she echoed softly. "I hardly remember what home is."
"Got to be better than this, right? Living in a cage half the time? Having a husband who has to wash the blood away before he comes to you?"
She looked past him at the locked bars, and said, "You don't know what waits for you, or you would not ask this. And I would be a fool - worse, a murderer - if I agreed. No. Wait the night, my friends. Wait for morning, and speak with Eseios."
"My people may not have that long."
"That is the will of the gods, not yours." She turned to go. Jack reached out and grabbed her arm; it was chilled and still textured with gooseflesh.
"Briseis. You want to bring your kid into this world? With a father who'll hold him by day and kill him by night?"
She turned, lips parted, eyes gone wide and blind. "How - "
"Good guess." He glanced down at her slightly swollen stomach. "Laonides told us he's the guy with the best track record on the planet - he's stayed alive for four Hunts. What is that, a year? Maybe two? What kind of odds does that give a baby?"
She twisted free, furious and blushing; probably some kind of cultural taboo about feeling up pregnant women. Daniel would have known. Dammit. Daniel's out there. Carter too. And the moon was up.
"Talk to Eseios," she gritted out. "In the morning."
He could have grabbed her, taken the key, but she had three burly guys standing by with knives and frankly, he didn't want to do it. She was small and fragile and brave, and no matter how it came out, he couldn't do it without hurting her.
They watched her walk away, and then Jack turned to Teal'c and said, "Watch my back." The Jaffa nodded and settled himself again to face the room, and Jack went to work on the door.
For all the good it did him.
The lockpick broke with a sharp, cold sound about an hour later, and the pieces tinkled down to the stone floor. Crap. At least he hadn't jammed the lock. Jack got down at eye level to peer inside, but even his penlight didn't give him much of a view, considering it was all black iron.
He settled on his heels and rubbed his eyes. Damn, he was tired, and his ankle hurt, and all he could think about was that half his team was out there in the dark, running around killing because a Goa'uld thought it was fun. Daniel would never forgive himself. Carter -
The thought crashed off the rails, because when Jack's eyes adjusted again, he saw somebody standing in the shadows of the tunnel, about fifteen feet away from the iron bars. Not moving.
"Carter?" he whispered, because it was the last name he'd been thinking. No response. "Daniel?"
The figure moved slowly forward, feet stumbling in the thin mud of the tunnel floor. When it moved into the flickering curtain of torchlight, it was wearing a torn pale tunic and one sandal, and it was definitely not anyone from SG1.
Other than that, it was tough to tell. His face was a mask of blood, his tunic stained with it. He held one arm close to his body, and there was something not quite right about his leg, either.
"Pylades," Teal'c said, and the kid's face clicked into focus for Jack. "Where is your sister?"
The boy lunged forward - or fell forward - and grabbed for the bars; even that didn't help him stay upright. He slid slowly down, still gripping the iron, and leaned his forehead against them. His eyelids flickered and for a second Jack thought he was going out, but he seemed to pull himself back by main strength.
"Iphigenia," Pylades said. His voice sounded as raw as his wounds. "They took her. They have her."
"They who?" Jack reached through the bars to shake the kid's shoulder. "Pylades! Who took her?" He was mortally afraid it was Carter. Daniel. The girl wouldn't stand a chance.
Pylades didn't speak, but he touched his fingertips to his forehead and drew a circle.
"Jaffa," Teal'c said definitely. "Artemis's Jaffa have taken the girl. O'Neill, if Eseios and his men are hunting - "
"Yeah, they'll smell his blood a mile away. Dammit. Briseis!" Jack yelled the name back over his shoulder and kept his hand on Pylades' shoulder. "Get that key over here, now!"
She came, sandals slapping the pavement at a run, and drew at least a dozen people behind her. Some of them were her personal bodyguards, Jack saw; one or two of them had daggers out, the better to poke you with, Colonel O'Neill.
He pointed to Pylades, bleeding and wounded on the outside of the bars. "Unless you want a ringside seat for the dismemberment...?"
She realized immediately what he was talking about, and he saw something terrible pass over her face in a wave. Maybe it had happened before. Maybe they'd had to sit in here and watch someone die out there, within an arm's length of safety.
"I can't," she said. "They're out, and they're hunting. Remember Laonides and his starving children? He is not the only one capable of baiting a trap, stranger. They could be waiting for us to open the gate."
"If we're going to be locked up together, might as well call me Jack," he said. "Look, you've got two choices, and I thought you said there'd been enough killing. What's it gonna be? Watch him die out there, or take a chance to save his life?"
She looked hard at Pylades, then at Jack's face. Teal'c's.
Then pushed past Jack to fish the heavy black key out of the bodice of her dress and jam it into the lock. The metal turned with a thick clank, and the shriek the bars made coming open must have alerted every hungry hunter citywide; Jack darted
out, grabbed Pylades under the arms and dragged him through the open gate.
"Hurry," Briseis gasped. Teal'c moved Pylades's half-bare feet out of the way, and then, as she started to the swing the gate shut again, caught the iron in one big hand and stopped it cold. "What are you doing? Let go! You'll kill us all!" She tried, uselessly, to push it closed.
He looked to Jack. "Captain Carter and Daniel Jackson should not be alone."
"Shut the gate!" Briseis shouted, furious, and struck at him with her fist. It had about as much effect as a butterfly hitting a brick wall. He didn't even look at her.
Jack got up, stepped through the gap to the other side, and nodded to Teal'c to shut the gate. The Jaffa followed him outside and slammed it closed; Briseis lunged and turned the key to fasten the lock, then stepped back to stare at them.
"You're mad," she said, and the key went back down the neck of her dress. "You'll be tom to pieces."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Jack said. "Take care of the kid. I'll want to talk to him in the morning."
"Jack!" Her voice echoed after him, and he glanced back to see Briseis pressed against the bars, peering after them as he and Teal'c walked back the way Pylades had come. "Be careful. Your friends will not know you now."
"They'll know me," he said. "And I'm tough to kill."
Blood had so many scents.
Old, dried blood, days or weeks gone; that had a slightly crisp odor, like burned leaves. Hours-old, tacky blood was like souring fruit. But fresh - fresh had an aroma like burning pennies, hot and silky in the back of his nose. Daniel breathed it down and felt the seduction of it spread through his body, urging him to run. The blood was in drops, spatters, uneven and lurching through the street; someone wounded had come this way, and recently.
The thick trappings he wore made him feel trapped and clumsy; he ripped at the slick black fabric of the vest until he found the zipper and shed it like a skin, then stripped away the shirt underneath. The thin fabric beneath was acceptable, even damp with sweat as it was; he kept it. The trousers and boots were too much trouble to shed. He bent down to drag his fingers through a fresh red drop on the stone of the street.
Stargate SG-1: Sacrifice Moon Page 17
