Where
Destiny Leads
Chapter 11
Searching for the Proverbial
Needle
Teal’c had been as good as
his word. As they prowled through the
Palace rooms, inspecting the art and
artifacts, none of the servants bothered them.
In fact, they appeared to avoid the areas of the Palace that the team
members were in, except when they stumbled on them by accident. When they did happen upon them, they made as
hasty a retreat as possible, which was working out well. Martouf snorted in Lantash’s head. /What did you expect them to do, after the
show you put on for them the other day?
We are lucky Samantha is still speaking to us./
Lantash chuckled in
response. /I am aware, Martouf, but she
agreed that it was an excellent ploy, and, as you know, we were not the only
ones to use it. It was pure chance that
the servant entered the room just as Samantha leaned over the back of the divan
and it looked as if we were mounting her from behind. I do not think that I have ever seen her
cheeks so bright a pink./ He sent a
wicked image to Martouf. /It is too bad
that we do not have time for dalliance; there are many places here that are
perfect for such interludes./
/Very true, Lantash, but we
do not as we are all aware. And, as for
the incident, I believe that it helped to keep the staff even further away from
us than before, as we go about our search.
The young man held his composure well, but then, I am quite sure that he
saw much worse during his time with Ra.
In fact, I believe he backed out so quickly because you stared at him as
if you were interested in him, Lantash.
He was probably afraid that he would be pulled into sexual service for
you when you were done with your lo’tar./
Lantash laughed again,
neither admitting nor denying Martouf’s accusation, and still remembering the
appalled look on Samantha’s face as she realized what the young man assumed
they were doing. Of course, Lantash’s
own actions had helped to convince the young man that he was correct in his
suppositions. There was no doubt that he had no inclination to be used as Ra
had used him.
/I have wondered, since
then, if it was the same servant that caught Malek and Kathryn in what appeared
to be, but in reality was not, a compromising situation. Yesterday, while you were sleeping, I heard
Kathryn talking to Samantha about it.
She, too, tried to rectify the image that they were projecting when they
were disturbed, and Malek had to restrain her and force her to remain in place as
he talked to whichever servant it was.
She was – unhappy – about the incident, but understood after Malek
explained his reasoning. I believe he
had to promise a few things before she forgave him, though; concessions much as
those Samantha gained from us. Tau’ri
women, I am told and now have proof of, know how to “lead a horse to water and
make him drink”. I think that is what
Jacob told me after a few beers one night./
Lantash smiled at him. /You are only now finding this out,
Martouf? As far as the servants go, from
what I can tell, they have begun to avoid us even more, as you have said, which
is exactly what we want./
Suddenly, Lantash sighed as
his thoughts went back to the project at hand.
Two days. They had been searching
for two days, taking only what time they absolutely had to for eating, and
sleep was barely more than glorified naps.
Lantash sighed and rubbed his face.
He was tired. They were all
tired.
/We will find her,
Lantash. Hopefully, we will have two
more days. We can only hope that this
Teal’c does not come early./
/I know, Martouf, and I am
not giving up hope. She is here
somewhere. She must be,/ he said
briskly. /Becoming discouraged will get us nowhere and accomplish nothing. I believe that we are ready to start in the
rooms on the other side of the Palace, are we not?/
/Yes. Samantha, Anise, and Jorlin are already
there. Some are finishing up on the
rooms at the end of this hall. Malek,
Kathryn, and several of the Tau’ri are finishing up the rooms on the second
level./
Lantash conveyed his understanding
to Martouf. /I think that we should
catch up with Samantha, then. Several of
the rooms that Ra used as ante-chambers for those who wished to speak to him
are on that side of the Palace, and we have finished with the ante-chambers on
this side. I am glad the third floor was
nothing but servants’ quarters. I
suppose that as a last resort we could look through them, but we all feel
fairly confident that he would not have put her there./
/I agree with all of your
observations, and I believe that we have looked this room over as thoroughly as
we have the others./ Martouf now was the one to sigh. /We should go join the
others. There is nothing here./
/I agree, Martouf. Let us go./
Selmak and Teal’c finished
another section of the former System Lord’s private suite. It contained several rooms, all large, all
gaudily decorated and full of works of art as well as furniture. It had been decided that the two of them
would search those rooms during the hours in which Teal’c stayed near the System
Lord as he used the sarcophagus. The
oddity had been accepted as simply another idiosyncrasy of the Lord in
question.
“So, what do you think,
Teal’c? We have gone over these rooms in
minute detail. We only have two more of
his personal chambers to check. I hope
that he did not put her in a wall, a statue, or the floor. If so, there may be no way to find her. Although we have been checking for
hollow-sounding places as we go, there are still areas that we cannot reach
without difficulty. For all we know,
there could be compartments even in the ceiling. If she is in stasis as we believe, then her
energy signal will be faint at best and non-existent at worst.” Selmak spoke softly, so as not to be
overheard.
“I do not believe that would
be the case, My Lord, but you need have no fear, for as always, I will see to
it that no one enters the rooms while you are in the sarcophagus.” Teal’c responded loudly as if answering an
inquiry of the Lord that he was guarding.
In a quieter tone he continued, “I do not believe she would be in places
such as those. The poem definitely
states that she is in clear sight. We
have either missed her, which I doubt, or she is still in one of the rooms that
we have not yet searched. Our system of
a primary and detailed sweep of the rooms, followed by another person
rechecking them, increases the chance that we will not overlook her.
Selmak nodded and
sighed. “Stephara is doing a very
thorough second search, and I agree that there is very little chance we have
missed her. She is not in the rooms that
we have checked.”
“Discouragement is setting
in, though, and I can not blame them. We
have found nothing that would match the clues that we think were in the poem.”
He shook his head before going on to say, “I think we will have one day more,
at best. I expect this reality’s Teal’c
to show up soon. I do not believe, any
more than the rest of you, that he will take the full seven days before he
arrives, if for no other reason than to catch them off guard. Four days of the seven are almost gone. It would not surprise me if he came as early
as tomorrow.”
Teal’c nodded his agreement,
but added, “I agree, but we will hope that he does not. It would be quite…inconvenient.”
Selmak snorted, shook his
head at Teal’c’s understatement, and turned back to the wall.
After several minutes of
silent searching, he sent a look at Teal’c.
“Teal’c, have you had any side affects in this universe yet? We have been in this reality for four days,
and Sam said with the other incident that it took only forty-eight hours.”
“No, I have not. I am beginning to believe Major Carter’s
theory that the closer we are to one another, the faster it will occur. Until Teal’c arrives here, I should not have
a great deal of trouble, unless we are here for many more days.”
Selmak looked at him closely
and nodded. He did not think Teal’c was
lying to him. “Simply be sure that you
let us know if you begin to feel anything at all different. We can whisk you to the gate and out of this
reality in very little time.”
“I will do so, Selmak, I
assure you. I will not jeopardize this
mission by keeping anything about my health from you.”
Selmak nodded his acceptance
of his statements and they quietly carried on in their search. They really could not take a chance that he
would be overheard when he was supposedly in the sarcophagus.
Selmak found his mind
wandering as he methodically combed the room looking for Egeria. As they had all too often in the last few
days, they wandered to his ‘lo’tar’. Because Capt. Adams would be following them
and double checking their search of the rooms, it had been decided to pass her
off as Selmak’s concubine. To that end,
it had been necessary that at least one of the house servants see him being
intimate with her. They had carefully
staged the scene that the servant had walked in on. Selmak was still shocked by his – and Jacob’s
– reactions.
While Selmak had known that
she was an attractive woman, he had not expected his and Jacob’s reaction to be
so instant and powerful. He had finished
the scene feeling as if he had been broadsided.
Since then, they had started to know one another on a more intimate
level. Jacob was bemoaning the fact that
she was quickly becoming more important to them. Although he had known they were attracted to
her, they never expected these kinds of feelings to develop.
They were much stronger than
they should be and were definitely more intense than any that they had felt for
any of their Tok’Ra partners. Luckily,
these types of liaisons were mutual relationships that were not emotional but
were simply for physical release. Their
present lover would not be offended or hurt by them if they began another
relationship, and it certainly looked like they might be getting into one. Selmak smirked at Jacob after reading some of
his thoughts. /She is a very nice
armful, Jacob, but she is also an interesting person. It is her other attributes as much as her
body that affects us. I am glad we are
both attracted to her. We will simply
wait to see where it leads./
/I know, Sel. It just happened so fast. I didn’t expect it./ He grinned at Selmak, /but I think I’m glad
that it did./
Selmak smiled back. /So am I, Jacob./
Teal’c checked to be sure
that there was still no one about. After
his warning to the servants of the house he felt sure that none would tarry
long in this area of the Palace, but he preferred to be sure. He walked back to Selmak and lowered his
voice to little above a whisper.
“Selmak, I believe that if
there are escape tunnels here, then one of the access points should be in these
chambers. I believe that I should begin
our search for them as you finish searching the remainder of these rooms for
Egeria. If we do not find her in one of
the Palace rooms, the only place left to look will be in the tunnels. We should know where they are at any rate,
for we may be able to search them after we supposedly leave here. Some of us
could go to the Tel’tak and take it to the gate, while the rest of us started
to search from this end. I feel
confident that once I find the access points on this end, it will take very
little effort to find the exit on the other end.”
Selmak frowned for a moment
as he gave Teal’c’s proposition consideration.
He had a valid point and if they were surprised by this reality’s
Teal’c, then it might be possible for them to use it to escape if they had to. He nodded to the other man. “I think that is definitely something we
should look into. Do you want anyone
else to help in the search?”
“I do not believe that will
be necessary, Selmak. I have seen
Palaces of Ra’s from our reality and I believe that I will know what I am
seeing once I begin to search for it. Had I been thinking as I should have been, I
would have been searching for the access points as well as for her. Since I did not, I must now retrace my
steps.”
“Well, the other two rooms
are not all that large, Teal’c. I think
that I can handle them. We will go back
over them again later this evening or tomorrow, for the second sweep, if we
have to.”
“If you feel that is best,
then I will begin now. I will probably
be late for our evening meal, but hopefully, I will have some information when
I do arrive,” Teal’c inclined his head slightly toward Selmak and quietly left
the room.
Sighing, Selmak and Jacob
returned to studying the room in minute detail.
Malek sighed as he and
Kathryn finished another room. There were
still several more to go through. They
had to find their queen soon, or the opportunity could be lost forever. He felt Kathryn’s small warm hand rub his
back as he stood thinking.
“We will find her,
Malek. We will find her even if we have
to kill everyone here, including the other Teal’c and his group when they
arrive, so that we can continue searching.
Don’t get discouraged, love.
Please.”
Malek smiled and patted her
hand when it finally stopped stroking him and came to rest on his arm. “You are correct. We will find her. We cannot let this chance pass us by, and we
will not.” Leaning over, he kissed her
softly. “Shall we head to the next room
in our search area?”
“Yes, I think we should,”
she agreed. “We really have no idea how long we have left to search. Knowing that the other Teal’c is due to
arrive at any time, it means we must continue with as much speed as we can to
check each room. It’s taking a long time,
but at least we can be fairly sure we haven’t missed something.”
“I agree. I know we will find her, love, it is simply
so frustrating.” Malek stopped talking
and looked closely at Kathryn’s face.
“You are not sleeping well. Am I
not giving you enough to relax you before you take your brief sleep?”
Kathryn blushed his favorite
color of pink as she looked at the floor.
It only took her a few moments to collect herself and answer him. “I guess you’ll just have to try harder,” she
replied, as she sent him a challenging look.
“Or maybe you just don’t have what it takes,” she continued sadly,
shaking her head mournfully.
“If you are not careful, my
mate, I will turn you over my knee, paddle you until you beg for mercy, and
then make love to you until you cannot remain awake another moment. Or, if you continue to taunt me, perhaps I
will have you give me pleasure here where we might be walked in upon as we were
the other day, only this time it would be for real. Is that what you wish, love?”
Kathryn gasped, and then
turned a darker shade of rose. She was
well aware that he would do neither of those things if she protested, but just
the thought brought the color rushing to her cheeks. “No.
No, I do not want that to happen again.”
She looked up at him as the incident he spoke of passed through her
mind. She had never been so embarrassed
in her entire life. “Once was quite
enough, Malek, I assure you.”
“Oh, I believe you, Kathryn,
but as a threat it comes in handy.” He
grinned down into her face as it flamed with still more color. “You are my lo’tar and must do as you are
told, you know.” He was laughing at her,
she knew, in response to her attitude, but if that was what it took to chase
away the shadows in his eyes, the depression of the last two days, and make him
feel less bleak about their chances for success, then it was worth every bit of
color in her cheeks. It was a small
price to pay to help him relax for a few minutes.
“Of course, Oh, Great One. I am yours to do with as pleases you. But I think, my ‘Lord and Master’, that we
should be moving on to the next room.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that it will be very much longer before the
other Teal’c arrives, and we have to find Egeria before that happens.”
Malek sighed. “Yes, we do.
We cannot give in to growing despair.
Come, we will go into the next room and see if it will be the final room
in our search.”
Kathryn nodded and linking
her arm in his, she walked with him out the door. They would find her. There was no other option.
Sam walked around the room
that had been used as a reception area. There
were several of them, and they were very large with a great deal of area to
cover. There were nooks and crannies,
sculptures and paintings, gilding, and velvets, opulence in abundance. But no tapestries with purple skies and white
capped water. No mothers and
children. No Egeria, at least, not that
they could find. Jorlin and Anise were
following her, each of them looking over the area she had already searched to
be sure that nothing was overlooked.
Lantash and Martouf would also add their abilities to the search on this
side of the palace. She was ready to
move on to the next room. There was one
more room after it that was immense. The
largest one was nearest the grand entrance hall. It was the largest of the ante-chambers, so
she decided to wait until tomorrow to start on the two of them. It would take quite some time to search them
both.
They needed to stop for a
meal, compare notes, and try to get some sleep, at least for a few hours. While they could not afford to become
exhausted and miss anything, neither could they waste too much time
sleeping. They would not overlook
her. That would not happen. This was too important to all of them. They might have two days left. Most of them doubted it. Every day they lingered brought the arrival
of this reality’s Teal’c closer, and the possibility of their own Teal’c’s
temporal distortion became more likely.
Shaking her head, she
checked the time and sighed. It really
was late, later than usual, actually, and they needed to get the evening meal
prepared. She turned away from the door
to the next room without really getting started on it, and went to look for
Anise and Jorlin.
“Anise, I’m going to go and
start the evening meal. It’s later than
usual, so I don’t want to start the next room and not be able to finish it in
one go. I think that I’ll go find
Kathryn and Daniel, and get started. By
the time that you two finish in here, it should be time to stop for the night,
or at least for a few hours.”
Anise nodded her
understanding. “That is acceptable and
sensible, Samantha. We will simply
finish this room and then find Lantash to let him know where we stopped. We will join you later. Thank you.”
“See you later, then.” Sam turned and headed toward the area of the
Palace that she knew Malek and Kathryn were working in. Before long, they would have searched the
entire building, if their luck held and the other Teal’c didn’t put in an
untimely appearance.
Sam reached behind her and
rubbed the back of her neck. She was
tired, but no matter how tired any of them got, they didn’t seem to be able to
sleep. At least not long or well. What sleep they got was disturbed and light. They were all waking early in the mornings
and often during the nights. Distressing
dreams were not unusual, either.
Entering the room where she
thought that she heard the murmur of voices, she saw both Kathryn and Malek
slowly and minutely examining the room and everything in it. Each and every piece of sculpture, painting,
piece of furniture, wall, mantel, and floor, in fact, everything in the room
was being completely examined. Both of
them were lost in what they were doing, so she knocked lightly on the
doorframe, hoping not to startle them and to let Kathryn and Malek know that
there was a house servant near.
Kathryn jumped slightly, but
realizing that it was Sam, she smiled slightly and asked, very softly, “Is it
time to fix the evening meal? I believe
that My Lord is about through with the artifacts in this room, but he is not
completely finished yet.”
She turned and walked to
Malek. Crossing her arms in front of her
and bowing her head, she knelt and addressed him. “If it pleases you, my Lord, I will depart to
prepare your evening repast.” She
remained, not moving, until the System Lord in front of her finished his
perusal of the painting that he had been studying.
Finally finishing, he
frowned down at her and clicked his fingers.
“Go. Hopefully you will prepare
this night’s repast with more care. I would
hate to have to discipline you again this night.” As the words left his mouth,
he turned from her as if she was of no consequence.
Sam had stepped back into
the hall and moved out of his sight, as if she did not wish to come to his
attention. Kathryn joined her and they
walked swiftly down the hall in the wake of the house servant who had realized
that he had stumbled onto one of the lords and did not wish to come to his
attention.
The two women veered off to
go to their own apartments as he hurried on towards the house servants’ part of
the Palace. Sam and Kathryn choked back
their laughs until they were in their room.
He had looked appalled when he realized he had almost entered a room and
come face to face with one of the visiting Lords. They were really trying to stay away from them. Teal’c had very strongly impressed them with
the need to leave them alone as much as possible, and there was no doubt that
the poor man could not get away fast enough.
The group gathered and
compared notes over the evening meal. Teal’c
hadn’t returned by the time they finished, so the remainder of the meal was put
in a warming tray to be kept hot for him.
The general report was more
of the same. No hint of Egeria had been
found. The hints enclosed in the
messages had not been found.
“I am beginning to wonder if
we made a mistake about the messages being a code to tell us where she is. I hope that we are not looking for the wrong
things.” Lantash looked deeply troubled
as he gazed into the fire in the fireplace.
Daniel and several others
shook their heads in immediate denial and Daniel spoke up, saying, “No, we
aren’t on the wrong track, Lantash, we just haven’t found what we are looking
for. The messages make no sense, unless
they were trying to tell us something.
That’s all that they can be. What
we came up with at least makes sense, and you said that he has used that method
to send hints and locations to you before.
He would have known that if he wasn’t here to tell us where she was, we
would be looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack without some
guidance. No. No, I really think we’re interpreting the
messages correctly.”
“I think so, too,
Lantash. That is the only reason I can
see for sending such messages. We must
continue our search in the morning. We
have almost finished the Palace. There
are only a few rooms left. We will find
her tomorrow. If we do not, then we will
think about the possibility that we are wrong in our interpretation. Not before.”
Malek’s voice was firm in his belief.
“We shouldn’t discard this theory until we have finished it.”
“I agree with Malek,
Lantash. We have to use the same method
on all the rooms before we start again.
We will find her. It is simply
taking a little longer than we had hoped it would, that is all,” Selmak assured
him.
“I am sure you are all
correct. I should not let myself become
despairing. After everything that has
happened I should be quite optimistic.
After all, the circumstances so far have been beyond the scope of
probabilities, so I must believe that we are meant to rescue her.”
“I think that you’re right,
Lantash. As I’ve commented before, the
odds of you falling through the mirror at all, into a reality that was
non-hostile, and to be found by your own people, in and of itself, was astronomical. I think we can figure that the odds of us
succeeding are pretty slim. Which is why
we will succeed. Our odds of succeeding
at this have got to be better than your odds of surviving and being found
were. We’ll find her.” Sam grinned at him. “After all, you’ve had rotten odds all along
and look where it’s gotten you. You’re
bound to succeed at these lousy odds!”
Lantash laughed as he pulled
her into his arms and kissed her lightly.
“You are, as usual, correct, my Samantha. I must believe that we will find her. Tomorrow.”
“We should be able to finish
the house tomorrow, shouldn’t we?”
Kathryn asked as she began to clear away the remains of the meal. Taking their cue from her, everyone began to
gather and put things away so that they could finish the chore, and make plans
for the next day.
“I believe so. I am hoping that Teal’c will have something
for us. If he finds Ra’s escape routes,
then we will be able to search them, if we do not find her in the Palace. It will also be a way for us to get out if
this reality’s Teal’c shows up before we find her and take our leave.” As Selmak finished his statement, he turned
toward the slight sound in the doorway.
“Your hope has been
fulfilled, My Lord. I believe that I
have found five access points as well as the exits. There are two of them, both near the
Chaappa’ai.” Teal’c excused himself to
clean up before eating, but returned quickly, just as they were putting his
meal on the table.
Sitting down, he began to
eat and give his information. “Do you
have the map we have drawn of the Palace, DanielJackson? If so, I will place the access points on the
map. I believe that all of us should
memorize where they are. Should this
reality’s Teal’c show up, we may need to escape quickly and we will need to
know the closest access point to us at any given moment.”
“I agree, Teal’c. I’ll go get the map. Be right back.”
“I would also suggest that
we put most of our belongings into the tunnels in the main chamber before we
retire tonight, including anything that is on the Tel’tak. Should we have to leave suddenly, we will not
have time to return to our rooms or the ship.
If our things are already in the tunnels, we will not have to worry
about it. I believe that you should also
ring down the chests that you have, Lantash, just in case you can not return to
the Tel’tak.”
Lantash nodded. “I believe you are correct. I only hope that we do not get trapped in the
escape tunnel. If they know that we have
gone that way, they could very well take their ship or our Tel’tak and reach
the Chaappa’ai before we can reach it through the tunnels.”
Teal’c nodded. “I have, as O’Neill would say, thought of a
Plan B in the event we become trapped in the tunnels. There are rings in the main chamber, which is
quite far away from the Palace. It is
even farther than our Tel’tak now sits.
I believe that if you move the Tel’tak over them and then cloak it, we
might also escape that way if we are trapped in the tunnels.”
“That’s a good sound idea,
Teal’c. Lantash, can you manage to slip
out, move the Tel’tak, cloak it, and then hope that no one sees you leave it
and re-enter the Palace? If they see you
leave, but not return, they may think you left during the night.” Selmak stated, after thinking the plans over.
“I will do it later tonight,
well after everyone is asleep. As far as
I have been able to ascertain, there are very few servants awake here at
night. There seem to be no guards
outside at all. I will transport the belongings that we left on the ship using
the rings, and then I will re-enter the palace by the egress point nearest our
suite of rooms. I see no difficulty with
this endeavor.”
Teal’c responded to Lantash,
saying, “I have noticed the same lack of guards. There is probably little need for them. There are very few people here. From what I could find out, the nearest village
is very small and the planet is so far out of the way that few stop here. There are a few armed guards inside at night,
but if you happen upon one of them, you will have no trouble with them as long
as you simply ignore them, and do not appear as a threat,” Teal’c assured him
as he finished his meal and turned to the map after his plate and utensils were
removed.
Leaning over the map, Teal’c
quickly drew in the access points of the escape tunnels. He drew a simple map of the tunnels and
explained their layout as well as the main chamber where the rings were
located. He felt they should put their
possessions there, for all of the tunnels converged at that point and then
split again depending on which outlet one wished to take.
When all of the members of
the team had memorized the locations of the escape panels and how to access
them and the ring room, the maps were once again folded and secreted away. The team members left for their respective
rooms to gather their belongings.
Several of them had been assigned to take everyone’s belongings to the
ring room in the tunnels. Once
delivered, they would rejoin the team and try to rest.
Lantash placed his arm
around Samantha and pulled her closer to him, his hand resting on her hip. She felt so warm, and such a miracle to them.
Her living, breathing beauty took his breath as it sometimes did when he
realized the wonder of the gift given to them coursed through him once
again.
Tomorrow was several hours
away, but they all needed to be ready and alert. Most of them felt that tomorrow could be
their last day here before Teal’c arrived.
Many felt he could arrive any time.
They were working on borrowed time.
With the finding of the
escape tunnels, the final plans were now set into place. When they arose from their sleep, no matter
what hour, all trace of them would be removed from the chambers they
occupied. They would have their weapons,
ammunition, communications, and the clothing they stood in. Which meant the women would wear the most
concealing clothing that they had…P-90’s did not hide well under Jeannie
clothes…but they did in the full skirted gowns and cloaks, with the built in
concealment pockets, as did zats, hand guns, and extra ammunition. When they entered an access point, it would
appear as if they had never been there.
Hopefully, they would disappear along with Egeria, leaving behind only
some very confused servants and
He sighed. It was late enough to complete their next
assignment. He turned to Samantha as she
handed him his cloak. “Yes, my mate, I
promise I will be careful. No one will
see me return, although they may see me leave.
If questions arise as to how I came to be here, we will no doubt come up
with a feasible story.”
“Okay. I’ll see you shortly then.”
“I will not awaken you if
you have fallen asleep, Samantha. You
need your rest,” Lantash warned her.
“No. It would do no good to
argue. I will not disturb your sleep
when you need it so badly. Now go to
sleep knowing that I will be joining you momentarily. I promise.”
Sam sighed. “I know that you’re right so I’ll give in and
go to sleep. I can barely stay awake, so
I know that I’ll be asleep when you get back.
I’ll tell you good-night now. I
love you both. Now, go so you will
return sooner.”
“Good-night, love.”
The day was already half
over and Sam already felt completely worn out.
She had been so tired the night before that she thought she would fall
asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.
She hadn’t. She had lain in the
bed wide awake, until she heard Lantash and Martouf enter the room. As soon as she knew that they were all right,
the tension she hadn’t realized was there had left her shoulders and she’d
relaxed into the mattress. It was
amazing. Even after such a short time of
being together, she couldn’t sleep without him beside her. She’d turned to him as he climbed into bed
and told him what had happened. As soon
as his arms went around her, she’d felt exhausted. They were content to hold each other and
sleep.
It had been a comforting
night, but a short one. It seemed that
everyone woke up before sunrise with a sense of urgency. It was as if everyone could feel the end
drawing nearer. But now was not the time
to dwell on last night, or her love for Lantash and Martouf. Now was the time to find Egeria. Time was shorter than ever.
The room before this one had
been medium sized, but it had been full of mirrors, paintings, urns,
tapestries, statues, and nooks and crannies.
It had taken her several hours just to check everything over
carefully. Now, here she was, at eleven
in the morning, and just starting on this immense ante-chamber. The door on the other side led directly to
the grand entrance hall. It was
partially open, so she walked over to it and pulled it almost all the way
closed. She didn’t want the house
servants wandering in while she was in here examining everything.
She hoped that Lantash
returned soon to help with the first sweep of the room. Teal’c had called him to check out what he
thought might be another access door to the tunnels. It was similar to the others but something
seemed different about it and he was getting both his and Selmak’s opinion
before he tried to gain access to it. It
was the only one he had found on this side of the Palace near the front rooms
and would be a much-needed find, if that was what it was.
As things stood now, if the
other Teal’c arrived, anyone on this side of the Palace on the ground floor
near the front, which would be Jorlin, Anise, Daniel, and herself, would be
trapped here. Without access to the
tunnel network, they would have to try to work their way through numerous rooms
to the back of the Palace and hope that they could keep from being seen. If this was an access door, it would be a
much closer point of entry, being only five rooms away. The only problem with it was that they would
have to traverse a semi-open hallway for quite some distance before entering
another solid room.
Sam shook her head. She needed to concentrate on the job at hand,
which was finding Egeria. Taking a deep
breath, she turned from the door that gave entrance to the hall and began
scanning the room. She groaned. There were several mirrors, at least three
tapestries, a half dozen urns, statues, a waterfall, paintings, and sculptures
of varying shapes, sizes, and, ah, subject matter. What the subject matter was in some cases was
anybody’s guess.
Starting with the wall
nearest the door, she arched and stretched her back before she looked at the
tapestry that hung on the wall. There
was no mirror near it. In the tapestry
itself, there was a house, some people, and children, but no water, and the sky
was blue. There was no urn anywhere
around it. Although they had all agreed
that Egeria would be in plain sight, they also agreed that Ra might have
concealed her if he feared he would lose to Apophis. Therefore, Sam began the tedious work of
checking the panels for any sign of empty spaces behind them or anything about
the wall that did not look right. She
found nothing, so moved on to the next wall.
From the corner, she came
first to a large hand painted quarter-fold screen. It was a beautiful, gilded accessory for the
room, and it stood, from bottom to top, over seven feet in height, and when
opened, eight feet in length. For all
that it looked delicate, it was very sturdily made and it could not be seen
through. It was perfect for its purpose,
and one could bathe or change in perfect privacy. Sam caressed it as she walked by it, admiring
it for the lovely piece that it was.
Next she came to a
painting. Nothing remotely matching
their clues were to be found in the creatures cavorting on the canvass. Painstakingly checking the wall panels above,
to the left, below, and to the right of the painting, Sam found nothing. She stood after checking the baseboard area,
stretched, and took several steps toward a fireplace before looking up and
staring into a large mirror that hung above the fireplace. The fireplace had a large, wide mantel, upon
which stood matching, medium sized urns on either end.
But that wasn’t what
captured Sam’s attention and kept her gaze enthralled. Her entrancement was because of what was in
the mirror. Reflected in the mirror was
a tapestry. And the scene in the tapestry
was of a mother and her children playing near a fish pond, in front of a
house. In the far distance, you could
see the sea and the white-capped waves.
And above the tapestry, the ceiling of the room was reflected. It was purple. The urn was decorated with eyes, and a plaque
on the base said “Egeria”. It was just as Malek and Lantash had
feared. If they had not come for her,
Apophis would have implanted her and tortured her forever. Thank the Goddess that they had found her
before Apophis did.
She didn’t hear Lantash
enter the room, nor did she hear the argument in the grand entrance hall as
Teal’c attempted to gain entrance to his Lord’s pleasure Palace. When Lantash touched her shoulder, she
jumped.
Lantash’s whisper was low,
but urgent, “Samantha, we must go. Did
you not hear us trying to contact you?
The others are on their way to the tunnels. Teal’c and his people have arrived. We must leave at once.”
“No, we can’t yet, Lantash,
not until we get Egeria.”
“We have no more time, Samantha. We have failed. We must go now.” Lantash put his arm around her to push her in
front of him, but Sam pulled away from him.
She shook her head, grabbed
his arm, and using a whisper as urgent and insistent as his had been told him,
“No, you don’t understand, Lantash. I
mean, I’ve found Egeria, and we need to take her with us now. Right now.”
Lantash looked at her
blankly for a moment. “Samantha. Are you saying that you know where Egeria
is? Where, Samantha? Where is she?”
“Sh-sh-sh. Keep it down.
Stick with the whispering. She’s
in the urn on the mantel. The one with
her name on it, as far as I know. He
wouldn’t have put her somewhere else, would he?
He wouldn’t have put her name on the urn, then put her someplace
else? I don’t know what the other one
says.”
“All we can do is hope that
he did not do something as perverse as putting her name on an urn and then
putting her somewhere else. I would see
no purpose in doing so. Come, I will get
the urn. I assume it is a stasis chamber
of some type.” Quickly processing the
mantel and the scene upon it, he asked, “Can you make out what the other urn
says?”
Nodding, Sam went over to it
quickly and said, “It has what appears to be a name, too. I think that it says Astaria. Does the name mean anything to you?”
“Yes, she was a great friend
of Egeria’s. I am not sure what happened
to her in our reality, but Selmak may know.
We should take her, too. We will
assume that she is dead in our reality.
If she is not, we will have to bring her back to this one and send her
to Kheb.”
Sam nodded, and then asked,
“Can you get the urn? Is it fastened
down or something?”
“There. I got it.
It was hooked down on the bottom with a – damn it. We may still have failed, Samantha, and it is
my fault. I should have thought of
this.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“The urn was set to break
the seal if it was taken down. A
precaution against it being stolen. The
seal on the stasis chamber is broken, and if we cannot get her to Anise or Jorlin
fairly quickly, so that she can take one of their hosts, she will die.”
“Then you can’t get the
other urn either?”
“I can, if I am more
careful, now that I know what not to do.”
“Okay, you take care of that
and I’ll head for the escape tunnels. It
sounds as if the arguing out there is over. They’re probably on their way to
our rooms. They’ll probably search that
floor first.”
Lantash nodded and headed
for the other urn. “Now, while they are
occupied, would be a good time to go.
With their Teal’c looking for the intruders upstairs, and the servants
sure that we are there also, they will take a little while. I will radio Selmak that you are on your way
with Egeria and that I will bring Astaria.
I think everyone is waiting for us just inside the tunnels, or very near
to an access point. You must leave at
once if Egeria is to survive, Samantha.
I will be right behind you, I assure you.”
Receiving no answer to his
comments, Lantash turned around. The
open urn was on its side facing Samantha, and she was lying with her forehead
touching its rim. Both of them were on the floor. Neither of them was moving.
TBC
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