Jack was already striding forwards. He raised the Zat, snapped off a shot at Hera, but the slave was hurling herself into his path. The beam caught her in the throat, span her around. She collapsed in a storm of voltage.
“Wait!” Daniel ran towards Jack. He had seen what Hera wore on her right hand.
It was a spiral of bright gold, wound between her fingers and curling fluidly down her wrist. Daniel saw the gem in Hera’s palm glow, and flash out a pulse of distortion at Jack.
She was too slow. Jack snapped sideways, caught the woman’s arm and dragged her off-balance. She gave a scream of rage, cut instantly short as she found the emitter of the zat gun pushed hard into her throat.
“You know,” Jack said, his voice very low and very flat. “When people try to ribbon me I get really twitchy. Sometimes I try to press a button once and I end up pressing it over and over again…” He stepped partway behind her, twisting her arm up and ripping the device free from her hand. “Kind of a nervous thing.”
Daniel was staring at Hera. She was breathing hard, her eyes wide. Her head was twisted back away from the zat emitter, neck muscles tight under golden skin. Her forehead shone.
Something cold and heavy formed behind Daniel’s ribs. “Jack.”
“I got this.”
“I don’t think you do.” Daniel was watching a single bead of sweat on the woman’s skin. It had started at her temple, and was tracking a glistening path down her jawline. “She’s afraid of you.”
Jack threw an accusing glance at him. “That’s kind of the point.”
“When was the last time you saw a System Lord afraid?”
“Oh, for crying out loud…” Jack jerked away from her, stepped back, the zat still aimed unerringly at her face. “Who is it?”
“I don’t know. Not Hera.”
“Okay, how much trouble are we in here?”
“More than you can possibly imagine,” said Hera, stepping out from the shadows under the gallery.
Behind her, a dozen Jaffa hoplites raised their arms in perfect unison, shields whirling out of nothing, spears snapping apart to crackle with deadly energy. More appeared on the gallery, and from hatchways on either side of the chamber came the huge Minotaurs, stooping to get their horned helms under the doorframes. In moments, the room was full of Jaffa.
Daniel turned slowly, watching Hera walk out into the room. She was dressed in the same flowing white garment as the first woman, was jeweled in the same way, had her hair set in the same style. Her face was the same, her compact stature the same. Even her voice had sounded entirely as the woman in the corridor had sounded.
As far as he could see there was not a single difference between them. They were utterly alike.
No, he realized, not quite. The woman Jack had threatened was clearly shaken, her hand to her throat, eyes still on the zat. She was shaking, very slightly. Hera, the new arrival, was striding forward as calmly and confidently as she might walk alone, under a summer sky.
“Do not be afraid, Ericaceae,” she smiled at her duplicate. “You have made me proud, as always.”
“We were being herded,” Daniel said, despairingly. “Jack, she’s known all along.”
“Of course I did,” she told him, raising one eyebrow very slightly.
Her eyes were gray, like frost on steel.
“I am not sure which I find the most insulting,” she continued. “That I should find assassins on my ship, or that it should be a pair of ridiculous dullards like you.”
“Hey!” Jack looked hurt. “That was uncalled for!”
“Be silent,” she snapped. “And stop aiming that weapon at my sister.”
Daniel saw him hesitate. It was the wrong thing to do: in a heartbeat one of the Minotaurs was on him. It’s head-sized fist closed around his forearm, wrenched him back, lifted. The zat tumbled from his grasp as he was dragged into the air.
Hera caught it. She turned it over, studied it for a moment or two. “Crude.”
Daniel stepped towards her. Instantly every weapon in the room was aimed at his face. He stopped, raised his hands. “I promise you,” he said, trying to keep his voice level. “We are not assassins.”
“Daniel,” grated Jack. His boots were a half-meter from the floor. “Don’t tell her a damn thing!”
“
Daniel
,” she repeated. Her lips curled in a smile. “Here are your choices,
Daniel
. You may ignore your… Well, whatever he is, and tell me which of my enemies sent you, or you may heed his words and watch my Minotaur pulls his arms out of his sockets.” Her head tilted, quizzically. “I wonder what you will do?”
“No-one sent us,” said Daniel desperately. “I swear to you, we aren’t assassins.”
“Given the evidence before us all, I find that unlikely.” She drew closer to him, looking up at him with those frost-gray eyes. “So was it Lord Anshar or that effete fool Tsukiyomi? One last chance to make your choice, Daniel — delay me further, and the next choice you make will be which of his arms comes away first.”
“I don’t know either of them.”
She smiled again. “I can
make
you choose, you know. I can make you do
all kinds
of things.”
He looked up at Jack. The man’s face was white with pain.
“Don’t,” he gasped.
There was no choice to be made, despite Hera’s words. No choice at all.
“We seek the Ash Eater,” Daniel said quickly.
The smile fell from Hera’s lips. She opened her mouth, closed it again, then span on her heel. “Clear the chamber!”
One of the hoplites stiffened. “My Lady?”
“Has my voice suddenly become unclear? Leave the chamber!” She pointed at the nearest man. “Not you. Disarm them first, thoroughly. Then take the slave with you. Only the Minotaurs are to stay.”
Daniel stood, perfectly still, while the Jaffa took his weapons. He was watching Hera. She was with her duplicate, her sister, and was whispering to her. He saw Hera stroke the other woman’s face, a gesture of incredible gentleness and affection, and then the sister bowed, and hurried away.
“Let him down,” Hera said finally, when all the hoplites had gone. “Slowly.”
The Minotaur lowered Jack to the floor, then moved back from him, the bronze head dipping in reverence towards his Goddess. O’Neil sagged, almost fell, but then straightened, stood with his right arm dangling by his side, rubbing his shoulder with the hand that still worked.
“You okay?” Daniel asked him.
“I’ll live.”
“Such optimism,” Hera growled. “Now, what do you know of Neheb-Kau’s demon? Quickly, and do not try to deceive me.”
“Neheb-Kau?” Daniel had heard the name, but not in relation to any Goa’uld. Neheb-Kau was said to guard the entrance to the
Duat
, the underworld, to have power over snake-bites and venomous stings, to be two-headed and uncontrollable. Binder of
ba
and
ka
after death, and protector of Ra as he travelled under the Earth. “I don’t know him, I’m sorry.”
“The blame for that abomination lies with him. He sought it out, and saw fit to loose it upon his betters.” She lifted her head, narrowed her eyes piercingly. “Now, if you do not know of Neheb-Kau, what
do
you know?”
“The Ash Eater resides in a structure called the Pit of Sorrows.”
“A crude translation.” She shrugged a little. “But adequate. Continue.”
“The Pit was opened on our world, by some scientists… They didn’t know what they had found, and the Ash Eater killed them.” Daniel wondered how much he should tell the Goa’uld, and how much he should conceal. He decided to keep things simple. “We were investigating their disappearance. I think we tripped some kind of failsafe device, because the Pit of Sorrows… It took off and flew into the sky.”
“And you chose to follow it. Why?”
“Two of our friends are still in there,” said Jack.
“Ah… And to save your friends, you stole that wreck of a ship from Apophis?”
She’d found it, of course. Daniel could only hope that she hadn’t found Bra’tac too, although that was looking less likely by the second. Hera still displayed the classic Goa’uld need to self-aggrandize. If the old warrior was in her custody, he was sure they would have heard about it by now. “In a manner of speaking. It, ah, kind of broke down.”
“Indeed. I’m surprised it even got you this far. In one way, Daniel, you are extraordinarily lucky.”
“Only one?”
“Oh yes. Your luck has truly deserted you now. You have trespassed on my flagship. Do you really think I can let that go unpunished?”
“You could give it a try,” Jack nodded.
“No. I cannot.”
“But we seek what you seek,” said Daniel. “Look, we’re not your enemies.”
Jack was rolling his right shoulder around. It looked like the feeling was coming back. “Just got off on the wrong foot, is all.”
Hera grimaced. “In many ways, human, you owe your language to us. To hear it so abused is painful.” She turned away, fixed her gaze on the viewports. The space beyond them was almost free from ships now. “In a very short time,” she said quietly, “this fleet will enter hyperspace and travel to a planet that has no name. That is where I shall find the Pit of Sorrows. And once I do, I will use the Auger to drill a thousand kilometers into the crust of that world, and then I shall drop the Pit of Sorrows into the borehole and blast the surrounding surface with staff-cannons until Neheb-Kau’s abomination is buried, utterly and forever.”
Daniel stared. “Why? Why would you do that?”
“Because I have seen what the Ash Eater can do. I watched it devour a
world
, human. I was on Setraxis… I saw every living thing on a thriving planet reduced to oceans of dust, mountains of ash. A storm of black fire, roaming, unstoppable…”
“Are we talking about the same demon here?” Jack asked. “Because the one that I saw could barely eat three people. It lost interest halfway through the last guy.”
“You doubt me, human? You doubt what I have seen?”
“No,” said Daniel, hurriedly. “But the Ash Eater is contained. There is a pillar, a golden cylinder at the heart of the Pit of Sorrows. It’s locked up in there. It’s safe.”
“Safe.” Hera snorted a laugh. “
Contained
. Is that what you have been telling yourself, while you chased the memory of your friends? That the Ash Eater is locked away in Ra’s little tomb, and can do no-one any harm?” She shook her head. “No. The Pit cannot be opened. The risk is too great — I will not unleash that horror on the galaxy. Not again.”
“But —”
“
No
, human. Accept this as truth, and say your farewells. Perhaps it will make your captivity easier to bear.”
“Ah,” Said Jack. “So we’re not going to go with the whole ‘letting us go unpunished’ thing.”
“We are not.” She raised a hand, still without turning from the viewport. “Minotaurs? Take them into the dark.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” said Daniel, as the massive figures turned towards him. Behind them, Hera turned her head, looking back over her shoulder at him.
“There are worse places to be, human. There truly are.”
There
were four Jaffa guards outside Neheb-Kau’s throne room, in addition to the rows of gold-clad warriors lining the walls like malevolent, serpent-headed statues. Kafra nodded to the new arrivals as the doors to the throne room closed behind him, and walked past them. They fell into precise formation behind him, in two rows. Before she knew it, Carter found herself surrounded by warriors.
“Kafra,” she began.
“Be silent.”
“You think I’m a threat?”
“I do not.”
“Then what’s going on?”
He snarled, and stopped dead, spinning around on his heel to face her. The four guards clattered to a halt also.
“Human,” he hissed, his face very close to hers. “You owe me your life. Hear this: your words about what happened in the Pit saved me from humiliation before the God, perhaps worse, but that debt has been
paid
. Do not presume upon my good nature further!”
“What are you talking about?” she snapped. “Saved my life? You just threw me to Neheb-Kau!”
“Better him than Djetec” He glanced warily past her, back to the doors. “He had no intention of schooling you in anything. You would have died at his hand, after he had stripped all the knowledge from your mind.”
“He didn’t seem to think much of me.”
“Do not be fooled. The man is a trickster. I have known him too long. He has the ear of the God, and whispers poison… Trust me in this, human. In thwarting him, I have bought you time. How you choose to spend it is up to you.”
Carter put a hand to her head. There was a dull pain behind her eyes, and a weakness in her legs and shoulders. It had been bothering her for a while now, but it was starting to get worse. Dehydration, probably. “Kafra, I have to get off this ship. Teal’c, too.”
“That is impossible. Even if your presence here were not willed by my master, where would you go? The planet below us?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of taking a ship.”
“With the fleet of a rival System Lord heading directly towards us?” He shook his head. “Human, accept your fate. You will accompany my master on the journey back to his domains.”
“I don’t even know what he wants from me!”
One of the guards chuckled, and odd, metal sound from within his helm. “Perhaps he intends taking you as his queen.”
“Silence!” bellowed Kafra. “How
dare
you presume to know the mind of your God? Any of you?” He snorted, and turned away, resumed his pace along the hall. “Although, in defense of this fool, you would make a fine host.”