STARGATE SG-1 29 Hall of the Two Truths (10 page)

Frankly, it seemed too coincidental. And, for better or worse, he’d learned from Jack that anything that looked like it was a little too convenient, probably was.

Although that would mean he was dead, and part of him still wasn’t ready to go there. Not without a little more evidence. Besides, it would most likely mean that the rest of his team were dead as well, and that surety was something he really did not want to deal with.

The woman standing beneath the striped canopy seemed to materialize from nowhere. Daniel had merely looked away for a moment and suddenly she was there. He was still too far away to see her face clearly, but it didn’t stop his heart from lurching against his chest. The color of her hair, her slight build, and her flowing Abydonian robes: they were all he needed to tell him that what he’d hoped, or perhaps feared, was true. After all, if this were any sort of afterlife, she would be there.

“Sha’re!” He ran toward her, his feet trying to find purchase in the soft sand. When she didn’t turn around, he called her name again, but the wind only blew it back toward him. Determined, Daniel ran faster until he reached the crest of the hill and the place where she stood.

“Sha’re!” he said again, panting with exhaustion. He touched her arm and she turned around, her own ringed hand covering his. Daniel felt a slight burning sensation but he barely noticed because the woman was not Sha’re after all, but a stranger. Daniel stepped back, yanking his hand away.

“Who are you?” He had been so certain it was her, that to discover it wasn’t was like a physical blow.

She looked momentarily confused, but then stepped toward him, her hand outstretched. “It
is
I, Dan’yel. It is your Sha’re.”

He was about to deny it again, but the words died on his lips. It
was
her. He could see that now. How had he ever thought it wasn’t?

Daniel pulled her into his arms and held her. How many times had he dreamed of this? Finding her this way, free from Amaunet? But, of course, she had been free, for a very long time now. And while part of him simply reveled in the joy of feeling her in his arms, another part of him couldn’t help the dozen or so questions that peppered his thoughts.

He finally broke their embrace and stepped back, holding her by the arms so he could study her.

“Sha’re, I don’t understand. How is this possible?”

Her smile was as dazzling as he remembered and her eyes danced playfully, just as they had in that passionate year they’d shared before Apophis had come.

“It does not matter how, Dan’yel. All that matters is that you are here now.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. For a moment he let himself be lost in the sensation of her soft lips pressed against his. No one had ever made him feel the way Sha’re had. She’d awakened in him aspects of himself he hadn’t even known he possessed, or thought anyone, let alone a beautiful woman like her, would ever find appealing. Their life together would have been rich and full, had it just been given the chance.

But it hadn’t. It had taken him a long time to come to terms with that. And while it sounded cliché, he had, with great effort, moved on at last. Sha’re’s Daniel was someone who no longer existed.

Gently he pulled away from her kiss and disengaged himself from her arms.

“Dan’yel?”

He tried to smile. “I’m sorry. It’s just — I don’t understand what’s going on, how you’re here like this.” He indicated the tent. “I guess I just need a lot of questions answered first.”

“What kind of questions? I am here. We are together at last. What more do you need to know?”

He remembered how her simple, straightforward view of the world had once been such a delight to him, like a breath of fresh air to his overcrowded, over-analytical mind. But he needed answers before he could just accept the premise of what lay before him.

“Well, first of all, where is here, exactly?”

“Here is… here.” She shrugged, puzzled. “It is where I have been waiting for you. It is Duat.”

“Duat,” repeated Daniel. That’s what NebtHet had said before she’d killed them. “The Egyptian underworld, the place through which the dead must travel to reach the final judgment.”

He waited for her to contradict him, but Sha’re merely gazed at him, as if expecting more.

“So, you’re telling me I’m dead. That we’re both dead.”

“You already know I am dead, Dan’yel. You were there the day Teal’c killed this body and released my soul from the demon that possessed me.”

“Yes, I know.” Teal’c had done what he had to. Daniel had never blamed him for that. He was certain Sha’re wouldn’t have either. “But does this mean that I’m dead too?”

She smiled and reached her hand up to caress his face.

“I have waited long for my husband to join me in this place, so that we might journey together to the great Hall and stand side by side for our hearts to be weighed. If you are beside me now, then yes, Dan’yel, you are dead. But only to the world above. Here with me, you will live forever.”

Sha’re spoke with such conviction it was difficult not to believe her. Of course, the Abydonian belief system was rooted in Earth’s Ancient Egyptian culture, so it would be natural for her to interpret whatever was going on here in that context. Whether it was actually true or not, well, maintaining a certain amount of skepticism on his part would probably be a good idea.

“What about Sam, Jack, and Teal’c? Are they dead too?”

Her look was sympathetic.

“I do not know what fate has befallen your friends, Dan’yel. I am sorry. If they too have died, then they will each have a separate journey to make. I am here only for you.”

“I see.” Actually, he didn’t. Not completely, anyway. But he knew it was pointless to press Sha’re too much.

“Come.” She took his hand and pulled him toward the tent.

A moment of misgiving caused him to resist. “Why?” He wished he didn’t feel like he barely knew the woman in front of him.

“Because I have prepared food and drink for you,” she explained, plaintively. “And because there is shelter from the sun. We must make preparation for the journey ahead.”

“The journey?”

Sha’re’s smile was patient. “I told you, Dan’yel. We must travel to the Hall of the Two Truths. It is a far distance. And I believe we may face many difficulties along the way.”

Going by what he knew of Duat, ‘difficulties’ might well be an understatement. Daniel didn’t necessarily care for their destination either; the Hall of the Two Truths was where one’s worth was ultimately decided on the scales of Maat, the arbiter of Truth.

Daniel was liking the sound of this whole thing less and less.

Sha’re misinterpreted his hesitation. “I know it has been a long time, Dan’yel, but surely you remember that a desert is best travelled in the cool of the night,” she chided him gently. “We will start out once the sun has set. Until then, let us at least rest in the shade for a while.”

Of course she was right. He’d already done the trudging through the sand in the heat of the day thing anyway. Travelling by night was certainly the sensible way to go.

If he went. Because he also knew
how
one’s worth was determined in the Scale of Truth, and quite frankly he’d rather pass. Dead or not.

At the moment, however, his options seemed to be limited. Short of striking out on his own, going with Sha’re really was his only choice.

She was waiting, her hand stretched out to take his.

With a reticence akin to picking a scab off an unhealed wound, Daniel reached out and took it, glad, at least, that there was as yet no scale nearby to reveal the heaviness of his heart.

TEAL’C had been tracking them for some time. Two individuals: one larger, the other smaller both in stature and weight. They moved at a steady, although unhurried pace, no more than a quarter hour ahead of him. They were not people he knew and most certainly they were not members of SG-1.

With minimal effort he could overtake them, but for now he was content to merely follow. As much as he desired answers to his many questions, Teal’c knew he must exercise caution in obtaining them. Until he could assess his situation more thoroughly, keeping a secure distance would be his most prudent choice. And perhaps whomever he followed would lead him to where the answers would become clear.

Distant voices brought Teal’c to an abrupt halt. He listened. Two people conversed, in all likelihood the same two he followed. Their voices did not fade, which meant they had stopped. Perhaps the time had come to learn more about them after all.

With great care, Teal’c advanced until the voices were nearly intelligible. The path took him around a towering, dense bush and into a wide clearing. Here a river flowed just a short distance away, and lofty trees cast tall, blue shadows along both banks. On the near shore, in those shadows, Teal’c’s eyes finally found two men deep in conversation.

He knew they saw him the moment he emerged from the brush, but their body language registered neither surprise nor alarm. The smaller of the two remained seated, his features obscured by the shade, but the other individual stepped forward as Teal’c neared, a gauntleted hand reaching out in welcome. An errant piece of metal pricked Teal’c’s forearm as the stranger grasped it.

“Did I not tell you, Rya’c, that he would come?” The stranger called over his shoulder to the other. To Teal’c, he said, “
Tek’ma’te
, old friend. It is good to see you at last.”

For a hairsbreadth of a moment, the shadows revealed a face Teal’c did not know. But then he blinked and saw, indeed, that it was Master Bra’tac standing before him, eyes warm with friendship and understanding.

“How is this possible?” Teal’c looked at the youth who had come to join them. It
was
Rya’c. He pulled the boy into an embrace. “I have missed you, my son.”

“We have been waiting for you, Teal’c,” Bra’tac said heartily. “Come. Sit.” He gestured toward large boulders along the embankment. “There is much to discuss.”

“What is this place?” Teal’c had too many questions to be able to sit just yet. “Are O’Neill and the others here as well?”

He saw Bra’tac and Rya’c exchange a furtive look.

“Teal’c, what I am about to tell you will be difficult to accept. But you must believe me when I tell you that I speak the truth.”

Something in Bra’tac’s voice made Teal’c’s chest constrict. “I have never doubted your words, old friend.”

“Then hear me, Teal’c, when I tell you that this is Duat, the underworld. The place where the dead must journey to meet their final judgment.”

Teal’c allowed himself a moment to absorb Bra’tac’s words. So it was as Daniel Jackson and the Goa’uld woman had said. Which meant, he was, indeed, dead.

But if he was dead, then —

Anguish gripped his heart as he looked with alarm at Rya’c and then back to Bra’tac. He knew by the look in his old friend’s eyes that his worst fear was true.

Bra’tac and Rya’c were dead too.

“No —” He could not keep the grief from his voice. “Tell me, Bra’tac. Tell me that this is not true. My own death I can accept, but not you and Rya’c both.”

Bra’tac smiled at him sadly.

“I am sorry, my friend, I have no solace to offer you, unless it is that we are now on this journey together.”

“How?” It was the only word Teal’c could utter. Bra’tac was right. There was no comfort to be found in mere words. Rya’c had so much life yet to live, so many years awaiting him. It was impossible to think it had been taken from him this soon. Teal’c’s heart broke at the thought of it.

“A powerful Goa’uld, I do not know who, attacked the planet where we had sought refuge. There was no warning, no opportunity to fight back. Many were killed where they stood. Very few, I think, survived.”

“Drey’auc?”

“I am sorry, Teal’c, but I do not know her fate. She is not here. That is all I can say.”

Anger churned within him. To target women and children — such an attack was the act of a coward. Yet he could not deny his own hand in this. Were it not for him and the cause for which he had so fervently fought —

Bra’tac must have read the self-loathing in his eyes. He reached out and put a steadying hand on Teal’c’s arm. “Even if you had been there, Teal’c, there was nothing you could have done.”

Teal’c looked at Rya’c. The boy looked somber and would not meet his eyes.

“Can you forgive me, my son?” His voice broke. “I never meant for any of this to befall you.”

Rya’c looked up at him, traces of the little boy he had once been still evident on his adolescent face. “Then give me my life back, Father,” he said, with just a hint of confrontation in his tone. “I’m not supposed to be here.”

Teal’c turned to Bra’tac, confused. The old man nodded.

“What he says is true. Rya’c should not be here.” He rested his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Since arriving here my eyes have been opened to a great many things, and I understand in ways I never dreamed possible. Do not ask me how, but I know, in my heart, that Rya’c’s presence in Duat is a grave error. He still has many years of life remaining. He must not stay here. One of us needs to take him back.”