Part 13 (1/2)

Teal'c also turned when he saw Jack looking and then they all stopped and waited while Elspeth, braids dancing as she ran, caught up with them. Bracing himself to turn her down if she wanted to come along for the ride, Jack stalked back past Carter and Daniel so that he was the first one to meet her. ”Did we forget something?” he said.

She shook her head, out of breath. ”I wanted...” she gasped, ”...to tell you...”

Jack waited, almost patiently, while she caught her breath.

”South,” she said, when she could speak again. She pointed off in the opposite direction from the Stargate. ”You should go south,” she said. ”That's where the camps are. If you want to find the Devourers, they're there.”

Jack shared a glance with Teal'c. ”How far south?”

”Several days walk,” she said. ”But if you go north,” she nodded in the direction he'd been taking them, ”there is nothing beyond but mountains. Some people up there, yes, but little food. And when the snows come, they'll head south too.”

Jack didn't bother telling her that they weren't planning to hang around for the ski season.

”Thank you, Elspeth,” Daniel said, coming to stand next to Jack. ”Um, did Aedan not want you to tell us? Will you be in trouble, now?”

She shrugged. ”Aedan thinks the Devourers will take you before you get anywhere. And if you walk like this, in the open, they will. He thinks you're fools.”

”He may have a point,” Jack said.

But the girl shook her head. ”I think you're unafraid and that's rare in this world. Aedan is no coward, but he's frightened. He's too frightened to do anything. But you...” Suddenly she seized Daniel's hand, squeezing it between her own. ”If you find Dix, if you find a way to reach the resistance, promise that you will tell me. Promise you will come back for me.”

”I...” Daniel threw Jack a helpless look. ”Sure. Of course we will, Elspeth.”

”Promise.”

”I promise.”

She looked at him closely for a moment, as if judging the honesty in his face, before she nodded in satisfaction and let his hand go. She glanced up at the sky, then back again. ”I will pray that the G.o.ds will keep you safe,” she said. ”And that they'll guide you toward them and to safety.”

Next to him, Jack heard Teal'c take a breath to object, but silenced him with a hand on his arm. ”Great, thank you,” he said. ”You pray away.”

Elspeth nodded, gave Daniel one more long look, and then took to her heels and started running back toward the distant line of rocks that marked her home.

”Did you see the way she checked the sky?” Jack said to Teal'c.

”I did.”

”I thought I saw something earlier. Keep your eyes peeled, buddy.”

Teal'c raised an eyebrow at the expression, but didn't comment. Carter said nothing, still resolutely p.i.s.sed off, but her disapproval of his plan - such as it was - radiated out in cold waves.

With a sigh, Jack glanced at the ridgeline. He figured they'd get a better view from there - both north and south - and then they could decide which path to take. ”Let's go,” he said.

”I don't suppose we'll be able to come back for her, will we?” Daniel said as they started walking. ”I hate doing that, making promises I know I can't keep.”

”You gave her hope,” Carter said. ”That's something. And who knows? We might be able to come back.”

If Daniel answered, Jack didn't hear and they walked on in silence.

Maybe half an hour later, they were climbing up the rocky incline toward the ridge. Daniel was struggling and Carter had her hand on his arm, helping him along. Jack stopped halfway up and looked back along the valley. At the far end, beyond the entrance to the caves, it swept around and he realized it joined with the Stargate valley - the whole area looked like it had been glacial several millennia ago.

Although the air was dank and cold, the white sky was weirdly bright and Jack pulled on his sungla.s.ses to cut the glare. And that's when he saw it: a dark shape racing up the Stargate valley, banking right and streaking toward them, long and jagged like a dagger. And fast.

”Teal'c!”

Teal'c lifted his weapon, but the s.h.i.+p - whatever it was - was moving too d.a.m.n fast. Then it climbed, almost vertical, and disappeared into the clouds.

”Okay,” Jack said, ”that was no glider.”

”It was not,” Teal'c agreed. His eyes were still on the sky and he pointed. ”There, look.”

O'Neill followed the line of his arm and saw it, another shape, swooping down through the clouds and then up again. ”Huh,” he said. ”That was a glider.”

”Indeed.”

They kept watching the sky and suddenly the clouds lit up, orange then blue, before two shapes dropped down out of the clouds, one on the tail of the other.

”It's a dog fight,” Carter said.

”The s.h.i.+p in pursuit is certainly a Death Glider,” Teal'c said after a moment, his sharp eyes picking out what Jack's couldn't. ”The other, I do not recognize.”

”Whoever he is,” Jack said, ”the other guy's in trouble.” There was a burst of weapons fire - definitely looked like a staff-cannon - and then the small s.h.i.+p was nose-diving, a trail of smoke streaming out behind. ”He's lost power.”

Jack winced as he watched the s.h.i.+p plummet toward the ground, but at the last moment its pilot managed to pull the nose up. Not enough to keep the bird in the air but enough to keep it from driving headfirst into the ground.

He heard the impact a few moments later and saw the curl of black smoke rising up on the far side of the ridgeline. Up above, the glider disappeared into the clouds and was gone.

”Let's go,” he said, heading up to the top of the ridge. From there it was easy to see the crash site; it was about half a klick down into a valley on the other side. Despite the smoke hanging in the air, Jack couldn't see a lot of fire and it looked like a sizeable portion of the fuselage had survived the impact. It wasn't in pieces, at least, and for the first time in too long Jack felt a pulse of optimism. Maybe, at last, their luck was about to change.

”That is certainly not a Death Glider,” Teal'c said.

”Nope. But whatever it is,” he said, ”it came out of the Stargate valley.” He risked a glance at Carter. ”Think it might have a DHD on board?”

”There's no way to tell, sir.”

”Well, there's one way...” He turned to Daniel. ”Okay to keep going?”

A tight nod, not even a smile, was his only response. Daniel was in a bad way, but this could be it - their way home. They couldn't stop now.

”Right,” Jack decided, ”stay sharp. We're gonna check it out.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

Colonel O'Neill led them slowly down the steep incline toward the smoking remains of the crashed s.h.i.+p. He moved with his customary stealth, but more slowly than was usual in consideration of Daniel Jackson's incapacity. Teal'c himself brought up the rear, his gaze roving between his teammates and the smoke curling black into the misty sky. He caught the acrid scent of burning flesh on the air and guessed that the pilot had not survived the impact.

High in the sky, he thought he saw more shapes darting in and out of the clouds. But they were too far away for him to be certain.