Jo Graham - Death Game

“Yes, thank you so much,” Teyla said, taking it and putting it on. It was warm and dry, and she felt it improve her morale on the spot.

Ahead, John froze silhouetted against the faint light that came around the corner from the corridor ahead.

“Shhhh,” Teyla whispered to Nevin, who had begun to say something. She held up a warning finger as they all came to a halt.

John looked back at her, meeting her eyes, and passed the torch to Suua. He was going ahead to scout.

From around the corner ahead came a scarlet glow, as though there was a vast inferno. Or a bunch of red lights. Teyla shook her head. These kind of mindgames with the credulous were so characteristic of the Wraith, who loved to torment their prey.

Anger began a slow burn in her belly. Anger is good, she thought. Anger keeps you strong. Anger makes you warm.

John slipped off down the corridor ahead, a dark shadow against the ruby light. It was some minutes before he returned, and when he did he herded them all back up the corridor and behind the first turn.

“What is it?” Teyla whispered.

“The big monster,” John said grimly.

Teyla crept forward, peering around the corner. The corridor broadened out into a large chamber, though she could only see part of it from her vantage point. It looked like another cave, but instead of being partially filled with a frigid lake, this one seemed to be filled with pits of fire. The floor was uneven, marked with narrow paths between sharp stalagmites, though even those paths were broken and a person crossing them would have to stop and carefully climb over the stones. Here and there, among the stalagmites and stones, vents of steam emerged unexpectedly from the ground, shooting into the air in great gouts, rendered pink and red by the lights below.

No, thought Teyla, there were no real fires. Those were lights. But the steam was real, as was evidenced by one of the men leaping backwards from the edge of a vent, holding his scalded arm.

At the edge of the chamber were the four thugs they’d encountered before, now armed with the butts of torches they’d picked up along the way. They had a prisoner with them, the girl who had stood with Nevin on the ship from Pelagia.

Crowding up behind Teyla, he let out a gasp. “That’s my sister,” he whispered urgently. “That’s my twin sister, Ailan!” He turned, clutching at John’s arm. “You’ve got to do something!”

John grimaced.

Two of the thugs were arguing, apparently debating the best way across the chamber. On the other side, a darkened doorway with carved lintels made it plain what the goal was. As they watched, more vents erupted in steam, almost obscuring completely the narrow, winding paths.

“This is a wretched place,” Teyla whispered to John. “I am not sure there actually is a safe way across it, except by chance.”

“Tell me about it. These guys have been going crazy with the hydraulics.” John hefted the butt of the torch himself, then ground out the flame against the stone.

“You’re not going to challenge those men,” Teyla said, her brows rising. “Four to one?”

“I don’t have much choice, do I?”

One of the men seemed to have prevailed to his companions, and now he and another thug converged on Ailan, pointing to the maze. She shook her head. One of them hit her hard across the face, snapping her head back. He pointed to the path, his hand raised for another blow.

Nevin scrambled up, Suua catching onto him. “Let me go!” Nevin pleaded, struggling hopelessly against Suua’s strong grip. “I have to help my sister!”

“They want her to walk the path for them,” Teyla said grimly. “To find the safe way through. That way, if there are traps to be tripped it is she who will be badly burned.”

John looked from Teyla to Suua. “Let’s take them,” he said.

Carson Beckett eased the jumper around in a long turn while Major Lorne leaned over the back of the pilot’s seat. The skies above the island had cleared of the night’s rain, and it was a lovely, bright day. “Having trouble finding a parking place, doc?”

“Just a bit,” Carson said. “This island is heavily populated. I don’t want to set it down in the middle of the street. Even cloaked, people will notice the ship when they walk right into it.”

The cloak did nothing to render the jumper immaterial. Anyone who touched it would know it was there. The island was rocky and a great deal of it that was level enough to land on was covered in trees. Some of the city streets were wide enough, but they were also busy. Crowds of people were out and about, bustling from place to place or doing their marketing in the city’s squares and streets. The chances of landing without making most of the city aware of them were slim.

“Unfortunately,” Lorne said. He tightened his grip on the back of the seat. “How about we go around the other side again? Some of those orchards over on the back side of the island might be spaced enough that we could set down without hitting trees.”

“If you say,” Carson said. “I don’t think there’s enough room anywhere except in the big plazas and such. But we can’t do that without people seeing us.”

“What if we don’t land at all?” Rodney said. Carson twisted around to give him a dubious look, but Rodney persisted. “What if we just hover? Can’t we let some people out?”

“Sure,” Lorne said. “If you don’t mind jumping.” Carson swept back over the city at a couple of hundred feet, wide plazas and narrow streets opening before them, all studded with trees and market stalls.

“I was thinking like on a roof or something,” Rodney said. “There are all these big, wide roofs. Carson could hover a few feet above the surface and we could get out. Climb out on a roof and then get down from there.”

Lorne’s face broke into a wide smile. “I think you’ve got something there,” he said. “Nobody’s going to walk into us by accident if we’re parked on the roof!”

“Hey you!” John shouted. It wasn’t the most memorable speech he’d ever made, but they weren’t really giving him points for that.

It did get the guy’s attention. The biggest of the thugs turned around. “You got a problem?” he yelled.

John nodded. “Yeah. I’ve got a problem. You.”

The thug didn’t seem disturbed. “Yeah? You and what army?”

“This army,” Teyla said serenely behind him. She and Suua stepped out, one on each side, each with a torch stick in hand. “I would let go of that girl if I were you.”

Instead he gave her a vicious shove and Ailan went sprawling on the sharp stones beside the path. Behind Teyla and Suua, Nevin lunged out, Jitrine holding on to his injured arm.

The guy laughed. He was almost as big as Ronon, only hopefully not as fast. “Women and a little kid. Yeah, you try it.”

“Suit yourself,” John said, stepping forward into guard, covering Teyla’s left so she could attack with her good side. Teyla’s good side with sticks was better than both his sides, any day. Three on four wasn’t bad odds. Time to plow on in. He rushed forward, stick in hand.

By himself. Three of the thugs bore down on him, and he barely countered their moves.

“What the hell?” John yelled.

Teyla waded in next to him, smartly rapping with her stick the guy who had nearly decked John. “I am sorry! I thought it wiser to let them come to us.” She spun around in a flurry of kicks and movement, letting the momentum of her attacker carry him past her straight into Suua’s fist. One down.

“Let them come to us?” John was incredulous. “They’re on the edge of a steam pit!” He ducked under the flailing club of one of the thugs, unfortunately catching the second man’s blow right across his back. That hurt.