SG1-24 Two Roads Read online

  Two Roads

  Geonn Cannon

  An original publication of Fandemonium Ltd, produced under license from MGM Consumer Products.

  Fandemonium Books

  PO Box 795A

  Surbiton

  Surrey KT5 8YB

  United Kingdom

  Visit our website: www.stargatenovels.com

  Smashwords Edition published at Smashwords by Crossroad Press

  METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER Presents

  RICHARD DEAN ANDERSON

  in

  STARGATE SG-1™

  AMANDA TAPPING CHRISTOPHER JUDGE

  and MICHAEL SHANKS as Daniel Jackson

  Executive Producers ROBERT C. COOPER BRAD WRIGHT

  MICHAEL GREENBURG RICHARD DEAN ANDERSON

  Deaveloped for Television by BRAD WRIGHT & JONATHAN GLASSNER

  STARGATE SG-1 is a trademark of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. ©1997-2014 MGM Television Entertainment Inc. and MGM Global Holdings Inc. All Rights Reserved.

  METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER is a trademark of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Lion Corp. ©2014 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

  Photography and cover art: Copyright ©2014 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

  WWW.MGM.COM

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written consent of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  The head of the Royal Palace Guard didn’t know who would be in charge of his punishment if he should fail, and he wasn’t particularly interested in finding out any time soon. The only way to avoid the loss of his reputation would be handling this crisis with a modicum of panic and with as little fallout as he could muster. His name was Ellum Shedri, the fifth in a long line of men with that name who had proudly worn the golden helm of Grand Protector to the royal family’s home. Their legacy would not be destroyed on his watch. Unfortunately the current invader was not one he could fight or hold back no matter how strong his army.

  The Queen was in labor and the midwife was nowhere to be found.

  Shedri reminded himself to remain calm and keep a level head as he moved through the corridors with hands balled into fists at his sides, jaw set, eyes locked firmly on the door directly ahead of him. Since early that morning the room had been the nucleus of frenzied activity, and even now he could hear the shouting and clatter within. They had prepared for this moment, but it was all happening much too early.

  He pushed open the doors to the royal chamber and was immediately shouted at from the bed. He winced and froze where he was, turning slowly until he faced the most beloved woman in the land. Queen Indell was recumbent amid a sea of wrinkled linens, her lower half draped with a sheet and the globe of her belly rising up like a pearl presented in an oyster shell. The Queen’s gorgeous features, so recently immortalized on the three-diref coin piece, were fixed in a rictus of pain as she experienced another contraction. Her blonde hair was plastered to her sweat-glistened skin, and her brown eyes locked onto him as soon as they opened again.

  “Where is she?” the Queen demanded to know.

  Shedri tried to speak but his voice was caught somewhere between his chest and lips. He made a handful of inarticulate sounds before the Queen shouted her question at him again.

  “I apologize, but she is out of the palace, Your Highness,” Shedri said as he finally found his voice. “There was an emergency outside of the palace walls, you see, a breach birth that required expert care. All attempts to contact her have failed. Had we only known that you would require her services today, we would never — ”

  The Queen bellowed again, cutting off his apologies. When the latest contraction ended, she grabbed the empty red teacup from her bedside table and hurled it at him. Since it would be unseemly to cringe in front of his Queen, Shedri allowed the cup to hit him square on the forehead.

  “I will not have the royal midwife seeing to some peasant while the prince is being born! Bring her back! Bring her here this instant!”

  “As you desire.” Shedri bowed and quickly fled the room. Once he was outside he finally reached up and rubbed the sore spot on his forehead where he’d been hit by the cup. It would almost certainly bruise. He walked swiftly down the hall in the direction he’d just come, hoping one of the riders he’d sent out with the message had returned with the errant midwife. So far it seemed as if the damned midwife had fallen off the face of the planet as soon as she left the palace walls, but doing the impossible was his job.

  He should have admonished the chief physician for letting the midwife go, but in truth the man couldn’t have known what a situation it would create. That morning there had been no reason to anticipate the Prince would choose to arrive on this day, far ahead of schedule. Queen Indell wasn’t scheduled to give birth for another season yet. The prince was announced to be a Solstice ruler, a revelation that had caused great joy to spread throughout the kingdom. Solstice rulers often brought wealth and prosperity, as well as long stretches of peace. Now they would have to accept a king born during the Aphelion. There could be riots.

  A sentry was posted next to the exterior door. The man was attempting to look professional but he looked as harried as anyone in the palace. Shedri inadvertently knocked off the man’s red cap when he grabbed the collar of his tunic. “Any news from the riders?”

  “None, sir. There’s been no signal that they’ve even spotted the caravan.”

  Shedri restrained himself before growling in frustration. If he couldn’t calm his Lady’s ire with the midwife’s return, he would have to try another tactic. “Find the palace maid and ask her to bring the Queen another herbal drink. Perhaps it will soothe her majesty’s anguish.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He released the sentry and stepped out into the courtyard. Another step would have taken him through the portico into the Agora, but he stayed back so he could harness his thoughts. He watched the people, the citizens his Queen was sworn to protect. It was bazaar day, and the clusters of canvas storefronts stretched through the winding streets of the palace city and left only a narrow dirt path between their markets and the stone edifice of the palace. Shedri squinted in the sun as he watched the people moving to and fro, selling their wares and gathering their purchases. Occasionally one would cast a glance at him or in the direction of the Queen’s chambers. Obviously the sounds of her distress were audible even from out here, and the people were beginning to get nervous. The masses did not like it when their betters were in pain.

  Shedri rubbed his hand along the lower half of his face, jutting out his chin as he stepped out of the hall and into the sun. He would have to be realistic about his chances of success. The midwife had left hours ago for a town at the edge of their realm. Even his fastest riders would take hours to close the distance, and if they found her while she was already with her ser
f patient, she wouldn’t leave one mother in jeopardy simply to tend to another. Even if the other woman was the Queen. No, he was facing a wait of hours, if not days, before the midwife returned. He needed a different solution.

  His first thought was nearly discarded simply because it was something that was never done. But desperate times required creative measures. The new prince could not be born alone so they required the presence of a midwife to prove without doubt the baby was properly and entirely of the lineage. The royal midwife, currently flitting about in the badlands beyond the walls, had been investigated before her employment began, and her reputation was unassailable. She would confirm the child was in fact the Queen’s and settle any future doubt as to his rightful place on the throne. It was already a bad sign that the child was forcing his way into the world at the wrong time, but if no one was present to ease the minds of the doubtful, the future king could be usurped before he even came of age.

  There was only one thing he could do. He would have to lie and then retroactively cover his trail.

  Shedri stepped out of the castle’s protective shadow and hurried down one crowded avenue of the bazaar. People instinctively moved out of his way, cowed by the sight of his uniform and the golden helmet that sloped low over his brow. He passed people who turned to whisper in his wake; first an unusual commotion from the palace and now the head of the Guard venturing out among the great unwashed masses? He knew that his presence would only serve to fan the flames of rumor, but it couldn’t be helped. He had a mission.

  Not far from the palace, he found a small nondescript shop tucked in the corner of a dead-end street. The windows were smeared and opaque, and scattered piles of trash blown by the wind accumulated against the side of the building. A wooden shingle over the door announced it as an apothecary’s office and promised all manner of medical assistance. Shedri saw a list painted on the brick next to the door and scanned it to see if the physician offered midwifery before he burst inside.

  He found himself in a dusty room with a continent of a table set in the middle of the space. Thick smoke wafted around the ceiling and he coughed at the pungent odors coming from a riser of small glass phials standing against the far wall. Shedri waved away the fug and bellowed, “Physician! I require your assistance at once!”

  The physician came out of the back room wearing a brown apron over a dirty work shirt and brown trousers. Her black hair was tied back messily, leaving one shank with a streak of white hanging loose over glasses that comically magnified her eyes. She pushed the glasses higher up her nose and straightened her posture when she recognized his uniform, puffed out her cheeks, and squared her shoulders.

  “I don’t care if you are the Palace Guard, you will simply have to get in line! I have patients waiting, you know.”

  Her accent marked her as being from the Plains. He wanted to pass her off as someone who had been vetted for the job, so Lowlands would have been more believable. Still, even though it was less than ideal, he couldn’t well afford to be picky. “The Queen requires your assistance. You are a loyal subject of Queen Indell and her family, are you not?”

  The physician sighed and removed her headgear. “What could the Queen want with me?”

  “She is in labor.”

  “I haven’t trained to assist a woman in labor!”

  “You know enough. All you have to do is catch the blasted thing and verify it belongs to the Queen. Hurry! We haven’t much time.”

  The physician sighed and said, “Let me get my things!” She pulled open a drawer and withdrew a large black bag which looked big enough to conceal an infant. That thought gave him pause. “What could you possibly need with a bag that large?”

  She turned away from him as she began filling it with things from the cubbyholes along her wall. “Would you rather I have to come back here to retrieve something I’ll need in the event of an emergency, or shall I bring everything I might possibly require?”

  “Fine, fine! Hurry!”

  Once she had what she needed, he ushered her quickly outside. They weaved and elbowed their way through the crowd, Shedri forced to occasionally grab the physician’s elbow to force her to match his pace as they ran through the bazaar. As they neared the palace the woman moved up closer to him and lowered her voice so she couldn’t be heard as easily by the people around them.

  “You said the Queen was in labor. I may not be a Royal Physician, but even I know that she isn’t due until it becomes warmer.”

  “That was the plan,” Shedri muttered without looking at her. They crossed the demarcation line between Agora and the palace grounds, and Shedri finally released her arm. He stopped and looked at her. “Take off the apron. Your hair… it needs to look neater. Fix it.”

  She did as she was told.

  “If she inquires, tell her that you have been apprenticing with the midwife for… years. You have been studying to take her place when she retires. You are a student but more than qualified to stand in for your master during this auspicious occasion.”

  “But that’s a lie! I’m no lowly apprentice, and I have never trained to be — ”

  He silenced her with a sideways swipe of his hand. She flinched as if he’d actually struck her, and for a moment he saw real fire in her eyes.

  “You are trained enough to do what is necessary. You keep your patients breathing. This is just someone a bit younger than the patients you are accustomed to seeing. Now be silent if you value your health.” He tossed her apron aside and led her to the royal chambers. The physician trotted behind him, rubbing her hands together anxiously as she followed him inside.

  The maid, a slender brunette woman wearing the pale blue uniform of palace staff, had just refilled the Queen’s red teacup when they entered. He waved a dismissive hand at her and the woman retreated to one side, remaining in the room but effectively rendering herself invisible. The Queen was still propped up against her pillows, hands clutching the sheets hard enough to tear them, face red and splotchy with white spots as she glared at him. Her eyes slid past him to the stranger trailing in his wake.

  “Who is this? That is not my midwife!”

  “This is… a-ah…”

  The physician stepped in front of him. “My name is Shakatt, your highness. I’m here to help you give birth.” She pointed at the maid. “You, what’s your name?”

  “Me?” The poor woman looked horrified. “Mayani.”

  “You can stay. I might need an extra pair of hands. Is that teacup full? Good.” Shakatt put down her bag and began rolling up the sleeves of her shirt. She turned to Shedri. “You’ve done your part, my good man. You’ve gotten me here. Now you must leave me to my practice. The Queen and Prince both require a calm environment if they wish for this to be a success. Now go wait outside and make sure no one disturbs the birth.”

  Shedri nodded, grateful to be sent away. “Do you require anything else, milady?”

  Shakatt answered. “If she does, I will send Mayani for it. Now leave!”

  Shedri stepped out of the room, pulling the doors closed behind him as the Queen released another bellow of pain. He winced and shook his head. Someone else was now in charge of the Queen’s comfort. He could take the opportunity to relax and catch his wind while they took care of the crisis. Of course just because the Queen now had an attendant didn’t mean he could take the rest of the day off. He had to lay the foundation for the lie he had established about Shakatt’s identity.

  He assigned one of his underlings to watch the door of the Queen’s chamber while he set about spreading the necessary facts to the right people. He spent close to an hour finding those who could help sell his lie, repeating his story over and over again while peppering the name “Shakatt” through his conversations. By the time he realized how much time had passed, more people in the palace knew Shakatt’s name and profession than his.

  Confident his lie wouldn’t be discovered, Shedri returned to the Queen’s chambers. The man he’d posted as guard was still standing tirel
essly in front of the doors, his red cap tilted forward to the bridge of his nose and his eyes focused on a spot in the far distance. Shedri removed his helmet to wipe the sweat from his face as he approached. The chambers sounded blessedly silent, and he hoped that was a good sign.

  “Has the birth made progress?”

  “It must have. The room has been silent for quite a while, sir.”

  “Silent? It shouldn’t be silent…” Even if the physician had eased the Queen’s labor pains, there should be some commotion. No one entered this life peacefully.

  Knowing full well he risked incurring the wrath of both the Queen and her new midwife, he stepped forward and rapped his knuckles on the thick wooden door. No answer came from within.

  “Your Majesty? Does all go well?” He waited for a response and, when none was forthcoming, he braced himself and stepped inside. The Queen was still in her bed and slumbering peacefully, but the midwife and maid were nowhere to be seen. Shedri’s heart leapt into his throat as he moved to the bedside and checked his Queen’s pulse. She was alive, thank the gods, and in no distress. No distress at all, Shedri noticed, and his own vital signs spiked when he realized she was no longer in labor.

  Shedri rose and called in the guard from the hallway. “The midwife and the maid. Where did they go?”

  The guard glanced around the room. “They are not here…?”

  Shedri ground his teeth at the man’s idiocy. “I want this room barricaded! No one is to touch anything until we’ve examined it thoroughly. And gather the rest of the Guard. I want that midwife found posthaste!” The guard ran off, and Shedri turned to look around the room for more clues. He passed over the nightstand once before the red teacup caught his eye. He remembered the maid refilling it before he was shuffled out but now it was almost half-empty. He moved closer and picked it up to sniff the contents.

  Ashroot.

  In addition to a distinct fragrance even when dissolved in tea, the drug had a number of side effects. In high enough doses it could elevate body temperature, cause severe abdominal cramping, create shortness of breath… in short, it did everything except help someone manage their pain. It was generally used to create the appearance of false labor. He lowered the cup and glanced down at the Queen, spotting another clue to what had transpired in the room. The skin above the scooped-neck of the Queen’s nightgown was bare when he should have seen a small brass key hanging from a heavy chain.