Jack's Viking Sky 6

Sea

by Mitch H

URL: http://www.area52hkh.net/asm/mitchh/jacksv06.php
Summary: The sailing heritage of the Viking culture is only briefly experienced by Daniel before his rebellious nature puts him in danger again. Jack flounders, trying to keep his lover safe. His failure and Daniel's brash actions spiral the two men into desperate times

Chapter 26 - Southern Port

Since crashing on the world of Nortvegr, Jack and Daniel had traveled half a continent toward a possible way home. They were relying on the stories and descriptions of what they believed to be a working stargate.

With House Wulfstag days behind them, their goal now was to reach the eastern sea, to make the port of Fairwood within three weeks. They pushed hard each day, not stopping at inns wherever they happened to be along the route, but pushing on until dusk and sleeping on the ground or in whatever cot they could find at that late hour.

Since their route now cut diagonally across the flow of the land, rivers and streams slowed them down more. This increased the closer they got to the eastern port. Bridges were often hard to find and not surprisingly for the level of society of this planet, privately owned and costly to use.

Daniel was feeling oddly invigorated on this part of the journey. He'd stopped fighting the requirement of being in either Lemmel or Balin's lap when they approached a village. But on the stretches of sparsely populated areas, Balin had finally acquiesced to the propriety of Daniel being in between Jack's thighs, as was considered seemly only above the great divide, or on posted lands of an aligned House.

During the lengthy months of Jack's illness and recovery he'd had close contact with his lover day and night. The healthier Jack got, the less time Daniel had spent curled up against his lover or tending to his body. It had been an odd trade-off and now he was getting to be in contact with him more and more. Daniel was finding a new sense of calmness.

On the journey eastward from Wulfstag's land they crossed two Highborn posted lands. The first was a collection of farms. The Highborn was in the north and the costly tribute was paid to the steward in residence.

The second was a village, small and quaint, and the surrounding grazing land. Again, the Highborn was not in residence. He was in the seaport of Fairwood. Lemmel paid the marks and was delighted to say they had the right to stay in the Highborn's home and use his grain, food and most importantly, his spa. The tribute gained the bonus of having a right to his hospitality in Fairwood if they needed. Jack gave in to the temptation of the hot tub and they lost one day of travel to luxuriate in warm water and sleep on soft beds.

With clear directions and some additions on their map they set out due east the next day, facing an easy three-day ride to reach Fairwood. Daniel began to get nervous about being among Highborn again, but also was looking forward to seeing Odamari and Brynvold once more.

Balin seemed tenser the closer they got to their destination, but Lemmel seemed more confident. The time in castle Wulfstag had benefited the younger man greatly. Lemmel was maturing. Oddly, Daniel felt like he himself was becoming less mature. Balin seemed to coddle him more now, as if the big Champion's time with Ashild had robbed him of his former ability to see Daniel as an independent, capable man, and their sparing with the bos had left no impression. Balin seemed to be deluding himself. Or perhaps Balin was trying a new tactic. If he treated Daniel as he treated Ashild, did he expect that Daniel would start behaving that way? Ashild had joined in on the assault against Dolf, and within days was sitting in his lover's lap being hand-fed. Did Balin expect Daniel to be capable of such diverse personality shifts?

That question sent Daniel's mind reeling. He'd thought Ashild to be the most childish man he'd ever met. But to be so capable would require immense strength. To walk within the confines of this society and stay sane? That was real strength. Maybe Daniel wasn't as strong as the Skys of this world.

"This be the last night on the ground, House. Tomorrow we reach the port of Fairwood."

"So we pay the tribute to get in the place, and then locate House Halfdain. It's going to be a bit tricky with none of us having ever been there before."

"Ye steward will seek directions as that be his duty, him having learned a fair share of new things on this trip, House. Ye may take ye rest at an eatery or bathhouse--spa--while he sees to his duty."

By Daniel's closest calculation they crossed into Fairwood on their five hundredth day, roughly a year and four months on Nortvegr. Daniel rode between Balin's spread thighs, the Champion's arms firmly extended to Freyfaxi's reins as they passed marker stones for Fairwood.

The house colors of the little port community were the green of a churning ocean and gray of storm clouds. Daniel thought that was not a good omen, but he was determined to be optimistic.

The people they passed waved amicably to Lemmel and the big steward nodded back, giving the people a cheerful, but seemly greeting. Lemmel was settling well into his role as a steward in a Highborn house and Daniel was glad to see that the young man looked like he was genuinely enjoying himself.

Riding amid the dwellings as they grew thicker and thicker, with more and more people taking notice of the passing party, Daniel found himself becoming even more nervous. He'd never carried off his new role amid a large group of strangers. His couldn't be any harder a stretch than Lemmel's was though. Lemmel had lived his entire life in the low desert amid a world of unending sand, meeting only a handful of people outside his immediate family. Brooksmeet was by far the largest population he'd ever seen. This port community was easily four times the size of that inland village. And Daniel wouldn't be required to speak to any of the people, wouldn't be required to perform recon among all these strangers or be responsible for their entire party.

He laughed, drawing a slight throat-clearing noise from Balin. "I was just thinking that my duties in this village are very different than Lemmel's."

Balin chose a seemly inn for them to wait in, its great hall bright and clean. Daniel strolled in, a half a step behind Jack and sat where instructed to, and then became an ornament at Jack's side.

Not much time passed before Brynvold arrived, Lemmel and several men dressed in Halfdain colors at his heels. He looked delighted to see Jack, who rose and met him halfway across the expansive room. The two Highborn greeted each other and had a quick and friendly exchange of words. Daniel stayed a seemly ornament in his chair until Jack sent Lemmel to fetch him for the walk to Brynvold's holdings. This gave Daniel a moment of ire, and then he realized there were many times in the field when Sam or Teal'c took care of ushering the civilian around while Colonel O'Neill was seeing to other matters. Jack was simply following the same protocol now, not slighting Daniel or treating him like an ornament.

So he walked through the streets willingly, his hand held by Lemmel and with Balin shadowing him protectively. Jack strolled ahead of the small group, deep in conversation with Brynvold as they moved through the seaside village. The stone streets and walkways were wide and airy, getting a breeze that Daniel realized was tinged with the smell of a salty ocean. Salt-laden oceans were common on worlds populated with human beings who'd been seeded from Earth's past. This one was no different despite Nirrti's meddling.

The party arrived at House Halfdain, a multi-leveled, marble villa of clean lines and flat roofs. It was perched on the side of a sharp incline that ran down to the ocean. The view from there of the concave harbor was breathtaking. A pale stretch of sandy beach ringed the harbor, reflecting the bright sun. The slope into the sea was gentle, evidenced by the gradual deepening of the ocean color, and several small docks were scattered in the southern half of the harbor. Viking style longboats dotted the azure water along the docks. Three-masted sailing ships more suited to transporting cargo were moored further out in the harbor where the water was deep enough to accommodate their massive hulls. In the centuries these people had been here, they'd progressed and adapted to live in the environment, though it wasn't much different than where their ancestors had come from on Earth, despite the stretch from north to south, instead of from east to west. They now used cargo vessels.

"My father's Sky still graces us with his presence," Brynvold explained, pointing to two square, blue flags flying from a high turret. "He will depart within a month for a southern holding and a more quiet life. I think he tarries here for Odamari's comfort and I admire him for that."

"Odamari's comfort?" Daniel asked, but got no further explanation at that time.

That afternoon, deep within the sprawling, seaside villa, Daniel sat on cushions piled around the mosaic-tiled floor of an inner sanctum with Odamari and the elder Sky. Unveiled, they occupied a spacious room, which had vast open doorways facing the placid ocean. Outside the room, a sunny terrace ran along a considerable length of the multi-level home. The view of the harbor was spectacular and Daniel was drawn to it repeatedly throughout the morning.

"This one tells me you first appeared to him dressed as a worker child," Garan said as he leaned back on cushions and lounged comfortably in his gauzy, open robe. The robe had narrow stripes of pale gold and rich maroon. He wore satin pants, cut in the customary slit style. They were a shiny gold color and complimented the robe well. His bare chest was lightly dusted around his nipples in curling, gray hairs. He smiled indulgently at Daniel as he toyed with his recently discarded veil that lay across one of his thighs. "I admire such audacity, such a comic soul. You try your beautiful Jack's patience, I think."

"Sometimes," Daniel said, squinting his eyes in merriment as he smiled. He sipped at the cool drink. "This is juice from the garden fruit trees?"

"Yes," Odamari answered, his voice as soft as the breeze blowing in off the azure ocean. He rose, moving just as gracefully as he spoke, and strode to the left of the great ocean view. He opened a shutter on that wall which revealed his private garden. "I've the yellow and green tarts here. They don't grow well below the great divide. I had hoped to transplant one of the trees to the west, but now with my desire's father gone ... " He turned and came to Garan, and then knelt by the elder's side. "We miss him."

"Yes," Garan said quietly, his eyes full of a far-away look. "Gone many months now and still it's as if I hear his voice down the hall. Some day I'll join him again."

"You will," Odamari said gently. "Love never parts from the joined heart. You and my beloved's father are of one heart."

"As are you and my pride, Brynvold," Garan said, his palm lovingly cupping Odamari's cheek. Then the elder looked at Daniel. "I see this same love between you and your beautiful Jack. We are all blessed here, are we not?"

"We are," Odamari said certainly.

"We are," Daniel echoed him just as positively.

"Rare, this," Garan said. "Among our kinsmen still trapped within the city walls such long-standing love is rare. I know many there are as happy as we three are, but to have such joining is rare."

Odamari shifted to sit against Garan's hip. "Perhaps it's because Brynvold follows the teachings of his father. He'll buy a son some day soon. I have decided it must be. Now that he must make his home here and delay the expansion west we could travel to the city next summer and offer the old witches their bribe--"

"Hold your tongue," Garan said quickly, laying a finger lightly across Odamari's lips. "Your guest ... "

Odamari bowed his head in guilt. "Forgive me, Daniel."

"There is nothing to forgive," Daniel said. "You're saying what you feel. Please feel free to continue." He probed for more information. "The bribe," he prompted.

"Yes. I urged him to do it just last night. At first, when I was fresh from the city I was so set against him ever bringing another Highborn child into this world. What if his seed produced a girl? Another to swell the ranks of those forbidden witches?" He shuddered. "Or a Sky? To bring another into the life we lead?"

"Is it that bad? You live here in splendor in the arms of a man who loves you," Garan said.

"But what if his son never found someone to love him? What if he had the ill luck never to find a love or even a patron? What if he was so poor at bargaining that he became nothing more than a temple whore? I can't bear the thought--"

"Child," Garan said, pulling Odamari into his arms.

"I'm all right," Odamari said forcefully, bravely pushing himself from Garan's embrace. "I'm just wallowing in worst fears. Terrible way to be, isn't it, Daniel? His seed is just as likely to bring forth a boy with dark eyes, as his father's seed did. First try, he always said. Was that the truth, Garan?"

"I swear it is, child. I swear. I went with him to the temple when he decided to trade for a son. I held his hand as he paid the temple guardian for the seeding. They took his seed as I waited and we spent that summer in the city. The child was born, Brynvold was, and he was cast out of the Forbidden Garden by the end of the summer. I took him from the temple in my own arms, my desire's own flesh and blood. What an incredible feeling, to hold a babe in your arms. You can have that feeling too, little one."

"I don't know. If we waited the summer and were told the child was a girl, or a Sky, I don't know how I could bear that pain."

"Yes. You mustn't fool yourself. You're such a logical child. Yes. It could be a girl or a Sky and you'd never know which one he was, come his manhood day. That risk is
high. And Brynvold would want to try again. I know he would. He has such fiery determination in him, just as his father did. If that mating had failed to produce a son he'd have tried again."

"Daniel, has Jack tried for a son? Has he seeded a woman?" Odamari asked.

Regretfully, Daniel clenched his lips together. He'd have to lie to these men. If he said Jack had a son, had Charlie and that the boy had died, they might question Jack about it. But how could Daniel deny Charlie ever existed? How could he do that to Jack? Not honor his son's memory? When he'd returned from being ascended the first personal thing he'd remembered about Jack had been Charlie's existence. No. He couldn't pretend Charlie had never been born. Charlie's memory was sacred, a bond of respect between them.

"I'm sorry," Odamari said. "I see my prying has disturbed you. Forgive me, please. My own disquiet has taken my manners away."

"It's all right," Daniel said again. "I'm just deep in thought. Pardon me for being so distracted." It felt good to apologize. He was never allowed to do that to anyone else on this planet. And he found it odd to feel so elated about apologizing. "So you might be going to the city next summer?"

"Yes. I think we will," Odamari said. "He wants a son. If the child is not a son, then he will try again and I will be ready for that possibility."

"Good," Garan said with a nod.

"The bribe is costly," Daniel said, fishing for information again. "But then, so is the cost to enter the city."

"A hundred marks to enter." Garan shifted to ease his back. "I wish our first departure could be paid for with such a paltry sum. Many householders would find it easier to catch a Sky, eh? If they could pay the departure fee in marks instead of service in the temple."

"Freedom fee," Odamari said darkly. "I worked so hard to avoid the temple when I first left the garden. But I'm glad I had succumbed to it before I met Brynvold. I was a free man when I met him. I think it enhanced our relationship."

"I was free also," Garan informed Daniel. "I had left the city with a Champion who lived on the edge of the divide. My desire visited his estate one hunting season. Being free at the time of our joining did enhance our relationship. But ... Have we insulted you, Daniel? With our talk of freedom. I apologize."

"No. I'm not insulted," he assured them. "Freedom to leave the city, to move about as we wish is very important to me too."

"Were you still bound inside the city when you met your Jack?" Odamari asked.

"I was ... " This answer would be a lie no matter what he said. "I was poor when I met Jack. I had used up all my marks and had no place to live. But I was ... free. We bonded after Jack came for me. I guess you could say he gave me a new purpose in life. I've been by his side ever since. I always will be by his side."

"As we all wish," Garan said with a sad smile. "Though my desire has already passed, he's ever with me. I'm never apart from what made him the man I love."

"Leaving here, will it make your grief so much less?" Odamari asked. "I would implore you again to stay and live with us here. Brynvold wishes it."

"Perhaps I'll return, child. But for now, I need the solitude Halfdain's southern villa can afford, and Brynvold needs no elder hanging around his neck. The boy has much responsibility now. As the new House Halfdain, he needs his household to turn only to him."

"As you wish," Odamari said, clearly unhappy.

That night in the guest quarters, Daniel spooned up behind Jack, wrapping his arms around his lover and then snuggled in the soft bed. Balin and Lemmel were comfortable in the outer chamber, guarding as always, the way to Jack's bed.

"Interesting day?" Jack asked.

"Mmm," Daniel said, and then kissed Jack's naked shoulder. "Had a fun time in the harem."

"Harem?" Jack asked, his voice slightly alarmed.

"What would you call it? An inner sanctum where no men are allowed. It's just us blue-eyed sex toys and women to serve us. Not even any eunuchs. Just worker caste women so we get to run around with our heads naked.

"So," Jack said slowly, "you're joking about the fun part. Sarcasm, right?"

"You're trying to ask if we fucked and sucked like nymphos, aren't you, Jack?"

"Uh ... maybe," Jack answered. "Though, I guess I really don't need to know."

"We didn't. No dicks flopped out or anything. We kept our little slut-pants laced up nicely and the loop pulled so tight my eyelids were squeaking."

"I'd like to have heard that."

"I just bet you would."

"Don't be mad at me, desire. I know this isn't easy--"

"We need to talk about how we're going to undo what Nirrti has done to these people," Daniel declared as he rolled on his side facing away from Jack.

"So we've decided to mess with things again, have we? When did we change our minds?"

"We," Daniel said, stressing the word, "never made up our minds one way or another. I realize the idea of dethroning people like Odamari and Ashild will have tremendously dangerous consequences, but there has to be a way to free them without getting them killed."

"It's not like we can drag Nirrti back here and make her undo this crap. She's slightly dead."

"And like a nice little goa'uld, she's going to stay dead. Still, there has to be something we can do."

"Everywhere we go," Jack said, his voice tinged with irritation.

"What?" Daniel demanded as he rolled back over to glare in the darkness at his lover and his team leader. "Everywhere we go I piss you off?"

"Babe. Crap," Jack swore. "I said I wasn't going to call you that anymore. It's making me ... Subconsciously, I'm treating you a little bit like they do."

"A little bit?" Daniel demanded sarcastically. "Try with every other breath, Jack."

"Look, I'm doing the best that I can here. This isn't exactly easy."

"I'll bet it's not," Daniel retorted and then flopped flat on his back, staring up at the shadowy ceiling. He pulled the sheet up across his chest and then clamped his arms against his sides. "I bet you had a really difficult time today seeing the port with Brynvold."

"I couldn't very well insist that you come along with us," Jack objected as he rose up on his elbow. "It would have looked too odd. And besides, I can reconnoiter without your help. I'm doing pretty damned good with the language--"

"And what else can you do here without my help? Make travel arrangements, get food, deal with the locals while I sit hidden under a damned sheet or stay locked in a harem so the mere sight of my eyes doesn't start a sex riot?"

"Truth? Or are you being so damned full of yourself that you've managed to forget that too? I couldn't even buy a crust of bread here unless you earned the money for it. I can't do a damned thing in return for what you've done for me, Daniel. Not a damned thing. I've never been in this position before--"

"Yes, you have," Daniel interrupted him yet again. "On countless planets you've sat by a campfire or waited by an obelisk while I spoke with the powers that be or translated some entry door or ... "

"Or otherwise opened the proverbial stargate over and over," Jack finished for him. "Yeah. I don't usually forget that. And I never thank you for what you do. I guess I'm feeling a little out of the loop more than usual here."

"Don't mention loops to me," Daniel said, reaching down to cup his sore genitals. "I still ache when the damned thing is untied at the end of the day."

"You getting any permanent damage from it?"

"No," Daniel said, calmer now. "Don't think so. If you're worried whether or not my equipment will be in functioning order by the time we get home ... "

"I was. I'm very fond of your equipment. But that aside for the moment, what are your thoughts on fixing the mess Nirrti left here?"

Daniel smiled in the darkness, appreciating his lover's no-nonsense approach. Jack may be sporadically swayed by the role Daniel was playing in this society, but he always drifted back to treating Daniel like a valued member of his team. "If we could contact Thor, find out who dropped these people here, see if that Asgard could return and get them back on the right track? What do you think of that idea?"

"I don't know. This couldn't have been one of the protected planets. I've come to realize that. Otherwise, Nirrti wouldn't have come here and messed with it as she did. And the Asgard have always been very reluctant to mess with something a goa'uld has screwed up."

"If she weren't dead," Daniel said thoughtfully, "but then there's the problem of getting her to do what needs to be done."

"So we know we're not going to be able to undo the DNA manipulation without Asgard intervention. If we can't get that, how can we alter the lives of the Skys?"

"Maybe we don't have to actually have Nirrti come here and change things. I mean, not the real Nirrti," Daniel said. "Just a godly proclamation. Something like a new prophecy or edict."

"Hm. Like a new commandment. Thou shalt not screw blue-eyed men," Jack quipped.

"I think we need to give it considerably more accurate wording than that," Daniel said.

"Can we sleep on it now?" Jack asked.

"Sleep. Yeah. Good idea. Oh, we need a hundred marks to enter the city. Found that out today."

"I'd talked to Balin about that already," Jack said.

"And when were you going to tell me?"

"I didn't think you needed to know. We'll have plenty of money. You won't need to do any service in any damned temple--"

"Why didn't you tell me when you first found out how much it would cost?"

"I didn't think you needed to be worried about it--"

"Not worry my pretty little head over things--"

"Come on, babe. Besides," Jack said with a wicked grin as he reached for Daniel's crotch, "I want your pretty little head--"

"Get off me! I'm not your whore!"

Jack jerked his hand back and rose higher, staring wide-eyed in the silver moonlight. Daniel's features were colorless, a soft pattern of shadows and grayish silver. His uncut hair was a shaggy mess of light and dark. "Daniel?" he asked softly, his voice betraying his pain.

"Oh, God, Jack," Daniel whispered in horror. Then he covered his face with his hands and rolled away, turning his back to his lover. "I'm sorry."

"Danny," Jack whispered. Without hesitation he scooted against his lover and wrapped his arms firmly around the dispirited man. "It's all right. It's okay."

Daniel brought one hand up and clutched it over Jack's arm, holding onto his lover in the faint moonlight that blanketed their bed. They stayed entwined for the entire night.

The next morning three blue flags flew high from the tallest pinnacle of Brynvold's villa. The azure sea reflected strong rays of sunlight onto the pale marble structure, making the whole edifice glow like an ocean jewel. The iridescent sheen of dressed marble shone pale choral and seashell colors. The home was adorned with sea-green shrubbery and dotted with almost garish splashes of color from various window boxes resplendent with blooming flowers.

Following Brynvold's and Jack's stewards to a southern veranda of the multi-level villa, Jack and Daniel found their hosts waiting with breakfast ready. Daniel nodded covertly at Lemmel, not tempting the young man to break his role as a seemly steward. A slight breeze sent Daniel's gauzy veil rustling away from his face and neck. He tugged the light cloth back in place. Jack placed a hand on the small of his back and sat with him on a low bench across from Odamari and Brynvold. The elder Sky was already seated in a wide chair at the end of the cozy table.

"You look well, young kinsman," Garan greeted Daniel. He rose and kissed the man on his mouth and then sat back in his comfortable chair "Sleep well, I trust?"

"Y--yes, thank you." Daniel rolled his lips in for a moment and then had to put his head up to accommodate a kiss from Odamari.

"We've three blue above us," Odamari declared with a wide grin as he pointed at the fluttering flags high overhead. Today Odamari wore an unbelted robe of light blue. It hung open revealing his complete lack of clothing underneath. "And by mid-morning the street by the front gate will be impassible. There's already a crowd gathered. Something pretty rare to see below the divide."

"Three blue flags," Jack said expectantly, hoping for an explanation.

"Rare below the divide?" Daniel said. "I expect it is, to have three hosted Skys residing under the same roof," he said, filling Jack in without appearing to. That was something at which Daniel was getting better.

Too often Daniel and Sam would discuss subjects that were far over Jack's head, both scientists oblivious to their team leader's frustration. But slowly Daniel was becoming more aware of Jack's frustration. As a communications specialist, a linguist by training, Daniel should have never allowed that lack to arise in his relationship with Jack. He would never treat others the way he treated Jack in the past, and on this planet he'd started wondering why that lack had developed in his relationship with Jack.

Jack never allowed Daniel to feel frustrated when he discussed military tactics, weapons, any of the many specialties that were Jack's considerable area of expertise. As he pondered this inequality, Daniel decided he'd have a talk with Sam about this when they got home.

As he'd let his mind wander, Jack and Brynvold had been speaking. Daniel brought his attention back to the conversation and realized the two were discussing the next leg of Jack and Daniel's journey. From here they'd sail north to the port city of Drangaskogen on the eastern shore of Nortvegr. From Drangaskogen they'd ride northwest to the City of the Highborn. The ride should take no more than a couple of weeks, depending on the weather.

"A sailing ship would be more comfortable," Brynvold assured Jack. "Though the prestige of arriving above the divide in a longboat is always to be preferred."

"But we'll want to take the horses with us."

"Then a sailing ship it is. I've one leaving with the tide tomorrow. We had hoped you could stay here longer, visit with us, but most of the provisions have already been loaded and the ship can't wait. The fruits would spoil."

"I understand," Jack said. "Tomorrow it is," he said, echoing Brynvold. "I'm sure Daniel would have liked to stay here longer, but ... " Jack shrugged.

"Longer? Yes, I wanted to see the port, see how trade works in the port--"

"Trade?" Garan interrupted with an amused lilt to his voice. A choker set with faceted rubies flashed at his throat as he leaned back to regard Daniel. "I was right. You do try your beloved's patience. You play at being a worker caste child, and it's rumored that you ride alone. Now you wish to learn of the shipping business. Delightful!"

"Rumored?" Brynvold asked, no amusement in his voice. "Have you heard any back-hall gossip? Steward, has any in my household spoken of another House's business?"

"Master," the steward said, quickly curtseying at Brynvold's side. "Ye servants--"

"It's none of their business," Daniel said angrily as he rose.

Jack clamped a firm hand around Daniel's wrist, pulling him back down to the bench. "Seemly," he whispered harshly in his lover's ear.

Garan pushed his chair back and rose, towering over the seated Highborns, but so much shorter than the two stewards and the serving maids on the sunny veranda. He turned to face House Ondeil, three gold hoop bracelets on his left wrist chimed together. "My amusement was unseemly. I apologize. Also, this is no longer my beloved's home and it is not seemly for me to tell my pride, Brynvold, to mind his manners, to let Skys under his roof have their amusements, their private conversations. Again, I apologize, Daniel, Odamari. Forgive me."

Brynvold's mouth was clinched in a firm line, his features tight. Everyone on the veranda was silent, the servants seemingly frozen in place. Then Brynvold shook his head. "My apology is what is needed here. Garan, you are as ever, my guiding hand. However, my steward will go now and see to it no servant of mine speaks of House Ondeil business."

Garan sat down unaided and resumed his breakfast.

Wordlessly, Jack and Daniel gazed at each other.

Then Jack leaned into his lover and whispered in his ear. "Someone here in the port must have seen us along the trail days ago."

"Damn," Daniel whispered, his posture growing tighter. Eyes were everywhere.

Jack put his arm around Daniel and rubbed his back, working his fingers along his lover's tight spine and then across his hunched shoulders.

"I didn't realize, Jack. I'm sorry--"

"We just have to listen to Balin a little more, that's all, desire. Let it go for now."

"They're always watching me. Every one of them. Even if they don't look at me, they're always watching."

"We'll be out of here tomorrow," Jack assured him.

"So you've made that decision without me too? Never mind," Daniel said quickly, interrupting Jack before he could protest. "It's what you do, make decisions for the team. You're supposed to. I'm the one who's not doing what he's supposed to do."

"God damn it, Daniel. You're doing everything you're supposed to do. Look, just ... " But Jack was at a loss for the right words to say. He tightened his hold on his lover and gave him what he could, his solid presence.

Later that afternoon, Daniel stood alone on the small balcony outside the suite that had been given over to House Ondeil. Lemmel was inside somewhere within the suite, having been sent away by a sulking Daniel. In his moment of solitude, Daniel stood stiffly, his hands firm on the wide stone railing. He gazed out at the sprawling port village with its tiers of tile-roofed houses glinting in the bright sunlight. The colors were mostly pastels, a pale sandy color predominant. Ocean birds wheeled and dipped in the air, their plaintiff cries cutting through the gentle soughing of the ocean waves. The tinge of the salty ocean smell was invigorating.

To his left he could hear the cheerful sounds of the people who had gathered to gape at three blue flags flying high above House Halfdain, signifying three hosted Skys within. He wished they'd leave.

For some reason he kept thinking of his first night on Abydos when Sha'ure had been sent to him as a gift. She'd wanted to undress for him, to give herself to him in that small room, that small bit of privacy with the entire council of elders just outside the curtain. And Daniel had handled that so much more gracefully than he was handling this situation now.

A large bird, its white wings fluttering rapidly, sped by Daniel's place of solitude. He watched the creature wing over and turn toward the ocean. It swept down the hillside, barely clearing the tiled roofs and then soared over the pristine sands of the beach before cutting out across the azure waves. Free and swift, the bird was quickly disappearing in the distance, dancing over the waves.

A tender touch running up his back brought his mind back from the distant waves, but his gaze stayed out among the azure depths. "I was thinking of that night Kasuf gave Sha'ure to me."

"A long time ago," Jack said softly.

"I didn't know what to do, how to protect her feelings, how to protect Kasuf's."

"And your own?" Jack asked.

"That's not much like you, Jack, to ask about my feelings."

"No, it's not. So what about them? How did you protect your own feelings?"

"Didn't," he said honestly. "I just did what had to be done."

"Like you're doing now on this planet?"

"Yeah. I guess that's the point. Like when I went down that dark hallway after Ashild. I didn't take into consideration how ... sensitive I was feeling. I saw Thaid in them. I mean, in Hrainlang and Dolf. Not mentally, but in their lack of understanding about Ashild. For them it was a refusal to understand. For Thaid it was an inability. But the result was the same."

"That bring it all back for you? What happened in that room below the stone castle?"

"Yes. But I fought back. With Thaid I never got a chance really."

Jack stepped up against Daniel's back, wrapping his arms around the younger man's waist. "A lot of things will bring back the panic and ... terror you felt during Thaid's attack. It happens. Post traumatic stress. But you've got me to talk to. And sometimes I'm not so bad with the touchy feely stuff."

"True," Daniel said as he leaned his head back against Jack's cheek. "You're not so bad with the touchy feely stuff. And you've been very patient with me."

"So tomorrow we're gonna leave here a little bit before sunrise. Go out with the morning tide."

"Horses and all?"

"Yep. Balin's got it all worked out. Lemmel's gonna schlep our supplies down to the ship. We've got a private bunk on board. The month-long voyage isn't gonna be a picnic but it beats pounding my poor ass-bone on a saddle. I need the break from riding."

"You deserve the break," Daniel said as he turned in his lover's embrace. "I'm going to pamper you."

"Tell me what to eat," Jack said with a nod.

"Wash your hands and face for you."

"Fluff pillows under my bony ass."

"Massage your legs and feet."

"Dress me and undress me."

"Especially the undress part," Daniel said with a grin.

Chapter 27 Sea Voyage

The farewells were said that night, less bittersweet than when they'd parted from Ashild and Sven. Jack and Daniel slept fitfully, but Balin and Lemmel slept deeply as evidenced by their snores drifting through the suite.

They left the villa in darkness. Getting settled on the ship was a logistic nightmare for Daniel. His veil in the semi-darkness of the predawn hours was almost completely blinding. Climbing aboard, then weaving through the crowded stacks of cargo, the busy sailors and past the tethered livestock would be a nasty thing for a Sky to have to do, even if he'd had clear vision. The sailors shied away from him much more forcefully than any Brooksmeet villagers ever had in the confines of the Ram's Head great hall. On ship, the men had very limited room to retreat.

Daniel realized his time aboard ship would be severely curtailed to whatever cabin space Jack had been given by Brynvold. Their private cabin was aft, probably usually the captain's cabin. But for this voyage a Sky would occupy it. There wasn't enough room for Balin and Lemmel both to sleep inside but the Champion insisted his proper place was outside the door on the deck. Lemmel must spend his nights on the floor inside to see to his Master's needs.

Again the little band of travelers had passed into an even more confining situation, causing Daniel to feel more strangled than he had. Because of the limited space of the ship, Jack had given Balin a serious assurance that he would be a seemly House, and that Daniel would be his seemly, hosted Sky. He'd not slip and use his Sky's name where it might be heard, something that would not be ignored by these sailors.

The third day of the voyage, and Daniel's confinement to the small cabin found the seas calm but the wind too faint for anyone's taste. Though, for one person on board the lack of activity on deck would be a good thing. Jack had gotten a lot of rest so today he'd gone out for a while.

Jack stepped back inside the cabin and gave Daniel a broad smile. "Up and at 'em, Sky. Time to take a little stroll around outside. See the sights. Catch some rays."

It didn't take hearing it twice for Daniel to spring up off the bed where he'd been sitting cross-legged, reading the bound parchments Sven had given Jack. He snatched up his outer, green cloak and summer veil, and was ready in seconds.

"We'll just stay mostly to the back of the boat," Jack said. "Sailors are all near the front right now. But you'll get to see them at work. That's what you wanted, right?"

"Oh you know it," Daniel said with glee. "To see how this culture has adapted from a mostly warrior society to one of trade? I want to see if they have any type of compass. That's the first thing. Or maps. Maps. That's always been a hot debate on Earth. Did the Vikings use maps of any kind? I think the answer would have to be that they did. Maybe not for navigation. They're most renowned for their ability to navigate by stars and by the conditions of current and winds, but maps are key in explaining to others about routes and--"

"Yeah, yeah," Jack said, waving his hand dismissively. "Maps. I'm really interested. Really, Daniel. Sky," he said, hastily correcting himself.

His blue-eyed lover shot him a very amused grin and shook his head. They struck a seemly posture, Daniel's hand on Jack's, and strode out onto the deck.

Lemmel stood at attention by the door, his face reflecting the happiness he felt for Daniel. With a warm nod of acknowledgment to his huge friend, Daniel kept pace with Jack, while Lemmel trailed several steps behind them.

"It's an absurd debate, though. Maps exist in every culture, just like drawings do. To even postulate that one culture would not draw maps to show territories or to illustrate an adventure or a battle is very narrow-minded. I can't imagine--"

"Sun. Fresh air," Jack said, trying to derail his companion's lecture.

"Oh, you didn't tell me about the-- Oh, look at that," Daniel said, pointing aloft at sailors working on lines high overhead. "And notice all the ropes. This shows their adaptation to a life of trade happened pretty quickly."

"How's that?" Jack asked. "Crap. Forget I asked that."

"Of course," Daniel said, but continued his explanation about the workings of the trade ship.

The quarters on deck were terribly confined. The ships hold and below-deck bunk spaces were very cramped, Daniel had learned from Lemmel. The young steward's responsibility was to bring meals up to the captain's cabin, and he brought descriptions to Daniel with each meal. Above deck, amid ship, the horses and a few other animals were penned in strong stalls and tiny walk route, made of thick timbers. It would be disastrous if one of the great horses panicked and got loose on deck. Daniel was comforted to see that Frey and the others were as secure as Balin said they were.

Though the month of almost complete inactivity would be terribly detrimental to them, they were safe.

Strolling along with Jack, he grew quiet as he watched and listened to the exchanges between the sailors and a few other passengers, all worker caste. A man's harsh voice cut clear above the others. Daniel peered through the hanging ropes and clusters of crates to see a man arguing with a woman. He looked very angry.

"Babe, you wanna have lunch out here in the open?" Jack asked as he led Daniel to the side of the sailing ship.

"Hell, yes," Daniel said enthusiastically. He tugged at the clinging veil. The slight ocean spray was moistening the cloth, weighing it down against his skin. It felt clammy and was obscuring his vision more because of the heavy moisture. By the side of the ship they were more exposed to the briny wind, but with the ocean vista at their side, Daniel felt less claustrophobic here. It was a good trade-off.

"Okay," Jack said with a nod. "How about I round up something for us to sit on, then we can get some chow from Lemmel?"

The young man in question had been hovering at a discrete distance and now swiftly approached Jack. "Master, this one would be honored to round up chow. And also food. Would ye care for ale?"

"Yeah, sure. Go for it, kid. And on your way to the galley, tell Balin to come have lunch with us too."

"As ye wish, master," Lemmel said. He executed a smart bow and jogged off in the direction of the prow of the ship.

"Chairs," Jack mumbled as he looked around. He left Daniel by the ship's tall railing.

The loud voice of the angry worker caste man intruded on Daniel's thoughts. The big man and the woman he'd been haranguing were coming in his direction. The woman was cowing, almost crouching now. Her hands were up, covering her face. She looked as if she were expecting a blow at any moment. Unconsciously, Daniel took a step in their direction.

Then the worker caste man pulled a cudgel from under his cloak and raised it over the woman's head. He struck her a solid blow in the middle of her forehead. She staggered back a step and fell to her knees, blood streaming down her face. Then he took aim for another blow.

To his left, Daniel saw one of the long, pole-handled boat hooks used to maneuver lines. He dashed over and scooped it up, wielding the pole end toward the tall man. With a running start, he aimed the end between the man's arm and his side. As he felt the end slide past the man's ribs Daniel lunged to his left, spinning the man completely around and sending him over the side into the sea far below. The man's bloody cudgel fell to the deck at the dazed woman's side.

Stepping back quickly, Daniel dropped the boat hook and tried to withdraw toward the cabin but pandemonium had erupted. Sailors aloft who'd seen his attack and the man go overboard had shouted to others, and they were dropping from their lines to the deck. Those in the bow of the ship had come running toward the commotion. The deck was now crowded and Daniel couldn't weave his way through the frantic men back to the captain's cabin without bumping into some of them. He held perfectly still.

Frenzied sailors quickly launched a small skiff over the side, two men shimmying down ropes to jump into the watercraft. Sails were being lowered to slow the meager progress the gentle breeze had been giving them. Resigned to stay where he was, Daniel watched them go after the man he'd knocked overboard. Someone had come to the aid of the bleeding woman. Daniel gripped the rail and waited for Jack to get back and begin to yell at him.

"What the hell--" Jack skidded to a stop between Daniel and the knot of people seeing to the injured woman.

"He would have killed her with that second blow," Daniel said angrily. "I had no choice." He told Jack what happened, glancing between his aghast lover and the skiff, which had returned with the man he'd dunked in the salty water.

Jack glared at Daniel. "No choice? There's always a choice. There's always a fucking choice. Couldn't you have called out to someone to stop the guy? Couldn't you have told him to stop? Couldn't you--"

"House?" Balin's deep voice was more of a command for attention than it was a question. The huge Champion towered behind Jack, glaring at everyone on deck except Daniel. "What goes here?"

"Balin," Jack said, using the big man's interruption to break the momentum of his anger at Daniel. He drew deep breaths through his nostrils.

At that moment the waterlogged, bedraggled man was helped over the railing. He got his feet on the deck and let out an angry, wordless bellow. As his roar died down the sailors around him took hasty steps back. The woman he'd clubbed was still on the deck where he'd hit her. He shook his fists in the air and let out an ugly curse.

"Who dared," he choked off his question, his anger making him incoherent. He glared around the deck, searching each face, but skipping over the two Highborn men.

Daniel took a half step toward him and was jerked up short by Jack's grip on his wrist.

Balin stepped in front of the two Highborn, his hand gripping the handle of his great-sword.

If he drew that huge weapon, Daniel realized that one sweep of it would take off at least two heads on this crowded deck. Lines were everywhere. With the masts and sails overhead, the deck of a sailing ship left little room for fighting with the great swords of the Viking men. As often happened in a time of crisis, Daniel's analytic mind continued to spin and work through conundrums. Their love of the long blades was as deep a part of Viking identity as the longboat. And the open spaces on those types of ships worked well for fighting with those long blades. Perhaps that's why the distinctive style of boat developed? With their shallow hulls and wide, stable ride, a longboat was the ideal vessel for fighting in with the great swords.

Maybe tonight he could discuss this idea with Jack. It might hold his lover's interest because weapons were involved. A wry smile flicked across his features.

But Balin hadn't drawn the blade. His golden horns and his house colors seemed to be enough to deter the man from even looking in their direction. Or perhaps the idea that a Highborn or a Sky had knocked him overboard was inconceivable. But it wasn't to the sailors who'd seen Daniel with the pole in his hands.

"Look not into House Ondeil business," Balin said coldly, directing the words at no one in particular.

All the people clustered around faded away as if they were smoke caught by a gust of wind. The ship's captain pulled the rescued man away, hushing his sputtering curses. The injured woman was led away by others.

Lemmel arrived, a basket in one hand. "Master?" he asked, his tone and mannerism echoing back to a more naïve time.

"Let's get back to the cabin," Jack said.

"Nay," Balin said softly, his back still to Jack. "Nay. Do not retreat. Stay and appear calm, House. No guilt here. Nothing happened. We be seemly."

"I'm sorry, but he--"

"Nay," Balin whispered harshly, cutting Daniel off.

"He would have killed her."

Jack took a firmer hold on Daniel's arm, his eyes still on the people helping the injured woman away. She looked vaguely familiar to Jack. With her full lips and her almond shaped eyes, she reminded him of someone. Her hair hung in thick waves of dark curls down her back. That was unusual for worker caste women. Her hair hadn't been in braids. And then Jack realized why she looked familiar. "Sha'ure," he whispered the name.

"Oh," Daniel said, his face betraying his shock. "My God. I didn't realize ... "

"Sha'ure?" Lemmel asked.

"My wi--" He was stopped by Jack's fingers across his lips.

"Ask not, fool steward," Balin hissed. His voice was brittle with anger, but none of it reflected in his features as he seemingly gently ushered the group to a cluster of crates and seated the two Highborn there. "Serve ye master his meal, dolt. Seemly. We make the best of this mess as possible."

"Jack, I didn't even realize who she looked like. I didn't ... " Daniel slumped on the crate by his lover. "I shouldn't have ... My God."

"We need to talk about this, Daniel. Should have talked about it long ago. I've been thinking about ... When you dashed toward that cliff to save Shy'la, I should have talked to you about it when we got back home, but things were ... such a mess."

"I was such a mess." He pursed his lips in anger.

"You do this, Da—Sky. You see a woman with long, dark hair, or with those eyes-- Like Reese ... and you ... You're off and running to rescue her."

"I do not," he declared. "I don't."

"You keep trying to save her."

"Fuck you," Daniel swore under his breath.

Balin and Lemmel silently withdrew several steps away from the two Highborn men. The two sat in relative privacy, everyone else on the ship had pointedly turned their attention elsewhere.

"I'm sorry, Danny. You know you do. Like I keep trying to save ... All the kids I've rescued. I've stuck my neck out. Yours, Carter's, Teal'c's. Mission after mission. If a kid's involved ..."

"When you put your career on the line for Merrin, the girl from Orban. And the boy whose mother was a Retu."

"Charlie," Jack whispered. "Can't save what's already been lost, Daniel."

Daniel took Jack's hand between his and sat silently for a long time. "And I've started swearing at you all the time. I've hardly ever done that before. I've regressed to--"

"Talking like me instead of talking like you. Yeah. It's your frustration, probably. At being trapped in this role you have to play here. And then today, this trying to save what you can't."

"Time to stop that," Daniel said softly.

"For us both. Except ... Honestly? I don't think I can. He was a part of me. Flesh and blood. My son. That can never be healed, a wound like that."

"Yes. That kind of loss," Daniel said, his words trailing off. Daniel rubbed his fingertips up and down the back of Jack's hand. He gazed through the uncomfortable, clinging veil at his lover. "But at least we know why we have those knee-jerk reactions. Still, you're right. You'll go on putting it all on the line when a kid is involved. But maybe I'll think before I run off any cliff edges."

"Maybe," Jack said, flashing his lover a rueful smile.

After the near-disastrous encounter with the abusive worker caste man, Daniel agreed to stay in the captain's cabin without further argument, though the cramped quarters and the lost opportunity to study a working trade vessel left him sullen by the first evening.

By the end of the tenth day of their voyage, Jack was spending much of his time in the cabin, keeping his lover company and discussing the problems with ending Nirrti's posthumous reign on this planet.

"Okay so what I was saying was that there seems to be a huge blind spot in the way Skys understand reproduction."

"I gotta say, Daniel, this really can't possibly make any sense."

"I'm talking genetics here, Jack. Not mechanics."

"What's the difference?"

"If you have to ask ... "

"Are you going to get technical on my ass?"

"Jack, I haven't gotten anything on your ass. Me, bottom. You, top. Remember saying those words to me about a million years ago when we first discussed the direction our sexual relationship was going? Or something to the effect of those so very eloquent words," Daniel grumbled snidely.

"Me top," Jack corrected him. "Me nothing but top. Exit only. No entry. Wrong way."

"Enough, already," Daniel snapped.

"Okay, I get it," Jack acquiesced. "So genetics. We're talking genetics."

"Blue eyes are a recessive trait."

"I didn't enjoy this biology crap in college. What makes you think it's going to be any more fun if I'm fucking the teacher, teacher?"

"As I was saying," Daniel continued, cutting a harsh glare at the older man, "a blue eyed woman and a brown eyed man are highly unlikely to have blue eyed children. Even if both are Highborn--Fully human, that is. So these Skys who are wandering around have either had sex with a blue eyed woman before they leave the Forbidden Garden, or what I'm thinking now is maybe during their forced temple service they ... "

"Make a deposit at the local sperm bank?"

"Could you be a little cruder?"

"Yes," Jack said smugly. "Yes, I do believe I could. Spank the monkey until he throws up in a jar?"

"Yes. That was much cruder. I stand in awe of your crudity, Jack."

"Lay in awe, lover boy. If you want to stand in awe of me you have to get out of bed."

"Shut up. I don't think this society has artificial insemination. I think they're having sex with women."

"That would be so bad?" Jack asked indignantly. "I like women. Women are hot."

"Like I said, shut up. So at some point these guys are probably having sex with Highborn, or more precisely, blue-eyed women. It may be that any women with dark eyes never have sex with a man, never have children. If a Highborn man goes to buy a child, he's going to be with a blue-eyed woman, because the goal is to perpetuate blue eyes. I think the only reason the temple accepts dark eyed Highborn men to breed is for the money. They have to buy their food and whatever supplies. And the temple guardians get paid for their service. This is a religion which runs on money, as many big, organized religions do."

"Okay. So if we are toying with the idea of how to end this dysfunctional part of their society, how will this little bit of genetic monkeying around help us?"

"We're back to monkeys?" Daniel asked disapprovingly.

"Just spanking them," Jack assured him. "Speaking of which, I could use a little ... "

"Yeah, you really are a romantic fool, aren't you?"

"Isn't that why you love me, Daniel? For my romantic streak?"

Daniel rolled out of the narrow bed and stood, dressed only in his short top, glaring down at Jack. Bright moonlight shone in through the small grated portal giving the ship's cabin a silvery quality. The gentle rocking of the ship caused Daniel to reach out and steady himself against an overhead beam.

Worker castes had to crouch low to come in this tiny cabin. Daniel could easily reach the beam overhead. He swayed, his legs spread for sturdiness as he regarded Jack's silvered features.

"Romantic streak? Jack, I've been trying very hard to remember your romantic streak. All I'm getting from you lately seems to be your authoritarian streak. The Colonel is in my bed every night. Your sidearm and your insignias are jabbing me. Your combat boots are scraping my shins and I guarantee you I'm not enjoying being up close and personal with your bayonet."

"We don't carry bayonets anymore," Jack argued.

"You know what I mean. Don't play dense with me. Do you realize how ... on edge I am? I fucking hate being here on this planet, imprisoned in this cabin. How the hell did I ever suggest I could retire here? When we were living in your meadows with Ulfrik and Jarngerd ... I can't believe I felt that way even for a second."

"Well you did and maybe you'll change your mind again."

"I won't," Daniel said with conviction. "Now, about Nirrti's continued influence here ... "

"No good wishing for her to come back and undo this mess. We could try to enlist Thor's help," Jack said optimistically.

"But I'd rather not count on that. You never know what the Asgard might be busy with. There has to be something we can do for these people."

"Maybe we should just stick all this on the back-burner until we get to the City of the Highborn? And get some sleep? I'm worn out."

"From all the exploring you've gotten to do in this ship," Daniel said jealously. "You were up in the rigging today. Lemmel told me."

"Tattle tale. I'll have to whop that boy."

"That's my job."

"You've been neglecting it lately," Jack protested.

Daniel pursed his lips as he stared down at his lover. "I've quit, you mean. I've quit playing with Lemmel. I hope he's not hurt by that. I just don't ... don't ... "

"Don't need the tension release? Or maybe it's just not working for you like it used to. Lemmel and Balin, those two are pretty tight now. I think they give each other all that they need. Maybe you don't think Lemmel needs anything extra any more."

"You're right, Jack. I hadn't really even thought about it, but yeah. Lemmel really only needs Balin. I'd just be in the way between what those two have right now." He tugged thoughtfully at his lower lip.

Jack rose and took Daniel's hand, and then he spoke softly. "I need you."

Slowly a smile crept over Daniel's face. He stared into his lover's eyes. Silence existed between them as the moon-lit cabin rocked on the gentle waves.

They sailed for twenty more days, each one tense and stifling for Daniel who kept his word and stayed inside the captain's cabin, only venturing out for a few minutes each morning. On their thirtieth day at sea, a lookout high in the crow's nest called out that the northern port city's flags had been sighted, Daniel had to fight a terrible temptation to run out on deck with Jack. He began packing his tuc instead, leaving Jack to have the fun of watching their first northern settlement loom into view.

Chapter 28 Drangaskogen

The early morning hours ticked by too slowly as the ship drew into the sheltered harbor of Drangaskogen, the northern trading port. Daniel stayed alone in the cabin kneeling on the bed, peering eagerly out the tiny side portal of the captain's cabin, watching the port grow larger. His view was terribly limited but going up on deck this morning was out of the question. The amount of activity required to bring such a ship to dock was immense.

Drangaskogen was different from Fairwood, the southern port city they'd set sail from. This port was deep, with three short wooden docks extending into the waters. The ship would be tied up to a dock, not anchored out in the harbor as was necessary at Fairwood, due to the shallowness of the bay. They'd step directly onto the dock instead of having to be ferried to shore in smaller boats.

That would be much safer for the horses and Daniel wondered if Balin and Lemmel would let him help with that. Probably not, even though Daniel knew he'd be a lot of help in keeping Freyfaxi in hand. Like himself, Frey liked to do what he wanted, regardless of where he was. Frey always responded so much better to Daniel's gentler handling. Then Daniel had an ironic thought. He responded much better to Jack's handling than he did any other military man. Without Jack at his side on this trip Daniel might not have been able to endure this culture.

What if he'd crashed here with someone like Makepeace? Daniel shuddered as he had a vision of himself being raped by countless dirty worker caste men, Makepeace sitting by him, boots up and smoking a fat cigar while counting gold marks.

His guess was right, that Balin would have the horses secure before Daniel was let out of his cabin. Balin and Lemmel were already on the dock with the horses when Jack came back to the cabin.

"Time to get off this tub," Jack said.

"Okay," Daniel replied eagerly. He was dressed as prim and properly as possible and was just about hopping from foot to foot in his eagerness. Lemmel had dressed him in the usual slut pants and cropped top, but instead of the cursed slippers, he had on his sturdy boots. Drangaskogen's streets were not as smoothly cobbled as Fairwood's. His summer cloak felt reassuring and the gold marks sewn onto his long, summer veil gleamed. Daniel gave Jack his hand and was lead from the cabin.

The great ship was still full of bustling activity. Sailors worked non-stop moving bundles and crates of cargo off onto the dock. The livestock were already gone from the vessel, and a wide path had been cleared from the captain's cabin to the gangplank. Daniel peered around through the thinness of his veil, taking in as many details as he could. The air was briny as it had been at Fairwood but was a little cooler than that southern port. A very mild breeze rustled Daniel's veil; not enough wind to send dampening spray against him, but enough to tug at the cloth and keep it sliding across his face. He'd thought ahead enough to tie it tighter, more in the fashion that Odamari and Ashild wore their veils. Even a strong gust wouldn't reveal his eyes today.

As Jack led him along the deck, Daniel noticed that people seemed for the most part to be enthusiastic about their work. He peered up, taking a moment to study the men high in the ship's rigging, lashing covers over the furled sails. The ship looked like a skeleton now, with spars and lines showing where once unfurled sails had hidden the structure like an animal's hide over bone and muscle.

The air was filled with the creak of lines, the shouts of men working in concert, performing hard manual labor. Sea birds screeched as they dipped and wheeled among the ship's rigging.

Impatiently, Jack tugged him along and Daniel stumbled a step before getting his composure. At the top of the gangplank Daniel paused again, this time to study a harness a man wore which helped him hoist two small casks at one time. The worker swayed slightly as he stepped back, making even more room for the two Highborn.

Going down the ramp, Daniel caught sight of a small gathering at the base; elders, mostly, from the looks of them. Standing to the rear of the group was the man he'd knocked overboard. The surly-looking worker caste was coming very close to having a glare on his face.

"Trouble?" Daniel asked under his breath.

"Don't notice," Jack said. "Balin and Lemmel are at the end of the dock. Let's get ourselves down there. Don't say anything, Da--" Jack stopped himself, though he was whispering. "Beloved-- Desire," he corrected himself. "Don't speak to them."

When they reached the base of the ramp, Jack stepped by the elders as if they didn't exist.

"Highborn," one of the elders meekly called.

Jack's stride never broke. He moved away from the gathered knot and went toward where he knew his men were waiting. "If they want something they can look up my steward, right?"

"Right," Daniel said. "Though, it's about what I did on the ship. I saw the guy who was beating that woman. He must have reported the incident to the port council of elders."

"We're not going to be here long enough for it to make any difference. Just a day to gather some supplies and we're out of here to the northwest. Balin's found us a place to sleep tonight, arranged through the ship's captain apparently. We'll head straight there--"

"I want to see the port first."

"Not gonna happen."

"But Jack--"

"You'll see what you can on the way there, and if they've got a room with a window--"

"You're reining me in, just the way I do Frey when he starts side-stepping. Before he can get the bit in his teeth, I work the reins a bit and he settles down. You're reining me in before I can get control of the bit, aren't you? Placating me with the idea of a window."

Jack seemed stunned into silence. They had reached the two worker caste men who were wearing House Ondeil colors. The men held the lead ropes of the four great Flemish horses. "I don't rein you in. I ... I," Jack pursed his lips and with a wrinkled brow, gazed at Daniel's veiled face. Finally, he shook his head, at a loss for words.

"House?" Balin asked, as unobtrusively as possible.

"The fee's been paid?" Jack asked, not taking his eyes from his lover.

"Aye, master," Lemmel answered slowly, his gaze flicking worriedly from man to man in the small group. "Paid. And the inn, I've sent someone to notify them we come. A fast runner who works the docks. Be there something else I can do for ye, master?"

"Saw that bastard from the boat down there," Jack said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder. "He's got the town council with him."

"Trouble," Balin said darkly. "Best we make for the inn now. Get off the streets and prepare what we need to get done fast. Be gone in the morning."

"Yes," Jack said.

Daniel balked all the way along the short walk to the inn Balin had chosen. Inside he was ushered upstairs to a room, but got the promised window. It was a bay window consisting of three panels of thick glass, angled out from the front of the building. He had a spectacular vista view but the frustration he felt didn't leave his posture. He turned his back on Jack and Lemmel, studying what he could see of the bustling port.

"A meal and a bath," Jack told his steward. "Better yet, just get some buckets of water up here. We're not going to any bathhouse in this town. Gonna get our asses out of here fast."

"Asses," Lemmel echoed with a nod. "Aye, master. Servant girl comes with the water even soon, as ye Champion said it would be needed, the staying in here and not going to a bath house spa."

"Balin's damned quick," Jack said with a wry grin.

A harsh rapping at the door drew Lemmel's attention and Jack dismissed him to see to the arrangements. Then he joined Daniel at the huge window. "We'll keep ourselves inside until we leave in the morning. Understood?"

"Yes, Colonel," Daniel said, his voice cuttingly bitter.

"Don't give me any grief on this. I've got enough as it is."

Immediately, Daniel let his shoulders drop. "I'm sorry," he said softly, but didn't take his eyes off the port below. "But how about supper in the great hall? That shouldn't be a problem."

"I'll see what Balin says when he gets back from the stable. He'll have his ear to the ground."

"Oh, I'd love to see you try to explain that idiom to him. It be not a foss hole, House. It be a way hide and we don't keep our ears to the ground. It makes our necks too vulnerable."

Jack chuckled. Then he left Daniel at the window to see how Lemmel was doing on getting a bath arranged in the room.

The girl who'd been sent up with water was making a sullen face at the young steward. She was older than Asny, frail-boned and hard looking. Lemmel seemed to be getting increasingly frustrated with her. "Warmed, child. My master wants the water warmer. If ye need more hands, then coins a plenty he has. The innkeeper--"

The girl, raggedly dressed and very morose looking was glaring up at Lemmel.

"Speak ye?" Lemmel asked. "I've a need to know if ye understand." After a moment of the child's continued belligerent, silent glare, Lemmel turned to Jack. "I'm fearing this one be not right in the head. She won't work." He blinked in utter bewilderment.

"Not work?" Jack asked. "Well, she's just a kid."

"No work, no food. Any daft fool knows this," Lemmel said. "If she doesn't do her job, then I've ... I've never heard of such. Not in all the wide lands below the great divide. Be this how northern children behave? If so, then who feeds them? My da would have beaten me until I couldn't stand. That, or left me to starve along the trek. Still, master, she stands and stares at me like I've asked her to jump to her death."

"Okay, well," Jack said hesitantly. He studied the sullen girl. "Maybe she's tired. That it, kiddo? You tired? Need a nap or something? They working you too hard here?" he turned back to Lemmel. "Maybe she needs to go home and take a nap."

"Indentured," Lemmel explained to his master. "This one be indentured to the inn. She must work for her place to sleep here. And food. I think, maybe I'll take her down to her master and fetch another to bring water."

Jack followed Lemmel out of the room. Daniel pushed off his veil, letting it hang down his back and got his scribing supplies from his tuc. He began to make a small sketch of the port, noting the locations and approximate distances from points of commerce, dwellings, and routes in and out of the shipping area.

Shortly, Jack and Lemmel returned with two women in tow. The women and Lemmel carried pails of warm water.

"What happened with the young girl?" Daniel asked.

The two worker caste women glanced at him, their faces betraying their surprise.

Quickly, he laid his sketch on the bed and pulled the veil back in place.

"The innkeeper be most sorry, Highborn," Lemmel said hastily, "for any distress the child may have caused. Her presence should have been beneath ye notice."

"Ah. Of course," Daniel acknowledged Lemmel's subtle reminder. The two serving women were not shocked at his lack of a veil, but at his notice of a lowly servant's ill behavior. They'd be so shocked to learn of Asny's status in Jack's household. Best not to even think of talking about that!

Later that evening, Daniel got to go downstairs to the great hall, but only for a quick drink of ale.

He and Jack sat safely in an isolated corner, with Balin in his armor at attention at their backs. The Champion's sullen gaze kept all attention focused pointedly elsewhere. Lemmel took the drinks from the serving wench, not letting anyone near the table.

They'd only been at the table a few minutes, when the sullen girl was shoved into the great hall by the innkeeper. He was haranguing her, ordering her to clean up spills of ale and food from the floor. She angrily complied, glaring at the patrons and other servants while she worked.

"That guy there," Jack said in a harsh whisper. "He's watching the kid like a man watches an animal at an auction."

Daniel nodded his agreement. "I think I heard him offer the innkeeper something in trade for her indenture. Maybe he's got a buyer lined up for her. Someone who needs a combative servant. We'll have to do something about it."

Daniel focused his attention on the man, learning through his eavesdropping that he was a trader named Gruber. The trader was discussing the possibility of selling the girl to a millworks north of here. The other worker caste seated at Gruber's right was Joslin, Gruber's assistant. Joslin heartily agreed that the girl seemed suited for working at the mill and apparently would have some kind of restraint that would prevent her from running away there.

Jack downed the rest of his ale and then led Daniel back to the room. Balin and Lemmel joined them.

"That girl," Daniel said, "we could provide her with some kind of support? Maybe pay off her debt so she could find some work she likes?"

"Not possible," Balin answered. "The child be a thief and has run away before. Her master tires of her problems. He would only consider some way to make her work harder, not less."

"I saw a guy offering to buy her," Jack said. "That big trader named Gruber. If we could just buy her and set her free?"

"You heard that too? I don't think you can just set her free," Daniel objected. "She has to have someone take care of her. Perhaps we could find her a home. Or pay for her to go back to the hall of children."

"They would not take her back. She be a thief," Balin said, "and a runaway, and on the edge of too old for the children's hall. That be not a place for her."

"So, even up here above the divide, children must be responsible?" Lemmel asked. "Good. Nothing ever comes of one who steals or won't work, my ma always says."

"Then in the morning, we'll buy her indentureship from the innkeeper and see what we can do about finding her a place to stay before we leave tomorrow. Find some place for her, people for her to live with," Jack said. Then he glanced guiltily at Daniel. "Okay, I can't stop."

"I hope not, Jack. You're not running toward the edge of a cliff here. You're just trying to save a child."

"Fine. Then I'm going down to tell the innkeeper right now, let him know I'll pay him for the kid in the morning before we leave."

They slept well that night, each man thankful to be in a comfortable bed wide enough to stretch out and with no creaking of a ship to keep them awake.

Jack had breakfast brought up to the room. Balin declined to eat, leaving instead to go walk down to the port's outdoor gathering area where day laborers could find work. It was also a great place to gather gossip, and he wanted to make sure nothing was being said about the strange Sky who'd arrived the day before. Balin's appearance among the workers might help deflect any too-interested parties. He planned to be back within the hour, when Lemmel said the animals would be brushed, fed and saddled.

Lemmel had, at Balin's direction, laid out the suede slippers for Daniel today. No outward signs of independence would be permitted. He wouldn't be leaving town in boots or even in Jack's lap today, if Balin had his way.

After a leisurely breakfast, Jack began to fidget. He left the table and peered out the bay window. "It's taking Balin too long. We need to be on the road."

"Have you arranged for the girl's freedom?" Daniel asked. He joined his lover at the window.

"I'll do that. Maybe I'll duck out and check on Balin. That's the pathway he went down, isn't it?" Jack asked, pointing to a wide cobble-stoned road leading down the sloping hillside toward the docks.

"I think so. About the girl?"

"I won't forget. You be ready when we get back, okay?"

"I will," Daniel promised. As the door closed behind Jack, Daniel packed his scribing supplies into his tuc. Then he took out his imparting cloth and began counting the coins bundled in it. During their year and eight months on this planet Daniel had accumulated a small fortune for Jack. Daniel's imparting cloth held enough to buy passage across several posted lands.

There was a short knocking at the door, and Daniel folded the cloth closed, and then pulled his veil in place. "Come," he called out. It was the two women who'd served him the night before.

"Have ye any need, Highborn?" the taller one asked, curtseying low.

"No. You can take the dishes if you want. Wait, where's the young girl who is supposed to be working in this area?"

"Gone, Highborn," she said. "Indenturement sold to another who feels he can keep her from thieving and running. Impossible task he's set for himself. That one won't stay in one place."

"Who bought her?" Daniel demanded, rising quickly to his feet.

"Old Gruber. The nasty trader from the north. Him, he trades fair, but his cleaning habits ... " the younger serving woman said with obvious distaste. "I'd not want to be that child come bath time. Scrubbing that dirty one?"

"When?" Daniel demanded. "When did he leave with the girl? Where's he staying?"

Having switched his summer veil for the gold embellished, winter one, Daniel held it tight to his head as his suede slippers scuffed on the uneven cobblestone street. His thin, summer cloak whipped around his legs as he hurried along. Jack would be back at the inn shortly but Daniel knew he had little time to make the trade. He had more than forty veil marks as well as a few of the marks and coins that had been in his imparting cloth. The trader would sell the girl for a fraction of what he had. It was just a matter of making the negotiation. He'd get her freedom. She looked so much like Asny, but older, harder.

Getting further information from the two women had been difficult. They'd overstepped the bounds of seemliness speaking so frankly to a Sky when his House wasn't present. Such a terrible change! In the low desert when Jack was still very ill, Daniel had the freedom to speak to whomever he wanted. Granted, there were times that they were too shocked to respond directly to him, instead pretending to be speaking with Jack's unconscious body. But still, he'd been able to exercise that small freedom. Here, in this more civilized part of the continent, seemliness ruled his life with an iron fist.

The side entrance to the courtyard that backed Gruber's squalid, temporary home loomed ahead. Daniel saw Gruber's pack animals loaded and ready to depart Drangaskogen. They were planning to leave today, just as the women at the inn said.

Daniel's timing was critical. Joslin, Gruber's caravan leader, the man who really did the work of the trading business of which Gruber was so proud, was adjusting the straps on one animal's back.

"Hail," Daniel called to Joslin.

"Highborn," the man said, looking very startled. He patted the shaggy white pony and curtseyed to Daniel. "My master waits within. Wish ye to speak with him?"

"Yes," Daniel answered curtly. He stepped around the animals and the man and entered the gate, hearing the man following only a half a step behind. He entered through the rear entrance and made his way along the dark hallway into the great hall of the small inn. Great hall was the wrong label for the tiny inn's main room. The place Gruber stayed was very small, about the size of the little place Jack and he had stayed down in Thorbalstead. There were only two tables, both with rough-hewn benches. The only people in the dark room were Gruber and the girl whose indentured servitude he'd bought that morning.

The ruddy-faced trader sat at one of the tables, the child at his side. She looked frightened and at the same time, angry. Gruber had a grip on her arm and was tying a rope around her neck.

"Master," the caravan leader called. "Ye've someone here to ... "

"Gruber," Daniel said boldly, tilting his head back to see under the veil in the gloomy room. "Having trouble hanging on to what you think you've bought?"

"Ah, little Highborn. Come to make my business ye business?"

With a firm set of his jaw, Daniel sat on the bench across from the repugnant man. "I want to make a bargain. The girl for veil marks."

"A girl child? Ye high and mighty Jack says he needs no girl. Said so to my man just this morning, he did."

"I want the child," Daniel reiterated, ignoring the man's lie.

Gruber's shifty eyes glinted at him. "Sky can't own a girl. Buy her for ye House?"

"Yes," Daniel said, deciding it would be worthless to explain his purposes. He only needed to get the girl's freedom, not make himself understood by the trader.

"Then, aye. I'll bargain. Price be no veil marks, though. I've a different value in mind. Joslin, tea for the guest. We bargain here. Bring my personal box from the pack saddle. Now, ye slacker."

Joslin curtseyed and left quickly.

"State the value," Daniel said. He had to get this done and be back at the inn before Jack returned with Balin. He wasn't going to let them know he'd been out of the room. But he became all too conscious of the weight of the imparting cloth hidden in his hand by the fold of the summer cape. It held only a handful of the coins he'd had that morning. He'd left the majority on the bed at the inn. Gruber would want veil marks, he was sure. Compared to their value the coins were practically nothing. Daniel had only brought them along as incentive.

"I've a value in mind. Ye be a right nice bargainer. However, before the value can be stated, I've a need to see ye not bound by that thing," he said, pointing at Daniel's veil. The girl struggled, trying to escape the brutish man's grasp, but he had a tight hold of her. She didn't stop struggling.

Daniel drew his brows together. This wasn't something he was prepared to do. However, the bastard hadn't asked him to lay out his imparting cloth. He pursed his lips tensely and eyed the man. What harm could it cause, taking off the veil in here? There were no other people present in the tiny establishment and he needed to humor this oaf for a little longer. Daniel laid the imparting cloth beside him on the bench and took off the veil, its gold marks clinking as he laid it on the bench beside him. He regarded Gruber levelly.

"Ah. A sight to behold," Gruber said softly, easily defeating the girl's continued struggles. "I'd bargain with ye for time behind the veil. Not something I could even say with it in place. But now? Here I've gone and said it. Time behind the veil, Sky. Ye with me and for added help, my man to make things go smooth and prosperous."

"Time behind ... You're not talking about an imparting. You're saying you want to fuck me!" Daniel said, and then angrily realized a child was present. He glanced briefly at the struggling girl, and then back at Gruber. "This isn't something to be discussed in front of her." As if he'd ever even consider what the man was proposing!

"She can go out and wait with the rest of my goods. Joslin'll tie her to the post with the rest. Ye'll be quite cozy, won't ye?" he asked, flicking his finger under the girl's chin. She flinched and swatted at him. He tightened the knot in the rope around her neck, and then secured her hands behind her back. "Man has the right to see his indentured servant stays at hand to do her duty. This little vixen had the guts to bite me, Sky. Imagine that."

Joslin returned and set a palm-sized, wooden box on the table and a steaming kettle by it. Gruber opened the box and pulled out a small linen bag. He loosened the drawstring top and smelled the contents. Then he held it out to Daniel.

"Traded for this in the city where the likes of ye come from, I did. Holding onto it these long years. Ever had any, Sky?"

Daniel held his breath as the trader waved the bag beneath his nose. He glared solemnly at Gruber.

"Ach. I forgot, I did. Joslin, take the girl out and tie her with the rest of my goods. That apprentice lad posted to watch for thieves?" Gruber picked up one of the steins on the table and dashed its contents onto the dirty floor.

"Aye," Joslin said, and then grabbed the girl by her bound wrists and the rope around her neck. "Want me out there or ... "

"Here, man. I bargain for ye to have a little taste also of what the goat's hair steeps up in a Sky." Gruber poured some of the steaming water into a dirty stein

"Oh?" Joslin exclaimed in bewilderment. He stumbled as he backed into a wall. Then he scurried out with the child.

"Shall I make the tea for ye, Sky?" he asked, holding the opened bag over the stein of hot water.

"Tea? Is this necessary? I'm in a hurry. I want the young maid back in place before my House returns."

"Aye. The hastier ye be, the more necessary. Maybe more than a pinch," Gruber said as he poured the entire contents of the pouch into the water.

Daniel watched crushed, dried leaves fall into the water. "Tea?" he asked cautiously. Some herbal teas could have a profound effect on people. He knew shamans who had visions after drinking teas. Was Gruber trying to give him some kind of mind-altering drug?

"Tea, Sky. Steeping from the leaves of plants. My da, he used to favor a mint leaf. These folk from the north who have year-round water to spare, they do like their teas. Some make a tea from the white-bark tree. I've had that in the marketplace in the City of the Highborn. Right nice, it was. Though, not as nice as this has to be. Mind sharing a little with me, Sky?" Gruber picked up the stein and took a sip.

"Have more," Daniel said with mock cheerfulness. "But as to what you want to bargain for, I think you'll settle for veil marks. You're a businessman and you understand the value of veil marks."

"Aye. Business has been good of late," Gruber said, pausing to take another, deeper swallow of tea. Then he handed the stein to Daniel.

With his angry glare locked on the trader, Daniel took the stein. He smelled of the brew. Gruber watched him calmly. Daniel knew his anger was getting the best of him. Thinking calmly, even when facing such a bastard, was the only way to deal intelligently. The man had him so angry, though. Then Daniel realized why. He was responding to this man like he was Gunnlaug. There was no similarity in looks or demeanor. Gunnlaug had been tall and gaunt. Gruber was short by worker caste standards, and round faced. It was simply that the man had bought a girl. Daniel swirled the stein around, watching the brew circle in the tall container.

"A sip," Gruber said. "I've had more than my share. Save some for my man, Joslin. He'll want a taste. I share all with Joslin. Keeps him loyal."

"I'll bet it does," Daniel said stiffly. He raised the cup to his lips and took a small sip. The taste was mildly bitter. It would benefit from a sweetener. "Honey," Daniel said. "It could use a little honey. Maybe it should be warmer." He took another sip, but as he was swallowing, his vision suddenly blurred. He lurched forward and Gruber grabbed at the stein to keep it from spilling. The man tipped it higher and Daniel got a mouthful of the liquid. He swallowed the big gulp before it occurred to him to spit it out. Clutching at the table, Daniel coughed hard and long.

"Wrong way down?" Gruber asked. "Still, either way works I suppose. We've a bargain to complete. Girl goes with ye, as property to give to ye House. We get the time behind the veil. Have to do it right quick, though."

"N--" Daniel choked as more of the tea irritated his lungs. He felt something tickling his throat. He'd swallowed some of the crushed leaves. "No," he sputtered amid his coughs. His head felt hot! Breathing was hard because of the tea he'd aspirated. Daniel tugged at the clasp of his cloak, throwing it off onto the ground. He struggled to his feet.

"Now, now," Gruber said as he advanced on Daniel. "I did say hurry, but this be unseemly."

"Seemly enough," Joslin insisted as he came into the room. "None in the place, master. None here, except the old innkeeper out in the kitchen half drunk. No one else about."

"Truly?" Gruber asked. "Then bolt the door. Our trade talk be done. This one loves giving the smile, I know. Seen his Champion, I did. Seen even the steward with the bright blue of a recent Odin's Smile. He'll give it to us." Gruber reached out and steadied Daniel, bringing the stein back to his lips.

A bright swirl of colors washed across Daniel's vision. He saw the stargate open but it was shining in a rainbow of colors, not the watery blue he was used to. He batted at the hands that clutched at him. Who was that? Not Jack. "Teal'c?" he asked. A cup was shoved against his lips. Liquid was poured in his mouth. He swallowed.

"Help things go faster, Sky. Ye being in such a hurry. Suits me too. Joslin, help him off with the pants." Gruber held the smaller man, his strong arms under Daniel's armpits now.

Eagerly, Joslin slid the bolt home on the inn's main door and began jerking Daniel's clothes off. "Truly? He accepted the bargain ye wanted? Odin's smile?"

"Teal'c," Daniel protested. "What's happened?" he asked in goa'uld. "I can't stand up." Heat was flushing down from his head now, engulfing his body. His stomach burned for a moment and then the heat moved lower. He coughed more of the aspirated liquid.

"Fine tool," Gruber said as he squeezed Daniel's cock and balls. "I wager we can drain a lot out of this Sky before he be too spent. Come on, get him on the table. We'll do it here."

"Aye, master!" Joslin said fervently. "Ye going in him first? I get to drink him?" Joslin helped Gruber lay Daniel back on the table, his ass poised at the end and his legs dangling down.

"Ha!" Gruber said. "I drink first. No, I fuck him first. Hold his legs up."

Joslin spared a moment to strip out of his own pants, tugging them off over his boots. He shoved dirty dishes and empty steins to the other end of the table, and then he climbed on the table and knelt, his knees spread on either side of Daniel's face. Then he grabbed Daniel's knees from Gruber and pulled them back. Joslin had to move backward.

"Short, are they not?" Joslin asked. "Skys."

Gruber unlaced his pants and pulled his cock from the gathered material of the gusset. He pumped himself as he watched Joslin get the Sky open for him. "They all be short; Highborns. I'm for doing this little Sky right and deep now. Ye get his knees apart a bit more. I'm for--"

"Ye've no oil to ease ye way in."

"Done a Highborn before, have ye?" Gruber asked gleefully. "Dark eyed ones be as tight as Skys, I'd wager."

A wash of blue color flooded Daniel's vision. "Teal'c!" he called harshly. "What's ... Let me go!" he continued to call out in goa'uld.

"Grease," Joslin said helpfully as he let go of Daniel's left leg to snag a dirty plate by his own ankle. He held it out to Gruber.

"Pig fat? Aye. That'll do," the big trader said as he scooped up the congealed grease and smeared it on his dick. Then he took more and began working it around Daniel's hole. Roughly, he shoved two coated fingers in the man on the table. He pumped them in and out for a moment. "So tight and hot."

"Oh! The Sky be ... Do they all get that?" Joslin asked, pointing at Daniel's growing erection. "And what be that word he shouts?"

"Teal'c! Where's this ... " Daniel reached out, frantically trying to grab onto something. The room was tilting. He felt himself sliding. He gasped in alarm.

"It be the goat's hair. I paid a year's ransom for that little bag. Been keeping it safe for a way long time now. It does that to Skys, guardians say. Makes 'em give the nectar up. Makes 'em grow ready like this one. See? He shouts in lust. Though, I'm not knowing the words he uses."

"I never heard the likes of that talk either. Tealca, he calls. Be this talk from behind the walls of the Forbidden Garden?"

"Hush, Joslin. I'm ready for that heat now. I want it. Hold his legs high. He done gone lost in the lust of the herb." Gruber placed the head of his cock at the greased ring of Daniel's opening and thrust forward. His huge cock, red and shiny with the fat slid in hard. He gritted his teeth and groaned out loudly as his cock sank inch by inch. "Gods! He be tight!"

Daniel cried out harshly as a hot band of metal clenched across his pelvis from hipbone to hipbone. He felt his cock throbbing and felt his nuts almost instantly begin to churn. He hurt! He felt the tightness of a building orgasm. How could this be?

"Oh, he fights to get more in him!" Joslin said as he held onto the struggling man. "Ye be half in him now and ... and look! He fights for me to let go so he can have more of ye."

"Hold on, man. He'll topple from the table. I ... Oh faith of Nirrti! What wonder she wrought in a Sky's body. He feels like nothing else on this planet. Oh, I go in more ... Open, little Sky. Oh, let me get in all ... the ... " he clamped his lips and thrust himself balls-deep into Daniel's body. "Sky!" he shouted. "He's ... come. I feel him ... This be ... He squeezes me!"

Daniel's shoulders came up off the table. He bucked hard, scrabbling at the rough-hewn surface, trying to get his arms out from under the man who held him down. His body was being wracked with an orgasm! He felt his nuts cramping up, shooting, and geysering cum from his cock. He couldn't breathe! His whole body tensed, every muscle becoming like concrete. His head reeled as colors splashed across his vision. His ears were flooded with a roar louder than any jet engine he'd ever heard. There was no more sense of gravity, just of the white pain of the forced orgasm ripping him to shreds.

Suddenly he was limp, lying on a hard surface. Someone was moving him and Daniel tried to reach out, to push them away. He'd bitten his tongue. He tasted blood.

"Again!" Joslin said. "I wasn't ready. I missed--" he cut himself off as he dropped down on Daniel's prone figure and sucked the still-hard rod into his mouth. He slurped and licked at the cum still pumping from Daniel's swollen cock.

"Ahh!" A torturous cry was rent from Daniel's throat. The cry went on and on as the mouth on him kept him stimulated, kept him locked in a renewed wave of that strangling orgasm. "Ja-- Help!" He screamed in English, his consciousness spun around and around. Daniel clutched at the table, breaking his short nails against the wood. He jerked his hands, trying to turn his arms over so he could claw at the source of his pain.

Joslin, focused only on his goal of getting the Sky cum in him, shifted lower, mashing his broad stomach on Daniel's face.

The world came down on Daniel and he couldn't breathe. There was pliant gravity pushing at him. He wrenched his head sideways and got a gasp of air. Then he screamed again.

"Do it," Gruber said with a gasp. He plunged his cock as deeply in the Sky as he could get it, holding himself there. His ass muscles clenched. His calves and thighs clenched, holding himself inside the tight, hot confines. "Oh, this be too incredible. Oh, sweet Sky. Blessed one. Give me another ... There! He grips me again. Oh, Nirrti! I can't see his eyes. Move, dolt!" Gruber pumped himself in and out, but with very short strokes. Finally he could stand no more stimulation and he pulled out.

As the invader left him, Daniel suddenly had a clear thought. He was being fucked against his will. Someone had been fucking him and they were still touching him. And he'd come. "Stop," he begged in English, trying to shove his knees up to get the mouth off him too. A wave of red color flooded his consciousness. He was still coming! It hadn't ended. "Stop! No!"

Joslin scrambled off Daniel and Gruber sluggishly climbed on the table. He held Daniel's legs back, pushing the smaller man's knees down almost to the tabletop by his ears. "Got him, Joslin. Make it fast. He doesn't seem to be feeling well. Maybe I gave him too much."

"Teal'c?" Daniel called into the red fog that engulfed his consciousness, that blinded him. Teal'c was here, wasn't he? The big man over his head was Teal'c, wasn't it? "Help me. I'm hurt--" His own scream tore across his mind as his opening was battered again. The renewal of the same orgasm burned his mind as much as it burned his body.

Thrusting unlubricated in one brutal shove, Joslin buried his cock completely in the stiff Sky. Gruber's cum and the remnants of the melted fat was all that slicked his way. The trader's eyes closed in bliss. "Sweet Nirrti, master Gruber. As ye said ... " Joslin's voice trailed off as he was overcome with lust. "Tight," he gasped out the word, but it was drowned out by the screams of the Sky beneath him.

"Don't tear him," Gruber cautioned loudly, working to be heard over the man beneath him. "Lusty little Sky! He howls in passion, doesn't he? As if he can't wait to give me what he has to offer." Gruber scooted lower, being careful not to let his too-sensitive cock brush the Sky's face. Then Gruber got his mouth down on the hard prize. He sucked viciously.

Orgasm contractions tore through Daniel's body. He couldn't breathe! He couldn't stand the pain that kept flooding his body. Every muscle was contracting now in rhythm with the unending orgasm that was pumping cum from his cock. He was coming, he knew that much. But why? Why, through so much pain? Everything was shuddering now in concert with the cramps in his body. His legs and arms shook. His stomach fluttered and his chest heaved, trying to bring air in. His hipbones felt like they must be touching each other now. His body was squeezing his soul out through his cock and he couldn't do anything to stop it. The cock that was raping him left but he didn't feel the orgasm in him lessen any.

"Master, I'm for another taste of him. He's pulled all my cum out. I've no more."

"I've had my fill. Go ahead. Draw on him if ye wish," Gruber said as he rocked back on his heels, watching his servant bend over the Sky. "I think there be nothing left in the well, though. He be pumping dry. See?"

The heavy world was off him now and Daniel moved his hands to push away the pain. There was soft skin under his hand and Daniel hooked his fingers, digging in and slashing with his jagged, broken nails. He heard a scream, and then the touching was gone from his body.

The red haze faded to blue, and then became paler and paler. The roar of jet engines that had drilled his ears was now fading to the sound of an ocean tide going out. Less and less waves came. The sound was down to a low murmur and his vision was nothing but sweeping vistas of dull, white sand. He felt himself roll down a sand dune, flashes of the sky coming and going, and then he hit the hard rock. But down here, the sky was the same color as the sand. His world was a dull white roar underscored with quivering muscles.

"Forget the Sky's shirt," Gruber said, his voice laced with panic as he knelt over the fucked man who'd fallen to the dirty floor of the Inn. "Just help me get his pants laced. Damn! His head be bleeding from hitting the bench so hard."

"He blinded me!" Joslin whined again. "My eye be ruined. I can't see!"

"Shut up and help me!" Gruber hissed in an urgent tone. "His veil--"

"I'm not for touching that, master! Not a veil!"

"Then use the eye he left ye and go get that damned whore. She can pick it up. Go on ye twice-cursed fool! We can't leave him like this!"

Joslin pulled his own pants on and then, holding a dirty rag against his bloody, empty eye socket, ran through the back of the inn to fetch the girl. He came back, half-dragging the child by the rope around her neck. He cut her hands free and kicked her down on the floor by his kneeling master and the Sky who'd taken half his sight.

"Pick up that veil," Gruber said harshly. "Put it on ye new master's Sky. Him, his House owns ye now."

The terrorized and angry girl got the gold-decorated veil from the bench where Daniel had laid it earlier. She draped it over his head, and then backed away. Joslin snagged her rope and thrust Daniel's imparting cloth into her hands.

Gruber used his own shirt to wipe the gore of Joslin's ruined eye from Daniel's fingers, and then looped one arm around Daniel's chest and pulled him upright. Then he scooped up Daniel's suede slippers, shirt and cloak. The small group hurried out the back where the pack animals waited.

"Wait here until ye House's Sky comes to his senses," Gruber instructed the child. Then he shoved her roughly against the stucco wall and tried to prop Daniel beside her.

"No!" Daniel protested and shoved at the too-big hands on his chest. He leaned back, scrabbling at the solid surface he was propped against. The world kept dipping and swaying beneath his feet. He was back on the ship with Jack again. The sea was too rough.

"Stay with him!" Gruber commanded the girl. He dropped Daniel's clothing in the dirt at the girl's feet.

"What if she runs away before he comes to his senses?" Joslin asked fearfully. "He'll have the right to say we broke the bargain."

"Ye speak true," Gruber said fearfully. "I've an idea." He took the rope's end from his servant and tied it around Daniel's wrist, getting panicked slaps from the delirious Sky, but he got the knot tight.

"Now the bargain be complete, little Highborn," Gruber said, sounding very unsure of himself. He backed away and stared at the two huddled against the wall. "Little Sky? Be ye well?" Gruber bit at his bottom lip, and then took another step away. "Mount up," he said hastily to Joslin. "We best be long gone before his House sees the bargain we struck. Might not like it, and ... I fear he got too much of the herb. He looks ... Mount up, Joslin. We're for leaving this place fast."

Jack strode into the room and instantly knew Daniel was gone. There was a pile of coins on the bed by Daniel's summer veil, but no sign of his lover. "Fucking hell! He went after that kid. Lemmel!" Jack shouted as he snatched up the items and ran back out of the room.

He caught up with his steward in the great hall, settling the final tab with the innkeeper. "Where's the little girl? You sell that kid to someone else?" Jack demanded.

"Gruber offered and ye made no other mention but that ye'd leave soon. It was my right, Highborn, to take what profit was offered," the man said, sounding as if he were trying to cover up his flash of fear with what he hoped was a reasonable defense. "He done took her and gone."

"Lemmel, give him what we owe and get your ass outside. We need to go see if Gruber's left the port yet."

Jack got a leg up from Balin who was more panicked at the news of Daniel's departure than Jack had ever seen him. "You know where he's staying? Get us there quick!" Jack commanded. "Lemmel can catch up. Move it!"

Balin swung up on his mount and moved out as fast as he dared through the narrow, winding streets of the port village. Only moments passed before they turned into the little dead-end alley that led to the run-down dive that Gruber patronized.

Jack whipped his horse ahead of Balin's and then pulled the animal to a sliding stop on the hard-packed dirt. Standing against the whitewashed inn's rear wall was Daniel, his winter veil draped and untied over his entire face and torso. The girl from the inn huddled, shivering at his side. She was frantically working to untie a rope that had been knotted around her neck, jerking at it repeatedly, almost pulling Daniel over with her struggles.

Amid the dirt kicked up by his horse's abrupt halt, Jack leaped to the ground, ignoring the twinges of pain in his knees. He ran to Daniel's side. "What the hell are you doing out here by yourself?" he demanded angrily. He pushed Daniel's veil back. The untied fabric, pulled by the weight of the gold marks sewn on it fluttered to the dirt.

Daniel flinched away, unseeing. He held his hands out to block any attack.

Jack gaped at his lover's bloody mouth and dazed look. His forehead was bleeding. "Daniel?" He laid a hand on his shoulder, feeling the man quaking beneath his touch.

"Teal'c," Daniel cried out. The ocean waves were growing deeper. He could hear the roar building again. He was in the waves. The ship was gone. Jack had gotten angry at him and left his support, only to sink under the waves. Teal'c had to help him find Jack!

The little girl tied to Daniel tugged harder at the rope around her neck, pulling Daniel off balance. He began to collapse and Jack caught him. "Daniel? What happened?" Jack looked down at the little girl who'd succeeded in getting the knot around her neck undone. "Where's Gruber," he demanded of her.

She took a step back and stumbled over Daniel's shoes and his imparting cloth. Then she snatched at the cloth, spilling coins out. She scrambled on her hands and knees, grabbing two fistfuls of coins. Then she rose and darted toward the mouth of the alleyway.

Balin jumped from his saddle and made a grab at the child.

"Leave her!" Jack barked the command. "Help me. I think she must have hit Daniel with something. He's hurt."

The ocean was tossing him about, swamping him, and then throwing him up into the air. Daniel fought to get breaths that weren't full of stinking brine. He could taste the bitterness. It filled his lungs now.

"What evil has passed here?" Balin asked harshly.

"He's bleeding," Jack said. "Daniel? Where are you hurt? Look at me. She must have hit him in the head with a rock or something. He's stunned."

The blue of the ocean began to turn red like blood and Daniel felt his body sinking, felt himself losing consciousness as the ocean swallowed him. He was limp in the bloodstained water. Jack wasn't the one drowning.

"Lift him, Balin," Jack said as he struggled with Daniel's limp weight.

"House, we must not ... The council here must not see him thus. We must go from this place now. Quickly. I heard harsh talk this morning and knew even then we had to leave quickly. Now, and this? So much worse. We must go!"

Lemmel arrived at that moment, bringing the fourth horse on lead. He froze on his mount.

"We go," Balin said to Lemmel. "Turn ye to the out way and prepare. We go as soon as I get the Sky in my saddle.

Suddenly, Daniel was battering at Balin's face. His fists were balled up and he was gasping in angry panic. "Not Teal'c!" The strange jaffa was preventing him from getting Jack from under the waves of the bloodstained ocean.

Balin took Daniel's blows heedlessly and got the rope off his wrist.

"Give him to me," Jack insisted. "Help me get him on my horse. Daniel, it's me, Jack. Stop struggling, Daniel. We have to get you out of here fast," he commanded angrily. "Why the hell did you leave the room?"

"Take Freyfaxi," Balin said. "Double saddle." Balin ignored Daniel's offensive blows and held him under his armpits. He gave Jack one hand to help him mount, and then deftly lifted Daniel to sit sideways across the saddle in Jack's lap. Then the big Champion retrieved Daniel's veil and cloak. He handed the veil to Jack and draped the cloak over Daniel's partially nude body. As an afterthought, he grabbed Daniel's discarded clothing and imparting cloth, and shoved them in the saddlebag of the horse Jack had been riding. Then Balin mounted up and snatched Freyfaxi's reins from the ground.

Jack clutched Daniel tight to him, feeling the man grow slack in his hold. He pulled the veil over Daniel, letting it hide his entire face and partly obscure the supportive grip Jack had on him. As Balin led them from the alley, Jack saw the huge warrior settle himself into a relaxed pose.

"Ease," Balin softly called to Lemmel. "Show ease."

Jack watched as Lemmel's shoulders came down too, as he sat more relaxed in the saddle. Balin nodded. Carefully, Jack tugged Daniel's cloak to cover him completely. Then he worked to get a placid smile on his own face. This was nothing more than a very indulgent House holding his Sky in his lap taking a leisurely ride out of the port. Jack held Daniel's head against his shoulder and tried to take his pulse. It was rapid. Daniel's breathing was also too rapid. The blood from his scalp was beginning to spot the veil, as was the blood from his mouth.

As they left the edge of the village proper and began to pass isolated huts, Jack felt slickness in his saddle seat. Reaching down he touched wetness. He brought his fingertips up to his nose. Cum! Under Daniel, the saddle was becoming slick with cum. He flicked the cloak up and saw the mis-laced pants. He'd been having sex and his ass was wet with cum. A lot of cum. That had to be more than one man. Daniel had bargained for an imparting in exchange for the girl? That was crazy! He had plenty of coins to buy the girl. They'd planned on buying her freedom today. Why would Daniel have gone and traded an imparting for her?

"You let Gruber fuck you?" Jack asked. "Daniel," Jack said between gritted teeth. "Why?" An unexpected pain of betrayal lanced through Jack's heart. "I made sure you had enough coins. I gave you more this morning, damn it."

The ship! He was out of the water and on the ship's deck with Jack again! But the sea was still too rough and Jack was angry at him. They'd never make it to shore in this rough ocean. Suddenly, a spray of sea foam burst over the side of the ship, hitting Daniel full in the face. He gasped amid the bitter, stinging spray. He was going to drown on the deck of the damned ship! He tried to grab the railing as Jack grew angrier at him.

"Stop it, Daniel. Be still,"

Jack's anger hurt! "Oh!" Daniel groaned out, clutching at his stomach. The sea rose up and tossed him across the deck. Jack was turning away from him. Jack was turning his back on him.

"Stop it, Daniel," Jack commanded again. "Just take it easy. We'll get away from the village and then you can get a bath. You stink of--" Jack bit his angry words off. Cum. In all the incredibly horrible weeks of being ill, of watching his lover go off and fuck strangers, Jack had never once said anything like that to Daniel. And today he goes off to save an innocent child and Jack can't keep his angry mouth shut? Bitterly disappointed in himself, he shook his head.

He clung to the ship's railing. Jack hated him. Daniel felt the anger, the hatred. His life was over if Jack left him.

Abruptly, Daniel clutched at his hand. Jack stared down at the grip his lover had on him. Daniel's hold was crushingly tight, as if he were hanging on for his life. He groaned and Jack adjusted his hold, letting Daniel continue to bruise his hand. "Baby, hold onto me. I'm sorry. Danny?"

Another wave rocked the boat, sending it up high on the white crest, then dropping it low into the dip. Daniel felt himself falling hard and smacking abruptly onto the wooden surface of the deck. The air was knocked out of him. His stomach and pelvic muscles contracted hard, clenching his body into a tight ball. The stench of brine warred with the overpowering smell of blood.

"Soon, House," Balin said over his shoulder. "Maybe another two hours of riding and we'll be by a roadhouse. Perhaps take a rest and--"

"A bath," Jack swore angrily. "He needs a bath. Or at least a stream to rinse off the stink of the men he let fuck his--" Again Jack bit his words off. Where was that anger still coming from? All those men Daniel had let use him, it had all been to keep Jack alive. And now, now an innocent child enters the picture and suddenly Jack starts burning with righteous indignation?

Daniel felt another wave coming fast. Jack hated him. Jack pushed him away. The wave hit! It smacked into the bottom of the ship and Daniel felt the blow reverberate through the craft as he lay sprawled belly-down on the hard deck. His stomach rebelled. Jack hated him and turned away from him. He began to vomit, and then lost all conscious thought.

The first heave from Daniel caught Jack by surprise. He'd been holding Daniel reclining against his shoulder and the liquid filled his lover's mouth. He began to choke on his own vomit. " Ho, Frey!" Jack yelled. He tilted Daniel forward over his left leg, holding his lover by his stomach. Daniel, completely unconscious now, coughed and retched harder.

Before Jack was even aware the others had stopped, Balin was at Jack's side, helping him get Daniel off the horse. Balin carried him off the roadway and under a clump of trees. Daniel was still retching. Jack slid from Freyfaxi's back and hurried after Balin. He spread Daniel's now soiled cloak on the grass and Balin laid him on it. Jack pushed Daniel over onto his side as he continued to vomit. His bladder released and Jack smelled the urine that ran from his body. His pants were now soaked in front and in back. He was convulsing.

"Lemmel, bring the mounts and make a shield in case any pass on the road." Balin saw Daniel's veil that had fallen off when they dismounted. He brought it to where the two Highborns were on the ground.

Jack used the corner of Daniel's soiled cloak to wipe at his convulsing lover's mouth. "Get some water, Balin. And tell Lemmel to hang up a tarp over us. We're not going anywhere any time soon. Daniel?"

He woke up but realized the waves were over now. The world had no more blue in it, just tight black. The white was gone and Daniel wondered if it was that way because he couldn't open his eyes. There was no more roaring either. Daniel could feel other sounds battering at his skin but all he could really hear was a hissing sound. Where had Teal'c gone? Had he left with Jack? His body felt like it was on fire. He was retching, he realized. And drowning because Jack hated him now.

Jack laid the back of his hand on Daniel's forehead. "He's burning up. He's got a fever and he's starting to sweat."

The Champion crouched worriedly on the Sky's other side. Then he caught a whiff of the vomit pooling by the man's head. Darting his head lower, Balin sniffed again. Then he put a finger in the fluid and brought it to his nose. "Odin!" he swore nastily. "The goat's hair. They've used the goat's hair herb on him! I know this foul smell."

Daniel was vomiting harder now, expelling very little, but retching so hard his entire body tensed with each effort. His eyes were running as his body strained beyond endurance. He had no connection with conscious thought or reason.

"Herb?" Jack asked. "Goat hair? That stuff Sven talked about. But why? It doesn't work. Why the hell would Daniel agree to use that stuff?" he demanded of the big warrior.

Balin swore again and then ran to the pack animal. "Erect the tent," he ordered Lemmel. "We're far enough from the village boundary stones to camp. Over there," he said as he pointed farther off the path. "Tie the animals between the tent and the road. Stand ye guard and let none approach the House, understood?"

"Will he be all right, Balin?" Lemmel asked, his voice breaking.

"Lad--" Balin broke off, clamping his lips closed. "It ... I will tell ye in a while. Do ye duty, lad." Then he grabbed water and one of the bedrolls from the packs and went back to Daniel and Jack. "We're best a little more away from the road. Yon. And water be no help right now. He'll need to get it out of his body. He must have had more than a sip, and then even a sip, he should have thrown it up right after. Did he not know this? I smell too much on him."

"Goat hair herb," Jack said as he struggled to get Daniel up. "It's a poison of some kind. Let's get him on the bedroll quick. Lemmel," Jack called over his shoulder, "bring me Daniel's scribing supplies and a bowl.

They got Daniel situated on a bedroll a fair distance from the road. Jack pulled all of the charcoal sticks from Daniel's supplies and crushed them in the bowl. Then he mixed in a little water and began to pour the mixture into his lover's mouth. Daniel sputtered and coughed but swallowed the bitter mixture as Jack kept forcing it in him. Balin knelt on the edge of the bedroll, glaring at Jack as if he'd lost his mind.

"This is to absorb the poison in his system, help his body to fend it off. Is there any kind of antidote ... treatment for someone who gets too much of that herb?"

"Nay," Balin answered. "Never heard of a Sky who had more than a little, and him, I saw he threw up a whole leaf of it. That damned trader, Gruber must have given it to him secretly. No Sky would ever willingly take more than a sip. Even that much would render his fluid useless, and no Odin's smile would come of drinking him. I've no idea why they'd give it to him, so much, unless just to feel the orgasm while in him."

"That's disgusting. Daniel wouldn't have agreed to that. He never came. In any bargained imparting he never came. I'd know if he had. He would have told me." Even if he suspected Jack's jealousy would have made him so angry? Yes. Daniel would have told him. "I'd have known."

"Ostergott used it on occasion. It be not known much among worker castes. Very few know of it. Mostly Champions," Balin admitted reluctantly. "Then, none would bother with it because it won't deliver Odin's smile."

"My Sky would never have agreed to it," Jack said more certainly now. "And there's no antidote?"

"Anty dote?"

"Treatment. Medicine to fix the illness."

"Nay. None. More than a sip it be said, may leave a Sky sick for days. Worker caste, it has no effect on us. Just on them."

"He wouldn't have agreed to take something that would make him orgasm," Jack stated firmly. "He wouldn't have betrayed me that way."

"Betrayed?" Balin asked cautiously.

Jack shook his head, refusing to meet Balin's eyes now.

Lemmel worked feverishly to erect the tent around Jack and Daniel, getting Balin's assistance when he pulled the roof tarp taut over the two smaller men. Then the young steward went to the stream nearby and brought more water into the tent. Jack stripped Daniel and began to wash him, cooling his fever with the stream water. He sat on the bedroll holding Daniel as Lemmel and Balin hobbled the horses and built a small cooking fire.

The tent was large enough for all four of them to get inside, but not comfortably. With only the two Highborn inside now, it seemed roomy. It was tall enough for Jack to stand up straight but not for Lemmel or Balin to do the same.

Hours of daylight burned away as Jack held Daniel in his arms. The fever faded quickly. Daniel's breathing and pulse stayed rapid though. He never regained full consciousness, and as darkness fell, Jack became more worried than ever. Had he given him enough charcoal to absorb the poison in his system? If they'd only known about this in the village, they could have induced vomiting then and followed it with charcoal immediately. But Jack feared the jealousy he'd been secretly harboring all this time had blinded him to how ill Daniel was in that damned alley. He'd been angry at Daniel for disobeying him, for not staying locked in his room, imprisoned and dressed in his lewd clothes like a good Sky should be.

Jack groaned at his own idiocy as he cradled Daniel in the heavy darkness of night. Where had all that anger come from? Why hadn't he expressed it when Daniel was prostituting himself to keep Jack alive? Because, he'd known then on some level that Daniel really hadn't had a choice. Back in the desert after his first time of being fucked by Lemmel's father, Daniel had said he chose to do it. But it hadn't been a choice. Daniel had been lying to himself and lying to Jack. He had no choice.

But to go purchase the girl's freedom, he could have used coins. He had a choice then. Be a whore and sell his body, or give up some of the gold coins. Why hadn't Daniel given Gruber coins? Why would he choose to let another man fuck him instead of using the coins Jack gave him? Didn't Daniel know that was why Jack kept pressing coins on him? Having them sewn in his clothes and stuffing them in his imparting cloth so Daniel wouldn't have to come back to him stinking of stranger's cum. Maybe Jack should have told him. Maybe Jack should have put it into words, told Daniel he didn't want him to come to bed stinking like a slut, or more accurately, reeking like the whore that he was.

Daniel always seemed to need to hear emotions stated aloud. He couldn't just let things go unsaid. Oh, he was better at that now than when Jack had first taken him to bed so very long ago. He was more aware of how to read unspoken cues than he had been. But still, maybe Jack should have spelled it out for him.

"Was that what I did wrong, Danny?" he whispered to the unconscious man in his arms. "Should I have told you how much I hated watching you go off and whore yourself out for me? God, I can't use that word to you. It's got to be hurting you. I'm sorry. I've been lying to myself. I've been lying to you. I hate it. I hate what you've done to yourself. And you've been picking up on that hate, haven't you? You've felt it, even though I've been lying and saying it doesn't matter."

He drifted asleep beside Daniel, curled on top of the same bedroll, too afraid to move more than an inch from his lover.

A misty dawn broke in the deep forest, and Jack opened his eyes to see a small, yellow campfire still flickering out the tent opening. The opening faced away from the distant road and toward the stream Lemmel had used yesterday. The world outside was heavy with dew, foggy and vague. Jack saw a couple of the horses milling about in the slice of forest the tent opening afforded him.

He shifted, rising to lean on his elbow and looked down at Daniel. His lover's face was shiny with sweat and he was panting. Jack touched his chest and felt his heartbeat racing. Then he lifted the thin sheet from his body and realized they were both lying on a wet bedroll that smelled of sweat and urine. Daniel was dehydrating fast.

"Lemmel," he called as he began to strip the covers away. "Water. Get me some drinking water and some wet towels."

The steward was there almost instantly, dressed in his unlaced shirt and breeches. He squatted just inside the tent door, his huge bulk filling the opening that had been constructed small, only big enough to accommodate Jack and Daniel easily.

"House," Balin called through the tent side, "how fares he?"

"Not good," Jack answered tersely. "We need to get water in him. He's dehy-- He's too dry inside." Jack took the water skin from Lemmel and squeezed some into Daniel's mouth. He was relieved to see Daniel swallow eagerly. But his lover never opened his eyes. He put more water in him.

"Make a broth," Jack said, "and get me some clean stuff to put under him. He's very ill, Lemmel."

The steward never spoke but nodded his head and ignored his own tears streaming down his face. He moved off to take care of what his master had requested.

Balin stuck his head and shoulders inside, and then slid in sideways, keeping his head down to clear the top of the tent. "A few travelers come by late yesterday, all headed south to the port. We raise a few eyebrows, but none take too much notice. Still, best we put this place behind us as soon as possible. What can be done for him, House?"

"Not much, I'm afraid. His system has to detox on its own."

"Detox. I say that word right?" Balin asked.

"Yes," Jack said distractedly. "He needs to be still and quiet and let his body flush out the toxins. The poison," he added.

"Then we've a need to stay here longer," Bain said resignedly.

"Yeah. We're going to be here a while."

Wordlessly, Balin withdrew.

As Jack labored to keep Daniel as comfortable as possible, he overheard snatches of conversation between his steward and his Champion outside the tent. His mind was too focused on Daniel to decipher and then string together the half-heard conversation, but the jest of things seemed to be how worried Balin was. Jack heard him donning his leather armor. Balin was preparing for battle.

Lemmel brought back Daniel's clothing, cleaned and dried now. Jack had him stack everything on the supplies piled in a corner of the tent. Daniel's gold-embellished veil glinted on the top of the stack, cleaned now of the vomit and blood.

The morning hours dragged by as Jack tended to whatever he could inside the little tent. He ate, shaved, and managed a decent sponge bath for himself and for Daniel. Then the sound of tense voices intruded on his worried state of mind. Elders had arrived from the port village of Drangaskogen.

"This can't be good," Jack said to Daniel's unconscious form.

Angry voices drifted into the tent and Jack listened intently.

"Ye wish to push into House Ondeil business?" Lemmel asked, his voice the only one staying calm.

Balin's deep timber ran in hard behind Lemmel's reasonable tone. "My House rests. His journey be long and it be none of ye affair as to when and where he seeks rest."

An aged voice, strongly inflected with a drawling accent retorted back to Balin. "Drangaskogen looks to what needs seeing. It was said House Ondeil's Sky seemed to be in distress. His actions seemed ... odd, honorable Champion. We wish merely to see that all be well--"

"Wish ye to have what ye do not pay for!" Balin bellowed.

"Nay!" the elder's tone was now showing strength that hadn't been in evidence before. "Nay, Champion. Accuse us not of such vile impropriety. None said the blue must be given. Merely we will speak with him and witness for ourselves he be seemly. Would his House deny such? House Ondeil follows the Nortvegr?"

"Surely." Lemmel again was the only one speaking calmly, reasonably.

Jack thought he heard the faint sing of a blade being drawn.

"Balin!" he called out, keeping the tent flap firmly closed.

"See to ye House, Champion," Lemmel said smartly. "These elders will take their ease in the shade here with me.

Balin slid inside the tent, his visage a mask of barely controlled rage as he came face to face with Jack. "They demand to see the Sky," he whispered harshly, "and I've a feeling I'll need to slaughter the lot. The five elders and them who come in service of the old ones. A bloody mess, House. This place will stink of blood before my sword be through. We'll need to move down the road whether he be well enough to go or not."

"Fuck, no," Jack said harshly, keeping his voice just as low. "Get your ass back out there and tell them ... say that I'm going to allow them to be in the presence of my Sky. Throw in lots of stuff about how pissed off I am and how they had better show him the utmost respect and all that crap. Got it?"

"Ye'll wake him? House, there be no way he might walk out and appear whole. Undoubtedly they've gotten word of what he done, going out for the guttersnipe who ran away. He'll be judged for such foolishness. They might know he risked himself for her. That be grounds for judgment right there alone. A Sky cannot risk himself--"

"I know that. Shut up and follow my orders. Now," Jack snapped. He was used to issuing orders and having them obeyed.

The command tone rang strong in the air, though it had been spoken in a whisper. Balin had no choice but to obey. Every cell in his body would respond unquestionably to such a command. Not because it was issued from a Highborn, but because it was issued with the assuredness and force of a commanding officer, a man who had been in life and death situations, not some pampered Highborn who dealt with battle like it was a hobby or an afternoon's entertainment. Jack was a warrior in his own right, and that bond of warriors rang true between the two men, as strong as any bond could.

"And send in my steward," Jack added forcefully.

Though in his heart he knew it was madness, whatever his House planned, Balin backed from the little tent, his leather-clad shoulders squeezing through the opening. He stood and re-donned his horned helmet and then faced the small gathering of elders, women and men, and their younger male attendants.

Ten men and women in all, he counted. He could easily take out each of the elders with half a stroke of his sword. The handful of young men who'd accompanied them would require a little more work. Each was armed, though pitifully. They moved through the world, girded in the protection of their status. To cut them down would be blasphemy. But to protect the Sky, Balin would readily take on that curse. With the sudden full realization of the lengths he was willing to go to in order to protect the Sky, Balin felt a sickening jolt in his stomach. He loved the Sky. He was already a blasphemer, doomed to an inglorious death.

Perhaps if he struck with the blade straight in the bodies instead of hacking their heads off, there would be less blood stink in the little campsite. That would be best. He'd put the blade straight in the chest. Of course, there'd be more chance for death knells, but sound was easier to tolerate than the stench of carnage and would fade much quicker. Straight in, then. That was his plan.

"Steward," he said calmly, "ye master summons ye."

Lemmel curtseyed to the gathered party and then withdrew into the tent.

Jack thrashed about, struggling out of his boots and pants on the bedroll beside Daniel. Getting naked in the tent wasn't easy.

"Help me get this damned shirt off," he whispered urgently.

"Aye, master," Lemmel said. "Ye've a need for them to see ye naked?"

"No. Get me," Jack paused as he shucked his underwear, "those," he finished, pointing at the stack of Daniel's clothing. "Slut-wear," he said. "Show me how to do that loop thing."

He stood and got the little pouch up his hips, noticing that it was looser on him. His hips were narrower than Daniel's. Why hadn't he ever noticed that before? He'd worn Daniel's underwear before, but what Daniel wore on Earth was nothing like this! They fit like a jock strap. No ass. Just straps pulling the pouch down between his legs. His dick and balls flopped around. "Gotta pull this thing for me, Lemmel. I can't ... " He moved his hands back as Lemmel knelt in front of him. The steward expertly manipulated his genitals into the pouch of fabric, and then carefully tightened the ribbon woven around the edge of the pouch to bind him into the sling.

"Crap," Jack swore. "That hurts sort of. Kind of. I better be careful how I walk. Damn, how does he sit in these? Or ride a horse. Crap."

"Ye may not wear these, master," Lemmel said, his face solemn. "Such a thing be beyond wrong, but if ye must, first the hair here goes away."

"Oh, fuck," Jack swore as Lemmel pulled the underwear down again. The steward quickly brought out Jack's blade that he'd used earlier, and gave him a quick, but careful dry shave of the top of his groin. He also took off the little trail of hair that ran up to Jack's navel. Then Jack helped as Lemmel got the underwear back up and retied the loop.

"Give me the pants," Jack directed, pointing to the stack behind Lemmel. As the steward held them open for him, Jack stepped into them, mis-stepping and getting one foot through the slit that ran from ankle to hip. He held onto Lemmel's shoulders and got them on right. They were tight around his ankles, and the waistband came up just above the base of his cock. He twisted around trying to see his ass. The top half of his crack was exposed. Though the pants were looser on him than on Daniel, they still revealed way too much of his ass, just like they did on Daniel. Lemmel was lacing the groin and pulled the pants tight until they hugged Jack's hips like a second skin.

Jack ran his hands down the fabric, feeling it cling to his genitals and the lower curve of his ass. They left nothing to the imagination. He raised one foot and realized the pant legs would split open with each step. He'd be more naked moving than when he held still. As he was inspecting his nakedness, Lemmel brought him Daniel's shirt.

"Ye must keep arms down as I have not taken ye hair from under them, as I do for ye Sky."

"His armpit hair? Hell," Jack swore. "I hadn't noticed. In all this time I hadn't noticed you've been shaving his pits too? Crap. Still, he didn't have much there anyway."

"As I did learn to do in the castle of Wulfstag, the proper caring for the body that be Sky. I take the hair from where none be needed, master."

"Since Sven's place?" Jack said, not needing an answer. Daniel had been putting up with that since Sven's, having his armpits shaved in addition to his groin.

He slipped his arms into the short band of fabric and settled the narrow shoulder straps in place. The cropped top hung down to the middle of the dark circles of his areolas. His entire stomach and half his chest was exposed. He was naked and hairless all the way down to the top of his dick. His ass was sticking out in the air and the only thing keeping the pants up on him was the protrusion of his genitals. This was definitely not the way to dress to go face a diplomatic disaster.

Lemmel was touching his foot and Jack looked down to see his steward trying to get him to step into Daniel's suede slippers. He cooperated and stepped into them, thankful that his feet were very close to the size of Daniel's. The shoes would stay on okay.

"And the veil," Jack said. He watched as Lemmel hesitated a moment his fingers above the satiny, white fabric. "Hurry. I think Balin's probably at the end of his rope."

"Sword, master. Probably at the blunt end of it, aye." Lemmel picked up the veil and then stood. He brought it up over Jack's head and draped it, letting the front edge trail along the Highborn's cheeks, slightly lower than Daniel wore it, more the length that Odamari and Ashild wore theirs. Then Lemmel brought the side edges down, crossing them in front and effectively hiding all of Jack's short hair. He pulled the folds out so the veil hung loose and flowing about Jack's shoulders hiding the fact that his hair was cut to the nape of his neck. "We did knot it very securely, master."

"Highborn, kiddo. You're going to have to lead me out there and you've got to pretend very well that I'm Danny, okay? Can you do that?"

"I shall know with all my heart that ye are indeed. He lives in ye heart, as ye live in his, so saying, ye are one and the same as true love be. As I am with my Balin."

"One and the same," Jack echoed the profound words softly. "I never thought of it that way."

"Highborn," Lemmel said with a nod. "Cloak?"

"No. Skip it. I'll let them see the slutty pants and my ass sticking out. Make 'em know for sure in whatever way we can, short of me coming up with blue contact lenses."

"Con ... "

"Never mind, kid. Let's do this thing. You get out there and tell them your master's too tired to chat but says his Sky is just fine, thank you for asking."

"Seemly, Highborn. As if without my hand, ye are incapable of taking a step," Lemmel cautioned him.

"Hell," Jack swore, but nodded. He stuck his hand out in the air and Lemmel took it, turning it palm down, and then laying it on his own hand. "This is ... Oh, crap. Let's do it before I chicken out."

Lemmel crouched, backing out of the small opening, and Jack had to crouch slightly too to make sure the veil didn't brush along the edge and be pulled back to reveal his dark eyes. The silver hair wouldn't be that much of a problem, he'd come to realize when Daniel told him how Garan looked under the veil. An older Sky with gray hair was to be expected. But no one out there better get a glimpse of his eyes or they were all in for a bloodbath.

He stepped out, keeping his hand dominantly over Lemmel's and walked in tight formation with the younger man a couple of yards toward Balin. The huge warrior gaped at Jack, his eyes open wide.

Jack was distracted with the way his vision was obscured. If he concentrated he could see details through the sheer fabric, but everything was foggy, washed over by a white, hazy brilliance. Then he bowed his head, getting the front of the veil in shadow, and he could see clearer. Had Daniel learned that trick? Yes. Obviously, he had. He bowed his head a lot, or turned or tilted his head frequently. Jack had noticed that about his lover's posture. Daniel had found ways to cope with the obscured vision well enough to ride a horse and to run through crowded village streets. Though, the latter behavior certainly wasn't something to be desired.

But the feeling of having one of his senses so limited was daunting. How isolated Daniel must feel! To be so bound and separated from the world around him? Jack's step faltered. He quickly recovered his composure and stood at attention at Balin's side. Then Jack checked his posture. He was too stiff. He let his arm drape more softly as he held Lemmel in place. He tried to copy how he'd seen Daniel stand. He needed to be composed, to appear ... What? Withdrawn. It wasn't merely that the world and all the people were shrouded away from Daniel, but also that Daniel had been withdrawing from the world. Jack brought his feet together, and his other arm tight against his side. He bowed his head a little more and checked himself again.

Cowed. Was that how he looked now? Like Daniel? Like the world around him had defeated him? That thought made his skin crawl. He straightened his spine but he still felt just as cowed. To carry that weight and the weight of Jack's long illness must be almost unbearable. And yet, Daniel had risked himself this morning to save a child he didn't even know.

Jack noticed that Balin's hand rested heavily on the hilt of his great sword. He wanted to shake his head at the man, to order him at ease but he couldn't. He couldn't do anything other than stand there and be gawked at as a sexual object.

For a fleeting moment, Jack thought that this should be an ego boost for him. At his age to be considered a sex object? Oh, sure. For Danny boy to be considered a sex object should be no big deal. After all it happened all the time. On base, off base any time they were out in Colorado Springs. On other planets ... hell, even in Washington D. C. that time they all took that trip with George? Daniel got stares from women and men alike, and even a couple of phone numbers shoved in his hands. Daniel was gorgeous. His balanced features, his broad mouth, perfect teeth, his tight abs and broad shoulders ... He had a pert butt and the nicest bulge in his crotch. And those blue eyes of his ... Jack frowned at the elders.

He had to get Daniel off this planet. And then he'd have to find some way to start apologizing for his lack of understanding. That was going to be one hell of a long apology.

The elders were satisfied with the seemly posture, the demure appearance of a Sky who so obviously was unable to even walk without being led by his House's steward. The steward gave them permission to leave, not thanking them as Jack had suggested. Lemmel knew the right words to use, and he used them. The immediate danger passed.

Chapter 29 Revelations

For three days, Balin's sword managed to stay blood-free as House Ondeil camped in the forest under cloudy skies near Drangaskogen. They'd made their campsite close to the stream, down a small rise from the roadway. The tall trees of the forest they were in had trunks so wide it would take several worker caste men holding hands to encircle just one of them. Their leaves grew so thick that the canopy they created cast a dark pall on the forest floor and all around the campsite. The branches more than spanned the small stream nearby and created a green archway over the stretch of road near them.

Jack spent every moment of gloomy daylight in the tent, aware that anyone passing who saw a dark eyed Highborn about might report his recovered health to the council of elders there and they'd be back to question him. He could pretend to be Daniel hiding under a veil but Daniel couldn't pretend to be him, couldn't pretend to be a free man on this planet.

Any closer scrutiny of their little group would put Daniel in more danger.

On their third night camping in the deep forest, Jack was as he'd been every night, sitting in the dismal tent by Daniel's side, wiping his sweating brow with a cool, damp cloth. He smoothed Daniel's long hair back, studying his flushed features. In the dim candlelight, he could see Daniel's closed lids move as his eyes jerked rapidly from side to side. He wasn't in REM sleep though. He was delirious. His breathing was still rapid. His lips, still slightly stained from the charcoal, had taken on a dry, cracked look.

"Not ... cold sea ... " Daniel murmured in English. Disjointed words had come from him all day, most in English and a few in Dutch.

"Master?" Lemmel called through the closed tent flap. "Be time for evening meal. Ye Champion says darkness secures the campsite if ye wish to emerge."

"Yeah," Jack answered, reluctant to leave Daniel. He'd begun to speak more and more in the past hour. Maybe he was rising toward consciousness. Jack wanted to be there when Daniel finally opened his blue eyes, but he knew he needed a break or he'd not be as attentive as he should during the night hours. "Come on in, kid," he told Lemmel. "You keep an eye on him for a while and I'll go stretch my legs."

"Stretch them under the veil? As Balin says, darkness hides much, but still, some might pass by and a wandering eye ... Why would ye need ye legs stretched? Wish to be as tall as we?"

"It's just an expression. Northern far reaches expression." Jack plucked Daniel's veil from the heap he'd left it in on the tent floor, and straightened Daniel's little cropped top across his own chest. The hem irritated his sensitive nipples, catching on the tiny, hard nubs when Jack sat up straight.

"Aye, and this one was unseemly for asking. Still, no lashes for my back this night. My shame, master. This one takes liberties in his speech. I beg forgiveness." Lemmel crawled further in the tent and handed Jack the summer cloak that belonged to the ill Sky.

"Forget it. We're all on edge. You watch him, Lemmel. Get some more water in him if possible. His lips are still too dry."

"Aye. Beautiful lips," Lemmel said softly as he peered down at Daniel's restless form.

Jack caught his slippered foot on the cloak's hem as he crouched and shuffled from the dark tent. Irritated, he tugged the tangling cloth aside and got to his feet in a very ungraceful move. A little late, Balin grabbed at his elbow to help him stand up straight.

"A broth be keeping warm on the coals, House--Highborn. Ye steward prepared a fine long-ear roasted on a spit with onion flavoring and a honey glaze. We've ale, though not warm or cold.

"Fine." Jack walked across the spongy grass-covered ground to the small fire ring. Ahead, he could make out the sparkle of starlight on the small river. To his left, he heard the horses nickering, tied in a simple rope corral Balin had constructed between four tall trees. Behind him on the other side of the tent and up a small rise, was the road they'd traveled on, not far enough on, from the port of Drangaskogen.

In the evenings, when the wind shifted to blow from the port inland, Jack could smell the briny scent of salt water.

Jack sat on a thick fallen branch by the glowing coals. In keeping with the huge size of the trees around him, this mere branch was a good twelve inches in diameter. Daniel's troublesome veil obscured the dark forest around him too much, just as it had every time he'd emerged from the tent for the past three days. He'd never see an enemy coming at him like this. If anyone snuck up on the campsite the rustling of the veil would do an excellent job of masking their small sounds until it was too late. And if they got close enough to strike? The damned cloak covering his half-naked body would most likely trip him.

"Great. Just great," he said in complete disgust. Normally when Jack wore a cloak he'd have the freedom to fold the front edges back over his shoulders, letting it drape down his back like a cape. It stayed out of his way. But Daniel always kept his own cloak wrapped around his body, obviously trying to hide the flesh not covered by the slut-wear that now inadequately covered Jack's body.

He stood and tugged at the slit pant legs, trying to get more of the material around the front of his thighs. Every time he sat they gaped open, making him naked from hip to ankle. Lemmel had reshaved the slight stubble of groin hairs this morning. The young steward had taken off all the rest of Jack's groin hair, completely denuding his scrotum and hairs along the inner thighs at the base of his buttocks so at least the genital bondage underwear was no longer pulling out his pubic hair by the root. Jack was thankful for the respite from that pain, but knew he'd have a different kind of discomfort once he started letting the hair grow back.

As he stretched his back, the cropped top rode up over his nipples, the hem catching on the hard bumps. He winced at the irritation.

Sometimes in bed Daniel used to play with Jack's nipples, making them sensitive to the point of discomfort. Briefly, Jack wondered if he'd ever enjoy that kind of play with his lover again. Would he ever get aroused again from the sweet sensation of Daniel's tongue laving across his chest, of those full lips caressing his nipples and Daniel's gentle sucking?

He twisted around, glancing over his shoulder toward the tent where Daniel lay.

"How fares the Sky now?" Balin asked softly as he crouched by the fire to fetch Jack's meal.

"He's still out of it. I mean he's not conscious, but I think he's improving. I think most of the drug has left his system. Sweated out or ... But I think he's improving." Jack sat cross-legged on the ground and took the offered food. He leaned his back against the fallen log.

"Speaks he again in the secret tongue? None must hear this. If any approach the camp to hear him speak so, with ye out here they'd know right quick we played a falsehood on them and that it was a Sky in the tent and not out here under the veil." Balin scooted back a bit, getting more comfortable.

"He does speak the strange words," Lemmel said agreeably. He had crawled from the tent, an empty water bladder in his hand. "Need more water. And aye, again he speaks the strange words as he did in the low desert. Remember master-- Highborn?" Lemmel said, carrying on the subterfuge, though none seemed close enough to hear. "Back when we found ye wandering there? Ye and him too. Both would speak together using the strange words."

"Both?" Balin asked, startled so much that he jerked to his feet. "The tongue of the Forbidden Garden? This be blasphemy beyond enduring! Ye hide in his clothes, a blasphemy worthy of instant death, and ye destroy my heart that I have complicity in such an action. But for him to teach ye the tongue used only by they who dwell in Nirrti's grace be ... I cannot abide it. I've ... I've reached the end." Balin shook his head, completely forgetting the possibility that their campsite might be under observation. A look of utter devastation marred his features.

"Dear Odin, I've reached the end. I cannot abide this, House. I must put ye to death. Or ... or myself. I cannot kill him by taking him for judgment. I love him and that be my greatest sin. My greatest sin! How can I now gain entrance to Valhalla? There be no honor left in me that I would bear to allow this blasphemy to continue for another breath." Balin wrapped his hand around his sword hilt. "The Forbidden Garden! Ye defile even its secrets!" Again he shook his big head, his unbraided, shaggy hair shaking around his shoulders.

"Hold!" Lemmel snarled harshly. He threw down the empty water container and jerked himself to his full, towering height. "Ye hold that tongue. Ye allow mind-numb belief in Nirrti's ways to blind ye to the goodness in this man?" he demanded, pointing down at Jack's seated figure.

With his breathing rapid, Jack pushed the veil back and studied Balin, judging how far the man's reach would be if he extracted that huge blade. Slowly, he sat the plate of food on the ground at his side.

"Blind! Damned whelp," Balin swore at his lover. "I've conspired with this blasphemy from the day I met him. And now, now I find the both of them have wronged the goddess more than ever--"

"By speaking another language?" Jack challenged the warrior who loomed over him. "By my speaking some language only Skys are supposed to know? We spoke in English."

"That be not the name for it," Balin responded in just as challenging a tone. "I know what it be called. Do ye think to fool me even now? Even again, as I've let ye fool me in the past? Me turning a blind eye--"

"What language are you talking about?" Jack demanded. He thought about rising to his feet, meeting the man as he would any opponent, on as equal a footing as possible. But even if he got to his feet he'd still be absurdly shorter than the big-boned Champion. The best possible strategy was to remain seated, keep himself from appearing challenging, though in truth he was challenging Balin.

"The language of the gods," Balin hissed down at him, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper.

If anyone had been nearby, they'd have heard Balin's earlier shouts. It was probably too late for him to start whispering now, but something must have gotten through to the rattled Champion that he was endangering those under his care by his very loss of control.

"Balin," Lemmel said, his voice taking on the hard-edged timber of his father, a man who dealt in life and death struggles daily. "Ye've taken much on this road following our beloved Sky to his home. Ye know him as no mere man should. And yet also ye know our Highborn Jack, my master, and ye House as no Champion should. He's not got evil in his heart. He's not got wrong ways in him. Simply, Balin, he doesn't. This ye've seen, and this ye've known and aye, it has indeed torn ye heart to step so off the seemly path. I know it has. Follow him now. Listen to him." With this proclamation, Lemmel squatted beside Jack and looked up at his lover, waiting placidly.

Jack's heart was still pounding in his chest as he waited for the muscular Champion to make up his mind. Lemmel had taken on a very relaxed posture and Jack was feeling a growing sense of awe at the young man Daniel had adopted as a brother.

Finally, Balin sat down. "I cannot abide it," he said sorrowfully. "I cannot." He shook his bowed head.

Carefully, Jack considered his next course of action. It was too late to try to cook up a lie, or distract the big man with something. So, he'd have to lay it all out for him and find out if Balin was made of as stern a cloth as Lemmel seemed to be. He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders.

"When Lemmel's family found us in the low desert, Daniel tried to explain where we came from. Lars thought he was making things up, telling a children's tale. He told us that such nonsense was ... well, I guess he meant unseemly. Anyway we, or rather, Daniel, Daniel realized right off that we had to keep our story a secret, make up some kind of lie just to get along in this world.

"Balin, we're not from here. We're not from this planet, this world. The language Daniel was speaking is the language of our world. It's not breaking any religious rules for me to speak it too. Back home, everyone does. At least, all the folks around where we live. Daniel actually speaks many languages. A ridiculous amount of languages. It's his special skill. One of his many skills."

"Pah!" Balin swore, shaking his head slowly.

"We came here in a spaceship ... a ship that flies from world to world, and that ship crashed in the desert. I had been poisoned. Daniel carried me across the desert to Lars' caravan. From there, we've been working our way northward to the city. There's a device in the city. Least, we hope it's there. And it's a way for us to get back to our home."

"Another world? Speak no more of this insanity."

"What world?" Lemmel asked. "I remember the tale ye Sky spoke in the low desert, master."

"Well, it's actually your planet of origin. I mean, you all came from it too. Before Nirrti kind of mixed up your genes, that is." Jack shrugged. "We come from Earth. Uh, actually I think you'd call it Midgard."

"From Midgard?" Balin asked, his eyes wide with wonder now. "Odin! It cannot be! He comes from Midgard to herald the change? He be the new way? But nay! The chosen one would come from thin air and appear through the ring, not from the sky! The promise says the one who deciphers the secret and opens the Sky portal will be the one to bring us into the time of perfection. He will be the one sent by Odin. Not ... not Nirrti. This be a promise that can only be fulfilled when we have grown past the stage of childhood. We must prove our worth. We have not proven it! This be false. Be he insane? Have I fallen in league with a Sky who truly needs to be judged? They are so frail," he said, his voice now cracking with pain.

"Hold on," Jack said. "Let me try to explain this. If Daniel were awake he could do a hell of a lot better job of this. I'm probably using the wrong terms. Okay, I know Midgard is the right word. I remember his report. He used that word with Gariwin's when we went to Cimmeria. Midgard is the ancient home of all Vikings, right?"

"Aye," Lemmel said. "Ye use that word the right way, master."

"Ye weave a mad tale," Balin said sternly, but he stayed seated. "None be still alive there. Lemmel's da had the right of it if he told ye no other worlds exist. None do. Not even Midgard now."

"Okay so give me a minute to make sense of this. I'm telling you the truth. We came here from Midgard. We're not any prophecy, not gods or anything like that. We're just humans, like you were before Nirrti messed around with your genes."

"Ye say a wrong thing. The goddess Nirrti blessed us with strength and--"

"Okay, I'm not disputing that, Balin. I'm just using the wrong term. Sorry. But we did come here from Midgard. And we just want to go back there. The only way to do that is to go to the city and step through the stargate. The ring of Odin."

"To step through one must partake of a bonding ceremony and even then, House, it will not send ye to Midgard. Ye step through only to be bonded and in the other half of the temple. That be all it does. Like stepping across any line or up a stair or ... It be a symbol only, for those of us who are on this world. Not magic."

"You've been through it?" Jack asked, noting that Balin had addressed him in the respectful title of House again.

"Nay," Balin said. "It be in the center of Nirrti's temple. It be as close as any man can get to the Forbidden Garden, but nay, I have not gone witness to any bonding ceremony nor to see any Sky earn his circle of freedom. A mere Champion stepped through? Know ye not even this? So many things ye should know and ye do not. Sickness, I had believed. Sometimes it leaves a Highborn weak in the head. So thus I believed. But the Sky for him to be so unseemly I had thought it was due to having to be all for ye. Steward, servant. Indentured, even that, he was to ye when first ye came to Brooksmeet.

"That night, the first when ye stepped through the doorway into the Ram's Head I saw him act as ye indentured servant and then as ye steward and the poor, backwards fools there they saw Skys so seldom that it was easy to accept, ye being so ill and all. But me, I knew the wrongness of his actions. I knew he should have laid out an imparting cloth and bought for ye servants to do all that. Him, he should have been on his back, not on his feet fetching and carrying. It was so unseemly."

"On his back ... " Jack echoed the big man's words, his brow furrowed in distaste.

"Aye. He should have lain with the moneyed merchants and tradesmen each night to gain ye what was needed. A servant to feed ye night and day. A slave to wash ye backside. And instead he does these things himself. And fool I, I admired him for it. I watched his craftiness and saw his strength and damned me from Valhalla, I fell in love with him for that strength. When he bested the cursed master miner, my fate was sealed."

"Mine was sealed when I carried him in the low desert as he wept for his beloved," Lemmel whispered, his eyes clouded with a far-away look. "I wanted to know a love that strong. I wanted to feel that for a man and know someone might weep for the loss of simply touching me. Oh," he sobbed out the sad sound.

Silent now, Jack wrapped the cloak tighter around his torso.

"Ye have it, young Lemmel. Ye have that. I would weep if ever I could not touch ye at will. I have been happier in service to House Ondeil, with ye at my side, than ever I have been despite the terrible sin I have endured. Happier than all my adventuring days as a Champion far and wide across this great world."

Lemmel sniffed and smiled at his lover as the Champion leaned forward and wiped tears from the younger man's cheeks.

"Look, guys," Jack began and then paused to gauge his words carefully, "I appreciate what you both have done. I know this hasn't been easy on either one of you. I'm sorry that Dan—the Sky and I have sort of lied to you. We've lied about who we are and where we came from. We've also lied about why we need to get to the City of the Highborn. But you know the truth now. We just want to get home."

"I have come north with ye with the understanding we were seeing ye to safe lands, some place where he be free to live as unseemly as he wishes. That still holds true? Will he be safe on Midgard?"

"So you've come to accept my story as true?" Jack asked the big Champion.

"Nay. Because if it be, if truly he has come from Midgard then the promise be false. The one who comes to bring us to the time of perfection must--" He stopped, shaking his head and then he gestured at Lemmel. "Withdraw, lad. Go tend him as ye should. What I have to say be not for any ears that won't die after hearing them."

"Ye would kill my master?" Lemmel asked, his voice choked with tears again.

"Be gone, lad. It be for him to decide. Be gone."

After Lemmel had fetched water and crawled back inside the tent, Balin continued. "If the Sky truly be from Midgard then Odin's promise be false. The one who was prophesied as coming to bring us into the time of perfection will decipher the ring of Odin. He must be the one who unlocks the path when no other can. Ye have said that in the world ye come from many travel by way of the ring?"

"Yeah, lots of us do. Daniel figured out the code, figured out how to use the symbols, that they were actually addresses. Actually, it's true that he's the one who unlocked the gate on Midgard when he deciphered the code, the language of the ancients who built the gate."

Balin's mouth gaped open.

Looking at the big man's expression, Jack decided he'd confused him too much. "The gate, that's what we call the ring," he explained.

"The Sky opened the way to travel through the ring? Gate?" Balin asked in a whisper. He shook his head, and then began to glare at Jack again. "Ye use the promise to trick me."

"What promise?" Jack asked insistently. "What is this prophecy?"

"Odin's promise," the Champion explained, never taking his eyes from Jack. "It be older than Nirrti herself, and even her guardians have tried to erase it from our world. It be whispered about that they say it lessens her power over us. Odin said some day we would grow up; be children no longer. Then we would be wise enough to reach him without dying first. We'd be able to use the altar that opens the way to Odin. In the hall of Champions, this truth be still guarded, the altar be kept hidden by Champions, right under the witch's noses. The secret be passed down from Champion to Champion, and held as our most sacred duty. Some day it will be Odin's chosen one who will appear through the ring or if he chooses, from among our own charges. This one will lead us to the ring's altar and open the way. On that day Odin's blessing will be ours and we will no longer need to live separate as Nirrti decreed. We will be once again blessed by Odin himself."

"Like the Knights Templar," Jack mused. "A secret society set up to protect a holy grail. Well, back on Cimmeria, Thor had set up a hall, a place with a puzzle he and Carter had to solve in order to prove the Vikings had matured enough ... Well, that fits. Damn, he's the one who needs to be hearing this," Jack said as he looked at the tent again.

"How did ye learn of the promise? We Champions guard it with our very lives. None else know of it. Except now apparently, ye. On my honor I would be bound to kill ye both now, if the Sky truly also knows this promise. It was never something we thought might happen, that any outside the Champion's hall would learn it again after Nirrti wiped knowledge of it from the land. We kept it and shielded it even from her temple guardians so that all but those in the hall of Champions forgot it. How did ye learn it?"

"I didn't," Jack said, keeping his tone calm. "I don't know any damned thing about Odin's promise on this world."

"And now ye dare to blaspheme and tell me the Sky be the one. Ye dare to try and trick me, say he be the one who opened the ring on Midgard and has come to bring us all into the time of perfection. He would free all and make us all equals, even Skys and worker castes as equals. We would all have Odin's blessing--"

"That like Odin's smile? This blessing?"

"Nay. Ye toy with me again. His blessing be the freedom to be new, free men. We could again walk in his temple and step on a magical road to travel to the homes of Thor, Freyja and Loki. This comes after Ragnarok, after Odin dies and lives in Valhalla as a Champion. That be the great lie of Nirrti. Her priests insist that Ragnarok will never come if simply she be worshiped. We know this to be a lie, that Ragnarok was coming and thus Odin brought a handful of humans here to keep us safe through that terrible battle. We know that our way of life on Midgard, our gods were to be destroyed during Ragnarok, leaving two humans alive to start a new race of men and a new generation of gods. These two will create a race that can travel on Odin's path across the heavens. Only then will there be other worlds for men to come from."

"Well, I can go along with that," Jack said thoughtfully. "Kind of. I mean, if every one here learns the truth about Thor and Odin and all the rest, learns the truth about the Asgard--"

"Asgard be the home of the gods."

"Uh. Sorta. But the day everyone learns the truth about the Asgard, then the old generation of gods would be dead, and a new generation would be born. Maybe we should just table this discussion until Daniel is better. That agreeable to you?"

"That I should not kill ye, that be agreeable to me. I would wish to not kill ye. If possible, I would rather avoid killing ye, House. I would rather ... rather it would be best for me if ye were only and merely unseemly, and not a blasphemer."

"That blaspheming part. That's something Nirrti brought to this culture. It doesn't come from Odin or Thor. That's not a part of this original culture. Your culture teaches you to question, to never have blind obedience," Jack argued.

"Odin does favor the strong of mind and body," Balin said reluctantly.

"Following the Nortvegr, is that a Nirrti thing or an Odin thing?"

"Said in such a strange way, I do not like hearing it. But, yes, an Odin ... thing. The Allfather teaches us this, to follow the ways of our people and be strong. Nirrti came to us with Odin's blessing, and brought many wonderful changes into the life here. Her changes made it easier for us to follow the Nortvegr."

"I'd like to debate you on that, but this isn't the time," Jack said resolutely. He picked up his plate of food and calmly began to eat as if his life hadn't been inches away from ending at the tip of Balin's sword just moments ago.

"Not the right time. Aye. I will keep the calmer head that my Lemmel wishes me to have. Ach! That lad be good for me. I never realized it before. I learn from him as much as he learns from me. I feel shame for not having seen that before."

"Let it go," Jack said between bites of roasted meat. "Why don't you go tell him things are all okay out here. Tell him I'll be in after I finish this and take a leak."

"Leak. Aye. Leak ye not out of the firelight unless I am at ye back to guard."

"Yeah," Jack said, absently waving his hand to dismiss the big Champion. "G'wan."

"Aye ... House. And ... my apologies."

"Yeah. We'll talk more after Daniel wakes. I owe you an apology for the little lie I've been weaving. I won't even suggest to you that my Sky owes you one too. I don't need you collapsing from a heart attack." Not yet, anyway, he added silently.

As the big man left, Jack studied his back, no longer disguising the anger he felt. His life had been threatened. Daniel's existence too, because Balin would have hauled him off to a damned judgment after he hacked Jack's head off. Sure, they'd lied to the big man, used him, betrayed his religious beliefs, and for all that Jack felt bad. But he wasn't able to dismiss the threat. He was pissed off at the warrior. Pissed off as hell. It'd be damned hard to kill Balin even in an unfair fight.

Jack stayed out by the campfire, while the clicking insects and night-birds filled the darkness with their sounds. He was fully aware that Balin was sitting behind him by the tent, staring at him. Stubbornly, Jack studied the fire as it burned lower. Finally a rustling of the tent flap drew his attention. Lemmel had emerged.

"Highborn, the Champion bids ye return to bed by ye House's side. House Ondeil will sleep peacefully, but would be more so with his Sky at his side. Always my master's Sky sleeps better with my master at his side. Please?"

Lemmel had returned to the subterfuge of addressing Jack as if he were Daniel, were a weak, little Sky. But the youth had found a way to let Jack know that Daniel needed him, that Daniel slept better when Jack was by his side.

"There be naught to see out here this dark night. Only the coals and the blackness. Up there," Lemmel said, his voice growing softer as he looked at the stars. "Up there might be Asgard, the home of the gods. And somewhere within Asgard be Valhalla, hall of Champions and warriors, where the worthy are given a glorious life after death.

"Someday, there may be other worlds, other homes of men who follow the Nortvegr. Maybe that be so. Maybe some day my beautiful Sky will take me to see one. I would follow. I would not wish him to depart and leave me here if he has any need of me. Unless my Balin cannot come, then I would be sad. If he has no honor left when the ring opens to take my brother through. I would follow if I am needed. If he wishes me and my Balin to protect and guard him even there. Might that be so?"

"So you were listening," Jack said softly. "It won't be necessary, Lemmel. He'd want to stay in touch with you. But it won't be necessary for Balin to guard him once we go home. He has guards. Teams of them. Any time he goes anywhere there's usually a team guarding him. This time, how we ended up here, well, we had a jaffa with us, one of the most fierce warriors in the universe. It was kind of an odd circumstance, how we ended up on this planet in such need. I don't think it'll ever happen again."

Jack shook his head and smiled bitterly. Yeah. It probably would. It was true Daniel always went with an armed escort, but he often ended up kidnapped, imprisoned, tortured and generally in a pot of boiling water time after time.

"As ye say, master," Lemmel said, and then clamped his hand over his mouth. "Highborn. Come, the veil slips a bit. Here be my hand, Highborn." Then he began to whisper, "Take it to rise, as ye cannot rise without my help, remember?"

"Oh, yeah." Jack grabbed Lemmel's offered hand and hoisted himself to his feet. He had to adjust the cloak, get the front hem out from under his suede slipper. Then he tugged it closed, covering his naked stomach, his exposed ribs and his bare thighs. He let Lemmel lead him this time. He was finally getting the hang of walking without guiding Lemmel along. He was getting it. He was.

At dawn, Jack rolled over on his right side to find Daniel's blue eyes watching him in the growing light that filtered through the thin walls of the tent.

"Daniel? You're awake," he said in great delight, speaking English for the first time in a very long while.

"Mm hm," Daniel hummed a response without moving. He was laying on his left, his back to the tent flap. After a moment his eyes slowly drifted shut.

"How're you feeling?"

"Mm. Headache." He responded in English. He kept his eyes closed, but his voice betrayed the pain and dryness in his throat. For a moment Daniel's breathing became rapid again, as it had been in the long hours after he'd started throwing up. With a visible struggle, a few deeper breaths, he got his breathing under control and slowed it down.

"Can you swallow some water for me?"

Daniel groaned and then almost imperceptibly shook his head.

"Okay, maybe in a few minutes. How about trying to sit up?"

"Un uh," he whispered the negative sound.

"Master?" Lemmel whispered through the flap of the tent.

Unaware, Jack shifted effortlessly to the language of the inhabitants of this planet. "Bring some cool water. He's finally awake."

Lemmel crept halfway into the tent, extending a container of fresh water he'd filled in the stream moments earlier. "Fresh and cool, master. How be he?"

"I'm thirsty," Daniel answered Lemmel. "Give me the water."

"Yeah, okay," Jack said eagerly. He sat up, pulling the light covering around his bare shoulders. "Lemmel, hand it here." He pulled out the stopper and held the spout to Daniel's dry lips.

"Ugh," Daniel protested. He moved back a bit and then took the flask, bringing it to his lips again. After a long drink, he pushed it back in Jack's general direction.

"Better?" Jack asked. "How you feeling now?"

"Nauseated. Stomach hurts. Need to brush my teeth."

"Probably. Lemmel, get Daniel's tuc."

"Aye, master," Lemmel said, his voice lighter with relief. "He be feeling better." He ducked out of the tent and returned almost instantly.

Jack pawed through the tuc, finding one of the thin reeds they used for cleaning their teeth. He got out the mint and soda powder. "Wanna sit up now?"

"Yeah. Stomach's ... No. I'm gonna throw up if I move right now."

"Okay. Then just rest a while. This is the first time you've really been awake in days. No need to push it," Jack assured him, very pleased with Daniel's progress.

"Fine. Let me sleep a while."

"More water first. You're dehydrated. Maybe the water will help the headache."

"Probably will. And make the nausea worse."

"Yeah. Probably so. Drink some more anyway?" Jack asked hopefully.

After Daniel had taken another long swallow from the water container, Jack gently wiped his lover's face with a damp cloth.

"That helps. Makes me feel a little more human."

"Master, if this one may suggest. It might be better if ye did not speak in the secret tongue of the Forbidden Garden."

"What? I wasn't," Jack protested.

"I am mistaken then, master. I had thought I heard it as I came to the tent. Forgive me, please."

"English," Daniel said, still lying down and moving as little as possible. "Nothing secret about it."

"Eh. English?" Jack asked. "I didn't realize. Well, I've got a few things I need to talk over with you. A lot happened while you were out of it. Balin's got some hard questions."

"Later," Daniel said, his voice surprisingly stern. "I'm dizzy. If you leave the room, don't bump the bed. I'm gonna throw up if you do."

"Yeah. You're pretty out of it. You're sleeping on the ground, Daniel. This is a tent, not a room." Jack gave him a half grin.

"I don't care. Just don't shake the ground. Got it? Oh, my head."

"Yeah. Got it."

Carefully, Jack crawled around the foot of the bedding and got to his feet at the tent flap. Lemmel handed him the summer veil and cloak, and for a moment, Jack debated the continued need of them. But Daniel was in no shape to receive any company any time soon. And if it was discovered that he was sick instead of Jack, the council would know they'd been tricked. The charade had to go on a little longer.

Jack had slept in Daniel's pants but had taken off the nipple-irritating crop top. The cloak hid his naked chest so he pulled it closed and left the tent. He hated the binding, clinging clothing and the need to wear them. Then he realized in his haste, he hadn't even said bye to Daniel. He stuck his veiled head back in.

"I'm gonna go take a bathroom break. I'll be right back, okay?"

"Yeah. Just don't shake anything when you come back in," Daniel said, his voice gruff and flat.

"Got it," Jack said, his lips stretched in a thin line of irritation. Daniel was still very sick. When he pulled his head out of the tent flap, he was greeted with Balin's somber visage.

With his eyes locked on Balin, he spoke to the younger man at his side. "Lemmel, go on back in and tend to him. I'm sure Balin can watch over me while I go take a leak and have a quick bath in the river. Go on, kid."

"Aye, Highborn," Lemmel replied. He crouched low and went in the little tent to tend to the Sky.

"No bath. Unless ye wish to bathe under the veil. Then it would be seemly," Balin said in a sterner tone than he'd ever used with Jack before. The big warrior was already dressed in his leather armor. His Champion's horned helmet glinted in the growing sunlight.

"Fucking hell," Jack swore in English. Then he lifted the veil to glare up at Balin. It did nothing for his self-esteem to have to lean back to send that glare where he wanted it to go. His pants were slipping down. With the loop not pulled, gravity constantly worked against him, trying to strip him of the sliver of dignity he had while dressed in the revealing clothing. He dropped the veil and grabbed at the sagging pants. The waistband was halfway down his ass crack in back, and barely clinging to the root of his cock. The cloak made his grasp clumsy and Jack almost racked himself getting the pants back up to a less dangerous height. The stride was so low that they constantly felt in danger of falling off and exposing everything he had. With the loop not pulled, he could only keep the pants up if he clung to them.

This challenging stare with the Champion was worthless. Balin crossed his arms and continued to glare unflinchingly down at the small human.

Jack gripped his pants tighter and let out a snort of disgust. Waddling toward the river's edge, he ignored the towering Champion in his wake.

Balin followed. "Soap, Highborn. It rests on the river's edge with bathing cloths and a towel young Lemmel had in preparation for his and my bath for the morning."

In sight of the bathing supplies, Jack stopped and pissed against the base of a tree. His bladder thanked him all the while that his warm stream hissed against the moss-covered wood.

"Moss," he commented, again using its English name. He hadn't used a word of English in weeks! Why now? Maybe because he didn't know the Nortvegr word for it. Simple as that. Nothing complicated. No subconscious desire to get his head hacked off by Balin.

At the slow-moving river, Jack didn't hesitate to strip down to the veil and step into the water. The embankment was a gentle, grass-covered slope, dropping off about a foot above the surface of the cold water. Jack stepped in, finding the bottom a smooth, sandy surface. He waded out a couple of steps, feeling the cold creep up his legs. It was going to be unpleasant when he got deep enough to let it lap at his dangling balls and cock. He cupped his hand around his jewels and squatted in the water and got just the shock he'd anticipated as his hole clenched shut. His slightly irritated nipples ached in an unpleasant way. The veil wicked up cold water, clinging around him like an octopus.

He ordered Balin to take the opportunity to bathe now, and the big man joined him. It felt odd, being naked outdoors with the head-wrap on. To be totally naked would have had a much less vulnerable feeling. And he probably looked as ridiculous as he felt; his too-skinny body, hard and angular even after all these months of recovering from the devastation of the spider venom.

Daniel wouldn't have looked as vulnerable. Not at all. He would have looked hot, even with the now-dripping wet cloth hanging on his head. But Daniel hadn't been robbed of his most important ability like Jack had. And Jack didn't need some damned shrink to tell him exactly what he was feeling about what the spider venom had done to him. Left him a wreck. Left him a weak, helpless weight hanging around Daniel's neck, dragging him down to ... what he'd become. And left Jack incapable of even wiping his own ass.

The thinness of his own legs still filled him with echoes of the horror he felt when he'd first woken up from the coma the venom had left him in. The sight of his own body, his legs, his arms had terrified Jack like nothing ever had. He shivered with a deeper cold than the river water was causing.

Determinedly, Jack waded deeper into the river and sank slowly until he was completely under the cold, gentle flow. The soggy veil's knot wouldn't loosen, even with his insistent tugging. Finally, he gave up and waded back to the edge, getting the cake of soap from Balin and scrubbing away the stink of tent-camping as best he could without being able to wash his hair very well. His groin felt stubbly, but at least now he could finally quit shaving it. He sighed in relief at the thought of no longer having to undergo the indignity of letting Lemmel take his genital hair from him. But the upside of that shaving was that Lemmel had given him a really decent haircut. Short hair made Jack feel more like himself, more spit and polish. It was the only thing that had happened to him recently that didn't leave him wanting to shoot somebody. If he had his P-90 ... there'd be a shit-load of dead civilians around here right about now.

Brynvold had a decent haircut. Jack should have taken advantage of the Highborn's barber. Sven had a pretty decent haircut too. A little long on the sides, kind of a Prince Valliant thing going on, but not bad.

Back on shore, Jack wrapped himself in the big cloth Lemmel had laid out to be used as a towel, appreciating its softness and its cover. Then he immediately got angrier at the need to hide his nakedness from prying eyes that were probably hiding in the bushes around the campsite. The wet veil was impossible to deal with. It got the towel soaking in just a few moments. Wrapped in the big cloth, he slogged, barefoot back up the grassy slope to the tent and left a sullen Balin to deal with the slut-wear and suede slippers. He had no intention of ever touching those disgusting clothes again!

Jack crawled inside, finding Daniel, naked and flat on his back on top of the pallet with Lemmel giving him a sponge bath. The blond man was groaning in discomfort each time to cold cloth touched his skin.

"Jack?" Daniel asked, not bothering to open his eyes.

"Yeah, it's me. I took a quick bath. Gotta get out of this headdress and get some decent clothes on." His voice rang strongly of relief. He'd overcome the terrible debilitation of the weight loss, and now was going to escape from the binding, debilitating Sky clothing.

"Just don't bump into the bed."

"Not a bed, Daniel."

"Fine. Just don't ... "

"I won't. Lemmel, help me get this knot undone. He waited as Lemmel crawled around behind him and untied the wet veil and took it away. Jack dried his hair and rummaged through his stuff in search of pants and a shirt.

"Master, the clothing ... it be here," Lemmel said as he held dry, clean clothing out to him.

"No. I want my own clothing. Daniel's awake so I don't need to keep dressing in his slutty clothes," he said sharply.

A grunt of protest drew Jack's attention to Daniel's reclining form. The man was looking at him now, his face a dark frown. "Sorry. I've been wearing your clothes the past couple of days while you slept. Had to pretend to be you so the elders wouldn't figure out you'd been off doing stupid things again."

"What? What happened," Daniel asked crossly. "What are you talking about?"

"You know," Jack said. Irritably, he swatted at Lemmel who was trying to get him to put on one of Daniel's belly-revealing tops.

"Please, master. If they return today--"

"Oh, all right!" Jack snapped, angry at the delay of his full freedom. "One more day, so Daniel can lay in here and rest up. But that's it. Stop that, Lemmel. I can get the underwear on myself." He stepped into the pouch and pulled the loop, making it only tight enough to help hold the pants up.

Lemmel tied Daniel's longer summer veil on his head. Jack shoved the trailing edge of the veil up over his forehead, glaring at the servant, but he didn't take the veil off. It was necessary, had to be worn, and Lemmel merely met Jack's angry look with one of calm acceptance.

"Who's going to return? What elders?" Daniel demanded irritably. "Oh," he groaned, pressing his hands over his stomach. "Feels like I pulled every muscle in my stomach. Ribs too."

"Probably did," Jack said. "From what you did, or from the vomiting. That was a stupid stunt you pulled."

With his eyes clenched in pain, Daniel rubbed at his sides. "Hurts. That girl. Hey, where is she? You forgot to pay for her freedom. Jack, how could you not take care of that?"

Jack leaned a hand on Lemmel's shoulder and stepped into the pants. "I didn't forget. I was going to do it when I got back, but you just couldn't wait, could you?"

"Wait?" Daniel asked, his anger dissolving into confusion and pain. He tried to sit up, but collapsed back on the pallet, pressing his hands to his stomach again.

"I've got to tell you, Daniel, I hate this whole thing. What you've become? I mean, why in the hell would you even think it was an option? Whoring yourself instead of giving the guy some of those coins? And now look at you, so damned sore from the fucking that you can't even sit up. You drank that drug and let that man-- more than one man, I think-- you let them fuck you. I'm sick and tired of smelling other men's cum on you."

"Become?" Daniel asked. He pushed against the blankets, rolling over onto his side. "What I've become?"

"I've hated it. Hated it. Every damned time you've come back to my bed with another man's cum in your body, I've stayed silent or I've lied to you, and said it was okay, that I understood. And every night you go off and fuck someone else in some dirty back room. Going to bed with anyone who'll pay you enough coins? You lay on your back and lift your legs for any of them and I kept saying, you did it because you had to. But now? Now this? There was no fucking reason. You've become a--"

"You fucking bastard," Daniel snarled between clenched teeth. "Get the hell out of here. Get the hell out!"

Stunned by his lover's outburst, Jack stepped back from Lemmel, pulling the laces of his pants from the kneeling servant's grasp. "Daniel, I--"

"Get him out of my sight, Lemmel!"

Immediately, the young worker caste scrambled forward, grabbing Jack hard by his hips. He kept going, pushing Jack backwards out of the tent flap. Jack tripped and sprawled on his ass outside the tent. Lemmel jerked the flap closed in his face, slipping two of the toggles at the opening through their fastening loops.

"Daniel?" Jack sat on the ground, his legs splayed, his bare feet inches from the sealed tent flap. He could hear Daniel gasping for air, and then retching sounds. He was vomiting up the water he'd swallowed that morning.

"Sky, Sky," Lemmel's voice filtered through the tent cloth, his tone solicitous and tender. "I've got hold of ye. There, sweetling. Let all that water come up out of ye way. Breathe, Sky. That's it. Taste's bad, I know. Sweetling. Sweetling."

"Oh, God, Lemmel. What have I done?" Daniel gasped out.

"Brother ... " Lemmel's voice was choked with pain.

Jack scooted back, tugging at the pants that had slid down too far. The damned veil had fallen over his eyes when Lemmel had ejected him from Daniel's presence. A shadow moved over him and he looked up. Balin stood over him, glaring down silently.

Daniel's pained voice came from the tent again. "I didn't, did I? Oh, God. They got me drunk, held me down. On-on ... on the table. They raped me. Lemmel, they raped me on the table. I fought--"

Jack leaned toward the tent, hearing Daniel begin retching again. The sounds were interspersed with sobs. Stunned, he stared at the fastened tent flap. Daniel hadn't done it with those men voluntarily.

The shadow over Jack moved. Balin knelt by his side. Jack glanced from the tent to the big man and then back toward the tent.

Daniel had been forced? But still, he should never have left the room! He should have waited for Jack to come get him, keep him safe. Daniel should have stayed where Jack told him to stay!

"It be the prophecy. The trials and pains endured by the true diviner. His sacred will shall be taken from him three times before Odin's children know he be worthy. The three tests though, the first was when the weak-minded one took it from him in Brooksmeet at the direction of the true nameless one, to save a child from harm there. The second was in ye stone castle when again he sought to save one weaker than himself, and for his efforts was grievously harmed by two who died and are buried faces turned from Odin for all time. Then the third time was him again, seeking to free a slave who had no power of her own, and this third time he was harmed most grievously.

"Each time he gathers an Aesir. Three to complete the four directions. North, south, east and west. He be the north. He be the new northern way, the new Nortvegr."

"Aesir," Jack echoed, not understanding what the big man was saying.

"Aye. From Brooksmeet, he takes young Lemmel for only there could the lad confess his love and feel it returned. From the Stone Castle, he takes me, though I had thought he had me from Brooksmeet, it be clear to me that I did not truly know him until I saw him standing over the defiler with the dead's own knife dripping heart's blood. From here, in the sea-side forest he takes ye. I had thought he had ye before too, but nay. Ye are the third Aesir, the third minion of Odin's new Nortvegr. Only from today are ye truly with him. Speak ye in the tent a truth that was damning up ye heart so that ye could not feel the depths of ye love for him. And each of us in our own way love him as he loves us."

Jack's mouth gaped open. He'd faced religious zealots before and even ones who thought he was their prophet or god or savior. It still creeped him out.

"He be the new northern way. His true name be Nyrnortvegr. Never speak it," Balin said.

"That's all well and good," Jack began his protest. "But Daniel's no prophet. He's just a man. Ask him. He'll tell you."

"Aye. Odin would have none other than a mortal man as Aesir. Know ye truly nothing of our ways?"

"I ... Daniel was ... Did you hear what he just said? He was raped by that trader. He didn't do it with them voluntarily. He didn't choose to ... "

"Whore himself," Balin finished for him. "Aye. I heard that accusation from ye own lips. And for a Sky it has no meaning. That word has no power over a Sky. Ye said it to inflict pain and injury upon him and ye failed."

"It did hurt him. What I said was deplorable. What I accused him of, I did hurt him."

"With ye love only. The only way to hurt him, the Nyrnortvegr, be with love, not words. And so ye prove that ye are the beginning of his Aesirs, the new generation Odin has brought into being."

"Look, Balin," Jack said, forcefully and slowly, "shelve all this talk. It's not important right now. What is important is Daniel. He's been ... I need to go back in there and be with him. I'm going to send Lemmel out and I want you and him to keep the hell out of our way. Got it?"

"I should obey him first, House. My Championship status supercedes even my oath to ye, as would all Champions oaths throughout the land. All will soon owe first allegiance to him, as he be Nyrnortvegr."

"Is that why Lemmel obeyed Daniel instead of me?"

"Nay, House. He be not a Champion. He knows not the prophecy of Odin. He simply loves the Sky. That be all. Ah, this vexes me so. I must think on it. I must think."

Jack gave Balin one more glower before he unfastened the tent flap, pushing the wooden toggles out through the loops Lemmel had fastened only moments ago. Still kneeling, Jack crawled inside the tent. He paused on his knees, just inside, letting his veiled vision adjust to the dimmer light.

In the middle of the pallet Lemmel sat cross-legged, cradling Daniel in his lap. The blond man's body heaved with his still-ragged breathing, but he was no longer gagging on the nausea that had wracked his body. Lemmel had wrapped one of the sheets around him. The big worker caste youth stared silently at Jack, his face a mask that hid his emotions well.

"Danny," Jack said quietly. He inched forward, still on his knees. Then he paused and took the veil off, letting it fall to the foot of the pallet. With his vision no longer hindered, Jack gazed at his lover. Daniel had an arm around Lemmel's neck, his face pressed against the youth's chest. His arm shook, most likely from muscle fatigue.

"Not now, Jack." Daniel's voice sounded like pieces of corroded metal scraping together. He'd thrown up rather forcefully.

"I heard, Daniel. I had no idea. Back in that alley, I thought the kid hit you with a rock or something. I thought ... "

"I'm dizzy," Daniel protested, never opening his eyes.

"The trader hurt you. Him and Joslin?"

"Yeah. I had coins, Jack," Daniel said accusingly. "I offered him veil marks. Any amount he wanted, he could have had 'em. I didn't want sex with him. Didn't. I said no imparting. No sex. He wanted to fuck me. I said he'd take the marks and be happy with them. I really thought he would, Jack. I wasn't trying to be a whore."

"Why did you drink that damned tea?"

"What tea?"

"That goat's hair stuff. The herbal tea."

"Just tea, Jack. He drank some first."

"For crying out loud ... Sky, that tea was a drug. For Skys, it's a drug that makes you ... orgasm."

"Oh ... " Daniel's breathing grew rapid. "Oh, Christ! Oh, no. No. I did that. Oh, my God, I came with them."

"Didn't you know what it would do?"

"No! Fucking hell. You know what happened? How did you know I came?"

"Balin told me. He smelled the herb on you. You had an orgasm when you were fucking with that trader."

"I'm sorry, Jack. Oh, fuck, I'm so sorry. I did. I felt it. It hurt so much," he said vehemently, his voice choking on tears of sorrow. "I know I came. It felt like my insides were coming out through my dick, I came so hard. My stomach. That's why I'm sore. I came. Maybe more than once. Maybe several times in a row. It hurt."

"So that's why you're so sore. And nauseous. The drug did that to you. Why did you leave the inn? You should have waited for me to get back." Jack stopped himself, stopped his accusatory tone. Daniel was in serious hurt.

"I know that, Jack. I know," Daniel berated himself. "I should have stayed in the room. Should have let them carry that girl off and just let it all happen. You would have let it happen, right? You would have stayed in the room." Daniel lifted his head from Lemmel's chest and peered, teary eyed and angry at his kneeling lover. "You would have stayed in the room dressed like a slut, like you are now. You would have stayed right where your lord and master told you to stay, been good. Mouth shut. Loop pulled. Sat there and stayed out of sight, out of the way of the men, right? Out of Balin and Lemmel's way. And certainly out of your lord and master's way, right? Like a good little whore."

"No, I--"

"What happened to me was nothing. Haven't you figured that out by now? On this planet a Sky getting fucked, even by two men at the same time, that's fine. And I'm a damned good Sky, Jack. I'm always good at it. Stick me in a new culture and I'll adapt. I'll adjust. I'll be whatever I need to be. So go back outside. But take my clothes off first. They don't look quite as whorish on you. Oh, I forgot. They're yours too. Everything here is. Even ... even Lemmel." He dropped his head back on the big youth's chest.

Jack stripped out of Daniel's revealing clothing, folding the skimpy pieces up and laying them by the discarded veil. Then he sat naked, cross-legged at Daniel's side, facing Lemmel. "Okay. You're mad as hell at me. You're mad as hell at the two bastards back in the port, and you're probably pissed off at life in general, certainly at this planet. I'm going to take you into my lap now, bony thighs and all. And Lemmel's gonna go outside and do whatever he needs to do. And you and I are gonna talk about things."

Silently, as he'd been since Jack entered, Lemmel shifted his grip on Daniel and easily placed him in Jack's hold, his legs out across Jack's right thigh. Jack supported Daniel with a visible effort. Lemmel had held him as if he weighed no more than a light pillow. Then Lemmel slipped silently from the tent.

"Nauseated. Should have left me with Lemmel. I'm gonna throw up if you don't hold still."

"Sorry," Jack said hastily. He tried to keep still, but had to adjust his arm supporting Daniel's back. "Better?"

"Yeah. Why did you come back in? Didn't you know I was just going to yell at you? Say ugly things?"

"Yeah. Did."

"Um," Daniel said, and closed his eyes. "Don't want to talk any more. Might say something I'll regret later."

"I think it's a little too late for that. I know it's too late for me. I said a hell of a lot that I regret. I jumped to some conclusions. When I saw you in that alley, I didn't realize what had happened to you. I've been holding in some unfounded resentments and those got in the way. They also caused me to say some very stupid things to you, and I ended up hurting you even more than those bastards did. I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"You're going to make me spell it out, aren't you?"

"Only if you don't start rocking me or move around too much. Then all I'm going to do is throw up some more."

"I'm sorry. I've resented you having sex with other men. I've resented the need and my disgusting weakness. But most of all I've resented you being in bed with other men. Add in the money factor and I've hated you selling yourself, regardless of the reason."

"No holding back. That's you, Jack. Blunt and to the point, even if it kills a man."

"I'm not above killing people, Sky. It's what I do. You know that about me better than most."

"Special ops. Yeah."

"And despite that, you've chosen to stay with me, not just on my team, but as my lover."

"Yeah," Daniel said, nausea making the word come out weakly.

"So, I guess we're even?"

"You're a killer and I'm a whore? That make us even?" Daniel groaned in pain.

"No. That's not what I mean," Jack protested, shifting slightly. His movement got a groan of protest from the man in his lap.

"I mean, we both do things the other would rather we didn't. Or even, things we'd never do. I could never lay with men for money. If our roles had been reversed you'd be dead back in the desert at Lars' camp."

"I don't believe that."

"Could you do what I do?"

"Kill people? Of course I have," Daniel said, wiping at spittle at the corner of his mouth.

"Murder. I've murdered people. Let me give you one example. In East Germany back in the eighties, I went on a mission that went wrong. We were on a covert mission to retrieve a man who wanted to defect. Things went wrong. Sneaking up behind a civilian while he's having toast and coffee, and slitting his throat, that's murder."

"But there was a reason, Jack. You were ordered--"

"Semantics. You and me, we're different. Probably why we work so well together. I know you hate how ready I am to kill. You've cursed me for it. You've yelled at me in the past and damned me for it. When I shot Reese ... It doesn't make me love you any less. So ... it's time to admit that I've been angry about you sleeping--"

"Whoring myself." He spoke so forcefully that he started his stomach rolling again. He groaned at the wave of nausea that rose in him.

Jack was silent for a long time. Finally he shifted again, bringing his hand up to brush Daniel's long hair back, revealing the dark bruise on his forehead. A cut in his skin ran up into his hairline. "I've murdered people."

"But never without cause," Daniel argued.

"And what you've done, selling yourself, it was never without cause. That's why I got so mad in the alley. I thought you had a choice. I thought you took coins with you to pay the man but chose to ... whore yourself instead."

"Oh." Daniel brushed Jack's hand away, grimacing as another wave of nausea battered at him. "I guess that would piss you off. But I didn't."

"And I should never have thought you did. Or would. Never."

"So, then. Tell me about this herbal tea."

"I should have told you sooner. That's another thing I owe you an apology for. I learned about it from Wulfstag. Sven Wulfstag."

"Back then? Why didn't you tell me? You should have shared that information with me."

"I should have. You're right. It was very stupid of me not to tell you what I had learned. I've been treating you like a . . a Sky."

"I thought you were going to say a slut."

"Hell, no. I've been coddling you kind of like I used to do back in the first days of the gate. Remember when we went through the gate, always in a certain order? You were always in the rocking chair position. Always guarded, front and rear. Helmet, vest, and secure between us."

"I remember."

"And any time any action came along, I'd send you and Carter to the rear."

"Because she's a woman?"

"Because Teal'c and I could fight harder, but nobody defends a weaker team member more fiercely than a woman. That's a combat truth. We don't talk about it much, but in the field, in any situation where your opponent is cornered, if it's a woman defending a weaker or younger person, back off. Vicious. You know that? It's true."

"I'm sure Sam would love to hear this."

"She's a soldier. She already knows, babe. Somebody gets by me or Teal'c? Carter'd do the better job at defending you in that situation."

Despite his extreme discomfort, Daniel smiled at the endearment. "And I'd listen to her more readily. I never question her judgment in a dangerous situation. I do question you. I argue with you. I never argue with Sam."

"Maybe because you don't have to. And, my bony old knees are breaking. Let's get you back in bed--"

"Oh! Move slower. I'm so nauseated. That damned shit was poison, wasn't it?"

Jack straightened his legs and rolled Daniel carefully flat on the pallet. "You got a major overdose. You were only supposed to drink a little of the liquid, and then throw it up immediately afterward. You ended up getting too concentrated a form. Whole leaves. And you didn't throw it up right away."

"Ugh. I think ... " Daniel paused and swallowed at the rising bile in his throat. "I think I blinded one of them."

"What?" Jack asked in surprise. He straightened the thin covering over Daniel's nude form.

"I thought he was a jaffa, I think. And I gouged his eye out. Maybe both eyes. I remember him screaming about being blind."

"Damn. It's a wonder he didn't break your neck."

"Sky, remember?" Daniel said, closing his eyes and staying as still as possible. "I don't think they considered it rape or they would have killed me. They wouldn't do something that would hurt a Sky. Neck breaking would definitely qualify as hurting. Fucking a drugged out Sky apparently doesn't count."

"And they left you the girl. Tied her to your wrist. I guess they thought the bargain was complete."

"Except for the eye. Maybe that was my discounted purchase price. Or my bonus. One girl child, plus a bonus of one slightly used eye."

"Bad humor," Jack said, shaking his head. "Can you drink a little water? Your breath is really horrible."

"I'm not ready to try any water, and if you think my breath is bad now, just hang around a while. I'm going to throw up again."

"Babe, they did hurt you. When we got there your mouth was bleeding. They did hit you."

"I fell off ... I think I fell off a ship. Couldn't have been a ship, could it," he asked rhetorically.

"Doubt it. Probably not a ship."

"Tripping."

"Yeah, you mean you were having a vision due to the drug?"

"Yeah."

"Danny, I'm sorry."

"Forget it." His voice was flat and terse.

"I'm sorry for holding all that resentment inside me. It's been leaking out in little ways. You've tried to tell me but I refused to deal with it."

"Tried. Yeah, I did."

"I haven't been telling you things I should. I've been too busy trying to get back on my feet so I can run the show like always."

"You're my team leader, Jack. It's who you are."

"But you and I know that's not all I am. I'm also your lover, and in that relationship we're equals."

"Not really. I'm your intellectual superior--"

"Oh, so we're gonna play rough, are we?" Jack asked with a little smile.

"And in combat, I'm your physical inferior. In bed, I'm the bottom boy. I don't get on top of you and I don't want to either."

"But it all balances out."

"No, it doesn't. And ... this nausea is horrible. It doesn't balance out. Even in our private lives you're still my team leader."

"If that's true then I need to act like it." Jack rolled his thin lips inward.

"What do you mean?"

"I need to be in charge of our relationship like I am in charge of the team. I need to make sure things get taken care of, that things get said, that you get what you need." Jack cocked his head to listen to faint sounds coming from outside. He heard several voices talking softly.

"Oh, on that regard we're equals," Daniel said with a nod. Then he groaned and pushed his hands against his stomach. "I need ... to take care of ... that you get what you need ... "

"Babe, you do. Right now I guess you need to stop talking and get some rest. Balin's got some crazy notions that we'll need to discuss with him when you're feeling better. Stuff that's way over my head."

"Doubt that," Daniel said. He was very still now. "When I said intellectual superior, I meant ... " Daniel swallowed repeatedly. "Headache."

"Pushing it too fast. Get some sleep. Don't leave the tent for any reason. That's an order from your team leader, the man responsible for keeping you alive. I'll send Lemmel back in to watch over you." Jack slowly drew himself from the pallet, listening to the sounds outside the tent. It sounded like the elders had returned and were politely--for now--offering any assistance House Ondeil might require.

Daniel's breathing slowed, so Jack got redressed in Daniel's clothing. Slut-wear, he mused silently. This idea of being honest about his feelings was tough. Slutty clothing, slutty actions. But it was still Daniel underneath it all. His Daniel.

What would everyone back home think if they found out what Daniel had been doing? That Jack was sleeping with a whore? Ouch. Was Jack so concerned with his own image? What everyone else might think of him? Hell. No. It was more personal than that. He hated what Daniel had become.

And that was the truth of the whole matter. Daniel had become a whore. The reason was arguable. This planet's strict limitations on blue-eyed men. Jack's ailment. Society. Survival instinct. Regardless, the truth was that Daniel was having sex with strangers for money. The locals could label it anything they wanted to, but for Jack and indeed for Daniel too, it meant he was a whore.

Dressed in everything including the winter veil now and standing at the tent flap Jack regarded his sleeping lover. Lying there, naked except for a thin sheet, Daniel didn't look like a whore. He just looked like Daniel. The bruise on his forehead was stark against his pale skin.

He glanced down at his own body. His nipples only half covered, his genitals tied up and held outward for all to see. Jack looked like the whore now. And the prospect of having to walk outside and have other men ogle him, fantasize about fucking him, even jerk off while gazing at him across the campfire had Jack shivering.

A flush of embarrassment colored his cheeks and he looked back to see if Daniel had woken and noticed. His lover was resting, sleeping lightly. The thin sheet draped into the hollows and dips of Daniel's body. So thin. Why hadn't Jack noticed that before? Daniel had lost weight. The clothing Jack now wore fit him pretty well. And it shouldn't have. It should have been very loose on him. Jack was the taller of the two, but Daniel had gained more mass in recent years, shedding his geeky scrawniness. His shirts and pants hung slack on Jack, back home. They'd worn each other's clothes on a few occasions, on weekends spent together, and occasionally on off world missions. Jack had always felt the extra room in Daniel's clothing, but that wasn't there now, despite the tremendous weight loss Jack had suffered due to the spider venom.

Daniel was very thin, almost delicate looking. The stress of feeding and housing them both had taken its toll on Daniel, and he hadn't recovered what he'd lost. He should have. They'd spent long enough in the Meadows cot eating excellent food and getting plenty of rest. But Daniel had spent every spare moment he could steal out training and then riding the horses with Balin and Lemmel. He needed more meat on his bones.

Jack tugged at the trailing edge of the veil, making sure it lay long across his cheeks and hid his eyes sufficiently, and then he opened the tent flap.

Lemmel was standing guard just outside the opening. Jack reached through and tugged at the youth's jerkin. Lemmel turned and bowed, offering a supporting hand to Jack.

Laying his own hand on Lemmel's, Jack allowed his steward to assist him in stepping outside. Then Lemmel secured the tent opening. Jack took the moment to study the small knot of elders gathered by Balin around the small campfire. Though the veil left everything whitewashed by the morning light, Jack was sure it was the same group who'd been here before. He'd probably just have to repeat his earlier performance. Lemmel took his hand again and Jack let himself be guided forward a couple of steps.

"Champion," Lemmel said, his voice more soft and melodic than Jack had ever noticed it being before. "My master's Highborn wishes ... "

"Fresh air," Jack whispered to Lemmel. "For a moment, and then I'll go back inside, where you should be right now."

Lemmel nodded acknowledgement, and then spoke to Balin. "My master's Highborn has emerged for a short walk in the fresh air. If ye will serve him so, I must return to my master's side as be my proper place."

"Aye," Balin said with a nod. "And these guests will be on their way. House Ondeil has been honored by their kind offers, but has no need today. They will depart, and I will see to my duty, to my House, and to his Highborn as be seemly. House Ondeil follows the Nortvegr."

"Drangaskogen follows the Nortvegr," one of the elders said. As a group, the visitors executed deep curtseys to Balin and then turned to walk slowly back toward the road. Along the distant road, escorts with horses and various carts waited for the elders. Those waiting watched Jack and Balin intently.

Immediately, Balin came and took Jack's hand from Lemmel. "My honor," he said with a slight bow. "Lad, be ever vigilant and quick to get back inside. No noises from he who rests within, understood?"

"Aye," Lemmel said hastily. He went back inside the tent.

"Seemly," Balin whispered sternly as he began to lead Jack in a slow walk around the campsite. "Ever they'll have eyes on us this day. Seems a tale come back that House Ondeil's Sky blinded a man. That man's been put to death for even suggesting such a thing might be true. Me, I suggested the tale was started by the slaggard aboard ship to deflect ridicule for his own clumsiness at having fallen overboard while drunk. The tale holds for now. If we had more men in service to guard the campsite, I'd seek out Gruber and end his days. That girl child too. She might have seen more than she should."

"The kid?" Jack asked, working hard not to throttle Balin. "Leave the kid alone. My Sky'd never trade a kid's life for his own."

"Aye. I already knew that. Still, the plan came into my head so I said it."

"Don't say it again. Especially where my Sky might hear."

"Aye," Balin said. "I've many things that he'll never hear. It be ye duty to hear them, though. Ye duty."

"Always has been," Jack said, brooding more with each step. "Do we have to keep holding hands like this? It's pretty damned gay."

"Gay? This word be from the Forbidden Garden?"

"No. English. From ... Midgard."

"Speak it not. And it be ever necessary to be seemly. Even now they watch."

"You're getting pretty authoritative," Jack commented. He looked at the departing party. Several of them were glancing back repeatedly. Beyond them younger, sharper eyes were surveying the campsite. Jack could feel their eyes boring into him though they probably were looking everywhere but at his veiled figure. The elders were staring openly at him as was their right apparently. They were evaluating his need to be judged, deciding his fate--Daniel's fate every second.

"It be my duty. Ye duty be to hear what he needs not hear. My duty be to keep him safe until he stands before the altar of Odin and opens the new way."

"We're back to that prophecy stuff, are we?"

"Be seemly. They watch."

"Crap," Jack cursed. "They looking at me? I've got the damned veil on. None of 'em better be beating off. Can you tell? Any of 'em got their hand in their pants?"

"Of course not. Ye be absurd. None would."

"Yeah. Half my ass crack shows in these. And the hem of this top, it irritates my nipples. My nuts are already aching from this loop. I need out of these clothes."

"As ye wish, if the veil stays on ye may remove all the clothing. Be naked here in the campsite and none will think it unseemly."

"Be naked? You're joking. No, you're not joking. My Sky told me ... " Jack shook his head, feeling irritated as the veil tickled his face and obscured his vision. "I think that's enough fresh air. They've seen enough. They've seen me be seemly and they've gotten an eyeful of my ass so take me back to the damned tent." Jack tried not to shiver as he felt the elder's eyes raking over his near-naked body. He began to doubt that the younger escorts were really not ogling his ass crack. Were some of them licking their lips? Thinking about sucking his cum from him so their eyes would glow blue like Balin's?

He glanced up at Balin's eyes. The blue hadn't faded at all. How long had it been since he'd sucked on Daniel's cock? Jack clenched his fist. He didn't want Balin sucking on Daniel ever again. Ever! Daniel was his, damn it! His lover. This crazy sexual frenzy had to end. Daniel had to stop playing the sex games with Lemmel. Had to! And then Jack realized Daniel had stopped on his own, weeks ago. Half a continent ago. He and Lemmel hadn't played that way since they'd dropped Ashild off at his home.

Had Daniel stopped because he sensed how much it was pissing Jack off? Well, maybe later he'd ask Daniel. What existed between Lemmel and his lover now was the closeness of brothers. There was a bond between those two, as if they'd come through hell fire together. And in a way, they had. Lemmel had been Daniel's support through the desert trek. Daniel had been forced to rely on Lemmel in very many and intimate ways. Lemmel had relied on Daniel to help him find an entirely new way of life. And what was left between them when the sexual antics were swept out of the way was a deep and true brotherhood.

Chapter 30 Road to the City of the Highborn

Balin's nervousness grew. By that evening, with eyes still on their encampment the big Champion put on a casual air and strode up the slight rise to the roadside. There, he waited, ignoring the two raw-boned men left by the elders to keep a not-so-subtle watch over House Ondeil. Soon a young farming couple came along, making their way to Drangaskogen with a cartload of grains to trade. One of the small Icelandic ponies pulled the cart. It had no seat for riders, and the pony had to be led along the path instead of steered with reins. Balin hailed the couple and invited them to come to the camp. His House had a need he felt they might be able to satisfy.

Honored, as they rightly should be, the couple led their pony off the roadway and made camp a few yards away from Jack's tent.

It was Lemmel who negotiated with the young couple, expressing House Ondeil's need of their pony and cart. After much conversation, he left the two worker castes sitting by their small fire and went into the tent to discuss things with his master.

Jack sat on the edge of the pallet. Daniel was asleep; his breathing calmer than it had been since he'd swallowed the herb.

"Their farm depends on the horse, master. The cart be their only means of transporting their goods to market. It be not merely ye purchasing an item and them seeing that one thing as a profit but this load of grain as well as their entire profit for the season until they can replace the pony and cart."

"And we can't really trade them one of our horses."

"Nay. Ye horses are not suitable for small farm work. They eat too much, are too powerful to be of use on a little grain farm."

"But if we give them enough money they'll be able to replace the cart and horse tomorrow."

"That be ever so true, master. But if that be all that ye need, ye Champion could go to Drangaskogen tomorrow and make the purchases himself. He says we pay for the convenience of staying away and from having at hand now, the means for departure with the dawn. It would be the most prudent, ye Champion says."

"Then get it done. Spend the money. If we end up short of coins in the city we'll just have to figure out some way to come up with some more money later on."

"Not ... " Lemmel swallowed and looked at Daniel's sleeping form.

"No," Jack whispered harshly. "Don't even think it. There has to be some way I can earn money on this damned planet. I've got skills. Fighting--"

"Nay, master. A Highborn may not do battle or make profit as a Champion. Simply not--"

"Well I can do other things. Train men--"

"Only a Champion may train men, master."

"I could run an inn or a farm."

"And earn no more than a worker caste could. Ye will not pay passage with such pitiful earnings. Highborn must pay dearly to travel, to cross posted lands and to enter the City of the Highborn."

"Fuck," Jack swore. "This system is tight. My Sky's not the only one dealing with restrictions. If I want to get anywhere I'm forced to use him, his earnings, aren't I? That's the way the system was set up by Nirrti."

Lemmel blinked at Jack.

"Well, that's not an option, Lemmel. Daniel's not going to be bringing any more money in that way. Not one more coin. I can't waste his money on a cart."

"Aye. There be another way, master. They'd take much less if the bargaining were to include delivery by House Ondeil's Sky. Merely even veiled. It follows not the Nortvegr, this plan that I propose, and be wrong a hundred ways so our Balin must not be consulted. But I would propose to the young lad and his woman that if he were to take less profit, then the money could come to his wife's hand from the hand of Ondeil's Sky. Sky, ye under veil, touching her. She gets a blessing, and it be not exactly ... "

"Like Daniel touching Tal. She gets something out of it."

"Aye. But I will not consult Balin."

"Are you saying we should lie to Balin?" Jack asked, his face in a slight scowl.

"Nay. Not exactly. Nor my da. He'd give me a right beating for it. But to me, it seems just and fair, and no one hurt by it. Them, not knowing ye not be a Sky, and never knowing, so no harm done. Balin, him not knowing the negotiation was flavored this way. And he then, not harmed."

"But you?" Jack asked.

"Me, I'm knowing that I have done what I learned as a child at my ma's skirts. Make the best of hard situations and look first to survival. My brother be sore hurt and his survival, his very safety needs us to leave here quick. His survival down the road needs ye pocket to be not empty. He'll not ever again impart for coins if I have breath left in me."

"What you learned from your ma, Lemmel, look first to survival. That's a hard lesson to learn, especially for a child. I'm glad you're with us on this trip. But you don't think this business of her not getting a genuine Sky blessing--"

"Ach," Lemmel whispered, flinching as if he'd bitten his tongue. "Aye, ye have the right of it. But ... there be blessing and there be ... blessing. What comes to them truly I know be the word of it, that others know, and what they believe. Sometimes the truth be plain to see, master. The power a god has, be what we give them."

"And you're thinking they'll feel blessed, so they'll get all the good things from it anyway."

"Aye."

"You're pretty damned smart, kid. Go ahead. Make the deal. You'll have to let me know how I'm supposed to do this, give her the coins, okay?

"Aye, master. I go to make the best bargain possible. Rest easy."

Jack settled back on the padding beside his sleeping lover. Rest easy? He felt terrible! He'd just sent Lemmel off to cheat a young couple and to perpetrate a deception that would include Lemmel's own lover. With a frown on his face, he scrambled up and donned Daniel's veil. Then he called Lemmel and Balin both to the tent opening.

In whispered, terse words he laid out the scheme to Balin, taking full responsibility for it. The Champion scowled darkly at Jack, only sparing a short glare at Lemmel. The youth was stoic, taking his lover's disapproval and his master's change of heart without flinching. When Jack was finished speaking, Balin merely nodded that he understood the plan. Jack briefly thought about asking Balin to voice his objection but decided the big man's silence was the best possible reaction. He let it alone and sent Lemmel back to finish the negotiation.

By dark, Jack owned a cart full of grain and a well-trained and sturdy pony. The grain was offloaded, abandoned in the campsite and Balin began planning a way to erect the tent on the bed of the cart so Daniel and Jack could ride in seclusion until they were well away from Drangaskogen.

They were on the road at first light, heading northwest and glad of every yard they progressed away from the northern port. Lemmel rode in front with the pony's lead line in his hand. The other two mounts were tethered to the rear of the cart.

"Ye realize," Balin said as he rode Freyfaxi beside the cart, "that word may precede us. Some may have come this way with a tale of a strange Sky."

Jack sat half in and half out of the swaying tent covering. "We'll cross that bridge when we burn it."

"Nay," Balin said. "There be no wooden bridges between here and the city--"

"Yeah, forget I said anything," Jack answered. He scooted back under the tarp, glowering at how much it shook as the cart rolled along the trail. The surfacing of the roadway was relatively smooth but this cart had not been designed to transport people as comfortably as had their little cart back in Brooksmeet.

Daniel complained several times during the first day, battling nausea and the need to drink water. Most of the time, Jack sat huddled at the opening, peering through Daniel's veil at the freedom and comfort Lemmel and Balin had.

They camped along the trail that night. Balin felt sure that no one from the port had followed them. It was obvious that House Ondeil was on its way to the City of the Highborn, where they'd face much stiffer examination. Apparently, the elders of the port city realized that any Sky entering the city would have to be seemly or would be judged within minutes of passing through the portal. Their duty was done.

Jack didn't really relax until three days down the trek. He was still forced to huddle inside the cart covering with Daniel, hiding from any prying eyes until Balin felt Daniel was well enough to withstand the mild notice of fellow travelers along the road.

On the fifth day of travel, Jack sat brooding at the back of the cart, glaring out at the ease and comfort Balin enjoyed on Freyfaxi's back, a freedom that was denied to Jack.

He couldn't stop his thoughts from wandering back to the exchange six nights ago. Balin had walked with him--no, had led him from the tent, dressed in Daniel's sexually provocative clothing, the loop pulled, his groin freshly shaven. Jack had tugged at the veil, making sure it was very low on his cheeks. And he'd had the sack of marks in his hand. Veil marks, the young couple had been assured. Even in the gathering darkness, Jack could see the eagerness in the young husband's face. He had the freedom to ogle all he wanted. A bargain had been struck.

With each step, Jack was aware of how on display his nuts were, his cock, slightly engorged due to the stricture of the loop. The loop worked like a cock ring, trapping blood in his tool and keeping him slightly tumescent all the time. It felt obscene. No wonder Daniel constantly complained about the underwear.

Jack realized that back in the meadows, he'd actually started appreciating seeing Daniel with a slight hard-on all the time. He'd liked seeing his lover looking subtly aroused. Daniel was so fucking beautiful!

A new guilt started eating at Jack.

The loop had his nuts pulled forward, pulled into the pouch of underwear. Anybody who glanced his way could see just how much he had in the way of nuts and dick. Jack had never been displeased with his endowment. Back in high school when all boys go through a phase of sizing themselves up against others, Jack had been pretty confident. He had decent sized nuts and a long cock. It wasn't all that fat, but he was a shower, not a grower. He had what some guys called a meat cock, not a blood cock. Daniel was the same in that department, except his cock was thick, almost to the point of being fat, and Jack loved to wrap his hand around Daniel's tool, loved to feel the heft of it, the solidness.

He liked the head of Daniel's cock too. It had such a good flair, such a well-defined head. And in this underwear and thin pants, the corona, that sexy flair showed beautifully. Back in the meadows, after Ulfrik had started hiring people to work the sheep farm, it had become necessary for Daniel to dress sluttish, seemly all the time. And Jack had grown accustomed to being able to see Daniel's groin on display whenever he wanted. When the two of them were sitting around just relaxing, he'd watch Daniel, study how the corona was defined and noticeable in his erotic, low riding pants.

Was the young farmer looking at Jack's crotch the same way now? He ducked his head, trying to check out his own crotch. Damn. Yeah. His corona was noticeable. Probably more so in the evening lighting than it would be in broad daylight. The campfire sent strong shafts of light upward, causing more shadows to define the outline of his cock. Jack squirmed on the last few steps. The guy really was getting an eyeful.

Jack regretted not wearing Daniel's cloak. But he'd wanted this to go off without a hitch, and sure hadn't anticipated feeling so exposed. Daniel made it look relatively easy to parade around this way despite all his bitching.

Balin steered him to stand before the young farmers. The man was clearing his throat now and Jack peered up through the veil at him. The guy was hardly more than a kid. He looked younger than Lemmel. Jack glared at the ogling farmer. Then the guy licked his lips and Jack couldn't restrain his own shudder. He wanted to punch the young punk! Instead he dropped his eyes down to the guy's groin hoping for a little payback, and then really regretted not wearing the cloak to cover his own nakedness. The guy had major wood.

Jack balked, took a step back and came up hard against Balin's broad chest and flat stomach. He imagined he could feel Balin's fat cock nudging against him. This was getting way out of hand, he realized. He was letting his own imagination run away with him. Balin probably didn't have a hard-on. That was just the codpiece he wore as part of his armor. He wasn't getting turned on by this. When Balin got hard his cock was much, much larger than that! Jack was sure of the size. He'd seen Balin nudging it at Daniel's nude body enough times.

Damn! Jack gritted his teeth.

Lemmel bowed to him, extending a supporting hand to help Jack step forward to make the payment. Jack nodded, grateful for a brief moment for Lemmel's love of protocol. The kid would have made a damned fine airman. Damned fine addition to the U S Air Force.

Jack forced himself to take that step, to lift up his slippered foot and step forward to the young woman waiting for the payment and for the blessing she'd have by merely touching him. He glanced down to make sure of his footing. The suede slippers were thinner than ballet shoes and walking in them felt awkward. His feet, so much bonier than Daniel's, didn't look sexy. They just looked stupid. Daniel's feet--when he wore these, Daniel's feet looked graceful and strong, like a dancer. Jack blanched when he made that connection. He'd spent time admiring Daniel's feet when they were at Sven's place. He'd watched his beautiful lover padding around the place with Ashild, and had been turned on by the graceful way Daniel moved.

But in the same shoes, Jack felt he looked like a bony klutz.

With an unconcealed grimace of distaste, he extended his hands, cradling the little pouch of gold marks.

They were genuine veil marks. Lemmel hadn't lied about the payment. Jack had slit them from Daniel's veil himself. Some of them had been earned by Daniel whoring himself. Some had been taken from the stash they'd found back at the stone castle, where Daniel had killed Hrainlang. Spending the gold Daniel had gotten by killing the dirty Champion felt good, but spending the gold Daniel had earned in the beds of strangers felt disgusting. Spending the coins Jack had been paid in exchange for Gunnlaug's directed rape of Daniel made Jack's skin crawl.

With a hard effort, Jack gave the woman a little smile as he placed the coins in her hand. She handed the coins to her husband and then, as rehearsed with Lemmel, Jack cupped both of his hands around hers, bringing his bare flesh to hers. As instructed, he held the touch for several seconds. It was important that it be his palms on her, showing all there that he touched her voluntarily and purposefully.

Back in Brooksmeet at the Ram's Head inn that first night, Daniel had reached out and taken hold of Tal's arm. It had been Daniel's palm on the woman's bare arm, his purposeful touch that had blessed her, given her a status that was not done for pay. And this too, this touching the farmer woman wasn't legally for pay. The money had been delivered. The bargain was complete. Lemmel had stressed the importance of that distinction to both the farmers and to Jack. The touch came after the money and so, counted as a blessing.

The young couple would leave the campsite with something money could not buy. They had a Sky's blessing to tell about. Good fortune would come their way because bargains would go more smoothly. Buyers would seek them out, pay more for their grains. Their neighbors would favor them in any exchanges.

Dressed in Daniel's skimpy clothes, Jack let his hands slip away from the woman, angrily eyeing Daniel's hard-earned veil marks in her husband's hands one more time before turning to the tent where his lover slept. Balin supported his hand. He let himself be led by the big Champion.

Jack remembered that he'd slept poorly that night.

On the trail in the little cart, his thoughts pulled away from that dark night's exchange. He'd failed Daniel. Jack berated himself yet again. He'd failed to protect him, to keep him safe from Gunnlaug, from the men in the stone castle and in Drangaskogen. Jack had fought and bucked what Daniel called the small stuff, refusing to give up using his name, refusing to keep him in a seemly way. Then he'd swung too far the other direction, ordering him to stay hidden in the sea-side inn. Jack had fucked up again and again, and Daniel had paid the price.

Then Jack glanced down and caught sight his own bony legs protruding through the slits in the damned pants and he faced the harsh reality of his own illness. He had been taken to the other side of death, had been robbed of every ounce of strength and had fought acknowledging that living death for fear of succumbing to it, even as he recovered in the meadows cot.

"Give myself a break," he mumbled. "Beyond death's door for how many months? Took my body away from me, my spirit. Took my ability to think. So why am I beating myself up over it? Because I love Daniel, that's why. Time for some self-forgiveness. Time to stop bucking the small stuff, take care of him like I should because now ... now I can."

Jack cleared his throat and moved to check on Daniel. His lover was holding his stomach, grimacing at the discomfort he felt from the cart's swaying.

"We're going to stop soon, right?" Daniel asked weakly.

"Yeah. Soon as we find a spa or maybe, maybe just a secluded stretch of the river that parallels this road, okay? We're far enough away from Drangaskogen."

"Fine. I need to be still for a while."

"Yeah. Just hang in there, Sky," Jack said confidently, feeling good about the use of the Sky label for the first time ever. He'd do what needed to be done to protect Daniel, just as Daniel had done what was needed in the low desert.

"Do I have another choice? Hang in there or what, Jack?"

"Snippiness?" Jack asked hopefully.

"Go away. Go ride in Balin's lap a while."

"Hell, no! I'm not ever going to--"

"And yet just a few days ago, you were glaring at me for protesting having to ride in his lap for days on end? Days, Jack. In villages, in towns right in plain view of hundreds of people. We're out in the middle of nowhere and you won't even give the guy a lap dance for a mile of nearly deserted roadway? Give me a break."

Confused about how serious Daniel was, Jack backed away to the rear of the cart again.

"Sorry," Daniel mumbled. "I hate being nauseated. Hate it."

"Yeah, well maybe we'll stop soon. Balin," he called, sticking his head through the opening, "we near a place we can rest for a while?"

"Aye. Up ahead I see a small glade. Might be good if no one inhabits the place. Soon we come to land I've crossed before. There on, we go a safe and gentle way with good folk and much security. All follow the Nortvegr here."

"Mhm," Jack said as he nodded. "And maybe I can change back into my own clothes?"

"Aye--"

Daniel interrupted, "Already tired of playing the whore?"

"Sky ... " Jack said warningly. "Enough. I'm beating myself up enough about this as it is. I don't need you--"

"Maybe I need, Jack. Maybe I need to say all the things I've been hiding away too. You got to let it all hang out, so now it's my turn. You make a lousy looking whore. I guess you were right. It's a good thing you were the one poisoned when we crashed here. With your bony ass? I'd probably have starved to death if I had to rely on you to bring in the bucks by whoring yourself out. And you probably make one hell of a bad lay. As if I'm ever likely to find out what it's like to be on top of you. Me, holding your ankles in the air while I drill you with my ... Oh," he groaned, writhing on the pallet in discomfort. "Oh, God, my stomach. Just get out for a while." Daniel waved his palm at Jack. "Leave me alone so I can sleep. I'm tired of worrying about whether you're staring at me. Go on, Jack. Forget what I said about the lap dance and just ride with Balin for a little way. Please." Daniel closed his eyes and turned on his right side, his back to Jack now.

"You really want to be alone for a while?"

"Yes. Brilliant deduction. You figured out that when I said I want to be alone for a while, I was actually saying ... I want to be alone for a while. Go on." Daniel closed his eyes and shivered as Gruber's thick fingers slid up his left hip. He rolled to that side, trying to push the sensation away. Joslin pushed his wrists down against the padded bedding in the cart. Daniel panted through the pain.

Silently, Jack scrambled from the rear opening and motioned Balin to bring Freyfaxi to the cart. The big Champion reached down and encircled Jack's naked waist, scooping him into the saddle with little effort.

"Should have brought the cloak," Jack said as the pant slits fell open to reveal the pale skin of his thighs. He sighed heavily. Seated on the saddle, the waist of Daniel's pants rode more than halfway down his ass crack. Balin's leather codpiece was at his back door. The guy could be fucking him right now and nobody passing by would know! Of course they'd have to miss the fact that Jack would be in the process of using Balin's personal knife to slit that big, dark throat.

"We stop soon. Be sure the veil sits well. Maybe others are already in the glade and if so, ye must remain in the role as needed."

"But after this, you think it'll be safe for me to be me again, and my Sky be ... my desire again?"

"Ach," Balin said in mild dismay. "Always he be such. This endearment be not merely for a Sky as ye well know. Why do ye forget such essential words? Or forget how their proper use should be?"

"I don't know." It was something Jack often did, forgetting how to use a term correctly, or changing one into a term he felt more comfortable using. Neutrinos became Nintendos in Jack's dictionary. Was it any wonder that he'd forget how to use this planet's funky endearments correctly? They had way too many rules of conduct in regard to Daniel. Way too many. Rules upon rules, surrounding him over and over like fences around livestock.

"Here on this too-traveled road and in the city, such forgetfulness will kill ye Sky."

That rebuke hit dead-center in Jack's recent thoughts. No more slip-ups. No more bucking the small stuff. Were his slip-ups actually causing Daniel's unseemly behavior to continue? His continual use of Daniel's name was putting his lover at further risk, Jack decided.

"But ... aye," Balin said. "After this point, he will be well enough to don his garb and even reclining inside the cart, this will be seemly the closer we draw to the city of ye kind. I mean, of ... those of his kind."

"His kind and my kind are the same kind, Balin."

"Speak not of Midgard. Not until we are away from all possible passers-by."

"Yeah. Okay. But you and me? We've got some serious talking to do."

"Ach." Balin shook his head.

"You think if you ignore reality it's just going to go away?"

"My reality and ye reality may not come to terms with each other. I know Odin's word. I know what has come to pass and I know what his presence among us means. Nyrnortvegr." He indicated the cart where Daniel rested.

"Yeah, and I know how we got here and I know how we're gonna leave."

"By Odin's hand," Balin said confidently.

Jack shook his head, choosing to ignore the big man at his back. Ahead the forest seemed to be thinning. With surprising speed, Jack pushed Balin's hand and took the reins from him. Then he booted, or rather, slippered Freyfaxi's ribs, urging the horse ahead of the cart.

"That the clearing?"

"Ye must not do this," Balin hissed angrily. "Give me back the reins and keep seemly."

"Look, I've got them now--"

"Ye are not him, that I will brook such nonsense." Balin squeezed Jack with his powerful thighs. "Return them now."

"You let my Sky--"

"Hush," Balin managed to make the soft word come out as a deadly growl. With disguised force, he pried Jack's fingers open and took the reins from his hand.

Pain seared through Jack's abused fingers and he clenched them in his crotch rather than rub away the incredible pain. "That wasn't necessary."

"Ho, traveler," Balin called out, his tone perfectly calm. "Come ye from the great City of the Highborn?"

"Ho, Champion," an elderly man called hoarsely. He was crouched by the side of the trail a few yards ahead. "Nay, honored one. Merely from my humble home down to visit my daughter. We follow the Nortvegr, bright Champion."

"Well and good," Balin replied, nodding his helmeted head at the man. His golden horns glinted briefly in the small shafts of sunlight that filtered down through the dense trees. "Have ye need of anything, elder?"

"Nay, nay. Mind, such good manners for asking shall not go unrewarded. Though with such good fortune as ye have already, I wonder what could be greater."

"Ah, elder. Not mine to say what Odin has in store. Though, I believe, none greater exists than the company in which I travel this day."

"Aye," the old man said, grinning broadly to reveal missing teeth. His dark skinned face was awash with happy wrinkles. "Aye. Good journey."

"And to ye, elder." Balin nodded as they passed the man.

Lemmel was only a few yards behind them, leading the white pony and its cart. He nodded to the old man too, and kept a steady pace.

"Foolish," Balin whispered to Jack, his barely controlled rage making him spit on the back of the shorter man's head. "Foolish. And know ye well, the great company be behind us in the cart, not here in my lap. Though, truth be told I know half of it be here in the saddle with me."

His voice softened as he grew introspective. "I've puzzled this long and hard, House. Be ye Lif, or be ye Lifthrasir? Always I had thought one a woman and one a man, the two humans who survived Ragnarok. Though for one to be a Sky makes sense. Two cannot repopulate Midgard, so we must think on this and interpret it to fit the facts as Odin has taught us to do."

"Two who survived Ragnarok? You think Ragnarok has already come?"

"Of course. Else why would Odin bring us to safety here and then send the Nyrnortvegr? Take us from Midgard to keep us safe from that terrible battle. And him died in it, now a true resident of Valhalla, and the only reason he sent Nirrti to alter his people here, because we could not return to Midgard to live until the day it had bloomed again. So this be why ye come to us, ye and him."

"Damn, Balin, you've lost me again."

"Ach. Tonight we will see if ye Sky can explain it. He will know how to make ye understand. I see now, that be also one of his many talents."

"Okay, finally you got something right." Jack nodded smugly. That was Daniel's job on the team, interpret cultures and myths for his team leader. Jack's job—he'd been too ill, too debilitated to do his job for a very long time. The sense of helplessness had been hard to bear. Jack realized he'd have to start acknowledging his own frustration and pain if he had a hope of really understanding Daniel's.

That afternoon, Daniel waited in bed inside the cart as Balin took Jack and the horses down to the slow-moving river. Jack got to have a bath without the veil and then returned to camp to redress in his own clothing.

Alone in the covered cart, Daniel curled tight, feeling nausea battering at his sanity. On top of the sick sensation, Daniel felt jealous that Jack's time under the veil was through. Not because Daniel lost more freedom, he never had any to lose here. But because he knew Jack would be strutting around the camp soon, stretching his legs, wearing solid clothing.

"Crap," Daniel muttered as he shivered under the ghostly touches of the trader and Joslin. "I'm not ready to deal with any of this."

"Hey babe," Jack said cheerfully as he crawled, naked, into the back of the cart. "That water was freezing!"

"Hey, it's liquid, not solid. Be thankful for that. In fact, I could use some cold water about now. My mouth still tastes like a toilet bowl." He rolled onto his side, curling around so he could see Jack.

"Yech." Jack shrugged into a long-sleeved cotton shirt and then handed Daniel a flask of water fresh from the cool river. "Here ya go."

"Thanks. I bet you can't wait to get real underwear on." Daniel sipped at the liquid, not liking the feel of the cold water as it hit his too-sensitive stomach where Joslin's nasty breath tickled him.

"That's for sure. My nuts ache. Babe, how are your nuts?"

"Off limits," he answered quickly. "They feel slightly wracked. Every time I roll over they remind me of that gut-busting, hour-long orgasm I had."

"I can't imagine how much that must have hurt."

"Still hurts," Daniel corrected him, but didn't elaborate on the ongoing sensation of being raped. "So tell me-- if you can divide your attention between the joys of putting on real pants--tell me what Balin's been babbling about? This stuff about a new messiah coming?"

"Came," Jack corrected him. "And I didn't realize you heard any of that."

"Bits and pieces. The drug didn't affect my hearing, just my balls and my stomach."

"He thinks Ragnarok came on Earth and that Odin put everyone here to keep them safe. And Nirrti made worker castes so the folks here could survive until it was time to re-unite with Earth."

"Oh. Makes sense in a way. Since one of Thor's people relocated these Vikings here then that's as good a myth as any to explain the move."

"Well, he also knows you and I are from Earth. Midgard."

"Oh?" Daniel repeated the word, this time with a little bit of alarm added to the weakness of his voice. "Not good." He sat the water down by his side and struggled to prop himself up on a pillow. The soreness in his stomach made moving terribly difficult. Joslin's grip on his knees made moving hard too. And Gruber, the nasty trader wouldn't let go of his ankles.

"He thinks you're here to change their destiny or some such nonsense. You're someone called marijuana. Leaf hasher."

"Lifthrasir?" Daniel demanded, his alarm growing. He pushed himself up on one elbow, grimacing in pain.

"Yeah. Maybe. Leaf or leaf thrasher. One or the other." Jack explained the confrontation he'd had with Balin, Lemmel's revealing the story about their ship crashing in the desert, and Balin's belief that Daniel's presence had been foretold by Odin long ago.

By the end of Jack's explanation, Daniel had gone from shocked to alarmed to deep in thought. He sank back onto the pallet and pondered this new development. "This could work to our advantage. This could help."

"In what way?" Jack asked, a little alarmed as he watched Daniel's eyebrows pull together.

"In helping us get to the gate. Balin will be on our side. He thinks Odin sent us to bring this culture into a new, enlightened era. So we don't have to hide our ignorance of the city from him. We can ask him what we need to know. This will work out, Jack. Trust me."

Another small band of travelers stopped and camped nearby, so Daniel and Jack got no opportunity to speak in absolute privacy that evening.

The next day as the band prepared to leave the clearing it was decided Daniel would ride alone in the cart. His stomach muscles still ached so much he couldn't sit up for long. Though he insisted the nausea was almost gone, he was becoming withdrawn and hadn't spoken to anyone since telling Jack he was working on a plan to free all Skys.

Jack mounted Sleipner, reveling in the feel of real clothes, real pants and sturdy boots with thick soles.

"We are ready, House," Balin called out respectfully, "And ride in the new order as we cross many posted lands." The big Champion, his helmet gleaming, took his position at the rear of the little band. Jack took his place beside Lemmel, just in front of the cart where Daniel rested.

Lemmel gave a little tug to the pony's lead rope and the band of travelers began their trek.

In Sleipner's saddle, the horse calm under him, Jack felt good. It felt marvelous to be outside, to be dressed in decent clothing and riding in the clear air. He took a deep breath, arching his back and stretching tight muscles. When wearing Daniel's too-revealing clothing he'd started subconsciously keeping himself tight, squeezed in. His shoulders had stayed rounded and his arms clenched at his sides.

On Daniel, that posture really didn't look that bad. It didn't look so withdrawn, but maybe a little demure, graceful. On Jack it just looked like slumping. He hated slumping. It went against his military training. It went against who he was as a man.

Any travelers they might meet today would see Lemmel first, his upper arm clearly marked with colored ribbons of a Highborn's house. In addition, he wore a bold blue sash across his chest, and Balin wore an additional blue ribbon on his right bicep. This marking was necessary now, as they would be drawing close to the marked lands that surrounded the City of the Highborn today. With Daniel still hidden within the cart, any party they approached who also might belong to Highborn Houses needed to know to give their party the respect due a house that hosted a Sky.

"Pomp and circumstance," Jack complained to Balin. "It follows me everywhere."

"Strange to say it that way, House. Ye mean the glory, eh? Glory that must be shown to all so as they show too. They show their glory in the curtsey when they greet ye. It gives to them a sense of their own prosperity."

"I suppose so," Jack agreed. "So we've got a few posted lands to cross between here and the city, right?"

"Aye."

"Damn. This really is an expensive trip. No wonder some of 'em, the ones like Ostergott, no wonder they latch onto someone to make the trip cheaper."

"When I served as the honored Champion of House Laxdale, and then later with Ostergott, I never thought much on the cost for a Highborn to travel. We'd make our way and coins were paid or time behind the veil given. It was not something I thought on, but it cost Ostergott's Sky dearly. Too dearly."

"Yeah, well don't worry about my Sky. We've got more than enough coins, thanks to Hrainlang and Dolf. And thanks to Lemmel's sharp trading. Damn but that was a disgusting thing to do, trading for that cart. It felt too damned much like whoring."

"For ye, it was," Balin said with a nod. "Whoring be what ye did because ye are not a Sky."

"Crap," Jack muttered. He laid Sleipner's reins on her neck and looked at his palms. Though it had been a woman he touched, Jack had figured out later that she'd probably gone and used those hands on her husband's dick shortly after that. The two had bedded down at the edge of Jack's campsite, sleeping under an oilskin cloth lean-to stretched between trees. They'd had sex. He'd heard it. He'd heard it for a damned long time that night. And now he realized she'd probably been using those unwashed hands on her husband's stiff cock, working her bare hands up and down him, rubbing any essence of Jack off onto her husband's cock. Then the guy had probably slid that dick into her.

Jack shuddered. Had Daniel experienced that? Had Daniel even figured out the women he touched went off and had sex right afterward? Hell. Had Tal done that? No. No, she hadn't. She'd been a virgin when she hooked up with Lemmel and Balin.

The thought of how difficult it was for Lemmel to have sex with a woman brought a smile to Jack's face. Then he chuckled, shaking his head in delight. "Tal is an amazing woman, isn't she?"

"Tal? The sweet lass?" Balin asked, his eyes cutting sharply to Jack. "Ye think on her having a true Sky's blessing, eh?"

"Yeah. I was just wondering if my Sky's figured out that some of the women he touches go have sex right afterward. Like what happened with the farmers and the cart."

"Ah. Tal be not like that, House. She did not use the blessing that way. She be a seemly woman."

"You sound like you really love her."

"I do," Balin answered boldly.

"You'll go back to her when we leave for Midgard then?"

"If possible," Balin answered cautiously. "I would be happy there. It be a simpler life, and one I am keen to have again. But this time I will go to Brooksmeet with sweet Lemmel at my side and thus, I will be content to stay. I was not content. When ye Sky came to Brooksmeet too ready was I to leave and I feared it was merely an excuse, me wanting to leave. I mean, this would be an opportunity, a glory. My leaving in the service of House Ondeil would be a glory instead of a weakness. This was something myself and I argued about, and I fear it was what delayed me offering my sword to ye."

"Don't sweat it," Jack said. "I mean, don't doubt yourself. If you'd offered your sword earlier I'd probably have refused it. The timing wasn't right yet. The way it happened, well, that was the only way it could have happened. Don't sweat it."

"Aye." Balin scrunched his mouth into a pucker and was silent for a long moment. "Aye."

While Daniel remained withdrawn in a cocoon of nausea and pain, House Ondeil traveled the well-used road for five more days, taking lodging at seemly inns, and once, within the cottage of a not-too-prosperous Highborn. There was no Sky in residence; just an elderly white-haired man, stooped and wrinkled with age. Jack left him more coins than was necessary. The toothless old man appreciated Jack's generosity and promptly used many of the coins to pay his housekeeper. As they left, he waved at the band of travelers until Jack thought the old guy's arm might fall off.

Soon after they left the old Highborn, Daniel decided his strained muscles had recovered enough for him to sit on a saddle without looking like a drunken sailor. He didn't protest when Balin switched horses with Lemmel and took Daniel into his lap. At the next opportunity, Lemmel sold the cart and pony, putting coins back in Jack's considerable stash.

Balin announced they'd have only one more night on the road before reaching the City of the Highborn. Late that afternoon they reached a very grand inn with an attached bathhouse, suitable for the dignity of House Ondeil.

Lemmel made the arrangements while Jack and Balin waited on their horses. Daniel was seemly in Balin's lap, his veil properly in place.

Within just a few moments Lemmel returned, announcing there were a couple of other Highborn Houses in temporary residence; one, host to the Sky. Excellent, and very private accommodations were being readied for House Ondeil, complete with an outer chamber for his Champion and servant.

As he was being led through the great hall, Daniel didn't even ask if they could stop a while and have a meal amid the other travelers. He stayed in step with Jack, his gait stiff because his testicles were still extremely sore. But he managed to look graceful, his cloak flowing behind him as the inn's owner, a spry old working caste woman, personally escorted the party to their accommodations on the second floor. Again, they had windows and a decent view of the road leading off toward the city. Daniel left Jack's side but did not go peer out the window. He slumped on the side of the bed and waited silently, Gruber and Joslin pawing at him, trying to get him to roll over and spread his legs.

"Aye, Highborn," the comely innkeeper answered Jack. "Be there by mid-morning if ye leave with first light. If ye take leisure in the bath house come breakfast time ye'd still reach ye kind's fair city by noon."

"Good," Jack said, giving her a grateful nod.

"Been a long time since ye passed this way?" she asked, showing how puzzled she was at his lack of knowledge.

"I've never approached the city from this direction before," Jack said, keeping his tone casual. "You have a very nice inn. It shows a lot of fine care goes into its upkeep. We'll enjoy our stay here."

The woman recognized his dismissive tone, but was so pleased with the flattery that she didn't mind. She curtseyed and swiftly withdrew, closing the door firmly behind her.

"Well done, master," Lemmel said with a broad smile at Jack.

"Jack, I've been thinking."

"Uh oh," Jack said lightheartedly, and then grew somber. He joined Daniel on the edge of the bed, turning his back on the two worker caste men. "Yeah, I figured something was up. Let's talk about it, Sky. You've been through a lot. With what happened with the traders back at the port--"

"No. Not about that. I've been thinking of how we can end this caste system." Daniel lowered his voice, moving to wrap his arm around Jack's waist. "We need to end it with as little danger as possible. Such a broad social change would almost surely lead to great risk for the people who lose status. We have to do this in such a way that we don't cause more damage. This thing Balin was talking about, a prophecy of a new time, a new way ..."

"The new northern way. Odin's supposed to give these people a test to see if they've matured past childhood, just like the thing in Thor's hall."

"Yeah. Mathematics. The universal language. Pi. So there has to be something like that here on this planet. The Asgard who planted these people left something like that here. If the gate doesn't work we can just find that and solve it to summon an Asgard ship to get home. But I have a plan. If we can step through the gate and then come back through it we can proclaim that Odin has said the new time is here and that all people are equal, that Highborn no longer have to live apart and that Skys no longer have to be kept separate. They can now live as normal men because Odin's presence is all around now. The worker castes don't need to go through the Skys to reach their gods."

"And that demotes all the Skys everywhere," Jack said. "But we have to supply the existing Skys with a way to live until they can support themselves. Ones like Ashild and Odamari will have their guys to support them, but others will need to learn a trade."

"I've thought of that too," Daniel said. "We'll have to say that the Skys still hand out blessings, the blue eyes," he paused to point at Balin and Lemmel's eerie blue eyes, "won't go away with a simple decree. So some of the myth has to remain intact. Skys could still earn a living that way, could still be treated as revered. Much like forefathers in Viking culture. Less like religious icons."

"So you're saying we demote the Skys but not get rid of their status all together."

"Yes. That will take time. Maybe centuries. Maybe it'll never disappear. And there's still the cultural mindset that makes blue eyes an erotic factor. That's not going to disappear for a long time. We just have to make sure the decree keeps the protection in effect. Skys are physically vulnerable. The hands-off laws have to stay in effect." Daniel let his arm slip from Jack and cupped his own testicles to relieve the constant pain, wincing at their tenderness.

"Yeah. So you gonna work something up? A list of ten commandments or something?"

"Hm. I'm very uncomfortable with that comparison. Very."

"Sorry, babe. You're not Moses. Balin seems to think you're a prophet though."

"He thinks you and I are the two humans chosen by Odin to survive Ragnarok. And in a way, he's right. We survived the fiery space ship crash. The small world we traveled on was destroyed and we had to adapt to a completely new way of life. So here we are, the only two modern Midgard human beings on this whole planet. And now we're going to set up a new religious system. That kind of fills the requirements for that prophecy nicely. All tidy."

"Okay so now I'm the one that's uncomfortable," Jack said earnestly.

"Don't be. We can't screw things up any worse than that bitch Nirrti did."

"If you say so," Jack said, his face clearly showing his doubt. He shifted, letting Daniel slide his arms further around his waist. Since being well enough to be out of the cart Daniel was always touching him. Jack shifted further, returning the gentle touch. "But I'll go along with the plan. You gotta come up with those commandments though."

"I'm working on them," Daniel assured him. "I just need to talk to Balin a bit more about the prophecy. We don't want some little unknown fact coming along to bite us in the ass later."

"Unknown," Jack said uneasily. "Yeah. Unknown."

A meal was served in their chambers. Jack declared it necessary for them to spend time alone where they were free to talk openly before entering the City of the Highborn. After the food was carted into the common sitting room, Lemmel ushered the inn's servants out and locked the door.

With his veil draped loosely over his head, Daniel sat across the square table from Balin, sipping his ale and pondering how to approach the subject delicately. Joslin's tongue on his crotch was nothing more than a mild irritant right now. "Balin," he said, deciding on the direct approach, "I need to go to the altar that the Champions have been guarding. I need to ... turn it on. Make it active."

"Aye," Balin said, using a very casual tone of voice. "This be ye destiny, to take ye proper place as the one who brings about the new way."

"So ... how would you suggest ... " Daniel shrugged, waiting hopefully for Balin to continue, to fill in some of the blanks for him and Jack.

"Aye. Ye know it be well secluded. Right under the temple guardian's noses. We have our way to see in, the secret viewer that leads from the Champion's hall right into their midst, right into the temple of the goddess."

"And?" Daniel said expectantly. He scooted back from the table, getting his ankles away from Gruber's hard fingers.

"And?" Balin echoed.

"Yeah," Jack butted in. "Any suggestions about how we get a look through that secret viewer thingy? And what kind of resistance will there be once we poke our heads in this big temple?"

"Resistance? Ye wish to plan the foray, eh House?"

"Yeah. Foray," Jack repeated. "Can we get a map of this place?"

"Nay. We must go to the hall of Champions, in a seemly way of course. Ye will gain entry with my sword. My sword in service to House Ondeil gains ye entry to seek an audience with a council of Champions. There, ye must declare ye need, must make known that ye are Lif and Lifthrasir, sent by Odin to bring the new way. All will see him for who he be, as I have come to." The big man paused and turned to Daniel. "They will know ye for who ye are and will kneel down, giving their allegiance, thus the allegiance of all of Nortvegr to ye. This world belongs to ye and will do ye bidding. But of course, only after ye open the new way. This Odin has said must happen."

"First, I don't want to own this world." Daniel then turned to Jack. "And what if the DHD doesn't work for some reason? If we go in there with a host of Champions at our backs and the DHD is offline ... "

"Nasty," Jack swore, shaking his head. "Let's rework that game plan. Balin, how about we skip going to the hall of Champions and just kind of sneak into the main temple alone? No fanfare, no big trumpets or anything? Stealth mode."

"Stealth. This be like a thief in the night?"

"Uh. Yeah."

"Ye cannot steal from Odin, House. It be not possible."

"I don't plan to steal anything," Jack said, shaking his head in slight amusement. "I just wanna get in, check the place out, have a look around. Get it?"

"Aye. Got it," Balin said, echoing Jack's amusement. The big man gave them a thin smile. "It can be done. But ... I think in the hall ... I think it will not be possible for Odin's promise, the Nyrnortvegr, to pass through unrecognized. In such a place," he paused to eye Daniel, but spoke only to Jack, "in such a place Odin will make his chosen one's presence known. There will be a sign."

"A sign?" Daniel asked in alarm.

"Like some kind of flashing light's gonna go off?" Jack asked, now showing annoyance at Balin's insistence on continuing the talk about fate. "I think we can shove that nonsense aside for a minute--"

Daniel interrupted Jack. "Don't call someone's religious beliefs nonsense, Jack. That's never been a good practice. From Protestant missionaries in the Americas to Catholics in Africa. Never a good idea."

"Oh, come on," Jack protested mildly.

"We either work the system or we fight an entire planet. Which would you rather do?" Daniel asked bluntly. "No. Don't answer that. You'd take on the entire population. But we're going to do this as easily as possible. As little trauma as possible. Let's go to the Champion's hall with Balin, have a look around and just see what turns up, okay? If we can get into the temple unseen, we'll do it. Check around and see if we can find the DHD, and if it works ... "

"Yeah," Jack acquiesced.

"From in the Champion's hall," Balin said slowly, his left eyebrow rising, "we view the hall of the temple. We behold the secret rituals of the Highborn women, the temple guardians and the women they serve. Ye may view this. Ye may look through the long-viewer and see the chamber in which sits the ring of Odin. Ye may ... check it out and find dee aye dee if it so exists."

"You've seen through this long-viewer? Seen the ring?"

"Aye. I am a Champion," Balin answered Jack's question. "Ye can by rights go to the center of the temple if ye seek a joining with ye Sky, join with him and step through the ring then. At that time ye might find the dee ye seek."

"Might be a better idea, Sky."

"Do we have enough coins to do that? By the time we pay our way into the city ... "

"Plenty, Sky. Don't worry," Jack said earnestly, placing his hand over his lover's hand.

"How many coins, exactly? How many marks other than the ones on my veil? Tell me how many?"

"Sorry," Jack said, bowing his head for a moment. "Yeah, you should know exactly how many. Lemmel ... " Jack finally glanced up at his steward, and then turned back to Daniel.

"Aye, master. I shall make a new tally for ye."

"For my Sky," Jack corrected him.

"Aye. Gladly."

"Not seemly for a Sky to be concerned with what coins his House has," Balin muttered. "Even though I know in my head he be the new way, it be not seemly and I mostly know this, but still it troubles me more than it should."

"I don't want to try to follow that logic, Balin," Jack complained, shaking his head in disapproval.

"I've accepted that you know we're from Midgard," Daniel said to the Champion. "And, as far as the gods are concerned, well, I'm not going to discuss the rest of it with you. I do have a message and I hope there will be a change on Nortvegr, a peaceful change."

"Aye. After ye open the altar ye will have the might of every Champion's sword at ye beck and call. When ye take ye rightful place at the altar of Odin, and show the way be open, then all will see ye for who ye are, and none will stand against ye word in any matter."

Daniel scowled, his eyes still locked with Jack's. For a moment Gruber's nasty clawing fingers threatened to tear his attention away from Jack, but Daniel steeled himself against the sensation, ignoring the tight grip on his ankles. It wasn't really there, after all. It was just a memory. An echo.

"Not what you've ever wanted," Jack said softly. "But this time you can do some good with it, this god label."

"Not a god," Daniel said with great certainty. "A mortal man. Odin would have nothing more than a mortal deliver his message."

"Those tricky Asgard," Jack said, letting a smile lift the corner of his mouth.

"You're thinking it was good planning on their part. No goa'uld would be able to parade around here being worshipped and manage to resist declaring his own godhood."

"Exactly! Gotta admire their little, gray butts. And on that note, it's time to hit the hay."

They went to bed early that night, Lemmel and Balin in the outer chamber, Daniel and Jack alone in their big bed. Once during the middle of the night Jack woke, feeling a tingling in his dick. He realized he'd nestled spoon-fashioned into Daniel's back. His cock was squeezed between their naked bodies. He held perfectly still, taking slow breaths and willing the hard-on to fade. Daniel was in no shape for any kind of sex, but that didn't mean Jack's dick was going to take the week off. It was at full mast, right at the point where he knew he'd start leaking precum any minute. By sheer force of will Jack backed off, got his desire under control and left Daniel alone.

He desperately wanted Daniel to stay asleep. Each night since he'd woken from his drug-induced slumber, Daniel had slept fitfully. His eyes had dark circles under them, and Jack was growing more worried daily. The few hours Daniel did manage to sleep always ended with a nightmare, sweats and Jack having to hold him until his heart stopped racing. Occasionally Jack had awakened to find Daniel huddled in a chair or curled on the floor, trying to avoid waking Jack with the frequent nightmares.

A troubling dream roused Daniel, and this time he managed to hold perfectly still as Teal'c had taught him on a mission some years ago. Wake carefully. Gauge your surroundings and try to figure out what woke you. If an enemy is near, it is best not to give away your awareness. It might be all that separates you from death.

The ghosts of Gruber's hands were around his ankles. Joslin gripped his wrists as he had every night Daniel woke since Drangaskogen. Their fingertips dug into him. They were raping him. The stench of their unwashed bodies and rotten teeth filled his sinuses.

But Gruber and Joslin were not here. It was Jack, snuggled tightly against his back. That, Daniel knew, was the reality he felt. Jack was lying as still as Daniel was. Jack was being considerate and careful with him. Jack was somewhat hard, but as Daniel continued to lie still, he could feel the stiffness of the hard-on recede.

More, he knew Jack was awake. His breathing wasn't as deep as it should be. Daniel realized his lover had gotten aroused and instead of acting on it, even relieving himself, he'd laid still until his arousal faded.

For the tiniest of fleeting moments, Daniel wondered if Jack no longer found him attractive. But that thought was unworthy of a man like Jack. Only Daniel's actions could harm the love Jack had for him, not someone else's actions. He smiled softly in the dark, and then frowned. He wasn't dealing with the attack by those two traders. He hadn't let Jack talk about it, and he was determined to ignore it as long as possible.

There was just too damned much to do to sit around whining about an attack that he'd come through nearly unscathed. He was fine. His testicles were incredibly sore, but he was fine. And having Jack against his skin, at least on one side, helped tremendously. He knew Gruber and Joslin couldn't be touching him from that side at least. Yes, on that side, he was safe.

The next morning, Daniel demanded they all forego a hot soak and make do with quick sponge baths and get on the road. He couldn't wait any longer to see the city. He'd fought his way from the bottom of a continent to get here. Even a half a day longer was too long a wait to reach his destination.

It was a short and gentle ride along a well-maintained dirt roadway to the City of the Highborn. Daniel rode in Jack's lap for this part of the journey, seemly because of the proximity to the city. All the land around it was marked. Every square inch for more than a day's ride in any direction was owned by one Highborn or another. Their travel today was proving to be terribly expensive.

Lemmel rode in front of their small party, leading the extra horse. His clothes were spotless and his blue sash plain for all to see. Balin rode slightly behind his House, a post of honor. He'd wanted to hire a few temporary servants to swell their ranks on the way in the city, but Jack had vetoed the unnecessary expense.

On the road, they met a couple of groups of travelers coming from the city, mostly merchants returning from the dawn market, and passed a few travelers who were on foot, making their way north.

One minute they were riding under the thick, obscuring canopy of the giant trees, and the next, they'd moved into clear space at the bottom of a gentle rise. At the top of the rise was the great walled city, the City of the Highborn. Jack called a halt, and they took a moment to take in the view.

The city's outer wall looked to be maybe three stories tall, made of a silvery material that gleamed in the morning light. It stretched about two miles wide and looked to be an almost perfect circle from this side.

"Might be metal," Jack mused.

"A brushed steel look to it. But no rust."

"Blocks of it," Jack said. "See the narrow openings way up high? Windows for archers. And along the top, there, see? There's a walkway behind the top. Balin, what's the outer wall made of?"

"A substance that Nirrti gifted to the people. It be similar to blade steel, and exists nowhere on the planet but in the construction of this glorious dwelling place. None of its kind may be taken from within the walls."

"This wall go all the way around?"

"Aye," Balin said. "All the way around, this be the only gate, here at the end of this path where it joins with two other roads. One be from the west, yon," he said, reaching his left arm out wide, and then turning in his saddle to indicate the other direction. "One from the south, and all meet leading into the city, in a northerly direction."

"Huh," Jack said in surprise. "I'd have thought the gate would face north."

"No," Daniel said, shaking his veiled head. "It makes sense. To enter the city a traveler must be going north, thus, keeping the northern way. The Nortvegr."

"Oh. Well, let's get on the road. We won't get anywhere sitting here rubbernecking. We're playing tourist."

"Aye," Balin said, accepting Jack's unusual phrase as if he'd heard such many times before. "At the gate, now, Highborn, ye will dismount and walk through. As discussed, we follow on horseback, but ye must enter alone and receive the circle, which gives ye leave to depart the city again without serving in the temple. Aye?"

"Yes. I just walk through the gate and one of the temple guardians will give me the circle?"

"Aye, and place it on a cord around ye neck so all may see ye have served, and are thus free to leave at any time. Also ye pay for the House to enter. Never did understand why it was a Sky to deliver the coins instead of the steward, but such be tradition--"

"Champion," Lemmel interrupted, something he'd done less and less as he'd gained more experience, "what else must my broth-- my master's Sky know of the custom, the comportment of going through the gate? I've heard it be done naked."

"Shit!" Daniel cursed. "No fucking way!"

"Nay! Nay," Balin said hastily. "A tale for ignorant peasants to bring themselves to the act of coming. Nothing more. A dirty story only. That be all. I assure ye, Highborn. Merely, ye go through barefoot, no cloak. Ye must show seemliness. As in, the loop pulled, and ye body shown to be ... be of use."

"Of use? But I can wear my veil, right? This isn't supposed to be a sexual thing."

"Nay. It ... No veil. The temple guardian must be free to touch ye to place the circle, free to inspect ye if needed. Ye must enter without the veil or the guardian must remove it."

"And they're going to be judging me. That's going to happen constantly in this city, isn't it?" he asked the big Champion. "Jack, you need to be ready for that. I mean, you're going to have to stay calm, in control of yourself. This isn't going to be easy."

"The guardians?"

"The temple guardians who walk around the city. Remember Ashild telling us that if they see a Sky acting strangely, they follow them, watch them for a while to judge whether they're being seemly. When he and I were alone in the tower overlooking Sven's land, Ashild told me about his time in the city. He wasn't very good at bargaining. He ended up sleeping in doorways a few times. He said if a Sky does that too often then he'll get taken for judgment. And apparently some of them are pretty bad at bargaining. Some end up in the eastern part of the temple and servicing Nirrti's worshipers often, just to get coins to survive on."

"Servicing," Jack echoed apprehensively.

"Taking anyone who comes in the temple. That's the way I understood it. Odamari is afraid that if they have a son who's blue-eyed he might end up being so bad at bargaining that he'll never escape the city and end up as a temple whore."

"Oh. Crap," Jack swore.

"Eh," Balin said, sounding reluctant to speak. "Highborn, there may be a misconception ye have ... More, that I myself have allowed ye to build. But I plead it was due to my ignorance of ye true origin. I had thought ye came from yon city, and knew the feel of being in it."

"Yeah?" Daniel prompted the big man, shifting between Jack's thighs nervously.

"Aye. It be true in the low desert, them there see so rarely a Sky that they do not adhere to the ways of seemliness as they should. Purely out of ignorance," he said, and paused to look guiltily at Lemmel.

The big lad gave the Champion a half-grin. "Aye. Ignorance be not knowing. No shame in not knowing. Only in misdeeds done deliberately, my ma always says."

Balin nodded and continued to speak to Daniel. "Aye. And in the middle lands below the great divide, them there adhere to seemliness as they understand it, missing as they do some of the finer points. Still, they follow the Nortvegr. And above the divide, in such cities as Drangaskogen they follow the Nortvegr the most strict of all. Like a noose it be. A noose that almost caught us all. But within the walls of the city allowances are made. There be youngling Skys there, fresh from the Forbidden Garden and them acting anything but seemly. Then there be older Skys who resist the ways in their own fashion. Them who never impart. Them who live by other means and not well, I might add. Judgment be a rarer thing there than in Drangaskogen. Men--men such as myself I mean, men who are worker caste, they take liberties with Skys and ... "

Several moments of uncomfortable silence stretched out. Finally Daniel broke it. "What do you mean by liberties?"

"Them, they will do what be possible to perceive a Sky's unveiled face. Them, some into ale too deep will stand in a Sky's way and take the touch even to die afterward. Some will--"

"Wait. You mean suicide? Causing their own death?"

"Aye. And provoke a Sky. Some will provoke. So ye must, since ye are of House Ondeil, ye must stay well protected at all times unless ye not mind being so provoked."

"Wait," Jack interrupted. "What does it have to do with him being of my house?"

"Less freedom and at the same time, more freedom. He'll not need to impart or work for his living needs. Food. Inn. Ye provide and all will know this seeing him in our company."

"So Sky, you just have to stick with us." Jack wrapped his right arm protectively around Daniel's bare stomach.

"Or festival service," Balin said. "Ye will not go out at sunset on Festive night which comes in the winter season."

"That sounds suspiciously like an order." Jack tightened his grip on Daniel, glaring at Balin at the same time. "Just because you know now that we're not from here doesn't mean you can start ordering my Sky--"

"I won't be on the streets at night," Daniel said forcefully. "No fucking way. On Festive night or any other night just in case I forget what season it is."

"What the hell is this about?" Jack demanded. "I haven't heard about this. Why haven't I heard about this before now? Balin? Sky?" Jack glared at his lover's profile and then shot an angrier look at the big Champion. "I'm getting the feeling we should have taken more time to talk on the journey north. Especially last night."

"How could we, Jack? Until recently we couldn't ask Balin any questions. Until we left Drangaskogen, we were relying on bits and pieces of information. But to answer your question, Festival night happens in winter, and it's somewhat similar to an orgy back on Earth. Nirrti chose that as the time for the citizens to worship her. She's the goddess of witchcraft, of dark, uncontrolled desires. It would make perfect sense, this festival idea."

"Wintertime? When the hell is that? Does this culture have an actual calendar? I wasn't aware they had one."

"Of course they do, Jack--"

"Don't give me that of course stuff, Sky. I think we need to turn around and--"

"No!" Daniel shouted. "I've worked up enough nerve to go in this damned hell-hole. You're not going to make me wait another day to get this over with, do you hear me?"

Jack rocked back in his saddle, stunned at Daniel's anger. "Yeah. This is going to be tough on you. Okay. We'll just take it step by step." He turned and looked at the metal wall of the city he was taking Daniel into. It gleamed like a well-polished sword, a sharp, deadly blade. Jack frowned and tightened his hold on his lover.

End of book 6

Next: Spirit