Free STARGATE SG-1 29 Hall of the Two Truths by Susannah Parker Sinard Page B

real. As real as the last time he’d seen it. A lone tent in the middle of nowhere, its black-spired top rising high above its golden sides. At the four corners, banners of black and gold fluttered in the constant breeze as the late afternoon sun glinted off the standards atop the canopied entrance.
    It was the tent of a queen.
    The tent of Amaunet.
    Funny how he remembered it so clearly. At the time it had hardly registered. But seeing it again — or, at least, something that looked like it — he knew it instantly. He had died there. Once. And also he’d begun to live again. Slowly. So maybe it wasn’t too much of a stretch that he should find it here, of all places, where he’d died and yet, also, somehow seemed to live.
    If that’s what was happening to him. Which he still wasn’t sure of quite yet.
    Reaching the tent took longer than expected. He’d never been good at judging distances. Jack had long ago taken that privilege away from him on missions. Sam was the go-to person for figuring out how far it was between point A and point B. And Teal’c would have known precisely how long it would have taken to get there.
    Daniel wondered if they were dead. Teal’c, he knew, had gone down, but what about Sam and Jack? Maybe they were already in the tent, waiting for him.
    Alone, Daniel felt vulnerable. Trudging across the valley to the distant ridge he wondered how many pairs of eyes were following him, or how many staff weapons might be trained on him. When the others were with him, he rarely gave such things a second thought. It was odd being on his own like this. Almost like part of him was missing.
    The sensation wasn’t exactly new. He often felt like this, even when the others were around. Jack had been such an ass lately, it was having an impact on all of them. But it was more than that. Daniel had been feeling this way for quite some time, as though the others were heading in one direction and he in another. Like he was walking through a valley all alone, taking a path toward some unknown destiny.
    An apt metaphor, given the circumstances. Or, come to think of it, were these circumstances the direct result of what he’d been feeling lately? Now there was a conundrum. If he was dead, was this all a creation of his own thoughts and fears and beliefs? Or was it completely serendipitous that he found himself in an actual, physical representation of exactly where his thoughts and emotions had been lately?
    Frankly, it seemed too coincidental. And, for better or worse, he’d learned from Jack that anything that looked like it was a little too convenient, probably was.
    Although that would mean he was dead, and part of him still wasn’t ready to go there. Not without a little more evidence. Besides, it would most likely mean that the rest of his team were dead as well, and that surety was something he really did not want to deal with.
    The woman standing beneath the striped canopy seemed to materialize from nowhere. Daniel had merely looked away for a moment and suddenly she was there. He was still too far away to see her face clearly, but it didn’t stop his heart from lurching against his chest. The color of her hair, her slight build, and her flowing Abydonian robes: they were all he needed to tell him that what he’d hoped, or perhaps feared, was true. After all, if this were any sort of afterlife, she would be there.
    “Sha’re!” He ran toward her, his feet trying to find purchase in the soft sand. When she didn’t turn around, he called her name again, but the wind only blew it back toward him. Determined, Daniel ran faster until he reached the crest of the hill and the place where she stood.
    “Sha’re!” he said again, panting with exhaustion. He touched her arm and she turned around, her own ringed hand covering his. Daniel felt a slight burning sensation but he barely noticed because the woman was not Sha’re after all, but a stranger. Daniel stepped back, yanking his hand away.
    “Who are