Chapter Seven

On the planet Epona

Kyna takes a step back to steady herself as she holds the short, double-edged, pattern welded sword high in one hand, using the other to regain her balance. To either side of her two Valkyr tower above her, circling her slowly in a decreasing spiral, making ground, their blunt training steel still glittering in the early morning light of the central courtyard of the Queen's Hall.

Last night, under instructions from Queen Tara, Kyna was taken to the Valkyr's quarters and given a small, bare cell with a bunk and a wash bucket and then told to wait until called for training in the morning. At dawn she was summoned to the Valkyr's armourer but there was nothing suitable due to her size save for the small double-edged sword she is wielding now. But Kyna doesn't mind, the breastplate, greaves and shield would only have weighed her down, her speed and agility would be her armour. Now, after two hours of chasing her round the courtyard, she can tell the two Valkyr are beginning to feel the heat and weight of their uniform.

Light is streaming into the courtyard as the sun climbs higher and Kyna can see a way to defeat both guards as she forces them to follow her into its path. While one is monetarily blinded by the dazzling glare, Kyna leaps onto her, forcing the Valkyr to abandon her sword and shield as she falls backwards. Kyna uses her sprawling body as a springboard onto the other guard, knocking her shield clear and pinning her to the ground with the point of her sword. From a shaded balcony overlooking the courtyard there is a round of applause and a familiar voice rings out.

'Well done Kyna, I can see my champions will have to keep their wits about them if they are to train you. I see you have found a weapon, a Xiphos?'

'Yes, my Queen.' Kyna takes a small bow and holds up the blade to the light, 'I'm calling it Raizor' As she paddles it in the sunlight, a dazzling rainbow of reflected light falls across the courtyard.

'Well, just make sure Kyna, you don't injure Cailin and Myrna too much in your training session.' And with that Tara leaves and Kyna turns to find the two Valkyr ready and waiting for her. She squares her shoulders and charges at them, blade flashing in the sunshine.

On Earth, near Stonehenge.

Teal'c and Jack crouch low beside a hedge and watch as Rob Bowden staggers across the ploughed field, clutching his arm as though in pain. They had tracked him from the café through the local countryside to this field and are surprised to find him out in the open and acting very strangely.

Rob holds his arm close to his chest, the weight of the ring almost unbearable. He has tried to remove it but it's become part of him, sealing itself to his flesh, eating in to him. The dragon writhes in the gold seal and every time he glances at it, it seems to devour him more, his mind filled with its eyes and its hunger. He feels like screaming and screaming in terror and pain and he wishes with every fibre of his being he had never found those coins or the small box the ring was in. But he cannot change his destiny and the Dragon King's soul, released from it's burial tomb by the power of the Ring, the great seal of Epona torn apart as though by an earthquake, carries on eating into his mind as the Ring of Nixor claims its next bearer, giving human flesh and form to Nixor, the Dragon once more.

Finally, Rob gives way to the screaming torment raging inside him and shrieks out loud, clawing at his own flesh with his nails and then collapsing in a heap to the ground. Teal'c and Jack seize the moment and rush over to restrain him, only to find him unconscious, blood welling from the deep scratches on his arms.

Jack radios in for a medical evacuation team and within half an hour they have Rob Bowden safely secured in the medical isolation unit back at SGC UK, the in-house doctor and his team on hand to help him. Behind the safety of the glass isolation window Teal'c and Jack are joined by Prof. Peter Cromwell, keen to find out what had happened.

'...and then he collapsed, as though he was suffering a great torment. ' Finishes Teal'c, adding, 'Jack called for the helicopter while I tried to revive him. But he has been like this since.'

Peter shakes his head and sighs. 'Never mind. At least we have him here, safe as he can be. The ring artefacts?'

'The doctor is trying to remove the ring, we have the box it was in, looks like the same material as the coins.' Jack hands over the small box that contained the dragon ring. 'We found nothing else on him.'

'Well, it's something I guess, I'll get my team to analyse this too.' Peter hurries away while Jack and Teal'c watch as Rob Bowden suddenly starts to writhe in his unconscious state as though fighting a demon, arms and legs thrashing about. The doctor calls over a couple of nurses and they start to place restrains on his arms and legs in an effort to stop him falling off the bed while the doctor administers a heavy sedative to calm him down.

On the planet Epona

Kyna drops to the floor, arm aching from the weight of the sword, as Myrna calls a halt to the morning's training session. 'No good sitting there, Kyna, as novice you get to go and draw the water for us!' Cailin hands Kyna the water bucket, 'Off you run to the well. We shall be waiting for you to brew our tea at our quarters!' the two Valkyr chuckle as Kyna groans and gets to her feet. She takes the bucket ungraciously and heads off back through the maze of corridors and courtyards that sprawl around the Queen's Hall. Within a short time she is completely lost and ends up following a quiet, colonnaded walkway through to an empty courtyard lost in dappled shade from an overhanging glade of trees. In the centre is a large, circular pool and with relief Kyna rushes forward to fill her bucket with its water only to pull up short at the pool's edge. Had the water just moved? Perhaps it is a trick of the light but as Kyna stares the surface of the pond ripples outwards in a perfect set of concentric rings. As Kyna watches the ripples appear faster from the centre of the pool and then, without warning, a vortex of water reaches up into the sky, a whirling maelstrom hanging there, suspended in time in the air. Kyna drops the bucket and, without thinking through her actions, leans forward with her sword and and pierces the waterspout with the blade.

Her world falls silent and Kyna feels as though her arm has disappeared for an eternity, biting cold numbing it to the core so it is all she can do to hold on to Raizor and not be dragged through the vortex. It is as though the sky is trying to swallow her whole and she heaves her arm back from the vortex just as the water falls away to nothing and the pool returns its still, reflective self. She sinks to the ground and stares at the water and without knowing why, after all the strange things that had happened over the last day, this is the thing that makes her cry. Suddenly aware, with the slimmest of glimpses of an eternity of space, how very alone she is in the Hall of the Queen. Far from her brother, her family and her horses running free over the plains.

On Earth, near Blick Mead.

Agnes holds the coin out in front of her and leans over the pool with it, trying to angle it so the image matches the ripples on the surface. 'Watch out, you'll fall in.' Daniel comments dryly as Agnes teeters on the edge. Without warning a large ripple suddenly spreads out from the centre, splashing Agnes's feet. 'Hey stop throwing stones in, I'm getting wet!' But Daniel scrambles to his feet. 'I'm not throwing stones, look, I think it's the effect of the coin!' He grabs hold of Agnes at the very moment a vortex of water leaps out from the surface of the pool and hangs suspended in the air, Agnes stares, open mouthed in shock at the sight and then, before either of them can say a word, a hand holding a sword aloft appears from the water. In surprise Agnes drops the coin and it hits a small rock and bounces off into the undergrowth as the water spout collapses back to the pool and the arm is gone.

'Did that just happen?' asks Agnes, completely at a loss as to what to do. 'Did I just see the Lady of the Lake?'

'If you mean, did a wormhole just open in the middle of the pool and an arm holding a sword appear from another galaxy, very much like the Arthurian legend, while you held one of the hoard coins over the water, then yes, that did just happen.'

'And I thought yesterday was weird.' Agnes shakes her head and sits down suddenly, her legs feeling like jelly. 'Oh no! I dropped the coin... it must have rolled away somewhere.'

'Well, we'd better find it, wouldn't want it falling into the wrong hands.' Daniel and Agnes start searching for the coin as the pool behind them returns to its mirror smooth surface under the spring sky.