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A jolt of fear shot through her, though she tried not to show it. Her eyes must have gone wide, though. "How long before they arrive?"

"He will be here in no more than two hours," said Nike, with a look on her face like a cat that had a mouse caught between its paws. She backed up through the doorway, holding the double-doors with both hands. "Oh, and one more thing, Your Majesty."

"Yes?" Netty's mind swam.

"Don't think you're going to leave before he arrives." Nike dropped the doors, and they swung shut, in and out, in and out before coming to a rest.

"Ba'al is coming," murmured Netty.

"All right," said Jonas. "So that solves that problem. Obviously we have to get moving."

"You don't understand." Ophrenet trembled.

Netty, what is this? You're afraid of him. Since when have you been afraid of other Goa'ulds? Hell—you weren't even afraid of Ashtoreth like this.

You don't know him like I do.

"Don't understand what?" Jonas questioned.

"Ashtoreth—she… Ashtoreth's warning, which she had intentionally forgotten in her lust for power, rang loudly in her ears. "—she said that no one here would dare to kill her because the one who did would have to answer to Ba'al."

"Wow! Looks like we really need to get out of here. Maybe we can only take one symbiote. Maybe none. But we have to hurry." He started moving toward the door.

Ophrenet hadn't yet risen from her throne; she reached underneath the seat and felt the zat gun which Ashtoreth kept tucked into the underside. It was a good last-minute defense against any possible intruder, especially when one hadn't any clothing in which to conceal weapons and Jaffa weren't allowed on the planet.

She shook her head. "They won't let us. Nike just said as much." She got to her feet uncertainly. "I think you should hide."

"And what about you?"

She wanted to hide. So did Kianna. Every part of her was aching to run, to find a safe place. There was so little time. But there was no use.

"No," she said, painfully. "There's a whole city run by Goa'uld who will never let me get away. This is why they've been pretending to let me run the place. They needed me to be in charge because they needed me to take the fall for overthrowing Ashtoreth. Nike just told me as much." Ophrenet couldn't keep the panic out of her voice. "These Goa'uld would drag me out of hiding just to have the satisfaction of handing me over to Ba'al."

He noticed her holding the zat. "What do you want to do, then?"

"I said you need to find a place to hide. He doesn't know your face. You can escape his notice."

He shook his head. "Netty… Kianna… that's ridiculous. I'm not going to just stand around and let you get captured by Ba'al. I wouldn't leave you to die when you were down in the mine shaft, and I'm not going to do it now, either." There was a look of determination in his eyes. "I'll to fight anyone, even Ba'al."

Despair tugged at her gut. "I was afraid you were going to say that."

She turned the zat on him. There was only a brief moment for her meaning to register in his eyes before he went down in a heap of blue sparks.

The man was heavier than two sacks of grain. She had only managed to drag him across one hanging bridge (which swung crazily the entire way, leaving her in fear for her life) before he started to stir again on the first tree platform.

Thankfully, Ophrenet's Goa'uld knowledge happened to include the exact number of seconds it was necessary to wait before zatting someone a second time if you didn't want to kill them.

It was fifty-seven.

She zatted Jonas again and continued dragging him.

She knew the Goau'ld were watching her. Most obvious were the Fates, who left the palace porch to follow her at a distance. They stopped whenever she stopped, and moved whenever she moved. She hoped they didn't know or care what she was doing, or at least wouldn't be able to communicate it. No one here knew who her new Lotar was, and ideally that would never change.

Netty didn't enjoy hurting Jonas, so she hurried as much as possible, but it took her thirteen minutes and twelve zats before she reached Ashtoreth's jail. He was very strong, but toward the end started to seem a little more dazed, like the effect was lingering slightly. Or maybe he had gotten smart and was faking it.

Either way, she had to shoulder him a little to get him down the stairs to the dungeon in the roots of the tree. The Fates kept their distance outside.

She looked around at the musty cavern, floor covered in sawdust and small tendrils hanging from the ceiling. The only light came through two iron grates set in the ground above, at a slight angle.

Ah, there was Circe. The woman seemed to be sleeping. Or maybe she just didn't want to acknowledge them. Her clothing was dirty and wrinkled, and her hair had come mostly undone from its twisted updo, but otherwise she looked well. Ophrenet took the key she'd used to remove Jonas's ankle chains from her dress pocket, hoping it would work.

It did. Circe's chain fell off. The priestess startled awake.

"Go back to your mistress," said Ophrenet. "If you wish to do so."

Circe took them both in with some surprise and contempt, then practically bolted up the stairs.

Jonas seemed to be coming to himself again. Netty hurriedly situated him on the bench Circe had been sitting on. At first he slumped against the wall, but his eyes came open quickly.

"Netty? What's goi… Oh my gosh. Ughghgh." He rubbed his head. "That was you? You zatted me." He said it blandly at first, then more offended. "You zatted me!"

Darn, she had been hoping to get to him while his arms were still limp.

She leaned in close, before he could fully recover from his daze.

Kianna. He'll trust you more.

I've got it.

"Jonas," she murmured.

"Hm? What's going on?" He started to say, as her fingers traveled down his arms. "Netty was saying some crazy stuff there for a minute and then—I feel like I've been hit by a train."

"Shh. It's all right." She silenced him with her lips.

He was distracted enough by the kiss that he relaxed for a moment, just a brief moment, and she lifted his arm and clapped the manacle around his wrist.

That woke him up. She pulled away.

"Kianna? What are you doing? What?" He stood up and started tugging on the chain. "Kianna, what are you doing? Let me go!"

"I'm sorry, Jonas," she said softly. Her eyes welled up.

"Ophrenet?"

"Ba'al won't look down here," said Ophrenet. "Even if he knows the full layout of this place, it's not much of a jail. There's no reason he'd expect to find anyone important down here. He'll probably just take me up to his own ship. You'll be safe here and out of the way for whatever he does. At any rate, you can't do anything to get yourself killed this way."

"That's crazy. You have to let me go!" He continued struggling, but was unable to slip his hand from the cuff or so much as rattle the grate.

She shook her head with a sad smile. "The slaves will release you after twelve days," she said. "I'll ask them as a personal favor. The Goa'uld here may have feigned obedience to me, but I wasn't lying when I said I was popular with the common people. Ba'al should be gone by then. Probably."

"Twelve days? You've got to be kidding me! Where will you be by then? Anything could happen!"

She cupped his face with her hand again, gently. A tear rolled down her cheek again and she didn't try to stop it this time.

"Goodbye, Jonas."