AN: here's the next chapter, let me know what you think.
***
Sam looked up briefly as they passed through the city gates.
The falling rain didn't penetrate the city's shield; instead, where they collided, little circular ripples spread out from each drop. It was like being on the underside of a lake when a stone is thrown. The whole sky was a mass of shimmering purple ripples and the sight took Sam's breath away.
"Sam, come on!" Cam shouted back to her as the group moved on without her.
They quickly got into waiting coaches and were rushed up the hill towards the palace. Unlike the a few days ago, this time the streets were empty of people except for guards, of whom there seemed to be many more standing in their companies awaiting orders.
Once they reached the palace they rushed inside and a waiting servant handed them warm woolen blankets to dry off with. Anarion threw his to the ground as he strode into the throne room where his gathered captains and other officials waited for him. The Kings of Anorien, Lebennin, and Gilrain were deep in discussion but all conversation stopped suddenly as SG1 entered the room behind the King.
"Are all the people behind the shields?" Anarion asked with no preamble.
"As many as can be, my Lord but there are some in outlying towns and villages that have no transport pads and cannot travel because of the weather." Henneth, the King of Anorien, told him.
"Have we had any word from the outpost beyond the High Hills?"
"None yet, my Lord, we have dispatched prowlers to survey the land, they should reach their destination soon."
"And our other forces?"
"They are gathering now, although if we need to make a full advance it will be two days before all our strength is mustered."
"How many are already gathered?"
"Barely half my Lord, only twenty thousand all told. We only sent the order this morning and there are many that must still come."
"My Lord, we do not yet know if we need to fight." Edain, King of Lebennin spoke.
"Oh I think you will" Came a disembodied voice.
Everyone in the room stood frozen as a spiral of fire appeared in front of the throne and took the shape of a beautiful young woman. For a moment the only sound what that of swords being drawn and guns being cocked.
"Adria!" Vala gasped.
"Hello, mother," Adria said as she took a seat on the throne, "Did you think that Morgan would be able to contain me forever? The fires of Celestis cannot be put out so easily and there are many more followers of Origin than you think."
"What are you up to, Adria? You already know you can't convert this galaxy."
Adria laughed, "Don't be so stupid, Mother, I'm not going to convert you. I'm going to destroy you. The fire of Ori will consume this world and then all the worlds of this galaxy that the Ancients founded."
"Why here first? Why not Earth?" Cam asked her.
Adria's calm façade faded for a moment and her face twisted in rage, "This world was the first to be founded but it was hidden from the Ori and from the Anceints but," She returned to her fiery form and came to stand beside Daniel "Thanks to Dr. Jackson it was revealed." She whispered into his ear and leant in closer to him, her eyes fixed on her mother as she placed a kiss to his cheek.
Daniel recoiled at her action, "Don't touch me."
"I don't remember you objecting before." She smirked at him.
There was a swish of a blade as King Henneth brought his sword to Adria's neck, "Leave now or I shall cut your throat." He ordered in a menacing voice.
"You couldn't kill me even if you wanted to," Adria replied, "Isn't that right, uncle?"
Anarion suppressed a growl, "She is right, regardless of what else she may be, she is of the house of Eriador. Her blood may not lawfully be spilt by any but those of our house."
"If you kill me, he has to kill you." Adria told him as she gripped the blade that glowed red for a moment before turning to dust in her grip.
She gave a parting smile to SG1 before vanishing from the room.
"Damn! We are so screwed." Cam said as the flames disappeared.
"Indeed." Teal'c replied solemnly
"To hell with this weather," Anarion shouted, "No man sleeps until the armies are assembled and armed, you have 12 hours. Make it happen!"
"Yes my Lord." The captains replied before hurrying out of the room to achieve an almost impossible task.
As the captains left, the pilots of the prowlers that had been sent out came running in, their faces were chalk white and panic in their eyes. It was.
"Report." Eldarin commanded.
"All behind the High Hills is consumed with fire my lords, if anything survives it will be a miracle."
Anarion thumped his hand heavily on the arm of his throne, "What of the fire itself?"
"It is like nothing I have ever seen my lord, it is like a solid wall that reaches far into the sky, we could not fly over it but in it there seemed to be the shapes of moving things."
"There were faces in it!" The second man cried, heedless of protocol.
"Faces? Explain yourself."
"It is true, the flames seemed to take on the shape of hideous faces. A great and terrible army is in that fire, my lord."
"Where is the rest of your squad?"
"They were taken by the fire, my lord, it seemed to stretch out arms of flame and take the prowlers right out of the air. We are all that survived."
Anarion sighed and dismissed the men with a wave of his hand.
"My lord, if I may advise on this issue?" Hirgon, the chief scholar, asked once the pilots had left.
"You may."
"The Ancient texts that remain in the archives speak of a wall of flame such as this. Not much information is given save that, as the pilots guessed, it is a shield of the Enemy that hides Ori warriors before battle, only the greatest warriors are contained in the flame. If my learning is right then the Ori themselves have descended upon us. The texts say they took human form again and swept across the worlds of the Ancients like a plague."
"Do these Ancient texts happen to mention how to kill them?" Cam asked.
"I believe that to kill one the head must be removed." Hirgon told them, cringing at the very idea of it.
"Then prowlers will be of no use to us." Eldarin said turning to his brother, "I will go disband them and have them prepared for ground fighting." He bowed quickly and left.
"Hirgon," Anarion addressed him, "Go back to the libraries and find out all you can."
"I'll go as well. Two eyes have got to be better than one." Daniel said, turning to leave also.
"No you will not, Dr. Jackson." Anarion told him sternly "I do not know what Adria meant when she said you had lead her here but until I do you will return to your rooms with your friends." He looked over at Teal'c and Cam, "Keep your weapons near, Eriador may need you."
"What about me?" Sam asked, speaking for the first time since they had entered the room, "I'm a solider too."
"Can you fight with a blade?" Anarion asked her, in no mood to be accommodating.
"Yes." Sam lied.
"Very well, arms to fit you will be sent as will a weapon. I trust you know the way to your quarters?"
"We'll find it." Cam told him.
"Then go."
Once they were out of ear shot of the King, Sam whispered to Cam, "You need to teach me to fight with a sword."
"Yeah, I kind of figured that." Cam replied with a chuckle.
***
"Vala? Aren't you coming in with us?" Sam asked as they reached their quarters.
"No, there are other things I need to do. I'll be back later." She hadn't spoken since Adria had disappeared and now when she did her voice was tight with repressed anger.
"Ok." Sam replied, confused at her friends tone, "We'll see you later."
When they entered the room they found that livery had already arrived for Sam as well as a short sword. It wasn't as grand as the ones that had been given to Teal'c and Cam but it was more suited to Sam. She wouldn't have been able to wield a long sword.
Sam disappeared into her room to change into the armour.
"What did she mean, I led her here?" Daniel asked the other two.
Teal'c and Cam shared a look and, as one man, advanced on Daniel until he was backed up against the wall.
"I think the bigger question Jackson, would be what she meant by 'I don't remember you objecting before'. Something you want to share with the group?"
Daniel sighed, "When I was a Prior I may have… let Adria kiss me."
Cam winced and Teal'c leaned further into Daniels personal space, "You kissed Adria?"
"It wasn't really me!" Daniel protested.
"Did Vala know about this?" From the guilty look on Daniel's face Cam could guess she didn't, "Damn it, Jackson, you don't think that's maybe the kind of thing you tell someone? Even of you weren't in your right mind you still tell your girlfriend that you kissed her evil demon daughter! Everyone knows that."
Daniel gave Cam a weird look, one that clearly said that probably no one else but them knew that.
"You know what I mean," Cam said in response to his look, "She's pissed, with every right to be so, and God only knows what her brothers will do when they put the pieces together." Cam ran his hand through his hair and stepped away from Daniel, allowing Teal'c to loom further over him.
"You will fix this." Teal'c told him.
"I don't know how!"
"Find a way." There was a deadly look in the Jaffa's eyes. He remembered the last time Vala had found out about this 'incident', she had thrown several plates at Daniel's head.
Teal'c didn't think that it would turn out so humorous this time.
***
The city bells tolled midnight and as if on cue, the rain stopped and the world fell silent.
"Anarion." Eldarin interrupted his brother's solitude, "We are ready. The city guards are all that will remain behind, and everyone else has been transported to the mustering point."
"How many?" His voice was hollow.
"Sixty thousand all told. The guards remaining total another twenty. If we should fail, the cities may yet hold out for many years. You may still defeat them."
"If we fail Eldarin then Eriador will fall. I go to this battle as well, if this is to be our end then I would face it at the first, not cower in my towers behind force shields." He turned to face Eldarin, a grim look on his face as he grasped his brother's arm, "We shall face this together as we did in our youth."
"For death and glory."
"For Eriador."
Together they drew their swords and saluted the many statues of the High Kings that stood in the throne room.
"You didn't think you could go without me did you?" Vala announced as she entered the room, clad also in armour.
"Elena…" Eldarin started but Anarion cut him off.
"It is no use to argue with her, she will follow no matter what we say."
"Good to see you're catching on." Her words were cheerful but her tone wasn't.
"Is SG1 ready?"
"Yes, but what about Daniel? Nothing was sent for him."
"He will stay here." He saw Vala about to interrupt but kept talking, "I do not know his involvement but I will not take a liability into battle. If Adria has some way of seeing his thoughts then he will remain."
Vala sighed, knowing there was no arguing with him, "Fine, I'll go get the others."
***
SG1, minus Daniel, stepped off the transport pad with the royal escort.
Cam blinked to clear his eyes at the sight before him. For as far as the eye could see columns of men and companies of horses stood preparing to march. In the dark all around them men hurried to and fro on errands for their captains, lords and Kings. The plain was almost silent despite the number of people present.
"We march at dawn." Anarion told them as he disappeared into the tent that had been prepared for him.
A foot solider showed SG1 to a set of small tents set in a circle, "No fires are to be lit and noise is to be kept to a minimum." He told them before leaving.
The four friends sat huddled together in the dark, too nervous to sleep.
"This is the part I hate the most," Cam whispered quietly, "The waiting. Looks like your brother feels the same way." He motioned to the tent that Anarion had gone into. The low light from within showed the shadow of a man pacing up and down the length of the tent.
"For all his bravado, he isn't a fighter." Vala told him, "He's not like Eldarin. Eldarin was born for this, but Anarion… he does not love the sword or the pulse rifle; he only loves what they defend. He is a great man, a great leader of men but he takes no joy in killing them, no joy in battle."
"Vala… what about Daniel?" Sam asked sometime later after the guys had turned in.
"I'll deal with Daniel when we get back." She told her friend as stood and walked off in to the darkness.
"If we get back." Sam whispered to herself before going to join the others in sleep.
On the wide fields of Gilrain the silent army waited for the dawn.
But that morning when they awoke no sun had risen.