Jitrine reached down to put her hand beneath Teyla’s good shoulder and help her up. “Did you think that after you had fought on our behalf we would desert you?”
“Kind of, yeah,” John said.
Jitrine gave him a stern look. “You have much to learn of Pelagia, Sheppard. You underestimate us.”
“A hero’s got to have friends, right?” Nevin piped up. “Those guys who are in the story too.”
John looked abashed. “Thanks,” he said.
Suua gave him a hand up the last few feet. “No problem,” he said. “We’re going to get out of here, right?”
“Right,” John said. “And when we’ve shut this place down, we’ll get you home to your wife and daughter. I promise.”
“Then we have a deal,” Suua said, and shook John’s offered hand.
Teyla blinked. It was like him to remember Suua’s family, in case he needed to know that. But then she had seen him send far too many messages to families, messages to break hearts and rend lives.
She turned instead to Jitrine. “How did you get across the stream?”
“After you and Sheppard were swept away the men on the other bank laughed at us, saying we would never get across and we had lost already. We waited until they left, and then Suua swam across. He threw the ropes back for us, and Nevin and I crossed on them,” Jitrine explained. Her face was serene, as though she had never had any doubts that Suua, who had so lately attacked them himself, would keep his promise to throw the ropes to them once he was across. Perhaps it would have made no difference, and Jitrine would have stayed with Nevin regardless. Or perhaps she truly had never had any doubts.
“After that Jitrine said we needed to follow the water,” Nevin said brightly. “She said that it all flowed downhill, and that we needed to get to the place where it came out. That all cisterns have a basin.”
Teyla looked at Jitrine in surprise.
“I am a Pelagian scientist,” Jitrine said firmly. “Do you think we do not have cisterns and sewers? Do you think I have no idea how they work?”
“Of course not,” Teyla said. Perhaps John was not the only one to underestimate the Pelagians. Perhaps she had, too.
“How did you get here?” John asked. “Do you know where these corridors go?” He craned his neck, looking back in the direction they had come.
“There are many corridors back there,” Suua said. “It seemed like they were coming together, but we heard the running water so we backtracked up one of them until we found this ledge.”
“We came out first on the other side,” Nevin said helpfully, “And we saw you, but we couldn’t get across.”
“That was you?” John said.
Jitrine nodded. “So we backtracked and found another way down. I think Suua is right. The maze is converging. I think we are coming to the end, or at least to some major obstacle that they wish all contenders to face.”
“Great,” John said. “The big monster.”
Teyla looked at him swiftly. “The big monster?”
“There’s always one,” John said. “The big guy with all the hit points. The penultimate challenge of manhood and strength, an epic adventure the like of which has never been seen before!”
“Why has your voice gotten funny like that?” Teyla asked.
John dipped his head. “It was like a dramatic voice over. In a preview. Oh, never mind…”
“You mean when it says, ‘Next week on Star Trek, Jean-Luc Picard takes his shirt off?” Teyla asked. She could not help breaking into a broad smile. No matter how cold and wet and hungry and miserable they were, she could always rely on John to keep everyone moving by whatever means worked best. It took a great deal to dampen his spirits. He was, perhaps, the most resilient man she had ever met.
“Yeah, like that,” John said. “But I don’t think they actually say the part about the shirt. And there’s always a plot-related reason for it. Like he’s dead for the fourteenth time or something, or he’s about to be impregnated by shrimp.”
“That observation is very meta,” Teyla said.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Suua said. “Again.”
“This is the witty banter,” John said. “I don’t know why, but she likes it.”
Jitrine looked at Teyla seriously, though a smile played about the corners of her mouth. “I see why you do not marry him.”
Teyla shrugged. “There is only so much of this one can take.”
“The big monster,” Suua said. “Is there really a monster, do you think?”
“If there is, we’ll take care of it,” John said. “Can’t be much in here you and me can’t handle, right?”
Suua nodded seriously. “That’s true.”
Teyla bit her lip, refraining from saying, ‘Except about forty Wraith!’ That would be extremely counterproductive. John was doing a fine job of countering the strangeness and spookiness of the labyrinth with humor, and it would not be a good idea to deflate him. Especially as the one most in need of something to keep him going with was probably John. He ought to be lying down resting, not swimming across icy streams and climbing walls.
“Onward and downward then!” He took the torch from Jitrine and started down the corridor, back into the heart of the maze, leaving wet footprints on the floor of the corridor behind him. His boots made a distinct squishing noise.
Suua came just behind him. “To the left,” Suua said. “And then down the stairs. That’s where we came from before we doubled back here to come to the water.”
“Got it,” John said. “Teyla, on six.”
She took up her usual place in the rear, behind Nevin, who turned and smiled at her. “Do you want this back?” He held out her jacket, the one she had shed before leaping in the stream after John.
“Yes, thank you so much,” Teyla said, taking it and putting it on. It was warm and dry, and she felt it improve her morale on the spot.
Ahead, John froze silhouetted against the faint light that came around the corner from the corridor ahead.
“Shhhh,” Teyla whispered to Nevin, who had begun to say something. She held up a warning finger as they all came to a halt.
John looked back at her, meeting her eyes, and passed the torch to Suua. He was going ahead to scout.
From around the corner ahead came a scarlet glow, as though there was a vast inferno. Or a bunch of red lights. Teyla shook her head. These kind of mindgames with the credulous were so characteristic of the Wraith, who loved to torment their prey.
Anger began a slow burn in her belly. Anger is good, she thought. Anger keeps you strong. Anger makes you warm.
John slipped off down the corridor ahead, a dark shadow against the ruby light. It was some minutes before he returned, and when he did he herded them all back up the corridor and behind the first turn.
“What is it?” Teyla whispered.
“The big monster,” John said grimly.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Teyla crept forward, peering around the corner. The corridor broadened out into a large chamber, though she could only see part of it from her vantage point. It looked like another cave, but instead of being partially filled with a frigid lake, this one seemed to be filled with pits of fire. The floor was uneven, marked with narrow paths between sharp stalagmites, though even those paths were broken and a person crossing them would have to stop and carefully climb over the stones. Here and there, among the stalagmites and stones, vents of steam emerged unexpectedly from the ground, shooting into the air in great gouts, rendered pink and red by the lights below.
No, thought Teyla, there were no real fires. Those were lights. But the steam was real, as was evidenced by one of the men leaping backwards from the edge of a vent, holding his scalded arm.