When morning came the four strandees made their way from their wrecked ship with Kanan firmly holding on to Calla and Naveen keeping a strong hold on Rowan. The men surveyed the ship and damage in the new light of day while the women sniped at each other and hurled insults.

The food and water supplies on the ship were destroyed in the crash and the small troop wandered away from the crash site in search of the basic necessities of life; food, water and a new shelter. Walking for hours they finally came upon a lake with fresh water. Fish jumped out of the blue water so that helped to ease their empty stomachs. Every few moments Kanan found himself tugging on the chain which was pulling in his hands as Callestah tried to grab for the Rowan-woman.

“Nice water, remind you of anything?” Psyche called out. “I should have drowned you that stupid mother of yours got in my way.”

By the lake, Kanan settled Calla down on a rock near the shore. “I’ve had about all I can take of this bickering and back stabbing.” He told her in a frustrated voice. “You want your revenge, Cha’Dech?”

“Hei.” Calla said strongly.

“Naveen and I require amusement anyway.”

“You’re not going to take those chains off her, Kanan.” Psyche said in a worried voice. “You can’t, we have an agreement.”

“As I told Omar, before I killed him, we had an agreement.” Kanan corrected her. “Seeing as how we’re stuck here I think the agreement has gone straight out the window.” With a sparkle in his eye Kanan covered the wrist cuffs on her hands. Naganti Kanan was accustomed to several things in life but two of his utmost favorites were Order and Silence. This was nothing but a loud frenzied dissonance, it made the hair on the back of neck stand up and the muscles there tighten to their limit. An annoying tingling crawled up and down his spine as their voices rose and their tones descended.

If this was the way it was going to be every single day they were stranded here, well, it just wasn’t wroth the aggravation and he just couldn’t take it. Nope, not one more second of the two women’s shrill voices raised and them backbiting each other. Today was the day Naganti Kanan learned just how vile and viscous the ‘fairer sex’ could be to its own. This was intolerable as far as he was concerned and it just had to end. “Don’t worry, Rowan, Psyche whatever the hell your name is. I want it to be a fair fight. You don’t have any magickal power or you would have used them already.” The gold cuffs opened and then fell away. “She doesn’t, does she?” Kanan asked in a hush. Calla could have lied and said ‘yes’ and he probably would have believed her but she too wanted a fair fight. In this moment, more than anything else, Callestah was just grateful to have this opportunity dropped into her lap and as such she head shook from side to side. “The collar stays.” He said to Psyche. Kanan held both Callas’ wrists tightly in one hand and leaned into her again. “Go on, Cha’Dech, kick her ass. Go get what’s coming to you.”

Calla did not need to be told twice! Her mind raced and her heart pumped fire through her veins. No, she couldn’t use her abilities to fight Psyche but Kanan had been so kind as to leave the collar and wrist cuffs off her that she could still think even though she was still partially bound. Everything in her was ready to do just as Naganti Kanan ordered. Oh, so willing to go along and bring him some of that amusement he was looking for. Naveen let go his hold on Psyche and Calla charged at her.

Kanan thought it wise to shout out a bit of advice. “She wasn’t just my whore, you know? Callestah was part of my guard.” He turned and looked happily at Naveen as he settled on the sand to watch the women duke it out. “It’s why she always walked in front of me instead of behind,” he explained to Naveen. “Watch out, there Rowan-Pysche, the girl can kick butt.” With that Calla’s free fist connected with Psyche’s jaw. Her teeth gnashed together and her lip split open. “Oh,” Kanan cringed. “Bet that hurt.” He called out and handed a slab of hot freshly roasted fish over to Naveen. Both of the men looked very happy at the moment, the fish might as well have been popcorn and they might as well have been sitting ring-side at a championship match. They cheered and jeered as blows were landed, hair was yanked and teeth clamped down on flesh.

Psyche, the larger of the two women by far, managed to get her weight on top of Calla she began landing left and rights on the smaller woman’s jaw. Calla didn’t seem to notice them, with a great push she shoved her feet against the ground, her legs whipped forward toward her head and her knees secured around Psyche’s throat. Catching her off guard gave Calla the advantage and she used the rest of her momentum to sit up and pinned the woman to the ground by her shoulders.

“She always was a good grappler.” Kanan complimented in a loud voice and popped another piece of fish into his mouth.

“You’re a fucking whore just like your mother before you.” Psyche choked and reached out for Calla’s throat. “You never good for anything.”

“Are you gonna take that from her?” Naveen goaded and the two men laughed. They must be stuck here on this moon for the foreseeable future but they were having fun now.

Calla reached down to the sand at her sides, grabbed a handful of it and rubbed it in Psyche’s eyes. The woman below her screamed out in pain and Calla scurried away from her. “Come on,” she encouraged. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Half blind from sand and rage Psyche lunged in Calla’s general direction and got lucky. As she came down for what could have been a hard landing her hand caught one of Calla’s ankles. The smaller woman’s legs gave out from under her with the jolt and cushioned the larger woman’s fall. Sharp talons sunk through the torn velvet as Psyche clawed her way up Calla’s body. “You destroyed my life!” Psyche spat. “Your Father killed me! Aphrodite never wanted you! That’s why she left you with Mave.” Psyche landed another blow to Calla’s face and her cheek burst open. “Eros was my husband! He loved me! Wanted only me!” She brought Calla up to her face by the chains around the collar and then slammed it down into the sand once more. “You took him from me so I took yours from you.”

As she writhed and wrestled with Psyche on the ground at her throat Calla felt a strange sensation beneath the collar. Ares mark was glowing. The rest of them could not see it by her Father was close by. New hope surged through her as she tossed Psyche off and pounded her repeatedly with a closed fist. Until this very moment the Lady Callestah had never realized how angry she was. No, she’d always thought of herself as a rather peaceful and peace-loving individual. Albeit one with heavy baggage but not what would call angry.

She was angry. The Lady Callestah had kept that anger and rage stuffed down inside of her all of her life. She thought she’d gotten rid of it or perhaps she’d convinced herself that she had nothing to be angry about that she deserved everything that happened to her.

She didn’t.

One hand pounding away at Psyche’s face the other fell upon a rock as she grappled for balance. Seizing it in her hot little hand she brought the heavy stone on the side of Psyche’s head. The woman below her stopped struggling.

“Nice shot!” Naganti Kanan called out and seeing the woman TKO’d thought the fight to be over. He was wrong.

The Lady Callestah stood above her victim and grabbed a handful of brown hair. She looked longingly at the lake for but a second before dragging her off toward the water. Dragging the woman as though she were fresh kill, Calla gave a cold stare at Kanan who was beginning to rise. For the first time in his life he was afraid of her. She was a woman on a mission and nothing was going to get in her way. Kanan sat down.

Heart pumping in her chest and breath hitching hot and raspy in her lungs The Lady Callestah picked up the body of the unconscious woman in her arms as though she were nothing more than a sack of sugar, though Psyche outweighed her by a good fifty pounds.

Psyche woke with a frightful start as she breathed in a lungful of cold water. Above her Calla’s hands were ruthless around the back of her neck. The woman’s knee was planted in her back and every time Psyche struggled to free herself she found herself face first in the silt at the bottom of the lake trying to breath in mud and sand along with the cold water.

At the water line The Lady Callestah held no expression on her face or in her eyes as she held the woman under the water. It was no effort at all to keep her there, no Calla felt as though she were holding down nothing more than a feather beneath her hand. Psyche bucked and kicked and jumped and struggled to be free. The Lady was viscous and held no mercy in heart for the woman fighting for her life.

Long after the water was still and the woman stopped bucking she still stood there holding her down just to be sure. When she finally did let go, Psyche’s body did not rise to float on the water but sunk just below it and was carried away by the small current.

“Nice work.” Said a deep and familiar voice. “Do you feel better, daughter?”

The Lady looked up to see her Father standing on the riverbank. Kanan and Naveen were both taken by surprise, both reached for their weapons only to find them turned to a licorice-like substance. “Get those off my daughter.” Ares demanded of Kanan. At Ares demand Kanan rose to his feet.

Callestah was trotting out of the water running with open arms to Ares. This nightmare was over! Kanan was coming toward her to free of the chains and this would soon be nothing but a bad memory. Rather than free her, Kanan grabbed her and used her as a shield. Ares magick may work on guns but he’d forgotten about the knife in Kanan’s belt. One foot planted in front of one hers, his body behind her, one arm wrenching his favorite one behind her back he had her firmly secure while the other hand held the knife just above the collar line to her throat, Kanan smiled. “I don’t think so.”

“You think you can take me on?” Ares asked. “I’d think about that if I were you.”

“What does it matter?” Kanan asked. “You’re going to kill me as soon as I take these off her anyway.”

Naveen grabbed for a throwing weapon and was hit by a blast from an unseen staff weapon. Wounded but not yet dead he fell over onto his side. Teal’c emerged from his hiding place in the underbrush. “Let her go.”

“You’ve brought company.” Naganti Kanan remarked.

“Not that I need it.” Ares reminded him and shot a fireball over the big ebony man’s shoulder.

“You won’t risk hitting her.” Kanan dared and another one went past him, closer this time. They were landing in the water behind him with a loud hissing sound. “You have a ship you’re going to take us off this moon.”

“Am I?” Ares asked.

“Yes. Get me out of here and I’ll give her back to you.”

The weight behind her shifted dramatically, the blade nicked her throat as Kanan’s hands fell away from her. Once free she ran to Ares.

The missing person in the little three-man party snuck up behind Naganti Kanan while he was distracted by Ares and Teal’c. In one fluid movement, Daniel wrapped his hand around the long thick braids of Kanan’s and the other grabbed at the hand holding the knife to her throat. With all the strength and weight her had, Daniel threw himself backward so Calla could make her escape.

Caught by surprise Kanan stumbled around on the ground for a moment reaching for the woman who had been in his arms. He saw her sprinting away and to the waiting arms of her Father. Turning around to gaze upon what caused this sudden turn of events he saw Daniel Jackson with a working gun in his hand. Like Calla a few moments ago, Daniel’s expression was blank and he didn’t say a word as he emptied the chamber into Kanan’s chest.

“By the Gods, Jackson! You killed him!” Ares roared and scooped up the body of his shaking daughter. “How are we going to get this off now?” He rattled the chains on the collar still around her throat.

Daniel didn’t care about that at the moment as he ran over to her. “Calla? Honey.” He reached out for her as he neared them. “Kitty, are you all right?”

Callestah cringed in her Father’s arms. “Don’t you touch me.” She cried in a small voice.

“Calla,” Daniel whispered in astonishment and stopped in his tracks. “Kitty, I love you. I’ve been searching for you.”

“No,” she cuddled against the warmth of Ares’ chest. “You never loved me.”

“Forget love,” Ares seethed, “we have to get this off!”

Teal’c rolled Naveen over as he came forward. The man was still breathing and moaning in pain. “Perhaps he can help.”

“Kanan has to take them off.” Ares groused. “He can’t do that now can he?” Though he was looking off at the dead body of Naganti Kanan, movement from his left caught Ares’ eye. The wounded guard was waving for him to bring Callestah over to him. Ares walked over to where the man lay dying and knelt with his daughter in his arms.

Naveen reached out and covered the stone in the center of the collar. “Release.” He said in a death rattle. The back of the collar split in two. Ares ripped it off of her and threw it to the ground. Looking down at the young man whose life was fading away he watched as the man produced a gold key on a gold chain from his pocket. He dropped it in Ares’ waiting hand and then reached out to touch the frightened face of the woman cowering in the big man’s arms. “He lied about you.” Naveen gasped. “So many years, he lied.” His hand fell away from her face as the last of his life faded from his body.

End of Chapter Six
Daughter of the Gods: Escape
Continue to
Chapter Seven