Bell(CN4)
Chevron Nine Part 4: The Blessed Bell of Ballakissack
"It has to be replaced before anyone can dial in or out. Unfortunately, we don't happen to have a spare one lying around."
"Well, then can you fix it, Carter?" O'Neill asked, fearing he already knew the answer.
"No, but I might be able to jerry-rig something together. But it'll take a while, and until then, we're stuck here, and Daniel and Sha'uri are stuck... there. Wherever 'there' is."
"And assuming they are still alive," Teal'C said bluntly.
"Yeah." Sam swallowed hard. "Assuming."
Daniel woke with a pounding headache. As memories of what had happened flooded back, he leapt to his feet, surprised to be alive. He looked around to see where Sha'uri had fallen; she might be injured, in pain, dying... he pushed the thought away.
She was nowhere to be found. The landscape wasn't even familiar: the setting was no longer the Land of the Goldfinch but a busy seaport. Not again, Daniel thought in despair. "Sha'uri!" he called. A few passersby looked at him askance, but his wife had vanished. Again.
A flash of light caught his eye, and he turned to see the Queen of the Fairies standing beside him. "I am sorry, Daniel," she said. "The ocean god has once again taken Sha'uri from my very arms, and I was powerless to stop him."
"Do you know where he took her?" Daniel asked anxiously.
"She was made the princess of Fingal, a land which is under a curse. In order to lift the curse, the king intends to give her to the wizard Imshee in marriage."
"What? No! What must I do?"
The Fairy Queen pointed to one of the sailing ships in the harbor, a fisherman's boat. "You must sail around the world to Fingal, and bring back to Ellan Vannin the Blessed Bell of Ballakissack. You and your wife will then be able to return home."
"The Blessed Bell... I don't remember this one..." Daniel muttered. "Never mind," he added at the Fairy Queen's inquisitive look. "The problem is, I don't know anything about sailing. I couldn't even get out of the port."
"I have placed a spell on your vessel. It will reach Fingal of its own accord, and return as well."
"What about supplies for the journey?"
"You will not need them. Your voyage, as well as your ship, will be an enchanted one, and it will seem as if your destination lies only just below the horizon."
Daniel thanked her and set sail. Sure enough, the little ship made landfall only a few hours later. He took a path that led to the heart of the island, and happened upon a royal feast in the courtyard of a grand palace.
He was getting really tired of grand palaces.
An old woman stood apart from the festivities. Daniel approached her and asked, "Excuse me, good lady, but what is happening here?"
The woman smiled at him. "It is the wedding feast for the princess; she is to be married tonight. That is her, over there. She grieves on this joyous occasion because her father is forcing her to marry against her will."
"Wait 'till everyone finds out she's already married," Daniel muttered.
He hadn't intended for the old woman to hear him, but hear him she did. "Already married!" she cried in shock. "Who, then, is her husband, young man?"
"I am. She was taken from me by the Ocean God, Manánnan Mac-y-Leirr, and brought here. I have come to rescue her."
The woman's face hardened. "Do not tell such lies and blasphemies in the king's court. You have been warned."
Daniel rolled his eyes, and crept around the outside of the courtyard to a place near where Sha'uri sat apart from the revelers, sobbing. He partially concealed himself behind a tree, and softly called out to her. "Sha'uri."
She looked up sharply, made sure no one was watching her, then turned and slipped into the woods surrounding the celebration. Daniel took her in his arms, and her tears became tears of joy. "Oh, Dan-yel, you have found me again!"
He kissed her deeply. "And we'll get out of it together this time, I promise," he said. "Let's go."
A sudden thought struck him. The Fairy Queen had told him to bring back the Blessed Bell of Ballakissack... no! Part of the story came back to him: the pun. The only treasure to be found was in fact the Blessed Belle of Ballakissack, namely Sha'uri. And what a treasure she is, Daniel thought. The two raced to the ship in which Daniel had arrived, which immediately set out across the waves. Just as it seemed they were about to escape unnoticed, Sha'uri cried out in alarm. "Prince Imshee is following us!"
Indeed, the ugly little wizard, sitting astride a tree limb exactly like a Halloween witch on a broomstick, was swooping down toward the small vessel from high in the air. But before Imshee could intercept them, the wind changed direction and a thick, cold fog surrounded them. Daniel could hardly see the sails, let alone where the ship was headed. It was only minutes, however, before the ship ran aground on a rocky beach amid the sound of splintering wood. It would never be seaworthy again. The mist began to blow away.
"This is not the right place, Dan-yel," Sha'uri whispered, frightened. "And we are stranded here!"
"That is where you are wrong, Princess," a voice cackled from behind them. "This is exactly the right place: Ellan Imshee, my island. And I will have my revenge on you who would have abandoned me, and on he who would have stolen you from me." Imshee extended a hand, palm upward, toward Daniel, and a bolt of lightning shot from his fingertips to send the younger man sprawling on his back, gasping in pain. Sha'uri screamed -
- but her voice was drowned out by the sound of crashing waves. A chariot that seemed to be made of sea foam drove up out of the water: the chariot of Manánnan Mac-y-Leirr, the Ocean God. "It seems you have gotten yourself into something of a fix, Daniel Jackson."
Daniel struggled to his feet, spearing the deity with a glare. "Oh, yes, quite," he bit out acidly. "And all because I lost your blasted treasure. I didn't deliver your sword and your pearl, so you torture me and humiliate Sha'uri by dangling her forever out of my reach, forcing me to come running after her, only to see her yanked away to some other reality at the last second! All right, then, I've been punished! Now let us go."
Manánnan Mac-y-Leirr looked genuinely concerned. "You believe this is my doing? You have been deceived, Daniel. Look around you and see these creatures as they really are -"
"Do not listen to him, Daniel!" The Benrein na Shee appeared beside him, as if trying to protect him, but it was too late. The Fairy Queen and Imshee looked shocked as their forms changed: they shrank to the size of young children, their eyes became diamond-shaped and their teeth pointed. Sha'uri cried out, but her voice betrayed more anger than fear. Daniel was horrified to see her undergoing the same transformation.
"Stop it!" he shouted at the Ocean God.
"I am returning them to their true forms. Ever since you arrived through the Gateway, you have been surrounded by Bukkys, the demon folk."
Daniel's eyes narrowed. "What makes you think I can trust you, then? How do I know you're not faking the whole thing? The Bukkys have been known to construct much more elaborate, more believable deceptions than this."
"Why did you trust the creature you thought was the Queen of the Fairies?"
At a loss for words, Daniel looked back at the transfigured people, only to see all three of them scowling at him with the utmost hatred.
"Trust me," Manánnan Mac-y-Leirr said.
Daniel sighed. "What choice do I have?"
"There's a good lad!" the Ocean God exclaimed. "Now come with me, and I will bring you back to the mountain where you first arrived."
"But what about Sha'uri? I have to find her -"
"Your wife is a captive in the castle of the lord of the mountain. It is he who sent you off on this endless, fruitless search, so Sha'uri could be his own. And the Bukkys did a fine job of making you hard to find. Come, we must return before the old man harms her."
Manánnan Mac-y-Leirr pulled Daniel into his chariot and dove beneath the waves.
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