"Ah, my dearest Maeve," Tallan drawled as he reached out a hand and brushed it gently against Maeve's face. She jerked her head away, so instead he grabbed her chin tightly in his hand and held it so that she was forced to look at him. "We have business to discuss, my dear. Won't you be good enough to join me for dinner?"
"Two questions. One: What business? and Two: Do I really have a choice?" Maeve said.
"Why, the arrangement of our wedding plans, of course! And no, you don't have a choice."
"Then why even bother with asking me?"
"It just seems so much more gentlemanly."
"Oh? Like chaining me to the wall? Yeah, that's a good way to insure a date!"
"Just shut up, you wench, and come with me," Tallan said, trying to force down his anger at this, this woman talking to him in such a way. *I'll just have to do something about that attitude, now, won't I?* he thought. Tallan snapped his fingers and three guards appeared.
*He's getting better,* Sinbad thought. *It must be the extra power he's getting from Maeve.*
The guards unlocked Maeve's shackles and took her from the room, with Tallan leading the way. Once in the passageway he turned to one of the guards and said, "Go make her a little more presentable for dinner. I don't want anything looking like a peasant eating at my table." The guards then led Maeve off further down the hall to follow their master's orders. Tallan, however, returned to the dungeon cell where the men were waiting.
"Where's Maeve!?" Sinbad yelled as soon as Tallan entered.
"Relax, sailor, the lady is just going to wash and have a change of clothes for dinner. No need to get your temper all flared up."
"When will she be back?"
"Oh, anxious to see her, are we? Well don't worry, Sinbad, you'll be able to see her, but she won't be able to see you."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
But Tallan didn't answer in words. He snapped his fingers once and Doubar, Rongar, and Firouz were transported to another room across the passageway. He snapped them again and he and Sinbad reappeared in a room next to the one they had just come from. None of them were chained any longer. Sinbad lunged at Tallan and would have killed him with his bare hands, but Tallan raised a hand and an invisible wall erected itself in Sinbad's way. Sinbad pounded on the wall with both fists, frustrated.
"Don't waste your time, Captain, my magic is even more fool proof now than it used to be, thanks to the lovely sorceress."
"So what are you going to do now?" Sinbad asked. "Why separate us all like this?"
"Actually, you are not all separated. You are alone, but your three friends are all together, in a different room. I've left the bird in the room that Maeve will return to, to keep her company."
"You didn't answer my other question: What are you going to do now?"
"Watch, sailor." Tallan waved a hand beside one of the walls and chanted a few words. The wall disappeared and Sinbad saw beyond it the scene of the room that he had just come from. He knew that it was the same room because he saw Dermott hanging in a cage from the ceiling.
"You see," Tallan said as he moved toward the wall, "The wall is still quite solid, and only you and I can see and hear through it. My darling Maeve will again occupy that room in a while."
"Why? Why do all this instead of just killing us?" Sinbad asked.
"Well, I'd think it's obvious why Maeve isn't going to die. Besides the fact that I want and need her for various reasons, I want her to suffer for what she did before, for refusing me and leaving me in the dust."
"I swear, Tallan, if you harm Maeve in any way I'll---"
"You'll what? Have you noticed your situation? You're not going anywhere for quite a while. I want you to watch what will become of your beloved sorceress. Had she not met you, she may have been more willing this time around. That's right, I've seen the way she looks at you. But don't worry, before long I'll be the only one that she'll look at that way. Once she hears of your death, she'll have no reason left to resist me."
"Oh, so you are going to kill me?" Sinbad asked with a tone of defiance.
"Oh, you'll be quite dead to her. No, I'm going to leave you alive long enough to see her become completely mine, you'll watch her waste away into worthlessness, and then you'll all die together when I grow tired of her."
"Why you son-of-a----" Sinbad lunged at Tallan again, only to run into the invisible wall again.
"Sorry sailor, but I have a dinner to attend with a fiery Celt. I do wish you could join us. But then again, perhaps you will," Tallan said sarcastically and then misted from the room into the dining hall where two guards were holding Maeve and awaiting his arrival.
"My, but don't you look so much more lovely now?" Tallan said sincerely. Maeve had bathed and was forced to change into a sleeveless, light violet gown with a low front and a slit up to her thigh.
"Keep your compliments, Tallan! I certainly don't want them."
"Still such a spirit in such a desperate situation. Men, release my fiancee," Tallan said. They let go of Maeve's arms and Tallan gestured toward a chair at one end of the table.
Maeve stood still and crossed her arms defiantly. "I am not your fiancee," she stated firmly.
"We'll see about that," Tallan said and gestured with his hand. With this movement, on the other side of the room, appeared Sinbad locked in a cage. He looked around, confused, for a moment, and then saw where he was and guessed the purpose of his being there.
"Now, what did you say, my dear?" Tallan asked.
"I said that I'm not your---"
Maeve's sentence was cut short when Tallan formed an enormous black fireball and aimed it at Sinbad's cage.
"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you, what was that again, Maeve?" Tallan asked again.
Maeve looked at Sinbad and then said, "Nothing, Tallan. I said nothing."
"Good then," Tallan said, "Now, why don't we sit down to dinner and have a nice little chat?"
"I'm not hungry," Maeve replied.
"Fine then, be that way. But if I were you I'd be building up my strength."
"What's the point if you're just going to take it away from me?"
"Good point. Well, if you're not going to cooperate, then we'll just have to do this another way," Tallan said while picking up a metal choker that had been lying on the table. It was silver and sparkled with the reflection of the shiny black stones that were scattered around on it. He moved toward Maeve and held it out for her to touch it.
"This, Maeve, is a sort of... pre-wedding gift... for you. Take it, darling, and wear it." Maeve hesitated. Tallan pointed to Sinbad's cage. "Take it or else."
Maeve reached out and took the piece of jewelry from Tallan's hands. Even before her fingers made contact with he metal, she knew that it was under a spell created by black magic. The choker sent waves of blackness through her, but Maeve continued to hold it for Sinbad's sake.
"Put it on darling," Tallan said. Maeve began to raise it up to her neck, but then she stopped and lowered it again.
"Oh, women! They are so stubborn!" Tallan shouted as he took the choker from Maeve's hands and place it around her neck. Maeve suddenly felt very tired and collapsed unwillingly into Tallan's arms.
"What have you done to her!" Sinbad shouted.
"Don't worry, she'll awaken in a few minutes when her system adjusts to the change. You won't be here to see it, though." With those words Tallan waved his hand and Sinbad was transported back to his room. A few moments later Maeve began to awaken. When she realized that she was in Tallan's arms, she pulled away and stood back a few feet. Then she looked around with a confused expression on her face.
"Where is Sinbad?" Maeve asked with concern.
"My dear, you angered me, and I had to kill him," Tallan lied.
"What!? No! You couldn't have!" Maeve cried in disbelief.
"You know how short my temper is, you shouldn't have angered me!"
"But he didn't do anything! Why don't you just punish me?"
"Oh, but I have, haven't I? Your weakness is that you care about those insignificant sailors too much. Anger me again, and I'll kill another. You wouldn't want to be responsible for more of their deaths, would you?" Tallan asked.
Maeve was quiet for a moment, and a single tear rolled down her cheek. "No," she said quietly, "Of course not, please, just leave them alone."
"I'll do that dear, I'd like to do that for you, but only if you become my wife."
"I can't do that, Tallan."
"Oh, I think you can. Think about your friends in the dungeon. I've sent messengers down to them. They'll learn of their Captain's death in a few moments, perhaps even now as we speak. They will know perfectly well that you were the cause of his death. In time, they may forgive you, but how can they if you continue to kill them as if they were animals?" Tallan played a well-rehearsed part, and Maeve was believing every bit of it. She had no reason not to.
"I... I will... marry you... for my friends. Don't harm them, I'll do as you ask." It was one of the hardest decisions that Maeve had ever made. Without Sinbad, though, what was her life worth? She would allow herself to die if her friends didn't depend on her. But as long as there was a chance that maybe the guys might be able to escape, she couldn't do that. She would have to go on and endure whatever happened.
"Wonderful! We'll have the ceremony tomorrow! But, dearest, why do you look so sad?" Tallan asked cruelly, knowing perfectly well what was wrong.
"It's... It's Sinbad... How did he die?" Maeve asked, afraid to hear the answer.
"His head was severed. One of my soldiers used an ax. Dreadfully clumsy weapon, it took several strokes for that stubborn head to come from his shoulders."
Maeve simply stared in disbelief. Sinbad wasn't dead, he couldn't be, after all- he was Sinbad. It couldn't be over that quickly, that easily, it just couldn't! But then, she had always been able to feel him before, to know when he was alright. Now she could feel nothing. Nothing but emptiness. That is when her hand strayed upward and found the choker that was around her neck.
When Tallan saw Maeve's actions, he said, "That's yours now. A lovely piece of jewelry, isn't it? It suppresses all of your powers, what little you have left, so don't even consider trying anything stupid. We'll be married tomorrow, and you'll be mine forever. I just want to be sure that you go through with the deal."
"Yes, yes I will..... I'll marry you tomorrow..." Maeve said absent-mindedly. All she could think about was that Sinbad was really gone, and how incomplete her life would be now, not to mention the gaping hole it left in her heart and soul. But to know that she had been the cause of this loss was the worst torture Maeve had ever had to endure.
"Well, then, darling, I'll take you back to your room. You can use your time to think about just how we should spend our honeymoon," Tallan said as he misted them both into Maeve's room, with Dermott awaiting her return and Sinbad watching from the other side of the wall that only he could see through.
"Where are Doubar, Rongar, and Firouz? I thought you said they were alright?" Maeve said, upset at her friends' absence.
"They had to be taken away. When they heard of how you caused Sinbad's death, they became very violent and vowed to kill the one who murdered their friend. How could I leave them in here with my bride-to-be? I could never let any harm befall you," Tallan lied. Maeve didn't answer. Sinbad wanted to scream, Maeve was believing everything Tallan told her. But he couldn't blame her; there was no evidence against his words.
*Maybe,* Sinbad thought, *She can talk to Dermott and he'll tell her that we're not dead.*
"Well, dearest, I can see you have a lot to think about, what with our wedding night being tomorrow and all, so I'll leave you to your thoughts. I'll have someone come and get you tomorrow in enough time to prepare for the wedding." With those words, Tallan raised his hand to mist out of the room but then re-thought his actions. He remembered that Sinbad was watching and decided to move forward and claim a kiss. Maeve didn't do much to respond, but this time she didn't fight back, either. What was the point? She was trapped here, Sinbad was dead, her friends hated her..... There was nothing left to fight for.
Sinbad began to pound wildly on the wall and put his sailor's tongue to good use, but to no avail. Neither Tallan nor Maeve could here him, all he was doing was giving himself a hoarse throat. When Tallan broke the kiss, Maeve quickly looked away from him and Sinbad stopped pounding, realizing that it wasn't helping matters anyway. Tallan then misted out of Maeve's room and into Sinbad's.
"Don't you ever, ever touch her again!" Sinbad yelled.
"She'll be my wife tomorrow and I'll be able to touch her all I want to, and do whatever else to her that I want. There's nothing you can do about it, sailor, it's out of your hands. And soon, she'll be in mine." With those final words, Tallan misted once again out of Sinbad's room. Sinbad turned his attention back to Maeve. She was sitting quietly and looking at Dermott in deep concentration.
"Why can't I hear you, brother?" Maeve asked aloud. "Why don't you speak? Help me, tell me what's happened. Why won't you?" Maeve's voice trembled at her next words. "Maybe you can't. Or maybe....." Maeve's hand again strayed to the choker that clung tightly to her neck. "Maybe I can't. That's what this is. He doesn't want me to talk to you. To anyone. I've got no one left. Oh, I'm so alone!" Maeve threw herself onto the bed and began to sob.
"Maeve, no, don't cry, you're not alone," Sinbad said, even though he knew she couldn't hear him. "I'm right here, on the other side of the wall, even though you don't know it. I'm with you, though you can't see me. I hear you, though you can't hear me. I feel your pain, though you can't feel mine. Don't give up, even though it seems that there is no hope. Don't give up....." Maeve just continued to sob and eventually cried herself to sleep.
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Cloudy Skies - Part 3