"I, um, I'm just surprised to see you. I didn't expect you until later."
"You mean you didn't expect me to find you here," Tallan corrected. "Well, I didn't expect you to find out my little secret. I'm just going to have to teach you not to be so nosy, aren't I?" he asked with a sinister expression as he advanced on Maeve. She shrank back in fear, knowing what his anger could bring about and hoping to delay it if only for a second. Mostly she shielded her child, praying that Tallan would not harm him.
Sinbad moved forward to confront Tallan. Until that moment, Maeve had forgotten that he was even there. Tallan had a way of making her forget about everything but him, and she hated him for it. As she stepped back into the shadows, trying to somehow hide herself, she watched the scene unfolding before her.
"I should kill you right now," Sinbad said deathly serious.
"You haven't the power, peasant. Well, you do, actually," Tallan said eyeing Sinbad's bracelet, "But you haven't the slightest idea of how to use it."
"What are you talking about?" Sinbad demanded.
"No business of yours, sailor. It wouldn't do you any good anyway. Now if you'll just back up, I'll gather up my wife and leave you men here to reminisce about the past month you've been here." Tallan made a move toward where Maeve was backed up against a wall and again she cringed in fear. Sinbad recognized her expression as one that he had seen hundreds of times in the past month: an expression of mortal dread. By now he knew that every time she looked that way, she was afraid that she might actually die this time. After all, her luck, not to mention her strength, had to run out sometime, didn't it?
Maeve cowered before Tallan with her child and prepared herself for the worst. Then Sinbad decided to take action. He jumped Tallan from behind, choking him with both arms. The sorcerer flipped him onto the ground and pulled his sword, ready to run Sinbad through, but Sinbad rolled out of the way just as the sound of metal on concrete reached everyone's ears. Sinbad quickly recovered and got to his feet. Doubar started forward, but Sinbad gestured for him to stay back: Sinbad wanted this guy all to himself for what he had done to Maeve. Doubar and the others respected this and kept to the sidelines. Sinbad was now in the process of dodging stroke after stroke from Tallan's sword, and he was being backed into a corner faster than he could think of what to do.
Rongar, who had gone to find a weapon when the fight first started, returned with a saber and tossed it to Sinbad. He caught it, flipped it, and expertly caught it, daring Tallan to attack with an open gesture of his arms. Tallan took the bait and tried to slice at Sinbad's stomach, but the stroke was easily deflected and with a twist of his wrist Sinbad drove Tallan's blade into the wall. The sorcerer tried but was unable to pull the blade from its new, permanent, sheath.
"Now who's got the upper hand?" Sinbad drawled as he started to advance on Tallan. Poor planning showed its result, though, as Tallan ended up against the wall a mere few feet from a still very afraid Maeve. Tallan, never being one to pass up an opportunity, dashed over and took her into his arms, drawing his dagger and putting it to her throat. Maeve gasped at her stupidity; she should have moved away when the fight made a turn toward her, but in her present state her mind was not as sharp as usual. Her effort was too little too late, and now there was nothing she could do but hope that Sinbad would find a way out of this.
"Why, look what I've found," Tallan teased Sinbad by absent-mindedly wrapping his free arm around Maeve's waist and pulling her closer to him. She knew better than to struggle.
"Let her go," Sinbad said as calmly as possible.
"Why should I? She's mine, you know, so I have a right to her. And, this is my child," Tallan said, "My boy. You know, dear Maeve, we haven't even named him yet." He waited in vain for an answer from her, but she just clutched the baby closer to her as if to protect it from whatever it was that she was afraid of.
"Tallan," Maeve started, "Why not let them go? You have all you want."
"Almost, my dear, almost. What I really want is to make them suffer. And of course I want you. That's what I've always wanted, but recently I have expanded my horizons. But what I want right now, at this very moment, is to hold my child. Give him to me," Tallan commanded.
Maeve looked as if she were about to hand the baby over to Tallan, but instead she backed a few steps away from him. "I said, give me my child, woman!" he ordered again.
"You have no child," Maeve said matter-of-factly.
"Then what is that you're holding in your arms?" Anger found its way into his tone.
"This is MY child."
"Certainly the little rat has a father!"
"And he does. But that father is not you."
"Then who? Tell me now!!!"
Maeve hesitated for a moment. This was going to take a lot of courage. All of her friends were in this room; they would hear what she was about to say, and then they would have questions.
"The father is Sinbad." There. She said it. It was not as hard as she had thought it would be, but it was difficult, anyway. Especially since now there was a murderous gleam in Tallan's eyes.
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Cloudy Skies - Part 9