"Doubar?" he moaned. "Are you all right?"
"I am alive, little brother, so is Rongar." He got a reply. "But I don't know about being all right…"
Sinbad nodded. He cursed himself for falling for Talia again. Suddenly the door flung open. The thugs flung someone in. He strained to see who it was. He moaned again when he saw it was Firouz.
"Sinbad!" Firouz ran towards him. "What happened?"
"First you tell us how you got here…" Sinbad said.
Firouz checked Sinbad's wounds. He sighed when it was nothing that serious. As he moved on to Doubar and Rongar he said, "I was buying our supplies when these large men came up and seized me. They told me that if I wanted to see you alive again, I had better come with them…they showed me your swords to make me believe. How did you get yourself into this anyway?"
"Why don't you ask the captain?" Doubar said, with a frown.
Sinbad groaned again. "Shortly after we reached the ship, Talia came up to us saying she was in desperate need of help. I swear it Firouz! She looked scared. That was the first time I ever saw her look like that. She said she'd explain when we reached the inn. She also wanted Doubar and Rongar to come. That was why I believed her."
"Well, what happened?" prompted Firouz.
"When we reached the inn, I saw it was empty, Nimmur looked pretty shaken up too. We were about to ask him why he was like that, some big guys came and seized us…"
"And as usual you refused and got into a fight…" concluded Firouz.
"Well…if you did not offer so much resistance, you wouldn't have been hurt so badly…" came another voice.
"So Talia, " Sinbad said sarcastically, "to what do we owe this honour?"
"Look I am sorry…but I was desperate…"
"For what?"
"For my life, my ship and my crew…"
"I don't understand…why don't you start from the beginning?"
"A few days, after I docked here, I met this gorgeous guy." The others shook their heads, ignoring them, Talia went on, "he was absolutely amazing…and I do mean in all aspects…he reminded me of you actually…" she pointed to Sinbad. "Well, we slept with each other a couple of times. I thought he would make an excellent addition to my crew…but I did not know he was doing what he was doing to make me vulnerable…"
"You? Vulnerable!" Sinbad laughed sardonically. Talia said, "I know…but he is the only one could ever do that. I swear by the seas! He is good at this kind of thing…he could even sweet-talk an amazon into marrying him. Well anyway! I did not know that by this time he had taken over my ship and my crew and imprisoned them. When I found out…it was too late. That guy is dangerous. He is like a snake."
"What did he want with you?" Sinbad asked. No man could ever make the pirate queen act like this, unless he was really good at his job.
"You'll find out soon enough Sinbad…" a booming voice came in. It belonged to, a bald man, even taller than Doubar. He had a stained beard and mustache. He wore a brown vest like shirt with brown leather pants. His arms were covered with tattoos. Sinbad thought he had seen the guy somewhere. He couldn't point his finger on whom he was.
"Why did you bring us here?"
"He asked me to." Talia said, "He said he wanted to see you."
Sinbad looked at the giant, "why did you want to see me?"
"No! Not him!" Talia said.
"Then who?"
"I did."
They turned to see a tall blond man with bright blue eyes. Sinbad was sure he had seen this guy before.
"Who are you?" asked Doubar.
"You'll find out…in time…"
"Why did you want to see us?" asked Sinbad.
Not answering his question, the man turned to Talia and said, "I heard there were five of them."
"I couldn't find the girl…she wasn't with them."
"She'll be here soon." The man said with a twinkle in his eyes.
"Well, what do you want with us?" asked Firouz.
A man came in and whispered something in the blond man's ear. He nodded and said, to the bald man, "Duraid, draw the curtains, and you…" he told Nimmur, "get us something to drink…including these guys." He said pointing to the crew. He had the crew seated on a chair. They were all surprised at the sudden nice treatment. Sinbad wondered where he heard the name Duraid before. The curtains were drawn. It was already evening, so there wasn't much light in the room. The thugs straightened everything in the room. It was as if they were preparing for someone's arrival.
"Clear the entrance, we don't want our friend to suspect anything." They did as he told. The thugs and the man seated themselves. Sinbad observed the man and noticed that he seemed excited. They heard someone walking in.
The crew and Talia strained to see who it was. What they saw made their eyes widen in surprise. Maeve walked into the inn. She had no idea of what she was going to see. She had waited for Sinbad and the crew…but when they didn't return she decided to find them, so the first place she headed for was the inn. She came in casually and stopped dead in her tracks at what she saw, her eyes widened in horror at the way Sinbad and the others looked. Then they seemed to pop out when she looked at the blond man who sitting as if he were a king.
She walked slowly inside and whispered, "Mikey?"
For the first time, the blond man put on a genuine smile of happiness. He stood up, the grin still stuck on his face. He thugs were as surprised as Talia was, this was the first time that they ever saw Mike smile like that. The crew was surprised that Maeve knew the guy. Sinbad was the only one who frowned. His eyes took a glint of jealousy, as he recognized Maeve's friend who also happened to be a con man. Mike went up to Maeve and took her arm and rolled her in to him, dipping her as low as possible, leaning her across his arm. Maeve was still in shock, that her mouth was a bit open. He then said, "hey Fireball! I missed you." Saying so he lowered his head and kissed her passionately. Maeve was still stunned at seeing him, and even more stunned at what he was doing. Neither did she respond, nor did she react.
Sinbad growled when Mike kissed her. Doubar and the others were shocked, at the sight, but they did chuckle at Sinbad's jealousy. Sinbad was losing his nerve watching them. Mike finally broke the kiss, and helped Maeve to standing position. Her jaw was still dropped at what happened. They were both breathless. Maeve finally recovered. She smiled brightly and hugged Mike. Sinbad clenched his fists. Mike broke the embrace to look at her. Duraid came up to her and kissed her noisily on other cheeks, with bear hugs in between. Maeve smiled at him, then suddenly Maeve turned to Mike and slapped him on the face, earning gasps from everyone except Sinbad. No one had ever done that to Mike before, and lived to see the next day. Sinbad was not surprised; he was trying his best to contain his mirth at what she did.
Mike was stunned at the slap. Then he said, "what was that for?"
She pointed to the crew, "for doing that, to my friends."
Then she broke away from Mike and Duraid and came up to Sinbad. She lifted his face to examine him. Her heart wrenched when she looked into his eyes and saw pain, he closed his eyes savouring her gentle caress. She looked back and Mike and hissed, "if you wanted to see me, all you had to do was ask…there was no need to bring them into all of this." She looked at Firouz with questioning eyes. He said, "I'll bring my pouch, I doubt if it is serious, but it could get infected." Saying so the physician stood up, but hesitated when he looked at Mike's men. Maeve looked at Mike who nodded at his thugs. Firouz went up to get his herbs and medicines. Maeve moved from Sinbad to Doubar. She smiled at the gentle giant, who returned it. "Are you okay tubby?" she asked affectionately.
"Nothing some good ale can't cure." He said. Maeve, Sinbad, Rongar and Talia giggled. She looked at Rongar who brushed away her concern by signing, I'm fine. She nodded and looked back at Mike who was just watching what. She looked at Talia, "why did you steal it?"
"What?!" Talia's head snapped up, "how did you know?"
"What are you talking about Maeve?" Firouz asked as he came downstairs.
Duraid asked her, "Lynnie, you know?"
Maeve nodded, "why else would there be such drastic weather changes?"
"Maeve?" Sinbad asked her softly, she turned to sit beside Sinbad, who went on, "what's going on? Is there more to this than just a reunion?"
"Wait!" Doubar said, "lass, how do you know these people?"
Maeve sighed, looked and Sinbad, then said, "Doubar, before I met Dim Dim, I was in Cairo… I used to work with Shady Mike."
Firouz was surprised, he looked at Mike and said, "you're Shady Mike?"
You know him? Rongar signed.
"No, but I heard people talk about you when I was getting out supplies…you have quite a reputation."
Mike grinned, "most of it is due to Lynn…"
"Lynn?" Talia, Doubar, and Firouz said while Rongar gestured.
"He means Maeve." Sinbad said uninterested.
The crew was surprised how Sinbad knew, but decided against asking him.
Talia suddenly gasped, "it was you, wasn't it?"
"Huh?" Maeve said.
"You…you are the one"
"One what?" Maeve frowned.
"Shady Mike's partner…the one they say 'you don't wanna mess with'…"
Maeve raised her eyebrow at Mike who chuckled, "that's the name you earned for yourself."
"I did?"
He smiled affectionately, causing Sinbad to scowl again.
Sinbad quickly changed the subject, "Mike…"
Mike shot a glare at him, Maeve intervened sternly, "they SHALL call you Mike."
Mike nodded reluctantly. Sinbad snickered and went on, "Mike, why did you take Talia's ship by force."
Mike's face hardened. He walked up to Talia and caught her by the hair; she winced.
"This little meddling wench, stole it." He growled.
"Mikey…" Maeve said in a warning tone. He immediately let go of Talia's hair. Talia sighed and smiled a thank you to Maeve.
"Stole what?" Sinbad probed.
Maeve answered, "The nature Pearl…also known as the Black Pearl of Isis"
When We Were Thieves - Part 7
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