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Chapter 9: A Costly Mistake

"Meridians and parallels", muttered Doubar under breath as he climbed down the steps for his supper. It was well past midnight. He was surprised to see Maeve at the table, feeding a few scraps of meat to Dermott. "Aren't you tired?" ,he asked, settling on the wide bench.

"I've been trying to read as much as I can about the song of the sea",sighed Maeve,gloomily. "Has Sinbad found the coordinates yet?"
"No",replied Doubar, moodily. "He's locked up in his cabin with Firouz, drawing those complicated diagrams-" Doubar banged his fist on the table in frustration causing most of the vessels to jump. "If you ask me, nothing can take the place of navigation by the sun and the stars-"
"Doubar..",began Maeve,sympathetically. "Sinbad is upset, you know he is.. Can't you talk to him? Calm him down? You've done so before. You're his big brother. He trusts you..."
Doubar shrugged lightly. "Sure, I've spoken to him during several instances of the past. Sometimes he does get a little too stubborn and hot-headed for his own good but.. Maeve, I don't even know where to start on this one- this entire adventure.." Doubar shook his head in frustration. "That boy down in the shoal tank, he's turning into some kind of sea demon.. and when I look at him and think that he's got only another six days to live, I.." Doubar's voice trailed away. "Sinbad blames himself. Somehow he has to figure this one out on his own."
"What if he doesn't?", snapped Maeve.
"Then he'll just have to live with it. And knowing Sinbad, this one costly mistake could ruin his life-"


With Dermott on her arm, Maeve peered hard to find her way down poorly lit, cramped corridor to Sinbad's cabin. There was not a breath of wind and the air was stifling hot. As she neared the door, the voice of Firouz arguing with Sinbad could be heard. Maeve listened in, picking up random words like "uncharted", "inaccurate", "too many gaps of unknown territory..". The voices subsided and Maeve retreated to the base of the stairs. She was pondered whether to take a walk on the upper deck when Firouz himself flung the door open and shot out of Sinbad's room. From the expression on his face, Maeve could discern that things were not going too well with the maps.

"Any luck?", asked Maeve, hoping for even an inkling of good news.

Firouz looked up surprised as if he hadn't expected to see her. "Err..no", he muttered dully. He started up the steps and then turned to Maeve, "Both of us guessed that the image of the deep sea graveyard shown by the Queen's daughter must not be too far away. The terrain doesn't seem totally unfamiliar, but.. to chart out a map based on pure instinct and to trust it to route us through a sea storm.. I'd say its still a lot of risk!"

"Sinbad has many years of sea-faring experience-"

"Aye. He does.",agreed Firouz. "But Kaylan's fate rests on his decisions. With a burden like that weighing on his mind, Sinbad is very likely to lose patience and push the Nomad out to sea, prepared or otherwise-"

Maeve slipped into a thoughtful silence.

"If the worst should happen",said Firouz. "We should stick together and give our support because Sinbad sure needs it"


Rongar wiped the salty sweat out of his eyes as he tirelessly supervised the work of the sailors as they tethered down every piece of movable cargo on the ship. "We are at a good distance from the shore yet not too far in the open sea", grunted Doubar, satisfied. "This is a good position to weather out the storm". Rongar nodded in agreement. They dropped all sails and cleared the deck completely. Another crack of lighting and thunder boomed. "Any moment now", said Doubar, anxiously studying the fuming skies.


Maeve decided to settle down in her own room. If a storm should come, the general order was for every sailor to stay in his bunk. It was the safest place to be since the ship would rock violently with the rising waves. She laid a hand on the knob and was about to push through when she saw Sinbad leaving his quarters. He spotted her but quickly averted his eyes and jogged out to the deck. Maeve resignedly entered her room and set Dermott up on his perch. "It's too hot to sleep" ,she moaned to Dermott. "And too dark to read-" She plopped onto her bunk and cupped her chin in her palms.

"He'll get through this, Dermott", said Maeve to her hawk trying to sound firm and reassuring. She cast back her memories to the time when she thought she had lost Dermott to the Vorgon. Her brother's disappearance near the Vorgon's invisible wall had left her shattered. But Sinbad was with her. His calming presence had gently guided her to control her emotions and think of a way out of their troubles.
Maeve dwelt on this for a moment ,leaned back and closed her eyes for a few seconds. Soon she was fast asleep.


The simple village folk huddled at their doorways as families and fearfully watched as a tight, powerful tornado swept through their streets, throwing oxen, horses and sheep into disarray. As the mysterious swirl of wind died down, a young woman, dressed in very expensive clothing emerged from within. She was a dark-haired beauty and from the thick pieces of jewellery that adorned her fingers, neck and hands, she was incredibly wealthy as well. There is was a distinctly cruel smile that twisted her red lips. She seemed to relish the fact that her arrival had caused such fear and terror among the villagers. Satisfied by the awed reception, she curtly demanded who the village leader was.

"We are simple Irish folk", said the leader,a wise and humble person. "We don't want any trouble here-"

"Silence!",yelled the woman, imperiously. And as if the villagers needed further proof of her power, the woman destroyed the village well and the surrounding houses. The men from every family came running out with whatever weapon they could muster.

"Now, thats more like it!",said the woman, her eyes flashing like a cat cornering her prey.

Meanwhile, word travelled quickly to the neighboring villages and countryside about the power of the intruder witch.

"I've seen her before. She is Turok's daughter!"

"Let us pray to the heavens that she spares our village of her cruelty"

"I heard she had enslaved all the young men from the nearby village. How terrible! Is there no one to stop her?!"

"Who is this daughter of Turok?!",demanded a loud voice, authoritatively. It came from the lips of a young farm girl, not yet one and twenty years old. Her fiery red hair which covered her forehead and gathered plentifully about her shoulders also seemed like an indication of her equally fiery temper. Her name was Maeve and she was anything but a simple farm girl. Brimming with righteous indignation, Maeve marched out with her brother at her side to challenge the oppressor and bring justice to her people.

"Who are you to enslave our men, daughter of Turok?! Are you such a coward that you choose such innocent, helpless people as targets for your vile dark magic?! People who have no hope of even mustering a meager defense?", shouted Maeve, with a long blade in her hands which had once belonged to her uncle. Her words certainly angered the young witch. She screamed curses upon Maeve and a battle began.

Maeve single-handedly warded off the witch's minions, slaying them one by one. Dermott fought beside her, boldly and courageously until all their enemies were in pieces on the ground. Humiliated in the hands of a poor farm girl, the daughter of Turok seemed momentarily at a loss on how to re-ignite her fearsome reputation. All around her, the villagers seemed to gather spirit and rally their strength for a more determined attack. The witch hadn't expected this and knew she had to leave before her powers suffered too much strain. But she couldn't leave just yet. Not until she repaid that wretched farm girl for her audacity. With one final triumphant laugh, the witch mustered all her force against Dermott, Maeve's kid brother and turned him instantly into a hawk!

"There! A life-long remainder of your foolish tryst with Rumina!", cried the witch, in victory. She laughed heartily at the farm girl's misery as she rushed frantically to her brother's side. "Let his curse be upon your head. And after you have shed every possible tear, you shall remember throughout your pathetic existence that it was your false bravado against the daughter of the Great Turok that led to your brother's sorry state!"

Maeve's eyes tore open in fear. Dermott's transformation had been her costly mistake.


Above, on deck, huge drops of rain came pelting down upon the Nomad. It was early morning but the sky was as black as night. With the anchor firmly holding the ship in place, nearly all sailors were in their bunks awaiting the worst from the brewing thunderstorm. Down at the hull of the ship, Kaylan lay weary in the uncomfortable, confining shoal tank. Thunder crackled all around and more rain in torrential proportions descended upon the ship and sea.


Only the sturdiest of sailors with rock-hard stomachs to battle any sea-sickness made it to the food table that ship rocked hard from side to side. Sea waves lapped up on deck and rolled along the floor. The wind tore through the ropes and the mast. The heat was finally beginning to lessen down.


By nightfall the air turned quite chilly and everything on the Nomad seemed annoyingly damp or moist. Maeve lit up a small fire and tried to read up as much as she could on the conch shell that Valensya revealed to them as the song of the sea. Now and then she peeped out of her room to check if Sinbad had arrived at the supper table. But he still remained locked up in his room. Even Firouz had stumbled out about an hour ago, bleary-eyed and collapsed on a nearby hammock in exhaustion. Dermott prompted Maeve from his perch with little chwirks from his beak. Maeve scratched her brother's feathery head and quiety left her room. Picking up a bowl of bread and cheese, she knocked once and pushed through Sinbad's bunk door.

"Oh! Maeve!",said Sinbad as she entered the fair-sized room. "Come on in, but mind the charts. They are all over the place"

Maeve gingerly stepped over the rolls of skin, some completed and some discarded due to errors in calculation. Sinbad had conveniently surrounded himself with Firouz's lamps - the ones he had gifted Omar of Basra during their last visit to the Savage Sultan's great city. Observing the usefulness of the lamp over the crude flame of a torch, Sinbad had Firouz replicate his lantern five times so that he could use them in emergencies like this.

Maeve sat cross-legged on the floor beside Sinbad and looked at the drawings he had made. He kept measuring and speaking softly to himself. "You didn't have your breakfast, lunch or dinner, so I decided to bring it out to you",said Maeve, making an effort to sound gentle. She only succeeded in sounding awkward and gruff.

"Put it down there. I'm not very hungry.", said Sinbad, his eyes never leaving the charts.

"What are you working on?", asked Maeve, curiously.

"This grid system. The lines of latitude, called parallels are easier to mark. It's the meridians that are much harder-"

"The longitudes",said Maeve.

"That's right. I estimated the angle of the North Star and the time to determine our ship's location. And I have made a grid covering most of the parts of this region. But its these blank spaces of uncharted areas that worry Firouz and Doubar..."

"Our ship could accidently sail right into a sandbar or an island-"

"Exactly",said Sinbad. Maeve waited quietly as Sinbad went about making his map. He reviewed and re-reviewed his jottings in meticulous detail, all the while muttering inaudibly to himself. She began to think he didn't need her support after all. He seemed to be too busy to let Kaylan's predicament pressure him any further. Maeve tiredly rubbed her eyes and pulled herself up to her knees.

"Where are you going?",asked Sinbad, his eyes still directed on the piece of chart he was working on.

"I thought I'd see what Doubar was doing-", replied Maeve, stifling a big yawn.

"I finally went down to the shoal tank to see Kaylan",said Sinbad, softly. "He is changing fast. As Esdel had predicted, he now has a large tail for legs-"

"What did he say?", queried Maeve, quietly.

"He asked if we would soon arrive at our destination-",said Sinbad, briefly making eye-contact with her. Maeve could see that his eyes were bloodshot as well. It was evident for her that he was pushing himself too hard.

"What was your reply?"

"I only nodded-" Sinbad paused and let out a sharp breath of disappointment. "I didn't know what to say-"

"Oh Sinbad", whispered Maeve, overcome with emotion. She reached out her hand caressed the side of his face. " You've got to trust yourself.. as you've always done before. I know that you'll figure a way out of this. I know that you will somehow help Kaylan locate the shell and unite him with Valensya. It seems impossible but you have done the impossible before!"

Sinbad looked surprised at this speech from Maeve. She was sitting on her knees so close to him, face flushed with concern and her hand now resting on his arm. Strangely, her words seemed to relieve him of a tension which he didn't realize he had. They seemed to instill new patience in him - a hope that perhaps things would indeed turn out all right.

He slowly edged close to her. She hesitated, her eyes darting from his lips to his face and backed away a little but found his arms gradually encircling her waist. He propelled her gently to himself and pushed back the thick red hair that hid her face. Then he kissed her.