Chapter 1 – Going Back
Maeve ran, her heels digging in the sand and her heart thundering against her rib cage. A few rolling waves came crashing at her feet as she raced down the beach but she paid no heed to their gentle flaps against her calves. She just ran, the muscles in her thighs burning with the effort.
The sun had just arisen, ocean water still dripping from its fiery globe in the horizon. Warm rays of light caressed the shore line and cast the long shadow of her silhouette next to her, making it look as if she were racing against it.
However, Maeve looked ahead and ahead only, where a tall column of smoke was circling up in the sky. Fear crept into her bones as she ran in the direction of the little house. She couldn't yet see it, as it was nestled on top of a small green hill just around the next bend, but she dreaded what she would discover when she made the final turn. She prayed to the good spirits that Dim-Dim was alright. The mere thought that something might have happened to him made her push herself harder in the sprint, her fingers tightening their death grip on her boots which she had grabbed in a flash when the blast had occurred.
What on earth had he done? One minute she had been peacefully staring off at the sunrise, stealing quick glimpses into the waves to watch over Sinbad currently fighting on the white rooftops of a city she didn't recognize, and the next there had been a massive explosion coming from the house's direction. What if one of his spell had gone wrong and he had blown their residence to pieces? What if he had gotten badly injured in the process? What if he was—Maeve pushed the thought away, forcing her legs to keep going. Her red curls flowed in the wind as she sped up her pace in the final turn around the sandy bend.
The little cottage was still there, at least what was left of it. She halted for the split of a second, taking in the sight before her. Smoke was still puffing out of the windows and the shutters had been blown away. Erupting from their openings, black scorch marks were spreading their fingers outward all over the whitewash of the walls, making it look as if cinder spiders were trying to come out of the windows. The door had managed to resist the explosion but was now weakly hanging on its hinges. Part of the roof looked like it had been torn off and debris were scattered all over the green grass around the house. Maeve recognized a few of the ashen-looking books, one of the kitchen chairs, pots and kettles of all sorts, pieces of clothing, Dim-Dim's staff… But Dim-Dim himself was nowhere to be seen. He was still inside.
Putting her boots on hurriedly, Maeve dashed toward the small cottage. "Master Dim-Dim!"
Pushing the door away, she let it tear from its hinges and fall at her feet with a thud before stepping inside carefully. Everything was a mess. Smoke clogged at the main room, assailing her nose, her eyes and her throat. Squinting to adjust her vision in the dim light, she waved her hand to dissipate the smoke around her and coughed at the dust. The air was hot and smelled like burnt wood.
Maeve surveyed the room closely. The kitchen table had crashed into the cabinet where all the herbs and potions were stored. The bookshelves had completely collapsed and what was left of the numerous bestiaries, magic and mythology books was sprawled on the floor in bits and pieces of half-burnt pages. In the heavy silence, glass and pottery shards crunched under her boots as Maeve took tentative steps in the chaos.
"Master Dim-Dim?" She called again, fear for her mentor gnawing at her mercilessly.
Clangs and thuds echoed in the room to her left—Dim-Dim's room. It sounded like someone was throwing stuff around and cursing at the same time. Cautiously, Maeve made her way to the door but had to duck as soon as she reached it because a lantern came flying out above her head.
As the glass shattered behind her on the floor, she anxiously peered inside the room. Her eyes went wide with relief. "Master Dim-Dim!"
The wizard was rummaging through an enormous chest, tossing things out frantically. His white robes were torn and stained with cinder and his hair was in such a dishevel state that it made him look like a mad man. He hadn't even heard her, or if he had, it appeared he had more important things to do than answer her.
Avoiding a few upside-down drawers in the middle of the room among a bunch of other debris, Maeve stepped up to him and gently touched his shoulder, concern colouring her voice as she coughed again because of the lingering cloud of smoke.
"Master Dim-Dim, are you alright?" she asked concernedly. "What happened?"
Shutting the chest closed with a grunt and a curse, the wizard spun to his feet and darted passed her hurriedly, shooting her a quick, alarmed glance. "I'm alright, child, but you must leave at once!" he declared agitatedly as he strolled back into the kitchen.
"What? What are you talking about?" Maeve frowned in confusion, following after him and trying her best not to stumble on anything on the floor. She watched as he began storming through the wreckage in the kitchen, shoving the splintered table away to access the bottom of the cabinet.
"A dark storm is gathering on the horizon, Maeve, but because of the curse keeping me trapped in this realm I am powerless to play a part in it. You'll have to go without me," he quickly explained while he took out a large box incrusted with yellow beads, opened it, and then tossed it away impatiently.
"Go? Go where?" Maeve asked again as she grimaced over the foul acrid scent in the air.
Dim-Dim shot to his feet again, crossed over to the kitchen counter that was miraculously intact and started opening the drawers one by one. "To the Island of Kalladrell, in the village of Denwood. You need to go to him."
"Who?" Maeve puzzled, baffled by what he was doing and what he was saying.
"A very old friend of mine, Jacob, a prophet," Dim-Dim answered her over his shoulder, intently focused on his task as he continued to fumble through the drawers. "I was speaking with him only seconds ago but our connection was violently severed. His village is under attack and if something happens to him before you get to him, then the spirits have mercy on all our souls." He wheeled on his feet and strolled past her back into his room, only stopping briefly to look her in the eyes with sharp worry in his voice. "A grave prophecy has been set into motion."
Maeve stared back at him, completely clueless and growing more and more alarmed by his cryptic babble. She tried to piece together what he was telling her but it simply didn't make sense. "Master Dim-Dim, slow down," she said, following after him. "What are you talking about? What prophecy?"
The wizard crouched down at the side of his bed and stretched an arm under it. As he let his fingers grope at the forgotten objects resting there, he looked up at her. "One that says that a great evil will sweep across Jacob's land after the three coasts are set ablaze and the hills begin to burn, announcing the release of the Belrok."
"The Belrok? What is that?" Maeve asked as she stepped over a broken bowl of pottery and frowned down at him.
"A beast from the Wikken Hells," Dim-Dim answered her, his brow drawing down gravely. "A vile creature that can only be summoned by a Djin Lord."
"A Djin Lord?" Maeve repeated blankly, having never heard the term before.
Dim-Dim's head disappeared under the bed. "A wizard whose soul is as pitch-black as death itself, like Turok." His head reappeared and as he sat on his knees, he uttered yet another curse, his acute eyes scanning the room in a calculated manner.
As Dim-Dim's words slowly began to sink in, Maeve blinked at him in confusion and shook her head at a complete loss. "Hold on, I don't understand," she began, trying to sort everything out. "First, you take me away from the real world because I'm supposedly too vulnerable to face the dark forces at work…" She took a step in his direction and leaned forward to look him straight in the eye, touching a finger to her chest. "…and now you want to send me back to fight off this evil beast? Alone?"
To Maeve, this was beginning to sound like a very bad joke.
Dim-Dim shook his head and winced. "I'm sorry, Maeve, I wish I had more time to explain, but the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people are at stake."
"Hundreds of thousands?!" Maeve exclaimed. "You said Jacob lived in a village!"
Dim-Dim suddenly shot up to his feet and dashed for his nightstand. It was lying on its side, the wooden top half torn away. He opened the little cabinet and rummaged through it as he spoke gravely. "Maeve, this one prophecy will set many others into motion and it is crucial that everyone plays their part, or else it will trigger a series of events that have the potential of plunging mankind into an era of destruction and put a definite end to the world as we know it."
Maeve swallowed hard as shivers of growing dread rippled on her skin. She didn't like it when he spoke like that, with this end-of-the-world edge in his voice. It made the fine hair on the back of her neck stand on end. She could tell by the desperate alertness in his eyes that something was terribly wrong and it scared her, and if Dim-Dim was scared, then everybody should be.
He pulled out several items from the cabinet and finally let out a sharp, satisfied "Ah!" when his fingers wrapped around a small leather pouch. "I've been saving this for emergencies. I guess now is the time to use it." He gripped the pouch securely in his hand and grabbed her arm with the other, ushering her out of the room. "Come, we must not lose another minute."
He urgently led her into the kitchen and back outside into the sunlight, their feet crunching panels of wood and shards of glass as they walked amidst the debris from the explosion.
"Wait," Maeve protested as he led her a few yards away from the house, on the sandy path that led to the beach while blind hope flared up inside her chest. "How will I be able to contact the crew?"
Under the bright sunshine of dawn, Dim-Dim finally released her arm and turned to her, his features suddenly softening as his eyes took on a sad glint that didn't escape Maeve's notice. The alarm in his voice smoothened for a moment. "You'll know when the time is right to see them again."
Maeve frowned at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Dim-Dim avoided the question and looked down at the leather pouch he was holding. He worked the strings loose and took out the object it was containing. It was a small glass vial, shaped like a raindrop and with no cork at all, the glass simply sealing itself off. Inside was a sparling silver liquid that looked like melted stars. It was magic for sure, but Maeve had never seen anything like it before.
"This is a travel vial," Dim-Dim explained as he held up the vial in front of her by the tip. "It can take you anywhere you want to go. You simply have to shatter it at your feet and think about the place you wish to travel to."
Maeve blinked back at him, the little vial sparkling between their faces. "What?" she asked incredulously, not believing what she was hearing.
"Here," he said, taking her hand to press the vial into her palm and close her fingers around it. "You need to use it now to reach the village of Denwood in Kalladrell, to find Jacob and-"
"Dear spirits," Maeve gasped, yanking her hand away and taking a step back in shock. She stared down at the magical object she was holding and then back up at Dim-Dim. "If you had this all along, why on earth didn't you use it to break free from this cursed realm!?"
Dim-Dim linked his fingers together in front of him and calmly looked at her. "Because I was saving it for a moment like this."
"A moment like this?" Maeve echoed disbelievingly. "Master Dim-Dim, you could have escaped this horrible place with this thing! You could have been free all this time!"
He held up a hand to quiet her. "I already tried, Maeve. I had two more of those vials with me when Turok's demon cursed me to this realm. I used the first two a long time ago but it didn't work. I'm afraid the magic of my curse is too strong to counter with simple magic such as this." He pointed to the glass raindrop in her hand.
"What makes you think it will work for me?" Maeve asked, still in shock.
"Because I was the one cursed, not you," he said quietly. "The travel vial will take you where you need to go. You just have to think of the island of Kalladrell and the village of Denwood and the magic will do the rest."
Maeve lowered her eyes and glanced at the sparkling silver liquid in her hand. She didn't like this. She didn't like this at all. This was all happening way too fast and he had averted her previous question about the crew. Why couldn't she go to them right now instead?
She pressed her lips together, her brown eyes darting down to the beach while her fingers absently toyed with Sinbad's red bandanna around her wrist. She searched the horizon where the white sails of the Nomad would never appear, and her thoughts wandered to the dangerous predicament she was about to jump into.
It just didn't make sense. Merely two weeks ago she had been separated from the crew in an awful storm and forced into hiding, and now she was already going back. "This doesn't feel right…" Her voice trailed off. She shook her head as her eyes went back to him.
Dim-Dim looked at her, offering her a pained smile. His small blue eyes lingered on hers, as if he was trying to find the right words to say. He took a step towards her and extended a hand to squeeze her arm gently. "I'm sorry you have to bear this burden, Maeve," he said softly. "I wish I had more time to explain, but you will understand everything soon, I promise."
Maeve looked at her mentor, at the look in his eyes that bore the weight of goodbyes, definite goodbyes, and she couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that was knotting into a ball inside her. "What aren't you telling me?" she asked him, holding his blue gaze with quiet intent.
Master Dim-Dim let go of her arm and averted her scrutinizing eyes, glancing down at the waves distantly crashing on shore. "Hard times lie ahead," he said gravely, losing himself in his thoughts as the morning sun illuminated his features. "I don't know the exact nature of the struggles you will have to face but I pray you will find the strength in your heart to overcome them. And remember," he brought his eyes back to hers. "Everything happens for a reason."
Maeve felt her heart tighten in her chest at these words. She didn't believe in this maxim anymore. Not since the storm had stolen her away from the Nomad.
In the bright sunshine of dawn, she felt lost in the dark. Since that horrible night, it was as if her own fate had been ripped out of her hands.
But even if her whole world seemed to be crumbling down, she trusted Master Dim-Dim. She trusted he would never send her into harm's way voluntarily, unless innocent lives were at stake and he believed she could help save them. She trusted his judgment. She trusted him with her life. And after everything he had done for her, she couldn't refuse what he was asking her to do.
"I can't leave you like this," she said upsettingly, throwing a glance over her shoulder at their ruined little house. "Let me help you with-"
"I'll be just fine," he smiled reassuringly, cutting her off with a dismissive gesture, but Maeve knew better. His powers were weakening a little bit more every day because of Turok's curse. It was like putting a candle under a glass jar and watching as it slowly dimmed away, the fire burning out until there was no air left to feed on. That's what this cursed place was doing to him and had started doing to her.
And now she was about to leave him here, all alone again. It crushed her but she knew there was no point in arguing with him about it. However, she made a silent vow that she would fulfill her mission no matter what, and when she was done she would contact the crew and together they would find a way to free him once and for all.
"I'll do everything I can to help your friend, Master Dim-Dim, I promise," she said determinedly, sending him a thin-lipped smile.
Dim-Dim nodded sadly and smiled one last time in return. "May the good spirits protect you, child," he blessed her, touching his fingers to her cheek like a loving father.
Swallowing hard to stifle the cold feeling of dread that was quietly squeezing her heart, Maeve took a step back, and after casting one last look at the glittering ocean, she shattered the vial at her feet.