Chapter 13 - Watching

When the door closed and she was finally alone, Robin's presence lingering behind him like a shroud while the sudden silence swept over the room like a wave, Maeve leaned her back against the door and rested her head on the hard wood. She closed her eyes and sighed, the air leaving her lungs like a weight lifting from her shoulders. She was exhausted, thoroughly spent, all strength and energy properly sucked from her body like a sponge wrung dry. It was a miracle she was still standing on her feet after the kind of day she'd just had. It felt as if she had been awake for ages.

And to think of what she'd just revealed to Robin about Dermott, her biggest secret slipping from her mouth as easily as if she'd shouted the truth to the whole damn world with no hesitation...It was sickening, the shame and guilt rising in her throat once again, but she quickly admonished herself and tempered it down. If she spared a thought to her mindless revelation once more she would go mad, and what she desperately needed right now was rest and sleep.

Lazily, she opened her eyes and glanced around the majestic suite bathed by the flickering light of the flames dancing in the hearth, and for a moment she felt like an intruder, an impostor that didn't fit in the rich perfection of the place. But she was too tired to dwell on her lack of status at this point, and she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, so she ripped herself from the door and shuffled her feet to the candlelit bathroom, the call of hot water beckoning her to its warm invitation.

The tub was filled to the brim, its surface steaming like a bed of coals with the gentle scent of lavender oils, and her mind momentarily shut down as she went about the task of disrobing, her fingers working to unclasp her corset buckle to remove it before she pulled her shirt over her head and stripped her trousers down while her feet kicked off her boots. Within minutes she was stark naked and stepped into the water, its blistering warmth pleasantly kissing her flesh like silk and sending ripples of goosebumps down her limbs. She immersed herself completely, slipping below the surface while holding her breath, wetting her entire head and hair before emerging and blinking droplets out of her eyes. A sense of calm instantly claimed her body, the tightly coiled tension in her nerves unwinding at once as her muscles slowly began to relax one by one, yet soon enough her mind quickly returned to its chaotic spinning state, her thoughts warring with a black morass of questions and frustrations.

It was crazy. Everything was crazy. Two, no, five weeks ago she'd been smoothly sailing the seven seas with the crew, and now she was stuck here, a prisoner with a quest on an island torn by war, with room and board in a room fit for queen. There was simply no wrapping her mind around such an inconceivable transition. It simply made no sense. She didn't belong here. She belonged on the Nomad. She belonged with the crew.

Yet here she was, thanks to Dim-Dim who had sent her on a suicidal mission to save his friend on the other side of the deadly Blind Mountains, in a kingdom where he was apparently famously known to the wizarding community, another piece of information which he had conveniently omitted to share with her. It drove her mad. She'd never fully realized the baffling amount of secrets he kept all those years, like a pirate with treasures buried all around the world. All those people he knew, the connections he had, the knowledge he safeguarded, the prophecies he had access to...It was dizzying. And keeping her in the dark so much only served to kindle the rising resentment she felt for him, a nasty feeling that was slowly sprouting like a weed watered by rain.

And to think tomorrow at dawn she would embark on a deadly trek in a cursed forest, with no guaranty of getting out alive on the other side...Why on earth would Dim-Dim put her life at risk like this? But she chastised herself sheepishly. It was easy to put the blame on her secretive mentor, yet none of this would have happened if the damned travel vial had worked properly this morning...

Maeve let out a steadying breath through her nose, an attempt to settle her nerves and relax in the tub, letting the hot water seep into her skin as the subtle sent of lavender waltzed around the room aglow by candlelight.

But dread nonetheless dug its wicked claws inside her chest. She had faced many foes in the past, tiptoeing on the edge of death on many occasions, risking her life for what she believed in and doing her best to protect innocent people. Being brutally mauled by Skinwalkers or drowned by Kawasseas was no different and was certainly terrifying, but nothing was as terrifying as facing those threats without the crew.

This time she would be alone. This time none of them would be by her side, and the prospect of dying without ever seeing them again nearly choked her.

Out of reflex, she glanced at the red bandana wrapped around her wrist, the color darkened by the water as the fabric hung wet against her skin. Her eyes watered suddenly, a sharp sting slashing her heart like the tip of a blade, cutting her open to expose the unfinished story woven into this small token of the man it belonged to.

She missed him. She never thought she could miss anyone like this, nor had she ever thought it could hurt this much. Every second her mind wandered to him was another weight added in her heart, another mile added to the distance separating them, her noble captain with whom she shared so many bitter regrets. So many things taken for granted…so many things left unsaid…secrets buried in the dark…

She blinked through the tears, fighting against the sobs that were piling up in her throat like rocks. She should have told him. All those occasions where she could have been honest with him, sharing the whole truth about Dermott's curse, all those moments spilled from her mind like water through her fingers, filling her with complete shame.

What a fool she had been. Denying him the truth for so long out of fear and guilt for her repeated failures. Telling him she had a brother should have been so easy. A few simple words ushered in the night.

And yet she'd bluntly told Robin without a second thought, a mere stranger she had only met this very day. But perhaps it had been so very easy because he was just that, a stranger, someone who knew nothing about Rumina, who wasn't involved in her constant battle to defeat her and all the dangers that incurred. He wasn't involved like Sinbad was. She knew it was a poor explanation for her slip of tongue, but it was the only one she could come up with right now, and besides, she had only revealed she had a brother, nothing about his curse.

She closed her eyes, her blurry vision disappearing with a single tear rolling down her cheek. Her thoughts galloped away to the Nomad and the crew, wondering where they were and what they were doing, if the seas were calm and if the winds were kind. The pain in her heart had almost dulled when her thoughts inevitably shifted to Bryn…

Another woman. Another sorceress.

A convenient replacement.

Accepting the devastating consequences of the storm, having no other choice but to swallow down her fate and lead a separate life from those she loved and cared for, with not even a few minutes to spare to say goodbye...The hellish tempest had set all those cruel outcomes into motion and they had all rattled Maeve to the core one by one, testing the limits of her wits and her strenght, daring her to scream and shout and fight back against the unfairness of it all. But learning about Bryn taking her place on the Nomad had been the final chink in her armour, nearly shattering what was left of her shield into pieces.

Maeve's reaction when Dim-Dim had begrudgingly shared this news with her after she'd woken up from the terrible storm had been wordless shock, as if he'd struck her hard across the face and stolen the wind from her lungs. She'd been hotly insulted and infuriated, anger crashing in her blood like a river gone wild, and she'd wanted nothing more than to burn the entire world around her to ashes until the pain in her heart would melt away.

To be so easily replaced with the flick of a finger, forced to surrender her entire life to another woman overnight, a woman who now walked in her footsteps, slept where she once did, shared her meals with her friends, took care of her brother, spent her days by Sinbad's side…The wound of betrayal ran deeper than Maeve ever thought possible, red and bleeding and festering like a curse. It was utterly unfair and she was totally helpless against it all, no matter how loud she screamed and how hard she pounded her fists against invisible prison walls in the nightmares that tormented her at night.

But there was another feeling dwelling inside her since she'd learned of Bryn's arrival amongst the crew, a nasty and wicked emotion that could easily tear her apart from the inside like an angry beast if she wasn't careful enough to tame it down.

Jealousy.

The word tasted bitter in her mouth, like a toxic mixture brewing deep within her core that would eventually poison her from the inside. But there was no escaping its black essence. No matter how much she tried to ignore it, it was always there in the back of her mind like a wicked spirit, haunting and tormenting her.

She had no claim on Sinbad.

That was the hard, devastating truth. She had nothing but dust to cling to. Dust and memories. A token around her wrist.

She had nothing else.

She had nothing more.

How different things could have been...if only they'd had time to say goodbye...perhaps the gravity of their imminent separation might have coaxed them into action, might have ripped a few dire words from their lips...

Maeve closed her eyes, suffering the weight of heartwrenching regret pressing down against her ribs like a cold hard stone.

They would never know what could have been.

And now she was trapped a thousand miles away, entrusted with a mission to accomplish, people to help, her own path to follow no matter how treacherous the road promised to be. The wheels of fate were already turning and there was nothing she could do about it, except suffer the constant throb of longing in her heart and pray to the good spirits that they may keep the crew safe while she was gone, while she couldn't watch over them and protect them.

Her eyes snapped open, a sudden thought creeping into her mind, and she sat a bit more upright in the tub as the realisation slowly hit her.

She glanced at the water sloshing around her, her heart quickly racing up as she pondered the possibility.

Dim-Dim had taught her how to use magic to channel images through time and space on a pure, conductive surface. It could work on any expense of reflective material, glass, metal, water...Back in their bubbled and secluded realm, she had done it to watch over the crew when they reunited with Tetsu and helped him save all those women who were captured by the demon Kompera and his seven demonic horsemen.

Back then Dim-Dim had taught her how to do it with a small mirror, but surely she could do it again with water. Right here. Right now.

Straightening up in the tub, her heartbeat pulsing hard and fast in her throat as hope spread like roots into her bones, Maeve took a steadying breath, calming her nerves before she let the magic flow within her core, a gentle warmth like a balm on all her worries, her mind drifting to the Nomad, to the crew, to Sinbad…She prayed to the spirits to let her see, just to catch a glimpse…just for a few seconds…

When she opened her eyes again, the water in the bath stirred softly in front of her and a blurry image began to form, colors and shapes blending together.

Then she saw him.

Standing at the foot of a soaring rocky mountain and dangerously close to the edge of a cliff, Rongar was down on his knees before him, clutching his arm where blood oozed through his fingers. A blond woman dressed in a revealing outfit of red leather was facing them, spatting threats as her blade glistened red with what could only be Rongar's blood.

Maeve watched the scene fearfully, holding her breath as fake pleasantries were exchanged with the woman, a wordless plan subtly passing between Sinbad and Rongar before they both sprung into action. Rongar leaned out of the way and Sinbad tossed a rock at the woman, unbalancing her and winning enough seconds to lunge for his sword. The clash of steel rang in the night around Maeve as she witnessed the duel, nerves contracting with fear as Sinbad was kicked at and the woman's blade arced in the air to hack him to pieces. They were too close to the edge of the cliff, way too close.

And the blonde was angry, hissing cheeky insults his way as she pressed him against the jagged rocky outline of the cliff, although Sinbad quickly outmatched her and switched their positions around, spitting back a reply of his own before resuming their deadly dance.

Maeve had no clue why they were fighting nor what was at stake exactly, but her heart was hammering worriedly in her chest as they fought, every muscle coiled in anticipation, her entire body jerking in the bath when the woman suddenly tried to stab him with a dagger unsheathed from her boot, but Sinbad was quick enough to catch her wrist in time. He then proceeded to slug her in the face and when she furiously waved her sword in the air to cleave him in two, he swiftly stepped out of the way.

There was a shadow gradually darkening his gaze, something black and dangerous seeping into his moves, shoulders tensed and muscles twitching in his arms as he backhanded the woman across the face. He'd had enough of the fight, Maeve could tell, but still the blow surprised her. Had he ever hit a woman before in their past adventures? She couldn't recall for certain, but she was sure he never went as far as what he did next. As the blonde stumbled near the edge of the cliff, precariously searching for her balance, Sinbad simply stepped closer and punched her hard in the jaw, sending her tumbling down to her doom without even a hint of hesitation, eyes filled with dark satisfaction.

The blonde's scream echoed through the rippling water of the bath, sending a shiver up Maeve's spine as she simply stared at the man before her, breathing hard form the exertion of battle. She knew nothing of the nature of the quarrel that had fueled the fight, but she knew for a fact that he easily could have disarmed the woman and spared her life to make her pay for whatever trouble she had caused he and Rongar. So why kill her? Why end her life in cold blood? That was not the man she knew.

With a pang of regret, Maeve also realized that he still hadn't traded his leather trousers for a more decent-looking sailor attire, a promise he'd made to her during the festival of Bakar a while ago. True, she was no longer there to ensure he kept his end of the bargain, but to see him still wearing those pants stung her hard, a small betrayal and dismissal towards her, because he knew exactly just how much she hated those pants. But what had mattered to her back then no longer seemed to matter to him now...

Maeve swallowed carefully past the forming lump in her throat and by the time she concentrated on the images stirring anew in the water, Sinbad was standing in front of another woman, with pale skin and a mane of long brown hair cascading down her back. She had just thrown a small bead-incrusted box in the fire of a big hearth, the flames igniting a purplish color as it consumed whatever the box had contained.

Confused, it took a moment for Maeve to remind herself that the magic often worked by jumping from past events to others more recent in time, thus always respecting the chronological order of the events but leaving the watcher with the task of patching up the blank holes between what was revealed. That was how the magic of the spell worked, showing the watcher either what he wanted, needed or feared to see, which is why Dim-Dim had warned her many times how dangerous it could be.

But Maeve didn't care. Not tonight. Not when her longing for the crew and her desire to see them safe and unharmed drove her onward. She couldn't stop watching now, even if the heavy darkness in Sinbad's gaze ripped her apart as good as a butcher's knife.

What had the dark-haired woman just asked him?

Maeve frowned and focused on the images rippling on the surface of the water again.

Her answer came with a sharp stab of pain twisting in her heart like a barb, as Sinbad leaned in and kissed the woman, his hand tenderly spreading behind her head to hold her close. The woman seemed to drink him in as if it was the last kiss she would ever be granted, and Sinbad lost himself within her mouth as well.

When they parted, the ache in Maeve's chest was burning like a bonfire, but she strained her ears to understand what the pale-skinned brunette was saying, her words echoing through the water like a spell. She was thanking Sinbad for the kiss, and telling him she envied him. Because he had family. He had friends. And he had love.

Maeve's heart skipped a beat at the last words, the air momentarily leaving her lungs, and she would have been a fool not to see the change in Sinbad's eyes right then and there, the tempered anger falling over his gaze like a veil, thick and dangerous, the subtle clench of his jaw and the twitch in his shoulder as he fought to maintain his composure. It crushed her. The weight of pain and regret she felt deep within her bones was right there in front of her, residing in the depth of his eyes as clear as water in a riverbed.

The sight suddenly became too much for her to bear and she had to blink away, unshed tears blurring her vision as the pale-skinned woman knelt down on the ground and suddenly melted away, the sands of time grinding her back into dust before the entire scene vanished, leaving Maeve alone in the crushing silence of the bathroom, miserable and heartbroken, a wounded animal with too many cuts and bruises to lick.

The water was cold and she shivered, her skin all wrinkled up at the tips of her fingers.

Confusion slowly seeped into her mind like a rooftop leaking with rain. Sinbad was clearly hurting just as much as she was, haunted by the same ghosts of regrets and longing, but why did it feel like he was slowly slipping away from the man she had known? Their predicament was unfair, terrible and devastating, and she knew people handled grief in their own different ways, but the intense anger that was emanating from him seemed so much fiercer and deadlier than the one smoldering within her own blood. Why? Why such harshness in battle? Why still the leather pants? Why such darkness in his eyes?

She prayed for the answers but none came to her, and she had to force herself out of the bath before the last remaining hours of the night dwindled away and she got no sleep at all.

Numb with emotion, drying herself up with a nearby towel and brushing a few tears away with her fingers, her feet guided her back to the living room where what was left of Robin's fire gently burned in the hearth with a dying flame. Passing by its warm caress and reviving its intensity with a magical flick of her hand, she then plunged into the cozy dimness of the bedroom. Not even caring what she was allowed to touch in the sumptuous suite, her fingers pulled at the drawers of the massive mahogany chest opposite the canopy bed and she rummaged through its content until she found something that looked like a nightgown. The long, flowing silky fabric was way too rich and delicate for her blood but she slipped it on anyway, letting the wet towel drop to the floor at her feet.

She then unceremoniously threw herself on the wide plush bed, and stared dazedly at the heavy swath of red cloth above her head, like a cloud of blood set to curse her entire future. It was a silly thought and she shut her eyes tightly, wishing for the embrace of sleep to claim her before her racing thoughts threatened to barrel her clear off a cliff of despair.

Surprisingly, her prayer was answered rather quickly as exhaustion won over everything else.

But the dreams that came to haunt her were that of a storm, raging oceans and ripping winds, a voice shouting her name in terror and a pair of sea-blue eyes.

Alright, next chapter is a flashback! Stay tuned for The Red Dress! :)