The Copper Promise: Part one: Ghosts of the Citadel
By: Wydrin Williams 178
4
"Hyrule is less a city and more an infection," muttered Link as he hobbled his way through the crowded streets.
The Keep was the pustule in the middle of it, rising from the city's heart to stare blindly across the desert lands beyond; the houses and taverns and markets, the brothels and warehouses and gambling dens that grew beneath its walls, were the signs of its feverish pestilence. Even in the early morning light the day was already too hot, and the sun was a white disc in the pale sky.
"A hideous place." He limped around a market stall selling birds roasted on sticks. They'd left the brightly coloured tail feathers on. So many people, so little space. And the stink.
"Do you think so?" The mercenary called Malon walked just ahead. "It doesn't smell half as fishy as Lon-haven. Where I'm from this would be considered an especially fragrant day."
Link frowned. "I'm sure it would."
He had heard many stories on his long and painful journey from Faron. The Copper Cat of Lon-haven, they said, was a fearsome swordswoman with flaming red hair, a pair of daggers at her hips and a love of danger almost matched by her love of men and gold. It was said there was no deadlier dagger for hire in all of Lon-haven, and, given the latter's reputation for privateers and scoundrels, that was quite impressive in itself. Her partner, they said, was a cold-eyed killing machine filled with the fury of his icy mountain gods, with as much warmth and mercy as those perilous peaks.
Link had imagined a tall, curvaceous woman, with hair as red as blood tumbling unbidden to her waist, a pair of green eyes as playful and cruel as a cat's, and armour that perhaps did not leave much to the imagination. In truth the Copper Cat was a young woman of average height with long, carroty hair, freckles across her nose and almost every inch of her covered in boiled leather armour. As he watched, she paused to kick a lump of something unmentionable off one of her boots; it didn't appear to make the boots any more presentable.
The Skyloft knight at least looked formidable. Even on such a warm day he wore the traditional armour of his Order, a mixture of boiled black leather, fine mail and silvered plate, and people seemed naturally to move out of his way, like a river flowing around a rock. Other than his size and the enormous broadsword slung across his back, he gave no further impression of barbarism. His face was long-featured and clean-shaven, his eyes clear and blue.
"Have you seen the Sea-Glass Road before, my lord?" Rusl asked.
"I have not. I came to Hyrule from the North, travelling down through Eldin." He opened his mouth to say more, and then thought better of it. "It was an uncomfortable ride."
"It is quite a sight. One of the wonders of Hyrule."
"I am not here to see the sights."
Link had to imagine it was finer to look upon than the streets of Hyrule itself. Timbered alehouses crowded to either side, each belching out a hot wind reeking of stale beer and old vomit. Butchers flung their offal directly into the streets, so that a tide of feral dogs moved from one shop to the other, only pausing to fight over the choicest scraps, and whores dangled out of windows, resting their doughy breasts on windowsills and calling down to the men below. Oxen moved slowly through these streets, hauling wagons piled high with produce rushed across the Gerudo desert from distant Onwai and the island of Lon-haven, whilst traders rushed between them, doing deals on the run. Men and women shouted to each other, children screamed and shrieked, and over it all the baking desert sun beat down, making everything fever-bright and fever-strange.
As they moved closer to the centre of the city the houses grew more ramshackle, the people poorer. The Keep sat at its heart at the top of a small hill, surrounded by the impoverished and the desperate. Although it had been dormant for centuries, no one liked to live too close if they could possibly help it. On quiet nights, they said, you could hear the ghosts calling.
Link found it hard to imagine there could ever be a quiet night in this place.
"There, look, my lord." Link looked where the knight was pointing. Between two warehouses, one of which appeared to have partially burned down recently, he could see a wide strip of startling blue-green, rippled with bright sunlight. It truly was like suddenly coming upon the sea in the middle of the city. At the sight of it he felt his heart quicken, and he forced himself to walk faster. The path of the gods.
"Good, let us hurry. I have had more than enough of this pestilent city."
When they reached the edge of it, though, Link found that he had to pause. The Sea-Glass Road swept up through the city of Hyrule like a great frozen river, the surface warped and glossy, and it was indeed an arresting sight. The heat shimmered off it in waves, and if you could bear to look for long enough you could follow its path up the hill to where the Keep crouched, red stone and black shadows under a merciless sun.
Link reached down and quickly massaged his stiff leg. It was already aching from the walk through the city.
Malon appeared at his side, her hands on her hips. She, too, glanced up towards the Haunted Keep, and nodded as though this were exactly what she was expecting.
"How about it, princeling? Race you to the top?"
Malon took the lead. Rusl and Link followed behind, the latter taking great care on the slippery surface beneath his feet, the discomfort evident on his face. After a few moments Malon paused, letting them catch up with her.
Unfortunately for Link, the Sea-Glass Road was the only way into the Keep. The four iron gates set into the red-stone walls had long since been soldered shut to keep out the curious and the greedy, whereas the Sea-Glass Road ran straight up from the Hyrule Sea, across the sands and up to the very walls of the Keep, meeting a wide stretch of broken masonry. It was a curious thing, wide enough for ten of the heaviest carts to roll up it side by side, if the horses could abide walking on the warped, shiny surface. Most of them disliked it as much as Link. It was sufficiently steep so that even Malon in her tough leather boots was making slow progress. The glass beneath her feet was a deep green, like the sea it was named after, and the early morning sun created shimmering white lakes of light ahead.
"Who would put such an awkward thing here?"
"You mean you do not know?" asked Link.
"I have told her," said Rusl, in a weary tone. "But she does not listen."
"Nonsense," she replied, cheerfully. Rusl was always talking about some old history or another, how was she to know which ones were worth listening to? "You've never mentioned such a road. I swear it on my claws." She patted the sheathed daggers at her waist.
"Here, then, stop and listen."
They paused. The city of Hyrule pressed in on either side of the Sea-Glass Road, like ports against a river, and here and there someone had tried to set up a business on the rippled surface, but it was hard going. They had passed a couple already, men selling red meat on sticks or cold glasses of spiced milk, but the sellers were all frazzled-looking and exhausted. No one attempted to make a living on the slopes closest to the Keep: they were too close to the guards, and too close to the ghosts. The road itself stretched far into the distance, passing out of the city and dwindling to a slim green thread. On the horizon was the sapphire-blue band that marked the Hyrule Sea.
"It's a long damn thing," she said, covering her eyes with one hand to better see the road. They could still smell smoke from the city below, the occasional whiff of sweet spices from the meat sellers, and a slight hint of salt from the sea.
"It grows no shorter as we stand here," put in Link. He was wearing a black woollen tunic and a black cloak, with leather boots gone grey with travel. Leaning heavily on his stick, he looked less than comfortable in the heat. Rusl, however, who had grown up surrounded by books and histories, was getting the look he got when he had a story to tell. He pointed to the beginning of the Sea-Glass Road in the far distance.
"This was all sand too, once, thousands of years ago. But then there was a war between the gods and the mages, one that threatened to wipe out all life in Hyrule. In desperation, the great mages of that time gathered together all of their most powerful weapons, all of their most mysterious and dangerous artefacts, and built a Keep to protect them. When word reached the gods that such a cache of power was hidden in a human Keep, they raced across the Hyrule Sea to get here, churning up the land as they went so that it fused and turned to glass. But it was all a trap. Once inside they could not get back out again, and so the war was ended."
"And all the artefacts remain. All the ancient seals of power," continued Link. "Yes, it is a fine story."
Malon shrugged. The Sea-Glass Road was certainly impressive, an extraordinary natural formation perhaps.
"In Lon-haven we prefer stories about pirates and sea-nymphs, or the salt-spirits and the Graces. Usually, a salt-spirit will turn himself into a human man for the day, and get some fish-wife pregnant. That sort of thing. There's normally a song or two in the middle."
Rusl sighed.
"Let's keep moving, shall we?"
It was a hard climb, and at the very top they were met with the equally hard faces of the guards. There were four in all, patrolling the broken expanse of outer wall that marked the end of the Sea-Glass Road. The inner walls of the Keep rose behind them, and above that the fat drum-shaped bulk of the central building itself, all constructed from the same dull, red stones. The place was certainly large, impressive even, but hardly opulent enough to be the prison of gods, Malon thought. The first guard approached them, a tall, lean man with a neat grey beard and dark circles under his eyes. He had a spear in his hand but he wasn't pointing it at them. Malon thought that could all change fairly quickly. The three other guards watched closely from their positions on the wall; two men of middling age and one younger lad, who was watching them with eyebrows that disappeared beneath his half-helm. Malon suspected he'd probably only been in the job for a month at most.
"Lost, are we?" cried Vincent. There was a suggestion of a smile at the corner of his mouth. "The taverns and whorehouses are back down there a ways."
They drew level with him.
"No doubt you know of the best pillow houses, Vincent," said Malon, giving him her cheeriest grin. "Tell me, do they grant discounts to the greatly aged?"
Vincent's little smile faltered somewhat.
"You tell me. Are you feeling generous today, whoreling?"
Rusl cleared his throat.
"Apologies for my colleague," he said. "We are here on business, actually."
The three other guards were edging closer, intrigued. Malon suspected that usually trespassers were quickly chased off with a spear point in the ear for their trouble.
"What business could that be? No one's got business in the Keep save for the dead, and you all look a little too lively for that." He looked at Link, and shrugged. "Save for the cripple here, maybe."
The blond-haired young man bristled visibly, his eyes narrowing.
"I am Lord Link Frith of the Faron. I have spoken to the Hyrule Council and agreed a price. You should have been informed of this."
Vincent leaned on his spear, rubbing his chin. He made a great show of looking off into the distance, searching the edge of the horizon for something known only to him, and then finally shook his head.
"Can't say I have, actually."
Inwardly, Malon sighed. She couldn't abide a man who could not summon up a decent falsehood.
Link stepped forward awkwardly, his stick skittering on the glass.
"I'm telling you, guard," he spat the word, "the bribe has been paid. Now stand aside."
The three other guards were now at Vincent's back. Malon caught the eye of the young nervous one and gave him a wink. He looked momentarily terrified, and tore his gaze away.
"Well, maybe a bribe has been paid," said Vincent slowly. "Maybe it has, maybe to someone who isn't me. Maybe that there is your problem."
"What?"
Rusl held up his hands, palms out.
"I'm sure we can come to some sort of agreement. We are adventurers, after all, and we may-"
"I am not paying this man a single coin," snapped Link. "He is a vulture, picking at the carcass of someone else's deal."
"Right, well." Malon slid her daggers from their sheaths, letting the early morning light play along their silvery blades. The young guard's eyes nearly popped out of his head, but his two companions only drew their own weapons, two notched short swords. Malon grinned at the sight of them. "I said we should do this in the first place, didn't I? Easier just to kill them."
Rusl sighed. "You did not say that. You said that if we did that-"
"I changed my mind. It's been a slow morning and I am easily bored. You, fresh-meat. Would you like to die first?" She held up one of her daggers, showing it to the youngest guard. "This one is called Frostling, and the other is Ashes."
"That's the Copper Cat," he blurted. "She'll kill us all, and take our bodies back to Lon-haven to feed to the Graces!"
Triumphant, Malon turned to smile at Rusl.
"And you said that rumour wouldn't stick"
"Enough of this." Link hobbled forward, coming face to face with the head guard. "I've paid our way, and paid well. Now get out of my path."
Malon hefted the weight of her daggers, watching Link closely. He was standing his ground, his gaze unwavering, and she saw no fear on his face. Vincent wasn't as impressed with Link's bluster, however, and he lowered his spearhead to point at the young lord's gut.
"Bloodshed will serve none of us." Rusl inserted himself between the guard and Link, and for the first time they seemed to take note of his size, and the shining broadsword slung across his back. "Malon, please. Put your claws away for now."
Malon rolled her eyes, but did as he bid. In return, Rusl glowered at Vincent until he lowered the spear.
"Go on past, then. You won't last till midday. No one comes out of there alive, everyone knows that. All you adventurer types, with your big shiny swords, your plate armour and your empty heads you all die down in the dust somewhere."
Malon walked calmly past the guards, pausing to lay one hand on the shoulder of the youngest. "I'll remember that when I'm reclining on silken pillows in my own marble palace. I shall say, the ugly guard told me I would come to this, and I did not listen." She gave him another wink while the boy gaped at her.
Vincent spat in the dust by her boot.
"There would have been another man, some weeks back," said Rusl. "Did you see him come past?"
"I saw him, aye, young idiot. Blond hair and more knives than sense. He hasn't come back, either, and neither will you." When they looked at him blankly, he waved them on with his spear. "Go on, then, go and get yourselves killed. It's no skin off my arse."
A/N: Thanks for reader. As always, please review for ways I can improve. Love you all!