EIGHT

AN INCIDENT AT THE LAKE

Let it always be said that Zorana has the most beautiful views.

The Festival continued to great fanfare, and I felt that I could not interrupt such an important cornerstone of culture to speak to the King about trivial matters. However, not to seem ungrateful, but I am a little tired of feeling like I am on my best behaviour.

After our visit to Vah Ruta proved disappointing to everyone involved - the great stone beast refused to yield to Link, even when he tried to enter it again with his Sheikah slate, and it remained as still as a statue - Prince Sidon recommended a rest period while we decide what to do next. I worry that Link's slate has become damaged, and I wonder if Impa would be kind enough to take a look at it, when we arrive at Kakariko.

The Prince accompanies Link and I to a place known as the Landing, which was used by the Zora Royal Family as a vantage point out across the lake. As I sit and try to take in the landscape, Sidon regales us once more with the battle against Vah Ruta.

He clearly adores Link like a brother. Link says very little, not even correcting when Sidon hyperbolizes, but there is a distant smile on his face. I don't believe he is even listening to Sidon: his eyes look out across the lake, watching the rippling water, remembering something fondly.

Watching him, I know that I feel something I cannot put a name to. I feel the same when I think about some of the memories I cannot seem to grip: the ache of something missing, or something slipping away that I have no power to hold onto.

Sidon finishes his tale with a flex of his muscles, and I applaud politely. I catch Link shake his head with an amused smirk.

"May I ask, Princess, what your short-term plans are?" Sidon asks, with a slight bow of humility. "We welcome a longer stay with us, or we would happily arrange an escort to your next destination?" He stretches and rolls his head, flexing his slender neck. "Your accounts of the increasing presence of the Yiga trouble me."

I shudder at the mention of the Yiga. I struggle to get past the image of the eerie masks they wear whenever I hear the name. I know my plan, but for some reason I idle with telling Sidon.

"Will you excuse us, your Highness?" I ask. "I have been suffering from muscular weakness for a time, and I hoped that swimming in the lake would help recover my strength a little."

I stretch a hand across the glorious view. "I hear the waters of your domain are rumoured to have restorative powers," I say, with a gracious smile.

Sidon bows deeply, still taller than both of us even at half the height. "I highly recommend it, Princess. Would you like me to provide some assistance? Of course, not myself. There are a few women of the Domain, strong swimmers, who-"

I graciously stop him before he gets too flustered. "Thank you. We will see you shortly."

Link stands guard from far away as I undress, taking off all but my undershirt and leggings. The stone cools my feet and I sit down on the edge of the deck, dangling my legs into the water, almost squealing as the cool water soaks the fabric. It's bearable – certainly preferable to being caught in a rainstorm. Link's head turns slightly as I slip into the water, holding the side for a few seconds as my nerves twinge with the shock, before I start to make broad, gentle strokes in the water.

I can feel the benefit of being in the lake already. Suddenly I am free of the fatigue, and my strokes get broader. I remember what it was like to swim, and I wonder how long it has been since my last.

I think about how it feels to float, weightless, and without warning my mind takes me for a wild spin, and imprisons me back in Ganon's clutches.

I see the beast whirl towards me, the remnants of humanity tattered around it like the ragged flesh around the almost-human skull, and the roar hits my whole body, rattling my bones like a cage. I raise my palm, the might of the Goddess within me, and the beast surges towards me, unhinges its jaws…

The cliffs of Zorana lurch sideways along with the skyline. My left leg, seized with cramps, turns into a dead weight; my eyes roll back in my head, and I feel myself slip underwater.

The books I read tell me that I wouldn't realise I was drowning, if I ever did. It would feel like falling into an intoxicating, all-consuming sleep, just as I did as the beast's jaws clamped around my body, bathed in light. My hair and dress billow around me as I hear the stifled rush of water. My lungs start to burn, but I am paralysed.

I open my eyes in shock with the sudden, unexpected pain, and to my surprise I see Link's face.

There he is.

Always at my side, even in death.

My eyes widen in terror as I wind back to the moment life left him, and I hear again the soft rattle of his last breath in my arms, and the pain in my heart which was still far greater than the current pain spreading from my lungs, infecting my brain. Now I remember, in my final seconds, the seething horror as I gripped him while the rain hammered us both.

The sword spoke to me then. As I sobbed over him, the sword made me picture the Shrine of Resurrection, gave me a vivid image of him resting, bathed in the pool. I remember it now.

My dying mind thinks it will all be for nothing. At least I see my Champion before me.

My mirage grips the back of my neck firmly. His face tilts, draws rapidly closer to mine, and with his mouth, he forces my lips open and pushes a warm breath into me.

I take a huge gasp, sucking the air from him, and he kicks his legs to bring us to the surface. Our faces pull apart and break into the cold air, spluttering and gasping. I almost roll under again, but he has me around the waist, and with a few deft strokes from him we are at the surface of the deck. My hands slap the stone as I struggle to pull myself out while breath still eludes me. He is up on the deck in a flash and pulls me up.

He scoops me up from the floor and races me under the canopy, laying me flat on the reclining cot. Frantically, he kneels beside me just as my breaths roll in and out of me all to quickly. He holds me as I almost reel and slip off the cot, gently easing me back on. He urges me to breathe in, and out. An instant headache crushes my skull from within.

He supports my head, gently lifting my eyelids with his finger and thumb. My eyes spin in their sockets.

Focus! I think. I meet his eyes, find the anchor point, and start to breathe more deeply. My legs, twitching and jerking with cramps, start to relax. I rub my bare feet together, two times up and down as I breathe in, two times up and down as I breathe out.

Water drips from his face onto mine. He is stern, and he barely blinks, watching me as if both our lives depended on it. I pant into his face, barely registering anything but my urgency to regain control of my body and mind.

He grips my wrist, counting my pulse without breaking his gaze. I close my eyes briefly, blocking out the sunlight, and when I open them again, the lids feel ten times heavier.

Hours seem to pass, and eventually he asks if I am alright. I croak out a feeble 'yes'. He helps me to sit up, and I can see the waters of the lake are utterly tranquil, as if to imply that what just happened never could have.

"I'm sorry," I pant, realising just how much it hurts to breathe. "My legs-"

I daren't tell him about the memory of the Calamity, or of his last moments. He must remember too, even though he hasn't mentioned. Though how would you even begin? I think, breathing heavily through my nose to see if the pain might lessen.

He gently lays me back down, holding his face close to mine as he listens to my breathing. Once he is satisfied, he sits back onto his feet in a low kneel, still holding my wrist.

I drift off into unconsciousness.

When I awake, Link is still by my side. The light has faded and it is dusk.

The first thing he tells me he shouldn't have let me sleep: he should have gone to fetch help from someone, but he couldn't bring himself to leave me. He didn't think to sound an alert, or fire arrows, or even shout.

He looks so tired and ashamed.

I feel like I've been thrown roughly against a hard surface: my body feels internally ravaged and my head still throbs, but at least my body and its aches are my own again. Briefly, my mind flashes to my century-long imprisonment, but one look at Link's fearful face and I am back in the present.

I hold my hand out and catch the back of his neck, pulling him near to me, our heads as close as they were under the water. I press his forehead to mine and shut my eyes, the closeness of him soothing me, and we hold each other as the light ebbs from the lake.