Chapter Nine: The Chapel of Nayru
The King of Hyrule started off smiling towards his study. Everything was going so well; the alliance would be made before he knew it. And of course, his wife would be happy that more guards could be dispatched to find Lady Salydia, who had simply lost her mind and run off who knows where. Though it was probably too late for her now.
The King began to walk into the doorway of the study, then froze. His boot had stepped into something sticky on the ground. The monarch glanced down and gasped, staggering back against the wall. "Heavens above!" he breathed. On the floor lay the messenger he had been calling for earlier, now a bloody corpse with a sword driven through his heart. The King tried to scrape off the blood from the bottom of his boot frantically and ran off, shouting, "Murder! Murder! The enemy is loose in the castle! Arm yourselves! Guards! GUARDS!"
Yalon looked about her curiously. The Chapel of Nayru was gorgeous; it had been built as the twin to the famous Temple of Time. Like its sister building, the chapel had exquisite high stain glass windows that imitated the Gothic cathedral style. The soft light of candles played on the walls and tapestries depicting Nayru, Din, and Faore hung on the stone walls.
Zelda sat down in a pew and looked up at Yalon intently. Juro sat down beside her, crossing her legs impatiently.
"Well?" Zelda asked. "Where is she?"
"Your Majesty, first I'd like to say that the woman I saw might not have been Salydia—"
"I don't care," Zelda interrupted. "Tell me what you know."
Yalon took in a deep breath. Hedging was obviously not going to work. Yalon was just a simple peasant; she couldn't say anything in a fancy or clever way. So, she opted for the bluntness of a farmer's wife.
"Well, I start up business as usual, and I'm going out to market to sell my milk and deliver here at Hyrule Castle," Yalon began.
"At about what time?" Zelda asked.
"I reckon anywhere from 12:00 to 1:00pm," Yalon replied. "That's when Malon's nap is."
"Malon?"
"She's my baby daughter," Yalon explained.
"I have a daughter, too," Juro and Zelda replied simultaneously. The three mothers all stopped and stared at each other in surprise.
"Well, isn't that something?" Yalon voiced, looking at the two Queens with a wry grin.
"I find it odd," Juro muttered.
"Please, Yalon, continue with your story," Zelda insisted.
"Anyway, I'm leaving home, when I see this woman beside the door." Yalon took a deep breath. "Your Majesties, she was in the worst state I had ever seen. It was obvious the Stalchildren had gotten to her. Unfortunately, it didn't look like she fought back at all. She looked like she'd been too busy protecting something. So, I try to clean her up a bit, and after a while she comes to. I find out that it's a baby boy she's been protecting."
"What did the woman look like?" Zelda asked.
"She seemed petite. Her hair was all matted and dirty, but I would think it was either black or brown. The boy, he looked a little bald, but he had some blonde hair. Both had blue eyes, I think," Yalon offered.
A little cry escaped from Zelda's throat.
"Is that her?" Juro asked.
"Yes," Zelda whispered, "I think so."
"You said earlier that you let her go," Juro accused Yalon. "What do you mean?"
Yalon stared at the ground in shame.
"She wouldn't be brought to the palace. I fed her baby some milk, but she refused everything else. I offered to lat her stay at my husband's ranch for awhile, but she wouldn't do it. She seemed afraid of something," Yalon admitted. "I let her go because it seemed like the right thing to do."
"How could you do something so foolish?" Juro shouted. "Look at this woman crying beside me! She is beset by grief because of the loss of her friend, and you wouldn't help her!"
"Juro," Zelda spoke softly. "Stop. It's not Yalon's fault."
The Zora sat down again, cursing at the peasant under her breath.
"Yalon," Zelda ventured, "Did Salydia ever say where she was going?"
"No, Your Majesty," Yalon sighed. "Only that it was far, far away."
"That's no help," Juro muttered.
"Thank you anyway, Yalon," Zelda told her with a smile. "This will surely help my husband's men in finding Salydia. I will make sure your family is rewarded for this."
"Don't reward me," Yalon replied modestly. "Just make sure you get that poor woman and her son home safely."
"We'll do our best," Zelda assured her.
The Zora queen stood up and walked towards the exit.
"Queen Zelda, we really should get back to the palace. I still need to sign that alliance with your husband," Juro called.
"Good idea," Zelda agreed.
The Zora pulled on the door, and was surprised to see that it wouldn't open.
"Is it possible to lock this door?" Juro asked incredulously.
"Yes, from the outside," Zelda informed her.
"You didn't lock it, did you?" Juro said slowly.
"No, I didn't," Zelda replied. "Someone else must have—"
A scream erupted from Yalon's throat as a torch was tossed through one of the stained glass windows, shattering it into a million pieces. Juro knocked the two other women to the ground as the glass flew overhead. The fire caught onto a large tapestry as it flew in, engulfing the fabric in flames. One by one, each tapestry fell victim to the hungry fire until the wooden beams supporting the chapel gave way.
And suddenly, a frightening sound began to echo into the chapel from outside the walls.
"Death to the Hyrulian bastards! Let them burn! Death to the Hyrulians!" The mob screamed louder and louder, and the sound of something ramming the once-strong stone walls reverberated throughout the chapel.
The three women clung together behind one of the pews, their hearts beating wildly in unison as more torches came in with outside shouts and yells. The loud crash of one of wooden beams sounded from behind as it clattered to the ground, sending sparks flying.
"It's an ambush," Juro laughed bitterly. "We've been locked into this chapel, and now they're going to break it down."
"Is there anything we can do?" Zelda insisted, turning to the usually-confident Zora.
A flicker of uncertainty passed through her eyes as Juro smiled wryly. "Unless you know how to break through stone, douse a fire without water, stop an angry mob or hold up a collapsing building, then no."
Yalon wept shamelessly. "Heavens, heavens above! My child, and my husband! I'm going to die here, and I'll never see them again… All I want is to see my family one more time! That's all I want!"
Zelda wrapped her arm around the peasant woman comfortingly.
"I know," she whispered, tears streaming down her face also. "That's all I want, too."
All three could only watch as the flames danced, consuming all that surrounded them with the maniacal cackling of the fire. And together, they waited for the inevitable.
The King of Hyrule laid his head down on his desk and cried. It wasn't something he had done often; as king he was expected to be strong and powerful. But now, as the messenger stood before him, the king wanted nothing more than to strangle that man, to force him to say he'd been lying, that it was all some sinister joke.
But death wasn't a joke. It was a cold, unfeeling fact.
"The Chapel of Nayru… It's collapsed, then?" he managed.
"Yes, Your Highness. It's beyond repair."
"And she was inside there…"
"Along with Queen Juro of the Zoras and Yalon of Lon Lon Ranch, yes. Your wife perished in the flames of the ambush."
"But who did this?" the king pleaded, eager to thrust his anger and rage on someone, anyone.
"There was a spy in your palace. He was a guard, we believe; he snuck in some of the enemy's men and led them to the chapel unnoticed. By destroying one of your symbols of power, they meant to weaken your morale. There was a similar attempt at the Temple of Time, but it was suppressed."
"How the hell does that help me now?" the king stormed, standing up. "Let the Temple burn, let them all burn! Why couldn't you save the one Zelda was in?"
"Your Majesty, you're being unreasonable…"
"I can be unreasonable!" he raged. "My wife has been murdered! I have every right to be unreasonable! She's dead, do you hear me? Dead! I can be unreasonable!"
The messenger wasn't sure how to respond.
"Well," the man began, clearing his throat, "this might be a good time, Your Majesty, to consider that the alliance with the Zoras has been broken off due to Queen Juro's death—"
"Leave me in peace," the king moaned, turning away. As soon as the messenger had left, the king banged angrily on the desk with his fist.
"I was such a fool," he whispered, choking back his tears. "I never deserved you, Zelda. Oh heaven, I'm such a fool. Such a stupid, blasted fool!"
