Twilight had her paints out and was gently brushing dusky watercolors over the sky as the sun sank slowly over the western horizon. The sands shimmered as the heat they had stored up over the long, hot day were released back into the atmosphere. A lone Gerudo cantered her horse up to another sentry, raising her arm in the customary salute as she did so.
"News?" the second Gerudo asked.
"One of the soldiers Raobi sent after the witch has returned; she bears a prisoner on her mate's horse, her hands bound to the saddle. They are headed for the Fortress."
"Good. Raobi shall be pleased. Return to your post."
"Aye."
The sentries drew apart, and the first nudged her horse back in the direction from which she had come. The second sentry turned the opposite direction and spurned her mount to a gallop as she went to relay the news to the next sentry in line. And so it was in this way that Raobi learned of Gemyn's capture an hour before she arrived, and was there to greet her when a cloaked Gerudo led her, stumbling, hands bound by a rough length of rope, to the front steps of the Fortress.
"So," Raobi crowed triumphantly. "The witch returns. And what has happened to your partner?"
"Dead at the hands of this little bitch," Link croaked, deliberately rasping his voice to disguise his obvious maleness.
"And what is wrong with your voice?" Raobi asked suspiciously.
"She hit me in the throat. All I need is a hot drink."
"Very well," Raobi said, keeping her eyes on Link. "Take the witch to the dungeons," she ordered the two guards who accompanied her. "And you –" she said, pointing at Link, "Take care of your horse and then meet me in my quarters. We have much to discuss." Link bowed as gracefully as he could muster, taking care to keep his hood over his face. Raobi's hand strayed temporarily to her blade, but she seemed to think better of it, and stalked back inside the Fortress without a backward glance. Her guards grabbed Gemyn roughly by the upper arms, one on each side, and frog-marched her in after their mistress. She twisted to look back at Link, a desperate look on her face.
Don't worry, Link tried to say. I know what I'm doing. Now if only that were true...
He took the horse's bridle and led the exhausted creature around the side of the Fortress to the stables. Instead of taking him inside, Link tossed the reins and tossed them over a hitching post and then, after making sure that nobody had seen him, hurried around the back of the stables and set off on foot into the desert.
Nabooru had told him years ago that there was a secret passage leading out of the Fortress reserved for the leader and her personal guard, in case of an uprising and the need for a secret getaway. It was one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Gerudo elite – there was only five people at any one time who ever knew of its existence. Link didn't know exactly where it was, having never taken it, but Nabooru had told him of its general location – a mile north of the Fortress, the door cleverly concealed under the sand of a large, inconspicuous sand dune. Once he was roughly a mile out, he began searching for signs of the door, but by this time the sun had set and it was very dark. Blindly, he got on his hands and knees and crawled along the side of the largest dune he could fine, feeling for a door, but with no success.
Panic began to build up in his stomach, corroding his certainty. Had Nabooru lied to him? Had he just sentenced Gemyn to death at the hands of the cruel desert woman? "Goddess, help me," he muttered desperately, his hands swimming wildly through the fine golden sand.
A sudden breeze blew up, lifting Link's blond hair off of his face. He looked up towards the sky and watched as a dark scudding cloud skittered across the sky and revealed the face of the moon. Its silvery glow lit up the desert so that the sand appeared like a million shards of glass; it glittered dangerously as he sat on hands and knees and looked. A sharp glint of light caught his eye fifteen feet ahead, and he snapped his head around to see before scuttling over to check. What was it? A piece of glass? A broken sword hilt? Ahhh! Link sighed with satisfaction and relief. It was the very tiniest tip of a brass door handle. Link smoothed away the sand and beheld a wooden trapdoor. "Thank you," he murmured to whatever Goddess had been listening, and used the hilt of his sword to smash the lock before yanking the door open and falling inside.
The tunnel was as dark as midnight, but Link knew that there would be no twists and turns until he reached the Fortress. He set his left hand on the tunnel wall, his right firmly grasping his sword, and set off walking as fast as he dared.
Once she was safely within the confines of the Fortress, Raobi intercepted the guards carrying Gemyn to the dungeons. "Bring her to my quarters," she ordered, ignoring their looks of confusion. Raobi was fully aware of the execution laws, but she was in no mood to obey them with such a dangerous prisoner. Lia was different – she was a Gerudo, even if only half-blood. The Goddesses would be displeased if she did not abide by the laws for her own people. Gemyn however, was not a Gerudo, and clearly a dangerous witch who had to be disposed of immediately.
Once inside her private chambers, Raobi grabbed Gemyn roughly by the hair and forced her to the ground. "Tell me your plans, witch!" she snarled. "Why have you come back?"
Gemyn cried out in pain as a large handful of hair was ripped from her scalp. She did not answer Raobi, however; her mind was whirling to come up with a plausible lie. She could not tell Raobi the truth, that they'd come for Lia – if she did, Raobi would surely have the guard in the dungeon doubled, or tripled, and then Link would never get her out.
"Tell me!" Raobi shrieked, thrusting her hand out and forcing the same magic on Gemyn that she'd tortured Lia with that very morning. Gemyn began to scream, painful shrieking screams that echoed along the sandstone walls as her capillaries began to slowly collapse, one by one. She collapsed on the floor and curled into a ball, trying to push away the excruciating pain.
"Stop! Please! PLEASE!" Gemyn begged, tears of agony sliding down her cheeks.
Then, just as suddenly as the pain had began, it stopped; Gemyn was left with vague numbness in her fingers and, as she wiped at the tears on her cheek, realized that it was not tears; it was blood. Fear and shock coursed through her. What exactly was Raobi doing? Before she had time to think, she was snatched up again by her hair and forced to stand. Raobi's eyes were an inch from Gemyn's, and there was a cold fury in her eyes that sent chills up and down Gemyn's spine.
"Now tell me your plans, witch," Raobi said. "And perhaps I will be merciful and end your life quickly. Undoubtedly you will tell me in the end; it is your choice if it is now or after hours of this torture. You can decide."
Gemyn swayed slightly on her feet. She absolutely could not tell Raobi that Link was going to get Lia. "We've come to assassinate you," she spat finally, nearly choking on the words; she could taste blood in her mouth.
Whatever Raobi had been expecting, it wasn't that. The shock of Gemyn's words nearly caused her to release her death grip on Gemyn's hair. She quickly regained her composure however, and her cold eyes narrowed to slits. "Who is coming to assassinate me?"
"The – the man who brought me here. He disguised himself as a guard and is going to sneak in the back way and come kill you!" There was a slightly triumphant note in Gemyn's voice now; she was almost enjoying the lie. Each sentence came easier than the next. "He hadn't planned on you bringing me here of course, we were going to meet up in the dungeons and then sneak up here together. But no matter; he'll find his way to you eventually and rescue me."
"I don't believe you!" Raobi shrieked, her voice vibrating with fear and anger. "No outsider knows of the Passage! You are lying!"
"Fine, don't believe me! I'd rather you be unprepared when he comes to kill you anyway!" Gemyn shouted back, gaining strength at the sight of Raobi's loss of composure.
"Guards!" Raobi howled. "Bring me the ceremonial tools! Now!"
"But Mistress-"
"Do as I say! Did you not hear the witch? There is a traitor somewhere in the Fortress, and I do not intend him to get his witch back! She must die, immediately! Bring me the tools, and double the guard in the dungeons! Go! Go!"
The guards nearly tripped over themselves in their hurry to leave the room and do Raobi's bidding. They had never seen her built up to such a fury, and thanked the Goddess that her anger was not directed at them.
Lia lay stretched out on her back, one hand behind her head, staring blankly up at the ceiling in her cell in the dungeons. She was attempting to meditate, and prepare herself for the death that awaited her in the morning. Lia was not afraid to die; since childhood she had lived shoulder-to-shoulder with it in the slave quarters. She considered herself lucky, in fact, to have escaped death for so long. So many slaves had died for much lesser crimes…Lia had seen Gerudo masters kill slaves over nothing at all. As a half-breed, Lia knew that she should never have been allowed to survive as an infant and although she did not know why the Goddesses had chosen to spare her, she was thankful for the twenty years they had given her.
A soft scuffling noise close by made Lia prick her ears up. Her eyes, which she had allowed to drift close, snapped open and she lay perfectly still, listening hard. The scuffling grew louder, and she raised herself up onto her elbows. The noise was coming from behind the wall to her right.
"Who's there?" she asked forcefully.
It was, of course, Link on the other side of the wall. He had reached the end of the passageway. He froze at the stern quality of the Gerudo voice, unsure of how to respond.
"I can hear you! Speak!" Lia called again, now with her ear pressed up against the wall.
Link decided to take a chance. If he was in the dungeons, where he had been told the tunnel came out, then there were good odds that he was talking to Lia. If not…well, he'd have to take that risk. They were all dead if he didn't, anyway. "My name is Link. I'm with Gemyn, and we've come to save Lia."
Lia's heart leapt into her throat at his words. "This is Lia. How did you come to be behind the wall in my prison cell?"
Relief flooded through Link. "There is a secret passage – but there's no time to talk! I can't get out. Is there any way to open the door from your side?"
With a frown, Lia ran her hands along the wall, searching for a secret switch of some kind. There was nothing, however; the wall was as smooth and inscrutably blank as the rest of the sandstone. "Nothing," she said. "I don't-"
"Oy! Who are you talking to?" shouted the guard who had been positioned at the entrance to the cell block.
"Hush. Not a word or we're both dead!" Lia called to Link through the wall. "Why don't you come and see?" she taunted the guard. "Or are you frightened of the poor little slave girl?" Her jibe worked, as she had known it would – for there was nothing a Gerudo hated more than to be called a coward. There was a slight jingling noise as the guard strode forward.
"Care to say that again, half-breed?" she whispered, a dangerous sharp note in her voice.
"I said," Lia drawled in a deliberately disrespectful tone. "Are you afraid of the poor, unarmed, helpless little slave girl?"
"So the little half-breed needs to be taught a lesson in manners," the guard growled.
"And you think you can teach it to me?" Lia laughed in the guard's face. "You're too much of a coward to even open the door!"
This was all the provoking that the guard needed, and in an instant, the door was open and the guard was charging at Lia with a murderous light in her eyes. "Filthy half-breed! How dare you call me a coward!"
Lia was ready for this, having been expecting it, and rolled out of the way of the charging guard. Before the guard had caught her balance, Lia was on her feet; she brought her elbow up to the guard's face, breaking her nose; blood flew everywhere as the guard howled her pain and rage. No longer content with simply beating Lia into submission, she reached for her sword. Lia was again too quick for the guard, though, and found her knees kicked out from under her before she could do more than unsheath her blade. Lia wrested the scimitar from the guard's grasp and in one quick, fluid motion, slit the guard's exposed throat.
The guard let out a wretched, wet gurgling noise as blood poured from her severed carotid. Lia stood, chest heaving with exertion, and watched as the light in the guard's eyes slowly dimmed and life left her body.
Almost instantaneously, there was a cracking, grinding noise as the wall slid slowly to the side. A very dirty Link stumbled out of the dark entrance, looking with some surprise at the dead guard on the floor and a calm Lia standing over her, blade held loosely in hand. "What – what-"
Lia was almost as surprised as Link, but recovered more quickly. "Blood magic," she said quietly. "The door must have required a living sacrifice to open."
Link felt sick. How could Nabooru not have told him of this? If he'd known, he would have taken his chances sneaking in a side door of the Fortress, or even the front entrance – Goddess, anything but this! Lia saw his look and was annoyed.
"Do not look at me so. We should have had to kill her anyway to escape. How else did you plan on getting me out of my locked cell? Strange, really…why have a secret passage open into a cell?"
"To prevent anyone who isn't supposed to be using it from getting anywhere, I suppose," Link suggested, brushing dust from his tunic.
"Ah, yes, that would make sense. They would want to hold them here until she could find out just why they were using the passage in the first place."
It was then that Link really took a good look at Lia, and a gasp escaped from him before he could stop himself. "What the hell did they do to you?" Lia's eyes were completely bloodshot, and trickles of dried blood coursed down from both nostrils and ears, and the corners of her mouth.
"Raobi used her magic to crush my capillaries," Lia said shortly. "I will be fine – unbeknownst to her, I have learned the arts of healing magic and was able to repair them as fast as she crushed them. Truthfully I should have been dead many hours ago. But that is not important right now. Where is Gemyn?"
"You mean she's not with you?" Link asked, surprised.
"Of course not. Why would she be here with me?"
"But – Gemyn was the distraction. The guards brought her here, to the dungeons, and then I came by the secret passage and you were both supposed to meet me here. We needed some way to fool the guards into letting us get close to the Fortress!"
Lia gaped at Link for a solid ten seconds, pure shock stilling her tongue. Once understanding hit her, anger flushed her tanned skin a dark rose. "You are the biggest fool in the history of fools!" she barked. "How dare you allow Gemyn to attempt something so dangerous? Raobi would never send Gemyn to the dungeons! She believes Gemyn to be a witch!"
"But even so!" Link argued. "She cannot be executed until daybreak, so we have time to find her!"
"I swear to Nayru, I will cut out your heart and eat it! What do you know of Gerudo law? It applies only to Gerudos! Raobi can execute Gemyn anytime she feels like it – for all we know she is already dead!"
Link felt as though someone had punched him in the stomach. "Goddess," he whispered, as the full realization of what he had done hit him.
Lia shoved Link to the wall, her forearm pressing against his throat and crushing his windpipe. "If she is dead, so help me Goddess, I will slay you with this blade if it is the last thing I do." She shoved him away, her lip curling in disgust as he choked and gasped for air. "Let's go." And without waiting to see if he followed, she strode through the cell door, which was still swinging open from when the unfortunate guard had unlocked it.