CHAPTER TEN

Zelda's mind was a mass of darkness. Somewhere at the back of her head, a voice was chanting, You will die, he cannot help you, over and over again, making her head ache as bad as her body.

Midna had barely managed to warp her to the Spirit Spring just inside Kakariko Village, Zelda's on-and-off consciousness told her this. Midna had hidden when Renado had come to see what the matter was, as she had put up a terrible racket to get his attention.

"Dear Goddesses!" He'd cried, attracting the interest of his daughter, Luda, who was standing in the door of the sanctuary.

Zelda had slipped out of consciousness again, but not before choking out,

"Help… Help me…"

When Zelda's eyes opened again, she was on a bed, comfortingly soft, and a blinding white. The pain had not abated. A day of her precious time had been spirited away; only three more until death claimed her.

She coughed, and the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth, making her gag. Someone was sitting by her bed in a small, stiff wooden chair, and a voice called to her as a cloth wiped at her lips; there must be more blood in her mouth than she thought there was.

"Who are you? With what are you afflicted?" the voice was male; deep and soothing.

Zelda opened her mouth to speak, after swallowing the blood, of course, and she croaked out, "Cudyin… Cudyin p-poison…"

"Dear Goddesses." there was the sound of his back hitting the chair and a sigh. "Hot springwater mixed with rosemary and birch bark will slow the poison, but I am afraid there is only one known cure. And it is extremely difficult to come by, even rare, and I cannot leave this village."

There was a soft crash as a door closed. "Father? I heard you." it was a young girl's voice, from the sound of it, she was only thirteen or fourteen.

"Luda," there was rustling as they embraced. "This is one patient I cannot aid. She will die in three days, from the mark where the poison was injected. There is not much we can do but to comfort her in her final days."

Zelda snapped. She could not die. She must not. She tried to push herself up, but the man shoved her back down.

"I cannot… I must… I need to… live…"

"Father," the girl, Luda, spoke up. "I can help her."

"Luda! The only known cure is Fairy's Tears, the sacred waters containing the prayers of the Great Fairy! Only one man has ever dared to retrieve them, and he died three hundred years ago!"

"Well, then someone in this world must have some! She will die!" Luda's small voice rose to match her father's. "I can seek out someone who has them, I can try to-"

"No. You are only thirteen years old, still a child."

"I'm old enough-"

"No!"

Zelda listened to silence for a while. Then, she started, feeling the poison working its way to her heart, and cried out, almost screaming, with the unbearable pain of it.

She swallowed and tried to speak. "I… I am… Zelda…. Princess Zelda… Please… I know who…. has Fairy's Tears…. It is Link… Link has the prayers of the Great Fairy… Please… get him…"

Her head dropped and darkness claimed her again.