We replenished our supplies at a small shop owned by a young Zora. Link's brows furrowed with worry when she gave us the exorbitant prices, but we had no time to haggle or visit other merchants. I handed over a good sum of the savings I had taken with me from the castle. This was not the time to be frugal.
As we packed our newly acquired items, I said softly to Link, "We should plan our exit strategy now. Since Ganondorf knows the location of the Master Sword, and will sense the moment you pull it from its plinth, we have to expect that he will appear seconds after you lay hands on it."
He pondered this. "Should we try to set some kind of trap for him? A nest of bombs, maybe? D'you reckon there could be anyplace we can hide and ambush him?"
"Hiding will be impossible. With all three pieces of the Triforce so close together, he will be able to sense where we are. And I doubt bombs will have any effect on him. I know the Silver Arrows may hurt him, and the Master Sword of course, as well as my Kando weapons." I had two Lightning Arrows left, one Death Blossom, and one Poison Arrow. "But if we can, we must try to escape from him." I ran my hand along the walls of the cavern, able to feel the power emanating from Nayru's temple even from here. "Wisdom is Nayru's gift, and my piece has a special affinity to all things connected to her. I may be able to draw magic power from the temple itself, and transport us out of the room the second he appears." I looked Link in the eyes. "I won't be able to transport the two of us very far, though…we will need to run, and likely fight."
Link grasped my hand in a gesture of solidarity. "I'll fight this time," he insisted, meeting my gaze with a ready expression. "Leave it to me."
I nodded in thanks. His courage and willing demeanor gave me a great deal of support. I could not do this without him.
A guard escorted us to the hidden chamber, little more than a water-filled hole in the ground, just barely big enough to accept one person at a time. The guard handed us two masks made out of fish scales. "These will help you breathe underwater," the guard explained. "The secret passage is always flooded, to help keep out intruders. Much of the temple is filled with water as well."
Hesitantly, I took one of the masks. "Link…" I said slowly as he eagerly pulled his over his face. "I…I never learned how to swim."
"Really?" He stared at me with earnest surprise. "But in the river…"
Blushing with embarrassment, I stuttered, "I was hanging on to you…I mean, I can float a little, swim a stroke or two, but princesses aren't normally taught these things, and I spent all my free time practicing swordsmanship and magic spells…I could keep my head above water, but if I had been by myself, or tried to move against the current…"
He smiled and took my hand. "Don't worry…the most dangerous thing about water is drowning, and these masks solve that problem. I've been swimming in the pond and creek back home for as long as I can remember…I'll show you some of the basics when we get inside."
"All right." I didn't want to say it, but I feared that this handicap would throw us into Ganondorf's hands once again.
I followed Link into the dark passage, dark water swirling around me and invading my clothing. Light blue, iridescent coral-like creatures lighted the walls. Link took my hand and pulled me forward, as I struggled to walk through what felt like thick molasses. He turned his head to face me. "All right?" he asked, his voice echoing strangely through the mask in the water. I nodded.
After a good twenty minutes we found a small grille only large enough to crawl through, with the switch on our side. We decided to leave it open for when we returned. I doubted there was any safe way out of this temple other than the one we had just used.
Above us, we could see the surface of the water. A large pillar stood in the middle of the room, with passages to other rooms on several levels on the walls around us. Link kicked off against the ground and floated upward, gesturing toward me to follow. I jumped up, but found myself hampered by all the equipment I carried. How does he do that with the enormous shield he has? I fumbled in the water, kicking and swatting but not really getting anywhere.
"Wider strokes," he instructed, and demonstrated. I stretched out my arms and legs and attempted to copy his froglike movements. "Slower," he added. "Put the power in the push upward, not moving your limbs back into place."
Finally I managed to surface. Around me I could see more passages, with a small platform surrounding the middle pillar. He swam over to it and hauled himself up; I did the doggy-paddle and floundered over the side until he gave me a hand up. "Where to first?" he asked.
I tried to catch my breath. "I hate to say this, but I think we're just going to have to pick one." I sat down for a moment, taking note of the structure of the building. Hit but sudden inspiration, I unloaded all my bombs and began lining them up around the pillar in the middle.
"What are you doing?" he demanded. "If you break that pillar, it'll bring the whole place down on our heads."
"I'm not going to light them…now. But that's the idea. I'm hoping it falls on Ganondorf's head…once we're back inside the secret passage."
He looked doubtfully at the long distance between the platform and the floor. I knew what he was thinking; I would never get to the bottom in time. Pulling out the Death Blossom arrow, I said, "I'm going to set the bombs off with this on our way back. Its explosion can be delayed, so that should give us enough time."
His grim face broke into a smile. "Good thinking."
I put the arrow back. "Now, I guess all we can do is get started."
We picked an entrance at random, on the west side of the grand room, one level below us. I dived too hard and nearly missed the entrance, struggling upward to compensate. I found navigating the passages much easier; I could push off the walls if I found myself going too far in one direction or the other. Finding air bubbles became pockets of relief after struggling through the water, and Link's hookshot easily snapped both of us across wide gaps.
Of course, dark creatures also infested this temple, and the water made it ten times harder to fight them. The water threw all of my sword thrusts into slow motion. We wound up splitting the tasks, with Link fighting the creatures while I hunted for switches, sometimes taking the hookshot from him to reach one over our heads.
We struggled onward, hungry and exhausted but driven by need. I tried to ignore the way my wet clothes squished as I ran and kept busy to stay warm in the cold, damp temple. Several times we ran into dead ends, and he met my curses with smiles. "That's a very unladylike way for a princess to talk," he joked.
"Where have you been these past few days?" I asked him after the fifth blank wall. "What kind of lady fights evil warlords and goes swimming in moldy temples?" We wound up finding the temple map after we had committed the entire place to memory. Which, of course, led to more swearing from me.
Convinced that the last passage must lead to the Master Sword, we charged through the hallway and then into another huge room, though not as big as the main room. Ankle-deep water covered the floor, both other than that, the entire place was completely empty.
"That's odd…" Link looked around, stepping forward cautiously. He never forgot the incident in the Forest Temple. "There doesn't seem to be anything in here. Maybe the Master Sword wasn't stored here at all? Do you think the Gerudo tried to trick us?"
I pointed. "There's a door on the far end. This isn't the priestess' chamber, just a big room."
We walked across with the hairs on the back of our necks standing up, and would have been easily spooked if there had been anything to spook us. The place really seemed deserted, though I couldn't think of any reason for an enormous empty chamber, or why there were no dark creatures in this place.
Iron bars held the far door shut tight. Link looked at me for an explanation.
"There must be something in here that we're missing," I surmised. "Maybe…I don't know…an invisible switch?"
"Let's give the whole place a good combing over." Link and I split up, scouring the floor.
I stared at the ground, not sure what I was looking for. The unearthly blue light that illuminated the entire temple seemed strangely bright in this particular room; so bright that I cast a dark shadow across the water, which shuddered and twisted as I made tiny eddies while I walked.
Suddenly, my shadow twisted around behind me and I jerked my head up to determine why the light source had moved. I felt something grab my ankles and pull me down through the floor, into a deep expanse of dark water that had not been there moments ago. I cried out and just before my head slipped beneath the surface, I saw Link hurrying toward me with a shocked expression on his face.
Something wrapped cold arms around mine and ripped the mask from my face. I choked on the cold water, kicking against my captor and struggling to free myself. As the liquid seared my lungs I made one last desperate bid for freedom, bubbles bursting from my mouth as I pushed with a terrific strain, to no avail. The world around me went black.
I awoke to find myself on my back, staring up at the ceiling, the unwholesome reddish-brown color of an old wound. I sat up, water rolling off my back, and realized I sat in a very similar room to the one I just left. "Link?"
"He's not here." I jumped to my feet and whirled round to find…me, wearing my royal dress. But this other me had a strange, sickly cast to her skin, and glared at me out of unearthly red eyes. "Silly girl…did you think he would succeed in his quest with your help?"
I drew my sword. "You take me for a fool. You're just one of Ganondorf's little mind-tricks. Once I get rid of you, I'll wake up."
She laughed, an eerie tinkling sound, like hearing brass bells when expecting the sound of silver. "Maybe you should use your brain instead of your sword, since you're supposed to be the Bearer of Wisdom after all. Do you really think playing sidekick is going to break your curse?"
"Enough talk." I took a swing at her, but she moved aside as quickly and softly as smoke.
"You know, if you really want to break your curse, there's an easy way to do it." She stood facing me, completely relaxed, as if she saw me as no threat at all.
"I have a feeling that whatever it is, if it's coming from you, it's probably wrong." I made several feints and thrusts, trying to force her into a corner or make a wrong move. Every time she darted away unhurt, just like the shadow she was.
"Haven't you figured it out yet?" She flashed a wicked smile. "The curse remains because you and your predecessors always try to resist him. Wisdom and Courage are no match for Power."
"Shut up." My swipe went wide, and I could see in her eyes that she knew my anger was getting the best of me. I tried to steel myself and shut my ears, but her words leaked into my brain.
"Surrender to him," she whispered calmly, as if it were the most natural, reasonable thing in the world. "It is your country that he wants, and the Triforce. Give him your piece and he will spare your life. You could live on in exile…or you could simply welcome him into your home, and stand by his side."
I made a face. "I'm not even going to think about the second option, and as for the first, how do you even know he would make such a concession?"
With a Cheshire Cat smile, she advanced slowly toward me, the slices of my sword passing right through her with no effect. "Because, my dear, we are all connected to his consciousness. All of the creatures you have fought are his design, including myself. I was sent here to give you one final peace offering…surrender or die."
I tightened my grip on my sword. "Forget it. You're just a mirage, a figment of my imagination."
"Hah!" Her voice suddenly deepened, and with horror I listened to it morph into that of another as she spoke. "You silly fool. You must have a very active imagination, if it can do this!"
My double dissolved into a shapeless shadow, then whipped around me and threw me into the wall. "The choice is yours…surrender or die!" Thick bands wrapped around my neck, choking me.
This isn't real…this isn't real…wake up, damn it! I thrashed against the shadow, struggling to breathe.
It snarled in my ear. "So this is your decision. Very well…die."
The bands around my neck tightened. I could feel the blood stalling in my brain. Wake up, Zelda, wake up!
A fit of coughing wracked my body, and I pulled myself upward out of the shallow water. I opened my eyes to find myself back in the original room, the shadow double nowhere to be found.
Once my head stopped spinning and I could see properly again, I glanced around for Link. He lay motionless, face-down in the water nearby. I ran to his side and rolled him over. His skin felt cold as ice, his eyes closed, and I could not feel him breathing at all. I found a weak pulse, already slowing.
I shook him, yelling in his ear. "Wake up, Link! Wake up!" I slapped him across the face, pummeled his chest, but to no avail. Straddling his chest, I placed my hands on either side of his head and pressed his forehead against mine, hoping the spell would work. I had never been able to try it, only read about it.
I thrust my mind into his, searching for something in particular. Striving to keep myself separate from him, I flashed past childhood memories and dark personal secrets. At last I found what I was looking for; a dark ball of malevolent energy. I seized it with my will and crushed it.
He rewarded me with a blast of regurgitated water in my face. I wiped it off and helped him to his feet. "Are you all right?"
He wiped his forehead, looking every so slightly shaken up. "Yeah…yeah, I am now. Thanks, that was…really…"
"No need for thanks. Let's get out of this crazy place." The iron bars on the door had disappeared, and we both ran out of there as quickly as we could, snatching up our breathing masks as we did.
After that room, the remaining passages of the temple gave us little trouble. Upon reaching the priestess' chamber, we found it empty save for a large sword thrust into a plinth on the far end. "No giant monster?" Link asked doubtfully as we crept inside.
"No." I took a deep breath. "He wants you to take the sword. That way, he will regain his lost power, and he will know immediately where we are."
He shifted uneasily, knowing our unnerving experience in the shadow room would not help us fight him. "Well, there's nothing else we can do, is there?"
Nodding, I said, "I still think I can transport us a few rooms down, using some of the ambient power dwelling within this place. After that…all we can do is run."
"Or swim." He turned to me. "Are you up to it?"
"Yes. I think I have enough power to transport us more than once. We'll bypass the worst places, and once we get to the main chamber, I'll set Death Blossom for a delayed reaction and light the bombs."
He took my hand. "Ready?"
"Ready."
We walked up to the plinth, and I wrapped my hands around his waist. "The second you pull that thing out, I'm going to send us out of here. All right?"
He nodded.
"Okay…NOW!"
