Here's Chapter 12 for your reading pleasure. Keep those reviews coming!
* * *
The Triforce United
* * *
The Triforce of Power
Antaq whirled around and stared in shock, her mouth gaping like a fish's. "Nabooru!" she finally managed to spit out.
Naziri stared at the beautiful sage, eyes wide, but Nabooru was focused on Antaq. "You stupid woman," she growled. "How dare you treat a sister this way?"
"But...but..." Antaq sputtered. "Sh-she's a disgrace! A renegade!"
There was a hateful silence. Naziri twisted her hands behind her back. She'd
hoped that somehow Nabooru wouldn't know. But that was idiotic.
Nabooru then stalked forward and grasped Antaq's chin in one hand. "When someone tells you that I have summoned her," the sage hissed, "you will let her pass."
"Yes, Nabooru," the headsister promised readily, her voice trembling.
Nabooru let her go and turned to Naziri. "I am grateful for your persistence, sister," she said dryly. "It makes me feel so needed."
Naziri stared at her, openmouthed. Then she saw the glimmer of laughter in
Nabooru's eyes.
"You must come with me to my temple now," Nabooru continued. "There are...people...waiting to see you there."
Naziri glanced uneasily back at Epona. "What about...?"
Nabooru waved a hand. "Never mind. I'll make sure she gets back to the ranch safely." The Gerudo smiled and held out a hand to Naziri. "Come along, now."
Hesitantly, with the entire crowd of Gerudo watching her every move, Naziri placed her hand into Nabooru's. There was a shocking, dizzying sensation, and suddenly Naziri was flying over the desert at lightning speed, and Nabooru was a shimmering sphere of light.
"I'm impressed with you, sister." Nabooru's voice issued from the glowing sphere that was flying beside Naziri. "You've showed fierce loyalty thus far to your friends. I know how very difficult it was for you to face the Gerudo back there. Link and Zelda are fortunate."
Naziri was so astounded that she forgot about the dizzying flight. Nabooru was impressed with her?
"You and I are kindred spirits," the sage continued. "We're not meant for the stuffy society of traditional Gerudo. Do you think I blindly went with the flock when they chose to make my brother king? I knew Ganondorf was evil, and I followed my own heart. There is nothing wrong with following one's heart, Naziri."
Naziri swallowed hard. "But...I deserted my sisters in Pinnasi," she whispered bitterly. "One less warrior to guard the fortress. And not only that- I was injured in battle!"
Nabooru's voice was dismissive. "Yes, sister. One less warrior to guard the fortress. Honestly, Naziri, dear, do you really think them at Pinnasi can't get on without you? And as for your injury, I thought you'd already resolved that issue."
"It's hard to forget."
"Of course," Nabooru acknowledged. "But not every Gerudo is meant to guard gateposts in remote fortresses. Some of us are meant for more than that. It's all well and good to guard the fortress and live among our sisters, but there are those of us who simply are destined to leave and make their own ways in the world."
There was another dizzying shock, and quite suddenly Naziri was standing inside a large hall with its walls, ceiling, and floor made of red stone. A few steps led to a slightly raised portion of the floor where doors rested in the walls. Two giant, carved snakes flanked the staircase. Naziri knew, without needing to be told, that it was the Spirit Temple.
"There are those of us with independent streaks," Nabooru continued, no longer a sphere of light but a normal woman once again. "Like you and me. Be proud that you're meant for more than guarding gateposts." Nabooru laughed then. "Where would you be today, sister, if you hadn't followed your heart and left the Pinnasi fortress?"
Naziri knew she was right. The wonders she'd seen, the people she'd met, the adventures she'd partaken in more than made up for the hatred of the Gerudo.
When Naziri had mulled this over for a few moments, she turned to Nabooru again and was surprised to see the sage gazing up at the ceiling. "I brought her," Nabooru called. "I assume that's what you wanted. Are you coming, or should I tell her?"
Naziri stared up at the ceiling, but she saw nothing out of the ordinary. Nabooru was silent for several long moments, as if listening to something, and suddenly Naziri thought she heard a voice singing.
Then Nabooru nodded and stepped aside. "They want to speak to you themselves," she told Naziri.
"Who-" But Naziri got no farther than that. The temple rocked quite suddenly with a soundless explosion that nearly knocked her off her feet, and then there were three lights floating in front of her...a green light, a blue light, and a red light.
Naziri jumped back in utter shock. She didn't need anyone to tell her what these lights were. They were the three goddesses- Din, the goddess of power, Farore, the goddess of courage, and Nayru, the goddess of wisdom.
A voice issued from the red light that was Din. "IS THIS THE GIRL?"
Naziri had to clap her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming. Din's voice was everywhere, reverbating through the temple and booming inside of Naziri's skull, powerful and horrible. It was like hearing a mountain bellow.
"She is," Nabooru replied, seeing that Naziri was in no condition to do so herself. Even the sage sounded shaken at the goddess's voice.
"See how she did not cover her ears!" the green light that was Farore exclaimed delightedly. "She is strong, this one."
Nayru, the blue light, spoke then. The voice of the goddess of wisdom was as terrible as Din's, but in a different way. Her voice was cold as ice, judging and absolutely merciless.
"She is afraid," Nayru said silkily. "See how she cringes when I speak. She is not so very strong, Farore. Zelda does not cringe when I speak to her."
"Zelda is yours," Farore argued. Her voice was the exact opposite of her sisters' in every way. It was a warm, loving voice, gentle and quiet. "Naziri does not yet belong to any of us. You cannot expect her to be unafraid. Zelda does not show fear because she is used to your voice."
"WE HAVE SEEN THAT NAZIRI IS BRAVE," Din's horrible voice said impatiently. "NO MORTAL CAN BE WITHOUT FEAR, UNLESS THEY ARE INSANE. SHE IS STRONG BECAUSE SHE STANDS WHEN I SPEAK."
The goddess was right. Naziri was crying, tears streaming down her face at Din's horrible voice, her hands still tightly clasped over her mouth. But she remained standing, facing the goddesses.
"Give it to her, then," Nayru said with cold indifference. "Better her than Ganondorf."
"I agree completely," Farore said emphatically.
Nabooru said crossly, "Well, by the godd-" She stopped herself just in time. "I mean, shouldn't you give her a choice? She might not want it."
Naziri tried to speak, but no words issued from her mouth.
"Nabooru is right, sisters," Farore pointed out gently. "It's a dangerous relic to possess."
"We know this," Nayru said impatiently. "Tell her about it, Din."
The red light that was Din moved closer to Naziri. "I'VE A GIFT FOR YOU, NAZIRI," the goddess told her. "WILL YOU ACCEPT IT?"
The young Gerudo swallowed hard several times and finally managed to speak. "What is it?" she whispered, her voice shaking.
The goddess of power suddenly began spinning, faster and fast. A blur of red light above her head slowly formed a triangle. Din stopped spinning when the triangle was fully formed, and Naziri gaped at it.
Her voice was full of amazement. "Is that...?"
"THE TRIFORCE OF POWER," Din confirmed.
"This is your gift?" Naziri hid quivering hands behind her back. "You want to give the Triforce of Power to me?"
"YES. BUT YOU SHOULD KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GETTING INTO, NAZIRI, BEFORE YOU ACCEPT IT."
Naziri trembled at the Din's voice, and she also trembled at her words. "You're saying there are risks?"
"Many centuries we have spent trying to figure out why the Power is corruptive," Farore said gently. "Ganondorf was not the first to possess it, you see."
"We knew Ganondorf was crazy even before he got his hands on Din's Triforce," Nabooru added. "Possessing the Triforce didn't change anything. But those before Ganondorf...most of them were driven mad by the Power."
Naziri stared at Nabooru in horror. "That's awful," she whispered.
"They were weak," Nayru said coldly. "Unable to resist the drive behind Din's Triforce. The Power has a frightening energy which Wisdom and Courage do not, an energy that can twist the minds of those who possess it."
"It cannot be helped," said Farore gently. "This energy is a part of Power's nature, and it is a part of Din's nature. Not all have been driven mad, though. Some have been able to resist it. We are hoping you are one of these. But..."
The goddess hesitated, and Din took over.
"THIS PAST MOON OR SO HAS BEEN A DISASTER, AS YOU UNDOUBTABLY KNOW. NOT ONLY DID GANONDORF ESCAPE THE VOID, BUT WE BELIEVE HE HAS GAINED SOME OTHER SORT OF POWER THAT WE KNOW NOTHING OF. NABOORU WORKED A MIRACLE FOR US WHEN SHE STOLE THE TRIFORCE AWAY FROM HIM."
"Please," Nabooru murmured. "I'm blushing."
"WE HAVE HAD NO TIME WHATSOEVER TO CHOOSE A MORTAL SAFE ENOUGH AND STRONG ENOUGH TO POSSESS THE TRIFORCE OF POWER, YET WE MUST PUT IT SOMEWHERE. I BELIEVE THAT YOU MAY BE STRONG ENOUGH TO WITHSTAND THE POWER, BUT...I AM NOT POSITIVE."
"She has Link and Zelda beside her," Nayru pointed out. "If she goes insane, they'll be able to stop her from using the Power to her own advantage."
"What a consolation," Nabooru said dryly.
Farore sighed. "Nothing else can be done. Yet it must be Naziri's choice."
"YES. ON THIS WE AGREE." Din turned to the young Gerudo. "WILL YOU ACCEPT MY TRIFORCE, NAZIRI?"
Naziri swallowed hard, instinctively looking to Nabooru for guidance, as all Gerudo would instinctively do. But the expression in the sage's eyes told Naziri that she'd have to decide this one on her own.
It was obviously a risk. Naziri did not relish the idea of going insane. But on the other hand, if she possessed the Triforce of Power, perhaps she could help her friends defeat Ganondorf once and for all. With Courage, Wisdom, and Power united, perhaps they stood a chance.
Who was her clan, anyway? The Gerudo? Who'd scorned and hated her for, as Nabooru said, following her heart? Or Link and Zelda, who'd stood by her this far in their journey without judgement?
It all came down, in the end, to Gerudo philosophy. Protect the clan. Sometimes a true warrior had to make sacrifices to protect her brothers and sisters.
"I'll do it," Naziri said firmly. "I'd be honored to accept your gift, goddess."
"PERHAPS YOU ARE STRONG, AFTER ALL." Din sounded pleased. "VERY WELL, NAZIRI. I BESTOW MY TRIFORCE OF POWER UPON YOU. KEEP IT SAFE FOR ME."
Naziri closed her eyes as Din's form began to glow brighter and brighter. Even with her lids tightly shut, the harsh red light pierced through to her eyes. She kept her eyes closed, not wanting to see when it happened. But it made no difference. She felt it.
She felt it when the Power slammed into her, filling her with its energy. She trembled violently at the shock of the unearthly energy, trying to keep a hold on her senses. The agony of it was almost unbearable, but she gritted her teeth and clamped down on the part of her mind that wanted to scream and never stop.
Naziri suddenly thought she heard a thousand voices crying out in exaltation. Just as suddenly the pain began to lessen, the feeling of terrible power began to leave her, but still she kept her eyes closed. Her lids were tightly shut as the agonizing pain and power slowly left, leaving her no more than an empty shell.
How long she stood there with her eyes glued shut, she did not know. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours. But at last Naziri opened her eyes and found herself in the Spirit Temple with only Nabooru at her side. The goddesses had vanished.
She took a deep, shuddering breath and tried to get a hold of reality. A comforting hand on her shoulder was Nabooru. "Sorry you had to go through that," the sage said quietly. "I can't even imagine what it's like."
Naziri was panting by then, and trembling. "Did...did they all go through that?" she gasped.
Nabooru didn't have to ask who she meant. "I believe Zelda went through a similar process when she was given the Wisdom," the sage told her thoughtfully. "Of course, it was probably different because Nayru's nature is so different from Din's...exactly like comparing ice to fire. Link got off easy." Nabooru grimaced. "I don't see how Courage could possibly cause him any pain. Farore's too gentle for that. He didn't even know he possessed it until Zelda told him."
Naziri tried to take long, slow breaths to calm her pounding heart. "What about Ganondorf?"
"Good question." Nabooru shrugged. "I don't know. I think taking it is probably
different from receiving it. In any case, you won't have to go through it again."
"Thank the goddesses," Naziri muttered.
"Right," said Nabooru dryly. "Anyway, our dieties forgot to mention yet another
risk of holding a piece of the Triforce."
"What other risk?" Naziri cried in alarm.
"Ganondorf," Nabooru said simply. "He can't know that you have the Power, or he'll try to get it from you, I've not doubt. He already knows that Link and Zelda have the other pieces. Best to keep this a secret."
She stripped off her elbow-length pink gloves and held them out to Naziri. "Here."
Naziri backed away a step. "Your gloves. I...I can't-"
"Naziri." Nabooru's voice was wry. "Take a look at the back of your hands."
Naziri obeyed with a start. Etched in gold on the back of both hands was the mark of the Triforce. She stared at the marks, wide-eyed. "I-I forgot about these."
Nabooru took one of her hands and placed the gloves in it. "I want you to have these. Not just to hide the Triforce. But to remind you that you'll always be in my good favor." The sage grinned at her. "Show those to any Gerudo who tries to push you around."
Naziri smiled faintly and put the gloves on with trembling hands. "Thank you, Nabooru," she said with real feeling.
"No problem," Nabooru said quietly. "Just keep those on whenever you're in public, all right? Keep it a secret for as long as possible."
"I will," Naziri promised readily. "And...um..."
"Yes? Is there something else you need?"
Naziri nodded emphatically. "Could you get me to Hyrule Castle? My friends..."
Nabooru smiled and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Naziri, my sister, you're already there."
* * *
When Link stepped out of the Temple of Time and saw the ruined Hyrule castle town, he thought for a moment that he'd gone four years back in time. He immediately realized that was stupid, of course. The wrecked Hyrule Castle looked almost exactly as it had four years ago when he'd stepped out of the temple for the first time as a man, but why shouldn't it? Ganondorf had destroyed it then, and Ganondorf had destroyed it now.
The castle town appeared deserted, but every one of Link's senses was alert as he stalked through the ruin, silent as a cat. All around him shops and buildings were torn down, everything a charred shadow of what it had been. Navi was sticking very close to Link. He knew she felt the overwhelming presence of death and destruction. So did he.
Bodies lay everywhere. The odor of burned flesh was sickening. Link forced himself to avert his eyes from those blackened corpses. Every one of them was a shopkeeper, a castle worker, a soldier. An innocent man, woman, or child.
Something moved in his left field of vision, the only sign of life in the town. Link had his bow and an arrow aimed at the movement before he even thought about it.
The stranger froze, staring at him with wide, dark eyes. It was Zelda, of course. She still wore her Sheikah garb, but the wrappings that normally covered her face and hair were gone.
"Zelda!" Link half-whispered, half-bellowed at the sight of her. "What in Din's name are you thinking?!"
"He's not here," Zelda muttered, nudging a blackened log at her feet. The wood crumbled to ash almost immediately. "I searched the entire castle for him. Not that there was much to search." Furious tears suddenly brimmed in her eyes. "He destroyed it all, Link! Every stone torn down!"
Link carefully picked his way to the rubble and bodies to her side. "I know, I know. It's bad, all right? But let's get out of here before he comes and does to us what he did to the castle!"
Zelda shook her head. "He's not going to come," she said harshly. "Don't you get it? He never intended anything here. He tore the castle down so he'd get to me. No, he tore the castle down so I'd get to him."
"Exactly," Link said grimly. "He wants you to walk right into his trap, and that's just what you're doing. He tore the castle down because he knew it would make us angry, and anger makes us stupid."
"Us?" Zelda laughed bitterly. "No, Link, not us. Just me. He's just playing with me right now. He killed innocent men and women! He killed Carlita! I know he's luring me into a trap, and I don't care. He's going to pay for what he did."
"You're impossible!" he whispered exasperatedly. "What can you possibly do to him? You don't know his power, Zelda! You never fought him! I fought him!"
Zelda glared at him hatefully, unable to find anything to say to that. The silence stretched on between them for ages.
Then suddenly there was a startled yell behind them. Once again, Link had his bow and arrow aimed at the new stranger before he knew what was happening.
Naziri looked around at the ruined castle town, completely unfazed by Link's reaction to her sudden appearance. "Put that thing down, Link," she ordered. "It's just me. Nabooru knows her stuff, doesn't she? She got me here before I even knew it."
Link gaped at her and slowly lowered the bow. "Naziri-?"
"In the flesh," she muttered, making her way carefully to them. "By the
goddesses," she added in a whisper, staring around wide-eyed at the town. "Look at what he did to this place."
"We noticed," Zelda said curtly.
Naziri turned to her with compassion in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty," she said humbly. "I know how this must be killing you inside."
Zelda looked surprised, but before she could say anything, Naziri continued.
"The Gerudo fortress at Pinnasi used to be built of wood. One day, back when I was thirteen, the fortress caught fire and every log of it burned to the ground. All that was left was the clay wall. We had to rebuild it entirely, and that's why it's made of stone today."
She gestured towards the ruined Hylian Palace. "I know what's it's like," she said softly, "to have your home destroyed and not be able to do anything about it. You're lucky, Queen Zelda. You have somebody to blame for it." Her eyes blazing, she added, "I think we'd better go to the ranch and figure out how we're going to pay back that creep."
Link and Zelda bothed stared at her, astonished. There's something different about her, Link realized. But he couldn't quite place what it was.
Zelda stepped toward Naziri. "I...thank you," she said softly. Then she looked around the castle again, her shoulders sagging. "All right, you two win..." She sighed.
"We'll figure out how to stop him," Link promised her, wanting to see that defeated look out of her eyes.
She nodded. "I know. I'm going back now." And with that she walked away from them, across the drawbridge and out of the castle.
Link stared after her. "Navi." The fairy zoomed down near his head. "Follow her. Make sure she really does go back."
"I will," the fairy squealed, and darted off.
Naziri was nudging through a pile of crumbling logs that was covering something. When she saw that it was another charred, blackened corpse, she recoiled in horror. "How awful."
Link didn't trust himself to answer her. "Damn him," he whispered, clenching his fists.
Naziri laid a hand on his shoulder. "I'm really sorry, Link," she told him sorrowfully.
"I don't know what else to say..."
Link placed his hand over hers. "Thanks, Naziri," he whispered. Then he noticed...he turned around to face her with her hand still clutched in his.
"Naziri, are those Nabooru's gloves?" he demanded, staring at the elbow-length, pink and gold gloves covering her hands and forearms.
Naziri smiled slightly. "Yes. She said I had to hide them..." She gently slipped her hand out of his grasp and pulled off the glove, then held up the back of her hand for him to see.
Link stared, wide-eyed, at the mark of the Triforce. "Naziri!"
She nodded, her smile growing. "They gave it to me. The Power. They said there
were risks, but I accepted it anyway. Better me than Ganondorf."
* * *
Dawn found Naziri practicing drills with her scimitar in the middle of Malon's horse pen. No one had been able to go back to sleep when Link, Zelda, and Naziri returned from the ruined castle. Zelda had spent the rest of the night wandering aimlessly around the ranch until daybreak, then shut herself in Malon's house. Link was in the stable grooming Epona and, Naziri knew, worrying about Zelda. Malon, after waiting up all night for them, was now blearily going about her morning chores.
Naziri hadn't eaten anything since the previous night. She felt the gnawing ache of hunger now, but refused to let herself get some breakfast before she'd finished her drills.
She was wide awake. She could feel the presence of magic running through her blood. Unlike some people, she'd been born completely magickless, but she wasn't anymore. Naziri wondered just how long it would take her to get used to the Triforce of Power.
Naziri executed a complicated cross-thrust with a fearsome Gerudo yell. Malon, feeding her cuccos nearby, jumped and nearly dropped her bucket.
"Don't scare me like that." Malon pressed a hand to her heart.
"Sorry," Naziri muttered, hacking at the air with a scimitar.
Malon winked at her and went into the stable. Naziri could hear her impatient words carried through the open door.
"How many times are you going to brush that poor horse? She's not going to have a coat by the time you're through with her!"
There was a muttered reply, which Naziri couldn't make out.
"I don't care if you're thinking, you don't need to strip Epona while you're at it. Get out and get some fresh air or I'll dump this feed on your head. Then your pretty hair will be all messed up."
"I do not have pretty hair!"
"Sure you do. It's all soft and golden-"
"All right! All right! I'm leaving!"
Naziri leaned against a scimitar and watched with a grin as Link walked out of the stable, muttering darkly and running a protective hand through his hair. He looked up and caught sight of her, scowled fiercely, then picked up his sword and joined her in the horse pen. Naziri resumed her drills as Link twirled his sword around in his hand a couple of times, then began his own exercises.
"Did you talk to Zelda at all last night?" she asked him after a few silent moments.
"No." Link chopped downward, darted back, lunged and jabbed the air. "I got the feeling she didn't want to talk to me or anyone else. And now she's holed up in Malon's house, so..."
"Is she sleeping?" Naziri crossed her scimitars over her chest and hollered as she thrust them outward in opposite directions. It was a move meant to sever the head and middle of anyone standing in front of her.
"I wish she would," Link replied, unfazed by the war cry. "But I'm willing to bet that she isn't. That's why I have Navi watching her- in case she tries anything tricky."
"She wouldn't try to get at Ganondorf again, would she?"
"I don't know." He lunged and hacked furiously at the air.
Naziri paused in her exercises and leaned against a scimitar. "I don't get it. If Ganondorf wants to kill you and Zelda so badly, why didn't he attack at the castle? He could have at least picked off the queen while you weren't around."
"Maybe." Link twirled his sword a couple of times, then tested the edge with a thumb. "Maybe not. Zelda's not helpless, you know. She's got her own power. I think Ganondorf knows that."
Watching him, Naziri had a sudden, strange urge to touch his golden hair. "So why make her mad? Why destroy her castle and her people?"
"Because the angrier your opponent is, the easier it is to kill them," Link pointed
out. "That was Ganondorf's problem. When we battled, I was patient. Not like him. He had the advantage of strength and power and he knew it, too, so he pressed his attacks on me and assumed I'd get hurt. And I did, of course, but I figured out my own way to play his game. I let him attack me and I waited for the right moments to get at him, and when I did, it was all the more devestating. That just made him angrier."
Link tossed his sword from hand to hand and pantomimed cleaving an enemy in half. "And in the end, that was what destroyed him."
Naziri watched him, eyes unreadable. "Could that strategy work again?"
"I don't think so," Link said grimly. "Ganondorf may be insane, but he's no idiot. I'm willing to bet he's learned from his mistakes."
"Mm." Naziri resumed her excersises while Link watched.
"So you met Nabooru," he remarked after a few minutes spent in silence.
"Yeah." Naziri's scimitars slowed as she thought about the free-spirited desert sage. "She's...interesting."
He laughed quietly. "Yeah. That's the word I'd used to describe her, too."
"She said she was impressed with me."
"How come?" Link's voice was nonchalant, but she sensed absolute concentration from him.
"'Cause...um...'cause I've been loyal and all that," Naziri muttered. "To you and Zelda, that is. She said it wasn't my destiny to guard gateposts; it was my destiny to come here and fight with you."
Link leaned against the iron fence and watched her quietly. "I didn't mean for you to get mixed up in all of this. Not that I didn't want you to come home with us," he added quickly. "I just didn't know how bad it was. I didn't know Ganondorf was back."
His blue-eyed gaze was almost unnerving. "You couldn't have known," she said practically, trying to ignore it.
"It isn't right, though," Link said restlessly, turning his eyes away from her. "There's a chance you can die here, Naziri. If I'd known that before we came back..."
"I'd have come anyway," Naziri said firmly. "It was destiny, remember?"
"Destiny," Link said bitterly. "Destiny is tricky and manipulative, and I hate it."
Naziri twirled her scimitars restlessly. "I'm not sorry that I came," she said, frustrated. What she was really trying to say, what she couldn't put into words, was that her life had truly begun the day Link came to the Gerudo fortress at Pinnasi.
Link was silent for several minutes, running a thumb lightly along the deadly sharp edge of his sword. Naziri knew he was thinking about Ganondorf.
"If only we knew more," he said at last, chopping through the air. "Someone must have seen the power Ganondorf used on the castle. He doesn't have the Triforce anymore...yet he destroyed it all..."
"Not everything," a voice behind Link and Naziri said. They both turned to find Zelda standing in the threshold of the horse pen's arched gate. Her hair was frazzled, her midnight-blue eyes ringed with dark circles. She held a roll of bandages.
"There's no way he could have destroyed every single person in that castle," she continued, wrapping her hands with the bandages as she spoke. "Somebody had to have gotten out. And whoever got out, I have to find. Whoever got out has to know something, as you said, about the power Ganondorf has."
"Maybe," Link said slowly. "But even if someone did get out, how could we possibly find them? Where would they be hiding?"
Zelda smiled. "Kakariko Village," she said triumphantly. She had finished
wrapping her hands and was now covering her mouth and nose with the cloth, muffling her speech slightly. "That's where Impa took me eleven years ago, when you took the Master Sword from its pedestal. That's where my kingdom's hiding. I'm sure of it."
Her costume was almost completed. She held a hand over her eyes and whispered the word for her all too familiar spell. When she took her hand away, Sheik's red eyes gazed at them uncertainly over the mask.
She touched her hair self-consciously. "How do I look?"
"Like a very tired Sheik," Link said quietly.
Zelda nodded. "Good. Let's go."
* * *
To be continued.