I've had this written for a while, but waited on publishing it because I wanted to make sure that it fit with the direction the story will be taking in future chapters. This is the continuation of the climax that began in Chapter 12, as well as the beginning of a new direction in the plot. If I were to divide this story into three acts, this chapter would be the end of the first.
13.
A Relaxing Carriage Ride. Chaos in the Market District. Tea and Whiskey (Reprise)
"Get to the door!" Ganondorf bellowed, "Break it open!"
"Keep 'em off me!" Ashei yelled back.
Link chose not to speak, saving his breath. He had procured a blade and was using it expertly, the shackles on his hands broken thanks to Ganondorf's magic.
Midna, of course, was the exact opposite, spitting out a constant stream of swears and vicious threats. "We gotta get out of here soon," she said, between profanities, "Without my shadows, I'm no good!"
"We're going!" Ganondorf's voice rose above the din. Lowering his wide shoulders, he charged forward, cutting a swath through Zelda's forces as men were batted aside effortlessly. But more surged forward to take their place, steel clanging against steel, magic spitting from the hands of magi.
They were backed up against the door now, four of them against far too many.
"It's been magicked shut!" Ganondorf said, "Cover me!"
Link turned and caught a burst of magic on the blade of his stolen sword, whirling and sending it back towards Vaati, who dodged it and threw another. He parried that as well, and had just prepared himself to deflect another when someone leapt on top of him and they both crashed heavily to the ground.
Long hair blocked his vision and he swept it aside to reveal the Princess Zelda's face only inches from his own.
She raised both arms high above her head, and Link felt the air crackling around the two of them, sizzling with energy. But the motion was sloppy, unpractised, and Link realized very quickly that Zelda was at this moment not her normal self at all.
She was lighter than he was, by a good deal. Link threw her off of him and then lunged forward and struck her in the side with a blow that should have cleaved her in two.
Zelda's armour absorbed much of the force behind the blade, but no breastplate in the world could have completely deflected it. The sword, snatched hastily from the floor where it had fallen from the hands of a dead soldier, sank deep into Zelda's side.
She did not scream, or flinch, or react in any way that might have betrayed that she was in pain. Neither did she bleed, or die. Instead, she continued to try and kill him, although this time she seemed unable to summon the focus to make a concerted effort at it. Zelda flailed wildly, energy crackling up and down her arms in wild, erratic, bursts and fizzling harmlessly against the tiles of the floor, the ceiling, the walls.
"Let's go, let's go!"
"LINK!"
A shuddering boom told him that Ganondorf had managed to disenchant the enormous double doors and force them open. Kicking Zelda away from him, Link managed to thread his way through the chaos and join his comrades in their hasty retreat.
"Follow me," Ganondorf took a hard right.
"I'm not…. used to this whole running… thing…" Midna gasped as she loped along beside them with her suddenly long legs. She conjured a fireball and flung it back at their pursuers. "Flying… much… better…"
"Where are we going?" Ashei yelled.
They continued to weave through the corridors, Ganondorf navigating his way with practiced ease. Behind them, Vaati and Zant led the charge of soldiers as Midna hurled magic to keep them at bay. Zelda herself, though, seemed to have fallen behind.
At last they stumbled out into the moonlight. The carriage that had brought Link up to the castle was still stationed out front.
"Get on!" Ganondorf said, and Midna clambered atop the vehicle.
"But… there's no horses," Ashei said.
"We don't need horses."
Ashei hesitantly followed Midna.
Link, understanding immediately what Ganondorf was trying to do, joined the Gerudo leader in throwing his weight behind the carriage's wheels as slowly, ponderously, it began to move forwards.
"But I don't get how we're going to…" Ashei's voice trailed off. "Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no…"
"This is a bad idea and we are all going to die and I love it," Midna said.
"One!" Ganondorf said, stepping backwards.
The sound of doors being thrown open along the castle walls was soon accompanied by frenzied shouts and the clanking of metal in motion as the soldiers hurried towards them.
"Two!" Link and Ganondorf said at the same time.
"Close the gate! CLOSE THE GATE!" Vaati screamed, his childlike voice cracking shrilly, and the trellis gate to the High Street began to clank shut.
"THREE!"
Link and Ganondorf took a running start and threw their weight into the back of the carriage as it began to pick up speed along the garden path.
They clung to the side of the carriage as it trundled along, carrying them closer and closer towards the descending gate. Vaati and Zant threw magic at them, but it fizzled high and wide as the distance between them only increased.
Ashei and Midna rolled off the top of the carriage to join Link and Ganondorf on each side as the gate closed atop the now rapidly moving vehicle, gouging strips of wood off the top with a splintering crunch, but coming down too late to stop it completely.
With four Gerudo clinging desperately to its sides, the carriage rolled out of the castle courtyard and sailed along down the long, cobbled hill that was the High Street.
Only two people remained in the throne room.
Zelda had managed to haul herself into a kneeling position from where she had been lying prone on the floor. She attempted to yank the sword from her side, but the armour had crumpled around it to hold it in place.
She had not yet recovered the focus nor the strength to magic it away the way she had done with the sword that had impaled her.
Rusl was still holding the body of his dead son, occasionally running his fingers through Colin's hair or along his jawline, the way he had done when his son had been much younger.
He had cut Colin high, crushing the boy's ribs and slicing into his heart with his finely honed blade. The blood had stained the floor and much of Rusl's Commandant's armour, as he sat there with his son's head in his lap.
"R- Rusl…"
"Yes, your Highness." Rusl looked up. His face and speech did not betray any emotion he might have felt. No tears glistened against his unshaven cheeks, no hitch found itself present in his voice.
"Go… after them. K-Kill the boy… Link."
Zelda had begun to do a most unusual thing, and that was to glow with a peculiar golden light. The light originated form the wounds in her side and chest; it was almost as if the Princess was glowing from within.
"Yes, your Highness." Rusl stood, after a long glance at his son's face. He picked up his sword from where it had fallen- still stained with Colin's blood, he sheathed it at his side.
But the Commandant stopped at the door and, without looking back, asked, "Princess… did I do the right thing?"
"Y-you are loyal… Rusl. You proved that loyalty tonight. I could not… ask for a better soldier."
"He was loyal, too, although to a different cause. My son. I'm proud of him, even now."
"Rusl… It is… their fault. They forced you to kill him. They m-made him a traitor." She was beginning to lose the ability even to speak, as the golden light spread and intensified, pouring out of her very skin. "Link. He is the d-difference. You m-must… stop Link."
"Yes, your Highness," Rusl said once more and, loyal to a fault, he walked calmly out of the room to carry out his orders once more.
The carriage barrelled down the High Street like a bat out of hell, picking up speed as it zipped past white marble facades. Link could have sworn that there were spans where the wheels went without touching the ground for seconds at a time, before the whole thing slammed onto the cobblestones, bounced, and launched itself into the air once more.
"Can't this bucket go any faster!" Midna screamed at him between loud shouts of excitement. "Come on! When are we gonna start moving!" The clatter of the wheels on the stone almost drowned out her voice, even though her face was two feet from his own.
"The High Street runs through the Market District!" Ganondorf shouted at them from where he held on to the other side of the carriage. "After we roll over the uphill part of the bridge we should slow down enough to jump off!"
"Got it!" Link yelled back, and he tightened his grip.
They lurched up and forward sickeningly again, crashing down with an ominous creaking of wood as the carriage bobbed from side to side and bucked back and forth. He risked taking a hand off the wood in order to yank his floppy green hat down more securely on his head and was nearly flung off for his efforts.
Up ahead, the street widened into a vast, empty plaza- the Market District. Almost as soon as he had seen it, they were in it, rolling smoothly now across a wide expanse of flat stone.
The carriage hit the bridge that spanned the river. As it traveled up the shallow arc, it slowed considerably- but Link refrained from letting go, wary of throwing himself far enough to clear the carriage's wheels only to fall into the dark water below.
They sped up again as it rolled down the other side of the bridge and into the second plaza of the Market District, but the speed was only a fraction of their previous breakneck velocity. Still Link waited- and waited-
"Jump! Now!" Ganondorf shouted, but Link had already let go, his warrior's instinct pinpointing the same moment as Ganondorf's. He used his legs to push off from the carriage and throw himself well clear- he tried to roll into the impact with the hard stone, but inevitably, he hit the ground hard, and rolled end over end for a few dizzying moments.
The carriage continued to roll, the rumble of its wheels receding momentarily and then culminating in a cacophonous crash as it plowed into the front of a store called 'Hena's Fishing Gear.'
"Bruised my ass…" Midna moaned, picking herself up.
Link was already standing, surveying the market at nighttime. It was eerie to see what was normally a bright and bustling place so dark and silent, the wide and open spaces so very empty.
Except the Market District was not empty.
Link narrowed his eyes, trying to discern the dark shape from the darkness of the night. As far as he could tell, it was… a wolf, sitting on its haunches and watching them calmly from the far end of the square.
"Guys…? I think you should take a look at this."
There was something about the wolf that told him it was no ordinary dog. Perhaps it was the fact that it was so very black, or the harsh contrast that the brightness of its eyes provided, or that, even at this distance, he could clearly make out every gleaming white fang in the beast's mouth.
"Oh… Oh, no…"
It continued to sit there. Just watching. For now.
"What do we do?" Ashei asked, her voice high with sudden panic. "Ganondorf! What do we do!"
"Calm down," Ganondorf said evenly.
"We throwing hands?" Midna asked.
"Get back across the bridge," Ganondorf ordered. "Let's see if we can go back the way we came, and then we need to get inside. Then, we can-"
He was interrupted by an all too familiar sound. For an instant, Link thought that the rattle of the carriage wheels was the noise of their former transport returned to terrorize them once more from beyond the grave- but it turned out to be much worse.
Two carriages teeming with soldiers flew down the high street, Vaati and Zant at the reins of each. There were no horses- they moved along seemingly self-propelled, driven by the urgings of the two mages.
"Oh yeah, we're throwing hands," Midna confirmed.
Link recognized the bloodstained uniform of Commandant Rusl, his cape billowing behind him as he crouched atop one of the speeding vehicles.
One of the carriages slewed wildy to the side as the men on board leapt off. It burst into bright hissing blue flames and rolled over, flipping end over end and headed directly for them.
Link took two quick steps and hurled himself clear of the flaming hulk. He heard a loud, metallic clank and a grunt of pain as it clipped Ganondorf before finally settling on its side.
"Gods damn it all-" Ganondorf began, before the carriage exploded.
For a brief instant, the Market District was illuminated in bright colors- orange, blue, purple, green- as magical flames spewed forth and shrapnel whistled by Link's head.
The light faded and, at the same time the soldiers began their charge, the beast that had been waiting for them did the same.
Link saw Rusl sprinting straight for him, drawing his gilded sword still blackened with the blood of his son. As he reflexively reached for his own blade, he realized that he had been unarmed ever since he had stabbed Zelda in the side.
"Uh… guys?" he said.
There was a burst of crackling energy that hissed off the cobblestones as lightning poured from Ganondorf's hands and into the charging soldiers. The harsh snap of electrical discharge intensified as Vaati met the attack with his own, and for an instant the two wizards duelled fiercely, light dancing wildly between them.
Link did the one thing he knew Rusl would not expect and ran forward to meet the Commandant. The tactic earned him a surprised overhand slash that Link was able to easily maneuver underneath, seizing Rusl's arms and wrestling desperately with him over the sword.
They were both bowled off their feet suddenly, the blade clattering out of reach. Link's eyes met with Rusl's, and then they both looked downwards.
Tendrils of shadow were wrapping themselves around their feet, snaking up past their boots and towards knees and thighs. A hulking, deformed mass of darkness rose up between the two, a hundred slavering jaws snapping wildly, a thousand piercing yellow eyes snapping open and focusing on them.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Rusl throw himself towards his fallen weapon, but he did not know if he was able to reach it. Link flipped himself onto his stomach and seized the closest thing at hand- the ankles of another soldier.
The man struggled briefly, and then turned and saw the horror of the Nameless writhing behind him. Link took advantage of his moment of blind panic to seize the sword in his limp hands, and he immediately turned and slashed at the shadowy appendages that bound him.
The beast roared in pain- or perhaps just annoyance, and released it hold on him. Link scrambled to his feet just in time, throwing himself out of the monster's path.
The battle had almost immediately degenerated into complete and utter chaos. Soldiers screamed loudly and slashed out at the Nameless, at the Gerudo, shoving each other into the path of those pristinely white jaws, anything to avoid the living nightmare.
One soldier fell and was not able to get up in time, and it was in that instant that the beast turned into something truly horrific, easily the most hideous thing Link had ever seen.
The great shadowy limps splintered and wavered and were transformed into thousands of tiny clutching hands, arms, wildly kicking legs, beating wings, writhing tails. The teeth in the creatures' great jaw, the shining eyes in its black head, they fractured and divided until each one was a face, screaming soundlessly, an infinite number of Hylians, Zoras, Gorons, Rito, and many more Link did not recognize, screaming forever in soundless agony.
This terror rose up and came down upon the man trying in vain to shield himself from it, and his own limbs, his body, his face joined the countless others there to thrash forever in anguish.
"HER!" a voice screeched above the cacophony, "KILL HER!"
It was Zant, his mind more broken now than ever, flinging death from his hands at anything that moved and screaming at the Nameless, ordering it.
"OBEY ME!"
Midna was there, suddenly, the fire from her hands rising, but weaker somehow, no longer an inferno indistinguishable from the incandescent locks atop her head.
The beast loomed again, charged, and he saw them no more.
Link focused desperately on staying alive. He saw Rusl once again, rising from his knees, a cut opened high on his forehead, golden sword wheeling about furiously to strike at the monster that seemed to be everywhere-
Something big and heavy hit him in the back, wrapped an arm around him, and pulled him away. It was Ganondorf.
"Run!"
"What about-"
"Just go! Now!" Ganondorf raised a fist high in the air and brought it crashing down to the ground; the entire market district shuddered and cracked as the stone rose up and shattered beneath their feet.
Link turned and ran, Ganondorf loping along behind him on long legs. He fell back and let the Gerudo leader show the way, weaving his way through the side streets ad narrow alleyways that bordered the Market District.
Ashei and Midna were nowhere to be seen. Link had no idea and no way of determining whether they, too had fled, or if they had died in the chaos. The sounds of the battle faded as they turned another corner, putting as much distance as possible between them and the Nameless.
It took Link a few moments to realize where they were headed, but he recognized the shabby buildings and twisted streets from his first terrifying encounter with the beast. Within minutes, Link and Ganondorf were standing in the small circle of torchlight at the front door of Telma's bar.
Ganondorf pounded three times on the door. When there was no answer, he knocked again, this time shouting, "For Goddess' sakes, Telma, open the door!"
The innkeeper's face appeared in the gap between door and fame. "Ganondorf! Oh, come in, hurry!"
They hustled themselves inside, and Telma shut the door quickly behind them, bolting it no less than three times. "What the hell are you two doing out at night!"
"It was a raid," Ganondorf explained, "Zelda set traps for us. She wanted to kill us all, we only just escaped." He was panting for breath and clutching his ribs. Blood seeped through his fingers.
"Oh my." Telma's face went pale. "You're lucky that you didn't run into that monster out there."
"As a matter of fact," Link said, "we did. Again."
Telma gasped. "You need a drink!"
Unlike the first night he had been there, the inn was completely empty, with no hint of the regular clientele. Still, a fire flickered warmly in the hearth and the smell of Telma's cooking saturated the air.
"Don't let anybody else in, Telma," Ganondorf said, taking a seat at a table near the door. "No matter who they say they are."
Link sat across from him. "You think Ashei and Midna made it out alright?"
"I don't know," Ganondorf said. "We can only hope."
Presently Telma set two large, steaming mugs down at their table. Link picked up his and eyed it warily. "Is this…?" He tasted it. "Tea and whiskey?"
"It's the best thing for a body after a terrible shock like you boys have had. Drink up." She prodded him until he had another reluctant sip.
Ganondorf took a long drink from his mug. "Leave us, Telma."
She seemed hesitant to obey, glancing towards the bolted door and the night beyond.
"We will keep watch," he reassured her. "Go and sleep. We'll be fine."
She left without any further questions, but stopped at the foot of the stairs. "You feel free to wake me if you need anything."
Ganondorf raised a hand in acknowledgement. "Thank you for all your help, Telma. And for the drinks. Now, please let us be."
When she had gone, Link set down his mug and hopped behind the bar, shuffling through the bottles underneath. "That stuff is disgusting," he said.
"It is somewhat of an acquired taste, I will concede," Ganondorf replied.
Link held up two bottles of beer. "You want one?"
"I am fine, thank you."
He shrugged and kept them both for himself. Settling back into his chair, he felt the adrenaline and fear of the night's exertions beginning to run out of him. His hands shook slightly in front of his eyes as he came down from the combat high, and his breathing finally began to slow. "So what do we do now?" he asked.
Ganondorf thought for a moment. "I don't know. For a very long time, Zelda has been quite content to rule from above while I struggled in futility below her. The fact that she has made such an aggressive move is… troubling."
"Troubling?" Link said. "It's a bit more than that. The Gerudo are finished, Ganondorf. We could be the only two left alive. Viscen betrayed us, Colin is dead, and to be honest, Midna and Ashei are probably dead, too."
"Much has changed," Ganondorf took another sip, the steam wafting off the concoction to swirl about his head. "But we are far from finished. I constructed the organization to withstand blows such as this. Zelda destroyed one cell tonight, true, but the Gerudo are comprised of nearly a hundred similar groups, hidden all throughout the city. Nobody knows the true extent of the Gerudo, save myself. We will rise again."
"And she will strike you down again, Ganondorf. Zelda is obviously not content to take a passive role in things anymore."
He nodded, shifting in his seat. Ganondorf grunted in pain, clutching his side with his free hand suddenly. Beneath his palm was the wound in his side that had been inflicted by the exploding cart.
"You're bleeding," Link said.
Laughter. "Don't you worry about me, I'll pull through."
"No, no, that's not it. When Colin stabbed Zelda, and later, when I cut her, she didn't even bleed. It was like stabbing a mannequin. But you're just as old as she is, so how is it that you can bleed?"
Now Ganondorf was completely serious. "That," he said, "Is by far the most troubling revelation of this very troubling evening."
"How do you mean?" Link twisted open one of the bottles and took a drink. It was dark and strong, much more refreshing than Telma's miracle cure.
"Because it means that she really is immortal. If you picked up my sword and ran me through, right now, the way Colin stabbed Zelda, I would die. My magic is strong, but not strong enough for an injury like that."
"When he stabbed her, it was like… she couldn't function properly. She was still alive, but not all there, at least not immediately."
"That would be the magic required to sustain herself after an injury like that. It must take a terrible toll on a body- on a mind, too." He finished his drink and gestured towards Link's untouched mug. When Link shook his head, Ganondorf grabbed it and continued drinking. "She has obviously found another way to keep herself alive."
"And what might that be."
"I have no idea," he admitted. "She has gone quite mad. Perhaps the blessing of Wisdom had proven too much for her. But it has also made her dangerous- in the throne room, it seemed to me that she believed herself to be a god."
Link did not think this pronouncement as blasphemous as Ganondorf seemed to. Because there had been an instant, when the three had met, that an overwhelming power and sense of purpose had flowed through him. It was like nothing he had ever imagined, and he knew that it had touched Zelda and Ganondorf as well. And if that had not been the power of the gods, he did not know what was.
"She was not always like this," Ganondorf said dolefully. "Zelda was once a kind and benevolent ruler, someone who truly was blessed with wisdom. She was once my dear friend… And in many ways she still is."
"What happened?" Link asked. "How did she become that… monster, sequestered up in those towers?"
"I can't really say what happened to her," Ganondorf took a long draught, the strength of the brew showing itself briefly on his face. He finished the last of the drink Telma had prepared. "You know, Link, I think I will take you up on that offer."
Link stood and made his way over behind the counter again, returning with more bottles.
"My old friend…" Ganondorf mused. "I wish there was another way to make things right. I really do. But we have to find a way to kill her, Link, because I believe that is the only way we can help her."
"How do you mean?" Link cracked two and handed one to Ganondorf before pulling deeply from his own. His thoughts strayed to Colin, to Rusl, to the traitorous Viscen and the missing Midna and Ashei. He drank some more, trying to dull his memories of the evening.
Ganondorf began to speak "The three Creator Goddesses, Din, Farore, and Nayru, shaped the world at the beginning of time. When they had finished, they left remnants of their power on the mortal plane- Din's was the gift of Power."
His hand twitched absentmindedly.
"Farore's was the gift of Courage,"
Link's eyes strayed to his own hand, wrapped around a cold bottle.
"And Nayru's was the gift of Wisdom. The Goddesses departed for the realm of the Gods, and from the people they had created they each selected a champion. Now, I don't remember much of my early life- sometimes I doubt that I even had one. But for as long as I can remember, I have known the Princess Zelda…"
As the night deepened outside, and the Nameless continued to prowl the now-empty streets of Hyrule, a restless wind blew from the north, howling against the old stone buildings and the crisscrossing alleyways and rattling the boarded windows of Telma's tavern.
One executive decision I made here was to have the entire chapter as one long take, entirely from Link's point of view and with no breaks. However, I wasn't able to stick to that structure because it was important that I include that brief interlude between Zelda and Rusl. We'll be seeing a lot more of Rusl soon, as his story is not yet finished, but Zelda will not make a major appearance for a little while. You'll see why in the next chapter, although that one does also include a bit of explanation regarding the history between her and Ganondorf.
As always, thanks for reading. If you've got questions, fire away and I'll do my best to answer them- but I will not be spoiling the story. I've had some people ask me stuff like that.