Chapter 20
It was eerily quiet.
Link slid the Master Sword out of the pedestal with such force that it went spinning up into the air. Catching it with both hands, he looked up and swung, slicing a neat line into the dragon's hide. Argorok merely rose into the air, its powerful wings flapping in a slow beat. It still didn't make a sound. Steaming black bile seeped out of the wound.
Link looked at the Master Sword as cold air bit at his face. The blade glowed with a faint, otherworldly light.
What is this thing?
Behemoth went next. Without even a growl, he leapt into the air and rammed the dragon head-first. Argorok swatted him aside with one wing. A flash of orange flame erupted from Iza's hands. The noise from her gun was muffled for some reason, and the projectile it fired bounced off scaly black skin.
At least Link now knew what had happened to the temple, and what all that wreckage was he'd seen on the way here. The dragon was the culprit. No wonder the trek here had been so easy.
Argorok drew back its neck, paused, then darted forward, mouth wide. It caught Iza between its teeth, shook her violently in its jaws, then flung her over the edge of the mountain. Still it made no noise.
It moved again, a dark blur, and hit the possessed Ralis, throwing him back in a spray of glistening white snow. The Smiling Man stood, horror writ large on the visible part of the Zora's face, but otherwise unharmed. His gaze swerved to the princess. With a glare of fury, he rolled down the crater's edge toward her.
Argorok's narrowed eyes followed him until they, too, came to rest on Princess Zelda. The dragon's neck stiffened like the shaft of an arrow as its head dived in toward her. She ducked, then fell smoothly into a forward roll.
The dragon's jaws ploughed into the ground and, for a moment, it was stuck fast. Its huge scarlet eye widened directly in front of Link. Transferring the Master Sword to one hand, he quickly brought his crossbow to bear and squeezed the trigger twice. Two metal bolts pierced Argorok's eye.
Finally, the dragon made a noise - and what a noise it was. It screamed in pain as it pulled its mouth free, its neck snapping from side to side, its eye spraying a trail of inky-black fluid. The mountain shook. Snow hissed as the black stuff landed on it.
Link shot off another series of bolts. They struck Argorok on its tail. The dragon roared again, its neck jutting straight up as violent spasms ran down the rest of its body.
Satisfaction soared within Link's heart. That's it! The tail. It's the weak sp-
A muffled cry brought Link's eyes back down toward the princess. The Smiling Man had her, one hand clasped around her mouth. He dragged her into the shade of the bone-white tree. Metal glinted in his hand.
Link recognised it instantly. He'd seen it in his dreams often enough. A thin metal spike.
The cold, thorny hand of fear gripped his heart.
Another roar came from the dragon. Its wings beat against the air in a leathery whisper.
Zelda struggled in the possessed Zora's grasp. Her blue eyes were bright and wide.
"Now," the Smiling Man said in Prince Ralis's voice. "I become the hero. I save all the other worlds and bring this world to justice."
Time seemed to slow. Behemoth had somehow reached them under the tree. The big man's hand brushed against the undead prince.
Link saw the Smiling Man raise the spike. He dived forward as the weapon came down. He heard the dragon scream, felt the change in the air that indicated that it was diving toward them again.
The spike plunged through Link's eye. Raw pain, white-hot and icy at the same time, ran down his face, through his teeth, and down his spine. Link opened his jaws to scream -
And then the world contracted, folding in on itself over and over until it flashed out of existence.
Down...
Down...
Down...
He knew what it was. Space and time and everything they contained had vanished from his awareness again. All that remained was what lay beyond.
The hero's courage does not come from his prowess in battle.
It was the source of his vision, the one he'd felt a month back when encountering the masked bandit.
The presence spoke again.
His courage comes from within.
The words formed in his heart, reverberating within. He understood their meaning.
He forgives when he could punish.
They soaked into his being.
He is gentle when he could scold.
The presence behind the words was soothing. He felt himself drowning within it.
His anger is roused only for the sake of others. And then it is resolute.
He felt like he was floating now, buoyed along by hope alone.
You have already shown promise in all this.
The vision began to fade. He felt the world come hurtling back. That what was beyond the sensory had one last message to give.
It is time for you to fully take up the hero's mantle.
Princess Zelda opened her eyes. A cow stared back at her with large liquid-brown eyes, dolefully chewing on some grass. She scrambled backward on her hands. Dried straw and hay scratched at her.
Zelda took a look around. She was in some sort of stall within a barn. The musty air smelled of wet earth. She blinked.
One minute she was being held in the possessed Ralis's ice-cold hands, her magic blocked by whatever dark sorcery was animating the dead prince, watching in horror as the spike drove into Link's head, and the next she was here.
Link.
Her heart surprised her by twisting in anxiety.
Where was he? Did he even survive?
She'd gotten so used to his presence that she now felt a sharp sense of loss at his sudden disappearance.
The sound of a brush scratching against the floor pricked her ears. Zelda held her breath. She wasn't alone.
A mumbled voice followed. "I do all the work around here," a man said. "Lazy, good-for-nothing..."
The stall had a door with a large gap at the bottom. Slowly, the princess crept down on all fours to take a peek.
She saw a thin man with bushy eyebrows, a large moustache and dressed in pale violet overalls. Anger twisted his features and radiated from his general demeanour.
"I should be in charge," he growled to himself. "I'm better than this. I'm better than all of them."
That was enough to make Zelda dislike him instantly. She wasn't going to get any help out of him, and she didn't want any.
Straw snapped under her knee.
The man looked up.
Zelda held her breath again. She heard her pulse thump in her ears. Slowly, she moved her hand down to the hilt of Link's old blade.
The silence stretched. Zelda's sword-hand tightened.
Then, with a shake of his head, the man looked away. He made his way to the barn door.
"Stupid cows," he said as the door shut behind him.
Princess Zelda closed her eyes and let out a long breath. She pulled herself to her feet and brushed the hay off of her black clothes. Soon she was at the barn door. Opening it a crack, she stole a look outside.
It was daytime. There was one other building beside the barn, and that was a wooden house directly opposite. Zelda couldn't see the man so she guessed he was in there. Cuccos strolled around the grass, bobbing their heads as they clucked away.
She slipped out. To her left, she could see a winding, grassy path that seemed to lead away from the farm. Zelda bent at the neck so that she wasn't easily visible from any of the house's windows, creeping by on the tips of her toes.
Metal hinges squeaked. The door to the house opened. Zelda froze. So did the thin man.
"Hey!" he shouted as he quickly scooped up a pitchfork resting against the house. "Who are you? What are you doing here?!"
The princess drew her sword.
This seemed to ignite something in the man. "You dare?!" he spat as his face turned crimson. "You dare draw a weapon on me?"
Zelda grit her teeth. "Silence yourself!"
With a snarl, the thin man jabbed with his pitchfork. Zelda skewed the attack aside, her sword cracking against his weapon. He was weak, and her blow sent him to the ground. He gurgled in frustration.
Zelda turned and ran. Her lungs pumped and her heart sped up, working in tandem to push her onward. She risked a glance over her shoulder. The man was shaking his fist, but was making no attempt to follow.
She slowed as the path widened out into a vast, green field that seemed oddly familiar. Zelda gazed around slowly. She gulped in deep breaths to restore her sense of calm.
There was no sign of Link.
But something else struck her as just as important, and she just had to give voice to the thought.
"Where in Hyrule am I?"
Link awoke to find himself lying against a stone wall in a lushly-carpeted corridor. His hand flew to his eye. It was still there. He examined his glove - no blood.
What in the world just happened?
Link could sense a trace of his vision. It held his heart up; and felt like a light without fire, like cool air without a breeze. One word stood alone in his mind: Courage.
A rectangular shaft of light shone from directly above. A window; and the sound of a young girl's voice floating in from outside. Link crept up to take a look.
The first thing he noticed was that he was in a castle. It looked to be Hyrule Castle, except the paintwork seemed fresher, and the stone smooth and free from stain. The whole place looked smaller as well. A grass-covered heptagon made up the courtyard below. A mini-moat of sky blue water surrounded it.
Link blinked. All the colours were so bright here.
The young girl he'd heard was standing on some steps. A boy of a similar age was in front of her, alongside a strange winged ball of light.
Link's eyes widened. The girl...she looked just like a young Zelda and the boy in green with the strange hat-
"That's...me?" His breathing slowed. This couldn't be.
Link tried to strain his ears, but he couldn't make out what the young Zelda was saying. He saw her hand a piece of parchment to the boy.
"It appears you have arrived."
Link whirled around. A second later he had his crossbow in his hand and pointed at the source of the voice - an owl.
"I am not one of your enemy's slaves," it said.
Link hesitated. This owl was different. No red eyes for one thing, and its voice was deep and gentle.
"Who are you?" said Link. He didn't lower his crossbow. "Where am I?"
"An act of pure kindness," the owl replied. "That is what was needed, correct? To get to the Sacred Realm...? " Its head did a complete spin all the way around so that its face was momentarily upside-down. "Unfortunately, an act of self-sacrifice, though close enough to kindness, occurred instead. It was still tainted violence. And, thus, you are here as I had foreseen."
"Where?"
"Welcome, Link, to Hyrule's distant past." The owl's voice rang with self-satisfaction. "From your point of view, of course."
A disbelieving look crossed Link's features. "If this is the past, how could you possibly know what happened in my time...?"
"You have already noticed that your wound has healed," the owl continued as though Link hadn't spoken. "Consider that a favour."
"From whom?"
The owl chuckled. "You 'Links' do love violence, don't you?"
Link bristled at the insinuation. More than that, he realised that this creature wasn't going to answer any of his questions. He hissed a sigh through gritted teeth.
"What do you want?" Link asked.
"There was never meant to be a Cycle," said the owl, again acting like Link hadn't spoken. "It was the Breach of Black Glass that set it in motion. It was there, undetected by any mystical eye, when the very first Hero appeared, and the very first Princess."
Whatever this creature was, it knew about things that Link had only vaguely heard of from Ilia. Link felt a stirring of mild interest.
"Go on," he said, nudging thin air with the tip of his crossbow.
"It should have ended there," the owl said. "Through the breach seeped the Hero and the Princess - and others - endlessly repeating over and over. Had you entered the Sacred Realm, you could have cut the breach off at its root. Alas, you did not. It doesn't matter."
"No?"
"No," the owl said in a rare response. "Here, in this time, the breach exists but hidden. This was the first time it was detected, here in this time and place, and I, Kaepora Gaebora, was the only one to detect it."
The owl waited. Link wasn't going to congratulate him.
Gaebora spoke on. "I was the one who dictated the scrolls depicting its coming and effects. I told my scribe to write of the signs of the one who could close it. I knew from my meditations that one day someone would find the clues in my writings and that you would find yourself here."
Link frowned. "How could you know that?"
"You don't believe me?" The owl chuckled again. "I saw other signs in my meditations. Things I did not have written down. The princess and her Zora husband. The murder of the girl. The -"
"Wait." Link curled his finger around the crossbow's trigger. "You knew...? You knew what was going to happen to Ilia and you didn't mention it...?"
"You needed the motivation."
Link felt the muscles in his face clench. "You sound like the Smiling Man."
"I won't apologise," Kaepora Gaebora said. "There are grander things afoot here than your simple lust for a pretty girl. What I did, I did for the greater good."
Anger blistered Link's heart. Yet another insinuation. What did this bird know about his friendship with Illy...?
The hero's courage... Link felt his rage dampen, but he couldn't quite snuff it out completely. His eyelids grew heavy. He was so very tired of all this. A piece on a game board is all I am.
The owl turned to look at the Master Sword lying beside Link. "You've found the Blade of Evil's Bane, I see. Excellent. I shall enchant your sheathe so that it can carry the bulk.
"When you find the Breach of Black Glass, you must thrust the sword inside. This will close it, and end both the sword and the Cycle as well - but only in your time. Alas, the Cycle that has already seeped through will manifest itself in due course.
"Once you return to your time, there will be no more. You will be the true last Link. If you fail, then the breach that started so many years ago will swallow all the worlds and leave no trace behind."
Link kept his voice level."You didn't see the outcome in your visions?"
Gaebora just blinked at him in response. Link felt his resistance fading. He lowered the crossbow and spoke in a raw, quiet tone. "How will I get back to my time?"
"I will assist you in this."
Just me?
"Where's Zelda?" Link flicked a glance back at the window. "My Zelda?"
"The princess of your time is...somewhere in Hyrule. Along with one other. Your enemy and his companion, perhaps."
Link's heart tightened. If this creature was telling the truth, then the princess was out there - along with the Smiling Man and Behemoth. He'd heard enough, greater good or not. Link made to walk away but the owl spoke again.
"A word of warning," it said, blinking. "The Cycle has begun here. You must not interfere in the actions of the Link and Zelda of this time. The Hero of Time must complete his mission."
Link looked out of the window. The courtyard was empty now. Flowers swayed in the breeze.
"How am I supposed to find the breach?" he said.
Link waited for Kaepora Gaebora to respond. When only silence returned, he turned around.
The owl had gone.