Chapter 21

As Link and Shad returned to the surface, they were surprised to see the undead spirits still there. Their appearance, however, had been restored to that of a normal human. One of them approached Link calmly and spoke to him. "We . . . thank you . . . for your help. Now we can rest in peace . . . for you have returned our spirits to our original state. We will not . . . forget our lesson this time. Please . . . teach those that still live."

As the spirit finished his words of gratitude, he and the rest began to fade. At that same moment, the sun could be seen piercing through the thick forest. Link had not realized how late at night he had been in that forest. He turned to where Shad had been to ask him if he had, only to find that he was already making haste to the tree where he had tied his horse, trying to leave his horrid experience behind. Link chose not to speak on the subject again. He merely followed him over to Epona and pulled out his hollow oocca egg.

"Ready to go?" Shad asked his friend with alacrity. Link took a hold of Harmless and Epona as he cracked the egg in his hand. In the instant that it broke, there was a brief but intense flash of light and the two were whisked away to a new location. The hero took a moment to try and assess his new surroundings.

Approximately thirty feet ahead of him was the edge of a cliff, but in the distance was a castle. He turned around to see a series of tents set up inside of a circle of trees. At the center of them was a table where he could see Auru and Master Gilbert sitting. He scurried over to them with a smile on his face.

"Link," Auru rose to shake the hand of his friends. "It's good to see you again."

Link took the older man's hand with great vigor. Shad approached from behind and examined the table. "Hmm . . . are we laying siege to the Mendille Castle?"

"You are correct." Gilbert said, nodding his head. "In fact, we just sent our first wave of soldiers."

"The guards apparently are not paying attention," The voice of Lord Aric rang as he came up from an unseen location. Unlike Link's previous encounters with him, the human lord was wearing a suit of armor, and had a large sword hanging around his belt. "We were able to sneak a battering ram up with that unit."

"That seems a bit . . . convenient. Did they know you were laying siege?" Link asked.

"We have attempted to remain hidden, which forced us to arrive from the hills. If there were people traveling to the castle from Lady Uliva's keep, there's a chance they could have seen us."

Link scratched his head through his cap, slightly confused at the situation. He inspected the table to see a series of different sketches of the castle's exteriors and interiors. It was a very complete layout. "You must have gotten someone inside to be able to get all these drawings."

"Not exactly," Aric interceded. "I've sent envoys to many of the different houses, seeking out alliances and what-not. I always have someone with an eye for detail to go along and remember what he sees."

"Very . . . uh . . . insightful." Shad indicated, examining the maps. "And thorough. One could easily plan an attack with this information."

"Thank you, my friend." At that moment, the lord procured a telescope and moved to the face of the cliff. With an alert eye, he watched the squad of soldiers batter the front gate of the castle down and move inside; scuttling the ram once its job was done. Aric collapsed his telescope and returned to his allies. A smile creased his face. "We're in."

"Good." Master Gilbert nodded his head, as he always did. "Give the signal for the second and third units to prepare to move."

"Excuse me, Auru?" Link practically ignored Master Gilbert's instructions to his ally, as his interest was perked. "Where are Ashei and Rusl? Are they with any of the units?"

"No, actually. Rusl is watching the battle from a different cliff over there." He pointed north, where another cliff sat incredibly close to the castle. "We'll be sending messages back and forth using Cranis."

"Why not just set up camp over there instead?" Inquired the hero. The older hylian replied. "Because it's too close for a base camp. They could have easily hailed arrows at us from the castle battlements. Besides which, we weren't expecting this to go so smoothly, and we needed to observe the battle from the front, in case there was one."

"And Ashei? Has she has recovered from her wound?"

Auru's face grimaced. "Her wound has healed but she . . . is distressed at the moment. Won't explain it to us, but it most likely has to do with Cranis' last flight to Hyrule."

Link nodded as he sat at the table next to Auru. He wondered if Ashei had written to her father and if his reply was less gracious than she'd hoped. As he continued contemplating, the older hylian finished his explanation. "She's in one of the tents in the back of camp. I'd recommend you leave her alone and I'll see if I can find a spot for you if things heat up below."

Around that same time, a faint clattering sound could be heard in the castle. Apparently there was some resistance once their troops had gotten in, but they could not yet determine how much or how strong it was. They would have to wait for Rusl's report. Shad was the first to hazard a guess. "Perhaps they reached the inner keep already, and the guards finally realized we were here?"

"Maybe." Aric stroked his beard as he pondered the possibility. "Should we send in the others?"

"Not yet." Auru stated, looking up towards the heavens. "I believe our field report has arrived."

The shriek of their hawk, Cranis, rang in the sky as it descended to the elder. Auru held out his arm for the hawk to land. Once it did so, he reached out to grab the note tied to its foot. The look on his face indicated that the report wasn't good.

"They knew we were coming. Their guards are hiding within the town, dressed as commoners. They can ambush our troops at any turn if we send them in blind."

Gilbert nodded again. "So . . . I suppose that we'll need a new strategy to reduce casualties."

"Wait," Link interrupted. "We're not just going to leave those soldiers in there, are we?"

"The troops we send to rescue them will only get ambushed by more guards and be stopped before they even reached them. It would be pointless." The human lord shook his head, showing his distaste to the thought of leaving them, but feeling helpless to do otherwise.

Link copied the lord, shaking his head in kind. Although new to the concept of working with large multitudes of soldiers, he already felt a responsibility to aid them whenever possible. To do anything less made him feel heartless. He took a moment to think before coming up with a plan of his own. "Can you have the archers position themselves on top of the south wall?"

"We could have them climb up with some siege ladders. Do you have something in mind?" Auru asked.

"Yes. Let me go down there. I'll only need a few confident troops to go with me. We'll rush in to save the others, springing every trap they set for us. Once we connect with them, and have most of their guards on us, we move to the south wall, where the archers can support us."

"And ambush them in the process. Clever tactic, my young friend." Aric nodded his head in approval. "Auru, if you can direct your feathered friend to the archers with their new orders . . ."

Auru nodded, as he penned out a new note for the hawk. Aric put a hand on Link's shoulder to get his attention. "I'll lead you down to the troops. You can pick your squad from any of the companies."

Link stood up and followed him down a series of rope ladders along the side of the cliff. At the bottom, he saw the troops waiting for the order to attack. Their numbers were larger than Link had expected, making him wonder briefly if they needed to fight from the shadows. After taking a quick look at the troops, he found them all to be very poised for combat, so he took the first five troops that would follow him out. It took a moment to sort out the winners, but he soon was on his way rushing to the castle as fast as he could on foot.

Thankfully, the castle wasn't too far a distance to run, and they were able to reach the castle gates in good time. At his signal, he and the others cautiously crept inside and made their way towards the inner keep. The village inside the walls reminded him of the Diamond although the streets were now empty, save for a few beggars, and weren't quite so luxurious. The sight of such a grand-looking city being deserted was very unsettling, which made him subconsciously walk even slower. He presently corrected that and moved on.

Following the sounds of battle, the hero and his unit were able to locate the lone unit, fighting for its life. As far as Link could tell, two soldiers were still alive, and he planned to see them remain that way. He charged the attacking guards from behind, and cut two of them cleanly at the waist. Once they had collapsed, another two stormed over to meet their new opponent. One raised his sword in an attempt to cut at him vertically, while the other on his right approached in a defensive-counter stance, waiting for Link to attack. The hylian chose to respond by bashing into the first one with his new Mirror Shield, and deflect the second's sword with his own. The first one fell to the ground stunned, while the other attempted to raise his defense again. Link halted his efforts with a powerful kick to the knee, dropping him as well.

Link scramble to check on the last two soldiers of the raiding unit while his squad finished up the guards for him. "Are you two alright?"

"We should be now, sir. We had no idea they'd be waiting for us like they did. Shall we keep going?"

"Not yet. I want us to round up as many of these ambushes as we can. We'll lead them to the south wall, where the archers will be waiting."

"Do you think we'll be able to hold them off?"

"We can't think otherwise. We must draw them out and have them follow us." Link spoke with determination. The others took to his leadership instantly, and fell in behind him. As he had stated, it was time to implement the second phase of his plan. He began by marching through the rest of the town, hoping to find another ambush ready to sprout. It took a minute or so, but he was rewarded with five guards jumping out from a tavern. Link's troops charged them, but Link halted and began to examine the surrounding buildings. Five guards thinking they could take on eight soldiers didn't sound right to him, which made him weary of a second ambush waiting to trap them. As his fellow troops met the guards at the front of the tavern, he saw it.

"Watch that other door!" He shouted while pointing at a building on the opposite side of the street where the tavern stood. Sure enough, another six guards popped out from it and attempted to pincer his troops. He was a little late to save them from getting caught in the middle, but being made aware of their presence allowed for them prepare for the dual attack. Link came to the decision that the best thing to do was to draw the guards' attention towards himself. He accomplished this by pulling out a bomb from his bag, lighting it and tossing it just behind the six guards. He then yelled to his troops. "Move out of the way or take cover!"

They obeyed as best as they could, with three just squeezing out of the pincer while the other four dropped to the ground and held their shields up to protect themselves. The guards turned to see the bomb behind them and attempted to run for cover, but were too late. Three of them were killed by the force of the blast, while another two were injured. Thankfully only one of his own troops took minor shrapnel from his weapon, which was more than he could have hoped for. He prepared to light another bomb when the remaining guards turned to face him. Seeing that he posed the greater threat, they charged at him at full speed. Link took the opportunity to run while shouting. "Retreat!"

His troops followed suit and began to sprint as fast as they could to the south wall while his one wounded soldier was left to recover, since all the guards went after Link. As the invaders continued to run, they stepped into another ambush of eight guards hiding in a prestigious-looking shop. Link was able to pass them by hurling a bomb in their direction. They all went for cover when their allies exclaimed that it would explode, unaware that Link didn't even light it. When they realized that they'd been duped, they quickly rushed after them with their fellow guards.

Within a short amount of time, the trespassers reached the wall. At Link's command, they all turned around and formed a defensive line. The guards, seeing their prey backed against a wall, unwittingly fell into an ambush of their own. At the order to fire, a dozen or so archers appeared above and sent a storm of arrows at the guards. They went down with little resistance.

With the enemy resistance destroyed, the archers dropped down to meet with Link's unit. "We've been ordered to follow your lead once this plan of yours was accomplished. Are we to go to the inner keep now?"

"Yes, but we'll still need to be cautious. I only caught a glimpse of the maps made at camp."

"No problem." The lead archer stated, patting Link's shoulder. "I memorized them for this attack. I'll fill you in on the way."

It took several minutes to reach the door to the inner keep, which was unsurprisingly left open. It was very likely another ambush awaited them, especially since the inside was designed to allow for several vantage points for archers to fire. There was, however, a loophole that Link was able to find. At the corner of the keep, several feet above ground was a window. Although Link wished that Midna was still around at the moment to magically hold all his treasures, specifically his clawshots, he was able to make do with a grappling hook given to him by an archer. He was pretty skilled with a lasso when he worked on a ranch, so he was able to manipulate the hook to go where he desired and pull himself up to the window.

He took a quick look to see where the guards had positioned themselves, and began planning in his head how to counter their attack. When he felt of himself, he unhooked the grapple and fell back down, landing on his feet. He then proceeded to explain the plan to the others.

"There are four spearmen forming a defensive line between those two curved staircases that lead to the upper floor. From there, three stand with their bows aimed right at the doors. Finally, a swordsman on the outside of each staircase waiting to leap. I want my troops to charge in first with shields raised and the archers crouched down behind them. Once their archers fire their first volley, ours will pop up and counter with one of their own. Then we'll press forward against their spearmen while I'll deal with their swordsmen."

His men nodded and prepared for the attack. Two of his men got on each side of the double door and waited for the command to push it open. With a swing of his sword, the word was given. The doors flew open and a wall of shields stepped through. A set of arrows attempted to penetrate it, but had little effect. Just as planned, Link's archers took their cue and fired back, cutting down their adversaries quickly. The spearmen, noticing their trap had failed, decided to charge at the soldiers in an attempt to push them back out. They were too late, as the rest of the force poured into the room and surrounded the spearmen.

Link had taken the opportunity to attack the swordsmen, rushing into one and catching his blade with his own. He closed the gap between them so that he could get a hold of him. He then proceeded to swing him towards the other swordsmen, who had begun to charge him. The two slammed into each other, stunning them momentarily. Link wasted no time in finishing them off before they could recover.

With entryway into the inner keep clear, Rusl was bound to send word back to Auru to send the rest of the army inside. Link decided it was best to wait for them to ensure that it stayed that way. That didn't stop him from taking a look up the stairs to see where exactly they led. Behind the dual stairs was another door. Since there was another double door on the first floor, he presumed that they both may lead into the main hall and throne room. He didn't want to chance opening it up yet.

After returning to the stairs, he remained in place until the reinforcements arrived. It took a couple minutes for them to reach, but one of the archers at the entrance saw the first signs of them and alerted Link to their presence. The hylian scurried down to meet them. At the front of the brigade was Trejon, the man at the cliff from the mountains.

"I'm glad to see your little ploy worked, my friend." Link's ears perked when Trejon spoke those last two words. "So, I've brought a sizable number of troops with me. Are we ready to finish this?"

Link merely nodded, and pointed down the hall with his sword. Trejon took the lead, his troops following him closely. Link didn't have time to count, but it looked to be that he had fifty or so men. Link decided that his troops would take to the door on the second floor since his ally was already homing in on the double door on the first floor.

As Link ascended the stairs again, he could hear the doors below being bashed down, and the war cries of his allies. He picked up his pace a little faster, hoping to aid them as quickly as he could. With one swift kick, the door blocking him was forced open and he rushed in. As he passed through, he could see the battle going on below, but what caught his attention were the guards around the walkway with bows, shooting down onto the attackers. Link motioned for his men to attack and they all scattered around the railing, cutting down as many archers as they could.

Once the railing was cleared, Link started to watch the clash, searching for a target that was proving to be a greater match than any of the others could handle. As far as he could tell, the battle was going well. Then he noticed a hidden door, behind the throne. A figure had just sneaked back into it, avoiding the fighting in the room. Link leaped down to the floor and landed in a roll. After battering aside a guard, he ran after the mystery man.

It was a hidden passageway. Link followed the trail for about a minute before reaching the intended room. The door was shut, and he could hear the sound of two people arguing. Staying as quiet as possible, he listened intently to the discussion. The first one voice spoke erratically. "You said the rebels would never attack us!"

"Obviously there are more than rebels fighting here." The second man spoke in almost a monotone. "Did your troops notice any with pointed ears?"

"Oh, don't get me started on the hylians again. You've been saying they'd attack ever since my grandfather's time! These are rebels, and they're mad, and you said they'd never attack us!"

"Only if you were to listen to my instructions, and you've chosen to ignore me for quite some time. You've bled the people dry instead of on the verge of drought as I had told you."

"As if that would have made a difference!" As near as Link could figure it, the erratic man was Lord Mendille and the other must have been the wizzrobe. That meant he needed to confront them and to do it soon. Since they didn't seem to be saying else of interest, he figured it was as good a time as any.

The hylian kicked the door down and charged in with sword and shield raised. Lord Mendille was shocked, seeing who had arrived. "By the emperor! They are after us!"

The lord of the great castle seemed to have fainted after that. That left Link to deal with the real threat. It was his first time looking at a wizzrobe, and he was startled by their appearance. Behind the grand cloak that covered the majority of its body, he saw that it was a greatly disfigured human. It resembled that of the spirits in the graveyard, but he was not ethereal.

"I know not why you are really here," the wizzrobe spoke in its monotone voice. "But thanks to your presence, we will be able to move our plans forward, once I deal with you."

Link opted to charge at the wizzrobe instead of responding. He swung his blade through him, but found that it did not connect. For a moment, he wondered if the monstrosity was a visage, but then saw that he had merely teleported behind him. Seeing that he was preparing to cast some sort of spell, Link turned as fast as he could, raising his shield to defend himself. The wizzrobe spoke a single word while pointing his wand at Link, unleashing a torrent of fire at him. The blast connected with the shield only to deflected directly back at the wizzrobe. The effect was so unexpected, that the wizzrobe had no time to react. He was consumed by his own attack and dissipated into the air.

Link breathed a sigh of relief. After his encounter last night, and the battle he'd just gone through, he felt rather lucky to find this anticlimactic. For once, he could rest . . . once he took care of Lord Mendille. The man was still passed out on the floor. He picked him up as best as he could and searched for the best way to get him out. There was another set of stairs in the room, spiraling upwards for a long distance. Hopefully, the passageway would take him out of the battle.

As he carried the man on his back, he found himself yawning. It had been a really long day for him.