Chapter 22:
Zelda had only met Ilia a handful of times and each left her with a different impression. The first she'd been a solemn plant devoid of sunlight. A survivor of war, eyes shadowed by the terrors that stalked Hyrule's desecrated land. The second time had been during the reconstruction phase of Hyrule. A rebirth of the country and its citizens, and the promise of a future, shaky and uncertain but willing to rise to the occasion. Another time Ilia had been a playful sunbeam, and yet another a vixen with the propensity for cunning. Presently Zelda saw her in what she assumed must be her most natural form. Fae like, an eldritch manifesting from the depths of the forests to consort with her mortal visitors.
And who was Zelda not to react with reverence to such a creature. The queen bowed low.
"It's a pleasure to see you again, Ilia. I wasn't informed that we'd be making a stop on our journey."
Link didn't respond and took an apple out to munch in complete nonchalance. Zelda wasn't fooled, she could detect the minute trace of tension in his shoulders, the hard method he bit into the fruit. He wiped away a droplet of juice that trailed down his chin and took another bite.
Ilia frowned, her tone one of accusation that had Link deliberately avoiding eye contact. "That doesn't surprise me. He's absentminded that way." Then in complete contrast bestowed Zelda with a bright smile. "Will you be visiting Ordon when you're done, well, whatever it is you're doing? We haven't seen you since autumn."
"That was the pumpkin harvest, wasn't it?" said Zelda, tapping her chin. "I remember it was so much fun. I apologize for cutting my visit short at the time. The flu came upon me so suddenly."
Truthfully Zelda had not had the flu since she was a young child. She and a select few courtiers and guards had stayed at Ordon for a single day, long enough for diplomatic relations to be reaffirmed, before the macabre apparitions in the fields had gotten to her and she'd been forced to plead illness and retreat. Ghosts and ghouls and what have you already appeared to her at the castle. She had had no desire for them to taint the other regions as well. She had barely travelled outside Castle Town since. Only for diplomatic reasons and to visit the light springs.
Ilia gave a melodramatic sigh. "It's a pity Link wasn't there. You picked up our folk dances very quickly. You were a natural after barely an hour of instruction."
Her words were a barb of passive aggression, meant to rankle Link with missed opportunities.
Link held the apple in his mouth with his teeth and removed another from his bottomless pack, this one he offered up to Epona who snagged it from his palm almost expectantly.
"Yes, a pity," Zelda agreed, taking great enjoyment in Link's increasing discomfort.
"Exactly. Link's missed nearly all our holidays in the past three years," Ilia groused. "We're used to it."
Link's eyes rolled heavenward. He finished off his apple and let Epona have the core.
"See, you're always so inattentive." Ilia jabbed a surly finger toward him. "You feed Epona, but what about the rest of the horses."
She approached the other mounts, all of whom had wandered off within relative proximity of the spring, making themselves at home by devouring the reeds and flora in the water.
Ilia brightened instantly.
"Oh, they're gorgeous! Are all of them yours, your majesty?"
Zelda smiled as she watched the younger woman go up to each horse and pat them in pure wonderment. The horses took to Ilia as if charmed, butting her with their noses, letting her rub them along their flanks. Even Ashei's Diavir, who had shied away from her touch that single time Zelda had tried to greet him, welcomed Ilia without any suspicion or signs of aggression. He merely flicked his tail and tolerated her affections and continued grinding grass in his mouth.
"Just the one," she responded. She strode up to her black mare, enfolding her around the corded muscles of her equine neck and leaning into the bristly fur. "Medea."
"Llamrei's not with you?" Ilia came to admire the gentle beast.
Zelda continued stroking the horse, who nickered in appreciation. "Not this time."
An entire stable full of horses of the best stock belonged to her. Gifts for birthdays and holidays bestowed upon her throughout the years, and many others her inheritance from her parents and grandfather. Llamrei, though was her personal stead and the one most often recognized when in public.
"Let him know I miss him," she said, and smiled as two of the other horses crowded around her, wet snouts brushing against her, searching for either sweets or attention. "Well, now I've met Medea. What's everyone else's names? I see a few strangers here. Yes, hello Diavir."
A beat. As both queen and knight looked to the unknown horses then to one another, the bafflement reflected in the other's eyes not at all reassuring. Out of context without their riders Zelda couldn't even figure out which of the last three horses belonged to who.
"You don't know?" Ilia was severely unimpressed, the magnitude of which was directed entirely at Link. "Really Link!"
"Just give them temporary names."
Ilia threw her hands in the air. "And end up confusing them? Ugh, whatever."
She swerved around on her heels, evidently completely done with Link and his waywardness. Zelda watched in fascination as she then plucked a horseshoe configured reed from the ground and spun it once by the stem then blew into it, striking a resonant tune. An eager clamor came over the horses and as one they nickered and pawed the ground, trotting a circle around her and throwing their heads.
Ilia greeted them as fond friends.
"You're going deeper into the woods aren't you?" she said with impressive insight. She flicked the reed away and rested a hand on the flank of a horse either side of her. "Past the gorge? That's why you can't ride there."
Link made no comment, which seemed to incite Ilia further.
"I knew it, something is definitely going on. This is more than just your usual hunt."
"You know I can't talk about it," muttered Link stubbornly.
"You don't have to tell me anything," she riposted with equal stubbornness. Zelda stiffened when she suddenly came under the younger woman's scrutiny. Ilia looked back to Link. "Two pieces of the triforce together, you coming to retrieve the master sword. Tell me this at least, is Hyrule under threat? Is this going to be like another Twilight Invasion?"
Link rushed her, enfolding her in his arms. "No, nothing like that. I promise, Ilia. You and the others are safe. Ordon's safe. It can't reach you here."
Zelda's heart panged. Of course. Ilia had been one of the Ordonian children taken.
She pulled back as uncomfortable with his unwanted reassurances as Zelda was watching it. "But you're not. And the queen…"
Zelda gave a small half-wave as she was dredged into the picture once more.
"Oh Farore! I'm sorry, I'm here blathering and wasting time," she broke free from Link, who stared nonplussed at her swift abandonment, and swooped down on Zelda.
Ilia fidgeted and clueing in, Zelda outstretched her hands before her so the young Ordonian could grasp them in womanly affection as she did commonly with Anne or Sybil, yet instead of choosing that prescribed course of action Ilia threw herself at Zelda, hugging her fiercely then just as fast let go.
"Be careful out there," Ilia said then bounded over to the gathering of horses. She looked back over her shoulder. "I'll see you later."
"You… you as well, Ilia," Zelda answered a bit struck.
Link smiled and sent Ilia off with a simple wave.
Ilia started jogging down the path to Ordon, whistling the tune from the horseshoe reed. The golden bars of twilight interspersed between the trees lit upon her form. The horses eagerly trotted alongside her, disappearing into the thick bracken. Epona was the last to head off and hesitated, looking to Link. He gave her a nod of assent and she whinnied happily then cantered after the rest of the herd, delighted to be returning home for however short or long a period that may be.
Zelda felt the lingering imprint from Ilia's touch as she once again returned to the fringes of the pool, boot covered toes nudging the waterline. She wasn't used to any physical contact from people but her closest friends and now Link. It was nice.
"I like her."
"Do you now?"
She jumped as his voice echoed directly in her ear. The hairs at the back of her neck rose as his warmth radiated at her back, separated by mere inches of useless space.
She turned, sidestepped him, and struck out a single digit to bop him on the nose all in one motion.
"She's much more fun than you." She smirked. "I've seen your surly face around the castle. You leave my courtiers baffled with how to interact with you."
Link blinked, his nose twitching adorably.
"If anyone, I'm the one who's baffled," he said, holding his hands behind his back to restrain them from rubbing the feeling from the spot she'd touched him, as if to do so was a sign of weakness. "Is plain hylian not the common dialect everyone uses? I swear they speak in codes."
"Don't blame my court for your social disability."
Zelda offered one last farewell to Faron, simultaneously promising herself to visit Ordona after everything was resolved, before they left the clearing.
"So apparently you've been to Ordon without me?" he said conversationally as they walked the short path back to Coro's.
Zelda lips gave a slight quirk. "You've stopped by Castle Town while I was away?" And didn't even wait for her to return from assorted state voyages before continuing his wayfaring.
"Perhaps we should work out a schedule."
She pondered it seriously. "Do you think that would work?"
"Not at all."
With all the state problems that arose at a moment's notice and his unpredictable gallivanting around the countryside and crossing borders and all that, they didn't keep much to a set schedule anyways.
Zelda pondered, imagining Link keeping permanent residency in the castle.
A sea of mist rolled in billowing waves before them, intermingled with roaring gales, the singing of the wind as it swept through the natural funnel that etched into the land at their feet, like the Goddess Din had taken up a hoe and ploughed a chunk of the earth away. A wide canyon, hundreds of feet deep, and spanning so wide the opposite bank was lost within the fog. Monolithic trees erupted from the mist like towering spires. There was no crossing to be seen. The walls were too steep to descend, and mounting a rope bridge was out of the question. Which is why they all stared bemused as Link readied his supplies and stood in preparation on the edge of the steep limestone.
Justin and Hadrian peered down the depths of the canyon. The former let out a wry whistle.
"I'd hate to know what's down there. It's like looking over Eldin bridge."
"Forest and bodies, I reckon," said Hadrian. "The fog is so thick here it would be no wonder if someone missed their footing and took a tumble over the edge."
"And without any feasible way to get down there to recover them those poor souls would be lost forever," said Justin, shaking his head morbidly. "Keep your distance, your majesty. One misstep would be fatal."
"Is now really the time to be talking about fatality, corpses and dead souls?" snapped Shad, bundled beneath two thick cloaks and a scarf to ward off the morning chill, his nose runny and red and shoulders shivering. "Given the nature of… well everything to do with our lives right about now."
It had rained the previous night and as they'd found out in the morning, Coro's hut leaked in various places with mouldering wood. Somehow Shad had remained asleep as an increasingly growing puddle had formed beneath him and through that unfortunately choice in his sleeping location had caught cold and had promptly become a cantankerous goblin.
Asides from lending him her cloak, Ashei was no more sympathetic to his condition than a shark was to the fate of her pups.
"I should have stayed back in the castle. Is that what you're thinking?" said Ashei, half-lidded eyes roaming boorishly over the landscape. "Back in your cozy bed, where breakfast is served at nine o'clock sharp, and the library is an easy few floors down."
Shad glared. "Don't talk about the good things while we're roughing it."
Ashei patted his shoulder, not one wit affected by his rare expression of foul temper. "Sure thing. But tell me, when you're imagining your nice warm bed with your fluffy pillows and ridiculous stacks of blankets, am I in it?"
Shad squawked.
The other two knights present looked purposefully away. Ashei wore a smirk like a Keaton and angled in close to Shad's pointed ear. Whatever she whispered affected him so much he backpedaled and lost his footing over a root. Ashai guffawed while Shad struggled to free his hands from the double layers of cloaks to pick himself up, refusing to even look at her.
Many paces away Zelda watched with placid amusement. She turned when the telltale crunch of leaves announced Link's approach. A strip of jerky hung from his mouth as he finished clasping on his baldric, set with his sheikah dagger and an empty space along his spine left vacant for the Master Sword. He was equipped with provisions for a single day, not expecting to be gone long, but his imminent departure made her uneasy. The thought of him leaving her for any amount of time made her feel exposed, like a tortoise without its shell.
"Are you going alone?"
He nodded, mouth still full of jerky. He straightened his tunic and swept his hair out of his eyes.
She observed his features. The upward slope of his nose, his startling vivid eyes, twin coals of blue flame burning brightly through the fog. Everything about him was bold and noble, but for his feathery mess of brown gold hair, a perpetually untameable mane.
"How long will it take?"
Link devoured the rest of his jerky. "Not long. Less than a day maybe."
She nodded and stared across the gorge where the filaments of something ancient and fierce expanded and stretched. Reaching with curious acknowledgement of the even older relic residing within the back of her hand. Power attracted to power.
A soft breeze gusted from the south and the treetops rippled above them. A group of monkeys frolicking in the branches paused at the sight of the group of hylians. These animals would have no trouble getting across the gorge. The trees towered to insurmountable heights spaced out all along the canyon floor, their limbs a mesh of leafy lattices. Yet the monkeys shied away, perhaps sensing the danger of that forbidden place. The Lost Woods knew not how to discriminate between man and beast.
To think that Link had braved this unknown in wolf form, led solely by the beacon of Courage. That deciduous-dressed tomb for lost wanderers.
Zelda was certain of one thing. She never wanted to visit those labyrinthine woods.
"What if the sword won't respond?" The cynic in her emerged. "It's already seen use in this age. Perhaps like the spirits it requires recovery."
He gave her a look that spoke clearly what he thought of her despairing opinions.
"Oh, that's right," he said surprised at himself, tugging on the gloves he had unearthed from his pouch. "I was supposed to help you be rid of your pessimistic ways."
Zelda blinked then scowled. "It's called exploring all variables."
"No, it's called thinking the worst so that you won't be disappointed if that ends up as the outcome."
"And then being pleasantly surprised when it's not," added Zelda.
He just gave her another look.
He sighed overly loudly and wandered to the edge of the canyon, a dangerous two feet away from a sheer drop off that spelled instant death. Zelda paced beside him, keeping him as a barrier between her and the cliff.
She went on. "During the Invasion I thought the worst that could happen was Zant ordering my execution before I had any real chance of helping anyone."
He spun on her so quick she lost her train of thought.
"Never mention your execution again," he growled, leaning into her personal space and causing those thoughts that she had been in the midst of recapturing to catapult out of her mind. "Don't talk like that, don't think like that, nothing!"
Zelda nodded mutely to his command. His intensity made her knees wobble and sent fluttery feelings to wreak chaos in her chest.
"Yes, alright…"
Seemingly satisfied, Link went back to trekking along the deadly margins of the canyon, rifling in his bottomless pack. Her eyes went wide as half his arm disappeared within.
"What were you saying? About the invasion."
"Ah, well…" She delayed to collect herself. "It was either… that, or I'd find out there was no chosen hero this time and I'd be doomed to life imprisoned. Made to watch my kingdom submit to a tyrannical rule. So when you came it brought me hope. So you see, it profits to think pessimistically all the time. You were that pleasant surprise."
His gaze was unreadable, and Zelda had a feeling she had incurred his woe yet again.
She smiled softly. "When it comes to you actually, everything is pleasant."
The hair against her scalp parted as fingers interwove within the strands. Her face was pulled up and forward and her mouth met his in delightful union, and oh goddesses!
"You shouldn't say such things," he murmured against her lips. "I'm not used to it."
She grinned in return, their breaths mingling. "You're the hero. You should be used to praise."
"Not from you," he said softly.
"Now that is a lie."
His fringe spilled over the crown of her head as he touched their foreheads together. "Not the sort that makes me want to kiss you senseless."
She trailed a finger along the sharp line of his jaw. "I could use that to condition you."
"I don't think I'd mind."
Zelda had been playful before, but now she contemplated the idea with serious consideration. She blinked as he bopped her nose and stepped away. She felt cold and alone without his nearness. Crossing her arms, she watched as he removed his clawshots from his pack and hopped up onto a jut of stone.
"You'll be fine," he said in response to her worrisome expression. She felt like a child experiencing abandonment from its mother for the first time. "I promise, I'll be back by nightfall."
An entire day too long.
"Alright." She mustered up a fabrication of a smile.
"Sir Link, I insist on accompanying you," called Justin, striding toward them. "I would not advise striking off alone in these parts."
Shad made to voice his concerns but Ashei's firm hand on his shoulder held him back. Hadrian eyed the canyon warily, possibly weighing the odds of surviving should he risk himself to follow Link as well.
Link, for his part, just shrugged and aimed a clawshot covered forearm. "Sure. Just follow me."
A click as he released the catch and the clawshot whipped out and struck the bark of a monolithic tree, digging deep into the wood. Before Justin could ponder on his actions, Link's feet left the ground and he was propelled through the air. He landed with ease on a thick branch meters away from them, hovering above the yawning chasm of open air.
"Sir Link!" called Justin, standing precariously close to the limestone cliff.
"I thought you said you were coming with me?" Link hollered back, a hand cupped next to his mouth.
"I would if I could get across," shouted Justin, looking around as if he expected a bridge to manifest itself.
Link waved. "Catch up with me later then. Daylight's wasting." He launched to the next tree and without setting foot on the branch beneath him, used his other clawshot to reach the next and the next until he was swallowed by the fog and muffled by the fog.
Justin looked helplessly around, not yet quite processing Link's words for the subtle taunt that they were.
"Don't bother, yeah. He doesn't expect you to actually be able to follow him," said Ashei. "He has a faulty sense of humour."
"Where can I acquire such devices?" said Justin in full earnest.
"I wouldn't mind getting some for myself as well," Hadrian added. "Could be useful."
Ashei hitched her shoulders in disinterest. "I'm fine without."
Zelda strained to see into the fog. Link was gone, and it seemed the forest suddenly loomed dangerous around her. Clawed shadows extended across the ground, the howling wind distorted into a cry of woe. Zelda shivered and rubbed her arms. She checked the sputtering lamp light at her hip, its sparks pressing almost flat against the pane, ruled by the singular ambition of returning to its deathbed. Like a masochist was always lured back to their source of torment.
Perhaps in pursuing this venture she was masochistic too.
Zelda was not idle as she waited. Or she tried not to be.
She stoked the campfire, adding another log or two, before sitting back and perusing the notebook she'd brought along with her. Whether she lived or perished from this curse, she found it productive to catalogue its effects, and also to pen out her suspicions, few as they may be. She was no closer to narrowing down the identity of the caster as she was to discovering the deepest part of the ocean. But she was persistent, if anything. Someone in her court blamed her for the Twilight Invasion, they wanted her dead, and she was worried she might never find out who. That the destination of the focal point would yield nothing. No solutions, no hints nor clues.
If they were especially unlucky the curse would end up killing her and the identity of the hexer would be lost to them, having fulfilled its intended purpose. Or alternatively and still just as unlucky perhaps they do finish off the curse, destroy the focal point, but their bait doesn't lure the hexer out and so their identity would remain a mystery. Court life would resume and be the site of constant paranoia, forever looking over her shoulder, forever waiting for a retaliation. She had enemies at court, but to her knowledge not many wished for her death. Much less a long-suffering one.
Tiredly she set the notebook aside and rubbed her eyes. Link had said he'd be back before dark. The liar.
She had asked Ashei around midday to contact him and see how he was faring. She had tapped her earring yet nothing had come through. They could only deduce that the magic of the woods prevented other powers from disseminating through it. Link would be completely on his own until he left the boundaries of the forest's magical influence.
She should have insisted to go with him, regardless of any trepidation she might have felt for entering the Lost Woods. Waiting all day with little to do was unbearable. Other than exercising with the dagger, alongside Ashei who had been preoccupied most of the practice instructing a sick Shad, whose illness was apparently no excuse to skip practice, she had done very little as everything had been done for her. Her knights had cooked for her, arranged her cot for her comfort, gathered the firewood and took turns on rotations around the small glade. Meanwhile Zelda had examined and speculated and urged her Wisdom to usefulness with nothing to show for her efforts. There simply wasn't enough data.
Across the fire Shad sniffled into a kerchief while coveting a bowl sized cup of herbal tea that Coro had offered him. Beyond working with the dagger, he had done as little as she while waiting for Link's return. For the most part he sulked and failed to nap, too achy to get comfortable, and offered rueful comments about nature and the outdoors.
Zelda was bored, but at least she didn't have to endure the wait in misery.
Talk between the two was stilted at best. With Zelda too preoccupied worrying about Link she didn't mind the silence too much. Other than asking for the other scholar's input on occasion, nothing was said that didn't need to be.
Soon Zelda had to depend solely on the fire light to read her notes. Shad eventually left to bed down for the night, but Zelda refused to move. She wanted to be out here for when Link returned, otherwise he wouldn't let her know he'd come back until the morning. Despite valiant efforts on her part, her body slumped as it grew more relaxed and her eyes fluttered heavily with the weight of sleep upon them.
Zelda was on the brink of nodding off when a gentle shake nudged her awake.
"What?" she slurred, fighting off the drowsy pull of slumber.
She snapped awake when Hadrian crouched close and whispered. "We've been followed. We must move now."
He helped her to her feet, and Zelda hastily accepted her things from him, a small pouch she cinched around her waist, and her traveling cloak. Her largest pack, she saw, was hoisted over sir Justin's shoulder.
She scoped out the darkness. Everyone had quietly gathered in a cluster, efficiently packing up their few supplies. Ashei was speaking quietly with Coro, who appeared only half awake as he nodded along listening.
Zelda's head swerved around. She tallied four people, plus Coro. "Where's Link? Shouldn't we wait for him?"
Hadrian grunted in the negative. "He can catch up on his own. We need to go, now."
It didn't feel right abandoning Link, but Zelda trusted her knights and their expertise. Link had better hurry it up.
"Rusl came by just now by way of the fields," Hadrian explained as they set off. "He reported tracks. A group of four. It looks like they sent someone ahead to scout."
"I don't see why we can't set up an ambush or something," muttered Shad wretchedly. "Catch the hexer and be done with it, I say."
"Because, neophyte, we can't be sure it actually is the hexer," Ashei hissed back, pushing him along in front of her. "And with no certifiable proof we can't do anything. We need to wait to catch them in the act."
"Better to keep ahead so we can confront the hexer on our own terms," inserted Justin, leading the way into the dense woodland. "I'm not keen on being spied upon."
"Now pick up your feet, sharplike," said Ashei, with a motivating shove.
Shad grumbled under his breath, but kept moving forward, nose buried in a handkerchief. Zelda shivered, drawing her cloak close. She consulted the ghost lamp, the fire still rubbing against whichever pane faced south east.
The forest was deceptively peaceful at night. Fireflies filled the air around them, so numerous that Zelda had only to reach out a hand to catch one. She didn't mind the post-midnight stroll, even as her fingertips tapped the wrapped hilt of her dagger, and her ears perked high to catch all sound.
They walked in silence, the landscape more harrowing as they left the road. The pitch and fall of terrain and random lumps of boulders slowing their pace to half that they could manage in daylight.
The magnetic pull that guided the blue flame pointed directly to the source in a linear streak. It didn't account for hurdles along the way, so when their path was obstructed by a sheer wall of limestone rising upward they had no choice but to backtrack and look for another path. They did so again as the land swelled and grew more mountainous with steeper inclines that none of them wished to navigate in the dark, and again when a river intersected their path. By then they had taken so many twists and turns that the ghost lamp was pointing more east than south east.
Zelda didn't know how long they travelled but stayed alert all the while. The idea of being followed appealed to her just about as much as lone stag relished being stalked by wolves.
Where was Link? Why was finding the Master Sword taking him so long?
She refused to think he'd succumbed to the forest's namesake. That could not happen to Link. Not when he above all had the most right to wander those woods.
"Stop scuffing your feet, damn it," Ashei hissed to Shad, who groaned in response and sniffed into his handkerchief.
"I'm sick and exhausted, and you lot walk like iron knuckles on the march."
"Your bumbling penguin waddle is leaving a clear trail behind us."
"Keep your knees slightly bent to lower your center of gravity. Also try stepping with your heel first then follow with the outer edge of your foot," whispered Hadrian demonstrating with his naturally long strides. "It softly distributes your weight and silences your footfalls."
There was more grumbling but Shad took care to follow the advice.
Zelda felt the vestiges of sleep slowly increasing its grip at her, making an effort to pull her under. The initial sense of urgency wearing off, her body reminding her that it had not attained the desired amount of rest required from it. She pinched the nerves at the bridge of her nose and occupied her mind by peering through the dimness and taking in everything within the radius of their lamplights.
Dark foliage surrounded them, masquerading as distorted limbs with long fingers clawing at the sky. The trees groaned with age, bent and twisted around one another at odd angles in their longstanding competition to catch the best amount of sunlight for growth. The singing of crickets and lonely hoot of an owl was a comfort to hear. Surely if anything not benign roamed nearby the forest would be silent.
Zelda wasn't paying attention when she rebounded off a warm body in front of her. They'd been walking in a tight line, and subsequently, Hadrian bumped against her, quickly apologizing.
"Why'd we stop?" his voice was stark against the tranquility of the forest.
Zelda angled her head to look to the front of the line where Ashei was holding her lantern aloft, surveying a dark void in their path. Not a void, a surface, blotting out the moonlight.
"This is stonework," she informed them, tapping the structure. "Hylians made this."
Justin cut through the brush to her side. "A settlement?"
Beside her Shad, fed up with the constant walking, planted himself on the ground and hugged his cloak. Zelda stayed back with Hadrian standing guard over her as Ashei and Justin did a short inspection. Zelda's eyes followed the illumination of their lamps as they surveyed the area and gleaned many more right angles and straight upright beams.
Ashei came back around. "It must have been an outpost of some sort, yeah. It's long abandoned now. We'll make use of it for tonight."
"Finally," Shad groaned, stumbling forward on wavering feet, keen to lie down.
They settled further in, their small encampment bordered by three sturdy walls and one partially collapsed one. The floor was solid and made soft in some areas where moss grew abundantly. It was overgrown with weeds and plants peeking from assorted cracks and tiny fissure that marred the stone.
A space was cleared away for her and Zelda's cot was arranged. Again she didn't have to do anything. She thanked Sir Justin, partially annoyed that he had refuted any attempts she'd made to set it up for herself, and lay down wide awake, a nuisance to her as minutes before she'd been dead on her feet.
"He'll be fine," Shad, who had flung himself onto his own cot nearby like something dead and yawned enormously wide, plucking off his glasses. "Link knows which direction we took. And Ashei said she'll try to contact him again in the morning." Another yawn escaped him.
She rolled over, half paying attention to the silent murmurs of the three knights as they set up a watch schedule.
"I feel like splitting up was a mistake," she admitted, withering within her blankets. "We should not have left Link behind."
Shad looked her over and reset his bifocals on the perch of his nose. "Is something the matter? The charm's still working I presume?"
She unconsciously fingered the bracelet looped around her wrist. "Yes, it is. It's simply that the ghosts are more likely to attack a person when they're alone. Impaz told us not to isolate ourselves."
"I'm sure he has the Master Sword by now." He mused to himself. "Actually, I'm quite certain of it. I've no doubt he's hot on our tail chasing after us, ready with a quip about how we stole away with his intended and left him biting our dust."
Zelda stared off into the darkness over his shoulder. She didn't even react to being called Link's intended.
"I hope he's alright."
Shad coughed and sniffled loudly, turning onto his back.
She twisted her head over in concern. "I'm sorry, I should have asked sooner. How are you holding up?"
The scholar coughed some more. "I don't think I've ever been more uncomfortable in my life. No, don't say anything. I am good to continue on. I refuse to be sent back or become anyone's burden."
"I was going to say no such thing," she said.
"Well," Shad muttered, removing his glasses and throwing an arm over his eyes, groaning. "Apologies, your majesty, but I feel like drums are pounding in my skull and our sudden nighttime trek had me expending more energy than I'm used to."
She hummed silently. "Of course. We should both get some sleep."
"Certainly," he nodded, then flinched as it worsened the headache. "Goodnight then."
"Goodnight," she said in response.
Shad was asleep almost instantly. Head turned on its side and breathing heavily through his mouth. Beyond them Justin and Hadrian were in repose sitting up like statues against the wall. Hadrian had drawn one knee up with his head resting against it, while Justin had his head thrown back. Ashei stood sentinel above them on the second floor, partially visible where the ceiling had been demolished and opened up to the sky.
Zelda stopped staring into the darkness, suddenly afraid that something might start staring back. Instead she watched Ashei, a force to be reckoned with all on her own, ever solemn in her vigil. Having someone else awake helped.
She drifted off on thoughts of the past. Nightmares of the war plagued her. Of silently witnessing the suffering of her people. Her court blaming her. Of them screaming of her numerous failures. Everything had been her fault. What could she had done? What other recourse had there been for her?
When Zelda awoke shivering and barren of blankets a few hours later there was no sign of the outpost. Everyone was gone.
Link rose from his crouch and fixed the scarf around the lower portion of his face.
He was getting close. And from the unfamiliar scent he'd picked up, so was their unwanted pursuer.
He had picks up markings a little ways back, once he had returned from across the gorge and found that everyone had picked up and left in the middle of the night. He had payed attention since that first sighting and all evidence pointed out to an unknown presence purposefully tailing them. The caster?
His eyes burned as he breathed in the forest once more, then certain of his direction, set out. There was no clear path in this part of the woods other than the occasional deer trail, but the mess of leaves and disturbed silt was clear indication that a bumbling inexperienced traveler had been there. His brain easily connected it to Shad, who was known to trip on flat ground. Then there were the veiled, barely distinct imprints upon the sward that anyone but the most perceptive would miss. A steady controlled gait.
The unknown variable prowling after them, hunting them down. Link unconsciously bared his teeth. Whoever it was, he would get to them before they caught up with the others. He would make certain of it.
He tracked them long into the night and early morning until at last he caught his first glimpse of them.
It was drizzling. Light raindrops tapped in inconsistent patterns upon the leafy boughs, an added muffle to his movements. The figure was bent near a stream amid a cluster of bulrushes and sedge, replenishing a water flask.
They stood and shook out their cloak. Link rushed them.
Winding back the Master Sword in a reverse hold, he meant only to send the pommel into the pursuer's abdomen to wind them, but that plan was shot when the person turned and shrieked, expelling a golden coated hand in front of her, forks of energy zapping from her fingertips and in a play of irony crashed directly into his chest.
Link could feel his entire body vibrate uncontrollably, his hand losing his grip on the blade as shocks reverberated all up and down his entire being.
He gasped and fell to his knees then his heart jumped as he was shocked again.
"Link!"
Gasping for breath as his limbs continued to seize in the aftermath, Link struggled to lift his torso from the ground and gasped this time louder in astonishment.
His arms collapsed beneath him. "Ah, fuck!"
Gold brown eyes narrowed as Anne crossed her arms. "No need for profanity, sir Link."
"Did…did you follow us?" He managed to get up then groaned, grasping his head and clutching it between his knees. "Ow ow ow. Why did you do thaaaaaaat?"
"Sorry," said Anne, and looked it. "I encountered some highwaymen in the field and left them… well." She indicated with a telling wave of her hand. "I thought they might have come after me. They were pretty angry."
"I can't imagine why." He held back another moan of agony. Goddesses, it shocked worse than the water temple.
"Nothing to do but wait it out," said Anne, hunkering down next to him, at ease while Link still convulsed. "In the meantime, you can tell me what all this is about. Those things in the throne room. They were ghosts weren't they? Why did they appear? What did they want? Why are you out here? Where's Zelda?"
"N-none of your business." His bloody insides were spasming. Damn, how many volts had she used?
She poked him in the cheek. "I'm starting to dislike you."
He swatted her hand away, or at least attempted at it.
"I thought you were more magic resistant."
"I normally am." He could literally feel his nerve endings realigning themselves, his muscles recovering from the shock of the attack. "It's like tensing for a punch. I wasn't ready for it."
"You doing better yet?"
"Shut up." He took a deep breath and stood. Some parts of him still felt numb, but he could control his movements now.
"Oh, here's your sword, AIIEEEEE!" Anne furiously flapped her hand, her palm smouldering, then curled around it. "What is wrong with your sword?! It burned me!"
Impassive, Link went to the blade splayed across the grass, and lifted it. He used a sleeve to buff a smudge of dirt from the winged cross guard. His eyes blazed in the reflective metal.
"It's the fucking Master Sword," he chaffed, flicking it out before sheathing it along his spine. "Of course it burned you. Good sword."
Anne wore a look of pure offense.
"Why are you here?" He looked her over crossly.
Now that he wasn't writhing in electric agony he properly scrutinized her attire and noted the similar distinctions between hers and Zelda's. Rich ladies traveling garb, he classified it. Topped with a thickly plaited coil against her scalp for convenience and ease of travel. He could read the signs as clear as day.
Without a word, he wiped his bangs from his eyes and headed back to where he'd last seen Shad's scuff marks.
Anne hurried along behind him. "Then you will take me to Zelda?"
"Only because you're a mage," he said, impartial. Another blemish upon the terrain from Shad's clumsy ambling pointed him in the right direction. "Do you know any warding magic?"
"Quite a bit," she eyed him warily. "I have to keep the boys at bay somehow. Why aren't you with Zelda?"
"How did you know we were leaving?"
"It's not so surprising to think you were going to abscond with her, the way you eyed the queen at the ball," Anne scoffed, observing the woodland. "No, really. She never came back to her room after the ball. And then that lady knight who's always with you came in and collected a few obvious items for departure. From there it was simply a race to catch up to you. We go hunting you know. Zelda, and I. At my best I can track a lone hart and tell you exactly where it will wander." She tilted her head. "These tracks I'd say belong to a half blind rhinoceros with a broken leg and suffering from a severe case of arthritis." She pursed her lips at a blotchy area of dragged earth and moss. "Perhaps here he had a heart attack."
Link snorted. "Shat to a tee." He went silent, then after a moment asked her. "Is it possible for a mage to have three elements?"
"Very rarely," said Anne. "And in those cases the individual would be able to dabble in all three but never be proficient in any of them."
He nodded absently. "Yours are fire and lightning?"
In demonstration, Anne whipped out both hands, those damnable jolts of electricity jumping from the fingers of one, simultaneously the entire surface of her second hand was engulfed in flaring red.
"As you can see." She grinned proudly. "Lightning is my mastery. It's more useful and with low voltages you can subdue someone easily with minimal lasting damage. I used to zap people for fun as a child. My parents and sisters were wholly unappreciative. Jealous, I'd say."
He frowned, suddenly surly. "Don't bloody use it on me again."
She flicked her hands, extinguishing both. "Don't come running at me with a sword again."
"Fine."
Anne was as flippant about his irritation as the nobles at court. "Why aren't you with the others?"
Link sharply held up a hand, cutting her off and warning against anymore talking. He could see her watching curiously and with a touch of impatience as he tapped his earring. He was certain… Just a second ago he heard Ashei's voice.
"Link? Fuck Link!"
Ashei rang out loud and clear from his earring.
His eyes invited a modicum of savagery as her tone alerted him to something serious.
"Ashei! What is it?"
"Where the hell are you yeah? We need you back, now!"
His entire being tensed. The savagery grew more profound.
Anne's features seemed to grow sharper as she clearly heard Ashei's voice ring out. The urgency in it unmistakeable.
"She's gone! The queen just fucking disappeared!"
His voice was frigid when next he spoke. Carefully controlled and murderous. "What do you mean the queen's gone."
"I mean she's been spirited away."