Little has changed in my life. Still working and keeping busy. Although I pushed to get this chapter out. I didn't want you all to wait too long after that last cliffhanger. As per the norm, this chapter has been posted with minimal revisions (to be attended to at a later date when I find the patience to reread the whole thing through).
Enjoy!
Chapter 23:
This was a nightmare.
"We searched the grounds. We had a guard on constant watch throughout the night. We made sure to check on the others every five to ten minutes. There's no possibility that she snuck out voluntarily. Something came in and warped her out."
Worse than the Arbiter's grounds, worse than galloping through a mist coated field praying to reach the caravan in time, worse than watching Zelda catapult over the outer walls of the castle.
"What's going on?" interjects Anne with a sense of urgency. "Where's Zelda? What happened to her?"
Because this time he could not account for her whereabouts. She might already be within the hexer's grasp. The ghost lamp was still hitched to her hip, they might never find her.
"We don't know," said Hadrian, running a hand down his face, his hair mused from his early rise. "She was taken in the middle of the night. We don't know anything."
Link grasped at the last wisps of fleeting control within his possession. Maintain calm, and figure out what to do next.
He had looked over the outpost from stem to stern, top to bottom to no avail. Ashei was right. Zelda had disappeared by no means of her own. How the bloody were they supposed to track her down if there was no trace of her departure to lead them?
"And what are you doing out here?" Ashei said in a vicious tone to Lady Anne. "You followed us? Why?"
Anne was annoyed and a touch edgy.
"Why do you think? Because I'm sick and tired of being left in the dark. I've known Zelda the longest out of any of you. I have the right to know what's going on. There's something off about her, and has been for months, possibly longer. And I have a feeling you all know what it is."
The look Ashei conveyed toward him was one of disapproval. She didn't like the idea of Anne joining them. Didn't like how he had kept her presence secret until they'd reconvened and it was too late to do a proper turn around and send her off.
With a roll of her eyes, she gave her back to them and mounted the stairs to the highest elevation the outpost possessed, able to see a good span over the sea of trees further down the slope of the hill. Effectively what Link read from that was 'Your problem. You handle this,' with a possible 'yeah' punctuated at the end.
Hadrian said, "I don't think they could have taken her very far."
At Link's sharp glance he went on. "I feel the currents in the air. Residual magic. It's… distorted, but it is weak, and feels strongly of the woodland. Possibly she was taken somewhere nearby."
Somehow Link always managed to forget that Hadrian was a low class mage as well.
Hadrian shifted at Link's continued silence. "Lady Anne, what do you think?"
Anne went to one knee by Zelda's vacant cot and hovered a hand over the area, sensing, absorbing the black traces of insidious magic that lingered there.
"Sir Hadrian's right. There's not enough force to have taken her far."
Link's shoulders sagged. At least that was something.
"So they just wanted to separate her from us?" said Justin, no more pleased about the situation than any of them.
"Or take her directly to the hexer," said Hadrian gravely.
Link stared into the forest, willing his emotions to calm. Would things have been different if he'd been there? Damn it, he should have never separated from her. He should have brought her with him to the Lost Woods. They would not have been able to reach her there.
A hand alighted on his shoulder. Hadrian's burly presence warm at his side.
"What do we do?"
He didn't know where to start. He didn't know where they'd taken her. How they had stolen her from beneath their noses.
"What direction was the ghost lamp pointing last?"
"East, I think," Hadrian said as simultaneously Justin declared "south."
Link was about ready to run his sword through something.
"We spread out," he announced. "Go in pairs. East, southeast, and south. Follow through on any signs of hylian activity." He jabbed a calloused finger at Anne. "You come with me."
Anne planted her feet, a trace of gold at her fingertips. "I'd rather make my own way, but thank you for the offer, hero."
His eyes narrowed. "I'll tell you everything on the way."
The gold faded out and Anne sauntered ahead. "Glad to see you're somewhat sensible."
"Glad to see you're not all petulant," he snarked back.
"She could be playing you," said Ashei when Anne was out of earshot. "The nobility are consummate actors. This might all be a façade to keep an eye on us, yeah."
"I know." And he did. He had considered it as soon as he'd recognized whom it was that was following them. A person who was conveniently close to the queen. Who checked off all their criteria. One who had the means to stage the disappearance of Desra and the others. His teeth gnashed together, eyes sparking with blue fire. She could be the hexer.
Link fully expected a trap to be laid for them, like an unwanted welcoming party.
Yet just as easily, she may turn out to be innocent and they were condemning her without solid verifiable proof. For Zelda's sake he couldn't risk that.
"What the hell were you thinking bringing her along with us?" Ashei hissed.
"Since when did we abandon lost women in the forest?" he countered, enthused. "She's been waylaid by highwaymen already, it would have been criminal not to ensure her protection."
Ashei stared after the other woman, who had stopped to speak with Shad, then forced him to sit as she hovered her palm over his flustered face. After a moment he released a happy exclamation as his symptoms receded and he was able to breathe normally again.
"You have to be careful around her."
"This way I'll be able to keep an eye on her. I'd rather have her here with us than spying from a distance. And we did say we needed a mage. "
Ashei shook her head. "I'd rather not have a mage in this instance. Not right now."
They were silent for a time. Then Link moved, following after Anne who had struck out southeast.
"Link!"
He angled his head over his shoulder and met with Ashei's steely expression.
"Caution, Link," she said as a last word of parting.
He delivered a single nod in acknowledgement. Ashei then brushed past Shad, who had stumbled up to her, excited that he'd been seemingly 'cured' of his illness, despite viruses being impossible to eliminate all at once and Anne simply having stymied the affects for a while.
"You go with Justin," shot Ashei in a rough unforgiving tone. "I have no patience to deal with your inherent bumbling right now, yeah. Hadrian, with me!"
"This happens occasionally," Shad sighed with his shoulders slumped as Hadrian patted him on the back then ran off to follow orders. Shad gave another sigh.
Anne had her hip jut to the side, a hand perched there, face overcome with an impatient scowl, waiting for him.
"Now, without effecting evasiveness, try me."
Link wasn't in the mood for conversation, and certainly not a lengthy a one as this would inevitably turn out. His mind was clouded to all but Zelda's location and safety. They had to find her. No matter the cost, he would find her. Even if he lost himself to do it.
Zelda trained her focus on steadying her breaths. She was doing well, in her opinion. Since her initial rise from the depths of slumber and processing that she was not where she had been last night when she had gone to bed, she had passed the first stages of panic, lingered on denial for a healthy instant, and was now settling comfortably into despairing acceptance. It would have been almost a comfort had she been hallucinating.
She could feel her surroundings as easy as she could smell them. The pungent earthiness of the subterranean, the damp soil seeping into her clothes. The air was stale, and floor moist with mold and possibly dead things, judging by the odor. Rats was her fervent hope, despite her adverseness toward them.
Zelda's lay still on her side for a while longer, listening to the empty silence, wide eyes appealing for any source of light. What first she'd thought was the pervading darkness of night she soon realized was the hindrance of daylight. She was in a room or cavern. Somewhere enclosed and tomb like.
When she was certain that she was entirely alone she sat up and like a blind woman reached around with her fingertips. Through her probing she found the hard surface of a wall and used it to leverage herself up slowly, as if suspecting any fast movements might trigger something. The ceiling of her crypt was low and she had to hunch her chest to avoid knocking against it.
"Small steps," she breathed to herself, voice swallowed by the earth around her. Link had said she needed to be more optimistic, and she felt now the peek moment to exercise it. "One thing at a time…"
A quick assessment of her person revealed that she still carried her sheikah dagger, which was most imperative at the moment, along with her pouch and a simple knife concealed in her boot. She didn't hesitate to withdraw the dagger and level it in front of her. At least she was armed.
She kept it held out as she drifted forward, inspecting the lair. Two paces in, she touched wood. She let her fingers roam the structure and found a series of shelves lined with broken clay and cobwebbed jars. Zelda shuddered and backed up. More exploring was superfluous. The rest of the walls were within a few feet of each other. This place was enclosed. Tight. Meant to instill claustrophobia.
A sharp inhalation to steel her nerves, then she moved to conduct a more thorough investigation. She'd heard tales of people being buried alive. Read and dwelled very briefly in horrid dismay, chest welling with sympathy even for the worst sorts of people who'd been sentenced to that fate.
The shelves and products were a good indication that this room had once been in use. There had to be a way out.
Her fingers raked clumsily against the walls, dirt piling up beneath her nails. Jars and questionable things were knocked over in her foray. Her back was beginning to strain from poor posture, the tips of her fingers going numb with cold and abuse. And then a sudden creak and a strangled sob gushed from her throat as in an inadvertent maneuver she scored the ceiling with freshly torn nails and met with something solid, something that moved.
She put away her dagger and wiped the hair from her face, dirt streaked and sticky with webs then felt around the structure. A plank of some sort, or a hatch. Yes, a hatch. She felt ridiculous that she hadn't realized before to look upward. Her fingers searched, feeling out the shape and texture of the hatch, pushing a little at each side, trying to determine where the hinges were.
She found where the hatch offered the most yield and pressed her palms flat, readying herself. With little momentum to work with she thrust upward, straightening her body as much as it could, arms shaking with the strain.
The hatch groaned in resistance, hinges, long rusted from disuse, whining.
Renewing her efforts, Zelda readjusted her hand placement and heaved. She gained a few centimeters fighting the force of the wood. She gasped as a sliver of light blinded her, turning her head away and blinking madly. The wood trembled until there was a clear clang as the hatch snapped off and clattered to the side.
Zelda was bathed light and she held an arm up, squinting as if in reverence to the overwhelming brilliance of a deity. Her hands shook as she scrubbed her face and took stock of her escape route. A square of freedom straight up.
Standing erect was a relief to her spine. At this height her eyes were level with the rim and she could survey the upper half of the interior of what appeared to be a household.
Feeling like a child in a Gerudo's house, she bent low then jumped straight up, snagging the edge of the opening with her forearms. Her foot found purchase on the wall and muscles screaming, she hauled herself up. Bent at the stomach, she crawled forward until she could get one leg up then the other, and then she knelt there, hands on her knees, catching her breath, tasting sweet air, and counting her blessings.
When she died she'd order her body to be set alight on a pyre, ashes spread across the land. Her descendants could have her space in the family crypt. She never wanted to be trapped beneath the soil again, dead or not.
More nerve settling ensued before she gained the confidence to properly survey her surroundings.
She was in a peasant's house. Her gaze swept over an old cracked stone oven, overturned chairs and table, and shattered glass, all blanketed with dust and cobwebs and intruding plant life. She glanced behind her at the yawning opening to her imprisonment and scooted away. It must have been a larder or a pantry. A place to store food beneath the ground to keep cool and fresh.
Where… was she?
Despite the squares of sunlight pouring through the vacant windows cold seeped into her bones. She removed her dagger from its sheath and stood up, her muscles and joints aching from sleeping on the hard ground and from her escape.
Her dagger, solid and poised in her grip ready to strike at a moment's notice, led the way as she ventured out into this new terrain. Wavery sunlight spilled forth as she wandered out through the opening where once had been a front door. She was only moderately surprised at what lay before her.
"A village?" She forced her mind to apathy as she stared out.
Among the shallow sward were houses all as ramshackle as the one she'd woken up in. Most were half collapsed with their innards showing, pots and furniture in all states of disarray and pieces tossed in piles and strewn across the grass, like a crazed doctor's dissection that had not been resewn shut. In few parts the ground was so scored and blackened that the grass did not grow. The houses were similarly blackened. Charred with streaks of malice, consumed by fire, and pockmarked with arrow shafts, the feathers having long frayed from their tips.
The remnants of a long ago raid.
The chilling sense of foreboding she'd woken with revisited her now in glacial sweeps.
"Link? Ashei?"
The murmuring wind was her only reply.
She scanned the desolate roads, eyes lingering on the skeletal husks of the empty buildings. It was impossible to believe that her knights would have borne her away without waking her at the slightest inkling of impending danger, and less so that they'd stash her alone in a pantry of some hylian forsaken village.
She hated the word kidnap. It implied helplessness, like damsels in a book. She had been taken then. Transplanted to some unknown locale with no means of contacting Link or the others.
Was this part of their twisted game? Did the ghost boy mean to toy with her psyche before the slaughter?
And her knights… Her disappearance would be driving them frantic. And Link, how would he react? Furious and hellbent, she imagined.
Well, she couldn't depend on them to find her.
Zelda took a step forward, then a tentative other, as if afraid of stepping on a trick wire. Her boots were muffled in the grass, dagger preceding her with every inch she gained.
No reaction. No sign of a warden. But then it was early morning. If they were to make their move they'd strike at nightfall when their power surged and they could take form. That wasn't to say that they weren't dangerous during the day. An invisible force had shoved her off the parapets in broad daylight, and many specters lingered about her vision at all hours, taunting her, meant to frighten. Her fingers drifted up to her throat in cold mimicry of that horrid council meeting. They had not damaged her, nor left bruises, had barely pressed on her trachea, but it had been one of the most frightening experiences in her entire life. Had it been in the pool of night, would they have completed the act?
At the very least she was still within the forest. A few trees were spread sparsely in the village itself, but beyond the perimeter was swollen with woodlands and a tide of rolling hills and outcrops. She seemed to be situated in a small valley of sorts. There was not much covering it. Should anyone happen to crest one of the surrounding hills they'd certainly see the village easily enough and certainly they'd be obliged to investigate.
Zelda arrived at a leaning gate that had been half torn from the ground and rotted through. The entrance she assumed. Her pouch of supplies was not fathoms deep as Link's seemed to be, but it too was magically expanded. She withdrew a long stem of wood, fletched in the precise fashion of the royal guard. She jammed it into the wood of the gate, easily digging it into the decaying wood.
With a long last look at the woods, searching, hoping to see some indication of movement, she turned and entered further into the depths of the village. Even though she really didn't want to. There were voices in her head screaming at her to get out, to take refuge in the relative safety of the forest, and they weren't the sepulchral sort.
A quick glance at her hip told her the ghost lamp had varied little from its usual lassitude. Monotonous in its expression, flickering against the foggy pane, eastward this time, and giving no indication of the relevance of her locale. Yet there had to be something of importance here. Why else would the ghosts have brought her here specifically?
How far had they taken her? How was she supposed to reunite with the others?
Suddenly feeling woozy she pinched the bridge of her nose and reclined against a supporting beam of one of the houses, eyes firming shut and head flung back. Goddesses what was she to do? This had not been an outcome they were prepared for.
A fire. She'd have to start a fire. They could trace the smoke column from above the treetops. She couldn't use her magic, so she'd require flint and tinder and wood and hope to Hylia she didn't burn down the entire forest in the process. She'd simply have to remain lost until then.
Creeeeeak
Every sinew and muscle in her body coiled. Her ears pricking involuntarily at the invasive noise then drooping in the most flattened back cat-like replication they could manage.
Until then the village had been almost tranquil. Slowly she opened her eyes and they quested for the source of the sound.
Creeeeeeeaak
THUNK!
Zelda pivoted on her heel, dagger spinning and held in a backhand grip before her in time to see a door give way and thud to the ground.
Her breaths came to her in staggering gasps, her spine pressed up against the wooden beam, eyes flickering this way and that.
The boughs swayed. A pair of dragonflies fluttered between blades of grass. The ends of her cloak drifted in place around her calves after her quick motion.
She licked her teeth and bit her bottom lip. Very slowly she lowered her dagger, her fingers furled around the handle in an adamantine grip.
"That… was normal."
Evening. She'd wait for early evening for the others to come find her before she hightailed it out. She'd rather risk a night alone in the woods then stay here after dark.
She patted down her hair, brushing the strands from her face.
"Right," she whispered, eyes darting around. "An administration building. Let's figure out this town's name."
If the building had survived the destruction, that is.
Fortunately for her it wasn't so difficult to find. In a town like this it either stood as a separate structure, usually attached to a post office, or was part of the mayor's home. A swinging sign over the doorway along with the rows of cubbies through a half combusted wall revealed the former. Zelda bypassed the post office and discovered her prize down a short hallway in the next room. The door fell in at the slightest touch and her heart fell in dismay. Nothing was left of the room. All the cabinets and shelves looked as if they'd been trampled to pieces, the papers they once held, forms and documents, valuable information that would have given her clues to her whereabouts had decayed thoroughly from exposure. The walls looked as if a cannon had plowed right through them, shattering them enough that the ceiling had caved in.
She prodded the dried mulch on the ground with the toe of her boot. Paper that had been continuously soaked through rainfall and returned to its pulpy state.
"If I hadn't been optimistic I wouldn't be this disappointed," she groused.
She felt somewhat cheated. She hadn't known what to expect she'd find, but answers had been nearly within her grasp.
With a long suffering sigh she headed back out, only to pause at the threshold. She turned around and went back in.
The post office would not prove nearly as insightful, but if she could find just one letter it would have the name of the village listed in the address.
The cubbies lining the wall matched the rest of the village. Old, heavily rotted, with peeling paint. A bit of rifling unearthed a key in the desk drawer which she eagerly slotted in the first cubby and twisted. The cubby opened on creaking hinges and to her delight a few papers had been left inside. She swept them up and to sate her curiosity gathered any papers to be found in the rest of the cubbies, all but one that was badly rusted and refused to budge, and spread them over the desk.
Many of the letters were frayed and crisp, made cheaply so easy to crumple. She plucked up the first one and gleaned the address.
Rhys Varrow
House at the end of the lane 84, Sarjon
Faron Province, Hyrule
Sarjon was a region in Faron province. She didn't quite recall a village being named after it, although she had known it to be inhabited by quite a scattering of hamlets.
She read the receiver.
Dalia from Castle Town.
A lover's note perhaps. She set it aside, unwilling to invade anyone's privacy if she could help it. She picked up another. Her brows rose.
To Mayor Dan of Sarjon, from the Duke of Faron. Complete with the duke's crest.
She had no compunction with reading this one. She slid the knife from her boot and used it to slit the letter open, withdrawing and unfolding it.
Dear sir,
We regret to inform you that your request for additional armed forces against the bulblin invaders in your village has been denied. At present we do not have the means to expend our forces to all regions of the province and must prioritize where it is necessary.
If the attacks persist we recommend your people evacuate to the cities where there are greater numbers to deter these raiders. Our city of Fural would welcome the addition of your village within its walls.
We are greatly sorry for your loss and wish you well on your journey.
To your good health,
Jarod Lanceor of Fural, scribe to the Duke of Faron
Her hand shook as she set the paper down. Why was she shaking? Her mind had dwelled on a half formed suspicion that this had been one of the villages ransacked during Zant's invasion. The arrow shafts, the trampled earth, her plight with the curse and the ghost's appreciation of irony. The damage had been too fresh to be one of the conquered regions of her grandfather's campaigns.
They must have left the village on their own soon after this message was delivered, before the mayor had a chance to open it. Mayor Bo's own account of Ordon told her how much devastation her people had endured. The minister of provincial affairs had a list of all the villages and towns that had been hit the hardest by the invasion. She herself had perused that too long list, upward of fifty names. She did not recall every single one, but knew Sarjon had to be listed there.
But then why had the villagers never returned? Had they found better opportunities elsewhere? Were the memories of the raids too painful to endure? Whatever the case, she'd look into it on her return to the castle. Her ministers would not approve of her taking a direct hand in it, her concern should focus on more important stately affairs, but she'd persist if she had to. Nothing was beneath the queen's regard.
Perusing the rest of the small stack revealed little else of use. She stuck the letter to the mayor in her pouch and quickly left.
The sun's travel across the sky let her know that it was about midday. By now she'd be having luncheon in her solarium, or perhaps the gardens. Her stomach growled in objection to the brief thought of mealtime. She hadn't any food on her, the others having insisted on carrying the lot, so was resigned to a day of fasting.
There was nothing to do but explore some more so she picked a street and wandered along it. She poked around the houses, a few of them surprisingly unscathed compared to the rest, containing no more than a few singes and littered with arrow shafts, which, without the fletching, she hadn't realized at once were bulblin make.
She ducked under a broken lintel of a building that appeared to have been half eaten by a giant beast, and faltered. Blinking a few times, she canted her head, eyes narrowed with scrutiny.
There were markings on the wall, brown and smeared, and along the floor like splattered paint. Looking closer she could see they were handprints. And the substance… Dried blood?
But this was fresh, no more than a few weeks old.
Her hand flew to her mouth. "Oh goddesses."
Someone had been here recently. Had been killed here. The spread of blood in that same pattern… like the prisoners grandfather had ordered drawn and quartered.
The smell…
She would have backed out then when she noticed more blood, a brown streak leading through the opposite door. She took a shuddering hand filtered breath and started after it, steps meticulous in dodging the stain. She fully expected to find a dead body at the end of this. But even so…
Whoever it was had been dragged out of the house and cut a path straight through the southern end of the village. She reached the edge of the woods where a ditch bisected the soil.
She leaned over to peer within.
Ashei stopped, one foot suspended in the air before slowly being brought to ground. Frozen and statuesque like an armos gone still. The calm rise of her chest the only indication of her warm blooded state.
"We're being watched," she murmured, a whisper in the wind, hardly discernable.
Hadrian reached her side and casually scanned the landscape. Doing nothing that he hadn't been doing initially for five hours already.
As always Ashei's hyperaware senses preceded his own comparably mediocre ones. But subtly, very subtly, he could make out the humming murmurs of people whispering and thinking they'd go unheard, the slight movement in undergrowth to his left, negating the camouflaging effects of the earth toned clothing, barely within the margins of his periphery. If Ashei hadn't pointed it out, he'd have never focussed his attention to look for it. His sights had been set ahead, while Ashei's stretched in an impressive radius around them.
"When we left last night because we'd been followed, the one we assumed was a scout was Lady Anne, close on our heels. Rusl found signs of at least four others. I didn't think they'd come this far."
"The hexer?"
Ashei's eyelids were lowered in that lazy half-droop, an attributable mood of hers. With absentminded skill she checked the pieces of her gauntlets, the collective ten pounds of iron thick metal cylinders oiled and engineered to slot perfectly into place, skull-crushing and bulky in accordance to their purpose. A show of force to whoever was stalking them.
"If the hexer took the bait and followed us they would have gone straight for the focal point in order to protect it," said Ashei smoothly. "It's midday and we've hardly made any progress. This delay has us scrambling for a direction, and more meticulousness is required to find Zelda. We've been slowed down, we lost our start and the hexer will have passed us."
It didn't thrill him how the hexer might find Zelda before them. Both could already be at the focal point by now. How the hell were they supposed to figure out where to go without the ghost lamp?
"Then who would be following after us?"
She flexed her hand and sliced her gaze to the left, languidly observing as a man and woman, realizing that they'd been caught, appeared through the gaps between the trees.
"Highwaymen."
Ashei crossed her arms and waited as the two ousted ambled up to the outcrop that the knights had made their perch, penetrating brown eyes harsh and scrutinizing their gangly movements. Hadrian took note of the weaponry they wore in the open. A naked broadsword each belted at the waist and a vicious crossbow, unbolted, slung over the woman's shoulder like a hunting catch.
The woman gave a terse wave as the man stared silently.
"Good day to you. We don't usually see the Knights of Hyrule in these parts," started the woman, scarred features adding a rather crookedness to her.
As Ashei appeared less than happy at the intrusion, Hadrian took the fore.
"A bit far off the road yourself, aren't you?"
"True," the woman said, head cocked at Ashei's silent regard. "As it so happens, we're in pursuit."
Hadrian honestly held little interest. "Oh?"
"Actually it's a good thing we ran into you," continued the woman. "I'd like to report an assault. We passed a noblewoman on the road yesterday evening. Without provocation she used magic and incapacitated us with some form of lightning. It was rather painful." She scratched the back of her neck, appearing abashed. "We've been out to apprehend her ourselves before she terrorizes another poor traveler."
Ashei clicked her tongue and sent Hadrian a look.
They didn't have time for this. "If such an assault was made, that would be a violation of the unlawful abuse of magic against the non-magic act. Given that the violator was not acting in self-defence."
The woman dipped her head. "Right. As I've said. We encountered one another on the road. Naturally we greeted her but she didn't react kindly to mere peasants speaking up. Be seen and not heard." She sighed with a sort of what-can-you-do, the hopelessness of the less privileged. "Arrogant nobles."
"In that case I'd take it up with the local magistrate," said Hadrian unenthused. "They'd be better equipped to sort out your problem. We'll keep an eye out in any case. But know that we're already preoccupied with another task and can't afford to veer."
The man didn't look too happy with this but his reaction was forestalled as the woman raised a hand.
"I understand," she simpered, beginning to step back. "Whenever you have the time. We'll leave you be."
They left the way they came, probably regrouping with the last two members of their band, and soon were lost to sight amongst the surplus trees and brambles.
Hadrian hastened after Ashei who hadn't stuck around for the tail end of the conversation, and had struck out ahead.
"Do you think those were the highwaymen that Lady Anne encountered?"
Ashei aimed a glance his way that was purely uninspired. "Yes. But they're not our problem. We've been marching for hours and still no sign of the queen, yeah. Can't have gone far, eh?"
Hadrian felt his ears burn at her bite.
"I'm not… the best at sensing magic." He could, like all those who'd had some form of magical instruction, he had the capacity.
She scoffed. "That thief was lying through her teeth."
"At least she was polite about it."
"Buttering us up. Large groups of bandits usually have a spokesperson who understands diplomacy and who doesn't speak like their mouth is full of nails. They used that law as justification for their attack on Lady Anne."
"So you really think they attacked her?" he said, flicking a direction addled beetle from his shoulder. "We can't rule out that Anne may be the liar here."
She could be the hexer.
"Anne made two mistakes, yeah," Ashei interjected. "Firstly she left the castle on her own in expensive clothing. Our royal guard cloaks offer protection to the queen. No one would willingly accost her as long as we're nearby. The risk of bringing down the rest of the military is too great. Secondly she displayed a talented bit of magic, which means she's been tutored or educated at a reputed academy. As a peasant that alone would already offer her more opportunities and a higher station and larger wages. Those two factors combined make her a walking sack of gold to them. Someone out there is bound to pay a ransom for her."
"Then why mention her to us?"
She carefully brushed aside a leafy bow in her path, holding it back for Hadrian before setting it back in place without dislodging a single leaf.
"They didn't mean to get caught stalking us," she informed him. "It's partly why they sent only two of theirs to speak. They had no other excuse to account for their presence here, aside from illegally poaching on the duke's land. This way they're giving up their prize and might receive some compensation for their allegations against her. If they find her first then they continue with their initial plan."
"But we have Lady Anne with us."
"And if they're smart they'll stay away," she groused. "We're not here to deal with them, yeah. That foolish girl should have stayed at the castle."
Hadrian scratched his trim beard. "Still, her magic could prove useful."
Evidently Ashei didn't think so, according to the nasty glare directed at him. "Link and I have fought and won against sorceresses on our own. He simply dives into that monstrous pouch of his and throws them off with whatever bizarre device he hauls out. They burn and bleed like everyone else. I'm counting on Anne for only one thing, and that's warding magic."
Warding magic. It sounded like the best sort to him.
They continued on in silence, the way Ashei liked it. Behind them the shadows began to warp and tiny bone pale feet stepped out on a tussock of grass. The child grinned gleefully and leaped up and spun and in a swirl of obsidian fractals, vanished.
Gone.
It took a good minute to process the baffling phenomena, during which Zelda fought to stabilize her racing heartbeat.
There was no body, no further indications of a blood trail. The ditch was empty. Which was a relief but also unnerving as hell. She crouched low to take a closer look, unwilling to actually jump into the ditch despite its short depth. In a small rural village such as this a ditch had many uses. None of which she wanted under her boots.
After a long scan that revealed nothing but dead grass and dry soil, she straightened back up. It was as if the body had been swallowed up by a portal. Any hopes she'd had of this just being a wild animal attack were dashed. An animal couldn't account for a missing body and dead end trail. Who was doing all this?
From somewhere close by she could hear the burbling of a stream, the recipient of the run off from the ditch. Her parched throat decided her next course of action, and she followed the singing of fresh water.
A path marked the meandering route to the creak. Zelda went no further than the shallows to drink and rinse her hair of cobwebs and dirt. She splashed handfuls of water to her face, scrubbing away the dirt and grime and then hastened away. Images of being shoved and held down beneath the water by invisible limbs motivating her retreat.
Further along the bank where the creak expanded a watermill stood at the edge of the embankment, the will toiling in languid revolutions on its spoke.
It was tall, half stone and half wooden planks, overridden by vines, and the most dismal looking structure she'd see yet despite being whole while the village houses were all husks of emptiness. She really didn't want to go there, but then what she wanted or didn't had never held much value in her life. She'd already done a route through the village, what was one more building to her inquisitive mind. With a final passing surveillance of the creak, she made her way toward the watermill. A quick scope of the place and she'd leave.
Stacks of logs were layered against the wall on one side of the water mill. More had been roped together in the river, held put to a post, slick and coated with algae. Had people still been working the mill they'd have been floated downstream and processed at a lumber yard for selling.
The stairs creaked as she ascended to the door. It rattled as she tried the handle and didn't budge. It was thick and heavy, secured with a bolt and two latches. They were rusted and set firmly in the wood, melding with it.
She was hardly disappointed. She went back down the stairs and took a few paces back, looking over the mill. Rounding the side, she searched it over top to bottom for another entrance. Her eyes raised, and her blood curdled in her veins.
A face stared down at her from the third story window, like peering through clouded water. Shadowed and slightly obscured by a blurred film.
Zelda stared back, not daring to move, to look away.
And then shadow took precedence as the face faded out.
She continued to watch to see if the face returned, her eyes beginning to sting.
Creeeeak
Oh bloody! That made her jump.
Goddesses, she hated this. Her nerves were firing like an overcharged bari, lightning streaking through her veins keeping her hyperaware and on edge. Everything was getting to her. The noises, the horrid scenes, the solitude. She was done. She wanted Link.
A movement at the edge of her periphery drew her gaze to a solid form around the corner of the mill she'd just come from. A head poked out, then the rest of a white clad form. Suddenly it dashed from its hiding place, shooting off toward the village.
Zelda unthinkingly ran after it.
A girl? Had she been here this whole time watching her?
She dodged through the patch of trees between the river and village, catching sight of billowing blue hair whipping around a pair of slim shoulders. She raced Zelda to the first beaten road and wobbles in a circle at an intersection, head whipping around with frantic haste.
The young girl chose another street and ran like hounds were at her heels.
Zelda in pursuit called out, "Stop! Wait."
The youngling did not hear her or she was galvanized into motion by something else. The girl sobbed at a dead end and whirled in place, desperate for another heading. Zelda caught up and could make out the features of a young teenager, her face splashed with filth and terrified. She recognized her as the face in the mill window.
An abducted child? A sacrifice to the curse?
Zelda caught her by the arm before she could run off again. The girl jerked feebly in a running start Zelda's strong grip rooted her.
"Have to hide- I can't let them find me. I have to hide-"
The girl repeated this like a mantra. Her only truth in this world. She didn't seem to perceive Zelda at all.
She twisted and wriggled in her hold, forcing Zelda to spin in a half circle with her.
"Are you alright? What's wrong?" Zelda's voice didn't seem to reach her.
The girl jerked roughly and backed up against a wall.
"They're coming for me. I have to hide. They're coming."
"Who's coming?" Knowing that one had to use calm in the face of another's fear, Zelda spoke softly, hand outstretched yet not touching. "It's alright. I can help you."
"I'm going to die! Oh Goddesses, I can't get away."
The girl clutched her head and trembled, curling into the wall in sheer terror.
Her terror induced Zelda's to amplify. What was out there?
"Please, you have to tell me who is after you," urged Zelda, trying to reign in her shaking. "I can help you, but I need to know."
She brought her hand up once more reaching for the girl. A flash of brightness entered her vision and it was only then she felt the slickness between her fingers as they rubbed one another. She faced her hand palm up and then darted her gaze back to the girl. Blood. Why hadn't she noticed before? The girl was covered in blood. Bright red saturating her dress and welling from a gash in her head.
"They're coming for me… There's no place to hide. They're coming…"
Her healers mind came to the fore, overriding her fear.
"You're injured. Let me tend to you."
She may not be able to use healing magic at the moment, but she knew how to staunch a wound. Until the others found her it was the most she could do.
The girl shook her head slowly, with the delayed motions of one underwater. It was then that she finally acknowledged Zelda, looking up Zelda's eyes were arrested as fathomless brown consumed her. The girls breaths came in raspy drawn inhales.
"They're coming for me… And… They're coming for you…"
Her gaze flicked away to somewhere straight ahead.
Zelda spun around. With an almost frenzy, she swept her eyes along the trampled road, the emaciated houses, a toppled broken stile. The shadows were growing longer as the sun passed its apex, curving along its downward path. Nothing there to merit the girl's attention, but Zelda knew better than most that the phantoms could be selective in who viewed them.
Turning back towards the girl, Zelda flinched with stunned surprise. Goosebumps pricked every inch of her flesh, her eyes widened in blatant horrified query. The girl was gone. The blood splotches that had been muddying the ground beneath her had vanished too. A thorough inspection of her hand brought to light its pristine though more pasty than normal texture.
"Don't panic," she told herself firmly, overactive mind whirring with distress. "Rational. Think rationally and calmly."
She held her hand out for surveillance once more.
There was no possible manner the girl could have left without drawing Zelda's notice. For all the blood to have been effaced…
Her wide eyes surpassed themselves as she realized something. The girl had been in the water mill. Had left through the door Zelda had briefly tried to jolt open. A door that had been bolted three times over from the outside.
A ghost. She'd been a ghost. The girl had been running from something. Had come here.
She observed the house and recognized it as the one that had the blood streaks. Fresh. No more than a few weeks old.
Had they brought her here to be hunted down in their sick little game? Was she the one who had been torn apart in that room? Had Zelda just borne witness to a re-enactment of her last moments in life? Was that poor girl calling out for help from beyond the grave?
Zelda covered her face with a quavering hand. How horrible. She must have been so scared…
It was a crude reminder. This wasn't just about her. Nor was it just about the living. This curse she was afflicted with imprisoned the dead, manacled them into undesired servitude. Forbidden rest, forbidden peace in the afterlife.
She was not leaving this village. Not without answers.
She would force her way into the water mill. It was the only place that hadn't had a proper search over.
Her bones felt brittle as she walked. Each step jarring, emphasizing her weariness. It seemed as if she'd been alone for days, like a sailor stranded on an uncharted island. She was tense, the after-shock of encountering that ghost wielding full sway of her and she kept a high vigilance as she looked around with an almost mad ferocity.
Anything could come out at her. The charms had expired sooner than anticipated and the ghosts knew her location, that was clear as day. As the blue cloth that was pulled into her vision by the prodding of the wind.
She looked up. Across the way were two defined sets of shoulders, one slouched and one upright in a soldier's stance. The upright one torqued his head, offering his stern profile.
Zelda observed them with a drunken haze. She could have fallen further into the realm of madness, some distant and desperate part of her mind hallucinating like a desert mirage providing one's greatest desires. Her rational self cut in and reminded her she had yet to see any distortions of the living. They were really here.
They were calling for her. Voices muffled as if she were listening from underwater.
She made her way toward them in a running stumble. The noise she created compelled them to turn around and acknowledge her with rounded startled eyes.
Sir Justin bounded the last few steps between them and she collapsed in his arms. He was solid and warm beneath her. He was so real.
"Zelda! What happened? Are you alright?" Shad was hovering over her frantically, tugging at his red curls in agitation.
Justin was steady in his support, allowing her full weight to press upon him. His one arm slung about her waist, keeping her standing, while he tapped the connection of his earring. "Link, Ashei, we found her. Your majesty, do you require medical assistance?"
Her brief onset of weakness was fast evaporating as she fully comprehended that she was no longer alone. Once again she bore her own weight, but was not quite ready to abandon the warmth of another living hylian.
"I'm fine. Just tired."
She blinked her eyes slowly, half-listening as Justin informed the others of their approximate coordinates according to his astrolabe. By the time the rest of the group reached the village, Zelda had been given food and Justin's cloak and sat huddled close to a roaring campfire.
Anne all but fell in her lap in her rush to hug her. Tears were smeared onto Zelda's cheek, her vision filled with golden blonde hair.
"I don't want you to disappear like Desra," said Anne in short sobs. "I didn't want to be left behind. I can help too. Why didn't you ask me for help?"
A cord around her heart cinched and Zelda closed her eyes. "Anne…"
"I have to go. Justin needs me to help find a house we can ward to spend the night." She pulled back and lightly cuffed her chin. "Don't move, alright. Don't…don't go away."
Zelda smiled softly. "I won't."
Anne hugged her all the more tightly then released to accompany Justin down the road. They passed the homes too rundown to consider for any sort of shelter and were soon lost to a bend.
Eager to be of some use, Zelda got to her feet but was immediately set upon by another.
Link, features worn and every fractal of his deep cobalt eyes darkened and severe, offered a calloused hand to her. Zelda accepted it and was led into the solid security of his embrace. He seemed to breathe her in, the plane of his cheek resting atop her head, and she buried her face into his shoulder. He kissed the crown of her head.
"Strong. So strong."
She wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn't come. She satisfied herself with pressing into him, their nearness not enough. She wanted to be a part of him. She never wanted to be alone again.
Encased in his reassuring embrace, her eyes steeled and mind resolved.
The hexer could scare her as much as they wanted, but she would not break. She would not let herself be driven to insanity. She would solve this, and then the hexer would be at her mercy.
If it hasn't yet been made obvious, I dearly love paranormal horror, more specifically ghosts stories (demons and aliens just don't do it for me). I'm aiming to check off a good number of the typical horror scenarios that may be cliche but are beloved and deliciously terrifying just the same.
Stay safe everyone! And thanks for reading.