Chapter 24
The Broken Temple
The Island Palace was falling apart, so much so, I prayed to the goddesses that the elevator will still work. I climbed up the patio, expecting it to crumble under my feet, but it held firm. But the odd thing about this was the ironknuckle statues. They, in contrast to the palace, were standing straight and were perfectly intact. Something about that made me feel like they were watching me. I gave the statues a final glance back to make sure they stayed as they were and approached the elevator.
But His Majesty hesitated, and it then occurred to me that this is the first palace he's seen so far. "So what do we do now?" He asked.
"Trust me. This platform will take us into the palace, and once inside, we'll have to search the rooms for a key to the guardian."
"It sounds dangerous to go through the front door. Wouldn't it be safer for us to find a different way in?"
I shook my head. "Once in the palace, we'll have to play along and take risks. Out here, we must try to stay as safe as possible, but if we bring that same attitude in the palace, we'll go nowhere."
"All right, you take the lead on this one." He sincerely stated. "You've obviously been through this many times before."
I was shocked by his choice to let me lead, but it was a wise choice, perhaps we're becoming more of a team after all? But I accepted his decision without a word and moved once more to the elevator.
He joined me, and as soon as he was on, the elevator began to move. I don't think he was prepared for it, because he stumbled suddenly and fell to his knees. A laugh slipped from my lips and the prince climbed back up, holding onto the side pillar for support. He flashed me a frown, but his face was starting to glow pink. "Don't laugh. I'm sure that happened to you the first time!"
I shook my head, not bothering to reply, but trying to stifle the rest of my laughter. I focused instead on the ride down into the palace. All around us, swirling lines etched into the stone flew by us. Making the lines look like they were waving and curling down with us. Because the elevator was old and also chipped, it didn't slide easily downward, and it was leaned against the wall, making it shake with slight vibration.
Beyond the sound of it grinding against rock, I thought I heard another sound. This one sounded like a light shuffling, like sand falling down an hourglass. But where was it coming from?
Suddenly, the elevator crashed into something, and it was my turn to stumble and fall down on my chest. My companion, who was still hanging on, remained upright. I heard him chuckle and he kicked at my boot. "See what I mean? Even you, the perfect hero, couldn't see that coming."
But I didn't reply, my concerns were elsewhere. Why did it stop? We weren't all the way to the floor yet, but we were close. Close enough that, from my view on the floor, I can see into the first room, and then the sight struck me. Tons and tons of sand had filled the room almost completely to the ceiling!
It looked like this was once a long hallway, but now, the sand was all I could make out of the room. I felt sick to my stomach. I could only pray to the goddesses that there were no unaccessible doors now because of this. What if we couldn't reach the guardian now? What if everything we needed here was buried?
There was no turning back, we just had to salvage what we can. But still, I found myself unable to grasp any hope. One missed tool, one missed battle, and we wouldn't have what we needed to find the Triforce. Could it be that the passage of time was the one thing to stop the Triforce from ever being completed again?
I crawled forward, leaving the elevator and lying on the mound of sand. I looked back and saw the boots of His Highness. I was fixing to call him to follow me, but he was already dropping to his hands. Turning ahead again, I continued to crawl forward. The space was tight, with my head just inches from the ceiling of the room. And crawling forward quickly became very difficult. The sand was hard enough to crawl through without the uneven dunes.
But it slowly evened out, and it took me a moment to notice the roaring of rolling sand becoming louder. It wasn't even a minute after that when I saw some of the grains were rolling down a hill just in front of me. I crawled just a little further and peered over the edge.
There was a massive hole in the floor, bringing in all the sand around it like a hungry mouth! The roar from here was deafening, and the hole was dark, I couldn't see where the sand was going. I didn't want to find out.
The hole was too big, it would be impossible to crawl around it. Here was the first risk of the palace. I will have to leap across it. Sending a quick prayer to the goddesses that I wouldn't end up falling down that hole, I crept closer.
I was carried with the sand slowly at first, and as I was shifting down, I found enough room to stand up. But as the shift quickened, I was forced into tumbling! This was bad, if I couldn't right myself in time, I wouldn't be able to cross the pit without falling in! I tried everything in my power to stop, or at least slow down a little, but I was tumbling uncontrollably.
If I can even find something to grasp to, but there was nothing except for the rolling sand. Instead, I had to turn my focus on sinking my feet underneath me. Still falling, I adjusted my center weight and dug my heels in the sand. The sand rejected the move, but I desperately fought back. It worked, not only did I find my balance again, but I had slowed down as well.
Now that I was able to see how much closer I was to the center of the pit, I realized that I was almost out of time. Hesitating at the sight only slightly, I pulled back and sprang forward! The sand, of course, wasn't a good ground to push off of, and I felt like most of my strength was sucked in by it, but I had successfully flown over the pit. My chest hit against the rolling sand on the opposite side, and I instantly had to scramble to pull myself up on the safe side of the dune.
My heart was pounding, and I fought for every breath, but I made it. Luckily when I leapt, I landed close enough to the top on the other side, or I would be tumbling yet again. But the trial wasn't over yet. I saw my companion, the prince, creeping up to the edge of the last dune. He glared down into the pit, his eyes growing wide.
I wasn't sure what he was thinking, and he seemed to freeze for a moment. But I knew he wouldn't cower in the face of fear. Finally, his gaze shifted and landed on me. I gestured for him to come along, and kneeled down, ready to try and catch him if I needed to.
He peered over the end again, shook his head, and brought his feet in front of him. As soon as he left onto the slide, he tumbled over. But I only saw him do it twice before he used the momentum to bury in the sand and slow down.
I could almost see his muscles tense as he slid closer and closer to the hole. He bided his time until the last second when he pushed off. His jump didn't have a lot of power, but he was far enough that he crossed the pit, but almost too low for me to reach him, almost. He clawed up for safety, and I dropped a hand to help. He stretched and grasped on, and once more, I buried my heels in the sand and pulled my whole body back.
He crawled up on the safe mound, panting and covered in sand from head to toe, making him look light and dusted. "Thanks, Buddy." He breathed and glanced back at the roaring slide. Once he caught his breath, he asked, "I wonder what caused this to happen? Don't you think the sand would have drained already?"
"The only ones here beside us are the monsters patrolling, and they wouldn't have fell for such a trap. It was probably just age making the floor weak."
"I hope you're right."
I nodded, feeling sure of myself. From my stance here, I can barely see into the hole where the sand was retreating. It was dark and quiet. The sand was spilling on top of broken pillars and rocks, soon trapping the room as it was for all eternity. My stomach turned. I really hope there was nothing I needed down there.
The prince brushed off what sand he could. "Shall we continue?"
I swallowed my fear and turned down the hall. There was only a single door at the end of the hallway. I was actually surprised there was a door out of here at all. I was beginning to think we were trapped until all this sand was filtered out completely.
I climbed the single step onto a stone floor and grasped the door handle. Well, that explains why this door is all the way up here. There were steps leading to it. I pushed it open and was thankful when it turned out not to be locked.
But already my heart was sinking when I saw there was sand filling this room as well. There wasn't nearly as much as there was in the last room, but a fine coat covered the floor and more was slowly falling from the ceiling. I heard the sizzling of a fire before I saw the bubbles floating around the room.
The bubbles were a hovering skull, lit by a magical and unknown flame. No one knew how they came to be, but they've been around for many years. The fire seemed to protect them from many attacks. It was best for us to leave them alone if we can.
Right ahead of us on the other side of the room, was a large door on top a few wide steps. I can also see from here the big lock on that door. Will we be able to find the key with the palace like this? The fears kept returning to me.
But His Highness gave me a tap on the shoulder to catch my attention. I glanced over to the left where two of the bubbles were swimming in the air. There was a second, smaller door. The prince led the way, weaving past the skulls. I followed. The bubbles were not very interested in us, and they let us past without intervening.
I held the door open behind the prince and waited for him to move ahead. When I walked in, I saw yet another hallway, but this one was a lot shorter. The first thing I noticed was the elevator against the wall. The end of the hallway was buried under a heavy dune.
That left us with just one choice, the elevator. I walked to it and waited. As soon as His Highness was on, he grasped onto it again like he was going to be thrown like he was the first time. I would have laughed, but I was too anxious thinking about what we will find down here. And I had a good right to be worried. As the elevator entered the small round chamber below, I saw a still form of a doomknocker, standing in the center of the room.
A doomknocker was a living mystery. They were always seen covered head to toe in thick armor, warriors and scholars alike were always curious about what was beneath. These beasts seemed almost human. They had a recognizable form, stood upright, wielded human weapons with intelligence and the like. But at the same time, the senses yelled that too much was off for this thing to be human. Its posture was all wrong, and its large back was too heavy for such slender legs. The front of the helmet also stuck out too much to be normal.
At first, he seemed to be standing too still to be alive, but I just knew he was waiting for an opponent to come along. The round room was like a tiny battlefield, there was nothing else extraordinary about it, save for the four thick pillars supporting the ceiling in each end of the room.
As soon as the elevator stopped and we stepped off, the doomknocker slowly turned his head. He had no shield, and the only weapon he carried was a tiny dark mace. His weapon choice was ludicrous compared to his heavy armor. What was even more ridiculous about the mace was the handle, it looked like it was almost impossible to hold on to! But the doomknocker held the weapon confidently. He clearly knew something we didn't, we must be careful.
I brought out my sword and shield and approached him, and His Majesty came in from the other side. The doomknocker didn't seem to care, he held his mace before him like he was showing me invisible power, and teased me to strike first. I accepted his request.
I was first going to strike low, and then break and pull it up high, but the doomknocker ducked out of the first one and backed up on the second. Then I saw the prince go for a stab, but the monster was not stopping backing up away from us. When he did stop, he grasped the mace tighter and brought it to the side like he was ready to throw it. He aimed for the prince and released!
I held my breath, but luckily, His Majesty saw it coming and ducked down underneath the flying weapon. "Ha HA! Now you're defenseless!" He cried as he came back up.
But he spoke to soon.
The mace that whirled over his head not only kept flying straight, but turned towards me! I quickly dodged out of the way and watched as it sailed back to its master like a boomerang. So that's its secret! This is going to be a tough battle after all.
In the short amount of time it took the doomknocker to recover, I casted "Shield". Without hesitating, the monster let go of the mace again, but this time, it sailed for me first. No matter, I quickly came up with a plan. As it neared closer, I dived down under it, rolled over the floor, and came up with my sword in hand. I held it level and sweeped it horizontally into the doomknocker's shoulder. He cried a deep, distorted grunt and nearly tumbled backwards. He managed to stay on his feet, but he couldn't recover quickly enough to catch the weapon flying back for us. Instead, he ducked back down, avoiding it altogether.
But I had no time to react. I just turned my head and saw the mace flying for me. Before I even knew it happened, it fell against my chest, sending me back. I was on the verge of tripping until I slammed against a post behind me. Then I fell to the sand covered floor. The mace that struck me was lying on the ground just a few feet away. I thought about grabbing it before the doomknocker could, but the wind was taken right out of me. For a while, I didn't even notice His Majesty, rushing to attack him while he still had the chance.
Finally, my blurred vision was becoming clear again. I saw the prince score a few good hits before the doomknocker dodged past him and went to pick up his mace. I tried to respond first, but he was still to quick for me. My chest felt stiff and painful with the movement, and I looked down to see how bad it was. If it wasn't for the shield spell I had casted, I would be in a lot of trouble. But thankfully, the tears in my tunic revealed nothing but a few bleeding scratches.
I pushed my weight against the column and tried to stand. I felt dizzy, and I fought just to find balance. If it wasn't for His Highness keeping the doomknocker on his toes, I wouldn't have had a chance to recover. But now, I was on my feet again! It seemed, however, that I had caught the doomknocker's attention, because he turned and threw the mace towards me this time. I was still clumsy, and instead of trying to avoid the attack, I stumbled back, grasped the pillar, and took cover behind it. The mace had a lot of power in it when it was thrown, and I felt it crash into the pillar. Either it then dropped to the floor again, or it bounced back prematurely to its master. I couldn't see from back behind the pillar.
I knew the mace did some serious damage to the post however, because it continued to crack until I felt it shift slightly. I already knew what was going to happen next just a second before it did. The support pillar gave out completely and dropped towards where the battle was taking place. Somehow, it missed both my companion and the enemy and fell on top of the pillar on the opposite side, causing that one to crack. At first, I was expecting that one to break too, but somehow it held up.
Meanwhile, the doomknocker had his mace back and was throwing it at His Majesty without turning around to see I was still there. The prince ducked in time and came up with a pierce strike from his sword. But a rapier was no match against that thick armor!
Before the mace came back again, I rushed up and attacked the doomknocker from behind. He flinched, giving the prince enough time to back away safely. "Link! Are you all right?" He called, spinning past the doomknocker and the mace and joining my side.
"I'm fine. And thanks for covering my back like that." I replied. "If it wasn't for you, I would've been a goner."
"Not a problem." He glanced behind at the toppled pillar as the doomknocker turned back to us with the mace in hand. "Hey, I have an idea! Follow my lead."
I nodded, and just as the monster threw the mace again, I saw the prince duck under the fallen pillar. I copied him as quick as I could and came back up on the other side. The flying mace struck the pillar in-between us and quickly returned to the thrower. The already broken post chipped and crumbled again until it couldn't hold up its own weight any longer. With an earthshaking thud and a shower of sand, the pillar cracked in two and fell flat on the floor.
But it damaged the pillar it was leaning on before that, making that one crumble as well. But this time, the crack ran off from the post and onto the ceiling as well. The column was now the only thing keeping the ceiling from collapsing on this side of the room, and now it was just too old and broken to keep it up. Soon, it too broke in half, and the ceiling quickly followed!
As quick as I was able, I grabbed onto His Highness and backed up until I felt the wall against my back. We did that just in time to avoid the mountain of sand from the top floor piling down onto our opponent, the doomknocker. His deep scream was drowned out under the roaring pile until his voice faded into silence...
The doomknocker was buried, the battle was done. I breathed a sigh of relief, thanking the goddesses above that we were not buried with him.
