Chapter 15: The Gate Has Eyes

…

~~Same day, 1930.

~~We've found a river underneath the eastern area of the island. While we now have a fresh source of water, we still don't have any access to the technoworks. It looks like there's another blob of darkness covering an entrance. Irleen doesn't know what the dark blobs can be, but she doesn't think it was something the technoworks created, whether they were commanded to or not. Her best guess is that something like a parasitic plant or creature may have found its way into the technoworks. I asked her what it could be living on to make it so persistent, and she snapped at me to stop asking questions because she was running out of brains.

~~Right now, it's about the time that the wind picked up and blew the ship away. The whole crew is accounted for, and the wind is still calm. I told the night shift to keep alert in case this island has anything else it wants to throw at us. I don't expect to get a lot of sleep tonight, though. There are too many questions, and all of them concerning this creepy island.

…

Water sloshing gently stirred Link out of his sleep. He raised his head from the hard surface beneath him and tried to look around through a pair of eyes filled with clouds. Grey surrounded him. As his drowsiness faded and the landscape sharpened, he realized that he was moving. He was on an ocean dyed dull under low overcast, lying on his desk.

Or, to be accurate, he lay on what remained of his desk. Half of the desk was gone, and he was not even sure if there was anything underneath the desktop. As he reached around the surface in an attempt to understand what was happening, he found his journal tucked under one knee. It had been waterlogged, and he found the pages sticking together as he tried to look through it. Nothing looked particularly comprehensible until about halfway through the book, on a few pages that had somehow been spared damage.

—"I have failed.

—"Despite my best efforts, I have lost my ship. The disaster came without warning. I can barely remember the details anymore. My ship—what remains of my ship has fallen from the sky just like the Island Sonata. I have lost another ship. And this time, I might not survive. I'm adrift in the ocean on what was once my desk, looking over my shoulder as the stern of my ship slowly sinks below the surface. I don't know what happened to my crew, bu—"

Link stopped and reread that last sentence about his ship slowly sinking. He then looked over his shoulder.

The stern of the Island Symphony, with vents under the windows built into the transom rather than being exhaust pipes like other airships, protruded from the ocean behind him like the whole ship had tried to dive bow-first into the ocean and hit solid ground instead. The ship's propeller had broken off. The starboard hull, the side visible to him, was missing half of the timbers that Link should have been able to see. Debris littered the water between him and the ship, including one of the outboard spars ripped completely free from the hull.

Link tried to roll so he could get a better look around. The desk rolled with him and tossed him into the water. Years of swimming in lakes pushed basic survival to the forefront of Link's mind, and he surfaced so that he could cough out the lungful of water he had taken in. Once he had his ship in sight, he began kicking and stroking his arms as strong as possible. It did not matter to him that the water felt like it was becoming colder by the minute or that he chanced running into something with his frantic swimming style. It did not even matter that his ship was sinking ahead of him.

He had to stop after a few minutes and rested his arms on a section of hull floating nearby. He was still too far from the ship to make out whether any of his crew had survived or not.

So he called out, "Is anyone alive out there!? Anyone!" He had to pause to sneeze, his sinuses irritated by the water that had been in his nose. It gave him cause to listen more, but it only revealed that no one was responding. "Hey! Is anyone out there!? It's the captain; it's Link! Somebody say something!" Still nothing. Link then kicked out with his legs to turn the hull planks toward the wreckage. He drove himself forward while keeping his upper body out of the water with the hull. "Anyone! C'mon, I need you to holler back! Where are you guys!?"

He slipped off the planks and lost sight of the ship underwater. One hand reached out to find the planks again as he tried to swim for the surface. He eventually had to hold his nose shut, his lungs burning for air. He looked through the dark water for any signs that he was going toward the surface. But the best he found was a single beam of blue light cutting through the water. The debris was gone; the entire ship had disappeared. Link had no means to tell up from down. His lips blew open from his need to breathe out. This brought a big gulp of water into his mouth, and his attempt to cough it out only allowed more air in. He could not stop it.

Then Link opened his eyes, and in the next moment, he sat bolt up-right in his desk chair. He took in a deep breath and managed to save himself from hollering out. When he let the breath out, one hand grabbed the edge of the desk as if to brace himself up. His eyes found his cabin dark and empty except for him. Moonlight filtered in through the windows behind him, providing him with sight over the desk's surface and part of the floor up to the door.

He took in another deep breath and let it out in a low, slow sigh. His opposite hand raked through his hair, sweaty and matted to his scalp. He could not recall the circumstances that had brought him to fall asleep at his desk, but he judged that, since he was wearing only his lime-green bodysuit, he might have intended to lie in bed and simply forgot after finishing up whatever work he had had at his desk. Reasoning such to be the truth, he stood up. But, rather than go to bed, he stepped to the far end of the bed to locate his tunic. He swiped it up from the top of his footlocker and pulled it over his head as he moved to the door.

Upon stepping outside, he felt a little uneasy. The main deck before him was lit by the electric lights built into the inside of the bulwark. This showed him that no one was patrolling the deck. It was Lwamm, Ray, and Twali's regular duty; they had never skipped out on anything before. He pushed the door shut behind him and took a few steps forward, his bare feet barely making a sound against the deck planks. His eyes narrowed in an attempt to see the helm from where he stood. Even though the ship was moored, Gold should have been standing on the forecastle to maintain lookout at the bow. Although the helmsman was not in sight, Link did not find this as concerning since Gold was well within his right to use the head while he was on-duty; it was not as if he could see something from the forecastle that he could not while sitting down on the beakhead. For a moment, Link considered hollering out for someone. The silence was eerie; even the wind had died down enough that the rigging overhead was only thing creaking.

A hand grabbed his left shoulder. Then something hit his back, and he stopped in place. A wave of dread fell over him as he glanced down.

A slender, curved blade protruded from just under his sternum.

The hand released his shoulder with a light shove, and Link fell forward. The saber pulled out before Link slammed hard onto the deck. His vision swirled, showing him the grains in the pale deck planks beneath him writhing in the light. He could not comprehend what had happened. Nothing was clear until someone flipped him onto his back with their foot.

A shadow of a creature stood above him. The deck lights only offered a vague image of tight waistcoat over a lithe, scaly frame. One arm sported a full sleeve of armor; the opposite hand held a saber glistening with crimson casually hovering in front of Link's face.

"I told you we'd be back." The voice was cold, deep.

Then it stepped aside. Link's eyes widened as he realized what had happened to his crew, why the rigging was the only thing making noise. He felt a scream begin in his gut, one of anguish and terror.

He screamed with a high, primal pitch as his hands clawed the air above. Then, when his hands fell against the bed, he quickly bolted up-right. His bed. A bedsheet covered him while the quilt had been kicked to the far end.

His stomach knotted itself, and he fell toward the side of the bed so that he could vomit onto the floor. The sounds he made further nauseated him, but at least his stomach had settled.

Almost immediately, the dream of his crew's fate returned to the forefront of his thoughts, and he scrambled out of bed. In his rush, though, his bare foot found his pile of vomit, and he let out a surprised holler before falling forward onto the deck, ramming his right shoulder into the side of his desk in the process. He writhed in silence for about a second before using the desk to pull himself up. Guided by the moonlight streaming through the window, he stumbled to his cabin door and wrenched it open.

His steps were heavy as he half-walked, half-jogged out of his cabin and into the open air of the main deck. His heart made its presence known as his eyes gave the deck a once-over. No one was on patrol; he could not even see Gold, who should have been wandering around the forecastle. He spun around to see if anyone stood behind him. Then he screwed his eyes shut and aimed his face up. He did not want to look. He did not want to know if his crew was up there. The dream played back the discovery of his crew in his mind. The images felt so strong that Link thought he had actually opened his eyes to the sight he did not want to see. He could not do it.

"Link?"

"Yah-hah!" Link hollered in fright, jumping not only at the voice from behind but the hand that had grabbed his left shoulder. He spun.

"Easy, easy!" Leynne told him as he backed one step away. "It's just me."

"Oh, Goddesses Above," Link uttered as he pressed his hands to his sweat-drenched face. His voice came out with a heavy breath of relief, "Leynne!"

"Ah you all right?" Leynne asked.

Link was about to answer. But once he had his thoughts straightened, he dared a sidelong glance into the air above. "Yeah," he told Leynne as he slid both hands around the back of his neck. "No, I just… It was… It was just another nightmare."

"What about?" Leynne asked, eyes darting to the rigging over their heads.

Link shook his head. "Nothing. Don't worry about it."

"You'h suh?" Leynne asked with a skeptical look. "It sounds serious; I thought I might've heahd screaming."

"It's my nightmare; I'll deal with it," Link told him, his voice maintaining a soft edge of understanding while his expression gave a subtle thanks to Leynne for worrying about him. He spotted a toolbox in one of Leynne's hands and asked, "You're not doing any work tonight, are you?"

"Huh?" Leynne asked as he followed Link's gaze. "Oh, no, no! No, I was just gathering a few things to go ashoh. You mentioned that this fellow, Maroon, owned the machine shop we discovehed. I wanted to take a few components in to see if we could wohk them on his equipment."

Link glanced around at the dark sky. "It must be around midnight, Leynne."

"Well, I'd also hoped to speak with Maroon befoh using his equipment. A bit of a couhtesy, if you will."

"Oh." Link then had an idea and asked, "Mind if I join you?"

"Ah you suh? You might be betteh off trying to sleep some moh…"

Link shook his head. "I'm too jumpy right now; I don't think I can get back to sleep again."

Leynne glanced Link up and down. Then he tilted his head as he looked down at Link's knees. "What have you gotten on youh undehsuit?"

Link looked down at himself. "Oh. Uh… I-I need to clean up before I go ashore."

Leynne sighed. "I don't know that I can wait up, Link; I've much to do befoh I can get these pahts replaced. Misteh Gold is already waiting."

Link nodded his understanding. "Okay, you two go on ahead. I'll be along as soon as I can."

"Will do," Leynne said with a nod before turning around. Link watched as he walked away and then turned around after he hollered for Gold.

Link stepped back into the cabin and checked to see if Irleen was in bed. No sign of her glow generally meant that she had decided to sleep in the berthing deck with the rest of Link's female crew. This allowed him to switch on the light to the cabin and change into a clean bodysuit. He could feel a bit of lethargy from having woken up so violently, so he pulled his tunic on over his head and ventured back out onto the deck. Just to calm his mind, he turned and looked up at the poop deck when he was about halfway across the main deck. Airman Hunter, a man composed of equal levels of muscle and fat and probably hairier than the rest of the men on the crew with a full beard grown down as far as his chest, stood at the top of the stairs on the starboard side, a wary eye cast to the shore.

"Dhayba 'axiltin, May Kyabtin," Link heard as he turned around to continue across the deck. He glanced to port as one of his Gelto crew walked by, a hand waving at him.

Link nodded and replied, "Dayba 'axiltin, Ray." Her response was a wider grin as she continued aft.

Link reached the port stairs and descended into the ship. The lighting in the lower decks was dim due to more light bulbs blowing out than the ship's stores had for replacements. The rear end of the cargo hold was shrouded in darkness because of the empty supply crates stacked up in the back. The berth deck at the front only had one light on to show the crew where the doorway into the hold was.

Link continued down into the galley. There were only two lights on this deck that were on: a hanging lamp hovering between the long tables, its metal-framed shade dented from the taller members of the crew smacking their heads into it, and the ceiling light off to one side of the kitchen area so that both the kitchen and the portside closet could be seen. Link was a little surprised to see Cale, Botu, and Lilly gathered at the far end of one table, almost hidden from Link's view by the lamp's illumination. He ventured closer to the group, noticing that each one of them held a cup in one hand. Cale and Lilly sat on either side of the table while Botu stood over them.

So when Link stepped under the lamp, Botu was the first to notice. He looked up from the table and adjusted his stance as he spoke up in a tone of mild surprise, "Captain."

"Is everything okay down here?" Link asked as Cale and Lilly looked up.

"Bit of insomnia, sir," Botu explained. He glanced down at his cup. "Thought I'd sneak in a couple drams of grog."

"Make sure you take it easy with your ration," Link warned him. "We might not be able to replace it."

"Aye, sir," Botu replied. "I've been saving up; I don't like drinking unless I'm trying to get to sleep."

"You guys having trouble sleeping, too?" Link then asked Cale and Lilly.

"Bad dream," Cale replied.

"Botha us," Lilly added.

Link nodded. "Seems to be the trend." He pointed toward the closet. "Do you still have that can of sawdust down here?"

Lilly nodded and replied, "Yeah." Link slipped past Cale and Botu and headed toward the closet.

"Captain," Botu spoke up. "How long you figure we'll be here?"

"No longer than we have to," Link answered as he opened the door. He continued to talk as he searched the shelves, "I'm like you; this place gives me the creeps. But we have repairs to make, and we need to find something to refill our stores. Otherwise, that's a whole month without food."

Botu smacked his gut. "I could stand to lose some weight. Might have to tie down Chief Twig here, though."

Lilly let out a weak giggle, and Cale turned to her with his mouth open. But once he had a moment to think about it, he sighed and said, "Yes, it actually is kind of amusing."

Then Lilly's tone changed as she said, "Oh. Dholit, Biluf. And Layna. You're up, too?"

Link, having found the can, turned around as Dholit and Biluf stepped into the dull light. Layna, a few paces behind them, looked to be more exhausted than the other two. Link closed the door and stepped into the nearby lamp so they could see him. "Not you guys, too," he told them.

"It appeahs to be a rathah infectious epidemic," Dholit said as she sat down at the end of the other table. "I feel as if I have lost reason to sleep myself. Biluf had a nightmah. And… well, Layna has not really seen fit to tell us heh problems."

"Can I get ya girls something?" Lilly asked as she stood.

"I think each of us is willing to put up with the loss of a liquid ration," Dholit replied.

"I'll get it," Botu told Lilly, holding up a hand to stop her. He set down his cup and turned to step into the kitchen. "They can have it on me, Captain," he hollered as he looked through the dark cabinets. "I'm not using them."

"That's very generous of you, Aihman Botu," Dholit called to him. "Thank you."

"You feel this might be a problem, Captain?" Lilly asked as she sat back down, her eyes following Link back to the head of their table.

"No doubt," Link replied, placing the can on the edge of the table. "It isn't often a whole shift goes without sleep. I suppose we should be glad the entire day shift isn't down here."

"I mean the island," Lilly said. "Do you feel the island is causing this?"

Link made a face as he gave the thought a brief moment of consideration. "I don't think so," he said. "Sure, it's creepy, and things don't really get better at night. But it's just an island. Other than that weird windstorm, there doesn't seem to be anything here to harm us."

"Kyabtin." The word was sharp, poignant. Attention turned to Layna. "Rujun."

"Rujun," Link repeated as if he was trying to understand the word.

"What does that mean?" Botu asked as he stepped forward to make his return to the conversation known.

"Eyes," Dholit told him.

Link felt his stomach squirm. He had to ask, "When?"

"'Ak dhayba 'a'ithxwin," she answered in a quiet voice. "Taf nwik dhayba. Idha."

"Last night," Link translated just as Dholit prepared to speak. "And tonight. Right now." He had to suppress a shiver. Although Layna still refused to disclose the extent of her skills as a Gelto assassin, there were a few things that they were aware of. One of those was her amazing ability to tell when someone was looking at her. Her reactions were sharp because, one way or another, she was able to tell when something had her in its sights. Even if they were not on her, she could still sense when a pair of eyes were about to catch her, and that made her much harder to find. Layna could be very vague whenever she mentioned feeling eyes on her. However, this time, she seemed to tell them exactly what they needed to know.

She did not know whose eyes were following her.

"Now?" Botu asked as he handed Layna a cup of grog. He looked over at Dholit. "I don't get it."

"It means we need to leave here as soon as we get what we need," Link answered just as Dholit was about to talk. She shot him a confused glance. "Try to get some sleep; we're gonna be in trouble if we can't get the crew back on schedule. Layna, I'm going to be going ashore. Do you think you can come along, or do you want to get some sleep?"

Layna looked down at her untouched grog. Then she set it on the bench next to her and stood straight. "'Inu nayx misifoynak, May Kyabtin," she answered, forcing herself to look more awake.

"Meet me on the deck in ten minutes," he told her. He picked up the can of sawdust and started around the table. "Don't let this rattle you; it could easily be nothing," he hollered over his shoulder.

Even though he tried to dismiss it, the fact that Layna's senses were alerting on something twisted Link's guts. If anyone else was in that galley, Layna would have attacked. If anyone else was watching the ship, Layna would know about them. It made her perfect to take along; if she felt that there was a place to hide, she would find it right away. As for the source… Link had a wicked notion that Layna would never find it, not as they were now. He did not want his crew to come to the same conclusion. But he was worried that Layna had already put the idea in their heads.

He returned to his cabin to find Irleen in her bed. As he cleaned up the vomit, she explained that she had had a hard time getting sleep due to people in the berth deck walking around and making noise. He told her about going back to Maroon's shop. Her first response was to warn him about getting some more sleep, but after he mentioned that he had had another nightmare, she agreed not to nag him about it if only to let him tire himself out. He would be fine with that.

Link changed and put on his gear. He met Layna on-deck a few minutes later. His first action was to glance out across the island. Between the Island Symphony and the screaming buildings in the middle of the island, the entire plain of stone slabs looked like a massive hole in the sky. The fact that the silvery half-moon above was not enough to illuminate the way made him consider the comparison more literally. Link had Ray bring up a lantern; he had a bad feeling about walking through pitch-black tonight.

Although the walk across the field of black was uneventful, Link could feel every fiber in his body become tenser with each step. No one spoke. With Layna, that was a given, especially since she had stayed in "Kill Mode" ever since disembarking. Link figured that Irleen was under the same pressure as him: sleep-deprived and aware that there was something wrong with this place. He did not tell her about Layna's senses warning her that she was being watched. He wanted to save that news for sunrise, when he could tell both Leynne and his crew chiefs. They could pass the word to the crew faster.

The first scream Link heard after setting foot back in the haunted light of what he now knew to be a Hylian settlement sent a shiver up his spine. Knowing that these people had been Hylians at one point made him wonder if what had happened to them could happen to his crew as well. His first instinct told him that it would not. If what Irleen had told him about her observations were any clue, then his crew of lively lunatics (which he thought with affection) should have been safe. There was nothing here openly harming these people, and as long as it remained that way, perhaps what Layna was sensing were the lingering remains of a long-vanished threat.

He also considered the idea that this threat was just waiting under the surface to catch his crew once its guard was off. He immediately chastised himself for having such a dark thought.

Link, Irleen, and Layna arrived at the shop to find that the door was still open. Link froze just inside the doorway when he spotted the shop's occupants. They stood a stone's throw away directly in front of the door, which was on the outside of the rows of shelves. Leynne stood with his back to the door while Gold was squat in front of him, examining something on the ground.

Link's stomach turned when he saw that the item on the floor was Maroon's cloak.

"Leynne?" Irleen spoke up with a tinge of panic in her voice.

Gold looked up in surprise. "Cap'n."

Leynne spun around with his arms behind his back. "Captain," he said, his expression also indicating that Link had caught them off-guard.

"What's happened here?" Link asked as he moved to look at the cloak.

Gold stood and held up his hands in innocence. "Cap'n, look. It was like this when we got 'ere."

Irleen flew forward and hovered on the ground near the cloak. "He's been unresponsive the whole time," Leynne told her as he set something on the shelf next to him. "We feahed the wohst."

"It's the worst all right," Irleen said with a heavy sigh. "He's completely gone."

"'E's dead?!" Gold asked. Leynne put a finger to his lips to signal Gold to keep it down.

"Yeah," Irleen said, her tone grim. "He is now." Link and Layna stepped to one side so that they could see the cloak completely.

Layna, however, glanced up at Leynne. Leynne caught sight of an intense glare instead of her usual lack of emotion.

"Any idea what happened?" Link asked, his voice sounding empty.

"No, sir," Gold answered.

"I'm afraid not, Captain," Leynne said. "We haven't been heh foh long. We… wehn't suh if this was the individual you had mentioned, eitheh."

Link covered his face with a hand. "Goddesses Above…"

"Misteh Gold, would you and Layna check the upstaihs?" Leynne said. "Let's make suh theh isn't anyone else heh who might have some objection to this intrusion."

"After yeh, Layna," Gold said as he indicated the stairs in the back.

"Go with him," Link told Layna when he did not hear her move. Layna's response was a glance in Leynne's direction again before following Gold toward the back of the floor.

Leynne and Irleen then watched Link move to the bare wall opposite the nearby shelf and place his back against it. Irleen then hustled over when Link sank to the floor. "Link!" she cried out.

"What is wrong with this place?" Link asked before he placed both hands over his face.

"Link," Irleen said in an even voice. "I've told you before; these people are barely alive as it is. And very fragile."

Leynne placed his hands behind his back. "Yes, I remembeh the convehsation this mohning. So it would be easy to conclude that this soht of fate would be only a matteh of time?"

"For every one of those things outside," Irleen answered.

"But Maroon was talking to us," Link spoke up, his voice weak with the need to start crying. "Didn't that—Didn't that mean he still had some time?"

Irleen sighed. "I don't know, Link."

They spent a moment in silence, a moment in which Link felt the need to grieve for Maroon. Instead, Leynne cleared his throat. "Captain, if I may," he said. "As this has deeply troubled you, and considering youh moments of fright eahlieh, pehhaps you would be betteh off retuhning to the ship."

"I… I-I don't…" Link tried to say.

"Theh's nothing moh to be done heh," Leynne pointed out. "You would be betteh off retuhning and trying to get some sleep."

"I don't know if I can."

"You must try. A hysterical captain won't do us much good, especially if you'h going to be up all night."

Link heaved a sigh and nodded. "All right."

"I'll send Layna back down," Leynne told him. He turned and rounded the shelves to walk toward the stairs in the back.

Once he was out of sight, Leynne began to untie the noose he had been hiding behind his back.