Chapter 24: Retribution of Horn

…

His screaming had caught the attention of the deck crew. Within seconds, the door to his cabin was flat on the floor, and about a dozen hands grabbed his screaming, writhing form. Link could not even tell who had responded; both Geltoan and Hylian voices mingled as all involved tried to ask him questions. He barely realized that they had dragged him out of his cabin. All he could focus on was what had happened in the dream, made much clearer in his waking mind. His crew held his hands restrained, and this only caused Link to panic further. He thought his head was going to come off. It was not just a lingering impression from the dream, though; Link could feel real, physical pain across his neck and struggled against his crew to use his hands to hold his head on.

His thrashing caused a couple crewmembers to lose their footing as they moved down some stairs. Link nearly got loose until someone pinned him in place. His eyes were open, but he was so focused on trying to keep his head on that he did not see who or what was right in front of him. In minutes he was restrained again and moving against his will. He could only perceive that he was going down, and he fell into a fit of screaming incoherent things in addition to trying to hit anything nearby. His crew stumbled again, causing more people nearby to holler as they pinned Link to the deck a second time. Link felt something sting his left upper arm and reached his other hand across to grab it. They picked him up again, giving Link freedom to thrash about once more. Voices started making their way through to him a little clearer, although he had yet to identify anyone. Then fatigue started taking over. He felt himself pinned down again and tried to spur himself into another fit. But his head was clouding up; he could not remember what he was fighting in the first place. Once pressure lifted off his front, he found that he simply did not have the will to move and stared up at a bright light focused on his face.

"So where'd the mark come from?" a male voice asked from nearby.

"We don't know," answered another, this one sounding a little higher-pitched. Link thought he recognized the accent. "Is it serious? I mean does it mean he's in dangeh?"

"Seemed vital enough," the first voice said. "My first impression was inflammation, but that was before the color change. I'd say now that it's some kind of bruise."

"In a fine cihcle around his neck," the second male said, its voice harsh with skepticism.

"I'd always thought there'd be some mystery to caring for the crew of the famous Island Symphony. Looks like my wish came true."

"Doctoh."

"Oh, calm down, Number Two. If he was in any danger, you'd've had me go up to his cabin rather than bring him down here. The fact is, if he's able to struggle all the way here, the best I can see is just having a bruise."

"He was screaming his head was coming off," a third voice spoke up, sounding gruff. "Could this have something to do with that dreaming thing the chief was telling us about?"

"I cannot help but wondeh," the second voice said.

It was about then when Link's mind started clearing up. His right hand closed around thick blankets over the surface he was lying on. He took in a deep breath, smelling a cleanliness one could only find at a clinic or hospital. There was only one place on the ship where those two sensations could be.

The sick bay.

The tall, narrow form of Doctor Nester's head blocked out the light above. Link could barely make out the stubble on his jaw and short, scraggly hair long gone grey. "Good morning, Captain," he said with a friendly tone despite always reminding Link of some of the horrible drunks he had met throughout his life.

Link had to blink as his eyes tried to adjust to the shadow his ship's surgeon was casting. "It can't be morning," he groaned.

"Neah to half-one." The response was followed by a distinct metal click as Nester moved out of the way. Link turned his head to find Leynne standing next to Nester's desk, pocketwatch in hand. "You've been awake foh little oveh half an houh."

Link grunted and rubbed a hand over his drowsy eyes. "Report," he said.

"The ship is sound, but the crew is half scahed out of its mind," Leynne replied. "We had to drag you screaming from youh cabin."

Link swung his legs over the side of the bed to sit up. Vertigo hit him, and he grabbed the metal support bar near the head of the small bed. "Whoa…"

"That's probably the tranquilizer I gave you, Captain," Nester said. "It oughta wear off soon."

Link looked around and realized that those two were not the only ones in the sick bay with him. Airmen Hunter, Lwamm, Gillam, and Layna stood in front of the sick bay door, eyes locked on their captain. "You all had to drag me?" Link asked Leynne.

"You weh hysterical," Leynne told him. "That is what caught ouh attention fihst. Kicking, screaming… it sounded as if you weh afraid you'd lost youh head, and not in a metaphoric sense."

Link took in a deep breath. He felt his neck sting and quickly put a hand over his throat. He remembered Leynne and Nester discussing some kind of mark, so he stood up. He stepped in front of the wash basin next to the head of the bed, where a mirror had been mounted to the bulkhead.

Once his hand was out of the way, he saw a band of purple halfway up his neck. The location coincided with where he felt the pain. He turned his head to find that it continued around toward the back.

"I know it looks bad," Nester said as he stood up and moved behind Link so that his face was visible in the mirror, "but, at best, it's a bruise. Nothing else seems to be wrong." However, Link tugged the collar of his body suit down and angled his shoulders so that he could look inside. He could still see the bruise on his right shoulder. Nester noticed it, too, eyes narrowing as he asked, "Where'd you get that from?"

Link turned back to the surgeon and his second-in-command. "It's the Night," he said as he pulled the collar back into place. "Last night, I dislocated my shoulder while I was fighting in the dream."

"Well, is it all right?" Nester asked as he sidled up next to Link and started probing the shoulder with his fingers.

"It doesn't hur—!" Link tried to say until Nester found a tender spot to press. He took a moment to let the sting subside. "Well, it's doing better now."

"And tonight?" Leynne asked.

"I'm… not too sure," Link admitted. "I'd found the river, and I just started for the technoworks. Then the next thing I know, I'm looking at my own decapitated body on the ground. When I woke up… I ju—I thought my head was gonna come off."

"Yes, we'd gathehed that much," Leynne replied. He glanced over at the crew still huddled at the doorway. "Unless you'h off-duty, back to youh posts," he told them with a shooing motion.

"Take it easy, Captain," Hunter said as he disappeared.

"Yeah, take care," Gillam said before he followed Hunter. Lwamm seemed to have taken the hint from the two Hylians and left as well. Layna lingered in the doorway, sorrowful eyes focused on Link.

"Well, I suppose it's a small comfoht to know ouh captain hasn't gone mad," Leynne said.

Link moved back to the bed and sat on its edge. "Was I that bad?" he asked.

"Undehstandably so if you thought you'd lost youh head," Leynne answered. "I assume this might be a repehcussion of removing the Night from the technowohks last night."

Link nodded and said, "Janni was right. She told me the Night was pissed." He put a hand on his neck as he realized how sore it felt. "I wasn't being careful, and it caught me."

"I suppose it should be a blessing that it couldn't kill you outright," Leynne said.

"Not with something small like this," Nester told him. "But I'm worried if it can do more. Subdermal hematoma is relatively harmless. But blood loss is still blood loss whether it's inside or out." He returned to his desk and sat in the chair. "There're a number of organs in your body you don't want blood to pool in. Even if that doesn't happen, you can die from exsanguination."

"Doctoh, I'm afraid we haven't had youh level of education," Leynne pointed out. "You'h talking a language I can't follow." Link tried to hesitate before giving a nod of agreement.

"Okay then," Nester replied as he steepled his fingers and rested his elbows on the arms of his chair. "In basic terms, all of your blood doesn't return to your system fast enough. That would come from repeated trauma of this sort. This could lead to ischemia, where you don't have enough blood getting to tissue to maintain function. It could even cause infarction, where some of your tissues die and cause vital organs to no longer function. Either of these is fatal."

"Is theh any symptoms we should watch foh?" Leynne asked.

"For the blood loss… paleness, cool to the touch, accelerated heartbeat, shock, and behavior problems."

"Like tonight?" Link asked.

Nester shook his head. "No. You'd still be lucid, but you'd probably be doing things you don't normally do or just act out of sorts. By the time you reach behavior like tonight, I'd say you would have an entirely different problem. As for the ischemia or infarction, if you have any sort of severe pain or if any part of your body becomes paralyzed or your skin changes colors, come to me right away." He paused and licked his lips. Then he pulled himself onto the edge of the chair and rested his elbows on the end of the armrests. "Captain. You should know that there's only so much I can do."

Link nodded. "I'll try to be careful."

Leynne heaved a sigh. "Must be a comfoht knowing you cannot outright die in youh dreams," he commented.

"For now," Nester quickly spoke up as he shot Leynne a worried look. "But if this 'Night' gets any more violent on you, it could cause some serious damage. Maybe even permanent damage."

"Would you be able to respond fasteh if he slept in the sick bay, Doctoh?" Leynne asked.

"I suppose I could."

But Link was shaking his head. "No," Link said. "I can't wake up in the sick bay; I'd have to go back to my cabin to get my gear." Then he realized something and started patting his chest. "My tunic. Where's my tunic?"

"My Kyabtin," Layna finally spoke up, having been forgotten at the front of the sick bay. Link looked at her to see his tunic folded over an arm.

"We can bring youh geah in heh, Link," Leynne told him as Layna brought the tunic to Link. "We don't have to make this hahd. Will you be retuhning to the island tonight?"

Link looked at the tunic in his hands. Then he laid it on the bed next to him. "I don't know if I should try tonight," he said. "I never saw what—" He swallowed back the bile in his mouth, trying not to think about the horrific scene he had witnessed. "—what did it. Besides, it took half the night to get there. I don't think I could reach it in time again."

"Faih enough," Leynne told him.

Link glanced down at his tunic. Then he asked, "When did this come off?"

"What, the tunic?" Leynne replied. "We weh trying to cahry you with it at fihst. You slipped out and…" He turned to look at Layna. "Didn't Lwamm throw it on the deck?"

"Ay'a, Lyayn," Layna replied.

Leynne scrunched his face as he thought. "Layna must've gone back foh it aftehwahds," he continued. "I'm cehtain she didn't have it when she pinned you to the wall."

"P-pinned me to the wall?" Link asked.

"A bunch of us stumbled when we weh cahrying you down the staihs, so Layna shoved you against the wall and pressed hehself against youh chest so you couldn't move."

Link felt his face heat up, so he looked down at his lap to avoid making eye contact. "Wow, um… I, uh… wow," was all he could say.

"Poor guy was so far gone, he didn't know what he was missing," Nester crowed.

"Yes, it has always amazed me how Layna will always go that extra step foh Link," Leynne said, sounding bored. His comment caused Layna's face to turn crimson, and she looked down at the deck to hide it. "I should select crew to find those mines—"

He stopped when they heard footsteps approaching the sick bay fast. Layna shifted out of the way just as Line barreled in. "Lieutenant," he said, his voice a little winded, "you… you gotta come see this."

"What is it?" Leynne asked while Link rose from the bed.

Line glanced at Link before telling Leynne, "The-the compass! It's going berserk!"

Leynne shared a look with Link. Link grabbed his tunic and started for the door. "Let's go," he said stepped past Leynne.

Link slipped his tunic on while he, Line, and Leynne rushed to the main deck. Their footsteps alarmed Biluf and Dholit, and they jumped out of the way as their superiors and daytime helmsman ran out of the stairwell near them. Link was the first to climb onto the forecastle and located the compass built into the top of the post in between the two wheels.

The needle was spinning. On a compass that had not once shown any sort of failure, that the helmsmen have been using for two years, the needle turned complete circles on its pivot. Link had never seen it before.

"You see?" Line said while he and Leynne watched over his shoulders. "It's just going nuts! I mean, I wasn't watching it the whole time."

"When did you fihst notice?" Leynne asked as he moved closer to the control console behind the wheel.

"Maybe-maybe just a few minutes ago?" Line suggested. Link tapped the glass. "I already tried that. I even tried kicking the wheel."

"Captain, it isn't just the compass," Leynne said. Link looked up to find Leynne beckoning him with a finger. Link slid past Line to look at the console. The surface was composed of three levers and a single gauge. The gauge showed wind direction in relation to the ship. If it was functioning correctly, it should have been pointing to port, away from the island, since the prevalent wind in the area would be radiating outward from the island. But that was not what it was doing. Instead, the arrow spun just like the compass's needle.

"You gotta be kidding," Line said after craning his neck to see the panel.

"The weatheh vane, I can undehstand," Leynne said. Then he turned back to the wheel. "But how is it affecting the compass? It relies on magnetism."

"Leynne," Link said with urgency in his voice, "go down to the engine room and make sure they aren't having trouble with their equipment too. Report back as soon as possible; I'll watch the deck."

"Yes, sih," Leynne replied, already moving toward the stairs.

Once Leynne's footsteps had died down, both boys heard rumbling. After sharing a glance, they looked toward the island.

"Oh, no," Line uttered as they watched in disbelief. A distant flash of lightning revealed the shadow of the tower at the center of the island.

And, within the same flash, they saw the storm clouds building behind it.

…

~~9/22, Expedition Day 40.

~~Probably our worst nightmares have come true. The Night has us trapped in a storm, just like the Undying Storm around Forelight Island. There wasn't even any time to ready the ship. I didn't give the order anyway. The Night is messing with our navigation instruments so we can't move away from the island. And I choked. The storm had us cornered in minutes anyway. Or… at least I wanna tell myself that.

~~The Night also killed me last night. I went into the dream, and the Night must have set a trap for me. It beheaded me in the dream. My crew had to take me to the sick bay kicking and screaming because I thought my head was coming off. Nester had to give me a tranquilizer just so I could calm down. I woke up with a bruise around my neck. The doctor said it won't harm me too much, but I can't let the Night keep doing it, or else I'll lose too much blood and die. It kinda makes me look back on what was going on two years ago and wonder why this never happened before. Maybe I should be glad there's a difference between dreams and reality; it might be the only thing keeping me alive.

~~So far, the Night hasn't affected anything in the engine room. But as much as the crew might have been settling down since we'd learned about the Night, having this storm around us has just inspired them to be afraid of it once again. I didn't get anywhere last night, but I'll have to keep an eye out for traps tonight. I can't let this thing kill me anymore.

…

Link could not sleep for the rest of the morning, a combination of after-death anxiety and trepidation from seeing yet another unnatural storm. He stayed on-deck all night, watching the storm as if he expected it to disappear at any moment. A couple of times, he was tempted to order the ship away from the island to see if the Night would dare kill them rather than let them go. He decided against it because of memories of the last time he had tried to fly an airship through a storm. If anything, the Island Symphony was a larger target than the Island Sonata with more lives to risk.

So, after making the log entry just after what now passed for sunrise, he took a nap. It felt like it had only been a few minutes before someone knocked on the doorframe.

"Come in," he responded. Then, once he opened his eyes, he was reminded that the crew had knocked down the door earlier.

Leynne leaned inside, hands holding him up on the doorframe. "Captain," he said as Link rose. "I have a group ready to go to the island. I thought you might provide some moh insight foh ouh seahch. They'h waiting in the boat deck."

Link took in a deep breath. "What time is it?"

"Neah to ten," he answered.

Link, surprised, glanced out the window behind him. He thought the sun had risen only an hour or two ago. He heaved a sigh and said, "All right, I'll be up there in a minute."

"Okay," Leynne replied before leaving.

Link heard a girlish yawn and looked over to his bed. "It feels like it should be earlier," Irleen commented as she rose from her bed.

"Things have been happening," Link told her. "The whole island is inside a storm."

Irleen suddenly shook side to side, giving an alarmed bell ring. "WHAT!?" she hollered.

Link stepped over to his footlocker and opened it. "The Night put a storm over us and the island," he explained as he dug around. He located his blue compass and pulled it out to look at it. Just like the one on the helm, the needle was spinning on its own no matter how Link held it. "It's also messing with our navigation equipment. Look."

Irleen fluttered away from the bed and came to a hover in front of Link so she could examine the compass. "That… that's not right…" she murmured in shock. Then she glanced out the door. "What the hell is this thing?"

Link did not have an answer for her, but he was sure she was thinking the same thing. If the Night was capable of building a storm in a place where storms did not normally exist, it was capable of any sort of Sorian magic that either Link or Irleen had seen. Could it have been possible that the Night might have, at one time, been a Sorian?

Link dressed in a tunic and trousers, although he was beyond knowing whether they were clean or not. It was not likely that they were clean; he was sure he had already gone through all the clean laundry he had. He then went up to the boat deck where the Conductor was stored. Leynne was waiting for him with Gillam, Gold, Brandon, Hunter, Dubbl, and even Harley from the engine room.

Link raised an eyebrow as he commented, "You're just taking Dubbl?"

"If anything happens," Leynne spoke up, "I'd ratheh not have a language bahrieh in the way of panic."

Link nodded. "Well, I suppose the only thing to know is that if you encounter anything large and pitch-black, back off and get back to the group," he told them. "Don't touch it, don't even approach it."

"Gold will remain with the Conductoh should we need to leave in a hurry," Leynne said. "The rest of you will paih up once we get theh. Everyone will cahry an extra tohch. Should you use youhs up, leave. Don't separate, don't lose youh pahtneh."

"One more thing," Link said. "When the Night is awake, you'll see this black mist that acts like water. Stay away. According to Janni, anyone who goes in doesn't come out right. The Night should be sleeping now, but with us around, it'll do anything to hurt us." Uncomfortable looks shifted among the crew.

Leynne attracted their attention by clearing his throat. "Everyone aboahd. We have wohk to do."

He ushered them toward the ladder hanging from the boat's starboard side. Link grabbed his sleeve to hold him up. "Leynne," he said. Leynne turned around. "Bring them back. And be back before dark."

Leynne nodded. "I intend to."

Link then stepped outside and leaned on the quarterdeck railing overlooking the main deck. A moment later, a high-pitched whine caught his attention. He looked up to see the Conductor rising out of the boat deck. It had to accelerate over the quarterdeck before turning north toward the island. The Conductor then jetted away, a slight flash of blue fire flaring from the stern as the throttle was pushed forward. Link continued to watch for a little while. The boat turned to the east, probably because Leynne decided to avoid approaching the tower knowing that part of the Night was resting inside.

"Captain?"

Link glanced over his shoulder to see Cale standing at the bottom of the starboard staircase. "What is it, Cale?" he asked as he stood up straight.

"I know you have misgivings about sending people onto the island," Cale said, "but I wondah if I might voice a proposal to you."

"Go ahead," Link said, stepping toward the head of the stairs.

"We know that Ihleen has trouble reading books in the library. But I wondah if you would allow us to go back to seahch fuhthah."

Link sighed. "I have to warn you: I'm a little leery about letting you go back."

"Yes, Captain," Cale replied with a nod. "I undahstand. But this might be ouh only oppohtunity. If the Night decides to retahn to that technowohks, who knows if the library will suhvive. We came to help Ihleen find haah people. I only ask that you let us take this chance."

Link cast his eyes back to the island as he thought. They already knew that the Night had legitimately left the technoworks attached to the library. If it had not, it probably would not have been so intent on hurting Link and keeping the ship against the island. But could the Night heal itself? Should Link dare send Cale and Irleen back to the library on their own, not knowing if the Night might decide to return, too?

Link put a hand into his pocket and retrieved Irleen's translator gem. He did not dare toss it to Cale since Cale tended to fumble things. Instead, he walked down the stairs and handed the gem over. "Take Line with you, too. And have Biluf give you the spare flare gun; Leynne took the ship's gun with him. You three will have only a few hours, then I want you back before dark. If I have to come get you, you won't be doing this again."

"Y-yes, saah," Cale replied.

"Have Line check on the sky every so often; it'll keep him busy. Remember: before dark. You put yourselves at risk if you stay out at night."

"Of coahse."

"Watch each other's back out there."

Cale gave a sharp nod. Then he jumped off the steps and hustled across the deck. Watching him caused Link's eyes to wander around the deck. It just now occurred to him how much of his crew was disembarking.

The weather deck was practically deserted.