4 A fair deal
All the chiefs of the mountain clans had gathered at Fort Hawk.
Dad went back and forth from the big room, throwing ideas into the air, hearing other people's complaints. War was the most repeated word. War and revenge. They didn't want the damage suffered to be settled with a couple of diplomatic arguments, they didn't want a handshake, they wanted more. Blood had been shed, but it wasn't enough for them.
"I would throw fire on the castle. At night, when they don't expect it," Kruu, the head of the Rhino Clan, said. He was missing almost all his teeth and had a beard so thick that his dark eyes barely peeked over it.
Some barbarians liked Kruu's idea, almost everyone who lives in the mountains, in caves, or in lost villages in the steppe.
"King Rhoam has many treasures. One of them is so great that it could annihilate us all," said Grimla, the head of the Wolf Fang Clan. Despite his arthritis and age, he hadn't hesitated to go to Fort Hawk, attending the crisis call.
"We don't know if that secret weapon is real. No one has ever seen it," Dad said.
"The king of Ikana has seen it. And those desert women, why do you think they fought with Rhoam?", Grimla slammed his cane on the stone floor.
"Whether they have that magical power or not, we can't risk a war with Hyrule," Dad replied.
"Zuka!" Kruu protested. I didn't know what exactly it meant, I imagine some obscenity in the language of the mountain clan.
Dad gave him a warning look and Kruu calmed down a little, though the clan chiefs were restless. Too many years without war, one of their favorite hobbies.
"Tell me again, Link, who attacked first?" Dad asked me, stopping before me. I was resting with my shoulder on the chimney, in a corner, tired, I didn't expect to have to speak again.
"They did. We harassed them on horseback in the Rito Forest, one of them shot an arrow that whistled near my face."
Well, to be more precise, the arrow was so close that it left a slight scratch on my cheek. Fridd shot them then, but he was too obfuscated, his arrow went high. Mine was accurate and I knocked down one of them, one who never saw the light of a new day again. I knew the implications of killing a Hyrule soldier, but we were attacked in our territory and it was our right to defend ourselves. If I hadn't shot him, he would have shot me or one of my men. I couldn't allow it. And even though, I felt horrible that I've taking his life. I saved all these thoughts, of course, with the barbarian chiefs it's better to be sparing with words.
"When did you realize you were chasing the prince of Hyrule?" Dad questioned. It was the third time he'd asked me that question. I was fed up and hungry. I hadn't slept all night and I hadn't even seen Eve again, I needed to ride to Nightfall to make sure she was okay.
"I told you, when the soldier fell down, one of them began to shout that we should stop, that we were chasing Prince Kahen Bosphoramus.
"And yet you shot him in the leg...
"It all happened too fast, I already had the arrow pointing at him, I could barely react in time to deflect the shot and avoid hitting him. I guess I wasn't fast enough," I protested.
My father snorted and wiped the sweat off his forehead with his hand. I knew I had been impulsive, and it didn't please him but what is Fort Hawk's guard supposed to do when a helpless girl is mercilessly killed and abandoned?
"Grenmak, it's not the boy's fault," Grimla interjected, "those bastards attacked us first, and in a cruel way. How do you think Thakmak will feel right now? His little girl has been killed. We can't accept a ridiculous apology from Rhoam, Hyrule can't assure us that something like this won't happen again. But... I agree that a war puts us in a bad position. We'd be up against Hyrule and Ikana and caught on both flanks. On the other hand, it's not only the power of the goddesses what the old king holds. It's said that in one of the chambers of the castle there is gold, rupees and precious stones to fill the sack of all the inhabitants of Hyrule.
I waved my head and went back to my dark corner in the chimney. There was only one thing that pleased the clans of the mountain more than war: gold. With a ton of gold, they would be more than satisfied. But I had no idea if King Rhoam wanted to accept such a deal. One of his men had died and I had wounded the prince, so it was unlikely that the king would "pay" us for such acts. Rhoam would ask for something in return, namely... maybe he'd like to own the Eagle's Nest and the Eagle's Forest. Maybe he'd want lands in the Steppe. It wasn't going to be an easy negotiation.
The discussions lasted until the night. As the son of Fort Hawk's chief, I couldn't retire until the last chief of a clan left. They didn't come to an agreement. The only clear thing was that we would have to make all the preparations to leave for Hyrule as soon as possible, there were almost five days on horseback in front of us and Dad also wanted to gather enough riders to intimidate King Rhoam. Riders... small utopia. There were only riders in Fort Hawk, and one to another in Nightfall. The rest were farmers, mountain barbarians, lumberjacks, and sheep breeders. They were as strong as rocks, but they weren't a professional army. We had no soldiers, only the border containment forces (and we couldn't leave the border without protection). I could already imagine an uncontrolled group of men hungry for blood and loot riding chaotically towards Hyrule. King Rhoam would crush us with one finger.
"Link!"
Jannie hooked to my neck as soon as she showed up through the door. I was half-sleep, unable to finish my stew. Sometimes the sleep beats the hunger. Everyone had retired, Father and I stayed for dinner.
"Did you hurt yourself? Does it hurt?" She put her finger on the scratch on my cheek.
"It's nothing. What do you do that you're not asleep yet?
"She refused to sleep without seeing you," Aldry appeared in a nightgown, followed by Leri, who also climbed on me to inspect my 'war wounds.'
"Link, have you knocked down a Hyrule soldier with the bow?" Leri asked me. The twins were already seven years old and weighed, yet each one sat on one of my legs.
"Fighting men is not a game, son," Dad interjected. He had removed his boots and was stretching his feet in front of the chimney fire.
"Leave Link alone, he's tired and hasn't eaten anything yet," Aldry tried to grab Jannie to get her to bed.
"No!" Jannie hugged my neck so hard I couldn't breathe, "Link, you're not leaving, are you?"
"Go to sleep!" Aldry finally managed to rip them off my side to get them to bed.
Then she came back to pour us some water, and to ask about what happened with the clan chiefs.
"My father told me about Hyrule's gold," Aldry insinuated. I knew she was going to question Grimla, I suppose she already saw herself wrapped in Hyrule's crown jewels.
"I don't know what's going to happen, I doubt the king will want to solve this just with gold," Dad said, as tired as I was.
"This crime can't go unpunished; you both know it! Thanks to Or, Link hit one of those bastards. I wish his second shot had been accurate too.
"Don't joke about this!" Dad was irascible, and Aldry's innate ambition didn't help, "I thank the goddesses for Link missing that shot.
"The goddesses... always praying to the goddesses of Hyrule..." snorted Aldry.
"I'm leaving now," I said, standing up. I didn't have the strength to be in the middle of her marital story "I want to see Eve."
"Eve? It's too late to go to Nightfall, stay to sleep, Link," Aldry said.
"I'm fine, don't worry."
"I want you here tomorrow at dawn," Dad didn't take his eyes off the fireplace, "armed and with Or's helmet, is that clear?"
"Don't worry. I'll be here on time."
Fridd and Ardren were resting, they needed to sleep to be in a good shape for our suicide ride to Hyrule, so I got on the horse and let myself go to the Inn of the Winds. When I arrived there it was late, it was close to the early hours in the morning. A horrible silence populated the place. You could see the tinkling of candles through the inn's windows, I guess they were lighted for little Bri, Eve's sister. They were going to celebrate the funeral at dawn and since my father had called for war that same morning, we wouldn't be able to accompany the family. Aldry and the twins would attend the ceremonies, as representatives of Fort Hawk.
I knocked on the door and Eve's mother opened with her face unscrambled. I just hugged her; I was at a loss for words. The dreaded Thakmak son of Dakmak had his gaze lost, he was watching Bri's little body, but his eyes were piercing it, losing himself somewhere far away. Despite the hour, there were many citizens from Nightfall, and the wives of some of the clan chiefs had gone on behalf of their villages and clans. I tried to greet and pay my respects to Thakmak, but he barely bowed his head. His wife took me to a small room, where Eve had retired to sleep for a couple of hours. I swayed her moving her arm a little, and she woke up drowsy, her eyes red through tears.
"Link?" She rubbed her eyes and I hugged her, perhaps more forcefully than she expected. I was dirty, sweaty, exhausted. There was dried blood in my arms, mud mixed with the hunting paintings, I hadn't stopped for a second to sleep or wash, I just wanted to make sure I saw her.
"Are you all right?"
"Did you kill him? Did you kill the one who did that to Bri?"
I moved back a little bit, sitting on the bed next to her.
"I'm not sure," I replied.
"They say you knocked down one of those bastards with an arrow." She had a twinkle in her eyes I hadn't seen before.
"It's true."
"Link, are you going to avenge Bri at Hyrule?"
"We'll leave at dawn," I said, avoiding answering her question. After all, it wasn't clear what we'd do there. She hugged me, relieved. She was hoping we'd spill more blood.
"Well, they deserve it."
"Eve, we can't go to war." I said, holding her by the wrists. She turned away from me.
"I've heard that your father doesn't dare to attack old Rhoam. But my father's been sharpening the axe the whole morning, Link, he wouldn't mind following a younger leader who puts Nightfall in the place it deserves."
She wasn't the first to insinuate something like that. Some soldiers of the clans told me they would follow me to battle. When I killed a Hyrule soldier, they saw me as a kind of new leader, a young man who wasn't hiding behind the border walls. I just wished none of that had happened, I wish Prince Kahen hadn't gone with his men to the Rito border, I wish Bri was still alive.
"I understand your pain," I held her hands, "but we can't go to war with Hyrule. They'd crush us in a battle. They have a huge army."
"That's why we have to look for new allies, Link," she got rid of me and started walking energetically around the room —the clans would follow you. And... there is a more powerful enemy to the West."
"Eve, there's a reason why we're allies of Hyrule and not Ikana..."
"And what is it? Do Ikana's men murder our children?"
"They would if they had the chance!" I growled. She looked at me, with anger blinding her, it was her grieve the one speaking —look, Eve, I don't know what's going to happen once we are there, my father thinks that-
"Maybe you should defend your people and stop following your father like you're a kid. You're a man, Link, only you had the courage to go out and defend Bri, only you," she interrupted, and burst into tears. I got close and hugged her again, she resisted a little, but ended up giving in.
"I'll travel to Hyrule tomorrow and do what's best for everyone."
"Come back soon, please," she said, snuggling up a little more.
I left Eve asleep in her bed. She just needed to rest. She didn't speak plainly when she insinuated that I rebelled my father, or that I should put our people into a war we couldn't win. Thinking about getting an alliance with Ikana was crazy, luckily the mountains protected us from its reign of terror, but the king of Ikana knew no mercy and had thrown his monsters to our borders over and over again. Now there was a kind of peace-like calm, no one knew the reason. Perhaps they got tired of searching for the sacred treasure of the goddesses of Hyrule, but if we opened the doors for them, I was sure we would regret it forever.
I said goodbye to little Bri wishing her spirit rested in peace. I wanted her to find a place of light, far from the wars and the darkness. I had seen some white flowers on the edge of the road and had made a humble bouquet with them. They were wildflowers which grew up in the frosts of the early autumn, I thought they were pretty and wild, like little Bri. Mom prayed to Hylia, the White Goddess, and always looked for white or blue flowers when she wanted to make her prayers. It was a pagan act, I know, but I had inherited that habit from Mom and always prayed secretly to Hylia, rather than Or. I felt calmer if I left the bouquet in Bri's bed, near her hands, I knew the Goddess spirit would protect her.
I rode back to Fort Hawk without turning my head, with a weight on my heart that I couldn't relieve. Maybe everything would have been different if I had handed Eve the ring the same day Dad gave it to me.
My friends were waiting for me in the stables of Fort Hawk. They had prepared a travel mount for me, so I just had to exchange one chair for another. All the men were almost ready to go. Dad showed up, dressed in his finest furs and wearing a high spear. Tired or not, I wouldn't have time to take a short nap before the departure.
"How's Eve?" Fridd asked me once we gathered.
"Very tired. Sad. And quite angry," I admitted, accepting a skin of water from him. I drank it whole without leaving a single drop.
"You look awful," he observed, "maybe you fall off your horse like a child who learns to ride."
"Maybe you fall too, with those thin cricket legs," I joked. Fridd patted my back, I knew he was trying to cheer me up. And by not mentioning Bri or Prince Kahen, he got it.
We traveled relentlessly towards Hyrule. I slept a bit on the back of my horse, I had a habit of doing it, it's not that I was completely asleep, but it was enough to recover a little energy. The worst part of the trip was when we had to cross the border. Rhoam had sent hawks with messages to all the bordering peoples warning of a possible "attack" of Fort Hawk; and Lord Tyto, the rito patriarch, had posted his guard on the crossing road to Hyrule. The first critical decision came then, it was not justified that we crossed the border with so many men if we were only going to negotiate, so my father yielded to Tyto and brought a reduced representation to Hyrule. This was the first sign of how complicated it would be to fight King Rhoam. We would have to fight first against the rito, a dangerous enemy I didn't want to face, because we had centuries of friendship and good relations on the border with them.
Once we crossed the Rito region and the drylands of Tabantha, an immense green plain began to dominate the landscape. Autumn had not yet reached this region and riding through the grass was like floating if you compared it to the rocky roads of the mountains and the early snows of the Steppe. On the plain of Hyrule the days were still hot, and we had to get rid of our skin vests and clothes.
"You look too serious, Captain," said Ardren, who dismounted beside me.
We only had one day of travel left to the heart of Hyrule, and although the initial plan was to travel relentlessly, after stumbling with the Rito, Dad decided to camp one night and discuss the strategy with the clan chiefs again.
"I've never traveled this far," I admitted, dropping on a bed of fallen, wet leaves. I had heard that Hyrule Castle was visible from the four corners of the kingdom, but we had a huge grove that covered any view. It also covered us from potential enemies.
"Do you think we're going to war?"
"I don't know. If Kruu doesn't get a big bag of gold, it's quite possible."
"We should fight," Fridd interjected. His humor had become overshadowed as we entered Hyrule and seemed to be waiting for an ambush.
"I just want to go back and lead a quiet life in the Eagle's Nest," I recognized.
A horn rang in the distance, startling the camp.
"The king! The king of Hyrule is coming!" One of our watchers shouted. We always sent someone up ahead to keep an eye on the boundaries of the camp. The boy arrived exhausted and gasping —the king of Hyrule, Captain.
"Are you sure it's him? You haven't made a mistake..."
"No, sir. It was him; I saw the golden banner."
"How many men?" I asked. Hell, I was hoping Fridd wasn't right with his suspicions.
"Not many, Captain. Barely a dozen. They carried a white flag."
"They're coming to talk," Ardren said.
"That bastard of Tyto has not wasted his time alerting his king," Fridd growled behind my back.
"Fridd, warn my father, tell him that the king of Hyrule has come to dialogue," I commanded, "Ardren, take a white rag and tie it to a spear. We're going to meet them."
"And where the hell do you think I'm going to find something white?
I let out the first genuine laugh in many days.
I put on Or's helmet and got on my horse. Ardren, the watcher and me went to receive the Hyrule group. It was better this way, so they would understand that we accepted the dialogue. It had darkened almost completely, and a soft rain was falling when a soldier with a high spear approached us.
"Greetings. The king of Hyrule comes to meet Grenmak, chief of Fort Hawk and leader of the peoples of Nightfall."
"Greetings", it was too dark, and I couldn't see if the soldier was wearing the banner with the gold symbol the watcher had seen, but I decided to trust him anyway—my Father will welcome you peacefully in his camp, but you'll have to leave the weapons behind.
"No way. We won't venture there when we're unprotected."
"Don't you trust your allies?"
"Same here, if you trust the king of Hyrule there would be no problem in entering armed."
I clenched my teeth and looked at Ardren, who shrugged. I was going to refuse when a tall figure came up to us. He wore a helmet with golden trims and a thick, white beard protruded beneath his chin.
"Greetings. I am Rhoam Bosphoramus, king of Hyrule. And this is no ploy to ambush our allies in cold blood. I want to speak to Chief Grenmak as soon as possible, and I won't mind leaving my sword behind if I have to."
"But Your Majesty...," the soldier murmured behind the king's back.
"Follow me," I said. And I let the king and his armed escort in.
For hours they debated in my Father's tent, the king and all the leaders of the mountains and the west. The boys and I waited outside, watching for no one to come in or out. A couple of Hyrule soldiers also approached the camp. We offered them water and invited them to share the fire. One of them was dug to the bone and thanked the hospitality.
There were moments of tension, we knew it from the tone or some other cry that arose from the tent, but when I heard Kruu's huge laughter, I knew that the king of Hyrule had agreed to deliver gold to the clan chiefs and that we would not have to draw the swords. It was almost dawning when the king and his escort came out the tent.
"Who is Link, son of Grenmak?" The escort asked.
"It's me," I stood up, I was sleepy, I'd almost been asleep against the trunk of a tree.
"Come with us."
My men looked at me and moved the hand to the sword grip, I waved my head to ask them to stay calm. I followed the huge king and his entourage to their horses. They all mounted except the king, who stood there watching me.
"How old are you, boy?" He asked.
"Twenty-one."
"Your mother was a citizen of Hyrule, from the Necluda region."
"That's right," I replied, frowning.
"I was very sorry for your loss; I remember her marriage to Grenmak."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
The king stepped towards me, moving away a little from his own.
"Take off your helmet so I can see you."
I obeyed without understanding anything, and the king stared at me in silence.
"Why did you shoot my son?"
"They attacked us first," I replied. My heart started to race, I was afraid to say or do something that would spoil the agreements Dad would have reached.
"My son killed a little girl. Although it was an accident, it's something I deeply regret, in his name, and in Hyrule's crown name. It's an irreparable harm and Kahen will have to carry his own penance."
I nodded. Why did he tell me all that?
"Link, tell me what you were trying to do when you chased my son and his men."
"I was only defending my people," I replied, "I thought we had been attacked."
"But you missed on purpose when you shot Kahen."
"I knew something was wrong when I realized it was the prince. A prince in a foreign forest had mortally wounded a kid and run away. It… it couldn't be intentional."
"You didn't mean any more damage."
"No, I didn't. Your Majesty. I...," I stopped. Maybe I was going to say too much.
"Yes?" The king stared at me, almost forcing me to speak. I didn't know if I was doing well or not, but I decided to get rid of one of the weights that had accompanied me for days.
"I can't repair the loss of the dead soldier either," I admitted, "but if I hadn't shot him, he would have killed one of my best friends. If there's anything I can do for the soldier's family, tell me."
"Enough," said the king, put on his helmet and placed his foot on the stirrup of his mount, "you can retire, Link son of Grenmak. The king of Hyrule forgives you if you promise never to hurt any of our men again."
"I'm afraid I can't make such a promise, Your Majesty."
My hands were even shaking when I said that, but I couldn't help it. The king turned to me, dumbfounded. I managed to babble an explanation.
"If… if needed I would have to defend my people again," I justified.
The king got on the horse and I didn't open my mouth again, I didn't know if I would have done the most stupid things.
"See you soon, Captain Link of Fort Hawk. Tell your father that King Rhoam accepts the deal."
They harassed the horses, and the king of Hyrule and his soldiers left the way they came. The sun was starting to raise, and at that moment I could see the golden banner.