I made the transfer—I'm actually in college! o.o It's so surreal to think that this campus is my home for the next four years. I'm at a computer lab right now because there's a virus going through the residence hall system, which means I can't hook my PC up until sometime this week when the problem is fixed. Other than that, college is a blast so far. ^_^ Thanks to all the nice people who wished me good luck in the transition!
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Chapter 8
Gerudo Twins
Three days later the wagon rumbled into the town of Merchantsboon, where the thieves staged their next operation. There was a rich dealer in town who collected all sorts of artifacts, and the Best Damn Thieves Around planned to infiltrate his home at midnight and take all they could.
They parked the wagon outside of town by the main road and gathered around it shortly past sunset. "Two of us will stay behind and guard the wagon," Zelda ordered, her voice low so that no passerby would overhear. "One is Link, of course, because he's a good boy, not a thief." She batted her eyes at Link, who grinned. "The rest of us will draw straws. Short straw guards the wagon with Link." She offered a group of yellow straws in her fist.
The thieves all drew them until Zelda held just one. "Okay," she said brightly, opening her hand. "And the person who stays behind is..." She blinked at the short straw. "Me. Okay then."
"But you never stay behind, Miss Zelda," Dagger protested.
"The straw has spoken, Dagger," Zelda replied solemnly. "We must not contest the will of the straw."
"But–"
"Impa will command you," Zelda interrupted, ignoring the soft groans. "I expect a nice bounty, so don't disappoint me. Off you go!"
The thieves melted away into the night, leaving Zelda and Link behind. They looked at each other for a moment, then a mischievous smile spread slowly over Zelda's lips.
"The wagon needs painting," she announced triumphantly.
Link made a face at her. "So paint it."
Zelda placed her hands on her hips and mock-glared at him. "Have you ever heard the phrase, 'earn your keep'? If you expect us to keep feeding you, you'd better start helping out!"
"I helped out with the bandits," Link pointed out. "And the blue-shirts."
"I won't stand for your insubordination!" Zelda bellowed in an uncanny impression of Impa. "Get to work, lamb, or I'll put you to the slaughter!" She snickered, unable to keep a straight face.
"You're not bad at that," Link informed her, grinning.
"Well, I've been around Impa a long time," Zelda acknowledged, grinning back. "Too long, if you ask me."
The scuffling of footsteps on the dirt road caught their attention just then, and Zelda and Link turned. A figure was making its way toward their wagon from the direction of the town, wrapped head to toe in a hooded burnoose. Zelda slowly drifted toward the wagon where the weapons were kept, her movements casual, her sharp gaze anything but. Link knew she suspected the stranger was a law officer.
Sure enough, the stranger stopped beside their wagon. A polite voice with a hint of an accent issued from beneath the hood. "Pardon me, are you peddling wares?"
Zelda exchanged a glance with Link. "What are you looking for?" she replied just as politely.
"A sword," the voice replied. It sounded distinctly feminine. "A particular sword."
"What does it look like?"
The figure hesitated a moment before replying, and Link had the strange feeling she was watching him. "It is a double-edged blade with a small, golden goddess mark engraved below the hilt. I believe it is called the Master Sword."
"I apologize," Zelda said without a bat of an eye. "I've never heard of it."
"Oh. I thank you." The figure bowed and moved on.
"That was strange," Link muttered to Zelda when the stranger was well on her way.
Zelda watched her retreat in silence, then abruptly met his eyes. "Let's follow her."
"What? Why?"
"If that was an innocent customer I'll eat my longbow," Zelda replied grimly. "She was definitely up to something."
"But what about the wagon?"
"It'll be fine on its own for a while. C'mon." Zelda was already following after the stranger, darting from tree to tree alongside the road to avoid being seen.
They followed the stranger about a hundred yards down the main road, then abruptly she took a turn into thick woods. It was easier to track her amongst the trees, where thick foliage hid them, but they had to be wary of dried leaves and twigs.
"How much farther do you want to keep following her?" Link murmured to Zelda.
"Just a little," she whispered back, her eyes lit with a predatory gleam. "Just until we see what she's up to."
The woman finally paused in a clearing and gave a sudden trill that sounded like the cry of a raptor. "A desert hawk?" Zelda murmured, frowning.
A second hooded figure jumped down from the trees across the clearing. "Well?" the new arrival demanded. She was also obviously a female.
"It's definitely them," their quarry murmured in a low voice. "He has the sword. I'm sure of it."
"Did you get a good glance, or–" Abruptly the second figure stopped speaking. Zelda and Link froze, barely daring to breathe. Moonlight glittered on something as the second figure shifted her cloak, then suddenly a flash of steel bolted straight at them.
Link grabbed Zelda's arm and yanked her back out of the path of the incoming weapon. A gleaming scythe attached to a chain embedded itself into a tree behind them.
"Come on out, don't be shy," one of the women called in a mocking, sing-song voice. Zelda stepped out from the trees, her dark eyes flashing.
"Who are you?" she demanded. "What do you want?"
Link placed himself beside her, drawing the Master Sword. "That's it!" their quarry squealed to her companion. "I told you he had it!"
The second figure gave her chain a tug. The scythe slipped from the tree and whirled through the air back into the hand of its mistress. She threw off her cloak as her companion did the same.
They were a pair of twin Gerudo, identical down to every feature but for the golden, snakelike tattoos spiraling up the arms of the one with the scythe. Pairs of slanting emerald eyes were shared in the elegant, proud faces of the two young women; long, crimson hair was tied behind their heads and held in place with jeweled clips. The sisters wore the sleeveless midriffs and full, billowy leggings favored by the Gerudo, theirs a bright scarlet that matched the hue of their hair perfectly.
"I'm Azura," the tattooed one announced imperiously, "and this is my sister, Arjuna." Arjuna grinned at them, revealing a mouth full of pearly white teeth, as she took hold of the twin scimitars at her waist. "Hand over the Master Sword like a good boy and girl and you won't be hurt."
"How do you know about this sword?" Link demanded, his hand tightening on the hilt. "Why do you want it?"
Azura snickered. "Ignorant fools. He will kill you soon, to be sure, but if you give us the sword now we'll let you live, for a little while at least."
"And who exactly is he?" Zelda inquired, her eyes glittering dangerously.
"They don't know about him or the sword," Arjuna informed Azura contemptuously. "They don't even know who they are."
"Fools like you don't deserve to live," Azura spat at Zelda and Link. "For our master's convenience we'll murder you now!" She hurled her scythe at them. Link deflected it with a single sword strike; it fell to the dirt. Zelda calmly placed her foot on it.
Azura yanked hard on the chain, but Zelda maintained her balance and held the scythe in place. "Bitch," the Gerudo snarled at her. Zelda merely smiled.
"Enough," Arjuna snapped, brandishing her scimitars in a manner that suggested she knew how to use them. "The girl is unarmed and the boy has only the sword," she informed her sister. "They're easy prey."
Zelda cursed. When Link glanced at her, she muttered, "I left my bow and dagger back at the wagon."
Link thought of several curses but decided not to share them. "Get behind me," he ordered Zelda tersely.
"What about–"
"Let it go!" he snapped at her, and she obediently took her weight off of Azura's scythe. The woman started as the scythe abruptly leapt toward her, but caught it easily in her hand.
Zelda moved behind him with no complaint, to her credit, about his behavior. He'd apologize, later, but now they had bigger problems on their hands. The twin Gerudo advanced, weapons in hand, eyes gleaming with the ferocity of predators.
"He's going to try and protect her," Arjuna informed Azura as if the Gerudo couldn't see that for herself. Both of them giggled as though they found this infinitely amusing.
Link didn't even blink. He decided they were the type who tried to wear an opponent down with taunts and insults before the actual battle. Anger made for stupid mistakes in a fight, but he'd long ago learned to ignore any poison his enemies might hurl at him. The sisters' remarks had no effect.
For their biting comments and laughter, the women were obviously taking the situation as seriously as he. They separated and moved off to the sides in a wide arc, their movements slow and deliberate, their stances telling him in no simpler terms that they were ready to strike at any given moment. It was also obvious what they were up to–they were trying to get one of them behind him so that sister could engage Zelda unhindered. To counter their strategy, Link backed away toward the trees at the edge of the clearing, forcing Zelda back as well.
To his right, Azura's stance shifted just slightly. It was all the indication that he needed. When her scythe flew at him he easily leapt back out of its range, turning to his left just in time to block the downward sweep of both of Arjuna's scimitars.
"Two of us and one of you," she hissed at him, smiling grimly. "Where does that leave you, boy?"
Azura gave her chain a quick yank, but Zelda had other ideas. She went for the scythe again, snatching it up this time in her hands and wrapping the chain around her wrists, anchoring the weapon firmly in place.
"You worry about Arjuna," she told Link, smiling dangerously at Azura, when he spared a glance at her. "I'll take care of this one."
He wouldn't admit it, but it was weight off of his back. Fighting an opponent with two weapons was tricky, and Arjuna proved to be more than her share of deadly, wielding the twin scimitars with hairline precision and skill to match. Link found, though, to his relief, that the Gerudo was no comparison to Impa. He kept up with her strikes easily, returning a few of his own that more than once sent her scrambling away from the reach of his powerful sword.
Off to the side, Zelda and Azura still grappled with the chain-and-scythe, their closely-matched weight and strength stopping either one from gaining an advantage. Zelda wrapped more links of the chain around her wrists as she drifted toward the Gerudo, still firmly anchored but slowly closing the distance between them. Unfortunately Azura realized what she was doing, and let go of the chain with a triumphant smile.
Zelda stumbled back, her wrists bound by the chain. Azura leapt for her, but she caught her balance at the last moment and pivoted, snapping out a leg and connecting squarely with the side of Azura's head. The woman staggered from the blow, momentarily dazed. Taking her cue from Link, Zelda rammed her shoulder into the woman's midsection. She dropped like a stone.
"Easy prey, huh?" Zelda huffed, disentangling her wrists from the chain.
About to deliver another strike with her deadly scimitars, Arjuna was forced to stumble back as a flash of silver bolted past her, grazing the tip of her nose. The scythe changed course and flew straight back; Arjuna leapt clear and glanced to the side. Zelda twirled the scythe on its chain idly in her hands, grinning infuriatingly. Azura curled up on the ground at her feet, clutching her belly.
Arjuna cursed spectacularly and went straight for Zelda. The woman leapt back, but Arjuna scooped up Azura and turned back to face them, hoisting her sister's weight over a shoulder.
"You think you've won?" Arjuna demanded. "You've only delayed a far more painful death than you would have received here. Your time will come. He'll have you sooner or later, and you will beg for mercy." In a flash of scarlet, the two women were gone into the trees.
Link briefly checked his sword for damage–it was unmarked, the scimitars were too lightweight to dent or scratch it–and slid it back into its sheath. He then looked around at Zelda, who gazed at the trees on the far end of the clearing as though she had half a mind to follow the Gerudo twins.
"Oh, no you don't," he said sharply, clamping a hand around her arm before she decided to take her chances. "You're not even armed."
"I did well enough," she retorted coolly. "Wouldn't you agree?"
"Yes, but that's no excuse," he chastised her, towing her in the direction of the wagon. "How thick can you get, following a suspicious character with no weapons? Aren't you supposed to be a thief? I thought you were smarter than that."
Zelda grimaced at him. "Forgive me, Mother. I promise never to do it again."
Link let go of her, rubbing a hand across his forehead. If he weren't tired and stupid himself, he would have kept his mouth shut. "Sorry," he said sheepishly. "You worried me, is all."
"I know," she replied, uncharacteristically quiet. Link glanced sidelong at her to find her watching him with that thoughtful gaze, as she'd done often since he joined the thieves.
"I was just thinking," she explained before he could ask, "how you never even hesitated. You protected me as if you didn't care that your own life might be the cost."
"Men are supposed to protect women," he said without thinking again, but it was a concept he believed in.
Zelda's lips quirked, whether in a smile or a grimace he couldn't tell. "I've said it before, and I'll say it again," she announced. "You are one strange fellow."
Link made a face. "So helpful."
She shrugged. "I mean, you know, you're a traditionalist. Chivalry and all that. There aren't many people left in this world who share your view."
He chose his words carefully, knowing they might easily offend. "A world in which women must make war and children steal every scrap of food they eat is not a world worth living in."
"Life's unfair," Zelda commented.
"But it shouldn't be."
"Maybe not," she conceded. "But what would you do about it?"
Link hesitated. "Change the world, if I could," he admitted. "But I don't think just one person would have much effect." He glanced at her. "What about you?"
She took a long time to answer, as if carefully considering her answer. At last she said, "I think I would like to be remembered for more than stealing. But I suppose I'll have to settle for the glory of a thief."
The road came into the view, the wagon on the far side of it. Shadowed figures moving around the wagon told them the thieves were back; their burdens appeared to indicate quite a bounty. "Back to reality," Zelda murmured sadly, but when she moved out of the trees the sorrow was gone, replaced by her usual cheery countenance and arrogant swagger.
"Hello, children!" she called jauntily. "Did you miss me?"
* * *
To be continued.