A note from the Hime no Argh herself–

I've gotten a lot of inquiries lately as to my reading material and what or who has influenced my writing. Yes, I do read a lot of Tamora Pierce, as you'd know by looking in my bio. She's one of my favorite authors and has heavily influenced my writing for the past few years. Letsee, what else...there's J.K. Rowling, of course, author of my current favorite book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Anne McCaffrey is always good for a read, though her books definitely aren't my favorites.

Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon is brilliant, give that a read. Monica Furlong's Wise Child is a great "young adult" novel along the lines of The Mists of Avalon. And my favorite novel-that-isn't-a-novel is Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds by Hayao Miyazaki, the filmmaker behind such movies as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. Yes, it's a manga, but it reads like a novel, and it's extremely well-written. I highly recommend it.

Anyway, that's much of what I read, aside from numerous manga.

Chapter 32

Gathering

Only when she had seen Link safely to his bed in the inn with a healer watching over him did Zelda allow herself to stop worrying. She was faint with relief. As much as she believed in Link, and believed that he would win against Valan, she had truly thought, for a brief moment during that fight, that he was going to die. Her knees were shaky as she went downstairs to the tavern below the inn, where her friends and Valan were waiting for her.

She saw them all look at her expectantly and dropped down into a chair with a sigh. "I need a drink."

"Nah," Valan said gruffly. "That stuff's no good for a lady like you." He paused for a moment, then added in an even gruffer tone, nodding toward the stairs, "Is he going to be all right? That Link of yours?"

Zelda smiled wearily at her general. "He'll be fine."

"Good." Valan glanced around expectantly. "Well? I expect we'll be getting to work soon?"

"First we need your help with a few things," said Impa. "Would you happen to know of any Hylians that are left alive in this town?"

"I know the headman, does he count?"

Zelda blinked. "The headman of Kakariko is a Hylian?"

Valan shrugged. "The old headman took him in after Ganondorf's takeover. Adopted him as his own son. His father died of sickness a few years back, and the kid's been running the town ever since. He's young, but he's good. They trust him, the townspeople."

"Would you take me to see him?" Zelda asked, rising.

"Rauru and I will accompany you," Impa said immediately, exchanging a glance with the Sage of Light.

The four of them made their way to the headman's home, a charming red-bricked cottage in the middle of the town. Valan banged on the door with his enormous fist, then entered as if it were his own house. A pretty, dark-eyed, dark-haired young woman, her belly swollen with pregnancy, looked up from a simmering pot on the hearth as Valan shuffled in, Zelda in his wake.

"Hello, Valan," she said with a warm smile, then turned toward the stairs at the back of the house. "Bower! You got company!" In a quieter tone she added, "Quite a show you put on today in the town square. I haven't seen you swinging that massive sword around in a while."

"It felt nice to have a go with it, Rowen," Valan admitted as a young man with reddish-brown hair and pale blue eyes came bouncing down the stairs.

"Afternoon, Valan," he said cheerfully, all jauntiness and boyish charm. "That blond-haired guy was something, eh? Did you win your lady in the end?"

"My lady's right here," Valan said gruffly, shoving Zelda to the forefront, "and I didn't win myself anything but a queen to serve, Bower."

"Hello," Zelda said a bit shyly as the eyes of Bower and his wife Rowen found her.

"Do you believe Valan?" Rowen said dryly to Zelda, stirring the pot on the hearth. "All this nonsense about queens and such. You must be terribly embarrassed."

"She shouldn't be," Rauru interjected, standing in the threshold of the door with Impa. "Being as she is a queen."

"That's Rauru and Impa." Valan waved his hand in the sages' general direction. "Sages, y'know. I used to work with them. I'm not surprised that Impa survived, at least."

Rowen put down her ladle and surveyed them with renewed interest.

"Sages, you say?" Bower asked, though his eyes were shifting between Valan and Zelda. "And this one a queen?"

"You said something about resisting Ganondorf," Rowen remarked, her dark eyes resting levelly on Zelda's face. "Were you serious, or was it all for show?"

"I meant every word I said," Zelda assured her evenly. "May we talk?"

Rowen exchanged a glance with her husband. "I'll set some more places at the table."

Ten minutes later they were all seated at the kitchen table with steaming bowls of Rowen's hearty stew set before them. "Bit of a risk you took today, wasn't it?" Rowen said to Zelda, stirring her stew absently. "Talking about Ganondorf in the middle of the square in broad daylight."

Zelda shrugged, hardly phased. "Everything I've done in the last few weeks has been a 'bit of a risk.'"

Bower stared at her, wide-eyed. "You're not worried that an agent of Ganondorf may have heard you?"

Zelda exchanged a glance with Impa. "Worried, yes," she said quietly. "I'm always worried. But I don't know how else to spread the word."

Rowan raised her eyebrows. "You mean your claims that you're a queen of some sort?"

"She is a queen," said Rauru and Valan defensively.

Rowen made a disbelieving noise. "Of what, I might ask?"

"The Hylians," Rauru told her shortly. "The same race of which your husband is descended, I believe."

Rowen looked at Bower, who gazed at Zelda thoughtfully. "You do look quite a bit like her," he said, his voice slow and quiet. "So much that it's hard to believe she's not come back to life. You'd be her daughter, I suppose?"

Zelda nodded, glad that she didn't have to explain it all again.

Rowen was still gazing at her husband. "Bower, what in Din's name are you talking about?"

"It was about twenty years ago, Rowen," Bower said softly. "After Ganondorf laid siege to the castle and razed it to the ground...we all came here, those of us who were left alive. I was only seven," he added for the benefit of the rest, "but I remember it very clearly. I remember the queen...her hair was like spun gold and she was heavily pregnant. They said she had a girl. But the queen disappeared, and so did her daughter." He turned his gaze to Zelda again, suddenly looking quite upset. "Why did it take you so long to come back? We've waited so long for you...for Link...for some glimmer of hope. Nearly everyone's given up by now."

"I'm sorry," Zelda said softly. "I didn't know what I was fated to do, I didn't even know who I was until just a few months ago."

"You've got to tell them, Bower," Valan interjected in a low, urgent tone, his good eye fixed on the headman's face. "Tell everyone who will listen that Zelda and Link have returned, they're here with us, that they can defeat Ganondorf and purge this land of his evil–with help," he added pointedly.

"Don't tell me you're a believer, Valan," Rowen said quietly. "After all these years?"

Valan glanced at Zelda fleetingly, then calmly met Rowen's eyes. "I am. You both saw what that boy can do! That puny blade of his cut my sword in half!"

Rowen shook her head, disbelieving. Bower looked uncertain.

"Zelda," Impa said quietly. "Show them."

Zelda blinked at her, unsure of what she meant, then abruptly understood. "Oh!" Obligingly she held up her hand for Bower and Rowen.

The couple stared in clear astonishment at the goddess mark etched irrevocably into her skin. "Farore's mercy," Bower said weakly. "I thought the Triforce was just a legend."

"Link has the other piece," Zelda added. "It awakened during his spar with Valan."

Bower and Rowen exchanged another long glance, communicating silently. The others waited.

"We'll spread the word," Bower said at last, looking at Zelda again. "I don't know how many people we can actually convince, but I'm sure a lot will want to hear what you have to say, at least."

"We'll need to find a safe place to meet," Rowen added grimly. "If Ganondorf hears of a rebellion..." She left it to their imagination.

"I know of a safe place," Impa remarked, her crimson eyes gleaming wickedly. "It has an age-old protection that will keep us hidden from Ganondorf's agents. Just the entrance hall is big enough to hold several dozen people. It's dark and cold, but the only enemies we need worry about are ghosts."

"Oh, goddesses," Rauru groaned. "Don't tell me you're thinking of the Shadow Temple."

Impa blinked innocently. "Where else?"

* * *

"I don't like this place," Link said edgily, gazing about the massive cavern-like foyer of the Shadow Temple.

"Then you should have stayed in bed," Zelda replied testily, silently agreeing wholeheartedly with Link's sentiments. It was dawn of the day after Link's fight with Valan, though one wouldn't know it in the darkness of the Shadow Temple. The healer had done the best she could with Link's ribs, but they would need a few days at least to heal completely. Although the healer had recommended Link spend most of that time in bed, he insisted on being present for the meeting in the temple. Zelda was not happy about it.

Not that anyone seemed very happy. The mere atmosphere of the Shadow Temple, the permeating reek of death and blood, was enough to put them all on edge. Bolo was clutching at Cleo as though he had just walked into his worst nightmare, while Rauru paced restlessly back and forth, muttering darkly to himself. Even Ronin was shifting uneasily, looking not at all his usual unfazed self, while Blue, in the shape of a black cat today, twined around his legs, her fur standing on end. Only Impa seemed at home in this place.

Zelda studied the carvings etched into the ground underfoot as they waited for townspeople to appear. They looked like words, written in some language that Zelda had never seen before. The words seemed to twist and writhe under her scrutiny until her head spun; tearing her eyes away with some difficulty, Zelda looked to Impa.

"What are those carvings?" she asked, indicating the floor.

Impa glanced down and up again. "They're words," she said, confirming Zelda's thoughts, "written in the ancient language of the Sheikah. The same phrase repeated over and over again. Translated into Hylian, they would read, 'People of the shadows, drink the lifeblood of your masters, and in return guide them through the gates of death to the world that awaits them at the end of this temple. And when you have paid your debt to them, return to the shadows from which you were birthed, and oblivion.'"

Zelda thought of the only Sheikah she had known in her life and decided fervently that they were the strangest people she had ever met. "Impa, is it true that Sheikah can't exist without sustenance from other people?"

Impa stared at her, clearly wondering where she had learned that bit of information. At last she replied with her own question: "If there is nothing to cast a shadow, can that shadow exist?"

Zelda bit her lip. "If I die tomorrow," she said in a very quiet voice, "does that mean you'll disappear?"

"Yes. I am sworn to protect the royal family of Hyrule," Impa explained. "As you are the only living member of that family, once you die there will be no one left to sustain me."

"That's terrible! I don't want you to just–just cease to exist when I die!"

Impa shrugged, looking entirely unconcerned. "I have lived long enough."

Their discussion ended then as Valan, Bower, and Rowen entered the temple's foyer, followed by a veritable stream of people, all chattering nervously as if to make up for the silence in the temple. Men and women, young and old, they poured steadily into the temple, weaving around the many torches that littered the foyer and pressing close to the walls to make room for more. Valan, Bower, and Rowen joined Zelda and her friends in the center of the foyer and they pressed together in a tight group, watching in amazement as dozens upon dozens of people added to the dense, massive crowd.

"How many people are coming?" Zelda demanded of the headman and his wife.

Rowen's lips twitched in a smile. "Pretty much the entire town."

"We're going to need a bigger meeting place," Rauru said happily.

* * *

To be continued.