A note from the Hime no Argh herself—
Ack, homework rains down. Essay after essay after essay, and did I mention finals in a few weeks? Then there's this fic, which I am still working steadily at, and is close—very close—to being done. Well, I'm on the homestretch now, so wish me luck!
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Chapter 39
The Secret Attack
Night fell over the makeshift camp and with it silence, broken only by the muffled weeping of those mourning their dead. To everyone's regret, including her own, Zelda decided that they could spare neither the time nor the manpower to dig graves. She ordered a mass pyre built and the bodies burned. Rauru led the survivors in prayer for the dead as a torch was set to the pyre. Soon it burned with nearly the intensity of the castle wall.
Link knew Zelda was right in her decision to burn the dead. If they battled Ganondorf's forces again, they would need soldiers who were fresh and ready, not weary and discouraged from digging graves all night long. Still, forced to breathe the scent of acrid wood smoke and burning flesh, he wished that his comrades could have a better end. He sent a prayer to Farore for their safety, peace, and happiness in the world beyond death.
He didn't sleep that night, feeling no need to. Instead he spent the hours in a light trance, and at last, when the moon reached its peak in the sky, he woke from the trance with his body fresh, his mind alert, and all his senses focused one simple piece of knowledge: it was time to find Ganondorf. It was time to finish this war.
He rose without hesitation and went to the horse pen for Demon, Navi trailing behind him. After he'd finished saddling Demon, he looked up at the little fairy. "Listen," he said quietly, "now is when it all ends, one way or another. I'm going to find Ganondorf and I have no idea if I'll come back alive. If I can kill him that'll be enough, but I may not even get close. 'Dangerous' is an understatement. Are you sure you want to come?"
Navi didn't hesitate. "Of course I'm coming! You need me. I'll help, you'll see!"
"Okay." Link smiled and took Demon's reins in his hand. "Thanks, Navi. Let's go."
He turned. Zelda stood before him, blocking his way.
For a long moment, the silence between them was deafening. "You're going, aren't you?" she asked quietly at last.
"Yes," he answered her levelly.
There was another silence. She seemed to be struggling to find the right words to say. Link waited.
"You will come back?" she said at last.
Link let Demon's reins drop and moved toward her. "Zelda, I swear to you that after tonight, you will be a true queen." It was a foolish thing to promise, he knew. But he wanted her to have something to hold on to. "I'll kill him no matter what."
The tears slipped freely down her cheeks. "You will come back?"
He slid his arms around her and pulled her against him, pressing his lips against her hair. "I love you, Zelda."
"Don't say that!" she cried as he pulled away from her and went to grasp Demon's reins once more. "Don't talk like this is goodbye!"
He tugged Demon's reins gently and led the gelding past her in silence.
"Promise me that you'll come back!"
Link mounted Demon and kicked him into a gallop, riding hard and fast away from the woman he loved.
"Promise!"
He didn't look back.
* * *
The fire that blazed yet on the castle wall was a blessing hundredfold to Link. The blaze kept Ganondorf's forces so busy that they had no attention to spare for a lone warrior making his way toward the castle.
Demon was silent and swift as a shadow, approaching the castle at a wide arc. The fire was mostly contained to the area around the gate; even if it wasn't still blazing, Link could hardly have just strolled right in. He would have to find another way.
Navi flew ahead of him to inspect a section of the wall that wasn't on fire while Link stayed well back with Demon, worried about any enemy soldiers possibly patrolling the top of the wall. In just moments Navi zoomed back, fairly shaking in excitement.
"I found an opening!" she squealed. "I think it's for draining water into the moat. It looks big enough for you to squeeze through!"
Link nodded, not exactly thrilled. "This is it," he said, licking dry lips.
Demon whickered softly, pushing against his shoulder. Link turned and gripped his reins, laying his forehead against the gelding's muzzle. "Listen, boy, I can't take you with me any further," he said softly. "Go back to the camp and look after Zelda for me, okay? Look after all of them."
Demon snorted. Link let him go, patted his neck and stepped back. "Get going," he said firmly.
The gelding reared with a loud whinny, then wheeled about and galloped back in the direction that they'd came. Link turned resolutely toward the castle. "All right, Navi. Lead the way."
* * *
Demon was an exceptionally bright young gelding who served an exceptionally bright young human. He understood the idea of friend and foe. He understood the concept of fighting to protect himself and those around him, especially the master who rode on his back. And he understood that a great herd of men and unnatural creatures creeping toward the two-legger paddock in the dead of night was very bad for the sleeping, defenseless men and women.
He watched the herd coming from the top of a ridge, every nerve quivering in fear and the excitement that comes before a fight. His master would know what to do, were he here. But his master had gone with the small fairy to the great stone stable. He had told Demon to look after his herd. It was up to Demon to save the two-leggers in the paddock.
He wheeled about and trotted lightly away, trembling. The enemy herd must not hear him. He broke into a soft canter when he thought it was safe, then slid into a swift, silent gallop, fleeing like a shadow to the two-legger paddock.
He spotted the woman who was often at his master's side, whom his master had told him to look after. She would do. She was sitting in the grass with a faraway look in her eyes, but as Demon raced toward her, she snapped out of her daze, stood, and caught his bridle as he skidded to a halt before her.
"What is it?" she demanded in her language. Demon told her the best he could in his, with urgent whinnies and headshakes, pawing at the earth and rearing as far as permitted with her grip on his bridle. He tossed his head in the direction of the enemy herd, and she looked beyond him, down the long hill.
"Demon, what's wr—" She stopped abruptly. Her eyes became very large and round. "Farore's mercy," she whispered.
* * *
Link slipped and slid through a cramped drainage pipe full of slimy muck he didn't want to think about, emerging on the other side of the castle wall. Abruptly it hit him, and he froze. He was on Ganondorf's land now.
Before him was the most desolate place he had ever seen, including the desert in the west. What once must have been a flourishing castle town in the days of the Hylian Kingdom was now a ghost town, stretches of sparse, dead soil broken only by crumbled piles of wood, brick and stone that had undoubtedly once been homes. The sky overhead swirled with angry black thunderclouds and the rain that fell in a light, steady drizzle was dirty and gray. The soil permitted no plant life, and he saw no sign of a single living creature save for himself and Navi.
The silence pressed heavily on his shoulders. Link clenched his jaw and began moving, trying to ignore his growing terror.
"Keep your eyes peeled, Navi," he whispered. The fairy bobbed agreeably and flew on ahead to scout.
As Link wandered deeper and deeper into the ruined ghost town, his appreciation of Navi grew tenfold. The little fairy was a goddess-send. She directed Link's way through the wreckage, sought out the safest paths, and steered him well clear of enemy soldiers. Twice she stopped him just in time of walking right into Ganondorf's monsters.
He wondered why they didn't encounter more foes, but decided the burning castle wall must be keeping them busy. It too was a blessing, though he prayed fervently that Saria didn't pay for it with her life.
Outside the castle keep, he halted and fought back the incessant urge to turn and run and never look back. The great black castle towered into the clouds above, its doors thrown open in sinister invitation. Ganondorf was waiting.
"Navi?" Link asked softly.
"I'm coming," was her firm reply.
He nodded. There was no turning back now. On legs turned to lead he walked forward, into his destiny.
* * *
Zelda threw herself across Demon's back and hauled into an upright position, checking her balance without a grip on the reins. She would certainly need her hands free. She prodded Demon with a toe to turn him, then slapped her heels against his flanks. The gelding surged forward in a gallop as Zelda twisted around in the saddle to check the position of the enemy and take a head count. She counted roughly a thousand. One thousand sneaking in the dead of night on her approximately five hundred uninjured survivors, most of whom were asleep.
The sentry was snoring by his bellpost. Zelda kicked him sharply as Demon thundered past—now was the time for neither subtlety nor manners. The sentry jolted awake with a loud "oof!" and leapt to his feet.
"Sorry sir, was just having a little—"
"Wake up!" Zelda snapped. "Sound the alarm! The enemy is coming!"
The sentry gaped at her, open-mouthed. "Wha…?"
"RING THE DAMN ALARM! RING IT, NOW!"
The sentry snatched up his hammer and began pounding on the bell as Zelda kicked Demon into a gallop once again, racing off through the camp. All around her soldiers started awake at the ear-splitting clangs, leaping to their feet and blindly drawing weapons.
"Attack!" Zelda cried as Demon thundered back and forth through the camp. "Arm yourselves, the enemy is coming!"
Zelda spotted Impa in the chaos and drew Demon up short. The Sheikah held her longbow and a quiver full of arrows.
"Give me my weapons!" Zelda snapped. "That is an order!"
Impa handed them up to her without argument. "How many?" she demanded.
"A thousand. Where the hell is Valan?"
"Right here," the general replied, galloping up on his black Thunder. His broadsword was slung over his back; sweat stood out on his forehead. "This is bad."
"I know," Zelda said edgily. "Nothing we can do. Let's go!"
The three split apart. Zelda heard Valan's bellows as she galloped away and smiled grimly. He would get their soldiers into order.
She halted, nudging the tip of her longbow in the dirt and pressing down with her weight; she looped the string around the other end and selected an arrow. Squeezing Demon with her knees, she got him moving again as the first of the enemy arrows began to rain down upon the camp.
* * *
The interior of the castle was much like the desert citadel where he had first encountered Ganondorf—a labyrinth of stone corridors, dimly lit and far too quiet. He and Navi ghosted through the empty halls, matching the castle's silence. The hair on the back of Link's neck was standing straight up. They should have encountered something by now; the lack of enemies unnerved him far more than their presence would have.
He could see Navi quivering as she flew beside him. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"Are you?" she countered shrewdly.
Link shook his head grimly. Everything about this place was wrong.
They went steadily forward nonetheless. Link had the feeling that something was guiding him through the stone maze, but whether it was the goddesses or perhaps Ganondorf himself he didn't know. His nerves were humming; so was the Master Sword, naked in his hand. Navi halted in midair to peer down a side corridor.
"I think it's this way."
There was an opening straight ahead. Link stared at it, aware that the Master Sword was singing. His heart thundered in his chest as he moved resolutely forward.
"Link—" Navi caught up to him, exasperated.
"It's this way," Link informed her.
"How do you know?"
"I just do."
Navi fell silent at the firmness to his tone. Link's feet carried him forward as if they had a mind of their own. The corridor opened into a wide, empty hall, the floor underfoot black marble, the high ceiling supported by dozens of gray columns. A lone figure stood, silent and still, in the middle of the room.
* * *
By the time Ganondorf's sneak army reached the camp, its inhabitants had pulled themselves into some semblance of orders. Weapons crashed together with screeches of metal on metal as arrows rained from the sky. The horses broke free of their paddock and came to the aid of the human soldiers, screaming their own war cries. Zelda raced back and forth through the chaos on Demon's back, burying her arrows into enemy targets.
A terrible scream of fury echoed above them; Zelda winced as Blue swept down over the battle in her dragon form. The dragon gave the enemy soldiers something to fear; they remembered her razor-sharp talons and soul-killing rage from the battle that morning. Zelda saw a pig-man hurl his spear up at Blue; she dodged it by a mile and Zelda quickly shot the pig through the throat.
Demon screamed and reared as a lizard flew at them with a high-pitched screech. An arrow shaft blossomed suddenly in the lizard's throat, cutting off its cry; it fell to the dirt and lay unmoving. Zelda wheeled Demon about to see Rowen standing in the midst of the battle, fitting another arrow to her recurved bow.
Zelda gaped. "R-Rowen? What in Din's name are you doing here?"
Rowen leveled her bow at another enemy and loosed an arrow. "Did you really think I'd just hide in the ranch?" she said savagely, setting another arrow to nock. "After what he did to my family? After what that—that bastard took from me?!" Her arrow bloomed in an enemy Gerudo's back. "How dare you deny me my revenge?!"
Zelda looked into Rowen's eyes and saw the same anger and determination that she felt. Ganondorf had attacked both of their people. They would fight for the deceased and to protect the rest, to the death if need be. Zelda nudged Demon close and held out a hand.
"Come on."
Wordlessly Rowen grasped her hand and let Zelda pull her up behind her in the saddle. "You shoot to the left, I'll shoot to the right," Zelda ordered.
"Got it!"
Zelda kicked Demon into a gallop once more. The gelding thundered through the camp as the two women grimly shot, drew, and shot again, burying their arrows into dozens of enemies.
Zelda checked her inventory and found it lacking as Demon slowed, his eyes rolling, searching for anyone stupid enough to get within range of his hooves. "How are you on arrows?" she called back to Rowen.
"Not good."
Zelda unsheathed the dagger kept at the small of her back and slung her bow over a shoulder, nudging Demon into a canter. "Pick your targets," she said grimly as Blue swept by overhead, shrieking a war cry.
Then she saw it. The dust seemed to clear, the fighters to part, and her eyes found the creature making its slow, unstoppable way through the battlefield—an Iron Knight.
Her blood froze in her veins. The Iron Knight carried a giant spear in place of the usual war-axe, crowned with a serrated spearhead; she watched in frozen terror as it gutted a screaming woman who'd failed to get out of its range. Her fighters broke rank and ran.
Rowen fired an arrow at the knight; it glanced harmlessly off its armor. The woman's vehement curse broke through Zelda's trance. She swung out of the saddle and scooped a dead pig's glaive off the ground, shaking so badly that she could barely hold the weapon. "Cover me!" she snapped at Rowen, trying to keep the terror out of her voice, and darted toward the knight.
"Are you crazy?!" Rowen bellowed, galloping after her.
Blue swept overhead and dove down, fastening her claws into the knight's armor and wrenching away the chest plate. Aim for the exposed flesh! the dragon ordered as she banked and came back for another pass.
Zelda saw what looked horribly like a human torso before she swung the glaive up in a sweeping arc; the knight deflected it with the staff of his spear, flinging her to the ground as easily as though she were a rag doll. She rolled away just as the serrated blade of the spearhead struck the dirt where she'd lay and scrambled to her feet, gasping at the knight's strength. A hand grasped her arm and yanked her back out of the Iron Knight's range.
"You're going to get yourself killed, you idiot!" Impa snarled.
"Somebody has to fight that thing!" Zelda snapped back.
Rowen loosed an arrow; it struck the knight's torso. He roared and started toward Rowen and Demon as though the arrow were no more than a pinprick, but Blue dove again, striking from behind and tearing a deep gouge in its shoulder. The knight stumbled, off-balance, then whirled and hurled its spear at the dragon.
Blue shrieked as the spear tore through her torso and out her back; her wings gave out and she slammed into the dirt.
"NOOOOOOO!"
Zelda didn't realize that she screamed; didn't remember that the Iron Knight possessed ten times her strength; she barely knew it when she attacked, but the knight swung a ham-sized fist and struck her collarbone with a sickening crack and a blaze of pain that turned the world upside down. She fell to her knees, retching, and found herself unable to rise again. She watched in a painful haze as Blue struggled to her feet, still impaled on the knight's spear and covered with blood, and attacked again, tearing through what remained of the knight's armor to the flesh beneath. Rowen fired arrow after arrow while Impa scooped up the glaive Zelda had dropped. The three surrounded the knight, striking and retreating, snake-like.
A shadow fell over her; she looked up into the grim face of an enemy Gerudo. She raised her scimitar, and Zelda let her eyes fall. With a broken collarbone she couldn't fight back; she could barely even move. In peace, she waited for the end.
But the blow never came. Zelda heard a soft thwap and a strangled gasp and looked quickly up; an arrow sprouted in the Gerudo's chest. She grasped the shaft vainly, then her knees buckled and the woman collapsed into the dirt.
Ronin stood some yards behind the fallen Gerudo, lowering his bow. The blood froze in her veins at the expression on his face; Zelda had never seen such terrible fury. He strode forward, yanking the feather from his hair and transforming it instantly to steel; Zelda shrank back as he passed her, heading directly for the Iron Knight.
When Impa feinted with the glaive, throwing the knight off balance, Ronin struck, driving the steel feather deep into the knight's abdomen and pushing up to the ribcage. Dark gouts of blood sprayed from the sliced torso, coating Ronin; Blue lunged in to lock her jaws around the knight's neck. It thrashed and shuddered in the death throes, then at last went still.
Blue released her grip on the Iron Knight's neck and staggered back. She grasped the spear in her torso and yanked it from her body, then instantly transformed to her human form. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed into Ronin's arms.
A sensation on her collarbone like the light press of a cool hand and the presence of a red fairy beside her told her she was being healed. "Thank you," Zelda whispered as the pain receded to a dull throb and struggled to her feet.
Rowen, Demon, and Impa ranged themselves around Ronin and Blue as a sort of honor guard. The battle seemed frozen around them as Zelda staggered toward the circle. Impa gripped her arm, holding her back. "Let them be," the Sheikah said quietly.
Blue, she could see, was still alive. She stared unblinkingly up into Ronin's face, blood trickling from a corner of her mouth. Neither of them spoke aloud, but Zelda wondered what thoughts they shared, in this final moment.
At last Blue's eyes closed. She stiffened, then slowly relaxed. Ronin shifted to lay her gently on the ground, cupping her head beneath his hand.
Zelda dug her nails into her palms into they bled, tears streaming down her face.
Link, wherever you are, don't you give up until he's dead. For this life, and so many others.
She called upon the power the goddesses had given her, burning brighter than ever before in her sorrow and rage, and let it carry her consciousness away from the battlefield to find a lone, golden figure in the depths of Ganondorf's castle.
She, too, would have her revenge.
* * *
To be continued.
* * *
The Destined Q & A
A couple of chapters ago Mina-chan asked some questions that I forgot to answer, so I'll do that now.
Q: Would this be something like a generation 2, something after the Ocarina of Time storyline?
A: I'm not exactly sure what you mean by generation 2, but The Destined is set after the OoT storyline, and Zelda in The Destined is the daughter of Link and Zelda in Ocarina of Time.
Q: Did you make up that theory of the Sheikah?
A: That they're shadows of whomever they serve? Yep, that's all mine.
Thanks for reading!