Chapter Three—Transitions
We rode long and hard, through the night, until the sun rose red, until it was high in the heavens. And all that time, I didn't think. I simply felt the rhythm of the horse's hooves beneath me, beating out our escape, pounding along with my heart. Tha-da-dum, tha-da-dum.
It was somehow peaceful, though grief was still raw inside me. The feeling of Impa behind me, warm and alive behind her cold armour, was reassuring. I found I wanted to sleep, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to. The dying screams of everything I had known were still echoing in my mind…
"NO!"
"Go, Zelda, go…"
Tha-da-dum.
Tha-da-dum.
"Don't stop for anything…"
Wordless shrieks of death.
Tha-da-dum.
"I know you can…"
Tha-da-dum.
"…be strong…"
Tha-da-dum.
My tears were as hot as blood. I wiped my face. It was cold.
Behind me, Impa was breathing loudly, like the horse was before me.
I think I was, too.
Tha-da-dum.
Tha-da-dum.
In this way, the hours passed. My mind and body settled into a state of such complete dullness that the constant beating they were sustaining was no longer hard to endure. It was simply there, much as I was. The field before us was endless.
We were going to Lake Hylia, south. Southwest. There would be water there, and rest, and…
We let the horse water at Lake Hylia, and we bathed. Part of me wanted to scrub my skin until it was raw, to somehow rub off the memories, but part of me didn't want to wash away the only thing I had left of my father—his blood.
"Hurry," Impa said to me briskly. She was already clean and mostly dressed.
"Yes, Impa."
She explained my new identity as I wiped my skin clean, watching the swirls of red dissolve in the cold, clear lake.
"Your name is Sheik, and you're my nephew, the son of my sister, who died giving birth. Your father fell ill and died four years ago, which makes you an orphan, which is why you were living with me at the castle. You were a friend of the princess's. That's why we're running from Ganondorf. Understand?"
"Yes," I said quietly. I hadn't put together a sentence yet; I hadn't really put together a thought. Now, though, I added juvenilely, "Look… the blood is gone. My dad's blood is gone…" and I saw a tear drop into the water next to me.
Impa waded in to where I stood and held her hand out to me. "Are you alive?"
"Yes," I whispered, my eyes still fixed on the water as I took her hand.
"Then your father's blood is not gone."
I managed to force my eyes up look at her, and the expression I saw reminded me why it had never been hard for me to look her in the eye before. I couldn't smile, but I did feel some of the icy numbness in my core melt away.
I dressed myself in a blue and white bodysuit Impa gave me, a Sheikah boy's outfit, that covered all of my body except my hands and my face. Impa showed me how to tie my hair up in a turban, opting not to cut it so that I could reveal my true identity when I needed to, but also, I think, to let me hold onto something of my old self. Then she showed me how to wrap the lower part of my face in cloth so that all anyone could see of me was my eyes, and a few wisps of my hair. To be even more secure, she showed me how to use my magic to turn those eyes red, and to turn my skin bronze.
As Impa packed up the saddlebags, I sat down and focused myself on delivering a telepathic message to Link. It was difficult, since I had never forged such a connection with him before, but I managed to communicate to him the notes of the Song of Time and refresh his memory as to what he had to do.
::It's not too late…:: I sent to him. ::There's hope as long as the goddesses reign.::
He was not so adept at telepathy that he could send me words, but I could get emotions from him. There was no fear, only confidence and trust.
"We're ready to go," Impa called. I opened my eyes and saw that everything was ready; the only thing left out was my blood-soaked dress. I shivered.
"What are we going to do with that?"
"Throw it in the lake, where the Gerudo Valley river feeds it," she told me in a perfectly business-like tone. "People should take it as a sign that the thieves killed the princess."
She was already acting as though I wasn't Zelda. Looking at the dress, I felt as though the princess who had worn it really was dead.
"Come on," said Impa, grabbing the dress. "Let's mount up."
I climbed into the horse, followed by Impa. She gave the horse a short command in Sheikah and it trotted to the other side of the lake. She tied the dress in a knot, drew back, and sent it flying easily into the water. We watched it fall, hitting with a dull splash and slowly sinking in a bubbling, satin waves.
"Let's go find my friends," Impa said into the silence. "They'll have heard of the coup, and they'll be expecting us. Aven!" she added to the horse, flicking the reins lightly. We were off, the wind roaring alongside us, Impa in front, I with my arms around her waist and the strange feeling of no breeze in my hair. I had always wanted to ride like a boy, but somehow, it wasn't as fun as I'd imagined.
We had just leapt the fence separating Lake Hylia from Hyrule Field when I felt something hit the earth with the force of an earthquake. At the same time, it hit me, and I opened my mouth to cry out, but couldn't.
Something was swelling inside me, some irresistible force that smothered all else, including my voice… I clutched at my chest, because my heart was seized with some intense energy that felt as though it could overwhelm me; even as I did this, I noticed that my right hand was burning, but it wasn't painful…
"Impa, what's happening?" I gasped, strained by the sheer magnitude of the force that felt as though it was trying to rip its way out of me. "Do you feel that?"
I grabbed at her more tightly for support, unsure if I still had control of my body. She saw my hand and gasped.
"Ganondorf has penetrated the Sacred Realm! He has touched the Triforce!"
"But… how…?"
Impa shook her head thoughtfully. Then, comprehension dawning on her face, she breathed, "Link. Of course."
"Link would never—!"
"No, not on purpose. But Ganondorf could easily have followed him through the Door of Time, hidden in the shadows, so that when Link took the Master Sword…"
Even as she spoke, the feeling within me subsided gently, melting away into my soul. The relaxation that followed was a beautiful feeling, but I couldn't forget the other emotions that rocked within me.
"So it's over," I said softly. "Ganondorf has the Triforce."
"He doesn't. Don't you remember what happens when someone like him touches the Triforce? You've learned this."
I thought about it. "It splits up," I concluded, "into its three parts. So Ganondorf has the one he values…"
"Power, obviously."
"…and the other two are hidden inside people the goddesses chose."
"Link holds the Master Sword. He is the Hero of Time. That means he has the Triforce of Courage. And the Triforce of Wisdom, in my opinion, went to Princess Zelda."
I glanced at my right hand, and saw an image of the Triforce, like a birth mark. The Triforce of Wisdom, the lower left, darker than the other two, was glowing slightly.
"That will fade once you've adjusted to it, but in the meantime, we'll have to hide it," said Impa, reverting back to her usual matter-of-fact self and rummaging through our luggage. She pulled out more of the fabric with which she had wrapped my face, and showed me how to tie it around my hands so that they were covered, better protected, and I still had full use of my fingers.
"There. That will be handy in battle."
I opened my mouth to ask what the meant by that. Was I actually going to be in battle? But she was still speaking.
"Now let's keep going. I told my friends where to meet us, so we're going due north from here."
Neither of us spoke as we rode. I don't know about Impa, but I was lost in thought. I couldn't turn my mind away from Link. I reached into the saddlebag and pulled out our copy of the Book of Goddesses; it was full of prophecies. It would explain about the Hero of Time.
I found this:
The Hero of Time is so called because he shall travel the currents of past, present and future, using the Master Sword as his vessel. As a child, he shall enter the Sacred Realm, acquire the Triforce of Courage, and be sealed for seven years.
He shall emerge as a True Hero, unknowing of his destiny, and save Hyrule from forces of evil. He shall pass from childhood to adulthood and back again many times during his quest for justice.
Seven years after the day he first seizes the blade of legend from its resting place, at exactly the anniversary of the moment, then shall he be revealed, and guided by Wisdom.
I closed the book. It had certainly given me plenty to think about, particularly time travel. If he was going to return to the past, his past, well, that was my present right now, wasn't it? Couldn't I find him somewhere and—and—do nothing, because he would already have been to the future. He would know things I wouldn't, and I already knew things he might never. It could never work.
We arrived at a place where two caravans were. Impa pulled the horse back to a walk and called, "Hello! Whose home is this?
A young Sheikah girl poked her head out of the closest caravan, a curious expression on her face. Seeing Impa, she beamed.
"Impa! Mom will be so glad to see you! After what happened up at the castle, we thought you'd be looking for us, you and that boy you told us about, your nephew." She smiled at me. "Is that him?"
I was more than a little nervous as this, my first encounter with someone I had to lie to. I hadn't practiced, and what if my act wasn't convincing? Making sure to lower my voice, I answered, "Yes. I'm Sheik."
Only then did I realize, quite suddenly, that I was speaking and understanding the Sheikah language. I had never been able to do that before—but I'd never had the Triforce of Wisdom before, either.
I looked at Impa for a reaction, but she was apparently too busy to notice that I had done anything unusual, greeting her Sheikah friends who had materialized from somewhere. All the Sheikah viewed her as one of the heroines of their race, the woman who had helped define them as a people and establish their role in Hylian society, one of the most influential peace-keepers in world history; she was, in short, "the great Impa."
"Oh, look at you!" said one woman, holding Impa at arm's length. "You've been riding hard, I can tell. Let's get you cleaned up. Boys!"
She called two boys, apparently her sons, one my age and one a bit older. They were looking at me dubiously.
"Would you help Sheik get himself washed?" she asked them.
I opened my mouth to protest, though I didn't know what I would say, but Impa spoke first.
"Don't worry about Sheik. He just cleaned up and changed clothes."
The woman looked at me. I thought she disagreed with Impa, but didn't want to speak up.
"All right," she consented. "Boys, show Sheik around."
"Yes, Mom," muttered both boys in unison. They shuffled towards me unhappily; I probably looked boring, shy and quiet.
Well, if they want to leave me alone, I thought slightly bitterly, I am completely satisfied with that.
I wasn't in the mood for male bonding. So I tried to seem even more withdrawn and intimidated than I felt.
There wasn't much to see. Each of the two caravans housed a family, a mother, father and children; the mothers of the families were sisters. The caravans were their homes, but at night they set up tents under the stars. The youngest siblings shared a tent, but at the age of seven they moved into individual ones.
After this short tour was over, Impa reappeared.
"Come over here, kids," said the woman who had greeted her, beckoning us to her. We gathered in a circle, seated ourselves on the grass, and Impa began to tell our tale.
"As you know, I have long been an attendant to the Hyrule Royal Family—nurse to the crown princess, Zelda, to be specific. But there was another child in the castle as well.
"Sheik came into my care four years ago, when his father, my younger sister's husband, fell ill and died. The king and queen were gracious enough to allow this boy into their home, as I was a trusted member of the household and Sheik's only family. I also suspect that perhaps they may have hoped to raise him into a sort of prince, a future husband for their daughter.
"For the most part, Sheik was integrated into the royal household. Having been only six when he left Sheikah culture, he doesn't know much about it. I have taught him some, such as the language, but he remains comparatively uninformed. The education he received from me was much the same as Zelda's. He is better versed, therefore, in the ways of a Hylian nobleman than a true Sheikah.
"But I digress. Recently, there came to our castle a visitor, an ambassador from the Gerudo—their king, in fact, Ganondorf Dragmire. He came offering peace. His words sound so false now, when I recollect them, though at the time we were all certain he was sincere, and that his arrival heralded the dawn of a new peace…
"Zelda, however, suspected he was planning something. She asked me to arrange something, in case we had to flee the castle. I contacted you to appease her, not because I truly believed her misgivings.
"Then, one night—Was it only last night? It seems days ago that it happened. I heard confusion, shouts, and realized to my horror that Zelda had been right.
"It pains me still to think on it. I hurriedly collected a few things and searched for Zelda. I found her nowhere… I found no living Hylians… I found the bodies of all the soldiers and of—of our noble king and gracious queen."
It was lucky that my face was covered at these words; I couldn't keep my face impassive and hide my secret. Impa went on, her voice thicker.
"I also found Sheik. His inborn guile as a Sheikah and his intimate knowledge of the castle had helped him to hide. He told me he had seen Zelda taken away by the troops, screaming all the way that she'd die before she'd be a Gerudo. They told her that if she obeyed, if she would take her role as princess under the new king, she needn't suffer. It seemed they had a plan to raise her to be Ganondorf's heir.
"She fought them, though. Of course she did. Sheik and I snuck through the shadows of the castle until we found where at least a dozen of them were dragging her towards the exit of the castle. I heard Ganondorf's voice added to the fray. 'If she won't shut up by night fall, you'll have to kill her. The people won't believe she's forsaken her parents for me if she screams otherwise for weeks on end!' And she screamed on: 'Never, never! You've killed my parents! I'll never be loyal to you! You are not the king! You're a murderer!' They were the last words of hers I heard as they bound her and took her away.
"Sheik and I took the few things I had packed, and a horse from the stables. We rode off west. We were the only loyalists left alive. We were determined to go to the Gerudo lands. If they weren't holding Zelda there, I could at least torture information out of high-ranking hostages.
"But as we rode over the river into Gerudo Valley, Sheik noticed something in the water, riding the current down into Lake Hylia, reddening the water around it with fresh blood that soaked it… It was Zelda's body. We recognized the dress. It could have been no other.
"We gave in to the hopelessness of our venture. Sheik and I watered at Lake Hylia for the night, purging ourselves of all the pain we had endured.
"In his ten years here, I must say Sheik has witnessed more suffering than any mortal should be expected to in the span of their existence. Yet I fear we will all very soon know even more."
Sleep did not come easily that night, though I had now been awake for over two days. How could I forget everything long enough to sleep? Impa's vivid tale brought back the images of the end of my old life.
That was how I would always refer to what the rest of the world would eventually call Ganon's Coup—the day I died.