(A.N. I'm back! Another chapter to this complicated story. Before I go on, I have some comments I need to say:

The person who accused me of ignoring their suggestion of not letting Zelda and Link sleep together had better re-do their reading lessons: IT WAS A FLASHBACK!!!! They don't sleep with each other in the future, but they did ONCE in the past. Besides, where did Zelda and Link's son Derek come from? The stork?)

To Take Chances

Chapter 10

Zelda felt an enormous amount of weight fall off her shoulders as she and Link sat on the stairs in the courtyard, watching the stars and moon. She felt almost complete- but the prospect of having to kill her husband still nagged the back of her head.

"Link?"

"Hmm?"

"How long are you staying in Hyrule for?"

"Until morning- I have unfinished business to attend to tomorrow."

Zelda sighed. She knew that Link had made a new life for himself in another country- he had told her that he was a local hunter and gatherer for a village on the other side of the Lost Woods.

He had assured her that he wasn't married or had a lover, which calmed Zelda immensely.

Link noticed the stricken look on Zelda's face. "Don't worry, I'll be back by sundown."

Zelda smiled at him, knowing full well what Link said was not the thing that was worrying her. "Thank you," she whispered as Link wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She reached up and stroked the scar on Link's cheek. "How did you get this?"

"A Wolfos thought I was his next meal," Link replied. "He scratched me across the face before I killed him with my sword."

Zelda shook her head. "You probably accidentally cut yourself as you were playing with your sword," she said, teasing.

Link raised an eyebrow. "You make a mockery of my honour? Your majesty, how could you?"

Zelda nudged Link in his side. "Whatever you say," she said. "Just don't let your egotistical mind get too big."

"That'll never happen," Link replied, as a pair of fireflies flew by.

Zelda yawned and stretched as she stood. "I might as well get some rest," she muttered as she rubbed her eyes. "I have a lot of work to do tomorrow, concerning my husband."

Link's face showed the look of confusion. "Concerning your husband?" he said. "Isn't he at the war? That's what I heard. Is he fighting or is he just staying at the back of the line, like a coward?"

Zelda smiled. "He's the biggest coward I've ever known, because what you just said about him staying at the back of the line is true." She sighed. "I have a matter of utmost confidentiality that I can't even tell you for fear of someone hearing."

Link's face fell. "You don't trust me?"

"I'm sorry Link- I'll tell you when the time is right." Zelda kissed him on the cheek. "I'd better turn in." She began to walk away.

Link jogged up to her and scooped her up into his arms and swung her around, kissing her passionately. "What about my goodbye?" he said as he put Zelda down.

Zelda grinned and tweaked Link's nose. "Goodnight Link," she replied as she quietly opened the door leading to a hallway to her rooms. "I'll see you soon."

Zelda closed the door behind her and leaned against it, sighing with contentment. She glanced around her, making sure that no one was walking down the hallway, before making her way towards her rooms.

After locking her rooms' doorway after entering, Zelda made her way towards the large window where she often sat to think and dwell. Zelda sat and looked out onto the night, noticing a lone rider on his horse making his way towards the Lost Woods.

Zelda smiled; she knew it was Link, for her Triforce on the back of her hand glowed a little brighter as she kept her focus on the rider until she lost sight of him.

A knock suddenly sounded on her door, frightening Zelda from her thoughts.

She lit a candle and threw a dressing gown on over her dress, while messing up her hair, making it seem that she had been sleeping moments before.

She unlocked and opened the door to reveal a sleepy servant.

"Your Majesty," the servant croaked. "I have urgent news from the Royal Council, who wish to have your presence in an emergency meeting in the Conference Room."

Zelda nodded to the servant. "I will be there in a moment," she replied. "I just need to get something."

Zelda closed and locked the door. She changed into a clean plain-looking green dress and brushed her hair. She wrapped a white shawl over her shoulders before walking out of the door, carrying a lit candle in its holder.

Opening the door of the Conference Room, Zelda immediately saw that there was a problem. Several of the men were pacing around the room, their hands gripped tightly together behind their backs. A couple of them were muttering to themselves, obviously upset.

"Now will someone tell me what the urgent news is?" Zelda said, startling the Councilmen into bowing awkward bows.

"It's horrible your Majesty," Kenrith said. "The assassin we hired- he has been brutally murdered by one of the King's Guard."

Zelda gripped the sides of the table. "And what of Jonah? Does he know?"

The men glanced at each other until Rupert spoke up: "The assassin was carrying the letter of instructions with him- signed by all of us. Now his Majesty wants us all executed for treason and he believes that you were the one who thought up the idea." He swallowed nervously. "He's begun his journey home right now- he will be back by early afternoon tomorrow."

Zelda's forehead began to sweat. "This is not happening- it just can't!" she muttered as she leaned her head in her hands, staring at the polished surface of the wooden table.

"Well it just did, your Majesty," one of the men said. "And we're all going to pay with our heads."

Zelda gripped the edge of the table with one hand while running a hand through her hair with the other. Thoughts ran through her head of horrible images of how Jonah was going to make her pay. Then, a mere miracle suddenly came to her. An idea.

"Gentlemen," she began. "Please sit and let's put our heads together so we can think of a way to get out of this mess. I have an idea that could start us off, but I'm not sure if it's effective." Zelda then had one of the men write down each of the ideas that came to mind of the Council, even if they were small ideas.

"My idea is that I accuse his Royal Rodent Self of adultery, while I pay some of his female staff to stand trial against him." Zelda took a breath. "And I know for a fact that Jonah hasn't been faithful to the marriage, so I'm determined to seek out his lover- or lovers- and use them to destroy him by having him plead guilty on the charge of adultery, thus having myself appointed the sole ruler and having him banished from this land forever."

Zelda paused to look around at the astonished faces staring at her attentively. Then, one by one, they smiled.

"That's a brilliant idea your Majesty," one of the men who was responsible for writing down the ideas of the Council. "I'm writing every detail."

Zelda received many compliments to her plan, but she still wasn't satisfied.

"Well, gentlemen," she said. "We need more ideas and plans- we need a Plan B and several more after that just in case the plans before don't work accordingly."

It was an intense few hours as the men of the Council threw in their ideas on how to advert the death sentence, many of them suggesting faking their own deaths and living in another country under new names.

"But what about your families?" Zelda asked after listening to the elaborate idea of faking one's death. "Have you thought about them? The grief they'll suffer? Their security?"

The men glanced at each other and bowed their heads.

Zelda sighed. "I guess not," she answered her own question.

"Your majesty, we have run out of ideas," Rupert spoke up. "We have no choice but to follow your original plan and make it as successful as possible."

Zelda rubbed her eyes and yawned. Daylight was starting to break and she was exhausted from the eventful night.

"We shall discuss this plan later after we have had our rest," she said, standing up. "At 8 O'clock, we will begin to break this plan down to the finest detail so that nothing will go wrong."

The men nodded and followed the Queen out of the room.

"And the sun will shine,

Follow the light.

Your heart will guide you,

To the end of your flight."

Zelda gently sang her son's favourite lullaby as he settled down to sleep for the night.

Zelda missed having to spend time with her son, but running a country with the prospect of being executed by her husband kept her from seeing Derek, who was now six and was growing taller and more handsome by the day- just like his father, Zelda commented to herself.

Zelda took a chance to gaze at the face of her son, wondering what he was dreaming about in his sleep. Zelda hoped that he was flying amongst the clouds with exotic birds, away from the troubles brewing between her and Jonah.

After quietly closing her son's room's door behind her, Zelda quickly made her way towards the Council Room, where she was to converse with three maids who her Councilmen had found who claimed to have had slept with Jonah- and one of them was pregnant.

"Tell me again- Sari, was it? – When was your encounter with his Majesty?" Marcus asked the youngest maid, who looked around 15, and was visibly pregnant.

Sari fiddled with the hemming of her dress. "It was around five months ago, I was cleaning up around his office when he came in and offered me a chance to have a secured future." She rolled her eyes. "As you can see, what that encounter has gotten me into."

Zelda twisted a handkerchief in her hands under the table, away from visible eyes. Although to the men and the maids, Zelda looked calm and collected, inside she was writhing with rage and thoughts of painful revenges towards Jonah came to her mind as she listened to the interviews between the Councilmen and the maids.

"…And that's what happened." The last of the maids said. "I didn't mean any harm towards the marriage, but he had this influence that causes you to never refuse what the King asks of you."

Zelda glanced at the maid. "What sort of influence?"

The maid bowed her head in protocol. "I don't know your Majesty- I can hardly remember. All of us say that he has this sort of power that makes you believe every word the King says."

Zelda thought back to her wedding night and the time where Jonah had cornered her that fateful night Adalia was conceived. All she remembered was that she had drunk a drink that Jonah had handed to her and lost all sense of thought- and memory.

"It is not a power," Zelda said. "It was a drug. You girls have been drugged and tricked into sleeping with Jonah- and you are not the only ones." She took a breath. "I was also a victim of his memory drug."

The maids covered their mouths in shock. "Oh no your Majesty! You cannot have! You are too strong-willed; you would've fought!"

Zelda shook her head. "I have something to ask of you three- do you wish to bring your information forth to the Royal Court for proof in the accusation of adultery against Jonah?"

The maids all nodded their agreement to Zelda. "We won't let you down your Majesty," Sari said. "And I can double my proof by having my baby checked by a healer to prove it's real father- the King."

Zelda stood and smiled thinly. "Good," she said. "I will see all of you in the late morning to present our case to Court." She glanced at the Councilmen. "At 10 O'clock, the trial of the charge of adultery towards Jonah will commence."

("Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day! I've left you in a cliffie! Everything's going my way!" Based on the Oklahoma musical song "Oh What A Beautiful Morning".) ;)