Chapter Seventeen
The Sun Sets

Rael hurried through the streets of Hylia, nimbly dodging between people, keeping his head low, and maintaining a quick pace. The long road to the Great Wall that bordered Hylia, on the other side of the large city, was a long distance to run. Especially with the streets full of peasants and nobles alike hurrying around trying to find shelter from attack. Some women wept, and men shook with fear as they comforted wives and mothers. Children did not understand, but saw the fear in the eyes of their mothers and fathers.

Rael had no time to stop and take in the scene. Now was the time for his revenge!

The Kairin were moving to attack Hylia. How? It seemed almost impossible. Even if they had broken through the border cities, surely their numbers must be depleted by now. Rael knew little about the war, just that it had begun on that dreadful night at his home of Taran Kaey, and since, during the time he himself had travelled north here to Hylia, they had been making their way through the country, conquering land piece by piece. How were they doing it? It just didn't seem possible.

Words echoed in the back of his mind, voiced by Queen Zelda, the heretic he saw in the market, that horrible voice in his dreams…and now Ralis. Twilight is falling, twilight is falling, the Lord of Dusk is coming, there is no escape, nothing can stand against the Dark, you will die Light Born. That last was for him directly.

Light Born. That is what he had been called by that terrible shadow in the night… burning him in his dreams. He could still feel the lines of fire in his back, where the tendrils of fiery whips had punished him. He could still hear that high shrill voice, laughing, tormenting him, mocking him as he writhed in agony. 'I am coming, I am coming I am coming! You cannot escape me Light Born! I am close, close, close! I know who you are now! Soon I shall be free of your dreams and you shall see me with your waking eyes!'

Rael's feet continued to pound on the cobble-stone ground as he ran through the city, ducking through side streets to avoid crowds, but always moving towards the gates. Ever down the great hill, ever towards his goal. People yelled at him to watch his step, to slow down, and some people called him crazy for running towards the place where battle would soon begin. He ignored it all.

'Awaken to the night,' said Ralis in his mind. 'The Lord of Dusk is here. The sun and moon shall collide, and before the passing of one lifetime the world will be forever changed.'

The heretic, 'Marshal Ivarl al'Arantos is not who he seems. He controls Zelda like a puppet! As the maggot eats the cloth, so the Lord of Dusk is corroding from within, poisoning the mind of our only hope.' He remembered seeing that terrible looking man the day his dead father was revealed to him. Standing with Zelda all robed in black. That man was the Marshal, he just knew it.

How did it all fit together? How was he himself connected to it all?

Resh al'Shael, his father. No, Brash al'Aals, the Hylian general. They are the same man, but two different people. His father was no general, that part of his life was long gone when Rael and Ralis were born to him.

Zelda. Her son? She sent her son away when he was a babe. He was supposed to return to Hylia bearing that black and gold hilted sword. Ralis entered Hylia with the sword, but that was a mistake, a misinterpreted prophecy? Possibly.

Real just managed to duck under a horse before it could knock him to the ground. He ran under the archway of the Market Circle into the plateau of Lower Circle, and then on and on towards the Great Gates. A good half-mile away he could see a great assembly of soldiers, and all around him there were columns of armed men running down towards the gate.

From this angle he could see above the Great Wall to the plains, where in the distance there was a mass of black and purple clad soldiers larger than any army he could have imagined. They were what, two, three miles away? "Light," breathed Rael. He gripped his sword and hurried to reach the assembly of the Hylian Guard.

Now, ever more than ever, as though having an understanding of his situation was going to be vital in the coming battle, he tried to make sense of the facts. He was tied to this war somehow, he didn't have to like it, but he was no fool and was not going to deny his involvement. Ralis was involved too, his connection to the black and gold sword… Whatever it was, it was of significance.

Did this mean Mara was involved too? Daran? Tabett and Elane? Perhaps.

The Lord of Dusk. He had no idea what that meant, to be fair, but he was sure that he was linked to the Kairin, but what of all that about already being here?

This Marshal fellow, controlling the Queen? He didn't like the sound of that one bit. Whatever he didn't know, it was now blatantly obvious that the title of Lord of Dusk belonged to him. So what did that mean? That the Kairin are already controlling Zelda? That was crazy. How could that possibly be true?

Rael shouted out, an anguished cry, and tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword at his waist. He clenched on it so tightly that it hurt.

……

"Ralis?"

Ralis peered out through the gaps between his fingers. His eyes stung with sweat and tears, blurry and weak, and despite his ten day sleep they still felt incredibly tired. Even so, he could make out the perfect figure of his wife standing in the doorway.

His eyes adjusted, squinting and widening, and clear vision returned to him. Oh light, but she was so beautiful. She was the most beautiful woman in the entire world. Beside his beloved Mara, even Zelda seemed plain. A blue silk dress clung to her body, worked elaborately in thread-of-silver, the neckline was lower than she usually favoured. Her hair was fastened with gold hairpins, allowing dark waves to hang naturally, but gathered behind her head.

"Oh, Ralis!" she gasped, hurrying across the room to him, "What is going on!"

"The Kairin are coming," he muttered. Then he giggled quietly, "Rael is going to fight them. It's all my fault, you see."

"Rael is doing what! Oh Light, you are awake again!" She kneeled down beside him and flung her arms around him, gripping him tightly.

"I'm so sorry Mara," he said, starting to weep softly, "I should never have left you." He relaxed his muscles, and turned aside to return the embrace. She was so soft, so warm, so full of life… He had forgotten the touch of her flesh, the sound of her voice. He kissed her head as she buried her head into his chest.

"You wool-headed fool," she said both sternly and softly simultaneously, as only a woman could, "I should clout your head on the wall and throw you from the battlements," she laughed a tear, "I was so worried."

"I'm so sorry I left you. I just had to prove myself and I feared you would not understand. I had to prove myself for your sake, for my sake, for Da. But never again, not so long as I live. All I want is you, forever and ever. We will get away from all of this. Away from war, away from pain."

"Yes, away from it all," said Mara straightening up and looking into Ralis' eyes with such a look of respect and love that he could have died then a happy man, "just us." Mara sighed, "Ralis, I have something to tell you… something wonderful has happened." Her eyes glimmered with tears of joy.

"Mara…"

She smiled and ran her fingers through his hair, "Ralis, you're going to be a father…"

Ralis pressed his lips against Mara's and kissed her like he never had before. He would never left her go again. Not for anything beneath the sun. A passion blazed in his heart that would never die.

……

"Rael al'Resh, what are you doing here boy!" yelled Sergeant Jaker, breaking away from his unit and striding across the square in Rael's direction.

At the bottom the hill, just inside the Great Gates, lay a wide open paved square. From here were pathways that led off underneath the immense white walls to stairways and ladders to towers and battlements. There were easily two thousand soldiers in the square at present, and more were arriving every minute. All of the townsfolk were now well clear of the walls, the soldiers had made sure of that, and they were now arranging in rank and file.

Rael had been contemplating what to do with himself, standing there without armour or spear or bow, quite out of place, when Jaker had caught his eye.

He snapped to attention and saluted Jaker, more out of fear than respect. "Reporting for duty sir! I am a soldier of this city, and I intend to defend it, sir!"

"You are a student of the academy not a month through training!" barked the sergeant, stopping two paces short of Rael. "I have no time for this. I hardly want you to get yourself killed, but you are more capable than most of the sword-hands in this entire shambles of an army. Get in line, boy!"

"I have no armour sir," exclaimed Rael, considering turning back and running back to the Palace now that he understood what he was getting himself into.

"Then you better damn hope these Kairin are worse swordsmen then our lot! Get in line Private Rael!"

Rael swallowed his fear and hurried to get in line with the other soldiers.

Rael had learned about military tactics and formations as one of his first lessons in the academy. They were in Block Formation, five abreast and ten men deep. Blocks of fifty men were arranged in a neat row across the entire square. Ten Blocks in a row was called a Full Block. Currently, there were two Full Blocks side by side before the wall, Rael filed into a new Block that was being formed behind one in the first Full Block.

The archers were already taking up positions along the walls, hundreds of them, standing rigidly at attention as they each took their positions. No cavalry of course, not for defending a siege. Such a thing was generally unheard of.

It seemed no men were being kept in reserve at the palace, more Blocks kept arranging themselves. They were hard faced men, aged young up to those in their autumn years, with grim determination in the hard set of their jaws, and pride glimmering in their eyes.

Rael tightened his belt, and adjusted his shirt sleeves; he needed some sort of protection! He looked so out of place next to all these fully armed men. Well, at least he was taller than most of them, and had a soldier's build.

"Make way for the General!" came a cry from somewhere off behind him. He turned his head in the direction of the voice, and almost got trampled on when the lines of men all shifted a step to the left simultaneously. "Make way for Lord Dragan!" came another cry.

"The gods shine on Lord Dragan!" came another shout, louder.

All around him men took up this same shout, and spears were battered hard on shields and pounded on the ground. With nothing to lose, Rael took up the cry as well, "The gods shine on Lord Dragan!"

Dragan rode up between the two Full Blocks with his white steed at a canter. His robes were blood red worked in gold, his armour gleaming like silver, and an elaborate red and gold plume decorated his helmet.

Overhead, the sky was tinged with red and orange. Away west, the sun was setting into the hills. Soon, twilight would settle in across the land.

General Dragan rode his horse up the steps to the top of the wall. His horse made light work of the ascent. "These bloody Kairin!" he shouted down, in a rather a louder voice than he had used when Rael first met him, "think they can take our city! They are dark-blinded fools!" He put a fist to his chest, then raised his arm out over the mass of troops. "This is Hylia! This is our home! You are soldiers of the city, guards of the realm! You fight for Queen and country! Lady and land! Fulfil your oaths as the defenders of Hyrule and hold fast now against the vile plague that has seeped through our green kingdom!"

"For Queen and county!" Rael proclaimed with at least three thousand other soldiers. Their numbers were still increasing. "For Hyrule!"

Dragan now turned his attention to directing battle, and devolving command to officers. "Lerune! Take your company along the west wall and…"

His voice was lost into the sound of thousands of soldiers. Rael checked his sword blade and tensed his muscles. As an infantryman he would have no role to play unless, until rather – for it was inevitable - the Kairin breached the walls.

As he began to move with his Block, he found himself humming idly to himself. It was Zelda's tune… he heard he voice in his own head. '…shadow of night shall take us soon…softly creeping as dusk's fair blade…dark by sun and light by moon…dawn's lost embrace to the ancient shade…shall burn across our sacred land…and war shall rage in heavens halls…mountain, forest, sea, and sand…where shall we be when twilight falls…?'

Time passed. Rael itched for battle. The sound of the Kairin war horns could be heard beyond the walls.

An order went up for the archers to begin volleying.

The sun set on Hyrule.

Twilight fell.

……

Ralis stirred in his bed. Mara sighed dreamily as he rolled her naked body aside. He wrapped a blanket over her, and climbing out of his bed, rose to his feet. He was going to be a father. Light, if he had died when he rode South with the army… He dreaded to even think about it.

He crossed the bedchamber and peered out of the window. A battle had erupted at the walls of Hylia. It was dark, but by the glimmering torchlights and the half-light of dusk, he could see the battle. The city was under Kairin siege already.

He knew what he had to do now. The Sword. Rael. He would fulfil his promise his father, and everything would be right with the world once more.