Chapter Three

The next day in court, it was the Oracle of Ages, Nauru, who was with the delegation, and she commented that I had grown. She asked me to play with her the next day after my lessons. I joined her in the garden and we were joined first by Ian and Anna, who danced to the music, and then by the Princess. They were due to leave the next day, and before she left the garden where we were playing, she told me not to go to my mother's family without an escort. She did not know why. I respected her advice enough that when I requested permission from the King to go visit, I included a request for a escort. I asked Sir Wills to read over the request, and he was pleased both with me and with how well it was done, and he said he would send the message on for me.

A few days later, I had just come back from lessons and gone into the garden when I heard Anna and Ian screaming. I raced out to see a Dinofoe chasing them in the larger garden. Anna was running as fast as she could, but she was carrying Ian and it was gaining on her fast. The Dinofoe did not see me and I snatched her, running across its path, just in time to avoid the blast of fire. I got them to the only possible cover, a garden bench, and grabbed the only thing that was remotely a weapon, an iron pole used in trimming the hedges. I didn't have my pouch, with the boomerang and bow, not even one of the few Deku Nuts I had left. The creature was on us. The bench was a better shield than nothing for the children, but the iron rod was bad a weapon, and the monster slashed me a few times before Impa and Willie arrived. I saw Impa grab the children while Willie rushed the Dinofoe with his pike. The Dinofoe knocked him flying. I shoved the pole into the thing's mouth as it reared back to blow again, and ran for his weapon. I got it up and moving just as it spit the rod out of its mouth, and I used that pike to break its neck, just as the Captain and other soldiers raced in. I gulped air and stood still for a while all kinds of noise broke out. "It has death throes," I warned the Captain, and the soldiers approaching it jumped back as the arms twitched.

The Captain was moving me when a lady ran up and waved us into a gate and a room, saying she was a healer. She proceeded to wrap the large cuts in wet cloth and instructed the Captain to hold the cloths on my arm wounds to slow the bleeding while she examined my leg. She cleaned it in something that stung like the devil, and stitched it before bandaging. She then did one arm at a time. I told the Captain what the Dinofoe was and what happened. "Are the children all right?"

"Frightened to death, but not hurt otherwise," said a stately woman from the door. She looked a little rattled herself. The healer finished stitching my right arm and moved to my left. "Captain, the message just came that they want everyone involved to come to a meeting as soon as possible." I looked to see how much more the healer had to do. "Not you, young man!"

"But..." I said.

"No," the Captain and the healer said firmly. The Captain continued, "Between the witnesses and what you just told me, we don't need you at this moment."

"You've lost quite a bit of blood," the healer added. "You're going to get the shakes in a few minutes, and those cuts will start hurting enough to make you want to curse if they aren't already. Did it get you with that sword or those claws?" She was bandaging my arm as she spoke.

I could feel the after-battle reaction starting to hit me, just as she said. "I don't know," I admitted.

"We'll need to look sharp for fever, then," she said. "You need to go to bed. Who are your parents?" She stood over me, determined that I was not going to move. I told her I was right across from them, in the next room over; I could get there without a problem. By this time the children's nursemaid came in, and informed her that Link had no parents or guardians. She had clothes, one of which looked like a nightshirt, and behind her came Gwen, with water. The healer insisted on helping me bathe, but she did relent and made the other women leave. She inspected me from head to foot to see that I did not have other wounds, and sure enough, I did. She washed and put some kind of ointment on the smaller scratches, and embarrassed me by looking over the scars before letting me dress. There was some kind of robe with the nightshirt. Neither was mine, because they swallowed me. When I was decently covered, the healer left, telling me to stay put and she was bringing me something to drink. The stately lady, eyes and hair as dark as Ian's, came back in, waving at me to stay down when I started to stand.

"My children seem to know you," she said. I nodded. "I am Matilda, Duchess Lawrence." She smiled at my startled look. "And you are Link, they tell me and their friend that they visit in the garden, the ocarina player? Anna also tells me you don't have parents." I nodded again. "Whatever in the Goddess' name possessed you to go to their aid, I thank you. I saw the-creature- and you are very brave, to face such a thing. The least we can do for now is see that you have care until the cuts heal. Can you tell me what happened?" I told her what little I could. She listened, and then the healer came in to take me to a bed in another room. She had something she said was for pain, and some kind of clear soup. I did feel better after drinking it. I also felt tired, and wondered what was in the nasty tasting drink for pain. I didn't have a chance to ask, as Ian peeked in and rushed in as soon as he saw me, climbing the bed and huddling against me. Anna came in with somewhat more dignity to start with, then rushed over and started crying, sobbing that she was sorry, she couldn't run fast enough. I roused myself to tell her I got scratched up a little, I was fine, just tired. I told her she was brave to take Ian and run, and that she had done just what she should do. I told her that most adults would not have been that brave. I asked her if she saw where it came from, and she said a big cloud. She calmed down, still sniffling a little.

When the healer looked in on her patient, she found him, as she expected, asleep. She also found the two children asleep with him, huddled against him, one on either side, with his bandaged arms around them. She slipped away and got the nursemaid to help bring the children out of the room. The duchess was standing in the door as they approached. "He's not much more than a child himself is he?" she said quietly, as they looked at the bed. The nurse picked Ian up, and the healer managed to get Anna, without waking either the children or Link. The duchess pulled the door to a crack. She waited up for her husband, who had left in search of information. When he came in, she told him where Link was.

"Goddess," the duke muttered, and sighed. He stood at the door a time, studying the youth who had defended his children. He was a tall man, broadly built, with dark hair but the blue eyes of his daughter, and a short beard covering the lower part of his face. She offered him a meal, which he declined. "They had food at the conference," he said. Then he was quiet a moment, gathering his thoughts. "It's a long story. First, this is the young man who rescued the Princess from the dark magician in Labrynna. The one the stories are about. The Hero of Time stories."

She gasped. "But he's so young!" She looked over toward the room where Link lay sleeping.

"Just so. He's an orphan. When he was an infant, there was an attack on a village near the Lost Woods. His mother ran into the woods, wounded, seeking shelter. She died. The child lived, to be raised by the Fairy Children. He had his first adventure at twelve. He's been to Termina and Holodrum, too.The Princess brought him here, promising to help him find out who his parents are if they could. They had just found out who his mother was about a week ago. They tell me he still hasn't met the family. The King was just about to give him permission to go see them and set up a escort when this happened."

"Who are they?"

"The Links of Woldshold- Link's the child of Bethany Link." He waited as she absorbed this information.

"Isn't that the girl you were betrothed to, that ran away with your brother?" He nodded. "Goddess! That boy in there, the one who saved the children, you think he could be your nephew?" She pointed at the door. "And he doesn't know?"

"Until today, I thought the child died with his mother. There was no way to know any different."

"Were they married?"

"I think so, but I don't know for certain. I'd have to search for the record again. But if this is Bethany Link's child, and he looks remarkably like her, then he's my brother's son. I have no doubt of that. "

"Yes, but if he's not legitimate, they'll have first claim! I want to keep him with us, Stefan! "Her face twisted in a sudden sob. "No more than a boy, and he faced that-that thing-- to save our children! He was getting his arm stitched up, bleeding from the other and just had his leg sewn up, and he asked about the children. And when he was put to bed, the children went to him; we found them all asleep together. He's got no one else to go to, why not us? "Suddenly she was weeping. "We came so close to losing them, Stefan! So close!" He reached out and held her.

"I know," he said quietly, and let her weep. After a time, she calmed. "I'll search for the record tomorrow, along with the investigator working on this, and in the meantime, those wounds should keep him here, shouldn't they?" She thought so, and they went on to bed.

Link speaks

When I woke up the next morning, I was stiff and sore and my scratches ached, but they looked clean. It took me a moment to remember where I was. No one else was awake that I could see, except for the guard at the garden gate. He was looking out, and didn't see me slip through the gap in the hedge. I got dressed and went to the practice field, hoping they would go easy today. The stitches were sore, and I felt pounded. When I'm fighting, or in an adventure, I usually am either so rushed I ignore feeling bad, or I'm healed before I feel the worst. This time was different. I knew there was a Great Fairy not far away, but I wasn't sure she would heal me since I wasn't in a Goddess sponsored adventure and the closest place I could get a healing potion was Termina; for some reason all the potions shops in Hyrule were gone.

"Link, what are you doing here?" Impa asked. She was dressed for her daily workout. I blinked, not sure what she meant. "You have got to be the most stubborn, hard-headed..."

On hearing Impa scold, the Captain came out to see what was going on. "What are you doing here, Link?" Was there an echo in this room, I wondered, by now annoyed. "You had three cuts that needed stitches and had blood all over you yesterday. I thought you were with the Duchess' family until your cuts were healed. Willie's in bed today and he didn't take the pounding you did. "I asked what was wrong. "He's just bruised up. Now go back to bed before you pull those stitches out! Every soldier needs to rest after being wounded, and if you leave without the healer or the Duchess's permission again, I'll detail a man to sit on you. "

"I'll take him," Impa said. By this time I was as uncomfortable and sore as they knew I would be, and I walked back with her meekly enough, but one of the Princess's ladies stopped and offered to come and keep me company. Impa declined for me, to my vast relief. I said I had enough ladies bothering me, thinking of the nursemaid and the healer, and she said she would arrange for me to be left alone if I would drink a healing potion that she would make for me. I agreed fast. I knew I was in for a scolding when the healer saw me, and I would have agreed to just about anything to get out of it. Sure enough, as soon as I walked in the door, she was there. For a moment she just stared at me. Impa asked to speak to her, and she nodded to Impa, looked at me, and pointed toward the door to the room I slept in that night. I went. I have to admit it felt good to sit and lie back. After a time, the healer came in and checked the stitches, which were not pulled and were just a little red. She wrapped them again, and told me in no uncertain terms that I was to stay in bed for that day. The nursemaid brought me breakfast, and with it came the potion Impa made. It was hot but it didn't taste too bad. I drank it, and the nursemaid coaxed me to lie down. The next thing I knew, I was staring at lengthening shadows from the small, high window. I had slept away most of the day. Ian was peeking at me from the side of the bed. At least, I thought as I got a drink, I did feel better. The healer came in and smiled at me while I gulped water, then got some for Ian. Then she yelled at me for picking him up. Ian wasn't that big, but she looked at my cuts again anyway, before she let me eat. I remembered that the next day was my usual day off, and I stayed meek and did as I was told the rest of the day-what was left of it.

"Where's Link?"

The duchess looked up from Ian, who was in her lap eating his breakfast and making a mess. "I have not seen him. He's not in his room?"

"No." Duke Stefan frowned. He went to speak to his man at arms who was guarding the front door to the suite, but he swore no one had left except the Duke himself. As the Duke had been at the practice grounds already, he knew Link was not there either. The man at arms patrolling the garden said that indeed the young man had left right at sunset that morning; all the guard knew that Link was allowed to leave on this day until the evening. No one had told them to hold him that day. Duke Stefan grunted in disapproval, but went back and told his wife what happened. She was appalled. The healer swore she was going to take away that boy's clothes until she took the stitches from his cuts. The Duke had the sense to leave before they started to blame him. He did speak to the Captain, who told him that Link had come to practice as usual yesterday, but like everyone else, he thought the boy had better sense than to go out when he still had stitches

"Where does he go?" the Duke asked. No one knew. The Duke sighed and sent a message to the King asking to speak to him. He presented the copy of the marriage record, and formally requested that Link's wardship be dissolved as he was now legally the boy's guardian. The King explained it would not be that simple. Link's maternal relatives did have a claim that would have to be addressed as he was the heir to the Link properties, being that he was the only child of either of Sir Walter Link's daughters. He had received a demand from Beatrice Link that the child they claimed was her daughter's son be sent to her along with proofs of his birth. "Your claims are equal," he warned. "I want Link with you, Stefan. You might be able to handle him, and he's already fond of your children. I don't think any woman can, no matter how formidable, with the exception of Zelda, and I would prefer to have him at some distance from her."

"Why? Romantic inclinations?"

"Not yet, so her guardian says. They're friends. But that could grow. Besides, as headstrong as both of them are, and at their age, they'll find trouble fast enough. So far they haven't gotten their heads together on anything except setting up this wardship, but Zelda's got that boy wound around her finger, and she's bright enough to get them into quite a bit of trouble if she set her mind to it." He took a gulp of wine from his glass. They were in a solar in the King's suite, talking informally. "That boy needs a lot of work, Stefan. We've been working with him, and he's learned a great deal, but he still needs work."

"You're fond of him." Duke Stefan noted.

"Yes, but I admit until today I had no idea what to do with him. He wouldn't accept service to me. He's got the idea in his head that he has to be able to go on one of these adventures when he's called." The King frowned. "I know what he's done, Stefan, and I'm grateful, don't misunderstand me, but it's not right. No child should be forced into fighting that young."

"I agree. I want to get him to my estates and train him there." He frowned at his drink. "I did look for Bethany when Eric died. I think now we were far too harsh." He grimaced. "That would have to be the first time Elaine Link and I agreed on anything. "

"Did you have feelings for the mother?" The scandal was before his friendship with the Duke.

"Not really. She was lovely. Link looks a lot like her, except his eyes and his stubbornness, which he gets from Eric. The betrothal was made by our parents, to join our lands, but both of us accepted the idea, until Eric met her. He got training under your father, and got knighted after a battle. He came back to rest, and met her. A few weeks later he came to talk to me, asking me to agree to release her. They were madly in love, he said. He said he tried to fight it, to leave again, and he couldn't, and she felt the same way. She was too afraid of her mother- the father was dead by then, died in his sleep one night- to ask her to break it. We got into a nasty fight, and he left. Three weeks later we found out that Bethany was gone, and Beatrice Link, that witch, accused Eric of kidnapping. There wasn't any question of that, but the family was embarrassed. Eric sent a letter. Father sent it back without opening it. I hear Beatrice did the same with Bethany. Then we got a letter telling us of Eric's death, about a year later, and I looked for Bethany then. I found out she had a child, but that they both were lost in that attack."

"Considering that no one leaves the Lost Wood with their memory intact, no one can blame you. for not finding the child," the King told him dryly. "But you can't take a child raised like that, after what he's done, and tell him that he's going to do what you tell him to do. Underage or not. There has to be some accommodation. I want to settle the boy, not lose him. "

"I'll try. I can't say much more than that. "

"Good. Talk to him when you can, and let me know. He'll be back by sunset. He always is."

Link speaks

I was back by sunset, like I always am. I didn't try to change into my Kokeri tunic this time, because the sleeves were too tight to put on over the bandages. Malon noticed I was more tired than usual, and I had to tell her why. She fussed. Even the blacksmith was concerned. She refused to let me go on to see Saria alone, and I have to admit I was too tired to argue with her. She rode with me to the Lost Woods, where Saria was waiting. She already knew what had happened, because the Great Deku Tree had sensed the magic that brought the Dinofoe, and was disturbed. She told me that there was a disturbance in the earth itself, and that the Dinofoe was sent by a witch, but she would not have been able to send it without the help of a darker power. That was all she could tell me, except that I must let myself heal. She promised to make me another tunic and hat. The matter was not clear enough yet, she said, to know what to do. Malon took me back and made me stay quiet the rest of the day, and she rode with me to the town, leaving just out of sight of the castle. The healer met me halfway and started scolding loudly enough that everyone could hear her, and she didn't stop until she had me back in the ducal suite. Then the Duke introduced himself. He told her he needed to talk to me, and to just check the bandages and go. She huffed, but she obeyed, checking and rewrapping the stitched cuts before glaring her way out of the room. He got both of us something to drink, after making sure I wasn't hungry. I sipped. It was wine, which I don't like, but I didn't say so. He thanked me for helping his children and asked how I knew them. I told him about Ian following me to the practice grounds one morning, and how after that they would come over to see me in the afternoons. He asked what I knew about the Dinofoe, and I talked about them, as he asked where I saw them and what kinds there were. I sipped at the wine because talking always makes me thirsty. He got up at one point when someone came to the door. I put my head against the back of the chair, and I must have gone to sleep. I remember that he woke me up enough that I could get to bed, and told me we would talk the next day.

He met me as I was coming out of the room. He had already arranged for me to spend some time with him. He walked with me out of the castle and into the town. I know the town well, but I didn't know where we were going until we got to the Temple of Din. He spoke to one of the priests there about a record. The priest nodded, looked at me with interest, and led us back to a dusty old room. He said cheerfully. ""Here you are, your Grace, the record of the marriage and the birth. Is this the young man you told me of?" The Duke nodded. "Then you'll want to see these," the priest told me. I looked at the papers. One was a record of a marriage, between Bethany Link and Eric Lawrence. I looked back up at both the men, who were smiling. I looked at the second one. It was the record of a birth of a boy, named Link Lawrence, to Bethany Link Lawrence and Sir Eric Lawrence. They were married in the spring, and I was born, it seemed, in the winter. These papers told me who my parents were. Not what they were like or the kind of people they were, but at least I had a connection.

The Duke took me back out, and I thanked him for finding the information. We went to a small inn, where the landlord knew the Duke and found us a private room. He delivered wine to the Duke, cider to me, and promised to bring a meal. "I was looking for information on Eric myself. I knew he had come to this area with Bethany, but I didn't know if he married her, or what happened to their son. Finding those records was the result of month's worth of search. I knew there was a record, but I did not know where it was. When I did find it, I also found that Bethany had died, and the belief was that her child died with her." He paused to take a drink.

"Why were you looking?" I asked.

"Sir Eric Lawrence was my brother." I sat and stared at him. I was numb. It had never occurred to me that either of my parents might have family themselves. I mean, I knew that my mother had a mother and a sister, but Zelda had told me that Beatrice Link wanted proof that I was her daughter's son and they didn't feel real yet. "You look very much like your mother," he told me. "I saw that as soon as I saw you. My search was years ago, Link, but you were in the Lost Woods and there was no way of knowing I was wrong. "

I murmured, still shocked, "Does that mean you're my uncle?"

"As you say. " He smiled. "It's very strange, to meet my nephew this way, but I can say for certain your father would have been proud of you. He was knighted for doing something much like you did, rescuing a family from a burning house and protecting them in the middle of a battle." That was when I started asking him about my father and mother, what they looked like, what they acted like, what happened to make them run away. We ate at the inn. On the way back to the Castle, though, the talk turned to practical matters. He casually asked about the Hero of Time stories.

"Most of what the stories say isn't true," I said, trying to bypass the subject.

"What part is? " We were driving past a fence on a quiet lane, and stopped to look out over Hyrule field.

I swallowed. I try to avoid talking about this kind of stuff; I wasn't sure how he would take it. "That there was a dark time when evil ruled the land. That part's true. The great hero stuff, it's a little true. When I freed the Sages, I had a lot of help. I was grown, nineteen."

"Ancient," he said dryly.

I laughed a little. "I mean I was big enough to handle the Master Sword. I know that sounds strange. Sometimes I think it's a dream, except when I play this." I pulled out my ocarina and looked at it. "But the dark times happened." I put the ocarina away.

"Exciting times?" he asked.

"No," I said harshly, and he frowned. "Not exciting. Dark. Ugly. The Dinofoe was a baby lizard compared to some of the things I saw then. "I wasn't really seeing him. I was remembering. "It was because of that that the Princess erased those times. It's a good thing most people don't remember. Sometimes I wish I didn't." I looked out at Hyrule Field and saw sunshine, and remembered where I was and who I was talking to. "The rest of the adventures weren't as bad, though I got really tired of going back those three days over and over again in Termina."

"Why you, Link?" He watched me as he asked.

I showed him the Triforce mark on my hand. "I hold part of the Triforce. I have to go when I'm called."

He took my hand, looking at the mark, then let go. "You're very young to hold such responsibility," he said.

"Yes, sir."

"You can call me uncle." He smiled, and I smiled back. We moved on for a time. Then he was serious again. "I'm told you understand the law regarding orphans. " I nodded. "You understand, then, that knowing you're my nephew, by the law, I am responsible for you." I stopped and ran through the law in my mind. He was right. What had protected me from being held by either a family or the king now meant that this man- my oldest male relative- was able to hold me, despite my own wishes, until I was nineteen. "What's wrong?" He had noticed my reaction. The entire time we had talked, I never considered how the information would affect me, or him. I was too absorbed trying to know what my parents were like. Somehow it never occurred to me that finding my family would mean acquiring a guardian. For the first time I understood was why the king made certain the wardship was temporary until the investigation was over.

"I don't know what to think. I never thought there might be other family. I just wanted to know where I came from. I never thought of what would happen afterward." I might not have thought, but he had. That was why he had shown me the records before he told me, and reminded me of the law. I felt the trap spring and I was helpless to stop it. I had walked right into it with my eyes wide open.

He stopped me with a hand on my shoulder, and turned me to look at him. He was a good head taller than I and quite a bit broader, and most of that was muscle, but his voice was gentle. "You're in a position where you've had to act like a man even though you were not. Still, you're at the age where there are a lot of changes. You've had a strange upbringing, with the fairy children, with no way to prepare you for being a man. You need guidance there. You need a family, Link. You need people who will get you what you need at this time in your life, whether it's explaining why you feel certain ways or that you get clothes that are your size or you get training you need. You need to look to your future. You've done some hard and strange tasks, and in some ways you're a man and in some ways you aren't. For a time, let me deal with everything. Let me make the decisions. You're young, and you're inexperienced." Then he became brisk. "For now I see no reason why you shouldn't stay with your current lessons. I need to look into what happened with the children." He paused, and his voice became firm. "But you do not leave the Castle without my permission, and you will tell me where you are going when you ask."

"Yes, uncle." What else could I say?