Chapter Eight
Gerudos
The Gerudos were suddenly there, on a ridge above them to their left on the south side of the valley. They were mostly women, but a few young men were among their number, dark skinned, flame haired and garbed in long leather jackets and short woollen leggings, decorated with slashes of traditional purple silk. Each warrior held a spear, and every one looked ready to launch their weapons down upon them at any moment. Rael felt his muscles jar when he saw them, dragging Garsh to a stop, but Link instantly reined his dark stallion around, drawing out his short bladed sword.
"On me, now!" barked Link at the Taraners behind. Rael watched their expressions – Daran was shocked and afraid the sight of the Gerudos, Tabett looked about ready to run away with all speed, but Elane by comparison had eyes like steel. She gripped the dagger at her waist with fury. Jolane was at Link's side in the next instant, whispering something in his ear. Link waved her away, and barked out into the air. "Men of Hylia, get here now!"
All of this transpired in the best part of ten seconds, and it took hardly a moment later before the four Hylian guards emerged into the daylight from amidst the darker passes of the mountain. Upon seeing the situation, they quickly arranged themselves in a box around the Taraners and Jolane, with Link at their head.
Another Gerudo now appeared and Rael was horrified at how close she was. This tall, athletically built Gerudo woman arose from amongst the rocky ground as though materialising out of air. Rael could not fathom how she had hidden so well, not ten paces from where they had been walking. How many more were around that he could not see? How many were on that ridge above? He counted ten.
The Gerudo who had just emerged stood up straight and tall, eye to eye with Link. Link just watched her, intensely, not speaking. The Hylian soldiers were sword drawn, and shields raised. The Gerudos on the ridge looked ready to attack as soon as they were given the word by their calm leader. At least, Rael assumed the leader was this female before them now. The red silks mixed in her brass-studded leather clothing separated her from the others with purple.
That simple Gerudo armour looked light, and designed for fast movement, with no heavy layers. Short sleeved leather, open like a coat down the front, with brass links across to prevent blades tearing it; designed for easy movement to avoid being hit at all costs. Gerudo soldiers could not live in the desert with hot and heavy plate mail or chain mail like Hylians wore. That leather must have come from Hylian cattle though, as no livestock could live out here in this intensely bright, hot climate. That considered, Rael wondered what they ate now, since most Hylian trade routes had closed. Few traders wanted to enter the desert now due to the Gerudo Civil War. Surely hunger would end their war before strength of arms.
The lead Gerudo spoke, only looking at Link, who was very clearly in charge of their party. She spoke in the modern tongue, but her voice was accented sharply. "I am Chilanna, Ninth Captain of King Ramades." She sounded proud; very, very, proud. "In the name of King Ramades, High Seat of House Madeena, Right Hand of the Royal House of Nohansen, Blood of House Dragmire and True Heir to the Amethyst Throne, state your business or turn from the land of the Gerudo."
Link stared her down, his sword hand twitching. The heat of the day beat down upon Rael's neck, both sweat from the heat and nervous sweat poured from his skin. Rael found the sense to quickly mount his horse in the even that they would need to flee quickly. The way Link replied suggested he was in no mind to run. "I am Sergeant Kantar, of the Hylian Imperial Army under Lord General Dragan, and His Divine Highness the Marshal of Hyrule, " said Link. Divine Highness? Rael had not heard that title before; Rael knew Link thought a lot of himself, but still. "By the authority bestowed upon me by her Majesty Queen Zelda Nohansen Hyrule, High Seat of the Royal House of Nohansen, Queen of Hyrule, Queen of Hylia, Empress of the East, Master of the West, Blessed by the gods Queen of Hyrule, I command you and your kinsmen lay down your weapons and grant safe passage through this province of my Lady's Kingdom."
Rael wondered if this was going to be a battle of titles. The Gerudo narrowed her eyes, and examined the rest of their party. "What are you doing in these lands?" she asked.
"Our business is our own." Said Link, strongly. "Stand down."
"By order of the King, all foreigners are to be put to death," she declared. "There will be no passage through these lands." The Gerudos on the ridge leapt down beside their Captain, and raised their weapons threateningly. From all sides around, Gerudos suddenly leapt up from the ground, as the captain had done, rising out of cracks in the earth like smoke rising from dust and shadows. There were thirty at least; the Gerudos outnumbered them three to one. The fear of death surged through Rael. Images flashed in his mind of the Kairin attack on Hylia. He had killed many men that day, but that was like a dream, an illusion. Faced with the imminent threat of death again, he was terrified. They were surrounded on all sides, and there was no escape.
"I do not fear your petty rabble," declared Link, "we will not stand down."
"Link…" whispered Rael nervously, glancing around nervously at the wild eyed Gerudo warriors. A savage wind whipped up around them, blowing hot sand up from the earth to their faces.
"Lay down your weapons or die!" yelled the Captain over the wind.
"Stand your ground and do not be afraid," Link called back, more to the Taraners than the soldiers.
"Traitorous dog!" came a sudden shriek from Jolane. Rael turned his head to see her, standing in her saddle, arm extended towards the Gerudo captain. It looked as though she was just pointing at her, but when Rael turned back to look at the Gerudo, he saw horror in her hard eyes. A dagger was lodged in the Captain's chest, a long, narrow, hilt protruding out from her flesh. Jolane had killed her! The Gerudo Captain staggered for a second, then collapsed onto the hard rocky earth.
"Oh, that can't be good," muttered Tabett.
The ring of Gerudos raised their spears and advanced, closing in on the tight group of riders on horseback. "Charge!" boomed Link, suddenly heeling his mighty black stallion and rushing towards the oncoming warriors. The Hylian soldiers did the same, charging cutting through the Gerudos and slicing with their blades as they went. Garsh, who had been stamping nervously throughout the exchange had now had enough, and reared up in panic, throwing Rael backwards in a soaring arc towards the ground.
Rael was aware a dull thud in his back, and a crack as his skull hit hard rock, and then there was silence. Pain throbbed in his head, or an idea of pain that did not connect with his mind because he was falling, falling into shadow. Slowly, numbness flowed through his body, flowing through his blood vessels and taking hold. He was sure his eyes were open, but he could not see. Mulled echoes of calling voices floated across an empty abyss. He was weak… fading… losing… could not… think… what… and… what… "…Rael…Rael!" A voice called through the darkness, shouting his name to him, but he could not respond. He did not know the voice and he did not care. He was dead, or soon to be… and death had him.
A sudden burning sensation surged through his body. He inhaled sharply as a feeling of freezing seized him, and brilliant light flooded his sight as his eyes burst open. His senses were heightened one hundred-fold as though here were infinitely alive, in an blissful instant like seemed like hours. Then he was flat on his back in the dirty earth, staring up at the sky. He could see! Glorious light! Screams and mangled cries of pain were once again sharp and clear. A bloody fight was going on close around him, but Jolane was there kneeling over him with her hands to his face. Her long sandy hair hung over him, her tilted eyes bright and wide "Rael!" she exclaimed. A look of intense pain subsided as she exhaled a relieved breath and clambered to her feet. "On your feet!" she commanded.
"What are you?" he breathed, gazing at her with bewilderment.
"Later!" she screamed, "If you want to live then fight now!"
Rael shifted where he lay, grabbing his sword hilt with his left hand and tearing it from its scabbard. He expected his muscles to ache, so when he leapt to his feet he had to steady himself so he didn't fall flat. His body felt perfect and fluid and so strangely… new! It was five seconds later, when a Gerudo was impaled on the end of his blade, that he realized he had already assumed his fighting form and attacked. The Gerudo was a large but young-looking man, his eyes flickered coldly at Rael before collapsing limply to the earth. Rael had forgotten how awful it was to kill a man. He stood stunned for a second.
Jolane darted past him, leaping into the air as long silver battle needles appeared between her fingers from inside her wide sleeves. "Fight, Rael!" she shrieked, as she came down upon a Gerudo woman and entered a clash of steel. Jolane thrashed her claw-like weapons at her foe as the Gerudo defended fiercely with a long scimitar.
Rael drew up his sword and rushed a Gerudo man – for he could not bring himself to fight a Gerudo woman – who was himself rushing toward Tabett. Sword met sword, steel met steel, and series of deft deflections and a sharp kick pushed back the attacker. The man backed off and regrouped with his comrades as Rael drew back tightly with the rest of the company. In an outward-facing circle Rael, Daran, Tabett stood brandishing their swords. Elane was shielded behind them at Tabett's shoulder. This was certainly not because she was a woman Rael reasoned, and he did not doubt Elane's bravery, but she had never been trained to fight. An untrained man would have been just as helpless in her place, though a man may have been more foolish and risked his life further by attempting to fight up front. "Stay together, hold strong, and do not fear," said Tabett encouragingly.
"What are we even fighting for!" yelled Daran. "Can't we call a truce?" he demanded of the attackers, but it was no use.
Gerudos came on, and the three young Taraner men smashed them away, Rael with more ease than Daran or Tabett, but the agile desert-hardened men and women evaded every attempt they made at a wounding strike.
Link and the Hylian soldiers were faring better than they, Rael watched as the legendary swordsman and fought fiercely, his age not burdening him in his movements at all. The last time Rael had seen Link fight was when he clashed with Ralis in these Throne Room of Hyrule Palace; then he had seemed like his old joints were rusted and long out of use, but he seemed faster now, and more fluid. His blade seemed to dance between his hands, moving faster than Rael had believed it was possible for a sword to spin and turn in a man's hands. Without need of a shied or helmet, Link threw himself between the Gerudos, cutting down and beating back his foes.
As the fighting became a frenzy, Rael drifted into unconsciousness and let his mind meld with his sword. Running away from Tabett, Elane and Daran he leapt into the air and bore himself down upon the Gerudos. In a heated blur he was vaguely aware of screams of death and cries for mercy. He hated himself, he hated what he was inside, he hated what he had become, but he hated them more!
Soon only a ragged few Gerudos remained. Jolane had cornered a few against a high rock wall somehow and was brandishing those long needles of hers at them, held between her fingers. Long daggers were in her hands as well. Wrapped up in her flowing brown cloak she looked very much in place with the rocky, sandy surroundings. The Gerudos she was facing off looked terribly scared of her, and Rael understood why when he saw the dying Gerudos Jolane was standing amongst. Whoever Jolane was, he was glad she was an ally.
Link staggered across to them, exhausted from fighting but still on his feet. The Hylian soldiers were all still able-bodied too, striding proudly to where the Taraners and Jolane had gathered, facing off the last remaining three Gerudos. The Hylian soldiers were eyeing Link awkwardly, obviously surprised at just how powerful a fighter 'Sergeant Kantar' was.
"Jolane of the Bashaan indeed," muttered Link as he swept past Rael towards the Gerudos. "Drop your weapons!" he shouted at the Gerudos, who immediately obeyed. "You Madeena are a disgrace on the Gerudo race," he announced, "go back to your King and tell him how you have failed him."
Upon hearing that they were to be allowed to live the Gerudos' downtrodden expressions perked up slightly. "You are sparing us?" asked the Gerudo in the middle, a tall young man, with long braided red hair. The other two were female with sun-darkened skin; although whilst one had the usual Gerudo red hair, one had dark hair akin to southern Hylians.
Link whistled his horse, which came trotting over to his side quickly. Link wasted no time in unbuckling one of the saddle bags and taking a scroll of parchment from it. He scratched hastily at it with an ink-pen as he talked. "Take this message to Lord Ramades. Ramades should well know by this time that the kingdom of Hyrule is under invasion from the armies of the Kairin." It looked as though Link was writing what he was speaking. "The Kairin are coming in great numbers from beyond the sea. Hyrule must stand united if there is to be any hope of maintaining our sovereignty and way of life. Her Majesty Queen Zelda demands that you the Gerudo people resolve this civil war now, with no more bloodshed, that they may stand together in arms with their Hylian brothers and sisters."
"Ramades is our King!" declared the dark haired Gerudo. "He shall sit upon the Amethyst Throne, and cast down the usurper Queen who has wrongly placed herself upon it. The peasant-born Jaendral has no right to power either, he is of dirty blood and has no divine right. Our war will end when they both surrender to the true King, Ramades."
"…and," Link went on, ignoring her utterly, "let it be known that Her Majesty Queen Zelda herself is to ride forth soon with the army of Hylia, with the Marshal of Hyrule Ivarl al'Arantos at her right hand… She would have Ramades remember that whoever so sits upon the Amethyst Throne does so at her approval, under her authority, and that Her Majesty Queen Zelda is the High Queen and Supreme Monarch of all Hyrule - including the lands inhabited by the Gerudos. If the Gerudo people are not united around a single Gerudo monarch at the time of her coming, then she herself will sit upon the Amethyst Throne."
The Gerudos gaped at Link wide-eyed. The Hylian soldiers were trying to look powerful as though they were filled with the Queen's authority, and were doing a good job of it. But upon hearing that the Queen was to follow on after them with the army of Hylia, they clearly could not hide the surprise on their faces.
This was the reason that Link was out here in the desert then. This was the mission he had come out here into this wasteland for. Aside from the talk of blood and the Great Horn, he had diplomatic matters at stake. He was paving the way for Zelda. He was in the guise of a simple sergeant, and only Rael knew who he really was – the aforementioned Marshal of Hyrule Ivarl al'Arantos – but Rael guessed that they were headed for the stronghold of Lord Ramades.
Link scraped a few more notes onto the piece of parchment, then folded it up and stepped forwards to give it to the Gerudo man. "Take this to Ramades. I regret I have no time for sealing wax, but there is nothing included in here that I have not already told to you." He then gave the Gerudo another letter from his saddlebag. This had a seal already impressed upon it. Rael knew it bore the seal of the Eagle-and-Triforce without even looking. "This is a letter from Her Majesty the Queen herself, enough to authenticate what I have written here. I trust you know not to open this?"
The Gerudos gazed at this letter sceptically as Link handed it over. "Lord Ramades will not surrender his claim to the Amethyst Throne," said the male Gerudo, "but we will do as Her Majesty's servant commands for this time."
The Gerudos left in a hurry, disappearing amongst the rocky terrain almost as quickly as they had emerged. Link watched them until they were out of sight along the valley, then turned to address the company. "We must move with haste now. Time is short. Events have been set in motion that will change Hyrule. We must ride west with all speed." As they prepared to travel again, Link reigned in close to Rael and said, "The end of the beginning is near."