Chapter Fifteen
The Horn Rings True
As blood poured down Daran's throat his bones began to burn beneath his flesh. His muscles pumped, his breathing quickened, his heart pounded alive once more. He tore the arrow from out of his neck and his flesh knitted itself up again around the wound. In the sky, the eclipse began to pass, and light shone down upon the world again from above.
As he rose to his feet a mighty gale surged through the desert, whipping his clothes about him and wrapping him in a sandstorm. He could see his body becoming light, his brilliant white hair shining silver and gold. Light was becoming him. Then he saw the golden horn in his hands, beautiful white with engraved gold worked across its edges. He placed the horn to his lips, drew a deep breath and blew. Its one note rang like a brass and crystal fanfare across the plains.
……
Blood… blood in the sea. More than just blood! This was… tainted with something… something he could not stand. He had to escape. In the dark of the freezing water Ralis' muscles were paralysed with cold but he would not surrender now. Desperate for air he tried to breathe but his lungs would not move. This could not be the end!
A tremendous surge of power burst through his veins and he felt himself rising, rushing upwards, higher, higher and out into brilliant sunlight! He was still rushing up into the air, his arms raised out at his sides, and his legs bent under him like a vulture. "I live!" he screamed. Below him, the sea was a deep crimson. There was blood in the sea instead of water. "What is happening!" he demanded into the sky.
He floated his body down to the ground and he stood on the dock wall gazing at a brilliant white sky. The moon obscured half the sun, yet there was another light though, far greater, forming in the sky. Upon the horizon were dark storm clouds and lightning, and the ground under his feet began to tremble.
……
Rael pushed his palms into the river bed, driving up his arms and hauling his head out of the river of blood. He inhaled deeply and air filled up his lungs, he coughed, spitting blood out of his mouth. He fell onto his back in exhaustion. "Rael!" exclaimed two voices, both stunned and joyous. Two pairs of arms embraced his body and raised him to sit upright as he opened his eyes wearily. "By the light, you're alive!" exclaimed Link, laying a hand to his neck, where there was now only clear unbroken skin.
"Ralis, Ralis…" said Rael, panting for breath. "I must find him… We must end the war, end the hate, end the death…"
A beautiful note rang clearly across the skies, like a fanfare of the clearest silver trumpets resounding in the heights and depths of all the earth. Rael raised his head, and saw the light above. The moon was moving clear of the sun, but a greater light was shining higher in the sky, some way in the distance over Hyrule. And a smaller brilliant light further down the mountainous slopes upon the bank of the Orre'Aemea seemed to be feeding it. A brilliant orb of light stretching into the heavens.
Thunder roared across the dunes from storm clouds on all horizons. There upon the brink of the world he held an image of red seas raging and flashing lightning. The earth shook under his feet. The golden note rang true across the world and the world answered in thunder and earthquakes and waves and eruptions of light and wind.
Rael, Zelda and Link's eyes became transfixed upon the point in the sky where the light was gathering. Rael believed he could see the ghostly outline of a man in the sky. Yes, a man in flowing white robes and shining like the sun. He was huge, the size of thirty moons or suns and brighter than all. There was a mighty horn in his hands, and from this horn music rang out across the world.
"Illivartan…" breathed Rael, shielding his eyes from the intense light.
……
Joal watched as the image in the sky grew clearer, the light radiating across the world. All about him in the market, people were falling to their knees. Men, women and children, rich or poor, nobles and commoners, all raised their arms into the sky. "All hail the gods! All hail the light!" he called, taking up the cheer that was ringing in Hylia.
There were screams and cheers of joy, mixed in confusion. He could not explain why but his heart swam with joy and delight, yet he could not help the look of fear that his eyes held. The world was changing.
……
"No!" Ralis yelled into the sky as the image of the man in flowing robes blowing a horn grew stronger. The earth trembled and anger boiled in him. As he shouted blind words of hatred the storms on the horizon intensified, and bolts of lightning stretched out from all corners of the world to strike the being in the sky. Mountains cracked and lava burst from the earth, blazing across the sky in slashes of red and gold in great chains, directed at the man made of light. Fire and lightning exploded in showers of hot rain over all the world and all the seas of blood roared and the very earth under his feet began to split.
"It is never over, Rael!" he called, "I will destroy you!"
The god-like being in the sky grew even brighter, if that were possible. His face became clearer… he knew that face…
……
"Light of the gods be praised," said Zelda, "the prophecy is true…"
Rael gazed at the face of the Illivartan. Seeing his eyes and face now for the first time, rather than the mask of light in his dreams. "Daran…" he said, "…you are the Illivartan made flesh."
"A dark road diverges to the ocean," said Link, "a river of blood marks the father's path, a guide awakens and the horn rings true…"
The bright light and sound was so intense that Rael he was feeling the world would tear at the seams, and darkness stabbed his heart as mountains erupted and fire blazed towards the image of Daran in the sky, and lightning cracked the sky from all directions.
"Link… is this the end…?" asked Zelda.
"I don't know," replied Link.
Rael wrapped his arms around them both, and they held each other tightly. "No… this is not the end, mother. This is just the beginning." He embraced them both, truly acknowledging them as his mother and father in his heart for the first time. He loved them so much.
For brief moments he saw images of the people bowing down to the glory of the man of light in the sky, and mountains crumbling and the earth being rent open. He felt the nations of the earth tremble and fear and rejoice.
The sky rained fire and lightning, and shadows and light mixed confusedly in the clouds and wind in the sky, as gales and storms roared. Sun and stars burned brightly above.
……
Elane sat in the sand quietly, while the world raged all around her, her dark hair blowing about her face across her blue eyes. Carefully, she reached inside her dress and her fingers touched upon pendant hanging from the thin gold chain around her neck. She pulled it out, holding the carved jewel close to herself. Green emerald eyes gleamed from the face of a coiled snake made of amethyst.
……
The music rang continued to ring and the storms magnified one-hundred-fold and Rael wept tears of sorrow and joy. "I am the Lord of the Dawn!" he called into the sky to a fanfare of light. "I am the Morning Star! I am the Father of the Sun! I am the Light Born! I am Ra'Ael!"
…and beneath the majesty and ruin of the Illivartan in the sky, chains of love were re-forged, and the Prince of Hyrule accepted his destiny, kneeling in a river of blood.
…………
The chosen beget a father of light.
The sea rages and lightning breaks the waves.
The father blade heralds twilight's fall.
A dark road diverges to the ocean.
A guide awakens and the horn rings true.
A river of blood marks the father's path.
The tides of night swallow the sand.
The amethyst queen reclaims what was lost.
The desert bends knee to the morning star.
…………
The End of Book Two of The War of Twilight