The Downfall Timeline
Book 1
Chapter 2: Escape in the Night
~Several hours earlier~
Retiring to her private chambers near the royal quarters, Impa longed for her soft bed and a good night's rest.
The castle had become crowded and chaotic with visiting dignitaries, government officers, and of course, Gannondorf's entourage. The sheikahn minister and the royal guard had been stretched to the limit escorting and managing all of the King's guests - while still keeping a watchful eye over the foreigners.
The desert chieftain had shown uncharacteristic courtesy by seeking his majesty's permission before returning to Hyrule, but failed to mention that he would be bringing along his "Tribal Escort."
At least a dozen Gerudo warriors accompanied him as he entered the capitol city and presented the annual tribute to the King. Their weapons were removed by the royal guard, but Impa knew these women did not need swords to kill – and often concealed daggers and darts beneath their clothing.
For the past few weeks, the Minister of Intelligence and the Lord-Marshal of Hyrule had carefully rotated patrols, assigned escorts, and closed off several sections of the castle to maintain the highest level of security for his majesty and the royal family. But the extra efforts were slowly exhausting the guards and security began to weaken.
The sheikah knew that they would be unable to keep these measures in place for much longer, and began to consider requesting an audience with the king. In her opinion, Gannondorf was intentionally delaying his departure, and slowly prodding at the Hylians for signs of weakness.
On several occasions, the Gerudo warriors were found 'lost' inside the castle without their escorts. While they remained unarmed, the castle guard would maintain courtesy, but firmly return them to the guest quarters. The women offered no resistance or trouble, but always sneered at the Hylian guards with contempt.
More recently however, a few of them had turned up in much deeper, more remote sections of the castle: The larder, the King's dungeon, the scribe's office, and even the Princess' study.
This last intrusion alarmed Impa greatly as – among her other duties - the Princess was her personal ward. She could not tolerate any risks with the girl's safety whatsoever.
Gannondorf, for his own part, respected the Hylian's boundaries and confined himself to the guest quarters and the courtyard. Occasionally, he would be granted permission to ride out and tour the near-lands around the capitol.
"We have no lush fields or forests as you have, Hylian." He would explain to his guard, "It is a rare treat for a Gerudo to behold such things."
Despite his words, however, the warrior never seemed to take an interest in Hyrule's forests or fields. He was studying the oldest buildings in the capitol, the stonework of the outer wall, and any of the small ruins scattered nearby.
Impa lit several large candles and closed the door to her room. As she loosened the straps on her gauntlets, her mind settled on a decision: tomorrow she would humbly request that the King dismiss Gannondorf and send him back to the desert.
The strain on the guards and the small security breaches had proven to her that the Gerudo were still interested in locating Hylian weaknesses, and she did not want such a malicious group so close to the princess.
As the minister began to loosen her second gauntlet, she noticed that the light in her room began to flicker wildly. A sudden, sharp breeze had entered in through her window and nearly extinguished her candles.
A moment later, a violent explosion rocked through the royal quarter; shattering stonework and throwing the sheikah down.
Sprawled upon the floor, with a trickle of blood flowing streaming from her brow, Impa gagged and coughed in the dust filled air. Her head was swimming and her hands shook as she struggled to push herself back onto her feet.
Shouts and cries for help echoed through the wrecked hallway, forcing her to focus. "The Princess!" she realized with a shock, and quickly struggled down the corridor toward her highness' room.
Acrid smoke and a heavy scent of Sulphur burned at her eyes; making sight impossible as the sheikah groped her way forward. Drawing her kodachi, she rapped her remaining gauntlet against the stone wall.
Swiftly clenching her eyes shut and focusing all of her power, she listened intently to the sound's echo…
There was nothing behind her, and only broken stonework ahead.
She pushed forward, pausing every few minutes to repeat the process and check her surroundings.
She found Princess Zelda in her bedroom, crouching behind her bed.
"Come! We must go at once!" The Warden commanded.
"My parents! Are they alright?" she cried in return.
The smoke, dust, and damage to the stonework had dramatically worsened as Impa approached the Royal Quarters. She now feared what lay beyond the Princess' room.
"We cannot concern ourselves with that now Princess, we must get you to safety!" she answered.
Swiftly she grabbed a dark traveling cloak from Zelda's ruined wardrobe and moved to conceal the girl beneath it.
"Stand still," she whispered, "I cannot see you clearly."
But as the sheikah moved to place the cloak upon her, the princess suddenly cried out, "Daddy!" and bolted from the room into the hall.
"Princess, NO!" cried her attendant, as Impa dropped the cloak and chased after her.
Even in the darkness, Zelda knew the way to her parent's room. As a young child, she could sometimes hear her mother gently singing to her father - when the responsibilities of the crown weighed down upon him.
She would slip silently down the hall, and enter their room, clutching a doll or small blanket. His majesty would scold her playfully for being out of bed, but he would always lift her up and hold her tightly in his strong arms, while the queen would sing to both of them until Zelda fell asleep.
Now, the terrified girl stumbled over the ruined doors to the King's Bedchamber and landed upon a pile of shattered stones.
Impa quickly raced up behind her and dove upon the child, capturing her in her arms and lifting the girl up.
"We cannot be here Princess! We have to-" but a weak cough in the dust-filled darkness stopped her short.
"Mama?" Zelda whimpered as she tore free from her warden and began to frantically search the floor in front of them.
The sheikah's heart clenched hard, knowing what likely lay in the dust before them.
"Is there a chance? Is there time?!" She wondered in near-panic.
Swiftly, she struck her gauntlet against the ruined frame of the doorway beside her and listened closely.
Something... an unfamiliar echo returned from the way they had come.
Directly across the room from where they stooped, a massive, gaping hole now overlooked the central courtyard of the castle. The royal bed was completely gone and much of the stone ceiling had collapsed downward into the room.
Zelda found her mother pinned under a massive block of stone, near the center of the room. Only her head, shoulder, and right arm were exposed. His majesty's crown lay nearby, beside another pile of rubble, cruelly bent and covered in blood.
(Seeing the large pool of blood slowly seeping out from under the stones, Impa knew it would be useless to search for the King.)
The breeze from the opened wall had now cleared the air enough to see the princess kneeling beside her trapped mother.
"Mama... mama it's me... Zelda." she sobbed as she gently cradled her mother's hand.
The queen's eyes fluttered and slowly half-opened. "Im...Im...pa." she weakly whispered.
"I am here, your majesty." The sheikah quickly answered, kneeling beside the queen.
"K-k-king... stud...y." the queen choked out.
"I understand, your majesty." The Minister, again, quickly replied.
Her breath gone; the queen struggled to mouth one more word: "Lake" to her.
"I will... you have my word!" promised Impa, "Farewell, my queen."
Zelda sobbed harder and begged her mother not to die. The queen lifted her shaking arm, and very gently touched her daughter's cheek.
"My love..." she mouthed.
Zelda kissed her hand, and held it against her face as the queen's eyes slowly lost focus and she fell into the goddess' embrace.
Impa's heart was overflowing with pain for the child's loss, but there was no time to mourn. The castle had been attacked and she was certain someone had been trying to reach the Princess' room behind them.
Seizing Zelda's hand with an iron grip, she tore her away from her mother's body and dashed back into the corridor.
Just past the King's Chambers, stood the King's Study: a small room with a private bookcase and desk. His Majesty rarely used it, but it was forbidden for anyone, save the king or queen, to enter that room.
Finding the door locked, the sheikahn minister stood back and delivered a powerful kick - shattering the latch and throwing the door open.
Zelda, still in shock, was made to stand just inside the small room as Impa frantically searched its walls for something.
"W-what are you d-doing?" the princess mumbled.
"We must be silent!" her guardian hissed angrily as she pressed the lock-stone and opened the hidden door behind the bookcase.
When she turned back to the princess, a hand suddenly reached out from the open doorway, and grabbed the young girl by the throat.
Her warden snapped into a combat stance, as the princess gave a small, terrified whimper at the scimitar held to her cheek.
The Gerudo assassin had silently followed them since the girl's cry to her parents and waited for Impa to release her. The woman now pulled her tightly against her body as she slowly backed toward the corridor.
"Be silent child, or you will end up like your parents." She threatened with a heavy accent.
"I will only give you one chance to release the princess!" warned Impa as she cautiously followed the assassin toward the doorway.
With much of the intruder's body hidden by the princess, the Gerudo knew that the girl's protector had no opening to attack from.
"You would not dare to risk the child sheikah!" she hissed as she continued to back slowly through the doorway and into the corridor.
When hope of rescue seemed to be out of reach, Zelda suddenly felt the Gerudo's hand clench hard and then spasm upon her neck. A disgusting gurgle escaped the assassin's lips, and Impa dashed forward to tear the princess away.
The assassin's body sank to the floor with a bright Hylian longsword stuck cruelly through both sides of her neck.
From the darkness, came the deep voice of a man, "You should have listened to the Lady, Gerudo-scum, I would not have offered you mercy." After a moment, he spoke again, "My Lady, your highness, are you well?"
Stepping forward and tearing his weapon free, the Captain of the King's Knights: The Lord-Marshal of Hyrule, bowed his head to Princess Zelda.
"The King and Queen are dead," Impa answered quickly, "I am taking Zelda to safety."
The knight nodded and replied, "My men are securing the castle, but there has been no sign of Gannondorf. Beware of him!"
The sheikah quickly pushed Zelda toward the secret corridor behind the bookcase, as the man returned to the shattered hallway.
"Defend the kingdom Marshal! I shall send word when I can!" She shouted back to him as she pulled the bookcase closed behind her.
The great warrior simply answered, "My Lady." and rushed back to his men.
The pair ran as quickly as they dared through the darkness, keeping one hand on the stone wall beside them as they went. After nearly a hundred paces from the bookcase, they found themselves at the top of a spiraling staircase. The princess had never seen this passage before and fearfully clung to her guardian's arm.
"It will be alright child." Impa soothed, as she led the princess cautiously downward into the darkness.
The sheikah had been shown this escape route - only once - by his majesty, when she was first taken on as the child's caretaker.
The stairs descended into another small chamber with a second passage that led to the castle stables. There they would take the princess' horse and flee to Lake Hylia. With any luck, the Marshal and his men could keep Gannondorf occupied long enough for them to escape.
When they reached the bottom of the staircase, Impa quickly moved toward the next passage.
"Wait Impa!" The princess urged, "Do you hear that?"
The matron froze and focused her ears, but she heard nothing.
"That song..." Zelda murmured as she began to look around the small room.
"We don't have time princess! We must go!" argued her warden as she again reached for the child's hand.
"There is something here!" the princess replied, "I've heard that song before..."
Her voice was strangely adamant, so the sheikah quickly retrieved a small stone from a small pouch on her belt, and quietly breathed upon it.
The stone's soft, blue glow quickly filled the room, as Zelda searched behind the staircase for what she was hearing. A tiny iron-bound chest had been carefully hidden behind the lowest steps. Upon its lid, was carved the royal family's seal.
"This was my mother's..." She whispered as she began to run her hands over the design.
A faint yellow glow rippled around the lid's edge, and a soft click from the lock could be heard.
Holding her luminous stone higher for a better view, Impa knelt beside the princess and wondered at the small hidden chest. The girl carefully lifted the lid and opened it. A small bundle, wrapped in a very old, white cloth, lay in the center of the chest.
Curious, she lifted it out and unwrapped it in her lap. The cloth was very frail and threadbare, but Zelda could still make out the faint outline of the Royal Family's crest in blue upon its face. As it unfolded, a beautiful, stone ocarina slipped out and dropped into the princess' hand.
Impa let out a small gasp, "Its... the Ocarina... it was here?" Zelda marveled at the deep violet-blue color of the instrument and golden band around the mouthpiece. Her mother had told her of the Ocarina when she was little, but she had no idea where it was hidden within the castle.
They were brought back to their senses, when a sudden, echoing crash came from the top of the staircase above them.
"Come princess!" her attendant commanded, as she grabbed Zelda's arm and pulled her as fast as she could run toward the royal stables.
Just as her luminous stone's magic faded, the two women came upon a heavy wooden door.
Footsteps and harsh cries now reached the bottom of the staircase behind them.
"I will go first," Impa began quickly, "follow closely, stay low, and whatever happens... get on the horse and ride!"
The princess nodded that she understood, but her eyes were wide with panic. She gripped the ocarina tightly in her hand, "He cannot be allowed to find it!" she desperately thought to herself.
Impa, keeping her sword close, burst through the door and charged forward with Zelda following right at her heels. Fortunately, the stables were deserted, and several of the king's horses remained in their stalls. The princess' own white stallion stood nearby, already outfit with saddle and bridle.
"Stop them! Stop them! LORD GANNONDORF!" came the angry shouts of Gerudo pursuers from the escape tunnel.
The sheikah quickly sheathed her sword, leapt upon the princess' horse, and pulled the girl up behind her. Arrows whizzed past them as she turned the corner in the castle courtyard, and charged for the main gate.
The castle's heavy bronze bells were now tolling and several brass trumpets were calling upon every soldier to crush the Gerudo incursion. Archers, swordsmen, and armored knights clamored throughout; some carrying wounded and others hunting for Gannondorf's assassins.
Fortunately, the castle gate was still controlled by the Hylians, who quickly heaved the heavy doors open and allowed the fleeing minister to pass.
"Close it behind us!" she cried as she and the princess dashed off into the night, toward the capitol city.
The Marshal, after leaving her and the princess in the royal quarter, had secured the armory and ordered the entire garrison to be mobilized.
"I want every man, capable of carrying a weapon, to hunt down these filthy Gerudo and eliminate them immediately!" he bellowed as he met his Lieutenant rushing in from the knights' barracks.
"I've already given the orders my lord!" the man replied, as he fell in beside his master.
After her highness had fled through the palace gates, the Marshal began to organize his men: "All of the foot-soldiers and archers shall remain here to secure the castle and the capitol city. Our mounted knights will form up and ride to the princess' aid."
"Where is the princess? And what of the King and Queen?" the men urgently asked.
"She has fled," he replied, pointing to the gate, "We have lost their majesties already." He finished with a mournful tone.
The men were stunned. How could both king and queen be lost in the same night – here, within the greatest bastion of strength the Hylian Kingdom possessed?! The men gripped their weapons tightly and ground their teeth. If ever Ganondorf were found… they would surely make him regret the day he had been born.