A Link to the Past
Chapter Two: Night of the Intruder
The small shield locked onto his forearm helped keep some of the pouring rain off his head as he moved away from the house, but the Lord Sheriff was still completely soaked in a matter of seconds. Ever since the King disappeared, checkpoints were setup along the roads at night, easily spotted from a distance by the lamp that hung from the hastily constructed wood frame that protected the stationed guards from the weather, but any suspicious traveler up to no good could have easily both avoided them and used the lamps as navigation points to get where they were going as long as they knew the local area.
Although the lamps illuminated the small area of the roads that the guards were supposed to observe, they also made it impossible to see anything beyond the dim orange glow, allowing the older man to move freely across the fields and underneath small gatherings of treen, even though this only soaked him more thoroughly. There had been a time in his life that the Lord Sheriff actually enjoyed such tasks as this, a much younger time when the idea of breaking into a castle to rescue a beautiful Princess was the shared dream of every adventurer, but now… now the older man wished more than anything that he could be home in bed on a miserable night like this.
Fortunately, his home was one of the closest buildings to the castle, having only to travel down two different roads and then across the bridge to the front gate… the heavily guarded and locked front gate. With covered torches mounted on both sides of the gate, and more carried on top of the wall by the patrolling guards, there was more than enough light to spot anyone who tried to sneak in, so what was he going to do? As Lord Sheriff, he had never considered breaking into the castle before, but… well, there were a few secret exits made so that the royal family could escape in the event of invasion, but those all opened from the inside, and… and what was this coming down the road behind him?
Dim, flickering light that appeared to be floating in the darkness, obviously an approaching carriage with torches mounted on the front that were struggling to stay lit in the rain, and meaning that the older man had to quickly dive behind some of the decorative shrubs to avoid being seen. In fact, he had just rolled to a stop on the wet ground, when the carriage slowed to almost a complete stop right before the bridge across the moat, as was typical for anyone attempting to pass through, especially at night. To show that they were friendly, the driver would stop and declare his identity and intentions, all of which gave the Lord Sheriff plenty of time to crawl underneath the carriage and grab on before it moved up to the gate.
"Did you have any luck?" The guard asked, grumbling about the rain as he held up his torch to see. "Agahnim won't be happy if we keep coming back empty handed."
"No, it was another dead end." The driver replied, clearly fed up with his assigned task. "If this Sahasrahla person ever existed, he's probably dead by now, and if he's not, then he'll still be around to find in the morning, let me through."
If the weather had been more pleasant then maybe the guards would have spotted him hanging on underneath the carriage when they walked around, but the rain was coming down so hard that they had to keep their arms up in order to keep the water out of their eyes and then one of the torches went out. Finally getting tired of this struggle, the guard moved back to his covered station, calling out for the gate to be opened just before the carriage started to move again. As Lord Sheriff, with authority over all guards in every province of Hyrule, the older man normally would have had something to say about such a poorly done search, but in this case he would make an exception.
Dragged along the stone path that provided a brief respite from the rain when it passed through the covered gate, the Lord Sheriff let go as soon as he was beyond the torchlight, rolling out from under the carriage and not stopping until safely behind the cover of some more large hedges on the side of the path. There would be less guards patrolling inside the courtyard, so the older man started to get up, only to be momentarily slowed by a sudden pain in his back and knees. Once again, such a maneuver would have been a lot easier fifteen-twenty years ago, and now… oh, wait, the pain was fading once he was able to move around a bit more. Why couldn't this have happened back then?
Once the carriage was on its way to the stables, well out of the range where its driver would be able to see anyone moving around, the Lord Sheriff got up and started moving toward the front door. Obviously, there was going to be at least one guard stationed on the other side, so instead of heading right in, the older man turned right and moved up against the castle wall. Carved in elaborate arcadian fashion with ledges and shapes, these interior walls were easily climbed by anyone who had the time and knew where they were going… if not for the rain making it all so slippery. Twice the Lord Sheriff almost lost his footing, and once he had to freeze in place so as not to make any noise that would attract the patrolling guard walking underneath, but then his fingers reached the ledge of the upstairs window.
It was a struggle to get up onto the ledge; trying to move silently while opening the shutters, and also not falling to his doom. However, this was managed after several minutes of effort, and if not for a loud crash of thunder happening exactly at the right time, the loud thud of the Lord Sheriff crashing to the floor inside might have alerted the guards to his presence. Now closing the shutters again behind him, his eyes getting used to the much brighter torchlight from all of them mounted along the walls, there wasn't enough time to clean up the water where he landed before approaching footsteps were heard. One nice thing about breaking into the castle was that men wearing armor could be heard coming a mile away, so the older man had plenty of time to duck into a store room before the two guards might have seen him.
Crash! Just when the Lord Sheriff thought they were going to pass by without incident, one of the guards' metal boots must've slipped in the water, because he suddenly cried out when his feet were suddenly flung out in front of him. The noise was louder than any thunder, drawing the attention of others who got there just as the one who fell was getting up, and now the older man felt his mouth running dry, certain that the four men outside would realize there was an intruder and begin a search. Yes, this was it, he thought as they looked at the water on the floor and inspected the shutters on the window, and second now they were going to raise the alarm and there would be nowhere to run.
"Damn shutters are leaking again." The one who fell grumbled, running his gloved hand along the ledge. "See, look how much water's running in."
Now grumbling about how they wished there were still some servants around to clean this mess up, the Lord Sheriff let out a long sigh of relief when he realized that this was the end of the incident. No alarm, no search, no one knew that he had entered the castle at all, and best of all… now that the guards had passed by, it would be at least fifteen minutes until they patrolled again… if not longer. A constant presence in every room of a place as large as the castle just wasn't practical, the manpower requirements would have been enormous, so most places that had the luxury of regular guards had to deal with quarterly, if not hourly patrols, but no outsider needed to know that.
As soon as the armor could no longer be heard moving away, the older man came out of the store room, moving the opposite direction down the hallway, and thankfully not dripping nearly as much water by now. He had chosen to enter this part of the castle because this was where the private chambers of the royal family were located, with all of the unoccupied rooms being left open for ventilation since… wait a minute, why were there so many empty rooms? With as many covered carriages as had been entering the castle gates lately, he had figured that they were important people of some kind, dignitaries or the like, since prisoners were usually brought in on foot or on the back of carts, and always in chains.
Room after empty room as the Lord Sheriff continued on, was it possible that everyone brought in had actually been taken down to the dungeons? And if so, what of Princess Zelda and the King? Zelda's room was next, with door closed as it should be, but no response when the older man knocked on the door, calling out her name only slightly louder than a whisper. The hinges squeaked softly as the wooden barrier was slowly opened, no candles or lamps lit inside the Princess's chambers, and the next time a flash of lightning briefly illuminated the world outside, he was able to see that her bed was empty as well. In fact, nothing inside this room looked like it had been used for at least the last few days, if not more.
Perhaps she was with the King, the Lord Sheriff thought as he left the room, closing the door quietly and then proceeding past a couple more empty ones before getting to the closed door at the end… the King's chambers. Again, no answer when he knocked, but the older man was relieved to see a lit candle on the night stand on the opposite side of the bed where… where a figure was just barely visible lying on the bed. With the rain pouring on the roof and crackling thunder outside, it was impossible to hear snoring if the King was asleep, not without stepping into the darkness and heading toward the candle's dim, flickering light.
"Your Majesty?" He asked quietly, putting a hand on his shoulder to lightly shake him. "My King, are you all right? Your Majesty?"
No response no matter how much the older man shook him and called his name, so the Lord Sheriff picked up the candle, bringing it over to the King's face, only to gasp and almost drop it. The old King's eyes were open, as was his mouth, all twisted into an expression of fright, and no… he wasn't breathing. Leaning over with his ear to the King's nose and mouth just to be sure, the older man felt sadness when he realized beyond a doubt that the King of Hyrule was in fact dead… but how had this happened? And where was Princess Zelda?
Suddenly a much brighter orange light came from back toward the door, flying toward him fast, with the Lord Sheriff only realizing that it was a fireball just before it struck him in the chest. Flames disbursed in all directions as he was thrown backwards into the wall, dropping the candle and allowing the room to sink back into darkness as the older man struggled to get up. If his shirt hadn't been so wet from the rain, that fire might have burned it right off him, but that didn't mean the danger was over. Groaning loudly while standing up, the Lord Sheriff looked blindly into the darkness, drawing his silver sword and raising the small shield while watching for any sign of his attacker.
"Hello, my old friend." A painfully familiar voice said as another ball of flame appeared in the hand of Agahnim the wizard, illuminating him and part of the room. "I've missed you."