Link's Awakening

Chapter Fourteen: All Hail Prince Richard

I suppose that it was my own ignorance that led me to not even consider that Koholint Island had any kind of real government, I mean, I honestly thought that the whole place was just a couple villages out for themselves, and apparently some Moblin tribes. Turns out I was wrong, and not only did the island have a ruler, but he also had it out for me, not that I could figure out why at the time. I should've guessed what it was, but again this is the advantage of hindsight… something that I did not have as the Royal Guard marched me toward the distant towers of Kanalet Castle.

With his wrists bound, and the guards around him, once again wearing their armor and shields, keeping their weapons ready, Link didn't dare make any aggressive or even sudden moves, since he got the feeling their leader hadn't been joking about killing the young man if he resisted. The road they were on traveled through the prairie for a time, but then curved northward again, allowing the landscape to transition to a place with more trees and shorter grass. This was the first time that Link saw the stone towers in the distance, and he started to seriously worry about what was about to happen to him.

Now, being the son of the Lord Sheriff, the young man had met the entire royal family of Hyrule, including King Façade and both Zeldas, but from what he had heard, there were other places in the world where royalty was not so, uh… pleasant. He remembered hearing a tale of Agahnim's grandfather, Carock, the red wizard… a cruel and powerful wizard who had no regard for innocent life and even tried to kill his own son… hopefully Prince Richard was not that kind of ruler.

No matter what kind of ruler the Prince was, Link was soon to find out as the guards marched him up the road to the bridge, stopping at a large, sturdy looking wooden gate to announce their arrival. This bridge looked like the only way for anyone to enter or leave the castle, since the water in the moat below seemed to flow in a circle around the whole… hey, what do you know… the castle sat on a tiny island that was at the center of another island… what would that be called?

Up on top of the stone wall that bordered the castle, another guard appeared, shouting down approval to open the gate as soon as he recognized them, and with a long drawn out creak, the wooden barrier started to swing open. Ordering the young man to move as soon as the path was clear, the guards marched him into the stone courtyard, a place with planted trees and decorative statues of maybe… previous rulers? And then the gate was heard closing again behind them, trapping Link inside as they continued toward the castle's front door.

Some passersby, probably more nobles, pointed to him and whispered as the young man was escorted past, and the same thing happened once they made it into the castle's entrance hall, with servants scurrying out of sight while even more armed guards stood at the ready. Every bit as fancy and lavish as Hyrule's North Palace, this place had shiny marble floors, decorative banners and tapestries hanging on the walls, and wall mounted torches to bring flickering yellow light to the parts of the castle where the small windows were just not enough.

A servant was instructed to notify the Prince that they had arrived with the prisoner, and then the concerned whispers and pointing continued when the young man was brought into the throne room, where there were so many well-dressed Lords and Ladies that for a moment Link wondered if they had interrupted a royal ball of some kind. As soon as they reached the bottom of the small staircase that led up to the empty throne, the leader of the guards pushed the young man down while loudly instructing him to kneel, and then a horn was loudly played in order to get everyone's attention.

"Presenting his most regal Majesty!" The herald loudly declared. "The giver of laws, the protector of the innocent, the companion of our greatest hero… the sovereign Lord of Koholint Island, Prince Richard!"

The horn played again, and all of the nobles and guards in the room bowed as a well-dressed man with hair that was almost as well taken care of as King Façade's, walked into the room. He wore a sword on his belt, with a white cape flowing behind him as he walked, and everyone remained bowed down until the Prince sat on the throne. A quick smack to the back of the head from one of the guards convinced Link to bow his head with them, and whereas the throne room had been filled with noise and activity a moment ago, it was now completely silent while everyone looked at the ruler.

On top of how well dressed and important the Prince was trying to look, the other noticeable feature about him was the large golden bell that he wore around his neck like a family heirloom, but Link knew better. For as soon as he laid eyes on the instrument, all other noises in the room seemed to muffle, while that same music played for just a moment, but… how could this person and the Moblin Captain both be in possession of one of the instruments? How much was going on that the owl hadn't told him?

"This is him?" Richard asked, pointing at the young man as if he was skeptical. "Really? This common looking… boy is the reason everyone is so worked up? Ten lashes before we begin."

"What?!" Link exclaimed, startled, and trying to find the words of protest. "You can't…

A sudden punch across the side of the face interrupted the young man's words, and then the guards were dragging him away from the stairs to the throne. Before he realized what was happening, the guards had tied Link's wrists to one of the room's pillars after making him face away from the throne, and this punishment must have been planned before he even got there, because in less than a minute the unmistakable sound of a whip making its way through the air, before crying out loudly when the tail end made contact with his back.

From witnessing the punishments of countless petty criminals, of which flogging was the fastest and most common, the young man knew that getting whipped was painful, but not how much of a difference there was between watching it and the real thing. A lot of criminals, especially repeat offenders, would try to act tough in the face of the Lord Sheriff as some kind of defiance, only to end up screaming in agony by the fifth lash. As much as Link wanted to believe that he was stronger than the common criminal, but the truth was that he was only able to keep his composure for the first two.

The young man's screams of agony echoed throughout the throne room as the whip dragged across his back again and again, ripping his shirt apart, and his efforts to pull away from the pillar ended at about number six when he fell over onto his side, still screaming and getting into a fetal position in a feeble effort to protect himself. Once number ten was called, the guards grabbed him again, dragging Link back to the stairs in front of the throne, and pushing him back to his knees, although he could barely stay up.

"I trust that I have your attention now?" Richard asked, absent-mindedly fiddling with the bell he was wearing. "If you really are the one I've heard about… the boy Link, who just washed up on shore one day like a drowned rat… then you are in a lot of trouble. Read the charges against the accused."

Link had no idea who the person was who began reading from a scroll a second later, but apparently the young man had broken a lot of laws without realizing it, or even sometimes understanding how what he had done was even a crime. The first charge against him was consorting with a known enemy of the crown, with that enemy being identified as the talking owl who had been sort of guiding him around the island. The second charge also came as a complete shock, because he was accused of murdering the Captain of the local Moblin tribe, who was somehow an ally of the Prince?

"Lastly, and the most heinous of them all." The man reading the scroll continued. "He is accused of deliberately seeking out the Instruments of the Sirens in order to intentionally wake the Wind Fish from its eternal slumber."

The crowd of nobles gasped in horror after hearing the last charge, but Link still didn't even understand what the Wind Fish really was, and… and he was starting to believe that the people of Koholint Island didn't understand it either. It was like everyone was terrified that the thing was some kind of great beast that would burst out of its egg and devour them whole, or… something like that. All the young man wanted, besides the pain in his back to stop, was for someone to give him a straight answer, but now all of the nobles were shouting their various suggestions for his punishment.

"Hang him!" One woman yelled.

"Burn him at the stake!" A man yelled louder.

"No, we must be fair about this!" A third person joined in. "Burn him at the stake, and then hang him!"

"Silence!" The Prince ordered, instantly quieting down the throne room. "Do you all see what is happening here? This boy's villainy is so great and toxic that it is even causing us to fight amongst ourselves, and such evil can only be judged by the Great Hero of Koholint, himself. Yes, the Great One will see that Link here gets his just reward… but for now give him thirty lashes, and then throw him into the dungeon."

The young man tried to protest, declaring that he was innocent and didn't mean any harm to the people of the island, but by this time the cheering of the crowd was drowning out his words, and then the guards tied him to the pillar once again. This time the lashes did not stop at ten, and Link was in so much pain that he was already passing out by the time that the guards began dragging him toward his new home… a cell in the castle dungeon.