Chapter Thirteen: Courage
Zelda knew her place was at the rear, commanding her troops. So she ignored the increasing restlessness of her Sword. Her soldiers fought bravely, but they could not push forward. They retreated through the streets of the warehouses outside the Goddess Bridge.
Sorrint made runs into the fray and reported back. He wiped his sword clean and tested the edge.
"We are holding well but running short of arrows."
"Any sign of him?"
"No."
She scowled at the walls of her city. She felt sure Ganon would want to gloat, to come out and face her. If she could keep him busy, her men concealed along the riverbank could slip in undetected. Misly hid with them, waiting for the signal from her queen.
Where was he?
A soldier ran up, breathing hard with blood on his face. "Lieutenant! The right flank is falling back."
Sorrint hefted his shield. "I'm coming."
"Wait!" Zelda looked up into the night, hiding much more than the stars. "Go to the river."
"Ma'am?"
"I'll manage here," she told him. "Go. Be safe."
He grinned at her, a mischievous smile so like Link's they could be brothers in truth. He ran into the darkness.
Zelda turned to the messenger. "Where?"
Darkness settled over the city. True darkness, the Shadow closing its fist around Hyrule.
"It's time. Release the kukhghi."
They broke through the blockade. The wide bridge hampered their defense, under cover from the towering gate and walls. They advanced slowly, shields raised to deflect the projectiles into the river below.
Zelda watched her soldiers inch forward. They had no siege weapons. They could burn the gate, but it would take too long. Should she pull them back? Give up this hard-won ground? Should she-?
A thundering crash behind her. She turned to see a form rise up from the darkness. Taller than the buildings, almost as tall as the gate itself.
It roared. She pressed her hands to her ears, shouting to fight the pain of it. Even the crytch fell back, scrambling for cover as this monstrosity reared back and bellowed challenge.
Never had the Champion faced a colossus of this size. His memories gave her one instruction.
Run.
She did, diving to the side as a clawed limb smashed the house she stood by. Bricks rained down on her. She covered her head and sprinted through the tangled streets. Its screeching cries gritted her teeth as it flailed madly, destroying the already damaged buildings.
Run.
She scrambled up a broken wall, jumping onto the roof. The planks gave way unpredictably under her feet as she jumped from roof to roof.
Run!
The beast turned, deceptively fast in its size. She couldn't see the details in the darkness. The torches and fires below hinted at fangs and a gaping mouth set too low for its height.
She skidded back as another limb slammed into the block in front of her. The ground trembled with the force of the blow. Run where? She had not trekked across half of Hyrule to run now! When she was so close to him!
Keep running!
There had to be a weak point, something she could attack. Foul air breathed from its mouth. Where were its eyes?
She was trapped, its many arms blocking her path, hemming her in. She held her sword steady. She would not die here, not like this.
It leaned down to her, a pitiful figure next to its enormity. She was dimly aware of the sounds of the battle still churning by the gate. Isolated from them, she had no way to escape.
The air grew heavy, the darkness pressing in around her. The Shadow was here. There was no way to turn it back, no hope for victory or even survival. She would die here with all her people.
She was weak. Cowardly. Nothing.
"Enough!" she shouted, forcing these thoughts away. "Face me!"
She slashed at the claw that grabbed for her. Her Sword rang like bells as it sheered through its flesh. It howled, enraged, gelatinous blood oozing from the dismembered limb.
Run!
She jumped, leaping into empty space as its tail whipped around, destroying the building she had been standing on.
Never stop moving!
His restlessness, the need to move, to run, to fight. She hit the ground hard, rolling to absorb some of the impact. Her ankles and knees ached as she used the momentum to drive herself to her feet and sprint.
She skidded back as the enraged beast lashed out blindly. Another sweeping arc of the Sword, a wail of pain. How many arms did it have?
It leaned down, it's scaly underbelly scraping over the rubble, growling as it searched for her.
There!
An eye, bulbous and red, burning with its evil own light.
The wind on his face, so cold it burned as he fell through the clouds, the fletching brushing his ear as he sighted down the metal shaft, the crackling energy within singing through his body as he loosed.
But she had no bow, no enchanted arrow. Lost in a battle weeks ago.
Both their frustrations made her reckless. She ran into the open, Sword gleaming, stabbing through the Shadow gathered to watch her destruction.
It saw her. She planted her feet, Sword braced, its lethal point raised. If she died here, she would take this vile demon with her.
A growl like a laugh. His laugh, triumphant, mocking her sacrifice. The beast raised a massive claw, her death in its grasp.
She threw up a hand as a brilliant light streaked through the darkness. An explosion and a shriek of pain and rage from the monster. She blinked her eyes clear, watering from the power of the light.
Another flaming trail, another flashing explosion. Two, three at once. Debris rained down on her as the beast snarled. It fell back, overcome by the onslaught.
It hit the ground. The earth buckled from the impact, but she was already running. Tossed into the air, she jumped and landed on one of its scaly arms.
It struggled, nearly sweeping her feet out from under her. She could hear the continued attack from the darkness. Felt the heat of the rockets twisting by her.
Its eye rolled madly, teeth as tall as she was gnashing in pain.
The last thing it saw was her Sword, gleaming with clear golden light as she drove it home.
She gripped the hilt with all her strength while it thrashed its death throes.
Never lose your weapon. Sorrint, Davin, Eris, told her, told him, over and over. Make them cut it from your lifeless hand. Never give up your weapon.
He was nothing without his weapon. The Master Sword made the Champion. Without it, he was just a man. Damaged, tainted. Weak.
She wanted to shout at it him: You are not weak! You are strong, stronger than any of us!
"Zelda!" They were calling her name frantically. "Zelda! Where are you?"
She straightened, tugging the Sword from the ruined eye of the Shadow Beast.
"Here!" she called back. Croaked, more like. Her mouth was coated with brick dust. She hurt everywhere, her knees, hips, shoulders. "I'm here!"
Dark forms moved toward her. She was too tired to fight, not caring if the crytch swooped down on her in this moment of weakness.
"Zelda?"
"I am she."
They were hooded and cowled. One stepped forward.
"I am Impa of the Sheik'ah."
Zelda was too busy catching her breath to respond. She leaned over, hands on knees. The massive thing beside her still twitched.
"Are you injured, ma'am?"
Was she? She was too numb, too relieved to be alive to feel her pain.
"No."
They helped her limp to an area free of debris. Rockets continued to light the night sky. The gate shuddered, burning in places. Her soldiers held their ground, ready to breach the gate when it fell.
"We are four hundred in number, Your Majesty. Artillery, as you can see."
Zelda chuckled at the woman's dry remarks.
"I can, Lady Impa. And I thank you."
"Where are we needed?"
"I leave your troops to your direction," she told the Chieftess of the Sheik'ah. "My men will try to break through here. I have others poised to enter another way. I need Ganon distracted while they enter the city."
Impa drew off her cowl. "It would be my pleasure, my queen." She spoke in her native tongue and her soldiers shouted affirmation.
Zelda hefted her Sword and followed the Chieftess back into the battle.
Misly huddled inside the cloak Sorrint had dropped over her shoulders. She had led him and the others of this infiltration force to the edge of the river. The muddy beach had been free of monsters. The sounds of battle drifted down to them, the reverberations off the bridge pilings amplifying strangely.
Steps hurried toward them. The soldiers turned to challenge them. It was him.
He and the others spoke in tense whispers. The soldiers stood and readied themselves. They had found anything that would float to carry them across the river.
Misly thought their numbers too small, only thirty-three men, including the Lieutenant. But they seemed confidant, cheerful, almost. Eager to fight.
She swallowed a thick feeling in her throat. Sorrint came to her, voice pitched low.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes," she whispered shakily. He took her arm and helped her into the rowboat she had left here, how many days ago? It felt like a lifetime.
The others readied their makeshift craft and followed her into the water.
Sorrint and another of his men rowed. There was no way she could fight the current without Sheik's spell. She was too weak, had avoided most forms of exertion at all costs. These men cowed her, made her feel delicate in the most menial, degrading way.
But he had called her brave. She had been brave, even compared to the woman he was used to, who could likely kill her as easily as he slew the monsters hunting them.
"There!" She pointed to the narrow shelf built onto the foundations of the bridge.
She crawled clumsily out of the boat and threw the line to him. Their craft crowded around. The soldiers skipped from raft to raft as if they were solid ground.
The wheel turned smoothly. Madame Pacquin must have oiled it. The hatch lifted without a squeak.
He detained her. "I'll go first."
She peered anxiously into the absolute darkness below. A light flared.
"Clear!" he called. She slipped on the ladder. He grabbed her and lifted her down into the water pooled at the base.
"Any branches off this tunnel?"
"No."
They hurried forward. The lantern light bobbed, gleaming off the damp walls. The mass of footsteps was like the rustling of some giant beast. She pressed up close behind the Lieutenant. He did not slow but reached back and gripped her wrist.
Finally, the tunnel turned up and they reached the cellar room. Sorrint boosted her so she could hammer on the cellar door.
She counted her breaths, as her heart was thundering too fast to measure. Fifteen, sixteen.
The door lifted.
"Madame!"
"Misly?"
"Let us up!"
"Us?"
Madame Pacquin stood back as the soldiers climbed up into the storeroom.
"Ordonians, Tatolans," Misly explained. "The queen sent them to take the city."
Madame Pacquin blinked at the men as they moved into the main tavern. The windows were barricaded. Only a single lamp was lit.
"Take the city? With only a few dozen men?" she said incredulously.
"Trust them," Misly said. This woman had never seen these men in battle.
"There's reports of more of them at the Fello Gate."
Sorrint came to her. "More Ordonians?" he asked.
"An army. They've taken Cryss Landing and hold the bridge. But they can't breech the gate."
Sorrint's smile was a dark slash across his face. "Where is this Fello Bridge?"
Madame Pacquin showed him on a crudely drawn map. He spoke to his men quickly. Then to Madame Pacquin, "Will you be safe here?"
"We've held our own well enough."
Misly's eyes burned with tears as he turned to her. "Stay here."
She wanted to argue. Stupid, irrational. What good could she do for him and his mission?
Nothing, she knew well enough. Only say, "Hylia protect you" in a weak, aching voice.
His men were ready. He stilled a moment, then drew a knife from his hip. It was a straight, square blade. He held it out to her.
She took it in both hands, gripping the worn hilt.
"Won't you need it?" she asked.
"I'll come back for it."
Madame Pacquin let them out into the darkness.
Val nudged Sorrint as they crouched in the lee of a tall building.
"What?"
He tapped Sorrint's empty sheath. "Missing something?"
Sorrint was glad the darkness hid his flush. "Shut up."
His men chuckled while they crept toward the gate standing tall in the night.
Another volley of arrows, more carcasses piled on the stones. How many did Ganon have? They seemed to ooze from the shadows. The gate stayed firmly shut.
Ordon knew his men were impatient. They watched the battle on the far side of the delta, impotent as the beast rampaged. Someone had slain it; Ordon dared hope there was a Hero after all.
How could the Goddesses abandon them now? When Ganon's might was reaching its peek?
"My lord! The gate!"
Ordon came out into the open. The gate was opening. He gripped his sword, hand blistered and aching from the day's battle.
"Ready yourselves," he told his men. What would Ganon send out to them? How many of those beasts did he have?
Crytch made a scrabbling black mass on the bridge. The first wave fell to arrows, the second. Still they streamed out, stepping on their dead to advance.
Ordon halted the archers. The main force of the Ordonians stood ready in a wedge, shields up and swords gleaming the fires of the ruined city.
The crytch broke around them and continued into the night. Hundreds fell as they rushed past, but none turned to fight.
"My lord! Why are they-?"
"The gate!"
The gate stayed open. The signal fires were lit, three beacons above the stonework.
"Someone has opened the gate!"
Ordon threw up his shield as the night brightened in an instant. A moment later, a concussion that shook the ground. Ears whining, he peered through the darkness.
"The gate!"
He scrambled to see. What had he done? Was Zelda alive?
The far gate was ablaze. Blinking after-glare from his vision, he could see chunks blasted from the masonry, even across the delta.
"My lord? The gate! Do we advance?"
The fastest way to the queen was through the city. Ordon called his men forward.
"Stay in your battle groups. Davin, Thall, you secure this quarter. Eris, Wetlin, Hunt, make a path to the palace. The rest, we will rendezvous with the queen."
Many years had come and gone since a Lord of Ordon passed through this threshold. The narrow streets and tall buildings were nothing like his smaller city nestled in the valley.
No life stirred within. Signs of battle surrounded them, but nothing alive now.
"Fled or killed?" Davin asked.
"Hopefully the first."
"Then who opened the gate?"
Davin spun at a sound down an alley. Figures approached cautiously from the shadows.
"Ordon?"
Ordon turned, startled. "Sorrint?
The man and his warriors came out of the darkness. Ordon embraced his friend. "Sorrint! Val, you blasted- wait, where's Enon?"
"Safe. As possible, that is. Left in Fort Hateno with the women and children."
"Well, most of them," Val muttered slyly. Sorrint ignored him.
"The queen is attempting to breach the Goddess Gate. Did you hear that explosion?"
"We are moving to meet her. We will take the gate from inside."
Sorrint nodded. "We'll join you. We're looking for a man called Sheik. He leads the resistance inside the walls."
"Where is he, Sorrint? Have you seen Link?"
The soldier glanced uneasily to the palace above them. "Inside, I think. We need to get Zelda to him. She's the only one who can defeat him."
Ordon wiped sweat from his forehead. "Lead the way, Lieutenant."
Sheik waved for his men to hush. They did, scared and desperate after days of fighting for survival. Despite the resistance, the city had been quiet, muffled by the Shadow pressing down on them.
Now, voices, massed shouts, broke through the night.
"Ordon! Ordon!"
"Hanchi!"
"Dhatin!"
"Gotkasi!"
Sheik turned to his cowed Hylian men. "Ordon has come! Hurry! We must support them!"
He flashed a signal from a window. A return message blinked. He drew his swords, eager to end this.
"Come on! For Hyrule!"
The armies met in the great central plaza. Sheik'ah, Hylian, Ordonian. The shadow beasts fell back, retreating into the streets, the gardens, anywhere free of swords and death.
Zelda's head still rang from the concussion of Impa's 'solution.' The gate had fallen, one massive door blasted free of the housing.
Now, she ran up the palace approach. Her men called for her to slow, to be cautious. She wanted to, but she had to find him. She could hear him calling for her, pleading for help.
"Your Majesty! Wait!"
Their calls blended into the others in the forest. She ran for the light, his light. It flickered, dimming, struggling.
I'm coming! She jumped the gap in the drawbridge. Link! Don't give in!
The castle was in ruins, broken stones and burned timbers. The tapestries lay wasted and torn on the dirty floors.
Crytch scuttled through the corridors of her home. She killed those foolish enough to cross her path. Others retreated into the depths of the palace.
The light still shone, high above.
She slowed on the last curving flight of stairs. Gripping the Sword, she entered the chambers that had been hers, so many months ago.
Nothing had been left unsullied. The furniture was broken and piled in one corner. Her books, papers, all her possessions dashed about. Glass crunched under her boots.
"Link? Where are you?"
He sighed, looking out the broken windows over the battles below.
"Why can you not accept the truth, Zelda? There is no Link." He turned to face her. "There never was. There is nothing left for you to save."
He gestured and the door slammed shut behind her.
"He was never more than a tool, a vessel. I would normally have disposed of him at once, but since you so conveniently fell in love with him." He shrugged and smiled. "It does not always happen so, but does add a depth of pathos to this game."
Her Sword gleamed silver and bright. "You cannot win, Ganon. Let him go."
His was dull, absorbing the light she brought.
"I don't think you would want him anymore. He's broken, listless. He hardly fights his shackles."
She circled warily. "Link will never stop fighting. I will never stop fighting."
"Poor, stupid girl," he hissed. "Defiant to your last breath."
"I am the Hero."
"We shall see."
It was the Ancient Hero's skill and power, married with deadly fury. She blocked and skidded back, barely holding her own. Soon, her hands ached, her wrists and shoulders snapping from his attacks.
She defended, not daring to open herself to an injury from the Shadow Blade. It reflected nothing but his eyes, a heavy, dead sound when it struck her Sword.
He drew back unexpectedly. "Is this really the best you can do?" he mocked. He turned away, shouting to the low sky above. "Is this the best you can offer me? This is your Hero, Faroe? A girl still afraid of her own shadow?"
She clenched her teeth.
A calm mind and heart.
She stayed back, weapon ready. "This girl wounded you once before."
He smiled. "Indeed, you have. Many times, in fact." She barely deflected his strike, his movements blurring with their speed.
"Countless times, your arrows have wounded me, left me weak for the Hero to finish." His voice grew rougher, deeper. Link's blue eyes clouded, glaring darkness as he attacked again and again. "Countless times you and your Hero have defied me, stolen what is rightfully mine!"
She cried out as he twisted her wrist around. The Sword spun into the shadows.
Never let go of your weapon!
She lunged after it. She spun and stopped his killing strike just as the Shadow Blade brushed her head.
She gritted her teeth as she held the edge off her face, hands braced on her Sword. He leaned into her, his boot pressing into her chest.
"Shall I let him out?" he asked softly, teeth bared as her defense slipped closer and closer. "Let your death be the last thing he sees before I destroy him utterly?"
She shouted defiance, shoving him back. She knocked the Shadow Blade aside. The blade whistled as he spun it and slammed it into hers, over and over. Sparks bit at her face, the air turning hot and sharp.
He raised the Shadow Blade over his head. She gripped the Sword and closed her eyes as he swung down on her.
The Sword Made to Pierce the Darkness broke.
The blast threw them apart. She rolled, still clenching the hilt.
His ragged breaths rose out of the silence. She pushed herself up, eyes watering as the wind shrieked around her.
Her tower was gone. As she stood, the south wall crumbled, the bricks falling silently to the ground far below.
He came to his feet, his face burned and bleeding. She faced him, body aching. Blood dripped from her hands, her chest.
He raised the ruins of the Master Sword, consumed as he was, by darkness. Its jagged edge cut through the night.
"Still you fight?" he asked.
"Forever."
"Maybe you were right. Maybe you are the Hero."
She set herself, the splintered remains of her Sword ready. He came forward confidently, swinging the Shadow Blade as a child does a switch.
"A last chance, little queen. Give in, serve me. I am not without mercy. That's what you Hylians believe, isn't it? That the gods will hear your suffering and take pity on your worthless lives?"
She stood firm. "You are not a god."
She dodged his thrust, scrambling back as he sliced up and out. He tripped her; she grabbed his chest plate, pulled him over with her. They rolled, heels over heads. He jerked free, dragging her up by her wrist.
She fell to her knees, crying out as his twisted her arm.
"Good-bye, little hero."
She had this one last chance. She feinted to his face. He released her to block the thrust. He lifted his arm to strike and she plunged the remnants of her weapon into his chest.
He staggered back a pace and stared down at the hilt piercing his chest plate.
He gripped it, made to pull it free. Screamed with pain and dropped the Shadow Blade to cradle his burned hand. The Sword glowed hot, white, golden, a lance of light stabbing through him. It cut through the darkness pressing in around them, growing, purifying.
When it faded, he stood still a moment. He fell back.
She bit her lip against the pain in her arm, her back, her knee. He was limp, eyes half open and dull.
"Link! Link wake up!"
The hilt was still hot. She dared not touch it.
"Link! Link, my love, speak to me!"
His chest moved, barely a whisper of breath.
"Hold on! Fight!" She ripped her gloves free with her teeth, cradling his head. "Fight, Link! Are you the Champion or not!"
"Zel…Zelda?"
He moved his eyes aimlessly as blood ran down his chest.
"I'm here, hold still."
How could she heal this? Her hands grew warm, then hot as she poured her life into him. "Hold on, Link."
"What…what happ…?"
"Hush! Breathe, Link."
He was growing stronger. He tried to push her away.
"Stop. Please!" he begged. "You can't- you must not- "
"I will save you!" she gritted out. Her legs were going leaden, numb. "I will!"
Darkness hung over them. Gathered, oozed from the cracks in the stones, from each of his injuries. She felt it rise above them, looming behind her.
His eyes brightened. He saw it.
"Stop! You must-! He's here!"
She ignored them both.
"I will save you!" Her hands glowed golden, feeding his soul. Her own faltered, willing given.
"No! No!"
She opened herself completely, willed everything she had into him.
The numbness of her mind was nothing to the chill of his grasp on her. She would be an excellent vessel, weakened, weary, desperate.
She felt Link's panic, the anguish as he watched her be consumed by shadow. Felt his fury and guilt as he cast about for a weapon, any weapon. The agony as he ripped the Sword from his chest and plunged it into the heart of the Shadow.
Its shriek cut into her. She slumped, pushed aside as they thrashed. He stood over her, the broken fragment of the Sword dripping with his own blood.
The Shadow reared back and struck. It wailed as he slashed at it. A mirrored fragment lifted from the ground. Others, dozens, reforming her Sword.
He thrust and rolled, coming up with a second blade. The Shadow Blade. His hands glowed golden, his eyes, his skin. She cringed from his radiance as she had his darkness.
The Shadow hissed. "You dare use my Power against me?"
His voice was different, echoing and ancient. "I hold the Master Sword." The blade flashed as the evil was burned from the steel. "I am the Champion."
"You play with forces you cannot comprehend, boy."
"I am a Prince."
"It will destroy you, as It has others who dared to claim it."
"I am the Hero."
The Shadow screamed, a thousand voices of pain and fury. "You cannot control It. Even your gods were consumed! You cannot hold It! It is mine!"
His twin blades cut the air, flashes like lightening and cracks of thunder as he beat the Shadow back. It fled, dispersing into the night, a dark cloud flying against the wind.
He wanted to chase it, follow it into the Other. Hunt it and destroy it once and for all. She had to stop him.
"Link!" She could barely hear her own voice over the roaring in her head. "Link, don't!"
He stilled, white fire stirring his ragged clothing. He turned to look back at her. It was him, but as if he were a god. Her own being was brittle and empty. She had given it to him and now he would be consumed by it.
She wept helplessly. "I can't," she sobbed. "I can't save you. Please, you must stop!"
He stepped back to the stones. "Zelda?"
"You can't hold all three pieces! It will destroy you!" Worse than death; he would become like Ganon.
"I can finish this! End it! Forever! No more Hero, no more war. I must!"
"Please, I can't, Link, I can't!" She gasped breathlessly. The sky grew pale with more than dawn. Panic, terror swept over her. "Please, I-"
"Zelda!" He was at her side. She felt her shoulders lift, his arm under her. "Zelda, wake up! Zelda! Stay with me."
Something hot pressed to her chest. "Take it! Damn you, woman, take it back!"
She didn't want it, any of it. She just wanted to be allowed to rest. It was a burden she had not wanted, hated the weight it anchored to her soul.
"I know, I know," he whispered, rocking her, soothing her. "I hate it. I hate making you carry it. But if you don't, you'll die and I can't watch that, my love. I can't live in a world without you. I'd destroy everything. I have It, volje. Nothing could stop me. Please, take it, please."
He was weeping, his hand pressed against her chest. It burned, resisting.
"Please, stay here with me. I can't lose you again. I've lost you so many times, my queen. I can't do this alone."
Her arm was like stone, stiff and lifeless. She laid her hand over his. His fingers twined with hers. She felt the faintest brush of his lips on hers.
"Please, my love. Don't leave me alone."
It was a weight. But it warmed her, too. Gave her purpose, grounded her.
He was still crying, holding her tightly.
"Link?"
He smoothed back the straggling tangles of her hair. "Yes, volje?"
She gripped his chest plate and dragged his face to hers. He actually pushed back, surprised and nervous.
He helped her to her feet. She limped with an arm over his shoulder until she remembered.
"You're wounded!"
He tried to downplay it, though he was noticeably pale. "I'll be alright." The gaping holes in his armor showed where the Blade had pierced him straight through.
It was a long trek through the castle. He staggered a few times, catching himself on the wall.
Link did not straighten from his last stumble, but slid down the wall to sit. A trail of bloodied footprints tracked behind them.
She undid his buckles with stiff fingers. He groaned as she pressed her hand against the sluggishly bleeding wound.
"Your fault this time," he said with a weak laugh. "And a good job, too. I never saw it coming. Who taught you that trick?"
"Sorrint."
"Ah," he said. His eyes slid shut.
"Stay awake. He's here."
"Sorrint?"
"And Eayn and Tov. They marched across all of Hyrule to thrash you for your stubbornness. You can't die now."
"I'm not going to die, volje," he promised, slurring a little. He lifted her hand free to kiss it, smearing blood on his face. "Not until I've spoken to your father."
She couldn't tell him, not now. What would it do to him, to learn all Ganon had done with his hands?
People were calling her name.
"Here! Come quickly!"
Soldiers swarmed over her. Cries of shock, questions, exclamations; she ignored them all as they lifted the barely conscious Champion. She gripped his dangling hand, cold and sticky.
"This way, Your Majesty. We have healers waiting."
She prayed they were not too late.