Chapter 22

The caterpillar died about a half-mile shy of the station, succumbing to the venom of the many spider bites it had received. They were forced to disembark and walk the rest of treacherous track. They did so in solemn silence, a cloud of wordless melancholy hovering over them. No one spoke.

Zelda stole glances at Gwen when she could. She couldn't help it. The pirate had not said a word since they had left Scarlett. Quietly, Gwendolin had gathered Scarlett's cutlass and belt from the floor of the cart and wrapped it around her waist. She had spent the rest of the ride staring blankly at the jeweled handle of the sword, turning it over in her hands in a contemplative manner. There were no tears in her eyes, but the pirate looked colorless and broken, her usual confident presence entirely squandered by the storm cloud of sadness that had overtaken them.

The princess had tried to approach Gwen only once, placing a comforting hand on the pirate's arm and offering a gentle condolence. The pirate had thrown Zelda's arm away, turning from her without a word, and walking off down the dark track at a clip. Her shadow looked as tall a giant in the flickering light of Zig's lamp.

Zig had the only remaining oil, and though they still had two more lamps they elected to only light one in order to save fuel. Link and Zig were on edge, traveling with their weapons drawn and startling at the smallest sound of fallen pebbles or phantom footfalls in the dark. They did not come across any more spiders, though. It seemed that the threat had risen and fell in an instant, nothing but the shade of a nightmare in the dark, surreal, fantastical, and fleeting. It could have been a dream, but for the obvious consequences.

Zelda tried not to feel anything. She had hated Scarlett, hadn't she? Perhaps, but she had never wished for something like this to happen. The pirate had been rash, unreasonable, cruel, and flat out rude on more than one occasion, but being devoured alone miles below the surface of the world was a fate too grim for Zelda to consider it appropriate for anyone. There was a poison in the air. One of their number was lost- they had lost one of their own –and Zelda could not escape feeling that emptiness.

What made it worse was that she had been thinking ill of the pirate only moments before she had given her life to save them. What judgment could the princess pass now? It suddenly didn't seem so easy to quantify Scarlett's worth, looking with hindsight at a world where the pirate was no longer among them. Had she really been a bad leader? Had she really been a bad person?

People were so complicated. Once again, Zelda found herself completely unsure about things she had thought she was beginning to grasp. How was anyone supposed to be a King or a Queen? How did they sleep at night? It was the most awful responsibility in the world, deciding wrong from right. You could be so sure that everything was the way it should be, that you were doing what you had to do, and in the end you could still be wrong. How were you supposed to face the world again when everyone knew you had made the decision that had cost them their safety, their freedom, their loved ones? She didn't want it. She didn't want it and it made her want to scream. She knew that Scarlett's death had not been her fault. She knew that there was nothing else she could have done to save her, but she could not stop herself from feeling guilty anyway.

"What's that, up ahead?"

It had been Link's voice that had finally pierced the oppressive silence. By the lamplight, Zelda could see the boy's silhouette a ways ahead of her. He was pointing into the distance. Some ways down the tunnel, its features covered by shadow, the hulking form of a giant Hylianoid creature was looming.

At first Zelda recoiled in horror at the sight of the new monstrosity, but Zig held the lamp up high over his head and she was able to see that there was nothing to fear. The monster, monstrous though it was, turned out to be decidedly inanimate. The statue was one of several which lined the track, each one the form of a massive Goron, his arms over his head as if he were holding up the ceiling of the cavern. The faces were eons old carvings with frowning mouths and dark eyes.

"This must be the station we're looking for," said Zig, "Come on. There should be a way to climb up ahead."

Past the statue the cave opened up, and they found a station similar to the one they had departed from. It was a dangerous jump across from the track to the platform, but they all managed without much trouble. The station was plain except for the statues, and lacked any of the bench-like rocks which had been present at the station in Diamondhearth. At the end of the platform a cavernous opening revealed some narrow stairs disappearing upwards into darkness.

"This must be the way out," said Link, "I wonder how far it is to the surface."

"The Gorons told us that the station should lead to a surface level cave," said Zig, "As long as we haven't made a wrong turn, it should be just a short walk to the surface. They said we should be able to see the Necropolis from the mouth of the cave, a couple miles to the South on a coastal peninsula below the mountains."

"Well," said Link, rubbing his palms together, "I guess there's nowhere left to go but up then, huh?"

There was a sudden, enraged shout, followed by the clatter of metal scraping stone. They looked back at Gwen, who had suddenly thrown Scarlett's sword away from her, the weapon coming to rest near the edge of the platform. The pirate had her fists clenched, her eyes shut tight. She tore at her hair in frustration, and collapsed to her knees, sobbing horribly.

"Gwen…" said Link, but he couldn't find any more words. They watched for a moment as the pirate broke down. Zelda's eyes darted worriedly from Gwen to Zig, but the elder pirate had turned his back, an unreadable expression on his face. Zelda was shocked. Was he going to say anything?

"What's the point?" wailed Gwen, "Why are we even doing this? It doesn't make any sense. We've been trying for so long, and all it does it take away more and more."

"That's not true!" said Link, "Everything will…"

"Be fine?" snapped the pirate, "Don't say it. I can't hear that crap right now. You know it, and I know it, and everyone knows it. Ever since we took up this Goddess-forsaken quest it's been nothing but nearly dying every day. We almost lost Zig, then we almost lost Kef… and Zelda, you've lost your father to that damnable curse, just like… oh dammit! I can't even think about it. And now… and now she's left me all alone too…"

"You are not alone though," said Zelda. She immediately regretted it as Gwendolin turned around, glaring at the princess through bloodshot eyes. There was a moment of silence, during which Zelda got the distinct impression that Gwen was waiting for her to explain herself.

"I mean," began Zelda, meekly, "We have each other still. I think that Scarlett would have wanted…"

"You shut your mouth, princess!" cried Gwen, rising to her feet. The pirate drew her own sword, crossing over to Zelda in three quick strides and pointing the weapon into the princess' heart, "Don't you ever talk about what Scarlett would want! You have no idea who Scarlett is. Who she was…"

There was a long, tense moment. Link had his sword drawn, although he was not eager to have to use it. Zelda found herself unable to feel fear. The sword pointed at her heart felt as though it had merely become manifest, but had been there in spirit for quite some time. How could she be so stupid? Gwen, her level-headed candidate for pirate captain, fell to pieces without Scarlett there to guide her. Clearly the bond between the Captain and her crew ran much deeper than Zelda had understood.

"You know what?" Gwen sheathed her sword, "Just forget it. We'll get your stupid shard, princess, and after we do you can take every scrap of that Goddess forsaken treasure and get as far away from me as possible. I've lost enough family. I'm done."

The pirate walked away without another word, disappearing swiftly up the stairwell which led out of the old station. Zig remained at the base of the steps, saying nothing as Gwen made her exit. Once the sound of Gwen's footfalls were out of shot Zig turned to regard Link and Zelda, the same kind of hardened, unreadable expression on his face as had been since the captain's disappearance.

"It would be best for you to give Gwendolin some space," said Zig, "Having been Scarlett's first mate, the office of Captain falls on Gwen now. It is a heavy burden to bear, and I'm sure she's feeling it. Give her some time to get her head together."

With that, Zig passed the lantern to Link, and turned to follow Gwen up the dark steps towards the surface. Link turned around to regard Zelda, giving the princess a sympathetic look.

"I swear, I will never understand these pirates," said Zelda, shaking her head.

"Really?" said Link, "Don't get me wrong, Gwen shouldn't have pointed a sword at you, but… I guess I kind of get how she must be feeling."

"Getting angry will not bring Scarlett back," said Zelda, "Scarlett clearly felt that she needed this treasure. I do not see how Gwendolin can just turn her back on that now. If people are depending on her now, then she needs to be strong."

"Are you talking about Gwen or yourself?"

"What?" The princess was taken aback to hear Link speak to her that way. She caught herself with her jaw hanging open stupidly, and put her hands on her hips, trying not to look as frustrated as she felt.

"When I found you in the dungeon you were crying," said Link, "It was about your father right?"

"That's not the same thing at all!" Shouted Zelda, her little fists clenching, knuckles white. She could have hit him just then, just to shut him up. How could he bring that up? Why was everyone ganging up on her when all she wanted to do was help?

"Isn't it though?" persisted the boy, "You even told me to leave you there. You said it was hopeless."

Zelda glared at him, daggers in her eyes. Link frowned.

"Don't get mad," said Link, staring blankly at the girl. The princess felt the surge of anger rise in her, but something about the seriousness in the boy's shining blue eyes diffused it before it could manifest into harsher words. She railed against it, but in the end she just couldn't bring herself to be angry at Link. He could disarm her with a glance.

"I'm your friend, Zelda," said Link, "I'm just saying, I don't think you're taking the time to look at this from Gwen's perspective. I don't know what it's like to have a normal family, but I do remember what it was like at the orphanage. We were like brothers… me and the other kids I mean. I don't know what happened to any of them after I left, but at the time we were all sort of in it together. We didn't always get along about everything, and sometimes we fought over stupid stuff like who was the biggest and the strongest or whatever, but we were there for each other when it counted. We never told on each other or did anything that would get other kids punished. Sometimes we would even take the fall for each other when the adults didn't know who was really to blame for something…"

"What are you talking about?" She crossed her arms uncomfortably, trying to keep her eyebrows pointed down to maintain the illusion of rage. Inside she felt guilt, though. Scarlett was like a family member to her crew, a matriarch, a leader. Zelda hadn't wanted to believe that Scarlett was any of those things, but she was. What was Zelda's real reason for resenting Scarlett? Was it because she had threatened her life? Or was it because of the pieces of herself which Zelda saw in the pirate? Perhaps she was afraid of becoming Scarlett. Perhaps, in ways, she already was becoming Scarlett.

"I'm just saying, I don't think that Gwen thinks of Scarlett as just a captain," said Link, "I mean, imagine if you just lost your father. Not even just to a curse, but to death. What would you do if someone told you it was all going to be fine? I know that's all there is to say sometimes… but that doesn't stop people from feeling angry about it…"

Zelda suddenly felt as though she were going to cry. She had not looked away from Link's eyes once since the boy had started talking. His expression was more severe, more mature than any she had yet seen him wear. Had he always been this way, underneath everything? There were so many layers to the people around her which she had been completely unaware of. Even Link, the person she had come to think of as the one shred of stability in the mess her life had become, was changing right before her eyes. She felt grateful for the boy's words, though. Once again, Link had opened her eyes to a perspective she would have left completely unexplored. It was as though the boy had some kind of otherworldly power over her; a mystic ability to always say the right thing at the right time. It was frustrating, but somehow it made her want to be with him all the time.

"Come on, Zelda," said Link, "Let's catch up to the others."

She took a step towards the boy, but something held her back. She looked over her shoulder at the golden cutlass, resting haphazardly near the edge of the platform. The princess went to the blade, lifting it off the ground and holding it gently in her flat palms. There was a scuff on the gold from Gwen throwing it, but the gems in the hilt still gleamed brilliantly in the lamplight. Zelda gripped the sword in one hand, feeling its weight. It was heavy for her, but she thought she would be able to carry it. She kept the sword as she returned to Link.

"Okay," said Zelda, "Let us go."

They climbed the narrow stairway, Link taking the lead, lantern held out in front of him. Each flight was steep, and doubled back over the last in a ladder like procession. They were climbing practically straight up. There was no sign of Zig or Gwen.

"Where are they?" asked Zelda, once they had crowned the fifth flight of stairs.

"They're probably waiting for us up at the top," said Link, "I'm sure we'll run into them any moment."

There was a shrill scream up ahead, unmistakably that of a Hylian woman. Zelda and Link exchanged worried glances by the light of the flickering lamp before mounting the next flight of stairs at a run. They clattered up the stairway, Zelda struggling for breath under the burden of the heavy sword, but she refused to ditch the weapon. Somehow, keeping it felt important.

They went up three more flights when Zelda almost ran straight into Link's back. The boy was crouching at the top of the stairwell, and he motioned to Zelda with his finger over his lips, hissing at her to stay quiet. He had snuffed out the lantern, but the stairs remained dimly illuminated by some light further on which Zelda could not identify the source of. Link was peering in the direction of the light, a troubled expression on his face. Zelda crept up alongside him, straining her eyes to see by the dim light.

It was a long cavern with a curved ceiling, devoid of any carvings or unnatural features. In the distance, the light of the sun was twinkling beyond the mouth of the cave. They had found the surface at last! Yet there was little to rejoice. Gwen and Zig were in the cavern already, but they were not alone. A group of small creatures had surrounded them, their peculiar features hard to make out in the darkness. Their bodies were pale and pear shaped, and their arms were like wisps of lightning blue, connecting their torsos to huge, mitt-like hands. They appeared to be wearing some sort of bulky headdresses, and their feet were so small that Zelda had trouble making them out at all. It almost appeared as though the creatures were not walking at all, but rather hovering low over the ground.

Each of the little things were brandishing glowing weapons, unfamiliar in design to Zelda, although it was clear by the way they pointed them that they were something like guns or crossbows. One of the things pointed its weapon at Gwen's face and began chattering in some foreign language. At first Zelda had thought the thing's speech nothing but gibberish, but as she listened to the oddly inorganic voice of the speaker a part of her brain she had not used in some weeks suddenly sprang to life. Her eyes widened in shock. It was not possible!

"What is it saying?" whispered Link.

"I'm not completely sure," said Zelda, "But that is ancient Hylian that it is speaking. The dialect is older than time, a completely dead language. No one has spoken that language in thousands upon thousands of years!"

There was a whirring sound, and suddenly the attention of several of the creatures switched to the doorway that Link and Zelda were crouching in. Link ducked down, pulling the princess along with him, but it was too late. The damage had been done.

"They saw us!" hissed Link.

"Oh no!" cried Zelda, "We have to get away!"

"There's nowhere for us to go," said Link, "If we go back down in the tunnels we'll either get cornered or get lost."

Suddenly the corridor lit up with bright light. One of the little things went gliding down at them, holding some sort of lamp which was blinding to the naked eye. Link and Zelda held up their hands to block their faces from the blinding glow.

Their assailant began to chitter at them in the same strange language as before. At once, a sizeable group of its compatriots filed down the stairway behind it. The little things swarmed around Zelda and Link with surprising speed, brandishing their little glowing weapons threateningly. One of them collected Scarlett's sword from Zelda, and then turned to wrestle Link's from him. The boy tried to resist, but the tiny creatures were surprisingly strong. They wrenched the little short sword out of the boy's grip.

The attackers squawked and barked orders in their odd language, gesturing roughly for Link and Zelda to go up the stairs and out into the cavern. The pair obliged, seeing no other option save for allowing themselves to be blasted by the enigmatic weapons the creatures carried.

"Oh, wonderful," said Gwendolin, seeing Zelda and Link being escorted into the cavern. Zelda could see now that both pirates' arms had been bound, and Zig's clockwork arm was blackened as if it had been burned by superheated fire. "Well, there goes our chance of a rescue. Let's just hope they don't decide to torture us before they kill us."

"No, wait, I think I understand their language," said Zelda, "Let me try something."

She summoned up her many years of training in culture and linguistics, trying to piece together the correct verbiage. She took a deep breath and began to speak, hoping she had identified the dialect correctly, "Greetings, native peoples of this place. We mean no harm. Let us be peaceful."

"Wonderful try, princess, but I don't think that will do any good;" said Gwen, "Take a closer look. They aren't even people. They're just machines."

Zelda looked down at her capturer, watching as its massive hands deftly bound her wrists with metal shackles of unfamiliar design. Zelda was horrified by what she saw. The 'skin' of the creatures was more like stone, but not the lively, burnished color of the Gorons. These things were dry and sandy looking. Their massive hands were not attached by slender blue arms as Zelda had though, but rather held in the air through some mystic force, their only connection to their body being a single, continuous cord of sparking blue lightning. Their faces were like expressionless masks, their eyes and mouth incongruous circles of varying size. The 'headdresses' they wore were not pieces of apparel at all, but rather a direct extension of their rocky, unnatural heads. Most shockingly, Zelda had not imagined that the things hovered. They had no feet at all. They just hung in the air, defying gravity as if it were simply the thing to do.

The little creatures shackled all of them, forcing the kids and the pirates onto their feet with surprising strength. One of the things barked an order in the same strange language, and they began to march towards the sunlight in the distance.

"Zelda," said Zig, trying to resists the jostling of the angry little robot which led him, "Can you tell what they are saying? Maybe you can find out where they are taking us."

"I don't know," said Zelda, "Let me try!"

She concentrated, trying to pick out individual words or phrases among the chatter of the gang of tiny robots. It was too difficult to discern anything specific when they all seemed to speak at once. Each of their voices was the same manufactured hum, and since their mouths did not move when they spoke it was hard to determine where one sentence ended and the next began. She could only catch incoherent shreds, meaningless without context. "To the sun…" "…lord of night…" or had the last word been sleep? She wasn't sure. Could have been anything. Then the word "Kadath" was repeated by several of the creatures, but she could not be sure if it were a person or a place. Finally, she caught one word which made her hair stand on end: "Nyarlath".

"They're talking about Nyarlath!" blurted Zelda.

The robot which guided her thrashed her painfully with the flat of its stony palm, shouting at her in a raised tone.

"Ibn iden ra peridae Nyarlathotep ul sur," said the robot, "Ibn id verita! Claram!"

"I don't think it liked that," said Link, "Maybe we should just wait and see where they take us."

"I don't think we have a choice," replied Gwen.

They were nearing the mouth of the cave. Stark sunlight washed over them, and Zelda suddenly realized how long it had been since they had seen the sun. They had to squint, their eyes burning at the sudden intrusion of natural light. The air was cool and smelled of sea-salt, and somewhere in the distance a seagull was cawing. Zelda shook her head, wanting desperately to rub her eyes, but her hands remained bound.

"I don't think we have to wonder about where they're taking us anymore," said Zig, "Look!"

Zelda's eyesight slowly came back to her, the outline of the world fading in through the sunny blur of light. They were looking down the steep slope of a mountain, a forest of dead trees stretching away from them. Beyond that was a beach of bone-white sand, assaulted by tumultuous waves. The water formed a bay, on the far side of which a sweeping peninsula extended several miles out to sea. At the tip of this peninsula, a massive structure of cyclopean architecture stood like an oceanic sentinel. It was circular in design, almost like a coliseum, although Zelda could see the roofs of many smaller structures rising above the top of the massive wall. Its stones were black and grey, and the entire impression of the place was one of skeletal ruin.

"Is that… ?" Zelda's words were lost somewhere. The eeriness of the scene was mesmerizing, and she could not bring herself to finish the sentence.

"The City of Lost Souls," said Gwen, solemnly, "Therein lays our necropolis. Looks like you get to continue your quest after all, princess."

Zelda watched the distant city, grim foreboding creeping over her as she regarded its shadowy towers and alien architecture. Her robot capturer jabbed his weapon into her back, forcing her out of her trance, and urged her to move along down the rocky slope. She had no choice but to follow. The princess watched as the sun set over the Eastern ocean. They marched Southward along the coast towards the Necropolis, and did not stop until well into the night.

In the dark depths of the tunnels far below Link and Zelda's feet, a battered form was lying on a murky, subterranean beach. It heaved itself into a sitting position, and began to violently hack water out of its air-starved lungs. Icy chill and pain hit all at once, and the sides of the temples throbbed sharply. The sound of water running in the distance echoed painfully on the inside of the skull. Scarlett had been absolutely sure that she had died, and if that supposition was correct then this had to be Hell.

Darker than she expected.

She pushed herself up, trying to stand on wobbly legs. To her amazement nothing appeared to be broken, although she was soaked to the bone in icy water. She took a few unsure steps in the darkness, staring hard into the void for any trace of light.

Her footsteps were answered with the sudden sound of a thousand tiny things rattling in the darkness, like an army of maracas being shaken simultaneously. She felt dozens of tiny things buzzing past her, getting caught in her hair and her clothes, skittering spider-like across her hands and feet. She desperately tried to keep from panicking. There was no safe spot on the land. She dove into the pool of water she had washed up in; trading the disgusting skitters of unknown insects for hypothermia inducing cold.

She held her breath as long as she could, but it was no use. She had to come up for air. She popped her head above the water, and was amazed to see that the cavern she was in had suddenly lit up.

Enormous flowers had unfurled along the walls, revealing luminescent leaves of neon green, violet, pink and blue. On each of the enormous flora was a pad covered in tiny hairs, at the center of the flower. Upon this pad were struggling cicadas, several in each case, glued to the spot by some natural adhesive the plants secreted.

The walls were rich with fungi and green-gray cave moss. She rose from the water, trying to shake off the cold, but heat was virtually unavailable in the dark place. She could see that the body of water was very large, stretching off farther than the light allowed for her to see, but the ceiling was very low. The beach itself led up to a cave, fraught with more of the bioluminescent flowers. Scarlett couldn't see any use in trying to swim the icy waters, and she knew she had to keep moving to keep from freezing to death, so she opted to follow the cave as far as her legs would carry her.

She trudged up the beach, her arms wrapped around herself, rubbing her elbows for warmth. The cavern twisted a few times, and she was careful as she went to not touch the glowing plants for fear that their toxins may not be limited to cicada killing. The bugs themselves were sparsely present among the foliage, occasionally buzzing by and startling her. She noted that they did not have eyes, and guessed by the way they sometimes chirped when they flew that they were using some kind of sonar.

Eventually the sound of rushing water became apparent once more, and she dreaded the idea that the cavern simply opened on another shore of the subterranean lake she'd landed in. When she emerged from the final bend of the narrow passage, she was wholly unprepared for what she found.

It was a great fissure in the earth, hundreds of feet deep and hundreds of feet wide. From the highest point of it, a great waterfall poured endlessly into a giant natural basin. The smell of salt suddenly invaded her sinuses, and she licked her lips automatically, cracking a bit of a smile, as she tasted the brine of the water she had just gone wading in. The moon gleamed bright and full, the sky clear of clouds above the enormous crack in the world she had wandered into. Bugs swarmed around in the air, darting from spot to spot on the walls of the little gorge, but they were not alone. There were small birds here too, and bats and more glowing flowers, and shrubs and bushes, which thrive hugging the walls of steep cliffs. Perhaps most amazing of all, though, were the chrysalises.

They were enormous! The size of buildings! She would have marveled at the thought of the caterpillar that spun them, if she hadn't already had a decent idea. Her smile turned into to a devil grin. Captain Scarlett shook off the icy chill, forgot about the dismal dark of the caves. Those things were behind her. Now, it was time to get back to work.

She put her hands on her hips and chuckled at the glowing moon.

"Well," she said to no one, "If you can ride the caterpillars…"