Chapter Seven
Chained

One month ago…

"Ralis," Rael whispered. His voice bounced off the walls of the dark prison cell. On the other side of the rusty bars, his brother's hunched figure stirred. In the dim torchlight Ralis' dirty face was illuminated in an eerie orange glow. His face was haggard and tired, a broken man. Rael could see no bed in the cell, and a plate of stale crumbs was the only sign that he had been fed recently.

"Rael?" came his surprised reply. Ralis crawled across the cell to the bars on all fours, and Rael crouched down beside him. "How did you get in here?"

Rael nodded towards the stairwell. Tabett was standing there quietly with his sword slanted across the neck of a frightened soldier. He brushed waves of dark hair out his eyes and gave Ralis a despising look. "I'm only here for Rael's sake," he said quietly.

Ralis turned back to Rael, his eyes lighting up hopefully. "Are you breaking me out?"

Rael sighed, and reached his hand through the bars. Ralis took his hand uncertainly. "They're going to execute you, Ralis. You tried to kill the Queen!" Ralis looked down at the hard stone floor and let go of Rael's hand. "Ralis why did you… Oh light, I'm so frightened."

Ralis lifted his chin and drew closer, so that they were eye to eye. Ralis' breath was foul as he spoke. "You have to get me out, brother."

"I don't have the key, Ralis. I think she has it herself." There was no need to say who 'she' was.

"Well do something!" he said.

Rael moved away from his brother, just outside the reach of his arm. Ralis scared him. No, Ralis terrified him. He could still see him in the throne room, his hands smothered with blood, commanding Rael to join in him killing Zelda. Granted, he seemed to have calmed down now, but there was no forgetting that look of madness.

"Rael," said Ralis softly, "do you not trust me? Do you not love me?"

Rael shut his eyes as tears began to trickle down his face.

……

Now…

Rael searched the four walls of the prison cell examining it for weaknesses, cracks, loose stones, anything. The walls of the Gerudo prison were red stone; the floor was the un-tiled dusty earth. Undoubtedly they were trapped. The only entrance and exit the sealed iron bar door through which they had been pushed minutes ago.

There was no guard visible at the prison door, but he guessed there would be someone posted just around the corner. He looked up above and saw a wide open window too high to climb to. Up there was a clear blue sky and thin white clouds. Freedom just out of reach.

Rael was sitting on the hard floor, with his feet tied together and his hands bound in chains behind his back. He tried to move his hands as well he could, and found Elane's chains shackled to his own. Then he saw that a rope had been tied around their waists also. Rael's throat was dry from lack of water, and his voice croaked as he spoke. "We made it to Shaylin, then." Elane murmured quiet agreement, and leaned her head back against his own. Rael wished he could see her face.

"My head hurts," she muttered quietly, "I think they drugged us."

Rael sighed. He had feared this would happen to them. If they lived long enough to meet with the Queen this would only be a minor inconvenience. The alternative did not bear thinking about. "I'm sorry I caused you to be here." Rael said quietly.

"Don't apologise, Rael," Elane said, "it isn't your fault." Rael felt her crane her neck upwards. "Do you think we can reach that window?" He looked up at the window again, and was about to tell her it was too high, but her laughter indicated it was a joke.

"We're going to be all right," Rael said in his best reassuring tone.

Elane laughed again. "Rael you don't need to lie to me," she squeezed his hand, "I know we're in trouble. But we will get out of here."

Rael hoped he had not sounded too patronising. Either Elane was in denial about their situation or was just trying to be positive for his own sake. "How?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said. "All we can do is wait."

……

"Why did you try to kill her, Ralis?" Rael whispered. "You went mad… after, Mara…"

"Where is her body?" Ralis said softly, running a hand down the iron bars.

Rael stared into his said brother's eyes, and felt more tears forming in his own face. "Oh Ralis…"

"Where is my wife's body, brother?" he said, all too coldly for a bereaved man.

"Outside the Temple. The cemetery."

Ralis rubbed his dirty hands together and then wiped his eyes. "I wish I had seen her one last time."

……

"Rael," whispered Elane, "are you awake?"

"No," replied Rael.

Elane laughed lightly. "Me neither."

Rael smiled. The darkness in the cell was all-consuming, and it was bitterly cold. Faint pinpricks of starlight through the high window were the only light he could see. He had drifted in and out of light dreams since sundown, not managing to keep hold of his sleep.

"Have you any ideas for getting out yet?" Elane asked quietly.

"No," whispered Rael, "have you?"

"No," said Elane sadly. She sighed. A black desert bird landed on the high window and let out a sharp squawk. "If only we could fly," she joked wearily.

"Yeah," said Rael, bowing his head and frowning at his bound feet.

"Rael, the day that… that Tabett… died…"

"Oh, please… I can't talk about-"

"No it isn't that. It's just, that day, something strange happened. There were many Gerudos running towards the four of us, and you turned to face them. I can remember so clearly. You shouted, 'I am Rael al'Resh', and reached out your arm, and the ground… it exploded under their feet."

Rael shifted uneasily. "I'm surprised you have not spoken of this until now. I was rather hoping you had forgotten." Ever since that moment, Rael had feared his own inner power. The Illivartan had confirmed his significance in the war against the Kairin, but he was not adjusting to the idea of magic. "I think it is magic. If that is what I am to call it. Inheritance from my mother no doubt."

Elane could sense his unease, and gave his hand an awkward squeeze behind their backs. "Do you have any control of it?" she asked, in a carefully curious tone.

"No," said Rael honestly.

……

"You have to free me, Rael," Ralis whispered, his teary eyes shimmering with a visible fear. He reached a dirty hand out through the bars towards Rael. "Would you let me die?"

Rael studied his brother dismally. In the gloom of the cell he barely recognised him, a filthy, blood-stained man. "I'm afraid of what you will do." Rael took his brother's hand, tentatively, locking with his fingers.

"I'll run away, far away from Hylia. I'll go home and start again. There is nothing left for here."

"How can I trust you?" Rael pleaded with him.

"I'm your brother, Rael," Ralis said softly, "if you can't trust me, who can you trust? The Queen? The Marshal? They are liars Rael, you know they are."

"They don't want to hurt me. They have protected me. Protected me from you." Rael cared not for the tears in his own eyes.

Ralis clenched his hand. "I'm your brother! You owe me!" Ralis practically snarled at Rael. "You wouldn't be alive it weren't for me!"

"I was very nearly dead because of you!" Rael shouted back.

Ralis fell silent but he would not relinquish his grip on Rael's hand with a crushing weight. "I read a book Rael, when I was recovering from the battle in the South. It was written by a Hylian general many years ago. Something he wrote really held my thoughts. Do you know what this great man wrote, brother?"

Rael stared back at Ralis fiercely. "I do not." The grip of Ralis' hand was hot.

"He said we do not discover our true strength when we are winning, when victory is on our side. It is only when we are oppressed, on the edge of defeat, struggling for our very soul that we will rise up and fight with every shred of our inner might. Yes, this great warrior confessed that he found his truest self when he was persecuted and tortured at the hands of his enemy. 'One knows oneself, when one is chained'."

Rael was growing increasingly aware of the heat of his brother's hand. The tightness of his grip was burning him. "Ralis let go of me!" shouted Rael. His hand was actually burning!

"Who are you to command me, ra'Ael? You are nothing!" Rael looked down and saw Ralis' hand glowing an unnatural red, still tightly gripping his own. In sheer agony, Rael clenched his eyes and cried out loud in pain. Lines of fire scourged his back where he had been lashed in his dreams by fiery whips, the feeling was akin to fresh scars being ripped out with hooks. He could feel that terrible fiery pain as strongly he had when he first was wounded, the uncompromising heat blazing through his veins, searing his mind.

"Tabett help me!" he screamed out desperately.

Rael was vaguely aware of Tabett's sword swooping down, intent upon Ralis' arm. The blow never came. The room exploded with fire and light, and Rael was aware of no more.

……

The Gerudo guards appeared infrequently, coming to leave water in wooden cups and plates of bread and cheese that were clearly the scrap-remains from their own meals. The guards said little when spoken to, and when they did speak it was only to mock the 'pathetic Hylian man' and his 'wench'. On one such visit they had attempted to escape through the momentarily open iron-bar door. Unfortunately, their tight bonds did not allow for hurried movement and they ended up collapsed on their side. The Gerudos had just laughed before leaving.

Rael tried pleading with them on some occasions. He tried to explain that he was an ambassador from the Queen of Hyrule, and at one pointed threatened them with the full force of her wrath, but they would not believe him. "I have to speak with Queen Lana!" he called to them, but his words echoed up empty halls. They were far away from anyone who cared for their voices.

For two long days, things continued like this. Rael and Elane sat tied to each other in the middle of this harsh Gerudo prison, staring hopelessly up at the high window unto the blue sky. Rael apologised to Elane repeatedly for bringing her here, but she told him to silence his mouth because it was her choice to follow him.

Occasionally, they were untied and permitted to walk the circumference of the cell to shake off the cramp in their muscles, but it was painful to move for any length of time after being hunched up so. The first time he had walked, he stumbled and fell instantly.

As evening fell on their second day in captivity, Rael was beginning to lose hope. He could only wonder why they were being held this way without being executed or at least sent on their way back to Greater Hyrule. Elane suggested that they might be being kept as hostages for bargaining with the Queen of Hyrule. Rael accepted the possibility, but saw it far more likely that they were being physically and mentally starved ready for torture and interrogation. They were probably being taken as spies from Ramades or Jaendral.

"One knows oneself, when one is chained," muttered Rael into the darkness, remembering Ralis sadly.

"What?" whispered Elane.

Rael had thought she was asleep. The sun was long set and they had both been still for some time. "Elane move your hands away from mine. I'm going to get us out of here."

"Rael?"

"Trust me." He felt Elane tuck her hands away from his as best as she could. Then breathing deeply Rael closed his eyes, twisted his hands to take hold of the chains, and went into deep concentration.

"What are you doing?" Elane whispered.

"I don't know yet," Rael said. He squeezed the chains tightly, the thick metal links digging into his palms. He pictured Ralis in his cell, his hands glowing red like a hot fire poker, remembering the pain he had felt then. Rael thought back to the battle with the Gerudos in the desert, the feeling he had when the earth erupted at his command. He squeezed the chains tighter and tighter, shaking at the physical strain. He felt his veins thicken with the effort, his body growing hotter and hotter.

"Rael, what are you doing to yourself?" Elane asked worriedly. She could not see him but could hear the sounds of exhaustion he was making. "Rael you're going to tire yourself out!"

"I can do this, Elane, I know I can!" He clamed down hard onto the chains. His teeth were pressing together so hard he thought they would crack.

Rael felt a flicker from someone deep inside the core of his being. A spark of energy. Then all went dark.

……

Rael opened his eyes slowly, focusing easily upon the shape of his bedroom in the warm evening glow. A sunset sky of pink and orange was the view from his windows, he wanted to reach out and touch the fresh stars in the new evening sky. "I think he's waking," said Daran's familiar voice. Rael turned his head left to see his friend rising from a chair at his bedside and being politely ushered out of the bedroom. Daran gave an absent wave and closed the door behind himself.

The other in the room turned to him smoothly. Queen Zelda's beautiful timeless face was creased with concern, a motherly worry. "How are you feeling, son?" she asked.

Rael was too tired to protest about the word 'son'. "I feel… warm," he said honestly.

"Yes. You were quite severely burned. I have done my best to cool you down and keep the pain aside. Perhaps now I can treat you…"

"Burns?" Rael asked, as she crossed the cold tile floor to his large bed and kneeled down beside him.

"Yes, but I can heal you, fear not." Only now did Rael see his bandaged arms and chest, and feel the dryness of his face. "This may be alarming, Rael." Zelda laid a hand to the clean white bandages, and began to unwind them carefully, starting from his hands and working up towards his shoulders. As the thin cloth was taken away, Rael could not help but cry out at the damage. His arms were scorched with black smouldered flesh. He dared not ask for a mirror to see his own face.

"What did he do to me?" Rael asked, "What happened down there?" Then, as the thought struck him, he asked, "Is he…"

"Ralis has fled Hylia," said Zelda calmly, "and left the prisons in quite a state of disrepair too. Shortly after we found you and Tabett that entire tunnel collapsed."

"Ralis escaped?" Rael said, partially glad but now ever more worried.

"Yes." Zelda said plainly. "And you were quite lucky to escape with your life, all things considered. You know better than I what transpired down there. You should not have disobeyed my orders, boy. You knew he was off limits."

"You were going to execute him!" Rael exclaimed, trying to justify his actions rationally.

Zelda paused in her work at this, and stared at Rael for a moment in quiet contemplation. At length, she bowed her head, saying only, "You presume too much of me."

Rael sensed that this was the end of the discussion about Ralis for the time, and let Zelda remove the last of his bandages silently. Eventually, Zelda laid her hands on his burned arms, and an incredible rushing freeze swept over him. "They are still burned…" Rael said, having expected to see a dramatic difference.

"Healing takes time, Rael." Said Zelda smoothly. "It takes long to heal what usually cannot be healed. You will notice an improvement in a few days, but it could take a couple of weeks." Zelda stood and smoothed her skirts down. "I will send Daran back though, though I want you to stay in bed and rest as best you can. I am going to attend to Tabett now. He is in quite a state."

Zelda turned to leave, but when Rael spoke she stopped and looked back. "Ralis. He did do this, didn't he? It's magic, isn't it?" Zelda gazed black, for the first time since he had known her she was lost for words. "Do I have that power?" he asked nervously.

"In time," was all she said.

Zelda gave a short, sharp nod and then made a gracefully swift exit. If she seemed disturbed at the notion of Ralis and magic, she was not as fearful about himself. It could not be the half of what Rael's fear though.

……

Elane fidgeting furiously brought Rael back to consciousness. He quickly remembered where he was and apologised to Elane for worrying her.

"You are right to say sorry, Rael. I was frightened you'd hurt yourself, with all your struggling." Rael was sure she was smiling.

"I am going to try again," Rael said confidently, "and this time I will get us free."

Elane tried to protest, but Rael didn't care. He twisted his hands to take a hold of the chain links. As naturally as walking or talking, he felt power rise up from his stomach, heart, and tingling down from his head, it flowed to his arms and flowed through his fingers. The chains linking their individual sets of handcuffs evaporated like water turning to steam, and then were gone. This gave him manoeuvrability enough to twist his arms around to hold each wrist clap with the opposite hand. The chains melted into nothingness. He laughed in delight.

His arms were stiff, and it ached to stretch them out in front of him. Elane moved her hands about behind him, noticing the freedom. "How did you do that?" she exclaimed.

"Quiet," Rael whispered, "we're not free yet." Elane was quiet, and allowed him to take hold of her hands. Rael let his power flow into her chains and they melted away. Then he ran his fingers along the ropes that bound them together, and around their feet.

When they had thrown aside all the ropes they stood up. It was painful to stand, and they had to walk around the room a few times before they felt able to move properly again. "Rael, that was incredible."

Rael felt awkward. He did not understand his power at all, but now he was going to need so much more to escape from this cell. "Don't thank me yet," he said, "we're still in the prison cells, and I don't much feel like fighting our way out of here."

They crossed the cell to the iron bar door, and peered as best they could up the gloomy sandstone corridor. It was empty. Rael was about to lay his hands to the thick bars, but his attention was diverted. A deep long noise sounded somewhere high above them, like a giant war horn. For a moment the ground seemed to shake very slightly underfoot. Then again, a long blast of a deep note, followed by repeated blasts on higher pitched horn. The sound was not musical, and Rael knew that the fear he felt was the intention of the blowers.

Rael's first thought was that somebody knew they were escaping. From the frightened look on Elane's face she had the same thought. "It's not us," Rael said, after thinking for a moment. The truth of it was far worse. He backed away from the bars and looked towards the high window. There was shouting and running outside. "It's a war horn… We have to get out of here. Now."