Chapter Eight
The Amethyst Throne

The bars of the cell melted in Rael's hands. Before long they were hastening along the darkening unlit corridor towards a far door. "Ramades' army is attacking, isn't it?" said Elane as they ran. "If there really is a battle outside." The corridor was lined with dark empty cells like their own, barren save for the occasional bone or pack of rats.

They came to the door, and stopping short of crashing into it, they pressed their ears up against it. Noise from outside echoed from the unreachable windows at the end of the corridor, and beyond this door were raised voices and running feet. "It could be Jaendral's men too," said Rael. "the Hylian army couldn't be here already. Daran Zelda and Link will only be arriving back in the city today."

A loud booming echoed beyond the door, and they both backed away momentarily. Rael shook his head and they returned to their attentive listening. "Do you think they're safe?" Elane said quietly.

Rael's forehead creased with concern. "I hope so." He backed away from the door, and began searching for a handle.

"Rael," said Elane gasping, "what if it's the Kairin?"

Rael bowed his head with a defeatist smile. "If the Kairin are here now, with the city as weak as Zelda believes, it won't matter if we escape this prison or not. We'll be right back in, or worse."

Elane touched his arm. "But if Jaendral or Ramades take the city… it won't be any different…"

A scream from somewhere distant drove fear into their hearts. "That is why I must reach Queen Lana first. Get back." Elane took a few steps back into the hallway.

Rael took a short run up and crashed into the thick door with all his weight. Rael spun away, unable to watch. With a great thud, the panels cracked and the door gave way, leaving Rael to stumble forward into a windowed room, empty of soldiers but lined with weapons. A guard post.

Elane followed him in cautiously. "This is suicide Rael," she said slowly.

"I know," admitted Rael, "there!" he hurried across the room to a chest marked 'confiscated' in a painted Gerudo scrawl. It threw it open and breathed a sigh of relief. All of the items taken upon their arrest were contained inside it still, including most importantly his sword. Elane was equally pleased to find her long dagger and its sheath waiting for her. She fastened it around her waist quickly, gripping the dagger fiercely. "Would you rather not take a sword from the wall?" Rael asked, glancing around considering whether to take a second for himself. They were scimitars of the Gerudo fashion, broad and sharp on one edge.

When he felt sufficiently ready to defend himself, Rael shoved a table up against the wall, clambered onto it, and looked out of the window. "Oh… blood and bones…" he cursed. Having been blindfolded since capture until being thrown into prison, this was his first sight of Shaylin up close. They were on the second of the city's three mountain-moulded tiers, in a building of sandstone and slate. Rael could see the wall of the second tier below him, and further down Shaylin's slope an army was pouring through massive gates. From Rael's angle they were like ants swarming in.

It seemed that there had been a short skirmish there, for still bodies were visible along the battlements. However Shaylin was obviously less strongly guarded than Zelda had believed, for it seemed the invading army – who were certainly Gerudos, not Kairin – were already establishing their ground inside the walls.

Individual invaders were emerging from towers at the edge of the second tier's walls, and engaging in Shaylin Gerudos. The closeness of battle reminded Rael of the immediate danger, and he ducked down below the window quickly. He hopped down from the table and came to Elane's side. She was standing by the wall out of view of the second door in the room, clutching her dagger fiercely. "It's a Gerudo army," Rael whispered. "All men. Their clothes are grey, in rough condition." Rael made a circular gesture around his forehead. "Red headscarves."

Elane nodded slowly. The look on her face said that she knew who was attacking as well as he. "We have to get to Lana before he does then," Elane said, "or any hope of peace could be lost."

They made their way out of the guard room cautiously, coming out into daylight. The buildings around them were mostly grey and brown sandstone, hewn out of the mountain. "All the Shaylin guards must be fighting…" Rael said, nothing the absence of any soldiers. He looked high up the city, at the tallest tier towering over them. A great wall stretched forty spans up to high towers. "We need to get up there. That's where the throne room will be."

Together they hurried from building to building towards the wide archways at the base of the third tier wall. Their fortune in finding no opposition shortly ran out. As they drew up towards the wall, a unit of thirty women came dashing out in two columns, heavily armed and ready to fight the invaders. Rael pulled Elane into a shadowed alcove, narrowly avoiding being discovered.

The rest of their journey was continued in this way. As they made their way into the wall, they entered tunnels leading deep into the mountainside. The corridors were splendidly crafted and decorated with paint art and beautiful weaved wall hangings. Shafts of light from far windows, aided by reflective mirrors and torches illuminated the walkways.

Rael assumed that the best way to find the Throne room would be to follow the most direct and grand route upwards, as in Hylia Palace. He knew these routes would be guarded though, and so they were forced to take servant stairwells and narrow disused corridors that wound steadily higher through the deep places of Shaylin's mighty halls.

The assault on the city was evidently drawing away the soldiery to fight, and leaving many places unwatched. It would be foolish to call the attack's timing good fortune, but at least it proved a distraction.

Soon they came to a place where Rael was certain no further height could be reached, save by climbing out of a window and scaling the cliff walls. Surely enough, when he eased himself out of a door from a narrow circular staircase he saw a grand, high corridor, with marble pillars and gilded steel window frames. He was in no doubt that the large double door at the end of this corridor was the throne room.

"Why is nobody here?" whispered Elane close behind him.

"The grace of the gods, perhaps," muttered Rael. "That or Queen Lana saw better sense than to wait here to be arrested. Blood and rain, she isn't here."

"We should at least go through to her chamber though," Elane suggested.

Rael nodded. Side by side they ran along the corridor, weapons drawn, towards doors at the far end. Their footsteps were muted by the thick red carpet under their boots, their path well lit by high windows in the tall ceiling. When they reached the end of the corridor they stopped, catching their breath. The thick doors were made of tough East-Hyrule redwood, bearing two engravings of giant snakes, mirroring each other in the shape of the rune 'S'.

Elane gasped when she saw the two snake images. They were shaped like her pendant. "Rael," she said, "I should have told you. I found my necklace in the guard room when you were looking out of the window." She drew it out of her dress proudly, holding it up in comparison to the doors of the throne room. "And I found this too. It's yours." She pulled another necklace out from the folds of her shirt, on its end dangled a gold ring.

Rael smiled. He thought he had lost it. "Thank you," he said gratefully, "we may have struggled without this."

Triumphantly, they pushed open the doors, and sure enough discovered a grand throne room on the other side. They were alone.

The throne room was grander than any other places they had seen in the city. Every wall decorated with frescos depicting scenes of Gerudo heroes fighting wild beasts, or walls of ancient text and sacred symbols, and others of past kings and queens in splendour. The art covered all the light brown sandstone walls along the hall and reached high up towards the windows in the rafters. The high ceiling was supported by eight green-and-white marble columns that made two rows either side of a purple velvet carpet.

"If someone finds us here…" started Elane.

"-It will be no different than if we are found anywhere else," said Rael, interrupting. The began to walk along the carpet towards the throne. The way it rested upon a raised dais reminded Rael of Zelda's Throne in Hylia. "The Amethyst Throne," Rael whispered in wonder. The seat itself was crafted from white stone, shaped like flowing waterfalls, like an oasis spring in a desert of sand. Decorating it were many lines of purple gemstones inlaid along its arms and back. Behind it a marble wall was set with rays of purple stones like a sunburst behind the seat of authority. The reflected light glittered in thousand shades of purple.

"Is it all amethyst?" Elane asked in awe, "it's so beautiful…"

Rael climbed the steps onto the dais, mesmerised by the glittering white throne. Elane followed slowly. "So this is the prize that Lana has held for twenty years, which Ramades and Jaendral will wage war to claim for their own." Seeing it, he understood the power that it held; the monarch of the Gerudo kingdom, second to none but the Queen of Hyrule herself.

Elane lay a hand on his shoulder and leaned upon him gently. "We made it," she said quietly, sighing deeply.

Rael said nothing. They were far from completing their mission. The sound of fighting was beginning to echo up the halls once again behind them. "We should keep searching for Lana," he suggested. He turned around and moved back towards the steps.

Elane nodded, "You're right, we- Rael!" she gasped. Rael spun around, and followed her startled gaze. She crossed the dais so that she was standing beside the throne, eyes transfixed on a smaller sunburst in the head of the chair that imitated the great pattern behind it. In the centre, where purple rays shone from an absent sun, was a hollowed out shape. Elane stretched out a finger to feel the twisted groove. "It couldn't be…" she said under her breath.

Rael watched with fascination as she drew the snake necklace from her dress, a flawless single piece of amethyst, in the familiar snake shape. She held it out in front of the winding hollow in the throne. "Blessed light," said Rael. It was an exact match. It was as clear as day that Elane's necklace had been removed clean from the Amethyst Throne. "You were supposed to come here."

Elane looked both amazed and terrified. "What does it mean?"

Rael had no time to answer her. A tremendous boom echoed from the far end of the hallway outside the room, followed by sharp victorious trumpet blasts. "Hide!" he exclaimed. They hurried to the side of the room, and crammed themselves into a tight alcove in the wall, the only cover available. They concealed themselves from view just as the marching footsteps began to draw near.