Chapter 6—Midnight Meeting Part 2
Paris flew through the air, his hair in his eyes, until he landed on the stone, far above the ground. Putting the long shot away, he turned to check if the guards had heard him. Five now gathered around the pots, examining the clay and the surrounding areas. None had taken notice of his invasion. He smiled.
Getting in, though, had more or less been the tricky part. Now he had to go carefully through the heart of the Gerudos' home to find Savannah.
Moving to check the door to his left that led into the dark interior, he reached inside his tunic to clutch at Nayru's Love. The pendent warmed in his hands and he felt an odd peace wash through him. The slight shake that he'd acquired while zipping through the air ceased. He felt the Goddess's inner power flow through him and guide him.
The inside of the fortress was dark and almost dank, but he paid little attention to it. His eyes and ears alert, he felt his way along, one hand to the wall. The hall turned left, and he followed it down a long corridor, passing several rooms on the one side he could feel that were dark. He followed his heart, not knowing if it was his inner being or Nayru that placed his feet and made them move forward.
When he turned left again, he came to a room on the right that was lit, from candles, it looked like. He paused in the shadows, peeking forward to see how many occupied the room. He saw one Gerudo, lying on her stomach with a book in her hand. He watched for a long moment and her attention remained on the book. But the position in which she lay posed a problem; it was parallel to the door. Should he try to walk by, she could catch him out of the corner of her eye. The candles were close to the door and practically eliminated the shadows in the hall that would be his ally.
A task of daring, and timing, then. He watched the Gerudo inside the room, her eyes darting across the page with fascination lighting her eyes. It could be that he only had to walk past and she wouldn't see him.
Several minutes of observation revealed nothing but book-reading, and at last, he decided on a coarse of action: he walked quickly, quietly, right past the open door, in the light. He was only evident for a second, but that second was all it took.
The young Gerudo jumped up, her book forgotten and leaned out the doorway, looking pointedly into the shadows that concealed Paris. She took a step out of her room then another toward him.
Paris's heart pounded, so loud he was sure it was either audible or visible. A bead of sweat trickled down the side of his head and his palms became clammy as she took another step toward him.
Suddenly, someone yelled. From one of the lower levels, or even from outside, some kind of warning or cry for help went up. The Gerudo turned on a dime to see to it, but stopped before she'd taken more then a few steps to peer back at him. Still, Paris hoped he was hidden.
She turned and left at a sprint down the hall.
He breathed in a deep sigh of relief. But his heart beat hard with anticipation and an adrenaline high. To re-focus his attention on Savannah, he held fast to Nayru's Love again, and found peace. She wasn't far off now, around two more turns. Creeping with caution, expecting more Gerudo to pop around the corner at any moment in answer to the call for aid, he watched where he put his feet, and that he stayed plastered to the wall. When he came to the corner and looked around it, it proved to be empty, of persons and rooms. A blessing from the Goddesses, he acknowledged, running to the far end, which wasn't more then three meters from the corner. At the junction of that corner, he found stairs—he could have come up that way; shorter, faster, closer.
But it was done, and here he was. Silence met his listening ears, and stillness his senses. He knew where Savannah was; right there, in the second room down the hall, on the far side.
Checking again to be sure he was alone, he walked boldly out into the hall and came to a stop near the door.
Savannah sat at the window, looking out at the moon and stars. She didn't look down, where she might have been able to see the Gerudos, but instead her gaze searched the sky. She was beautiful, the moonlight glowing on her tanned skin and her long burning-black hair over one shoulder.
She sighed.
"Wings would be useful, yes?" he asked softly.
She jumped and turned, coming to her feet with a dagger in her hand. Then she recognized him and her warrior's guard fell some; the dagger was lowered slightly.
"What are you doing here? How did you get in?"
"I came to see you, and as to how, a number of methods were employed." He walked toward her, reaching out to touch the hand that held the dagger. She let him lower her hand and place the dagger on her bed.
She looked away from him when he looked into her eyes.
"Thank you for the lotion. It works well," she said.
He nodded slightly, then dared touch her again. He turned her by her chin to look back at him. "I missed you."
She blinked and confusion wrinkled her face. "You missed me?"
"Yes," he breathed. And, without thinking of consequences or chance, he leaned forward, pressing his lips to hers. She didn't hit him, didn't draw away, only stood there. Disappointed, he tried harder to stir her, cupping her face gently, letting his hands tease her hair. For a long moment, he feared she would stay statue, but then she moved—her lips, her hands, her whole body. She pressed closer to him, melted—sort of.
He pulled away slowly, pulling at her lower lip with his teeth. She was breathless, her eyes glazed. A smile struggled at the corner of her mouth.
She looked to be about to say something, but someone below, outside the window shouted. Paris looked out, terrified all of a sudden to find someone down on the ground, pointing up at the window where they stood in each other's embrace. There was someone below, but she was looking straight ahead, not up.
Savannah moved him away from the window, more into the corner to his right.
"I cannot stay long; the chance of being found increases with each passing moment. I came to warn you. My people, Hylians from the palace, make plans to attack here. They mean to kill the Gerudo. You must warn your people."
She looked away, then back and nodded. "I will tell them. I do not know what Abinan, our queen, will choose to do."
The question that had been nagging at him broke loose, provoked by her response to being called Gerudo. "You were not born Gerudo, were you?"
She sucked in a breath, stared at him for a long moment with tears in her eyes. Another shout erupted, this time from inside the Fortress. They were closing in; he needed to leave.
"Were you?"
Her breathing labored, she shook her head.
"What were you born? Hylian?"
He heard running, up the stairs that were nearer her room.
"Kokiri," she whispered. "You must go; they're coming." She pushed him toward the door, walking with him. He stopped there, refusing to go any further for another second.
"They will come before dawn, when the night is oldest. Be ready or be gone," he whispered. Then he kissed her again, on the lips, hard, trailing his hand through her hair one last time, then he turned abruptly, ripping himself from her, and went away, into the shadows. Savannah stood there, feeling so strange and alone and abandoned. She touched her lips, bruised and on fire, and watched the shadows for any sign of him. But she saw none.
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Damn, how he wanted to stay. He'd seen the loneliness in her eyes right before he'd turned away, but had not been able to make it go away. They were coming up the stairs closer to Savannah, which meant he had to take the way out that he'd come in by—the long way around. It didn't matter; he'd seen her, warned her, touched her and even kissed her. And he knew the truth now. Knew already what he was going to do upon returning to the camp.
He flew through the levels of the fortress. Most were coming up the other side, like they were invading; locust to green. He had only to get out, to reach Heath and make his get-away. He preferred to not been seen, but he could if he must. Once he was away, only the chance of being hit with an arrow remained until he was out of the valley.
His retreat lacked fineness, but it didn't matter. He ran, full out, stopping only when he reached the wall that blocked out the outside world. His breath was hard to come by, his heart heavy and his lungs weary, but he ignored the physical pain. No one was outside that he could see and he had no time to wait and make sure. So, he ran through the moonlight, exposed and vulnerable, away, out the fortress gate. Away, safely, hidden away.
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Abinan, Queen Gerudo, watched the male figure dart across her sands. She did not know where in the Fortress he had been, but she knew he had penetrated their forces. She would speak with Nina, her second-in-command. They would find whom he had spoken to, find out what he had had to say. And next time he approached her home—she was no fool; she knew he would return—they would capture him. It was her absolute way.
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Thawn716 and ZombieDragon, thank you both for your reviews! Please let me know what you think of this chapter; I'm afraid it goes a little too fast, but I don't really know how to slow it down without adding another part to Midnight Meeting.