She started to stir several hours later, shaking her head slowly. She coughed and moaned weakly, and tried to sit up. Link put a hand under her shoulders to help her, and Linna came in from sleeping in another room to check on her. Linna took her pulse and felt for a fever, and finding both her heart and temperature sound, she stood back a little bit to watch her.
Zelda looked around. The room was strangely foggy. Her head was heavy and she felt slow, like she was trying to run underwater. It took her some time to process Link next to her, holding her hand.
"Your Majesty?" she mumbled, staring at him. "What are you doing…?"
"It's okay, Zelda. Rest," Linna interjected.
Link stayed there in silence, waiting.
"Can… I have some water?" she asked Linna in a soft rasp.
"Yes, of course." Linna went to get some, and Zelda looked into Link's face for a long while. Something horrible, there was a horrible memory swimming up that she had been repressing.
"What time is it? What day is it? Alejan…" It was as if saying his name out loud had triggered the events and ordeals she had barely survived, and Zelda started to cry in silence, putting her open hand to her face as if to shield herself.
Linna gave Zelda the cup of water, quiet as she watched her weep. Zelda sniffed and drank the water in one shot, then set the cup down on her bedside table.
"You… you knew this would happen," she whispered finally, looking at Link. He shook his head.
"I didn't. I knew people might die, but not who. And I never thought…"
"She… she tried to tell me. Sila. She knows he did it."
"Sila? How?"
Linna stared between them, her eyes wide. "The queen?"
Link turned to her. "Please, leave us."
Linna hesitated, but Zelda waved her away. "It is fine. Go, Linna." After a pause, she left to go fuss in the kitchen, but she kept her ears sharp for sounds of distress. Zelda might be fine with him being around, but Linna only knew the desert people through her father's drunken ravings, though of course his experience was from long before Link became the ruler. Times were still tense between the two groups, and she did not know what this new Desert King was capable of. What he might be planning.
"She… I don't know. She was here with him, they came to see—oh Farore, he was in my house, our...house." Zelda groaned and put one hand to her mouth, and Link looked frantically for the chamberpot, sweeping it out from under the bed and holding it to her chin. But she was able to hold herself steady.
"She knows, Link. Because everyone thinks some wild pig did it, that there was a pig in those woods. The only pig… the only… would have been him."
Link stroked her hair, nodding. "I told her what you had told me that day, about the woods."
Zelda let go of his hand and wrapped her arms around her stomach, thinking. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, to steady herself.
"I will do it."
Link watched her. "Are you sure?"
"Yes." She opened her eyes. "If… if I live, at least I will have my child. If I don't… then… I will be with Alej… and my father."
"Do you still have your dagger?"
"Yes, I believe I do."
"Good. You will need it. Take it with you to the castle. Wear it strapped on your thigh." He stood. "You will need similar clothing to the maids' uniforms. I will have Sila give me some information, and I will see what I can do to get you the proper clothing."
She looked up at him, resolute in her misery.
"Start eating again. You and your baby will need strength."
/
Sila was gently sponging Ganondorf's back. Ever since that one day, he'd insisted she bathe him. Now that he'd had the ultimate release, he felt he could enjoy things more. Not as sharply now as that initial day, but for the time being, he could still feel some small spark of pleasure at seeing his wife's growing belly or the rooms that were to be the nursery. And she did all he asked, with a quiet smile and complete acquiescence. He sighed and sank into the water.
"If I may ask, sir, what is the key for?" she asked softly, squeezing water into his hair. The chain would be long enough to slip over his head while he slept, but it might simply be easier to undo the clasp so he would think he'd lost it.
"Oh? Well. It is just a symbol for holding the key to the kingdom."
Sila smiled a little. "I didn't think you were so sentimental."
"Why not?"
She shrugged. "You just seem a very… logical sort of person, is all."
Ganondorf nodded. "Well, I'd like to think of myself as such. That is how a country should be ruled; through logic and law. I plan to never have a sole woman running the country. If we have a girl, she will not rule alone for even a second. Marry her off as soon as she starts her cycles. There is too much at stake for it to be run by… by emotion and thinking with the heart."
Sila nodded, grinding one knee into the tile in anger to keep from speaking up. "Well. Couldn't you teach her to run the kingdom with logic? With her head?"
"Oh, it may work in peace times. But in war, she will go for what she has faith in, not for what works."
"You can't know that for sure." It slipped out, but Ganondorf snorted in response.
"I know what I know. But you, my dear. You shall never have to rule alone, either. I plan to always be king."
Sila shivered. "And how do you aim to do that?"
He chuckled, and the sound was dark and echoed in the large room. "I have my ways. Now. Get in this tub."
/
The next day, Zelda went to see the graves. Her head was heavy still from the concotions she'd been on for so long, and she'd barely been sleeping, barely been eating, despite Linna urging. Link had left that day, after she had agreed to … to do it.
Though Linna and Milla and every woman around had tried, sympathetically, to go with her to the gravesite, she refused them.
"I am going on my own. They were my family and I want a private moment with them," she said sharply, arguing them, and in the end they let her go.
She went early in the day. It was unseasonably warm except for the snow on the ground, and she still wore a coat against the cold. It had not snowed since they were buried, so the ground on their graves was visible. There were plaques on the ground at the top of the grave mounds with their names and the years of their births and deaths. She wondered who had bought the plaques, and hoped it wasn't…
Slowly, she slumped down in the snow between the graves, touching the center of the earth plots with her hand.
"If only you could tell me the truth," she murmured sadly. "Am I mad? I am planning… I am planning treason, taking the word of a man I don't completely trust because I trust his enemy even less. Why did he kill you? What did you see?"
She wiped the tears from her eyes. "Father. I love you. You deserved better than this. You deserved a quiet dignified death at home. Not a butchering. Alej… you were my best friend. You were my one true love, the only one I could… I could…"
She took a deep breath, putting a hand to her chest to steady her nerves.
"Is this what I should do? This dangerous path? Follow the Desert King blindly and do his bidding?"
Zelda closed her eyes and listened, waiting. There was the soft whistle of wind, the sound of snow falling off a branch. Above her head, there was a sudden burst of chirping, tweeting. She looked up and stared; it was a bright red bird, a cardinal, sitting in the branches. It cleaned its feathers, and went back to singing its heart out. It watched her carefully when she stood, chirping a few more times, then finally it flew away, towards the desert. Cardinals were her father's favorite.
"I must be crazy," she murmured to herself.
/
Sila woke up, and discovered that she was alone in Ganondorf's bed. She looked around in surprise for him, but she couldn't see him. Not at his desk, not in the bathroom…
Sila double-checked, then, when she was certain she was alone, she started exploring. She ran her fingers along the walls, looking for wood panels that depressed slightly, and she lifted the tapestries, looking for carefully-cut doors. She found one that opened when she pressed in the center of a slightly off-color panel, revealing a set of stairs that she figured led down to the maids' quarters; it was similar to the look of her own room's passage. The second was under a tapestry and required a slightly different touch; a sharp rap in the center of it popped open the door. A quick look down and she saw another door with mid-morning light peeping around the cracks. So that one was the whores' passage; it was also quite dusty. At least she knew Ganondorf was devoted, as if it mattered to one who was used to sharing.
The last one, she realized, was mostly tucked in a corner. She could feel cool air around the narrow edges of it, and she found that it had a clever mechanism. A wall sconce in the corner, when turned clockwise, revealed a keyhole. Here was the locked room.
She touched lightly at the keyhole, but she did not dare pick it. He may be in there at this time, and he would probably not appreciate an intrusion. Instead, she dressed and left his rooms. One of the maids approached her, and she took quick note of her dress. Black, long sleeves, starched simple apron. Floor-length, of course.
"What is it?" she asked in a cool tone when the maid bowed low.
"His Majesty wishes you to know he is out on the hunt, and will return later this evening."
Sila shivered a little, wondering if he would murder someone else today.
"Thank you," she replied, nodding her head and going to her rooms. She immediately began to draft a letter to Link.
/
Late that night, Zelda packed up some belongings, some snacks and clothing and things, and she set out for the desert on her horse. She rode slowly, not wishing to be jostled too much on her way there. The moon was out and half-full, leaving plenty of light for her to see by. She was dressed in mourning, and her Gerudo dagger was tied to her thigh. She also carried Alejandro's bow and quiver, though she wasn't completely sure how to use it. Hopefully, she would be given time to practice.
It took several hours, as she was moving so slowly, and the sky was turning red with dawn by the time she came to the fortress. At first, the Gerudo soldiers came towards her in silence, wielding their swords. When they recognized her, they stopped and nodded to her. She recognized one of the soldiers; Brida.
"Welcome," she said, nodding her head. Zelda nodded in return.
Two of the girls helped her down from the horse, and a third led the horse to their stables.
Zelda was escorted inside, and she was sat down at the table she and Link had argued at, when she refused him the first time. And yet here she was again. She dug one nail into the wood and came back with a small splinter, and she cursed quietly and started to work with her teeth to remove it. Link came walking up not much later, wearing a loose pair of pants and not much else. Zelda stood and he went to kiss her hand.
"So. Here you are," he said, his face calm and stern. "I see you have the bow. Do you have your dagger?"
She patted her left leg. "Yes."
She followed him to his rooms, and sat down at his desk with him. In the next room, she heard the shifting of fabric and a soft sound of contentment. Of course.
"You may hit me for this, but at least we won't have to spend too much on the costume," he said, glancing at a slip of paper in his fingers. A letter from Sila, she surmised. "A long-sleeved black dress, and a white apron."
"I will still need the apron," she said in a quiet voice.
"That is fine, I will get it for you."
"Do we have any confirmation of—
She fell silent when a girl walked out of Link's bedroom, wrapped in a flimsy robe. Rather young looking, probably barely out of her teens, with high cheekbones and a sharp chin.
"I'm Tamri," she said, shaking Zelda's hand, before walking out, presumably to go wash up.
Zelda watched her go, and then she looked towards Link, her expression stern.
"You're a new widow. I have no such… goals towards you," he said quietly. When her expression did not change, he sighed.
"It's a desert. We get bored, and everyone's always on edge anyway. It happens in a building full of warriors with no wars."
"You know, every time I think I could get to like you, I remember why I can't. And don't you dare call me a prude," she snapped. "Just because I don't run around with my breasts on display."
He sighed. "Zelda. You will not change the way I run my army, and I will not change how you dress or think. Let's accept that we are different people with different opinions, and continue to work together. Besides, the skimpy clothing is a diversion tactic, anyway."
"What?"
"Oh sure, you saw her body and all that. But didn't you see that she wore a dagger at her hip?" Zelda looked back, but Tamri was long gone. Link grinned. "You shouldn't be so quick to judge."
"Well. Don't ever expect me to dress like that," she grumbled.
"I won't, I promise. Now, what were you going to ask?"
"Do we know for certain that he is trying to achieve immortality?"
"No, we actually don't."
"I don't feel comfortable moving in on this until we know for sure."
"I understand that. I'm hoping to get such information from Sila soon. When I do, I will send you there immediately. You go in through the maids' quarters, up to his rooms, do the task and leave."
"Yes."
"Do you think you can kill a man? I need to know because it will depend on you."
It took Zelda but a second. Alejandro's laugh, her father tucking her in at night when she was young—these were the only images she needed.
"Yes."
"Once it is over… you can go home. Tell no one what you have done. Or, you can come live with me here, and become a soldier."
"What happens to Hyrule?"
"Sila will rule it, I presume. I will help her do so."
"So in a way… you'll rule it."
"Yes."
Zelda frowned. "How do I know this isn't… just a ploy? For you to grab Hyrule for yourself?"
"I'm not the one who lied about killing two innocent men. I have been upfront with you on everything." He looked into her eyes sincerely. "And I will continue to do so."
/
Ganondorf sank to his knees in the snow, careful of the pool of blood ebbing from the sheep's throat. Presumably it'd gotten free from a nearby farm or something. No matter to him; maybe he would start a rumor of wolves in these woods, as well. By the end of it, the world would be full of bloodthirsty monsters. But still, he felt the disquiet of rage inside of him, and he was disturbed. This had not sated his anger as completely as the men had. Din's breath, to relive that…
But it was too much risk. That scared little farmwife, barely a few months pregnant and doped up just to keep from miscarrying, and mad with grief. In a way, it struck him, the depths of her sadness. Fascinating, in a way. He thought of Sila dying, being slaughtered alone in the snow. He was only bothered when he thought of their child dying inside of her, and only because there went his last hopes of everlasting life.
He stood and walked away from the sheep, trying to find the hunting dogs and his soldiers. They had, for themselves, caught several pheasants, and even a goose.
"We will eat well!" he said with a laugh. But inside, he felt nothing.
/
Sila was sprawled in his bed when he returned. He hoped she was not expecting him to give her such attentions; he simply wanted to brood over his recipe. The monksblood flowers were growing well, the alchemist had last assured him, and they would be blooming in time. The timing in the book was very specific; most of the herbs had to be ready either by the full moon, preferably by half-wax for constant growing and fullness of life. The concoction itself had to be brewed and drunk at dawn, for never-ending mornings and the continuation of life. And the most difficult ingredient; the blood of a loved one, preferably a newborn baby, to take on their longevity in life. To steal their years away. There were still a few months to go for that last ingredient. He stared at his wife's growing belly. Inside of her was his key to eternal life.
Sila stirred, and slowly she opened her eyes. She sat up in bed, looking relaxed and sleepy. "How was the hunt?" she asked, noting that he was not quite so bloody this time, and the key was around his neck. Damn it.
"Quite good. We will be having pheasant for dinner, it seems."
"You know, I like it. We never had many bird dishes in Gerudo. It is one of the things I like about this country."
He nodded, and sat at his desk to pore over ledgers, and she stood up, walking over to rub his back, and nibble lightly at the edge of his ear.
"Not right now. I'm exhausted."
Sila frowned. She was hoping that if they made love, he would fall asleep afterwards and she could use some of the putty she'd hidden to make a quick mold of the key. No such luck, today.
"Of course you are. Would you like a sponge bath?"
"No. I just want to work on the books a little. Why don't you lie back down and rest?"
Sila wanted to argue. She'd been laying in wait all day, she wasn't even tired. But instead, she smiled sweetly and climbed back under the covers.
"Have you thought of any names you would want for the child?" she asked idly, to pass the time.
"No."
A pause, while he wrote slowly, thoughtfully.
"I think if it's a girl, I will name her Thea. If a boy, Grigor."
Ganondorf slammed his fist down on the desk. "Sila. I do not care to hear your simpering about a child that doesn't exist yet!"
She stared at him, startled. "I… but it does exist."
"Please. I've had a long day. Go back to your rooms."
She hesitated.
"NOW."
Finally, like a girl scolded, she left. She went to her rooms and bit her knuckles, furious. Clearly, the 'hunt' hadn't been as effective on him like last time. When he killed people.
He was growing dangerous quickly. She had to find proof of his arcane desires, and soon.
/
Zelda woke up with a sharp little gasp. She looked around; the cot she was sleeping on was well enough for a bed, but the thin blankets were a poor replacement for her down comforters at home. She sat up and looked out one of the wide glass windows, noting that the sky had the faint, grey tinge of just before dawn.
She stretched back out and hugged the thin pillow closer to her face, trying to remember what had made her jolt awake. Was it part of her dream? No… she couldn't remember them lately. Something to do with… with what she would have to do.
Link wanted her to go sneak into his rooms and … and finish him there. It bothered her. Little problems began to pop up as she worried over it; what if others were in the room? What about Sila? If Link wanted her to rule, being alive and well would only implicate her or him in the assassination (not that it wouldn't be Link's fault anyway). She sat up again, and put on the sandals they'd given her, wrapping up tightly in her coat over her nightclothes. She would go talk to him right this instant.
Link's door was mostly shut when she came to it, but there was some light coming out from under its edge, and she gently knocked.
"Come in," he called out. He looked up in surprise at her, and she also looked at him in surprise; he was actually wearing more than one layer of clothing, for once, though the robe he wore over his pants was made of a thin, filmy material.
"Sit down," he said, gesturing. "I should have known you'd be an early riser."
"Well, no. I'm usually not. Not… this early, at least."
He poured her some warm tea, and she held it in her hands while he finished writing something.
"Are you nervous?" he aked her, as he blotted the ink with sand.
"Well, a little, but I was thinking… something else. The way this… will be done."
"Yes?"
"If we kill him in his bedroom, won't it look like a… a plot? An intentional death? If Sila's in the room, won't she be implicated? Wouldn't she be implicated if she wasn't attacked? It would throw suspicion over her and you, and you may find it hard to rule effectively through that."
Link thought over her words, leaning back in his chair. "Hm."
Zelda finally took a little drink of her tea, and it was sharp and bitter.
"You know, I'm glad you're around. You make some excellent points there. An accidental death will be far more likely than an assassination."
Zelda nodded, and Link grinned at her. She smiled back and took another drink.
"Then, since your brain seems a little sharper than mine at this hour… what do you think should be done? How shall we take down the king?"
"A hunting accident," she said simply, looking into Link's face, with all the calm of a shark.
"What, perhaps a guard accidentally shoots him with an arrow?"
"Maybe he trips on his own sword," she replied.
He watched her for a few minutes. "You have a cold streak in you, you know that?"
She narrowed her eyes. "He killed most of my family."
"True… are you sure you wouldn't want to live here after all this?"
"I'm sure."
"Alright then… when will he know if he is going on another hunting trip?" Link picked up his own cup and took a drink, watching her.
"Well…" she shrugged. "If you've already brought that apron, might as well put it to use." She swirled the last of the tea around in her cup, and smiled a bit. "You know, you're not so bad when you're not draped with women."
At that, he couldn't help but laugh a little. Zelda looked down at her lap, thinking. Since she was here anyway…
"I…"
"Go on." He seemed in a fine enough mood.
"I'm just not sure… I guess, that is to say, can I trust you? That what you want for Hyrule is better than what Ganondorf has done?"
"You mean besides promising I won't kill innocent people?"
She sighed. "For all I know, you want to overthrow him and turn Hyrule into another desert. I don't know anything about you or your politics. If this is going to be done, then ultimately, I want it to be for the better. And…" Zelda hesitated, thinking. Link waited, watching her. "I do still want him to suffer. But wouldn't it be better to disgrace him? Have him face justice with a trial, and undergo a beheading?"
"But that is why we are doing this. We are holding our own trial. I don't wish to insult you or the memory of your family, but… until he kills someone that most people will recognize as important, where the death is shocking enough that it throws suspicion over him, then you may never get a chance for that trial."
"That is true…" Zelda pulled her fingers back through her hair to take it off her face. "I'm having second thoughts about it. Because I want to do what is right for the country first, before what will please me."
Link smiled again. "Perhaps you should be queen."
"Because I believe in fairness?"
"More or less."
"Doesn't everyone, though? What do you believe in?" she asked him, reaching for more tea. He took the kettle before she could grab it and poured more himself. She nodded in gratitude.
"Hm. Well. I believe in fairness for all people, as well. I know that no matter how good of a king I think I could be, Gerudo will always be a desert. I suppose that my hope is for uniting with Hyrule despite that, and working with its people to keep life sustainable in both places. And… always doing what's right and for the best for everyone, whatever the cost."
Zelda took a drink. "It's a shame we had to meet like this."
"Oh?" He poured himself another cupful.
"Yes. I suppose that under more … peaceful circumstances, I could have liked you."
"Well. Perhaps you might like me once we're done with all this ugliness."
"That remains to be seen," she said with a shrug.
"At least you're honest," he replied, chuckling.
She stood, straightening out her coat and yawning a little. "Maybe I should try to go back to bed."
"If you want, you could always go try out the archery range?"
Zelda smiled a little. "I should probably start practicing, shouldn't I? Perhaps once I've had more rest."
/
Once he knew she was tucked in bed, Ganondorf removed the key from around his neck and unlocked the third secret passage in his room, going down the little corridor and to his little chamber. He ran his hands over the grooves in the altar, then went to his books, looking at them from a distance, then on to the little jars of floating bits of flesh and organ. Gerudo had been quiet lately; there were a few reports from his spies that a Hylian woman had been seen there; the one whose family he'd…
But what was she doing there? They were unsure; these spies stayed near the mines, acting as foremen. They could only confirm they'd seen her. Perhaps Link had decided to try some of the local flavor? Maybe she had run-ins with creditors from her father's gambling or her husband's drinking? Not that he knew anything of the sort about either man, but all reasons why a woman would succumb to her base desires. Like Sila.
He pondered his wife, something he did from time to time, while he threw some dried plants and powdered roots into the center of the altar. Adding a splash of wine that had been embalming a rat king, he mixed it into a sort of mud as he thought of Sila, how she seemed not to hate him, not to pity him, but to actually... want him. To love him. He remembered the way she gasped in excitement after that day in the woods, hot and wanting around the length of him. She had been so weak, crumpling on his lap in pleasure. And he had done that to her, simply by being a man. How was she so susceptible to it when no others were? And why did he feel so little thinking back on it now?
He gathered the mud into a rough pile and struck a spark onto it, having to try a few times before it flared blue and a small cloud of smoke billowed upwards. He leaned in and breathed the smoke in deep. He'd been doing this so long he no longer choked on the harsh smell. He let it cloud his mind, and waited for the visions.
First, he saw a flat landscape, in bright yellow with a bleached sky. The desert, he surmised. Dark clouds rolled in overhead, with flashes of light. The storm clouds filled the sky, rolling rapidly away from him, until he realized he was being pushed back, into the center of Hyrule. When he stopped, the clouds suddenly overtook the skies above, until the lands of Hyrule themselves were dark.
In a bright flash of lightning, he saw a woman in black, with a white smear running down from her chest. A maid, he figured. Her hair was bright white, and her left hand was glowing, with talons like a hawk's. Behind her was the Desert King, holding a leash in his hand that led to the maid. An assassination plot. Typical. From now on, he would have his food tasted before receiving it, and maids were not to be allowed in the kitchens. They would wait outside the door to take up the plates.
He exhaled and coughed a little, his eyes tearing up. He pounded the flames out with his fist, smearing the mud over the altar. It would dry and flake up easily later. When he was confident the pile would not reignite, he left the chamber again, locking it and going to wash up.
/
Linna knocked again on Zelda's front door, chewing her lower lip. It'd been eerily quiet for the past day or so around her house. Linna had assumed, at first, that she'd missed Zelda while she was visiting the gravesite or simply did not want visitors, but she wanted to see how she was doing with the baby and just in general. She'd tried her house twice today though, and even checked the little hill where her husband and father were buried, but she hadn't seen any new tracks in the thin snow—of course.
Linna looked around at her feet, but the activity of life and the warming climate had melted away most traces of the snow, and any tracks she saw were misshapen and hard to identify. After helplessly looking around, she went to check the horse paddock, which wasn't far from Zelda's house.
She looked carefully at the horses, calling them over by clucking her tongue. Even just by counting though, she knew it was what she feared.
Zelda was gone.
"Cris?" she called, walking into their house. Her husband appeared from the kitchen, looking at her in surprise.
"What is it?"
"It's Zelda, I can't find her. Did anyone see her heading towards town in the last day? Or anywhere?"
"Zelda? No, not that I know of. Maybe she's sleeping or doesn't want visitors right now. It's been a rough time."
"I checked the field and her horse is gone."
"Hrm." Cris frowned. "That is reason for worry."
"And she wasn't at the gravesite and she wasn't home yesterday either."
"Linna. Calm down. Maybe she just wants to be by herself right now. If she's not home tomorrow, I'll help you arrange a search party myself."
Linna sighed heavily, folding her arms. "I just want to know where she is."
"I know you do. But she is an adult woman, and even though she's been through a lot lately, I'm sure she will be alright." He hugged her close and kissed her forehead. "Just relax."
"I can't help it. She's been through a great deal lately, and that desert fellow had been hanging around—
"The desert king? What does he want with Zelda?"
"I have no clue. It seemed very out of place, but he was at the wedding with… those women," she hissed. "So… they must know each other on some level. I mean… he stayed with her for hours while she was drugged up. Doesn't that seem suspicious?"
"It's strange, yes," said Cris, nodding. "But… I think we both know that Zelda and Alej were very devoted to each other. You don't seriously think she'd be fooling around with another man the whole time, do you?"
Linna sighed. "No, I really don't. But you never know, either."
Cris shrugged his shoulders. "It doesn't sound good, but if she isn't around by the end of tomorrow, then we can start looking for her. Everyone reacts to death differently."
"I know. But I do worry about her." She pulled away to get herself a little drink of water.
"Of course you do. But I promise, if she's not around tomorrow, then we can go looking for her."
Linna nodded firmly. "I hope she comes home. I do not like that man. I don't like the way he looks at her."
Cris chuckled. "Come on now. He has so many women at home, what could he want with Zelda? She's pretty and all, I guess, but…"
"I just don't trust him," Linna said with a definite edge to her voice. "I think he's up to something."
"Why would that be?" Cris grew very serious, holding his wife back to look in her face.
"When he came to see Zelda after Alejandro and Yoro died, they started to talk about..." she hesitated, and lowered her voice further, "killing the king."