Zelda stared blankly at the wall of the cavern, unable to relax despite her exhaustion. Her strained nerves were causing her to glance obsessively over the blue marble room, and a curious pain kept stinging in her left hand.
The hours were passing at a nauseating crawl. Impa had suggested they rest in the cavern for the night and allow Domel to return to Kakariko. He would come back in the morning to report whether Link had moved on.
The princess let out a quiet sigh, closing her eyes. Her fingers traced across her stomach to the sore spot above her hip. The wound had all but healed, the only evidence a bruise and a scaly place where the Master Sword had burned her flesh.
A faint noise elsewhere in the tunnels caused her to open her eyes once more, but the dim light yielded no new spectacle.
She chided herself for her nervousness and looked down at Impa.
The Sheikah was sleeping peacefully, her head resting on her elbow. Her silver hair had fallen free of its tie and flowed down around her shoulders.
Zelda reflected that Impa's place was in the Sacred Realm, not guarding Hyrule's disaster-prone royalty. Guilt clouded her mind for a moment, but she banished it quickly. She needed all the help in the world.
Another noise echoed through the tunnels, closer this time. A voice wafted after it.
Reaching out a shaky hand, Zelda touched Impa's shoulder to wake her.
As the Sheikah sat up, louder sounds approached. Footfalls and stumbling noises, and a man's voice calling out.
"What is he saying?" Zelda whispered.
Impa held up a hand indicating silence.
The voice became clearer.
"Impa!" the muffled sound rang out, "Impa!"
"Stay here," the Sheikah stood and moved rapidly to the heavy cavern door. She slid it partially aside and let out a low whistle.
"Impa," came Domel's voice, hoarse and urgent. He stumbled into view, brushing past Impa and into the room. Impa let the door slide shut as the shopkeeper leaned against a wall, trying to breathe.
"The..." he repeated, "the village..."
Zelda's body went cold before the man could explain.
"What about the village?" Impa asked slowly, her face ashen.
Domel looked slowly down at his arm. He was bleeding badly from several deep cuts.
"Domel!" Impa shouted.
He clasped a hand over his arm, he large frame shaking, "Ganondorf..."
Zelda stood abruptly, ignoring a sharp twinge of pain in her side.
Impa grasped Domel's uninjured arm, looking into his eyes, "What did Ganondorf do?"
"S' burning..." he mumbled, beginning to slide down the wall, "the people..."
"Sleep," Impa ordered, her voice laden with magic.
The man collapsed to the ground. Impa pulled a roll of cloth from the bag at her side and began to bandage his arm.
Zelda lifted her stinging hand in the air, watching the triforce symbol glow as her power began to transform her body. As her skin darkened and her muscle changed shape, she wondered how many had died.
When the light faded and she stood in the flickering light, male, she looked to Impa.
"We'll take the shortcut," said Sheik.
The night was cool outside the village gates. Riding behind her king, Nabooru attempted to stifle her disappointment.
They had left a contingent of warriors in control of Kakariko for the night. In the meantime, Ganondorf had insisted Nabooru and her best fighters accompany him back to the tower. Any villager who even mentioned a revolt would be executed.
The heavy hoofbeats thundered over the fields as the moon began to rise. The sounds of night built to a slow crescendo as the Gerudos crossed the Zora River.
Ganondorf had been silent since giving the order to leave Kakariko. Nabooru could see he was furious over something, but did not dare to ask what.
Their progress slowed as they reached the decimated drawbridge leading to Castletown. The horses moved gingerly through the moat on the uneven wood. Nabooru drew up her feet as water splashed into her shoes.
A mournful sound from above caused the Gerudos to look up. In the moonlit night, a large shape was circling the eastern fields.
"Damnable bird," Ganondorf muttered, urging his hose onward.
Nabooru hung back, watching the the creature fly overhead. It appeared to be an enormous owl, flapping its wings awkwardly to dip low over Kakariko Village. The owl let out a low, drawn cry.
Several women behind Nabooru began to whisper. They had seen the owl before, perched above the trail to the hideout.
The bird cried again and Nabooru felt a small chill trace her back. She had never heard an owl make such a sound.
"Nabooru," Ganondorf's rough voice brought her attention back down, "I'd like to enter the tower before daybreak."
With the voice in her head swearing violently, she motioned to her soldiers and tapped her steed on. The horse let out a disgruntled noise, but trotted forward through the water.
A loud, shrieking wail sounded from above, and the horses reared as one, sending several Gerudos splashing into the moat. Nabooru held on to her mount's neck, yelling at the animal. As the stallion calmed, Nabooru glanced up to see Ganondorf and his shadow steed waiting calmly at the gates.
There was a rush of air from behind her and a piercing repeat of the owl's cry. Nabooru's horse panicked and charged into the moat. Nabooru found herself underwater, then thrust into the air as her steed began to swim away. Soaked, the Gerudo leader let go of the reins and swam back to the bridge. She stood on the exposed wood and walked to Ganondorf's side, wringing out her long red hair. The king was chucking to himself.
"What," she hissed, "is that thing."
"I've seen it with the boy. It's no ordinary bird."
"Gerudos," Nabooru growled at her waterlogged soldiers, "fire at will."
Within moments, arrows began to arc past the bird. One or two magic-tipped arrows created bright streaks through the sky. The owl drew back and flew away, disappearing over the crest of a hill.
Ganondorf turned his horse about and urged it through the dark gateway.
"They have impeccable aim," he called to Nabooru.
Watching him ride into the shadowy city, she swore to herself she would see him dead. With the Hero gone, she no longer needed his protection.
She glanced over her soldiers as they attempted to coax their frightened horses back onto the collapsed bridge. She rubbed her eyes.
Regrettable as it was, she would need outside help to overthrow the usurper king.
"Don't move" Sheik whispered.
The Gerudo before him shivered against the tip of a dagger held to her bare back. The gleaming firelight cast wild shadows and glows from the blade of her polearm.
They were standing on the ledge overlooking the entrance to the town, just beneath the watchtower. Several houses were still burning or smoldering. The air was heavy with smoke.
Sheik slid an arm around the Gerudo's throat.
"Who is your leader here?"
"V..Velia," the young woman barely murmured, "the one in green. Down there."
Sheik glanced over the woman's shoulder. On the grass below, a tall Gerudo with long hair was barking out orders.
"Thank you," said Sheik into the guard's ear. He grasped her throat tightly and pushed the knife forward. Her dying groan was stifled by the hand on her neck. She slid noiselessly to the ground.
The disguised princess pressed against the watchtower and glanced at the roof of the witch's potion shop. Impa crouched on the remaining purple tiles, just behind the roof's apex. Their eyes met across the short distance.
A few quick hand gestures passed the newly acquired information to the elder Sheikah. She readied a small blade and moved herself into position.
Zelda looked down at the pacing Velia, wondering if the Gerudo had even considered that she would die tonight.
A quick glint of metal suspended in the firelight was the only trace of Impa's knife. It lodged neatly just beneath Velia's jaw, and she fell backwards, bleeding explosively.
Several nearby Gerudos let out horrified screams, and began running toward their fallen leader. As expected, the entire company of guards began to panic. They abandoned their posts, some rushing to Velia's body, others tearing wildly through the village in search of the assassin.
Zelda ducked to the other side of the tower and hid herself against a fence as Impa leapt silently from the roof, landing behind Zelda. From the opposite side of the fence, Impa whispered to her princess.
"The villagers are locked in the windmill," She drew a long knife from a sheath on her hip, "We take separate paths and meet there. They'll be willing to fight when they see us alive."
Zelda nodded behind her scarf and the two Sheikah moved away from the fence. Impa vanished into the expanse beneath the shops. Zelda hung to the back wall of Impa's house, which was charred but standing.
A Gerudo warrior rushed by, not noticing the Sheikah. Zelda edged around the burnt wall, glancing at the village center. A cluster of Gerudos remained around Velia's body, but none guarded the wreckage of the Skulltula house on the opposite hill.
Seeing her chance, Zelda rushed from her hiding spot and leapt down the ledge before her, landing behind a crate where Impa's house had stood. The Gerudos did not see her. Keeping her body low, she sprinted across the town's blood-spattered central path and pulled herself onto a ledge. The misshapen rubble of the Skulltula house provided her with the perfect cover.
She tiptoed around the burnt boxes and beams, readying throwing knives in her palms. She knelt behind a convenient crate, noticing a charred body to her right. She adjusted her weight silently, barely catching a falling beam as it slid out of place.
"The blade is Sheikah," one of the Gerudo soldiers called to her companions, "That little bastard is here somewhere!"
Zelda watched the guards split apart to begin searching for Sheik. She glanced up at the windmill. The sails of the windmill had burned away, leaving four black marks across the front of the tower. A Gerudo guard stood in the first maintenance doorway, high above the ground.
The princess flexed a muscular arm and pushed off from the burnt ground, darting across an alleyway to stand behind the shooting gallery, whose blackened brick frame was mostly untouched by the fire.
A Gerudo woman rounded the opposite corner, and Sheik's throwing knife buried itself in her eye before she could call out to her companions. Zelda rushed forward and caught the woman as she fell, propping the body against the wall behind her.
She moved silently to the edge of the building, peering across the expanse to the windmill stairs. She leaned around the corner and saw two Gerudos standing by the well.
Zelda leaned back, trying to think. She wouldn't be able to kill both of them without drawing attention. She wished vainly for Link's hookshot.
An idea formed in her mind, and she turned to the body behind her. Biting back the urge to vomit, she leaned over the dead Gerudo and placed wrapped fingers around the hilt of the deadly knife. She pulled it out, effectively covering her chest and arm in the Gerudo's blood.
She stood and looked back at the Skulltula house, remembering the precarious beam. She would get only one shot; she needed her remaining knives.
Her arm snapped out in the familiar gesture, and the blade soared high to hit the beam at its weakest point. The wooden shape shifted slowly, then tipped over to crash into the wreckage. Zelda heard Gerudos yelling.
She sprinted back to the corner, knowing the Gerudos by the well had followed the sound. She bolted for the bottom of the windmill stairway, charging up to the doorway as quickly as she could. She heard a choking noise far above her and knew Impa had taken care of the guard in the maintenance door.
Zelda threw open the door to the windmill hut. The first thing she saw was a blade curving downward at her face, and she dodged back as the sword tip sliced through her cowl. Her fingertips stretched to ready a knife when the Gerudo before her fell limply to the ground. Impa stood behind her, eyes blazing.
Zelda stepped wordlessly into the hut and shut the door behind herself. Stepping over the dead Gerudo, she fingered the edges of Sheikah crest hanging over her chest. The faithful eye had been cut in two.
"The Gerudos are distracted," Impa was saying, "we have at least a few minutes."
Zelda nodded, looking over the crowd of villagers. She recognized all the faces, but noticed several were absent. They stood on the motionless mill, watching the Sheikah in amazement.
"Sheik," an old man moved forward, "you're alright."
"Fine," the young man answered tersely, "where are the others?"
"Kide and the music maker are dead," Impa said softly, "and Domel was with us."
"He's safe?" called Domel's wife from across the hut.
"At the moment, yes," Impa told her.
Sheik moved through the crowd of people, glancing upward at the stone doorway where a dead guard was slumped. A light tap on his leg brought his attention to the little girl beside him.
"Yes?" he knelt down to look her in the eyes, pulling down the white scarf which covered his mouth.
The little girl tucked brown hair behind a pointed ear, obviously frightened, "They don't know, but..."
Sheik shook his head slowly, not understanding.
"I have this," she dragged a brown bag across the floor behind her, "It was his."
"Whose was..." the question died on his lips as he recognized Link's travel bag. He reached out a hand for it, seeing his shaky fingers with distant eyes. A deep fear began to build in the princess' heart.
Mismatched eyes gazed sharply at the child before them.
"Where is he?"