Chapter 33: Shadow Beast
She moved with a grace so familiar to her it was almost unconscious. Any other being in Hyrule would have found such dexterity impossible, especially in the Shadow Temple. But as a Sheikah, she required no light: the only thing that could prevent her from seeing in the dark was if there wasn't anything to see in the first place. Here, there were ample sights for the eyes—and even more for the memory.
Skeletons leered at her from their catacombs in the walls, calling out with voiceless cries. Visions of who they were and how they had felt when they realized their King had betrayed them assaulted her. When the dead speak, their silence is louder than the voices of the living.
Once again, she realized that this was the only place in Hyrule where the Sheikah still had a voice. To her, the Shadow Temple was more than a burial ground; being here reminded her that the man who had extinguished her peoples' light from the world had also usurped the throne seven years ago, the throne she had once defended.
The more she listened, the more she remembered the individual lives those tragedies—both the destruction of the city and the King's betrayal—had snuffed out, and the more she heard their voices. Almost nothing that went on in the temple could be hidden from her.
And not everything that entered here was already dead.
She paused. Something was out of place. Something? Someone, perhaps. But who?
Malon brushed aside a cobweb, almost cutting her hand in the process. She yelped. "What is this place?"
Link came over to examine the guillotine sticking out from the wall where she was standing. "Look, I don't have time to take you back, or else I would. This is no place for a…"
She clenched her hips. "A girl?"
"I didn't say that."
"But you were going to."
"If you say so." Link sighed. "You're free to go or stay. Just be careful what you touch."
Malon backed away from the blade, staring. "I'd hate to know what they used that for."
They had hardly made it ten feet further down the corridor when a sound like wind howling through a canyon arrested their attention. Even in the dim light Navi's body provided, they could see a shadow spreading out from Malon's feet in a circle as if there had been another light coming from the ceiling that was now being obstructed. But they could see the ceiling well enough, and there wasn't anything there.
"Quick," Malon said. "Use that glass I gave you: the Lens of Truth!"
Of course. Link stared closely at the ceiling, took a deep breath, and blinked three times.
A severed hand dropped from above, latching onto Malon's head with talons so black they seemed darker than the shadows they came from. She screamed, but it was more from the shock than anything else.
Navi shouted over the noise. "What is it?"
A nightmare, Link thought, reaching for his sword. Then he saw the shadow at his own feet, just before a second hand dropped from the ceiling with the same howling echo. He winced as the thing impaled itself on the point of the Master Sword. Veins stuck out like cords of rope, and every inch of its skin was stained a dark crimson. Sliding all the way down his blade to the hilt, still moving, it grasped at his wrists. He was about to throw the sword to the ground when the hand simply dissolved in front of him.
Malon, still struggling with the one on her head, reached into her pocket and grabbed a spade. Though rusty, the metal edge was still sharp enough to cause serious damage. The hand dropped off with a screech, and Link finished it with a quick stab.
"Where did you get that?" said Navi.
"I ride, I shovel hay, I milk the cows." Malon glared. "Don't you think I can garden?"
Link tried with some difficulty to hold back a smile. "Farmer's daughter."
Another retort was forming on Malon's lips when the gleam of some object reflecting off the Master Sword drew her attention. Link, catching the pale expression on her face, turned and followed her gaze.
He swallowed. "Malon…meet Impa."
Impa nodded at them but said nothing.
"She's real? You know her?" Malon shuddered. "I thought she was a ghost…or worse."
Link put away his sword before answering. "The Sheikah do have that effect."
"You can still leave if you want to," Navi said.
Impa folded her arms the same way Link remembered as a child. "The shadow beast is not a foe to be taken lightly. If you choose to stay, I cannot swear protection for any of you."
"We understand," Link said.
After twenty minutes of tromping through rooms that smelled of earth and rot, spotting guillotines and other traps more than once, Link gathered his courage to speak. "Where are we?"
Keeping her eyes ahead, Impa answered in a low voice. "It is a burial ground."
Malon flinched as they passed an oak beam. "There's blood on it. What happened?"
"The Shadow Temple has always been sacred to my people, the Sheikah. Our elders were buried here in the early years of Kakariko Village. That was all we ever meant it for."
Intuition sparked a question in Link's mind. "How many Sheikah are left?"
"It has always been the task of our people to safeguard the King of Hyrule," Impa continued without answering the question directly. "In the time of Zelda's grandfather, the King commanded us to eliminate one of his greatest enemies. An attempt was made, but the man had been warned. Our assassins were quickly overpowered, and a raid was ordered on our village in reprisal."
Link clenched his left fist. "You…and Sheik…were the only survivors?"
"In the end, yes. Some of our people were spared in the raid, only to endure an end far worse than they had imagined. The man ordered his soldiers to desecrate our burial ground by turning it into a house of blood. Instruments of torture were built side-by-side with our tombs."
Malon bit her lip. "Oh…"
"So many were killed that the rooms had to be purged of blood every hour. It took three days for his people to wipe our people from the face of Hyrule."
Link put a hand to his chest as if he could see the spectacle in front of him. "They were never made to answer?"
A long pause ensued before Impa replied. "No—but the man who commanded the slaughter is the same man who invaded Hyrule Castle Town seven years ago, killed the King's descendant, and violated the Sacred Realm."
Link whispered the name, almost in a hiss. "Ganondorf!"
"We are nearing the deepest part of the temple," Impa said.
Malon swallowed. Link strode forward with resolution, only to halt at the edge of an abyss with no natural crossing, as far as he could tell.
"What's that?" Before anyone could stop her, Navi flew out over the abyss to examine what appeared to be a brass bell hanging in midair. As she flew closer, they saw it was attached to the bow of a ship. The ship had no sails, no oars, and no noticeable markings except for the carved head of a bird of prey jutting from the ship's forefront.
"Don't tell me we're riding that," Malon said. "The last time I was on the water…"
Link shrugged. "I don't see any water."
"Something's holding it up. It can't just be floating by itself!"
Impa walked to the edge beside them. "The ship will take us where we must go." She leapt into the shadows without another word, touching down on the ship's poop deck noiselessly.
Link motioned for Malon to join him. "We'll jump at the same time."
Malon swallowed, grabbing his hand for support. "Ready."
"One, two…"
As soon as they had landed on the deck in a tangle of limbs and bruised elbows, the whole ship jerked as if seized by an invisible hand. The world sank beneath them, making the ledge they had just abandoned appear to rise. The brass bell jangled like the rattling of chains.
Navi flitted from one companion to another. "Did the Sheikah build this, too?"
Impa faced the darkness ahead of them as the ship began moving up, down, and ever forward, as if sailing the ocean. "It once ferried our most revered elders to their resting places."
Link fingered the hilt of his sword as the ledge vanished behind them. He glanced around, unsure whether to be grateful or terrified that they couldn't see where they were going.
"Link?" Malon's voice was timid, inquiring.
Link kept his gaze fixed on the darkness. "What is it?"
"I can't fight with just a spade. Can I borrow one of your weapons?"
Navi snorted. "Why didn't you think of that before you decided to join us?"
Link held up a hand. "It's okay, Navi." Somehow, Malon's simple request made their surroundings seem less of a horror; still, as he handed her the Fairy Bow, he couldn't forget what Impa had told them of the temple's history.
Ganon will answer for every lie and every drop of innocent blood. He drew his sword as if the man himself stood in front of him. From his right, he heard a thump on the ship's hull.
"Do not press an attack," Impa said. "We stay back-to-back until they leave us."
The others moved to obey just as another thump came from the left side of the ship. Something else fell against the ship's bow, clanging the bell. With his eye on the Lens of Truth, Link blinked three times, just in case.
Eight severed hands slithered across the deck.
"I can't see them," Malon whispered. "What are they?"
Link shuddered as another hand landed directly in front of him. "Don't ask. Just shoot."
Nodding, Malon closed her eyes and loosed an arrow into the shadows. The shot was clumsy, but the arrowhead still managed to slice through one of the hands.
"It was foolish to show your fear," Impa said. "Now they will attack us in force."
With that, the hand nearest Link jumped off the deck and attached itself to his face. Behind him, he could hear Malon and Impa moving to defend themselves from similar attacks. The sound of another arrow finding its target rang out above the din. With a grunt, he pried the hand off his face and skewered it.
Another hand grabbed at his left ankle. With a cry, he sliced it in two, only to find himself grappling with three more that had fastened themselves to his torso. Something knocked against his left elbow, breaking his grip on the sword. Dropping to the deck, he rolled over and groped for the weapon while the hands writhed beneath his weight.
"Link!" Malon screamed as a hand affixed itself to her back. Sweeping the bow in a wide circle to keep others away, she fumbled for an arrow. Finding one, she stabbed at the thing on her back. The arrowhead stuck, but the hand maintained its grip tenaciously.
Suddenly, the whole vessel plunged several feet into the void, throwing everything into confusion. Link and Malon staggered, and Navi was left hovering above them, bewildered.
"How close are we to where we need to be?" Link shouted over the clamor.
"I believe I can carry us across," said Impa, "but you must take hold of my shoulders."
"Wait for me!" Navi scurried to catch up.
Taking hold of Impa's left shoulder, Link nodded at Malon, who had taken the other shoulder with an even fiercer grip than his own.
Impa tensed, flexing her lean limbs. "Run when I run, and jump when I jump. Do not concern yourself with the rest."
Without a word, they dashed forward and leapt as the throng of demonic hands finally overwhelmed the deck. The ship, groaning dangerously under the pressure of so many bodies, plummeted faster and faster until it had disappeared altogether.
Impa, her efforts focused on the task at hand, breathed a prayer to Farore, goddess of wind, and jerked her arms forward. With a clap of imploding air, all three of their bodies blinked out of existence and reappeared several feet closer to the landing. The ground came up to meet them in a rush.
Link recovered from the crash first. "Impa?" He knelt at her side, surprised she hadn't risen. "You're hurt."
"Who wakes the wind pays a price for such power." Impa accepted his hand, allowing him to pull her to her feet.
"Can you still fight?"
"I will because I must." An uncharacteristic note of tenderness entered the Sheikah's voice. "You were my pupil. You know my weaknesses and my strengths as well as anyone."
"Hey," said Navi. "Aren't you forgetting someone?"
Link smiled. "Don't worry. We couldn't leave you out of this if we tried."
A resounding boom hit their ears almost as soon as he had said this. Everyone jerked, catching their breath as the sound repeated itself once, twice, and three times in the space of a half-minute, sounding closer every time. Soon, they could feel it as a tremor beneath their feet.
Impa turned to each of them, her eyes lingering on Malon in particular. "Once, I sealed this creature in the bottom of the well. It has grown stronger since then, and I have not."
Malon swallowed but said nothing. Link narrowed his eyes and watched for any sign of the shadow beast. The time gap between each booming lengthened, though the sound itself had grown louder. All at once, it stopped, bathing them in a terrible silence.
Link began to reach for his shield, but a glance at Impa stopped him. "What is it?"
Impa threw herself to the ground. "Down!" With a moment's delay, the others followed her. Two objects, hurtling from opposite directions, collided above their heads.
"Navi, go!" Link pushed himself to a kneeling position as the fairy spun into action, zipping back and forth through the air to illuminate the beast. At first, all he could catch were glimpses of its gnarled flesh, packed with muscle. When it did pause long enough for him to tell, he saw that its hands were severed from the arms by nearly two feet of empty space, though they moved with the arms as if firmly attached.
He only had a moment to absorb the sight before the hands swung outward, heading in separate directions. "Malon!" He would have pushed her down to the floor again, but the tone of his voice had been enough to warn her. The beast clapped its hands inches from their backs.
Malon shook him by the shoulders. "Tell me what's going on!"
"It looks like what you described in the village," he said. "Only I can see more of it." He pointed into the shadows on their right. "You should go, too. We have to give it more targets."
Without waiting for her response, he headed left, putting distance between them. "Impa!" He slowed to avoid any obstacles lurking in his path. "Where are you?"
Whether out of some physical weakness or to avoid betraying her position, the Sheikah remained silent.
Just then, Navi's random flight brought one of the beast's hands into view. Throwing aside caution, Link charged forward and sprang into the air, swinging a furious overhead blow that cut into the beast's palm. Expecting a reprisal, he backed off and poised himself to dodge the next attack. To his surprise, the hand fell towards the ground, and a crash—louder than all previous sounds—thundered through the cavern.
The eye of the beast materialized in the dark, pulsing red. Had he wounded it so easily?
Impa called out suddenly. "Continue attacking its hands. This may be its weakness. I will attack the eye!"
In the light the beast's body gave off, Link saw her shadow leap towards the eye. Her movements, though slowed by fatigue, were too rapid for him to follow in the poor light, but he knew she had found her mark when the beast reared up and swatted at her with both hands. For several tense seconds, she held on as the beast bucked from side to side, but her stamina gave out at last, and she fell to the ground, barely conscious.
Still howling, the beast backed away, rolling its eye downward so that the pupil faced Impa. Again, the mammoth hands swung outward.
No! Link dashed forward, flinging himself over Impa as if his body could absorb the impact of the beast's hands. He sensed that Navi had stopped some distance above them. They had a second, maybe two, before a hand came down on top of them.
A faint hiss registered in the back of his mind. Instinctively, he looked up and saw an arrow, one of his arrows, sticking out of the beast's palm. The hand withdrew with a sudden jolt just before it would have struck them, and the beast collapsed.
Once more, the eye had been exposed. Scrambling to finish the job Impa had started, Link found the wound she had opened in the cornea and stabbed, piercing the optic nerve. Even then, the blow only seemed to provoke the beast's fury. Something grabbed him from behind so quickly that he lost his grip on the sword again and felt himself flailing in the air. The beast had seized him in its hand. Another scream told him it had found Malon, too.
He flinched as the beast tightened its hold. "Malon, are your hands free?"
Her reply was inaudible, and before he could ask her to repeat it, the beast slammed its fists together. For a moment, his vision blurred as he fought to regain his breath. He could see Malon from one corner of his eye, trapped in the other fist just a few feet away. While the two of them were close together, he leaned out as far as he could to lift an arrow from her quiver.
The beast's hands parted. Struggling against dizziness, he raised the arrow above his head and hacked downward and inward as if aiming at his own kidneys. The beast plummeted to the ground.
With a groan, he extracted himself from the hand and stumbled in the direction of the eye. Before he got there, he stopped in mid-stride, awestruck. Impa had found her feet and was already standing over the beast.
He heard her whisper something that he couldn't make out, and he saw her stab the eye again. That time, the beast's cry could have been heard in Kakariko Village.
I stir as if waking from a dream. "We're in the Sacred Realm, aren't we? You're the fifth Sage." Navi is hovering at my side. Impa stands across from us, on the purple pedestal representing the Sage of Shadow. Once again, a feeling of being dislocated from the physical sphere of Hyrule muddles my thoughts, like it has every time I've been here.
"I am," Impa says simply.
I scratch my ear. "The shadow beast…destroyed. And Malon?"
"She will return to her father."
"She saved our lives, Link," Navi interrupts. "That last arrow. She guessed its hand would be somewhere near me, and she was right!"
"Yes." Impa is silent for a moment, then her voice changes tone. "One Sage remains."
I nod. "Where will I go?"
"Your path leads you within sight of Ganondorf's defeat. His birthplace conceals the final weapons needed by the Hero of Time."
The blood suddenly rushes to my cheeks. "Is Zelda one of them?"
That draws a smile from the Sage of Shadow. "She will find you sooner than you think."
"Everyone keeps telling me that." I sigh. "I just hope she's as eager to see me again as I am to..." I swallow, overcome by a familiar ache. "Have you talked to her?"
"She will find you," Impa says once more, folding her arms. "Guard her well."
I bite my lip to hold back the raw emotions churning in my gut. "With my life."
I raise my arms to receive Impa's gift: the second-to-last Medallion. "Wait. Before the shadow beast died, I heard you whisper something. What was it?"
Sorrow passes over her features. "For my people."
"I'm sorry."
"You have nothing to reproach yourself for. The Sheikah will be at peace when their tormentor is vanquished." She has every reason to hate Ganondorf, but somehow she says this without a trace of malice.
"Thank you, Impa," I say. "For everything."
"Link." Her last words: "May the way of the Hero lead to the Triforce..."