Chapter 71: Did I Just Get Slapped?

…

~~Day 38 (Command, Day 1)

~~So far, the crew has responded well to life on the Island Symphony. Most of them have adapted to the schedule, although Airman Harley has voiced concerns about having to work with a half-intelligible retard and a Goron that makes a lot more sense in comparison. I told him that if he ever needs help, he can always ask Helo or Lawrence.

~~I don't know why, but I keep having the impression that something wasn't right about the sky around Autumn Island. I've maybe only ever been there a dozen times or so, so I think that I'm just a little leery of it. Once we make it to Castle Island, being back on familiar terrain will get rid of this stupid feeling.

~~We passed Turtle Island just a few minutes ago. Just like Captain Gale's log says, there are airships guarding the Sky Lines. Due to the distance, I couldn't quite tell if they were Skyriders, but they definitely looked armed. If we're lucky, the branch office on Castle Island might give us permission to make a quick run through the storm. If not, well, it means that it'll take a little longer to get Irleen home. I don't like the idea, but whatever it takes to get her there.

…

A late breakfast and a few hours later, the Island Symphony was sailing around the eastern edge of Castle Island, trying to avoid the large amount of traffic floating above the central town. Link had never seen such a gathering before, and he wondered if they were grouped for a particular reason. Then Link noticed a number of tall structures attached to the massive walls of Hyrule Castle. These ships, each bearing a large, black flag were the ships' banners should be, were docked at these structures, and Link, with the assistance of the duoscope Cale had been borrowing from Leynne, saw that each of these structures were hauling crates or some other goods up through these bare-wooden towers by a simple elevator in the middle of each tower.

Link concluded that these were the Skyrider vessels that the royal family had been arming, his logic based on Captain Gale's logbook. Two barques, two barquentines, a schooner, and three cutters… and each of them sporting cannons on their weather decks. The barques and barquentines, he could see being used for actual combat, but he figured that the other vessels were probably transporting goods. If they were Skyrider vessels, Link had no means of identifying them. As an airman, Link could easily recognize a line of signal flags a ship was flying; it was his first time seeing a single, black flag being used, especially as a replacement for a ship's banner. The idea caused Link to glance back at the flagpole mounted to the deck just in front of the transom. The Island Symphony's banner fluttered in the wind created by the ship running on its engine. He wondered if he would have to switch the banner out once he made contact with the company.

"What ah those, Link?" Cale asked, pointing while holding the duoscope to his face with one hand.

Link looked back toward the castle. "Those are junks," he said. "They're smaller ships most ports used for ferrying cargo that would be hard to transport. Things like large furniture, lumber, iron beams… they're pretty light, so islands that use them for a lot of heavy moving have docks set up on the land itself in case the loads are too heavy for their ballast systems."

"Construction?" Cale asked.

Link shrugged. "Sometimes. Some of these junks have cranes attached to them for that, but not many people use metal for buildings."

Cale nodded his understanding. "Do they operate foh a company like the lahgeh vessels?"

"Some of them do. I think a bunch of the ones operating here on Castle Island are owned by the Royal Family. The rest tend to be owned by the local governors' or mayors' offices, depending on the island. The Skyrider company owns all of the junks that operate on Skyrider Port." Link noticed that the ship was descending and turned toward the bow. "Carry on."

"Okay," Cale replied as Link walked away.

Link stepped across the quarter deck and pulled his hat out, having carried it onto the deck by tucking it under his belt in the back. He had to pause at the top of the steps as he put it on, and then he descended to the weather deck as the ship pulled close to one of the docks. Dubbl and Layna were standing at the port bulwark, both waiting to toss mooring lines to the dockers. Link nearly questioned why Dubbl was still on deck before he realized that she had probably stayed up to show Layna, Biluf, and Dholit how to make and throw the lines. He watched them do so, and in minutes the ship was moored. After looking up at the sails to see that Leynne had turned them to put the ship in irons (as he had instructed), he stepped to the door in the bulwark and unlatched it.

"Shall the rest of us wait heah while ouh captain exploahs the shoah?" Dholit asked as she approached Link from behind.

Link turned to her. "Yeah, I guess," Link replied. "It shouldn't take long. I'll just be dropping by Governor Lore's office (if I can find it)." He looked toward the bow as Leynne crossed the weather deck. "Leynne!"

"The dockmasteh's office, right?" Leynne asked once he was in regular speaking distance.

"Ye—one other thing," Link said. "There should be a cartographer's shop near the dockmaster's office. You have some money with you, right?"

"I should," Leynne answered with a nod. "You want me to buy a map?"

"We should only need a general map of the kingdom," Link told him. "Something which shows us most of the known islands and the Sky Lines." He turned to Dholit. "The rest of you will watch the ship. I don't mind people going onto the island and maybe… I don't know, looking around, but just make sure they stay near the ship."

"What about lunch?" Dholit asked.

"Shifts," Link replied as he heard Dubbl chatting to Biluf and Layna behind him. He glanced over his shoulder to see that she was talking about how to guide the gangplank into place. "Make sure there's at least two people on the deck keeping watch."

"Aye aye, my captain!" Dholit replied with a salute.

Link sighed and told her, "Wrong hand, Dholit."

"It is?" she asked, glancing at her hand.

"Superiors salute with the right hand; inf—… other… other crewmembers salute with the left."

"Got it," she said, repeating the salute with her left hand.

Link dismissed her and waved to Leynne. "C'mon. The dockmaster's on my way."

Link and Leynne had to walk to the central area of the port before Link showed Leynne both the dockmaster's office and the cartographer's shop. They parted, and Link used the last of his money to pay for a carriage to take him to the governor's office. This was mostly for convenience; Link was trying to keep his promise not to take up much time at Castle Island, and he had no idea where the governor's office was.

As it turned out, the governor's office was not far from the port, only a few streets away and off the main road between the port and the castle. Compared to the other buildings around it, it was actually quite short. Its exterior was composed of white material that Link had never seen before. The front of the building sported a wide, stage-like area with its overhanging roof supported by columns. Link passed through a pair of gates and received an acknowledging nod from a police officer walking by on his way out. He did not noticed that, just in front of the gate, the officer turned and scratched his head at the sight of a young man wearing a green tunic and matching hat. The steps up to the building numbered around twenty and were too wide for Link's short legs to take at a comfortable stride. Stepping under the shade of the overhanging roof, Link glanced down at a large, bronze relief in the ground. It was circular with the silhouette of a castle over the triangle-and-bird emblem of the Royal Family, the island's formal seal. Link was surprised to find that the building itself was larger than he had imagined.

Link found himself awed by the rich, wooden structure of the main hall. Someone had provided banners bearing a blue castle over a white field to be draped in the massive hall. Red carpets marking the paths which one was to take while navigating the building served to provide further warmth to the area. Two staircases branched out from a central staircase on the opposite side from Link, each one ending at the balcony of the second floor. There was a strong, wood smell in the air, and, for a moment, Link was taken back to Talein's house in Whittleton.

"Can I help you, sir?"

Confused, Link glanced to his left to find an elderly woman sitting at a long reception desk. "Uh, yeah," Link replied as he stepped over to the desk. "I-I'm looking for Governor Lore?"

"Do you have an appointment?" the woman asked.

"Wuh… well, no, not really," he said. "I-I received a job from her last month, and I need to speak with her about it."

The woman, causing her nose to form more wrinkles with concentration, glanced down at the desk for a moment. "Your name, sir?"

"Link. Lieu—… Sorry, Captain Link."

"Captaaaaaaaain…" the woman droned as she seemed to examine something hidden behind the desk's high countertop. "Oh, yes, here you are." She tore a green sheet of paper from the desk and offered it to him. "Up the left staircase, office at the far end, sir. You'll see her name on the door. Hand this to her assistant."

"Thanks," Link said.

But he only took two steps before turning back to the receptionist. She was already ahead of him, pointing as she said, "These stairs here. End of the hall."

"Okay."

As Link made his way to Governor Lore's office, he could not help feeling a little intimidated by some of the words he was reading on the frosted glass windows of some of the doors he passed. Like "Judge" and "Government Attorney". And, on the door across from Lore's office, "Executioner". This last one caused him to gulp before opening the door to "Office of the Governor of Castle Island". Inside, the walls were covered by paintings on the left and a bookshelf on the right. A chandelier hung from the ceiling, casting electric light on an already well-lit room thanks to the window behind the only desk inside.

The young man sitting at that desk, wearing a white, long-sleeve shirt under a green, sleeveless sweater, glanced up from the book on his desk, showing Link a pair of reading glasses. He looked at Link for a moment before asking, "Can I help you, Captain?"

Link stopped himself from asking how he knew Link was a captain, realizing that he still wore the belt that bore an anchor on the buckle. That must have given him away. He crossed the room and handed the paper to the young man. "Captain Link here to see Governor Lore?" he said.

The young man took the paper and allowed his eyes to go over it. "One moment," he said as he stood up. Link's eyes followed as he opened a door to Link's left. "Ma'am?" he said to someone inside. "There's a Captain Link here to see you."

"Regarding what?" Link vaguely recognized Lore speaking, a terse, deep voice for a grown woman.

"Uh… cargo shipment last month," the assistant told her.

"Cargo ship…" Link was unsure of how to interpret her pause. "Kalvin, take a second lunch."

"Uh, yes, ma'am," the assistant, Kalvin, replied. He stepped out and told Link, "She'll be with you in a moment." Then he walked across the office and out the door.

Link heard footsteps from the other office and looked back at the door just as Governor Lore opened the door further. In contrast to how he had seen her before, she wore a formal-looking, navy blue jacket with matching slacks and a purple shirt underneath. Her red hair had been styled to frame her sharp features with just a pair of locks on either side of her face, the rest tied behind her head in a low-set ponytail. Link caught a harsh look in her hazel eyes.

He only had a split-second to think about that look before his whole world took a sharp turn. Link collapsed, knees striking the floor and his hands saving his face from doing the same. His right cheek stung and he had to take a moment to realize that he had just been smacked.

"I don't know what you did, Captain," Lore told him, her voice sounding venomous, "but I guarantee that your life will be a living hell from now on. It's only the reward you deserve for what you did to us all."

"Wha-what I did!?" Link asked, his high tone betraying confusion and panic. "Bu-but I—"

"None of this would've happened if I had just waited for the next captain in line. At least he would've had the guts to show up a month earlier!"

"Wha-I—can't I explain!?" Link pleaded.

"You have an excuse?"

"Well, I-I-I-I—"

"You have no excuse, Captain! You have no explanation, no justification! What you've done is given every man, woman, and child in this kingdom a reason to hate you!" She paused for a moment, but Link did not have a response. Instead, he gave the floor a dejected look. So she continued, "And we know you're to blame. None of this would've happened before you took the princess into the Undying Storm. Now she's moody… distant… disobedient… She's taken away all of my original duties, you know! I have nothing more to do than sit and talk with my assistant! The police, matters of the island, none of them are under my control anymore! I happen to think that I'd been doing a pretty damn-good job of maintaining those! Oh, look at me, I've used the word 'damn' now…"

Link had stopped paying attention the moment she started describing the princess. Was he interpreting her words right? Was she… was she here!? That could not be right.

"So what did you do to her?" Lore continued. "Because I swear, if I ever—ever—discover that you slept with her or molested her? I will tear your privates off and toss them to the surface!"

He subconsciously pressed his legs together as he spoke up, one hand raised to defend himself. "Wai-wait a minute!" he pleaded. "There-there's something wrong here!"

"Of course there's something wrong here!" she shouted at him. "I'm being relieved of my position, and I can't even get into the castle just to ask why! I'd think you'd have something to say about her appropriating your company's ships! So do you have something to say!?"

Link got back to his feet and took a step away so he was out of slapping distance. "Are… are you saying that Princess Zelda is here?" he asked.

Lore's face blanked. She stepped behind her assistant's desk, opened a drawer, and produced a pair of flintlock pistols. The sound of her cocking both weapons with her thumbs made all warmth leave Link's body. "You have to the count of 'five' to get your ignorant, slimy, no-good little ass out of my office before I put a lead round through your skull," she told him in a calm voice. Link's eyes grew wide as she casually stepped around the desk with both pistols at her sides. "One."

"It-it's not wha—" Link started as he backed toward the door.

"Five." One hand went up, and the pistol in that hand discharged. The sound deafened Link, and he had no interest in realizing that she had fired the weapon into the ceiling. He stumbled out of the office and bolted down the hallway, his boots taking him to the stairs within a second. After a slow run down the stairs, he touched the floor of the main hall and zipped through the door at such a speed that the elderly woman at the reception desk barely had time to recognize him before he slammed the door aside. Link took the stairs outside two at a time, not at all worrying about tripping due to his new concern about being shot.

He was across the road from the building when he finally slid to a stop. It turned out to be a bad idea because the sudden stop caused him to stumble into a nearby alley and tackle a trash can to the ground with a surprised cry. He ignored protests from a nearby stray animal as he lay on his back, trying to piece the situation together. It sounded as if Princess Zelda might have returned on the Horizon's Eye. If so… his understanding of the attack on the Cloud Moon was lost. Link had believed that someone from Cunimincus' crew had returned with Line and the remaining crew of the Island Sonata; there had been nothing to indicate that the princess was onboard. Then again, there was nothing to disprove the idea, either.

What was worse to him was the idea that the princess was a completely different person. Assuming that she had returned, what was this change in personality that Governor Lore was blaming on him? The princess had seemed like such a kind girl, albeit not above inflicting some sort of pain on him. His cheek throbbed with renewed energy at the memory of her slapping him in retaliation for accidentally touching her… somewhere; he could not remember where. Then again… he considered that, if she had spent time as a prisoner, the experience might have had an unpleasant effect on her. Lore had blamed the change on him, and he began to wonder if he actually was responsible.

Maybe he should try seeing her. After all, it might at least help his case if he made an attempt to speak to her. Besides, she might know where Line, Flower, and Leonard were. He offered a silent apology to his crew as he stood up, knowing that this would hold them at the port for longer than expected. Having decided on his next course of action, he moved back onto the road and started limping down the street (and hoping to walk the pain out of his left knee).

Now that Link was walking the streets, he noticed that there was a touch of unhappiness in the general air. He was not expecting people to be overly jovial, but most of the people he passed seemed to be a little more miserable than he remembered. The local population used to like giving some form of greeting to others walking by. Once, when Line had managed to snag his ear in a (supposed) defective mousetrap, every second person they had seen on the way to the clinic had asked them if they needed help. Another time, a kind man had helped Link carry Line back to the ship after a mishap with a street vendor had left Line unconscious from pineapple juice tainted with whiskey. But now, no one appeared to even look up. Even at Link's height, they were looking past him at the ground. His shoulders were bumped twice each, and someone sweeping the front of their store hit him in the shin with a broom without offering an apology afterwards. Riders and carriage drivers shouted more obscenities at each other than Link had ever heard in a tavern full of airmen, mostly for getting in each others' ways.

Link's knee was feeling better by the time he could see the doors to the castle. Unfortunately, there seemed to be another problem. Knights wearing full armor with helmets stood outside, and the people walking by seemed interested in keeping outside a red mark painted on the main road. Link ducked around the corner of a nearby apartment building and watched. Seven knights stood at attention with halberds beside them, shoulder to shoulder as if to form a wall in front of the door. One young woman stepped a foot on the red mark, and the closest knight lowered his halberd into a ready position. The young woman immediately jumped away, but the knight watched her for a moment before returning to his original position. The rigidity of their post convinced Link that he would not be walking through the front door.

He had to find a way to clear up whatever conceptions Governor Lore had of him, and he figured that the best way was to get into the castle and talk to Princess Zelda. Assuming she was inside; he still found himself doubting the possibility. He glanced around for a solution. There was no way for Link to climb over the outer wall. And he really did not want to try waiting for the knights to rotate out, although he imagined that they already had a system in place to make sure there was still a guard at the door. Even if he was running with his current footwear, he would not be able to tell if they would see him or not.

Then his next idea definitely came from a page in Line's book. Good timing let him see a junk flying by overhead. That would be his ticket in. But he needed to find one coming out from behind the castle wall. He could vaguely remember which directions some of them had been flying while the Island Symphony was skirting the eastern edge of the island and started jogging in that direction. He took a few back alleys before coming on a street leading due east from the castle. Here, he followed one of the junks until it landed in the perfect place.

A storage yard. It seemed a little out of place on the eastern shore until Link remembered that the east side of the island outside the buildings was dedicated farmland. Most of the buildings would have vegetables and fruit stored inside. The junk, a single-masted catboat, descended to a flat area of bare rock. Mooring ropes tied it to a platform, and a three-man crew stepped off. Link dashed closer and listened as hard as he could. One man (who Link assumed owned the boat) told the other two that they had to load up their last cargo and take it as soon as possible for… some reason that was lost to Link due to Link sneezing. He watched the three cross the road toward an office. So Link ran for the junk and stepped onto the mooring platform.

The junk appeared old, and it had been hauling turnips for a while; the smell disgusted him. The weather deck had a wooden roof through which its mast protruded. Link ducked down inside and moved to a hatch near the front of the compartment. Upon opening it, he found it to be the ship's supply storage. He climbed the ladder down inside, closing the hatch behind him, and moved toward the back where the darkness and unopened crates would hide him best. He squeezed himself between the aft bulkhead and a crate of rations and sat. His eyes adjusted to the darkness, but he still had to use scant light filtering through the hull planks to see his compass. After positioning it so that it would point the way he needed, he waited.

Minutes later, he heard activity up on deck. Heavy items scraped against the deck above, and Link had to bow his head to avoid dust falling into his eyes. The boat left the ground after what felt like a long time, and Link could hear the pumping of an engine through the bulkhead next to him.

As the boat moved west (as indicated on Link's compass), Link began thinking about how ridiculous a position he found himself in. He was hitching a ride (something only ever done by vagrants) on a junk just to get into Hyrule Castle, a place which he probably should not be sneaking into even when there was not a bunch of armed guards standing in front of the door. And for what? To see Princess Zelda? He realized that it made him sound like a stalker or some love-sick dope. How she got there probably was not any of his business anyway. But once he got to thinking about it, Princess Zelda was probably the last person he knew who had seen the remainder of his crew, not to mention the one who had the Skyriders blocking access to the Undying Storm and Forelight Island. Even if it was a relatively stupid situation, she might be able to clear up a few things that had happened after the Island Sonata had been shot down. Although, he admitted that it probably would have been easier to return to Skyrider Port and ask if anyone had seen Line.

He felt the junk descend some time later, so he stood and kept low to the floor as he started toward the hatch. He waited until the boat stopped moving before he climbed up the ladder. Then he slowly opened the hatch and peered out. One of the crewmen was carrying a pair of crates out from under the roof while the other hoisted a pair for himself. The smell of turnips was stronger, and Link made a face as he waited for the second one to disappear. He saw the captain's boots on the starboard side where the men were offloading, so Link crawled from his hiding space. He moved over to the port bulwark and quickly peeked over the edge. There was still some distance between him and the ground, but he hauled himself over anyway and dropped. It was not a very graceful landing, having to save himself by landing on all fours, but he quickly ducked behind a nearby hedge that had been carved into square perfection.

After checking that his cover was clear, he moved along the hedge to a corner and looked around it. Similar to those knights outside, the knights on the inside of the castle walls all wore full armor. However, their armor was polished, new, as if they had never seen a fight before. Link thought back to the knights out front and realized that their armors looked nothing alike. The outside knights looked intimidating, murderous. In here, it felt no different than looking at a policeman on the streets. No one here was wearing a green tunic like before, and he knew that he would not be blending in well. He would need to remain unseen.

He spied an open door on this side of the castle wall. After double-checking his surroundings, he zipped across the open lawn and hid behind a statue barely larger than him. He placed his hands on the statue's hips and glanced around at the door. The two crewmen from the junk were walking out, leaving the door wide open. Link huddled around the statue and watched them return to the junk.

Then he jerked his hand away from the statue's posterior when he saw Princess Zelda's face. A little taken aback, he glanced down at his hand and up at the visage of the princess of Hyrule chiseled into stone. He felt as if he had violated her and decided to take a step back so as not to touch her again. Then he dashed across the lawn once more and through the open door.

Once inside, Link ducked into a nearby stairway leading up. Lacking familiarity with the castle was going to make the process of finding the princess more difficult as well as complicate his ability to maintain stealth. After making sure the hallway in front of the door was clear, he jogged to the next door and opened it carefully. Water closet, although by far the fanciest he had ever seen before. The next door a little further down was an unoccupied room full of bunks, probably servants' quarters. The next room turned out to be the same thing, but he ducked into this one upon hearing voices approach. He gently closed the door and put his back against the nearby wall in case one of them was to enter.

Their voices were muffled, but Link thought they sounded like a pair of gossiping maids. Apparently, the princess had been a slob lately, and one of them was speculating that she still might not be fully recovered. Link wore a frown as he contemplated that statement. Did the staff not know that she had been taken prisoner? Had hers and Lore's plan worked so well that, even after disembarking at Autumn Island, she was able to smoothly return to her original position without any fuss? Line was a regular blabbermouth, always had been. Had she somehow (and for some reason) managed to suppress the rest of the Island Sonata's crew?

The maids passed, and Link checked outside again. In the clear, he moved down the hallway again until he was in a familiar location: the foyer at the front of the castle, the first room he had seen when Captain Alfonzo had brought him here. Maids were attending to cleaning a number of suits of armor and busts all around the floor and up on the dais. Across from him was another hallway, so he backed up and ran full-speed across the foyer. The sudden gust of wind caught attention, but Link was far enough into the hallway that no one could see him. Here, he found a third hallway leading deeper into the castle. Seeing as the hallway he was in now was probably the same as the one he had just come from, he decided to look down this third one.

He had to admit to himself that, after a while, the castle was really kind of boring. The walls were all grey stone and mortar, and only a plant here or a painting there served to break the monotony. There was only a single door here, and Link checked it to find that it was the quarters for the Knights of Hyrule, which smelled more like an airship's berth deck more than he really wanted to admit. He decided not to enter since there were people inside and continued deeper. He was amazed how there seemed to be no one in this particular area. It would be the best place to catch him, too; it was a straight corridor that did not have any sort of hiding spots save for a single pedestal holding a dead plant.

Two more empty hallways and a staircase (since he did not seem to be having luck with the first floor) later, Link was lost. At least the second floor looked nicer, with red-painted walls and gilt molding which added a richer effect to the castle. There were alcoves to keep exotic plants and decorative suits of armor out of people's paths. Link had to duck behind one of these when the telltale clank clank of an armor-wearing knight caught his attention. The pair of knights walked by with a duty-bound stride, and Link followed at a distance, virtually silent on the carpeted floor. They turned down one hallway, so Link took the opposite direction and ducked into a different hallway so that they could not see him if they happened to turn around.

Then a single glance caused Link's breath to cease for a moment. A dress of pastel pink and violet, blond hair crowned by a gold circlet, and height no taller than him. There could not be any mistake. Link jogged up to her so his boots would not startle her with their speed. When he was close enough, he spoke up.

"Princess Zelda."

The princess's form froze for a moment before turning around to see Link standing behind her. No doubt about it, Link recognized her face as if he had only seen her yesterday.

But she stared at him with a perplexed expression. She glanced up and down at him. Then she asked a question Link had not been expecting.

"Who are you?"

Link's face changed from cheerful to dumbfounded.