Chapter 11
Ashei Amauger sat hunched in her hose and shirt, feeling like inside a steam cooker.
Typical, she thought, sweeping her gaze across the darkened prison walls. Leave it to the men to mess things up. First the king gets himself killed, then my two knaves abandon me, and now the rest of those buffoons is running rampant through the city. She could hear calls and bellows from the refugee camp even from down here. And goddesses blast it, she was not dressed for a room this humid. The thick corduroy fabric of her pants stuck damp and sticky to her thighs, and the linen shirt had been tailored with her bust shape in mind, not whether it allowed air to circulate and keep her vented. Her boots were a quagmire of her own dampness, feet sloshing inside sweat soaked stocking. But she dared not remove them and instead dip her delicate, aristocratic toes into the brackish water that had amassed on the ground around her. Her cramped corner was the only spot untouched, crusted instead in clusters of algae with their putrid smell wafting like hot steam around her.
Once I get out of here, dear Mister Auru is going to hear a piece of my mind.
She pushed aside her father's voice sternly telling her to remember how she had truly gotten into this position; Papa had no idea how good Gerudo could see in the dark! And besides, he'd have stuck out like a tuna on a seagull beach. At least she'd had the wit to abandon her plate armour in a crowded back alley so it didn't reflect torchlight. Din knew how much of a rupee waste that was.
No, the true culprit was her drudge of a commander. Thought he could right all the wrongs in the world by showing up all flash and glory and throw some rockets into the air until everyone kissed his feet and begged him to free them. Life, as Ashei could now taste a rancid version of, was not always honour-bound. Some people were just selfish, mean, uneducated, gullible. And once fear was thrown into the mix, you were left with a pie that smelled just like it would coming out the other end.
Ashinon had been the perfect oven to make plenty of dung pies. Hell, she felt just like one; a smelly dung pie leavened by misery and spiced with terror. For alas, Captain Ashei Amauger of Anouki Town was alone, desperately uncomfortable, frightened, while her only tethers to the outside world had fled the city.
"And the matriarch is out to get me for attempted murder," she muttered. "If I wasn't before, I'm tempted now."
"Better not let her hear that," came a quiet, slightly accented voice from the hallway.
Ashei strained her neck to see past the solid iron bars. "Hello again, Captain Fesari. You certainly are companionable tonight."
The burly Gerudo stepped closer. "No longer Captain, I'm afraid. As of now, I'm officially a civilian."
"Just another word for liability," Ashei grunted.
Had her mother been in the room to witness that rather tactless – if not downright insulting – remark, she would have come after little 'Shei with her riding crop. Maman never had been the military type and preferred to wage her battles with the needle and hoop. But Ashei prided herself a good judge of character, a trait that was confirmed as Civilian Fesari gave a grim nod instead of rising to her own defence. It pleased Ashei to, for once, share the room with a woman after her own heart.
"And what brings you once again to my humble abode? Sadly I rather made a mess of my aforementioned mission, or I'd have a nice folding chair inside a breezy Hylian tent to offer instead of a few rusty prison bars to lean against."
The former captain smiled ruefully as she shifted her weight to a slightly less oxidized bar. Rust particles stuck to her dark skin like glitter. "Tell me, Captain Amauger, do you have children?"
"Never been the breeding type. The only thing I raise are soldiers, and perhaps the brows of my superiors whenever the timing seems appropriate."
The disappointment in Fesari's eyes felt foreign to Ashei and almost made her crave the stern dissatisfaction she got whenever she gave the same reply to her dear, child-fanatic of a mother. That annoyance, at least, she was used to challenging with convictions built over a number of years training, duelling, head-butting male dominance, and thus earning the offensive displeasure she aimed for. The Gerudo's countenance was not that of disdain towards unmet ethics among estranged family members, but showed a more primitive, more intimate reaction. It made the small glimmer of smothered feminine principle within Ashei's soul light up, briefly, hopeful. Enough to make her feel strangely lost and cold.
"I have always shunned the silly dogma that comes with womanhood," she found herself explaining, in a firm and reasoning voice. "That a woman is nothing but an apparatus for heir production."
"Some people have no choice," Fesari retorted. "You speak of it as if it's a disgrace. When your very future lies at the cusp of total annihilation, you are happy for every chance you get to bring another individual into the world."
Ashei remained silent for a moment, tracing the gaps between the sandstone bricks of her prison wall. "Of course, forgive me. The hardships your race has to face to survive have always been a source of inspiration to me. But I cannot say I envy you."
Fesari's eyes softened. "We, at least, do not share your duty to roam the land or your complicated social hierarchy to find a mate. I loved King Hemenorf like a husband, and when he gave me my Arute, I felt complete. Now, with both gone, and my rank stripped from me, I admit frankly that I am rather confused. You asked why I returned to you. Perhaps I seek the company of someone who's met a similar fate than me. Perhaps, even, her advice."
"Similar fate? You're just like the imperious ignoramus who calls himself my commander, making connections and comparisons that defy the limits of rationality. Just yesterday he called his odds even against a Molduga. Yours are far better than mine, Captain. Freedom is a valuable thing, I've come to learn lately."
"If I could, I would give it to you. I see no harm in yours or Sir Nahamani's endeavours, but the Lady Mother has suffered too much. I could not defy her judgement."
"Jolly good that did you," Ashei snorted. "Your Lady Mother does more harm than good. You want my advice? Overthrow her. Take your place as chief, and lead Ashinon out of its impasse. You've got experience and a good motive. It'll be better for all of you."
Fesari's face flushed with anger. "Overthrow her? Have you Hyrulean no honour? Perhaps your eyes were clouded by ignorance, but our Lady Mother was touched by the Heroines themselves! She gave us our king, raised him with dignity and adoration, kept our race alive–"
"She has lost all manner of altruism towards her own people or the other races seeking refuge. Captain, please understand that there are greater forces at play here. Your king was murdered, just like the queen of the Zoras in northern Lanayru and our own sovereign."
"Overthrowing the one legitimate monarch we have left isn't going to change that–"
"But it'll improve your chances for diplomatic results dramatically. Fesari, you've been stripped of your honour. You are no longer bound to your Lady Mother's every whim. If you wish to find your little girl, you must lay aside your beliefs and traditions and act."
"And this advice comes from a woman who has laid aside all motherly duties? You have never enjoyed the love of your own child. Are you truly brazen enough to say usurpation is the best way to find my lost daughter?!"
Ashei at once rose and strode to the bars. "Don't misjudge my convictions for indifference! I would give my life for that of a child, no matter what race or social rank, mine or not. I am physically shackled in this stinking prison cell, but you, Captain, have possibilities. Don't come to me seeking a fight if what you're really looking for is being blocked by your own sense of duty to your people, a people that has rejected your social standing and won't even rise up to look for its missing offspring."
"And what would you have me do, apart from betraying the woman I have sworn my allegiance to? I have only two options: regain my honour and be reinstated into the military, or step down and have someone else of greater honour find my Arute for me."
"You have a third option: work from the shadows."
"The shadows? Like the ancient Sheikah of old, forever servants to Hyrule's royal family?"
"You are your own servant now. Find Sir Nahamani, offer your allegiance to him, and he will give your mission the attention it deserves. We have spies in all corners of the kingdom on the lookout for the missing children. Sir Auru is Arute's best chance."
Fesari grimaced. "I will not lead the life of a marauder."
"Blast you!" Ashei roared. "It does not matter what you shall or shan't do! Your offspring is most important. I thought I was a good judge of character, but your convictions disgust me. Go on, then, leave, so we can both rot in our miserable prison cells to our heart's content."
The Gerudo's countenance was strained with uncertainty. Her eyes darted to the little barred window where the calls and commands of Gerudo guards could be heard in the streets outside. Ashei noticed, for the first time, a wrinkle appear on the warrior woman's immaculate face.
"If I leave now, I will never be allowed to return," Fesari whispered. "I cannot leave Hemenorf's memory behind. Kugun, my replacement, is experienced and well-loved in the ranks. She is the better choice for this position. All I can hope for is that she will lead our troops to victory against the Moblins, and bring Arute back home. Once she returns, I shall be waiting for her with open arms."
She turned her eyes to Ashei, and the black-haired captain felt her heart sink at the determination glistening within them. "Thank you for your insight, Captain Amauger, but I know my place is here, in Ashinon. The Heroines will guide us back to a life of prosperity. One of our pregnant women will birth another king, and our pure Gerudo blood will continue through the ages, as it has done for countless centuries already."
"What if not?" Ashei called as the Gerudo turned to leave. "Fesari, turning away from the problem does not solve it! Your people have to start preparing for your survival. You need rations, charts, breeding programs! Your race will not last on faith alone. Captain!"
But the Gerudo was already walking back down the hallway, her step quick and resolute. She did not turn even as Ashei banged her frustration into the bars.
"Damn you all! Am I the only woman around here with some common sense?!"
The muffled clamours of fighting civilians and Gerudo outside were the only response she received.
0
Meanwhile, silence had grown thick between the two lone riders travelling across Gerudo Desert. The barren landscape added only churning sand particles to their laborious trek north. Their horses were snorting and stumbling as the sun reached its noonday peak, and Link tried soothing his huffing mare with murmured words, glancing worriedly at the Resistance leader in front of him. They had ridden for almost twelve hours straight.
"That's far enough," Auru finally said, tugging gently on the reins of Ashei's horse to halt the stallion at the top of a large sand dune. He slid off the saddle rather less gracefully than Link knew of him, stretching his back with a few audible cracks. Link could not pride himself with any less stiffness, his legs still retaining the tactile illusion of a horse's back between them as he dismounted beside the older Hylian.
At the foot of their dune stretched a maze of sandstone walls, forming canyons and tunnels and bridges looking like they had sprung from the labours of a mad carver. Within the long streaks of shade grew more thorny shrubs, and between two narrow walls there was even a glitter of water to be made out in the glare of the sun.
"The source of that stream is just around the corner. We'll refill our water skins, then find shelter off the road somewhere with a good view on our surroundings, in case another Moblin patrol comes our way."
Auru tugged at the black stallion's reins, and the horse trudged behind him wearily. Link stroked over Epona's neck, noting the thick froth clinging to her chops. "Just a little further, girl, and there'll be some water for you," he told her softly. Epona followed, her flanks heaving.
The hot, dry wind tore through their veils as the canyons around them funnelled it into strong, ruthless gales. Link was so relieved to finally be in the shade that at first he did not hear Auru's hissed call for attention. Only as the leader grabbed Epona's reins and forced her and Link into a recess in the rock did the younger Hylian notice the hollow thudding resonating through the sandstone walls.
Moblin riders passed them soon after, their boar mounts giving off their usual vile stink amplified to an eye-watering sting by the heat. Link was glad for the linen veil strapped across his mouth, for it muffled his choked grunt of disgust to be lost on the wind.
"That makes four dispatches," Auru mumbled. "All comprising around twenty Moblin riders. At this rate, it is no surprise Ayloch Bazaar has not been reclaimed. Their numbers keep expanding or, at least, are being refreshed regularly." He turned a pair of bloodshot eyes to Link. "I can't protect you if you don't even make an effort to pay attention. Stay alert, or you'll get us both into trouble."
Link had no willpower left to answer, and just nodded silently.
After a carefully monitored resupply at the water source where they let the horses drink, Auru led them on foot through the canyons. Two more patrols weaved through the rust red columns and forced them to hide before they finally reached a natural impasse in the terrain blocked from view by dense thorn bushes and gnarled sumac trees, a fair distance from the main desert road. The cul-de-sac was adjacent to an incline leading further up along the canyon wall, offering an escape route in case of an emergency. Auru and Link set up their tents beneath the short sumacs and indulged in some rest. The shade was god-sent and pulled Link into a deep, dreamless sleep till dusk painted the empty sky in gradients of orange and violet, at which point Auru woke him to take over the watch so the leader could to get some sleep himself.
Link took to the duty willingly. Perched on the edge of the hill overlooking their camp, he gazed northward at what the vanishing sun uncovered in its steady decline.
The moon soon hung as a pale half-disc above the northern mountains, its milky brilliance broken by a massive, angular stone structure. Arches and columns stretched into the star-covered sky, forming a heavy cylinder perched atop a rectangular sandstone monument. The Moblin army was camped before its walls, a patchwork of black monster bodies scattered around campfires, watchtowers, and surrounded by wooden fortifications. Firelight rimmed the horizon, billowing with the activity of hundreds of figures.
"There it is," Midna whispered beside him. Despite his warnings about Auru's undoubtedly superhuman hearing capabilities, she had decided to materialize and settle down on the sandy rock next to him for some company. "The Arbiter's Grounds. That's what the books called it. That's where the Mirror is."
Link gave a quiet sigh. "Makes sense that they'd congregate so close to it."
He had brought his few weapons out and was wiping away the dust on his steel shield. The red bird insignia on it glistened crimson in the distant orange light.
"Auru said you'd be armed with just a dagger for his mission," Midna said, glancing at his gear unhappily.
Link nodded. "I can leave my bow and sword behind, but I'd feel much more comfortable against Zant if I had a shield with me. But if Auru won't allow me to take it…"
After a moment of contemplation, Midna snapped her fingers, and the shield flickered and shifted hesitantly, then dissolved into black specks. A dark blue scabbard with brass ornaments took its place by Link's feet, and the youth's eyes widened.
"I can take the shield if we leave the Master Sword's sheath behind. You better hide it well, we don't want that to be lost."
Link agreed and, with Midna keeping an eye on Auru's tent, buried the scabbard among a cluster of bushes before resuming his watch of the plains at his feet.
"I don't see any more patrols headed this way," he said after a while. "Maybe I can…" He glanced back at where Auru's tent sat silent below the sumac branches. The leader's lantern was unlit, but that did not convince him Auru was truly asleep.
"I like it just as little as you do, but now is the best chance for you to slip away," Midna answered. "If you use your wolf form, you don't even need your horse to get there fast."
"But what if Auru gets attacked? That'll be on me. I can't just leave him to his fate."
"Then what's your plan? Tell him everything?"
"I could tell him about the Mirror only."
Midna rubbed her neck with a sigh. "You've seen what he's like. He'd demand you tell him not just what the Mirror is, but why you need to get there, and how you know of it. That conversation will take more time and effort than slipping away and finding an excuse later will. And you need that time to sneak through the Moblin army."
Link bit his lip, imagining Auru's look of shock, realization, fury, after discovering he'd been abandoned. "No," he whispered quickly. "I'll find a better way to do this."
"What better way is there?"
"I'll slip away once we've set the explosives. He'll know better than to follow me and risk being discovered. If I leave undetected, he'll spend some time looking around the camp then return to the horses."
Midna cocked her head with a raised brow, betraying her skepticism. "I bet he'll go through the entire Moblin army to find you. I've seen his kind before. They stop at nothing to do what they believe is right."
"Then I'll have to be quiet and quick enough to disappear in the building before he finds me. He won't jeopardize his mission for my sake."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that."
"You got a better idea?"
"Leave now."
Link sighed and turned away. "I'll find the right moment for my escape. But I won't leave him alone now while he's sleeping. Likely he'll wake up any moment anyway."
His prediction proved true after no more than ten minutes, when the older Hylian emerged from his tent with bulging bags in his arms and chains of small leather pouches slung across his shoulders. He looked like a vagabond after a particularly successful pick-pocketing spree.
"The army should be asleep by now," he said. "Time to set some explosives."
His former countenance wearied by the long journey across the desert had been replaced with a devilish glint of boyish eagerness.
With the sun gone, the air turned rather frosty and gave Link the perfect excuse to change back into his green tunic and chain mail. Auru looked skeptically at the youth's attire, commenting on the mail's potential for noise making, but after Link traipsed up and down the incline and made no more noise than an ant, the leader was satisfied. He himself had donned a tunic of raven black and well greased leather arm protections, blending with the dark night so seamlessly that Link twitched occasionally when Auru spoke out.
They left the two ridden horses tethered to the trees and loaded their explosives onto Auru's destrier, which now once again took up the duty as obedient pack mule. Link was astonished at how many explosives Auru had taken with him. The bombs had all been meticulously prepared beforehand, composed of tiny leather pouches all connected at regular intervals to a fuse, then rolled onto wooden rods. The rolls looked like oversized clusters of brown grapes that Auru lifted one by one from their saddle bags and handed to Link to store inside large burlap sacks across the caramel horse's back.
A single chain was heavy enough to make him grunt, so while Auru was occupied and looked the other way, Link opened the lace of one leather bag and peered inside. What he saw put a rancid taste to his mouth; in the middle was a tiny yellow paper ball connected to the fuse, likely the core explosive. The rest of the bag was filled with a handful of metal spikes resembling nails without heads, about as long as half his pinkie. The spikes would be flung outwards with the explosion and create a shrapnel wave that would tear through ranks of monsters like a hundred arrowheads. The nails would kill some but mostly incapacitate the rest and leave them flopping in the sand like stranded fish with torn skin and perforated limbs.
He was doubtful if even Moblins deserved such cruelty.
Auru's harrumph made him jump. "Be careful with that," the leader grunted. "Don't let the nails spill. They weren't cheap."
Link's saliva turned salty with disgust. Tightening the lace, he put the chain back into the bag. "Sir, these won't kill the Bulblins in one quick blast like the mortar last night."
"No, they won't. But that's not the idea. We want to cripple the army and hopefully frighten them enough to make them leave Hyrule. Our mission is two-fold, remember: reduce the Moblin occupation, and rouse the Gerudo's courage to fight back."
"And what about the Moblins that don't die from the nails?" Link was reluctant to further jeopardize his and Auru's already brittle relationship with more skepticism, but he realized quickly why he had to ask nonetheless. He needed to hear Auru's answer, an answer that would either fortify his established impression of his new superior, or break it down and reshape it into something new, much more sinister.
Auru held Link's eyes for a moment, his brows furrowed, then gave a quiet sigh. "Before the world was even fully formed, creatures of Darkness roamed the lands, killing with mindless bloodlust. Our ancestors fought for millennia to break through those hordes and build a livelihood. But no matter how hard they tried to eradicate that plague, monsters kept returning. It was only after the science of monstrology was fully accepted into society that people realized where monsters truly came from. They do not breed like animals, or form ranks of society like civilized races. They emerge from Darkness, from the few and far places where our goddesses' sacred Light cannot reach. That can be a crevice in the bedrock, or a cave in a mountain range. No matter what we do, there will always be monsters roaming the wilds. And that is why we cannot be picky in the way we dispose of them. It is cruel, yes, if we think of them as animals or people. But we do not compare them to creatures of Light, because they are not."
"I know all of that, Sir," Link insisted. "It's just… They're alive, and I've killed enough of them to know they feel pain. And knowing what's in those bombs, and the suffering they will cause, makes me feel…" He hesitated, wondering how far he was once again stepping out of line. "It's not a nice feeling. I'm sorry."
To his surprise, Auru smiled at him. "That feeling is what makes you a creature of Light. It's only natural. I have it too, and I hate it just as much as you do. And please, never apologise for speaking your mind. I may seem disciplinary to you at times, but I never ignore someone else's opinion. It pleases me to hear that you're not a mindless supporter of violence and death, as so many others in the military are."
Link's cheeks flushed with colour. The leader's words sounded sincere, but he was skilled enough to appear that way and hide his true thoughts; Link was sure of it. He had asked Rusl not to tell anyone about Kakariko, but Rusl was incredibly loyal. Had his tongue slipped under Auru's probing?
If it had, Auru hid the knowledge masterfully. "After the explosives have done their job, and the monsters who were spared have fled, we'll go through the remains and dispose of those that haven't been killed by the blast. It's the humane thing to do. Will you assist me?"
"I will, Sir," Link answered, earning another approving smile from Auru.
Before the last explosives were stored away, Link excused himself and walked to the trees where Epona stood tethered and dozing. He gave her a hug, breathed in her familiar horse smell, relished it with every fibre of his being. He thought about what would happen to her if he failed to defeat Zant, allowed that fear to fuel his resolve. She was just one of the many friends he would wage that duel for, but her large eyes seemed to hold a sparkle for each of them; the children, his foster parents, his little brother, the members of the Resistance, Ordon's villagers...
"I'll come back for you," he whispered. "I can't promise it, but I'll try."
He squeezed her one last time, his eyes noticing her open saddle-bag and the worn bundle of Kakarikan cloth peeking out; Renado's first-aid kit, given to him all those weeks ago. He had not neglected to restock it before leaving for the desert, and now tucked it into his belt where Auru wouldn't instantly notice it. Even if he did, how could the Resistance leader begrudge him for coming prepared?
Thus equipped they set out northward, Auru's horse trudging along complacently, until they came to the last sandstone wall before the flats surrounding the Arbiter's Grounds.
"Listen carefully," Auru spoke beside him. They lay on their bellies atop a low rock overlooking the vast valley. "We need to set the explosives at regular intervals across the clusters of monsters – avoiding the campfires, of course – and connect them to a master fuse. The watchtowers need to go down at all costs, because once they collapse they'll crush a good number on their way down, which saves us time and black powder. I'll plant the bomb chains across the camp while you take care of my long-distance igniters. Here, I'll show you how they work."
From one of his larger bags he retrieved a small, cylindrical metal frame and set it into the sand. The top held a glass lens inside a swivelling mount that the leader moved with the help of two screws. Markings and numbers were carved into the steel rim around it. At the bottom was a clamp and a small funnel of polished metal.
"The end of the fuse goes here, beneath the clamp. I'll place the device so the lens points to the east and set the exact orientation of the lens we need with a sextant I brought along."
"So the lens can catch the morning sun and ignite the fuse," Link finished, intrigued.
"Precisely. We don't want to be anywhere near the camp once the explosives go off. I could have used mechanical timers connected to a flint-lock ignition, but the noise of the timer would have attracted too much attention. The morning sun in the desert is already plenty intense, more than enough for our purposes."
"Couldn't we set off the explosives now, while they're sleeping?"
"That would mean having to ignite a very long fuse from a distance far enough to be harmless to us. And the fuse's light would alert the beasts on the watchtowers. They carry horns with which they can rouse the whole army instantly. Setting off the bombs at first sunlight is the best time to do it."
"But what if some Bulblins wandering the camp stumble over the devices?"
Auru grinned. "That's where you come in. You'll gather rocks and stack them around the igniters facing the camp, leaving of course the east side open so the sun can reach them. But even if one of them gets discovered before dawn, I'll connect the bomb chains to each other to make sure they all go off even with one or two igniters disabled. We can hide the fuses beneath a thin layer of sand; they were made especially to work in adverse conditions."
Link nodded resignedly, and Auru frowned. "If you have more questions, please ask. I want no mistakes during the setup."
Link looked back at the sleeping army and the darkened sandstone monument they were camped around. Auru's plan turned out to be less inhibiting than he had thought. If he waited for the right moment, he could sneak away from the leader while the latter was busy planting the last bit of explosives. That would allow the sabotage of the Moblin army to go as planned, and him to disappear in the building without Auru noticing.
But what about the Moblins inside the Arbiter's Grounds, which most likely acted as the army's main stronghold? Those camped outside had not fit within the monument, he presumed. Did Auru intend to plant more explosives inside the building once those outside had been set up? If that was the case, Link had to wait until they were back out again to sneak away, then shut the door behind himself so Auru couldn't follow.
He decided to take a first risk; he needed more information about Auru's plan to find a loophole. "Sir, how are we going to target the Moblins inside the Arbiter's Grounds?"
Auru, who had begun lowering the two heavy sacks from his horse, paused and turned to Link in surprise. "There are no Moblins in there. We'll set up our bombs around the camp, then retreat to the rocks and make sure they go off at sunrise."
A frown creased Link's brow. That couldn't be; surely the Moblins had used the tactical position of the building to their advantage. "What makes you so sure, Sir?" he asked.
Auru's eyes lit up with a rare spark of delight, and he reached into the saddlebag on the destrier's back to retrieve his Hawkeye, handing it to Link with a satisfied smile.
"The Moblins built fortifications around the camp, mostly wooden spikes made from palm trees. Do you see the ones close to the Grounds' entrance?"
Link found the spot by following two Bulblins patrolling the perimeter. A large, yellow staircase of eroded sandstone led up to a high platform with a set of massive double doors flanked by pillars and unlit torches. Spikes had been set up before the stairs.
"I do."
"Where are the spikes pointing?"
Link brought the fortification into focus with a twist of the lens, and frowned.
"They're pointed at the staircase, aren't they?" Auru answered for him. "If the monsters were holed up in there, they wouldn't need defences around the entrance. Or if they thought them necessary, they would point them outwards to stop invading forces. But they reversed them. Why?"
"They're trying to keep something in the Grounds instead."
"Very good."
"But what?"
"Stals."
Link's questioning look prompted the leader to elaborate. "Undead monsters made of bones and rotting flesh. I doubt you have those in Ordona and Faron. They most likely tried to swarm the army, which is why the Bulblins deemed it necessary to block that entrance."
"But I thought different species of monsters grouped up just like we do between races, or at least left each other alone."
"Then you don't know the nature of Stals. Monsters like Moblins thrive on destruction, on killing and raiding. Lizals are the same, and yes, they like to team up to take down victims. Deku Babas, Tulas, and Keese, the ones you are familiar with, grow on natural decay and lack of sunlight. That's why they can be found in deeper forested areas. But Stals emerge around death. They are the embodiment of misery, fear, and despair. The Arbiter's Grounds were not just used as a prison, but as execution grounds. The worst criminals of the kingdom were brought here, put on trial, and their punishment exacted. Perfect conditions for Stals to thrive. When the royal family closed it down, they sealed it to keep the Stals trapped inside. I presume the Moblins broke those seals in their search for a stronghold and stumbled upon the Stals. Needless to say, if even Moblins – who have a clear number advantage – are frightened of the Stals, that's plenty of reason to give that place a wide berth. Stals will kill any living thing they encounter, monster or Light dweller."
Link looked into space, feeling numb. Untold horrors lay between him and the Mirror of Twilight. I have no choice, he thought. I have to go in there.
Auru took the Hawkeye from Link's hands and stored it away. "Whatever you do, stay out of sight and make as little noise as possible. The sand will muffle your footsteps, so avoid the rocky parts if you can."
Each toting one of the heavy explosives bags, they crept along the side of the platform invisible to the camp until they reached a low canyon wall that shielded them from view. The moonlight was not strong enough to compensate for the glare of so many campfires, so the night rendered them undetectable. At the edge of camp, Link began gathering rocks into an emptied bag while Auru set a bomb bundle at regular intervals along the fortifications, running at a crouch to avoid detection. The spikes surrounding the camp looked crude and clearly made to stop a cavalry charge, not infiltrators. Auru fed the start of each fuse through a gap in the spikes and assisted Link in fastening it to an igniter device. With his sextant he calculated the exact orientation they would need to catch the morning sunlight dead-on. Then, grabbing hold of the first bundle, he gave Link a last pat on the shoulder.
"Let's make your father proud, shall we?" he whispered, his eyes filled with mischief, before squeezing through the spikes and heading off into the campfires' shadows.
Unbeknownst to Auru, Link's surrogate father was a potent pressure point, and the encouragement had the effect that Link felt a renewed indecision in his unrefined escape plan. Gathering rocks and piling them around Auru's igniters as quickly as possible, he became increasingly nervous. If Rusl ever learned of what he had done, of what he was about to do…
Stop thinking like a child who's facing a scolding, he told himself. There is no other way. I have to get into that building.
The last igniter came into view. Link saw Auru squeeze through the spikes even as Link approached. Fuse attached, orientation set, Auru departed with his explosives bundle. His steps were hurried, which prompted Link to stack his rocks with even greater speed. If he could finish hiding this last device before Auru returned, he'd have an open window to slip away before the leader noticed him. The stones felt slick in his sweaty hands, causing rocky chafing sounds that chilled his blood and made him grit his teeth; so far, the sounds from the army had been nothing but monstrous snores and the occasional raspy breathing of a lone patrol. He forced himself to calm down. Alerting the entire camp to their presence would be the worst mistake he could make.
The stack was high enough. Link looked back over his shoulder at the camp, saw no sign of Auru.
"Now's your chance!" Midna hissed. "Go!"
Link jumped to his feet and headed for the nearest gap in the spike wall, slipping through. He approached the first campfire glow, veering west towards the lone torchlight suspended on top of one of the wooden watchtowers. Link glanced at the sleeping creatures piled left and right of him, heard their raspy snores, saw their breath like a toxic cloud above them. He had never seen so many monsters gathered in one place. There were hundreds clustered like bees around the fires, milling over each other in their monster-sleep. Link dared not breathe.
The inverted fortification loomed in the dim moonlight, bright in Link's enhanced night vision. Ahead of him he made out a patrolling Bulblin that would march right into his path in a matter of seconds. He veered left to stay in the shadows, ducked behind a barrel stinking of oil, and continued in a hurried crouch. The monster walked on, oblivious.
Seconds later, Link reached the spikes at the base of the staircase and squeezed through, darting up the steps two at a time. The heavy doorway was in front of him, blocked off by more crates and barrels that had, however, been partly pushed aside by the heavy stone door. It still stood slightly ajar, just enough for Link to enter.
At that moment, he heard a muffled grunt below. Sharply he turned, and in the glow of a startled monster's torch he could just make out Auru lying belly-down in the sand, his face horror-stricken.
Goddesses preserve us! Link thought.
Quick as a fox, Auru jumped at the Bulblin and buried his knife in its neck, catching the torch and the monster to deaden the sound of their fall. The torch, however, sparked and hissed, and in doing so caught the attention of another Bulblin that came investigating. Auru dispatched of it, and two more took its place. One fell to the leader's blade, but the other managed to let loose a piercing screech before it, too, was struck down. Like a wave wallowing through the entire army, heads of monsters were raised, a horn sounded from a watchtower, and Auru had just made his way to the spikes when the first contingent stormed towards him.
Auru sliced and cut like a whirlwind, but as the bulk of the army became aware of the intruder, they all waddled forward and piled up near the fortifications, screeching and gurgling, raring for a fight. Auru was caught between the horde and the spikes, too preoccupied with defending himself to try and find a way through.
When the first arrow embedded itself in a palm trunk mere inches from his head – shot from atop a watchtower – Auru stiffened with horror. More archers came running with shafts nocked, some of the arrowheads dripping with burning oil. They fired even as they ran, sending a wave of flickering death at the lone Resistance leader.
Then a pair of hands took hold of his black tunic and pulled him through the widest gap in the spikes. Link flung himself over Auru, his shield held high, as the arrows rained down around them. Loud knocks sounded from their points burrowing into the wood, Link flinching as they made his shield chink.
Silence followed after the last arrow hit, and Link glanced past the spikes at the Bulblin horde. Their countenance of open-mouthed, saliva-dripping anticipation was almost comical.
"Move, dammit!" Auru hissed, pulling Link up with him to make a break for the stairs. Their flight incited every last Bulblin to charge forward, and the noise of their screams and cackles was like a cacophony of honking geese.
Auru pulled Link up the steps and shoved him through the door, staying outside just long enough to push two barrels down the stairs. The angry monster cries at the base of the steps were cut off as Link and Auru pulled the doors shut.
"Look for a bar to block it!" Auru gasped, but in the utter darkness that had enshrouded them, even Link's wolf eyes were blinded. For a long while, all that could be heard was their panting that echoed across the ancient stones surrounding them and the muffled Bulblin cackles as they milled outside. Thin streams of torchlight framed the door, a blinding contrast to the black that had closed in on Link and Auru.
But the Bulblins drew back, did not even push against the door. After a while, their incoherent muttering grew fainter, the torchlight that rimmed the doorframe fading into darkness.
0
With a sigh, Auru straightened and pressed himself against the wall, listening. It was quiet and cool. A dusty smell of brittle wood and stale moisture hung in the air. Faint scuttling could be heard echoing in the distance; rats, presumably. Or Stalkin, but the miniature skeleton monsters tended to come in groups, producing a racket of grinding bones and snapping jaws that could be heard from half a mile out. For now, the only other presence in the prison's entrance hall with him was his young Hylian friend.
"Hold on, I think I saw a torch on my way in," Auru said. A moment passed wherein his hands made wet patting sounds on the stone wall, followed by a metallic chink and a soft curse as he scratched his fingers on the old wrought-iron wallmount. The torch it held crumbled to flakes in his hands.
"Nothing but dust," he grunted.
"Here's one," Link said, and a moment later Auru heard the boy's flint scrape against its metallic counterpart, producing sparks that ignited the ancient padding on the torch's black head. His face appeared from the darkness as a mask of black and orange patches, looking up at the leader with wide, unreadable eyes.
"Give me that," Auru snapped, snatching the torch from Link's hands and shining it at the walls and the ground. Further down the room he saw a brazier that seemed to hold a remainder of oil. Upon igniting it, he revealed the true size of the room; a hall stretching for dozens of feet in all directions and entirely bare of furniture. Nothing but stone columns, stone walls, stone stairs, stone balustrades, and armless stone statues. Auru had never set foot in the Arbiter's Grounds before, and he was glad he hadn't bothered. It was the coldest, deadest place he had been to in a long while. Even Castle Town's dungeons did not come close to this; their proximity to the sewers, at least, allowed ferns and algae to sprout near the windows, filling them with cavernous life.
Now that light surrounded them, the weight of the moment bore down on them both. Link visibly braced himself as Auru turned to him, intent on making it undeniably clear to his young miscreant just how colossal of a pickle he had manoeuvred himself into.
"So, Link," Auru said. His face trembled with red fury all while his voice retained its tone of calm pragmatism. Link shrunk two inches under his piercing gaze. "Let me make our situation clear to you. We can't leave through this door as there is a horde of Bulblins on the other side even the two of us couldn't take on by ourselves. In order for us to get out, we have to find another exit that isn't this one, which means go through the Arbiter's Grounds with limited light and even less knowledge of what we might find here. We only have a couple hours till the sun is high enough to ignite my fuses, but with the entire camp now awake, they will most certainly find those charges and disable them before any of them can go off. If we do get out of here alive, we'll have to find a way through the camp, back to the canyon and the horses, and now that I am out of charges and have only a limited supply of explosives remaining – the bulk of it having now fallen into enemy hands – we'll have to return to Hyrule if we want to restock and try again. So congratulations, Link. You have officially sabotaged... the sabotage."
Auru hoped Link had enough social skills to know how ashamed he was supposed to feel, but what he saw in the youth's firelit eyes was not fear, or shame, not even guilt, but frustration.
"You weren't supposed to follow me, Sir," Link answered quietly.
Why, the sheer brazenness! Auru felt himself lose the struggle against his rage, and could barely keep his voice at a hissing whisper. "What I was supposed to do was protect you! What on earth where you thinking?! Do you understand what trouble we're in?!"
"I do, Sir!" Link shot back. He took a few paces into the room, gritting his teeth and balling his hands. Auru watched the emotions pass across that young face, anger and indecision predominant. Several times Link gazed at his feet, but clearly not out of shame; to Auru it looked almost as if he was searching for something there, a retort or an accusation hidden somewhere between his toes.
He was about to make use of some disciplinary phrases he reserved for his more obstinate squires, when the corners of Link's mouth lifted into a smile.
"If I recall correctly, Sir, it was you who woke the entire Bulblin army."
Auru opened his mouth to deliver said disciplinary phrases, blinked a couple times, then exhaled a humourless laugh. "Tripped on my own fuse, no less. I was so focused on catching up with you, I did not watch my step. That, I agree, was my fault entirely."
And what disgrace it was, indeed, but Auru had long ago learned not to dwell on his mistakes; if they were made, it was another opportunity for him to learn and grow upon the consequences. Next time he infiltrated a Moblin camp at night, he'd be sure to keep his strides long and his feet high. And, of course, catch his upstart protégé before the latter could make another of his adolescent blunders. The fault had been his own, too, Auru told himself; he'd seen the look on Link's face after he had asked about the Moblins inside the Grounds. Calculating, scheming. It had been nothing but a suspicion in Auru's mind, but – past mistake made, lesson learned – he should have heeded his gut feeling.
"You were the one who made a run for the prison," he fired back. "I certainly hope you had a good reason for it."
"I was hoping to find traces of the missing children."
"This again? How did my assurance that the Stals' presence annihilated that possibility not persuade you?"
"I had to be certain, Sir."
Auru blew out a frustrated breath. "You certainly are a tenacious one. That doesn't change the fact that you mounted this infiltration without my consent, and endangered us both with your act of foolishness, not to mention ruined a mission that had been planned for weeks. That will have consequences. I hope you're ready to redeem yourself in here, because we won't survive if we don't work together."
"You have my full support, Sir."
All trace of his former agitation was gone from Link's demeanour. Auru couldn't help but admire the youth's control, and felt just a little bit cheated. Had any other of his apprentices – Rusl, for example – committed the kind of insubordination that Link had pulled off, getting pelted by Auru's rebukes and threats would have made them whisp away like a sand sculpture in the wind until nothing but their own self-discipline kept them upright. Link did not wither, did not shrink. He held himself straight, chin down in a show of submission, but eyes fixed on Auru, the ridge of his brow casting them into shadow. At that moment, he looked far older than the mere sixteen years that kept him in limbo between youth and adulthood.
Like a veteran, Auru thought once more. A veteran before a great battle, sharpening his blade for a day of killing. Shaking his head, he motioned for his partner to follow.
The hall they had entered acted as a junction from which more rooms departed into darkness. Some of those had stone doors partly collapsed, blocking off their passages. Auru instead approached a staircase that was sunken into the ground, wide and shallow. His prediction that this might have once been a guard chamber was proven true when they discovered rotten weapon racks and piles of discarded helmets and blades. He chose light scimitars for himself and Link who, at Auru's inquiry, proclaimed the reduced weight unfamiliar but acceptable. At this point Auru also noticed the Hylian shield hanging from the youth's weapon strap. Had he brought that with him on the mission? Auru didn't think so, for the shield would not have qualified as silent enough. How, then, had Link snuck it in with himself?
He dismissed the confusion after he saw a small pile of similar shields in a corner of the armoury, and returned his attention to their task at hand. Cautiously, they walked down the largest passageway they could find.
"Your father hasn't given you access to our archives yet, has he?" Auru asked softly. He was walking ahead, and Link made regular turns to secure their rear. "We need to remedy that. Learning about all the different monster races is a must for any Agency member. Though I doubt even he has ever encountered Stals other than the lone skeleton hounds roaming Hyrule's fields at night."
"Rusl has always been very protective of me," Link answered, casting furtive glances left and right.
They had entered the first prison block. Dark alcoves barred with crude iron rods stretched into the distance. The sandstone here was slick with moisture and carved like a river by former guards' countless passages; Auru thought he could see individual boot prints in the floor. He heard Link gasp as he held his torch to a cell, illuminating a bony shape of cloth and dessicated flesh sprawled inside it.
"Don't worry, that's not a Stal," Auru said, letting the light shine on and obscure the cell once more from view. "Clearly not all prisoners were deemed important enough to be relocated. That, or this poor fellow was already dead when the royal family closed the prison down. Few outsiders were ever given access to the inner workings of this place. Who knows what they were up to in here."
A chink of metal sounded ahead, loud and echoey, and they both froze. Auru held the torch high, crouched and ready to jump, hand on his weapon. Link craned his neck back to scan their rear, but the torch was too weak to cover satisfactory ground. Open cells stretched out on either side of them, thankfully empty.
Suddenly, Link tensed. "Sir!" he hissed, pointing ahead. Auru's eyes focused on a faint blue light shining dimly in the distance. He felt a shiver race down his spine; a floating lantern, its blue flame approaching, gently bobbing.
He slowly stretched out an arm and nudged Link towards the nearest prison bars, thus clearing the passage. "Keep your distance and stay calm. With a bit of luck, it'll find us not worth its attention."
"What is it?"
"It's called a Poe. Spirit monster, preying on strong feelings. If it attacks, smash the lantern."
The light drifted closer, and Auru calmed his nervousness by running Poe drills through his mind; a piece of firewood dangling from a pole to simulate the monster's lantern, his former instructor showing him all the different angles he could attack it from. He had a scimitar, so the sword's reduced length could pose a problem if the Poe floated too high, in which case he'd either throw his weapon like a boomerang to hit the lantern's glass with the sharp edge, or bludgeon it with the pommel. That would require holding it by the sharp end, but the scimitar was old and rusty and most certainly blunt–
"I think it's pointing at us," Link stated and broke through Auru's mind like a cannon ball.
"You… You can see it?"
"You can't?"
"No, it cloaks itself when it's hunting. Only after you smash their lantern does it become visible. How can you–"
Auru forced himself to silence as the lantern gave a jerk, heading straight towards them, faster now. Next to him, Link's young eyes, perhaps staring at the figure only he could see, widened with fear.
"Calm, Link. Blank slate, no emotion. Concentrate."
Finally, the lantern came to a slow stop, spun on the spot for a short moment, then took off back into the dark. Auru waited a full minute after the light had disappeared, then huffed, allowing his mind to taste some relief; tempered, but welcome nonetheless. Relief, however, was quickly overshadowed by perplexity.
He could see the Poe even while it was cloaked, he thought, recalling the articles and books written by Spirit monster experts he had studied. Poes attained their invisibility by merging into what scientists called the spirit plane, a sort of haze permeating the world that, according to some, became thickest around dusk and dawn. For Link to see the monster while it was invisible, he had to have incredibly sharp senses to discern that spirit plane. Auru had heard of such abilities, but had never met anyone possessing them. Until now.
"Do you see spirits, Link?"
The question startled the youth, but his face showed more guilt than surprise. Auru had his answer; another unusual attribute to Rusl's adoptive son, and perhaps even another one he had lied about. This time, however, the troubled look on Link's face stopped Auru from once more berating his protégé.
"Sometimes," Link muttered. "There was one in the cell with the body, and more in other corridors. This place is full of them."
"That Poe, what did it look like?"
"It was a tall figure, holding the lantern. It was robed and had a hood on. I could see its face, but it looked… burnt."
No wonder he was scared, Auru thought. Regular Poes were imp creatures looking like ragged cloth puppets that held their lanterns with their claw-like feet. While not pleasant to look at, they were sufficiently grotesque to justify their spot in the monster race. Poe Masters were worse, mainly because they looked so human. The one time Auru had encountered an uncloaked Poe Master, he'd had nightmares for days after.
More so, Link's description proved his claims to be true. For once, Auru was at a loss of what to say. His ruminations prevented him from noticing the dubious way he looked at Link, until the youth lowered his head and turned away.
Pull yourself together, Auru, you're better than this. "How long have you had this ability?" he asked, forcing himself to mask the concern in his voice with curiosity. "It's not unheard of, but it's definitely rare–"
Link tensing stopped him mid-sentence, but it was clear what had robbed the youth's attention; from further down the dark hallway sounded a rhythmic rattling followed by a short shriek. Auru sighed and took up stance, his scimitar raised.
"Time to put those impressive battle skills to use, Link. We've got company."
"Stals?"
"Stalkin, and plenty of them. They are small and weak and take their advantage in numbers. Hit them hard with a strike to the spine, and they'll fall to pieces. And watch out for the halberd."
The first wave came in a single file, just like Auru remembered. The stumpy skeletons were only half his size, but Auru had a scar on his shin to honour his first encounter with the monster's javelin-type weapon. Each toted one that they held upright before them like a flagpole, the weapon seeming much too big for the child-like monsters. But they could hit just as hard as any other creature. He pushed the first three back, aiming for their spine, and shortly after he saw Link do the same.
Assurance had returned to Link's posture. With his torch held high, he sliced through one Stalkin after the other, dealing with those that made it past Auru's defence. A deafening racket of shrieks and grinding bones accompanied them and portended the arrival of more. Bones and discarded halberds began to pile up around them that Auru had to push aside with his feet. He crossed his torch and scimitar before him and pushed forward, nodding at Link to follow; the sooner they cleared the narrow prison corridor, the better they could defend themselves.
A half-closed hatch door came into view, held open by a piece of broken stone. The gap was just big enough for the short Stalkin to duck through, and Auru saw a mass of small femurs and tibias on the other side. Halberds were clanking against the stone, shrieks filled the room ahead.
From his belt satchel, Auru withdrew a small leather ball and held its fuse to his torch.
"Bomb!" he warned Link, then tossed the ball into the gap. Sparks filled the darkness ahead, phalanges scurried like mice around the flaming explosive. The blast was small but powerful enough to create a five-feet crater within the mass of bones. Auru crouched and pushed himself through the gap, and Link followed suit.
Five minutes and fifty Stalkin later, they stood panting in a second large hall surrounded by flurries of bone fragments. Sand crunched beneath their feet.
"Well, that was a workout," Auru huffed and grinned at Link, who looked not the least bit winded but had the grace to deepen his breaths and send a smile back.
After lighting more ancient braziers, Auru was startled by Link giving an undignified squeak. Auru ran forward, only to look into the open maw of a toothed reptile. They found themselves staring up at the chamber's central piece, the massive stone statue of a cross-legged woman with a snake wrapped around her.
"Jumping at shadows, Link?" Auru jeered, earning himself a stone-shattering glare Link's foster mother would have been proud of. He turned, still smiling, and gazed up at the angelic features of the stone woman. "Would you look at that. This could be the Goddess of Sands I've read about. Before the Gerudo worshipped the Seven Heroines, the Goddess of Sands was their deity of choice. She is considered a demon to us Hylians. Interesting to find a statue of her in here. It almost looks like..."
He approached and shone his torch at the wall behind the colossus. "Yes, it looks like the statue is older than the walls. This prison must have been built around her. Sweet Din, no wonder the Gerudo started a war with us."
"Sir," Link muttered and pointed at a doorway to the right of the effigy. "I think that's a shadow we should jump at."
The pun held no joy in it, and Auru peered into the darkness. A figure was shuffling towards them, so slow it looks like it was barely moving. A metallic scraping could be heard from it. Auru felt his neck hair stand on end.
"Back up, quickly," he hissed, pulling Link towards the third doorway leading out of the room. "We do not want to fight that one."
"What is it, Sir? I can't make it out."
A moving nightmare, is what it is, Auru thought. And you'll know it once it steps into the light.
"That one's called a ReDead. And engaging it has been labelled in Kilton's Monstoclopedia as 'highly inadvisable and perilous'. Damn!"
To Auru's horror, the grate blocking the passage had a rusty padlock on it. He scowled at the Hyrulean wings engraved into the lock's body, for once not overcome by patriotic pride upon seeing his people's crest. He knelt and inspected the lock, hoping his friendly contesting with Millie's handiwork would pay off, but the clump of forged metal in his hand was crude and rotten, the oil that had once lubricated it dried to a crust of varnish. Brute force would be the key here.
"It's coming this way, Sir," Link warned and pointed his scimitar at the approaching figure.
"Instead of stating the obvious, find me something I can use to break this thing open."
There was some rubble from a collapsed support pillar that Auru tried, but it crumbled to sand upon hitting the lock. He glanced at the shuffling figure, trying to smother his nervousness, and beckoned Link to one of the braziers bolted into the ground. Auru tugged at it, but it did not budge. The figure was close enough to reveal strips of cloth hanging from its bony arms. Auru tried vainly not to look at its face, knowing he'd get more nightmares if he succumbed to the temptation.
With Link's help he managed to pry the brazier from its fittings and approached the door, the metallic frame held high. He slammed the oil pan onto the padlock, and the resulting clang made the creature behind them growl.
The lock was dented but not broken. He tried again, and a third time, but it held fast to his strikes. Link was now pressed against the wall, wide eyes staring at the monster that came for them, his look of horror accentuated by sharp, panicked breaths.
If it comes close enough, we're doomed, Auru thought.
"Don't look at it," he commanded, but the youth preempted him by dropping his torch and promptly grabbing hold of the brazier, wrenching it from Auru's hands, and smashing it onto the lock with a growling scream. The lock did not just snap; it hit the ground and was catapulted across the room along with a wave of sandstone shrapnel from the floor tiles, some pelting Auru's face which he instinctively shielded with his arms. The brazier's oil pan was reshaped to a piece of abstract art Auru thought Millie might show interest in, but he was driven out of his muted surprise as Link grabbed him and pulled him through the doorway.
They ran along the corridor, their single torch leaving a trail of sparks behind. Auru turned his head left and right, saw more prison cells and bony masses piled inside. The stench of rot was nauseating and made him gag. Stal screams and rattles echoed around them, but Link quickly brought forth his shield and simply ploughed through them, his death grip on Auru's hand turning the latter's fingers white.
The next room they entered was even larger than the sand goddess's resting place, the most prominent feature a large staircase leading up to a massive metal gate.
"Link, stop!" Auru called and managed to free himself from Link's hold.
"We have to keep moving," Link gasped. "They're coming this way."
"Reckless behaviour like this will get us both killed–"
"Just look! They're everywhere!"
Auru turned to survey the room – the parts that were revealed in the radius of his torch – and found himself forced to agree. A mass of tiny Stalkin and their swaying halberds spilled from the many doorways into the chamber, some already in the process of scaling the staircase. Among them stood their much larger cousins, the Stalfos, wielding swords and shields pilfered from former guards; the bucklers still showed their royal insignia in faded colours in between curls of rust. Moving in a much slower, shuffling gait were the same creatures from the previous room, close enough now for Auru to see their cloth-wrapped head and open mouths down to individual strings of brown saliva coating their rotten teeth. Bony arms dragged their telltale heavy broadsword with which, Auru had read, they would bludgeon their victim's bones to pieces. ReDeads, the worst of them all.
"Sir!" Link called. "The gate!"
Auru looked back at the youth he had sworn to protect, the hubbub of bones and clanking weapons like an approaching wave of doom behind him. Cursing, he ran towards the gate. Another, much larger padlock was keeping it secure, but this one was made of brass, and Auru found it sparkling. He knelt before it, retrieving his bundle of lockpicks from his satchel.
He was through the first safety mechanism when he heard metal ring out behind him. In the light of the torch he had dropped to the floor, he saw Link driving a Stalfos back down the staircase, his shield pressed against the skeleton's buckler. He grunted as the monster swung its rusty sword at him, barely avoiding it.
"Stalfos, Link!" Auru called over his shoulder, working feverishly on the tight mechanism. "They're just a larger variant of Stalkin, but very skilled fighters. Shield to unbalance it, sword to go for the back. Focus on the spine!"
Link nodded grimly and punched the Stalfos's shield with his own. The scimitar flashed and buried its curved blade in the open ribcage, pushing a vertebrae from the spine. The Stalfos crumpled to a heap on the broad step. Auru forced himself back to his task; he had witnessed Link's skills first-hand. He had to trust that they would keep Rusl's son – and himself – from harm.
His fingers trembled, the lockpicks rattled. Then a sudden thought came to him, and he prayed he wasn't too late.
"Don't let the ReDeads come close to you! If they do, they'll–"
From the back resounded a sudden, ear-piercing screech that caused his hands to cramp and freeze. Link whimpered behind him, and Auru felt a crushing certainty that he had doomed his young friend to be lost in this cursed darkness, never to see the sun again. Any moment now, the ReDead's massive broadsword would come crashing down upon the boy, cleaving him in half. Paralysed by the monster's scream, Auru could not move, could not even work his lips to tell Link how sorry he was. He simply knelt before the lock and waited for the crunch of live skin and bone.
Instead, he heard another scream, this one deep and unnatural. The paralysing chains around him fell away with a snap and he whirled around, staring at Link's scimitar stuck in the ReDead's fleshy chest. The weight of its broadsword – stopped mid-swing above the monster's head – snapped its brittle humerus in half and clattered to the sandstone tiles with its forearm still attached. Link sidestepped it, yanked the blade from the mummified chest, and gave the ReDead a kick that sent it tumbling down the steps to crush half a dozen Stalkin on their laborious trek uphill.
They shared a look, Auru's flooded with relief, Link's still wide-eyed with the horror he had seen, before they both returned to their tasks at hand. With Link's blade keeping the nightmares at bay, Auru finally picked his way through the large lock and incidentally broke his own record – ReDead scream and paralysis included.
"Come on!" he called, picking up his torch and pushing Link through the gate. A short, superfluous corridor led to another door, this one stone and unlocked to both their relief. Too much adrenaline in their veins made pushing the door an effortless feat, and this time Auru found a heavy iron bolt that he rammed into place to seal it. Soon after he heard the bony rattling of Stalfos and Stalkin on the other side pushing to no avail.
No sound came from the room, which prompted the two survivors to crumple to the floor and expel their fright in gasps and heavy breaths. Auru glanced at Link, whose pale face appeared in the torch's flame like that of a ghost, and gave him a thumbs up. That made Link smile, and the ghost antic was replaced by cheeks flushed red with relief. Soon, the bangs and clanks receded from the door.
Silence returned to the Arbiter's Grounds.
"I meant to tell you…" Auru said, wiping sweat from his brow. "ReDeads are the most dangerous of all Stals. They paralyse you with their scream, then crush you."
"I noticed," Link replied, leaning his head against the wall with a tired smile.
"We really have to get you initiated in monstrology. This could have gone south in so many ways, and I'd have been responsible for it."
"Without your advice I'd have died ten times over, Sir Auru. I owe you."
Auru chuckled and shook his head. "You seemed to be holding your own quite well. Tell me, if you've never even heard of ReDeads, how did you manage to kill one?"
Link swallowed hard, the sound of his working throat like a whiplash in the barren chamber. "I don't really know myself, Sir. I guess I got lucky."
The look of a lie was unmistakable in Link's eyes, but Auru gave him a pass; plenty of time to question him once they were finally out of this place.
He straightened, reaching down to help Link to his feet, and crept into the large circular room, his torch held high. Like the rest of the prison, this chamber was nothing but bare columns and darkened sandstone walls, the only loose objects being more standing braziers and wallmounted torches. Link went around to light them with Auru's torch while the Resistance leader bent over to inspect the floor. It was covered in grime. As he straightened, enough light filled the room to uncover the centre. What he saw there, embedded into the ground, brought chills to his skin.
We're not out of the woods yet.
It was a massive, black broadsword, stuck point first into the cobblestone and leaning slightly to the side. Attached to its grip were strings of frayed hemp rope, their ends nailed into the ground. Thin slats of blackened wood were attached to the strings like socks on a clothesline, and each bore curved ciphers that Auru recognized as Gerudo script.
"What is this place?" Link asked. He approached the sword and stopped ten feet from the first rope, inspecting it with a concerned frown.
Auru glanced at the floor and the rusty dirt coating it. His boots were already sticky with residue. "Judging by the placement of this chamber, and that block over there, I'd guess this was the prisoners' last destination. At least, while they were alive."
Link swallowed, looked at the flakes of long dried blood rimming his boots, and turned a shade whiter. Auru walked over to him.
"This is very old Gerudo sealing magic," he murmured, glancing around the room and spotting yet another door a distance away, blessedly unlocked. "See these inscriptions? I've seen this type of seal before, mainly in monster-infested regions. Twenty-six prayers, one for each known desert deity, are attached to the object in question via these strings. Most of these deities date from before–"
"Twenty-five."
"What?"
Link pointed at the sword. "There are only twenty-five seals. One of them is broken."
Auru felt himself grow nervous. "Did you touch any of them?"
"I didn't, but that fellow there might have." Link pointed to the ground where the corpse of a rat lay crumpled in a morbid twist. Auru glanced at it, then back at the bound weapon, feeling strangely nauseous. He was not a particularly superstitious man, but the oddities he had witnessed over the past few months – not to mention in this very prison – had left their mark.
"Perhaps it is best if we left," he whispered, pushing Link towards the door. "If this is the execution chamber, daylight shouldn't be far away. They had to get the bodies out somehow."
Link, however, was frozen in place, wide eyes staring at the sword embedded in the ground. Upon its black blade, red markings had appeared, glowing like embers.
"Link?"
Suddenly, the sealing ropes burst into flames, and they flinched back in fright. A ghoulish howl echoed across the stone walls, and Link cried out, not looking at the blade but at the empty space next to it. Auru found himself looking at the prayer slate of the broken seal and wondered if perhaps saying the deity's name invoked there might ward off the atrocity that was surfacing from the chamber's floor. Then the sword wrenched itself from the tiles, floated into the air, and swung at them with the speed of a guillotine. It hit the ground between them and made chunks of stone fly up.
"It's another spirit, Sir!" Link screamed.
"Run for the door! Quickly!"
Auru could hear the air behind him whistle in the wake of the blade's second strike. He angled his head to keep it in his field of vision all while he made sure Link was running straight for the door, but the blade came at them from the side like a stick attached to a rope, swung with full force. And it was heading straight for Link.
Auru didn't think; his body simply reacted. With his right hand he drew his rusty scimitar, with his left he grabbed Link's arm and shoved him forward, out of the blade's passage. He steeled himself for the impact, the scimitar pointed forward, and even had time to congratulate himself on the precision of his defence; if he kept the weapon steady like this, the black sword would graze the scimitar's edge and hit the solid cross guard, and if Auru's wrist could withstand the force of the blow, he could even deflect it for a quick duck and spin out of harm's way.
Instead, the blade went right through the hilt as if it wasn't there at all, and Auru's leather bracer bore the brunt of the strike before his arm was pressed against his body. The impact catapulted him across the room, past a flickering brazier, until a stone column stopped him in his tracks. Stars exploded before his eyes as his head snapped backwards against the stone.
"Sir Auru!" came Link's call from far away, muffled in Auru's ringing ears.
He toppled to his side, gasping, staring at the young Hylian running towards him, the shadow of the floating sword in pursuit. He tried calling out to Link, command him to duck, but his lips only uttered unintelligible mutters. He watched, helpless, how Link spun around and braced himself, hands outstretched before him, the black blade hurtling towards his neck ready to decapitate him.
"Midna, the sword!" he thought he heard Link scream.
What happened next made Auru think of a mural he had studied in his college years; inconspicuous, tucked away in a corner of the Temple of Time, yet important enough to earn its own little shrine: the painting of a purple-hilted sword resting in a pedestal of marble and surrounded by ivy and flowers. The artist had taken a little creative licence and added to the silver blade a soft blue shimmer. Auru had always considered that glow to be nothing but an embellishment, an illusive element to show the sword's holiness.
And yet, that very hue filled the execution chamber now, emanating from the same, silver blade as it stopped the broadsword dead in its tracks and sliced through the air behind it. A sickening shriek erupted and the creature emerged, spectral robes billowing around a bony human figure with a fanged ram's skull, horns twisted downward like bone fingers. Slitted eyes shone like pools of dripping red. It towered over Link's small stature, more than twice as large. Auru wheezed and whimpered with horror.
But Link stood before it, unfaltering, the shining purple-hilted sword held ready in his left hand, his Hylian shield in the other, and did not flinch even as the monster roared out in defiance. Its voice was that of a hurricane, a tone so loud it shook the chamber walls. But when it dared an approach, Link sliced at the demon once, twice, green cap flying with the ferocity of his strikes. The demon shrieked and howled.
Auru felt his face stretch into a wide grin, so out of place in his current state that it shamed him. But he couldn't help it. Muted by the demon's deafening shrieks he laughed and cheered like a child, crumpled on his side, his arm undoubtedly broken, bearing witness to the hero chosen by the goddesses as his sword's light drove the demon back. Already, a black rim was forming around his vision, but before Auru passed out, he soaked up the Master Sword's brilliant light, filled his eyes with it, clung to what it signified.
A single thought flashed through his mind. Our saviour has returned.
Auru closed his eyes.
000