A Link to the Past
Chapter Six: Into the Sewers
Link couldn't believe that the guard he tried to hard to avoid earlier had remained inside that store room this whole time instead of going somewhere else after realizing that the young man was no longer there, but there he was. The armored man's footsteps clanked against the floor as he approached, his sword drawn and ordering Link to surrender. There was no shock in the guard's voice, not even when it came to seeing the Princess, although this did cause the armored man to add that it was forbidden for Zelda to leave the dungeon. In response to this, the Princess tried to reason with the approaching guard, ordering him to stand down, but her words were ignored.
"Agahnim has ordered you to be confined." The armored man replied, still coming closer. "The intruder will be executed, and then you will be returned to the dungeon."
With the end of these words, the guard made a wild overhand swing with his blade, and even though Link managed to raise the silver sword in time to block the attack, there was still enough force behind the blow to make the young man stagger back a couple steps. Completely ignoring the startled Princess, the armored man kept attacking from different directions, and it was a good thing that his uncle had given him that small shield, or else Link's arm might have been taken off by that last one. Now coming back with an attack of his own, the young man aimed his sideways slash at his enemy's throat, but the guard raised his own shield to deflect it, before forcing Link to make an awkward jump backwards to avoid a cut that was aimed at his legs.
Instead of using his sword again, the armored man now rushed forward with his shield still raised, and then he swung the barrier as if it were a club. Link tried to stay on his feet, but the force of the shield blow against his own, on top of the fact that he was already off balance, made it impossible for him to stay on his feet. Colliding with some shelves that were far more brittle than they should have been, the young man felt them collapse, pots and jars shattering around him as he sunk to the floor, and now the guard was right on top of him… sword raised high for the kill…
Crash! Suddenly stopping in mid swing, the armored man dropped his sword so that it stabbed into the floor only inches from Link's leg, stumbling forward as if something had pushed him from behind. He managed to catch himself on the wall with one arm, still standing over the young man as he turned around, the guard's heavily dented helmet falling off just before brought another heavy pot down on his now unprotected head. This time the guard collapsed just like the shelves had done, and Link had to roll out of the way to avoid being landed on, but now the threat was over… at least, this one. Zelda looked as shocked as the young man did, the Princess suddenly hissing in pain when she realized that the broken pot cut her hand, and then they just stayed there for a few moments.
"Princess?" The young man asked after getting up. "Princess Zelda, are you all right?"
"What? Yes, uh… I mean…". She stuttered as if struggling to find something to say. "I just… I've never… come on, we need to get to the throne room before Agahnim realizes I've escaped."
Link wasn't sure if the fallen guard was alive or dead, not that it really mattered at this point as long as he didn't raise the alarm, and then as if nothing happened he and the Princess were back out in the hallway, heading up the stairs after seeing that the sentries had gone. The muffled sound of rain was starting to be heard again as they reached the first floor of the castle, and now the young man was wishing that he had been able to keep the stolen armor for a while longer, even though for some reason there seemed to be far less guards in the corridors than there were when he came in. Was everyone relaxing now that the Lord Sheriff had been captured? If so, then Zelda's escape must've still gone unnoticed.
"Agahnim always takes several guards with him each time he brings one of the captured girls up to the castle's tower." The Princess explained quietly. "I don't know if he needs the protection, or if he just wants to make sure that whatever he's doing to them doesn't get interrupted, but this might be our only chance."
"Princess, even if we get outside the castle walls, we need someplace safe to hide you." Link replied just as quietly, looking around the corner for guards. "I don't know many people who would stay quiet about having you in their homes, and if the guards think my uncle's a criminal, then surely our house is going to be searched."
Both of them had to be quiet, hiding in the shadow behind a stone pillar where the dim torchlight couldn't reach until the two approaching guards walked by, thankfully without even stopping to look around or anything as if they were suspicious. Just one more corner after a long stretch of hallway and they would be at the entrance to the throne room, not a long distance to move, but the stress of this whole undertaking was making it seem like each corridor was a mile long. The storm outside was getting stronger as well, each flash of lightning that lit up the inside of the castle was nerve-wracking even though they only lasted a second because, well… a second was all that one of these armored men needed to spot an intruder or an escaping Princess.
Once they finally reached the throne room, which was easily the largest room in the castle, Link's first instinct was to shut and bar the large doors, but then again that would only draw attention since the doors were only shut during important official meetings with the King. Hopefully, Zelda would be able to find this hidden exit of hers before anyone decided to patrol this part of the castle, and one nice thing was there was plenty of shadows along the walls, and… and why was the Princess heading right for the King's throne, also known as the most visible place in the center of the room?
"There's a hidden catch somewhere under the throne itself." Zelda explained, motioning for him to come help when she began searching on her hands and knees. "It's supposed to open a tunnel that leads down into the sewers underneath the castle, but I've never actually seen my father open it before."
Well, that was discouraging, the young man thought, getting on his hands and knees around the other side of the oversized, and very comfortable looking throne where the King always sat. How would that be, managing to sneak into and out of the dungeon without the alarm being raised, freeing the most important prisoner no less, just to find out that her escape tunnel didn't really exist in the first place. Maybe they could still use one of the other hidden exits, Link thought as he felt around the underside of the throne and its legs, or maybe it was still possible to somehow use that carriage as a way to sneak her…
A crackle of thunder drowned out any noise that would have accompanied the feeling of something give way underneath his fingers, and then the young man felt the entire throne, as well as the floor immediately below it move a little. Zelda started to laugh with happiness, shushing herself before making too much noise, and then after looking toward the entrance to make sure none of the guards were coming in, the two of them worked together to reveal a hidden stairway which went down just like the Princess had described. There didn't seem to be any light down there, though, and Link didn't fancy the idea of going down into the sewers blind, so he got up and crept over to the wall, reaching up and taking down the nearest of the mounted torches.
Now that a light was moving, it was far more likely that anyone passing by would spot them, so the young man led the way, taking enough steps down into the tunnel so that the throne could be slid back into place. All right, it was now highly unlikely for anyone to spot them down there, but with as many cobwebs as were strung up along the path, along with the heavy scent of dust and dirt, it must've been a long time since anyone used that passage. The torch took care of the cobwebs, all of it so old and dry that the flames simply burned them away in a flash, and the sound of the storm outside was again too muffled to hear, only for the two of them to hear water once again by the time they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"I think we're safe for the moment, Princess." He said quietly, still worried that someone might somehow hear them. "But we still need to find a safe place for you to hide once we get out, and I don't know where the tunnel comes out, so is there anyone loyal close by?"
"You don't have to worry about that." She replied, gasping for a second when her shoe hit water. "My father said this passage leads to the temple at the foot of the mountains, and I'm sure the old Sage there will give us sanctuary. We just have to follow the path straight forward without getting turned around… and before your torch goes out."
Moving the torch around when the narrow stairway opened up into a larger chamber, the flickering light revealed the same kind of stone and brick construction as the castle's dungeon, as well as most of the visible floor being covered with water. It was shallow, coming up to the young man's ankles, or knees at its deepest, but also really cold and with a strong current thanks to the storm raging outside. Taking Zelda's hand, both to reassure her and keep them steady lest the strong current knock them down at its deepest, washing them down one of the drains to any of several places around Hyrule.
That was the other concern, if Link fell down and his torch hit the water for even a second, then it was going to be a lot harder, if not impossible, to find the way forward. Maybe they should've grabbed a second one from the wall of the throne room… too late now either way. At the end of each chamber there was a break from the water, the stone floor raising up in order to keep the drains from being overwhelmed and so that no one outlet would be flooded, and so far the only inhabitants of the sewers were the rats. Small squeaking creatures that had lived in darkness so long that they fled from the light, and good thing too since they seemed to bother Zelda to the point where she let out a scream that startled the young man when she almost stepped on one.
"I don't like rats." She explained, trying to regain her composure. "Horrible, disgusting little creatures."
"Well, there shouldn't be any rats at the temple." Link replied, leading her across the next flowing body of water. "Just try not to look at them, Princess… you almost made me drop my torch."