Chapter 2

Five months after the Upheaval

The clink of a pick axe echoed in the Depths. Rat lifted the axe over his shoulder and swung down. Blue sparks flew from the ore in the bedrock. A chunk of zonite broke free and tumbled into the growing pile around his dusty boots. He lifted the axe and swung it down. Lifted, swung it down. Clink, clink.

His shoulders no longer ached. His back had grown strong. A cough rumbled deep in his chest and rattled against his white Yiga mask. He no longer felt the mask. It seemed like a layer of own skin.

A curious deep firefly hovered by his feet, drawn to the red glow of Rat's lantern. There was a time, three years ago—or was it four—that he would have dropped the pick axe and sprinted after the firefly. But it didn't matter how many fireflies he stuffed into a jar. They couldn't compare to the light of the sun—if the sun still existed. He struggled to remember its warmth, the way it used to sink into his skin.

"You." He swung again, punctuating each word with a blow of his axe. "Took. It. From. Me." On the last word, his axe lodged deep in the rock. He pried with the handle, loosening the pick. The effort shortened his breath. With one last heave, he jerked the tool free and stumbled back. He leaned over his knees, panting. Another cough shook his lungs, bringing up mucus. He lifted the bottom of his mask and spat. "Link."

Rat dropped the axe, picked up his shovel, and began shoveling ore into two waiting buckets.

Link. Poison stirred in his belly. If he didn't stop it, the swordsman's face would crawl like a fungus into his dreams. And he needed sleep. To forget. It was the only part of his routine where he felt something close to peace.

Buckets full, he loaded them and his tools on a hovercraft. Climbing onto the control module, he started up the fan. The headlight flickered to life, illuminating the gray earth and ghostly fungal trees. Rat pushed the control stick, and the craft slid forward, following a track worn smooth in the earth from the deposits to the Southwestern Mine.

The ancient structure glowed in the darkness, lit by conical Zonai lamps and flickering torches. He drove the craft around the edge of the refinery, taking his ore to the back of the fortress, behind the Yiga headquarters. The clan's headquarters towered around a cluster of trees. Built in the style of their hideout on the surface, the curved roofs, banners, and lanterns felt grounding: a memory of the surface world, echoed below. But it wasn't home.

Behind the structure, Master Kohga stood leaning on a stack of boxes, sharpening his nails to a point with a dagger. "Little Rat. Back so soon? The bell hasn't rung yet."

Rat's heart flipped, but he eased the hovercraft to a stop. The fan spun, winding down. He stepped off the cart. "The vein's dry. The mine is dead."

Master Kohga pushed himself off the boxes and peered into Rat's buckets. "I've been too soft on you. Given you too much freedom, unsupervised. If you met your quotas, I could trust you to visit the surface."

"I can't meet my quotas when there's no ore."

The master's face snapped up.

Rat tensed, holding his breath.

"This makes me sad, Little Rat." Kohga sighed. "We've been so kind to you. I was dying, bleeding from the wound in my chest, but I caught you."

"I never asked you to."

Kohga gasped.

Rat hefted a bucket and dumped the ore into a waiting crate. His ears twitched, flattened by his hood, and his body clenched to run. He was utterly mad, poking the beast like this. But a grin snuck up the side of his mouth. He lifted his second bucket.

Kohga struck his palm with a leather belt, and Rat flinched at the snap. "The swordsman has returned," the master said. "Link is at war. I've lured him here; his noble soul can't help but come. I want you on my side in this battle, but I can't let you fight without respect."

Rat stared at the belt. His mouth dried. His body clenched, hands locking around the bucket handle. He spoke, just above a whisper. "I don't owe you anything."

"But you do." Master Kohga leaned over him. "The Clan is no place for a child, but I folded you into our family for the sake of your mother."

"Don't talk about my mother!" Rat swung the heavy bucket.

The master jumped back. Rat didn't aim to hit him—he wouldn't dare—but while Kohga was regaining his balance, Rat dropped the bucket and sprinted into the dark.

Plants brushed his legs. He ran by memory, twenty-seven paces to a tree, then fourteen to a clump of boulders. Panting, he scrambled up the rough face and ducked into a crevice. He clapped his hand over his mouth to quiet his breath. His shoulders burned in anticipation, feeling the blows about to come. He clenched his teeth and glared into the dark. Come on, then. But the master didn't chase him.

A cough erupted from his lips. He doubled over in the crevice, hacking. One, two. One, two. He counted his breaths until the coughing slowed. Shaking, he lifted his face. Copper blood lingered on his tongue. If Master doesn't get me, the gloom will.

But not today.

Rat pulled himself out of the crevice. Unhooking a tiny lantern from his belt, he struck a match and lit the wick.

What would he do until the dinner bell? He could fetch his wooden training sword stashed under his cot, but to reach his cot, he'd have to slip past Kohga's quarters. It wasn't impossible. Give Kohga a few distractions, a little dose from a flask slipped into his banana juice, and the bucket never happened. But Rat's legs were still shaking—he didn't feel like testing his luck again today.

Far off in the darkness, a creature howled. Rat stood still, listening. The sound was high-pitched, like a squeal. He jogged deeper into the dark. The lantern cast a glow around his feet. The light was like a shield: it almost blinded him. Sometimes he preferred feeling his way into the dark, with only his ears and nose to guide him.

Living in the light had convinced him to rely on his eyes, but in the dark, an entire universe of sensory data awakened. He listened to the soft pad of his boots on spongy fungus, then a light scrape as he crossed into a familiar boulder field beyond the rim of the mine. A musty smell met his nose, like acrid mold: gloom. Icy coldness spread under his toe. Rat hissed and yanked his foot back, but the sensation remained in the sole of his foot and the ache spread up his bones, into his ankle. The puddles had been growing over the past few months, since the Upheaval, and were now climbing up his boulders. He might have to find a new hiding spot.

He limped around the gloom, circling to the back of the boulders. They leaned together, creating a tent with an irregular opening just wide enough for a boy. Pushing his lantern ahead, he ducked inside.

Hissing greeted him. A makeshift cage took up most of the cramped cave. A little frox backed up against the far wall of the cage and bared its stumpy teeth and growled.

Rat squatted down, using his body to block the lantern light, in case Kohga changed his mind. He dug into his hip pouch, pulled out a chunk of puffshroom, and offered it at the bars. He clicked his tongue. The frox growled. Its single eye glistened with mucus.

"No puffshrooms?" Rat tossed the chunk into the cage.

The frox lunged at the bars. The cage shook.

Rat sighed. "Fireflies? Is that what you eat?" The frox gnawed at the iron. Saliva dribbled down the bars. Rat pulled back, nose wrinkling, but he scooted closer and drew another chunk of puffshroom from his pouch. "You need to grow. I can't beat Link on my own."

The frox released the bars. Its eye blinked, like it might be listening.

A glimmer of light stirred in his chest. "You want to know what I'll do when Link is dead?" He tilted his head, gazing up. "I'll light a balloon and float up to the surface. Then I'll keep going, up and up, until I'm in the stars. I'll never come down." He extended the puffshroom again. "Will you help me? Master won't let me go until Link is dead. They would have let me up years ago, but we've been here all this time, preparing to defeat him."

The frox licked its fleshy lips. It sniffed the puffshroom, then sneezed and backed away.

Rat jumped to his feet. "How about a firefly? Wait here." He picked up his lantern. As he turned to go, the frox hurled itself at the bars again. Rat flinched. The light soured inside him.

An alarm shattered the silence of the Depths. Rat banged his head against the low ceiling. Snatching his lantern, he ducked outside. Lights flashed over the mine. Explosions shook the earth, rattling up his legs into his soul.

Link was here.

Rat sprinted for the base. His feet pounded the earth, legs heavy. His breath rattled in his lungs. As he crested the hill above the mine, light stung his eyes. He slid to a stop and squinted down at the battle.

Lightseeds scattered the circular arena. Yiga on wings swooped through the air. Arrows flew. A Hylian in a mask, black tunic, and tan pants darted around the arena, sword sheathed on his back, arrow fitted to his bowstring. More light flooded the mine than Rat had seen in four years, and though pain pierced his brain, he welcomed it. His path into the mine was illuminated: each patch of gloom to avoid, the quickest groove to follow. Running was so easy. The swordsman had brought the light, and he would die by it.

I'm not the same. Strength surged into Rat's legs and he slid down the hill. In the distance, a soldier shrieked with pain and Rat heard a familiar explosion of powder as the soldier retreated. One down.

He ran to the back of the hideout and began to climb. His calloused fingers dug into the tough flesh of the tree, following hand and footholds he'd hacked out. He reached the underside of the tree's first pad, felt around for the trapdoor he'd carved, and pushed. The pad was softer than the flesh of the tree, the wound still fresh. It opened easily. Rat gripped the opening and hauled himself up. Without stopping for a breath, he scrambled up the next layer of the trunk, through the next pad, until he pulled himself, panting, to the summit of the tree.

The battle spread below him. The gliders were down, soldiers moaning on the ground. Master Kohga himself circled the arena, flying his metal bird with four fans. Rockets burst from the nose of the bird and streaked toward the swordsman. The swordsman disappeared in a brilliant orange fireball. Kohga laughed. Goosebumps rippled over Rat's skin.

Live, he prayed. Survive Master, so I can kill you.

He crawled to a bundle on the summit of the tree and flung back the canvas. His bulky cannon gleamed in the underground light. Rat had reinforced the barrel with scraps of metal and fastened Zonai charges to the base. Arcs of blue energy snapped around the charges. In the presence of so much energy, Rat's hair stood up from the tuft above his mask. He would have liked to have more time to test it.

The barrage of cannon fire died down. Kohga's first cannon had depleted its energy, and he was activating his backup cannon. The firestorm dissipated from the arena and a figure shot into the sky. Link flew upward through the smoke, a jet of fire streaming from the shield on his arm. As the swordsman's rocket expired, he swung his shield to his back and drew his bow. Time seemed to stop. An arrow shot like a blink from the swordsman's bow and struck Kogha in the face. The force flipped him off the glider. Rat felt nothing as Kohga, once again, collided with the earth. And once again, the swordsman fell from the sky, sword aimed down.

Rat always knew it would come to this. He watched from the top of his tree as Kohga received the blows. And he watched as his master shouted for a rematch, mounted his glider, and flew off into the Depths.

The mine quieted. Ears ringing, Rat pressed himself low against the crown of the tree. The swordsman wore a pointed mask. Three glowing crystals swung with his head as he glanced around the empty arena, then he walked underneath the refinery and out of Rat's sight.

Patience.

The swordsman was thorough. Rat knew this, not from Kohga, but from Karta. He had heard, in precise detail, how Link had defeated Calamity Ganon. One man against an ageless evil. What kind of person could defeat a calamity? Someone smart, Rat knew. Someone who studied his enemy. Who learned from every fight.

But even heroes were mortal.

Under the overhang, the swordsman finished speaking with the construct. His boots tapped on the stone, drawing closer to the Yiga quarters. Rat's heart pounded. He drew the cannon close. Lying on his stomach, he lined up the muzzle and aimed for the underside of the refinery.

Rat had listened. The swordsman didn't win every battle. Ganon defeated him one hundred years ago. Link shouldn't be alive.

The swordsman stepped out from under the roof. Fixed on the unlocked door to the Yiga hideout, he walked straight and steady toward his prize, right into Rat's sights.

You.

Energy whined and gathered in the barrel. The swordsman's face flew up to the sound, and the cannon released its blast.

The barrel slammed into Rat's chin. Stars exploded in his head; he bit his tongue. His mask cracked. Spitting blood, he swatted away the smoke and peered down.

Soot charred the ground black and embers smoldered in the impact zone. The swordsman lay on his back, clothes smoking.

Rat laughed. He jumped up. "That's right! Done in by a kid!" He ripped off his mask.

The swordsman rolled onto his side. He shook his head as though clearing stars.

Reaching under his uniform, Rat withdrew a withered apple core on a chain. The core had shrunk to a stick, like a bony finger. Rat snapped the chain from his neck. "Remember this?" He flung the apple core to the ground in front of the swordsman. Link stared at it.

"They threw me down here because of you." Rat hefted the cannon to his shoulder. The weapon whined as it charged. Arcs of light stung Rat's arms. They felt different from before. Wild. "Ganon is awake. I don't care how strong you are. We're all going to die. At least I'm taking you with me."

The swordsman flew to his feet. "Stop!" Blue-green light shot from his right arm.

Rat fired.

The cannon exploded. His ears shattered; fire engulfed him. Green magic snatched Rat and yanked him sideways, and the world went black.