Chapter 18

Ravi shook his head, clearing the tingle of magic from his cheeks. He landed inside the base of a giant wooden tower. As his vision cleared, he found the tower stood at the edge of a courtyard bustling with activity.

"This is Lookout Landing." Link limped out of the tower and down the wooden stairs. Still cradling his left arm to his chest, he made for a stone dais in the center of the outpost.

As Ravi followed him, noise assaulted his ears: the shouts of a squad of Zora soldiers, training with spears in a shallow pool. The sharp ring of a blacksmith's hammer in the forge beside a stable. A horse whinnied. A sentry on the wall shouted across the outpost to her fellow sentry on the other side. Several booths stood by the walls, the merchants chatting with each other.

Ravi curled into himself, clutching his loose weapons. After a week in the wild, and in the airy quiet of Rito village, the rush of voices and close bodies made him want to cover his ears. He spun in a circle, and a firm hand caught his arm, stopping him before he ran into the legs of a passing horse.

"Slow down, Son." The guard wore a breastplate and a tabard similar to Link's.

Ravi tensed to fight, but the guard released him and hurried after Link.

"Sir Link. Were you in a battle?"

"Where's Kosi?" Link asked.

"Where he always is."

Link climbed up on the dais. He swung around the ladder and slid down, feet braced, one handed. Ravi scrambled down after him, landing in a round underground chamber, filled with more lights, more people. Warriors. The Gerudo woman studying a map at a table had abs like a washboard. Ravi's hand itched for his sword. His Yiga instincts shouted at him to run or hide: he'd landed in the enemy's nest. But without his mask, in travel-worn Hylian clothes, he was just a boy. No one gave him a second glance.

Ravi edged closer to Link. "I have to tell you," he murmured, "about Karta."

"Not here." Link headed for an armor smith, sitting on a mat, polishing a breastplate.

As Link approached, the man looked up. His brown mustache twitched and his eyes swept over the mangled armor. His face fell. "Ah. What was it this time?"

With one hand, Link fumbled with the helmet buckle under his chin. Ravi dropped his weapons and reached up to help him, and the swordsman let him lift off his helmet and cap. Link's sweaty bangs stuck to his forehead, and he seemed paler in the low light. Link turned and presented his left shoulder to Kosi.

"It's stuck."

Kosi set aside his work and stood. He frowned as he surveyed Link's bent steel, then he went to his workbench and returned with a pair of sturdy pliers.

Link cringed. "Be careful. My shoulder's dislocated."

"What?" Ravi cried, and several heads turned in his direction. He stared at Link's shoulder—why hadn't he seen it before? The armor was pushed forward, like his joint had been shoved from the back and frozen that way.

"Will you go to the merchant and buy some salve?" Link touched his pouch and withdrew two red rupees. "She knows which one."

Ravi snatched the rupees and hurried up the ladder. Kohga, Karta, Link… his mind raced. He wanted to disappear somewhere dark and quiet and sit, huddled in a blanket, for a very long time.

When he returned with the pot of salve, the underground chamber was mostly empty. The Hylians who remained didn't speak. A woman with a broom swept the same spot over and over, staring at the stone floor.

Link sat on a bench, weapons tucked away and his armor removed. He flexed his left hand. He straightened his elbow, and with his right hand, gently felt his left shoulder. The shape of the joint matched his right shoulder now, and his face was pale, but relieved. "Thank you," he said to Kosi.

The man grunted. "Any time." He lifted the mangled pauldron from the pile of sooty armor on the floor. "This will take a while to fix. No more lynels. At least for two weeks."

"It was a machine."

"A what?" Kosi leaned in.

"Shaped like a man. Like you said." Link met Ravi's eyes. "And fueled by zonite energy. Kohga rode it. He commanded it to move, like a Divine Beast. I tried to pull him from the pilot's chair. I wanted to ride it myself. But he threw me into the wire wall."

"Don't trust your armor," Kosi said. "That's what I tell the recruits. They think they put on a breastplate, and they turn invincible."

Link offered the man two silver rupees.

Kosi pushed his hand back. "Stop trying to pay me."

"You're doing a service."

"So are you. We're all saving Zelda, in our own way." He grabbed Link's pauldron and returned to his mat.

Link hesitated, then tucked the rupees away. He freed his Purah Pad and opened his map. "Grab my arm," he said to Ravi.

The boy glanced around the underground chamber one last time, then took Link's wrist. The blue light swept him up through the ceiling, and as his feet reformed, he dropped with Link onto the bright green grass. Afternoon sunlight warmed the back of his neck and blue patterns swirled around his feet.

Link freed his arm from Ravi's fingers and stepped out of the travel circle. They had landed on a shelf jutting out from the edge of a cliff. A breeze swept across the cliff, tossing a shower of leaves from a tree. The leaves landed in the steaming waters of a hot spring. Link sat beside some white, fan-shaped flowers on the bank of the spring and began working his boot off with one hand.

Cautiously, with magic still fizzing in his ears, Ravi climbed a boulder beside the tree and stood on its summit. A wide basin spread below him, ringed by mountains. In the center of the basin, a grassy plain rolled over low hills, dotted with ruins and trees. A river wound along the edge of the plain, flowing toward two sharp mountain peaks. The peaks shot into the air, split in half as though cut with a knife, and the river flowed between their shadows.

"Where are we?" he called down to Link.

"Necluda." Link kicked off his boot and started on the second one.

Ravi glanced around the empty mountainside. "Are we safe?"

"Right now, there are very few places in Hyrule that are 'safe,'" Link said. "This one is safer than most. Zelda found it for me, a couple years ago. I come here to rest, and to be alone." With one hand, he pried at his belt buckle.

Ravi scrambled down the boulder and kneeled on the stone beside him. Link winced as he lifted his shirt, and Ravi helped it over his head and off his stiff shoulder.

So many scars.

Dozens of white lines laced the swordsman's skin. There wasn't room on one man for all his wounds. They crossed like a web, thin slashes and jagged gouges. Claw marks, mottled burns. Dark, square tattoos decorated his right shoulder and side. How was he still alive?

The laceration behind his knee still bled. In his shorts, Link scooted into the warm water, edging down the stone shelf until the water reached his chin. He sighed. After a moment, he opened his eyes. "You can come in."

Ravi eyed the pink cloud drifting from Link's leg. He sat a few feet away on some higher rocks and pulled off his boots. Rolling up his pants, he slipped his feet into the water. The warmth soaked into his ankles, softening his blisters and the soreness of travel.

Link dunked underwater, then came up, wiping soot from his face. "Tell me about Kohga."

Ravi shuddered. "Karta killed him. I saw it. I was hiding. They didn't know." He clutched his arms. "Karta cut his throat. He's going to take over the Yiga. He said he wants to make them worse. Even more evil than they already are."

The swordsman closed his eyes. He sighed, and after a moment, lifted his face. "Then I will stop him. Another day." He sank underwater again.

Bubbles drifted lazily to the surface of the spring. A sizzlefin trout jumped in the pool, and Ravi lowered his legs deeper into the water, but only to his calves. The thought of slipping further into the spring, of swimming with Link, made him suddenly shy.

Link broke the surface and pulled his hair out of his eyes. "Where did they take Kohga's body?"

"Back to the hideout." Ravi swung his feet slowly in the water. "Karta said to assemble the Yiga for the burial. It'll take a while for everyone to get there. Once they're gathered, he'll probably make a speech. Get the Yiga to follow him." He stopped swinging his feet and met Link's eyes. "They think you killed Kohga. Karta disguised himself as you when the soldiers arrived."

"He mimicked me?"

Ravi nodded. He's done it before, he almost said, but bit his cheek.

"Can he mimic Zelda?"

"Probably."

The swordsman drifted deeper into the pool, standing lightly on the bottom. "Someone is going around impersonating Zelda. They're sowing confusion. When I try to convince the victims otherwise, some believe me, some don't. I would like proof." Link tilted his head with a light smile. "Can you mimic me?"

Ravi felt around himself, testing the strings of light, but as he pressed against them, weariness sank him down. He shook his head. "I hid too long today."

The swordsman rotated his left shoulder, slowly, testing the range of motion.

"Do you need the ointment?" Ravi said.

Link smiled. "No. That was your distraction while Kosi set my shoulder."

Ravi glanced to the side. "Do you need anything else, then? Something to eat? I have some crispy bread from Saki. She calls them 'crackers.'"

"Sure."

Swinging around his backpack, Ravi dug out a handkerchief and unfolded it, laying out a dozen broken crackers on the rock.

Link took a cracker and bit the edge. "Thank you." He grinned. "Serving me snacks in the hot spring… I feel like royalty."

"You are, aren't you?"

Link shook his head. "Just a soldier."

"Why did they choose you?"

He swallowed the cracker. "The sword chose me: the greenest recruit in Hawk Company. The youngest, the shortest. When I brought the Master Sword before the king, the sanctum buzzed with whispers."

He shrugged his good shoulder. "I didn't care about the whispers—people always doubted me. But I worried about Ganon. We didn't know what we were facing. How could we form a strategy when we didn't know his attacks or weaknesses? How would we know my sword would even be effective? We were about to face him with the same weapons that had defeated him before. He might have been sentient during his imprisonment. An intelligent warrior would have devised a strategy to negate those weapons and counter his defeat. I wanted to say something. But I didn't." His face tightened. "And no one asked."

Link waded out of the spring. He examined the healing skin behind his knee, then rolled his left shoulder and stretched his arm across his chest, then above his head. He sprang to his feet. "Like new. Almost."

He pulled a pair of pants from his pouch, sniffed them, grimaced, and stuck them back. "I need a laundry day." He tried a pair of brown shorts, and slipped them on. "Did Karta say how long the funeral would be?"

Ravi pulled his feet from the water and began drying them with his socks. "It will take some time to send out the courier keese and for everyone to arrive at the hideout. Maybe a couple of weeks?"

Link fastened his belt over his green tunic. He stepped into a fresh pair of boots, then hooked his quiver to his belt and settled a bow behind his back. "Are you sure Karta didn't see you?"

Halfway through pulling on his boot, Ravi froze.

The swordsman crouched down to his level.

Ravi yanked his boot on, jamming his toe. "He might have smelled me. I don't know."

Link frowned. He thought for a moment. "You're old enough. I'm going to be straight with you. You're a deserter. You've allied yourself with the Yiga's greatest enemy. And now, you're the only witness of a coup. You've become their number two target. They won't have mercy because you're a child."

Ravi felt light-headed.

Link stood, extended his hand, and pulled Ravi to his feet. "Break time is over. We have a very short opportunity while the Yiga congregate in the hideout. I need to transfer you to my safe house."

"Can we travel there?" Ravi glanced at the Purah Pad.

"We could." Link's eyes twinkled. "But you won't learn anything. There's a lot I can teach you on the way. And we still need to find your mother."

Ravi drew in a breath. He snatched up his weapons and buckled on his belt.

The swordsman unhooked his pad. The screen lit up, and he focused the map on Tabantha. "Plus, I need more shrines. And I've been wanting to transfer Aurora to greener pastures. The stable association can take her for me, but she's sensitive. I want to do it myself. How are your quads? Have you recovered from the ride?"

Ravi performed a squat.

The swordsman grinned. "Good. I'm going to stretch them again." Pad glowing, he extended his arm.

Ravi filled his lungs, bracing himself. He tightened his backpack, slipped his bow over his shoulder, and adjusted the sword at his waist. Then he grabbed the swordsman's wrist.