Chapter 19
Ravi didn't know this kind of pain was possible. Two days, he'd been traveling with Link, south on the road through the Tabantha Frontier. Skin peeled from his chapped, sunburnt lips. Blisters dotted his palms from training. One of his toenails was about to fall off. But he bound it up in the gray dawn, while Link was tying his sleeping roll beside their dead fire. Ravi folded his blanket, brushed grass from the wool, and tied it to his backpack with shaking hands, struggling to pull the cords tight. He said nothing. But he didn't know how much longer he could go on.
They had camped overnight at the foot of the Rayne Highlands. The walls of the mesa rose hundreds of feet overhead, casting the valley into early shadow, trapping the chill of the morning while the sky lightened.
Aurora and Sadee grazed, nibbling the short, dry grass. As he did every morning, Link found a flat rock or patch of dirt, rolled out a straw mat, and spent the first half hour of the day stretching. Ravi joined him, yawning into his stiff knees. As he stretched, the tight muscles in his back and hips burned, then relaxed as they warmed up. Link had shown him a few stretches to counter the effects of all day in the saddle. They might be working. Ravi couldn't tell.
Link pointed to a shrine a half mile in the distance, near the rim of the canyon that marked the border of Hyrule. He'd unlocked that shrine yesterday, drawn off the road by the chime from the Purah Pad. Ravi pulled on his boots and took off running. He'd discovered Link didn't talk much in the morning. He seemed to warm up as the day went on, like a lizard basking in the sun.
By the time Ravi came running back, breathless and sweating, Link was well into his exercises. He was training with the spear today, thrusting and sweeping, his movements fluid as water, like the Zora.
Ravi wrapped up his blisters, retrieved his bokoblin sword, and found his own flat patch of prickly grass. He worked through the exercises Link had shown him, building repetition and muscle memory in the bulky style of a double-edged sword. Yiga blades felt light and airless. The weight of the bokoblin sword swung further out from his arm, almost like he was handling a club. As he trained, the patch of ground he stood on became his world, a ten-foot circle of pride.
Mother would want to see this.
"That's enough." Link tucked his spear into his pouch and withdrew two jars of rice and fried eggs. Setting one down for Ravi, he dropped where he stood, crossed his legs, and ate while the sky lightened to pink.
Ravi inhaled his breakfast and washed his jar in a nearby pool of rainwater. Still hungry—he was always hungry—he whistled for Sadee. His whistle flattened at the end, but her ears picked up and she plodded toward him. He grabbed her halter, pulling her head up as she reached to nip the grass again.
"Cheer up," he told her. "We're finding my mom today. Or a clue, at least. That mesa was the last place they saw her."
Her ears flicked briefly, then she sighed. The work never ended. She held her breath, expanding her belly as Rat tightened the cinch. He rammed his elbow into her ribs. She coughed, and he yanked the cinch fully tight. Link was already in the saddle.
"I found a place to ascend." He clicked his tongue and Aurora broke into a perky trot, heading for the walls of the mesa.
There were no blocks or stumps in the wild to boost Ravi into the saddle. His hips ached as he stretched his leg up, but he wedged his toe in the stirrup and pulled himself onto Sadee's back. He didn't know how he was still moving, when all he wanted to do was curl up in bed and sleep the soreness away. A fresh wind blew down from the mesa and whispered through the dry grass, like his mother's voice. Ravi.
A shiver crawled up his spine. He kicked Sadee's sides and urged her after Link.
They followed the road as it curved east, and they didn't ride long. Link dismounted under a cluster of black, lichen-covered rock which had fallen from the sky. The columns sat embedded in the side of the cliff, a pile of rubble and dirt beneath them. The swordsman gazed up the long rock wall.
"I can't climb that." Ravi dismounted and held Sadee's reins. "I don't care if you want me to. My fingers are cramping. I'll fall."
"I don't expect you to." Link walked underneath the sky-rocks. He felt the smooth, dark ceiling with his right hand. "I'll go up first, then I'll send down a rock and raise you up the cliff side."
"Can't you build a hot-air balloon?"
Link shrugged. His arm glowed green, and he aimed his palm at the ceiling. "This way is cheaper."
He leaped into the ceiling and plunged through the rock. Sadee shied and tugged at the reins.
"I know," Ravi muttered. "I'm still not used to it, either."
He led the horses back to the road while Link scrambled up a cleft in the cliff face. The swordsman vanished up the cleft, and while he was gone, Ravi dug into his saddlebag and nibbled on a handful of raw mushrooms. They squeaked in his teeth and tasted like dirt, but his stomach shouted for more.
Sadee's ears flicked, and Ravi glanced up as a giant boulder fell from the rim of the mesa. The earth shook as it crashed. Hanging from his glider, Link floated down, landing lightly beside the boulder. His eyes were fresh, his cheeks flushed pink.
"Good news," he said. "I found the ruins. Bad news." He paused. "They're being guarded by a fire gleeok."
Ravi's eyes flared wide. "You can kill it, right?"
Link shook his head.
"Haven't you killed a gleeok before?"
"I killed an ice gleeok to save Aurora." Link shook his head. "Once was enough."
Ravi's stomach turned hollow. "But my mother."
"You're a Yiga, aren't you?" Link nudged Ravi's shoulder. "The gleeok isn't sitting on the ruins-it's below them. If we're quiet, we can look around. Climb on the rock."
Ravi tied his backpack to Sadee's saddle bag. Leaving her and Aurora to graze, he scrambled up on the boulder. Link climbed up after him. Crouching, he lifted his hand. The back of his palm glowed gold, then the world darkened to gray. The grass stilled, mid-sway. A bird froze in flight. But the boulder moved. It tilted, rocked, and lifted into the air. Ravi clung to the rock as it retraced its arc up the cliff and over the rim until it resettled on the summit in a crater of fresh earth. Link snapped his hand shut, and the sunlight returned. Breathless, Ravi slipped off the rock and backed away. Then he dropped to the earth in a low crouch.
The fire gleeok sat two hundred yards away. Its three heads rested on its forelegs, and its tail curled around its body, the tip wrapping over three pairs of closed eyes. Its horns glowed like coals, the light pulsing with the movement of the monster's ribcage as it breathed deep and even.
Link set his finger to his lips. Ravi nodded and slipped off his boots. Crouching low, they made their way east along the rim of the mesa, making for a collection of tilted stone columns. The land was open and bare, no trees, no bushes. No rocks for cover. Ravi moved soundlessly in his socks, and after a moment, Link copied him and removed his boots as well. Ravi allowed himself a light smirk. I'm much quieter.
As they climbed, the gleeok dropped out of sight, and the swordsman stood up from his crouch and replaced his boots. They hurried to the columns, coming to the remains of an ancient temple yard. Ravi sighed, rolled his stiff shoulders, and sat on a fallen column to pick burrs out of his socks.
Link set his hands on his hips and gazed around the remains of the temple. "Any idea what she was looking for up here?" he asked softly.
Ravi slid his feet into his boots and stood. "When she left the Yiga hideout, she said she was looking for my father. But he went south for his mission into the desert, not north. He vanished in a sand pit after killing a molduga. It was cornering four of our warriors." Ravi puffed up his chest. "My father was the best warrior in the clan. Until Karta came along."
"Better than Kohga?" Link asked.
"Kohga was a better leader. But my father knew how to handle a sword. He taught me. A little. My mother didn't like it."
Link walked around a few columns and felt the weathered stone. "Why would she come north, then?"
"No one knows."
"Did the scouts say where they found her pack?"
Ravi shook his head. He dropped onto his knees at the closest column and pushed the grass aside. It was only grass. Five years. He sat back on his heels, glanced around the vacant hillside, then down the road toward the sleeping gleeok.
"Do you think he's sitting on her treasure?" He pointed to the monster.
"You think she was looking for treasure?"
"Why else would she be out here?" Ravi ripped a handful of grass from the earth. He jumped to his feet and squeezed the hilt of his sword. "Why can't we kill it?"
"There's no reason to." Link kept his voice low. "The gleeok isn't threatening anyone. It doesn't have anything I need."
"But I want you to."
Link smiled. "You kill it. Go on."
Ravi scowled at the grass.
The swordsman held up three fingers. "Key rules of combat: don't engage in unnecessary battles. If you must fight, fight on your terms. You should be rested, equipped, and sound of mind. Choose favorable timing and conditions." He glanced up at the sun and sniffed the air. "It will rain at midday. Which might be useful, fighting against fire, but it will also make my footing slick and eliminate climbing. Also, there's the risk of lightning, which would negate almost all my weapons." He laid his hand on a column. "Even if I fought the gleeok now, the battle would be messy. It will burn up the landscape. It might destroy our evidence."
"What evidence? There's nothing here." Ravi kicked the column. I sold myself to the enemy for an empty mountain.
Link raised his right arm. It glowed green, and he swept his palm around the ruined pavilion. He turned almost a full circle before the glow vanished and he hurried for a distant set of columns. Ravi ran after him and collided with Link's back as the swordsman abruptly stopped. He yanked Ravi behind a column.
"Wait here," he whispered. He hooked a bow on his back. Crouching, he ran forward.
Ravi's stomach flipped. He's going to fight the gleeok! But when he peeked around the column, Link was creeping up behind a silver moblin. The monster was almost three times Link's height. Sitting against a column, it gnawed on a raw deer's leg. Its club rested on the ground beside it. Ravi's heart pounded.
Link snuck behind the column. He glanced at the moblin's club, then toward the gleeok slumbering below. A long dagger appeared in his hand. He exhaled silently, relaxing his shoulders. Then he spun around the column and plunged the knife into the moblin's neck.
The beast jerked. It dropped the meat and gripped its throat, making wet, gurgling sounds. Slowly, it fell onto its side. Its leg kicked, then the eyes rolled back, and it went still. Link stood over the body for a second, then freed his weapon and wiped it clean with a rag. As the moblin dissolved into smoke, Link tucked the dagger into his pouch, then turned to Ravi.
Link's eyes were sharp and feral. Like a wolf. Still focused on the kill, the perfection of it.
Ravi pulled back. The hair lifted on his arms. He froze like a deer under the swordsman's icy stare. There's nothing to stop him from killing me. He just decided not to.
Link blinked. His face softened, becoming human. He pocketed the moblin's curved horn, then headed across the grass.
Edging around the column, Ravi hurried past the pile of moblin bones. One blow. Excitement tingled in his belly. That's going to be me.
The swordsman as the man stopped in an alcove, formed by what used to be the corner of the square. His arm glowed green and a sharp corner illuminated. Link gripped, pulled up. A metal chest erupted from the earth. It tumbled down with a damp crash.
The chest was small, no longer than a book, and caked with mud. Red paint still clung to the metal. Ravi dropped to his knees. He set the chest on its legs and scraped the mud away with his fingernails. The emblem of a starfish appeared, set within a blazing sun.
Ravi fell onto his seat, numb. Then he hugged it to his chest.
"Is it hers?" Link asked.
The boy nodded. His throat tightened. Tears welled in his eyes. He set the chest down and examined the padlock. "Do you have a needle? Or a pin?"
Link drew a lock pick kit from his pouch, and the boy snatched it. With steady hands, Ravi drew out the tools and fiddled with the inside of the lock, searching for the release. He rubbed tears from his eyes with his shoulder.
She's here. She left it for me. She knew I would come.
The lock gave. Ravi freed the padlock from the latch, but paused before he lifted the lid. The swordsman was watching—did he want Link to watch? He felt his mother's hand on his shoulder. He raised the lid.
A damp, moldy letter rested inside, folded atop a small leather pouch. Ravi thought he might cry. Gingerly, he unfolded the letter, releasing the smell of mildew. Cradling the letter in his lap, he read.
Saahe,
Took you long enough, you big boy! I'm on the path of something grand. Something you'll never guess. I won't tell you what it is, but it's going to change our lives. I didn't find it here, so I'm going to try a different temple, something central, closer to the plains. The princess would have left it close at hand. Not sure how I'll get up the cliff, but there are things a mother does for her son. I'm sorry if you don't understand. I love you.
-Kira
A sob broke out of Ravi's mouth. He bit his fist. His fingers dug into the letter, breaking holes in the soft paper. He read it again, and again, and again, until the letters seemed to vanish and only the word "son" remained on the page. Tears ran down his cheeks.
The swordsman read it over Ravi's shoulder. "The Great Plateau."
Ravi's face whipped up.
"There's a temple there," Link said. "The old Temple of Time."
Ravi scrambled to his feet, kicking the chest over. The pouch tumbled out; he snatched it up and broke the soft leather strings. An opal fell into his palm. The gem was polished smooth, pearly-white, shimmering with iridescent colors. He grasped the stone and the letter to his heart.
"She didn't forget me," he whispered. Fresh tears spilled down his cheeks.
Link smiled softly. "No one could forget you."
Ravi hugged him. His arms shot out on reflex, wrapping around the swordsman's waist. Then he came to himself and jumped back, stumbling over the open chest. He stuffed the letter into his shirt and pocketed the opal, then snatched up the chest and thrust the lock pick tools into Link's hands. Cheeks burning, he ran for the first ruins, scrubbing his face dry with his sleeve. He sniffed.
There are things a mother does for her son.
"It goes both ways, Mama."
Link ran lightly behind him, keeping his distance as Ravi retraced their steps back through the first ruins and along the northern rim of the mesa. As he ran, he fumbled into his shirt and withdrew the letter, just to see it again. To smell the mildew, to feel it there, something she touched. His toe caught on a rock and he went sprawling, skidding on his knees. A handful of rocks skipped downhill and bounced off the boulders. Their clack echoed across the mesa.
The air shifted. Below the hill, a growl rumbled. A long, black tail uncurled and three heads lifted above the hill. Fresh flames snapped from the horns, and six glowing eyes narrowed on Ravi.
A whistle sounded, high and clear.
The eyes whipped from Ravi toward Link. He lowered his hands from his lips. A bellow vibrated the air.
"Go!" Link shouted. He sprinted to Ravi, grabbing the boy's frozen wrist and yanking him up from the ground.
Ravi snatched up his letter.
The gleeok reared back its central head and a red laser beam erupted from its mouth. Flames exploded across the ground. The heat seared Ravi's back as he sprinted with the swordsman for the edge of the cliff. His feet flew, hardly touching the ground. This was why Link made him run all those laps.
"Grab me!" Link cried. He jumped off the cliff, and Ravi jumped a second later. He latched onto the swordsman's waist as the glider whipped out.
Another laser shot overhead, just missing the flapping canvas as Link swooped down the side of the cliff. The laser gouged into the hill opposite the highlands, melting a divot of molten rock. Ravi held his breath, legs dangling in the air. The edge of Link's bow dug into his cheek, but he peeked out to watch the cliff face slide by. Flying was smooth. He wanted to try it.
His feet hit the earth a second before Link's boots touched down. He fell to his knees as the swordsman whistled again. Aurora whinnied and galloped for them, followed by Sadee, as an enormous shadow lifted from the rim of the highlands. Link grabbed Aurora's chest harness and swung himself under her neck, over her shoulder, and into the saddle.
Ravi scrambled to his feet and snatched Sadee's reins. He dug his foot into the stirrup, hopped, and mounted.
The gleeok spread its wings, flapping in the air above the two mesa walls. Link galloped straight for it.
"Link!" Ravi shouted. "The other way!" But the swordsman ducked low over Aurora's neck and kept his heading. Ravi kicked Sadee's sides. "Go!"
The mare whinnied in terror, but she shook her head and plunged after Aurora.
Ravi lifted himself from the saddle, like Link had explained yesterday. He braced his feet in the stirrups, centering his weight as the mare's back rose and fell below him. It was only his second time galloping. This time, he couldn't fall. Aurora shot under the gleeok and the monster swiveled in the air, shooting another laser beam. The golden horse swerved sideways, and the laser burned the earth. Link curved his path away from a long wooden bridge that spanned Tabantha Canyon.
He's drawing its attention.
Sadee's hooves pounded the road. They shot under the gleeok, and as the draft from the monster's wings washed over them, the horse unlocked a new level of speed. They pounded onto the wooden bridge, dodging holes in the rotting planks. The beast roared again. Ravi ached to look back, but with the holes in the bridge and the long drop into the canyon, he focused ahead until Sadee clattered safely onto the rocky ground. Then he pulled up her head. She skidded to a halt, mouth foaming, ears pressed flat, and Ravi swiveled around.
Aurora came pounding down the bridge. In the distance, the gleeok bellowed in disappointment and swung back to its perch. Flames licked from the earth, billowing brown smoke as the dry grass burned.
The golden horse whipped past Ravi, then Link pulled her up. She reared and whinnied. As she settled, Link patted her neck. "Whoa, whoa." Aurora snorted and shook her head. She danced, shaking. "Easy."
Sadee glanced back at Ravi, asking for reassurance. He stiffly stroked her sweaty neck. "Whoa." His voice cracked, and he stared at Link. "Is it gone?"
"Trying to convince yourself?" Link grinned. "The big ones are lazy. They don't like to leave their nests."
Ravi touched his shirt, finding the letter intact atop his pounding heart. He massaged his knees, locked in their death-grip to Sadee's back. He laughed.
Link laughed with him.
Feet came pounding from a nearby stable. Shouts rang in the air.
"Monster! Fire!"
"Sir Link, did you see it? Did you see it?"
Link turned Aurora to the road. "Better make tracks." His eyes twinkled. "I ran away. Can't ruin my reputation."
Ravi nudged Sadee after him. Windswept, grinning, they rode east toward the distant plains.