Link crouched and peeked around the bend in the stairway to the floor below. It didn't do him much good, all he could see was a bit of floor right in front of the stairs. It was cut stones again, which wasn't surprising and didn't mean much.
He strained his ears to listen. There were no footsteps, nor talking of any kind. By the sounds of it, the area below was empty. He still held the magic boomerang at the ready as he walked down the stairs.
His brains froze when he got to the lower floor and cleared the stairwell: he was in a wide hallway with cells on both sides. The cells meant he had found the dungeons, which was great, but the hallway was filled with guards, the nearest of which was just out of sight from the stairs. Link counted ten guards, and they all turned towards him.
Link's first reaction was panic: this was too many guards to run from, and it would be a problem to fight them even if he had wanted to.
His whole body clenched, and the feel of something in his hand jogged his brains back on: the boomerang. He had the magic boomerang.
He had the magic boomerang that could freeze them ALL.
He had the magic boomerang that could freeze them all and save them and save him!
He let out a chuckle and threw the boomerang at the nearest guard – a recent trainee graduate called Rija - just as they all started yelling the now unfortunately familiar "INTRUDER! DIE!". Rija froze and the boomerang sprang back to Link's hand, who immediately threw it at the second closest guard – Xaren, one of the King's personal guards. He froze too.
The other guards were still yelling at him, intruder that he was, to die.
"Nope! Intruder NOT dying!" Link yelled back at the guards as he threw the boomerang at a third one and then a fourth. He didn't know their names, but they did look vaguely familiar. "No dying for anyone!" he repeated. "You get frozen! You get frozen!"
He dodged a clumsy spear attack from the fifth guard – Lendo, a friend of Link's uncle - and smacked his hand with the boomerang. Like Rija, Xaren and the two guards whose name Link didn't know, Lendo froze.
Link's uncle would probably have been happy that his friend would survive and not kill his nephew. Laughter bubble out of Link's chest again even as his eyes misted at the thought that Sir Gedion would never see his friend again either way.
"You get frozen!" he yelled.
Link had to roll to avoid the next attack. He threw the boomerang again, froze a sixth guard – Pleris, she had won the last archery contest - caught the boomerang, blocked a seventh's guard sword – that was Romed, bit of a jerk if Link was being honest - with his shield and hit Romed's arm with the boomerang.
The ninth guard was another knight, Sir Sala. Link threw the boomerang at her shoulder and she froze. The tenth guard was not a familiar face at all, and lunged at Link with his sword held high over his head. The boomerang hit him in the chest and he fell straight to the floor mid lunge.
"You get frozen!" Link yelled. "Everyone gets frozen! Nobody else dies!"
He chuckled or cried, he was not sure which, as he looked at the guards. They were all frozen, none of them were hurt, none of them were a threat anymore.
They weren't dead.
They weren't missing any limbs.
Link looked at the boomerang in his hand and impulsively, kissed it and hugged it before shaking his head, trying to rattle his brains back into gear.
He had found the dungeons. The Princess had to be close by, he'd be able to save her anytime now. And he didn't have to hurt anyone else because he could freeze them instead.
He narrowed his eyes at the guards, thinking. Chances were they'd be moving again by the time he passed through here again with the Princess, and she might be unconscious, or hurt, or otherwise unable to walk on her own. He might have to carry her.
The thought made blood rush to his head. Goddess! He might have to carry Princess Zelda, he might have to hold the Princess!
He shook his head. If that happened, freezing theses guards again would be difficult. A quick survey confirmed the cells were all empty, so he went to the lever that unlocked them all and pulled it up. There was a series of clanks as the bars closing the cells were yanked up, allowing the doors to open.
Link pushed every guard in the cell nearest to where they were each frozen, taking care to divest them of their weapons first. Most of them toppled over, and they weren't exactly light or slippery.
After painstakingly dragging the first one over to a cell, worried that the rest would unfreeze, Link took to hitting them all again with the boomerang each time he had another one inside a cell.
Once he was done, he pushed the doors back in position and lowered the lever back down. The bars lowered too, and the guards were secured.
He brushed his hands, grinning. Problem solved. The grin disappeared when the thought that it had taken quite a while crossed his mind. He gulped and took off running deeper into the dungeons.
Zelda had her knees pulled up, her arms around them and her head buried in between it all. It felt like she'd been here long enough for morning to be almost upon them, and yet she still couldn't manage to call out again. She kept trying, and nothing. It seemed like she had exhausted whatever magic telepathy used.
She was feeling completely hopeless. The calls hadn't worked, nobody was coming. She was going to die, and Ganon was going to conquer and destroy Hyrule, and a whole lot more people would die. Sobs kept creeping up on her, and she couldn't seem to stop crying.
She heard a bang and her head shot up.
Aghanim would not BANG. More noise came, more bangs, cries and at one point, incongruously, laughter.
After a few minutes, the noise stopped, but was quickly replaced by the sound of things being dragged on the floor. A few minutes of that, and there was a loud clatter.
She released her knees and got up, going to the bars of her cell. She craned her neck to try and see around the bend in the hallway, a few dozen steps to her right. That much noise had to have been a fight. And if there was a fight, it might mean that someone had heard her after all. And if that someone had won the fight, they would be coming around the corner any time now.
She was just starting to think she had been deluding herself when she heard running footsteps, and a teenage boy rounded the corner, the magic boomerang in hand.
Her eyes widened even as her heart started hammering: that was Link.
Link was one of the guards in training, the nephew of a royal knight and a member of the bloodline of the Ancient Knights. The other trainees often made fun of him because he kept referring to himself as a knight in training.
She was aware that she really didn't have a good reason to know this on sight, and she certainly wouldn't have wanted to explain why she also knew that Link particularly liked apples or that the other trainees sometimes called him a drama queen, or that he sometimes snorted when he laughed and that it was adorably hilarious when he did, or that he had a mole under his left foot, or that in some light his hair looked almost pink because the light brown was so warm and had a bit of red in it, or that if he smiled wide enough you could see that one of his teeth was a bit crooked, or that he had ranked third at the last archery contest, or that he regularly volunteered to tour the visiting children around, or...
She gasped: the armored knight guarding her cell was swinging his mace, clearly intent on killing a boy he should know well and be protective towards as a trainee. She held her breath, her whole body clenching. Her thoughts escaped everything else and started begging the Goddess on a loop. Sweet Hylia, please please please don't let him get hurt please please sweet Hylia...
She could have cried out in relief when Link successfully dodged the mace. He threw the boomerang at the knight with a smile on his face: clearly, he knew how to use the magical item.
The knight swung his mace in a circle and hit the boomerang out of the air, sending it clattering to the side. He then sent the mace directly at it. The heavy spiked metal ball hit the painted wood.
There was a cracking sound almost like thunder.
There was a flash that died immediately.
And the magical boomerang lay on the floor in two pieces, a thin stream of smoke floating from the jagged edges where it had been severed.
Zelda heard Link gasp and turned her eyes back to him just in time to see him fall to his knees, staring at the boomerang with an absolutely horrified expression on his face.
"LINK!" She yelled. "Get up! He's not going to…"
She heard the air whistle. "LINK!" she screamed, picturing the mace taking Link's head right off while he stared at the broken boomerang.
Thankfully, the self proclaimed knight in training came back to his senses in time to dodge the mace again, and his eyes trained straight on his opponent.
"Sir Tagon, I know it's you!" Link yelled. "Nobody else is this tall, and nobody else uses a MACE. It's me, Link! Stop! You are betraying your oath! Please, just..."
The mace flew towards him again. He dodged it again and this time, rushed the knight and stabbed him with his sword, fitting the blade between the joints at the knight's right elbow and drawing a scream of rage.
"You are sworn to protect the Royal Family and Hyrule, how can you serve evil? You have to STOP!" Link cried.
Zelda suddenly noticed that Link was literally crying. He obviously didn't want to hurt the knight, of course he didn't. But he was still fighting.
Link didn't quite dodge the next hit and was hurled backward with a sharp cry of pain. He staggered back to his feet just in time to dodge another blow, clutching his side where he'd been hit.
"Link!" Zelda called out. "Nothing I've tried has worked to get any of them out of this trance! Be careful, he WILL kill you if you let him!"
Link winced and dodged the next attack. "Sir Tagon..." he gasped. "Please, don't make me do this... not you too..."
The knight, Sir Tagon if Link was correct, spun his mace again but unnoticed by Link, also flicked a knife towards the trainee. Link dodged the mace but the knife hit him in his shoulder. Thankfully, the throw had been clumsy and the knife hit hilt first. Link grunted and used the opening again to land another blow on his adversary, this time knocking the knight's helmet off.
Zelda gasped: the knight's pupils were fully dilated and his gaze was fixed not on Link but on a point far, far away. His face was completely relaxed. The body of the knight might be animated, but there was nothing behind those eyes.
Link didn't stop there, attacking with a ferocity that Zelda hadn't known he was capable of, and sliced the knight's right hand OFF. She gasped, but the mace the knight had been holding had barely hit the floor that the hand was back and grabbing the weapon again.
Link jumped back, staring. "You grew it BACK?" he asked. "But that's not what…"
He didn't have time to finish: he had to dodge the mace again, jumping back away from Sir Tagon.
"If you regenerate your limbs, I can't stop you from attacking…" Link muttered. He gulped. "And you broke the boomerang, I can't freeze you!" his pitch was rising, and he started shaking.
"Sir Tagon..." he gulped again, and Zelda could see tears streaming down his face. "I can't let you kill me, I'd be betraying my own oaths. Last chance. Stop. Go away. Run! Yield! Or... or... just stop! I am begging you!"
Sir Tagon did not stop, spinning his mace again. Link dodged, jumped and buried his sword in the knight's throat before jumping back again and falling to his knees, clutching his side and his face twisted in a pain that Zelda knew had little to do with his injuries. Blood spurted out of the enchanted's knight throat, and then he toppled over, dead.
"The spell on them keeps them fighting no matter what," Link said, his voice barely more than a whisper and thick with tears. "Yavvo's arms just disappeared, and he was still trying to kill me. I thought Sir Tagon's hand would disappear too, and it came back instead, that's even worse! He wasn't going to stop…" He took a deep breath and got up, walking over to Sir Taigon. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm so sorry." He bent down and unhooked the key chain from the knight's belt.
Zelda swallowed. Link turned towards her and she felt heat rush to her cheeks, despite the gravity of the situation. For some reason, he flushed too. She hoped he wasn't ashamed of having attacked a knight.
"Thank you, Link," she said. "I'm sorry that you're involved in this. I really am. The guards and the knights... I tried to get them to come back to themselves, nothing is working. I must escape. For the sake of Hyrule, I cannot allow Aghanim to have me! There is a secret passage in the throne room, we can escape from there. We have to hurry, the ritual is meant to happen at dawn."
Link nodded, then bowed and winced. "Your Highness," he said. "Please have no fear. I hereby swear on Hylia herself to get you to safety or die trying, and I have no intention of dying!"
He unlocked her cell, and she set off at a fast walk right past him and towards the exit. He followed on her heels.
Zelda didn't need to turn around and look to know that Link was limping: she could hear it in the uneven steps. She didn't know whether it was from the hit on his side from the mace, or whatever injury had put the blood there that she could see on his pants, or something else. She was contemplating asking, but they had only gone a few steps when he suddenly took a sharp intake of breath.
She turned in alarm, thinking he'd just aggravated an injury, but he was looking at her with his eyes wide.
"Did you say AGHANIM?"
She held back a sigh of relief and nodded. "He's been playing us this whole time," she said, shaking her head. "He's Ganon's puppet, and he is trying to use the descendants of the Sages to open up the way for his master to come back to Hyrule from the Dark World. I'm the last one he needs, he intends to perform the last ceremony at dawn. I can't let him have me." She swallowed. Talking about it, it turned out, was difficult: it made it all more real, less a nightmare from which she might yet wake up. "I… I fear the worst for my Father, too," she said thickly. Her father was almost certainly dead, just like Aghanim had claimed. And she had almost been killed too, in a ritual that would doom Hyrule. If not for Link, a mere trainee, managing to make it all the way here and save her… "Link, I can't express how grateful I am to you. If you hadn't…" she gasped on turning the corner.
"Boomerang," Link said. "I dragged them in the cells while they were frozen."
The first hall in the dungeons, the one that connected to the stairway going back upstairs, was full for the first time in Zelda's memory. The cells were occupied with guards who started screaming at them and trying to grab through the bars. She quickened her pace.
"The boomerang was really good," Link said. He had clearly accelerated when she did, he was still right behind her. His steps were still uneven, and he kept pausing between words. He was clearly in pain. "I didn't have to hurt anyone."
Zelda swallowed. She wasn't sure she'd recover from having watched one of their knights killed right in front of her, she could only imagine how Link felt about having done the deed. Her savior's heart was just as hurt as his body. It wasn't fair, he shouldn't have had to face anything like this yet: he was about year younger than she was, not due to turn fifteen for five months yet while she'd been that age for almost 8 months now.
She would have been hard pressed to explain why she knew when his birthday was.
"I'm really sorry," she said. "I'm sorry I got you involved in all this, I really am. I HAD to call for help, I swear I had no choice. If Aghanim has his way, Ganon will return to Hyrule and destroy everything, kill everyone."
They had reached the staircase and had started to climb.
"Please don't be sorry, Princess!" Link exclaimed. "I… I'm really upset about Sir Tagon, and about Yavvo, but… I'd NEVER put them above you and the Kingdom! All of us are meant to serve Hyrule and the Royal Family, to protect you! I don't regret doing that! I'm sad they had to die. But I don't regret saving you! I would never!"
His voice was getting worse, he was wincing every several syllables. Goddess, if they ran into more enemies, he'd be little better at fighting them than she would herself. She would get him killed, and she'd be sacrificed after all, and all of Hyrule would soon follow him into the grave.
She swallowed and shook her head, both against her rising panic and Link's little speech. "That's what the guards and knights' oaths say, yes, but if it was just for my own life, I, myself, would regret it. You didn't save ME tonight, Link." She turned to face him just as they were reaching the top of the stairs. "You saved Hyrule! You saved everyone!"
He was holding his side and squinting in pain. "I haven't saved anyone or anything yet, Princess," he said. "We still need to escape. I need you to get behind me, ok? There are guards around once we get to the first basement."
She thought of protesting that injured as he was, he was no protection, but pushed the thought aside: he was at least still reasonably competent, which was more than she could say for herself. He passed her and she followed him into the room at the top of the stairs.
She gasped when she saw the scene: a guard's body was slumped by a door to the left of the stairs, his arms missing and his head at an odd angle. Apart from the body itself, there were splashes of blood all around the room.
In spite of his limp, Link was walking fast. She followed. He didn't say anything until they were in the staircase leading to the next floor up.
"That was Yavvo," he said then. He sniffed and swallowed. "My sword teacher. He rammed into the door head first, he was still trying to kill me after his arms disappeared. I thought Sir Tagon would lose his limbs if I hit them because that's what happened to Yavvo." He sniffed again and wiped at his eyes with his arm. "I'm a murderer." He suddenly turned around to face her, and even in the dim light, she could see tears on his cheeks, only half wiped dry.
By calling her to her help, she'd broken him. That much was clear. Hyrule might be saved, but this boy's soul was wounded. She resolved right there and then that she would help him, she would heal the injuries that weren't in his flesh.
"Princess," he said, calling her attention back to the present moment. "If once you're safe, your Father wants to arrest me, it's ok. I won't resist, I swear it! So don't worry about me escaping. Ok?"
Zelda was so shocked by the idea that she frowned at him. "Those were not murders. Yavvo and Sir Tagon are casualties of war. Link, you are a HERO! As for my father…AH!"
They'd just cleared the staircase and Link had just grabbed her very roughly, one arm around her throat and the other holding both her hands behind her back. He'd moved so fast she would have been impressed if she wasn't busy being suddenly terrified. There were a group of six guards crowding the hallway and staring straight at them.
Link was quite certain that if he hadn't already been heading for a life in the dungeons once this was over, this latest stunt was going to seal his fate.
He hadn't had time to think it through. There were guards, his side was hurting so much he could barely move and could definitely not fight, and it had just occurred to him that when he'd pretended to be against Aghanim and had thought that the guards hadn't believed his lies, they actually HAD, and maybe he could trick them again.
He knew he was a bad liar and a worst actor, but he couldn't think of another option that had ANY chance of working.
So! He'd grabbed the Princess in a completely unacceptable way and he was completely willing to accept whatever it ended up costing him if they made it out of here.
"Out of the way!" he yelled at the guards. He winced: yelling hurt his side. Otherwise, that bit of acting was easy because he really DID want them to go away. It would probably have been better if he'd sounded angry... he planted an image of the traitorous wizard firmly in his head. "Aghanim wants the Princess!" he barked. He choked down a cry: was it normal for what should just be a bad bruise to hurt like that, or had the mace broken some of his ribs or something?
Zelda swallowed. Link sounded terrified and in pain rather than angry. He was so obviously faking that it would take a miracle for the guards to buy his act. She had no miracle to offer, so what help she could provide would hopefully do.
"HELP!" she screamed. "Don't let him bring me to Aghanim, he's going to kill me! Please stop him! Surely ONE of you still resists the wizard's spell? PLEASE!"
Link's heart sank. He hoped she was playing along, but he didn't know. It was possible he was terrorizing her, making her believe she was doomed after all along with all of Hyrule. But he couldn't stop pretending until they were out of sight of the guards.
"Lord Aghanim said not to let anyone out," one of the guards said.
"Please help!" Zelda cried out. "If Aghanim has me before the sun is done rising, all is lost!"
"Yeah!" Link yelled. "What she says! Out of the way!"
"AH!" Zelda cried.
The guards started moving sideways. Link charged ahead and for good measure, pretend-growled at them.
Soon enough, they were rounding a corner and out of sight of the patrol. The next hallway was, for now, empty. Link let go of Zelda.
"Princess, I'm SO sorry. I wasn't going to bring you to the wizard, I swear, I was…"
The Princess shushed him. Each word he said looked like it hurt and he owed her no apology anyway. "I know. I was playing along. Let's keep going. That was great idea, and I order you to do it again if you need to."
Link gulped and nodded.
They didn't run into any more guards until they reached the entrance hall. Just like earlier, there was a handful of guards patrolling here. Link and Zelda ducked behind a column near the door.
Link peeked around the column, counting the guards facing their direction. There was only one, but that was enough for trouble. He hid again.
"When I say now," he swallowed and took a breath, "we run to the next column," he whispered. "If that's all right!" he added urgently. He was so focused on what they were doing that he was being incredibly rude.
She nodded.
Link counted to five before peeking out again. This time, there were no guards looking their way.
"Now!" he whispered urgently.
The two of them ran to the next column.
Link half collapsed against it, gingerly holding his side and clenching his jaw, desperately trying not to scream. His breath was coming shallow and fast and his eyes were watering. He couldn't remember ever having been in so much pain, and he thought he had felt something break during the few steps' run here. Whether something really had broken at that time in particular or not, the pain was definitely worse: he had barely made it here. It seemed obvious by now that he wasn't just bruised: the mace had damaged some ribs or possibly some organs.
Even more obvious was the fact he couldn't let it stop him. He focused on his breathing, both to steady it and in an attempt to distract himself from the pain, and peeked around the column. His heart started hammering: the color of the sky was starting to brighten, which meant dawn was coming. They were almost out of time.
He suddenly felt a very, very soft breeze right next to his temple, and froze. The princess' voice was like an electric shock when she whispered in his ear.
"You can't run," she said. "We need to pretend you're bringing me to Aghanim again. That will be easier, won't it? With your injury?"
Link swallowed and found he couldn't think of what to answer at all. It took him a second to even parse what she'd said into a meaning he could comprehend.
He swallowed again before nodding. He didn't like the idea because if it didn't work, they would have all the guards after them. However, she was right: he couldn't actually run and he risked letting out a scream of pain or just falling noisily if he kept pushing it.
He turned to her and his eyes widened in horror: she was trembling and pale and Goddess! he needed to get her out of here, this was intolerable. She was clearly terrified, she looked exhausted, none of this was acceptable, she of all people should never, ever have to go through something so traumatic.
"I will need to hold you again," he whispered. "I'm very, very sorry."
"Do it," she urged.
So he did. He grabbed her like he had before, one arm around her shoulder and against her throat, holding her tight against himself, and his free hand holding both her wrists behind her back. He focused on scowling and marched out from behind the column.
Guards immediately turned towards them. One of them opened his mouth to start yelling but Link bet him to it.
"MAKE WAY!" he bellowed. He immediately paid for the effort through the pain in his side flaring viciously again. "The... she... the prin... the girl!" he stammered, unsure what to call her and every word like a knife in his gut. "Aghanim!" he managed between gasps. "He said NOW!"
"NOOO!" Zelda screeched. "HELP! DON'T LET HIM DO THIS! DON'T LET HIM BRING ME TO THE THRONE ROOM!"
The guards hesitated. Recognizing the best opening they were likely to get, Link marched as quick as he could to the throne room, ignoring the feeling that each step was ripping his insides a bit more, holding Zelda in front of him and walking sideways, his eyes scanning the room back and forth to keep an eye on the guards. His vision was getting blurry: that was fine, he could see enough to know where to go.
Zelda stayed quiet and walked along as best she could. The wide double doors to the throne room were opened, as they usually were. As soon as they were through the door frame, Link released Zelda.
She made a show of throwing herself forward as if he'd pushed her. He hurriedly shut the doors, cutting the guards' visuals on them and hoping it would be enough for them to forget they'd seen someone taking the Princess to this room. The effort nearly made him pass out and he sank to his knees, letting out a groan.
He clamped his mouth shut and turned back to the Princess, doing his best to smile reassuringly. The attempt died immediately: the Princess had not gotten back to her feet from her pretend fall. She was on her knees too, facing the throne and shaking, hands covering her mouth and tears streaming out of her eyes.
He followed her eyes and his breath caught: the King was sitting on the throne with his own head in his lap, his crown missing and the dead eyes staring straight ahead and most of his upper body caked in dried blood. Link's chest started heaving, increasing the pain yet again. He let out a whimper before he could help himself, both from the pain and the shock of the decapitated body.
The KING. Link was as good as sworn to protect him, all the guards that were steps away from him beyond the doors that had been opened right until a second ago WERE officially sworn to protect him, and he was here, dead, obviously murdered, and none of them had enough brains left to care.
He heard the Princess sob. He turned to her and found himself paralyzed, not knowing what to do, not knowing whether it would help or make things worse if he tried to comfort her. In the end, a ray of light coming in through a window forced a decision: the King was dead and the sun was rising. In other words, he had a Queen to save.
"Your Majesty..." he said. He gasped and clutched his side – even just talking was painful now.
"NO!" she exclaimed, turning towards him with her eyes, red and flooded as they were, wide. "No! Don't call me that! I won't claim my father's throne while his kingdom his in Aghanim's hands!"
"Where's... the... se...cret... ex...it?" Link asked in a whisper, each syllable pushed out against the pain. It was hard to think right now, but he had enough sense left not to argue with his rightful queen on what exactly she wanted to be called. It didn't even matter anyway: the only thing that did matter was getting her out of here before Aghanim found them.
She sniffed, took a deep breath and got up, walking behind the throne. "Behind this shelf," she said, pointing at the large decorative display behind the throne that held various mementos and presents from allied kingdoms. "But first..."
She took an ornate box from the shelf and opened it before fishing a bottle out of it, filled with a red liquid that Link knew on sight. She walked to him, crouched and held out the precious potion.
"Drink this immediately," she said. "You're probably thinking of protesting that we should keep it in case I get hurt since it's clearly an emergency ration, but I hereby order you to drink it, right now, no question, no comment. This is an order. This is a command. This is an adjuration."
Link's eyes went wide. She was right, he had been about to insist they keep it in case she needed it. He was only here to save and protect HER, it made no sense to use their only potion on him just because his side hurt. But his rightful queen had just given him a very, very clear order. It was the most painful thing she could have asked, it was asking him to risk her for his own good, and the very thought was horrifying. But he had his orders.
He locked eyes with Zelda, trying to convey a plea to not worry for him and save the potion. He couldn't voice a protest, he'd never dare after such a clear command, but he couldn't help making SOME kind of attempt at making her rethink her decision.
"Hurry!" she urged.
So much for that hope. With no other acceptable option but to obey his rightful Queen, Link stretched his arm to take the bottle and more pain surged: whatever was broken inside of him, it kept getting worse.
He steeled himself against the pain and as ordered, took the bottle and downed the content. It was his first time using potion, and he found himself thoroughly unprepared for the effect.
A feeling of relief and wellness so strong it was basically sheer pleasure exploded from his throat as the potion went down, flushing through his entire body in the space of one second and obliterating both pain and fatigue in its wake. He gasped and flushed, feeling as though enjoying anything this much was probably somehow shameful.
Zelda nodded, satisfied. Link had swallowed the potion and it was obvious it had worked: his composure had instantly gone from that of someone in excruciating pain and trying not to show it too much to someone who had just felt the customary magical healing rush and now felt better than they ever had. He was even blushing, which she would probably have found cute in nearly any other circumstances.
"Thank you," she said. Not so much for obeying her as for doing it without really arguing. "Now help me push the shelf. Quickly!"
Link hurried to her side, his movements completely comfortable and showing no trace of having been seriously hurt moments before, and they pushed. She was pushing her tears down at the same time: she had to escape, for Hyrule's sake. It didn't matter how much she grieved, it didn't matter that no matter what, life as she knew it was over, it didn't matter that she was heartbroken and just wanted to curl up in a corner and cry: it mattered that Ganon did not break into the Light World.
The shelf moved. Zelda and her hero squeezed in behind it and pushed it back, closing themselves out in the darkness and sealing the secret passage again.
Notes
"This is an order. This is a command. This is an adjuration."
Is that familiar? If not, have I got a great recommendation for you!
You see, this is a line from the mind-blowing, amazing Middlegame by Seanan McGuire. One of the characters says it to another at a time where it's incredibly important to that character that this other character follow a seemingly impossible order. Since Zelda would be feeling somewhat similar at that point in my own story, knowing she's asking Link to do something he'd never in a million years agree to otherwise, I couldn't resist using it.
Anyway, do yourself a favor and go read Middlegame. It's SO good.