She supposed she should be terrified. Perhaps she should scream in terror or faint like the frail ladies of the Hyrulean Court, but she felt nothing but the blackness that she had so carefully hidden her feelings in.
It wasn’t the first battle she had been trapped in, and neither would it be the last.
She clung to a rail on the portside deck as the small ship lurched again. Above her she could hear the captain bellowing orders and the crew pushing themselves to their limits to follow them. Lightning tore the sky into pieces and her keen ears were ringing from the thunder.
She had always loved the rain, she thought without emotion as she let the torrents of water wash over her. It was a reminder that not even the mighty sky was immune to sorrow, and could weep once in a while. The wailing wind joined her fray and ripped through her long cloak in a violent, desperate lament.
A second tremor shook the ship so fiercely that she was thrown to the opposite side of the boat, her cloak tangling in a coil of rope. She grimaced as she made out the sound of canons, but did not hurry to untangle her limbs from the rope. No amount of speed would save her, she thought idly. She was helpless.
The thought did not disturb her.
“You, girl!”
A sailor stood in the doorway of the captain’s cabin, the light behind him creating a long shadow that spilled nearly to the head of the ship. “Captain wants you.”
She rose to her feet, rubbing the spot where her arm had been slammed into a barrel as she had slid. She walked by the sailor with such composure that the sailor was left with a creeping suspicion.
The captain waited inside for her. He was an intimidating man, standing a head taller than anyone on the ship, and dressed in the red and gold linens of nobility. His ebony hair was plastered to his head with the rain he had recently braved, and she could make out a myriad of emotions in his gray eyes.
He placed a hand on her shoulder and guided her to an office at the back of the ship. It wasn’t a far venture, but she passed enough sailors to pick up mutinous glares pointed at both her and the captain.
The office was cozy and tight, holding only a desk, a comfortable chair, and shelves on the walls holding compasses, maps, and other navigational tools.
The captain massaged his temples as if entirely fatigued as he sat in his chair. “What is your name, girl?”
“Captain Nasir, I don’t understand…”
“Yes you do!” he snapped at her. Her eyes suddenly widened, but she showed her surprise no other way. She had not expected this from the cool tempered captain.
He sighed, as if apologizing for the outburst. “What is your real name? You are not Ayami, are you?”
She lowered her head, burrowing her chin deeper into the scarf that veiled her face. “No,” she murmured. “I am not Ayami.”
“Then what is your name?”
At this the girl raised her head, her ruby eyes burning. She paused before speaking, her voice serene and regal. “The name I carry in your language is Darkstar.” It was all that needed to be said.
“The Shekiah?” Nasir asked. Darkstar slowly nodded, eyes clouded. The captain leaned back in his chair and put his head in his hands. “I have been harboring a fugitive…”
Darkstar averted her eyes. “Captain Nasir, you have been kind and fair with me, and I would hope to never harm you. If I knew that word of me had spread I would have taken another route.”
He eyed her curiously, then waved a hand wearily, seeming to accept her sincerity. “Whether you intended this to happen or not, it makes no difference to me now. Our attackers are kingsmen, and they want you in payment for their retreat! Do you understand the position this puts me in? The crew has half a mind to hand you over here and now.”
Darkstar nodded solemnly, not trusting herself to speak.
Nasir’s voice was gentle now, full of sympathy and regret. “I have no grudge against you, and anyone who defies King Ganondorf is a friend of mine, but you must understand that I must return you to Hyrule.”
Darkstar’s eyes flared with such violent light that Nasir’s breath caught. “You swore to take me safely to Calita!” Darkstar seethed. Though he could not see much of her expression beneath her cloak and the scarf, Nasir could feel her rage.
“I know I did, but Dark—“
“No!” she screamed, and for a moment her voice broke. “I can’t go back!”
Nasir averted his eyes in shame. “I’m sorry, Darkstar, but I did what I must.”
At this two of the King’s guard entered. “Is this the one?” the tallest of the pair asked.
“Yes,” Nasir said softly. “Take her away…quickly.”
The two men sprang foreword but Darkstar was too fast. She leapt for the doorway only to find a small battalion waiting for her. As strong and skilled of a fighter as she was, she could not even hope defend herself against so many. There was nowhere she could run, no place to hide. Though in the end many of the kingsmen bled or lay unconscious on the deck, their hands soon seized her and forced her to the ground.
She writhed with all her strength as they held her down, fighting until the end. When, at last, the metal chains clasped her wrists in an iron lock behind her back, she fell limp, defeated.
“Enough,” Nasir called. “I have a destination I must reach before the winds shift.”
One of the soldiers took a fistful of her long, silver hair, which had spilled loose in the struggle. Nasir swallowed hard as he looked at her face unveiled for the first time. Across her hard, sharp features, bright against her moonlight pale skin, wove mythical markings. Her eyes, wide and bright, shone like embers. From her otherworldly features, he had no doubt that she was truly a Shekiah, a people he once thought lived only in legend.
Nasir turned his back as she was dragged away, not wanting to see the betrayal in her eyes any longer.
As he returned to his office, more wearied than before, a glint of gold caught his eye. He reached down to find a pendant, which Darkstar had lost in her struggle. The symbol was an eye, wide and ever-watchful, with a long tear extending from the bottom. Once, he knew from the legends, the symbol had just been the eye. It had been much later that the tear hand been added, to remind all who saw it of the oppression that had beset the Shekiah people from their very creation.
Nasir clenched his hand on the pendant and let the chain dangle from his palm.
“I’m no better than the king himself…”
~*~*~*~
The time she spent on the ship was uneventful for Darkstar. She was locked in the brig below the deck, chained like a prisoner. Soon she lost track of time entirely, it was impossible to tell if she had been there for days…weeks…months…
Still, she found herself cherishing these moments of quiet solitude, much as a prisoner savors the little time before his execution.
Food was brought to her at random intervals, as if the sailors only fed her when they remembered that she actually existed. On the stale water and bread she rapidly went from slender to painfully thin…
But she would have been content to live there forever if it meant freedom from Hyrule, the place she knew she must inevitably end up in.
She awoke from a dreamless sleep, aching from being curled up so tight against the cold and the damp. As she regained her night vision she found her rations laid out next to her, which she quickly consumed. To her surprise, she tasted dried grapes in her bread, and it was a bit softer than usual. Instead of water, her jug was filled with a juice of crushed berries. She figured that these were the leftovers from the feast the sailors had to celebrate their nearing to land…
Hyrule…
Darkstar sighed despairingly, knowing that she had a day, if she was lucky, before she would find herself in the hands of the evil king and locked up in the land she so passionately despised.
Unexpectedly, the ship hit something, sending Darkstar flying into the wall of her prison. The crates around her followed, and one that had been perilously placed at the top of the stack launched toward her. The wooden box stood no chance against the iron bars, and it shattered upon impact, sending splinters everywhere and leaving the contents rolling on the floor.
Darkstar sat for a long while, fearing that someone would have heard the crash and come to investigate. After a while, she allowed herself to relax, but she waited a little longer just to be safe.
Beyond the bars was a bottle, about half a hand in diameter, which gracefully diminished to a point at the top. It was stopped with a cork, and Darkstar could see a label of sorts but couldn’t quite make it out.
She extended her fingers as far as she could and crept foreword until the shackles on her ankles were taut. Her fingers barely grazed the bars, and it was disheartening to see the cargo on the ground only a breath from her fingertips.
She stretched her body to its very limits, feeling the burn in her arms and legs increase with every move forward, and was eventually rewarded with the feeling of cool glass against the very tip of her longest finger. She willed it to come to her as a child might coax a stray pet, and it seemed the waves finally heard her as the rocking of the ship sent the bottle rolling peacefully into her palm.
Darkstar recoiled into the corner, her stolen prize in her hand. She stroked the sides, feeling runes and symbols foreign to her carved into the thick glass. Not able to make out the writing even with her sensitive eyes, she moved her fingers slowly across the glass time and time again, memorizing the feel of the symbols. It seemed that a single phrase was repeated over and over again.
“Get the girl!” someone above-deck yelled, and instantly there was banging on the door. She quickly hid the bottle in the folds of her cloak as a kingman holding a large ring of keys entered.
The door swung open and Darkstar was lifted roughly to her feet as a second soldier unlocked the chains on her legs. She glared hatefully at the men as they tied her hands together with a length of rope. One of the men held the end as one would hold a leash. “Not a sound out of you,” he growled.
Darkstar shut her eyes and relied on the soldiers to guide her as she stepped above deck for the first time in an eternity. The harsh light came as a shock to her, even with her eyes closed, and made her stumble. She picked herself up when one of the men jabbed her harshly with the blunt end of his spear and proceeded with her hands over her eyes.
“You do understand that she’s worth quite a sum, sir. You can understand my caution. On one hand, if we give her to the king, we’ll be living like emperors the rest of our lives. On the other, if she’s found dead and the king tracks her back to us…”
“I can sympathize with your plight, but the girl is more trouble than she’s worth,” said a calm and assured voice. “I believe we understand this, at least. Take or leave my offer, I do not have all day.”
Darkstar started at the familiarity of the voice. “Nasir?” she asked quietly, still not uncovering her eyes.
There was laughter from more than one man aboard. “Seems she hasn’t forgotten you after all.”
“I would be surprised if she had.”
For a while, she let this sink in. She heard footsteps approach her and the man holding her rope backed up a little. She could tell that Nasir was standing before her.
“You…” she said softly. She took her hands off her eyes slowly, and to her relief, she could stand the sunlight. Right ahead of her was Nasir, looking at her intently and sorrowfully.
For a while she appeared confused, but then her mood rapidly changed.
She leapt at Nasir, letting out a feral cry. The sailor who held her rope leapt on her and tackled her to the ground. She struggled against the hands that held her fast to the deck, hissing threats to everyone in sight.
Exasperated with his captive, the man who held her drew a knife and twirled it as if preparing to strike.
“Don’t hurt her!” Nasir yelled as he ran toward her. “Leaver her be.”
The sailor looked at him as if were insane. In a heavy seaman’s accent, he said, “What care ye?”
Nasir stepped forward, his composure quickly regained, and gestured for the man to give him her rope. “…Ganondorf will be displeased if she has been harmed.”
“What a stubborn one,” one of the heavily decorated soldiers remarked. “All that time a prisoner, and she still bites like a viper. King Ganondorf will beat the fight out of her, I assume.”
Darkstar lay on the ground, no longer restrained but unwilling to get up. Her entire being quivered with anger, and the look in her eyes was strong enough to kill.
The captain of the ship laughed. “This is quite a price you offer for so worthless a girl. I accept your offer. Take her to your ship, but one of my men will stay aboard to make sure your end of the bargain is upheld.”
The man holding Darkstar’s leash stepped forward. “This is Caspian,” the captain said by way of introduction. “He will be the one to accompany you and the girl.”
Nasir nodded. “Let us depart then.”
Darkstar’s original anger had subsided a bit, but she still stared daggers at Nasir as she was taken aboard his ship.
She was silent as she was led to the same cabin she had been in on her previous venture, when she had been a passenger headed for Calita. She was not surprised when Caspian stood by the door like a statue after he tied her rope to a nearby post.
She curled into herself and slept.
~*~*~*~
No comments:
Post a Comment