Chapter 4

Hail sleepily stumbled out of her cabin and walked over to the rail of the old ship, splashing her face with water as she went to wake her up. The water from a nearby bucket was only supposed to be for drinking, but Hail didn't really care at the moment.

"Hail..." said Lain's voice, coming quietly from behind her.

Hail turned around, looked at her, and then asked softly "What is it?"

"A new course?" Lain asked, still unsure of herself. "You probably don't need telling this, but... The words spread that we're here and the other ships will avoid this part of the sea."

Hail looked at the water for a moment, considered, and then replied, "Rig our flag on the other galleon and assign three people to sail it up and around the North Trades."

"Three people?" Lain asked, even less sure. "Even our people won't be able to attack any ships with 3 people.

"Three people alone...no, however three people and a reputation is a different matter," Hail explained slowly, "they do not need to actually collect anything, just convince enough people that we're there so they believe it."

Lain began to catch on, "And then they quickly send their important shipments through here?"

"Exactly."

"Understood," Lain saluted, before turning around and walking away.

Hail waited five seconds before adding, "Don't salute me Tarn."

The woman stared around her into the great sandstorm of a desert.

She had no possessions. No money, no clothes, no food. Nothing apart from 3 stones she had found in the desert. They were her identity, her all. She had no idea how long she had wandered through the desert - it could have been days, weeks or months.

The only times that stood apart from that great mass of desert in her memory were the 3 brief points when she had tripped over the stones and had spent minutes just feeling them, longing that they would open up her memories which stayed locked from her, that she still couldn't reach.

But those ecstatic times of differentness were gone, and she was again alone in the desert, walking in an endless line.

And then came the fourth time when she tripped, but this was something different. For an instant the doors of her mind were unlocked and she knew who she was, and a thousand memories flooded back.

Quickly she turned around, still lying on the ground from where she had felland felt in front of her for what she had tripped on. This time it did not take long to find it and she was soon clutching the enormous sword, letting her memories flood back in until she no longer needed to touch it to remember. And then dragging the Master Sword behind her (it was too heavy to carry) Tai moved through the desert again, but this time with a purpose.

Her old desert instincts came back to her, and although she could now feel the heat and her thirst, she found the edge of the sandstorm shortly after, and two hours later she spotted a man in a field and a town not far behind him. Not willing to let the man see her naked body, she ran silently behind him, knocked him out and changed into his clothes.

She pulled out his sword from its sheath , threw it into the sand, and with one gigantic effort she managed to place the Master Sword inside it, although she knew she would never be able to pull it out. Then turning around, she walked into the town.

Oliver Black stared around at the group of people who were assembled in the darkened room. A few were playing with cards, but most were talking and grumbling about their bad luck. And probably about him.

Gulping down some of the red Calt he had before him, he stepped onto the raised platform and began his speech.

"You all know or can guess what this meeting is about," he started, deciding to shout for extra effect. "Most of you will have lost ships to Tarn and her new gang," he paused, spitting out the last word, "some of you will have lost more, some less but there is no doubt that she is too vein!"

Black stared around the crowd looking to see who was not agreeing, and joining in with the general shouts of agreement. He noticed two at the back who were still murmurring quietly, and made a mental note to talk to them later. They would find out the hard way not to annoy him.

"Before," he continued, "all of us put together would board 10 ships a month out of around 300 which were sailing this ocean. That's enough. We're rich, we have food, the public still thinks of sea travel as safe. We could even throw away Calt if we wanted too."

He threw his own glass of the expensive wine to the floor to prove his point.

"Last week, Tarn's fleet of 3 ships attacked 80 ships in 3 popular seas. 2 other ships were attacked by other pirates and 6 made their trip safely. 6! Most of those 80 ships had their cargo simply thrown into the sea as Tarn had no room for it. Not 1 ship has travelled through that sea since then.

I don't blame them."

There was an even angrier shout than normal from the crowd and Black was glad that his fake statistics had enraged them - not that they were too far off the truth.

"I propose that we form an alliance dedicated to destroying Tarn's ships," said Black, finally getting to his plan.

After the shouting had again died down, another voice shouted out worriedly, "But what about her...Hail?"

Black stared at the red haired girl who looked only around 17. A traditional Gerudo who still believed the ancient teachings. Still it would do no good to anger her through her religion.

"Tarn is not Hail, neither is that apprentice she took on Landstart. She is using the myth like Tana did 12 years ago."

"But..." the girl protested, "Tana changed her name to Hail. The apprentice did not even know who Hail was. Is that not a sign?"

Black looked straight in her eyes to make her uncomfortable, before replying, "No."

"So what's your plans?" called out a cocky Gerudo from a corner, "if you have any."

Black smiled. He had waited for this.

"I have a...a representative in Tarn's crew who has... informed me of their permission. We destroy the main ship and the other two ships will stop their attacks. We need no plan but to rush in and attack. If all of us here joined in we would have 50 ships. Not even the real Hail could beat odds of 50 to 1. We have nothing to fear... apart from spies."

At that instant Black jumped to the floor just in time to miss an arrow which had been aimed at his head. Then a Xi assassin jumped down from where the arrow had come from and drew her sword. Black jumped to his feet and appeared to draw his sword... only to threw it at her face. Surprised the Xi blocked the incoming sword with her own weapon, but before she could attack again Black ran forward and kicked her in the head so suddenly that she didn't have time to bring her sword around in time. She fell to the floor unconscious.

Black calmly picked up her sword and thrust it through her heart.

The silence was deafening, as his father would have said. The Xi were once the churchs bodyguards but had separated from them a hundred years ago when the church had started to go bad. There was no one better trained than an Xi, to defeat one was unheard of. They were the cream of what the Gerudos stood for.

And as Oliver Black contemplated when he stepped down from the stage, the dead actor had been well worth the money he paid for her.

Tai groaned as the well meaning woman pushed her into the tents opening.

"I really don't think that I need..." she started, but stopped when she heard what the woman was saying.

"Now don't be nervous, the K'Tan helps us face our fears, you'll feel better for it," the old woman chirped, as she brightly pushed Tai in, "theres nothing to worry about, really. I know what you're afraid of, I felt the same way at first."

"But I..." Tai again stopped as the curtain closed and she found herself alone in the dark tent. Around her were blue flames and ancient symbols and drawings of a kind which reminded Tai of the old stories of witches and their kind. Tai had decided to wait a few minutes till the other woman had gone when the stench overcame her and she stepped forward to leave.

"Wait..." called an old creaky voice from behind her.

Tai spun around and stepped further into the tent.

There right at the back of the tent almost hidden behind a table covered by a long black blanket was an old, old woman. Her face was so wrinkled that if Tai would have thought that she was a monster, if she had not already seen some of those fearsome creatures. She suddenly realised what an overstatement it had been to call the other woman old.

"Step closer..." the voice called again. Although it came from the old woman, Tai could not see the woman's throat move or her mouth open. She would have made a perfect Ventriloquist.

"I am the K'Tan, banisher of dreams and evil spirits," the woman breathed again, her voice quite like the wind.

Tai herself inwardly laughed at the last statement, if the old woman knew what evil spirits were really like, she would take back the last statement. Her mind went back to some she had heard of in the great Spirit Temple's library - spirits that could drain oceans, turn forests to deserts, mountains to dust, and love to hate.

"Not that kind. Inner spirits."

Tai's mind jerked back to reality in an instant.

"You read my mind?" gasped Tai.

The K'Tan just smiled.

"Let us proceed, the ritual first and then the payment" the woman continued bringing out a green potion and playing it on the table, "blood?"

Tai began to step back from the desk she had come right up to.

"I'm not sure..." she began, but it was too late for the old woman had already whipped out a needle and stabbed her in the finger then let the drop of blood fall into the green liquid. Tai found herself coughing at the large amount of smoke that had come from the bottle at that moment, but the old woman ignored it and poured the liquid into two glasses and waited for the liquid to cool down.

As Tai stepped forward again to get a better look as the smoke cleared, the old woman pushed the cup into her lips forcing some of the liquid to go into her mouth before quickly gulping down the other glass. The woman then seemed to slump forward on her desk, and Tai spat out the drink that had been forced in her mouth.

She was about to turn to leave when the old woman jumped up and slapped her. Tai fell back stunned by the woman's amazing increase energy.

"You fool!" the woman shouted, her voice now loud and powerful, "I helped you and you did this!"

Tai stared at the old woman, her obvious anger and the green liquid that had changed her to this. It was only when she sat up that she recognised the voice.

Nura.

Standing before her was her god, the god who she had allowed Ganondorf to capture and use for his plans, the god who had been second to her king. But how? Suddenly Tai realised that what was going on was impossible, Nura was trapped in the Sceptre of Ganon, until it was destroyed she would never be free and Hyrule would still be captured by Ganon's power. But yet...

"Of course I am your god!" shouted the woman using her mind reading trick again. "This K'Tan as they call it is nothing more than a simple witch, she performs a simple altered summon spell."

"Summon?"

"The spells picks the two most feared people in your conscious and summons their spirit into her. She has hardly any power of her own, the only reason she can hold is because of the power coming from you. That is it."

"But..."

"You don't think not drinking the liquid would have any effect, do you? As soon as it is in you she casts the spell and falls into unconsciousness."

"Can't you escape now?"

"If I could I wouldn't be sitting here now, would I! The spell is like elastic, when I leave this body I am automatically reverted back to my former prison."

"Is that what it feels like? I mean a..."

"I know what you mean! Any place feels like a prison when you have been part of the Spirit World and free forever. Once Spirit Temple was the gateway between the two words and even now there is still knowledge packed in the walls like no place else in this world. That is what it is all about in the end Tai, information. We have endless life and nothing to do in it but to learn and then relearn what we have forgotten."

"Why do you forget?"

Tai could have swore that Nura almost smiled.

"Imagine a book ten times the length of the longest book you have ever read. Now image a huge library full of these books, and finally a grand palace filled with nothing but rooms filled with these books. We read through one of those palaces every moment. It is sometimes hard to remember even my own name."

"How can I help you?"

"Do what you must. Do what you mustn't. You have already started the unstoppable and you are but a bystander now. Revenge, no revenge. Its your choice. Its your life. Live it."

"But..."

"Tai - you know the truth. There is nothing you can do."

Tai dropped to the floor and bowed keeping her eyes down so that she could no longer see the body that her god now inherited.

Thus the laugh shocked as it suddenly came from the old woman and Tai jumped up at once, wishing that she had her two swords.

"So fool - you think that your god would be like that?" came the evil words, pouring from the mouth which not long ago had been her god.

"You're...You're...."

"Ganon. Dorf if you wish." He smiled. "How's things?"

" But it was..."

"It was how you think that Nura is like. She is not. This feeble witch works from memories not the real soul."

"So you're not him?"

The woman / man smiled. "Fortunately you happen to remember me exactly as I am - so don't worry. I'm authentic."

Tai stared at the K'Tan standing boldly in front of her. How could she have ever wanted to free the spirit in it from the Sacred Realm? And yet she knew that she would do it again if she had to. For she would always obey her King, for that was a Gerudo's destiny - to obey the male member of the Gerudos. And that for now was Ganon.

"Why did you... destroy our land?" she almost pleaded, longing for the answer.

"Why not? To be trueful... I am surprised you realised what was going on. You have read too much from that temple that you guard."

"But why?"

"I am tired of that land and its 'legendary heroes', besides when the boy and girl realise what's happened they'll be coming to me. With the triforces."

Tai suddenly realised his plan and what he had done to obtain his goal. What kind of mind would have thought of a plan as cruel as this?

"You mean the princess... and the traitor?"

The K'Tan laughed again. "No..." he said softly, "he may be annoying but he is not a traitor."

Tai stared at him. "What?"

"You know my age?"

"No...but..."

"117"

Tai stopped breathing for a second as the flood of realisation hit her.

But she had not long to think.

Ganon suddenly went mad and pushed the desk over before shooting a pulse of power straight at her. Tai was knocked back to the edge of the tent where she shouted.

But in vain.

Ganondorf raised his old hands in the air and called power down from the skies to them and prepared to kill his releaser.

Tai dropped to the floor and pulled her hands over her eyes like she was an infant.

And then the old woman dropped to the floor, the spell over. As Tai ran from the tent not even seeing the power pour over the old woman, she vowed never to be pushed into anything again.

The old woman never got her payment.

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