Chapter 6

Tai smiled as her mind cleared and as she let herself relax. Here higher than most people could climb, she had found a nice private place where she could stand and let the torrent from the great waterfall tumble over her. As the water fell it seemed to wash away her fears and she could only hope that it wouldn't carry them downwards towards the huge amounts of less adventurous people at the bottom. The great cleansing waters of the river Akai were doing their job for her and she would have even paid if she had any money. But nothing lasted forever and finally, pulling her clothes back on she made her way down the rocks to find a secluded place in the forest to sleep that night - no inn would have take her for free.

But in her now crystal clear mind there was one purpose, to find her king and serve him. And it was all too clear from Gannondorf's remarks who that was.

Link.

A Gerudo male is born every hundred years. The statement that had been hammered into her head when she was a child. More times than she could remember she had asked her mother why there were no boys there, or why she could not go and play with them down the stream. She had not fitted in with the rest of the Gerudos, that had been clear from a young age. Desperate for companionship she had run out into the wasteland and had spent days wondering through it, determined to never stop. Finally she had come to her oasis in the desert, the huge and all powerful Spirit Temple that she had been forbidden even to approach.

Running closer, skipping over the lizards as she went she had slowly crossed the sunny desert plain. When she finally came to the entrance she entered with no fear, and had quickly crawled through the hole on her left. For the first time she saw the huge statue which dominated the centre room, and recognised it as the same as on the tapestries they sometimes were shown. When she left she memorised the path she took and by some fluke managed to get back first time. As Gannondorf grew in strength, her mother and friends had been ever more busy preparing for the ultimate climax when he would claim Hyrule. Tai had run off more and more to the Spirit Temple, the only place she could be alone in. She could get there and back in 10 minutes and soon it became her only comfort.

And then the great day came when Gannondorf would go and capture the 3 stones and meet the king. But at that instant Gannondorf had vanished and only Tai could remember him. The others thought that Tai was going mad and sometimes she had thought that she was too. But then she had gone back to Spirit Temple, and her memories of him returned stronger than ever.

She spent hours exploring the temple, staring at the strange writing on the walls and finding hidden passages. In one of those she had found her first bottle of the yellow dust material and had tied it down so that she wouldn't lose it. She had vowed to carry it around forever. It had been one of her more adventurous activities when the bottle had smashed and the dust had been let lose. And when she had met Nura for the first time. When she had first seen the statue glow red she had run out of the room screaming, scared of what she had done. But later that night, unable to sleep she came back and saw what had happened. The first thing she had noticed was that all the monsters had gone which seemed impossible. Why had they run out just then? And then she had walked into the main room and saw the statue still glowing red. But she just managed to hold in her terror - even when the first message came.

Who are you?

"Tai," she had breathed in a whisper.

Slowly her friendship with the god grew, until she spoke to her everyday. But it was only after six years that she realised that she might be able to free her king Ganondorf from the prison Nura had spoke about. Slowly she built her customised spell and begged Nura everyday for the god's power. For the last ingredient she had to search the desert for weeks, knowing that the chances were that she would never find it. And when she had returned Nura had finally given in and Ganon had escaped. Only to destroy her homeland.

And all the time she had served the wrong king. Why she hadn't Ganondorf's age she never knew. Why hadn't someone else checked it? But she was willing to wager that seventeen years ago on Link's day of birth it had been Ganon's hundredth birthday. Yet why hadn't anyone noticed Link? He was a boy! Surely someone should have noticed that. The only thing Tai could think of was that he had been born in the War for the Triforce. Many Gerudos had left the fortress then and Link's mother must have been one of them. She probably died later in the fighting.

She would keep on going until she found him, and then she would serve him in whatever way was necessary.

In whatever way.

*-*

Hail smiled as she floated calmly in the ocean enjoying the peace before the storm. The small bay was deserted. The ship was on the other side of the small island that they had discovered a few hours ago and she had decided to take a break. The crew would have their own leisure time later, but until then Hail had ordered no one to even come on this side of the island. It was the only way to secure privacy. Here, alone but for the fish in the still water she could let her mind concentrate and recover after the whirlwind of the last few months. From the time she had first stepped onto the ship until the time she had become captain she had had no rest. And yet, not even now she seemed to ever be able to relax.

Her mind kept on thinking of events ahead, and the strands of time left. Somehow she would have to find the way to predict what everything was doing and then overcome them all. So far she had been using basic tactics. Yet the army of a country which had not seen war for so long was untrained, and Hail found it easy to elude them all. But now the confrontation was coming. She had not needed all the reports to tell her that Black was coming after her. And that was bad news. Black was a con artist, but he did his job well and that was all that was needed. The latest reports said that he had 50 ships. Whichever way you looked at it, 50 ships was 50 ships.

She had but one weapon that Black was unaware of, and she meant to keep it that way. It was a few small stones that were called Calalite. Hail had one of the few stones left. Its secret was simple. When fire was held near it would seem to absorb the heat easily for a few seconds. But then, an instant later it would all change. The stone would blow up. Incredibly violently. It was said that a gram of the material could destroy a tower. It was the most effective gun power substitute ever discovered.

In an old inn Hail had heard the story of how the rich houses had quickly stockpiled the material as quickly as it could be mined. Everyone was afraid of what a few rebels would do with the explosive. The stones themselves were mined in the snow lands, where using a special process the explosive power could be gradually leaked out until they were relatively harmless. But disaster struck before the procedure could become common place.

After stealing two tonnes of the material from a royal ship rebels tried to destroy every stone of it left. Every rebel did the same job - cover the ground of the target with fuel, run and throw a burning torch. Most rebels didn't survive destroying the stone. The rich houses found themselves in a dangerous situation, they could buy no more Calalite. All the mines had been deliberately caved in. It was a nightmare time.

The rich became poor, the poor became rich. Only the priests kept neutral, protected by the Xi from any harm. Great monuments were shattered, falling to the rebels. Separate groups split off from the main army and became terrors of the their own. Any person with a gun and Cala powder could hold back a normal army. No one was safe.

Eventually the two tonnes ran out and the loyal followers of the old king took back rule. The king's first demand was that every grain of Cala powder was to be destroyed, no exceptions. The king's guards soon destroyed every piece and all was thought to be well. Then years later the king's son discovered that the church held a ton of the rock. Furious he demanded that they gave it to the king's guard to be destroyed. The church refused. War broke out. The church V the king. The Xi V the guard. Man V Woman. The women won and the king was executed. >From then on the church unofficially ran the country. Many people cheered that the Gerudo king was gone. No Gerudo male was ever born again in Nura.

Hail swam back to the beach and lay in the sun for a while, letting it dry her off. Black was playing a dangerous game and that could be exploited. The first thing to do was to contact the Actor's Guild...

*-*

Tai stared up at the bleak mountain ahead. Its foot was covered with forests and from what she had heard it would not be easy going to climb it. She hadn't expected the Xi hideout to be. From the various people she had met, she had found two ways of getting information. Join the church or join the Xi. She had taken her pick.

Not that she wanted to join the Xi, that was not part of her plan. The Xi would have rules and laws that she would have to obey, and there was only one master she would obey now.

So breaking in was her next best choice, and from what she had seen it would be not too hard. She had hired all the equipment she had needed a few miles away - ropes and a sword. She would need no more.

The one thing that would have been useful was an invisibility suit like she had seen the True Gerudos wear. The old Royal guard had managed to keep one thing from the Xi at least - the secret of the manipulation of light. It was an art that had been one of the lost arts from the Golden Ages, when magic was a common art in the young Nura.

Tai had gone around the mountain the back way, although she had had no pretences that the Xi wouldn't have seen her because of this. Her idea was simple - make her way up to the top as quickly as she could. From Nura she had learnt an enhanced version of Nayru's Love, that not only would protect her but also give her a kind of 'danger sense'. If an arrow was fired at her she should feel it before it came near the shield. She was hoping that this and her sword skills would be enough to keep her alive.

Probably the most crucial thing would be making ground fast. If she was stopped before she was a third of the way up she would have no chance. She quickly jogged when she could up through the steep path, going slightly above her normal jogging speed. When she was high enough she would slow down slightly.

The path was rocky and Tai had trouble not stumbling at many points as loose gravel rolled down under her feet. The only way to keep upright was to watch the ground and hope that the spell would warn her in time of any trouble.

It nearly didn't. Tai was watching her feet so carefully that she didn't stop in time to miss a canyon which had been dug out in the soil. As her head swung down she pushed out her fingers and grabbed the loose earth in the side of the canyon. Her spell couldn't help here, and she didn't trust her rope to reach the bottom of something that she couldn't even see the end of it. She was trapped - her feet dung into the ground on the top and her fingers into the dirt in the wall. She quickly cancelled the spell seeing no point for it now, and debated her options. Could she get the momentum to swing up back to the top? Doubtful. The ground was so loose that she didn't dare climb or dig in it in any way for fear of the whole section collapsing.

An old reaction suddenly jolted on as another foot kicked hers down. She hooked her feet quickly and was delighted when she caught a leg and pulled the person down with her, although she silently cursed herself for taking the spell off.

She turned her body in mid air and stared at the Gerudo who had kicked her down. It was an old Xi who must have been well over a hundred, her hair was grey and her clothes were from another age. No wonder her reactions were so slow. That didn't stop her pulling out a sword while she was still falling and throwing it at Tai.

Tai simply re-engaged the spell and watched the sword bounce off it uselessly. Suddenly Tai could see the ground and she waited while her body hurtled towards it. But her energy shield arrived first, and compressed as it hit the ground. In a jolt it turned off all together. But it had done its job. The speed of Tai's fall was reduced dramatically and although the impact still hurt, she was able to walk in a few minutes. The old Xi wasn't so lucky.

Blood was pouring from a wound on her head and her back seemed to be broken. Tai knew she wouldn't survive.

"Come....h..." the woman's voice broke off, but Tai came nearer anyway.

"Follow....me...become...Xi," the Xi managed to speak a few words.

"Name....Tan..ya" the old woman's voice stopped and her eyes closed. She was dead.

And Tai rapidly rethought her decision. She had a duty to this fallen foe.

She would become an Xi.

*-*

As far as Black could see there were ships - his navy sailing across the sea. 50 ships and approximately 5000 cannons were waiting for his command. At a signal the rockets would be lit and their message read by people on other shipsspecially trained to recognise the command from the colour. They had been anchored here for 2 days waiting for Hail's ships to come close.

A small rowing boat drew up to the side of the Black's ship and a ladder was thrown down to it. A stout old man climbed up it and smiled over at him.

"Oliver! When do we move?" he asked cheerfully.

"Soon," Black was short, he had no time for impatient people.

"How soon," the voice was slowly losing its cheerfulness.

"I'll just check," Black said in a sarcastic tone, although he did actually mean every word of it. This was the third captain that had come to him in an hour. he would check with his source and gauge how many lies he could make about how soon it would be and when to start them. Nodding to a nearby pirate to escort the old captain away he slowly walked over to his cabin.

After all he could always check whenever he wanted. A small spell 'purchased' from a witch in Selonius allowed him to always keep in touch. Closing the door firmly behind him, he called out firmly and loudly, "Where are you?"

A portrait hanging on the wall glowed for a few seconds and then Black could see his spy on Hail's ship.

"Lain - where are you?"

"Luckily for you I'm in my cabin."

"You know what I mean. Now co-ordinates."

Black could see Tarn's face sigh as she recited the exact position from memory. There was no need to con her, she was getting paid enough. She knew that she would be welcome onto Black's ship if she could get there. The problem was the 'If'.

"We can get to you in two hours. The men are ready."

"Time for you to run off then," Lain said, her voice showing her disgust. Black wasn't worried that she thought him a coward to run away - he knew that she would do the same in his place. He broke off the connection and wrote down the co-ordinates and a battle strategy on a piece of paper. Which excuse for leaving should he use today?

*-*

A sword tied to a rope was all that was needed to get Tai back up to the main path, it was an easy job that any person who wanted to become any Xi should be able to handle in an instant. That the old Xi had rather try to kill her then get back up again as she surely could was something that Tai took as a complement. Not everyone would have taken it that way. It showed to her that the Xi thought she was important. But now she knew she would not be harmed. For some reason she was sure that no person would attack her, so she walked quite openly up the hill without the shield protecting her.

When she finally reached high enough for the trees to disappear she was completely exposed, yet the Xi still did not attack. She could not believe they only sent one person to attack her. That would be completely against any strategy she had ever learnt. The only problem now would be to find the base. In the end it was easier than she thought. She rounded a huge rock wall and set in a huge protected space was a building that reminded her of Spirit Temple. The temple that she could see was obviously only a front, the rest of the building must be deep within the mountain.

And yet she could see no one. It was a completely desolate place and she could hear no noise but the wind and her footsteps. It was the most lonely place she had ever been to and yet she knew this was the place where the Xi trained.

She walked closely up to an empty doorway and stepped through it into another bigger room. From this room she could see all the windows that she had seen from the outside and she realised that this was just a hollow shell of a building. In front of her was a huge stone doorway with a slab of stone in front of it that she could not hope to move. Engraved on it was a golden crescent and a few ancient symbols which Tai did not bother to try to translate.

A cough came from behind her and she turned around to see an old man with a long white beard holding a torch.

"Hello," he started, "I am Darius. You are the new trainee?"

Tai stared around in astonishment trying to find out where the man had come from. But the only doorway she could see was the one she had come through. But she would not show weakness.

"I'm Tai," she said firmly, "Tanya told me to come here."

It was near enough the truth.

"She did," the man said simply. "You can keep your name for now. Follow me."

The man turned on his heel and walked over to the great stone slab with the crescent. At his approach the stone slab rose smoothly through the air and above into a chamber in the old wall. The man walked through and Tai followed, a bit nervous that the stone could fall down at any instant. Her feelings were not helped when it did fall as soon as they went through.

Darius led the way through the rocky passage carved out of the mountain that they were now in, and lit some torches on the wall as they went.

"Is this where you normally enter?" Tai asked, wondering.

"No. This an old disused entrance that had not been used for a hundred years till this day. It will probably not be used again for another hundred. There are better entrances lower down the hill."

Tai wondered where the lower entrances could be, she had certainly not seen them.

They walked on in silence for a few minutes and Tai stared around her at they rocky passageway and tried to work out how far they had travelled in the mountain. Eventually the rock met up with bricks and Tai found herself in a passageway similar to the ones she remembered from the Gerudo Fortress. They came to a large room with more doors than Tai could count and Darius turned quickly through the third door on the left. A few minutes later they came to another one of the rooms, and then another, and soon the passageway itself was splitting into two every hundred metres. It was then Tai realised that she would never be able to escape through this maze without a map. She was caught. She had to do what they said or they could simply take her down a few passages, push her down a hole and she would be lost forever.

Tai was surprised when she noticed that a small stream had joined them on the left of the passage. It seemed to be running along with them but Tai realised that this must be a trick of the light as they were walking uphill now. The stream continued to grow wider and wider until it took up the entire passage and she was forced to walk through it. The higher they went, the deeper it seemed to get until the water came up to her waist.

"Quiet," Darius commanded, and he quickly doused the torch in the water. >From then on it would be impossible to speak anyway as the sound of the water was too loud for anything to be heard. The old man climbed up a ladder on the side of the passage but gestured for her to go on.

Fearful that this was a trap Tai had little choice but to obey. Soon the water was up to her shoulders and it was about then that the cold finally got to her. Her mind still struggled with one fact though, long ago she had realised that the water was running upstream. How it was managing it Tai had no idea, but she guessed that it was magic of some sort.

Around half a mile after Darius had left her the passage roof began to get lower and Tai found that she had to swim to keep her head above water. She prayed silently that the roof would not get any lower. To her relief it held at its present height for around a mile but then began to gradually slope down again.

Eventually she had no choice but to dive underneath and hope that the roof raised again. She swam for around a minute underwater until she realised that the roof was still getting shallower. In despair she turned round only to see a great cloud of small boulders blocking the way back. The roof had fallen in. Her only choice was to go on. by now she was sure that this was a trap.

She lost all sense of time as she kept on swimming, always looking at the roof. But no joy came to her. Soon the passage was only 30cm high and Tai found it almost impossible to carry on swimming. She began to feel faint from lack of oxygen, but she knew even if the boulders weren't behind her she wouldn't have the energy to get back anyway.

To her relief the roof suddenly went sharply up to around twice her height but the water filled the whole chamber. She swam for a few seconds before she hit a metal grate in front of her. She was stuck. She could not go forward. She couldn't go back. She managed to stay awake for a few seconds before she began to fall unconscious, from which she would surely never wake.

It was an automatic reaction that saved her life. As her consciousness left her she automatically cast the shield spell. A magic globe appeared around her limp body and slowly went outwards repelling all the water out of it leaving only oxygen. The huge globe reached its limit and managed to keep itself stable. Than the water current caught the magic globe and pulled it against the grate. There was a tremendous crash and the globe was reflected away leaving only a dent in the grate. Again the current pushed the globe against the grate, again and again until finally it gave way and the globe smashed a small hole through the grate. A few more collisions later and the hole was big enough for the globe to be swept through.

The globe was swept through the water for a few metres before suddenly the whole current shot straight upwards. The globe began to elevate at hundreds of metres per minute, charging up the inside of the mountain. The tunnel got narrower again, which only forced the water to flow faster. The globe tried to hold out against the rock but eventually failed and disappeared leaving Tai's body on its own hurtling up the tunnel. Eventually it reached the top and was swept along a short stream before it came to a giant waterfall. Tai fell through the air for a few short seconds before hitting the water and eventually floating back to the surface of a gigantic lake set in a huge open air garden. Her body floated across to a small ornamental stream where it continued its journey for a few seconds before it was abruptly stopped.

Tai lay still for a few seconds before she regained consciousness and opened her eyes. Above was a tall young man with orange - golden hair and smiling blue eyes.

"Welcome," he said simply.

*-*

The young new pirate from Hail's ship smiled determinedly out at the battalion of ships charging at her. Dayla knew her duty and had been briefed on her mission. She knew what to do. The first ship from Black's navy swung close in to Hail's ship and fired off several cannon rounds. Around fifty men stood on the ship firing off rifles at Tarn's boat. Thier sister ship 'Lain's Pride' came to their defence and fired out its cannons at other ship quickly. Not that they weren't already giving as good as they got.

2 cannon balls had hit the 'Red Flame' so far, but already on its first sweep ten of its shots had hit the enemy ship and in several places the ship was up in flames. Fire is any sailor's worst enemy and already the enemy riflemen were trying to put out the flames. Many of the people at the cannon's had left their places to help.

A young cocky pirate on Dayla's left managed to get her shot directly in a crowd of people which killed many of them. As a bonus they soon found out why they had been trying to defend that area: it must have been their gunpowder store. The ship exploded into a black hulk and the Flame turned to take 3 ships that were charging in from the west. The Pride on their right had already got a few of their own.

Behind her, Dayla heard the legions of Xi that Hail had hired preparing for battle. As Dayla helped to send another ship to a watery grave one legion of Xi dived into the water and swam across to a crowd of ten ships that was a way off.

"Day!" shouted the cocky Gerudo on the left, "I think I've found their store!"

Day turned her cannon and spotted where the Gerudo was aiming. Letting her crew load the cannon she quickly began to judge the right angle. When the cannon was ready she fired and to her amazement hit the ship in the exactly the right place. She didn't have time to see it explode. The Flame was charging across to help the Pride which was having a hard time with a giant black ship. Together they easily saw it off. As Day was cheering over their victory over the 'Dark Night' she saw the biggest explosion she had ever seen in her life. A huge mushroom cloud came from the crowd of 10 ships that the Xi had decided to visit. Obviously the sabotage plan was working.

But she had no time to celebrate that victory. The main crowd of 30 ships was charging toward them with Black's ship at their head. The Pride and Flame had decided to meet them halfway. Day waited until her cannons were in range and then helped the others load her cannon herself. They had to get as many of these ships down quickly as possible.

The Gerudo on her left succeeded in giving terrible damage to two ships and Day herself helped. But soon she had to give up her cannon as she saw a red rocket fly from the Pride and explode in thousand sparks. She was about to follow the Xi's example. Grabbing her two swords and throwing them into their sheathes she quickly ran and dived off the side off the ship.

She stayed underwater (swimming above it would be dangerous) and followed a person she recognised as from her own 'team' in front of her. She saw the girl reach a rope on the side of a ship and clamber onto it and she quickly followed the girl with all her might.

When she broke the surface of the water she had hardly any time to glance around but still managed to see many other people doing the same as her, climbing up enemy ship's sides. She reached the top, swung over the wall and drew her sword at the same time. She spotted an old man who was part of the enemy and ran over to him before anyone else could reach her. With one quick swipe of the sword she had killed him and she turned around looking for her next victim. There was no one left on the deck. She spotted the girl from her team diving over the side of the deck and quickly ran and followed her, glad to be back in the safety of the water again.

*-*

Lain Tarn could not believe Hail's luck. Nearly every shot from the Pride and the Flame had hit its target perfectly and the enemy had trouble getting within five metres of them with their shots. At this rate Hail might even win the battle. Not that Hail would care. She had obviously already decided that they would win as for the last few hours she had not left her room.

Lain wondered if she was already planning the next battle now. It would not hurt to see how she was and where she thought the next battle would be. She motioned to another Gerudo to take charge and walked across to the door of Hail's cabin.

She knocked and when she heard no answer, entered. She saw a body in the bed, lying down and sleeping. So why couldn't she hear any breathing? Lain walked at first, and then ran over to the bed and threw the covers off it. She found only a few cushions under the cover.

Her face filled with horror as realisation hit her mind.

"She..."

*-*

At that moment a seventeen year old boy fired his cannon at Hail's ship 'Lain's Pride'. His face filled with a smile when he realised it was going to hit. Probably low, in one of the stores. He did see the cannon ball fly through the ship's deck but could not see it hit the chest, only the reaction. From a the lower regions of the Pride a huge fire ball burst out and exploded through the ship. Humans, wood and water were sent flying through the huge ball of flame. But the ball continued to expand and took its namesake the 'Red Flame'.

The boy watched it mesmerised for a few seconds before his ship was hit by the huge ball of flame too.

Natives from an island few miles off watched from the beach as the ball expanded through the ranks of ships and swallowed them whole, its light seeming to grow stronger than the Sun. It spread until it was bigger than any tower, and island and then finally stopped.

The boiling sea showed no sign that any human had ever existed there.

Calalite had started a war, now it had ended one.

*-*

Oliver Black walked through the streets of Asreal planning his next move. He may have lost a battle, but he was convinced he could still win a war. He may have lost 50 ships, but once he had beaten Hail there would be no competition. He would become King of the Seas. There were other less direct ways of dealing with her.

Still plotting, he didn't notice until it was too late the blade that was struck through his chest. He sank to the floor, not quite believing the blood that was pouring from his chest. His eyes looked upwards and he saw the hated figure of an Xi walking alway.

Behind her there was a piece of paper dropped and Black with his last strength crept towards it and picked the note up. It read simply:

'From the Actor's Guild.'

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