Key Quest: Air and Fire by Judy Colella (color ebook reader TXT) 📖

one in the wall of the training ground in the Kokiri Village, but still wide and high enough for him to crawl through without removing either the Sword or shield on his back. The distance was no longer than the actual width of the wall, and as he stood up on the other side, Link wrung out the hem of his tunic, wiping his hands across his chest to dry them when that was done. There was nothing he could do about the water dripping down his legs into his boots, so he didn’t bother trying.

To either side of the area in which he found himself, stretched well-tended lawns. To his right and not very far was a wall with a door. Probably not a good idea to open it, he decided. To his left, another wall could be seen several yards away. But straight ahead, things were far more promising and somewhat dangerous, if the sound of marching feet was any indication.

A flagstone-paved path went forward for a considerable distance, a stretch of hedge beside it and forming a kind of wall. As he neared this, the footsteps grew louder. They clanged a little, reminding Link of the metal suits the guards wore. The steps came closer, and a second later, the top of a spear moved past the other side of the hedge. Link shrank back, flattening himself against the greenery. If the guard came around the side of the hedge…

No, the spear (and the guard holding it, he assumed) halted a few inches from the end of the hedge, and now he heard the steps moving away, perpendicular to the direction from which they’d come. The guard was obviously circling something on that side.

He tip-toed to the end of the hedge and peered carefully around its corner. He’d been right – the back of a metal-clad guard met his gaze. He couldn’t yet see what else was there, but as soon as the man turned right, Link crept out from behind the hedge and scooted quickly forward. Now he could see more hedges on his right, growing in a rectangular box-shape beside the path and set back a little.

The guard’s progress was marked by the movement of his spear-tip; Link could see he’d be coming back around the other side, so he zoomed ahead past the wall jutting out beyond this area, and ducked behind it.

Another side-ways planted hedge blocked the next space, but he could see statues towering over the top and hear the gentle flow of water. A twin fountain, meaning a longer distance. Crap.

“What time does the shift end today?” asked a voice.

“In about an hour,” answered another.

“Ah. Good. My feet are killing me.”

Drat! There were at least two of them this time, Link concluded. He looked up to see if their spears would be visible, but this hedge was much higher. He’d have to use his ears and some logic if he were to get past these guards.

“They’ve gone from the front of the fountain, Link! You can go now!”

And Navi. He nodded, went around the hedge, and ran as quietly as he could past the fountains. When he got to the next area, he had to stop to catch his breath. The distance hadn’t been far at all, but his heart was pounding so hard, he was finding it hard to breathe.

This time, he had to deal with a large pergola, which he could barely make out through the tight branches and leaves of the next hedge. Vines were growing up and over the structure, and a set of wooden steps led up to the top of the hedge, which was nearly twice as tall as the one before. How could that work? Link hadn’t had a whole lot of dealings with hedges, but common sense told him that walking on one would be impossible. He’d fall right through the stupid thing! Why ever would they put steps next to one?

“Go up the steps, Link!”

Okay, so maybe there was more to this. He climbed, keeping an eye on the one guard walking about underneath. When he got to the last step, he saw that the top of the hedge was even with the top of the pergola, and he had only to step over the greenery and he’d be standing on one of the structure’s beams. Which would have been terrific, were it not for the beam being only slightly wider than one of his feet. Was he supposed to walk across on that?

“Link –”

“Don’t say it, Navi!” he whispered. Wonderful. Well, balancing on narrow things had never been difficult, but falling off things in Kokiri Village never meant getting captured by a huge guard and possibly thrown into prison. They didn’t have prisons in the forest, but he’d heard about them from the Know-It-All Brothers. One of them had a non-Kokiri acquaintance who’d been locked up in some place he called the Gerudo Valley. He’d made it sound very creepy, too.

Well, there was no choice, it seemed. He stepped onto the beam, got his balance, and went forward. Slowly. Below him he could hear the guard’s metallic tread, but didn’t dare look down or pause to see if he’d been noticed. He was sure he’d hear a shout or something if that happened.

He made it across without mishap, but his elation faded when he realized there were no steps on this side. He’d have to jump down, and would probably make enough noise to attract the guard’s attention. Now what? He turned, watching the guard for a while, until it occurred to him that if he waited until the man was at the far side of the structure, there’d be less chance of him hearing the landing.

A few seconds later, the boy saw his opportunity and jumped, hitting the ground as lightly as he could and rolling forward. Then he froze, waiting, but heard no indication that he’d been detected.

His next challenge took the form of two guards circling a huge monument of a man with a crown (probably a king, Link assumed), his stately figure flanked by a two women doing a dance of some kind. The boy found it quite silly, and almost laughed as he watched the pattern of the guard’s movements. Unlike the previous pair who stayed distant from each other, one of them walked to the end of the monument while the other stayed where he was for a few moments, peering around. Then this second guard joined his partner, so the first could walk to the next corner of the monument. They continued the pattern, making it clear Link would have to wait until guard number one had gone to the far end of the back of the monument and guard number two had left his corner to join him.

As soon as this occurred, Link sprinted across the front, hoping he’d be fast enough to get past the wall on the far side before the first guard got to his front corner again. He did, but now had a totally different configuration of hedges, statues, fountains and guards with which to contend. The pathway came to an end a few feet ahead, making it necessary to enter an area to his right that looked like a kind of maze.

“Ooh, look, Link! It’s a maze!”

He almost swatted her. “Thank you, Navi,” he grated. Link knew about mazes from the crazy way the Lost Woods behaved, and from doing puzzles with Saria. She would draw one on the ground with a sharp stick, and he’d have to follow the paths with his finger and see if he could figure out the way through without hitting a dead-end. This maze didn’t look nearly as complicated as the ones Saria drew. In fact, from what he could see through the tangle of branches and leaves, it wasn’t really a maze at all. The path simply wove in and around a series of long hedges, which would make getting through both easier and more problematic.

The “easy” was having hedges to hide behind. The “problematic” was not being able to predict when a guard would come around one of them and find him.

“Navi – can you fly ahead and tell me when it’s safe to go?”

“Of course! Be right back!”

She guided him around the first set of greenery, then the next, and then disappeared for a few seconds. When she returned, she zoomed right up to his ear and screamed, “Run!”

One hand to his ringing ear, he took off at top speed, got to the end of the path, and went the only way available – a sharp left turn into what looked like a kind of wide tunnel. He flattened himself against the left wall of the breezeway (which was its actual purpose) and glared at Navi. “Don’t ever shriek in my ear like that again, please.” He swallowed, trying to catch his breath. “It hurt.”

“Sorry, Link. I was worried you’d get caught – there were four guards, and one of them was about to walk behind the hedge where you were standing.” She’d turned lavender, a color he hadn’t seen around her before, and wondered if that meant she was very sad.

“It’s okay. I appreciate you keeping me safe, Navi.”

The lavender faded into a restful blue, the color in which she was normally bathed when not in some state of agitation. “My pleasure, Link! Ooh! Look! A garden!”

“Huh?” He straightened and turned. At the end of the passage was a wide swath of green dotted here and there with circular flower beds. “Nice.” Walking forward slowly and checking over his shoulder periodically, he headed for this, soon realizing that there was nowhere else to go once he got there.

Windowed walls faced the garden on three sides. At the end and straight ahead was a set of four or five steps that ended in a wide paved area under a single, huge window. Something else was there, too, but it wasn’t until he was almost halfway across the garden that he realized it was a small person. A girl person, if the clothing was any indication.

She was wearing a white, pink and blue dress that covered her feet, a pastel scarf-like thing on her head, and she was looking in the window. He approached her slowly, not wanting to startle her, but as soon as he reached the top, she gasped and turned around.

“What?! W-who…who are you? And how did you get past the guards?”

At first, Link was unable to answer. The girl was absolutely beautiful, more so even than Saria. Her features were delicate, her eyes the most amazing shade of turquoise, her lips…he gulped. Was this what Saria felt when she looked at him?

She raised an eyebrow, and suddenly seemed to relax, but continued to wait silently for his answer.

“Uh.” Link cleared his throat and tried again. “I kind of sneaked past them, actually. And…and Navi helped me.” He nodded sideways at the fairy twinkling over his shoulder.

“Oh. What – what’s that? Navi, you said? Is that a…a fairy?!”

Link nodded.

“Then you are…from the forest, yes?” She took a step closer. “You wouldn’t happen to have the Spiritual Stone of the Forest, would you? It’s a shiny green stone. Do you have it?”

How had she known about that? Curious, he shook his head in the negative, more to see how she’d react than to be ornery.

“No?” She frowned. “Well, that’s odd. I thought you might be the one from my dream.” She looked away, biting her lip. When she looked back, her eyes were narrowed. “You really don’t have it? Come on!” Her eyes were twinking now. “Tell me the truth – do you have it?”

He relented. What a clever person! “Yes, I have it.” He gave her a crooked smile.

She clapped her hands and laughed. “Just as I thought!” Her own smile had a dimple in it, and Link decided – somewhere in his ten-year-old head that was too mature for its own good – that he would