Summary: A year after Frozen, word of the beautiful sorceress queen of Arendelle has spread throughout the lands. Kings, princes, knights, suitors, and serfs have all come to Arendelle to pay tribute to Elsa. But only one man came to Arendelle with an army at his back and a golden cage filled with wood for the pyre.
Prologue
- The Sorceress and Her Knight -
The sorceress's hands caught the soft moonlight from outside. Her shackles lay at her feet in broken and twisted pieces of gold stained red with blood.
"..."
She heard her name in the softest whisper, but it sounded so far away. Her knight was at her feet, bleeding badly from a dozen wounds and struggling to even rise to his knees. Maybe he was the one speaking.
She stepped over the body of her knight and stepped out onto the balcony. It was still so hot outside, even this late into summer. Her bare feet left bloody footprints on the rugs as she approached the carved griffon railings. Looking down at the thousands upon thousands of lights from buildings and streets, she felt something stir.
Those people had saved her.
"Please," her knight said, desperation filling his usually unflappable voice. He had followed her out onto the balcony. She could hear his ragged gasps as his lifeblood drained onto the floor.
She did not spare him a second look.
The sorceress reached out her hand and the air around her became cold.
Chapter One
- Wildflower -
Light from hundreds of bonfires shone with terrifying beauty on the plains, heedless of the storm Elsa had summoned to batter the army camped outside Arendelle's walls. Hailstones bigger than Elsa's fists crashed against the castle walls so fiercely they had begun to splinter the heavy wooded shutters drawn closed over all the windows to protect the glass and the people inside. Elsa could only imagine the devastation the storm was reaping on the army, who only had tents to protect them from the ice.
Yet, after three days of constant miserable rain and snow, the army showed no sign of retreating back to their ships, and the scouting reports said that they were entrenching themselves deeper into the land with each passing day.
It was infuriating.
Elsa tightened her grip on her balcony's railing, and felt the delicately carved wood warp beneath her fingers. The storm rumbled in a slow circle above her. Her hair was sodden with rainwater and droplets made their slow way down her face before freezing and falling. At her maid's insistence she had obliged to have a thick winter cloak wrapped around herself, but it did little to protect her from the rain.
"My lady?"
Elsa released her death grip on the railing and looked over her shoulder. A man with red-gold hair now streaked with silver stood in the crack between the balcony door and Elsa's bedroom. He held a heavy fur-trimmed cloak around his body, though he did not hunch into it. Captain Lennox had his shoulder's thrown back and his chin raised against the storm.
"Is there any news?" Elsa asked.
Lennox replied, "None of the doves we sent have returned, and none will until this storm ceases."
It was not the first time Lennox had made a comment about the supernatural storm, but Elsa was not in the mood to explain herself again. She turned her back on Lennox, so he could not see the way she bit her lip and asked, "What about...?"
Lennox seemed to understand and said, "Anna is gone, as you ordered. She is with three of my best, as well as that icefarmer of hers. They plan to cut through the forest to evade the army and seek refuge with Lord Bartholomew on the southern border."
"They won't be safe there for long," Elsa said.
"When the passes clear they'll travel south through the Southern Isles then onto Corona. She's in good hands, my queen."
"Who else knows?" Elsa asked.
"Just you and I," Lennox said. "If the city is taken it is best that no one knows where Anna is gone."
"I hope she'll be okay." Elsa said. Anna had not wanted to go. Elsa had pleaded with her for days, until finally she had ordered Anna to leave.
"You are my heir, the last hope Arendelle has," Elsa had said coldly. "I love you, but you will do as I say!" And now Anna was gone and the castle seemed colder for it.
"I give you my word," Lennox said reassuringly in the same weathered, but oddly comforting voice Elsa had known since she was a girl. It was as though some of the weight on Elsa's shoulders had been lifted. She felt lighter for it, despite the weight of the foreign army camped outside our walls.
"What about them?" Elsa asked, jerking her head towards the bonfires.
"That's what I've come to tell you." Lennox stood beside her and looked out into the storm. "The Ovelians have sent an envoy to the city's gate."
Elsa looked up sharply. "An envoy?"
"The King of Ovelia wants to meet with you tomorrow morning."
"Why?"
"My best guess is that he wishes to discuss terms."
"What terms?"
"The terms of our surrender," Lennox said.
Elsa curled her hands into fists and felt them grow colder than the storm. "He expects me to surrender Arendelle to him?"
"A man like King Maximilian expects the sun and seas to obey his word and will," Lennox said dryly.
"I will not surrender Arendelle," Elsa said firmly.
"I believe he knows that as well as I."
"Then why bother discussing terms."
"King Maximilian has seven men for every one of ours. He has blockaded the bay and by now I'm sure he controls most of the routes out of the kingdom. He wants you to look upon those campfires and imagine the men who are sharpening their swords and spears and polishing their armour. Most kings will sit outside a city walls, feasting and laughing until the defenders are so weak with hunger they open the city gates and accept whatever terms will get them fed."
"You said 'most kings', but not Maximilian?"
"Maximilian did not win his throne by waiting for his enemies to surrender."
Lennox's words hung heavily in the air. Elsa had heard the rumours and reports from Ovelia as they came over the years. The old King Meriden had succumbed to a sudden illness which had left him bedridden and weak for more than a month. The kingdoms had expected the coronation of the King's eldest son soon after the funeral, but before Meriden had even been laid to rest, his sons and other noble lords had begun warring for the crown. After nearly a year of fighting, King Meriden's youngest son had taken the throne with the blood of his dead brothers at his feet. At least that's how the painted frescos depicted Maximilian's victory. Elsa had had a copy of the fresco displayed in the war room. She knew Maximilian's face almost as well as she knew her own.
"Where is this envoy?" Elsa asked.
"In the guardhouse warming by the fire. The way he tells it the storm nearly killed him on his way here. I have three men watching him and the entire south garrison nearby."
Elsa released her grip on the railing and heard the wood grown in relief. "I think I'd like to meet this envoy and give him my answer myself."
She took pleasure in the glint of surprise that passed over Lennox's face. He shifted his feet and said, "If that's your will, my queen."
"It is," said Elsa, smiling. "Don't worry; with you, three guards and a garrison surrounding me I doubt that one envoy will cause us harm, even if he were a secret assassin."
0.0.0
The guardhouse lay on either side of the portcullis that separated Arendelle palace from the bridge leading to the rest of the city. Lennox paused before they walked out into the courtyard to pull his cloak tighter against his body. The twin fountains on either side of the courtyard were completely frozen over and the stone slabs were complete covered by fresh snow. Elsa felt no need for her coat and she certainly did not need Lennox to walk half a step in front of her to protect her from the worst of the wind.
When they reached the guardhouse Lennox threw open the door and held it open for Elsa to walk through.
Two guards were talking quietly at a knife-scarred table while a third stood warming his hands by the fire. All three stood rapidly and saluted Elsa with a closed fist across their hearts. Elsa could hear murmurs of talk and jokes from other soldiers deeper within the guardhouse that ran alongside and underneath the wall. The fire was burning merrily in the hearth, but it was the only light in the guardhouse and cast long, flickering shadows throughout the room.
"Relax," Lennox said to the two soldiers by the table. "How has our guest been?"
"He has been quiet, ser," one of the guards said as he lowered his arm and placed his hand on his sword hilt. "Hasn't said a word since we sat him down."
"We think he's a bit sore about the sack," the other guard said.
Elsa let her cloak drop to the floor as she walked around one of the tables to look at the man sitting by the fire. A thick soldier's cloak, dark red with no insignia, was wrapped tightly around his body. A yellowing sack had been gracelessly placed over his head. The bag moved slowly as Elsa padded closer and reached out her hand.
"My Lady?" Lennox said tightly – a worried warning.
"Has he been searched?" Elsa asked.
"He did not have a sword or shield with him, and we took his dagger from him before he was brought into city," the first soldier said. He reached into his belt and withdrew a large dagger dagger with a pale red gemstone forged into the hood. The blade gleamed brightly in the firelight, and the gemstone glistened as if covered in blood.
"Fancy blade," Lennox took the dagger from the soldier and inspected the dagger's sharpness with the tip of his finger. He winced as the blade pricked his finger. A droplet of blood ran down the blade's length.
"The men at the front gate put the sack over his head before we brought him into the city," Lennox said as he shook his finger and handed the knife back to the soldier. "We don't want his eyes making their way to a map or counting how many men are at each post. Spies and envoys are often one in the same."
"I don't think I could see well enough to do any counting in this dreadful storm – if I were a spy." The envoy's mouth was muffled by the sack.
Elsa reached out her hand again and pulled the bag off the envoy's head in one smooth motion. The envoy shook his head and sneezed violently, before reaching up and smoothing his length of well-kept brown hair away from his face. He glanced around the guard house for a moment before his eyes settled on Elsa. A small, contented smile appeared on his face as he rose lowered himself to one knee and bowed before her. He ignored the sharp intake of breath from the soldier's at his sudden movement.
"Queen Elsa," the envoy said with a honeyed tongue, head still bowed. "Your beauty has made this journey all the worthwhile. I would offer you my blade, but I fear I have lost it."
"Stand," Elsa said as she crossed her arms beneath her breasts and frowned at the envoy. "What is your name?"
The envoy straightened and looked at Elsa with interest. "My name is Aedan, Your Majesty."
The envoy's thick cloak was open at the chest, revealing a red leather breastplate. He was not wearing chainmail or any kind of metal armour. In this cold, metal stuck and tore away skin and flesh.
"And your family name? Title?" Elsa asked. She had never known a royal envoy that was not from some noble house or another.
"My family name is of little consequence, I'm afraid," Aedan replied with that same small smile he wore when she had taken the bag from his head.
"In Arendelle it's considered courteous to give the queen the answer she desires," Lennox said sharply.
Aedan turned towards Lennox and inclined his head. "We have the same courtesies in the south, but, alas, I don't have a family name to give your queen."
"Bastard born," Lennox said, his upper lip curling. "Maximilian has bastards deliver his messages?"
"And pour his wine," Aedan replied quickly. "Sometimes we even fight battles and besiege castles."
Lennox opened his mouth to retort, but Elsa held out her hand to stop him and said, "It's okay, Captain." She turned her winter gaze back towards Aeden and was satisfied to see his breath turn into white clouds as he wrapped his cloak tightly around his body. "Say what you have come to say."
Aedan straightened his shoulders and said, "Queen Elsa of Arendelle. King Maximilian Du Von Ovelia wishes to meet with you tomorrow morning to discuss the terms of Arendelle's surrender."
Elsa and Lennox traded a look. It was just like Lennox said. Anger filled her chest and the guardhouse grew even colder. "You can tell your king I have no interest in discussing terms. Arendelle has been free for five thousand years, since Doran of the Frost drove the Ice Giants back into the mountains and built this castle to defend the harbour. We have fought raiders who want our gold and conquerors who want our land, but we still remain free."
Aedan inclined his head. "Respectfully, Queen Elsa, Arendelle has not faced a man like King Maximilian."
"He is just a man. He can die as easily as any other." Lennox said.
"Do you love your queen, Captain?" Aedan said.
Lennox bristled. "I would die for her."
Aedan nodded in approval. "Devotion is to be admired, but let me assure you that every man in the army camped outside your walls would die for their king."
"And every man in Arendelle would die for their Queen!"
"And so they will," Aedan said. "If your Queen will not agree to my king's terms. Our men will brave whatever storm is conjured to climb the walls. We will batter down your gates and set fire to the town. "
"You will find we are not so easily cowed." Lennox's fists were clenched tightly and his face shook with fury. "Ice is in our blood, boy."
"So I have become aware," Aedan said, with a significant glance at Elsa.
She lifted her chin as their eyes met – her icy blues and his golden browns. A sliver of fear pierced her heart, but she kept on looking until Aedan looked away.
"You may tell your king that I shall meet him at the gates two hours after dawn tomorrow," Elsa said.
"If we can see the dawn through these clouds," Aedan said, smiling. "The king will be pleased. He has wanted to meet you for a long time."
"You have your meeting, now it's time for you to run along and tell your king," Lennox said.
"Yes, of course," the envoy gave Lennox a slight bow before turning back to Elsa. "I have a gift for you, Queen Elsa."
Lennox placed a hand on his sword hilt as Aedan reached deep into his cloak and pulled out a wild blue rose which glistened prettily with ice and frost.
"I picked this between the encampment and this city," Aedan said. "It was so smothered by snow, I almost trod on it.
"We've heard tales of your sorcery in Ovelia. We heard about the beautiful snow witch with her heart carved from ice. How she nearly destroyed Arendelle with an eternal winter when she first became queen. I confess, I did not believe in half the things we heard, but then we sailed into the harbour and an ice storm appears from clear skies in the middle of summer . . . it makes me believe the stories of this sorceress queen must be true.
"When this storm passes and the frost thaws that flower will die." He paused and smiled again. "It will die even if I had left it in the ground. There is no life in frozen snow. You may kill Maximilian's soldiers and scatter his army to the winds with the strength of your storm, but you're killing your country too."
Elsa withdrew her hand and curled it into a fist by her side. Aedan looked at her almost sadly as he placed the rose delicately onto the nearby table.
"Take him back to the gates," Elsa ordered.
Lennox nodded and gripped Aedan by the shoulder as another guard replaced the sack over the Ovelian's head. The icy rose glittered in the flickering firelight as the two guards opened the door and led Aedan back out into the storm.
Elsa couldn't tear her eyes away.
"Queen Elsa?" Lennox asked, voice soft over the howling storm.
Elsa picked up the rose and ran a long finger over one of the frozen petals. It was glass and eerily cold to touch. The envoy was right: the rose was dead, and she was the one who killed it.
Just like she was killing her kingdom.
0.0.0
Author's Note: I found an early draft of this story on my computer from nearly a year ago. I spent the weekend cleaning it up and plotting out one large first act. I haven't read much Frozen fanfiction, so I couldn't tell you if a concept similar to this has been done before. I just wanted to explore what might happen when other kingdoms find out about the Ice Queen of Arendelle.
