Note: Thanks to everyone who left reviews on the last chapter. Getting an idea of how the story is being received really helps to keep my writing on track. This is the very first piece of fanfiction I've ever written, I'm learning as I go, so please keep the feedback coming!
Chapter 2
"I'm sorry sir; until the queen says otherwise, entry to the castle is restricted to official business only."
Kristoff paced before the guard in frustration.
"This is official! I'm the official representative of, uh, Valley of the Living Rock. I have very official business with the princess!"
"I'm sorry sir. Many people wish to see the queen and the princess. I will have word sent, but their majesties are very busy and aren't taking visitors at this time."
"I was in here just yesterday! I helped bring Anna and Queen Elsa in from the fjord! You must have seen me, or someone must have told you to let me in, or–"
"We will inform you of any change, sir. Please keep the way clear."
Kristoff let out an exasperated groan and stormed off towards the shaded side of the courtyard, where Sven and Olaf were waiting.
The castle's main courtyard had remained open to the public, as was the guest wing of the castle where Kristoff had stayed the night, but all entrances to the castle-keep appeared to be locked down and closely guarded. What were they afraid of? Had Elsa reverted to her old self, closing herself away behind closed doors? Was she even the one giving the orders? Maybe there'd been some kind of coup d'état overnight and they now had her and Anna locked up somewhere? Kristoff had to get in there and find out!
He found Sven preoccupied with staring down the owner of a nearby vegetable stall and turned to Olaf instead, who was talking animatedly with a group of young children that had gathered around him.
"…Ooh, here he is now." Olaf turned to the approaching figure. "Kristoff, these are my new friends Tabitha and Jonas and Harald!"
Kristoff couldn't help but catch the glare coming from the children's parents, each standing over their charges as if Olaf would, at any instant, turn into an abominable snow-beast. He tried to meet their collective gaze with a fairly unconvincing grin.
"Is he your snowman?" The girl named Tabitha asked.
"Uh, what? No. No, he's his own snowman, I guess." Said Kristoff.
"I bet he belongs to the Ice Queen!" exclaimed one of the boys – either Jonas or Harald, Kristoff hadn't been paying attention.
"Queen Elsa made me. I'll have to go ask her if that means she owns me or not." Olaf said.
This set off a chatter of excitement amongst the children that in turn translated to worried disapproval amongst the adults. So people still aren't sure what to make of Elsa, thought Kristoff. Guess it figures, after everything we've been through.
"Mama, can we go with Olaf to see the Ice Queen too?" the girl said.
"No Tabitha, can't you see you're bothering the man?" said the girl's mother said, her eyes darting up to meet Kristoff's bemused expression, "I'm very sorry, mister. We have to go now, come along."
She began hustling Tabitha off in the direction of the main gate, the others in their group taking the cue to do likewise. But once they were only a few paces away, the girl squirmed loose from her mother's grip and lept toward Olaf for a goodbye hug.
Kristoff wondered that the girl's mother seemed almost scared to even acknowledge Olaf by reaching for her daughter, and instead just stood there calling for her. The other adults behaved in much the same way; pulling out pocket watches or pointedly looking elsewhere. It was as if they couldn't quite believe they were in the presence of a talking snowman, so had simply resolved to ignore it until it went away.
Say, thought Kristoff, that gives me an idea…
"That was nice." Said Olaf as he waved goodbye to Tabitha following their embrace.
"Hey Kristoff, that man you were talking to before?" he said.
"Who, the guard?" Kristoff replied.
"Yeah. He didn't seem happy."
"Heh, yeah, I guess he didn't."
"You should have given him a hug. Hugs always make me happy."
"Couldn't have made things any worse," said Kristoff.
"Say, Olaf," he went on, "do you really want to go see Queen Elsa?"
"Ooh yes, that would be great!" said Olaf.
"Well, she's somewhere in the castle," Kristoff said, gesturing, "How about I just wait here with Sven while you go look for her? And while you're in there, do you think you'd be able to pass on a message to Anna for me?"
"C'mon Elsa, don't be shy!"
Anna had just launched herself backward into the miniature bank of fresh powder snow Elsa had created in their small private garden at the rear of the castle grounds.
"…Just like a pillow." She said, enveloped to her nose in the cold, slightly damp softness.
"Huh?" said Elsa, who was standing some distance away, staring intently at the swirling, palm-sized blizzard hovering between her outstretched hands.
"Uh, what? Oh nothing. I said don't be shy; I know you can do so much better than this little patch of snow!"
"It's just, it's so soon. I don't want to push things too far just yet." Elsa said, as she began to carefully build up another small snow-bank beside the first.
"But you know how to control it now. It's safe when you're with me."
"Yeah. It was always safe when I was with you. I just wish I hadn't forgotten that."
At this Anna began to awkwardly attempting to stand from the bank, managing to get mostly free before her lower half was re-buried in a mini-avalanche. She sat back down with a thump.
"What do you mean, like, always?" she asked, blowing stray snowflakes off her nose with a snort. "You never used your powers around me. Not ever."
"Oh, I mean, before Mother and Father decided to– I mean, we were always so close when we were young and my powers were never…" Elsa averted her eyes, pretending to be interested in the icicles she had formed on a nearby tree.
"What I meant to say was," she continued, "I should have known that I'd be safe with you."
Anna looked intently at her sister, a quizzical expression lingering for just a moment before being masked behind a wide grin.
"Well you know now, silly!" she said, then began a second, much more successful attempt to break free of the snow.
"Now, come on then, let's do something fun! Why don't you try freezing that lake? We can try ice-skating! Oh, hold on…"
Anna strode over to the tiny garden lake, barely more than a water-feature, hitching up her skirts as she did so.
"…I'd better get the ducks out, haha." She said.
A mother duck and her gaggle of ducklings were currently paddling around the centre of the lake. Anna knelt at the bank and leaned over to splash at the water, hoping to shoo them to the edge where she could safely scoop them out.
"Anna, I don't think that's such a good–" Elsa began to say, before being interrupted by a short scream and a loud splash.
"Anna!" she said, running towards the other woman, now half-submerged in the brackish water. Elsa had reflexively reached her hand out to Anna when she'd begun to slip at the water's edge, feeling the tingle of her ice magic at her fingertips, but she'd hesitated. Could she still not direct her powers near her sister, even now?
"Oh great." Anna said, sitting up in the shallow water with a huff. "Help me out, will you?"
Elsa reached forward gingerly for her sister's hand. Anna grabbed it firmly, began to lever herself up, but then pulled hard. Elsa was caught off balance and tumbled into the lake beside her sister, spinning as she fell. Instantly, the surface of the water directly below Elsa turned a solid, frosty blue. She landed hard on the new-formed ice, backside-first.
"Ow!" exclaimed Elsa, as the ice spread across the lake's surface, causing Anna to leap hurriedly up one bank while the ducks scurried up the other, lest they all be frozen in place.
"Guh, you could have done that for me, you know. I think I'd prefer a sore backside over a ruined dress. I can hardly play in the snow now!"
Elsa looked up, rubbing her bruised tailbone and feeling that some revenge was in order.
"It's not my fault you fell in, clumsy." She said. "Besides, it's only you and me out here. Just take it off."
A look of wide-eyed surprise came over Anna, before quickly melting into a devilish grin.
"You!" she yelled, splashing water into Elsa's face. As the water travelled through the air, it transformed into a light burst of snowflakes, which gently dusted the queen's features.
"C'mon Anna, don't be shy." Elsa said mockingly.
"Grrr!" Anna exclaimed in mock-annoyance, striding off towards the fresh snow nearby.
Elsa began to stand and could see her sister was doing something with her back turned. The next thing she knew, a snowball was sailing past her head at some speed.
"Oh no you don't!" Elsa said with a laugh. Taking a deep breath and brushing asider her fear, she extended a single finger and sent a tiny bolt of energy her sister's way. Within seconds, Anna's water-soaked dress had frozen solid.
"Oh you cheater!" Anna yelled, struggling to free herself of the constraints of the now-solid clothes.
"This is really cold, you know!"
"I know." Elsa said, as she reached to her side for the large snowball she'd just seen in the corner of her vision, intending to direct it at her momentarily captive opponent.
"Hi Elsa!" The head of Olaf said in her hands.
"Ahhhh!" screamed Elsa, dropping Olaf's head. His body ambled over and promptly lifted it back into place.
"Olaf?" Said Anna, her voice emanating from somewhere within the frozen dress she had almost managed to shrug off.
"What are you…" she continued, directing the neck-hole through which she was peering like a telescope first at Olaf then at Elsa, "Elsa, why are you going to throw Olaf's head at me?"
"Oh Olaf, you scared me!" Elsa said, as the sudden swirl of snowflakes that had leapt up around her in her initial shock began is subside.
"I've been looking for you. Sorry it took so long. I asked this nice lady in the castle where you were, but she just screamed and dropped some plates. I thought that maybe she was trying to tell me that you were in the kitchen, but there were only more screaming people in there."
"Why were you looking for me, Olaf?" said Elsa, getting down on one knee to speak to the snowman.
"Uhhmm… oh yeah! It's because Tabitha and Jonas and Harald want to know who I belong to. I said you made me, but I don't know if that means I belong to you or not." Said Olaf.
Elsa smiled benevolently at the little snowman, "Oh Olaf, you don't belong to me! You're my friend. You belong to yourself. You don't owe me anything."
After a moment's thought, she added, "Except for warm hugs."
"Who's Tabitha and Jonas and, uh, Harry?" said Anna, who was now free of the dress and standing in her petticoats.
"Oh they're my and Kristoff's new friends. Hey, Kristoff had a message for you Anna! He said that, uh, that you'd better go find him because Sven misses you."
"Kristoff! I – oh, I should go see him, he's probably really worried." Anna said, charging off for the castle entrance with all her characteristic sudden determination.
"And he also said something about a new sled." Olaf finished.
The queen felt a shock run through her. Had the morning disappeared so quickly? For so long Anna had just been little more to her than a forlorn shadow in the castle's empty halls, a songbird's voice on the other side of a door. Now just the thought of not seeing her for a few hours was enough to turn Elsa's blood to ice. She spun on her heel to face the retreating figure.
"Wait, Anna, I was hoping that we would be able to talk." Elsa called after her sister.
"But you heard Olaf," said Anna, turning, "he's been waiting all morning."
"So has everyone, Anna. You know we've only had this morning to ourselves because the council and the staff and everyone else have given us a reprieve, right? I don't know when we'll be able to just be together like this again." Elsa pleaded.
"I had a letter from Earl Lonning this morning," she went on, "he's pretty anxious for Arendelle's queen to start, you know, queening. That's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about."
"What do you mean, Elsa?" Anna said, turning.
"I… I want you to be Arendelle's chancellor, Anna. I just can't do it without you." Elsa said.
"What? Me? Oh Elsa, I'm not sure what to say. I don't… I mean, politics isn't really–"
"I don't need another politician, I need a friend. I need my sister. I'm sick of being alone, facing everything on my own. You said you wanted to be there for me – well, this is how you can do it. Please, just think about it, okay?
"Sure Elsa, I will." Anna said, stepping forward and taking both her sister's hands in her own. Elsa, once again despite herself, jumped at the unfamiliar warmth of Anna's palms, and gripped them tightly.
"Soo, can I see Kristoff now?" Anna said sheepishly.
There was that pang again. Elsa convinced herself that it was simply her nerves at the thought of being left alone without the only other person in the world she could truly rely upon. 'It's just you and me' Anna had said, after their parents had died. But now, with Kristoff, what if that wasn't true any more? Elsa quickly pushed the question out of her mind.
"Of course! You don't have to ask my permission." She said.
"Yay!" Anna said, quickly planting a kiss on Elsa's cheek, "C'mon Olaf, let's find Kristoff!"
Elsa stared after the princess as she made her way back to the castle, still feeling strangely nervous. There was something else nagging at her too, something…
"Anna, wait, your clothes!" she called after.
"Hi everybody! Sorry I'm late! What are we all talking abut?"
Anna came skidding to a halt in the council room, leaving a bewildered page in her wake to quickly shut the door she'd flung wide open.
"The, ahem, orders of the day," came a voice from the far end of the room: a dusty, grey voice, "we are very nearly concluded."
As her eyes adjusted to the gloomy candlelight, she could see it was Earl Lonning who had spoken. He was sitting to the right of Elsa at the head of the long table in the centre of the room, while the other council members; Kai, Gerda, the castle steward and a few others she didn't recognize, were arrayed on either side.
"Oh, hey, great." Anna said, as she began to drag a spare seat towards the head of the table.
"Well, if we – oh, excuse me, sorry. Uh, if we're just bringing up general important stuff, I noticed that there's still lots of ships in the harbour and Kristoff –"
Anna squeezed the seat into the small gap at the corner of the table to Elsa's left, causing Kai to shuffle aside to make room. She had to stifle a giggle at the sight of the grin on Elsa's face as she sat down.
"Phew! Kristoff was saying that's because all these people are hanging around looking for an audience with you, Elsa. He said they're practically lining up at the gate because the guards keep turning everyone away. Has anybody mentioned anything yet?"
Lonning, who always looked exasperated, simply frowned.
"It is on the agenda. I have collated a list of several of the more important dignitaries – allies, trading partners and the like – which I will put to her majesty in due course."
"Okay, great. But I was thinking that, instead of what you just said, why don't you get everyone together and, like, have a big fancy speech at them, Elsa? Kristoff says they all just want to hear from you what happened. He says there's lots of rumours going around, some of them are pretty mean."
"May I enquire, my lady, as to who this Kristoff is, who seems to know the workings of the kingdom so well?" Said the Earl.
Anna's eyes narrowed.
"He's a… friend." She said.
"He is a gentleman who aided in the rescue of both myself and my sister, and the kingdom is indebted to him." The Queen said, maintaining her regal posture while turning her head only slightly to the left and right, making it clear she brooked no argument.
"Now, may we continue with the business at hand?" she said.
"Your majesty," began Earl Lonning, peering at his notes through the half-frame spectacles perched on the tip of his nose, "I'm afraid we must now come to the unavoidable question of what to do with Prince Hans of the Southern Isles. While we can all appreciate the severity of his crimes, the king of the Southern Isles will not tolerate his son's languishing in our prison indefinitely. From what I have been told, the usurper has committed acts tantamount to high treason and therefore a trial would be in order. However, as you are aware, the penalty for treason is death. If he is found guilty, and I have no doubt he would, the king of the southern isles would be forced to –"
"I want him out of Arendelle immediately." Elsa interrupted flatly. "I want a full account of his deeds dispatched to the King of the Southern Isles, and I want it made crystal clear that if Hans or any member of his family ever again sets foot within Arendelle's borders, they will have much more than one of my sister's punches to look forward to."
Elsa shot a sidelong glance at her sister hoping to catch a reaction. But Anna simply wore a faraway, wounded look. Elsa sighed inwardly. It would be a long time before Anna could laugh about Hans of the Southern Isles.
"Excellent, your majesty. Francois of Normandy has already offered the use of his ship for the swift return of the scoundrel to his native lands." Said Kai.
"Unfortunately," Kai went on, "Francois has informed me that all the ship's cabins will be occupied for the journey, so Hans will have to make do with a rather cramped space in the ship's hold for some time."
"You've been planning this, haven't you, Kai?" said Elsa.
"I may have been making some enquires while your majesties were, ahem, indisposed." He beamed at both Elsa and Anna.
A wry smile crept over Elsa's face.
"Very well. To the next order of business – what 'enquiries' have you been making about Weselton?"
"The Duke denies any sort of conspiracy with Prince Hans in his plot." Lonning began.
"His men tried to kill me, Lonning," Elsa said to the Earl before turning back to her old attendant, "Kai?"
"Well ma'am, I personally believe the Duke was simply taking advantage of the situation as he saw it. He strikes me as the sort. And we would never be able to prove that his men were acting under his orders and didn't just get carried away in the heat of the moment. Might I suggest cutting all diplomatic and trade ties with Weselton? It would certainly send the little fellow a message about where in Arendelle's favour he stands."
"Very well Kai, see it done" said Elsa.
"Your majesty, I must protest." Said Lonning, "We rely on Weselton for any number of trade goods. And now especially – word is just beginning to come in that this, uh, artificial winter has played havoc with crops throughout the kingdom! While I pray the damage has been limited, we will not know the full extent of it until harvest time."
"The kingdom should be strong enough to survive with a reduced harvest. Didn't we have an exceptionally strong yield last year? Things may be tough for a while but –" Kai began.
Elsa didn't hesitate for a moment.
"We will expand trade with the Southern Isles. They owe us reparations, I will make it clear that we expect full holds and low prices. And any citizen who has suffered as a result of the events of the past week will be compensated from the royal treasury. I will personally see to it that the funds are distributed fairly, that repairs are carried out and farms re-stocked. I want the people to see that I alone am responsible for what happened, and I will make it right."
Anna realised she was staring at her sister. The dim candlelight in the shuttered room had seemed to catch in the queen's eyes as she spoke until they blazed like cut crystal. No, like ice. Cold wind sprung out of nowhere and swirled about Elsa. Without thinking, Anna reached under the table for Elsa's hand and grasped it tight. In an instant, the strange aura which had enveloped her sister seemed to vanish.
If Lonning had noticed the temperature in the room dropping, he showed no sign of it.
"If times do become difficult, the tide of public favour may turn against you my lady. The people already know you are the cause of this winter, short though it may have been. If any more suffering were to result, if you were to give them any more reason to fear their Queen –"
"It'll be alright if you just talk to them Elsa." Said Anna, "You just need to let them in! Show them that you're here to help, that your powers are nothing to be afraid of. Oh!"
A thought visibly struck Anna.
"You should show everyone your powers, do something cool with them! Like, like, uh… make them a big ice-skating rink, like today in the garden, but the whole courtyard or something!"
"Your majesty, I must strongly advise against any overt use of your, uh, abilities. The populace has not yet recovered from your last display and would justifiably shy away from anything that could so easily go awry."
"I will take your opinion under advisement while I consider the matter, Earl." Elsa said, trying to sound business-like despite her growing impatience.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen, are we done? I have promised to meet with the merchant guild and I believe there is now a speech I need to write." She addressed this last remark with a smirk to the seat at her left.
"Actually, your majesty, there is one other matter." Continued Lonning stolidly, "It does not require your full consideration at this time, but I believe it bares –"
A loud sigh emanated from Gerda's seat, the first sound she had made since the meeting began.
"He thinks you need to find yourself a suitor, m'lady." She said.
