Chapter Three
Darkness. Even when Anna opened her eyes, the nightmares managed to follow her into life. Small flickers of orange light flashed around her, sometimes here and sometimes there. Strangely, the air around her felt comfortable and warm. She hadn't felt such pleasant warmth in a long while. She wriggled her toasted toes, no longer numb from the winter storm.
"You like it, don't you?" said the withered voice that had also sprung forth from Anna's nightmares. "It must be wonderful to experience the kindness of summer, after those long winters with your sister."
Guilt elbowed Anna's stomach, ten times more painful than before because this time, the princess really did feel happy. "I did as you asked," she managed in a weak voice.
"Yes, you've been a very good girl," agreed the lady in the darkness. "Your sister will never forgive you for leaving, but this is for her sake."
"For her sake," Anna repeated, shivering despite the warmth around her. She closed her eyes, a sudden ache pressing against her chest. Before she could stop herself, hot tears began streaming down her cheeks, vanishing into the air as they fell.
"For Elsa," she whispered.
Calm. Calm and collected. Elsa breathed slowly, trying with some difficulty to soothe the freezing wind that howled around Kristoff's sleigh. It didn't help to focus on the iceman, whose teeth chattered with annoying repetition.
Think of Anna. That's right. Think of the warm, sunshiny princess of Arendelle. Her sister.
But images of a frozen Anna, icy and colorless, flashed across her mind and the wind screamed.
"Umm, your Highness?"
Anna was probably dying, cold and stiff, in this winter storm, if not dead already.
"Queen Elsa, maybe you could calm it down a bit?"
Freezing alone.
"Elsa!"
She blinked.
"Your Highness," gasped Kristoff, his lips blue. "I can't see through this blizzard."
Right. This was all her doing, all in her mind. Calm down. Then Anna won't have to suffer in this cold. Slowly the storm stilled, and the Queen could see the roofs of the village peeking out through the haze.
Kristoff jumped off his sleigh, helping Elsa down, and the two roamed through the village, crying, "Princess Anna! Has anyone seen the princess?"
But the wind stole their voices away into the air, and few of the townsfolk dared to leave their homes in such weather. Desperately the Queen and the iceman pounded on their doors, yelling, threatening, and pleading. Yet the forbidding doors stood firm, glaring at them with wooden eyes.
At the last door, Kristoff fell, no strength left to knock. Hope had left him, the last bit of hope that he would ever see his Anna again.
That last ray hadn't abandoned the Queen yet, and with shaking hands Elsa raised herself to the final door and knocked. No answer. A sudden chill swept over her.
"Please," she whispered hoarsely, leaning her head against the barred entrance, "Please, I need to find her . . . just let me in."
And the door creaked open, light flooding around her and sparkling against the snow.
"Your Majesty!" exclaimed an astonished voice, "Please come in."
"Wait. Kristoff."
"Don't worry. My boy will bring him in. Erik!"
A young man emerged from the corner with a quiet, "Yes, mama." In a moment, he had cloaked himself with a thin coat and disappeared into the blizzard.
The mother, an old woman with trembling hands, gently led the pale queen to a chair beside the fire. Slowly, the snow that trailed inside melted.
"Have you seen my sister?"
"Forgive me, Your Highness, but I haven't. Two strangers did come yesterday—"
Elsa's eyes lighted. "To a fortune-teller?"
"Why, yes." The woman frowned. "We know her as Gunda here. She . . . she disappeared yesterday night, but I can take you to her old tent. One of the strangers—your sister, Princess Anna—was seen there."
"Please take me there."
"Your Majesty." The woman bowed low in compliance. "But let me warn you, she is a dangerous person and known here for her vocal disapproval of . . . of you, Your Majesty."
Elsa grimaced inwardly. "I know many people here are not overly fond of a woman who cast Arendelle into eternal winter," she replied stiffly.
"But Your Majesty," protested the woman, "The entire village loves you! Only that witch did not, yet even—"
Suddenly the door opened and a cold breeze swept through the house. The good host's son appeared, dragging with some difficulty a shivering Kristoff. "He's fine," huffed the young man, his keen glance catching the concerned expression in Elsa's eyes.
"My boy," said the old woman, "We will take the Queen and the Official to Gunda's tent."
A look of displeasure flushed over the man's face as he heard the name, but with a low bow he nodded.
The tent was small. As they mounted the steps, Erik of Arendelle noticed the frosty anger in the queen's face.
"Are you angry with Gunda?" he murmured.
She didn't bother to deny it.
"Then you must know that if she did steal your sister, she was only doing what seemed justified in her eyes."
Unable to make anything of this, Elsa turned her attention to her surroundings. Boxes and books lay scattered on the ground, no longer valued to the disappeared fortune-teller. A round table stood at the center of the tent, with a pole driven through it into the ground. Strewn over it were cards and dice. Searching through the cards, Elsa stiffened.
There, pinned down on the Queen of Diamonds by a sharp knife, lay a note addressed to the Queen of Arendelle.
Anna's cheeks burned. Every time her tears began to flow, the sound of water hissed and turned into mere vapor. She tried to check her sobs, the pain too great to bear, but each second ticking by reminded her of Elsa and Kristoff and her new life, a life of more closed doors and loneliness.
"But I'm doing this for Elsa," she reminded herself in a whisper, tears running down again.
"It doesn't help to feel, poor child," sympathized the fortune-teller, who sat stirring a pot over the fire across her. "Only ice can thaw. But what else can melt? No, Anna, love will not open its arms to you."
"Go away," returned Anna, trying to imitate the commanding air of her sister. She only succeeded in remembering Elsa's face and weeping afresh. The despairing princess dropped her head into her arms and shook violently.
The pain of her tears almost matched that of her memory.
"Don't feel," Gunda crooned. "The Queen has forgotten about you. Follow suit, my dear."
"What . . . what do you mean?" sniffled Anna, looking up quickly. "She would never forget about me."
"Poor Princess. When the new Queen fled into the mountains, you went after her, quite bravely I might add. But where is Queen Elsa when her sister disappears? She has not searched for you. She's forgotten you."
"No! Go away!"
"Is that all you can say, Anna?"
Something burned deep inside the young princess. Let it go, goaded the voice in the darkness. And she did. A great surge erupted from her body, flaring out against the walls of the cavern. She couldn't feel the cold at all, or the blazing heat for that matter. She couldn't feel anything, but at least the tears had stopped.
A/N: Ta-da! :)