Chapter 7-The Game's Afoot
Getting closer to some action. Hope you like military strategy.
Anna was in Elsa's study, reading a report from her advisers concerning the latest in trade and agricultural production. Winter was coming, and the harvest figures were important, but...agricultural production? She thought wistfully of mucking out Sven's stall again ... their happy picnic was 4 days past, and the little boost in morale it had provided her was long gone.
A quiet knock at the door caught her attention. Kai stood there, with a strange expression on his face. It seemed an odd combination of concern and ... hope? She felt a surge of adrenaline.
"Kai? What is it?"
"Your Highness, the High Admiral has requested a meeting of all of your military advisers immediately. He would like you to join them in the Council room as quickly as you can. He has apparently received information about...the Queen's whereabouts!"
She spared a quick glance to the window, where Olaf was watching some birds eating bread crumbs she had put out earlier. Okay, good news there. Or at least, lack of bad news.
Anna pushed away from the desk and the hated reports and other paperwork.
"Kai, do you know where Kristoff is?"
"Yes, Your Highness. He was at the market square with the other ice harvesters, and the Admiral has already sent for him."
Good, she knew he would be back to the castle almost as fast as she could run down the halls to the meeting room.
"Olaf, come on!" The little snowlem jumped down to the floor and followed her as fast as his stubby little legs could carry him.
She skidded to a stop outside the meeting room, took a deep breath, smoothed her hair and skirt, and mustered up what she hoped was a good imitation of Elsa-like dignity. She then ruined the effect by almost tripping over the rug just inside the door, but it was a good try.
As she walked to her chair, everyone in the room turned, straightened to attention, gave a little bow while murmuring, "Your Highness", and waited for her to seat herself. Kristoff rushed in at about that point, also. She noticed a small group of roughly dressed strangers standing near the far wall, and someone in an unfamiliar uniform speaking to the High Admiral with his back turned to her. The Admiral finished the consultation, and they both walked over and sat down.
"Admiral? You have news?" she asked.
He stood. "I do, Your Highness. As I had reported at our regular meeting 3 days ago, our naval and fishing fleet had started to gather some good leads concerning possible whereabouts of our Queen. However, not two hours ago, we received several pieces of information that lets us nail down where she is with almost absolute certainty. This information, however, comes with some troubling details that require us to make rather urgent plans to rescue the Queen."
Anna didn't know whether to be elated or frightened. She settled for cautious optimism. "Go on, please".
He turned to the man in the unfamiliar uniform, and nodded. The man rose, and bowed to Anna. The Admiral spoke. "Your Highness, may I present...Bjorn Svensson, Captain of the Fleet of the Southern Isles."
Anna suddenly choked on her breath. "What?!"
Captain Svensson made a little gesture, trying to reassure her. "You Highness, please, let me explain."
Anna recovered a bit. She shot a look at the Admiral that said, "This had better be good, or your next command will be a lighthouse!" She could tell he got the unspoken message by his wince. She felt Kristoff take her hand under the table, a little squeeze to help her calm down.
"Go on, Captain." Anna's voice could have refrozen the fjord with no help from Elsa at all.
"You Highness, I must start by offering Arendelle the most profound apologies of the Kingdom of the Southern Isles. My King had taken great shame at the heinous acts of attempted regicide and murder that his son had committed here last year. Prince Hans had been tried, and sentenced to imprisonment for those crimes. He was sent to our most remote and harsh prison to serve his life sentence, and the King had hoped that after some time had passed, regular relations between our kingdoms would again be possible." the Captain began.
"However, about a year ago, during the winter, Prince Hans was reported dead of a winter influenza." The Captain looked somewhat abashed. "Such deaths are not...uncommon...in our prisons during the winter."
Anna could read between the lines. Some deaths were more convenient than others.
He continued, "A short while ago, it came to the attention of the King that Prince Hans had NOT died in prison, but had somehow escaped after faking his death. One of his accomplices was recently arrested for another crime, and offered this information in exchange for leniency."
The Captain looked grim. "The King was not inclined to grant it. But, given the choice between the noose and further cooperation, the individual further divulged that Prince Hans had fled to a small settlement 3 days sail from here, swearing vengeance on Queen Elsa, you, and the entire Kingdom of Arendelle."
Bowing again, this time more deeply, the Captain said to Anna, and the entire room, "The King sends you this information in hopes of repairing yet another harm to the Kingdom of Arendelle. He has instructed me to cooperate with you in any way possible to help you in this time of crisis. When I arrived, I did not know of Queen Elsa's abduction, but in light of the information I bring you, I cannot help but think that Prince Hans is somehow involved." He straightened up, waiting as if for a blow.
Anna's face was a mask. She seethed inside, but forced herself to give the man a slight nod of dismissal, and he sat down with a small sigh of relief that his head was still attached to his shoulders.
"Admiral? You said you had 'several' pieces of information?" Anna managed to force the question out through clenched teeth.
"Yes, Your Highness."
He gestured to the group of men at the far wall. One of them walked over to where the Admiral was sitting. Anna looked him over. He was clearly not comfortable in this venue. If she had to guess, she thought he might be a fisherman. The Admiral confirmed her guess with his next statement.
"This man and his companions arrived in a fishing trawler about the same time the Captain's ship docked. They came to the castle gates asking for you, and we would not have been inclined to admit them, except for this." and the Admiral slid something across the table to Anna.
She looked at it and felt her heart almost stop. It was a disk of ICE! Ice that wasn't melting, even in the warmth of the meeting room. And it had the image of Elsa's special snowflake on it!
"Where did you get this?!" she almost shouted.
She struggled to calm down, she could tell she was intimidating the man by the way he shrank back.
"Lady, my mother sent it here. She got it from a fine lady being held prisoner in our village. My mother is the servant for that lady, and she thinks that lady is your Queen."
He wasn't familiar with the nuances of polite address, but Anna didn't care. The only words she cared about were 'Your Queen.' Elsa!
"Please, tell me more. Is my sister ok? Is she hurt?!" He seemed reassured by her words.
"She is well, Lady, as well as be expected." He seemed to frown. "Prince Piggy does not treat her well." Prince Piggy?
"Tell her the rest, Jorgen, please." the Admiral interjected.
The fisherman continued, "About six months ago, a band of pirates raided our village. We thought they would plunder and move on, but they stayed. We call their leader Prince Piggy because he is." Jorgen looked around for a place to spit in his contempt for the pirate. Remembering he was in a castle and not on a fishing boat, he thought better of it.
"Prince Piggy been using our village as a base to raid and plunder, he has about 150 pirates with him. We have more men, but fishing spears and skinning knives are no match for pikes and crossbows. So we became their serfs." His jaw worked like he wanted to spit again.
Anna could imagine what the villagers had to deal with as the subjects of a vicious pirate band.
Jorgen went on, "Us fishermen could leave, but our wives and little ones were under Prince Piggy's control. We couldn't abandon them. Piggy showed us what would happen if we did."
Anna didn't like the sound of that at all. Jorgen face twisted in dismay as he remembered ugly things happening to the village.
The Admiral put a hand on his arm. "Thank you, Jorgen, I'll explain the rest of what you told me."
The fisherman nodded mutely, and moved back to stand with his fellows.
The Admiral turned back to Anna. "Your Highness, I'll sum this up quickly, as we have much planning to do and not much time to do it in. From what Jorgen has told us, it is clear from the description of 'Prince Piggy' that this pirate leader is in truth Prince Hans. And it seems almost certain that this secret prisoner is Queen Elsa. We need to continue to get more information from Jorgen, but the critical thing that he brought us is this: Hans plans to execute Queen Elsa 7 days from now."
The Admiral looked very, very unhappy. "He intends to burn her as a witch."
Anna's head was whirling. It was after midnight. The meeting room had erupted in outrage when the Admiral spelled out what Hans proposed to do. Even Captain Svensson had looked like he wanted to vomit and as an experienced naval officer, he was certainly familiar with ugly deaths.
"Hang in, there, Joan!" Anna hadn't really thought that one through before, now she did, and she wanted to cry.
The Admiral had settled them down quickly, though, and expertly set them to planning the rescue expedition. The village was three days' sail from Arendelle, that left them only 4 days to get everything ready. The Admiral wanted a cushion, so they intended to set out for Jorgen's village in 3 days' time. It was still going to be tight, and they could only pray that the weather held. But they couldn't cut the planning any shorter. This was going to be a tricky operation and no mistakes could be afforded. They only had one chance to get it right, or they'd be planning a funeral, not a rescue.
Kristoff came into the study. He had been working with Jorgen and his fishermen. They were more comfortable with him than with any of the Arendelle officers. Apparently they were now settled down for the night on their boat, and Kristoff knew she would want to hear everything he had learned. He wasn't that thrilled with what he had to share, but, there you go. He took one look at her face, and "Hi, Feisty Pants!" died in his throat. He settled for a silent hug that went on for a long time.
When she stopped shaking, he looked at her and asked, "Have you eaten anything tonight?" She mutely shook her head. "OK, that needs some fixing."
He took her hand, and they went down to the castle kitchen. It was bustling, even at this late hour. The rescue planning would be going on around the clock, and the castle staff was doing everything they could to help provide for the military staff doing the work. Elsa was their Queen, and they wanted to be part of bringing her back, too. They also serve, who only stand and wait on tables.
Kristoff sat Anna down at a small table near the fireplace, and went to get some food and tea. He brought back two bowls of stew and two cups and set them down.
After watching her pick at the food for a few minutes, he said, "Hey!" She looked at him with a scowl.
"Anna, Elsa needs you at your best, and starving yourself isn't going to get her back any sooner."
Anna's expression softened, and she replied, "You're right. " and started eating, even if with less enthusiasm than she usually attacked food.
After they finished, they went up to the personal quarters wing of the castle. They both needed some sleep, there wouldn't be much time for sleep before the fleet sailed. Anna walked right past her bedroom and went to Elsa's.
"I'm sleeping here tonight. So are you!" and walked in. Kristoff knew better than to argue, but he would talk sense into her once they were settled.
She went to sit in the window bay. "Look, Kristoff, the sky's awake!"
It was indeed, with the Northern Lights in a brilliant autumn display. He settled down next to her, took her in her arms and they watched the sky in silence for a little while.
She stirred, and turned to him, and said, "So, fill me in on the rest of what Jorgen had to say." She sensed his hesitation. "What? Are you afraid I can't take it?"
He sighed. "No, that's not it. Look, I'm not going to sugarcoat it and try to tell you it's all chocolate and cream. But, the Admiral is going to update everyone on it tomorrow, and you need your sleep right now. What's past is in the past, and what's most important now is getting Elsa back safe and sound, all right?"
He went on, caressing her hair tenderly. "You've been carrying the weight of the Kingdom on your shoulders for two weeks. Let me carry this little bit of it for you for one more night, okay?" When he looked at her with those soft brown eyes, she couldn't resist him. He had a point.
She pulled him close. "Kristoff?"
"Hm mm?"
"I love you."
He didn't hesitate. "I love you, too."
That was all that needed to be said. She fell asleep. When he was sure she was deeply asleep and wouldn't wake up, he picked her up gently, and tucked her into Elsa's bed. He loved the scent of Elsa, a clean, icy scent, that clung to everything she touched. He made sure Anna was comfortable under the quilt, kissed her forehead and went down to sleep in the stable with Sven.
It was late in the afternoon the next day when the Admiral felt he had the plan fleshed out in sufficient detail to present it to Anna and the rest of the Advisory Council. They would continue to refine it until they sailed and even afterwards, as some things could be worked on during the voyage to Jorgen's village. The Navy was good at this sort of planning and they had it down to a science. The stakes on this operation were a little higher than usual, of course.
There were enough seats for everybody this time, even Jorgen and the rest of his fishing crew. They had a critical role to play in the rescue.
"If I may have your attention?" The Admiral stood at the foot of the table, facing Anna. There seemed to be a map tacked up on the wall behind him. "I would like to lay out the plan as we have it so far, and will entertain questions at the end of my presentation."
He turned to the map and began. "Here is Jorgen's village. It is on the shores of a small fjord 3 days' sail from Arendelle, and is landlocked. This means we have no opportunity to infiltrate on land. So, a sea approach is required."
"Unfortunately, the pirates keep at least one of their ships on patrol at all times, and any approach by ships of the Royal Arendelle Navy would be seen before we would be close enough to engage. Therefore, we must infiltrate by ruse and stealth."
He waved toward Jorgen. "Jorgen will be sailing back to his village tonight. He will recruit fishing vessels from his people to meet with us the night before Queen Elsa's scheduled execution...", the word clearly was a jagged bone in his throat, "and they will take aboard as many Royal Arendelle Marines as can be fit into their holds. Other Marines will disguise themselves as member of their crews. We think that we can man the fishing boats with about 100 Marines in all. The fishermen will provide about 50 of their number as well, and there will be men back in the village to help during the actual assault. In total, our forces should number about the same as the pirates."
One of his aides tacked another drawing up on the wall. "Here is a sketch of the village itself. Here is the keep, surrounded by the village. Here are the docks. Between the docks and the keep is a town square. This is where Prince Hans", an obscenity escaped one of the men at the table but the Admiral ignored it and went on, "will set up the place of execution."
Anna tried not to gag. "Burn her at the stake." She couldn't keep the phrase out of her head. "Elsa, Elsa, Elsa! We're coming."
"The fishing fleet with our men will return to the docks at dawn. We understand the execution is scheduled for noon. Unfortunately, this means that our Marines must remain quiet in the holds until the last minute. Only the men in disguise will be able to mingle in the village and position themselves around the...stake. And those men will be limited to knives as weapons. A few will have fishing spears." Anna didn't like the sound of that.
"When the Queen is brought out, we will strike. The timing will be tricky, and there is a short period of extreme danger to the Queen."
Anna raised her hand. "What exactly is the danger, Admiral?" She was no military strategist and needed him to explain.
The Admiral looked at her with concern in his eyes. "Jorgen's sister is a servant in the 'Great Hall'. As a servant, she is invisible to the men around Prince Hans. So she has been able to overhear conversations. Hans has made it clear that he intends that Queen Elsa die no matter what, and that should the slightest hint of a rescue attempt appear, his archers will kill her immediately."
Oh, that was bad, that was very bad. The Admiral could tell by the look on her face that wasn't going over very well.
"What we will do is position our Marines as close to the stake as possible. When the Queen is chained, and the fire is lit, we will strike. Hans intends a very slow fire, so that will not be the immediate danger to the Queen; the archers will be."
Anna tasted vomit at the back of her throat when she heard 'slow fire'. She choked it down.
"How will you protect the Queen?" She asked.
Grimly, the Admiral went on. "The men closest to the Queen will be members of the Queen's Own Guard. They will leap onto the pyre, and surround the Queen with their own bodies. They will die, if necessary, to protect her."
Anna was stunned. She was always aware of their protective guardsmen, but had never really thought about what their duties might entail at desperate need. She nodded mutely.
"At that point, what will happen is covered by the trite military phrase, 'All Hell Breaks Loose!'"
No one would mistake the expression on the Admiral's face for a smile. More like a snarl.
"All of our men and the villager men will attack the nearest pirates. The Marines hidden in the boats will engage, and those members of the Queen's Own that are able, will unchain her and get her to the nearest ship and below decks out of danger."
Anna had another question. "Why wait until she's chained? It seems easier to do it before they lock her in."
"Timing, Your Highness. Until the Queen is chained, she has several of Prince Hans' men holding her. If we attacked, they could simply cut her throat. Once she is secured to the stake, they will step down, leaving her alone on the pyre." He shook his head. "It's not ideal, as I said, this plan entails risk. It is simply the best plan we have that gives us a possibility of saving Queen Elsa."
He didn't like that word 'possibility' any better than she did, she could tell.
The rest of the presentation was more sterile. The ships in the fjord would sail into the harbor as soon as a signal rocket was sent up from the village. This would be done by one of the Marines as soon as the general melee started. The first thing the ships would do is blow the pirate patrol vessel into flinders, but it would still take them at least 30 minutes to get to the docks. The ground force would have to hold for that long before the reinforcements arrived. Captain Svensson's ship would be part of the expedition.
Finally, it was over. The Admiral gave instructions for the next steps, set the day and time for sailing, and dismissed the meeting.
Anna went over to talk to Jorgen and his friends. "I want to thank you for doing this. You are taking on a great deal of risk to free my sister."
Jorgen looked at her thoughtfully. "Lady, you fight for your Queen. We fight for our homes! We will do anything to rid ourselves of these vermin. And helping your Queen gives us the best chance we have since they first brought their filth to our shore."
Anna couldn't argue with that. She thanked him again nonetheless. He and his mates left, Kristoff went with them to their boats to see them off.
Anna had nothing to do until Kristoff came back, so she went out into the garden with Olaf to get some fresh air. She walked over to some bushes, fell to her hands and knees and vomited until nothing but green bile came up.
"Hang in there, Joan!"