CHAPTER SEVEN

Subterfuge

"Anna, what are you doing?"

"Quiet!" Anna shushed, muzzling Kristoff with one of her hands as she tried to peer around a corner. "We're trying to be stealthy here!"

Kristoff gave her a dubious look as he removed her hand from his mouth. "Why? Queen Catalina just told you we're free to roam around while we wait for your sister to get back." They were in one of the side corridors of Kristensand's town hall/impromptu palace, the light of late afternoon staining the walls a vibrant mix of red and orange through the windows. "Besides, there's nobody here. Sven could walk through the door and there wouldn't be anyone to care about it."

Anna rounded on him with a huff, wagging a finger at him just beneath his chin. "Don't get careless, mister. We have an important mission to complete."

"Which is what, exactly?" Kristoff wondered, leaning back as he stared cross-eyed at her finger.

"Reconnaissance! Information gathering! Espionage!"

"Speak up a bit, I don't think you've managed to make anyone suspicious yet."

Anna glared at him, folding her arms beneath her chest. "Stop making me angry, you'll blow our cover."

Kristoff merely shrugged and stepped around her. "If your sister asked us to look around, let's do that." He walked up to a door a few feet down the hallway, cracking it open to take a quick glance inside before shutting it and moving on.

"You call that a proper investigation?" Anna hissed. "We're searching for clues, you can't just take a look and move on like that!" She threw open the door to the room Kristoff had so casually inspected.

"Anna, it's a closet."

A broom slowly toppled out into the hallway, falling to the floor with a wooden clatter. "Yes. Well. You can hide all kinds of things in closets." She replaced the broom, closed the door, and followed Kristoff down the corridor.

Outside the main chamber, Kristensand's town hall was spared the signs of shoddy renovation. Sturdily built of limestone and granite, a series of corridors bordered the large central room where the queen had established her new court. Wrapped around the main hall in a U-shape, those hallways were where Anna had decided to begin her search.

She and Kristoff opened door after door. They found conference rooms with long tables and fireplaces that sat empty and unused. They searched offices with desks and shelves full of books, and came upon rooms that had been converted into storage, holding haphazard assortments of furniture, stacks of clothing, piles of artwork, even a cabinet full of gleaming silverware. The faint hint of smoke that saturated the collections told Anna that these were likely salvaged from the castle after the fire, the surviving relics of a noble family's home, history, and fortune. Despite her earlier admonition to Kristoff, Anna couldn't bring herself to rifle through such treasures, no matter what clues she might have found. Even if she would never dream of taking anything, it made her feel somehow like a thief. Kristoff refused to even set foot in the rooms, insisting he might break something.

The most they could bring themselves to do was glance over the papers they found in the abandoned offices, but nothing of import leapt out. They found account statements, trade manifests, bills, receipts, inventories, legal contracts, and more than one piece of personal correspondence, but it was all so much gibberish to Anna. The most incriminating thing she had discovered was a set of import/export statistics for trade with Weselton, but Elsa had explained how that sniveling weasel of a man traded with everyone. Except Arendelle, of course; that was why they were here in the first place.

Sighing with frustration, Anna returned to its place on a desk a packet of what had turned out to be genealogical research on the minor noble families of Kristensand. "This isn't nearly as easy as I thought it would be."

"You weren't expecting to find a big envelope labeled 'Evil Conspiracy to Conquer the World', were you?" Kristoff asked. "Come on, let's move on to the next room." He gave her a reassuring smile. That helped.

The next room proved to be up a flight of stairs. The outer ring of the building was on two stories, to match the height of the vaulted ceiling in the audience chamber. The floors and walls of the lower level had been bare stone, with a few rugs in the more well-appointed offices and the occasional painting and tapestry, but the second story was not so austere. They found themselves walking on rich, thick carpet, its color that of a deep red wine, set off by the dark polish of the paneled wooden walls.

The contents of the upstairs rooms were as different from those below as the décor. Anna and Kristoff found bedrooms, parlors, sitting rooms, and even a library. In the middle of the back hallway, at the very center of the building, a royal banner hung on the wall directly across from a set of wide double doors, which happened to be the first locked doors they came across.

"I bet these are the queen's apartments," Anna said, eyes narrowed with consideration. She tried the handles of both doors once more, but in vain. They were latched tight.

"Please tell me you're not thinking about breaking down the door," Kristoff pleaded.

"Of course not," she assured him. "Too noisy." She pondered the keyhole for a moment. "If only I had a carrot."

Kristoff's face twisted in confusion. "Are you hungry?"

"No, silly. To pick the lock."

"Oh. Well— wait, what?"

"Olaf's not here, anyway," Anna concluded, shaking her head. "Long story. Let's keep looking."

"Uh-huh," was all Kristoff managed as they resumed their search.

The next door down had another banner hanging across from it, but this one was smaller and riddled with scorch marks. The golden field was dulled by soot, and half the setting sun was missing, the space no more than a ragged hole bordered by charred fabric.

Anna shared a glance with Kristoff, wondering if she looked as worried as he did. Hesitantly, she reached for the handle of the door, expecting to find it locked as well. It turned with an ominous click. With a gulp, she pushed the door open.

They found another bedroom, lit by the warm, soft glow of lamplight. The room was small, furnished with little more than a wardrobe, chest of drawers, and a simple dressing table. What little space remained was dominated by a solitary chair and the bed itself.

A bed that was occupied.

A girl lay there in blankets that covered her to the waist, dressed in a nightgown of red satin. She was young, perhaps a bit younger than Anna, but that was hard to judge. She was terribly thin, almost frail, pale skin sunken and sallow. Shoulder-length auburn hair lay around her head like a halo against cloth of gold pillows. Her hands were folded on her stomach, rising and falling as she breathed with the slow steadiness of deep, dreamless sleep.

Anna stepped inside slowly, cautiously. She tried not to make a sound, even as some part of her knew that this girl was not merely in bed for an evening nap. She stopped at the beside, hands folded self-consciously before her, resisting the empathetic urge to reach out and stroke the girl's hair. Through the sympathy that filled her heart there was a current of something else. It was a twinge of familiarity. She studied the lines of the face before her, and almost gasped with recognition. The girl was almost identical to a woman hung among Anna's old friends in Arendelle's Hall of Portraits: her Aunt Helena. This, then, must be Princess Seraphim.

"What are you doing here?!" Anna jumped, startled by the shout from behind her and Kristoff. A man stood in the doorway, staring at them in shock. "Who are you? Stay away from the princess!"

"No, it's not—" Anna gasped, waving her hands and shuffling as far back from the bedside as she could in the cramped quarters. "We didn't mean to—"

"Who are you?" the man repeated, studying them with suspicious green eyes as he approached the side of the bed opposite Anna and Kristoff. He was old, with only a thin, wispy strip of hair around the back of his head. He reached a wrinkled, liver-spotted hand out to take one of Seraphim's, stroking it gently for a moment before shifting his grip to take a pulse.

"I'm Anna, and this is Kristoff," she said. She nodded towards the girl in the bed. "That's my cousin."

The old man's eyes narrowed as he considered that. He placed the princess' hand down with tender care, sliding into the lone chair next to the bed. "I'd heard the princesses of Arendelle had come to visit," he said guardedly.

"That's right," Anna said, nodding eagerly. "Well, I'm a princess, my sister's the queen. And she's not here now, she left to find Prince Uriel. I'm sure she'd have visited first if she'd known our cousin was here. So would I. Visited earlier, I mean. If I'd known. We just kinda found this room."

"Do you make a habit of wandering into rooms when you visit someone else's home?"

"Well, only when I'm— oof!" Anna winced, glaring at Kristoff while she rubbed at her side where he'd just elbowed her.

"No, but she's always had a pretty laid-back definition of propriety."

"Hey!" Anna protested.

"Is that so?" the old man wondered.

"As long as I've known her."

"Hmm." He was silent for a moment, resting a hand protectively on the side of the bed. "I'm Simon," he said at last. "Her Highness' physician."

Anna nodded to him politely before turning her gaze back to Seraphim. Laying there silently as the rest of them talked, she seemed almost too peaceful. "Will she be okay?"

"She was saved from any direct harm in the fire, though she did inhale some smoke. In all my years, I have never known a stronger-willed young woman than Princess Sera. But I fear the longer it takes for her to wake, the less hope we have. I feed her broth with herbs and honey to keep up her strength, but…" he trailed off, an odd light in his sad green eyes. His hand upon the bed was shaking.

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Anna said decisively. "I'd like to meet her."

A new voice, accented and calm, entered the conversation. "We all pray that may yet happen," Queen Catalina said from the doorway.

"Your Majesty." Simon rose from the chair, bowing.

"Have you administered Her Highness' medication for the day?"

The doctor shuffled his feet. "N-no, Your Majesty. Not yet. I—"

"Please, we have discussed this," the queen said. She sounded irritated, and her golden eyes gleamed with annoyance in the lamplight. "Now do as I asked."

Simon's jaw twitched, his eyes glittering with moisture, but he turned and opened the top drawer of the small stand beside the bed. He withdrew an ampoule and a syringe, and with shaking hands tried to thread the needle into the seal. With a yelp, the vial slipped from his grasp. It tumbled for half an instant before shattering upon the corner of the nightstand.

"You old fool!" the queen snarled. "It's a wonder you haven't harmed the princess yet with such clumsiness."

"Ap-pologies, Your M-Majesty," the doctor stammered, staring at the fractured remnants of the vial.

"Don't just stand there. Go and fetch a fresh dose."

"B-but…"

"Now!" Catalina barked, golden eyes flashing. From the bed, the princess gave the faintest of whimpers, the skin around her eyes tightening. The doctor scurried out of the room like a kicked dog, flinching away from Commander Ulbrecht, who was standing in the hallway.

"Majesty," the guard captain said urgently. He stood beyond the soft glow of the lamps emanating from the room, his face shrouded in darkness.

With a glance at Anna and Kristoff, Catalina walked over to speak with him. Anna strained her ears, but could not make out any of their brief, whispered conversation. The queen seemed to sag as Ulbrecht spoke, her eyes drifting closed and one hand massaging her temple. She dismissed him with a wave and a curt nod and returned to the bedroom.

"Princess Anna, please excuse me. There is an urgent matter I must attend to."

"Is there anything I can do?" Anna offered helpfully.

"Not at the moment, thank you. Another guest is demanding my attention most stridently, and I fear I must calm him down before he aggravates Commander Ulbrecht any further." She glanced towards the bed. "I would understand if you wish to remain with your cousin for a while longer. Your presence may do her some good."

The queen glided out of the bedroom with a swish of her golden skirt and disappeared down the hallway. Anna waited just long enough to make sure Catalina was really gone before moving for the door herself.

"Anna, wait!" Kristoff called. "Where are you going?"

"Something's up," Anna said, as sure of that as anything she'd ever known. "We have to find out what it is."

"What about your cousin? Shouldn't we at least wait for the doctor to come back?"

Anna gave the sleeping girl an anguished glance. "There's nothing we can do for her. Now come on." She crept out into the hallway, looking both ways to make sure the passage was empty before sprinting back towards the staircase they'd taken up to the second floor. Night had fallen in the course of their search, leaving only a few scattered torches for light, and a corresponding abundance of shadows to hide in. Anna paused at the corner by the railing that overlooked the stairs. She felt Kristoff come up beside her, shooting him a grateful look before peering around to check again for anyone else lurking the halls. The coast was still clear.

"Where are we going?" Kristoff whispered as they descended the steps back to the first floor. "And where have all the guards gone, for that matter?"

"I don't know where everyone went, but we're going to the main hall. That'll be where Catalina's meeting whoever this 'other guest' is… if that's even what she's doing."

"And if she's telling the truth, is it any of our business?"

"Elsa asked me to find out what kind of queen Catalina is. If she's really just holding the hand of some annoyed traveling salesman, then I figure this is part of the answer."

"I don't think your sister really meant that as a blanket amnesty for eavesdropping."

"Shush!" The open archway between the central hall and the outer corridor was straight ahead. Anna stopped, listening intently, but there were no sounds coming from the audience chamber, conversation or otherwise. She risked a quick look, but found the room empty.

Frowning, she walked out into the chamber. "Well, there goes that idea. I really don't want to go door-to-door through this place again to find out where she's gone."

"That makes two of us," Kristoff grumbled.

Before Anna could formulate a proper retort, the creak of a door opening came through the archway on the opposite side of the hall, followed by footsteps and the indistinct exchange of at least two voices. Eyes wide, Anna whirled left and right, searching for a place to hide. "Quick, there!"

Kristoff gave her a doubtful look, even as she began pushing him insistently towards her chosen hiding spot. "What, behind the tapestry?"

"That's what tapestries are for!" She had no sooner manhandled them both behind the hanging curtain than the footsteps and voices increased in volume as they exited the corridor into the audience chamber.

"…demand some proof of action on your part!" a man's voice said angrily. "I didn't come all this way to warn you about an imminent threat to your kingdom only to be hidden away and ignored!"

Anna's eyes widened. She knew that voice!

"Please, Your Grace," Queen Catalina's silkily accented tones replied. "I appreciate your concern, but I've met the girls. They hardly seem like the monsters you described. I found them quite refreshing, actually."

"Don't tell me they've ensorcelled you, too! By the time I left, that witch had her advisors throwing away twenty-nine years of profitable relations, insulting me to my face, and smiling while they did it!"

"On which I have only your word, Duke Wesley. I should think you of all people would know the risks of trying to sell a bill of goods."

The angry voice sputtered. "I have had enough of your snide insinuations, Your Majesty! If you do not wish to heed my warnings, then I shall take my leave."

"Come now. You know as well as I do that with the loss of Arendelle's cooperation you need my city as a western trading port. Now, if you'll kindly stop storming about and return with me to my solar, we can discuss this like civilized people."

"Don't coddle me, missy!"

Even behind the tapestry, the silence in the wake of that statement was pointed. When Catalina spoke again, her voice was hard as stone. "You speak to a queen, Your Grace. Discourtesy does you no credit."

"Pah! You're the second cousin to the younger daughter of a nobody from a sandpit, lucky enough to marry a duke and conniving enough to wrap him around your little finger. It's bad enough your neighbors call that hamlet of theirs a kingdom, but for you to be so jealous as to scheme yourself into a self-appointed throne… I can understand your sense of inferiority, since at least they have a pedigree."

"Even great kingdoms have humble beginnings," Queen Catalina protested, voice strained.

"And petty kingdoms will not stand against the wealthiest duchy in the region. I suggest you keep that in mind, Your Majesty. I will not stand to be insulted. I will certainly not let an assault upon my person go uncontested. It was no idle threat I faced in Arendelle: that vile sorceress who calls herself a queen did no less than try to kill me with her own two hands!"

By now Anna could feel the blood boiling in her face, and that was one hurtful, hateful, lying insult too many. "She did not!" Anna howled, throwing aside the tapestry with enough force that half the nails holding it up were torn from the wall. "She never did anything to you, but you tried to have her killed!" She felt Kristoff trying to grab her shoulders to calm her down, but she twisted away. She didn't want to be calm. "She should have frozen you solid and thrown you into the ocean, but she just let you go. You don't know how lucky you are."

The Duke of Weselton was gaping at her, his mouth fluttering open and shut like a fish's beneath his bushy grey mustache. "You're loose?!" he scrambled behind Catalina, trying to place her between himself and Anna. "Your Majesty, how could you allow such creatures free reign of your halls?!"

"She is my guest as much as you are, Your Grace."

"They're dangerous! You," he barked at Anna, "where's your sister?" He glanced over his shoulder. "If you think to take me unawares, you'll find I won't go down without a fight!"

"No one will be attacking anyone," Queen Catalina said firmly. "Duke Wesley, please return to your rooms at the inn. We can resume our conversation some other time."

"My life is in danger here! I will not be dismissed!"

"Very well. Commander Ulbrecht!"

The guard captain appeared as if from thin air, striding out of the side hall. "Your Majesty?"

"Please escort the duke back to his accommodations and place him under guard. We would not want him to feel threatened while he remains with us, after all."

"With pleasure." He ushered the Duke of Weselton out of the hall, ignoring the man's sputters of protest.

Anna glared daggers at him the whole way, and stared hard enough at the door he left through that she would not have been surprised had it caught fire.

"I feel I must apologize, Princess Anna," the queen said. Anna had barely even noticed her approach. "I know the duke has a very recent and unpleasant history with your family, but I had hoped you would not cross paths."

"He's a liar," Anna growled. "My sister never tried to hurt him. She'd never hurt anyone."

"For what it's worth, I tend you believe you. But I fear we have a greater problem than Duke Wesley's penchant for exaggeration."

"What's wrong?"

"Night has fallen, and your sister has not returned."

Anna's anger fizzled away. "Has something happened?"

"I don't know. I've sent a company of men to investigate. They should return soon, but in the meantime we can only hope that nothing has gone wrong. If she has encountered the Black Prince and he did not prove open to reason... I might fear the worst."

Anna felt a knot tightening in her stomach. "Maybe I should go, too. I can help look for her."

"I must strongly insist against that, Your Highness," the queen replied sadly. "My men are searching as we speak. You should remain here for now. Under my protection, where it's safe. For if something unfortunate has befallen your sister, you are all Arendelle has left."