Disclaimer: I in no way own any part of Frozen; the characters, location etc. belong solely to Disney and their fantastically talented story tellers. I am receiving no compensation or financial benefit from the writing of this story. It is only for personal entertainment. Please no suing or legal retribution. I am only paying homage to an amazing story and characters.
A/N: Nothing really substantial to say except that this was grueling to write. It definitely took me getting to a dark place myself in order to write this. Thank you for the reviews and follows, those encourage me beyond words.
...
After the green-jacketed guard raced from the room Elsa began to recover and was shortly able to sit up without Anna's support on the settee. Elsa traced the pattern of heavy brocade, her fingertips stroking the valley and peaks of thread as small traces of frost flowed reassuringly from her fingers. A frown creased her brow as she worried and wondered.
Anna's pacing grew ever more frantic as a feeling of deep unease coated the room like the taste of illness on the back of the tongue. Some time later a light tap caused both sisters to start and turn.
"My Ladies," Kia said as he entered the library through the side door. "Please, there is news I must give and I fear this is may not be the place to do so." Anna ran toward him to grip his arm as she asked,
"Kristoff, is he safe? Did he get away?" Kia's eyes slid away from her's, but his answer was reassuring.
"I believe he escaped the mob My Lady, but where he is now I don't know." Anna relaxed relief clouding her eyes so she did not see Kia's expression as he turned away. He led the sisters out of the library and away from the main halls to the rear warren of passages used by the staff to pass unseen as the performed their work.
After a journey of only a few minutes they found themselves in a compact kitchen in the rear of the palace used only by the household staff. It was cozy and warm with a fire burning in the grate of the small fireplace that was completed by a wide hearth at waist height. There was a tea service set with plain brown glazed cups and pot on the table. It was nothing that would be served upstairs, but comforting in its unassuming simplicity. Gerda was there and she hurried to gather Anna into her arms when she saw the distress and worry in her eyes. The green and blue patterned curtains were drawn over the small windows and the smell of warm bread filled the air. Beside Gerda and Kia there was a small boy with sandy blond hair, the guard who had run from the library, and a girl in the uniform of a maid who had a pert nose and chestnut colored hair coiled in neat braids under her maid's cap.
Kia cleared his throat and spoke to the assembled guard, boy and girl.
"It goes without saying that anything spoken of here is not to be repeated and that we must do our best to protect our ladies." He stared them down with solid purpose as if to infuse them with his own strong feelings on the matter. After a pause he turned back to Elsa and Anna. "There are many things to tell you, much of it troubling." He shook his head and the strain of the night was suddenly visible in the droop of his shoulders. "Much of what has passed is strange, but it is clear that there is danger and no end to plots and intrigue. Mari should tell you what she overheard first." He looked to the maid who gave a slight bob of her head and small smile.
"I wish I had better news to give Your Majesty. To tell truth I don't understand it, but it seemed right to tell someone." She clenched a cup of tea between her hands as the two sisters each took a seat at the little table. Gerda joined them and only Kia remained standing as he glanced back up the empty passageway.
"Tell us." Elsa said gently.
"Well, I was cleaning the guest's rooms tonight when there was a lot of noise and commotion," Her voice trailed off as she darted a look at both Kia and Anna before smoothing her words forward. "in any case, afterward I forgot my brushes and had to go back upstairs, I heard men coming up the hall so I hid behind the stair door and they walked by me talking about a ward or guarding of some kind. They were talking about a Magister? I didn't know what they meant, but they said 'neither the Queen nor the Princess can leave'," As Mari spoke the words a strange trill went through the room like a web strand being plucked by an errant fly. It vibrated and the gathering looked around all seeing the same question in each other's eyes. Anna shivered and Kia crossed the room to add another log to the fire. Mari spoke again hesitantly,
"They said the only way to release it was for one of you to agree to marry a suitor." As Mari finished a heavy silence fell disturbed only by the crackle of the fire. Elsa frowned, deep in thought as she stared at the little brown teapot. The troubled silence was broken by Kia,
"There's something else," Kia said, "Young Silvard warned Master Bjorgeman before the stable was stormed by those animals, but-" He was cut off by the young boy who piped up his voice wobbly with nerves.
"Master Kristoff told me to hide in the hay and then he jumped on his reindeer and the ran through the men. They knocked so many down!" A hint of feverish admiration colored Silvard's voice.
"Yes," Kia continued, however Mari witnessed the other half of Kristoff's escape and I'm sorry to say it wasn't without cost." While Anna did not instantly grasp the implications of what Kia was saying, Elsa did and she gripped her sister's hand protectively. Mari bowed her head and spoke quickly, as if by speed she could make the words more bearable.
"I can't be sure of what I saw, it was dark and everything happened so quickly, but I saw a man with a bow take aim from the stable doorway. I couldn't be sure, but I think it struck Master Bjorgman. I'm sorry My Lady." Mari finished looking at Anna with pity and concern in her eyes. Anna blinked as though she'd been struck and looked at Elsa uncomprehending.
"No, but it couldn't have been Kristoff." Anna said.
"I'm sorry," Mari said softly not meeting Anna's eyes. "The man who was riding a reindeer was the one the bowman was aiming at."
"Anna, Anna." Elsa murmured her name as she gently stroked her sister's arm. Anna remained paralyzed staring unseeing as waves of fear and horror rose over her. She shook her head to clear it, certain that there was a mistake.
"Please, please..." She said looking up entreatingly from Kia to Elsa to Gerda. If only someone would give her a chance she could fix this she knew. "No." She said with more force in response to the pitying looks. A certainty rose in her heart that a mistake had been made and it only needed to be corrected and straitened for the world around her to flip right side up again. "Kia, you said he got away!" Anna cried her voice cracking.
"Yes, Miss Anna," Kia said, "He did escape, they didn't succeed in stopping him, but Mari saw true and Sargent Jameson-" Kia nodded toward the guard. "Returned from scouting the outskirts of town with this." Kia pulled an ice harvesting ax from a leather wrapping that rested on the brick hearth. The ax was covered with blood, all but the smooth silver curve of the blade. "It's his isn't it?" He asked gently. Anna stared transfixed. The reality of Kristoff injured, maybe lying dead in the undergrowth; Sven would be so sad. A thousand frantic thoughts overwhelmed her as the truth of what she'd been told registered through the disbelief. Pain rose like icy floodwater to cover her inch by inch, extinguishing hope. She stood shoving the chair back to fall with a crash behind her and the room swirled around her.
"No, it's not true." She shook her head in refusal. A desperate need to escape from the close warmth of the little room and the pitying expressions choked her. If she stayed here another minute what they were saying might become true. It wasn't, it wasn't she told herself fiercely. It was a mistake. Elsa reached for her and Anna bolted like a deer, turning to run with all speed away from the awful, horrible lie that filled the air.
She ran blind, eyes overwhelmed with tears and disbelief. She crashed at full force into the edge of a stone wall and spun off into a crumpled heap. The image of Kristoff broken and bleeding would not leave her. It drove her back up, to scramble on all fours until she could gain her feet in another wild dash to outrun the knowledge. She ran until she reached a cramped set of stairs that burrowed through the outer wall and down to the rocky strip of shore that bordered the fjord. She exploded out from the stone wall into the stormy night like a meteor and gulped the fresh sea air. It wasn't true, Kristoff was alive, he was safe. She knew it. A blind hope had overcome her. Soft gusts of wind pushed at her fitfully, the scent of rain heavy on the air, but the buffets of wind were only small teasing creatures, heralds of the storm yet to come. It was the blackness of a night sky overwhelmed with clouds, no stars or moon to relieve press of darkness. The roll of the ocean pounding the sound wall overwhelmed the sound of Anna's sobs. A stroke of lighting forked and illuminated in silver the mountain's outlines against the black maw of the unending ocean. Anna scrambled closer to the water as the rumble of thunder rolled out over the fjord. The thought of Kristoff injured, in pain and lost in the storm made her heart tremble with panic and the desire to do something. She had to find him. Unthinking, she plunged forward until her foot crossed the edge of damp sand and touched the cresting wavelet. Then a shock of heat and flaring green light flung her back against the sand and rocks. She landed with heavy impact and lay stunned. Her head ached and she reached back with ginger fingers to feel a small trickle of blood through her hair. She must have hit her head against a boulder. Catching her breath Anna rose to her feet unsteadily. Wincing from the sharp pain she reached tentatively toward the sea searching for what had flung her back. As she stepped closer Anna felt the tingling edge of the spark and pressure. Rage filled her and she struck out with both fists wanting to break and crack. The flash of light and force sounded again thrusting her back. Anna staggered, her throat burning with held back screams as the wind whipped tendrils of hair across her face. She paced the sandy edge trailing her hands through the air to find the edges of the net that held her in. It extended all the way across the rocky shore and as far as she could reach.
She'd worn a track into the sand and was soaked through by the rain and sea spray when Elsa and Kia found her. Elsa gently reached for her; both lost and exhausted Anna clung to Elsa and allowed herself to be led back to the castle.
...
The minutes and hours ticked by and the castle grew still. In a corner of deep darkness a pair of green eyes gleamed. Magister Rothmeld breathed deeply, tasting the faint scent of the Queen's magic like a rare spice on the air. Her magic flowed with the power of a glacier fed river in spring. Standing in the same room he had felt the pulse of it, strong and pure. Patience, he had cautioned himself to keep from reaching out to touch it. It was enough for the moment to feel its response to him, like ripples in a pond after a stone was thrown into its depths, without overwhelming her defenses.
Feeling the changing tide in the night wind he rose and paced forward to find the place that would fulfill his requirement. It was necessary to wait until the darkness had reached its deepest point and the moon had set behind the clouds. There were things that could only be summoned and forces that could only be invoked at this mercurial depth of the night. He had spent many long years and walked many dark paths to gain the mastery he now possessed.
Reaching the deepest subterranean depths of the castle, the Magister found the location he sought. Places that had known violence or horror always retained a lasting stain, like blood in the weft of fabric that would never come clean. For those who sought such a site, it was a place of power; a thinning of the veil and the ability to distort the web of reality was easily within reach. Rothmeld's narrow tongue flicked out, tasting the air. The smell of fetid water and decomposition reached him and he allowed his power to uncoil and stretch out into the void. Finally, he felt an answering response. He drew back as a pair of slitted eyes, glowing in the darkness, met his own.
...
Upstairs in the cool quiet of her room Elsa awoke with a shuddering gasp. A feeling of paralyzing fear swept over her as she huddled under her blankets. She listened intently straining for whatever noise had woken her, but there was only silence. After a moment her breathing began to slow. Exhaustion gave way to sleep and sleep to uneasy dreams.
When Elsa woke again the pale edge of morning light was leaking through the curtains with the grey, dim consistency of used dishwater. There was a chill in the air. Elsa shrugged on her embroidered dressing gown pulling thick braid free of the collar. She padded across the hall to Anna's room and gently opened the door. She silently peered through the dim light, not wanting to wake Anna if she'd managed to fall asleep, but there was a slight tremble in the slim form curled under the duvet. Elsa walked around the bed to where Anna lay facing the gabled window. She was lying with her hands curled under her cheek, tears steadily spilling down her face. Her eyes were dark with pain, ringed with purple-blue smudges and her lips were chapped and bloodied from where her teeth had made gnawing indents through the night.
"Oh Anna." Elsa said as she saw the marks of a night filled with sorrow and self incrimination. Sitting next to her sister Elsa tenderly stroked her hair. Anna caught Elsa's hand in her own and spoke, her voice hoarse and broken from crying.
"Elsa, where could he be? I don't even know if he's alive."
"He is." Elsa said fiercely trying to reassure Anna with certainty she didn't have. "He's strong and he has Sven. He'll be alright. I know it but, Anna, I'm so sorry. This is my fault. I knew you cared about Kristoff, I didn't know it was this deeply," She gestured to Anna's shattered state, "but I should have. Please forgive me, I'm going to make this right." Anna reached out and they held each other close. Elsa sat with Anna, cradling her until Anna's eyes closed and she fell into an exhausted and fitful sleep. Elsa slowly untangled herself and tucked the coverlet gently around Anna. She returned to her own room and dressed with grim determination, coiling her braid up and placing her small diadem into the creamy folds of her hair rather like a knight donning armor. She could not see all the forces assembled against her, but she could feel their presence. After seeing Anna's pain, Elsa was ready to attack and defend, but first she needed to understand the nature of the binding that had been placed, and more troubling still; why she had felt her magic slip away from her grasp in the presence of the cloaked figure.
"Magister." Her lips mouthed the name and an unpleasant spark burned her tongue. Her body quivered and momentarily quailed with the sense of unease that had not abated since last night. Then she recalled the broken look in Anna's eyes and steeled her resolve.
