CHAPTER NINE
Fighting Fire
"That's it," Anna declared. "I'm going. Right now."
She hadn't even had a chance to take a step before Kristoff wrapped an arm around her waist, effortlessly lifting her off the ground.
"Hey!" she protested, whacking at the thick forearm across her stomach. "Put me down!"
Kristoff merely sighed, shrugging off her attempts to escape. "We should at least wait for the men the queen sent out to get back before we go after Elsa. She'll probably come back with them, and do you want to have run off looking for her if that happens?"
"Let go! Martin, help me out here. Aren't you supposed to protect me?"
The leader of Anna's contingent of the guard detail gave her a look. "All due respect, Your Highness, the lad's doing me a favor. You already ran off without me once."
"We never even left the building," Anna huffed. "Can you at least go ask the queen if she's heard anything new?"
Martin eyed her dubiously, probably contemplating the fact that the queen would have made them her first stop if any news had arrived. The rest of the men were outside with the horses, enjoying the relatively cool evening air, but as senior officer he didn't have that excuse to escape Anna's frenetic worrying. He sighed, scratching the thick, greying side whiskers that made him look like he had a pair of scrub brushes sticking out from beneath his hat. "Is that an order, Your Highness?"
"Yes."
"All right, then." He started walking off.
"Wait!" Anna called. "I order you to make Kristoff let me go!"
"Sorry, Your Highness," the guard replied, waving over his shoulder. "First thing's first. I'll be finding the queen, then."
Anna scowled petulantly, watching him leave, prompting a chuckle from Kristoff at the look on her face. Anna decided that first thing back in Arendelle she was going to get lessons on avoiding adorable when she was aiming for serious. It was getting out of hand.
"Elsa's fine, Anna," Kristoff said, gently putting her down. "Just give her time."
"How much time?"
"An hour."
"That's what you said an hour ago!"
"Actually that was more like three minutes ago, but good try."
Anna crossed her arms beneath her chest, tapping her foot. She peered up at him with narrowed eyes. "Fine. One hour."
"If she's not back then, I promise I'll saddle a horse for you myself. And Sven. I mean, not a horse for Sven. Or a saddle, I guess, he doesn't like them. I mean I'll go with you."
Expression softening, she quieted his rambling with a peck on his cheek. "Thank you."
He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck, face flushed. "I'm worried about her, too. This whole place gives me the creeps."
"Me, too," Anna agreed. "Come on, if I'm going to wait around I don't want to wear a rut into the ground pacing at the door. Besides, the paint job here gives me a headache." She grabbed him by the hand, pulling him towards the outer corridors of the town hall.
"Where are we going?"
"To keep my cousin company," Anna declared. Some part of her longed to be with family, however distant and unknown. And unconscious, but that was partly the point. If she was going to worry about so many people at once, she might as well be with at least one of them.
They found the bedroom just as they'd left it, empty but for the young girl wasting away beneath the blankets. Anna moved through the room, turning up the lamps to chase away the depressing gloom. The light even made the princess seem a bit livelier, calling some color back into her cheeks. She was not sleeping as easily as before. A faint sheen of perspiration was on her brow, and her auburn hair lay about her head in dull, oily tangles. Her hands were shaking almost imperceptibly, and she shifted restlessly, exhaling with tiny whimpers. The skin around her eyes was tight, her mouth twisted into a pained grimace.
"The doctor's still not back?" Kristoff wondered. "I hope he gets here soon. Whatever that medicine was, it looks like she needs it."
Anna claimed the only chair, taking one of the princess' hands in hers, stroking the delicate flesh of her fingers. The gesture seemed to soothe her, at least a bit. "I've never had a cousin before. Or a step-cousin. I've never known any family, really, except for Elsa and my parents."
Kristoff stood next to the chair, one hand resting on Anna's shoulder with a reassuring squeeze.
"I wonder if that's why I've always loved to be around people, even strangers. Sharing stories, telling jokes, smiling and complaining, laughing and crying… I'd never been so happy as I was in that moment the gates opened and I saw a crowd. Until now. I have a cousin, and that makes me even happier."
"I've got family to spare," said Kristoff. "I could always lend you a few. We know they like you."
Anna laughed, even as she blinked back tears. She reached up to grab Kristoff's hand in hers, tilting her head to rest atop their linked fingers. "I'm scared, Kristoff. I don't want to lose her." Anna didn't know if she was talking about Seraphim, Elsa, or both.
They were silent for a time. The only sounds in the room were the faint sputter of the lamps and the princess' shallow breathing. They heard footsteps coming down the hall outside, stumbling and uneven. Anna turned towards the sound, curious.
Simon, the doctor who had come upon them during their first visit to the princess' bedside, lurched into view, leaning heavily against the frame of the door. Anna leapt from the chair, at his side in a heartbeat.
The man was deathly pale and sweating profusely. His breath was heavy and ragged, and his legs were shaking nearly too much to stand, even propped against the doorframe. His eyes were bloodshot and a sickly shade of yellow. Anna frowned as she grasped his elbow to help steady him. She would have sworn his eyes had been green.
Kristoff appeared at his other side, taking the elbow opposite Anna as they guided him into the chair. "Are you okay? You don't look so good."
"The queen told me to bring the m-m-medicine," Simon gasped. He pulled a phial from his pocket, the liquid inside sloshing angrily with the shaking of his hand.
Anna gently took the glass container before he could drop it again. She gasped at the feel of his skin. His hands were clammy and cold as ice. Growing more concerned by the moment, she felt his forehead with the back of her wrist. Her eyes widened. The skin there felt like it was on fire. "You're burning up! Kristoff, we have to help him." She bent down, placing her face in front of the old man's, trying to get his attention. "I know you're the doctor, but is there anyone we can take you to? An assistant, maybe? Is there an apothecary in town?"
"N-n-no," he stammered, teeth chattering. "C-c-can't go. Queen s-s-said… Have to give the princess her m-m-m-mmph…"
"Medicine?" Anna said, glancing at the vial she'd placed on the nightstand. "Okay. If you tell me how, maybe I can give her the medicine, then we can get you—"
"No!" the old man barked with sudden lucidity, his eyes wide and bright.
Anna flinched back with a gasp. His eyes were changing color, green and yellow and green again, jumping back and forth as though a pane of colored glass was flicking in and out of place in front of them.
"N-n-n-no more!" he growled fiercely. His fists clenched, pounding at his knees like a child throwing a tantrum.
Seraphim's agitated rest was growing more disturbed by the noise. She tossed and turned now, whimpering piteously, the sheets tangling across her legs. Anna glanced nervously back and forth between the girl and her doctor. "I think she needs the medicine," she suggested helplessly.
"NO!" Simon roared, throwing himself out of the chair, crawling away from the bed, limbs rattling like twigs trying to stand in an earthquake. He curled into a ball in the corner, as far away from the bed as he could get. His eyes were wide and terrible, tears streaming down to mix in the sweat pouring from his face. "N-n-not m-m-m-m-medicine!" he gasped. His gaze pierced Anna with painful, frantic intensity. "S-s-s-sedative!"
He seemed to crumble into a boneless heap with the effort of that single word, panting with exhaustion. Anna and Kristoff shared a look of utter shock.
"Oh, Simon," a voice said from the hallway. Queen Catalina strode serenely into the bedroom, looking down at the crumpled old man with an almost pitying expression. She bent down, feeling his forehead just as Anna had.
"The fever consumes you so, and after only a week? I never thought you would fight me so fiercely."
Anna felt fear mixing in with her confusion. She stared at Catalina. "What's wrong with him?"
The queen turned to look at her, frowning sadly. "It wasn't supposed to happen like this," she said. Anna wasn't sure if the woman was even speaking to her. The queen's gaze drifted to the princess tossing and turning upon the bed, drawn by the sound of her muffled cries and labored breathing. "Damn you, old man. How long has it been since you even gave her a dose?"
On the floor, Simon only whimpered.
"I had hoped for the girl to waste away peacefully. It was less suspicious that way. No matter." Her eyes flared brilliantly, glowing like embers beneath her dark brows. "Do as I say. Give her the sedative. All of it."
Simon's body spasmed with a single choked gasp. The old man stood up. "Yes, Your Majesty," he declared. His voice was firm, his stuttering hesitation gone, his tremors vanished. His eyes were afire, yellow tongues of flame licking out, consuming his lashes and eyebrows in little puffs, the skin blackening and crackling and smoking. He moved towards the bed.
"No!" Anna gasped, interposing herself between the man and her cousin. She shoved him backwards, and the doctor stumbled for a moment before resuming his single-minded pursuit of the vial on the nightstand. Anna threw herself at him, trying to fight him back. Without so much as a glance, he grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her over the bed and into the opposite wall. Anna struck the dressing table with a puff of expelled air. The flimsy wood crumpled beneath her, mirror shattering in a chorus of raining glass.
Kristoff roared, charging the doctor and hauling him bodily over a shoulder, crushing him into the narrow stretch of wall in the corner by the door. The old man's head snapped back against the wall with an audible crack.
Anna shook her head, blinking the stars from her eyes. She watched Kristoff drop the doctor into a heap on the floor, where he lay unmoving. The fire had gone out in his eyes, leaving only two charred pits of flesh.
"Well, this is inconvenient," Catalina grumbled unconcernedly, eyeing Kristoff with a look of distaste. Her hands were clasped in front of her bodice, as though she merely stood in observation to a bothersome faux pas at a mundane social gathering.
Kristoff stalked towards her, growling as he rolled up his sleeves. "I don't know what you did to him, but don't think I won't hurt you if I have to."
The queen smiled, eyes flashing. "I doubt that. Guards!" she called, stepping back.
Two men charged in from the hallway behind her, tackling Kristoff around his waist. The burly young man was not so easy to stop, however. He shrugged one man off with a quick elbow to the back of his head, pushing the second back as he struggled to get at Catalina.
She rolled her eyes. "Really. You are a feisty one." She waved over her shoulder, and two more men burst in.
Men in the green uniforms and tall caps of the Arendelle guard. Anna gaped at them. "Martin?" She blinked with confusion, but there was no mistaking that pair of bushy grey sideburns. "Martin, stop! What are you doing?" There was no response from a man who should have been obeying Princess Anna of Arendelle, not the Queen Regent of Kristensand.
The three of them wrestled with Kristoff, who struggled for a moment until the man he'd knocked to the floor wrapped around his legs, toppling all five of them into a heap on the floor. "Kristoff!" Anna screamed. She tried to get up, wincing as shards of glass from the broken mirror bit into her palms. She ignored the pain, surging to her feet and clambering around the broken furniture.
"Hold him!" Catalina barked. The guards wrenched Kristoff to his feet, restraining him by arms and legs and hair. Still he struggled, but four grown men were not so easy to throw off.
Anna threw herself at Catalina, arms flailing wildly. "Leave him alone!"
The queen – older, taller, and not to be bested by a panicked eighteen-year-old – brushed Anna aside with an almost negligent thrust of her shoulder. Anna stumbled into the hallway, falling in a heap of her skirt.
Catalina walked up to Kristoff, who was glaring at her murderously, blood trickling from a swollen lip and one eye already blackening. She smiled. "Look into my eyes," she cooed, golden orbs flaring with red-orange light. Wisps of flame drifted from her eyes and into Kristoff's. Anna watched in horror as Kristoff's struggles lessened and finally ceased. The flames faded from Catalina's eyes. The guards released him, and he stood there blinking at her.
The queen turned to Anna. "Don't feel bad," she said, smiling wickedly. "When you've grown up a bit, you might learn what it's like to win a man's heart with a look. It's a wonderful feeling, knowing no man can resist you."
Anna ignored her, eyes only for him. She sat there, blinking back tears. "Kristoff?"
He looked at her when she called his name, brown eyes staring back with painful indifference. "Yes?" he asked, in a tone as though he were speaking to a stranger. She saw none of the light she so loved in his eyes, and none of his love in return. It hurt so much that Anna did the only thing she could think of. She ran.
"After her!" the queen's voice rang out.
Anna sprinted for the way out. She had to get away, get outside. The men outside might still be free of Catalina's sway. She could take Sven, find Elsa… Elsa! Had the queen done something to her? Was that why she hadn't returned? The sudden burst of fear almost stole the strength from her legs. She left bloody palm prints on the walls as she stumbled around the corner, half-falling down the stairs to the first floor.
Barging down the corridor, she made for the archway at the end of the hall. Through it was the door outside, and her best chance at escape. As she rounded that last corner between herself and freedom, Anna nearly ran over Commander Ulbrecht. She bounced off him with a yelp, his craggy, suspicious face the last one she wanted to see at the moment. Several pairs of footsteps were thundering down the hall behind her. She tried to stumble around the commander, but he grabbed her by the elbow. He took in her bleeding hands, eyes narrowing. "You're hurt," he said, looking up to take in the four guards and Kristoff. "You men, what are you doing, hounding the princess like this?"
"Queen's orders," one of the Kristensand guards barked impatiently, reaching for Anna.
Anna suddenly found herself pulled, not ungently, behind Ulbrecht. "I serve the queen," he growled. "But you serve me. Stand down."
"Ah, Commander," Catalina's voice called. She was striding calmly down the hall towards them. "You've found the princess, good."
"Your Majesty, what is the meaning of this?"
"Now is a very inopportune moment to start asking questions, Ulbrecht," she said warningly.
He scowled. "And why is that, Your Majesty?" he asked, voice low and dangerous. "No man can question my loyalty, but I am sworn to the royal family of Kristensand. You walk dangerously close to the edge of your authority."
"Authority?" Catalina barked a laugh. "I am the queen!"
Ulbrecht's scowl turned into a derisive sneer so intense even Anna flinched. She thought she had managed to annoy the man on more than one occasion, but oh, how wrong she'd been. "My queen lies in bed above us. You may call her princess, but in Prince Uriel's absence, Seraphim is by rights the ruler of Kristensand, Queen Regent." He spat the last word like a curse. "Now tell me why men are pursuing a wounded girl, a guest of the crown no less, through our halls like a criminal."
"I knew you were too stubborn to be useful forever," the queen sighed. She looked at Kristoff. "Boy, get the princess." She turned to the guardsmen. "You four, deal with him."
Anna felt herself thrown back. Ulbrecht's sword rang from its scabbard. She didn't waste time spectating as the battle was joined, and made her break for the exit, Kristoff hard on her heels.
She reached the double doors, sliding the last several feet and catching herself with one of the handles. She could hear Kristoff running up behind her. Desperately, she made her push for freedom.
The door was locked.
She howled with frustration, yanking and rattling the door on its hinges, but it refused to open. She pounded a fist against the wood, but then found herself lifted bodily by a pair of strong arms and slung over a shoulder.
"Put me down!" Anna screamed, flailing with both arms and both legs, catching Kristoff solidly on the temple with an elbow. As he stumbled, she dropped off his shoulder, falling to the floor in a heap.
"Anna?" he muttered groggily, shaking his head. "What…?"
"Kristoff!" she gasped.
"Anna, you've… got to run," he muttered. "I can hear her in my head. Feel her in my chest."
"No! I won't leave you with her!" She scrambled over, trying to help him up. He looked at her helplessly, eyes flashing from brown to gold.
"You don't have a choice, girl," Queen Catalina said, gliding towards them. Anna could still hear the ringing clash of swords from the hallway behind her. "My fires burn within his heart. The more you make him fight it, the faster you'll lose him."
Anna jumped as the doors behind them thundered on their hinges, struck by something from the outside. The queen looked unconcerned. Kristoff was still dazed. He looked at her blearily, trying to focus. He stared at her hands.
"You're hurt," he muttered. "Who hurt you?"
"Foolish boy. Don't waste your life pining for that slip of a princess. Do as I say!"
The doors shook again with a tremendous bang.
Kristoff started shivering, the color of his eyes flickering wildly, changing from brown to yellow and back too fast to tell what shade they were at any moment. He was sweating profusely.
"Fight her, Kristoff!" Anna begged, shaking him by the shoulders to try to get him to focus on her voice, on her face. She placed her hands on his cheeks, not caring for an instant how her cuts burned at the touch of his sweat, or the bloody tracks she left as she desperately tried to pull him back to her.
"Silly girl. You can't fight fire."
Another impact rocked the doors, which groaned with an ominous crack. Anna didn't hear it. All she could hear was the pounding of her own heartbeat, Kristoff's delirious mumbling, and the thunderous simplicity of an idea. "Can't fight fire? Sure I can," she said, suddenly smiling through her tears. She looked at Kristoff, fear clenching in her chest. She couldn't lose him. She loved him. "With fire."
She kissed him.
Another sharp bang rang out as the doors began to splinter at the hinges, but that was nothing against the great deep pulse that filled air itself. It echoed in Anna's stomach, popped against her ears, and surged deep within her chest to tear the bonds of desperation strangling her heart.
Kristoff kissed her back.
She had never felt anything so wonderful and surprising and right. She drew back, relief surging through her as she saw Kristoff, brown eyes gleaming and a grin so silly plastered on his face that it made her want to kiss him again.
"Impossible," Queen Catalina gasped.
The door exploded.
Anna hid her face against the hail of chips and splinters that pelted her, draping herself over Kristoff to shield his body. Eyes shut tight, she heard a tremendous honking bellow and the pounding of hooves on the granite floor.
"Sven!" Kristoff shouted.
Catalina stood gaping at the reindeer that had just broken down her gates. "Is this a joke?"
Sven stamped and snorted, lowering his antlers threateningly. It was most certainly not a joke to him. Anna had never seen the gentle animal so angry. Eyes narrowed, the reindeer glanced from side to side as three guards ran up behind the queen. They were slashed and battered and shabby, but well-armed. Sven inched backwards as they approached, swords at the ready and more than a match for a lone reindeer in a cramped hallway.
More footsteps thundered down the corridor from behind. Anna turned, seeing another half-dozen guards in Kristensand gold rushing to surround them. The door was wide open, but Kristoff was exhausted from his struggle against Catalina's magic. He could barely lift his head, let alone stand, and there was no way Anna could haul him onto Sven's back by herself. She thought desperately for some means of escape, but found none.
"Give up, princess," the queen demanded. "You can't escape. Your men are under my control, and I have dozens of guards at my command. You stand alone."
A shout rang out. "Not quite."
A burst of frigid air blasted through the shattered doorway, a plane of ice crackling to life beneath their feet. In a flourish of turquoise frost that snapped in the wind like supple velvet, Queen Elsa of Arendelle blew into the hall. She stood before Catalina, resplendent in her ice gown, cold anger burning in her ice-blue eyes. "Get away from my sister, you scheming witch."
.
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.
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*A/N* - Reply to a question in a review from Olafqhace (sorry, I can't reply directly to guest reviews): There are many causes of fire apart from magic, especially in a region suffering from two years of constant drought. Elsa doesn't ask Uriel if he started the fire, only if he's responsible for it. Considering his brother has just died, he's just learned his sister is comatose, and he's been trying for two years to lift an eternal summer he believes he's unwittingly summoned, Uriel is not in a sound mental state to logically apportion blame. Even if he wasn't playing with matches, so to speak, he still blames himself for the fire happening.
This is now the most-reviewed fic I've written to date, so I would like to take a moment and thank all of you who have taken time to share your thoughts with me. Interacting with the fellow fans of each movie, book, or series is what makes publishing on FFnet so rewarding. I'll take time to recognize everyone properly once the fic is concluded. For now, thank you all!
Edit 1/4/14 - Changed Elsa's word choice in the closing line to better reflect her personality. Apologies to those who rightly pointed out the original use of profanity was OOC.
