12 The Battle

After some teary goodbyes from the wives of our crew, we set out. Anna and Elsa were dressed in their far east outfits with all kinds of sharp, dangley bits hanging from their hair and earlobes. Purple and green sashes with small daggers placed in ornate scabbards on their thighs. Hair in tight braids wrapped around their heads. Elsa had a special crown made just for this outfit. It looked like the spikes of the freeze all tightly packed together. The Queen was not hiding today.

They looked like they were ready to get some.

I didn't want to say anything too offensive, but these two simply looked like bad-asses. "Nice attire Ladies" is all they got from me verbally, but I was feeling a tingle.

Elsa also gave the ship a dark brown color to disguise our appearance, good call. When the ship sailed "Raw" it was slow, but with the ice hull, it picked up a couple of knots. This proved to be valuable in getting the timing of our arrival at the fleet just right.

We had only sailed half a day on the Gudbrandr when the call came from the nest. "Ships ahead Captain, at one ninty five."

"How many?"

"Not clear yet, Sir, maybe eight... No, ten Sir."

We need to flank them in order for our strategy to work, and the Wesleton Navy used a tactic of firing on the up roll, meaning they would fire when the ship rocked upwards on that side. The bad news for them is there wouldn't be any rigging for them to hit once we were in range.

"Are we lowering the sail soon, Captain?" Asked Elsa in a somewhat nervous tone. This wasn't like her at all, she was making me nervous now. This has never been attempted, it would soon make history. Either as a fools gambit or the most brilliant naval victory ever.

"We don't want to give away our advantage too soon, this ship looks like a scout ship to them. Let's let them think they have the upper hand."

Anna paced back and forth across the fore castle, she was speaking to herself a little litany that would psych herself out for battle. The Lieutenant "Feisty Pants" side of her was coming out. I remember hearing that bandied about when people who were close to her would speak of her anger. I always had trouble thinking of her that way, anger just wasn't her thing.

"Ten 32's Sir." Came the call, we now knew what we were up against on the sea, the next query was even more important. "Do you see any troops?"

"Yes Sir, on two vessels."

Damn! Land invasion. I knew it wouldn't be a coincidence that the Duke would hire some goons, and not be on these ships. They would lock up the fjord with eight ships and perform a land attack with the other two.

I hoped that most of what we've done over the last few months has stayed a secret, but I'm not counting on it. They planned on bringing the fight straight to Arendelle and they were going to use typical military strategy to do it. We made the turn to line up for our attack run, this was it.

"May Fortune Favor the Foolish" I said to my First. I hoped it wouln't be the last thing I'd say.

"Fold the mast!" The crew released the jib and mast stays and Elsas snow muscles did the rest, lowering it into its cradle. "Seal it." Now Elsa encapsulated the sails, mast and booms in an icy sheath and blew off the camouflage coating revealing the cool blue color of ship, it looked like giant icicle now.

I couldn't help but wonder what our enemy was seeing, for all I know they could be laughing their faces off by now.

"Thrusters Now!" As they roared to life the ship heaved up as Elsas latest hull shape proved to be a winner. "Combat Speed!" As I barked out these orders it occurred to me that no other Captain had ever issued such orders in battle, or spoke to his Queen in such a fashion. On this ship however I was in charge, the Queen was second in command. She made it very clear that was how it was going to be. Smart people know how to delegate authority, and now it looks like she is the smartest person to have ever lived.

"Ready Lieutenant Anna?"

"Born Ready, Sir!"

"When we are in range, light 'em up!" I was really letting Anna know I had confidence in her abilities more than telling her what to do. We had discussed this battle plan in Elsa's study many times. But a Captain must have the appearance of being in control, most of what I would say to her would be for show now. It also occurred to me that that we were being rather flippant about name usage that seemed quite undisciplined. But if they got the job done, and followed my orders, that should be good enough.

Besides, the Queens last name had six syllables, it was a real mouthful.

The enemy ships made there turn for firing on the line right on cue, just like all their dusty war books told them to do. It would be a costly mistake...

At full speed now, the Gudbrandr must have been a terrifying sight. Two giant wakes, the likes of which had never been seen before came off the bow, the noise was deafening.

"Now Lieutenant!" Up on the bow sprint, Anna unleashed her first wave of fire as we came up to the port side of the bow on the first ship. The sails exploded in flames as the first volley of cannon fire came from the ship.

Against a vessel of this speed their cannons were useless, and we tried to stay out of range of any musket fire. Their weapons were of no match for us. this should be a decisive victory if everything will just hold together.

"Rearward fire!" Now it was Elsas turn to go on the offense. She shot several icy slugs at the stern of the first ship in an attempt to knock out its rudder. A miss, but it was close. "Your doing fine Elsa", I wanted to be encouraging, Anna and Elsa weren't really seasoned marines.

Now we zigged to the starboard side of the next ship, once again Anna seared the sails and a few sailors in the rigging of the second ship. I caught a quick glimpse of the first ship behind us, It was fully engulfed in flames, men jumping into the sea. The wake of the Gudbrandr made it rock violently. We kept this up for five ships. Anna had what looked to be the easy job, as she didn't need quite the aim Elsa needed. But Elsa got three out of the five, and I congratulated her on her success.