She saw him climb over the railing, then heard the light sound of his boots against roof shingles. She could follow after him. Not as she was dressed, of course, but her room wasn't far. Change her name, maybe even dye her hair a darker color. Pretend to be someone else.

Flynn might not let her follow him, not with the illusions he had about her privileges. Why would she want to go with him, anyway? She wouldn't live as he did, an "adventurer," as he said. She was better on her own.

She wondered if she even could run away, as Flynn had done. Her life wouldn't simply let her go. The crown on her head weighed heavily, and so did the crown she was meant to wear one day. If she ran… it would be over the edge of the world. Over the edge of a chasm and into the dark.

Pretend to be someone else.

She was already pretending. Fosterage rarely lasted more than five years. Once, she wished always for the call to go home; now she dreaded the moment of truth it would bring. Only she knew that she would abdicate the crown of Arendelle, since if she were to return, she would put all of Arendelle in danger. Better to give Anna both the crown and safety. Tonight she wore Rapunzel's tiara, play acting the princess for her aunt, uncle, and all of Corona.

What role would Hans of Southern Isles want for her to play? An arrangement to use her influence on Corona's and Arendelle's trade agreements would be strategic. Or could he be reaching for a larger prize?

Could he…

be thinking… to improve his status…

by marriage?

Elsa gasped for a breath. She knew how politics worked between kingdoms, yet the thought of marriage still shocked her. Worse, marriage to a prince so far down the line of succession that he would bring nothing to the union. She couldn't imagine herself married, or even betrothed! Nevermind that it wasn't at all strange for a girl who had already started her courses to be considering her marriage-bed prospects.

She didn't want any prospects! She didn't want… that. And certainly not with a blackguard such as Hans! If she had to marry someone, it could at least be someone she might pretend to want!

Pretend...

Hans was a monster, pretending to be a prince. He enjoyed threatening to expose her secret, but she knew his true nature. She could pretend at least as well as he did. Better, she imagined. She had so much practice. What she hid always fought to be exposed.

She paced back and forth while focusing her thoughts back to the situation at hand. The power that Hans had over her was the secret of her ice powers, yet he had been the only witness that time. Flynn hadn't given any indication that he would tell her secret, and the other bandits were no longer in the kingdom, he had said.

"Ugh!" she growled to herself. Hans threatened her. He threatened her because he wanted power over her, which he could not have unless she remained afraid of him.

Be someone else.

If she were unafraid of him, he would not have power over her. She was afraid. However, she could pretend not to be. She could pretend that the secret he held could not harm her. In what scenario would that be true? Suppose Hans thought he would not be believed, or that he would face negative consequences for telling her secret?

She finished pulling her satin gloves off the rest of the way. They were damp from when she had sobbed into them. Her hands felt better, out of them. She folded them up and carried them with her as she went down the stairs, heading back to the ball.

Mother Gartner still waited in the corridor. She sat on the bench in a patient pose. When Elsa approach, the elderly matron slowly rose to her feet. Giving her assistance, Elsa put her gloves down on the bench. She chose to leave them there when she and Mother Gartner walked away.

"You were gone quite a while," Mother Gartner commented without judgment. "We may have missed all but the last dance."

Elsa braced herself. She would continue as if she were unafraid. "I feel better now," she lied.

ooo

She strode back into the ballroom with her lips positioned in a confident smile. While Mother Gartner moved toward a group of chatting adults, Elsa spotted Hans and made her path angle toward him. He was holding court with a small group of other youths that included her friends. Seeing his chummy manner with Kay, she had to fight to keep the plaster smile on her face. That contemptible Hans didn't merit standing in Kay's shadow. Hans must have noted Kay's attention shift. The prince's smile on turning to see Elsa had a quality of gloating satisfaction.

Kay's smile, when he saw Elsa approaching, was genuine, however. He quickly stepped away from the others and intercepted Elsa. "I hoped that I could still have that dance with you," he greeted her. "May I?"

The tune was ending. To dance with Kay would be a short detour from her intentions, but she worried that she would lose her resolve. "I hope you will forgive me, Kay," she said. She glanced at Gerte, still standing with the others, who had a bereft look dimming the roses of her young face. Elsa could, at least, make Gerte happier. "I should not have promised you anything. I'm expected to dance with Prince Hans."

"Oh." Doing a bad job of hiding his disappointment, he gave her a little nod. "A prince for a princess. I understand." Mustering a smile, he added, "Of course I forgive you, Princess Elsa."

"Thank you, Kay." She swept away from him, quickly moving toward Hans as the next musical number began. Hans had stepped away from the others.

"I see you've changed your mind," a pleased Hans said. He took her hand as a given.

Elsa suppressed her revulsion. His kid leather gloves were soft skin against her bare hands. "Shall we dance?" she asked him.

The musicians were playing a piece to accompany a face-to-face couples dance, similar to the Landler, called the waltzer. It was very new, but Elsa knew it, since - like the Landler - the dance's origins were local.

The smile on Han's face faltered. "I don't know this one," he told her breezily. "Why don't we talk somewhere privately? The moon is beautiful tonight."

"It's quite easy to learn the dance," Elsa insisted. "Three beats to a measure."

Elsa stepped into Hans and took his right hand, which she pulled around her waist and pressed above the small of her back. Nonplussed, yet not flustered, Hans did not resist. She took his left hand in her right, and wrapped her right hand and arm around his right shoulder.

"Like this," she said. Though positioned to follow, she pushed and pulled on him as she led the steps of the waltzer. His feet stepped on hers more than once at first, though he adapted quickly.

Because of the dance style or because of fatigue, fewer dancers joined them on the floor. The greater distance between couples made it easier to speak without the possibility of being overheard.

Hans turned his face toward Elsa's. She compared the green of his irises to the muck of algae growing around a stagnant pond. He pulled her as close as propriety allowed. "We look good together," he said in a low voice. "You made the right decision."

"I know I have," Elsa replied. She changed her language to the language spoken in both Arendelle and Southern Isles. "So that we understand each other clearly, let me speak in our common language." The sound of the words gave her strength. She wrote to Anna in their language, except when helping her practice others, but she had become accustomed to hearing her own voice in the language of Corona.

Hans switched his language, too. "I certainly prefer it." His voice sounded more genteel in his native tongue. "And this dance. I like it, too."

"When you and your brothers leave Corona at first light tomorrow, you can take this lesson with you. As a token, from me."

"Oh, I don't know that I have to leave," Hans responded. "Not so quickly. My brothers can go on ahead of me. They have some business that can't be delayed longer."

"You'll leave tomorrow," Elsa said as they twirled through a fast turn, "or I'll see that you are tossed into the dungeons."

"What?" Hans hissed with a warning tone.

"You assaulted a princess. Have you forgotten? I can have you hanged, for that. Imprisonment would be a mercy."

Hans struggled to hide a nasty expression. "Have you forgotten? They'll do worse to you when I tell them you do magic. You won't be any kind of princess once they know your secret. Witches are rolled in barrels filled with salt and nails. They're burned with hot iron shoes." His manner became intense as he enumerated the possible tortures. "I'm sure you've heard the stories. If you think a candle burn hurts, imagine that agony." As another couple danced close, he smiled and nodded at them. Then he maneuvered out of earshot with the spinning of their dance steps. "Don't put yourself in peril, Princess, by being a little fool."

Elsa took a breath, bracing herself. "It's not a secret," she lied. "My father and mother, and my uncle and aunt, know. I'm the crown princess of Arendelle and the champion of Corona." Their dancing came to a stop a moment after the music. "I hold your dagger, Prince Hans. Proof that you attacked me. Your testimony is no proof, and if you speak of sorcery, it will be considered an overture of war by Southern Isles."

Hans looked as if he had been slapped in the face. He stepped back from Elsa, looking her up and down. He belatedly released her hand and took his touch off her waist. His eyes narrowed. Very quietly, he said, "When you look in a mirror, you will always see the monster you are."

Stung, she pretended not to have heard him. "Did you like the dance? The music was from a scene in the Italian opera, Una Cosa Rara, by Vicente Martin y Soler. The opera's name refers to beauty and honor together. Una Cosa Rara: 'a rare thing.'" She stood a long moment to collect herself. Then, as she stepped past Hans walking away, she told him, "I could freeze your heart and no one would notice."

He didn't follow her.

Once the feast was served, she could hardly even put food in her mouth. She remained shaken from challenging Hans. She worried that he would call her bluff. It was true that she could produce the dagger that she had taken from him as evidence, but if he told anyone about her ice power… she couldn't bear to think of it.

Hans and his brothers sat at King Thomas and Queen Primrose's table. It was small relief that the Southern Isle princes were placed on the far side of Queen Primrose, while Elsa sat at King Thomas's side; Elsa felt as if her every move was watched, if not by Hans, then by the room full of guests. Knowing that someone in the kitchen would enjoy a fine dinner of her unwanted meal, she let the servants fill her plate, then carry away the untasted food.

Instead of eating the food in front of her, she thought about her future as an exile. She couldn't continue, she felt, in the place of Corona's princess. Confronting Hans had given her a small boost of focus to consider what she wanted. Talking to Flynn had seeded the thought of what she would do, if she were not a princess, to find her freedom. She might still throw herself into a ravine, but while she still had other options, she could save that one escape as a secret comfort. For once, she would have a secret that only she knew.

The dinner ended somewhat abruptly, at least for the royal family, when the captain of the guard brought news. He entered the hall in the company of one of his messengers, his arm still bound because of his damaged shoulder: the actual injury he sustained from being knocked off his horse by the ice monster. Elsa felt glad that she had eaten nothing; she felt sicker upon again seeing the harm she had done to the captain.

What he had to tell the king required privacy. King Thomas rose and led his guardsmen out of the dining hall to conduct their business away from the guests.

ooo

Once they were in the hallway, heading toward the king's chamber, the captain apologized to King Thomas for the interruption, then told him, "The villains have been caught, Your Highness. They were found over the Qamar border, apparently making arrangements to flee to Agrabah. Qamar is extraditing them to us. The bandits will be in our custody by dawn."

"The whole band?" King Thomas inquired. He led the group to his audience chamber.

"Two brutes, only: the 'Stabbington Brothers', as they are known. They will say nothing of their fellow thieves."

King Thomas's face became grim. "In time, they will," he said. "I'll have everything they know out of them."

ooo

After bidding goodnight to the honored guests, Queen Primrose also left the table. Elsa took the opportunity to escape, following after the queen. She overtook her before Queen Primrose had gone past the first turning of the corridor. She stopped her and asked for the meeting she needed with Queen Primrose and King Thomas.

Elsa and Primrose crossed paths with the captain of the guard and the messenger at the doorway to the King's audience chamber. The men bowed to the royal ladies, then proceeded on their way with haste.

King Thomas stood with his arms crossed over his broad chest, deep in thought with his head bowed. The king straightened up as his wife and niece entered the room. Primrose shut the door behind them. Thomas's expression lightened from a grim contemplation as they entered his company.

Queen Primrose held his gaze. "No word… ?" she asked.

He shook his head. "None," he answered.

Elsa took the opportunity, before the meeting turned to other things, to cement her uncle's and aunt's attention. With care, she began to remove the jeweled tiara from her head. When the metalwork caught on the strands of her hair, Queen Primrose reached to help her.

"You don't have to take it off now, Elsa," she said. "Let the maids take it out when they brush out your hair before you sleep."

"It's not mine to wear," Elsa stated. She extricated the tiara and put it in her uncle's hands. "Uncle Thomas, Aunt Primrose, I can't stand in my cousin's place. Let me instead," she rushed on, "pledge all my abilities to the search for her. Give me Maximus. Let me ride with the guard. I am skilled, and I have strength. Let me do this, at least, until Arendelle calls me home."

King Thomas stopped his own protest and considered her plea. "A year, at most, until you are recalled to Arendelle," he mused.

"It's too dangerous," Primrose worried, but even she seemed to consider.

"Am I not Corona's champion?" Elsa countered. She felt like fraud, but she had to win her desire.

King Thomas and Queen Primrose shared another one of their wordless communications. Elsa saw the look, but couldn't interpret the meaning.

"Let me give it some thought," the king started.

"Uncle -" Elsa began to plead. She stopped when King Thomas lifted his hand in a gesture for her patience.

"I'll make my decision soon enough," he said kindly. "My dear niece. At the moment, however, is a matter of pressing importance. " He looked around the room. "I would prefer we speak of it in a better setting."

Elsa felt a pulse of hope when, on the way to King Thomas's personal study, they left Rapunzel's tiara back in its box, ready to be stored until the next formal occasion. They were all preoccupied, however, and she wasn't the only one not to notice that they left the jeweled tiara unguarded.

Thomas's study was appropriate for meetings on matters related to them as a family, as opposed to discussions about the kingdom. It was an oasis from the grandeur of the castle, filled with sentimental objects. Many of Elsa's early artwork graced the walls and shelves. A pre-wedding portrait of Primrose and several small paintings of baby Rapunzel filled a space directly across from his writing desk.

He gestured for Elsa and Primrose to choose seats. As usual, they went to the same chairs, Elsa to an armchair (that could recline) and Primrose to a settee. On other occasions, she had taken advantage of being able to lie down or lounge in recline.

Thomas paused before he took his own seat, in a massive chair that suited his frame. "The men who tried to take Elsa have been caught," he said, all in one great sigh. "Matters of justice are rarely so grave in our kingdom, but I confess that my rage is clouding my judgment." He sat down. "I am concerned about your feelings upon hearing this news, Elsa. Will you be able to confront these villains? If the strain it too great, I would spare you any contact with the matter entirely."

Elsa could have screamed. She continued to pretend that all was well and kept her countenance placid. She had only just won a shaky victory against Hans, and now two others who had seen her ice magic, two she had thought gone and to be forgotten, would be in a position to tell her secret. She could take her uncle's offer, but if she did, she would show herself too weak for her earlier request to ride with the guard.

She made herself speak. "Justice should never be an easy decision, Uncle. I am willing to do what is needed."

Primrose interjected, "We must discover what they know."

"We conjecture that these men may know something of our Rapunzel's abduction," Thomas explained to Elsa. "Strong methods of interrogation may be in order."

"You mean… torture, don't you?" Elsa asked, giving thanks that she had not eaten anything at dinner because of the way her stomach twisted. Under torture, even the threat of it, the bandits would certainly give her secret away.

"We have to use what is necessary," said Primrose. "There are poisons that will cause a man to speak without censor. They cause great pain when withheld, after the first dosage. However, ultimately these prisoners will go to the hangman."

"I have also been given to understand that one of the ruffians has been partially blinded. A promise of medical care can be a positive inducement. If it should turn out that these men are not as villainous as we perceive before all evidence is gathered, we may find ways to attain their co-operation." King Thomas was not a man of rages. Elsa knew he would prefer a way without violence. "They will be in the dungeon by morning. I would like to begin questioning them as the first order of business, tomorrow."

Queen Primrose nodded. "I will have our schedule cleared," she said. "Elsa, you may do the same, but at first, we will only need you to testify that the correct persons have been captured." She confirmed her statement with King Thomas via a look.

Elsa could only nod. She knew there would be no chance of sleep for her this night, anticipating the next day to come.

ooo