Title: Chapter 23: Rescued
Date: 22 years 2 months before Correction
The Captain commands the guards, "Continue digging. We have to get the area cleared by sunset." He glances to his King. "Sir, we will finish here and we will take care of the body."
King Agnarr loosens his shirt, "And I will do my part as promised. You are in command. Put me to work."
With a moment of hesitation, he bows his head to his King, "Larsen."
Lieutenant Larsen runs over to him and salutes the Captain. "Sir."
The Captain returns his salute. "You will work with our King. You will stick with him until our King decides he has had his fill of manual labor work or we have to carry him off the field. Keep him busy"
"Yes, sir."
The Captain lowers his head next to Larsen. "He wishes to serve. Let him serve, but you will be held responsible if anything happens to him. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir, I do."
The Captain moves away as he watches Larsen.
Lieutenant Larsen comments, "Sir, do not take offense of the Captain's words. That is the same statement he uses for every new recruit."
"None taken. Did he say you would be held responsible if something happens to me?" Agnarr eyes the Lieutenant.
"He did. At this point I usually yell at the new recruit and give him a motivational speech that if he wishes to stay in this man's army, he will conform or we will send him to prison or he will run away to his mommy." He spots their local Doctor and his assistant passing through the gates. "The Doctor is here."
Agnarr pats the Lieutenant's arm and walks over to the Doctor. After a few seconds he escorts him to the castle doors.
Larsen looks at the sky. Clouds hide the sun and move in a circular pattern around Arendelle. The hairs on his arm stand up. He rubs his arms and returns to help remove the debris.
After a few minutes of work one of the guards cries out in pain as he pulls his partially frozen hand out from between the rocks. The guard stumbles off the debris. The Doctor checks the guards frozen hand and calls for a bucket of water. Another guard runs over to them with a bucket.
The Doctor assists the injured guard. "Keep your hand in the water and sit on the steps. It should thaw and when it does, do not move your fingers until I look at them."
Agnarr asks, "What is it?"
The Doctor rubs the back of his neck as he shakes his head. "If I had not seen it for myself, I would not have believed it. He said he saw a whitish-gray hand under several rocks. When he touched it, his hand froze."
The King yells at the work detail, "Everyone stop and listen to me."
The digging stops and all turn to the King.
"Do not touch Samuel's body just get the debris off of him. Do you understand? Do not touch his body. We already have had a guard injured for touching him."
They dig more cautiously. After a half hour, they remove the last stone. Guards murmur about seeing people frozen solid in the mountains. They say Sam's flesh looks just like those people.
A guard points at Sam, "Look, his finger moved."
The Doctor moves next to the guard. Sam moves his little finger.
The guard points, "See, he moved it again."
"We need to move him without touching him."
Agnarr speaks with Kai then Kai runs into the castle. Lieutenant Larsen issues commands. A few minutes later, several guards create a makeshift stretcher with a thick blanket and long poles. Two guards wrap their hands and arms in a blanket and roll Sam onto his side, then roll him back onto the stretcher. Four guards lift him.
Kai stands at the service entrance and motions to the King.
Agnarr commands, "Take him to Kai and do as he says."
The guards carry Sam into the castle.
After the guards enter the castle, Queen Iduna holding Elsa, walks out the front doors and marches across the courtyard to the garden. Elsa asks, "Is Admal sick? Can I see Admal?" The Queen keeps walking as she tries to wipe away a tear.
The guards place Sam's body in an empty servant's room near the kitchen. The Doctor follows them into the room and opens his medical bag. He takes out a long wooden hollow dowel. The Doctor places one end of the dowel to his ear and places the other end against Sam's back.
He speaks to no one, "Not possible." He looks at the hollow dowel. He leans over Sam and places one end of it against Sam's chest and the other end to his ear for several minutes. He turns to the King. "His heart is beating very slowly but he is alive."
Agnarr points to Sam, "He looks frozen. How is he alive?"
"I don't know. All my medical science tells me he should be dead. But whatever is going on in his body is still happening." He points to the fog developing below the cot, "It appears his body is generating the cold, which is cooling the air under his cot." The Doctor shakes his head as he continues, "His left lower leg is broken in three places. His left arm has a break above the elbow and both bones in the lower arm is broken in two places. The flesh on the front of both legs has been shredded. Without touching him, the bruising on his left side may indicate a couple of broken ribs. If he survives, he will be crippled for the rest of his life."
"Is there nothing more you can do for him?"
The Doctor puts his medical dowel back into his bag. "Not in the state he is in right now. I suspect we will know by sunset or by tomorrow morning if he lives or not."
He walks out of the room, followed by Agnarr as he closes the door. They walk towards the servant's exit, when the Doctor stops and taps his forehead. "A little over five years ago when I was at the medical school in Paris, a doctor talked about a child fallen through the ice on a pond. By the time they retrieve the boy's body, they thought he was dead. They laid his body on the shore and were digging a grave, but because the ground was frozen, several people went back to get pickaxes to break through the frozen part of the ground. The others still there built a fire to keep warm. A short time later one of the people notices the boy's hand was not frozen and he was breathing. They carried him closer to the fire. After several minutes he opened his eyes." The Doctor glances back at the open door to Sam's room. "I wonder if a similar effect is happening to him."
The Doctor glances at him, "Majesty." He points. "Did you close the door?"
He looks over his shoulder, then turns towards the door. "I did close it."
Iduna runs down the hallway as she gasps for air.
"Did Elsa come by here? I set her down to get some water for the vase. I turned around and she was gone. She said she had to talk to Admal."
He moves to the door, followed by the Doctor and Iduna. He slams the door open.
Elsa lies next to Sam with her face on his arm as she taps the ice with her hand, "Admal, wake up, wake up. We have to play horsy."
He lifts her up. "Elsa, what are you doing? He needs to sleep. Do not waken him."
She points to him, "He not sleep, He wake. Eyes open."
The Doctor kneels beside the cot. Sam's eyes are partially open. He places his ear close to the ice, then sits up with his brows pushed together and his lips parted. "Straighten your leg?"
"Yeesss," Sam replies.
"The cold will burn my hands."
"Nooo."
The ice around his left leg melts quickly. The Doctor moves to the end of the cot and takes a few minutes to set the leg straight. He set Sam's leg down and a thick layer of ice forms around it. The ice around his arm quickly melts. The Doctor moves to the side of the cot and sets his arm as straight as he can. Just as quickly a thick layer of ice forms around his arm.
Sam closes his eyes and a blue mist engulfs his body. The temperature in the room drops noticeably. A thick layer of ice forms around Sam's body. After several minutes he is encased in blue tinted ice.
Elsa yawns, "Good night, Admal sleeps, I sleep." She lays her head on her father's shoulder and closes her eyes. He turns to the soft touch on his hand and returns a smile to his Queen Iduna.
"Is there anything that needs to be done more here," he asks the Doctor.
The Doctor shakes his head, "No, I guess he knows what he is doing. When I get back to my clinic I'm going to write down everything I saw. If he lives I plan to talk to him about what just happened."
He stops by the King and examines Elsa's face and hands. He shakes his head again. "Not even a red mark from the ice." He continues out of the room with his medical bag under his arm.
Iduna asks, "How long will he sleep?"
"I do not know. Let us see if he survives the night. I will check on him later this evening." He passes Elsa to her mother and escorts them out of the room. He meets Kai down the hall, "None of the staff are to enter his room."
"Yes, Majesty." Kai encounters the two staff members and passes the Kings instruction.
Agnarr follows his Queen carrying Elsa up the stairs. Elsa lifts her head and asks, "Are you mad at me?"
"No, I am not mad at you. You gave me such a fright when I could not find you. This is twice you ran away today. You cannot continue to be doing this." She stops half way up the stairs and tilts her head towards her daughter. "Why did you run outside earlier this afternoon, after I laid you down for your nap?"
Elsa turns her head away, "Momma, I did not mean to frighten you. Admal said I was going to have a baby sister." She lays her head on her mother's shoulder. "I wanted to see my baby sister, so I got up and ran down the stairs. I thought you went out the door. I wanted to be with you. I'm sorry Momma."
Iduna continues up the stairs holding her little girl tight.
Elsa whispers, "Momma, will Admal be ok?"
Iduna does not answer immediately. She carries Elsa into the royal suite and swings the door close, but it does not close all the way. She sits on the bed and turns Elsa to face her, "Can you hear him right now?"
"No Momma, He is asleep."
She searches Elsa's face for any sign that she is making it up. "When you say he is asleep, is he asleep like when you and I lie down to close our eyes?"
Elsa places her hands on her mother's face. "His mind is asleep. That is how his body is healed. He will wake up soon."
Her lips part like she is about to speak, but nothing comes out. A moment later she asks, "How do you know that is how he heals his body and will be awake soon?"
"Do not worry. He told me while the Doctor was fixing his leg and arm that I should take care of you and be a good girl for you and Papa. He told me not to worry and he would call for me when he wakes up." Elsa smiles and kisses her mother's cheeks. She crawls out of her mother's lap and onto the bed. She lays her head onto the pillow and closes her eyes.
Agnarr standing in the doorway walks over and sits next to Ingrid, "What was that all about?"
Iduna hesitates before turning towards Charles, "I think she can really hear Sam before he was covered completely by the ice. He told her he would call her when he wakes up."
She turns away, holding her hand to her lips, "I saw the blue glow under the pile when you went after Elsa and I saw she did not want to let go of him."
She turns back to her husband and places her hand on his chest. "Is it possible that the blue glow did something to the both of them that allows them to communicate to each other, just by thinking it?"
"That is what I said Momma." Elsa answered as she watches both of her parents.
Iduna crawls over the bed and lies down, pulling Elsa close to her.
Agnarr kneels at the head of the bed and leans in close to his two beautiful girls. He brushes Elsa's hair out of her face. "Elsa, when you were holding onto Sam."
Elsa narrows her eyes and her brows push together.
He corrects himself, "My mistake, Admal, when you were holding onto Admal, did you feel anything different? Were you scared?"
Elsa reaches up and places her hand on his face. "When I saw the horses coming at me, I was afraid. When Admal grabbed me I was not afraid. I saw the blue light coming from him. He told me the blue light will protect us and it did."
"How did it feel being in the blue light?"
"It made me tingle all over then I was safe. That is when he told me he would never leave me."
Iduna glances at him. "Is that when you could hear his thoughts?"
"Yes."
He kisses the foreheads of his Princess and his Queen.
Several minutes later he walks through the castle's main doors. Most of the debris has been removed and the guards are sweeping up the remaining sand and rocks. A young guard struggles to carry a large bucket of water and does not see the King approach.
"Let me help you with that." He grabs one side of the bucket's handle and they carry the water bucket to the first group of guards.
The first guard to see him quickstep towards them. "Majesty, I will help him to carry it."
"Nonsense, I am quite capable of carrying my share of the work."
"My apology Majesty, I did not mean –"
He hands the ladle full of water to the guard. "I did not take offense. Please drink."
Lieutenant Larsen approaches. "Do we have a problem, gentlemen?"
"No problems with us." The King turns to the Lieutenant. Larsen bows to him. "I was about to explain to these fine gentlemen. I am capable of performing hard work. I appreciate the hard work the Royal Guards perform around the castle to protect my family and Arendelle."
A quarter hour later, the Captain of the Guards marches across the courtyard towards the gathering of guards. "I still see a lot of work that needs to be done with guards standing around."
The guards make a path for the Captain to the water bucket.
"Captain, good timing, you can have the last cup of water." Agnarr holds up the ladle.
The Captain bows, "Majesty, it is just they need to get the yard cleaned up before the sun sets."
"Ouch, usually, it is my Queen, who tells me to get out of the way."
The Captain's eyes widen as he slowly shakes his head. "Uh, no sir, that is not what I meant." He stands at attention. A couple of guards snicker behind him.
"Relax, Captain, I am here to do my part."
Larsen motions with his head. "Okay gentlemen, break is over. We still have an hour's worth of work to finish." He bows to the King and the other guards bow as well.
They return to removing the debris. Agnarr lifts the ladle. The Captain takes it and drinks. "I hear the stable boy saved Princess Elsa's life. How is he doing?"
The King stares at his Captain for a second before replying, "The Doctor does not know for sure. If he lives to see another sunrise, it will be a miracle."
"I hope he makes it. He is a strong worker, especially with the horses. Since arriving here he has influenced many people, including most of the guards to perform better."
"Influenced people. He has unquestionably had an influence on the Princess. Well, thank you for allowing me to interrupt your guards. Maybe we have a better understanding." He nods to the Captain and returns to the castle.
At the bottom of the stairs, he glances at the hallway leading to the kitchen. For the moment, silence is his companion. He hears the crunching under his boots as they turn. He glances up the stairs. The crunch sounds again. He moves down the hall and stops in front of the servant's room. Someone moves in his direction from the kitchen. He ducks into the room and closes the door. The person walks past the door. He recalls a table on one side of the door, but does not remember, which side. His boot bumps into the table and his hand searches for the candle and matches.
An explosion blossoms on the head of the match. The candle flickers shadows around the room. From the corner of his eyes, he sees a shadow the shape of a human move across the room. He snaps his head around. The shadow falls behind the cot. He stares at the body frozen in the ice exactly where it was when he left the room. Even with the yellow light of the candle, the ice has a bluish tint about it.
He moves the candle to the chair next to the cot. His hand reaches for the ice, but a burning pain stabs his fingers before they touch the ice and he jerks his hand back. The tips of his fingers are a whitish-pink. He passes them over the candle, but does not feel the flame.
Rub them together.
He spins around expecting someone to be standing at the door. "Who said that?"
He is alone. The feelings returns to his fingertips as he rubs them together. He kneels next to the cot and moves his face close to the ice. Sam's eyes are closed.
"Can you hear me? You should be dead along with my little girl. Did you touch my wife again to determine if she is pregnant? You seem to be having a greater influence on Iduna's Queendom than I do. I have heard a few claim you are a demon. Are you?"
Someone's shoes slide pass the door, which causes him to look back. He expects the door to open, but the person continues down the hall. "Be extremely careful of who is around you when you talk. If my family is threatened, I will do everything I can to protect them, including," he looks over his shoulder again for a moment, "including removing you."
He starts to rock back onto his feet and stops. "Thank you for saving Elsa." He pushes on the chair and rocks to his feet. He moves the candle to the table by the door and listens. No sound comes from the other side. Blowing the candle out the King slips out and closes the door.
Every morning the Doctor checks on Sam's condition, but he is not able to determine any changes. Every evening King Agnarr sits in Sam's room for a short period. He does not know if Sam can hear him, but he talks about anything that comes to mind, mostly running the Queendom and settling squabbles. Just before he leaves, he updates him about Elsa and her moods, but this night will be different.
He sits in the chair as he had the previous evenings, but hesitates to speak. The door lock rattles, but the door stays close. He searches the room. May be it was a mistake to be there. He rests his head in his hands and hopes for a distraction that would give him an excuse to leave. With a deep breath, he slides his chair closer to the cot. He leans close to Sam, but not too close, remembering the cold pain when his fingertips were too close.
In a low whisper he speaks. "Samuel, if you can hear me, I do not know how to express myself for your act of courage and risk to save my precious Elsa. When I found out you had to touch my wife in order to save her life, I had mixed emotions. She showed me the scar. The Doctor explained if you had not intervened I would have been burying her. My heart hurts just thinking about how I almost missed out on Elsa's love and affection. I thank you for saving both of their lives. Iduna told me she came to you in the stables when you were hurt. I wish she had waited for me, then you could have told us together. I know you protested that if I found out, I would execute you." He shrugs his shoulders, "maybe beat but not execute."
He pauses for a few seconds, "I am kidding. When she told me you said she was going to have a little girl, I hugged her, I wanted to run down here and thank you, but instead I went back into another meeting." He hesitates to continue, but after what he saw with Elsa, he needs to protect her. "Since you arrived here, there have been some strange reports of lights in the forest and up on the mountain. Initially I dismissed the reports, but what I saw surrounding you and Elsa, I have to re-evaluate those reports. I know you live up on the mountain someplace we have yet to find. I just need to know if you are the cause of the lights or not."
He looks for movement in Sam's eyes, but the ice makes it hard for him to determine. "Samuel, you are a very peculiar individual. You seem to have something the horses like about you. I recall one of the reports stating a hunter saw a man frolicking with fifteen to twenty wolves on the mountains. Was that you they saw? And it seems the children here in Arendelle like you as well. I liked the way the children responded to me when I ride by. What magical power do you have over animals and children? Which brings me to what I have been trying to say tonight. Your influence reaches to my little girl. Every day, she asks me if she can come down here to talk to you. Please understand, I saw what happen to the guard who touched your hand. Luckily the Doctor was there to treat the guard. When I saw Elsa's face and hands on your arm, she did not receive any frost burns. I wonder if you were protecting her from the ice. I still have some reservations about her wanting to be near you, at least until I can get more information from you."
He leans back in the chair, "You know, it is nice to be able to talk about my frustrations. I do get tired of everyone telling me what I should think or do just because I am the King. Thank you for listening. I will not visit tomorrow. I have to prepare a speech for my trip to the Southern Isles. I will visit before I leave. I hope you get well soon."
He stands for a moment before walking to the door. As he reaches for the handle, the door is not closed. He is sure he closed it when he came into the room, but maybe he did not. The noise he heard earlier, was it the sound of the door opening to where it is now? He passes through the door and makes sure it is closed this time.
Agnarr reaches the top of the stairs and hears a commotion in the royal suite. As the door opens, a frantic Iduna meets him.
"Did you see Elsa? Did she run past you? She is not in her bed. Wake the staff we have to find her"
He grabs her arms. "Hold on. She is not getting out of the castle. Where was she the last time you saw her?"
"She was standing by the door trying to open it. She kept saying she needed to tell Admal about your trip to the Southern Isles. I picked her up and put her in her bed. When I came back from the other room the door was open."
He remembers the open door to Samuel's room. "I think I know where she is. Get your coat?"
Iduna grabs her coat off the back of the chair and follows him down the stairs. "Do you think she went into his room?"
"I think so. About ten minutes ago, I thought I heard the door open. It looked close and I did not see anyone in the room, so I did not think any more about it until I went to leave. The door was open a few centimeters. Again, I did not see anyone in the room. Maybe she sneaked in and found a place to hide."
"All afternoon she kept saying she was talking to Admal. I thought she was just playing." She grabs his arm. "Do you think she really was talking to him?"
They stop outside of Samuel's door and listen for sounds inside the room. They barely hear a child's voice and giggling. Agnarr slowly opens the door. Elsa wearing her night clothes lies on Sam's arm and side as she swings her feet in the air. She rests her chin on her hands on his shoulder. She speaks to him as though she is having a conversation, even though there are no signs that Sam replies to her.
She pats the side of his frozen head. "You can teach me to ride a horse. I can help you to brush them and get them to talk to me the way they talk to you." For a moment she stares at Sam. She closes her eyes and extends her bottom lip out. "Mommy says he works too long. I wish he could play with me."
She turns her head towards the door and smiles, "I love them."
They stop midway across the room. Iduna asks, "Elsa, why did you say those words, 'I love you'?"
Her smile gets bigger, "Because I do."
He stands next to the cot, "How long have you been talking to him?"
"When you finished eating."
Iduna places her hand on his shoulder. "That was almost two hours ago." She turns to Elsa, "You were talking to him the whole time."
Elsa shakes her head no, "When Papa came in here he did not talk to me."
"Is that when you came down here, when Papa was in here?"
"Yes," she answers shyly.
Her father lightly chastises her, "Elsa, you scared your mother when she could not find you. If I did not think you would be here, you would have scared me. I would have thought something had happened to you."
"But it is ok, I here with Admal. He keeps me safe."
Her mother picks her up. "I know you are safe. Please promise me you will let me know you want to visit him so I can be with you."
Elsa hesitates as she looks at Sam. She gives her mother a big hug as she says, "I promise to tell you." Her mother gives her a tight hug.
She leans back and cups her mother's face. "Admal says brush fell under the bed on Papa's side." She leans towards her father and grabs the shoulder boards on his uniform, "Papa, Admal said you can beat him for finding Momma's baby.
Iduna looks at her husband quizzically, "Beat him?"
Agnarr's eyes widen as he holds his hands up in a surrender motion, "I was joking." He quickly turns his head to Sam then back to Iduna. "Unless she was under the cot, there is no way she could have heard me. I whispered to him. Do you think he is communicating with her, right now?"
Elsa glances at Sam before grabbing her father's mustache to pull him close to her. She kisses his cheek. "I love you Papa."
He takes Elsa in his arms and whispers in her ear, "I love you too. Did he tell you to say that to me?"
"No, he said to pull your hair lip. I say I love you." Elsa replies as she nuzzles into his neck.
"Let us give him time to sleep. I will put you in your bed." He moves across the room and opens the door. His Queen is not by his side. "Are you coming?"
"I will be right behind you." She continues to observe Sam.
The King carries his little Princess down the hall.
Ingrid waits. "If I could kiss you I would. I have not seen him love on Elsa in a long time. Once you are up and around, maybe you could talk to my husband to make time for his little girl. He works too long and barely sees her in the evening. If you can influence him to spend more time, I would be in your debt." She kisses her finger and starts to touch his face, but the intense cold stops her. She blows him a kiss and departs the room.
Minutes later, Iduna passes Elsa's room. She hears the King reading a story to her. Outside of the door, she listens and hears the distinctive sound of a Goodnight kiss. She hurries to their room. She places her coat over the back of the chair and rolls the blanket back to get in the bed, but remembers what Elsa said about her brush. She looks under the bed on the King's side and finds her brush. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she considers if Elsa has developed similar abilities that she did after Sam saved her from the wolves.
A few minutes later her husband enters the room smiling. He sits next to her. "What are you thinking?"
She holds up the brush. "Elsa said Sam told her where my brush had fallen. It was under your side of the bed. Elsa was not in the room when it fell. Is he really talking to her?"
He places his arm around her, "What other logical reason could it be? I have seen some strange things, why not this?"
End of Chapter