Konrad, the King of the Southern Isles, was in his private chambers sipping a glass of Port. The bottle, on a small table at his side, was half-empty. He could hear the sounds of the activity in the courtyard, but he pretended not to care for it and studied the gleam of the light in the crimson liquid in his glass. His eyes quickly raised when there was a knock at the door. The King was so nervous that he almost dropped his glass.
"Any news about Queen Elsa?" Konrad asked when his valet opened the door.
"How charming! The groom cares of the bride." Stephan, his younger brother, replied as he pushed Konrad's valet away and entered into the room. Although they were in the middle of the night, he was fully clothed unlike his elder brother who wore his night-clothes .
"Do you know if Elsa is alive?." Konrad asked when the wallet had already closed the door again.
"Kai remain silent like a grave." Stephan answered as he went closer to the table and poured himself a glass of Port.
"And is that a good sign?"
"It depends." Stephan replied before sipping his Porto.
"What does it depends on?"
"On what do you want to happen." Stephan replied as he fixedly gazed at his brother.
"I don't understand you." Konrad replied visibly uncomfortable.
Stephan swallowed the Port before replying. "Konrad, are you behind this assassin?"
"Are you joking!" The elder brother replied.
"I wish I were joking. But I still remember our last talk in my room. You say that you still kept an ace up your sleeve and I wonder whether you were talking of an assassin.
"It was a few days ago. It's impossible to hire an assassin in so little time."
"You are right. And that was my first reaction when I find out about the attempt against Elsa. But I remember that, few months ago, we had hired a group of four assassins to make a work in the little Kingdom south of Arendelle. Do you remember them?" Stephan's voice was soft but his eyes were cold as ice.
Konrad keep silent and looked at his brother with fear.
Stephan went on." We were about to order the assassination of the old King's unique heir during a hunt when Princess Anna of Arendelle paid a visit to the Kingdom and we had to postpone it. Few days after the Arendelle conference was announced and we decided that it would be counterproductive being entangled in that petty Kingdom and Arendelle at the same time, so the assassins were instructed to hide and wait for further orders." Stephan gazed at his brother's eyes before going on with angry voice. "Please, tell me that they haven't received any."
Konrad cleared his throat. "If Elsa died, Lord Halkett would feign indignation, but in private, he would be pleased and support our claim to Anna's hand."
"So you really made it!" Stephan said as he sighed.
"If Elsa died, the control of Arendelle would be again a Norway's internal issue and England would prefer keeping the great European powers out of Arendendelle and we could convince Lord Halkett to support us as a way to keep them away."
Stephan shook his head. "It's too risky!" He exclaimed as he banged on the table dropping the bottle of Port. When hitting the floor, the flask shattered in hundreds of pieces and the Port ran over the floor.
Konrad looked at the red blood-like stain in the floor and felt a shiver running through his spine. "But we planned to make similar things before." He finally replied.
"Yes." Stephan answered after slumping into a chair as he struggled to recover his self-control. When he went on, his voice was friendly. "But now, half Europe is looking at us. It could be inconvenient if we appear with our hands dripping blood."
"If Elsa dies Lord Halkett would forgive all our sins."
"Everything depends on Elsa's death and that no assassin is captured alive. Then we could have a chance." Stephan slowly said. "But the size of the group is a problem for us. Four is too much people for an operation like this. One thing is to catch a young Prince in the middle of a forest and a completely different one to stab a Queen in her bedroom."
"Luckily, Queen Elsa has been kind enough to block the way out of the stable and nobody is pursuing the other assassins." Konrad replied.
"Yes. But I would prefer that the team was composed by a unique assassin and he was lying death in the dungeons of the castle. The remaining assassins are just inconvenient witnesses."
Konrad brushed the back of his neck. "My hope is that that stubborn girl give up soon and we receive news about her death." He nervously replied.
The milky light of the full moon illuminated the shore of the fjord. Anna remembered similar nights during the excursions with Kristoff into the wilderness and how had enjoyed the strange sensation of walking in a night that was as a pale day. Walking under the trees with Kristoff at her side had been almost magical, but tonight, after the attack against Elsa, there wasn't any magic. She was alone and everything seemed weird and dangerous, full of strange sounds like the howl of the icy wind which had increased its force.
Erick had located the best section of the shore to approach the castle and Anna had told him the location of the coves in that zone. She used to stroll there with Elsa, Kristoff or both of them and knew well them.
Now Erick was exploring the third place described by Anna and, much to Anna's annoyance, she was waiting with Erick's horse. The Princess had bitterly complained, but Erick had been adamant regarding that point. He would explore alone and Anna would stay in the relative security of the rear position.
But Erick had been exploring for a long time and Anna was getting worried. In the two previous places, Erick had quickly returned, but this time it was different. "Or maybe I'm just nervous." Anna thought when the hoot of an owl gave her a start. But in this very moment she felt something touching his right arm. The young Princess yelled and turned to face a smiling Erick who had approached from behind.
"Is this your idea of a joke?" Anna whispered. "You scared me to death."
"I'm sorry. You were so tense that I couldn't help it." Erick said mischievously smiling.
"How do you have come so noiselessly. I haven't heard you." Anna asked still trembling.
"I have been a scout for four years in the Plains and when you are a scout the one who makes noise is the one who dies." Erick replied. "And you don't have to whisper any more. The assassin is far away. "
"Anyway, I don't believe that it is a good idea... Wait a second! Why do you say that the assassin is far away."
"Because I have found his encampment and his horse." Erick replied pointing to a thicket of birches.
The trees were around a gully into which was placed the encampment. A little stream went through it on his way towards the fjord. Due to the trees and the sunken terrain the place was invisible from the castle and the nearby paths. A chestnut horse, a fine animal far better than the average horse, was tied to a fallen tree. There weren't remains of any campfire and the only indication that it was an encampment were the saddle and saddlebags on the fallen tree to which the horse had been tied.
"All his belongings are packed in the saddlebags. He was ready to depart as soon as he had returned from his mission." Erick said as he took the saddle from the ground and put it on the tied horse.
"After he would have killed my sister."Anna thought." How did you find this place? It is really well hidden."
"I have found fresh footsteps entering in the water in the point were the stream flows into the fjord and I supposed that the assassin, after returning from the castle, would have used the stream as a guide to quickly locate his encampment in the middle of the night. So I followed it from the shore until I found the horse." Erick said while he fastened the girth of the saddle.
"And where is the companion of the assassin we are looking for?"
"He left the encampment at evening. I have located his track and it has only a few hours."
"Did he deserted his comrade just before trying to kill my sister?" Anna shook her head. "It doesn't make sense."
"I was sure that he wouldn't be here. In some situations, a person is better than an entire army and being near the castle while his comrade was trying to kill Elsa would have been an unnecessary risk. They should have studied the castle together until an opportunity to act, a night without moon, aroused. Then they parted and now he must be far away of the castle waiting for the return of his dead friend." Erick finished fastening the saddle and took the saddlebags.
"And what he will do when he realize that his friend don't come?"
"He will wait for a while, then he will assume that his comrade is dead or captured and will flee to avoid being captured. We have to catch him before that." Erick put the saddlebags on the horse.
"And what are we going to do now?" Anna asked.
"Now, you have a horse and it is a fine animal. It is a trakehner, a warmblooded breed. That means that it is spirited but not too much." Erick replied as he patted its neck.
"I know what is a trakehner and a warmblooded horse." Anna warily said feeling a strange tone on Erick's voice.
"Then you can return to the castle with it. I'm sure that Rolf will be very interested in the belongings of the assassin." Erick concluded.
"What are you talking about? You told me that I would be with you until we met Rolf."
"I supposed that Rolf and a patrol of Arendelle's dragons would be here by now, but he isn't and I can't wait anymore. I have to chase the assassin." Erick replied as he mounted on his horse. He had accepted to bring Anna with him because he was quite sure that the companion of the assassin wouldn't be near the castle. But from that point on, bringing Anna would have been an unnecessary risk. "Good bye Anna I will do my best to chase him."
The hussar swerved his horse and moved away until he reached the path and disappeared behind one of its bends. Anna sighed and untied the horse. After guiding the animal, which was mild as Erick had said, to the path, Anna studied the ground and smiled. Wanting to make his trail easy to follow by Rolf's soldiers, Erick hadn't taken care to hide his trail. And Kristoff had taught Anna how to follow a track.
Antanas had been almost an hour trying to cut a way through the ice and he was furious. The ice had resisted picks, axes and fire. He had even made red-hot a pick and used it against the ice, but it had just produced burns on his hands.
Nobody had achieved better results. Piles of broken tools marked the points where the soldiers of Arendelle had tried to break the ice. The young Lithuanian was eager to pursue the accomplice of the assassin, the idea of catching him and avenge the young Queen had impelled him to work hard for an hour. But now he deliberately dropped his pick, climbed to the top of the huge block of ice and tried to think. His uncle Vladimiras always said that a global view of a battle was key to win it and he had decided to try it literally.
Antanas looked at the courtyard and the icy roof that covered it. If the Queen had used the same type of ice to make the block they would work with their tools until the hell freezes over.
He turned his face and looked at the stables. A group of men was also fruitlessly working in that side of the icy barrier. The space between the stables and the ice was a small section of the courtyard delimited at its sides by the walls of the castle and the keep.
"This is frustrating! In a battle you can lure the enemy into a trap, simulate a false attack, flank him..." Antanas said inwardly. "In this limited space we can only blindly charge against the wall and break our..." Antanas' eyes suddenly lit up.
"Where is Rolf! I have to talk with him." He shouted so excited that he didn't realize that he was talking in Lithuanian and the men in the courtyard gazed at him unable to understand a single word.
Anna looked in surprise at the small house in the middle of the trees. Although she scented the dawn, the forest around her was so thick and dark that she hadn't been able to see the building until she was at a short distance.
Following Erick's track, she had found his horse close by the path, tied to a tree. The animal was near to a small and narrow secondary path which went into a specially thick part of the forest. Anna had hesitated, but finally she had decided that, since she was on their own, she hadn't to stay with the horses and walked down the path into the forest until she found out the house, hidden among the trees.
Anna started to silently crept towards the house as she tried to imagine where Erick was. When she got closer, the Princess realized that the house was a little temporally shelter which had been used by Elsa's workers who had made the new roads to the timber valleys. Usually it would have been inhabited but Anna was able to see a light in one of the windows.
Anna was about to left the cover of the trees to approach the house when she heard the noise of a branch breaking behind her. "Erick?" She whispered half amused, half frightened, although the Princess was sure that she hadn't made any sound.
But, before she could turn, a hand from behind clamped over her mouth and a strong arm wrapped around her waist grasping Anna's both arms. She instinctively kicked backwards hitting her captor's leg.
"Damn!" The man exclaimed. "Calm down young girl! I'm not going to harm you." He went on in French as he tightened his grasp around Anna.
Anna tried to pull away of the man's embrace, but he was a hefty man and Anna wasn't able to move. She changed her tactic and managed to fiercely bite the hand across her mouth.
The man maintained his grasp around Anna's waist but quickly moved away his hand from Anna's mouth. "You are brave!" He said more amused than angry.
In that moment another man turned the corner of the house with a lamp in his hand.
"Wasn't supposed that there was only one accomplice?" Anna thought when she noticed that the newcomer was too tall to be Erick. She wasn't able to see his face due to the blinding light of the lamp .
"Damn it! She is Princess Anna of Arendelle" Exclaimed the newcomer.
Those words paralyzed Anna. If the assassins recognized her, she would be in danger.
"Are you joking?" The man behind Anna exclaimed.
"I'm sure." The man with the lamp replied. "Anna, are you all right?" He told Anna.
Anna, whose eyes had finally accustomed to the blinding glare of the torch, wasn't able to say anything. She was gaping at the man with the lamp in amazement. "Kurt?" She asked in disbelief.
The young Prussian, holding the lamp, stood in front of Anna. He just wore a pair of trousers. The light of the lamp gleamed on his blue eyes which looked at Anna in astonishment.
"What are you doing here?" Kurt asked in an unwelcoming tone of voice.
"I should ask that to you!" Anna replied as she pulled away of the grip which had been restraining her. The man behind was so confused that he didn't even try to retain her. Anna turned and recognized the handsome cuirassier who Kurt had painted in his sketchbook. He was also half naked just covered by his trousers, but Anna noticed that he wore his long sword suspended from his belt.
"Alain Destang lieutenant of the 12th Cuirassier Regiment your highness. I'm sorry." The French officer said bowing.
"Anna Princess of Arendelle." Anna curtly said as she replied to his salute.
"Why were you skulking around the house. What have you seen?" Kurt asked the tone of his voice was polite but his face was grave.
"And what are you doing here? Why do you met in a hidden place like that?" Anna fiercely replied. She couldn't believe that Kurt was involved in the attack against her sister, but she wanted answers.
"We heard somebody prowling near one the windows. Have you been peeking through the window?" Kurt eagerly asked.
"I don't ..." Anna started to reply, but she was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Erick from behind a great oak which was just at the back of Alain.
"I was prowling around your window." The young hussar calmly said as he raised from behind the tree.
The French cuirassier gazed at him in obvious surprise, but he quickly recovered his composure "So he is the Erick you called before."Alain told Anna with a bit of irony in his voice. "When you said that name, I guessed why you were here." He went on with an amused smile on his face.
"Don't calumniate the Princess! We have different reasons than yours to be here as you will soon discover." Erick exclaimed while, hand over the hilt of the curved saber and eyes gleaming with defiance, placed himself beside Anna.
Both men, the Prussian and the French, grimaced when they heard Erick's words and Anna's eyes widened in surprise when he suddenly realize why Kurt was in that hidden place with the French cuirassier.
"We have to leave." Erick told Anna ignoring the expressions of the other men.
"Yes, we are in a hurry."Anna replied. "You will discover tomorrow why we are here, but I recommend you to return to the castle as quick as possible." Anna told Kurt.
"Although my advice to you is not to return together." Erick added.
Anna nodded and, after saying goodbye to Kurt and Alain, disappeared with Erick into the forest.
When they were far enough not to be heard from the house, Anna started to ask. "Was a woman hiding in the house?"
Erick shook his head in a mute response.
"Then they were..." But she hesitated about the correct word to use.
"Yes, they were doing exactly what you are thinking." Erick replied as he raised his eyebrows. "I climbed a pile of logs to peek trough the window looking for an assassin, but what I found was so different to what I expected that I slipped and almost fall with such a surprise."
"That's why they heard you. Weren't you supposed never to be heard?"Anna asked with feigned innocence.
"When dealing with assassins, Tartars or Lithuanians, I'm good enough. But I have to recognize that I'm not used to see two Romeos without any Juliette."Erick laughed. "But what really surprised me was to find your horse beside mine. Why didn't you wait with the horse? He could have been a real assassin."
"I'm on my own and I don't have to follow your instructions." Anna defiantly replied. "And I don't need you."
"I have noticed that. You were alone and dealt with two men by night in the middle of the forest with unusual tact and diplomacy. Although kicking and biting aren't usual skills for a Princess."
"Did you see that?"
"Yes. I returned as quick as possible and I saw how the Frenchman caught you."
"Have you been all, this time behind the oak?"
"Yes. I hesitated, but finally I decided that he wasn't going to harm you and it wasn't necessary to kill him."
"Would you have killed him?" Anna asked in surprise.
"Of course I would have! He could have broken your neck in an instant. If I had supposed that he was going to harm, you the best option would have been to cut his throat before he could react."
Anna gulped. Erick was talking about killing Alain, who had been quite nice after all, as though it was a petty question.
The hussar noticed her reaction. "This is not a play Anna. Please, return to the castle before you get hurt or worse. There are going to happen nasty things before we catch the assassin."
Anna hesitated before replying. "I will go with or without you, but if I go with you I will follow your instructions."
Erick sighed in despair. "You are stubborn like a mule, Rolf don't appear and every minute counts." Erick shook his head looking at the sky. The first lights of the dawn were visible over the mountains at the east and the keen wind howled among the trees dispersing the early morning mist that rose out of the wet ground.
Anna shivered due to a sudden gust of wind. "I wish this wind stopped blowing."
"Don't say that!" Erick replied looking at the moon which had started to fade due to the light of the dawn. "In summer, a wind like that is unnatural and we can be sure that it has been created by your sister."
"And?"
"If Elsa is creating the wind she is still alive."
"Are you sure of that?"
Erick shook his head. "No, but believing it won't hurt my chances to catch the man we are chasing." Erick replied with a confident smile on his face.
They reached the main path and Erick studied the ground. "At least we will have more light to follow the track." Erick went on. "I suppose that I have taken the wrong direction in the last fork and followed our two Romeos by mistake."
"Poor Kurt. Now, I understand why he was so tense." Anna said. "We could ask them to come with us. They might be helpful."
Erick signaled Anna's mount which had belonged to the assassin who died trying to kill Elsa. "This is a trakehner a breed that comes from West Prussia just like von Schrader."
"Do you believe they are involved in the attempt against my sister?"
"No. But I don't trust him. Maybe because he is Allan Halkett's friend. Anyway I prefer to go on my own." Erick replied purposefully looking at Anna.
"And what are we going to do now?" Anna replied empathizing the word 'we'.
"We?" Erick replied with irony."I should take both horses and leave you on foot."
"I would follow you anyway. That man had tried to kill my sister. I'm not going to return to the castle."
"I'm sure of that." Erick replied annoyedly although a hint of pride gleamed in his eyes. "Mount Anna." Erick finally said giving Anna the reins. "We have to return to the last fork and locate the trail of the assassin."
"Great!"Anna replied, jumping for joy."You won't regret it."
"I already regret it." Erick replied. "As I told before, your sister will kill me." He said looking at the fading moon.
Rolf sheeted with impatience while he paced back and forth in the reception hall looking through the main gate of the keep to the courtyard. He was a patient man, but waiting for news about Elsa's state and being confined into the castle due to her own ice was a hard ordeal.
Kay entered into the room through a gate which leaded to the rooms of the servants.
"Do you know any news about Elsa?" Rolf asked to the seneschal.
Kai shook his head before talking. "Had you give to that Lithuanian boy permission to destroy the castle?" He unsmilingly asked to the commander of the guard.
Rolf looked at the seneschal in surprise. "He had a very good idea to get the horses out of the castle and I have given him permission to put it into practice."
"But he and some of your men are nailing wooden ramps in the stairs of the kitchen and have broken some door frames because, according to his opinion, they were too small and a horse couldn't go to through them."
"Yes. We aren't able to break Elsa's ice, so we will move the horses through the castle. From the stables, we can reach the wall of the kitchen. He has proposed to make a hole in that wall and from the kitchen we could reach this room and chase the other assassin." Rolf said, nodding his head towards the door which leaded to the courtyard. "I fear that some minor damages will be inevitable.
"Do you really believe that he could..." Kai started to say.
But in this moment a horse, with a blanket over its head which covered its eyes, guided by Antanas came through the door from which Kai had entered a few minutes before.
"We made it!" The young Lithuanian triumphantly exclaimed while he steered the animal towards the courtyard. "In twenty minutes we will have horses enough to send a patrol.
"Great!" Rolf exclaimed.
But Kai gasped at the sight of the hooves over the carpet and the horse evacuating its bowels before it was driven out of the room. "Is it really necessary?"
"We have to catch the accomplice of the assassin!" Rolf replied smiling, since It was the first good news in the whole night.
The seneschal sighed."I suppose you are right, but I would have preferred not looking so desesperated. It isn't a good image to show in front of the foreigner delegates."
"Now, my first priority is to give chase to the assassins." Rolf replied.
"Do you think that I don't want to catch them? But they are only another people's intrument."Kai replied.
In that very moment, Gudvard, the royal doctor, whose face was pale and strained, entered into the room and approached both men. "Kai, Rolf. You must see the Queen as soon as possible."
Years ago, the doctor had gone with the group of Arendelle's soldiers, integrated in the Swedish army but leaded by the old King, which had fought against Napoleon. Both men looked at the doctor's grave face and Rolf asked inwardly what had impressed so much a man who had been looking after men wounded in pitched battles like Leipzig before taking a deep breath and asking the question that had haunted him since one of his soldiers had awakened him. "Gudvard, will Elsa survive?"