Chapter 37

One With the Wind and Sky

During that night, I remember starting to fall asleep, but Ash gently lifting my head off his shoulder, carrying me to my room, and leaving. But that's all. I don't hear anything he says, if anything. I don't see his sorrowful gaze, if he had one. I don't feel him lay the blankets over me, if he did that.

In the morning, I wake up to tenuous rays of sunlight peering through the window. I watch them grow stronger as the sun rises until I hear a knock on the door, causing me to rise from my bed.

I half expect it to be Ash, but when I open the door, it's Anna.

"Good morning," Anna says. "Did you sleep well?"

"Brilliantly," I say. I may have been woken up late, but after that, I did sleep fine.

Anna must know something else is going on, but she doesn't comment on it.

There's a noise behind us, and she turns to see Ash approaching us. He looks like he got no sleep at all, which is probably true.

"Hey," he says, looking at Anna, but not at me.

She smiles at him. "How are you?" she asks. She doesn't mention the circles under his eyes and the weary way he holds himself.

"Good," Ash replies.

For a moment, Anna's smile stays frozen on her face, then, she says, "While the troops are getting ready, King Eugene and Queen Rapunzel" — Ash flinches at the names — "have given us free reign over the castle to do whatever we want. Kristoff and I were thinking . . . we should go practice."

"Practice what?"

"Like, fighting skills and stuff, you know." She hops from one foot to the other.

"No, no, no, no, no," I say. "You and Kristoff and Olaf and Sven are all staying here."

"What? No!"

"Those are my orders, Anna," I say firmly, "and as your queen, you are sworn to obey them."

"Elsa," Anna begs, "it's my home, too!"

"I don't want you getting hurt," I say, standing up and stretching my muscles.

Anna scowls. "You're always so worried about me getting hurt! I can protect myself!"

"Really? Can you?"

"Yes." She straightens. "I can."

"Show her," Ash says quietly.

We all look at him.

"What?" I say.

"Anna," Ash says, "show Elsa what you can do."

"What do you mean?" I say, my voice shrill. "Anna can't —"

"Actually, I can," Anna says. "Ash has been overseeing my training. He can vouch for me."

"Training? What training?"

"You know, sword fighting, archery, knife throwing . . ."

I glower at the two of them. "And how long has this been going on without me knowing?"

Anna has the grace to look ashamed. "When Jack died . . . and I couldn't do anything . . . I realized I needed to know how to protect myself. So I asked Ash and the captain of the guard to teach me. They agreed. And . . . I had a slow start, but I've been getting better. Really."

"I can't believe you," I say. "Why would you keep this from me?"

"Because if I'd asked, you would've said no!" Anna says. "You're so bent on 'protecting me,' but you can't see that I need to know how to protect myself, too!"

"I'm not saying it's a bad idea." The words slip out of my mouth.

Anna stops talking. "Wait, what? You aren't?"

"Actually," I say, "I think it was wise of you to make this decision. I don't condone keeping it from me, but it's smart of you to want to know how to protect yourself."

Anna stares at me. She looks over at Ash, who nods at her. "Do you . . . ," she starts uncertainly, "do you want to see me? To prove myself?"

"I don't need you to prove yourself, Anna," I say, "but I would like to see you train."

After asking a servant where the training area is, we make our way outside and near the stables.

I admit, I'm apprehensive. To me, Anna has always been innocent, naïve, with her head in the clouds. She just doesn't seem capable of . . . fighting.

The training place is a wide area with a hardened dirt ground, a brilliant blue sky above, and targets, dummies, and weapons surrounding the place. I see axes and knives and bows and arrows and swords and spears and plenty of other weapons I have no idea what their names are.

Anna moves to one of the stands holding all different sorts of knives, and picks one up, tests its balance, and, once satisfied, moves several yards before a target. I don't know much about fighting other than the basics I had to learn to be queen, but it seems like Anna is standing a bit too far from the target. Surely she can't hit it from there?

Anna lifts her arm and knife hits the target. Not in the center, but more in the third ring. I'm surprised she even hit it all. Then I feel guilty. Shouldn't I have more faith in my sister? Anna has endless faith in me.

Frowning, Anna goes to retrieve the knife and picks another target. She straightens her back, bends her knees, and her eyes narrow at the target.

Ash and I stand by each other. His arms are still crossed. I fold my hands over each other, and patiently wait for Anna to throw.

After what seems like a whole minute, she raises her hand and — thwack! The knife lands firmly in the center.

I start clapping. "Well done, Anna!" I shout. "Well done!"

A brilliant grin comes over her face, and I am glad to see her happy.

I realize I am . . . happy, too.

Well, sort of.

How can I truly be happy when Arendelle has been captured? When we're going back to repossess it and there's quite a few possibilities of death?

Don't think that way, Elsa. Everything will be fine.

"Do you want me to show you some more?" Anna asks eagerly. "I'm not that good with the sword, but I can do the bow. Knives are the easiest for me, though."

"I'd love to," I say, "but maybe it would be a good idea if we all practiced some."

Anna hesitates. "Are you going to let me join you now? To take back Arendelle?"

I swallow. I still don't want to. I really don't want to.

But I imagine myself in Anna's position. To have lived in Arendelle all your life, like I have, to have friends there, and then to have that all taken away. Wouldn't I want to join my sister in taking it back?

I say, "You can come, if you still wish to. Arendelle is your home, too."

I can't change that. I will never be able to change that.

Ash moves forward and smiles at Anna, looking quite proud. I kind of resent the time that both of them have spent together training, but I know why they did it. Three days ago, I wouldn't have let Anna train to fight. To be a warrior.

"I'm going to get Kristoff," Anna says. "You two can go ahead and start, if you want."

"Shouldn't we get Jack?" I say to Ash once Anna's left.

Ash scowls. "Fine," he says.

"Don't worry, I'm already here," Jack says behind us.

"Will you stop creeping up on me?" I say wearily.

Jack smiles lightly. "What's the fun in that?" Then his face becomes mock serious. "So, Ash — or should I say Prince Ash of Corona? — what should we do now?"

I wince. I'm glad Ash cannot hear this. Jack's teasing is very low and very shallow. I'm sure, though, that if Jack could remember his past, that he would be more sensitive.

But all the feelings he's had toward Ash while he's been back have been anger, resentment, and ridicule.

I lick my lips before saying, "What do you guys want to work on first? I'm guessing our powers . . . as those are our biggest advantages."

"Right. Jack," Ash says into the empty air (for him, at least), "show me what you can do. Offensively."

"Okay," Jack says, smiling mischievously. He floats down until his feet touch the dirt, holds his staff out in front of him, then stabs it down toward the ground. Ice shoots across the ground, freezing the dirt. Once it's covered most of the training area, it starts spiraling upwards creating walls all around us.

I stare around in awe. I didn't know Jack was this powerful.

He leans forward, frowning in concentration. The ice stretches out from its walls into sharp icicles — all are aimed at us, but I know they won't hurt us. Finally, Jack lifts his staff up, and the ice starts to melt in the sun's gaze, almost as fast as it had come.

"That was amazing!" I say.

"Nice," Ash comments, but that's all he says.

"Just nice?" Jack says, sarcasm tingeing his voice.

"All right, Elsa," Ash says. "I want you to conjure some ice, and throw it at one of those targets." He points to one about eight yards away.

"I don't think I have very good aim," I say.

"Have you ever tried?" He smiles at me encouragingly.

"No," I admit.

Concentrating, I think about Arendelle. About Anna. About protecting them. A fierceness rises up in me, and I feel ice starting to form in my hand, swirling and moving until it becomes a three-foot long spear. I twirl it in my hands for a moment, look at the target, and throw.

It bounces off the edge, but I'm just pleased I even hit it.

Then I am sick. What if that target was a person? What if I just injured them? What if my aim is so bad that I accidentally hit someone I love?

I remember that one time when Hans and some men made siege upon my ice castle. I almost killed two of the Duke of Weaseltown's men. Slit one's throat, and threw the other off a cliff. I was so absorbed in my power I couldn't differentiate between good and bad.

What if the same thing happens now?

No. It won't. You can control it now. You can.

I can.

"You'll get better," Ash's voice says, shaking me out of my thoughts.

"I'll practice more later," I say loudly. "It's your turn now, Ash."

He nods. "Okay."

Taking a step away from me, he closes his eyes, and spreads his arms wide. He clasps his hands together, the opens them slowly, and in doing so, fire bursts awake between his palms, growing bigger the wider he stretches his arms.

Once the ball of fire is about a foot big, he moves his hands around it, like he's looking for a better grip, turns to a target, and launches the fire into the air and toward the bulls eye.

Of course, being fire, it swallows the target whole, and because it's so hot it burns it to a crisp immediately.

But now that the fire is out of Ash's hands it's out of control.

"Elsa!" Ash shouts, slightly panicked.

I reach forward, but Jack is quicker. He flies over to the fire, touches a flame with his staff, and ice roars up over the fire, consuming it completely.

When I look back at Ash, his face is blank, his eyes are dull, and his posture is too stiff.

"Ash —" I start.

"No," he says, and he turns away.

"Where are you going, Prince Ash of Corona?" Jack calls to his retreating back.

Author's Note: I know that in the Rise of the Guardians movie, Jack's powers aren't exactly explained entirely. We see that he does have great power, but if I recall correctly, he only seemed to use it when he was quite emotional. However, in this story, his powers can be used more aggressively without that emotional pull.

Thanks for reading!

- J. Dom