This is the FINAL chapter of A Desire For More! Next week there will be one more Epilogue chapter before the story concludes :) Thank you all so much for reading up till this point! All of your reviews have meant a lot to me.
Chapter 53
On that night, no one got any sleep.
Elsa, Anna, Rainer and Kristoff sat in the underground chamber, waiting for news from Kai. Once every hour, a messenger would arrive, informing the Queen of the latest developments.
Reportedly, the Count and his men have tried to break into the castle, but fortunately, they lacked a battering ram and their attempts only resulted in broken shoulders. They then tried to break out of the courtyard, but they could not break the gate leading to town either. Many of the Count's men have tried to climb the stone walls, but they were quickly stopped by the crossbowmen stationed on the balcony.
Kai had instructed for his men to keep a close eye on the Count. If he was injured in any way, it would be essentially the same as declaring war on the Kingdom of the Southern Mediterranean. But even if the Count came out without a scratch, the fact that his trade galleon was sunk would unite the southern kingdoms against Arendelle. In their eyes, Queen Elsa had intentionally trapped the Count. After all, he had arrived in Arendelle with a trade galleon and not a warship. In their eyes, it was Arendelle that was the hostile kingdom who had mistreated its guest from the South and declared war.
"When dawn breaks, I recommend that you mobilize the Arendelle army," Rainer said. "If a settlement cannot be reached with the Count, then there will almost certainly be hostility from the South."
"But what if we can reach an agreement?" Elsa countered.
"I highly doubt it."
Elsa felt exhausted. The plan had been executed perfectly, but the consequences were something that was beyond her imagination. In the act of saving her kingdom and preserving the power balance of the continent, she had potentially set in motion a series of events that would see the kingdoms of the continent take sides.
Finally, dawn broke and Count Fidenza and his men gave into exhaustion. Kai escorted Elsa out of the chamber, and Rainer and Kristoff and Anna followed closely.
They climbed to the balcony to witness the scene. Despite the lack of sleep, the horror of the what they saw in the courtyard shook every part of Elsa's being. More than half of the Count's men were either dead or dying, with arrows sticking out form various parts of their bodies.
Count Fidenza was sitting in the middle of the courtyard; his uniform was drenched in blood and his hair was like that of a madman.
"I thought I told you to hold back," Elsa said.
"I have followed your order, your majesty," Kai bowed. "If my men had held back anymore, then some of the Count's men would have escaped."
Elsa felt a sick rumbling in her stomach. This was the first time she had witnessed such a bloody scene. The men who were still alive were all either sitting or lying down, exhausted from a night of meaningless battle.
Elsa couldn't help but wonder about the purpose of their spilled blood. Why had they been killed and injured? To what end?
She wanted to blame the Count for all that has happened — after all, he sailed a ship full of weapons into Arendelle's harbor — but she knew that in the eyes of the other kingdoms, she would be the agitator.
"Bring him to me," she told Kai.
The air in the throne room was still. There were only ten people in there.
Elsa, Anna, Kristoff and Rainer all took their seats while Count Fidenza was on his knees and six guards surrounded him. He was stripped of weapons, only wearing a blood stained tunic, but the guards took no chances. They each had their swords drawn out, ready to protect the Queen if the Count showed any signs of making a last-ditch attempt at harming Elsa.
Kai stepped into the room and read out a list of crimes the Count had committed. He also reported that the Count's ship was nowhere to be seen.
"What do you have to say for yourself," Elsa asked, her voice calm and composed.
For a while, the Count was silent. He stared at the ground while his hands were tied behind his back. He breathed gently and closed his eyes. And just when Elsa was about to ask the guards to make sure that he wasn't asleep, did his lips crack a smile.
"Queen Elsa, you have already lost."
"Pardon?"
"I'm rather surprised that you found out that my men were ready for battle on the night of the feast," the Count said. "I'm even more surprised that you found a way to sink my ship during the feast. I commend you for such clever scheming and flawless execution."
He took a breath and looked up at Elsa. His eyes were shining with bloodlust. "However...no matter what you do, I have already won."
He looked at Rainer and then Kristoff. His eyes lingered on Anna and then found their way back to Elsa.
"I have engineered my plan in such a way that the Kingdom of the Southern Mediterranean will come out as the victor no matter what."
"Explain yourself," Elsa commanded. His confidence was unnerving. Even when he was defeated his could still be so smug, it made her feel that he might actually still have an ace up his sleeve.
"I have considered every possible course of action you might take," the Count said. "Of course my considerations also included the possibility of you sinking my ship and trapping me and my men. But either way, regardless of wether my plan succeeded or not, I will be victorious."
He laughed before he continued. "You see, had you agreed to my ice export deal, then the ice price would have collapsed and I could have easily invaded Arendelle. But if you rejected it, then I could have easily killed you during the feast and taken over the throne that way. But even if that failed, I knew that I could still profit immensely. In the eyes of the other kingdoms, I would be seen as the victim and I would gain and immense political influence in the South and the North."
"But what if you had been killed during the feast," Elsa said.
"I knew that you would have made sure that I wouldn't die," the Count grinned. "I'm too valuable of a hostage."
Elsa gritted her teeth. It didn't feel like she had won at all. In fact, it felt as if the Count had outplayed her again. He had engineered the situation to end in such a way that even if she did win tonight, she would be defeated tomorrow.
And worst of all, Count Fidenza knew that he could not be killed or even imprisoned. Such an act would constitute to a declaration of war.
Even though Elsa had won, her hands were as tied as the Count's.
For the first time, Elsa experienced what it was like to be completely outmaneuvered and outplayed.
In the end, Elsa wrote a declaration of political neutrality between the Kingdom of Arendelle and the Kingdom of the Southern Mediterranean. Elsa and the Count signed it, but she could see the skepticism in Rainer's eyes. Although the Count's name was on it, there was nothing to keep him from trying to weaken Arendelle's relations with the other kingdoms.
At very least, for now, the kingdom was secure.
