As soon as Rapunzel, Flynn, and Kristoff passed through the doorway into Mother Gartner's cottage, Queen Primrose quickly noticed who was not in their group. On a strident note of worry she asked, "Where is Elsa?". She targeted Flynn for an answer. "Eugene?" The queen and King Thomas were clearly hurrying their way out to address the situation in the kingdom. Their hostess watched from the doorway of her parlor, and within the room, Gerte cleared the table of dishes.

Rapunzel began, "Mama, Father, I have to tell you..."

"A moment, Rapunzel," Primrose stopped her. Her gentle but firm manner made it clear that she required Flynn's answer.

Flynn looked down to avoid meeting the concerned queen's eyes. It would have been better, all coming from Rapunzel. Some ambassador he was, he though with chagrin. He couldn't think of any other way to tell it but straight. He looked up at Queen Primrose, then at King Thomas. "Elsa left," Flynn said. "She's taken a ship, and gone out to sea."

"Alone? How could you let her go alone?" Primrose's voice rose as she crossed the room.

"He couldn't stop her," Rapunzel interjected. She stepped closer to her mother. "The harbor is frozen."

"That headstrong girl!" said Primrose. "Thinking she can go after the witch alone! We'll send her the support of the navy if I have to chip them out of the harbor with my own hands!" Shaking her head at her own intensity, she said, calmer, "The fleet at sea must be brought in."

Flynn recognized the queen's misunderstanding of the situation. He took the opportunity to save uncomfortable explanations for later. "Your highness," he addressed the king, "I have an additional plan to help Elsa, if you'll give your permission—"

"Anything," said King Thomas, and Queen Primrose gave a nod of agreement. "Whatever you need. Horses, men, weapons. Rapunzel, I imagine you will want to assist Eugene wherever royal order is required. Queen Primrose and I will have our hands full with the navy and the chaos in the harbor."

"We're returning to the castle once the carriage arrives," Primrose said, and the sound of a wheels stopping and horses whinnying outside punctuated her statement.

Kristoff, who had held back, started to step forward to get a word in. Instead, Flynn supplied for him, "There's a ship's captain from Arendelle waiting for you at the castle. He'll tell you that there's been a death, but he has wrong information."

"Princess Anna is alive," Kristoff said.

At the king and queen's confusion, Flynn amended, "Something to be cleared up after everything else." It was enough to temporarily satisfy them, and the monarchs breezed out of the cottage without another delay. To Kristoff, he said, "We have carte blanch and a head start. Let's not lose our advantage by complicating things. You can write down a description of the ship Anna's on, and we'll get that to the castle."

Rapunzel said, "We'll help Anna, Kristoff. I promised, and I always keep my promises."

They were all startled by the voice of Mother Gartner when she spoke up. They had forgotten she was present. "Naturally everyone assumed it was the work of a witch. You see, Princess Elsa," she intoned, "was attacked twice before, by strong magic. Ice. First when she arrived in our country, and then the time when she became a hero of the people. Which is why Queen Primrose concluded that this storm was an attack."

It was Rapunzel who filled the ensuing silence with the unstated fact. "It wasn't an attack on Corona, or Elsa," she said.

The bobbing of the old woman's head, indicating that she knew the truth of it, made Flynn and Rapunzel exchange looks of surprise. The old woman said, "The flowers loved her in spite of the danger of frost, so I said nothing to dispel the assumption."

"You knew all this time!" Rapunzel said. "You could have helped her!"

"I couldn't do a thing about it," Mother Gartner said.

"You could have! She's been so alone, keeping her secret inside—"

Flynn pulled Rapunzel away. "Let's leave it for later, Blondie." When she started to protest he said, "That boy Kay is with her…"

The sound of a breaking dish startled them all. Gerte, listening from the next room, had a look of alarm on her face, and not because of the shattered plate at her feet. "Kay!" she exclaimed.

"…and he's going to have some frostbite for you to fix if we delay," Flynn finished. For good measure, he gave Rapunzel a cajoling, apologetic smile.

Gerte rushed toward them. "He left with Elsa?"

Before they could get tangled in further drama, Kristoff joined Flynn in hustling their group from the house, leaving Mother Gartner to console Gerte. To their surprise, they found Maximus hitched beside the door.

Rapunzel went to him. "What are you doing here?" she asked. To Maximus's neigh, she nodded knowingly and said, "Good. We can use your help." She turned to the others. "He was clever, making a fuss so they would unhitch him from the team."

Kristoff thought he sounded calmer than he felt. "You talk to animals... or is it only horses that talk to you?"

"No, Pascal, my chameleon, has always talked to me," she answered. "I mean, in his language, like Maximus does. I just use regular words and they know what I'm saying." At Kristoff's staring, blush colored Rapunzel's cheeks. "Is that... weird?" she asked. "Doesn't everybody?"

Flynn shook his head, no. "Just you, babe." To ease the discomfort of her embarrassment, he pulled her in close for a quick kiss on the nose. "I love that about you."

Rapunzel melted against him. "I love you, too," she replied.

Kristoff looked away while they gazed into each other's eyes. He cleared his throat after it went on too long. "What's the plan?" he asked.

"Eugene should go on ahead," Rapunzel said, "with Maximus." She ran a hand over the arch of Maximus's neck. "You won't need me to get travel supplies, so Kristoff and I will go to the ships and gather volunteers to crew our ship."

"You're the princess. You can commandeer any of the ships and the crew will come with it," Kristoff commented.

"We'll get volunteers," Rapunzel replied sweetly.

Flynn, up on Maximus's back, reached down to pat Kristoff on the shoulder. "Trust her," Flynn told him. "She has a way of getting people to go along with her."

"Yes, I do," Rapunzel said, hands on hips but smiling. "It's called believing in people. We'd better get moving. We'll go this way; it's a shortcut to the waterfront." She pushed her way through the hedges around a garden and crossed over the cottage's flower beds. Her lithe figure and slipper-shod feet left only the lightest evidence of her passage. Kristoff followed, brushing off juniper twigs after squeezing his larger body through the tams. She asked him about Anna when he caught up to her.

"Anna is amazing," Kristoff answered. He suddenly found it hard to say anything more. Anna was more important to him than anyone else, and she was in danger, alone with that creep Hans. She was counting on him to get her out of there, but somehow he had to first get to her sister Elsa, who had gone off like a powder keg.

They were, at least, making good time. Rapunzel's shortcut wound through garden paths and narrow alleys, but overall it was a more direct line to the harbor. The boardwalk and high street still swarmed with confusion. A curious crowd had gathered, adding to the throng, and the onlookers slowed the progress of clearing the docks. Cargo intended for loading onto the ships before Elsa's ice storm hit and cargo unloaded from the ships piled up, waiting for wagons that could only get through at the slowest pace. Kristoff and Rapunzel fought their way through.

Kristoff measured the distance to the ship furthest away and closest to open water. "At least no one is crossing the ice," he noted. "It's a hot day. This ice could break up any minute. It should be melting by now." He thought about what he was seeing, the way white frost covered the top of the frozen water, regardless of the sun beating down on it. "It's because it's magic, isn't it? That's why it hasn't melted at all. It's not going to ever thaw, is it?"

"Not without Elsa," Rapunzel said.

A yell, followed by shouts, drew their attention to a well-dressed man who had been carrying a heavy crate. Pieces of the broken crate skittered across the same slick surface that had caused the man to lose his footing. He clutched at his back, crying out in pain.

"Hold Pascal for me!" Rapunzel shoved a small green creature at Kristoff. The animal leaped from Rapunzel's hand, freeing her to pull at the ribbons tying up her hair.

"Where were you keeping him!?" Kristoff exclaimed. Pascal clambered up Kristoff's shirt and settled on Kristoff's shoulder. For a moment, they eyed each other from inches apart. Another shout drew Kristoff's attention to the injured person.

Rapunzel hurried to him, her hair unraveling to an unbelievable length. She slid on the iced boards with an athletic grace that Kristoff wouldn't have expected from anyone. As her hair came loose, he was sure he saw her use it like a whip around a bollard turn her path toward the injured man without losing speed. She looped her long hair over the fallen man.

Kristoff saw her lean over the man and heard her murmuring in a tone of reassurance, and then she was singing, clearly and calmly, and her hair glowed with a brightly golden light. The man's pained groaning ceased immediately. Soon he was sitting up, then standing, entirely healed of his injury. Rapunzel finished her song. She gathered her hair back to herself. She was asking the man if he felt better as Kristoff approached close enough to hear.

Rapunzel had become better at improvising new rhymes for her healing incantation ever since her first try at it at the orphanage's sick ward. She didn't want to use the same words for the children as she did when renewing Mother Gothel's youth. It just seemed wrong to her, and once she had started changing the words to suit the sniffles and rashes common to sick children, she thought the healing worked better. Humming, or vocalizing without specific words, worked too, if she put all her feeling into the singing. She had started to think that vocalizing while focusing on the feeling she had toward the person was more effective than being distracted with specific words. After all, she didn't need to know, before she started the healing song, what was wrong. She could sense the damage and it was as if her magic flowed right to it.

"I think you'd better leave your merchandise here for now," she urged the man. "The guard are here to make sure nothing is moved off without permission. Your goods will still be here when it's safer to send them to your shop. I'll find someone to help you gather these things up, but it looks like a lot of your porcelain is broken."

"He's lucky his back isn't broken," Kristoff commented after Rapunzel found some idle sailors to help the merchant. "You really can fix people." He looked at the reactions of the people around them. Dozens of faces stared at her, expressions of amazement, confusion, and some fear. As a whole, the mass of people had moved back to leave more clear space around their princess. A trio of guards moved to the front of the crowd and instructed onlookers to continue on their way.

"I try," Rapunzel said to Kristoff, shrugging off her accomplishment. She caught herself doing it, and she thought about what Elsa would say to her. "I mean, I do. I want to help people." She looked out at the frozen harbor. "I've been looking forward to meeting Anna. Let's go find her. It looks like that big boat over there is the one closest to the edge of the freeze."

"I wish I was going to meet her sister in better circumstances, too," said Kristoff. "I don't want to say this, but it took me a long time to get over the ice earlier. That clipper is far enough away that we won't make it on foot before sunset." He looked over her summer dress and soft shoes. "Is Eugene bringing a sled? We could cross a lot faster and easier in a sleigh."

"We don't actually have sleds, here, I guess," Rapunzel said. "Except the little ones the children use to play on the grassy hills. I'm not sure what Eugene is going to bring. Can't we use a wagon?"

Kristoff winced. "It doesn't snow here in winter at all?"

"A little. There are some days of snowfall recorded in the almanacs. Elsa said you get carpets of snow in Arendelle, but not to expect anything but snowflakes on an extra cold night here."

"We're not going to get over this ice," Kristoff groaned, thinking about the supplies that Flynn would be gathering.

Rapunzel made a hopeful face. "Don't get discouraged. We'll figure out a way." She walked to the edge of the dock and looked down. With care, she sat on the edge, then heaved herself over, her drop slowed and controlled by use of her hair as a rope. She walked around on the frozen water. "You'll see. We're going to be all right."

Kristoff came to the edge and sat, legs dangling. "We had better think of a plan while we are waiting," he said.

Rapunzel studied the ice under her feet. It was hard and solid, and very cold. The cold came up through the thin soles of her silk slippers. It was a mean, sad cold, like the feeling of loss turned into a temperature. But it was a bigger loss than any Rapunzel had ever known, though she had cried herself dry many times in her life before escaping her tower. She shivered and pulled her hair over her bare arms. She started to hum herself warm, then she had a thought: what if her magic could thaw the ice? The bay wasn't a person, but Elsa was, and this ice was her pain.

She would probably have to touch Elsa to heal her. Rapunzel had never healed anyone without touching them directly.

It was worth the try, she thought. She pulled her locks over her shoulders, spreading her hair in a circle so that it lay across the ice all around her. If it didn't work, she would still learn something from the failure. "Here goes," she murmured to herself. She thought about Gothel sniping at her not to mumble, and her confidence briefly faltered. "Tell me about Anna," she called up to Kristoff, seeking a push to get her confidence back.

"Anna is funny. And smart, really smart about studying but about life, too, and she cares about everyone. She's kind," he said. "She loves adventure. She never shows it when she's scared. She laughs at scary stuff."

"Elsa is smart, too," Rapunzel answered. "She cares a lot. She has shown me so many things. And she's patient." Rapunzel smiled. There was the feeling, as warm as the sun, in her heart. Elsa had shown her what it meant to be princess. A princess couldn't be torn down by cruel words.

"In summer," Kristoff continued, "she's outside as much as she can be. Her hair gets red streaks in it from the sun. She looks like she has fire in her hair."

Rapunzel heard it in Kristoff's voice. He loved Anna. Anna must love him back, because there was something in his voice that told Rapunzel that he knew she did. Elsa, Rapunzel thought, Anna is going to want you to meet home, Elsa. She collected the sun-like warmth inside her and took a deep breath. When she breathed out, she sang and let the feeling pour out with the notes.

Come home. You're not alone. I love you.

It's all right. She wanted to put her arms tightly around her cousin. Both her cousins, embracing the sisters, hugging Elsa and Anna as closely as she could. Elsa, who hesitated to touch others first but didn't push Rapunzel away. She always squeezed Rapunzel's hand back and hugged back tightly. Rapunzel wanted Elsa to reach for her, but until then, Rapunzel would reach out first as often as it had to be. She sang so that her song would flow into the ice, into Elsa's magic, and reach out to her. She put the love she felt for Elsa into her voice.

ooo

Flynn didn't waste time trying to do it all himself. If there was one thing he had learned to adjust to court life, it was to delegate tasks to people who handled that specific task on a regular basis. It really helped with the impostor syndrome. He couldn't say with certainty that anyone actually treated him like the alley cat that caught a royal canary, but some days, it was all he could do to go out his door instead of his window in the morning, sure that the day had come when the king and queen would come to their senses.

He made the needed stops to order provisions appropriate for a week at sea brought to the waterfront, then went on ahead to rejoin Rapunzel. When he saw the mingling crowds blocking the street, he left Maximus to help with crowd control and pushed his way through on foot.

At first, he didn't see Rapunzel, but he could hear her singing. He found Kristoff and jogged up to him. Rapunzel sang from the level below, on the frozen surface of the harbor. Her hair blazed around her with intense light. "Who is she healing?" he asked Kristoff. "I don't see anyone with her."

Kristoff shrugged."I don't know. She said she wanted to look around, and then just started—"

The sudden drop into water turned Rapunzel's healing song into a yelp. She went under for only a moment before popping back up to the surface.

Kristoff flattened himself on the dock and reached a hand down to her faster than Flynn could. "Take my hand!" Kristoff offered. "Are you alright?"

Rapunzel kicked in the water and paddled to his reach. Rapunzel's coughing was mixed with her laughter. "I should have realized this would happen!" She bobbed in the water, struggling to get a good grip with wet hands, until she stopped trying. "Wait," she sputtered. "I'm still being silly about this." She managed a loop of her hair, then tossed it up around one of the bollard above. She hauled herself out of the water. Kristoff took her hand to steady her as she straightened up.

Flynn drew Rapunzel away from Kristoff. "Blondie, you incredible woman," he praised. He drew her into his arms. "And you're soaked." He planted a kiss on her salty lips. "You incredible, magical, beautiful," he looked into her shining eyes, "incredible… I'm repeating myself." He laughed to stop babbling. He waved an arm, indicating the harbor. The ice was completely gone, with nearly no evidence of having been.

Rapunzel turned around and looked at the harbor. She wondered if she had reached Elsa. The ice had not reached beyond the harbor, and there was no trail to follow.

"You should go and dry off and get into some dry clothes," Flynn said. "You can go home to change. Maximus is still here to take you. The provisions are on the way. We'll load a ship and be ready for you."

"No, we should go as soon as we can," Rapunzel responded. She twisted up her hair to wring out the sea water. "If there is something I can wear, I'll change into it on the boat. On the ship," she corrected herself. She had kicked off her shoes in the water. It wouldn't matter; she had only started wearing shoes since her birthday.

"Only because your parents aren't here," Flynn said.

Kristoff pointed out, "We can take something small and fast out, now. There's a choice of ships. If there's one that was already supplied and on it's way out, we only need a crew. They might still be on board."

"That's a good idea," Rapunzel said.

"I'll see who I can find," Flynn said. He looked at Kristoff's expression. "Good. He's stopped scowling," Flynn commented, as if Kristoff couldn't hear him. Flynn smirked. He kissed Rapunzel again. "I like you footloose and fancy free, but if your royal parents find out that you went to sea in a wet sundress..."

"Oh, you're right," Rapunzel said. She turned to Kristoff. "I'll hurry." She didn't wait for his reaction.

Maximus was easy to spot, and the crowd parted for her to pass. She knew they were all looking at her, even those who remembered to bow. She thought about Elsa, Princess Elsa, and made herself lift her chin and straighten her shoulders. She was their princess. She was a symbol of hope.

As soon as she was up on his back, Maximus took her away from the waterfront and up through the crowded streets. Her dissipation of the effects of Elsa's magic had reinvigorated the populace. They again poured out of their homes and business to fill the streets or peer from balconies and rooftops. Maximus galloped through, masterfully avoiding obstacles that didn't move themselves out of his path. She arrived at the castle as quickly as she anticipated. Maximus took her all the way into the entry hall. He took himself back out once she was running up the stair to her room.

She put fresh clothes on while still pulling the wet ones off. For quickness, she grabbed a purple striped linen dress that she wore when working with paint and children. She stepped into her boots but didn't spend time lacing them up, which she could do later. Before leaving her room, she bundled up a large cloak that she thought might be useful. She wouldn't have time to pack anything from Elsa's room, but the cloak would fit anyone.

She looked around the room. She wished she had a better idea of what to do in the situation. Trusting that getting to Elsa was the first and most important step, she hurried back out to where Maximus waited to start her on that journey.

ooo