Battle
Elsa stood before the tall latticed windows leading onto the narrow balcony which overlooked the courtyard. Along the front rampart stood rows of barrels, and several watchmen who scanned the causeway and the town beyond for the appearance of their anticipated visitor. The courtyard twinkled under a sheen of ice from which the two fountains rose like a pair of young cypress trees. Along with them, at intervals all around the perimeter of the courtyard, stood thick white pillars. It was a surreal sight. It might have been pretty, were it not for the dreadful sense of foreboding that churned in Elsa's stomach - that same feeling that presaged her coronation. She closed her eyes and took that same deep breath. Her next task was one she did not want to face.
She turned and forced her steps, one at a time, until she was at her desk where a blank piece of official crown letterhead lay, along with a pen and ink well. She sat with her hands clasped tightly in her lap and stared at the blank paper for several long minutes. After another deep breath, she separated her hands, took up the pen, and began to write.
Dearest Anna,
If you are reading this, it is because I am no longer with you. I hope that someday you will be able to forgive me for committing my life to this cause.
She paused, as Heinrick's words about causes flowed back to mind. She believed in this cause, and she knew that Anna did too, but she doubted Anna was expecting it to be a cause for which she gave her life, since Ken was no longer targeting her. That fact might count for something, but she wasn't willing for one more magic user to be killed, as long as she could prevent it. Johan and Ambrelle had put their lives on the line for her, and so many had died, including their cousin. She expected this to be a fight to the death, and the odds were not good.
I remember how angry I was at Mama and Papa for getting on that boat. I was so angry at them for leaving me. I know they left you too, but I couldn't see beyond myself at the time. Now I have left you too. Please forgive me. I pray that, now that you're older, and you have Kristoff in your life, that you will be able to go on.
I have marveled at your growth these past short weeks. Just a few days ago, when you said you would come with me to the privy council meeting, I saw yet again that something basic in you has changed. I'm so sorry I'm not with you to help you with your next steps, but you are surrounded by good people who want to see you and Arendelle succeed. I'm so proud of you, and I know that Mama and Papa are too.
She recalled Heinrick's words to her upon her initial departure to Falster: 'I have faith in you. Have faith in yourself.' Fascinating, she contemplated, how many of Heinrick's words have become my own. She concluded:
I have faith in you, Anna. Have faith in yourself.
With all my love forever,
Elsa
She folded the paper and sealed it into an envelope that already bore Anna's name. This she placed within a dossier of papers that was always stored in her desk - one that Kai knew was reserved for Anna should anything ever happen to her.
Her steps came slightly more easily now as she returned to her room. She walked to where the small leather-covered chest sat in the corner of her bookshelf and opened it carefully. There were several letters there now. She didn't have the fortitude to reread them at the moment, but it brought her a smile just to see that they were there. I'm sorry, Heinrick. She closed it slowly and her hand lingered on the lid. A few short weeks ago she wouldn't have imagined the possibility of anything being in that chest, perhaps ever. She crossed her hands over her chest and squeezed, as though clinging to a dream. If only, she thought. The time had been so short. The time to learn. The time to explore her heart.
"Time to reach for that steel," she whispered to herself.
When she left her room, she was wearing a vermilion version of her ice dress, complete with gossamer train. Platinum short heels that matched her hair peeked from beneath its full-length dress. The only other touch of contrasting color was a similar narrow off-white platinum sash about her waist. She was absolutely eye-popping, and that was the point: Johan and Ambrelle were to be in the background, and she was to maintain Ken's focus. There would be no darting or dodging today, no illusions of quick combat movements. This was a head-on fight that would either work or it wouldn't.
She emerged from the castle and took in the courtyard. After she had scanned it for a long moment, she stepped down the terrace steps and onto the ice sheet. It was higher than the one the other day - over a foot thick. Elsa knew that below it lurked water with a layer of kerosene on top. The water was free, but the kerosene was not. They had had to empty the town's reserves and it would have to be replaced before winter. Another problem to potentially leave behind to Anna. She regarded the icy pillars set in a circle at the periphery of the courtyard. They were around three feet in diameter and twelve feet tall. They were ice, but sculpted to be all white, not transparent. She walked to the first one on her left and stood behind it. Even though from the front it appeared to be cylindrical, from the back it was a semi-circle. It was also possible to see out from the inside, even though from the front it appeared to be solid white.
The first one on the left that she reached extended down below the ice sheet. She could see the water at the bottom of it, allowed in through a set of low holes. It had been designed this way to allow the water in while keeping the kerosene out. Ambrelle would stand here and Elsa would seal her in to protect her from the heat of the flames. She also knew that from this position, extending all the way through the castle wall and down to the bay, was a metal pipe, courtesy of Halvord Odem's quick and expert metal working. The pipe had an inner diameter of six inches. It was full of water, and capped, to prevent the water from siphoning back down into the bay. Ambrelle would open it when she was ready to use it.
She continued to walk the periphery of the courtyard. Behind each of the other semicircular pillars was a lit lantern with its protective cover removed. When Elsa dispersed the ice sheet, these would fall and immediately lite the kerosene. The final pillar in the circle, back near her starting point at the terrace, was where Johan would stand. Even though he wouldn't be visible, he would be controlling the fire.
Elsa mounted the stairs and walked the rampart. There was barely enough room to squeeze past the open barrels of kerosene. It reeked enough to make her lightheaded. There was no way to know if it would be sufficient. She just hoped that it would.
Elsa descended from the rampart, and as she reached the terrace, Johan and Ambrelle emerged from the castle wearing simple clothing, similar to what they had worn when they made their break from the ship to the escape tunnel entrance. Ambrelle was obviously trying very hard to keep herself under control. Her hands were balled into fists and she was shaking and breathing rapidly. She looked plaintively at Elsa, but said nothing.
Elsa took her hands gently and looked down into her evergreen eyes. "You can do this," she said with quiet confidence and a reassuring smile. "Just listen to us above everything, and don't listen to him. I'm sure he will try to frighten you with his words, but they're just words. Block him out of your mind."
Ambrelle returned a pained expression, as if to say, 'are you out of your mind?' Her struggle raged across her face, until finally she was able to breathlessly say, "yes, your majesty."
"Come," said Johan, gesturing with his chin towards the side of the rampart which overlooked the fjord. She nodded spasmodically. He took her hand and led her as she wobbled up the stairs. They stood there, looking out at the bay with the sea beyond. Elsa understood. It was probably the most reassuring place for Ambrelle to be right now.
Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf greeted her from behind. "Morning, queen of hearts," said Anna with naïve bravado. "Everything looks good! Particularly you!"
Queen of blood... she thought cynically. "Thank you," she replied. Looking good wasn't her goal, but it was a compliment all the same. She had resolved to treasure every last word of Anna's today, since one of them could very well be the last.
"When do you expect him?" Anna asked.
"Pretty soon, if he's punctual. He came upon us two days ago when we were organizing for lunch."
"Those barrels are pretty heady," Anna remarked.
"Yeah," Olaf interjected. "It smells like some of the stuff Oaken drinks."
Elsa raised an eyebrow. Maybe Olaf shouldn't hang out with Oaken.
"Breathe away from them," Kristoff advised.
"But then I can't see!" Anna complained.
"You'll see more and more as we push them over. If you can see through the flames, that is."
Olaf piped up. "Thanks for the permafrost, Elsa. I don't want to melt today!" She smiled quietly as she patted him on the head. Olaf ambled out onto the ice sheet and hopped from foot to foot. "To think that there's a lake of fire under here!" he mused. "It's sort of like a flaming bowl of water and a floating flaming iceberg!"
"Permafrost or no," said Anna, "you're not going to want to be down here when the fireworks start."
"Ya-huh. I'll be up there in the cheering section kicking barrels. When you tell me to, of course."
"Let's head up there now," Kristoff advised.
"And practice breathing away," Olaf added.
The three made their way to the front rampart, leaving Elsa alone on the terrace. She breathed deeply and clasped her hands in front of her. She closed her eyes and reviewed some of the discussion that had gone on in the preceding two days.
'He walks the same ground and breathes the same air,' Johan had observed. 'Those might be points of attack.'
'I can't figure out how I created that glass sphere in Falster,' Elsa had said, 'But I know I can surround him in a ball of ice. Maybe deprive him of air. And I can move the location he's standing on.'
'What about the black balls?' Kristoff had asked.
'If I do it just right, I think I can trap them too. If I get the ball of ice perfectly centered around the black ball, it should be able to hold fast, like how keystones hold up under an arched bridge.'
"He's here!" one of the lookouts called. Ambrelle yelped in alarm. Elsa's eyes shot open and her stomach lurched. Her pulse quickened. A cold wind passed over the courtyard. When Elsa looked in Ambrelle's direction, she saw Johan had cupped her face in his hands and was talking quietly but sternly. Ambrelle was holding onto his wrists. At the end, she gave another spasmodic nod and silently descended the steep stairs. She came over to where Elsa stood and Elsa held her hand as the pair continued over to the hollow pillar with water at the bottom. Ambrelle removed her boots with shaking hands and stepped barefoot into the water.
"You can do this," Elsa repeated. Ambrelle gave no sign of response as Elsa sealed the pillar. By the time she had returned to the center of the terrace, Johan was nowhere to be seen.
A pair of guards opened the gates. From her position she could see him clearly, walking along the center of the causeway. At least he didn't have Olaf with him this time.
"Come on, you monster," she said to herself through gritted teeth.
Her hands balled into fists and her cerulean eyes narrowed into a focused wrath. She could still feel her quickened pulse, but the dreadful foreboding was gone - replaced by fiery indignation.
"Come on."
The sky had begun to swirl with clouds as it had two days ago, and the air was again biting cold.
For my cousin. For every last one of them. "Come on."
Ken came through the open gates and ascended the steps to stand on the ice sheet. He stood casually, looking about for a moment. Elsa thought she saw his eyes linger on the pillars to her right and her left, the ones where Johan and Ambrelle were hidden. As the guards swung the doors shut, he called out, "this is naivety, your majesty. Your loyalty does you credit, but it is misplaced. I have stood before larger groups than this. Do not deprive the world of your true purpose."
He's just saying that, she told herself, but she feared she knew better.
"This is my true purpose," she hissed.
She clapped her hands together, and from thin air a cloud of ice crystals appeared and snapped immediately into a fully encasing sphere of ice around Ken. She kicked the ice sheet hard and it puffed away, dropping the hidden lanterns. The place went up in flames. Roaring flames. It was nearly explosive. Kristoff winced, and Anna and Olaf yelped as they all ducked away and shielded their faces.
Elsa looked to the pillar to her left and gave a nod. The flaming water surged over the sphere of ice until it was completely engulfed and burning like a little sun.
A glance to her right, and the fire spirit rose through the flames. It was hard to see. Its form seemed to be visible only in the motion of the wavering flames themselves. It was like a komodo dragon, but on a larger scale. It was 30 feet long, with a row of vertical spikes down the center of its spine from tip to tail. It crossed the courtyard at a lumbering run and leapt menacingly onto the ball, digging its claws into it and biting down. From each of the points of contact of its claws and jaws, blue flames came shooting forth.
Elsa wiped her brow. She wasn't sure what she would do if she was in such a fix. Well, maybe she knew: she would encase herself in glass. Somehow.
Suddenly two black spheres sprang into being, one on either side of Ken's flaming prison. There was that disconcerting sense of familiarity again. The water and flames immediately began to surge towards them and disappear. Elsa judged carefully and made a grabbing motion with each hand. Spheres of ice appeared around each of the black balls - encasing them just as she had intended.
But they did not have the desired effect! Everyone had all been counting on Elsa's encasements stopping the black spheres' pull, but they just kept on pulling! Oh, no! She looked on in dismay as the water and fire began to pile up onto her encasements. The only difference was that the material wasn't being sucked in and destroyed. Then she realized that their pull was affecting the encasement around Ken as well. It was no longer stable and was being pulled apart by the two opposing black spheres! The flaming presence of the fire spirit wavered away. As Ken's prison crumbled, and that extra material fell against each of the encased black spheres, it caused those encasements to be destabilized as well! Everything crumbled, leaving Ken standing within his flickering black barrier, flanked by naked black balls on either side that were making quick work of the water and flames.
To her credit, Ambrelle was keeping the water coming. Elsa caught Kristoff's and Anna's eyes and gave a quick nod. "Let's do it, reindeer king!" Anna shouted. The three of them began to kick over the barrels of kerosene. Once again the courtyard became a flaming maelstrom. The fire spirit rose up again, and charged. Elsa's breath caught as she watched Ken hold up his hand to the beast. Would he destroy it? Could he?
She was further dismayed when the fire spirit stopped, and nosed Ken's hand as if greeting an old friend. Her jaw dropped in disbelief. Ken appeared to be talking to it. Then he pointed towards her! The fire spirit looked at her, and began to charge! She wasn't in the fire, so it couldn't reach her - or so she thought. When it reached the edge of the flame, it leapt - and the flames swirled out at her! Elsa shrieked and threw up an ice wall just in time as she fell backward. She could see the blue flame grinding on the other side of the ice when suddenly Johan shouted from her right, "Atsilv Adanvdo! Alewisdodi!". The grinding stopped, and Elsa realized that almost all the flames had died out. She dropped her ice wall and glanced up at Kristoff and Anna. They were staring helplessly over the final pair of overturned barrels. Thinking quickly, Elsa recalled Johan's words: 'he walks the same ground and breathes the same air.' Well the air hadn't worked. Maybe...
With a scooping motion, a thick spike of ice shot up from under Ken's feet. A chortle escaped her lips as she watched him be launched head-over-heels into the air. She reached for the sky, and then for the ground, and additional spikes followed, striking Ken from above and then below, knocking him about like a shuttlecock. As each strike landed, Elsa puffed it away so that she could still see what was going on. Ken was curled into a fetal position as he was being bounced around in the air. Three strikes! Four! Five! Then he suddenly shot his hands out to both sides, and a massive black shock wave shattered everything within a 100-foot radius. It even dispersed the clouds that were swirling in the sky. Elsa watched slack-jawed as he fell like a stone to the ground, but before he hit, a new black sphere appeared above him. Its pull slowed his descent until he was able to step gently onto the ground. He had a bleeding gash through his white hair and cut on his cheek, and he was holding one of his arms against his side.
Panting, he rasped, "I congratulate you, your majesty, on having done something that hasn't been done in generations. You have taken me by surprise." He smiled. "But now it is time to move on." He waved his arms forward and the two black spheres that had been standing stationary in the courtyard shot forward, one headed towards each of the pillars to Elsa's left and right.
"No!" she shouted. She sent out jets of ice which shattered both of the pillars and sent Ambrelle and Johan sprawling into the opposite walls. The black spheres passed over where the pillars had been, sucking up their remains along with the last of the water, before winking out.
"How will this work, snow queen?" he asked. "Will you batter them to death trying to keep them from me?" He sent another black ball towards Ambrelle, who was beginning to rise, with a hand on her head. Elsa was forced again to knock her out of the way. She heard Ambrelle's pained cry as she fell hard to the ground. Ken prepared another ball. "You're doing my work for me," he said, and let it fly.
"Stop it!" Elsa begged, as she once again was forced to throw Ambrelle to safety.
"Their blood will be on your hands, snow queen."
Elsa could see Ambrelle's blood on the cobblestones. It was over. There was nothing else to try. With a determined glare Elsa raised both hands in front of her and sent a blast at Ken that was strong enough to light up the town. Ken stood firm. He quickly raised a hand and a black sphere appeared before him. The light bent toward it; everything around and behind it looked skewed and stretched disconcertingly. Why that familiar feeling?!
"Come on, Kristoff," Anna demanded. "We have to see if we can help Ambrelle!" She grabbed him by the hand and towed him down the steep steps with Olaf following after.
Elsa doubled down; her attack grew brighter, but - W-what? Then she realized. She was no longer pushing her magic. Ken was pulling it. No! How could I be so stupid! Elsa fought for control. Her arms wouldn't move. Nothing would move. Something was emptying. She could feel it. She strained with all her might, but to no avail.
Emptying.
Emptying fast.
Anna and Kristoff had reached Ambrelle when Anna glanced at Elsa and realized that Elsa's expression was changing. Her fury was gradually being subsumed by alarm, and then desperation. Her blast was dimming, but not stopping. But it wasn't until her expression began to transition to exhaustion that Anna grasped what was happening.
"Kristoff!" she shrieked, grabbing his arm. "It's like in her dream! She's trapped! She can't stop! He's sucking her dry!"
"What?!" Kristoff instinctively placed his hands on Anna's shoulders, partially in preparation to defend her if necessary, and partially to keep her from doing something without thinking.
Elsa went down on one knee.
"Elsa, no!" Anna strained against Kristoff's hands. "Kristoff, do something!" she shouted in his face.
"Anna, if any of us get in front of that we'll be frozen in an instant!"
Elsa was teetering.
Olaf looked back and forth between the arguing pair and Elsa. Then he connected the dots. "Awright, people!" he shouted, holding out his arms to keep back the crowds. "This is a job -" he motioned as though pushing up shirt sleeves as he took determined steps in Elsa's direction "- for a snowman!"
"Olaf, what are you doing?!" Anna grabbed for him, but he had already scurried beyond her reach.
Olaf scampered over to Elsa, and with a victorious "haha!" he jumped up in her way. His component snowballs were immediately flung about the courtyard, each one now looking more like an urchin than a ball, but it had the desired effect - Elsa dropped to her hands and knees, gasping. Olaf! She felt for him desperately. He wasn't gone - she could still feel him - barely. In her relief, her elbows buckled and she landed hard on them.
Ken's black sphere collapsed and disappeared. He took a step in Elsa's direction when a broad shadow flashed overhead, followed by a wind strong enough to make him shield his eyes and look upward. Elsa was thrown over onto her side with a pained grunt.
"Enceladus!" Anna whooped, pumping her fist.
Elsa rolled her head enough to look. "En -" she croaked.
Enceladus was clearly taking Ken's attack on Elsa quite personally. He was intimidating when he was sitting peacefully, but at the moment he was positively terrifying. His silvery-white scales sparkled edgewise, hackled. His talons were extended like an eagle's preparing to spear a fish. His electric blue eyes crackled with a living fury. Was he snarling? His teeth caught the light like diamonds, and from behind them a grating metallic-thunder rumbled over the fjord. There was no question that he had Ken in his sights: without taking his eyes off his prey for a second, he banked over the far end of the town and charged.
"No! Don't -" Elsa rasped, but it was too late. Instead of breathing out a steady stream of ice crystals though, Enceladus let off a series of isolated bursts:
Choom! Choom! Choom!
They came out like the cracking thunder of nearby lightning strikes, and Enceladus' massive head recoiled with each burst. Ken took a defensive stance as the eighteen-inch daggers rained in. Where they struck the courtyard they shattered out pieces of the cobblestones, sending gravel bits and sand blasting through the air. Elsa curled into a fetal position and wrapped her hands over her head to shield herself against the pelting spray of shrapnel. She cried out as it stung her hands and her back like bees. She could hear yelps from the others. Wherever one came near Ken, though, it vanished into the flickering black barrier in front of him. Elsa looked up at Enceladus in wonderment as he whooshed overhead, the accompanying wind carrying away much of the loose debris, including Olaf's urchin-balls.
How did you know? she thought. Were you somehow there, in my dream?
Ken launched a black sphere after Enceladus, but he had misjudged both the dragon's size and his nimbleness. Enceladus dodged it easily, a fog briefly curling over the leading edge of his wings upon his sudden change in direction. It would not have been a good moment to have been his passenger.
Enceladus, Elsa thought, get these two out of here!
Enceladus circled and came in low over the fjord, the tips of his massive wings kicking up plumes of water where each downbeat touched the surface of the bay. He opened his mouth as he approached, and they all found themselves staring down the brightening glow in his throat as he prepared another attack.
"-Elsa -?" she heard Anna say with mounting concern.
Ken took another defensive stance, but instead of attacking, Enceladus banked suddenly at the last second, his right wing barely clearing the top of the castle. As he did so, he reached in and with surgical precision that Elsa would not have imagined had she not witnessed it with her own eyes, he plucked Johan and Ambrelle off the courtyard grounds with his eight-foot talons. Johan shouted in shock, and Ambrelle screamed in terror.
Ken growled. He brought his hands together, and as he separated them, he let loose a massive black sphere twice the height of a man. All the cobblestones around Ken followed it up along with everything loose in the courtyard. Had it not been traveling away from them at such speed, it would have torn the courtyard down. It caused Elsa to roll several times, and she heard Anna and Kristoff yell as they were momentarily yanked off their feet.
Oh, no...
Time stood still as the sphere chased the dragon through the sky, sucking in hapless gulls and other birds large and small as it went. Enceladus ducked to the side, but it was too strong. He was caught. He let out a roar of frustration and began to fly in circles around it, like a moon circling its host planet. It was a mind-bending sight: instead of flying in circles like a bird in the sky, his circles were with respect to the black sphere itself - Elsa would see his back as he passed on the near side, and see his belly as he flew around the far side, with his passengers still dangling in his grip. Ken smiled in satisfaction. Elsa pushed herself to a sitting position and held her breath.
Three revolutions.
Four.
Five.
Enceladus was working hard, and it seemed like he might gradually be increasing the distance between himself and the sphere as he orbited it. Ken's smile began to fade.
Seven.
Eight.
The dragon was slowly winning. Ken grunted and launched another salvo of five smaller black spheres. Elsa's heart sank. There was no way Enceladus could avoid so many.
With the last of her strength, Elsa held up her hands and closed her eyes. From all points of the sky, dots of sparkling ice rushed together and coalesced into a giant gleaming snowflake near Enceladus. The snowflake immediately began to fall towards the black sphere. Enceladus dove towards it. He had committed: if he didn't reach it, there would not be a second chance. Come on, Elsa begged. The snowflake was already starting to bend around the sphere at its edges when he reached it. They heard the shattering sound and all the ice shards fell into the sphere. He and his passengers were gone.
Elsa slumped to the ground in relief. She would have laughed if she had the strength.
Ken spat something declarative in a language Elsa had never heard before, and turned fierce eyes on her. He walked angrily over to her, took her by the neck below her jaw, and lifted her to a standing position. She gurgled and scrabbled weakly at his wrists but she didn't have the strength to do anything more than cool them. As she locked eyes with him though, she couldn't suppress the triumphant smile. She might be battered and spent, but she had won this battle.
"The difference between you and me, snow queen," he glared, "is that I have all the time in the world. Your time, however, is limited, and when you are gone, all your creations will perish with you."
Elsa's smile withered.
He dropped her, and then looked about at Anna and Kristoff and the wrecked courtyard. "Good day," he said as he brushed himself off. He walked towards the closed gates. They saw the black sphere appear before him, and the doors groaned as they fell into oblivion. He walked out across the causeway.
Elsa lay in an exhausted heap. No. Please, no. It can't be true. Olaf? Enceladus? Marshmallow? The ice castle? They would all perish with her? How dare she create anything? She looked at her hands. 'Spirit Mother' hands. Hands that created life. They looked foggy. Why did they look foggy? Everything looked foggy...
A/N: I have had much of this chapter written since before I started Part Two. It's nice to finally have it in print!
For a mental image of the effect of the fog curling over Enceladus' wings, look at this video on youtube around the 29 second mark: watch?v=6zhAekECH78
