Queen Ambrelle

The waves became more boisterous during the night, to the point that Elsa was rocked awake as the grey light of day first began to push through the windows of the captain's quarters. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and listened to the muted sounds of the waves against the hull. Much had changed since her first voyage nearly three months ago, she reflected. Being on the water no longer terrified her. In fact, it had come to be soothing, even when she couldn't sleep through it. She rose, stretched, took a few minutes to be satisfied with her appearance in the mirror, and then made her way onto the quarterdeck. The salty southbound wind swept past her from behind and the deep rustling of the purple and green sails, the occasional calls of the crew, and the constant chorus of birds filled her ears. Not surprisingly, Ambrelle was awake too - already standing at the starboard railing in her simple off-white dress with hints of pale blue-green on the collar and sash. It had reminded Elsa of the surf when she had made it. Ambrelle's expression was joyful. Elsa cautiously descended the steep stairs and stood beside her.

"Oh, good morning, your majesty," the young woman said with a cheerful curtsy.

Elsa gave a nod of her head. "Good morning, Ambrelle. Is there something interesting out there this morning?"

"Oh, yes!" She pointed. "Can you see the dorsal fins?"

Elsa peered in the westward direction Ambrelle was pointing. The sea reflected the grey of the sky and she wasn't really sure what she was looking for ... "Oh! Yes, I do!" They were tiny black triangles appearing intermittently between the waves, probably a half mile away.

"I've counted fifty of them so far," Ambrelle said. "Orcas!"

"Fifty!" she exclaimed. Elsa sifted through her memory of the many books she had lost herself in during the years confined to her room: around twenty-five feet long with strong teeth, a white lower jaw, and a dorsal fin that could grow to five feet in height. She leaned over and whispered in Ambrelle's ear: "should we go visit them, queen Ambrelle?"

Ambrelle ducked away with a blush, grinning ear to ear. "Do you - do you mean it?"

"I do! Let me just go tell the captain we're leaving for a bit." Elsa glanced around. The captain wasn't on deck yet, so she crossed the deck and called up to the pilot. "Please tell the captain that Ambrelle and I are taking a quick excursion. We'll be back in a bit. Don't worry and don't wait for us." Since this wasn't the first time, the pilot took it somewhat in stride, although his face did convey that he wished he wasn't the one who would have to relay the message. When Elsa rejoined Ambrelle at the rail, she already had her shoes off and was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. She didn't even wait for Elsa to speak - she hopped overboard as Elsa was stepping out of her shoes. When Elsa sat on the rail, Ambrelle was already beside her, standing on her pillar of water.

"Take my hand, your majesty," she instructed.

There she was again, the magnificent siren standing in her element with the utmost confidence. If she hadn't looked like the surf before, she certainly did now. It thrilled Elsa's heart to see her so happy. She took her hand and stepped onto the water. Right away the pillar swept away, carrying them above the slapping waves. It was wondrous - Elsa could have completely lost herself in the moment - but she had another motive for the trip. She had a subject she wanted to discuss.

"Ambrelle," she began, "I'd never met another person with powers before meeting you and Johan. If you don't mind, I've been meaning to ask you about this." She gestured down at the pillar on which they were riding.

"Certainly," said Ambrelle.

"How does this work? How do you do keep me on the water when you hold my hand? Do you have any idea?"

Ambrelle's brow furrowed in contemplation. "I - I'm not sure, your majesty." She considered for a moment longer. "I can tell the water to spit up fish. I guess I'm telling the water to hold you up."

Elsa could understand Ambrelle's difficulty explaining. She had the exact same problem trying to explain how she did what she did. But it's not like she had ever held someone's hand and had them form a snowball. Maybe she just hadn't tried? "And you have to hold my hand in order to do that?"

"Yes, I - I think. That's how it always was with Johan."

"Should I try letting go?"

"NO!" The pillar stopped abruptly. "I mean - I'm not sure. I think you'll fall!"

Elsa gave a mischievous smile. Then she let go.

Sure enough, down she tumbled - through and then out the side of the pillar, and then the rest of the way down until she splashed indelicately into the grey waves below. It wasn't a moment later that she felt Ambrelle grab her hand and yank her into a bubble that was around eight feet in diameter. Elsa bounced around the bottom, drenched, dripping, and laughing as she spat out the salty water. Her clothes clung to her like wet bags. It was decidedly unqueenly.

"Your majesty!" Ambrelle sounded indignant. "Why did you do that?!"

"It was an experiment," she laughed. "I'm fine, Ambrelle, I knew I'd probably get wet, and if you didn't come for me I'd have taken care of myself."

Ambrelle sat on the bottom of the bubble with her, shaken and exasperated, and still holding her hand. "Your majesty, I ... you scared me. I ... I don't think I'll be able to get us to those whales now."

"I think you will."

"How can you say that?"

"Because I think I know what you're doing."

Ambrelle stared at her in confusion.

"Let's go back to the surface."

The bubble fell away as they reached the surface with its noisy wind-whipped waves. Elsa hadn't realized it was so quiet under the water. "Are you ready for another experiment?" Elsa asked. Ambrelle nodded, more out of obedience than certainty. Elsa closed her eyes and relaxed into her power.

"What are you-" Ambrelle began.

"Take us underwater again," Elsa interrupted. The noise again fell away to silence, except for Ambrelle's gasp. She felt Ambrelle clutch her entire arm with her free hand. When Elsa opened her eyes, they were standing on the bottom of a bubble a hundred feet across. The walls of water curled away from them on all sides and met far overhead like a cathedral, with the dancing grey light illuminating them from above like a muted stained-glass window. The shape of the bubble wobbled and deformed in response to the underwater currents, but its general spherical shape held firm. As their eyes adjusted to the dim light, they began to make out the shapes of fish swimming beyond the boundary, as well as bits of seaweed shifting back and forth as they floated freely at their various depths.

Ambrelle stared around in wonderment. "How..." she said. Her voice echoed strangely within the wobbling cavern.

I'm right! I'm right! Elsa looked at her with a delighted grin. "I'm right!" she exclaimed. "Ambrelle, even though you never knew it, I believe that the people whose hands you've held - you've been extending your power to them! Right now I'm extending mine to you!"

Ambrelle paused, then slowly nodded in recognition. "Yes... Yes, I can feel it." Then her face transitioned into excitement of her own. She hopped up and down on the bottom of the bubble which bounced and undulated beneath them in response. "Oh, your majesty! We can go so far! So deep! This is wonderful!"

"Well let's go then!" Elsa beamed.

Ambrelle's face took on an giddy determination as the underwater cathedral began to move. Right away they discovered that a larger bubble came with challenges of its own: the fish couldn't get out of the way fast enough. They came spewing through the front and rolled flopping to their feet. Ambrelle laughed out loud and knelt down, pushing them through the bottom. "I think we're too big," she chuckled. Elsa gasped as the bubble suddenly burst, but then she realized what Ambrelle was doing. She watched as the remainder of their cathedral broke apart into small bubbles which began their meandering journey to the surface, leaving them in a much smaller bubble now - one more appropriate to the task. "The air will go stale more quickly, so we'll have to surface sooner, but at least we can travel without getting slapped by fish!"

Their bubble began to move. Slowly.

"At this rate we'll be lucky to catch them," Ambrelle said. "We could go faster if I had some light. Could you...?"

"Of course." Elsa waved a good sized glowing snowflake into shape and attempted to send it off ahead. When it reached the boundary of the bubble though, it appeared to get stuck. Odd, Elsa thought.

Ambrelle casually stepped forward and pushed it through. Then they began to pick up speed. Soon they were shooting through the water. Elsa couldn't tell how fast, but she knew it was fast by the fish streaking past.

"So," Elsa asked, "in a similar way, can Johan hold your hand and have you do things in the fire? Like walk safely in it, for instance?"

"No, I -" She paused in thought. "We've never tried that. I know that when I'm with him in the fire he can keep me safe. That's how he saved me when I was nine. I was on the top floor of a burning inn and he came for me. He carried me on his back through the fire, all the way down the stairs and out. The fire and smoke just leaned away from us, as well as the heat. Another time, he carried me out of a burning forest the same way. But I was always on his back, never walking beside him." She glanced up at Elsa with a slight wry smile. "And in case you're wondering, neither of us have ever tried to ride the fire spirit."

Elsa gave a small chuckle. She hadn't been wondering. It was a frightful thought. Picturing it, it would be far more shocking than seeing Ambrelle on the water spirit. People would no doubt think he was the devil himself. She brought her wandering thoughts back to their current undertaking. She knew it was a silly question, but she asked it anyway. "Do you know where you're going?"

Ambrelle's answer wasn't the slightest bit impatient or aloof. "They were traveling south, the same direction as the ship. They can travel much faster, of course, but at least they weren't going the opposite way. Judging by the time we spent experimenting, I'm pretty sure we'll happen upon them - WHOOPS!"

Elsa had been looking at Ambrelle as she spoke, so she was totally unprepared for their sudden change of direction. It was so sudden that she was thrown down and to the left, wrenching her free of her grip on Ambrelle's hand. She plowed through the side of the bubble and smacked into a slick hill, deflecting off hard enough to knock the breath out of her.

Which was a problem.

The impact had been enough to make her to see stars, but not enough to make her lose her senses. She regarded what used to be her breath as it broke apart into small bubbles which began their meandering journey to the surface... Her lungs really, really, really wanted to replace that air. So she began to swim in the direction of those bubbles, chasing her last breath through the water. So focused was she that she didn't see the dark shadows closing around her until they had nearly interrupted her view of those bubbles. When she did, she lashed out in shock! The ice blast that followed lit up the water in all directions as though a lightning bolt had struck underwater, illuminating a large family of orcas, all of whom were poised in interest. The shadows around her fell away, a thick snowflake now wedging open the jaws of the most interested one.

A pocket of air swept over her and Ambrelle grabbed her by the arm. The movement and momentum pulled Ambrelle off her feet, leaving them both tumbling around the bottom of the bubble.

Air! Sweet, sweet air! Elsa gasped it in, coughing.

"Oh, thank God!" Ambrelle wailed. "I saw that big one going for you and I couldn't reach you and - Oh! We need to move!" she suddenly remarked.

Glancing around, Elsa understood why. These weren't little fish. These were big hunters, and right now the two of them were splendidly colorful and, she imagined, splendidly tasty looking. They wouldn't even be safe on the surface, she realized. One of the orcas came rocketing towards them with mouth open wide. Reflexively, Elsa again responded with her powers, but again the result was unexpected: her ice stopped at the barrier of the bubble and wrapped around them, leaving them inside a frozen sphere. The orca crashed into the outside, throwing them against the inside which they then rolled down. I hope we're bigger than his mouth, Elsa thought. They had lost their grip on one another's hands, but clearly it didn't matter now.

"What is this?" Ambrelle asked in surprise, looking around as she got to her hands and knees.

"I'm not sure," Elsa replied. "It looks like I accidentally froze our bubble." Then she noticed streaks of red on the ice. "Someone's bleeding," she said. She couldn't feel any injury, but adrenalin could easily have prevented her from noticing. She tried to concentrate and take stock of herself.

Ambrelle sat up. "Oh, yeah," she said, showing the gash in the side of her off-white dress. "Your snowflakes are pointy."

NO! "Let me see that!" Elsa practically shouted in alarm. She dove at Ambrelle and tore the fabric sufficiently for a good view of the injury.

Ambrelle stared at her in shock. "What's wrong?" she asked. "I've had cuts like this lots of times. I don't even mind the saltwater anymore."

It really did appear to be a cut and nothing more. Elsa could only hope. She sighed and sat back on her heels in relief. "I'm sorry. I've hurt people accidentally before." She bit her lip. "If you start to feel anything strange - especially cold - please let me know right away."

Ambrelle continued to stare, then nodded apprehensively. "Yes, your majesty." Just then their frozen bubble breached the surface where it began to bob about on the waves. Ambrelle once again ended up on her hands and knees. "I can't get us back to the boat in this," she said.

Elsa took a steadying breath. "OK," she said. "Get ready."

Ambrelle took a firm grip of her arm and locked eyes with her reprovingly. Elsa got the unspoken message: don't let go again.

The sphere of ice abruptly puffed away and the wind immediately carried off the sparkling flurry. Ambrelle drew her to her feet and once again they were raised up onto the water pillar to begin the journey back to the boat. Elsa could see the trio of boats in the distance with their colorful sails. The sloop, she knew, was on the far side of them, obscured from view.

"Why didn't your ice penetrate my bubble?" Ambrelle asked as they traveled.

"Your guess is as good as mine, Ambrelle. Probably better, actually. Like I said, you're the first person I've ever met with powers. There's obviously something we don't understand about the way they interact." She pursed her lips in thought. "The curious side of me wants to understand it though. Maybe we can find some time to experiment before you leave."

Ambrelle gave a nod, but she didn't look quite as curious.

"How did you get cut?" Elsa asked.

"When you defended yourself against that orca, you sent out a web of ice in all directions. It was like a ... well, have you ever seen an urchin?"

Elsa recalled how Olaf's snowballs had looked when he jumped in her way to save her from Ken. Her eyes fell at the memory. Even before then, though, she had seen pictures. "Yes, I have."

"Well, a few of the spines came right through my bubble. They were only there for a second. One of them grazed my side."

Elsa's heart skipped a beat as she considered just how close Ambrelle had come to being very badly hurt, if not killed. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm glad you're okay."

"I'm glad you're okay, too."

"Is that the first time you've visited orcas? In hindsight it seems like a dangerous thing to do."

"Oh, heavens, no. I've been with them lots of times. They're a lot of fun, but you have to keep moving." She smiled, obviously reliving memories. "It's the first time I've been with such a large group though, and the first time I've had someone with me." She hung her head. "It probably wasn't a good idea."

Something clicked in Elsa's mind. "Why couldn't I send my magic out from inside your bubble, but my 'spines' came through from the outside with no problem?"

Ambrelle shook her head. "I don't know."

When they reached the ship, Heinrick met them as they stepped back over the rail onto the deck. His expression was somewhere on the disapproving side of concerned. Giving Elsa a quick glance over, he asked, "what happened to you?"

Elsa regarded her soaked clothing. "We ... well..." Why did she feel like Anna right now? "We were experimenting." She smiled innocently.

"She can boost my power!" Ambrelle gushed excitedly. Then she turned to Elsa with a wide-eyed gasp. "I bet with your help I could raise the entire ship on a pillar!"

"The ship?" Heinrick said, slightly dismayed. "With the crew on it?"

Elsa put her hand on Ambrelle's shoulder. "Let's wait until we can experiment with an empty one," she chuckled.

Ambrelle folded her hands and hunched her shoulders, chagrinned. "Yes, your majesty."

"You're hurt," Heinrick noticed, looking at Ambrelle.

"Oh, it's - it's nothing, really -"

"Come on, Ambrelle," Elsa interrupted, "let's get a professional opinion on that. And let's get us some breakfast, too. I'm starving!" As the other two descended the steep stairs below deck, Elsa lagged behind. She rubbed her hands together nervously, then brought them up to where she could look at her open palms. She frowned at them, then balled them into fists and followed the others.

The fanfare that greeted them upon their arrival in Cliffs' View was less organized, but no less boisterous. Elsa wore a purple dress of the same style as her ice dress - long sleeved and off the shoulders. Its color matched the purple of the sails and it was highly decorated with silvery snowflakes. Today she wore her full train. As the King Agnar approached the dock, she stood at the bow with Heinrick and Ambrelle and regarded the crowd with moderate surprise.

"I would have expected to be old news to at least some of the townspeople," she said to Heinrick.

He chuckled. "You stopped a war here just two months ago, remember? And-" he gestured upwards at the decorated sails "-our flotilla is quite a spectacle."

All true. Plus, as Elsa was reminded when she spotted the Cynosure at anchor, the townspeople had had a day's advance notice of their arrival.

The trio disembarked with her 50-guard retinue. She had instructed the guards to be vigilant, but loosely packed. The people thronged among them and Elsa was mindful to respond to each one in passing as best she could. Once again, the general theme of their greeting was that of gratitude for sparing either them or a loved one from conflict. She counted numerous crude 'Elsa' dolls clutched in the arms of the children. If there those among them who needed healing, they did not make it to the forefront.

A single carriage awaited them at the road. Before Elsa boarded, she turned to the crowd and held up a hand to solicit silence.

"To our friends here at Mittergaard - although it is no longer winter in Arendelle, we send our greetings!" With that, she cast her hands upward and a ray of ice crystals shot into the sky where it burst into a flurry over the town. The crowd stared with awe, delight, and wonderment.

So did Elsa.

She hadn't intended to create one so large. In fact, she had never created one so large. This one was large enough to span the town. It almost reached to the castle. With but slightly more effort, she could have smothered the entire place in a howling blizzard. Even though everything before her eyes was a beautiful silvery white, there it was in her mind: the vision of the sullied frozen landscape with her ice palace buried up to its spire. Elsa's hands balled nervously into fists but she quickly released them lest others glimpse her misgiving.

"Wow," said Heinrick.

In spite of her apprehension, she gave him the best smile she could muster as the three of them boarded the carriage. Once her guards had assembled around it, they progressed to the castle.

King Reginald stood among the staff outside the castle awaiting their arrival. He wore a wide smile. As a footman opened the carriage door and Heinrick gestured in invitation for Elsa to exit, the king called out. "Welcome back to Cliffs' View, dear Elsa! It is a pleasure to see you again!"

"Thank you, your majesty," she replied with a smile. Ambrelle stepped out behind her. "And this is a friend of ours," Elsa said with a gesture. "Her name is Ambrelle."

"Pleased to meet you, Ambrelle."

She responded with a curtsy.

King Reginald looked back and forth between the two and then asked, "is there a family relation?"

No, but there was a tie that bound them, a magical kinship that she would never be able to explain to others. And on the natural level, Elsa felt a sense of familial responsibility for her. Like a younger sister? A daughter maybe? "No," Elsa replied, "but I would gladly have her." Elsa caught the flash of shock on Ambrelle's face, followed by the flush of shy delight.

The king gave a hearty chuckle. "Well, dear Ambrelle, you travel in good company, I can tell you that! And not just because it includes my son!"

Heinrick had been doing some neck swiveling during their exchange. "Where's Victor?" he asked. "Caulder's Bend?"

"Exactly so, son. He should be back tomorrow."

To Elsa, Heinrick explained, "there's a city on the river to the northeast. It's grown over the years and now there's a community on each side of the river. It's wide enough and deep enough that a bridge was genuinely a good idea. It's been in the works for over a year and has finally been finished. Victor is at the dedication."

King Reginald nodded in confirmation.

Elsa nodded. "Will he be traveling with us to Falster then?"

"No he won't, poor boy," king Reginald replied. "Someone has to keep house while I keep this one out of trouble." He jabbed a finger at Heinrick, who responded with that same self-deprecating smile she had seen on the boat when she had joked about him being a diplomat.

Elsa was taken off guard. She simply hadn't thought about the king coming, but it made sense. The coronation of a new king was on a par with a royal wedding. And with it being the country next door, a nation with which Mittergaard had had historically close dealings, it would have been more surprising for him to not come. She wondered how this would change the dynamic of the trip.

Then, for the first time in the conversation, king Reginald's face became serious. "Elsa, we had heard that you weren't feeling well. Is everything alright?"

Elsa folded her hands in front of her as she bowed her head slightly. "Yes, thank you for asking. And thank you for letting Heinrick come." Sarcasm wasn't her forte, but since everyone seemed so comfortable with it, she decided to roll with it. "It will no doubt surprise you to hear that he actually did me some good."

The king roared with laughter. Elsa cast a sidelong glance at Heinrick and saw that he was muffling laughter of his own as he attempted to feign dignity.

Once it was quiet enough to hear normal voices again, Elsa added, "in all seriousness, he did me much good. Yet again, I owe him a great debt of gratitude." She caught his eyes this time, and lingered in the warmth they reflected.

"Well," the king chuckled, "I can hardly believe it measures up to the role you played in restoring his mobility."

Elsa returned the requisite deferential smile. It's exactly what he offered to sacrifice, she wanted to say, but she would let Heinrick tell him if he chose.

"Come along inside, kids. We'll get you rested up tonight and we'll get on our way tomorrow."

Elsa glanced around the courtyard as they walked to the castle. There were already carriages arranged for travel - out the west gate, she noted. Behind them were also three wagons laden with wares. More gifts, she guessed. Generally one's attendance at a coronation was sufficient. It would make more sense to send a gift if he couldn't attend. He was just the gift giving type, it seemed.

Dinner was a comfortable affair. For everyone except Ambrelle, it seemed. She sat quietly next to Elsa with her hands in her lap, spoke only when spoken to, and rarely smiled. King Reginald noticed, but his dominant presence coupled with his attempts to set her at ease and draw her into the conversation seemed to only make things worse. Finally, Elsa had seen enough.

"Excuse me a moment, please," she said as she rose from the table. "Ambrelle, would you join me on the balcony briefly please?"

Ambrelle looked up in confusion but speedily said "yes, your majesty," and dutifully followed Elsa out.

On the balcony, Elsa said, "Ambrelle, you're not enjoying yourself."

"Yes I am!"

Elsa looked at her through narrowed eyes, one eyebrow raised. She crossed her arms.

Ambrelle looked down. "No, I'm not," she admitted quietly.

With the confession in hand, Elsa relaxed her disciplinary gaze and took Ambrelle by the hand. "What's wrong? What can we do?"

Ambrelle glanced up. "I don't know - it's just - I feel so out of place. Like I don't belong. Like I have no real right to be here."

"Your right to be here is that you're my guest," said Elsa. This didn't do it, though. All it achieved was another glance up as Ambrelle stood there uncomfortably. Elsa sighed. She took her free hand and lifted Ambrelle's chin until their eyes connected. "It's obvious where you belong," she said. "But you can't take the water with you everywhere."

This elicited a nervous chuckle from Ambrelle.

"I'm not in my kingdom either, you know. But I'm still a queen." She stood silently for a second, and then spoke slowly. "And. So. Are. You."

Ambrelle regarded her with motionless focus, eyes fixed on Elsa's, searching for any hint of insincerity or hyperbole.

Elsa gave a nod, not breaking the link between their eyes. "If I could take each person in that room on a trip across the water with you, they would each step back onto land saying the same thing."

"I ..." She looked bewildered. Elsa couldn't tell where her thoughts were going. "I'm just an orphan..." she said at last.

Elsa pulled her into a hug. "So am I, Ambrelle," she said. "But that doesn't make me less of a queen."

Instead of returning the hug, Ambrelle brought both her arms in like a child nestling next to its mother. It was the same pose Elsa had seen her take with Johan so often. "These powers aren't even mine," she said faintly. "I only have them because some poor woman died trying to fish me out of a creek."

Elsa saw her opportunity. "So you're saying your title is inherited?" she asked. "So is mine."

"I don't have a title." Ambrelle said it so quietly that Elsa felt the words spoken pressed against her more than heard them. It wasn't expressed with indignance or jealousy, it was simply an innocent observation.

"Hmmmmmmm," she said, smiling to herself. "Let me think on that. Maybe I can come up with something before we get to the coronation." She held Ambrelle at arm's length. "Which, by the way, it was your idea to attend." They shared a chuckle. "For now, how about we go back to dinner and you just pretend we're all on the water with you, okay?"

Ambrelle hung her head. "I ... I can't do that."

Elsa took a breath. "Then we shall have to help you." She smiled. "Sometimes the best way to tackle a problem is head on."

"W-what?"

Elsa took Ambrelle by the hand and half-led half-dragged her back into the dining room. Once they were reseated and there was a pause in the conversation, she said, "friends, I know some of you already know this, but some of you don't. Ambrelle here is the first person I've met who also has magical powers."

Ambrelle went stiff, here face going ashen.

"Is that so?" asked king Reginald.

"Yes," Elsa continued. "She has power over water, and although I won't put her on the spot by requesting a demonstration, you can take my word for it that she is master of the seas. But she's feeling a little outclassed, although she has no right to, and it's only going to be harder once we're at the coronation. What she needs is a title that is worthy of her."

"A title?" said Reginald. "Hmmm." He thought a moment. "Daughter of Triton?"

Elsa winced. "No, no, nothing like that. It should convey the status she is due without attracting undue attention."

"Perhaps Duchess of Arendelle?" Heinrick suggested.

Elsa crossed her arms. "That's satisfactory, I suppose, if we can't think of anything better, but she deserves more. I like the association with Arendelle though."

Reginald rubbed his chin. "That might not be possible, Elsa. Any title higher suggests a kingdom, and someone could either be curious to know where that is, for a variety of economic or military reasons, or competent enough to know it doesn't exist. But the title of duchess gives you all kinds of flexibiliby. You can make up any regional name you want for that."

"Duchess Ambrelle of Arendelle Deep," said Heinrick. "It's a region on the coast of Arendelle, if anyone asks." He had a twinkle in his eye.

A wide smile spread across Elsa's face. She looked aside at Ambrelle whose mouth was open and whose face shone with amazed delight.

"Pleased to meet you, Duchess Ambrelle of Arendelle Deep," said king Reginald with authority.

Elsa put her hand on Ambrelle's arm. "We'll make it official when we get home," she grinned.

"Thank you, your majesty," Ambrelle replied breathlessly.

Then Elsa leaned over and whispered, "but you'll always be queen Ambrelle to me."