Chapter Thirty One

Return of the Queens

TALYA

Riding Nokk on land at breakneck speed, they arrived at the western border of Arendelle by nightfall. Here, the soldiers patrolling the walls were few in numbers, as the arrogant General hadn't imagined that a foreign army would arrive to help the Arendellians retake the city. It played significantly to Talya and Elsa's advantage, since their infiltration into the city was meant to be covert.

The Northuldra had taken their boats as per Elsa's instructions, and floated downstream in the direction of southeast, which would take them around the forest and the many highway roads, circling to the Arendellian harbours where no doubt, the Southern Isles' navy fleet was stationed. It was only common sense that the fleet would be faced outwards and away from Arendelle, no doubt to spot any naval fleet coming to liberate Arendelle. No one would suspect guerrilla fighters swimming inland behind the Southern Isles ships. The Northuldra would abandon their boats when they were close, swimming the rest of the way and sticking to the piers so as not to be detected by the guards patrolling the captured bases.

It was an utterly sound plan, at least to Talya. She didn't have any experience in battles or sieges, so she had to rely on Elsa's expertise. Besides, she was a veteran who knew very well what she was doing. Elsa had assured Talya confidently that the Northuldra would get their task done, and that the two of them should focus on getting to the palace to ambush Bjorn and free the guests from Val's homecoming dinner as well as Val and Peggy.

Talya was quite sure that Bjorn was keeping Val and Peggy close by. He couldn't afford to let them escape yet again, so they would be watched far more closely this time. That just made this rescue mission so much tougher.

"You know your kingdom best." Elsa said to her as they crouched by a nearby tree with a trunk thick enough to hide them both. Nokk had already been turned back into water and disintegrated back into nature, waiting to be called upon when needed. "What is the shortest route to the palace?"

"Once we get through those sentries, we'll be at the western gate. The castle's still in the north, just like the old days. It's just the buildings and the roads that have changed. Not to mention the Southern Isles soldiers patrolling the streets."

Elsa looked pensive, eyebrows furrowed slightly. "Does the foundry still exist near the western border?"

"You mean Kjëll's Foundry?" Talya asked. It was a local family business that had been passed down through the generations, dating back as far as the seventeenth century.

"Yes. Has it ever been demolished?"

Talya shook her head. "The Kjëll family has always been strict about keeping things the way they are."

"And for good reason." Elsa's lips were upturned slightly. "The Kjëll family was known for evacuating prisoners of war out of Arendelle in the days of my grandfather during the Colonial Wars. An old service tunnel branches out into catacombs, some of which spread throughout the city. And one of them leads right beneath Arendelle palace."

"Woah."

"You sound so much like my sister." Elsa didn't bother hiding her smile now. "That was Anna's exact reaction when she found the passage during one of our halloween celebrations back when we were still young adults before the Exon Campaign. She called it 'Anna's secret escape route'."

Talya's face brightened. "Then we have a safe way to the palace."

"First things first. We have to get into the kingdom. Remember, keep your mind focused." From their spot behind the tree, Elsa pointed at the four sentries who were stationed outside the kingdom's western gate. "What's your plan of attack?"

"We have to be stealthy. They can't know we're here, or they'll raise the alarm and we'll lose the element of surprise." Talya stared hard at the enemies. "We can't charge in with sorcery blazing."

"Good." Elsa nodded. "You must always remember that your powers are just tools. If you keep depending on your sorcery to get you out of sticky situations, it will become a crutch, and your gift will turn into weakness."

"Right, right." Talya made a mental note to jot that down somewhere when she got the time.

"So," Elsa pointed at the gate again. "What then?"

"We'll need to take them out one at a time? When the others aren't looking. Which means we need…a…a diversion to draw at least one or two away." Talya knew very well that Elsa had the power to take them all down at once, but she suspected that her mentor wanted the victory of this mission to belong to Talya. Besides, this was the field experience she so desperately needed if she was going to be facing Bjorn shortly.

"That's right. We need to get closer."

"Closer? How?"

"Janus taught me a little spy trick back in the day. Never thought I'd need to use it." Elsa let out a light chuckle and dropped to the ground on her belly. "Follow me."

Talya found that this "little spy trick" was a lot more exhausting than she'd imagined. It wore out her patience too. It took the duo ten minutes to leopard crawl through the long, thick grass to get close enough to the guards without being spotted. The gate was about twenty yards away, and in the darkness, it was impossible for the sentries to notice the two sorcerers lying in the grass.

Elsa nodded at Talya, who guessed that that was the signal for her to make her opening move. Drawing in a slow and quiet breath, Talya quietened her mind the way Elsa had taught her; stilling all other active thoughts and focusing on the one thing that mattered right now.

Summoning her sorcery, she took hold of the spark, which seemed a lot more pliable and agreeable with her now that she'd spent time training with it. Letting the sorcery flow through her, she aimed a hand at the far side of the wall away from the gate where the sentries were. An immense amount of concentration and suppression sent a short burst of ice flying. It hit the wall and made a rather noticeable cracking noise as ice smashed the side of stone and disintegrated. That was enough to rouse the sentries' attention, and two of them began to move away from their post to check out what was going on.

Glancing at Elsa, Talya was pleased to see that she was nodding and lightly jerked her head, signalling for Talya to carry on with her next move. Still on her belly, Talya pulled herself closer to the gate and took aim with both hands at the two sentries who were still standing guard. Two bursts of ice erupted, a little stronger than she had intended. Unfortunately, her aim was a little off, with one blast hitting a sentry squarely in the stomach and the other glancing off the second's shoulder.

Shit. Mind racing in a panic, instinct pulled Talya to her feet and she scrambled towards the two sentries, one of whom was still on his feet and trying to see what had hit him. He saw her coming and began to bring his rifle to bear. Talya didn't know if it was purely good timing or adrenaline, but she found an extra boost of speed, crossing the remaining distance and pulling the weapon's barrel up and slamming full on into the sentry.

Thrown back by Talya's weight, the sentry staggered against the gate, resulting in a loud and clumsy clanging noise. She wrestled with his weapon and willed her sorcery to flow through her. To her relief, the rifle froze over and the man let it go quickly in shock. But in response, he pushed back against Talya and she back-pedalled, tripping over the other sentry who'd been floored earlier by the blast to the gut. Landing on her back, she looked up to see the man had drawn a pistol.

Talya's heart hammered in her chest audibly, and she felt fear surging through her. The fear of death. In that split second, she recalled Elsa's teachings. Face your fears and turn them into something worth fighting for. Her hand shot out at the sentry and a quick but deadly, short spurt of ice sent him off balance and off his feet. He flew backwards and hit the side of the gate, sprawling heavily and unconscious.

Senses overwhelming her and blood pounding in her ears, Talya forced herself to sit up. But before she could get up, the other two sentries who'd gone to check out her distraction had heard the commotion had returned. Brandishing their rifles, they spoke something sharply in their own native tongue and aimed their weapons at her.

They acted fast, but Elsa was faster. Two quick, precise strikes of ice bursts to their backs collapsed them, allowing Talya the time to scramble to her feet. Attempting to summon her sorcery, she then noticed that they'd already been taken out of the game. She looked up to see Elsa already on her feet and striding towards them from where she'd been lying in the grass.

"Good control, but you need to be faster. More precise." Elsa said plainly as if this was yet another training exercise. "You need more practice."

"Well sorry, but we had a kingdom to save." Talya muttered, trying to clean off the mud stuck to her pullover. Crawling through the mud and getting into all this cloak and dagger stuff was messy business.

Elsa didn't seem too bothered by the mud on her own cloak. A brief wave of her hand across her middle sent particles of ice flurrying around her body, eliminating the mud, grass and dirt that'd accumulated on her dark grey robes. By the time the ice particles had vanished, there was simply no trace of stains left.

"How-"

"You'll learn that in time." Elsa cut her off, waving a hand again, and this time her sorcery cleaned Talya's clothes, making it so spotless as though it'd just come fresh out of washing.

Talya tried not to think about it, pushing her questions to the back of her mind. Focus. She placed a hand on the lock securing the western gate. Your focus determines your reality. Concentrate on how potent you want your sorcery to be in a given moment. A controlled cold enveloped her hand and the lock iced over slowly.

"Good." Elsa watched as the lock froze over completely within a matter of seconds.

Talya jerked on the lock and it gave way, breaking into multiple pieces. Letting go of it, she pulled open the iron gate which creaked gently. She slipped past it and Elsa did the same. A land blockade had been built around the area near the gate, evidently meant to keep civilians from escaping the city. Surprisingly though, it was unmanned, and all that was left were guns, jeeps and sacks of sand and stone that had been consolidated to form barriers and firing bays that were facing the city. With no sign of anyone about, the nearby vicinity felt like a ghost town.

"No one's here." Talya said aloud, though cautiously keeping her voice low. "Strange." She paused for a brief moment, before it dawned on her. "Bjorn. He's baiting me. He doesn't want the soldiers to bring me in because he wants to fight me on his own terms. Arrogant bastard."

"We haven't lost the element of surprise. He knows you're coming, but he doesn't know when. And I'm fairly certain he doesn't suspect I'll be here." Elsa replied, surveying the blockade.

"You have a point." Talya bit her lower lip. The real pressing concern was, where would Bjorn be holding Val and Peggy? Her first priority was to make sure they were safe before she turned her attention to Bjorn.

"One thing at a time." Elsa seemed to have read her mind. "Let's get to Kjëll's foundry first."

###

The interior of Kjëll's foundry was unlike anything Talya had ever seen before. She'd seen images of it on television and heard many things about the famous facility that was practically a national relic, but she had never been inside it herself. There was no reason for her to be, until tonight. Elsa though, had clearly been in here before.

This late at night, the foundry was empty, and it didn't take much effort for the duo to break into the compound. The Snow Queen navigated to a large basement where the huge vats of liquid metal were stored. It was incredibly hot and stuffy inside, causing Talya to sweat profusely and bits of grime and dirt clung to her skin and clothes.

Old tracks had been built in the basement, connecting to a wide tunnel used by foundry workers and miners to transport cartloads of metal and ore from the caves into the facility's basement. These tracks weren't as rusted as Talya had imagined, meaning that at some point in time, they had been uprooted and replaced with new ones. However, deeper into the tunnel, this was no longer the case. The tracks ended fifteen minutes into their journey through the tunnel, where they were met by a fork of smaller tunnels, some of which had been blocked off by large rocks and barricades.

This didn't seem to faze Elsa in the least, as she led Talya towards one of the smaller tunnels that had been blocked off. Without a word, Elsa placed a hand on the rocks which covered the entire height and breadth of the tunnel. Within seconds, the entire barricade froze over and with a light clench of her fist, the ice-covered rocks crumbled and disintegrated into a mixture of ice particles, water droplets and rock fragments tiny enough for the duo to climb over.

Slack-jawed, Talya watched as Elsa gingerly climbed over the barricade, moving like a woman half her age. No, way more than half. Talya scrambled over the broken rocks and ice to join Elsa, who'd continued walking down the tunnel as though they'd not even been deterred. The tunnel soon narrowed into a passage where they could no longer walk two abreast. All this while, it was incredibly dark and Talya had been using her phone's flashlight to illuminate the tunnel. Here, Talya lifted her phone and examined their surroundings in disgust.

This part of the passage was covered in layers of dirt and dust, with cobwebs hanging from every corner of the low ceiling. She flinched when she saw something crawl up the wall.

"We're somewhere below the palace now." Elsa pointed ahead of them, and Talya could make out some items buried beneath dirt on the ground. Moving closer, Talya saw that they were old books, newspapers and fragments of beer bottles.

The passage widened out slightly and began to slope upwards. Very soon, Talya felt bits of wood crunching beneath her boots and began to tread more lightly. The end of the tunnel was near, evidently.

"Here. It's been a very long time, but I recognise this staircase." Elsa said in a low voice. An old, rickety looking wooden staircase wound upwards. Cautiously, the duo took the stairs up slowly, when a buzzing sound caused Talya to very nearly jump out of her skin.

Elsa whipped round, eyes sharp and feet planted on the stairs. "What is it?"

It took Talya a good few seconds to calm down, her heart still pumping sporadically in her chest. "It's…it's my phone." She said with immense relief. It was a notification from her brother, apparently. "A text from Val?" She frowned. "How's that possible?"

"Text?" Elsa asked.

"It's uh…how do I put this. It's a digital telegram message that can be transferred between devices." Talya did her best to explain, though Val obviously would have done a much better - if not more technical - job.

"So your brother sent you a message?"

"Yeah. He-" Talya reread the text, realising belatedly that it meant he had access to a phone or tablet somewhere. "He and Peggy escaped from Bjorn's custody. He says that they're holed up in the communications room." Talya relaxed, her body instantly growing less tense. "They're safe."

"I'll consider it safe when Bjorn's been dealt with and the invaders have been neutralised." Elsa said. "Till then, we're all still in danger." She resumed climbing the rickety staircase and Talya followed her slowly.

The top of the stairs brought them to a false wall made of brick, dusty and chipped. Applying her shoulder to the side of the wall, Elsa pushed and the wall began to pivot at the centre. It gave way to a gap which allowed both Elsa and Talya to squeeze through.

Talya looked around at the new room as Elsa sealed the entrance to the secret passage again. The foundry tunnel had taken them to a storage room, piled up high with servants' items and tools for cleaning the compound. So this place had been sitting under her nose this entire time. Opening the door of the storage room from the inside, Talya peered out. There was the unmistakeable dark green carpet lining the long, dim hallway which marked the place as Arendelle palace.

"We're here, all right." Talya whispered triumphantly.

"I'm assuming the infrastructure hasn't really been changed much over the decades."

"Oh you'll be surprised. Enough that you'll be confused if you were left to roam this place alone. Fortunate for you, you have me." Talya grinned, slipping out of the storage room when she was sure no one else was about. "Here, follow me."

Talya reoriented herself and concluded that they were now in the East Wing on the third floor. It didn't take them very long to navigate over to the West Wing, where the communications room was located snugly at the corner of the level. However, they were brought up short when they realised the peril nearby.

Eyes narrowed, Talya surveyed the situation with Elsa waiting patiently behind her. The communications room was there all right, but so were at least two squads of soldiers, armed and awaiting orders from an officer.

"They're inside, Sir." One of the soldiers reported. "The scans showed two heat signatures."

"Then we've got the slippery bastards." A lieutenant grinned nastily. "Get ready to breach on my signal and give them hell."

"Yes, Sir." The soldier signalled to the others, who formed up together with the rest in preparation to breach the communications room.

"We need to stop them," Talya hissed to Elsa. "We can't let them take Val and Peggy again."

"Then don't." Elsa said placidly, sparking a sliver of annoyance in Talya.

Sighing, Talya reached out for her sorcery as she harnessed her exasperation into willpower, the sorcery flowing through her being and into her hands. She applied her hands to the ground, willing her ice to travel across it. Enormous flood tides of ice shot out of her hands, covering the ground in a thick layer of uneven ice.

The soldiers slipped, balance being whisked away from beneath their feet. Exclaiming and cursing, they began to tumble, some grasping onto their companions and dragging them down as well. Those who managed to remain upright had a hard time trying to maintain their footing, trying to turn round to see where the ice had come from.

Talya took that as her window of opportunity, surging forward and sliding across the ice as though she were skating, knees bent and body low to the ground. With hands outstretched, she sent out another strong blast of ice in all directions which threw the soldiers in her immediate orbit off their feet, hurling them against the wall forcefully. She hadn't meant it to be that potent, but she wasn't about to deny the results.

"Look out!" Elsa's voice rang out sharply from behind her.

Whirling round with hands levelled, Talya readied her next blast of ice, only to see that Elsa was already in the thick of the fighting. The soldiers who'd fallen had already gotten to their feet and some had intended on shooting her in the back. However, Elsa had sprung into their midst, swerving, ducking and carving her way through them with goddess-like speed and ferocity, with precise, potent strikes of her sorcery leaving the Southern Isles enemies reeling and dropping around her like flies.

The Snow Queen's hands moved with such lightning speed that it was all a blur to Talya. She watched in absolute awe as Elsa quickly made short work of the rest of the soldiers before they even got a single shot off, freezing their rifles and disarming them with deadly efficiency. The sorcery that Elsa unleashed was far more dangerous and well measured than anything Talya had managed to summon thus far. By the time Talya got a grip on what was going on, Elsa had already finished with the rest of the soldiers who lay at her feet in a heap.

"Always be mindful of your surroundings. You have to watch your back and sense the danger all around." Elsa chided. She wasn't even out of breath and hadn't broken a single sweat.

"That…that was-" Talya stuttered. She had never seen the mythical heroine in action before, and it had been utterly breathtaking to watch. "How did you-"

"Practice." Elsa allowed a small smile to break through her usually cold and reserved demeanour.

"Great. So all I gotta do is just let more of these soldiers shoot at me I guess." Talya muttered.

There was a loud ringing noise over the intercom system planted near the ceiling that was meant to be used for emergencies or announcements. Talya and Elsa both spun round, expecting more resistance but there was none. Instead, someone cleared his throat over the audio system.

"Attention, Queen Talya." Bjorn's voice played smoothly from the intercom speakers. "This is General Bjorn. I'm not sure who you're trying to fool, but I know you're here in this palace trying to save your brother and friend. No more games. Take your brother and face me, or I will murder two Arendellian soldiers in my possession right now. You will find me in the Audience Chambers. Come quickly. Come now."

Another ringing noise and a thud to indicate that the general had tossed the microphone down onto the table, and then static.

Talya grimaced. "I have to go. Take Val and Peggy and get them to safety."

"He'll kill you." There was real worry in Elsa's voice.

"Trust me." Talya said. "I can do this. Besides, I have no choice." Her jaw tightened. "Bjorn is going to kill my people if I don't face him."

"We can face him together."

"No! I need you to make sure Val and Peggy get out of the kingdom alive." Talya took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. "This is what you trained me for. Like you said, you can't fight my battles for me." Talya took Elsa's hand in her own. "This is my fight. I can do this." Before Elsa could object, Talya began to bolt down the hallway in the direction of the Audience Chambers.

Author's Commentary:

Things are coming to a head. I'm actually kind of sad that this is coming to an end soon. But don't worry! The end of this story ties in somewhat to Book 5 for which I'm still penning the ending now. For those who've read Book 1-3, timeline wise this Epilogue novel doesn't really affect the first trilogy (Book 1-3), but this story which takes place in the future will have an impact on the second trilogy is an entirely different landscape. It's a little hard to explain, that is, until you get to read it. Meanwhile, hope you're all enjoying this story thus far :)