Chapter 7 - In The Snow Queen's Ice Palace
Meanwhile in the ice palace at the top of the North Mountain, Elsa came down the crystalline staircase in her ice gown to find Jack downstairs looking crestfallen and dejected. His hair was frozen white.
"Jack, I have something that will cheer you up," she said with a slight smile. "A puzzle for you to figure out, if you will. I want you to tell me the meaning of 'forever.'"
Jack turned to her in surprise, his icy blue eyes wide. "Forever?" he repeated. His eyes narrowed mischievously. "Why?"
"Grand Pabbie the Troll King told me that if I could figure out the meaning of the word 'forever,' then my mind would be at ease," she explained with one hand on her other arm. "But then…" She looked at Jack. "Trolls have been known to lie about things. Or at least, to say them in a mixed-up way."
"'Forever' is a tough one," Jack said. "Only the river Ahtohallan knows," he said, repeating something Anna had used to say.
"Then that's where we'll go then," Elsa said, almost excitedly. "To Ahtohallan! Come with me."
Elsa changed into a blue traveling coat and then saddled up her steed, the Nokk. She mounted him, sitting in the front, then Jack followed suit and sat behind her. Together they rode across the Dark Sea to Ahtohallan, the ice glacier palace.
Elsa and Jack entered Ahtohallan and stepped into a large, domed chamber with walls of ice. Elsa magically transformed her dress into a white gown with zig-zag ice patterns, her hair coming loose from her braid. "Show yourself!" she said to Jack. "I know you're there." He stepped out from behind a wall of ice, looking at her.
Elsa stood in the center of the icy chamber, throwing her arms out. "I want to know," she said longingly. "I want to know what 'forever' means."
Jack stood beside her and watched as the ice walls began to light up like the Northern Lights. The ice shimmered and showed a reflection, to Elsa's great surprise, of Jack and Anna. It was a past memory.
In the reflection, Jack had his familiar brown hair and brown eyes again. He and Anna were sitting together at home in Burgess.
"Jack, will we always be friends?" Anna asked.
"Yes we will, I promise," Jack answered. "Forever."
The ice flickered again and showed a different memory.
Jack and Anna were ice-skating on the frozen pond, but Anna was balancing perilously on cracked ice.
"It's okay," Jack coaxed her. "Don't be afraid. Do you want to play a game? Let's play hopscotch."
He grabbed a long stick, moved quickly and tossed Anna to the snowy bank with it, while taking her place. The ice splintered and he fell through, into the icy water.
"Jack, no!" Anna cried.
Jack was floating in the water until two slender hands pulled him out.
"Anna, you saved me," he said to her on the bank, dripping wet.
Anna put both arms around him to warm him. "I always will."
Jack confusedly put a hand to his head. "I remember now!" he said. "I had a family! I had a sister!"
The walls of ice glistened again now to show a blown-up reflection of just Anna's face, larger than life. Elsa stamped her heeled foot on the floor in irritation, looking at Jack. "Is that what you wanted to see?" she asked him. "Let it go!"
But Jack wouldn't look away from the reflection of Anna's face. "Some things are worth holding onto," he responded, not meeting her eye.
Anna's reflection started to speak. "River," she said, "if you have Jack, please give him back." Then her sadness turned to an up-beat, hopeful optimism. "I'll see him again!" she said assuredly. "For the first time in forever!"
"I'll love her forever," Jack said lowly.
Elsa clenched her fists at her side and stamped her foot, an icy glare on her frighteningly beautiful features. "Then the two of you will wait forever!"
The reflection showed Anna outside the ice palace on the North Mountain, looking up at it in awe.
"She's right outside the ice palace!" Elsa shouted. She waved her arms in the air and all the reflections turned to the Northern Lights.
"Come on," she commanded to Jack, "we're going back to the North Mountain." Elsa and Jack mounted the Nokk again and flew over the Dark Sea, back to the North Mountain.
Once back at the ice palace, Elsa approached Jack with a dangerous smile on her face. "I'll kiss you one more time," she said, "and then you'll forget all about Anna."
She leaned in and kissed Jack on the lips, making him shiver all up and down. He gasped and put a hand to his heart, feeling it freeze in ice. Then Elsa swirled her white veil around and headed up the grand staircase to her room.
Jack crumpled to his knees on the floor of the ice palace.
"Jack?" a familiar voice rang out like a bell.
He looked up. Anna was standing in the door of the ice palace, wearing her pink cape and hat over her black-corseted blue dress, though her hair had blown out of her two braids in the wind. "Jack!"
She ran across the floor of the ice palace, sliding the last few feet onto her knees and throwing her arms around Jack.
"Jack, I knew I'd see you again!"
Jack didn't move, as if he was frozen.
"Jack?"
Anna put her arms around Jack in an embrace, leaned in, and kissed him lingeringly on the lips. Jack gasped as if in pain and put both hands to his heart.
"My heart," he choked.
"His heart is thawing," said a voice. Anna looked up to see Elsa at the bottom of the staircase, wearing a white dress with her hair loose. "It was frozen, but you've broken the spell with an act of true love. A true love's kiss."
Anna stood boldly and faced Elsa with her brows furrowed. "You can't keep Jack here any longer," she said. "I'm taking him back home with me to Burgess."
"The two of you are free to go where you wish." Elsa swirled her veil around her and disappeared up the staircase again in a small blizzard of snow flurries.
Anna helped Jack up to his feet, both gripping the other's shoulders. "Anna, do you know what this means?" Jack asked. "I'm free! You've freed me, Anna."
Both held hands and spun around on the ice as if ice-skating, laughing as they did.
"We'll go home now," Anna said.
Outside the ice castle Sven was waiting for them. Anna and Jack mounted Sven and he rode them down the North Mountain. Yelana was waiting for them but sent them on their way again. In the Enchanted Forest they ran into Honeymaren and the other Northuldra, who gave them back the golden carriage. Honeymaren laughed and punched Jack on the arm. She waved good-bye as Anna and Jack drove off in the royal carriage.
They arrived at Arendelle Castle, where they were greeted warmly by King Agnarr and Queen Iduna. But they decided to keep going home to their small town of Burgess. King Agnarr let them keep the carriage. They kept driving across the countryside, and past Mother Gothel's cottage without stopping in.
Finally the carriage brought them home to Burgess. Anna entered her house to find her grandparents Halima and Mattias waiting for her. Jack found his parents at home as well.
The winter melted into spring again, and Jack and Anna were married. Anna wore her white gold-embroidered gown and Jack wore his white shirt and brown vest. They kissed at the wedding and were pronounced wedded. And that, my friend, is the end of the story.
THE END
