The men were dead before they hit the ground, all six of their hearts instantly frozen, gasping like fish, their crossbows little more than blocks of ice in frozen hands. A moment later Elsa raised a protective dome three meters thick around her and Hiksti's cages.

"Oh, god," she said, staring at the morbid sight of the dead men on the ground, as pale and blue as Hel. They were dead, dead, dead, and she'd done that. "What have I done?"

"What you had to do to protect yourself," Hiksti said. "And me." A moment's work and he'd severed his ropes using a tool that was built into his prosthetic. Quickly he went to the door of his cage and picked the lock. Elsa was free and in his arms in seconds.

A crashing and pounding sound could be heard against the wall of the dome. "Will it hold them?" he asked.

"For a minute," Elsa said. She was shaking and could only watch as Hiksti looted the bodies for weapons, coming up with a sword and four daggers that he liked. Another dagger went to Elsa, who clutched it nervously.

"Just… stick with me," Hiksti told her. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Could you do me a favor, though?"

"Anything," she said, her knuckles white around the pommel of the dagger.

"Break off this arrow?" He pointed. "Just right there, so I can pull it through."

"What if you bleed too much?" she asked, eyes wide.

"Nah, it missed everything important, don't worry. Markus was a crack shot. It's gonna sting, but I'll be okay."

Elsa glanced at Markus the deceased crack shot and hurriedly glanced away again. She tucked the dagger into her belt and then reached up to the arrow in her husband's arm. With a grunt she managed to break it. He took the pain of that stoically, grimaced, and carefully pulled out the rest of the arrow.

"Odin's anus, that stings," he muttered.

Elsa wrapped a handkerchief around the wound, disliking the blood that insisted on seeping through. "Don't die," she told him.

"I'll try really hard not to," he promised. "Don't you die, either."

"I'll... try really hard not to," she parroted back to him, and for some reason, despite everything, they were able to share a small smile that lasted for just a moment.

"Here's the plan," Hiksti said. "You just… freeze everyone where they are, and I'll take care of them."

Elsa nodded, her stomach twisting into anxious knots. She knew what 'take care of' meant.

When the wall of their protective dome was breached, Elsa raised her hands, and twenty-seven men stopped moving, every limb completely encased in a block of dense magical ice. She made sure to capture their arms, as well - she'd learned that lesson the hard way once before, so many years ago in her ice palace. They didn't even stand a chance. "Stay behind me," Hiksti said.

In answer, Elsa buried her face against his back, squeezed her eyes shut, gathered handfuls of his shirt, and moved with him as he slowly stepped into the cave, his eyes scanning for anyone they may have missed. Occasionally he'd stop, Elsa would hear a man begging for his life, and Hiksti would make a vicious motion and the begging would stop. Some of them cursed him, some of them screamed, but Hiksti methodically executed each and every one of them. At one point he grabbed a torch and lit it in a firepit, and merrily set fire to an area strewn with pillows and hung with tapestries, where an ornate chair sat like a throne.

"Ah, Helmut, there you are," Hiksti said almost cheerfully.

Elsa heard ragged breathing, and Helmut spoke without a trace of a smile in his voice. "Set me free and face me one-on-one," he challenged. "Man to man, without a witch to hide behind. Or are you too craven?"

"Oh, gee, let me think," Hiksti said sarcastically. "Just simply kill the man who threatened to ravage my wife and held us for ransom, or set him free and risk it all in a duel to the death? Because he goaded me? Such a tough choice." Suddenly he jerked, and Helmut screamed.

"I made a promise," Hiksti said quietly. "That you would die screaming." Another jerk, and Elsa heard Helmut scream again. "See? I'm a man of my word."

"Stop!" Helmut screamed, the sound of it raising every hair on Elsa's body. "Stop, please!"

"Why should I?" Another scream, this one long and drawn-out, set Elsa's blood curdling.

"Please, Hiksti," she begged, hot tears soaking the back of his shirt. "End it, please."

There was a pause. "My lady wife is kind," Hiksti told Helmut. "For her, I grant you mercy." Another jerk, another scream, and this one ended in a sickening gurgle second later.

For a long minute Elsa shook like a leaf against her husband's back, afraid to open her eyes. The temperature of the cave was arctic, and they were dressed in summer clothes. Hiksti turned around and gently gathered Elsa into his arms.

"It's okay," he murmured, pressing her face against his chest and murmuring into her hair. "It's okay, they're all gone, now. We're safe."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

They'd collected their supplies and gold - and extra food and a small chest of even more gold and gems, besides - the ruby, the map, and their horses, and Hiksti had set fire to everything else in the cave. With the charred end of a stick he'd written a message just inside the cave entrance. "Bandits beware. Justice was done here."

They'd ridden for an hour and made a cold camp well off the road, hiding their horses in the dense undergrowth and pitching their little tent by feel alone. Hiksti had crawled in behind her and tied it shut and Elsa had turned to him and stifled her sobs in his chest.

He held her close and petted her hair, pressing kisses to the crown of her head and whispering his love and pride and words of comfort. Finally she cried herself to sleep.

The singing of birds woke her the next morning. She blinked her eyes open to look at her husband, curled on his side next to her, his face peaceful and eyes closed, his breathing deep and even.

He was still splattered with the blood of their enemies, the red droplets dried and crusting. The arrow wound on his arm seemed to have stopped bleeding, for which she was grateful. She sat up and he was instantly awake, green eyes snapping to her face. "Are you alright?" he asked her, sitting up, too, and reaching for her hand. His hair stuck out at all angles.

She twined her fingers with his and nodded. "Yes," she said. "I'm fine. How's your arm?"

"Sore," he admitted. "But I made sure to clean it and change the dressing. It'll be fine."

"What if it gets infected?" she asked, worry in her voice.

"I used clean water and soap and medicine," he reassured her. "I'll be fine, I promise."

She nodded and leaned toward him. "We should get you cleaned up. You're spattered in -" she broke off and bit her lip.

Hiksti looked down at himself, seeing for the first time the blood of their enemies that covered him from beard to knees. "Right," he said. "Just… wait here. I'll be back."

Ten minutes later he came back into the tent, clean and wearing fresh clothes and bearing bread and dried apples and a canteen of water to drink. He sat cross-legged beside her and they ate in silence. "Are you ready to come out?" he asked her quietly.

She shook her head, and he nodded patiently, and took her into his arms. "It's okay," he soothed. "Your feelings, whatever they are, are valid."

She took a shuddering breath and clutched his shirt. "I killed them, Hiksti," she whispered.

"And I killed the rest," he whispered back. "And what we did was necessary."

She looked up at him, wondering if Helmut's manner of death had been necessary. He saw that question in her eyes, and the doubt he saw there stabbed him. Desperately, he pressed his forehead to hers. "Don't, please," he begged. "Don't look at me like that." His hands framed her face oh-so-gently. "I can't stand it if you doubt me."

"The… screaming…" she started, her chin trembling.

"Hey, hey, look at me, please," he said. "Look, look." She raised her eyes to his. "You're my wife, Elsa. I love you. I waited over seventeen centuries to find you and I will be damned if I'll lose you to scum like that, if I'll let them hurt you in any way. Do you hear me?" His hands were so very tender where they framed her face. "I don't regret killing him to protect you. And you should not waste your pity on that worm. Some people… just need killing. Bad guys."

"Bad guys," Elsa repeated.

"You're okay," he promised. "Are… are we okay?"

Elsa stared at him for a long, long time, thinking about that. Thinking about everything they'd been through together, every sacrifice he'd made for her, and she for him. She thought about their home together, his love of creating things, how he'd filled their cabin with gifts he'd made and 'improvements' to things that had worked just fine, before. She thought about the thoughtful way he always held her, the respect he gave her to make her own choices and come to her own conclusions. She thought about the delight he had when he taught her things, or learned something new from her. She thought about taking him into Ahtohallan, and how it felt right for him to be there. She thought about the savagery she'd seen revealed in him last night, all in the name of protecting her. She thought about the choice she'd made to kill those men, those men who'd hurt Hiksti, who would have killed him without remorse, and she found her own remorse slowly melting away.

"Yes," she answered, her voice quiet but firm. "We're okay." The truth of it shone in her eyes.

"Thank the gods," he whispered, and kissed her.

There was no more talking after that as they comforted each other in other ways, and it was late into the morning before they were ready to head out again.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Reviews, yay!

Mark of Arendelle: Ooh, I'm glad I'm inspiring other people! What an enormous compliment! Thank you for leaving a review for every chapter, it really makes my day!

Riverdog: Rampages are imminent, never you fear, hah! But don't worry, I wouldn't do that to Elsa, I feel like there are better ways to develop female characters than that. Thanks for the review!

jgs237: I always felt that the spirits of the Enchanted Forest were sort of limited to that general area. Arendelle is so close that they could easily venture there, but it's not their home. That's my take, anyway! As far as Elsa's theoretical dragon… mwahahahah. Just wait! It makes me really happy to hear how excited you get, yay!

Dovahkiin: As far as Inferno, well… Hiksti's very, very old. And continuously using a sword will eventually lead to it getting too worn to use, or being broken. Not to mention the fact that he wouldn't have any more Monstrous Nightmare gel to fuel it. Also, he's already a one-legged dude, very memorable, that would be compounded by a flaming sword, hahah! I sort of imagined that Hiksti wanted to try to keep a low profile as he travelled so people didn't remember him.