A Second Tyranny

by 7colorfulrainbows

Hans successfully took control of Arendelle with a magical army at his back. He dethroned Elsa, sentencing her to death, while he sent Anna to a place for spirits known as the Shadowland. Leaders Whit and Wisty Allgood discovered that the ice queen had arrived in their City, desperate on her quest to find her sister. Set after the end of The Lost & after the end of Frozen. CANON.

21. The Battle of Arendelle (Part 3)

Chapter Twenty One: The Battle of Arendelle (Part 3)

WHIT

The road from the rock trolls' inhabitation to the kingdom was almost entirely downhill. The gradient of the mountains went from steep to medium and then even lower until it was nothing more than a gentle slope of forest. Elsa and I trotted to the forest's edge where the land met the sea. I estimated we were about seventy, eighty yards away from the fortress.

"See the area built along that outermost wall?" Elsa pointed. "That was where I fled the stronghold. Now I am back." She paused, and when realizing I wasn't going to say anything, she continued, "Our plan is to surreptitiously get into the castle, which means—"

"You can't freeze the stretch of water in front of you in order to prevent from being seen," I completed.

"I can still get there by forming a constant ice support beneath my feet, but the problem is: how will you get there, Whit? You can run alongside me, but I don't think the support is big enough for the both of us. Why don't you lift yourself over using telekinesis?"

I waved the idea off. "I'll teleport." Making a courteous gesture with my arm, I said, "After you."

Elsa planted a foot on the water. It instantly turned into glowing blue crystalline solid. With ice forming beneath her and melting behind her trail, she darted across the stretch of sea onto the granite structure. I 'bounced' beside her.

There were several side entrances to the castle. We approached the closest one and, after sighing in relief at the absence of sentries, entered a corridor. Corpses of the king's comrades were sprawled everywhere, the majority with arrows poking out of them.

"Pearce," I deduced. "He, Byron, Janine and their army have been here."

City magicians also lay dead amongst the enemies, but very few.

Elsa instructed, "Come on. The sooner we reach the dungeons to liberate my people, the sooner we'll be able to join the fight."

We skidded around a corner and found that the far end of this corridor was blocked by massive chunks of stone and granite. Soldiers were crushed beneath them. There was a gaping hole in the vault directly above the area. Some formidable wizard must've yanked part of the arched ceiling loose.

We did a U-turn and headed back the way we came. Elsa led me from room to room, hallway to hallway, past the kitchen and through twists and turns. She may have been away for a period of time, but she knew the castle inside out, every nook and cranny.

There came a bark from the end of the corridor behind us. "Trespassers! Intruders in the castle!"

I glanced back and saw three armed soldiers.

"Not just any intruder. It's the Ice Queen! Her and the Allgood boy!"

"Stop them!"

We scampered into a vast portrait room with our enemies at our tails. I veered around a jet of calamitous crimson light that whirred my way, bumping into Elsa. She teetered but did not fall. Focusing on one of the large canvas paintings hanging on a wall, I wrenched it with mental force from its position and sent it hurling at the soldiers, knocking two of them out. Elsa released a rapid stream of frost at the remaining soldier. His face turned purplish-blue as the coldness froze him from inside out.

A dozen more troops bolted in just as we were nearing the opposite doors.

Elsa stomped her foot. A thin coating of ice spread across the polished floor. I felt the frigidness in the veins of my feet straight away. Fingers of ice shot up the striped green walls. The temperature in the room dipped fifty degrees. Because the ice was so slippery and the soldiers were running so fast, they lost their footing and fell, some tripping over each other and cursing obscenely. I conjured a streak of blue light at the chandelier overhead. The chain snapped, and the chandelier smashed on top of the men. Elsa and I hurried out of the portrait room. I barricaded the doors before they could resume their pursuit and Elsa used her ice powers to freeze it. Muffled sounds of bodies slamming against the wood could be heard, but the doors did not budge—they were as solid as diamonds.

The sound of rushing footsteps reached my ears. Getting louder and louder.

Alabaster statues of historic knights and warriors stood upright on plinths at regular intervals along one side of the corridor. Some of them were brandishing their weapons on horseback while others displayed impressive poses of combat. Thinking fast, I raised my shield, pulled out my sword and pointed it at Elsa, my arm paused mid-strike. Confusion crossed my friend's face.

"Get into a battle stance. Quick! Pretend that we're fighting!" I explained.

Elsa unattached the bow from her back and nocked an arrow, aiming it right at me.

"Stay still," I whispered.

I mumbled a short invocation I learned from a grimoire. The magic took effect and we transformed into ivory sculptures, a pair of combatants in a warzone. I had no heartbeat and yet I was breathing. My eyeballs and eardrums were marble and yet I could see and hear. I could not move a single muscle. I was pure solid—an object. So the matter of how come I was still alive was a mystery. Our resemblance to the rest of the carved figures was so similar there was no way you could distinguish the fake ones from the real. I had created a fantastic camouflage.

A group of men approached right where we were standing and stopped to survey the lofty double doors to the portrait room which were glazed in layers of ice and verglas.

"She left a trace," one of them said.

Another surmised, "The sorceress must be inside."

"To the other entrance!" growled a third.

The comrades stampeded past us and then disappeared down a side corridor.

Elsa and I transformed back into ourselves.

Elsa heaved a sigh of relief. "That was ingenious, Whit."

I nodded. "Let's keep moving."

We crept down a wider hallway to our right…

…and were intercepted by a soldier clad in dark military uniform.

Before either of us could react, the soldier brought his arms up in one motion and a pillar of azure blue substance that was neither solid nor liquid erupted from underneath. It was as if someone had flipped on a gigantic hose, turned it facing up, and decided to eject a super powerful squirt of water from below me.

Whoooooooooooossshhh!

I shot upwards.

Thwack!

I bumped into a hard, flat surface which could be no other than the ceiling.

Ouch.

I went through it and continued to soar up. Thwack! Another ceiling and up I went again. Thwack…whoosh…thwack…whoosh…THWACK!

A strong, supernatural force threw me sideways and I thumped a wardrobe with the speed of a charging bull. The contents spilled out over me. Before I could pull off the sheets and clothing, the wardrobe tipped backwards, forwards, and then collapsed on top of my body.

Ow.

I felt like I had been belaboured with a war hammer. Repeatedly. I ached all over. I tried to crawl, but I couldn't move as much as a toe or a finger under all this weight. Giving up, I uttered a helpless grunt.

Then I felt the weight lessen and lessen some more, and hope kindled in me. With another feminine sound of effort, the wardrobe was being lifted and now I could finally flex my limbs. Shoving away the scarves, socks, ties, and the intricate and impressive military and naval uniforms blocking my vision, I glanced up and found Elsa standing over me looking perturbed.

She offered, "Need a hand?"

I gripped her arm and let her drag me up. I was in a royal chamber.

"Whit, your nose is bleeding."

Indeed, something wet and warm was running down my upper lip and chin. I placed a palm over it and immediately the flow of blood was staunched. I wiped away the drying blood from my face with the back of my hand.

"That's better," Elsa said.

There was an irregularly shaped hole in the floor of the chamber. I inched to the edge and peered down. I could see all the way to the bottom. That tsunami of a pillar had punched an aperture through every room below this one like a giant's fist. One was also visible in the roof.

"Where are we?" I asked Elsa.

"My father's quarters," she apprised, then bitterly corrected herself, "Well, what used to be father's quarters. Now it belongs to Hans." She eyed the hole in the roof. "We're on the top level."

"And the dungeons?"

"Below ground floor." She sighed. "Lovely, because now we have to make our way down."

The soldier who conjured the pillar that carried us up here whisked into the chamber from the floor aperture like a rocket, followed by four more of his companions.

With telekinesis, I hurled the bedside cabinet at the last one who soared up. It ploughed into the guy's stomach. He yelped and went tumbling back down. Elsa killed the second man by skewering him against the wall with ice.

The third soldier delivered a savage downward cut at me. I quickly dodged, and the sword smacked a table, causing part of the wooden surface to be chipped off. I swung my sword, but he brought his blade up vertically and staved off the strike. We exchanged blow after blow, me parrying and him attacking, and then vice versa. The furniture and limited space made it difficult for us to move widely and freely, and since we were so close, it was impossible for us to combat without receiving minor wounds and bruises.

I lashed at my opponent's mid-torso. At the same time he jumped back out of reach, but that was a blunder because he bumped into a coat hanger, which caused him to trip. Now was my chance. I seized his chainmail and shoved him into a big, rectangular mirror. I grasped his collar before he could recover and rammed him face-first into the object. The glass cracked on impact. I pulled him away and slammed his head into the mirror again, over and over. Finally, the soldier slumped dead to the floor, leaving smears of blood on the shattered mirror.

Elsa screamed. I spun in time to see a sword slice her on the hip. Blood started gushing out. I yelled furiously and ran my blade through the back of the soldier who did that, then dived down at an attack from the remaining fifth comrade. Elsa managed to take him out with an arrow. Then she winced, cried out in pain, and fell.

I caught her in my lap. A red stain was expanding on the area of golden leather covering her hip. Blood pooled onto the floor beside her.

"Hang in there, Elsa," I convinced.

As soon as I pressed my palm to her hip, it was drenched in gore. I summoned my healing energy and concentrated on bringing it up to the max. The M came fast. I watched as my power restricted the blood flow and then stopped it completely, as the skin cells and epithelium regenerated and replaced the damaged ones, sealing the wound. A couple of heartbeats later it was gone. Aside from the stain on her leather armour, no mark or sign of the injury was left. It was as if it was never there.

"You are getting really good at this," Elsa remarked feebly.

"It usually takes a while, especially for a cut as deep as yours," I said, rubbing my hand on my armour to clear away the blood. "This is the first time I've ever been able to heal so fast." Almost as if it was a miracle.

Two men floated in from the long drop below and Elsa was back on her feet. She fired a bone-chilling wave of rime at them. They let out startled cries, slipped, windmilled their arms, and plummeted back down. Elsa conjured a thick blanket of ice over the aperture and smiled contentedly as soldiers on the other side collided against it and then drifted out of sight.

On our way down we came across a spiral staircase carpeted in a wonderful shade of plum purple.

"There they are!" Someone bawled. "Get them!"

Troops burst onto the top balcony connecting the staircase, the same guys whom we eluded outside the portrait room. A curse struck the burgundy wall inches above our heads. Several more followed, but Elsa and I swerved around them all, racing down the steps the whole time.

I jerked an unlit set of trio lamps from the wall using an unseen force and flung it at my foes. The lamps rammed the balusters so hard that they fractured, crashing into one of the troops and killing him. Leaping up to avoid a spell aimed at my legs, I emitted a beam of scorching green laser in my enemies' direction. I hadn't been able to produce the light years before, but with plenty of experimentation and practice in the last nine months, my magic had developed. This was a new trick I invented.

And an awesome one, too.

My laser hit a bloke square in the chest and burned a hole through him. The wound did not bleed—it had been cauterized. The bloke crumpled lifelessly to the floor.

Without warning, a curse struck my left heel. I bellowed in agony. The pain was blinding. I swore I heard a tarsal bone snap. I pitched forward, grabbed my heel, and was tumbling headlong down the spiral staircase before I knew it. Going round and round in a huge loop. All my mind was doing was shouting stop, stop, stop, stop, and then my mojo kicked in and ended the overwhelming roller coaster ride. I lay spreadeagled on the steps. I wondered how many more knocks it'd require before I went unconscious. I was pretty sure I got a dark contusion on my elbow and a big fat bruise on my calf, but no time to check on them now. The king's comrades were still chasing us. I groaned. Ignoring the throbbing in too many areas of my body, I pushed myself back up.

I had tumbled over halfway down the stairs. Elsa was several flights above, shooting at the foes—who were hurrying down after her—with her bow while descending. The speediness in which she nocked those arrows and reloaded was amazing. Every once in a few seconds she would dodge a spell from an attacker.

Must go and help her.

I raced up the steps two at a time. My left heel protested in agony but I kept on climbing.

Incredible pain shot up my leg, forcing me to trip. No way for me to carry on in this condition. Had to fix that heel. Biting down the pain that was now almost too intense to endure, I rested a palm over the injury and visualized the broken tarsal bone in my foot mending. Rejoining. Connecting back together. Gentle ripples of lucent white light formed and I waited for the healing energy to do its work. When it was done and the bone was intact again, I sighed blissfully and stood up. I tested my left leg, putting some weight on it. No problem. Terrific.

"Are you OK, Whit?" Elsa was in front of me, having destroyed all of the comrades with her arrows.

"Yeah," I gave her a thumbs-up and assured.

We continued our descent. Another guy dressed in black raced up the steps toward us. He unsheathed his sword. His blade struck mine. We duelled. I wounded him on the thigh. His footwork faltered. Elsa emitted a blast of crystals and frost. Instantly he froze into an ice statue.

We reached the bottom of the spiral staircase and entered the library.

Arendelle had a colossal library. Rows and rows of shelves towered over us and extended high up to the ceiling, every one of them stacked with loads and loads of books ranging from light, thin volumes to large, heavy tomes. We stuck to the centre aisle because Elsa told me it was the fastest way through.

The lights suddenly flicked on, indicating the presence of soldiers. Elsa and I sidestepped just as streaks of green electricity streaked between and past us. I hastily fired a counterattack.

We strayed from the main route.

"Spread out, you idiots!" I heard a shout.

I ain't got a clue how many of them there were, but according to the run-ins we had with our adversaries every minute, I reckoned there were a lot. Whenever we encountered a group of men, we fought, and when we couldn't beat them, we'd flee and branch off on to a different aisle. The library was a maze. We took so many deviations I was positive I'd be lost if I wasn't with Elsa.

A comrade was running down an aisle to the left alongside ours. He shot curses and coloured jets of lethal light at us between the shelves. I returned fire. I jumped as blue lightning zoomed under my legs. I directed a ball of orange light from my hand. The guy dodged it. Elsa discharged a couple of arrows, but she couldn't aim very well when she was running, the shelves were blocking her, and the comrade kept popping in and out of sight, so she missed each time.

Why waste time on this wretch? He maintained the exact same pace as us. Just as he vanished behind a shelf as we did, I dragged Elsa back the way we came and we scurried down a different row.

Yes! We lost him!

Veer right, turn a corner, head left, go straight on, right, right again, turn a corner, left…

If the crashes and thumps I experienced earlier failed to drive me dizzy, this certainly would.

Six opponents spotted us when we were dashing in between two rows. They sprinted in our direction.

"Faster!" I yelled at Elsa.

We picked up speed…and so did they. They were gaining on us!

Gotta do something.

I reached up and performed a yanking motion. All books in our row flew out of their neatly tucked positions on the shelves and came smashing down on the pursuing soldiers. The soldiers collapsed, almost entirely concealed beneath the hefty, mountainous pile.

As if that wasn't enough, Elsa produced a gigantic mound of snow high above and brought it down upon the heap of books.

Now they were completely buried.

Unfortunately, the snow and the din we created drew the attention of the rest of our opponents and revealed our location, because when we tore in between the next two rows, we encountered two men, one lean and of a moderate stature, the other a short, chubby brute.

I gave my sword a flourish and glanced sideways at my partner. "Take your pick."

We charged. I dodged an upper cut from the chubby guy and welted him with the flat surface of my shield. Clang! Clang, clang. Clang! Our blades scraped and met, scraped and met. The comrade tried to deliver a strike to my shoulder, but my shield intercepted it. I lashed upwards diagonally and sliced off his ear, then kicked him in the torso. He yelped, reeled, and landed on his back. I spun my sword so that the point was aimed at his chest, but before I could finish him he tripped me with his foot and now it was me on the floor and him leering me down. Like I'm gonna give him that satisfaction. He directed a downward cut and I brought my blade up just in time to block it before it chopped my neck. With fierceness and mightiness, I swung my arm to brush his sword aside. Then I thrust vertically and drove the blade through his heart. Eyes wide open, he flumped atop me. I shoved his plump corpse away.

The other man, the lean one, lay still beside me, his face white and pale, drained of all colour, and his lips purplish-blue.

"I froze his heart," Elsa explained, seeing me staring.

I fought to catch my breath. "That's, um…that's cool."

A series of crashes was heard from somewhere far away. Bang, bang, bang, BANG! It sounded like one enormous object knocking into another, initiating the domino effect. Petrified, Elsa and I listened. It abruptly grew louder and louder…

"The shelves are collapsing!" Elsa shrieked.

"Shit!" I screamed. "RUN!"

We were midway down the row. We bolted towards the end like never before, as fast as our legs could carry us. Book after book buffeted my shoulder and the back of my head and thump, thump, thumped the floorboards. I ran as if my life depended on it and paid no mind to the pounding. Elsa was slightly behind me but kept up. Why did the shelves have to be so long? Clenching my jaw and teeth, I ran even faster.

MUST…GET…THERE!

Only eleven metres left.

Eight metres. Six. Five. Four…

I leaped the last three metres into open space, no longer trapped between the rows. The left shelf slammed into the right and then that shelf slammed into the one after that and kept going. Elsa lay prone on the floor, the lower half of her body buried underneath the massive weight of books and the right shelf. Stuck. Unable to get out. I grasped her by the forearms, pulled, and with the help of her wriggling, she was free.

"How're your legs?" I asked.

"Fine," she replied.

"You sure?"

"Yes."

A group of soldiers emerged from fourteen shelves away. They spotted us and darted in our direction.

My eyes travelled everywhere. A hefty, geographical globe rested on a table in the lounge zone nearby. I levitated the object and casted it at one of the comrades. The globe smashed into his head and sent him spinning like a top. He went down. If that didn't kill him, surely the internal bleeding in his brain would.

Elsa pointed towards the end of the aisle we were at. "There are the doors!"

We streaked towards our destination. From my palms I launched many searing green beams of light, firing blindly, not having enough time to pause and check whether they had hit the foes or not.

We sprinted down the aisle, and I forgot about our mission, the battle, and my impulsive, bold little sister. I forgot about my girlfriend, Janine. I forgot about the cold-hearted and abusive king we had to defeat, because the only thing that mattered right now at this very moment was reaching those doors.

Twisting my hands so that my palms faced back, I shot pure white lightning at my foes. I heard torturous shrieks in response. I dared a glimpse over my shoulder.

Four men on our tails rather than ten, as I had seen previously. Six were down. Ha! Brilliant!

I ran flat out. Heart thumping. Breathing deep. Adrenaline pumping in my veins.

There was the threshold! So close.

Just gotta add a little more speed.

Aaaaannd…we were through!

We stormed out of the library and banged the doors shut. Elsa froze it with sheets of ice. Soldiers pounded on the barrier and barked offensive things from the other side, their voices muffled.

Elsa instructed, "Follow me! I know a shortcut!"

After scurrying down flights of stairs and scampering across several hallways, Elsa lead me into a chapel. Her father and later she herself were crowned here as rulers. We entered from a side entrance onto the balcony overlooking the chapel interior where the choir would stand and sing.

We had a minute, only one full minute, to catch our breaths before a handful of Hans's troops erupted through the doorway we just came in. Elsa emitted a blast of verglas and crystals their way. The men on the front leaped aside. Those further back weren't quick enough. They took the full hit and were frozen and immobilized.

While the ones who weren't targeted were recovering, I yelled to my partner, "Jump!"

We charged and sprung over the parapets of the balcony. Past the altar, chancel, and transept.

I cancelled gravity to cushion our fall, and we made an abrupt, but light and gentle, landing on the nave.

Two curses were directed simultaneously at me from the balcony above and I blocked them both with my shield. More followed, but because there was distance now between us and the opponents, it was easier for Elsa and I to avoid their attacks and for Elsa to shoot them with her arrows. High voltage purple electricity zoomed towards me. I deflected it with a force field I magically erected. The electricity flew upwards diagonally and struck the triforium.

Elsa discharged an arrow into the sternum of the electricity guy.

One of the comrades brought a foot onto the parapet. As did three others. They were trying to climb over and jump down.

Uh-uh. Can't have that now, can I? I generated a swirling, shimmering magenta wall along the edge of the balcony and manipulated it so that it elongated to the roof. The wall was transparent and had a motion. It gave you the sense of an air undulating effect when you stared at it.

"Nicely done, Whit," Elsa praised.

Incensed, the warriors endeavoured to bring down the obstacle using magic, and when that failed, they simply hammered on it with their shields or thrust, jabbed, and stabbed at it with their swords, which was even stupider. Their efforts were to no avail—the wall did not yield. I couldn't hear the pounding very well either for some reason. Probably because I was too far away or the barrier was muting their sounds.

One of the warriors glared hatred at me and performed the cutthroat gesture, indicating that he intended to kill me. I gave him the finger in return.

Elsa and I sped away from the chancel down the nave towards the exit. Then we were outta there.

All that stood in the way of our goal now was the ballroom.

Which was deadly quiet.

Our breathing and the sound of our hurried footsteps on the shiny, polished wooden floor were only too audible.

Suddenly soldiers garbed in black military uniforms flooded into the ballroom from all sides. There were only four entrances.

But the soldiers did not come through the entrances.

They came through the walls.

As if they were partially solid. Like they were ghosts. Silently and patiently waiting for us in their concealed positions, hiding, and then barging in to strike.

We were being ambushed!

"Stay back!" Elsa warned. She threw out her arms and flicked her wrists. Ice barriers topped with elongating razor sharp spikes materialized in between the colonnades on either side of us, forcing the troops to retreat. Two more uninviting barriers popped into existence at the front and back of the ballroom, summoned at Elsa's command.

This did nothing to hinder our enemies. They walked through the four feet tall obstacles with ease or simply glided over it using their supernatural ability.

Well, if they could pass through walls, what was an ice barrier to stop them?

A blazing beam of bright green light erupted from my palm. I swept it in an arc. Men at the front of the incoming mass screeched as they came in contact with the heat. This was as formidable as Wisty's mojo, or perhaps even cooler. Their surcoats and capes caught flame. Their skin crisped and blistered. They burned like wildfire. I did a one eighty and swept the killing light in another arc. More men dropped to the floor screaming, and I couldn't help but reveal a little triumph in my expression.

But this was far from a moment of triumph.

Although most of the first round of soldiers I took out were either writhing in agony or dead, a few had rolled and put out the fire and were regaining their feet. Patches of skin the colour of glazed ham were exposed on their backs and limbs, and here and there on their bodies were blackened areas where their armour had been singed.

The survivors pulled out their swords and, with fierce, determined looks that implied I'd fight you until my last dying breath, they rushed forward aggressively.

Bring it on! I thought.

Twin beams of blistering green lasers shot straight at two of the warriors from my opened palms, cutting them in half at the hips. Meanwhile, Elsa sent an arrow flying into another enemy's chest. The severed sections of the corpses gushed out blood.

A stir in the air current behind me caused me to turn around, and my blade was smashing against that of an opponent's before I knew it. I directed a severe cut to his groin, then a blow to his temple with my gauntlet covered fist, and down he went. Elsa was discharging arrows in every direction at top speed, but due to the huge number of soldiers present, not even that was enough. I rotated three hundred and sixty degrees on the spot and assaulted them again with my bright, searing beams. This slowed them down slightly. Just slightly.

The ballroom was the temperature of a furnace. Since when did it raise that high? My brows were dripping sweat from the heat of my own killing light. The ice walls Elsa created earlier had mostly melted.

A dagger was being launched at my partner. I threw myself over Elsa protectively. We thudded the floor together, the dagger missing us by inches. Locating its source, I pushed myself up into a kneeling position and aimed the deadly beam. The soldier raised his shield, but in a matter of seconds my light had burned a hole right through it and cooked his arm. He cried out, dropped the shield, and shook his arm like mad. Then he seemed to come to his senses and distinguished the bright green flames with magic. Before he was able to exhale one sigh of relief, however, I directed blistering twin beams at him, centred them into one, and played it up and down the length of his body. He was incinerated and reduced to ash and bones.

"Payback," I snarled.

I looked around. My face fell. Soldiers surrounded us on all sides. I had taken too much time on the previous man and not enough on destroying the rest.

Elsa generated a blue ice crystal mountain capped with snowflakes about the same height as her. I gave it a push with my telekinetic power. The mountain slid rapidly along the slippery floor, crashed into the soldiers directly behind it, and collided against the wall. Whoever was at the back was crushed.

The rest of the men moved in to fill the gap and reformed the black rectangle surrounding us. Elsa and I stood back to back, two lonely figures in the centre. Hemmed in by our enemies. Confined, with no means of escape.

"There's too many," Elsa croaked, already accepting defeat.

Not a good sign.

The rectangle gradually became smaller as the warriors edged closer and closer.

I visualized an ornate wizard staff in my mind's eye, then brought it to life. It was taller than I was and topped with a gleaming aquamarine gemstone.

One guy, who must be the leader, thrust his sword into the air and uttered a booming cry. The others followed suit. They galloped towards us as one.

I took on a loud voice enhanced by magic and bellowed, "YOU CAN'T TERMINATE US!"

I raised the staff up high and slammed it on the floor.

A thunderclap rang through the ballroom with a noise like the end of the world.

Ripples of energy pulsated from the point where the staff had struck.

All the warriors were tossed backwards as if they weighed no more than rag dolls.

They thumped the floor and lay motionless.

"Are they dead?" Elsa asked tentatively.

I shook my head and rasped, "Just unconscious." Why do I feel so…terribly…weak? "They—they'll wake up, but not—not until an hour later…"

I didn't have the energy to say more. My bones turned to jelly and my legs to water. I was falling. The floor rose to meet me.

"Whit!" Elsa shouted.

The cry was from the other end of a tunnel. Distant. I was overcome by exhaustion. Not just any kind of exhaustion, but exhaustion to the most extreme. Fatigue leaked from every pore of my body. The effort I put into that magic had depleted all my strength. Literally.

Somewhere far, far away, a person was shaking me and a female voice desperately called my name, but to me they were something else entirely—the shake felt like I was rocking gently back and forth in my mother's arms as a baby, and the desperate calling sounded like the hum of her sweet, sweet lullaby. My eyelids grew as heavy as lead. I let them fall over my eyes. I could sleep for a thousand years and never wake up.

I was at a place where no evil could touch me. It was so peaceful here. Was I in heaven? Such a safe, comfortable place to drift. I'd drift and keep on drifting. I'd dream and carry on dreaming.

Forever.

"Whit!"

An immense, bitterly cold slab of stone made a hard, abrupt contact with my right knee. I howled and awoke to excruciating waves of pain.

"Oh I'm sorry! Did that hurt? No, I mean, of course it hurt, or else you wouldn't have come to," Elsa was babbling. She inhaled a deep breath. "Was that too hard?"

It took me a while to see past the pain and for Elsa's face to come into focus. I opened my mouth to respond, but all that came out was a wail. Something pale blue glinted and I glanced downwards at the ice hammer in Elsa's hand, the weapon she used to knock me back to my senses.

"Way too hard," I uttered, gritting my teeth to bite down the pain, which had only just begun to recede. "Hit me harder with that thing and my nerves will be unresponsive."

"I'm so sorry," Elsa apologized again. "You wouldn't revive, no matter how fiercely I shook you. Slapped you, even. Exquisite pain was the only way to regain your consciousness." She mopped a tear that trickled down her cheek and threw herself at me. "I'm so glad you're alive! For a moment I thought you were dead!"

"I'm right here." I hugged her back, my movements slower than usual, and then repeated, "I'm right here."

She broke from the embrace. "Don't pass out on me again." There was steel in her tone.

"Can't promise you that, but I'll try," I said, rubbing my knee to dull the ache.

"Can you stand?" she asked hesitantly.

I swiped my healer's hand over the knee and instantly the throbbing was gone. "Now I can."

Dropping the hammer and the staff, we stood up, speed-walked out of the ballroom, and descended another flight of stairs. As soon as we were underground, we broke into a run. Two sentries flanked the doors ahead. They drew their swords when they saw us and got into combat stance. I had conquered too many difficulties to be thwarted by these two menacing blokes.

Elsa pierced the first with an arrow, and I delivered my bright green blistering laser and killed the second. Then we pushed open those doors with a bang and burst into the dungeons.

Where we were met by the stupefied stares of eight hundred people.

Plus the dankness, gloominess, and the stink of filthy clothes and unwashed bodies.

And complete, utter silence on top of that.

Elsa took one tiny step, and another, and then began inching down the aisle. So did I. Never had I felt so self-conscious in my life. If only these victims would quit gaping… Well, I was not the person they yearned to see. Elsa was. It must be a thousand times worse for her. I didn't get why she was so nervous and alarmed. These were her people and friends, but she was acting like they were strangers, like she had committed a wrongdoing towards them or something.

The dungeons of Arendelle were a lot more crowded than I expected it to be. All the stone corridors adjoined one another, and in each corridor blocks of cells lined the wall to either side. Every one of those cells was full of prisoners young and old. Three quarters of them were already dead and hopeless inside. They were impoverished. They were destitute. They were deprived. King Hans the tyrant had snatched away all they had. These people had been through an ordeal under his reign. Many seemed to be on the brink of breaking. Teetering on the lip of the cavernous mouth of loss and grief. Hanging by their fingernails from the edge of the precipice, only just holding on.

The corridors outside the cells were even more packed. These must be the residents who swore fealty to Hans. I could judge that simply by their appearances as they were in much better shape and improved conditions than those locked up. The king must have evacuated them to the dungeons and instructed them to stay put until the battle was over. Until he had won.

Elsa told me there was usually a guard with a spear posted at every turn of the dungeon hallways, but right now none were present. Typical. Hans probably thought the two sentries outside Elsa and I just got rid of were sufficient to keep the 'convicts' in, and that he needed all the rest in battle. No adversaries here to impede us. Fabulous.

Heads of the imprisoned in their cell blocks swivelled and people crammed in the corridors parted for us as Elsa and I inched past. I began to hear hushed voices and murmurs from amongst the throng.

"Elsa!"

"It's her. It's really her!"

"The queen's back!"

Exclamations of Elsa's name overlapped and gradually ascended in volume.

"Elsa's here. She's actually here!"

"It's Elsa!"

"It's Elsa!"

"Elsa?" A middle-aged gentleman in a cell leaned forward and clasped his hands around the bars. "What are you doing here?" His tone was filled with curiosity.

Elsa's voice sounded husky and strained. "To liberate you from tyranny."

She went over to the door of his cell and tried to slide the bolt away from the socket. It did not budge.

A man standing outside nodded to his mates and said, "We've already tried that."

She tugged on the bars next, but they merely rattled.

"And that," said the man. "It's locked."

Elsa sighed. "Thought so."

I approached the front of a random cell, recited a short spell and flicked my wrist at the same time. Nothing happened. I scratched my head in frustration.

"Hans secured all access to the cells with some kind of sorcery involving runes," a lady Gerda's age informed, watching me. "We can't get out."

Runic magic? Now that was interesting. The gears in my head spun. "If he enchanted the doors with a rune that causes them to seal," I pondered, "then all we have to do is cast one that opens them. Counteract his sorcery."

A grumpy man scowled. "How do we do that?"

I traced a square indentation in the cold stone floor with my foot, then explained, "The aerial space surrounding the fastened bolts is buzzing with magic. I can sense it. I gather all that energy onto my hands…"

I stretched out my hands, shut my eyes, and focused. Effusions of silver mist travelled from all the locks to my awaiting palms, which glowed in a wonderful white.

"Transfer it to this square on the floor…"

I directed the mist right at the square notch before my feet. Pure silver light radiated at the borders, showing that the transfer was complete.

"Draw the runic symbol for 'open…'"

I bent down. Recalling the wizardry I had practiced, I used my index finger to draw an elaborate rune on the stone floor within the square. It shone in bright red and gold.

"Activate it…"

I pressed my palm over the symbol. The colours glimmered and sparkled. Immediately after I removed my hand, I heard the sounds of bolts sliding out of their sockets.

"And the doors open," I finished.

Everybody behind bars whooped with delight.

"How clever and inventive!" Elsa congratulated me.

People poured out of the cells they had been trapped in for so long and joined those assembled in the passageways, renewed in strength as well as spirit. Seeing the cheerfulness and joy on their faces made my heart flutter like an angel and brought a grin to my face. It felt so pleasant to smile again.

Elsa surveyed the crowd around us. The bishop, the atilliator, and the butler. The lords and ladies. The cooks and servants. The knights, squires and guards. I spotted a burly, moustached figure who no doubt must be Oaken, the owner of Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna. Whatever he did to earn himself a place in the dungeons, I had no idea. He towered over the others and appeared healthy enough despite the suffering he'd endured here.

The cheers died down.

Everybody was gazing at Elsa—hang on, Elsa and me?—with reverence and hope in their eyes.

"Guys, I know this is a lot to ask, but..." Elsa hesitated, "will you join me? Will you fight for me?"

For a moment no one moved a muscle or dared to exhale a breath.

Then a chap in his late thirties stepped forward and spoke with sincerity, "To the bitter end."

From somewhere a man hailed, "Long live the queen!"

The rest of the people, including me, united their fervent voices to his. I bet our hails were loud enough for Hans's comrades to hear from a mile away, and knew that as soon as they heard, they'd charge us for high treason. But who the hell cared? Let them come. Together we shouted the line thrice, and then for one final time.

"LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!"

We flowed out of the dungeons and up into the castle armoury where Elsa and I waited for everybody to don their suit of armour and fetch swords and shields.

In the council chamber we encountered four soldiers, who stood stock still when they saw us, astonished by the sight of such a great number of people.

Oaken commanded, "Don't make a move. Ya?" His eyes narrowed to slits. "Leave this to me."

Oaken stomped around the massive round table separating Elsa's fighters and their opponents, warded off the oncoming attacks from them, snatched up one of the men by the neck in his giant fist, and tossed him with cruel physical strength to the wall. Next, he tripped the second soldier and wounded the third in the calf so that they both fell. Then he picked them up by the ankles, growled, and slammed their bodies with vicious force into each other, eliminating them instantly.

Oaken moved on to the last soldier, who swung his sword and sliced him on the forearm. Oblivious to the injury, Oaken grabbed his legs and bashed his upper body on the surface of the round table. Again and again. Buffeting him with the craziness of someone possessed by a demon. Until his thorax was too revolting and messed up to call it a thorax.

Whoa. Oaken really needed to get his hatred of Hans out there, didn't he?

We exited the council chamber and sped through the fortress to the front gates, which were left wide open by Pearce's side army of a thousand wizards and witches. Outside, it was very early morning before dawn.

Serious, hardcore battle was waging in the courtyard. A few glimpses were all it took for me to know our side was losing. I had a sudden burning desire to find Janine, but it'd be nearly impossible to locate her, let alone check how she was holding up. I hoped we weren't too late.

Elsa shrieked, "For the love of Arendelle!"

With Oaken by our side, Elsa and I broke into a gallop and we lead the procession of armed residents of the kingdom out into the courtyard. Eight hundred people rushing to the City magicians' aid.

I braced myself for the inevitable combat I was about to meet. Here we go. I brandished my sword.