The Guardian

by Concolor44

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Author's Note: Just wanted to give a shout-out and huge Thank You to all the wonderful readers who have Followed, Favorited or Reviewed (or sometimes all three). You are THE BEST! If I haven't PM'd you personally yet, I will ... because I appreciate your input and comments more than you can know.

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Chapter 7: Shock and Awe

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Nissefoss, 28 May 1841, 2:00pm

Kristoff had never heard gunfire before.

Elsa had only heard it faintly, through the walls, when the Queen's Rifles would practice out past the northern edge of the village. It usually made her nervous.

Anna had made it a point to sneak out once and watch them from a good bit closer. But the noise gave her a headache, and she'd returned before getting in sight of the practice range.

Doran had fired a dueling pistol a few times. It belonged to a friend. His father hadn't approved of firearms. But it was nothing like as loud as these rifles.

More to the point, none of them had ever been shot before.

The volley of reports was nearly deafening. The very fact of the attack was terrifying.

At the first hint of alarm, the Guard had jumped between Elsa and the attacking force, bringing their own carbines up to return fire. But the invaders had the initiative.

Something stung Kristoff across the top of his shoulder, burning like a lash. He gaped in horror as he watched Anna jerk, cry out, and fall. Just beyond her he saw Elsa crouching, her hands glowing blue as the magic swirled. Ice shot out from that side of the gazebo in a protective ring of spikes, and covered the ground out to the invaders, which should have knocked most of the previously-running men off their feet. When they didn't slip and fall, Elsa realized they must be wearing hobnail boots or something similar (and bit back a curse at their forethought). She tried a different tactic. Huge walls of ice began growing on either side of them, leaping in an arc to meet in the middle. Then the Guardsman directly in front of her fired, but in the same instant took a round through the side. Gouts of blood and tissue shot out his back, straight into Elsa's eyes. She made a choking noise and pawed at her face. Her ice walls stopped growing.

Meanwhile, Doran had jumped out of the gazebo and was walking toward the enemy as quickly as the ice would allow, waving his arms and yelling, "Stop! Listen! You don't have to do this! Just listen a minute!" Then there was another volley, and he folded over onto the ground.

Elsa, though blinded, tried to erect a sort of half-wall of ice between her Guard and the advancing force … but since she couldn't see what she was doing, it was shaky, and lumpy, and varied in height a lot. It was also just in time to stop the next volley. Then she created some snow and rubbed her eyes with it to try to clear her vision.

Kristoff didn't register any of that. He didn't really see anything else after Anna fell. A red haze suffused his vision. His fear for his love, and his righteous anger and his protective instincts coalesced into a deep desire to HARM the attackers. He had no weapon apart from a sheath knife in his belt, but that didn't mean he was entirely defenseless.

Growing up with trolls meant a great deal of time getting really, really familiar with rocks. They taught Kristoff to throw, and he had developed great accuracy with smooth stones. It was more reflex than anything else that caused him to snatch up a rock from beside the path leading to the gazebo and fling it at the enemy. The nearest ones were maybe eighty paces distant, near the limit of his range …

Or they would have been, except that as soon as the rock left his hand, it quickly accelerated to well over the speed of sound, blowing completely through one man's chest, taking the right arm off the man behind him, and traveling another hundred and eighty paces through the wood before burying itself in the side of the mountain.

The weird, crackling pop and sudden shockwave the stone made when it broke the sound barrier momentarily confused the near attackers. They'd seen two of their own fall, but …

Kristoff hadn't noticed the effects of his throw; nor had he realized that his rock had made that sound, assuming it was another gunshot. As soon as it loosed, he was scooping up another, then another, then another, not really taking in the fact that they were flicking the last few finger-widths into his hand, iron beads to a lodestone.

Some of the brigands turned their rifles his way, but he was in constant motion, jumping, and bending, and throwing. They couldn't get a good bead on him.

Kristoff didn't have that problem. His throws were uncannily accurate (read: he didn't miss), and the more he threw, the bigger the rocks and the faster they went. Fourteen invaders dropped in less than eight seconds.

The rest of them, having known in advance that ice magic would be present but not expecting anything like this, turned and moved back toward the wood.

But Kristoff's anger had reached a point of no return. He didn't want them to get away … desired ardently that they NOT get away … and felt a flare of heat from his fire crystals.

The Earth trembled … jogged … shook … pitched violently … and the ground opened up under the fleeing men. Screaming, they fell … and fell … and fell …

The big blond stood there, chest heaving, staring across the battlefield, trying to understand what had just happened. The rest of them – those who had seen it – stared at him.

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Arendelle Castle, 29 May 1841, 12:20pm

"Kristoff."

"Yes?! What, what?!"

Anna held up a hand and pushed him back out of her face. "You're hovering again."

Chagrined, he eased back into his chair. "Sorry."

"Hey." She patted his hand and then laced her fingers with it. "As long as I'm stuck here until His Semi-Royal Pettiness, Doctor Tyrant, is satisfied I can walk on this leg, why don't you do something for me?"

"Sure, anything!" A tiny voice in his head told him it was a vain hope to think she'd ask about something else.

"Tell me about the rocks again."

Aaannnnnd the voice was right. "… Anna. You already know as much about it as I do. All I did was pick up rocks and throw them, just the way I've been doing for better than a dozen years, just the way all the trolls I grew up with would do. I was good at it, and as often as not I'd win whatever competition they were having. But I could never throw one farther than about ninety-five paces, a hundred on a good day. I started throwing them this time because they were closer than that, and I guess I thought if I distracted some of them, the rest of the Guard could … fire back and protec-tect … and you were … you were …" His throat closed up. He squeezed her hand and bowed his head over it.

The aftermath of the attack, to say the very least, had been chaotic. Of the original group of brigands (they weren't sure how many had disappeared into the earth, but thought it was probably ten or a dozen) fourteen had received damage from one of Kristoff's rocks. Five of them had lived; of those, three had lost an arm, and one a leg below the knee. The fifth had taken a glancing blow on the head which left him in a coma. The palace physician wasn't sure if he'd survive. The other nine were found in various levels of dismemberment or perforation. Or both. It looked as if a cannonade of grapeshot had torn through them.

She pulled at his hand, pulled him over and grabbed him in a fierce hug. "I'm fine. I'll be right as rain in another couple of days. It wasn't that big a deal."

"You could have … died."

"So could you." She brushed fingertips over the bandage on his left shoulder. "That's nearly as deep a strike as I got. Four inches to the right and it would've gone through your neck."

"If anything ever happened to you …"

"It didn't. And we'll be more careful. I promise."

"I still can't figure out how they got that deep into …"

The door opened with a creeeeeak. The lovers looked over to see Elsa silhouetted there. She glided toward them and said, "Kristoff … would you mind?"

Knowing immediately what she meant, he nodded, disentangled himself, and stood. "Your turn. I understand." He reached down and caressed Anna's cheek, then strode out and closed the door.

Elsa sat, and looked at Anna with her non-bandaged eye. Her left eye had received a couple of tiny pieces of what the physician thought was probably her Guard's rib bone, and it was still highly irritated. She'd have to wear the patch another few days. "Dr. Odum says he thinks Samuel might pull through. Seems like the bullet missed his lung."

"Thanks be to God." She waited a few seconds to see if Elsa would add anything, then asked, "What about Doran?"

The Queen hung her head, then gave it a small shake. Anna reached for her hand.

"The doctor … said they got the third … third bullet out last night." Pausing for a couple of deep breaths, she continued, "That he made it back to the palace still breathing is something of a miracle. But two of them … went through his gut. The fever's already started." She sniffed. Sniffed again. "Why did he have to be so stupid? I thought … I gave him more credit than …"

Anna was in an even starker emotional wasteland where the subject of the Councilor was concerned. He wouldn't even have been there if she hadn't insisted, and she blamed herself for his condition. Neither she nor Elsa had mentioned that. Yet.

"The other six of the Guard will all live, too. They may all make full recoveries." She didn't mention the seventh, the one member of the forest contingent who had apparently been more alert than the others and had fought back and gotten a sword through his chest. The rest, Admiral Naismith had deduced, had been taken by surprise and bludgeoned unconscious in an effort to minimize noise. It almost worked. The old soldier was shaken by how close Arendelle had come to losing its Royal family.

"I'm glad for that. But I'm sorry any of them died. I know they'll just say it's what they signed up for, but …"

"I know what you mean." Elsa sighed and leaned back in her chair, absently rubbed her bandaged eye, and then grimaced at the sudden pain. "Time to change the subject. Did Kristoff reveal any more about … his …"

"No. Honestly, Elsa, he seems just as puzzled about it as anybody. He said he's tried to do it again since then. He's used all different kinds of rocks and tried throwing them all different kinds of ways, but they just act like normal rocks. He can't explain it."

"And neither can we."

"He did mention he wanted to talk to the trolls about it."

"I think that's a grand idea. Did he say when?"

Anna forced a wry chuckle. "Likely not till I can walk again."

"Do you blame him?"

"Not at all." She gave her sister's hand a squeeze. "Elsa … do we have any notion yet how those mercenaries could get that far into Arendelle without us knowing anything about it? I mean, there wasn't even a whisper of such a force!"

"No. And it's driving Mikael over the edge. He is more than half convinced there is a turncoat among the Guard somewhere, simply because there is no other reasonable explanation. But he vetted every member himself. "

"Kristoff says they've doubled the Watch and called in all the Guard Reserve. Every citizen they could reach has been put on notice, and everyone with a weapon encouraged to carry it everywhere."

"Yes. I, ah, suggested that."

"Oh. Okay." Anna thought that a little out of character, but perilous circumstances called for unusual reactions. "I guess you and I aren't going anywhere for a while."

"No."

The Princess grew silent, pensive. The next time she blinked, a tear traced out each cheek. "Elsa … I am so sorry! Doran's gonna die and it's all my fault and …"

"Hush. No one could have predicted what happened. I'm still finding it hard to believe, and I was there."

"You weren't the one who insisted he come along." She had yet to confess to Elsa the exact reason for choosing Doran. That was a conversation she dreaded. "He'd still be alive if …"

"I said, hush. Did you plan for him to get shot?"

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Then it's not your fault. You're too hard on yourself." She paused and gave a small, sad smile. "Which is what you say to me all too often. Isn't it?"

"… Touché."

"Have you had lunch yet?"

"They brought me some thin soup about an hour ago, but I'd just about kill for a sandwich right now. Doctor I-Know-Best-So-You-Should-Starve says I need to be on liquids for another day."

"… He's worried about you getting back and forth to the necessary room, isn't he?"

Anna nibbled her lip and nodded.

"That's not unreasonable."

"Starving anyway."

"Well … maybe I can get him to loosen that up just a little. I'll talk to …"

A brisk knock came from the door and one of Dr. Odum's assistants stepped in. "Your Majesty?"

Elsa stood. If they were willing to intrude on her time with Anna … "Yes, what is it?"

"Councilor Larsen has requested that you speak with him. And confidentially, I don't think it can be put off much longer."

Casting a sad, resigned look at her sister, the Queen of Arendelle swept gracefully but quickly out of the room.

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