Chapter Thirty-Two

For a sixty year old woman, Carol Westergard looked young enough to throw everyone back into their graves without breaking a sweat. She was tightly holding onto her seventh son's arm, though he struggled to take it back. Her mostly gray hair was perfectly placed in a bun, but the lines that tugged at her eyes and curled lips gave her a mad look.

Behind her were the twins, Jacob and Wilhelm, unaffectionately nicknamed the Stabbington brothers. The burly men looked almost every bit a criminal. One had an eyepatch and the other had a scraggly beard with sideburns that mirrored Hans'. They both had dark circles under their eyes, but looked elated to be out of the confines of prison. The knives inside halters on their belts made it no wonder why they'd been named the Stabbingtons.

And hand tight in his mother's clutch was Jørgen. There was a desperate look in his eyes that pleaded for help, but when he saw his father, his face brightened. He surveyed the audience before him, and he seemed to draw joy from each brother he counted alive. It was obvious he wanted to run to each one and hold them tight, but the death grip on his wrist was a bit of a barrier.

As for Carol, she looked out into the sea of her sons and those who brought them back to life with an unreadable expression. She pursed her lips, thinking of her next move, no doubt. Elsa felt like she was watching a predator.

"My," Carol finally said. "So silent, aren't you, boys?"

No one said a word. The brothers who had just been woken up were obviously under torn allegiances. Their whole life, Carol had taken care of them and helped plot their success in the world. But being woken up from a few months long nap and being told that Carol had been part of their death put a major crutch in their relationship. Granted, it was hard to not see Carol as more powerful than her husband, who stood with wide eyes and a slightly bent back.

"How did you get here?" called one of the brothers; Elsa recognized it as Peter.

"Why, the only way, of course," Carol said. "We sailed here from Corona. We've only just come in, dear. We came to take you all back away from these criminals."

Peter wasn't buying it, but some of the other brothers were. Elsa saw some of the older ones warily gazing at their youngest brother with disdain, and at Bhumi with anger and fear.

"She-" Jørgen tried to say, but Carol squeezed his hand in hers, and he yelped a little before falling silent, a silent cry in his eyes. His expression alone seemed to send a message out to the brothers.

Anderson, who had his brows settled low, called out, "You used magic to get here, didn't you?"

Carol shrugged, knowing it was near impossible to keep the charade up. "Not the whole way, of course. We did sail in. After all, it would be hard to gain favor of Queen Ingvalda if we simply appeared in her throne room."

'Queen Ingvalda' stung at Elsa a little, but Anna looked absolutely furious. Hans himself had his jaw set a little tighter.

"Boys, you all know about our plan," Carol said, turning to look at each of her sons, effectively skipping over Hans and his father. "We're here to make our names immortal. We're going to be the richest people that ever lived, aren't we?"

No one said anything, and she lowered her eyebrows. "I've come to rescue you boys. Come back to mommy. We can count this setback as a victory; the Westergards can't even be beaten by death! Won't you say anything?"

But no one moved. The brothers were all looking at each other, muttering and mumbling among themselves. A feeble voice rose above them all as King Lewis stepped forward.

"C-Carol, your reign of terror is over," the king said. "You can't bury your sons and still expect their love."

Carol narrowed her eyes, wrinkles making her face an angry cacophony of lines. "You can't be a softspoken man and expect the world to listen. My sons wouldn't follow a throw rug."

Hans had stiffened next to Elsa. "Don't you dare speak to father like that!"

"I had expected better from the foreign woman," Carol snapped at her youngest. "I had hoped she finally took care of you."

Bhumi, who was standing just feet away, was fuming. She looked like she wanted to jump the old woman immediately. But the burly men behind Carol would surely put a wrench in that plan.

"We won't go back to you," said one of the brothers, and Elsa saw it was Charles. Charles, who had been the last to wake from death, was now firmly standing on his feet. "We were never sons to you, we were just game pieces. You only treated us well when you needed us as pawns. You never asked us if we wanted to be a part of your game, you just cast us in."

This caused much talk among the brothers. Carol looked surprised and glared at her sixth son as Bhumi looked to him in slight wonder.

"You let us believe magic was evil," Anderson added in, voice raising above the others. "You told us about our grandfather, who killed the magicians at Blackblood Bay and you said he did the human race good for spilling their black blood. But you have magic, even when you let us hold back our youngest brother. Does Hans have black blood? Does my son have black blood just because he speaks to animals?"

And this set the brothers off. Their mother had let them treat Hans badly, she had lied to them and used them as pawns. Elsa began to see some slight hope amid the hopelessness.

"You let us die," Campbell, their oldest who had a full head of graying hairs already, grumbled. "You let that woman kill us, and you rewrote your campaign. We really are nothing more than pawns, aren't we?"

"We're not going back to you," said John, the third, who had a full, brown beard and thick eyebrows. "This time, we're staying with father."

And very soon, all the brothers who were free from Carol had failed to pledge their allegiance to her. The old queen looked furious.

"Fine! Look at all this trouble you've caused, Hans. If only you'd drowned on the ship like we all hoped you had."

Carol had fired a verbal arrow at Hans, but his face showed that he was wearing armor. The look on the brothers' faces showed the newfound outlook on their mother's 'love'.

"I just need my Jørgen and Wilhelm and Jacob," she sneered. "We'll share in the wealth without any of you. And if you didn't know, Miss Elsa and your brother Hans are both traitors to the crown of Arendelle! If you're in league with them, then you're also traitors to Arendelle. I'm sure there's quite enough cells in prison for anyone who's out to break their mother's heart."

She pointed out to them, her finger outstretched like she was casting a spell. "Jacob and Wilhelm, go get the traitors."

Neither moved, though. Their vicious look had turned softer, and they looked at each other, at a loss of where to go. Carol, with a fire in her eyes, turned around to command them, and Jørgen saw his opportunity to escape. He ripped his arm out of Carol's grasp and bolted away towards where Elsa and the others stood.

Carol, with wide eyes, looked out to Jørgen with an actual, heartbroken stare. "Jørgen!"

"Mother, you're insane," he said, shaking his head. "You can't pick favorites among your sons. I won't stand with you." He looked up, appealing to his two younger brothers. "Jacob, Wilhelm, you can't stay with her. She's willing to toss lives around to her advantage; how long will it be until you two aren't needed anymore?"

The twins looked at their mother, then at each other, and made their decision. They both stepped away from their raging mother, who looked like she was about to call down a thousand curses upon her entire family.

"So, I raise a family for nearly forty years, and I'm repaid with absolute betrayal by every one of my sons? Is this the thanks a mother deserves?"

"You were never a deserving mother," Hans said, voice strong now that the numbers favored him by so much.

Carol was gritting her teeth, but suddenly pulled her lips into a smile as she laughed. "Even when none of my sons love me anymore, I still have magic in my favor." She drew a small dagger from a pocket on her dress, running a finger gently along the blade and drawing blood. Elsa's eyes widened. Carol was truly mad.

"We have magic too," Hans called out. "If you kill us, we have the power to bring life back."

"Uh," Bhumi quietly interjected, biting her lip. "I... I can't bring back the dead that I haven't killed myself."

Hans' eyes widened. "You what?"

Carol laughed, loud and completely unhinged. "If you won't stay with me, then you'll go back into the dirt."

"What's the point of you magic if you can't bring back the dead?" Hans was saying in disbelief to Bhumi.

"It's not my fault!" Bhumi defended herself. "I told you, it's more like sleep than death!"

And then Carol disappeared from her spot, creating a slight panic among the crowd. With a sudden yell, Bhumi ducked as a knife nearly ran through her back. A crazed looking Carol had appeared just behind her. Bhumi leaped into action despite wearing a dress instead of her assassin's suit. The princess tried to knock Carol off her feet, but the queen disappeared before she could knock her down.

A sudden screamed pierced the freezing air, and all heads turned to Francis, their second in line. He had a horrified look on his face and a crimson stain spreading across his chest. Elsa had seen Bhumi draw the life out of someone, and the dull look that settled on Francis' face was far too familiar.

Everyone began to shout and yell when Francis fell hard to the ground. "Francis!" "My god, she killed Francis!" "She killed her son!" "She's going to kill us!"

Anna ran to Elsa and grabbed her arm, yelling, "I'm going for help!" before sprinting away as fast as she could.

Elsa's heart was pounding as Hans suddenly acted as a human shield to her. Carol calmly cleaned her weapon of her son's blood, completely unaffected.

"You're a monster, Carol," said Lewis, horror and misery written across his face as he looked to the body of his dead- actually dead- son.

Carol didn't say a word, but looked up with a smile on her face and disappeared. The brother began to run around in terror as the Stabbingtons drew their knives and tossed their three spares to some of the others.

The queen suddenly appeared behind Lewis, knife ready to strike the delicate flesh on the back of his neck. Hans immediately let go of Elsa and jumped at her with a ball of fire in his hands. Carol disappeared right before the flames would have engulfed her. Lewis yelped and jumped, but no blood had been drawn from him.

Hans looked just as furious and defensive as when Bhumi had threatened Elsa's life. He was not going to let his father be taken away again. When Carol appeared behind Alecksander, his brothers all called out to him and he was able to avoid contact with the knife before Carol disappeared again.

Elsa was about to jump into action too when King Lewis scrambled up to her. "Miss Elsa, Miss Elsa, you... you have to get to her crown."

"Her... what?" she asked, watching as she tried to get Christian. He was grazed slightly on the arm by the knife, but was able to save himself.

"The crown! You must get the crown!" he pleaded. "Get it off her head and twist the largest jewel, the red one!"

"I-I twist the jewel?" Elsa asked, brain scrambled.

"Yes, it's a failsafe!" the king said, eyes darting all around in search of his wife. She appeared near Charles. Bhumi, who was standing closest to him, had wide eyes and immediately jumped at him, causing them to tumble to the ground before Carol's knife could drive into his back. Carol disappeared, and Bhumi found herself on top of the very man she'd once wished nothing but death upon.

"You saved me!" Charles choked.

Bhumi quickly got to her feet and moved away from him.

Remembering the king's words, Elsa asked,"Failsafe?"

"When the jewel is twisted, the crown will expand, it'll trap her. You must get the crown!" the king said. "I always thought, just in case she uses that magic for evil, I'll have to stop her! It's the only thing that will stop her."

It occurred to Elsa that little, meek Lewis Westergard had done exactly what her parents did; he installed a failsafe. Like the chains in the dungeon that held her hands captive, Lewis had crafted something 'just in case'. Elsa wondered momentarily if as a magician, she would be doing the right thing.

The thought quickly left her as Carol appeared in front of her fifth son, Louis, and thrust the knife into his stomach before he could escape. The pain in his eyes as he screamed and fell more than reminded Elsa that this was the reason for a failsafe. She wasn't hurting the humanity of magicians, she was stopping an insane woman from slaughtering the rest of her children.

Carol disappeared after redrawing her knife with a sickening swish. The brothers all called out for their fallen brother. Hans was enraged, and the fire was practically seeping from his body.

The queen appeared suddenly right beside Elsa. She gasped and dodged the blade, swinging her arm up to knock the crown off the woman's head. She hissed as her arm was hit by the blade, cutting deep enough to sting. But she heard the crown clatter to the snow-covered ground, and knew she had to finish what the king had set her to do.

She quickly iced her bleeding arm as a temporary bandage before grabbing the golden bauble and taking the largest, front jewel in her fingers. Hans yelled and shot fire right above Elsa, no doubt where Carol had been just moments ago. Elsa felt the hairs on her head singe slightly, but she stood up with the crown still clutched in her hands.

Elsa suddenly felt a cold, sharp point on the back of her neck. All her muscles froze in place.

"Give me my crown," hissed Carol.

"Elsa!" screamed Hans, hands prepared to fling flames, but stopped when his father held his hand out.

"If you shoot at me, you'll have to singe your lady as well," Carol shouted. The blade pressed sharper into Elsa's neck, and she let out a small cry. She felt a bit of drawn blood.

"Elsa!" Hans cried, helplessly desperate.

"I'll give you your crown," Elsa gasped, trying to pull away from the blade without the queen noticing. She quickly turned the jewel, which let out a tiny clicking sound that Elsa was sure only she could hear.

"Give it now," Carol spat, and Elsa slowly handed the headpiece back. Like a viper, Carol grabbed the crown back and withdrew the knife from Elsa's neck. Elsa stumbled away, finally breathing again, and watched as the queen set the activated crown back on her head.

At first, nothing happened, and worry notched in Elsa's stomach. Carol began to clean her knife on her dress and looked out among the crowd. But then the crown seemed to leap right from her head, expanding dramatically into some kind of hoop. Carol's eyes were wide, but before she could question it, the golden hoop fell to her middle and began to compress again, trapping the queen's hands against her sides as they still held the knife and skirt that cleaned it.

Carol let out a yelp, then a growl of rage as she struggled against her confines. "What is this? What have you done? I can't disappear!"

Elsa backed further away, and backed right into the body of the man who cared for her most in the world. Hans had taken Elsa into his arms, holding her as if protecting her from Carol still.

"Elsa, are you okay? Did she hurt you?" he asked, spinning her around to see her face.

She let him fret over her, noticing the patch of ice on her arm to stop the bleeding. He ran his finger on her arm. She felt the back of her neck, which only bled slightly. "I'm fine. I'm... I'm safe, Hans. We're safe, now."

She held her hands up to his concerned face, smiling as she held his head. "Hans, we're safe."

He looked up at Carol struggling with the hoop, and then it seemed to dawn on him that somehow, Carol had been stopped. He tried to think of something to say, but his brain seemed to fail him. Elsa laughed and just pulled him down into a kiss. They were alive.

Hans drew away after a moment, hands still on her arms as he looked up to his mother. She was yelling and fighting against the restraint like a madwoman.

"You did this, Lewis! You were always planning to defeat me! You never supported anything I did!" she was spitting.

King Lewis had a sad, but firm look on his face. "There was nothing else that would stop you, Carol."

"I bet you'd wish I were dead!"

"No, Carol," Lewis said gently. "I wasn't the one who let her husband and sons die."

Brief regret flashed across her face, but she went immediately back to struggling and screaming.

"It's not... hurting her, is it?" Elsa asked, taking her hands away from Hans' face and turning to the king.

"Oh, no, it shouldn't," Lewis said. "It holds her in place and effectively stops her ability to perform magic."

"That's for the years of gloves," Hans said to his mother with a thick, furrowed brow and a cold, pitiless look in his eyes. He held tight onto Elsa's hand.

"You think I'm finished? You think I'm defeated?" Carol spat. "I didn't work for forty years to end it like this! I'll find a way out of this, and I'm going to kill you and your father, and your woman, and-"

Elsa froze Carol's lips together, causing any other nasty word to be swallowed by the woman. She tried screaming, but nothing escaped.

"If only you'd been around sooner," Lewis said. "Forty years and that's the first time she's truly shut up."

Anna soon arrived with a fleet of guards, only to see that they'd already taken care of the threat. Anna made sure Elsa was okay, then moved to Kristoff, who assured her he was unharmed.

"Can someone explain what I'm seeing?" asked the leader of the guards.

King Lewis stepped forward as Elsa opened her mouth. "Sir, the woman trapped in the band is Carol Westergard, who has committed crimes against Arendelle as well as all eleven other kingdoms in our chain of trade. Arrest this woman, but be careful to keep the band around her; she's a magician and highly dangerous."

The guard squinted at the old man, seeming to not recognize any of the brothers nor the king. "Who are you to give such orders?"

Lewis straightened his back, standing just a little taller. Though he was a frail man, he was certainly every bit royalty. "King Lewis Westergard of the Southern Isles. And I've just been brought back from the dead, so I think quite enough of my time has already been wasted."

Some of the guards looked like they'd faint away, others gasping as they realized all the brothers standing in the snowy, makeshift graveyard. The leader guard quickly apologized for their folly, eyes wide as they surveyed the previously dead family.

Carol hummed her protests and squirmed around, but was taken away all the same by the guards. Their leader invited King Lewis into the castle to speak with Queen Ingvalda, and he warmly obliged. But the guard saw Elsa behind him and easily recognized her.

"Queen- er, Miss Elsa. You're banished from the kingdom," the guard said. "Ingvalda won't be pleased to see-"

"This fine woman is with me," the king interrupted the guard. "And I wish that her and my sons would accompany me into your palace without any trouble."

The guard stood struck. "I... I, of course, your highness." The guard began to lead the way, and Lewis turned to Elsa with a twinkle in his eye.

As they walked back into what used to be Elsa's home, she barely felt nervous. It felt like a victory march, having defeated the foe. The loss of Francis and Louis was evident as the king silently mourned them, but he still went on, regal as a rickety old man could be.

Elsa found her hand meeting Hans' again as they marched into the castle to await whatever fate chose to lay before them next.

And suddenly, we've come to just one chapters left to tie together everything. Man, it's been a wild ride, guys. Thanks for sticking around this long.