Frozen Together Chapter 17
Hans meant to go straight to Elsa's room and free her. But he'd barely gotten out of the library where he'd left Anna when he heard heavy footsteps from near the front door. The Duke and his men had returned! He tried to avoid them, but the Duke saw him and called him over.
"What's the news, boy?" he demanded.
Hans decided not to mention Elsa right away. "Princess Anna has returned to the palace," he said, then added, "She isn't doing well."
"Then you'd better marry her quickly, or at least get a promise of engagement out of her, before she's gone and you miss your chance. Any sign of the Queen?" This Duke didn't care if Anna lived or died!
"I think Queen Elsa is nearby, but I don't know exactly where," he replied.
"The weather is getting worse outside, so I'm sure you're right about her being nearby," the Duke said thoughtfully. "She's probably trying to get to her sister. They seem inseparable. Perhaps we should do them both a favor, and bury them in a common grave when the time comes."
"I prefer not to bury my princesses until they're actually dead," Hans retorted angrily. "You will excuse me, please." He turned on his heel and strode away. If he'd had any doubts about his new course of action, the Duke had dispelled them.
o
Kristoff was walking slowly across the frozen fjord, occasionally kicking at small snowdrifts or bits of windblown debris. Sven walked next to him, sensing his friend's melancholy mood and abstaining from his usual goofiness.
When this adventure started, just a few days ago, he'd had nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no one to see, and it didn't seem so bad. Now, he was back to having nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no one to see, and he felt like his world had ended.
As he reached the shoreline, he noticed a familiar shape waiting for him. "Hi, Olaf," he said listlessly.
"Hey, what's with the long face?" the snowman wondered. "I've got a long nose, but it doesn't make me look half as sad as you are."
The mountain man shook his head. "I don't think you'd understand."
"Oh, try me!" Olaf begged. "I'm remarkably deep, for a person with snow for brains."
"Well... were you ever making your way through life, minding your own business, and then suddenly, someone steps into your life and makes everything better, just by being there?"
"Yes," Olaf sighed. "That would be Anna."
"Yeah," Kristoff agreed sadly. "That would be Anna."
"Do you like her as much as I do?" Olaf wondered.
"Probably more," the big man said quietly. Sven gave him a nudge with his muzzle and looked concerned.
"But if you like her more than I do, that could only mean... true love!" The snowman's head and two body parts began bouncing up and down on each other, trying to get his head up to eye level with Kristoff. "But that means you could have kissed her and made her better! Why didn't you?"
"For one thing, she's already got a prince who can kiss her and make her better, and she really likes him," Kristoff said sadly. "For another thing, she's a princess of Arendelle, and I'm just a pungent, unemployed ice man. She wouldn't want a kiss from a guy like me, no matter what the trolls say!"
"I thought you said they were love experts!" the little snowman exclaimed. "So how come you don't believe them?"
"Olaf, I know what I am. I also know what I'm not. I'm not a fit companion for a princess!"
The snowman planted his stick-hands on what passed for his hips. "I don't buy that for a minute, big guy! I saw how you were holding her in that ice sled, and the way she leaned back against you. I think she'd kiss you if you asked her nicely. In fact, I know she would. And, seeing how you won't ask her, and seeing how I've got nothing better to do, I'm going to go find her and ask her for you!"
"No! Olaf, please don't do that!" Kristoff begged him.
"Oh? Can you give me one good reason why not?"
"Well... that's a really bad blizzard that's blowing over the town," Kristoff noticed. "I don't think you want to walk into the middle of that."
"Blizzard, shmizzard! To me, it's all snow. Listen, Rice Kristoff, maybe you think you're fooling everybody, acting like you don't care. But somebody has to bring you two together, and if it has to be a snowman, then I shall do my duty!" Olaf saluted bravely, turned, and belly-slid across the ice, straight into the storm.
After a few seconds, Kristoff turned resignedly. "That little fellow is going to get himself killed," he said to Sven. They braced themselves against the wind and headed into the storm, trying to figure out which way the little snowman had gone.
o
Elsa awoke with a pounding headache. She was back in her room. Her hands were fastened into riveted-iron manacles that looked like something out of a torture chamber. She had no idea how any of these things had happened to her.
She looked out her window on the white desolation that she had somehow brought upon her kingdom. "What have I done?" she asked softly, as a tear rolled down her cheek. Snow began falling all around her. Part of the floor froze over.
After a few silent minutes, the lock in her door clicked, and the door swung open. Hans stepped inside and quickly closed the door behind him. She stared at him fearfully, unsure of his intentions.
"Your Highness, I'm here to set you free." If she realized he was the one who had imprisoned her in the first place, she gave no sign. He held out a small key. Reluctantly, she stepped over to him and held out her hands. He swiftly removed the iron manacles and let them fall to the floor with a clatter. She flexed her fingers and breathed a huge sigh of relief; the snow around them began to lessen in intensity.
"Is there another way out of the palace besides the main gate?" he asked worriedly. "You have to get out before anyone sees you."
"Yes, the hall outside leads to the back stairs as well as the main staircase," she nodded. "Then I can take the back door into the palace gardens. But why am I being treated like a prisoner in my own palace?"
Hans weighed whether he should tell her everything, and decided against it. "There isn't time to explain it all," he told her. "All I can say is, beware of the Duke of Weselton! He's playing a political game with you as a pawn, he's playing for keeps, and he has no regard for your crown or your family line."
"Family... where's Anna? Is she all right now?"
He shook his head sadly. "It wasn't true love. Not for me. Not yet."
The snow suddenly picked up in volume; the wind began to blow. "Then she won't... No! I have to see her!" She rushed for the door.
"No, Your Highness! You've got to get out of here, now! If the Duke kills you, you'll be of no help to Anna!" He meant to take her by the shoulders and guide her in the right direction, but the closer he got to her, the worse the snowfall became. He gave up trying to reach her. "Queen Elsa, please go! And hurry!"
She stumbled out of the room, past the guards whom the Prince had ordered to stand aside, and made her way down the hall to the back staircase. Whirling snow followed her; she left frosty footprints in the rug. When she stepped outside, her emotional turmoil burst out of control. A hideous storm cloud formed across the entire town, with high winds, thick snow, and biting hail. Visibility dropped to a few feet. The few citizens of Arendelle who were still outside quickly hid indoors. No one would brave a storm like that except a madman... or a despairing queen.
o
From her couch, Anna saw and heard the storm, and knew its source. When Hans returned a few minutes later, she forced herself to stand. "Hans, Elsa is suffering, and I'm the only one who can calm her down! You have got to take me to her, or this storm is only going to get worse!"
"Anna... if you go out there, you'll die from the cold."
"If I don't go out there, she could die! She needs me! Please, Hans! If you have any regard for me at all, help me to help her!" She'd pushed a button in him that he could not ignore.
He pulled an antique quilt off the wall, wrapped it around her shoulders, and desperately hoped that the Duke was busy trying to get warm, rather than watching the front gate. It was painful to watch Anna try and walk. He offered her his arm; she leaned on him gratefully.
They got as far as the front door before the Duke's bodyguards stepped out to block their way. "Well, well!" came the voice of the Duke from behind them. "Are the lovebirds going for a little walk in a howling snowstorm? How romantic!"
Before they could answer, he gestured to his guards. "Open the doors! Princess Anna, I think you should go on without the Prince. You may not have much time. And I need to speak to Hans privately." She glanced up at Hans; he nodded reluctantly. She made her way painfully out the door, and was quickly lost to sight in the swirling snowfall.
The instant the doors banged shut again, Hans felt a sharp, searing pain in the back of his leg. He fell to the floor, reached down, and felt something warm and wet on his hand. The Duke was calmly cleaning his dagger on a red handkerchief. "You won't die from that, Prince, unless you insist on running around on it. But it will make you lie still, and it will keep you from making an even bigger mess for me to clean up. The guards told me how you let the Queen escape. I told you it was too late for second thoughts, and I meant every word of it, boy.
"Whether you got your engagement from the Princess or not, no longer matters. You've reigned in the Queen's place for days, and everyone thinks you're wonderful. That means this storm was perfectly timed – it will kill one of them and hide the evidence of how we killed the other one. Once both the royals are gone, you'll be the only candidate for the crown. I've invested too much in this plan to let it fail now. I am going to put you on the throne of Arendelle, boy, whether you still want it or not!
"Now go lie down before you bleed on the royal carpet." Hans stood painfully and limped away. The Duke made sure he was out of earshot before he spoke again.
"Let's go, men. We need to save this kingdom from its out-of-control queen, and put it in the hands of someone we can control." He gestured, and his bodyguards opened the doors again, allowing blasts of cold air and flurries of snow to be blown inside. He smiled grimly "Ahh! What a beautiful day for a regicide!"