Frozen Together Chapter 19
From a balcony of the palace, a small group of brave noblemen watched it all. They'd endured the fierce storm, mostly to try to observe its effects on the town and on their ice-locked ships in the fjord. When the storm suddenly ended, they were able to see the entire scene. They were joined a moment later by one more nobleman. Prince Hans' wound had just been stitched up and bandaged; he was walking with a cane; but he knew Anna was out there somewhere, and he had to know what was happening.
They watched the Duke confronting Queen Elsa, although they were too distant to hear what was said, and they saw her collapse onto the ice. They saw Anna shuffling toward a man they didn't recognize, then turn aside and throw herself between her sister and the Duke. They gasped as the Princess suddenly turned into solid ice. They saw the Duke's knife shatter, and they knew what he'd tried to do. They saw the Queen threaten the Duke, and then let him go. They bowed their heads and watched silently as Elsa wept over her sister, accompanied only by the unknown man, a small living snowman, and a reindeer.
They were the first ones to see a tiny patch of color appear on Anna's chest.
It spread quickly. Parts of Anna's skin suddenly returned to their normal tone. Olaf was the first of Elsa's companions to see it. His cry of delight startled Sven, who nudged Kristoff. Finally, Anna gasped a deep breath and relaxed from her rigid pose, and it was only then that Elsa noticed.
"Anna...?" she exclaimed. Her knees went out from under her, and for a few moments, Anna had to hold her up. They both started crying and couldn't stop. Olaf and Kristoff felt a little bit uncomfortable, but neither of them had no intention of going anywhere.
"I think I had the strangest dream..." Anna began.
"Don't talk," Elsa begged her. It took a few minutes for them to cry it out. They let each other go at last, and held hands instead.
"Anna... you sacrificed yourself for me?" Elsa still couldn't believe what she'd seen.
"I love you," Anna replied, as though it was obvious.
It was Olaf who figured it out first. "An act of true love! Nobody said it had to be romantic love!"
"And it had to be her own act, because it was her heart that was frozen!" Kristoff exclaimed. "Otherwise, one of us would have saved her by now, because we all love her in one way or another! Even you, Sven!" Sven made a disgusted face at the thought of kissing a girl.
Elsa shook her head in confusion. "Wait... Anna... I just killed you, and you come back loving me! What kind of love is this?"
"It's not the kind that we read about in our fairy-tale books when we were little," Anna answered. "It's the real kind."
Elsa started to cry again. How could anyone love her that much? She wanted to reject that love – she certainly didn't deserve it – but then she remembered the Grand Pabbie's warning. "Guilt will be fear's greatest ally against you." She resolved not to wallow in guilt. She had another thought instead. That kind of love has a power that's stronger than my cold powers. I wonder... With her hands in Anna's, she closed her eyes and tried to visualize what that kind of love felt like.
For a moment, she could almost see her sister's love. It was like a warm cloud that flowed out of Anna's heart and enveloped them both. Her own cold power came up against it, and for a moment, they tried to overcome each other. But she made a conscious choice to let love in. With that, the two powers touched, swirled together, and became as one. A third force quickly joined them – her own love for Anna. It might not be as extravagantly powerful as Anna's love, but it could not be ignored.
Anna felt the sudden build-up of power in her sister, and thought it was Elsa's stress level rising. She quickly got behind her, with one hand on her shoulder and the other on her arm. "Let it go," she whispered.
Elsa just smiled over her shoulder. "Here it goes. We're unstoppable, you and I." She looked at all the snow and ice around them, the snow and ice that she'd unwittingly brought into being. Now I know how to do this. "Let it go!" she shouted triumphantly, and made a sudden upward gesture with both hands.
Snow began rising all around them, first as flakes, then in waves, then in great clouds. A wind appeared, carrying the snow upward into the sky, but it was a warm wind. Sharp cracking sounds resounded all around them as the thick ice on the fjord began to break up and melt. They realized they might be swimming soon, so they quickly gathered on a nearby rock that rose above the ice. That rock had been a hazard to navigation in the fjord since time immemorial, but they were grateful for it now.
The effect was quickly spreading all across the town, and up the fjord to the rest of the kingdom. For a few moments, it was hard to see more than a few feet, the flying snow was so thick. Then it had all risen above them, and everyone could see what was happening. People burst out of their houses and unbuttoned their heavy coats; flowers pressed down by the snow began to straighten themselves; the frozen fountains in the palace courtyard suddenly thawed into water again; ships that had been thrown on their sides by the ice splashed back into the fjord. The winter was ending almost as quickly as it had begun.
On the rock in the middle of the water, Elsa watched as her power, strengthened and focused by love, undid all the harm she'd done. Anna looked on in delight; the other three just stared in amazement.
Tons and tons of snow rose high into the air. As they watched, it all formed itself into a huge snowflake in the sky, at least a mile across. It was magnificent, it was beautiful... but it was unwanted. Elsa threw her hands apart sharply, and the monster flake suddenly shattered into thousands and thousands of fragments. Every one of those fragments flew up toward the sullen winter overcast, and punched a tiny hole in the cloud cover. Those holes swiftly grew, spread, and joined each other as the gray clouds thinned out. In a few seconds, there was no more cloud cover, just a clear blue Norwegian summer sky with a few puffy white clouds here and there.
From the shoreline, they could hear the sound of people cheering and celebrating.
Then they heard another sound, the sound of splashing nearby. It was the Duke, dog-paddling in the water and trying to find a place on the rock that he could hold onto. Kristoff's face clouded over; it looked like he meant to stomp on the nobleman's hands. Anna held up her hand to restrain him, pulled herself into a regal pose, and glared down at the waterlogged Duke.
"Please, Your Highness!" he begged her. "I'll drown!"
"It seems to me that you're the one who hated the ice more than most people," Anna replied haughtily. "So... enjoy the water!" She put her boot on the Duke's forehead and pushed him back in. Elsa smiled approvingly, and they shared another quick hug.
Olaf watched with delight. He was growing shorter and squatter with each passing second, he was slumping to one side, and one of his arms dropped off. "You know, this is such a heartwarming moment, I don't know if I can stand it."
"Hold on, little guy! I don't want to melt everything!" Elsa exclaimed. She gestured, ice crystals flew, and Olaf rose back to his normal height. Another gesture, and a tiny snow cloud appeared just above him. He gasped in delight.
"My own private dark cloud, to follow me around! I'm going to be such a ray of sunshine!"
From the palace balcony, the assembled royalty could see the five of them stranded on the rock in the middle of the water. They gave orders, and within minutes, a harbor launch had set out from the docks and rowed over to rescue them. Getting the reindeer into the boat was a challenge, but Kristoff was determined not to leave his friend behind.
As they climbed onto the docks, they were greeted by a small crowd of curious onlookers. Some of them had never seen their new Queen; others didn't recognize her in her ice costume and her new hairstyle. Anna stepped up and shouted, "Make way for Queen Elsa... the Bringer of Summer!"
"Oh, Anna, please!" Elsa exclaimed, embarrassed. "You'll make me feel ridiculous."
"We have to do it," Anna replied firmly. "The Duke has been poisoning the people's minds against you, and we have to undo that." She shouted again, "Make way for Queen Elsa, the Bringer of Summer!" The people, desperate for good news after all the calamities that had befallen their kingdom, latched onto the title and began shouting it to each other. "The Bringer of Summer! The Bringer of Summer is here!" As Elsa and Anna walked toward the palace, they were accompanied by a growing crowd of their excited subjects. Some of them picked flowers and strewed them in their sovereign's path.
Anna noticed a primrose on the ground just in front of them. She picked it up and tucked it behind Elsa's ear. "I always knew you'd look pretty with a kusymre in your hair," she smiled.
Elsa searched until she found another kusymre, which she stuck behind Anna's ear. "Oh, no, no, don't do that," Anna protested. "Kusymres just don't look good on me for some reason."
"Hmm," Elsa thought out loud. "It does need a little something..." She touched the flower and coated it with a delicate layer of frost crystals. Now it shimmered and gleamed in the sun, as though it were made of colored glass. Several of the girls who were throwing flowers ooh'ed and aah'ed with delight. "I think that did it," Elsa smiled.
"Elsa..." Anna whispered in amazement. "You did that right next to my head."
Elsa smiled. "I can do this now. I can control it." In a whisper for Anna's ears alone, she added, "I'm not afraid any more." She remembered the Grand Pabbie telling her, "Fear will be your enemy." She also remembered one of the few things she could recall from her childhood religious education –
"Perfect love casts out fear."
They approached the palace. Elsa motioned for the others to stop as she stepped forward. "Open the gates, in the name of the Queen!" she shouted.
As the guards pushed the heavy gates open, Elsa turned to Anna. "They'll never be closed again."
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A/N "Perfect love casts out fear" is from I John 4:18 in the Bible. Thank you to Teddi 8347 for initiating a discussion about "acts of true love" which influenced Kristoff's comments on this subject.