Author's Note: This chapter did not end up how I planned it. So, uh, we'll see where we go from here.
The Queen rapidly made her way back to the castle with her trophy. She had taken Hans's tongue so that he could never use it to seduce anyone ever again. After letting him bleed for a short while, she frosted over the wound so he wouldn't bleed quite to death and restored his cage to its previous state.
When Elsa finally made it back to her study, she opened one of the armoires inside and placed the cube of ice containing her spoils of the night onto a shelf before locking it and filling the lock with ice. She could not let her sister see this.
The next morning, Elsa ate her breakfast in the large dining hall with her sister. It was the first time she had taken a meal there in as long as she could remember. Anna could barely contain her excitement when she saw Elsa enter the hall.
"I'm so glad things have finally started to get back to the way they should be!" said the younger girl.
"Me too." Elsa said with a warm smile as she took her seat at the head of the table. "I'm so sorry about everything. I don't know if I'll ever be able to make it up to you, Anna."
Anna was beaming, "Don't worry about it! I have my sister back and that's all that matters."
Their meal continued on like this for a short while, with Anna regaling Elsa the grand tale of her time spent with Kristoff on the North Mountain.
"Oh, that's right," interrupted the Queen, "What happened to your mountain man after we left the square yesterday?"
Anna lowered her head slightly as she replied, "I don't know. He didn't come to the castle last night and I don't know where he lives."
Elsa paused for a moment before she asked her sister, "I hope you're not already planning on marrying this one, too."
Bolting upright and feeling the blood rush to her cheeks, Anna replied, "N-no... I mean, I like him and all, and he kissed me... And the trolls did try to marry us before we got back to Arendelle but I fainted. But he's just a friend! And..."
Chuckling, the Queen said, "Relax, Anna. I'm only teasing. He seems nice enough. Just don't rush it, okay?"
"I won't..." came the redhead's reply.
Before either girl could continue their conversation, Kai burst open the door and moved swiftly to his Queen's side, whispering something in her ear.
"Thank you for letting me know, Kai. Is that all?" inquired the Queen.
"Yes, your majesty," he replied.
"Then you are dismissed." Kai bowed briefly before turning and leaving the two girls.
As soon as Kai closed the door Anna couldn't help but ask her sister, "What did he say?"
"It's about Hans. It would appear that somebody attacked him last night."
"Attacked him? Why? You... he's in a cage. He couldn't hurt anybody right now if he tried." asked Anna.
"Who knows?" Elsa sighed before continuing, "Honestly, I don't care, Anna. He probably deserved it. Maybe he taunted somebody and they got upset with him?"
"Maybe... but I don't think it's right for him to just be out there for anyone to attack. Why didn't you put him in the dungeon if you wanted to hold him hostage?"
"Anna, he left you for dead and then tried to kill me. I need to let the world know that as Queen I will not stand by and let that happen. I know you liked him, but he's a criminal and he deserves whatever is coming to him." Elsa said sternly.
"This has nothing to do with that!" Anna shouted. She was blushing. Lowering her voice, she continued, "He's a jerk and he was just using me, I know that. That doesn't mean this is the right thing to do."
"Are you sure, Anna? This whole time you've only been talking about Hans, you haven't even mentioned the Duke or his men."
Anna blushed again, "They weren't attacked in the night! And you made Hans's cage worse than theirs, he probably couldn't even sleep in it."
Elsa leaned back in her ornate high-backed chair and thought for a time. "So, what would you do with Hans if you were in my position? If you were Queen and he tried to kill both of us and steal your throne, what would you do?"
"I..." Anna started, before falling silent. She eventually spoke, "If you're waiting for somebody to kill him, why not just have him executed? You must have been expecting this, you didn't look surprised at all when Kai told you what happened."
Elsa tried to hide a wince at that. The room went silent again. After a few minutes, Anna excused herself from the table and left the dining hall..
It was nearly noon by the time Anna made it to the center of town. She wanted to see what kind of shape Hans was in after his attack. She hoped it wasn't as bad as she imagined it to be.
It was worse.
The ice of his cage and the ground in front of it were stained red with blood. His clothes were a dark crimson, as well. The blood seemed to have been coming from his mouth. Hans was sagging into the ice of his cage. Anna froze at the sight. Looking around the square she realized it was almost empty except for a handful of guards, presumably they were there to stop further attacks.
She tentatively approached Hans's icy prison and asked him, "...what happened to you?"
He looked at her dejectedly before turning his head away and spitting out a mouthful of blood. Turning back to Anna, he opened his mouth wide and let out a croaking noise in her direction.
Anna gasped. "Your tongue! Who did this?" she asked, almost forgetting who this was and what he had done, her only concern now being the question of who would do something like this to a defenseless man in the middle of the night.
Hans only closed his mouth and scowled at her.
"He can't answer you, you know," came a voice from behind the princess. "It's no easy task to talk without a tongue."
Anna twirled around to find that the duke had been the one to speak. "...did you see what happened?" she asked.
"See? No. I was asleep at the time. But I heard it! Or, well, I heard his screams as it happened. Woke me up in a flash! Did see someone running away right after, though." explained the duke.
"But you didn't see their face, did you?" asked the princess.
"Covered by a hood, and I only saw their back, anyway."
"Let me guess, I'll get the same story from your men?", Anna asked as she pointed over her shoulder at one of the cages.
"Sad to say you will, dear. I already asked them what they caught last night," answered the duke.
Anna sighed and started to walk around the square, looking around as though for a clue. After making a full circuit she returned to Hans and asked him, "So was it worth it? Was leaving me to die and trying to steal my sister's throne worth your tongue, Hans?"
His reply was to close his eyes and lean his head back against the bars of his cage.
"Maybe Elsa's right... Maybe you do deserve this." said the princess in a soft voice as she turned away from him.
At the mention of the Queen's name his eyes snapped open and he glared at Anna. She didn't notice, as she was already walking back to the duke.
"And what about you? Elsa says you sent your men to kill her on the North Mountain," she asked.
He lowered his eyes. "Ah. Yes. Well... I did. I thought it was the only way to stop the winter! We were freezing to death down here."
"Was it worth it? Was the attempted murder of my sister worth the lives of you and your men?"
He looked up at her incredulously, "Our lives? Do you really think she'll kill us?"
Anna let out a short, halfhearted laugh. "Who knows? I can't tell what she's thinking right now. She might just leave you here until you starve or these cages melt, whichever comes first." Anna looked off towards the castle and tried to understand what Elsa was planning.
The princess returned to the castle a short while later and headed straight to her sister's study.
A few quick knocks on the door, followed by, "Elsa? Elsa are you in there?"
"Come in, Anna," replied the Queen.
Anna walked into the spacious room to find her sister seated behind a large mahogany desk covered in papers. "What are you going to do with those men?" asked the princess accusingly.
"Well according to you I should just execute them, shouldn't I?" responded the Queen, leaning back and folding her hands.
"I- But- That's not what I meant!" exclaimed the princess.
Both women fell silent for a moment. Elsa was the first to speak, "I haven't decided yet. They'll survive another day down there."
"I don't know if Hans will..." Anna said softly.
"Did you see him?" asked the Queen.
"I did. Somebody cut out his tongue. He's lost a lot of blood."
Thankfully, Elsa managed to resist the urge to look at the armoire that held the object of this conversation.
"I've been told as much. A doctor has been sent to attend to his wound." Elsa sighed. "Do we have to keep talking about this, Anna?"
Anna looked at her sister with a pained expression, "Sorry, Elsa... It's just that something about this doesn't feel right to me. I'll drop it for now, though. See you at dinner?"
Elsa nodded and Anna turned to make her way from the study. Before she could leave the room, however, Elsa spoke up again, "Hey... Anna? Do you want to build a snowman?"
That night the men in the square had another visitor. Earlier, the Queen had told the guards that they need not watch over the caged men, and they had no intention of questioning the orders of the Ice Queen.
As the hooded form entered the square, Hans looked at it in fear. He didn't want to lose another appendage. He backed up as far as he could in his cage when the figure approached him. A slender hand reached through the bars of his cage and stroked his cheek. "Don't worry Hans, I'm not here for you tonight. You look like you've lost a lot of blood and I can't have you die on me yet, can I?"
Hans sighed.