Chapter 5 – Things start going awry

So, I wrote this part really late at night, really fast, and really stressed (Long story, my horse was ill) so I apologize if there are any errors indicating a hasty writer. Also, it's a bit more action packed so I got excited. Enjoy.

"The Duke of Weselton has a personal vendetta against me, there would be no reason to involve my entire city," Elsa pointed out sensibly.

"I agree with you," Luka said. "But I am under orders. Also, the Duke seemed to be convinced that you required, um, a bit more attention than other people."

Translation: he sent his entre army because a one-on-one with Elsa seemed dangerous. He wasn't wrong.

"Still seems like over kill to me," Elsa said. "If the Duke is so afraid of speaking to me face to face, he could have just sent you." Sending an entire army out to 'talk' didn't exactly inspire confidence, or hospitality.

"My army will not move without my orders, I assure you. You have nothing to fear from them while we are negotiating."

"Fine. What exactly is it that you want?"

"The Duke thought this was a good way to get your attention, and he wanted to be prepared for any sort of reciprocation from you."

He was afraid of her, clearly, but the fact was that Arendelle was a valuable trade partner, and Weselton didn't want to lose them. Elsa took a moment to stew over that. It still didn't add up that Weselton would send their entire army, just to talk.

From the way Luka was speaking, it sounded like war had never been the intent of the fleet at all. If that was true, why were they even here? Elsa had the uneasy feeling that the army was a distraction from something, and she wanted to know what it was.

She sent another glance out of the window, but Arendelle looked peaceful and calm. Don't panic, she reminded herself. Everyone knows the Duke over reacts. "So one of the things you wanted was to reinstate some of our trade agreements?"

She could not shake the feeling that this covering something else up, and she wanted to get home as soon as possible.

"Yes."

"Those contracts are back at the castle. If this meeting is to proceed, you should come to Arendelle with me." Elsa prepared to stand up.

Luka stopped her. "No need. There's no rush. I think we even have copies of those agreements on this ship. I will send someone to get them." He rose to his feet. "Please, stay where you are. Are you sure I can't get you anything?"

Elsa shifted uneasily. She felt trapped suddenly. "We'll need the original documents as well, just to make sure they are the same. We can move this meeting to the castle."

Elsa heard the lock on the door click, and the room suddenly felt much, much colder.

"I think the meeting is fine where it is," Luka said, stony faced. He was aware of the fact that he could suddenly see his breath misting in front of him. That was strange; it hadn't been that cold in here a minute ago.

Elsa stood up. "Unlock that door."

The snow outside started falling a bit harder.

"Please sit," Luka gestured to the couch again.

Elsa didn't move. She fixed her icy blue eyes on the Captain's face. "Open that door and let me out, right now."

"I can't do that."

"And just why not?"

"I'm under orders, as I told you before. I have to keep you here, out of Arendelle, until our mission is complete." Luka reached behind his seat, and drew a cross bow into view.

Oh, god, there was the storm again, flaring up in Elsa's belly. The ship creaked, rocked by a sudden gale outside, and Elsa felt ice crackle in her finger tips and throb in time with her suddenly racing heart.

"What mission?" she ventured, relieved to hear that her voice still sounded normal, despite the feeling that every part of her body was solid ice.

"I don't know all the steps." Luka hoisted the cross bow lazily, and aimed it at Elsa's chest. "But I know the one we are currently on."

Breathe. Breathe. If you don't breathe you're going to pass out, Elsa reminded herself.

"And that's to kill Princess Anna."

Anna realised something.

She didn't like lutes.

She extracted the instrument from her hand, then set it gently on the floor. She wanted to throw it down with as much force as possible, but she had already broken a newly replaced string, and didn't want to annoy Kristoff any further.

She sighed, slouching rather as she sat on her bed. What was taking Elsa so long, anyway? How long could it take to say "Go away and never come back, or I'll freeze you all"? Anna flopped onto her back, making a strangled sound of frustration at the back of her throat.

Winter might be Elsa's favourite season, but Anna found it thoroughly boring.

She hummed quietly, kicking her feet and wondering what she could do to occupy herself. "Why doesn't anything interesting ever happen around here?"

The sound of a loud thump made Anna sit upright with a frown. "What on earth was that?"

She hopped off the bed and went to the doorway, peering out into the hall. The castle was quiet, as it had been for the last week and a half. Then she heard the thump sound again, followed by a blood curdling scream.

Anna froze, a thousand possibilities running through her mind. Now she could hear shouting, and it sounded like Kai's voice.

"What do you think you're-" cut off mind sentence.

Anna ran downstairs.

It's a strange feeling when the world around you stops.

You suddenly feel like you are very far away from your own body, and everything sounds distant. Limbs tingle and feel disjointed from your body. And your heart drops through the floor, but you can still hear it pounding in your ears.

Elsa was getting sick of it, to be honest. And it always seemed to relate to Anna. She was still staring at Luka, unable to comprehend his last sentence. Unable to move. And forgetting to breathe.

Elsa finally sucked in a gulp of air, her eyes wide, and managed to finally articulate a thought. "What?" she squeaked. Oh, well done, Elsa, well spoken. Very Queenly.

"It's my job to keep you here, while my team carries out their mission."

"You said your people wouldn't attack while I was here," Elsa said faintly.

"Are you really that naïve? Welcome to the real world, Queen Elsa. People lie." Luka nodded to the cross bow. "Now, please sit down. I don't want to use this, but I will if I have to."

Elsa stayed exactly where she was, not to be deliberately defiant, but because she was still catching up with the conversation. And gulping, because that feeling of throwing up snow was returning, and this really wasn't the time for it.

"Sit down," Luka repeated firmly.

Elsa took one step back, towards the couch. She felt it touch the back of her calves, and the urge to just flop over and collapse was very, very strong.

But not until Anna was safe.

A blast of furious ice shot from Elsa's hands, directly at Luka. He had incredibly fast reactions, and managed to actually fire the cross bow. The arrow lodged into the ice, held harmlessly. Elsa aimed another blast at him, knocking the cross bow from Luka's hands.

He dodged behind the seat he had been using, and grasped for another weapon. How many was he hiding back there?

Elsa flung her hands up, and raised a sheet of ice just as Luka's heavy sword swung down. It crashed against the ice, keeping her safe. While Luka tried to pry the sword from the wall of ice, Elsa darted to the locked door. A quick jiggle of the handle told her that the door was locked from the other side.

And Luka's enraged roar told her that she needed to blast through the door. Elsa fired a series of pointed icicles through the wood, and the door burst away from her. She took a step outside, onto the deck of the ship, and found herself surrounded.

Elsa stopped dead, chest heaving, trying to organise her muddled thoughts into some sort of useful plan. Her go-to move was 'run away' (and it had worked pretty well so far) but that didn't seem like an option right now. She refused to spear everyone with icicles, which left her with the option of-

Luka had his sword freed, and he swung it towards her back. The ice jutting through the floor luckily prevented him from getting too close to her, but the tip of the blade still connected to her shoulder, and sliced a long, crimson line from shoulder to spine.

Elsa screamed, she couldn't help it, and the very instant Luka's blade cut into her skin the storm outside roared back to life with gale force winds and cutting hail. Elsa staggered forward, feeling rapidly drying stickiness on her back. The cold was freezing her blood to her skin, the hail and snow swirling around made it almost impossible to see.

Elsa heard someone else screaming. She shielded her eyes with one hand, and found that her panic had caused a number or pointed spikes of ice to leap from the deck of the ship and cut into the people around her. Several ice spikes were tipped in blood, and the men around her were scattering and moving, yelling out to each other.

An arrow whizzed past Elsa's head, close enough to make her gasp and jump to the side. The force of the wind had, luckily, blown the arrow fractionally off course, or else it would have been embedded in her skull. Elsa's jumbled mind managed to get through to her, in fragments of disjointed panic – Arendelle – Anna – get home – get away

She ran for the boarding ramp. Every time her feet touched the wooden deck more spears of ice darted up, surrounding her and making it difficult for the Weselton army to attack or find clear shots.

It didn't stop them from trying, and one lucky arrow penetrated the icy wall forming around Elsa, and the tip scratched her cheek. The sharp sting made Elsa pause, draw in a quick, gasping breath, and then continue running.

The wind was too strong, it pushed her to the side, and the heavy snow made it difficult to see. The Weselton men were catching up to her, more able to overcome the force of the wind. Elsa finally found the boarding ramp, and careened down it.

She nearly slipped as she reached the frozen ocean, and the jump of her heart caused the ice under her feet to thicken and distort. Another arrow whizzed past her, frighteningly close. Elsa turned towards the ship again, trying desperately to unfreeze the ice so no one could follow her.

But her powers would not listen. Her breath was rasping in her throat, her heart was pounding almost as loudly as the wind, and the hail and snow was making her eyes water. She tried, she tried, to make the ice disappear but every time she moved it grew thicker and sharper.

And the Weselton army was coming down the ramp now; Elsa could see Luka at the head of the charge, with the sword in his hand.

That reminded Elsa that her back was stinging, and she felt like passing out – No! Have to get to Anna! – and she had to keep running.

Every step closer to Arendelle hurt more; there was a tug against her back as the freshly frozen blood tightened on her skin, and oh, god, that hurt . . . she nearly stumbled again. Get it together. Control it.

The ice flared behind her, making the path to Arendelle even more solid and safe for those following her. Elsa cursed, silently, because she didn't have the breath to spare to do it out loud. Stupid powers, stupid ice, never ever listened!

Get it together. Focus.

Arendelle loomed closer, and Elsa was equal parts relieved and terrified.

Fluggard's team burst into the castle, and fanned out. "Find Princess Anna! Get rid of anyone who gets in the way! Hurry!"

One of the maids appeared in a nearby doorway, alerted by the noise. One of the Weselton men immediately fired his weapon at her, thankfully missing. The maid screamed, and turned and ran deeper into the castle.

Fluggard's team continued, systematically checking the rooms they passed for any sign of Anna.

Kai heard the commotion and ran from his room, finding himself in the middle of the team. "What do you think you're-"

He was struck from behind, a solid blow to the head, and collapsed in a heap on the floor.

"Upstairs," Fluggard ordered succinctly. He put one foot on the spiral staircase and looked up.

Anna froze in place, halfway down. She took in the sight before her, before settling on the brilliant idea to turn around and run back towards her room.

"After her!" Fluggard barked, continuing his pursuit up the stairs.

Anna raced back into her room, and slammed the door shut. She locked it with trembling hands, then took a few uncertain steps back. Now what?

She resisted the urge to run in circles like a panicked chicken, and instead ran to the window. She was alarmed to see that the sky was darkening again, and the storm, which had been idle, was beginning to rekindle itself.

Okay, that meant Elsa was obviously fine . . . or at least alive.

Anna squinted at another dark spot in the courtyard below. What was that? It was moving slightly. Was that Kristoff? And Sven?

The increasing snow made it impossible to see what was going on, but Anna was certain it was Kristoff and Sven down there. Why were they there? Why didn't they come up and help? Why hadn't they alerted the castle guards about the intruders?

Anna leapt forward when she heard pounding at her door. She spun to face it, completely unsure of what to do. She stared blankly at the door, listening to the ramming and pounding.

Jump out the window? Probably not a good plan.

Hide under the bed? A bit obvious. Also made escaping rather challenging.

Stand right next to the door, in the hopes that they would burst into the centre of the room and allow her a fraction of a second to escape?

It was all she had to work with. Anna ran to the door, and pressed her back against the wall, shoulder wedged against the door frame. She pressed her lips together, shoulders tense, trying to breathe a bit less loudly.

This might not have been the best plan.

The door lock splintered, and the door swung open. The two men pounding the door down did indeed rush into the centre of the room (Anna's poorly concocted plan was working!), but as Anna spun around the door frame to escape, she rammed face first into Fluggard.

He grabbed hold of her arm, jerking her back and glaring at her. Anna's terrified green eyes met his black and cold ones, and Anna felt her heart stop for a second, before starting up at a million miles a minute.

"You're dead, Princess," he snarled.

Anna gulped, then heard a commotion starting further down the hall. Someone was ploughing through Fluggard's team, armed only with brute strength, a spear and a lot of anger.

Kristoff swung the wooden end of the spear, cracking it into the skull of one man, then jabbing it directly into the throat of another. He rammed his shoulder into another, and Anna heard the disconcerting sound of cracking bone as the man was slammed into the wall.

Fluggard was momentarily thrown as one man suddenly decimated his team like a valiant pungent reindeer king. (Mental note: hell hath no fury like a man whose reindeer has been shot and whose girlfriend is being threatened). Kristoff took one look at Fluggard with his hand clenched around Anna's arm, and jabbed the spear forwards.

Fluggard flung Anna aside in order to dodge the attack. She stumbled back, and the two men in her room each grabbed a hold of her arms, and held her still.

Fluggard threw a punch at Kristoff, and hit him in the side of the head. Kristoff flailed the spear around, momentarily dazed, and Fluggard ripped the weapon from his hands and flung it aside. Kristoff threw a punch of his own, connecting with Fluggard's nose.

Anna heard a crack, and winced. "Ouch."

While Fluggard staggered, his nose streaming blood, Kristoff drew his fist back again.

But the men behind him were not all unconscious from his initial reckless charge. Two of them managed to their feet again, unseen by Kristoff.

"Kristoff look out!" Anna shouted.

He ducked instinctively, but one of the men brought his cross bow down on Kristoff's head. The ice harvester crumpled to his knees, and the second man slammed his head into the wall. Kristoff slumped into a senseless heap.

"No!" Anna kicked around uselessly, but she was held firmly. "Kristoff!"

Fluggard wiped at his nose, and advanced on her. He drew his sword.

Anna stopped struggling, feeling her breath catch in her throat. Her eyes were bright with absolute terror, she knew she was gasping for air, but no matter how much she gulped no air seemed to be reaching her lungs.

Fluggard hefted the sword casually. "Good bye, Princess."

Reviews appreciated, will update soon, I promise, I won't leave you all hanging.

SpicedGold