Anna had gone to sleep as soon as she decided to act. With Hans potentially on the loose, there was no way Elsa would allow Anna to leave the safety of the castle. Anna's only option was to slip out earlier than anyone would expect her to be out of bed.

But there was also the matter of being seen. She couldn't have any of the guards see her sneaking out. Fortunately—sometimes unfortunately—she had spent most of her childhood exploring every corner of the castle after her sister would no longer play with her. Anna would have gone mad if she hadn't had the library to browse, the chapel pews to crawl between, the roofs to scale and much more. She knew which corners were best for hiding and which suits of armor wouldn't clang and rattle if she ducked behind them. She knew which of the garden shrubbery didn't have any spiders.

She had half-expected Elsa would have had the castle gates shut, but with royal guards patrolling back and forth between the castle and the village, it must have been decided against. Still, it seemed risky to leave the doors wide open with Hans potentially roaming free. That is unless everyone was convinced he had drowned.

A wave of nausea slowed her down. She had to pause in the shadows to still her mind from conjuring images of a ghostly Hans at the bottom of the fjord. She hated him, but she didn't know how she'd live with herself if she had been the cause of his death.

Focus, Anna.

She counted to ten and then peered out at the open gate. Open though it was, it was guarded. She could try finding an exit from one of the secret passages back in the castle, but then she'd risk bumping into Elsa. She could also chance her luck fetching her horse from the stables and storming through the gate, but Kjekk had not been reliable last time she left Arendelle.

The secret passage was looking better by the minute. But just as she was about to cave to that option, a large horse-drawn cart wheeled through the gate. The driver exchanged a greeting with the guard. Anna couldn't hear at her distance, but she was sure the guard was explaining that the castle was not open to traders at the moment. Fortunately this trader seemed rather insistent.

After a heated debate in which the trader kept lifting the cover draped over the cart to show the guard goods he deemed worth showing so early in the morning when the gates were technically closed to traders, the guard beckoned the trader to follow him. When the trader indicated concern about leaving his cart unguarded, the guard shut the gate and once again beckoned the trader to join him. Anna groaned from her hiding spot. She had hoped the gate would be left open.

Anna checked for any other guards but it appeared that all but the one were either in the castle or out hunting for Hans. Maybe she could… but if the trader was welcomed into the castle… still, there was no other way out that she could think of. With one last check for guards or anyone that might see her, Anna made a break for the cart. The horse neighed and stomped at first, but when Anna fed her an apple she'd taken down from her room with her, they seemed to come to an understanding.

Anna stepped around to the back of the cart and lifted the cover. Beneath were just burlap bags in crates with "COFFEE" printed on them. Anna shrugged and climbed underneath the cover into a space between the crates. She breathed in deeply with her nose. She'd only had coffee a handful of times as it wasn't common in Arendelle. The taste was not her favorite, but the scent sure was pleasant. Now she would just sit and wait… and hope that Elsa would turn the trader away.

Anna woke with a start when the cart shuddered into movement. She was so exhausted that she had dozed off while waiting. She held in a yawn and stayed as still as possible to listen.

"I'll be back next week," said the trader. "Unless the next kingdom over buys the whole stock." So Elsa had turned him away! The trader's misfortune made Anna's lucky day.

"Hmph" was the only reply the guard would give. Anna felt the cart turn around followed by the opening of the gates. She peeked through the cracks between the boards in the cart, watching the ground as the trader rode out onto the bridge to town. The horse had barely led the cart outside when the gates closed behind them.

"Bah!" the tradesman scoffed. "I should have gone first to Grimmstad. Let's go, Snoull."

Anna was afraid the bumpy ride would make her ill but the tradesman's singing was the worst part. "Bridge, bridge, breja," he sang. "Sticks and stones. All good reindeer! No one will be allowed to pass."

Onward, the cart rolled. Anna could not wait for the ride to end. It sounded like a child's song, which would be fine if the driver could sing on-key. Anna wasn't familiar with the song but she could tell the trader was doing it little justice.

"Before saying his dearest's name," the trader squawked on. "What is her name?"

The horse suddenly stopped short and Anna surged forward, planting her forehead into one of the crates. "Yowch!" she hissed, unheard. The horse whinnied in response to the driver before continuing on. This went on twice more before they finally crossed into town. Anna could have rolled out of the cart and kissed the street, she was so grateful. But she waited, peeking out from the edge of the cart until they wheeled into a less crowded part of town. There she gingerly crawled down and crouch walked to a little alley between two shop buildings.

Although Arendelle was not bustling as much as the day of the coronation, the town felt more awake than the castle. Anna took in the distant cries of merchants and the laughter of children playing on some other unseen street. She could smell fresh bread close by; mouth watering, she wished she'd eaten before sneaking out, or that she had at least packed more than the one apple. But now was no time to dwell on food.

She peered out at the main road again. Though none were in sight yet, the royal guards would be patrolling Arendelle's streets. It would be wiser for her to take an unconventional route out of the village. Wait, where was she even going?

Hans was last seen on that ship in port before she…

But where would he head next? She was assuming that he didn't drown. But how could she be sure? There had been no sign of him. She didn't have magic to show her. Elsa's powers were not that kind of magic. Did such magic even exist? It wouldn't be found in Arendelle, that was for sure.

Then she had an idea. The only other place she had seen magic–OLD magic–was at the Valley of Living Rock. Maybe Kristoff's family had magic that could reveal whether Hans was alive… and better yet, where to find him.