Kristoff could not get used to flying. Even Sven following from the ground was little comfort. Every time he looked down beyond his feet, his head swam. But if he glanced up at the snow angel, his skin crawled the same way it had when he first met Olaf. He was glad he could ride along by clinging to the queen rather than her eerie snow servant.

Queen Elsa frowned deeply in thought as they glided southwest back to the kingdom. It was for this reason Kristoff decided not to share Bulda's last-minute news before their departure. At least, it was partly the reason.

Kristoff found himself frowning now too. Anna had gone to his family for help without telling him. What shocked Kristoff more was that the trolls had helped her. Couldn't they have waited and gotten word to him first?

Kristoff scowled. There he was again, thinking he had any business in Anna's decision making. He thought back to their conversation at her bedroom doorway. He hadn't understood why she cared if Hans had drowned—not after what Hans had done.

Naiveté was sort of part of Anna's charm.

Elsa pointed down and spoke. "There's the castle."

Great, Kristoff thought. Once we get there, I'm out of excuses not to tell her. He had originally convinced himself not to broach the subject just in case Elsa dropped him in surprise.

"I need to warn everyone about the Ice Maiden," Elsa said. Kristoff nodded. Unlike the trolls, the people of Arendelle would not be able to wield their own magical barrier. If the Ice Maiden were to attack, they might well have to defend themselves. "Can we travel any faster?"

Kristoff's jaw dropped. "Personally, this seems fast enough to me—AGH!"

The snow angel obeyed Elsa's wishes before Kristoff could finish voicing his thoughts on the matter. At first they dropped several feet in the air. Then Kristoff was tossed up above Elsa as the snow angel nose dived toward Arendelle. Kristoff wailed as the wind hit his face. The trees below them became a blur of greens and browns. He shut his eyes as they began to tear; the queen's hand felt so light in his that he squeezed it in fear that she'd slip away from him and he would plummet and crash to the ground.

Suddenly, they slowed. Kristoff popped one eye open to confirm his suspicion: they were nearly there. They spiraled in their descent towards the courtyard. The snow angel slowed down until both Kristoff and the queen could step onto the ground.

"My hand's starting to hurt…"

Kristoff looked down at his hand locked onto the queen's. He practically threw her hand back to her.

"Apologies, Your Majesty! That was incredibly rude."

"Yes," the queen agreed. She shook her head and chuckled. Kristoff could hear what a strain it was for her to laugh.

Now's a good time as any, Kristoff thought. He opened his mouth to speak when the queen turned away, rushing for the castle.

"We should hurry," she said.

"Your Majesty!" Kristoff called after her, running to catch up. Two guards bowed fully as they opened the castle doors to them. Kristoff passed between them, blinking from one to the other as they stayed with their backs bent until the queen was inside.

"Kai!" Elsa called, her voice echoing in the entrance hall."Gerda!"

Kristoff chased after the queen as she ran towards the great hall. Elsa threw the doors open, startling a few guards who were in deep conversation. She smiled when she spotted Kai among them.

"Kai!"

"Queen Elsa!" Kai greeted her and bowed with the rest of the men. "Did you find the princess?"

The queen's smile faded. "No… and it gets worse. There's a mysterious woman who attacked a…" she hesitated, glancing back at Kristoff. "Community in the forest. Have you ever heard of the Ice Maiden?"

Kai looked as bewildered with the guards as he shook his head.

"She's dangerous. She has powers—like mine, but she's misusing her magic," Elsa explained.

"Your Majesty… I think perhaps you over-exerted yourself in the search for your sister," Kai said, approaching her carefully. He extended a sympathetic hand and rested it on her shoulder. Elsa backed away from him.

"Ask Kristoff! It's true!"

Kai looked from the agitated queen to the out-of-place ice harvester some feet behind her. As everyone's eyes fell upon him, Kristoff recognized discrimination in the head servant's eyes. Kristoff expected it from nobles like Lord Harald, but it was disappointing to see it in Kai.

"It is true," Kristoff finally said.

Elsa was the one to reach out to Kai now. "Please… I need for you and Gerda to search the library. See if you can find anything about a woman with magic like mine, or a person called the 'Ice Maiden'. She was after some kind of mirror… Look for that too."

Kai nodded, but he still looked wary. "Your Majesty, I will do as you ask but I beg that you rest for a while. You're not acting like yourself."

"I'm fine," Elsa insisted. "Now, go. Get some servants to assist you. Guards, to your posts." Kristoff almost cringed when she turned on him next. "Follow me, please."

She led him from whence they came: back out into the courtyard. There, Elsa brought her thumb and index fingers to her lips. She blew out a long, trilling whistle and stared up expectantly when she finished. Kristoff raised his eyebrow, looking back and forth between the castle and the queen. What was she waiting for?

As they waited, again Kristoff recognized a good opportunity to tell Elsa about Anna. He knew the longer he waited, the stranger it would seem.

A surprisingly chilly gust of wind blew through the courtyard, giving Kristoff goose bumps. Later on, he supposed the wind was what had made him look up. The snow angels had given no other warning of their arrival. They were suddenly just there, a dozen or more drifting down towards Elsa until they all stood on the ground. Kristoff inched closer to Elsa. The faceless creatures completely unnerved him.

"Uhh… what are these, exactly?" Kristoff asked. He hadn't thought to ask when it had just been one of them.

Elsa's brow furrowed. "Snow angels," she said. Then she turned away from him. "But none of them have seen Anna."

"Oh."

Kristoff looked down at his feet. "About Anna…" he started to say. He was interrupted by excited shouting above them. Kristoff looked up and did a double-take.

Floating down from one of the palace towers in the arms of yet another snow angel was none other than Olaf, the friendly the little snowman who liked hugs.

"Hello down there!" Olaf waved.

"Olaf! What are you doing?" Elsa asked.

"What?!" Olaf shouted down, unable to hear her.

"I said, what are you doing?!" Elsa repeated, raising her voice.

The snow angel was gentle as she set Olaf down on his feet.

"This is Gyda!" Olaf said, gesturing back towards his escort as he stepped up towards Elsa. "She…helped me… but…" Olaf stopped speaking as his mouth quivered. His eyes drooped as he looked down.

"Olaf?" Elsa asked, crouching down in front of him. "Is something wrong? You're always smiling. It's strange to see you so upset."

"I'm so sorry! Will you ever forgive me?!" Olaf sobbed, throwing himself at Elsa's feet, planting his face on the ground so that his nose was pushed back into his snowball head.

Kristoff bit his cheek to keep from laughing. Leave it to Olaf to be comical even when he was apologizing. But what on earth had gotten into the little snowman? Whatever it was, it would have to wait.

"Your Majesty?" Kristoff said, stepping up.

But the queen still looked at Olaf, her concern only growing. Kristoff could have rolled his eyes. Instead, he cleared his throat, again trying to draw Elsa's attention away from Olaf's theatrics.

Finally, he had no choice. He said, "I need to tell you something about Anna." Only, his voice was not alone as he said it. He looked down, blinking back at a bewildered Olaf. They had said the same thing at the same time.

Elsa stood up and turned her back towards them, her voice stern when she spoke. "The three of us should probably speak in private then."

Olaf and Kristoff both gulped, but followed her back into the castle. Kristoff studied the queen's back as she led the way. He wished she would turn and give some kind of indication of her mood. Did she already know what they had to tell her? But how could she?

He recognized the corridor on the left as they turned into it. She was taking them to the council chamber. Well, that made sense. But everyone knew by now that Anna was missing. Why did the queen feel the need to speak exclusively with Olaf and himself?

The queen stopped before she reached the council chamber door. She whirled around. Her movement had been so sudden that Kristoff and Olaf almost walked right into her.

"Oof!" Olaf yelped, hopping back with a goofy little smile. "That was close."

Kristoff was startled by the irritation in Elsa's eyes. Well, both he and Olaf had kept something from her. He should have expected this kind of reaction.

"Your Majesty."

The greeting came from a voice to their right. Elsa, Kristoff and Olaf all turned their heads to see Lord Harald standing at the bottom landing of the east stairwell.

"Lord Harald," the queen greeted him. Lord Harald bowed to her, approaching her with something in his hands.

"A letter arrived from the Southern Isles," Lord Harald explained. He hesitated, frowning at the parchment in his hands. "You were gone all morning, so I took it upon myself to read the contents. But… you should read this as well, Your Majesty." He gave a slight bow as he extended the letter over to Elsa.

The queen unfurled the parchment and began to read, her eyes moving wildly from word to word, her forehead creasing as she read further.

"…Here then, Queen Elsa of Arendelle, are the facts which explain how a miscarriage of justice has been made; and the moral evidence, the treatment of a Duke of Weselton, the absence of reasonable trial, the heinous accusations made against the King's youngest son, shrouding the incident from his home country, completes its demonstration of the greed and dishonesty of your crown, which dishonors our diplomatic relationship." Elsa's hand shook as she read the letter aloud, but she pushed herself to read on.

"We accuse the crown of Arendelle to have carried out without fair authority, particularly in light of recent rumors, an abominable campaign, to mislay the opinion and to cover their fault.

We accuse finally the Queen of Arendelle to have violated the right, by condemning a dignitary on crimes unproven, by intimidating the majority to permit her tyranny. We will henceforth utilize our navy to block all trade, travel and other friendly exchange between our kingdoms until Prince Hans is safely returned to the Southern Isles, where the rightful parties shall determine his innocence or guilt and subsequent punishment…

Your pitiful example of diplomacy will not go ignored. If the prince is not returned within the week, our crown will officially declare war on Arendelle."

When she was finished, the queen lowered the letter and shrunk away from those around her.

"That sounded like one really long sentence," Olaf commented.

Kristoff swatted the little snowman and shook his head in warning.

"How could they have found out about Hans's crimes? Why is all the other information so distorted? They think I'm holding him prisoner? I was prepared to send him home for trial."

Lord Harald gave her a sympathetic look.

"How could this happen?" Elsa said, crumpling the letter up in her fist.

Lord Harald interjected here. "I did try to warn you, Your Majesty. Someone must have sent word before you could write to them yourself." He cringed as the queen strode towards him, anger piercing through her eyes. But she walked around him to the stairwell.

"Elsa?" Olaf called after her as Elsa began to walk up.

"I want to be alone," she said.

"Your Majesty, if I may suggest—"

The queen flung her arm out. Ice spiked from the wall next to Lord Harald; fear held his tongue where reason had failed.

"I-want-to-be-alone," she repeated.

Then she left them all staring after her. Kristoff and Olaf both sighed at the lost opportunity.

"That went well," Kristoff muttered.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I will pick up with Anna and Hans in the next chapter. Thanks for reading!

Oh, and special thank you to MoonShadow396 for helping me out with the end of this chapter!