Anna tried not to stare as Hans exchanged words with the castle guards. Gone were the dark grey hats and long overcoats. In place of those, these guards wore shorter grey overcoats, dainty black shoes and white tights underneath black shorts. The two at the castle entrance were both equipped with tall spears in hand and swords in brown scabbards. Both men eyed Anna cautiously as Hans greeted them.
"She's with me," Hans said. "I need to report to King Olaf and Queen Elsebet."
King Olaf? Anna thought of her family tree and tried to place the names. But it was difficult when she had never taken any interest in her family history. The famous saints and artists in portraits around the castle had always been more fascinating to her.
The guard on the right narrowed his eyes and spoke in a gruff voice. "We know you, troll hunter. But we'll need to search her."
"Troll hunter?" Anna said, startled as the guards came toward her. One confiscated her satchel while the other patted her coat. "H-hey! Watch it!" She ducked out of the one guard's reach and clenched the coat tightly about herself, shaking her head at him. "What do you think you're doing?!"
"They're just making sure you're not carrying anything dangerous," Hans explained.
Anna gave him a meaningful stare when he used the word 'dangerous'. But the second guard interrupted the exchange.
"You can't take this into the castle." He frowned with disapproval as he dangled Anna's knife by its handle.
"I wasn't trying to sneak it in!"
"You can hold onto that," Hans said to the guards. "Now, may we pass?"
"Hey!" Anna objected.
"Relax. You'll get it back when we leave."
The guards nodded as they each took one of the door handles and opened the double-door to the castle. The guard holding onto Anna's knife stowed it away in his coat as Hans led Anna into the castle. Anna was relieved to see that while the outside of the castle and its guards were far from familiar, the entrance hall looked almost the same. It was the same red carpeting up the double staircase with a passage to the Great Hall beneath. But when Anna looked up, she saw the chandeliers were simpler. The ornate carvings and paint on the ceiling were missing too, making the vaulted ceiling look plain.
As she followed Hans at a comfortable distance through the passage between the staircases, Anna felt a bit like an intruder. How peculiar it was to feel like a stranger in her own castle! Not as peculiar as her following Hans, maybe. The thought made her pause some steps behind him even as he reached the doors to the Great Hall.
"Are you going to just stand there?"
Anna looked up as Hans opened the doors. What would the King and Queen be like? Were they her great-great-grandparents, or maybe great-great-great? Her head spun a little. Would they be anything like Elsa or her parents?
"I'm going in," Hans whispered. He went on ahead without her.
Anna ended up following. She was surprised to see two crowds of people taking up either half of the room. There must have been over fifty people standing there. All of them faced the other end of the hall where a man and woman sat upon two thrones.
She drew closer to the group on the left. No one turned toward her, but it was possible that her presence went unnoticed. They all only had eyes for the king and the queen. The three women in front of her whispered among each other as they watched Hans walk up between the two crowds. Anna had to lean out of the way each time one of them turned to whisper so that their puffy skirts would not bump into her.
"Sir Hans, you have returned!" the king said. He looked nothing like Anna or anyone else in her family. He was a heavyset, older man with a powdered wig on his head that looked to Anna more like a sheep than a decent hairstyle.
"Your Majesties." Hans greeted them with an old-fashioned bow; the gesture was deep and held for an exaggerated period of time. Anna almost sniggered.
"We are glad to see you, Sir," Queen Elsebet smiled. The queen had fair blond hair pulled up onto her head. A heavy crown glittered above her forehead. Anna tried squeezing between two people to get a closer look at the queen. But the elderly couple in front of her gave her warning glances over their shoulders. Their disagreeable, powdery faces persuaded her to stay put. There was no need to draw attention to herself. "And who is the woman in the back who arrived with you?"
Anna wanted to hide under one of the puffy skirts in front of her as members of both crowds turned back to look at her.
"Who's she?"
"Those braids! Does she think she's a child?!"
"What strange clothes…"
"Sir Hans brought her with him? Is it his wife?"
Didn't any of them know that Hans was a prince?
"Wife? No! He can't be married!"
Anna's eyes scanned the room, but it was hard to tell which murmurs came from whom. None of what was uttered was particularly polite, but it was all just loud enough for her.
"Hi-hey-hello!" Anna said, clearing her throat. Then she bent in a near forty-five degree angle, realizing halfway through that she should be curtsying. So she curtsied immediately afterward before standing up straight again, blinking back at the wide eyes gawking at her. Her whole greeting had obviously been a blunder. "Your Majesties."
King Olaf stared wordlessly at the strange girl in the back of the room. His wife shook in her throne beside him, holding one hand over her mouth to keep from laughing.
"That's my sister," Hans suddenly said. He scrunched his face at Anna as if to say, 'What on earth was that?' "Her name is Anna."
Oh, now I'm his sister? Anna thought, raising an eyebrow.
"We did not realize your sister was traveling with you! You brought her all the way from Grimmstad?" the queen asked, looking startled. "I hope she did not venture into the forests with you. They are far too dangerous for a young woman."
The men and women in the crowds murmured their agreement. Some of them nodded. Anna narrowed her eyes at them.
"She came searching for me when she heard I'd gone on another hunt," Hans quickly explained. "I guess while I'm the troll hunter, she's the 'Hans hunter'."
Anna jumped as the entire hall erupted with laughter.
"Impressive, isn't it? The bond between siblings…" the king muttered. The queen reached over and squeezed her husband's hand as the room gradually quieted. "She must stay in the castle, then. There are renovations being done. It gets a little noisy on the upper levels, but we hope you won't mind."
Anna looked a second time at the king and queen, deciding that there was something about them after all that reminded her of her parents. She gave a proper curtsy this time—one befitting a princess—and took pride in the gasps from the audience. Stay in the castle? She couldn't exactly say no. Perhaps if she could get a moment alone with one of them, she could ask for help…
"Thank you very much, Your Majesties," Hans said. Anna nearly groaned. She'd almost forgotten about Hans. "We're both honored by your hospitality."
"It's the least we could do. We're honored that the famous Grimmstad Troll Hunter has agreed to help us with our recent… problem," the king replied.
Anna frowned. There it was again. People kept calling Hans a troll hunter. She knew now that they meant the Stallos, but how did Hans come by his new reputation in such short time?
She looked from the king to Hans, determined to find out.
"Ah… speaking of which, may I make a report now, Your Majesty?" Hans asked, bowing in respect. Anna felt like hurling. There was no way Hans could feel half the reverence he was displaying.
"Please," the king answered. He stood up to address the crowd. "This morning's petitions are through. Those with urgent concerns may return tomorrow." There were some sighs of disappointment, but everyone bowed and began to disperse.
"Come. Let us resume in the council chamber," King Olaf said, gesturing for Hans to follow.
Anna stepped and dodged out of people's way as they exited the Great Hall, turning her shoulders to avoid being knocked into. She squeezed her way through the back of the departing crowd, stepping up to the thrones. Queen Elsebet stood to excuse herself, smiling at Anna and expressing her hope to see Anna at dinner so that she could speak more with her then. Anna nodded, returning the smile with a nervous grin. Of the two royals, the queen was definitely easier to talk to. She hoped she would not have to talk to King Olaf during the meal for any prolonged period of time.
Anna curtsied to the queen and then trailed after Hans, trying to listen to his conversation with the king as the two men began to leave.
"…still keeping a safe distance. But their strength is growing somehow. I could tell they were testing the boundaries," Hans was saying, speaking softly. "Something will need to be done soon."
"Um," Anna said, raising her voice to catch their attention. Both men stopped and turned to look at her. "Have the Sta…trolls actually, um, hurt anyone?" she asked, clasping her hands together in front of her.
Hans looked at her like his eyes were going to leap out of their sockets. King Olaf also looked stunned by the interruption.
"Young lady… has your brother told you nothing about the monsters?"
"Oh, I've seen them. I know how scary they look. But what's the big deal? Do they just stomp around and growl at people?"
Yes. Hans's eyes were definitely going to jump out of his skull if she kept talking. It was all Anna could do not to smirk at him.
The king shook his head at her. "The 'big deal', child, is the interruption of the saw mill. The trolls have destroyed it twice already. It's only a matter of time before one of the workers get hurt. Then there's the matter of anyone trying to travel north or south through the forests. They can only go so far before the trolls chase them out. It's blocked trade to and from the north." He fixed a stern eye on Anna, as though preparing to talk her down again if she said anything more.
Anna frowned. "I see… please, excuse me." She bowed and turned away from them so they could continue talking. She walked toward the other end of the great hall, her head almost reeling from information. Hans definitely owed her another explanation. Why was everyone here calling him a troll hunter? Why did he tell them he was from Grimmstad? Why was she his sister now? She shook her head as she entered the passage back to the entrance hall.
"Now what am I supposed to do?" she thought out loud. She turned and looked up at the chandeliers twinkling above her. The only ones who could send her home were probably trolls. But the trolls here were considered dangerous menaces. She sighed and had to admit it to herself: she had no choice but to trust Hans for now.
Something moved on the landing at the top of the stairs. Anna's head jerked up. She thought she saw someone backing away into the upstairs corridor.
"Hello?!" she called. "Who's there?!"
Had someone been watching her? She ran up the first few steps on the left staircase but saw nothing. She could have sworn she saw someone. Hans was probably still talking with the king. Could it have been Queen Elsebet?
Slowly, Anna made her way up the stairs. Although no one was there, it still felt like she was being observed. When she reached the top step, she put her back against the wall and inched toward the threshold to the next corridor. She paused, holding her breath and counting to three before she jumped out into the corridor.
The library door at the end of the corridor slammed shut.
"Gotcha!" Anna yelled, hoping whoever it was had heard.
Someone had been watching her.
Dusk crawled in through Elsa's bedroom windows, making the walls glow purple and gold. The troubled queen held her head in her hands. She sat on the floor with her back against her bedroom door, trying to conjure up a solution. But really, she just wanted to forget about everything, even if it was only for a moment. As queen, of course, she could not afford to. More importantly, Arendelle could not afford it again.
A snowflake fell upon her hand. Elsa looked at it. She held so much power, yet she was powerless.
There was a soft knock on the door.
"Please go away."
"We need to talk." It was Kristoff's voice.
Elsa leaned forward. She stood up and moved away from the door, looking back at it uncertainly. "I just want to be alone right now."
"I know you do, but this is about Anna."
That's right, Elsa thought, reaching out for the door handle. Kristoff and Olaf had both had something to tell her. She'd gotten so wrapped up in the letter from the Southern Isles, she'd forgotten. Finally, she opened the door and let Kristoff in.
"Thank you," Kristoff said. "Erm…"
"Please," Elsa said, indicating the chairs on either side of her window. When Kristoff sat down, Elsa took a seat in the other chair.
"Olaf was going to come, but he was too upset," Kristoff began.
"Yes, something seems to have gotten to him. Something about Anna?" Elsa asked. Although she kept her voice neutral, she clasped and twisted her hands together as she wondered how bad it could be that it caused the happy snowman such distress.
"Olaf said that he helped Anna sneak out of Arendelle so she could search for Hans," Kristoff answered, speaking much more quickly than was natural.
"So she did go after Hans," Elsa replied with a frown. "How could she be so foolish?!" Somehow, she wasn't surprised.
"That's not all."
Elsa looked over at him again, waiting for more bad news. She had to give the ice harvester credit for being brave enough to be the messenger. But there was no way she could have prepared herself for what he told her next.
"Before we left the Valley of Living Rock… my mother took me aside and told me something else…"
Elsa waited patiently, telling herself that things could only get better. Perhaps the troll had seen Anna in the forest. But then why hadn't they mentioned it to her?
"The mirror that the ice maiden took…" Kristoff continued, hesitating. He seemed to be thinking of the best way to break something to Elsa.
"What about the mirror?" Elsa asked. Her frown deepened. What could the ice maiden's mirror possibly have to do with her sister?
"Apparently Anna went to the trolls for help, and they somehow used the mirror to send Anna to Hans's location."
Now Elsa bolted up out of her seat, towering over Kristoff. Kristoff cringed against the back of his chair when he saw the fury on the queen's face. Let him cringe, she thought in anger.
"Why did they say nothing?!" Elsa hissed. The temperature in the room dropped.
"They're kind of weird like that," Kristoff answered. He looked off to the side at the frost forming on the window.
"Why did you not tell me sooner?" she asked next. She could tell from his face that he'd expected that.
"I-I t-t-tried… ssssev-v-veral t-times," Kristoff answered, almost choking on cold air. He started to tremble in a fit of shivers.
When Elsa noticed his teeth chattering, she stopped herself. What was she doing?
"I'm sorry!" she gasped. The room thawed a little. Kristoff coughed as he breathed in the warmer air. "You were just trying to help…"
"It's okay. I'd have been mad too," he assured her. He gave her a half-smile.
Elsa stepped away from him, feeling more ashamed of herself than she had for causing the summer blizzard. At least the blizzard had been accidental.
She suddenly said, "I don't know what to do." She turned away, her lip quivering. Why tell him that? It wasn't his problem. He wanted to find Anna, but the rest of it was no concern of his. Well, perhaps the ice maiden was, after attacking his family.
Kristoff responded with gentle resolve. "The Ice Maiden has the mirror, so we need to find her. But first, we need to deal with that letter from the Southern Isles."
Elsa turned around, stunned.
"What's with the look?" he asked.
Her face warmed as she smiled. She hadn't given this friend of Anna's enough credit.
"It's nothing."
It wasn't 'nothing' to her, of course; it was hope.
A/N: Thank you for reading! Listen to Coldplay's "Up&Up" if you reread the second part of this chapter. I was listening to it when I wrote... it seemed fitting. :)