For the fourth time, Elsa caught her thoughts getting away from her as she just sat and stared at the papers on her writing desk. She hadn't come to finish her signatures from the night before, although that would be next. She could not exactly concentrate on that for the moment though, not with Lord Martin's shrill voice and Lady Cathrine's calm admission reverberating in her head.
If only Kai could be here now to advise her! But that wish just brought on all her guilt for both the manservant and his wife, Gerda. Even so, thinking of him did bring some comfort.
"What would Kai suggest?" Elsa asked herself. Normally when Kai advised her, he would suggest that she think of how her father would have solved the problem.
It had been a long time since her father's last governance lesson. Elsa rubbed her forehead as she tried to think back to one of her father's caveats on domestic politics.
Ah, she thought as it dawned on her. That was why she was having trouble remembering at first. It hadn't been a domestic affairs lesson. It had been a lesson about war; specifically, her father had lectured her on the skills necessary for making and keeping alliances. Elsa had been entirely focused on international alliances. Her father had had to remind her of the importance of knowing her friends and enemies within Arendelle as well.
"But... aren't all the nobles loyal to you?" she had asked at the time, barely a teenager and just coming to understand how much there was to being a ruling monarch.
"True, the most influential noble families date back to our first king, Harald I. Today's nobles inherited their titles and roles just as we inherit ours. But others have come into aristocracy... and even those whose families have been in it for generations are, at the end of the day, complex human beings. Do you remember what I told you about what we need from the common people?"
"To rule well, we need the people's love, their trust and inspiration."
Her father had nodded. "It's just the same for the nobility. These are the men I expect to help me lead soldiers into battle. These are the families I trust to collect taxes which I then use for the betterment of our kingdom. But they are not just tools for those purposes. They are families. Whenever I make a decree, I first have to ask myself how it will affect not only the common man, but the lords and ladies. Will raising this tax solve a problem or create a bigger one? Will limiting A and B exports do the same, even though it may be part of negotiations with another kingdom?"
Elsa must have made a face, for the king had laughed. She would get it eventually, but in those early lessons, it had seemed entirely too tedious to Princess Elsa.
"Why can't you just do whatever you want? You're the king."
"Sweetheart..." He had addressed her with affection but grew stern. She would never forget his eyes, at once both warm and severe. "After a point, that would become tyranny."
Elsa must have looked worried then. She would do anything to feel his reassuring squeeze on her shoulder again.
"Fear not. Sometimes rulers have to make difficult choices. Sometimes we can't make everyone happy. And sometimes, you may make a mistake. But if they love you, they'll forgive because they understand you. That's why you need allies within Arendelle. But... again, people are complex. You also need to know how to recognize if someone refuses to follow and work with you."
Lord Stein came to mind as Elsa thought over her father's advice. Was he a hopeless cause or would she be able to gain his trust and loyalty? Lord Martin did not seem to have the same strong distaste for Elsa that Lord Stein had. But his nervous disposition might make him vulnerable to others' manipulation.
One thing was certain. The nobles had clearly met and discussed her engagement before meeting with her. The question was if Lord Harald was the ringleader in that idea. To find out, she would need to work quickly to ensure she had allies among them. If the Southern Isles were not pacified by her letter... and if Harald was working against her, she would need all the help she could get.
Elsa tried to think of what she knew about each noble. She had spent far too much time in isolation, so it wasn't much. She conjured up miniature snow figurines of each lord or lady, eyeing them all in deep thought.
There was Lord Harald himself, a distant cousin from her father's side. He owned significant land in the northwesternmost section of Arendelle. He had acted as regent during the three years before Elsa came of age. He was only about a decade older than herself, but he referred to himself as an 'old man'. The man clearly fancied himself a wise ruler. Was all of his imposed counsel coming from good intentions or more sinister motivations?
Elsa moved on to Lord Stein, lord of the coastlands just east of Arendelle. Her head ached as she recalled the hostility that sprang from his every word. So far as she could recall, she had never done anything to warrant such aversion. Yet he had called her news about the Ice Maiden's attack an 'excuse'. Did that mean Stein believed Elsa had heartlessly turned her manservant into an ice statue? Why would Stein think such a thing? Hadn't all the nobles heard by now that her blizzard had been a mistake?
In any case, Stein was one she would have to watch out for.
Lady Cathrine was a wealthy widow with an estate along the edges of town. She seemed a most likely ally. Even better, she seemed more levelheaded, perhaps because of her age and experience. She was certainly quick to push the marriage issue, but seemed otherwise trustworthy. Elsa assumed Lady Cathrine was not under Lord Harald's influence for now, although she would not rule out the possibility just yet.
The other lady present for the meeting, Lady Linn, had seemed a nervous thing. She and Lord Martin owned land north beyond the mountains. She was certainly nowhere near as outspoken as Lady Cathrine. But Elsa found it telling that Lady Linn had been the only one willing to tell Elsa the truth whereas the other nobles hesitated. Maybe Lady Linn herself had been pushed into an unhappy political marriage with Lord Martin. She did seem ready to agree that an engagement at the least would help settle the current unrest in Arendelle though.
Lord Martin complicated Lady Linn's potential as a friend, or at least he would until Elsa was more sure about him. He was one who was quick to panic. The man seemed particularly on edge over the subject of the Southern Isles. True, he had complimented Elsa's letter tactic for appeasing the other kingdom, but Martin was too skittish to be relied upon for now. Perhaps Elsa could win him over if she established her strength. Perhaps not.
At least there was Lord Jorn. He would definitely make a good ally, she decided. He seemed a reasonable fellow, ready to solve problems and to give the queen the support needed to do so. His castle was also not too far from town in the case that he needed to be called on. Yes, she was sure he was trustworthy.
There were a lord and lady who could not attend that morning's meeting. Elsa knew little about Lord Albin aside from his old age and poor health being the reasons for his absence. But it was Lord Jorn who had paid Albin's apology and respects. If the two of them were close, Elsa supposed that Albin could be trusted as well. As for Lady Birgitta, she was terribly pregnant. Her husband Gustav, an ambassador in Glowerhaven, had sent her home to Arendelle to have their child. She was to have the child any week now. Naturally, neither she nor her husband would make the best of allies for the time being. But Elsa would be sure to send Gustav a congratulatory letter once the child was born, as well as to plan a visit to Birgitta to make sure she and the baby were both in good health.
For now, there were more pressing matters. She wanted to get to know the other six nobles better, including Harald. While she didn't want to be paranoid, she did not want to end up in another meeting where everyone had decided on something without her beforehand. There was no way she would marry Lord Harald. The sooner she weeded that sorry idea out of their heads, the better.
Elsa left her desk to go to the window where she could look out over the fjord. The water looked cold under the overcast sky. She thought of her father again and briefly wondered if he too would have suggested an engagement.
"I suppose one day I may have to," she thought aloud. But it would be when it was her idea.
Elsa looked back to the little crowd of miniature snow nobles on her writing desk. With a flick of her wrist, she dispersed the snowflakes holding them together and sent them glittering up toward the ceiling where they disappeared into the warm air. Then, indulging herself just a little, Elsa conjured up two person-sized forms made of snow. These she sculpted into the likeness of her sister and the ice harvester. Anna's likeness stood near Elsa's desk, smiling as if in mid-invitation for building a snowman. The snow-Kristoff stood closer to Elsa, smiling in reassurance.
She thought of the last time she'd seen Kristoff—just after the Ice Maiden's attack. She had nearly flown off after the Ice Maiden, but it was Kristoff who stopped her. Now Kristoff himself had set out to find her so that Elsa could focus on the issues at home. He must have seen that she was overwhelmed. Like Anna, he was only trying to help.
Elsa sighed. All she could do for him for now was reinforce her protection spell. Until she had someone to trust Arendelle with while she was away, she couldn't keep leaving the palace. It was just one more reason for her to get started on building alliances.
Lady Cathrine would be the first.
The shrieking wind startled Anna awake. She heard glass break as she sat up in her cot. Instinctively, she held her arms up to shield herself, not knowing what the source of all the noise was. Then she saw the window had been smashed. Wintry cold seeped into the cell, making Anna shiver.
Hans was up and alert, his eyes locked on the cell door. Anna scrambled to untangle herself from her blanket and join him. But her eyes went to the window, where she watched the bars ice over. In seconds, the metal shattered. For a moment, Anna's heart raced, thinking that somehow Elsa must have found her and come to her rescue. Then her hopes sank as she realized it was more likely the princess.
Behind her, the cell door burst open. Sure enough, Princess Kirsten stepped in from the hall, wildly beckoning them to follow her out.
Without a word, Hans and Anna ran after the little princess. She led them down the dank dungeon hall. Most of the cells were empty, but a few contained sleeping occupants. Anna wondered at the absence of sentries.
I guess she took care of those? she thought, gaping at the princess's back.
They turned left at the end of the corridor into what Hans would have thought was a dead-end. There was a stairwell to their right. He turned toward that when he saw the wall to their left. But both Kirsten and Anna called to him. Anna almost reached out to touch the wall herself when she remembered she was supposed to be a stranger to the palace. She held back and waited for Kirsten to open the door to the secret passage behind the wall.
Kirsten reached out and dragged her finger between two stones that were lighter than the rest. When the lock clicked, Kirsten pushed on the bottom stone. A narrow section of the wall moved inward as a door would. Anna smirked as she heard Hans's intake of breath.
Hans just stood dumbly for a moment, looking less than enthusiastic about stepping into an unlit passageway in the walls. Anna grabbed him by the arm and pulled him in so that Kirsten could close the hidden door behind them.
"A secret passageway?" Hans asked in the darkness.
"Shhh! The walls surrounding the passage are thinner," Kirsten whispered. "Come!"
Anna hesitated, unable to see a thing. Then, a faint crackling noise filled the air and a small light twinkled in Kirsten's hands cupped together. The princess blew the light away from herself. The three watched it creep forward like flakes of snow in the wind. Anna wasn't sure whether it was or wasn't snow because of the way it glowed and lit the passage. But it was definitely magic—magic that allowed her to follow her great-great grandmother without worrying she'd trip over something in the dark.
"That was magic," Hans whispered after letting Kirsten gain some distance ahead of them.
"I know," Anna said.
"You don't seem surprised."
Anna shrugged. She had suspected something unusual about Princess Kirsten from the moment they met. The girl was all too like Elsa: the cagey conversation and reluctance for eye contact were tell-tale signs of someone who was used to isolation. The most unfortunate thing seemed to be that King Olaf had made no effort to understand his daughter's gift.
Not that King Agnarr had been much better.
Anna stopped in her tracks. What? she thought. Had her parents known about Elsa's power? She stopped in place, pain tearing through her head like slashing claws as she felt on the verge of remembering...something.
"Anna?" Hans stopped when he noticed she'd fallen behind.
She stopped rubbing her forehead and smiled. "It's nothing! Random headache! C'mon, let's get moving!" She felt Hans's doubtful gaze follow her as she passed him to catch up with their liberator.
Kirsten had stopped at yet another apparent dead-end, though Anna knew that wall would open to the kitchens, which they would have to pass through to reach the next hidden passageway. She put on her best confused face as she approached Kirsten, however.
"We'll have to get through the kitchens to get to the next passage. They should be serving breakfast now. And the rest will be eating in the staff dining room," Kirsten explained.
Anna grinned, proud of the princess's planning. She nodded along with Hans to show they were ready whenever Kirsten was. Kirsten reached for a flameless torch on the wall to her right and rotated it clockwise. When she had fully rotated the torch and it clicked back into its original place, the dead-end wall shuddered and popped open. Kirsten dashed out in front of them. Anna moved to follow but immediately bumped into Kirsten. Hans, consequently, bumped into Anna, who then almost knocked the princess forward.
Anna grabbed Kirsten's shoulders to keep the girl from toppling face-first into the circle of angry faces awaiting them.
"Papa!" Kirsten gasped. Anna felt the princess tense. When she saw the dark look the king was giving them, she could understand why.
"This is too much, Kirsten," Queen Elsebet said, standing to the far left with a guard between her and the king.
"You were there when I went to talk with him," the princess said, balling her fists at first as she met her father's harsh glare with one of her own. Although she looked at him, she continued addressing the queen. "He wouldn't even listen. He's too stubborn. So I decided to act."
"You disobeyed your king!" King Olaf snapped.
"It was the right thing to do. You wouldn't even listen to their story because the other troll hunter had already got you wrapped around his finger!" Kirsten retorted.
Anna's eyes moved between the two as they barked at one another. She had to give the princess credit. She had a stronger will than she would have imagined.
"Guards," the king said in a lowered voice. Somehow his sudden calm made everyone more nervous than when he'd been shouting. "Take Hans to the throne room for his sentence."
Anna's eyes widened. Sentence? What did he mean by that?
"Papa! This was all my idea!" the princess objected.
"Now," the king ordered, completely unmoved by his daughter.
Without even thinking, Anna spread her arms out and stepped in between Hans and the approaching guards. She narrowed her eyes at a guard on the right who ordered her to move.
"Papa, stop this!" Kirsten shrieked.
"Enough!" the king snapped, shouting once again. "He is going to lead the troll hunter to the trolls' lands. You are going to stop this insolence at once, or so help me..." Somehow, beneath all the powdery makeup, King Olaf had gone purple with rage. Seeing this, Princess Kirsten quieted, glancing helplessly toward Hans and Anna.
The guards pushed past Anna, though she put up a fair fight. Two grabbed Hans as one held her away from him. Through all this, Hans stared at a distant point on the floor.
"Hans!" Anna said. "You know you can't!"
He wouldn't look up at her. Whether it was another episode of odd behavior or because he felt helpless, Anna didn't know. She couldn't tell what he was thinking, but she had to try to reach him anyway. She even jerked her arm free so she could try to grab at him, but the guard beside her yanked her back.
"Hans!" she repeated, raising her voice a little. "You can't take him there. There are children!"
With a wave of his hand, the king yelled over her. "Enough!" he ordered. "Take her away."
That was when Queen Elsebet decided to intervene. "My love," she cooed. "The dungeons are no place for a girl."
The king opened his mouth in irritation. But when his eyes fell upon his serene wife, it seemed enough to calm him. He looked off toward his daughter and scowled.
"Fine. I don't care where you keep her, but keep her away from him."
The guards started leading Hans away. That was when he met Anna's eyes. In that moment, the room disappeared around Anna as she just stared at Hans looking back at her. She saw that same softness she caught earlier. And although he looked away a heartbeat later, in that moment, she felt hope.
She caught one last glimpse of auburn hair beyond the crowd before he was out of sight. Anna tore her eyes away from the kitchen exit to glare daggers at King Olaf. King Olaf ignored her entirely and gave a single curt nod to the guard on her arm. The guard moved to escort her away when Kirsten stepped up to him, her eyes narrowed in clear warning.
"Do you want to lose a hand to frostbite?" the princess threatened.
With a squeak, the guard practically threw Anna's arm free before backing up to his comrades on the right.
"You disappoint me, child," the king grumbled. When Kirsten refused to acknowledge that he'd spoken, the king scoffed. He left, a look of absolute disgust on his face when he turned away from his daughter.
Anna held back her gratitude when she saw her great-great grandmother on the verge of tears.
"May Anna stay with me for now, Mama?" Kirsten asked, her voice wavering.
"If she must..." Queen Elsebet answered after a pause. She seemed distracted by her husband's trail. Clearly the queen was more concerned about her husband's anger than her daughter's pain. "For now," she added. She mumbled a dismissal to the guards before she pursued the angry king.
When it was just the two of them, Anna expected Kirsten to fall apart. Instead, the princess turned toward her with a smile. "I'm sorry I failed. Follow me?"
Without awaiting a response, the princess walked toward the door leading out of the kitchens. Anna stood still for a second.
Now what? Would Hans be okay? Would she?
At first, Kirstoff refused to deal with the mirror shards. Instead he had hoped to poke around the Ice Maiden's castle. She must have known he would try as much, for he quickly discovered that every door to the hall was frozen shut. Oh, he tried pushing and pulling with all his strength, but not one door would budge. He then resigned himself to looking for a window. But they were too high up and largely blocked by snow.
If you want to leave this place before you grow old and die, make the mirror whole.
He wasn't afraid of many things. Olaf had been creepy at first, but Kristoff eventually warmed up to him. Elsa's snow angels were eerie themselves, but they too were Elsa's creations. The Ice Maiden was cruel, but since she did not appear able to harm him directly, Kristoff could hardly be too frightened of her.
But the thought of being stuck in this winter castle well into old age absolutely terrified him.
He'd never save Sven or Maija and the other robbers. He'd never rescue Anna. He might never see Elsa again.
Kristoff actually sank to the icy floor as the gravity settled over him. Then he blinked, having to shield his eyes as light caught them. He shuffled to the side a little, hoping the changed position would protect his eyes. Then he looked down at the pile of broken mirror pieces. He glanced up. The sun wasn't exactly shining down through the windows. What had that light been?
There it was again! Kristoff blinked and looked down. A shard no bigger than his thumb glinted up at him. He almost reached for it, stopping himself just in time as he remembered Grand Pabbie's warning about truth mirrors.
Imagine a mirror that can only show us the truth. It would never reflect what we show it... instead, it might show us our most secret desires or deepest fears. It might show one's past; it might show one's enemy. Such power could work miracles, but it could also drive one mad.
That left him with a conundrum. If Kristoff refused to help out with the mirror, the Ice Maiden might keep him alive and alone for as long as she could. He'd certainly go mad.
But...if he dared touch the mirror, it too might drive him mad.
Kristoff gritted his teeth over his lousy options.
The mirror shard glittered again, startling him. He definitely wasn't imagining it unless the mirror had already driven him mad.
He scowled. Maybe if he just got a closer look...
He got on his knees and leaned over, seeing light flash across the single mirror piece yet again. As he got closer, Kristoff thought he could see movement in that single shard. Then he did see movement in it. Unable to help himself, Kristoff reached down and picked up the mirror fragment, his eyes widening in recognition.
The mirror showed him his enemy. But his enemy was not alone.
A/N: Thank you for reading! Yes, you'll have more answers in the next chapter. But not ALL of the answers. ;P