Growing Together Chapter 8
Once they thought they'd gotten well clear of the Spanish camp, Anders took Elsa's hand. "I think we're safe for a while. Can you make this storm ease up? We need to see where we're going."
She looked stricken. "Anders, I can't. I'm really scared… for you, for me, for Anna and Kristoff, for my whole kingdom! These Spaniards mean killing, and if they've teamed up with Stavanger, how are any of us going to survive? In a week, there might not be any more Arendelle!"
He rested his hands on her shoulders; he could feel her shaking. "Elsa, you've been through more stress in the past twenty-four hours than in the whole past year. You've been shipwrecked, you've been set adrift, you've been lost, you've been threatened, you've been imprisoned…" He shook his head. "The fact that you're still on your feet and fighting is a feat in itself. Don't try to solve all our problems at once! Let's take one thing at a time." When she shook her head fearfully, he just took her in his arms and held her, stroking her hair with one hand and whispering, "It's going to be okay," until she began to relax. The ferocity of the storm slowly subsided until it was about as bad as a normal blizzard. They still couldn't see where they were going, but the flying snow didn't hurt their eyes now.
"What are we going to do?" she asked quietly, as though afraid the Spanish might be able to hear her.
"We need to get as far away from this camp as we can before they find out we've escaped," he decided. "We're in the middle of a hostile kingdom, and we're a long way from home."
"It's at least a hundred and fifty miles from here to Arendelle, if we're where we think we are," she recalled.
"And we'll never be able to outmarch trained soldiers," he concluded. "We need to get some horses."
"Can't I just make an ice track along the ground, and push us along in an ice-toboggan?" she asked.
"If anyone sees you doing that, they'll know exactly who we are," Anders replied with a shake of his head. "We have to look like ordinary people, or we'll be captured for sure."
"Okay. Well, how can we pay for horses?" Elsa wondered. "The Princess has all our valuables, and we can't steal. Can we?"
"There's no need to steal," he observed. "You're still wearing some jewelry. That necklace around your neck will easily buy us two horses and some tack."
"Anders… I couldn't do that!" she exclaimed. "This necklace belonged to my mother! It's one of my favorites!"
"We'll work something out, then," he said. "First, we have to find someone who will sell us some riding horses; then we'll figure out the details. For now, we need to find a road, so we can follow it to the nearest town. The Spanish probably camped near a road, so they can march on it when they're ready to move, but not close enough that anyone on that road could see the camp. Let's head north."
"Why north?" she asked.
"Why not?" he replied. "If we don't know which way we should go, then one direction is as good as another. The only direction we don't want is back the way we came." She nodded, and they set off. They got their bearings from the wind direction and made their way through the snow. Elsa's legs grew tired of fighting the snowdrifts, so she walked on top of the snow after a while. "Show-off," Anders muttered.
After what felt like an hour (but was really about half that time), they found a dirt road running east to west. West would take them back to the barren coastline, so they went east. The snow and wind continued unabated. Anders made several attempts to soothe his wife and calm her fears, but got nowhere. This was a storm they would both have to ride out. At least the snow would make it hard for any pursuers to overtake them, and the wind would obscure their footprints after a while.
It was a long, uncomfortable walk, even though the cold didn't bother them. When they finally reached a small town, they found it boarded up against the storm. Anders had to hammer on the door of the stable-keeper's house for nearly five minutes before he finally got a response.
"What do you want?" the man demanded through the barely-opened door.
"We need to rent two riding horses, one saddled for a man and one for a lady," Anders explained.
"I'd be crazy to let my horses out in weather like this!" the man burst out. "Are you crazy, too?"
"No, sir, but we have a long way to go and we can't wait too long to get started," Anders replied. "If you aren't willing to risk your horses, we'll buy them outright."
"I don't think you're carrying enough coin to pay for one horse, never mind two," the man said.
Without a word, Elsa took off her necklace. The man's eyes went wide. "That's worth a lot more than two horses," he exclaimed. "I don't know if I can accept it."
"Fine, here's what we'll do," Anders decided. "You take the necklace, and we'll take the horses. In a week or two, we'll come back with the horses and pay you a fair price for the use of them, and you'll give my wife her necklace back. If we don't return, or if the horses are lost or injured, the necklace is yours. Is that fair?"
The man thought for a fast moment. "All right," he nodded. "Let me get my coat, and I'll show you which horses are yours, and help you get them saddled." In about half an hour, Anders and Elsa were riding at a relaxed pace across the hostile kingdom of Stavanger. Elsa wasn't nearly as practiced in the saddle as her husband, but riding on a road didn't tax her abilities.
"I wonder what that man would say if he knew he'd just helped his kingdom's enemies escape," Anders grinned.
"Technically, Stavanger isn't our enemy yet," Elsa corrected him. "They're planning all kinds of evil against us, but they haven't actually done anything. We need to keep that in mind."
"That's a technicality," he grumbled.
"It is," she nodded, "but that's how the game is played. Kings and kingdoms have risen and fallen over technicalities."
The roads were nearly deserted; the snowstorm was going ahead of them and driving everyone indoors. When they passed a coach, they greeted the coachman politely, so as not to draw any attention to themselves. They succeeded in looking like ordinary people. They were hungry ordinary people, because they had to skip both breakfast and lunch, but hunger was the least of their troubles.
They stopped for the night in a tiny town that didn't even have an inn. One of the local farmers was willing to rent them a spare room for the night, supper and breakfast for each of them, and stabling and fodder for the horses in exchange for one of Anders' gold cuff links. "You look like awfully fancy folks to be traveling without a coach," he commented as they ate their supper.
"We were on our way to a social function when we were waylaid and robbed," Anders explained. "They took our valuables, but they didn't search under our coats, so we still have a few little baubles we can trade."
"Where are you headed?" the farmer wondered.
"Arendelle," Elsa answered. "We have family there."
The old man shook his head. "I hear that Arendelle isn't the best place for a good citizen of Stavanger to be these days. There may be trouble. I hope you get there before it starts." They nodded as they finished their meal.
When they awoke, the snowstorm had diminished to a mild flurry, which made the horses much happier. They made somewhat better time, now that Elsa had gotten a bit more comfortable in the saddle.
"Shall we stop for lunch here?" she asked as they approached a medium-sized town.
"I think we need to skip lunch again," he answered after a moment. "I have one cuff link left, and once that's gone, we'll have no way to pay for our night's lodging. We'll let the horses rest and munch in that pasture for half an hour or so, and then we have to keep going." She nodded; they dismounted and sat on the fence as their horses searched for green grass in the snow and the late-autumn growth.
"This might be the first time in my life I was forced to miss meals and go hungry," she thought out loud. "I can't imagine living this way all the time. Maybe I'll arrange for a bit more of our royal budget to be spent to help feed the poor." Then they resumed riding. They spent this night much like the night before, thankful that no one in these little towns recognized them.
"Can we go a little slower?" she asked wistfully as they set out the next morning. "I'm getting kind of saddle-sore."
"My love, I'd love to go slower for you, but we don't dare," Anders replied. "The mountains that separate Stavanger from Arendelle are up ahead, and they're going to be rough for travelers like us. By the end of today, we need to be on the other side so we can warn our kingdom, and then get ready to help repel an invasion by two armies at once."
"Anders, how are we going to do that? Our Royal Guard will be outnumbered by twenty to one or more!"
He nudged his horse closer to hers, and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Elsa, the Guard can't help us against an invasion. We don't have an army big enough to stop anybody. That's the price we pay for trying to be a peaceful kingdom. If anyone is going to stop the Spanish and the Stavangers, it will have to be you."
"Me?" she blurted out. "I'm willing, but... how?"
"I'm working on some ideas," he said absently. "First, let's get over those mountains. Any idea which of those passes up ahead will be the best one for us to travel on?"
Elsa thought for a moment, then pointed. "That one, to the right. I'm pretty sure that's Farbar Pass. It's the only one for miles that has a road leading through it. That road will lead straight down the other side into the Duchy of Potet. The other passes are completely wild; they'd be a hard hike, and the horses would never make it. No one ever uses them unless they're on the run."
"We're on the run," Anders nodded, "but I don't think we'd be wise to go cross-country when we're in a hurry. Does Stavanger keep guards at the frontier?"
"Normally, no; we've always shared a peaceful border," she said. "They usually have a customs agent up there, watching out for smugglers and stolen goods; we do the same thing. But if these aren't peaceful times, who knows what we'll find at the top of that mountain pass?"
"If that's the only way we can go, then we'll go that way," he decided. "If they've posted guards up there, then we'll tell them we're going to visit family in Arendelle, which is the truth, and we'll hope they don't recognize us." Queen Elsa nodded, and they guided their horses onto the road that led to Farbar Pass.