Growing Together Chapter 13
The giant snowmen silently lined up after the battle, awaiting their queen's ministrations. Some of them were simply banged up from their battle with the Spanish; others were badly gouged or were missing limbs. A few were so badly cut up that Elsa was tempted to just wave her hand and turn them back into snow, but she couldn't do it. She was glad that they could feel no pain. Injuries like those in a human would have been agonizing. The problem was that each use of her power on the living snow creatures drained her more and more. After healing the first five, she had to lean on Anders' arm again, and it took longer and longer for her to mend each one after that. Kristoff had tried to just pack handfuls of snow into the weapon marks, but that did no good – the snowmen needed the power of the one who had created them.
"Elsa, you need to hurry!" Kristoff called. "I can see a bunch of soldiers climbing the trail; they'll be here in half an hour or less."
"I'm doing my best," she sighed, gestured, and winced as a snowman regrew a missing arm. The huge creature shuffled over to join its fellows, waiting for enemies to arrive so it could defend its Queen. Elsa took a deep breath, steadied herself, and called, "Next!"
"Elsa, I'm getting worried about you," Anders said. "You're looking pale, and your knees are getting wobbly. All this use of your power is taking a lot out of you."
"I can't stop until my kingdom and my people are safe," she said, too quietly for his liking. "And until you're safe. My power is the only thing that can save Arendelle."
"But who's going to save you?" he asked.
"I'll be all right," she sighed. "Just hold me up a little longer, and then I can rest." He wasn't the strongest man in the world, but the sight of his bride physically faltering brought out an extra reserve of strength in him. If she wouldn't quit, then neither would he. Anna stayed close to her sister as well. Kristoff got out of sight and took Sven with him; he'd firmly asked Anna to join him once the battle began, and she'd reluctantly agreed.
Elsa was about halfway finished, and had almost fainted, when the leading ranks of Stavanger's Company A, First Infantry Battalion, marched into the pass. Leading the way was Major Harstad. He held up his hand, and the soldiers halted. He walked forward until he was about twenty feet from Elsa, Anders, and Anna.
"The last time we met, you called me a trespasser," he called. "Now, you're the ones who are trespassing in my kingdom. I order you to surrender."
Anders waited for Elsa to reply. She glanced at him and shook her head weakly, so he took the initiative. "You are invading a nation that is still at peace with you, in spite of your best efforts to invade us. Your Second and Third Companies have been wiped out, and your Spanish allies have all been taken prisoner. Back down and leave this place, or you will be destroyed as well."
"I have my orders, and you haven't even started to defeat my First Company," the Major snapped back. "I respect you, Prince Anders, and I'd hate to have to kill you. Please surrender and make this easy for both of us."
"Major, please believe me when I tell you this – you will get to Elsa over my dead body." Anders didn't even have a knife – he'd given it back to Kristoff when all the Spaniards were tied up – but he'd vowed to help and support his Queen, and that meant backing her up as she defended their kingdom, even if it really was the death of him.
Elsa reached up to try and fix one more missing hand on a snowman. A few icy sparks flew from her fingertips; then her knees buckled and she collapsed. Anders caught her as she fell. "Elsa!" he shouted. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she went limp.
Major Harstad drew his sword. "If you want to save her life, then surrender. Now."
Anders turned to face the silent, waiting snowmen. "Defend your Queen!" he shouted. "Please." He wasn't their creator; would they take orders from him?
They would take that order from him. With a growl, they shambled toward the soldiers, who quailed, but did not break and run. Stavanger's finest threw their spears, which did their icy foes no harm at all, then drew short swords and charged.
This army was barely a third the size of the Spanish army, but they were better trained, better armed, and better led, and the snowmen were fewer in number and not fully healthy. It was almost a fair fight; both sides were being whittled down at the same rate. At last, it was down to one battered snowman against Major Harstad. The snowman swung at him; the Major ducked under the blow and severed one of the snowman's legs with a backhand swing of his sword. As it fell sideways, he cut off the other leg.
"It's over, Anders," he said with an air of finality. "You've finally run out of options. Surrender or die."
Out of the corner of his eye, Anders saw motion. Anna throwing a snowball at the Major! "Anna, no!" Kristoff shouted, but he was far too late. As she lobbed it, Anders grabbed Elsa's limp hand, pointed it at the snowball, and whispered, "Speed up that snowball!"
No ice crystals flew from her fingers. There was no sign that she heard him at all. But the snowball suddenly accelerated until it hit Major Harstad in the chest with brutal force. He staggered back and dropped his sword, unable to breathe due to the force of the blow. He sank to his knees, and slowly fell face-down in the snow.
Anders claimed the sword with shaking hands. He waited until he could see that his foe was breathing again. Only then did he speak. "Like you said, Major. It's over."
o
Two days had passed. The prisoners from Stavanger had been sent back to their homeland, minus their weapons and all their supplies. The Spanish captives had been turned over to the palace guard until they could be repatriated; their weapons, along with Stavanger's arms, had been added to Arendelle's armory, for use by the palace guard to keep their many prisoners under control. Princess Urraca had formally complained about the inadequacies of her dungeon cell. When informed that her only alternative was to be held in an abandoned gravel pit with her men, suddenly her cell became good enough.
Envoys had been sent out to all the neighboring kingdoms, informing them of Stavanger's aggression and España's treachery. Glauerhafen, in particular, was thankful to learn that Stavanger's army was now at barely a third of its previous strength, and lacking in weapons as well. There would be no peace conference now; Glauerhafen would bring the war to a close on their own terms, which would probably mean the end of Stavanger as a regional threat for many years.
Arendelle's nobles had been outraged to learn that their Queen was just sending the attacking armies home, without demanding any kind of reparations from the attackers. "They never actually invaded Arendelle," the Queen reminded them, "so our case would be questionable at best. They've been humiliated, they've lost all their weapons, they've lost the money they spent to equip their expeditions, and I'm not willing to prolong this conflict."
"Besides," Prince Anders added, "if we did demand something from them, we'd have to hold a peace conference, and the Queen and I have had our fill of peace conferences for a while, thank you very much." Elsa nodded, and that was the end of the discussion.
Kai was making arrangements to send an envoy (with guards) back into Stavanger after the crisis ended, to return the farmer's horses, give him fair payment for their use, and recover Elsa's necklace. Their suitcases with their other valuables had been found among the Spanish army's baggage; the only thing they'd actually lost was Anders' gold cuff links. Those, and the many mental shocks they'd endured as a result of their attempt at international diplomacy.
The giant snowmen had been fully healed and turned loose to enjoy the chilly climate of the mountains that separated Arendelle from her neighbors. Elsa had instructed them, "Don't let any groups of soldiers from other nations enter Arendelle unless a member of Arendelle's royal family says it's okay. Aside from that, you're free." They were launching the mother of all snowball fights when she left them.
There had been an impromptu royal ball at the palace to celebrate their victory and the return of their sovereign. Kai presented the Queen, the Prince-Consort, Princess Anna, and Prince Kristoff with the Royal Order of the Tulip, First Class, for their actions in saving the kingdom from a double invasion. This medal could be awarded only at the Queen's order, and Elsa didn't want to give herself a medal, but the other three refused to accept their decorations unless she got one, too. Elsa and Anders danced together once, because it was expected of them, but their hearts weren't in it. They were still trying to process everything that had happened to them over the past week. After an hour of watching everyone else dance, they excused themselves and retired to the royal sitting room. They needed to be alone for a few minutes.
"Elsa, there's something you're not telling me," Anders began slowly. "I've never seen you get that physically weak from using your power before. You still aren't yourself. Is there something else going on that I should know about? Have you seen a doctor lately?"
"Actually, I did see the doctor this morning," she said hesitantly.
"What's wrong?" he burst out as he leaped to his feet.
"Well... it's kind of embarrassing," she stammered. "It's hard for me to say this..."
"Okay, would it be easier to say it indirectly, like the way you proposed to me?" Anders didn't want to play guessing games, but anything that got her talking would be good.
"Umm... all right. What's my official title?"
"Queen Regnant, of course. You're the queen, by blood and not by marriage, so you're the ruling sovereign. What does that have to do with anything?"
"All right. I spy, with my little eye, something that rhymes with 'Queen Regnant'."
Anders thought for a few seconds. "That's a tough one. The only thing I can think of is Queen Puh... puh... puh..." He staggered back, stunned, and collapsed onto the nearest couch. "Are... are you sure?"
"The doctor is quite sure," she smiled as she sat down demurely in his lap. "That's why I had so little energy on the mountain. It looks like you've done the job I hired you for."
"But I'm not going to lose my job, right?" he asked nervously.
"Anders, don't talk nonsense!" she exclaimed. "If we have a little boy, you're going to show him how to be a man. If we have a little girl, you'll show her how a good man treats his lady, so she can find a good man of her own some day. You're going to show the whole kingdom what it means to be a good father. And in the meantime, we'll probably start another one."
"Another one?" He was desperately trying to process all this. "How many?"
"I don't know, obviously," she said with the first touches of genuine happiness she'd shown in days. "No one knows. The one thing I do know for sure is that my sister is going to be a regular Fertile Myrtle once she and Kristoff get rolling, and while I'll probably never beat her in a contest like that, I have to at least make the attempt. After all, I'm the queen!" She kissed him lightly. "No, my precious prince. Your work has just begun!"
He kissed her back. "I guess job security is a good thing." He gazed in her eyes and saw more love than he ever knew existed. Yes, job security was definitely a good thing.
The End
o
A/N
I received many, many requests for a sequel to "Thawing Together." This story's genesis was the principle of storytelling called Chekhov's Gun, which states that "If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." I had alluded to a few possible future story lines in "Thawing Together," like Elsa's fear of sea travel, or Princess Urraca's anger at Arendelle's Queen. When I decided to write a third "Frozen" story, those plot lines were already in front of my face, demanding to be resolved; all I had to do was flesh them out and merge them into a coherent story. The motive for that merger, the war between Stavanger and Glauerhafen, was also from "Thawing Together," so you could justifiably refer to this story as "Thawing Together, Part II." Still, the three stories form a trilogy, and I have no plans to write a fourth story. Sorry. (Of course, that could change tomorrow if I get a good idea that's worth writing about.)