Gerda walked slowly as she crossed the gallery to the stables. She tried to delay the moment where she would arrive there and her father would tell her he had not seen Kai. At the same time, she was also berating herself for not having thought of checking this place earlier. Sure, she had unconsciously excluded it from her search, following the unspoken rule about not disturbing the sick, but it was likely Sven would be completely recovered by now, judging by how much better he had been when they had all visited him in the morning.
As she was about to enter the stables she had to make way for a tall, gangly man who was slowly walking out, carrying a large bag.
"Good afternoon to you, Your Highness," the man said solemnly, saluting with his hat.
"Good afternoon, Doctor Andersen," Gerda said, curtsying. "Is Sven fully recovered now?"
The doctor paused and chewed his moustache for a while before answering.
"I'm not so sure about that any more, Your Highness. In fact I now fear he may not have for long."
Gerda froze.
"For long to recover?" she said, in case she had misunderstood.
The man shook his head.
"I'm afraid it's the other thing, Your Highness," he said.
"But… I thought he would be up and about by the end of the day! He was already so much better this morning!"
"It seems it was worse than I had thought," the doctor said, looking embarrassed. "He had a serious relapse around lunchtime. It has been going downhill very fast since."
"But how did it happen? He was in full health this summer! We were playing with him and Father in the hills, before the storm came! And last week he was still going around with no problem!"
"He caught a pretty bad fever. I have tried what I can but he is too weak now to fight it."
"But he has always been so strong! It's not the first time he gets sick. He is always fine after a few days!"
The doctor chewed his moustache some more before answering.
"Yes, Your Highness," he said at last. "But you must understand that he's old now. He's lived for far longer than any of his kind usually does. This may be the last straw. I'm sorry."
"So… there is nothing you can do?" Gerda asked in a small voice.
"He did not respond well to the medicine I gave him earlier this afternoon. I tried a stronger dose now, but it does not seem to be having much more effect. We can still hope the night does him good. If not… that was the last of the remedies I know. I'm sorry, Your Highness."
"Thank you," Gerda managed to say. "Is… is Papa... I mean, Father… I mean, His Majesty... there?"
"Yes, His Majesty had been here since the beginning of the afternoon. Your snowman friend is with him."
Gerda thanked the doctor and curtsied him goodbye, then slowly entered the stables. It took a few seconds for her eyes to get accustomed to the lower light while she walked toward Sven's stall.
The big reindeer was sprawled on a bed of straw, with a blanket covering him. He turned his head toward her as she came close and tried to bray a welcome, but could only manage to wheeze.
"Easy there, big guy," her father said softly. King Kristoff was seated on the straw in the stall near Sven, gently caressing his flanks. "Hello, Icicle," he said to Gerda.
"Hello, Father," Gerda said. "Hello, Sven," she said, patting the damp muzzle. "Sorry I did not come sooner today."
Sven wheezed as he stuck his tongue out, trying to lick her hand.
"He'll be all right," her father said in a strangled voice. "Are you, big guy?" he added, caressing the large head.
Gerda looked at her father and swallowed with difficulty. It was even harder than she had thought. She did not like to see her father worried, and he always was whenever Sven got sick. But this was a whole new level of sadness. Hearing the doctor's words had been a terrible blow, and the simple idea that Sven could disappear had brought her on the verge of tears. She remembered how she had cried, five years ago, when she had discovered that one of the little cats of the castle had died, and it had not been a family member like Sven was. She had needed a lot of comforting from her parents that day. But looking up into her father's face, and seeing his eyes red with barely held back tears, and hearing the sobs contained in his voice, was worse than anything she had ever known. Her parents were the pillars of her life. They were not supposed to be crying. How would a crying father be able to comfort her? Who would comfort him if she could not?
"Yes, he will," said another voice. "The doctor's potion will make him right as a charm. Even if it did not taste good."
Gerda noticed Olaf sitting on the other side of the reindeer. The snowman was holding one of Sven's hoofs between his twig hands, and patting it occasionally.
"It was for Sven, not for you, Olaf," the King said in a harassed voice.
"I only wanted to taste it. But I'm sure it will do wonders for you this time, Sven," Olaf went on reassuringly.
Silence fell in the stables, only broken by the gurgling sounds from Sven's stomach and his wheezing. Gerda was trying very hard not to cry, if only because she feared to see her father begin to cry as well. Crying was a strangely contagious thing.
"Er… I wanted to know," she said after a while, trying to keep her voice steady, "if you had seen Kai?"
"Oh yes," Olaf said readily. "He has been there since the beginning of the afternoon. He left something like an hour ago."
"Oh. And you have not seen him since?" Gerda said to Olaf in a lower voice.
"No. Have you seen him?" Olaf asked in the same tone.
"Yes but… wait… you said he had been there since the beginning of the afternoon?"
Olaf nodded. Gerda hesitated, looking at her father. The King had been whispering comforting words in Sven's ear while patting his flank. She felt her heart break a little more at the sight.
"Olaf, could I… talk to you for a second?" she asked softly with a meaningful nod toward the door.
Olaf nodded again, gave Sven's hoof one last pat, then stood up and moved away from the stalls. Gerda noticed that the snowman was walking slowly without his usual sauntering. She followed him after one last look at her father and Sven.
"When exactly did Kai leave?" she whispered when they had reached a safe distance.
"At the same time the doctor did, after he gave Sven the first dose of that potion of his," Olaf said. "I remember well, he was with us when we talked a bit outside."
"You talked with Doctor Andersen?"
"Yes, I wanted to know what he thought without Kristoff being around," Olaf said, glancing at Gerda's father on the other side of the stables. "I think Kai was there when we were talking, and he left after that."
"And… what did the doctor tell you?"
Olaf looked again at Gerda's father before answering.
"It does not look good," he said eventually in a very low whisper.
"And… Kai heard that?" Gerda said.
"Certainly, he was right next to me. Now that you mention it," Olaf said, frowning, "he left in a hurry after that." A look of concerned realisation slowly spread on the snowman's expressive face. "Oh. Maybe I should have gone after him to check that he was all right. The first experience of the loss of a loved one can be quite traumatic to younger minds and he may have been in need of comfort. Do you know where he went?"
Gerda remained speechless for a moment. Understanding was finally dawning on her, and, with it, a growing feeling of shame.
"I'm sorry," she whispered after a while.
"Oh, you should not. Survivor guilt is a well known reaction to this kind of situation, but you are not responsible for Sven's state," Olaf said in one breath.
"Not Sven's. Kai's," Gerda said slowly. "I… I did not understand why he was so upset…"
"So you've seen him?"
Gerda nodded. Whatever Olaf said, she thought that the overwhelming feeling of guilt she was experiencing was particularly justified. After seeing Sven so much better in the morning, she had not doubted for one second that he would be completely all right after a few days, as he had always been, and she had opted out of visiting him again to let him recover in the quiet. So she had not been there when the bad news had struck, but Kai had been. And she had not understood his pain, just as he had apparently not understood that she was simply not aware of Sven's state, and she had shouted at him childishly. Granted, he had not made her task easy by expressing his pain mostly through calling her horrible and breaking her mirror instead of crying or simply talking to her about it, but that did not excuse her for not having reacted like a responsible twelve year old should have.
"I need to find Kai," she said resolutely.
She thanked Olaf, went to give her father and Sven a hug, and ran out of the stables.
Kai landed lightly from his jump, but did not brace himself for another leap. The exhilaration of moving with giant steps had been enough to propel him forward for some time, but the novelty was beginning to fade away, and he took a moment to consider his situation.
Skipping across the city had been immensely fun, and almost enough to make him forget the awful news about Sven and how shellfish his sister was. Yet he had not been able to put them completely out of his mind, especially when he would find himself briefly longing for his sister to witness him leaping over a fountain in one giant bound, or regretting Sven was not here so that he could try jumping on his back without any help. These moments would sadden him once again, and he would take another jump forward to forget.
He had not given much thought to the cause of his sudden incredible ability, chalking it up to one of those strange effects of the wind he had heard about. Maybe he had found the wind equivalent of a sea current, like those that could help boats go much faster in the stories his sister – no, his mother, she was not shellfish - would read to him. The few people he had seen in the streets had all seemed more concerned about getting back inside than marvelling about his newfound leapfrogging abilities. The wind was still raging across the city all around him anyway, but he still could feel little more than a breeze, and the hearty push whenever he jumped forward.
And his jumps had eventually brought him to one of the city gates. They were open, with some guards nearby trying to shelter themselves from the wind. Kai had hesitated for a moment there. He had been moving like in one of those dreams where you remember how to fly, while trying to get as far away as possible from one of those nightmares you desperately want to wake up from, and had not spared much thought for the transgression he had been committing, but leaving the city was something different entirely. For one thing, it would mean passing in front of the guards, who would probably recognise him, and may try to stop him. Leaving the city was even more forbidden for Kai than leaving the castle, and the guards certainly knew this.
Then a particularly strong gust of wind had blown, although once again Kai had only seen its effects on his surroundings – it had merely shaken the lapels of his coat and blown a few strands of his hair into his face. But the guards had not seemed to like it at all, and had retreated into their box, or run away in pursuit of their caps. And Kai had taken another jump, not even quite sure why, and another of those helpful gusts of wind had sent him whizzing through the gate and into the world beyond. The shock of realising what he had just done, combined with the exhilaration of exploring this place all by himself and a desperate need to avoid thinking about what was going on in the castle, had urged him to take another jump after that. And another. And a couple more.
Now the city was far behind, or so it seemed to him. In reality, he had barely left the fields and orchards surrounding the city walls, but to Kai this felt as if he had gone halfway through to the other side of the world. And the prince was beginning to realise that he was alone and surrounded by trees, bushes, and other more dangerous things seldom encountered in the castle. The howling wind was sweeping the landscape around him, making dead leaves fly around in a complicated pattern, but still not much stronger than a gentle breeze to him.
Kai stopped halfway while climbing up a small hill, and turned to look at the city. The spectacle was breathtaking. The sky was darkening, and he could see the lights in the city coming up one by one. He gazed at the patterns of the streets and the buildings spreading out in the distance as if he was looking at a doll's house. Further away was the large shape of the castle, slowly lighting up too, with the bridge linking it to the city dotted with little lights.
The castle reminded Kai of his family. They were probably looking for him now, or maybe they had not even realised that he had gone. And he could probably go back there in time before anybody noticed anything, so he would not get scolded or punished. And maybe if he went back now everything would have become right again – Sven would be healthy, and his sister would care for something else than her mirror. But maybe he would also find things as he had left them, with his father crying, Sven about to leave forever, his sister hating him, and his mother locked in her office by her advisors like Gerda sometimes was when she had an assignment from her tutors. And things would only get worse if they knew he had left the castle and the city.
Kai turned away from the city to look at the countryside. He could still see the path in front of him. He vaguely remembered having been there a few times, with his family. They had been happier times, nobody was sick or crying and his sister still cared about her family. Maybe, if he went just a bit further, everything would be right again? After all, he could always double back to the city any time he wanted – he could see its lights shining. And, well, he had gone so far already, maybe he could just walk a little more, since he was neither tired nor hungry.
Kai took a short jump, turned into a long leap by the always helpful wind, that brought him to what had been the limit of his vision before jumping. And now from there he could see the little path he had been following winding on further in the growing darkness.
Jumping cautiously forward and sometimes walking for a while, Kai went on through the countryside and further away from the city.
Gerda ran throughout the castle, stopping anybody she met to ask them if they had seen Kai. She had considered going to see her mother again, but had eventually decided against it. This was her mistake, it was hers to fix. She needed to find Kai, and apologise, and try to console him. Only after could they go to see their mother for some extra consoling, although Gerda suspected the Queen would probably need to console their father first. And possibly she would need to be consoled too, although at this point Gerda had run out of would-be consolers. She decided to focus on finding Kai first instead.
She was walking through a corridor she had already checked when the distant sound of a door slamming brought her to an intersection she had neglected so far. It ended in a small door that led outside, and that the wind had apparently forced open.
She dutifully went to close it, since leaving doors or windows open was not advised in this weather. And that one was a small door that she or even Kai could operate herself, and had done so countless times in the past when going outside was not forbidden.
Something caught Gerda's eye as she was about to close it, and she froze with her hand on the handle. There was something lying on the ground, only a couple of feet from the door. It was one of the buckles from Kai's shoes – she had seen them earlier when she was telling him not to put his feet on the couch. And it was beyond the door, outside of the castle, in one of the parts where it was forbidden to go in this weather.
Gerda stood on the threshold, feeling a horrible suspicion growing into her mind. What if Kai had left the castle? This would explain why she had been unable to find him so far. Leaving the castle alone, especially in such a weather, was highly forbidden for both of them, and Kai knew that. But Kai was not in a normal state of mind. For one thing, he had said he never wanted to see her again – and so had she. And then there was the news about Sven. Gerda felt herself on the verge of tears at the idea that the large reindeer could… leave forever, and she could only imagine how that would have felt for Kai, who had had no experience with that sort of thing before, and had probably also witnessed his father breaking down, a sight that terrified Gerda. He had seemed so despaired…
Gerda looked at the gallery beyond, trying to find any other clue about Kai's whereabouts. And then she felt her heart jump again as she realised the gallery ended in the main courtyard, very close to the gates leading to the bridge. Looking behind her in case someone would happen to pass by the corridor and get the wrong impression, she marched into the gallery and retrieved the buckle. She was somewhat relieved to notice that the wind did not seem as strong here as it was elsewhere, but that was balanced by the worry at the confirmation that the buckle was indeed Kai's. She quickly glanced around her, then inched over the side of the gallery to glance at the courtyard beyond.
There were a couple of people there, running around clutching at their hats, with their coats flapping in the wind. Gerda found this strange, as she did not feel much wind on her side, but did not dwell too much on it. What caught her attention on the other hand, was a small ribbon that had been caught in the masonry of the wall. She retrieved it, but she had already recognised it as something that Kai had been wearing earlier.
Clutching it, Gerda tried to get another good look at the main courtyard without being seen. Then she ran back inside the castle, closing the door behind her, and ran up the stairs to one of the highest rooms overlooking the courtyard. She gazed intently through the window, trying to see if she could spot her brother hiding down there. She failed to see him anywhere in the courtyards below, but what she could see easily once she looked beyond the castle walls were the large waves crashing intermittently over the bridge. If her brother had decided to cross it, and if one of these waves had crashed while he was there… she shivered and stopped herself from completing that thought.
The wind was still blowing fiercely on the other side of the pane, scattering leaves, twigs, and various other debris across the landscape. As Gerda watched, desperately trying to see anything looking like her brother down below, a bunch of dead leaves slapped wetly on the pane before whirling away, making her jump. Gerda followed them with her eyes as they were swept away toward the city until they disappeared in the distance. Then her gaze focused on the city streets, and for a second she thought that she could see a small figure there, moving swiftly near one of the city walls. She blinked, and was unable to find it again. It was hard to be sure with the distance, but if the figure was real Gerda could have sworn it had been wearing something green – the colour of the coat her brother had been wearing today.
It could not be Kai, she reasoned, leaning against the window. Even assuming he had decided to make good on his promise to never see her again, there was no way for him to be already there, unless he had set off running outside of the castle right after leaving her, and even then she doubted he could have been that fast. And that was assuming he would have been able to cross the bridge with the terrible waves crashing over it. Then again, she preferred to believe her brother had managed to cross the city at the speed of a horse rather than imagining him being on the bridge when one of those waves had hit…
She desperately looked through the window again, but could not see any more clues. Still, she had definite proof that her brother had left the castle, if only to go into the main courtyard. And, if he had indeed left the castle, she fervently hoped that it was really him she had seen in the city, if only because one of the alternatives was too horrible to consider.
She tried to think fast. If Kai was still out there – and lucky enough to have escaped the waves and the wind - then he was in deep trouble. Gerda tried to imagine what their parents' reaction would be, but she could find no example in her own experience for a transgression of such a size. They would be incredibly worried when learning what Kai had done, and probably ground him for some time, possibly forever, and herself as well. Maybe they would be worried to the point of having a row between each other - something Gerda had witnessed only twice in her life, and, while both times had been more of a tense conversation than an actual row, she was not eager to witness another one. And all of this was her fault. If only she had understood better what her brother was going through, or managed to find him earlier, things would have gone better and they would now be both with Sven and their father and Olaf.
Gerda looked at the city again, wondering what she could do. Going to fetch their parents was the most obvious course of action, but she was not entirely sure of what she could tell them. Was it worth disturbing her mother during her work and her father during his grief for something she was not sure of? How much trouble would she be in if she roused them all only to discover after some time that her brother had finally come back into the castle after a brief look into the courtyard? Not to mention how that would look to him if Gerda was to bring their parents on him as soon as he wanted to find a quiet spot somewhere? Then again, if Kai was really out there, and if it was really him she had seen in the city, no matter how impossible that seemed, then not doing anything was way worse – especially given that she kept feeling responsible for all of this.
There was only one way to be sure. She had to try going there herself.
She felt a shiver as the thought came to her, then realised that it was the right thing to do, even if it scared her, and not only because it would be dangerous. She prided herself on following the rules – even if she had occasionally discovered that her own interpretation of them was not always the same as her parents' - and the interdiction to go outside as long as the weather was like this had been quite clear. But being a responsible twelve years old meant being willing to fix her own messes, not matter the risks.
A few minutes later, having made up her mind, she was running down the stairs toward the stables.
Kai stopped walking and looked around him. He was lost, and trying very hard not to cry.
Whatever he had felt after leaving the castle, that mix of exhilaration, pain, wonder and will to forget that had propelled him forward, had long since disappeared. Now he just felt miserable, and afraid, and lost. He dreamed of going back to the castle, where it was warm and where his family would take care of him like they used to before. Only his parents would probably scold and punish him, and Sven would still be on the verge of leaving forever – but maybe his sister would stop caring about her mirror just long enough to comfort him out of his misery. And seeing anyone was better than being alone.
He had lost sight of the city when the path he had been following had sloped downwards, and now he was running in circles trying to find it back. The sky had turned definitely cloudy, and the night had all but fallen, which meant that there was now barely enough light for him to see more than a few feet ahead. He was also getting more tired by the minute – even with the wind helping him, his dash across the city and the countryside was finally taking its toll.
Once again, he found his path blocked by a small creek. The water was flowing fast enough to prevent any attempt to cross it. Kai was pretty sure he had crossed a creek on the way there, only that one had been almost dry and he had been able to pass without trouble. He was unable to find it back now, and this frustrated him.
Kai considered calling out for help, but managed only to let out a small gurgle. He was beginning to be really afraid now. He tried to remember what his father had begun to teach him about living in the wilderness, but all he could think of right now was playing with Sven in summer, which brought back the painful memory he had been trying to forget.
He tried to follow the creek for a while, but had to move away from it after running into a thick bush that grew along the bank – and once again, found himself unable to find the creek again after walking around the bush. He remembered too late his father talking about checking from where the water was flowing as a good way to find your bearings and tried to double back to find the creek again, but was unable to. He could still hear it, or at least some water, running in the distance, but could not seem to locate it.
Kai was tired, and was beginning to feel cold too. The wind had abated - so much so that he could not even feel the breeze that had accompanied him so far, and he was back to being able to jump no further than a few feet - but the cold was coming with the night. He wanted to drop down and sleep for a while, but one piece of advice he distinctly remembered his father telling him about was that you should always find a shelter before going to sleep. But right now building a tree-house did not seem nearly as fun as the last time he had done it with his family.
Kai eventually noticed a small speck of light in the distance. As he tried to move cautiously toward it, he noticed that it seemed to flicker like a fire, but with a purple tint that he had seldom seen in a flame. A fire with this kind of colour rang a very distant bell, but right now he felt too tired, cold, and afraid to try finding out where he got the memory from. As he got closer, he realised the fire seemed to be burning from inside a cave up some kind of slope. Enough light spilled out to allow him to see the terrain between him and the cave.
Slowly, Kai made his way up the rocky hill toward the fire.
Gerda tried to move silently as she reached the stables. There were few people around, but she did not want to be seen right now. She was about to commit a felony of the worst kind – disobey a direct order that even she could see was for her own safety - and she did not want to get caught before having the chance to go through with it.
She reached her horse's stall without incident and began to saddle her mount. She had just finished when a voice behind her made her jump.
"Are you leaving?"
Gerda turned, discovering to her relief that the person who had spoken was Olaf. He was the less catastrophic encounter to make in the current circumstances. The snowman was the closest thing she had to an elder brother, although the relationship was more complex than that. While he could be quite insightful and sometimes offer surprisingly mature advice, on other occasions Olaf seemed even more childish than Kai. His occasional habit of spouting long sentences that seemed to come straight out of a book was another thing that made Gerda wonder exactly where he stood between a remarkably knowledgeable big brother and a goofy little one who repeated things he had not fully understood.
"Oh, hi again, Olaf," she stammered. "Erm, I wanted to, er, wanted to…"
"Have you been allowed to go outside?" Olaf asked eagerly.
"Uh… OK, listen, Olaf, I'm… I'm sorry…"
"Ooh!" Olaf's eyes opened wide. "You want to sneak outside without permission?"
"Listen, Olaf… It's… I want to find Kai."
"Kai is outside?"
"I… Maybe he is. Listen, Olaf, something happened earlier today. We had a big row with Kai. It's my fault, really… I didn't know Sven was doing that badly, and that Kai had been there when the doctor said he was going to… when the doctor was there earlier, and so Kai became angry because he was feeling sad and thought I did not care, and… and I got angry with him too, and told him I never wanted to see him again, and he said he would leave forever, and I think… I think he's left the castle. I'm not sure but… I think he could have gone to the city."
"He went to the city on his own? But that's very dangerous with this weather!"
"I know!" Gerda said desperately. "That's why I want to find him! It's my fault he went there!"
"I don't quite see how that would be your fault…"
"I should have understood! I am twelve, I should have been the most mature of the two! But I… I shouted at him instead. So now I have to fix this. If I can bring Kai back before Mam… Mother and Father know that he's gone, he won't be in trouble, and nobody will be upset!"
"Hmm," Olaf said, looking at her dubiously.
"Please, Olaf. I know I'm not allowed to go outside but… Look, I'll be on my horse so I will be faster, and I have been allowed to ride it on my own since last summer, and I took my coat and even my bag with everything Pa… Father said you should never leave without when going outside, and I could be in the city and back before anybody knows I'm gone!"
"Hmm," Olaf said again, rubbing his chin, or where his chin would have been had he had one.
"Please, Olaf! I just want to make this right! If I can find Kai and bring him back before anybody knows he's gone, nobody will get hurt, everyone will be all right, and Kai will know that I care about him. And we will all see Papa and Sven. And if Kai is not in the city, well, at least I will be sure!"
"Hmm," Olaf said once more, still rubbing his absent chin.
"I know I should warn Mama and Papa, I mean, Mother and Father, but they will get worried, and be angry after Kai, and he will get scolded, and he will be even sadder than before, and maybe I will get scolded too, and it will all be my fault anyway! Please, Olaf!"
"Hmm. Can I come with you?"
"Wait, what?"
"It's my fault too. I did not speak enough with Kai when he was with Kristoff and Sven. I did not pay attention to his emotional distress at his first confrontation with the demise of a loved being. I was too focused on comforting Sven and Kristoff. So I did not offer him the emotional support that a close one is supposed to provide in times of distress. Ergo, I am just as responsible for this as you are, if not more, because I'm older than you anyway. Q.E.D." He leaned forward conspiratorially. "That means I just made my point," he whispered loudly.
"OK," Gerda said, halfway between relief and worry. But in any case, Olaf's presence might lessen the gravity of what she was about to do if she got caught, and the two of them might be better at reaching through to Kai, assuming they managed to reach him in the first place. "Let's go now."
Olaf helped her to open the door of her horse's stall. The castle gates were still open – there was a standing order from her mother about that, even in the case of bad weather - and the people venturing outside were rare enough to make reaching the gates undetected quite easy. A few minutes later, Gerda's horse was running across the bridge.
Kai staggered into the cave. He felt exhausted, cold, and frightened. A fire was burning in the middle of the small space. The prince vaguely wondered where this rocky hole could be, as he had never seen anything like it near the castle. Maybe he had gone much further than he thought. He certainly felt as if he had been walking for ages.
"Hello?" he called.
There seemed to be nobody else in the cave. The fire was burning with this strange, pink glow, and Kai was unable to see what was burning exactly – what was at the base of the flames seemed far too small to produce such a large fire for so long. Still, its heat felt completely natural and quite welcome after the cold of the night.
Kai gratefully sat near the fire. It went on burning, and he felt the warmth slowly enter his bones. Soon, the cold was only a memory, clearing the place for fatigue and hunger. Kai considered getting outside again to find something to eat, but fatigue and fear won. The little boy curled on himself in front of the fire as he felt his eyes close. A few minutes later, he was sound asleep.
He surfaced for a moment as he thought he felt the ground move under him, but drifted back to sleep before having the time to investigate.
Gerda reined her horse to a stop and turned to look at Olaf behind her in the saddle. She was running out of ideas, and any second brought closer the risk of her parents discovering her disappearance, and Kai's as well.
Crossing the bridge had been surprisingly easy – the waves that crashed around it had abated for just as long as it had taken her horse to cross it. She had also been surprised at the wind – she could still see debris being blown around and flags flapping violently, but she herself felt nothing more than a breeze.
She had encountered a few people brave or foolish enough to be outside, and asked each of them about Kai. It was a great risk, she knew, as even if she succeeded they could later on tell her parents about having seen the princess riding around Arendelle and asking about the prince in a weather where all obedient children should be safely at home, but she hoped that her parents would be more lenient if they learned about her escapade some time after it happened. And asking was the best way to make sure that Kai had come to the city indeed.
A couple of people had indeed claimed to have seen Kai, which had both relieved and worried Gerda. It was her first concrete clue to her brother's whereabouts, but it confirmed her fears that he had indeed left the castle – though it also meant that he had somehow managed to cross the bridge unharmed. What Gerda found more disquieting was that some of the witnesses insisted they had seen Kai making incredible bounds across the city, which to her worried mind had sounded more as if her brother had been swatted around by violent gusts of wind. But they all insisted it really did not look like that, and that he had even seemed to be enjoying himself somewhat, which inclined Gerda to disbelieve their claim of having seen Kai in the first place. What they could not agree on, however, was where they had seen Kai and where he was headed to. Gerda was beginning to get the feeling that her brother had been moving completely randomly, unless many other boys looking exactly like him had been running across the city this evening.
And, while she hoped dearly that Kai had decided to come back to the castle without meeting her on the way, she knew she could not rely on this hope to warrant stopping her search. However, with the night falling, and even with the street-lights slowly coming up, searching was becoming more difficult by the second.
"Any ideas, Olaf?" she asked.
"Yes. We should go back and have a nice warm cup of chocolate."
"I'm not coming back without Kai. Unless he came back without us seeing him."
"I don't think he could have done that," Olaf said, voicing Gerda's fears aloud. "But maybe he went… there!"
Gerda looked in the direction of the snowman's pointed finger and shivered. It was one of the gates leading out of the city.
"Why do you think he would have gone there?" she asked, hoping that Olaf would answer it was a random guess.
"The last person we asked told us he had been moving very fast across this street, right? But old Mrs Haugen told us she had seen no one pass by her window in an hour. So, he turned before arriving at her house. And he could only have done so by taking this street, which leads straight to the gate." Olaf looked at Gerda's astonished gaze and added with false modesty "That is deducting. I read about it in a book where they used it to find stolen letters."
"OK," Gerda said dully. Far from a random guess, Olaf's insight had turned out to be perfectly sound. Then she brightened up as she realised that Kai may have been stopped and sheltered by the guards there, who would have been waiting for the weather to calm down before accompanying him back to the castle. It was not the best outcome as far as discretion was concerned, but at least it meant her brother was safe and sound somewhere. "Let's try that," she said, directing her horse toward the gate.
The guards had retreated in their box, but they came out when they heard the sound of hooves on the cobbles. Gerda was not entirely sure how aware these guards were of the interdiction for her to go outside, but they would certainly report the princess presenting herself at the gate to their hierarchy, which included her mother at the top of it.
"Do you want me to do the talking?" Olaf asked as if he had been reading her thoughts, reminding Gerda that, as far as understanding people's feelings went, he did regularly prove that he was indeed a few years older than her.
"That would be great, Olaf, thank you," Gerda whispered back, as she drew her horse level with the guards' box. If Olaf distracted them, they may not come close enough to recognise her horse or its rider. And the little snowman was under no restriction that she was aware of.
"Hello, good evening!" Olaf said, jumping from the horse and trotting up to the guards. "Lovely day, isn't it? I'm sorry to disturb you during your important duty, but I had been wondering if you had seen a boy recently."
Gerda tried to look at the guards, but the problem with staying far enough from them to avoid being recognised was that it also prevented her from seeing much of their expressions. The lantern that one of them held did not help. Thankfully, he directed it at Olaf instead of her.
"Oh, good evening Olaf," the guard answered. "Funny you should ask that… Karl here thinks he saw one running through the gate about half an hour ago. There was this nasty gust of wind, you see, and we went to take shelter in the box, but he thought he saw movement and…"
"I know what I saw," the second guard cut in. "There was this little boy who jumped through the gate in one bound. I'm sure he was there…"
"Oh, come on, Karl!'' the first guard said. "Who would be around in a weather like this? There was nobody on the path beyond the gate when we went to look!"
"Yes, because there was this other gust of wind that lasted forever, and you said we should stay inside until it stopped…"
"We would not have seen anything with all those dead leaves flying around! It was almost like a small tornado, blowing right here!" the first guard said, showing the space after the gate. "Nobody would have been able to pass through that! And your mystery boy could not have gotten that far anyway, even in the time we waited for this gust to calm down…"
"Yes he could. I told you I had seen him leap from here to there in a single bound…"
"Excuse me, Sirs," Gerda called from her horse. "Did you see what this boy looked like? How was he dressed?"
"What?" the guard named Karl said, turning toward her and raising his lantern. "Oh… good evening, Your Highness. He… he wore a green coat, and I think he had red-blond hair…" The guard started, as if suddenly realising something. "Come to think of it, he did look a bit like Prince Kai, but I could only see for a second…"
Gerda did not let him finish his sentence. With a shout of "Kai!" she kicked her horse, and rushed through the gate and onto the path beyond.
It was too dark now to see the dead leaves fluttering in the wind blowing around her. But for a second, the street-lights around the gates flared with a purple hue.
Author's Notes: My first Frozen fic involved a doctor who I unimaginatively called Andersen. I decided to keep the name for this other doctor.
Reindeers live around 15 years apparently. In theory Sven was already very old in Frozen II. Of course, there is no need to get realistic, except when it serves the story...