A Second Tyranny

Returned to the City

WHIT

Come on, Olaf!

How much time had passed since he leaped into the Portal? Ten minutes? Twenty? I had no problem keeping the Portal open with my powers earlier on, but now it was taking all the strength I had in my body. I could already feel my M debilitating, my energy sapping away. I felt it happening in the others too, for we were all linked. But I couldn't move or break the connection, not until Anna and Olaf came out.

How much longer did I have to keep this up? What if something bad happened to them?

It was unwise for Elsa to entrust such an important task to a snowman, but there was nobody else in the square except Olaf. And even if there was somebody standing nearby, I doubt they would risk a venture into the Shadowland to retrieve a girl who may or may not even be alive. Olaf was plucky, I'd give him that. I could only hope that he succeeds in finding her.

"Come on, Olaf," I muttered under my breath. "We're counting on you." I stared at the heart of the gigantic black pit in the ground.

Someone suddenly flew out of the void, so fast that I didn't get to see who it was. But I thought I caught a glimpse of a magenta cape and a flash of strawberry-blonde hair. The person soared in the sky and landed about twenty yards to my right. She rolled before coming to a halt, lying on her side with her back faced toward us. The girl sat up, rubbed her arms and legs, and got to her feet.

Could that be—?

"ANNA!" I heard Elsa cry.

The girl spun around at the sound of her voice. When she saw Elsa, she covered her mouth with her hands and gasped. "ELSA!" She shouted back in happiness. She took in the scene before her and quickly looked around at the surroundings.

"I can't believe it! You're alive!" Elsa screamed in order to be heard over the spiralling thick murk that was the Portal. She seemed to have forgotten that the five of us were still linked. I watched as she struggled in her position.

"Concentrate, Elsa!" I reminded her.

We needed her magic to keep the Portal open. If Anna was here, Olaf couldn't be far behind. I saw Anna nodding at her sister, indicating that I was right. Elsa smiled and returned her attention to the Portal.

Another person emerged from it and was thrown towards the far side in front of me. I heard a crash behind Beric. Somehow I didn't think that was Olaf.

Wisty turned to glance at the person, and yelled, "Who was that?"

I was just as curious to find out. It wasn't a Half-Light or a Lost One or any other soul that lived in the Underworld, but a mortal human being.

I heard the snowman's scream long before he came out of the Portal a few heartbeats later. Olaf whizzed past me and hit the ground behind me, the impact disintegrating his head, thorax, and abdomen. I couldn't help but gape as Olaf's body parts arranged themselves back together as neatly as the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

"Ahhhh, much better," Olaf sighed in relief after he was whole again.

I shook my head and turned back to the others. I noticed that they were also gawking at the snowman. Olaf got Anna out, and it was time for us to close all the portals.

Just when I was about to remind everyone, I saw a shadowy figure materialize from the dark pit. I caught sight of its decaying arms, the hollow yellow eyes, and the stringy flesh falling away from its bones, and immediately recognized it as a Lost One, one of the Undead. There was no mistaking it. It spotted Anna and glided towards her ravenously.