A Second Tyranny

The Battle of Arendelle (Part 2)

Author's Note:

If you look at the pictures of Arendelle online, you'll notice that the stronghold doesn't actually have any battlements. It's something worth noting. I didn't realize that until I've finished writing Part 1 of the battle! But then Arendelle is literally one of the most stupidly designed castles out of all those I've seen or read about in medieval stories. It is not built for war. I know, right? It's Disney! So deciding to make a little change in its construction in my fanfic, I believe, is perfectly acceptable.

By the way, all my fanfics are also available on fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own (AO3), just in case any of you prefer the format and presentation on those sites. 

PEARCE

They carefully edged down a steep slope that meandered through the colossal, sky-scraping mountains. The path was narrow, wedged between crags and rock faces, treacherous and unreliable, like it shouldn't be there. But it was a path all right. They navigated in the dark with only the silver moonlight as guidance. Pearce had insisted there were to be no torches, fires, or magically generated balls of light. The last thing they wanted was to blow their cover and give Hans a heads-up they were coming. Hans did not know an army would be attacking from another direction, and Pearce wasn't going to let him know, not until he and the magicians were right beneath the castle walls. Then, and only then, were they to reveal themselves.

Pearce stared up at the night. The sky was tinged with grey and blue. Dawn would be here soon.

He halted. Ahead, the precipices to either side of them came to an end and the mountain became a precipitous drop. This was as far as they could go. Below, separated by a stretch of sea, was the fortress and village of Arendelle, situated at the foot of green, grassy hills that went up and up and eventually became tall snow-capped mountains. Concealed somewhere in those forests was the Valley of the Living Rock, the haven where Pearce had stayed and slept. And now he was on the other side. Directly facing the back of the fortress. It was faintly silhouetted by a weak orange glow, too dull and dim to see from here. That must be where the war was raging.

Pearce mentally measured the distance from the mountains to Arendelle. "By the looks of it, the fortress is about half a mile from here," he said.

"That's, like, slightly over eight hundred metres," Byron said. He voiced the question that was on everybody's minds, "How're we supposed to get there?"

"There are people guarding the towers and turrets. Unless we want to be spotted by Hans's soldiers we can't conjure boats and bridges. Our only option," Pearce said, "is to swim."

He knew it was what they had to do and that they couldn't avoid it. Good thing the people he brought with him were all excellent swimmers. He had specifically made sure of that.

"A thousand magicians swimming across the sea out in the open? Yeah. The guards are definitely not going to see that," Byron replied sarcastically.

Pearce smiled. "They won't, because we will be invisible." It was another thing he had made sure of, that every witch and wizard in the army had the power of invisibility. He said to Byron and Janine, "Since you two don't have supernatural powers, I'll be happy to help you with that."

"You had it all figured out, didn't you," Byron said, shaking his head slowly from side to side.

"Why did you think our friends let him lead?" Janine said wryly.

Pearce asked them, "Do you guys remember the laws of physics they taught you back at school before the New Order? About how you shouldn't confuse the mass of an object with its weight?"