A Second Tyranny

The Battle of Arendelle (Part 3)

WHIT

The road from the rock trolls' inhabitation to the kingdom was almost entirely downhill. The gradient of the mountains went from steep to medium and then even lower until it was nothing more than a gentle slope of forest. Elsa and I trotted to the forest's edge where the land met the sea. I estimated we were about seventy, eighty yards away from the fortress.

"See the area built along that outermost wall?" Elsa pointed. "That was where I fled the stronghold. Now I am back." She paused, and when realizing I wasn't going to say anything, she continued, "Our plan is to surreptitiously get into the castle, which means—"

"You can't freeze the stretch of water in front of you in order to prevent from being seen," I completed.

"I can still get there by forming a constant ice support beneath my feet, but the problem is: how will you get there, Whit? You can run alongside me, but I don't think the support is big enough for the both of us. Why don't you lift yourself over using telekinesis?"

I waved the idea off. "I'll teleport." Making a courteous gesture with my arm, I said, "After you."

Elsa planted a foot on the water. It instantly turned into glowing blue crystalline solid. With ice forming beneath her and melting behind her trail, she darted across the stretch of sea onto the granite structure. I 'bounced' beside her.

There were several side entrances to the castle. We approached the closest one and, after sighing in relief at the absence of sentries, entered a corridor. Corpses of the king's comrades were sprawled everywhere, the majority with arrows poking out of them.

"Pearce," I deduced. "He, Byron, Janine and their army have been here."

City magicians also lay dead amongst the enemies, but very few.

Elsa instructed, "Come on. The sooner we reach the dungeons to liberate my people, the sooner we'll be able to join the fight."

We skidded around a corner and found that the far end of this corridor was blocked by massive chunks of stone and granite. Soldiers were crushed beneath them. There was a gaping hole in the vault directly above the area. Some formidable wizard must've yanked part of the arched ceiling loose.

We did a U-turn and headed back the way we came. Elsa led me from room to room, hallway to hallway, past the kitchen and through twists and turns. She may have been away for a period of time, but she knew the castle inside out, every nook and cranny.

There came a bark from the end of the corridor behind us. "Trespassers! Intruders in the castle!"

I glanced back and saw three armed soldiers.

"Not just any intruder. It's the Ice Queen! Her and the Allgood boy!"

"Stop them!"

We scampered into a vast portrait room with our enemies at our tails. I veered around a jet of calamitous crimson light that whirred my way, bumping into Elsa. She teetered but did not fall. Focusing on one of the large canvas paintings hanging on a wall, I wrenched it with mental force from its position and sent it hurling at the soldiers, knocking two of them out. Elsa released a rapid stream of frost at the remaining soldier. His face turned purplish-blue as the coldness froze him from inside out.

A dozen more troops bolted in just as we were nearing the opposite doors.

Elsa stomped her foot. A thin coating of ice spread across the polished floor. I felt the frigidness in the veins of my feet straight away. Fingers of ice shot up the striped green walls. The temperature in the room dipped fifty degrees. Because the ice was so slippery and the soldiers were running so fast, they lost their footing and fell, some tripping over each other and cursing obscenely. I conjured a streak of blue light at the chandelier overhead. The chain snapped, and the chandelier smashed on top of the men. Elsa and I hurried out of the portrait room. I barricaded the doors before they could resume their pursuit and Elsa used her ice powers to freeze it. Muffled sounds of bodies slamming against the wood could be heard, but the doors did not budge—they were as solid as diamonds.