Broken Hero

Chapter 3

Jack's POV

"Jack, what are you doing?" Kristoff demanded as I watched Elsa vanish down the ladder.  I took a deep breath.

"Sending her where she'll be safe," I answered.

"You're doing this wrong.  You don't know Elsa like I do.  Doing this is only going to drive her away.  Is that what you want?"

"No.  You know that.  But if something happened to her . . ." the memory of Elsa on the floor of the Emporer's chambers as the life bled out of her came back into my mind,  "I'd never forgive myself.  I made a promise that day.  I'd never let anyone hurt her."

"She's totally capable of handling herself.  And what could happen?  We're just setting stones in the wall."

"What if she has a pain attack in the middle of moving a stone?  It could crush her.  She could fall off the wall and die.  Is that what you want, Kristoff?"

I closed my eyes.  Two different people appeared in my mind.  One was Alexander Snow in her archer uniform, leg covered in blood and saluting in my direction.  The other was Elsa, dressed in a beautiful kimono and giving me a glowing smile.

Which one was real?  Which was the Elsa I was engaged to?  Or was she somehow both of them?  It was all too confusing to get my head around.

"Of course I don't want her dead," Kristoff told me.  "I'm just saying do you really know who you're about to marry?"

A trumpet blasted in the distance.  I immediately turned to one of the nearby soldiers patrolling the wall.

"What's going on?" I demanded.  His face was a mask of shock and panic.

"We're being attacked!" the soldier gasped.  "The invaders are almost to the wall!"

My training kicked in and I started shouting orders, calculating numbers and distances.

"Get the workers off the wall and up here!  I want all soldiers on the edges of the wall with bows and spears!  Find out who's attacking and report back to me!"

I glanced out over the forest.  I could see a trail of smoke and dust coming closer.  The first hailstorm of arrows was already appearing.  I'd known it was a possibility we could be attacked, but not here, not now.  This was exactly what I was trying to protect Elsa from-

"Elsa!" I realized.  "She's down there!  We have to get her back on the wall!"

I moved towards the edge of the wall but Kristoff grabbed my shoulders and held me in place.

"There's nothing we can do for her now," he warned.  "They already took up the ladder.  We'll just have to hope that she hears the horn and flees, or she's far enough to be safe."

But I knew she wouldn't flee.  As soon as she heard the horn she'd come running back to defend the wall.  She'd done the same thing with Hans.  But now it was her against an army.  And it was all my fault.

Elsa's POV

I kicked a loose stone in the path as I marched away from the wall.

What was Jack's problem?  I was only trying to help.  Why'd he have to turn it into a boy-girl thing?

He's just trying to keep you safe, Anna's voice soothed in my mind.  I shook my head.  What if I didn't want to be kept safe?  Life wasn't about being safe.  It was about taking risks, learning from your mistakes, protecting the people you loved.

A pang of pain jolted up my leg.  I paused and glanced back at the wall, rubbing my calf.  Maybe I was being rash.  Hadn't I always wanted someone to respect me, to love me?  Jack was doing just that in the only way he knew how.  Maybe not a good way, but sometimes that's how things happened.

A trumpet sounded somewhere nearby.  I grabbed my bow and peered into the trees.  That wasn't just any trumpet.  It was a war horn.

"Jack," I whispered.  I started creeping back through the trees in the direction of the wall.

Something glinted in front of my eyes before an iron force grabbed my sleeve and pinned it to a nearby tree.  I glanced down, utterly bewildered.  A throwing knife protruded from the bark and the sleeve of my uniform.

"Put the bow down, or I'll give another demonstration of just how accurate our throws are," a low voice threatened.  I reached for my own spare knife and moved to throw it in the direction of the voice when another knife pinned my other arm to the tree.  I was trapped.

Five warriors stepped out of the trees.  The wore dark green, which was why they had hidden so well.  The black war paint on their faces marked them as Kumachi, the most powerful and dangerous nation we shared borders with.

"We weren't supposed to make a scene," the oldest warrior growled.

"I didn't make a scene, did I?" one of the younger warriors asked.  "Besides, we weren't supposed to let anyone escape to warn of the invasion.  This pretty thing here heard the war horn and was coming to investigate.  And see that uniform?  She's part of the military too.  Silver laurel pinned to her collar.  She's a dangerous one I'd bet."

"Then just slit her throat and let's move on.  We have an ambush to catch."

"I'm not slitting her throat.  I outrank you.  You can't order me around."

The first speaker was positively furious now.  He was older and my assumption was he was higher ranking, but maybe that didn't mean anything?

"Family ties don't matter on the battlefield," the older warrior snarled.

"Just because you don't have any," the younger warrior sneered.  "I'll be Toten one day and don't you forget it.  We're taking her with us as a prisoner of war."

The other three warriors seemed to agree with the younger one.  They freed me from the tree, forcefully tied my hands behind my back, and prepared to march me away.

The young warrior who claimed he would be Toten ripped my silver laurel off my collar.  He threw it on the ground.

"Ranking won't protect you.  And neither will this."  He snapped my bow in half and tossed the remains into the grass.  "You live or die by my word and mine alone."