by Mari Mancusi
“Iduna!” a farmer called, waving to me. I waved back, a feeling of joy washing over me.
“Hey, Mr. Hansen!” I greeted him. “How’s everything going?”
“Wonderful!” he declared. “My farm has never produced so much. And now that we’re not reliant on horses to do all the heavy work in the mill, we’ve started breeding them instead. We’ll have a whole new stable of foals soon, ready to be sold.”
As he spoke, a small white colt skittered across the field on spindly legs. I laughed as he darted toward me, then stopped in front of me, nuzzling my hand. I reached into my satchel, digging out a carrot. Fortunately, I’d traveled prepared.
“Here you go, boy,” I said, stroking him softly. As he chomped down on the treat, I looked up at the farmer. “What’s his name?”
“We called him Havski,” the farmer replied. “It means handsome.”
“He certainly is a handsome boy,” I agreed. “When he’s ready to be sold, will you come to me first? I’ve never had my own horse before. Maybe it’s time.”
“Iduna, you can have him for nothing!” Mr. Hansen exclaimed. “After all you’ve done for us, it’s the least I could do.”
I grinned, happiness washing over me. “Thank you,” I said. I knelt down in front of the colt, who was already sniffing my satchel for another carrot. “I’ll see you soon, Kjekk,” I whispered. “And I promise, you’ll have all the carrots you can eat.”
I rose and headed down the hill toward Arendelle, feeling proud and content. Like the trolls said, what was a princess, anyway? Someone who was born lucky. But I had made my own luck over the years. That had to count for something, right?
Agnarr didn’t want to marry Runa. He’d made that perfectly clear. He was only trying to do what was right, what was expected of him as king. Now all I had to do was prove that we could be right together, too. Just in an unexpected way. It might not be easy to convince the council. But between the two of us, our love had the power to move mountains. Surely we could move a few minds to our side as well.
And King Nicholas and his daughter could go back home where they belonged.
Speaking of King Nicholas…I stopped, realizing I was not far from the Vassar encampment just outside of town, colorful pavilions dotting the clearing, their country’s flags waving from the tops. I knew King Nicholas had refused Peterssen’s offer to stay within the city walls, saying as soldiers they were used to fresh air, not the confines of city life. At the moment, the place looked half abandoned; most of the men were likely out on patrols, keeping Arendelle safe from new attacks.
I frowned. That was the only downside to all of this. Agnarr would have to publicly reject Runa if he were to marry me. That would be an insult to King Nicholas. Would he withdraw his patrols? Would that lead to an escalation of attacks? Would it put people’s lives in danger? We had been so fortunate Vassar had come to town with their army just as things were getting bad….
Fortunate. Or…
I frowned, a sudden disturbing thought prickling at the back of my brain. I glanced over at the camp, my eyes locking on a clothesline just outside the perimeter, filled with Vassar cloaks, hanging out to dry…just like I had found cloaks at the Arendelle camp that fateful day in the Enchanted Forest.
I shook my head. No. This was crazy. Absolutely crazy. And likely dangerous, too.
But then…
I set my jaw, tiptoeing over to the clothesline.
“For Arendelle,” I whispered to myself.
“YOUR MAJESTY! THE PEOPLE ARE WAITING for you. You’re not even dressed?” Kai clucked disapprovingly. “Why, it’s almost noon!”
I groaned, yanking the covers over my head, wishing he’d go away. The last thing I wanted that day was to face the council, as well as the people of Arendelle at the weekly petitioner session. Not to mention have to look at the smug face of King Nicholas and have him try to foist his daughter on me once again.
Ever since learning from Kai and Gerda that there was no official rule requiring me to marry a princess, I’d been trying to figure out a way to get Runa and her father to go home. Once they were out of the way, I could make my case for Iduna. It was going to be difficult, seeing as I had no idea where Iduna had gone.
No one had seen her since the night of the explosion. To make matters worse, King Nicholas wouldn’t take the hint to go home. If anything, he’d dug in even deeper since the night of the ball, assigning his soldiers to patrol the streets and guard the castle. And Peterssen had let him get away with it all, because it meant Arendelle would be safer. That was the number one priority, he liked to keep reminding me.
In other words, my love life would have to wait.
“Your Majesty—”
“I’m up, I’m up!” I grumbled, forcing myself out of bed. Kai helped me with my green suit, then assisted with flattening my bed head hair. I usually protested that I could do this myself, but today I didn’t have the energy to argue.
“Your Majesty seems out of sorts,” Kai remarked casually, though his eyes held a knowing look. He escorted me to the mirror and had me sit down on a stool in front of it as he worked a brush through my hair.
I sighed. “Arendelle has become like a prison, thanks to King Nicholas. Did you know he even canceled the annual holiday ringing of the yule bell?”
“Yes. I was sorry to hear that. I always enjoyed that tradition,” Kai agreed politely, dabbing sticky goop onto my hair to smooth any unruly flyaways into place. “But if it is for Arendelle’s safety, I suppose it is for the best.”
“I suppose,” I muttered, sick of hearing that line. It wasn’t as if I didn’t care about keeping Arendelle safe. I did. It was just something about the way King Nicholas went about it all….
Suddenly, Gerda burst into the room so abruptly that I jumped and Kai dropped his brush.
“Now see here, Gerda!” he scolded. “You really need to learn to knock before—”
“She’s back!” Gerda interrupted, a huge grin on her face.
I stood up, knocking over my stool. “Who?” I asked, hardly daring to breathe. But even as I asked the question, I knew there was only one person whose reappearance could get Gerda this excited.
Her eyes gleamed with happiness. “Lady Iduna,” she said, clutching her hands to her chest. “She’s here. In the Great Hall. The First Great Hall. Not the Second Great Hall. I saw her waiting with the other petitioners.”
My heart thumped. Kai reached down for his comb, but I waved him away. “My hair’s fine,” I told him. “I’ve got to go!”
I dashed to the door. When I reached it, I turned around, catching Kai and Gerda exchanging fond looks. My heart melted a little at the sight. Because of them, I might actually have a chance at happiness. My throat tightened.
“Thank you,” I said simply, even though I wanted to say so much more.
Gerda shooed me away with her hands. “Are you still here?” she scolded. “Go and get that girl of yours!”
“And this time,” Kai added with a toothy grin, “don’t let her go.”
I bolted from my bedroom and ran down the hall, down the stairs, toward the Great Hall, where the meeting would be taking place. When I arrived, there was already a line out the door. Not surprising, I supposed, given the recent attacks. I wondered how many of them knew about the ballroom explosion. News traveled fast in our kingdom.
“Those monsters!” a short, thin woman in an embroidered gray dress was saying to King Nicholas as I made my way to the front of the room, trying to scan it for a glimpse of Iduna. The woman thrust a half-eaten cabbage at the regent. “Is there no low they will not stoop to? They came to my house! Ate half my vegetable garden!”
“Terrible!” King Nicholas declared. He had evidently found a nice comfy spot right next to Peterssen himself, and his daughter Runa was standing by his side, obedient as ever. “But not surprising. The Northuldra are simply notorious for vegetable stealing!”
“As are rabbits,” Peterssen interjected, looking weary. �
��Did you witness the Northuldra doing this, by any chance, Miss Nillson?”
“Well, no!” she sputtered. “But of course it was them! They are everywhere. I am quite afraid to close my eyes at night for fear I might be murdered in my sleep!”
“And my sheep are now pink!” added Aksel, the shepherd, from the back of the room. He held up a colorfully dyed lamb. “Pink, I tell you! Will this brutality never end?”
Gunnar stepped forward, crossing his arms over his chest. “Forget the sheep and the vegetables. The rest of us want to know about the explosion,” he declared. “What are you doing about these attacks? How will you stop them? If the monarchy can’t keep its own castle safe, how can we expect it to protect its people?”
A roar of agreement rolled through the crowd. Everyone started talking at once. I caught King Nicholas giving his guard a small smirk. He seemed to be enjoying this way too much for someone who had gone to the trouble of posting his own army around the castle for our protection.
I stepped onto the dais, turning to face the crowd. “Silence!” I demanded in my loudest voice. “I will not have this chaos in my court! If you cannot be respectful, then I will dismiss you all.”
The crowd grumbled a little but eventually settled. Peterssen gave me an encouraging nod. I cleared my throat and continued. “Now, has anyone actually seen an individual or group committing these crimes?” I asked, still half scanning the room for Iduna. Where was she? “Does anyone have a real idea of who might be behind them?” I held up my hand to stop them before they could speak. “I’m talking facts. Firsthand accounts. I don’t wish to hear suspicious stories of monsters hiding under children’s beds. We’re better than that.”
I waited. Everyone was glancing uneasily at each other. But no one stepped forward. Until a lone voice came from the back of the room.
“I do.”
Everyone wore a look of surprise—me included—as Iduna finally stepped out from the crowd. She was wearing a simple woolen dress, with half of her beautiful glossy hair up in a braid, while the rest cascaded down her back. Iduna wove her way to the front of the room and stopped before the dais. She was carrying a sack, whose contents she proceeded to dump out onto the table. To my surprise, nails, chunks of metal, and what looked like fertilizer spilled out from it.
“What is the meaning of this?” King Nicholas sputtered. “This is a castle of high regard, young lady! Not your garbage dump!”
“You asked for evidence of criminal activity,” she explained. “I have found supplies used for making explosive devices. Likely the same type that were used in the castle the night of the ball.”
King Nicholas frowned, suddenly looking uneasy. “What did I tell you?” He turned to the crowd. “This is why you need a strong army to protect Arendelle! The Northuldra will stop at nothing to destroy your way of life!”
Iduna’s eyes locked on to the king’s face. There was a fierceness in her gaze that I recognized all too well. What was she doing?
“I didn’t say they were from the Northuldra,” she said.
“But who else could they be from?” King Nicholas sputtered. “We all know the Northuldra have been attacking your people for months now!”
“Have they, though?” Iduna asked, her voice calm. “Or could it be someone else?” She arched an eyebrow at the king. “Someone with a vested interest in Arendelle needing an army to protect it, perhaps?” Her tone was neutral, but her eyes blazed.
“What are you saying, Iduna?” Peterssen demanded.
Iduna looked at me. “Your Majesty, I found these in the tents of the Vassar soldiers,” she said. “Along with these.” She reached into the sack again and pulled out several all-too-familiar-looking sun masks.
THE CROWD GASPED. EVERYONE STARTED talking at once. King Nicholas looked down at the masks, then up at Iduna, his face red and his eyes furious.
“What is this?” he responded. “What are you trying to say? Who is this girl, anyway? Some peasant? Maybe she’s Northuldra herself! Trying to shift the blame from her people to ours!”
“Enough!” I boomed, stepping to Iduna’s side. I reached out and grabbed her hand in mine, squeezing it tight. It was then that I realized she was trembling. This had taken all her courage, opening herself to risk like this.
But she had done it. And maybe saved us all in the process.
“You will not speak to Lady Iduna like that,” I declared. “And you will be taken under custody until we can determine the truth. Lord Peterssen, please call Sorenson with his lie test. We will be in need of his services.”
“There’s no need for that.”
Suddenly, Runa stepped forward. Her face was pale and her voice was shaking, but her posture was rigid and determined. “You don’t have to interrogate,” she said in a low voice. “Because I can tell you for a fact: what Lady Iduna says is true.”
Another gasp went through the crowd. The king’s face turned purple. “What are you saying, Runa?” he demanded. “Clearly my daughter does not feel well at the moment and—”
“I’m not going to lie for you anymore, Father,” Runa spit out. “This is your doing, not mine. You didn’t trust me enough to win the prince on my own merits. You had to have insurance—to make Arendelle appear weak so that you could look strong. Ready to step in and help. Too bad it was you they needed protection from all along.” She looked at me, her eyes sorrowful. “I apologize, Agnarr. I should not have gone along with any of it. But then, I have met such terrible men in my rounds of courting princes. Greedy men, desperate for power. I thought it was the normal way of things to achieve one’s desired ends.” She sighed. “But then I met you. And you were a genuinely good person. And I thought—I hoped—that maybe it could work out between us. That this act of my father’s—evil as it was—could have a positive outcome.” She hung her head. “But I know better now. You deserve to be happy. To marry for love. As do I.”
King Nicholas’s face twisted in rage. “Why, you traitor!” He lunged for his daughter. But the Arendelle guards jumped in, quickly blocking his path.
“Take him away,” I ordered.
The guards began dragging him to the exit while the people of Arendelle booed and hissed at him.
“You need me!” he cried, trying to fight off the guards, to no avail. “You are making a big mistake!”
Mistake or not, King Nicholas was soon gone.
I turned to Runa, who was still standing there, shoulders back, head held high. A regal princess to the very end. When she caught me watching her, she gave me a sad smile.
“You may have them take me away as well,” she said. “I won’t put up a fight.”
The remaining guards started to move in her direction. But I stepped forward. “No,” I said. “Runa, I won’t make you pay for your father’s crimes. You stood up to him and told me the truth. You are free to go home. Once things have calmed down, let’s meet again.” I lowered my voice so only she could hear me. “Not as suitors this time, but as rulers of our respective kingdoms. Surely we can come to a mutual trade agreement—without muddying the waters with the whole messy marriage thing.”
Runa beamed up at me. “I’m sure we can work something out.”
And with that, she headed from the throne room. I watched her go, thinking of my mother. Hopefully now, with her father gone, Runa would be able to find her own happiness. Her own true love.
I turned to the people of Arendelle, who were watching the scene unfold with utter bemusement and fascination. I knew it would be all over town the second they left the castle.
“Thank you all for your patience,” I said. “We will continue to work on this new…development. But I believe it is safe to say we won’t have to worry about men in sun masks again.”
“What about pink sheep?” demanded Aksel, holding up his lamb.
I groaned. “Let’s table that till next week, shall we?”
“Or…” Iduna suddenly interjected, a wicked gleam in her sky-blue eyes, “we could all start wearing pink
shawls? I mean, who here would love a beautiful bright pink shawl?”
The hands of pretty much all the women in the room shot up at once. Aksel’s eyes lit up. He hugged the pink lamb tight to his chest, looking proud. “Pink shawls it is!” he cried. “Purple, too! I’ll start taking orders immediately.”
The crowd surrounded him, everyone talking at once.
Iduna smiled triumphantly.
I watched her, my heart in my throat. She hadn’t been gone long, but I’d missed her with my entire being. And there was no way I was letting her go ever again.
“We should talk,” I whispered.
She nodded. “We should.”
“Library or tree?”
“Tree.” She grinned mischievously, as though she had something up her sleeve. My heart skipped a beat.
“Now?”
She glanced over at Peterssen, who was watching from a few feet away. “No,” she said. “You’re needed here. Finish up and find me tonight. Eight o’clock sharp.” She briefly touched her hand to mine on her way out the door. “Don’t be late.”
“PRINCE AGNARR!”
Iduna’s voice rang out right as I heard the clocks chiming 8:00 p.m. on the dot. I walked into the courtyard, toward our favorite tree. It’d been a long day, full of council meetings where everyone tried to figure out what to do with the disgraced King Nicholas. But in the back of my mind, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking of Iduna. Was she going to give me the second chance I’d prayed for?
I stopped short, doing a double take.
She wasn’t in the tree.
Instead, she was standing on our bench.
Flanked by two…reindeer?
As I watched, dumbfounded, the reindeer on the ground at her right pressed his hoof down on a small wooden box, setting free a swarm of purple butterflies. At the same time, the reindeer on the ground at her left released a cloud of those little helicopter seeds, which whirled through the air like brown smoke. Iduna lifted her chin, standing tall and proud as she addressed me in a clear voice.