Many Beauty and the Many Beast

by Felicity Collins

  "Mr. Westerguard! Just the man we were looking for" one of them said.

  "What do you want?" Hans snapped, in their direction.

  "No need to be so snappy, Mr. Westerguard" said the first man "We came her to offer you a deal" That was the moment I quickly led my horse away from the stables' entrance and hid behind the door, listening to the conversation. Maybe it was because I am a soldier, but a start like this with an attempted murderer, even if Sky's brother, did not promise anything good.

  "Oh, really? And what would two ex-ministers want from me?" Hans said suspiciously.

  "It's pretty simple actually, Hans- may we call you Hans?-"

  "- call me whatever pleases you and get to the point. What the hell do you want?"

  "We want you to finish what you started" Minister 1 answered firmly. Hans remained silent for a moment, processing what he just heard, like I was. Then Hans scoffed.

  "Excuse me?" he asked somewhat in disbelief.

  "Queen Elsa is a thorny ruler. She needs to be removed" started Minister 2 "You are the only one who got close enough to do it. You are the best man up for the job"

  "Yeah, well, you forget a little detail. My sister put her neck on the line for me, if I kill the queen, she will answer to it and when news of her death will get to her kingdom, Drakora will destroy you. Plus, I have nothing to guarantees for me to get away with it. So why should I do it?" Hans said.

  "But this is where you're wrong, my boy" said Minister 1 "When the queen will be dead, Princess Anna will take the throne. She is young, gullible and naïve and she will be devastated with grief. That' s when we will take charge. We'll be able manipulate her as we see fit. We will have Arendelle in the palm of our hand and when we do, you shall be free and nothing will happen to your sister. She'll go back to Drakora and everything will go for the best"

  "Tempting, but what if I refuse?" Hans said.

  "Then you have wasted your chance to gain your freedom. We need people to respect us, death penalty will be enacted once again, and you my dear Hans, are the first on the list" Hans looked thoughtful. He wasn't really considering this, was he?!

  "So let me get this straight: if I refuse I die, if I tell the queen she dies and my sister and I have a one way ticket to death, if I accept my sister and I make out alive and free… sounds good to me… and after all… you're doing this for the good of Arendelle. It's the right thing to do" Hans said. I couldn't believe my ears. After all Skylynn did for him, he was blowing up his chance for redemption! He was going to get her killed!

  "Our minds think alike" Minister 1 said satisfied with his response.

  "So? Do we have a deal?" Minister 2 said offering him his hand for him to shake it.

  "We do" Hans said but didn't shake his hand "When you have a plan, you'll know where to find me. I'm done here" Hans said before the ministers could add anything else and walked away to the exit, probably where the guards were, waiting for him to finish his shift.

  For a moment I remained numb. I just couldn't believe my eyes. Skylynn trusted him. We went to him to help us and he decided to betray us. I didn't think twice about it. I put the horse back in the stables and immediately headed to Skylynn's room and knocked repeatedly.

  "I'm coming! Geez, Anna! You don't need to get so-" Skylynn stopped herself as soon as she saw me at the door. She was still in her uniform, but without the jacket and the belt with her weapons "-oh, you're not Anna" was her only comment.

  "May I come in?" I asked her.

  "You are aware that this might look inappropriate, don't you?" she smirked jokingly.

  "Sky, it's urgent" I said. Her smirk vanished and she let me in closing the door behind her.

  "What is it?" she asked me walking closer to me.

  "I just got back from riding and I saw two ex-ministers talking to Hans, in the stables" I started.

  "What did they want?" Sky asked crossing her arms.

  "They wanted him to finish what he started. They asked him to kill Elsa"

  "Those bastards… wait until Elsa hears about this and-"

  "-Sky!" I called her grabbing her arm as she was about to get out of the room.

  "What? Is there more?"

  "Hans agreed to it" I told her. Sky's face morphed into utter disbelief.

  "What? No, you're lying." she said.

  "It heard him, Sky. I saw them. I'm sorry" I said.

  "No, this is wrong. There must be a mistake. He can't have agreed to it! Not now" Sky mumbled to herself.

  "Sky, I can't keep this from Elsa. You need to get out of here, now. Get on the first ship to Drakora and leave"

  "No, I'm not betraying them. I'm not betraying my brother"

  "Skylynn, this not the time to be stubborn! Hans is not the same guy we once knew. He is a traitor! I know it's hard, but you've got to accept this" I said. Skylynn looked at me with such an intense glare that could disintegrate anything she laid her eyes on. Her bright silver eyes, clouded, they were greyer, like the clouds before a storm. Then she forcefully slapped me right across the face.

  "How dare you?!" she said angrily "How dare you accuse my brother of betrayal when you were the first to do so!?" There was that sense of guilt again. "You were supposed to have my back. Mine and your king's and you left! People who could have lived died because of you! And you dare to say that my brother is a traitor?! Yes, he has wronged but he's paying for his crimes, while you found an easy life in the Southern Isles as Theodore's gopher! You are the one who betrayed us!"

  "I didn't betray you!" I countered

  "Then why did you turn your back on us?" she replied.

  "I had no choice, Sky!"

  "Do not 'Sky' me, Ryder!" she snapped angrily "You always have a choice! And a choice for what?! You owe me an explanation"

  "An explanation?!"

  "Yes, give me an explanation, now" she said with authority.

  "I can't tell you and I have my reasons" I answered, feeling like Skylynn was cornering me.

  "Are you really saying 'no' to your queen?" she said with an angry sarcasm.

  "I work for Theodore now"

  "Thanks to me, you're still a citizen of Drakora. Whether you like it or not, I'm still your queen"

  "It was for the best!" I snapped slowly losing it.

  "You left us when we needed you!" she shouted "How is that the best?! You left your people to die!"

  "I LEFT TO SAVE YOUR LIFE!" I yelled and immediately slapped a hand on my mouth, regretting it. Silence ruled for a moment. I couldn't tear my eyes away from Skylynn's. Her rage vanished and looked at me incredulously. I couldn't back down from this now. I had to explain her. "I… I was on my guarding night shift and I saw one of your brothers, Prince August. I don't know when he got there, I just know that he was meeting with one of our men. Ruben, remember him?"

  "Yeah, the one who couldn't stand being 'bossed around by a girl'. I thought he had left with you" Sky answered.

  "Yeah, well… he didn't" I confessed. Sky got the message "August had promised him a pretty good sum to have him kill you during the fight. I tried to talk Ruben out of it but he wouldn't hear of it. He wanted you dead as much as your half-brother and the money he was offered had made him even more determent, he had left me no other choice but to remove him like all traitors in Drakora are removed. I don't know why your half-brother would get to the point of paying someone to kill you, but I just knew that once August would have found out you were still alive he would have sent someone else until you were dead. I… I couldn't let that happen" I paused looking at the ground "I jumped on the first ship I found and left for the Southern Isles. There I found the help I needed and made up a story on how the rebels' victory would have been of advantage to the Southern Isles, making it clear that to win they needed you and put myself at Theodore's service to keep an eye on your brothers… and by the way, when I told Theodore the rebels needed you, I told him the truth… our people needed you" I confessed.

  "You knew you were going to pass as a traitor" Skylynn
said softly "That night, before you left, you said you were afraid of not making it out of that battle… but you didn't kiss me out of fear of never getting another chance, it was goodbye" I remained silent "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" she asked me "I could have talked to Landon, I could have explained everything. You would have been able to come back home"

  "And then what?" I said softly "Landon wouldn't have had me come near you. He knew I had feelings for you too, but he let us work together because I never really did try anything because he was my king. If I hadn't already screwed up our friendship with that kiss, it wouldn't have been the same anyway"

  "It would have, Storm" Sky said before pausing with a sigh "I didn't tell Landon about our kiss, there was no need for it"

  "I don't see how it makes things better since he found out by himself" I commented.

  "No, there was no need because I hadn't made my choice yet" she said. My head snapped up, looking at her.

  "Wait- so… does that mean that… I was…-"

  " – my first kiss? Yes" Sky admitted, with a faint blush. To be sincere I didn't know what to feel, if happy or mortified. Sky seemed to sense my inner turmoil, and smiled at me "If it makes you feel any better, now I know that I didn't give my first kiss to a traitor, but to someone who cares about me and I'm happy about it" it made me feel better. I smiled back at her.

  "So… friends?" I asked her offering her my hand. Skylynn smiled warmly.

  "Friends" she said and shook my hand only to embrace me back as I pulled her for a hug. We stayed like that for a few seconds, enjoying each other's embrace, but then we had to get back to business.

  "So… what do we do about Hans?" I asked her, pulling out of the hug "You do know I can't keep this thing from Elsa"

  "I have no idea of what is going on in his head right now, but Hans is my brother and I have faith in him" she said "Let me speak to him first to figure this out and solve it"

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Before leaving with the ice-harvesters I had another visit from one of the ministers. "Wait until we give you further instructions" he said. "You'll know right away" he said. I should know better than to trust traitors by now. What did Sky say was the first rule of the Drakorian army, again? Oh, yeah: never trust a man who betrays his own ruler, never take him under your wing, because he can betray you as well. Perfectly suitable for the situation on one side. Thousands of questions crowded over in my head after my little meeting with the ex-ministers. My first thought was to agree and figure out what they wanted. Only later numerous doubts filled my head: were they even serious when they made me that proposal, or was it just a way to frame me and Sky? Did they want to frame Sky through me after her showdown during the trial? Were they just testing me and I failed? Did Elsa know about this? Did Elsa-no, wait that's not an Elsa thing- did Anna tell them to come and test me? But even that isn't possible, Anna is not the type. She'd rather come down here and do it herself only to punch me in the face again after my answer.

  My train of thoughts was interrupted when I heard the cell door open and Skylynn came inside. I let out a quiet sigh of relief as I saw her. She was fine. But then before I could greet her with a hug the look in her eyes told me she was about to question me about something: she knew.

  "Hans, we need to talk, now" she said closing the door.

  "You know" I said. Skylynn paced to me until she was right in front of me.

  "What is going on?" she asked "As you just said, I know what happened so don't tell me it isn't true"

  "How did you know?" I asked her.

  "Storm" she answered "Storm saw and heard everything" I raised an eyebrow ironically

  "Since when do you trust Storm, now?" I asked her with irony.

  "It doesn't matter, I'm not here to talk about him. The point is that two aristocratic ex-ministers asked you to kill the queen of Arendelle and you agreed to it" Sky said with a scolding look "Hans what has gotten into you? Where did all those things you said of how 'Elsa has all the potential to be the greatest ruler Arendelle will ever have' or that she has a 'mercy of you that you don't deserve' or the 'I don't like the way I feel about myself' thing go? What are you doing?"

  "Sky if you're scared of being turned into an icicle, then get on the first ship to Drakora and leave" I told her like if I was talking about shopping groceries.

  "Are you effin' kidding me?!" Sky shouted incredulously "Hans you are this close to get your head chopped off. Do you realize that one wrong move could cost you your life?"

  "Do you realize that I realize that we both get executed if I do one wrong move?" I answered.

  "I don't know! You tell me. I'm not the one who's committing treason for the second time"

  "Right, says the one who committed treason more than twice"

  "That was not treason! I was working for Landon and I was an infiltrate among Hugh's forces. That kind of betrayal is called 'fooling the enemy'. It doesn't count" Sky said pointing her finger at me.

  "Still a betrayal"

  "Military strategy, but that's not the point. What are you doing? You can't throw everything away now that you're finally following the right path. Are you really going to push your luck that much? I won't be able to save your ass this time, Hans" she said trying to make me reason.

  "Sky don't worry, I got it cover" I said calmly.

  "That's exactly what's worrying me" she said "Please, Hans, I'm begging you. Don't make me do something we're both going to regret forever"

  "If I don't speak up you're going to tell Elsa about this, aren't you?"

  "Don't make me do it, because you know I will… brother or not" she answered with her gray eyes meeting mine with a warrior like determination. My gaze softened and I took a step towards her placing my hand on her shoulder.

  "Do you trust me, Sky?" I asked her

  "Right now? I don't know" she answered. I paused for a moment, then a thought came to me.

  "Do you remember what I told you when we trained together on the beach for the first time? You were having trouble fighting because of the sand. When you asked me how I managed to still be fast and fight without wasting energy?" I asked her. Skylynn thought about it for a moment, then looked back at me.

  "You adapt your fighting style to the environment" she replied "You have to blend in and adapt to whatever situation you're in… like a chameleon"

  "Have faith in my teachings, have faith in me" Sky looked at me in the eyes as if to detect any sign of lie or if something was off. After a long moment of silence she took a deep breath and spoke up.

  "Alright… but don't make me regret it" she said. I gave her a small smile.

  "I won't" Sky took a step forward and embraced me in a hug.

  "I really hope you do know what you're doing" she said softly.

  "I do. Don't worry about me" I said pulling away. Sky gave me another small smile and headed to the cell door

  "Hey, Tiger" I called her. She stopped and turned around "We're not the only chameleons around here" Sky had gotten the message immediately and I was sure that at the end of the day, Storm would be informed of the talk we just had. We both new that no coup from the ex-ministers was possible without the support of others inside parliament. But who? Also, the fact that even some middle and lower class members might have been corrupted is not to exclude. Power and money are a human vice and biting the hand feeding you for them is unfortunately something common, especially when involving royals.

  It was about the middle of October when the perfect occasion for regicide occurred: the traditional Arendellian Horse Racing Championship and the queen was to attend.

  That same day, the ministers had finally revealed me their plan and all I had to do was wait. All of Arendelle was going to be present at race. During the breaks between a race and the other, some servants and I were to attend to either the queen or the racers. Before the last race, Elsa was to give a speech and invite the people to a toast to the best rider. The winner was going to have the honor of riding alongside the Queen a
nd the Princess during the parade celebrating the foundation of Arendelle.

  The plan was easy: serve the people, bring the goblet, blend in the crowd and right before the toast go get the crossbow, climb on one of the roofs and shoot the queen, too bad for the ministers that my plan was to sabotage their scheme and reveal them. I don't know how but the ministers managed to convince Elsa to have me serve at the games, both the royals and at the stables.

  My plan on the other hand was even simpler: tell Sky and Storm and let them reveal the traitors.

  I had just returned from harvesting ice and was surprised to find some new clean clothes on my bunk as usually twice a week I would be allowed to the prison washrooms, always with four guards guarding me, and clean my own clothes. I walked over to my bunk and observed the clothes, they were teal trousers with black boots, black button-down shirt and a matching magenta sleeveless doublet with a few bronze hooks to close it with Arendelle's symbol pinned on my chest. It probably was Arendelle's official servant uniform. I had just made it in time to examine the clothes that a guard entered my cell.

  "Get over here, Fallen Prince. Clean up and get ready, then we will escort you to the reception when it's time. There will be more than enough of us to make sure you don't try anything funny, so play nice and everything will be alright for you" he said in a deep cold voice, I didn't even answer, just gave him a shrug of the shoulders, then he got inside the cell and escorted me out to get a quick bath or 'shower', half cold too. After cleaning up, I shaved off my stubble… or the little I had. One thing I was really mad at Elsa's servants about was the fact that they had shaved off my sideburns… IT TOOK ME AN ETERNITY TO GROW THEM! Now I looked like a teenager right before puberty… but those sideburns were indeed ridiculous, I have to agree with Sky on that. Anyway, as I was clean, shaved and dressed up, the guards immediately took me to the racing grounds to start working.

  I looked around and saw to what they were referring to as roof: the hippodrome's stables. It was the only roof from where the Royal bleachers was in clear view. I did everything I was ordered to and prepared everything that needed to be ready for the games.