by Jen Calonita
“Sven!” Kristoff shouted, searching frantically for his best friend.
Sven broke through the icy water, clambering to pull himself up onto a nearby piece of drift ice.
Kristoff exhaled with relief. “Good boy,” he shouted. “Stay there!” He struggled to stand in the fierce wind and looked around to get his bearings. Spotting the castle in the distance, Kristoff braced himself against the wind and headed toward it, hoping Anna was okay.
“Lord Peterssen!” Elsa cried. “Kai? Gerda? Someone let me out! Please!”
No one answered.
Through the bars of the small dungeon window she noticed torches flickering in the hallway. The wind howled between the bricks, nearly blowing the flames out. Even her chains were starting to freeze, making it hard to move.
She was trapped.
Elsa sat down on the bench and stared at the metal shackles on her hands.
She couldn’t just watch as her entire kingdom became a frozen tundra. She needed someone to find Anna and tell her the truth about her past. Maybe, just maybe, it would help her remember who she really was. Then the curse would break and…what did that mean for the weather?
Even if Anna knew who she was, Grand Pabbie had said nothing about her sister being able to stop this winter. Elsa had created it. Only she could end it.
Elsa flung her head back against the wall and heard the ice crack. Why didn’t she know how to reverse the spell she had created?
I know what fear is doing to your magic, she heard Grand Pabbie say. You must concentrate on controlling your powers.
What did he mean by fear? She wasn’t afraid of her powers, was she? What she was afraid of was not having her sister in her life. If she let Anna go, would the storm stop?
She wasn’t sure, and she didn’t know whom to ask.
She had lost Mama and Papa, alienated her people, and abandoned Olaf in her quest to escape her chains. There was no one left to help her.
Elsa hung her head and wept. “Mama, Papa, please help me.”
The only voice she heard was the wind’s.
“Princess Elsa!”
Elsa opened her eyes and stood up, straining against her chains. Someone was calling for her. It was a girl. But she she didn’t recognize the voice.
“Princess Elsa, where are you?”
“I’m here!” Elsa cried. It didn’t sound like Gerda or Olina, but it didn’t matter who it was. Someone was coming for her. “Follow my voice!”
“Found you!” The girl stuck her face in the bars and looked into the dungeon.
Elsa couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The girl in front of her had red hair and blue eyes. They locked gazes, and Elsa’s cuffs began to glow. Strangely, they didn’t freeze up. The ice melted away. “Anna?” Elsa whispered, momentarily forgetting everything else.
“Yes.” She grasped the bars. “I’m Anna.…Hi.”
Anna wasn’t a figment of her imagination. She wasn’t a ghost. She was real and on the other side of the dungeon door. Elsa’s younger sister was here. The curse was broken! She started to cry. “You know who I am?”
Anna paused. “Yes.”
“You remember?” Elsa’s tears came faster. “You remembered and you found me.”
“I…This place…” Anna trailed off. She held up a piece of parchment. “I have the queen’s letter.”
Elsa’s cuffs glowed brighter. “You have the letter? How?” Now they could read Mama’s letter together! “It doesn’t matter. All that matters is you’re back! You’re…real.”
“So are you,” Anna whispered. They continued to stare at each other, the only sounds coming from the storm raging outside.
Then came the sound of someone giggling.
“And so am I!”
Anna picked something up and held it in front of the bars. It was a snowman’s head. The head grinned toothily.
“Olaf!” Elsa exclaimed. “You’re all right!”
“Yes!” Olaf frowned. “But I left your room. I know I’m not supposed to.”
“It’s all right.” Elsa laughed through her tears.
“And I found Anna!” Olaf said happily. “We came to find you with Kristoff and Sven, but then Kristoff and Sven left and we went off with Prince Hans.”
“Hans?” Elsa’s smile faded. “Where is he?” she demanded. “Anna, you can’t listen to him!”
Anna opened her mouth to respond, and someone pulled her and Olaf from view.
“Anna!” Elsa cried.
“Get away from me!” she heard Anna yell.
“I can’t see! I can’t see!” Olaf shouted. “Put me back together!”
Elsa heard a key turn and watched the dungeon door open. Olaf’s head rolled into the room without his body. Hans walked in behind it, holding Anna like his prisoner. There was a fresh cut above his right eye. “Well, isn’t this refreshing?” he said. “A reunion between two sisters.”
“Let her go! You can’t hurt us,” Elsa shouted as her cuffs glowed bright blue. “She remembers everything!”
Hans smiled. “Does she now? Let’s see about that.”
He pushed Anna forward. She crashed into Elsa, then fell backward, gasping for air. Ice formed on her feet and began to creep up her legs.
The curse—it wasn’t broken.
Hans watched, unfazed, as the ice started to travel up Anna’s body and her hair turned completely white. Anna was freezing from the inside out. Elsa strained against her chains to get away, but she couldn’t go far enough.
“Anna!” Olaf panicked, his head rolling toward her.
“You’ll kill her!” Elsa screamed.
Hans didn’t move. “Exactly.” He looked at Elsa as Anna writhed on the floor in pain. “You doomed yourself, but she was dumb enough to go after you. Now you’ll both be out of the picture and I’ll rule Arendelle on my own.”
“No!” Elsa cried out in agony. Her cuffs began to glow again. Snowflakes spread across them, the chains, and soon the walls. Hans looked up in surprise as the room filled with ice. Elsa yanked once, twice, and then a third time as icicles formed on the ceiling and fell on top of them. Olaf clambered onto Anna just as the ice began to fall. Hans covered his head with his hands.
Elsa concentrated on the window in the dungeon, and willed her magic to create a hole. Finally, the stones burst, taking half the wall and her chains along with it. Each cuff on her hands broke in two, freeing her from her binds. Elsa climbed through the opening in the wall and looked back at Anna. The ice on her body was starting to recede as Elsa ran into the tempest and disappeared.
There was a loud blast and shouting, then the sound of men running.
“The princess has escaped!” someone yelled, but his voice sounded far away.
A moment earlier, Anna had felt like she was freezing from the inside out. The second Elsa was gone, the nausea subsided and she started to warm up again.
How strange, she thought.
Do the magic! the small voice inside her head said again, causing an instant headache. She tried to block the memory out.
You remember? Elsa had asked. Anna had been so surprised by the question she hadn’t known how to answer her. Elsa clearly did, but Anna was still figuring out these new memories and the information Hans had fed her. She couldn’t believe it was all true: she was the lost princess of Arendelle and King Agnarr and Queen Iduna’s child. She thought of the portrait she had seen of the royal family in the castle.
Anna heard her heart pounding as she started to put together the pieces: the way Freya had perished, the infrequent visits under the cloak of darkness, the carriage that waited for her outside the bakery. The portrait of the queen in the castle that looked remarkably like the woman who had been her aunt and her mother’s best friend.
Could Freya and the queen be the same person?
And was that person her birth mother?
She watched through the fuzz in her vision as Olaf’s head rolled by and connected with his body. Suddenly it became clear: Freya was
Queen Iduna.
The snowman poked her with his carrot nose. “Anna? Are you all right?”
Anna struggled to sit up and answer him. Then she heard someone else talking.
“Prince Hans!” A guard was leaning over a figure on the ground a few feet away.
“The princess,” Hans choked out. “I tried to stop her from making the storm worse, but she struck me with her magic. She’s…getting…away.”
“Liar!” Anna said, but her voice was weak. The room slowly began to come into focus. Snow was streaming into the dungeon through a large hole in the wall.
Hans pointed to Anna. “Elsa struck Anna, too. Her whole body started to freeze.”
Elsa hadn’t struck her. She had been happy to see Anna. But why had she run away?
Elsa, wake up! Wake up! Wake up! a voice inside her head said. Do you want to build a snowman?
It was her own voice from long ago. The memories were coming to the surface faster now. I need to find Elsa.
“Men, aid Anna while I go after the princess,” she heard Hans say.
“No!” Anna shouted out as the guards descended on her. She watched as Hans turned his shoulder into the wind and disappeared through the hole. His sword was raised, ready to attack. He’s going to kill her, Anna thought. I have to stop him. “I’m fine,” she told the guards. “Someone needs to stop Prince Hans! He’s going to hurt the princess!” The guards looked at her in confusion.
“After the princess!” one of the guards shouted and headed through the hole. The others followed.
Anna struggled to stand up, but she felt like she had been hit by something hard. Slowly, she moved toward the opening in the wall. “We have to find Elsa before Hans and the others do,” Anna told Olaf, but the words sounded strange.
“Hey! Your lips are blue!” Olaf commented.
“Olaf? You have to help me get to Elsa fast. It’s important!”
Olaf beamed. “Okay! I’m ready. Let’s go!” He wandered off ahead of her through the wall.
Anna struggled to find her footing as she made her way through the wall and into the snow. The wind was howling. She couldn’t see Olaf even though he was walking right in front of her. Around her, she could hear things creaking and falling. A sudden gust blew her backward. Olaf was lifted into the air, the three pieces of his body separating.
“Keep going!” he shouted as his parts blew away.
Anna held her arm in front of her face and turned into the wind. She needed to find Elsa before it was too late.
Elsa spun around, unsure of her direction. Her cape blew in front of her face and she pushed it away.
The storm was so fierce there was nowhere left to shelter.
She couldn’t go back to the castle. She was an enemy to her people and to Anna now.
The curse still ruled Anna’s life.
Elsa’s life was in ruins.
She couldn’t save her people from her madness.
She didn’t know how to save her sister.
She was at a loss on how to stop the storm, no matter how desperately she wanted to.
She’d never been more frightened or alone.
Elsa wandered around in the swirling darkness, barely making out the ship frozen in front of her. Let them come for me, she thought. Without Anna, I’ve got nothing left to fight for.
She’d lost Olaf, she couldn’t see where she was going, a ship had just appeared before her like a mirage, and Elsa was nowhere to be seen. She heard a bang and watched in horror as the ship’s mast tumbled into the ice and shattered, sending large chunks of ice flying. She raised her hands to her face to protect herself.
It felt like the world was ending, but she refused to let it.
There was so much to live for. She had a past to remember and a sister to get to know. Arendelle needed both its princesses. Maybe together they could bring back the sun.
Anna pulled her cape tightly around her for warmth, but it did nothing. The cold felt like it was inside her bones, just like it had when she’d been in the room with Elsa. Something was causing this new condition, and it wasn’t just the weather. Her pale hands were starting to freeze, small ice crystals forming on her wrists and fingertips.
Cursed.
Was that what was happening to her and Elsa? Had she been cursed to be kept apart from her sister? Was that why her birth parents had separated them? Maybe the queen’s letter explained what had happened.
The letter!
Anna felt her dress pockets, but the letter was gone. During the explosion and Elsa’s escape, it must have fallen out of her pocket. Now she had nothing that proved who she really was. Elsa was the only one who could help her, and she had run off. What if Hans found her before Anna could?
Anna slipped on the ice. There was so much of it, and slowly, she was becoming a part of it. Please, she begged, calling on Freya’s memory—her mother’s memory—to guide her. Let me find Elsa.
She felt an irresistible urge to turn around.
Elsa was huddled on the ground, feet from where Anna stood, with her head in her hands. Hans was standing over her. Did Elsa even know he was there? Or had she given up? No, Elsa! she wanted to cry out. I…I remember, she realized.
A feeling came over her, so strong that for the smallest of moments, it warmed her soul. Pictures flew through her mind: She and Elsa talking in their bedroom, baking with their mother in the kitchen, running down the central staircase. Do the magic! she heard a voice say, and now she realized it was her younger self begging Elsa to create more snow. Together they had skated around the Great Hall and made snow angels. They had built Olaf! She used to marvel at Elsa’s magic and always wanted her sister to use it. Do the magic! she heard herself beg again, and then she saw the moment when everything changed. In her haste to stop Anna from falling off a snow mound, Elsa had accidentally struck her. That was when she and Elsa had been ripped apart.
She remembered everything! She—
She looked up. Hans had his sword high over his head and was about to plunge it straight into Elsa’s heart.
Her sister’s heart.
With what little strength she had left, Anna lunged forward.
“No!” Anna shouted, sliding in front of Elsa as the blade began to fall. She raised her hand to stop him and felt the ice spread from her chest to her extremities. Her fingertips connected with the sword just as they froze, shattering the blade into pieces. A shock wave seemed to emanate from her frozen body, sending Hans flying backward.
Anna exhaled a last breath that evaporated into thin air.
The vibrations rocked the ground, startling Elsa, who had been lost in her own thoughts of despair. The storm had suddenly ceased, along with the snow. Flakes were suspended in the air as if time had stopped. It took Elsa a moment to realize why.
“Anna!” she screamed, jumping up.
Her sister had turned to ice.
Anna looked like a statue, forever preserved with one hand outstretched to the sky. Her cape was frozen in motion, like she had run to Elsa’s side to protect her. Hans lay a few feet away, his sword near his side. Realization struck her: Anna had stopped Hans from hurting her. She had given her life to save Elsa’s.
Elsa gingerly reached out to touch Anna’s frozen face. “Oh, Anna. No. No. Please, no.” Her hands caressed Anna’s icy cheeks.
The curse had lifted a second too late. How could magic be so cruel? Anna. Sweet, beautiful Anna, she thought. It’s not fair. Don’t leave me.
Elsa threw herself at Anna’s frozen sculpture, crying with abandon. She didn’t hear Olaf walk up beside her. She barely noticed the devastated blond man who had just arrived with a reindeer. Through the haze of the unearthly stillness, she thought she saw Lord Peterssen, a bandage around his right arm, and Gerda, Kai, and Olina on a castle balcony, watching from above. But what did any of it matter?
Perhaps the entire kingdom had just woken up from a dreamlike state and remembered: Arendelle did not have one princess. It had two. They’d found their l
ost princess only to lose her all over again.
I’m so sorry, Anna, Elsa thought as she clung to her sister and tears streamed down her cheeks. I love you more than anything in this world, and I always will. Suddenly Elsa heard a gasp and felt Anna collapse in her arms. She was alive! Her body had thawed completely. Even the white stripe in her hair had disappeared.
“Anna!” Elsa cried in surprise, looking into her sister’s eyes.
Anna gripped her. “I remember you. I remember everything,” she said, and finally they were able to embrace.
When Elsa finally pulled away, she looked at Anna with fresh eyes. “You sacrificed yourself for me,” she said softly.
“I love you,” Anna said, holding Elsa’s hand tightly in her own. She noticed Elsa staring at something and turned around. “Kristoff!”
“Princess,” he said. “There was a Princess Anna, and you’re her. I can’t believe it. I mean, I can, but…you’re actually a princess! Am I supposed to bow? Kneel? I’m not sure what to do here.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! I’m still me,” Anna told Kristoff with a laugh, and hugged him.
Elsa couldn’t believe what she was hearing. If Kristoff knew who Anna truly was, then all of Arendelle and the kingdom did, too. Her eyes filled with tears.
“Grand Pabbie was right—love can really thaw any curse,” Kristoff said.
“Love can thaw…” Elsa repeated. “Of course!”
All that time she had allowed herself to be wrapped up in fear—fear of being alone, fear of never finding Anna, fear of destroying the kingdom with her powers. That fear had held her prisoner since she had learned she had magic inside her. It was just as Grand Pabbie had said: she needed to learn to control her magic. If only she embraced the beauty in her life and the magic she’d been gifted—gifted, not cursed with!—then she could move mountains.
Or at least thaw out the countryside.
Elsa stared at her hands in wonder. The answer had been right in front of her all that time. “Love!”