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In the Light of Day: A Frozen Epic	By : GeorgeGlass Category: +1 through F > Frozen Views: 21531 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of Frozen or its characters. I made no money from writing this story. I am completely divided about whether Elsa or Anna is hotter.

Chapter List
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Chapter 18: The Traitors

“Here we are,” said Jean-Pierre, quietly closing and locking the wine-cellar door behind himself and Ajay. “I am glad to see that the Dianisians have not yet found this place. The thought of those soldiers guzzling down the fine collection of wines I have assembled here over the decades fills me with nausea.”

The sommelier took a lantern from a hook on the wall and lit it, illuminating Ajay’s path as the big Sundaran made his way down the stone steps, carrying Prince Rajiv in his arms.

They reached the bottom of the steps and entered a large, stone-floored room filled with casks, cabinets, and rack upon rack of bottles.

“Ah,” Jean-Pierre said, looking fondly over the many shelves of wine like a lord over his lands. “So many wonderful varietals, so many good years. And as their Highnesses age and their tastes develop, there will be many more good years ahead.”

Despite the circumstances, Ajay smiled. He had always found a certain joy in meeting anyone so passionate about their work.

“Now,” the sommelier continued, “let me see…”

The man walked down a row of shelves along the wall, briefly scrutinizing each section before moving to the next. Then he stopped.

“Ah ha, this is it,” Jean-Pierre said. “This is meant to be opened with a key, but…”

The man took out his pocketknife and flipped open the bottle opener. He stuck this into a small hole in the wall between shelves and fiddled with it for several seconds. Then there was a click, and a narrow section of the shelves swung open with the door that they concealed.

“Fascinating,” Ajay said. “Is lock-picking a typical skill for a sommelier?” he asked wryly.

“I’m afraid,” Jean-Pierre replied, “there is a reason why I am no longer welcome in my homeland. There were some who found my thinking a bit too…revolutionary.”

“I see,” Ajay replied. Then, looking down the dark tunnel to which the secret door led, he said, “Now, let’s be on our way.”

“I shall remain here,” the sommelier answered. “If the Dianisians find this place…Well, they will have my blood before they will have the ‘38 Menzelle, or the ‘51 Chateau d’Ehstiffe!”

“But how will you defend yourself?” Ajay asked. “That tiny knife will do little good against a Dianisian sword.”

“Do not fear,” Jean-Pierre replied.

He took a bottle off a nearby shelf, pried off its lid, and stuffed one end of his handkerchief into the bottleneck.

“Arendellan domestic vodka is weak in flavor, but great in flammability,” he said. Then, holding up the bottle and lantern so that he could easily ignite the one with the other if the need arose, he added, “Bon chance, mon ami.”

“To you as well, my friend,” Ajay replied.

The Sundaran sailor entered the tunnel, and the door shut behind him. Yet somehow, already, Ajay could see light at the other end.

***

“Huh,” Kristoff said, turning to the Queen. “You made it sound like finding Rajiv was going to be hard.”

They were standing in the secret tunnel, Elsa on Sven’s back, leaning forward against the reindeer’s neck because of the low ceiling. Kristoff was holding up a makeshift torch to light their way, and now it illuminated the approaching figure of Ajay, still carrying the Sundaran prince.

“Rajiv!” Elsa half-shouted. She rolled rapidly off Sven’s back and ran to where Ajay stood.

“Good to see you, Ajay,” Kristoff said, walking up behind Elsa.

“You as well, my friend,” the bearded man answered.

They all froze as another light appeared somewhere behind where Ajay stood. Soon, it became apparent that the source was a red-jacketed man carrying a lantern, with a young woman just behind him.

“For a secret passage,” Herringholtz said to Anna, “the volume of traffic in here is surprisingly high.”

“Elsa! Kristoff!” Anna squeaked, serially running into their arms.

Elsa looked again at the unconscious Rajiv, then up at Ajay.

“What happened?” she whispered fiercely.

“We were taken by surprise and knocked unconscious,” the Sundaran captain replied. “The Prince is alive, but I have been unable to rouse him.”

Elsa looked at the prince, deep in worried thought. Then she spoke.

“Lay him on the ground and move back. I’m going to try something.”

Ajay did as the Queen asked, and the others joined him in taking several steps back.

Elsa knelt by the unconscious Rajiv and placed a hand on his chest.

“Please let this work,” she whispered.

Slowly, a web of frost formed around Elsa’s palm and began to spread outward across the prince’s chest.

“Come on,” Elsa murmured. “Come on…”

The ice thickened even as it continued to expand over Rajiv. The man’s lips turned blue, and his face paled.

“Please,” Elsa whispered. “Please don’t let this be the last time I touch y-”

“Aaaaaahhh!” Rajiv screamed as his eyes flew open and his head jerked up, globes of fire bursting into life around his clenched fists.

Elsa leaped back, instinctively forming a protective zone of cold around her body. Rajiv stared at her, suddenly wide awake.

“Elsa!” he cried. “What did you-”

“Shhhh!” the Queen hissed anxiously, hurrying to Rajiv’s side. “You were knocked out; I had to use my powers to bring you back.”

“How?”

“Opposite elements. I thought if I chilled your body enough, your own powers would kick in to protect you—and wake you up to defend yourself.”

“You are extremely clever,” Rajiv panted.

“It was a long shot,” Elsa replied. “How do you feel?”

“Alert,” Rajiv said. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. I need your help. The port and everyone in it is going to be a pile of ashes soon if we don’t do something.”

“I will do everything I-”

“Highness,” Ajay interrupted, addressing Elsa. “Forgive me, but may I speak with the Prince for a moment?”

“Of course,” Elsa replied, leaning against the wall.

Anna and Kristoff went to the weakened Elsa’s sides as Ajay pulled Rajiv aside and spoke quietly to him.

“My Prince,” the Sundaran captain said with a pained expression, “it is my duty to remind you that your father would not want you to become involved in another kingdom’s war.”

Rajiv nodded thoughtfully.

“My friend,” the Prince replied, “I have always admired your devotion to your duty to protect the interests of our King. And never would I fault you for it.”

“Thank you, your Highness,” Ajay replied, clearly uncertain as to where the prince was going with this.

“So please do not take it personally when I tell you that were my father here now to say such a thing to me in person, I would suggest to him that he go and fuck himself.”

Ajay’s eyed went a bit wide.

“Queen Elsa,” Rajiv continued, “has been very kind to me. And I cannot deny that I have developed feelings for her. But even if neither of those things were true, this invasion is a great injustice, and I cannot simply stand by when there is something I can do to stop it.”

Ajay’s look of shock quickly gave way to a grin as he said, “I am most relieved to hear it, my Prince.”

***

They soon reached the other end of the escape tunnel. Elsa and Kristoff had informed the others that the Armory was largely a burnt-out husk, but the stone walls and basement stairs were still more or less intact. So after Kristoff and Sven moved a couple of fallen, half-incinerated beams, they had been able to enter the tunnel without much difficulty.

“But how did you get into the building without being seen?” Herringholtz asked as they ascended the stairs toward the Armory entrance.

“Some friendly faces showed up and created a distraction,” Kristoff replied, turning around to help the others up the last few steps, which were slippery with ash. “But I don’t know if they’re still-”

“Ha ha!” a voice shouted from behind Kristoff.

The startled ice-man, club in hand, whipped around and struck before he could even think to look at who had spoken. His club cracked against the skull of Prince Javier—in fact, the wooden shaft broken in half, releasing something green and sparkly that wafted into the air around Javier’s head before vanishing. The prince fell to the ground, unconscious.

“Whoops,” Kristoff said.

Prince Sefu, Mofa, Prince Gormal, Hamish, Prince Varek, Popov, and Dr. Montalvo all approached. Montalvo knelt down to tend to Prince Javier.

“‘tis perhaps for the best,” Gormal said, looking down at the unconscious Hermosan prince. “The madman was lucky to get himself just knocked out and not killed.”

Looking down at Javier and then up at the group, Elsa said, “We need to get to the port. Can you help us?”

“Most certainly,” replied Prince Sefu.

Elsa saw that Sefu’s stilts had been partly burnt off, so that the man was standing on the ground with just a couple of char-ended sticks strapped to his calves. But the Mianyokan prince seemed too absorbed by the battle to care; in fact, he pointed at a group of Dianisian infantry that had spotted them and was now charging toward them.

“Watch out!” Sefu shouted.

Rajiv, who was near the front of the group, moved forward and swept his arm out in front of his body, sending a wave of fire out in a wide arc toward the running soldiers. Now about thirty feet away, the Dianisians stopped abruptly and variously covered their faces or fell to the ground to protect themselves. Then, at the order of their leader, they retreated.

“There’s more coming from behind!” Kristoff shouted, pointing at another dozen or so Dianisian soldiers headed in their direction.

Rajiv turned again, but Prince Gormal put up his hand.

“You take the front, boyo,” he said even as he drew an arrow from his quiver, with no more haste than if he were taking a sip of tea. “We’ve got your back.”

Gormal nocked the arrow, pulled, and fired. The projectile went straight through the lead enemy soldier’s right eye, killing him instantly. And just before the rest of the infantry reached them, Herringholtz threw a dagger into the shoulder of one, making him drop his sword and taking him out of the fight.

Kristoff, Sven, and the remaining princes and attendants took on the rest of the soldiers hand-to-hand. Sefu was able to fight three at once, using his big shield and footwork to keep two off of him while he dispatched another with his spear.

Soon, enough of the attacking soldiers were downed that the rest chose to flee. Elsa and her motley group of defenders began moving at a jogging pace toward the port, Elsa still on Sven’s back.

“Despite our successes so far,” Herringholtz huffed as he ran, “are we certain that it is wise for such a small number to face the largest and most well-equipped invasion force the Dianisians have ever mustered?”

“We have to try,” Elsa said.

“Mmm,” Herringholtz said, his brow furrowing. “This is perhaps not immediately relevant, but it is counterintuitive that the Dianisians were able to double the size of their fleet and amass such an enormous army when they are in the midst of an economic crisis.”

Anna, running alongside Elsa and Sven, gasped in a way that had nothing to do with exertion.

“The Dianisians are full of surprises,” Elsa replied. “They’ve been a step ahead of us since the beginning. I’m still wondering how many more spies they’ve had in Arendelle in addition to Otos.”

“Not spies,” Anna said, staring straight ahead. “Traitors.”

“What?” Elsa asked, looking at Anna with puzzlement.

Anna stopped dead.

“I need to go,” she said.

“Wait, whoa,” Kristoff said, stopping beside her. “You can’t go anywhere by yourself right now.”

“I know. Come with me.”

***

The rest of the group—sans Anna and Kristoff (but still including Sven, whom Kristoff had told to keep carrying Elsa)—soon reached the port. Every building in sight was burning, and everyone in the group had to cover their nose and mouth with a cloth just to keep breathing. Sven couldn’t do this for himself, so Ajay tore the left sleeve from his jacket and wrapped it around the reindeer’s muzzle.

“I have never seen so much fire in one place,” Rajiv said, wide-eyed.

“Can you put it out?” Elsa asked.

Rajiv reached his hand out toward a burning building nearby and concentrated, willing the fire to go out. The flames flickered momentarily, then continued to burn as fiercely as before.

“It seems I cannot simply extinguish fire that I did not create myself. But I can move it.”

He reached out with his powers and mentally grabbed hold of the flames that raged on the nearest wall. Then, sweeping his arm up and over his head, he sent the flames leaping through the air in an arc like a thin, fiery rainbow. The flames came down and struck the surface of the waters of the harbor, hissing steamily as they were suddenly extinguished.

Rajiv did this twice more, then took a moment to examine the building. Most of it was still on fire.

“This isn’t working,” the Prince said. “In the time it will take me to save this building, the rest of the port will burn to cinders.”

Elsa thought for a moment, then said, “Part of learning to control my powers involved understanding the nature of ice—the way it behaves, the shapes it naturally wants to make. So what is the nature of fire? What does fire want to do?”

Looking down in concentration, Rajiv said slowly, “Fire is...energy. It wants to consume fuel, and, and air. It wants to grow, and spread, and rise. It wants-”

He stopped and looked at her.

“I have an idea,” he said. “Get everyone back.”

As Elsa waved the others away from Rajiv, the Sundaran prince reached toward the building and pulled another stream of flame from its side. But this time, instead of hurling it into the harbor, he set it circling around his body. The fire’s tendency to move helped Rajiv to keep it in this orbit with only minimal concentration on his part.

Rajiv grabbed a second stream of flame, and then a third, sending them circling around himself. Because he didn’t have to take the time to throw them into the water, he could pull the flames off the buildings faster now.

But not fast enough. Not yet.

***

“I had a feeling I’d find you here,” Anna said, standing in the doorway of the Minister of the Treasury’s office.

The woman removed her reading glasses and calmly looked up from the volume in front of her: a ledger that listed all of the Crown’s assets.

“Most people,” the Princess continued, “probably assume that the Treasury is a dangerous place to be right now—that the Dianisians will loot it the first chance they get.” With a sharp look at the Minister, Anna added, “Unless you happen to know that they’re under orders not to.”

The Minister’s smile was both sinister and condescending as she said, “Honestly, I’m a little bit impressed that you found me out. Far too late, of course, but still...”

Anna heard someone running up the stairs behind her. She turned her head and saw that it was Bulmar, the goateed accountant who had shown her the vault the night before.

“Minister!” the man cried as he arrived at the top of the stairs. Then, spotting Anna, he shouted, “Your Highness! You both need to leave immediately; the invaders could get here any minute!” He turned to the Minister. “And where are the extra guards we’re supposed to have? It doesn’t look like even the regular-”

Bulmar suddenly went silent as the point of a blade, smeared with his heart’s blood, suddenly emerged from his chest. Anna watched, horrified, as the life faded from the man’s eyes.

“Been waiting to do that for a year,” said Holgar, the other accountant, his face appearing over his dead colleague’s shoulder like a macabre second head as he withdrew the dagger from the man’s back.

***

Rajiv walked slowly up the street, pulling more and more strands of fire into the column of flame that now swirled around him like a dust devil as it grew.

“What is he trying to do?” Herringholtz asked.

“I’m not sure,” Elsa replied.

Then she noticed something: As Rajiv approached the wall of a burning building, the flames began to extend out toward him, even before he raised his hands to attract them. The fire swirling around Rajiv’s body had become a vortex that was drawing more fire into itself. And the superheated air around the column was rising, causing more air to rush in and pull more fire along with it.

“Oh, you clever man,” Elsa said under her breath.

***

Suddenly energized by fear and outrage, Anna slammed her entire body weight into Bulmar’s still-upright corpse. The dead man toppled over backward and took his murderer with him. Holgar went crashing down the stairs and ended up crumpled on the landing between the first and second floors, lying motionless beneath his victim’s body.

As the Minister stood up, Anna reached behind her and pulled out a sword she had taken from a fallen Dianisian soldier. She pointed the weapon at the Minister in warning.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Anna panted angrily.

“Oh?” the Minister replied, pulling a sword of her own from beneath her desk and advancing toward Anna.

“Seriously? You’re going to fight me?” Anna said as the older woman approached. “You’re three times my age, and you haven’t exactly kept your fig-”

With a lunging step forward and little more than a flick of her wrist, the Minister sent Anna’s sword flying from her hand.

“Okay,” Anna breathed. “I’ve gotta admit, I didn’t see that coming.”

The older woman was just opening her mouth to reply when Anna took a long step-hop backward and bolted down the stairs.

***

Rajiv was moving faster through the port now. The rotating column of flame around him had grown to the size of a tornado—a literal firestorm that fed and grew by pulling in more and more flame from the surrounding buildings. Now, whole blocks of the port that had previously been on fire were merely smoking, no longer hot enough to burn.

Inside the rotating cone of fire, Rajiv was sweating. Not from the heat, to which he seemed to be immune, but from the increasing amount of effort necessary to keep the firestorm going. But he kept moving forward, stripping the flames from building after building, making the cone of fire grow taller and wider.

But what could he do with it all? If he just released it, the result would be explosive—in which case he might as well have let the port burn.

Whatever he was going to do, he would need to do it soon. He couldn’t keep this up much longer.

***

Anna turned around at the stairway landing, narrowly avoiding tripping over the tangled bodies of the two accountants. She dashed down the remaining stairs and took a hard left through the stairway entrance. Then, hearing the Minister’s footsteps not far behind her, she sped toward the main door. As a security measure, the door had to be unlocked with a key from the inside as well as the outside, so Anna fished the borrowed key out of her dress and pulled the thin chain off of her neck as she ran.

And then, her fingers fumbling, she dropped it.

Being light-weight, Anna could stop on a dime. But she could do no more than glance at the dropped key before the point of the Minister’s sword was hovering in front of Anna’s face.

“No, no, Princess,” the older woman said, as if to a misbehaving dog or cat. “I’m afraid I can’t let you leave here just yet…or ever.”

***

Every building in the port was free of fire now. Elsa could not even catch a glimpse of Rajiv through the enormous cone of flame that raged and spun around him.

Despite the rushing air and the roaring flames, Elsa could hear Rajiv’s voice from inside the tornado of fire, making a sound that might have been exertion or pain.

“Aaaaaaggghhhhhh….”

“Rajiv!” Ajay shouted. “Are you all right?”

Elsa, still on Sven’s back, put a hand on the big Sundaran’s shoulder and squeezed. Ajay, in turn, put his big hand over hers.

“It will be all right,” Elsa said, hoping she was telling the truth.

Rajiv’s voice grew louder as he cried, “AaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiAAAAAAAAAH!”

Suddenly, the flames around Rajiv leaped upward, forming a huge ball of fire that raced away from Rajiv’s extended hands and rocketed into the sky above the harbor. Then the fireball exploded with a deafening boom, and Elsa could feel her teeth and bones rattle as windows shattered and Dianisian soldiers cried out in terror.

Elsa turned and saw a unit of Dianisian crossbowmen about a block away, cringing at the sight and sound of the explosion. Everyone else in sight was doing the same.

“That,” Elsa called to every enemy within earshot, “was a warning.”

The crossbowmen dropped their weapons. Others, farther away, did the same. And then the air was filled with the clatter and clang of Dianisian weapons falling to the cobblestones.

END CHAPTER 18
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In the Light of Day: A Frozen Epic