Frost Chapter 1

KING ANGAR

I am awakened with a feeling of dread. I sit up quickly to find that the large chamber around me is still dark and Iduna is still sleeping beside me. I can’t shake the feeling that someone woke me up when I hear the shouts again. It’s then that I notice the sharp cold on my skin. I jump out of bed quickly and race out the door. My actions must wake Iduna because I hear her footsteps chasing behind me.

“Angar, what’s wrong?!” She asks, alarmed. I don’t have to answer as it is immediately followed by the sound of Jesten screaming again from somewhere below in the palace. We race down the steps, the air getting colder and colder the closer we get. By the time we get to the doors of the ballroom I can see frost on the windows. I push on the doors but they don’t budge.

“Jesten! Open the door!” I yell into the room.

“Father help!” He yells, his voice hoarse and hysterical.

“The ballroom doors don’t lock.” Iduna says with more calm than I am capable of at the moment. “They must be frozen shut.” She reasons. She grabbing a brass candelabra and begins banging it against the seam in the door. Ice sprays everywhere and I grab the brass handle from her and begin hitting harder while we both press our weight into the door.

The door finally gives way with an audible crack and we fall through into the frigid room. Iduna gasps as we stare into the room unable to believe what we are seeing. The floor is covered in thick frosted ice. Veins of ice stretch up the large marble columns around the room leading to icicles as wide as man’s leg. But the most shocking thing is all the red. Jesten stands over Anna who is laying alarmingly still while a horrifying amount of crimson blood seeps around her.



“What did you do?!” I ask meeting Jestens’ icy tear filled eyes before I can control the fear I am feeling. He must sense it because his already hysterical state becomes worse and he begins yelling. “Wake up Anna!” over and over.

Iduna is already wrapping him in her arms to gently move him away then kneels beside Anna.

I snap out of my shock then ashamed of my delayed reaction and rush to their side.

“She’s breathing.” Iduna announces quickly wrapping Anna in the shawl from around her shoulders. “Run for the doctor.” She tells me but I quickly shake my head.

“No, we can’t risk anyone seeing this.” I say meaning the explosion of ice and power around us. “We need to take her to them”. Idunas face visibly pales and I take Ana from her stiff arms. I should have stopped this long ago.

Jestens powers are the side effect of the elemental Magic that made him. But never did I think him capable of what I had just seen.

The misty border leading to North Huldra is impossible for humans to cross. It’s said if a human were to cross uninvited they would get lost in the mist to wander forever. The mist borders west Arendell separating our two lands. We stop just outside of it. Anna still hasn’t awoken and her breathing has slowed. Iduna holds her and has barely spoken a word as we make our journey. I know she is afraid, but whether it’s for her own life or the girls I am unsure. I don’t ask.

I call out into the mist, my voice loud against the stark quiet summer night.

We wait. Hours pass and a thousand possibilities play in my mind. If Anna dies I will have spent the time and effort to make her for nothing. I should have just bedded one of the servants and quietly made more children, but my pride had gotten the better of me and now it makes a fool out of me.