The astrologist's chamber was built in the tallest tower, three floors up, looking over the fjord. Staff commented how he had the best view in the castle, but wasted it always looking up.
"Good morning, girls," High Astronomer Augie said, not looking up from the telescope lens he was adjusting. Its bulging end pointed through a slit in the roof to the cloudy sky. Next to him stood a desk with a wide mess of telescopes, lenses, star charts, books, prisms, and scrolls.
"Morning, Augie," Anna said.
"How is the queen today? In good spirits?"
"I assume so," Anna said. "Have you seen her?"
"Seen her? Isn't she standing-" Augie looked up and startled. "Excuse me. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought you were Queen Elsa." He gestured to the back of his head. "It's the braid."
Anna laughed. "This is my cousin, Rapunzel. Elsa left for Corona yesterday. Didn't you hear?"
"Oh... no. I was recording weather patterns. Trying to get a grasp on this ice storm phenomenon. It was the queen's last order to me."
"Have you found anything yet?" Rapunzel asked. She stepped over the many books laid out to reach the desk next to the telescope with his notes.
"It's too difficult to for manual observation because of the darkness. Everything is just gray. I've been recording temperature, pressure, dew point, every hour. Looking for trends."
Rapunzel peered over his shoulder, reading through the data. Meanwhile, Anna spun the orrey in the middle of the room. Little balls representing the planets spiraled around a central yellow sun at different speeds. Jupiter revolved the slowest. Grinning, she whacked it as hard as she could to see how fast it could go. The red planet fell off and rolled under a desk.
Anna gasped. She stood up straight, as if she were paying attention the whole time.
"Could be a front. When areas of high pressure and low pressure collide, storms can happen. Bloody unusual storm though for this time of year," Augie said.
"I've got books and books of strange weather phenomena back at home. Rains of frogs. Rainbows from the moon. Conic lightning."
Augie nodded. "I've read those. But I'm a man of science. Most of those stories are apocryphal. I tend not to trust a theory that's traveled tongue to tongue across countries."
Anna slipped away and flattened to the ground. She reached under the desk where the red ball had rolled. It was caked in dust and grime. She brushed it off daintily, then slipped it back onto its spindle.
But it didn't seem to fit on. As she turned it, a spider crawled up the top. Anna's scream seized in her throat. She flailed her arms, accidentally spinning the orrey and knocking other planets off. Anna grabbed for the balls as they fell.
"Then what do you think it is?" Rapunzel asked.
"I hate to say this, but I think it's magic," Augie said. "Normally, I'd never mention the word, but we do have a sorceress for a queen, so..."
Rapunzel giggled. "So much for being a man of science."
He smiled and shrugged. "If it's not following the laws of nature, I don't know what else to call it."
Anna crawled under shelves and couches, fetching the balls until she cradled five planets in her hand. She returned to the display, but couldn't remember where they went. The little planets were closes to the sun, right? Or was it the important ones?
Augie said, "The simple fact is, the ice isn't melting and the clouds aren't leaving. If only I could leave my post, I could do some investigating."
"We were going to go into town today to look for leads. Do you know where we should start?" Rapunzel asked.
Augie chewed the pen in his mouth. "If anyone was close to the mountains at the time, they might have witnessed the tempest form. See if anyone witnessed something strange or unnatural. The closer to the sky they were, the better."
Rapunzel nodded. "Anna? Can we get to the homes closest to the mountains today?"
Anna sat up straight.
"What happened to my orrey?" Augie asked. "Why is Earth orbiting Mercury?"
"Um..." Anna toed her foot. "Everyone always said you should change the world. I took it one step further."
Later, Anna got the servants to compile a quick list of people who worked in the mountains--miners, trappers, lumberjacks. First they interviewed all the castle guards assigned to patrol the tower parapets that night.
"Let me see," said Henrik. "I was taking over for Ivar, cause he what came down with the flu that's been going around. Emanuel was on duty with me, but had to use the tinkle pot. And then I don't remember if he came back. He had a lot of water-"
"Yes, but can you tell us what you saw that night? When the storm hit?" Anna asked.
"Right, right. I was looking at the moon. It was a clear night. And I was looking at the moon, and thinking how much it looked like a cookie. Then I remembered the cookies my mom used to make with extra butter. They were so warm and gooey-"
"Shouldn't you have been looking on the ground for intruders instead of at the moon?" Rapunzel asked.
"Oh, right. I should. Unless they're riding birds. But I guess they'd have to be awful large birds, so that's not happened, has it?"
"Not likely." Anna rolled her eyes.
Henrik was, sadly, the most helpful of the guards, who all reported the same thing--a clear night, then clouds that formed out of nothing, centering over Arendelle's castle.
The townspeople weren't much better. Kaia, an old woman, opened the door to them. As soon as she did, a giant black elkhound rushed out and battered them with its nose.
"I was out for a walk at the time, dearies. Beautiful night out. Lots of stars. Cool wind coming down the mountain. Just love it."
The dog became interested in Anna's skirt, trying to burrow into it.
"Where were you when the storm hit?" Rapunzel asked, while the wagging tail thwapped at her legs.
"Just a little ways out of town, I suppose. I take Rufus with me. Rufus, be nice."
Rufus was being nice. A little too nice. The ebony hound revolved around Anna, rubbing his body against hers. He sat on his haunches, looking up expectantly. Anna gave him a friendly pat.
"I don't think I saw anything unusual at the time," Kaia continued. "I mean besides the storm itself. Seemed to come up like magic. Everyone says Queen Elsa did it, but I don't believe that. She's learned her lesson."
"That's what we think," Rapunzel said. "It sounds a little different than her magic. Was there anything after the storm?"
"After we got into some shelter, I gave Rufus some treats to calm him down. Rufus, stop that."
If anything, the command made Rufus go harder. He jumped on two legs so he could reach his nose as high as he could. Anna tried to shove him off, but the dog was a bit bulkier than she could manage.
"Whoop!" Anna fell to the side, rather than crush the dog. This was Rufus's chance. He slobbered her face, straddling her torso to get in better position. "Help! I'm not ready for this kind of relationship."
Another old woman opened a door, but was less pleasant. Anna and Rapunzel explained the situation. "So we're hoping you could tell us what you saw the night of the storm."
Constantly adjusting her spectacles, she declared, "You're not the queen."
"No, I'm Princess Rapunzel of Corona."
"What kind of first name is 'Princess'?"
"No, I am a princess. Rapunzel's my first name."
"You don't look like any princess I know of."
"She's my cousin," Anna said. "She's helping me look into this whole thing."
"Find that Queen Elsa, I bet she did it. And her sister too. She's a collaborator."
"I'm... her sister," Anna said. "Don't you recognize me? I'm Princess Anna."
"Eh? Princess Anna? I thought you were her cousin."
"No, SHE'S my cousin." Anna pointed to Rapunzel.
"How can she be your cousin, but you not hers. That doesn't make sense," the old lady retorted.
"No, we're both cousins. We're both princesses."
"Then where's the queen? She should be handling this, like a proper diplomat."
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
"She is. She's gone to Corona to look for a solution," Rapunzel said.
"I thought you said you were from Corona," she pointed a gnarled finger at Rapunzel. "So what are you doing here? Is that what a queen would do? Lie to her subjects?"
"I'm not the queen."
The old lady turned around in a huff. "Should've never voted for this administration."
Johan worked at the lumber mill, which lay at the foot of the mountain. He was sawing logs when the storm hit. "I was working on a godhammer--that's about a two hundred and fifty stone log. It's hardcore. When it came down the river, I was PUMPED!"
Anna and Rapunzel shirked back. "Was the sky clear at that point?"
Johan shrugged. "I guess so. Wasn't paying attention. You start sawing the cutlets, you get in the ZONE." He bashed his head against the mill wall. "All you see is the sawdust flying. Nothing else matters but that next cut, you know?"
"Um, yes?" Anna said.
He set a chunk of black wood on a stump. "And don't let nobody tell you I was slacking off. I'll give you three reasons why I'm the best cutter in Arendelle. Number one, no one can match these pieces of timber." He flexed his chest muscles, holding out fists that were the size of babies. "Number two: a log like that comes down the river, I pounce like a tiger. Rip off a chunk and grind it in my mouth, grr." He peeled the bark from his chunk and gnashed his teeth around it, like a dog with a chew toy. "Get a real taste for it, you know?"
"So you didn't see the storm start?" Rapunzel asked.
"No. By the time I looked up, ice was all around me. No idea what happened. I was afraid I slept through summer."
"What's the third?" Anna asked.
"The third what?" Johan said.
"The third reason you're the best?"
"Oh, I... I don't remember." He looked down at the boulder. "What was I doing with this wood?"
Every house they went to said the same thing--clouds appeared, icy rain fell, and they want something done about it. Exhausted, Rapunzel and Anna finished their day in the mountaineer district. A wife answered the door, jiggling a baby on her shoulder.
She looked frazzled, but straightened when the princess entered. "Oh, what can I do for you?"
"You're Milla, right? We're just going around town, seeing if we can figure out how the ice storm came about. We know it wasn't Queen Elsa, so we're asking if anyone saw anything weird that night?"
The baby's gurgles grew from fussy grunts to outright rage. Milla ignored it. "Sure, come in, come in. Can I offer you a cup of tea?"
"Um, sure," Anna said. No one had invited them in so far, and they were tired of the unfriendly responses. Even if this house had a screaming baby in it.
The mother put the tea on the stove. "I'm sorry about Samuel. He's been colicky for the last day and a half. My husband's going to see if he can find some herbs to soothe him down."
Little Samuel did his best to drown out his mother as she balanced a tea kettle and a fire.
"I could hold him," Rapunzel said. "Can I? I love babies."
Milla looked confused, which Rapunzel understood. Why would a royal woman sully herself with the touch of a squalling baby, especially one from a commoner. But upon seeing Rapunzel's sincere smile, she handed him over.
Milla exhaled as if a twenty stone weight had lifted off her neck. Samuel didn't even acknowledge that he had transferred persons. Rapunzel took the child next to a window, cradling his head, while Anna asked questions.
"So was your husband near the mountains that night?"
"He was. He didn't say he saw anything weird, but he got it pretty bad. When he came in his clothes were frozen. We had to cut him out of his jacket."
Samuel's cries filled the tiny hovel. Anna and Milla had to shout to hear each other.
"Was he with anyone at the time? Did he see what direction it came from?"
"No, he said it came out of nowhere."
"Is there maybe another room I can take him while you talk?" Rapunzel asked.
"I can take him. I'm sorry, he's overtired. You shouldn't have to-"
"No, no, it's no trouble. I've been out all day. Even a screaming baby's better company than some of the places we've been."
"You can take him in our room if you like. That's where his basinet is."
Rapunzel carried young Samuel into the back room and shut the door. Although it gave relief to the two outside, the small room and flat walls did wonders for amplification.
Rapunzel sat on a chair and bounced Samuel up and down. Still he screamed. She twirled him around. Nothing. She was pretty sure swaddling him was the key and began a search for blankets. But all the ones she found were glazed with spit-up and other fluids. If she could just swaddle him, she bet she could stop the noise, give the poor mother some relief.
Rapunzel took a bobby pin out of the back of her head. A tress of hair sprang out and unraveled on the floor. She set Samuel on the bed and laid out a ribbon of gold. Like rolling a pastry, she wrapped Samuel tight and snug.
"Do not spit up on me," Rapunzel said.
Samuel's cries blubbered into confused gasps as he tried to figure out why he couldn't move his limbs. But then resentment returned. He was content to lay there and scream his head off.
Rapunzel sat in the rocking chair. "You need to get sleep, little guy. How about a song? This is a lullaby my mother... I mean, someone taught me." She cleared her throat. "Flower, gleam and glow... let your power shine..."
Meanwhile, outside, Anna and Milla waited for the tea to steep, sitting across from each other. Milla said, "I wasn't even looking up until the ice hit. But I do remember it seeming dark outside. I don't think I was paying too much attention at the time. If I had to guess, I suppose it centered over the castle, didn't it?"
"I think that's why people are suspicious of Queen Elsa. It's not an accident. But then, who did it? And why?" Anna asked.
Milla nodded. "That's the question."
"I mean, I could see some kind of magician trying to hurt us. Get an invasion force ready or sabotage. But then-"
"Wait!" Milla held up her finger and hushed. "Do you hear something?"
Anna paused. "No."
"I don't either. The silence... the baby!"
Both jumped from their seats, spilling tea on the floor, and rushed to the back of the house. Milla almost knocked Anna down. She tore open the door to find...
Rapunzel rocking in the chair, holding sleeping Samuel in her arms.
"Everything okay?" Rapunzel asked.
"I... the... I didn't hear anything. So I thought... what happened? Is he all right?"
"He's fine."
"H-how did you... I don't know what you did, but thank you." Milla clasped her hands together as if she were praying. Her eyes glowed with absolute, desperate gratitude. "How did you do it?"
"Just a trick I learned from my mother," Rapunzel smiled.
----------------------------------------
"Why?" Elsa hissed. She pointed the trident at Ariel's throat.
Ariel lay pinned to the iceberg, ice cuffs around her wrists and tail. She craned her neck away from the golden spear point.
"I didn't mean to. It was an accident. That's why I was trying to save them. Mermaids don't try to lure sailors to their deaths."
"Liar. That's exactly what an evil creature would say." The seabirds gathered on the island twittered like an agreeing court audience.
"No, it's true. In fact, going to the surface is forbidden. We aren't allowed to have contact with humans. We're supposed to keep ourselves a secret."
Elsa whipped back. "Then what are you doing here?"
Ariel started to speak, but realized each place to start made less sense than the last. "It's a long story. I became a human because I fell in love with one. But something turned me back into a mermaid."
"You fell in love with a human?"
Ariel nodded. "But my father didn't approve, so I went to the sea witch, and she gave me this contract to turn me into a human if I gave her my voice. But my voice was the only way he could tell it was me. It was this whole big thing."
"Sounds complicated."
"You should have seen the wedding," Ariel said.
Elsa weighed her words, but the frequent calls of the seagulls distracted her. "Then why did you cause the storm? Why did you destroy my ship?"
"It was an accident. I didn't even see you out there. I was trying to take care of this." She lifted the fluke of her tail. "And the trident turned me human once before."
Elsa held up the trident to her eye. "The trident... What is it?"
Ariel cringed. "Please be careful with that. It's... well, it's mostly a weapon. But for the ruler of the sea, it has many more powers. I thought that maybe it would work for me. But..." She shook her head. "My six sisters are the ones ruling Atlantica. I guess I'm still just a princess."
"A princess?"
"Of Atlantica. Daughter of King Triton."
"Triton..." Elsa remembered the name from her studies on Greek history. He was a god who dwelt in a golden palace in the depths of the sea. His father was Poseidon--master of the ocean--known for wielding... a trident.
Elsa lowered the weapon, now aware of its power. "This caused the storm?"
Ariel nodded. "When I went to the surface and used it, lightning and wind started shooting out. I couldn't control it. I'm sorry, I should have had someone there to help me."
Elsa flexed her fingers on the trident's shaft. "Strangely enough, I understand having a power you can't control."
"You created that iceberg, didn't you," Ariel said. "Where does your power come from? Is there a tool or a necklace you use?"
"I was born with it. But I've gained control over it now. Well, mostly. But this..." She held up the trident. "You shouldn't be wielding something so dangerous if you can't handle it."
"Believe me, I never wanted to hurt anyone. If I could go back and fix it, I would."
A sharp, crackling screech sounded behind them, among the other bird calls. Elsa looked behind her.
Seabirds galumphed along the shore. They trotted and hopped along the rocks. Each stared at them from their perches with empty doll's eyes.
"Um, does that look like more birds than usual to you?" Elsa asked.
Ariel lifted her head. "What are they all doing?"
The birds lifted off as one, amassing into a furious cloud of feathers and beaks. It squealed like a dying hog.
Elsa shielded her eyes with her free hand as their beaks sliced her arms. Looking away, she fired trails misty snow against the flock. The horde penetrated the cloudy ice, pelting her with claws and shrieks.
With her free hand, Elsa swatted with the trident. It whacked one or two light bodies out of the sky, but the mass continued its assault.
"Help!" Ariel cried. Several birds landed next to her body, pecking at her hands and stomach and tail. Pinpricks of blood dotted her smooth flesh. "Help me, please!"
Elsa thrust her hand out. The ice shackles disappeared in puffs of frost. Ariel crawled on her belly to Elsa. "Let me try." She held up her hands to take the trident.
Elsa hesitated at giving a possible enemy her weapon back, but relented.
An unearthly thrum emitted from the weapon. Ariel aimed and lightning shot into the mob of seabirds. They fluttered out of the way. Maybe one or two got hit, but a dozen more replaced them.
"They sure are organized," Ariel yelled.
"They're defending their territory," Elsa yelled. "We're the invaders."
Ariel shot one of the gulls out of the sky. It plopped in the water as another bird scratched its claw across her wrist. Ariel screeched.
"If we don't escape, we're going to become bird food," Elsa said.
Ariel pointed past the inlet of rocks. "Can you make another platform?" she shouted.
Elsa redirected her powers to the ocean space. A flat ice floe formed, bobbing in the waves.
Ariel side-rolled into the water. For a brief moment, Elsa thought she was escaping. Then she popped up behind the iceberg. "Get on!"
Elsa ran across the water. A silvering plate formed under each foot, cantilevering forward, making a cold safe bridge.
The birds swarmed in the air, streaming in different directions like a chaotic tornado. Gradually, when the mass reached critical size, it moved toward them.
"Kneel down," Ariel said. "This is going to go fast."
Elsa set to her knees as Ariel grunted, heaving the ice floe forward. Her fluke scattered spray as it beat against the ocean. Once Elsa realized what she was doing, she molded the ice to be more hydrodynamic, adding a raised lip to front and a keep to the bottom. Soon they reached enough speed to leave a wake behind. But so were the birds.
"Head towards that bay," Elsa pointed. She hoped the presence of the townspeople would scare off the birds. If not, they could hide under a roof.
Ariel kept her head down, thinking of nothing but pumping her tail as fast as she could. The demon cries of the birds pushed through her fatigue.
Elsa peered into the distance. There was something in the water. A dock running parallel to shoreline. The tide had risen high enough to cover it with a patina of water.
"Ariel!" Elsa shouted. But she couldn't hear over the rush. They couldn't stop, couldn't turn in time. Elsa thrust her hands out and created a ramp of ice. They slid up the ramp and launched into the air.
Ariel's eyes grew wide, but she clung on as they both flew as high as the birds pursuing them. Fright rendered her catatonic.
The ice floe fell from underneath Elsa. They were about to crash into the shore. Elsa grabbed Ariel's hand and aimed her hand at the beach
A mound of snow sprang up on the gray sand where they were about to make impact. They landed with a soft WHUFF. Flakes spurted up like fireworks, as if celebrating a safe landing.
Elsa landed on her butt. Ariel speared the snow halfway through, leaving her fish tail stuck out flapping. Elsa reached in and grabbed her arms.
"Whoa..." she said, taking a breath. "That was fun."
Elsa bemusedly thought of a certain sister who would have said the same thing. The birds had stopped where they had launched and were dispersing into the sky. Elsa let out a cleansing breath.
Ariel lay back in the snow and sighed. "I'll have to tell Scuttle about that one."