Elsa, Queen of Arendelle, was a prisoner in her own throne room. She was on her knees, hands bound behind her back, glaring at the enemy commander sprawled arrogantly on her throne. His men had dragged her in here from the castle courtyard, tripping her and twisting their fists into her hair to pull her back on her feet. Their intent was to degrade and intimidate her. She was not intimidated. She was, however, afraid. Her fear was more for her sister Anna than for her own safety. Elsa was afraid that her plan to defeat these enemies of Arendelle would fail, leaving the kingdom helpless and the two sisters dead.

Her bun had loosened into a disheveled braid over her shoulder and her bangs dangled over her forehead. There was a small trickle of blood from her temple where one of her hairpins had cut her when they had pulled her up by her hair. A backhanded blow to her face had split her lip. Blood from her cut lip still stained her chin. On her knees, bound, hurt, she was defiant, even though her eyes had fear in them, fear for her sister, for Anna, eyes only for her, not for the enemies who had taken them prisoner or for the sword at her throat.

"Three days; this all started three days ago. Anna. We'll survive this, I promise," was Elsa's silent vow to her sister. She prayed she could make good on that vow.

It had been a beautiful fall day in Arendelle. Crisp, cool, sunny; perfect weather for October.

Queen Elsa was visiting one of the small coastal ports on the fringe of her kingdom, Grømstad. She had sailed from the harbor at Arendelle town yesterday morning and arrived in time for lunch with the town officials. She planned to spend another night, then return home on the afternoon tide the next day.

Since her Coronation three months ago and the disastrous blizzard she had created with her magic power of ice and snow, Elsa traveled throughout her realm to visit as many of the towns and hamlets as she could. She wanted to connect with the people of her kingdom and prove to her own satisfaction that they had recovered from the freak weather she had brought down on them in the middle of July.

Today had been a productive day. She had reviewed the current state of the town's economy, met with anyone of any prominence or responsibility, and would be dining with the mayor and other officials of the town this evening. After touring the rest of the town and meeting with most of the people in a general gathering tomorrow, she would travel back to Arendelle on the evening tide.

She was listening to the Mayor describe how the port had grown over the years when there was a stir at the edge of the group surrounding them. Elsa traveled with her Queen's Own Guard, plus there were some of the Town Watch along because of the prominent citizens meeting with her. Her guards recognized the man running up to them as one of the officers from the ship that had brought Elsa and her party to Grømstad. He was out of breath and gasping when he came to attention and saluted the Queen. "Your Majesty!"

Elsa looked at the Lieutenant with some concern; he was very upset about something. "Yes, Lieutenant? What is it?"

He took a deep breath and said, "We have just received a message from Admiral Naismith, Your Majesty! A fast message sloop brought it from Arendelle town. The kingdom is under attack!"

"What?" exclaimed Eric Gunnarsson, Captain of Elsa's Guard. Elsa simply stared at the messenger. Who could be attacking them?

"The Admiral sent this packet, Your Majesty. It is to be opened by you alone. It seems that the Admiral wishes you to return to the ship, and we are to depart immediately and meet him at a point halfway back to Arendelle."

Elsa took the packet. It was in fact marked, "For the Queen's Eyes Only" and sealed with what she knew was the Admiral's command seal used for secret dispatches. She wondered what message he had sent her that was so sensitive that he did not want it to be communicated to her except in private. Her studies had taught her that secret messages rarely brought good news and she doubted that this one would be an exception.

"Captain Gunnarsson, let us return immediately to the ship. Mayor Berdahl, I'm afraid I must cut my visit short. If the kingdom is under attack, I must ask you to begin mustering your militia and prepare to defend this port. Without more information, we don't know how widespread this attack may prove to be." Berdahl nodded to her, then gestured at his Town Watch Captain to begin to spread the word to the militia. The local townspeople dispersed to begin preparing for any possible local attack.

Elsa and her guard contingent moved quickly back to their ship. Once they were aboard the orders to cast off were given and the ship began to sail back toward Arendelle to the designated rendezvous point. Elsa went to her cabin with only Captain Gunnarsson accompanying her. She sat at the small desk and tore open the envelope, extracted the message within and began to read while Gunnarsson stood at attention beside the cabin door.

Eric had served Elsa since her father's death at sea made her the Queen. He had been in the guard for almost 19 years, and had been promoted to Captain by her father a year before that ill-fated sea voyage. For three years, the job of guarding Elsa was almost too easy; she was reclusive and rarely left her room, much less the castle. At her coronation ball it became clear why she was so reclusive, and his job became much, much harder. In the three months since then he had learned to read her body language, subtle and restrained though it was. He could tell that whatever was in that message was extremely disturbing to her.

"Your Majesty?" She had read the message twice, more slowly the second time, and was now staring at the bulkhead of the sea cabin, clearly deep in thought, a slight frown on her face.

She turned to him and said, "Captain, apparently the Duke of Weselton has decided to take revenge for the slight he feels was done to him at my coronation. He has sent an attack force to loot Arendelle."

Captain Gunnarsson mulled this over for a moment, then replied, "But Your Majesty … that doesn't make any sense. He knows what you can do with your magic. How does he think his force can overcome that?"

She stood, crumpling the message form in her hands and throwing it viciously across the cabin. "Easily, Captain. His force has managed to take my sister hostage. The message sent along by the Admiral makes it clear that any attempt by me or any of our armed forces to defend Arendelle will result in her death."

Eric grimaced. "Did the Admiral make any suggestions?"

Elsa was pacing in the small space allowed in the sea cabin. She was short enough to do so without hitting her head on the overhead beams. "No. He said we needed to confer in person, which is why he is sailing to meet us. He feels it is too dangerous for me to return to Arendelle until we know more."

She looked at Eric, anguish clear on her face. "Of course, Anna is in those … those thugs' control. What about her danger?" she asked bitterly.

Eric had no answer. She had expected none.

"Are there any orders for me, Your Majesty?" Eric asked after she began pacing again.

"No, Captain. I would prefer that the news of my sister being held hostage remain confidential for now. You may inform the rest of your men and the ship's captain of everything else. If anyone has any questions, simply tell them that we will be meeting with the Admiral to plan the best way to defend Arendelle against this treachery."

He saluted, then left. He knew she needed to deal with this in private for a bit. It would only take a few hours until they were able to rendezvous with Admiral Naismith and whoever else he brought along for the planning.

"She's going to kill you, you know," Anna crossed her arms and glared at her captors. She was putting up a brave front although she was really very worried about the situation. Elsa was away from the city, and the Weselton force had been very ingenious about sailing into the harbor under false colors. There were four ships in all, each in a standard merchant configuration. No one had realized that they carried at least two hundred soldiers in their holds until it was too late.

Even two hundred men was hardly a sufficient force to conquer Arendelle. The Arendelle Navy had ten frigates and twenty brigs and sloops of war for anti-piracy work. However, most of these ships were at sea at any one time on those anti-piracy patrols. There were two regiments of Royal Marines as well, over a thousand men, some of whom served aboard the ships, but most of whom were on duty in the kingdom.

But the Duke apparently had clever advisers helping him set up this scheme. They all knew that Elsa's magic alone could probably overpower a large force of troops, and that power combined with the Navy and Marines meant Arendelle was a match for a very sizable military force, should one be foolish enough to attack. So they had figured out the one way to neutralize Elsa and the Navy and Marines in one bold stroke: take Princess Anna hostage. With Anna under their control, they had a winning hand that could trump magic powers and muskets combined.

Apparently, Weselton had sent agents into Arendelle in advance of the disguised attack forces. These agents had observed Anna's movements in the town and planned accordingly. Once the ships arrived, the agents had followed her into an inn where she was planning on meeting Kristoff. There, they had simply sat down at her table, discreetly showed her their weapons and informed her that they would kill her and several other people in the inn if she did not some along with them quietly and without a fuss.

With fake smiles plastered on all their faces, Anna accompanied the men to one of the ships and went on board with them.

When Kristoff arrived at the inn a little later, he was surprised to hear that Anna had left with a small party of men. That was very much unlike her. She had never stood him up before when they had plans to meet. He felt a deep sense of unease about the situation and returned to the castle to talk to Kai. Perhaps she had left a message for him there. He didn't think that was likely, but he didn't know what else to do.

Once Anna was on board their ship, the Weselton commander had sent prepared message packets to the castle and to the Admiralty, spelling out their demands that neither Elsa nor the Arendelle Navy and Marines make any aggressive moves against the invading force, or Anna's life was forfeit. He then sat back to wait for a response to his demands. He knew Elsa was out-of-town and it would take a day for her to receive his demands and then return to Arendelle.

"She will be sooo angry with you guys you won't believe it! What do you think you can do against her?" Anna demanded.

"I think I can threaten to kill her beloved sister if she is so foolish as to test my resolve, Your Highness!" sneered the Weselton commander. "I suggest that you stop testing my patience. I grow weary of your whining. Maybe if I send your tongue to the Queen, it will suggest to her that I am serious, deadly serious in this matter. And it will shut you up."

Anna sniffed at his suggestion, but wisely decided that putting on a brave face didn't require her to keep talking. She flounced over to a chair and plopped down to wait for whatever the commander had in mind.

He grinned at her and said, "Never fear, Your Highness. My orders are to keep you hale and healthy, so long as your sister does exactly what we tell her to do. You will be our honored guest while we help ourselves to the riches of Arendelle, then sail back to Weselton with you and Queen Elsa."

This startled Anna. "What? Why?"

"Very simple. Your sister's powers are neutralized only so long as we have you as a hostage to her good behavior. So therefore, you must come along. The Duke wants her in Weselton to punish her for her monstrous sorcery. Once he has tried and executed her for her witchcraft, you may return to Arendelle and take the throne. He's doing you a favor, you should be grateful for this boon!" and the man laughed at the expression on Anna's face.

Author's Note:

This story may be considered an 'alternate timeline' version of "Protector of the Dominion". In that story, Elsa was present when the Duke's ships arrived, and she fought them off with her ice magic and a small army of snowlems. In THIS story, she was off visiting a different town. And the Duke was smarter about the invasion; he figured out a way to neutralize Elsa's magic by kidnapping Anna and using her as a hostage. Many of the OCs will be familiar to those who have read my stories, as they appear regularly in my headcanon.

The entire story was inspired by the cover photo, a drawing that A-KA put up on their tumblr blog, and has given me permission to use for the cover art of this story. THANK YOU! You can find them at akapost dot tumblr dot com You guys all know how to translate that into the correct format, right? (wink)

Strap in for a wild ride, fans and followers. This one will be a little darker than my usual work. I think. Not sure. I'm just the typist for my muse. She's off doing all the work as a background process, then thumps me on the head when she wants me to start typing.