A Snow Queen's Tale- a Frozen Fanfiction

Chapter 47: The Secret Mission

🌻Anna's Pov🌻
      I blinked. That did not make any sense. How could Astrid's letter have her royal seal?
      I took a closer look, but there was no mistake: it was the exact same seal, with the crocus in the middle.
      How had Astrid gotten it? I wondered. I knew the seal never left the castle.
      Did that mean Astrid was inside the castle? Surely someone would have noticed an extra little girl.
      I sat on the bottom step and tried to think of reasons Astrid could have the royal seal. Then I remembered what Olina had said. She had wished I had someone to play with.
      Had Olina made up Astrid for me to have a friend? Or at least to write with? The realization that Astrid could have been Olina all along made me frown. If someone was pretending to be Astrid, that meant there wasn't a real Astrid. I was not part of a good team after all. Olina might have meant to be nice, but now I was sadder than ever.
      I found Olina sweeping the grand hall. Olina looked up and smiled when I walked in, but I did not smile back.
      I waved the letter in the air. "Did you write this?" I asked.
      "No, it's from Nikko," Olina said, looking surprised. "Well, really from your friend Astrid."
      "That's what I thought, too," I said. I looked at the letter, my eyes filling with tears. "But now I know it can't be from Astrid. It has to be someone inside the castle. Someone who can use our royal seal."
Olina stopped sweeping and bent down to me. She looked like she was debating her next words. "I promise I didn't write the letter, Anna," she finally said. She wiped away my tears with her thumb, offering a kind smile. "Why don't you come with me to the kitchen? We can finish decorating some cookies before bed."
      I gave one last sniff and followed Olina to the kitchen. I trusted Olina. If she said she hadn't written the letter, I believed her.
      But as I helped Olina put sprinkles on a fresh batch of cookies, I couldn't stop thinking about the letter. Someone inside the castle had written it, and I was determined to catch that person in the act. That's why I was going to keep an eye on everyone in the castle.
      The next day, I put on some soft shoes that were quiet when I walked and tiptoed through the castle halls.
      I hid behind the doorframe while Kai and Gerda cleaned the widows in the council chambers. There was plenty of pens and paper in there, I noticed. Father had a special desk in the council chambers for his official correspondence. It would be easy for Kai or Gerda to write letters on the sky.
      But Kai and Gerda did not go near the desk. They cleaned the floor till it was shining, and then they went to father and mother's bedroom, preparing everything for their arrival home. I moved on since they did not seem to be up to anything suspicious.
      I kept an eye on Miss Larsen during our lessons, but I quickly decided my governess couldn't be behind the letters. As she writes notes on the chalkboard, I realized Miss Larsen's handwriting looked nothing like Astrid's.
Could Nikko be the mystery writer? I followed him, keeping to the castle's shadows, when he made his next deliveries. He carried sacks and barrels and bags of supplies. He stopped to talk to the people in the castle workshop and the stables. I could not hear what he was saying, but he was not acting unusual. He was cheerful and friendly, like always.
When Olina called Nikko into the kitchen, I watched from under a table. Nikko took a piece of paper from his pocket, and I drew in a breath. Was I about to catch him? But Nikko was not writing a letter. He was making a list of supplies to bring the next day.
I slipped out to the garden next. Anders, the gardener, was gathering fresh flowers. I tiptoed into his shed to see if there was any clues that he'd been writing letters from Astrid. Next to his seedlings, I saw a pile of blankets. Did he nap there when no one was watching?
Did that mean he was sneaky? I wondered. Or did it just mean he was tired?
I went to the portrait gallery when I got tired of spying. "Hello!" I said to my friends in the paintings, trying to sound cheerful. "I've missed you!"
I told them about Soren and his castle and Astrid and the letters. "Can you believe that someone was pretending to be someone they were not?" I asked them. It made me feel better to talk to them, but it wasn't quite the same as a real conversation. I wished I could write to Astrid.
Astrid's stone was in my pocket and still as cold as ice. I took it out and gazed deeply into it, rubbing its cloudy surface. The stone was almost clear, and I wished I could see to its center, but the center remained as mysterious as Astrid's letters.
When I wandered back into the castle kitchen, Olina wasn't there.
Where could she be? I wondered.
I tiptoed into the great hall just in time to see Olina disappearing upstairs. Was she slipping away to use the royal seal?
My heart was racing. Finally, I would have some answers!
I approached the stairs. I heard a door open, and Olina's soft voice. There was a pause, and then the door shut again.
Then I heard the sound of Olina's first step at the top of the stairs, heading down. When I spotted her, Olina was carrying an empty tray.
      I shrank into a corner. I did not want Olina to see me spying.
Just as she did every day, Olina had delivered food on a tray to Elsa. Nothing unusual at all.
I stayed out of sight until I was sure Olina had passed by.
The great hall was so quiet that Olina's footsteps echoed against the floor.
It was lonely in the corner by myself, I thought. Just like it was lonely in the castle. Whoever she really was, Astrid—or the idea of Astrid—had helped keep me happy while my parents were away. I had written letters and invented many stories. I had even built a castle! Now there was only one day left until my parents came home, and the time had flown by.
      When I was thinking of my parents, my eyes darted in the direction of Elsa's door. What was m sister doing in there?
      Elsa did not meet the day's deliveries or explore the gardens. She did not dance in her favorite dress, or talk to the paintings, or play hide-and-seek.
      Was Elsa just as lonely as I was?
      Astrid had helped me get to the end of my parents' long trip, whether or not she was real.
      Was there a way for me to help Elsa, too?