Many Beauty and the Many Beast

by Felicity Collins

  "Exactly! Get out of here!" he yelled trying to point the sword at me, but pointed it at my left. Again, he slightly stumbled and did that pinching and blinking gesture again, as he lowered his head blinking again.

  "Hans, put the sword down" I said tracing the sword's edge careful not to cut myself as I walked closer to him "Hans, it's okay. It's going to be fine, but you need to calm down" I had almost managed to touch the hand holding the sword, but when I touched him, Hans snapped. He snatched his hand away taking a step back and swung the sword on me, once, twice, three times. I managed to dodge the first two by moving back, but on the third I had to roll on the side. I knew he was doing this to scare me off but, in these conditions he could unintentionally kill me. Memo for me: never give Hans a sword when he's angry and sick. Now I'm in trouble. As I dodged the last one, he stumbled forward, but as he stroke again, I rolled forward to dodge, but this time, Hans didn't just stumble. The sword fell from his hand and he collapsed on the floor.

  "Hans!" I called getting quickly to his side turning him around. His face was white, his forehead covered in sweat, his breathing hoarse. He needed help immediately. I got my sword and put it back in its sheath, I didn't need a third degree. "GUARDS!" I called getting back to my brother's side. The cell door immediately opened and the two big armed men came in.

  "Your Majesty! Are you alright? Did he attack you?" Guard 1 asked concerned as he saw the scene in front of him.

  "No, he is sick!" I said "You" I said pointing to Guard 1 "Go fetch the doctor and if you meet a servant on your way, tell him to go get Queen Elsa or do it yourself! GO! MOVE!" I ordered, the first guard immediately obliged and ran out of the cell. "You" I said pointing at Guard 2 "Help me put him on the bunk" I said. The man walked to me and as I got Hans' upper side, he got his legs and together we lifted him up and put him on the bunk.

  "Help me take his shirt off. I need to check his wounds" I said. The guard seemed reluctant "Now!" I said sternly and he obeyed. As we took his shirt off I took a look at the bandages. They were old. No one had come to change them. I took out the dagger I wore on the left side of my belt and carefully cut open the bandages removing them. Then I turned him around with his back facing up. Most of the wounds were infected.

  "Oh my…" the guard mumbled clearly not expecting such a sight: gruesome, that's the word. They were much worse than the last time.

  "What's going on?" the doctor asked as soon as he got into the cell, then he saw me and gave me a quick bow. "Your Majesty! What happened?" he asked.

  "We were talking, then he paled and collapsed" I explained cutting out the dangerous part. The doctor took a look at Hans.

  "Did you remove the bandages?" he asked.

  "Yes, there they are" I said pointing at the old dirty rags. The doctor looked at them "They haven't been changed, of course the wounds would get infected, they were already half way when I gave him his first medication" he said taking a cloth and a bottle with some transparent liquid in it. Then he poured some of the liquid on the cloth and carefully disinfected the wounds.

  "Is there something I can do? I think he's sick" I said worriedly. He put a hand on Hans' forehead.

  "Yes, he's got a high fever. This is not good. Not good at all" the doctor said "Judging from the bandages and the severity of the infection, I suppose the bandages haven't been changed since I gave him his first medication, which means his wounds weren't treated… which means he could die"

  "Then why didn't you treat his wounds?!" I thundered.

  "Because I didn't put him in charge of it" said another voice, I turned around and saw Elsa regally walking inside the cell, looking at me with a glare. The doctor gave her a bow of the head "What are you doing here? I believe I had made myself pretty clear when I told you not to"

  "Well, it's a good thing I did. My brother is dying!" I said angrily.

  "We're having a talk later" Elsa said and turned to the doctor "What happened?" she asked.

  "The bandages haven't been changed since the last time I came here. No one has treated his wounds and now they are severely infected, as you can see, and he's got a high fever" the man put away the cloth as he finished cleaning all his wounds "Queen Elsa, he could die and considering his whole state, the chances are quiet high" Now, I was worried out of my mind. Elsa seemed to be quiet shocked at the news too. I was about to speak up when she raised a hand to silence me.

  "Doctor, finish treating his wounds and change his bandages" she ordered. The doctor gave her a quick bow and went back to work on Hans' back. "You two" she said pointing to the guards "once the doctor is done, take the prisoner to his old guest room and guard it. No one can get in or out unless I allow it"

  "Yes, your Majesty" they said.

  "Queen Skylynn" she said turning to me "follow me" I nodded as she gave me a stern look. I took one last look at Hans and then followed the queen out of the cell and back upstairs in the castle hallways. There was silence as my mind was focused on my injured sick brother, also waiting for Elsa's rant which was not coming. Then I exploded.

  "Look, Elsa if you are going to lecture me, you'll have wait for that since I've got my mind on my brother's health and I'm not really going to listen to you anyway. Plus, I already know the drill so don't bother" I told her.

  "No, I will bother, I will lecture you and you are going to listen to me, Skylynn Westerguard" she said with a stern look.

  "Actually it's Engel Westerguard" I corrected.

  "Whatever. I don't care" she said "For two minutes, zip it" she said. I crossed my arms, waiting for the lecture. Is she really expecting me to listen? I have other stuff in my head right now, like how I'm going to skin my half-brothers one by one, or, more importantly, my brother's health.

  "You came here willing to save Hans' life knowing what he tried to do and to me that's not a good start. Then you burst into a room humiliating a king and two princes right under my nose, then you keep asking me to visit Hans and even though my answer is 'no', you go there anyway, you have done nothing more than trying my patience. I thought I had made it pretty clear that you were supposed to be on your best behavior, but since I can't kick you out anymore, I should have you locked up in your quarters"

  "I had to see him. It was urgent and it's a good thing I did! I needed answers and I got them before he collapsed"

  "I don't care what kind of family business you had to talk to him about, but if I forbid you to see him, you don't go see him"

  "Even when it's about the mess he did here in Arendelle?" I challenged.

  "In that case, he has to answer to me, not you and it's not him we're talking about, we're talking about you" Elsa seriously replied "You are in my home, under my rules, I warned you once, but you keep doing whatever you want and that's not okay with me. You're already on my Black List and you seem to actually try to make it worse!" she paused taking a deep breath "But… if you hadn't disobeyed me, by the time I would have allowed you to see Hans, he would have probably been dead and a war with Drakora is the last thing I want for my kingdom. So…" she continued "I suppose I also owe you a thank you for letting me know"

  "You're letting me off the hook? Just like that?" I asked surprised.

  "I still don't know what kind of 'game' you're playing at now, but yes. I'm sort of letting you off the hook. But Skylynn, please let it be the last time I tell you: stop defying my orders" she said in an exasperated plead "I know you care about him, but you have to stop doing whatever floats in your boat, especially since everything that happens here is under my responsibility. If we were in Drakora and you'd be in my position, you'd ask me the same thing" I couldn't help contain a small side smile.

  "You're right, I would" I said "I apologize, your Majesty. I'll try to be on my best behavior"

  "Thank you" there was a small silence.

  "Elsa" I spoke up "Who was supposed to treat Hans' wounds didn't do his job. Who is it?" I asked trying to contain the anger that was boiling up in me.

  "I don't know, I'll have to ask K
ai. But Skylynn, please, leave that to me" she said "And I'm sorry if your brother could be dying because of one of my servants" I gave her a nod of the head and walked past her, when she stopped me with a hand "For your next visit to him, wait for me" she said looking at me in the eyes. I took a deep breath, restraining myself from rolling my eyes.

  "Of course" I said.

  "And another thing. How did you get past my guards?" she asked slightly narrowing her eyes.

  "I bribed them" I answered truthfully. Elsa's eyes went out of their sockets.

  "You actually corrupted them?!" she said glaring.

  "No, I suggested a fair trade. In exchange of letting me through, I wouldn't have told that you I caught them sleeping on the job. Oops!" I said dramatically covering my mouth with a hand.

  "Oh…" she said, understanding I was telling the truth "Well, that means that you will be held in check and those two dullards will not only have their usual shifts, but will also have to muck out horse poop for a month… three months, in the Royal Stables" I couldn't help but let out a small side smile.

  "Still thinking your guards are 'fine warriors'?" I challenged with a smirk. Elsa glared at me.

  "Go to your quarters, Queen Skylynn" she said glaring at me.

  "Of course, your Majesty" I said with an overdramatic bow and walked away. While I got back to my room, my mind was on Hans, hoping and praying he would make it through.

  Elsa's POV:

  The morning after, as I was done with breakfast, while Anna went to town with Olaf and Kristoff, I went looking for Kai. I had finally found him as he exit the royal kitchen.

  "Kai" I called. He turned around and bowed.

  "Queen Elsa" he greeted "What can I do for you?"

  "Who did you put in charge of treating Hans' wounds?" I asked

  "Four servants and three maids, so they could pick turns. Why? Is something wrong?" he asked worriedly.

  "They didn't do their job and now the prisoner could die" I said. Kai paled.

  "Oh my goodness! Your Majesty- I had no idea! I don't-"

  "Kai, it's okay. It's not you I'm mad at. Who are these people? I need to have a little chat with them" I asked.

  "Follow me" he said showing me the way. We walked through the corridors in silence then, as we stopped by a door, Kai told me the names of the servants and maids he put in charge and opened a door to a room where most of the servants off duty were, some sewing, others resting, others chatting. As soon as they saw me everyone jumped to their feet, the men bowed and the women made a curtsy, acknowledging my presence.

  "I need to ask the following people to follow me for a talk: Joseph, Carl, Gary, Ronald, Mary, Helen and Tina" I said examining each of their faces. The seven I called paled, but followed me out of the door giving each other nervous glances "Thank you, Kai. You can go back to your duties" I said he bowed and gave the seven an apologetic look, then he walked away. I turned back to them "Who gave you the authority to decide the prisoner's fate?" I said sternly "I had you to be ordered to treat his wounds, yet, his life is at stake now because you disobeyed me" I scolded. They all looked to the ground. "If I say 'treat his wounds', you treat his wounds, no questions asked. I don't care if he's a traitor and tried to commit regicide. He had his trial and he will face his punishment; you are in no position to decide his fate. I really hope the seven of you have a good explanation for defying my orders" I said sternly. Then one of the three girls spoke up.

  "You're Majesty, we tried to treat his wounds but… he wouldn't cooperate" she said.

  "Get into details" I said glaring at them.

  "He wouldn't let us near him" said one of the boys. Then he rolled up one of his sleeves revealing healing bruises shaped as fingertips "I got this trying to get near him, but he grabbed my wrist, threatened me and pushed me away"

  "I tried to treat him as well, but he just snapped and wouldn't let me near him. He charged on me, I was lucky to be fast enough to get out of the door" said another of the girls.

  "Your Majesty" said another boy showing me his cheek "I got this bruise because I was stupid enough to grab his arm. He punched me square in the face and would have continued if I hadn't run out of the door"

  "He kept saying he didn't need your help or your pity and that he would rather die" said another boy

  "Your Majesty, honestly, I didn't even go in there because after seeing them coming back from the cell I was scared of him" said the third girl.

  "Yeah, me too. That guy is a beast!" said the last servant. That got me to think. I was actually surprised to hear this. That didn't seem like the Hans I had met last month, this was someone else and it looks like he meant it when he asked me to kill him. He wants to die. But why? I thought- he seemed to be going to fight back, but now I realize, he really doesn't want to be saved and it made me realize something else too. He did care for Skylynn. If he didn't, he would have let them treat him and as soon as he had recovered, he would have tried something without caring about the consequences. If he didn't care about her he would have gotten both him and her killed without a second thought; this is the only way to leave his sister out of the mess he made… or maybe I'm just overthinking?

  I turned back to the servants.

  "Even if what you say it's true, you should have informed me, not taken on the liberty of keeping your mouths shut until the prisoner died" I scolded.

  "We're sorry, your Majesty" said one of the boys "Please, forgive us"

  "Why didn't you inform me?" I said

  "I-.. we…" stuttered one. They all looked at each other nervously. One was chewing on his nails, another had his knees trembling, the one beside him seemed about to pass out and they all had a blank and scared look in their eyes. Then one of the girls timidly spoke up.

  "Please forgive us, your Majesty. None of us wanted to disobey your orders, we thought the prisoner would eventually calm down and then we would have treated him, but as the days passed, he became even more aggressive, instead" she said

  "Please forgive us, Queen Elsa. We're sorry, we made a mistake" a boy said as they all kept their head down.

  "Alright, listen to me carefully. This is my decision" I said "From now on, remember that you will personally answer to whatever happens to the prisoner's health. Food, medications, hygiene, everything will be under your responsibility until he is recovered. Any kind of lack of attention on your behalf will be punished with a stay in the dungeons"

  "Thank you, your Majesty. Thank you for your trust" they said bowing.

  "Now, get back to work" they bowed and quickly walked away to their duties. As the servants walked away, I went back to my study to take care of my queenly duties.

  It was boring, really. Singing all these papers, look at economy statistics… I hate numbers, it just gets confusing after a while, I'm much more of a literature person. As I read the statistics, I couldn't help but notice something. What was on the papers, sure didn't reflect much of what happened in town. This was the first time I had to check those kind documents, but in town it surely didn't look like our economy was slowly going down. I got up to one of the shelves and took out the old statistics and compared them. There was something fishy going on. I then went towards another of my shelves and took out one of the folders that had 'Politics and Government: King Adgar VI – Queen Idun II' written on. It had all the documents of my parent's reign in it. I didn't even check the papers regarding my mother's duties, since she took care of international politics such as trading and alliances, it was my father's politics I needed to give a look at. There I found the answer. I knew mom had always been a much more of a democratic ruler, in fact, she was the one who convinced dad to introduce a parliament. Unfortunately, that's the only thing dad allowed her to decide regarding internal politics. Parliament was there just to help out the monarch taking care of the law, economy and everything else, the only power above parliament is the ruler's. As I kept reading the documents, I got even more scandalized by the pay check these people got, where they had put taxe
s and how they decided to put them, for example: the same amount of taxes on the house for everyone. Now, I mean- for Christ's sake!- the people who have a job that doesn't pay much and a family to take care of, how are they supposed to pay that and the other taxes? As I kept reading I saw even more scandalous things regarding our parliamentarians, apart from the fact that there aren't ANY representatives of middle-class and the commoners, like the amount of privileges these people got. Privileges for what? As I finished reading all that, I finally got why the economy statistics of the past few years were getting worse. My father spent most of the State finances to pay his parliamentarians and putting taxes where there weren't supposed to and in the wrong distribution! Of course our economy is slowly going down! No wonder why some people were giving me the evil eye the other day. After putting away the old documents and putting in my drawer the useful ones, I got back to reading the new ones and one caught my eye. As I read it I felt truly astonished by the absurdity of the letter.

  Who the heck did my ministers take me for?! Santa Clause? was my thought. I immediately folded it and put it in one of my drawers. Then there was a knock on my door.

  "Come in" I said.

  "Pardon me for disturbing you, your Majesty" a friendly male voice said.

  "Oh, Kai don't worry about it. Actually, I was about to come look for you" I said smiling at the butler.

  "I'm all ears, Queen Elsa" he said with a warm smile.

  "I need you to go inform my ministers of an upcoming meeting Friday at 5p.m. sharp"

  "Of course. What for, your Majesty?"

  "Just tell them I have a few things to communicate them" I said holding back a smirk, and to be clear, the only reason why I was smirking was to prevent myself from crying.

  "As you wish, I'll be right on it" Kai said with a bow of the head.