who Anna was. Aside from Olaf, and he was an unreliable source at best. She tried to hold back fresh tears. “How do you know Anna doesn’t remember me yet? What if she’s out there right now looking for me, too?”
Grand Pabbie squeezed her hands. “I would know. You would, too. Elsa, you must stay calm—I can see beyond the valley, and I know what fear is doing to your magic. The kingdom is wrapped in an eternal winter.”
“I didn’t mean for that to happen,” Elsa said softly. “I don’t know how to fix it.”
“You will figure it out,” he assured her. “You must concentrate on controlling your powers. The rest will come. The magic is fading. I can feel it! You are remembering your past. Soon Anna will as well. But until she does, you must keep your distance. Your sister’s life depends on it.”
Elsa looked at the way out of the valley. Beyond the rocks, she saw the snow squall.
She had thought finding Anna would change everything, but she was wrong. Elsa had given her all the past few days and fought to find her family. She couldn’t even do that now. If she got too close to Anna, ice would consume her.
Even after all that time, she was destined to be alone.
“Snow. Why did it have to be snow?” Anna asked, shivering as Kristoff and Sven led the sleigh into the mountains with her and Olaf tucked inside. “She couldn’t have had tropical magic that covered the fjords in white sand and warm sunshine?”
“I love the sun!” Olaf butted in, his personal flurry crashing into the front seat of the sleigh as they bounced along the uneven path. “I mean, I think I like it. It’s hard to tell what it does from inside the castle.”
“I don’t think you’d like it much.” Kristoff squinted hard at the path ahead of them.
The snow had started to fall harder since they’d left Arendelle, and it was coming down in sheets. Anna wasn’t sure how Kristoff and Sven could see where they were going. Night had fallen, and the tiny lantern that hung off the edge of the sleigh wasn’t giving much light. They’d have to find shelter somewhere soon, but Anna hadn’t seen any houses or villages in hours. Suddenly, they came to a wall of snow that made the route impassable. The alternative was a hilly incline that didn’t even look like a real path.
“Are you sure Elsa went this way?” Kristoff asked Olaf as he led Sven up the uncharted terrain that was covered in ice.
“Yes. No.” Olaf scratched his head with one of his twigs. “Again, everything I saw was through a window. I heard shouting and saw ice freezing, and then I looked out and saw Elsa—at least, I think it was Elsa, because who else can make snow?—running across the fjord as it turned to ice. Then she disappeared into the trees!” Olaf frowned. “And I lost sight of her.”
Kristoff took his eyes off the path and looked at Anna. “Remind me again why we listened to a talking snowman? We’re in deep snow, the wind is howling, we have no shelter, and I’m sledding up a mountain based on a hunch.”
“It’s not like we had a better option,” Anna pointed out. “It’s going to be fine! Olaf will help us find her. He knows Elsa better than anyone, don’t you?”
“Yes!” Olaf insisted as the sleigh took a narrow turn and started to climb again. “I know lots about Elsa, because she made me three years ago and I never left her room.” His eyes lit up. “Wait! I’m wrong. Sometimes she snuck me through one of the secret passageways and we went up to the bell tower or the attic. Once, we got to go to the Great Hall and Elsa made a giant snow hill that we slid down. But that was in the middle of the night.”
Anna felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Suddenly she remembered being very small and sliding down a snow hill inside a giant hall with a blond girl—and they were both holding on to a snowman. She looked at Olaf again. “Did you just do that?”
“Do what?” Olaf asked.
“Make me see that,” Anna answered. Maybe the cold was getting to her.
“See what?” Olaf asked as the sleigh hit a rock and took air. It crashed back down, and Olaf’s flurry smacked Anna and Kristoff in the face.