 Gerda goes to the palace and meets the princess and the prince, who is not Kai but looks like him.Gerda tells them her story, and they provide her with warm clothes and a beautiful coach.While traveling in the coach Gerda is captured by robbers and brought to their castle, where she befriends a little robber girl, whose pet doves tell her that they saw Kai when he was carried away by the Snow Queen in the direction of Lapland.