Hilda - Lycadea
by Paul Kater
Published by the author at Smashwords - Copyright 2011-Paul Kater
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Contents:
5. Kings, queens and dinner parties
11. Questions and more questions
24. Float, float, float your couch...
27. Through the wall, in the air
31. The village of the old ones
39. Meanwhile, back at the pyramids
1. Twok
"I hope I am not disturbing your peace," said the house, "but there is a gentleman with a bow who is aiming at the pole for the messages and it looks like he - "
Twok.
" - as I already was afraid, he is not very proficient at this," the house finished. There was no comment from the two magical people who lay draped over the purple couch.
"It chipped some paint too," the house tried, but even that shocking announcement was not enough to evoke some movement. "Fine. Be like that. I'll just fall apart around you and maybe you will notice someday."
A black shape dropped from a bookshelf, landed on all fours with barely a sound and tiptoed to the door. Grimalkin sat down and inspected a paw, waiting for the house to open the door. "Meow," she complained as the house took rather long to understand her intentions.
"Oh. You," the house finally said, sounding almost reluctant, and the door swung open. "Try not to soil anything that's attached to me, please."
Grimalkin did not bother to respond to that; she was a clean cat and the house knew that. It just needed something to whine about.
"Oh dear, there is number two," the house sighed as Obsidian Shadow made his way to the door also.
"Stop that," Hilda commented from the couch. "We are relaxing and we can do that just fine without you going on about every little nothing."
"Oh, excuse me for still standing," the house grouched, "I am just trying to tell you- now how did they do that?" The grouchiness had entirely disappeared from the voice of the house. The sudden change in its sound caused movement in the two shapes on the couch also.
"What did they do?" Hilda walked over to the door and was just in time to see Grimalkin come back in with an arrow clenched between her teeth. The black cat stopped and dropped the arrow on the ground. "William, did you see that?"
The wizard was right behind her and he had seen it. "We got us a few really special cats, Hilda. Usually just dogs fetch things." He watched as Hilda picked up the arrow and unrolled the piece of paper that was attached to it.
"May I ask for a moment of attention for the paint?" the house enquired.
"No," two voices simultaneous said, as their owners were reading the scrap of paper. Obsi came in again, his tail flicking left and right, almost as in victory.
"How do you get a large boat in a lake?" Hilda wondered as she sat down on the couch again.
William shrugged and reread the paper. "Honourable witch, there is a large boat in the Green Lake. Can you help?" He rubbed his nose. "How do you get a boat over there anyway," he wondered, "the Green Lake is surrounded by hills."
"Crappedy crap, never a dull moment, William," Hilda said. "Care for a quick flight to Green Lake? It's been a while since we were there."
The two summoned their brooms and walked out the door. "Say, house," William then said, "what's that with the paint?"
The house seemed mute for a while, then said: "This has been resolved, William."
"Resolved? How that? You were going on about it as if you were on fire."
"It was your black creature," the house said.
William looked at the black cat that innocently sat on the brush of his broom. "Obsi? What did you do?" A black head turned towards him, treating him to a gentle meow. "Holy Bejeebus, I have to start watching you," the wizard muttered.
Hilda locked the house and broomed up into the air, with William right behind her.
-=-=-
The flight to Green Lake was a nice reason to be out. The sun was shining, the breeze was nice and warm, and the ordinaries in the fields were working their butts off, so everything felt quite right.
"Are you telling me that your cat fixed the paint-problem on the house?" Hilda asked, seemingly out of the blue. She had captured Williams thoughts through the bond they shared.
"Sounded like it," William nodded, scratching Obsi's head. "I didn't check. I'll have a look when we get home."
"Just what we need: magical cats." Hilda looked at her wizard. "Keep him under control, will you? I already have my hands full with you." She grinned. "Well, tonight again anyway."
Joking and laughing like that, the trip to the Green Hills, where the Green Lake was, went very fast. The water of the actual lake was not green, of course, but wherever you stood along its edge, you saw the reflection of one of the Green Hills in the water. That was why the locals had started calling it the Green Lake. Before some bright mind had thought of that, the water was known merely as the lake. Of course, the lake could not care less.
Hilda and William approached the Green Hills. From their high position they soon spotted the boat. "That is one eyesore," William commented.
"It's black, that's a good thing," Hilda defended the bulky vessel as they came closer.
On the ground they noticed a handful or people standing, probably observing the ship. It floated close to the lake's edge. Two sturdy chains, one front and one on the back, kept the large black thing in place. It was about one hundred and fifty feet long, and sixty feet high as well as wide. As Hilda had already remarked, black was the prominent colour. They saw several men running over the deck and strange openings in the hull.
"Do you think that's a slaver's ship with people in chains rowing the boat?" Hilda asked, more interested in the openings than in the men.
"I doubt that. There would be oars sticking from the holes. Unless they have a magical person on board to make them disappear, in which case they probably don't need slaves." William thought his logic was flawless.
They circled the ship, as Hilda said: "And what if the slaver is the magical person?"
"He then would be a sod if he would wear out his merchandise," William said.
"Oh, hush you."
The wizard grinned.
They hovered near one of the four masts, each one set with full red sails. As they ignored the shouts of the men below, they inspected the oval symbol that was on each sail, painted in white. William asked Hilda if she knew what that oval would mean, but she shrugged. She had never seen it before like that. From their high position they looked at the surprising stern of the ship. It was not only look far too high but it was also larger than one would expect. It was at least sixty feet long, covering over one third of the deck.
The men on the ship ran to the other side as not to lose sight of the two brooms and their occupants as the magicals swerved around the ship. Some of the men were shouting, some were whistling, and one of them ran to the hulky stern, to disappear through one of the doors in the high construction.
"Suck an elf, William," Hilda said as she pointed to a few remarkably familiar constructions on the deck. "Am I losing it or are those chicken coops?"
William confirmed her suspicions, the wooden shapes looked very much like chicken coops.
They completed their tour of the ship and had another big surprise as they reached the bow. There the ship sported a huge white, oval crystal. It had an uncanny resemblance to the symbol on the sails. The crystal, three feet high and about two feet wide, was guarded by a big man. The man had a great sword hanging from his belt and a strange yellow stick in his hand. The stick competed with the red sails in being the most cheerful object aboard.
"Hey, hello there," William called out to the man near the crystal, "can you tell us who runs this ship?"
The big bald man, he wore brown and green striped baggy pants and a red tunic, looked at the people on brooms that hovered close to the hull. "I can." His large black moustache made threatening movements as he said the two words. For some reason he was not in the least amazed by flying brooms.
Hilda decided to go for the direct approach. She swung her broom around and lightly touched down on the black deck. The men who were on deck first made a run towards her, but when William landed, they stopped and kept a safe distance.
"Now why do they stop when you come in and not when I do?" Hilda wanted to know.
William shrugged. "Let's go and ask them."
The two cats that had come with the two magicals were already wandering around on the deck, entirely unimpressed by the men that grouped together and talked among themselves. As their humans started to move towards the men, they quickly followed. After all, they had come along to participate in the fun.
"See that?" Hilda pointed. "Chicken coops. That one actually has chickens in it."
William nodded. Obsi and Grim had found that out already. They had also found that the wire in front of the chicken's fortress was quite able to keep the chickens in and them out.
"Hello there," the witch then addressed the people on the deck. "Who are you, what are you doing here, and how, by all things magical, did you get this ship in this lake?"
The men probably made up the crew of the ship. The striped shirts, black pants and big arms with many a tattoo made that very obvious. It was a bit eerie to the magicals that the men who had yelled so loudly as they had flown around the ship now remained silent.
"Come on, you people," said William, "I am certain you can still speak. Our cats have not been near your mouths, so that can't be the problem."
The men stared at the wizard in his purple cloak. So did the witch.
"William," she sighed, "when will you stop saying this kind of disturbing things? I am sure that these gentlemen now are worried about you." She turned to the men. "So, gentlemen. Who is running this show?"
The assembly of sailors remained quiet. The only sounds came from the sails that flapped in the gusts of wind, the meowing of one of the cats, and then also from a door that was thrown open somewhere out of view.
2. Moro
The line of sailors split up and gave Hilda and William an unobstructed view of the door that had opened. It was one of the several doors in the enormous building that was the stern. The darkness that lay behind the door was clearly visible against the black of the building, proving that black is not just black. A heavy thumping started, making the deck tremble. Bong... krrr... bong... krrr... went the sound and each bong made the wood under everyone's feet shiver. The krrrs that filled up the time between the bongs gave the impression that some kind of clockwork was operating, hidden in the bowels of the ship.
Onyx Grimalkin and Obsidian Shadow found safe havens between the legs of their humans. The humans looked at each other for a moment, after which their eyes were pulled to the open door again. All the sailors' eyes were on it too as a shape appeared from it. It was huge, if not downright enormous. It had big feet which it dragged from what had to be a staircase, and manoeuvred itself into a normal standing posture.
William's eyes almost popped out of his head. "That is the most incredible robot I have ever seen," he said. This of course was easy; the robots he had seen could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
"A what?" asked Hilda. She stared at a huge metal man with its oversized tin head, red blinking eyes and round mouth.
"Well, well, what do we have here," the voice echoed. It had to come from inside the metal hulk. The metal apparition raised one of its arms, a massive cylinder that hung from its broad shoulders, and pointed at the witch and the wizard. The sound reverberated inside the round and big body. It look like a elongated barrel standing on two overdone legs with wide thick feet.
Krrr... bong.... krrr.... bong.... The krrr happened as a chain, retracting into the metal belly where it came from, pulled up a leg. The gleaming, coppery body leaned forward a bit and the chain released. The foot bonged onto the deck, sending tremors through the black wood. Then the other leg was krrr'd up with the inevitable bong to follow. The thing moved forward sluggishly, but it looked as if not much would be able to stop it.
"Right, William, you seem to know this kind of thing. What should we do now?" Hilda popped up her wand as she spoke and was ready to use it. Before William could reply, the tin man on steroids stopped its advance. A rattling noise rang inside it. A small cloud of steamy air puffed from the thing's head, accompanied by a merry hiss, and the entire machine seemed to sag where it stood.
"Wait, wait," a concerned voice said. Its owner had to be inside the robot-shape. "I'm coming out..."
As a precaution, William also made his wand appear. A hushed whisper went through the lines of sailors, much to the annoyance of the witch. She had popped up her wand first, after all.
Something squeaked. It was a sound so unexpected that it drew Hilda away from her upcoming grumblings. A few clunks and screeches later a man in a long red coat stepped around the metal hulk. "Bon giorno, dear people."
Hilda reached for William's sleeve and held it. "Suck an elf... what is that?"
The man they saw brushed his shoulder-length black hair back and made a bow. His hair fell forward again of course. As he raised himself up again, leaning heavily on the sword at this belt, he introduced himself as the captain of the 'Mimosa'. "My name," he said with an Italian accent, "is Doctor Maurizio Blunt."
"Doctor who?" William asked.
"No, not him," Maurizio Blunt said, "Doctor Maurizio Blunt." The man raised both hands and stared at them with the eye that did not have an eye patch over it. He shook his head and then scratched his head. "I am sorry, the hook has not long gone. You may understand my confusion."
The magical couple almost needed supports for their jaws. "When are they going to do something about that stick under your knee?" Hilda managed.
Maurizio looked down and laughed. "Oh, that, the wooden leg. Oh no, signora, I like that. It adds something to the appearance, do you think not? Now, may I have the honour of knowing your names? One of my people told me that you were flying on a... scopa? Broom? Like a real witch?"
Hilda planted her left hand on her hip and pointed her wand at the man in the red coat. "A real witch. Yes. You got that right. I'm Grimhilda the witch and this is William. He's a wizard. Now you know us and you can tell us why your ship is in this lake. And how it got here. And what's that?!" She added the last question in amazement as a colourful bird flew from the darkness behind the door and landed on Maurizio's shoulder.
William laughed out loud. "That, Hilda, is a parrot. And that's a very pretty one too, Mr. Blunt."
The colourful captain did not respond to William immediately. He turned to the men that were grouped behind him. "Hey, ragazzi, don't you have things to do?"
"Nope," one of the men said, crossing his arms over his massive chest. He seemed entertained by the goings-on.
"I see," said Maurizio. "Carry on anyway." He shrugged as he turned back to Hilda and William.
The parrot was not pleased with that. "Watch it!" it screamed, regaining its balance.
"Shut up, Polly," Maurizio snapped. William collapsed with laughter as he heard the name. Hilda frowned at him, not getting the fun of it.
"Shut up, shut up!" The colourful bird retorted to the man on whose shoulder it was perched.
"Perdone," Maurizio said, "the bird is like that sometimes." He lifted the eye patch, rubbed the eye beneath it and then moved the patch to the other eye. Polly started gnawing the strap that held the patch in place and snapped at fingers as the make-belief pirate captain slapped at her.
"Hey," said Hilda, "aren't you forgetting something? I asked you questions and all you did was get bird poop on the back of your coat."
Hilda was not about to get her answers. The new interruption came in the shape of a female voice that yelled out "Moro!"
Polly flew up from the man's shoulder and screamed: "Rebel! Rebel!" It found a new place to sit on the head of one of the sailors, who seemed to be used to that. Maurizio looked at the magicals in despair. He raised his arms and let them fall down his sides. "You hear... Rebel." Over his shoulder he yelled: "On the deck!"
"Easy, Hilda," said William. Through their bond he sensed that she was quickly getting to boiling point as she was definitely not in control of the situation. He took her hand and squeezed it.
"Don't you easy me," she grumbled as she pulled her hand free. "I'm the witch here and he is trespassing." Before the wizard could do something she was pacing towards the man with the eye patch. "Now listen..."
As one, the group of sailors started moving. At an astounding speed they appeared between Hilda and their captain, effectively blocking her from getting to him. For the moment, anyway. She swung her wand, muttered something and the large men were throw left and right, as if a magical bowling ball had hit them. The men did not need more encouragement to move away as far as they could.
Maurizio's neck muscles worked overtime as he looked left and right, trying to keep an eye on whoever had shouted at him inside the ship and on Hilda who was still charging at him. "Madonna," he moaned, looking at William for help that did not come. William was a wizard, and no fool.
As Hilda approached the man, William noticed someone else coming from the dark hole who also paced towards the captain. It had to be the woman whose voice they had heard. She had short brown hair that stood out as if it was electrically charged. Sunlight bounced from the many copper-coloured ornaments that were all over her clothes.
"Now listen," said the witch, who had reached the captain. "Why are you here and how did you get here? And while we're at it, when are you leaving again?"
"Mi dispiace, madam Witch," Maurizio said as he tried to keep looking at the witch, "I am very sorry, but this was the closest place to land."
"Land? Hello, this is a ship, right?" Hilda asked.
Before the redcoat could reply, the copper-covered woman arrived. "Moro, who are these folks, and where are we?" she demanded to know.
"He's called Maurizio, not Moron," Hilda announced to the new arrival, "and I was talking to him."
"And who might you be?" the woman, who was clad in leather underneath all the small copper shields inquired.
"I am Grimhilda the witch." Hilda stared at the woman.
As Maurizio tried to step away, both women grabbed his coat. "Stay," two voices said.
"So you're a witch? Wow. I am impressed." The voice of the woman in leather made it clear that she thought something else. "Witches don't exist."
"Oh? And what's this?" Hilda waved her wand.
"It's a stick. It's just a small wooden stick."
"Hilda, perhaps we can-" William had come closer as he saw doom crawling onto the ship. His attempt to rein in Hilda however was cut short as the witch had already cast a spell onto the women in leather. The woman flew towards the metal hulk that Maurizio had climbed from and stuck to it. It was as if the huge construction was a magnet that attracted the copper plating on the woman's clothing.
"Everything's under control, sweet wizard," Hilda smiled, "and now we have that out of the way I am sure this man is ready to give us some answers."
Maurizio stood staring at the squirming woman who hung from the huge robot. "Mama mia, how did you do that?"
"Crappedy crap, don't you ever listen? I told you I am a witch!"
"Hilda," said William.
"Get me down!" screamed the woman.
"Do that yourself, Rebel!" Maurizio exclaimed.
"Rebel?" Hilda asked.
"Shut up," said Polly the parrot, who had returned to Maurizio's shoulder.
3. Introductions
The air over the black ship could have been frozen, were it not for the woman attached to the metal man. She was flapping her arms and kicking her feet while promising death and destruction to the world and its vicinity.
"Mrs. Witch," Maurizio Blunt said, "could you please bring Rebel down?"
Hilda tapped her wand against her leg. "Who is Rebel?"
The captain pointed at the leather and copper woman. "She's Rebel. Well, it is not her real name but Rebel fits her."
"You give me some answers when I let her go?"
"I promise," said the man.
Hilda nodded. "Hey, Rebel, get ready to fall," she said. Then she flicked her wand. "Suck an elf," was her reaction when she saw the woman fall - slowly. The woman, Rebel, landed on her feet so gently that she wouldn't have crushed the shell of an egg. "How did she do that?"
William also was very surprised about what he had seen. He scooped Obsi up and stroked his head, to have something to do. This, he had already decided, was not a normal black ship. Normal black ships didn't just appear in lakes, they didn't have man-carrying robots on board and they usually didn't have crew that could float towards the deck like a leaf with self-control.
Maurizio frowned. "Which question, Mrs. Witch, do you want me to answer first?"
"What do you think?" Hilda did not make it any easier on him. She kept her eye on Rebel, who had walked up to Maurizio and stood next to him, hands akimbo.
"I'm Donna Abrahams," the woman said, holding out a hand. "People call me Rebel. Oh, cute, a cat."
Rebel had noticed Obsi as William had come to stand next to Hilda; this all was becoming too interesting to miss. As Hilda ignored the hand offered, the wizard shook it for a moment. "William the wizard," he said, "and this is Grimhilda the witch. A real one, as you've noticed."
"Yeah, she's quite a piece of work," said Rebel.
Hilda raised her eyebrows. "A witch is not 'a piece of work'," she grumbled. "Now tell us where you came from and when you're leaving again. You've done nothing but upset the people in the village and our cats."
As William wondered where the upset cats had come in, Maurizio looked at his crew. "Go and do something," he said. The request was partially successful; the men moved about a bit, found places to sit and continued watching the scene. "Well, where we came from... is a bit difficult to explain. It is a bit strange."
"We're used to strange," William tried to boost the man's confidence.
"Va bene. We just escaped from a meteor shower." Maurizio's face showed doubt. He expected that the two people would not believe him.
"A what?" Hilda asked.
"A meteor shower?" William asked at the same time. "There's not been a meteor shower here in months." And to Hilda he explained: "Shooting stars."
Hilda nodded. "Yes, most people gave up shooting them. These stars are either too fast or too far away, really takes all fun out of the game."
"Eh? Shooting them?" Rebel looked lost. "The buggers almost took half the ship out. Good thing we came close to a sun that was powerful enough to fling us away. Which is what took us here. Wherever here is."
The conversation was amazingly confusing. Lots of questions were asked and answers were given but not understood. The most worrying approaches to this came from Hilda and Maurizio. William decided to break up all conversations. "Folks! Silence! And that means you too, sweetwitch," he hastily added as Hilda shot him a look. "I think we have to do some more constructive talk and explaining, okay?"
Rebel agreed. "About time. I'm getting brain wrecked here. Can I hold that kitty?"
Obsi meowed and jumped down, seeking safety with his sister.
Maurizio straightened his back. "Va bene, I suggest we go down to the lounge and talk over cappucino or espresso."
"What's that?" Hilda wanted to know. William quickly explained that it was coffee, which lit up her eyes.
"Xander, can you take that away?" Maurizio said to one of the sailors, pointing at the metal shape. The man nodded, and Maurizio asked his guests to follow him. To the lounge.
Hilda and William carried their cats. The animals did not seem to mind that one bit; the black heads with the yellow eyes looked around and seemed to take everything in, as did their humans. After going through the black door, the sounds of someone operating the large metal man fading behind them, they went down a few steps. Maurizio led them through a large iron door and they came in an immaculate white corridor. From that side, the iron door was not iron, but just as white as the rest.
"Holy Bejeebus, this looks like science fiction," said the wizard as he stepped into it.
"This is the Mimosa, wizard William," Maurizio said, "this is better than science fiction."
Hilda looked at her wizard, in need of help. William was talking all kinds of rubbish again and the worrying part was that now there were people around that actually understood what he said. She did not trust the clean white corridor with its smooth walls, barely visible doors left and right and light that seemed to come from nowhere.
William sensed the unease in his witch and put an arm around her shoulders. Hilda wasn't sure if that would make her look vulnerable, but considering this weird environment she did not really mind the protective touch of her wizard.
"This way, per favore," the redcoat captain said. His attire looked as out of place here as did that of the magicals.
At the end of the corridor, Maurizio touched a panel as they had seen next to every door. It radiated a faint yellow light and it became red as the man lay a hand on it. A moment later, without a sound, a door slid open and Maurizio ushered them in.
"I have redecorated it," he proudly told them once they were all inside.
"He means that he made the ship redecorate itself," Rebel burst his bubble, as she quickly made her way to a large counter with all kinds of gleaming objects. "Who's for espresso, who's for cappucino, who goes for latte and I believe we have tea here also."
William and Hilda looked around the lounge. "Maybe," he said, "that thing there is safe to sit on." He guided the witch to a deafeningly loud yellow blob that had the makings of a couch, but missed something to convincingly impersonate one. "I'll have a cappuccino, please. And I think Hilda can do with one also."
Maurizio looked pained but shrugged. "Espresso for me, cara," he said and pulled a sack covered with a flower design towards the almost-couch. He sat down in the thing, which seemed to blow itself up and mold itself to his body. "Welcome," the captain of the Mimosa said, smiling a big smile that revealed a silver front tooth.
From far away heavy thuds shook everything. Bong... bong... bong... Xander was obviously moving the metal man.
"Welcome, welcome," Polly babbled. The parrot was still on Maurizio's shoulder, feeling quite at home there. "Coffee!"
Hilda laughed over the antics of the talking bird. "Maybe we should get our cats to talk too," she suggested to William. "Ouch!" she added as Grimalkin buried a set of nails in Hilda's knee. The cat did not approve of the idea.
"Here we go, guys," said Rebel, carrying a tray with cups of coffee. She stomped her foot and the floor in front of the couch rose up, making a kid of table. Rebel put the tray on it, grabbed a large latte and sat down in a sack similar to Maurizio's.
Maurizio picked up a small cup with extremely black stuff, took a sip and sat back. "Bene. This ship, you know, is not the ordinary ship. We travel to places with it." He looked intensely at Hilda and William. "Strange places."
"Green Lake is not a strange place. I do agree that this ship is a weird one," Hilda said, sampling her cappucino. "Oh, good. Learn to make those, William."
Maurizio looked at Rebel who treated him to a mocking grin. "We go to places that are, as they say, out of this world." He frowned at his own words for a moment and considered Hilda. "Although I think that this world is also out of... this world."
William laughed. "I don't know what world you come from, but I can relate. I'm not from here either."
"Looks like you adjusted quite well, though," Rebel stated, "with your robes and flying around on a broom."
"That's just because he's with me," Hilda said over her coffee cup.
Maurizio tried to keep the answers going. "This ship flies through space. It goes to planets and... dimensions?" He looked at Rebel.
The woman nodded. "Yeah. I'm not all sure what and how, but it appears we're thrown through artificially generated wormholes that not only drift through space, but also through time and other dimensions." As the two magicals stared at her blankly, she elaborated: "It basically means that we never know where we're going."
Maurizio added: "And often we also do not know where we came from."
"I'll take a broom over something like that anytime," said Hilda. "At least that goes where you want. So where are you from? You don't sound like you are from near here. Or from far away here. I've been around, you know, I've heard a lot of dialects."
The man with the parrot sat up somewhat straighter. "I am, as I said, Maurizio Blunt. I am from la bella Italia. I lived near the Lago di Garda. That was around 1965."
William nodded slowly. "So you could be from my world," he said. "I'm from a small town near Pittsburgh."
"I have heard of Pittsboorgh," Maurizio displayed his knowledge. "It is in America."
Rebel put her coffee mug down. "I'm Donna Abrahams. Call me Rebel and I won't hurt you. I'm from the future, I guess. I was born in the 924th year after the Great Turnaround, in the city of greater Darwin in Oz."
"Oz? Australia?" William asked.
"Yeah, that's what they used to call it before the Great Turnaround," Rebel nodded. "More coffee anyone?"
4. Broom
During the second round of coffee Hilda and William told the two strange people who they were and in where they had arrived. Maurizio and Rebel both did not react too surprised, they had seen quite a lot of things already, that much was clear.
"So you are doing actual flying and witching and stuff?" Rebel asked. "That must be really cool. Maybe I should get me a broom also, Moro."
Maurizio looked at her, despair in his face. "No. Please. You want to try everything. In every place we arrive up you pick up some thing or some habit. Now you want to become a strega? A witch? You are a handful the way you are."
"Why does she keep calling you moron?" Hilda asked.
"Moron?" Rebel burst out laughing. "It's Moro. Friends can call him Moro, he seems to like that. And so do I, as it's easier than Maurizio. And faster." William gathered that sometimes that had to be an advantage, if these people were really jumping from one strange place to the next.
"So, when are you people leaving?" Hilda came back to business. "This is a weird place for a ship. We'll have to find some explanation for the people in the village, and perhaps even for King Walt. He's bound to hear about this sometime."
"You have a real king here?" Maurizio's eyes twinkled. "Can I see him? Does he have a big palace and a beautiful wife and guards in armour?"
Hilda looked at William. "Queen Velma isn't exactly beautiful, is she?"
"No, she misses some things to be beautiful. Beauty, for instance," William agreed.
"The castle is quite big, yes. There are guards, but perhaps not in the armour that you think of. I've seen better stuff. The things they wear look like hand-me-downs. But don't tell anyone I said so. I'll deny everything."
"Perhaps we should find out," William thought out loud, "if the king already heard about this ship. If he has, it would be good to let him meet Maurizio and Rebel. Either here or in the castle. After all, this is his country."
"True," Hilda said.
Maurizio prodded Rebel in the ribs and got a solid slap back. Rebel did not seem to appreciate being the punching bag. "Mama Mia, that would be fantastico," the captain said. "Can you go and find that out now?"
"Hey, hold on," Hilda said, "I'm the one asking the questions here, remember? So, when are you going to leave?"
"That depends on the light and the crystal," Maurizio shrugged, "we can never tell when the situation is good."
"The light and the crystal?"
Rebel explained as well as she could: "Did you see the large oval crystal on the bow? That is what generates the wormhole that sucks the ship in. We need a specific lightfall on the crystal for it to create the wormhole, and since light conditions are different in every place we pop up, it is always a surprise when it happens."
"And if it happens," Maurizio added.
"True," Rebel said, "we've been worried more than once that we might not be able to get away again. Usually from the places we really wanted to get away from."
There was a gentle gong-sound coming from somewhere. "Moro? The locals demand their witch back," a voice said.
Hilda jumped up, wand in hand, as she tried to locate the source of the voice. "What's that? You have a crystal ball somewhere?" To her chagrin, William grinned along with Rebel and Maurizio.
"Sweetwitch," the wizard said, "this ship seems to have some communication system. It is not a crystal ball, it is electronic. Usually. I must say that a crystal ball looks better."
"What's an electronic?" Hilda snapped, even though she did not want to. She felt outnumbered and seriously out of control. Especially the latter was devastating for her. "Oh, don't even answer that. They will leave and take all that stuff with them anyhow, so why do I care. I have to go and see what the villagers want." She looked around, trying to find the door that had let them in. "Crappedy crap," she said as she popped up her wand. "Ostium expositus."
The door had no choice. It opened. Maurizio and Rebel jumped from their sacks and stared as Hilda gathered her cat and marched out of the lounge. William picked up Obsi and rose. "Looks like the coffee break is over. Thanks, Rebel, good coffee." Then he hurried after his witch. The two people who had arrived on the Mimosa hurried after the wizard.
Hilda had progressed halfway through the corridor when she started to hesitate. "Crappedy crap, where am I and where did we get in?" All the doors in the corridor looked the same, with the yellow panels and nothing distinguishable. Grimalkin squirmed herself free from Hilda's hands, dropped to the floor and padded along the corridor as if it was home sweet home. The black animal trotted along until she reached a door that was slightly larger.
"Good girl," the witch said. She did her wand trick and the door opened. Hilda breathed in, relaxing as she saw the iron ornaments on the other side of the door. Normality was near.
William had caught up with her as she stepped through the door and went up the short staircase. "This is not your style, is it?" he grinned.
"Down there, that's no style, William. That's all white. Even Snow White would boggle at that, take my word for it." Hilda scanned the large deck. Most of the sailors had dispersed, apparently there were things to do after all. Only two of them stood near the railing with a few other people. Hilda recognised a few of them; they were from the village.
As the two magicals reached the small group, Hilda asked: "Mathis, Bronny, what are you doing here?"
The two men bowed. "Honourable witch, we were worried about you! We saw you get on this ship and then there was this big metal creature, and-"
"-And you think that I can't take care of myself," Hilda completed his words. "That's really kind of you, but I have a wand, I have magic, and I have a wizard. That should be enough to keep me safe, don't you agree? Oh, and I have a cat," she added as Grim meowingly complained about being left out.
"Actually," Bronny said, "we wanted to let you know that there is a messenger from the king. The king heard of the ship and he wants to know all about it."
"Oh." Hilda frowned for a moment. "Well, you get back into that little boat of yours and go tell the messenger that we'll be over at the castle as soon as we have something good to tell."
Mathis then said that the king also wanted to see the owner of the ship.
"That might present a problem," said Maurizio. "We don't know who the owner is. But we can easily solve that of course, if the king would be satisfied to see me, Doctor Maurizio Blunt."
"Doctor who?" Mathis scowled.
"Just call him captain Blunt," Rebel tossed in, "he responds well to that."
Bronny leaned towards Hilda. "They're not from around here, are they?" he asked in a whisper.
"Too true," Hilda sighed. "Now best you get to your oars again so we don't keep the king waiting." The two men agreed and climbed down the rope ladder. The sailors and magicals watched them row off to the small harbour that was the main attraction of the village.
"Friendly and caring people," Maurizio remarked.
"More like nosey and possessive," Hilda muttered, "but convenient from time to time. William, we should go and see the king."
"Can we come?" Maurizio immediately asked. "I can have a row boat ready very quickly!"
Hilda looked at her wizard, who sensed how she felt about that. He simply nodded. "Well, I guess you should be shown," she then said. "But what do you want to do with a row boat? Do you see a castle out there somewhere?"
Maurizio stared at her. "Ehm, no. But I thought..."
"You weren't thinking, Moro," Rebel said, "as usual you just get a crazy idea and you act like that is the truth."
"Usually it is," Maurizio argued, "and don't you go against me. I was right when I picked you up, remember? You'd be dead now, otherwise. Madonna, give me strength with this woman! But you can do your scary thing and take us there." The captain beamed as if he was competing with the sun.
"She does scary things?" William wondered. Perhaps taking them along wasn't such a good idea after all.
Before Maurizio could answer, Rebel said: "You know I can't go to places I have not been before, Moro. We'll have to arrange some other transport."
"Stop! Here and now!" Hilda was not in a mood to listen to bickering of that sort. "We'll take you with us and nobody will do scary things or they will meet the wrath of the witch. That's me."
William had already summoned the brooms; they hovered next to him. The cats had already jumped on their front seats. Maurizio and Rebel stared at the brooms.
"And how are you going to take us with you?" the redcoat captain asked as he pushed against one of the brooms with a finger. It did not move to the side.
Hilda hopped on her broom. "Rebel sits in front of me. You sit in front of William. Simple enough, right?"
Rebel walked to the broom with the witch. Hilda told her how to sit on it. The woman was very surprised to find that sitting on a broom felt totally different from what she had expected. William got on his broom and spent a while reassuring Maurizio that it was perfectly safe. "Better than what you told us about your ship, Maurizio, at least we know where we end up when we fly our brooms."
The captain took a deep breath, as if that would make a difference, and carefully sat on the broom. "Oh..." he said, surprised.
The crew had assembled again, as by a secret and invisible signal. "Hey Moro, will you two be back for dinner?" the man he had called Xander asked. The captain looked questioningly at the witch.
"We'll drop them off in time," she said. "Just make sure you don't start cooking too early." She sent a signal to William through their link. "Hang on folks," she then said to their passengers, and the two brooms took off, into the clear blue sky.
5. Kings, queens and dinner parties
"Are you really sure this is safe?" Maurizio asked as the brooms picked up speed.
"We got to your ship on them, without a problem," William said, "I am sure this is safe."
"Oh." Maurizio did not sound convinced.
Rebel instead seemed to enjoy the experience. So much even that Hilda had to drag her back; at times the woman in leather and copper was leaning over so far that she would fall at the slightest tremble of the broom.
As they flew over the forests that surrounded the castle, Rebel screamed for joy when she saw their goal. She waved at Maurizio and pointed. The captain was not certain if he should watch. His trust in the broom was below level, so he just nodded and kept holding on to the broomstick. He had already learnt (and bore the red scratch to prove it) that he should not grab it too close to the black cat that lay there as if it was the most normal spot in the world. Which in this world it was.
"Do they know we're coming?" Maurizio asked.
"Soon enough," said William. It was not the answer the redcoat captain had expected but it proved true enough. Once the brooms with their passengers slowly crossed the moat and the castle walls, several servants started running. "See? Now they know."
"Now, when we land I do not want you to jump from the brooms," Hilda warned them. "Step off when we tell you it's time to do that. We have plenty of time."
The brooms reached the ground. Obsi and Grim elegantly hopped from their sleeping places and then the passengers were offloaded. A servant already came running, informing them that the king and queen were looking forward to see them.
"Very good. You keep an eye on our brooms, please, and we'll be off to the majesties." Hilda gave the man her broom. William supplied him with another one. Rebel and Maurizio supplied the magicals with quizzical looks as Hilda asked him where they could find the king. Then the two people from the Mimosa were escorted into the castle.
Hilda and William knew their way around the place, so soon they had found the large spacious balcony at the back of the castle, where the king and queen were sitting, enjoying tea and cake. Chocolate cake.
"Ohhh!" said Hilda as she spied it.
"Ah, there they are," said King Walt, "and they brought them along already. How thoughtful"
"How do you know it's them?" Queen Velda asked. "Perhaps they met some others and brought them along, instead of them."
"Oh, it's them al right," Hilda pitched in.
"No, you stay," said William as Maurizio and Rebel slowly tried to back out of the balcony, to the safety of the room they had come in through. "You wanted to see them, and there they are."
"So, who are they?" asked the king from his lounge bed, picking up a gilded bowl of grapes. The queen was on her own chaise longue, a low table with a tray of truffles next to it.
Hilda waved the Mimosians to come closer. "These are captain Doctor Maurizio Blunt and Donna Rebel Abrahams. Maurizio and Rebel, these are King Walt and Queen Velma."
"Doctor who?" The king sat up and wiped his fingers on a silk napkin that hung from a pocket in his carmine cloak. Obsidian Shadow jumped on the royal couch and sniffed the grapes. With an insulted sound he jumped down again.
"No, not him," Maurizio said with a smile, making Hilda frown. "Blunt. Doctor Maurizio Blunt. It is a great pleasure to meet you, your majesty." He bowed to the king. Then he turned to the queen, who held out a hand to him. Maurizio took the hand, pushed the eye patch up and studied the gems in her rings with care. "Sono onorato, signora queen. I am honoured," he them said, kissing the queen's fingers.
"Are all your rings still there?" Rebel asked as the captain had stepped back.
Quickly Queen Velda checked her hand. "Yes, they are. I think. Care for a truffle?"
As the queen kept counting her rings, the king offered the guests seats, tea and cake. Rebel was asked to sit next to the king, a rare enough thing to happen. William grinned as he sensed Hilda's feeling about that.
"We heard that your ship has arrived in Green Lake," King Walt said, "and we were curious to find out where you are from. And of course what it is you have brought."
William wasn't sure what was happening; the king talked to these people as if he knew them since long. Hilda was not much help, she had taken command of the chocolate cake and her whole attention seemed focussed on that.
Maurizio seemed well prepared for this though, he had probably handled these questions before. "Oh, you know how that goes," he said in an amiable voice, "we were happily sailing along when we happened to come across your country. And since everything looked so nice here, and the people were all so friendly-" he nodded at the two magicals "-we decided to stay here for a while. And so far, I have to say, they have been very helpful and informative also. They even brought us here on their... brooms." It was clear that he still was coming to grips with that concept.
King Walt went for the praise. "Oh, yes, the honourable witch and wizard are very highly regarded here. They are very valuable to our little kingdom." The he asked about Rebel, who very quickly was introduced as Maurizio's cousin.
William looked at Hilda, who offered him a piece of the cake. She winked. He accepted the cake and another cup of tea. While they took care of the edible part of the visit, Maurizio and Rebel avoided every question to their background with skill, and soon King Walt and Queen Velda had the feeling they were fully up to date on the ship and its crew.
"It was really delightful talking to you," said the queen as the four got up and said their goodbyes. "Do come by again when your ship is in the lake again."
"Prego, signora queen," Maurizio smiled with an elegant bow, his eye patch in place again. "It was our honour to be visiting with you."
Rebel bent down and kissed the king on a cheek. "Thank you, king, it was great talking to you. And I love your tea."
"Oh, how sweet," said King Walt, "let me arrange that you take some tea home with you."
"Oh," Rebel startled (she was not fond of tea at all), "that won't be-"
"Tut-tut," said the queen, "you will take some tea. He is the king, after all."
"Yes, Mrs. Queen," Rebel said. "And thank you too for a really nice time here."
Queen Velma produced a caring smile and then located another truffle in her tray.
With a large bag of tea under Rebel's arm, the small group returned to the yard of the castle again. The servant, who was still holding the by now squirming brooms, visibly relaxed as their magical owners relieved him.
With brooms hovering, Hilda invited Rebel to hop on, but the woman, whose metal clothing parts glistened in the sun, shook her head. "Thanks, but no need for that. I know where the ship is."
"You do? And you're going to walk there? Did the broom flight scare you so much?"
Rebel grinned. "No, the flight was fabulous, really. But I can get Maurizio and me back to the ship faster than flying with you. And you and William too, if you want."
"I'll stick to the broom, thank you very much. But I want to see how you do that," said Hilda as she mounted her broom.
"Sure," said Rebel. "Moro, ready?"
"Almost. Do you want to join us for dinner aboard the Mimosa, Mr. and Mrs. Witch?" the captain asked as he buttoned up his coat.
The two people missed the rapid conversation through the link that Hilda and William shared. "Yes, that would be nice. Thank you for the invitation," William said. He got on his broom also.
"Okies, people, see you in a while then," Rebel said as she took Maurizio's hand. "Bye!" And then they were gone.
"Suck an elf!" Hilda stared at the empty spot. All eyes that had been on the two people witnessed the same emptiness. "Where did they go?" She shot up on her broom to scan the area, but there was no sign of Rebel or Maurizio.
William joined her in the air. "I don't think we will find them here, sweetwitch. I have the impression that Rebel has some kind of telekinetic ability from her future. Let's go to that ship and have a look."
Hilda muttered something about unintelligible talking and then they set course for the Green Lake and the Mimosa.
-=-=-
They landed on the ship. On deck the crew were busy setting up a large table with chairs, under the all-seeing eye of Maurizio. Rebel was nowhere to be seen.
"Ah, there you are," the captain smiled. He had his eye patch on his forehead again. The spot over his eye where it had been was still red. "Rebel will be joining us soon, she's getting dressed for dinner. Which reminds me that I should do something similar. If you will excuse me, please, my men will see to it that you are made comfortable." He bowed and then hurried off, disappearing through one of the doors in the stern.
The man they knew as Xander walked up to them. "Mr. and Mrs. Witch, would you please follow me?"
Hilda and William stared at the man. As all the others, he was not in the striped sailor shirt and plain dark pants, but he wore something that came quite close to a tuxedo. It just looked a lot more comfortable. They followed Xander to an area on deck.
"William. Pinch me. Am I drea- ouch, not so hard!" She slapped.
Six things hovered around an also hovering table that had glasses on it. The things looked like hollow pears that were cut open from top to bottom. Pears that looked like chairs. With cushions. In the glasses on the hovering table they saw black, purple and yellow liquids.
"Have a seat," Xander invited them, "and do have a glass before dinner. The yellow is wine, the purple is liqueur and the black is fruit juice."
"What kind of witch is Rebel?" Hilda demanded to know as she poked one of the floating chairs.
"She's not witch, madam."
"Then what makes these things fly?" the witch wanted to know.
"I am not sure," said Xander. "We picked these chairs up somewhere in the future and they appear to function on an internal anti-gravity field that does not affect anything but the chair itself."
"All that newfangled crap no one understands, and then they worry if a broom is safe," Hilda muttered.
William already sat in one of the chairs, and he looked quite happy with it. He had picked up a glass of the yellow wine.
Hilda stared at him after sitting down. "I want something purple," she said, pointing at the glasses. "But not that."
Xander was not able to help.
William suppressed a grin. He took a glass of black fruit juice, cast a small spell and handed the glass over to his witch. It now contained purple fruit juice.
Xander disappeared quietly, only to come back a few minutes later. "Would you please follow me to the table? Moro and Rebel are on their way also."
Maurizio and Rebel were already standing near the candlelit table, a drink in their hands. Rebel wore a skin-tight yellow dress that left a lot of shoulder uncovered. One false move, or so it looked, and she would treat everyone to a breastigious view. Maurizio looked amazing in his white suit, black shirt and silk white tie. His eye patch had gone and his wooden leg did not show. Polly the parrot did look a bit odd in this situation, though.
The whole group, also the sailors, sat down for dinner. There were plates and trays with all kinds of food. Some was even recognisable as such. Hilda and William kept an eye on what Maurizio would eat. He seemed most like them, so what he took should be safe. The conversation was light, the food good and the wine (and fruit juice) were excellent. Hilda did not dare to try the wine, not even watered down.
"Maurizio, do you mind telling me something?" Hilda asked.
"It would be my pleasure, Mrs. Witch," the captain said. "And please call me Moro. We are sharing food, this makes us friends."
"Sure. You can call me Hilda then. What's this strange thing you mean when someone asks 'doctor who' and you say 'no, not him'?"
Maurizio nodded. "Si, very understandable that you noticed. The reason is that we met him."
"Who?"
"Yes. Him. The Doctor."
"Doctor who?"
"Indeed."
Hilda looked at William. "Maybe we should leave now," she said, "it's getting late. I'm not sure what he's had to drink, but he had too much and that's not healthy." She whispered the latter part of her remark.
"But you haven't had dessert yet," Rebel said, "and we worked so hard on that. Would you please stay for dessert?"
The two magical people looked at each other, having a silent discussion. Hilda gave in. "Yes, we'll stay."
Rebel looked genuinely happy about that.
One of the sailors in suits took a small device from his pocket and pressed a few buttons. The plates with food sank into the table. Something automatic moved all the plates and cutlery to the centre of the table and also that disappeared. Half the candles that were on the table extinguished, as by invisible fingers.
Hilda felt highly uncomfortable. If this was not magic, then there was something ghostlike going on here. And everyone knew that most ghosts were bad news.
The centre of the table pushed up silvery bowls, one of them moved to every dinner guest.
Hilda and William stared. "I have never seen food that lights up," the wizard admitted.
"Crappedy crap, it moves," Hilda added, "I'm not eating things that aren't dead."
"It's dead, no need to worry," Rebel said, "it's just a chemical reaction between the air and the light emitting compound of the pudding. It never ceases to amaze me."
"William, these people are worse than you are in saying weird things," the witch proclaimed. The bright pudding stopped moving, though.
Carefully William and she watched how the others started eating the stuff. It had to be safe. Hilda picked up the spoon that lay next to the bowl and stabbed the pudding. It did not react. She sniffed a scoop. "Oh," she said with a surprised face, "it smells like lemon!"
Grins and chuckles came from several sides as the wizard and the witch now dared to eat the pudding.
"It tastes like raspberry," William decided.
"No. It's lemon," Hilda corrected him.
"Be quiet, witch, this is raspberry," he insisted. More chuckles followed. "Here, try it yourself."
Hilda tried some of his pudding. "See? Lemon. I told you."
William tried some of hers. "Raspberry." He looked at Rebel and Maurizio, who both were close to dying from held back laughter over their own bowls. "There's a trick here, isn't there?"
Rebel explained that the pudding would taste different for everyone. Hilda frowned at that, but after all the weird things she had seen on this ship, she did not want to comment on that.
"Thank you for everything, it was a very entertaining day," William said, when finally he and Hilda summoned their brooms. "We may come and see if you are still here in a few days."
"You are always welcome," said Moro. "Do come and visit again. You are very interesting people to speak with."
The two cats, who had remained invisible during dinner, came walking from a shadow and hopped onto the brooms. Some of the crew, who had assembled around the two magicals, grinned.
The brooms lifted off into the darkness and left the black ship behind.
6. Crystal
The next morning, over breakfast, Hilda sat muttering to herself. William had asked what was the matter, but he was just stared at and for the rest the witch ignored him.
Hilda did not feel good. She blamed something in the food on the ship and she was ready to make them pay for it. The nerve, making a proper witch feel bad. Things like that were not done and should be followed up in a severe way. Wearing her pink housecoat and purple slippers she shuffled to the couch and crashed onto it. The two cats jumped away just in time, making noises of discomfort.
After cleaning up the table, which was hardly any trouble for the wizard, he asked: "What's wrong, Hilda? Want me to switch on the magic mirror for you?" He sensed through their link that she was feeling bad.
"Hmmf. No. I'm fine." The staccato way that she said it was already proof that she was far from fine.
William sat down next to her and scooped her up. As she sat in his lap, he folded his arms around her and rested his cheek on her long grey curls.
"Nice," mumbled the witch. "I feel like crappedy crap, William, and it's not fair that you don't."
William held her and slowly let some magic do its work on her. He didn't have to tell her or ask her. She'd know and agree.
The witch relaxed as the nauseating feeling left her. "Good wizard. Much nicer," she said, leaning into him and not planning to move. "Good thing I have you around, you make me feel good. No need for a doctor."
"Speaking of doctor..." William started.
"I know. I know. But I don't want to. Not now. We'll go see if they're still there later, okay?"
The wizard nodded and kept his arms around her.
"Yes. That is a good wizard."
A moment of silence. Then Hilda sighed.
"What's the matter, witch?"
"I want to go to that ship and give the cook a piece of my mind for making me feel bad." She sat up and rubbed her tummy. "Feels good now. Thank you, wizard." She rewarded William with a quick kiss, then got up and left for the bedroom, to change into more witchy clothes than a pink housecoat. And purple slippers.
"No, you won't! Ever!" Hilda yelled down as she sensed William's thought. "And when you think you understand me, I'll change and do it all over again!"
As the two walked to the door, brooms in hand, the two cats were already sitting and waiting.
"Making a habit of it to come along, are we?" Hilda grinned as she patted Grimalkin on the head, who allowed it without protest.
"Yes, please, take them," the house commented. "It is so nice and quiet when they are gone."
"Meow," Obsi complained and slipped outside as William opened the door.
"See? That is what I mean," the house went on. "When will you be back?"
"Why? What's that to you?"
"It gets so silent after a while when you're all gone..."
Hilda rolled her eyes. William snorted.
-=-=-
"Do you want to visit the castle before we go on to the Mimosa?"
"No, not today," said Hilda, "I want to get my wand on that cook."
William reminded her that Rebel had said they all had done some cooking, but Hilda did not see the problem. "I'll just get them all." Grim looked up at the witch, the tip of her tail twitching.
"At least you have good weather for that," William grinned. He was right: the sun was out in full shine and the sky was fairy-tale blue.
Soon they arrived at the Green Hills, topped them and flew over the Green Lake. The black ship still lay there, anchored in all its non-vibrant lack of glory. Some sailors were busy doing things on deck. Two of them, the curious couple saw, were polishing the large oval crystal on the bow.
The magicals landed on the deck, close to the large array of doors. Hilda flipped up her wand and grinned in a way that made William worry. The witch bent over and tapped her wand on the deck, just lightly. The large ship shuddered; a few of the sailors in their plain striped shirts came running to locate the source of the tremors. The door in the stern also opened, and Rebel flew out. Literally.
"Oh. It's you two," the woman said as she lowered herself to the deck. "You could have just knocked, that works too." She was wearing another leather outfit today, a lot of red and many silvery stars on it.
Hilda poked the woman with the wand. "How'd you do that? And how did you get to the ship so quickly yesterday?"
Rebel shrugged. "Something I can do since I was a kid. I was born with it. Manipulating space isn't that hard for me, I can jump to everywhere that I've been-"
"Hilda and William! Amici!" Maurizio came out of the door, interrupting Rebel and not giving a damn. He hugged both the visitors. "How wonderful to see you again!"
"Shut up," said Polly who sat on the captain as usual. Four cat-eyes looked up at the colourful bird and two tails twitched.
"As I was saying," Rebel tried to continue, but Maurizio had different ideas. He invited the witch and the wizard in for coffee, which they declined, and Hilda then started about her not feeling well in the morning.
"Oh? Did you also have a craving for pickles perhaps?" Maurizio asked.
"Pickles?" Hilda stared at the man, while Rebel and William tried not to laugh. "Crappedy crap, it's Lorelei who's the pregnant witch in these parts, not me!" After an explanation who Lorelei was, Maurizio repeated his coffee invitation, which again was politely declined.
"Moro!" one of the sailors shouted from halfway the deck as he came running towards the small assembly. "The sun, the sun!"
Hilda frowned. "Yeah, it's up there, what's the big deal?"
Rebel looked up, shielding her eyes with a hand. "Looks like it's close, Moro," she said without making sense to the magicals. She grabbed Maurizio and Hilda by the arm. Maurizio put a hand on William's arm and a moment later they were near the crystal.
"Suck an elf," said Hilda as she grabbed William for a hold. "What happened?"
Maurizio started fussing over the crystal while Rebel apologised, explaining that she had teleported them all to the front of the ship as that was faster than walking.
"You tele-whatted us?" Hilda asked as she turned her back to Maurizio. The man was talking too fast and too loud.
"Teleporting. That's what you call what I do with my mind. I can move myself, people and - oh, watch out!"
As Rebel warned everyone, something hit Hilda in the back. "Crappedy crap," the witch said as she turned around to see who was in for it.
Four men were doing something underneath the crystal, turning a large crank which made the crystal rotate. Maurizio was calling out directions. "Turn clockwise! No, go back! No, hold it there! No idiots, turn it some more!"
Hilda looked at the goings on very curiously, the stomp in her back forgotten. She heard William say something to Rebel as one of the large sailors got in the way; she could see nothing that way! The witch quickly jumped backwards, to avoid being stepped on by the same big sailor and then she saw a way to get up on the large wooden casing where the crystal was on. Quickly she climbed over sacks and rolls of rope, holding on to her long dress and keeping her cloak under control.
"Hah," she muttered to herself as she stepped onto the wooden box, "gives me a great spot to look at this crystal thing close up too."
At that point several things happened in rapid succession. Rebel asked William where Hilda was. Maurizio turned around to Rebel and William, ready to say something. One of the sailors pulled the crank one more time, which turned the crystal a little more, something Hilda did not appreciate as that ruined her view of the thing. The crystal caught the sunlight; it seemed to capture it inside itself and juggle the beams through all of its facets at the same time.
"Oh... pretty!" said the witch, watching the crystal in fascination.
"Mrs. Witch!" Maurizio yelled, but before Hilda could look at him, the light jumped from the crystal and slammed into Hilda. Now everyone knows that when light slams into you you just see light. But the light from the crystal was of a different order: as it hit the witch, the witch seemed to jump up a bit and then was thrown off the wooden casing and landed on a roll of ropes as a disorganised heap.
"Hilda!" William pushed himself through the men that were between him and the witch. As he reached her, someone shouted something, but he didn't care. Hilda had fallen and she was unconscious in a terrible way. He could not feel her through the connection anymore, and that scared him. At the moment he took her in his arms and pulled her against his chest, there was a sickening feeling all around him.
A flare like a lightning bolt seemed to jump over the ship, making it shudder and jump- Jump?
A storm swiped over the deck of the Mimosa, as lights in many colours and darkness switched places at a tremendous speed. The storm was accompanied by a low rolling thundery sound that kept a constant pressure on William's eardrums while the wind tugged at his cloak. He didn't care, as long as he had Hilda in as much safety he could give her.
As the tremors slowly left the ship, the wizard sensed a wriggling between his legs and he heard a moaning set of meows. So the cats were safe as well. At least as safe as Hilda and he were.
Then, as sudden as the havoc had started, it ended. Silence fell over the Mimosa as if the ship was shoved into a muffler. William said Hilda's name, but she did not respond. Magically he probed her; she was alive, breathing, she was just knocked out. The wizard picked Hilda up and then rose. He looked over the deck where most of the sailors lay sprawled. Maurizio was holding on to the crank, and Rebel was nowhere to be seen.
"What happened?" William asked.
Maurizio let go of the handle, got up and patted his sleeves. "Looks like we jumped." He looked back and shouted: "Is everyone well? And is everyone there?"
William lost interest in the sailors as Hilda started stirring.
She opened her eyes and looked at him. She smiled. "I am happy to see you, William."
He put her on her legs again.
"William? Where are we? And where are you?"
7. So, where are we?
William stared at the witch. Where are you, she had asked. "What do you mean 'where are you'?" he asked, more to stall for time than for not understanding. Before he had to say something else, Maurizio scrambled to his feet, a shocked expression on his face.
"Madonna," he said, "you are here also." The captain looked back and up. "Rebel, come down." Hilda and William looked where Maurizio had directed his eyes. In the mast hung Rebel. "She always does that when we jump," the captain offered as an explanation.
Rebel let go of the mast and slowly floated down to the deck. As she was approaching it, she said: "Looks like we're in space again, Moro." It was undecided if this was good new or not.
Hilda leaned towards not. "I don't really care about that. Just get us home and then you can do all you want. We have things to do." She pointed over her shoulder, roughly towards the crystal. "Switch it on again, will you?" She felt hands on her shoulder and quickly turned around. "Oh, it's you," she said, relieved to see that it was William. "I'm... I'll tell you later."
Maurizio was yelling all kinds of things already as he paced along the deck. All along the railing on both sides small lights had come on, and the large sails seemed to shine also, in a very strange way. Rebel popped from one side of the ship to the other as she was looking at all kinds of things.
Hilda turned to William. "I can't sense you, William." She looked worried all of a sudden.
William wrapped his arms around her. "It must be something with that crystal, sweetwitch. I can't sense you either. Damn, it feels good to hold you."
"Feels good to be held," Hilda's muffled voice came from inside his wide sleeves. It also felt good to her that she was not the only one who seemed to have lost the link. She basked a while in William's presence. Then she looked up. "Come, let's go see where the cats are, and where we are now. It doesn't look like they're working very hard to get us home."
Hilda freed herself from the embrace and walked out onto the deck. William watched her go and wondered if perhaps there was something going on with her that she wasn't telling him. He missed the link; through that he would have known without asking. There was something-
"Hey wizard, are you coming?" Hilda yelled out, dragging him back to the reality of a black ship. She was carrying two black cats and walked to a side of the ship. "Suck an elf..."
William hurried over, took Obsi from her hands and put an arm around her shoulders. Together they stared into a giant open... space. Everywhere they saw lights, all around the ship but also under it. They were definitely in space. Somewhere. "Can you find the moon, Hilda?" the wizard asked.
The witch looked around. And again. "Uh. No. Where is it?"
"Where is what?" Rebel had come over to them after making her round of the ship.
"The moon. We tried to find the moon."
"Ah. I guess it is still near the Earth. Problem is, from what I can see, is that we're not. Near the Earth, I mean."
"So where are we?" William asked.
Rebel bit her lower lip for a moment. "I am not sure. Not about where we are, nor when."
"When?" Hilda and William asked together.
"Yes. The ship is still trying to work that out. When we jump, we usually don't just move to another place, but often we also end up in another time."
"And the ship is working out where we are?" Hilda started to worry very much now. This was just too much.
Rebel simply nodded. "No problem, it always pans out. But let me I find you quarters to sleep while we're here." She winked and disappeared.
Hilda shuddered. "I wish she wouldn't do that."
One of the sailors who passed them by said: "You'll get used to it over time."
"I hope I don't have time for that," Hilda muttered, frantically patting Grimalkin.
Rebel popped into existence again, making the witch and wizard jump. "Hey, it's okay, it's only me," she said. "I found you a nice room. Come, I'll take you there." She reached for Hilda's arm, but the witch slapped at the hand.
"Ease up, Rebel. We're not used to your disappearing act, so go a bit slower!" Hilda did not feel at ease at all, still feeling very weird.
Rebel raised both hands. "Sure, whatever you want," she said. "I'll hold out my hands, and you both take one when you're ready." She understood that this all was a bit too much for the two new passengers on the Mimosa. William took one of her hands. Then Hilda took the other. "Here we go, okay?" Rebel asked. After both had nodded, they popped away from the deck.
"So, where are we now?" Hilda asked as there suddenly was a room around them. Secretly she admired this moving trick.
Rebel said: "I moved you to your cabin. It's really easy to get to the deck again, just step out that door, turn left and keep going until you see the door out. You'll recognise it, there's a sign 'exit' over it." She then stared at Hilda. "You can read, can't you?"
Hilda stood up to her full length. "I certainly can read. I am a witch."
"Okay, no reason to get overly excited. We run into all kinds of folk, and you'd be amazed how many can't read. So I'm just making sure out of habit." Rebel then showed them how the beds worked, what buttons to push and which ones they should avoid at all times.
The cabin was almost entirely white, with beds that came from the wall on the press of a button. The light in the ceiling went on and off by simply telling it to do so. Hilda had too much fun doing that, so William had to keep a hand over her mouth as he had run into the wall a few times too many. There was a display unit in the wall ("Sorry, no really usable movies in the thing," Rebel apologised) and she showed them how to use the communication system, which was merely a small glass-like circle in the wall which lit up blue when touched.
"When it's blue, you just tell the ship who you want to talk to and the ship will try to find that person. When you hear the other side, just talk. Touch the thing again and the connection is cut."
Hilda frowned at that. "Is that like a crystal ball?"
William grinned as the comparison was actually quite good. Rebel looked blankly at the witch, obviously lacking knowledge about crystal balls. He sat down on one of the white chairs at the white table, the only pieces of furniture that did not disappear in the floor or the wall, and asked: "And how do we go about getting some food here?"
"Oh, you don't eat here," Rebel said, "we have a great mess-"
"Rebel, can you come and bring the others?" Maurizio's voice interrupted her explanation. "We have something that you all should see."
William as well as Hilda wondered where that came from. Rebel said "Sure, right with you" to the air and announced that she would grab Hilda and William again. The magicals quickly picked up their cats and a thought later they were on the deck again.
"How did you know where he is?" Hilda asked, but Rebel did not seem to hear her. The witch looked at her wizard as the strange woman walked off to Maurizio. "She said mess. Do you think she was referring to this whole ship?"
The wizard did not respond to her question, not even when she poked him in the ribs with an elbow. "Hilda... very slowly turn your head and look over that side," he said, pointing to where 'that side' was.
"Now why would I do that slowly?" Hilda muttered. "Witches don't - suck an elf." She stared at a giant lump of rock that hung far too close to the Mimosa for her taste. If the Mimosa would get stuck against it, nobody would notice it, so big was the lump. "What is that?"
"It's a piece of rock," one of the sailors said.
"A damn big piece too," another one added.
"And who is going to do something about it?" Hilda asked as she walked up to the railing. "Who put that thing there anyway?"
Maurizio said that the ship would deal with the rock. "It is a small asteroid, by the way, Mrs. Witch."
Hilda stabbed a finger towards the looming thing and said: "That is not small."
"It is, for an asteroid. And no one put it there. They tend to fly through space," said William. "And if the Mimosa deals with it, there is nothing to worry about," he hoped.
"It had better make that thing fly somewhere else." Hilda turned to William and looked at him. He caught something in her eye that made him worry.
"There is something you have to tell me, isn't there, Hilda?" he said as he touched her cheek.
"Yes, and I'm not going to do that here," she said, folding her arms over her chest. "I want to go to our room. Cabin. Whatever."
William nodded, popped up his wand and made it lead them to their cabin. Two black cats followed, only a step behind their magical humans.
8. Shock
They found their cabin without a problem. Also without much help of William's wand; as soon as they had entered the Mimosa's white inside, the two cats ran ahead and sat down by the door.
"These two are amazing," Hilda said with honest surprise. William agreed and watched how she touched the yellow panel. The door opened and they entered the cabin.
Once inside, William changed the white chairs and table into a purple couch like the one they had at home. Clearly relieved Hilda dropped herself on it. "Finally something normal," she said with a sigh, welcoming the black cat that jumped in her lap.
William sat down also and looked at Hilda. "I recall you were going to tell me something?" As he spoke the words, an eerie feeling crawled from the couch up over his spine, and made the hair in his neck feel all itchy.
"My magic's gone."
... "What?" William did not want to hear what he just heard. "Your magic is... gone?"
The witch nodded without looking at him. "I am no longer a witch," she said, her voice flat as a piece of paper. "I can't do magic, throw no spells, can't fly the broom. I'm nothing." As she spoke, she seemed to shrink.
William stared at the woman next to him. He did not believe it. At the same time, it would be the explanation for the fact that he suddenly had lost the link to Hilda. He did not want to ask 'and now what', as that was the most obvious but also most clumsy question in this situation. Instead he put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her as far as Grimalkin allowed. "We'll find a way to get your magic back." That sounded just as stupid.
Hilda shrugged under William's arm. "How? I never heard that magic came back."
"Did you ever hear of a witch who lost her magic?"
The witch thought for a while. "Not this way. Usually through a warlock or something similarly bad."
"We'll find a solution. Somehow." William hoped he sounded confident, as he was not so sure, but he was going to do all he could for his witch. "And nobody will know that you lost your magic, as far as I am concerned. I will handle things for both of us."
"And how will you do that without our link? You won't be able to tell what I would do, William, and I miss the link with you as much as I miss my magic."
"I am sure of that, sweetwitch. For now there is little magic to do, here," William said.
There was a knock on the door. Or wall. Or somewhere. "Rebel," Hilda said to William. "Come in, or whatever you plan to do."
Rebel materialised in the cabin and stared at the purple couch. "Whoa. That's... retro."
"No, it's a couch," Hilda said. "What's up?"
Rebel kept staring at the couch. "The ship decided to move away from the rock and I wanted to let you know that we're going to eat so maybe you want to join us."
The witch and the wizard exchanged looks. "Yes. Food would be a good idea," Hilda said.
"It's so cool," said Rebel, "the way you can talk to each other without talking. Really froopy. Want me to pop us over to the mess?"
"Sure." Hilda shoved Grim on her shoulder and got up. William got up too, Obsi on his arm. Rebel held out an arm, they took it, and a moment later they were in a large hall. It was not a room, it was a hall. All the crew of the Mimosa was there, Maurizio was there, and even with the three of them added the hall was barely in use. There were several dozen of very long tables, all laid with white tablecloths and what looked like silver cutlery. On either side of the immense lengths of table were chairs.
"This place can harbour too many people," William stated as he looked over the overgrown seating arrangements.
"We suspect it fits three thousand," Maurizio said, who had joined them. "So far we have not managed to tell the Mimosa that fifty is more than enough. Come, follow me, I will show you the - ehm - kitchen."
They walked over thick red carpet towards a brown door that seemed to open and close by itself as soon as someone got near it. The two cats went on their private expedition, while Hilda and William followed Maurizio and Rebel into what they called the kitchen.
A room, more a small hall welcomed them. Everything inside it was so clean it would be the envy of a hospital. And the hall was large.
"Is it me or does this look larger on the inside than from the outside?" Hilda asked William as they tried to understand the concept.
"You're right and my mind is revolting against it," William agreed.
The disabled witch nodded. "Good. Then it's not just me."
Maurizio offered Hilda his arm. She wrapped her arm around William. The captain smiled and nodded. "Perdonne," he said, "I would like to show you around. And please try to ignore the size of our kitchen, it will play tricks on your sanity."
"And it got to him," one of the sailors said as he passed them with two plates of food in his hands.
Hilda looked at the food and wiggled her nose. "Looks like you get to do some home cooking, William, I don't think I like what's served."
Maurizio laughed out loud. "Please come, my friends," he said as he led the way, Rebel in his wake. To their left there was a large column, dark wood at the bottom and painted white from roughly four feet up to the ceiling which was white also. To their right there were large cupboards with plates, cups, forks, spoons and more things that would serve well for a meal.What the cupboards were made of remained a mystery in white and light blue. Hilda and William stared at some cupboards that held things that they had never seen before, and they also could not even guess at what these things would be used for.
Rebel and Maurizio took some of the more recognisable items so the magical couple followed their lead. "Now come," Maurizio said again. "We will show you how you can obtain your food." He led the two to the central column which on two sides had small brass sliding doors, some strange panels, a few clusters of buttons and a display in the wall. The display at each spot was dark.
Rebel opened the small slide door and put her plate in it. She pushed a green button that lit up for a moment, then said something nobody understood.
Maurizio explained that Rebel used to order dishes from her own time. "This thing listens to what you want to eat and then makes it." By the time he had said that, the green button that Rebel had pressed extinguished. She opened the sliding door and took her plate. It was filled with something that looked as ominous as it smelled.
"What went wrong?" Hilda asked as she scowled at the stuff.
"Nothing," Rebel laughed, "this is good!" Hilda was glad Rebel took the gruesome wobblies away. It did a lot for the smell.
Maurizio popped his plate in the machine, punched the button and rattled something Italian. William caught 'ravioli' in that spray of words and Hilda just shrugged. Out of the machine came a plate of food that looked a lot more appetising than what Rebel had carried off.
"Hey, that smells nice, can you tell it to get me that too?" Hilda asked. Maurizio was glad to oblige, rattled his Italian again and handed Hilda the plate.
She then opened the slide door and looked inside. "There's magic here, William," she said. "There's nobody in there."
"It is a food replicator," said Maurizio. "It's automatic, not magic. You tell it what you want and it will make it."
"So how does it know all that?" William wondered.
The captain, who was already eating, shrugged. "I don't know. But it works. Try, Mr. Wizard, please."
"You can call me William," said the wizard. He popped his plate in the machine. Button lit up green. "Beans, mashed potatoes and a steak."
"And you can call me Moro," the captain said.
William looked happily at his plate.
"William, don't drool. Come, let's go and eat," said Hilda. Moro and William looked at each other as the witch marched out of the kitchen. The wizard grinned.
Hilda found a place at the table where Rebel sat. That was good. She got to sit opposite the woman, which was less good as that offered her a premium view on the strange mess that Rebel called food. Hilda wasn't even certain that everything was dead. She missed her magic. That would have helped her ignore the sight on the other end of the table. She saw William and Maurizio walk into the large mess and look for seats. Hilda glanced along the table which was fully occupied.
If William sits somewhere else, I am going to sit there too, she told herself. She had no qualms about being impolite: some things didn't change. But her magic was gone. She missed the feeling, the familiar tingle. And she missed the contact with her wizard.
Maurizio and William walked around one of the tables, when Maurizio stopped dead in his tracks as if he heard something. William was not prepared for such an abrupt end of their walk, so he bumped into the captain, spilling the contents of his plate partly over the man and partly over the floor. Magic prevented food from getting on the wizard.
"Oh, drat," William muttered as he whisked the mess away. Hilda watched it, nearly chewing her lip. Then, to both their surprises, Maurizio tossed his plate to the side and ran off.
"Not that again." Rebel didn't even get up, she just disappeared.
"Not what again?" the witch wondered.
Xander, one of the sailors, shrugged. "We never know either. We just wait until we nee-"
A sharp sound that all the makings of an alarm, including its effect on the sailors, went off. The sailors jumped up, chairs falling over and being ignored, and the lot hurried out of the mess.
Hilda, still sitting, looked at William. "What a mess."
9. A strange meeting
"Do you think we should go outside also?" William asked his witch, looking at the door through which the sailors had left. He was feeling robbed of his food.
"I am sure they'll call us when we're needed," said Hilda confidently. "Best that you go back and get some more food. And hurry, will you, it's sort of stupid to sit at this big table alone."
William grinned, drew his wand and cast a small spell. The table split in two parts, a huge part and a small part with Hilda at it and two lit candles on it. "I'll be right back, sweetwitch."
When he came back, Hilda stared at the lump on his plate. "Now what in the names of all witches I have known is that?"
The wizard sat down with his plate. "A burger from Sloppy Joe's."
Hilda's eyes seemed glued to the bits of bread, the blob of charred meat between them and the goo that seeped from it all. "And you are going to eat that?" If her face had not made it absolutely clear that she was abhorred with the prospect, the tone in her voice would have eradicated all traces of doubt.
"Uhhuh!" said William, bringing the droopy hamburger in position for the first bite.
Rebel appeared. "I think you are going to love this," she said. When she disappeared, the witch and the wizard disappeared with her. The hamburger fell down, missing the plate. The result was one that Sloppy Joe would have been proud of.
William stared at his empty hands. "Holy Bejeebus, what-" Then he noticed the light.
The entire ship bathed in light. It was not your average run of the mill light. It was bright without hurting the eyes. It also was everywhere, no a spot was unlit. The light gave every shadow a shock.
Hilda tapped the wizard's arm and pointed. "Look." Hilda was not often so short on expressing herself, so this had to be something extreme.
Next to the Mimosa hung a white pyramid, its sides smooth and without any markings or visible openings. Black sailing ships and smooth white pyramids are a strange mix, and seeing such a chance encounter in space made it even stranger. The top of the pyramid seemed to be made of gold. The golden top seemed to reflect the ship-enveloping light from somewhere unseen. The whole thing was incredibly large. William estimated that the pyramid of Cheops would fit in there nicely. About fifteen times.
"What is that, and who put it there?" Hilda wanted to know.
"It's a pyramid, and apart from that it is big I don't know," said Maurizio, who had joined the slightly malfunctioning magical couple. "It is what made the ship sound its alarms though. And with reason. We can't seem to break away from it, so we thought that maybe you two...." He waved a hand. "With your magic and so..."
Hilda went through a lot of pain to keep her face straight. Nobody but William knew about her magic being gone, and it should stay that way. She quickly glanced at her hand as William took it and squeezed it gently. Before she could wonder what he wanted, she saw how he raised a hand. Squeeze. Following a feeling she also raised a hand, and a moment later there was a wand in it. Not her wand, but there was something. William held his own wand. Hilda understood that she just had to follow his lead, so he could cover for her. It made her heart scream, but she felt good about her wizard.
"I'll give it a go," William said. "Then you try it."
Hilda nodded.
The wizard cast a bolt at the pyramid which should put a magical wedge between it and the Mimosa, to drive them apart. The bolt stopped halfway the pyramid and then simply vanished. William and Hilda stared. That had never happened. Hilda held the strange wand with both hands, made quite a fuss over getting ready to throw something, and when she did throw, William flashed a big lightning bolt from the tip of her wand. The lightning bolt jumped to the pyramid unhindered, hit it and bounced off it. The flash jumped away into space and was never seen again by the crew of the Mimosa.
"That's not going to work," Hilda said, scratching her nose. She walked over to the railing, put her hands on it and seemed to think. "Hey, you over there!" she then shouted out to the pyramid. "What's that you think you're doing? Do you want us to come over and make you suck elves?"
William bit his tongue not to burst out laughing. That was the witch he loved., with all her spunk.
Hilda turned her back to the humongous white pyramid. "I think they're deaf," she said. "I shouted loud enough, didn't I?" Then she noticed the astounded looks on the faces of the people watching her. Even William - wait... were they watching her or... She turned around and saw the reason of the surprised expressions. A small bit of the giant pyramid had opened. It was a triangular shape that now served as a platform. And on the platform was a small object. It was white. In the shape of a pyramid. "Crappedy crap," she muttered, "it's giving birth."
The little white pyramid lifted off from the platform, which folded itself up, sealing the outside of the large pyramid. The little thing moved towards the Mimosa. As it did, it grew larger. To everyone's amazement, it kept growing larger, until its width was more than half the length of the black ship. Then it was almost so close that you could throw a stone at it and hit it.
"Madonna," Maurizio managed. "Che è grande."
Hilda had moved back to where William was standing and together they stared at the massive 'triangular all over' thing. Seeing it this large, so close up, made it clear that the mother... pyramid was even larger than it seemed. Deep space looks were deceiving.
Before anyone did something (not that anyone had plans in that direction), a triangle folded itself down, like the platform on the mother pyramid had done.
"Now what?" Hilda wondered. William had to give it to her: she was not the squeamish kind.
Everyone aboard the Mimosa half expected that another pyramid would come from the pyramid, as that one had come from the mother pyramid, but two human shapes appeared on the platform. It was slightly disappointing.
The two shapes seemed to debate about what their next step would be. Then one of them went back into the pyramid, that started to move closer not much later. The giant pyramid crawled up to the Mimosa. Maurizio drew a sword from somewhere and stepped up to the railing.
Hilda poked William in the ribs and waved her fake wand. "Come, he can't do that alone," she said, so they joined the redcoat captain. Rebel was right there with them.
The giant white thing inched its way up to the black ship. Hilda and William had ample time to look at the person who was standing on the folded-down platform. "Can you tell what it is?" Hilda asked her wizard. He had no clue.
The creature seemed about their height. It had a blue or purple cap on its head, looking a bit like an old-fashioned knight's helmet but without the visor. Its face looked normal, with two eyes, a nose and a mouth, and rather pale skin. The creature was dressed in something silvery. It looked a rough knitted sweater that hung down to its knees (if it had knees) with a matted silver triangular breastplate. Silvery boots completed the appearance. The clothing of the creature had no special markings on them that the magical couple could make out.
Maurizio watched the approaching vessel like a hawk, holding his sword out over the railing. "Stop right there!" he yelled. "This is my ship and you're not coming aboard!"
The pyramid came to a halt less than one foot from the hull of the Mimosa. The blue-capped and silver-clad creature leaned back into the pyramid for a moment, and then the other one came out again. He - or she - carried something in a hand. The two looked at the gathering of people on the black ship. Then the creature who had reappeared from the pyramid said: "Hello. We are glad you got here on time." Judging from the voice this was a definite she.
This announcement created some confusion among most of the people. Hilda just leaned on the railing and asked: "What do you mean on time? We weren't even supposed to be here." She poked the fake wand against the pyramid. It did not budge.
The two creatures stared at Hilda. And at the thing one of them held. And back at Hilda. "Oh, but you were!", the she said as something close to blissful delight spread over her face and that of her fellow-alien. "And you are the witch!"
That was too much even for Hilda. She stood up straight and scowled. "And what's that to you? I don't know you, I probably don't want to know you and I don't want to be here."
William was dumbstruck.
"Come on, guys," said Rebel, "give us a break. We're stranded here and you say it's all a plan?"
The two aliens stepped from their platform, onto the railing of the ship and gracefully floated onto the deck. "It is not a plan. It is a prophecy," the so far silent one said with a squeaky tenor voice. The purple on their heads was hair, not a cap.
Maurizio by now had regained control over his body again. He stepped between the witch and the aliens, raised his sword and said: "You are trespassing." He grabbed in his pocket and brought out the eye patch, which he quickly and one handedly put over an eye. The captain had obviously done that more than once.
The two silver-clad aliens looked at him, without twitching so much as a facial muscle. "And you are?"
"I am the captain of this ship, the Mimosa."
The two looked at each other for a moment. "We are here for the witch," the female alien then said and ignored the sword. "Not for a captain."
Maurizio looked dismayed and hurt in his pride. Rebel stared at the new arrivals. William wasn't certain what the best action was at this point.
"Hold it," said Hilda. "We're guests of the captain, he's been good for us apart from taking us away from our world, so no putting him down, do you hear me?"
Maurizio looked relieved. "Thank you, Mrs. Witch."
Rebel snorted.
"We do not want to put someone down," said the male alien, "we just came to collect you. The others can go where they want."
10. Collecting
"You what?" Hilda could not believe her ears. She was not the only surprised person on the Mimosa. "Collect me? What for? I'm not sure that I want to go." She waved the fake wand in front of the two aliens, who watched the stick and looked at each other.
William put an arm around the witch and said: "I'm not going to let you take her anywhere. Hilda is a free witch who goes where she wants."
The male alien looked at the wizard. "Who are you?"
"I am William the Wizard, and Hilda's official partner."
The two aliens looked at each other again, this time with some worry and confusion. "We are here only for the witch, William the Wizard. You are free to go where you want."
William showed them his wand. "Let's first establish some clarity here. You come here without any proper introduction and you claim that you will take the witch with you, for whatever reason. Who are you people, and why do you think you can take Hilda with you?"
"You are not a person to question us," said the female alien.
William mumbled a spell, and the two aliens fell to the deck, so totally covered in ropes that moving was impossible for them. "Want to reconsider that statement?"
The two floored ones looked surprised. "There was never a mention of this!" the man exclaimed as he squirmed to free himself.
"A mention of what?" Hilda asked as she got closer to the two.
"Of him!" The male alien made it sound like an accusation towards William.
"Keep talking, you have a grateful audience," Hilda said as she pretended to tap the man on his purple hair with her fake wand.
"Geena so pjatti pjatti koo koo roh gah poko liktokoh", said the female alien. Something under her ropes lit up, probably her silvery clothes, and the ropes seemed to melt away from her. The ropes around her companion also fell away. The two got up swiftly and faster than the eye could follow. The man touched something on his suit after which a blinding flash of white light enveloped him and the woman.
"Crappedy crap" was the only thing heard as everyone's eyes tried to overcome this vicious attack.
By the time the people aboard the Mimosa could see again, the two aliens had disappeared. The large pyramid was moving towards the very large pyramid.
"Where's Hilda?" William asked.
-=-=-
Hilda had reacted as fast as she could as the white light hit her. Without magic, however, she had to resort to the usual method of closing eyes and using hands. She had sensed a pull, without being touched, and when she opened her eyes again she found herself in a large room with many chairs, large windows that resembled the televisions she had seen in William's world and the two silvery aliens who sat in chairs near funny tables with lights. The witch sat in a chair too, one she could not get out of.
"Suck an elf," she muttered. "Hey you two, what do you think you're doing?"
"We are taking you to where you belong," the female said without looking up. "If there is something we can do to make your stay more comfortable, tell us. We are here to serve you."
"Now that's new," Hilda commented. "How then about taking me back to the ship where William is, and my cat? And my broom?" Her words seemed to go unnoticed by the aliens. "Where are you taking me? Who are you guys? Want me to destroy this - whatever we are in?"
The two nodded at each other and remained silent.
"Hey, troll's balls, I'm talking to you!" Hilda felt quite unsettled by now.
"We will be at the mother ship soon, all will be explained," said the man.
"Crappedy crap, can't you even tell me your names?"
"I am Golgofro," the man said, "and she is Galgoran."
"Now that didn't hurt, did it?" Hilda said as she wondered how the chair could hold her down without any visible straps. The two did not radiate any magic of- oh, she wouldn't be able to sense that. She slumped back in the chair and felt miserable in a way she had not felt miserable in a long time.
Golgofro and Galgoran seemed very busy moving their hands over the blinking lights in front of them. Hilda did not perceive anything like motion or sound. The large room was actually eerily silent and remained like that until the two got up. "We have arrived."
Hilda found that she could move again. She remained seated, even when Galgoran asked her to follow them. "I'm not going anywhere. You took me away like I am a thing, you're not telling me anything except that you are here for me and now you want me to come with you to some place I don't know? Forget it." She held on to the seat.
The two exchanged gazes again, and Golgofro touched something on his left sleeve. Without so much as a sound, Hilda's chair floated upward and obediently followed the two aliens as they walked out of the large room.
-=-=-
Aboard the Mimosa, moderate versions of chaos and disorder were unfolding after the remaining people found the witch gone. William was about to grab a broom and go after the floating pyramid, but Rebel convinced him that the Mimosa was a much better alternative to a broom.
"We'll go after her," she promised as she held his sleeve, as if that would actually prevent him from leaving. He did his best to believe her, though, and that was enough.
"The little big pyramid went into the large big pyramid," one of the sailors remarked.
"Hurry," was all that William said to Rebel as he had seen it happen as well. "Or I'm on the broom." Rebel argued that there was no air in space, but William told her again to hurry. "We pack our own air."
Maurizio and Rebel quickly walked off to the front of the ship. William followed them. They ended up near the wooden housing on which the large crystal was standing. Maurizio took a large iron key and used that to open the two doors in the housing. William saw brass pipes and something that looked like a copper vacuum chamber. Arrays of lights were blinking everywhere, without making sense to the wizard. He had once been a book salesman, never a technician.
Rebel dropped to her knees and crawled halfway into the housing. "Damn, that's turned tightly," she muttered as she used both hands on a shiny red valve. "Stand back everyone," she warned. Calling on some of her strange powers, she managed to wrench the valve open and pressure regulators started hissing.
"Holy Bejeebus!" William jumped back as from four places in the housing clouds of steam erupted, without warning. "Are you telling me this bleeding ship runs on steam?"
"I am not telling anything," Maurizio said. "I want to make this ship go so we can bring back Mrs. Witch, signore."
"Looks like we're ready, Moro," Rebel reported, still halfway inside the 'engine room'. The captain turned to the deck where a few of the sailors were still standing. He yelled out a number of commands that meant nothing to William, but the men started running and soon were out of view.
The wizard looked at the pyramid. "I think they are moving. Hurry."
"We're working on it," said Maurizio as he gazed at the steam unit. Was there doubt in his voice? William was not sure.
The unit then gave the captain every reason to sound doubtful: pressure fell away, it seemed. All regulators went silent, and the lights in the housing blinked frantically. Rebel, who was still in her uncomfortable position, closed the valve, reset all kinds of switches and buttons. It did not just look as if she was going at them using the system called 'pot luck'.
"I don't think they are moving," the wizard reported. "I'm certain they are." He knew that adding the 'hurry' word would not get them moving any faster. "Do you need some help?"
"Do you know something about this contraption?" Maurizio sounded partly wondering and partly hopeful. From inside the housing a loud curse followed a dull thud. Obviously Rebel had not seen something hard.
"I only know that I want this thing to move, and fast," said William as he saw the pyramid pick up speed and move away faster and faster. He popped up his wand and pointed it at the mass of copper, brass and lights. "What is it supposed to do?"
"Work," was the compact answer.
William waited for the red flashes to leave his eyes. "And how does it work?"
"We don't know. We just wiggle the buttons and open the valve and then it goes. Usually."
"Usually..."
"Yes," said Rebel who had decided that one bump on the head was enough. "Usually it does. Maybe it's in a bad mood right now."
The wizard chose not to respond to that. "Stand back." The sound of his voice did not give any opening for bargaining, the two stepped back.William pointed his wand at the machinery. "Don't you dare blow up on me," he told the vacuum chamber. Then he unleashed magic.
"It didn't work," Maurizio tried carefully as some time had crawled by.
"It didn't blow up, at least that worked," Rebel pointed out.
William kicked the vacuum chamber, kneeled down and slammed some magic over the valve that quickly rotated open, allowing steam from somewhere deep inside the Mimosa to fill the brass pipes. One by lazy one the lights stabilised into a satisfying green that would be the envy of any self-respecting lawn.
A shudder ran through the black wood of the Mimosa. Rebel zapped away. William got to his feet and wanted to ask where the woman had disappeared to, when Maurizio said: "You got the ship working!"
"I did?" William wasn't sure as there had been nothing but a shudder.
Before Maurizio answered, Rebel's voice boomed over deck. "ALL HANDS TO THE MASTS!"
From somewhere all the sailors appeared and quickly climbed into the masts. William stared at the proceedings and worried. They were in space. There was no water, no air, let alone wind. And they were lowering the sails.
11. Questions and more questions
Maurizio seemed to read the questions and wonder from the wizards face. "We are lowering the sails, because without them down, the Mimosa won't move." He shrugged shortly. "A bit of a nuisance, I know, but we've gotten used to it."
"So you have this great big ship with all its gadgetry and smart things, and it can't lower its own sails?" William wondered.
The captain frowned. "I don't know."
William rolled his eyes and watched how the sailors did their work. He had to hand it to them: they knew their trade.
"All done, captain!" one of the sailors yelled the obvious when they were done.
Maurizio waved at him and said: "Rebel, we're ready to go. You probably heard that."
"I HEARD YOU." The woman's voice boomed over the deck again. It made William jump.
Slowly the Mimosa turned. There was no sound. None of the sails made any movement, but the ship was moving. After a while the bow pointed to where the white pyramid had been. It had vanished quite some time ago already, which worried William to no end. Of all the adventures he'd had with Hilda, this was turning into the worst one. He'd even go through the misery concerning Zelda again, rather than this.
Grim and Obsi appeared at his feet, from somewhere out of the shadows, and looked up at him. The wizard bent over and picked up both cats. "I'm sorry, Grim. Hilda's gone, but we're going to get her back." He wanted to add 'trust me', but he couldn't. He didn't trust it himself, so how could he. Both cats made miserable sounds, voicing how he was feeling.
"Maybe you should go and eat, William," Maurizio said. "And then try to rest? You've been through a lot." He put an arm on one of William's, staying out of reach of the cats. He thought. Nothing happened, though.
William knew that the man was right. He took the cats with him, to the mess, where he ate a simple and sad meal. The cats did not appear hungry, because the things William made for them in the food replicator remained untouched. After pushing the food down, he collected the cats again and headed for the cabin that Rebel had shown them. He lay down on the bed, feeling terrible.
-=-=-
Galgoran and Golgofro walked through long straight passageways, taking far too many turns for Hilda's taste. She was stuck on the chair. Of course, she had tried to jump off, but some scary magic held her in her place as the chair floated along behind the two pale aliens with their purple hair and their silver clothes. She had asked a few questions, but had not gotten any answers.
After yet another turn, Hilda had the impression that they were walking not only straight ahead but also straight up at times, they stopped in front of a white wall. The magically impaired witch wondered what they were going to do there. Galgoran touched the wall with her hand and then the wall moved up like a portcullis.
Behind the wall lay a room. No, a hall. No, a cathedral. No, not that big. Hall would do, Hilda decided. It was remarkable. For starters it was not all white, which was a relief to the witchy eyes. There were shades of brown and yellow and blue and - purple! From inside the hall came a wonderful concoction of smell made of flowers, fresh air and food. Especially the food part of it made the witch aware that it had been quite a while since she'd eaten.
"So, now what?" Hilda asked from her undignified position in the chair that still held her.
"Davdruw will come," said the blue-haired man, Golgofro. The way he said the name told Hilda that Davdruw had to be a person of some importance.
"Wouldn't it be polite to make this chair let go of me?" the witch asked. "What will Davdrow say when he sees me like this?"
"DavDRUW knows," Galgoran said.
"Crappedy crap, what does he know?" Hilda commented.
"Enough," a new voice said. It was a voice one had to love. In that one word it held all the things one would wish for in a voice. Galgoran and Golgofro stepped back in sheer awe, as a giant of a person stepped from behind a large white screen with a red frame. "I am Davdruw, and I am aware of your situation, Grimhilda the Witch."
Hilda felt the capitals as the man spoke and envied him as he made a movement which released her from the grip of the floating chair. She hopped out of it and looked up at the man who was at least seven foot tall. "Where am I, who are you and when can I go back to that stupid ship?" she asked, entirely unimpressed by the size of the newcomer.
"You are hungry," Davdruw said, "so please come with me and we can talk whilst you are replenishing your strength." Totally unimpressed by Hilda's powerful coming on to him, he turned and walked off. He did not even check if the witch was following him. She did, as the promise of food was enticing enough. As she walked along into the large hall, behind her Galgoran and Golgofro took the chair away as the wall came down again.
Davdruw, on his long legs, was no match for the disabled and broomless witch. She had to run to keep up with him but did not complain. She'd show him what kind of witch he was dealing with. By the time the man stopped, near a table loaded with food and cushions to sit on, Hilda was panting.
"Please, sit down and enjoy the food," Davdruw said as he sat down on a cushion. Hilda nodded and waved a hand as she did her best to catch her breath. "Please, Grimhilda the Witch, do take your time. The Prophecy has predicted all this, so we made the food extra hot." Davdruw watched Hilda intently, as if he was waiting for something.
Hilda straightened herself and looked at the table. "Suck an-"
"Elf," Davdruw finished her words.
Hilda stared at the man. "Who are you?" She did not feel one bit at ease now, without her magic, in a place she couldn't fathom and near this giant of a man who looked like someone totally not from her world and who knew her lines.
Davdruw, pale-faced and blue-haired as the others, pointed at a cushion. "Please, sit and eat, while I will explain."
"About time," Hilda muttered as she went to sit. She meant both the food and the explanation.
As the witch was stuffing herself, Davdruw started to talk. The race he was part of called itself the Lycadeans, a race technically and physically superior to most other intelligent species in the universe as far as they knew it. And they knew quite a large part of it, according to the man.
"As to who I am... I am Davdruw. I am regarded the spiritual leader of the Lycadeans. All my life I have been preparing for this important meeting."
"Important meeting?" Hilda asked. "With whom?" Then it dawned on her. "Oh. With me." As she chewed on something that looked like a chicken leg, she frowned. "Why am I so important to you? How do you know about me? And the elf?"
"The Prophecy," Davdruw said. He pronounced the capital. "It was all written down, long ago, that Grimhilda the Witch would appear here at this time, and it came true."
Hilda dropped the bone on her plate and reached for the large goblet that was filled with something that looked and smelled like wine but was no wine, as it did not affect her in the least. "Prophecy? Some made a prophecy and told you that it is about me? Someone pulled your leg then, Davdruw."
The spiritual leader peeked down at his leg, not sure if she was serious. Then he touched a small pad on his sleeve, which made a monitor appear. Not just any monitor, it was as if air solidified over the table and an image appeared on it. It was a young man with blue hair, wearing silvery clothes like all people in this space pyramid did.
Hilda almost sploshed the contents of the goblet over herself as she saw it all happen. "What's that? Is that your version of a magic mirror?"
Davdruw smiled and nodded. "One could call it that. This is a recording of my predecessor, Garubine, who recorded this message for this moment." He did something with his sleeve again and the image started moving. And talking.
"Honoured witch Grimhilda," the man in the solid-air confines said. "As it is the tradition, I am rerecording this message for you. The Lycadean world and people have been waiting for you for a long time." He raised something that looked like a book. A real one, with a leather cover and paper pages. Obviously it was very old or expensive, as he handled it with extreme care.
"What's that?" Hilda asked, but Davdruw just shook his head, his eyes glued to the image.
The man in the image opened the book, looked over the page and stared out of his confines again. "This is the book in which the Lycadean Prophecy is written down. If you, and only if you, honoured Grimhilda, hear my words, then the New Beginning is near. I shall now read the first words of the Lycadean Prophecy."
12. On board the Mimosa
"William?" a voice asked as there was a knock on the door. "Are you well?"
The wizard knew it was Rebel, not just from her voice. "I'm fine. You can come in if you want," he said as he sat up on the bed. The two cats did not move a whisker.
Rebel entered by opening the door and stepping inside. She did not want to upset the wizard more by popping in as he was already so shaken up by the disappearance of Hilda. "Moro asked me to check on you. The Mimosa is picking up speed nicely, we're in hot pursuit of the pyramid."
"Oh. I guess that is a good thing." William did not feel much better after that news.
"We're travelling at roughly four times the speed of light," Rebel said, "I think you would enjoy the view outside, on deck."
"On deck??" This was so weird an invitation that William forgot his sombre train of thoughts. "At that speed?"
"Uhhuh," Rebel nodded, "looks really cool. Want me to pop us out?"
The wizard scooped up the two cats, who did not protest against that treatment. "Let's go." He hoped that he could also get a glimpse of the pyramid they were following.
Rebel waited until the wizard was standing before she moved them to the deck.
The wizard, cats over his shoulders, looked out to the stars. There were none. Instead, there were explosions of light everywhere around the Mimosa, with long tails of sparkles spreading out in all directions. "That's not how they pictured it on television," he remarked.
"They know nothing, wizard," Rebel commented. "This is the real deal. At least from where we're standing."
It was obvious that this was a very subjective real deal. William nodded and walked to the side of the ship, peering out into the distance. "Any idea where the pyramid is?" he asked.
"Ahead," Rebel said as she joined him. "Far ahead. But we're catching up."
Somehow William doubted that, but he did not feel like arguing. Instead he wondered if there was a way that he could make the ship go faster. He looked at the sails on the masts. They hung there as if there was no wind at all, very true to life as there was no wind at all. Then he realised that he had no idea how fast they were going, so influencing seemed an impossible chore.
"I can show you something more of the ship," Rebel offered. "Moro's in the steering hut, I am sure he won't mind if you have a look around there."
"Might as well," the wizard said, as he still pondered the way to speed up something that was already going faster than he could imagine.
"Come on then, you big lug," Rebel said as she grabbed the sleeve of his robe and dragged him along.
"What, no popping in and out this time?" William wondered.
"No. Walking is good for you," Rebel lectured. She took him into one of the side-doors on the high stern of the ship.
They entered another very white and sterile corridor, not as long as the one that led to the cabins. Rebel showed William a kind of elevator that was nothing but a tube with air. "Step in after me, and don't grab onto something," she said as she stepped into the nothing. Some unseen force pushed her up.
William hesitated for a moment, then he put his hands on the backs of the cats and stepped into the tube also. As if there was a floor of air under his feet, he was gently pushed upwards for a while, until a hand suddenly grabbed hold of one of his arms. The upward movement stopped and he exited the tube. "Holy Bejeebus," he commented.
"I thought so too, the first time Moro pulled me from the tube," Rebel grinned. "We're at the main flight deck here. Only Moro, Xander and I come here. And you now, of course. The rest of the crew is scared of the place."
"Scared? What's here to be scared of?" William asked in wonder.
"Nothing, but we don't want folks snooping around and touching things they ought not, so I planted some 'memories' in their heads. Nothing bad, just adequate."
The wizard frowned at the tactics Rebel and Moro employed and the ethics behind those, but the woman in leather did not give him time to let his thoughts roam. She walked to a wall that suddenly contained a door. She opened it and invited William in.
"Holy Bejeebus."
The steering hut, as Rebel had called it, looked like a smoky bar. Maurizio was dressed in white pants and a yellow shirt that was mostly unbuttoned. He hung over a pool table that was in the middle of the bar and his face showed extreme concentration to lay down a good shot. Several men sat and hung around the pool table and the bar on the far left. Smoke hung in the air, although William did not smell it. Several ladies, probably of negotiable affection, were sitting at the bar also, sipping too brightly coloured drinks. One of them, in a very skimpy dress, stood near a large Wurlitzer jukebox. She clearly tried to evoke some music from the thing.
"Who are these people? And where are we?"
Rebel laughed. "Moro has his hang-out show on again. These people are holograms, as are most of the objects in this thing. Just the table is real. And we are."
A clank and a curse told everyone that Maurizio had messed up the shot. He threw the pool queue on the table and turned to the visitors. "Ah, welcome. Good to see you, William. How do you like it here?" He waved his hand generously along the bar, his eyes lingering with the holographic ladies for quite a while. With a sigh he looked at William again. "The real steering hut looks so... boring," he said by way of an apology, as one of the holographic pool players stood shouting at him, threatening to hit him with a queue.
"It is... different." That was the best thing William came up with.
As the suddenly silently shouting pool player swung a queue through the captain, Maurizio moved a few of the balls on the table and suddenly the scenery changed. The bar and the ladies changed into a large array of what probably were computers, complete with blinking lights. The posters that had shown movie ads of Humphrey Bogart and Marlene Dietrich now were huge displays that showed scribbles William could not make sense of. And the table was now a dull grey desk with a kind of computer terminal totally unfit for human manipulation.
"See what I mean?"
William saw. The bar, he agreed, was better.
Maurizio and Rebel showed him the bits of the room they had figured out so far, which was scarily little. William had the feeling that the Mimosa had a mind of its own and went where it pleased, and the people on the ship were just on it for the ride.
Quite soon they were in the lounge again, where they had had their first proper talk. When Hilda was still there, William thought wryly. Whatever the two tried, they did not succeed in cheering him up. Even the drinks that changed colour faster than a chameleon didn't make him feel better.
"Sorry for being a grouch," the wizard said as he got up. "I am not in the mood to be cheerful."
Maurizio, wearing his black pants, red coat and eye patch again, nodded. "I understand. Rebel might also. We are doing what we can, William."
William nodded. "I'm going back to the deck." As he went there, the two cats followed him like small shadows, and just as silent. Out on the deck he summoned his broom and as he got on it, the two cats shared the spot on the bristle. He flew to the bow, where the large crystal was. The thing sparkled in the fireworks of stars they passed.
He sat down on the black floor, the two cats sitting and looking at him. "So what do you think, guys, can this wizard make the ship go any faster? Is that a good thing to try even, I am not sure if anyone has a clue whether we're going in the right direction or not?"
Obsidian and Grimalkin looked at each other for a moment, then looked up at William again. "Meowww," they voiced their shared opinion. Two heads were scratched.
William got up and popped up his wand. Obsi and Grim slipped away in the many moving shadows. "Let's speed this stuff up some," the wizard mumbled. Behind him, three sailors slowly came closer as they were curious what this strangely dressed man was doing there so close to the crystal.
The wizard reached inside himself, summoning all the magic he could call upon. A sphere of power appeared around the speeding sailing ship, and once he had that established he gave the bubble a push into the direction they were going. Gone were his doubts about this being possible. The only thing that counted was his witch, and he was going to get to her one way or the other, even when the other still had to be thought up.
As the wizard pushed the bubble with the ship ahead, something peculiar happened to the light of the stars. Instead of the sparkles there now only were tiny pinpricks here and there. As a result the entire ship was covered in darkness except for where the Mimosa lit its own lights. William punched holes in the fabric of space and made the Mimosa fall through them, willing it to the location of the pyramid.
Magic thundered in William's ears and he felt he was reaching the end of his reserves fast. He pushed until he could take no more. One last shove and the Mimosa popped out of a hole. The sphere around the ship fell apart and Maurizio and Rebel appeared close to where the wizard stood, demanding to know what had happened.
Obsi and Grim came back to the wizard and demanded to be picked up. As William did so, he discovered a chicken feather between Obsi's teeth.
Some of the sailors shouted and pointed. They didn't have to. Everyone saw what they were heading towards: a large grey planet, with at least a dozen gigantic pyramids hovering high over its surface.
"Holy Bejeebus."
13. The grey planet
"Technology will become the pillar of the Lycadean society. It will help to raise the people to a great height, but there will be substantial damage to the world. A damage that cannot be undone by the Lycadeans, despite their high level of evolution. The world will suffer, and the people will suffer with their world. Only at the highest suffering, a woman will come to save the Lycadeans and their world. This woman will be a witch who is not a witch. "
Hilda stared at the spot where the image of Garubine, the reading man, had been. "Crappedy crap. I would almost think that's about me, if I wasn't sure I've never been here before."
Davdruw smiled. "Garubine spoke of you, Grimhilda. You are the witch who is not a witch."
"And what gave you that idea?" Hilda said as she got up. She knew he was right but she did not want to admit that without a fight.
"You were there are the right time," was the simple and unfightable response. "Have you eaten enough, Grimhilda the witch?"
"Yes, I have, but what's that have to do with all this?"
"We have arrived," Davdruw said as he rose from his cushion.
"Arrived where?" Hilda took a few pieces of fruit from a porcelain platter and followed Davdruw, who now kept a more moderate pace.
"At Lycadea of course," the man said, "that is why you are here." He stood still in a large open area of the hall and did something with his sleeve again. Hilda suspected that most of the man's clothing was filled with strange things. Before she could place a remark, a magnificent sphere appeared in front of them. It seemed to consist of nothing but white and yellow light.
"Haven't got the trick down for silver and gold, have you?" the witch said as she scratched her nose.
Davdruw looked caught, which was very odd for such a large and stately figure. "I am sure that this will be satisfactory, Grimhilda the witch."
"Just call me Hilda, will you? I am not one for long titles, and I know I'm a witch. I'll call you Dave for that."
Davdruw sleeved again and part of the sphere split open. Inside it Hilda saw a few chairs, one giant one and a normal sized version. "If you would please be so kind to step inside, Grimhilda," the spiritual leader said.
"No Dave for you then," said Hilda as she walked into the sphere. Inside it was very comfortable. The chair felt soft, there was tea and fruit juice on the table and from the inside out the sphere was fully transparent.
Davdruw came in also and sat down on a chair fit for his size. "We will go to the surface of the planet now," he announced.
"More sleeve-stuff?" Hilda inquired.
"Sleeve-stuff?" Davdruw seemed taken by surprise.
"Yeah, the way you fumble with your sleeve all the time when you do your magic. Let me tell you that a wand is much more convenient. And it looks better too."
Davdruw looked at his sleeve for a moment, the first frown slipping over his brow. It was there only for a moment, but Hilda saw it. "I will now bring us down to the surface," the man said. Some sleeve-action made the sphere close itself. Then the floor vanished from underneath them, and with a heartfelt 'suck an elf!' the sphere dropped downwards.
-=-=-
"What are we going to do?" one of the sailors aboard the Mimosa asked. The ship had slowed down and come to a full stop on a respectable distance from the insanely large floating pyramids.
"Nothing, for now," Maurizio said. "We don't know what they're upto."
"Should we load the canons, just in case?"
"No Cannons," William spoke in capitals to make himself absolutely clear. "They have my witch, and as long as they do, there is no shooting at anything."
"You heard the wizard," said Maurizio. "No cannons." The sailor looked disappointed.
"Guys, get a load of that." Rebel's voice pointed their attention to the pyramids again. From one of them a large sphere, shining white and yellow, dropped down to the planet.
"Pathetic," said William, "silver and gold would've looked so much better."
Maurizio looked at the ball through his large brass telescope. "William, you should have a look," he said as he handed the magnifying contraption over.
The wizard had a look and then almost threw the scope back to Maurizio. "Broom!" he yelled, and the wooden object sped to the waiting hand. Grim and Obsi were already waiting to jump onto the bristle, and as soon as William had taken position on the broom, they were on it also.
"We're coming with you," said Rebel as she grabbed Maurizio by the arm.
William took off without a word. The last thing he heard was Maurizio's surprised voice asking "we are?".
The man with the two cats on the broom was closely followed by a woman in tight black leather who held a man in a red coat by the arm, not on a broom. He only had eyes for the large ball though, that was falling towards the surface of the planet. It was no challenge for William to catch up with the thing. Getting inside it was another matter though; he was not sure if it was safe to crack the ball open without putting his beloved witch in danger.
Hilda had not seen William as he approached the sphere. It was a remark of Davdruw that made her look to the side. That was enough though. she jumped up and tried to press herself through the impenetrable side of the ball she was in. "William! Grimalkin! What the hell?" The last remark came from her as she saw Rebel and Maurizio in a controlled free fall near the sphere.
"How did they get here?" was the only thing Davdruw remarked as he saw the shapes outside the still plummeting ball.
"Who cares," said Hilda, "they're here and that is what counts."
"The prophecy did not mention this," the spiritual leader of the Lycadeans complained in a subdued voice as he checked some small panels in the armrests of his chair and did something to his sleeve. It made the sphere divert from its course slightly.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Hilda wanted to know.
William had also noticed the change and slowly moved closer to the sphere.
"I hope you believe me, Grimhilda," Davdruw said, "this was a needed small change to our course. We would otherwise not reach the right location where the welcoming festivities will take place."
"Festivities?" Hilda was quite surprised by that.
"Yes. Everyone on Lycadea knows about the prophecy, and when we set out to collect you, preparations were already underway to welcome you to the planet."
"What's happening in there?" Rebel asked William as she was flying close to him, Maurizio in her hand.
"I don't know," said the wizard who had noticed them a while ago. "Hilda seems to be alright and she's with someone in there. Let's follow them and be prepared for whatever it is that's down there."
"We don't know that, right?" Maurizio put in.
"Exactly. More's the challenge," William said. The two cats held on to the broom with all their claws, as the speed was very high...
-=-=-
The sphere was hovering over a large round area that was almost a lake of rippling silver and blue. In fact it was covered with people in silver clothes and blue hair.
"Crappedy crap," said Hilda as she looked down at the crowd, "did they all come for me? There must be a thousand of them!" She looked at William, Rebel and Maurizio who were still close to the sphere. It made her feel good that they were there and unharmed.
"I think that nineteen thousand were invited," Davdruw said as he did some more to his sleeve. The sphere lowered itself onto a relatively small open space. "We have arrived." The man stated the obvious, but he made it sound special by saying it in a ceremonial way.
The sphere split open, the way it had done aboard the pyramid. Davdruw asked Hilda to wait inside for a moment, and he stepped outside.
William had noticed the opening in the sphere. He landed his broom and with the cats on his heels he slipped into the sphere and his arms around the witch. "Damn, I missed you," he said, while tears assembled in his voice and eyes.
Rebel and Maurizio entered the sphere also but kept an eye on the proceedings outside. "Who's the big guy?" Rebel asked.
Hilda was too busy for a while to answer that question, and before she could answer, there was a loud roar of voices coming from outside the sphere.
"I think they are waiting for you, Hilda," said Maurizio.
"The man out there is called Davdruw," Hilda said. "He is some sort of spiritual leader and talked about some kind of prophecy that I would come and save their world or something. He also had something like a crystal ball but flat that showed a man who is now dead, and that man read something from an old book. The same prophecy." As she saw the wonder in William's face, she added: "You think I'm crazy now, right?"
"Now? You're always crazy, silly witch, that's what I love in you." William laughed as she pounded her fists on his chest in jest.
"I am going out there," Hilda said, "and I am taking you with me." She picked up Grim and put her over her shoulder, grabbed the wizard's hand and together they walked out of the sphere, Obsi, Rebel and Maurizio in their wake.
14. The high council (1)
Davdruw looked relieved as Hilda came out of the sphere, and surprised as there were so many others with her. Clearly he had not seen the new arrivals arrive. A silence fell over the assembled crowd.
"So, what's next?" Hilda asked the tall man in silver.
Davdruw had to shake himself into his role again and act as if this was all part of the plan. He turned to the crowd, did something to his sleeve and spoke. His sleeve-action amplified his voice, so it rang out all over the area where people were standing. 'Fellow Lycadeans. The Prophecy has begun to fullfill itself. As it was written, we have gone to the designated point in space. There we found the witch who is no witch who will bring our planet and our civilisation to the grandeur that we have heard about. And here she is. Grimhilda the witch."
The small group with Hilda stared at the man who looked at Hilda. Hilda in that time kicked Davdruw and looked as if she regretted that.
"Come, Grimhilda, you should speak to the people," he then said.
"What do I tell them?" Hilda asked, her voice washing over the enormous crowd of people. "Crappedy crap!" she exclaimed as she had not been prepared to hear her voice so loud.
"CRAPPEDY CRAP!" the crowd yelled back. "CRAPPEDY CRAP!" And then they all broke out in a noise that was eardrum-shattering. Obsi jumped into William's arms, Rebel grabbed Maurizio's arm.
Hilda raised her voice: "Shut up! That's my line!"
The crowd shut up as Davdruw quickly worked his sleeve. "I think this is enough for now, Grimhilda. The people know you are here. I shall now introduce you to the high council of the planet. And your friends too."
At that moment a relatively small pyramid came down. It landed without a sound and the usual triangular door opened. Davdruw ushered the people inside, guided them to a very comfortable seating arrangement and once they all had found a place, the pyramid lifted off.
"So where are we going?" Hilda asked.
"To the palliza of the high council," Davdruw said. "Could you please explain how these other people got here? This is not part of the prophecy, there was no mention of other people coming with you. That is why we did not bring them along."
"It looked more like you grabbed Hilda and ran off, trying to make sure we could not follow you," William said sharply, observing the man. "And who are you anyway?"
Davdruw had no choice but introduce himself to the new people. "And please try to be peaceful in the palliza. The high council does not allow their tranquillity to be disturbed."
"And you are still taking Hilda to see them? Good luck." The wizard hugged the witch who beamed at the compliment. Davdruw looked worried at Maurizio who looked back as if he had not a care in the world. Pyramid.
"Don't look at us. We're just the people from the Mimosa. You won't have a problem with us," the captain said as he moved his eye patch to his other eye.
"Yeah, right," Rebel buried Davdruw's hope.
-=-=-
Davdruw got up. "Would you please follow me?"
"Huh? Did we get there already?" Nobody had sensed anything like movement or a landing.
"This thing must have incredible shock absorbers," Rebel stated, prying a wondering look from Davdruw. She grinned and mentally chalked one up for herself.
They followed the tall man out of the flying pyramid taxi and were treated to sit down in a line of floating chairs that hovered in a small white hall. After they all had found a seat, the chairs silently moved through a silently opening door and then through a long white silent tunnel.
"Is it always this quiet here?" Maurizio wondered, which earnt him a warning glance from Davdruw. Clearly Davdruw's warning about the silence was to be taken seriously.
The chairs ended their journey as they floated through a door that suddenly opened at the moment Davdruw was doomed to hit the wall. The change from the long white corridor to the fountain of colours they came into was breathtaking. The floor under their chairs and feet was an ever-changing mosaic of pastel colours, moving from one shape to another in a subtle and fluent way. The high walls were light yellow and covered with coloured ornaments, many of which seemed to be moving as if they had a mind of their own. The ceiling consisted of a mosaic similar to the floor and shone in complementing colours.
There were about a dozen people in the large room. They too had all kinds of colours. And shapes. Some of them sported more limbs or eyes than usual, and several of those were at inexplicable locations.
"These are ambassadors and representatives of other planets and galaxies," Davdruw explained as he got up from his chair. "They are waiting to speak to some of the officials we still have. Only the Witch is allowed to meet the high council." The giant man spoke the words loudly, so everyone in the room knew who was there. It did not make a large impression on most, although curious glances were cast from a multitude of eyes.
Hilda prodded William in the side. "See that one back there, the black and grey one with all those eyes? Could be family of the thing that carried Zelda off."
William had to agree.
Davdruw asked them to follow him and he walked off with his long strides. William popped up his wand and whispered something. The effect was immediate.
Davdruw turned around. "What have you done to my legs?" he asked. "I can hardly move."
"You should be aware that our legs are shorter," William said, "this was just a hint." He undid the spell. "I hope you take it. The next hint could be embarrassing." Here and there snickers, snorts and not so muffled laughs emerged from the lifeforms in the high room.
Davdruw was not curious to what William had in mind. With a more relaxed pace he guided the four people and two cats through the room.
"Wasn't there something about having to be quiet?" Hilda asked out loud.
Davdruw stopped again and looked back at her. "Yes. Fortunately this room is exempt from that rule as it is thoroughly sound proofed. Even the high council does not expect all visitors who are waiting to remain all silent while they are here."
"I see."
Davdruw continued guiding them. They left the waiting room, came into a small corridor and reached a large silvery door. The spiritual leader warned them that silence was necessary from here on. They were about to enter the palliza.
"Are you okay, Hilda?" William asked before the door opened.
She nodded. "Yes, I'm fine. The witch who is no witch, you heard him." Her face did not show much happiness as she missed her magic terribly. And the feeling kept getting worse.
Davdruw looked worried because of the talking. He then pushed open the large door and ushered the four inside a large room.
"Crappedy crap," Hilda did not hold herself back, "what happened here?"
Davdruw visibly cringed, which was a very impressive sight from someone his size.
The room they were in looked as if a small war had been fought there. Pieces of furniture were scattered all over the place, on some of the remaining tables were plates with food, some touched, some untouched. About a dozen people, all in the familiar silver clothes, were either sitting somewhere with a puzzled expression, or walking around with an even worse puzzled expression. One of the walking people had some kind of tablet in his hands and stared at it. It was uncanny that he did not run into anything.
"Computer geeks," Rebel stated. She sounded very convinced of that.
The short exchange between the two women had caused all people in the room to look in their direction. As understanding seemed to kick in they all came closer, mumbling and whispering "Grimhilda". It made Hilda feel uncomfortable. She was used to some attention, but not to something oppressive like this, with hands reaching out and touching her clothes.
"Back off, folks," Hilda said, "or my friends will make you back off." She trembled inside, missing her magic once again. It would have been so easy to push them away a bit.
As if he had read her mind, which was impossible without the bond, William popped out his wand. "Step back folks," he calmly said, "you do not want me to help. Trust me."
"But she's Grimhilda," one of the mumblers said in a normal voice, almost sounding offended.
"And I have a wand." He held it up to make his point extra visible.
The assembled group disassembled somewhat and Hilda breathed easier. "So, what is the meaning of this? I thought we were meant to find a high council here, not a band of dimwits." She looked at Davdruw. "Hey, you up there. Care to explain this?"
The tall man looked far from happy, but as the dimwits of the high council dispersed and went back to their apparent meaningless activities, he was forced to supply the requested information. "This, Grimhilda, IS the high council. They are - uhm - chosen to keep all the automatic functionality going that makes Lycadea what it is."
"Can you translate that to something I might actually understand?"
William, Rebel and Maurizio grinned. Rebel removed herself from the group and started to wander around the large room, looking at the strange things that were mounted in and on the walls.
Before Davdruw could attempt his translation, one of the men from the high council stopped his wandering and said: "What he said, Grimhilda, used to be. We're not those people. Oh, we're chosen, but the rest... that used to be. And that is, we think, why you are here. To help us restart the automatic functionality."
"You are just conspiring to confuse me, aren't you?" Hilda wished she had a wand to tap the palm of her hand with, to show these people she was getting impatient.
15. The high council (2)
Grimalkin had to suffer Hilda's slightly growing anxiety, as the stroking and petting became quite rough, until the man who had spoken walked closer to Hilda and William. Keeping a respectful distance, he said: "We are genuinely sorry if you do not feel comfortable here, Grimhilda. The Prophecy is very old, and obviously it lacks details here and there."
"You might say that occasionally it doesn't," a woman commented, "and were it didn't, the details were very wrong, Gesmarion."
"Don't argue about that with me, Katinki," Gesmarion said, turning to the woman. "We are the high council after all, even if we just pretend to know what we are doing."
"Can we go away please?" Hilda asked William and Maurizio. "Rebel? Can you take us away from here to somewhere that's normal? I'd even settle for that weird ship of yours."
"But you cannot leave us!" Gesmarion said, "you are the Witch who will make things right again!"
"I'm also the witch who is no witch, remember?" Hilda snapped at him. "How am I going to make things right like that? Not even considering that I can't figure out what you say when you open your mouth."
"Uhm, Hilda," Rebel said as she had a strange expression on her face. "I don't know why but I can't make us move. It's as if something holds me down."
"Madonna!" Maurizio exclaimed as he walked to the woman, "what is the matter, Rebel? Is there anything I can do for you?"
"No. Yes. I don't know. Hold me?"
Maurizio put his arms around Rebel. Before his hands reached each other behind her, she jumped back and said: "What the hell are you doing?!"
"I was going to hold you, like you asked." Maurizio's face spread disbelief that he had to explain this.
"Don't believe everything I ask for then, okay?" Rebel quickly walked around the captain and took position behind the witch who was no witch.
The situation was slowly getting out of hand, William thought. "What would you do now?" he quickly asked his witch.
"I'd make all of them shut up except one, and let that one explain what the trolls is going on here," she said.
William raised his wand, spoke a spell, and everyone was quiet. The wizard pointed at the woman Katinki. "You can still speak."
"Can I?" the woman proved him right. Her co-councillors gestured in varying forms of despair as they could not open their mouths anymore. Rebel and Maurizio suffered a similar fate.
"Can we have some seats here, William? And some tea? No, make that coffee." Hilda did not feel happy asking for things like that, but it was the best she could do. And William was all there for her. The seats and a table with coffee appeared. William had also thought to manifest a plate loaded with sandwiches.
After sitting down, Hilda sipped some coffee and looked at Katinki. "Okay, now we have some kind of order in place, can you please explain what this place is? And don't use the words that other guy did, or we have to find someone else who can talk."
Maurizio waved at William, a cup of coffee in hand. He pointed at his mouth.
"Oh. Sorry," said the wizard, and removed the problem for the captain and the confused woman in leather.
Katinki also sat down. She suspiciously stared at the sandwiches. "Are you going to eat that?"
Hilda, chewing already, nodded. "Yes. Why?" she managed without spraying crumbs.
"It does not look like proper food," Katinki confessed. She looked at Davdruw, who tried to shrink away in a corner of the room and doing a miserable job. The man was not prepared for this.
William frowned at Katinki's remark, but let it pass. "You don't have to eat it," he said. "Now please tell us what this place is." He reached for a sandwich and a mug of coffee.
Katinki swallowed hard as her eyes kept moving among all these strange people. "This room," she started, "is the control room for the planet." She paused, observing the witch and the wizard to make sure her words were still understandable.
"What's a control room?" Hilda asked William, who explained the concept to her. "Ah. Right."
"We, the high council, are supposed to keep everything running," Katinki continued. "Using the... instruments in the room?" She did not feel safe yet. Hilda's nodding gave her a little more confidence although that did not show in the tight way she sat in the chair. "The problem is that we don't know how all the instruments work. And another problem is that some of them are broken."
"Then have them fixed," Hilda suggested, holding her mug near William who provided a refill. "And have some coffee. Once you're used to it, it's really good."
Katinki picked up a mug and sniffed its contents. "No... thank you, honoured Witch," she said as she put the mug back. Her face barely contained her disgust. "The problem is that nobody knows how to fix the instruments."
"Crappedy crap, you have problems here," Hilda voiced her feeling on what she had just heard. "And now you expect me to fix your instruments and teach you people how to use them?"
"Crappedy crap," Katinki repeated as if it were a mantra. "We only hope for the Prophecy to fullfill itself."
"I may get to hate prophecies even more than Latin," the witch muttered. She turned to Maurizio and Rebel. "Can you figure out what instruments they have? You're so fond of them, on the Mimosa and all."
William released their voices.
"We can have a look, Hilda," said Maurizio, looking very relieved, "but since we're on a different planet, we may not be able to understand everything."
"Nor recognise most of it," Rebel added, throwing the equivalent of a Nobbleback dragon on Hilda's hope.
"But you can at least try, right?" William hoped to salvage some prospects.
The two people from the black ship nodded. "Trying is not so hard."
Katinki looked at one of the high councillors that tapped her shoulder quite frantically. She did not say anything as she got up and followed the man. Hilda and her friends got up and went after the two people. The man walked Katinki over to a far wall where a metal table stood against the wall. On it were several keyboards, on the wall over it were five displays of which one actually showed something. The picture however reminded Hilda of snow on a bad day, which could not mean much good.
Katinki looked at William. "I think he is trying to tell me something. Could you please..."
William could, and then the man said: "We have another little problem." He pointed at a switch. "It's broken."
Katinki pushed the switch. It fell over and lay on the desk, quite dead. The wires that had kept it functional, or at least in place, had given up. "Yes," Katinki confirmed. "Broken."
Maurizio picked up the switch and examined it. "Broken," he agreed, and carefully put it back.
Katinki and the man, whom she introduced as Laurean, watched the witch with hopeful expressions. They were about to be very disappointed.
"You should not have pushed the thing," Hilda calmly said. "William, would you know how to fix that?"
William shrugged. "Does anyone know where these wires should go?"
"In there," Laurean helpfully pointed at the cavity that had held the deceased switch. The wizard groaned.
"Maybe if we took the cover off the console?" Rebel suggested.
"And risk damaging even more?" Maurizio pitched in.
Rebel frowned and seemed ready to kick the captain. She resorted to "hmmf."
"Now how does this room control the planet?" William asked. He felt he had to take charge. Hilda was lost in these technical matters, and Rebel and Maurizio did not seem to agree on anything at the moment.
Katinki and Laurean did their best to explain that everything on Lycadea had been automated and computerised, and the room they were in was the central place from where everything on the planet was managed. Unfortunately, the magicals learnt, everything had worked fine for so long that the real knowledge of all the systems had been lost, forgotten. In the beginning, the high council had known exactly what was where and how things worked. There had been people that knew how to repair things all over the planet.
"Then one day something stopped working," Laurean said as if he were a storyteller, "and nobody knew how to make it work again. It was not an important thing that stopped working, so the high council did not worry too much. But in the years after that more and more broke down, and now we are here." The last words came out with a despairing undertone. Gone was the storyteller.
"And more and more breaks down," Hilda added, understanding at least the gist of it. She picked up the switch. "Like this. And that's where I come in. As usual."
William grinned; that was his Hilda.
Davdruw, who had regained his courage now Hilda was talking to the high council, had joined the group. "Honoured Grimhilda," he said, "is there something I can do for you? We have quarters prepared for you and your - companions."
Hilda took the tall man in. "That sounds like a good plan, yes. I am ready to get away from all this madness for a while." She turned to Katinki and Laurean. "Please try not to break anything else." Then she asked William to give the others their voice back.
Katinki nodded. "Honoured witch, may I ask you something? What is this creature you wear on your shoulder?"
"That is Onyx Grimalkin. My cat. William has one too, see, that's Obsidian Shadow. You can touch Grim if you want. Grim, no funny things, do you hear?" Hilda warned her cat.
Two big yellow eyes beheld the hand that came closer. Grim allowed the hand to touch her fur and stroke her head.
Katinki beamed as she pulled back her hand. "Your Grim is so soft," she said.
"You never saw a cat before?" Hilda was very surprised.
Katinki shook her head. "I hope I may touch her again sometime."
"I'm sure," said Hilda.
Davdruw led the party out of the high council's chamber, back into the small corridor. He twiddled something with his sleeve and soon a set of floating chairs arrived. As they floated through corridors, they did not go back into the waiting room, Hilda asked him why he had been so silent before.
"I am the Lycadean spiritual leader, Honoured Witch. I deal not with the mechanics of that level."
The chairs came to a halt. Davdruw handed Hilda a few small silver bracelets. "With these you can open the doors to your rooms," he explained.
"Wonderful. Where are the doors?"
Davdruw showed the group a few small signs on the wall. "Hold the bracelet close to it and the door will open."
"Suck an elf," said Hilda as it worked. "So far you managed not to break that, eh?" She slipped one of the bracelets on her wrist.
Davdruw tried to keep his face straight at the snickering that was his share. "I will have someone show you how you can get nourishment and refreshments," he said. "Please try and rest." He nodded at Hilda and William, ignored Maurizio and Rebel and paced off at high speed. The chairs remained where they were.
Hilda handed the other bracelet to Rebel. "Here, I assume you want to share a room."
Rebel took it and put it on her arm. "No, we don't. But we don't seem to have much choice, do we?" She waved her arm over a sign and another door revealed itself.
"If you need something, just bang on the wall or something," William offered. "I am sure I can help you work out some sleeping arrangements."
"Thank you," said Rebel and walked into the room. Maurizio shrugged apologetically and followed her. The door closed and vanished behind him.
Hilda looked at William. "I'm glad you're here, William." She leaned into him, and together they entered their room.
16. Exploring
The room they entered was remarkable, to say the least. And large.
"William... is it me or do the walls fold back?"
The wizard also gazed upwards along one of the walls. "I'll be a frog if this room isn't like the bottom half or a pyramid," he said, "only upside down."
Two black cats dropped to the white floor and started their own discovery.
"Uhhuh," said Hilda. "And the ceiling. It's that moving mosaic thing. Do they expect us to sleep with all that light going on over our heads?"
"I'll make sure that won't happen, Hilda," William said.
They looked around the room. In a corner, far away from the door, hovered what had to be a bed. As the two approached it, Hilda muttered something under her voice. William learnt, after asking, that she found the room too white. It was indeed very white. The floor, the walls, the bed, all other pieces of furniture, everything except the ceiling, the cats and the two magical people was white.
The wizard used his wand and magic with care as Hilda took over the role of interior decorator. The wall near the bed became purple, to humour the witch. The other walls changed to a light sandy brown. Two tables and eight chairs were transformed into plain wooden versions, and three large fluffy white seats became one large dark blue sofa and a low table in front of it.
"Much better," the witch nodded as they sat on the sofa, their cats next to them.
"There is someone waiting outside to see you," a voice announced.
"Who is it?" Hilda asked, used as she was to a talking house.
"Davdruw sent me here, honoured witch," another voice said. "To show you your room."
"Oh, right," said Hilda. "House, let her in." She and William got up and saw a rather young woman come into their room who made a serious effort to stay in. As she saw what had happened to the room, she almost keeled over backwards. "Are you alright, kid?" Hilda asked, sounding worried.
"What happened to the room?" the girl asked, her eyes large, her hand seeking stability against a wall.
"We cheered it up a bit. Less white. Do you like it? Here, see the sofa!" Hilda patted the back of the piece of furniture. "Very comfortable. Come, try it." She rushed over to the girl, took her by the arm and guided her to sit on the sofa.
The young woman, in her silvery clothes, felt something furry under one of her hands. The furry, better known as Obsi, meowed in protest and jumped away. The girl thought that a very commendable idea and also jumped, after which she made for the door. Before she reached it, she forced herself to a halt. Grimalkin sat near the door, looking up at the woman, clearly wondering what all the fuss was about.
Hilda and William both were there to help the young woman back to the sofa. "Come, sit down. No cats here now, so you can sit down. Want a cup of tea? William, get her some tea." The witch sat down with the young woman, patting her hand, as the wizard made a mug of tea appear.
A yelp escaped the girl as she tried to push herself through the back of the sofa.
"Now what?" Hilda asked, not understanding all the fuss.
"I think they're not used to magic, Hilda," said William. And to the young woman he said: "You probably know about the prophecy, right?"
She nodded, her eyes large and on the steaming mug.
"Well, Hilda's the witch, and I'm the wizard. We do magic. Like that mug of tea. Now drink some, it'll make you feel better. And then tell us your name, will you?"
After a few sips of tea, which made the girl relax, she said: "I am Kerna. Davdruw asked me to... uhm..." Kerna's voice faltered as Obsi and Grim sauntered around the sofa and jumped onto the table, curiously observing her.
"Yes, we know," said Hilda, "just drink your tea and then tell us about the room."
Kerna showed stamina as Grimalkin jumped in Hilda's lap: she did not jump, although she did move away slightly. "What is that? Is that yours?"
Hilda and William explained about the cats again, wondering about the animals on this planet. "So. About the room..."
Kerna set aside her shock about the new look of the room and showed them a hidden door (which she had trouble finding because of the new decoration) behind which there was a bathroom. There also was a triangular panel they could open and request food from. They gave it a few tries, but whatever they ordered, the machinery behind the panel invariably came up with bowls that contained a very bad impersonation of oatmeal.
"I prefer the thing aboard the Mimosa," Hilda remarked, which made Kerna frown.
"It appears that this one broke down now," Kerna simply said. "Maybe you can use the one that is in the room of your friends." That made it clear that the Lycadeans had a very simple way to deal with the falling apart of their environment.
"Luckily we have something better," said William as he turned the bowls of oatmeal with a bad day into plates with fried chicken, chips and carrots.
Kerna displayed another frown, but this one was accompanied by large eyes and an expression of disbelief. The way she sniffed at the food made William change another bowl.
"Here we go," Hilda said, taking one of the plates to a table.
William winked at Kerna, handed her a plate and ushered her to the table as well. "Oh!" he then said. He went back to the food machine, made it hand out another bowl, and turned that into magical cat food. Obsi and Grim did not waste time with it.
As they all were eating, there was a pounding on the door. Hilda went to open it and brought Maurizio and Rebel to the table. The two had buried the hatchet for now and complained about the machine with the food.
"There was a nice woman who explained about it, and said we might use yours, which appears to be working," Maurizio said as he eyed the plates.
As Hilda invited them to sit down with them, William went to get more oatmeal and brought that to the table. He asked what they would like to eat and did his magic trick.
"So what was wrong with you two just now?" Hilda asked. "You were almost at each other's throat."
"I'm not talking about it," Rebel said between bites. Maurizio stated something similar, be it mixed with bites. His synchronising probably was somewhat off.
Hilda and William exchanged glances and shrugged. "Where is that nice woman you mentioned?" Hilda then asked.
"Uhm... I'm not sure," Maurizio confessed, this time between bites. "We were so hungry that we just walked out and knocked on your door when she mentioned using your food machine."
"Glad we did, too," Rebel added.
"Sakodi probably went back to her chores," Kerna said, sitting back. Her plate could not be emptier. "We were asked to help you as long as necessary. She assumed she was done when you left."
"Oh." Rebel raised an eyebrow. "I think we were quite rude, running off like that. We should apologise."
Kerna said: "She won't mind. You came here with Grimhilda the Witch. It is an honour to be asked."
Everyone had finished their food, when Hilda proposed they'd go out for a walk and have a look around in this strange place they had arrived at.
"Do you think that is wise, honoured witch?" Kerna asked.
"Sure," Hilda said. "You're coming with us, to guide the way. What can possibly go wrong?" William stared at his witch, who looked back. "What?" she asked.
William laughed. Hilda joined in. Then also did Rebel and Maurizio, leaving Kerna sitting silently, who was not aware of what Hilda and William had experienced before coming here. The young woman took the plates to the food machine, put them in it and closed the door to it.
They all left the table, and then the room, ready for adventure. Kerna asked the witch what she wanted to see. The answer "Everything" was not much help, though.
"In that case let's go outside," said Hilda. "This building makes me nervous."
Kerna shook her head, and she looked very determined as she did so. "That is not wise, honoured witch. Outside is dangerous."
"How can outside be dangerous while we are in a building that is falling apart as we speak? The high council told us so. And we saw things break ourselves."
"Outside things break too, honoured witch." Kerna had a problem trying to keep Hilda inside while also wanting to accommodate her wishes. "Big things."
"Ah, I see," said Rebel. "In here there's only small stuff and out there we can get a brick on our head."
"A brick... not exactly..." Kerna frowned.
"Oh, come on, don't be a spoilsport," said the witch as she threw an arm around the young woman. "See, you're safe now, so where's the door?"
"Hilda, perhaps there is something to what she says," Maurizio tried, but his words found no ears to fall on, not even deaf ones.
Kerna had lost and she knew it. She led the small group down a few tube-like corridors, to an airlock-like door. She typed some codes on a glass tablet. In response, the large metallic (triangular) hatch slowly moved to the side and offered them a view of the outside.
"Crappedy crap."
17. Lycadea
"Now really," Hilda said.
The view could only be called 'different'. Well, it could also be called 'strange', or even 'scary'. They looked at six or so more pyramids that seemed scattered about. Most of them were still in one piece, but at least two of them had somehow been damaged by something immense. They had collapsed, mostly imploded, but tricky gusts of wind pushed against the broken parts that were still upright.
As Hilda and William looked out over the devastation, a large plate of one of the damaged buildings came crashing down.
"That's more than a brick alright," Rebel said. She did not grin.
In front of them, only a step outside, the ground was littered with things. Parts of pyramids, pieces of indeterminable objects, and remains of what probably had been machines, everything was spread out between the pyramid houses. The ground itself looked like what had once been an enormous slab of concrete. Originally it had been white and yellow, the witch guessed from some visible spots. There were so many cracks and holes in it that it looked difficult and dangerous to venture out onto it.
"What happened here?" Maurizio asked Kerna. "Did you have a war?"
The woman shook her head. "No. The machines for maintaining the outside-", she pointed loosely at one of the mechanical carcasses, "-stopped working."
"And nobody knew how to fix them," Hilda understood. "Is it this bad everywhere?"
"I don't know, honoured witch. I do not leave the house very often, and when I do I use the tunnel tubes. But they are becoming increasingly dangerous too."
William put a hand on Hilda's shoulder. He was lost on what they had gotten into. And where. "Do you want to go outside and have a better look, witch?"
"I would like to, although that stuff doesn't look very inviting."
William understood. Walking there was lethal. He drew his wand and pointed it at one of the broken-down machines. He muttered spells and cast magic for a while, until the whatever it had been was completely disassembled. It was hard work, as he had no clue how the thing had been assembled. It was mainly trial mixed with a lot of error.
"What are you trying here, wizard?" Rebel asked. "Anything I can help you with?"
"Can you get all that stuff closer?" William asked. Rebel nodded, held out a hand and lifted the pile of metal components up as Hilda and Maurizio stared at what went on.
"Great," said the wizard as the envy of a junk yard landed before them. William transferred Obsi to Kerna's shoulder. Both looked surprised and uncomfortable.
The witch who was no witch held her breath as she saw William step out into the open, towards the mountain of metal. A twitch of emotional pain went through her as he asked Rebel to step out and help him. She should be the one out there. Instead she was standing there, watching William do all kinds of things as his robe was flapping about like a bird that had gone soft in the head.
William manufactured a most fantastic rig. It had six seats, courtesy of Rebel who copied them from a torn original. Hilda recalled how they had taken people to the air on a wooden frame tied to their two brooms. This looked a lot like it, be it that there were no brooms but metal bars. She wondered if the thing would be able to fly.
Kerna just stood and watched, silent, trying to ignore the black animal on her shoulder.
"Now you go back inside, Rebel, and let me see if this thing will actually do what I want it to do," said William.
"Back inside? No way. I'm here, I worked on it, so I am going with you!"
The wizard turned to Hilda and while pointing at Rebel, he said: "You never mentioned having a sister, sweetwitch." That made Rebel stare and Hilda grin.
William then charged the metal rig and when he then told it to rise, it did. Reluctantly, but it rose. He carefully sat himself on it. It held. "Okay, Rebel. Careful."
With a serious streak of envy Hilda watched Rebel sit on the rig and then the contraption started going up. As the winds caught it, the thing was shaking and trembling. In her mind Hilda knew exactly how she'd counter that, without thinking she'd- but she did not need to.
William took control and the metal flight-thing stabilised. He made it rise, turn, go forward and backward and then he was satisfied. With the device hovering in front of the opening in the building, Hilda and Maurizio took a seat. Kerna was less inclined to risk her life on that, but her loyalty to her task won in the end. As soon as she was on the rig, Obsi tiptoe'd over to William and took possession of his lap.
Hilda took pity on Kerna. "Hold my hand if you feel nervous."
The rig slowly rose up into the Lycadean air. As they gained altitude, Hilda saw more pyramids around. They were further apart than the cluster of pyramids they had departed from. Long lines lay on the ground, running from one house to the next.
"William, can you get closer to these things?" Hilda pointed.
As they closed in, Kerna explained that those were the tunnel tubes she had mentioned. Once near to one of the tunnels, it was obvious that Kerna had not exaggerated. There were many cracks in the semi-transparent tubes. They could make out people walking through them quickly.
"They have breathing masks with them, for when the air gets toxic," Kerna said.
"Oh..." William pulled a magical airbubble around the contraption, just to be safe. "And how do you know the air is toxic?"
"In that case the doors won't open," Kerna said.
"Right... until the sensor or whatever is responsible fails and opens the door," Maurizio pointed out. This brought about a painful silence. Hilda broke through that by asking Kerna where the nearest forest was. She had to see trees again, and a lake if possible, and green grass.
"There is none that I know, honoured witch. Maybe Davdruw knows, or someone in the high council."
"No Forest?" Hilda spoke capitals, her face displaying momentary horror. "How can you people live like that?"
Kerna said that they had always lived like that, inside the houses, at least as long as she could remember.
"William, can you take us back again? I have seen enough..." Hilda hated having to ask, but her wizard did not mind, she knew that.
Soon they had returned to the enormous pyramid building. Kerna showed the others how they could open the door. They entered, leaving the flying rig outside and close at hand for an eventual next trip. No sooner had they reached one of the main corridors, when a couple of desperate men charged towards them. "There she is!"
William stopped them with a whammy of wizardly magic, causing the two to bounce off a wall of energy and tumble to the ground. "Now what's the rush, gentlemen?" he asked.
Kerna looked frightened. "These are men of the council's guard!"
"Oh? You can actually tell all these folks with blue hair and silver clothes apart?" Hilda asked. They all looked quite the same to her. Except for the hair.
The two men picked themselves up from the ground. "Honoured witch," one of them said, "we have orders to take you to the spiritual leader, Davdruw."
Orders did not work with Hilda. The men were about to learn. "If he wants to see me, tell him to come here. Or better, to our room, because that's where we're going." She started walking, her companions following her. Then the witch stopped. "Kerna, perhaps you should go first. I'm lost."
"But-" one of the council's guards said. Nobody paid him any mind.
When the group reached their rooms, they found Davdruw pacing about on his long legs. "Oh! Honoured witch! You have been found!"
Hilda looked up at the man. "Was I lost then?" She gladly ignored the fact that she had stated just that not long ago.
"We could not find you," Davdruw corrected himself. An undefinable emotion was on his face for a moment. It was clear he did not like to be questioned. "Where have you been? I have dispatched the high council's guards to look for you."
"Well, they found us, when we came back in," Rebel said from the couch she had claimed as her own.
"BACK IN?" Davdruw's eyebrows tried to crawl to the top of his head. After staring at Rebel for a long second, he focussed on Kerna. "Where have you taken them?"
"Hold it, Davdruw," Hilda interfered. "We wanted to go out. Kerna has nothing to do with that, it was my idea."
"She should have stopped you!" The man became visibly and audibly agitated.
"Stop her? Good luck," William said as he changed a few bowls of oatmeal into mugs with coffee and tea. Hilda nabbed a coffee one after hugging him for it. Kerna was curious about the tea, Rebel and Maurizio also picked something up. Davdruw seemed shocked by the lack of shock the others showed over him being shocked.
"Honoured witch," the tall man said, "please do not go outside again. It is too dangerous."
Hilda slammed her mug on the table. The coffee did a double somersault and landed in an artistic puddle on the surface. "You are really doing your best to get on my shit list, Davdruw." Hilda was proud of that word she had picked up from William. "You first use that prophecy excuse to bring me here. Then you expect me to save your world, and when I go out to take a look at the damage you try to confine me to this large and unfriendly place? If you are so smart that you think you can order me around and tell me how to do this, why don't you go and save your world yourself?"
A slow clapping from Maurizio. "Brava, brava."
Davdruw looked at Kerna. She had positioned herself behind William and looked determined to stay there. Davdruw's influence was fading, and he knew it. "Very well. Very well. But do inform me, honoured witch, when you want to go out again. I can arrange for a group of guards then."
"Can they fly?" the witch asked.
"Fly?" Davdruw frowned. "No."
"Splendid."
18. Uh-oh
The five had enjoyed a nice dinner together. The five? Yes. Hilda, William, Maurizio and Rebel. And Kerna. The young woman had teamed up with the witch and her companions.
Davdruw had swallowed hard to accept that, but with everyone in favour there was nothing he could do.
During the evening, Hilda and William had not noticed anything remaining of the earlier hostilities between the captain of the Mimosa and the woman from the future.
As they went to sleep, Hilda asked William for some modifications to the bed. It ended up being a copy of their bed at home.
"Do you think we will wake up soon and just be home again?" Hilda asked William.
"Would be nice, sweetwitch, but somehow I have the feeling that is not going to happen."
"Too bad," she mumbled.
Something crashed on the floor, a cat complained loudly.
"That was yours," said Hilda.
"I hope they'll let us sleep," William simply said.
-=-=-
The next morning Kerna showed up again, accompanied by Rebel and Maurizio. Rebel had dressed in a silver ensemble that was so common on this planet. Her brown hair was still brown. Maurizio had his trusty red coat on. He was eyepatchless though.
"Good morning, team," Hilda welcomed them. "William's just making breakfast, go tell him there are more customers."
Rebel and Maurizio grinned, while Kerna walked over to William. The wizard grinned; he had already heard and seen them come in. The young woman stood and watched how he baked eggs. The misbehaving food generator had partly been transformed into a normal kitchen, which was quite abnormal for Lycadean standards. He sent her to the table with a tray laden with mugs and the message that breakfast would be done soon.
Once he was done with breakfast, the others were done with it quickly also. Kerna clearly had hoped to be invited: she attacked her plate with a vigour that was amusing.
The room then announced that Davdruw was asking permission to enter, which was granted.
"Oh," was his first reaction as he saw Kerna at the table with the others. He did not have to elaborate on that word, his face said it all, and it did not say happy things.
"Do sit down, Davdruw," said the witch, "if you can find a chair big enough for you."
William assisted in making a larger chair.
"So why are you here so early?" Hilda continued her questioning. Before the tall man could answer, she added: "Why are you the one who is doing all this arranging and fussing, anyway? Aren't you supposed to be the spiritual leader? That would mean other work, right?"
Davdruw, his eyes examining the contents of the table and plates, sighed. "Alas, honoured witch, there is not much spirituality on Lycadea lately. We are more concerned with surviving, and as I am the one who is most in touch with the prophecy, I am automatically the person who has to see to you. And your safety," he added with emphasis. Clearly their little trip outside was still a bother to him.
"I see," Hilda nodded.
"And for the day, we hope you can see the high council again. They were very pleased to meet you, and they have many things they want to discuss with you."
"Oh," Hilda responded. She was not too pleased with that prospect.
"And what would that bring?" Rebel voiced Hilda's thoughts. "We'll be in that room full of breaking things for what?"
Davdruw looked hurt. "Perhaps you should stay away from the high council and remain in your room then," he tried.
"No chance," Maurizio said, "we go where Hilda goes. I assume."
Hilda nodded. She looked at her wizard. "Do you think that would help, being there?"
"We can at least try," William shrugged, filling up the mugs again with a wave of his hand. He made a cup of tea materialise in front of Davdruw as well.
After breakfast, Davdruw took the group to the Palliza again. He first had objected to Kerna being there, but Hilda insisted that the woman had to come. "To take care of the cats."
Gesmarion and Katinki looked up and came to greet the group. "Welcome back, honoured witch!"
William frowned, as they only seemed to notice Hilda, but he refrained from mentioning something. Being invisible had its advantages, he knew.
The day passed with a kind of inventory of all machinery and systems, under Rebel's supervision. She was the one who understood most of all that stuff. William looked at all the people who made up the high council. Many of them were sleeping on improvised beds; he changed those into proper beds, just to have something to do. Maurizio and Kerna took care of the two cats, as long as these animals wanted to. This meant that the two people stood empty-handed most of the time.
"Oh, this is interesting," said Rebel at one moment.
"What is?" Hilda asked. She at least tried to understand.
"This console here," Rebel pointed, "looks like it is controlling the weather over this area."
"Controlling the weather..." Hilda sounded disbelieving and disgusted. "You do not want to control the weather."
"They wanted to," Rebel said. "And their technology did pull it off for a while, but something is going wrong with that now."
Rmani, a woman who stood near the apparatus, explained that Rebel was correct, and also that they had been trying to make the system work again. "It does not work well, though."
"It works worse, I dare to bet," Rebel said. "The more you adjust on these things, the more unstable the output parameters become, so the next machine in the chain will get unbalanced data and create a faulty projection of the meteorological adjustments, so the whole thing will end up in an atmospheric deviation of considerable proportion."
"What?"
"The weather is going to be crap," William translated for Hilda.
"Right. And what if you just stop that thing from doing whatever devious deviating it now does?"
Rmani stared at Hilda. "But, honoured witch, then the weather will become... unpredictable!"
"And it is predictable now, is it?"
Rmani fell silent. Gesmarion then confessed: "We do not know how to shut it down."
"Ah. That is a different dragon," Hilda said. "Maybe we can find something out. Rebel here is so good with that."
Maurizio, carrying Grimalkin, coughed for attention. "Maybe that is not a very good idea, Hilda."
"And you have a better one?"
"Maybe we can fine-tune the machine," the captain tried.
"So you are in favour of messing with the weather. Without me, sir," Hilda told him. "Let's see if we can calm it down first." That was as far as she wanted to go. There was no way she was going to touch any of these things.
The small group watched as Rebel go to work. Well, attempted to, as she had to depend on the lack of knowledge of the high council. Most of her questions were replied to with a good old shrug.
Hilda looked at William, who looked back at her. They shared the same worry that this might end up in some serious disaster concerning the weather.
One of the high council members, a man by the name of Tarmis, happily started flicking a switch.
"What are you doing?" William asked, hoping that this man had some form of a clue.
"I don't know," Tarmis said, "I sometimes do that to see if something happens."
"And always with that switch?"
"No. I take a different one every time and they all seem to be broken. I never hear of something that changed." Tarmis reached for the switch again. Hilda punched his arm away.
"Ouch, honoured witch, why did you do that?" He really did not seem to understand.
"Suppose you are messing up some weather on the other side of the planet? Suppose you trigger some heavy rain that causes people to drown?"
"Uhm... oh..." Tarmis put his hands behind his back.
"Can that happen?" Kerna with the cats asked.
"Who knows," William replied. "If we're lucky nothing happened. Does anyone even know if there are people on the other side? And how many? And if they are in the same mess as you are?"
Davdruw, unfortunately, could assure them that the state of misery was the same everywhere. Some people had contact with other groups, as far as the communication systems allowed.
Rebel in that time had discovered a pattern in a few things on the consoles, but she had no idea what they meant.
"Better leave it all be then," the witch suggested.
Davdruw looked at his silvery sleeve. Then he asked to be excused. Without waiting for a response, he paced off on his long legs.
"Wonder what he's upto," Hilda commented at the disappearing back.
"Honoured witch! I have something for you!" One of the council members came to her, waving his arms excitedly. "Here you are!" He handed her a broken switch.
"Oh. Wonderful." Hilda frowned at the thing in her hand. "And your precise meaning of this gift is?"
"I don't really know," the man said, "you seemed interested in the other one too."
Rebel tapped a panel. "Looks like this is broken too." At that moment, the panel came to life and showed a very complex scribble. Several council members gasped.
"What?" enquired the witch.
The answer came in the form of a trembling floor.
"Uh-oh," someone said. Someone from the high council. This did not bode well.
"What?" Hilda asked again, getting slightly impatient with the council and worried about the unrelenting tremble.
"I'm afraid something is going wrong."
Hilda and her friends had figured that out already.
"Very wrong."
That just made it worse.
19. Rescue mission
The floor trembled some more, this time more serious, as if the previous tremor had been a practice run. The equipment against the walls responded by vibrating, and here and there parts fell off, as if they agreed with the floor's trembles. William and Rebel hoped they were not crucial parts.
"This is an earthquake, right?" Hilda tried. It was almost a relief as some of the Lycadeans nodded and looked around for more possible parts coming down. Nothing happened anymore though. The floor settled down, as did the parts.
"I want out of here," Rebel said. "If tapping a console already calls up an earthquake, I'm not touching anything anymore." She had barely said it when another trembling made itself known.
Hilda looked at William. "This was something different..." Her words were confirmed by a display coming to life by itself and a set of blue lights blinking. "Does that mean alarm?" she asked Katinki, who nodded.
"Hmm. What happened to red for danger," the witch muttered. The display in the meantime occupied itself by showing a pyramid that was slowly collapsing.
"Madonna," Maurizio said. "Are there people in there?"
Davdruw confirmed that notion.
"We have to go and get them out!" Rebel voiced the feeling of the entire group. They all started running towards the door, Kerna included, when suddenly a small beam of light enveloped Hilda and froze her in place.
"Crappedy crap!" she shouted. She could only moved around inside the circle of light. "What is this? Can someone let me out?"
Davdruw, his hand still on his sleeve, said: "My sincerest apologies, honoured witch Grimhilda, but I cannot let you go out where the danger is. You are too precious. You are here to make right what is wrong!"
William drew his wand and pointed it at the spiritual leader. "It is against my feelings to hurt a spiritual leader," he said, "but if you don't release her, I will. And then I am going to find the biggest elf in existence and let that suck on you."
"Suck an elf," Hilda said, "that's what I call style."
There was another rumble through the floor, the display showed a pretty picture of a piece of wall falling down.
"And maybe we should hurry up in style as well," the witch added.
Davdruw's hand moved to his sleeve, but William's wand was faster. The sleeve disappeared and the tall man tapped on his bare, pale arm. "Sorry to burst your, ehm, sleeve," said the wizard as he turned to Hilda. It actually took him a few tries before he had removed the light circle that kept his witch imprisoned.
"But you-" said Davdruw. At that point William slammed the man with some innocent magic. There was a light circle around him. And it was sound proof.
Kerna, Rebel and Maurizio were waiting by the door. Hilda and William joined them and they left the council hall, leaving Davdruw and the high council behind.
In the corridors there was a lot of running around by people who all attempted to do some rescue-y action. None of them however seemed to have a decent clue of what to do, though.
"Holy Bejeebus," William said, "this is going to be tough."
Maurizio said: "I am sure that Rebel can make them cooperate." He looked at the woman, who grinned. Apparently he knew something about the tricks she had up her sleeve, where Davdruw was without for now. Tricks, as well as a sleeve.
Maurizio reached inside a pocket of his long, red coat and brought out a small piece of yellow metal. He held it in front of his mouth and said: "Everybody calm down!" His words echoed through all the corridors, startling people and making them stop their panicked running around.
Hilda looked at the man who suddenly had assumed his role of captain.
"We need medical supplies, if you have those around here. We also need three people to guide us to where we can get to the other building. Everyone capable of doing something useful like carrying wounded or tending to them, follow us. The rest go to your quarters or carry on with your regular activities." Maurizio put the metal in his pocket again.
"Crappedy crap, that is a handy little thing," Hilda commented.
The captain nodded, put his eye patch over an eye and looked around. Several people had stepped up and said they would be able to help. Maurizio appointed three of them to lead the way. "Rebel, stay close to them and keep them near. Not sure if they are as brave when things get a bit more difficult."
Rebel nodded and with the other three formed the spearhead to the corridor from where they could reach the pyramid in distress. William's magic and Rebel's unnatural powers were needed to forcibly open the door. Inside the corridor they found several people, many of them hurt. The Lycadeans that had joined them started carrying the wounded away.
"I hope their sickbay is still operational," muttered Rebel, "these folks are not very competent without their machinery."
Hilda agreed. "I wonder why they allowed their machine things to take over their entire life. It looks as if they exist to support the machine things. Does anyone know how many people were in this thing? And how many are already brought out?"
Her question remained frightfully unanswered.
"This is going well," the witch muttered. "Rebel, William, can you find people in here?" She bit away another pinch of pain over the loss of her magic. Now would be a great time for that to come back, but clearly magic was not aware of that. Hilda felt helpless, despite pretending to be in control of the search and rescue operation.
William squeezed her hand for a moment, as if he knew what she was thinking at that moment. "I'll throw in some magic," he said calmly.
Rebel just nodded as she spread her hands, fingers pointing up and palms away from her. "At least a few dozen behind that wall," she pointed. "Everyone out of the way, the wizard's going to make a nice hole in there."
William raised an eyebrow for a moment, it was as if she had read his thoughts. Rebel, he decided, was a scary person when she was not busy being weird or strange. Wand in hand, he started removing parts of the wall, making the blocks fall towards them. He made them float through the corridor and dumped them at the end where Lycadeans tried to remove them. They failed, as the blocks were quite large. And heavy.
It did not take very long for the hole to be large enough to step through. Rebel was right: they found over thirty people in the adjacent room. Most of them were well, some had bruises from falling bits of ceiling, A serious bit of falling ceiling had effectively sealed off the way out.
"We're making progress this way," Hilda commented. "Next room." Her last words were out-volumed by a majestic bit of noise coming from further into the pyramid."Crappedy crap," she said after the coughing, courtesy of a large dust cloud, was done. "That was not what I asked for!"
"Honoured Grimhilda!" a well-known voice called.
"How did he get out?" William wondered as Davdruw appeared.
"The palliza started falling apart," the tall man quickly said, "and somehow that made your prison circle disappear."
"And the council?" Maurizio asked, who just came back from carrying off a person.
"They are safe," Davdruw said.
"Good. Now get out of the way," Rebel said, "I have people to find." Again she spread her hands in front of her. Her "uh-oh" did not mean much good.
Everyone looked at where Rebel was looking and everyone saw a large crack appear in the next wall. It was as if two invisible hands started ripping the room apart, starting in the centre of the wall and tearing away at the floor and the ceiling at the same time.
William flashed his wand. The two pieces of floor started to move together again, be it under severe protest. "We have to hurry," he said, "I am not sure how long I can keep this together with the building determined to collapse on us."
As the wizard expanded his magic to keep all parts of the pyramid in place as much as possible, the others moved through it and located sixty-two more people, some of them hurt quite badly.
"Is there nothing you can do to help William?" Hilda almost begged of Rebel.
"No, I am sorry. I can do a lot of stuff, but he outdoes me in this area," Rebel said as the two of them dragged an unconscious woman from the furthest room. Everywhere around them pieces of wall and ceiling were hovering and bobbing around.
When they reached the wizard, Hilda said: "You can start letting the thing fall apart from here on, wizard. We're the last ones."
"Has anyone seen Kerna?" William asked.
"No... now you mention it... Where is she? Kerna!!" Hilda yelled out the name.
Maurizio yelled back from the corridor behind them. "Kerna is here, Hilda, prego. Your cat animals kept her there for some reason."
"Good," William said. In a more or less controlled way, the pyramid now started collapsing. Rebel, using her uncanny and still unclear powers, managed to keep the dust to acceptable levels as the wizard stacked up the immense pieces of wall and ceiling. When finally everything was done, he looked tired. "I had no idea how much work this is. Building such a thing is much easier."
"You should ask the Egyptians about that," Maurizio grinned. Rebel chuckled and Hilda grumbled as she missed the joke.
Kerna had indeed been held back by Grim and Obsi. Hilda was surprised about that, but she was certain that the two had their reasons for that.
20. Going out again
Hilda and William had retreated to their room after making sure the wounded people were taken care of. Rebel had promised she would stay in the sick bay as long as needed. The magical couple had thanked Kerna for her help in keeping the cats safe.
Kerna had told them how they could contact her in case they wanted to see her and then the young woman had left them, the two cats watching closely as she walked away.
"It is amazing how Obsi and Grim have taken to Kerna, isn't it?" William said as he made some tea and cookies.
Hilda, her legs stretched out on the sofa, nodded. "Yes. I'm surprised about that too. They haven't done that before. Not even with Babs."
William made a sound that said more than he could have said.
"True, she did call our cats 'pooches'," Hilda grinned. "Not a cat person, that's for certain."
William put the tea and the plate with cookies on the table and sat down on the sofa, lifting Hilda's legs so they rested on his knees. After this manoeuvre they both could not reach the tea nor the cookies.
A magical movement later, they sipped and nibbled.
"I wonder what we are supposed to do next," Hilda said, staring at a raisin that looked lost inside the cookie she ate. "These people are so weird, with their prophecy and their machines. And they are so inadequate at living, really. I'm surprised that they kept going for so long."
"Their ancestors probably made good machines," William said.
They chatted the evening away, and the next morning their three companions showed up for breakfast again.
"The high council has asked if you can assist in assessing the damage, honoured witch." Kerna, with Obsi in her lap, spoke between bites.
"And why would we do that?" Hilda wanted to know. "Are there not enough of your folks around to do that?"
Kerna looked at the witch. "I think the high council does not trust most of.... our folks."
"Unfortunately I have to agree," William said.
"Right. I think that this damage thing is somewhat of a good idea," Hilda said, "but perhaps we should also have a look at the other pyramids. Maybe there are a few things we can improve, so they don't fall apart like the one yesterday."
"That was because of the earthquake, Hilda," Maurizio reminded her.
"And they somehow manage to make earthquakes, so her suggestion is definitely a good one," William countered.
"And one more thing," said the witch. "I think it is time that Kerna starts calling us Hilda and William. The honoured bit is nice, but somewhat overdone for someone who's around us so much. Can you do that for us, dear?"
Kerna forgot to chew as she heard that. "I think I can, honoured- ehm - Hilda."
"Good. Glad we have that out of the way. Now let's finish up and get to that damage thing. Might as well do something sensible around here."
During that day and the next one, the group made rounds through all the nearby pyramids. Sometimes Davdruw would be there with them for a while, but most of the time Hilda and William managed to scare the man away.
"For some reason he gets on my nerves," the witch said after they had secured another one of the large chambers in a pyramid. "Do you think this will be safe now?" She peered up at the ceiling. They had taken the original one down, which had not taken much. In fact, opening the door to come in had been quite enough: a fast action by Rebel had prevented the old ceiling from falling down on them.
William, on an improvised broom, made a last round along the ceiling. "I think this will be fine for a while, Hilda," he said. Obsi, on William's shoulder, meowed in agreement as they returned to the floor.
"And only seven more to do," sighed the captain in the red coat, flipping his eye patch over an eye for a change. "This is getting a bit boring, Hilda, we already went through four of those things and they are all dangerous."
"This," Hilda said, pointing around the chamber, "is not dangerous. Hunting down a witch like Zelda, who chases a couple of Nobbleback dragons after your broom and throws slabs of concrete at you, now that's dangerous. This is just an inconvenience." She wondered how and when they would be going back home as she spoke. And how and when she would get her magic back.
"Don't forget the labyrinth," William said as he touched down. "That was interesting as well."
Hilda nodded. "Gurthreyn." The name still gave her goose-bumps, even though all had been well in the end there. She shook them off. "Are we done here? I suggest we call it a day here, and go outside for some fresh air."
Kerna, cats in her arms and on her shoulders, grinned. "That would be nice, yes." She had gotten used to going outside with the magicals.
Rebel and Maurizio looked at each other, hands reaching and finding. "We'll stay here, if you don't mind," said the captain.
Hilda looked at the hands. "Sure, if you feel like that. But, uhm, weren't you having this great big fight a while ago?" she asked, being her diplomatic self.
"Fight?" Two pairs of surprised eyes looked at her.
Hilda looked back. "Fight," she confirmed, then looking at William for support. He had been there.
The wizard put an arm around witchy shoulders and said: "I am sure they will work out whatever might be happening. Won't you?"
Rebel clenched Maurizio's hand tightly. It was visible on the man's face. "We have no problems. Do we?"
"No, no, we have none of that," he responded, trying to outsqueeze Rebel, with no success.
"Good." She turned and walked off, the man in red following as he wanted to stay close to his hand.
"Weird bunch," Hilda said, shaking her head.
Together with Kerna they left the chamber, telling the people waiting in the corridors that it was safe to use again.
-=-=-
The group of guards that Davdruw had assigned to handle the honoured witch's safety had been shaken off again. As the door closed, William made the large contraption he had built together with Rebel rise up in the air. Obsi and Grim sat in the front, the wind ruffling their fur.
"Where do we go this time?" William the driver asked.
Hilda looked round for a moment and pointed. "That way. We've not been there yet."
'That way' was in the direction of a distant group of buildings, also pyramids.
Kerna, who had gotten rid of all her fears regarding 'outside', told them that these buildings were no longer used, as they were too far away from the main settlement. "People used to live there. People with much knowledge."
"And where are they now? Did they move back to where you all live?"
"No. They left. Long ago. Nobody knows where they went, but Davdruw is convinced they died not long after they left their homes. The surface is not safe."
"Not with you lot messing with things so much," Hilda could only agree. "Not meant personally," she added as Kerna's face showed guilt.
Soon they reached the buildings. Most of the structures had decided that becoming a ruin was a good idea. A few slow thinkers were obviously still pondering this fate.
William made the contraption land, the cats jumped to the ground lightly and wandered off on their own. Kerna watched the two go, she still was not used to these animals having a very clear mind of their own.
Hilda grinned as she watched the young woman. "You should have a cat of your own," she commented, glad with the happy expression Kerna's face suddenly retrieved from somewhere. "So... let's have a look around here."
"I suggest we look with care," said William, "some of these things probably will reduce themselves to crumbles if we look at them too long."
Hilda laughed. It was the proper witch's laugh, one that William had learnt to love and that made Kerna clasp her hands over her ears. It also invoked a strange sound from the nearest building.
"Seems we also should not laugh at them," William commented as the sound had died away. He studied the building. "Maybe we should put this one out of its misery..." He took his wand, pulled the two cats from wherever they were back to their humans, and created a bubble of safety around the group. Then he made the building collapse. All it needed was a nudge.
"Good thinking, William," said the witch, patting him on the arm as the dust had gone, as well as the bubble. Grim and Obsi ran to the new piles of rubble to look for interesting things as the three people slowly sauntered along the remaining three buildings. These were by far not as large as the ones the magicals were living in now.
Kerna explained that these pyramids were very old, from the time that many people preferred to live nearly alone, with five or six persons at the most."
"Crappedy crap, I would not be able to live in one house with six people," Hilda said. "Such a crowd."
Kerna looked at her in wonder, but held back any comments she might have.
"How do we open this one here?" Hilda then pointed at one of the pyramids that was still standing.
Kerna looked at the building as she walked around it, but had to give up. "This one has a strange old entrance I think, I can't find a normal way in."
The witch and the wizard walked around the building then. "That looks a bit like..."
William pulled at the knob that they thought to be a doorhandle. It was. Time-worn and weather-beaten, the door it was attached to fell out as the wizard pulled. "Holy Bejeebus," he exclaimed, "that was not part of the plan."
"Are you okay?" Hilda asked. There was genuine worry in her voice. The unexpected assault by the door had made her jump.
"I'm fine, thank you."
The three people looked into the dark gaping hole where the door had been.
"Smells funny in there," Hilda remarked.