32. On the rocks

The view that jumped them warranted that remark. They stood at the start of a wide open area, filled with pebbles in many colours, and red, yellow, blue and white prevailed. Randomly across the pebble plain, small green plants with tiny yellow flowers has sprouted.

About two hundred feet from where the group stood, a calm river floated along. Beyond the river, mountains rose up. They were not impressively high, but they were covered with shrubs and something that looked like insanely large patches of red and brown moss. Low trees grew at the foot of the mountains.

The travellers stared at the scene for a while, as the serene beauty overwhelmed them all.

"This is just plain pretty," Rebel said. She picked up a red pebble and examined it. "Tell you what, folks. This pebble… isn't a pebble." The woman, her leather outfit quite smudged by now, closed her hand around the red rock for a moment. A dim light shone through her fingers for a moment.

"Look." Rebel held out her hand, and on her palm lay a shiny rough ruby. "The blue ones are probably sapphires, the yellow ones topaz and the white ones-"

"Diamonds?" Maurizio asked.

"No. They're real pebbles."

Kyru looked at Sodor and Kerna. Then she asked: "What is so special about these stones?"

Four pairs of eyes looked at her. Rebel explained that these 'stones' were considered very valuable in the world they came from.

"Oh." Kyru did not seem very impressed. "These things are everywhere."

Sodor suggested they'd move on. He led them to a spot in the river where a wide lane of large rocks was made. The rocks had been flattened, to make crossing the river easy. Water ran through narrow slits that were left between the rocky slabs.

Hilda marvelled at the sound of the water that ran underneath the stones. "William, look how clear the water is. Just like home. And listen. I never heard water sound like this!"

As they reached the other side of the river, Kyru pointed at a pair of trees a bit to their left. "That is where we are going. There is a footpath that leads to the entrance of the caves."

"More walking," Hilda sighed. "Good thing there is enough wood around here to make a broom."

William took over Grimalkin from the witch, and they set off again.

The footpath Kyru had mentioned did hardly deserve its name. Hilda accused the woman and Sodor of being hunters who could follow the trail of a flying wasp that had flown close to the ground. "This is not a place where people can walk!"

Miraculously though, the people walked there, and after a rather steep climb, Sodor pushed aside a curtain of hanging plants, which revealed the entrance to a cave.

"Welcome home," Hilda grumbled as she stepped into the dark hole. Then: "Suck an elf!"

William rushed inside, to find out what the witch was so wild about. As he entered the cave, he saw and was amazed as well. "Holy Bejeebus…"

As Rebel and Maurizio entered the cave as well, followed by Kerna, Sodor and Kyru, they too gasped.

Instead of cavey darkness, lights were everywhere. The walls, the ceilings, even the floor twinkled with yellow light, making the cave as bright as one would like.

"How is that possible?" William wondered out loud.

Sodor and Kyru explained that there were reflecting stones in the rock that guided the outside light into the caves. "The same yellow stones you saw outside and find so precious."

"I'll be damned," William said, "the mountain's littered with gems."

Kerna reached out and held on to Hilda.

"What's wrong, kid?" the witch asked. Kerna was not the touchy kind, so there had to be something.

"I'm not feeling so well suddenly," the kid replied.

"Come, I'll take you outside."

As the two left the cave, William and Rebel looked at each other and wondered.

"I'll go with them," Kyru said and followed the other two women.

"So this is the cave," Sodor then said. "It is the best we can do for you."

"We'll turn it into something homely," Rebel said. "Thanks for the trouble of taking us here. William, you think we can whip up some flying thing again?"

"Sure," said the wizard.

"With decent seats?" Maurizio asked promptly. They all laughed, except Sodor who did not get the joke.

"If you insist," William grinned. "We'll be fine here, once we got some furniture inside."

"We are sorry we can't provide that," Sodor said.

"Don't worry about that, Sodor. As long as there's wood and such, we'll get things done."

Sodor nodded. He took the others outside and pointed into the direction of their village. "If you need one of us, we will usually be there. Or someone will know where we are."

"As long as we don't have to talk to- Oh..." William frowned. "I think we left your leader hanging in the air." He snipped his fingers. "Should be fixed now."

They located Hilda, Kerna and Kyru sitting under a tree. Kerna looked well again, she was laughing at something Hilda said.

Kyru and Sodor said their goodbyes and promised to come back the next day. As the two left, Rebel and William got to work and arranged for chairs, a table and some beds. As the wizard magicked up the last bits of what they might need, Rebel went into the forest to find some game for dinner. Most of them were definitely ready for a good meal.

Maurizio sat with Kerna as William took Hilda to the side. "Sweetwitch, there's something I have to tell you. I don't know if you noticed it too."

"What's that, wizard?"

"When we crossed the river. The water in the river jumped higher than some of the rocks that made the bridge. But it never fell on the stone slabs."

"Crappedy crap..." Hilda stared at him. "You are certain, aren't you? I'd have to see that."

"We can arrange that..."

William had, as he made the furniture, also made a simple broom. He summoned it and held it up. "Maurizio, Kerna, we're going to scoot down to the river. We'll be back before dinner."

"Good," Maurizio waved.

"Can you bring water?" Kerna asked, which was a good question.

William, with Hilda in front of him, made the broom fly off.

Obsi and Grim sat with the two that were left behind and felt left behind.

Hilda enjoyed the broom flight. It was as close to the real thing as she could come, but it was still a lot better than the weird contraption they had left the pyramid city with.

After touching down near the river, they walked towards the stone bridge and stared at the water.

"Dragon balls, that's strange," Hilda agreed. "As if the water bounces away from the stone." She held out her hand and caught some of the water. "Looks normal. Feels normal."

It was just ordinary water.

"I wonder what's up with this place," William said. "Perhaps it is something in the stones."

The wizard started unpacking lots of small things from his pockets and enlarged them, until he found a box with pots in them. "How did these... I'd better not ask."

"Indeed. Just fill them with water," said Hilda as she walked up and down the bridge to see if she could find what made the water avoid touching the stones.

After filling the pots, William shrunk the boxes again, put them in his pockets and asked Hilda if she was done running. "Water's done, so we can go back and see if there's any food around."

"Good thought, I'm feeling a bit dizzy myself."

That worried William. Hilda being dizzy was an alien concept. But perhaps it had to do with the strain of the day, and her not being herself without her magic.

Together they got on the broom. William made the pots with water float behind it, and carefully then manoeuvred the broom and its watery train back up the mountain.

"Good that you're back. Rebel has not returned yet," Maurizio informed them, his face showing delight at the sight of all the water.

"Maybe I should go look for her," Hilda suggested.

"Look for who?" Rebel's voice came around a tree just ahead of her.

"For you," Hilda said.

"Why? Am I lost?" Rebel grinned as she held up a few dead animals. "These were, so I decided to take them home. I hope they're edible."

Kerna confirmed that Rebel's catch should be safe to eat.

"Fabulous. I'll go and undress them. If one of you can arrange for some place to grill them, that would be good." Rebel pulled a big knife from somewhere in her leather, skin-tight clothes and walked off, whistling something mysterious.

"I'll never understand how she puts all those things into pockets you can't see," Maurizio said as he shook his head, watching Rebel go.

"Nor do I. And it looks like we'll be doing most of the cooking, Maurizio," William said. "The ladies are not feeling too well. Hunger, probably."

Hilda had sat down with Kerna. They both had a cat in their lap and were silent. Kerna was silent very often, but such behaviour from Hilda... William was not sure what to think of that.

Using some magic, William located a few roots and something that could be called green carrots. Those things would have to do as vegetables for their meal. After a little while, the two undefined creatures were roasting over a fire, while the vegetables were boiling in what was going to be a kind of soup. Its smell was debatable, but nobody complained once the food went round.

After what probably was supper, Hilda said she wanted to go for a little walk. Kerna asked if she was allowed to accompany her.

"Of course, silly thing. You've been through so much with us, you can come along," said the witch.

"And how about us?" Maurizio asked.

"You can do the dishes," Hilda grinned over her shoulder as she picked up Grimalkin. Kerna, almost out of habit, took Obsidian, who let her as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Don't get lost, Hilda," William warned her.

"You can find me!" her voice rang out from the tree-like plants among which she had disappeared with Kerna.

That, the wizard knew, was true. Not as easy as through the link they used to share, but he could find her.

"Dishes," the captain snorted. "Now really."

"Yes, really," Rebel comforted him. "Someone has to do it."

"While we work out something like the rig, to get to the village comfortably," William added.

"Oh. Comfortably. I like how that sounds." Maurizio's face lit up. "I'll do the dishes then, be it uncomfortably."

"Your choice," Rebel grinned. "Come, wizardly person. I have some ideas on how to build our new rig."

"Very good. Let's see what the feminine touch has to offer," William said as he got to his feet.

Rebel told him what ideas she had, using a few smaller trees, or some thicker branches. "We can make some kind of raft from those, I think, tie the beams together with those long weed-things over there."

The two lost themselves in the design of the new rig, and as darkness fell they already had the basic shape made. It looked like quite a good thing. They even had decided on something that could make for reasonably comfortable seats, something that Maurizio was very pleased about.

"I am sure that Hilda and Kerna will appreciate that as well," William said. "Speaking of witch... Have they come back yet? I've not seen them in a while."

Rebel and Maurizio shook their heads. Their attention too had been too much taken up by the rig-making.

Each of the three picked up a torch William had lit. Rebel and Maurizio would go left around the mountain, William right, the way Hilda and Kerna had left.

"Back here in about an hour," William suggested. "That should be enough." He then set off into the thicket, taking care not to set fire to it with the torch.

William walked in what he hoped would be a sensible pattern that would give him the best chance to find his witch. However long though that he walked, there was no trace of her, of Kerna nor of the two cats.

William called out Hilda's name, but nobody responded. The only reaction he got, and he wasn't even sure if that was because of his shouting, was the uneasy hoot of some night bird of Lycadea he could not see. It sounded eerie enough for him to increase the light coming from his torch. But also that did not show him any sign of Hilda or Kerna.

After a while he had the impression that he was walking in circles. The unfamiliar territory, the strange sounds and the anxiety that his witch had disappeared did not make him feel much better. He resigned and found his way back to the cave, where he found Rebel and Maurizio. They had not found the two missing persons either...

33. Hilda and Kerna

As the two walked off, both carrying a cat, the first stretch was done in silence. Hilda and Kerna both felt unpleasant and did not need conversation.

The path led past high trees and skinny plants that reached up high as well. There were strange blue coloured bushes with thorns fit to make wands of and here and there were flowers in odd shapes and even odder colours. The foresty environment was much to blame for that of course, as it held back most of the sunlight. Not that there was any significant sunlight remaining at that point of the Lycadean day.

Hilda hated being silent. It was not like her, but being without magic was not like her either. She felt very grumpy about it all over again and kept her mouth shut. Any wrong word from someone would make her take her frustration out on that person, and Kerna was just too nice and helpful and good to have to take the brunt.

"Hilda?" Kerna suddenly broke the silence.

"Hmm?" No words, Hilda, the witch thought to herself. No venting, no bad stuff.

"I'm a bit scared."

Hilda stopped her walking and turned to the young woman, realising that Kerna had spoken the only words that were not wrong. "No need for that, Kerna. You have me and the two cats to protect you." She put an arm around Kerna's shoulders. "Look, it's just you and me and these two here on this mountain."

"Maybe there is more here, things we don't know about."

"So what? If it comes then-" Hilda fell silent. Then what? She had no idea how to fight off even the smallest animal if it were to charge at her now. The cats would have to do most of the fighting. If they knew what that was. "Maybe we should return to the others."

Kerna nodded, barely visible in the now quickly fading light.

They turned around.

"It's that way. I think." Kerna nodded somewhat in a direction.

"Are you sure? I think we came from there." Hilda pointed. "Oh, wait. Maybe the cats know." She bent down and set Grimalkin at her feet.

Kerna put Obsidian next to his sister. Two pairs of yellow eyes stared up at the two women who stared down at them.

"Go, find the way to William," Hilda tried to encourage the two cats who did not feel inclined to move anywhere, fast or otherwise.

The cats looked at each other for a moment, nuzzled each other and then looked at the witch again.

"I think they don't know either, Hilda," Kerna said.

"Crappedy crap," Hilda muttered, picking up Grimalkin again. Somehow the feel of a cat in her arms made her feel better.

Kerna quickly took care of Obsidian.

"We're going that way," Hilda decided, pointing in the direction which she hoped was the same as she'd done before.

Kerna did not object, so together they walked ahead. Until the make-belief path ended in several of the blue-coloured, viciously-thorned plants.

"Suck an elf," Hilda growled, "what idiot put those there? They weren't here when we came this way."

Kerna remained silent as they went back where they came from. As they more or less arrived there, she tugged Hilda's sleeve. Usually that was unforgivable, but this was not the time for Hilda to argue over it. "Hilda. I think we should go there. I see some light."

Hilda peered to where she expected Kerna to point. Darkness made that rather complicated. Still, Kerna was right, there was light ahead. "See, I told you we are on the right track. Come, William is probably out of his mind for worry by now." She did not know how right she was.

The two walked and stumbled towards the light, in vain trying to avoid rubble on the path.

"Strange though, the light is very red. I don't remember that the fires that William made being so red."

Hilda agreed in silence, but kept going. Light was light, and light meant people. Well, usually. They'd just have to be careful at first. The notion hit her like a brick. Perhaps she should let Kerna go first. Hilda was not very proficient in this careful stuff.

There only were a few trees between the women and the red light. Hilda held Kerna back as the young woman started to walk faster. "Let's first try and see what's there."

"Why? It is good there, Hilda. Come."

Hilda now held Kerna back with more force. "Are you kicked in the head by a baby dragon? Who knows what's there?" Maybe she wasn't doing to bad in the careful arena after all.

"It is what we are looking for!" Kerna pulled herself free and ran away, towards the red shimmers.

"Suck an elf. Now what." Hilda looked at Grim in the reddish shine. "Come, we have to rescue your sibling."

-=-=-

Hilda crashed through the remarkably dry undergrowth and saw Kerna disappear into an opening in the mountain. From inside the rock formation the red glow leaked out, setting the area in a very strange glow, as if everything was glowing or burning from the inside. Smaller rocks and boulders that lay everywhere cast long black shadows.

The witch felt the urge to call out Kerna's name, but thought again. That would inform anyone inside that cave that she was out there, and that in turn would take away her element of surprise, one of the few things she still had. A moment she felt entirely helpless without her magic. Then she stomped her foot on the ground.

"I can do this. If that kid can go in, I can too. She hasn't screamed so far."

Hilda set her jaw and walked to the opening. Before actually stepping inside, she inspected what was there. Not much, except that the rock itself seemed to emit the red light. And a few feet into the rock, the corridor that was there, already turned to the left, so there was not much to see.

"Right. Here we go," she told Grimalkin. At that moment she heard a scream. From Kerna. "Crappedy crap!"

Throwing all caution into the wind, Hilda ran into the corridor, finding that it had to be designed by a drunk spider. It kept winding in tight turns. The experience was so bizarre that it felt as if she was only turning around something and not moving forward at all.

"Kerna! Hold on! I'm coming!"

"Hilda! Hurry!"

The voice from Kerna did not sound scared at all, Hilda noticed. That encouraged her to turn and twist even faster, as she was curious now to see what was going on. And where.

"How long does this twisting corridor go on?" Hilda yelled.

"I don't know!" Kerna called back. "I wish it would end, I am getting dizzy - Oh, I'm out now!"

Hilda kept pushing forward, wondering when the stupid slalom she was doing would finally come to an end. The rocky path however did not seem to give up, there was more and more and more.

"Kerna, can you still hear me?"

"I can! What's keeping you?"

"I'll suck an- uhm... I don't know. I just keep seeing more walls and turns!"

"Try saying that it ends and then walk on!"

Hilda stopped her walking. Surely Kerna could not be serious. "Kerna, dear, are you well?"

"I am! Just say it!"

Hilda shook her head. "This stupid tunnel ends now. I'm beyond sick of it, and dizzy as well." Nothing happened. "So much for good intentions and all that." She walked around the next bend and was out of the tunnel.

"Dragon balls, how did you know that?" Hilda asked Kerna who stood there, grinning. "And wipe that grin before I help you. No laughing at the witch."

"I didn't know, really," said Kerna. "I just said it as I was despairing and the tunnel stopped. It worked for you didn't it?"

"True," Hilda nodded as she looked around.

They were in a cave. It wasn't very high, but quite wide, and it looked as if it went on forever from where they were standing. The red glow was everywhere, steady in some places, pulsating brightly in others.

"Funny smell here," Hilda noticed, twitching her nose.

"Do you have any idea what this place is?" Hilda looked around, to discover that the opening to the tunnel had disappeared. "Or how to get out?"

Kerna shook her head. "No."

"So am I right in assuming we're lost?"

Kerna bit her lip. "Yes."

Two cats struggled themselves free of the arms that held them and at their leisure wandered off. Hilda and Kerna stayed put and watched where the two black animals went.

Grim and Obsi seemed to know something, as they both walked along the same line. Until they disappeared.

"Crappedy crap!" two voices exclaimed.

Hilda looked at Kerna. "Fast learner. I like you."

"Where did they go?" Kerna asked, her eyes big.

"I am not sure, but I am going after them. I want my cat back." Hilda started walking to where she had seen the two animals vanish.

"Wait for me!" Kerna said, and rushed after the witch.

Together they walked on and then they saw the cats again.

"Suck an elf," Hilda commented.

Kerna grinned.

The witch turned and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. That was to say: she saw where they had come from. Reaching out, she tried to find some kind of magical wall they might have crossed without noticing, but she sensed nothing.

"This is… strange," Hilda declared, which for her was quite a statement. She picked up Grimalkin. "And you, running off like that."

"Meow," Grimalkin commented, as if that explained everything.

"Uhm, Hilda, is it just me or is it getting warm in here?" Kerna asked, picking up Obsi.

Hilda stood still, sampling the air. "If it is just you then it is also just me. It is getting warm in here. Maybe this is a good moment to see how we can get out of this place."

Together the women started walking towards the wall they were nearest too. That was as good a place to start as any. After careful examination of said wall, they decided that the red glowing rock was as good as any, except for the colour and the heat that came from it.

"I want a cooler place," Kerna said.

The wall seemed to radiate more warmth than it had done before.

"Me too. It is getting too hot here."

Hilda's words had just left her lips when a blue-white light shone from behind them. They turned and stared at a column of blue light that stood in the middle of the large cave.

"That was not there before. I am sure of that." Hilda rubbed her nose. "What is this place? I would almost think there is magic going around here." The idea made her heart jump.

The women walked towards the column, which emitted not only a cold light, but also physical cold.

Hilda and Kerna walked back and forth a bit, but it was impossible to find a spot in the cave where the temperature was pleasant.

"This is insane," Hilda muttered, "I feel like something is making a fool of us." Out of habit she flipped her hand, the way she used to do to make her wand appear. "I want a door, right there, and when we go through it we are back with William and Rebel and that silly captain of hers."

"Uhhh…" was all that Kerna could say as the door appeared where Hilda wanted it.

The thing just stood there, and they could walk around it to admire both sides.

"Suck an elf," Kerna said as she touched the door. "It is made of wood, Hilda. It is real. And I hope you don't mind that I use your words."

"Not at all, kiddo," the witch said, flattered, and she reached for the door knob. "Let's open this thing and see what -"

The door swung open and showed the inside of a cave. In the cave were a few beds with people on them, and in a corner a fire crackled.

"Crappedy crap."

34. Hilda, William and Kerna

From one of the beds, a figure jolted upright. "Hilda!"

The witch stared at the man. "William!"

A black cat jumped from Kerna's arms and bolted to the bed, jumped on it and curled itself into a ball on the blanket. Obsi got a quick pet on the head, after which William almost fell from the bed and ran to his witch. The other sleepers were sleepers no more by then.

"I knew it was you!" the wizard said as he hugged his witch, lifting her off her feet. Grimalkin had anticipated being squashed and had found safer grounds, being the same bed as Obsidian had resorted to.

"I know!" Hilda beamed as she could not help showing her affection and relief to her wizard.

Rebel and Maurizio stared at what was going on and did not understand.

Kerna stood in the door with a big grin on her face. She was looking at her feet, where a black animal had settled down. It was a rather awkward animal, with eight legs, a round head with two big red eyes in it. It was covered with something that looked like a mix of feathers, fur and something the defied any comparison.

As Kerna picked it up, two long ears lined with a soft pink fur moved up and turned as if they wanted to catch every sound. "Where did you come from?" she asked the animal. It stared at her and made a low growling sound

"And what is it?" Hilda asked, as William had released most of her.

"It is a stapu," Kerna said, as if that explained everything. Upon the lack of recognition on all other faces, she explained that stapus were something like the cats that Hilda and William owned.

"Oh. I see. You are wrong though, we don't own them. They just chose to be with us for some reason," Hilda explained. "Cats are like that."

"What happened to you two?" Maurizio asked as he had gotten out of bed. "We tried to find you and were really worried."

Kerna and Hilda were sat down on chairs and William made tea while the two told about the strange things they had experienced.

"And so we came through that doo-" Hilda looked at the rocky wall from where the door had vanished.

"Crappedy crap," Kerna said, "where did it go?"

Rebel grinned as she looked at Kerna. "Has Hilda beaten you up over that yet?"

"No need for that, Rebel," said the witch, as chocolate cakes appeared on the table. "She's free to use that." The witch grinned at Kerna.

William laughed also. "Really."

That made the captain and his lover curious.

Hilda pointed at Kerna, who still had her stapu in her lap. "You are not going to believe this, but she is the witch who is not a witch."

"What?!"

Hilda grinned. "We were walking and lost our way. Then Kerna saw some light and when we found it, we came into a large cave with red-glowing walls."

"And ceiling," Kerna added.

"And ceiling. Very weird place." Hilda nodded. "She discovered that it reacted to what we thought or wanted, in some way. That was even weirder. And then I made this door appear, that we came in through. Trust me, it was quite unnerving to find that I could do magic without having my magic. And that is what I thought. I thought that it would be cool to have my magic back, and that Kerna would be my magical sister."

"And that is what happened." Kerna giggled, something no one had ever heard her do. "I just don't know what to do now."

The three others at the table looked at the two witches. Even William was astounded by all this, but he was glad he now knew why he suddenly sensed the bond with Hilda again.

"We'll give you some training," Hilda tried to reassure Kerna. "But perhaps first we should get some sleep. I am sure it is quite late by now."

Maurizio chuckled: "Quite early, rather, as the sky outside is already getting lighter."

"I don't care what the sky does. I have not slept, so I am going to do that now," Hilda declared, "and my wizard comes with me."

"I don't feel sleepy at all," Kerna said as she kept petting her stapu. "I'll go and sit outside for a while. Everything looks and feels so different now."

"Good, but no trying to fly off on your own," Hilda warned the new witch as she took William's hand. "We start lessons after sleep."

-=-=-

Several hours later, the entire group was having breakfast. Hilda had woken up Kerna, who had nodded off whilst sitting outside.

"Scenery was not fascinating enough, was it?" the experienced witch grinned as she showed Kerna how to quickly warm herself using magic. It surprised her how quickly Kerna picked up the trick.

"You must be a natural," Hilda said. "And perhaps that is a good thing. A witch from these parts should know better how to make things work again, and how to deal with these nincompoops in Pyramid City."

After explaining to Kerna what nincompoops were, Hilda and William took a few hours to train Kerna. That was all she needed. William had crafted three brooms from a fallen-down tree. Kerna and Hilda were flying around within minutes. Hilda cheered and whooped as she was whole again, and Kerna screamed as she made her broom go crazy and out of control. William was on the ground to take over from her when needed, though, something smart that Hilda had thought of.

"She's a natural," Hilda repeated for the hundredth or so time, when the lessons were over.

Kerna was almost bouncing around for joy, her stapu staring at the woman it apparently was bound to.

"I am going to call you Inaktiko Zuru Matoya," the fresh witch told her pet.

"That's quite a name," Rebel remarked, "does it mean something?"

"Yes, it means 'animal without a special name'."

"Uhhuh." Rebel glanced at Maurizio who shrugged.

"For short I'll name it Dwey," Kerna decided.

"But there is no Dwey in the Inak-whatever no name you just said," Rebel tried again.

"I know. And what about that?"

Hilda and William screamed with laughter. Witches clearly were the same everywhere. Or perhaps, William thought, it was because Kerna had been exposed to Hilda when they retrieved their magic.

"I am curious," Maurizio said, leaning on the table and taking in Kerna. "Now we've established that you are the witch for this prophecy, and not Hilda, what are you going to do about this place?"

Kerna looked at the man in the red coat. "I don't know."

"I think we'll all be able to help a bit, since we're here," Hilda said, patting Kerna on the arm. "No to worry, Kerna. When we're done, you won't recognise the place."

Rebel grinned. "I like that prospect. It's too long ago I could wield some serious energy, so the sooner the better. Where do we start?"

Kerna delivered the same response: "I don't know." She looked at the more experienced witch. "Maybe somewhere a mistake is made. I don't feel up to this task, Hilda."

"I don't believe in that, Kerna. Come, let's take a walk and think this over. Or perhaps we'll take a flight and think this over." Hilda got to her feet. "William, you stay here?"

"Sure, you go and have fun. And be careful." The wizard smiled as he sensed a lot of emotion flow to him from Hilda. It was a wonderful feeling, something he, and Hilda too, had missed for far too long.

"I know you are watching out for me, wizard," the witch grinned, and then she grabbed Kerna by the sleeve. "Leave your what's its name here for now."

The what's its name landed on the bed next to the two cats and the witches left the cave.

"Will they be well?" Maurizio asked.

"Hilda's with her," William said.

"That's why I worry," the captain said.

"Trust me, Maurizio. There's nothing to worry about. Hilda can save herself just fine. And Kerna is fine in her care. They'll be safe."

A loud crashing sound accompanied by a tremor made three people, two cats and one what's its name jump up and run outside.

"Safe, you said?" Maurizio asked as they stared.

Hilda flew high over the trees on one of the brooms, while Kerna still stood on the ground, with a huge rock hovering over her.

"No. You asked 'well', not 'safe'," William countered. "Hilda, what are you doing?"

"Hey, it's nothing to do with me, wizard. She wanted to play."

Kerna looked at William. "I just wanted to know if I could take a piece out of this rock, William."

Rebel stared at the small woman in the black clothes. "That's freaky."

"I bet you can do that too," Maurizio said as he put an arm around Rebel's waist.

"Oh, sure, but I'm born with that. She went from just someone to... her. And that's freaky."

Kerna seemed satisfied with the rock and made it float back to the mountain it had come from. Then she hopped on the broom she was holding. "We won't be too long. I think."

William waved as she shot up to Hilda. He understood that Kerna was still very insecure about her new abilities, regardless how amazing the tricks were she could already perform. As he thought that, he sensed how Hilda promised she would take good care of Kerna. As he smiled, the two brooms flew off.

-=-=-

"I can see why you are a bit overwhelmed, Kerna," Hilda said. "Having the burden to do something about this planet back in shape is quite something."

"A bit overwhelmed does not exactly cover how I feel, Hilda."

"I understand, but let's try to take this one spell at the time. Do you have any idea how this prophecy is supposed to end? What does it mean by 'making right what is wrong'?"

"If I knew that, I'd be a lot happier," Kerna said, frowning as she looked at the older and more experienced witch. "I assume you never had something like this happen to you, right?"

"Never. And I don't envy you, but since we're here, we're going to do what we can to help you. Let's first get some idea of what we're up against."

Whatever power listened in on the conversation between the two witches, it made sure they did not have to wait too long for one of these ideas. Something huge and triangular, covered in black and brown stripes and soaring high above the two, changed its course as it noticed the two small unidentified flying objects. Soundlessly it sailed downward.

"Do you also have the feeling someone's watching us?" Kerna asked, out of the blue as she looked around.

"Yes. Since a few moments. You're becoming good, Kerna." Hilda looked around as well, but her experience in flying made her look down as well. And up.

"Crappedy crap, what's that?!"

Kerna looked up and saw the huge triangle come down towards them. Without a word the witches split up and dropped away from the path of the huge animal. In a wide circle, Hilda flew around it and joined Kerna.

"I never saw that beast before," the local witch said. "I never even heard of something like that."

"I see. That limits our options to do something about it. Maybe it is trying to be friendly in its own way." Hilda whipped up her wand. "This feels so good."

The large animal had great speed but little agility, so the two witches had plenty of time to fly around it and stay out of its reach. Patience wasn't one of its virtues, it seemed. After a few more serious attempts to capture at least one of the witches, it opened a small beak, let out a shrill disappointed shriek and heavily winged its way out of there.

Hilda watched it go, and then looked at her wand. "Oh well," she said as she made it disappear. "Better luck next time."

35. The next step

The witches returned to the cave and were in dire need of something calming. William supplied that, as the two told what they had seen.

"Such a strange beast, William, good thing it was a lot slower than a Nobbleback. There's so much we don't know about this place," Hilda said.

Kerna, her glass in hand, nodded. "For example we still don't know what we are supposed to do about the prophecy."

Everyone pondered that problem for a while.

"Do you still have that tablet book thing somewhere?" Maurizio asked then.

William made the tablet appear from one of his pockets. "We do. Why?"

"Perhaps, now Kerna's a witch as well, it may be able to tell us some more," Maurizio said. There was more hope than certainty in his voice.

"Any guess is as good as the next one," William shrugged, putting the tablet on the table after switching it on.

Kerna pulled the tablet-book towards her and looked at it. She fumbled a bit with the buttons and the images on the screen changed a few times, but nothing seemed to make much sense to her.

Dwey, the stapu, crawled from Kerna's lap onto the table and quickly licked all over the display.

"Dwey, don't!" Kerna lifted the animal from the table. "Oh, no, look what happened!"

The tablet had switched itself off. Kerna pushed the buttons, but the tablet was off and remained off.

"Your beast broke it," Hilda nodded as she said it. "Silly books like that and stapu drool were not made for each other, apparently."

Kerna picked up the tablet and shook it. "Dead. Technology is not helping us anymore," she said as she put it back.

"True. But sitting here and doing nothing is not going to help us any further either," Hilda commented.

Silence made a serious attempt to seize control of the situation.

The two witches looked at each other. Then a mutual grin broke free on their faces.

"Should we start to worry now?" Maurizio carefully asked, preparing to get up.

William set a grin free as well, as he picked up from Hilda what she and Kerna were thinking of. "That's it!"

"What's what?" Rebel and Maurizio demanded to know.

"That!" the wizard said, pointing at the broken tablet. "Well, sort of," he added, confusing the two people even more.

"Don't you see?" Hilda asked. "It's what's been happening here all the time! In Pyramid City the people have been relying on technology that is breaking down around them. It is not helping them anymore, yet they have no other option at hand. Without it they're lost."

"And the people in the village below aren't making any progress in their life. They just sit there and wait for the witch to come," Kerna added.

"Yes, right, but these villagers down there built that impressive set of stones to guide us here," Rebel argued, "that's something impressive."

"They did not build it," William pitched in. "Their forefathers did. These folks there don't have a clue. You saw how they were pushing their carts by hand, right? That's not a particular sign of progress."

The captain and his reluctant lover now nodded. "Right... so what we have to achieve is..."

"...to make the technology addicts kick their habit..."

"...and make the witch-waiters move!"

"Yup. Because the witch is in," Hilda concluded. "And the witch thinks that it is time for these folks to make this planet a nice one again, with trees everywhere instead of the grey stuff."

"She does?" Kerna asked.

"Yes, she does."

"Oh. It does sound good. So how do we start with that?" Kerna was curious.

"I thought that was where you would take over the witchy train of thoughts," Hilda frowned.

"And I thought this was a good start," Kerna retaliated. She grinned.

Hilda grinned also.

The others relaxed.

"So what do you think?" Hilda promptly slammed down the relaxation. "Any bright ideas?"

"I think that the first thing to do is inform this world that Hilda is not the witch. That it's Kerna." Rebel looked around, hoping for the others to agree.

"Not good thinking," William said. "As long as they all think that we're still looking, we have the advantage to make better plans."

"We are still looking, wizard," Hilda reminded him.

"Trivial circumstance," the wizard said. "I suggest we split up teams. One goes to the village nearby and ask them what they plan to do now the witch has been found. And the others go to Pyramid City, tell them the witch has been found, and ask the same thing."

Hilda's eyes sparkled. "And then we come back, bringing the respective leaders, and put them in a cage to fight it out, right?"

Kerna's eyes became large. Rebel snorted with laughter, while Maurizio frowned.

"Creative, we'll save that for when we can't work things out a simpler way," William said.

Hilda scowled. "That option is pretty simple, wizard."

"That is not how we do this here!" Kerna objected then. "In case of a dispute like this, an independent referee should locate neutral ground where the two sides can meet. There both sides declare their willingness to be truthful and state their point of view."

"And then?"

"I don't know. It never got to that, but such is the rule here."

"We should instate a new rule here then," said Hilda. "That rule says that the witch is right."

Kerna stared at Hilda. "That is quite presumptuous, Hilda."

"No. It's the witch's attitude," William explained. "It's hard to explain, but most of the time it works."

"What do you mean 'most of the time'?" Hilda demanded to know, although she secretly grinned about his words.

William just looked at her, with a visible grin. "You are the one that needs to ask. Now really."

They then decided on the two team approach. Kerna, Rebel and William would visit the village, Hilda and Maurizio would face the people in the pyramids. Hilda and William would keep in touch through their link. It was a good way to alert each other in case of an emergency.

-=-=-

The next morning William and Hilda crafted a few more brooms so everyone could be comfortable. Rebel would fly with William, as the village was not far away.

"Seeing someone fly without a broom might be unnerving to them," Rebel said.

Maurizio would fly with Hilda. Grim would have to accept that.

Kerna was pleased to see that Dwey felt as comfortable on her broom as the two cats of the other magicals were.

"Take care, wizard," Hilda said as she hovered on her broom.

"You too, witch," the wizard replied. He watched Hilda fly off, Maurizio sitting behind her. "Come, we have things to do," he then said, and made his broom lift off.

Kerna followed the wizard and Rebel closely, enjoying the freedom of the flight.

They reached the village and touched down on the market square. Their appearance stirred up quite a commotion.

The first person that stopped to look at them, a young man, was told that the three were looking for Tarkan. "And if there are other influential people here, it would be nice if they can join us as well."

The young man recognised the man in the dark clothes and his companions. "I will go and tell Tarkan that you are here. He may not feel too friendly towards you, after you left him hanging in the air for so long."

"It's a chance we'll take," William said with a wink to Kerna and Rebel.

-=-=-

During that, Hilda and Maurizio sped through Lycadean airspace at a tremendous speed.

"Hilda, are you sure this speed is safe?" Maurizio asked.

"Sure. Safest way to travel of all options," the witch said. "Besides, I don't want to spend days getting there. This way we're making good time. William's already in the village."

"Do you know why he did not go to the Pyramid folks?" the captain wanted to know.

"I can be more convincing when needed," Hilda grinned.

-=-=-

In the village, William, Rebel and Kerna made themselves comfortable on a few chairs they made appear, much to the interest and some consternation of the villagers passing by or standing to see what was going on.

It took quite a while before the self-appointed messenger returned, with the words: "Tarkan says that you can, uhm, well, I think he means that he does not want to see you."

William could imagine a few varieties on the words of Tarkan, and none of them would be either healthy, promote longevity or get them any way to talk to the man.

"We'll give it some time," he said, making a table appear, with tea and coffee for the taking. "Hilda's not there yet, so we don't need to hurry."

A few of the bystanders tried to come closer without being obvious about it. That attempt failed miserably, because Kerna and William noticed them promptly.

"Come and sit if you want," William said, popping up some more seats. "Coffee? Tea?"

Having passed the point of no return, the three people sat down with the wizard and his friends. They introduced themselves as Dosur, Wikelle and Josna. Soon they were engaged in a friendly chat with William and the ladies. Then Sodor and Kyru, the villagers who had found the travelling group, showed up and joined in.

Kerna had the honour to explain what they had thought of. The five sitting with them agreed that this sounded like a viable and good plan.

"That way both ends can do their saying," Dosur nodded, stroking his beard.

"Indeed, and problems can be heard early and dealt with." Kyru seemed pleased with this all as well.

William just nodded. This was a good attitude.

36. Pyramid City

Pyramid City came into view. It was obvious that nobody expected Hilda and her friends back, because there was no welcoming committee. The area around the pyramids was calm. Too calm almost. Some of the buildings looked more run down than before. Sheets of material lay on the ground, parts of the internal structure were exposed to the outside world in a way they were not supposed to be.

"Things do not look good here," Maurizio commented as Hilda swooped over the conglomerate of structures.

"You got that right. Let's see where we can go inside."

They found the pyramid that they had lived in for a while, before their great escape. The door they had used to go in and out with Kerna, when things still looked amiable, was easy to spot.

"I am curious how soon we will be asked what we want," said Hilda as she landed the broom. She popped up her wand, cast some magic, and the door opened. The two stepped inside and waited.

They waited a bit longer.

"We've been waiting for quite a while now, haven't we?" Maurizio remarked as his feet started to feel uncomfortable. Nobody had shown up yet, which was amazing since the last time there had been warning systems everywhere, and soldiers in abundance.

Hilda nodded. "Come, if they don't want to find us, we'll have to find them."

The journey through the pyramid proved much more complicated without Kerna to guide them, but they found a group of blue-haired people in silver clothing eventually.

"Hey you, where's Davdruw?" Hilda asked them in her typical diplomatic way.

The people recognised the witch. "He is in his chambers, honoured witch."

"Good. I need a volunteer to take me there. You really should do something about this place, a person gets lost here!"

None of the people made a voluntary move, so Hilda appointed one of them. The man in question did not look very happy but obliged.

"What's happened here?" Hilda asked him.

"There were some… problems," the man reluctantly decided to share with them.

"Problems," Maurizio repeated. "That sounds as if you put it mildly."

The appointed volunteer shrouded himself in silence, which spoke volumes.

They reached the corridor where Hilda had been before. The first time, she recalled, it had been in a floating chair, while she had been helpless, without magic. The memory made her shiver.

"Can I go now?" the guide asked. As the witch did not reply immediately he took that silence as his leave and disappeared into one of the many corridors.

Hilda looked at the large white door for a moment. "Let's pay this man a visit."

The wand did its work and the door opened. Obviously Davdruw did not want visitors; the door complained loudly as it was forced through its locking mechanism. It was not witch-proof.

Hilda walked into the large colourful room, the captain on her heels. "Davdruw! I'm back!" She made it sound as if he should be happy about that.

"Crappedy crap," the witch then said. The large room was not as magnificent as it had been before. All kinds of ornaments had fallen from the walls, the floor was littered with pieces of ceiling and many pieces of furniture had acted as landing platforms for ceiling parts as well. They showed proof of that.

Davdruw, the tall man, sat in his chair, dust all over him. He rested his head in his hands and looked up slowly as Hilda and Maurizio approached him.

"What happened here?" Hilda asked.

"Not just here," Davdruw said, almost toneless. "Many places."

"And you have no idea why, right?"

"Oh. I know. We all know. We just don't know how to fix it."

"Let me guess," Maurizio added to the conversation. "Your computers are failing and things are falling apart now."

Davdruw looked at the man. "The machines, yes, they are failing. But the reason for that is worrying."

"Which is?" Hilda had no desire to wait for the man to speak on.

"The High Council has been fighting. Some of them started destroying the machines in the Pallazi."

"Fighting among themselves?" Hilda could hardly believe that, but Davdruw nodded.

"We did not know that some of the machines keep the buildings in shape. Well, we did, but we hoped these had not been broken."

"Well, better to have some loose sheeting fall down than your weather things going crazy, I guess," the witch pointed out. "So, as to why we're here-"

"You endangered our safety!" Davdruw snapped, interrupting Hilda as he got off his chair. "You will be punished for that!"

"Oh. Really. Gosh, colour me impressed. We're here to save your whiny asses and you want to punish me? Remember the thing about the witch who's here to make things right?"

Davdruw looked down at Hilda. "And do you wish me to elaborate, honoured witch, on the state of our society that now is around us? Your presence here has destroyed so much already!"

Hilda was still not impressed. "Sometimes you have to tear down the old mess before you can build something new. Like removing rotten apples from a basket."

The ceiling made an ominous sound. The witch looked up and used her magic to stabilise a few spots that threatened to drop in for a surprise visit.

"Although in this case," she continued, "it is good to throw out the entire basket and weave a new one. Well, make someone else weave a new one. I hate weaving just as much as Latin."

Davdruw looked at the witch, his gaze puzzled. "What is Latin?"

"Horrible," Hilda assured him, "trust me. Now listen, we have worked out this idea to bring a group of people from here and a group of people from the others to a place where we can talk about the future of your planet."

"Others?" Davdruw was losing track.

"Yes, the old ones, remember? The ones that walked out when your ancestors started to play with their machines so much?"

"They found you?" The tall man's eyes suddenly were filled with anger. "They infested your brain with their lies and false truths?"

"Well, we went looking for them. And nobody infested anything," Maurizio pitched in, trying to feel part of the conversation.

Before Davdruw could respond to the captain, Hilda said: "We're not here to see who is right and wrong. That's why we have this gathering planned. So you find a few sensible people and come with us. And I would prefer some not to be from your High Council. They are nice, but many are too cracked up."

"You are not telling me what to do." Davdruw folded his arms over his chest. "You are the witch who is not a witch. I am the spiritual leader. People will listen to me."

"Yes, and die laughing, I'm sure," Hilda snorted. "And I have another surprise for you. I'm just the witch. Not the not-a-witch. We found her as well."

Davdruw turned his back to the witch.

"Oh. I see. You don't believe it." Hilda shrugged and looked at Maurizio. "I think we can write him off as someone to take part in the gathering as well."

Maurizio nodded. He had written Davdruw off long ago already.

The witch kept an eye on Davdruw. She remembered his fondness of twiddling with things on his sleeves to invoke all kinds of people that usually had nothing good for her on their minds. His sleeve moved...

"Levitas," she muttered, flipping up her wand to make some more impression.

Davdruw lifted off. The effect was sublime. He yelped and flapped his arms, which was good. That kept his busy fingers away from the twiddly bits.

"I thought that was wingardium leviosa?" Maurizio asked, some surprise evident on his face.

"What?" Hilda scowled at him for a moment. Then she made the floating spiritual leader rotate so she could see his face.

"Right. I guess I have your attention now. First, stop treating me like a joke, Davdruw. This is no laughing matter."

The floating man's face silently agreed with her, while his shock only slowly wore off.

"I need a group of five or six people that come with me. Sensible people. We're going to make some changes around here."

Davdruw had regained control over his vocal abilities. "Not if I can help it!"

-=-=-

Funny enough, that was almost the same thing Tarkan told William after hearing the plan. The village leader had come out of hiding and now was trying to convince William, Kerna and Rebel that they had to leave.

"I doubt you have a big say in this all," William told Tarkan. "You've been ruling this place for a long time without going somewhere. You were just waiting for the witch. But now the witch has come, so what's next?"

"She will make right what's wrong of course," Tarkan said, his hands flying. "Everything that's wrong."

"And what's wrong according to you?"

The village leader stared at William, searching for an answer to that question. The answer refused to be found.

Tarkan threw his arms up again. "This is an outrage. I knew I should not have come to you." He turned and marched off. Then he turned. "Why am I leaving? You have to leave!"

Kerna stood and looked at the man. "We are not leaving. I am here and I am going to finish what I came here for."

Tarkan stared at her. "You?" He barked a laugh. "What do you think you can do, girl?"

The 'girl' put her pet in her seat and reached out. The broom flew to her hand.

"The wizard is helping you?" Tarkan sneered.

"This is nothing with the wizard," Kerna said, as she made the broom hover. "This is about me. Because I am the witch who is not a witch."

"That proves nothing," Tarkan pointed at the floating utensil. "Anyone can-" At that point he seemed to rethink what he was about to say.

Kerna shrugged and returned to her seat. Dwey seemed pleased enough with that. "I give up on him," she informed William and Rebel. "We should just go with the sensible ones."

William and Rebel agreed. The three looked at the villagers sitting with them.

-=-=-

"I don't have time for this," the witch told Davdruw. "You are not helping to save things, so we'll recruit a handful of people and work things out with them."

She turned and started walking. "Coming?" she asked Maurizio who was still watching the floating spiritual leader.

"Yes, of course."

The two left Davdruw's rooms, leaving him hanging in the air as he yelled out the horrible things that would happen to Hilda.

37. A Pallazi in trouble

"I think he needs to understand that he is not the one to boss a witch around," Hilda shared with Maurizio as they were in the corridor again.

"If you leave him hanging there, he's bound to understand," the captain grinned.

"Sure that's enough? Okay, then. Come, let's find that Pallazi place and see what mess these Council people made of it. I have some hopes there are a few there that are still sensible. They would be good for the meeting."

A blue-haired, silver-clad man walked by.

"Hey, you."

"Do you mean me?" the man asked, looking at the grey-haired woman in black.

"Yes, do you see another you?" Hilda asked, changing the man's face to a puzzle without magic. "We need to get to the Pallazi, can you take us there?"

"Only Davdruw takes people there," the man carefully replied. After all, they were in front of Davdruw's chambers.

"That's not what I asked. And Davdruw's not going anywhere for a while, so if you know where it is, you are allowed to take us there. Davdruw is not going to mind."

The man peered at the closed door. "Are you certain?"

"Do I look like I am in doubt?"

The man could not deny that Hilda looked her ever-confident self. "In that case yes, honoured witch. I know the way to the Pallazi. I will take you there."

"Good boy."

The man in silver seemed to know the way very well. Without passing through the normal corridors, he took them to the small passage that led to the door of the control room. The Pallazi.

"Do you want me to wait here for you?" he asked.

"No, we'll be fine. Thank you for taking us here. This place is a maze."

"It's really not that bad," the man smiled. "Enjoy your day, honoured witch." He nodded, turned and walked off.

"Right. Let's see the damage," the witch then said to the captain.

They walked to the door, did not knock and opened it.

Inside the room, the situation was not as bad as Davdruw had attempted to describe it. It was worse.

Two of the walls that had been lined with machines and consoles before, were now in an indescribably state of disarray and parts. The parts consisted for fifty percent of ceiling and wall, and the other fifty percent had been machinery and consoles.

There were obviously two camps in the room. One group huddled in a corner, the other sat in front of the remaining machines. Hilda recognised Katinki in the second group. The woman had armed herself with a piece of wood, the people with her also had some kind of weapon with them. None of the groups said something.

As Hilda and Maurizio entered, all eyes turned to them in silence.

"Suck an elf. What happened here?"

Many voices at the same time started explaining the state of the room.

Hilda popped up her wand and mumbled something. The mouths were still moving but the jumble of sounds had gone. "Much better. Now, I will let you talk again and then I will point at someone who will do the talking. One at the time, did I make myself clear?"

Heads nodded.

After a new spell, sighs of relief echoed through the chamber.

"So. First the version of you." Hilda pointed at Katinki, who had always struck her as one of the sanest of the bunch.

The woman took to her feet, clutching the wood. She glanced at the group in the corner before she started talking.

"They started to take the machines apart. They said that since you are here, nothing can go wrong." Katinki's eyes went over the devastation. "Well, we're lucky that most of the buildings are still standing, I think."

Maurizio had walked over to one of the machines that still looked undamaged. Then he looked at a ruined one. "Not a professional job," he commented.

"Right," Hilda nodded. "So what do you have to say to your defence?" She pointed at a man in the corner.

He made no attempt to move, instead from his position he said: "It's the prophecy. You come and things will be right again. That way we don't need the machines anymore, so we started disassembling them."

"And killed dozens, you idiot!" Katinki snapped at the man.

Hilda snipped her fingers and the two fighting voices fell silent. Hearing that so many people had died in this bout of insanity shocked her.

"Easy. First, let me tell you that this prophecy is a stupid thing that is interpreted in too many ways. So far we heard two versions. Second, I am not the witch you are waiting for. We have her, she's at the other place with the offspring of the old ones. Your runaway ancestors."

The witch looked at the two silenced people. "You're going to be good again, right?"

Frantic nodding happened and vocal cords were released.

"I think you are both right and both wrong," the witch said as she made a chair appear and sat down. "You're going to be relieved of your - uhm - presence here." Hilda refused to call it their 'work', as they still had no clue what they had been doing here. "I want to take some of you to a place where we're going to talk about this place. I need a few people with sense."

No one spoke up. The fear of being silenced was enough to make the people behave.

"Four or five should do," Hilda continued. She pointed at Katinki. "You are one of them."

As Katinki stared at Hilda, almost shocked, the witch also pointed at the man who had spoken up for the opposite faction. "You are one also. You stood up well, so you can be, what William calls, the Devil's Advocate."

Hilda selected a few more people and ordered them to go and clean themselves up. "You will meet a handful others, so better look smart. We're going to find one of these flying machines that can take you there."

She held back Katinki. "I need a word with you."

She turned to the other people. "And you... clean up the mess here. No more smashing things unless you have a serious desire to find yourself in the ranks of the casualties." Hilda did not mean to hurt anyone, but somehow the people seemed to need this promise. And it sounded good.

The witch looked at Katinki. "You can put away your clobber device now. It's going to be fine, trust me."

Katinki looked at the piece of wood and then almost reluctantly dropped it on the floor.

"Good. I hope you can do two things for me."

"Which are?" Katinki looked surprised.

"First, I need someone who can arrange one of those flying machines for us, and can fly it. And when you cleaned yourself up, can you meet us at Davdruw's room?"

Katinki frowned. "I am not sure if I know someone like that. I usually am here as I am part of the High Council."

"You were," Hilda grinned, "and you are going to be happy about that. Know what: you go clean up and meet us at Davdruw's. We'll take care of the fly-thing."

Katinki nodded. Carefully she reached out to Grimalkin, who rested on Hilda's shoulder, and was allowed to stroke the cat's head. "I will go now."

Maurizio had watched the remaining people as they started taking away the mess that had accumulated against the wall, thanks to their combined efforts. "I think they'll obey, Hilda," he said.

"If not, they'll get a roof on their head, that's all I can say," the witch said, loud enough for all to enjoy. "Come, we have a fly-thing to arrange and a spiritual leader to liberate."

-=-=-

When they reached Davdruw's chambers, they had already found someone to arrange a shuttle. The man they had 'appointed' had promised that it would be ready in time. Maurizio had convinced Hilda that he would remember the name of the place where the shuttle would be waiting.

Davdruw was still where Hilda had left him, hanging in the air. The man looked exhausted. He clearly had done all he could (which was little) to get away from his undignified position. And failed. When Hilda and the captain came in, he looked up, defeat all over his face.

"Hello there," said the witch, bringing the man back to his feet. "I am sure you are tired of hanging around. I'd like to invite you to come along with us."

Davdruw heavily sat down. "To where?" Then he craned his neck, as Katinki came in. "And why is she here? And why the change of mind?"

"She is here because I asked her, good man." Hilda chuckled at Davdruw's nervous reaction as she called him that. "We're going to a place where we will decide on a new council for the planet and stuff like that. And Katinki is one of the people that goes with us. I want you to see her, so you know she is part of this thing. No trying to put her down or you'll be up hanging again."

"You still have that idea?" Davdruw sounded defensive. "I feel that this is not right."

"I don't care," Hilda said in her familiar way. "You're either coming or we take you."

Resolutely Davdruw folded his arms and remained silent, a stubborn look on his face.

Hilda thought back to the way she had been carted into this place, on a flying chair, held by invisible restraints, as she saw the man sit there.

"Have it your way," the witch shrugged. The wand appeared and flicked. The chair rose up while magic kept the large man in place, unable to move or complain.

Katinki stared at the situation of the man everyone had deemed invincible.

Maurizio just grinned and told Katinki the place where they were expected to board the shuttle.

-=-=-

William smiled. His witch was clearly having fun, he sensed through the bond, and he was aware that they would be on their way soon.

"It's time to move to the place where we will see about this new council," he said as he got up. "Hilda gathered some folks and they're on their way soon."

"And where would this place be?" Kyru asked.

"Close to the river, where that cave is you took us to," William decided on the spot. "Nice place, and plenty of space."

"But that is hours of walking away from here," a woman called Josna said.

"No problem. We're all walking. Hilda and the others will be on their way for a while so we don't have to rush."

"Oh. I thought..." Josna looked a bit disappointed.

William laughed. "You thought we were going to fly."

Josna nodded. "But if you say we have to walk, we will walk."

Kerna grinned and tugged William's sleeve. As he bent over, she whispered: "I can fly her to the river and then come back. She'll have to wait for us there, but she'll have flown."

"Great idea," William agreed. "We'll start the walk, and you'll catch up with us then."

Josna looked a bit uncertain as Kerna invited her to come along.

Kerna grabbed Dwey with one hand, held out the other and summoned her broom. With the broom hovering, she sat on it, plopped her familiar on the bristle end and showed Josna how to sit in front of her.

"Hold on," was all the warning Josna got and they lifted off, speeding away over the trees. Josna's screams became faint quickly.

"More volunteers?" William asked, looking around. Nobody was in a hurry to scream like Josna had done, so they packed up their courage and started the hike to where the meeting was going to take place.

-=-=-

"But how do you know where we're going?" the pilot asked Hilda as the group boarded the shuttle.

"That's easy. I just go to where my wizard is. And I will be flying my broom, you simply have to follow me."

Hilda looked at the man. "And no funnies please. We're going far away and you just come along. If you don't, I'll haul you there."

The pilot frowned for a moment. Then he nodded. "I'll follow you."

38. Meeting on Lycadea

William laughed as he heard his witch talk about how she had gathered the people from Pyramid City. Especially the antics around Davdruw, who was sitting in his floating chair with a very displeased face, amused him.

"And the pilot of that noise-box was good," Hilda praised the person. "He did not believe I could fly a broom, but he's changed his mind."

"I'm glad you are back here, Hilda," William said, pulling his witch in a hug that obscured her from view for a while.

"You are just sentimental," Hilda grinned, but the blue sparkles in her eyes told the truth. "Now let's get this talking thing started. I want to see some action!"

Together with Kerna, the magicals had prepared seats and tables, and they had also supplied eats and drinks. As William had expected, the two sides wanted to sit opposite each other, but the magicals, aided by Maurizio and Rebel, had prevented that. They had made a good mix of the people.

Davdruw had been moved to sit with the group. His chair was on the ground, his arms were free and his mouth was too. William and Hilda sat at either side of him, so he knew he had to be careful.

Kerna stood at the head of the long table, scratching Dwey's head. The animal lay on the table in front of her and let her do what she did.

"Most of you know why we're here. We're going to see if we can decide on the future of our people. We've been living here apart from each other long enough, and it's time to put an end to that. The people in the pyramids are losing control of the place. Since long. The people who live in the nearby village have not moved ahead. Since long. I am sure that with a combined effort we can make this planet as nice again as it was before. Before most of it was covered with concrete and stone."

The new witch looked into every pair of eyes that were focussed on her.

"The honoured Witch and Wizard have agreed to help us with that."

Some voices mumbled semi-agreeing things.

"Provided of course we can get to some kind of agreement on how we want to shape this," Kerna added.

"And if you can do that snappy, that would be even better," Hilda informed the selected people.

One of the men raised a hand and asked to speak. "Is it a good thing that the ten or so of us decide on the future of the entire planet?"

In the momentary silence that fell, Maurizio got up for a moment. "Would you rather have that a group of let's say fourteen million people trying to do that? In that case we are out of here."

The man who had asked the question considered that and then nodded in silent agreement.

"Why did you choose us?" Kyru asked.

"You're normal people. We hope you have normal ideas," said Hilda. "Not the blown up kind that cover the planet in something stupid."

Talking started, and talking turned into heated discussions. Normal ideas were brought up, then came the silly ones, and after that the sensible ideas surfaced.

Plans were made to remove as much of the concrete as possible, plant new forests in places, and several people already were thinking about a new kind of housing. Until that was figured out, the wooden houses of the villages looked like the best way to keep people sheltered from the weather once that turned bad.

William and Rebel volunteered for the concrete removal. William suggested that Hilda and Kerna would visit other settlements on the planet, telling about the witch's arrival and the way things would be done from now on.

"But what if there are people who do not want to change?" Kerna asked.

"Let them be the way they are," was the general consensus. "Once their homes start falling apart, they will at least know there is an alternative, and then they can come to see how it's done here."

That of course created the implicit obligation to make this new approach work, but with the people gathered, there was plenty of fire and zeal.

"I now propose that the people from Pyramid City go to the village nearby, to inform everyone of what's decided here," Hilda said. "Kerna and William will go with them. Maurizio and I will take the ones from the village to Pyramid City and do the same. That should be a good way to convince them."

"If they let themselves be convinced," Davdruw said, speaking for the first time since the meeting started.

"They have the same opportunity as all the others," Hilda replied. "Take it, or leave it and join when their home falls on their heads. We're not going to force anyone to do anything."

Katinki spoke up. "Maybe it is best if we all go together, to the two places. That way everyone can see that we are of one mind. And that they have nothing to fear of the people from the other houses."

Hilda was pleased with the fact that the people from Pyramid City were not holding back in voicing their opinions with their former spiritual leader present.

Sodor, the man from the nearby village, clapped his hands. "I like that idea."

More and more people fell in with him, and hence the plan was made.

Hilda had the feeling that the people from the village would be easiest to deal with first, so she decided that the group would first go there. William and Kerna agreed.

"So how do we get them there? Some of them are not used to walking so far," William grinned, referring to the people from Pyramid City.

Rebel looked at the group. "Maybe I can help with that. If we load everyone in the shuttle and get that to hover over the village, I can levitate them down in groups of four or so. Quite a nice entrée, I think."

"Woman, I like you!" Hilda grinned. "Come on folks, everyone to the shuttle."

"We're flying, aren't we?" the new witch of the group asked Hilda.

"Of course!" Hilda exclaimed. "Witches have their own transport. As do wizards."

"Crappedy crap!" Kerna showed her happiness.

Maurizio and Rebel laughed. They would accompany the new council to the shuttle.

The magicals and their pets retrieved their brooms and waited for the shuttle to lift off. The strange formation then set course for the village.

Hilda and William had fun seeing how Rebel used her strange powers to drop the people to the square. They seemed to plummet to the ground, only to stop a few feet before crashing into it and then landed gently on their feet. The appearing shuttle over the village had brought out almost everyone, including Tarkan. Every person stood watching the machine and the descending people.

Hilda hovered near the open door of the shuttle, talking with Rebel. As the woman from the future let down the last group, she said: "I'll go back with the shuttle pilot and wait for you people. Just send someone over when you're done here."

"Good thinking," said the witch. As she landed her broom, the shuttle pulled away and relative silence came over the village again.

Tarkan was loudly arguing with Kerna, who simply waited for the man to run out of steam.

Hilda and William watched the scene from a distance. "Do you think she will withstand him?" the wizard asked.

"I am not sure," Hilda said, "but we're here. She knows that."

Tarkan waved his arms around as he yelled that 'all these people' had no business in 'his' village. "Everything here was well before you troublemakers came, and I will not allow any further of that!"

"Hold your tongue for a moment."

Surprise came from everywhere, as it was Davdruw who had spoken.

"And who are you? Another of those troublemakers?"

"I am Davdruw. I am the spiritual leader of the people that live in the pyramids. You may think these people are troublemakers, but I have been present at their meeting. Their ideas are sound. They want to think ahead, make more of life than what we have now."

Tarkan stared at the tall man. "More? What more? There is nothing more."

"And that attitude is what keeps others stuck in the place where they are, if they let people like you - and me - influence them."

Kerna's eyes flew from Davdruw to Hilda and William, and back. Confusion and surprise had taken over her expression. Hilda and William were quite stunned by this support from such an unexpected side.

"We are not influencing them. We are guiding them, to the best of our knowledge," Tarkan flung at Davdruw.

"Yes. But what have we done to expand our knowledge?" Davdruw countered.

"That is not the issue here!" Tarkan tried to overrule Davdruw.

"But it is." Kerna, her hands akimbo, scowled at Tarkan. "You can pretend that this world will carry on it always did while you hide in this corner of it, but you are not helping anyone!"

"Who are you, that you dare to speak to me like this?" Tarkan growled.

Kerna made a wand appear, a bright yellow affair. "I am the witch who WAS no witch."

"Did you get her that wand?" William quietly asked his witch.

"No. I don't know where she got that from," she replied.

Tarkan did not surrender just like that. "Go back to herding the goats, girl."

"See? There is your attitude. Nothing changes. Everyone keeps doing what they did since they were old enough to do something," Kerna said, her voice getting louder. She turned to the people who had gathered around after the strange arrival of the new council. "Who of you thinks that this way of life is a good way?"

Hesitantly hands rose, more than was good for Hilda's comfort zone. "I think we have to step in, wizard," she whispered.

Before someone could make a move, Kerna turned to Tarkan. "They are afraid of you."

"No. They use their common sense. This life is good. And if you do something to me, they will fear you, evil witch."

"Such a manipulating bastard," Hilda grumbled. "I'm going to-"

Before she could go to do what she had in mind, Kerna just laughed as she looked at the crowd around them. "So one moment I am good enough to herd your goats, and the next I am an evil witch who should be feared."

She looked at the new council, whose members stood there, a bit lost in the goings on. "These people are going to make this planet a better place for all of us. If you feel like joining us now, feel welcome. If you intend to stick around here and wait until this old man can no longer run your lives, you are welcome then. It's up to you."

The new witch looked around. "Dwey! Where are you?"

The black animal came running and jumped up, entirely happy to be caught in Kerna's waiting arms. "I trust this new council in the same way Dwey trusts me," Kerna said, "it is up to you what you want to do."

39. Meanwhile, back at the pyramids

Hilda, eyebrows raised high, was nearly speechless. "Suck an elf, William. I like that woman's style. She's got more inside her than I had thought when we first met her."

"Where will we live when we leave here?" one of the villagers asked. Quite a smart question, Hilda agreed.

"For now everyone from the village will stay here in their own house if they can. If the others aren't going to make their life bad." Kerna looked around, not threatening but warning. "I am sure we can prepare some basic homes soon. After all, we have magic on our side."

Some consenting murmur rose up here and there. Tarkan looked at the people, but none of the murmurers held back.

"And what are we going to do there?" someone else asked.

"Let's take things one step at the time, shall we?" Rebel stepped in. "We first have to find more people, in the pyramids, and then we can make specific plans towards that. For now it would be good for the ones that want to join, to be ready to gather your things. We'll come back once we have talked to the others."

Kerna nodded, agreeing.

Maurizio then suggested that the group would visit the pyramids. "I'll stay here," he said, "to keep an eye on our friend here." He patted Tarkan on the shoulder. "To make sure he is not going to employ some guerilla tactics, or some good old indoctrination while you're gone."

Tarkan looked hurt. "I would never."

"Great," Maurizio chuckled, "then there's no problem."

"Besides, you will see that all this is unnecessary. We do not have to make the change. We can leave things as they are, and change will come."

William laughed. "Someone called Albert Einstein once said something like that. And he called it the greatest folly."

Davdruw then surprised everyone by announcing that he wanted to stay in the village as well. His plain and simple reason was that he liked it there.

Katinki asked the man if he would repeat that, so she could record it on a gadget she had. On her sleeve. "That way we can show the people in the pyramids how he thinks about this area."

Another appreciative nod came from Hilda. "William, can you go and tell Rebel and the shuttle fly-boy to come? We have another house call to make."

The wizard retrieved his broom and his cat, and flew off.

Soon the shuttle hovered over the village, and the new council was transported up by Rebel. Then the shuttle, accompanied by people and animals on brooms, set course to the city of the pyramids...

-=-=-

As they were on their way, they had to deflect a very unusual random rain shower.

"Looks like more than just a few things are failing down there," Hilda commented under their magical umbrella.

They were not far from their destination when they saw that at the pyramids the situation was even more precarious than expected.

A few of the large buildings had more or less collapsed. People were outside, sitting, lying and walking around. As the shuttle and the magicals approached, there was a slight commotion, but somehow most of the people from the pyramids were not able to respond to the strange convoy more except than to look up.

The brooms swooped down and landed close by. The shuttle touched down on a platform not far from the more remote pyramids, and not much later the passengers came out. The ones who had come from the pyramids ran to the devastation and the people sitting and lying. The others hurried along as well, even though they were entirely strange in this place.

Hilda located Gesmarion, one of the people of the original High Council.

"What happened here?" she asked, without formalities.

"The buildings. The machines. They fell apart, one after the other." The man looked half in shock, but still managed to be mostly coherent. "Others are still inside, they want to stay there."

"Inside which ones?" William asked, but Gesmarion suddenly became a broken record and went on about the machines and the buildings falling apart.

"Looks like we have to go in and do some evacuating, William," Hilda said, popping up her wand.

William nodded and made his wand appear also. Kerna stood with them, her yellow wand at the ready.

"I'm coming with you," Rebel said.

"So am I," Gesmarion joined the ranks, to everyone's surprise.

Hilda turned to the new council. "Try and help what you can, and prepare for more people. We're going to bring them out."

Magically they determined the pyramid that was most vulnerable and likely to collapse, and then they went inside.

Rebel used her strange powers to stabilise most of the construction. The pyramid was so far gone that parts fell down as they proceeded.

Gesmarion kicked in doors while the magicals opened them with magic. In every room where they found people, Gesmarion took care of them, guiding them outside and then the man would hurry back inside, collecting the next bunch.

Some of the people did not want to go voluntarily. Gesmarion would then apply some gentle force, assisted by William's magic, that would simply make them move, if they wanted to or not.

Dust and bits of ceiling powdered down, the magicals keeping themselves safe with bubbles. In a few rooms they only found dead people, crushed by falling parts of wall or ceiling.

"Crappedy crap, crappedy crap," Hilda kept saying.

The further they pushed on into the pyramid, the worse the situation was. In the end William said they had to either take the top from the pyramid or go outside again, as the building would come down on them were it not for Rebel holding it together.

"Blowing it apart is no option, Hilda, we'd hurt people outside."

"We have to do more!" Hilda exclaimed, looking at Kerna.

Kerna, also dusty and dirty, nodded. "Rebel, Hilda, we can do this. If we can-"

A wall next to them crumbled, blowing a cloud of dust through the corridor where they stood. William magicked it away.

"There are four layers of living quarters in this pyramid," Kerna quickly continued, "if we can take off the top and then slowly work our way down, that would save as many people as possible."

"Right. We have to act quickly then. Rebel, can you handle this?" Hilda asked.

Rebel nodded, she was clearly working at the top of her powers to keep the building together.

"William, can you go outside and use the broom? We will peel off a layer, you get the people away and let me know when you're done."

William nodded and ran off, warding off falling pieces of pyramid as he went. As he left the pyramid, people wanted to talk to him, but he ignored them, made his broom jump up and he dashed upwards. Obsidian Shadow stared, slightly annoyed, after the wizard.

Hilda sensed that William was in position and told Kerna that they could lift the top part from the pyramid. As they did so, William used his magic to direct it away and made it crash in a safe spot.

As the wizard flew over the dishevelled area of the pyramid, looking for people, Hilda, Kerna and Rebel proceeded to look for people on the lowest level, but their search was in vain. William signalled to his witch that he had found three people and he was taking them away from the pyramid.

Then the next layer of pyramid was removed, and the procedure was repeated.

"Hilda, you and the others should get out of there," William warned his witch. "This thing is unstable as I ever saw something."

"If we leave, it crashes and kills whoever is still here! Move it, wizard!"

It seemed to take forever, but finally the entire pyramid was empty of living people, except the magical ones inside it.

"Hilda, get the hell out of that thing!" William yelled, using the bond as well as his throat. "Or I come in to get you!"

"Don't you dare! We're coming!"

As the three retreated from the danger zone, more and more of the pyramid collapsed. The debris was kept under control by all four of them.

When they all were in safety, Rebel was near fainting. She had worn herself out quite extensively. She ended up lying on the ground, in the care of Kerna, two cats and Dwey. The fact that the pyramid fell apart right then was hardly an issue now.

"She's going to be fine," William said to Gesmarion, who was also kneeling down with Rebel.

Hilda tapped her wizard on the shoulder. "I think we chose well, William."

"Why?" William asked as he got up and turned to where the witch was looking.

From two pyramids a small flow of people came, led by a few people that had been 'elected' into the new provisionary council for the planet.

"That's great. We chose well indeed, Hilda."

"I could do with coffee," the witch then said. "Can you arrange some food when I arrange some furniture?"

Grim rubbed against witchy legs and uttered a pitiful meow.

"Ohhh, there's my little black girl," Hilda cooed as she picked up the cat. "What did you say?"

With a frown she looked at William. "We need shelter, sweet wizard. It's going to rain again."

40. Progress

Hilda, or perhaps it had been Grimalkin, proved to be correct. The magicals had quickly created some improvised shelter and almost as if the clouds had waited for them, the rain came down as the last person had found a place under the roofs.

"We were lucky that the rain waited," someone said.

"That's how things work," Hilda stated. "Well, sometimes." She looked about and saw a few people from the old High Council. "Hey you, get over here!"

The 'hey you' got over to where the witch was.

Hilda explained what had been happening at the village they had found, and then told them about the new council. "We need to make sure everyone knows about this. Go and spread the word. Just what I told you, no funny additions of your own, do you hear me?"

Only then she allowed herself to sit down on a chair and pick up the coffee and sandwiches that William had arranged for the small group.

"Quite a mess we have here," she commented. "I wonder how long the other three pyramids will last with all that machinery dead and gone."

"Not long," Kerna was certain. "It might be best if we break them down ourselves, at least take the high parts off and see if we can make the lower areas habitable. There are too many people here to make shelters for."

"We can use the top parts to make some more temporary homes then," William added. "But not now."

Everyone agreed. They had been on the go for a long time, and there were enough unharmed people to take care of the others, so there was time for a breather. The magicals knew, however, that they did not have time to waste, as darkness was coming in.

-=-=-

Late at night one of the pyramids had been dismantled. The lower floor was intact, most of the people from the pyramid city could at least spend the night there. For the others, there was space under the quickly made rain-roof, and several others found a place to sleep in the larger shuttles that were nearby.

Hilda and William lay in a large room of the pyramid. They shared it with the new and the old council, Kerna and the two people from the black ship, the Mimosa.

"Wasn't that a day?" William whispered.

Hilda nodded. "It was. I hope we can get all this fixed, William. Adventures are fun, but going home is a good thing too. I need a bath, after all this."

"We all do."

"Yes," the witch agreed, "you start to smell funny."

William knew better than to react to that.

The next day everyone worked together to get more living space set up. In the afternoon a strange shuttle arrived, on board some Lycadeans from another city. They had noticed that there was a problem, while their systems were collapsing as well.

"We may well have a chain reaction going," Rebel thought out loud, after hearing what the new people had to say. "Maybe, if you still have enough power in that thing, you can go and visit a few more cities to see if they have the same problems."

The new arrivals, who had been brought up to speed on the latest changes in the situation of the planet, were somewhat reluctant at first, but they quickly were convinced after seeing the wounded people and the collapsed pyramids.

They promised to check on other villages, but first they said they'd make sure their own people were safe.

Kerna then ordered the pilots of the local shuttles to fly out to villages as well, to see that the situation there was under control.The pilots did not object. They went as they were told.

Day after day pilots came in and flew out again, bringing people who had heard the news. Sometimes Hilda or William would accompany them. Kerna was always going along. Word had spread about the witch from Lycadea, and everyone wanted to see her, hear her. At times also people from the new council would go with a shuttle, to talk about the new things that were planned for the planet.

Hilda, Rebel and William also often visited the distant village, making sure that the people there heard what was going on, and other villages.

-=-=-

After many weeks of continuous working, flying and talking, Hilda declared that their work on the planet was done.

Kerna did not look very convinced, but Rebel and Maurizio, and also the wizard, said that Hilda was right.

The small group sat in one of the new cabin-like homes that was set up for The Witch, near the village where they had originally found the old ones.

"Everything is moving now, Kerna. There are many people now who are supporting the ideas that are started, and slowly it is spreading over the entire planet. We can stay here, but there is nothing more we can do," William said.

"I understand. It's just..." Kerna slowly patted Dwey. "It's just that I have come to like you so much, and I'm so used to having you around, that it is hard to accept you will not be here anymore."

She looked around at the faces of the people who had done so much and who had helped to bring the change about. "I'm going to miss you terribly."

"We'll miss you too, Kerna," said Hilda. "But maybe you will find a cute man here who will wipe you off your broom. Don't give up on that thought."

"It is not that. Well, maybe it is. But I feel like I still have to learn so much."

"You don't have to do everything alone, Kerna. Look at the number of people that will run for you," Maurizio reminded her.

"I know. But they are... not you." Kerna frowned for a moment, then picked up Dwey and looked at the dark face. "We're going to be fine though, aren't we?"

Dwey made a sound. Kerna grinned and put her pet on the floor. "Yes. You are right. You should be going home."

This sudden change in her surprised the witch and the wizard, as it did Maurizio and Rebel.

"When would you like to return to where you came from?"

"Uhm... what?" Maurizio asked the only conceivable question.

"You came from somewhere, didn't you? I can show you where to go, to go back there." Kerna rose to her feet.

"And since when do you know that, Kerna?" Hilda was curious now, Kerna's difference in attitude was amazing.

"I'm not sure. I think it's because of Dwey, but I am not sure of that either."

William looked at their cats. "I think Dwey spent too much time with those two."

Grim and Obsi looked at the wizard. Obsi yawned and pretended to be innocent. Dwey made another sound.

"Are you certain you want to tell us?" Hilda asked as she rose also.

"No, but if I don't do it now, I don't know when I will again," Kerna confessed. "If ever."

The others got up also, understanding that suddenly the moment of saying goodbye had come.

Everyone hugged everyone. Then Kerna draped Dwey over her shoulder and walked out of the cabin, leading the way. She summoned the brooms for everyone, making Hilda proud. It was not easy calling the broom for another witch.

William flew Maurizio, Hilda flew Rebel. They took to the sky and followed Kerna to the mountains where they had lived in the cave for a while.

Hilda started to understand what Kerna had in mind.

The witch who had been no witch steered her broom directly to the entrance of the cave with its reddish glow.

After landing the brooms there, Kerna turned to Hilda. "You know, don't you?"

"I do. It's that strange passage."

Kerna nodded. "You should go now before I change my mind and keep you here." She smiled a feeble, tired and forced smile.

"Yes. We should. Say goodbye to everyone from us, will you? And good luck, kid. Maybe we'll come back someday."

"That would be nice, Hilda. Really nice."

Hilda nodded. "It would be good if you all hold on to each other," she then said to her followers. She took William's hand.

When everyone had joined hands, Hilda walked towards the red glow, the others in tow.

"Hilda?" Kerna said before the witch entered the cave.

"Yes?"

"I'm not a kid."

Hilda laughed. "Whatever you say, kid. Good luck." Then she stepped into the red glow, dragging the others with her.

The walk through the twisting tunnel was much shorter than the first time, because this time Hilda knew the trick. The four people and two cats ended up in the strange red cave. Hilda explained that this was where Kerna and she regained their magic.

"This place sizzles with it," she continued, as now she could feel the real deal.

She searched for the wall of magic that Kerna and she had crossed before while going after the cats, found it and ushered her friends along.

"Now we have to wait until it gets warm," Hilda stated.

They waited, but nothing of the warming kind happened.

"Crappedy crap, am I doing something wrong here? There was heat everywhere, then we found this cold column in the middle, right about there, and then somehow we found this door through which we came into the cave."

William looked at the witch. "Are you sure you are alright, Hilda?"

"Never better, wizard. I'm serious. You saw us coming in through the door! I really would like to have a door like that again, so we can go home."

There was a door.

"Holy Bejeebus!" the wizard exclaimed. The door had appeared right in front of him.

Rebel and Maurizio had to calm down their nerves a bit. Then Rebel asked: "Is that the door that leads into the cave again?"

"I'm not sure. This looks like a different door. I wonder where it leads..." Hilda grabbed the handle and pulled.

"I think you need to push this one, Hilda."

"I know that! Just testing if it's solid." Hilda pushed. The door swung open without any resistance.

Four, no, make that six faces peered through the open door and saw a black void.

"Wrong door perhaps?" Maurizio wondered. Then he sniffed something. "No. Right door."

Before anyone could stop him, the captain stepped through the door. His boots landed on a wooden floor. "This is the deck of the Mimosa." He walked a few steps, vanishing in the dark. "And I see a few stars."

The remaining people near the door heard a crash, a thud and a curse.

"And more stars," Rebel assumed.

41. More stars

Hilda popped up her wand and lit it up. William was right behind her with that. The light showed the pirate captain sprawled out over a roll of rope he had missed - well, actually not - in the dark. The man did not seem to mind his awkward position.

"We're home!" he yelled out. "And where the hell are the guards on this thing?"

"Huh? Wha'?" a sleepy voice said from behind an opening door. "Oh, damn, it's you!"

Behind the man speaking, a decent sea of light spread out over the deck, enough to give the three waiting people the confidence that this was indeed the deck of the Mimosa. As they stepped onto it, the deck lights came on, illuminating the large ship as far as possible, with its black splendour.

"What kind of a bloody mess is this?" Maurizio roared from his undignified position. "No watch on deck? No lights?"

"According to the ship's clock it is daytime, captain, so we did not think we would need a watch." The sailor that had woken up rubbed his face. "You do have a point about the lights."

The captain had worked himself up to his feet.

"So how did you get back here, captain?" the sailor asked, as more crew members arrived on the deck.

"Through that door," Maurizio pointed. Then a surprised expression took over his features. "Where's the door?"

Hilda, William and Rebel turned. The door had vanished, they were standing near the wall of the high deck.

"It's probably late where you came from," one of the sailors said, "people make mistakes then."

"I'm not - uhm - yeah, we should get some sleep," Maurizio attempted to save face.

"And some food," Hilda added. Her wizard agreed with that.

"Yes, that too," Rebel said, as she looked around the ship. "At least this place looks still in order."

They moved through the layers of sailors that had formed and made their way to the strange automatic kitchen. Nothing had changed there.

When they sat at a table in the giant dining room, Hilda said she was relieved that the food on board was a lot better than the mistake for oatmeal the machine on Lycadea had spat out. "At least we had a good wizard cook there to make it edible."

Rebel and Maurizio laughed about that as they dug into their food.

Then Maurizio called the sailors in, to hear how they had gotten through all that time. Big was the surprise when Xander told them that it had only been a few days.

"At least we think it was a few days. Always hard to tell when there is no difference between day and night."

The sailors were then treated to what the magicals, the captain and Rebel had seen and done. By the time all was said and all questions were answered, everyone was seriously tired, so beds were located and sighs of relief were uttered. In one bed the sighs came after a period of other sounds.

-=-=-

The next day they tried to think of ways to get Hilda and William back home.

"Best thing we could have," Maurizio said, "is that we get hit by an asteroid or something."

"That does not sound like the best thing," William objected. "That sounds like we're being destroyed, with the ship."

"This is the Mimosa, remember? It is not just a ship. It plays with asteroids."

"Just a nuisance that asteroids not often want to come and play," Rebel remarked.

"So we have to make something happen," Hilda decided. "I wonder what this ship of yours can do when we give it a little nudge."

"Nudge?" Maurizio's voice conveyed worry. He had seen this witch in action, and her casual use of the word 'nudge' gave him slight reason for distress. "You are not going to nudge the steam system of the Mimosa, Hilda. This is sensitive machinery, exquisite craftsmanship, and should be handled that way."

"Yes, that is why the hammers and chains are there," Rebel chuckled, "and the big wrenches, the heavy protective clothing and the goggles."

William demanded to see the engine room. Maurizio first considered objecting, but seeing how the wizard had saved them a few times, together with Rebel, he gave in and took them below deck.

Close to the big doors they found the huge bulk of the metal man they had seen as they had first come aboard this remarkable ship.

Maurizio looked pleased that the contraption was taken care of well. Then he showed them the engines of exquisite craftsmanship.

Hilda and William were overwhelmed by the number of copper pipes, the gauges and valves. Huge copper barrels with all kinds of shiny metal bits, six in a row, were the propulsion system, according to the captain.

"Those need most of the hammering," Rebel revealed. 'We just don't hit the thin parts, or the bits that look breakable."

"So how does this ship jump?" William asked. "Does it have to do with these things?"

"Maybe." Maurizio sounded very certain about that.

"I don't know either," Rebel said in her defence, as the witch and wizard looked at her.

"Is there some connection from these things to the crystal?" William asked. He was nearing the end of his technical knowledge. That had never been much and living with Hilda had deteriorated it rapidly.

"Could be. We never took the trouble to look at that."

"Aha."

"I think we have to do something with that crystal," Hilda said. "From a distance. I don't want it to whack me a second time. Once was too often already."

Her suggestion made sense, so the four went to the deck again and walked over to the crystal. Several sailors were scrubbing the boards, probably because there was nothing else to do.

"Where did they get the water?" Hilda wondered.

"The kitchen of course," Rebel enlightened the witch.

Hilda grinned and stopped walking. "I think this is as close as I want to get to the thing of doom," she said, eyeing the crystal.

It's circumference softly glowed in the lights of the ship and some of the nearby stars. The crystal looked innocent, dead and large.

"So that is a crystal. Just a crystal?" the witch asked.

"As far as we know it's just a crystal. Well, a big one that can do astonishing things, but it's a crystal," Rebel confirmed. "I checked its structure and that's definitely crystalline."

"Maybe we can use that as a crystal ball," Hilda thought out loud.

"And then? Who would you call with it?" William asked. He didn't understand Hilda's plan.

"That blasted thing got us into this mess, so it'd better be useful in getting us out of it," Hilda displayed her feelings towards the crystal. "If we can turn it into a crystal ball, I could make it connect to the crystal ball at home. At least I think."

"And how do you turn such a thing into a crystal ball?" William asked. He recalled the amount of work and energy Hilda had put in Esmee's ball, at Snow-White's place, and that was a small ball.

The witch said: "Power. Hit it with a lot of power. And then add some magic of the proper kind."

Magic, the magicals knew, would not be the problem. But where would they get sufficient power?

"The engine," Rebel decided. "That delivers tremendous power."

"But we have to get that power to the crystal," Maurizio tried to dampen the enthusiasm.

"So let's see if there are pipes going to it," William suggested, coming back to the idea.

"And then convince the engine to work." Maurizio sounded doubtful.

"We'll see about that." William popped up his wand. "This can be very convincing."

Maurizio frowned for a moment. Then he called out for help and a few sailors came over, curious what their captain wanted. He asked them to check if there were pipes or tubes running from the engine to the crystal. "And if there is nothing of the kind, see if there is a way to put something in place."

The sailors were actually pleased with this assignment. They had been sitting around and do nothing for too long. The men almost ran off to the engine room.

Soon there were sounds everywhere, as more and more sailors scurried beneath the deck searching for any kind of conduit to the crystal. Occasionally a cry of success was heard but most of them ended in a whine as the pipe disappeared somewhere, or a thump when a sailor hit a wall.

But there was some good news. One of the sailors found a line that went from the engine room all the way up to the crystal. It even connected to the pedestal the crystal rested on. There was just a small problem in two parts: the line was thinner than a little finger, and from what the sailor could tell, the line was meant to forward energy -from- the crystal -to- the engine.

"How do you know that? A pipe is a pipe, right?" Hilda wondered.

"There are signs with arrows near it, and they point in the direction of the engine room," the sailor told her. "If you care to take a look, I can show you."

Hilda observed the man in silence, her eyes pointing out the massive amounts of dust all over him. She made her feelings about the invitation very clear. "I only care about arrows when there's an archer with them who's pointing them at me. I say we use that pipe-thing."

Maurizio wasn't so sure if that was a good idea, but he had no alternatives to offer.

"We could see if we can make the engine run and divert some power to the crystal," William offered. "A simple test, and stop when things threaten to go wrong."

"But if they go wrong immediately? Then we're stranded here!"

"I have the distinct feeling that situation is already there, Maurizio."

The captain grumbled. Since their return to the ship he had become very protective of it. "We could wait for something to happen."

"I am not one for waiting. I make things happen."

Maurizio knew that. Hilda was always on the frontline. He gave in. "Let's try it."

"Let's just do it," Hilda corrected him. Then she ordered a few of the sailors around, who ran for her.

"William dear, can you go to that shiny metal room and see if you can make that beast work? I'll stay here and see what happens with the crystal. We can inform each other if something goes awry."

The wizard agreed, and accompanied by Rebel and a few sailors who occasionally operated parts of the equipment he made his way to below deck, to the large steam engine.

Valves were opened, gauges were checked (despite the fact that their needle-fingers did not move), levers were pushed and pulled. In all, it looked as if the sailors knew what they were doing, and they did it well. The only drawback was that they clearly did not manage the crucial part: fire up the engine.

"How does it usually start?" William asked.

"By itself," was the unhelpful answer.

"See," said one of the sailors, pointing at a sign. It showed an arrow, pointing towards one of the large copper barrels. "That is where it gets the power from. I think."

William nodded and looked at the large monster of a machine. His wand in hand, he tried to envision how this thing would look when it worked. He grinned as he sensed impatience from his witch and then pushed the magic to the metal.

"It needs heat," one of the sailors tried to help.

William added heat. For a few moments nothing happened. Then there was a shudder in the wooden floor. Invisible gears crunched, unseen cogs rattled, and then, slowly, large metal beams slowly started moving, pushing inertia wheels round. A soft hiss emerged from one of the boilers as pressure built up.

The wizard drew back his magic. The machines responded by stopping their motion. And the bond with the witch showed him temporary excitement, that fell away as the boilers hissed their last hiss.

"Now look at that," a sailor said, pointing at the arrow on the sign. The direction of the arrow had changed.

42. Tilt

"I think we're on to something," William said. "Hilda was quite happy for a moment."

"You and your magic stuff," Rebel muttered with a grin, "you're scary. I'll pop over and ask what she saw." She disappeared.

"And that's not scary," William commented, to the amusement of some sailors.

Rebel reappeared. "Hilda was bouncing all over. The power flow seems to work, so if you can get that going again, she'll do her trick. And since I am curious and not needed, I'm going to watch her do it!" Only thin air remained where Rebel had stood.

The wizard shook his head and performed his magic trick again. Once more the machinery came to life. The floor trembled lightly as the huge metal hulks settled in their motion. Steam escaped from places, but none of the sailors looked worried, so it would be alright.

Meanwhile, on deck, the witch had her wand at the ready as the huge crystal started pulsating. Spell after spell came from her lips. Mixed with the power the wand gave her, energy swirled around the crystal, blurring it and changing its properties.

The crystal darkened, and suddenly Hilda saw shimmers of her house. "That is where we want to go," she said, loud and clear. "Take us there, thing."

The thing just kept showing her familiar surroundings, while a roaring wind sounded.

"I need more power on this thing," Hilda yelled.

Rebel nodded and popped away to William. She saw the wizard entirely occupied with his magic, so she pushed her powers towards him, linking like she'd done before. "Use this, Hilda needs it."

William was, for a moment, shaken by the sudden extra power. Then he attained a broke or bust disposition and hit the engines with everything Rebel and he could muster. Sailors ran around frantically, turning valves open and keeping scared eyes on gauges that showed all kinds of warnings.

Suddenly William sensed resignation from his witch. This could only mean that whatever she was attempting, it was not going well. "Stop," he told Rebel, "stop."

They released their energy, making the engine slow down.

"Take me to Hilda," William said.

Rebel nodded and popped them to where the witch was standing, her wand-arm extended towards the still pulsating crystal.

"What's wrong?" the wizard asked.

Hilda stood motionless. "It almost worked." She looked at William. "I don't know why it did not work all the way. I was so close."

The witch lowered her arm and slowly walked to the wooden casing that the crystal rested on. "You are one stupid crystal," she said, and kicked the box.

The resonance in the wood of the casing transferred to the crystal, which stopped pulsating and started to sing. The sound was gentle at first, but became louder and louder, to the point where everyone had to cover their ears. A light then came from the centre of the crystal, illuminating the entire Mimosa. It became so bright that each and every person had to squeeze their eyes shut, not to get blinded.

Then there was a sickening feeling, as if the deck tried to fall away from under Hilda's feet. "Crappedy crap!" she hollered, and "William!" She could not reach out for her wizard, as that would allow the shrill sound from the crystal to burst her skull. She was convinced that would happen. At least the bond told her he was still close to her.

The witch worried about the cats and what was happening and how on earth were they going to get home and then there was a heavy rolling of the ship, some shaking and falling over, and then - nothing. No motion, no more screaming of the crystal. The witch carefully released one finger from one ear. There was relative silence. Another finger, and one more, and still no sound of consequence.

Something scratched her nose. Hilda opened an eye and saw Grimalkin's face very close by as the cat licked the witch's nose once again.

"Hey, cat kid," she said as she sat up.

Around her, sailors lay sprawled over the deck, holding ears and closing eyes. William was sitting up as well, looking around and grinning at his witch.

"Seems that we got somewhere after all," he said. "That light is sunshine."

"Suck an elf." Hilda scrambled to her feet and managed to stay upright on the tilted deck. To the lower side she saw... trees. Apparently the Mimosa leaned against them. "Do you have any idea where we are?"

Hilda looked to the sky. It was blue, and here and there was a lost white cloud. At least that was reassuring. Blue skies and white clouds were familiar.

William had also managed to get to his feet. "No, not really. Maybe when we can climb up to the side of this ship."

"Hey sailor folk!" Hilda yelled, "we're clear!"

As the sailors, Maurizio and Rebel found a way to sit up again, a voice said: "Oh. You've returned. I was almost certain it was you."

Hilda looked at William. "Crappedy crap... don't tell me..."

Together they clambered up to the high side of the ship.

The Mimosa lay about fifty feet from their house, and it was the house that had spoken.

"We're home!" Hilda yelled.

"Yes. And had your ship not landed itself further away, you would not have had a home," the house complained.

"Who are you talking to?" Maurizio asked from his sitting position.

"The house!" Hilda exclaimed.

"The... house..." The captain rummaged in his pockets, found his eye patch and adjusted it over his head. "Of course. I should have known. And where are we?"

"Home!"

Rebel and a few sailors had worked their way up to where the magicals and their cats were, and stared at the white and red house.

"That's your house? It's cute," said Rebel. "Small but cute."

"I am not small," the house returned. "I am a proper witch's house."

"It talks! Maurizio, the house talks!"

Not much later, Rebel had levitated everyone off the ship and to the ground. The Mimosa rested rather ungracefully against the trees opposite the house, just as any ship would do with such a tremendous lack of water.

"Looks like your magic worked after all, Hilda," William said as he hugged her. "A bit late, but it did."

"Yes, I know now. I should have used Latin. But damn, I hate Latin." Then the witch looked at the crew of the Mimosa. "Are you people hungry or thirsty?"

The sailors were thirsty, so William and Hilda arranged for benches and tables, and coffee, tea and wine became available in copious quantities. After all, magic was about.

As the party was going, Rebel and William made the Mimosa sit straight up. Normally it would be unnerving to see a ship float on nothing, but the people who were around had seen their share, so nobody worried.

The party ended with a sumptuous dinner, straight from the Mimosa's amazing kitchen, and also very late in the night.

-=-=-

When finally the magicals were in bed, their own bed, Hilda snuggled up to William.

"I'm glad we're home. I know I'm going to miss Kerna for a while. And Rebel. And even Maurizio."

"So will I, sweetwitch. But you never know, maybe we will see them again."

"Would be nice. But then in a more normal way. Not with a ship with a crystal and all that. I hated to be without magic for so long."

William knew what she meant. He had missed the link with her as well, and that had only been the link. He wanted to say something when a loud bang accompanied a bright red flash from outside.

"What was that?" the witch wondered.

"I think Rebel and Maurizio moved on with the Mimosa."

"Already thought so... G'night, wizard."

"G'night, witch."

...

"And what about me?"

"Shut up, house!"

~ ~ ~

All the best from

###

About the author:

I am an IT consultant who loves reading and writing.

I've been an amateur-author since years, writing SciFi, Fantasy and lately also Steampunk. My home is in the Netherlands.

I hope you liked "Hilda - Lycadea".

All other books I published so far:

Hilda the wicked Witch series:

Hilda the wicked witch (Smashwords, July 2010)

Hilda - Snow White Revisited (Smashwords, September 2010)

Hilda - The Challenge (Smashwords, December 2010)

Hilda and Zelda (Smashwords, February 2011)

Hilda - Cats (Smashwords, April 2011)

Steampunk:

Aeroparts Factory (Smashwords, December 2010)

Lily Marin, three steampunk short stories (Smashwords, January 2010)

If you want to connect with me online:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/pagan_paul

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/paulkater

My website: http://www.nlpagan.net