Hilda - The Challenge (48 page)

Hilda nodded and in silence she shrunk their
luggage, after which William slipped that in his pocket. "Did
anyone find out who the killer is?", she asked the soldier as they
walked out of the suite and down the corridor.

"No, he has not been found yet. But we will
find him." The soldier also had been instructed to remain
impersonal.

When they arrived at their carriage, they
were greeted by Captain Lambert and the rest of the group. No trace
of Lamador, or King Herald and his spouse, Queen Warda. The soldier
who had taken them out of the castle handed a scroll to Hilda, the
text of which cleared them of any accusation that was made against
them previously.

The trip home went uneventfully, unless a
thunderstorm was to be considered an event. Once they had left the
land of King Herald, they dared to talk about their thoughts
concerning the murder of Tudris.

"I am convinced that this is all a setup of
Lamador's," said Hilda, "as a display of force what he can get away
with. Sort of in front of our faces even."

William understood. It filled him with a very
unpleasant feeling all of a sudden, about the upcoming challenge.
If Lamador was the kind to be so bold and brutal with the brother
of his king, then he would not hesitate to pull even worse tricks
on them.

Hilda reached for his hand and squeezed it.
"It seems that you are beginning to learn about Lamador at a very
rapid pace now, my sweet man."

"Am I that obvious?", William asked.

"I have that feeling thing inside me,
remember?" Hilda snuggled up to him, allowing him with all kinds of
pleasure to wrap an arm around her. "And I am glad about that. It
is good to be with you."

William nodded. "Yes, it is good to be with
me, I agree."

"Oh, you!!"

Captain Lambert, who rode along next to the
carriage, worried about the strange noises that came from its
inside which were accompanied by some serious rocking of the
vehicle. He wondered if he should halt the convoy to see what was
happening...

The carriages and the horses clattered into
the palace yard. Messengers had gone ahead already, informing King
Walt that the two honourable magical people were on their way,
cleared of all accusations.

William, and even Hilda, was impressed by the
reception that was waiting for them. There was a large musical
band, which surprised William as it seemed to have more members
than he had seen in the whole land so far. A long line of tables
was put out, all laid very nicely, laden with food and glasses. The
king himself and also the queen were there. King Walt had arranged
for the musical band to be quiet for a while, so William could meet
his wife. No music meant she'd be able to stand still, as the
magical shoes were as ever on her feet and not going anywhere
else.

The guards who had been in the escort were
all treated as heroes, their comrades making an honorary row to
welcome them back. The carriage that transported Hilda and William
was welcomed in the same manner, which was quite the experience for
the wizard.

"Don't show them that you are tickled purple,
William," Hilda warned him. "We're magical, we are supposed to be
used to this."

"Are you?", William asked her.

"No, of course not. What are you thinking?"
Hilda grinned. "I am just a great actress. Watch me."

The carriage stopped and someone came running
to open the door for them. They left the carriage and were led up
to where King Walt and his wife were waiting to officially welcome
them back into the country. Hilda later commented on that, that she
thought the whole thing a bit silly as they flew in and out of the
country quite a lot and nobody ever seemed to notice that.

King Walt welcomed them back and introduced
them officially to his wife, Queen Velma. Of course, Hilda already
knew her better than she cared to, but not to disappoint the king
she played along. Queen Velma was quite calm and reserved, trying
to hold back her displeasure at once more seeing the wicked witch,
who had so effectively hindered her so proficiently in dealing with
King Walt's daughter.

William tried to be as calm and relaxed as he
could, although the entire spectacle drew his attention to all
places at once. After the official part was over, the queen walked
off as quickly as she could, because she was certain that Walt
would not hold the music off much longer. She was right: the last
yards into the castle she crossed dancing, much to the delight of
Hilda and the king.

Then the guests were asked to tell the king
about what had happened and how they had managed to return, as the
original letter from King Herald had sounded very threatening. On
the way home they had already decided that it would be best if
Hilda were to handle that one, as it was bound to come up. The
audience gasped for air at all the right moments, as Hilda told
about the confrontation with the king and his brother, and also as
they learned about the untimely death of Tudris.

King Walt did not ask anything about the
challenge they were facing still, as that was not something that
had to be discussed or even mentioned in public. That was witchy
business and it ought to stay that way.

The feast that ensued made all the hassle and
unpleasantness of the past week fade to the background, and in the
evening Hilda as well as William were very glad they were brought
to their house by carriage again. Flying would have been highly
risky as wine had been flowing liberally. Hilda had done her best
to water it down; at a certain point she had even started doing
that for William. There were however glasses that slipped through
the watering down process as the party progressed...

"Okay, so now we are going to do this
together, William," said Hilda. They were standing in front of the
chained-up house. "Let's see what we can do here."

They both were swaying on their feet. The
carriage had dropped them off and left. The magical couple had
created several dozen floating, light-emitting balls that hung
around them. Even witches and wizards need some light, after
all.

William, grinning like an idiot, pointed his
hand at the iron mass like Hilda did. Wands did not want to appear
in the hands of drunk magical ones, to avoid incredible disaster.
"Okay, sweetwitch, got that. Now what, before I fall over?"

Hilda giggled, holding on to William as she
was far from sober as well, and therefore in for a bad morning.
"Now you will the iron away. Just go make it poof and away and -
well, you know!"

"Oh, you mean like..." - William waved his
hand - "...poof."

The house was still covered in iron
chains.

"No, silly man, like this..." Hilda waved her
hand. "Poof."

The house was still covered in iron
chains.

"That's what I did," William muttered, "you
know nothing." He tried it again, with the same result.

"Well, at least I know more nothings than you
do, silly man," Hilda flared up. She snipped her fingers and the
iron chains were gone. "See? Now you apologise and you have to
carry me inside."

"Okay, okay, I will apologise for carrying
you inside," William agreed, picking her up as he spoke.

"That's better," Hilda mumbled, folding her
arms around his neck and treating William to a wet and sloppy
kiss.

With a proper amount of effort William made
it to the door that opened by itself. The house refrained from
comments. It was certain there would not be responses it could take
seriously, so better to forego the whole thing until perhaps the
morning after.

After a lot of stumbling and laughing from
inside the house, the night finally attempted to settle over the
magical location, ignoring the floating bright globes that the
witchy couple had forgotten to extinguish.

"Wand... need wand..."

Several moments later: "Ahhhhh... Never,
never again. Help me remember." Even more moments later: "Hey, did
you hear me?"

"Urgh... stop trying to kick me out of
bed..."

"Get your wand, William, that can fix the
hurting head." Hilda promptly felt sorry for kicking him. Magic and
alcohol did not mix, and it was obvious now that magic was taking a
more prominent place in William's being. He had not gone through
this before, and was going through the mother of all hangovers.

William's hand appeared over the covers. His
wand appeared. "And next?"

Hilda pointed the tip of his wand to where
his head probably was. "Now just ask for the pain to go away."

"Okay..." A few seconds of nothing. "Holy
Bejeebus. It works." William sat up and grinned. "You're
amazing."

"Just you remember that, William Connoley."
Hilda winked, and let herself fall back on her pillow. "So I have
done the good thing. Your turn now. Food. Lots of it."

William laughed as he saw her self-satisfied
face. Before he could get up though, she grabbed his arm.

"Stop. Lots of good morning kisses first.
Goes so well with breakfast."

William agreed, so it took a while before
they were drinking tea and eating assorted goodies.

Suddenly Hilda said: "I guess you're
right."

"Eh? Right? I didn't say anything." William
looked across the table without understanding her remark.

"No, but you thought something and I am
afraid you are right."

"Oh. Right. It's the feely thing, isn't it?"
William understood and shivered. How she did that was uncanny. The
fact that Hilda grinned over his new feeling did not make him feel
any better.

"I'm sorry, William, I won't tease you any
more. But not any less either."

Her laughing made him feel good again. He
loved it when she laughed. "So you agree then. We should pay
another visit to Gurthreyn."

"Yes. The first time together was scary. I
think going there again will help. Somewhat." Hilda slowly
continued eating after that.

They went out to do the rounds together, as
by now had become usual. This time the shepherds were their target
of mischief again. Hilda and William worked together to make all
sheep float away from their field and put them down again about
half a mile away. The shepherds were thankful they got off so easy
this time. The time they had ended up with coloured sheep had been
a less funny one, even though the magical ones had arranged to make
the colours wash off. After a while.

"So when do you think would be a good time to
go to Gurthreyn?", Hilda asked as they were lazing a bit in the
sun, on their sun chairs.

"Hmmm... a good time... I have a distinct
feeling that there is no such thing as a 'good time' for that. But
in a few days would be good, I reckon. After we rest up from this
weird trip to Heraldion."

Hilda nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Resting is
good. I feel lazy... could you snip your fingers for more tea?"

William sighed. "Lazy witch..." He snipped
his fingers and their cups were refilled. "I hope that's to your
liking, your witchiness."

Hilda glared at her cup. "Are you sure that's
the same tea I had before?"

"Hardly, dear. That's inside you
already."

The wicked witch cast a nasty look at
William. "You are lucky I love you. People have died for less."

William grinned, patted her head and said:
"Good witch, no grumping. Just drink tea and enjoy sunshine,
okay?"

Hilda magicked up a big smile, closed her
eyes and nodded. "Will do. So pipe down."

Her comment caused the opposite: William
roared for laughter after that, and she lay laughing at least as
hard.

The house sighed, while the goldfish on
Hilda's cup were lost for words.

Over the next few days, William kept studying
the texts about the magician Gurthreyn, trying to come up with
clues about the man and the place. Sometimes he'd read passages to
Hilda out loud. Maybe she would hear something in his words that he
kept missing. But she didn't. The only reaction it evoked from her
was a sigh and the question why on earth he was bothering with all
that, as so far nothing had come out of it.

"William, you start to worry me."

"And why is that?" William paged through the
scrolls again.

"You're obsessed with Gurthreyn."

"I want to be prepared. That's
different."

"Sure looks the same to me, William."

"Looks can be deceiving, my lovely little
Gurthreyn."

For a moment Hilda stared at him, then burst
out laughing. "Damn you, stupid wizard, even though I sensed you
were going to tease me, I fell for that and was going to hurt you!!
Arrgh!!" She ran over to William, who was sitting at the table, and
started batting him over the head, screeching as a real witch.

William laughed as he tried to ward off her
avalanche of hits. Even though they were not hard, there were very
many of them, as Hilda was a very agile person with perfect
eye-hand coordination.

"And now I demand that you put that stuff
aside and come with me. We're going to the village, for some
shopping."

"We go... shopping?" The utterly mundane
concept of shopping had so far never crossed Hilda's lips, nor had
it William's mind.

"Uhuh. Come on, sweet man, I am sure you are
familiar with the concept?" Hilda frowned, looking at him. "You
must have gone shopping in that insane world of yours."

"Of course. But I have been here since months
now and you have not once brought up shopping in that time. Please
allow me to be confused for a moment."

"Certainly," Hilda smiled, "but now the
moment has passed, so you are ready to come with me. Hop hop."

"And do we need to dress up for that?",
William asked.

"No need, and really no use either. People
will recognise us anyway."

They went outside, brooms in floating
tow.

"Now, house, you be good. We won't be gone
for long, I guess, so no need to chain you up. Okay?" Hilda patted
the wall next to the door.