Hilda - The Challenge (53 page)

A sudden gust of wind extinguished the flame
on the torch.

"Well I'll be danged," said William, lighting
the thing again. At that moment the howling also stopped. "I doubt
that my saying that caused it to stop."

Hilda laughed. "I am convinced of that, dear
man, but it certainly was funny!"

They reached the bottom of the stairs. To the
left and right they saw a long corridor, torches burning in regular
intervals.

"Now that is odd," William muttered. "Why did
our torch go out and these remained lit? I'd almost think that
there was something down there that deliberately went for our
torch."

Hilda raised her hand. "Ssshh.." She pointed
her wand into the left corridor.

William saw how hard she was concentrating on
something. The bond made that even more clear. The amount of energy
she was putting into it was scaring William; he had no idea that
such a small woman could harbour so much power.

"Something's here. Or was here recently." She
sounded very certain. Slowly the witch turned to the other corridor
and probed that with all the energy she had at her disposal. It
almost seemed to sparkle around her in the relative darkness of the
place where they were. Then, suddenly, a faint smile appeared on
her face. "I think I got it." She started walking, William close
behind her as he had no clue what she had done, was doing or even
was going to do.

"Oh yes, I got it," said Hilda as she started
walking faster. Suddenly though, she stopped. "Oh... crap..."

Something appeared to come from inside a
wall, it looked like a shadow, and it came towards them very fast.
Somehow, as it was right in front of them, it seemed to come to a
dead halt, and then they were treated to a howling sound so loud
and forceful that it literally blew them off their feet. Hilda
toppled over, William got blown against a wall and fell down along
that. The howl continued for a while longer, and this time, as it
was coming from so close, it actually hurt their ears. Then the
shadowy shape fell silent again and disappeared into another
wall.

As Hilda got up and slapped dust and other
irregularities from her dress, she grinned. "Ha, see, I got
you!"

William also got to his feet. "It somehow
looks to me that it got us, sweetwitch."

"Puh. It wouldn't have if I hadn't gotten it
first. I'm sure of that. I think." The witch walked to the part of
the wall where the shadow had disappeared into and knocked on it.
"Hey, come out. I want to talk to you."

Whatever the shadow was, it did not respond
to the name Hey. It remained invisible.

"Well, at least we now know what's causing
the noise," said Hilda, a satisfied look on her face.

"We do?" William felt a bit left out of
things.

"Sure, we do. It's just a ghost. Nothing
more."

"Oh. I see. Just a ghost. So who you're gonna
call?" The joke was lost on Hilda.

"Dear William," she said as she turned to him
and folded her fingers behind his neck. "We are called for this,
remember? There was this chubby man with the crown that sent us a
message about it. Does that ring a bell?"

"Yes, it does. You have a talent for making
things so understandable for me." William folded his arms around
her and lifted her up just far enough for their lips to touch.

That was the moment that Hey had selected to
make another appearance. The shadow shot from the wall, forced
itself against them and howled them to the ground once again,
blasting their eardrums. It was a relief for them when finally the
howling ghost stopped its noise and whooshed off into a wall
again.

Hilda, lying on top of William, shook her
head. "Damn. That was loud." She got to her feet. "Lying comfy
there, or shall we go up again and tell the king what we
found?"

"You, witch, are terrible," said the wizard
as he rose from the floor.

"I know. And you love me for that." She
looked at him. "Don't you?"

"I'll tell when we're upstairs again, is that
a deal?" William looked over his shoulder, to where the ghost had
disappeared. "Not really ready yet to be a ghostbuster."

"Okay. Come. Up we go then."

Hand in hand they went up the stairs, after
William had picked up the torch he had dropped at the first assault
of the ghost.

As they had exited the cellar, Hilda turned
to William. "Okay, now tell me."

He put his hands lightly on her shoulder, and
then the howling started again. "Yes, I love you for everything you
are. And I am glad we're away from that cellar."

"So am I. But we'll be going back there to
get that ghost and talk some sense into it. Now, however, we'll go
find the king."

As they walked down the long corridor, the
howling started again.

They found King Walt alone in the room where
they had left him. As they came in, he took a bunch of cotton from
one ear, to check if there was no howling.

"You are back. Did you catch whatever it
was?"

"Nope, not yet. But we did find out what it
is. It's a ghost. A rather unhappy one, I think, he sounds quite
lonely. Have you ever had problems with ghosts before?", Hilda came
straight to the point.

"Ghosts? We have no ghosts here! This is a
castle!", the king exclaimed. At that point the howling started
again, so he quickly put his cotton in place again.

When it was over, Hilda waved at him and
nodded.

"As I said, we have no ghosts here." King
Walt sat down and offered the magical couple a chair.

"Well, looks like you got one now, King,"
said William. "We saw it up close. It's there alright."

"What we don't know is how it got here,"
Hilda added. "Did anything change here, recently? Did new people
come to the palace? Have you opened doors or such that have always
been closed?"

King Walt was very quick in slapping the
cotton in his ear again as the howling started.

"This is not going to get us anywhere fast,
Hilda," William commented. "I think we should go outside and try
talking to him there. This howling is affecting him too much."

Hilda nodded. "I'll tell him we have to go
outside once our ghost pipes down again."

As the ghost stopped its wailing, their
suggestion was accepted by the royal man and they moved to a small
spot in one of the gardens, where a tent-like construction
stood.

"Right. This is better. So, did you open
anything?", Hilda repeated her question.

"Not that I know of. But I don't know what
all the people here in the castle are doing," King Walt confessed.
"Somehow there seem to be more and more people here, they're all
busy with something, and who knows where they come from."

"Does not sound like anyone's in control of
this place, does it?" William shook his head.

"Velma is in charge of most things
personnel," Walt said. "Ever since she's had the shoes, she's
become more helpful around the house. I have to say that for
her."

"I see. I think we should have a word with
the queen then. Perhaps she knows something..." Hilda frowned.

More and more people came into the yard and
the gardens, as word had spread that outside was the place to be
for the moment. People were actually building some tents, even
though these would hardly offer enough space for all the servants
and other people who had their duties in and around the court.

The queen was located quite quickly. She was
outside in a garden also, staying away from the large building with
the horrible howling still going off at short intervals.

"Queen Velma?" Hilda walked up to her. "We
have to talk with you."

The queen was not used to direct approaches
like this, but from magical people she had to accept it. They were
different. Dangerous.

They asked her about the staff in the palace.
About new people, strange people, unpredictable people.

"Oh my," said the queen. "I am afraid I can't
help you with all those things. I tell Walt that I am taking care
of this, but I generally move all that complicated stuff to
Marigold, who then shares the work with Brea, Gordon, Nelson,
Theobald and Lisette."

"God help us all," said William. He dreaded
an even wider web of people who were all doing the same thing as
the queen. They might end up searching a haystack in which no
needle of significance was buried.

Hilda blinked a few times. "No deal there,
William. We do things ourselves. We're going back and see if we can
talk some sense into this one."

"If we can find it."

Hilda grinned. "That's not a problem. It will
find us. Thanks, Queen Velma. Enjoy your stay here." She got up,
took William by the sleeve and dragged him along. "Let's go and do
it. Another performance of the magical and powerful."

They entered the now nearly empty castle.
Their footsteps bounced off every wall as they found their way to
the cellar. There, torch in hand, they opened the door and walked
down the stairs again. The occasional howl of the ghost had not
bothered them very much as they had gone through the long
corridors, but here, in the lower level, there was an almost solid,
tangible feeling of threat. There was also a howl again.

The ghost raced past them, jumping from one
wall to the other, as it made its terrible sound.

Hilda looked at it go as the ghost went
slaloming through the corridor, jumping from wall to wall as it
went further away from them. She shrugged, and to William's
surprise she took her wand and made a table and two chairs appear.
"Can you make us the coffee? I really could do with some," she said
as she smiled and sat down.

William sat down, got his wand out and made a
big pot of coffee, and with it 2 cups, sugar and cream. "Here we
go. I doubt that we will make the ghost happy with a cup."

Hilda laughed as he poured them a good cup of
the dark stuff.

There was silence in the corridor for a
remarkably long time.

"Do you think the smell of the coffee chased
it off?", William asked.

"No way. Ghosts can stand smells that even
you and I can't. I think that what we're doing is working."

"Oh, hey, that's great. What are we doing?"
The wizard would really like to know, since he was part of it.

"We're making it curious."

"Oh, of course." William was puzzled. How
would making a ghost curious help them catch it?

"Who said anything about catching it?" Hilda
had become very proficient at reading their link. "We'll first make
it curious. That is enough to begin with."

"Okay. And if it is not getting curious?",
William asked.

"Then we have to switch to the second plan,"
Hilda smiled.

"Which is?"

"Yours."

"Uhm. I'd drink to that, but then I need
something stronger. A lot stronger." William emptied his cup and
poured fresh rounds. "Still no peep." He was served right then and
there.

The ghost popped into existence next to him
and howled in his ear.

"Holy Bejeebus," said William, whose
protection had jumped in this time and protected his ears. "What
kind of behaviour is that to welcome visitors." He stared at the
fuzzy shape that disappeared into the wall behind him a few
heartbeats later.

"I think we got him," Hilda whispered and
winked. "And I would like a cookie too."

"She would like a cookie." He waved his wand.
A box of cookies appeared. "Here we go. Cookies."

Hilda opened the box. "Oh!!! Chocolate!!!
Good thing that ghosts don't eat chocolate cookies."

A howl echoed through the corridor, but this
one was less convincing than the previous ones.

"Did you hear something?", Hilda asked her
wizard.

"Hear? What? No, must have missed it,"
William played along. "More coffee?"

"Oh, yes. Please." Hilda held up her cup, and
the ghost appeared again. It did not howl. It just seemed to
observe what these silly people were doing in its corridor.

The ghost floated at about two yards distance
from the table, close to the wall. It almost looked as if it wanted
to make sure it had a getaway spot.

Hilda and William knew it was there, they
just did not pay any attention to it. They drank more coffee and
almost cleaned out the box of cookies, and all that time the ghost
hovered near them. Then Hilda looked at it. "Oh. Look. A
ghost."

William looked at it too. "Really. A ghost.
Amazing. Want me to make more coffee, or should we go? Or do you
have another suggestion?"

"Well, he's not adding much to the
conversation, so we could just as well pack up," Hilda
shrugged.

The ghost howled. Somewhat.

"As I said, he's not adding much to the
conversation." Hilda got up. "Can you take care of the
furniture?"

"Of course." A swing with a wand later, the
chair, tables and coffee stuff were gone. William held out his
hand, and together they walked up the stairs. A thundering howl
followed them, and the ghost shot up and down the corridor like
crazy.

"So, what was all that acting?", William
asked after they had returned to the ground floor of the castle
again. The howls of the ghosts were almost continuous now.

"I wanted to anger it." Hilda patted the
door. "And it looks like we succeeded." A big, satisfied smile was
on her face.

"Great, so now we have an angered ghost in
the cellar. And the next logical step in this is?"

"We leave it there for a while, and then we
go back. It won't have a clue how long we were gone. Ghosts have no
sense of time. And then we'll see if it wants to talk."

"Talk. The ghost."

"Yes," nodded Hilda, "you catch on very
quickly, William." Tiptoeing, she kissed his cheek. "Come, let's go
for a walk and look at the bad paintings here."

The couple returned from their walk quite
quickly. The amount of bad paintings was more than they could take.
There was the occasional howl from the ghost, but that was hardly
impressive anymore.