"Oh." Hilda looked sad. "The servant did not
deserve that."
"And who had the bright idea to stick a real
frog in the cabinet in the kitchen?" William asked.
"Harko. He said there were enough frogs in
the pond."
The gardener tried to back out of the
conversation, but a spell suddenly glued his feet to the floor.
"So you think we don't know the difference
between normal frogs and abnormal ones, Harko..." Hilda said,
walking around the gardener. "I assume we have managed to change
your mind about that."
"Yes, honourable witch," Harko mumbled.
"Do any of you know if this servant had a
woman and children or so?" William asked. Lizzy-Belle said that the
man indeed had a wife and two children. "Right. Then there is an
assignment for you two. You two are going to tell them that he's
dead. And we're going to send a few guards with you, to make sure
the job gets done."
Lizzy-Belle and Harko were not pleased. Their
moods deteriorated even more when Hilda went to get the guards and
instructed them. She released Harko's feet and then together with
William she watched how the guards led the people off.
"That's rough," William said.
Hilda nodded. "Yes. But they should have been
more careful with the frog. They knew it was a man's life they were
holding in their hands. Literally."
William put an arm around the shoulders of
his witch. "Come. Let's find the others and tell them."
Hilda leaned against William. "In a moment.
Just hold me for a while, please."
"We have to hurry." Lindolf paced up and down
in the small shed. "I don't know where they got these witches from,
but I have the feeling they are onto us."
Magda, dark circles under her eyes, looked up
at the restless man. "Hurry? Sure. Go ahead. But then count me out.
All this stuff is wearing me out."
"So you need more powerful people to drain?
Tell me how many. Two? Five? A dozen? I'll get them for you. Just
get the job done."
Simi looked hurt. "I am strong enough to get
Magda all the energy she needs, Lindolf."
"Cut it out, both of you. This is hard work
for me. It has nothing to do with energy or hurry, it has to do
with what I can take, do you understand that? I can't find simpler
words for that." Magda sagged deeper in her chair. "These people
are good indeed. I was scared shitless when I hit that bout of
energy they had set up with the rabbit cage."
"How about a head-on confrontation with one
of them? I think the castle witch is the weakest of them. That
might be a way to handle the situation," Simi offered.
"How do you see that happen?" Magda asked.
"From what Lindolf told, the four of them seem inseparable all the
time."
"But not at night when they sleep," Simi
grinned. "If you can get inside the castle and give the castle
witch a surprise, that would make an impression!"
"Half a good plan," Lindolf said. "How do you
think we can get out of the castle again once things are in an
uproar? Do you think the whole guards and the other witches and
such will just sit back when the castle is going wild?"
Magda also wondered about that, but she was
not in the mood to spend more energy than needed.
"The castle witch has a room only one floor
up. I am sure that an escape through the window is possible. Our
cat has jumped higher places than that," Simi pointed out.
"Yeah," Magda had to put in, "but at what
cost. Almost broke something, and some days of pain that we could
not explain."
"If we plan this well," Lindolf thought out
loud, "we may have something to go with. I know a few people that
work in the castle and the stables. If I pull some strings and be
quick about it, we could get the surprise out this night, or
tomorrow."
"Tomorrow night," Magda said. "We're not
doing anything this night. I have to recover. And we should make
sure Santera is up for this also. Where is she anyhow? I used the
stones on her a few times, she should be here as well."
"Santera is sleeping, outside. You little
magical stones worked to call all of us, but she looked very worn
out," said Lindolf. "Want me to wake her up and bring her in?"
Magda nodded. "Might be the best thing. We
have to make sure everyone knows what we're going to do."
-=-=-
Evening fell. It did so very silently, as
usual. Still it woke up Hilda and William. The witch prodded her
wizard. "Wake up."
"I am awake," he muttered, "and you know
that. So stop prodding me."
Hilda sat up. "But I like prodding you," she
said with a fake pout.
"Not impressed," said the wizard as he got
up. "I'm going to take a bath."
"Take me too?" Hilda asked with a hopeful
look on her face.
William grinned. "Sure. Why not." He grabbed
her and threw her over his shoulder, ignoring her shriek of
surprise.
When they were at the table, together with
Esmee and Babs, the old witch kept staring at the couple. Hilda
stared back. "What's up, Babs? I'm not wearing anything of your
stuff, right?"
"No, you're not my size. But please wipe that
smug smile from your face, Hilly. I don't even want to know what
Willy did to you, but it is in our best interest that you don't
walk around like an advertisement for it."
"Our interest?" Esmee wondered.
"Yes," said Babs. "If they keep that up, I
lose interest, and you are all with me, so there." She was clearly
satisfied with the way the other three looked lost, trying to make
sense of that explanation. "Having made my point this way, let's
focus on this evening." She picked up the leg of a chicken and
nibbled it at an astonishing speed. Less than a minute later she
put down the clean bones. "We three ladies are going to scout the
premises. William will do the forests. I doubt that the village
will be targeted twice in row."
Hilda scowled at her bestest girlfriend. "You
like being in charge, don't you?"
"Yes." Whatever people could say of Baba
Yaga, she was honest. "Oh. Esmee. We have to arrange something for
you."
"What would that be, Baba Yaga?" the witch
asked.
Babs popped up her wand. "Supparum niger,"
she said. "That." All of Esmee's pink clothes had turned black.
"Makes you look more like one of us. And don't even think of
turning it back."
"She loves being in charge," William
explained to Esmee, who looked at her dark outfit in terror.
The four of them left the table, picked up
their brooms and sauntered over to the table where the assembled
royalty was dining. "Hi," Baba Yaga said, "we'll be out and about
tonight. Please advise your guards that they should not take shots
at us while we're doing what we're doing. Things like that tend to
annoy us."
King Louie asked what they were going to do
exactly. He frowned as Hilda said that they did not know exactly.
"We're going to scout the area. See if we can find the mystery
prowler. Since it only strikes at night, being out at night is the
best time, we think." The king could see reason in that. He called
over a servant and instructed him to instruct the head of the guard
to instruct the guard that they should leave the witches alone. And
the wizard. As the servant darted off, William thanked the king and
then they went on their way.
"Good thinking, Babs," Hilda said as they
walked to the castle entrance which doubled as an exit. "Hey,
'Smee, coming? Got a pimple?"
Esmee was standing in front of a large
mirror, looking at her new lack of colours. "No, Hilda. But when I
look at myself, it is as if something is missing." The three joined
Esmee and looked her over.
"Looks fine to me," Babs said. Hilda agreed
with her.
"No, I think I know what she means. Let me
have a go, Esmee. It won't hurt," said William. With some carefully
applied magic he first put thin pink and purple braids in Esmee's
hair. He stepped back. "No... not ready yet." More magic was
applied. Esmee's thin blond eyebrows turned black. Then a black
pattern appeared on the witch's forehead, as if it was a tribal
tattoo. Dark red eyelids completed the picture. "You're a Goth
witch now," William declared, satisfied with what he'd done. He
stepped to the side.
Esmee stared at her new appearance. She
touched her forehead and a grin came on her lips. She moved closer
to look at her eyes. She mumbled something, and her lips turned
black.
"Good grief, William," Baba Yaga muttered,
"what is that?"
"Call it a small surprise," William said.
"There are people who walk around like that in the world where I
came from."
Esmee grinned a big grin now. "I like this,
William, thank you." She had changed the inside of her black cloak
to blood red. "I'm ready. Let's go outside and do this."
Hilda took William by the arm. "You will
never put things like that in my hair, do you hear me? Nor on my
face. If you just think about it, I'll know, and I'll do things to
you that you will not like. I hope this was clear, sweet
wizard."
"Somehow, Hilda, I think that you do not need
something like that to boost your witchy personality."
"Oh. Is that what it is? Well, we'll see,"
she said.
Then, as they had reached the terrace in
front of the castle, they mounted their brooms. "Say, where are
your hairballs?" Baba Yaga asked, pointing at the empty spots on
the brooms.
"Grim and Obsi were sleeping when we came
down. We'll leave them," Hilda explained.
"Grim. Obsi." The old witch shook her head.
"Think of proper names for them, Hilly. Now let's go."
Four brooms lifted off. Three swerved around
the castle. William set course to the forests.
When finally they met up again, the sun was
rising and the castle and its surroundings bathing in warm orange
light, they had come up with absolutely nothing.
"This was not satisfying," William muttered.
"Do you know how dull forests look in the dark? And no matter how
often you go over them, it doesn't improve."
Hilda nodded. "Same goes for lawns, fountains
and flower beds."
"Suck an elf, people, this was the first time
we did it like this," Baba Yaga, "next night will be
different."
"Yeah, boring from the very start, I guess,"
William agreed.
Esmee was the only one that looked something
close to pleased. "It's a matter of making things interesting," she
stated. "There is one guard who is never going to call me a bat
again." With that she strolled off, floating her broom behind her
just because she could.
"What was that all about?" William had the
feeling he had missed out on something.
"I think changing her clothes and your
painting her face changed more than just her appearance, William,"
said Baba Yaga. "We were flying over the little house where the
guards are when they're not out walking around and doing nothing. A
few of them were outside, and one of them did call my little
protegé a bat."
William shivered. Had Baba Yaga just called
Esmee 'her little protegé'?
"So Esmee went down to the man and stared at
him. That's basically all," the old witch shrugged.
"Yeah, that and the fact that Esmee plopped a
spell on him that changed his ears into bat wings," Hilda added the
details that Babs had left out.
"Esmee did that?" William suddenly felt the
need to worry. "Any chance we can undo what we did to her?"
"Now why would you want to do that, Willy?"
Babs wanted to know. "It's about time that she gets some pepper up
her behind. Now let's get some sleep. We'll meet again in the
evening. Or afternoon." She walked to the entrance of the large
stone building, then turned. "And if you two feel the need to share
the bath again, be a bit quieter about it."
Hilda looked at William as he looked at her.
"Whoops..."
Daytime came to the land of King Louie. It
had also come to the lands that were not King Louie's, as that was
the way daytime did its business. It poked around in every corner
of the kingdom, looking for witches and a wizard. Daytime really
did its best, it spent all day looking, but in the end it packed
its bags and left, probably disappointed.
Two black shapes ran from the castle dining
hall. They were followed by four black shapes. The former were of
course Onyx Grimalkin and Obsidian Shadow. When their humans
finally arrived with the brooms, they were already pacing around,
tails twitching.
"Your pooches are impatient," Baba Yaga
stated, pointing at the two black cats.
"Dogs are pooches, Babs, these are cats,"
Hilda said.
"Your pooches are impatient," Baba Yaga
stated once more. "We'd better go. Same routine as last night, as
we agreed."
"Yes, as you decreed," William said as he
hopped onto his broom.
"Looks as if your pooches are staying in
again tonight," Baba Yaga said.
"Looks like it, indeed," Hilda had to agree,
as the two cats walked off. "They came to see us off, of
course."
Babs refrained from comment, and then four
brooms took off. William left the formation and swung away towards
the village. The witches would take care of the castle grounds
again, and also survey part of the forest around them.
"I am curious what we'll find this time,"
William said to himself. "Maybe there actually is something this
time."
Esmee asked Hilda if the tattoo she had put
on her face was really overdone. "You commented on that all
evening!"
"Yes. The one William did on you yesterday
looked nice, in a way. You've gone a few bits too wild, Esmee. I'll
tell William to give you some lessons. I don't know where he picked
up that tattoo business, but I have to say he has a feel for
it."
As the tattoo conversation was taking the
witches further and further from the castle, at that very castle a
dark shape was moving closer. On soft, padded paws it stole along
the thick walls where the flickering lights of candles cast dancing
shadows on many of the windows. The large main entrance was
unguarded, as usual. The creature stopped short of the entrance,
twitching its ears to catch any sound. It sniffed the air for
smells that should not be there. And it stared at the opening.