William looked at the face of the petite
grey-haired woman. He smiled as he wrapped his arms around her and
gently pulled her close. "Grimhilda, you witch," he then said, "I
love you."
"And you have to wait until we are in a
forest with two cats watching before you tell me?"
"Want me to do that in front of Babs and
Esmee instead?"
"Don't even think about that," Hilda told him
as she leaned into him and basked in the hug.
When finally William let her go, they turned
their attention to the lock. Hilda worked a lot of magic on the
metal, so it would listen to her. "Telling something stupid like a
lock to do what you want is difficult," she explained to William.
"It's basically just a lump of metal that does nothing without its
key." Suddenly the lock seemed to shake on its own, and from inside
it came a sorry sounding rattle. "Ah, got you," Hilda said,
satisfied. She picked up the lock, handed the chain to William and
suggested they'd get on their brooms and see where the lock would
take them.
-=-=-
As the witch and the wizard were on their
way, flying over the leaves of the trees, underneath these same
leaves a small taskforce of two was making its way to the castle,
with Lindolf not far behind them.
Jock laboriously paced through the forest, at
times staring at the cat woman who was always close to him. Lindolf
had told him what to do and Jock was going to do that. Lindolf had
always been good to Jock, and that way the vile merchant could
count on the help and support of this strong man without a moment
of hesitation.
Santera had reluctantly agreed to be turned
into the cat woman again. "This will be the last time," Lindolf had
said, "and if you cooperate, both women here will still be able to
talk to you when it is all over." The sight of the long sharp
dagger he'd held had been very convincing. The young woman was glad
that Magda was not pushing her to do things. Lindolf had urged
Magda to take over Santera's mind completely, but the half-witch
had not done that. Lindolf probably did not know that.
The cat woman did not feel confident with
Jock around. Lindolf had talked to the man, and Jock had nodded as
if he understood everything, but Santera knew that Jock was hard to
fathom. With all the understanding he displayed he could just as
well forget everything after a minute. Only the fact that he was
going in the right direction even when he walked in front of her
gave her some feeling that things might actually go well. Even
though Santera did not like Lindolf, she was almost glad that he
was not far behind them.
They were not far from the castle now. Jock
had better stop making so much noise, Santera thought. If he kept
that up, the guards would be alarmed while they were more than a
mile away.
-=-=-
"Sit down, Esmee. You're making me nervous."
Baba Yaga looked at the young witch who was pacing around the room.
"What's wrong with you?"
Esmee did not stop going round as she said:
"There is something... I don't know. Something restless inside me,
and I don't know where it comes from. Nor what I can do to stop
it."
"Then park your butt in a chair, have a glass
of wine and stop getting on my case. And if you need some help with
that, I'll gladly assist." Babs already had her wand at the ready
when Esmee suddenly stood still and stared at the window. "Now
what?" Esmee's sudden change worried Baba Yaga more than had she
kept pacing.
"She's out there," the flower witch gave a
puzzling answer.
Hilda and William reached the village. Hilda
had the lock in her hand and felt how it pulled more and more. It
was almost childplay to follow where it wanted to go.
In the forest, Santera and Jock had reached
the castle. They saw the high thick walls with the openings for the
archers, the portcullis that had not been used in ages and the
drawbridge that probably never would be hoisted up again for the
same reason. Jock looked at the cat woman Santera was not certain
if he actually wanted to ask her something, or if he was just
waiting for her to make the first move. Lindolf had made it clear,
at least to her, that Jock should start the 'invasion'. Her sharp
hearing told her that Lindolf was still moving forward, he'd be
soon with them.
Esmee had walked to the window and looked
outside. "She's out there," the young witch said again.
"Who is?" Baba Yaga said as she got up and
walked to the window also. She peered out of it and saw nothing out
of the ordinary. At that moment things started happening.
Jock and Santera moved to the castle gate,
where three guards were wasting their time telling jokes and gaudy
stories. As the three were too much entertained by each other, they
only noticed the big man and the large cat when they were on top of
them. Santera jumped up at one of them, pushing the man to the
ground. Jock reached out and simply knocked the heads of the two
others together. That was enough for them to impersonate bags of
potatoes falling to the floor. Jock then tapped the first fallen
guard on the head so that man was out of commission for a while as
well.
"There it is," Hilda said. She pointed at a
house in one of the quieter streets. The two magical ones dropped
down to the ground, as their cats braced themselves for the
inevitable sudden stop. "Yes," Hilda confirmed as the lock in her
hand was rattling, "here is where we have to be. Lock, come on,
let's meet your key." They parked their brooms against the side of
the house and William tried the door they were facing. It was
locked, but not for long.
"Ladies first," he grinned.
"Oh? Are there ladies here?" Hilda looked
around and saw no people. There only was a rust-coloured dog
walking through the street that was smart enough not to be
interested in the two black cats. The witch shrugged and stepped
into the house. "There's magic in use here," she told William.
Esmee pushed the window open.
Babs looked at her: "What's that for? I'm
perfectly-" The impossible happened. Baba Yaga was lost for words
for a moment as Esmee changed into the cat woman she'd been before.
And this time it happened without the assistance of Hilda or Babs.
"Now wait up a-" The impossible leaned towards mere improbable as
Baba Yaga was again interrupted: Esmee jumped out of the window,
landing on all fours in the yard. Baba Yaga leaned out the window
and saw how Esmee ran off. "Suck an elf," the old witch muttered,
"looks like there's action going on. And how can that flower witch
suddenly do such powerful magic on herself?"
She looked down one more time. "Old bones
don't jump," Baba Yaga decided as she made her broom pull up. Using
that, she left the room as well.
Santera's next assignment was to make her way
into the castle and find the king. She was not meant to actually
kill him. Lindolf had said: "A few extra scratches would be
enough." She ran out to the yard in front of the castle when
suddenly she saw the other cat woman coming towards her. Santera
looked back to where Jock was standing near the knocked-out guards
and hesitated. Then she set course for the entrance of the castle.
This was the only way to get rid of Lindolf's crazy ideas, she
knew. Santera was much more used to moving like a cat, so there was
not much effort in avoiding the other cat woman The door into the
castle came closer.
Hilda, with the lock raging in her hand like
a berserker, dashed up the stairs two steps at the time. Another
door. "Would you be so kind?" she asked William.
He would be. A kick later the door flew open.
William did not want to waste magic on something like a door, so he
had put it into his foot. He followed his witch into the room and
saw a woman sitting in a chair. Another woman was kneeling on the
wooden floor in front of the chair and held hands with the sitting
woman.
"Stand back, William," Hilda warned him,
"they are generating the weird magic I sensed around that shed."
Hilda was not certain if she could or should stop what the two
women were doing. Then she noticed the book on the knees of the
sitting woman and peeked on the page. "Crappedy crap," she said
when she understood what it was. "That's very serious magic..."
Esmee darted after the cat woman who had
slipped past her and now was about to enter the castle. She could
not allow that, but in her cat-shape she had no idea how to cast a
spell. Just as the cat woman reached the door, a dark shape shot
down.
Baba Yaga had almost thrown herself down to
the ground on her broom and assessed the situation as she did so.
The large cat that was not Esmee was trying to reach the castle,
but Babs prevented that with a swift spell that threw the cat woman
to the side. Instead of going into the castle, the creature flew
through the air and went into a rose bush. A howl came from the
creature as it tried to fight itself free from the stinging
stems.
Lindolf had joined Jock and saw the events in
the court yard unfold. He uttered a word that was not very nice;
things were not going the way he had planned. Frantically he
searched his mind for a way to get out of this situation without
looking a guilty party. Then he knew it. He pulled his dagger and
screaming wildly he ran towards where Santera was almost coming
free from the roses. If he could kill her, there would be at least
one person less to incriminate him.
Santera rolled over the pebbles and jumped to
her feet, still slightly dizzy from the sudden jolt. She saw a
witch in black flying on a broom. She also saw the other cat woman
who was standing still in the yard. Then a loud noise attracted her
attention. Santera looked where it came from and gasped for air.
There was Lindolf, coming towards her waving a dagger. Was he
coming to her rescue, she wondered. At that moment a nauseating
feeling washed through her and she collapsed.
"There we are," Hilda said with a smug
expression. William had pulled the kneeling woman to the side, and
the one with the book on her knees had slumped forward. "They are
not doing anymore tricks. Let's see if we can bring both of them
around again, William." A little magic later, Simi and Magda were
staring at the two visitors.
"What have you done!" Magda yelled. "We were
trying to protect Santera, and now Lindolf is probably killing
her!"
"Lindolf? Isn't that the nice guy from the
tavern?" Hilda wondered. "And who is Santera?"
Magda wanted to throw the book at Hilda, but
she felt to weak to do that. This woman was clearly a real witch,
and not a match for someone of her own disposition. She explained
that Santera was the cat woman, and that Simi and she had been
guiding Santera towards the castle. "Things are going wrong there,
I saw it through Santera's eyes," she said as tears rolled over her
cheeks, "Lindolf was charging at her with a knife."
"What the crappedy crap are you talking
about! Are you two responsible for that cat woman and the attack on
the king?"
Magda and Simi started to tell Hilda and
William the way how everything was pieced together.
Esmee saw how the other cat woman fell to the
ground. As the creature fell, she changed into a young woman. She
also noticed how the man (where had she seen him before?) kept
running towards the woman, a big knife in hand. Esmee didn't know
who the woman was, but somehow she considered her kin, and she
could not allow someone to hurt her kin. With a growl she took a
few big leaps and landed on top of the man with the knife. He fell,
the knife went flying and Esmee was satisfied to find that the man
had knocked his head against a block of stone. He lay still. Then
she turned and ran towards the young woman.
Baba Yaga in that time had noticed the big
man near the gate and directed her broom towards him. "So what are
you doing here, big guy?" she asked Jock. The big guy looked at
her. His face told Babs that he wasn't exactly sure. "Did you knock
these people down?" the witch asked as she pointed at the peaceful
guards.
"Yes. I hit them. Lindolf said to hit them,"
Jock confirmed. He raised an impressive hand. "I did not hit
hard."
"Lucky them," Baba Yaga said. If Jock had
lashed out with all his force, there would have been funerals.
"Come on, big guy, let's go and see what all this is about." Jock
just smiled and walked along as Babs flew her broom to the
unconscious man.
Esmee sat on the ground with Santera. She had
changed herself back into her human shape and magicked some clothes
on herself and the young woman. Esmee held Santera in her arms and
gently rocked the woman. "It's okay, it's fine," the witch
whispered. "It's all over, whatever 'it' is."
Santera heard the voice and moaned. The
transition to her normal shape had been so abrupt and unprepared
that it had shaken her up badly. "Who are you?" she asked.
Esmee told Santera that she was the castle
witch. "I've seen you in the village. You saved my life there. Who
are you? What's your name, and how do you know to change into a
cat?"
Santera sat up. "I'm Santera. There is a
witch in the village who changes me. I don't know..." She held her
head as a sharp flash of pain shot through it. "I don't know why
they changed me back so suddenly. I wasn't done yet..."
Baba Yaga got off her broom and kneeled down.
"How are things here?" she asked Esmee.
"We're fine," Esmee replied. "This is
Santera. She's confused, talks of a witch in town that changes
her."
Baba Yaga frowned. "Aha. I wouldn't be
surprised if Hilly and Willy found that witch..."
Hilda and William had listened to the two
women. "Suck an elf. I hope we didn't mess something up with all
that," the witch said. "Luckily Babs is there."
"And Esmee," William added.
"Yeah. Not sure how much good that will have
done, but let's keep it positive." Hilda then turned to Magda.
"You, lady, will no longer play with that book. Much healthier for
you and everyone around." Before Magda could react, Hilda had
grabbed the book and shrunk it. The remaining parcel found its way
into one of the pockets in William's cloak.