Hilda - The Challenge (29 page)

William bit away a snort and followed Hilda
without a word, leaving behind the guard who was trying to grasp
what had just happened.

Hilda had been to the castle many a time. She
did not head for the main entrance of the large building, where
another couple of tin men were standing, watching the two ominous
figures approach. The witch turned into a small path that led along
the side of the immense building and then put her broom against the
wall. "You can leave it here, it will be safe."

William saw her push open a small door,
something that more appeared to be a servant's entrance than a door
fit for a person of standing. It was however without a doubt that
Hilda was flexible when it came to things like this.

The door led them into a tiny room from where
a door gave them passage into the castle.

"Just follow me and look like you know what
you're doing. Or put the hood over your head," said the witch.

"And you?", he asked as he pulled at the
hood.

She grinned. "I know what I'm doing."

They entered the castle, which was yet
another new experience for William. The long hall with its polished
marble on the floor and large and mostly ugly paintings on the
wall; servants walking around minding their own business.

William stopped and gazed at an
extraordinarily hideous painting that showed nothing but black
streaks and grey blots. Hilda joined him. "Fucking ugly, isn't it?
Is made by one of the Repressionists. I really don't know why they
waste paint on stuff like that. Come."

They walked down the seemingly endless hall,
to end up in another one. There was a staircase at the end of that
one, which they ascended. William followed the witch to a set of
double doors of insane height. She pushed them open and walked into
an empty room.

"Crap. He moved again. I hate it when he does
that." Before William could even think a question, she turned to
him. "Shush you. I still know what I am doing."

"What are you doing here?" The voice belonged
to a servant in a red coat, white trousers and a round face.

"We are looking for the king." Hilda looked
him up and down. "And you are going to take us to him."

"Am I?" The servant obviously had different
plans, but as he saw the wand appear in Hilda's hand, his
priorities got reshuffled. "Of course I am. Please, if you will
follow me, honourable witch..."

The man in red and white led them down the
stairs, back through the corridor they had come down from and then
knocked on a door. "Ehm, sire, are you in there by chance?" With a
stupid grin he looked at Hilda and the hooded man in the black
cloak. "He sometimes isn't in there."

"And I'm not now either," the voice of king
Walt echoed through the hall as he came walking up to them.
"Grimhilda, dear witch, welcome to the castle. And William the
wizard, you too are most welcome here!"

After this welcome Walt waved the helpful
servant to follow him and then ushered the magical visitors into a
cathedral-like space that he called the sitting room. The servant
received the ungrateful order to quickly get some glasses of wine
from the cabinet in the far wall.

The three sat down in sumptuous chairs made
from mahogany, on cushions made of white silk. The woodwork was
craftfully carved, showing magnificent shapes of either exotic or
fantasy-creatures. William hoped the latter.

Then Walt asked to what he owed the visit of
two such distinguished visitors.

Hilda looked at William, allowing him to take
the lead.

William explained that he was interested in
the labyrinth of Gurthreyn. "I have heard things about it," he told
the king, "and I hope there are some things in writing about it in
your library. In which case I also hope you will allow me to see
them."

Walt nodded. "Gurthreyn. Yes. I've heard of
it. Nasty place, nasty place. Not too many people are fond of
places like that."

The servant arrived and brought the wine. He
was only slighty out of breath; he seemed to be in good shape. No
wine had spilled from the glasses either. After serving the king
and the guests he retreated back to the corridor.

The witch and the semi-wizard toasted to the
king and sampled the wine. Hilda made sure she would be able to fly
back on her own powers, of course. William noticed it and winked at
her. The wine was, as Hilda had already said, fabulous.

"Well now," Walt said. "The library. Of
course, a wizard of fame like yourself, who knows an outstanding
witch like Grimhilda, is welcome to peruse the royal library as
long as you want. I am sorry that I cannot offer you a librarian.
Some mishap regarding the queen that caused him to leave my
services. But if that is not a bother then I will call a servant to
show you the books."

"That would be no problem at all, sire," said
William.

"Good, good." Walt clapped his puffy hands
and the servant appeared again.

"Sire?"

"Show these good people to the library, will
you? And do give them a few bottles of wine. It must be dusty down
there."

"Very well, my king." The servant made a bow
and waited.

The 'good people' got up, glasses in hand,
and thanked the king for his hospitality and cooperation. Then they
followed the servant to the basement where the library was
located.

William was like a kid in a toy store. The
number of ancient books, scrolls and manuscripts was enough to fill
Hilda's house twice.

"I will bring you some wine," the servant
promised, and disappeared quickly.

"He must have a problem with books," was
Hilda's sharp observation. "So, sweet man, where do you want to
start? Plenty of books, but without a librarian this is a little on
the plentiful side, isn't it?"

William savoured a sip of wine and then stole
a kiss from Hilda, as they were alone in the library anyway. "Let's
find out if the librarian understood his trade," he then said.

"If there is a system in this," William
groaned after several hours, "I don't even want to know how it's
set up. The man's brain must have had much less consistency than
that of an orangutan."

On the table in front of him lay two scrolls,
ancient things, that mentioned the labyrinth of Gurthreyn. Hilda
had walked around the library lots of times and she was reaching
the stage of terminally bored. William knew that it was time to
hurry. "I wish I could take these with me," he sighed. "The writing
is difficult to read."

"Then take them. Walt won't miss them."

"I can't. That's stealing."

"We'll bring 'm back later, does that sound
good? And otherwise you copy them." Hilda whisked her wand over the
table and there were four scrolls. "See, simple. You really have to
a lot learn, William. Now I really hope we can go home soon, I'm
getting fed up here."

William grinned. "You are good, lady. You are
really good."

"I know," she grinned. "Can you take those
and the bottles, or do I have to shrink them?"

"Hmmm..." William looked at the two scrolls
and the four bottles. The servant had been overzealous. "Let me try
something..." His wand appeared and a gleam came to his eyes.

Hilda giggled.

He magicked two large pockets in his cloak
and made the bottles disappear in them. A simple magical field kept
them from banging into each other. He then stuck the scrolls next
to the bottles. "I think this will work."

Hilda considered him. "Nice. It lacks
elegance, but it gets the job done. Cool puppies, now let's
go."

They found their way out of the library and
the castle. They exited at a different place than where they had
come in, which confused even Hilda for a moment. Then she mumbled
something in Latin and soon their brooms came dropping from
above.

"Being king is probably good, but being a
witch is really better," she grinned as they mounted. "Ready to
go?" She did not wait for an answer, but kicked off and lifted to
the heavens, William close behind her.

As they were heading home, William pulled his
broom next to Hilda's. "Thank you, Hilda, for getting me there in
that library, and sitting it out."

"Oh, yeah, you know, I know that you mean
well even if you do strange things and say funny things. I help
you, you help me, and that way it gets easier for both of us,
right?"

"All too true. We're going to make this
work." William felt good about the situation.

"Yes, and you're making dinner and I am going
to drink another glass of wine."

William laughed and this time did not lose
control of the broom. He was definitely improving.

Days came and went. The couple was flying the
rounds mostly together. Despite their efforts, there was no trace
of Fidelma, which was not surprising to either of them. Hilda was a
bit more in touch with her witchy colleagues and friends, while
William took time off each day to read the Gurthreyn scrolls. He
made notes, compared the information on the two scrolls (which was
often contradicting) and after little over a week he had worked all
through them.

On the magical side he was not nearly as fast
to progress. Hilda occasionally despaired as again he was not able
to do some of the most simple and basic things. "Protection,
William, protection! When will you understand that, when will you
be able to protect yourself?"

His mind however had been more occupied with
Gurthreyn than protection. It was imperative though, that he get
that bit under his belt also, so now he used as much time to work
on that as he had done working on the scrolls.

Hilda was talking to Baba Yaga over the
crystal ball, while William was outside working on his skills. The
more than occasional oompf's and thuds told her that he was not
really making much progress.

"I really worry about him in that respect,
Babs," Hilda confessed. "He is doing pretty good in many other
ways, scares me in some even, but this protection thing is a puzzle
for him. And nothing I do or say seems to help, he's just too
pigheaded to understand."

Baba Yaga nodded. "I hear you, Hilda. Has he
ever had the need to protect himself in his previous world?"

"Not that he mentioned," Hilda said.

"Sounds like an interesting person then. Let
me tell you something..." Baba Yaga and Hilda talked a bit, and
Hilda liked what Babs had to share.

William stared at the hostility-emitting
trees beneath them. They were on their way to Baba Yaga's hut, a
stiff flight and therefore the longest that William had made so
far.

"Are you sure we're in the right place?", he
asked. "These forests look as if they don't want anyone here."

"That's because they don't," Hilda confirmed
with a big smile. "Isn't that shiny?"

Shiny to William had so far meant something
else, but then, one was never too old to learn.

"We're not far now, so you can relax. You've
done well on the flying, William." Hilda patted him on the arm
gently, as not to break his concentration. A crash in these woods
was not like plummeting down at home, many of the leaves on the
trees wererazor-sharp. "Now do remember to always approach Babs'
hut from the front, where the door is. Otherwise it might attack
you."

"Yeah, you mentioned that about a dozen
times, I think I'll remember," he grinned. Hearing that the flight
was almost over did him good. His bones were getting restless.

Finally it was there: the end. Of the flight,
that is. Hilda had told William to fly behind her and watch what
she was doing. The tone in her voice had made it clear that this
was very important. He did as he was told, and in a very weird
pattern they then flew among the trees, on a trajectory that did
not make any sense. But then, they were going to see a witch. That
concept threw any notion or need of sense out the window.

The couple ended up on the short path that
led to Baba Yaga's garden. The fence around it was now painted
bright yellow and ash grey. The skulls on the sticks were orange
this time.

"She's been creative again," chuckled
Hilda.

William, even while prepared for the skulls,
had to swallow a few times when he came face to bony face with
them.

"William, your broom?" Hilda was already
standing near one of the four giant chicken legs. Holding the
brooms up, she asked the hut: "Could you hold these for us?"

The leg lifted a toe and Hilda shoved the
brooms under it. The toe clamped the brooms to the ground, and the
witch patted the big foot. "Thank you."

The door swung open. "HILLY! WILLY!"

Hilda screamed for joy, William cringed. He
was not a Willy kind of person. Hilda hugged the ugly witch and
then it was William's turn, and he had no real option to refuse.
After the experience he decided it was not as bad as he had
imagined, but he had not been far off.

Baba Yaga let them into the hut and treated
them to tea and her personal interpretation of scones. They were
like the real thing, only severely larger. Hilda and William shared
one and felt as if they had eaten enough for the rest of the
day.

Meanwhile, the ugly witch fired questions at
William about how he thought he would protect himself. He had no
real answer to any of the questions, for him defense and protecion
were all rather theoretical and academic issues.

"Oh, really. Well, by the time you go home,
you will think differently." Babs cackled, very satisfied with
herself.

"You are not going to hurt him, are you?",
Hilda asked.

"Oh, no. Not me. And if he handles himself
well, he won't be hurt badly either," the ugly witch grinned.

That did not make William feel all that well
about it. "When you say 'not me', does that imply you have
recruited alternative means to hurt me?"

"Hilly, I've got to hand it to you, you
fished up a clever boy," Baba Yaga nodded.