Hilda - The Challenge (51 page)

"Yes, so am I." That was the last thing he
could say before a bolt from Hilda's wand knocked him out cold.

"I did say I was sorry, sweet man," Hilda
apologised to the unconscious wizard. She slowly straightened his
leg and after that she used her magic to repair what was broken.
She let William sleep as she delved into her deep pockets. "Here
come the emergency rations..."

Several minutes later she had inflated some
dice that turned into firewood, food and a small tent. As all that
was done, she woke up William.

"Oh, god, what hit me?", he asked as he got
up.

"That would have been me, sweet man, and
again I am sorry. But it had to happen."

"Oh. Have to remember never to pick a fight
with you." Then William noticed the absence of pain in his leg.
"Did you fix me?"

"That too was me, indeed, and for that I am
not sorry."

"You are amazing." William looked around and
saw the fire, the food and the small tent. "So where did that all
come from? Let me guess. That was you."

"Never leave home unprepared for things like
these, William." Hilda took a small piece of wood and tossed that
on the modest fire. "We'll have to spend the night here, although
I'd rather not. But in this darkness there is no way we can find
back to our other camp."

William fully understood that. "Do you have
any idea what happened just now? One moment we're stuck in magic
quicksand over the wall, and the next we're being tossed out, like
someone is cleaning a carpet or so."

"Maybe," Hilda said with a sudden bit of
insight, "that is exactly what happened."

"And what makes you say that, dear witch of
mine?"

"Well, considering the fact that the magician
Gurthreyn was such a prankster, if we can believe the scroll you
have with you, it would make sense that the quicksand, as you call
it, is part of one of his jokes. Magicians are usually honourbound
not to kill people, so there would have to be something to release
people that get caught." Hilda took a bowl that was floating over
the fire and handed it to William. "Here. Eat."

"Thank you. But wait, didn't you tell me that
people who get lost in the labyrinth usually don't get found
anymore?"

Hilda nodded as she was eating from the other
bowl she had taken from the fire. "True. But those are the sorry
souls that get caught in there during a challenge. During a
challenge something is changed here, a handful of magical people
know how to do that. So this is... different."

In silence they finished their food,
extinguished the small fire and then they retreated into the tent.
Close together they lay, until a restless sleep came over them.

"Hilda. You are in my dream."

"No. You are in mine. And you know I love
you, but this is insane. Now go back to your own dream."

They found themselves standing on a lawn,
wearing their best magical outfits. It was a large lawn, and it had
walls around it. Grey walls. About twenty yards high. There was
light that looked like sunshine, only there was no sun. There was
rather a lot of nothing overhead.

"Such an unexpected pleasure," a voice behind
them said.

The magical couple turned around; the sting
of a wasp could not have made them move faster. They saw an old man
in black robes. The large silver chain that hung around his neck
stood out against the black of his clothes. His head was bald, he
had a long light-grey beard that hung down to his belt. His eyes
were large and blue. He was almost as tall as Hilda and twice as
round. That still did not make him fat.

"Who are you?", asked Hilda.

The man folded his hands for a moment and
smiled. "I think that should be fairly obvious, don't you agree?"
He raised an eyebrow, hoping that they would understand whom they
were talking to after this bit of information.

"No. You can't be. You are not the magician
Gurthreyn." Hilda shook her grey mane. "No way."

"And why can I not be Gurthreyn?" The bald
man did not move a muscle to make a large grey wall appear behind
him.

"Because the magician Gurthreyn died
centuries before I was born," said Hilda, "and even for magicians
there is the rule that dead is dead." She put her hands on her hips
and waited for the man's response.

"Yes, you are very right with that," the man
nodded, "there is a rule for that. But..." -another wall appeared,
this time behind William and Hilda- "...that does not mean that one
has to play by the rules. I, for one, hardly ever did. You can read
that in the many things that were written about me. Well, the few
true things, I should hasten to add."

"Hilda, before you go overboard like your
good little self, do look at the walls, okay? They are the same as
in the labyrinth." William put a hand on her shoulder, trying to
get her attention. For him it was not so strange that a dead
magician was suddenly appearing. After all, he had seen far too
many strange things here already to wonder about something like
this.

She shook William's hand away. "Leave me,
William, I did tell you to get out of my dream, didn't I? Now, if
you are Gurthreyn, why then don't you show yourself, like
anyone?"

The bald man who claimed to be Gurthreyn
laughed shortly. "A witch of the true blood. Does not believe it
until the very truth is thrown in her face."

William grinned.

"Very well then." The man in the black robes
raised a hand shortly.

Grey walls appeared around Hilda, a moment
after William had been moved to a spot away from where the walls
emerged.

"Oh, so this is funny, right?", said Hilda.
"And you think that is going to- Oh. Crappedy crap, why won't this
go away?"

"Simply because perhaps I am stronger than
you are?" The man seemed very relaxed about the predicament of the
wicked witch. Suddenly there were two chairs, one near William and
one near the bald man. "You can sit down if you want," he nodded at
William. "This might take a while, if she is of the kind that I
suspect her to be."

Strange and worrying sounds came from inside
Hilda's walls. "Oh. Fantastic." Fireworks sprayed over the walls.
"So that's not going to do it either." A loud bang, followed by
smoke and coughing. "What is this crappedy crap? This usually gets
me out of everything!"

William felt very uncomfortable as he heard
and felt how Hilda was working herself into a slight frenzy to get
out of her prison.

"Oh, wait, tricky trick of my love..." There
was silence for a while. "What is keeping that thing..."

"If you are waiting for your broom," the man
in black said to the walls, "I suggest you make a chair appear.
Your broom might take a while to make it here. It would be good to
think in years, actually."

"Years?" Hilda and William said it at the
same time.

"Yes. When I do a bit of masonry, it should
last for a while," the man said. "After all, I am Gurthreyn." After
a movement of his hand the walls around the witch vanished, showing
Hilda all black and dusty from her attempts to free herself. "You
look rather done in."

"Yeah, and no thanks to you," said Hilda as
she cleaned herself with her wand. She walked to where William was
sitting.

"It appears that you still do not believe
that I am who I claim to be. Look around you. This is the area of
the labyrinth. My labyrinth. Just cleaned up a bit now."

William had conjured up a chair for Hilda and
pulled her down on it. "Sit. And quiet."

"What?"

"Sit. And quiet. Three simple words." William
looked at Hilda, and something in his eyes made her remain seated
and quiet.

"Thank you," said Gurthreyn the magician, as
it was really him.

William felt suppressed steam through the
bond but managed to ignore it.

Gurthreyn looked at his visitors for a while.
"You two are amazing. I have never met people so stubborn as you.
Getting stuck up there." Gurthreyn pointed in the general direction
of one of the walls, and chuckled. "I have to hand it to you, the
way you got your brooms in was very impressive. Nobody ever did
that before."

"You seem to know a lot about this place,"
said William.

"Of course. I built it. The scrolls are right
about that. Lots of garbage in there of course, but that always
happens when they suspect you're dead. And I am not going to stand
up and argue with them. But that is not the reason I have brought
you here."

"Now, please, wait a moment." Hilda stood
again and was not quiet. "You brought us here?"

"Of course. You are sleeping, that is the
best time to visit me."

The scenery around them changed and they
stood in the small tent where they saw themselves lying,
asleep.

"Uhm... this is creepy." Hilda looked at
Gurthreyn. "How do you do this? And why?"

They were back in the large walled yard that
was the labyrinth, only with the labyrinth part missing somehow.
There was a table with food, wine, fruit and chilled water.

"I just wanted you to see that you are really
asleep and well. No need to worry, you are taken care off. The
magic of the wards extends out to your little tent."

William sat down. "Yes. Of course. You take
us to us to show us that we are sleeping. Something tells me that I
should not have wine, but heck, I feel like I need it."

"Please do have some. It is excellent. I have
made it myself, many years of practice." Gurthreyn held a glass in
his hand. "And for you, Miss Witch, there is no reason not to try
it." He had already noticed Hilda's suspicion against the wine.

"My name is Grimhilda. And this is William."
She surprised William by suddenly opening up so much.

The bald man got up and bowed. "I am pleased
to meet you. I am, as you already know, Gurthreyn."

William felt he should get up and bow also.
Hilda's push through the bond was clear enough about that.

After those formalities, and the spreading of
some liquid joy in glasses for Hilda and William, Gurthreyn sat
down again. "Very well. Now let me inform you why I have brought
you here while you are enjoying your well-deserved sleeps. I have
seen you two here a while ago. When you, William, were definitely
not a magical person. You returned though, which is remarkable
already, and this time William is definitely magical. And there
also is this very special bond between you, on a magnitude that
does not happen very often." The magician sipped his wine. "Hence
my interest."

"Just that? Isn't that a bit of a narrow
basis to tell us you are alive?", William asked.

"I am curious why you both came back for a
second time. And I am intrigued by the change in you both."
Gurthreyn raised his glass to them and sipped another time. "So now
you have time to explain all this."

"Oh, right. That's neat. Well, we're done
quickly then, since we don't understand most of it ourselves."
Hilda raised her glass to the famous magician and drank it down in
one gulp. It refilled itself.

William caught the idea quite rapidly. He
explained as much as they knew about his coming here, and how he
somehow was turning into a magical person. He raised his glass and
sipped. Done talking.

Gurthreyn looked at him. "You have a special
book? Can you show it to me?"

William shook his head. "It is not exactly
the first thing I pack when I come here."

Hilda grinned. "He is still in training,
Gurthreyn. There is so much to still teach him." Then she turned to
her wizard. "William, pay attention to what I am showing
you..."

William looked at her. Suddenly she held her
teacup in her hands. Including the goldfish that were darting
around. "Nice. So how did you do that?"

"Magic, William. Just magic the image over.
We're asleep, so none of this is real-"

"I do object," said Gurthreyn, taking the
opportunity to drink again.

"-so the book does not have to be the real
thing. Just try it."

William frowned, but somehow it made sense to
him. As there was some much already that defied explanation, he
simply held up his hands and wanted his book. And so he had his
book. "Holy Bejeebus. It works."

"Of course it works," Gurthreyn commented,
"you are a magical person. You should be able to do this.
Especially here." He had gotten up and was by now standing with
William. "Would you mind?" He held up his hand, waiting for the
book William was holding.

"Of course not." William put the book in the
man's hand and watched what was going to happen.

Gurthreyn opened the book and paged through
it. "Hmm. Yes. Ah. Really. Oh?" He went on with these loose
utterings for a while. Then he closed the book and handed it back.
"Very interesting. How did you get it?"

William explained how he had gotten the book,
in the monastery.

Gurthreyn nodded. "Very powerful place where
you got it from. The best piece of the place too, so you were
lucky. It affected you all the time you had it. That is why you
could help the witch."

"What? How do you know that?" Hilda looked at
the magician who grinned and patted the book.

"It told me. It speaks of a witch bringing in
a mystery magician after going to his world. Well, William
definitely is a mystery magician, although he strikes me as a
wizard, I have to say. Now, would you like to share with me why you
have come over for a second time? And do not to tell me that you
like it here. You can't. I have made certain of that. This is not a
likeable place."

Hilda looked at the magician. "It was
William's idea. We are facing a challenge here in half a Moon."

Gurthreyn frowned. "And from where have you
gotten that strange idea? Do you think that scaring yourself more
will make the scare go away?"

William nodded. "Indeed. That was the
original idea. And from what I see now, it works. In another way
than I had thought, but it works."