Hilda - The Challenge (52 page)

Gurthreyn looked at the wizard in training.
"Interesting. This means there is something I will have to adjust
to the labyrinth, as this is not a good development. If more people
get this idea, my peace and quiet here is gone. But that is
something for later. A challenge. They are still doing that silly
stuff then. And someone challenged the both of you?"

Hilda, who was holding William's hand for a
moment, nodded. "Well, Lamador challenged me. When he learnt that
William is with me, he sent a humiliating note that William was
allowed to help me in the challenge."

Gurthreyn frowned. "Why would he invite a
wizard to fight him together with a witch? He sounds very convinced
about himself. Lamador is known for his ideas, even here, but
deliberately tipping the scales like that..."

"Oh, Lamador invited William when William was
still an ordinary. He was not a wizard then. That happened
later."

"Is that so?" Gurthreyn stood up from his
chair, leaving his glass suspended in the air next to it. "Do
stand, wizard William..."

As William was still getting up from his
seat, Gurthreyn cast a bolt of energy. William responded so quickly
to it that he could have handled three of those in the blink of an
eye. The spell was deflected and shot towards the grey wall behind
the famous magician. By the time the spell had been absorbed by the
stone, Hilda's shriek still sounded.

"Holy Bejeebus."

Hilda stared at William, then at Gurthreyn.
"Why did you do THAT?", she challenged the magician. "That was
dangerous!"

"Not at all, Grimhilda. You are asleep and
safe. I cannot harm you this way. And I would not either, as you
are my guests. I just wanted to know the amount of magic this
wizard already possesses and can wield. I was not aiming at hurting
him."

"You surely managed to fool me!", Hilda
snapped at the magician, her wand in her hand. "Nicely done, by the
way, William. The training really paid off."

Gurthreyn raised an eyebrow. "Training?"

Hilda informed the magician about how Baba
Yaga had set up the rather rigorous training for William to learn
how to protect himself.

"That is interesting, I say. A wizard who
only develops himself here and needs help with the simple things.
All kinds of things are possible, evidently..."

"And then there is his idea with the scrolls
too. I still feel sorry that I laughed at him because of that."
Hilda sat down again, picking her wine from the air and sipping
from it.

This of course prompted Gurthreyn's question
and William's answer on how he had learnt to develop an idea about
a person by reading about him.

"You bring along very interesting ideas,
wizard William. I may have to go about and see what people have
written about me and change things that I don't appreciate. If one
person thought of this, there will undoubtedly be others to follow.
Things like that are inevitable."

"That sounds like a daunting task,
Gurthreyn," said William.

The magician shrugged. "I have time. It was
very nice to talk to you. I wish you a very peaceful night, and
will look out for your next visit, which will probably happen on
the next new moon." He raised his glass to them and was gone.

"William..."

"Huh... yes?"

"I had a weird dream."

"Tell me about it."

"You were in it. And the magician
Gurthreyn."

"And a table of food, and wine. And my book.
And you behind a wall. I know."

"Crappedy crap. So it was a real dream."

"Afraid so."

Hilda pondered the happenings of the night.
Or at least the ones she thought had happened. "He was good, wasn't
he?"

"Yes." William knew she was talking about
Gurthreyn. The man had been impressive.

"I vote that we go away." Hilda snuggled up
to William. "Do I convince you?"

"Oh yes, you convince me. You have a way for
that," William grinned as he hugged her close.

"Hey... I did not plan on that! But it feels
nice. I could stay here for a while longer if you keep that
up."

At that moment a loud thunderclap sounded
over the labyrinth, making the small tent shake, as well as the
ground on which it stood.

"Hmmpf," said Hilda. "I think someone is
trying to tell us that we should not overstay our welcome."

"I think he is just jealous," William grinned
and hugged her again, after which another thunderbolt danced over
the labyrinth.

"We'd better leave, William. I like a bit of
atmosphere, bit this is just overdone."

The magical couple crawled out of the tent,
where Hilda did her shrinking trick while William removed the fire
and the other traces that they had been camping on the labyrinth
grounds. After a last check they grabbed their brooms, kicked off
and flew away just a bit faster than they would normally do.

Behind them, over the labyrinth, laughter
could be heard. But not by them.

They reached their original camping spot and
only there they took the time to get something to eat before they
flew on home. This had turned into a trip they were not easily
going to forget.

"Do you think this magician was there for
real? Or did we just get so scared there that we had his spirit
haunt us?", William asked as they were packing up their things.

"I don't know. I have never encountered
something like that before," Hilda said as she shrunk the last bits
of luggage.

William picked them up and slipped them into
his pocket. "It was absurd. You and me in a dream together. Talking
to each other. And remembering it."

"What do you mean, absurd? Don't you dream of
me and like it?" Hilda put her hands on her hips, being her own
lovely self again.

William burst out laughing, then wrapped her
in his arms. "Of course I do, silly witch. You are always with me."
Through the bond he sent a flow of love. "But the way this thing
happened, last night. That was... quite different."

Hilda let him hold her, smelling the scent of
him. She nodded. "Yes. It was."

After standing like that for a while, they
decided it was a good moment to leave, and head for home. The
flight home was uneventful and went smoothly.

"Do you think we should make a bit of a round
when we get back?", Hilda asked William. "Awful lot of flying, but
still..."

"Yes, it would be good. We have to make sure
they remember us, don't we?"

Hilda nodded. "Good. We'll head out again
then, after dropping off the luggage and cleaning ourselves up a
bit."

Soon after that little talk, the house came
into sight. Nothing had changed during their absence. Hilda removed
the chains, William collected the mail-arrows and they headed
inside. Hilda took first turn in the bathtub as William fixed a
quick meal. After eating, William took over the bath for a while.
Hilda sat with him, going through the messages.

"Bullshit, bullshit, not interesting,
bullshit, oh!"

"Oh?", William asked from among the
bubbles.

"Very oh even," Hilda confirmed. "Message
from Walt. Seems there is a strange thing going on in his palace
and could we please come and check it out. Sounds like a plan for
the afternoon."

"After, or instead of the rounds?"

"Instead of," Hilda said, "this is the real
work. That comes first. So hurry, we have work to do!" Laughing,
she walked out the door.

William noticed that her protective powers
were amazing, the spunge he flung at her bounced back and hit him
in the face.

As he came down, refreshed and redressed,
Hilda had their brooms already waiting. "Come on, hop hop, it's off
to Walt we go." They mounted and took off to the skies, pushing the
speed quite considerably. It was not a good thing to keep a king
waiting for too long.

Without the need for much protocol, they
landed their brooms in the castle courtyard. A guard that was
protecting the door seemed to be shaken up by their sudden landing.
Clearly he had been in a nodding and dozing state.

"Halt, who goes there?", he wondered even
though that was very obvious by the appearance and clothes of the
people standing in front of him.

"Is the King in?", Hilda asked without
telling the guard who was going anywhere.

"He should be, I have not heard that he
left," the guard said. He banged on the door. A few seconds later a
servant appeared.

"Ah, honourable witch and wizard! Do come in
and follow me. King Walt is anxiously awaiting your arrival." He
let them enter the castle and then took the lead to guide them to
where the king was to be found. The further they came into the
castle, the stranger things started to look. There were shattered
vases in many places, as well as people with big blobs of cotton
sticking from their ears. The more cotton there was, the more
serious the looks on their faces, the magical couple noticed.

"Now what is this?", asked Hilda as they were
walking along at quite a fast pace. "Any faster and I will get my
broom in."

"I am sorry, honourable witch, but the King
really wants to see you quickly." The servant obviously did all he
could not to break into a run.

Finally they arrived. King Walt and also
Queen Velma sat at a table, glasses of wine in front of them, a
plate with chicken legs in front of the king. The faces of the two
royals were remarkably pale. There were wads of cotton lying on the
table...

"Your majesties...", said the servant, then
stepped aside so Hilda and William could step into the lounge.

"You came!", said Walt, his face showing
relief.

"Of course. What's the problem here? We see
everyone running around with a face like there's been fifty days of
bad weather, and cotton in their ears."

King Walt took some cotton and handed that to
the couple. "You will learn to appreciate it," he said. Doom and
gloom were fighting over priority in his voice. "It's bad."

Then there was the howl.

Queen Velma screamed, going for the cotton as
if it were the best thing in life. The sound of her screaming was
drowned in the howling though; Hilda and William just saw her mouth
move. Walt also grabbed cotton and stuck it in his ears.

The howl sounded as if wind on steroids were
raging through corridors and echoing through large halls. It went
on for almost two minutes. William as well as Hilda considered the
sound definitely unpleasant to hear. They handed the cotton back to
King Walt.

When the noise had subsided, Hilda asked:
"Now what was that?"

Queen Velma stared at the two, terror pouring
from her eyes.

"We don't know. That is why we called for
your help. You have to find out, because it is driving us insane,"
said Walt, plucking the cotton from his ears again. "This is
getting so bad that I even feel sorry for my wife."

"Okay, looks like we have us a job, William,"
said Hilda. "When did this start?"

"It started three days ago," Walt began to
explain. "At first it was not that bad, and everyone thought it was
a case of the wind howling. But it got louder and louder, and also
more frequent. We can't sleep anymore. It goes through the whole
castle but not to the outside."

William frowned. "Then why don't you put up
tents outside and remain there until the problem is solved?"

King Walt gazed at him as if William were a
ghost. "Tents. Outside. I don't even know if we have tents."

The howling started again.

"Eerie sound, isn't it?", Hilda asked
William, who nodded.

"Yes. Very annoying. We should go and find
out what's causing this."

They waited for the howling to end, wished
the king good luck in finding tents and then set out into the long
halls and corridors. Somewhere they found a sort of small couch
where they sat down and waited for the next howl to start. They did
not have to wait very long.

As the sound started jagging the nerves of
the ordinaries that were still without cotton, the magical ones
drew their wands and started walking around as if they were
dowsing. Hilda took pity on the poor people that were trying to
keep the sound out with their hands and magicked up many bags with
cotton for them. Before they could find anything useful, the
howling stopped again.

"I get the distinct impression that it is not
here. Not on this floor," said the witch. Must be in the cellars or
the dungeons. Come, let's find the king and ask him if he's had
people check there."

The king was able to tell them that there had
not been people checking the lower levels of the castle. "Suppose
something is there!", he said, fear beaming from his face.

"Uhm, yes, wasn't that the reason why we are
here?" Hilda rubbed her nose. Before she could say more, the
howling started again and Walt made himself deaf using cotton.

"Let's go down a level and see if we can find
the source of the problem there," Hilda proposed. William nodded,
and once again they left the royals to their personal agony.

After some searching they found an entrance
to the lower floor of the building.

"Darkish," Hilda noticed. "We should take a
torch or something. You never know how much we need the wands to
actually beat something up."

"You think of everything, don't you?" William
magicked up a torch.

"Of course. I am the resident witch,
remember? I have to be good." She tossed him a ravishing smile and
then turned to the stone staircase.

They descended slowly. There was a heavy
silence hanging in the darkness. The shadows, cast by the
flickering torch, danced over the walls. Then the howling started
again. It was without a doubt louder than on the ground floor where
they had heard it first.

"Comes from down here somewhere," Hilda
nodded. "Funny smell here too. As if something old has been out in
the open for far too long."