Hilda - The Challenge (57 page)

"Six others?" Hilda sat up and stared at the
magician with the bald head and the black robes.

He nodded. "I do not know them, but there are
four witches involved and two minor wizards."

"So we basically are fighting seven people?",
William asked.

"Not exactly, as they are not physically
present in the labyrinth, but you could say you are fighting at
least four others."

Hilda stared at the famous magician. "And he
was going only against me... He'd have finished me."

The copper-coloured dragons disappeared.
Lamador was almost shocked to find them gone. There had been no
trace of magic when they appeared nor when they left. "Damn you,
Grimhilda, you will pay for this!", he shouted. It angered him that
there was no reply. He threw fierce lightning bolts around that
bounced off the walls and through the corridors.

"So you see," said Gurthreyn, "you are not
cheating in the challenge. You are now just paying back. In a
slightly more comfortable way than he does."

"But I think we should go back and deal with
him," said Hilda. "He is now killing people that are innocent. We
can save them, perhaps."

"If that were possible, dear witch, I would
have chosen a different approach. Unfortunately, there is no hope
for most of them." Gurthreyn sauntered back to his chair with a new
glass of wine. "I suggest that we let your adversary work down his
energy on the walls until he is at a decent level of power to be a
fair match. That is good for the energy in the walls, and more fair
to you."

"Sounds like a plan, really." William got up
and went to fetch a glass of wine. "You want some wine too,
Hilda?"

"Yes, I want. Sheesh, this is quite
something," the witch said. She leaned back and made herself
comfortable. "Do you know what Lamador is doing now?", she asked
the bald magician.

"Yes, the walls tell me. He was doing
interesting things with lightning. Very creative, I must say, they
would fry anyone in their path. He is now walking around. He seems
angry."

"Hah, that does not surprise me," said Hilda,
"he's out for blood and so far the only thing he got was the
surprise that William is not as ordinary as he feels."

"I saw that little event with the spider. I
appreciate things like that. His compressing air act was quite
good, though." Gurthreyn emptied half his glass. William wondered
about the liver of that man.

Lamador had by then found himself caught in a
small space. A wall had snuck up behind him, closing off the short
corridor he had inadvertently walked into. He uttered very nasty
words, knowing that he would have to wait for any of the walls to
move again so he could get away. And that would give the witch and
her treacherous wizard an advantage. He had decided that he hated
William. The man had pretended to be an ordinary. The spider should
have gotten to them and they had finished that as if it weren't
there. And he still pained his brain about how they had gotten out
of the solidified air blob.

"You should really try some of the fish,"
Gurthreyn said, pointing at the centre table where a large
selection of seafood was waiting to be eaten.

Hilda looked at William. "This is the
weirdest challenge I've ever been in." Then she got up and picked
up a plate with shrimp and sauteed mushrooms. "Ohh... this is
really delicious." She slowly licked her fingers.

Lamador sat in a corner of his thick-walled
prison, staring at the grey floor in front of his feet.

William nibbled several kinds of cheese from
a small tray and sipped some more red wine.

The judges that were racing over the
labyrinth were puzzled. They could only find Lamador in his
distressing situation, the other two had disappeared.

Gurthreyn looked up. "Your referees are
becoming impatient. Perhaps now is the time that you re-enter the
labyrinth and bring the challenge to an end."

Hilda looked at the plate with the shrimps.
She had not finished yet. She shrugged and put it on the table,
where William also put his remaining cheese.

"Good luck," said Gurthreyn and they were in
the labyrinth again.

A wall moved. Lamador was free again. He
jumped to his feet, his wand at the ready and his mind raging to
get the two traitors and finish them for good.

Hilda and William gave the getting of the
brooms a last try. It was the last pull the brooms needed.

"Looks like we are in business," Hilda
grinned as they mounted their brooms.

One of the judges was flying overhead and
noticed that. It was Nultos, the black witch. She grinned and
decided to forget seeing it. She hated Lamador's guts and anyone
who was going against him got the edge from her.

Hilda and William started flying through the
corridors. The magic that was everywhere was holding them back,
like the first time, but that was in this case an advantage. It
prevented them from going too fast and hitting surprises.

"Grimhilda!"

They heard Lamador's screaming. The man
sounded not happy. Hilda took her broom up to about ten yards.
William followed her. They turned a corner.

Lamador was walking through the corridor,
very angry that there was no sign of the two he wanted to crush. He
had spent far too much power on nothing and he knew it. The witches
and wizards he had drained energy from were close to dead and now
mostly useless. He had to get to them fast and mercilessly.

Hilda and William saw the great Lamador walk
under them, oblivious of them hanging over his head. They saw how
his wand was sparkling as he was angrily throwing magic around.
Hilda thought of Gerdundula. Of Calandra. And of Fidelma, the
flowerwitch from her village.

William sensed her anger and how she was
building up magic. He merged his power with hers and suddenly there
was a big block of metal around Lamador. Large sharp pins stuck out
of the walls and touched his clothes, making it impossible for him
to move unless he seriously wanted to hurt himself. He could not
raise his wand either.

Hilda maneuvered her broom to a place where
he could see her. His eyes shot fire as he saw her flying, but she
could easily ward that off.

"You have been playing unfairly, Lamador,"
the witch said, her wand pointed at the great sorcerer who was not
so great at that moment. "You have taken away friends and drawn
their magic from them. You have also taken others, and done the
same thing. You are a disgrace to the magical community."

"I am the most powerful sorcerer of all
times!", Lamador hissed as he tried to make his metal shell go
away. His attempts were in vain, as Hilda and William kept a
constant flow of magic going into it. And at this moment, with
Lamador so relatively weak, they could easily keep that going.

"You, witch, will regret this. Once I have
taken this metal thing away, you will suffer for this insult!"
Lamador made a movement to add force to his words. A pin scratched
through his clothes and a small red spot welled up from his skin.
The great sorcerer stared at the wound. He was so shocked about
this that it took him more than a minute to realise that he could
close the wound.

William, hovering behind the trapped magical
man, noticed that it took Lamador quite some effort to heal
himself. Calmly he flew his broom forward and positioned himself
next to Hilda. Without a word he stared down at the sorcerer.

Lamador, once he had healed himself, looked
up at his captors. Seeing William made him even more angry. "You
too, you will regret all your messing with my person. Just let me
get free."

"You are more than welcome to get yourself
free, Lamador," said Hilda. "We'll just sit here and watch you do
it, if that's all the same to you. Maybe we can learn something
from you."

William grinned, appreciating the words and
how they were spoken.

Lamador stared up at them, standing still. He
closed his eyes, diving deep inside his magical core. His ability
to draw magical energy from others also allowed him to draw magic
from the environment.

"I don't know what he's doing, Hilda, but he
is trying something," William whispered.

The witch nodded, she had noticed it also.
She held her wand pointing at Lamador.

Lamador reached the spot in his magic where
he wanted to be. With a tremendous act of force he made his magic
stream in it. And it worked.

A few yards in front of Hilda something
materialised. It did not go fast, but it was obviously a human
shape. As the shape took form and became more clear, Hilda reached
out for William's arm. "William," she whispered, her anger and
power fading away. "That's Gerdundula..."

The body of the witch, who was already dead,
hung in front of them, as in a mock salute. Then Lamador released
the magic he needed to keep the body in the air. The remains of
Gerdundula fell to the ground where they hit with a sickening
thud.

"Hilda." William slapped her arm, quite hard,
as he lashed out towards Lamador who was digging into his magical
core again. William hit Hilda again, to make her snap out of her
state of terror over what had just happened.

William made a bucket of fish intestines
appear over the great sorcerer and poured that downwards. It was
enough to keep the man from pulling the next trick he was planning,
at least for a while.

As Lamador was spluttering and gasping for
breath, his flow of magic interrupted, Hilda blinked her eyes. "You
are going to regret ever laying a hand on her, Lamador," she said
as she lowered her broom, her wand raised. "And you will not lie
anymore either."

"I have never lied!", Lamador cried out as he
tried to make the metal pins bend away from him. William's power
countered his attempts.

"Oh yes. You claimed to be the greatest. You
are not. We met the greatest, and he would use you as a mop."

Hilda looked at the broken body of her
friend. "Gerdundula... this one's for you." She drew power from
wherever she could muster it. A few moments later, the metal pins
started moving, stabbing through Lamador's body. The great sorcerer
fought back at them, but in his weakened state he could not fight
Hilda's and William's combined power. The pins took long before
they all had pierced the sorcerer. He was dead before the tips of
the metal reached the opposite walls.

"Holy Bejeebus." William looked at the mess
that hung in the metal block. "I am never going to pick a fight
with you, Hilda."

The wicked witch looked up at her wizard.
"You can never make me that angry, William."

Bregan was hanging over the spot where the
decision had been made. He signalled Nultos to join him and
together they descended to where Hilda and William were.

Bregan looked at what they had wrought. "This
is... quite disgusting," he said.

Hilda looked at the man and pointed at the
body of Gerdundula. "And how do you call that? I'm afraid there are
more witches and wizards like that. He did that."

Nultos looked at the two people who had been
in the challenge. "Bregan, I think we can say that the challenge is
over."

Bregan nodded.

"I'll go and flash the blue light," Nultos
said, and without waiting for anything, she raised her broom. Soon
after that a bright blue flash spread out over the labyrinth.

Hilda and William slowly flew upwards. Bregan
stayed in the corridor with the metal block, to "properly discard
of it".

The magical couple pushed through the magical
field over the labyrinth and then slowly flew over the large area,
to their tent. They felt tired, drained and sick.

"William?"

"Yes, Hilda?"

"Did I do the right thing? I was so angry. He
had hurt me and my friends so much."

"It wasn't just you, Hilda. I was there with
you. I could have stopped you. He tried to drown us, he sent that
spider after us and tried to burn us alive. He kidnapped your
friends and did a score of other things to hurt you. And me. He had
it coming. If not through you and me, then through someone else.
You could have taken longer to kill him. I think it is okay the way
it went."

"Still I feel dirty, William."

They landed their brooms. Many people had
gathered near their tent already, and voices were buzzing all over
the place. An applause rose over the terrain as the two set foot on
the ground again and propped their brooms up against the tent.

Nultos also landed her broom. "Following the
rules of the challenge, we will have to wait for Bregan to join us,
so we can officially reach the end of the challenge."

All talking stopped and people started
murmuring among each other.

"I hope Bregan hurries. Lamador's dead. Not
much to do there, I think." Hilda sat down on one of the chairs
that had been brought for them. William sat down next to her.

A servant from Lamador's court, one had to
call it that, came to bring them glasses of water and wine. As they
were drinking the water down, suddenly a loud voice rang over the
grounds around the labyrinth.

"BEWARE!"

Hilda and William jumped to their feet,
looking at each other. It was the voice of Gurthreyn! Why would he
warn them?

The crowd that had gathered around the tent
built up a slight panic and started dispersing, looking around for
what there would be to beware of. It came from above.

A large rectangle of metal, containing sharp
spikes, was plummeting downwards, to the spot where the magical
couple was standing. Beams of fire and ice, burning needles and
poisoned metal streamed downwards from it. An eerie shouting
accompanied the attack. Hilda and William jumped each to a side,
avoiding the fierce flow of nastiness that came down on them.

The tent was ripped to shreds in a matter of
seconds. The same thing happened to several unfortunate
bystanders.