Hilda and Zelda (24 page)

Hilda did not answer. Instead, she took
William's broom in a deathgrip and yanked it as she shot upwards
after several death-defying seconds. "This'd better work."

It worked. Below them, the two concrete
blocks were coming up towards them, but Hilda's timing had been
perfect. The two blocks collided and their speed took care of the
rest. Also her pick of the location had been good, as there were no
houses beneath them. Giant lumps of concrete, steel and wiring
started tumbling down, as the magic that Zelda had stored into the
blocks started dissipating. Even a witch as formidable as she could
not keep all that together.

"Damn it, you witch, you did it!" Relief
spread through William as they both watched the result of Hilda's
action.

"I am glad you approve," Hilda said. "This
was close. It also tells that Zelda's getting desperate when she
resorts to things like that to crush us." She was already searching
for the evil witch but there was no trace of her. "Crappedy crap.
She's gone. I am sure I sensed her when we were flying like crazy."
In a major bad mood the two flew back to the metal dome of
containers, to check on the witches and the devil-worshipping
allies they had left them with...

-=-=-

The magical people worked together with the
witches and the devil-boys to get the metal dome in order for the
great reception, as they had code-named their action. Buster had
gone out and collected some more of their fellows. They had worked
on cleaning up the place, to Rodney's dismay ("it is not so bad!"),
and Stephen was insulted when the women had insisted on coveralls
before they dared to get to work inside.

Hilda had told them what they had seen and
done while they were out, and again warned them about the serious
danger that they were all getting into with this thing. "Zelda is a
particularly bad and clever witch. And not afraid to hurt people
either. We have a building lying on its side which proves this. I
don't know what's gotten into her, but it seems that coming here
has given her some amazingly uncanny ideas about using witchcraft.
So I say this again: she is not afraid to hurt people. Tory here is
living proof. We are going to push her to limits, so she may resort
to dramatic actions."

"Like seriously injuring people?" Gladys
asked. Her face showed however that she knew that was not dramatic
enough.

"To kill them too," Hilda said. "It's not a
joke, people. This is fix or fall."

Everyone was silent for a while, as the
impact of Hilda's words sunk in.

"And you can't just whack her and getter
done?" Buster asked. He emphasised his whack by slamming a fist in
the palm of his hand.

"If we could, do you think we'd have waited
so long?"

"Uh. Guess not." Buster slammed his palm
again, just to show he could and was not afraid.

A table fell over.

Stephen jumped up, as did many others. He was
the only one who said: "What the fuck's that?"

"Looks like a table fell over," William
stated the obvious. "Remarkable though. Tables don't fall over just
like that."

"Yeah. That's what worries me," said Stephen.
The man walked over and put the table back on all four legs. He
pushed and shoved it a few times. It remained where it was. Stephen
made a sound and walked back to the group. As he came closer, he
stopped walking and stared past them. "What the fuck..."

Hilda and the others wondered and looked at
where Stephen was gazing. They were just in time to see the
entrance-door slowly close itself. With a metallic clang the door
bounced against the container and opened again for a few
inches.

Rodney got up and dashed to the door,
throwing it open while he challenged the person who did that to
show himself. It was a good attempt, were it not that there was
nobody to show himself. Or herself.

"This is creepy," Vivian whispered. "Not sure
if I like this. Is this Zelda's doing?"

"No," Hilda said. "Zelda's not that subtle.
She'd have the table fly at us or so. But she's not around. I would
know if she was."

"Then what was it?" Vivian asked.

Hilda shrugged. "I don't know. Stephen? Is
this something you're accustomed to?"

The big man shook his head for a moment and
then seemed to change his mind. "Sorta. It's what can happen when
we summon demons."

"Demons? You got demons here? Tell me more!"
Hilda was all ears and professional interest.

"Demons? There are demons here?" Tory looked
around and started a sideways motion towards the door, a mode of
movement that her coven sisters adopted.

"Where are you going?" William asked.

"Outside," was their unified answer.

"Don't get lost," the wizard warned them.

Stephen explained to Hilda and William that
in the meetings that his group did, there often were demonic
rituals. "We wanna call up some kick-ass powers of the dark realm
and see what happens."

"And then tables fall over," Hilda nodded
understandingly.

"No," Stephen said, his face sagging,
"usually it's just a fucking ashtray that moves a bit.

Hilda nodded. "So when a table topples over
without a reason, that means something big was happening, did I get
that right?"

Stephen nodded again. "Yeah."

"I see." Hilda flicked a finger. The table
fell over. "Looks like I am something big that happens."

Her joke did not go down all that well with
Stephen and his boys, but they did not dare to do anything to the
witch. Stephen ordered Buster to put the table upright again.

"We'll be here tomorrow. Late afternoon. Get
the show going. And that bloody witch better show up," Stephen
barked. "We're all sick of her screwing around here."

"She does? I never got a chance to-" Buster
started.

"Shut up!" Stephen's comment was loud and
clear enough for Buster to do just that.

"Thank you, Stephen," said Hilda. "We'll be
here also. Now, if you gentlemen would be so kind to take these
ladies home again, that would be really kind of you."

The gentlemen grunted at being called that,
but they were desperate enough to get rid of Zelda. They took the
ladies home.

The day had gone by in a rather nervous
atmosphere. Also Hilda and William were more tensed than usual and
they could not put a finger on the why. Maybe it was because they
were teaming up with so many different people and groups to bring
Zelda's terror to an end. Or was it that they had witnessed these
inexplicable effects in the metal cathedral, the things that had
unsettled Stephen and his fellows?

They sat in the kitchen with Gladys who had
sort of taken them in. Remarkably enough, they all agree, there had
not been any Zelda-induced disturbances during the night, nor the
day.

"Makes me feel all kinds of funny," Hilda
shared with them. "She usually is this silent only when she's up to
no good."

"Try not to worry about it," said Gladys.
"Maybe she is just planning something."

"But that's what worries me." Hilda sat back
on her chair and made her coffeecup float over the table as she
seemed to be engaged in some deep thoughts.

William watched her face and read the frowns,
the movement of her eyebrows and the twitches of her mouth, and
decided that it was not a doomsday scenario that unfolded in the
witchy mind. "We should start heading out soon," he said at the
right moment.

Hilda nodded and magicked all the coffeecups
clean and back into the cupboard where Gladys had taken them
from.

"Oh Goddess," their host said, "I am so going
to miss you guys."

"We are not gone yet," Hilda said with a
wink. "Let's first make sure that our biker friends made sure to
collect the others."

Stephen and some of the others had agreed to
pick up Tory, Vivian and the others, to get everyone in place at
the right time. William would carry Gladys over with Hilda on the
lookout. The two of them always were the main target of Zelda, so
care had to be taken.

"Are we ready?" Hilda asked Gladys as they
were standing in the backyard of the house. "Nothing
forgotten?"

"I'm not sure what I could forget," said
Gladys. "We're going for all or nothing tonight, right? I have to
say that I am very scared, but taking something with me won't make
much of a difference, will it?"

Hilda nodded, and appreciated the attitude of
this woman who was diving into something for William and herself,
something that she had no idea of. Actually, Hilda had no idea
either. "Okay. Let's go then. Hang on, Gladys."

As Gladys sat in front of William, there was
not a lot she could hang on to as the brooms lifted off, but she
appreciated the thought regardless. She was getting more or less
used to riding shotgun on a broom, as she called it for herself. So
long as she stayed away from the thought of flying on such a stick
all alone.

They sped upwards in a considerable pace. The
afternoon had seen its best part already, and if all was well, the
metal dome would be filling up with participants for this session
of Zelda bashing.

"I'm going up a bit more, William," said
Hilda, "so I can see more of what's happening from here."

The wizard nodded. Gladys wondered what had
caused Hilda to do this and asked him about it. "Just being
careful," he replied. "Zelda has played tricks on us before, and
those never were the kind we could laugh over."

As they had passed over the town, where
several people were in the streets and shouting up at them, Hilda
lowered her broom back to William's level again. "Nothing Zelda. I
don't like that."

William agreed. He did not trust that witch
further than he could throw her either.

Miraculously though, they reached the
enormous stack of containers without a problem. After touching
down, Gladys hopped off the broom, thanked William for the smooth
trip and then rushed off to find her sisters and Andy.

"William, don't look around and say nothing.
Zelda's around. I am not sure where, but she is here somewhere.
We'll have to tell the others, but try to be calm about it."

Hilda shrunk the brooms, William tucked them
inside his robe and nodded. Then they walked off in separate
directions, talking to the assembled group.

Vivian and all the others were there. Stephen
had an impressive twenty-nine contingency with him. With so many
people, the word of Zelda being near was spread quickly.

Hilda suggested they'd all go inside and
start as soon as possible. On the question of Vivian and Stephen as
what to start, she said: "Improvise. Do what you normally do."

One of the women in Stephen's group walked
into the metal cathedral. Seconds later she yelled: "Hey, who
brought their cats?"

The magical couple frowned. Who in their
right mind would bring pets to a venue like this, while knowing
what they were planning to do. They entered the large metal
structure, where Buster and Rodney were working on lighting all the
candles.

"Leave them to it, Hilda," William said,
"this is their party too, and we should respect that."

Hilda nodded. "Good thinking - oh, I have an
idea. Come with me for a moment..." She grabbed one of William's
sleeves and dragged him along, eradicating all forms of 'no'
beforehand.

When they returned into the light of the
candles that by now all were burning, they witnessed a truly
uncanny sight. In the middle of the space, Stephen and his people
had painted a large black circle. Inside that, Vivian and her group
had painted a white circle, with a large, be it slightly crooked
pentacle in it. The wiccan witches were dressed all in white and
had put up loads of white candles. Outside their white realm, the
devil worshippers had clad in black and deep red clothes. Some of
them were preparing something that involved a large black cauldron
that was located to the side.

The black mirrors caught the light of the
candles but somehow forgot to reflect it. The whole spectacle as it
was developing made William shiver and grin at the same time.
"Dante would go crazy, I think."

"Who?"

"Dante Alleghieri. He wrote a book about
Hell. I'll tell you more about that later," William said. "If there
is a later, that is."

"Negative, negative," the witch muttered.
"Come, let's see what they are brewing up there." More
sleeve-pulling happened.

In the cauldron was a liquid. It was red and
it looked very warm.

Hilda frowned at the stuff. "Do you do that
always?" she asked the woman who was pushing a ladle through the
liquid as if she was winning a rowing contest.

"Usually, yes. And better stand aside a bit,
that stuff makes nasty stains," the woman replied. "Of course, we
sometimes vary a bit. Serving tomato soup all the time gets boring.
Last time we had chicken soup. Well, we made it anyways, before
that bloody witch came and threw it all over us and the floor."

William stared at the woman. "Soup."

"Uhuh. Can get quite cold in here, and doing
energy work can drain a person. So we always have soup ready for
afterwards. And rolls with cheese. They're over there, behind the
black curtain." She swung the ladle, leaving a trail of tomato soup
drops in the air. Hilda acted immediately. The woman did not notice
the result until she was rowing in the soup again. She dropped her
oar.

"What's up?" Hilda asked.

The woman slowly pointed at the drops of soup
that floated over the side of the cauldron. "That..."

"What of them?" Hilda flipped a finger and
the drops fell back into the hot soup.

"They... hovered?"

"Yes? So?" Hilda made the oar-ladle rise up,
clean. "That's kid stuff."

The woman fainted. William was just in time
to catch her and guide her to the ground.

Buster was near. "Wha's happening? Oh... Olga
fainted."