Hilda and Zelda (7 page)

"I'm glad you are here with me, William."

He held her tight for a moment. "So am
I."

"I'd go crazy here, alone. Like the first
time." Hilda felt safe with William.

"To tell you the truth, I feel more at home
in your world," said William. "It is uncanny how we are hunted and
glared at here."

"Told you," said the witch that was lying in
his arm. "And we'll go back as soon as this business is taken care
of."

"That we will, for certain and for sure."

The glass of the window broke as a stone flew
through it. Hilda stopped the stone and the glass from spreading as
they jumped off the bed. William stepped over to the window as fast
as he could and, in the darkness, he saw a few figures run
away.

"Damn it. Probably kids who saw us fly in. Or
out. That's not good. Word spreads fast in the streets, and Zelda's
bound to hear it faster than we want."

"So we have to find a new place to stay,"
Hilda deducted. "That's nice, in the dark."

William already had the brooms in hand.
"Don't worry, honourable witch," he said, "we'll find a place."

"William..." Hilda stood close to her wizard
and took his collar in her hands. "No more calling me that, okay?
That's for ordinaries. You are not an ordinary. You are a wizard,
and you are my wizard."

"Okay, sweetwitch." He kissed her.

"Now that you can call me anytime," she
grinned.

William magicked up a note for Bert, thanking
him for the room and put it on the bed. Then they got on their
brooms and left the house.

William and Hilda first went up, so they
would not be seen so quickly. Then they set course towards the
outskirts of town, where a few highrises were erected. Using magic,
they sought out an apartment that was uninhabited, and using some
more magic they gained entry and a nicely equipped bedroom.

The night went by without noticeable
interruptions. Until...

"William. I'm cold."

"Whu? Oh. Come here... Holy Bejeebus, it -is-
cold... what's wrong here?" William popped out his wand and made
some light. The room looked as they had last seen it, but the lower
part of the window was strangely white. The room was cold. Very
cold.

Hilda looked around as well. "William... when
we went to sleep, it was not winter, right? So why is there snow
against the window?"

The couple got up, magicked warmer clothes
onto themselves and walked over to the window. As far as they could
see in the darkness, there was snow. The sky was clear, stars were
visible. The window pushed its cold towards the witch and the
wizard, which made it clear that outside was not a nice place to be
for people.

"I don't recall you mentioning that Zelda is
a weather-witch," said William.

"She's not. I don't know how she does this,
it must cost her a tremendous amount of power to do this."

The two looked at each other and then, as
one, they went for their brooms. William opened the door from a
distance, using magic. A large amount of snow fell into the
apartment.

"Crappedy crap," said Hilda. A swing of her
wand later, the snow was gone and the way out was free for them.
Making their clothes even warmer, they closed the door, mounted
their brooms and flew up into the icy cold night.

William estimated that the layer of snow on
the ground was about three feet thick as they flew over the silent
town, judging from the occasional car that was still visible in the
neighbourhoods that were still untouched by the manic witch.

"I sense where this is coming from, William,
follow me," said Hilda once they had reached a decent altitude.

They crossed the town and then flew towards a
large building.

"I've got to hand it to her," William
grumbled, "she's smart. That's the ice cream factory."

"Ice cream? What's that?", Hilda asked.

The closer they came to the ice-cream
factory, the colder it felt. There was also more snow there, and
the few buildings that were near the factory were almost fully
covered in a layer of ice.

"No cream here, William," Hilda remarked,
pointing at one of the buildings.

"Indeed..." William looked out over the vast
open area that surrounded the actual factory. The factory was fully
lit on the inside, the light streamed out of the windows and gave a
great view of the snow around it. "She's made sure that ordinaries
won't get to her. Nobody would be able to make it through that
stuff. Not even on snowshoes."

The snow out here lay at least five feet
high.

"Hilda... Witches are curious, right?"

"Yes. We are. We have to be." Hilda looked at
him as if she was explaining the necessity of breathing.

"Good. Then we are not going in there," said
William as he pointed at the building a few hundred feet away.

"But Zelda's in there. We have to."

"Yes. And she knows that you think that way.
She will certainly have a few surprises set up inside the building,
just for us. Remember these wicked plants that she had in the pub,
the ones that tried to kill us? Take it from me that she'll have
more potent stuff in place now. She saw us with the helicopter so
she knows we're hard to destroy."

"She knows we're here, William. She knows
that we are here on our brooms."

"And she is inside there somewhere. Nice and
warm." William nodded. Between them, through the bond, an idea
formed. The magical couple grinned for a moment and then got to
work. It did not take them very long to get their offensive charges
in place.

"I think we're ready for it, William," Hilda
said as she looked around the area. Seventy-two dragons made of
snow were hovering around the factory, just outside the circle of
light that the building generated.

"Then let's do it."

On a magical command, the large
snow-creatures flew forward, all aiming at the brightly lit windows
of the factory. A few seconds later over a hundred tonnes of snow
crashed into the factory, spreading over the floor from all sides.
All light went out. A few loud bangs came from the inside, when
some fuses exploded from the overload of sudden snow turned
water.

William and Hilda waited for a while, there
was no certainty that Zelda had been taken out by this surprise.
Then slowly they advanced, their wands casting light ahead. After
entering the factory through one of the shattered windows, William
was convinced that the owner of the place was not insured for what
they found there.

The snow-dragons had wreaked their havoc in a
way better than they had dared to hope. Not one machine was still
standing. Almost every electrical wire had been ripped away from
its hold; at least half of them had snapped under the weight of the
snow.

"Zelda!" Hilda shouted the name. It came
echoing back to her, slightly muffled by the snow. The witch they
were looking for did not answer.

"Do you think she's under the snow
somewhere?", William asked. "We did send in quite an
avalanche."

Slowly they flew around the entire factory,
an immense building. Hilda sent up bolts of light so they had a
clear view of where they were going. After a slow and scrutinising
round, they had not found a trace of Zelda.

"Suck an elf," Hilda muttered, "this can't
be. She is here. I feel it in my blood."

"Oh yes, I am here, Grimhilda." The voice
seemed to come from all sides, in a most confusing manner.

Then the factory imploded.

-=-=-

They were both covered with factory. At least
nine feet of rubble, ice and snow piled on top of them. Or rather,
it rested on the layer of energy that William had thrown around
them as they were on the way to the floor, as the huge building had
come down on them.

Hilda felt the hand around her wrist. It was
William's hand and he tugged at her arm. Sort of. "Are you okay?",
she heard him ask.

"Not sure if this situation could be called
okay. I'm alive, it seems."

"Right. You're okay," William decided. "Do
you still feel Zelda around?"

Hilda checked her feelers. "No. She's gone.
Now you will tell me why you had to be the protective force for
both of us? I can take care of myself, wizard. Thank you very
much."

That was the ultimate proof for William that
she was fine. "I put in as much of my magic as I could. No magical
can sense me. I hoped that if I threw the protection, she would not
be able to sense you either."

"Oh."

"And since she's gone,-"

"That means I can't sense her through that
dumb shielding of yours?"

"Quiet, witch, and let me finish. Since she's
gone-"

"Who are you, thinking you can order me
around, wizard?"

"I'm the one who's kept you alive here,
remember? And do you really think this is the time and place to
pick a fight?"

"I pick a fight when I want to, wizard, and I
don't care if there's a building lying on top of me!"

"Right. Scream some more. Zelda'll know
you're still alive then."

"Oh." Hilda grumbled to herself.
"William?"

"Yes?"

"Sorry. Thank you."

"No problem. Let's get us out of here."

Their combined magic lifted the enormous pile
of debris up. Once there was enough space for them to crawl out of,
they held the remains of the factory in place and climbed out of
their precarious position. After getting themselves into safety,
they carefully lowered the mass of concrete and frozen water again.
That way it would look as if nothing had happened. Just to be on
the safe side, if Zelda would come back to check on what she had
done.

"Where are our brooms?", Hilda asked. She
knew already, and the link to William prevented an answer from him.
"That stinks. They were good brooms." She pulled her cloak around
her. "I hate snow."

William looked around, also making sure the
cold was not getting to him. There was hardly any wood around to
make a proper broom out of. He frowned and popped out his wand.
"What do you think of this?"

Hilda stared at him. "That is an iron broom,
William. Iron. Not wood."

He made it float.

Hilda drew her wand and produced another
metal broom. There was plenty of metal around, from all the
machinery that now no longer could be called such. "Hmmm. Clunky.
But it seems to work."

They mounted their new rides and slowly
lifted off. The brooms were heavy and did not respond as nicely as
the wooden variety, but these things would be able to get them away
from the factory remains.

"Okay, William, I have to hand it to you,"
said Hilda. "You thought of it a little sooner than I did. But I am
more affected by the cold. That's why."

William snorted.

As they flew away from the factory grounds,
they saw that most of the snow in the town was already melting,
creating massive flows of water.

"That might create a big problem," Hilda said
as she looked at the water under them. But we shouldn't take care
of it."

William understood that immediately. Fixing
the problem was like putting up a neon sign telling Zelda they were
still alive. "Let's get back to the apartment first, sleep some of
this off, and see if we can improve on our brooms. You're right,
these things fly like bricks."

They made a bit of a detour getting to the
apartment they had confiscated. The sun was on the rise, so they
were more and more visible. The magical couple just took the chance
of being spotted while flying to the front door of the apartment,
which was on an outside gallery. Nobody seemed to notice them. They
took the metal brooms inside; no need to make anyone wonder about
these contraptions, if someone were to come across them when
passing 'their' apartment.

Hilda and William crashed onto the bed.

"We're facing something here," William stated
the obvious.

"Really. Wake me up if you have brilliant
ideas." Hilda kissed his cheek and closed her eyes. "Or better
still: remember the brilliant ideas until I wake up." She took one
of William's hands and pulled his arm around her. "Nice," she
mumbled. A few seconds later she was asleep.

William tried to think up brilliant ideas. He
managed that for about twenty seconds.

-=-=-

Hilda saw the ceiling when she opened her
eyes again. She heard the soft and peaceful breathing of the wizard
next to her. "No brilliant ideas, I guess," she silently whispered
to herself, and a faint smile played in the corners of her
mouth.

She tried to come up with something herself,
and failed as well, even though she used more than twenty seconds.
It was hard, she knew, smoking out a witch whose whereabouts were
unknown. Next best thing would be to lure her. Slowly she nodded.
Lure was good. But... how? What would be something that a witch
could not resist? She'd have to think about that herself, and talk
it over with William. William would probably not be able to come up
with something. He was from here, and not a witch since the
beginning.

"What are you thinking, sweetwitch?", a deep
voice whispered in her ear. William had woken up also, and picked
up the jumble of thoughts that she was harbouring.

"Good morning. Or afternoon." She turned to
face him. "I was thinking how much I love you."

"You lie, but it's a sweet lie, so you get
away with it," William grinned as he opened his eyes and saw blue
sparkles in her black ones.

"I know." She kissed his cheek. "I was trying
to figure out how to get Zelda, since your brilliant ideas are on a
holiday, it seems."

"All I can think of now is something to eat,"
William declared.

Hilda could understand that. "I doubt there
is something proper in this house though."

The two of them got up and walked into the
living room. Most of the ice and snow had gone. They saw that
through the large window. Most of the table that was in the room
was useful for two proper brooms. They saw that after Hilda had
transformed the piece of furniture.