Hilda - The Challenge (15 page)

"Just you do what you have to, Hilda. No need
to rush yourself for me, I'm happy here. More perhaps than I can
tell or show you at this moment. So go and have your fun. And I'll
make sure I'll stay near the crystal ball, okay? I dare say you can
call me through that."

Hilda looked at him with big eyes. "You are
smart!" She jumped up and threw her arms around his neck, hugging
him wildly and shrieking in his ear for a short yet long enough
moment. When she was on her feet again, she took the broom and
said: "I'll check in when I am with my friend. It will be so great
to do that, with you here." Her face was beaming bigtime and made
William smile bigtime in return.

He pulled her against him for a moment. "Now
off you fly, pretty witch. I'm going to watch you take off. And be
careful out there, I want you back in one piece."

"Don't worry," Hilda said, basking in his hug
even though the broomstick was poking against her ribs.

Then he walked her to the door, where she
lingered for a moment, to look into his eyes once more. She felt a
little bit more confident now, so she stepped outside and mounted
her broom. After a short glance back at William, who was standing
there, watching her, she kicked off and sped away.

William closed the door when he could not
make out Hilda against the few clouds anymore. At that moment he
remembered that he had never asked her to inflate his books!

"Holy Bejeebus," he called upon his favourite
saint. "Don't tell me I am stuck with books on growing witch's
herbs and the calming effect of certain mushrooms I have never
heard of... If that is so, I'm going to need them!"

William slowly walked to the staircase and
willed the books to be there. "Please let them be there, please
please..." He reached the door to his room, pushed it open and saw
his books lying on the table. A load worth several stone fell off
his heart. "Smart little witch to think of that."

As he had all the time of the morning to
himself, he first treated himself to a nice bath and then took his
treasure of books down the stairs, together with his crystal
ball.

Hilda did her round as she usually did, but
Lamador's note kept gnawing at her. In a lesser degree it also
bugged her that William was alone at her house, but she was sure
that by now he would be safe there. He had survived two rounds in
the kitchen and that was quite a feat for an ordinary.

The wicked witch was also surprised that the
house had taken so well to him, and that was good. She just would
like to know how he had done that, being unmagical.

As she had visited the castle, the king had
not been out. He probably was busy with something. Hilda couldn't,
for the life of her, think of anything in that direction, but
strange things did happen, anyone knew that.

The broom swooped over the village.
Everything was in order there. She took a moment to check on the
mule they had rescued from the thieving clutches of the man who had
stolen Gerdundula's veggies, and the animal was happy in its
pasture, together with others of its kind.

Hilda then proceeded to pester the shepherds
on the far south mountains, she had kind of neglected them. She had
a number of really good moments there, taking the pressure of her
mind for a while, but as she was flying further south to the house
of her friend Calandra, she became silent again and worrying.

The south part of the kingdom was a
magnificent area. The hills were much lower there, the trees more
gentle and green and lush. There were not as many lakes as in the
north where Hilda lived, but the area here was almost a labyrinth
of meandering rivers and streams. The water came from the kingdom
to the far south, from the high mountains where rain fell almost
daily. In those mountains lived many witches and wizards that had a
fulltime job keeping all that water out of their villages. Hilda
was glad she lived in Walt's kingdom. Water was good for baths, not
for work.

The view of the scenery relaxed Hilda. By the
time she circled Calandra's house, she felt relatively at ease, and
when she saw her friend come out and wave her down, she smiled.

Calandra was a typical very tall southerner.
Short blond hair, pale skin, and very easy going on colours for her
clothes. Mostly she'd wear green or brown pants, which Hilda
considered very not feminine. Calandra's shirts were all white
without a frizzle or frolic or anything joyous. Not even a necklace
or so. But she did own loads of pretty thick coats, which was a
prerogative for living this far south.

The two witches hugged and Calandra then all
but dragged Hilda into her house.

"Hey, look at that! Cool puppies, Cal! You
redecorated?" Hilda was amazed as she saw the stylish interior with
red, white and black. "Really nice, suits you too."

"Well, you know," Calandra said with her
thick southern accent, "sometimes a girl needs to have a change of
colours, right?"

"Yeah, I know. I've been trying to convince
my house about that, and guess what I get. Same old same old. Would
you believe it threatened me to lock me out?!"

"You are kidding me? Oh, please, go sit down,
sweetie, I'm gonna make us a good brew, 'right?"

Hilda nodded and sat down at the counter-like
construction Calandra had put up between the living room and the
kitchen instead of having a sensible wall there.

As Calandra was working in her kitchen,
meaning that she stood watching how the kettle filled itself and
put itself on a low fire, Hilda's mind drifted off again. Because
of that, she missed the question Calandra fired at her. "Sorry,
what?"

"Wake up, sleepyhead! I asked you what y'all
had been doing!" The southern witch laughed loudly, making the
walls shake and the windows rattle.

"Well, I've been busy with things, you know.
Local rounds, playing catch with the king, bullying the local
thieving guild. And lately I have a challenge pinned to my rear
again."

"Yeah, I heard things of that nature,"
Calandra said as she put a mug the size of a modest soup bowl in
front of Hilda. Calandra always liked to think big. "And how are
you going to handle that?" The witch's face was serious and
worried. Lamador's fame and aspirations were known everywhere.

"I don't know exactly," Hilda said. "Or
better: I exactly don't know."

"Yeah, sucks, stuff like that. And the
rest?", Calandra inquired.

"Rest? Isn't this bad enough?" Hilda stared
at her friend in wonder.

Calandra sat down opposite Hilda. "Come on
girl, don't give me that. I know I am far away down south, but I am
connected remember?" She pointed at the insanely large crystal ball
in her room. The thing was so large and heavy that only a slab of
rock was strong enough to support it.

"Uhm?" Hilda really did not understand what
Calandra was talking about.

Calandra frowned. "Are you telling me that
they've been pinning fancy shit on my sleeve then?"

Hilda was now lost and had the face to prove
it. "Who's said what? I don't have the foggiest idea what you mean,
Calandra!"

Calandra was next in line to be lost. "Okay,
so the line's been buzzing that there's nice tall handsome man
living in your house. But obviously-"

"Who told you that?!", Hilda gave it
away.

"Aha!! So it is true! And there you were,
playing miss Innocent on me!" Calandra manifested another bout of
shaking walls, and this time one of the windows did not
survive.

"It's not... what you think." Hilda was not
very pleased with all this.

"Oh, sure," Calandra snickered, "you find
yourself a man for the first time in what is... I lost track of the
number of centuries... and then it is not what everyone
thinks."

"Everyone? How many know that William is
living with me?", Hilda asked, a mild form of panic jumping at her
throat.

"You'd better ask how many don't yet. If
any." The remark of the southern witch did not make Hilda feel much
better. "And it's William, is it? How interesting. Where did you
find him? How long do you know him? And do you two have plans
together?" Calandra leaned over to Hilda, eager to catch every
little snip of information the grey-haired witch was willing to
share.

"I am saying nothing. Nothing at all." Hilda
folded her arms over her chest and pressed her lips together.

"Okay, girl, okay, I'm not complaining, you
hear me? It's of course always the same problem, that if people
don't know the facts, there are always some among the in-crowd that
are filling in the details with what they -think- is going on. And
then you might be worse off than spilling the word right
now..."

"William is going to help me beat Lamador,"
Hilda allowed herself to reveal.

"Lamador? Don't get me wrong, Hilda, but you
are not allowed to request magical help on a challenge..." Calandra
shook her head, making her hair dance around her head.

Hilda wanted to be anywhere else. "That's all
I am going to say."

"Okay, girl, that's fair. I heard you make a
really neat couple on the brooms too. Blue suits him well, they
say. Big wizard stuff, with the silver on the robes too." Calandra
nodded appreciatively. "I could fall for a wizard." She winked at
Hilda. "Or on one."

"Hmmpf," Hilda commented. "We did not fall,
and he's not flying- oh crap."

"Now what was that, girl? He's not flying?
But he wears the blue!"

"I gave that to him." Damn, shut up, Hilda,
shut up!

"Oh. Right. Well, you know how safe your
secrets are with me," Calandra said with a smile that would take
half her head off had it gone just a bit wider.

"I was afraid of that," muttered the wicked
witch, who felt a far cry from wicked at that moment.

Calandra seemed to understand that she should
not pry more than she had already done. She had enough news to put
out on the lines, first hand news. And perhaps she could improve
its quality slightly before sending it round, but that was
something for later. She changed the subject skillfully, babbling
about her new interior and the problems that the wizards and
witches further south had had with the water.

The atmosphere in the house of the southern
witch improved rapidly, as Calandra maneuvered around the touchy
subject to make Hilda feel better. After all, she knew, the wicked
witch had quite a heavy load on her shoulders with the challenge
from Lamador.

Hilda looked out a window and noticed that
the sun had started its downwards trajectory already. "Cal, I have
to go back home again now."

"Of course, Hilda, I understand. Quite a
stiff flight you have ahead of you. Thanks for dropping by, hon,
and don't be a stranger, okay?"

Hilda said goodbye, was forced to take a bag
of real southern witch cookies along as Calandra had baked a few
hundred too many in her new kitchen, and then finally she was on
her way home again. For some reason she pushed her broom to go as
fast as possible.

"William, she is coming back."

"Oh, really? Good! Thank you, house." William
pulled his feet under him and got up. He had been reading his books
on the blanket that still was in front of the now extinguished
fireplace.

He walked to the door and as he opened it, he
saw Hilda slump down on the grassy patch. Not an elegant landing at
all, he noticed. It was not far away from an emergency landing.

Hilda grabbed her broom and almost ran
inside, quickly closing the door. Paranoia was creeping, but
creeping very quickly. She leaned against the door, as if her
weight would keep it closed much more securely.

"Hey, what's wrong?", William wondered about
her strange way of coming in.

"They know," Hilda told him as if this would
mean the world to him.

"Who knows, and what?" He looked a
puzzle.

"The others. About us."

"I am sorry, dear witch, but you are talking
in shorthand, so bear with me when I try to analyse this," William
said. He put his hands on her shoulders, peeled her from the door
and steered her to the large black table. "You are going to sit
down, I'll fix you some tea and then-"

"No tea, I need a drink," Hilda surprised
him.

"Oh dear." William had never heard her say
that. She had not touched wine in the daylight before as long as he
had been around, so this was worrying. "Okay, I'll go get-"

"That takes too long," she snapped, snipped
her fingers and filled the table with glasses of wine. As she
grabbed one (of the diluted ones of course), William held her hand,
preventing her to drink it down. He knew he was taking a risk. A
big risk.

"Maybe, before you drink yourself into a
stupor, maybe there is something you want to tell me?" He spoke
calm and kindly.

Hilda slapped his hand. "I need a drink, not
a babysitter."

He let her drink and sat down next to her. He
took one of the glasses that was not diluted. A quick count of the
glasses told him that they both were in for at least five
hangovers, if they were going to have a serious go at all that
wine.

Without ceremony Hilda emptied her glass in
one large gulp. This earnt her an astounded glance from
William.

"Argh...", she then said. "Do you know you
don't taste a thing when you drink wine like that?" She looked at
the man sitting next to her, his brown eyes only paying attention
to her. With a sigh she sat back in the chair, trying to relax. The
alcohol she had just poured into herself started to work, calming
her down.

"Do you want to have another one?", William
asked.

"No! Do you want to get me drunk so you can
take advantage of me?" She giggled.

"What do you think of me?" William asked, his
face straight.

"Not sure, you know, but the idea is sort of
exciting." The fast shot of alcohol was really getting to her. She
stared at a second glass, picked it up to make sure it would not
run away.