Hilda - The Challenge (36 page)

William refrained from asking more questions.
He was certain they had seen enough. Hilda was already gently
pushing him, she wanted to leave, so they thanked Gio for guiding
them around and quickly left the building. Outside they saw Brent
again, the mouse-face, who was keeping to the side of the building,
hoping the two would not see him. Alas, they did.

As Hilda and William walked away, the wicked
witch snipped her fingers that were invisible under William's arm.
A lot of agitation suddenly arose in the street and the couple
turned round to see what it was. William seriously wondering, Hilda
as she wanted to see the result of the snip. They were in time to
see Brent bending down to pull his trousers back up. Laughing, they
walked back to the large wall with its openings, and made for their
brooms.

"It is really bad here," William noted as
they were in the air again.

"Yes. Worse than I thought even. And you were
right, William, he is using the king to play his games. If the king
even allows his court sorcerer to have a larger statue than he has
himself, then there is something very wrong." Hilda felt really
uncomfortable, the more as she sensed a similar thing coming from
William. But in a way it assured her that he was with her, also in
that sense. He was not going to do foolish things, she was certain
of that.

They flew on, not speaking much, until the
capital came near. And a capital it was. It was white, so white
that it hurt their eyes as the sunshine hit the giant white
buildings that were in front of the even more giant
mountainsides.

A wide web of roads, paths and trails was
weaving itself together with one destination: the capital of king
Herald's kingdom, Heraldion.

This was not a village. This was a city of
serious dimensions. Even from the distance that there was between
it and Hilda and William it looked huge.

"There it is," Hilda said to hide her nerves.
She was not at all happy to see the place. It meant only one thing
to her: Lamador. And that spooked her to no end.

They had landed their brooms several miles
from the city and it felt to them as if they were in the middle of
a street inside it. There were no ordinaries near, they had
searched for magical people and found none either, so they were
reasonably certain that their arrival so far had gone
unnoticed.

Hilda looked at William. "We've come this
far, let's get it over with." There was a bit of doom in the tone
of her voice.

William understood, as this was literally
stepping into the lion's bedroom. He touched her cheek. "We'll be
fine. I don't think that Lamador will believe that we are doing
this. He's gone through a lot of work to make everyone afraid of
him, and it worked. So we're going to do the unbelievable thing
here." He winked at the wicked witch. "Ready to do the
unbelievable?" He held out his hand.

She hesitated. Then, with a feeble smile, she
took his hand. "I don't know why I love you, William. You are so
crazy at times that it scares me. And yet I hear what you say and
somehow it makes sense." She squeezed his hand. "Just stay with me
and nothing will happen to you, okay?"

William smiled. "I'm not going to let you out
of my sight, Hilda."

They walked towards one of the trails that
led to Heraldion and after an hour they had mingled with and merged
with the crowd that was moving towards the city.

The approach towards Heraldion was more
normal than getting to Frad, the first village they had visited.
The web of roads they had seen was not exactly fixed on one point
where they could get into the city. There were many side-trails and
tracks that spread out. Carts with goods, large groups of people,
they all seemed to know where they wanted to go, diverting from the
large main street that led onwards. Hilda proposed they'd follow
along one of the smaller, less busy tracks, but William shook his
head.

"We are now hiding in the crowd. Nobody sees
us. This is really the best way to do this."

Hilda sighed, as a bulky man pushed against
her, trying to head on faster than the crowd allowed. It took her a
lot of self-control not to whip up her wand and give him a piece of
her mind. After all, they did not want to be discovered, and not
reacting to this insult was the way to go.

They still progressed at a decent speed, and
only half an hour after being sucked into the group of people
wanting to enter the white city of Heraldion, they passed along the
first white houses. The city was entirely open, William saw,
nowhere were guards or soldiers. It made him feel at ease.

"There are lots of wizards, witches and
warlocks going around here, so be careful what you do," said Hilda,
"they walk around in ordinaries' clothes like we do, so it is hard
to discover them. They're good and can hide their magic for someone
like you who is not experienced."

That made him feel ill at ease.

Heraldion was magnificent. Entirely different
from Frad, there were stalls on every street, places where they
could sit to look at things, plenty of options to eat and drink the
most exotic things in outrageous colours and shapes.

The houses were not all white, as they had
looked from a distance. The roofs and top floors were white, but
the sections on the ground floor had been painted in all colours of
the rainbow, making the walk through the streets a very joyful one.
They gazed at the colours, the signs that invited people in,
mentioned events that were taking place in several parts of the
town. It was a real big city atmosphere, thought William.

There were people about from many areas,
Hilda recognised many of them. Some were even from king Walt's
country, traders that were here for the continuous big market, as
she pointed out to William.

"Want to see the market?" She remembered
where it was, as she had been in this city a few times before.
Before there were challenges and Lamador.

"Would be interesting," said William who
almost forgot that they were here for a purpose and not for merely
enjoying the sights. "And it might give us a good starting point
for the plan."

Hilda nodded, her face overshadowed for a
moment. "Yes. The plan." Being in the middle of Heraldion it seemed
to her that the ideas William had brought up had less chance of
succeeding than a broom trying to fly off on its own.

The giant stream of people was already
heading for the big market, so it was very easy to get to it, they
only had to go with the flow and get out of it in time. The closer
they came to the market, the higher the level of noise became, and
also the smells that jumped their senses became more and more
varied. William was flabbergasted at the sheer amount of different
scents his nose was able to discern as they were drifting along the
street that led to the giant market place.

The market place was oval shaped. Every
square yard was used, to accomodate stalls, tables and low carts
with goods. The organised chaos that reigned there was a slight
shock to William and even Hilda.

"Crappedy crap, it's gotten even worse than
the last time I was here. They made it larger also," Hilda
muttered. She pulled William along with her as she stepped out of
the river of bodies that kept moving along.

"Going anywhere special?", he asked as he was
taken by surprise.

"Yeah. Away from that crawling madness."
Hilda looked around, trying to find a place even further away, but
the pavement that they stood on was littered with tables, chairs
and people. It looked as if there was no escape possible.

"What about that then?" William nodded to a
place that looked like a restaurant. Over it hung a large banner
informing the world that it was "The Great Lamador". "I'd say they
have a special affection with their sorcerer." He slipped his arm
around hers and started working his way by the neverending flow of
people.

"William, we can't go sit there!", Hilda
hissed, trying to hold him back in vain.

"Why not?"

"Because it's... it's... well, just because."
Hilda pouted as she did not want to come up with the proper
word.

"Do you have another suggestion?", William
asked her as they were pushed and shoved by people who wanted to
get past them.

"Depends on what you have in - oompf - mind.
Hey, watch it okay?" Hilda yelled after someone very rude, but the
person pretended to be deaf.

"How about sitting down and eat something? So
far we've had a glass of beer, and I can't function on that."

Hilda was hungry also. They had come a long
way, the afternoon was progressing nicely already, and there -was-
food on the tables of 'The Great Lamador'.

"I hate you, just remember that," she said as
she pushed herself past William and located a table as far from the
crowd as possible. She dropped herself on a chair and immediately a
whiff of food from the kitchen attracted her attention.

William sat down also, and he too looked into
the establishment from where the smell of food came.

A woman, dressed in lightblue shirt, skirt
and shoes, her black hair trimmed very short, came to their table.
"Hello, dear guests," she said with a professional smile, "welcome
to 'The Great Lamador'. What can I bring you?"

Hilda looked up at the young woman with a
frown. William located a funny feeling in his peace of mind, Hilda
looking like that usually was not a good sign.

"What food and drink do you have?"

William let his tension escape. This was
good. For now.

The waitress summed up the goodies that the
kitchen and the bar had for sale. Hilda then ordered a cup of tea
and a chicken Great Lamador. William also ordered tea, and the ham
Great Lamador. It was not possible to order any food that was not
Great Lamador in this place.

The lightblue waitress returned rather
quickly with the two cups of tea. Before she could rush off to
another table, William asked her: "Could you please tell me why
this restaurant is called the Great Lamador?"

The waitress smiled. "Certainly, sir. The
owner of the restaurant has been married to a niece of no one else
than the Great Sorcerer himself."

"And that is all?" William wondered.

During the entire talk he had with the woman,
Hilda tried to make herself invisible. How could this man that she
valued and loved so much be so silly and talk about the enemy so
leisurely? Why was he attracting so much attention? Weren't they
here in secret? All these and many more thoughts ran through
Hilda's mind and she had the biggest fight with herself to appear
calm and interested in the people walking by. None of whom, by the
way, seemed in the least bit interested in any of the people at the
tables.

"Mareeta!", someone yelled from the insides
of the Great Lamador. The lightblue clad waitress, hearing her
name, excused herself and sped off.

"I don't understand you," hissed Hilda to
William.

"Relax, everything is going fine," said
William, who actually felt very relaxed. Too bad that Hilda had not
gotten the details of the plan, but that would straighten itself
out. He was certain.

Mareeta came back, carrying large plates with
food and a bowl of salad. "Enjoy," she said as she placed
everything on the table very skilled. Then she was away, off to
assist the next customers.

The food was excellent, as was the tea.

"I really don't know what you are doing,
William," said Hilda in the quietest voice she could.

"Sweet woman, I am gathering information," he
said, "and don't you love that salad. I really wish that I knew
what they do to it."

"What?", asked Hilda.

"Do you really want to know?", asked Mareeta
who came sailing by with a few large glasses of beer. After
delivering them, she came back to the table of the magical
couple.

Hilda glared at William for a moment, wishing
she was able to magic herself away. Far away. To her house, for
instance.

Mareeta sat on down on a chair at their
table. "You know, this is a bit of a secret, so you should not tell
anyone..." She looked around for new customers, but there was
nobody requiring her services. "The cook was a pupil of the great
sorceror. He has all kinds of magical tricks he can do with the
food to make it taste as the best thing ever. He learnt that in the
kitchens of king Herald's castle." Again Mareeta looked around. "He
does not tell anyone why he got kicked out of the castle. But
that's fine. We have a good cook because of that."

Four women, obviously ladies who sold things
on the grand oval market, occupied a table. Mareeta took that as
her cue and left the magical couple to their food.

"We have what we want," said William, and
smiled.

"You speak riddles, William. We have food and
a talkative waitress. Is that what we want?" Hilda shook her head,
ate the last bits of food and then sat back, her teacup in hand. "I
thought we were after something entirely different, but if you say
we have what we want, then we can go home again, can't we?" She'd
like that more than anything.

"Almost, sweetheart," said William. He had
finished eating also. "There are a few small things we need to
arrange, and then we can go."

Hilda looked at the wizard-to-be. "Why can't
I understand you, William? Can you one day try and explain that to
me?"

"That, my sweet witch, is because I am from
another world, one that has more devious things and mean streaks
than this one. I'll teach you some."

"I am wicked. Not mean." She sipped her tea,
her eyes obtaining a slight red shine for a moment.

"Hilda, please trust me," William said,
taking her free hand and kissing it. "We'll be out of here in a
jiffy if things go according to plan."

"Plan. Your plan. Why did I ever believe
that. But well, go and do what you have to. The sooner it's done,
the sooner we're on our way home."