Hilda - The Challenge (50 page)

The wizard grinned. "I'll remember that." He
looked around. "Now is it me, or..."

"Nope. Not just you. I feel it too. Less
fright here..." Hilda patted the big wall. "There is something in
here that spewed its gut into us. Know what? Maybe that scroll
reading stuff isn't such a bad idea after all. Maybe we can find
some more of these trickster things as we go around."

As they lifted off again, the necklaces
cooled down to body temperature quickly. They completed the search
around the large outer wall, but no more magical surprises were in
it. At least not the ones they could pick up.

By the time they had done the whole round, it
was about to get dark. They were still adjusting to the feeling
that they were not so oppressed by the environment of Gurthreyn's
labyrinth.

"I think we should better make our way back
to find a good spot to camp for the night," Hilda said. "It's less
creepy, but still a far cry from inviting."

William agreed, so they did not bother about
getting off their brooms and shot away to where they felt safe for
the night.

The next morning they were awake very early.
Rain was tapping an undecided rhythm on the roof of their tent and
they lay listening to it for a while.

"It's amazing, all of this," said Hilda. She
held William's hand. Her fingers slowly stroked his fingers and
there was a faint smile on her face.

"Yes, it is indeed, but perhaps you can be
more precise what you mean?" William had picked up her awe but
there was no real indication of what she was thinking about.

"Well... you and me. I had never thought this
would happen. The way I entered your crazy world, by accident. Then
coming back here by your help, with that book. And you coming here,
through the rocks. And now we are... together."

"Yes. That is almost incredible. And yet we
did it. We're here. Together."

William's wand expanded the tent to a size
where he could sit up. He looked at the face of his witch and
stroked along her long grey hair. "You're a darned pretty woman,
Hilda. I don't know what it is, but to me you look more and more
attractive every day."

"That's because of you, I think. I'm not
doing anything special. Well, except for all the great special
things I do, of course."

Her words made him grin. As he lay his palm
against her cheek, she closed her eyes and gently pressed her face
against his skin, deepening the feeling and sharing that with him
in every way she could. They basked in each other's company for a
while longer. Then, as all good things end (but can start again),
they got up and prepared for the next trip to the labyrinth.

They got closer to the large grey place. It
looked as aggressive and unwelcoming as it had the day before, but
something had changed. They both sensed it, not so much as
something they knew, but as if it were deeper inside them.

"Our magic has changed," Hilda decided as
they got off their brooms near the looming gates.

The rain was still falling, and politely fell
two feet away from them, as the couple had put up their magical
umbrellas. Inside their cones of dryness they walked up to the
doors again.

The massive constructions that held out the
nosy people that were not impressed by the threatening atmosphere
were closed. Hilda looked at it, as much in awe of them as the
first time she had visited them, brought out her wand and touched
one of the doors. Slowly, without a sound, it opened for them.
"Remember, walk in magic, William." She took his hand and together
they entered the maze of huge moving walls.

They immediately noticed that the walls had
been biding their time. The interior of the labyrinth looked
entirely different from their previous visit. Instead of the long
corridor that led them along the outer wall at first, there now was
a short stretch they had to walk straight ahead, ending in a split
where they had to choose to go left or right. Both passages looked
equally short so the two stood and wondered what would be best to
do.

William took out his wand. "It worked once.
Might as well try it again," he said as he also took the scroll in
hand.

Hilda nodded. Not much later they proceeded,
both wands held out as antennae, to pick up the slightest sign of
anything that the magician Gurthreyn might have left along their
route.

They had been walking for an hour and had
found nothing. William sighed.

"Do you know how big this labyrinth is,
William? When you walk through it and the walls stand still, you
can go around here for maybe two weeks. So this short time does not
count for anything substantial."

"That is a lot of ground to cover,
sweetwitch... if only we had our brooms here."

"We can't take our brooms in. The gate won't
allow that." Hilda stopped walking and looked at her wizard. "I
told you that before, didn't I?"

"Yes... you did..."

"William. I don't like it when I feel these
things coming from you... You are not- You are. Crappedy crap."

William held up a hand. He wanted his broom.
And waited.

Outside the thick walls of the labyrinth of
Gurthreyn, a broom trembled, then lifted itself up. It rose up
along the high wall and wavered for a few moments as it was higher
than the wall. Slowly the broom pushed itself through the magical
wards that were over the massive stone wall and then it sped
towards the waiting hand.

"William! You did it! You got your broom in
here!" Hilda clapped her hands in excitement. "Of course I knew you
could do it. So, how did you do it?"

William told her what he had done.

"Oh. Is that all..." Hilda held up her hand.
A few minutes later she had her broom in her hand and a blue
sparkle in her eye. "Do you know that we may be the first people in
centuries to have a broom in here? Let's see if they actually
work." The wicked witch mounted her broom and lifted a few feet in
the air.

Flying inside the walls of the labyrinth was
difficult, they found out. The corridors were barely wide enough to
fly next to each other, the corners were sharp, and the heavy
layers of magic made it quite a chore to progress. But it was by
far faster than walking.

The magical couple spent most of the day in
the long and winding corridors of the labyrinth, but nowhere did
they find a trace of anything that might give them a clue about the
magician Gurthreyn.

"I think we should go back now, William.
Coming here this morning was not so bad, but now the place is
getting on my nerves again."

William agreed. "Yeah. We've been here far
too long. There is no way that we can discover everything that's
here. At least you found that spot yesterday. Coming here was not
so bad indeed."

"You found it. I sort of unlocked it. And you
got the brooms here," Hilda said as they stopped their flying.
"That might be helpful also, as I cannot recall there being a rule
that you can't bring your broom in during a challenge. Nobody ever
did as they are not allowed in through the gate. Going around the
gate is fantastic!"

"Beginner's luck, I am sure," William
grinned. "So, which way to the exit, honourable witch?"

"What do you mean? I thought you were keeping
track of where we are..." Hilda frowned as she looked at her
wizard. "If you now tell me that you didn't..."

The fact that they probably had gotten lost
hung between them. Neither wanted to actually say it, as that would
make things very uncomfortable. Not that it would make their
situation in any way less worrying.

"I assume this is the moment that one of us
has to say that there is a backup plan," said William.

"Backup plan? Did we have any kind of plan
then?" Hilda was genuinely surprised by William's words.

"Right. This is the wrong script," William
muttered. "So that leaves but one option."

"William. What are you going to do?", asked
Hilda as she sensed some kind of disgustingly male
determination.

The wizard's reply showed in his action as he
rose up along the wall.

"William! Come down here! You don't know-"
The words got stuck in Hilda's throat as she saw how easily he
sailed upwards and slowly moved over the wall. Apparently something
as simple as flying upwards was the best thing to do, even here.
She followed him upwards. As soon as she arrived at the level over
the wall, she too was grabbed by the magical layers that washed
over the labyrinth, but with slow persistence, as she sensed
William using, she was able to move ahead and fly to what looked
like the closest wall.

"William?" Hilda tried to speak but it was as
if she got a mouthful of invisible syrup. Not a sound came from her
mouth. She also could not speed up to get closer to William, so all
there was to do for her was to just slowly cruise on until she got
stuck in the same wash of energy that had already grabbed William.
It was the strong magical ward that protected the outer wall.

They were stuck. There was no way to move
forwards nor backwards. Even releasing their magic did not help,
the wards kept them exactly where they were. Slowly despair seeped
through the link, both ways.

The light was fading. There was hardly any
real sunlight around the labyrinth of Gurthreyn, but the light that
was there was disappearing, and it went rapidly. The only two
objects that were still immobile over the outer wall of the
construction were Hilda and William, who by now both were becoming
seriously desperate. They couldn't even talk to each other to try
and think of something. They just... sat there.

Darkness came closer. Hanging over the wall
it would have been a breathtaking view, were it not for the fact
that they had long since lost interest in their environment. The
fading of the light seemed to go step by step, crawling away from
the black cluster of nothingness that was coming closer. As the
void without light started to fold itself around them, it added a
completely new dimension to their fears. At first they saw entirely
nothing anymore. There was a blackness around them that was
complete.

Their only comfort was the link. They knew
they were together. In this situation even feeling each other's
distress was a form of mental solace. Hilda as well as William had
lost all track of time. It was very late, they both knew that.

William was almost dozing off in his
invisible dark prison, as he suddenly felt a jolt of emotion coming
from Hilda. It was quite a shocked emotion, but it was for one much
different from the despair. He looked automatically in the
direction where he suspected her, although in the darkness he had
not seen her for a long time. It was however that movement, that
turning of his head, that showed him what had triggered the shocked
reaction in Hilda.

Below them were lights. The lights moved in a
rather unsteady way and seemed to randomly float through the
corridors below, which had changed position several times during
the period they had been hanging there while there still was light.
The lights, white or very pale yellow, did not shine bright enough
to see if there were people with them. Or anything else. People
might have been good. Anything else would be highly doubtful.

As the lights were moving, they were still
far away from the spot where the magical couple hovered in limbo, a
strange soggy sound reached their ears. It was unsettling as there
was nothing to be seen that was connected to the sound which kept
getting louder. Hilda deducted from this that the source of the
sound was getting closer.

William also heard the strange noise and
looked around in vain for what might cause it. The sound suddenly
seemed to be upon him.

Hilda sensed a shock coming from William.
Despite the ward preventing her to talk, she tried to scream his
name, as she was certain something terrible had happened to him.
The feeling that came through their bond frightened her. William
was feeling helpless, she sensed, and as the sound came closer to
her, Hilda tried to fight her hand free and summon her wand. The
viscous, immobilising magic held her in its menacing control. At
that moment the sound reached Hilda.

It felt as being thrown forward by a giant
hand.

Hilda lost her balance, almost lost her grip
on the broom. Suddenly she was free of the magic that had held them
in place for so long. It shot through her that this probably was
what had frightened William so severely. It was then that she
understood that she was falling down. There was no more magic from
the labyrinth that held her up, so she had to quickly provide her
own, or find out what it was to fall on a rock-hard floor after a
fall of at least 20 yards. She managed to get herself on the broom
and level herself. "William!!!"

"Hilda! Where are you?"

"William, you shiny wizard, are you okay?"
Hilda did not dare fly anywhere, it was too dark. She didn't know
where she'd end up, and hitting the wall of the labyrinth was the
very last thing she needed now. "William, I am going to land the
broom now and then make a light with my wand. I hope you can find
me that way!"

"I am on the ground already, Hilda. Damned
good idea with the wand."

Hilda stopped her descent and scanned for
anything that might betray where William was. Suddenly a small tip
of light glowed and soon after that there was a nice circle of
light, with William in the middle. He sat on the ground, one of his
legs bent in a rather abnormal way. "I see you, William, I'm
coming." Swiftly, now she had a point of reference, she swooped
downwards and landed in the light that William had conjured.

Hilda dropped the broom and kneeled down.
"Are you hurt, William?"

"I think I broke my leg. The stupid sound
threw me and I was almost on the broom again before I hit rock
bottom."

Hilda bit her lower lip for a moment. "I'm
really sorry, William..."