Hilda and Zelda (19 page)

Ted nodded as if his life depended on it,
rattling his teeth as he went along. With all that had been
happening in the last few minutes, he was ready to believe anything
this strange woman said. He tried to jolt as he saw the wand
vanish. The spell prevented him from doing such a thing,
though.

"Now. Slowly and from the start, because I am
not from here. Who are you and what do you want to do with that
package?" Hilda asked.

Ted was temporarily distracted by Zed, who
tried to convince Ted to "Gmmvvvm", otherwise "brrrfff!" would be
the consequence.

"Don't worry about Zep," Hilda said, "he's
quite harmless."

Ted did not chance a thing, so he let the Zep
slip. "We were asked by some friends to come here and collect the
package that was waiting for us here."

"Look here, son," said William. "We don't
look like we're from here, and she isn't. But I am. Your package
contains drugs. You coming here for that means you are into drugs.
And we don't like drugs, nor the people who deal with them. So my
advice to you is to tell us the story." Calmly, William held his
hand out, right in front of Ted's face. Then he made his white and
red wand appear. "See, she is not the only one who can do a trick
or two."

Ted stared at the wand in William's hand.

Zed had fallen silent as all his attempts to
attract attention had failed utterly, and the more he tried, the
more his face hurt.

"If you are trying to freak me out," said
Ted, "you are seriously succeeding, man." His eyes seemed glued to
William's wand.

"We're not in the freak out business, Ted.
We're here to catch a witch. And do something about you and your
drugs as we're here anyway."

The word 'drugs' made Ted look at William
again.

"You probably are aware that you can't win,
right?" Hilda added.

Ted's eyes went fuzzy for a while; he was
thinking. Then he agreed that he as well as Zed had little choice,
even if Zed was harder to convince.

"Now, we are going to make this easy on
ourselves," William informed the drug runners. "We're going to
deliver you to the police station, and there you will tell the
officers everything you know of the drug thing you are involved in.
Is that clear?"

Ted nodded. If they could get away from it
all this easily, these strange people were soft in the head. He
glanced over at Zed, whose eyes screamed no but whose head slowly
nodded also. Zed had reached the same decision, apparently.

"Wonderful. Now, to make sure you will do as
we ask of you, we need to have a safety. The witch here will take
care of that." William was very calm as he said that, which worried
Ted and Zed.

Hilda waved her wand and said something in
Latin while looking at the two captives. "Good. You will tell the
police people the truth. Otherwise you'll find out that you should
have."

Ted asked: "What did you do? I feel
nothing."

"That's the nice bit," Hilda replied, "you
won't feel a thing. Hah, I know my spells!" Then she turned to Zed.
"Do you think you can stay quiet without my help?"

Zed nodded. He was ready to do a lot of
things now, if only he could move his lips again.

"Good."

A moment later, Zed's mouth was free again,
making him gasp for air in a reflex. The past experience had made
the man wiser: he kept his mouth shut.

William rubbed his chin for a moment. "I have
an idea. Hilda, watch these two for a moment, please." He got up
and walked over to the table, where the fake drugs package was
lying. After some magic, and with a smile on his face, he turned to
Ted. "Here. You will take this with you."

Ted hesitated before accepting the package.
Certainly these two weirdos were not so stupid as to let them get
away with the shipment?

The two 'weirdos' had something better
planned, though. Hilda went to fetch their brooms while William
kept an eye on their guests. "Right then, gentlemen. Up you stand,
and then up we go."

Zed could not hold back. "Are you crazy? Do
you think you can fly that thing?" He knew he risked a locked mouth
again, but some things just needed to be said.

Hilda however did not take offense. "I don't
think so, Zed. I know so. Come, come, outside." She opened the door
and walked into the narrow alley.

The two men, Ted holding the package tightly
under an arm, shuffled into the cramped passageway, uncertain of
what was going to happen. When the first thing happened, Ted
stepped back, bumping into Zed, who uttered a curse as his partner
in crime stepped on his toes.

"You, Ted. Step up here and sit down. At the
front." Hilda pointed at the broom that hovered next to her.

"Oh no. No way." Ted was determined to stay
sane. And on the ground.

Hilda sighed. "Perhaps this was a weak part
of the plan, William." They had not counted on resistance in this
stage.

"Plan B, then, clearly," said William. Hilda
was still raising her eyebrows, because plan B had never been
discussed, when William waved his wand. The two drug runners
silently collapsed onto the ground. "No worries, Hilda, they're
just asleep."

"Crude but effective," the witch had to
agree. "Nice improvising, that plan B of yours."

They each loaded a sleeper onto a broom and
then took off, setting course towards the police station. They flew
over a part of town that was mostly covered in darkness. Electric
lines had been ripped by the actions of Zelda, so streetlights were
out of order. The entire environment below them was enveloped in an
eerie silence also.

"Do you know where we are?" Hilda asked after
a while.

"Yes, I do," said William. "Let's go lower.
We can use the wands to make light."

The two wands supplied barely enough light,
but they got the job done. The couple was indeed flying through a
street, and at the end of the street was the police station.

"William, you keep amazing me," Hilda
admitted.

They arrived at their destination. Inside
there was a faint, flickering light.

"Looks like they are still in business,"
Hilda remarked. "Hey, in there!"

Her yelling startled William a bit; he had
not seen that coming. Based on the sound that came from inside the
police station, nobody there had either. Seconds later, two
policemen, guns in hand, were in front of the building. One of them
carried a flashlight that quickly found the two people on the
brooms.

"Hands up," one of the men behind the light
said, as he was uncertain how to handle the situation. Police
Academy did not prepare their people for witches and wizards. Only
the Halloween ones, and those were on foot usually.

"We're delivering two drug runners, officer,"
William tried.

"Hands up!"

Hilda and William exchanged looks and
shrugged. They raised their hands, the very hands they had used to
keep their unconscious passengers level on the broom. The
predictable result was a double thud. Luckily the brooms were not
hovering very high.

"Who are they?" the other police officer
asked, the one not carrying the flashlight.

"As I said, we're bringing you two drug
runners. They have some interesting information for you, as well as
a package that might interest you," William said. "And you'll know
if they speak the truth."

"Oh, really. And that is because you say so?"
The flashlight sounded annoyed.

"No," said Hilda. "When they lie, they'll
turn green and will start itching like crazy, until they say
something that's true again. So remember that. Can we take our
hands down now?"

"No!" The man holding the flashlight was
visibly, well, in this case audibly nervous.

"Mack, calm down," the other policeman said,
"they must be the ones that people talk about. If they can do only
half the things I heard, a gun won't do much against them."

Hilda lowered her arms. William did too.
"Remember," said the witch, "make them tell a truth when they are
green and itching. They'll wake up in a few hours. William, come,
I've had enough of this."

William nodded, and wands still shining
light, they turned their brooms and sped upwards towards the black,
cloudy night sky.

"Come back here!" sounded after them. The
flashlight bearer tried to make his screaming sound official and
failed totally, while his colleague started hauling Ted into the
police station.

"Forget it," Hilda muttered, then added
something in Latin.

"Ouch!" the policeman reacted, as he dropped
his suddenly red-hot gun.

"I hate Latin, but it does work immediately,"
the witch shared with her wizard.

"Oh shit," William said.

"What?" Hilda wondered what she had done to
earn that comment. Then she saw what William had spotted.

There was a fire in the distance. The
distance was the former military camp. And the place burning looked
like what used to be their shed.

"Crappedy crap..."

William grumbled under his voice.
"Zelda?"

"Definitely. I should have thought of that,"
Hilda said. Her voice portrayed exactly how she felt: not good.
"She was too close. After the talk-off she must have done some
rotten trick to follow us. I should suck an elf for that,
William."

"I'd hold back on that, Hilda," William said.
He had no idea what an elf looked like. "Let's first get that fire
out and see what's left."

They had exactly three minutes to find that
everything had burnt, before the siren of a fire truck made it
clear that it was time to leave. Wondering where that truck had
come from, they lifted off and disappeared into the darkness of the
night, while William pained his head about where they could spend
the night.

"Lie still, William," the witch mumbled. "I
can't sleep."

"Then don't lie on top of me, dumb witch,"
the wizard retorted.

"But it's nice and warm here," Hilda
muttered, while she tried to push William into shape like she would
do with a pillow.

"Hey, don't," was her thanks for that
attempt.

"I do. I'm the resident witch, remember
that," Hilda yawned as she was ready to slip back into dreamland. A
smile was on her face when William wrapped his arms around her.
"Hmmmm..." she commented, and that was the last sound to be heard
for a while. That was good, as there was no one around to hear
nothing anyway.

-=-=-

"Hilda?"

"I'm sleeping. I don't hear you."

"And I am to believe that?"

"Yes," muttered the witch

"I fail to do that."

"Oh. Then shut up, please. You are my pillow,
and pillows don't talk in my sleep."

This caused William to laugh, and that again
earnt him a few half-serious slaps on the arm.

"Hey, come on, I'm bouncing off you with you
shaking like that!" The witch held on to the wizard, but couldn't
help laughing too, and decided to roll off him and call the night a
day. "You make breakfast. I am sure you can find a decent thing for
us," she stated.

"Oh, without a doubt," William agreed. He
made his wand pop up and made the little tent they were in vanish.
They had spent the night in the place they had prepared for the
witches meet, as that was a good distance from the town. The grass
around them was wet; it had rained that night. The cold of the
night that had lingered outside the tent now rushed up to meet
them.

"Crappedy crap. This is hardly funny," Hilda
said as she sat up and wrapped her cloak around herself more
tightly. "Never been a fan of all that outside camping stuff."

William got up and looked out over the field.
They were alone, as he had expected and hoped. Using some magic, he
whipped up a warm breakfast with copious amounts of coffee, to
revive the spirits of life thoroughly. As the spirits were doing
their best to become presentable, the couple tried to come up with
a plan for the day. It did not go well; all their attempts never
made it beyond trying.

"So where can we find a decent place to sleep
now?" Hilda said as she held up her cup for more coffee.

"That's the fourth one," William said as he
filled it again.

"So? And that is not what I asked, anyway,"
she said.

William shook his head. Sometimes... "Maybe
we can sleep in Bert's place again," he then thought out loud. "The
room over the bookstore, remember?"

Hilda nodded. "I do. Not the greatest option,
but anything's better than this here. We should go to Vivian again
though. It's about time that we get our witches meet in place. And
just cross our toes that Zelda will fall for that."

"Cross our toes?" William was amazed.

"Yes? What's wrong with that?" Hilda looked
back at him.

William shook his head. Again. "Let's go see
Vivian." He knew that a discussion about sayings and expressions
would lead him into quicksand. Hilda always won those, for some
reason.

The sway of a wand later, things were all
cleaned up and out of the way. They mounted their brooms and then
went to find Vivian's house.

They landed in the garden, using the cover of
many trees in the area to stay out of view as well as they could.
The house was silent. Anyone inside it was too. The backdoor was
locked, but that did not take more than a "Hmm" and a bit of magic,
applied with care.

Hilda and Wiliam left their brooms standing
against the outside wall and quietly went inside, where a salutary
warmth welcomed them.

"So where's Vivian the local witch?" Hilda
asked quietly.

"Asleep I guess." William looked at the clock
and at that moment realised he had not seen one of them for a long
time. They did not exist in Hilda's world. "Yes. Six in the morning
is still a time to be asleep. We'll give her some time to sleep and
wait for her here," he suggested.