Hilda - Lycadea (11 page)

They followed the tall man out of the flying
pyramid taxi and were treated to sit down in a line of floating
chairs that hovered in a small white hall. After they all had found
a seat, the chairs silently moved through a silently opening door
and then through a long white silent tunnel.

"Is it always this quiet here?" Maurizio
wondered, which earnt him a warning glance from Davdruw. Clearly
Davdruw's warning about the silence was to be taken seriously.

The chairs ended their journey as they
floated through a door that suddenly opened at the moment Davdruw
was doomed to hit the wall. The change from the long white corridor
to the fountain of colours they came into was breathtaking. The
floor under their chairs and feet was an ever-changing mosaic of
pastel colours, moving from one shape to another in a subtle and
fluent way. The high walls were light yellow and covered with
coloured ornaments, many of which seemed to be moving as if they
had a mind of their own. The ceiling consisted of a mosaic similar
to the floor and shone in complementing colours.

There were about a dozen people in the large
room. They too had all kinds of colours. And shapes. Some of them
sported more limbs or eyes than usual, and several of those were at
inexplicable locations.

"These are ambassadors and representatives of
other planets and galaxies," Davdruw explained as he got up from
his chair. "They are waiting to speak to some of the officials we
still have. Only the Witch is allowed to meet the high council."
The giant man spoke the words loudly, so everyone in the room knew
who was there. It did not make a large impression on most, although
curious glances were cast from a multitude of eyes.

Hilda prodded William in the side. "See that
one back there, the black and grey one with all those eyes? Could
be family of the thing that carried Zelda off."

William had to agree.

Davdruw asked them to follow him and he
walked off with his long strides. William popped up his wand and
whispered something. The effect was immediate.

Davdruw turned around. "What have you done to
my legs?" he asked. "I can hardly move."

"You should be aware that our legs are
shorter," William said, "this was just a hint." He undid the spell.
"I hope you take it. The next hint could be embarrassing." Here and
there snickers, snorts and not so muffled laughs emerged from the
lifeforms in the high room.

Davdruw was not curious to what William had
in mind. With a more relaxed pace he guided the four people and two
cats through the room.

"Wasn't there something about having to be
quiet?" Hilda asked out loud.

Davdruw stopped again and looked back at her.
"Yes. Fortunately this room is exempt from that rule as it is
thoroughly sound proofed. Even the high council does not expect all
visitors who are waiting to remain all silent while they are
here."

"I see."

Davdruw continued guiding them. They left the
waiting room, came into a small corridor and reached a large
silvery door. The spiritual leader warned them that silence was
necessary from here on. They were about to enter the palliza.

"Are you okay, Hilda?" William asked before
the door opened.

She nodded. "Yes, I'm fine. The witch who is
no witch, you heard him." Her face did not show much happiness as
she missed her magic terribly. And the feeling kept getting
worse.

Davdruw looked worried because of the
talking. He then pushed open the large door and ushered the four
inside a large room.

"Crappedy crap," Hilda did not hold herself
back, "what happened here?"

Davdruw visibly cringed, which was a very
impressive sight from someone his size.

The room they were in looked as if a small
war had been fought there. Pieces of furniture were scattered all
over the place, on some of the remaining tables were plates with
food, some touched, some untouched. About a dozen people, all in
the familiar silver clothes, were either sitting somewhere with a
puzzled expression, or walking around with an even worse puzzled
expression. One of the walking people had some kind of tablet in
his hands and stared at it. It was uncanny that he did not run into
anything.

"Computer geeks," Rebel stated. She sounded
very convinced of that.

The short exchange between the two women had
caused all people in the room to look in their direction. As
understanding seemed to kick in they all came closer, mumbling and
whispering "Grimhilda". It made Hilda feel uncomfortable. She was
used to some attention, but not to something oppressive like this,
with hands reaching out and touching her clothes.

"Back off, folks," Hilda said, "or my friends
will make you back off." She trembled inside, missing her magic
once again. It would have been so easy to push them away a bit.

As if he had read her mind, which was
impossible without the bond, William popped out his wand. "Step
back folks," he calmly said, "you do not want me to help. Trust
me."

"But she's Grimhilda," one of the mumblers
said in a normal voice, almost sounding offended.

"And I have a wand." He held it up to make
his point extra visible.

The assembled group disassembled somewhat and
Hilda breathed easier. "So, what is the meaning of this? I thought
we were meant to find a high council here, not a band of dimwits."
She looked at Davdruw. "Hey, you up there. Care to explain
this?"

The tall man looked far from happy, but as
the dimwits of the high council dispersed and went back to their
apparent meaningless activities, he was forced to supply the
requested information. "This, Grimhilda, IS the high council. They
are - uhm - chosen to keep all the automatic functionality going
that makes Lycadea what it is."

"Can you translate that to something I might
actually understand?"

William, Rebel and Maurizio grinned. Rebel
removed herself from the group and started to wander around the
large room, looking at the strange things that were mounted in and
on the walls.

Before Davdruw could attempt his translation,
one of the men from the high council stopped his wandering and
said: "What he said, Grimhilda, used to be. We're not those people.
Oh, we're chosen, but the rest... that used to be. And that is, we
think, why you are here. To help us restart the automatic
functionality."

"You are just conspiring to confuse me,
aren't you?" Hilda wished she had a wand to tap the palm of her
hand with, to show these people she was getting impatient.

Grimalkin had to suffer Hilda's slightly
growing anxiety, as the stroking and petting became quite rough,
until the man who had spoken walked closer to Hilda and William.
Keeping a respectful distance, he said: "We are genuinely sorry if
you do not feel comfortable here, Grimhilda. The Prophecy is very
old, and obviously it lacks details here and there."

"You might say that occasionally it doesn't,"
a woman commented, "and were it didn't, the details were very
wrong, Gesmarion."

"Don't argue about that with me, Katinki,"
Gesmarion said, turning to the woman. "We are the high council
after all, even if we just pretend to know what we are doing."

"Can we go away please?" Hilda asked William
and Maurizio. "Rebel? Can you take us away from here to somewhere
that's normal? I'd even settle for that weird ship of yours."

"But you cannot leave us!" Gesmarion said,
"you are the Witch who will make things right again!"

"I'm also the witch who is no witch,
remember?" Hilda snapped at him. "How am I going to make things
right like that? Not even considering that I can't figure out what
you say when you open your mouth."

"Uhm, Hilda," Rebel said as she had a strange
expression on her face. "I don't know why but I can't make us move.
It's as if something holds me down."

"Madonna!" Maurizio exclaimed as he walked to
the woman, "what is the matter, Rebel? Is there anything I can do
for you?"

"No. Yes. I don't know. Hold me?"

Maurizio put his arms around Rebel. Before
his hands reached each other behind her, she jumped back and said:
"What the hell are you doing?!"

"I was going to hold you, like you asked."
Maurizio's face spread disbelief that he had to explain this.

"Don't believe everything I ask for then,
okay?" Rebel quickly walked around the captain and took position
behind the witch who was no witch.

The situation was slowly getting out of hand,
William thought. "What would you do now?" he quickly asked his
witch.

"I'd make all of them shut up except one, and
let that one explain what the trolls is going on here," she
said.

William raised his wand, spoke a spell, and
everyone was quiet. The wizard pointed at the woman Katinki. "You
can still speak."

"Can I?" the woman proved him right. Her
co-councillors gestured in varying forms of despair as they could
not open their mouths anymore. Rebel and Maurizio suffered a
similar fate.

"Can we have some seats here, William? And
some tea? No, make that coffee." Hilda did not feel happy asking
for things like that, but it was the best she could do. And William
was all there for her. The seats and a table with coffee appeared.
William had also thought to manifest a plate loaded with
sandwiches.

After sitting down, Hilda sipped some coffee
and looked at Katinki. "Okay, now we have some kind of order in
place, can you please explain what this place is? And don't use the
words that other guy did, or we have to find someone else who can
talk."

Maurizio waved at William, a cup of coffee in
hand. He pointed at his mouth.

"Oh. Sorry," said the wizard, and removed the
problem for the captain and the confused woman in leather.

Katinki also sat down. She suspiciously
stared at the sandwiches. "Are you going to eat that?"

Hilda, chewing already, nodded. "Yes. Why?"
she managed without spraying crumbs.

"It does not look like proper food," Katinki
confessed. She looked at Davdruw, who tried to shrink away in a
corner of the room and doing a miserable job. The man was not
prepared for this.

William frowned at Katinki's remark, but let
it pass. "You don't have to eat it," he said. "Now please tell us
what this place is." He reached for a sandwich and a mug of
coffee.

Katinki swallowed hard as her eyes kept
moving among all these strange people. "This room," she started,
"is the control room for the planet." She paused, observing the
witch and the wizard to make sure her words were still
understandable.

"What's a control room?" Hilda asked William,
who explained the concept to her. "Ah. Right."

"We, the high council, are supposed to keep
everything running," Katinki continued. "Using the... instruments
in the room?" She did not feel safe yet. Hilda's nodding gave her a
little more confidence although that did not show in the tight way
she sat in the chair. "The problem is that we don't know how all
the instruments work. And another problem is that some of them are
broken."

"Then have them fixed," Hilda suggested,
holding her mug near William who provided a refill. "And have some
coffee. Once you're used to it, it's really good."

Katinki picked up a mug and sniffed its
contents. "No... thank you, honoured Witch," she said as she put
the mug back. Her face barely contained her disgust. "The problem
is that nobody knows how to fix the instruments."

"Crappedy crap, you have problems here,"
Hilda voiced her feeling on what she had just heard. "And now you
expect me to fix your instruments and teach you people how to use
them?"

"Crappedy crap," Katinki repeated as if it
were a mantra. "We only hope for the Prophecy to fullfill
itself."

"I may get to hate prophecies even more than
Latin," the witch muttered. She turned to Maurizio and Rebel. "Can
you figure out what instruments they have? You're so fond of them,
on the Mimosa and all."

William released their voices.

"We can have a look, Hilda," said Maurizio,
looking very relieved, "but since we're on a different planet, we
may not be able to understand everything."

"Nor recognise most of it," Rebel added,
throwing the equivalent of a Nobbleback dragon on Hilda's hope.

"But you can at least try, right?" William
hoped to salvage some prospects.

The two people from the black ship nodded.
"Trying is not so hard."

Katinki looked at one of the high councillors
that tapped her shoulder quite frantically. She did not say
anything as she got up and followed the man. Hilda and her friends
got up and went after the two people. The man walked Katinki over
to a far wall where a metal table stood against the wall. On it
were several keyboards, on the wall over it were five displays of
which one actually showed something. The picture however reminded
Hilda of snow on a bad day, which could not mean much good.

Katinki looked at William. "I think he is
trying to tell me something. Could you please..."

William could, and then the man said: "We
have another little problem." He pointed at a switch. "It's
broken."

Katinki pushed the switch. It fell over and
lay on the desk, quite dead. The wires that had kept it functional,
or at least in place, had given up. "Yes," Katinki confirmed.
"Broken."

Maurizio picked up the switch and examined
it. "Broken," he agreed, and carefully put it back.

Katinki and the man, whom she introduced as
Laurean, watched the witch with hopeful expressions. They were
about to be very disappointed.

"You should not have pushed the thing," Hilda
calmly said. "William, would you know how to fix that?"

William shrugged. "Does anyone know where
these wires should go?"

"In there," Laurean helpfully pointed at the
cavity that had held the deceased switch. The wizard groaned.