Hilda - Lycadea (13 page)

"Now really," Hilda said.

The view could only be called 'different'.
Well, it could also be called 'strange', or even 'scary'. They
looked at six or so more pyramids that seemed scattered about. Most
of them were still in one piece, but at least two of them had
somehow been damaged by something immense. They had collapsed,
mostly imploded, but tricky gusts of wind pushed against the broken
parts that were still upright.

As Hilda and William looked out over the
devastation, a large plate of one of the damaged buildings came
crashing down.

"That's more than a brick alright," Rebel
said. She did not grin.

In front of them, only a step outside, the
ground was littered with things. Parts of pyramids, pieces of
indeterminable objects, and remains of what probably had been
machines, everything was spread out between the pyramid houses. The
ground itself looked like what had once been an enormous slab of
concrete. Originally it had been white and yellow, the witch
guessed from some visible spots. There were so many cracks and
holes in it that it looked difficult and dangerous to venture out
onto it.

"What happened here?" Maurizio asked Kerna.
"Did you have a war?"

The woman shook her head. "No. The machines
for maintaining the outside-", she pointed loosely at one of the
mechanical carcasses, "-stopped working."

"And nobody knew how to fix them," Hilda
understood. "Is it this bad everywhere?"

"I don't know, honoured witch. I do not leave
the house very often, and when I do I use the tunnel tubes. But
they are becoming increasingly dangerous too."

William put a hand on Hilda's shoulder. He
was lost on what they had gotten into. And where. "Do you want to
go outside and have a better look, witch?"

"I would like to, although that stuff doesn't
look very inviting."

William understood. Walking there was lethal.
He drew his wand and pointed it at one of the broken-down machines.
He muttered spells and cast magic for a while, until the whatever
it had been was completely disassembled. It was hard work, as he
had no clue how the thing had been assembled. It was mainly trial
mixed with a lot of error.

"What are you trying here, wizard?" Rebel
asked. "Anything I can help you with?"

"Can you get all that stuff closer?" William
asked. Rebel nodded, held out a hand and lifted the pile of metal
components up as Hilda and Maurizio stared at what went on.

"Great," said the wizard as the envy of a
junk yard landed before them. William transferred Obsi to Kerna's
shoulder. Both looked surprised and uncomfortable.

The witch who was no witch held her breath as
she saw William step out into the open, towards the mountain of
metal. A twitch of emotional pain went through her as he asked
Rebel to step out and help him. She should be the one out there.
Instead she was standing there, watching William do all kinds of
things as his robe was flapping about like a bird that had gone
soft in the head.

William manufactured a most fantastic rig. It
had six seats, courtesy of Rebel who copied them from a torn
original. Hilda recalled how they had taken people to the air on a
wooden frame tied to their two brooms. This looked a lot like it,
be it that there were no brooms but metal bars. She wondered if the
thing would be able to fly.

Kerna just stood and watched, silent, trying
to ignore the black animal on her shoulder.

"Now you go back inside, Rebel, and let me
see if this thing will actually do what I want it to do," said
William.

"Back inside? No way. I'm here, I worked on
it, so I am going with you!"

The wizard turned to Hilda and while pointing
at Rebel, he said: "You never mentioned having a sister,
sweetwitch." That made Rebel stare and Hilda grin.

William then charged the metal rig and when
he then told it to rise, it did. Reluctantly, but it rose. He
carefully sat himself on it. It held. "Okay, Rebel. Careful."

With a serious streak of envy Hilda watched
Rebel sit on the rig and then the contraption started going up. As
the winds caught it, the thing was shaking and trembling. In her
mind Hilda knew exactly how she'd counter that, without thinking
she'd- but she did not need to.

William took control and the metal
flight-thing stabilised. He made it rise, turn, go forward and
backward and then he was satisfied. With the device hovering in
front of the opening in the building, Hilda and Maurizio took a
seat. Kerna was less inclined to risk her life on that, but her
loyalty to her task won in the end. As soon as she was on the rig,
Obsi tiptoe'd over to William and took possession of his lap.

Hilda took pity on Kerna. "Hold my hand if
you feel nervous."

The rig slowly rose up into the Lycadean air.
As they gained altitude, Hilda saw more pyramids around. They were
further apart than the cluster of pyramids they had departed from.
Long lines lay on the ground, running from one house to the
next.

"William, can you get closer to these
things?" Hilda pointed.

As they closed in, Kerna explained that those
were the tunnel tubes she had mentioned. Once near to one of the
tunnels, it was obvious that Kerna had not exaggerated. There were
many cracks in the semi-transparent tubes. They could make out
people walking through them quickly.

"They have breathing masks with them, for
when the air gets toxic," Kerna said.

"Oh..." William pulled a magical airbubble
around the contraption, just to be safe. "And how do you know the
air is toxic?"

"In that case the doors won't open," Kerna
said.

"Right... until the sensor or whatever is
responsible fails and opens the door," Maurizio pointed out. This
brought about a painful silence. Hilda broke through that by asking
Kerna where the nearest forest was. She had to see trees again, and
a lake if possible, and green grass.

"There is none that I know, honoured witch.
Maybe Davdruw knows, or someone in the high council."

"No Forest?" Hilda spoke capitals, her face
displaying momentary horror. "How can you people live like
that?"

Kerna said that they had always lived like
that, inside the houses, at least as long as she could
remember.

"William, can you take us back again? I have
seen enough..." Hilda hated having to ask, but her wizard did not
mind, she knew that.

Soon they had returned to the enormous
pyramid building. Kerna showed the others how they could open the
door. They entered, leaving the flying rig outside and close at
hand for an eventual next trip. No sooner had they reached one of
the main corridors, when a couple of desperate men charged towards
them. "There she is!"

William stopped them with a whammy of
wizardly magic, causing the two to bounce off a wall of energy and
tumble to the ground. "Now what's the rush, gentlemen?" he
asked.

Kerna looked frightened. "These are men of
the council's guard!"

"Oh? You can actually tell all these folks
with blue hair and silver clothes apart?" Hilda asked. They all
looked quite the same to her. Except for the hair.

The two men picked themselves up from the
ground. "Honoured witch," one of them said, "we have orders to take
you to the spiritual leader, Davdruw."

Orders did not work with Hilda. The men were
about to learn. "If he wants to see me, tell him to come here. Or
better, to our room, because that's where we're going." She started
walking, her companions following her. Then the witch stopped.
"Kerna, perhaps you should go first. I'm lost."

"But-" one of the council's guards said.
Nobody paid him any mind.

When the group reached their rooms, they
found Davdruw pacing about on his long legs. "Oh! Honoured witch!
You have been found!"

Hilda looked up at the man. "Was I lost
then?" She gladly ignored the fact that she had stated just that
not long ago.

"We could not find you," Davdruw corrected
himself. An undefinable emotion was on his face for a moment. It
was clear he did not like to be questioned. "Where have you been? I
have dispatched the high council's guards to look for you."

"Well, they found us, when we came back in,"
Rebel said from the couch she had claimed as her own.

"BACK IN?" Davdruw's eyebrows tried to crawl
to the top of his head. After staring at Rebel for a long second,
he focussed on Kerna. "Where have you taken them?"

"Hold it, Davdruw," Hilda interfered. "We
wanted to go out. Kerna has nothing to do with that, it was my
idea."

"She should have stopped you!" The man became
visibly and audibly agitated.

"Stop her? Good luck," William said as he
changed a few bowls of oatmeal into mugs with coffee and tea. Hilda
nabbed a coffee one after hugging him for it. Kerna was curious
about the tea, Rebel and Maurizio also picked something up. Davdruw
seemed shocked by the lack of shock the others showed over him
being shocked.

"Honoured witch," the tall man said, "please
do not go outside again. It is too dangerous."

Hilda slammed her mug on the table. The
coffee did a double somersault and landed in an artistic puddle on
the surface. "You are really doing your best to get on my shit
list, Davdruw." Hilda was proud of that word she had picked up from
William. "You first use that prophecy excuse to bring me here. Then
you expect me to save your world, and when I go out to take a look
at the damage you try to confine me to this large and unfriendly
place? If you are so smart that you think you can order me around
and tell me how to do this, why don't you go and save your world
yourself?"

A slow clapping from Maurizio. "Brava,
brava."

Davdruw looked at Kerna. She had positioned
herself behind William and looked determined to stay there.
Davdruw's influence was fading, and he knew it. "Very well. Very
well. But do inform me, honoured witch, when you want to go out
again. I can arrange for a group of guards then."

"Can they fly?" the witch asked.

"Fly?" Davdruw frowned. "No."

"Splendid."

The five had enjoyed a nice dinner together.
The five? Yes. Hilda, William, Maurizio and Rebel. And Kerna. The
young woman had teamed up with the witch and her companions.

Davdruw had swallowed hard to accept that,
but with everyone in favour there was nothing he could do.

During the evening, Hilda and William had not
noticed anything remaining of the earlier hostilities between the
captain of the Mimosa and the woman from the future.

As they went to sleep, Hilda asked William
for some modifications to the bed. It ended up being a copy of
their bed at home.

"Do you think we will wake up soon and just
be home again?" Hilda asked William.

"Would be nice, sweetwitch, but somehow I
have the feeling that is not going to happen."

"Too bad," she mumbled.

Something crashed on the floor, a cat
complained loudly.

"That was yours," said Hilda.

"I hope they'll let us sleep," William simply
said.

-=-=-

The next morning Kerna showed up again,
accompanied by Rebel and Maurizio. Rebel had dressed in a silver
ensemble that was so common on this planet. Her brown hair was
still brown. Maurizio had his trusty red coat on. He was
eyepatchless though.

"Good morning, team," Hilda welcomed them.
"William's just making breakfast, go tell him there are more
customers."

Rebel and Maurizio grinned, while Kerna
walked over to William. The wizard grinned; he had already heard
and seen them come in. The young woman stood and watched how he
baked eggs. The misbehaving food generator had partly been
transformed into a normal kitchen, which was quite abnormal for
Lycadean standards. He sent her to the table with a tray laden with
mugs and the message that breakfast would be done soon.

Once he was done with breakfast, the others
were done with it quickly also. Kerna clearly had hoped to be
invited: she attacked her plate with a vigour that was amusing.

The room then announced that Davdruw was
asking permission to enter, which was granted.

"Oh," was his first reaction as he saw Kerna
at the table with the others. He did not have to elaborate on that
word, his face said it all, and it did not say happy things.

"Do sit down, Davdruw," said the witch, "if
you can find a chair big enough for you."

William assisted in making a larger
chair.

"So why are you here so early?" Hilda
continued her questioning. Before the tall man could answer, she
added: "Why are you the one who is doing all this arranging and
fussing, anyway? Aren't you supposed to be the spiritual leader?
That would mean other work, right?"

Davdruw, his eyes examining the contents of
the table and plates, sighed. "Alas, honoured witch, there is not
much spirituality on Lycadea lately. We are more concerned with
surviving, and as I am the one who is most in touch with the
prophecy, I am automatically the person who has to see to you. And
your safety," he added with emphasis. Clearly their little trip
outside was still a bother to him.

"I see," Hilda nodded.

"And for the day, we hope you can see the
high council again. They were very pleased to meet you, and they
have many things they want to discuss with you."

"Oh," Hilda responded. She was not too
pleased with that prospect.

"And what would that bring?" Rebel voiced
Hilda's thoughts. "We'll be in that room full of breaking things
for what?"

Davdruw looked hurt. "Perhaps you should stay
away from the high council and remain in your room then," he
tried.

"No chance," Maurizio said, "we go where
Hilda goes. I assume."

Hilda nodded. She looked at her wizard. "Do
you think that would help, being there?"