Hilda - The Challenge (20 page)

William was finished and empty in a way he
had never been. He was barely noticing Hilda sitting on him,
holding his hands. His mind was a whirlpool of stars, flashing
lights, a strange power and vast expanses of nothingness.

Hilda felt him go limp, as his hands started
to sag down on his chest, the wand still in them. Gently as she
could, she lay his hands down. She wiped the cold sweat from his
brow and sat down next to him. She pulled the cover over the man
she loved, making sure his hands clutching the wand were free.

"Sleep, sweet man," she whispered as she
kissed his forehead. "You've worked hard, even if you don't know
it." Slowly she got off the bed, her eyes not leaving him. The
wicked witch closed her eyes and located the feeling that was
William and his wand. It was there, faint but available. She
smiled. She'd know when he would wake up. On an impulse she took
off her lemon-yellow nightgown with the golden stars, folded it up
and put it under William's head. It might do nothing, but it made
her feel good to know that something of her was close to him while
she was taking care of business.

The witch returned from her round over the
area. On purpose she had not done a shortcut, she also had not left
out something. Things were well with William. She knew. It was a
new experience for her, she had never been in a binding herself,
only witnessed several. Often she had wondered what it would be
like, what it would feel like, and now she had first-hand
experience.

As she came in, she frowned as there was no
new mail for her. But that also meant no oppressive notes from
Lamador. Labrador, she grinned, recalling how William had called
the man at first.

Her broom took its position by itself, and
Hilda walked up the stairs. She knew William was well and asleep,
but she just had to see him with her own eyes.

William still lay in bed peacefully. He had
been moving a bit, her nightgown had shifted.

"Tsk tsk, sweet man, lie still," she grinned
as she gently put her gown back where it belonged for now.

He stirred. And opened his eyes, slowly, as
if there were dolmen on his eyelids. "Hey... pretty witch..."

"Shush, you. You must sleep," Hilda
whispered, sitting down next to him and putting a hand on his hair.
"You worked so hard, William..."

He groaned. "Where's the bloody truck..."

"What truck?", the witch wondered. She was
glad that she knew what a truck was, having seen the scrapheap that
William had arrived in.

"The one that ran me over..." William had
never felt so shattered as he did at that moment. Even the trip
through the mountain that had brought him here had been a joyride
compared to this.

"I think, sweet William, that a truck running
you over would not make you feel this bad. I'm sorry that you feel
so bad, but by the evening it will be a lot better."

"Is it evening yet?"

"No. Try to sleep some more. I will bring you
some soup later on." She sat down with him, put her hand over his
hands that still were folded around the wand, and kissed his cheek.
"I promise you will feel better soon. The wand will help you." At
least, she hoped. She had no experience with ordinaries and wands,
she just knew that it worked that way with wands and witches.

"Wand. Yes. Wand." He drifted away.

Hilda smiled, kissed him again and then went
downstairs again, after changing into more homely clothes.

The witch was looking through William's book
when there was a slight tugging in her feeling. William was waking
up! She jumped to her feet, quickly went to the kitchen to get his
soup and made her way to the bedroom again, where the former book
salesman was surfacing from his trip down Sleepy Lane again.

The witch, feeling nothing like wicked at the
moment, helped him sit up and made him eat all the soup that was in
the bowl. It was a large bowl. "You have to eat it, William, it
will help you get better too." She smiled as she noticed that he
did not let go of the wand. He kept it in his hand, probably
without even noticing it. That was good. It would help the forging
and make the connection strong as possible.

"How are you feeling now?", Hilda asked her
lover. He looked less shaken up already.

"Not sure if 'better' is the proper word, but
less bad for certain. I didn't know you had it in you to be such a
good nurse." He smiled.

"I don't. I just have to take care of you,
after what happened. It is very exhausting."

"You know about it?"

Hilda told him what had happened, to what he
had committed himself as he had agreed to adopt the wand.

"Holy Bejeebus."

This time she let him get away with it.

"That's, uhm, quite something." He lifted the
wand and looked at it. And smiled at it. "So we're together from
now on. Amazing." Very carefully he put the wand down next to him
on the bed.

"It is best to hold it as long as you can,
William," Hilda said, trying to put his hand back on the wand.

"I know, but I do have to get up now."

"No, stay in bed. Please."

"Sweet little witch," he said, his smile
showing how tired he was, "there are certain things you should not
do in a bed. And what I need to do is one of them."

"Oh. Right." Hilda blushed. "I'll help you to
the door then."

As he was trying to get up, William found out
that definitely needed to accept her offer. He would never have
made it on his own: his legs felt like jelly. The fresh wand-owner
was relieved to fall into bed again after the trip also.

"You' re doing really well, William," Hilda
said, sitting cross-legged on the bed, facing him. It made her
smile as she saw that he reached for the wand as soon as he was
comfortable again. "I'll stay with you until you fall asleep
again."

"Thank you. I'm still not sure how I feel,"
he admitted, "it's all... weird."

"Of course. You are playing with some magic
now." She explained about the things she had heard of ordinaries
being bound to wands. "So it is not the strangest thing in the
world," she concluded. "You'll get used to having it with you. And
it is nice for me to know how you feel and where you are."

William grinned, a bit uncertain. "So have
you figured out yet how that wand got fixed? You told me it can't
be done, yet here it is." He waved it through the air.

"Honestly, I have no idea. I've been thinking
about it as I was going around this morning, but I have never heard
of this happening before. But I was looking at your special book
just now and it may have something to do with it. Although I would
have to look at it more."

"Of course, feel free to read it. It may mean
more to you than it does to me anyway." William stared at the wand
for a few moments. "Do you think I can learn that trick you know,
to make it appear and disappear?"

Hilda laughed. "That would be shiny, wouldn't
it? I doubt it though. It's a magic trick, and involved magic from
both sides, the wand as well as the bearer." She flicked her wrist
and had her wand in hand. "Does look good when it happens, doesn't
it?" Silently the wand disappeared again.

"Oh yes, that's why I asked," grinned
William, a yawn opening up. "Oops... sorry..."

"Is okay, sweet man. Tell me if you want to
rest, and I'll leave you in peace." Hilda conjured up two cups of
tea. "This may help. And otherwise it's nice to drink tea
together."

William couldn't agree more.

In silence they sat and enjoyed their tea and
each other's company. Through the open window some wind blew in,
bringing with it the chattering of birds and the smell of the
forest.

William felt his eyes get heavy again. "I
think I should close my eyes for a moment..."

Hilda grabbed his cup. He was gone again. She
climbed from the bed and went to her living room, down the stairs.
She'd read in the book until he would wake up. Or dinner time would
come.

Hilda's head jerked up from the book. She had
sensed William, but... in a different way than before. The feeling
was stronger now. Quickly she ran up to the bedroom, to find him
sitting on the side of the bed, his feet on the ground.
"William..."

He turned and looked at her. His eyes were
large and his face showed puzzlement. "Look."

Hilda walked over to him and kneeled in front
of him. "What's the matter?"

William raised his hands, they were empty. He
moved the fingers of his right hand in a somewhat odd fashion, and
there was a wand in that hand. Red and white.

Hilda stared. "That can't be. It just
can't."

To prove she was wrong, the wand disappeared
from William's hand as he moved his fingers. As he moved the
fingers from his left hand, the red and white wand appeared
there.

"How do you do that? You're not magical!"
Hilda grabbed his hand that held the wand and looked at it, probed
it with her magical ability and discovered no magic.

"I wish I knew, Hilda. Really. It just...
happened." He took the wand in his free hand. "Here. Hold it. Maybe
you can tell where this comes from."

"Are you sure? Witches usually don't hand
their wands to another person."

"I should not be a witch, right? It must be
safe. Here, take it."

Carefully Hilda touched the wand with a
finger. It felt fine, safe. She took it from William's fingers and
examined it. It had a new, different charge, she sensed, modified
by the connection to William. But at the same time it felt amiable,
as if the wand was at home with her as well as William. She flicked
her wrist. The wand remained in her hand.

"Now let me try this..." William slowly moved
his fingers. The wand left Hilda's fingers and was gone. A movement
later it was in William's hand again.

"Shiny..." Hilda was entranced by what had
happened. A flick of her wrist later she held her wand. "I am not
having a good feeling about this, William, but... would you dare to
hold this one?" Her heart beat fast and she felt sweat appear
everywhere as William put his wand on the bed and slowly moved his
hand to her wand.

"Are you sure, Hilda?", he asked.

"No. Not at all. But try it. I'll close my
eyes." As she had done so, she felt how William touched and then
carefully took her wand from her hand. Her heart moaned as the
silver stick was taken from her, but nothing else seemed to happen.
Hilda opened her eyes. William held the wand, and he was fine. She
was fine. And her wand was also.

"I don't believe this..." She flicked her
wrist and the wand was gone from William's hand. And after one more
flick, she held it again. "I can't believe this, William. This
is... this is..."

"Magic?", he helped.

"I'd almost think so," she nodded.

Their eyes locked for a while, sharing the
moment and the inexplicable, until Hilda blinked and got to her
feet again. "This may be a very stupid question now, but... do you
think you're fit enough to come down to eat?"

"I think so," he said, "and otherwise I'll
just magic myself down." He grinned.

"You are not even going to attempt such a
thing, William Connoley. More witches than I care to remember
killed themselves doing that. It is really a difficult thing,
aiming for a place where you don't appear in a chair or a wall, do
you hear me?" Hilda waved her wand in front of his nose. "I want
you to promise me that you will not try that kind of thing."

"Okay, sweetheart, I promise." He looked
around for some clothes. "I'll just put on the pants and the
shirt."

"And I'll wait for you and stay close. You're
still recovering."

Once down the stairs, Hilda planted William
on a chair. His knees were still in the jelly state, he had
discovered. His wand lay on the table, next to his hand, as he
waited for Hilda to get food out of the maniacal space that made up
her kitchen.

The food did him good. They talked about what
might have happened. William reminded Hilda that the book had
struck him with the tiny lightning. "Maybe that is what shook me
up?"

"I don't know. At this point, sweet man, I am
not sure of many things. We should not talk about this with others
until we know a bit more, perhaps..."

"I like the sound of that," William agreed.
"We'd better try to understand this ourselves."

Hilda nodded and cleaned off her plate. "Want
more? There's enough." With a wry grin she added: "For a few
days..."

William laughed loudly and asked her for half
a plate more. He was feeling better already; as he had smelled the
food he had understood how hungry he had been.

Hilda looked at him as he was attacking the
food. "I'm glad you're eating. It helps you ground and
stabilise."

"It's good food, so if it does those things
also, it is a bonus. Dear god, I was so hungry..." He emptied the
plate and then he had to decline an offer for even more. "No, thank
you. Full, very full."

"Okay. Good. I am glad you're fine, William."
She made the plates fly to the kitchen.

"You know, I would like to know a bit more
about that place where this challenge is going to happen," he said.
"Gurthreyn, was it?"

Hilda frowned. "I'm not really keen on
talking about that, but I guess you should know a bit about it.
I'll show you." She got up, took her wand and made it move her
chair in front of the mirror.

"Ha," said William, who picked up his wand.
He swooped his wand in the same manner that Hilda had done. The
chair was not impressed. "Hmm... do you think this is broken?", he
asked, looking at the wand.

Hilda grinned. "No, dear William, I think it
is you who is broken. You know nothing of magic and how to wield
it. Here, watch." She flipped her wand and the second chair moved
next to her own.

"That is so amazing," said William, "if I
could just do that trick..." He pointed his wand at the book and
told it to come to him as he waved the wand. The book was even less
willing to comply than the chair. It even seemed to mock his
amateuristic attempt. "Well, fine," William grinned and sat down on
the chair that Hilda had moved for him.