Hilda - The Challenge (39 page)

"Because you still don't trust the plan,
sweetwitch," William said. "He can bring an aid, but he is probably
so full of himself that he won't."

"He won't need to," said Hilda.

"Don't forget, Hilda, that he does not know
the terrain, and we do. Well, you do, I do just a bit. We're
fighting on our terrain, even if it doesn't look like it. He won't
have time to prepare much as we set the time for the challenge so
tight."

"He'll be very surprised about this
challenge," Hilda nodded, "I have to give you that. He'd never
expect that."

"Which is what we are aiming for. We take the
lead away from him for new, and do all we can to unnerve him.
Anything that gives us an edge on him."

Hilda nodded. "Yes, you told me before. I
hope that you are right, William. This has never been done before
as far as I know. And I know a lot about this stuff."

The goldfish on her cup looked at the two
magical people, then at each other. This was puzzling even to
them.

The magical couple got ready to do the
rounds. As they walked outside, Hilda touched William's hand. "You
know that you deserve these colours now, don't you?"

William looked at the clothes. He had worn
the blue and silver so often that he didn't really realise what the
colours stood for.

"You've progressed well, my sweet man. I have
no problems calling you a wizard now. You're not all great and
fabulous, but you make a pretty decent wizard all the same."

"Oh. Wow. Thank you." Willia knew that Hilda
was not throwing compliments like that around easily, so this meant
quite a great deal to him.

"No need to thank me," she said as she
mounted her broom. "You did all the work. And you listened to me.
That is remarkable."

Before William could ask her why it was so
remarkable, she was already in the air. He kicked off and followed
her.

"I have a very silly plan," Hilda shared with
him as he had caught up with her. "I intend to let Walt win today,
if he's there."

"You mean..."

She grinned. "Yes. The weather's nice, the
sun is warm, we'll be dry so fast. It will be fun, and it will make
his day also."

"Well, that's fine with me." William was in
the mood for some silliness also, so they both hoped the king would
be ready and waiting for them. They were not disappointed.

Calmly they hovered over the fountain,
looking for the door to move through which the king would come
running to see the attempt. William quickly mumbled a spell.

They saw or sensed the water coming. They saw
the door move.

"Not too fast," said Hilda, as the water from
the fountain came up to them.

Walt was out the door and his hands went up
in the air as he saw the sprays of the fountain engulf the two
floating figures that were over the marble assembly.

Hilda and William flew up as they were
getting soaked by the water jetting from the pipes. It chilled
them, it was colder than they had expected, but it was a thrill
nonetheless. They sped up to get away from the water as they heard
Walt yell and scream. The couple was laughing too as they swooped
out of the water's way and dropped down to the ground.

"You got us, king," said Hilda.

"Yes! See! I told you I'd get you some day!"
Walt was almost dancing for joy. "And I'll get you again, some
day."

Leaving the king in a fabulous mood, they
flew off, on the way to the village. They knew they had done a good
deed.

"Good thinking with the spell, William,"
Hilda complimented him. She had sensed his shock as he realised
that the note with the challenge was going to get soaked also, and
had heard him mumble a protection spell to keep it dry. "One day
you'll be a proper wizard."

"Thank you. I hope I will be able to live up
to your hopes," he said.

"You'd better. Or I'm going to come after
you," Hilda said, her face straight.

"That sounds nice," he grinned.

"You know that you are terrible, don't you?"
Too bad, she thought, that a hug in flight counted as irresponsible
acrobatics.

They reached the village, landed in the
market square as that had most space, and then William followed
Hilda to the house where the archers were taking in notes to be
distributed.

"Oh, hello, honourable witch," the
administrative archer said, "long time since we have seen you. And
welcome, honourable wizard," he added, noticing William. "How may
we help you?"

"We have a note that should be sent," Hilda
said. She looked at William.

"Oh, right." He brought the note up and
handed it to the administrator. "To the attention of the sorcerer
Lamador, at the castle of king Herald."

"Okay..." the man was scribbling something on
the shaft of an arrow, rolled the note around it and handed it to a
second person who wrote something down on a piece of paper.

"Two silver pieces," said the writer.

"That'll be two silver pieces then," said the
administrator.

"Suck an elf," Hilda muttered, "rates went up
a lot since I last was here." She grabbed into a pocket and counted
two silver coins. "I could go bring it myself for that money."

"But not as fast," grinned the
administrator.

"If that were a bet, I knew where my money
would go," said William, slipping his arm around Hilda. The smile
on the administrator's face disappeared.

They left the archery office.

"Nice of you, telling him off, sweet man,"
Hilda said, collecting her broom from the wall. "Come. We do rounds
and have fun. And then we have to talk to Babs about what you- we
are planning."

"Are you both out of your witching minds?"
Baba Yaga stared at them from inside the crystal ball. "You sent a
challenge to Lamador? And you want to settle that here, in MY
forest?!"

Hilda understood that it would take some
explaining to make the Russian witch see their side of the idea.
"Yes. You got all that right, except us being out of our
minds."

"Run that by me again? Didn't you just tell
me you went to Heraldion and snatched someone who was related to
Lamador?

"Yes. We did that. We just told you." Hilda
nodded. "And we sent him home again, unhurt."

"Willy... I don't recognise my girlfriend.
What the hell did you put into her? No- don't even answer that. I
suddenly remember that I don't want to know that. Forget I even
asked."

William pinched Hilda's butt. She slapped
him.

"That's my girl," Baba Yaga muttered who only
saw Hilda's move. "But still you are strange folks. You send this
powermonger a challenge for the next dark moon, which is close. You
want to mess things up in my forest, to make it worse. And to top
it off, you are telling me about it and want to know when you can
come to set up some... goodies?"

"Yes," the two said at the same time.

"You two..." The ugly witch shook her head.
Then the magical couple made out, among the wrinkles, the
expression Babs claimed was a smile. "I love your brazen disregard
for how it's done. Get your hineys on brooms and come over whenever
you want. You're always welcome here!"

Hilda grinned. "If we hurry, we could make it
over there today... But I don't feel like hurry. We'll drop by
tomorrow, okay, Babs?"

"Sure, Hilly baby, I'll have tea when you get
here."

After the call to Baba Yaga, they tossed who
would make dinner. William won, so Hilda had to wait until he was
done. The result was good though. William was making friends with
most objects in the kitchen. The only thing that remained a hazard
was the oven. Perhaps it had a masochistic streak in it, that it
wanted to be kicked ever so often.

They spent most of the evening writing down
lists of things they wanted to take along to Babs' forest, and also
how they would set up the goodies they had in mind. As they were
busy on their snide plans, Hilda or William got another new plan
for a goody, so the list was amazingly long when they finally ended
their hard work.

"We may have to enlist some more witches to
get all that in place," said Hilda as she looked over the stack of
sheets they had filled up with ideas and plans.

"I am sure we can get the best ones set up
already. No need to worry about the whole list now, sweetwitch,"
William said.

Hilda, who had settled in his lap again, put
her arms around William's neck. "You are one crazy person. And you
have crazy ideas. I hope they are crazy enough to shock
Lamador."

William's hands rested on her hips. "I hope
so too. We'll make them work. You and I together."

"And we have to hide from him that you are
magical," Hilda added. "That might be difficult however. Although
no other magical person so far has sensed magic in you, and that's
a good thing." It was clear that this was something that worried
her, at least occupied her mind. William being not magical in other
people's view was one of their trump cards.

"You know what?", said William, "We'll get
drunk. Well, at least have a glass of wine, and we'll toast to our
victory."

Hilda looked at him, her eyes shining blue.
"Yes, that's a good idea. And I'm getting one like yours! No
water."

"Uhm, perhaps you should be careful. You know
what you're like. One whiff of a barmaid's apron and you're singing
like a sailor," William warned her.

"Huh?"

"Never mind."

Later he carried her to bed. She was
singing.

"William...," the witch whispered,
"wand..."

He gave her his.

She used it on her head. "Oh... that is
better... I should not drink wine like that again. And it's all
your fault, and you know that. Here..." She slapped the wand on his
stomach.

"Oompf. Thank you, dear." He made the wand
vanish. "You have a remarkable singing voice, you know that?"

"Oh, shush you. You make breakfast." She
rolled on her side, turning her back to William. Her hair became a
grey veil over her face and shoulders. "Let me know when it's
done," she mumbled.

William grinned soundlessly and got up. He
went down, to the kitchen, and prepared a solid breakfast. They'd
need it for the flight to Baba Yaga's territory. Then he came up to
the bedroom, where Hilda was still curled up, on her side.

He nodded and placed a well-aimed slap on her
bottom.

She shot up, staring at him. "What?!"

William smiled. "Breakfast is ready. You
wanted to know, right? You did not say how, so I improvised" Then
he escaped from the room. A pillow flew through the room as the
wicked witch yelled after him.

Not much later Hilda came down and sat at the
table. "You hit hard," she complained.

"I'm sorry if I hurt you," William said.

"You didn't. It was kind of different to wake
up like that." She giggled. "But don't make a habit out of it,
okay?"

"Promise."

Somewhat later they were outside, in travel
clothes, brooms at hand. Hilda showed William how to conjure the
chains around the house, but as he tried to make them appear, it
did not work. He frowned and did not feel too good about that.

"Don't worry, sweet man. This is a different
kind of magic. You may not be ready for it yet."

He watched how effortlessly she put the
tremendous amount of iron around the house.

"Ready. Come, we're off."

They mounted their brooms and lifted to the
skies, brooms turning into the direction of Baba Yaga's home.

The flight was long, but compared to what
they had done to harass Lamador it was a joyride. Once they had
arrived, Babs had indeed tea waiting for them, and also their
guestroom was prepared already.

The wrinkled witch was still amazed about
their plan, but screamed about the beauty of its boldness.

"So the points you mention are gathered by
'getting to the other participant'. And how do you intend to 'get'
to Lamador?", Baba Yaga asked.

"Anything that is not lethal or damaging
goes," explained William. "We just want to shake him up, unnerve
him. Think of anything, buckets of water falling from trees to
whacking him in the behind with a piece of wood. The sweetness of
this all is that magic will not be allowed, and we will have people
here that will watch the duel. Use magic and you lose."

"That is the most insane kind of challenge I
have ever heard of," said Babs, "a duel between magicals without
using magic."

"But Lamador will have to accept it," said
Hilda. "If he refuses, then he can't expect me to show up for his
challenge. He'd be dishonouring me."

Babs nodded. "That is how it works, yes.
Still, I wonder how you will get out of this. Knowing him, he will
not give in that easy."

"Well, either way around we will have to face
him," William said. "He made the mistake of allowing me into his
challenge with Hilda, knowing nothing about me, which is good. By
not using magic, there is only a minimal risk that he will find out
how I have changed."

"You are devious, William." Baba Yaga handed
the tray with cookies around again.

Hilda clung to William's arm. "Isn't he
sweet?"

"I'll leave that decision up to you, Hilly
baby. Looks like you made it already, so I am not going to argue
with you. Now, what's the plan for today?"

"We want to look around your forest," said
Hilda who wanted to be in charge. "Get to know the area, decide on
where we will stage the challenge, things like that."

"Yes. That and have the advantage of knowing
our way around," grinned William.

Baba Yaga's cackling laughter bounced off the
walls and shattered a window.

After tea, they went out and got airborne.
Baba Yaga took the lead and directed them to a rather remote part
of the forest that she lived in.

"Not many peope come here," she said. She
could have saved herself the trouble of mentioning this. If ever
there had been a more inhospitable piece of forest, Hilda nor
William wanted to know about it. This place was so evil, dismal and
gloomy that they both had the urge to turn around and go away.
Fast.