Hilda - The Challenge (47 page)

"At least this is all nicely in place."
William had discovered a stone box that turned out to be a bar.
There was water, he found several kinds of wine and some bottles
that he was not sure of.

Before indulging in the goodies that the
royal apartments had to offer though, they first retreated to the
large bath and enjoyed a long soak together. By the time they
emerged from their water antics, a large amount of food had
appeared on the stone table in the living room.

"Magical room service," William grinned as
they saw the treats.

"At least the king here knows how to treat
guests," Hilda said as they charged the food. It was delicious.

"It's an interesting way to treat people who
have insulted a high-ranking diplomat from here, though," William
thought out loud. "Somehow this strikes me as odd."

"Well, you have to consider that so far
Herald's only heard one side of the story. That is why we are
here."

William looked at Hilda and nodded. "I see
that, but this treatment is still quite amazing."

The witch put down her fork as she felt
something from within William. "Perhaps, sweet man, you have
forgotten that." She pointed at the door which was sealed
magically. "Yes, this is better than a cell in a dungeon, but we
are still locked in and very restricted in our doings. A golden
cage, but still a cage."

After dinner, they went looking for the
proper things to wear for the meeting with King Herald and Lamador.
The great sorcerer was bound to be present. To keep everyone in the
belief that William was not magical, he put on ordinary's clothes,
the grey velvet trousers and a green shirt. Simple footwear and a
leather belt completed his outfit.

Hilda had donned her magnificent red dress
and tucked up her hair in an extremely complicated braided pattern.
She had a purple cape around her which went stunningly with the red
dress.

After getting dressed there was nothing but
for them to wait. They looked out the big windows to get glimpses
of life in the city, but darkness was already creeping in, so their
view was rather limited. That was about the same with everything
they could do, so they were getting rather annoyed sitting around
waiting.

William knew it was all a psychology trick.
Hilda knew they did it on purpose.

Finally, darkness had spread thickly around
the castle, the door opened and Gountar entered the room. "The king
will see you now."

Hilda, William right behind her, walked out
the room, where an escort of four more men was waiting for them.
These were new people, Hilda sensed that all of them were
high-level magical. With all that protection around, the group
started walking down the corridor and descended the stairs they had
come up a few hours before.

After a journey through a maze of corridors
they were taken into a hall that was immense. William thought that
a cathedral could be jealous of such space. Instead of the regular
stone and marble, this hall seemed to be decorated with nothing but
gold and silver. It was so overdone that it looked tacky.

The two were brought to a couple of large
thrones, also made of gold. They walked over a long white carpet,
whiched like a thick linen mat, very soft and also
sound-supressing. Gountar walked ahead of them and magically forced
them to stop at a certain point while he walked on.

"King Herald, Queen Warda, here are the two
people you have summoned, to answer to the insults they made Tudris
suffer from."

"Tudris??" William let the name slip from his
mouth.

Gountar turned around. "You are not to speak
unless spoken to."

A bolt of energy reached William, which
obviously was meant to seal his lips. He played along.

Hilda looked at him and caught his near
hidden wink. She nodded. She too was surprised to hear the name
Tudris. So it wasn't Lamador who had felt insulted after all?

"Show them to us," a surprisingly boyish
voice said. Gountar stepped aside and gestured Hilda and William to
come closer.

They walked up to the thrones that were
placed on a dais overloaded with gold and ruby ornaments. King
Herald looked very young indeed, not a day older than twenty. His
wife, Queen Warda, looked like seventeen. Hilda stared at the two
in surprise.

The royal highnesses wore burgundy red robes
with dark blue patches. The red parts of the robes were covered
with pearls. They looked rich, pompous and showed no taste at
all.

"Grimhilda. We meet again," the young king
said, leaning forward slightly. "When was the last time... fifteen
years ago, during the latest challenge?"

"Yes, something like that," Hilda
replied.

William could not believe this. A king that
was five at the last time Hilda met him? And he recalled that?

"And now we meet here again, under rather
unfortunate circumstances," said Herald. "Now, before we go further
on that, do introduce me to the man you have brought with you."

"This," Hilda took William by the hand, "is
my friend. William Connoley."

William remembered to stay in his
mouth-sealed role just in time.

King Herald whispered something to his wife,
who giggled behind her hand. Very well-trained, many of his court
that were assembled in the hall giggled or chuckled along with
her.

"Well, William Connoley, it is nice to meet
you."

William just nodded, then looked at Gountar,
pointing at his mouth. Hilda sensed how William was grinning on the
inside and could hardly suppress a grin of her own.

Gountar made a noise, cast magic and William
sensed it. That should free his speech again.

"It is an honour meeting you, your majesty,"
said the wizard in hiding. "And the queen too, of course."

Herald and Warda allowed him a nod, then
Herald addressed Hilda again. "Interesting choice for a witch, to
befriend an ordinary man."

Hilda stood proud. "It is my choice. Nobody
else's."

King Herald nodded. "Well. Back to
business..."

As if the whole thing was rehearsed, Lamador
and the man Tudris stepped from behind the two thrones. Lamador
stood next to the queen, Tudris stood next to King Herald.

Lamador's face was neutral as he saw the two.
He just nodded at William and greeted Hilda in a very official
way.

Tudris clearly was having troubles to contain
his anger when he saw them. "There they are," was the first thing
he hissed, as he pointed at Hilda. "They are the ones that
humiliated me. They need to be punished."

King Herald raised his hand. "Calm, brother,
we'll get to the bottom of this."

"Brother?" Hilda as well as William were
stumped by that little revelation.

Herald looked at the two. "Yes. He is my
brother. You did not know that?" The king looked at his brother.
"You did not tell them?"

"No."

King Herald rose. "Idiot. You make so much
noise over all of this?" He did not sound very friendly towards his
brother. Then he turned to Lamador. "And you knew about that?"

Lamador calmly looked his king in the eye. "I
did not feel I was the one to introduce your brother as the king's
kin."

Tudris tried to push around King Herald. "But
you said-"

"Silence, you fool. Do you know what you are
causing by all of this?", Herald turned back to his brother.

As all this was going on, Hilda kept her eye
on the great sorcerer. There was not a trace of emotion on the
man's face, but Hilda just knew that there was something wrong in
the picture that she saw. This all could not be because of a
mistake that some idiot ordinary brother of the king had made.

A quick check on what William felt told her
that he was thinking along the same lines, only he was slower with
that as he was not so well versed in these things.

Meanwhile, the play continued. Tudris kept
arguing with his brother, Herald kept trying to put Tudris back in
his place, and Lamador just looked at the proceedings between the
two. Finally, as if he was the ruler of the kingdom, he stepped in
and separated the two.

"We need to talk about this in private,"
Lamador said with a calm and deep voice. Placing a hand on the
shoulder of each of the two men had the effect of a switch being
flipped. Immediately they both calmed down.

"Yes," Herald agreed, "you are right, of
course."

Hilda as well as William saw Lamador's lips
move shortly. After that, King Herald turned to the two people whom
he had summoned. "It seems that all this is based on a very
unfortunate mistake, Grimhilda. I do owe you an apology. Please
remain here overnight, with all the privileges of a royal guest, so
you can journey back to your home tomorrow, well rested and
fed."

That was all. As Lamador guided not only the
two brothers, but also Queen Warda away from the dais, Gounar the
soldier-magician stepped up to Hilda and informed her in short
words they should follow him. Again William went unacknowledged.
The wizard in hiding just tagged along, pretending he was a
separate entity belonging to Hilda. Which wasn't even that far from
the truth.

So they retraced their steps to the large
staircase and found themselves in their large and rich suite again.
There was no magic in place this time to keep them secured inside,
but Hilda was aware that there was a mage-soldier stationed in
front of the door.

"I think we should make the difference this
time," she muttered, and she sealed the door from the inside.
"Right. This way we are in control of who comes in, not they."

With a few glasses of wine, they retreated to
the bedroom. Once snuggled up together, Hilda said: "You also got
this funny feeling about the charade they put up, didn't you?"

William nodded. "Yes. It was too bizarre to
witness. As if Lamador were playing with his puppets."

"Zakly..." Hilda sipped some of her diluted
wine. "I got the feeling that this whole thing was set up by
Lamador just to show us the power he has. To scare us. Still have
that feeling too."

"I'm sure of it by now." William kissed her
cheek. "He is showing off how well he can play his king. And queen.
And even the joker."

"The joker?"

"Yes. Herald's brother. That man is a joke if
ever I saw one. He was meek as a lamb at our challenge, something
to push and shove, while Lamador was the great invincible whatever.
Here Turd- I mean Tudris suddenly acts as if he is offended to the
extreme and goes against his brother, the king."

Hilda snickered for a moment. "Yes, you're
right. It smells like a rat's ass, don't you think?"

William looked at his witch. "I may not want
to know where you have put your nose, young lady."

Hilda was about to take another sip of her
wine. She made it jump in the glass as she snorted loudly over his
remark. "Now see what you made me do," she pouted, holding up the
glass, wine dripping from her nose.

"Oh, poor witch," said William. Helpful as he
was, he licked the wine from her nose.

The witch stared at him, speechless for
several seconds, her mouth slowly opening as the surprise wore off.
William grinned, magicking their glasses away. Then he wrapped his
arms around her and kissed her long and deeply.

The next morning, the castle woke up to an
alarmed cry and very soon after that there were sounds of loud
trumpets.

William and Hilda flew out of bed. They were
immediately awake and understood that this was not a regular
morning call. As they came into their living room, they heard the
sound of feet running through the corridor and someone asking
questions to the guard in front of the door.

Then there was a knock on the door and a
voice asking permission to enter. The way the question was put made
it clear that the answer was 'yes' at any rate. Hilda undid her
magic seal and opened the door. It was, as they had already
expected, Gounar.

"Have you left this room in any way
overnight?" He did not waste time on social graces, so there was
something very bad at hand.

"No," said Hilda. "Your man at the door can
vouch for that side, and the magical seals on the window, as you
may check, are still there. We have the habit of sleeping at night.
What happened?"

Gounar checked the seals at the windows, to
be certain. Then he turned to Hilda. "The king's brother was
murdered last night. His servants found him early in the morning.
You are to remain in your rooms until further notice." The
soldier-magician did not wait for a response. With long strides he
left the suite, the door was closed and the couple were left to
their own limited devices.

Hours passed in which they did not hear
anything. Repeated questions asked to the guard, through the closed
door, did not make them any wiser as the guard was not informed
about anything either.

Someone came to bring them breakfast. The
same person came to bring them lunch. And still there was no news
about the background on Tudris' death, nor any information when
they could leave for home.

"I have a faint feeling that they will never
catch the person who did it," said Hilda.

William looked at her. "You mean..."

The wicked witch nodded. "I'd be surprised if
it weren't so. Tudris was useful to get us here and annoy us, and
that's it. It's scary."

William nodded. He understood why she did not
wanted to speak Lamador's name out loud. The whole castle was
loaded with magic, so it would be very reasonable to assume there
was something to alert him if his name was mentioned. Especially
now.

Boredom had come to take them over, and had
left again as it had gotten bored itself from the atmosphere in the
suite, when finally the door swung open. It was not Gounar, but one
of the lesser, non-magical soldiers who came in.

"I bring a message from the great sorcerer,"
he said. "It is time for you to leave. Your carriage and your men
are already waiting for you. You are to follow me, so there is no
delay in your departure." It was obvious that the man was
instructed by nothing less than a drill-sergeant.