Hilda - The Challenge (49 page)

"You have never done that before," the house
remarked.

"What?" Hilda frowned.

"Touch me like that. It is nice."

"Don't be silly, I did nothing." Hilda shook
her head and mounted her broom.

"And you two have fun. Maybe you can bring me
something pretty," said the house as William also got onto his
broom.

"No promises there, okay? And I am certainly
not going to look for it!" Hilda laughed as they flew up and raced
over the treetops.

"Sure, be that way," commented the house.

"Wanna bet she's going to bring you
something? I'm sure her boyfriend will persuade her," said one of
the goldfish on the teacup.

"I don't take bets. I'm a respectable
house."

"Should I just wait to see what we are going
to shop for?", William asked as they were flying.

"Well, you can ask," grinned the witch as she
did some very wild slaloms around treetops, "but I can't guarantee
an answer. After all..."

"Yes, I know, you are unpredictable." That
part of her was very predictable.

"You got it! Wheeeee!"

William was sure she would do a cartwheel in
the air if that were in any way possible.

Soon they reached the village. William did
not know if she had aimed for it, but the market square was doing
booming business again. Hilda and William came in calmly, not
making any grand entrance, which surprised the wizard-to-be a bit.
After all, the witch had been very boisterous and bold on the way
over here.

Using magic, of course, they clung their
brooms to the roof of one of the houses that were opposite the
market place. Hilda said that the people here were used to her
doing it, and they even considered it an honour if their house was
chosen to carry the broom of the witch.

"Something with status or good luck,
whatever. I can't really be bothered," the witch explained, but her
expression told William something different and he grinned
quietly.

They walked into the market square. As usual,
almost, the people that noticed them would move aside, giving them
all the space they might possibly need. Again though, William
noticed that none of them showed any fright of them. Most people
greeted them politely too.

Hilda went over to a stall that had beads and
started to rummage through the collection. "Wrong, wrong, wrong,
crappedy crappy wrong, wrong..."

William wondered why the lady who owned the
booth did not ask if she could help. The woman instead seemed to
completely ignore the snooping witch. The beads-lady looked at
William only once, smiled at him, and then went about her
business.

"Oooh, look!" Hilda held up a black bead.
"Isn't that shiny?"

"It's a black bead, Hilda." William pointed
at it. "See? Black."

"I know! That is why it is so pretty. It's
jet!" Hilda looked at the bead as if she was falling in love with
it. "A jet bead. Perfect. Now come and help me find a few amber
ones. They are rare also."

"Amber. Okay. I hope this is all going to
make sense to me someday, but for now I will help you."

Together they went over the beads, picking,
looking, judging and putting back. The more that William and Hilda
went through the beads, the more people seemed to be attracted to
the bead stall.

"Here, did you see this one?", William said.
He handed her a black bead.

"Jet!" Hilda beamed. "You're great!"

The result of their hours of searching was
six jet beads and eight amber ones. Hilda was as happy as a child
with their loot. They paid the woman a silver coin, which according
to her was far too much, but Hilda waved all her comments
aside.

They collected their brooms from the house,
under the scrutinising eyes of a group of children, and flew
off.

"So, are you now going to tell me what you
want to do with these beads?", William asked. "My back hurts from
standing bent over, so I think my question is reasonable."

Hilda grinned. "And you expect me to be
reasonable because of that?" She flew her broom close to William's
and patted his arm. "I'll tell you when we get home. And I'll show
you too."

"Show me? Okay, now you made me curious."

"Oh, shiny! I love it when I can make you
curious!" She laughed loudly. "And I will also take care of your
sore back, William. You are really a darling to spend all that time
with me, picking out the beads."

Once they came home and the brooms had put
themselves away, Hilda took William up the stairs and into one of
the rooms that he had not been in before.

"Come, look." She walked to a small table
that had an insane amount of boxes and jars on it. Without
hesitation she picked out three of the boxes. One of them contained
nothing but jet beads. The next box was filled with amber beads.
And the last box contained three necklaces. Each one was made of
jet and amber beads.

William did not ask, he knew she was going to
explain about this all.

"See, jet and amber are important things to a
witch. They increase your magic." She reached inside her dress. "I
am always wearing one."

"Yes, I have seen that, but somehow I had
never made the connection. Not knowing it is jet and amber." He
reached out and touched the beads that were still warm from her
body. "Very nice."

Hilda closed her hand over his fingers that
still held her necklace. "I usually never let anyone touch that,
William, and not at all when I am wearing it. But you are not just
anyone. That is why I have been working on this..." With her free
hand she took a specific string of jet and amber beads from the
small box. "I made this for you. I have charged it with the magic
in the light of the full moon and I think it is ready now for you
to wear it."

Slowly, with a feeling of surprise all
through him, William let go of the beads between his fingers. "You
made something for me?"

She nodded. "Yes. Since you are now close to
being a full wizard, it is time for something-"

William heard that there should be more
words, but waited until she somehow was ready to say them. The way
she was and felt to him now was very different from the bouncy
witch he had been shopping with.

She held up the necklace with both hands. It
was rather short compared to hers. "I know you are not used to
this, William. Well, I'm not either." Hilda grinned, William
grinned along with her. "And this is probably the entirely wrong
place for it, but..." She reached for his hands, holding them, that
way making it four hands holding the necklace. Then she looked in
his eyes. "William... do you want to be my wizard?"

At that point something opened inside
William. The one-way connection that had gone from him to Hilda
since so long now worked the other way as well. He felt how she
felt about him. How much she appreciated him being there, her love,
the thrill of seeing what he was doing. He knew that this, what she
asked now, was stronger than a marriage. This was bonding on a very
intimate level.

Hilda sensed how the link opened and poured
herself into it. William had to know how she felt, fully and
completely, so there was no holding back. He also had to see the
fear she felt when thinking about him one day perhaps leaving
her.

'I love you, William,' she said, without
words, 'and I want to forge this bond with you. You are free to say
no. You are free to say yes. Will you be mine? Will you let me be
yours?'

William felt as if he was nailed to the
floor. His entire being was frozen at that point. All there was for
him was the presence of Hilda the witch, the feeling of her hands
holding his, and the totality of feelings that she allowed him to
experience.

'Hilda,' she heard him say in the same
wordless manner, and then an avalanche came rushing into her
awareness. It carried his feelings for her and almost threw her off
her feet. Then, equally silent, she heard: 'Yes. I will be yours.
And you will be mine.'

Then they were standing in the room again,
holding hands, the necklace as braided through their fingers.

Hilda smiled, carefully. "Thank you,
William."

"Silly witch, it's me who has to thank you."
William then let her put the necklace around his neck.

"There. You are pretty now." She kissed him.
"And pretty wizards make wonderful dinners for clever witches."

They had been flying for a long time again.
They had already crossed over the queendom of Raghuna and were not
far from Gurthreyn.

Since their bonding, which had happened so
strangely and suddenly in the room where Hilda had her beads and
necklaces, their relationship had gotten tighter in a most
tremendous way. Understanding had grown in leaps. It had surprised
them that, with the bond open in both ways, they were talking to
each other even more. With the bond, William at least had expected
that they would not need to talk so much, but the opposite proved
true.

Now they saw the beginnings of the area where
the labyrinth of Gurthreyn lay. With mixed feelings of fright and
determination they approached the massive structure.

"Do you want to fly around it again?", Hilda
asked.

"Would be a good idea," William said. "I am
convinced there is something around the side that has to tell us
something. We just need to find what it is."

"And where. And there's a lot of where,
William."

"Then we'd better get started..."

They flew around the impressive wall. William
insisted on having his wand in hand the whole time. For what, he
did not know.

The trip around the labyrinth was a long one.
Hilda was getting bored and William knew it. By the time they had
gone past only half of the wall, he was ready to call it quits as
he did not want Hilda to suffer any longer.

"No, William, we are going to do this- what
was that?" Through the bond she had sensed a twitching in William's
wand even before he did.

The two brooms halted.

"Where did this happen?", Hilda asked. "We
were not going that fast..." She got her own wand and then slowly
they tracked back.

Their focus on the wands, they floated along
the large looming wall. Its depressing presence seemed to be less
now they were paying attention to something else than the
atmosphere that made the place such a bad one to be.

"Found it! Found it!" Hilda waved her wand.
As she did, William found the spot also. "So, what do we have
here?"

They stared at the rough grey wall. It gave
them the eerie feeling that it stared back at them, in an accusing
way.

"This is spooky." William scratched his head.
Then he reached inside a pocket and took out a scroll he had taken
along.

"Why did you bring that? Do you think it will
tell us how to get rid of this bad feeling?" Hilda shook her
head.

"I am hoping for something even better," said
William as he studied the scroll. "It says here that the magician
Gurthreyn was keen on hiding things. Maybe we have found something
that is hidden here."

"Oh, really. Come on, William, this labyrinth
has been here for so many centuries I have lost track. So you
really think people have not gone around this thing looking for
something like that?"

"How can you find something if you don't know
what you are looking for?", William asked her.

Hilda tried to get back with a really snippy
answer, but she could not come up with one. "So, what does that
paper say?"

"The magician Gurthreyn," William read out
loud, "is known to make things disappear in his workings. These
things are of many kinds. Objects are least of his interest. He
hides ideas, magic, gestures. You can find them by not looking for
them, but luring them, enticing them."

Hilda looked at William. "Hides magic and
ideas? Care to explain that to me?"

"I wish I could. I just read what is written,
and I feel that something is here. As do you." William took his
wand and slowly moved it around. "Yes, something's here, for
certain."

Hilda frowned, but also moved her wand. And
she too sensed the twitching again. Staring at the wall told her
nothing. "Luring. Enticing. How do you entice a wall..." Then she
raised her eyebrows, as if she was listening to something. "Of
course... not the wall..."

To William's surprise, Hilda lowered her
broom until she was standing on the ground, the daunting wall
towering over her. He went downwards also, hoping to find what she
wanted to do. The bond did not reveal anything about that.

Hilda's face showed concentration and wonder
when he arrived. She was actually smiling, which was something
William would not have expected of her. Not here, next to the wall
of this gloomy labyrinth.

"You are good, do you know that?" Hilda
looked at her wizard. She was serious, she meant it. He knew. "Give
me your hand."

He reached out, automatically with his
wand-hand. She took it, with her wand-hand, and then there was a
very strange experience. It felt like an explosion of white light
in their heads, shared through the bond. Inside the explosion they
heard laughter. There also was a feeling of... teaching. Of power.
Something embedded itself in their magical core and then the light
was gone.

"Now what the hell was that?" William stared
at their hands, still locked together. His new necklace felt hot
around his neck.

"Yes, mine too," said Hilda. "As I said, it
increases your magic. It also seems to allow new magic to enter
you. I've never felt this before. It feels..."

"...raw," William completed what she was
saying.

"Yes. This feels raw. Exactly." Hilda took a
string of her necklace in her hand. "It still glows."

William checked his necklace. The amber shone
brightly. "Unbelievable. And how did that happen?"

"William, please remember that I am the one
who asks the trick questions, okay?"