Hilda - Cats (19 page)

"So, where were we," he then said. Two out of
three witches stared at him.

Hilda had spent enough time with William to
play the game along quickly. "We almost have that cat cornered and
caged," she said, "the cage is waiting." At least the last part was
true. "And as far as the people who are behind all this..." Hilda
looked at Esmee who picked up the cue.

"Yes, we have some of the traces from the
woods," the former flower witch said, "and they are all leading to
the same place, so it should be clear that is where we have to
look." It was not much, but she did what she could, William was
satisfied about the attempt.

"I'm just waiting until we can sock 'm," Baba
Yaga said. Then she sat back, her cup in hand, indicating that her
part in the play was over.

"Someone's going to pay for all this,"
William said. He magicked up a large sheet of paper which was full
of marks, crosses, lines and arrows. The only places that everyone
could determine were the village, the forest and the castle. The
rest was total nonsense, but as many lines and marks moved over the
map by themselves, it took a magical person to understand that.

Several people who had been at the tables
suddenly had the need to come to the counter and talk to the
inn-keeper or one of the waitresses, whilst also casting hidden
glances at the paper that the witches and the wizard were looking
at and whispering over all of a sudden.

After a while, William and Hilda had run out
quasi-plotting talk, so the group paid for the tea and left the
tavern. They went to several shops that Esmee liked to frequent,
and dropped some words there about how their net was closing around
the people who were responsible for the cat-attacks.

-=-=-

"Lindolf! Lindolf!" The man puffed out the
name, as he had been running to get to Lindolf.

"What do you want?" the businessman
muttered.

"This is urgent," the man explained.

"It'd better be. Talk."

The man, who had come running from the
tavern, told Lindolf that the witches had been talking about
closing in on the people who were responsible for the cat.

Lindolf stared at the man. "And why are you
coming to me about that? Do you think I have something to do with
it?"

"No, of course not. But the animal damaged
one of your carts, and killed your chickens. I thought you would
like to know about it. I already told the butcher and some
farmers."

"Idi- I mean, thank you. I very much
appreciate your effort to come to me about this." Lindolf patted
the man on the shoulder. "But perhaps you should be careful with
that news. People might think the wild beast is almost caught, and
if it isn't and something happens, they might turn on the witches
or so, you know." An evil plan was already in the scaffolding
inside Lindolf's head.

"Be brave, dear Jordan," said Snow White, the
next morning. As a surprise she had shared his bed again for the
night, as this day would become interesting.

"I'll be brave, Snowy. Anything for you."
Jordan said the words, but his confidence had flown out the window,
even though the window was closed. He dreaded getting up, because
that meant he would have to face the world in general and a
specific part of that in the form of something that the strange
wizard was going to do to his privates.

Snow White hugged her husband over her
bulging belly. "I know you will be, Jordan. I am so proud of you.
Maybe you should get up now. It does not look good if you keep the
wizard waiting."

"Uhhuh," was the response of the brave
prince. He arranged for another hug (which ended far too quickly)
and then squirmed himself to the edge of the bed. How on earth, he
wondered, had he let himself be talked into this?

The prince tended to himself and had a
personal servant dress him to perfection. If this was going to
happen, he'd be looking his best. He couldn't do more anyway.

As he left his room, he heard Snow White say
that she'd join them for breakfast soon. Jordan walked down, and
suddenly wondered if he was allowed to have breakfast. So often
when the royal physician had to perform some surgical thing, Jordan
was not allowed to eat all day,

"Good morning, honourable magicals," the
prince said as he entered the breakfast room. He actually managed
to put some not-felt cheer in his voice. The witches and wizard
were already present, as usual. He'd love to know if people like
that needed less sleep than normal people.

"Hey Jordan, why don't you come sit here?"
Hilda cheered as she made a chair move to their table from
somewhere else. The invitee stared at the moving chair for a
moment, Esmee never did things like that.

Jordan then said that he would rather have
the large table, where all his family could sit. That of course was
no problem, so soon Jordan sat at the large table with the witches
and the wizard. He was relieved that he was allowed to eat. He had
always felt that the royal physician had no reason other than to
pester him with the not eating thing.

Snow White joined the group, together with a
gaggle of children. Their appearance was the signal for the magical
surgeons to retreat to the operating theatre, which usually was a
salon.

They took Prince Jordan with them, despite
his claim that he had not had eaten properly. Perhaps, the prince
thought, they'd been talking to the physician already.

"So how do you think you will go about with
this?" Hilda's question did not give Prince Jordan an overwhelming
feeling of confidence, but his coughing and waving a hand for
attention gave him no attention from the three.

William popped up his wand. "Let's first
sedate our patient," he said.

"Do we have to?" Jordan asked.

William pointed that wand at the spot that
would be affected. "If you feel up to it, I can do this with you
temporarily awake," the wizard commented, "but I am sure you will
pass out by yourself. Trust me, my way is far less painful."

"Is it that bad?" Prince Jordan asked.

"Worse," Baba Yaga informed him, even though
she did not have a clue what actually was going to happen.

"Oh." The prince grew pale. "In that case..."
He lay down on the table that William had made him sit on. Then a
thought hit him and he sat up again. "How long will this take?" he
wondered.

"Not too long, but you'll be unconscious
anyway, so what would it matter?" William said.

"Oh, uhm, I was just curious," Jordan told
the wizard.

"Don't be. Curiosity kills cats, except the
big ones. And ours. And now..." William said and waved his wand. It
was the last word Jordan would hear for a while. Then William did
some magic on the prince's testicles and said: "That was that. Tea
anyone? Or coffee?"

The three witches stared at him. "What was
that? What did you do?"

William explained that he had simply done
what he had read in a medical book someday, in his old life. "And
that is all there is to it."

Esmee frowned. "And you had to make him sleep
for just that?"

Hilda laughed and told her that things could
not always be how they really were. "The best magic happens between
people's ears, Esmee."

"Exactly," William said, "and while we have
something to drink, we can decide on the amount of pain we should
inflict on the prince, so he will remember what we did to his
ballgame."

"But," Esmee wondered, "wouldn't it be good
to make some show of it for the people outside the salon?"

"What people?" Hilda and William asked at the
same time.

"This is a castle," Esmee pointed out how
well versed she was in castle etiquette. "It something happens
here, plenty of people will know about it and there will suddenly
be a lot of them who suddenly have business outside the room where
the show happens."

"Might as well give them something then,"
Hilda said as she popped up her wand. The witch looked at the door
as a grin spread around her lips. It was a grin William knew all
too well, and even Baba Yaga said: "Oh-oh."

First the door started pulsating in blue. She
only let that go on for a short while before returning the door to
its normal dark brown oak colour. Then she made it go white and icy
cold for a while.

Esmee and Baba Yaga arranged the tea, and the
four had a very nice time discussing all kinds of ailments to
inflict on the prince that was still out, until the topic started
to get out of control.

"Okay, okay," said William, "I'll make him
hurt for four days. That is a nice amount of time, something not
overdone."

"Very good. But first let me," Hilda grinned
as she pointed at the door again. Suddenly flames burst out from
nowhere, enveloping the door with their fiery tongues. All the ice
that had formed on the door did not even have a chance to form
drops and fall down: in a hissing steam they evaporated.

With his teacup in hand, William waved his
wand and when the magic took hold in the dormant prince, the
patient groaned. "Wow, talk about instant success."

Esmee had a certain look on her face, so
William asked what she was thinking about. Esmee confessed that she
was very curious about the royal 'equipment'. After all, she
remarked, he had been able to produce quite a lot of offspring with
it.

"Oh. Is that all?" William mumbled a small
spell and Jordan's pants moved three feet to the left. "Go feast
your eyes, Esmee."

Hilda raised an eyebrow as Esmee got up.
"William, something like that is not done, you know."

"And wasn't it you who told me that wizards
as a rule don't care about rules? Well, here is your proof. Again."
He grinned and toasted her with his teacup.

"Hmmm, that's not much," Esmee commented from
her position next to the table. Even though it was not done, Hilda
and Baba Yaga got up to check on Esmee's power of judgment.

"Suck an elf," Hilda commented, "that's
really pathetic."

-=-=-

While William was playing doctor, in the
village a woman was talking in the tavern. The woman was Santera.
She was under the spell of Magda, who directed her to talk about
cat women and the seeming coincidence that the attacks had become
worse once the three unknown magical people had come to the
castle.

In an attic, Lindolf was on a small seat next
to Magda, whispering in her ear what Santera was going to say.
Magda looked awful, as he had pushed her magical abilities to the
maximum. Simi, the woman who supplied the energy for Magda to
perform her magic, was trembling.

"You know," Santera whispered as she rolled
up her sleeves, "I think that the witches are here to take over
power of the kingdom. They put the cat people up to all this, and
they just have not managed to kill the king yet. They will try
again, I am certain of that. And I know there are more people who
think like that."

"But why would someone want to kill our
king?" a farmer asked. He had always liked the king.

"There are always bad magical people,"
Santera whispered. "Remember that sorcerer Lamador? The one that
put a hold on King Herald?"

Heads bobbed, the tale had run through all
the kingdoms.

"And see here, what happened to me as there
was the fight with the cat woman," Santera said as she showed the
scratches on her arms, the marks that she had gotten from Obsidian
Shadow and Onyx Grimalkin.

The marks, still very clear and raw, made the
listeners gasp for air.

"There are also marks on my back," Santera
informed them, "so you see how dangerous these creatures are."

One of the people around her had also been
present at the talk that Oscar's wife had given, about not trusting
the king. "So we have a king that is not doing the best for the
people and a bunch of witches and the likes that want to get rid of
him to take over?"

Santera nodded. "Yes, that sounds about
right," she said after a few moments. "And they will probably make
things worse for us..."

-=-=-

"Enough show?" Hilda asked Esmee as she had
the door blink with false diamonds.

According to the castle witch, this would
do.

Hilda returned the door to its normal state
as William woke up the prince.

Jordan stared at the absence of pants, with
unpleasantness already on his features.

"So, prince, how do you feel?" William
asked.

"Painful," the man on the table admitted, his
eyes still on his manhood. "Is it me," he then asked, "or is it
really... bigger?"

"It may look somewhat bigger," William said,
doing his best to keep a straight face. "Sometimes that is a result
of the procedure. But it won't give you a problem, I can assure you
that."

"Oh. Good." Prince Jordan eyed the ones
present. "Was it necessary for everyone to be here?" he then asked.
It was especially unnerving to him that Esmee the castle witch had
witnessed all his somewhat undersized glory, although now it
definitely looked more prominent.

"Yes, it was," William assured the prince,
"but don't worry, no one will say a word about the proceedings.
That is our code of honour."

"Ah, that's good-OOOWWWW!" Jordan had
attempted to hop from the table and the magic for the pain had
responded to that. He stood bent over for a while, sweat on his
brow.

"Careful, prince," William cautioned the
royal man a bit too late. "Here, go slow while you put this on."
Baba Yaga had altered the royal pants to something much wider.
"This will make sure you won't feel too much pain."

Grateful, Prince Jordan put on the garment.
It almost felt to him as if the pain subsided a bit as he pulled
the pants up. He'd look ridiculous in this tent, but rather that
than the pain.

"So remember, no playing with it," said
William.

"I know," Prince Jordan nodded, "I'll go
blind then."