Hilda - Lycadea (17 page)

"It's not a book," Hilda insisted.
Phweeeeeep. "See, the whistle agrees."

William looked at his witch. He knew that the
lack of magic still bothered her. She now used the whistle to make
up for it in a way, as far as it was possible to find a substitute
for magic. Before he could wonder and worry more, Maurizio prodded
the wizard in the ribs.

"That is an interesting thing, William. How
does it work?"

"Hah, your guess is as good as mine. Kerna
can make some things appear on it, but we are not even sure what
side is up on that thing."

Kerna showed the text to the captain, who
stared at the tablet for a while. Then he turned it sideways and
stared some more, while the others in the room stared at him.

After a while, Maurizio slowly raised his
eyes and looked around the group. "Is something the matter?" he
asked.

"Just that you are being rude, staring at
that thing in silence for so long," Rebel said, slapping the man on
the shoulder.

"Do you want me to sing while I look at it?"
Maurizio asked.

"Oh, no, please don't sing!" Rebel got up.
"Did you ever hear him sing?" she asked the others. Without waiting
for a response, she went on: "When he sings, you would want to go
deaf. I mean, even a crow has a great singing voice compared to
that man!"

"And still you love him," Hilda remarked,
turning the whistle in her hands.

"Yes, I- how do you know that?"

Phweeeeep, went the whistle. "I know
that."

Maurizio put down the tablet and got up as
well. "Mi cara," he said, putting his hands on Rebel's hips. "I
love you too. You know that." Eyes met eyes, pink clouds were
almost materialising.

"Right," said Hilda, jumping to her feet
before the strings started playing, "before we get all mushy, how
about that book-thing? You seemed very interested in it, Maurizio.
Care to tell us more?"

The sudden loud action of the witch made the
two lovers jump apart. Maurizio was not able to hold back a curse
as he tumbled back on the couch, next to William, while Rebel's
eyes were close to shooting fire. She could do that. Instead, she
breathed in deeply and sat down again. "Yes, we should... discuss
this later. In private."

The captain picked up the tablet again. "Yes.
It is very interesting, this thing. I have seen something similar,
you know. And not even very long ago, either."

All eyes, except those of the two cats of
course, were now on the captain.

"I thought I recognised the thing, so that is
why I held it the way I did." Maurizio made quite a show of tilting
the tablet, for all to clearly see. "And then it reminded me of
something."

All eyes, except those of the two cats of
course, were still on the captain.

"Of what?" Rebel asked.

"The mirror on the wall in my cabin aboard
the Mimosa."

Maurizio got slapped.

"Why was that?!" he wondered.

"We thought you could read what's on that
thing!" Rebel, the slapper, said.

Hilda slowly got up and stood before the
captain. "You even had me think highly of you." She bent over, put
the whistle to her lips and - phweeeeeep!! "Give me that
book-thing. At least it will be in responsible hands that way." The
witch disregarded the grin she heard behind her. She knew it was
William's.

She pulled the tablet from Maurizio's hands
and sat down with it. Looking at it, also sideways, the way the
captain had done, didn't bring her anything.

Kerna, who was sitting next to the witch,
leaned over. She studied the sides of the book-thing and frowned.
"What would that be?" She pointed at what looked like a bit of
decoration, a small row of balls.

"It's pretty," Hilda said, "look, there are
some on the other side too." She poked at the tiny round balls that
suddenly shifted under her fingers. "Oops..."

The display of the tablet blinked a few
times, then it went dark.

"I think you found the off-switch, Hilda,"
William laughed as he got up. "Anyone for coffee, tea or something
else?" He took the orders and was surprised Maurizio did not ask
for anything.

"I think he's afraid of getting in Hilda's
way again," Rebel said, taking the captain's hand. "It's okay,
sweetie, the witch won't eat you. I'll make sure of that."

"You're going to beat me to it, are you?"
Hilda casually remarked.

Rebel stared at the witch. "Uhm... I'll come
and help you, William," she tried to get out of the situation.

"I'll manage," said the wizard, "you can stay
there." With a broad smile he made his way over to the oatmeal
generator and magicked up the coffees, teas and a triple espresso
for Maurizio. The captain looked like he could do with one.

Kerna in that time examined the tablet
further. "I think it is broken now. It won't react to the way I
activated it before."

Rebel let go of Maurizio's hand and kneeled
down next to Kerna. "How do you switch it on?"

Kerna started explaining, while Hilda looked
at the two with obvious fascination.

"They seem to know what they are talking
about," she remarked to Maurizio, who kept his eyes on William.

"Rebel knows something about that," the
captain said, forcing himself to look at Hilda. He was relieved to
see that she obviously did not hold a grudge against him.

"Duck, everyone. Incoming cups," William said
as he walked back to the couch. The cups and mugs floated behind
him and found their way to their respective recipients. "So, did
you break it?" the wizard asked Kerna and Rebel.

"It's not broken," Rebel said, "it looks like
something is stuck somewhere, but I can't get to it. The bloody
thing's too small for my fingers, and I have no tools and stuff
here."

"Hmmm. I may be able to help with that," said
William. "Can I have that thing?"

Kerna handed him the tablet. William looked
at the near microscopic balls. "So those are stuck, right?" He
magicked a table to the side and put the tablet on the ground.
"Everyone step back."

The wizard popped up his wand, pointed and
mumbled something. A grey cloud formed over the tablet, obscuring
it from view for a moment. Then the grey smoke disappeared, leaving
behind a super-magnified tablet. The device now was four feet long
and three feet wide. "Here you go, perhaps you have better access
now."

Hilda screamed for laughter. Kerna and Rebel
stared at the giant object. Maurizio got up and stared also.

William picked up his coffee mug and took a
sip. "Ick. Needs more cream," he decided, fixing the problem
instantly.

Hilda sipped her coffee too. "I like your
style, wizard," she then said. "You paid attention." And to Rebel
she said: "That should be big enough, right?"

"Uhhuh." That was all the woman from the
future could muster as she started walking around the humongous
tablet. "Perhaps a bit too big."

Kerna also examined the tablet from
nearby.

"Silly people," the witch commented. "Now
it's so big and they are almost on top of it." She took her
whistle. Phweeeep!

Grim and Obsi had already jumped on the
tablet and walked around over it, examining it in their own
mysterious way.

"Ohhh, I think I found it," Rebel's voice
then sounded from behind the tablet. "I am sure this is the 'on'
switch, but something's stuck under it. Does someone have a hammer
so I can knock it away?"

Hilda and William laughed as they walked
around the immense tablet. Rebel sat on her knees, Kerna and the
cats next to her, trying to pry away a lump of wood that was stuck
under what now was a row of 5 metallic bowling balls. Obsi's
attempts to 'help' failed miserably.

"The witch will fix it," William announced,
"everyone out of the way."

Hilda looked at her wizard and was about to
comment the obvious, when she saw his eyes. She smiled and pointed
at the piece of wood that somehow had wedged itself firmly behind
the switch on the mega-tablet.

With a dramatically undramatic 'plunk' the
small wooden cylinder fell on the ground. As Rebel and Kerna
focussed on the group of bowling balls again, Hilda frowned and
picked up the cylinder. "What do we have here?" Slowly, staring at
the cylinder, she walked back to the couch and sat down. William
followed her.

"What is it you see, Hilda?" he asked, but
the witch seemed so absorbed in watching the cylinder that his
words never made it to her brain. To him the wooden cylinder looked
as... a wooden cylinder. A bit splintered, a bit funny in its
colouring, but for the rest the wizard could not detect a
fascination.

Hilda's eyes seemed to see something that was
beyond the piece of wood in her hands. Something drew her whole
attention away from the room, so she missed the triumphant outcry
from Rebel, Maurizio and Kerna, who together had managed to do
something to the large bowling balls to make the tablet come alive
again. Probably with the help of the two cats.

As a soft yellow light from the super sized
display lit up the room, Hilda focussed even more on the cylinder.
The extra light started to make things clearer, even when she had
no idea what she was looking at, or for. But there was
something...

"Hilda?"

"Eh? What?" The witch shook her head and
blinked her eyes a few times, to get back to the room. "Hey, who
switched the light on?"

Rebel and Kerna were standing on the tablet.
"Can you come and have a look at this?"

Hilda, with help of William, climbed on the
tablet. "Look at what?"

"There. Where Obsidian sits," said Rebel.

"That is Grimalkin," Kerna corrected the
woman from the future, evoking a sigh from Rebel. "Obsidian is over
there."

"I'll never learn to tell them apart."

"Ksh, cat, go," Maurizio commanded, waving a
hand. Grimalkin looked at the gesturing man and yawned, expressing
her level of being impressed with his actions.

"Come here, sweetie," Hilda said. Grim
trotted over to her and jumped up into waiting arms. "Now, let's
see what you've been hiding."

"Mwow," Grim clarified. Where she had sat was
a picture. It looked like a drawing.

"And how did that picture get on this thing?"
Hilda asked. "When Kerna switched it on the first time all we saw
were these crazy swirls."

Kerna explained that the first time she had
activated the tablet in what she considered to be the normal way.
"And now we pushed the balls on the side, which does something
else."

"Yes, I can see that. It draws a strange
picture..." Hilda walked over the tablet, staring at the lines that
were everywhere beneath her feet. "A picture that does not make any
sense to me."

"It didn't to us either," Maurizio said. "And
here we are, thinking we found something and now we're staring at a
giant broken screen."

Hilda stopped walking and turned. Thoughts
flew behind her forehead as she looked the captain of the Mimosa in
the eye. "Sometimes, Maurizio, you actually say something that's
useful."

"I do?" the man asked, perplexed. "What was
it? Broken?"

"No," the witch shook her head. "Everyone off
this thing. Now."

The people and animals on the tablet
evacuated it.

"William, can you shrink it back to how it
was?"

William could, so William shrunk it, and then
Hilda picked up the tablet and looked at it again. "I thought so. I
know what this is. It's a map."

"That is the clumsiest map I ever saw," the
captain said after examining the screen. Several voices agreed with
him.

"You folks know nothing about real maps, "
Hilda told them. "This map was drawn by hand."

William was impressed by his witch. She had
lost her magic, but she had definitely not lost her wits. "I see it
too, now. But why would someone draw such a crude map on a device
like that?"

"Maybe because they were in a hurry and did
not have quill and paper at hand."

"Okay, so whereabouts is this then, when it's
a map?" Maurizio asked. "I can't make out where this is supposed to
be. Not even what side's up. That would be magic!"

"Good thing then that nobody asked you,"
Hilda snapped, a sudden sharpness in her voice. "Now sit and let me
think. After all, I am the one who is going to make things right
again here, remember?"

William put a hand on Hilda's arm. "Easy,
witch. He's only trying to help, in his own way."

Rebel picked up the signal. Maurizio had
touched Hilda's tender spot, and clearly at the wrong moment.
"Come," she told her captain, "I think we have some things to
discuss." As the two left, Rebel gently touched Hilda's hair for a
moment. "Take it easy, okay?"

Kerna, with Obsi in her lap, asked: "Do you
want me to go too?"

Hilda stared at the tablet, saying
nothing.

William shook his head. "No, you can stay,
Kerna. Maurizio just stepped on a sore spot. I'm sure he's
sorry."

"He'd better," Hilda muttered, "or I'll kick
him in the butt." She reached out and picked up the piece of wood.
"And what in the name of all dragon eggs is this?"

Kerna bit her lip, so she would not state the
obvious and bring the witch's anger over her. "Can I see it,
please?"

Hilda handed her the object and watched how
the woman turned it around in her hands. It seemed just a piece of
wood, but the witch had a gut feeling there was something about it.
That wood was not put there for no reason. Yes. It was put there,
she was certain of that too.

William and Hilda watched how Kerna suddenly
kneeled on the floor, put the cylinder in front of her and started
to scratch the top part.

"What are you doing?" Hilda wanted to know.
She was on her knees with Kerna mere moments later.

"I think something is in there," Kerna said
as she tried to scrape some more wood away. "See this?" She pointed
at a barely visible discoloured path on the side she was working
on.