Hilda - Lycadea (18 page)

The old wood proved more resilient than it
looked, though. William came to the rescue. All three were now
kneeling around the wooden thing, while William slowly shaved layer
after thin layer off it. Two black furry heads curiously peeked
down from the table, as this was their project as well.

Suddenly the wooden cylinder fell apart.

"Holy Bejeebus," said the wizard, "I did not
mean to destroy it."

"You didn't," Hilda reassured him as her
hands went through the remains of the thing. "Kerna was right.
There was something inside it." She held up something. It was
small, square and blue.

"What is this?" Hilda asked, staring at the
small blue square. Then things started to become extraordinary.

Kerna yelped. Hilda uttered a 'crappedy
crap', and William deployed instant magic to keep the three of them
out of harm's way. In this case it was out of the way of the
furniture that had started floating. He could not prevent the three
of them going up in the air as well.

"Does this happen often?" Hilda asked Kerna,
who tried to get to Obsi as Grimalkin collided with the witch.

"No. I have never seen this happen," Kerna
replied, holding a rather surprised black cat in her arms as she
started to rotate, on her way to hanging upside down.

"Can you get us down again, William?" Hilda
wondered.

"I'm trying, but it's not working,
sweetwitch," the wizard said as he did what he could to make things
normal again and failing hopelessly.

By that time they heard sounds from outside
the door. With considerable effort William moved himself along the
wall and the ceiling to open the door, where he saw more people
float around in rather undignified positions. They all looked
dismayed and worried. And helpless.

"We're not alone," the wizard announced to
Hilda and Kerna. He made a rope appear and tossed one end to the
witch. Another rope unfolded to Kerna. He tied the ends around
himself and waited for the witch and the young woman to finish
their ends, which was hard for them as they were holding the cats.
And these animals were not very peaceful under these strange
circumstances.

William reeled the two women and cats in as
Rebel and Maurizio came floating from their room. Hand in hand.

"Oh, hi there," said Rebel, "what'd you do to
make this happen? I mean, it's pretty cool, but your timing was a
bit off."

"This is not of my doing. The furniture
suddenly started floating, and so did we."

"Yes, he's innocent," said Hilda. "Of this
anyway."

"So what are we going to do about this?"
Maurizio asked, showing his good intent.

"Anyone have a good idea?" Hilda asked
around, also at the Lycadeans who came floating by with puzzled
faces. They had no good ideas.

Kerna, holding on to Obsi, scrambled along
the rope to William. "Maybe we should try to get to the Palliza, to
the High Council."

"Why, what's there?"

"That is where the planet is directed from,"
Kerna reminded him.

"Yes, William, I was thinking the same. You
should pay attention," said the witch, working hard to keep from
bumping into the ceiling.

"Pipe down, witch. I am trying to think of a
way to get us away from here," said the wizard as he conjured up
two more ropes so Maurizio and Rebel could tie up to him. Then he
magicked two big handles with suction cups that he used to drag the
four people behind him.

"William, do you want to take us to the
Palliza?" Kerna asked. "If so, you should go the other way."

"Oh. Right. Thank you. It looks a bit
confusing from the ceiling."

Slowly and hand over hand, William worked his
way along the corridor, tugging the others along.

"Guys, I think we are reaching the border of
this strange gravity problem," he said after a while.

"How do you know that?" Hilda asked.

"I just saw two people fall down at the end
of this corridor. I will get us down before we reach that point,
their landing looked quite painful." It was quite a lot of work for
the wizard to pull four people and two cats down with gravity
fighting back, but he won, and soon they tumbled over the
floor.

"Well done, I think," said Maurizio as he
helped Rebel to her feet.

William, picking Hilda and Kerna from the
floor, thanked him. Then he made handles appear on the wall, so
people could pull themselves down along them so they would not
crash down.

"Oh, honoured witch!" a familiar voice then
called out. It was Katinki, one of the High Council.

"What are you doing outside your room?" Hilda
asked, hoisting Grimalkin over her shoulders.

"We hoped you could find your way out of your
room, we need you!"

"They always do," Hilda said with a wink to
Rebel. "So where's the fire?"

"Fire?!" Katinki looked scared. "Is there a
fire?!"

"No, no fire," William quickly said, "we just
want to know what is wrong."

"Oh." Katinki visibly relaxed and pointed at
the floating people. "That is wrong," she stated.

"No kidding," Rebel nodded. "Let's go to that
control room and see what's happening."

"What broke down today, you mean," Hilda
commented.

They went on their way, following Katinki.
All the people that saw them made a lot of space as they passed.
Clearly the High Council was still seen as a very important and
powerful group.

Inside the Palliza they found pieces of
machinery scattered all around. The original location of the parts
was what used to be a small console in a corner.

"Madonna, that must have been a bang,"
Maurizio said as he judged the distance some of the parts had
travelled. "Did anyone get hurt?"

Somehow nobody had been in the way of flying
components, as if a miracle had spent some quality time with the
High Council at the right moment.

Rebel went around, assisted by Gesmarion, to
collect all the pieces that had originated from the exploded
machinery, while Hilda and William tried to discover what had
happened. The why was not so interesting yet. The assembled High
Council started an explanation of attempting to correct something
which remained unclear, quickly slipping into a series of
contradictions and surprised faces as the Council members
discovered that one half of them had attempted to do something
different from the other half.

"Twelve in the same room and still they break
all records in bureaucracy," Maurizio sighed. Together with Hilda,
Kerna and the cats he watched how Rebel and William tried to piece
the exploded console back together again. The two almost got it all
done. The lack of a few pieces brought the project to an
unfortunate and early end.

"Can't you improvise something there?" Hilda
asked. "It's only a few things that are missing."

"Improvise?" Rebel asked, almost dumbfounded.
"With what?"

The witch shrugged. "I don't know that stuff.
Clay, perhaps? Hey, don't laugh, I am the honoured witch here!"

The High Council, who had withdrawn to a far
end of the room to let the specialists do their jobs, seemed to be
in a heated discussion. In the end Katinki stepped forward. "We
have no clay."

"Too bad," said Hilda. "Might have fixed
this." She tugged William's sleeve. "I have an idea." For a while
she whispered in his ear, making the wizard nod, shake his head,
frown, look surprised, look despaired, and a number of other
things.

"You and your ideas," he finally said. "Can't
make the thing get worse." With these wise words he made a lump of
clay appear. It was no ordinary clay. It was pink and yellow, and
in a few places it blinked.

"What is that?" Rebel asked as she stepped
away from the wizard. Nobody could blame her, the blinking blob did
not look trustworthy.

William shrugged. "It's something she dreamt
up. Step back some more, everyone." He waited until everyone was in
what he assumed to be a safe spot. Then he created a safety-wall of
energy in front of him, drew back his arm and slammed the ball of
pulsating clay into the hole in the machine. A bolt of magic
followed the clay and then he raised the safety-wall up high while
ducking and turning his back to the crime scene.

Several terrifying moments passed by, in
which nothing happened that caused any reason for alarm. William
turned and watched the console. It was there. No smoke billowing
from it, no components flying, just a silent console.

"What happened?" Maurizio asked from the
corner.

"I am not sure," William replied truthfully.
"I gather it is safe for some of you to come closer. Hilda, and
perhaps someone who knows how to operate this contraption."

Hilda came forward, the members of the High
Council remained where they were.

"So much for that," the wizard mumbled.

"Looks like you did not break the thing,"
Hilda said as she looked at the console. "Not that it could have
gotten any worse, mind you."

William took down the protective wall. "What
do you push to make this thing work?" he called out to the
assembled High Council.

"And what is it supposed to do?" Hilda
asked.

With the witch and the wizard so close to the
machine, Katinki and Gesmarion dared to come closer as well. "We
are not certain what this console does. Today is the first time we
got it to work," Katinki said. "But with what happened in the
corridor when I came to find you, I think we know what it
does."

Rebel, who had come up with Kerna, nodded.
"Did you set some switches or so before you activated it?"

"No. I think not..." Katinki's face conveyed
doubt as she looked at the slightly remodelled console. "I must say
that it is hard to tell, as it now looks differently."

The pink and yellow blob was firmly embedded
in the console, parts of it connected to the internals of the
equipment. It still blinked, even when the rest of the machine did
nothing. Or so Hilda hoped. "It is off now, right?"

Gesmarion nodded. "As long as that light
there is not burning, it's off."

Hilda grinned. "That's my kind of putting it.
I understand that. So why did you switch the thing on in the first
place?"

Gesmarion looked at Katinki, then back at the
witch. "We've not switched it on for so long, it felt like a good
thing to do it. And see what happens. Last time we did it is so
long ago that we did not remember if something happened."

"We only had it on very shortly then," one of
the other High Councillors recalled.

Hilda closed her eyes and then pointed them
at her wizard, who shared the feeling they sent out. Before either
of them could do something, Maurizio proved to be more of a captain
than they had thought he was.

"I suggest that everyone stays away from
these consoles and machines. If they are running now, leave them
running, unless someone has a valid reason to tinker with them or
switch them off. What's off stays off. At least that way we have a
stable situation. Capice?" With his arms folded over his chest and
the eye patch in place, he looked almost impressive.

Rebel stood next to him, looking very
confident. "You heard the man, people. Nobody touches anything
here, or they'll answer to us. Without you lot mucking about with
controls, at least the witch has a fair chance to figure out what
to do, so your friggin' prophecy comes true and we can go home
again."

Hilda was not one to stand with her lower jaw
sagging easily, but this situation almost warranted that. Almost.
In the silence that followed these strong words, the witch was glad
her wizard was with her as they waited for anything to happen.

Maurizio clapped his hands. "Good. So we
understand each other. While the witch and the wizard manage things
that deal with the prophecy, Rebel and I will check on things here.
Often, you hear? It might be best for all of you to just get out of
here so nothing can go wrong. But I understand that this would
upset all the folks around here, so we have to make the best of
it."

William also stared at the captain in the red
coat. Of all the things he might have thought of Maurizio, this was
not one of them. "Holy Bejeebus," he whispered. "Is this real?"

Hilda nodded. Before she could respond,
Maurizio winked at them. "It seems that we have things under
control, Hilda. Feel free to leave this space in our capable
hands."

"He shouldn't have said that," the witch
whispered. Still she thanked Maurizio and Rebel, warned the High
Council to listen to the captain and his lady, and then, together
with the cats, Kerna and William, she left the Palliza, while
Maurizio started distributing orders on how to clean up most of the
room.

After the door had closed behind them, Hilda
asked: "Did that really happen just now?"

Upon their return to the room, William had
some work to do. After they had disabled the strange
gravity-altering device, the furniture had come down to the floor
exactly where it had been floating. It looked as if everything had
been hovering in one spot.

The two cats stayed close to Hilda and Kerna
while the wizard arranged things back the way they had been before
everything had lifted off. After that he made coffee and threw in
some muffins, another novelty for their local assistant.

Hilda recovered the strange tablet they had
been playing with and looked at it. "So where is that blue thing we
got from the piece of wood?"

Kerna grinned. "I think you put it in your
pocket."

"Oh. Of course." The witch grabbed. And
grabbed again. "Did you happen to see which pocket? This robe has a
lot of them." Kerna had no idea, so Hilda frantically went through
all her pockets, and things things are supposed to go that way, she
found it in the last one she checked.