Hilda - Lycadea (27 page)

"Crappedy crap, what's that?!"

Kerna looked up and saw the huge triangle
come down towards them. Without a word the witches split up and
dropped away from the path of the huge animal. In a wide circle,
Hilda flew around it and joined Kerna.

"I never saw that beast before," the local
witch said. "I never even heard of something like that."

"I see. That limits our options to do
something about it. Maybe it is trying to be friendly in its own
way." Hilda whipped up her wand. "This feels so good."

The large animal had great speed but little
agility, so the two witches had plenty of time to fly around it and
stay out of its reach. Patience wasn't one of its virtues, it
seemed. After a few more serious attempts to capture at least one
of the witches, it opened a small beak, let out a shrill
disappointed shriek and heavily winged its way out of there.

Hilda watched it go, and then looked at her
wand. "Oh well," she said as she made it disappear. "Better luck
next time."

The witches returned to the cave and were in
dire need of something calming. William supplied that, as the two
told what they had seen.

"Such a strange beast, William, good thing it
was a lot slower than a Nobbleback. There's so much we don't know
about this place," Hilda said.

Kerna, her glass in hand, nodded. "For
example we still don't know what we are supposed to do about the
prophecy."

Everyone pondered that problem for a
while.

"Do you still have that tablet book thing
somewhere?" Maurizio asked then.

William made the tablet appear from one of
his pockets. "We do. Why?"

"Perhaps, now Kerna's a witch as well, it may
be able to tell us some more," Maurizio said. There was more hope
than certainty in his voice.

"Any guess is as good as the next one,"
William shrugged, putting the tablet on the table after switching
it on.

Kerna pulled the tablet-book towards her and
looked at it. She fumbled a bit with the buttons and the images on
the screen changed a few times, but nothing seemed to make much
sense to her.

Dwey, the stapu, crawled from Kerna's lap
onto the table and quickly licked all over the display.

"Dwey, don't!" Kerna lifted the animal from
the table. "Oh, no, look what happened!"

The tablet had switched itself off. Kerna
pushed the buttons, but the tablet was off and remained off.

"Your beast broke it," Hilda nodded as she
said it. "Silly books like that and stapu drool were not made for
each other, apparently."

Kerna picked up the tablet and shook it.
"Dead. Technology is not helping us anymore," she said as she put
it back.

"True. But sitting here and doing nothing is
not going to help us any further either," Hilda commented.

Silence made a serious attempt to seize
control of the situation.

The two witches looked at each other. Then a
mutual grin broke free on their faces.

"Should we start to worry now?" Maurizio
carefully asked, preparing to get up.

William set a grin free as well, as he picked
up from Hilda what she and Kerna were thinking of. "That's it!"

"What's what?" Rebel and Maurizio demanded to
know.

"That!" the wizard said, pointing at the
broken tablet. "Well, sort of," he added, confusing the two people
even more.

"Don't you see?" Hilda asked. "It's what's
been happening here all the time! In Pyramid City the people have
been relying on technology that is breaking down around them. It is
not helping them anymore, yet they have no other option at hand.
Without it they're lost."

"And the people in the village below aren't
making any progress in their life. They just sit there and wait for
the witch to come," Kerna added.

"Yes, right, but these villagers down there
built that impressive set of stones to guide us here," Rebel
argued, "that's something impressive."

"They did not build it," William pitched in.
"Their forefathers did. These folks there don't have a clue. You
saw how they were pushing their carts by hand, right? That's not a
particular sign of progress."

The captain and his reluctant lover now
nodded. "Right... so what we have to achieve is..."

"...to make the technology addicts kick their
habit..."

"...and make the witch-waiters move!"

"Yup. Because the witch is in," Hilda
concluded. "And the witch thinks that it is time for these folks to
make this planet a nice one again, with trees everywhere instead of
the grey stuff."

"She does?" Kerna asked.

"Yes, she does."

"Oh. It does sound good. So how do we start
with that?" Kerna was curious.

"I thought that was where you would take over
the witchy train of thoughts," Hilda frowned.

"And I thought this was a good start," Kerna
retaliated. She grinned.

Hilda grinned also.

The others relaxed.

"So what do you think?" Hilda promptly
slammed down the relaxation. "Any bright ideas?"

"I think that the first thing to do is inform
this world that Hilda is not the witch. That it's Kerna." Rebel
looked around, hoping for the others to agree.

"Not good thinking," William said. "As long
as they all think that we're still looking, we have the advantage
to make better plans."

"We are still looking, wizard," Hilda
reminded him.

"Trivial circumstance," the wizard said. "I
suggest we split up teams. One goes to the village nearby and ask
them what they plan to do now the witch has been found. And the
others go to Pyramid City, tell them the witch has been found, and
ask the same thing."

Hilda's eyes sparkled. "And then we come
back, bringing the respective leaders, and put them in a cage to
fight it out, right?"

Kerna's eyes became large. Rebel snorted with
laughter, while Maurizio frowned.

"Creative, we'll save that for when we can't
work things out a simpler way," William said.

Hilda scowled. "That option is pretty simple,
wizard."

"That is not how we do this here!" Kerna
objected then. "In case of a dispute like this, an independent
referee should locate neutral ground where the two sides can meet.
There both sides declare their willingness to be truthful and state
their point of view."

"And then?"

"I don't know. It never got to that, but such
is the rule here."

"We should instate a new rule here then,"
said Hilda. "That rule says that the witch is right."

Kerna stared at Hilda. "That is quite
presumptuous, Hilda."

"No. It's the witch's attitude," William
explained. "It's hard to explain, but most of the time it
works."

"What do you mean 'most of the time'?" Hilda
demanded to know, although she secretly grinned about his
words.

William just looked at her, with a visible
grin. "You are the one that needs to ask. Now really."

They then decided on the two team approach.
Kerna, Rebel and William would visit the village, Hilda and
Maurizio would face the people in the pyramids. Hilda and William
would keep in touch through their link. It was a good way to alert
each other in case of an emergency.

-=-=-

The next morning William and Hilda crafted a
few more brooms so everyone could be comfortable. Rebel would fly
with William, as the village was not far away.

"Seeing someone fly without a broom might be
unnerving to them," Rebel said.

Maurizio would fly with Hilda. Grim would
have to accept that.

Kerna was pleased to see that Dwey felt as
comfortable on her broom as the two cats of the other magicals
were.

"Take care, wizard," Hilda said as she
hovered on her broom.

"You too, witch," the wizard replied. He
watched Hilda fly off, Maurizio sitting behind her. "Come, we have
things to do," he then said, and made his broom lift off.

Kerna followed the wizard and Rebel closely,
enjoying the freedom of the flight.

They reached the village and touched down on
the market square. Their appearance stirred up quite a
commotion.

The first person that stopped to look at
them, a young man, was told that the three were looking for Tarkan.
"And if there are other influential people here, it would be nice
if they can join us as well."

The young man recognised the man in the dark
clothes and his companions. "I will go and tell Tarkan that you are
here. He may not feel too friendly towards you, after you left him
hanging in the air for so long."

"It's a chance we'll take," William said with
a wink to Kerna and Rebel.

-=-=-

During that, Hilda and Maurizio sped through
Lycadean airspace at a tremendous speed.

"Hilda, are you sure this speed is safe?"
Maurizio asked.

"Sure. Safest way to travel of all options,"
the witch said. "Besides, I don't want to spend days getting there.
This way we're making good time. William's already in the
village."

"Do you know why he did not go to the Pyramid
folks?" the captain wanted to know.

"I can be more convincing when needed," Hilda
grinned.

-=-=-

In the village, William, Rebel and Kerna made
themselves comfortable on a few chairs they made appear, much to
the interest and some consternation of the villagers passing by or
standing to see what was going on.

It took quite a while before the
self-appointed messenger returned, with the words: "Tarkan says
that you can, uhm, well, I think he means that he does not want to
see you."

William could imagine a few varieties on the
words of Tarkan, and none of them would be either healthy, promote
longevity or get them any way to talk to the man.

"We'll give it some time," he said, making a
table appear, with tea and coffee for the taking. "Hilda's not
there yet, so we don't need to hurry."

A few of the bystanders tried to come closer
without being obvious about it. That attempt failed miserably,
because Kerna and William noticed them promptly.

"Come and sit if you want," William said,
popping up some more seats. "Coffee? Tea?"

Having passed the point of no return, the
three people sat down with the wizard and his friends. They
introduced themselves as Dosur, Wikelle and Josna. Soon they were
engaged in a friendly chat with William and the ladies. Then Sodor
and Kyru, the villagers who had found the travelling group, showed
up and joined in.

Kerna had the honour to explain what they had
thought of. The five sitting with them agreed that this sounded
like a viable and good plan.

"That way both ends can do their saying,"
Dosur nodded, stroking his beard.

"Indeed, and problems can be heard early and
dealt with." Kyru seemed pleased with this all as well.

William just nodded. This was a good
attitude.

Pyramid City came into view. It was obvious
that nobody expected Hilda and her friends back, because there was
no welcoming committee. The area around the pyramids was calm. Too
calm almost. Some of the buildings looked more run down than
before. Sheets of material lay on the ground, parts of the internal
structure were exposed to the outside world in a way they were not
supposed to be.

"Things do not look good here," Maurizio
commented as Hilda swooped over the conglomerate of structures.

"You got that right. Let's see where we can
go inside."

They found the pyramid that they had lived in
for a while, before their great escape. The door they had used to
go in and out with Kerna, when things still looked amiable, was
easy to spot.

"I am curious how soon we will be asked what
we want," said Hilda as she landed the broom. She popped up her
wand, cast some magic, and the door opened. The two stepped inside
and waited.

They waited a bit longer.

"We've been waiting for quite a while now,
haven't we?" Maurizio remarked as his feet started to feel
uncomfortable. Nobody had shown up yet, which was amazing since the
last time there had been warning systems everywhere, and soldiers
in abundance.

Hilda nodded. "Come, if they don't want to
find us, we'll have to find them."

The journey through the pyramid proved much
more complicated without Kerna to guide them, but they found a
group of blue-haired people in silver clothing eventually.

"Hey you, where's Davdruw?" Hilda asked them
in her typical diplomatic way.

The people recognised the witch. "He is in
his chambers, honoured witch."

"Good. I need a volunteer to take me there.
You really should do something about this place, a person gets lost
here!"

None of the people made a voluntary move, so
Hilda appointed one of them. The man in question did not look very
happy but obliged.

"What's happened here?" Hilda asked him.

"There were some… problems," the man
reluctantly decided to share with them.

"Problems," Maurizio repeated. "That sounds
as if you put it mildly."

The appointed volunteer shrouded himself in
silence, which spoke volumes.

They reached the corridor where Hilda had
been before. The first time, she recalled, it had been in a
floating chair, while she had been helpless, without magic. The
memory made her shiver.

"Can I go now?" the guide asked. As the witch
did not reply immediately he took that silence as his leave and
disappeared into one of the many corridors.

Hilda looked at the large white door for a
moment. "Let's pay this man a visit."

The wand did its work and the door opened.
Obviously Davdruw did not want visitors; the door complained loudly
as it was forced through its locking mechanism. It was not
witch-proof.

Hilda walked into the large colourful room,
the captain on her heels. "Davdruw! I'm back!" She made it sound as
if he should be happy about that.