Hilda - Lycadea (4 page)

"Stop! Here and now!" Hilda was not in a mood
to listen to bickering of that sort. "We'll take you with us and
nobody will do scary things or they will meet the wrath of the
witch. That's me."

William had already summoned the brooms; they
hovered next to him. The cats had already jumped on their front
seats. Maurizio and Rebel stared at the brooms.

"And how are you going to take us with you?"
the redcoat captain asked as he pushed against one of the brooms
with a finger. It did not move to the side.

Hilda hopped on her broom. "Rebel sits in
front of me. You sit in front of William. Simple enough,
right?"

Rebel walked to the broom with the witch.
Hilda told her how to sit on it. The woman was very surprised to
find that sitting on a broom felt totally different from what she
had expected. William got on his broom and spent a while reassuring
Maurizio that it was perfectly safe. "Better than what you told us
about your ship, Maurizio, at least we know where we end up when we
fly our brooms."

The captain took a deep breath, as if that
would make a difference, and carefully sat on the broom. "Oh..." he
said, surprised.

The crew had assembled again, as by a secret
and invisible signal. "Hey Moro, will you two be back for dinner?"
the man he had called Xander asked. The captain looked
questioningly at the witch.

"We'll drop them off in time," she said.
"Just make sure you don't start cooking too early." She sent a
signal to William through their link. "Hang on folks," she then
said to their passengers, and the two brooms took off, into the
clear blue sky.

"Are you really sure this is safe?" Maurizio
asked as the brooms picked up speed.

"We got to your ship on them, without a
problem," William said, "I am sure this is safe."

"Oh." Maurizio did not sound convinced.

Rebel instead seemed to enjoy the experience.
So much even that Hilda had to drag her back; at times the woman in
leather and copper was leaning over so far that she would fall at
the slightest tremble of the broom.

As they flew over the forests that surrounded
the castle, Rebel screamed for joy when she saw their goal. She
waved at Maurizio and pointed. The captain was not certain if he
should watch. His trust in the broom was below level, so he just
nodded and kept holding on to the broomstick. He had already learnt
(and bore the red scratch to prove it) that he should not grab it
too close to the black cat that lay there as if it was the most
normal spot in the world. Which in this world it was.

"Do they know we're coming?" Maurizio
asked.

"Soon enough," said William. It was not the
answer the redcoat captain had expected but it proved true enough.
Once the brooms with their passengers slowly crossed the moat and
the castle walls, several servants started running. "See? Now they
know."

"Now, when we land I do not want you to jump
from the brooms," Hilda warned them. "Step off when we tell you
it's time to do that. We have plenty of time."

The brooms reached the ground. Obsi and Grim
elegantly hopped from their sleeping places and then the passengers
were offloaded. A servant already came running, informing them that
the king and queen were looking forward to see them.

"Very good. You keep an eye on our brooms,
please, and we'll be off to the majesties." Hilda gave the man her
broom. William supplied him with another one. Rebel and Maurizio
supplied the magicals with quizzical looks as Hilda asked him where
they could find the king. Then the two people from the Mimosa were
escorted into the castle.

Hilda and William knew their way around the
place, so soon they had found the large spacious balcony at the
back of the castle, where the king and queen were sitting, enjoying
tea and cake. Chocolate cake.

"Ohhh!" said Hilda as she spied it.

"Ah, there they are," said King Walt, "and
they brought them along already. How thoughtful"

"How do you know it's them?" Queen Velda
asked. "Perhaps they met some others and brought them along,
instead of them."

"Oh, it's them al right," Hilda pitched
in.

"No, you stay," said William as Maurizio and
Rebel slowly tried to back out of the balcony, to the safety of the
room they had come in through. "You wanted to see them, and there
they are."

"So, who are they?" asked the king from his
lounge bed, picking up a gilded bowl of grapes. The queen was on
her own chaise longue, a low table with a tray of truffles next to
it.

Hilda waved the Mimosians to come closer.
"These are captain Doctor Maurizio Blunt and Donna Rebel Abrahams.
Maurizio and Rebel, these are King Walt and Queen Velma."

"Doctor who?" The king sat up and wiped his
fingers on a silk napkin that hung from a pocket in his carmine
cloak. Obsidian Shadow jumped on the royal couch and sniffed the
grapes. With an insulted sound he jumped down again.

"No, not him," Maurizio said with a smile,
making Hilda frown. "Blunt. Doctor Maurizio Blunt. It is a great
pleasure to meet you, your majesty." He bowed to the king. Then he
turned to the queen, who held out a hand to him. Maurizio took the
hand, pushed the eye patch up and studied the gems in her rings
with care. "Sono onorato, signora queen. I am honoured," he them
said, kissing the queen's fingers.

"Are all your rings still there?" Rebel asked
as the captain had stepped back.

Quickly Queen Velda checked her hand. "Yes,
they are. I think. Care for a truffle?"

As the queen kept counting her rings, the
king offered the guests seats, tea and cake. Rebel was asked to sit
next to the king, a rare enough thing to happen. William grinned as
he sensed Hilda's feeling about that.

"We heard that your ship has arrived in Green
Lake," King Walt said, "and we were curious to find out where you
are from. And of course what it is you have brought."

William wasn't sure what was happening; the
king talked to these people as if he knew them since long. Hilda
was not much help, she had taken command of the chocolate cake and
her whole attention seemed focussed on that.

Maurizio seemed well prepared for this
though, he had probably handled these questions before. "Oh, you
know how that goes," he said in an amiable voice, "we were happily
sailing along when we happened to come across your country. And
since everything looked so nice here, and the people were all so
friendly-" he nodded at the two magicals "-we decided to stay here
for a while. And so far, I have to say, they have been very helpful
and informative also. They even brought us here on their...
brooms." It was clear that he still was coming to grips with that
concept.

King Walt went for the praise. "Oh, yes, the
honourable witch and wizard are very highly regarded here. They are
very valuable to our little kingdom." The he asked about Rebel, who
very quickly was introduced as Maurizio's cousin.

William looked at Hilda, who offered him a
piece of the cake. She winked. He accepted the cake and another cup
of tea. While they took care of the edible part of the visit,
Maurizio and Rebel avoided every question to their background with
skill, and soon King Walt and Queen Velda had the feeling they were
fully up to date on the ship and its crew.

"It was really delightful talking to you,"
said the queen as the four got up and said their goodbyes. "Do come
by again when your ship is in the lake again."

"Prego, signora queen," Maurizio smiled with
an elegant bow, his eye patch in place again. "It was our honour to
be visiting with you."

Rebel bent down and kissed the king on a
cheek. "Thank you, king, it was great talking to you. And I love
your tea."

"Oh, how sweet," said King Walt, "let me
arrange that you take some tea home with you."

"Oh," Rebel startled (she was not fond of tea
at all), "that won't be-"

"Tut-tut," said the queen, "you will take
some tea. He is the king, after all."

"Yes, Mrs. Queen," Rebel said. "And thank you
too for a really nice time here."

Queen Velma produced a caring smile and then
located another truffle in her tray.

With a large bag of tea under Rebel's arm,
the small group returned to the yard of the castle again. The
servant, who was still holding the by now squirming brooms, visibly
relaxed as their magical owners relieved him.

With brooms hovering, Hilda invited Rebel to
hop on, but the woman, whose metal clothing parts glistened in the
sun, shook her head. "Thanks, but no need for that. I know where
the ship is."

"You do? And you're going to walk there? Did
the broom flight scare you so much?"

Rebel grinned. "No, the flight was fabulous,
really. But I can get Maurizio and me back to the ship faster than
flying with you. And you and William too, if you want."

"I'll stick to the broom, thank you very
much. But I want to see how you do that," said Hilda as she mounted
her broom.

"Sure," said Rebel. "Moro, ready?"

"Almost. Do you want to join us for dinner
aboard the Mimosa, Mr. and Mrs. Witch?" the captain asked as he
buttoned up his coat.

The two people missed the rapid conversation
through the link that Hilda and William shared. "Yes, that would be
nice. Thank you for the invitation," William said. He got on his
broom also.

"Okies, people, see you in a while then,"
Rebel said as she took Maurizio's hand. "Bye!" And then they were
gone.

"Suck an elf!" Hilda stared at the empty
spot. All eyes that had been on the two people witnessed the same
emptiness. "Where did they go?" She shot up on her broom to scan
the area, but there was no sign of Rebel or Maurizio.

William joined her in the air. "I don't think
we will find them here, sweetwitch. I have the impression that
Rebel has some kind of telekinetic ability from her future. Let's
go to that ship and have a look."

Hilda muttered something about unintelligible
talking and then they set course for the Green Lake and the
Mimosa.

-=-=-

They landed on the ship. On deck the crew
were busy setting up a large table with chairs, under the
all-seeing eye of Maurizio. Rebel was nowhere to be seen.

"Ah, there you are," the captain smiled. He
had his eye patch on his forehead again. The spot over his eye
where it had been was still red. "Rebel will be joining us soon,
she's getting dressed for dinner. Which reminds me that I should do
something similar. If you will excuse me, please, my men will see
to it that you are made comfortable." He bowed and then hurried
off, disappearing through one of the doors in the stern.

The man they knew as Xander walked up to
them. "Mr. and Mrs. Witch, would you please follow me?"

Hilda and William stared at the man. As all
the others, he was not in the striped sailor shirt and plain dark
pants, but he wore something that came quite close to a tuxedo. It
just looked a lot more comfortable. They followed Xander to an area
on deck.

"William. Pinch me. Am I drea- ouch, not so
hard!" She slapped.

Six things hovered around an also hovering
table that had glasses on it. The things looked like hollow pears
that were cut open from top to bottom. Pears that looked like
chairs. With cushions. In the glasses on the hovering table they
saw black, purple and yellow liquids.

"Have a seat," Xander invited them, "and do
have a glass before dinner. The yellow is wine, the purple is
liqueur and the black is fruit juice."

"What kind of witch is Rebel?" Hilda demanded
to know as she poked one of the floating chairs.

"She's not witch, madam."

"Then what makes these things fly?" the witch
wanted to know.

"I am not sure," said Xander. "We picked
these chairs up somewhere in the future and they appear to function
on an internal anti-gravity field that does not affect anything but
the chair itself."

"All that newfangled crap no one understands,
and then they worry if a broom is safe," Hilda muttered.

William already sat in one of the chairs, and
he looked quite happy with it. He had picked up a glass of the
yellow wine.

Hilda stared at him after sitting down. "I
want something purple," she said, pointing at the glasses. "But not
that."

Xander was not able to help.

William suppressed a grin. He took a glass of
black fruit juice, cast a small spell and handed the glass over to
his witch. It now contained purple fruit juice.

Xander disappeared quietly, only to come back
a few minutes later. "Would you please follow me to the table? Moro
and Rebel are on their way also."

Maurizio and Rebel were already standing near
the candlelit table, a drink in their hands. Rebel wore a
skin-tight yellow dress that left a lot of shoulder uncovered. One
false move, or so it looked, and she would treat everyone to a
breastigious view. Maurizio looked amazing in his white suit, black
shirt and silk white tie. His eye patch had gone and his wooden leg
did not show. Polly the parrot did look a bit odd in this
situation, though.

The whole group, also the sailors, sat down
for dinner. There were plates and trays with all kinds of food.
Some was even recognisable as such. Hilda and William kept an eye
on what Maurizio would eat. He seemed most like them, so what he
took should be safe. The conversation was light, the food good and
the wine (and fruit juice) were excellent. Hilda did not dare to
try the wine, not even watered down.

"Maurizio, do you mind telling me something?"
Hilda asked.

"It would be my pleasure, Mrs. Witch," the
captain said. "And please call me Moro. We are sharing food, this
makes us friends."

"Sure. You can call me Hilda then. What's
this strange thing you mean when someone asks 'doctor who' and you
say 'no, not him'?"