Hilda - Lycadea (6 page)

"Madonna," he said, "you are here also." The
captain looked back and up. "Rebel, come down." Hilda and William
looked where Maurizio had directed his eyes. In the mast hung
Rebel. "She always does that when we jump," the captain offered as
an explanation.

Rebel let go of the mast and slowly floated
down to the deck. As she was approaching it, she said: "Looks like
we're in space again, Moro." It was undecided if this was good new
or not.

Hilda leaned towards not. "I don't really
care about that. Just get us home and then you can do all you want.
We have things to do." She pointed over her shoulder, roughly
towards the crystal. "Switch it on again, will you?" She felt hands
on her shoulder and quickly turned around. "Oh, it's you," she
said, relieved to see that it was William. "I'm... I'll tell you
later."

Maurizio was yelling all kinds of things
already as he paced along the deck. All along the railing on both
sides small lights had come on, and the large sails seemed to shine
also, in a very strange way. Rebel popped from one side of the ship
to the other as she was looking at all kinds of things.

Hilda turned to William. "I can't sense you,
William." She looked worried all of a sudden.

William wrapped his arms around her. "It must
be something with that crystal, sweetwitch. I can't sense you
either. Damn, it feels good to hold you."

"Feels good to be held," Hilda's muffled
voice came from inside his wide sleeves. It also felt good to her
that she was not the only one who seemed to have lost the link. She
basked a while in William's presence. Then she looked up. "Come,
let's go see where the cats are, and where we are now. It doesn't
look like they're working very hard to get us home."

Hilda freed herself from the embrace and
walked out onto the deck. William watched her go and wondered if
perhaps there was something going on with her that she wasn't
telling him. He missed the link; through that he would have known
without asking. There was something-

"Hey wizard, are you coming?" Hilda yelled
out, dragging him back to the reality of a black ship. She was
carrying two black cats and walked to a side of the ship. "Suck an
elf..."

William hurried over, took Obsi from her
hands and put an arm around her shoulders. Together they stared
into a giant open... space. Everywhere they saw lights, all around
the ship but also under it. They were definitely in space.
Somewhere. "Can you find the moon, Hilda?" the wizard asked.

The witch looked around. And again. "Uh. No.
Where is it?"

"Where is what?" Rebel had come over to them
after making her round of the ship.

"The moon. We tried to find the moon."

"Ah. I guess it is still near the Earth.
Problem is, from what I can see, is that we're not. Near the Earth,
I mean."

"So where are we?" William asked.

Rebel bit her lower lip for a moment. "I am
not sure. Not about where we are, nor when."

"When?" Hilda and William asked together.

"Yes. The ship is still trying to work that
out. When we jump, we usually don't just move to another place, but
often we also end up in another time."

"And the ship is working out where we are?"
Hilda started to worry very much now. This was just too much.

Rebel simply nodded. "No problem, it always
pans out. But let me I find you quarters to sleep while we're
here." She winked and disappeared.

Hilda shuddered. "I wish she wouldn't do
that."

One of the sailors who passed them by said:
"You'll get used to it over time."

"I hope I don't have time for that," Hilda
muttered, frantically patting Grimalkin.

Rebel popped into existence again, making the
witch and wizard jump. "Hey, it's okay, it's only me," she said. "I
found you a nice room. Come, I'll take you there." She reached for
Hilda's arm, but the witch slapped at the hand.

"Ease up, Rebel. We're not used to your
disappearing act, so go a bit slower!" Hilda did not feel at ease
at all, still feeling very weird.

Rebel raised both hands. "Sure, whatever you
want," she said. "I'll hold out my hands, and you both take one
when you're ready." She understood that this all was a bit too much
for the two new passengers on the Mimosa. William took one of her
hands. Then Hilda took the other. "Here we go, okay?" Rebel asked.
After both had nodded, they popped away from the deck.

"So, where are we now?" Hilda asked as there
suddenly was a room around them. Secretly she admired this moving
trick.

Rebel said: "I moved you to your cabin. It's
really easy to get to the deck again, just step out that door, turn
left and keep going until you see the door out. You'll recognise
it, there's a sign 'exit' over it." She then stared at Hilda. "You
can read, can't you?"

Hilda stood up to her full length. "I
certainly can read. I am a witch."

"Okay, no reason to get overly excited. We
run into all kinds of folk, and you'd be amazed how many can't
read. So I'm just making sure out of habit." Rebel then showed them
how the beds worked, what buttons to push and which ones they
should avoid at all times.

The cabin was almost entirely white, with
beds that came from the wall on the press of a button. The light in
the ceiling went on and off by simply telling it to do so. Hilda
had too much fun doing that, so William had to keep a hand over her
mouth as he had run into the wall a few times too many. There was a
display unit in the wall ("Sorry, no really usable movies in the
thing," Rebel apologised) and she showed them how to use the
communication system, which was merely a small glass-like circle in
the wall which lit up blue when touched.

"When it's blue, you just tell the ship who
you want to talk to and the ship will try to find that person. When
you hear the other side, just talk. Touch the thing again and the
connection is cut."

Hilda frowned at that. "Is that like a
crystal ball?"

William grinned as the comparison was
actually quite good. Rebel looked blankly at the witch, obviously
lacking knowledge about crystal balls. He sat down on one of the
white chairs at the white table, the only pieces of furniture that
did not disappear in the floor or the wall, and asked: "And how do
we go about getting some food here?"

"Oh, you don't eat here," Rebel said, "we
have a great mess-"

"Rebel, can you come and bring the others?"
Maurizio's voice interrupted her explanation. "We have something
that you all should see."

William as well as Hilda wondered where that
came from. Rebel said "Sure, right with you" to the air and
announced that she would grab Hilda and William again. The magicals
quickly picked up their cats and a thought later they were on the
deck again.

"How did you know where he is?" Hilda asked,
but Rebel did not seem to hear her. The witch looked at her wizard
as the strange woman walked off to Maurizio. "She said mess. Do you
think she was referring to this whole ship?"

The wizard did not respond to her question,
not even when she poked him in the ribs with an elbow. "Hilda...
very slowly turn your head and look over that side," he said,
pointing to where 'that side' was.

"Now why would I do that slowly?" Hilda
muttered. "Witches don't - suck an elf." She stared at a giant lump
of rock that hung far too close to the Mimosa for her taste. If the
Mimosa would get stuck against it, nobody would notice it, so big
was the lump. "What is that?"

"It's a piece of rock," one of the sailors
said.

"A damn big piece too," another one
added.

"And who is going to do something about it?"
Hilda asked as she walked up to the railing. "Who put that thing
there anyway?"

Maurizio said that the ship would deal with
the rock. "It is a small asteroid, by the way, Mrs. Witch."

Hilda stabbed a finger towards the looming
thing and said: "That is not small."

"It is, for an asteroid. And no one put it
there. They tend to fly through space," said William. "And if the
Mimosa deals with it, there is nothing to worry about," he
hoped.

"It had better make that thing fly somewhere
else." Hilda turned to William and looked at him. He caught
something in her eye that made him worry.

"There is something you have to tell me,
isn't there, Hilda?" he said as he touched her cheek.

"Yes, and I'm not going to do that here," she
said, folding her arms over her chest. "I want to go to our room.
Cabin. Whatever."

William nodded, popped up his wand and made
it lead them to their cabin. Two black cats followed, only a step
behind their magical humans.

They found their cabin without a problem.
Also without much help of William's wand; as soon as they had
entered the Mimosa's white inside, the two cats ran ahead and sat
down by the door.

"These two are amazing," Hilda said with
honest surprise. William agreed and watched how she touched the
yellow panel. The door opened and they entered the cabin.

Once inside, William changed the white chairs
and table into a purple couch like the one they had at home.
Clearly relieved Hilda dropped herself on it. "Finally something
normal," she said with a sigh, welcoming the black cat that jumped
in her lap.

William sat down also and looked at Hilda. "I
recall you were going to tell me something?" As he spoke the words,
an eerie feeling crawled from the couch up over his spine, and made
the hair in his neck feel all itchy.

"My magic's gone."

... "What?" William did not want to hear what
he just heard. "Your magic is... gone?"

The witch nodded without looking at him. "I
am no longer a witch," she said, her voice flat as a piece of
paper. "I can't do magic, throw no spells, can't fly the broom. I'm
nothing." As she spoke, she seemed to shrink.

William stared at the woman next to him. He
did not believe it. At the same time, it would be the explanation
for the fact that he suddenly had lost the link to Hilda. He did
not want to ask 'and now what', as that was the most obvious but
also most clumsy question in this situation. Instead he put an arm
around her shoulders and hugged her as far as Grimalkin allowed.
"We'll find a way to get your magic back." That sounded just as
stupid.

Hilda shrugged under William's arm. "How? I
never heard that magic came back."

"Did you ever hear of a witch who lost her
magic?"

The witch thought for a while. "Not this way.
Usually through a warlock or something similarly bad."

"We'll find a solution. Somehow." William
hoped he sounded confident, as he was not so sure, but he was going
to do all he could for his witch. "And nobody will know that you
lost your magic, as far as I am concerned. I will handle things for
both of us."

"And how will you do that without our link?
You won't be able to tell what I would do, William, and I miss the
link with you as much as I miss my magic."

"I am sure of that, sweetwitch. For now there
is little magic to do, here," William said.

There was a knock on the door. Or wall. Or
somewhere. "Rebel," Hilda said to William. "Come in, or whatever
you plan to do."

Rebel materialised in the cabin and stared at
the purple couch. "Whoa. That's... retro."

"No, it's a couch," Hilda said. "What's
up?"

Rebel kept staring at the couch. "The ship
decided to move away from the rock and I wanted to let you know
that we're going to eat so maybe you want to join us."

The witch and the wizard exchanged looks.
"Yes. Food would be a good idea," Hilda said.

"It's so cool," said Rebel, "the way you can
talk to each other without talking. Really froopy. Want me to pop
us over to the mess?"

"Sure." Hilda shoved Grim on her shoulder and
got up. William got up too, Obsi on his arm. Rebel held out an arm,
they took it, and a moment later they were in a large hall. It was
not a room, it was a hall. All the crew of the Mimosa was there,
Maurizio was there, and even with the three of them added the hall
was barely in use. There were several dozen of very long tables,
all laid with white tablecloths and what looked like silver
cutlery. On either side of the immense lengths of table were
chairs.

"This place can harbour too many people,"
William stated as he looked over the overgrown seating
arrangements.

"We suspect it fits three thousand," Maurizio
said, who had joined them. "So far we have not managed to tell the
Mimosa that fifty is more than enough. Come, follow me, I will show
you the - ehm - kitchen."

They walked over thick red carpet towards a
brown door that seemed to open and close by itself as soon as
someone got near it. The two cats went on their private expedition,
while Hilda and William followed Maurizio and Rebel into what they
called the kitchen.

A room, more a small hall welcomed them.
Everything inside it was so clean it would be the envy of a
hospital. And the hall was large.

"Is it me or does this look larger on the
inside than from the outside?" Hilda asked William as they tried to
understand the concept.

"You're right and my mind is revolting
against it," William agreed.

The disabled witch nodded. "Good. Then it's
not just me."

Maurizio offered Hilda his arm. She wrapped
her arm around William. The captain smiled and nodded. "Perdonne,"
he said, "I would like to show you around. And please try to ignore
the size of our kitchen, it will play tricks on your sanity."

"And it got to him," one of the sailors said
as he passed them with two plates of food in his hands.

Hilda looked at the food and wiggled her
nose. "Looks like you get to do some home cooking, William, I don't
think I like what's served."

Maurizio laughed out loud. "Please come, my
friends," he said as he led the way, Rebel in his wake. To their
left there was a large column, dark wood at the bottom and painted
white from roughly four feet up to the ceiling which was white
also. To their right there were large cupboards with plates, cups,
forks, spoons and more things that would serve well for a meal.What
the cupboards were made of remained a mystery in white and light
blue. Hilda and William stared at some cupboards that held things
that they had never seen before, and they also could not even guess
at what these things would be used for.