Hilda - Lycadea (7 page)

Rebel and Maurizio took some of the more
recognisable items so the magical couple followed their lead. "Now
come," Maurizio said again. "We will show you how you can obtain
your food." He led the two to the central column which on two sides
had small brass sliding doors, some strange panels, a few clusters
of buttons and a display in the wall. The display at each spot was
dark.

Rebel opened the small slide door and put her
plate in it. She pushed a green button that lit up for a moment,
then said something nobody understood.

Maurizio explained that Rebel used to order
dishes from her own time. "This thing listens to what you want to
eat and then makes it." By the time he had said that, the green
button that Rebel had pressed extinguished. She opened the sliding
door and took her plate. It was filled with something that looked
as ominous as it smelled.

"What went wrong?" Hilda asked as she scowled
at the stuff.

"Nothing," Rebel laughed, "this is good!"
Hilda was glad Rebel took the gruesome wobblies away. It did a lot
for the smell.

Maurizio popped his plate in the machine,
punched the button and rattled something Italian. William caught
'ravioli' in that spray of words and Hilda just shrugged. Out of
the machine came a plate of food that looked a lot more appetising
than what Rebel had carried off.

"Hey, that smells nice, can you tell it to
get me that too?" Hilda asked. Maurizio was glad to oblige, rattled
his Italian again and handed Hilda the plate.

She then opened the slide door and looked
inside. "There's magic here, William," she said. "There's nobody in
there."

"It is a food replicator," said Maurizio.
"It's automatic, not magic. You tell it what you want and it will
make it."

"So how does it know all that?" William
wondered.

The captain, who was already eating,
shrugged. "I don't know. But it works. Try, Mr. Wizard,
please."

"You can call me William," said the wizard.
He popped his plate in the machine. Button lit up green. "Beans,
mashed potatoes and a steak."

"And you can call me Moro," the captain
said.

William looked happily at his plate.

"William, don't drool. Come, let's go and
eat," said Hilda. Moro and William looked at each other as the
witch marched out of the kitchen. The wizard grinned.

Hilda found a place at the table where Rebel
sat. That was good. She got to sit opposite the woman, which was
less good as that offered her a premium view on the strange mess
that Rebel called food. Hilda wasn't even certain that everything
was dead. She missed her magic. That would have helped her ignore
the sight on the other end of the table. She saw William and
Maurizio walk into the large mess and look for seats. Hilda glanced
along the table which was fully occupied.

If William sits somewhere else, I am going to
sit there too, she told herself. She had no qualms about being
impolite: some things didn't change. But her magic was gone. She
missed the feeling, the familiar tingle. And she missed the contact
with her wizard.

Maurizio and William walked around one of the
tables, when Maurizio stopped dead in his tracks as if he heard
something. William was not prepared for such an abrupt end of their
walk, so he bumped into the captain, spilling the contents of his
plate partly over the man and partly over the floor. Magic
prevented food from getting on the wizard.

"Oh, drat," William muttered as he whisked
the mess away. Hilda watched it, nearly chewing her lip. Then, to
both their surprises, Maurizio tossed his plate to the side and ran
off.

"Not that again." Rebel didn't even get up,
she just disappeared.

"Not what again?" the witch wondered.

Xander, one of the sailors, shrugged. "We
never know either. We just wait until we nee-"

A sharp sound that all the makings of an
alarm, including its effect on the sailors, went off. The sailors
jumped up, chairs falling over and being ignored, and the lot
hurried out of the mess.

Hilda, still sitting, looked at William.
"What a mess."

"Do you think we should go outside also?"
William asked his witch, looking at the door through which the
sailors had left. He was feeling robbed of his food.

"I am sure they'll call us when we're
needed," said Hilda confidently. "Best that you go back and get
some more food. And hurry, will you, it's sort of stupid to sit at
this big table alone."

William grinned, drew his wand and cast a
small spell. The table split in two parts, a huge part and a small
part with Hilda at it and two lit candles on it. "I'll be right
back, sweetwitch."

When he came back, Hilda stared at the lump
on his plate. "Now what in the names of all witches I have known is
that?"

The wizard sat down with his plate. "A burger
from Sloppy Joe's."

Hilda's eyes seemed glued to the bits of
bread, the blob of charred meat between them and the goo that
seeped from it all. "And you are going to eat that?" If her face
had not made it absolutely clear that she was abhorred with the
prospect, the tone in her voice would have eradicated all traces of
doubt.

"Uhhuh!" said William, bringing the droopy
hamburger in position for the first bite.

Rebel appeared. "I think you are going to
love this," she said. When she disappeared, the witch and the
wizard disappeared with her. The hamburger fell down, missing the
plate. The result was one that Sloppy Joe would have been proud
of.

William stared at his empty hands. "Holy
Bejeebus, what-" Then he noticed the light.

The entire ship bathed in light. It was not
your average run of the mill light. It was bright without hurting
the eyes. It also was everywhere, no a spot was unlit. The light
gave every shadow a shock.

Hilda tapped the wizard's arm and pointed.
"Look." Hilda was not often so short on expressing herself, so this
had to be something extreme.

Next to the Mimosa hung a white pyramid, its
sides smooth and without any markings or visible openings. Black
sailing ships and smooth white pyramids are a strange mix, and
seeing such a chance encounter in space made it even stranger. The
top of the pyramid seemed to be made of gold. The golden top seemed
to reflect the ship-enveloping light from somewhere unseen. The
whole thing was incredibly large. William estimated that the
pyramid of Cheops would fit in there nicely. About fifteen
times.

"What is that, and who put it there?" Hilda
wanted to know.

"It's a pyramid, and apart from that it is
big I don't know," said Maurizio, who had joined the slightly
malfunctioning magical couple. "It is what made the ship sound its
alarms though. And with reason. We can't seem to break away from
it, so we thought that maybe you two...." He waved a hand. "With
your magic and so..."

Hilda went through a lot of pain to keep her
face straight. Nobody but William knew about her magic being gone,
and it should stay that way. She quickly glanced at her hand as
William took it and squeezed it gently. Before she could wonder
what he wanted, she saw how he raised a hand. Squeeze. Following a
feeling she also raised a hand, and a moment later there was a wand
in it. Not her wand, but there was something. William held his own
wand. Hilda understood that she just had to follow his lead, so he
could cover for her. It made her heart scream, but she felt good
about her wizard.

"I'll give it a go," William said. "Then you
try it."

Hilda nodded.

The wizard cast a bolt at the pyramid which
should put a magical wedge between it and the Mimosa, to drive them
apart. The bolt stopped halfway the pyramid and then simply
vanished. William and Hilda stared. That had never happened. Hilda
held the strange wand with both hands, made quite a fuss over
getting ready to throw something, and when she did throw, William
flashed a big lightning bolt from the tip of her wand. The
lightning bolt jumped to the pyramid unhindered, hit it and bounced
off it. The flash jumped away into space and was never seen again
by the crew of the Mimosa.

"That's not going to work," Hilda said,
scratching her nose. She walked over to the railing, put her hands
on it and seemed to think. "Hey, you over there!" she then shouted
out to the pyramid. "What's that you think you're doing? Do you
want us to come over and make you suck elves?"

William bit his tongue not to burst out
laughing. That was the witch he loved., with all her spunk.

Hilda turned her back to the humongous white
pyramid. "I think they're deaf," she said. "I shouted loud enough,
didn't I?" Then she noticed the astounded looks on the faces of the
people watching her. Even William - wait... were they watching her
or... She turned around and saw the reason of the surprised
expressions. A small bit of the giant pyramid had opened. It was a
triangular shape that now served as a platform. And on the platform
was a small object. It was white. In the shape of a pyramid.
"Crappedy crap," she muttered, "it's giving birth."

The little white pyramid lifted off from the
platform, which folded itself up, sealing the outside of the large
pyramid. The little thing moved towards the Mimosa. As it did, it
grew larger. To everyone's amazement, it kept growing larger, until
its width was more than half the length of the black ship. Then it
was almost so close that you could throw a stone at it and hit
it.

"Madonna," Maurizio managed. "Che è
grande."

Hilda had moved back to where William was
standing and together they stared at the massive 'triangular all
over' thing. Seeing it this large, so close up, made it clear that
the mother... pyramid was even larger than it seemed. Deep space
looks were deceiving.

Before anyone did something (not that anyone
had plans in that direction), a triangle folded itself down, like
the platform on the mother pyramid had done.

"Now what?" Hilda wondered. William had to
give it to her: she was not the squeamish kind.

Everyone aboard the Mimosa half expected that
another pyramid would come from the pyramid, as that one had come
from the mother pyramid, but two human shapes appeared on the
platform. It was slightly disappointing.

The two shapes seemed to debate about what
their next step would be. Then one of them went back into the
pyramid, that started to move closer not much later. The giant
pyramid crawled up to the Mimosa. Maurizio drew a sword from
somewhere and stepped up to the railing.

Hilda poked William in the ribs and waved her
fake wand. "Come, he can't do that alone," she said, so they joined
the redcoat captain. Rebel was right there with them.

The giant white thing inched its way up to
the black ship. Hilda and William had ample time to look at the
person who was standing on the folded-down platform. "Can you tell
what it is?" Hilda asked her wizard. He had no clue.

The creature seemed about their height. It
had a blue or purple cap on its head, looking a bit like an
old-fashioned knight's helmet but without the visor. Its face
looked normal, with two eyes, a nose and a mouth, and rather pale
skin. The creature was dressed in something silvery. It looked a
rough knitted sweater that hung down to its knees (if it had knees)
with a matted silver triangular breastplate. Silvery boots
completed the appearance. The clothing of the creature had no
special markings on them that the magical couple could make
out.

Maurizio watched the approaching vessel like
a hawk, holding his sword out over the railing. "Stop right there!"
he yelled. "This is my ship and you're not coming aboard!"

The pyramid came to a halt less than one foot
from the hull of the Mimosa. The blue-capped and silver-clad
creature leaned back into the pyramid for a moment, and then the
other one came out again. He - or she - carried something in a
hand. The two looked at the gathering of people on the black ship.
Then the creature who had reappeared from the pyramid said: "Hello.
We are glad you got here on time." Judging from the voice this was
a definite she.

This announcement created some confusion
among most of the people. Hilda just leaned on the railing and
asked: "What do you mean on time? We weren't even supposed to be
here." She poked the fake wand against the pyramid. It did not
budge.

The two creatures stared at Hilda. And at the
thing one of them held. And back at Hilda. "Oh, but you were!", the
she said as something close to blissful delight spread over her
face and that of her fellow-alien. "And you are the witch!"

That was too much even for Hilda. She stood
up straight and scowled. "And what's that to you? I don't know you,
I probably don't want to know you and I don't want to be here."

William was dumbstruck.

"Come on, guys," said Rebel, "give us a
break. We're stranded here and you say it's all a plan?"

The two aliens stepped from their platform,
onto the railing of the ship and gracefully floated onto the deck.
"It is not a plan. It is a prophecy," the so far silent one said
with a squeaky tenor voice. The purple on their heads was hair, not
a cap.

Maurizio by now had regained control over his
body again. He stepped between the witch and the aliens, raised his
sword and said: "You are trespassing." He grabbed in his pocket and
brought out the eye patch, which he quickly and one handedly put
over an eye. The captain had obviously done that more than
once.

The two silver-clad aliens looked at him,
without twitching so much as a facial muscle. "And you are?"

"I am the captain of this ship, the
Mimosa."

The two looked at each other for a moment.
"We are here for the witch," the female alien then said and ignored
the sword. "Not for a captain."

Maurizio looked dismayed and hurt in his
pride. Rebel stared at the new arrivals. William wasn't certain
what the best action was at this point.