Hilda - Lycadea (8 page)

"Hold it," said Hilda. "We're guests of the
captain, he's been good for us apart from taking us away from our
world, so no putting him down, do you hear me?"

Maurizio looked relieved. "Thank you, Mrs.
Witch."

Rebel snorted.

"We do not want to put someone down," said
the male alien, "we just came to collect you. The others can go
where they want."

"You what?" Hilda could not believe her ears.
She was not the only surprised person on the Mimosa. "Collect me?
What for? I'm not sure that I want to go." She waved the fake wand
in front of the two aliens, who watched the stick and looked at
each other.

William put an arm around the witch and said:
"I'm not going to let you take her anywhere. Hilda is a free witch
who goes where she wants."

The male alien looked at the wizard. "Who are
you?"

"I am William the Wizard, and Hilda's
official partner."

The two aliens looked at each other again,
this time with some worry and confusion. "We are here only for the
witch, William the Wizard. You are free to go where you want."

William showed them his wand. "Let's first
establish some clarity here. You come here without any proper
introduction and you claim that you will take the witch with you,
for whatever reason. Who are you people, and why do you think you
can take Hilda with you?"

"You are not a person to question us," said
the female alien.

William mumbled a spell, and the two aliens
fell to the deck, so totally covered in ropes that moving was
impossible for them. "Want to reconsider that statement?"

The two floored ones looked surprised. "There
was never a mention of this!" the man exclaimed as he squirmed to
free himself.

"A mention of what?" Hilda asked as she got
closer to the two.

"Of him!" The male alien made it sound like
an accusation towards William.

"Keep talking, you have a grateful audience,"
Hilda said as she pretended to tap the man on his purple hair with
her fake wand.

"Geena so pjatti pjatti koo koo roh gah poko
liktokoh", said the female alien. Something under her ropes lit up,
probably her silvery clothes, and the ropes seemed to melt away
from her. The ropes around her companion also fell away. The two
got up swiftly and faster than the eye could follow. The man
touched something on his suit after which a blinding flash of white
light enveloped him and the woman.

"Crappedy crap" was the only thing heard as
everyone's eyes tried to overcome this vicious attack.

By the time the people aboard the Mimosa
could see again, the two aliens had disappeared. The large pyramid
was moving towards the very large pyramid.

"Where's Hilda?" William asked.

-=-=-

Hilda had reacted as fast as she could as the
white light hit her. Without magic, however, she had to resort to
the usual method of closing eyes and using hands. She had sensed a
pull, without being touched, and when she opened her eyes again she
found herself in a large room with many chairs, large windows that
resembled the televisions she had seen in William's world and the
two silvery aliens who sat in chairs near funny tables with lights.
The witch sat in a chair too, one she could not get out of.

"Suck an elf," she muttered. "Hey you two,
what do you think you're doing?"

"We are taking you to where you belong," the
female said without looking up. "If there is something we can do to
make your stay more comfortable, tell us. We are here to serve
you."

"Now that's new," Hilda commented. "How then
about taking me back to the ship where William is, and my cat? And
my broom?" Her words seemed to go unnoticed by the aliens. "Where
are you taking me? Who are you guys? Want me to destroy this -
whatever we are in?"

The two nodded at each other and remained
silent.

"Hey, troll's balls, I'm talking to you!"
Hilda felt quite unsettled by now.

"We will be at the mother ship soon, all will
be explained," said the man.

"Crappedy crap, can't you even tell me your
names?"

"I am Golgofro," the man said, "and she is
Galgoran."

"Now that didn't hurt, did it?" Hilda said as
she wondered how the chair could hold her down without any visible
straps. The two did not radiate any magic of- oh, she wouldn't be
able to sense that. She slumped back in the chair and felt
miserable in a way she had not felt miserable in a long time.

Golgofro and Galgoran seemed very busy moving
their hands over the blinking lights in front of them. Hilda did
not perceive anything like motion or sound. The large room was
actually eerily silent and remained like that until the two got up.
"We have arrived."

Hilda found that she could move again. She
remained seated, even when Galgoran asked her to follow them. "I'm
not going anywhere. You took me away like I am a thing, you're not
telling me anything except that you are here for me and now you
want me to come with you to some place I don't know? Forget it."
She held on to the seat.

The two exchanged gazes again, and Golgofro
touched something on his left sleeve. Without so much as a sound,
Hilda's chair floated upward and obediently followed the two aliens
as they walked out of the large room.

-=-=-

Aboard the Mimosa, moderate versions of chaos
and disorder were unfolding after the remaining people found the
witch gone. William was about to grab a broom and go after the
floating pyramid, but Rebel convinced him that the Mimosa was a
much better alternative to a broom.

"We'll go after her," she promised as she
held his sleeve, as if that would actually prevent him from
leaving. He did his best to believe her, though, and that was
enough.

"The little big pyramid went into the large
big pyramid," one of the sailors remarked.

"Hurry," was all that William said to Rebel
as he had seen it happen as well. "Or I'm on the broom." Rebel
argued that there was no air in space, but William told her again
to hurry. "We pack our own air."

Maurizio and Rebel quickly walked off to the
front of the ship. William followed them. They ended up near the
wooden housing on which the large crystal was standing. Maurizio
took a large iron key and used that to open the two doors in the
housing. William saw brass pipes and something that looked like a
copper vacuum chamber. Arrays of lights were blinking everywhere,
without making sense to the wizard. He had once been a book
salesman, never a technician.

Rebel dropped to her knees and crawled
halfway into the housing. "Damn, that's turned tightly," she
muttered as she used both hands on a shiny red valve. "Stand back
everyone," she warned. Calling on some of her strange powers, she
managed to wrench the valve open and pressure regulators started
hissing.

"Holy Bejeebus!" William jumped back as from
four places in the housing clouds of steam erupted, without
warning. "Are you telling me this bleeding ship runs on steam?"

"I am not telling anything," Maurizio said.
"I want to make this ship go so we can bring back Mrs. Witch,
signore."

"Looks like we're ready, Moro," Rebel
reported, still halfway inside the 'engine room'. The captain
turned to the deck where a few of the sailors were still standing.
He yelled out a number of commands that meant nothing to William,
but the men started running and soon were out of view.

The wizard looked at the pyramid. "I think
they are moving. Hurry."

"We're working on it," said Maurizio as he
gazed at the steam unit. Was there doubt in his voice? William was
not sure.

The unit then gave the captain every reason
to sound doubtful: pressure fell away, it seemed. All regulators
went silent, and the lights in the housing blinked frantically.
Rebel, who was still in her uncomfortable position, closed the
valve, reset all kinds of switches and buttons. It did not just
look as if she was going at them using the system called 'pot
luck'.

"I don't think they are moving," the wizard
reported. "I'm certain they are." He knew that adding the 'hurry'
word would not get them moving any faster. "Do you need some
help?"

"Do you know something about this
contraption?" Maurizio sounded partly wondering and partly hopeful.
From inside the housing a loud curse followed a dull thud.
Obviously Rebel had not seen something hard.

"I only know that I want this thing to move,
and fast," said William as he saw the pyramid pick up speed and
move away faster and faster. He popped up his wand and pointed it
at the mass of copper, brass and lights. "What is it supposed to
do?"

"Work," was the compact answer.

William waited for the red flashes to leave
his eyes. "And how does it work?"

"We don't know. We just wiggle the buttons
and open the valve and then it goes. Usually."

"Usually..."

"Yes," said Rebel who had decided that one
bump on the head was enough. "Usually it does. Maybe it's in a bad
mood right now."

The wizard chose not to respond to that.
"Stand back." The sound of his voice did not give any opening for
bargaining, the two stepped back.William pointed his wand at the
machinery. "Don't you dare blow up on me," he told the vacuum
chamber. Then he unleashed magic.

"It didn't work," Maurizio tried carefully as
some time had crawled by.

"It didn't blow up, at least that worked,"
Rebel pointed out.

William kicked the vacuum chamber, kneeled
down and slammed some magic over the valve that quickly rotated
open, allowing steam from somewhere deep inside the Mimosa to fill
the brass pipes. One by lazy one the lights stabilised into a
satisfying green that would be the envy of any self-respecting
lawn.

A shudder ran through the black wood of the
Mimosa. Rebel zapped away. William got to his feet and wanted to
ask where the woman had disappeared to, when Maurizio said: "You
got the ship working!"

"I did?" William wasn't sure as there had
been nothing but a shudder.

Before Maurizio answered, Rebel's voice
boomed over deck. "ALL HANDS TO THE MASTS!"

From somewhere all the sailors appeared and
quickly climbed into the masts. William stared at the proceedings
and worried. They were in space. There was no water, no air, let
alone wind. And they were lowering the sails.

Maurizio seemed to read the questions and
wonder from the wizards face. "We are lowering the sails, because
without them down, the Mimosa won't move." He shrugged shortly. "A
bit of a nuisance, I know, but we've gotten used to it."

"So you have this great big ship with all its
gadgetry and smart things, and it can't lower its own sails?"
William wondered.

The captain frowned. "I don't know."

William rolled his eyes and watched how the
sailors did their work. He had to hand it to them: they knew their
trade.

"All done, captain!" one of the sailors
yelled the obvious when they were done.

Maurizio waved at him and said: "Rebel, we're
ready to go. You probably heard that."

"I HEARD YOU." The woman's voice boomed over
the deck again. It made William jump.

Slowly the Mimosa turned. There was no sound.
None of the sails made any movement, but the ship was moving. After
a while the bow pointed to where the white pyramid had been. It had
vanished quite some time ago already, which worried William to no
end. Of all the adventures he'd had with Hilda, this was turning
into the worst one. He'd even go through the misery concerning
Zelda again, rather than this.

Grim and Obsi appeared at his feet, from
somewhere out of the shadows, and looked up at him. The wizard bent
over and picked up both cats. "I'm sorry, Grim. Hilda's gone, but
we're going to get her back." He wanted to add 'trust me', but he
couldn't. He didn't trust it himself, so how could he. Both cats
made miserable sounds, voicing how he was feeling.

"Maybe you should go and eat, William,"
Maurizio said. "And then try to rest? You've been through a lot."
He put an arm on one of William's, staying out of reach of the
cats. He thought. Nothing happened, though.

William knew that the man was right. He took
the cats with him, to the mess, where he ate a simple and sad meal.
The cats did not appear hungry, because the things William made for
them in the food replicator remained untouched. After pushing the
food down, he collected the cats again and headed for the cabin
that Rebel had shown them. He lay down on the bed, feeling
terrible.

-=-=-

Galgoran and Golgofro walked through long
straight passageways, taking far too many turns for Hilda's taste.
She was stuck on the chair. Of course, she had tried to jump off,
but some scary magic held her in her place as the chair floated
along behind the two pale aliens with their purple hair and their
silver clothes. She had asked a few questions, but had not gotten
any answers.

After yet another turn, Hilda had the
impression that they were walking not only straight ahead but also
straight up at times, they stopped in front of a white wall. The
magically impaired witch wondered what they were going to do there.
Galgoran touched the wall with her hand and then the wall moved up
like a portcullis.

Behind the wall lay a room. No, a hall. No, a
cathedral. No, not that big. Hall would do, Hilda decided. It was
remarkable. For starters it was not all white, which was a relief
to the witchy eyes. There were shades of brown and yellow and blue
and - purple! From inside the hall came a wonderful concoction of
smell made of flowers, fresh air and food. Especially the food part
of it made the witch aware that it had been quite a while since
she'd eaten.

"So, now what?" Hilda asked from her
undignified position in the chair that still held her.