Hilda - The Challenge (18 page)

On the left side of the street were houses,
all low. They had just the ground floor, but were stretched out
along several rooms that lay along the street. The houses were all
built in rough red brick, without exception. The windows in them
were small, most of them without curtains, but all of them had
shutters in a wide variety of colours. The chimneys blew out the
smoke of the fires, and occasionally the smell of food that was
prepared inside.

The street they walked on was no more than
sand with slabs of stone here and there, to give the surface the
appearance of being flat.

William hardly had time enough to take it all
in and there weren't even people in the street to behold. Otherwise
he would certainly have been overloaded with impressions. The
street was picturesque and to him it was the way that old English
villages in the late 1600s would have been.

They walked through the quiet street in
silence, not disturbing its peace. The street ended in a left turn,
as ahead of them was a low wall, made of almost black wood. The
street they entered was comparatively lively. William saw at least
a dozen people. Some were standing and chatting, some were walking
to a destination only they knew.

Hilda walked in the exact middle of the
street, William next to her. The brooms followed them. Their
appearing in the street seemed to trigger a wave of mild
disturbance among the people they saw. All eyes were drawn to them
as by magic. How appropriate. They passed a few of them, who
stepped back to give them all the space they might possibly
need.

William had wondered a bit about Hilda's
behaviour, it made her look as if she felt superior. Now, he
understood, she was the village witch, and that made a difference.
As they walked by the people, William looked at them from the
corner of his eye. They looked well fed and healthy, and also
clean. That was not exactly what he would expect from a village in
the 1600s. He noticed that the men just stepped aside. They did not
turn away, so there was no exaggerated sense of awe or fear, which
made him feel better.

The silent couple walked on until they
reached a group of children that had been playing with hoops and
balls. Now they stood watching the witch and her mysterious
companion, like the adults, but with far less reserve and more open
curiosity.

"Hello," said a little girl holding a thing
made of straw and rags that had to be her doll. She wore a skirt of
thick black fabric and a shirt over it that had once been yellow.
Most of the colour had faded and there were many spots on it. She
had sturdy shoes on her feet. Her hair, light brown with strange
dark streaks, hung down in two braids over her shoulders. The girl
had a tanned, round face and brown eyes.

Hilda looked at the girl and grinned. "Hello
little girl."

"Who is your friend?"

"He is a wizard. He is here for a visit."

"Can he fix my doll?" The girl held up the
straw puppet.

"Uhm..." Hilda frowned. She had not prepared
for something like this. The witch looked at William, her eyes
sparkling blue again.

William stepped up to the girl and kneeled
down in front of Hilda. He carefully took the puppet from the girls
hand and held it up. He closed his eyes and hoped that Hilda would
pick up his meaning. She was more than enough covered by him to do
her magic without anyone noticing. Promptly the doll in his hands
changed. It happened so fast and direct that it almost startled
him, but he managed to limit his surprise to a small jolt in his
arms. The straw was now covered by new fabric, giving the doll
proper arms and legs again and a red dress.

To the people watching, it looked as if the
change and the jolt were connected.

William handed the puppet back to the happy
girl, who took the doll and quickly hid behind a larger boy,
probably her brother.

From there, she said: "Thank you, wizard,"
treating Willliam and Hilda to a giant smile.

William nodded, a big smile on his face that
was hidden from everyone's view. Then he looked at Hilda, who
quickly winked at him. They walked on, the mumbling of people
following them.

As they were out of earshot, Hilda whispered:
"Damn, you handled that well! We're good together!"

"You're the one who's good, sweetheart,"
William agreed.

They reached the market square of the
village, where a lively scene awaited them. Despite the late hour
of the day, there was a lot of bartering, buying and selling going
on. The people in the square were so engaged in their doing
business that many of them did not even notice the witch and her
faceless companion walk by.

At a certain point Hilda raised one hand just
a tiny bit and she stood still.

William praised himself for paying such good
attention that he caught her little gesture. They stopped walking
almost simultaneously. He had no idea yet why they halted, but he
was certain Hilda would clue him in soon. He was right.

"The boys with the cart... on the left," she
slowly and calmly said.

He looked in the designated direction and saw
five boys hanging around by a low cart on wooden wheels. The cart
was still halfway filled with apples and what looked like
vegetables. It was not clear if they belonged with the cart, or if
the owner had walked off.

Then two of the boys, on some secret signal,
walked over to a man who was selling fish while chatting with a
couple of people, a man and a woman who both wore blue pants and
ditto tunics. The two boys started chatting with the couple and the
fish monger, diverting all attention to something on the fish cart.
At the same time, the remaining trio of youths sauntered up to the
apple cart and started filling their pockets and shirts with its
contents.

"Let's have some fun," Hilda said, and the
tone in her voice told William that the three and perhaps even all
five boys were not going to forget this day easily. "Why don't you
just walk over to the fish cart..."

William slowly walked to the fish cart and
positioned himself in such a way that he could see the boys and the
couple and also catch any cues from Hilda.

"Good William," she mumbled as she lifted an
arm, hoping he would do the same. He did. Hilda prepared for dual
action. She focussed and took a deep breath. She drew a lot of
power from the memory of some great sex and then threw her
magic.

At the fish cart two big fish jumped up and
clung to the noses of the two boys playing distraction. The boys
were quite amazed by this sudden vicious fish-attack and screamed
as if they were being skinned alive. They tried to yank the fish
from their face and screamed even louder as all they managed was to
inflict more pain on themselves.

At the apple cart, two boys fell to the
ground as each apple suddenly weighed more than seventy lbs, and
the amount of apples they had stolen so far made it all too obvious
that they were going nowhere.

The third boy had only stuffed his shirt with
vegetables so far was spared the undignified downfall. He tried to
run off. Hilda simply prevented that by shooting one of the brooms
between his legs: the boy made a nose dive in the dirt of the
market square and squealed like a pig, leaving some skin on the
pebbles in the process. He was not the kind to give up that easily
though, so he kicked at the broom and somehow managed to get
upright again.

Hilda wished she had time to look at William,
but this boy had to be dealt with first. Spraying magic with both
hands, and slowly chanting spells, she walked up to the boy who had
started to float. He was still kicking his feet around as if he
wanted to run. As he saw the witch approach, he grabbed in his
shirt and started throwing his loot at her. For the witch it was
easy to make the vegetables float back up and run circles around
the boy's head. The involuntarily airborne thief screamed
obscenities at her while trying to hit away the food that was going
around him, just out of his reach.

The action near the fruit cart had attracted
a lot of attention, and Hilda decided it was time for a proper
finale. Her hood had fallen off her head as she was looking up at
the boy.

"You never learn, do you? That stubborn
behaviour is very very sticky with you. Since you like that so
much, why not let me add to that pleasure..."

A bucket materialised over the floundering
boy and slowly tilted. Just before its contents was coming over the
rim, Hilda stopped the bucket from moving and looked at William and
his fish-bitten victims. What she saw made her almost lose her grip
on the boy in the air.

William had waited for some support from
Hilda, but had quickly noticed that she was very occupied with the
threesome at the apple and veggie cart, so he had decided to take
matters in his own hands. Literally. The two boys had staggered
away from the fish cart, their fear turning into almost fullblown
panic. They had stopped pulling at the fish by then, they just held
on to the slippery smelly things.

The make-belief wizard had stepped up to the
two boys as wizardly as he could and grabbed them by the collar of
their shirts. With a deep voice he had whispered: "Hold still." The
two stood as nailed to the ground. Wizard Connoley then prayed that
his former boxing training had not gone to waste and that his
muscles would hold. With a tremendous amount of willpower he lifted
the two boys off the ground. Not far, but far enough to look
impressive. The fact that he did not seem to touch them, the long
sleeves of the robe falling far over his hands, added some more
impact to the spectacle. A sudden surge of power came in him,
Hilda's doing for certain, and he held the boys even higher.

Hilda the witch blinked a few times as she
saw the two fish-faces hang from William's hands and grinned. She
got a great idea. The bucket turned and its contents, a delicate
mixture of honey and fish entrails, drooped all over the floating
thief.

The boy quickly stopped his screaming. Each
time he opened his mouth he was treated to more fishy parts.

Some of the bystanders raised their fists to
the floating youth, promising Hilda that they would take care of
him in a very specific way.

Hilda finished the show off by dropping the
bucket on the boys head. Then she let him tumble over his two
partners in crime, spreading the joy, the honey and the fish. After
this feat she looked at William and made the two brooms shoot over
to him. She walked towards the fish cart and maneuvered the brooms
so that they stuck under the shirts of the boys, releasing their
weight from William's arms that would by now hurt like crazy. Hilda
was convinced of that.

William, who saw the brooms coming, held his
head pointed at them, making it look as if he was the one that
directed their movement. The cooperation of the witch and the book
salesman was excellent.

As Hilda joined him, he slowly lowered his
arms. Hilda made the brooms slowly rise at the same time, creating
a magnificent dramatic effect that made many a person gasp for
air.

Whispers and secretly pointing hands and
fingers were all around them.

William let his arms hang down his sides,
grateful that the weight was gone. His muscles had indeed taken a
beating.

Hilda turned towards him, he turned to her at
almost the same time. She nodded. He nodded also. She held out a
hand, and he copied her movement. The two boys with the fish still
on their noses dropped to the ground and the brooms flew to their
owners and gently settled into the extended hands.

The owners of the apple cart stared at the
two robed figures. "Thank you! Thank you for saving our
merchandise!"

"Don't mention it," Hilda said, holding her
head in a near regal way. "Just be careful with your backs when you
pick up the apples."

William bit his tongue. He should not
laugh.

The two boys who had acted as distractions
were already in the hands of six very capable men. "Honourable
witch, honourable wizard... What about these two? What about the
fish?"

Hilda looked at William, the magnificent blue
sparkles in her eyes, as if the witch was silently communicating
with the wizard. Then she turned to the men. "The fish will rot
away in time. They'll be fine then. Just..." She waved her hand in
front of her nose. "You understand?"

William bit even harder.

A large crowd of people had gathered around
them, keeping a respectful distance. Hilda walked ahead, William
right behind her, and the crowd opened up a corridor through which
they could leave. Stately they passed through the human gateway and
walked away from the market place, turning into one of the more
silentside-streets.

"Up up, and hold on," Hilda said and mounted
her broom. William followed, and then they shot upwards. They flew
low over the market square, people ducking as the brooms
approached. Hilda cackled her laughter over the crowd and then she
set course for home, pushing the brooms to an exhilarating speed,
making sure the wind got hold of their clothes just enough to make
the robes beat around their bodies.

They landed at the house.

"Ah. You are back," it aptly remarked.

"Yes, we are, and did we have fun!" Hilda
hopped off her broom and almost pulled William off the other. She
jumped up and hugged him wildly. "You were great there, sweet man!
I am so proud of you!"

William held her close and twirled her round
a few times until they both were dizzy. As he did so, he said: "I
am proud of you, and grateful too. If you had not come to my
rescue, I would have died, holding these guys up."

Hilda planted a big kiss on his lips. "You
looked magical, William. Awesome." She let out a shriek and kicked
back her legs, to express her excitement, holding back on the
shriek so the man that held her would not be completely deaf for
hours.