Hilda - The Challenge (44 page)

"Uhm. No. I am not much into social
gatherings with people that have ordinary geese." Alfred's cheeks
coloured red.

Hilda nodded. "I know what you mean. I have
issues with ordinaries also. Let me check my books. I may have
something I don't know about."

She walked off towards the large amount of
shelves that carried even larger amounts of books and went over the
titles on the backs. "Mushrooms. Nope. Dragons. Hardly. Handpupp-
uhm, no." She peeked at the two men at the table, hoping they had
not caught the last bit. If they had, they did not respond to
it.

As Hilda went through her library, William
looked at the goose a few more times. He had never really had the
opportunity to look at one, so here was his chance. "Animals can be
fascinating, can't they?"

"Yes," said Alfred, "very much so. I could
write a book about them."

"It would be good. That way we would have a
book on geese also," William grinned. It got him a strange look
from Alfred who wondered if he had ended up in entirely the wrong
place.

Hilda came back with a book in her hands.
"This is the only thing I can find on birds. No many things
goose-specific though, and nothing at all about geese with golden
eggs."

"What did you find out from it?", asked
William.

"Well," the wicked witch said as she looked
in the book again, "the most obvious reason for a bird to stop
laying eggs is that it's dead. But this one isn't."

Alfred looked at the goose on the table. It
was still breathing, and waking up from Hilda's sedative. "Indeed.
It isn't. And I really would like it to stay that way."

Slowly the goose sat up and looked around at
the people in the room.

"How do we fix you?", Hilda asked the big
bird who stared at her without a hint to a reply.

It honked at her.

"If that was meant to be insulting, you
succeeded, buster." A wand appeared, ready to counter a next
insult.

Alfred however had jumped up and gazed at the
goose as that wiggled its tail feathers. Another honk, and it got
up. Beneath it lay a golden egg.

"Suck an elf," said Hilda.

"Holy Bejeebus," William agreed.

"An egg!", said Alfred.

Hilda looked at the book. "Somehow I don't
think that bringing this book over made that happen. Anyone an idea
or a clue? It wasn't me, even if I would love to have done
this."

William took the book and looked at the page
Hilda held open. "Hmmm... it says here that geese don't lay eggs
when there's snow."

"Snow? We have snow lately," said Alfred. "A
while ago some weather-mage has moved into our land and he was
doing all kinds of things with the weather. Now there is a lot of
snow and he has a problem getting that cleared away."

Hilda grinned. "I think we have the answer.
Your goose just needed to defrost its rear end so now the eggs can
come out again."

Alfred Esop was so amazingly relieved that
his goose lay its golden eggs again that he completely forgot
himself and hugged Hilda tightly for a moment. "Thank you, thank
you ever so much!"

"Uhm, yeah, I guess that's okay. So you're
fine now?" Hilda stepped closer to William to avoid another
hugging. Hugging was good, but she would be the one to take the
initiative. Not some stray goose-holder. Even if the goose lay
golden eggs.

"Say, Alfred, do golden eggs make good
omelets?", Hilda asked.

Alfred, his goose in his arms already, looked
puzzled. "I really wouldn't know. I've never tried that. I just
sell the eggs." He looked at the golden egg that lay on the table
still. "You can have that one. For curing the goose."

"Well, I didn't actually - uhm - but okay.
Thank you for that."

They showed Alfred out, and as the man was
walking away to the forest path that led to the village, they heard
the goose honk a few more times. Apparently there was a line of
eggs waiting to be unleashed.

The magical couple grinned, as they tried to
imagine how Alfred was going to handle the goose and the eggs it
would lay on the way to the village.

"Do you want a golden omelet?", Hilda then
asked. "I am curious what that will turn into."

"Sure, why not? Let's crack it and see."

They repaired to the kitchen together.
William wanted to witness this as much as Hilda, but he left the
honour of breaking the egg to her.

The skillet hovered over the fire. Hilda had
tossed a lick of butter in it and a wooden spoon slowly stirred it
around. She held the egg in both hands and cracked the shell on the
side of the frying pan. It broke as one might expect of an egg. Its
contents slid into the hot melted butter and spread out over the
metal. That was not all that spread. As the innards of the golden
egg moved around, a horrendous sulphur based smell spread
throughout the kitchen, making both Hilda and William pull funny
faces and say "eeew". Despite this disappointment they kept
watching the skillet. The egg was slowly colouring. Brownish
black.

"I'd say there is something that smells bad
about this egg," Hilda commented.

"Yes, and it lacks things in the looks
department also..."

Hilda took the pan and poked at the solid
layer at the bottom with the wooden spoon. It sounded suspiciously
like some kind of stone. "Care for an omelet with a crunch?", she
asked William.

"Not really...", William said.

"Smart man. I thought so too." She flipped up
her wand and a moment later the pan was good as new. And empty.
"We'll find something else for lunch."

Later that day they also noticed that the
golden shell, once cracked, became some kind of ugly lead-coloured
gunk. William wrapped it in a piece of paper and discarded it. "So
much for golden eggs. Nothing good comes from that."

They had decided to take the afternoon off.
No going anywhere, just sit in the sunshine and do a whole lot of
nothing.

The couple was doing a mighty fine job of
that when the peace and quiet was rudely disturbed by a horseman
that came racing up to them and stopping his speedy journey in a
cloud of dust as he forced his horse to a halt.

"Honourable witch and wizard," the man said
as he jumped off his steed, "I have a message from the king."

"Oy, no arrows?", William asked, looking up
from his sunbed.

Hilda laughed, then turned to the rider.
"What is it the king wants of us?"

He handed her a large scroll. "This is for
you, he said. And it is important. And if possible, I have to wait
for your answer."

Hilda raised her eyebrows. "Then it is really
urgent." She checked the seal, as even a witch can't be too
careful, then tore it off and looked at the message. "Crappedy
crap."

William sat up. That sound meant problems.
"What's up?"

"King Herald asked Walt for our
extradition."

"He what?"

"It seems that we have offended a diplomatic
blah-blah official of his court. Lamador's been crying, it seems.
Which surprises me, as he usually handles his own affairs." Hilda
rolled up the paper. "Looks like we have to go see Walt about this.
He's only doing his duty, so we'd best help him."

"I understand." William started to get
up.

Hilda was on her feet already and said to the
rider that they would arrive at the castle as soon as they could.
The man nodded, got on his horse and raced off again. "Show-off,"
she muttered and flattened the cloud of dust he left behind him.
"No need to hurry, William, we should give him some time to deliver
the message."

Grinning, they went into the house and
changed into clothes that looked more official and up to their
status. A visit to the king warranted that.

They had a cup of tea and then got on their
brooms and headed for the castle. Hilda did not feel like messing
with the guards, so they simply landed their brooms in front of the
large fountain and waited there. They had been seen, as usual, so
someone would come and pick them up.

A group of guards approached the magical
couple. "Uhm, honourable witch, would you please come with us? You
too, honourable wizard?"

"Sure, lead on and we'll follow," said
Hilda.

They were taken through the long corridors of
the castle until they reached a cozy little salon. It was painted
all white, the floor was made of white and grey marble and had
large, probably handmade red carpets on it. There were a few small
paintings on the far wall, with images of lakes. A small white
table carrying a colourful vase with white flowers stood in each
corner.

Walt was standing in front of a window, hands
on his back, staring outside. The leader of the guards announced
their arrival, after which the king turned and smiled.

"Welcome, Grimhilda and William, please sit
down. Can I offer you something?" He waved at some chairs, and sat
down himself.

William asked for tea, as did Hilda, which
was arranged speedily. Walt sipped a glass of orange juice.

"I guess you saw the note, right?" King Walt
did not look happy. "I'm not sure what you did, though. Can you
explain something about this?"

Hilda and William told him about the
challenge, and the way they had taken their revenge by challenging
Lamador in return.

"Right, I can see what made you do that. And
I like the way you folks think. Really." Walt toasted them with his
orange juice. "But it looks like you angered someone in a very
intense manner. And Herald asked me to send you over so you can be
punished for that. That's the part I don't really like so
much."

"Nor do we, King", said Hilda. "Punished?
Just because we did something he was not prepared for? That is a
low trick."

William agreed. "I would first want to see
evidence of this, and if possible hear some witnesses or so."

Hilda and Walt looked at the former book
salesman.

"What are you talking about, William? We have
to go there and tell them Lamador's lying through his teeth." Hilda
shook her head. "Sorry, King, he sometimes has these moments of not
making any sense at all."

"Then what is the plan? Go there, walk into
the lion's den and be eaten?" William got up and paced the
room.

"William, sit down. I will explain this to
you later," said Hilda.

King Walt looked at the witch. It sounded odd
to him that a wizard would not know how things were done in the
magical world. But then, he thought to himself, this wizard was
strange in more than one way, so probably things were done
differently where he came from. The witch would iron it out.

William sat down. "Okay. I'll leave it to
you. For now."

King Walt looked relieved. "So, you will go
there? Should I send an escort of guards with you to make a bigger
impression? You know I value you and I don't want anyone to think
differently."

Hilda thought about that offer. "That might
be a good idea. We can travel slow then and think about things on
the way. Yes, thank you for that, king."

"Very good. Would a group of twenty-four be
enough?" King Walt sometimes liked to deal with things
pragmatically and swiftly.

"That many? Would look good though..." Hilda
grinned.

William had a very undetermined feeling about
all of that. Going to Lamador and his king over some dumb
accusation, with a bunch of guards that probably were useless
against any halfway decent witch or wizard? He wondered if he would
ever understand this world.

Hilda and Walt talked about the arrangements
of when they were going to go to king Herald's country and how the
transport would be arranged. There would be luxury carriages,
plenty of food and water, and Walt would make sure they had all the
necessary letters of reference with them to assure a free and safe
passage through all the lands they had to cross.

After dealing with all that, the two magical
people were escorted to the main entrance again. Not because they
were considered dangerous, but it would prevent them from getting
lost. Walt walked along with them.

"I'll miss you while you are gone," he said,
"it is very entertaining to try and hit you with my fountain. So if
only for that, I hope you will return soon."

"It won't be us that will delay our return,
king," said Hilda. "In three days we'll be here and leave with the
guards. No telling what will happen from there on, but we will just
hope for the best."

Walt nodded and insisted on shaking their
hands, something he would not do in a normal situation. "Take good
care," he said. Then he watched as they got on their brooms and
flew off towards their house. "Remarkable people," he mumbled to
himself. "Very remarkable people."

On the way home, Hilda turned to William. "I
don't like this at all," she said. "There is not much time anymore
before the challenge Lamador set us. Me. Us. Whatever. And now
this. It won't give us much remaining time to prepare for it."

William agreed. "We may not even have time to
go to Gurthreyn again. Not a place you go to for fun, but to see it
and get accustomed to the feeling helps. To some extent."

"Hmm... if you put it like that, I am not
sure that going to Lamador is such a bad idea." Hilda looked
serious. "But we will take things one at the time. Good thing we
have a few days before we leave, we can look at what we want to
take with us."

Once home, they sat down and Hilda explained
about the way that this whole extradition thing worked. "I get the
feeling that you think this is some kind of prison deal, William.
It isn't. Yes, Lamador is certainly angry about what we have done.
And he wants to show that. After all, he is the Great Lamador, and
he wants to piss us off with this. He'll start throwing accusations
at us and we have to counter those."

"And what is the worst thing that can
happen?", William asked.