Hilda - The Challenge (45 page)

Hilda's face turned gloomy. "They throw us in
prison."

"Right. I see. And it is not a prison deal,
right?" William wondered about that detail.

"No. In a prison deal you get thrown into
prison without the option of defending yourself."

"That sounds bad. Not the way I am used to.
Well, used to. Uhm, know. You know what I mean." William felt like
a fool, stammering and blundering through his words.

"Are you upset, my sweet man?", asked Hilda,
wrapping her arms around him.

"Does it show? I thought I was getting a
grasp of this world of yours, and then this happens. Makes me feel
like I am back to square one."

"You're not. You can do magic, William, and
that is good. For me, anyway. And the best thing is that others
don't sense that in you, which is extremely good."

"I wonder what good magic will do us if they
are sticking us in some dungeon. I'll bet you that they won't have
ordinary guards there." William still felt very bad about the whole
trip to see king Herald and the sorcerer they had humiliated so
terribly.

"William. Stop it. Shush you." Hilda put a
finger over his lips for a moment. "You are not making things
better with all that, okay? It is hard on me as well, I have to
deal with it also."

William looked into her eyes and twitched his
lips so she would remove the finger. "You're right. I'm sorry. It
became a bit confusing and... much."

"Okay. I can understand that. When I think of
how I felt in your world after a few days. I was going insane
there." She rested her head against his shoulder. "And so far you
have not gone mad yet. There still is hope for you."

"I'm glad we're not giving up, Hilda." He
held her for a while.

"Come. Let's find some things to take along
for the trip. Books and such." She grinned at him.

They started to gather things together.

Several days later, a carriage halted at the
house of the wicked witch. The driver looked a bit nervous, it was
not every day that he was sent to pick up a witch and a wizard. And
he had already been sweating as he tried to imagine all the things
they would be bringing along. He had heard stories about
witches...

"There is a cart in front of me," the house
announced.

Hilda and William were drinking coffee as
they heard that. "Well, that is nice, to send a cart over."

Hilda peeked out the window. "Shiny, that is
a whole carriage!"

William picked up the three dice that were
their luggage and the stack of books they had prepared to have
handy at all times, then they walked outside.

"Honourable witch, honourable wizard," the
driver said, hat in hand. "King Walt has asked me to come and
collect you, and your luggage."

"Oh, the luggage is all taken care of," said
William, patting his pocket.

"Uhm." The driver tried to keep a straight
face. Hilda putting the chains around the house made that
impossible for the good man.

As she finished up, she looked at the driver.
"Is there a problem?"

"Uhm. No. Uhm."

"Come, William, we'll go sit in the carriage
and at some point the driver will take us to the castle." She
pushed him to the carriage and they both got in.

The driver slowly trotted after them,
occasionally looking at the house and the chains. He climbed to his
seat and made the horses turn the carriage, after which they rode
off, to the castle.

The carriage was very comfortable, which was
a good thing. The ride to the castle took quite a lot longer than
by broom.

"How many days do you think it will take like
this before we get to where we are going?", asked William.

"I am not sure, but with so many soldiers
along also, it will take three days, for certain. Brooms go faster
than carriages and such." Hilda rested against him. "Sorry, sweet
man."

After a long time of bobbing on the road, the
carriage pulled into the castle yard, the hooves of the horses
making a sudden noise as they pulled their load past the thick
entrance wall.

"Sounds like we're there," Hilda grinned. "Do
you bring the luggage?"

"Sure. Do you take the books?", William
asked.

"No way! I'm the girl, you're the boy!"

Laughing they exited the carriage as it had
come to a halt.

The yard was full of carriages and soldiers.
It was a bit unsettling for William, seeing so many people were
involved in getting them to Heraldion in one piece.

King Walt appeared from somewhere, a dim
smile on his face. "Welcome. Good to see you." He then frowned as
he saw the driver step from the carriage. "No luggage? It should be
on top, somewhere..."

William shook his head. "All we need is in
here." He patted his pocket again.

Walt frowned as he looked at the clothes.
"You witches and wizards..." Then he addressed Hilda. "Dear witch,
as you see I have kept my word. These are twenty-four reliable men
who will make certain that you will reach your destination safely.
Messengers have been sent ahead already, with papers announcing
your passage. I have taken the liberty of making reservations for
the night in a few renowned stations along the road."

"Dear king, we do thank you for your
kindness," said Hilda. "You are going through far too much trouble
for us."

King Walt raised his hands, shaking his
massive head. "No, no Grimhilda. The things you do for us are worth
tenfold what I can do for you now. Just make sure you come back
again. I want to hit you with the fountain again."

Hilda grinned. "We'll do what we can, King
Walt."

He nodded, then waved at the leader of the
escort, Captain Lambert, and introduced him to the witch and
wizard. "These are the people you will accompany, Captain, take
good care of them, they are valuable assets to the kingdom."

The captain nodded. "Our lives for their
lives, my king." He bowed, then turned to the valuable assets.
"Would you then please board your carriage? We have a long way to
travel."

Hilda and William walked back to the carriage
and, with a new driver on board, the small convoy rattled away from
the castle, towards the kingdom of Lorn.

After many hours and plenty of short breaks,
it had already gone dark, the group halted near a large farmhouse
annex something William called a hotel. It was equipped as a
resting place for travellers, and Walt's messengers had done their
work well, rooms were already waiting for them, as were hot baths
and meals. The soldiers first wanted to sit apart from the magical
couple but they then simply sat among their guards, which made the
entire seating arrangement quite easy.

Hilda and William wanted to go for an evening
walk, just the two of them, but the king's orders were rather
strict. After walking for about ten minutes with twelve guards
behind them, they gave up and went to their room.

"I hope you do trust us enough to sleep alone
here," William said to the three guards that went along to their
bedroom door.

"Oh certainly, honourable wizard," one of the
men said. "One of us will just remain here guarding the door. We're
taking turns. Sir."

The magical duo sighed. "Alright. Have
fun."

They closed the door and prepared for bed.
Silently. As they lay next to each other, Hilda whispered: "I don't
feel comfortable like this. I don't like having someone standing
outside the door."

"I'm afraid their only alternative is that
one of them stands in the room."

"Grmbl," said Hilda. She put an arm around
William. "Mine to keep," she whispered and kissed him on the
cheek.

"Gladly," he whispered back, and smiled.

After a while they fell into a disturbed
sleep.

The next morning they awoke early.

"Did you sleep any good?", William asked as
Hilda sat up and rubbed her face.

"Horribly. We should have brought our own
bed," she yawned. "Would have fit easily."

"Yes, no problem. I have big pockets,"
William agreed. "Too bad we can't fly back and pick it up."

"Should have brought our brooms," Hilda
nodded. "This is a drag. Takes so long..." She dropped herself back
on the bed. "Can't we just go home and stay there, and join the
soldiers a day later? Flying over is so much better."

As William wanted to respond to that, she put
her hand over his mouth. "I don't want to hear it, okay?"

He nodded soundlessly.

"Good. Get up then?"

He nodded again.

They got up and after packing their
belongings into the three dice again they went downstairs, where
breakfast and the small batallion were waiting for them. Not long
after that, the convoy was underway again, crossing the land of
Lorn and arriving near the border with Ringeholm in the evening.
There was another resting place prepared to cater to their needs,
and another night went by with bad sleep and a guard by the
door.

The morning brought rain. It followed them
into Ringeholm, but the kingdom of Oxfern would have been just as
wet.

"So what was it with Ringeholm. No
unidentified flying witches, right?", William asked Hilda.

"Indeed. If you want to fly here, you need to
go through a mountain of papers. Takes the whole thrill out of the
flight, really."

"Or laugh at the rules and get trees thrown
at you," William remembered.

"Yup." Hilda giggled as she recalled Bilgar's
face, waking up on the broomaran with giant arrows being shot at
them. "That was quite a trip, wasn't it, when we went to get
Bilgar."

William grinned also. "Yes. That was some
form of exciting."

They sat in the carriage, listening to the
rain and decided that was not exciting at all.

"I have an idea," said Hilda. "I want to do
something about this noise. And help our brave soldiers a bit."

"And that would be?", William asked, very
interested in any way to lift the boredom.

Hilda popped out her wand. "You too," she
said and explained what she wanted to do.

With the both of them holding their wands,
they joined forces and sent out a magical umbrella that reached
over all the men and carriages in their caravan. As soon as it was
in place, the rain was simply diverted to fall to the sides of the
path they were travelling over. It did not take long until Captain
Lambert pulled up his horse next to the carriage with the valuable
assets, and thanked them for shielding them from the rain.

"It is most unpleasant to ride in," he said,
"so thank you, on behalf of the men!"

Hilda grinned. "You're welcome. It gives us
something to do."

But the rain left, and the need for an
umbrella left along with it, so it was back to sitting and
riding.

Hilda leaned out the window and shouted for
Captain Lambert, who came riding up to them quickly.

"Is something wrong, honourable witch?", he
asked, concern ringing in his voice.

"There certainly is. You are outside in the
open air, and we are stuck in this shaking box. I don't want to be
in here, so I'll strike you a deal. You find a few men on horseback
that want to sit here for a while and we'll ride the horses for
that time."

"Oh. Uhm." Captain Lambert was quite
unprepared for that request. The king had not given him any orders
for situations like this one.

"I am going to stop this carriage otherwise,"
said Hilda. Her tone made it clear that she was very serious, and
Captain Lambert was picking up on that expertly.

"I'll see what I can do for you, honourable
witch," he promised and rode off to talk to some of the men. It did
not take him long to find two men who wanted to hand over the reins
of their horses to the magical people.

The convoy came to a halt, to enable the
switch of passengers and riders. As Hilda and William got out of
the carriage, the wizard whispered: "Nice plan, but I have never
sat on a horse before."

"Don't worry. It is just like flying a
broom," said Hilda. Blue sparkles were in her eyes and William knew
that mischief was not far. He saw how Hilda swooped herself on the
horse, the way she got on a broom. Only difference was that the
horse was a bit higher. He followed her example and miraculously
ended up on top of the horse.

Hilda smiled widely and as the caravan
started to move again, the two horses walked along out of habit.
The pace was not fast as the carriages held everyone back.

Hilda looked for Captain Lambert, who was
very close to them, to be sure things were fine. "Captain
Lambert... is it okay with you if William and I go up and ahead a
bit, to look around?"

"Of course not, honourable witch. Peter and I
will accompany you," the captain said.

"That is very kind of you, Captain," Hilda
said with her sweetest voice, "you can come with us as far as you
can, of course."

Captain Lambert warned Peter who was not far
behind him, and the two soldiers rode up next to Hilda and William.
"Whenever you are ready."

Hilda was ready. William was a few moments
later, as he had already understood what the wicked witch had in
mind. Her mentioning that it would be "just like flying a broom"
had said enough.

The witch, more used to riding a horse than
William, made hers go faster. William's horse followed, as did the
two soldiers. Then Hilda's shrieking laughter made the soldiers
cringe and William grin. He sensed how she wielded her magic, her
wand in her hand. He flipped up his own wand and cast a spell
around the horse he was hovering over, and then two of the four
riders calmly lifted off into the skies.

The two soldiers saw it happen and at first
they did not really understand what they were seeing. Once the
brutal fact had registered with them, they both started shouting
that the two magical honourables should get down again for their
own good and safety.