Hilda - The Challenge

that he could, but given the erratic way his magic bounced all over the place, he might actually get lucky.

  William, his wand in hand, tried to find something. He relied on the wand entirely as he had no real idea what to look for. His results were the same meagre ones that Hilda had turned up: nothing.

  They then followed the most obvious path to Fidelma's original goal, the house of her parents. The witch and the wizard in training kept their wands out, trying to find something that might give them a clue. At the turn towards the house, Hilda for a moment thought she noticed something, but it was there and gone and after that she could not pick it up anymore. That annoyed and disturbed her, but even those emotions were not good in finding the trail back. William plain found nothing.

  The last thing they could do was to inspect Fidelma's room. In there they found plenty of magical traces, even William noticed vibrations there that could only be attributed to magical work. But those did not give them any pointers to what Fidelma had been up to. Her room was neat and tidy ("impossible for a proper witch", Hilda commented on that) and there was no sign of a struggle or a hasty leaving.

  William looked around the room and noticed something. Something he had to ask Hilda about. Before he had to try anything, she had already picked up his feeling and stood close to him.

  "I see no crystal ball," he whispered, "maybe that is some help? She may have it with her."

  Hilda's expression changed to something that could be described as pride for a moment. "Very good, William, well observed. But witches like this have no crystal." Then she turned to the parents of the missing girl. "We are sorry that we cannot locate her this way, it has been too long ago. But we will ask around andlet you know if we find out something."

  Tessa, Fidelma's mother, nodded, her eyes red from crying. Victor just stared at the magical couple and nodded. It was clear to everyone in the room that he was about to burst also, he just fought it until he was alone with his wife.

  The searchers, magical and ordinary, left the house to give the worried parents some time alone and deal with their grief over the loss of their daughter.

 

  William and Hilda got on their brooms. The witch told the sherrif that they would inform him about any news also. Alfred thanked them and then the villagers saw the couple lift off and fly away.

  "We'll have to inform the witches that are around," Hilda told William. "The real ones, not the fluffy ones."

  "The ones with crystal balls," William understood.

  "Very good," Hilda nodded. "They may be able to help with this. But I have a strange feeling about the girl's disappearing..."

  William looked at the wicked witch and he was worried that his notion was the very same as Hilda's.

  Hilda looked at the wizard-to-be. "You think the same thing." She had picked up his thought. Lamador.

  It would not surprise them if the wizard who had sent the challenge and who had taken Gerdundula from her home was now making his point even more clear. Reaching out and taking a flower-witch from the village that was so close to Hilda was a sign of him looking down on her in the most disdainful manner.

  "I hate him," Hilda said. "He is making the challenge even worse this way, showing his superiority by taking people away. I wonder who will be next."

  "If you knew, what would you do?", William asked her, thinking about it himself also.

  "I wouldn't know, do you believe that? He'll either send an army of Grizbles or come over himself. Either way we're doomed. You and I together can take on several dozen Grizbles, but what if he sends a thousand? I am sure he can do that."

  "But if you ask Babs for help? And this other one, that you went to visit a few days ago? Cassandra?"

  "Calandra you mean." Hilda frowned. "That would not be decent. You fight your own battles."

  "Decent? Is what Lamador does decent, abducting people as he chooses?" William almost let his broom slip as his anger about that remark flared up. "Whoops..."

  "Be careful, you idiot!", Hilda snapped at him.

  "I may be an idiot, but you are a twit if you cling to decency when your enemy is fighting a dirty war!"

  "But I'll be a damned living twit, not a dead idiot!", Hilda screamed at William, her eyes flaring red.

  "Is that so?", William yelled back at her, "what with the way Lamador is going about, you won't be alive much longer, remember? Three moons? Is that long enough?"

  "Don't yell at me!", Hilda screamed.

  "Then stop screaming at me!", William yelled.

  The people that were working in the fields below had dropped their tools and stared up at the loudly arguing people that were floating overhead.

  "Oh, you, go suck an elf!" Hilda was furious now and made her broom jump forward at a scary speed.

  "Oh no, you won't," William muttered and sped up also. Alas, his brooming skills were majorly inferior to those of the witch, who had almost been brought up on a broom. As he was reaching a certain speed, there was a lack of experience and an overdose of unreasonable fright. Logically he knew that falling from this height at any speed would be lethal, but logic had nothing up against his basic instincts.

  At a more moderate speed he headed back to the house. He was relieved that he could at least find that back, because flying a broom, he knew now, was one thing. Finding your way about from up above was a completely different ballgame. As he landed the broom without too much problems, he was already looking for Hilda's broom. To his uneasy surprise, it was not there. He looked around the house, and inside, but the wicked witch was not to be found.

  "Dammit," he muttered. "Now what..." He stared at the sky . No flying witches. He thought of lifting off again to try and find her, but he was not certain if that was a good idea.

  Meanwhile, Hilda had sped off and made a dive into the trees. She knew exactly what, how and where, and ended up safely on the forest floor. Her anger was flaring up, she kicked bits of fallen branches around and cursed William into anything bad.

  "Who does he think he is," she told off one of the trees, "the guy can barely hold on to a broom and he is telling me about how to go against Lamador. Hah! Everyone knows that you play by the rules." Her rant went on until she got a tweak of severe worrying. It hit her so hard and deep that she stood still and stopped yelling.

  Hilda looked around and bit her lip for a moment. All her anger was forgotten. William seriously worried about her! "Argh... that man is getting to me too much! Now he worries about me and I can't even ignore it! Crappedy crap!" She grabbed her broom, walked over to the only spot from where she could fly away and lifted off, heading for home.

  The witch circled over the house. William's broom was there, against the wall, so he couldn't be far away. She landed, put her broom next to the one already there and entered the house. There she found William staring at his own crystal ball. "So, what are you trying to do?"

  William had not heard her come in and jumped up as he heard the sudden sound. In a reflex his wand appeared. Then he saw who had come in. "Hilda!" He walked over to her, quickly, his wand disappearing. The emotion that flowed from him nailed her to the ground, so she was wrapped in arms before she realised what was going on.

 

  "Hey, whoa, that's enough for now, okay? You had me worried sick when you couldn't find me!"

  "No, really, how about that? I come home, you're not here. What should I do? Sit down and read a book?" William put his hands on her shoulder and held her tight.

  Hilda looked at the hands.

  William didn't care and held them where they were. "Hilda, please listen. I do not want another fight. You know how I feel about you, and I know how you feel about me. We're not seeing things about Lamador in the same way, but let's forget that for now, okay? Just for the evening."

  "Hmmf," was her reaction. "And then what, tomorrow? We start this all over again?"

  William's hands moved from her shoulders to her face. "No, silly witch. We will work out something that will wo
rk for both of us."

  Hilda covered his hands with her own. "William, please, I don't feel-"

  That was all she could say before his lips prevented her lips from saying more. After a while she started tapping him on the shoulder, and he broke the kiss. "Man, are you trying to suffocate me?" The blue sparkles in her eyes told him that she meant something entirely else.

  "No. I couldn't.'

  "Can't you try?", she asked, reaching up and locking her fingers behind his neck. "You know... when we were shouting at each other before... I never felt something like that before. That I would have someone who loved me enough to scream at me. Nobody dares that."

  "Perhaps Babs does," William grinned as he lifted her up in his arms.

  "Babs is different," she grinned. Those were the last words that were spoken in the living room, as soon after that they were in the bedroom. They did not come out anymore that day, leaving it to the house to close up.

  33. Coffee

  The next morning William and Hilda both woke up hungry. Not eating the evening before proved to be a dumb idea. Arguing about who was going to make breakfast, they came down the stairs. In the end they were side by side in the kitchen and breakfast was done very quickly.

  Once at the table, William frowned at Hilda's teacup. "One of the fish is gazing at me again," he said.

  "The other one is keeping its eyes on me," Hilda reported from her side of the cup.

 

  "Any idea what they want?"

  Hilda shook her head. "I know what I