Hilda - The Challenge
we're fine here," she smiled and dove down, shrieking her laughter as the thrill got to her. William laughed as he followed her.
The trees were red. No doubt possible. The leaves looked like they were on fire, with many shades of red, from burgundy to bright red. The trunks of the trees and the branches too were more rust-coloured, brown-red, but everything about the trees was affected by the substance in the soil that coloured all plants.
"It is really amazing," said William as they were gaining altitude again. "I've never seen trees that red, and in my old world some trees would turn very red in the autumn."
"Yes, it's cute, isn't it? It could have been cuter though," Hilda sighed.
William looked at her and grinned. He did not need a link to her to know what she meant.
The witch looked at him. "What?"
"Purple," was all he said.
"Yes!" Her face outshone the sun for a moment. "Now that would be wicked!"
They kept joking about trees and entire forests in all kinds of colours, and that way they had crossed the kingdom of Lorn rather quickly. Just before they were to reach the twoneighbouring problem spots, they found a good spot to land and have a quick lunch. There was water from a natural well, cool and refreshing. Soon they were airborne again, Hilda in the lead as she knew the route.
At first the trip went without a problem. There were no large bows, no arrows coming for them, and the trees turned back to normal tree-colours after a while.
Suddenly, after little over an hour, Hilda said: "I see a few. Careful. I think they've seen us also."
"How can they distinguish us from birds at this altitude?", William wondered out loud.
"They have wizards and witches down there too, dummy. They use their magical powers to scan the skies."
William could slap himself. That was so logical, he should have been able to figure that one out himself. "And the no flying here? Does that have to do with some aerial attack or so?"
"Yes. A dozen or so centuries ago Ringeholm had dragons, they used to fly them around everywhere. Then an insane Marshall assembled a small squadron of some three hundred dragons and - oh crap, there they come."
At first William was puzzled and looked around for three hundred dragons. Then it occurred to him that Hilda had spotted something coming from the ground as she made a swoop with her broom.
William looked down and also saw something coming at them. "Holy Bejeebus!" He yanked his broom to the side as something the size of a small tree was on its way to him. It missed him by at least twenty yards, but the sight of that thing coming was highly impressive.
"Okay, it is obvious to see why these things are hard to load up," he muttered, "but a direct hit of one of these babies will take you out of commission permanently."
Hilda maneuvered her broom closer to his again. "See what I mean?"
"Oh yes, and you did not exaggerate one word," William said. "Perhaps flying a bit faster would be an option."
"No! Don't even think of that. Going fast usually gives them even more reason to believe we have hostile things in mind and we don't. At this moment the arrows are shot by ordinaries, and that is how we want things to be. When they suspect bad things, they bring in the magical people, and I don't want first hand experience of what they do with these things."
William understood from her words that she did have second hand experiences. It was better not to ask now, he decided.
"We're now halfway over Ringeholm," Hilda told him. "The number of arrows will get a bit worse from here on, so watch me and also watch for yourself. They seem to move the bows around, nobody ever knows where they are except their soldier-bosses."
They spent an uncomfortable hour avoiding trees that were flung at them, and William was less and less eager to have a look at the bows that were capable of such a feat. He just wanted get away from this area as soon as possible and preferably in one piece, together with Hilda.
Finally he noticed that Hilda relaxed. "Are we in the clear now?" His arms hurt from holding the broomstick, as the jolts he had it make were quite radical at times.
"Yes, a few more minutes and we are in Herald's kingdom," she said. Hilda too was glad they had this behind them. Her arms also hurt, and she felt pity for William who was hurting much more. She knew that through the link. "If you want, we can land when we're there. Plenty of safe spots."
"If you fly on, I fly on," he said.
Hilda pulled her broom next to his. "Don't give me that, William. I know your arms almost fall off, so we are going down first chance we have. And I don't want you to say anything but yes or okay."
"Yes. Okay. Sweetheart. Thank you for getting us through this."
41. The plan (2)
They had taken time to eat, drink and relax their arms. William had called it a very enjoyable way to refuel the brooms, and Hilda had ordered him to talk sense once again.
"This area is still pretty safe, William," said Hilda. "People here are not too much under Lamador's influence as this is remote country, not interesting for a high-up sorcerer. Once we get closer to the big villages, he'll be more present."
William nodded, understanding exactly what she meant to say. The plan was bold and they would go for it whilst in the lion's den, so that made it all even more tricky. Compared to Lamador, who had hundreds, if not thousands of Grizbles at his disposal, they were only two strong. But, as William had explained to Hilda, small numbers have the benefit of being able to disappear easily. Something she hoped was true.
Rested and fed, they mounted their brooms again.
The kingdom of Herald was very different from that of Walt, the land that William had gotten to know rather well. There were hardly any large forests. An occasional patch of trees, large areas that consisted of rocky plateaus, wide and fiercefully streaming rivers with high impressive bridges over them. Those were William's main impressions from the land they were flying over.
"The rocky slabs down there used to be mountains," Hilda said, pointing at one of the areas. "Herald has this thing with using rock for homes. Most of the houses in this land are made of rock. They seem to make thinner slabs of it by sawing the rock up, but it is beyond me how they do that."
William nodded. "I would not know how they do it here. I've seen documentaries about sawmills for things like that, but I doubt these exist here."
"Saw mills. William. Please." She looked almost pained as she turned her face to him. "One of these illusionary things from your old world, right?"
"Right. I won't mention them again."
She looked as if she was about to give in. "We'll see."
They approached the first larger village. It was larger indeed, at least six times larger than the one that Hilda lived close to. It wouldn't even be considered small in William's old world.
"What do you think," asked Hilda, "should we go in here?"
William thought quickly. It was not very close to Lamador and the king of this country, but it would give them an opportunity to get a feel for the way people here thought about the sorcerer. "Yes, let's go in."
They swung their brooms downwards and landed a few miles from the village in a spot where there were some large boulders. There, out of sight, they hid their transports beneath a large piece of granite and changed into clothes that would not reveal who they were.
"We may have to adjust the clothes a bit when we get there, I'm not sure if this will work for here. Long ago since I was here," Hilda informed William.
"We'll have to chance it then," he said with a smile.
After making sure the brooms were out of sight for ordinaries, they set to walking towards and then down the road to the village. The road was not really a road, it was merely a wide, worn away dent in the rock, evidence that there had been many thousands of feet, horses and carriages gone over this trail before. There were not many others going into the village and they did not meet anyone that was coming from there. The people they walked among were gentle, calm and friendly. One man
with a horse and cart even offered them a ride, but they thanked him and declined. The walk was a welcome change to the hours on the broom. They learnt that the name of the village was Frad. Hilda was not aware of this having a special meaning, so they filed the name under general knowledge.
Entering the village was interesting. For a reason the magical couple could not fathom, the trail split into two lanes, a wide one for the carriages and a narrow one for the pedestrians. There was a wall built over the trail with openings for each lane. Everyone went into the village through one of the openings.
Hilda frowned as she looked at William. He shrugged, this was new for him also. After passing through the opening in the wall, Hilda stepped to the side of the path, pulling William along by a sleeve. "Isn't this silly? You can just as easily walk around the wall and enter the village like that. Nobody's here keeping watch, or counting people, or so."
"I know. I am also puzzled about this. It really makes no sense." William looked along the wooden wall once more but he could not discover anything that would reveal a meaning for this construction.
"Excuse me," a woman asked. She had seen the two talk. "Is there a problem that I might help with?" The woman wore a knitted cap which once had been really white. Her hair was hidden underneath it. Her face was friendly and round, its tan told the couple that the woman spent a fair amount of time outside. Her clothes were remarkably close to what Hilda was wearing, a grey shirt, a wool cardigan