and a long wide skirt, made of some thick brown fabric.
"Perhaps," William said, to Hilda's shock. "We were wondering about this wall and why it is here."
The woman nodded. "Yes, so do we. King Herald had decreed that there had to be more art in the land, so he ordered artists from several countries to produce pieces of art, put them where they thought the things would look best, and that is what happened. Since then we are looking at this wall. An ugly thing, isn't it?"
Hilda nodded.
William nodded also. "I wonder why nobody goes around it."
The woman looked at him. "Why should they? The road into the village goes there, which is much more convenient to walk on. Now, I hope you will allow me leave. Enjoy your stay here." With a nod the woman walked on.
The two looked at each other. Nothing to say against that, so they mingled in the crowd and proceeded deeper into the village.
The streets of the village were immensely wide compared to the village at home. The average width was twenty feet. Everything looked clean and orderly. There were hardly people in the street, all the shops and pubs were so large that there was no need for trade in open air.
William shook his head. So sad, he thought, the place looked too clean. Somehow an image of a city under ultimate control came to his mind, the likes of which he had seen in science fiction movies. Movies where some stuck-up dictator type was exerting his power down to the moment and place people would use the bathroom.
They came by a pub.
"Should we go in here?", asked Hilda.
"Sure. This one is as good as any other. It is a really strange place here," William said, to which Hilda nodded.
"It is much different since I was here last. But that is a while ago."
"And how long would that be, then?", asked William as he held the door for her.
"At least 180 years," the witch told him as she stepped into the pub.
"Uh-what?"
But Hilda was inside already, not hearing William's surprise.
The pub looked nice on the inside. It was a real pub, be it just a bit too large to be cozy. There were tables with chairs, all made of grey-green wood. The proprietor had gone through a lot of trouble, putting a candle on each table, and even a small vase with some flowers on most of them. The floor was the inevitable and everpresent rock, which made sense. You could not get a cheaper and more rugged floor than that, and it was easy to clean also.
Hilda and William moved through the pub. There were not many customers at that time, most tables were empty. They chose to sit at a table that was close to the domicile of the proprietor who came to them, asking what he could bring them. As he was almost lyrical about the ale his pub carried, they both ordered a glass of it. When the man had left them, William asked if Hilda would be fine with the beer.
She wiggled her nose and grinned. Of course she would be fine.
The pub owner brought them their glasses. As there was little business, he was eager to strike up a conversation with the two people who were clearly new to the area. "You picked a fine day to visit," he said, "the weather has not been to good over the past days. May I ask what brings you to our village?"
William explained that they were travelling, and that they happened to come by the village. "As it looks very nice here, we really could not pass by without a visit."
"Yes, we are living in a very nice place," the barkeeper said, smiling. "There are several nice spots to visit here also. We have the oldest museum dedicated to the kings of the country. Well, almost the oldest." He made his eyebrows bounce, he was obviously proud of the fact.
"I am one of the caretakers of the museum."
Ah, that explained a lot.
"If you care to visit, you can tell the person at the door that you know Liam. That, of course, would be me."
"Of course," William nodded and took a sip of his beer. "And I must congratulate you on your ale, Liam, it is very good!" And it was.
"Thank you, sir. The museum is right down the street, on your lefthand side-"
"Hey, Liam, start moving your feet, man, our glasses are dry! We are desperate for a refill!" That cry informed Liam of impending doom, so he wished Hilda and William a nice day and quickly made off to the table from where the emergency was about to happen.
"Too bad he was called away, he was very informative," Hilda mumbled in her glass. She knew that William would be able to hear her though.
He nodded. "Maybe we should have a look in that museum. You never know..."
After finishing the beers, Hilda's thoroughly watered down, they left a few silver coins on the table, wished Liam a good day and left the pub.
"Nice man," William agreed.
They walked along the street. Nobody minded them or asked them anything, it was clear that the people from this village were used to having strangers around. They looked at the shops and what there was on display behind the windows. Hilda drooled over some of the dresses, but walked along after not too much pressure from William.
"We can always come back here again," he said, "and then you can look and try them all on if you want."
Hilda clung to his arm. "I hope you're right."
William understood what she meant.
They reached the museum. It was impossible to miss. The street, empty except for the people, suddenly was almost littered with large signs that pointed out with arrows and large words that the passers-by could find the museum of the royals to their left.
"Looks like we managed to find it," William grinned as he steered them towards the entrance.
There was a young man at the entrance to the museum. He had a face that reminded them of a mouse, small and pointy.
"Hello," said William, "we would like to visit the museum. Liam told us it is here."
"Oh. Did he. Two silvers."
"Two silvers, for a look at your dead kings?", Hilda flared up, "do you think that's for real?"
Mouse-face stared at her as he stepped back. "One of them is still alive," he tried.
"Brent. Let these people enter the museum."
Mouse-face startled and looked around to the man that came out of the building. "Gio, you are here."
"Yes, and by the looks of it that is a good thing. You are the scoundrel still, Brent. One more time and you will be on report. Then you can kiss your occupation goodbye."
Mouse-face shrunk as if a basin full of too hot water was poured out over him. He nodded and tried to become even smaller.
"May I be of assistance?", the man that mouse-face had called Gio asked the magical couple.
42. The plan (3)
Gio showed Hilda and William around in the museum. It wasn't a very impressive tour, as there were a full one painting and one statue per king that had ruled here, and the number of kings was quite limited.
The last room though was of particular interest. The room with the images of king Herald.
As they entered the room, the surprise was solid. Two paintings. Two statues.
Gio grinned. "I am sure you were not prepared for that."
Hilda's eyes were glued to the statue of a person wearing blue clothes and a white mask. William felt how she tensed up.
"This is king Herald," Gio pointed at the stone man in the scarlet uniform. The king looked quite small compared to the sorcerer that was standing next to him. The difference was almost a head.
"I see you are surprised that there are two statues. Well, that was by special request of the king. He, and our land too, owes so much to his powerful sorcerer that he ordered a statue and a painting made of the high Lamador, to be placed with his own image."
It was what Hilda had already been afraid of. William felt her tremble and put an arm around her shoulders, holding her tightly against him.
"Ah, I see the young lady is a bit terrified of the sorcerer. Yes," Gio babbled, "he is quite an overwhelming figure, even when just present in stone like this."
"Have you met him then?", William asked Gio.
"Met him? The hi
gh Lamador? Oh no, sir, he would not come to this village, a small nothing. No, the high Lamador will not go out of the capital and will stay near the king as much as he can, to ensure the king's safety." Gio snickered at the thought of Lamador coming to this place and shook his head.
William refrained from asking more questions. He was certain they had seen enough. Hilda was already gently pushing him, she wanted to leave, so they thanked Gio for guiding them around and quickly left the building. Outside they saw Brent again, the mouse-face, who was keeping to the side of the building, hoping the two would not see him. Alas, they did.
As Hilda and William walked away, the wicked witch snipped her fingers that were invisible under William's arm. A lot of agitation suddenly arose in the street and the couple turned round to see what it was. William seriously wondering, Hilda as she wanted to see the result of the snip. They were in time to see Brent bending down to pull his trousers back up. Laughing, they walked back to the large wall with its openings, and made for their brooms.
"It is really bad here," William noted as they were in the air again.
"Yes. Worse than I thought even. And you were right, William, he is using the king to play his games. If the king even allows his court sorcerer to have a larger statue than he has himself, then there is something very wrong." Hilda felt really uncomfortable, the more as she sensed a similar thing coming from William. But in a way it assured her that he was with her, also in that sense. He was not going to do foolish things, she was certain of that.
They flew on, not speaking much, until the capital came near. And a capital it was. It was white, so white