showed through far too many soldiers everywhere. Gountar and his horde took them to a nice suite where they could freshen up and rest.

  "The king will call for you towards the evening. Dinner will be brought to your chambers. Do not attempt to leave the room. Lights in this wing will be extinguished magically." After that shorthand message he and many of the others paced away. A servant was left in charge of housing Lambert and his men.

  Captain Lambert wished the witch and the wizard a good evening. "I hope we will see each other again soon, getting ready to go home."

  "I second that, Captain," said Hilda. "We'll do our best."

  The captain saluted her and William, then the group followed the servant.

  There were a mere four guards remaining in the corridor, and they were clearly waiting for Hilda and William to go into their suite so they could lock up.

  They went inside. The door closed. No sound of a lock being moved. Hilda checked the door and nodded. "Magic." William took the dice from his pocket and Hilda inflated their luggage. Then they had a look around the quarters they were assigned to.

  They had their own large bedroom, with two separate beds. Hilda looked at that construction and shook her head. "That's never going to work... we can't stay afloat all night to be together..." She took her wand and fixed the error. "That's more like it."

  William appreciated her wandiwork. The bed was wide, looked very comfortable too. It was made of wood, painted as white as the outside of the castle was and had fine carvings along the side. The pillows and covers were red and looked as if they were made of satin, although the fabric was different to the touch.

  Then they had a look at the bathroom, which was quite large. Everything seemed marble or at least very much like it, laid out in beige tones. Red thick towels lay waiting to be used. That got the seal of approval too, as did the living room they had at their disposal.

  The living room offered three large windows that looked out over the city, Heraldion. The windows were closed and not meant to be opened. Thick carpets in brown and green lay scattered over the floor, with a large stone table and six stone chairs in the centre, three chairs on each side of the table. All of them were dark grey with light grey streaks in the stone, and everything was polished to a shine. Everywhere they found low stone tables with a large candle on it.

  "At least this is all nicely in place." William had discovered a stone box that turned out to be a bar. There was water, he found several kinds of wine and some bottles that he was not sure of.

  Before indulging in the goodies that the royal apartments had to offer though, they first retreated to the large bath and enjoyed a long soak together. By the time they emerged from their water antics, a large amount of food had appeared on the stone table in the living room.

  "Magical room service," William grinned as they saw the treats.

  "At least the king here knows how to treat guests," Hilda said as they charged the food. It was delicious.

  "It's an interesting way to treat people who have insulted a high-ranking diplomat from here, though," William thought out loud. "Somehow this strikes me as odd."

  "Well, you have to consider that so far Herald's only heard one side of the story. That is why we are here."

  William looked at Hilda and nodded. "I see that, but this treatment is still quite amazing."

  The witch put down her fork as she felt something from within William. "Perhaps, sweet man, you have forgotten that." She pointed at the door which was sealed magically. "Yes, this is better than a cell in a dungeon, but we are still locked in and very restricted in our doings. A golden cage, but still a cage."

  After dinner, they went looking for the proper things to wear for the meeting with King Herald and Lamador. The great sorcerer was bound to be present. To keep everyone in the belief that William was not magical, he put on ordinary's clothes, the grey velvet trousers and a green shirt. Simple footwear and a leather belt completed his outfit.

  Hilda had donned her magnificent red dress and tucked up her hair in an extremely complicated braided pattern. She had a purple cape around her which went stunningly with the red dress.

  After getting dressed there was nothing but for them to wait. They looked out the big windows to get glimpses of life in the city, but darkness was already creeping in, so their view was rather limited. That was about the same with everything they could do, so they were getting rather annoyed sitting around waiting.

  William knew it was all a psychology trick. Hilda knew they did it on purpose.

  Finally, darkness had spread thickly around the castle, the door opened and Gountar entered the room. "The king will see you now."

  Hilda, William right behind her, walked out the room, where an escort of four more men was waiting for them. These were new people, Hilda sensed that all of them were high-level magical. With all that protection around, the group started walking down the corridor and descended the stairs they had come up a few hours before.

  After a journey through a maze of corridors they were taken into a hall that was immense. William thought that a cathedral could be jealous of such space. Instead of the regular stone and marble, this hall seemed to be decorated with nothing but gold and silver. It was so overdone that it looked tacky.

  The two were brought to a couple of large thrones, also made of gold. They walked over a long white carpet, whiched like a thick linen mat, very soft and also sound-supressing. Gountar walked ahead of them and magically forced them to stop at a certain point while he walked on.

  "King Herald, Queen Warda, here are the two people you have summoned, to answer to the insults they made Tudris suffer from."

  "Tudris??" William let the name slip from his mouth.

  Gountar turned around. "You are not to speak unless spoken to."

  A bolt of energy reached William, which obviously was meant to seal his lips. He played along.

  Hilda looked at him and caught his near hidden wink. She nodded. She too was surprised to hear the name Tudris. So it wasn't Lamador who had felt insulted after all?

  "Show them to us," a surprisingly boyish voice said. Gountar stepped aside and gestured Hilda and William to come closer.

  They walked up to the thrones that were placed on a dais overloaded with gold and ruby ornaments. King Herald looked very young indeed, not a day older than twenty. His wife, Queen Warda, looked like seventeen. Hilda stared at the two in surprise.

  The royal highnesses wore burgundy red robes with dark blue patches. The red parts of the robes were covered with pearls. They looked rich, pompous and showed no taste at all.

  "Grimhilda. We meet again," the young king said, leaning forward slightly. "When was the last time... fifteen years ago, during the latest challenge?"

  "Yes, something like that," Hilda replied.

  William could not believe this. A king that was five at the last time Hilda met him? And he recalled that?

  "And now we meet here again, under rather unfortunate circumstances," said Herald. "Now, before we go further on that, do introduce me to the man you have brought with you."

  "This," Hilda took William by the hand, "is my friend. William Connoley."

  William remembered to stay in his mouth-sealed role just in time.

  King Herald whispered something to his wife, who giggled behind her hand. Very well-trained, many of his court that were assembled in the hall giggled or chuckled along with her.

  "Well, William Connoley, it is nice to meet you."

  William just nodded, then looked at Gountar, pointing at his mouth. Hilda sensed how William was grinning on the inside and could hardly suppress a grin of her own.

  Gountar made a noise, cast magic and William sensed it. That should free his speech again.

  "It is an honour meeting you, your majesty," said the wizard in hiding. "And the queen too, of course."

  Herald and Warda allowed him a nod, then Herald addressed Hilda again. "Interesting choice for a witch, to befriend an ordinary man."

  Hilda stood
proud. "It is my choice. Nobody else's."

  King Herald nodded. "Well. Back to business..."

  As if the whole thing was rehearsed, Lamador and the man Tudris stepped from behind the two thrones. Lamador stood next to the queen, Tudris stood next to King Herald.

  Lamador's face was neutral as he saw the two. He just nodded at William and greeted Hilda in a very official way.

  Tudris clearly was having troubles to contain his anger when he saw them. "There they are," was the first thing he hissed, as he pointed at Hilda. "They are the ones that humiliated me. They need to be punished."

  King Herald raised his hand. "Calm, brother, we'll get to the bottom of this."

  "Brother?" Hilda as well as William were stumped by that little revelation.

  Herald looked at the two. "Yes. He is my brother. You did not know that?" The king looked at his brother. "You did not tell them?"

  "No."

  King Herald rose. "Idiot. You make so much noise over all of this?" He did not sound very friendly towards his brother. Then he turned to Lamador. "And you knew about that?"

  Lamador calmly looked his king in the eye. "I did not feel I was the one to introduce your brother as the king's kin."

  Tudris tried to push around King Herald. "But you said-"

  "Silence, you fool. Do you know what you are causing by all of this?", Herald turned back to his brother.

  As all this was going on, Hilda kept her eye on the great sorcerer. There was not a trace of emotion on the man's face, but Hilda just knew that there was something wrong in the picture that she saw.