Hilda - The Challenge

running to open the door for them. They left the carriage and were led up to where King Walt and his wife were waiting to officially welcome them back into the country. Hilda later commented on that, that she thought the whole thing a bit silly as they flew in and out of the country quite a lot and nobody ever seemed to notice that.

  King Walt welcomed them back and introduced them officially to his wife, Queen Velma. Of course, Hilda already knew her better than she cared to, but not to disappoint the king she played along. Queen Velma was quite calm and reserved, trying to hold back her displeasure at once more seeing the wicked witch, who had so effectively hindered her so proficiently in dealing with King Walt's daughter.

  William tried to be as calm and relaxed as he could, although the entire spectacle drew his attention to all places at once. After the official part was over, the queen walked off as quickly as she could, because she was certain that Walt would not hold the music off much longer. She was right: the last yards into the castle she crossed dancing, much to the delight of Hilda and the king.

  Then the guests were asked to tell the king about what had happened and how they had managed to return, as the original letter from King Herald had sounded very threatening. On the way home they had already decided that it would be best if Hilda were to handle that one, as it was bound to come up. The audience gasped for air at all the right moments, as Hilda told about the confrontation with the king and his brother, and also as they learned about the untimely death of Tudris.

  King Walt did not ask anything about the challenge they were facing still, as that was not something that had to be discussed or even mentioned in public. That was witchy business and it ought to stay that way.

  The feast that ensued made all the hassle and unpleasantness of the past week fade to the background, and in the evening Hilda as well as William were very glad they were brought to their house by carriage again. Flying would have been highly risky as wine had been flowing liberally. Hilda had done her best to water it down; at a certain point she had even started doing that for William. There were however glasses that slipped through the watering down process as the party progressed...

  "Okay, so now we are going to do this together, William," said Hilda. They were standing in front of the chained-up house. "Let's see what we can do here."

  They both were swaying on their feet. The carriage had dropped them off and left. The magical couple had created several dozen floating, light-emitting balls that hung around them. Even witches and wizards need some light, after all.

  William, grinning like an idiot, pointed his hand at the iron mass like Hilda did. Wands did not want to appear in the hands of drunk magical ones, to avoid incredible disaster. "Okay, sweetwitch, got that. Now what, before I fall over?"

  Hilda giggled, holding on to William as she was far from sober as well, and therefore in for a bad morning. "Now you will the iron away. Just go make it poof and away and - well, you know!"

  "Oh, you mean like..." - William waved his hand - "...poof."

  The house was still covered in iron chains.

  "No, silly man, like this..." Hilda waved her hand. "Poof."

  The house was still covered in iron chains.

  "That's what I did," William muttered, "you know nothing." He tried it again, with the same result.

  "Well, at least I know more nothings than you do, silly man," Hilda flared up. She snipped her fingers and the iron chains were gone. "See? Now you apologise and you have to carry me inside."

  "Okay, okay, I will apologise for carrying you inside," William agreed, picking her up as he spoke.

  "That's better," Hilda mumbled, folding her arms around his neck and treating William to a wet and sloppy kiss.

  With a proper amount of effort William made it to the door that opened by itself. The house refrained from comments. It was certain there would not be responses it could take seriously, so better to forego the whole thing until perhaps the morning after.

  After a lot of stumbling and laughing from inside the house, the night finally attempted to settle over the magical location, ignoring the floating bright globes that the witchy couple had forgotten to extinguish.

  57. Shopping

  "Wand... need wand..."

  Several moments later: "Ahhhhh... Never, never again. Help me remember." Even more moments later: "Hey, did you hear me?"

  "Urgh... stop trying to kick me out of bed..."

  "Get your wand, William, that can fix the hurting head." Hilda promptly felt sorry for kicking him. Magic and alcohol did not mix, and it was obvious now that magic was taking a more prominent place in William's being. He had not gone through this before, and was going through the mother of all hangovers.

  William's hand appeared over the covers. His wand appeared. "And next?"

  Hilda pointed the tip of his wand to where his head probably was. "Now just ask for the pain to go away."

  "Okay..." A few seconds of nothing. "Holy Bejeebus. It works." William sat up and grinned. "You're amazing."

  "Just you remember that, William Connoley." Hilda winked, and let herself fall back on her pillow. "So I have done the good thing. Your turn now. Food. Lots of it."

  William laughed as he saw her self-satisfied face. Before he could get up though, she grabbed his arm.

  "Stop. Lots of good morning kisses first. Goes so well with breakfast."

  William agreed, so it took a while before they were drinking tea and eating assorted goodies.

  Suddenly Hilda said: "I guess you're right."

  "Eh? Right? I didn't say anything." William looked across the table without understanding her remark.

  "No, but you thought something and I am afraid you are right."

  "Oh. Right. It's the feely thing, isn't it?" William understood and shivered. How she did that was uncanny. The fact that Hilda grinned over his new feeling did not make him feel any better.

  "I'm sorry, William, I won't tease you any more. But not any less either."

  Her laughing made him feel good again. He loved it when she laughed. "So you agree then. We should pay another visit to Gurthreyn."

  "Yes. The first time together was scary. I think going there again will help. Somewhat." Hilda slowly continued eating after that.

  They went out to do the rounds together, as by now had become usual. This time the shepherds were their target of mischief again. Hilda and William worked together to make all sheep float away from their field and put them down again about half a mile away. The shepherds were thankful they got off so easy this time. The time they had ended up with coloured sheep had been a less funny one, even though the magical ones had arranged to make the colours wash off. After a while.

  "So when do you think would be a good time to go to Gurthreyn?", Hilda asked as they were lazing a bit in the sun, on their sun chairs.

  "Hmmm... a good time... I have a distinct feeling that there is no such thing as a 'good time' for that. But in a few days would be good, I reckon. After we rest up from this weird trip to Heraldion."

  Hilda nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Resting is good. I feel lazy... could you snip your fingers for more tea?"

  William sighed. "Lazy witch..." He snipped his fingers and their cups were refilled. "I hope that's to your liking, your witchiness."

  Hilda glared at her cup. "Are you sure that's the same tea I had before?"

  "Hardly, dear. That's inside you already."

  The wicked witch cast a nasty look at William. "You are lucky I love you. People have died for less."

  William grinned, patted her head and said: "Good witch, no grumping. Just drink tea and enjoy sunshine, okay?"

  Hilda magicked up a big smile, closed her eyes and nodded. "Will do. So pipe down."

  Her comment caused the opposite: William roared for laughter after that, and she lay laughing at least as hard.

  The house sighed, while the goldfish on Hilda's cup were lost for words.

  Over the next few days, William kept studying the texts about the magician Gurthreyn,
trying to come up with clues about the man and the place. Sometimes he'd read passages to Hilda out loud. Maybe she would hear something in his words that he kept missing. But she didn't. The only reaction it evoked from her was a sigh and the question why on earth he was bothering with all that, as so far nothing had come out of it.

  "William, you start to worry me."

  "And why is that?" William paged through the scrolls again.

  "You're obsessed with Gurthreyn."

  "I want to be prepared. That's different."

  "Sure looks the same to me, William."

  "Looks can be deceiving, my lovely little Gurthreyn."

  For a moment Hilda stared at him, then burst out laughing. "Damn you, stupid wizard, even though I sensed you were going to tease me, I fell for that and was going to hurt you!! Arrgh!!" She ran over to William, who was sitting at the table, and started batting him over the head, screeching as a real witch.

  William laughed as he tried to ward off her avalanche of hits. Even though they were not hard, there were very many of them, as Hilda was a very agile person with perfect eye-hand coordination.

  "And now I demand that you put that stuff aside and come with me. We're going to the village, for some shopping."

  "We go... shopping?" The utterly mundane concept of shopping had so far never crossed Hilda's lips, nor had it William's mind.

  "Uhuh. Come on, sweet man, I am sure you are familiar with the concept?" Hilda frowned, looking at him. "You must have gone shopping in that insane world of yours."

  "Of course. But I have been here since months now and