Hilda - Lycadea

by Paul Kater

Published by the author at Smashwords - Copyright 2011-Paul Kater

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Contents:

1. Twok

2. Moro

3. Introductions

4. Broom

5. Kings, queens and dinner parties

6. Crystal

7. So, where are we?

8. Shock

9. A strange meeting

10. Collecting

11. Questions and more questions

12. On board the Mimosa

13. The grey planet

14. The high council (1)

15. The high council (2)

16. Exploring

17. Lycadea

18. Uh-oh

19. Rescue mission

20. Going out again

21. Breaking and entering

22. A thing

23. The big picture

24. Float, float, float your couch...

25. A floating face

26. House arrest

27. Through the wall, in the air

28. Sad country

29. Hello

30. To the village

31. The village of the old ones

32. On the rocks

33. Hilda and Kerna

34. Hilda, William and Kerna

35. The next step

36. Pyramid City

37. A Pallazi in trouble

38. Meeting on Lycadea

39. Meanwhile, back at the pyramids

40. Progress

41. More stars

42. Tilt

1. Twok

"I hope I am not disturbing your peace," said the house, "but there is a gentleman with a bow who is aiming at the pole for the messages and it looks like he - "

Twok.

" - as I already was afraid, he is not very proficient at this," the house finished. There was no comment from the two magical people who lay draped over the purple couch.

"It chipped some paint too," the house tried, but even that shocking announcement was not enough to evoke some movement. "Fine. Be like that. I'll just fall apart around you and maybe you will notice someday."

A black shape dropped from a bookshelf, landed on all fours with barely a sound and tiptoed to the door. Grimalkin sat down and inspected a paw, waiting for the house to open the door. "Meow," she complained as the house took rather long to understand her intentions.

"Oh. You," the house finally said, sounding almost reluctant, and the door swung open. "Try not to soil anything that's attached to me, please."

Grimalkin did not bother to respond to that; she was a clean cat and the house knew that. It just needed something to whine about.

"Oh dear, there is number two," the house sighed as Obsidian Shadow made his way to the door also.

"Stop that," Hilda commented from the couch. "We are relaxing and we can do that just fine without you going on about every little nothing."

"Oh, excuse me for still standing," the house grouched, "I am just trying to tell you- now how did they do that?" The grouchiness had entirely disappeared from the voice of the house. The sudden change in its sound caused movement in the two shapes on the couch also.

"What did they do?" Hilda walked over to the door and was just in time to see Grimalkin come back in with an arrow clenched between her teeth. The black cat stopped and dropped the arrow on the ground. "William, did you see that?"

The wizard was right behind her and he had seen it. "We got us a few really special cats, Hilda. Usually just dogs fetch things." He watched as Hilda picked up the arrow and unrolled the piece of paper that was attached to it.

"May I ask for a moment of attention for the paint?" the house enquired.

"No," two voices simultaneous said, as their owners were reading the scrap of paper. Obsi came in again, his tail flicking left and right, almost as in victory.

"How do you get a large boat in a lake?" Hilda wondered as she sat down on the couch again.

William shrugged and reread the paper. "Honourable witch, there is a large boat in the Green Lake. Can you help?" He rubbed his nose. "How do you get a boat over there anyway," he wondered, "the Green Lake is surrounded by hills."

"Crappedy crap, never a dull moment, William," Hilda said. "Care for a quick flight to Green Lake? It's been a while since we were there."

The two summoned their brooms and walked out the door. "Say, house," William then said, "what's that with the paint?"

The house seemed mute for a while, then said: "This has been resolved, William."

"Resolved? How that? You were going on about it as if you were on fire."

"It was your black creature," the house said.

William looked at the black cat that innocently sat on the brush of his broom. "Obsi? What did you do?" A black head turned towards him, treating him to a gentle meow. "Holy Bejeebus, I have to start watching you," the wizard muttered.

Hilda locked the house and broomed up into the air, with William right behind her.

-=-=-

The flight to Green Lake was a nice reason to be out. The sun was shining, the breeze was nice and warm, and the ordinaries in the fields were working their butts off, so everything felt quite right.

"Are you telling me that your cat fixed the paint-problem on the house?" Hilda asked, seemingly out of the blue. She had captured Williams thoughts through the bond they shared.

"Sounded like it," William nodded, scratching Obsi's head. "I didn't check. I'll have a look when we get home."

"Just what we need: magical cats." Hilda looked at her wizard. "Keep him under control, will you? I already have my hands full with you." She grinned. "Well, tonight again anyway."

Joking and laughing like that, the trip to the Green Hills, where the Green Lake was, went very fast. The water of the actual lake was not green, of course, but wherever you stood along its edge, you saw the reflection of one of the Green Hills in the water. That was why the locals had started calling it the Green Lake. Before some bright mind had thought of that, the water was known merely as the lake. Of course, the lake could not care less.

Hilda and William approached the Green Hills. From their high position they soon spotted the boat. "That is one eyesore," William commented.

"It's black, that's a good thing," Hilda defended the bulky vessel as they came closer.

On the ground they noticed a handful or people standing, probably observing the ship. It floated close to the lake's edge. Two sturdy chains, one front and one on the back, kept the large black thing in place. It was about one hundred and fifty feet long, and sixty feet high as well as wide. As Hilda had already remarked, black was the prominent colour. They saw several men running over the deck and strange openings in the hull.

"Do you think that's a slaver's ship with people in chains rowing the boat?" Hilda asked, more interested in the openings than in the men.

"I doubt that. There would be oars sticking from the holes. Unless they have a magical person on board to make them disappear, in which case they probably don't need slaves." William thought his logic was flawless.

They circled the ship, as Hilda said: "And what if the slaver is the magical person?"

"He then would be a sod if he would wear out his merchandise," William said.

"Oh, hush you."

The wizard grinned.

They hovered near one of the four masts, each one set with full red sails. As they ignored the shouts of the men below, they inspected the oval symbol that was on each sail, painted in white. William asked Hilda if she knew what that oval would mean, but she shrugged. She had never seen it before like that. From their high position they looked at the surprising stern of the ship. It was not only look far too high but it was also larger than one would expect. It was at least sixty feet long, covering over one third of the deck.

The men on the ship ran to the other side as not to lose sight of the two brooms and their occupants as the magicals swerved around the ship. Some of the men were shouting, some were whistling, and one of them ran to the hulky stern, to disappear through one of the doors in the high construction.

"Suck an elf, William," Hilda said as she pointed to a few remarkably familiar constructions on the deck. "Am I losing it or are those chicken coops?"

William confirmed her suspicions, the wooden shapes looked very much like chicken coops.

They completed their tour of the ship and had another big surprise as they reached the bow. There the ship sported a huge white, oval crystal. It had an uncanny resemblance to the symbol on the sails. The crystal, three feet high and about two feet wide, was guarded by a big man. The man had a great sword hanging from his belt and a strange yellow stick in his hand. The stick competed with the red sails in being the most cheerful object aboard.

"Hey, hello there," William called out to the man near the crystal, "can you tell us who runs this ship?"

The big bald man, he wore brown and green striped baggy pants and a red tunic, looked at the people on brooms that hovered close to the hull. "I can." His large black moustache made threatening movements as he said the two words. For some reason he was not in the least amazed by flying brooms.

Hilda decided to go for the direct approach. She swung her broom around and lightly touched down on the black deck. The men who were on deck first made a run towards her, but when William landed, they stopped and kept a safe distance.

"Now why do they stop when you come in and not when I do?" Hilda wanted to know.

William shrugged. "Let's go and ask them."

The two cats that had come with the two magicals were already wandering around on the deck, entirely unimpressed by the men that grouped together and talked among themselves. As their humans started to move towards the men, they quickly followed. After all, they had come along to participate in the fun.

"See that?" Hilda pointed. "Chicken coops. That one actually has chickens in it."

William nodded. Obsi and Grim had found that out already. They had also found that the wire in front of the chicken's fortress was quite able to keep the chickens in and them out.

"Hello there," the witch then addressed the people on the deck. "Who are you, what are you doing here, and how, by all things magical, did you get this ship in this lake?"

The men probably made up the crew of the ship. The striped shirts, black pants and big arms with many a tattoo made that very obvious. It was a bit eerie to the magicals that the men who had yelled so loudly as they had flown around the ship now remained silent.

"Come on, you people," said William, "I am certain you can still speak. Our cats have not been near your mouths, so that can't be the problem."

The men stared at the wizard in his purple cloak. So did the witch.

"William," she sighed, "when will you stop saying this kind of disturbing things? I am sure that these gentlemen now are worried about you." She turned to the men. "So, gentlemen. Who is running this show?"

The assembly of sailors remained quiet. The only sounds came from the sails that flapped in the gusts of wind, the meowing of one of the cats, and then also from a door that was thrown open somewhere out of view.

2. Moro

The line of sailors split up and gave Hilda and William an unobstructed view of the door that had opened. It was one of the several doors in the enormous building that was the stern. The darkness that lay behind the door was clearly visible against the black of the building, proving that black is not just black. A heavy thumping started, making the deck tremble. Bong... krrr... bong... krrr... went the sound and each bong made the wood under everyone's feet shiver. The krrrs that filled up the time between the bongs gave the impression that some kind of clockwork was operating, hidden in the bowels of the ship.

Onyx Grimalkin and Obsidian Shadow found safe havens between the legs of their humans. The humans looked at each other for a moment, after which their eyes were pulled to the open door again. All the sailors' eyes were on it too as a shape appeared from it. It was huge, if not downright enormous. It had big feet which it dragged from what had to be a staircase, and manoeuvred itself into a normal standing posture.

William's eyes almost popped out of his head. "That is the most incredible robot I have ever seen," he said. This of course was easy; the robots he had seen could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

"A what?" asked Hilda. She stared at a huge metal man with its oversized tin head, red blinking eyes and round mouth.

"Well, well, what do we have here," the voice echoed. It had to come from inside the metal hulk. The metal apparition raised one of its arms, a massive cylinder that hung from its broad shoulders, and pointed at the witch and the wizard. The sound reverberated inside the round and big body. It look like a elongated barrel standing on two overdone legs with wide thick feet.

Krrr... bong.... krrr.... bong.... The krrr happened as a chain, retracting into the metal belly where it came from, pulled up a leg. The gleaming, coppery body leaned forward a bit and the chain released. The foot bonged onto the deck, sending tremors through the black wood. Then the other leg was krrr'd up with the inevitable bong to follow. The thing moved forward sluggishly, but it looked as if not much would be able to stop it.

"Right, William, you seem to know this kind of thing. What should we do now?" Hilda popped up her wand as she spoke and was ready to use it. Before William could reply, the tin man on steroids stopped its advance. A rattling noise rang inside it. A small cloud of steamy air puffed from the thing's head, accompanied by a merry hiss, and the entire machine seemed to sag where it stood.

"Wait, wait," a concerned voice said. Its owner had to be inside the robot-shape. "I'm coming out..."

As a precaution, William also made his wand appear. A hushed whisper went through the lines of sailors, much to the annoyance of the witch. She had popped up her wand first, after all.

Something squeaked. It was a sound so unexpected that it drew Hilda away from her upcoming grumblings. A few clunks and screeches later a man in a long red coat stepped around the metal hulk. "Bon giorno, dear people."

Hilda reached for William's sleeve and held it. "Suck an elf... what is that?"

The man they saw brushed his shoulder-length black hair back and made a bow. His hair fell forward again of course. As he raised himself up again, leaning heavily on the sword at this belt, he introduced himself as the captain of the 'Mimosa'. "My name," he said with an Italian accent, "is Doctor Maurizio Blunt."

"Doctor who?" William asked.

"No, not him," Maurizio Blunt said, "Doctor Maurizio Blunt." The man raised both hands and stared at them with the eye that did not have an eye patch over it. He shook his head and then scratched his head. "I am sorry, the hook has not long gone. You may understand my confusion."

The magical couple almost needed supports for their jaws. "When are they going to do something about that stick under your knee?" Hilda managed.

Maurizio looked down and laughed. "Oh, that, the wooden leg. Oh no, signora, I like that. It adds something to the appearance, do you think not? Now, may I have the honour of knowing your names? One of my people told me that you were flying on a... scopa? Broom? Like a real witch?"

Hilda planted her left hand on her hip and pointed her wand at the man in the red coat. "A real witch. Yes. You got that right. I'm Grimhilda the witch and this is William. He's a wizard. Now you know us and you can tell us why your ship is in this lake. And how it got here. And what's that?!" She added the last question in amazement as a colourful bird flew from the darkness behind the door and landed on Maurizio's shoulder.

William laughed out loud. "That, Hilda, is a parrot. And that's a very pretty one too, Mr. Blunt."

The colourful captain did not respond to William immediately. He turned to the men that were grouped behind him. "Hey, ragazzi, don't you have things to do?"

"Nope," one of the men said, crossing his arms over his massive chest. He seemed entertained by the goings-on.

"I see," said Maurizio. "Carry on anyway." He shrugged as he turned back to Hilda and William.

The parrot was not pleased with that. "Watch it!" it screamed, regaining its balance.

"Shut up, Polly," Maurizio snapped. William collapsed with laughter as he heard the name. Hilda frowned at him, not getting the fun of it.

"Shut up, shut up!" The colourful bird retorted to the man on whose shoulder it was perched.

"Perdone," Maurizio said, "the bird is like that sometimes." He lifted the eye patch, rubbed the eye beneath it and then moved the patch to the other eye. Polly started gnawing the strap that held the patch in place and snapped at fingers as the make-belief pirate captain slapped at her.

"Hey," said Hilda, "aren't you forgetting something? I asked you questions and all you did was get bird poop on the back of your coat."

Hilda was not about to get her answers. The new interruption came in the shape of a female voice that yelled out "Moro!"

Polly flew up from the man's shoulder and screamed: "Rebel! Rebel!" It found a new place to sit on the head of one of the sailors, who seemed to be used to that. Maurizio looked at the magicals in despair. He raised his arms and let them fall down his sides. "You hear... Rebel." Over his shoulder he yelled: "On the deck!"

"Easy, Hilda," said William. Through their bond he sensed that she was quickly getting to boiling point as she was definitely not in control of the situation. He took her hand and squeezed it.

"Don't you easy me," she grumbled as she pulled her hand free. "I'm the witch here and he is trespassing." Before the wizard could do something she was pacing towards the man with the eye patch. "Now listen..."

As one, the group of sailors started moving. At an astounding speed they appeared between Hilda and their captain, effectively blocking her from getting to him. For the moment, anyway. She swung her wand, muttered something and the large men were throw left and right, as if a magical bowling ball had hit them. The men did not need more encouragement to move away as far as they could.

Maurizio's neck muscles worked overtime as he looked left and right, trying to keep an eye on whoever had shouted at him inside the ship and on Hilda who was still charging at him. "Madonna," he moaned, looking at William for help that did not come. William was a wizard, and no fool.

As Hilda approached the man, William noticed someone else coming from the dark hole who also paced towards the captain. It had to be the woman whose voice they had heard. She had short brown hair that stood out as if it was electrically charged. Sunlight bounced from the many copper-coloured ornaments that were all over her clothes.

"Now listen," said the witch, who had reached the captain. "Why are you here and how did you get here? And while we're at it, when are you leaving again?"

"Mi dispiace, madam Witch," Maurizio said as he tried to keep looking at the witch, "I am very sorry, but this was the closest place to land."

"Land? Hello, this is a ship, right?" Hilda asked.

Before the redcoat could reply, the copper-covered woman arrived. "Moro, who are these folks, and where are we?" she demanded to know.

"He's called Maurizio, not Moron," Hilda announced to the new arrival, "and I was talking to him."

"And who might you be?" the woman, who was clad in leather underneath all the small copper shields inquired.

"I am Grimhilda the witch." Hilda stared at the woman.

As Maurizio tried to step away, both women grabbed his coat. "Stay," two voices said.

"So you're a witch? Wow. I am impressed." The voice of the woman in leather made it clear that she thought something else. "Witches don't exist."

"Oh? And what's this?" Hilda waved her wand.

"It's a stick. It's just a small wooden stick."

"Hilda, perhaps we can-" William had come closer as he saw doom crawling onto the ship. His attempt to rein in Hilda however was cut short as the witch had already cast a spell onto the women in leather. The woman flew towards the metal hulk that Maurizio had climbed from and stuck to it. It was as if the huge construction was a magnet that attracted the copper plating on the woman's clothing.

"Everything's under control, sweet wizard," Hilda smiled, "and now we have that out of the way I am sure this man is ready to give us some answers."

Maurizio stood staring at the squirming woman who hung from the huge robot. "Mama mia, how did you do that?"

"Crappedy crap, don't you ever listen? I told you I am a witch!"

"Hilda," said William.

"Get me down!" screamed the woman.

"Do that yourself, Rebel!" Maurizio exclaimed.

"Rebel?" Hilda asked.

"Shut up," said Polly the parrot, who had returned to Maurizio's shoulder.

3. Introductions

The air over the black ship could have been frozen, were it not for the woman attached to the metal man. She was flapping her arms and kicking her feet while promising death and destruction to the world and its vicinity.

"Mrs. Witch," Maurizio Blunt said, "could you please bring Rebel down?"

Hilda tapped her wand against her leg. "Who is Rebel?"

The captain pointed at the leather and copper woman. "She's Rebel. Well, it is not her real name but Rebel fits her."

"You give me some answers when I let her go?"

"I promise," said the man.

Hilda nodded. "Hey, Rebel, get ready to fall," she said. Then she flicked her wand. "Suck an elf," was her reaction when she saw the woman fall - slowly. The woman, Rebel, landed on her feet so gently that she wouldn't have crushed the shell of an egg. "How did she do that?"

William also was very surprised about what he had seen. He scooped Obsi up and stroked his head, to have something to do. This, he had already decided, was not a normal black ship. Normal black ships didn't just appear in lakes, they didn't have man-carrying robots on board and they usually didn't have crew that could float towards the deck like a leaf with self-control.

Maurizio frowned. "Which question, Mrs. Witch, do you want me to answer first?"

"What do you think?" Hilda did not make it any easier on him. She kept her eye on Rebel, who had walked up to Maurizio and stood next to him, hands akimbo.

"I'm Donna Abrahams," the woman said, holding out a hand. "People call me Rebel. Oh, cute, a cat."

Rebel had noticed Obsi as William had come to stand next to Hilda; this all was becoming too interesting to miss. As Hilda ignored the hand offered, the wizard shook it for a moment. "William the wizard," he said, "and this is Grimhilda the witch. A real one, as you've noticed."

"Yeah, she's quite a piece of work," said Rebel.

Hilda raised her eyebrows. "A witch is not 'a piece of work'," she grumbled. "Now tell us where you came from and when you're leaving again. You've done nothing but upset the people in the village and our cats."

As William wondered where the upset cats had come in, Maurizio looked at his crew. "Go and do something," he said. The request was partially successful; the men moved about a bit, found places to sit and continued watching the scene. "Well, where we came from... is a bit difficult to explain. It is a bit strange."

"We're used to strange," William tried to boost the man's confidence.

"Va bene. We just escaped from a meteor shower." Maurizio's face showed doubt. He expected that the two people would not believe him.

"A what?" Hilda asked.

"A meteor shower?" William asked at the same time. "There's not been a meteor shower here in months." And to Hilda he explained: "Shooting stars."

Hilda nodded. "Yes, most people gave up shooting them. These stars are either too fast or too far away, really takes all fun out of the game."

"Eh? Shooting them?" Rebel looked lost. "The buggers almost took half the ship out. Good thing we came close to a sun that was powerful enough to fling us away. Which is what took us here. Wherever here is."

The conversation was amazingly confusing. Lots of questions were asked and answers were given but not understood. The most worrying approaches to this came from Hilda and Maurizio. William decided to break up all conversations. "Folks! Silence! And that means you too, sweetwitch," he hastily added as Hilda shot him a look. "I think we have to do some more constructive talk and explaining, okay?"

Rebel agreed. "About time. I'm getting brain wrecked here. Can I hold that kitty?"

Obsi meowed and jumped down, seeking safety with his sister.

Maurizio straightened his back. "Va bene, I suggest we go down to the lounge and talk over cappucino or espresso."

"What's that?" Hilda wanted to know. William quickly explained that it was coffee, which lit up her eyes.

"Xander, can you take that away?" Maurizio said to one of the sailors, pointing at the metal shape. The man nodded, and Maurizio asked his guests to follow him. To the lounge.

Hilda and William carried their cats. The animals did not seem to mind that one bit; the black heads with the yellow eyes looked around and seemed to take everything in, as did their humans. After going through the black door, the sounds of someone operating the large metal man fading behind them, they went down a few steps. Maurizio led them through a large iron door and they came in an immaculate white corridor. From that side, the iron door was not iron, but just as white as the rest.

"Holy Bejeebus, this looks like science fiction," said the wizard as he stepped into it.

"This is the Mimosa, wizard William," Maurizio said, "this is better than science fiction."

Hilda looked at her wizard, in need of help. William was talking all kinds of rubbish again and the worrying part was that now there were people around that actually understood what he said. She did not trust the clean white corridor with its smooth walls, barely visible doors left and right and light that seemed to come from nowhere.

William sensed the unease in his witch and put an arm around her shoulders. Hilda wasn't sure if that would make her look vulnerable, but considering this weird environment she did not really mind the protective touch of her wizard.

"This way, per favore," the redcoat captain said. His attire looked as out of place here as did that of the magicals.

At the end of the corridor, Maurizio touched a panel as they had seen next to every door. It radiated a faint yellow light and it became red as the man lay a hand on it. A moment later, without a sound, a door slid open and Maurizio ushered them in.

"I have redecorated it," he proudly told them once they were all inside.

"He means that he made the ship redecorate itself," Rebel burst his bubble, as she quickly made her way to a large counter with all kinds of gleaming objects. "Who's for espresso, who's for cappucino, who goes for latte and I believe we have tea here also."

William and Hilda looked around the lounge. "Maybe," he said, "that thing there is safe to sit on." He guided the witch to a deafeningly loud yellow blob that had the makings of a couch, but missed something to convincingly impersonate one. "I'll have a cappuccino, please. And I think Hilda can do with one also."

Maurizio looked pained but shrugged. "Espresso for me, cara," he said and pulled a sack covered with a flower design towards the almost-couch. He sat down in the thing, which seemed to blow itself up and mold itself to his body. "Welcome," the captain of the Mimosa said, smiling a big smile that revealed a silver front tooth.

From far away heavy thuds shook everything. Bong... bong... bong... Xander was obviously moving the metal man.

"Welcome, welcome," Polly babbled. The parrot was still on Maurizio's shoulder, feeling quite at home there. "Coffee!"

Hilda laughed over the antics of the talking bird. "Maybe we should get our cats to talk too," she suggested to William. "Ouch!" she added as Grimalkin buried a set of nails in Hilda's knee. The cat did not approve of the idea.

"Here we go, guys," said Rebel, carrying a tray with cups of coffee. She stomped her foot and the floor in front of the couch rose up, making a kid of table. Rebel put the tray on it, grabbed a large latte and sat down in a sack similar to Maurizio's.

Maurizio picked up a small cup with extremely black stuff, took a sip and sat back. "Bene. This ship, you know, is not the ordinary ship. We travel to places with it." He looked intensely at Hilda and William. "Strange places."

"Green Lake is not a strange place. I do agree that this ship is a weird one," Hilda said, sampling her cappucino. "Oh, good. Learn to make those, William."

Maurizio looked at Rebel who treated him to a mocking grin. "We go to places that are, as they say, out of this world." He frowned at his own words for a moment and considered Hilda. "Although I think that this world is also out of... this world."

William laughed. "I don't know what world you come from, but I can relate. I'm not from here either."

"Looks like you adjusted quite well, though," Rebel stated, "with your robes and flying around on a broom."

"That's just because he's with me," Hilda said over her coffee cup.

Maurizio tried to keep the answers going. "This ship flies through space. It goes to planets and... dimensions?" He looked at Rebel.

The woman nodded. "Yeah. I'm not all sure what and how, but it appears we're thrown through artificially generated wormholes that not only drift through space, but also through time and other dimensions." As the two magicals stared at her blankly, she elaborated: "It basically means that we never know where we're going."

Maurizio added: "And often we also do not know where we came from."

"I'll take a broom over something like that anytime," said Hilda. "At least that goes where you want. So where are you from? You don't sound like you are from near here. Or from far away here. I've been around, you know, I've heard a lot of dialects."

The man with the parrot sat up somewhat straighter. "I am, as I said, Maurizio Blunt. I am from la bella Italia. I lived near the Lago di Garda. That was around 1965."

William nodded slowly. "So you could be from my world," he said. "I'm from a small town near Pittsburgh."

"I have heard of Pittsboorgh," Maurizio displayed his knowledge. "It is in America."

Rebel put her coffee mug down. "I'm Donna Abrahams. Call me Rebel and I won't hurt you. I'm from the future, I guess. I was born in the 924th year after the Great Turnaround, in the city of greater Darwin in Oz."

"Oz? Australia?" William asked.

"Yeah, that's what they used to call it before the Great Turnaround," Rebel nodded. "More coffee anyone?"

4. Broom

During the second round of coffee Hilda and William told the two strange people who they were and in where they had arrived. Maurizio and Rebel both did not react too surprised, they had seen quite a lot of things already, that much was clear.

"So you are doing actual flying and witching and stuff?" Rebel asked. "That must be really cool. Maybe I should get me a broom also, Moro."

Maurizio looked at her, despair in his face. "No. Please. You want to try everything. In every place we arrive up you pick up some thing or some habit. Now you want to become a strega? A witch? You are a handful the way you are."

"Why does she keep calling you moron?" Hilda asked.

"Moron?" Rebel burst out laughing. "It's Moro. Friends can call him Moro, he seems to like that. And so do I, as it's easier than Maurizio. And faster." William gathered that sometimes that had to be an advantage, if these people were really jumping from one strange place to the next.

"So, when are you people leaving?" Hilda came back to business. "This is a weird place for a ship. We'll have to find some explanation for the people in the village, and perhaps even for King Walt. He's bound to hear about this sometime."

"You have a real king here?" Maurizio's eyes twinkled. "Can I see him? Does he have a big palace and a beautiful wife and guards in armour?"

Hilda looked at William. "Queen Velma isn't exactly beautiful, is she?"

"No, she misses some things to be beautiful. Beauty, for instance," William agreed.

"The castle is quite big, yes. There are guards, but perhaps not in the armour that you think of. I've seen better stuff. The things they wear look like hand-me-downs. But don't tell anyone I said so. I'll deny everything."

"Perhaps we should find out," William thought out loud, "if the king already heard about this ship. If he has, it would be good to let him meet Maurizio and Rebel. Either here or in the castle. After all, this is his country."

"True," Hilda said.

Maurizio prodded Rebel in the ribs and got a solid slap back. Rebel did not seem to appreciate being the punching bag. "Mama Mia, that would be fantastico," the captain said. "Can you go and find that out now?"

"Hey, hold on," Hilda said, "I'm the one asking the questions here, remember? So, when are you going to leave?"

"That depends on the light and the crystal," Maurizio shrugged, "we can never tell when the situation is good."

"The light and the crystal?"

Rebel explained as well as she could: "Did you see the large oval crystal on the bow? That is what generates the wormhole that sucks the ship in. We need a specific lightfall on the crystal for it to create the wormhole, and since light conditions are different in every place we pop up, it is always a surprise when it happens."

"And if it happens," Maurizio added.

"True," Rebel said, "we've been worried more than once that we might not be able to get away again. Usually from the places we really wanted to get away from."

There was a gentle gong-sound coming from somewhere. "Moro? The locals demand their witch back," a voice said.

Hilda jumped up, wand in hand, as she tried to locate the source of the voice. "What's that? You have a crystal ball somewhere?" To her chagrin, William grinned along with Rebel and Maurizio.

"Sweetwitch," the wizard said, "this ship seems to have some communication system. It is not a crystal ball, it is electronic. Usually. I must say that a crystal ball looks better."

"What's an electronic?" Hilda snapped, even though she did not want to. She felt outnumbered and seriously out of control. Especially the latter was devastating for her. "Oh, don't even answer that. They will leave and take all that stuff with them anyhow, so why do I care. I have to go and see what the villagers want." She looked around, trying to find the door that had let them in. "Crappedy crap," she said as she popped up her wand. "Ostium expositus."

The door had no choice. It opened. Maurizio and Rebel jumped from their sacks and stared as Hilda gathered her cat and marched out of the lounge. William picked up Obsi and rose. "Looks like the coffee break is over. Thanks, Rebel, good coffee." Then he hurried after his witch. The two people who had arrived on the Mimosa hurried after the wizard.

Hilda had progressed halfway through the corridor when she started to hesitate. "Crappedy crap, where am I and where did we get in?" All the doors in the corridor looked the same, with the yellow panels and nothing distinguishable. Grimalkin squirmed herself free from Hilda's hands, dropped to the floor and padded along the corridor as if it was home sweet home. The black animal trotted along until she reached a door that was slightly larger.

"Good girl," the witch said. She did her wand trick and the door opened. Hilda breathed in, relaxing as she saw the iron ornaments on the other side of the door. Normality was near.

William had caught up with her as she stepped through the door and went up the short staircase. "This is not your style, is it?" he grinned.

"Down there, that's no style, William. That's all white. Even Snow White would boggle at that, take my word for it." Hilda scanned the large deck. Most of the sailors had dispersed, apparently there were things to do after all. Only two of them stood near the railing with a few other people. Hilda recognised a few of them; they were from the village.

As the two magicals reached the small group, Hilda asked: "Mathis, Bronny, what are you doing here?"

The two men bowed. "Honourable witch, we were worried about you! We saw you get on this ship and then there was this big metal creature, and-"

"-And you think that I can't take care of myself," Hilda completed his words. "That's really kind of you, but I have a wand, I have magic, and I have a wizard. That should be enough to keep me safe, don't you agree? Oh, and I have a cat," she added as Grim meowingly complained about being left out.

"Actually," Bronny said, "we wanted to let you know that there is a messenger from the king. The king heard of the ship and he wants to know all about it."

"Oh." Hilda frowned for a moment. "Well, you get back into that little boat of yours and go tell the messenger that we'll be over at the castle as soon as we have something good to tell."

Mathis then said that the king also wanted to see the owner of the ship.

"That might present a problem," said Maurizio. "We don't know who the owner is. But we can easily solve that of course, if the king would be satisfied to see me, Doctor Maurizio Blunt."

"Doctor who?" Mathis scowled.

"Just call him captain Blunt," Rebel tossed in, "he responds well to that."

Bronny leaned towards Hilda. "They're not from around here, are they?" he asked in a whisper.

"Too true," Hilda sighed. "Now best you get to your oars again so we don't keep the king waiting." The two men agreed and climbed down the rope ladder. The sailors and magicals watched them row off to the small harbour that was the main attraction of the village.

"Friendly and caring people," Maurizio remarked.

"More like nosey and possessive," Hilda muttered, "but convenient from time to time. William, we should go and see the king."

"Can we come?" Maurizio immediately asked. "I can have a row boat ready very quickly!"

Hilda looked at her wizard, who sensed how she felt about that. He simply nodded. "Well, I guess you should be shown," she then said. "But what do you want to do with a row boat? Do you see a castle out there somewhere?"

Maurizio stared at her. "Ehm, no. But I thought..."

"You weren't thinking, Moro," Rebel said, "as usual you just get a crazy idea and you act like that is the truth."

"Usually it is," Maurizio argued, "and don't you go against me. I was right when I picked you up, remember? You'd be dead now, otherwise. Madonna, give me strength with this woman! But you can do your scary thing and take us there." The captain beamed as if he was competing with the sun.

"She does scary things?" William wondered. Perhaps taking them along wasn't such a good idea after all.

Before Maurizio could answer, Rebel said: "You know I can't go to places I have not been before, Moro. We'll have to arrange some other transport."

"Stop! Here and now!" Hilda was not in a mood to listen to bickering of that sort. "We'll take you with us and nobody will do scary things or they will meet the wrath of the witch. That's me."

William had already summoned the brooms; they hovered next to him. The cats had already jumped on their front seats. Maurizio and Rebel stared at the brooms.

"And how are you going to take us with you?" the redcoat captain asked as he pushed against one of the brooms with a finger. It did not move to the side.

Hilda hopped on her broom. "Rebel sits in front of me. You sit in front of William. Simple enough, right?"

Rebel walked to the broom with the witch. Hilda told her how to sit on it. The woman was very surprised to find that sitting on a broom felt totally different from what she had expected. William got on his broom and spent a while reassuring Maurizio that it was perfectly safe. "Better than what you told us about your ship, Maurizio, at least we know where we end up when we fly our brooms."

The captain took a deep breath, as if that would make a difference, and carefully sat on the broom. "Oh..." he said, surprised.

The crew had assembled again, as by a secret and invisible signal. "Hey Moro, will you two be back for dinner?" the man he had called Xander asked. The captain looked questioningly at the witch.

"We'll drop them off in time," she said. "Just make sure you don't start cooking too early." She sent a signal to William through their link. "Hang on folks," she then said to their passengers, and the two brooms took off, into the clear blue sky.

5. Kings, queens and dinner parties

"Are you really sure this is safe?" Maurizio asked as the brooms picked up speed.

"We got to your ship on them, without a problem," William said, "I am sure this is safe."

"Oh." Maurizio did not sound convinced.

Rebel instead seemed to enjoy the experience. So much even that Hilda had to drag her back; at times the woman in leather and copper was leaning over so far that she would fall at the slightest tremble of the broom.

As they flew over the forests that surrounded the castle, Rebel screamed for joy when she saw their goal. She waved at Maurizio and pointed. The captain was not certain if he should watch. His trust in the broom was below level, so he just nodded and kept holding on to the broomstick. He had already learnt (and bore the red scratch to prove it) that he should not grab it too close to the black cat that lay there as if it was the most normal spot in the world. Which in this world it was.

"Do they know we're coming?" Maurizio asked.

"Soon enough," said William. It was not the answer the redcoat captain had expected but it proved true enough. Once the brooms with their passengers slowly crossed the moat and the castle walls, several servants started running. "See? Now they know."

"Now, when we land I do not want you to jump from the brooms," Hilda warned them. "Step off when we tell you it's time to do that. We have plenty of time."

The brooms reached the ground. Obsi and Grim elegantly hopped from their sleeping places and then the passengers were offloaded. A servant already came running, informing them that the king and queen were looking forward to see them.

"Very good. You keep an eye on our brooms, please, and we'll be off to the majesties." Hilda gave the man her broom. William supplied him with another one. Rebel and Maurizio supplied the magicals with quizzical looks as Hilda asked him where they could find the king. Then the two people from the Mimosa were escorted into the castle.

Hilda and William knew their way around the place, so soon they had found the large spacious balcony at the back of the castle, where the king and queen were sitting, enjoying tea and cake. Chocolate cake.

"Ohhh!" said Hilda as she spied it.

"Ah, there they are," said King Walt, "and they brought them along already. How thoughtful"

"How do you know it's them?" Queen Velda asked. "Perhaps they met some others and brought them along, instead of them."

"Oh, it's them al right," Hilda pitched in.

"No, you stay," said William as Maurizio and Rebel slowly tried to back out of the balcony, to the safety of the room they had come in through. "You wanted to see them, and there they are."

"So, who are they?" asked the king from his lounge bed, picking up a gilded bowl of grapes. The queen was on her own chaise longue, a low table with a tray of truffles next to it.

Hilda waved the Mimosians to come closer. "These are captain Doctor Maurizio Blunt and Donna Rebel Abrahams. Maurizio and Rebel, these are King Walt and Queen Velma."

"Doctor who?" The king sat up and wiped his fingers on a silk napkin that hung from a pocket in his carmine cloak. Obsidian Shadow jumped on the royal couch and sniffed the grapes. With an insulted sound he jumped down again.

"No, not him," Maurizio said with a smile, making Hilda frown. "Blunt. Doctor Maurizio Blunt. It is a great pleasure to meet you, your majesty." He bowed to the king. Then he turned to the queen, who held out a hand to him. Maurizio took the hand, pushed the eye patch up and studied the gems in her rings with care. "Sono onorato, signora queen. I am honoured," he them said, kissing the queen's fingers.

"Are all your rings still there?" Rebel asked as the captain had stepped back.

Quickly Queen Velda checked her hand. "Yes, they are. I think. Care for a truffle?"

As the queen kept counting her rings, the king offered the guests seats, tea and cake. Rebel was asked to sit next to the king, a rare enough thing to happen. William grinned as he sensed Hilda's feeling about that.

"We heard that your ship has arrived in Green Lake," King Walt said, "and we were curious to find out where you are from. And of course what it is you have brought."

William wasn't sure what was happening; the king talked to these people as if he knew them since long. Hilda was not much help, she had taken command of the chocolate cake and her whole attention seemed focussed on that.

Maurizio seemed well prepared for this though, he had probably handled these questions before. "Oh, you know how that goes," he said in an amiable voice, "we were happily sailing along when we happened to come across your country. And since everything looked so nice here, and the people were all so friendly-" he nodded at the two magicals "-we decided to stay here for a while. And so far, I have to say, they have been very helpful and informative also. They even brought us here on their... brooms." It was clear that he still was coming to grips with that concept.

King Walt went for the praise. "Oh, yes, the honourable witch and wizard are very highly regarded here. They are very valuable to our little kingdom." The he asked about Rebel, who very quickly was introduced as Maurizio's cousin.

William looked at Hilda, who offered him a piece of the cake. She winked. He accepted the cake and another cup of tea. While they took care of the edible part of the visit, Maurizio and Rebel avoided every question to their background with skill, and soon King Walt and Queen Velda had the feeling they were fully up to date on the ship and its crew.

"It was really delightful talking to you," said the queen as the four got up and said their goodbyes. "Do come by again when your ship is in the lake again."

"Prego, signora queen," Maurizio smiled with an elegant bow, his eye patch in place again. "It was our honour to be visiting with you."

Rebel bent down and kissed the king on a cheek. "Thank you, king, it was great talking to you. And I love your tea."

"Oh, how sweet," said King Walt, "let me arrange that you take some tea home with you."

"Oh," Rebel startled (she was not fond of tea at all), "that won't be-"

"Tut-tut," said the queen, "you will take some tea. He is the king, after all."

"Yes, Mrs. Queen," Rebel said. "And thank you too for a really nice time here."

Queen Velma produced a caring smile and then located another truffle in her tray.

With a large bag of tea under Rebel's arm, the small group returned to the yard of the castle again. The servant, who was still holding the by now squirming brooms, visibly relaxed as their magical owners relieved him.

With brooms hovering, Hilda invited Rebel to hop on, but the woman, whose metal clothing parts glistened in the sun, shook her head. "Thanks, but no need for that. I know where the ship is."

"You do? And you're going to walk there? Did the broom flight scare you so much?"

Rebel grinned. "No, the flight was fabulous, really. But I can get Maurizio and me back to the ship faster than flying with you. And you and William too, if you want."

"I'll stick to the broom, thank you very much. But I want to see how you do that," said Hilda as she mounted her broom.

"Sure," said Rebel. "Moro, ready?"

"Almost. Do you want to join us for dinner aboard the Mimosa, Mr. and Mrs. Witch?" the captain asked as he buttoned up his coat.

The two people missed the rapid conversation through the link that Hilda and William shared. "Yes, that would be nice. Thank you for the invitation," William said. He got on his broom also.

"Okies, people, see you in a while then," Rebel said as she took Maurizio's hand. "Bye!" And then they were gone.

"Suck an elf!" Hilda stared at the empty spot. All eyes that had been on the two people witnessed the same emptiness. "Where did they go?" She shot up on her broom to scan the area, but there was no sign of Rebel or Maurizio.

William joined her in the air. "I don't think we will find them here, sweetwitch. I have the impression that Rebel has some kind of telekinetic ability from her future. Let's go to that ship and have a look."

Hilda muttered something about unintelligible talking and then they set course for the Green Lake and the Mimosa.

-=-=-

They landed on the ship. On deck the crew were busy setting up a large table with chairs, under the all-seeing eye of Maurizio. Rebel was nowhere to be seen.

"Ah, there you are," the captain smiled. He had his eye patch on his forehead again. The spot over his eye where it had been was still red. "Rebel will be joining us soon, she's getting dressed for dinner. Which reminds me that I should do something similar. If you will excuse me, please, my men will see to it that you are made comfortable." He bowed and then hurried off, disappearing through one of the doors in the stern.

The man they knew as Xander walked up to them. "Mr. and Mrs. Witch, would you please follow me?"

Hilda and William stared at the man. As all the others, he was not in the striped sailor shirt and plain dark pants, but he wore something that came quite close to a tuxedo. It just looked a lot more comfortable. They followed Xander to an area on deck.

"William. Pinch me. Am I drea- ouch, not so hard!" She slapped.

Six things hovered around an also hovering table that had glasses on it. The things looked like hollow pears that were cut open from top to bottom. Pears that looked like chairs. With cushions. In the glasses on the hovering table they saw black, purple and yellow liquids.

"Have a seat," Xander invited them, "and do have a glass before dinner. The yellow is wine, the purple is liqueur and the black is fruit juice."

"What kind of witch is Rebel?" Hilda demanded to know as she poked one of the floating chairs.

"She's not witch, madam."

"Then what makes these things fly?" the witch wanted to know.

"I am not sure," said Xander. "We picked these chairs up somewhere in the future and they appear to function on an internal anti-gravity field that does not affect anything but the chair itself."

"All that newfangled crap no one understands, and then they worry if a broom is safe," Hilda muttered.

William already sat in one of the chairs, and he looked quite happy with it. He had picked up a glass of the yellow wine.

Hilda stared at him after sitting down. "I want something purple," she said, pointing at the glasses. "But not that."

Xander was not able to help.

William suppressed a grin. He took a glass of black fruit juice, cast a small spell and handed the glass over to his witch. It now contained purple fruit juice.

Xander disappeared quietly, only to come back a few minutes later. "Would you please follow me to the table? Moro and Rebel are on their way also."

Maurizio and Rebel were already standing near the candlelit table, a drink in their hands. Rebel wore a skin-tight yellow dress that left a lot of shoulder uncovered. One false move, or so it looked, and she would treat everyone to a breastigious view. Maurizio looked amazing in his white suit, black shirt and silk white tie. His eye patch had gone and his wooden leg did not show. Polly the parrot did look a bit odd in this situation, though.

The whole group, also the sailors, sat down for dinner. There were plates and trays with all kinds of food. Some was even recognisable as such. Hilda and William kept an eye on what Maurizio would eat. He seemed most like them, so what he took should be safe. The conversation was light, the food good and the wine (and fruit juice) were excellent. Hilda did not dare to try the wine, not even watered down.

"Maurizio, do you mind telling me something?" Hilda asked.

"It would be my pleasure, Mrs. Witch," the captain said. "And please call me Moro. We are sharing food, this makes us friends."

"Sure. You can call me Hilda then. What's this strange thing you mean when someone asks 'doctor who' and you say 'no, not him'?"

Maurizio nodded. "Si, very understandable that you noticed. The reason is that we met him."

"Who?"

"Yes. Him. The Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

"Indeed."

Hilda looked at William. "Maybe we should leave now," she said, "it's getting late. I'm not sure what he's had to drink, but he had too much and that's not healthy." She whispered the latter part of her remark.

"But you haven't had dessert yet," Rebel said, "and we worked so hard on that. Would you please stay for dessert?"

The two magical people looked at each other, having a silent discussion. Hilda gave in. "Yes, we'll stay."

Rebel looked genuinely happy about that.

One of the sailors in suits took a small device from his pocket and pressed a few buttons. The plates with food sank into the table. Something automatic moved all the plates and cutlery to the centre of the table and also that disappeared. Half the candles that were on the table extinguished, as by invisible fingers.

Hilda felt highly uncomfortable. If this was not magic, then there was something ghostlike going on here. And everyone knew that most ghosts were bad news.

The centre of the table pushed up silvery bowls, one of them moved to every dinner guest.

Hilda and William stared. "I have never seen food that lights up," the wizard admitted.

"Crappedy crap, it moves," Hilda added, "I'm not eating things that aren't dead."

"It's dead, no need to worry," Rebel said, "it's just a chemical reaction between the air and the light emitting compound of the pudding. It never ceases to amaze me."

"William, these people are worse than you are in saying weird things," the witch proclaimed. The bright pudding stopped moving, though.

Carefully William and she watched how the others started eating the stuff. It had to be safe. Hilda picked up the spoon that lay next to the bowl and stabbed the pudding. It did not react. She sniffed a scoop. "Oh," she said with a surprised face, "it smells like lemon!"

Grins and chuckles came from several sides as the wizard and the witch now dared to eat the pudding.

"It tastes like raspberry," William decided.

"No. It's lemon," Hilda corrected him.

"Be quiet, witch, this is raspberry," he insisted. More chuckles followed. "Here, try it yourself."

Hilda tried some of his pudding. "See? Lemon. I told you."

William tried some of hers. "Raspberry." He looked at Rebel and Maurizio, who both were close to dying from held back laughter over their own bowls. "There's a trick here, isn't there?"

Rebel explained that the pudding would taste different for everyone. Hilda frowned at that, but after all the weird things she had seen on this ship, she did not want to comment on that.

"Thank you for everything, it was a very entertaining day," William said, when finally he and Hilda summoned their brooms. "We may come and see if you are still here in a few days."

"You are always welcome," said Moro. "Do come and visit again. You are very interesting people to speak with."

The two cats, who had remained invisible during dinner, came walking from a shadow and hopped onto the brooms. Some of the crew, who had assembled around the two magicals, grinned.

The brooms lifted off into the darkness and left the black ship behind.

6. Crystal

The next morning, over breakfast, Hilda sat muttering to herself. William had asked what was the matter, but he was just stared at and for the rest the witch ignored him.

Hilda did not feel good. She blamed something in the food on the ship and she was ready to make them pay for it. The nerve, making a proper witch feel bad. Things like that were not done and should be followed up in a severe way. Wearing her pink housecoat and purple slippers she shuffled to the couch and crashed onto it. The two cats jumped away just in time, making noises of discomfort.

After cleaning up the table, which was hardly any trouble for the wizard, he asked: "What's wrong, Hilda? Want me to switch on the magic mirror for you?" He sensed through their link that she was feeling bad.

"Hmmf. No. I'm fine." The staccato way that she said it was already proof that she was far from fine.

William sat down next to her and scooped her up. As she sat in his lap, he folded his arms around her and rested his cheek on her long grey curls.

"Nice," mumbled the witch. "I feel like crappedy crap, William, and it's not fair that you don't."

William held her and slowly let some magic do its work on her. He didn't have to tell her or ask her. She'd know and agree.

The witch relaxed as the nauseating feeling left her. "Good wizard. Much nicer," she said, leaning into him and not planning to move. "Good thing I have you around, you make me feel good. No need for a doctor."

"Speaking of doctor..." William started.

"I know. I know. But I don't want to. Not now. We'll go see if they're still there later, okay?"

The wizard nodded and kept his arms around her.

"Yes. That is a good wizard."

A moment of silence. Then Hilda sighed.

"What's the matter, witch?"

"I want to go to that ship and give the cook a piece of my mind for making me feel bad." She sat up and rubbed her tummy. "Feels good now. Thank you, wizard." She rewarded William with a quick kiss, then got up and left for the bedroom, to change into more witchy clothes than a pink housecoat. And purple slippers.

"No, you won't! Ever!" Hilda yelled down as she sensed William's thought. "And when you think you understand me, I'll change and do it all over again!"

As the two walked to the door, brooms in hand, the two cats were already sitting and waiting.

"Making a habit of it to come along, are we?" Hilda grinned as she patted Grimalkin on the head, who allowed it without protest.

"Yes, please, take them," the house commented. "It is so nice and quiet when they are gone."

"Meow," Obsi complained and slipped outside as William opened the door.

"See? That is what I mean," the house went on. "When will you be back?"

"Why? What's that to you?"

"It gets so silent after a while when you're all gone..."

Hilda rolled her eyes. William snorted.

-=-=-

"Do you want to visit the castle before we go on to the Mimosa?"

"No, not today," said Hilda, "I want to get my wand on that cook."

William reminded her that Rebel had said they all had done some cooking, but Hilda did not see the problem. "I'll just get them all." Grim looked up at the witch, the tip of her tail twitching.

"At least you have good weather for that," William grinned. He was right: the sun was out in full shine and the sky was fairy-tale blue.

Soon they arrived at the Green Hills, topped them and flew over the Green Lake. The black ship still lay there, anchored in all its non-vibrant lack of glory. Some sailors were busy doing things on deck. Two of them, the curious couple saw, were polishing the large oval crystal on the bow.

The magicals landed on the deck, close to the large array of doors. Hilda flipped up her wand and grinned in a way that made William worry. The witch bent over and tapped her wand on the deck, just lightly. The large ship shuddered; a few of the sailors in their plain striped shirts came running to locate the source of the tremors. The door in the stern also opened, and Rebel flew out. Literally.

"Oh. It's you two," the woman said as she lowered herself to the deck. "You could have just knocked, that works too." She was wearing another leather outfit today, a lot of red and many silvery stars on it.

Hilda poked the woman with the wand. "How'd you do that? And how did you get to the ship so quickly yesterday?"

Rebel shrugged. "Something I can do since I was a kid. I was born with it. Manipulating space isn't that hard for me, I can jump to everywhere that I've been-"

"Hilda and William! Amici!" Maurizio came out of the door, interrupting Rebel and not giving a damn. He hugged both the visitors. "How wonderful to see you again!"

"Shut up," said Polly who sat on the captain as usual. Four cat-eyes looked up at the colourful bird and two tails twitched.

"As I was saying," Rebel tried to continue, but Maurizio had different ideas. He invited the witch and the wizard in for coffee, which they declined, and Hilda then started about her not feeling well in the morning.

"Oh? Did you also have a craving for pickles perhaps?" Maurizio asked.

"Pickles?" Hilda stared at the man, while Rebel and William tried not to laugh. "Crappedy crap, it's Lorelei who's the pregnant witch in these parts, not me!" After an explanation who Lorelei was, Maurizio repeated his coffee invitation, which again was politely declined.

"Moro!" one of the sailors shouted from halfway the deck as he came running towards the small assembly. "The sun, the sun!"

Hilda frowned. "Yeah, it's up there, what's the big deal?"

Rebel looked up, shielding her eyes with a hand. "Looks like it's close, Moro," she said without making sense to the magicals. She grabbed Maurizio and Hilda by the arm. Maurizio put a hand on William's arm and a moment later they were near the crystal.

"Suck an elf," said Hilda as she grabbed William for a hold. "What happened?"

Maurizio started fussing over the crystal while Rebel apologised, explaining that she had teleported them all to the front of the ship as that was faster than walking.

"You tele-whatted us?" Hilda asked as she turned her back to Maurizio. The man was talking too fast and too loud.

"Teleporting. That's what you call what I do with my mind. I can move myself, people and - oh, watch out!"

As Rebel warned everyone, something hit Hilda in the back. "Crappedy crap," the witch said as she turned around to see who was in for it.

Four men were doing something underneath the crystal, turning a large crank which made the crystal rotate. Maurizio was calling out directions. "Turn clockwise! No, go back! No, hold it there! No idiots, turn it some more!"

Hilda looked at the goings on very curiously, the stomp in her back forgotten. She heard William say something to Rebel as one of the large sailors got in the way; she could see nothing that way! The witch quickly jumped backwards, to avoid being stepped on by the same big sailor and then she saw a way to get up on the large wooden casing where the crystal was on. Quickly she climbed over sacks and rolls of rope, holding on to her long dress and keeping her cloak under control.

"Hah," she muttered to herself as she stepped onto the wooden box, "gives me a great spot to look at this crystal thing close up too."

At that point several things happened in rapid succession. Rebel asked William where Hilda was. Maurizio turned around to Rebel and William, ready to say something. One of the sailors pulled the crank one more time, which turned the crystal a little more, something Hilda did not appreciate as that ruined her view of the thing. The crystal caught the sunlight; it seemed to capture it inside itself and juggle the beams through all of its facets at the same time.

"Oh... pretty!" said the witch, watching the crystal in fascination.

"Mrs. Witch!" Maurizio yelled, but before Hilda could look at him, the light jumped from the crystal and slammed into Hilda. Now everyone knows that when light slams into you you just see light. But the light from the crystal was of a different order: as it hit the witch, the witch seemed to jump up a bit and then was thrown off the wooden casing and landed on a roll of ropes as a disorganised heap.

"Hilda!" William pushed himself through the men that were between him and the witch. As he reached her, someone shouted something, but he didn't care. Hilda had fallen and she was unconscious in a terrible way. He could not feel her through the connection anymore, and that scared him. At the moment he took her in his arms and pulled her against his chest, there was a sickening feeling all around him.

A flare like a lightning bolt seemed to jump over the ship, making it shudder and jump- Jump?

A storm swiped over the deck of the Mimosa, as lights in many colours and darkness switched places at a tremendous speed. The storm was accompanied by a low rolling thundery sound that kept a constant pressure on William's eardrums while the wind tugged at his cloak. He didn't care, as long as he had Hilda in as much safety he could give her.

As the tremors slowly left the ship, the wizard sensed a wriggling between his legs and he heard a moaning set of meows. So the cats were safe as well. At least as safe as Hilda and he were.

Then, as sudden as the havoc had started, it ended. Silence fell over the Mimosa as if the ship was shoved into a muffler. William said Hilda's name, but she did not respond. Magically he probed her; she was alive, breathing, she was just knocked out. The wizard picked Hilda up and then rose. He looked over the deck where most of the sailors lay sprawled. Maurizio was holding on to the crank, and Rebel was nowhere to be seen.

"What happened?" William asked.

Maurizio let go of the handle, got up and patted his sleeves. "Looks like we jumped." He looked back and shouted: "Is everyone well? And is everyone there?"

William lost interest in the sailors as Hilda started stirring.

She opened her eyes and looked at him. She smiled. "I am happy to see you, William."

He put her on her legs again.

"William? Where are we? And where are you?"

7. So, where are we?

William stared at the witch. Where are you, she had asked. "What do you mean 'where are you'?" he asked, more to stall for time than for not understanding. Before he had to say something else, Maurizio scrambled to his feet, a shocked expression on his face.

"Madonna," he said, "you are here also." The captain looked back and up. "Rebel, come down." Hilda and William looked where Maurizio had directed his eyes. In the mast hung Rebel. "She always does that when we jump," the captain offered as an explanation.

Rebel let go of the mast and slowly floated down to the deck. As she was approaching it, she said: "Looks like we're in space again, Moro." It was undecided if this was good new or not.

Hilda leaned towards not. "I don't really care about that. Just get us home and then you can do all you want. We have things to do." She pointed over her shoulder, roughly towards the crystal. "Switch it on again, will you?" She felt hands on her shoulder and quickly turned around. "Oh, it's you," she said, relieved to see that it was William. "I'm... I'll tell you later."

Maurizio was yelling all kinds of things already as he paced along the deck. All along the railing on both sides small lights had come on, and the large sails seemed to shine also, in a very strange way. Rebel popped from one side of the ship to the other as she was looking at all kinds of things.

Hilda turned to William. "I can't sense you, William." She looked worried all of a sudden.

William wrapped his arms around her. "It must be something with that crystal, sweetwitch. I can't sense you either. Damn, it feels good to hold you."

"Feels good to be held," Hilda's muffled voice came from inside his wide sleeves. It also felt good to her that she was not the only one who seemed to have lost the link. She basked a while in William's presence. Then she looked up. "Come, let's go see where the cats are, and where we are now. It doesn't look like they're working very hard to get us home."

Hilda freed herself from the embrace and walked out onto the deck. William watched her go and wondered if perhaps there was something going on with her that she wasn't telling him. He missed the link; through that he would have known without asking. There was something-

"Hey wizard, are you coming?" Hilda yelled out, dragging him back to the reality of a black ship. She was carrying two black cats and walked to a side of the ship. "Suck an elf..."

William hurried over, took Obsi from her hands and put an arm around her shoulders. Together they stared into a giant open... space. Everywhere they saw lights, all around the ship but also under it. They were definitely in space. Somewhere. "Can you find the moon, Hilda?" the wizard asked.

The witch looked around. And again. "Uh. No. Where is it?"

"Where is what?" Rebel had come over to them after making her round of the ship.

"The moon. We tried to find the moon."

"Ah. I guess it is still near the Earth. Problem is, from what I can see, is that we're not. Near the Earth, I mean."

"So where are we?" William asked.

Rebel bit her lower lip for a moment. "I am not sure. Not about where we are, nor when."

"When?" Hilda and William asked together.

"Yes. The ship is still trying to work that out. When we jump, we usually don't just move to another place, but often we also end up in another time."

"And the ship is working out where we are?" Hilda started to worry very much now. This was just too much.

Rebel simply nodded. "No problem, it always pans out. But let me I find you quarters to sleep while we're here." She winked and disappeared.

Hilda shuddered. "I wish she wouldn't do that."

One of the sailors who passed them by said: "You'll get used to it over time."

"I hope I don't have time for that," Hilda muttered, frantically patting Grimalkin.

Rebel popped into existence again, making the witch and wizard jump. "Hey, it's okay, it's only me," she said. "I found you a nice room. Come, I'll take you there." She reached for Hilda's arm, but the witch slapped at the hand.

"Ease up, Rebel. We're not used to your disappearing act, so go a bit slower!" Hilda did not feel at ease at all, still feeling very weird.

Rebel raised both hands. "Sure, whatever you want," she said. "I'll hold out my hands, and you both take one when you're ready." She understood that this all was a bit too much for the two new passengers on the Mimosa. William took one of her hands. Then Hilda took the other. "Here we go, okay?" Rebel asked. After both had nodded, they popped away from the deck.

"So, where are we now?" Hilda asked as there suddenly was a room around them. Secretly she admired this moving trick.

Rebel said: "I moved you to your cabin. It's really easy to get to the deck again, just step out that door, turn left and keep going until you see the door out. You'll recognise it, there's a sign 'exit' over it." She then stared at Hilda. "You can read, can't you?"

Hilda stood up to her full length. "I certainly can read. I am a witch."

"Okay, no reason to get overly excited. We run into all kinds of folk, and you'd be amazed how many can't read. So I'm just making sure out of habit." Rebel then showed them how the beds worked, what buttons to push and which ones they should avoid at all times.

The cabin was almost entirely white, with beds that came from the wall on the press of a button. The light in the ceiling went on and off by simply telling it to do so. Hilda had too much fun doing that, so William had to keep a hand over her mouth as he had run into the wall a few times too many. There was a display unit in the wall ("Sorry, no really usable movies in the thing," Rebel apologised) and she showed them how to use the communication system, which was merely a small glass-like circle in the wall which lit up blue when touched.

"When it's blue, you just tell the ship who you want to talk to and the ship will try to find that person. When you hear the other side, just talk. Touch the thing again and the connection is cut."

Hilda frowned at that. "Is that like a crystal ball?"

William grinned as the comparison was actually quite good. Rebel looked blankly at the witch, obviously lacking knowledge about crystal balls. He sat down on one of the white chairs at the white table, the only pieces of furniture that did not disappear in the floor or the wall, and asked: "And how do we go about getting some food here?"

"Oh, you don't eat here," Rebel said, "we have a great mess-"

"Rebel, can you come and bring the others?" Maurizio's voice interrupted her explanation. "We have something that you all should see."

William as well as Hilda wondered where that came from. Rebel said "Sure, right with you" to the air and announced that she would grab Hilda and William again. The magicals quickly picked up their cats and a thought later they were on the deck again.

"How did you know where he is?" Hilda asked, but Rebel did not seem to hear her. The witch looked at her wizard as the strange woman walked off to Maurizio. "She said mess. Do you think she was referring to this whole ship?"

The wizard did not respond to her question, not even when she poked him in the ribs with an elbow. "Hilda... very slowly turn your head and look over that side," he said, pointing to where 'that side' was.

"Now why would I do that slowly?" Hilda muttered. "Witches don't - suck an elf." She stared at a giant lump of rock that hung far too close to the Mimosa for her taste. If the Mimosa would get stuck against it, nobody would notice it, so big was the lump. "What is that?"

"It's a piece of rock," one of the sailors said.

"A damn big piece too," another one added.

"And who is going to do something about it?" Hilda asked as she walked up to the railing. "Who put that thing there anyway?"

Maurizio said that the ship would deal with the rock. "It is a small asteroid, by the way, Mrs. Witch."

Hilda stabbed a finger towards the looming thing and said: "That is not small."

"It is, for an asteroid. And no one put it there. They tend to fly through space," said William. "And if the Mimosa deals with it, there is nothing to worry about," he hoped.

"It had better make that thing fly somewhere else." Hilda turned to William and looked at him. He caught something in her eye that made him worry.

"There is something you have to tell me, isn't there, Hilda?" he said as he touched her cheek.

"Yes, and I'm not going to do that here," she said, folding her arms over her chest. "I want to go to our room. Cabin. Whatever."

William nodded, popped up his wand and made it lead them to their cabin. Two black cats followed, only a step behind their magical humans.

8. Shock

They found their cabin without a problem. Also without much help of William's wand; as soon as they had entered the Mimosa's white inside, the two cats ran ahead and sat down by the door.

"These two are amazing," Hilda said with honest surprise. William agreed and watched how she touched the yellow panel. The door opened and they entered the cabin.

Once inside, William changed the white chairs and table into a purple couch like the one they had at home. Clearly relieved Hilda dropped herself on it. "Finally something normal," she said with a sigh, welcoming the black cat that jumped in her lap.

William sat down also and looked at Hilda. "I recall you were going to tell me something?" As he spoke the words, an eerie feeling crawled from the couch up over his spine, and made the hair in his neck feel all itchy.

"My magic's gone."

... "What?" William did not want to hear what he just heard. "Your magic is... gone?"

The witch nodded without looking at him. "I am no longer a witch," she said, her voice flat as a piece of paper. "I can't do magic, throw no spells, can't fly the broom. I'm nothing." As she spoke, she seemed to shrink.

William stared at the woman next to him. He did not believe it. At the same time, it would be the explanation for the fact that he suddenly had lost the link to Hilda. He did not want to ask 'and now what', as that was the most obvious but also most clumsy question in this situation. Instead he put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her as far as Grimalkin allowed. "We'll find a way to get your magic back." That sounded just as stupid.

Hilda shrugged under William's arm. "How? I never heard that magic came back."

"Did you ever hear of a witch who lost her magic?"

The witch thought for a while. "Not this way. Usually through a warlock or something similarly bad."

"We'll find a solution. Somehow." William hoped he sounded confident, as he was not so sure, but he was going to do all he could for his witch. "And nobody will know that you lost your magic, as far as I am concerned. I will handle things for both of us."

"And how will you do that without our link? You won't be able to tell what I would do, William, and I miss the link with you as much as I miss my magic."

"I am sure of that, sweetwitch. For now there is little magic to do, here," William said.

There was a knock on the door. Or wall. Or somewhere. "Rebel," Hilda said to William. "Come in, or whatever you plan to do."

Rebel materialised in the cabin and stared at the purple couch. "Whoa. That's... retro."

"No, it's a couch," Hilda said. "What's up?"

Rebel kept staring at the couch. "The ship decided to move away from the rock and I wanted to let you know that we're going to eat so maybe you want to join us."

The witch and the wizard exchanged looks. "Yes. Food would be a good idea," Hilda said.

"It's so cool," said Rebel, "the way you can talk to each other without talking. Really froopy. Want me to pop us over to the mess?"

"Sure." Hilda shoved Grim on her shoulder and got up. William got up too, Obsi on his arm. Rebel held out an arm, they took it, and a moment later they were in a large hall. It was not a room, it was a hall. All the crew of the Mimosa was there, Maurizio was there, and even with the three of them added the hall was barely in use. There were several dozen of very long tables, all laid with white tablecloths and what looked like silver cutlery. On either side of the immense lengths of table were chairs.

"This place can harbour too many people," William stated as he looked over the overgrown seating arrangements.

"We suspect it fits three thousand," Maurizio said, who had joined them. "So far we have not managed to tell the Mimosa that fifty is more than enough. Come, follow me, I will show you the - ehm - kitchen."

They walked over thick red carpet towards a brown door that seemed to open and close by itself as soon as someone got near it. The two cats went on their private expedition, while Hilda and William followed Maurizio and Rebel into what they called the kitchen.

A room, more a small hall welcomed them. Everything inside it was so clean it would be the envy of a hospital. And the hall was large.

"Is it me or does this look larger on the inside than from the outside?" Hilda asked William as they tried to understand the concept.

"You're right and my mind is revolting against it," William agreed.

The disabled witch nodded. "Good. Then it's not just me."

Maurizio offered Hilda his arm. She wrapped her arm around William. The captain smiled and nodded. "Perdonne," he said, "I would like to show you around. And please try to ignore the size of our kitchen, it will play tricks on your sanity."

"And it got to him," one of the sailors said as he passed them with two plates of food in his hands.

Hilda looked at the food and wiggled her nose. "Looks like you get to do some home cooking, William, I don't think I like what's served."

Maurizio laughed out loud. "Please come, my friends," he said as he led the way, Rebel in his wake. To their left there was a large column, dark wood at the bottom and painted white from roughly four feet up to the ceiling which was white also. To their right there were large cupboards with plates, cups, forks, spoons and more things that would serve well for a meal.What the cupboards were made of remained a mystery in white and light blue. Hilda and William stared at some cupboards that held things that they had never seen before, and they also could not even guess at what these things would be used for.

Rebel and Maurizio took some of the more recognisable items so the magical couple followed their lead. "Now come," Maurizio said again. "We will show you how you can obtain your food." He led the two to the central column which on two sides had small brass sliding doors, some strange panels, a few clusters of buttons and a display in the wall. The display at each spot was dark.

Rebel opened the small slide door and put her plate in it. She pushed a green button that lit up for a moment, then said something nobody understood.

Maurizio explained that Rebel used to order dishes from her own time. "This thing listens to what you want to eat and then makes it." By the time he had said that, the green button that Rebel had pressed extinguished. She opened the sliding door and took her plate. It was filled with something that looked as ominous as it smelled.

"What went wrong?" Hilda asked as she scowled at the stuff.

"Nothing," Rebel laughed, "this is good!" Hilda was glad Rebel took the gruesome wobblies away. It did a lot for the smell.

Maurizio popped his plate in the machine, punched the button and rattled something Italian. William caught 'ravioli' in that spray of words and Hilda just shrugged. Out of the machine came a plate of food that looked a lot more appetising than what Rebel had carried off.

"Hey, that smells nice, can you tell it to get me that too?" Hilda asked. Maurizio was glad to oblige, rattled his Italian again and handed Hilda the plate.

She then opened the slide door and looked inside. "There's magic here, William," she said. "There's nobody in there."

"It is a food replicator," said Maurizio. "It's automatic, not magic. You tell it what you want and it will make it."

"So how does it know all that?" William wondered.

The captain, who was already eating, shrugged. "I don't know. But it works. Try, Mr. Wizard, please."

"You can call me William," said the wizard. He popped his plate in the machine. Button lit up green. "Beans, mashed potatoes and a steak."

"And you can call me Moro," the captain said.

William looked happily at his plate.

"William, don't drool. Come, let's go and eat," said Hilda. Moro and William looked at each other as the witch marched out of the kitchen. The wizard grinned.

Hilda found a place at the table where Rebel sat. That was good. She got to sit opposite the woman, which was less good as that offered her a premium view on the strange mess that Rebel called food. Hilda wasn't even certain that everything was dead. She missed her magic. That would have helped her ignore the sight on the other end of the table. She saw William and Maurizio walk into the large mess and look for seats. Hilda glanced along the table which was fully occupied.

If William sits somewhere else, I am going to sit there too, she told herself. She had no qualms about being impolite: some things didn't change. But her magic was gone. She missed the feeling, the familiar tingle. And she missed the contact with her wizard.

Maurizio and William walked around one of the tables, when Maurizio stopped dead in his tracks as if he heard something. William was not prepared for such an abrupt end of their walk, so he bumped into the captain, spilling the contents of his plate partly over the man and partly over the floor. Magic prevented food from getting on the wizard.

"Oh, drat," William muttered as he whisked the mess away. Hilda watched it, nearly chewing her lip. Then, to both their surprises, Maurizio tossed his plate to the side and ran off.

"Not that again." Rebel didn't even get up, she just disappeared.

"Not what again?" the witch wondered.

Xander, one of the sailors, shrugged. "We never know either. We just wait until we nee-"

A sharp sound that all the makings of an alarm, including its effect on the sailors, went off. The sailors jumped up, chairs falling over and being ignored, and the lot hurried out of the mess.

Hilda, still sitting, looked at William. "What a mess."

9. A strange meeting

"Do you think we should go outside also?" William asked his witch, looking at the door through which the sailors had left. He was feeling robbed of his food.

"I am sure they'll call us when we're needed," said Hilda confidently. "Best that you go back and get some more food. And hurry, will you, it's sort of stupid to sit at this big table alone."

William grinned, drew his wand and cast a small spell. The table split in two parts, a huge part and a small part with Hilda at it and two lit candles on it. "I'll be right back, sweetwitch."

When he came back, Hilda stared at the lump on his plate. "Now what in the names of all witches I have known is that?"

The wizard sat down with his plate. "A burger from Sloppy Joe's."

Hilda's eyes seemed glued to the bits of bread, the blob of charred meat between them and the goo that seeped from it all. "And you are going to eat that?" If her face had not made it absolutely clear that she was abhorred with the prospect, the tone in her voice would have eradicated all traces of doubt.

"Uhhuh!" said William, bringing the droopy hamburger in position for the first bite.

Rebel appeared. "I think you are going to love this," she said. When she disappeared, the witch and the wizard disappeared with her. The hamburger fell down, missing the plate. The result was one that Sloppy Joe would have been proud of.

William stared at his empty hands. "Holy Bejeebus, what-" Then he noticed the light.

The entire ship bathed in light. It was not your average run of the mill light. It was bright without hurting the eyes. It also was everywhere, no a spot was unlit. The light gave every shadow a shock.

Hilda tapped the wizard's arm and pointed. "Look." Hilda was not often so short on expressing herself, so this had to be something extreme.

Next to the Mimosa hung a white pyramid, its sides smooth and without any markings or visible openings. Black sailing ships and smooth white pyramids are a strange mix, and seeing such a chance encounter in space made it even stranger. The top of the pyramid seemed to be made of gold. The golden top seemed to reflect the ship-enveloping light from somewhere unseen. The whole thing was incredibly large. William estimated that the pyramid of Cheops would fit in there nicely. About fifteen times.

"What is that, and who put it there?" Hilda wanted to know.

"It's a pyramid, and apart from that it is big I don't know," said Maurizio, who had joined the slightly malfunctioning magical couple. "It is what made the ship sound its alarms though. And with reason. We can't seem to break away from it, so we thought that maybe you two...." He waved a hand. "With your magic and so..."

Hilda went through a lot of pain to keep her face straight. Nobody but William knew about her magic being gone, and it should stay that way. She quickly glanced at her hand as William took it and squeezed it gently. Before she could wonder what he wanted, she saw how he raised a hand. Squeeze. Following a feeling she also raised a hand, and a moment later there was a wand in it. Not her wand, but there was something. William held his own wand. Hilda understood that she just had to follow his lead, so he could cover for her. It made her heart scream, but she felt good about her wizard.

"I'll give it a go," William said. "Then you try it."

Hilda nodded.

The wizard cast a bolt at the pyramid which should put a magical wedge between it and the Mimosa, to drive them apart. The bolt stopped halfway the pyramid and then simply vanished. William and Hilda stared. That had never happened. Hilda held the strange wand with both hands, made quite a fuss over getting ready to throw something, and when she did throw, William flashed a big lightning bolt from the tip of her wand. The lightning bolt jumped to the pyramid unhindered, hit it and bounced off it. The flash jumped away into space and was never seen again by the crew of the Mimosa.

"That's not going to work," Hilda said, scratching her nose. She walked over to the railing, put her hands on it and seemed to think. "Hey, you over there!" she then shouted out to the pyramid. "What's that you think you're doing? Do you want us to come over and make you suck elves?"

William bit his tongue not to burst out laughing. That was the witch he loved., with all her spunk.

Hilda turned her back to the humongous white pyramid. "I think they're deaf," she said. "I shouted loud enough, didn't I?" Then she noticed the astounded looks on the faces of the people watching her. Even William - wait... were they watching her or... She turned around and saw the reason of the surprised expressions. A small bit of the giant pyramid had opened. It was a triangular shape that now served as a platform. And on the platform was a small object. It was white. In the shape of a pyramid. "Crappedy crap," she muttered, "it's giving birth."

The little white pyramid lifted off from the platform, which folded itself up, sealing the outside of the large pyramid. The little thing moved towards the Mimosa. As it did, it grew larger. To everyone's amazement, it kept growing larger, until its width was more than half the length of the black ship. Then it was almost so close that you could throw a stone at it and hit it.

"Madonna," Maurizio managed. "Che è grande."

Hilda had moved back to where William was standing and together they stared at the massive 'triangular all over' thing. Seeing it this large, so close up, made it clear that the mother... pyramid was even larger than it seemed. Deep space looks were deceiving.

Before anyone did something (not that anyone had plans in that direction), a triangle folded itself down, like the platform on the mother pyramid had done.

"Now what?" Hilda wondered. William had to give it to her: she was not the squeamish kind.

Everyone aboard the Mimosa half expected that another pyramid would come from the pyramid, as that one had come from the mother pyramid, but two human shapes appeared on the platform. It was slightly disappointing.

The two shapes seemed to debate about what their next step would be. Then one of them went back into the pyramid, that started to move closer not much later. The giant pyramid crawled up to the Mimosa. Maurizio drew a sword from somewhere and stepped up to the railing.

Hilda poked William in the ribs and waved her fake wand. "Come, he can't do that alone," she said, so they joined the redcoat captain. Rebel was right there with them.

The giant white thing inched its way up to the black ship. Hilda and William had ample time to look at the person who was standing on the folded-down platform. "Can you tell what it is?" Hilda asked her wizard. He had no clue.

The creature seemed about their height. It had a blue or purple cap on its head, looking a bit like an old-fashioned knight's helmet but without the visor. Its face looked normal, with two eyes, a nose and a mouth, and rather pale skin. The creature was dressed in something silvery. It looked a rough knitted sweater that hung down to its knees (if it had knees) with a matted silver triangular breastplate. Silvery boots completed the appearance. The clothing of the creature had no special markings on them that the magical couple could make out.

Maurizio watched the approaching vessel like a hawk, holding his sword out over the railing. "Stop right there!" he yelled. "This is my ship and you're not coming aboard!"

The pyramid came to a halt less than one foot from the hull of the Mimosa. The blue-capped and silver-clad creature leaned back into the pyramid for a moment, and then the other one came out again. He - or she - carried something in a hand. The two looked at the gathering of people on the black ship. Then the creature who had reappeared from the pyramid said: "Hello. We are glad you got here on time." Judging from the voice this was a definite she.

This announcement created some confusion among most of the people. Hilda just leaned on the railing and asked: "What do you mean on time? We weren't even supposed to be here." She poked the fake wand against the pyramid. It did not budge.

The two creatures stared at Hilda. And at the thing one of them held. And back at Hilda. "Oh, but you were!", the she said as something close to blissful delight spread over her face and that of her fellow-alien. "And you are the witch!"

That was too much even for Hilda. She stood up straight and scowled. "And what's that to you? I don't know you, I probably don't want to know you and I don't want to be here."

William was dumbstruck.

"Come on, guys," said Rebel, "give us a break. We're stranded here and you say it's all a plan?"

The two aliens stepped from their platform, onto the railing of the ship and gracefully floated onto the deck. "It is not a plan. It is a prophecy," the so far silent one said with a squeaky tenor voice. The purple on their heads was hair, not a cap.

Maurizio by now had regained control over his body again. He stepped between the witch and the aliens, raised his sword and said: "You are trespassing." He grabbed in his pocket and brought out the eye patch, which he quickly and one handedly put over an eye. The captain had obviously done that more than once.

The two silver-clad aliens looked at him, without twitching so much as a facial muscle. "And you are?"

"I am the captain of this ship, the Mimosa."

The two looked at each other for a moment. "We are here for the witch," the female alien then said and ignored the sword. "Not for a captain."

Maurizio looked dismayed and hurt in his pride. Rebel stared at the new arrivals. William wasn't certain what the best action was at this point.

"Hold it," said Hilda. "We're guests of the captain, he's been good for us apart from taking us away from our world, so no putting him down, do you hear me?"

Maurizio looked relieved. "Thank you, Mrs. Witch."

Rebel snorted.

"We do not want to put someone down," said the male alien, "we just came to collect you. The others can go where they want."

10. Collecting

"You what?" Hilda could not believe her ears. She was not the only surprised person on the Mimosa. "Collect me? What for? I'm not sure that I want to go." She waved the fake wand in front of the two aliens, who watched the stick and looked at each other.

William put an arm around the witch and said: "I'm not going to let you take her anywhere. Hilda is a free witch who goes where she wants."

The male alien looked at the wizard. "Who are you?"

"I am William the Wizard, and Hilda's official partner."

The two aliens looked at each other again, this time with some worry and confusion. "We are here only for the witch, William the Wizard. You are free to go where you want."

William showed them his wand. "Let's first establish some clarity here. You come here without any proper introduction and you claim that you will take the witch with you, for whatever reason. Who are you people, and why do you think you can take Hilda with you?"

"You are not a person to question us," said the female alien.

William mumbled a spell, and the two aliens fell to the deck, so totally covered in ropes that moving was impossible for them. "Want to reconsider that statement?"

The two floored ones looked surprised. "There was never a mention of this!" the man exclaimed as he squirmed to free himself.

"A mention of what?" Hilda asked as she got closer to the two.

"Of him!" The male alien made it sound like an accusation towards William.

"Keep talking, you have a grateful audience," Hilda said as she pretended to tap the man on his purple hair with her fake wand.

"Geena so pjatti pjatti koo koo roh gah poko liktokoh", said the female alien. Something under her ropes lit up, probably her silvery clothes, and the ropes seemed to melt away from her. The ropes around her companion also fell away. The two got up swiftly and faster than the eye could follow. The man touched something on his suit after which a blinding flash of white light enveloped him and the woman.

"Crappedy crap" was the only thing heard as everyone's eyes tried to overcome this vicious attack.

By the time the people aboard the Mimosa could see again, the two aliens had disappeared. The large pyramid was moving towards the very large pyramid.

"Where's Hilda?" William asked.

-=-=-

Hilda had reacted as fast as she could as the white light hit her. Without magic, however, she had to resort to the usual method of closing eyes and using hands. She had sensed a pull, without being touched, and when she opened her eyes again she found herself in a large room with many chairs, large windows that resembled the televisions she had seen in William's world and the two silvery aliens who sat in chairs near funny tables with lights. The witch sat in a chair too, one she could not get out of.

"Suck an elf," she muttered. "Hey you two, what do you think you're doing?"

"We are taking you to where you belong," the female said without looking up. "If there is something we can do to make your stay more comfortable, tell us. We are here to serve you."

"Now that's new," Hilda commented. "How then about taking me back to the ship where William is, and my cat? And my broom?" Her words seemed to go unnoticed by the aliens. "Where are you taking me? Who are you guys? Want me to destroy this - whatever we are in?"

The two nodded at each other and remained silent.

"Hey, troll's balls, I'm talking to you!" Hilda felt quite unsettled by now.

"We will be at the mother ship soon, all will be explained," said the man.

"Crappedy crap, can't you even tell me your names?"

"I am Golgofro," the man said, "and she is Galgoran."

"Now that didn't hurt, did it?" Hilda said as she wondered how the chair could hold her down without any visible straps. The two did not radiate any magic of- oh, she wouldn't be able to sense that. She slumped back in the chair and felt miserable in a way she had not felt miserable in a long time.

Golgofro and Galgoran seemed very busy moving their hands over the blinking lights in front of them. Hilda did not perceive anything like motion or sound. The large room was actually eerily silent and remained like that until the two got up. "We have arrived."

Hilda found that she could move again. She remained seated, even when Galgoran asked her to follow them. "I'm not going anywhere. You took me away like I am a thing, you're not telling me anything except that you are here for me and now you want me to come with you to some place I don't know? Forget it." She held on to the seat.

The two exchanged gazes again, and Golgofro touched something on his left sleeve. Without so much as a sound, Hilda's chair floated upward and obediently followed the two aliens as they walked out of the large room.

-=-=-

Aboard the Mimosa, moderate versions of chaos and disorder were unfolding after the remaining people found the witch gone. William was about to grab a broom and go after the floating pyramid, but Rebel convinced him that the Mimosa was a much better alternative to a broom.

"We'll go after her," she promised as she held his sleeve, as if that would actually prevent him from leaving. He did his best to believe her, though, and that was enough.

"The little big pyramid went into the large big pyramid," one of the sailors remarked.

"Hurry," was all that William said to Rebel as he had seen it happen as well. "Or I'm on the broom." Rebel argued that there was no air in space, but William told her again to hurry. "We pack our own air."

Maurizio and Rebel quickly walked off to the front of the ship. William followed them. They ended up near the wooden housing on which the large crystal was standing. Maurizio took a large iron key and used that to open the two doors in the housing. William saw brass pipes and something that looked like a copper vacuum chamber. Arrays of lights were blinking everywhere, without making sense to the wizard. He had once been a book salesman, never a technician.

Rebel dropped to her knees and crawled halfway into the housing. "Damn, that's turned tightly," she muttered as she used both hands on a shiny red valve. "Stand back everyone," she warned. Calling on some of her strange powers, she managed to wrench the valve open and pressure regulators started hissing.

"Holy Bejeebus!" William jumped back as from four places in the housing clouds of steam erupted, without warning. "Are you telling me this bleeding ship runs on steam?"

"I am not telling anything," Maurizio said. "I want to make this ship go so we can bring back Mrs. Witch, signore."

"Looks like we're ready, Moro," Rebel reported, still halfway inside the 'engine room'. The captain turned to the deck where a few of the sailors were still standing. He yelled out a number of commands that meant nothing to William, but the men started running and soon were out of view.

The wizard looked at the pyramid. "I think they are moving. Hurry."

"We're working on it," said Maurizio as he gazed at the steam unit. Was there doubt in his voice? William was not sure.

The unit then gave the captain every reason to sound doubtful: pressure fell away, it seemed. All regulators went silent, and the lights in the housing blinked frantically. Rebel, who was still in her uncomfortable position, closed the valve, reset all kinds of switches and buttons. It did not just look as if she was going at them using the system called 'pot luck'.

"I don't think they are moving," the wizard reported. "I'm certain they are." He knew that adding the 'hurry' word would not get them moving any faster. "Do you need some help?"

"Do you know something about this contraption?" Maurizio sounded partly wondering and partly hopeful. From inside the housing a loud curse followed a dull thud. Obviously Rebel had not seen something hard.

"I only know that I want this thing to move, and fast," said William as he saw the pyramid pick up speed and move away faster and faster. He popped up his wand and pointed it at the mass of copper, brass and lights. "What is it supposed to do?"

"Work," was the compact answer.

William waited for the red flashes to leave his eyes. "And how does it work?"

"We don't know. We just wiggle the buttons and open the valve and then it goes. Usually."

"Usually..."

"Yes," said Rebel who had decided that one bump on the head was enough. "Usually it does. Maybe it's in a bad mood right now."

The wizard chose not to respond to that. "Stand back." The sound of his voice did not give any opening for bargaining, the two stepped back.William pointed his wand at the machinery. "Don't you dare blow up on me," he told the vacuum chamber. Then he unleashed magic.

"It didn't work," Maurizio tried carefully as some time had crawled by.

"It didn't blow up, at least that worked," Rebel pointed out.

William kicked the vacuum chamber, kneeled down and slammed some magic over the valve that quickly rotated open, allowing steam from somewhere deep inside the Mimosa to fill the brass pipes. One by lazy one the lights stabilised into a satisfying green that would be the envy of any self-respecting lawn.

A shudder ran through the black wood of the Mimosa. Rebel zapped away. William got to his feet and wanted to ask where the woman had disappeared to, when Maurizio said: "You got the ship working!"

"I did?" William wasn't sure as there had been nothing but a shudder.

Before Maurizio answered, Rebel's voice boomed over deck. "ALL HANDS TO THE MASTS!"

From somewhere all the sailors appeared and quickly climbed into the masts. William stared at the proceedings and worried. They were in space. There was no water, no air, let alone wind. And they were lowering the sails.

11. Questions and more questions

Maurizio seemed to read the questions and wonder from the wizards face. "We are lowering the sails, because without them down, the Mimosa won't move." He shrugged shortly. "A bit of a nuisance, I know, but we've gotten used to it."

"So you have this great big ship with all its gadgetry and smart things, and it can't lower its own sails?" William wondered.

The captain frowned. "I don't know."

William rolled his eyes and watched how the sailors did their work. He had to hand it to them: they knew their trade.

"All done, captain!" one of the sailors yelled the obvious when they were done.

Maurizio waved at him and said: "Rebel, we're ready to go. You probably heard that."

"I HEARD YOU." The woman's voice boomed over the deck again. It made William jump.

Slowly the Mimosa turned. There was no sound. None of the sails made any movement, but the ship was moving. After a while the bow pointed to where the white pyramid had been. It had vanished quite some time ago already, which worried William to no end. Of all the adventures he'd had with Hilda, this was turning into the worst one. He'd even go through the misery concerning Zelda again, rather than this.

Grim and Obsi appeared at his feet, from somewhere out of the shadows, and looked up at him. The wizard bent over and picked up both cats. "I'm sorry, Grim. Hilda's gone, but we're going to get her back." He wanted to add 'trust me', but he couldn't. He didn't trust it himself, so how could he. Both cats made miserable sounds, voicing how he was feeling.

"Maybe you should go and eat, William," Maurizio said. "And then try to rest? You've been through a lot." He put an arm on one of William's, staying out of reach of the cats. He thought. Nothing happened, though.

William knew that the man was right. He took the cats with him, to the mess, where he ate a simple and sad meal. The cats did not appear hungry, because the things William made for them in the food replicator remained untouched. After pushing the food down, he collected the cats again and headed for the cabin that Rebel had shown them. He lay down on the bed, feeling terrible.

-=-=-

Galgoran and Golgofro walked through long straight passageways, taking far too many turns for Hilda's taste. She was stuck on the chair. Of course, she had tried to jump off, but some scary magic held her in her place as the chair floated along behind the two pale aliens with their purple hair and their silver clothes. She had asked a few questions, but had not gotten any answers.

After yet another turn, Hilda had the impression that they were walking not only straight ahead but also straight up at times, they stopped in front of a white wall. The magically impaired witch wondered what they were going to do there. Galgoran touched the wall with her hand and then the wall moved up like a portcullis.

Behind the wall lay a room. No, a hall. No, a cathedral. No, not that big. Hall would do, Hilda decided. It was remarkable. For starters it was not all white, which was a relief to the witchy eyes. There were shades of brown and yellow and blue and - purple! From inside the hall came a wonderful concoction of smell made of flowers, fresh air and food. Especially the food part of it made the witch aware that it had been quite a while since she'd eaten.

"So, now what?" Hilda asked from her undignified position in the chair that still held her.

"Davdruw will come," said the blue-haired man, Golgofro. The way he said the name told Hilda that Davdruw had to be a person of some importance.

"Wouldn't it be polite to make this chair let go of me?" the witch asked. "What will Davdrow say when he sees me like this?"

"DavDRUW knows," Galgoran said.

"Crappedy crap, what does he know?" Hilda commented.

"Enough," a new voice said. It was a voice one had to love. In that one word it held all the things one would wish for in a voice. Galgoran and Golgofro stepped back in sheer awe, as a giant of a person stepped from behind a large white screen with a red frame. "I am Davdruw, and I am aware of your situation, Grimhilda the Witch."

Hilda felt the capitals as the man spoke and envied him as he made a movement which released her from the grip of the floating chair. She hopped out of it and looked up at the man who was at least seven foot tall. "Where am I, who are you and when can I go back to that stupid ship?" she asked, entirely unimpressed by the size of the newcomer.

"You are hungry," Davdruw said, "so please come with me and we can talk whilst you are replenishing your strength." Totally unimpressed by Hilda's powerful coming on to him, he turned and walked off. He did not even check if the witch was following him. She did, as the promise of food was enticing enough. As she walked along into the large hall, behind her Galgoran and Golgofro took the chair away as the wall came down again.

Davdruw, on his long legs, was no match for the disabled and broomless witch. She had to run to keep up with him but did not complain. She'd show him what kind of witch he was dealing with. By the time the man stopped, near a table loaded with food and cushions to sit on, Hilda was panting.

"Please, sit down and enjoy the food," Davdruw said as he sat down on a cushion. Hilda nodded and waved a hand as she did her best to catch her breath. "Please, Grimhilda the Witch, do take your time. The Prophecy has predicted all this, so we made the food extra hot." Davdruw watched Hilda intently, as if he was waiting for something.

Hilda straightened herself and looked at the table. "Suck an-"

"Elf," Davdruw finished her words.

Hilda stared at the man. "Who are you?" She did not feel one bit at ease now, without her magic, in a place she couldn't fathom and near this giant of a man who looked like someone totally not from her world and who knew her lines.

Davdruw, pale-faced and blue-haired as the others, pointed at a cushion. "Please, sit and eat, while I will explain."

"About time," Hilda muttered as she went to sit. She meant both the food and the explanation.

As the witch was stuffing herself, Davdruw started to talk. The race he was part of called itself the Lycadeans, a race technically and physically superior to most other intelligent species in the universe as far as they knew it. And they knew quite a large part of it, according to the man.

"As to who I am... I am Davdruw. I am regarded the spiritual leader of the Lycadeans. All my life I have been preparing for this important meeting."

"Important meeting?" Hilda asked. "With whom?" Then it dawned on her. "Oh. With me." As she chewed on something that looked like a chicken leg, she frowned. "Why am I so important to you? How do you know about me? And the elf?"

"The Prophecy," Davdruw said. He pronounced the capital. "It was all written down, long ago, that Grimhilda the Witch would appear here at this time, and it came true."

Hilda dropped the bone on her plate and reached for the large goblet that was filled with something that looked and smelled like wine but was no wine, as it did not affect her in the least. "Prophecy? Some made a prophecy and told you that it is about me? Someone pulled your leg then, Davdruw."

The spiritual leader peeked down at his leg, not sure if she was serious. Then he touched a small pad on his sleeve, which made a monitor appear. Not just any monitor, it was as if air solidified over the table and an image appeared on it. It was a young man with blue hair, wearing silvery clothes like all people in this space pyramid did.

Hilda almost sploshed the contents of the goblet over herself as she saw it all happen. "What's that? Is that your version of a magic mirror?"

Davdruw smiled and nodded. "One could call it that. This is a recording of my predecessor, Garubine, who recorded this message for this moment." He did something with his sleeve again and the image started moving. And talking.

"Honoured witch Grimhilda," the man in the solid-air confines said. "As it is the tradition, I am rerecording this message for you. The Lycadean world and people have been waiting for you for a long time." He raised something that looked like a book. A real one, with a leather cover and paper pages. Obviously it was very old or expensive, as he handled it with extreme care.

"What's that?" Hilda asked, but Davdruw just shook his head, his eyes glued to the image.

The man in the image opened the book, looked over the page and stared out of his confines again. "This is the book in which the Lycadean Prophecy is written down. If you, and only if you, honoured Grimhilda, hear my words, then the New Beginning is near. I shall now read the first words of the Lycadean Prophecy."

12. On board the Mimosa

"William?" a voice asked as there was a knock on the door. "Are you well?"

The wizard knew it was Rebel, not just from her voice. "I'm fine. You can come in if you want," he said as he sat up on the bed. The two cats did not move a whisker.

Rebel entered by opening the door and stepping inside. She did not want to upset the wizard more by popping in as he was already so shaken up by the disappearance of Hilda. "Moro asked me to check on you. The Mimosa is picking up speed nicely, we're in hot pursuit of the pyramid."

"Oh. I guess that is a good thing." William did not feel much better after that news.

"We're travelling at roughly four times the speed of light," Rebel said, "I think you would enjoy the view outside, on deck."

"On deck??" This was so weird an invitation that William forgot his sombre train of thoughts. "At that speed?"

"Uhhuh," Rebel nodded, "looks really cool. Want me to pop us out?"

The wizard scooped up the two cats, who did not protest against that treatment. "Let's go." He hoped that he could also get a glimpse of the pyramid they were following.

Rebel waited until the wizard was standing before she moved them to the deck.

The wizard, cats over his shoulders, looked out to the stars. There were none. Instead, there were explosions of light everywhere around the Mimosa, with long tails of sparkles spreading out in all directions. "That's not how they pictured it on television," he remarked.

"They know nothing, wizard," Rebel commented. "This is the real deal. At least from where we're standing."

It was obvious that this was a very subjective real deal. William nodded and walked to the side of the ship, peering out into the distance. "Any idea where the pyramid is?" he asked.

"Ahead," Rebel said as she joined him. "Far ahead. But we're catching up."

Somehow William doubted that, but he did not feel like arguing. Instead he wondered if there was a way that he could make the ship go faster. He looked at the sails on the masts. They hung there as if there was no wind at all, very true to life as there was no wind at all. Then he realised that he had no idea how fast they were going, so influencing seemed an impossible chore.

"I can show you something more of the ship," Rebel offered. "Moro's in the steering hut, I am sure he won't mind if you have a look around there."

"Might as well," the wizard said, as he still pondered the way to speed up something that was already going faster than he could imagine.

"Come on then, you big lug," Rebel said as she grabbed the sleeve of his robe and dragged him along.

"What, no popping in and out this time?" William wondered.

"No. Walking is good for you," Rebel lectured. She took him into one of the side-doors on the high stern of the ship.

They entered another very white and sterile corridor, not as long as the one that led to the cabins. Rebel showed William a kind of elevator that was nothing but a tube with air. "Step in after me, and don't grab onto something," she said as she stepped into the nothing. Some unseen force pushed her up.

William hesitated for a moment, then he put his hands on the backs of the cats and stepped into the tube also. As if there was a floor of air under his feet, he was gently pushed upwards for a while, until a hand suddenly grabbed hold of one of his arms. The upward movement stopped and he exited the tube. "Holy Bejeebus," he commented.

"I thought so too, the first time Moro pulled me from the tube," Rebel grinned. "We're at the main flight deck here. Only Moro, Xander and I come here. And you now, of course. The rest of the crew is scared of the place."

"Scared? What's here to be scared of?" William asked in wonder.

"Nothing, but we don't want folks snooping around and touching things they ought not, so I planted some 'memories' in their heads. Nothing bad, just adequate."

The wizard frowned at the tactics Rebel and Moro employed and the ethics behind those, but the woman in leather did not give him time to let his thoughts roam. She walked to a wall that suddenly contained a door. She opened it and invited William in.

"Holy Bejeebus."

The steering hut, as Rebel had called it, looked like a smoky bar. Maurizio was dressed in white pants and a yellow shirt that was mostly unbuttoned. He hung over a pool table that was in the middle of the bar and his face showed extreme concentration to lay down a good shot. Several men sat and hung around the pool table and the bar on the far left. Smoke hung in the air, although William did not smell it. Several ladies, probably of negotiable affection, were sitting at the bar also, sipping too brightly coloured drinks. One of them, in a very skimpy dress, stood near a large Wurlitzer jukebox. She clearly tried to evoke some music from the thing.

"Who are these people? And where are we?"

Rebel laughed. "Moro has his hang-out show on again. These people are holograms, as are most of the objects in this thing. Just the table is real. And we are."

A clank and a curse told everyone that Maurizio had messed up the shot. He threw the pool queue on the table and turned to the visitors. "Ah, welcome. Good to see you, William. How do you like it here?" He waved his hand generously along the bar, his eyes lingering with the holographic ladies for quite a while. With a sigh he looked at William again. "The real steering hut looks so... boring," he said by way of an apology, as one of the holographic pool players stood shouting at him, threatening to hit him with a queue.

"It is... different." That was the best thing William came up with.

As the suddenly silently shouting pool player swung a queue through the captain, Maurizio moved a few of the balls on the table and suddenly the scenery changed. The bar and the ladies changed into a large array of what probably were computers, complete with blinking lights. The posters that had shown movie ads of Humphrey Bogart and Marlene Dietrich now were huge displays that showed scribbles William could not make sense of. And the table was now a dull grey desk with a kind of computer terminal totally unfit for human manipulation.

"See what I mean?"

William saw. The bar, he agreed, was better.

Maurizio and Rebel showed him the bits of the room they had figured out so far, which was scarily little. William had the feeling that the Mimosa had a mind of its own and went where it pleased, and the people on the ship were just on it for the ride.

Quite soon they were in the lounge again, where they had had their first proper talk. When Hilda was still there, William thought wryly. Whatever the two tried, they did not succeed in cheering him up. Even the drinks that changed colour faster than a chameleon didn't make him feel better.

"Sorry for being a grouch," the wizard said as he got up. "I am not in the mood to be cheerful."

Maurizio, wearing his black pants, red coat and eye patch again, nodded. "I understand. Rebel might also. We are doing what we can, William."

William nodded. "I'm going back to the deck." As he went there, the two cats followed him like small shadows, and just as silent. Out on the deck he summoned his broom and as he got on it, the two cats shared the spot on the bristle. He flew to the bow, where the large crystal was. The thing sparkled in the fireworks of stars they passed.

He sat down on the black floor, the two cats sitting and looking at him. "So what do you think, guys, can this wizard make the ship go any faster? Is that a good thing to try even, I am not sure if anyone has a clue whether we're going in the right direction or not?"

Obsidian and Grimalkin looked at each other for a moment, then looked up at William again. "Meowww," they voiced their shared opinion. Two heads were scratched.

William got up and popped up his wand. Obsi and Grim slipped away in the many moving shadows. "Let's speed this stuff up some," the wizard mumbled. Behind him, three sailors slowly came closer as they were curious what this strangely dressed man was doing there so close to the crystal.

The wizard reached inside himself, summoning all the magic he could call upon. A sphere of power appeared around the speeding sailing ship, and once he had that established he gave the bubble a push into the direction they were going. Gone were his doubts about this being possible. The only thing that counted was his witch, and he was going to get to her one way or the other, even when the other still had to be thought up.

As the wizard pushed the bubble with the ship ahead, something peculiar happened to the light of the stars. Instead of the sparkles there now only were tiny pinpricks here and there. As a result the entire ship was covered in darkness except for where the Mimosa lit its own lights. William punched holes in the fabric of space and made the Mimosa fall through them, willing it to the location of the pyramid.

Magic thundered in William's ears and he felt he was reaching the end of his reserves fast. He pushed until he could take no more. One last shove and the Mimosa popped out of a hole. The sphere around the ship fell apart and Maurizio and Rebel appeared close to where the wizard stood, demanding to know what had happened.

Obsi and Grim came back to the wizard and demanded to be picked up. As William did so, he discovered a chicken feather between Obsi's teeth.

Some of the sailors shouted and pointed. They didn't have to. Everyone saw what they were heading towards: a large grey planet, with at least a dozen gigantic pyramids hovering high over its surface.

"Holy Bejeebus."

13. The grey planet

"Technology will become the pillar of the Lycadean society. It will help to raise the people to a great height, but there will be substantial damage to the world. A damage that cannot be undone by the Lycadeans, despite their high level of evolution. The world will suffer, and the people will suffer with their world. Only at the highest suffering, a woman will come to save the Lycadeans and their world. This woman will be a witch who is not a witch. "

Hilda stared at the spot where the image of Garubine, the reading man, had been. "Crappedy crap. I would almost think that's about me, if I wasn't sure I've never been here before."

Davdruw smiled. "Garubine spoke of you, Grimhilda. You are the witch who is not a witch."

"And what gave you that idea?" Hilda said as she got up. She knew he was right but she did not want to admit that without a fight.

"You were there are the right time," was the simple and unfightable response. "Have you eaten enough, Grimhilda the witch?"

"Yes, I have, but what's that have to do with all this?"

"We have arrived," Davdruw said as he rose from his cushion.

"Arrived where?" Hilda took a few pieces of fruit from a porcelain platter and followed Davdruw, who now kept a more moderate pace.

"At Lycadea of course," the man said, "that is why you are here." He stood still in a large open area of the hall and did something with his sleeve again. Hilda suspected that most of the man's clothing was filled with strange things. Before she could place a remark, a magnificent sphere appeared in front of them. It seemed to consist of nothing but white and yellow light.

"Haven't got the trick down for silver and gold, have you?" the witch said as she scratched her nose.

Davdruw looked caught, which was very odd for such a large and stately figure. "I am sure that this will be satisfactory, Grimhilda the witch."

"Just call me Hilda, will you? I am not one for long titles, and I know I'm a witch. I'll call you Dave for that."

Davdruw sleeved again and part of the sphere split open. Inside it Hilda saw a few chairs, one giant one and a normal sized version. "If you would please be so kind to step inside, Grimhilda," the spiritual leader said.

"No Dave for you then," said Hilda as she walked into the sphere. Inside it was very comfortable. The chair felt soft, there was tea and fruit juice on the table and from the inside out the sphere was fully transparent.

Davdruw came in also and sat down on a chair fit for his size. "We will go to the surface of the planet now," he announced.

"More sleeve-stuff?" Hilda inquired.

"Sleeve-stuff?" Davdruw seemed taken by surprise.

"Yeah, the way you fumble with your sleeve all the time when you do your magic. Let me tell you that a wand is much more convenient. And it looks better too."

Davdruw looked at his sleeve for a moment, the first frown slipping over his brow. It was there only for a moment, but Hilda saw it. "I will now bring us down to the surface," the man said. Some sleeve-action made the sphere close itself. Then the floor vanished from underneath them, and with a heartfelt 'suck an elf!' the sphere dropped downwards.

-=-=-

"What are we going to do?" one of the sailors aboard the Mimosa asked. The ship had slowed down and come to a full stop on a respectable distance from the insanely large floating pyramids.

"Nothing, for now," Maurizio said. "We don't know what they're upto."

"Should we load the canons, just in case?"

"No Cannons," William spoke in capitals to make himself absolutely clear. "They have my witch, and as long as they do, there is no shooting at anything."

"You heard the wizard," said Maurizio. "No cannons." The sailor looked disappointed.

"Guys, get a load of that." Rebel's voice pointed their attention to the pyramids again. From one of them a large sphere, shining white and yellow, dropped down to the planet.

"Pathetic," said William, "silver and gold would've looked so much better."

Maurizio looked at the ball through his large brass telescope. "William, you should have a look," he said as he handed the magnifying contraption over.

The wizard had a look and then almost threw the scope back to Maurizio. "Broom!" he yelled, and the wooden object sped to the waiting hand. Grim and Obsi were already waiting to jump onto the bristle, and as soon as William had taken position on the broom, they were on it also.

"We're coming with you," said Rebel as she grabbed Maurizio by the arm.

William took off without a word. The last thing he heard was Maurizio's surprised voice asking "we are?".

The man with the two cats on the broom was closely followed by a woman in tight black leather who held a man in a red coat by the arm, not on a broom. He only had eyes for the large ball though, that was falling towards the surface of the planet. It was no challenge for William to catch up with the thing. Getting inside it was another matter though; he was not sure if it was safe to crack the ball open without putting his beloved witch in danger.

Hilda had not seen William as he approached the sphere. It was a remark of Davdruw that made her look to the side. That was enough though. she jumped up and tried to press herself through the impenetrable side of the ball she was in. "William! Grimalkin! What the hell?" The last remark came from her as she saw Rebel and Maurizio in a controlled free fall near the sphere.

"How did they get here?" was the only thing Davdruw remarked as he saw the shapes outside the still plummeting ball.

"Who cares," said Hilda, "they're here and that is what counts."

"The prophecy did not mention this," the spiritual leader of the Lycadeans complained in a subdued voice as he checked some small panels in the armrests of his chair and did something to his sleeve. It made the sphere divert from its course slightly.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Hilda wanted to know.

William had also noticed the change and slowly moved closer to the sphere.

"I hope you believe me, Grimhilda," Davdruw said, "this was a needed small change to our course. We would otherwise not reach the right location where the welcoming festivities will take place."

"Festivities?" Hilda was quite surprised by that.

"Yes. Everyone on Lycadea knows about the prophecy, and when we set out to collect you, preparations were already underway to welcome you to the planet."

"What's happening in there?" Rebel asked William as she was flying close to him, Maurizio in her hand.

"I don't know," said the wizard who had noticed them a while ago. "Hilda seems to be alright and she's with someone in there. Let's follow them and be prepared for whatever it is that's down there."

"We don't know that, right?" Maurizio put in.

"Exactly. More's the challenge," William said. The two cats held on to the broom with all their claws, as the speed was very high...

-=-=-

The sphere was hovering over a large round area that was almost a lake of rippling silver and blue. In fact it was covered with people in silver clothes and blue hair.

"Crappedy crap," said Hilda as she looked down at the crowd, "did they all come for me? There must be a thousand of them!" She looked at William, Rebel and Maurizio who were still close to the sphere. It made her feel good that they were there and unharmed.

"I think that nineteen thousand were invited," Davdruw said as he did some more to his sleeve. The sphere lowered itself onto a relatively small open space. "We have arrived." The man stated the obvious, but he made it sound special by saying it in a ceremonial way.

The sphere split open, the way it had done aboard the pyramid. Davdruw asked Hilda to wait inside for a moment, and he stepped outside.

William had noticed the opening in the sphere. He landed his broom and with the cats on his heels he slipped into the sphere and his arms around the witch. "Damn, I missed you," he said, while tears assembled in his voice and eyes.

Rebel and Maurizio entered the sphere also but kept an eye on the proceedings outside. "Who's the big guy?" Rebel asked.

Hilda was too busy for a while to answer that question, and before she could answer, there was a loud roar of voices coming from outside the sphere.

"I think they are waiting for you, Hilda," said Maurizio.

"The man out there is called Davdruw," Hilda said. "He is some sort of spiritual leader and talked about some kind of prophecy that I would come and save their world or something. He also had something like a crystal ball but flat that showed a man who is now dead, and that man read something from an old book. The same prophecy." As she saw the wonder in William's face, she added: "You think I'm crazy now, right?"

"Now? You're always crazy, silly witch, that's what I love in you." William laughed as she pounded her fists on his chest in jest.

"I am going out there," Hilda said, "and I am taking you with me." She picked up Grim and put her over her shoulder, grabbed the wizard's hand and together they walked out of the sphere, Obsi, Rebel and Maurizio in their wake.

14. The high council (1)

Davdruw looked relieved as Hilda came out of the sphere, and surprised as there were so many others with her. Clearly he had not seen the new arrivals arrive. A silence fell over the assembled crowd.

"So, what's next?" Hilda asked the tall man in silver.

Davdruw had to shake himself into his role again and act as if this was all part of the plan. He turned to the crowd, did something to his sleeve and spoke. His sleeve-action amplified his voice, so it rang out all over the area where people were standing. 'Fellow Lycadeans. The Prophecy has begun to fullfill itself. As it was written, we have gone to the designated point in space. There we found the witch who is no witch who will bring our planet and our civilisation to the grandeur that we have heard about. And here she is. Grimhilda the witch."

The small group with Hilda stared at the man who looked at Hilda. Hilda in that time kicked Davdruw and looked as if she regretted that.

"Come, Grimhilda, you should speak to the people," he then said.

"What do I tell them?" Hilda asked, her voice washing over the enormous crowd of people. "Crappedy crap!" she exclaimed as she had not been prepared to hear her voice so loud.

"CRAPPEDY CRAP!" the crowd yelled back. "CRAPPEDY CRAP!" And then they all broke out in a noise that was eardrum-shattering. Obsi jumped into William's arms, Rebel grabbed Maurizio's arm.

Hilda raised her voice: "Shut up! That's my line!"

The crowd shut up as Davdruw quickly worked his sleeve. "I think this is enough for now, Grimhilda. The people know you are here. I shall now introduce you to the high council of the planet. And your friends too."

At that moment a relatively small pyramid came down. It landed without a sound and the usual triangular door opened. Davdruw ushered the people inside, guided them to a very comfortable seating arrangement and once they all had found a place, the pyramid lifted off.

"So where are we going?" Hilda asked.

"To the palliza of the high council," Davdruw said. "Could you please explain how these other people got here? This is not part of the prophecy, there was no mention of other people coming with you. That is why we did not bring them along."

"It looked more like you grabbed Hilda and ran off, trying to make sure we could not follow you," William said sharply, observing the man. "And who are you anyway?"

Davdruw had no choice but introduce himself to the new people. "And please try to be peaceful in the palliza. The high council does not allow their tranquillity to be disturbed."

"And you are still taking Hilda to see them? Good luck." The wizard hugged the witch who beamed at the compliment. Davdruw looked worried at Maurizio who looked back as if he had not a care in the world. Pyramid.

"Don't look at us. We're just the people from the Mimosa. You won't have a problem with us," the captain said as he moved his eye patch to his other eye.

"Yeah, right," Rebel buried Davdruw's hope.

-=-=-

Davdruw got up. "Would you please follow me?"

"Huh? Did we get there already?" Nobody had sensed anything like movement or a landing.

"This thing must have incredible shock absorbers," Rebel stated, prying a wondering look from Davdruw. She grinned and mentally chalked one up for herself.

They followed the tall man out of the flying pyramid taxi and were treated to sit down in a line of floating chairs that hovered in a small white hall. After they all had found a seat, the chairs silently moved through a silently opening door and then through a long white silent tunnel.

"Is it always this quiet here?" Maurizio wondered, which earnt him a warning glance from Davdruw. Clearly Davdruw's warning about the silence was to be taken seriously.

The chairs ended their journey as they floated through a door that suddenly opened at the moment Davdruw was doomed to hit the wall. The change from the long white corridor to the fountain of colours they came into was breathtaking. The floor under their chairs and feet was an ever-changing mosaic of pastel colours, moving from one shape to another in a subtle and fluent way. The high walls were light yellow and covered with coloured ornaments, many of which seemed to be moving as if they had a mind of their own. The ceiling consisted of a mosaic similar to the floor and shone in complementing colours.

There were about a dozen people in the large room. They too had all kinds of colours. And shapes. Some of them sported more limbs or eyes than usual, and several of those were at inexplicable locations.

"These are ambassadors and representatives of other planets and galaxies," Davdruw explained as he got up from his chair. "They are waiting to speak to some of the officials we still have. Only the Witch is allowed to meet the high council." The giant man spoke the words loudly, so everyone in the room knew who was there. It did not make a large impression on most, although curious glances were cast from a multitude of eyes.

Hilda prodded William in the side. "See that one back there, the black and grey one with all those eyes? Could be family of the thing that carried Zelda off."

William had to agree.

Davdruw asked them to follow him and he walked off with his long strides. William popped up his wand and whispered something. The effect was immediate.

Davdruw turned around. "What have you done to my legs?" he asked. "I can hardly move."

"You should be aware that our legs are shorter," William said, "this was just a hint." He undid the spell. "I hope you take it. The next hint could be embarrassing." Here and there snickers, snorts and not so muffled laughs emerged from the lifeforms in the high room.

Davdruw was not curious to what William had in mind. With a more relaxed pace he guided the four people and two cats through the room.

"Wasn't there something about having to be quiet?" Hilda asked out loud.

Davdruw stopped again and looked back at her. "Yes. Fortunately this room is exempt from that rule as it is thoroughly sound proofed. Even the high council does not expect all visitors who are waiting to remain all silent while they are here."

"I see."

Davdruw continued guiding them. They left the waiting room, came into a small corridor and reached a large silvery door. The spiritual leader warned them that silence was necessary from here on. They were about to enter the palliza.

"Are you okay, Hilda?" William asked before the door opened.

She nodded. "Yes, I'm fine. The witch who is no witch, you heard him." Her face did not show much happiness as she missed her magic terribly. And the feeling kept getting worse.

Davdruw looked worried because of the talking. He then pushed open the large door and ushered the four inside a large room.

"Crappedy crap," Hilda did not hold herself back, "what happened here?"

Davdruw visibly cringed, which was a very impressive sight from someone his size.

The room they were in looked as if a small war had been fought there. Pieces of furniture were scattered all over the place, on some of the remaining tables were plates with food, some touched, some untouched. About a dozen people, all in the familiar silver clothes, were either sitting somewhere with a puzzled expression, or walking around with an even worse puzzled expression. One of the walking people had some kind of tablet in his hands and stared at it. It was uncanny that he did not run into anything.

"Computer geeks," Rebel stated. She sounded very convinced of that.

The short exchange between the two women had caused all people in the room to look in their direction. As understanding seemed to kick in they all came closer, mumbling and whispering "Grimhilda". It made Hilda feel uncomfortable. She was used to some attention, but not to something oppressive like this, with hands reaching out and touching her clothes.

"Back off, folks," Hilda said, "or my friends will make you back off." She trembled inside, missing her magic once again. It would have been so easy to push them away a bit.

As if he had read her mind, which was impossible without the bond, William popped out his wand. "Step back folks," he calmly said, "you do not want me to help. Trust me."

"But she's Grimhilda," one of the mumblers said in a normal voice, almost sounding offended.

"And I have a wand." He held it up to make his point extra visible.

The assembled group disassembled somewhat and Hilda breathed easier. "So, what is the meaning of this? I thought we were meant to find a high council here, not a band of dimwits." She looked at Davdruw. "Hey, you up there. Care to explain this?"

The tall man looked far from happy, but as the dimwits of the high council dispersed and went back to their apparent meaningless activities, he was forced to supply the requested information. "This, Grimhilda, IS the high council. They are - uhm - chosen to keep all the automatic functionality going that makes Lycadea what it is."

"Can you translate that to something I might actually understand?"

William, Rebel and Maurizio grinned. Rebel removed herself from the group and started to wander around the large room, looking at the strange things that were mounted in and on the walls.

Before Davdruw could attempt his translation, one of the men from the high council stopped his wandering and said: "What he said, Grimhilda, used to be. We're not those people. Oh, we're chosen, but the rest... that used to be. And that is, we think, why you are here. To help us restart the automatic functionality."

"You are just conspiring to confuse me, aren't you?" Hilda wished she had a wand to tap the palm of her hand with, to show these people she was getting impatient.

15. The high council (2)

Grimalkin had to suffer Hilda's slightly growing anxiety, as the stroking and petting became quite rough, until the man who had spoken walked closer to Hilda and William. Keeping a respectful distance, he said: "We are genuinely sorry if you do not feel comfortable here, Grimhilda. The Prophecy is very old, and obviously it lacks details here and there."

"You might say that occasionally it doesn't," a woman commented, "and were it didn't, the details were very wrong, Gesmarion."

"Don't argue about that with me, Katinki," Gesmarion said, turning to the woman. "We are the high council after all, even if we just pretend to know what we are doing."

"Can we go away please?" Hilda asked William and Maurizio. "Rebel? Can you take us away from here to somewhere that's normal? I'd even settle for that weird ship of yours."

"But you cannot leave us!" Gesmarion said, "you are the Witch who will make things right again!"

"I'm also the witch who is no witch, remember?" Hilda snapped at him. "How am I going to make things right like that? Not even considering that I can't figure out what you say when you open your mouth."

"Uhm, Hilda," Rebel said as she had a strange expression on her face. "I don't know why but I can't make us move. It's as if something holds me down."

"Madonna!" Maurizio exclaimed as he walked to the woman, "what is the matter, Rebel? Is there anything I can do for you?"

"No. Yes. I don't know. Hold me?"

Maurizio put his arms around Rebel. Before his hands reached each other behind her, she jumped back and said: "What the hell are you doing?!"

"I was going to hold you, like you asked." Maurizio's face spread disbelief that he had to explain this.

"Don't believe everything I ask for then, okay?" Rebel quickly walked around the captain and took position behind the witch who was no witch.

The situation was slowly getting out of hand, William thought. "What would you do now?" he quickly asked his witch.

"I'd make all of them shut up except one, and let that one explain what the trolls is going on here," she said.

William raised his wand, spoke a spell, and everyone was quiet. The wizard pointed at the woman Katinki. "You can still speak."

"Can I?" the woman proved him right. Her co-councillors gestured in varying forms of despair as they could not open their mouths anymore. Rebel and Maurizio suffered a similar fate.

"Can we have some seats here, William? And some tea? No, make that coffee." Hilda did not feel happy asking for things like that, but it was the best she could do. And William was all there for her. The seats and a table with coffee appeared. William had also thought to manifest a plate loaded with sandwiches.

After sitting down, Hilda sipped some coffee and looked at Katinki. "Okay, now we have some kind of order in place, can you please explain what this place is? And don't use the words that other guy did, or we have to find someone else who can talk."

Maurizio waved at William, a cup of coffee in hand. He pointed at his mouth.

"Oh. Sorry," said the wizard, and removed the problem for the captain and the confused woman in leather.

Katinki also sat down. She suspiciously stared at the sandwiches. "Are you going to eat that?"

Hilda, chewing already, nodded. "Yes. Why?" she managed without spraying crumbs.

"It does not look like proper food," Katinki confessed. She looked at Davdruw, who tried to shrink away in a corner of the room and doing a miserable job. The man was not prepared for this.

William frowned at Katinki's remark, but let it pass. "You don't have to eat it," he said. "Now please tell us what this place is." He reached for a sandwich and a mug of coffee.

Katinki swallowed hard as her eyes kept moving among all these strange people. "This room," she started, "is the control room for the planet." She paused, observing the witch and the wizard to make sure her words were still understandable.

"What's a control room?" Hilda asked William, who explained the concept to her. "Ah. Right."

"We, the high council, are supposed to keep everything running," Katinki continued. "Using the... instruments in the room?" She did not feel safe yet. Hilda's nodding gave her a little more confidence although that did not show in the tight way she sat in the chair. "The problem is that we don't know how all the instruments work. And another problem is that some of them are broken."

"Then have them fixed," Hilda suggested, holding her mug near William who provided a refill. "And have some coffee. Once you're used to it, it's really good."

Katinki picked up a mug and sniffed its contents. "No... thank you, honoured Witch," she said as she put the mug back. Her face barely contained her disgust. "The problem is that nobody knows how to fix the instruments."

"Crappedy crap, you have problems here," Hilda voiced her feeling on what she had just heard. "And now you expect me to fix your instruments and teach you people how to use them?"

"Crappedy crap," Katinki repeated as if it were a mantra. "We only hope for the Prophecy to fullfill itself."

"I may get to hate prophecies even more than Latin," the witch muttered. She turned to Maurizio and Rebel. "Can you figure out what instruments they have? You're so fond of them, on the Mimosa and all."

William released their voices.

"We can have a look, Hilda," said Maurizio, looking very relieved, "but since we're on a different planet, we may not be able to understand everything."

"Nor recognise most of it," Rebel added, throwing the equivalent of a Nobbleback dragon on Hilda's hope.

"But you can at least try, right?" William hoped to salvage some prospects.

The two people from the black ship nodded. "Trying is not so hard."

Katinki looked at one of the high councillors that tapped her shoulder quite frantically. She did not say anything as she got up and followed the man. Hilda and her friends got up and went after the two people. The man walked Katinki over to a far wall where a metal table stood against the wall. On it were several keyboards, on the wall over it were five displays of which one actually showed something. The picture however reminded Hilda of snow on a bad day, which could not mean much good.

Katinki looked at William. "I think he is trying to tell me something. Could you please..."

William could, and then the man said: "We have another little problem." He pointed at a switch. "It's broken."

Katinki pushed the switch. It fell over and lay on the desk, quite dead. The wires that had kept it functional, or at least in place, had given up. "Yes," Katinki confirmed. "Broken."

Maurizio picked up the switch and examined it. "Broken," he agreed, and carefully put it back.

Katinki and the man, whom she introduced as Laurean, watched the witch with hopeful expressions. They were about to be very disappointed.

"You should not have pushed the thing," Hilda calmly said. "William, would you know how to fix that?"

William shrugged. "Does anyone know where these wires should go?"

"In there," Laurean helpfully pointed at the cavity that had held the deceased switch. The wizard groaned.

"Maybe if we took the cover off the console?" Rebel suggested.

"And risk damaging even more?" Maurizio pitched in.

Rebel frowned and seemed ready to kick the captain. She resorted to "hmmf."

"Now how does this room control the planet?" William asked. He felt he had to take charge. Hilda was lost in these technical matters, and Rebel and Maurizio did not seem to agree on anything at the moment.

Katinki and Laurean did their best to explain that everything on Lycadea had been automated and computerised, and the room they were in was the central place from where everything on the planet was managed. Unfortunately, the magicals learnt, everything had worked fine for so long that the real knowledge of all the systems had been lost, forgotten. In the beginning, the high council had known exactly what was where and how things worked. There had been people that knew how to repair things all over the planet.

"Then one day something stopped working," Laurean said as if he were a storyteller, "and nobody knew how to make it work again. It was not an important thing that stopped working, so the high council did not worry too much. But in the years after that more and more broke down, and now we are here." The last words came out with a despairing undertone. Gone was the storyteller.

"And more and more breaks down," Hilda added, understanding at least the gist of it. She picked up the switch. "Like this. And that's where I come in. As usual."

William grinned; that was his Hilda.

Davdruw, who had regained his courage now Hilda was talking to the high council, had joined the group. "Honoured Grimhilda," he said, "is there something I can do for you? We have quarters prepared for you and your - companions."

Hilda took the tall man in. "That sounds like a good plan, yes. I am ready to get away from all this madness for a while." She turned to Katinki and Laurean. "Please try not to break anything else." Then she asked William to give the others their voice back.

Katinki nodded. "Honoured witch, may I ask you something? What is this creature you wear on your shoulder?"

"That is Onyx Grimalkin. My cat. William has one too, see, that's Obsidian Shadow. You can touch Grim if you want. Grim, no funny things, do you hear?" Hilda warned her cat.

Two big yellow eyes beheld the hand that came closer. Grim allowed the hand to touch her fur and stroke her head.

Katinki beamed as she pulled back her hand. "Your Grim is so soft," she said.

"You never saw a cat before?" Hilda was very surprised.

Katinki shook her head. "I hope I may touch her again sometime."

"I'm sure," said Hilda.

Davdruw led the party out of the high council's chamber, back into the small corridor. He twiddled something with his sleeve and soon a set of floating chairs arrived. As they floated through corridors, they did not go back into the waiting room, Hilda asked him why he had been so silent before.

"I am the Lycadean spiritual leader, Honoured Witch. I deal not with the mechanics of that level."

The chairs came to a halt. Davdruw handed Hilda a few small silver bracelets. "With these you can open the doors to your rooms," he explained.

"Wonderful. Where are the doors?"

Davdruw showed the group a few small signs on the wall. "Hold the bracelet close to it and the door will open."

"Suck an elf," said Hilda as it worked. "So far you managed not to break that, eh?" She slipped one of the bracelets on her wrist.

Davdruw tried to keep his face straight at the snickering that was his share. "I will have someone show you how you can get nourishment and refreshments," he said. "Please try and rest." He nodded at Hilda and William, ignored Maurizio and Rebel and paced off at high speed. The chairs remained where they were.

Hilda handed the other bracelet to Rebel. "Here, I assume you want to share a room."

Rebel took it and put it on her arm. "No, we don't. But we don't seem to have much choice, do we?" She waved her arm over a sign and another door revealed itself.

"If you need something, just bang on the wall or something," William offered. "I am sure I can help you work out some sleeping arrangements."

"Thank you," said Rebel and walked into the room. Maurizio shrugged apologetically and followed her. The door closed and vanished behind him.

Hilda looked at William. "I'm glad you're here, William." She leaned into him, and together they entered their room.

16. Exploring

The room they entered was remarkable, to say the least. And large.

"William... is it me or do the walls fold back?"

The wizard also gazed upwards along one of the walls. "I'll be a frog if this room isn't like the bottom half or a pyramid," he said, "only upside down."

Two black cats dropped to the white floor and started their own discovery.

"Uhhuh," said Hilda. "And the ceiling. It's that moving mosaic thing. Do they expect us to sleep with all that light going on over our heads?"

"I'll make sure that won't happen, Hilda," William said.

They looked around the room. In a corner, far away from the door, hovered what had to be a bed. As the two approached it, Hilda muttered something under her voice. William learnt, after asking, that she found the room too white. It was indeed very white. The floor, the walls, the bed, all other pieces of furniture, everything except the ceiling, the cats and the two magical people was white.

The wizard used his wand and magic with care as Hilda took over the role of interior decorator. The wall near the bed became purple, to humour the witch. The other walls changed to a light sandy brown. Two tables and eight chairs were transformed into plain wooden versions, and three large fluffy white seats became one large dark blue sofa and a low table in front of it.

"Much better," the witch nodded as they sat on the sofa, their cats next to them.

"There is someone waiting outside to see you," a voice announced.

"Who is it?" Hilda asked, used as she was to a talking house.

"Davdruw sent me here, honoured witch," another voice said. "To show you your room."

"Oh, right," said Hilda. "House, let her in." She and William got up and saw a rather young woman come into their room who made a serious effort to stay in. As she saw what had happened to the room, she almost keeled over backwards. "Are you alright, kid?" Hilda asked, sounding worried.

"What happened to the room?" the girl asked, her eyes large, her hand seeking stability against a wall.

"We cheered it up a bit. Less white. Do you like it? Here, see the sofa!" Hilda patted the back of the piece of furniture. "Very comfortable. Come, try it." She rushed over to the girl, took her by the arm and guided her to sit on the sofa.

The young woman, in her silvery clothes, felt something furry under one of her hands. The furry, better known as Obsi, meowed in protest and jumped away. The girl thought that a very commendable idea and also jumped, after which she made for the door. Before she reached it, she forced herself to a halt. Grimalkin sat near the door, looking up at the woman, clearly wondering what all the fuss was about.

Hilda and William both were there to help the young woman back to the sofa. "Come, sit down. No cats here now, so you can sit down. Want a cup of tea? William, get her some tea." The witch sat down with the young woman, patting her hand, as the wizard made a mug of tea appear.

A yelp escaped the girl as she tried to push herself through the back of the sofa.

"Now what?" Hilda asked, not understanding all the fuss.

"I think they're not used to magic, Hilda," said William. And to the young woman he said: "You probably know about the prophecy, right?"

She nodded, her eyes large and on the steaming mug.

"Well, Hilda's the witch, and I'm the wizard. We do magic. Like that mug of tea. Now drink some, it'll make you feel better. And then tell us your name, will you?"

After a few sips of tea, which made the girl relax, she said: "I am Kerna. Davdruw asked me to... uhm..." Kerna's voice faltered as Obsi and Grim sauntered around the sofa and jumped onto the table, curiously observing her.

"Yes, we know," said Hilda, "just drink your tea and then tell us about the room."

Kerna showed stamina as Grimalkin jumped in Hilda's lap: she did not jump, although she did move away slightly. "What is that? Is that yours?"

Hilda and William explained about the cats again, wondering about the animals on this planet. "So. About the room..."

Kerna set aside her shock about the new look of the room and showed them a hidden door (which she had trouble finding because of the new decoration) behind which there was a bathroom. There also was a triangular panel they could open and request food from. They gave it a few tries, but whatever they ordered, the machinery behind the panel invariably came up with bowls that contained a very bad impersonation of oatmeal.

"I prefer the thing aboard the Mimosa," Hilda remarked, which made Kerna frown.

"It appears that this one broke down now," Kerna simply said. "Maybe you can use the one that is in the room of your friends." That made it clear that the Lycadeans had a very simple way to deal with the falling apart of their environment.

"Luckily we have something better," said William as he turned the bowls of oatmeal with a bad day into plates with fried chicken, chips and carrots.

Kerna displayed another frown, but this one was accompanied by large eyes and an expression of disbelief. The way she sniffed at the food made William change another bowl.

"Here we go," Hilda said, taking one of the plates to a table.

William winked at Kerna, handed her a plate and ushered her to the table as well. "Oh!" he then said. He went back to the food machine, made it hand out another bowl, and turned that into magical cat food. Obsi and Grim did not waste time with it.

As they all were eating, there was a pounding on the door. Hilda went to open it and brought Maurizio and Rebel to the table. The two had buried the hatchet for now and complained about the machine with the food.

"There was a nice woman who explained about it, and said we might use yours, which appears to be working," Maurizio said as he eyed the plates.

As Hilda invited them to sit down with them, William went to get more oatmeal and brought that to the table. He asked what they would like to eat and did his magic trick.

"So what was wrong with you two just now?" Hilda asked. "You were almost at each other's throat."

"I'm not talking about it," Rebel said between bites. Maurizio stated something similar, be it mixed with bites. His synchronising probably was somewhat off.

Hilda and William exchanged glances and shrugged. "Where is that nice woman you mentioned?" Hilda then asked.

"Uhm... I'm not sure," Maurizio confessed, this time between bites. "We were so hungry that we just walked out and knocked on your door when she mentioned using your food machine."

"Glad we did, too," Rebel added.

"Sakodi probably went back to her chores," Kerna said, sitting back. Her plate could not be emptier. "We were asked to help you as long as necessary. She assumed she was done when you left."

"Oh." Rebel raised an eyebrow. "I think we were quite rude, running off like that. We should apologise."

Kerna said: "She won't mind. You came here with Grimhilda the Witch. It is an honour to be asked."

Everyone had finished their food, when Hilda proposed they'd go out for a walk and have a look around in this strange place they had arrived at.

"Do you think that is wise, honoured witch?" Kerna asked.

"Sure," Hilda said. "You're coming with us, to guide the way. What can possibly go wrong?" William stared at his witch, who looked back. "What?" she asked.

William laughed. Hilda joined in. Then also did Rebel and Maurizio, leaving Kerna sitting silently, who was not aware of what Hilda and William had experienced before coming here. The young woman took the plates to the food machine, put them in it and closed the door to it.

They all left the table, and then the room, ready for adventure. Kerna asked the witch what she wanted to see. The answer "Everything" was not much help, though.

"In that case let's go outside," said Hilda. "This building makes me nervous."

Kerna shook her head, and she looked very determined as she did so. "That is not wise, honoured witch. Outside is dangerous."

"How can outside be dangerous while we are in a building that is falling apart as we speak? The high council told us so. And we saw things break ourselves."

"Outside things break too, honoured witch." Kerna had a problem trying to keep Hilda inside while also wanting to accommodate her wishes. "Big things."

"Ah, I see," said Rebel. "In here there's only small stuff and out there we can get a brick on our head."

"A brick... not exactly..." Kerna frowned.

"Oh, come on, don't be a spoilsport," said the witch as she threw an arm around the young woman. "See, you're safe now, so where's the door?"

"Hilda, perhaps there is something to what she says," Maurizio tried, but his words found no ears to fall on, not even deaf ones.

Kerna had lost and she knew it. She led the small group down a few tube-like corridors, to an airlock-like door. She typed some codes on a glass tablet. In response, the large metallic (triangular) hatch slowly moved to the side and offered them a view of the outside.

"Crappedy crap."

17. Lycadea

"Now really," Hilda said.

The view could only be called 'different'. Well, it could also be called 'strange', or even 'scary'. They looked at six or so more pyramids that seemed scattered about. Most of them were still in one piece, but at least two of them had somehow been damaged by something immense. They had collapsed, mostly imploded, but tricky gusts of wind pushed against the broken parts that were still upright.

As Hilda and William looked out over the devastation, a large plate of one of the damaged buildings came crashing down.

"That's more than a brick alright," Rebel said. She did not grin.

In front of them, only a step outside, the ground was littered with things. Parts of pyramids, pieces of indeterminable objects, and remains of what probably had been machines, everything was spread out between the pyramid houses. The ground itself looked like what had once been an enormous slab of concrete. Originally it had been white and yellow, the witch guessed from some visible spots. There were so many cracks and holes in it that it looked difficult and dangerous to venture out onto it.

"What happened here?" Maurizio asked Kerna. "Did you have a war?"

The woman shook her head. "No. The machines for maintaining the outside-", she pointed loosely at one of the mechanical carcasses, "-stopped working."

"And nobody knew how to fix them," Hilda understood. "Is it this bad everywhere?"

"I don't know, honoured witch. I do not leave the house very often, and when I do I use the tunnel tubes. But they are becoming increasingly dangerous too."

William put a hand on Hilda's shoulder. He was lost on what they had gotten into. And where. "Do you want to go outside and have a better look, witch?"

"I would like to, although that stuff doesn't look very inviting."

William understood. Walking there was lethal. He drew his wand and pointed it at one of the broken-down machines. He muttered spells and cast magic for a while, until the whatever it had been was completely disassembled. It was hard work, as he had no clue how the thing had been assembled. It was mainly trial mixed with a lot of error.

"What are you trying here, wizard?" Rebel asked. "Anything I can help you with?"

"Can you get all that stuff closer?" William asked. Rebel nodded, held out a hand and lifted the pile of metal components up as Hilda and Maurizio stared at what went on.

"Great," said the wizard as the envy of a junk yard landed before them. William transferred Obsi to Kerna's shoulder. Both looked surprised and uncomfortable.

The witch who was no witch held her breath as she saw William step out into the open, towards the mountain of metal. A twitch of emotional pain went through her as he asked Rebel to step out and help him. She should be the one out there. Instead she was standing there, watching William do all kinds of things as his robe was flapping about like a bird that had gone soft in the head.

William manufactured a most fantastic rig. It had six seats, courtesy of Rebel who copied them from a torn original. Hilda recalled how they had taken people to the air on a wooden frame tied to their two brooms. This looked a lot like it, be it that there were no brooms but metal bars. She wondered if the thing would be able to fly.

Kerna just stood and watched, silent, trying to ignore the black animal on her shoulder.

"Now you go back inside, Rebel, and let me see if this thing will actually do what I want it to do," said William.

"Back inside? No way. I'm here, I worked on it, so I am going with you!"

The wizard turned to Hilda and while pointing at Rebel, he said: "You never mentioned having a sister, sweetwitch." That made Rebel stare and Hilda grin.

William then charged the metal rig and when he then told it to rise, it did. Reluctantly, but it rose. He carefully sat himself on it. It held. "Okay, Rebel. Careful."

With a serious streak of envy Hilda watched Rebel sit on the rig and then the contraption started going up. As the winds caught it, the thing was shaking and trembling. In her mind Hilda knew exactly how she'd counter that, without thinking she'd- but she did not need to.

William took control and the metal flight-thing stabilised. He made it rise, turn, go forward and backward and then he was satisfied. With the device hovering in front of the opening in the building, Hilda and Maurizio took a seat. Kerna was less inclined to risk her life on that, but her loyalty to her task won in the end. As soon as she was on the rig, Obsi tiptoe'd over to William and took possession of his lap.

Hilda took pity on Kerna. "Hold my hand if you feel nervous."

The rig slowly rose up into the Lycadean air. As they gained altitude, Hilda saw more pyramids around. They were further apart than the cluster of pyramids they had departed from. Long lines lay on the ground, running from one house to the next.

"William, can you get closer to these things?" Hilda pointed.

As they closed in, Kerna explained that those were the tunnel tubes she had mentioned. Once near to one of the tunnels, it was obvious that Kerna had not exaggerated. There were many cracks in the semi-transparent tubes. They could make out people walking through them quickly.

"They have breathing masks with them, for when the air gets toxic," Kerna said.

"Oh..." William pulled a magical airbubble around the contraption, just to be safe. "And how do you know the air is toxic?"

"In that case the doors won't open," Kerna said.

"Right... until the sensor or whatever is responsible fails and opens the door," Maurizio pointed out. This brought about a painful silence. Hilda broke through that by asking Kerna where the nearest forest was. She had to see trees again, and a lake if possible, and green grass.

"There is none that I know, honoured witch. Maybe Davdruw knows, or someone in the high council."

"No Forest?" Hilda spoke capitals, her face displaying momentary horror. "How can you people live like that?"

Kerna said that they had always lived like that, inside the houses, at least as long as she could remember.

"William, can you take us back again? I have seen enough..." Hilda hated having to ask, but her wizard did not mind, she knew that.

Soon they had returned to the enormous pyramid building. Kerna showed the others how they could open the door. They entered, leaving the flying rig outside and close at hand for an eventual next trip. No sooner had they reached one of the main corridors, when a couple of desperate men charged towards them. "There she is!"

William stopped them with a whammy of wizardly magic, causing the two to bounce off a wall of energy and tumble to the ground. "Now what's the rush, gentlemen?" he asked.

Kerna looked frightened. "These are men of the council's guard!"

"Oh? You can actually tell all these folks with blue hair and silver clothes apart?" Hilda asked. They all looked quite the same to her. Except for the hair.

The two men picked themselves up from the ground. "Honoured witch," one of them said, "we have orders to take you to the spiritual leader, Davdruw."

Orders did not work with Hilda. The men were about to learn. "If he wants to see me, tell him to come here. Or better, to our room, because that's where we're going." She started walking, her companions following her. Then the witch stopped. "Kerna, perhaps you should go first. I'm lost."

"But-" one of the council's guards said. Nobody paid him any mind.

When the group reached their rooms, they found Davdruw pacing about on his long legs. "Oh! Honoured witch! You have been found!"

Hilda looked up at the man. "Was I lost then?" She gladly ignored the fact that she had stated just that not long ago.

"We could not find you," Davdruw corrected himself. An undefinable emotion was on his face for a moment. It was clear he did not like to be questioned. "Where have you been? I have dispatched the high council's guards to look for you."

"Well, they found us, when we came back in," Rebel said from the couch she had claimed as her own.

"BACK IN?" Davdruw's eyebrows tried to crawl to the top of his head. After staring at Rebel for a long second, he focussed on Kerna. "Where have you taken them?"

"Hold it, Davdruw," Hilda interfered. "We wanted to go out. Kerna has nothing to do with that, it was my idea."

"She should have stopped you!" The man became visibly and audibly agitated.

"Stop her? Good luck," William said as he changed a few bowls of oatmeal into mugs with coffee and tea. Hilda nabbed a coffee one after hugging him for it. Kerna was curious about the tea, Rebel and Maurizio also picked something up. Davdruw seemed shocked by the lack of shock the others showed over him being shocked.

"Honoured witch," the tall man said, "please do not go outside again. It is too dangerous."

Hilda slammed her mug on the table. The coffee did a double somersault and landed in an artistic puddle on the surface. "You are really doing your best to get on my shit list, Davdruw." Hilda was proud of that word she had picked up from William. "You first use that prophecy excuse to bring me here. Then you expect me to save your world, and when I go out to take a look at the damage you try to confine me to this large and unfriendly place? If you are so smart that you think you can order me around and tell me how to do this, why don't you go and save your world yourself?"

A slow clapping from Maurizio. "Brava, brava."

Davdruw looked at Kerna. She had positioned herself behind William and looked determined to stay there. Davdruw's influence was fading, and he knew it. "Very well. Very well. But do inform me, honoured witch, when you want to go out again. I can arrange for a group of guards then."

"Can they fly?" the witch asked.

"Fly?" Davdruw frowned. "No."

"Splendid."

18. Uh-oh

The five had enjoyed a nice dinner together. The five? Yes. Hilda, William, Maurizio and Rebel. And Kerna. The young woman had teamed up with the witch and her companions.

Davdruw had swallowed hard to accept that, but with everyone in favour there was nothing he could do.

During the evening, Hilda and William had not noticed anything remaining of the earlier hostilities between the captain of the Mimosa and the woman from the future.

As they went to sleep, Hilda asked William for some modifications to the bed. It ended up being a copy of their bed at home.

"Do you think we will wake up soon and just be home again?" Hilda asked William.

"Would be nice, sweetwitch, but somehow I have the feeling that is not going to happen."

"Too bad," she mumbled.

Something crashed on the floor, a cat complained loudly.

"That was yours," said Hilda.

"I hope they'll let us sleep," William simply said.

-=-=-

The next morning Kerna showed up again, accompanied by Rebel and Maurizio. Rebel had dressed in a silver ensemble that was so common on this planet. Her brown hair was still brown. Maurizio had his trusty red coat on. He was eyepatchless though.

"Good morning, team," Hilda welcomed them. "William's just making breakfast, go tell him there are more customers."

Rebel and Maurizio grinned, while Kerna walked over to William. The wizard grinned; he had already heard and seen them come in. The young woman stood and watched how he baked eggs. The misbehaving food generator had partly been transformed into a normal kitchen, which was quite abnormal for Lycadean standards. He sent her to the table with a tray laden with mugs and the message that breakfast would be done soon.

Once he was done with breakfast, the others were done with it quickly also. Kerna clearly had hoped to be invited: she attacked her plate with a vigour that was amusing.

The room then announced that Davdruw was asking permission to enter, which was granted.

"Oh," was his first reaction as he saw Kerna at the table with the others. He did not have to elaborate on that word, his face said it all, and it did not say happy things.

"Do sit down, Davdruw," said the witch, "if you can find a chair big enough for you."

William assisted in making a larger chair.

"So why are you here so early?" Hilda continued her questioning. Before the tall man could answer, she added: "Why are you the one who is doing all this arranging and fussing, anyway? Aren't you supposed to be the spiritual leader? That would mean other work, right?"

Davdruw, his eyes examining the contents of the table and plates, sighed. "Alas, honoured witch, there is not much spirituality on Lycadea lately. We are more concerned with surviving, and as I am the one who is most in touch with the prophecy, I am automatically the person who has to see to you. And your safety," he added with emphasis. Clearly their little trip outside was still a bother to him.

"I see," Hilda nodded.

"And for the day, we hope you can see the high council again. They were very pleased to meet you, and they have many things they want to discuss with you."

"Oh," Hilda responded. She was not too pleased with that prospect.

"And what would that bring?" Rebel voiced Hilda's thoughts. "We'll be in that room full of breaking things for what?"

Davdruw looked hurt. "Perhaps you should stay away from the high council and remain in your room then," he tried.

"No chance," Maurizio said, "we go where Hilda goes. I assume."

Hilda nodded. She looked at her wizard. "Do you think that would help, being there?"

"We can at least try," William shrugged, filling up the mugs again with a wave of his hand. He made a cup of tea materialise in front of Davdruw as well.

After breakfast, Davdruw took the group to the Palliza again. He first had objected to Kerna being there, but Hilda insisted that the woman had to come. "To take care of the cats."

Gesmarion and Katinki looked up and came to greet the group. "Welcome back, honoured witch!"

William frowned, as they only seemed to notice Hilda, but he refrained from mentioning something. Being invisible had its advantages, he knew.

The day passed with a kind of inventory of all machinery and systems, under Rebel's supervision. She was the one who understood most of all that stuff. William looked at all the people who made up the high council. Many of them were sleeping on improvised beds; he changed those into proper beds, just to have something to do. Maurizio and Kerna took care of the two cats, as long as these animals wanted to. This meant that the two people stood empty-handed most of the time.

"Oh, this is interesting," said Rebel at one moment.

"What is?" Hilda asked. She at least tried to understand.

"This console here," Rebel pointed, "looks like it is controlling the weather over this area."

"Controlling the weather..." Hilda sounded disbelieving and disgusted. "You do not want to control the weather."

"They wanted to," Rebel said. "And their technology did pull it off for a while, but something is going wrong with that now."

Rmani, a woman who stood near the apparatus, explained that Rebel was correct, and also that they had been trying to make the system work again. "It does not work well, though."

"It works worse, I dare to bet," Rebel said. "The more you adjust on these things, the more unstable the output parameters become, so the next machine in the chain will get unbalanced data and create a faulty projection of the meteorological adjustments, so the whole thing will end up in an atmospheric deviation of considerable proportion."

"What?"

"The weather is going to be crap," William translated for Hilda.

"Right. And what if you just stop that thing from doing whatever devious deviating it now does?"

Rmani stared at Hilda. "But, honoured witch, then the weather will become... unpredictable!"

"And it is predictable now, is it?"

Rmani fell silent. Gesmarion then confessed: "We do not know how to shut it down."

"Ah. That is a different dragon," Hilda said. "Maybe we can find something out. Rebel here is so good with that."

Maurizio, carrying Grimalkin, coughed for attention. "Maybe that is not a very good idea, Hilda."

"And you have a better one?"

"Maybe we can fine-tune the machine," the captain tried.

"So you are in favour of messing with the weather. Without me, sir," Hilda told him. "Let's see if we can calm it down first." That was as far as she wanted to go. There was no way she was going to touch any of these things.

The small group watched as Rebel go to work. Well, attempted to, as she had to depend on the lack of knowledge of the high council. Most of her questions were replied to with a good old shrug.

Hilda looked at William, who looked back at her. They shared the same worry that this might end up in some serious disaster concerning the weather.

One of the high council members, a man by the name of Tarmis, happily started flicking a switch.

"What are you doing?" William asked, hoping that this man had some form of a clue.

"I don't know," Tarmis said, "I sometimes do that to see if something happens."

"And always with that switch?"

"No. I take a different one every time and they all seem to be broken. I never hear of something that changed." Tarmis reached for the switch again. Hilda punched his arm away.

"Ouch, honoured witch, why did you do that?" He really did not seem to understand.

"Suppose you are messing up some weather on the other side of the planet? Suppose you trigger some heavy rain that causes people to drown?"

"Uhm... oh..." Tarmis put his hands behind his back.

"Can that happen?" Kerna with the cats asked.

"Who knows," William replied. "If we're lucky nothing happened. Does anyone even know if there are people on the other side? And how many? And if they are in the same mess as you are?"

Davdruw, unfortunately, could assure them that the state of misery was the same everywhere. Some people had contact with other groups, as far as the communication systems allowed.

Rebel in that time had discovered a pattern in a few things on the consoles, but she had no idea what they meant.

"Better leave it all be then," the witch suggested.

Davdruw looked at his silvery sleeve. Then he asked to be excused. Without waiting for a response, he paced off on his long legs.

"Wonder what he's upto," Hilda commented at the disappearing back.

"Honoured witch! I have something for you!" One of the council members came to her, waving his arms excitedly. "Here you are!" He handed her a broken switch.

"Oh. Wonderful." Hilda frowned at the thing in her hand. "And your precise meaning of this gift is?"

"I don't really know," the man said, "you seemed interested in the other one too."

Rebel tapped a panel. "Looks like this is broken too." At that moment, the panel came to life and showed a very complex scribble. Several council members gasped.

"What?" enquired the witch.

The answer came in the form of a trembling floor.

"Uh-oh," someone said. Someone from the high council. This did not bode well.

"What?" Hilda asked again, getting slightly impatient with the council and worried about the unrelenting tremble.

"I'm afraid something is going wrong."

Hilda and her friends had figured that out already.

"Very wrong."

That just made it worse.

19. Rescue mission

The floor trembled some more, this time more serious, as if the previous tremor had been a practice run. The equipment against the walls responded by vibrating, and here and there parts fell off, as if they agreed with the floor's trembles. William and Rebel hoped they were not crucial parts.

"This is an earthquake, right?" Hilda tried. It was almost a relief as some of the Lycadeans nodded and looked around for more possible parts coming down. Nothing happened anymore though. The floor settled down, as did the parts.

"I want out of here," Rebel said. "If tapping a console already calls up an earthquake, I'm not touching anything anymore." She had barely said it when another trembling made itself known.

Hilda looked at William. "This was something different..." Her words were confirmed by a display coming to life by itself and a set of blue lights blinking. "Does that mean alarm?" she asked Katinki, who nodded.

"Hmm. What happened to red for danger," the witch muttered. The display in the meantime occupied itself by showing a pyramid that was slowly collapsing.

"Madonna," Maurizio said. "Are there people in there?"

Davdruw confirmed that notion.

"We have to go and get them out!" Rebel voiced the feeling of the entire group. They all started running towards the door, Kerna included, when suddenly a small beam of light enveloped Hilda and froze her in place.

"Crappedy crap!" she shouted. She could only moved around inside the circle of light. "What is this? Can someone let me out?"

Davdruw, his hand still on his sleeve, said: "My sincerest apologies, honoured witch Grimhilda, but I cannot let you go out where the danger is. You are too precious. You are here to make right what is wrong!"

William drew his wand and pointed it at the spiritual leader. "It is against my feelings to hurt a spiritual leader," he said, "but if you don't release her, I will. And then I am going to find the biggest elf in existence and let that suck on you."

"Suck an elf," Hilda said, "that's what I call style."

There was another rumble through the floor, the display showed a pretty picture of a piece of wall falling down.

"And maybe we should hurry up in style as well," the witch added.

Davdruw's hand moved to his sleeve, but William's wand was faster. The sleeve disappeared and the tall man tapped on his bare, pale arm. "Sorry to burst your, ehm, sleeve," said the wizard as he turned to Hilda. It actually took him a few tries before he had removed the light circle that kept his witch imprisoned.

"But you-" said Davdruw. At that point William slammed the man with some innocent magic. There was a light circle around him. And it was sound proof.

Kerna, Rebel and Maurizio were waiting by the door. Hilda and William joined them and they left the council hall, leaving Davdruw and the high council behind.

In the corridors there was a lot of running around by people who all attempted to do some rescue-y action. None of them however seemed to have a decent clue of what to do, though.

"Holy Bejeebus," William said, "this is going to be tough."

Maurizio said: "I am sure that Rebel can make them cooperate." He looked at the woman, who grinned. Apparently he knew something about the tricks she had up her sleeve, where Davdruw was without for now. Tricks, as well as a sleeve.

Maurizio reached inside a pocket of his long, red coat and brought out a small piece of yellow metal. He held it in front of his mouth and said: "Everybody calm down!" His words echoed through all the corridors, startling people and making them stop their panicked running around.

Hilda looked at the man who suddenly had assumed his role of captain.

"We need medical supplies, if you have those around here. We also need three people to guide us to where we can get to the other building. Everyone capable of doing something useful like carrying wounded or tending to them, follow us. The rest go to your quarters or carry on with your regular activities." Maurizio put the metal in his pocket again.

"Crappedy crap, that is a handy little thing," Hilda commented.

The captain nodded, put his eye patch over an eye and looked around. Several people had stepped up and said they would be able to help. Maurizio appointed three of them to lead the way. "Rebel, stay close to them and keep them near. Not sure if they are as brave when things get a bit more difficult."

Rebel nodded and with the other three formed the spearhead to the corridor from where they could reach the pyramid in distress. William's magic and Rebel's unnatural powers were needed to forcibly open the door. Inside the corridor they found several people, many of them hurt. The Lycadeans that had joined them started carrying the wounded away.

"I hope their sickbay is still operational," muttered Rebel, "these folks are not very competent without their machinery."

Hilda agreed. "I wonder why they allowed their machine things to take over their entire life. It looks as if they exist to support the machine things. Does anyone know how many people were in this thing? And how many are already brought out?"

Her question remained frightfully unanswered.

"This is going well," the witch muttered. "Rebel, William, can you find people in here?" She bit away another pinch of pain over the loss of her magic. Now would be a great time for that to come back, but clearly magic was not aware of that. Hilda felt helpless, despite pretending to be in control of the search and rescue operation.

William squeezed her hand for a moment, as if he knew what she was thinking at that moment. "I'll throw in some magic," he said calmly.

Rebel just nodded as she spread her hands, fingers pointing up and palms away from her. "At least a few dozen behind that wall," she pointed. "Everyone out of the way, the wizard's going to make a nice hole in there."

William raised an eyebrow for a moment, it was as if she had read his thoughts. Rebel, he decided, was a scary person when she was not busy being weird or strange. Wand in hand, he started removing parts of the wall, making the blocks fall towards them. He made them float through the corridor and dumped them at the end where Lycadeans tried to remove them. They failed, as the blocks were quite large. And heavy.

It did not take very long for the hole to be large enough to step through. Rebel was right: they found over thirty people in the adjacent room. Most of them were well, some had bruises from falling bits of ceiling, A serious bit of falling ceiling had effectively sealed off the way out.

"We're making progress this way," Hilda commented. "Next room." Her last words were out-volumed by a majestic bit of noise coming from further into the pyramid."Crappedy crap," she said after the coughing, courtesy of a large dust cloud, was done. "That was not what I asked for!"

"Honoured Grimhilda!" a well-known voice called.

"How did he get out?" William wondered as Davdruw appeared.

"The palliza started falling apart," the tall man quickly said, "and somehow that made your prison circle disappear."

"And the council?" Maurizio asked, who just came back from carrying off a person.

"They are safe," Davdruw said.

"Good. Now get out of the way," Rebel said, "I have people to find." Again she spread her hands in front of her. Her "uh-oh" did not mean much good.

Everyone looked at where Rebel was looking and everyone saw a large crack appear in the next wall. It was as if two invisible hands started ripping the room apart, starting in the centre of the wall and tearing away at the floor and the ceiling at the same time.

William flashed his wand. The two pieces of floor started to move together again, be it under severe protest. "We have to hurry," he said, "I am not sure how long I can keep this together with the building determined to collapse on us."

As the wizard expanded his magic to keep all parts of the pyramid in place as much as possible, the others moved through it and located sixty-two more people, some of them hurt quite badly.

"Is there nothing you can do to help William?" Hilda almost begged of Rebel.

"No, I am sorry. I can do a lot of stuff, but he outdoes me in this area," Rebel said as the two of them dragged an unconscious woman from the furthest room. Everywhere around them pieces of wall and ceiling were hovering and bobbing around.

When they reached the wizard, Hilda said: "You can start letting the thing fall apart from here on, wizard. We're the last ones."

"Has anyone seen Kerna?" William asked.

"No... now you mention it... Where is she? Kerna!!" Hilda yelled out the name.

Maurizio yelled back from the corridor behind them. "Kerna is here, Hilda, prego. Your cat animals kept her there for some reason."

"Good," William said. In a more or less controlled way, the pyramid now started collapsing. Rebel, using her uncanny and still unclear powers, managed to keep the dust to acceptable levels as the wizard stacked up the immense pieces of wall and ceiling. When finally everything was done, he looked tired. "I had no idea how much work this is. Building such a thing is much easier."

"You should ask the Egyptians about that," Maurizio grinned. Rebel chuckled and Hilda grumbled as she missed the joke.

Kerna had indeed been held back by Grim and Obsi. Hilda was surprised about that, but she was certain that the two had their reasons for that.

20. Going out again

Hilda and William had retreated to their room after making sure the wounded people were taken care of. Rebel had promised she would stay in the sick bay as long as needed. The magical couple had thanked Kerna for her help in keeping the cats safe.

Kerna had told them how they could contact her in case they wanted to see her and then the young woman had left them, the two cats watching closely as she walked away.

"It is amazing how Obsi and Grim have taken to Kerna, isn't it?" William said as he made some tea and cookies.

Hilda, her legs stretched out on the sofa, nodded. "Yes. I'm surprised about that too. They haven't done that before. Not even with Babs."

William made a sound that said more than he could have said.

"True, she did call our cats 'pooches'," Hilda grinned. "Not a cat person, that's for certain."

William put the tea and the plate with cookies on the table and sat down on the sofa, lifting Hilda's legs so they rested on his knees. After this manoeuvre they both could not reach the tea nor the cookies.

A magical movement later, they sipped and nibbled.

"I wonder what we are supposed to do next," Hilda said, staring at a raisin that looked lost inside the cookie she ate. "These people are so weird, with their prophecy and their machines. And they are so inadequate at living, really. I'm surprised that they kept going for so long."

"Their ancestors probably made good machines," William said.

They chatted the evening away, and the next morning their three companions showed up for breakfast again.

"The high council has asked if you can assist in assessing the damage, honoured witch." Kerna, with Obsi in her lap, spoke between bites.

"And why would we do that?" Hilda wanted to know. "Are there not enough of your folks around to do that?"

Kerna looked at the witch. "I think the high council does not trust most of.... our folks."

"Unfortunately I have to agree," William said.

"Right. I think that this damage thing is somewhat of a good idea," Hilda said, "but perhaps we should also have a look at the other pyramids. Maybe there are a few things we can improve, so they don't fall apart like the one yesterday."

"That was because of the earthquake, Hilda," Maurizio reminded her.

"And they somehow manage to make earthquakes, so her suggestion is definitely a good one," William countered.

"And one more thing," said the witch. "I think it is time that Kerna starts calling us Hilda and William. The honoured bit is nice, but somewhat overdone for someone who's around us so much. Can you do that for us, dear?"

Kerna forgot to chew as she heard that. "I think I can, honoured- ehm - Hilda."

"Good. Glad we have that out of the way. Now let's finish up and get to that damage thing. Might as well do something sensible around here."

During that day and the next one, the group made rounds through all the nearby pyramids. Sometimes Davdruw would be there with them for a while, but most of the time Hilda and William managed to scare the man away.

"For some reason he gets on my nerves," the witch said after they had secured another one of the large chambers in a pyramid. "Do you think this will be safe now?" She peered up at the ceiling. They had taken the original one down, which had not taken much. In fact, opening the door to come in had been quite enough: a fast action by Rebel had prevented the old ceiling from falling down on them.

William, on an improvised broom, made a last round along the ceiling. "I think this will be fine for a while, Hilda," he said. Obsi, on William's shoulder, meowed in agreement as they returned to the floor.

"And only seven more to do," sighed the captain in the red coat, flipping his eye patch over an eye for a change. "This is getting a bit boring, Hilda, we already went through four of those things and they are all dangerous."

"This," Hilda said, pointing around the chamber, "is not dangerous. Hunting down a witch like Zelda, who chases a couple of Nobbleback dragons after your broom and throws slabs of concrete at you, now that's dangerous. This is just an inconvenience." She wondered how and when they would be going back home as she spoke. And how and when she would get her magic back.

"Don't forget the labyrinth," William said as he touched down. "That was interesting as well."

Hilda nodded. "Gurthreyn." The name still gave her goose-bumps, even though all had been well in the end there. She shook them off. "Are we done here? I suggest we call it a day here, and go outside for some fresh air."

Kerna, cats in her arms and on her shoulders, grinned. "That would be nice, yes." She had gotten used to going outside with the magicals.

Rebel and Maurizio looked at each other, hands reaching and finding. "We'll stay here, if you don't mind," said the captain.

Hilda looked at the hands. "Sure, if you feel like that. But, uhm, weren't you having this great big fight a while ago?" she asked, being her diplomatic self.

"Fight?" Two pairs of surprised eyes looked at her.

Hilda looked back. "Fight," she confirmed, then looking at William for support. He had been there.

The wizard put an arm around witchy shoulders and said: "I am sure they will work out whatever might be happening. Won't you?"

Rebel clenched Maurizio's hand tightly. It was visible on the man's face. "We have no problems. Do we?"

"No, no, we have none of that," he responded, trying to outsqueeze Rebel, with no success.

"Good." She turned and walked off, the man in red following as he wanted to stay close to his hand.

"Weird bunch," Hilda said, shaking her head.

Together with Kerna they left the chamber, telling the people waiting in the corridors that it was safe to use again.

-=-=-

The group of guards that Davdruw had assigned to handle the honoured witch's safety had been shaken off again. As the door closed, William made the large contraption he had built together with Rebel rise up in the air. Obsi and Grim sat in the front, the wind ruffling their fur.

"Where do we go this time?" William the driver asked.

Hilda looked round for a moment and pointed. "That way. We've not been there yet."

'That way' was in the direction of a distant group of buildings, also pyramids.

Kerna, who had gotten rid of all her fears regarding 'outside', told them that these buildings were no longer used, as they were too far away from the main settlement. "People used to live there. People with much knowledge."

"And where are they now? Did they move back to where you all live?"

"No. They left. Long ago. Nobody knows where they went, but Davdruw is convinced they died not long after they left their homes. The surface is not safe."

"Not with you lot messing with things so much," Hilda could only agree. "Not meant personally," she added as Kerna's face showed guilt.

Soon they reached the buildings. Most of the structures had decided that becoming a ruin was a good idea. A few slow thinkers were obviously still pondering this fate.

William made the contraption land, the cats jumped to the ground lightly and wandered off on their own. Kerna watched the two go, she still was not used to these animals having a very clear mind of their own.

Hilda grinned as she watched the young woman. "You should have a cat of your own," she commented, glad with the happy expression Kerna's face suddenly retrieved from somewhere. "So... let's have a look around here."

"I suggest we look with care," said William, "some of these things probably will reduce themselves to crumbles if we look at them too long."

Hilda laughed. It was the proper witch's laugh, one that William had learnt to love and that made Kerna clasp her hands over her ears. It also invoked a strange sound from the nearest building.

"Seems we also should not laugh at them," William commented as the sound had died away. He studied the building. "Maybe we should put this one out of its misery..." He took his wand, pulled the two cats from wherever they were back to their humans, and created a bubble of safety around the group. Then he made the building collapse. All it needed was a nudge.

"Good thinking, William," said the witch, patting him on the arm as the dust had gone, as well as the bubble. Grim and Obsi ran to the new piles of rubble to look for interesting things as the three people slowly sauntered along the remaining three buildings. These were by far not as large as the ones the magicals were living in now.

Kerna explained that these pyramids were very old, from the time that many people preferred to live nearly alone, with five or six persons at the most."

"Crappedy crap, I would not be able to live in one house with six people," Hilda said. "Such a crowd."

Kerna looked at her in wonder, but held back any comments she might have.

"How do we open this one here?" Hilda then pointed at one of the pyramids that was still standing.

Kerna looked at the building as she walked around it, but had to give up. "This one has a strange old entrance I think, I can't find a normal way in."

The witch and the wizard walked around the building then. "That looks a bit like..."

William pulled at the knob that they thought to be a doorhandle. It was. Time-worn and weather-beaten, the door it was attached to fell out as the wizard pulled. "Holy Bejeebus," he exclaimed, "that was not part of the plan."

"Are you okay?" Hilda asked. There was genuine worry in her voice. The unexpected assault by the door had made her jump.

"I'm fine, thank you."

The three people looked into the dark gaping hole where the door had been.

"Smells funny in there," Hilda remarked.

21. Breaking and entering

"Would this count as breaking and entering?" William wondered, patting himself to get rid of the dust that had found a pleasant spot on him.

"You broke the door, but no one entered yet," Hilda pointed out.

"You did not break the door," Kerna tried to make right what was not wrong between the two people in dark clothes. "The house is old."

Hilda and William laughed, and tried to explain that their bickering was only for good fun. Kerna looked a bit lost, but seemed to grasp the meaning, although her face was serious as ever.

"Come on, let's have a look in here," said the witch. She stepped into the pyramid and returned a second later. "I think we'll need some light."

The unfortunate door was quickly transformed in a few lights, and in they went, Hilda in the lead.

"Crappedy crap," she commented after the thud had stopped reverberating, "not a welcoming kind of people, these old folks." She had run into a wall that was only a few steps away from the entrance, and the wall was black. "Can you find something to let us in here, wizard?"

William and Kerna held their lights close to the wall as Hilda rubbed her nose.

"Ah, I see something...", said William. He reached out and prodded a small ring that was in the wall. As he pulled it, a soft rumble came from the floor below them and then a part of the floor started moving. As if they were on a small carousel, Kerna and William were transported to the other side of the wall where it was dark also.

"William? Kerna?" they heard Hilda's voice from the other side of the wall. "Where did you go?"

"Hilda, can you hear me?" William called out.

"I can, and no need to shout! Where are you?"

"We're inside. Look down on the wall, there is a ring there. Pull it. And don't step back." With baited breath William waited as he heard Hilda mutter on the other side of the wall. Her fingers found something and then a rumble sounded.

"And now what?" she asked the wall, when suddenly the floor moved and rotated her inside the house. The movement also brought William and Kerna outside, as they had forgotten to step off the revolving disc...

"Hey, I thought you said you are in here!" Hilda called out as she did not see her wizard.

"We were... but we were still on the piece of floor that moves," William laughed. "Step back, Hilda, we're coming in again!" He waited for a few moments, until they heard: "Right, I hope I am far enough from it now." He pulled the ring, the floor did its trick and then he was reunited with his witch.

"I like that thing," she pointed at the black wall. "Maybe we should put up something like that at home, William, it will be the talk of the witchy town!"

Kerna looked nervous, being inside the house. She stood close to William and Hilda and was not at peace, no matter how much fun the two magicals had. "Oh!" she suddenly said, and rushed to the door. She pulled the ring and went outside.

"What's that all about?" Hilda wondered. Then she and the wizard grinned, as they heard Kerna call out for the two cats.

William made the two lights float up and burn as bright as they could. Suddenly there was ample light in the room. Its walls were mostly dark red, the floor had been a form of brown, but now was mostly grey with dust. The wizard cleaned that bit up with a quick spell.

Then they looked around, slowly.

"This looks like a better place to live than that stupid place Davdruw gave us," Hilda said as she saw tables, chairs, and something that had probably once been a corner of the house that was set up for some comfortable doing nothing. She walked through the room, touching the chairs that stood by a large round table. "Not rotten at all," she said, surprised about that as the door had been in such a bad state.

William also went around the room and found another ring in a wall. Because of the light and the absence of dust, he could see where the revolving disc was. "Looks like there is another room here," he pointed out to the witch. "Want to go and have a look?"

"One of us should stay here, in case Kerna comes back," said Hilda. "The poor girl will have a fit when we're both gone. You go and have a look, William."

William nodded, made one of the lights float down to him and pulled the ring. In a few seconds he was gone.

"I want that at home," Hilda told one of the chairs. She looked at the table again. It intrigued her. Not so much the table itself, but the things that were on it. Clearly the people who had lived here had packed up quickly and left in a hurry, she thought. On the table were lots of things. And some of them looked like children's toys.

Curious, Hilda picked up something. It was a yellow disc with black spots on each side. Touching the spots did not do anything. She threw the thing up and it fell down in her hands again. "Poor kids," she said, "how can they have had fun with this thing?" The next thing she picked up was a small block of wood, with two small pieces of metal through it, like axles. One of them had a small wooden wheel attached to it. It was probably meant to be a cart of sorts, but only one wheel would not get it far, Hilda pondered as she put it down again.

"Now what's that..." She picked up a small object. It was formed as a drop, and almost transparent. The material was very strange for her. It felt cool but it was not glass. She saw some things inside the object that probably belonged there. She shook it. Nothing. As she tapped it on the table, the far wall rumbled.

Kerna had somehow retrieved both cats and brought them in. The animals escaped from her arms quickly and sped off, running through the room. "What is that?" Kerna asked as she came over to the table.

"I wish I knew," said Hilda. She held up the thing towards the light. "Oh, look at that..." She had discovered a hole on one side of the 'drop', and then found another hole on the other side. With a wicked grin she put one of the holes to her lips and blew.

"Phwshhhhh", whispered the drop.

"Now that is disappointing," Hilda muttered. For a moment she watched Kerna play with some of the things on the table. It looked as if she knew what some of them were for.

Kerna, noticing that Hilda observed her, held up a cube from the same material as the drop. "Here," she said, pointing at a hole, "stick your finger in there." Hilda failed to see the mischievous twinkle in Kerna's eye...

Hilda stuck a finger in the hole - and could not get it out anymore! She waved her hand, but that did not help. "Crappedy crap," she declared, pulling at the cube to no avail.

Kerna had stepped back, partly because she did not want to get smacked over the head with the cube, partly because she needed space to laugh as she saw how the witch tried to free herself from the simple children's toy.

All of a sudden William came out of the adjacent room, alarmed by the screaming of his witch and the laughing he'd heard. "What is that?" he demanded to know as he saw Hilda's frantic attempts to get something off her hand.

Kerna needed all her will-power to stop laughing. She caught Hilda's hand. "Wait, wait, you only make it worse!" As William approached also, Kerna showed Hilda two more holes on the side where the finger was stuck. "Put two more fingers in there," she suggested.

"No way," said Hilda, "I want the one out, not more in there!"

"That is the only way to get it off," Kerna said. "I am honest, honoured Hilda. Look, here are also three holes. I stick my fingers in there. If you fill two holes, the cube will open and we are both free. It is a toy, children have a lot of fun with it."

Hilda frowned, but stuck two more fingers in the holes Kerna had pointed out. Immediately the cube's sides sprung open, releasing all fingers.

Kerna explained that the original game was that someone put a finger in the cube, and by asking difficult questions the victim had to find someone to also put a finger in the cube. "Each wrong answer means a finger in the cube," she said with a grin. "Sometimes there are six people with a finger in the cube before it opens!"

Hilda's eyes shone brightly as she clicked the cube shut again. "I like that! Anyone against it if I take it with me?" Nobody argued, so the cube disappeared into one of Hilda's pockets. "And what did you find, great wizard?"

William reported that the next room was something of a landing or hallway, leading to three more rooms, probably bedrooms or so. "They're in a dreadful state, torn apart as if someone was looking for something."

Kerna nodded. "When the old people left, some of the others, of us I should say, came to these houses and looked for things they could use." Her face showed that she was ashamed of that, even though she was not old enough to have even been alive when that happened.

"Things like that happen, Kerna," said William. "Anyone care to see the other rooms?"

Hilda was curious enough, so the three went on the carousel and were taken to the landing. The first room they had a look in was nothing short of a disaster area. Nothing in it was even remotely recognisable. There were piles of stuff everywhere. Hilda kicked in one and they had to leave the room quickly, as dust flew everywhere.

"That second one is only marginally better," William pointed. "That one back there is least damaged."

Hilda decided she would skip the second room and headed for the one in the far corner.

22. A thing

The revolving plate was smaller than the other ones they had been on, so they had to enter the third room one by one. Kerna wondered if it was safe to leave Grim and Obsi in the other room, but Hilda and William assured her that nothing bad would happen.

"If something happens, that can't be bad," were the wizard's words. "The previous owners won't mind."

The Lycadean woman frowned as she considered the words. They made sense, and yet...

"Ohhh, look at that," Hilda dragged Kerna from her thoughts. The witch was kneeling next to what once could have been a bed. Or a chair and a table. Or a closet. "I found a... a... thing!" As she got to her feet again, she held something in her hand. Indeed, she had found a thing.

William stared at it. "What's that?"

"A thing, I told you."

"It is old," Kerna added. "We don't have these things anymore."

"See," the witch grinned, "she calls it a thing too, so I'm right. It's a thing, and an old one."

"It's a book."

Hilda looked at the rectangle in her hand. "This is not a book. This is a slab of something. And dirty too." She blew over it, releasing a dust cloud.

William first settled the dust-affair and then asked Kerna: "How is that a book?"

The woman touched a side of the old thing, frowned, touched again. "Maybe the other side," she mumbled, mostly to herself, as she slipped a finger down the other side of the thing. Faintly the thing lit up. "Ah, yes!"

Hilda pushed the old book-thing in Kerna's hands. "That is creepy," she elaborated.

Kerna stared at the symbols that appeared on the screen of what appeared to be the local version of an electronic reading tablet. "Maybe upside down," she mumbled. Kerna was good at mumbling, Hilda decided. Kerna turned the tablet around and her face lit up. That was because the tablet's surface became brighter. "Maybe not." More mumbling as she turned the tablet back the other way.

"Hmm. I have a toy, Kerna has a toy, so you're next, William," the witch grinned.

"Yes," Kerna nodded, "this is definitely the way to hold it."

"And what does it say?" William asked.

"I don't know. I can't read the old language."

"Well, we'll take it with us," Hilda decided, "maybe we'll find someone who can."

They searched the room for a while longer, but nothing interesting came up, so they left, taking the cats and the floating light with them. Once back in what had to be the living room, they looked around again there. William tried a couch but that collapsed as soon as he sat on it, much to the entertainment of Hilda and Kerna. These two had some fun examining some of the things they found on the table.

"So what goodies do you have there?" the wizard asked after restoring the remains of his dignity.

"Oh, look," his witch exclaimed, "all kinds of stuff, and it all looks so shiny! I just don't know what it is, and Kerna is lost with most of it also."

William looked at the transparent thing in Hilda's hand, the one she had handled before. "That looks like a whistle."

"I know, but when I blow on it, it just makes a very obnoxious sound," Hilda pouted. She proved it by blowing the thing. "Phwshhhhh."

William grinned. "I am sure there are places where you can get arrested for that."

Hilda screamed with laughter and blew the thing again, while Kerna covered her ears. She still was not used to Hilda's witch-laugh.

"Perhaps," said William, "it would help if you blow the other end."

"I beg your pardon? Since when do you know something about what end to blow?" the witch asked, surprise all over her person.

"I've been a kid," William brought up his defence, "I've had whistles."

"Oh. That." Hilda looked a bit sheepish for a millisecond. Then she turned the thing around. Phweeeeep. The witch now was impressed. "This is..." phweeeep!

William laughed. Little did he know.

The room did not divulge anything about the people that had lived there. There were the toys, some other things that looked like household items, but there were no pictures or so.

"We should go back to the big pyramid," Hilda suggested, her pockets full of toys from the table.

Phweeeeep!

William shook his head.

Hilda waved her whistle. "Come on, folks and cats, we're done here."

Once outside, William used his magic to repair the door and put it back into the house. Then they mounted the flying contraption and with a few resounding phweeeeps they lifted off and went back to the pyramid, where they encountered a very upset Davdruw.

-=-=-

"You were gone!"

"Yes, you picked that up quickly," Hilda said, looking up at the tall man.

Phweeeeep, went the whistle.

"I had assigned guards to you!" Davdruw exclaimed, pointing at the group that they had so successfully shaken off.

"Indeed, you had. Can we go now? We have important things to do. Remember that I am the witch who is going to make things right again around here?" Hilda turned to the guards. "We're going to our room, so if you want you can go there while we finish this."

The guards stared at her, then at Davdruw, in utter confusion. Then, as one, they moved away into one of the corridors that snaked through the pyramid.

As the sound of feet died away in the distance, Davdruw closed his eyes and let out a sigh. Hilda grabbed William and Kerna by the hand and dragged them off, their 'escape' turning into a run and a lot of laughter. Two black shapes bounced around them on two pairs of four feet.

-=-=-

Once in their room, everyone fell onto a big chair or couch. Hilda emptied her pockets, shocking William with all the things she had brought from the house they had visited. Raided.

Obsi and Grim were on the table, sniffing the interesting novelties that the witch had laid out. Well, all of them, but one. Phweeeeeep!

The whistle very quickly made Maurizio and Rebel knock on the door, curious to find out what they had missed. They looked at the things on the table after the cats were done, Hilda caught their fingers in the strange little cube and laughed at the perplexed faces of the two, and with William and Kerna she told them about the house itself.

"That is amazing. And that book you mentioned, can we see it?" Rebel asked.

Kerna carefully put the book-thing on the table and switched it on.

"It's not a book," Hilda insisted. Phweeeeeep. "See, the whistle agrees."

William looked at his witch. He knew that the lack of magic still bothered her. She now used the whistle to make up for it in a way, as far as it was possible to find a substitute for magic. Before he could wonder and worry more, Maurizio prodded the wizard in the ribs.

"That is an interesting thing, William. How does it work?"

"Hah, your guess is as good as mine. Kerna can make some things appear on it, but we are not even sure what side is up on that thing."

Kerna showed the text to the captain, who stared at the tablet for a while. Then he turned it sideways and stared some more, while the others in the room stared at him.

After a while, Maurizio slowly raised his eyes and looked around the group. "Is something the matter?" he asked.

"Just that you are being rude, staring at that thing in silence for so long," Rebel said, slapping the man on the shoulder.

"Do you want me to sing while I look at it?" Maurizio asked.

"Oh, no, please don't sing!" Rebel got up. "Did you ever hear him sing?" she asked the others. Without waiting for a response, she went on: "When he sings, you would want to go deaf. I mean, even a crow has a great singing voice compared to that man!"

"And still you love him," Hilda remarked, turning the whistle in her hands.

"Yes, I- how do you know that?"

Phweeeeep, went the whistle. "I know that."

Maurizio put down the tablet and got up as well. "Mi cara," he said, putting his hands on Rebel's hips. "I love you too. You know that." Eyes met eyes, pink clouds were almost materialising.

"Right," said Hilda, jumping to her feet before the strings started playing, "before we get all mushy, how about that book-thing? You seemed very interested in it, Maurizio. Care to tell us more?"

The sudden loud action of the witch made the two lovers jump apart. Maurizio was not able to hold back a curse as he tumbled back on the couch, next to William, while Rebel's eyes were close to shooting fire. She could do that. Instead, she breathed in deeply and sat down again. "Yes, we should... discuss this later. In private."

The captain picked up the tablet again. "Yes. It is very interesting, this thing. I have seen something similar, you know. And not even very long ago, either."

All eyes, except those of the two cats of course, were now on the captain.

"I thought I recognised the thing, so that is why I held it the way I did." Maurizio made quite a show of tilting the tablet, for all to clearly see. "And then it reminded me of something."

All eyes, except those of the two cats of course, were still on the captain.

"Of what?" Rebel asked.

"The mirror on the wall in my cabin aboard the Mimosa."

23. The big picture

Maurizio got slapped.

"Why was that?!" he wondered.

"We thought you could read what's on that thing!" Rebel, the slapper, said.

Hilda slowly got up and stood before the captain. "You even had me think highly of you." She bent over, put the whistle to her lips and - phweeeeeep!! "Give me that book-thing. At least it will be in responsible hands that way." The witch disregarded the grin she heard behind her. She knew it was William's.

She pulled the tablet from Maurizio's hands and sat down with it. Looking at it, also sideways, the way the captain had done, didn't bring her anything.

Kerna, who was sitting next to the witch, leaned over. She studied the sides of the book-thing and frowned. "What would that be?" She pointed at what looked like a bit of decoration, a small row of balls.

"It's pretty," Hilda said, "look, there are some on the other side too." She poked at the tiny round balls that suddenly shifted under her fingers. "Oops..."

The display of the tablet blinked a few times, then it went dark.

"I think you found the off-switch, Hilda," William laughed as he got up. "Anyone for coffee, tea or something else?" He took the orders and was surprised Maurizio did not ask for anything.

"I think he's afraid of getting in Hilda's way again," Rebel said, taking the captain's hand. "It's okay, sweetie, the witch won't eat you. I'll make sure of that."

"You're going to beat me to it, are you?" Hilda casually remarked.

Rebel stared at the witch. "Uhm... I'll come and help you, William," she tried to get out of the situation.

"I'll manage," said the wizard, "you can stay there." With a broad smile he made his way over to the oatmeal generator and magicked up the coffees, teas and a triple espresso for Maurizio. The captain looked like he could do with one.

Kerna in that time examined the tablet further. "I think it is broken now. It won't react to the way I activated it before."

Rebel let go of Maurizio's hand and kneeled down next to Kerna. "How do you switch it on?"

Kerna started explaining, while Hilda looked at the two with obvious fascination.

"They seem to know what they are talking about," she remarked to Maurizio, who kept his eyes on William.

"Rebel knows something about that," the captain said, forcing himself to look at Hilda. He was relieved to see that she obviously did not hold a grudge against him.

"Duck, everyone. Incoming cups," William said as he walked back to the couch. The cups and mugs floated behind him and found their way to their respective recipients. "So, did you break it?" the wizard asked Kerna and Rebel.

"It's not broken," Rebel said, "it looks like something is stuck somewhere, but I can't get to it. The bloody thing's too small for my fingers, and I have no tools and stuff here."

"Hmmm. I may be able to help with that," said William. "Can I have that thing?"

Kerna handed him the tablet. William looked at the near microscopic balls. "So those are stuck, right?" He magicked a table to the side and put the tablet on the ground. "Everyone step back."

The wizard popped up his wand, pointed and mumbled something. A grey cloud formed over the tablet, obscuring it from view for a moment. Then the grey smoke disappeared, leaving behind a super-magnified tablet. The device now was four feet long and three feet wide. "Here you go, perhaps you have better access now."

Hilda screamed for laughter. Kerna and Rebel stared at the giant object. Maurizio got up and stared also.

William picked up his coffee mug and took a sip. "Ick. Needs more cream," he decided, fixing the problem instantly.

Hilda sipped her coffee too. "I like your style, wizard," she then said. "You paid attention." And to Rebel she said: "That should be big enough, right?"

"Uhhuh." That was all the woman from the future could muster as she started walking around the humongous tablet. "Perhaps a bit too big."

Kerna also examined the tablet from nearby.

"Silly people," the witch commented. "Now it's so big and they are almost on top of it." She took her whistle. Phweeeep!

Grim and Obsi had already jumped on the tablet and walked around over it, examining it in their own mysterious way.

"Ohhh, I think I found it," Rebel's voice then sounded from behind the tablet. "I am sure this is the 'on' switch, but something's stuck under it. Does someone have a hammer so I can knock it away?"

Hilda and William laughed as they walked around the immense tablet. Rebel sat on her knees, Kerna and the cats next to her, trying to pry away a lump of wood that was stuck under what now was a row of 5 metallic bowling balls. Obsi's attempts to 'help' failed miserably.

"The witch will fix it," William announced, "everyone out of the way."

Hilda looked at her wizard and was about to comment the obvious, when she saw his eyes. She smiled and pointed at the piece of wood that somehow had wedged itself firmly behind the switch on the mega-tablet.

With a dramatically undramatic 'plunk' the small wooden cylinder fell on the ground. As Rebel and Kerna focussed on the group of bowling balls again, Hilda frowned and picked up the cylinder. "What do we have here?" Slowly, staring at the cylinder, she walked back to the couch and sat down. William followed her.

"What is it you see, Hilda?" he asked, but the witch seemed so absorbed in watching the cylinder that his words never made it to her brain. To him the wooden cylinder looked as... a wooden cylinder. A bit splintered, a bit funny in its colouring, but for the rest the wizard could not detect a fascination.

Hilda's eyes seemed to see something that was beyond the piece of wood in her hands. Something drew her whole attention away from the room, so she missed the triumphant outcry from Rebel, Maurizio and Kerna, who together had managed to do something to the large bowling balls to make the tablet come alive again. Probably with the help of the two cats.

As a soft yellow light from the super sized display lit up the room, Hilda focussed even more on the cylinder. The extra light started to make things clearer, even when she had no idea what she was looking at, or for. But there was something...

"Hilda?"

"Eh? What?" The witch shook her head and blinked her eyes a few times, to get back to the room. "Hey, who switched the light on?"

Rebel and Kerna were standing on the tablet. "Can you come and have a look at this?"

Hilda, with help of William, climbed on the tablet. "Look at what?"

"There. Where Obsidian sits," said Rebel.

"That is Grimalkin," Kerna corrected the woman from the future, evoking a sigh from Rebel. "Obsidian is over there."

"I'll never learn to tell them apart."

"Ksh, cat, go," Maurizio commanded, waving a hand. Grimalkin looked at the gesturing man and yawned, expressing her level of being impressed with his actions.

"Come here, sweetie," Hilda said. Grim trotted over to her and jumped up into waiting arms. "Now, let's see what you've been hiding."

"Mwow," Grim clarified. Where she had sat was a picture. It looked like a drawing.

"And how did that picture get on this thing?" Hilda asked. "When Kerna switched it on the first time all we saw were these crazy swirls."

Kerna explained that the first time she had activated the tablet in what she considered to be the normal way. "And now we pushed the balls on the side, which does something else."

"Yes, I can see that. It draws a strange picture..." Hilda walked over the tablet, staring at the lines that were everywhere beneath her feet. "A picture that does not make any sense to me."

"It didn't to us either," Maurizio said. "And here we are, thinking we found something and now we're staring at a giant broken screen."

Hilda stopped walking and turned. Thoughts flew behind her forehead as she looked the captain of the Mimosa in the eye. "Sometimes, Maurizio, you actually say something that's useful."

"I do?" the man asked, perplexed. "What was it? Broken?"

"No," the witch shook her head. "Everyone off this thing. Now."

The people and animals on the tablet evacuated it.

"William, can you shrink it back to how it was?"

William could, so William shrunk it, and then Hilda picked up the tablet and looked at it again. "I thought so. I know what this is. It's a map."

"That is the clumsiest map I ever saw," the captain said after examining the screen. Several voices agreed with him.

"You folks know nothing about real maps, " Hilda told them. "This map was drawn by hand."

William was impressed by his witch. She had lost her magic, but she had definitely not lost her wits. "I see it too, now. But why would someone draw such a crude map on a device like that?"

"Maybe because they were in a hurry and did not have quill and paper at hand."

"Okay, so whereabouts is this then, when it's a map?" Maurizio asked. "I can't make out where this is supposed to be. Not even what side's up. That would be magic!"

"Good thing then that nobody asked you," Hilda snapped, a sudden sharpness in her voice. "Now sit and let me think. After all, I am the one who is going to make things right again here, remember?"

William put a hand on Hilda's arm. "Easy, witch. He's only trying to help, in his own way."

Rebel picked up the signal. Maurizio had touched Hilda's tender spot, and clearly at the wrong moment. "Come," she told her captain, "I think we have some things to discuss." As the two left, Rebel gently touched Hilda's hair for a moment. "Take it easy, okay?"

Kerna, with Obsi in her lap, asked: "Do you want me to go too?"

Hilda stared at the tablet, saying nothing.

William shook his head. "No, you can stay, Kerna. Maurizio just stepped on a sore spot. I'm sure he's sorry."

"He'd better," Hilda muttered, "or I'll kick him in the butt." She reached out and picked up the piece of wood. "And what in the name of all dragon eggs is this?"

Kerna bit her lip, so she would not state the obvious and bring the witch's anger over her. "Can I see it, please?"

Hilda handed her the object and watched how the woman turned it around in her hands. It seemed just a piece of wood, but the witch had a gut feeling there was something about it. That wood was not put there for no reason. Yes. It was put there, she was certain of that too.

William and Hilda watched how Kerna suddenly kneeled on the floor, put the cylinder in front of her and started to scratch the top part.

"What are you doing?" Hilda wanted to know. She was on her knees with Kerna mere moments later.

"I think something is in there," Kerna said as she tried to scrape some more wood away. "See this?" She pointed at a barely visible discoloured path on the side she was working on.

The old wood proved more resilient than it looked, though. William came to the rescue. All three were now kneeling around the wooden thing, while William slowly shaved layer after thin layer off it. Two black furry heads curiously peeked down from the table, as this was their project as well.

Suddenly the wooden cylinder fell apart.

"Holy Bejeebus," said the wizard, "I did not mean to destroy it."

"You didn't," Hilda reassured him as her hands went through the remains of the thing. "Kerna was right. There was something inside it." She held up something. It was small, square and blue.

24. Float, float, float your couch...

"What is this?" Hilda asked, staring at the small blue square. Then things started to become extraordinary.

Kerna yelped. Hilda uttered a 'crappedy crap', and William deployed instant magic to keep the three of them out of harm's way. In this case it was out of the way of the furniture that had started floating. He could not prevent the three of them going up in the air as well.

"Does this happen often?" Hilda asked Kerna, who tried to get to Obsi as Grimalkin collided with the witch.

"No. I have never seen this happen," Kerna replied, holding a rather surprised black cat in her arms as she started to rotate, on her way to hanging upside down.

"Can you get us down again, William?" Hilda wondered.

"I'm trying, but it's not working, sweetwitch," the wizard said as he did what he could to make things normal again and failing hopelessly.

By that time they heard sounds from outside the door. With considerable effort William moved himself along the wall and the ceiling to open the door, where he saw more people float around in rather undignified positions. They all looked dismayed and worried. And helpless.

"We're not alone," the wizard announced to Hilda and Kerna. He made a rope appear and tossed one end to the witch. Another rope unfolded to Kerna. He tied the ends around himself and waited for the witch and the young woman to finish their ends, which was hard for them as they were holding the cats. And these animals were not very peaceful under these strange circumstances.

William reeled the two women and cats in as Rebel and Maurizio came floating from their room. Hand in hand.

"Oh, hi there," said Rebel, "what'd you do to make this happen? I mean, it's pretty cool, but your timing was a bit off."

"This is not of my doing. The furniture suddenly started floating, and so did we."

"Yes, he's innocent," said Hilda. "Of this anyway."

"So what are we going to do about this?" Maurizio asked, showing his good intent.

"Anyone have a good idea?" Hilda asked around, also at the Lycadeans who came floating by with puzzled faces. They had no good ideas.

Kerna, holding on to Obsi, scrambled along the rope to William. "Maybe we should try to get to the Palliza, to the High Council."

"Why, what's there?"

"That is where the planet is directed from," Kerna reminded him.

"Yes, William, I was thinking the same. You should pay attention," said the witch, working hard to keep from bumping into the ceiling.

"Pipe down, witch. I am trying to think of a way to get us away from here," said the wizard as he conjured up two more ropes so Maurizio and Rebel could tie up to him. Then he magicked two big handles with suction cups that he used to drag the four people behind him.

"William, do you want to take us to the Palliza?" Kerna asked. "If so, you should go the other way."

"Oh. Right. Thank you. It looks a bit confusing from the ceiling."

Slowly and hand over hand, William worked his way along the corridor, tugging the others along.

"Guys, I think we are reaching the border of this strange gravity problem," he said after a while.

"How do you know that?" Hilda asked.

"I just saw two people fall down at the end of this corridor. I will get us down before we reach that point, their landing looked quite painful." It was quite a lot of work for the wizard to pull four people and two cats down with gravity fighting back, but he won, and soon they tumbled over the floor.

"Well done, I think," said Maurizio as he helped Rebel to her feet.

William, picking Hilda and Kerna from the floor, thanked him. Then he made handles appear on the wall, so people could pull themselves down along them so they would not crash down.

"Oh, honoured witch!" a familiar voice then called out. It was Katinki, one of the High Council.

"What are you doing outside your room?" Hilda asked, hoisting Grimalkin over her shoulders.

"We hoped you could find your way out of your room, we need you!"

"They always do," Hilda said with a wink to Rebel. "So where's the fire?"

"Fire?!" Katinki looked scared. "Is there a fire?!"

"No, no fire," William quickly said, "we just want to know what is wrong."

"Oh." Katinki visibly relaxed and pointed at the floating people. "That is wrong," she stated.

"No kidding," Rebel nodded. "Let's go to that control room and see what's happening."

"What broke down today, you mean," Hilda commented.

They went on their way, following Katinki. All the people that saw them made a lot of space as they passed. Clearly the High Council was still seen as a very important and powerful group.

Inside the Palliza they found pieces of machinery scattered all around. The original location of the parts was what used to be a small console in a corner.

"Madonna, that must have been a bang," Maurizio said as he judged the distance some of the parts had travelled. "Did anyone get hurt?"

Somehow nobody had been in the way of flying components, as if a miracle had spent some quality time with the High Council at the right moment.

Rebel went around, assisted by Gesmarion, to collect all the pieces that had originated from the exploded machinery, while Hilda and William tried to discover what had happened. The why was not so interesting yet. The assembled High Council started an explanation of attempting to correct something which remained unclear, quickly slipping into a series of contradictions and surprised faces as the Council members discovered that one half of them had attempted to do something different from the other half.

"Twelve in the same room and still they break all records in bureaucracy," Maurizio sighed. Together with Hilda, Kerna and the cats he watched how Rebel and William tried to piece the exploded console back together again. The two almost got it all done. The lack of a few pieces brought the project to an unfortunate and early end.

"Can't you improvise something there?" Hilda asked. "It's only a few things that are missing."

"Improvise?" Rebel asked, almost dumbfounded. "With what?"

The witch shrugged. "I don't know that stuff. Clay, perhaps? Hey, don't laugh, I am the honoured witch here!"

The High Council, who had withdrawn to a far end of the room to let the specialists do their jobs, seemed to be in a heated discussion. In the end Katinki stepped forward. "We have no clay."

"Too bad," said Hilda. "Might have fixed this." She tugged William's sleeve. "I have an idea." For a while she whispered in his ear, making the wizard nod, shake his head, frown, look surprised, look despaired, and a number of other things.

"You and your ideas," he finally said. "Can't make the thing get worse." With these wise words he made a lump of clay appear. It was no ordinary clay. It was pink and yellow, and in a few places it blinked.

"What is that?" Rebel asked as she stepped away from the wizard. Nobody could blame her, the blinking blob did not look trustworthy.

William shrugged. "It's something she dreamt up. Step back some more, everyone." He waited until everyone was in what he assumed to be a safe spot. Then he created a safety-wall of energy in front of him, drew back his arm and slammed the ball of pulsating clay into the hole in the machine. A bolt of magic followed the clay and then he raised the safety-wall up high while ducking and turning his back to the crime scene.

Several terrifying moments passed by, in which nothing happened that caused any reason for alarm. William turned and watched the console. It was there. No smoke billowing from it, no components flying, just a silent console.

"What happened?" Maurizio asked from the corner.

"I am not sure," William replied truthfully. "I gather it is safe for some of you to come closer. Hilda, and perhaps someone who knows how to operate this contraption."

Hilda came forward, the members of the High Council remained where they were.

"So much for that," the wizard mumbled.

"Looks like you did not break the thing," Hilda said as she looked at the console. "Not that it could have gotten any worse, mind you."

William took down the protective wall. "What do you push to make this thing work?" he called out to the assembled High Council.

"And what is it supposed to do?" Hilda asked.

With the witch and the wizard so close to the machine, Katinki and Gesmarion dared to come closer as well. "We are not certain what this console does. Today is the first time we got it to work," Katinki said. "But with what happened in the corridor when I came to find you, I think we know what it does."

Rebel, who had come up with Kerna, nodded. "Did you set some switches or so before you activated it?"

"No. I think not..." Katinki's face conveyed doubt as she looked at the slightly remodelled console. "I must say that it is hard to tell, as it now looks differently."

The pink and yellow blob was firmly embedded in the console, parts of it connected to the internals of the equipment. It still blinked, even when the rest of the machine did nothing. Or so Hilda hoped. "It is off now, right?"

Gesmarion nodded. "As long as that light there is not burning, it's off."

Hilda grinned. "That's my kind of putting it. I understand that. So why did you switch the thing on in the first place?"

Gesmarion looked at Katinki, then back at the witch. "We've not switched it on for so long, it felt like a good thing to do it. And see what happens. Last time we did it is so long ago that we did not remember if something happened."

"We only had it on very shortly then," one of the other High Councillors recalled.

Hilda closed her eyes and then pointed them at her wizard, who shared the feeling they sent out. Before either of them could do something, Maurizio proved to be more of a captain than they had thought he was.

"I suggest that everyone stays away from these consoles and machines. If they are running now, leave them running, unless someone has a valid reason to tinker with them or switch them off. What's off stays off. At least that way we have a stable situation. Capice?" With his arms folded over his chest and the eye patch in place, he looked almost impressive.

Rebel stood next to him, looking very confident. "You heard the man, people. Nobody touches anything here, or they'll answer to us. Without you lot mucking about with controls, at least the witch has a fair chance to figure out what to do, so your friggin' prophecy comes true and we can go home again."

Hilda was not one to stand with her lower jaw sagging easily, but this situation almost warranted that. Almost. In the silence that followed these strong words, the witch was glad her wizard was with her as they waited for anything to happen.

Maurizio clapped his hands. "Good. So we understand each other. While the witch and the wizard manage things that deal with the prophecy, Rebel and I will check on things here. Often, you hear? It might be best for all of you to just get out of here so nothing can go wrong. But I understand that this would upset all the folks around here, so we have to make the best of it."

William also stared at the captain in the red coat. Of all the things he might have thought of Maurizio, this was not one of them. "Holy Bejeebus," he whispered. "Is this real?"

Hilda nodded. Before she could respond, Maurizio winked at them. "It seems that we have things under control, Hilda. Feel free to leave this space in our capable hands."

"He shouldn't have said that," the witch whispered. Still she thanked Maurizio and Rebel, warned the High Council to listen to the captain and his lady, and then, together with the cats, Kerna and William, she left the Palliza, while Maurizio started distributing orders on how to clean up most of the room.

After the door had closed behind them, Hilda asked: "Did that really happen just now?"

25. A floating face

Upon their return to the room, William had some work to do. After they had disabled the strange gravity-altering device, the furniture had come down to the floor exactly where it had been floating. It looked as if everything had been hovering in one spot.

The two cats stayed close to Hilda and Kerna while the wizard arranged things back the way they had been before everything had lifted off. After that he made coffee and threw in some muffins, another novelty for their local assistant.

Hilda recovered the strange tablet they had been playing with and looked at it. "So where is that blue thing we got from the piece of wood?"

Kerna grinned. "I think you put it in your pocket."

"Oh. Of course." The witch grabbed. And grabbed again. "Did you happen to see which pocket? This robe has a lot of them." Kerna had no idea, so Hilda frantically went through all her pockets, and things things are supposed to go that way, she found it in the last one she checked.

"So, what do these two things have in common?" she said as she held up the blue bit. "I mean, the colours don't match, so it can't be that."

"I may be able to help there," said William as he took the tablet and turned it around a few times. "Yes, right. Thought so. Hand me that blue thingy, will you?"

Hilda and Kerna watched how he slipped a small strip aside with a fingernail.

"Now let's hope I put this in the right way," William mumbled as he pushed the blue thing, which he assumed would be some kind of memory chip, into the slot. He closed the small cover and then asked how to switch the thing on.

Kerna came to his rescue. She switched the thing on while William made a few more chocolate muffins for Hilda. "It does not seem to show anything different from before," the Lycadean woman said as she glanced over the display.

"Give it to me," Hilda said, full of confidence, "you two just don't know how to do this." She took over the tablet and looked at its screen. "Yes. Hmm."

William exchanged a glance with Kerna and picked up a muffin.

"Dragons eggs, I got it!" the witch exclaimed before William could bite. "Don't ask me how, but I got it!" Triumphantly she held up the tablet. It showed a completely new assortment of squigglies and blobs.

"Are you sure you didn't just turn it upside down?" William asked.

Hilda treated him to one of her less effective murderous looks. "I am sure. And even if I did, look what happens." She turned the tablet. The text, if it was that, turned also. "See? I am onto something here. I just wish I knew what it was." After a sip of her coffee she said: "It would be convenient if we could give this to one of those float-in-the-air folks, like the one Davdruw had to read out a part of the prophecy."

Kerna stared at Hilda. "Float-in-the-air...?"

"Yup. He pushed something and then there was this man hanging over the table, talking to us. He said it was an old recording, of a man called Garubine?"

To William this was news. Kerna frowned as she tried to put Hilda's words in perspective, then her face cleared up. "Oh! I think I know what you mean! We have that."

"You do?" the magical couple asked as one. "And does it still work?" Hilda added.

"I think so," Kerna said, her enthusiasm unaffected by Hilda's words. William was impressed by that.

Kerna took them to a part of the pyramid that showed all the signs of prolonged abandon. William took care of the dust and Kerna then guided them to a room that had no door. "This was the place where people could come to have stories read to them," she explained.

"So why don't you use it anymore?"

"We know all the stories by heart already," Kerna elaborated. She walked to a somewhat comfortable looking couch and sat down on it. William and Hilda, and the cats that had come along, waited for something, if only a sign from the woman.

A small yellow dot appeared in front of the couch. It expanded quickly and turned into a friendly female face that showed a smile. She had the familiar pale skin and blueish hair.

"It still works," Kerna said, looking back to the couple. "If you put the tablet on the floor, with the text up, it should read it out loud. The story-tellers can read many languages."

As there was nothing to lose, Hilda put the tablet on the floor under the smiling face and joined William and Kerna on the couch. "So, what now?" the witch asked.

"We wait."

"Oh. How long?"

"Until she starts reading," Kerna elaborated.

"Ah. And how can you tell?"

"She starts talking then."

"I see. She's taking her time for it." Hilda rubbed her nose.

William took her hand as he recognised the witch was getting impatient. "Calm down, witch. Maybe she has trouble with the handwriting."

Kerna frowned at the wizard, but Hilda grinned.

"This is a message."

"What?" Hilda asked.

"The face," William whispered.

"This message is for the one who will make things right again." The voice was male and sounded urgent, which looked quite odd with the smiling female face. "We hope you find this book and the recording chip. If the prophecy is correct, you have to find a way to find us. The ones that bring you to our planet are not very..." - the image of the face flickered for a while and the sound dropped off - "...until you see the end of the dry land. From there I cannot tell where we will go, but it is important that..." - more flickering - "... you."

"Can you repeat that? Some parts of what you were saying were not so clear," Hilda asked the face. The message, including the flickers and stutter, was repeated.

"Looks like their recording chip sustained some damage, Hilda," William stated the obvious.

"Undamage it, please," the witch simply said. "Do I have to think of everything?"

William looked at her, ready to make a comment, when he was cut off by the floating face: "Data recovery attempt is now in progress. Refreshments are available while you wait."

"See? That is how you do it!" Hilda grinned victoriously. "So where are the refreshments?"

"I'm afraid that the refreshment machines are broken," Kerna said. "We've tried to repair them..."

"And that broke them?" Hilda asked.

"More," Kerna admitted.

William salvaged the situation by serving refreshments. In this case he had chosen glasses with pine-apple juice.

Kerna picked up a glass and stared at the strange colour of the drink. Then she tried it. "Oh..." Her face showed surprise. "That tastes very nice. What is it?"

Hilda took a sip and then let William explain it. As the wizard was doing his best, a voice interrupted him.

"Data recovery attempt is now complete."

The three people and two cats turned to the floating face. "Let's have it!"

"This message is for the one who will make things right again," the female face repeated with the male voice "We hope you find this book and the recording chip. If the prophecy is correct, you have to find a way to find us. The ones that bring you to our planet are not very dependable, but we have to trust that they do the proper thing. We have to leave our villages now, in order to escape them. If you can follow us, we are going into the direction of the rising sun. Travel that way until you see the end of the dry land. From there I cannot tell where we will go, but it is important that we meet you."

Hilda scratched her nose. "Crappedy crap. Where does the sun rise here?"

"We are looking forward to helping you," the floating face then said.

"What?" All three waited for more to come, surprised by the sudden addition of words, but those clearly were the real end of the message.

"At least now we know something," William said as he sat back, a muffin appearing in his hand.

"We do," said Hilda, stealing his muffin in plain sight. "You have a stash somewhere."

William laughed and produced a few more, as Kerna looked almost beggingly at him.

The tablet was not telling them more; the face hovered over it as if it waited for something new to tell them. Unfortunately for the face, they only had the one tablet, so the face was switched off and with the tablet in one hand and another muffin in the other, Hilda led the others out of the room. "Right. Now we go back to our room and decide when we are going out to find these people."

As Kerna took the lead, she suggested that they should tell Davdruw about the tablet and the plan to find the people who prepared the recording.

"I somehow feel that would not be a smart idea," Hilda said, "Davdruw is sort of possessive and I think he thinks he possesses us. Telling him we're leaving will make him want to keep us here even more."

William agreed. "Leaving a note for him should be enough."

"Yes. Just telling him that we're out for a bit and we'll be back."

Hilda was already planning things when they reached the door to the room. Before they went in, she said: "Would it be a plan to take Maurizio and Rebel along? They seem to have good ideas. On the other hand, with them in the Palliza, things are nice and quiet, which is also a good thing."

William considered that as they entered the room where they were surprised by the presence of a tall man. Davdruw.

"Oh, look who's here," Hilda said, seemingly unsurprised. "What brings you here?" She displayed her total lack of respect for the man's authority.

Davdruw, who had been sitting on the table (as the other furniture was too low for him), rose and said: "I have heard that you are planning to leave us."

"Really? What gave you that idea?" asked the witch as she sat down on the couch, plopping Grim in her lap and petting the black animal.

"I heard you say it," Davdruw said, eyeing Kerna who sat down next to the witch. "We have an advanced building."

"You mean there are microphones everywhere so you can listen in on private conversations?" William asked.

"You make this sound like a very bad thing," Davdruw said in a disappointed tone.

"Because it is," William retorted as he made tea and coffee from what the porridge machine generated.

"Yes, it is," Hilda pitched in. Kerna did not feel safe enough to voice her opinion.

26. House arrest

"I could of course forbid you to leave," said Davdruw. He was not pleased that the honoured witch, who should make right what was wrong, was now considering to defect to wherever it was.

Hilda looked up at the tall man. "You would WHAT?" She paused for a moment. "Did you hear what you just said? You are going to forbid me something?"

Davdruw looked at her. "I said I could."

"If you ever have such a stupid thought again, let us know before you say it. We'll ask Babs to come and cure you. And you are not going to like that."

Davdruw chose not to follow the witch's train of thought. Asking her about this Babs would probably throw him off his resolve. "Honoured witch, you must understand that we depend on you. You are here for a reason."

"Yes, we all heard that before," Hilda said, clearly irritable. "And how am I supposed to do that if I don't know what's going on?"

"Oh, but you have access to everything here, in all the pyramids," Davdruw said, with a generous wide movement of one of his long arms.

William put down mugs of coffee and tea.

"Everything here is only half the thing, Davdruw," said Hilda. "There is a lot going on out there. We were outside before, just so you know it. We went to visit the old deserted village. And indeed, we did not wait for you to say we could. And we are going out again. We have no problem with you, and I suggest that you keep things that way."

Davdruw reached for his sleeve. William was faster. The entire silver garment the spiritual leader was wearing was replaced by something cotton. And orange.

"Now, William, come on," said Hilda. "That's not fair."

"It is not!" Davdruw agreed, "I want my clothes back!"

"I mean, orange..." Hilda continued as if Davdruw had not spoken.

William, who sat on a big chair next to Obsi, shrugged. "They already have enough purple here."

"You can't have enough purple, William," the witch reprimanded her wizard.

The magical man did not agree with her and left Davdruw's shirt orange. The worst she could do was nagging him about it. For now, anyway. He took the risk.

"So what were you going to do with that magical sleeve of yours?" Hilda asked Davdruw.

"It is not magical," Davdruw complained. He touched the cotton shirt and made a face. "This does not feel nice. Give me my clothes back!"

"Or else?" the witch challenged him. She felt she had a winning hand at that moment.

"There could be repercussions," Davdruw counter-challenged. He should not have done that.

"Oh. I see," Hilda said, looking at her wizard and then at Kerna. "You really scared me now." Davdruw could impossibly see the wink she gave Kerna. William, she knew, did not need one.

Davdruw was silent for just too long. It betrayed his surprise. "Good. So that is settled." He looked at the three people. "Just to be certain, I will have guards outside your door."

"Looks like you are in charge," the witch said, looking up at the man.

"Yes," Davdruw agreed. He wished them a nice day and left.

"Of course, it just looks like it," Hilda clarified for Kerna, after the man had left. "We're not going hmmhmmm."

"Calm down, Hilda," said William as he took his hand from her mouth and cast a bubble around them so they could speak freely. "Remember that Davdruw talked about listening devices. Just keep things quiet until we're out of here."

"Of course," said Hilda, "I was not going to say too much." She scowled at William in a very meaningful way, grateful that he had prevented her from saying too much. She knew he'd know. "So how about Rebel and Maurizio?"

"I think they would be offended if we leave them here," William shared. "They've followed us so far, they should come along."

"Followed? They dragged us away from our world! I think they deserve to stay here for that, and suffer these Lycadean nincompoops!" Hilda was promptly on fire.

Kerna stared at Hilda. She had not often seen the honoured witch in such a mood.

"They have done good things too, witch. Consider that too."

"Stinky dragon's eggs," she muttered, knowing that he was right. "I'm not giving in that easily."

"If we leave them here and something bad happens to them, we may have problems returning to the Mimosa and back home," William tried.

"Hah, I am not sure if they know how to get us home," Hilda countered, "even if we manage to get them back to that black ship of theirs. Wherever that is."

"Rebel knows where it is," William said. "She followed me here, with Maurizio in tow."

"She followed you? You did not bring them here?" Hilda tried to recall the happenings that had gone on after her abduction in the flying pyramid, and during the flight in the see-through pyramid, from where she had seen William. "Oh..."

William let her sit and mutter for a while. That was the way to deal with her. "So, Kerna, do you have some things you would need to pack together before we leave?"

Kerna stared at the wizard. "But Davdruw won't let us-"

"Don't worry, we're leaving anyway," the wizard assured her. "We have long sleeves that hold a lot of tricks."

"Eh?" Kerna clearly did not catch what he meant. She shook her head. "I would need clean clothes. And better shoes."

William looked at the young woman and nodded. "Indeed. I think I can fix something for you. It might cost a few chairs, but that's okay I guess."

As Kerna, Obsi and Grim watched, he got up and used his magic to change a chair into a black robe, remarkably similar to the one Hilda wore. Another chair was sacrificed to become a pair of good shoes and a decent cloak. "Care to give that a try?" he then invited her.

"But... that is all black!" Kerna said as she picked up the clothes. "We always have silver clothes."

"You're going to travel with us, so you will travel in style," Hilda said. "Looks a lot better than all that silver stuff too, if you ask me. Well, also if you don't ask me."

Kerna touched the soft fabric of the robe. "It feels nice," she admitted. She popped into the bathroom with her new clothes and reappeared all in black. Her purple hair looked a bit off, but Hilda approved of the new look for Kerna.

"Okay, I think we should take Rebel and Maurizio with us," the witch then declared. "They might come in handy."

William grinned and walked to the door. Davdruw had not taken half measures, he noticed: there were five guards waiting.

"We have orders not to let you out," one of them said.

"That's fine, boys. Can one of you run off to the Palliza and tell Rebel and Maurizio we have to see them?"

The five conferred for a while. Then the spokes guard said: "We will let someone bring them here. You are not allowed to leave."

"Sure, just make that someone go. Getting someone else to bring some decent wine is probably too much to ask?" the wizard asked.

"We will find someone to bring you wine."

"Good boys." William closed the door. "They're being called for. And I asked for wine."

"Good thinking. Did you also ask for water to make mine less strong?" Hilda asked.

Less than a minute later the water was also ordered.

"These guards don't look too happy having to guard us dangerous people," the wizard grinned as he sat down on the couch. Obsidian jumped in his lap and allowed himself to be petted.

It did not take very long until Rebel and Maurizio knocked on the door. They arrived almost at the same time as the wine did.

"Hi Kerna, you look good in black!" Maurizio commented on the young woman's new attire. She grinned, slightly shy and slightly proud.

"Come in, sit down, have a glass of wine," said William. "I'll make some proper cheese from the oatmeal machine, while the guards guard us."

Then they explained their plan to the two from the Mimosa, with a protective bubble around them. Rebel supplied the bubble this time.

"Wow, that is quite impressive," Maurizio said after hearing what had been in the book. "So when are we going?"

"After the wine," William replied promptly. "I did not order that to let it go to waste. Pretty good wine, I am impressed."

"And how are we going?" Rebel asked.

"Through that wall, I suggest," said William, pointing. "From what I think, that is closest to the outside world."

Kerna nibbled on some cheese in silence. She did not question anything these strange people discussed. The things she had seen and experienced with them up to now had turned her whole world upside down, and someday they would complete the rotation and all would be well again. Until then she would just hang on.

Rebel agreed with the wizard. "Looks like a good way to walk out. Good thing we have our flying thing outside, so we have a quick way to get out of here."

"That would be necessary," Kerna added as Obsi invaded her lap. "The place the old ones mentioned is very far away. It would take very long to get there if we have to walk."

"Good thing you mention that," said Hilda. "William, dear, could you ask the oatmeal machine to supply us with water and food that we can take along while we are under way? You know the shrinking trick, your pockets are wide and deep..."

"Try batting your eyes at him," Rebel suggested.

"Oh no, no eye batting!" William quickly said.

"Why not?"

"That is so not Hilda. If she does that, there's something in her eyes. She does not bat them to get something done. She tells you or slaps you until you do it."

Hilda laughed, scaring Maurizio and Rebel. And Kerna. "He knows me so well, and he says the sweetest things, doesn't he?"

William tipped over the last sip of wine into himself and then got to work on the food fabrication, while Rebel came to see what he was doing. She was amazed by the amount of food he produced, and how small he made the packages so they could be transported easily.

"I wonder if they get some kind of alarm that this thing is spitting out oatmeal by the gallon," she whispered to the wizard, well aware that there were listening devices everywhere.

"By the time they notice, we'll be far away," William said.

On the couch, Hilda and Kerna talked with Maurizio on how they would travel and the way they could best keep their course. In that, the captain proved to be quite an asset. He was used to finding his way in the strangest of places. An ordinary planet would present hardly a problem, he said.

Once all details were clear and the food packages were stashed away in many pockets, Hilda walked over to the door.

"Hey witch, what are you going to do?" William asked. As he expected, she just kept going.

"Hi boys," she said to the guards, after opening the door. "We're going to take a nap, so can you make sure we're not disturbed for a while?"

"We are not here to disturb you, but to guard you, honoured witch," the spokes guard spoke.

"Very good. Have a nice - uhm - guard." Hilda closed the door again. She came back to the other escapees in waiting. "I think I handled that quite well. Now, can you take that wall out quietly?"

27. Through the wall, in the air

"I think that will be possible," Rebel said. "William, can you put up a soundproofing bubble or so? I am not sure if I can make it all silent when I remove the wall."

William thought for a short while. He had never done something like that before, but - then his face lit up. "I think I have something better!"

"Better? How can something be better than a soundproofing bubble?" Rebel wondered, looking at Hilda and Kerna, who both shrugged.

They watched William head over to the oatmeal machine again, and making it spit out dozens of bowls filled with the blob. When he was satisfied he poured the contents of every bowl on the floor near the door, making sure the layer of it was equally distributed everywhere.

"Okay kids, now watch," he grinned as he came walking back to the group, his wand in hand. He pointed the wand, pronounced a spell, slowly and clearly, and then he waited. The layer of oatmealish blob started to move. Upwards mainly, where it expanded to the ceiling of the oddly shaped room. It also thickened, so the layer was about five feet thick. He had created a massive layer of Styrofoatmeal.

"I think that should work," the wizard nodded as his wand disappeared. "And it will help in giving us a head start as well, if they try to break through that."

"William, my wizard, you really paid attention," said Hilda, hoisting Grimalkin over her shoulders, and then fumbling in her pockets. "I'm ready. Let's go."

Rebel nodded. She stared at the unfortunate wall. A few moments later, it simply fell away from them. A noise told them it had hit solid ground.

"I'll go have a look first," said Maurizio, taking the lead in their escape. He stepped through the hole and looked around. "Everything is okay here. Just a little jump from here to the ground." He jumped.

Rebel went after him. "Once I am outside I can help you if you can't jump," she told the others and leapt to the ground. Kerna with Obsi in her arms jumped also. Hilda followed, and William was the last one to leave the pyramid.

"Good job," Hilda complimented Rebel, and Maurizio as well. "Now let's get to the flying thing and get away from here."

They walked around the pyramid. Inside things were still quiet, nobody seemed to have noticed the wall breach yet. And then they found the flying rig. At least, that what remained of it.

"Holy Bejeebus," William growled, "looks like Davdruw isn't so stupid after all."

"We can put it back together," Rebel suggested.

"I'm afraid that will take too long," the wizard said as he scratched his head.

"I can buy us some time," the woman in leather said. "Just hold on."

"On to" - the scenery changed - "what?"

Rebel had employed one of her mysterious powers to transport the group and the remains of the rig to a place they had seen while flying the rig for the first time. "We're behind one of the more remote pyramids. So, let's get to work."

The work came down to the magic man and the powers of the woman. It helped that they had built this thing once before, so the putting together was done quite quickly. As they all mounted the thing, a somewhat familiar sound reached them.

"They've noticed we left," Hilda said as she recognised the sound of shuttle-pyramids launching.

"Let's go then," said William. "Rebel, can you help with keeping us in the air? Then I can focus on evasive actions and keeping everyone on board."

Hilda felt bad.

-=-=-

The rig lifted into the air. William kept them low. They had spotted a few shuttles already and these were high up, so he figured that staying close to the ground would give them an advantage. Unfortunately, the state of the equipment in the shuttles proved to be superior to the stuff inside the pyramids: no matter how high or low the rig flew, the shuttles picked them up and soon they had am escort of four flying around them.

"You will follow us back to the pyramid," a voice from a loudspeaker informed them.

"Is that so?"

Everyone looked in surprise at the man in the red coat. Maurizio was adjusting his eye patch and said: "William, Rebel, pretend to follow them and when I say something, don't think or ask, but do it."

"What are you up to?" Hilda wanted to know, hating that she was entirely out of control and unable to do anything constructive. This was supposed to be her job, she was not made to sit and wait for others to get her out of problems.

"Old school tactics," the captain explained in a non-explanatory way.

"Better watch out, William," the witch warned her wizard.

"You will follow us back to the pyramid," the voice from the loudspeaker sounded more urgent this time.

"Okay, we're turning," William yelled, hoping that the people would hear him.

Apparently they did. As the rig slowed down and started a slow and wide turn, the shuttles around them followed their movements. The wizard was not going to make this easy on them.

They were on the way back, their destination already in view, when Maurizio whispered something to Rebel, who nodded. Then he asked William how fast the rig could go.

"Crikey, I don't know. We've been out on it a few times and never in a hurry. Also remember we have no seatbelts."

"No what?" Hilda wondered.

"Don't worry, I'll keep us in our seats," Rebel casually remarked. "Just hold on."

"Again? To what?"

Maurizio tapped William on the shoulder. "Once things changed, give it all you've got. Just go forward."

The wizard nodded, wondering what would change.

"Rebel... now would be good."

Things changed. The rig was back at the position where it had been intercepted by the shuttles. William did not take time to recover from the sudden change: he pushed all the magic he had into the rig and pushed it forward as fast as he could.

Hilda's "crappedy crap" was lost in the wind as she felt how something pressed her down in her seat. Grimalkin complained loudly about this treatment, but the speed of the rig was phenomenal. The witch was not certain if William alone was doing this or if Rebel helped a hand, but she was impressed by what suddenly was happening around her.

"Do you think we are going in the right direction?" William yelled back to whoever could hear him.

"No, we are going in the wrong direction, and we keep going there!" Maurizio shouted back in the rush of the wind. "No good leading these idiots to where we're going!"

"Any guess if hiding in the clouds here is safe?" William wanted to know.

Maurizio advised against that, as nobody knew what was inside them, so they sped on.

Kerna sat in her chair, almost squeezing life out of Obsi and keeping her eyes closed. She did not want to know what was going on.

Hilda was more curious: she watched the ground speed by and at a certain moment the strange concrete-like material that made up the surface was no more than crumbles. They had not seen anything resembling a house or pyramid in quite a while. She turned a bit and noticed that nothing was following them anymore. In the distance a few of the shuttles still hovered, but for some reason they held their position.

"Maybe we can slow down a bit and look at what's happening," Hilda yelled at Maurizio. She had to repeat her words before he understood and she breathed more easily as the rig indeed slowed down, after some shouting of the captain to William and Rebel.

Kerna noticed the change in speed and pressure, and peeked from behind her eyelids. Relief flowed over her as she noticed that the rig was hardly moving anymore.

"I'm going to put us on the ground," William announced. Little later they had landed.

"Okay, everyone, check yourselves. Everything still where it belongs?" Maurizio said, cheerful as if a speed run on an improvised flying rig was the most normal thing of the day. "And that was some mean flying, you two," he complimented William and Rebel. Rebel got a kiss for that too, something William gladly missed out on.

Obsidian and Grimalkin were pleased to have regained their freedom and started their own investigation of the meagre surroundings.

"Nice flying, William," Hilda said. Her quick peck on the cheek was very welcome with him. Then she rummaged in one of her pockets.

Phweeeeeeep!!

"That is what these people in their flying pyramids get from me. Nothing more," she said with a smug look as she put the whistle away. "So... where are we?"

The witch pulled the tablet from somewhere and switched it on. With the wood removed, it responded nice and fast. "So, we had a map. Now, let's see..." She examined the map for a while. Then she looked at Kerna. "Can you make sense of this?"

Kerna took the tablet and together with the witch she studied the map on the screen. "I think we are here."

"No. We have to be here. That is where the pyramid stuff is."

"No. This is where the houses are. You are pointing at where the screen is damaged."

"Crappedy crap."

William, Rebel and Maurizio let the two worry about the map and followed the two cats around until Hilda was convinced that Kerna was right.

Walking around was difficult, with the large cracks in the shattered concrete. Further away they saw a stretch of what looked like grey-green sand, dry and uninviting.

"We're quite a bit off track," the witch informed them when the group had assembled again. "We're here" - random stab at the screen - "and we are going there" - another stab at the screen. "We say we have to go that way." Hilda pointed somewhere behind her. She looked at Kerna for a moment, who nodded. "Yes. We're going that way."

"Good, I appreciate that," said William, "but I do think we have to patch up our rig a bit. We went quite fast, and it was originally not designed for MACH 1."

"Mach what?" Hilda and Kerna asked.

Rebel and Maurizio laughed.

"No laughing at the witch!" Hilda yelled over the outburst of joy. "You go fix whatever mach you have to, and then get us out of here."

William and Rebel then faced a slight problem. The flight rig definitely needed patching up but there was nothing around to patch up with. The grey sand in the distance was not helpful, and the crumbling concrete was faster in crumbling than in being a concrete help.

Rebel stated that there was nothing she could do, as she lacked the proper material. William tried to convert some of the concrete into metal bands, but the material was obstinate and did not keep together, not even after being changed. It was interesting to see strips of metal fall apart like crumbling concrete, but not very conducive to getting away...

28. Sad country

William, Hilda and Kerna resorted to tearing strips of fabric from their clothes. These were easily changed into strong metal bands that were perfect for reinforcing the flying rig.

"Do you have any idea why the shuttles did not follow us over here?" Hilda asked Kerna as they watched the work in progress.

"This is the forbidden land," Kerna explained. "Some of the old legends say that there are dangers here, real dangers that will come for you when you don't watch, and they will kill you."

"Sounds like a bundle of fun," the witch grinned. "So why did you come here with us, when you know about these dangers?"

"They are only legends. Many people whisper that they are brought into existence to keep everyone near the houses."

"Smart girl," Hilda nodded, "I appreciate your thinking."

Kerna looked at the witch. "That does not mean I am not afraid..."

Grimalkin and Obsidian came back from their private adventure, all grey from the dust and the sand as William and Rebel tested the last few connections they had made. Hilda picked up Obsidian and patted the dust off him. After cleaning the cat, she handed him over to Kerna and took care of Grimalkin.

The cats were not happy, but they endured the treatment in silence. Being all dirty was not the way a magical's familiar should be, and the dust refused to go away by itself.

"We'll see to it that nothing happens to you, Kerna," she tried to reassure the young woman who held Obsi against her chest. Hilda held up Grimalkin. "Now don't you look nice and clean again?" she asked the cat.

"Meowww."

By that time, William had the rig afloat and they all took their seats. Slowly the rig moved upwards. William tested that everything was fine and stable, confirmed the direction that Hilda and Kerna had pointed out, and then, together with Rebel, he made the rig turn. "Here we go, folks."

The rig started moving, picking up speed smoothly. A phweeeeep sounded over the desolate area.

As the contraption moved away, from under the rubble slowly a dark grey head appeared. Two red eyes watched the floating rig go. After a while, when the rig had gone out of sight, the head sank back into the ground, without a sound...

-=-=-

For a long time, the companions flew over the same boring grey land. The concrete was more or less the same, be it also more or less crumbled. The grey sand sometimes came near and sometimes seemed to fade away, as if some unseen sandy tidal wave was playing its game.

"Do you have any idea how long we have to watch this?" Hilda asked Kerna. She was getting more than just bored out of her mind, and the lack of magic made it worse as there was no way that she could play with the concrete and the sand. Or even just help William fly the rig, even though she had to admit that he and Rebel were doing a good job on that.

"Until we see something else," Kerna had no other option.

"Oh. It'd better be soon."

William looked back at the witch and felt sorry for her. He knew how she needed to do something and be in control and all that, but he also missed the connection to her more and more. As that was all he missed, he could not even fathom what she was going through, having no magic to wield, "We're doing what we can, Hilda," he said. "Want to ride up front for a while? I am sure Maurizio will trade places with you."

"No. Just keep going and get us some place decent," the witch grumbled, using her cat as a distraction for her hands. Grimalkin suffered in silence.

"William. I sense something." It was Rebel whose head jerked up and peered around.

"What?"

"I don't know. It's strange."

This was of course very disconcerting. A woman as strange as Rebel calling something strange was never a good thing.

"Do you at least know where?" Hilda asked.

"Yup. Right in front of us."

Everyone did their utmost to discover something strange in front of the rig, but nothing felt like showing itself. The pilots even slowed down the rig, and William made it lift up higher, with the idea that perhaps from higher up they might be able to see something. This proved to be a smart idea, and one that was done on time as well.

Below them, suddenly a small mountain of sand and concrete rose up, and not just slowly like a mole would do. The bulge seemed to jump upwards, as if it wanted to catch the rig and its occupants. Claw-like paws stretched out from the sand-mountain and reached up to the flying thing that suddenly looked very vulnerable and breakable. One claw would be enough to cover about ten rigs. With occupants. And there were two of those monstrosities

The sand thing rose up to almost one hundred feet high. William and Rebel threw the rig in a sharp turn, as they were not high enough to avoid the monster.

"Crappedy crap!" Hilda was right."What is that?!"

"Looks like one of the dangers Kerna mentioned is real after all," Maurizio said. The captain was fumbling in his pockets as if he desperately needed something from one of them. "Madonna, where is it!"

"Right in front of your nose!" Hilda yelled, as she could not see what he was doing. "Oh, right behind us now!" she corrected herself after a fascinating yet nausea-evoking manoeuvre that William had to perform. The sand-beast had grown some more and was moving in pursuit.

Kerna sat in silence, her eyes large and radiating fear.

While William handled the flying, Rebel grabbed one of the small food packages from a pocket. "Can you turn this into water?" she asked the wizard, who nodded as he made the rig avoid yet another swoop of a claw.

"We have to get over this thing and then soak it," Rebel said, "sand and water make mud."

Now that did make a lot of sense, but Hilda was not certain that the sand on this insane planet would be aware of that as well. "I hope so!"

Maurizio in that time had found what he was looking for. In his hand was a very small object, as if he had stolen a miniature pistol from a baby. This thing looked menacing though, despite its size. "Hold still!" he exclaimed as he tried to get a proper aim at the sand-thing.

Hilda suddenly realised the spooky thing that entire battle was going on in relative silence. The sand did not make any sound, the only thing they heard were their own voices and the wind rushing by.

"Forget it!" Rebel said. She made the rig jolt as Maurizio fired. A long blue flame bounced from the small gun and as if guided by magic it found one of the long arms of the monster, taking it clean off. The arm fell apart in just sand and small rocks. The monster did not seem to mind or notice, it kept charging.

Somehow they managed to get the rig over the mountain of violent sand. Rebel tossed the package, William flashed his wand for a moment, and then a large amount of water went down. The effect was stunning to behold. At first the greyish lump of sand only turned darker. Then, as if it took the sand a while before it understood what it was supposed to do, its movement became slower, and blots of mud flew around. Some of them reached the people on the rig. Then, as the water reached the core of the sand-monster, the mountain suddenly collapsed. All it left was a large dark smear on the light grey ground.

"Suck an elf. That was... some sand."

"Too true. And I would prefer not to run into some of that anymore," the wizard said as he steered the rig away from the smear and down to the surface. "I need a break."

Once landed, they took some time to eat and get their bearings. According to Maurizio they were still on course, and Kerna was convinced of that as well. As there was nothing the others could bring up against that, they proceeded in that direction.

After a long flight William became tired. Rebel said she was getting sleepy as well, so the rig was parked and one of the inflatable packages was transformed into a large tent. By the time they were done making camp, darkness was crawling in.

"That's so odd," said Hilda, "I've never seen darkness crawl in that way. As if it is trying to surround us."

Darkness did. And not only that; at a certain moment it jumped the small camp and in one strike everything was dark. Very dark.

"Did someone remember to do something about lights?" the witch asked.

"Lux," said William, making the tip of his wand light up. Rebel had gotten something from a pocket that emitted light as well.

With these few sources of illumination, the group quickly prepared something to eat. William then set up some wards, just in case anyone or anything had plans for surprise visiting them in the night, and then the group went to sleep in their improvised sleeping quarters.

-=-=-

"William." The voice was a whisper. It was Hilda's.

"Yes?" He was awake amazingly fast.

"It's still dark."

"Perhaps it is still night," he assumed.

"No. Can't be. I am awake." Her logic did not seem to make sense, unless you knew Hilda. She'd wake up after the night, unless something made her wake up sooner. And everyone would know it if that happened. William knew her.

A wand-tip lit up. The others were still asleep. Hilda and William rose from their makeshift bed and tiptoed out of the tent.

"Crappedy crap. How is this possible?" the witch wondered out loud. "I mean, this looks amazing, but still."

A circle of thirty feet around the tent was still shrouded in darkness, while outside that border the daylight was making the most of the grey surroundings, which was pathetically uninspiring.

Hilda walked out of the darkness into the light. "It's just fine," she said as she came back into the dark, guided by William's shiny wand. "We should wake up the others and get on our way."

Easily said, and also easily done. After waking the others (phweeeep!!) , they first pulled their tent into the daylight, so they could see what they were doing without the help of William's and Rebel's small lighting options. William made breakfast and after that the beds and tent were shrunk and disappeared in a few pockets. Then they set off, in search of the people who had left the crude map and the puzzling message on the tablet.

Far and increasingly further behind them, the blob of darkness slowly faded until nothing of it remained.

29. Hello

Hilda and Kerna were studying the tablet, more specifically the map on it.

"Would be convenient if this thing would show us where we are," the witch commented. The area they were travelling over did not give any hint of that, so for her feeling they were flying blind with seven pairs of eyes wide open. Well, most of the time. The cats sometimes did the smart thing and closed theirs.

Kerna silently agreed with the witch. They had been going for a while already. So far the most significant change was that the concrete had vanished entirely. It had been replaced with fine grey sand.

"I think we're getting somewhere," William announced. "I see something new up ahead."

"Yes, I see it too," Rebel confirmed.

This news made Hilda, Kerna and Maurizio sit up and try to peek around the two in the pilot positions.

"What do you see?"

"Rocks."

"Grey rocks?"

"How did you guess, sweetwitch?"

"Everything out here is grey," the sweetwitch muttered, "even dragon's balls are more colourful."

"What colour are those then?" Maurizio asked.

Hilda shrugged. "Depends on how you paint them."

The captain was dumbfounded for a moment. "Paint? The balls of a dragon?"

"No. Dragon's balls," Hilda failed to enlighten him. She noticed his lack of comprehension. "Dragon's balls are a kind of rock you can find in the mountains behind the sea behind the forest, when you go west from where I live. They're egg-shaped and a lot of fun for children. They paint them in the most amazing colours."

"Oh. I see." Suddenly painted dragon's balls were a lot less exciting to Maurizio.

"Of course, the trick is to get to them. You have to get past the dragons for that."

"Dragons? You mean real dragons, with wings and snorting fire?" Maurizio was captivated again.

"You didn't get around a lot, did you?" Hilda asked him. "The fire breathers don't live in the mountains, Maurizio. The dragon's balls are where the Nobblebacks live, and the Draco Maximus. That means really big dragon. It also means really stupid, but not many know that."

"Rebel, did you hear that?" the captain said as he poked his girlfriend in the back, "she lives where dragons live!"

"Cut that out, Moro," Rebel snapped, "I'm not deaf and you're almost shoving me off this thing!"

"Which would be a very bad thing," William agreed as he brought the rig to slower forward movement. The wizard pointed down. "No falling off the rig please, that would look very bad on my resume."

"Crappedy crap!"

Below them, in the sand, a kind of vegetation had slowly been emerging. At the very moment that Hilda uttered her well-known words, the green stuff had become quite an impressive layer of what looked like low cacti. The most ominous about them were the immense needles that protruded from the stems.

"No shit," Maurizio said, "you could make a nice sabre from one of those things."

"I think I know where we are," Kerna then said, pointing at the tablet. Her finger rested on a strip that showed a wobbly line with some scratches. "I believe that this ridge of plants is this line."

With the rig moving over the lethal green, everyone in turn studied the tablet. The general feeling was that Kerna could be right. She could also be wrong, but that was not so important. The important thing was that, if the woman was correct, they were hovering over the last known bit on the map. Outside that border, there was nothing drawn by the people they were trying to find.

"So once we crossed this gross stuff, we're flying into no man's land," Rebel said.

"Look behind you, kid, and convince me that we just came from man's land," Hilda commented. She had a point there, and she knew it.

"Let's first get over this stuff," William suggested. "I don't like the look of a load of daggers beneath us and us without very much protection."

For a while the vegetation underneath the rig did not change very much. A few comments were made about how their contraption was quite open at the bottom, and how large the possibility was that someone could fall down.

William and Rebel retorted that so far nobody had fallen out, "so please shut up about that."

The addition of the latter evoked even more comments, and as the group was debating there came an end to the green mass of knife-like plant extensions without them even noticing. The terrain changed into a rough, rocky surface with crevices in it that contained clear, running water.

Hilda was the first one to notice the change. "Hey you all, cut out the bickering and look down!"

Her words brought a moment of peace, after which a careful hooray-feeling took over. William agreed that putting down the rig here was a good idea, so they could enjoy some of the fresh water. It felt good to the group to be off the flying rig and walk around a bit, and the water was very good.

"I wonder when we will find some sign that we are getting close to the people we're looking for," Rebel said. "It's been a nice ride so far, but I'm afraid that one more day of flying around will get a bit boring."

The small group also stuck around for something to eat, and it was during a break from snacking that Hilda suddenly noticed some movement in the corner of her eye. She turned her head and looked, but there was nothing.

"Did you see that?" she asked, wondering why she did not see what she was sure of she had seen.

"See what?"

"The movement there," the witch pointed.

"Nope, didn't see anything," Rebel said. Kerna shook her head in silence, and also the men had not seen something.

Hilda scowled for a moment. Seeing things that weren't there bothered her more than seeing any of the weird things she had seen in her life. She picked up a sandwich, checked it for onions and - there it was again! She jerked her head and - nothing. "Crappedy crap," she muttered, "I hate this."

"Wassup?" Maurizio wondered between bites. He knew it was not good to see the witch act like that.

"I saw it again! There!" More than just a tad annoyed she got up and walked over to where she had clearly spotted the movement. The fact that there was nothing that actually could move in that place was circumstantial.

"It was here," she was convinced as she stomped the rocky surface. The surface did not feel so solid as a rock as a rock should feel... "It -is- here," she decided therefore. Another stomp.

William had joined her. "Yes, I see the rocks move." He stomped the place also.

The surface responded by trembling, making the magicals jump to the side. A breath later, the rocky underground became a lump, then a mound and it ended its growth as a large bulky block of rock.

"Suck an elf," Hilda shared, "I knew I wasn't losing it."

Then the block of rock opened two large red eyes.

As the thing stood there, motionless, Hilda and William slowly stepped back a little. They were used to quite a bit, and so they knew it paid to be careful.

"Hey, Rocky, can you hear me?" Hilda then tried.

Rocky did not indicate in any perceivable way that he had indeed heard the witch.

"Hello? Somebody in there?" Hilda became braver, as the lump did not move. She stepped up to it and knocked on it. "This," she decidedly reported then, "is solid rock."

The sound of some pebbles scattering, further away, made the whole group look at the sound. Another Rocky emerged from the surface, as immobile and red-eyed as the first one.

"Somehow I have the feeling we stumbled on a nest of those," Maurizio vented his opinion.

"What are they?" Rebel wondered. "And where do they come from?"

No one was able to answer her question. Maurizio, however, seemed to be right. Further away from the second red-eyed rock, a third one emerged, and as the group watched that one grow, a fourth one also started to make its way up from the rocky underground.

"Do you notice that they form a straight line?" William observed.

"Suck an elf, you're right."

"Maybe we should follow them," Maurizio suggested.

"Or maybe not," Rebel said. "They may lead us to a place we don't want to go."

The two looked at Kerna, who looked at Hilda and William. Kerna was out of her comfort zone since long, she had put all her trust in the two strange and intriguing people and their cats.

"What do you think, sweetwitch?" William asked. "You're the one who'se going to save the planet, so it's your call."

Hilda rubbed her nose. "Not sure. I'm still..." She wiggled her fingers, indicating that her magic was gone. "But..." - a wicked smile appeared on her face - "when did I ever take the safe route?"

William laughed. "So true. Let's finish up here, and then make our way along the rocky blobs."

It did not take the group long to pack up and mount the rig again. As they rose up, not too high this time, they saw that the line of rocks had grown, extending far beyond where they could see.

-=-=-

They had flown a considerable distance and the line of rocks did not show any sign of ending. The surroundings had taken on a different colour though. Very slowly, small shrubs and low hedge-like bushes had started to fight themselves a way through the rocky ground.

"We should put this thing down again, William," Rebel suggested. "It's getting dark."

"You're right," Hilda agreed. Even Kerna nodded.

William found a good place to park the rig and everyone got off it with a sigh of relief. The seats were all but very comfortable and not made for longer trips.

As the wizard inflated the large tent, Kerna and Rebel started working on making food, and Hilda and Maurizio went off for a walk to have a look at the surroundings.

"Don't walk off too far," Rebel warned them, "we don't plan to take ages making supper."

"And the tent's up already also," said William, creating some large comfortable chairs from bits of wood and plants. He sat down in one. "Ohhh, I like this. I will do something about the seats of the rig before we leave."

Hilda and Maurizio wandered off, agreeing wholeheartedly with William's latest statement.

"Do you have any idea what we will find?" the captain asked, as he took his eye patch from a pocket and put it over his eye.

"Not the faintest," Hilda replied, "and why do you keep putting that thing on your head when there's nothing wrong with your eyes?"

"Just preparing," said Maurizio. "Perhaps I will lose an eye in a battle and then I am used to wearing it. Proper pirate attire, you know."

"You are weird at times. Did someone ever tell you that?"

"Rebel does. Almost every day."

"Hello."

The wicked witch and the weird captain spun around as if a double-stinger wasp had stung them with its double stingers.

30. To the village

"Crappedy crap."

Hilda and Maurizio stood face to face with two people, a man and a woman. They looked quite normal compared to the blue- and purple-haired Lycadeans, but many facial features told them that these people without a doubt were related to them.

The faces of the two lit up. The man replied: "Suck an elf?"

"Only if you have one that was rolled in honey," Hilda said. "Are you the folks we're looking for?"

"Are you the honoured witch who is not a witch?" the man asked.

The woman prodded him in the ribs. "She has to be. She knows the words. Please excuse his behaviour, honoured witch, he's always like that."

Hilda immediately liked the woman. "You are the old ones that Kerna mentioned, right?" They had to be, even though they did not look that old.

"We are the descendants of the Lycadean people who left the big cities when the technological craze was becoming too dangerous, if you mean that."

"Sound good enough for me," Hilda nodded. "Oh, this is Maurizio Blunt. He's a pirate captain, or so he says."

"We are pleased to meet you, honoured captain."

"Ah," the honoured captain grinned, "my crew could take an example from them!"

"So who are they?" a voice asked from behind Hilda and Maurizio.

Hilda and Maurizio did the quick turn again, to find Rebel.

"I think they are the ones we're looking for," the witch explained.

"Really? Awesome. William will be miffed though." As the witch and Maurizio looked at her, not understanding, Rebel elaborated: "Not enough food for two extra mouths."

"Oh, we do not want to dine with you!" the male stranger exclaimed. "We were just doing our round, as usual."

Hilda rubbed her nose. "Right. One thing at the time. First, you seem to know us. Who are you? Next thing: I'm hungry, so you will come with us and tell us what you're doing here while we're eating."

The two people did not find anything wrong with that idea, so as they walked back, the two introduced themselves. The woman was called Kyru and the man's name was Sodor.

"We were doing the daily round to see if you had come," was the simple reason for their presence.

"Daily round?"

"Yes. Since our tribe left the cities, there was a rule in place that there would be signs for the witch, and that two of us would come here, to see if you had arrived. Our ancestors knew that you would come. You would be the one to find the book. You did find the book, did you not?"

"You mean the tablet thing with the scribbly map on it? Yes, we got that."

While talking, the group reached the small camp, where the smell of food and the sight of large comfy chairs were waiting for them.

William frowned as his witch came back with two strangers. "Who'd you bring, and where did you find them? I doubt there's enough food for all..."

Rebel grinned.

Kerna just stared at the two people, holding Obsi close to her. Grimalkin sat at her feet, keeping an eye on the two as well.

Kyru and Sodor were introduced. As they met Kerna, they stared back at her. "You are from here," they immediately decided.

"Hey, no nagging Kerna! She's with us, so be nice to her!" Hilda jumped in, even before something had happened. "She risked her neck for us a few times and has been invaluable."

Kerna looked at the witch in surprise. She had not expected so much praise, clearly.

By then William was handing out plates with food, having heard that the two newcomers did not want anything. As they all were sitting, Kyru and Sodor started talking.

"Our ancestors left the cities long ago. Too much technology was getting into fashion, and there were those that adored it and those that worried that this technology would take over too much. At a certain point, a seer stood up from the midst of our ancestors and told them about the Prophecy."

"Oh, yes, we know that one," Hilda muttered. "That's what got me here in the first place. I wish that person had kept its mouth shut."

The two looked puzzled for a moment. Kyru continued: "The seer warned for the bad parts of the Prophecy, and it was obviously almost too late. So our ancestors decided that they should leave, before everything went bad."

"Seers usually aren't believed until the dragon's shit hits the market square," Hilda knew. "I've heard of that happen far too often."

After finishing the meal, the camp was packed up. William shrunk everything back to easily transportable packets, to the amazement of Kyru and Sodor who obviously never had seen a true magical at work.

Hilda could do nothing but supervise the job and again hate the fact that she had no control over her magic. How on Earth, she wondered, was she going to do something about this crazy place without having her magic? She was supposed to make right what was wrong, according to the folks here, and there was no way she saw how that could happen.

"Well, I guess we’re going with you now," the witch said to the two young old ones.

"We already hoped you would, indeed." Sodor nodded.

"I hope you have a place that’s nicer than this one," Hilda said, looking back to the area they had come from. "I’m sick and tired of rocks and sand."

"We assume that the pillars were useful." Kyru pointed at one of the large red-eyed rocks that was near.

"They’re yours?" Maurizio wondered.

"Yes. We did not abandon all technology," Sodor explained, "there were some applications of it that were considered very useful, so our people worked for years to create these guiding pillars, for this particular moment."

"All of them? We’ve seen hundreds of them!" Hilda, despite herself, was genuinely impressed. All that work they had done for her, while they had no idea when or even if she ever would come. Or perhaps the ‘if’ had not been so much a question for them.

"Actually there are several thousands of them," Kyru said. "Nobody knew from where you would come, honoured witch, so the pillars have been made into all directions."

"Suck an elf," Hilda said.

William and Rebel had finished packing and storing their camp in several pockets. "So, are we going to fly the rig, or are we in walking distance?"

Kyru smiled at the wizard. "Everything is in walking distance, wizard William."

William realised that he was not honoured in these parts. "Okay. Let’s go then."

With Sodor and Kyru in the lead, the group left their temporary resting place, the rig remaining as the only proof that people had been there.

They had been walking for a considerable number of hours when Hilda asked the two: "When are we going to get to wherever you are taking us? You said it was in walking distance!"

Sodor looked at the witch. "We are almost there. We are going to our village of course."

'Almost there' meant another hour of walking and a more frequent handing over of cats from one to another, through an environment that was changing very rapidly. They had just walked past a few groups of trees, when they entered a forest with humongously big trees. Everyone, except the two natives, had their head on a swivel, trying to see all the high treetops, or discover what animals up there were making a cacophony of sounds.

"SHUT UP!" Hilda had called out at one moment. Her outburst only had a momentary effect. Right after that, the animal choir came back with an even louder concerto.

William took pity on his witch and produced ear plugs, but after she had tried to eat them (he had forgotten to explain what they were for) her mood had deteriorated rapidly.

"Suck an elf," Hilda said when the village finally came in sight. "Next time someone says anything about walking distance, I'm going to be very thorough in determining what their concept of that is!"

Her footwear was not made for this kind of activity. Once she had her magic back, she'd give these people a piece of her mind, she promised them in silence. But - why wait? Hilda took in a sharp breath, to vent her extreme displeasure, when Sodor and Jyru stopped and turned.

"We do apologise! We should have thought better before taking you here on foot, honoured witch..."

Sodor suggested that the group should sit down and wait there, with Kyru, while he would run up to the village and summon some carts that could carry the tired walkers the last stretch.

Everyone was entirely in favour of that idea. William quickly magicked up a few seats from wood that lay on the ground, while Sodor took off at an astounding speed.

"Does he have feet of concrete? Don't they hurt?" the witch wondered out loud.

"We are used to walking," Kyru said, "this is a stretch we usually walk when we make the round to see if you have arrived yet."

"Crappedy crap, I admire your stamina but no way that I am going to build that up. My feet would kill me if they weren't already." Hilda kicked off her shoes and wiggled her toes.

Rebel, William and Maurizio also sat down and stretched their legs.

"This kind of exercise is good, if performed in parts about one tenth of what we just did," the captain philosophised.

"How about one hundredth," Hilda muttered as she longed for a foot bath. She growled inside. If only she could just whip one up. She hated having to ask William for everything, but with even their bond gone that was the only way to get it.

William knew his witch well, though, and soon she enjoyed a nice bubbly bath for her feet. Without having asked for it.

Sodor and six other people from the village came back soon, pushing large four-wheeled carts. The people were very surprised to see the seats, the two small tables and cups and even a few glasses.

"Sodor! You would not believe the adventures these people all have had," Kyru exclaimed at the man as she waved a glass that had contained wine.

Rebel had gotten up from her seat and looked at the carts. "These people in Pyramid City overdid their tech," she remarked, "but it looks as if these ones underdid it."

Sodor introduced the six people that had come along. They all were impressed to see Hilda, although a few were not convinced that she would be "the one". Nonetheless, the travellers were made very welcome and invited to sit on the carts.

"We just don't know if we can take all the furniture with us," one of the men commented as he looked at the seats and tables.

"Oh. That." William popped up his wand and disassembled the items, turning them back into the pieces of wood they had originally been. This was quite a shock for the people who had not seen how the furniture had been created.

The travellers then sat on the carts, that were covered with large, soft cushions. Sodor and the other villagers took position to start pushing the carts, when Hilda jumped down again.

"I am sorry. I can't let you do that. William, I am sure we can do something with these carts, right?"

It took some convincing, but the villagers sat on the carts as well, and then William and Rebel applied some magic and other kinds of power, after which the carts started moving towards the village.

31. The village of the old ones

The houses in the village that they reached were simple, made of wood and with thatched roofs made of twigs and a kind of grey-green reeds. Outside these homes, children and their mothers stared at the wagons that moved by themselves, and the strange people that were on them.

Hilda spotted smaller animals running through the - well, streets would be too flattering a name for these not even cobblestone trails - and pointed some of them out to William. "I never saw cats or dogs like that."

William agreed. Cats and dogs did not come with six or eight legs. "They’re probably called something else."

"Dragon balls," the witch said, "they should have cats here." She cuddled Grimalkin for a moment. The cat endured the treatment without protest.

Kerna looked at William. She was holding Obsi and wondered when the wizard would want his cat back for a cuddle as well.

Instead of looking at the cat, William kept the carts going until Sodor said they had arrived. The carts came to a stop on a small, triangular village square. The long trail of people from the village that had formed behind them also stopped.

Everyone stepped from the carts, after which Sodor and Kyru announced with loud voices that finally the witch had come. Cheers rose up from the throats of the many people that had gathered round the small group.

Hilda elbowed her wizard lightly. "See that man back there? The one with the sour face who isn't cheering? I think he's the only sensible one around."

William nodded as he draped Obsidian over his shoulder. Either these people knew something they didn't, or they were too quick in believing something.

As if the man had noticed that the two were talking about him, he stepped forward. "I am Tarkan."

"Lucky you," Hilda responded. "I'm Hilda." She then introduced the others in her group.

"Do you claim to be the one we are waiting for?" Tarkan asked.

"No. I claim that I want to go home. Others claim that I am the witch who is going to make things well again, but I am doubting that."

Tarkan stared at Hilda. Clearly that was not what he had expected. "Who is she?" he then asked, poking a finger towards Kerna.

Hilda raised an eyebrow. "I recall introducing Kerna. I am not going to do that again. Pay attention, will you?"

Sodor and Kyru had eyes that could not be bigger.

Come to think of it, Hilda noticed, that was true for most of the other folks around as well. This Tarkan person had to be someone important to them, kind of a Davdruw or so.

"You are impertinent," Tarkan observed.

"I'm a witch," Hilda countered. "Like it or not. Now is there someone who can get us some tea, or coffee? Otherwise we'll arrange something ourselves. Won't we?" The last bit was directed at the wizard.

"Of course. That should be no problem."

"You are not the witch. You should be silent," said Tarkan.

William looked at the man with the faded blue hair.

"I know I am not the witch." The wizard raised his hand and popped out his wand. "But I can do tricks."

A gasp went through the crowd that was still around them.

Tarkan stared at the wand. "It is a mere piece of wood."

"And that is where you go wrong," Hilda said. "Who are you anyway, except someone called Tarkan? You failed miserably as welcoming committee, but the others seem impressed with you so you're probably good at something."

This caused a rather loud and disturbed gasp. Hilda knew she had struck proverbial gold.

"I am Tarkan, the leader of the village. I have been since very long." The man straightened himself, barely towering over Hilda. He had no idea that the only effect this had on the witch was an adverse one.

"And how long has this village been the way it is now?" Rebel asked without being invited.

"Very long," Tarkan said, with obvious satisfaction and a disapproving look towards the woman in leather.

"Which means too long," Rebel nodded. "Thought so." And to Maurizio she said: "I wonder what he has or knows that these people don't choose a new leader."

"Silence!" Tarkan roared with unexpected vigour, as if Rebel had said something blasphemous.

"We still have no tea," Maurizio commented, disregarding Tarkan's angered demand.

"True," said Hilda as she turned to the captain. "I think we should find ourselves a nice place and get some water boiling."

Tarkan was not in the clear on how to handle a witch. Or rather, how not to handle one. Especially the one that was Hilda the wicked witch. He put a hand on her shoulder.

Hilda froze. "Take your hand off me."

"You will listen to me, and be respectful like the others!" Tarkan said very loudly.

"I am not like the others," Hilda growled. "Take-your-hand-from-my-shoulder..."

William had no trouble picking up on Hilda's ideas. The tone in her voice said it all. As she turned and raised a hand, he invoked a spell. His timing was perfect.

Tarkan hung in the air, surprise on his face and his feet kicking as the ground suddenly had gone from under them.

"You are not supposed to touch a witch," Hilda said, loud and clear. "Unless invited. And I did not invite you. You will hang there for some time, while we help ourselves to some tea."

"Get me down!" Tarkan commanded. He was a slow learner.

As Hilda and her companions sauntered off to a silent part of the triangular square, a few helpful villagers clung to Tarkan's legs, but their efforts were to no avail so they abandoned their attempts. The fact that their leader was screaming at them to leave him be, despite having asked to be taken down, caused some commotion and chatter. The majority of people then trailed after the witch and her friends.

"Is it okay with you if I turn a cart into some furniture?" William asked Sodor.

"Yes, of course," said the man. He cast a careful glance at the dangling leader.

Moments later, the group sat down. Villagers ran off, to return with stools and small chairs, making themselves comfortable near the travellers.

Tarkan screamed, until William snipped his fingers. Then a blissful silence spread over the square.

After everyone around had been supplied with tea (another cart had been sacrificed to make the cups), Hilda asked around if anyone had an idea why the whole of both Lycadean societies were so fixated on her presence. The answer that she would be the witch who would make right what was wrong did not really come as a surprise, but she had hoped for something better, like perhaps how she was supposed to pull that off.

"Maybe Tarkan knows," a helpful soul offered, but that option was still in the air, and not likely to be supportive soon.

"Meanwhile I would really like to know if there is a place where we can stay while we're here," Hilda said. "Do you folks have any houses that are free?"

The assembled villagers shook heads. All the houses in the village were occupied, and there were no spaces available.

"There are the caves though," someone suggested.

"Caves. Right. We are people that look like we can be happy in caves." Hilda's stare almost drilled a hole in the eyes of the man who had suggested the caves.

Maurizio however said: "How far away are these caves? And do you have some things for us to make life somewhat comfortable there?"

"I'm not going to live in a cave!" Hilda exclaimed. "Their prophecy dragged our asses all over the cosmos and now they want us to live like cave people?"

"Hilda. Calm down. We'll sort this out." William's voice was calm.

"Don't you calm down me, wizard," Hilda glared at him. "I'm done with all this."

William took pity on Hilda. He had a fairly good idea how much she was suffering, lacking her magic. He took her hand. "Come with me. Please?" He knew he had to talk with her for a moment, before she would explode the wrong way.

With no protest at all, Hilda came with William, and as they walked away from the square, he said: "Sweetwitch, try to keep yourself together, will you? I know you are having a really rough time. This is not easy on anyone, and it must be devastating for you. I am really trying to understand. But we went on this trip, to find these people. You had a major vote in it as well. It would be good if we can all see this through."

Hilda said nothing as they kept walking. They were already outside the village when she sudden stood still. She looked at William. "I want to go home, William. I don't know how much longer I can take this. I am not even half the person I am. I miss my magic. I miss the link with you. I…"

William put his arms around the witch and just held her. He had never seen her so helpless and ready to quit, and he knew that this was not really Hilda. There was something he should be able to do about this situation, he thought. Without knowing it, he did the only thing that worked.

"You must really think I'm an idiot," Hilda's voice came muffled from his shoulder. She had pressed her face against it.

"I don't. I just try to be there for you."

"You'd better. Without you I'd have gone crazy long ago." Hilda felt small and helpless for a few never-ending moments.

"Let's go back and see what we can do about finding a place to sleep," William suggested. "We've weathered a lot together, I am sure we can manage this situation as well."

"Yes. And not a word, wizard."

William grinned, as Hilda put her good old self back up.

Together they walked to the group and said they'd go and have a look at the caves. Sodor and Kyru offered to come along, to guide the way to the mountains.

"They can be hard to find."

Hilda wondered how mountains could be hard to find, but the two were right: they had to travel through a part of forest where the trees were growing so close together that it was impossible to know where you were going unless you knew where you were going.

"And we are supposed to find the way back, right?" Hilda wondered as they rounded yet another group of big high trees.

"Honestly, honoured witch, we do not know what you are supposed to do," Kyra said. "But we are almost there."

Grimalkin, hanging over Hilda's shoulder, meowed softly, keeping her big yellow eyes on the people ahead who led the way.

"I know, sweetie," said Hilda as she petted the black head, "I feel that way too."

Kerna walked with Rebel and Maurizio. Obsidian had moved to Maurizio's shoulders for a while. Kerna had gotten very tired of carrying the cat and the captain had noticed it. Kerna however did stay close to the man, as if she did not want to be too far away from Obsi.

Hilda stopped and stared at a big tree. A very big tree. "Crappedy crap, William, look at that. You can make a house inside that thing!"

Everyone agreed that this was the mother of all trees. The witch and wizard started to walk around it. It took them almost five minutes to complete the round.

"This is a big tree," Hilda stated. "A really big one."

Sodor frowned. He was already aware of that fact.

A few trees later, they were out of the forest.

"Crappedy crap."

32. On the rocks

The view that jumped them warranted that remark. They stood at the start of a wide open area, filled with pebbles in many colours, and red, yellow, blue and white prevailed. Randomly across the pebble plain, small green plants with tiny yellow flowers has sprouted.

About two hundred feet from where the group stood, a calm river floated along. Beyond the river, mountains rose up. They were not impressively high, but they were covered with shrubs and something that looked like insanely large patches of red and brown moss. Low trees grew at the foot of the mountains.

The travellers stared at the scene for a while, as the serene beauty overwhelmed them all.

"This is just plain pretty," Rebel said. She picked up a red pebble and examined it. "Tell you what, folks. This pebble… isn't a pebble." The woman, her leather outfit quite smudged by now, closed her hand around the red rock for a moment. A dim light shone through her fingers for a moment.

"Look." Rebel held out her hand, and on her palm lay a shiny rough ruby. "The blue ones are probably sapphires, the yellow ones topaz and the white ones-"

"Diamonds?" Maurizio asked.

"No. They're real pebbles."

Kyru looked at Sodor and Kerna. Then she asked: "What is so special about these stones?"

Four pairs of eyes looked at her. Rebel explained that these 'stones' were considered very valuable in the world they came from.

"Oh." Kyru did not seem very impressed. "These things are everywhere."

Sodor suggested they'd move on. He led them to a spot in the river where a wide lane of large rocks was made. The rocks had been flattened, to make crossing the river easy. Water ran through narrow slits that were left between the rocky slabs.

Hilda marvelled at the sound of the water that ran underneath the stones. "William, look how clear the water is. Just like home. And listen. I never heard water sound like this!"

As they reached the other side of the river, Kyru pointed at a pair of trees a bit to their left. "That is where we are going. There is a footpath that leads to the entrance of the caves."

"More walking," Hilda sighed. "Good thing there is enough wood around here to make a broom."

William took over Grimalkin from the witch, and they set off again.

The footpath Kyru had mentioned did hardly deserve its name. Hilda accused the woman and Sodor of being hunters who could follow the trail of a flying wasp that had flown close to the ground. "This is not a place where people can walk!"

Miraculously though, the people walked there, and after a rather steep climb, Sodor pushed aside a curtain of hanging plants, which revealed the entrance to a cave.

"Welcome home," Hilda grumbled as she stepped into the dark hole. Then: "Suck an elf!"

William rushed inside, to find out what the witch was so wild about. As he entered the cave, he saw and was amazed as well. "Holy Bejeebus…"

As Rebel and Maurizio entered the cave as well, followed by Kerna, Sodor and Kyru, they too gasped.

Instead of cavey darkness, lights were everywhere. The walls, the ceilings, even the floor twinkled with yellow light, making the cave as bright as one would like.

"How is that possible?" William wondered out loud.

Sodor and Kyru explained that there were reflecting stones in the rock that guided the outside light into the caves. "The same yellow stones you saw outside and find so precious."

"I'll be damned," William said, "the mountain's littered with gems."

Kerna reached out and held on to Hilda.

"What's wrong, kid?" the witch asked. Kerna was not the touchy kind, so there had to be something.

"I'm not feeling so well suddenly," the kid replied.

"Come, I'll take you outside."

As the two left the cave, William and Rebel looked at each other and wondered.

"I'll go with them," Kyru said and followed the other two women.

"So this is the cave," Sodor then said. "It is the best we can do for you."

"We'll turn it into something homely," Rebel said. "Thanks for the trouble of taking us here. William, you think we can whip up some flying thing again?"

"Sure," said the wizard.

"With decent seats?" Maurizio asked promptly. They all laughed, except Sodor who did not get the joke.

"If you insist," William grinned. "We'll be fine here, once we got some furniture inside."

"We are sorry we can't provide that," Sodor said.

"Don't worry about that, Sodor. As long as there's wood and such, we'll get things done."

Sodor nodded. He took the others outside and pointed into the direction of their village. "If you need one of us, we will usually be there. Or someone will know where we are."

"As long as we don't have to talk to- Oh..." William frowned. "I think we left your leader hanging in the air." He snipped his fingers. "Should be fixed now."

They located Hilda, Kerna and Kyru sitting under a tree. Kerna looked well again, she was laughing at something Hilda said.

Kyru and Sodor said their goodbyes and promised to come back the next day. As the two left, Rebel and William got to work and arranged for chairs, a table and some beds. As the wizard magicked up the last bits of what they might need, Rebel went into the forest to find some game for dinner. Most of them were definitely ready for a good meal.

Maurizio sat with Kerna as William took Hilda to the side. "Sweetwitch, there's something I have to tell you. I don't know if you noticed it too."

"What's that, wizard?"

"When we crossed the river. The water in the river jumped higher than some of the rocks that made the bridge. But it never fell on the stone slabs."

"Crappedy crap..." Hilda stared at him. "You are certain, aren't you? I'd have to see that."

"We can arrange that..."

William had, as he made the furniture, also made a simple broom. He summoned it and held it up. "Maurizio, Kerna, we're going to scoot down to the river. We'll be back before dinner."

"Good," Maurizio waved.

"Can you bring water?" Kerna asked, which was a good question.

William, with Hilda in front of him, made the broom fly off.

Obsi and Grim sat with the two that were left behind and felt left behind.

Hilda enjoyed the broom flight. It was as close to the real thing as she could come, but it was still a lot better than the weird contraption they had left the pyramid city with.

After touching down near the river, they walked towards the stone bridge and stared at the water.

"Dragon balls, that's strange," Hilda agreed. "As if the water bounces away from the stone." She held out her hand and caught some of the water. "Looks normal. Feels normal."

It was just ordinary water.

"I wonder what's up with this place," William said. "Perhaps it is something in the stones."

The wizard started unpacking lots of small things from his pockets and enlarged them, until he found a box with pots in them. "How did these... I'd better not ask."

"Indeed. Just fill them with water," said Hilda as she walked up and down the bridge to see if she could find what made the water avoid touching the stones.

After filling the pots, William shrunk the boxes again, put them in his pockets and asked Hilda if she was done running. "Water's done, so we can go back and see if there's any food around."

"Good thought, I'm feeling a bit dizzy myself."

That worried William. Hilda being dizzy was an alien concept. But perhaps it had to do with the strain of the day, and her not being herself without her magic.

Together they got on the broom. William made the pots with water float behind it, and carefully then manoeuvred the broom and its watery train back up the mountain.

"Good that you're back. Rebel has not returned yet," Maurizio informed them, his face showing delight at the sight of all the water.

"Maybe I should go look for her," Hilda suggested.

"Look for who?" Rebel's voice came around a tree just ahead of her.

"For you," Hilda said.

"Why? Am I lost?" Rebel grinned as she held up a few dead animals. "These were, so I decided to take them home. I hope they're edible."

Kerna confirmed that Rebel's catch should be safe to eat.

"Fabulous. I'll go and undress them. If one of you can arrange for some place to grill them, that would be good." Rebel pulled a big knife from somewhere in her leather, skin-tight clothes and walked off, whistling something mysterious.

"I'll never understand how she puts all those things into pockets you can't see," Maurizio said as he shook his head, watching Rebel go.

"Nor do I. And it looks like we'll be doing most of the cooking, Maurizio," William said. "The ladies are not feeling too well. Hunger, probably."

Hilda had sat down with Kerna. They both had a cat in their lap and were silent. Kerna was silent very often, but such behaviour from Hilda... William was not sure what to think of that.

Using some magic, William located a few roots and something that could be called green carrots. Those things would have to do as vegetables for their meal. After a little while, the two undefined creatures were roasting over a fire, while the vegetables were boiling in what was going to be a kind of soup. Its smell was debatable, but nobody complained once the food went round.

After what probably was supper, Hilda said she wanted to go for a little walk. Kerna asked if she was allowed to accompany her.

"Of course, silly thing. You've been through so much with us, you can come along," said the witch.

"And how about us?" Maurizio asked.

"You can do the dishes," Hilda grinned over her shoulder as she picked up Grimalkin. Kerna, almost out of habit, took Obsidian, who let her as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Don't get lost, Hilda," William warned her.

"You can find me!" her voice rang out from the tree-like plants among which she had disappeared with Kerna.

That, the wizard knew, was true. Not as easy as through the link they used to share, but he could find her.

"Dishes," the captain snorted. "Now really."

"Yes, really," Rebel comforted him. "Someone has to do it."

"While we work out something like the rig, to get to the village comfortably," William added.

"Oh. Comfortably. I like how that sounds." Maurizio's face lit up. "I'll do the dishes then, be it uncomfortably."

"Your choice," Rebel grinned. "Come, wizardly person. I have some ideas on how to build our new rig."

"Very good. Let's see what the feminine touch has to offer," William said as he got to his feet.

Rebel told him what ideas she had, using a few smaller trees, or some thicker branches. "We can make some kind of raft from those, I think, tie the beams together with those long weed-things over there."

The two lost themselves in the design of the new rig, and as darkness fell they already had the basic shape made. It looked like quite a good thing. They even had decided on something that could make for reasonably comfortable seats, something that Maurizio was very pleased about.

"I am sure that Hilda and Kerna will appreciate that as well," William said. "Speaking of witch... Have they come back yet? I've not seen them in a while."

Rebel and Maurizio shook their heads. Their attention too had been too much taken up by the rig-making.

Each of the three picked up a torch William had lit. Rebel and Maurizio would go left around the mountain, William right, the way Hilda and Kerna had left.

"Back here in about an hour," William suggested. "That should be enough." He then set off into the thicket, taking care not to set fire to it with the torch.

William walked in what he hoped would be a sensible pattern that would give him the best chance to find his witch. However long though that he walked, there was no trace of her, of Kerna nor of the two cats.

William called out Hilda's name, but nobody responded. The only reaction he got, and he wasn't even sure if that was because of his shouting, was the uneasy hoot of some night bird of Lycadea he could not see. It sounded eerie enough for him to increase the light coming from his torch. But also that did not show him any sign of Hilda or Kerna.

After a while he had the impression that he was walking in circles. The unfamiliar territory, the strange sounds and the anxiety that his witch had disappeared did not make him feel much better. He resigned and found his way back to the cave, where he found Rebel and Maurizio. They had not found the two missing persons either...

33. Hilda and Kerna

As the two walked off, both carrying a cat, the first stretch was done in silence. Hilda and Kerna both felt unpleasant and did not need conversation.

The path led past high trees and skinny plants that reached up high as well. There were strange blue coloured bushes with thorns fit to make wands of and here and there were flowers in odd shapes and even odder colours. The foresty environment was much to blame for that of course, as it held back most of the sunlight. Not that there was any significant sunlight remaining at that point of the Lycadean day.

Hilda hated being silent. It was not like her, but being without magic was not like her either. She felt very grumpy about it all over again and kept her mouth shut. Any wrong word from someone would make her take her frustration out on that person, and Kerna was just too nice and helpful and good to have to take the brunt.

"Hilda?" Kerna suddenly broke the silence.

"Hmm?" No words, Hilda, the witch thought to herself. No venting, no bad stuff.

"I'm a bit scared."

Hilda stopped her walking and turned to the young woman, realising that Kerna had spoken the only words that were not wrong. "No need for that, Kerna. You have me and the two cats to protect you." She put an arm around Kerna's shoulders. "Look, it's just you and me and these two here on this mountain."

"Maybe there is more here, things we don't know about."

"So what? If it comes then-" Hilda fell silent. Then what? She had no idea how to fight off even the smallest animal if it were to charge at her now. The cats would have to do most of the fighting. If they knew what that was. "Maybe we should return to the others."

Kerna nodded, barely visible in the now quickly fading light.

They turned around.

"It's that way. I think." Kerna nodded somewhat in a direction.

"Are you sure? I think we came from there." Hilda pointed. "Oh, wait. Maybe the cats know." She bent down and set Grimalkin at her feet.

Kerna put Obsidian next to his sister. Two pairs of yellow eyes stared up at the two women who stared down at them.

"Go, find the way to William," Hilda tried to encourage the two cats who did not feel inclined to move anywhere, fast or otherwise.

The cats looked at each other for a moment, nuzzled each other and then looked at the witch again.

"I think they don't know either, Hilda," Kerna said.

"Crappedy crap," Hilda muttered, picking up Grimalkin again. Somehow the feel of a cat in her arms made her feel better.

Kerna quickly took care of Obsidian.

"We're going that way," Hilda decided, pointing in the direction which she hoped was the same as she'd done before.

Kerna did not object, so together they walked ahead. Until the make-belief path ended in several of the blue-coloured, viciously-thorned plants.

"Suck an elf," Hilda growled, "what idiot put those there? They weren't here when we came this way."

Kerna remained silent as they went back where they came from. As they more or less arrived there, she tugged Hilda's sleeve. Usually that was unforgivable, but this was not the time for Hilda to argue over it. "Hilda. I think we should go there. I see some light."

Hilda peered to where she expected Kerna to point. Darkness made that rather complicated. Still, Kerna was right, there was light ahead. "See, I told you we are on the right track. Come, William is probably out of his mind for worry by now." She did not know how right she was.

The two walked and stumbled towards the light, in vain trying to avoid rubble on the path.

"Strange though, the light is very red. I don't remember that the fires that William made being so red."

Hilda agreed in silence, but kept going. Light was light, and light meant people. Well, usually. They'd just have to be careful at first. The notion hit her like a brick. Perhaps she should let Kerna go first. Hilda was not very proficient in this careful stuff.

There only were a few trees between the women and the red light. Hilda held Kerna back as the young woman started to walk faster. "Let's first try and see what's there."

"Why? It is good there, Hilda. Come."

Hilda now held Kerna back with more force. "Are you kicked in the head by a baby dragon? Who knows what's there?" Maybe she wasn't doing to bad in the careful arena after all.

"It is what we are looking for!" Kerna pulled herself free and ran away, towards the red shimmers.

"Suck an elf. Now what." Hilda looked at Grim in the reddish shine. "Come, we have to rescue your sibling."

-=-=-

Hilda crashed through the remarkably dry undergrowth and saw Kerna disappear into an opening in the mountain. From inside the rock formation the red glow leaked out, setting the area in a very strange glow, as if everything was glowing or burning from the inside. Smaller rocks and boulders that lay everywhere cast long black shadows.

The witch felt the urge to call out Kerna's name, but thought again. That would inform anyone inside that cave that she was out there, and that in turn would take away her element of surprise, one of the few things she still had. A moment she felt entirely helpless without her magic. Then she stomped her foot on the ground.

"I can do this. If that kid can go in, I can too. She hasn't screamed so far."

Hilda set her jaw and walked to the opening. Before actually stepping inside, she inspected what was there. Not much, except that the rock itself seemed to emit the red light. And a few feet into the rock, the corridor that was there, already turned to the left, so there was not much to see.

"Right. Here we go," she told Grimalkin. At that moment she heard a scream. From Kerna. "Crappedy crap!"

Throwing all caution into the wind, Hilda ran into the corridor, finding that it had to be designed by a drunk spider. It kept winding in tight turns. The experience was so bizarre that it felt as if she was only turning around something and not moving forward at all.

"Kerna! Hold on! I'm coming!"

"Hilda! Hurry!"

The voice from Kerna did not sound scared at all, Hilda noticed. That encouraged her to turn and twist even faster, as she was curious now to see what was going on. And where.

"How long does this twisting corridor go on?" Hilda yelled.

"I don't know!" Kerna called back. "I wish it would end, I am getting dizzy - Oh, I'm out now!"

Hilda kept pushing forward, wondering when the stupid slalom she was doing would finally come to an end. The rocky path however did not seem to give up, there was more and more and more.

"Kerna, can you still hear me?"

"I can! What's keeping you?"

"I'll suck an- uhm... I don't know. I just keep seeing more walls and turns!"

"Try saying that it ends and then walk on!"

Hilda stopped her walking. Surely Kerna could not be serious. "Kerna, dear, are you well?"

"I am! Just say it!"

Hilda shook her head. "This stupid tunnel ends now. I'm beyond sick of it, and dizzy as well." Nothing happened. "So much for good intentions and all that." She walked around the next bend and was out of the tunnel.

"Dragon balls, how did you know that?" Hilda asked Kerna who stood there, grinning. "And wipe that grin before I help you. No laughing at the witch."

"I didn't know, really," said Kerna. "I just said it as I was despairing and the tunnel stopped. It worked for you didn't it?"

"True," Hilda nodded as she looked around.

They were in a cave. It wasn't very high, but quite wide, and it looked as if it went on forever from where they were standing. The red glow was everywhere, steady in some places, pulsating brightly in others.

"Funny smell here," Hilda noticed, twitching her nose.

"Do you have any idea what this place is?" Hilda looked around, to discover that the opening to the tunnel had disappeared. "Or how to get out?"

Kerna shook her head. "No."

"So am I right in assuming we're lost?"

Kerna bit her lip. "Yes."

Two cats struggled themselves free of the arms that held them and at their leisure wandered off. Hilda and Kerna stayed put and watched where the two black animals went.

Grim and Obsi seemed to know something, as they both walked along the same line. Until they disappeared.

"Crappedy crap!" two voices exclaimed.

Hilda looked at Kerna. "Fast learner. I like you."

"Where did they go?" Kerna asked, her eyes big.

"I am not sure, but I am going after them. I want my cat back." Hilda started walking to where she had seen the two animals vanish.

"Wait for me!" Kerna said, and rushed after the witch.

Together they walked on and then they saw the cats again.

"Suck an elf," Hilda commented.

Kerna grinned.

The witch turned and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. That was to say: she saw where they had come from. Reaching out, she tried to find some kind of magical wall they might have crossed without noticing, but she sensed nothing.

"This is… strange," Hilda declared, which for her was quite a statement. She picked up Grimalkin. "And you, running off like that."

"Meow," Grimalkin commented, as if that explained everything.

"Uhm, Hilda, is it just me or is it getting warm in here?" Kerna asked, picking up Obsi.

Hilda stood still, sampling the air. "If it is just you then it is also just me. It is getting warm in here. Maybe this is a good moment to see how we can get out of this place."

Together the women started walking towards the wall they were nearest too. That was as good a place to start as any. After careful examination of said wall, they decided that the red glowing rock was as good as any, except for the colour and the heat that came from it.

"I want a cooler place," Kerna said.

The wall seemed to radiate more warmth than it had done before.

"Me too. It is getting too hot here."

Hilda's words had just left her lips when a blue-white light shone from behind them. They turned and stared at a column of blue light that stood in the middle of the large cave.

"That was not there before. I am sure of that." Hilda rubbed her nose. "What is this place? I would almost think there is magic going around here." The idea made her heart jump.

The women walked towards the column, which emitted not only a cold light, but also physical cold.

Hilda and Kerna walked back and forth a bit, but it was impossible to find a spot in the cave where the temperature was pleasant.

"This is insane," Hilda muttered, "I feel like something is making a fool of us." Out of habit she flipped her hand, the way she used to do to make her wand appear. "I want a door, right there, and when we go through it we are back with William and Rebel and that silly captain of hers."

"Uhhh…" was all that Kerna could say as the door appeared where Hilda wanted it.

The thing just stood there, and they could walk around it to admire both sides.

"Suck an elf," Kerna said as she touched the door. "It is made of wood, Hilda. It is real. And I hope you don't mind that I use your words."

"Not at all, kiddo," the witch said, flattered, and she reached for the door knob. "Let's open this thing and see what -"

The door swung open and showed the inside of a cave. In the cave were a few beds with people on them, and in a corner a fire crackled.

"Crappedy crap."

34. Hilda, William and Kerna

From one of the beds, a figure jolted upright. "Hilda!"

The witch stared at the man. "William!"

A black cat jumped from Kerna's arms and bolted to the bed, jumped on it and curled itself into a ball on the blanket. Obsi got a quick pet on the head, after which William almost fell from the bed and ran to his witch. The other sleepers were sleepers no more by then.

"I knew it was you!" the wizard said as he hugged his witch, lifting her off her feet. Grimalkin had anticipated being squashed and had found safer grounds, being the same bed as Obsidian had resorted to.

"I know!" Hilda beamed as she could not help showing her affection and relief to her wizard.

Rebel and Maurizio stared at what was going on and did not understand.

Kerna stood in the door with a big grin on her face. She was looking at her feet, where a black animal had settled down. It was a rather awkward animal, with eight legs, a round head with two big red eyes in it. It was covered with something that looked like a mix of feathers, fur and something the defied any comparison.

As Kerna picked it up, two long ears lined with a soft pink fur moved up and turned as if they wanted to catch every sound. "Where did you come from?" she asked the animal. It stared at her and made a low growling sound

"And what is it?" Hilda asked, as William had released most of her.

"It is a stapu," Kerna said, as if that explained everything. Upon the lack of recognition on all other faces, she explained that stapus were something like the cats that Hilda and William owned.

"Oh. I see. You are wrong though, we don't own them. They just chose to be with us for some reason," Hilda explained. "Cats are like that."

"What happened to you two?" Maurizio asked as he had gotten out of bed. "We tried to find you and were really worried."

Kerna and Hilda were sat down on chairs and William made tea while the two told about the strange things they had experienced.

"And so we came through that doo-" Hilda looked at the rocky wall from where the door had vanished.

"Crappedy crap," Kerna said, "where did it go?"

Rebel grinned as she looked at Kerna. "Has Hilda beaten you up over that yet?"

"No need for that, Rebel," said the witch, as chocolate cakes appeared on the table. "She's free to use that." The witch grinned at Kerna.

William laughed also. "Really."

That made the captain and his lover curious.

Hilda pointed at Kerna, who still had her stapu in her lap. "You are not going to believe this, but she is the witch who is not a witch."

"What?!"

Hilda grinned. "We were walking and lost our way. Then Kerna saw some light and when we found it, we came into a large cave with red-glowing walls."

"And ceiling," Kerna added.

"And ceiling. Very weird place." Hilda nodded. "She discovered that it reacted to what we thought or wanted, in some way. That was even weirder. And then I made this door appear, that we came in through. Trust me, it was quite unnerving to find that I could do magic without having my magic. And that is what I thought. I thought that it would be cool to have my magic back, and that Kerna would be my magical sister."

"And that is what happened." Kerna giggled, something no one had ever heard her do. "I just don't know what to do now."

The three others at the table looked at the two witches. Even William was astounded by all this, but he was glad he now knew why he suddenly sensed the bond with Hilda again.

"We'll give you some training," Hilda tried to reassure Kerna. "But perhaps first we should get some sleep. I am sure it is quite late by now."

Maurizio chuckled: "Quite early, rather, as the sky outside is already getting lighter."

"I don't care what the sky does. I have not slept, so I am going to do that now," Hilda declared, "and my wizard comes with me."

"I don't feel sleepy at all," Kerna said as she kept petting her stapu. "I'll go and sit outside for a while. Everything looks and feels so different now."

"Good, but no trying to fly off on your own," Hilda warned the new witch as she took William's hand. "We start lessons after sleep."

-=-=-

Several hours later, the entire group was having breakfast. Hilda had woken up Kerna, who had nodded off whilst sitting outside.

"Scenery was not fascinating enough, was it?" the experienced witch grinned as she showed Kerna how to quickly warm herself using magic. It surprised her how quickly Kerna picked up the trick.

"You must be a natural," Hilda said. "And perhaps that is a good thing. A witch from these parts should know better how to make things work again, and how to deal with these nincompoops in Pyramid City."

After explaining to Kerna what nincompoops were, Hilda and William took a few hours to train Kerna. That was all she needed. William had crafted three brooms from a fallen-down tree. Kerna and Hilda were flying around within minutes. Hilda cheered and whooped as she was whole again, and Kerna screamed as she made her broom go crazy and out of control. William was on the ground to take over from her when needed, though, something smart that Hilda had thought of.

"She's a natural," Hilda repeated for the hundredth or so time, when the lessons were over.

Kerna was almost bouncing around for joy, her stapu staring at the woman it apparently was bound to.

"I am going to call you Inaktiko Zuru Matoya," the fresh witch told her pet.

"That's quite a name," Rebel remarked, "does it mean something?"

"Yes, it means 'animal without a special name'."

"Uhhuh." Rebel glanced at Maurizio who shrugged.

"For short I'll name it Dwey," Kerna decided.

"But there is no Dwey in the Inak-whatever no name you just said," Rebel tried again.

"I know. And what about that?"

Hilda and William screamed with laughter. Witches clearly were the same everywhere. Or perhaps, William thought, it was because Kerna had been exposed to Hilda when they retrieved their magic.

"I am curious," Maurizio said, leaning on the table and taking in Kerna. "Now we've established that you are the witch for this prophecy, and not Hilda, what are you going to do about this place?"

Kerna looked at the man in the red coat. "I don't know."

"I think we'll all be able to help a bit, since we're here," Hilda said, patting Kerna on the arm. "No to worry, Kerna. When we're done, you won't recognise the place."

Rebel grinned. "I like that prospect. It's too long ago I could wield some serious energy, so the sooner the better. Where do we start?"

Kerna delivered the same response: "I don't know." She looked at the more experienced witch. "Maybe somewhere a mistake is made. I don't feel up to this task, Hilda."

"I don't believe in that, Kerna. Come, let's take a walk and think this over. Or perhaps we'll take a flight and think this over." Hilda got to her feet. "William, you stay here?"

"Sure, you go and have fun. And be careful." The wizard smiled as he sensed a lot of emotion flow to him from Hilda. It was a wonderful feeling, something he, and Hilda too, had missed for far too long.

"I know you are watching out for me, wizard," the witch grinned, and then she grabbed Kerna by the sleeve. "Leave your what's its name here for now."

The what's its name landed on the bed next to the two cats and the witches left the cave.

"Will they be well?" Maurizio asked.

"Hilda's with her," William said.

"That's why I worry," the captain said.

"Trust me, Maurizio. There's nothing to worry about. Hilda can save herself just fine. And Kerna is fine in her care. They'll be safe."

A loud crashing sound accompanied by a tremor made three people, two cats and one what's its name jump up and run outside.

"Safe, you said?" Maurizio asked as they stared.

Hilda flew high over the trees on one of the brooms, while Kerna still stood on the ground, with a huge rock hovering over her.

"No. You asked 'well', not 'safe'," William countered. "Hilda, what are you doing?"

"Hey, it's nothing to do with me, wizard. She wanted to play."

Kerna looked at William. "I just wanted to know if I could take a piece out of this rock, William."

Rebel stared at the small woman in the black clothes. "That's freaky."

"I bet you can do that too," Maurizio said as he put an arm around Rebel's waist.

"Oh, sure, but I'm born with that. She went from just someone to... her. And that's freaky."

Kerna seemed satisfied with the rock and made it float back to the mountain it had come from. Then she hopped on the broom she was holding. "We won't be too long. I think."

William waved as she shot up to Hilda. He understood that Kerna was still very insecure about her new abilities, regardless how amazing the tricks were she could already perform. As he thought that, he sensed how Hilda promised she would take good care of Kerna. As he smiled, the two brooms flew off.

-=-=-

"I can see why you are a bit overwhelmed, Kerna," Hilda said. "Having the burden to do something about this planet back in shape is quite something."

"A bit overwhelmed does not exactly cover how I feel, Hilda."

"I understand, but let's try to take this one spell at the time. Do you have any idea how this prophecy is supposed to end? What does it mean by 'making right what is wrong'?"

"If I knew that, I'd be a lot happier," Kerna said, frowning as she looked at the older and more experienced witch. "I assume you never had something like this happen to you, right?"

"Never. And I don't envy you, but since we're here, we're going to do what we can to help you. Let's first get some idea of what we're up against."

Whatever power listened in on the conversation between the two witches, it made sure they did not have to wait too long for one of these ideas. Something huge and triangular, covered in black and brown stripes and soaring high above the two, changed its course as it noticed the two small unidentified flying objects. Soundlessly it sailed downward.

"Do you also have the feeling someone's watching us?" Kerna asked, out of the blue as she looked around.

"Yes. Since a few moments. You're becoming good, Kerna." Hilda looked around as well, but her experience in flying made her look down as well. And up.

"Crappedy crap, what's that?!"

Kerna looked up and saw the huge triangle come down towards them. Without a word the witches split up and dropped away from the path of the huge animal. In a wide circle, Hilda flew around it and joined Kerna.

"I never saw that beast before," the local witch said. "I never even heard of something like that."

"I see. That limits our options to do something about it. Maybe it is trying to be friendly in its own way." Hilda whipped up her wand. "This feels so good."

The large animal had great speed but little agility, so the two witches had plenty of time to fly around it and stay out of its reach. Patience wasn't one of its virtues, it seemed. After a few more serious attempts to capture at least one of the witches, it opened a small beak, let out a shrill disappointed shriek and heavily winged its way out of there.

Hilda watched it go, and then looked at her wand. "Oh well," she said as she made it disappear. "Better luck next time."

35. The next step

The witches returned to the cave and were in dire need of something calming. William supplied that, as the two told what they had seen.

"Such a strange beast, William, good thing it was a lot slower than a Nobbleback. There's so much we don't know about this place," Hilda said.

Kerna, her glass in hand, nodded. "For example we still don't know what we are supposed to do about the prophecy."

Everyone pondered that problem for a while.

"Do you still have that tablet book thing somewhere?" Maurizio asked then.

William made the tablet appear from one of his pockets. "We do. Why?"

"Perhaps, now Kerna's a witch as well, it may be able to tell us some more," Maurizio said. There was more hope than certainty in his voice.

"Any guess is as good as the next one," William shrugged, putting the tablet on the table after switching it on.

Kerna pulled the tablet-book towards her and looked at it. She fumbled a bit with the buttons and the images on the screen changed a few times, but nothing seemed to make much sense to her.

Dwey, the stapu, crawled from Kerna's lap onto the table and quickly licked all over the display.

"Dwey, don't!" Kerna lifted the animal from the table. "Oh, no, look what happened!"

The tablet had switched itself off. Kerna pushed the buttons, but the tablet was off and remained off.

"Your beast broke it," Hilda nodded as she said it. "Silly books like that and stapu drool were not made for each other, apparently."

Kerna picked up the tablet and shook it. "Dead. Technology is not helping us anymore," she said as she put it back.

"True. But sitting here and doing nothing is not going to help us any further either," Hilda commented.

Silence made a serious attempt to seize control of the situation.

The two witches looked at each other. Then a mutual grin broke free on their faces.

"Should we start to worry now?" Maurizio carefully asked, preparing to get up.

William set a grin free as well, as he picked up from Hilda what she and Kerna were thinking of. "That's it!"

"What's what?" Rebel and Maurizio demanded to know.

"That!" the wizard said, pointing at the broken tablet. "Well, sort of," he added, confusing the two people even more.

"Don't you see?" Hilda asked. "It's what's been happening here all the time! In Pyramid City the people have been relying on technology that is breaking down around them. It is not helping them anymore, yet they have no other option at hand. Without it they're lost."

"And the people in the village below aren't making any progress in their life. They just sit there and wait for the witch to come," Kerna added.

"Yes, right, but these villagers down there built that impressive set of stones to guide us here," Rebel argued, "that's something impressive."

"They did not build it," William pitched in. "Their forefathers did. These folks there don't have a clue. You saw how they were pushing their carts by hand, right? That's not a particular sign of progress."

The captain and his reluctant lover now nodded. "Right... so what we have to achieve is..."

"...to make the technology addicts kick their habit..."

"...and make the witch-waiters move!"

"Yup. Because the witch is in," Hilda concluded. "And the witch thinks that it is time for these folks to make this planet a nice one again, with trees everywhere instead of the grey stuff."

"She does?" Kerna asked.

"Yes, she does."

"Oh. It does sound good. So how do we start with that?" Kerna was curious.

"I thought that was where you would take over the witchy train of thoughts," Hilda frowned.

"And I thought this was a good start," Kerna retaliated. She grinned.

Hilda grinned also.

The others relaxed.

"So what do you think?" Hilda promptly slammed down the relaxation. "Any bright ideas?"

"I think that the first thing to do is inform this world that Hilda is not the witch. That it's Kerna." Rebel looked around, hoping for the others to agree.

"Not good thinking," William said. "As long as they all think that we're still looking, we have the advantage to make better plans."

"We are still looking, wizard," Hilda reminded him.

"Trivial circumstance," the wizard said. "I suggest we split up teams. One goes to the village nearby and ask them what they plan to do now the witch has been found. And the others go to Pyramid City, tell them the witch has been found, and ask the same thing."

Hilda's eyes sparkled. "And then we come back, bringing the respective leaders, and put them in a cage to fight it out, right?"

Kerna's eyes became large. Rebel snorted with laughter, while Maurizio frowned.

"Creative, we'll save that for when we can't work things out a simpler way," William said.

Hilda scowled. "That option is pretty simple, wizard."

"That is not how we do this here!" Kerna objected then. "In case of a dispute like this, an independent referee should locate neutral ground where the two sides can meet. There both sides declare their willingness to be truthful and state their point of view."

"And then?"

"I don't know. It never got to that, but such is the rule here."

"We should instate a new rule here then," said Hilda. "That rule says that the witch is right."

Kerna stared at Hilda. "That is quite presumptuous, Hilda."

"No. It's the witch's attitude," William explained. "It's hard to explain, but most of the time it works."

"What do you mean 'most of the time'?" Hilda demanded to know, although she secretly grinned about his words.

William just looked at her, with a visible grin. "You are the one that needs to ask. Now really."

They then decided on the two team approach. Kerna, Rebel and William would visit the village, Hilda and Maurizio would face the people in the pyramids. Hilda and William would keep in touch through their link. It was a good way to alert each other in case of an emergency.

-=-=-

The next morning William and Hilda crafted a few more brooms so everyone could be comfortable. Rebel would fly with William, as the village was not far away.

"Seeing someone fly without a broom might be unnerving to them," Rebel said.

Maurizio would fly with Hilda. Grim would have to accept that.

Kerna was pleased to see that Dwey felt as comfortable on her broom as the two cats of the other magicals were.

"Take care, wizard," Hilda said as she hovered on her broom.

"You too, witch," the wizard replied. He watched Hilda fly off, Maurizio sitting behind her. "Come, we have things to do," he then said, and made his broom lift off.

Kerna followed the wizard and Rebel closely, enjoying the freedom of the flight.

They reached the village and touched down on the market square. Their appearance stirred up quite a commotion.

The first person that stopped to look at them, a young man, was told that the three were looking for Tarkan. "And if there are other influential people here, it would be nice if they can join us as well."

The young man recognised the man in the dark clothes and his companions. "I will go and tell Tarkan that you are here. He may not feel too friendly towards you, after you left him hanging in the air for so long."

"It's a chance we'll take," William said with a wink to Kerna and Rebel.

-=-=-

During that, Hilda and Maurizio sped through Lycadean airspace at a tremendous speed.

"Hilda, are you sure this speed is safe?" Maurizio asked.

"Sure. Safest way to travel of all options," the witch said. "Besides, I don't want to spend days getting there. This way we're making good time. William's already in the village."

"Do you know why he did not go to the Pyramid folks?" the captain wanted to know.

"I can be more convincing when needed," Hilda grinned.

-=-=-

In the village, William, Rebel and Kerna made themselves comfortable on a few chairs they made appear, much to the interest and some consternation of the villagers passing by or standing to see what was going on.

It took quite a while before the self-appointed messenger returned, with the words: "Tarkan says that you can, uhm, well, I think he means that he does not want to see you."

William could imagine a few varieties on the words of Tarkan, and none of them would be either healthy, promote longevity or get them any way to talk to the man.

"We'll give it some time," he said, making a table appear, with tea and coffee for the taking. "Hilda's not there yet, so we don't need to hurry."

A few of the bystanders tried to come closer without being obvious about it. That attempt failed miserably, because Kerna and William noticed them promptly.

"Come and sit if you want," William said, popping up some more seats. "Coffee? Tea?"

Having passed the point of no return, the three people sat down with the wizard and his friends. They introduced themselves as Dosur, Wikelle and Josna. Soon they were engaged in a friendly chat with William and the ladies. Then Sodor and Kyru, the villagers who had found the travelling group, showed up and joined in.

Kerna had the honour to explain what they had thought of. The five sitting with them agreed that this sounded like a viable and good plan.

"That way both ends can do their saying," Dosur nodded, stroking his beard.

"Indeed, and problems can be heard early and dealt with." Kyru seemed pleased with this all as well.

William just nodded. This was a good attitude.

36. Pyramid City

Pyramid City came into view. It was obvious that nobody expected Hilda and her friends back, because there was no welcoming committee. The area around the pyramids was calm. Too calm almost. Some of the buildings looked more run down than before. Sheets of material lay on the ground, parts of the internal structure were exposed to the outside world in a way they were not supposed to be.

"Things do not look good here," Maurizio commented as Hilda swooped over the conglomerate of structures.

"You got that right. Let's see where we can go inside."

They found the pyramid that they had lived in for a while, before their great escape. The door they had used to go in and out with Kerna, when things still looked amiable, was easy to spot.

"I am curious how soon we will be asked what we want," said Hilda as she landed the broom. She popped up her wand, cast some magic, and the door opened. The two stepped inside and waited.

They waited a bit longer.

"We've been waiting for quite a while now, haven't we?" Maurizio remarked as his feet started to feel uncomfortable. Nobody had shown up yet, which was amazing since the last time there had been warning systems everywhere, and soldiers in abundance.

Hilda nodded. "Come, if they don't want to find us, we'll have to find them."

The journey through the pyramid proved much more complicated without Kerna to guide them, but they found a group of blue-haired people in silver clothing eventually.

"Hey you, where's Davdruw?" Hilda asked them in her typical diplomatic way.

The people recognised the witch. "He is in his chambers, honoured witch."

"Good. I need a volunteer to take me there. You really should do something about this place, a person gets lost here!"

None of the people made a voluntary move, so Hilda appointed one of them. The man in question did not look very happy but obliged.

"What's happened here?" Hilda asked him.

"There were some… problems," the man reluctantly decided to share with them.

"Problems," Maurizio repeated. "That sounds as if you put it mildly."

The appointed volunteer shrouded himself in silence, which spoke volumes.

They reached the corridor where Hilda had been before. The first time, she recalled, it had been in a floating chair, while she had been helpless, without magic. The memory made her shiver.

"Can I go now?" the guide asked. As the witch did not reply immediately he took that silence as his leave and disappeared into one of the many corridors.

Hilda looked at the large white door for a moment. "Let's pay this man a visit."

The wand did its work and the door opened. Obviously Davdruw did not want visitors; the door complained loudly as it was forced through its locking mechanism. It was not witch-proof.

Hilda walked into the large colourful room, the captain on her heels. "Davdruw! I'm back!" She made it sound as if he should be happy about that.

"Crappedy crap," the witch then said. The large room was not as magnificent as it had been before. All kinds of ornaments had fallen from the walls, the floor was littered with pieces of ceiling and many pieces of furniture had acted as landing platforms for ceiling parts as well. They showed proof of that.

Davdruw, the tall man, sat in his chair, dust all over him. He rested his head in his hands and looked up slowly as Hilda and Maurizio approached him.

"What happened here?" Hilda asked.

"Not just here," Davdruw said, almost toneless. "Many places."

"And you have no idea why, right?"

"Oh. I know. We all know. We just don't know how to fix it."

"Let me guess," Maurizio added to the conversation. "Your computers are failing and things are falling apart now."

Davdruw looked at the man. "The machines, yes, they are failing. But the reason for that is worrying."

"Which is?" Hilda had no desire to wait for the man to speak on.

"The High Council has been fighting. Some of them started destroying the machines in the Pallazi."

"Fighting among themselves?" Hilda could hardly believe that, but Davdruw nodded.

"We did not know that some of the machines keep the buildings in shape. Well, we did, but we hoped these had not been broken."

"Well, better to have some loose sheeting fall down than your weather things going crazy, I guess," the witch pointed out. "So, as to why we're here-"

"You endangered our safety!" Davdruw snapped, interrupting Hilda as he got off his chair. "You will be punished for that!"

"Oh. Really. Gosh, colour me impressed. We're here to save your whiny asses and you want to punish me? Remember the thing about the witch who's here to make things right?"

Davdruw looked down at Hilda. "And do you wish me to elaborate, honoured witch, on the state of our society that now is around us? Your presence here has destroyed so much already!"

Hilda was still not impressed. "Sometimes you have to tear down the old mess before you can build something new. Like removing rotten apples from a basket."

The ceiling made an ominous sound. The witch looked up and used her magic to stabilise a few spots that threatened to drop in for a surprise visit.

"Although in this case," she continued, "it is good to throw out the entire basket and weave a new one. Well, make someone else weave a new one. I hate weaving just as much as Latin."

Davdruw looked at the witch, his gaze puzzled. "What is Latin?"

"Horrible," Hilda assured him, "trust me. Now listen, we have worked out this idea to bring a group of people from here and a group of people from the others to a place where we can talk about the future of your planet."

"Others?" Davdruw was losing track.

"Yes, the old ones, remember? The ones that walked out when your ancestors started to play with their machines so much?"

"They found you?" The tall man's eyes suddenly were filled with anger. "They infested your brain with their lies and false truths?"

"Well, we went looking for them. And nobody infested anything," Maurizio pitched in, trying to feel part of the conversation.

Before Davdruw could respond to the captain, Hilda said: "We're not here to see who is right and wrong. That's why we have this gathering planned. So you find a few sensible people and come with us. And I would prefer some not to be from your High Council. They are nice, but many are too cracked up."

"You are not telling me what to do." Davdruw folded his arms over his chest. "You are the witch who is not a witch. I am the spiritual leader. People will listen to me."

"Yes, and die laughing, I'm sure," Hilda snorted. "And I have another surprise for you. I'm just the witch. Not the not-a-witch. We found her as well."

Davdruw turned his back to the witch.

"Oh. I see. You don't believe it." Hilda shrugged and looked at Maurizio. "I think we can write him off as someone to take part in the gathering as well."

Maurizio nodded. He had written Davdruw off long ago already.

The witch kept an eye on Davdruw. She remembered his fondness of twiddling with things on his sleeves to invoke all kinds of people that usually had nothing good for her on their minds. His sleeve moved...

"Levitas," she muttered, flipping up her wand to make some more impression.

Davdruw lifted off. The effect was sublime. He yelped and flapped his arms, which was good. That kept his busy fingers away from the twiddly bits.

"I thought that was wingardium leviosa?" Maurizio asked, some surprise evident on his face.

"What?" Hilda scowled at him for a moment. Then she made the floating spiritual leader rotate so she could see his face.

"Right. I guess I have your attention now. First, stop treating me like a joke, Davdruw. This is no laughing matter."

The floating man's face silently agreed with her, while his shock only slowly wore off.

"I need a group of five or six people that come with me. Sensible people. We're going to make some changes around here."

Davdruw had regained control over his vocal abilities. "Not if I can help it!"

-=-=-

Funny enough, that was almost the same thing Tarkan told William after hearing the plan. The village leader had come out of hiding and now was trying to convince William, Kerna and Rebel that they had to leave.

"I doubt you have a big say in this all," William told Tarkan. "You've been ruling this place for a long time without going somewhere. You were just waiting for the witch. But now the witch has come, so what's next?"

"She will make right what's wrong of course," Tarkan said, his hands flying. "Everything that's wrong."

"And what's wrong according to you?"

The village leader stared at William, searching for an answer to that question. The answer refused to be found.

Tarkan threw his arms up again. "This is an outrage. I knew I should not have come to you." He turned and marched off. Then he turned. "Why am I leaving? You have to leave!"

Kerna stood and looked at the man. "We are not leaving. I am here and I am going to finish what I came here for."

Tarkan stared at her. "You?" He barked a laugh. "What do you think you can do, girl?"

The 'girl' put her pet in her seat and reached out. The broom flew to her hand.

"The wizard is helping you?" Tarkan sneered.

"This is nothing with the wizard," Kerna said, as she made the broom hover. "This is about me. Because I am the witch who is not a witch."

"That proves nothing," Tarkan pointed at the floating utensil. "Anyone can-" At that point he seemed to rethink what he was about to say.

Kerna shrugged and returned to her seat. Dwey seemed pleased enough with that. "I give up on him," she informed William and Rebel. "We should just go with the sensible ones."

William and Rebel agreed. The three looked at the villagers sitting with them.

-=-=-

"I don't have time for this," the witch told Davdruw. "You are not helping to save things, so we'll recruit a handful of people and work things out with them."

She turned and started walking. "Coming?" she asked Maurizio who was still watching the floating spiritual leader.

"Yes, of course."

The two left Davdruw's rooms, leaving him hanging in the air as he yelled out the horrible things that would happen to Hilda.

37. A Pallazi in trouble

"I think he needs to understand that he is not the one to boss a witch around," Hilda shared with Maurizio as they were in the corridor again.

"If you leave him hanging there, he's bound to understand," the captain grinned.

"Sure that's enough? Okay, then. Come, let's find that Pallazi place and see what mess these Council people made of it. I have some hopes there are a few there that are still sensible. They would be good for the meeting."

A blue-haired, silver-clad man walked by.

"Hey, you."

"Do you mean me?" the man asked, looking at the grey-haired woman in black.

"Yes, do you see another you?" Hilda asked, changing the man's face to a puzzle without magic. "We need to get to the Pallazi, can you take us there?"

"Only Davdruw takes people there," the man carefully replied. After all, they were in front of Davdruw's chambers.

"That's not what I asked. And Davdruw's not going anywhere for a while, so if you know where it is, you are allowed to take us there. Davdruw is not going to mind."

The man peered at the closed door. "Are you certain?"

"Do I look like I am in doubt?"

The man could not deny that Hilda looked her ever-confident self. "In that case yes, honoured witch. I know the way to the Pallazi. I will take you there."

"Good boy."

The man in silver seemed to know the way very well. Without passing through the normal corridors, he took them to the small passage that led to the door of the control room. The Pallazi.

"Do you want me to wait here for you?" he asked.

"No, we'll be fine. Thank you for taking us here. This place is a maze."

"It's really not that bad," the man smiled. "Enjoy your day, honoured witch." He nodded, turned and walked off.

"Right. Let's see the damage," the witch then said to the captain.

They walked to the door, did not knock and opened it.

Inside the room, the situation was not as bad as Davdruw had attempted to describe it. It was worse.

Two of the walls that had been lined with machines and consoles before, were now in an indescribably state of disarray and parts. The parts consisted for fifty percent of ceiling and wall, and the other fifty percent had been machinery and consoles.

There were obviously two camps in the room. One group huddled in a corner, the other sat in front of the remaining machines. Hilda recognised Katinki in the second group. The woman had armed herself with a piece of wood, the people with her also had some kind of weapon with them. None of the groups said something.

As Hilda and Maurizio entered, all eyes turned to them in silence.

"Suck an elf. What happened here?"

Many voices at the same time started explaining the state of the room.

Hilda popped up her wand and mumbled something. The mouths were still moving but the jumble of sounds had gone. "Much better. Now, I will let you talk again and then I will point at someone who will do the talking. One at the time, did I make myself clear?"

Heads nodded.

After a new spell, sighs of relief echoed through the chamber.

"So. First the version of you." Hilda pointed at Katinki, who had always struck her as one of the sanest of the bunch.

The woman took to her feet, clutching the wood. She glanced at the group in the corner before she started talking.

"They started to take the machines apart. They said that since you are here, nothing can go wrong." Katinki's eyes went over the devastation. "Well, we're lucky that most of the buildings are still standing, I think."

Maurizio had walked over to one of the machines that still looked undamaged. Then he looked at a ruined one. "Not a professional job," he commented.

"Right," Hilda nodded. "So what do you have to say to your defence?" She pointed at a man in the corner.

He made no attempt to move, instead from his position he said: "It's the prophecy. You come and things will be right again. That way we don't need the machines anymore, so we started disassembling them."

"And killed dozens, you idiot!" Katinki snapped at the man.

Hilda snipped her fingers and the two fighting voices fell silent. Hearing that so many people had died in this bout of insanity shocked her.

"Easy. First, let me tell you that this prophecy is a stupid thing that is interpreted in too many ways. So far we heard two versions. Second, I am not the witch you are waiting for. We have her, she's at the other place with the offspring of the old ones. Your runaway ancestors."

The witch looked at the two silenced people. "You're going to be good again, right?"

Frantic nodding happened and vocal cords were released.

"I think you are both right and both wrong," the witch said as she made a chair appear and sat down. "You're going to be relieved of your - uhm - presence here." Hilda refused to call it their 'work', as they still had no clue what they had been doing here. "I want to take some of you to a place where we're going to talk about this place. I need a few people with sense."

No one spoke up. The fear of being silenced was enough to make the people behave.

"Four or five should do," Hilda continued. She pointed at Katinki. "You are one of them."

As Katinki stared at Hilda, almost shocked, the witch also pointed at the man who had spoken up for the opposite faction. "You are one also. You stood up well, so you can be, what William calls, the Devil's Advocate."

Hilda selected a few more people and ordered them to go and clean themselves up. "You will meet a handful others, so better look smart. We're going to find one of these flying machines that can take you there."

She held back Katinki. "I need a word with you."

She turned to the other people. "And you... clean up the mess here. No more smashing things unless you have a serious desire to find yourself in the ranks of the casualties." Hilda did not mean to hurt anyone, but somehow the people seemed to need this promise. And it sounded good.

The witch looked at Katinki. "You can put away your clobber device now. It's going to be fine, trust me."

Katinki looked at the piece of wood and then almost reluctantly dropped it on the floor.

"Good. I hope you can do two things for me."

"Which are?" Katinki looked surprised.

"First, I need someone who can arrange one of those flying machines for us, and can fly it. And when you cleaned yourself up, can you meet us at Davdruw's room?"

Katinki frowned. "I am not sure if I know someone like that. I usually am here as I am part of the High Council."

"You were," Hilda grinned, "and you are going to be happy about that. Know what: you go clean up and meet us at Davdruw's. We'll take care of the fly-thing."

Katinki nodded. Carefully she reached out to Grimalkin, who rested on Hilda's shoulder, and was allowed to stroke the cat's head. "I will go now."

Maurizio had watched the remaining people as they started taking away the mess that had accumulated against the wall, thanks to their combined efforts. "I think they'll obey, Hilda," he said.

"If not, they'll get a roof on their head, that's all I can say," the witch said, loud enough for all to enjoy. "Come, we have a fly-thing to arrange and a spiritual leader to liberate."

-=-=-

When they reached Davdruw's chambers, they had already found someone to arrange a shuttle. The man they had 'appointed' had promised that it would be ready in time. Maurizio had convinced Hilda that he would remember the name of the place where the shuttle would be waiting.

Davdruw was still where Hilda had left him, hanging in the air. The man looked exhausted. He clearly had done all he could (which was little) to get away from his undignified position. And failed. When Hilda and the captain came in, he looked up, defeat all over his face.

"Hello there," said the witch, bringing the man back to his feet. "I am sure you are tired of hanging around. I'd like to invite you to come along with us."

Davdruw heavily sat down. "To where?" Then he craned his neck, as Katinki came in. "And why is she here? And why the change of mind?"

"She is here because I asked her, good man." Hilda chuckled at Davdruw's nervous reaction as she called him that. "We're going to a place where we will decide on a new council for the planet and stuff like that. And Katinki is one of the people that goes with us. I want you to see her, so you know she is part of this thing. No trying to put her down or you'll be up hanging again."

"You still have that idea?" Davdruw sounded defensive. "I feel that this is not right."

"I don't care," Hilda said in her familiar way. "You're either coming or we take you."

Resolutely Davdruw folded his arms and remained silent, a stubborn look on his face.

Hilda thought back to the way she had been carted into this place, on a flying chair, held by invisible restraints, as she saw the man sit there.

"Have it your way," the witch shrugged. The wand appeared and flicked. The chair rose up while magic kept the large man in place, unable to move or complain.

Katinki stared at the situation of the man everyone had deemed invincible.

Maurizio just grinned and told Katinki the place where they were expected to board the shuttle.

-=-=-

William smiled. His witch was clearly having fun, he sensed through the bond, and he was aware that they would be on their way soon.

"It's time to move to the place where we will see about this new council," he said as he got up. "Hilda gathered some folks and they're on their way soon."

"And where would this place be?" Kyru asked.

"Close to the river, where that cave is you took us to," William decided on the spot. "Nice place, and plenty of space."

"But that is hours of walking away from here," a woman called Josna said.

"No problem. We're all walking. Hilda and the others will be on their way for a while so we don't have to rush."

"Oh. I thought..." Josna looked a bit disappointed.

William laughed. "You thought we were going to fly."

Josna nodded. "But if you say we have to walk, we will walk."

Kerna grinned and tugged William's sleeve. As he bent over, she whispered: "I can fly her to the river and then come back. She'll have to wait for us there, but she'll have flown."

"Great idea," William agreed. "We'll start the walk, and you'll catch up with us then."

Josna looked a bit uncertain as Kerna invited her to come along.

Kerna grabbed Dwey with one hand, held out the other and summoned her broom. With the broom hovering, she sat on it, plopped her familiar on the bristle end and showed Josna how to sit in front of her.

"Hold on," was all the warning Josna got and they lifted off, speeding away over the trees. Josna's screams became faint quickly.

"More volunteers?" William asked, looking around. Nobody was in a hurry to scream like Josna had done, so they packed up their courage and started the hike to where the meeting was going to take place.

-=-=-

"But how do you know where we're going?" the pilot asked Hilda as the group boarded the shuttle.

"That's easy. I just go to where my wizard is. And I will be flying my broom, you simply have to follow me."

Hilda looked at the man. "And no funnies please. We're going far away and you just come along. If you don't, I'll haul you there."

The pilot frowned for a moment. Then he nodded. "I'll follow you."

38. Meeting on Lycadea

William laughed as he heard his witch talk about how she had gathered the people from Pyramid City. Especially the antics around Davdruw, who was sitting in his floating chair with a very displeased face, amused him.

"And the pilot of that noise-box was good," Hilda praised the person. "He did not believe I could fly a broom, but he's changed his mind."

"I'm glad you are back here, Hilda," William said, pulling his witch in a hug that obscured her from view for a while.

"You are just sentimental," Hilda grinned, but the blue sparkles in her eyes told the truth. "Now let's get this talking thing started. I want to see some action!"

Together with Kerna, the magicals had prepared seats and tables, and they had also supplied eats and drinks. As William had expected, the two sides wanted to sit opposite each other, but the magicals, aided by Maurizio and Rebel, had prevented that. They had made a good mix of the people.

Davdruw had been moved to sit with the group. His chair was on the ground, his arms were free and his mouth was too. William and Hilda sat at either side of him, so he knew he had to be careful.

Kerna stood at the head of the long table, scratching Dwey's head. The animal lay on the table in front of her and let her do what she did.

"Most of you know why we're here. We're going to see if we can decide on the future of our people. We've been living here apart from each other long enough, and it's time to put an end to that. The people in the pyramids are losing control of the place. Since long. The people who live in the nearby village have not moved ahead. Since long. I am sure that with a combined effort we can make this planet as nice again as it was before. Before most of it was covered with concrete and stone."

The new witch looked into every pair of eyes that were focussed on her.

"The honoured Witch and Wizard have agreed to help us with that."

Some voices mumbled semi-agreeing things.

"Provided of course we can get to some kind of agreement on how we want to shape this," Kerna added.

"And if you can do that snappy, that would be even better," Hilda informed the selected people.

One of the men raised a hand and asked to speak. "Is it a good thing that the ten or so of us decide on the future of the entire planet?"

In the momentary silence that fell, Maurizio got up for a moment. "Would you rather have that a group of let's say fourteen million people trying to do that? In that case we are out of here."

The man who had asked the question considered that and then nodded in silent agreement.

"Why did you choose us?" Kyru asked.

"You're normal people. We hope you have normal ideas," said Hilda. "Not the blown up kind that cover the planet in something stupid."

Talking started, and talking turned into heated discussions. Normal ideas were brought up, then came the silly ones, and after that the sensible ideas surfaced.

Plans were made to remove as much of the concrete as possible, plant new forests in places, and several people already were thinking about a new kind of housing. Until that was figured out, the wooden houses of the villages looked like the best way to keep people sheltered from the weather once that turned bad.

William and Rebel volunteered for the concrete removal. William suggested that Hilda and Kerna would visit other settlements on the planet, telling about the witch's arrival and the way things would be done from now on.

"But what if there are people who do not want to change?" Kerna asked.

"Let them be the way they are," was the general consensus. "Once their homes start falling apart, they will at least know there is an alternative, and then they can come to see how it's done here."

That of course created the implicit obligation to make this new approach work, but with the people gathered, there was plenty of fire and zeal.

"I now propose that the people from Pyramid City go to the village nearby, to inform everyone of what's decided here," Hilda said. "Kerna and William will go with them. Maurizio and I will take the ones from the village to Pyramid City and do the same. That should be a good way to convince them."

"If they let themselves be convinced," Davdruw said, speaking for the first time since the meeting started.

"They have the same opportunity as all the others," Hilda replied. "Take it, or leave it and join when their home falls on their heads. We're not going to force anyone to do anything."

Katinki spoke up. "Maybe it is best if we all go together, to the two places. That way everyone can see that we are of one mind. And that they have nothing to fear of the people from the other houses."

Hilda was pleased with the fact that the people from Pyramid City were not holding back in voicing their opinions with their former spiritual leader present.

Sodor, the man from the nearby village, clapped his hands. "I like that idea."

More and more people fell in with him, and hence the plan was made.

Hilda had the feeling that the people from the village would be easiest to deal with first, so she decided that the group would first go there. William and Kerna agreed.

"So how do we get them there? Some of them are not used to walking so far," William grinned, referring to the people from Pyramid City.

Rebel looked at the group. "Maybe I can help with that. If we load everyone in the shuttle and get that to hover over the village, I can levitate them down in groups of four or so. Quite a nice entrée, I think."

"Woman, I like you!" Hilda grinned. "Come on folks, everyone to the shuttle."

"We're flying, aren't we?" the new witch of the group asked Hilda.

"Of course!" Hilda exclaimed. "Witches have their own transport. As do wizards."

"Crappedy crap!" Kerna showed her happiness.

Maurizio and Rebel laughed. They would accompany the new council to the shuttle.

The magicals and their pets retrieved their brooms and waited for the shuttle to lift off. The strange formation then set course for the village.

Hilda and William had fun seeing how Rebel used her strange powers to drop the people to the square. They seemed to plummet to the ground, only to stop a few feet before crashing into it and then landed gently on their feet. The appearing shuttle over the village had brought out almost everyone, including Tarkan. Every person stood watching the machine and the descending people.

Hilda hovered near the open door of the shuttle, talking with Rebel. As the woman from the future let down the last group, she said: "I'll go back with the shuttle pilot and wait for you people. Just send someone over when you're done here."

"Good thinking," said the witch. As she landed her broom, the shuttle pulled away and relative silence came over the village again.

Tarkan was loudly arguing with Kerna, who simply waited for the man to run out of steam.

Hilda and William watched the scene from a distance. "Do you think she will withstand him?" the wizard asked.

"I am not sure," Hilda said, "but we're here. She knows that."

Tarkan waved his arms around as he yelled that 'all these people' had no business in 'his' village. "Everything here was well before you troublemakers came, and I will not allow any further of that!"

"Hold your tongue for a moment."

Surprise came from everywhere, as it was Davdruw who had spoken.

"And who are you? Another of those troublemakers?"

"I am Davdruw. I am the spiritual leader of the people that live in the pyramids. You may think these people are troublemakers, but I have been present at their meeting. Their ideas are sound. They want to think ahead, make more of life than what we have now."

Tarkan stared at the tall man. "More? What more? There is nothing more."

"And that attitude is what keeps others stuck in the place where they are, if they let people like you - and me - influence them."

Kerna's eyes flew from Davdruw to Hilda and William, and back. Confusion and surprise had taken over her expression. Hilda and William were quite stunned by this support from such an unexpected side.

"We are not influencing them. We are guiding them, to the best of our knowledge," Tarkan flung at Davdruw.

"Yes. But what have we done to expand our knowledge?" Davdruw countered.

"That is not the issue here!" Tarkan tried to overrule Davdruw.

"But it is." Kerna, her hands akimbo, scowled at Tarkan. "You can pretend that this world will carry on it always did while you hide in this corner of it, but you are not helping anyone!"

"Who are you, that you dare to speak to me like this?" Tarkan growled.

Kerna made a wand appear, a bright yellow affair. "I am the witch who WAS no witch."

"Did you get her that wand?" William quietly asked his witch.

"No. I don't know where she got that from," she replied.

Tarkan did not surrender just like that. "Go back to herding the goats, girl."

"See? There is your attitude. Nothing changes. Everyone keeps doing what they did since they were old enough to do something," Kerna said, her voice getting louder. She turned to the people who had gathered around after the strange arrival of the new council. "Who of you thinks that this way of life is a good way?"

Hesitantly hands rose, more than was good for Hilda's comfort zone. "I think we have to step in, wizard," she whispered.

Before someone could make a move, Kerna turned to Tarkan. "They are afraid of you."

"No. They use their common sense. This life is good. And if you do something to me, they will fear you, evil witch."

"Such a manipulating bastard," Hilda grumbled. "I'm going to-"

Before she could go to do what she had in mind, Kerna just laughed as she looked at the crowd around them. "So one moment I am good enough to herd your goats, and the next I am an evil witch who should be feared."

She looked at the new council, whose members stood there, a bit lost in the goings on. "These people are going to make this planet a better place for all of us. If you feel like joining us now, feel welcome. If you intend to stick around here and wait until this old man can no longer run your lives, you are welcome then. It's up to you."

The new witch looked around. "Dwey! Where are you?"

The black animal came running and jumped up, entirely happy to be caught in Kerna's waiting arms. "I trust this new council in the same way Dwey trusts me," Kerna said, "it is up to you what you want to do."

39. Meanwhile, back at the pyramids

Hilda, eyebrows raised high, was nearly speechless. "Suck an elf, William. I like that woman's style. She's got more inside her than I had thought when we first met her."

"Where will we live when we leave here?" one of the villagers asked. Quite a smart question, Hilda agreed.

"For now everyone from the village will stay here in their own house if they can. If the others aren't going to make their life bad." Kerna looked around, not threatening but warning. "I am sure we can prepare some basic homes soon. After all, we have magic on our side."

Some consenting murmur rose up here and there. Tarkan looked at the people, but none of the murmurers held back.

"And what are we going to do there?" someone else asked.

"Let's take things one step at the time, shall we?" Rebel stepped in. "We first have to find more people, in the pyramids, and then we can make specific plans towards that. For now it would be good for the ones that want to join, to be ready to gather your things. We'll come back once we have talked to the others."

Kerna nodded, agreeing.

Maurizio then suggested that the group would visit the pyramids. "I'll stay here," he said, "to keep an eye on our friend here." He patted Tarkan on the shoulder. "To make sure he is not going to employ some guerilla tactics, or some good old indoctrination while you're gone."

Tarkan looked hurt. "I would never."

"Great," Maurizio chuckled, "then there's no problem."

"Besides, you will see that all this is unnecessary. We do not have to make the change. We can leave things as they are, and change will come."

William laughed. "Someone called Albert Einstein once said something like that. And he called it the greatest folly."

Davdruw then surprised everyone by announcing that he wanted to stay in the village as well. His plain and simple reason was that he liked it there.

Katinki asked the man if he would repeat that, so she could record it on a gadget she had. On her sleeve. "That way we can show the people in the pyramids how he thinks about this area."

Another appreciative nod came from Hilda. "William, can you go and tell Rebel and the shuttle fly-boy to come? We have another house call to make."

The wizard retrieved his broom and his cat, and flew off.

Soon the shuttle hovered over the village, and the new council was transported up by Rebel. Then the shuttle, accompanied by people and animals on brooms, set course to the city of the pyramids...

-=-=-

As they were on their way, they had to deflect a very unusual random rain shower.

"Looks like more than just a few things are failing down there," Hilda commented under their magical umbrella.

They were not far from their destination when they saw that at the pyramids the situation was even more precarious than expected.

A few of the large buildings had more or less collapsed. People were outside, sitting, lying and walking around. As the shuttle and the magicals approached, there was a slight commotion, but somehow most of the people from the pyramids were not able to respond to the strange convoy more except than to look up.

The brooms swooped down and landed close by. The shuttle touched down on a platform not far from the more remote pyramids, and not much later the passengers came out. The ones who had come from the pyramids ran to the devastation and the people sitting and lying. The others hurried along as well, even though they were entirely strange in this place.

Hilda located Gesmarion, one of the people of the original High Council.

"What happened here?" she asked, without formalities.

"The buildings. The machines. They fell apart, one after the other." The man looked half in shock, but still managed to be mostly coherent. "Others are still inside, they want to stay there."

"Inside which ones?" William asked, but Gesmarion suddenly became a broken record and went on about the machines and the buildings falling apart.

"Looks like we have to go in and do some evacuating, William," Hilda said, popping up her wand.

William nodded and made his wand appear also. Kerna stood with them, her yellow wand at the ready.

"I'm coming with you," Rebel said.

"So am I," Gesmarion joined the ranks, to everyone's surprise.

Hilda turned to the new council. "Try and help what you can, and prepare for more people. We're going to bring them out."

Magically they determined the pyramid that was most vulnerable and likely to collapse, and then they went inside.

Rebel used her strange powers to stabilise most of the construction. The pyramid was so far gone that parts fell down as they proceeded.

Gesmarion kicked in doors while the magicals opened them with magic. In every room where they found people, Gesmarion took care of them, guiding them outside and then the man would hurry back inside, collecting the next bunch.

Some of the people did not want to go voluntarily. Gesmarion would then apply some gentle force, assisted by William's magic, that would simply make them move, if they wanted to or not.

Dust and bits of ceiling powdered down, the magicals keeping themselves safe with bubbles. In a few rooms they only found dead people, crushed by falling parts of wall or ceiling.

"Crappedy crap, crappedy crap," Hilda kept saying.

The further they pushed on into the pyramid, the worse the situation was. In the end William said they had to either take the top from the pyramid or go outside again, as the building would come down on them were it not for Rebel holding it together.

"Blowing it apart is no option, Hilda, we'd hurt people outside."

"We have to do more!" Hilda exclaimed, looking at Kerna.

Kerna, also dusty and dirty, nodded. "Rebel, Hilda, we can do this. If we can-"

A wall next to them crumbled, blowing a cloud of dust through the corridor where they stood. William magicked it away.

"There are four layers of living quarters in this pyramid," Kerna quickly continued, "if we can take off the top and then slowly work our way down, that would save as many people as possible."

"Right. We have to act quickly then. Rebel, can you handle this?" Hilda asked.

Rebel nodded, she was clearly working at the top of her powers to keep the building together.

"William, can you go outside and use the broom? We will peel off a layer, you get the people away and let me know when you're done."

William nodded and ran off, warding off falling pieces of pyramid as he went. As he left the pyramid, people wanted to talk to him, but he ignored them, made his broom jump up and he dashed upwards. Obsidian Shadow stared, slightly annoyed, after the wizard.

Hilda sensed that William was in position and told Kerna that they could lift the top part from the pyramid. As they did so, William used his magic to direct it away and made it crash in a safe spot.

As the wizard flew over the dishevelled area of the pyramid, looking for people, Hilda, Kerna and Rebel proceeded to look for people on the lowest level, but their search was in vain. William signalled to his witch that he had found three people and he was taking them away from the pyramid.

Then the next layer of pyramid was removed, and the procedure was repeated.

"Hilda, you and the others should get out of there," William warned his witch. "This thing is unstable as I ever saw something."

"If we leave, it crashes and kills whoever is still here! Move it, wizard!"

It seemed to take forever, but finally the entire pyramid was empty of living people, except the magical ones inside it.

"Hilda, get the hell out of that thing!" William yelled, using the bond as well as his throat. "Or I come in to get you!"

"Don't you dare! We're coming!"

As the three retreated from the danger zone, more and more of the pyramid collapsed. The debris was kept under control by all four of them.

When they all were in safety, Rebel was near fainting. She had worn herself out quite extensively. She ended up lying on the ground, in the care of Kerna, two cats and Dwey. The fact that the pyramid fell apart right then was hardly an issue now.

"She's going to be fine," William said to Gesmarion, who was also kneeling down with Rebel.

Hilda tapped her wizard on the shoulder. "I think we chose well, William."

"Why?" William asked as he got up and turned to where the witch was looking.

From two pyramids a small flow of people came, led by a few people that had been 'elected' into the new provisionary council for the planet.

"That's great. We chose well indeed, Hilda."

"I could do with coffee," the witch then said. "Can you arrange some food when I arrange some furniture?"

Grim rubbed against witchy legs and uttered a pitiful meow.

"Ohhh, there's my little black girl," Hilda cooed as she picked up the cat. "What did you say?"

With a frown she looked at William. "We need shelter, sweet wizard. It's going to rain again."

40. Progress

Hilda, or perhaps it had been Grimalkin, proved to be correct. The magicals had quickly created some improvised shelter and almost as if the clouds had waited for them, the rain came down as the last person had found a place under the roofs.

"We were lucky that the rain waited," someone said.

"That's how things work," Hilda stated. "Well, sometimes." She looked about and saw a few people from the old High Council. "Hey you, get over here!"

The 'hey you' got over to where the witch was.

Hilda explained what had been happening at the village they had found, and then told them about the new council. "We need to make sure everyone knows about this. Go and spread the word. Just what I told you, no funny additions of your own, do you hear me?"

Only then she allowed herself to sit down on a chair and pick up the coffee and sandwiches that William had arranged for the small group.

"Quite a mess we have here," she commented. "I wonder how long the other three pyramids will last with all that machinery dead and gone."

"Not long," Kerna was certain. "It might be best if we break them down ourselves, at least take the high parts off and see if we can make the lower areas habitable. There are too many people here to make shelters for."

"We can use the top parts to make some more temporary homes then," William added. "But not now."

Everyone agreed. They had been on the go for a long time, and there were enough unharmed people to take care of the others, so there was time for a breather. The magicals knew, however, that they did not have time to waste, as darkness was coming in.

-=-=-

Late at night one of the pyramids had been dismantled. The lower floor was intact, most of the people from the pyramid city could at least spend the night there. For the others, there was space under the quickly made rain-roof, and several others found a place to sleep in the larger shuttles that were nearby.

Hilda and William lay in a large room of the pyramid. They shared it with the new and the old council, Kerna and the two people from the black ship, the Mimosa.

"Wasn't that a day?" William whispered.

Hilda nodded. "It was. I hope we can get all this fixed, William. Adventures are fun, but going home is a good thing too. I need a bath, after all this."

"We all do."

"Yes," the witch agreed, "you start to smell funny."

William knew better than to react to that.

The next day everyone worked together to get more living space set up. In the afternoon a strange shuttle arrived, on board some Lycadeans from another city. They had noticed that there was a problem, while their systems were collapsing as well.

"We may well have a chain reaction going," Rebel thought out loud, after hearing what the new people had to say. "Maybe, if you still have enough power in that thing, you can go and visit a few more cities to see if they have the same problems."

The new arrivals, who had been brought up to speed on the latest changes in the situation of the planet, were somewhat reluctant at first, but they quickly were convinced after seeing the wounded people and the collapsed pyramids.

They promised to check on other villages, but first they said they'd make sure their own people were safe.

Kerna then ordered the pilots of the local shuttles to fly out to villages as well, to see that the situation there was under control.The pilots did not object. They went as they were told.

Day after day pilots came in and flew out again, bringing people who had heard the news. Sometimes Hilda or William would accompany them. Kerna was always going along. Word had spread about the witch from Lycadea, and everyone wanted to see her, hear her. At times also people from the new council would go with a shuttle, to talk about the new things that were planned for the planet.

Hilda, Rebel and William also often visited the distant village, making sure that the people there heard what was going on, and other villages.

-=-=-

After many weeks of continuous working, flying and talking, Hilda declared that their work on the planet was done.

Kerna did not look very convinced, but Rebel and Maurizio, and also the wizard, said that Hilda was right.

The small group sat in one of the new cabin-like homes that was set up for The Witch, near the village where they had originally found the old ones.

"Everything is moving now, Kerna. There are many people now who are supporting the ideas that are started, and slowly it is spreading over the entire planet. We can stay here, but there is nothing more we can do," William said.

"I understand. It's just..." Kerna slowly patted Dwey. "It's just that I have come to like you so much, and I'm so used to having you around, that it is hard to accept you will not be here anymore."

She looked around at the faces of the people who had done so much and who had helped to bring the change about. "I'm going to miss you terribly."

"We'll miss you too, Kerna," said Hilda. "But maybe you will find a cute man here who will wipe you off your broom. Don't give up on that thought."

"It is not that. Well, maybe it is. But I feel like I still have to learn so much."

"You don't have to do everything alone, Kerna. Look at the number of people that will run for you," Maurizio reminded her.

"I know. But they are... not you." Kerna frowned for a moment, then picked up Dwey and looked at the dark face. "We're going to be fine though, aren't we?"

Dwey made a sound. Kerna grinned and put her pet on the floor. "Yes. You are right. You should be going home."

This sudden change in her surprised the witch and the wizard, as it did Maurizio and Rebel.

"When would you like to return to where you came from?"

"Uhm... what?" Maurizio asked the only conceivable question.

"You came from somewhere, didn't you? I can show you where to go, to go back there." Kerna rose to her feet.

"And since when do you know that, Kerna?" Hilda was curious now, Kerna's difference in attitude was amazing.

"I'm not sure. I think it's because of Dwey, but I am not sure of that either."

William looked at their cats. "I think Dwey spent too much time with those two."

Grim and Obsi looked at the wizard. Obsi yawned and pretended to be innocent. Dwey made another sound.

"Are you certain you want to tell us?" Hilda asked as she rose also.

"No, but if I don't do it now, I don't know when I will again," Kerna confessed. "If ever."

The others got up also, understanding that suddenly the moment of saying goodbye had come.

Everyone hugged everyone. Then Kerna draped Dwey over her shoulder and walked out of the cabin, leading the way. She summoned the brooms for everyone, making Hilda proud. It was not easy calling the broom for another witch.

William flew Maurizio, Hilda flew Rebel. They took to the sky and followed Kerna to the mountains where they had lived in the cave for a while.

Hilda started to understand what Kerna had in mind.

The witch who had been no witch steered her broom directly to the entrance of the cave with its reddish glow.

After landing the brooms there, Kerna turned to Hilda. "You know, don't you?"

"I do. It's that strange passage."

Kerna nodded. "You should go now before I change my mind and keep you here." She smiled a feeble, tired and forced smile.

"Yes. We should. Say goodbye to everyone from us, will you? And good luck, kid. Maybe we'll come back someday."

"That would be nice, Hilda. Really nice."

Hilda nodded. "It would be good if you all hold on to each other," she then said to her followers. She took William's hand.

When everyone had joined hands, Hilda walked towards the red glow, the others in tow.

"Hilda?" Kerna said before the witch entered the cave.

"Yes?"

"I'm not a kid."

Hilda laughed. "Whatever you say, kid. Good luck." Then she stepped into the red glow, dragging the others with her.

The walk through the twisting tunnel was much shorter than the first time, because this time Hilda knew the trick. The four people and two cats ended up in the strange red cave. Hilda explained that this was where Kerna and she regained their magic.

"This place sizzles with it," she continued, as now she could feel the real deal.

She searched for the wall of magic that Kerna and she had crossed before while going after the cats, found it and ushered her friends along.

"Now we have to wait until it gets warm," Hilda stated.

They waited, but nothing of the warming kind happened.

"Crappedy crap, am I doing something wrong here? There was heat everywhere, then we found this cold column in the middle, right about there, and then somehow we found this door through which we came into the cave."

William looked at the witch. "Are you sure you are alright, Hilda?"

"Never better, wizard. I'm serious. You saw us coming in through the door! I really would like to have a door like that again, so we can go home."

There was a door.

"Holy Bejeebus!" the wizard exclaimed. The door had appeared right in front of him.

Rebel and Maurizio had to calm down their nerves a bit. Then Rebel asked: "Is that the door that leads into the cave again?"

"I'm not sure. This looks like a different door. I wonder where it leads..." Hilda grabbed the handle and pulled.

"I think you need to push this one, Hilda."

"I know that! Just testing if it's solid." Hilda pushed. The door swung open without any resistance.

Four, no, make that six faces peered through the open door and saw a black void.

"Wrong door perhaps?" Maurizio wondered. Then he sniffed something. "No. Right door."

Before anyone could stop him, the captain stepped through the door. His boots landed on a wooden floor. "This is the deck of the Mimosa." He walked a few steps, vanishing in the dark. "And I see a few stars."

The remaining people near the door heard a crash, a thud and a curse.

"And more stars," Rebel assumed.

41. More stars

Hilda popped up her wand and lit it up. William was right behind her with that. The light showed the pirate captain sprawled out over a roll of rope he had missed - well, actually not - in the dark. The man did not seem to mind his awkward position.

"We're home!" he yelled out. "And where the hell are the guards on this thing?"

"Huh? Wha'?" a sleepy voice said from behind an opening door. "Oh, damn, it's you!"

Behind the man speaking, a decent sea of light spread out over the deck, enough to give the three waiting people the confidence that this was indeed the deck of the Mimosa. As they stepped onto it, the deck lights came on, illuminating the large ship as far as possible, with its black splendour.

"What kind of a bloody mess is this?" Maurizio roared from his undignified position. "No watch on deck? No lights?"

"According to the ship's clock it is daytime, captain, so we did not think we would need a watch." The sailor that had woken up rubbed his face. "You do have a point about the lights."

The captain had worked himself up to his feet.

"So how did you get back here, captain?" the sailor asked, as more crew members arrived on the deck.

"Through that door," Maurizio pointed. Then a surprised expression took over his features. "Where's the door?"

Hilda, William and Rebel turned. The door had vanished, they were standing near the wall of the high deck.

"It's probably late where you came from," one of the sailors said, "people make mistakes then."

"I'm not - uhm - yeah, we should get some sleep," Maurizio attempted to save face.

"And some food," Hilda added. Her wizard agreed with that.

"Yes, that too," Rebel said, as she looked around the ship. "At least this place looks still in order."

They moved through the layers of sailors that had formed and made their way to the strange automatic kitchen. Nothing had changed there.

When they sat at a table in the giant dining room, Hilda said she was relieved that the food on board was a lot better than the mistake for oatmeal the machine on Lycadea had spat out. "At least we had a good wizard cook there to make it edible."

Rebel and Maurizio laughed about that as they dug into their food.

Then Maurizio called the sailors in, to hear how they had gotten through all that time. Big was the surprise when Xander told them that it had only been a few days.

"At least we think it was a few days. Always hard to tell when there is no difference between day and night."

The sailors were then treated to what the magicals, the captain and Rebel had seen and done. By the time all was said and all questions were answered, everyone was seriously tired, so beds were located and sighs of relief were uttered. In one bed the sighs came after a period of other sounds.

-=-=-

The next day they tried to think of ways to get Hilda and William back home.

"Best thing we could have," Maurizio said, "is that we get hit by an asteroid or something."

"That does not sound like the best thing," William objected. "That sounds like we're being destroyed, with the ship."

"This is the Mimosa, remember? It is not just a ship. It plays with asteroids."

"Just a nuisance that asteroids not often want to come and play," Rebel remarked.

"So we have to make something happen," Hilda decided. "I wonder what this ship of yours can do when we give it a little nudge."

"Nudge?" Maurizio's voice conveyed worry. He had seen this witch in action, and her casual use of the word 'nudge' gave him slight reason for distress. "You are not going to nudge the steam system of the Mimosa, Hilda. This is sensitive machinery, exquisite craftsmanship, and should be handled that way."

"Yes, that is why the hammers and chains are there," Rebel chuckled, "and the big wrenches, the heavy protective clothing and the goggles."

William demanded to see the engine room. Maurizio first considered objecting, but seeing how the wizard had saved them a few times, together with Rebel, he gave in and took them below deck.

Close to the big doors they found the huge bulk of the metal man they had seen as they had first come aboard this remarkable ship.

Maurizio looked pleased that the contraption was taken care of well. Then he showed them the engines of exquisite craftsmanship.

Hilda and William were overwhelmed by the number of copper pipes, the gauges and valves. Huge copper barrels with all kinds of shiny metal bits, six in a row, were the propulsion system, according to the captain.

"Those need most of the hammering," Rebel revealed. 'We just don't hit the thin parts, or the bits that look breakable."

"So how does this ship jump?" William asked. "Does it have to do with these things?"

"Maybe." Maurizio sounded very certain about that.

"I don't know either," Rebel said in her defence, as the witch and wizard looked at her.

"Is there some connection from these things to the crystal?" William asked. He was nearing the end of his technical knowledge. That had never been much and living with Hilda had deteriorated it rapidly.

"Could be. We never took the trouble to look at that."

"Aha."

"I think we have to do something with that crystal," Hilda said. "From a distance. I don't want it to whack me a second time. Once was too often already."

Her suggestion made sense, so the four went to the deck again and walked over to the crystal. Several sailors were scrubbing the boards, probably because there was nothing else to do.

"Where did they get the water?" Hilda wondered.

"The kitchen of course," Rebel enlightened the witch.

Hilda grinned and stopped walking. "I think this is as close as I want to get to the thing of doom," she said, eyeing the crystal.

It's circumference softly glowed in the lights of the ship and some of the nearby stars. The crystal looked innocent, dead and large.

"So that is a crystal. Just a crystal?" the witch asked.

"As far as we know it's just a crystal. Well, a big one that can do astonishing things, but it's a crystal," Rebel confirmed. "I checked its structure and that's definitely crystalline."

"Maybe we can use that as a crystal ball," Hilda thought out loud.

"And then? Who would you call with it?" William asked. He didn't understand Hilda's plan.

"That blasted thing got us into this mess, so it'd better be useful in getting us out of it," Hilda displayed her feelings towards the crystal. "If we can turn it into a crystal ball, I could make it connect to the crystal ball at home. At least I think."

"And how do you turn such a thing into a crystal ball?" William asked. He recalled the amount of work and energy Hilda had put in Esmee's ball, at Snow-White's place, and that was a small ball.

The witch said: "Power. Hit it with a lot of power. And then add some magic of the proper kind."

Magic, the magicals knew, would not be the problem. But where would they get sufficient power?

"The engine," Rebel decided. "That delivers tremendous power."

"But we have to get that power to the crystal," Maurizio tried to dampen the enthusiasm.

"So let's see if there are pipes going to it," William suggested, coming back to the idea.

"And then convince the engine to work." Maurizio sounded doubtful.

"We'll see about that." William popped up his wand. "This can be very convincing."

Maurizio frowned for a moment. Then he called out for help and a few sailors came over, curious what their captain wanted. He asked them to check if there were pipes or tubes running from the engine to the crystal. "And if there is nothing of the kind, see if there is a way to put something in place."

The sailors were actually pleased with this assignment. They had been sitting around and do nothing for too long. The men almost ran off to the engine room.

Soon there were sounds everywhere, as more and more sailors scurried beneath the deck searching for any kind of conduit to the crystal. Occasionally a cry of success was heard but most of them ended in a whine as the pipe disappeared somewhere, or a thump when a sailor hit a wall.

But there was some good news. One of the sailors found a line that went from the engine room all the way up to the crystal. It even connected to the pedestal the crystal rested on. There was just a small problem in two parts: the line was thinner than a little finger, and from what the sailor could tell, the line was meant to forward energy -from- the crystal -to- the engine.

"How do you know that? A pipe is a pipe, right?" Hilda wondered.

"There are signs with arrows near it, and they point in the direction of the engine room," the sailor told her. "If you care to take a look, I can show you."

Hilda observed the man in silence, her eyes pointing out the massive amounts of dust all over him. She made her feelings about the invitation very clear. "I only care about arrows when there's an archer with them who's pointing them at me. I say we use that pipe-thing."

Maurizio wasn't so sure if that was a good idea, but he had no alternatives to offer.

"We could see if we can make the engine run and divert some power to the crystal," William offered. "A simple test, and stop when things threaten to go wrong."

"But if they go wrong immediately? Then we're stranded here!"

"I have the distinct feeling that situation is already there, Maurizio."

The captain grumbled. Since their return to the ship he had become very protective of it. "We could wait for something to happen."

"I am not one for waiting. I make things happen."

Maurizio knew that. Hilda was always on the frontline. He gave in. "Let's try it."

"Let's just do it," Hilda corrected him. Then she ordered a few of the sailors around, who ran for her.

"William dear, can you go to that shiny metal room and see if you can make that beast work? I'll stay here and see what happens with the crystal. We can inform each other if something goes awry."

The wizard agreed, and accompanied by Rebel and a few sailors who occasionally operated parts of the equipment he made his way to below deck, to the large steam engine.

Valves were opened, gauges were checked (despite the fact that their needle-fingers did not move), levers were pushed and pulled. In all, it looked as if the sailors knew what they were doing, and they did it well. The only drawback was that they clearly did not manage the crucial part: fire up the engine.

"How does it usually start?" William asked.

"By itself," was the unhelpful answer.

"See," said one of the sailors, pointing at a sign. It showed an arrow, pointing towards one of the large copper barrels. "That is where it gets the power from. I think."

William nodded and looked at the large monster of a machine. His wand in hand, he tried to envision how this thing would look when it worked. He grinned as he sensed impatience from his witch and then pushed the magic to the metal.

"It needs heat," one of the sailors tried to help.

William added heat. For a few moments nothing happened. Then there was a shudder in the wooden floor. Invisible gears crunched, unseen cogs rattled, and then, slowly, large metal beams slowly started moving, pushing inertia wheels round. A soft hiss emerged from one of the boilers as pressure built up.

The wizard drew back his magic. The machines responded by stopping their motion. And the bond with the witch showed him temporary excitement, that fell away as the boilers hissed their last hiss.

"Now look at that," a sailor said, pointing at the arrow on the sign. The direction of the arrow had changed.

42. Tilt

"I think we're on to something," William said. "Hilda was quite happy for a moment."

"You and your magic stuff," Rebel muttered with a grin, "you're scary. I'll pop over and ask what she saw." She disappeared.

"And that's not scary," William commented, to the amusement of some sailors.

Rebel reappeared. "Hilda was bouncing all over. The power flow seems to work, so if you can get that going again, she'll do her trick. And since I am curious and not needed, I'm going to watch her do it!" Only thin air remained where Rebel had stood.

The wizard shook his head and performed his magic trick again. Once more the machinery came to life. The floor trembled lightly as the huge metal hulks settled in their motion. Steam escaped from places, but none of the sailors looked worried, so it would be alright.

Meanwhile, on deck, the witch had her wand at the ready as the huge crystal started pulsating. Spell after spell came from her lips. Mixed with the power the wand gave her, energy swirled around the crystal, blurring it and changing its properties.

The crystal darkened, and suddenly Hilda saw shimmers of her house. "That is where we want to go," she said, loud and clear. "Take us there, thing."

The thing just kept showing her familiar surroundings, while a roaring wind sounded.

"I need more power on this thing," Hilda yelled.

Rebel nodded and popped away to William. She saw the wizard entirely occupied with his magic, so she pushed her powers towards him, linking like she'd done before. "Use this, Hilda needs it."

William was, for a moment, shaken by the sudden extra power. Then he attained a broke or bust disposition and hit the engines with everything Rebel and he could muster. Sailors ran around frantically, turning valves open and keeping scared eyes on gauges that showed all kinds of warnings.

Suddenly William sensed resignation from his witch. This could only mean that whatever she was attempting, it was not going well. "Stop," he told Rebel, "stop."

They released their energy, making the engine slow down.

"Take me to Hilda," William said.

Rebel nodded and popped them to where the witch was standing, her wand-arm extended towards the still pulsating crystal.

"What's wrong?" the wizard asked.

Hilda stood motionless. "It almost worked." She looked at William. "I don't know why it did not work all the way. I was so close."

The witch lowered her arm and slowly walked to the wooden casing that the crystal rested on. "You are one stupid crystal," she said, and kicked the box.

The resonance in the wood of the casing transferred to the crystal, which stopped pulsating and started to sing. The sound was gentle at first, but became louder and louder, to the point where everyone had to cover their ears. A light then came from the centre of the crystal, illuminating the entire Mimosa. It became so bright that each and every person had to squeeze their eyes shut, not to get blinded.

Then there was a sickening feeling, as if the deck tried to fall away from under Hilda's feet. "Crappedy crap!" she hollered, and "William!" She could not reach out for her wizard, as that would allow the shrill sound from the crystal to burst her skull. She was convinced that would happen. At least the bond told her he was still close to her.

The witch worried about the cats and what was happening and how on earth were they going to get home and then there was a heavy rolling of the ship, some shaking and falling over, and then - nothing. No motion, no more screaming of the crystal. The witch carefully released one finger from one ear. There was relative silence. Another finger, and one more, and still no sound of consequence.

Something scratched her nose. Hilda opened an eye and saw Grimalkin's face very close by as the cat licked the witch's nose once again.

"Hey, cat kid," she said as she sat up.

Around her, sailors lay sprawled over the deck, holding ears and closing eyes. William was sitting up as well, looking around and grinning at his witch.

"Seems that we got somewhere after all," he said. "That light is sunshine."

"Suck an elf." Hilda scrambled to her feet and managed to stay upright on the tilted deck. To the lower side she saw... trees. Apparently the Mimosa leaned against them. "Do you have any idea where we are?"

Hilda looked to the sky. It was blue, and here and there was a lost white cloud. At least that was reassuring. Blue skies and white clouds were familiar.

William had also managed to get to his feet. "No, not really. Maybe when we can climb up to the side of this ship."

"Hey sailor folk!" Hilda yelled, "we're clear!"

As the sailors, Maurizio and Rebel found a way to sit up again, a voice said: "Oh. You've returned. I was almost certain it was you."

Hilda looked at William. "Crappedy crap... don't tell me..."

Together they clambered up to the high side of the ship.

The Mimosa lay about fifty feet from their house, and it was the house that had spoken.

"We're home!" Hilda yelled.

"Yes. And had your ship not landed itself further away, you would not have had a home," the house complained.

"Who are you talking to?" Maurizio asked from his sitting position.

"The house!" Hilda exclaimed.

"The... house..." The captain rummaged in his pockets, found his eye patch and adjusted it over his head. "Of course. I should have known. And where are we?"

"Home!"

Rebel and a few sailors had worked their way up to where the magicals and their cats were, and stared at the white and red house.

"That's your house? It's cute," said Rebel. "Small but cute."

"I am not small," the house returned. "I am a proper witch's house."

"It talks! Maurizio, the house talks!"

Not much later, Rebel had levitated everyone off the ship and to the ground. The Mimosa rested rather ungracefully against the trees opposite the house, just as any ship would do with such a tremendous lack of water.

"Looks like your magic worked after all, Hilda," William said as he hugged her. "A bit late, but it did."

"Yes, I know now. I should have used Latin. But damn, I hate Latin." Then the witch looked at the crew of the Mimosa. "Are you people hungry or thirsty?"

The sailors were thirsty, so William and Hilda arranged for benches and tables, and coffee, tea and wine became available in copious quantities. After all, magic was about.

As the party was going, Rebel and William made the Mimosa sit straight up. Normally it would be unnerving to see a ship float on nothing, but the people who were around had seen their share, so nobody worried.

The party ended with a sumptuous dinner, straight from the Mimosa's amazing kitchen, and also very late in the night.

-=-=-

When finally the magicals were in bed, their own bed, Hilda snuggled up to William.

"I'm glad we're home. I know I'm going to miss Kerna for a while. And Rebel. And even Maurizio."

"So will I, sweetwitch. But you never know, maybe we will see them again."

"Would be nice. But then in a more normal way. Not with a ship with a crystal and all that. I hated to be without magic for so long."

William knew what she meant. He had missed the link with her as well, and that had only been the link. He wanted to say something when a loud bang accompanied a bright red flash from outside.

"What was that?" the witch wondered.

"I think Rebel and Maurizio moved on with the Mimosa."

"Already thought so... G'night, wizard."

"G'night, witch."

...

"And what about me?"

"Shut up, house!"

~ ~ ~

All the best from

###

About the author:

I am an IT consultant who loves reading and writing.

I've been an amateur-author since years, writing SciFi, Fantasy and lately also Steampunk. My home is in the Netherlands.

I hope you liked "Hilda - Lycadea".

All other books I published so far:

Hilda the wicked Witch series:

Hilda the wicked witch (Smashwords, July 2010)

Hilda - Snow White Revisited (Smashwords, September 2010)

Hilda - The Challenge (Smashwords, December 2010)

Hilda and Zelda (Smashwords, February 2011)

Hilda - Cats (Smashwords, April 2011)

Steampunk:

Aeroparts Factory (Smashwords, December 2010)

Lily Marin, three steampunk short stories (Smashwords, January 2010)

If you want to connect with me online:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/pagan_paul

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/paulkater

My website: http://www.nlpagan.net