Hilda - Lycadea
by Paul Kater
Published by the author at Smashwords -
Copyright 2011-Paul Kater
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Contents:
5. Kings, queens and dinner
parties
11. Questions and more
questions
24. Float, float, float your
couch...
27. Through the wall, in the
air
31. The village of the old
ones
39. Meanwhile, back at the
pyramids
"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.
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.