Hilda - Lycadea (19 page)

"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.

"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.