Hilda - Lycadea (3 page)

"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?"

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."