Hilda - Lycadea (30 page)

"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."

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."

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.