Hilda - Lycadea Read online

  Hilda - Lycadea

  by Paul Kater

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

  License Notes, Smashwords Edition:

  Thank you for downloading this free ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. Thank you for your support.

  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?"