18. Witch meet

The night had passed calmly. There had been some noise when the police had finally arrived to collect the villains, but a simple noise-repelling spell had taken care of that. When the witch and the wizard awoke, the day had already decided to begin. It was a grey and dull beginning, though.

"Blagh," Hilda commented. "Not my kind of weather. Makes me think of Zelda."

William grinned as he finished breakfast and conjured another couple of cups of coffee. "Here, something to take your mind off her for a while."

"You are so good, my sweet wizard," she said as she attacked the coffee. "You know what a witch needs."

A bit later they snuck out of their shed-house and lifted off on brooms in a renewed attempt to locate and apprehend Griselda.

-=-=-

They flew to the area where Hilda had sensed Zelda the day before.

"Suck an elf. She's gone, but was here for a long time." Hilda and William hovered in front of the floor of the building from which Zelda had watched them. It was utterly destroyed, the final touch being delivered by a blazing fire that had rendered most of the building uninhabitable.

"We have to think of a nifty trick, Hilda. Something that will lure her to us, instead of us running around to the places where she isn't anymore."

"Yes. Good thinking, and glad you reached that decision also," Hilda nodded. "We just have to find out what it is that she wants. Control. Power. Slaves?"

"Followers?", William added.

Hilda raised her eyebrows. "Perhaps a combination of the lot. Maybe we are on the right track here."

A gunshot cracked, a bullet flew far too close to Hilda to be comfortable. "Crappedy crap, why are they always chasing the wrong ones?" She flung a spell down, disabling all guns in one go. Then they lowered their brooms to see who was shooting at them this time.

The group of twelve soldiers who were out on patrol were battling their refusing guns. "There they are!", one of them shouted to his comrades. All eyes lifted up as one.

"Hey, you. Stop shooting the wrong people," Hilda said. "Are all you ordinaries in this world so dense that we have to tell every single one of you that we're the good guys?"

"You are under arrest," one of the dense ordinaries informed the two people on broomsticks.

"They are so dense," Hilda said to William. "Come, let's go somewhere so we can think of a plan in peace. And you guys, your noise-sticks will work in a few minutes again." Hilda waved her wand, and then the magical couple flew up and out of view, disappearing between the buildings.

On top of a shopping mall they touched down and started to think of what they could do for real to tease Zelda and bring her out in the open.

"Would she be tempted by the presence of witches?", William suddenly had an idea.

"Of course. But there aren't any witches here, you told me so."

"Yes. I told you. But I wonder if anyone has taken the time to tell her..."

Hilda grinned. "I knew there was a reason I keep you around, William. Sometimes you have ideas that are worth exploring."

They talked about the idea. Options, possibilities, prerequisites, everything came around once or more, and after almost an hour they had the feeling that their plan was viable. It had lots of open ends, but this would also give them room to move. And that was important, as there was no telling what Zelda's deranged mind would come up with.

The magical couple swooped up into the sky quickly and then William took the lead, venturing out towards a side of the town where lots of trees and free space could be found. It would be the perfect surrounding for setting up the trap to catch Zelda.

Hilda approved of the place after they had made the rounds there. She put up a protective magical field around a spot they had appointed their playground, and then they went about preparing the place. Bushes and small trees were magically charged and would appear as witches and ghost-like figures on a command by either one of the couple. They created a firepit, a stack of wood ready to be burnt on it, Hilda even made a large cauldron appear to give the place some extra credibility.

After all their preparations, they flew back and went inside their homely shed, to eat and think of the best way to promote the meeting of their witches. It had to be done in a very subtle way, otherwise loads of ordinaries would probably show up at their magical place as well, and that would be bad for the execution of the plan. That was already cracking at enough seams, adding some more to that would be tempting the fates.

The next part of the plan had to be staged though. They changed their outfits into something that William proposed to be the stereotype of a witch in this world. They also modified their appearance as much as possible, and then they left their home again and flew out to the city.

Hilda shrunk the brooms, William slipped them in his pocket and then they started pacing through the streets in the cultural area of the town. William had decided on that part, as there were the most places for a witch to hide without attracting too much attention.

As they walked along, they sent out a simple message in a voice that only magical beings would hear and understand. "Witches meet at night, in the field to the East. Witches meet at night, in the field to the East."

William and Hilda kept repeating that time and again, until they became sick of the repetitive sentence and decided to head back to their shed and wait until dusk arrived.

As the sun was on its way out, the magicals got on their brooms again and flew out to the field they had prepared. They could sense and see it from miles away already, the magic that they had spread was glowing like a searchlight. Before they landed, Hilda first made a run around the place to verify that they were there first. No trace of Zelda was around, so they touched down and hid their brooms between the hedges at the side of their magical circle. Then, as darkness had spread around, William lit the fire, Hilda hovered the cauldron over it, and together they made their wooden witches and fake ghosts dance around the beacon that should attract their prey.

Several times Hilda jerked her head, as she thought she heard something, but each time that turned out to be a false alarm. As time had gone by, and it was past one o'clock in the night, she decided that this was not going to bring satisfaction. "We'd better pack it up and get some sleep, William. Not even an insane witch will go to a meeting at this time, when the hour of power has passed."

With the fire extinguished and their army of witches rooted again, they flew back. They were disappointed.

-=-=-

"Do you think we should try it again tonight?", asked William the next morning.

"No. Never happens twice in a row, meetings like the one we staged. We must wait at least until tomorrow evening. Day after that would be even better." Hilda sighed as she put down the coffee cup. "We'll go around patrolling again today and see if we can find her. Never put all your silver on one card, William. The plan is one, scouting is another."

So they went about the town again, searching for the witch that caused them so many problems, and at the end of the day they both felt very disgruntled about not finding anything. Granted, this day they had not been shot at or threatened in any other way, but all it ended up with was a grumpy magical couple.

-=-=-

The next morning both Hilda and William were hardly motivated to get up.

"She's like sand running through our fingers," Hilda muttered. "I wish she'd never found your truck, and she'd never found the way through to this world. That would have saved us a wagon load of problems."

"I know," William sighed. "Too bad your wishing doesn't help much. I am already paining my brain where she could be, and also what she'd want here. Still I think our best bet is the circle of witches that we made here. Too bad we can't use that yet."

Hilda nodded, pushing her tea cup over the table, staring at where she'd usually see her two goldfish flit around. "Is your brain handing you anything we can use?"

William emptied his own tea cup. "Not really. Oh... I thought of something. Newspapers!"

"Newspapers?" Hilda was not used to them, as these carriers of affairs were not invented yet in her world.

"Yes, of course!" William slapped his forehead. "Why didn't I think of that sooner? If Zelda is making turmoil here, there has to be something in the papers. I mean, she even shot down the helicopter of a TV-station." He veered to his feet and grabbed his broom.

"Where are we going?", Hilda asked as she also took her broom.

"No, I am going alone, sweet witch," William said, "that is faster and less conspicuous."

Hilda's face clouded over. "I never get to go to the fun places," she muttered, a pout on her face.

"This is not something I'd call fun," William tried to make her feel better.

"But I would!", the witch argued. "It's new, so it's fun!"

"Next time we'll get one together," William promised. "I'll be back quickly." He kissed her on the cheek and left the room, broom under his arm.

19. Taskforce

William returned with the newspaper. He had gone to the neighbouring town to get one, as he was not sure that the town they were in would still be accessible for a newspaper truck.

Hilda was glad to see him back unharmed and curiously eyed the stack of paper her wizard carried under his arm.

William folded the paper open on the table, and together they stared at the headlines.

"Prettyville in lockdown," Hilda read out loud. "That's here, isn't it?" she asked, to which William nodded. "The town of Prettyville has been closed off from the rest of the world by the army," she continued reading. "The series of strange incidents and inexplicable happenings of late have not ceased, according to police comissioner Brendan Willis. Rumours report the sighting of a witch, others report a real invasion of people flying on actual brooms and displaying magical powers."

"Invasion," William snorted. "They don't have a clue that one is enough."

Hilda nodded. "Indications that the devastation in the sewer beneath Drewmore Street are also the work of the aforementioned witch or witches have so far not been confirmed. The police for now assume that this is an after-effect of the terrorist gas attack."

The witch looked at her wizard. "They keep spouting that crap, William. About time we tell them that there is no terrorist group."

"We tried that, Hilda, and they didn't believe us. Pigheaded describes the lot of them."

Hilda nodded as she turned the page. With interest she looked at the advertisements, then turned the next page. After a few seconds she said: "That's it!"

"What is, sweet witch?" William looked at the page and missed what it apparently was.

Hilda tapped a picture of a lady in an evening gown. The caption read 'Gala dress of the year.' "That is it. We have to do something with a 'witch of the year' thing, William. Zelda won't be able to resist that."

William stared at her. "Do you know how much time and effort it takes to set something like that up? We need space, witches, a credible ambiance, money and stuff for prizes, and I can go on."

"Oh, shush you," Hilda waved his words away. "You think in problems, William, while I think in opportunities. And this is a great opportunity to get Zelda. All we have to do is get that Witch of the Year thing going."

"Yes. That's all." William frowned as he made two cups of coffee appear. He needed both of them, he was certain of that.

"Oh, thank you," the witch said as William saw one cup of the dark gold disappear. "Now you be a good wizard and get all the circumstantial issues under control, and I will think of a way to capture Zelda once she shows up for the nomination of Witch of the Year."

William said nothing. He took his cup before that disappeared as well and drank it, with a frown.

Hilda put her empy coffee cup on the table, and with her sweetest smile she asked: "More, please?"

He gave her more. Then he went to the next page of the newspaper, where another article caught his eye. "Hey, now look at this," he said to Hilda, who sat down next to him and also started to read the article that William pointed out.

-=-=-

They were on broomstick again. William had the newspaper with him and they were hoping to locate a certain address. Hovering over a part of the town they had not been to before, Hilda asked: "Are you sure this is the area? Doesn't look like much."

"I know," admitted William. "But from what I could get from the article in the paper, this should be where we want to be."

Slowly they descended to street level, deliberately flying past the houses there. They also went along very slowly, so the people in the houses were able to see them, unless they were blind as bats. The magical couple had almost reached the corner of another street, when they heard a door open and sensed someone stepping out. They halted their brooms and calmly turned around.

The woman who had come out of her house looked in no way out of the ordinary. She wore jeans and a black t-shirt with some white text on it. Her brown hair was tied into a pony tail behind her head. Hilda and William flew their brooms back to the house, where the woman was watching them.

After touching down and getting off the brooms, Hilda pointed at the newspaper in William's hand. "Are you one of the witches that's in that paper thing?"

The woman nodded, speech temporarily having escaped her. "You are real," she finally managed to bring out, her eyes glued to the robes that the two people in the street were wearing.

"Oh yes, darling, we are real. And we would like to have a talk with you. Preferably inside, before Zelda comes swooping down on us," Hilda said with her usual lack of diplomacy. It was a life-saver most of the time.

"Oh, sure, please come in..." The woman was still searching for a title to address the two when they were already standing in the hall of her house. She closed the door. "You are real witches?"

"I'm the witch," Hilda said, swelling with pride. "He's a wizard. He is William, I am Grimhilda. But you can call me Hilda."

"Nice to meet you. I am Vivian. Most people call me idiot."

"Well, Idiot, we are here to talk to you," Hilda proclaimed.

Vivian flustered, and William made it clear to Hilda that Vivian and Idiot were not the same thing.

"Oh. Right." Hilda shook her head. "This is such a crazy and insane world, William, it is time that we can go home. This place gives me a headache."

"You are from a different world?" Disbelief and eagerness sounded from Vivian's voice at the same time. She had hoped that these real witches were from this world, so there might be more. And a training to be a witch like them.

Hilda just nodded as they followed Vivian into the living room, the brooms leaning against the wall in the corridor. On the wall hung posters and pictures of everything that could be related to witchery. People flying on brooms, black cats, images of pointy hats, the works.

"Can I offer you something to drink? I'm afraid I only have tea. Or coffee. I don't know if you can drink that."

"Sure, tea would be good," said Hilda. She sat down on the couch and sunk deep into the soft cushions. "Ooooh, suck an elf! This thing tries to eat me!" The witch jumped up and stared at the innocent couch, her wand in her hand. "You have vicious furniture, Vivian. Better train it some more before someone gets hurt for real."

The woman in jeans stared at the wand. "How did you do that?"

"What?"

"The wand..."

"Oh." Hilda made it disappear. "Nothing special."

Vivian was nailed to the floor, seeing that magical stuff happen in her very own living room.

William took Hilda's hand and led the witch to a chair that was not so soft. "Sit down, this one is safe," he said. He winked at Vivian. "Know what, you start telling why you wanted to get in touch with us and I'll get the tea."

"Uhuh," said Vivian who sat down on the couch, staying away from Hilda. As a tray with tea, milk, lemon and cookies appeared on the table, she shrieked and was on her feet again, hurtling towards the far wall.

"Do you think this was a good idea?" Hilda asked William as she eyed the scared woman. "When we read they are witches, I had a different idea. They jump at the merest hint of magic."

William nodded, then turned to Vivian as he put his wand away. "Vivian. Come and sit down. We are from another world, as you have noticed. We possess real magic, we fly on real brooms-"

"The proper way," Hilda added as she looked at a picture on the wall.

"-and we are here to apprehend a witch that somehow got to this world. And she's been giving us a hell of a time to catch her," William finished.

Vivian slowly walked over to the couch again, where William was sitting, and sat down on the armrest.

"I guess you read about Town Hall," William said. "She had taken up residence in there, and we tried to flush her out. Too bad she was not in at the moment."

"Otherwise we'd have her," Hilda nodded. She leaned over and picked up a cup of tea and a cookie. "Oh. Chocolate. Thank you, my wizard."

Vivian stared at Hilda now.

"See, we read in that newspaper that someone had an interview with the witches of this town," Hilda continued. "So we had this idea that we might join forces. We do our bit, you do your bit and that way we might get Zelda."

"Zelda," Vivian nodded without much conviction yet. "She's bad, right?"

"Oh, bad is hardly the word. She set dragons onto us!" Hilda put down her cup, got up and spread out her arms. "Really big dragons. Fully grown Nobblebacks, you know, the ones that..." The witch looked around. "Well, take it from me that they don't fit in your house."

William grinned. Two Nobblebacks would take up the entire street. And take it apart also.

Vivian nodded slowly. She did not know and was convinced she did not want to know more about Nobbleback dragons than she had already heard. "And what do you want from me?"

Hilda sat down again, after grabbing another cookie. "We woud like you to call up your sisterhood of witches." She really tried not to make the last word sound scornful, and almost succeeded. "Once you have explained that we are here, and they are okay with that-" here she looked at William, who had been adamant about this, "-we may come up with a plan to get Zelda. It looks like we need to combine forces, and with whom better than witches."

"You want us to help you catch a real witch?" Vivian had no idea how large her eyes were.

"Exactly."

"But isn't that dangerous?"

"It is." Hilda had a real talent to make people feel uncomfortable with just simple words.

Vivian sat back, her face showing that she was working through all kinds of emotions. Many of them were not pleasant ones. "So you are serious about this, yes?"

"Of course. Zelda has to be stopped," Hilda said, nodding, as she peeked in a silver box that was on the table. It contained sugar cubes. She took one. "Oh. Nice." She took another one.

As the witch was crunching up sugar cubes, William looked at Vivian. "We really need your help. Zelda does not belong here, and we have to take her back. But for that, we need to have her. And we can't seen to get her by ourselves."

Vivian did not want to nod but did it anyway. "I'll get on the phone and try to get some people to come over."

20. Recruits

Vivian put down the phone after the sixth call. "Four of them are trying to get here," she announced.

Hilda was poking around in the now empty box, looking disappointed as all the sugar cubes had 'disappeared'.

William nodded. "Thank you for getting in touch with your witch friends."

Vivian sat back, still feeling an unease. "I must be insane," she muttered, just loud enough. "It will take them a while to make it over," she then said, at a conversational level. With slight worry she watched Hilda get up and display an interest in the large fish tank that was against one wall of the room.

William followed her glance. "Hilda, don't play with the fish, okay?"

"Oh, of course not. They have pretty colours! Do you paint them by hand?" the witch asked as she tapped the glass and scared away some of the water-dwellers.

"Paint by hand?" Shock and disbelief drooped from Vivian's voice. "No way!"

Hilda nodded, relieved. "You'd be not much of a witch if you have to resort to things like that." She sat down next to William. "Do you think it would help if we go out and collect your friends?" She was fully aware that witches from here did not fly on brooms.

Vivian shook her head. "I don't think that would be a good idea."

Hilda let out a grumping sound and so they waited...

Less than an hour later though, the four ladies had reached Vivian's house. Somewhere along the way they had found each other and as they were in the hall, William and Hilda heard excited chatter coming from it. As the four ladies came in, they stopped as one and stared at the magical couple.

Vivian eased them to chairs and took care of introductions. The four were Cornelia, Tory, Jennifer and Gladys. "These are Hilda the witch and William the wizard. The brooms in the hall are theirs."

The four women responded with silence. Tory then giggled. "Really?"

Hilda looked at William. "Maybe this was not a good idea."

Cornelia looked at the witch. "What do you mean by that?"

"We came here to catch Zelda. The witch who is responsible for all the mess in your town. The men of the law try to capture us, hindering us in our efforts. Now we thought we could request help from the witches of this world, and we are facing four giggling women who don't seem to have a clue about witchcraft." Hilda was calm, her arms hanging down, her voice peaceful. "We came here because of the words in your newspaper."

William waved the newspaper. "This one," he said as he also got up.

Vivian was on her feet quickly too. "You have to believe me, girls, they are real."

Tory laughed again. "Sure. You have us all shaking, Viv."

Hilda sighed. Wearily she shook her head. "Okay, okay, demonstration time again then. We have to get something going, either with or without these people." She held out her hand and called her broom. It flew in and landed in her hand.

William did the same thing, then put his broom against the fish tank.

The four women fell silent, their eyes almost popping from their heads.

"Now the pop the wand trick. Do watch with care, we are not at a fair here," Hilda said as she made her wand appear. "Anyone care to be a frog for a while?"

Tory, still not convinced that Vivian was serious, got up. "Of course. Why not."

"Of course," said Hilda. She pointed her wand at Tory and said: "Ranunculus." The spell took effect immediately, and Tory's clothes fell to the ground, covering the green toad that protested against the load coming down on it.

Jennifer fainted, Gladys stared and Cornelia uttered an indecent word. Tory croaked her best froggish and scurried around until Hilda picked her up.

"Anyone else?" the witch asked, holding up Tory.

"Ribbit," said Tory, indicating that this had been enough of an example.

Hilda nodded, understanding. She picked up Tory's clothes and took those, with the frog, to the hall. She closed the door, turned the woman back into herself and gave her time to get dressed again. When they returned, Tory was deeply convinced that Hilda was a proper witch.

"I am glad we have that clear now." Hilda sat down. As the alarm outside started wailing, she jumped up again. "Suck an elf, what's that?!"

Vivian and her friends ran to the window to see what was going on. William, followed by Hilda, ran to the front door and went outside.

A few streets away, something was on fire. Large black blots of thick smoke billowed upwards, slowly as if they were mocking gravity and the bit of wind that was around. The alarm clearly came from there also. More people appeared in the street from the safety of their homes.

William went back inside. "What's over there?" he asked Vivian.

"A gas station," she said, her face pale. "What if it blows up?"

"Then there will be even more smoke," William said dryly. He grabbed the brooms and ran out again. From inside the house, five women saw how the two strange people took off into the sky. On brooms.

Hilda was in the lead, eager to get her hands on whoever had done this. She knew it had been Zelda, and the fire in the gas station fueled her anger towards the bad witch.

Fiery tongues licked upwards at the magical couple as they hovered over the sea of flames that had once been a gas station. With wands drawn, they quickly extinguished the blaze beneath them while keeping a protective bubble around themselves. The heat that hit up to them was terrifying.

"She was here, I feel it in my bones," said Hilda as she watched William wipe out the last flames. "The bitch witch did it again. I hate her." Then she froze on her broom. "Oh crap. Don't tell me."

Without another word she turned around and raced off. William sensed her fear and sped after her. They returned to the house where they had just been, talking to the witches of this world. To their tremendous relief, the five women were still there.

"Why did you rush off like that?" Cornelia asked as Hilda and William came in again.

"You may have noticed that the fire's out," Hilda said, rubbing her nose. William knew that meant she was slightly annoyed.

"Uhm. Oh. Yes." Cornelia blushed as she looked out the window again.

Vivian saved the situation by making fresh tea for everyone.

"We came back here so quickly," the witch explained, "because I was scared Zelda was pulling a stunt to attract us and get to you. You can never tell with her. She's full of tricks."

The women sat in silence. There was fear in all the eyes that were on Hilda.

"It was clearly a Zelda thing, this fire," William added, "and I am sure she did that to find out if we are near."

"Does that mean we are in danger?" Tory asked, full of respect for the two magical people.

"Only a little more," Hilda said lightly. "With Zelda around, everyone is in danger. At least there are no dragons here that she can chase onto us." She eyed William. "Right?"

William nodded. "Right. Unless there have been dragons imported since I left."

The talk about dragons made the women shift uneasily in their seats. After all they had witnessed in the short time they'd known the two, there was not a shadow of a doubt that they were talking real dragons.

Hilda frowned, tapping her chin. "I have an idea... but I'll tell you about that later." She then turned to the assembled witches. "First we have something to talk to you about."

It took the two a while to explain their plans and ideas to the five women. Hilda and William did not try to make the whole affair less pretty or less dangerous than it was, as the group had to know what they would be getting into. Slowly though, smiles appeared on the faces of the five.

"I am sure that we can get Andy to join us also," Gladys said, as the plan was clear to them. "I'll try and get in touch with him once I am home again."

Vivian and Jennifer nodded. "Yeah, he'll love this. He's crazy enough for that."

"Do make sure he understands what is in store for him, though," said William. "He must start into this fully aware of that. We do not want to put people in a situation they are not ready for. At least, as ready as can be."

Vivian nodded. "We understand. I do have a question... If we want to get in touch with you, how can we do that?"

Hilda smiled. "I'll get you something." She got up and walked through the kitchen to the small back yard where she picked up a handful of pebbles. Back inside, she tossed them on the table, popped up her wand and waved that over the pebbles a few times, while mumbling some spells. "Right, done. You all take one or two of these thingies along, and save some for your friend too. If you desperately need us, rub the stone for at least half a minute. I'll know where you are and we'll come as fast as we can. Once we are on our way, the pebble will go cold for a short while."

The five women stared at the pebbles that now emitted a gentle blueish light. Tory picked one up. "It's warm."

Gladys took one also. "It is! Awesome!"

All the women took a few pebbles, and Vivian then stuck the remaining pebbles in a plastic bag.

"Remember that a pebble only works once," Hilda informed their host, as she saw how the bag was stored in a drawer. "Once you've used it and it's gone cold, throw it away as far as you can. The discharge makes all the magic go away and it might alert Zelda if she is around. That is why I said 'desperately', ladies. Don't forget that. And tell your friend about it."

The ladies nodded in unison and watched how William and Hilda got up. They followed the magical couple to the hall. Picking up their brooms, Hilda and William wished the ladies a safe day.

"We'll come back in two days, as we agreed," said Hilda before opening the front door.

"Yes." Vivian was very serious now. "And we'll also be here, including Andy. All day. We'll be waiting for you."

Hilda frowned for a moment, as she thought of something. "Remember one more thing about the pebbles. They shine blue now. If they turn back to normal, something happened to us, and we won't be able to come to you."

At least three faces turned very pale.

William opened the door. They slipped outside and flew off.

21. Gunfire

"What do you think?" Hilda asked as they flew away from the house. "Can we rely on them?"

William shrugged. "I am not sure. This is all rocket science to them, they don't know what they are getting into. We'll just have to be happy if things work out for the most part."

"I agree. What's rocket science?"

William laughed. "It is the science of shooting people to the moon and bringing them back. Alive."

Hilda stared at him. "You've been here too long. You are talking gibberish again. I'm sorry I asked. Just forget it."

"Forgotten. You had something you wanted to talk to me about, away from our new friends, remember?" William reminded her.

"Oh, yes! Dragons! Do you think we can find something of an animal in this crazy world that we can use as a model for a dragon?" Hilda beamed at the thought of battling Zelda with dragons. It would be a proper pay-back for the stunt the bad witch had thrown at them with the Nobblebacks.

Before William answered, both the magical people felt a familiar tingling down their spines. Faster than a thought could be thought, their protection was up high, and that was not a microsecond too soon.

From below, a loud rattling sound made its way to their ears. It was accompanying a large stream of high calibre bullets.

William pushed Hilda to the side, evading the stream of deadly metal. Not having to bounce that off was always better and more healthy.

"Crappedy crap, William, what's happening?" Hilda asked as they started a zig-zag flight.

"Someone is shooting at us," he commented, "and with a big machine gun or something like that."

He knew something of weapons, and the bullets that were coming towards them had a light-up shell every so many rounds, so the gunner could see where his aim was going. William forced Hilda downwards until they were between buildings, where they landed.

The shooter could no longer see them, and the stream of bullets stopped.

"And who might that be?" Hilda did not understand what was happening. People -never- shot at a witch. But then, she realised, this was not a world with all that many sane people.

"I might bet that it is Zelda," William said. "And I don't know where she got the gun from, but she's definitely trigger-happy."

Hilda grumbled. She did not like to be the minority. Guns were not in her league though, and William seemed to know what he was talking about, so she had to depend on his judgment. After all, this had been his world. She lay all her dismay in a single sigh.

Whoever was in control of the heavy machine gun unleashed another round of bullets into the air, apparently for the sheer fun of it.

"Must be Zelda," Hilda nodded. "I sense her near. That's bad of course, because she senses me then also."

William nodded. "Maybe we can turn that to our advantage."

"Oh? How?"

"I don't know. That's why I said maybe."

Hilda kicked the wizard.

William ignored it. "If you can fly circles around Zelda, without being seen, maybe I can sneak up to her and knock her over the head. She can't sense me."

"No. I won't allow that, William. That's dangerous." Hilda shook her head.

"Having Zelda on the loose is dangerous too, sweetwitch."

"Urgh. I hate you, please remember that. Be careful, you idiot. I want you back in one piece and without holes in you." Hilda kissed his cheek, jumped on her broom after that and flew off.

"Right," said William as he mounted his own broom. "Let's see where this leads us." He hovered upwards, staying beneath the roofs. He popped up his wand and thought for a moment.

Hilda, in that time, was slowly going around the spot where she sensed Zelda. It was obvious to her that Zelda sensed her also, as the rattle of the gun picked up again, and the rain of bullets was clearly directed in her direction.

"You can't win, Grimhilda!" Zelda's voice had to be magically enhanced, to boom over the noise the gun was relentlessly making.

"Wanna bet?!" Hilda yelled back, quickly scooting across a street and slipping between buildings, as a rain of glass splinters suddenly started coming down.

"I don't need to bet! I have toys!" Zelda laughed and happily fired another round of bullets. She could go on forever, as she had bespelled the gun to never run out of ammunition. Suddenly a dark shadow fell on the evil witch. It was there and then it was gone. Zelda stared upwards, releasing the trigger of the big gun as she peered into the sky. Whatever it was, it was gone. "Big stupid bird, probably," she muttered.

Hilda had noticed the momentary end of the shooting and wondered what had happened. She went on circling the spot where Zelda was, making sure she kept out of sight and out of reach of the bullets.

William was flying over a few roofs in places where Zelda could not see him. He knew that Hilda would sense through the link he was okay. He knew also that he had attracted the attention of Zelda, and that was good. He'd do that a few more times, in an attempt to unsettle the evil one.

Hilda considered having a go at Zelda on her own. She did not like it one bit that William was out there taking all the risks, while she was playing the lure and jumping the gun in more ways than one.

"Hey, witch!" Zelda yelled out. "Why do you avoid the inevitable?" Again a shadow fell over her, but as she looked up the thing that had caused it was gone again.

The wicked witch noticed the hesitation in Zelda again. Whatever it was that William did, it seemed to work. "Nothing's inevitable, Griselda," she called out as she moved to another spot.

The gun rattled.

"You missed!" Hilda started to enjoy the cat and mouse game, where the mouse was mocking the cat.

Zelda glanced up more and more, hoping to catch what was casting the shadow on her. She was almost tempted to point the barrel of the machine gun up as well, so she could take it out on sight.

William was on the building behind Zelda. He could see the witch in the middle of the square, if he leaned over a bit. He wished that Hilda were there with him: together they would be able to take the witch out, he was convinced of it. Now all he could do was make her nervous with the shadow he sent over the square. Doing more would make it clear that he was up on the roof, and he did not want to face the evil witch in a wand to wand alone. But if he had a way to disable the gun...

Hilda sensed the unease with William. Should she go up and find him? But that would perhaps throw the plan he had, and that seemed to work. Zelda was failing more and more in her attempts to shoot Hilda. Hilda moved to another street and from the corner of her eye caught a strange shadow sailing overhead and suddenly disappearing. "Are you doing that, William?" she quietly asked herself.

Zelda had seen the shadow also. It looked like someone on a broom flying over her. Just as a safety measure, she pointed the gun upwards and let go a few sets of rounds. After making that point, she searched for Hilda again and sent off bullets in her general direction.

William had taken cover as the bullets flew up over his head. They were far away, but still, the idea of an evil witch in control of an equally evil machine gun made for very careful wizards. Then he materialised the large fake flying witch again and made it cruise over the area once more. This time William did not make it disappear, though. He made the fake witch fly around until Zelda was shooting at it (which did not take long). Then the wizard made the large shape plunge down towards the evil witch.

Zelda was frantically shooting at the large black shape that came down fast. She was so surprised with the appartion coming towards her that she did not even think of casting a spell at it, the more as she had been firing the machine gun for so long.

The fake witch was hit hundreds of times but persisted in diving down towards the evil witch and her machine gun. At the last moment, William changed the shape into a large blob of black glue, which hit Zelda as well as the gun, rendering both useless. The witch as she had not expected that, the gun as it was not designed to function with glue everywhere.

"Hilda!" William yelled out. "Attack time!!"

Hilda let out a relieved sigh and then sped towards where she knew Zelda was. As she came into the square, she saw William almost fall down. Then she saw the strange moving shape on the grass in the centre of the square. "Now what is that?" she muttered, popping up her wand.

William was firing spells at the glued-in witch in an attempt to strap her in with metal sheets, but despite her situation, Zelda managed to fight the ties off.

Hilda started petrifying the glue, which seemed to have the desired effect. Slowly the glue was getting hard as stone, and the movements of Zelda became slower, until they finally stopped completely.

The magical couple stood together, wands pointed at the now immobilised witch, ready to strike again. They waited for several minutes, their senses sharp. But the statue of the witch did not move anymore.

Hilda frowned. "What is that stuff you threw over her?"

"Glue," said William. "Fast-drying glue. Why?"

"I don't feel good about this. Would that glue be able to eliminate the sensation of a witch being near?"

William shrugged. "Beats me. This is the first time I tried it on a witch." Hilda's words however gave him the shivers.

Hilda walked up to the glue statue and tapped on it. It sounded... hollow. "Crappedy crap..." With her wand spraying magic, she quickly cut an arm from the statue. She picked it up and held the end to William. It was empty.

"Holy Bejeebus," the wizard said, scratching his head. "How did she pull that off?"

Zelda had escaped from them.

22. Talk-off

As the witch and the wizard worked on cleaning the area, some people dared to come out of the buildings and look at them. From a safe distance, they assumed.

William started destroying the machine gun when the square was free of glue. He took pride in that part and turned the weapon into a small statue of a dragon, leaving it on the grass.

"William? What are these folks staring at?" Hilda tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned around.

"Us." He was certain. "It will also be very easy to scare them, so we should be careful."

Hilda nodded. "No shouting, I guess, right?"

"You learn so quickly, sweetwitch." William looked at a group of over a dozen people. "Hello, you all!"

Mere seconds later the group had disappeared inside, the door slamming shut behind the people.

Hilda looked at William. "About time you learn a bit or two about addressing people, sweet wizard." She flashed her sweetest smile at him.

"Hmmf. It probably was the wand," William offered a feeble defense, making Hilda burst out in laughter.

"I did find something interesting though," the wizard said. He showed Hilda the small hole in the ground. It was where the glue-blob had been that was meant to contain Zelda. "Looks like she simply sunk through the ground and escaped like that."

"Bah," Hilda commented. "I didn't know she knew that one." Her face betrayed that she did not know how to do it.

"Well, look at it from the bright side. We did get her stuck for a while, and cornered her." William felt good about that. "It's the closest we ever got to nailing her, Hilda."

"Yeah. Still it sucks elves that she got away." Hilda leaned into William, who put an arm around her and kissed her on the cheek. "Thanks, William. I needed that."

They called for their brooms and then flew off, while many curious yet scared eyes watched them.

-=-=-

As they were sitting in their homely shed, Hilda said: "It feels good that we got her."

William nodded. "Yes, it does. She will know now that she is not as invulnerable as she may have thought." It would also make Zelda more careful, which was the downside of the story, he added for himself.

"I hope the witches of this place will pull together," Hilda sighed. "Looks like we're going to need them."

William nodded. "Yes. Looks like it indeed." He was not thrilled with the prospect all of a sudden, after meeting the women. They were nice and seemed willing to help them, but there was still the question of how much help they could be when the going was getting tough. Because at some point the going was bound to become just that.

"I also suppose Zelda will lie low for a while now. She's been damaged in her pride, I'm sure."

A rumble, low and soft, made its way into the shed as Hilda spoke. She looked at William. "Did I speak too soon?"

"Let's find out," the wizard replied as they both got up.

Not much later they were in the air again. Slipping away from the former military base, with all its business going on, was becoming more and more easy. The magical couple rose up high, to have a clear overview of the town. William did his best to discover what might have rumbled, but there was nothing out of the ordinary from this distance.

"It can't have been far away," Hilda said.

William agreed, so they focused on the area closest to the camp.

It did not take them long to find the source of the sound. A small mall that was near the road from the camp to the town was now even smaller. The entire block that held the shops seemed to have slipped down several feet into the ground.

"This doesn't happen by itself," William started to say.

"She's around, William," Hilda interrupted him. "She's probably-"

The fact that part of the roof of one of the shops shot upwards to them made it clear that Hilda's feelings were right. Zelda was in the shop. She sensed her enemy overhead and attempted to slam the roof into her and the wizard.

It was easy for the couple to get out of the way of the roof. At the same time they pulled their protection around them. There was no telling what Zelda was cooking up for them while under the cover of the roof now gone projectile.

William pointed to a wall and dropped behind it. Hilda followed him. Sitting there, they would at least be out of sight of the evil witch. In that position they waited.

"She's still around," Hilda whispered.

"Where?" William whispered back.

"Don't know. Back there." Hilda pointed to the wall.

"Dragon turds," they then heard. It was spoken loudly and in a highly annoyed tone. "Grimhilda, I know you're here. Show your face, you mouse-head."

"Mouse-head?" William said without making a sound. He decided to immediately forget that, after seeing Hilda's expression.

Hilda then slowly got up. "Come," she said to William, and as he had risen to his feet, she walked around the wall, William right behind her. The wizard did not understand the reason for this behaviour, but he would stick with Hilda no matter what.

Zelda stood next to the roofless building. Her broom hovered next to her. She seemed to be in a mood that did not mean fighting. "So there you are."

"Yes. And there you are." Hilda nodded. "This is William," she said, putting her hand on William's arm for a moment. "My wizard."

Zelda, her hands on her back, nodded. "I heard. Good for you." She looked at William. "Hello, wizard."

"Hello, Griselda." William nodded.

"Why don't I sense you?"

"I'm not from your world. I'm from here."

Zelda frowned. "Wizard. From here." She was clearly working on that one, as she had not encountered witches or wizards in this world herself.

"You'd better stop your terror here, Zelda," Hilda said. "You can't win."

Zelda smiled. It almost made her look friendly. "I don't use terror. I just use convincing methods. And I don't have to win. I just have to enjoy."

William kept silent. He was not at all sure what was going on, with both witches talking to each other in this rather polite way.

"Then we will have to do our best to see to it that you do not enjoy," Hilda said.

"Oh, but I would really enjoy that, Grimhilda." Zelda magicked up three chairs, so they could all sit down.

William was even more stumped and surprised as that happened. He watched Hilda sit down and then followed; he was not certain if the chairs could have been prepared for something funny by the bad witch.

"So what's your plan here then?" Hilda asked straight out.

"Oh, nothing much. Turn a few places upside down. Get rid of you two annoying pests. Make a group of people my followers. Things like that."

Zelda seemed very relaxed about this all. William was more and more lost. How could this witch now be chatting along as if she was with friends, after all her attempts to kill him and Hilda?

"I hope," said Hilda, "that you understand that us coming after you is nothing personal."

"Of course it isn't. You're just being the good little witch you always are, but you refuse to acknowledge," Zelda said. The tone in her voice held scorn and contempt in a manner William had never encountered before. It was almost a form of art. It probably was magically induced.

Hilda wriggled her nose, and the legs of Zelda's chair made a cracking sound. "Good little witch. Pah. Go suck an elf."

"Oh, I would, if there were any around. I looked, believe me, and found none." Zelda fortified her chair.

William sensed that there was some tension building and sat ready to act, unsure what kind of action would be called for.

"So what's with the roof just now? And the building over there sinking?"

Zelda looked displeased. "Must be a fault in its construction. I was working on an innocent little spell when the whole thing sunk into the ground."

William grinned, earning an angry look from Zelda. Fearlessly he looked her in the eye. "You were working on something with gravity."

"You can't know that!" Zelda said, too quickly and too loudly.

Now it was Hilda's turn to frown, but she would ask William how he had known that later.

"And the roof was just a welcome to you two," Zelda replied to the other part of Hilda's question.

William did not believe her. The witch had first messed with something, sinking a whole building into the basement, and then, he was convinced, she had tried something else. Lifting the building up again or so. And doing a botch job on that. He kept his ideas to himself though. No need to provoke Zelda more, she was worked up enough from what he could tell.

"I hope we'll find a way to have a fair fight," Hilda said. "We can't allow you to wreck this world."

"You have no choice, darling," said Zelda. "I don't fight fair."

"We noticed," William commented. He thought back to the Nobbleback dragons they'd had to get rid of. The same beasts that had given Zelda her head start into this world.

"Thank you." Zelda seriously seemed to appreciate William's comment, taking it as praise in a distorted way.

Hilda got up and made her chair vanish. "I think we had a really nice talk, Griselda. We'll fight again."

William got up as well, leaving his chair where it was.

"Yes, just go away, you two. And leave me in peace. Go back to the other world, where things are simple and easy, will you? Stay out of my hair and I won't attempt very hard to kill you." Zelda looked up at them, very self-assured.

The magical couple summoned their brooms and got onto them. Hovering a few feet off the ground, Hilda said: "Don't count on that. But then, arithmetic never was your strong point."

Zelda's face grew dark for a long moment.

William sensed that Hilda was about to fly off, through their link. He popped up his wand.

Zelda stared at it. "Isn't that Gerdundula's wand?"

"It was," William confirmed, "now it's mine." He was aware that he could not affect Zelda's fortified chair. He could, however, do something to the ground beneath it. And he did.

As Zelda screamed, falling down a pit with her chair, William said: "Come. Let's go."

Hilda's eyes were pouring out admiration for William as they flew off. As they were going, not in the direction of their shed of course, she said: "You were magnificent with that last action, William. I would never have thought of that. It just is not done."

"What isn't? Dropping her in that hole?"

"Indeed. We were having a witches talk-off, and the people involved in that don't use magic on each other."

"And that is a rule?" William wondered if he had violated something he did not know of.

"Not a rule. But witches just don't do that."

He grinned. "I'm not a witch. I'm a wizard. Maybe that is a valid excuse."

Hilda laughed out loud. "That might be the only excuse. Wizards usually treat all rules with contempt. Uhm. I'm sorry, but that is how it is."

William looked at Hilda. "Oh. That is nice to know..."

23. Theo

"I wish I had known that sooner," said William as he stretched out on the bed. "About wizards breaking all the rules, I mean."

Hilda looked at him, standing next to the bed. "Somehow I think it was good you did not know. What wicked plan is churning around behind your eyes, William?"

"It is not so much a plan yet as an idea," the wizard said as lights blinked in his eyes.

"William?"

"Yes?"

"There were lights blinking in your eyes." Hilda sat down on the bed and leaned over her wizard. "No, no, keep your eyes open and your hands off me. For a short while. I want to see your eyes."

William stared at the witch. Her staring was interesting but it also made him feel awkward, until he recalled the blue and red lights that could appear in Hilda's eyes.

"Think again what you just thought," Hilda ordered.

"Beg your witchy pardon?"

"About the plan that is an idea, or whatever silly phrasing you used to confuse me."

"Oh." He understood, and thought his thoughts again.

"Think harder, wizard," she commanded, but no matter how hard he tried, the lights did not come back. "Maybe I was seeing things..."

"Which would mean there is nothing wrong with your eyes, Hilda."

"You really think so?" Hilda got up and started pacing in the limited space they had in their homely shed. "Just remember that I love you, William, and I don't want you to do something stupid. Crappedy crap, I wish I had not said that about the rules. These things are there for a reason."

William sat up and looked at the witch who usually did not have much going for rules herself. It was obvious that she was very worried about him. Whenever she was worried, he had learnt, she could not sit still. "I know, pretty witch. Now come here, sit next to me and let me tell you something."

"Talk to me while I'm here," she muttered.

"Fine. You should know me well enough by now to know that I would not do anything to put someone in danger. Heck, not even Zelda. So when I think of breaking rules, that is not something you should be fretting about, Hilda."

Hilda stopped her pacing and looked at the man who was sitting on the bed. "Not even Zelda. Suck an elf. Yes. You are such an idiot indeed." For a few moments she was silent. "And that is what I like about you. You sometimes spout nonsense, William, but you're a good man at heart." She walked over and sat down next to him.

William took one of her hands and kissed it. "Glad you know me."

She smiled. "I do. Glad you can talk to me, William. There are too many people who can't. Who don't dare or some such foolishness. It's not like I am going to bite their heads off when they do."

William grinned. "True. You don't need your teeth for that."

"Oh, shush you." She slapped William, ever so lightly. "Even if you're right. Just don't get into any trouble I can't get you out of."

William glanced at his witch and nodded. "Promise."

"Good. Now tell me about the rules you intend to break."

William shrugged. "I'll know them when I meet them."

"Oh no, you are not getting away with that. I want to be prepared for things like that," Hilda said, getting up and looking down at her wizard.

"Then I'll let you know up front. When there's time."

Hilda opened her mouth for a snappy counter, when there was a sound that could have been a knock on the door. She stared at William, who stared back at her.

Again the sound sounded. It was a real knock. On a real door.

"I'm not expecting anyone," Hilda whispered.

"Nor am I," Willia said.

Hilda went to the door and yanked it open. "What?"

There was a young man outside. Actually, older boy fit him better: looking at ads was probably the closest he had come to shaving. He seemed nailed to the ground. "Who are you?"

Hilda grabbed him by the arm, pulled him inside and closed the door. "We're a witch and a wizard. And who are you?"

The involuntary guest failed to respond. His eyes jumped from witch to wizard and then back. "They told me this place was deserted," he finally managed to put out.

"They? And who are you? What do you want here?" William asked as he got up. His dark blue wizard outfit made the boy stagger backwards until the door ended his amazement-induced retreat.

"You shouldn't be here," the boy uttered, still not making much sense.

Hilda and William seriously doubted the reasons for the boy to be here.

"Listen, either you tell us who you are, or we'll help you a bit," William said. He was tall enough to do some looming over the boy, and magic as well as his attire did the rest.

"Theo," the boy said, trying to avert his eyes from those of William.

"Good boy, Theo," the wizard said.

"Why are you dressed so strangely?" Theo asked.

"This is not strange, boy," Hilda pitched in. "And we ask the questions here. So far one of three has been answered. Why are you here and who are the 'they' you mentioned?"

Theo's hand clutched at his jacket; he appeared confused. "I had to leave something here."

"And 'they' told you to do that, right?" William asked.

Theo nodded violently.

"Calm down, Theo, keep your head on. Come, sit down." William took the boy by the shoulder and steered him to a chair.

Theo remembered how to sit down without being urged to. Hilda sat down on the other chair, and William sat down on the chair he magicked up, scaring Theo so much that the boy almost looked alive.

"So, Theo. You were going to leave something here. For them." William was treated to a set of dumbfounded nods. "Good. I am glad we have communication established."

Theo looked at Hilda. "Are you really a witch?"

"Are you really stupid?" the witch asked in return. "Of course I am."

"Of course I am," Theo repeated, nodding.

Hilda looked at William. "He's weird." She popped up her wand.

Theo jolted, almost falling from his chair. "Wha's that? How did you do that?"

"It's a wand, Theo. Witches and wands come in pairs. Don't you know that?"

"Just in stories," Theo declared, reaching for the wand and getting a slap with it for the attempt. "Ouch."

"Never mess with a witch's wand, young man," the witch warned him. She quickly poked the wand at Theo's cheek and drew it back before the boy realised that he wanted to hit it away.

"Suck an elf, William, there's something wrong with him." Hilda waved her wand. "Very wrong."

William wondered what she had noticed. Hilda knew tricks that he didn't.

"It is as if he is drunk. But then without alcohol," Hilda elaborated.

William began to understand. "You mean he's drugged?"

"Nothing heavy, people. Just a bit of a soother," Theo was helpful.

"He's drugged. We're found out by a drug addict," William sighed. "That's great. Theo, you were going to hide some drugs here, weren't you?"

"Yeah, but I'm not going to tell you," Theo said with a surprising bolt of confidence. "I am on a mission here, and they trust me."

"Of course, Theo," William said as Hilda sat back, amazed at the strange exchange. "We can't have them being angry with you, of course." Calmly he slipped a spell towards Theo, creating an atmosphere of confidentiality, of conspiring friendship around them.

Theo, susceptible to the spell as the drugs were messing with his awareness, nodded as he patted on his jacket. "Right. They're coming for this tonight, so it has to be here."

"Tell you what, Theo," William said. "We'll go away and you can put your package here. Then you have done what you came for."

Theo studied the wizardly face. This sounded so good that the little bit of nagging that was somewhere in the back of his mind was easily overruled. "Yeah, that's a plan."

Hilda shook her head. She did not follow what was going on. William was talking gibberish the way he was able to so well and Theo ate it all up as if it was the best thing since brooms.

William got to his feet. "Hilda, come. We have to leave Theo to his business."

She gave him a funny look but got up and followed William as he walked to the door.

"Theo," said William, his wand working, "we're gone now."

"Right," said Theo. He looked over his shoulder, but thanks to the spell by William he could not see anyone. The drugged boy got up, took a small package from an inside pocket and put it on the table. Again the boy looked around, seeing nobody. He then nodded to himself. "I'm going now, guys," he said in a hushed voice. "They're coming later. When it's dark."

As if he was moving through a snake pit, Theo carefully walked to the door and left the shed.

"Now what was all that about?" Hilda asked after making sure Theo was out of earshot.

William explained to her about drugs, drugdealers and their runners.

"So Theo put a package with that stuff here on the table?" Hilda's eyes were large. "We have to destroy it, William. It is not good." She already had her wand in her hand, as William gently pushed her arm down.

"Wait, hot-head. We should keep it here until the people who are responsible for that material come to collect it. We can take care of them at the same moment."

"But we can do that without that abusive stuff, William!"

"We can, yes, but I have an idea for that." William told her of what he had been thinking of, and Hilda smiled as she understood what William was aiming at.

24. Zed and Ted

Hilda watched as William opened the package that Theo had left on the table, well hidden in plain sight. Inside it were a few small glass containers with liquids that looked like water but definitely weren't. There also was a box with yellow pills.

"I don't think they are lemon flavoured just because they're yellow, right?" the witch asked.

"You're right. I don't know my way around this stuff but it's not something you would use for its taste." William wrapped the package up again. On his request, Hilda made an exact copy of it. The copy however contained vials with real water, and the pills did taste like lemon.

The couple then simply waited for evening to come, as the people who would collect the package would arrive then also. They were not disappointed.

Hilda had changed the shed back a little to its messy appearance. Their things were now behind a fake wall, and they themselves hovered over the roof on their brooms. An hour after darkness had fallen, two people, dressed in black, made their way to the shed. It was clear from their behaviour that they were not eager to be noticed: they moved from shadow to shadow.

Hilda and William calmly watched how the two slowly made their way to the narrow alley that led to the shed. Whispers rose up to them as the two came closer to the door. As the collectors of the package had entered, the magical couple silently descended into the alley as well and simply waited for the two 'guests' to reappear in the open. William already had a small stick in his hand that he could ignite at will, making light to blind the drugs-people.

Inside the house a flashlight moved around. It clearly was very difficult for the intruders to find their precious loot. Some muffled cursing went on after that, which was obviously the result of someone running into something. Hilda grinned.

The door opened again, the two people stepped outside. "Stuff it away, idiot," one of them whispered to the other. "We don't want to get caught with that shit in plain sight."

William ignited the stick. The effect, next to light that was spreading, was highly entertaining. One of the visitors screamed and just dropped to the ground, his hands over his head. The other one staggered back towards the shed, missing the door as the light was working more than miracles. The man clawed along the short wall and then yelled: "I don't know who you are, but I have a gun."

Not in the least impressed, Hilda said: "I have a wand." She popped it into existence, just to be convincing. It missed its effect as the man against the wall was still not seeing much.

As he was huddled into a corner, the man's eyes started making sense of the surroundings. He grabbed into the pocket of his coat and drew a gun from it, waving it around in a rather uncontrolled fashion.

"These things are dangerous, aren't they?" Hilda wanted to make sure, so she asked William.

"They are."

"Right." She flicked her wand at the man with the gun. "Taken care of that."

The man in the corner, who had taken the time to look at his partner in crime who was still whimpering as he lay on the floor, looked at the two strange people. "Taken care of what?" he asked.

Hilda just smiled and waited for the metal of the gun to become hot enough for the man to notice that as well. He cursed as he shook the burning gun from his fingers, staring at the blisters that were forming on them.

"I think they've had enough now, Hilda," William said.

"I guess," said the witch. "So, boys. How about we go inside and you can explain what you are doing here?"

The 'boy' who had thrown away his gun was not the kind who would jump to the request of a witch. Instead, he made a big leap, in an attempt to throw the two strange people off balance. They would not expect him to try that.

Unfortunately he had not expected the power-wall that William and Hilda had in place between them and the two visitors. The man slammed into the invisible wall and with a more than ordinary expression of surprise on his face he fell down, over his scared companion.

"They don't know a thing here," Hilda sighed. She removed the safety-wall, they picked up the face-down visitors and took them inside.

-=-=-

Zed woke up with a thunder of a headache. He was uncomfortably sitting on a wooden chair, his hands tied behind his back. His head hung down so all he saw were his knees and a floor that looked as if it was made of concrete. Zed slowly raised his head. The throbbing that went on inside there made him careful, something he usually was not.

'What the fuck happened,' he thought to himself, as he saw Ted tied up on another chair

'I am dreaming,' Zed then thought. 'That, or someone fixed me up with a shot of real bad.' He looked at Hilda and William, who were calmly sitting at the table, eating something. The smell of food and coffee were very helpful to Zed in regaining some more consciousness. "Hrrbf", he stated, to his surprise.

Hilda looked at the source of the sound. "Oh. William, it's awake."

"Brrm?" Zed wanted to know. Hilda's spell had glued his lips together. He didn't know that. Actually, there was a lot he did not know yet, but he was about to be enlightened. Hilda style.

William looked over his shoulder. "Oh. Good. We can talk to him later."

"Hvhvm!" Zed showed his displeasure with that comment. He tried to kick Ted, but found out his feet would not move away from the legs of the chair. Another surprise, spelled by Hilda.

Ted looked at his frantically moving friend and shook his head. He had been awake during most of the time and had seen the actions of the strange, grey-haired woman and her silly stick. Oh, wrong. It was hardly a silly stick, considering what it had achieved. "Hggm," Ted told Zed, and sat back, as that was the least uncomfortable way to be.

"Hvvvrrrr!" Zed was not giving up just like that.

William turned around. "Would you mind shutting up for a while? We're having a late night snack, and it tastes better when you stop making these obnoxious sounds."

Hilda waved her wand. "You stop yourself, or we stop you." She hoped the muttering man would not stop, but that hope was destroyed as Zed slumped back into the chair and kept quiet. It had already dawned on him that he could not win this one.

Only a few minutes later, the magical couple turned their full attention to the two people they had caught. Hilda leisurely snipped her fingers, releasing the lips of their involuntary guests.

Zed noticed the tightness around his lips leave. "Who the fuck are you peop-"

Snip.

"vvm."

"That's better." Hilda turned to Ted. "Are you going to do the same thing?" She held her hand up, ready to snip her fingers.

"No, no, no!" Ted shook his head. "No, ma'am, I'm not gonna scream."

"Bmm vvmvm grmvm!" Zed shared his feelings about Ted. He was ignored, though.

The magical couple pulled up their chairs and sat down near Ted. "Right then," Hilda started. "Your friend Theo left a package for you two characters. He was glad we were helpful in storing the package for you, so next time you run into him, you should be grateful."

"Who is Theo?" Ted asked. His surprise was evident.

"Hilda, usually these types do not know each other. That is safer for them as they are dealing with illegal business," William explained. "They don't know each other, so they can never say who did something bad."

The witch rubbed her nose. "There's this remark I'd like to make about this world, William. You know what I mean."

"I do, sweet witch."

"Good. First off, boy, tell us your names."

Ted managed to tell the two strange people his name, and that of his partner in crime.

"Ted and Zed. Sounds like a comedy couple," William snickered.

"William, please pay attention. These two were trying to murder us. That is not a laughing matter," Hilda said, missing the joke. She turned to Ted again. "You may have understood that we are a witch and a wizard. The real deal." She showed her wand. "This is not a stick, this is a magical wand. And I know how to use it. So no tricks. Do we have an understanding?"

Ted nodded as if his life depended on it, rattling his teeth as he went along. With all that had been happening in the last few minutes, he was ready to believe anything this strange woman said. He tried to jolt as he saw the wand vanish. The spell prevented him from doing such a thing, though.

"Now. Slowly and from the start, because I am not from here. Who are you and what do you want to do with that package?" Hilda asked.

Ted was temporarily distracted by Zed, who tried to convince Ted to "Gmmvvvm", otherwise "brrrfff!" would be the consequence.

"Don't worry about Zep," Hilda said, "he's quite harmless."

Ted did not chance a thing, so he let the Zep slip. "We were asked by some friends to come here and collect the package that was waiting for us here."

"Look here, son," said William. "We don't look like we're from here, and she isn't. But I am. Your package contains drugs. You coming here for that means you are into drugs. And we don't like drugs, nor the people who deal with them. So my advice to you is to tell us the story." Calmly, William held his hand out, right in front of Ted's face. Then he made his white and red wand appear. "See, she is not the only one who can do a trick or two."

25. Weirdos

Ted stared at the wand in William's hand.

Zed had fallen silent as all his attempts to attract attention had failed utterly, and the more he tried, the more his face hurt.

"If you are trying to freak me out," said Ted, "you are seriously succeeding, man." His eyes seemed glued to William's wand.

"We're not in the freak out business, Ted. We're here to catch a witch. And do something about you and your drugs as we're here anyway."

The word 'drugs' made Ted look at William again.

"You probably are aware that you can't win, right?" Hilda added.

Ted's eyes went fuzzy for a while; he was thinking. Then he agreed that he as well as Zed had little choice, even if Zed was harder to convince.

"Now, we are going to make this easy on ourselves," William informed the drug runners. "We're going to deliver you to the police station, and there you will tell the officers everything you know of the drug thing you are involved in. Is that clear?"

Ted nodded. If they could get away from it all this easily, these strange people were soft in the head. He glanced over at Zed, whose eyes screamed no but whose head slowly nodded also. Zed had reached the same decision, apparently.

"Wonderful. Now, to make sure you will do as we ask of you, we need to have a safety. The witch here will take care of that." William was very calm as he said that, which worried Ted and Zed.

Hilda waved her wand and said something in Latin while looking at the two captives. "Good. You will tell the police people the truth. Otherwise you'll find out that you should have."

Ted asked: "What did you do? I feel nothing."

"That's the nice bit," Hilda replied, "you won't feel a thing. Hah, I know my spells!" Then she turned to Zed. "Do you think you can stay quiet without my help?"

Zed nodded. He was ready to do a lot of things now, if only he could move his lips again.

"Good."

A moment later, Zed's mouth was free again, making him gasp for air in a reflex. The past experience had made the man wiser: he kept his mouth shut.

William rubbed his chin for a moment. "I have an idea. Hilda, watch these two for a moment, please." He got up and walked over to the table, where the fake drugs package was lying. After some magic, and with a smile on his face, he turned to Ted. "Here. You will take this with you."

Ted hesitated before accepting the package. Certainly these two weirdos were not so stupid as to let them get away with the shipment?

The two 'weirdos' had something better planned, though. Hilda went to fetch their brooms while William kept an eye on their guests. "Right then, gentlemen. Up you stand, and then up we go."

Zed could not hold back. "Are you crazy? Do you think you can fly that thing?" He knew he risked a locked mouth again, but some things just needed to be said.

Hilda however did not take offense. "I don't think so, Zed. I know so. Come, come, outside." She opened the door and walked into the narrow alley.

The two men, Ted holding the package tightly under an arm, shuffled into the cramped passageway, uncertain of what was going to happen. When the first thing happened, Ted stepped back, bumping into Zed, who uttered a curse as his partner in crime stepped on his toes.

"You, Ted. Step up here and sit down. At the front." Hilda pointed at the broom that hovered next to her.

"Oh no. No way." Ted was determined to stay sane. And on the ground.

Hilda sighed. "Perhaps this was a weak part of the plan, William." They had not counted on resistance in this stage.

"Plan B, then, clearly," said William. Hilda was still raising her eyebrows, because plan B had never been discussed, when William waved his wand. The two drug runners silently collapsed onto the ground. "No worries, Hilda, they're just asleep."

"Crude but effective," the witch had to agree. "Nice improvising, that plan B of yours."

They each loaded a sleeper onto a broom and then took off, setting course towards the police station. They flew over a part of town that was mostly covered in darkness. Electric lines had been ripped by the actions of Zelda, so streetlights were out of order. The entire environment below them was enveloped in an eerie silence also.

"Do you know where we are?" Hilda asked after a while.

"Yes, I do," said William. "Let's go lower. We can use the wands to make light."

The two wands supplied barely enough light, but they got the job done. The couple was indeed flying through a street, and at the end of the street was the police station.

"William, you keep amazing me," Hilda admitted.

They arrived at their destination. Inside there was a faint, flickering light.

"Looks like they are still in business," Hilda remarked. "Hey, in there!"

Her yelling startled William a bit; he had not seen that coming. Based on the sound that came from inside the police station, nobody there had either. Seconds later, two policemen, guns in hand, were in front of the building. One of them carried a flashlight that quickly found the two people on the brooms.

"Hands up," one of the men behind the light said, as he was uncertain how to handle the situation. Police Academy did not prepare their people for witches and wizards. Only the Halloween ones, and those were on foot usually.

"We're delivering two drug runners, officer," William tried.

"Hands up!"

Hilda and William exchanged looks and shrugged. They raised their hands, the very hands they had used to keep their unconscious passengers level on the broom. The predictable result was a double thud. Luckily the brooms were not hovering very high.

"Who are they?" the other police officer asked, the one not carrying the flashlight.

"As I said, we're bringing you two drug runners. They have some interesting information for you, as well as a package that might interest you," William said. "And you'll know if they speak the truth."

"Oh, really. And that is because you say so?" The flashlight sounded annoyed.

"No," said Hilda. "When they lie, they'll turn green and will start itching like crazy, until they say something that's true again. So remember that. Can we take our hands down now?"

"No!" The man holding the flashlight was visibly, well, in this case audibly nervous.

"Mack, calm down," the other policeman said, "they must be the ones that people talk about. If they can do only half the things I heard, a gun won't do much against them."

Hilda lowered her arms. William did too. "Remember," said the witch, "make them tell a truth when they are green and itching. They'll wake up in a few hours. William, come, I've had enough of this."

William nodded, and wands still shining light, they turned their brooms and sped upwards towards the black, cloudy night sky.

"Come back here!" sounded after them. The flashlight bearer tried to make his screaming sound official and failed totally, while his colleague started hauling Ted into the police station.

"Forget it," Hilda muttered, then added something in Latin.

"Ouch!" the policeman reacted, as he dropped his suddenly red-hot gun.

"I hate Latin, but it does work immediately," the witch shared with her wizard.

"Oh shit," William said.

"What?" Hilda wondered what she had done to earn that comment. Then she saw what William had spotted.

There was a fire in the distance. The distance was the former military camp. And the place burning looked like what used to be their shed.

"Crappedy crap..."

William grumbled under his voice. "Zelda?"

"Definitely. I should have thought of that," Hilda said. Her voice portrayed exactly how she felt: not good. "She was too close. After the talk-off she must have done some rotten trick to follow us. I should suck an elf for that, William."

"I'd hold back on that, Hilda," William said. He had no idea what an elf looked like. "Let's first get that fire out and see what's left."

They had exactly three minutes to find that everything had burnt, before the siren of a fire truck made it clear that it was time to leave. Wondering where that truck had come from, they lifted off and disappeared into the darkness of the night, while William pained his head about where they could spend the night.

26. Meeting Rick

"Lie still, William," the witch mumbled. "I can't sleep."

"Then don't lie on top of me, dumb witch," the wizard retorted.

"But it's nice and warm here," Hilda muttered, while she tried to push William into shape like she would do with a pillow.

"Hey, don't," was her thanks for that attempt.

"I do. I'm the resident witch, remember that," Hilda yawned as she was ready to slip back into dreamland. A smile was on her face when William wrapped his arms around her. "Hmmmm..." she commented, and that was the last sound to be heard for a while. That was good, as there was no one around to hear nothing anyway.

-=-=-

"Hilda?"

"I'm sleeping. I don't hear you."

"And I am to believe that?"

"Yes," muttered the witch

"I fail to do that."

"Oh. Then shut up, please. You are my pillow, and pillows don't talk in my sleep."

This caused William to laugh, and that again earnt him a few half-serious slaps on the arm.

"Hey, come on, I'm bouncing off you with you shaking like that!" The witch held on to the wizard, but couldn't help laughing too, and decided to roll off him and call the night a day. "You make breakfast. I am sure you can find a decent thing for us," she stated.

"Oh, without a doubt," William agreed. He made his wand pop up and made the little tent they were in vanish. They had spent the night in the place they had prepared for the witches meet, as that was a good distance from the town. The grass around them was wet; it had rained that night. The cold of the night that had lingered outside the tent now rushed up to meet them.

"Crappedy crap. This is hardly funny," Hilda said as she sat up and wrapped her cloak around herself more tightly. "Never been a fan of all that outside camping stuff."

William got up and looked out over the field. They were alone, as he had expected and hoped. Using some magic, he whipped up a warm breakfast with copious amounts of coffee, to revive the spirits of life thoroughly. As the spirits were doing their best to become presentable, the couple tried to come up with a plan for the day. It did not go well; all their attempts never made it beyond trying.

"So where can we find a decent place to sleep now?" Hilda said as she held up her cup for more coffee.

"That's the fourth one," William said as he filled it again.

"So? And that is not what I asked, anyway," she said.

William shook his head. Sometimes... "Maybe we can sleep in Bert's place again," he then thought out loud. "The room over the bookstore, remember?"

Hilda nodded. "I do. Not the greatest option, but anything's better than this here. We should go to Vivian again though. It's about time that we get our witches meet in place. And just cross our toes that Zelda will fall for that."

"Cross our toes?" William was amazed.

"Yes? What's wrong with that?" Hilda looked back at him.

William shook his head. Again. "Let's go see Vivian." He knew that a discussion about sayings and expressions would lead him into quicksand. Hilda always won those, for some reason.

The sway of a wand later, things were all cleaned up and out of the way. They mounted their brooms and then went to find Vivian's house.

They landed in the garden, using the cover of many trees in the area to stay out of view as well as they could. The house was silent. Anyone inside it was too. The backdoor was locked, but that did not take more than a "Hmm" and a bit of magic, applied with care.

Hilda and Wiliam left their brooms standing against the outside wall and quietly went inside, where a salutary warmth welcomed them.

"So where's Vivian the local witch?" Hilda asked quietly.

"Asleep I guess." William looked at the clock and at that moment realised he had not seen one of them for a long time. They did not exist in Hilda's world. "Yes. Six in the morning is still a time to be asleep. We'll give her some time to sleep and wait for her here," he suggested.

They sat down on the couch and waited...

"And who the hell may you be?" a harsh voice dragged the two out of their slumbers. It was not Vivian. "How did you get in here, and now get the hell out of the house before I call the police!"

They looked at a big man sporting black pants, a grey t-shirt and bare feet. He had remarkably big hands.

"We're here for Vivian. Do you know where she is?" Hilda asked, without hesitation.

"Vivian is asleep, upstairs," the man said, bluffed by the amazing response. "Now who are you two nutters?"

Hilda got up. "Grimhilda. Witch. That's William. A wizard. And we're here to talk about the bad witch that is tearing up the town." She stuck out her chin, showing that she meant business.

The man stared at her for a few moments. Then, with three fast steps, he was almost standing against her and grabbed her cloak. "Come on. Out." Next thing he knew was that there was a powerful jolt running through his arm, strong enough to throw him halfway through the room.

"Do NOT touch the witch," said Hilda, her eyes close to shooting fire. "We are here for serious things, not for ignorants."

The man picked himself up from the floor, rubbing his sore shoulder. "You, serious? Get away before I call the police, you Halloween creature."

"What's the noise- Oh, hello Hilda, William," Vivian said as she came into the room. "I am so sorry. This is Rick, my husband. He did not know about you. Yet."

"You know these folks?" Rick asked her with mounting surprise.

"Yes. I should have told you about them. They are really a witch and a wizard," Vivian nodded as she tried to make Rick sit down and failed.

"If I may-" William tried, but Rick glared at him.

"You may shut up. I'm talking to my wife. And you, woman, should stop with all that mumbo-jumbo about witches. You and your friends are all going soft in the head," he explained his feelings.

"Want me to turn him into a frog for a while?" Hilda offered, her wand ready.

"No, not yet. Let's see if we can get some sense into him without such a drastic thing," William replied.

"Drastic. Pshaw," Hilda spat. "Frogs are not drastic. For that you'd do-"

"Hey, quiet!" Rick barked.

"Rick, please, they-" Vivian tried.

"No, I will-" and then the big man was quiet. He stood petrified, his skin greyish, one arm extended towards the magical couple and one around his wife.

"What did you do?!" Vivian exclaimed as she tried to get out of the stone arm of her husband.

"I just turned him into a statue for a while," Hilda commented. "He was interfering. And don't worry, he hears and sees everything we say and do. So, we are here to talk to you about the witches meeting. How quickly can you bring your friends together, and get the word out on the street in a way that Zelda hears about it?"

"Uhm?" Vivian, even while already awake, was taken by surprise.

Hilda calmly repeated her question, sitting down at the table and courteously offering a seat to Vivian and William. Doing that for Rick was rather pointless.

"Oh. Right," Vivian said. "I'm certainly able to contact all of them today, if the phone lines hold. With that crazy witch out there, you never know."

"Good. Tomorrow evening, when darkness falls, we'll be at the spot and have some fires burning," Hilda said. "William will be around closeby, as she can't sense him. I may have to hide a bit further away, but I can be there quickly, if something goes wrong."

"And what could go wrong?" Vivian asked, not sure if she really wanted to know all possible answers to that one.

"Oh, nothing really special," Hilda said, quite leisurely. "Just the odd bit of magic or so. Some special effects." With that, the witch got to her feet again. William got up too, as Hilda undid the petrification of Rick. "Right, we're off then. May drop in later today or tomorrow, but we'll meet up tomorrow evening for sure."

Rick stared at the strange little woman with the grey hair, too baffled to say a word. He slowly rubbed the arm that had been extended for a while, and which had gone numb.

"Take a hot bath when it starts itching," Hilda said to the big man, without twitching a muscle.

"That's okay, Hilda. We'll all be there." Vivian got up and hugged the petite witch. Then she hugged William. Rick remained silent as he stood scratching an elbow. "And we know how to get in touch if something goes wrong. We have the pebbles."

Hilda nodded. "Good witch. I like people with stamina." Then, together with William, she walked to the kitchen and from there to the small garden, where they collected their brooms.

Vivian stood in the doorway and Rick in front of the window as the two magical people lifted off and disappeared into the day that had nicely progressed into dusk.

As Vivian came back inside, she noticed that her husband was scratching himself all over. "Time for a hot bath, dear," she said with a benevolent smile. "You heard what Hilda said."

Rick stared at her. "Hot bath? I think I need a shrink."

27. Books

Hilda and William flew over the town, using the strangest route to get back to the room that Bert Bantrey had offered them. Hilda did not sense Zelda around, so she thought it safe to fly into the street and open the window to the room whilst on broom. The alternative was to use magic to open the front door of the shop, as Bert was not in, something which made William wonder a bit.

The room smelled dank.

"No one airs this place, it seems," Hilda muttered, throwing the window wide open so some fresh air could get inside.

William shook his head as he closed the door that led to the corridor. "There are loads of books in this building," he said, "and what you smell is mainly them."

"Suck an elf," Hilda said, "we have to do something about that, William."

"We can't. Bert wouldn't like that, Hilda, and also, books need to smell the way they do."

"You know nothing, do you?" Hilda shook her head. "Look. There." She pointed to a corner of the room, where most of the wallpaper had started its descent to the floor. The wall was wet through, which obviously was the reason for the wallpaper's untimely demise.

"Oh. That." William pulled up his wand and with a spell he dried the wall. Then he looked at the mass of crumpled paper that lay next to the bed. "Shouldn't be too big a problem," he commented to Hilda.

"Think so?" The tone in her voice made him look at her and then follow her gaze back to the wall, which was wet through again.

"Uhm. This might be a good time to take that back..."

The magical couple tried to find out where the moisture was coming from. This effort did not bring them anywhere, as there was no rain outside to supply the wall with water, nor did William find anything waterpipe-like that might have burst.

"I wonder if there's something somewhere else," the wizard said, scratching his head. "I certainly can't get to it from here." He opened the door, crossed the small corridor and started his way down the staircase. He stopped after five steps.

"What- Oh. Crappedy crap."

They stared at a large body of water that made going down further only inviting for seals or other water-dwellers.

"Bert will be angry," William dryly remarked. They went back up the stairs.

"So this is not really a place to stay for long," Hilda said. "Obviously Zelda either figured this one out already, or she has fun making houses here inhabitable."

As they sat down on the bed, William wondered if it would be possible to save Bert's books.

"We should find another place, William."

He nodded. "Yeah..."

"Do you have any ideas? This is your world..."

"Hmmm... The books... The... of course!" William's face showed something good. "We're going to move into the library."

"We're what? What gave you that idea?" Hilda frowned.

"The books."

"Do I have to start worrying about you now, William? For if so, you picked a really bad time for that."

"Yes, no, wait. I mean, I was thinking about the books down there, and then I thought of the library," William managed to be more confusing. "See? Books? Library? These things go together well."

"Whatever your reasoning is, William, let's just go there and see if we can keep dry feet." Hilda pointed to the door. From under it, slowly water started to flow into the room, in a slow but steady charge to their feet.

They took their brooms and headed out the window.

"So much for Bert's place," William muttered. He dropped down to the ground and stared into the bookstore. It was totally filled with water.

The building next door did not seem to suffer from the same moist affliction as the bookstore. Hilda peeked into the windows. "Something's not right in there either, William."

"What's wrong there?"

"Everything's upside down."

As the wizard joined her in peeking, she pointed at the ceiling, where all the furniture was, including the carpetting. The light hung... up from the floor. There was no disarray in the room, everything was just, literally, upside down.

"Zelda's been busy," William commented.

A strange splashing sound made them look to the side. Water was falling down from the room they had occupied only minutes before. It escaped through the window they had left opened.

"This is going too far," Hilda decided, drawing her wand. She muttered some Latin and waited. Nothing happened, unless more water coming down counted as something. "Crap. I hate Latin. Stop that water from coming down, and dry up that bookshop," she growled. The magic took a few seconds, as usual, but then, within as many seconds, the bookshop was water-free. The books lay on the floor like fish would not, as the books did not twitch.

"That's how we do it," the witch nodded. "And now we'd better get to that library, William. Zelda's bound to know that we were here."

They got onto their brooms and William set course for the library.

"So this is your idea of a safe place?" The voice of the witch was not as scornful as William knew it could be, but it was bad enough. Books were gently floating through the air, missing them sometimes by inches.

"It comes close, for now," William said. "They're docile, we can stand on the floor without drowning and the racks are not hanging from the ceiling."

In that light, Hilda had to agree, the library was not so bad after all. "So where in this flying mess are we going to sit and sleep?" Even the latter was a genuine concern, as some books almost scraped the floor.

They checked the upper levels of the library, but everywhere they were greeted by floating books. The attic of the building was not an option either. It was not overflowing with floating books; it was simply full.

"Maybe there's a cellar," William cheerfully said. "There has to be a reason why I thought of this place."

There was a cellar. It contained no floating books, nor was it full of things like the attic. Experienced as they were, they transformed some of the items into a bed and some other basic furniture. Hilda sat down on a chair. "The witch needs food, wizard..."

"Okay..." William looked around. "I doubt it is a smart thing to make a fire here, or a furnace. There's no way out for the smoke."

Hilda frowned, wand in hand. "That's easy, we can-"

"But we won't," William said. "I know it is easy to rebuild the building a bit, but I won't allow it."

"And why?" Hilda was thoroughly surprised by this blunt refusal.

"It is a library. It is about books here."

Hilda got up and looked at the wizard. She studied his face, her eyes slightly closed. Then she nodded. "Okay. I understand. We're not going to rebuild the library, William." She had suddenly understood how deeply books were embedded in William. "We'll find something to eat somewhere."

William seemed to relax despite the fact that he was not tensed at all. "Good. Yes."

Hilda smiled at him and pulled him into a kiss. "I understand, William. Don't worry."

They went outside and became airborne. Almost without thought they flew over to Vivian's and landed in the garden behind the house. Contrary to her normal behaviour, Hilda first looked in through the window.

"The grouch isn't there," she said and only then did she march in through the kitchen. William was right behind her.

Vivian had seen the two land and got up to greet them. "You are back soon." She offered seats to her guests and stared at them as she heard the account of what had happened. As Vivian got up to make tea, there was a knock on the front door.

Hilda jumped up. "Is that your grouch?"

"What? Who? Oh, no, Rick's gone out for a while. It's either Andy or Gladys at the door. I'll get it." Vivian disappeared into the hall.

Hilda got up and went into the kitchen before William could stop her. The wizard had just gotten up when Vivian came back in with a young man, who turned out to be Andy.

"Where is- Oh my God!" Vivian reached for the table to stabilise herself.

Hilda came out of the kitchen, with two large trays floating in front of her. One had tea, cups, milk, sugar and cookies, and the other tray contained two plates with food. "I thought I'd lend a hand," the witch explained.

Andy's face was skeleton-envy pale. He saw the trays land on the table, and the two people in their strange outfits sit down and start eating as if they belonged here. "Who're they?" he managed to bring out.

Vivian arranged for everyone to get acquainted, then Andy sat down at the table too, as far away from the magical couple as he could. He did not care about being polite or social. Nor did Hilda and William.

Their host had gotten over the shock of the flying trays rather quickly. "I had not expected you back so soon."

William told her about the misfortune they had encountered with the places they intended to stay. This did not fill Vivian with a very comfortable feeling about her own residence.

Andy just stared as he tried to scrape the bottom out of his teacup.

"Andy is one of the witches that offered to help us with the witches meet this evening," Vivian said, shaking off the nasty feelings that suddenly tried to invade her mind.

"Ah, good," Hilda said. "Not often you meet a male witch. Zelda will like that."

This shook Andy into gear. "Uhm? Zelda? Viv, you mentioned that name too. I thought it was a joke." He surpassed himself in paleness.

Vivian stared at the man, tapping the side of one of the trays. "You saw what she did, right? This is real. They are real."

Andy's face wanted to droop from his skull. "Real, as in... real." He stated it out loud, for himself, to measure his reaction to it. It scared him.

28. Witches Meeting (1)

It took them a while to get Andy relaxed enough to hear what the plan was for the rest of the day. Hilda and William would fly around and try to locate Zelda. Any attempt to nab her was worth it. If they had no luck, then the witches meet was on. Vivian was already calling her friends to remind them about the evening event, but none of them had forgotten it.

"Some are pretty nervous about it," she told Hilda and William after the calls.

"It is not every day they go against a witch," Hilda understood, "so they should be nervous. But we'll be around. And we won't hesitate to break up the party when Zelda gets ideas."

"That's good," said Andy. "Very good."

With all things covered that were worth covering, Hilda and William started their flying around, in their continued search for Zelda. The downside of it was that they did not get beyond the searching. The finding proved to be impossible.

-=-=-

The day went through its afternoon and eventually the evening started spreading its dark cloak. In a part of a forest, just outside the town, torches used flames to bring a shivery light to the environment. Figures moved, in silence as much as possible. A few tables were placed just outside the area where the magical circle would be. Stones marked the places of the four directions. A man in a white robe fumbled with a compass he could hardly read because of the lack of light.

"Still not sure that North is exactly in the North," Andy muttered as he put away the compass. "If we do this, we should do it right."

"Calm down, Andy," said Tory as she walked past him. "It'll all be well. We have the two magical people on our side."

Andy mumbled something nobody understood and paced off, almost setting his robe on fire as he moved too close to a torch.

Vivian and Cornelia, who were to lead the meeting, shook their heads in unison. Perhaps inviting Andy had not been such a good idea after all. He looked like he was becoming a strategic point of failure.

Jennifer was looking around, wondering if she could detect a trace of Hilda and William, but there was only darkness among the trees, a darkness that stayed just beyond the reach of the light that the flames cast. She shivered.

"You okay, Jenn?" Vivian asked, who noticed the woman staring into the black.

Jennifer was startled by that simple question; her thoughts had been drifting far away. "What? Oh. Yes. I'm fine." The fact that she rubbed her arms showed that she was not exactly fine, the fact that she again glanced over her shoulder made that even clearer.

"We're a bit thin for a coven," Andy muttered.

"Andy. Not again. We don't have more members, and we've done fine with all other rituals, so stop your yapping or we'll throw you out here and now."

Andy kept his mouth shut. He knew she would do that without a further thought, and he did not like the idea of being thrown out of the group. First off, he liked being in the coven. And second, something he'd never admit to, he was scared shitless by the thought of having to go home alone in the dark with a crazy witch on the loose.

Vivian reached into her pocket and felt the magically charged pebble. With that there, Hilda was only a rub away, she told herself. "Right. Shall we begin..."

The people of the small coven took their places. Vivian started to chant and walked around the circle, to charge it and create the sacred space.

"Suck an elf..." Hilda frowned as she saw the women and the man perform the start of the ritual. "What are they doing, William? Is that normal for here?"

They were hovering several hunderd feet over the forest, at a distance that Hilda reckoned was safe.

William had never before witnessed a Wiccan ritual before and shrugged. "Perhaps. I don't know. They are not my kind of people in that respect."

Hilda grinned. "I know. I am your kind of people."

"Do you sense Zelda around?"

The witch shook her head. "I hope she shows. Would be a shame if this all was for empty dragon eggs."

William pondered that reference, when Hilda sat up on her broom and seemed to listen carefully. "Magic," she then hissed. At that word, as they had agreed, they yanked their brooms up high, so Zelda could not detect Hilda's magical presence.

On the ground, in the circle, the six people were drawing down the power of the moon, building their magical circle.

High up in the sky, Hilda stared at the small lighted spot in the forest, her face showing confusion. "How can that be?", she muttered. As William asked what, she said: "I thought that Zelda was near when I sensed the magic. But from here I still feel it, and it is not the magic of a normal witch. Not even of a crazy normal witch like Zelda."

"You think that these witches down there are bringing up that magic then?" William asked.

"Well, it certainly isn't me. And if there's nothing else down there that can do it..."

On the ground, the group was moving forward in the ritual. Their work was feeling so good and powerful that they seemed to forget why they were there. For that reason they did not see the pale woman standing among the trees. Her clothes and hair were black as the feather of ravens.

Zelda had heard of the witches meeting. Vivian and her friends had done a great job on spreading the rumour through town. And now she was looking at the six people, amazed by the strange power they were bringing about. Her eyes, they flashed in the flickering light of the flames, were fixed on the small dagger that one of the women held. These witches worked in a strange way, she thought, but it was fascinating.

The witch stepped from under the trees into the light and crossed the magical boundary, coming into the circle. Only then the group of six noticed her.

Vivian's hand made the athame shake for a moment as she understood who their visitor was.

The evil witch remained uncommonly silent. She held out her hand and made her wand appear. Then, in her other hand, a copy of Vivian's dagger appeared. "Oh," Zelda whispered, "I like this." She raised the knife in the same way Vivian did.

Vivian swallowed hard and did her best to continue with the ritual, as she had agreed with the others. The presence of this strange woman in black however, with her strange and aggressive power blasting from her, made that agreement hard to keep. Her lines started to come out wrong and in a stutter. No one in the coven could blame Vivian for that; Andy was surprised that she actually managed to keep something going.

At a certain point Vivian could not keep the ritual up anymore. Trusting that Hilda and William were around, she started to improvise while she hoped that the two would show up somewhere around a few seconds ago. She held her athame with the point down and turned to the visitor in black. "You are Griselda," Vivian stated, her voice strong and her eyes fixed on the witch.

"How do you know that?" Zelda's voice was also strong, and cold as ice at the same time. It was a way of speaking she used when she was shocked. It made people uncertain. And she was shocked, as this witch woman was apparently able to pick a name from someone without introduction.

Everyone in the circle had the feeling as if the skin on their arms wanted to hide somewhere out of view.

"I am a witch," Vivian said, "and these people are witches too. We are a coven and we join power." And Hilda where the hell are you.

"You join power?" Zelda frowned. Out of curiosity, slightly out of uncertainty as to how powerful this group was and also out of a form of courtesy, she also pointed her knife down.

"Yes. You never do that?"

Zelda hesitated for a moment. She did not want to tell this strange witch too much about herself, the more as she could not sense any magic coming from the woman opposite her. But then, she recalled, she could not sense magic from the blasted wizard that Grimhilda had with her, and he certainly had quite some. Caution was called for.

"I work alone," the evil witch therefore said, avoiding a straight answer.

"Not sure what's going on down there, William, but the energy that comes from there has changed. Perhaps you should go and have a look. I'll know when I have to come down," Hilda said to her wizard. "And remember-"

"I know. No taking her on alone," William nodded. Then he dropped down to the trees and the lights. When he moved through the forest and reached the lights, he only needed seconds to take in the scene. Through the link they shared he called for Hilda.

In the circle, from where most magic had gone now (except that of Zelda), something was going very wrong.

29. Witches Meeting (2)

Zelda had a spell on Andy. And not one from the song by Creedence Clearwater Revivial, but a very real one. He stood next to her, half a step behind her like a good and obedient servant would do.

"So you say you are a real witch," the evil witch sneered, "but you don't practice magic like this? What kind of witchcraft is it then that you do?" Some pebbles floated in front of her.

"We serve the Mother Goddess," Vivian snapped at the woman in black. "And you will release Andy from whatever it is you did to him. Right. Now."

Hilda was close enough to hear Zelda's laughter about that request. Zelda did not notice the other real witch coming closer, as she was so occupied and amused by Vivian and her friends.

"Andy, step away from that woman!", Gladys said, her voice as strong as she could make it.

Andy simply looked at her and smiled, not making any attempt to step away from Zelda.

Zelda looked at Gladys. "Pathetic little witch..." She pointed her wand- and was knocked over.

The women of the coven, and also Andy, tumbled to the ground as well, as that started shaking as if an earthquake suddenly happened. Before anyone could get up or react to the situation, a giant female form appeared and walked into the circle. She stood as tall as the highest tree in the forest. She wore a black leather dress adorned with large brass buttons and carried a sword in her hand.

One of the women on the ground quietly muttered something, staring at the apparition in disbelief.

The tall woman pointed her sword at Zelda, the tip only inches from the witch's chest. "You will not call one of my ladies pathetic, you puny little creature," the enormous shape said. "You may think a lot of yourself, but your magic is worthless in this circle."

Zelda opened her mouth to say something, but the large blade slapped her cheek. It was a loud slap, Zelda's head jerked, and the metal left a clearly visible mark on the pale cheek.

"No talking until the Mother allows that!" the giant woman said. "You will pack up your miserable self, release all magic that you brought here, and go back to the land you came from!"

Zelda stared up at the enormous woman, keeping an eye also on the whereabouts of the giant sword. Her cheek still burnt from the slap, and one was very certainly enough. As the tip of the large thing came towards her face, and the monstrosity said "Well?", she snipped her fingers to release Andy.

The man noticed where he was and scrambled to his feet to get away from the evil woman. In his hurry to get away, he did not pay attention to the enormous female warrior that loomed over them all.

"And now you go," the apparition calmly said, the tip of the sword slowly swaying in front of Zelda's face.

The evil witch, totally flabbergasted by this, got to her feet and slowly walked backwards, away from her oversized adversary. The giant remained in place. Zelda looked back and found she was close to the trees where she had left her broom. In a last attempt to wield her attitude she flung a bolt of magic towards the large woman and then disappeared between the trees, into the darkness.

The giant shape caught the magical bolt on her sword and it jumped off it. In a trajectory that would be the envy of any professional baseball player, the magical ball swirled to the side and hit Tory in the stomach. The woman who had just gotten to her feet doubled up and collapsed.

"Crappedy crap!"

The giant woman disappeared as Hilda and William released their combined magic and came running into the circle. They reached Tory first. Hilda quickly pulled her wand over the woman and mumbled a stream of Latin. William did what he could to keep the other women away, so Hilda could do what she did best.

Vivian tried to get close to Tory, but William held her back. "Don't try it, Vivian, or I will use magic to keep you away. Hilda needs space and peace for this." That made her back off just enough.

"Okay William, I'll stay here. Now, while Hilda is doing what she's doing... can you tell my why you made your interpretation of the Mother Goddess look like Xena the Warrior Princess?"

William shrugged. "I am not too current on Mother Goddesses, and I decided we needed someone that looked impressive."

"Well, you got that right," Jennifer nodded.

Tory groaned.

"Ah, good. She makes sounds," Hilda commented. "Now lie still, sweetie, you've been hit badly. I've done what I could, the rest will have to happen by a doctor or so. You do have those here, right?" The witch pointed that question at William.

"We do. Not sure if they can do something about magical inflictions, but we can get her to the local hospital. That is, if Zelda dear has not shut that down as well."

"No. The hospital is still operational," Jennifer said, "I live quite close to it. But how are you going to get her there?"

Hilda smiled and put a finger on Tory's forehead. Slowly the injured woman's head fell to the side. She was asleep. "This way she feels nothing. She will sleep for quite a while. William, brooms?"

The wizard was already on his feet and held out his hands: the two brooms rushed up to him. He sat on his broom and pulled his wand. "I'll carry her, Hilda," he said.

The witch got up and nodded as she got on her own broom. Tory's silent body seemed to freeze as William the wizard slowly formulated a spell. Then she started floating up until she lay in an impossible way on the broom, in front of him. Calmly he rose up and was quickly out of sight.

"You go home," Hilda said. "I will follow William, and we will come back to clean things up here."

"You go, Hilda," said Vivian, "we will close our circle and clean up. We are used to doing things like this in the dark, and we will find our way home with one of the torches. Thank you for taking care of us. And Tory."

"Of course." Hilda was touched by the strange witches that had such trust in her and William. "We'll come back to visit you soon, Vivian. And remember the pebbles, when there is a problem."

Vivian nodded as the witch sped off into the darkness, following William by the link they shared. "Well, ladies, Andy... Let's get to work here."

They got to work.

In that time Hilda had caught up with William who did not fly very fast. He was very careful with Tory, as she was extremely vulnerable in this state. "Are you doing okay with her?" she asked, worriedly.

"It's fine so far," William replied. "The hospital is not far away now. Hope with me that Zelda stays away until we've delivered her there."

"I don't sense her. She's far away."

"Good."

They flew on in silence, Hilda on the lookout for a witch, William carrying Tory, until the hospital came into sight.

"I'm going to warn them," said Hilda and sped off.

"You-" William started, but held the rest of his words back. She couldn't hear them anyway. He arrived at the hospital a few minutes later. To his surprise two paramedics held open the doors of the emergency exit so he could fly into the building without the need to do difficult things with Tory's stiffened body. He proceeded slowly.

"William, over here!" Hilda popped out of an examination room and waved at him. "You can't fly in there, so you have to put her on the ground."

Within moments, the corridor filled up with people, medical and patients. They kept a respectful distance from the strangely dressed woman and man, but also kept their eyes on the woman who seemed to hover on the broomstick.

William slowly and carefully landed the broom and guided it to the floor. As soon as Tory lay there, three people in white rushed up with a stretcher and lifted the motionless body onto it and then the stretcher was quickly pushed into the room where Hilda had appeared from.

"I told them you were coming," said the witch simply, standing next to William, grateful for the arm he put around her.

"I can tell. Do I want to know how you told them?"

"No."

"I thought so."

"Then don't ask dumb questions, wizard."

William grinned and squeezed her tight for a moment.

"Come. We have to explain to the doctor about her current condition," she then said. She looked at the assembled people who were still staring at them. "And you? Don't you have something better to do? Be sick or heal or something?"

A soft murmur went through the group, but there was hardly a movement of people who decided that going back to being sick was a smart plan at this moment.

Hilda turned towards them, hands on her hips. William sensed what she was up to and wanted to warn her, but he was too late.

"BOO!!"

Only one window cracked, and that was probably far gone already.

Something metal and large clattered to the ground from inside the room where Tory was, so Hilda and William rushed in there, missing the sudden mass-evacuation of people in the hall. Hilda's boo did have an effect.

30. Hospital

William and Hilda woke up in a soft bed. A warm bed also. It was such a remarkable thing these days that Hilda found it necessary to state how she felt.

"William. It's warm."

"It is. Nice."

"Yes." She turned around, making quite the procedure of it.

"Sheesh, lie still witch. I can't believe it."

"What is it you can't believe, wizard man?" Hilda veered up somewhat and draped herself over the man who had changed her life so much.

"That a skinny witch like you can shake the bed so much," he informed her.

"I am not skinny," Hilda insisted.

William put his hands around her waist. His fingers almost touched. He said nothing.

"You just have very big hands," Hilda decided.

They were in a guest room in Gladys' house. Gladys had come to the hospital, together with all the others of the coven, to learn how Tory was doing. The coven members had found Hilda and William half asleep on chairs in the waiting room and Gladys had offered them the room. At first the magical ones had declined the nice offer, as they were afraid it would be too dangerous, with Zelda out there, but they had been successfully overruled.

"Whether Zelda is out there or not, she saw all of us," Gladys had said. "You can't stay here. If you stay here and she finds you, you will endanger the lives of all the people in the hospital."

That was true, so the magical couple had gone with Gladys. Or rather, they had flown Gladys home, which was a stunning and also slightly frightening experience for the Wiccan witch.

After a while there was a knock on the door. "Hilda? William? Are you awake?" It was Gladys' voice.

"We are," the witch replied, "and you can come in if you want. We're still covered."

Gladys came in, and with her came the smell of toast and coffee. "I thought you might like some breakfast. Everything's in the kitchen. If you care to come..."

They cared.

"Ohhh, this coffee is so much better than what William makes!" Hilda declared as she gladly accepted a refill of the refill.

"Oh?" Both William and Gladys said that. He frowned, she looked surprised that they made coffee themselves.

"You have coffee there too, wherever there is?" Gladys asked.

William shook his head. "In our world, my new one, coffee doesn't exist. I just magic up what I remember to be coffee."

"Show her, show her," Hilda waved with a hand, holding on to her cup. "I'll have some more of this."

William was not sure if he should be offended. He shrugged and magicked up a cup of coffee. Eagerly Gladys picked it up and tried it. With an apologetic face she put it down and reached for her own coffee again.

"That bad?"

"Not really... bad... it works... for an emergency," Gladys offered.

"Yes. That bad," Hilda added a little bit less diplomatically.

"I'll never make you coffee again, witch," William warned her.

"Hah, I can do it myself now!" Hilda puffed. She flipped up her wand and made a cup of coffee appear. "Now this...," she said and confidently took a sip... "is just as good as your coffee, my sweet William."

Gladys stared at the grey-haired woman. Then she took a sip from the latest magical creation. "Yes. It is." She fought her face. "I'll make a fresh pot." As she was working on more coffee, Gladys asked what they were planning to do.

"We'll go over to the hospital and see how Tory is doing," William said as he tried to prevent Hilda from snatching his muffins away. "And we may need some stuff from there."

"Stuff from there? It's not a shop, you may remember," Gladys grinned as she looked back at the table and saw the minor battle.

"Luckily my memory is lapsing in that respect," William calmly said, as he watched the last muffin disappear into Hilda.

Gladys decided not to ask. What she did not know would not upset her. Yet.

-=-=-

"Again? Are you sure? It's daylight now!" Gladys worried and her faced showed it.

"Come on. You sat on a broom before," Hilda said from her broom. She hovered some fifteen feet over the ground already. William was patiently waiting for Gladys to sit on his broom.

"But people will see me," Gladys objected.

"Yes. And they will see us too, so they'll know you are in good company."

Gladys did not have the nerve to argue with that. She resigned and sat on the broom.

"There is nothing to fear, Gladys," William said as they swiftly moved up into the air and headed for the hospital. The woman held on to his arm that she felt behind her, which was fine with him. The flight was not a long one.

Gladys quickly got off the broom as soon as her feet were able to touch ground again. "Thank you. That was... exciting."

William grinned.

"Come, come," Hilda said. She was already near the door. "We have things to get and sick people to see." She shrunk the brooms and William slipped them in his cloak pocket.

The three entered the hospital, where some of the medical staff on duty remembered the two strangely dressed ones. Whispers were whispered, fingers were pointed. There was little harm though; the visitors had already agreed that Gladys would do the talking in the hospital, and so they were able to see Tory quite quickly.

The nurse on duty had made Hilda and William promise not to use magic in the hospital and not to fly inside, which they had quickly agreed to.

Tory was awake, but clearly in pain.

"We've given her painkillers," the nurse who had come with the visitors said, "they just don't seem to catch on."

Hilda looked at Tory. "Where does it hurt, dear?"

"Where doesn't it," the dear said. "I don't know what hit me, but it got me good." She ended her words with a groan as she tried to sit up somewhat better.

A wand appeared. "This is not going to hurt."

"Mrs. Witch," the nurse started, but she was too slow. The spell was cast and Tory was free of pain.

"Now, let's see," the witch said, convincingly unimpressed by the nurse who kept telling her that she could not do what she was doing. As Hilda looked Tory over (the witch was awake and fresh now), William calmly guided the nurse back into the corridor, hesitantly assisted by Gladys.

"Now you go back inside, Gladys," said William, "Tory will need someone she knows. And Nurse Dunn and I will take a little walk."

"We will?" asked Nurse Dunn.

"You will?" asked Gladys.

William did not need a wand for this. "We will."

Gladys watched the wizard in his blue, black and purple robes walk off with the nurse who suddenly was nodding understandingly. As the two turned a corner, she went into the room again and closed the door.

"Ahhh, good that you came back. I need you."

-=-=-

A short while later William came back, a smile on his face. "How's the patient?"

"As good as new," Hilda grinned. William hugged the witchy woman.

"Hey, wait, I still don't get it," Tory complained from the bed. "If I got hurt last night, why didn't you guys fix me up then and there?"

Hilda turned to the woman. "We both were quite exhausted after keeping up the Mother Goddess to make an impression on Zelda. I patched up what I still could and then we took you here. That was the best option, believe me. We're awake now, and refreshed. Thanks to Gladys and her coffee. So fixing you now was easy."

"So I can get up now and go home?" Tory already looked happy and forward to that.

"Hmm, better wait for the doctors to say that's okay, Tory," her sister in the witchy arts, Gladys, said. "They might not like it if you walk out of here just like that."

Tory looked a bit grumpy. "Guess you're right. Can't you call one so I can leave?"

"Sure." Hilda walked to the door and before someone could do something, yelled "Doctor!" into the corridor. Now, William could have done something as he knew what she was going to do, but he had too much fun with that.

Hilda's yelling was not in vain. Not only a doctor but also two nurses came running. When they heard what the 'emergency' was, they did their best to refrain from angry looks. Hilda's fame had already spread among the staff of the hospital.

"This woman is healed," the witch declared, pointing at Tory. "Can you tell her she can go?"

"Mrs. Witch, this is not the way we work here!" the doctor said, appalled at her behaviour.

Hilda shrugged and sat down. "I don't know that. I'm not from around here."

"Thank God," the doctor muttered as he started to examine Tory. He checked her chart too, and could not find anything wrong with her anymore. "Miraculous," he said as he shook his head. "I should ask my colleague-"

"Is she fine or isn't she?" William asked the good doctor.

"Oh, she is, yes, she is. Healthy as a fish," he admitted.

William smiled.

Not much later, four people left the hospital. Hilda expanded the brooms again, and they carried the two women to Vivian's house.

31. The plan

For Tory it was the first conscious broomride in her life. She enjoyed it tremendously. So much even that Hilda had to caution her a few times, as she was turning so frantically that the witch had problems keeping Tory on board.

Gladys, on Williams, broom, was less enthusiastic but she was a bit more at peace with the whole strange mode of travelling by now.

They landed in the garden again, without being harrassed by Zelda. There was no trace of the witch.

"You think she left for home?" William asked Hilda as they trailed behind the two women who quickly went inside.

"I dare not even hope it," she replied. "She was scared, but I don't believe she will leave from here because of that. She's brooding on something evil, mark my words. But we did get her to back off for a while, which is a golden egg in our basket." Hilda beamed.

"Golden egg..." William frowned. "Oh. Right."

As they entered into the kitchen, Hilda held the wizard back. "Strange people," she whispered.

William heard the voices. "Not surprising. You hardly know anyone here."

"Ssshhhhh..." She gestured that he should keep his voice down. "Not that kind of strange. Strange kind of strange."

The fact that his witch called something strange started to make William worry. "In what respect?" He lowered his voice some more.

"A spooky respect," Hilda said, not making things much clearer for the man with her.

"Oh."

"Hilda? William? Are you there?" Vivian's voice clearly rang out, and in the undertones it was unmistakable that she hoped they would show themselves very quickly.

"That's our cue," William sighed. They went inside.

In the livingroom was rather a large assembly present. William and Hilda now both felt the strangeness almost solidly in the room.

Vivian, relieved, jumped up and went through introductions. There were three people on the couch they had never seen before. They were Rodney, Stephen and Buster. Buster looked as if his physique had obeyed his name: he was huge enough to bust most things in the house. Things, and people. Perhaps even the house itself.

"They are here with a proposal," Vivian explained as Gladys went round with tea and coffee. "They have seen Zelda fly around and they want to help us catch her." Her expression did not reveal if she had much confidence in the proposition the three men had already laid out to her.

As all were seated, Stephen took his coffee, sipped it loudly and earned a disapproving look from the witch. "Looking for trouble?" he asked her.

"No. I don't start trouble," Hilda said. "I finish it."

The man frowned and wisely decided to let it pass. "Okay. We got the same problem you do," he said. "That bloody witch. She's messing up our place and pisses us off in a fucking major way."

"You do not have the same problem we have," Hilda charged against Stephen, "you are in your own world, we're not!"

Stephen prodded Buster who got up and started to approach Hilda.

"You'd better not, son," said William. "Zelda is a witch, so is Hilda." He held up his hand and flipped up his wand. "And I am not too bad myself, if I may say so."

Buster frowned at William, stared at Hilda for a moment and then questioned Stephen in silence.

"Damn you," the latter said, without specifying whom this was meant for. Buster took this as a signal to sit down unharmed. "We want our place back," Stephen continued. "And we wanna call in the forces that we deal with for that. But we thought that asking you folks would be a good idea also. You seem to know the bitch witch."

Hilda frowned for a moment but let the remark pass. "We know her. Quite well. She's made our being here rather tedious. I want to bust her bones."

Buster smiled appreciatively. "Yeah."

"So, you say she is messing up your place. Where is your place?" Hilda asked.

"Somewhere outa town," Stephen carefully avoided details.

"What is your place?"

"Large."

"If we are to help you, man, we need some more information. And go there, to see it." Hilda tried to remain calm with the man. Apparently there was something about him that could be beneficial.

"You wanna see our place?" Stephen watched her.

"Yes. Once we finished our coffee."

"Coffee," Buster agreed.

Hilda smiled. She liked the big bloke. "So. You mention that you want to call in your powers. The forces that you deal with, was it?"

"Yeah. We're good with them. And them's with us."

"And what or who are those forces?"

Stephen got up. "You ask so much, witch. Come on. We'll take you. The bikes are down the street where we can still ride'em."

"Bikes." A memory flashed before Hilda's eyes, of a motorcycle gang, halfway stuck in the concrete of a freeway. She grinned.

"Gotta problem with bikes?" Stephen asked.

"No," the witch smiled. "Bikes usually have problems with me. And if you don't mind, we'll take our brooms instead of joining you on your machines. Maybe the ladies want to join, though."

Vivian stared at Hilda, shocked by the suggestion. "Are you serious?"

Gladys grinned and elbowed Tory, who looked as if she was game.

Rodney, silent until now, said: "Brooms. That's wild."

-=-=-

Hilda and William flew low. They followed the three motorcycles. The witches were riding along on the noisy machines, holding on to the riders for dear life.

"I am curious where we are going," the witch said to her wizard, who nodded.

Soon after that, the bikes turned off the main road and onto a dirt road, the passengers shrieking as the wheels danced beneath them.

"I am still curious where we are going," the witch said to her wizard, who this time shrugged.

"I don't have a real clue where we are anymore." William looked around, flew up so he was over the trees that were lining the dirt road left and right and came back down to Hilda. "Not a clue. Never been here before."

They flew on until the bikes slowed down. At the end of the road loomed a large collection of old and badly maintained containers, the kind that are used on seaships. The bikers mumbled something as they waited for their passangers to unmount the machines, then led the way into one of the containers.

"It stinks really badly here, Stephen," Hilda helpfully pointed out.

The man ignored her as he switched on some lights, powered by some unknown source. The inside of the space they were in was amazing. All the interiors of the containers had been taken out, so the inside of the stack of metal seemed like a steel cathedral.

The three woman stayed close to each other and the open door. Hilda and William walked on into the place, following Stephen and his buddies. There were low benches. There were black mirrors. And there were black candles. Hundreds of them.

"Stephen," William asked, "what exactly is it you are doing here?" He had this funny feeling that he knew the answer.

"Devil worship."

"Right..."

"And what's that?" Hilda asked as she used her wand to light all the candles in one strike.

"Crap, I need a trick like that," Rodney informed the people around. "Can you blow 'm out like that too?"

"Sure. That's simple."

"Cool. I'm keeping you."

Hilda turned around quickly. William did that too. Both stared at a certain part of the metal dome where there was nothing but darkness.

"Getting nervous?" Stephen grinned.

"What was that?" William asked.

"I don't know," the witch replied.

Wands drawn and ignoring Stephen, they walked to the spot that had attracted their attention. They found nothing. Feeling ill at ease, they came back to where all the others were.

The three ladies had dared to come in by that time and were carefully examining some of the black mirrors. They knew better than to touch anything here. Carefully whispering, they discussed the place they had gotten into. Gladys was not too sure if this was something they should continue doing, but Tory and Vivian pointed out that these were strange circumsances, and so strange measures had to be taken. Even if wiccan witches had to work together with real witches like Hilda. And devil worshippers.

"Okay Stephen, nice place you have here," Hilda said. "I do wonder how Zelda messed this place up, but I will take your word for it. What is your plan?"

Stephen frowned and rolled his impressive shoulder muscles. "Yeah, I guess you ain't in touch with the place. What we wanna do is call up the powers. That seems to attract the bitch witch. Then you come in and slam her down."

"Ah. Right. That is the... uhm... plan."

Stephen nodded. "Works for me." Buster nodded along with his leader. It all seemed to work for him.

"And have you any idea when you want this plan to happen? Are there things that need to be organised?" William asked.

Stephen shook his head. "Not really. We can round up our people quickly. Do you need stuff then?"

William looked at Vivian who came closer.

"We want to come with a few more people, provided we can get them here," Vivian said. "Not sure about the rest."

"Hilda and I can provide some transportation," William offered.

"We should get this show on the road as quickly as possible," Hilda threw in. "Zelda's out there and we need to nab her. Fast. I don't want to know what crappedy crap she's doing at the moment."

"I am not sure if I want to know," Vivian remarked. At first this whole witching business, catching the bad one, had seemed like a fine thing to do, but now, with devil worshippers and all that, the situation was taking yet another turn for the worse.

Then the ground shook.

"Suck an elf."

32. Here comes trouble

Everybody ran outside, to try and locate the source of the ground-shaking events. Alas, the location of the metal cathedral was very good for people who did not want to be bothered, but lousy for staying up to date on local affairs.

Hilda and William grabbed their brooms and raced off, leaving the six others behind.

"That's not friendly," Buster commented.

"We have to hurry in getting Zelda," Hilda yelled at William. Their speed was insane, wind yanked at them and took their breath away.

"Cool plan," the wizard yelled back as they gained altitude.

As they were higher up, they saw something unnerving in the skyline of the city. One of the highest buildings had gone. There was no smoke, no dust, no debris anywhere. Just a hole in the view.

"Holy Bejeebus," William said, "look at that. Where's the Denton Building gone?"

"Ask Zelda," Hilda muttered.

Soon they reached the gaping opening in the ground where the building had been. Gas-pipes, water-pipes and electricity cables had been torn off. Enormous bits of concrete were scattered around where once the solid foundation of the building had been. Not a soul was in the street, for some reason.

Hilda looked round. "She's not near here. I wonder how she managed to pull this off. A shed is one thing, but this was one big building."

"And I want to know where she is. And where the building went," William added to the wonder.

"Only one thing we can do, William. Go up and circle. If the thing is still around we have to be able to find it."

Hilda was right, he knew. They pulled up their brooms and started circling. At the second round Hilda pointed. "Got it."

William looked. Behind the bulk that was the ice cream factory was another bulk. The Denton Building. It was just not as high as it used to be. It was lying sideways. "That is scary..."

The witch and the wizard did not race towards the building.

"I wonder why it's there," Hilda said. "And like that."

William nodded. "It's strange. Now, Zelda is strange also, but that doesn't explain it all."

"Maybe..." Hilda said, looking at her wizard. They both thought the same thing and looked up. It was just in time to see a large object coming down, towards them. The object had once been a few floors of the Denton Building and now was reassigned to crush-duty.

"Crappedy crap!" They moved to the side, out of the block's trajectory, but that was not enough: the block altered its course and kept coming. The couple made a few fast zig-zag moves, but the block was determined to join them.

"Split up," Hilda ordered, and they did. Hilda dropped away to the left, William to the right. Half the block followed Hilda, the other half went after the wizard, so that was not a proper solution either. At least it was obvious now why Zelda had ripped the building out of the ground.

At top speed the two magical people were able to stay out of reach of their concrete followers, but they knew they could not keep that speed up for too long. Magic did drain their energy.

William made a sharp turn and then steeply climbed up. The block that was after him shot away for quite a stretch as its mass did not allow it to manoeuver as fast as the man on the broom, but it did not give up. "Holy Bejeebus," the wizard cursed, "that witch is insane and scary."

"William!" Hilda shouted at him, also through their bond. "Come over to me!"

He knew she had an intention with that, so he set course for the witch and reached her in less than two minutes. "Quick. There is a lot concrete coming up to squash us."

Hilda did not answer. Instead, she took William's broom in a deathgrip and yanked it as she shot upwards after several death-defying seconds. "This'd better work."

It worked. Below them, the two concrete blocks were coming up towards them, but Hilda's timing had been perfect. The two blocks collided and their speed took care of the rest. Also her pick of the location had been good, as there were no houses beneath them. Giant lumps of concrete, steel and wiring started tumbling down, as the magic that Zelda had stored into the blocks started dissipating. Even a witch as formidable as she could not keep all that together.

"Damn it, you witch, you did it!" Relief spread through William as they both watched the result of Hilda's action.

"I am glad you approve," Hilda said. "This was close. It also tells that Zelda's getting desperate when she resorts to things like that to crush us." She was already searching for the evil witch but there was no trace of her. "Crappedy crap. She's gone. I am sure I sensed her when we were flying like crazy." In a major bad mood the two flew back to the metal dome of containers, to check on the witches and the devil-worshipping allies they had left them with...

-=-=-

The magical people worked together with the witches and the devil-boys to get the metal dome in order for the great reception, as they had code-named their action. Buster had gone out and collected some more of their fellows. They had worked on cleaning up the place, to Rodney's dismay ("it is not so bad!"), and Stephen was insulted when the women had insisted on coveralls before they dared to get to work inside.

Hilda had told them what they had seen and done while they were out, and again warned them about the serious danger that they were all getting into with this thing. "Zelda is a particularly bad and clever witch. And not afraid to hurt people either. We have a building lying on its side which proves this. I don't know what's gotten into her, but it seems that coming here has given her some amazingly uncanny ideas about using witchcraft. So I say this again: she is not afraid to hurt people. Tory here is living proof. We are going to push her to limits, so she may resort to dramatic actions."

"Like seriously injuring people?" Gladys asked. Her face showed however that she knew that was not dramatic enough.

"To kill them too," Hilda said. "It's not a joke, people. This is fix or fall."

Everyone was silent for a while, as the impact of Hilda's words sunk in.

"And you can't just whack her and getter done?" Buster asked. He emphasised his whack by slamming a fist in the palm of his hand.

"If we could, do you think we'd have waited so long?"

"Uh. Guess not." Buster slammed his palm again, just to show he could and was not afraid.

A table fell over.

Stephen jumped up, as did many others. He was the only one who said: "What the fuck's that?"

"Looks like a table fell over," William stated the obvious. "Remarkable though. Tables don't fall over just like that."

"Yeah. That's what worries me," said Stephen. The man walked over and put the table back on all four legs. He pushed and shoved it a few times. It remained where it was. Stephen made a sound and walked back to the group. As he came closer, he stopped walking and stared past them. "What the fuck..."

Hilda and the others wondered and looked at where Stephen was gazing. They were just in time to see the entrance-door slowly close itself. With a metallic clang the door bounced against the container and opened again for a few inches.

Rodney got up and dashed to the door, throwing it open while he challenged the person who did that to show himself. It was a good attempt, were it not that there was nobody to show himself. Or herself.

"This is creepy," Vivian whispered. "Not sure if I like this. Is this Zelda's doing?"

"No," Hilda said. "Zelda's not that subtle. She'd have the table fly at us or so. But she's not around. I would know if she was."

"Then what was it?" Vivian asked.

Hilda shrugged. "I don't know. Stephen? Is this something you're accustomed to?"

The big man shook his head for a moment and then seemed to change his mind. "Sorta. It's what can happen when we summon demons."

"Demons? You got demons here? Tell me more!" Hilda was all ears and professional interest.

"Demons? There are demons here?" Tory looked around and started a sideways motion towards the door, a mode of movement that her coven sisters adopted.

"Where are you going?" William asked.

"Outside," was their unified answer.

"Don't get lost," the wizard warned them.

Stephen explained to Hilda and William that in the meetings that his group did, there often were demonic rituals. "We wanna call up some kick-ass powers of the dark realm and see what happens."

"And then tables fall over," Hilda nodded understandingly.

"No," Stephen said, his face sagging, "usually it's just a fucking ashtray that moves a bit.

Hilda nodded. "So when a table topples over without a reason, that means something big was happening, did I get that right?"

Stephen nodded again. "Yeah."

"I see." Hilda flicked a finger. The table fell over. "Looks like I am something big that happens."

Her joke did not go down all that well with Stephen and his boys, but they did not dare to do anything to the witch. Stephen ordered Buster to put the table upright again.

"We'll be here tomorrow. Late afternoon. Get the show going. And that bloody witch better show up," Stephen barked. "We're all sick of her screwing around here."

"She does? I never got a chance to-" Buster started.

"Shut up!" Stephen's comment was loud and clear enough for Buster to do just that.

"Thank you, Stephen," said Hilda. "We'll be here also. Now, if you gentlemen would be so kind to take these ladies home again, that would be really kind of you."

The gentlemen grunted at being called that, but they were desperate enough to get rid of Zelda. They took the ladies home.

33. Let's party

The day had gone by in a rather nervous atmosphere. Also Hilda and William were more tensed than usual and they could not put a finger on the why. Maybe it was because they were teaming up with so many different people and groups to bring Zelda's terror to an end. Or was it that they had witnessed these inexplicable effects in the metal cathedral, the things that had unsettled Stephen and his fellows?

They sat in the kitchen with Gladys who had sort of taken them in. Remarkably enough, they all agree, there had not been any Zelda-induced disturbances during the night, nor the day.

"Makes me feel all kinds of funny," Hilda shared with them. "She usually is this silent only when she's up to no good."

"Try not to worry about it," said Gladys. "Maybe she is just planning something."

"But that's what worries me." Hilda sat back on her chair and made her coffeecup float over the table as she seemed to be engaged in some deep thoughts.

William watched her face and read the frowns, the movement of her eyebrows and the twitches of her mouth, and decided that it was not a doomsday scenario that unfolded in the witchy mind. "We should start heading out soon," he said at the right moment.

Hilda nodded and magicked all the coffeecups clean and back into the cupboard where Gladys had taken them from.

"Oh Goddess," their host said, "I am so going to miss you guys."

"We are not gone yet," Hilda said with a wink. "Let's first make sure that our biker friends made sure to collect the others."

Stephen and some of the others had agreed to pick up Tory, Vivian and the others, to get everyone in place at the right time. William would carry Gladys over with Hilda on the lookout. The two of them always were the main target of Zelda, so care had to be taken.

"Are we ready?" Hilda asked Gladys as they were standing in the backyard of the house. "Nothing forgotten?"

"I'm not sure what I could forget," said Gladys. "We're going for all or nothing tonight, right? I have to say that I am very scared, but taking something with me won't make much of a difference, will it?"

Hilda nodded, and appreciated the attitude of this woman who was diving into something for William and herself, something that she had no idea of. Actually, Hilda had no idea either. "Okay. Let's go then. Hang on, Gladys."

As Gladys sat in front of William, there was not a lot she could hang on to as the brooms lifted off, but she appreciated the thought regardless. She was getting more or less used to riding shotgun on a broom, as she called it for herself. So long as she stayed away from the thought of flying on such a stick all alone.

They sped upwards in a considerable pace. The afternoon had seen its best part already, and if all was well, the metal dome would be filling up with participants for this session of Zelda bashing.

"I'm going up a bit more, William," said Hilda, "so I can see more of what's happening from here."

The wizard nodded. Gladys wondered what had caused Hilda to do this and asked him about it. "Just being careful," he replied. "Zelda has played tricks on us before, and those never were the kind we could laugh over."

As they had passed over the town, where several people were in the streets and shouting up at them, Hilda lowered her broom back to William's level again. "Nothing Zelda. I don't like that."

William agreed. He did not trust that witch further than he could throw her either.

Miraculously though, they reached the enormous stack of containers without a problem. After touching down, Gladys hopped off the broom, thanked William for the smooth trip and then rushed off to find her sisters and Andy.

"William, don't look around and say nothing. Zelda's around. I am not sure where, but she is here somewhere. We'll have to tell the others, but try to be calm about it."

Hilda shrunk the brooms, William tucked them inside his robe and nodded. Then they walked off in separate directions, talking to the assembled group.

Vivian and all the others were there. Stephen had an impressive twenty-nine contingency with him. With so many people, the word of Zelda being near was spread quickly.

Hilda suggested they'd all go inside and start as soon as possible. On the question of Vivian and Stephen as what to start, she said: "Improvise. Do what you normally do."

One of the women in Stephen's group walked into the metal cathedral. Seconds later she yelled: "Hey, who brought their cats?"

The magical couple frowned. Who in their right mind would bring pets to a venue like this, while knowing what they were planning to do. They entered the large metal structure, where Buster and Rodney were working on lighting all the candles.

"Leave them to it, Hilda," William said, "this is their party too, and we should respect that."

Hilda nodded. "Good thinking - oh, I have an idea. Come with me for a moment..." She grabbed one of William's sleeves and dragged him along, eradicating all forms of 'no' beforehand.

When they returned into the light of the candles that by now all were burning, they witnessed a truly uncanny sight. In the middle of the space, Stephen and his people had painted a large black circle. Inside that, Vivian and her group had painted a white circle, with a large, be it slightly crooked pentacle in it. The wiccan witches were dressed all in white and had put up loads of white candles. Outside their white realm, the devil worshippers had clad in black and deep red clothes. Some of them were preparing something that involved a large black cauldron that was located to the side.

The black mirrors caught the light of the candles but somehow forgot to reflect it. The whole spectacle as it was developing made William shiver and grin at the same time. "Dante would go crazy, I think."

"Who?"

"Dante Alleghieri. He wrote a book about Hell. I'll tell you more about that later," William said. "If there is a later, that is."

"Negative, negative," the witch muttered. "Come, let's see what they are brewing up there." More sleeve-pulling happened.

In the cauldron was a liquid. It was red and it looked very warm.

Hilda frowned at the stuff. "Do you do that always?" she asked the woman who was pushing a ladle through the liquid as if she was winning a rowing contest.

"Usually, yes. And better stand aside a bit, that stuff makes nasty stains," the woman replied. "Of course, we sometimes vary a bit. Serving tomato soup all the time gets boring. Last time we had chicken soup. Well, we made it anyways, before that bloody witch came and threw it all over us and the floor."

William stared at the woman. "Soup."

"Uhuh. Can get quite cold in here, and doing energy work can drain a person. So we always have soup ready for afterwards. And rolls with cheese. They're over there, behind the black curtain." She swung the ladle, leaving a trail of tomato soup drops in the air. Hilda acted immediately. The woman did not notice the result until she was rowing in the soup again. She dropped her oar.

"What's up?" Hilda asked.

The woman slowly pointed at the drops of soup that floated over the side of the cauldron. "That..."

"What of them?" Hilda flipped a finger and the drops fell back into the hot soup.

"They... hovered?"

"Yes? So?" Hilda made the oar-ladle rise up, clean. "That's kid stuff."

The woman fainted. William was just in time to catch her and guide her to the ground.

Buster was near. "Wha's happening? Oh... Olga fainted."

"Can you tell us why she did that? I did nothing." Hilda raised her hands in innocence.

Buster looked at the still floating ladle. "Uhuh."

Olga came to again and grabbed Buster's arm. "She's a fucking witch," she whispered. "A real one!"

"Yeah. Stephen said, right?"

Hilda grinned at the compliments.

"But I thought he meant one of them!" Olga stabbed a finger at the members of the coven. "The innocent ones."

Gladys and Jennifer heard that and glared over at the woman who was still sitting on the ground. After a word from Vivian they returned to what it was they were supposed to do.

"Don't call them innocent until you've seen what they can do," said William.

Buster helped Olga to her feet, while William explained a bit about what had happened a few days ago, in the forest. As he talked, the woman's eyes were drawn to some movement: the ladle moved to the side and then fell on the ground.

"Hey, why did you do that?" Olga sounded angry as she bent and picked up the spoon.

"Did what?" Hilda turned back to the cauldron. "I thought you had taken it again."

There was a moment of silence among the people around the tomato soup. Before they could follow up on something, though, Stephen and Vivian called out for attention.

William reached out and took the fallen ladle from Olga, trying to feel something about it. "Did you sense anything Zelda?" he whispered. The witch shook her head.

"Hello everyone, we are ready, so let's begin. Let's work our magic!!" She shouted it out, and that was picked up by everyone in the metal cathedral, until the walls almost reverberated with it.

Stephen and his band started doing what they usually did in their sacred metal dome. Vivian and her group started doing what they usually did, in their own sacred space inside the metal dome. Hilda and William stood to the side and watched the goings on for a while, not certain what they would be able to do except for Hilda keeping watch, for when Zelda was approaching.

The shouting started, startling Vivian's group as well as the two magical people. It took them a few moments to discover that the noise came from Stephen's gang. William saw a movement in a corner.

"What?" asked Hilda who had sensed his little jolt through their bond.

"I thought I saw two cats..."

"Cats," Hilda snorted. "Pets don't belong here." She shook her head. "Crappedy crap." Quickly she grabbed William's collar and dragged him to the ground as a heavy brass candleholder, including black burning candle flew over their heads. It only missed them because of Hilda's action.

"Zelda?" William asked as they got up again.

"No," was the disconcerting answer from the witch, "and I have no idea who did that. There's only one witch around."

They both looked at the group of white witches in their circle and then at the gathering of devil worshippers. "One of them?"

As they saw the group of Stephen's people perform some dance that did not seem to be disturbed by any choreography, suddenly a small white device fell from someone's pocket. Although... it did not actually fall. It dropped a few inches, then seemed to levitate upwards, as if it had a mind of its own. There was a string attached to it.

"What's that?" Hilda asked.

"Looks like an iPod," said William. "A music device."

"Dwarf's bullocks," the witch muttered, "too small for that."

"Guys?" Hilda said as she walked over to the group, pointing at the white thing on a string. "Does that happen often here?"

The owner of the iPod stared upwards and searched his pockets. "Fuck. That's mine."

The iPod had risen up too high to reach it with ordinary means. As if it was mocking the group, the earbuds raised up as if they were plugged into someone's ears, and then music filled the enormous space.

All ritual actions promptly came to a standstill. "Martin, you have Thriller on that thing?" someone asked in disbelief.

Then the door of the container-cathedral opened and a wave of magic washed through the confines of the place. It knocked over some candles and some people. Hilda and William had their wands in hand and braced themselves.

Zelda had arrived.

34. Thriller

"Party without me?" the evil witch asked. "That's not nice." She stood in the doorway, taking in the scene. She seemed very relaxed, her hand with the wand loose down her side. "And that in an ambiance that I can appreciate..."

Slowly she walked in. Everyone but the two other magical people seemed glued to the floor as Zelda moved forward.

"So you found a way to crash our party," Hilda remarked, stepping in Zelda's way.

"Of course. I am good with things like that, little witch," Zelda grinned. The two witches were almost nose to nose, and none of them had the intention of yielding. "Now step aside before I make you."

"'Cause this is thriller, thriller night, and no one's gonna save you from the beast about strike," the iPod announced.

Zelda grinned. "Did you hear that? It knows me." She calmly raised her hand, the wand pulsating with power. There was a grin on her face. Until something swept her away, hard and sideways.

After a moment or two, a timid cheer rose up from the witches' coven. They thought Hilda had done that.

Hilda however was as flabbergasted about the sudden change in Zelda's situation as everyone else was."Suck an elf," she said.

Zelda got to her feet. "You wench," she fumed, "you are going to regret this in a way that you never regretted something!" Then she stopped and stared at something.

"'Cause this is thriller, thriller night, there ain't no second chance against the thing with forty eyes, girl," the iPod announced.

William yelled something. The witches screamed. The devil worshippers performed various things, from yelling and screaming to diving under tables and fainting.

Hilda turned around just in time to see a scary creature step out of one of the black mirrors. It was not your ordinary scary creature. It was huge and dark grey with black spots that seemed to travel over an awkward body. It had eight arms. And forty eyes. It also was severely unaffected by magic. Hilda's attempt to do something to the creature ended when it had a slight swing at her, making her fly several dozen feet before she landed on the ground.

"Oh, I like that!" Zelda cried out. "Do that again, big boy!"

The big boy did it again.

Zelda screamed, waving her wand, as she also took to flight without a broom.

"They're out to get you, there's demons closing in on every side. They will possess you unless you change that number on your dial," the floating iPod shared its wisdom as it started swinging to the music.

Footsteps sounded, coming from every side. The humans in the container-room huddled together, hoping for cover from each other and trying to stay out of reach of the large strange creature that now stood still where it had lashed out at Zelda.

Hilda was on her feet again. Through the bond with William she yelled out at him to follow her, and together they ran off into a dark corner of the hall.

Vivian yelled after them: "Hilda! Don't leave us here!" Some of her witches started to develop the beginnings of a panic. Buster and some of his group tried to calm the women down, until Zelda appeared again. The evil witch cast spells around, to the group and to the still unimpressed creature.

Then thuds and muffled sounds came from the dark, followed by two figures shooting up into the air. William and Hilda had stored their brooms inside, for emergencies. This situation qualified as one.

The footsteps, meanwhile, were drawing closer and closer, as the iPod informed the people that the foulest stench was in the air, the funk of forty thousand years, and grizzly ghouls from every tomb were closing in to seal their doom...

Several voices rang out over the sound that the tiny music-player made: "Damn you, Stephen, we told you not to build this place on an ancient burial ground! You and your ideas!"

It was as if the video clip of Thriller unfolded: monstrous creatures and half-decayed bodies were slowly moving in. It was impossible to see where they were coming from, but the supply of them was staggering.

Stephen uttered what supposedly was a battle-cry. He charged forward and started hitting at the ghouls and ghosts. Most of them fell apart on first contact. That was something that made most others take heart and they also attacked the morbid invaders.

Zelda had magicked up her broom and was flying near the ceiling of the makeshift cathedral, engaged in a battle with Hilda and William. The three also were doing all they could to avoid the lashings out of the forty-eyed creature, who could just reach up to where they were flying around.

William had already been knocked off course and into a wall a few times. Magical protection had saved him from breaking just about every bone in his body. "Hilda! Dive!" he screamed as he was approaching the creature again.

Hilda did not ask or look; she dove down in a near death-defying slalom to avoid the grabbing hands of the grey monster.

Where she had just been, two shapes appeared. They had leapt up from the ground, paws and claws stretch out and ready to strike. They were on a collision course with Zelda, who had enough problems of her own already with one of the hands of the monster yanking at her legs. As the evil witch fired off a lightning bolt at the arm that held her down, the two cats were about to seal her fate.

On the floor, there was a fierce battle going on as well. A few tables and chairs had been hastily smashed up to supply the people with weaponry against the spooky army that kept coming. The coven-members were using legs of tables to defend themselves, while the devil worshippers were making efforts to reduce the numbers of the oncoming masses. Buster was having a ball with that, until a few skeletons were all over him, poking boney fingers in his ears, nose and mouth, making him stumble.

Moving around became harder and harder, as there were bits and pieces of bodies scattered on the floor, and the layers of those were increasing.

"Night creatures calling, the dead start to walk in their masquerade; there's no escaping the jaws of the alien this time," the iPod encouraged the fighting people, blurting out seemingly random bits of the song.

The two cats reached their target. One hit Zelda square in the round chest, the other one clawed at the broom and wrenched it from under the witch who fell down, into two of the hands of the grey creature. It was as if it had been waiting for her.

The witch hung upside down, held up by the creature. One of its arms hung down uselessly, the arm that Zelda had fired at. "Let go of me!" she screamed. She swung her arms round, trying to get a clear aim at the creature with her wand. The creature swung out with one of its arms.

Hilda and William looked at what was happening all around them for a few seconds. The two cats had disappeared from view, back into the darkness from where they had come.

"I'll try to help Zelda," Hilda said. "You try and weed out these dead folks down there."

William nodded and dove down, spraying waves of pressurised air through the ranks of dead people that were pressing closer to the humans. He did a great job. For a few seconds. Then a large hand, attached to a long arm, slammed him into a wall again. He crashed into it and fell down. He managed to protect himself for the impact with the ground as the broken broom fell from under him. "Holy Bejee-oompf."

Hilda shot fire and lightning at the arms and chest of the creature. "Damned dragon balls," she cursed, "what are you made of!" All her spells bounced off, creating impressive but also dangerous fireworks in the confines of the container dome.

"Do something, stupid witch!" Zelda screamed at Hilda. "It's going to tear me apart!" It was as if she had given the creature an idea. One of its hands reached out and closed around the hand she held her wand in. The wand snapped.

The iPod hovered near her, mockingly. "So let me hold you tight and share a killer thriller!"

On the ground, a very strange thing was taking place. The skeletons, ghouls and all other scary creatures were forming an impenetrable ring around the big creature. All the humans were pushed outward, their backs against the metal walls. All the candles that had been lit were hovering overhead, held up by some mysterious unseen force.

William, also pressed against a wall, tried to take aim with his wand, but there simply was no room to move and do something worthwhile. Everytime he had crushed a few dozen invading spooks, the open space was filled up in a matter of seconds. He knew it was a lost battle but kept fighting.

Hilda was not facing better options: everything she tried was in vain. The creature managed to keep its back towards her more and more as the legion of dead people at its feet grew thicker.

"And though you fight to stay alive... Your body starts to shiver..."

The grey creature started walking, holding Zelda almost carefully in its big hands. The witch was screaming her lungs out, casting spells as fast as she could, threatening doom and destruction onto everyone. Hilda and William fought off the spells that bounced off the creature, catching and neutralising them before they would hurt any of the humans that had unwantingly become part of this extreme and unfair battle.

The creature crushed bodies beneath its feet as it moved forward. It was only ten feet away from the black mirror it had come from when it looked back for a moment. Its eyes caught Hilda, who was still on broomstick.

"You close your eyes and hope that this is just imagination, girl!" the iPod declared. Then it slowly fell down onto a carcass. The wire of the earbuds got caught in the ribcage; the player itself gently swung back and forth inside it.

Everything stood still in the container-building for neverending seconds. There was no sound, no movement. All living creatures held their breath. Even Zelda had fallen silent.

Then the creature turned to the mirror and jumped. The scream that came from Zelda echoed through the hall and ended abruptly as the creature took her away, into the mirror. At that same moment all the soldiers in the army of grave-dwellers collapsed and all black mirrors shattered.

Hilda and William cast protective shields all around, to prevent people from getting cut up by the flying glass.

35. Cat on a stick

The clatter of black glass on the ground and remains of the scary army slowly came to an end. After the echoes of the last cling and clang had died away, a silence descended over the battlefield. But not for long.

"Suck an elf." Hilda, still up on her broom, could not hold back. "Did you all see that?"

William, who had dropped himself to the ground as had everyone else, slowly sat up. "Yeah. Was hard to miss, really." Some shards of black glass fell from his clothes and fell on the person lying next to him. "Oh. Sorry about that."

It took a while, but finally everyone had gotten to their feet again. William had crunchily walked over carcasses and opened the door to let in some fresh air and a very limited amount of light. Most candles had gone out in the blast that had happened when the mirrors had cracked. He stepped to the side and breathed deeply a few times, as more and more people emerged from the metal temple of doom. Everyone was covered in dust, and dirt of preferably ignored origins.

Hilda was the last person to leave the strange building; she had made sure nobody had been left behind. "Everyone accounted for?" she asked, as she floated into the light on a somewhat damaged broom.

Vivian's group was present, Stephen and Rodney were looking around and counting their flock and gave the magical couple the thumbs up.

"Do you know where Zelda went?" William asked, rubbing his face so the dirt on it was distributed less evenly.

"No idea. Wherever the grey guy took her, I guess. A bit of a shame. She was a good witch. Magically, I mean. She pulled off some pretty mean stunts." Hilda hopped off the broom.

William nodded.

Hilda sneezed. "I suggest we close this place down, William," she then said. "Bad place, wrong ground."

The wizard nodded again.

"Hey. I'm talking to you." Hilda waved her hand in front of William's face.

"What? Oh. Yes. This is not a place to keep open."

"William, where are you?" Hilda frowned and wiped some dust from her face.

"I wonder where they're from," the wizard said, pointing at the two black cats that sauntered out of the container.

Hilda watched the two animals that walked over to them. The black pair sat down and looked up at the two magical people, with bright yellow eyes. "Meoww," one of them stated.

"Hello, kitties," the witch said. She bent down to pet the two cats, who allowed that. They even rewarded the witch with a purr. Then she got up and said: "Right. How will we do this, William?" She pointed at the stack of containers.

"First we'll get everyone out of here," he suggested, walking away from the building and looking at it. "Then we could turn that thing into a big fence and put it around the area."

Hilda grinned. "I knew I kept you around for something." She walked off, calling Vivian and Stephen to join her, and explained their plan.

Stephen was slightly disappointed with it, but he had to agree that it was the best thing to do. After what had happened, even he was convinced that relocating was the smartest thing to do.

It was easy to arrange for transport out of there. Most of the people that Stephen had called in had come over by car or bike, so Vivian and the others of the coven were loaded in and fifteen minutes later the last car was about to leave.

"Hey, person, you are forgetting the animals," Hilda said as she pointed to the two black cats.

"They're not ours," said the man at the wheel.

"So what about them then?"

"Dunno. You take them." With that he drove off.

"Suck an elf..."

"Hilda..."

"What?" She turned to William.

"I was thinking... the cats that charged Zelda in there..." The wizard kept an eye on the cats. "Do you think that were these two?"

"Get real, wizard. The ones in there were big. Mean. Feline ferocity if ever I saw it. These two are just cute." She kneeled down with the cats again and scratched willing heads. "See? They won't hurt anyone. I think they were just scared. Strays or so."

"Hmm." William was not convinced. "Well, let's put up fences here."

They were halfway through their fencing, when William suggested something to eat and drink. Hilda agreed with that.

As they sat at the table they had magicked up, eating the food they had acquired through the same way, Hilda said: "You know... about the kitties... there is something strange about them."

"As what?"

"I just realised that they are remarkably clean. They were in there, during the battle. Look at you, you're dusty all over. Hmm, I even have some dust here and there." She patted her sleeve, making dustclouds jump up. "We should do something about ourselves," she frowned as she watched the large puffs float away whilst falling apart. A flick with the wand worked miracles, or rather magic.

As soon as the couple was cleaned up, the two cats got up, meow'd peacefully and each one jumped on a lap.

"Now what's this?" Hilda wondered, staring at the black animal that folded itself comfortably in her lap.

"I have the uncanny feeling that we just got adopted by a couple of cats, sweetwitch," said the wizard who started stroking the black cat in his own lap.

"I adopt. I don't get adopted," Hilda muttered. "Ksh, go." She waved a hand at the cat. It didn't even look up. A flick of its tail was the only indication it might have noticed the movement. "And I don't adopt," the witch added to her statemtent.

"You adopted me," William grinned.

"That's different. Come. You clear away the table and chairs. I'll go on with the fence thing here." Hilda got up, wondering what the cat would do. It elegantly dropped to its paws and wandered off as if this had been planned since a long time.

William picked up the cat from his lap and put it on the ground. He watched it walk away to its brother. Or sister. He grinned.

Almost an hour later they were done. The large lump of containers was gone and a rather sturdy fence was around a large area. The wind would take care of the dusty remains that were still lying around. Hilda and William had agreed not to deal with those.

"I think we're all set to go," Hilda said. "Let's go to Vivian and see how things are there."

William agreed. "We'll have to share your broom, Hilda. Mine is in shambles."

Her's was still in one piece, although it bore lots of proof from the battle. "I'm sure that we can get away with this," she nodded. "You fly. I sit in front of you."

William picked up the broom and floated it beneath him. Hilda hopped on it and smiled as he put an arm around her. The two cats came running and jumped. One sat in front of Hilda. The other landed on William's shoulder and made itself comfortable there.

"Suck an elf," the witch said, her eyes large. "Make it go away!"

"Slap it yourself," said William. "I knew someone who owned cats. If they are there to stay, they are there to stay. I am not going to sacrifice my skin, lady."

Hilda grunted something that sounded like 'coward' and slapped at the cat. "Ouch." She magicked the cat to the ground, but it was like throwing a rubber ball: it bounced right back onto the broom. After a few more tries, Hilda resigned. "Dragon's balls... we'll take them along and leave them with Vivian. She looks like a person who loves cats."

"Or Gladys," William said as he made the broom lift off.

"Or Gladys," Hilda nodded.

They flew to the town. As they were over the streets, there were a lot of people outside, working on making right again what Zelda had made wrong.

"Looks like the word's spread already," Hilda said. Her voice was flat. The cat in front of her nudged its head under her hand, and she slowly stroked it as she gazed down.

William knew what was bothering her. After all, Zelda had been a witch. One of her kind. He pulled her a little closer against himself. "It was not what we wanted, but there was nothing more we could have done, Hilda."

She nodded. "I know. Still sucks elves. It destroyed magic, and it broke her wand also."

"She did that herself."

"Hmm. I'm glad you are okay, William."

"And I am glad you are okay, Hilda."

"Hey! Up there!" The excited scream came from below.

The couple looked down and saw a small group of people looking up at them and pointing. William slowed down.

"Did you really get rid of the witch?" someone from below shouted up.

"Yes. She's gone." It was Hilda who replied. The cheer from below made her draw in a deep breath. "She's gone," the witch whispered.

William got the cue and made the broom fly up again, and quickly flew on to Vivian's house. In that street many people were outside also. He landed the broom in the garden. He was certain that Hilda could do without many questions now. As they were almost on the ground, the two cats jumped off.

The sudden absence of a cat-head made Hilda jolt. "Crappedy crap," she muttered, "that's what I mean." She got off the broom, hugged William, turned, picked up a cat and went into the house.

"I'll be damned if I ever understand that witch," the wizard said to the remaining cat. He put the broom against the wall and went inside also, the black cat running ahead of him.

36. Finishing up

In the living room almost all seats were taken. Rick and Vivian were there, of course. Andy, Gladys, Tory and Jessica were sharing the couch. Cornelia sat on a cushion on the floor, and to William's surprise Buster was sitting next to her.

"Hey wizard," Hilda cheered from the kitchen chair she sat on. There was another one next to her, empty, and she patted it. "Come, sit here."

William sat down. "Everyone looks cleaned up," he grinned. The cat jumped up in his lap and lay down there. Only then the wizard noticed that Hilda also had a cat on her knees.

"Do you want coffee? Or tea?" Vivian asked, already on her feet.

"Tea please. Lots of it."

"No problem." Rick stood up also and pushed Vivian back in her chair. "You sit, you've done enough. I'll take care of this." Many eyes followed him as he made his way to the kitchen.

"Now there is someone who changed overnight," Jennifer commented.

Vivian nodded. "We told him what happened. Well, most of it. He's -uhm- impressed?"

The magical couple then heard how the return trip of the coven had gone. As the first cars had reached town, the people in it had gotten out and proceeded on foot, telling everyone that the witch who had wreaked havoc on the town for so long had been defeated.

"Not many wanted to believe us at first," Cornelia said.

"Guess that's cuz how we were looking," Buster added. "Crap all over, and wearing robes and stuff."

"And tattoos and earrings," Cornelia grinned. Then, to the surprise of Hilda and William, she hugged the devil worshipper, and the hug was returned.

"Uhm... 'scuse me?" Hilda wiggled her finger towards the two on cushions. "Did we miss something interesting or sleezy?"

Cornelia giggled. Buster shook his head. "No."

"Oh Goddess, you should have seen them, in the car," Gladys laughed. "Cornelia was stuck on top of him and he almost did not dare to hold on to her in corners. She cursed him for letting her bang into the side of the car, and then he held on to her-"

"Hey! No need to become specific!" Cornelia turned red.

The laughter made Rick reappear from the kitchen. That and the gifts he carried, in the form of hot beverages, cakes and sandwiches. He was highly appreciated for it.

As the group was eating and talking about the sincerely strange events of the day, there was a loud knocking on the door. Rick looked at Vivian and got up to answer the door. He came back with two police officers in his wake.

The two men in uniforms did not need long to state their business: they spotted Hilda and William, walked up to them and then one of them said: "You two are under arrest."

William raised his eyebrows almost to his hairline, "I beg your pardon?"

Hilda responded in a slightly more witchy manner. She flipped out her wand and said: "You're kidding."

One of the policemen drew his gun. He should not have done that.

"Gravis telum," the witch said, pointing her wand at the gun that was pointing at her. The weapon dropped to the floor where it landed with a thud that was far louder than a normal handgun should make.

"Pick it up!" the other policeman said, embarrassed that his partner made such a fool of himself. The subject of this aggravation kneeled down and tried to lift his gun from the ground.

The room had gone silent. The coven members stared at policemen, Hilda and William picked up some more sandwiches and the two cats jumped to the floor and silently walked off.

"Jack, it's too heavy," the kneeling police officer said.

"Idiot," Jack said and kneeled down. His attempt to lift the gun ended in him falling over, as it had gotten extremely heavy from Hilda's spell.

"Would you mind telling us why we are under arrest?" William asked as policeman Jack gave the gun another useless try.

The other one, standing again, said: "You have disturbed the peace in the neighbourhood. In all the town, actually. Your actions have caused damage to buildings and roads, as well as blocked most public life over the last weeks."

"Oh." William did not sound impressed. "And of course you have evidence and witnesses all over the place to prove that we are to blame."

"In fact we do, sir. Almost every good citizen in this town has seen you and your partner cause disturbances while you were fly-... uhm... moving around over... uhm... through the streets."

"We did not really try hard to conceal our presence. Officer." William stood up and looked the officer in the eye.

Hilda followed his cue and also got up. She bent over with a whisper, took the gun from the floor and looked up at the officer. "Listen," she said, "you do not go around arresting witches and wizards. We've been talking to you lot many times, and you looked the other way as we busted our brooms trying to bring Zelda down. Now the word is out that the evil witch is gone, and now you are coming in here two strong to stick us in your dungeons? I'm sorry, but you will have to do better than that."

"Yes!" Tory stood up. "We've done hard work too, we risked our necks, we put ourselves in danger. So if you are going to arrest Hilda and William, you will have to bring us all in."

More and more people got to their feed; the policemen felt very uncomfortable all of a sudden.

"Here. This is yours. Take it and leave." Hilda pushed the gun into its owners hands.

His reaction was swift and remarkable. He pointed the gun at her. "You are under arrest."

"Look," Vivian said, "we don't want trouble. We've had our share. I think we can all agree that you had your share of crap also, with a witch out on the loose, right?"

The officers nodded. They had indeed had many a troubled night.

"Cool. These two," Vivian pointed at Hilda and William, "did the hardest work to get the witch out of the way. Your orders to bring them in are insane. Which idiot instructed you to do so anyway?"

"Our comissioner is not an idiot," Jack the policeman said. "Please, I advise you to be silent, or we have to arrest you for insulting an officer."

"I could turn you into a frog," Hilda said. "Would you like that?"

The armed policeman shook his head. "You cannot frighten us with things like that, ma'am."

Hilda sighed. "They've seen us fly brooms. And then they think that turning someone into a frog is not frightening. Ranunculus." The last word was accompanied by a swing of a wand, and the gun fell to the ground again. It was followed by a uniform and a frog.

Jack, the officer who was not changed, stared at the heap of things and the amphibian that had been his partner. "You can't do that!"

Hilda picked up her coffee cup. "Wrong."

"Make him a person again!"

William put his hand on the man's arm. "Use the magic word. Please. It helps. Believe me, I know her."

"Make him a person again, dammit!" Jack made the mistake of reaching for his weapon also.

William changed it into fudge, and as the police officer stared at the goo in his hand, Hilda put a spell on the man's shoes. They slowly started walking out of the house.

The witch picked up the frog and put it in Jack's hands. "Here. Take good care of him. In a few hours he will become human again, so make sure he is home, or you have clothes for him at hand."

"Ribbit," complained the frog as he was carried away by his partner who had no option but to walk on: his shoes did not give him time to kick them off.

"You're going to get in trouble over that," Gladys grinned.

"I doubt y'ever gonna see them again," Buster commented as witch and wizard returned to the room. Cornelia and he had seen the policeman walk off through the window. Buster had enough experience with the arm of the law, apparently. "Nice trick too."

"What are you going to do now?" Vivian asked as everyone sat down again.

"We're going home," said William.

"Away from the madness," Hilda agreed. "Would be awfully great if you have a broom for us. We got here on mine, but that's not fit for two people."

"And two cats," William added.

His witch glared at him. "Sure. Dream on."

Vivian grinned. "Yes. I have a broom for you. Not a new one, but I guess it works for you."

"As long as it is in one piece," Hilda nodded. "William, you want to go and have a look? It will be yours."

William grinned.

Vivian got up. "Come, it's in the shed."

When they returned, Hilda had a cat in her lap and her hand was resting on the black furry body as she was chatting along.

The other cat was lying on William's chair, as if it was waiting for him to return. He picked the animal up and put it on his knees. "The broom will do fine, Hilda. No problem at all."

"My broom will go to their world. Their fairyland," Vivian said. There was obvious pride in her voice. As she sat down next to her husband, she added: "It is a good one, he said. It's been used well. Maybe something for you to remember."

Laughter ran through the room, affecting everyone but the cats.

"We should go," said Hilda. "It's going to be dark soon and I do want to be able to find the spot from where we can go back home."

William agreed. "It's best that we leave now, yes. The people from the town will be able to get things in order again. Except the Denton Building, probably."

The people in the room said emotional goodbyes to the magical couple. Many a tear was shed, and the coven members all tried to coax a "we'll come back" from William and Hilda, but they could not make such a promise. A maybe was the best they could give.

They went outside, where now two brooms leaned against the wall. They mounted the utensils, and as they were making themselves comfortable two black streaks came from the kitchen and jumped.

"Looks like you are stuck with some cats," Jennifer grinned.

Hilda muttered something about hairy pests, so Buster frowned and reached out, to lift the cat from her broom. "Hey! No touch! My kitty!" she warned him.

The big man looked puzzled and needed a hug from Cornelia to feel better again. Or so it seemed anyway.

"Goodbye, people," Hilda said. She waved quickly and then her broom, including cat, shot away into the skies.

"Stay well," William said. He lifted off too and went after Hilda. His cat seemed very much at ease on the broomstick, even enjoying the ride as it sat on the bristles.

Hilda had slowed down after the first mile; it was easy for him to catch up.

"I know," he said to her. He sensed, through the bond, how she felt. "Stuff like that is not easy."

The witch nodded.

In silence they flew on. As they reached the town limit, they saw a man standing om the back of an old pickup truck, who was waving and yelling at them.

"Damn. That's Bert!" William said.

They swooped down and greeted the man who had let them a room in his store when they had arrived in this world.

"What's this then, William, are you leaving?" Bert's face looked as if he had witnessed something horrible.

"Yes. Our work here is done," said William. "And we're running from the police. They wanted to arrest us for doing what we did."

Bert shook his head as he heard the story. Then he said goodbye to his friend and the witch. "I'm sorry we did not get to meet in happier circumstances, Mrs. Witch," he said, "maybe another time will be more favourable."

"Yes. Maybe," said Hilda. "William, dusk is coming in..."

William agreed, so they left Bert on his truck and found the portal that would bring them into their own world again.

"It's a madhouse here," Hilda said as she looked back to the town where now lights were beginning to come on. She stroked the head of the cat in front of her. "Come. Let's go, wizard." She leaned over and kissed William.

Then they plunged into the wavy circle that disappeared as soon as they had gone through it.

A few minutes, Bert stopped the old pickup where he had seen them vanish. "Now really..."

The magical couple raced through the tunnel that seemed to close itself behind them. They emerged at the rocky platform where the trip had started. William's broken down car was there, waiting for them.

"We're almost home, William," Hilda said. She sounded relieved. They took to flight again, heading for the house, curious what it had to report.

###

About the author:

I am an IT consultant who loves reading and writing.

I've been an amateur-author since years, writing SciFi, Fantasy and lately also Steampunk. My home is in the Netherlands.

I hope you liked "Hilda and Zelda".

All books I published so far:

Hilda the wicked Witch series:

Hilda the wicked witch (Smashwords, July 2010)

Hilda - Snow White Revisited (Smashwords, September 2010)

Hilda - The Challenge (Smashwords, December 2010)

Steampunk:

Aeroparts Factory (Smashwords, December 2010)

Lily Marin (three short steampunk stories) (Smashwords, January 2011)

If you want to connect with me online:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/pagan_paul

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/paulkater

My website: http://www.nlpagan.net