53. Beginning the journey

On the way home, Hilda turned to William. "I don't like this at all," she said. "There is not much time anymore before the challenge Lamador set us. Me. Us. Whatever. And now this. It won't give us much remaining time to prepare for it."

William agreed. "We may not even have time to go to Gurthreyn again. Not a place you go to for fun, but to see it and get accustomed to the feeling helps. To some extent."

"Hmm... if you put it like that, I am not sure that going to Lamador is such a bad idea." Hilda looked serious. "But we will take things one at the time. Good thing we have a few days before we leave, we can look at what we want to take with us."

Once home, they sat down and Hilda explained about the way that this whole extradition thing worked. "I get the feeling that you think this is some kind of prison deal, William. It isn't. Yes, Lamador is certainly angry about what we have done. And he wants to show that. After all, he is the Great Lamador, and he wants to piss us off with this. He'll start throwing accusations at us and we have to counter those."

"And what is the worst thing that can happen?", William asked.

Hilda's face turned gloomy. "They throw us in prison."

"Right. I see. And it is not a prison deal, right?" William wondered about that detail.

"No. In a prison deal you get thrown into prison without the option of defending yourself."

"That sounds bad. Not the way I am used to. Well, used to. Uhm, know. You know what I mean." William felt like a fool, stammering and blundering through his words.

"Are you upset, my sweet man?", asked Hilda, wrapping her arms around him.

"Does it show? I thought I was getting a grasp of this world of yours, and then this happens. Makes me feel like I am back to square one."

"You're not. You can do magic, William, and that is good. For me, anyway. And the best thing is that others don't sense that in you, which is extremely good."

"I wonder what good magic will do us if they are sticking us in some dungeon. I'll bet you that they won't have ordinary guards there." William still felt very bad about the whole trip to see king Herald and the sorcerer they had humiliated so terribly.

"William. Stop it. Shush you." Hilda put a finger over his lips for a moment. "You are not making things better with all that, okay? It is hard on me as well, I have to deal with it also."

William looked into her eyes and twitched his lips so she would remove the finger. "You're right. I'm sorry. It became a bit confusing and... much."

"Okay. I can understand that. When I think of how I felt in your world after a few days. I was going insane there." She rested her head against his shoulder. "And so far you have not gone mad yet. There still is hope for you."

"I'm glad we're not giving up, Hilda." He held her for a while.

"Come. Let's find some things to take along for the trip. Books and such." She grinned at him.

They started to gather things together.

Several days later, a carriage halted at the house of the wicked witch. The driver looked a bit nervous, it was not every day that he was sent to pick up a witch and a wizard. And he had already been sweating as he tried to imagine all the things they would be bringing along. He had heard stories about witches...

"There is a cart in front of me," the house announced.

Hilda and William were drinking coffee as they heard that. "Well, that is nice, to send a cart over."

Hilda peeked out the window. "Shiny, that is a whole carriage!"

William picked up the three dice that were their luggage and the stack of books they had prepared to have handy at all times, then they walked outside.

"Honourable witch, honourable wizard," the driver said, hat in hand. "King Walt has asked me to come and collect you, and your luggage."

"Oh, the luggage is all taken care of," said William, patting his pocket.

"Uhm." The driver tried to keep a straight face. Hilda putting the chains around the house made that impossible for the good man.

As she finished up, she looked at the driver. "Is there a problem?"

"Uhm. No. Uhm."

"Come, William, we'll go sit in the carriage and at some point the driver will take us to the castle." She pushed him to the carriage and they both got in.

The driver slowly trotted after them, occasionally looking at the house and the chains. He climbed to his seat and made the horses turn the carriage, after which they rode off, to the castle.

The carriage was very comfortable, which was a good thing. The ride to the castle took quite a lot longer than by broom.

"How many days do you think it will take like this before we get to where we are going?", asked William.

"I am not sure, but with so many soldiers along also, it will take three days, for certain. Brooms go faster than carriages and such." Hilda rested against him. "Sorry, sweet man."

After a long time of bobbing on the road, the carriage pulled into the castle yard, the hooves of the horses making a sudden noise as they pulled their load past the thick entrance wall.

"Sounds like we're there," Hilda grinned. "Do you bring the luggage?"

"Sure. Do you take the books?", William asked.

"No way! I'm the girl, you're the boy!"

Laughing they exited the carriage as it had come to a halt.

The yard was full of carriages and soldiers. It was a bit unsettling for William, seeing so many people were involved in getting them to Heraldion in one piece.

King Walt appeared from somewhere, a dim smile on his face. "Welcome. Good to see you." He then frowned as he saw the driver step from the carriage. "No luggage? It should be on top, somewhere..."

William shook his head. "All we need is in here." He patted his pocket again.

Walt frowned as he looked at the clothes. "You witches and wizards..." Then he addressed Hilda. "Dear witch, as you see I have kept my word. These are twenty-four reliable men who will make certain that you will reach your destination safely. Messengers have been sent ahead already, with papers announcing your passage. I have taken the liberty of making reservations for the night in a few renowned stations along the road."

"Dear king, we do thank you for your kindness," said Hilda. "You are going through far too much trouble for us."

King Walt raised his hands, shaking his massive head. "No, no Grimhilda. The things you do for us are worth tenfold what I can do for you now. Just make sure you come back again. I want to hit you with the fountain again."

Hilda grinned. "We'll do what we can, King Walt."

He nodded, then waved at the leader of the escort, Captain Lambert, and introduced him to the witch and wizard. "These are the people you will accompany, Captain, take good care of them, they are valuable assets to the kingdom."

The captain nodded. "Our lives for their lives, my king." He bowed, then turned to the valuable assets. "Would you then please board your carriage? We have a long way to travel."

Hilda and William walked back to the carriage and, with a new driver on board, the small convoy rattled away from the castle, towards the kingdom of Lorn.

After many hours and plenty of short breaks, it had already gone dark, the group halted near a large farmhouse annex something William called a hotel. It was equipped as a resting place for travellers, and Walt's messengers had done their work well, rooms were already waiting for them, as were hot baths and meals. The soldiers first wanted to sit apart from the magical couple but they then simply sat among their guards, which made the entire seating arrangement quite easy.

Hilda and William wanted to go for an evening walk, just the two of them, but the king's orders were rather strict. After walking for about ten minutes with twelve guards behind them, they gave up and went to their room.

"I hope you do trust us enough to sleep alone here," William said to the three guards that went along to their bedroom door.

"Oh certainly, honourable wizard," one of the men said. "One of us will just remain here guarding the door. We're taking turns. Sir."

The magical duo sighed. "Alright. Have fun."

They closed the door and prepared for bed. Silently. As they lay next to each other, Hilda whispered: "I don't feel comfortable like this. I don't like having someone standing outside the door."

"I'm afraid their only alternative is that one of them stands in the room."

"Grmbl," said Hilda. She put an arm around William. "Mine to keep," she whispered and kissed him on the cheek.

"Gladly," he whispered back, and smiled.

After a while they fell into a disturbed sleep.

The next morning they awoke early.

"Did you sleep any good?", William asked as Hilda sat up and rubbed her face.

"Horribly. We should have brought our own bed," she yawned. "Would have fit easily."

"Yes, no problem. I have big pockets," William agreed. "Too bad we can't fly back and pick it up."

"Should have brought our brooms," Hilda nodded. "This is a drag. Takes so long..." She dropped herself back on the bed. "Can't we just go home and stay there, and join the soldiers a day later? Flying over is so much better."

As William wanted to respond to that, she put her hand over his mouth. "I don't want to hear it, okay?"

He nodded soundlessly.

"Good. Get up then?"

He nodded again.

They got up and after packing their belongings into the three dice again they went downstairs, where breakfast and the small batallion were waiting for them. Not long after that, the convoy was underway again, crossing the land of Lorn and arriving near the border with Ringeholm in the evening. There was another resting place prepared to cater to their needs, and another night went by with bad sleep and a guard by the door.

The morning brought rain. It followed them into Ringeholm, but the kingdom of Oxfern would have been just as wet.

"So what was it with Ringeholm. No unidentified flying witches, right?", William asked Hilda.

"Indeed. If you want to fly here, you need to go through a mountain of papers. Takes the whole thrill out of the flight, really."

"Or laugh at the rules and get trees thrown at you," William remembered.

"Yup." Hilda giggled as she recalled Bilgar's face, waking up on the broomaran with giant arrows being shot at them. "That was quite a trip, wasn't it, when we went to get Bilgar."

William grinned also. "Yes. That was some form of exciting."

They sat in the carriage, listening to the rain and decided that was not exciting at all.

"I have an idea," said Hilda. "I want to do something about this noise. And help our brave soldiers a bit."

"And that would be?", William asked, very interested in any way to lift the boredom.

Hilda popped out her wand. "You too," she said and explained what she wanted to do.

With the both of them holding their wands, they joined forces and sent out a magical umbrella that reached over all the men and carriages in their caravan. As soon as it was in place, the rain was simply diverted to fall to the sides of the path they were travelling over. It did not take long until Captain Lambert pulled up his horse next to the carriage with the valuable assets, and thanked them for shielding them from the rain.

"It is most unpleasant to ride in," he said, "so thank you, on behalf of the men!"

Hilda grinned. "You're welcome. It gives us something to do."

But the rain left, and the need for an umbrella left along with it, so it was back to sitting and riding.

Hilda leaned out the window and shouted for Captain Lambert, who came riding up to them quickly.

"Is something wrong, honourable witch?", he asked, concern ringing in his voice.

"There certainly is. You are outside in the open air, and we are stuck in this shaking box. I don't want to be in here, so I'll strike you a deal. You find a few men on horseback that want to sit here for a while and we'll ride the horses for that time."

"Oh. Uhm." Captain Lambert was quite unprepared for that request. The king had not given him any orders for situations like this one.

"I am going to stop this carriage otherwise," said Hilda. Her tone made it clear that she was very serious, and Captain Lambert was picking up on that expertly.

"I'll see what I can do for you, honourable witch," he promised and rode off to talk to some of the men. It did not take him long to find two men who wanted to hand over the reins of their horses to the magical people.

The convoy came to a halt, to enable the switch of passengers and riders. As Hilda and William got out of the carriage, the wizard whispered: "Nice plan, but I have never sat on a horse before."

"Don't worry. It is just like flying a broom," said Hilda. Blue sparkles were in her eyes and William knew that mischief was not far. He saw how Hilda swooped herself on the horse, the way she got on a broom. Only difference was that the horse was a bit higher. He followed her example and miraculously ended up on top of the horse.

Hilda smiled widely and as the caravan started to move again, the two horses walked along out of habit. The pace was not fast as the carriages held everyone back.

Hilda looked for Captain Lambert, who was very close to them, to be sure things were fine. "Captain Lambert... is it okay with you if William and I go up and ahead a bit, to look around?"

"Of course not, honourable witch. Peter and I will accompany you," the captain said.

"That is very kind of you, Captain," Hilda said with her sweetest voice, "you can come with us as far as you can, of course."

Captain Lambert warned Peter who was not far behind him, and the two soldiers rode up next to Hilda and William. "Whenever you are ready."