by Paul Kater
"Perhaps we should set some magical wards in the most obvious places," Hilda suggested, "I'm sure Esmee will know the places where the creature struck most often."
Once on their brooms again, Esmee detailed the best places where the safeties could be put up, and she was very interested in how to make things like that. Baba Yaga said that she would see to it that Esmee was trained on the job. Hilda thought that a great idea.
They reached the castle grounds. Rain was pouring down in streams. Some overzealous gardeners were still trying to do something nice for the plant life they were responsible for. The men stared as the small squadron of brooms came in to land near the large cage.
"Oy, honourable witches," one of the gardeners said, "how long do you reckon that metal box has to stay here in the garden? It's pretty much an eyesore, you should know, the king said so himself."
Hilda nodded understandingly. "Would it be terribly offensive to make the king temporarily blind?" Esmee and William said that it would be, Baba Yaga was tempted to take Hilda's side.
"Let's first get these wards up, folks," Baba Yaga decided, "we'll have time to ponder the king's eyesight in a dry environment." Everyone agreed with that. Staying on broomstick, as the paths had all turned into mud, they followed Esmee to the places where most of the times bones had been found.
Hilda and William, who had been charged with additional magic from Zelda's place, helped Baba Yaga in supplying magical power for Esmee as the flower witch was trained in setting wards. The first one was an absolute disaster, as all three had expected already.
"Listen, wench," said Babs, "I can't do this for you, I can only explain what you have to do. So you'd better listen carefully and do it well. This rain, even when Willy here makes it fall somewhere else, is not good for my old bones. So, you envision a web of magic here around the place and you pin it to the place. Let's first get that part done."
Esmee nodded, held out her wand and nothing happened. She shook her wand a few times. "Maybe it got wet..."
"It did not get wet," William was certain. "I don't see a drop on it, nor on your hands. Let me try something." He put his hand on Esmee's shoulder. "Give it another go."
She did. William let some magic flow directly into her. A web appeared where Esmee wanted it, but it was slightly too powerful: a magical explosion meant the end of the web, and four magicals found themselves in the mud. "Oops," said William. "That was a bit too much, wasn't it?"
Baba Yaga laughed so loudly that the palace guards came running to check what bad had happened this time. They dispersed quickly, as a laughing witch was not considered something bad. Little did they know.
The magical muddies got up and mounted their brooms again. Hilda cleaned and dried them all, as William took care of the two cats who looked utterly displeased. When everyone was in some form of order again, Esmee tried building the ward again, this time with support from Hilda, and that seemed to help. The web was clearly visible, looked stable and Baba Yaga approved, which was most important.
"And now you make four lines from the web, one to each of us," Babs said.
"Six," Hilda corrected her, "the cats too. They can alarm us when something happens."
Baba Yaga agreed, watching the two black creatures who seemed unimpressed, even bored with the whole affair. They lay curled up on their part of the brooms. Esmee managed the connections from the web to all the ones who had to be linked to it.
"Good little witch," Baba Yaga encouraged Esmee. The flower witch had a pained expression on her face as this was magic of an entirely different level. "Now, take us to the next spot. We'll each set up some wards so we are inside before it's all dark out here. This rain is bad on my old bones."
They visited six places in the castle grounds and everywhere they left a magical alarm bell, connected to each of them. Esmee set up the last one, and this time it did not take her so long. After that the group repaired to the warm dry spaces of the castle.
As they were in the dining room, where there was a separate table for them, they talked about things of the day, and what they would do when the mysterious large cat woman creature was shaking up any of the wards. Jordan, Snow White and a trail of children came into the dining room then, and they all flocked around the table of the magicals. Some of the children looked for cats to play with, but the cats had spotted the children and had left for safer quarters.
"Have you found out anything?" Snow White wanted to know as Jordan and some maids tried to move the children towards their own table. It looked like herding cats.
The magicals told her about what they had found, which was not very much. "Good thing we got to those tracks before the rain," Hilda said, "when it keeps pouring down they'll be gone quickly."
"And Esmee? Has she been any help?" Snow White asked. The tone in her voice made it clear that she had not much trust in her castle-witch beyond household magic and the improbable taming of children.
"Esmee's been great," Baba Yaga said, surprising Snow White, who kept an eye on Jordan. The old witch shook her head as she saw how he tried to grab the twins who were running around with forks. Esmee seemed surprised at Baba Yaga's words, she had not expected such praise.
"He's not getting them before they get him," Baba Yaga predicted. All heads turned to Prince Jordan and saw her prediction come true: as Jordan grabbed Dicky, Billy approached him from the rear and was ready to stab his father in the rear end with the fork.
Esmee muttered something and had her wand in hand. Billy yelped, and with a proper reason. He shot up to the ceiling where his feet then seemed stuck. The little prince screamed as if he was on a spit, while William magically caught the falling fork before it could hurt someone.
"Dicky," Esmee then said. She attracted the attention of everyone in the dining room, the way her voice was strong and so very un-Esmee. Dicky turned and stared at her. "Put down the fork and sit. Or you can join your brother up there."
Dicky stared up. The fork fell from his hand as he heard his twin brother yelp as he hung from the ceiling. Dinna also saw her brother hanging and started sobbing that she did not want to go up to the ceiling again. Roderick, who had stayed close to Snow White all the while, kept looking from hanging brother to sobbing sister and back up, unsure what to do with the situation.
"I think we should sit down and eat," Snow White suggested. "Would you please be so kind to bring my child down again, Esmee?" There was a sound in her voice that Hilda had never heard before when Snow White talked to the castle witch. It sounded close to respect.
"Sure she can, but since these two don't seem to know what to do with a fork, make them eat with their fingers," the wicked witch suggested, grinning at the prospect of a food fight.
Esmee spoiled her fun by suggesting that she and Hilda would feed the two boys, while their hands were stuck to the chairs. "Crappedy crap."
Billy was brought down from the ceiling. He had fear written all over his face, and the smell of urine rising up from his collar.
Baba Yaga had a ball, watching the feeding scene... William did his best not to look, and not to laugh.
13. Watch where you're going
In the black of the night, two shapes splashed down the muddy trail. Magda tried to find protection from the unrelenting rain under her soaked cloak. Lindolf stared ahead stoically, his garments also soaked. "I wish I had known this before," the man said, "I could have saved myself the trouble of coming here."
"Do you think I enjoy getting all wet and cold?" Magda snapped at him. "I have better things to do too, you know. It is not just my game, you are responsible at least as much." She pushed past some twigs. The curse she heard from the big man as the twigs hit him in the face gave her some satisfaction.
-=-=-
"William?"
"Yes, witch?" the wizard said.
"I am glad you did not laugh this evening." Hilda put an arm around her wizard. "I am not good with children."
"That was rather obvious," said William, "but you handled i
t just fine, Hilda. Esmee has experience, magicking Dicky's hands to the chair was enough for her. You just did what you could, and I'm proud of you."
Hilda nodded, her cheek against his shoulder. "Billy wouldn't sit still. His own fault that I had to make the iron clamps appear. That way he kept his mouth open and the rest of him unmoving."
"Inventive, and effective," William agreed.
"Was a bad move of Jordan though, to tell the kid that is how it feels when you're in a suit of armour." Hilda snorted. "As if he knows how that feels."
"And do you know, sweetwitch?" the wizard was curious.
"No. I don't need that kind of ordinary stuff." Hilda snuggled closer. "I just need you..."
The morning came on slightly soggy feet, but the skies were clearing. Apparently the rain was set on wetting other areas. Hilda sat up and rubbed her face. Then she pushed William. "I am sure it was your ward that did not work."
"Eh, what?" William wasn't aware of anything that had not worked on his behalf.
"We all set up wards yesterday, in the rain. If you care to remember." Hilda leaned down on him, resting her elbows on his chest. "And we heard nothing this night. I am tempted to bet that the cat woman was where you put up the ward, and that your ward failed to warn us. You have to admit that you are not so skilled in setting wards, William."
The wizard put his arms around her. "Now listen, witch. I watched what you did, and I copied your ward. If you care to remember. So if my ward failed, yours has done too."
"My wards, wizard, do not fail." She sounded very determined.
"So maybe it were Esmee's wards. Or the notification lines she set up to all of us." William harboured a thought for a moment. Only for a moment.
"Don't think that out loud, William. Babs will have you for breakfast," Hilda said.
"Don't say that. It's already banished from my head. Really."
Hilda felt the shudder go through William. She kissed him on the lips. "Come. Breakfast. And then inventory of what happened outside."
Breakfast was a calm affair, even when Baba Yaga joined them. After that they went to find Esmee. They found the pink witch in the room where Snow White and another young woman were discussing tactics on keeping the twins under control.
"Jordan is taking them with him far too often," Snow White complained to the magical trio that joined the talks. "They are learning his way of talking, they eat too much and they don't listen to me."
Baba Yaga agreed. "These two kids are indeed becoming a bit chubby. I am sure we can lend a hand with that too, while we're here."
Snow White seemed to seriously consider the implicit offer of the witch. "How many children have you raised?"
"Children? Raised?" Babs asked. "Are you asking me? And you're feeling well at the same time?"
Snow White did not look at ease all of a sudden. "Maybe I should just talk to Jordan about that, instead of you..."
"Ah, no, really, hardly any trouble," Hilda pitched in, "we'll take care of that for you. You just keep that belly of you where it is, and by the way, your little girl is making a mess of the clean diapers." As Snow White and the young woman stared in terror at the mountain of diapers Dinna had created, William took Esmee by the arm and made her leave the room with them.
"Hey, where are you taking me?" Esmee asked as they sauntered down the long corridor to the exit.
"Away from there. Snow White has plenty of help for her kids," Hilda explained, "and we are going to see what happened outside. None of us woke up last night, so I suspect one of the wards did not work as we planned."
Esmee nodded. "I was a bit surprised about not being woken up also," she admitted.
Once outside, they all got on their brooms and went on a tour around the places they had secured the day before. To their surprise, they found all the wards in perfect order; there was nothing wrong anywhere. There also were no paw-prints, no bits of hair and no piles of bones at any of the places. The latter made no sense, according to Hilda. Esmee confirmed that chicken or rabbit remains had been found every morning.
"Let me tell you something," William then said, staring at the two black animals that had come along. They were neatly curled up on the hovering brooms. "Cats don't like to get wet."
"Everyone knows that, William- Oh, right. It pissed down last night..." Hilda turned to her best friend: "See, Babs, that's why I keep him around. Occasionally he does come in handy." Esmee stared at Hilda and then at William, who winked at her. She grinned without a sound.
Baba Yaga took her wand and prodded the ward they were with. "Still looks good. We'll leave it in place for another night." Esmee was quite surprised and proud. It was one of her wards, and Baba Yaga had said it looked good.
"I vote we go back to the castle and have a cup of tea with something or other," Hilda said. "The rain went on for too long, it still feels moist everywhere."
"And you are going to battle that with taking in wet stuff, aren't you?" Baba Yaga grinned.
"Hot wet stuff. That's different," Hilda grinned as she hopped onto her broom. "Come on, folks, I am not going to wait for you!" Esmee was last in the air, still trying to come to terms with the seemingly random way Hilda's mind hit all kinds of things.
Back in the castle, sitting in one of the many lounges, the four magical ones discussed how they would go about Prince Jordan. More precisely this meant that Hilda and Babs were coming up with one weird plan after the next, while William sat grinning and Esmee became more anxious for them to stop. They frightened her. Hilda seemed to read that from Esmee's face. "I think it is time to finish the tea," the wicked witch said, "and put an end to our talking." Esmee was the first person to agree with that. Poor Esmee.
They finished their tea. Hilda, William and Babs got up. "What are you going to do?" Esmee asked, slight bits of fear making her heart jolt.
"We are going to have a little talk."
"But you said you were putting an end to the talking..." An awareness dawned on Esmee. It was a dawning that cast bad shadows.
"Our talking," Hilda confirmed Esmee's fears, "has indeed come to an end. Now we are going to have the talk with His Princeness."
"Oh." That was the best come-back Esmee mustered. "In that case I'll-"
"-come with us, if you would be so kind, yes," Hilda completed Esmee's sentence in quite a different way than the pink witch had in mind. "Prince Jordan won't feel so outnumbered. He knows you and may take heart from that."
Esmee highly doubted that. Prince Jordan had never been very impressed with her, despite all her efforts to do what she could. She understood however that there was no way she would be escaping from the three that now were looking down at her, waiting until she got up. Lingering, she knew, would only postpone the inevitable, so without suppressing her sigh, she got to her feet.
The flower witch was in the lead, on the way to the chambers of Prince Jordan. As they went along, Baba Yaga commented to Esmee she should start wearing properly coloured clothes. "Some more black would do you good. And that red you got the other day, when are you going to do something with that?"
"Yes, yes, I will do something. Maybe make a nice dress from that," Esmee responded.
"Good. And a black cloak? Want us to fix you one?" Hilda offered. "We make mean cloaks. I can see you in one with shiny black flowers, or cats." Grim and Obsi meowed, objecting to that.
"If it is all the same to you, Hilda, I will see that I get my own cloak," Esmee said. She turned into another corridor and almost bumped into a man. "Oh, I'm so sorry."
"Watch where you're going," the servant grumbled.
"Hey. Yes, you," Baba Yaga said as the servant passed her. "I think we need to talk." Esmee grew pale as she witnessed the scene. Hilda and William looked on with interest.
"What do you want?" the servant asked, taking an eyeful of Babs.
"Well," said the wrinkled witch. "How about you first apologise to the witch there?"
The servant's faced conveyed a year's supply of amazement. "Apolog
ise? To her?"
"Yes. You heard correctly."
"Baba Yaga, please," Esmee started, but something in the stance of Hilda made her keep her mouth shut.
"I'm not apologising to any witch," the servant said, puffing a proud chest. "And certainly not to that one."
"We'll see about that, dear man," said Baba Yaga. "The 'that one' you are so disdainfully are referring to is my protegé. She is a witch, and a damned good one. One with less sense would have turned you into a toad for not watching where you're going."
Esmee stared at Baba Yaga. Protegé? She somehow convinced her lower jaw to stay put.