by Paul Kater
muttered. "We had her, she had us, and now we're back at the start again. And she knows that we're here."
"Indeed. But she has the same problem we have: she doesn't know where we are staying."
Hilda looked around. "This village is very large. We're going to have a very interesting time here. And the village will never be the same again after that, I tell you."
William nodded. "It's not the same anymore since Zelda got here, so we can only add to the damage."
The news-helicopter came after them again. "Hello?", the amplified man said.
"I suddenly feel like adding to the damage," said Hilda as she made her wand appear. Before William could react, she swooped to the helicopter and hovered close to it, apparently unaffected by the turbulence of the big rotor-blades.
"Hey you," she said to the reporter inside the helicopter. The camera-man was struggling to get the best footage of this strange woman on her broom. "You are making things hard on us. We're here to catch a witch and now you are on our tail all the time. We have enough on our hands without you, so you can either go away by yourself, or I will make you go away. And what's that thing?" She pointed at the camera.
"That? Oh, that's nothing," the reporter tried to stall.
"Really. If it's nothing, you can do without it." Hilda swung her wand, said some Latin, hit it right the first time, and the camera fell apart in many tiny bits. "Now you can go. There's nothing."
The reporter and the camera-man stared at the now worthless expensive camera.
"Hey you. I'm waiting. Go before I- Oh, suck an elf. Recidi. Goodbye..."
As the witch flew back to the waiting wizard, the helicopter started to descend to the ground. The pilot fought the controls all he could, but there was no way his flying skills were a match for magic. An additional problem he faced was that the rotors were no match for the buildings that were just too close to the helicopter.
"What did you tell them?", William asked as the helicopter fell the last few feet to streetlevel.
"Oh, just that they should leave before I made them," Hilda shrugged.
"Right. They didn't."
"Indeed. So I did it for them. Now, where can Zelda be?"
They spent a long time looking for the wild witch, but to no avail.
"We'll probably have to wait until she makes a move again," said Hilda. "And that sucks. I hate waiting."
"We can go find some food," William suggested.
"Okay. Let's do that..."
-=-=-
They did not find a new trace of Zelda that day. After food and cruising over the town for a while, they decided to give up for the day and retreated to the room Bert had made available to them. It was still in one piece, so they assumed Zelda did not know where they stayed. Still, before laying down, they spun a light web of magic around the building that housed the bookstore, so they would be alerted if someone magical came near.
"I'm glad you are here with me, William."
He held her tight for a moment. "So am I."
"I'd go crazy here, alone. Like the first time." Hilda felt safe with William.
"To tell you the truth, I feel more at home in your world," said William. "It is uncanny how we are hunted and glared at here."
"Told you," said the witch that was lying in his arm. "And we'll go back as soon as this business is taken care of."
"That we will, for certain and for sure."
The glass of the window broke as a stone flew through it. Hilda stopped the stone and the glass from spreading as they jumped off the bed. William stepped over to the window as fast as he could and, in the darkness, he saw a few figures run away.
"Damn it. Probably kids who saw us fly in. Or out. That's not good. Word spreads fast in the streets, and Zelda's bound to hear it faster than we want."
"So we have to find a new place to stay," Hilda deducted. "That's nice, in the dark."
William already had the brooms in hand. "Don't worry, honourable witch," he said, "we'll find a place."
"William..." Hilda stood close to her wizard and took his collar in her hands. "No more calling me that, okay? That's for ordinaries. You are not an ordinary. You are a wizard, and you are my wizard."
"Okay, sweetwitch." He kissed her.
"Now that you can call me anytime," she grinned.
William magicked up a note for Bert, thanking him for the room and put it on the bed. Then they got on their brooms and left the house.
William and Hilda first went up, so they would not be seen so quickly. Then they set course towards the outskirts of town, where a few highrises were erected. Using magic, they sought out an apartment that was uninhabited, and using some more magic they gained entry and a nicely equipped bedroom.
The night went by without noticeable interruptions. Until...
"William. I'm cold."
"Whu? Oh. Come here... Holy Bejeebus, it -is- cold... what's wrong here?" William popped out his wand and made some light. The room looked as they had last seen it, but the lower part of the window was strangely white. The room was cold. Very cold.
Hilda looked around as well. "William... when we went to sleep, it was not winter, right? So why is there snow against the window?"
The couple got up, magicked warmer clothes onto themselves and walked over to the window. As far as they could see in the darkness, there was snow. The sky was clear, stars were visible. The window pushed its cold towards the witch and the wizard, which made it clear that outside was not a nice place to be for people.
"I don't recall you mentioning that Zelda is a weather-witch," said William.
"She's not. I don't know how she does this, it must cost her a tremendous amount of power to do this."
The two looked at each other and then, as one, they went for their brooms. William opened the door from a distance, using magic. A large amount of snow fell into the apartment.
"Crappedy crap," said Hilda. A swing of her wand later, the snow was gone and the way out was free for them. Making their clothes even warmer, they closed the door, mounted their brooms and flew up into the icy cold night.
William estimated that the layer of snow on the ground was about three feet thick as they flew over the silent town, judging from the occasional car that was still visible in the neighbourhoods that were still untouched by the manic witch.
"I sense where this is coming from, William, follow me," said Hilda once they had reached a decent altitude.
They crossed the town and then flew towards a large building.
"I've got to hand it to her," William grumbled, "she's smart. That's the ice cream factory."
"Ice cream? What's that?", Hilda asked.
9. Crash
The closer they came to the ice-cream factory, the colder it felt. There was also more snow there, and the few buildings that were near the factory were almost fully covered in a layer of ice.
"No cream here, William," Hilda remarked, pointing at one of the buildings.
"Indeed..." William looked out over the vast open area that surrounded the actual factory. The factory was fully lit on the inside, the light streamed out of the windows and gave a great view of the snow around it. "She's made sure that ordinaries won't get to her. Nobody would be able to make it through that stuff. Not even on snowshoes."
The snow out here lay at least five feet high.
"Hilda... Witches are curious, right?"
"Yes. We are. We have to be." Hilda looked at him as if she was explaining the necessity of breathing.
"Good. Then we are not going in there," said William as he pointed at the building a few hundred feet away.
"But Zelda's in there. We have to."
"Yes. And she knows that you think that way. She will certainly have a few surprises set up inside the building, just for us. Remember these wicked plants that she had in the pub, the ones that tried to kill us? Take it from me that she'll have more potent stuff in place now. She saw us with the helicopter so she knows we'
re hard to destroy."
"She knows we're here, William. She knows that we are here on our brooms."
"And she is inside there somewhere. Nice and warm." William nodded. Between them, through the bond, an idea formed. The magical couple grinned for a moment and then got to work. It did not take them very long to get their offensive charges in place.
"I think we're ready for it, William," Hilda said as she looked around the area. Seventy-two dragons made of snow were hovering around the factory, just outside the circle of light that the building generated.
"Then let's do it."
On a magical command, the large snow-creatures flew forward, all aiming at the brightly lit windows of the factory. A few seconds later over a hundred tonnes of snow crashed into the factory, spreading over the floor from all sides. All light went out. A few loud bangs came from the inside, when some fuses exploded from the overload of sudden snow turned water.
William and Hilda waited for a while, there was no certainty that Zelda had been taken out by this surprise. Then slowly they advanced, their wands casting light ahead. After entering the factory through one of the shattered windows, William was convinced that the owner of the place was not insured for what they found there.
The snow-dragons had wreaked their havoc in a way better than they had dared to hope. Not one machine was still standing. Almost every electrical wire had been ripped away from its hold; at least half of them had snapped under the weight of the snow.
"Zelda!" Hilda shouted the name. It came echoing back to her, slightly muffled by the snow. The witch they were looking for did not answer.
"Do you think she's under the snow