Hilda - The Challenge

by Paul Kater

  Soon after that little talk, the house came into sight. Nothing had changed during their absence. Hilda removed the chains, William collected the mail-arrows and they headed inside. Hilda took first turn in the bathtub as William fixed a quick meal. After eating, William took over the bath for a while. Hilda sat with him, going through the messages.

  "Bullshit, bullshit, not interesting, bullshit, oh!"

  "Oh?", William asked from among the bubbles.

  "Very oh even," Hilda confirmed. "Message from Walt. Seems there is a strange thing going on in his palace and could we please come and check it out. Sounds like a plan for the afternoon."

  "After, or instead of the rounds?"

  "Instead of," Hilda said, "this is the real work. That comes first. So hurry, we have work to do!" Laughing, she walked out the door.

  William noticed that her protective powers were amazing, the spunge he flung at her bounced back and hit him in the face.

  As he came down, refreshed and redressed, Hilda had their brooms already waiting. "Come on, hop hop, it's off to Walt we go." They mounted and took off to the skies, pushing the speed quite considerably. It was not a good thing to keep a king waiting for too long.

  Without the need for much protocol, they landed their brooms in the castle courtyard. A guard that was protecting the door seemed to be shaken up by their sudden landing. Clearly he had been in a nodding and dozing state.

  "Halt, who goes there?", he wondered even though that was very obvious by the appearance and clothes of the people standing in front of him.

  "Is the King in?", Hilda asked without telling the guard who was going anywhere.

  "He should be, I have not heard that he left," the guard said. He banged on the door. A few seconds later a servant appeared.

  "Ah, honourable witch and wizard! Do come in and follow me. King Walt is anxiously awaiting your arrival." He let them enter the castle and then took the lead to guide them to where the king was to be found. The further they came into the castle, the stranger things started to look. There were shattered vases in many places, as well as people with big blobs of cotton sticking from their ears. The more cotton there was, the more serious the looks on their faces, the magical couple noticed.

  "Now what is this?", asked Hilda as they were walking along at quite a fast pace. "Any faster and I will get my broom in."

  "I am sorry, honourable witch, but the King really wants to see you quickly." The servant obviously did all he could not to break into a run.

  Finally they arrived. King Walt and also Queen Velma sat at a table, glasses of wine in front of them, a plate with chicken legs in front of the king. The faces of the two royals were remarkably pale. There were wads of cotton lying on the table...

  "Your majesties...", said the servant, then stepped aside so Hilda and William could step into the lounge.

  "You came!", said Walt, his face showing relief.

  "Of course. What's the problem here? We see everyone running around with a face like there's been fifty days of bad weather, and cotton in their ears."

  King Walt took some cotton and handed that to the couple. "You will learn to appreciate it," he said. Doom and gloom were fighting over priority in his voice. "It's bad."

  Then there was the howl.

  62. Howler

  Queen Velma screamed, going for the cotton as if it were the best thing in life. The sound of her screaming was drowned in the howling though; Hilda and William just saw her mouth move. Walt also grabbed cotton and stuck it in his ears.

  The howl sounded as if wind on steroids were raging through corridors and echoing through large halls. It went on for almost two minutes. William as well as Hilda considered the sound definitely unpleasant to hear. They handed the cotton back to King Walt.

  When the noise had subsided, Hilda asked: "Now what was that?"

  Queen Velma stared at the two, terror pouring from her eyes.

  "We don't know. That is why we called for your help. You have to find out, because it is driving us insane," said Walt, plucking the cotton from his ears again. "This is getting so bad that I even feel sorry for my wife."

  "Okay, looks like we have us a job, William," said Hilda. "When did this start?"

  "It started three days ago," Walt began to explain. "At first it was not that bad, and everyone thought it was a case of the wind howling. But it got louder and louder, and also more frequent. We can't sleep anymore. It goes through the whole castle but not to the outside."

  William frowned. "Then why don't you put up tents outside and remain there until the problem is solved?"

  King Walt gazed at him as if William were a ghost. "Tents. Outside. I don't even know if we have tents."

  The howling started again.

  "Eerie sound, isn't it?", Hilda asked William, who nodded.

  "Yes. Very annoying. We should go and find out what's causing this."

  They waited for the howling to end, wished the king good luck in finding tents and then set out into the long halls and corridors. Somewhere they found a sort of small couch where they sat down and waited for the next howl to start. They did not have to wait very long.

  As the sound started jagging the nerves of the ordinaries that were still without cotton, the magical ones drew their wands and started walking around as if they were dowsing. Hilda took pity on the poor people that were trying to keep the sound out with their hands and magicked up many bags with cotton for them. Before they could find anything useful, the howling stopped again.

  "I get the distinct impression that it is not here. Not on this floor," said the witch. Must be in the cellars or the dungeons. Come, let's find the king and ask him if he's had people check there."

  The king was able to tell them that there had not been people checking the lower levels of the castle. "Suppose something is there!", he said, fear beaming from his face.

  "Uhm, yes, wasn't that the reason why we are here?" Hilda rubbed her nose. Before she could say more, the howling started again and Walt made himself deaf using cotton.

  "Let's go down a level and see if we can find the source of the problem there," Hilda proposed. William nodded, and once again they left the royals to their personal agony.

  After some searching they found an entrance to the lower floor of the building.

  "Darkish," Hilda noticed. "We should take a torch or something. You never know how much we need the wands to actually beat something up."

  "You think of everything, don't you?" William magicked up a torch.

  "Of course. I am the resident witch, remember? I have to be good." She tossed him a ravishing smile and then turned to the stone staircase.

  They descended slowly. There was a heavy silence hanging in the darkness. The shadows, cast by the flickering torch, danced over the walls. Then the howling started again. It was without a doubt louder than on the ground floor where they had heard it first.

  "Comes from down here somewhere," Hilda nodded. "Funny smell here too. As if something old has been out in the open for far too long."

  A sudden gust of wind extinguished the flame on the torch.

  "Well I'll be danged," said William, lighting the thing again. At that moment the howling also stopped. "I doubt that my saying that caused it to stop."

  Hilda laughed. "I am convinced of that, dear man, but it certainly was funny!"

  They reached the bottom of the stairs. To the left and right they saw a long corridor, torches burning in regular intervals.

  "Now that is odd," William muttered. "Why did our torch go out and these remained lit? I'd almost think that there was something down there that deliberately went for our torch."

  Hilda raised her hand. "Ssshh.." She pointed her wand into the left corridor.

  William saw how hard she was concentrating on something. The bond made that even more clear. The amount of energy she was putting into it was scaring William; he had no idea that such a small woman could harbour so much power.

  "Something's here. Or was here recently."
She sounded very certain. Slowly the witch turned to the other corridor and probed that with all the energy she had at her disposal. It almost seemed to sparkle around her in the relative darkness of the place where they were. Then, suddenly, a faint smile appeared on her face. "I think I got it." She started walking, William close behind her as he had no clue what she had done, was doing or even was going to do.

  "Oh yes, I got it," said Hilda as she started walking faster. Suddenly though, she stopped. "Oh... crap..."

  Something appeared to come from inside a wall, it looked like a shadow, and it came towards them very fast. Somehow, as it was right in front of them, it seemed to come to a dead halt, and then they were treated to a howling sound so loud and forceful that it literally blew them off their feet. Hilda toppled over, William got blown against a wall and fell down along that. The howl continued for a while longer, and this time, as it was coming from so close, it actually hurt their ears. Then the shadowy shape fell silent again and disappeared into another wall.

  As Hilda got up and slapped dust and other irregularities from her dress, she grinned. "Ha, see, I got you!"

  William also got to his feet. "It somehow looks to me that it got us, sweetwitch."

  "Puh. It wouldn't have if I hadn't gotten it first. I'm sure of that. I think." The witch walked to the part of the wall where the shadow had disappeared into and knocked on it. "Hey, come out. I want to talk to you."

  Whatever the shadow was, it did not respond to the name Hey. It remained invisible.

  "Well, at least we now know what's causing the noise," said Hilda, a satisfied look on her face.

  "We do?" William felt a bit left out of things.

  "Sure, we do. It's just a ghost. Nothing more."

  "Oh. I see. Just a ghost. So who you're gonna call?" The joke was lost on Hilda.

  "Dear William," she said as she turned to him and folded her fingers behind his neck. "We are called for this, remember? There was this chubby man with the crown that sent us a message about it. Does that ring a bell?"

  "Yes, it does. You have a talent for making things so understandable for me." William folded his arms around her and lifted her up just far enough for their lips to touch.

  That was the moment that Hey had selected to make another appearance. The shadow shot from the wall, forced itself against them and howled them to the ground once again, blasting their eardrums. It was a relief for them when finally the howling ghost stopped its noise and whooshed off into a wall again.

  Hilda, lying on top of William, shook her head. "Damn. That was loud." She got to her feet. "Lying comfy there, or shall we go up again and tell the king what we found?"

  "You, witch, are terrible," said the wizard as he rose from the floor.

  "I know. And you love me for that." She looked at him. "Don't you?"

  "I'll tell when we're upstairs again, is that a deal?" William looked over his shoulder, to where the ghost had disappeared. "Not really ready yet to be a ghostbuster."

  "Okay. Come. Up we go then."

  Hand in hand they went up the stairs, after William had picked up the torch he had dropped at the first assault of the ghost.

  As they had exited the cellar, Hilda turned to William. "Okay, now tell me."

  He put his hands lightly on her shoulder, and then the howling started again. "Yes, I love you for everything you are. And I am glad we're away from that cellar."

  "So am I. But we'll be going back there to get that ghost and talk some sense into it. Now, however, we'll go find the king."

  As they walked down the long corridor, the howling started again.

  63. Ghost

  They found King Walt alone in the room where they had left him. As they came in, he took a bunch of cotton from one ear, to check if there was no howling.

  "You are back. Did you catch whatever it was?"

  "Nope, not yet. But we did find out what it is. It's a ghost. A rather unhappy one, I think, he sounds quite lonely. Have you ever had problems with ghosts before?", Hilda came straight to the point.

  "Ghosts? We have no ghosts here! This is a castle!", the king exclaimed. At that point the howling started again, so he quickly put his cotton in place again.

  When it was over, Hilda waved at him and nodded.

  "As I said, we have no ghosts here." King Walt sat down and offered the magical couple a chair.

  "Well, looks like you got one now, King," said William. "We saw it up close. It's there alright."

  "What we don't know is how it got here," Hilda added. "Did anything change here, recently? Did new people come to the palace? Have you opened doors or such that have always been closed?"

  King Walt was very quick in slapping the cotton in his ear again as the howling started.

  "This is not going to get us anywhere fast, Hilda," William commented. "I think we should go outside and try talking to him there. This howling is affecting him too much."

  Hilda nodded. "I'll tell him we have to go outside once our ghost pipes down again."

  As the ghost stopped its wailing, their suggestion was accepted by the royal man and they moved to a small spot in one of the gardens, where a tent-like construction stood.

  "Right. This is better. So, did you open anything?", Hilda repeated her question.

  "Not that I know of. But I don't know what all the people here in the castle are doing," King Walt confessed. "Somehow there seem to be more and more people here, they're all busy with something, and who knows where they come from."

  "Does not sound like anyone's in control of this place, does it?" William shook his head.

  "Velma is in charge of most things personnel," Walt said. "Ever since she's had the shoes, she's become more helpful around the house. I have to say that for her."

  "I see. I think we should have a word with the queen then. Perhaps she knows something..." Hilda frowned.

  More and more people came into the yard and the gardens, as word had spread that outside was the place to be for the moment. People were actually building some tents, even though these would hardly offer enough space for all the servants and other people who had their duties in and around the court.

  The queen was located quite quickly. She was outside in a garden also, staying away from the large building with the horrible howling still going off at short intervals.

  "Queen Velma?" Hilda walked up to her. "We have to talk with you."

  The queen was not used to direct approaches like this, but from magical people she had to accept it. They were different. Dangerous.

  They asked her about the staff in the palace. About new people, strange people, unpredictable people.

  "Oh my," said the queen. "I am afraid I can't help you with all those things. I tell Walt that I am taking care of this, but I generally move all that complicated stuff to Marigold, who then shares the work with Brea, Gordon, Nelson, Theobald and Lisette."

  "God help us all," said William. He dreaded an even wider web of people who were all doing the same thing as the queen. They might end up searching a haystack in which no needle of significance was buried.

  Hilda blinked a few times. "No deal there, William. We do things ourselves. We're going back and see if we can talk some sense into this one."

  "If we can find it."

  Hilda grinned. "That's not a problem. It will find us. Thanks, Queen Velma. Enjoy your stay here." She got up, took William by the sleeve and dragged him along. "Let's go and do it. Another performance of the magical and powerful."

  They entered the now nearly empty castle. Their footsteps bounced off every wall as they found their way to the cellar. There, torch in hand, they opened the door and walked down the stairs again. The occasional howl of the ghost had not bothered them very much as they had gone through the long corridors, but here, in the lower level, there was an almost solid, tangible feeling of threat. There was also a howl again.

  The ghost raced past them, jumping from one wall to the other, as it made its terrible sound.

  Hilda looked
at it go as the ghost went slaloming through the corridor, jumping from wall to wall as it went further away from them. She shrugged, and to William's surprise she took her wand and made a table and two chairs appear. "Can you make us the coffee? I really could do with some," she said as she smiled and sat down.

  William sat down, got his wand out and made a big pot of coffee, and with it 2 cups, sugar and cream. "Here we go. I doubt that we will make the ghost happy with a cup."

  Hilda laughed as he poured them a good cup of the dark stuff.

  There was silence in the corridor for a remarkably long time.

  "Do you think the smell of the coffee chased it off?", William asked.

  "No way. Ghosts can stand smells that even you and I can't. I think that what we're doing is working."

  "Oh, hey, that's great. What are we doing?" The wizard would really like to know, since he was part of it.

  "We're making it curious."

  "Oh, of course." William was puzzled. How would making a ghost curious help them catch it?

  "Who said anything about catching it?" Hilda had become very proficient at reading their link. "We'll first make it curious. That is enough to begin with."

  "Okay. And if it is not getting curious?", William asked.

  "Then we have to switch to the second plan," Hilda smiled.

  "Which is?"

  "Yours."

  "Uhm. I'd drink to that, but then I need something stronger. A lot stronger." William emptied his cup and poured fresh rounds. "Still no peep." He was served right then and there.

  The ghost popped into existence next to him and howled in his ear.

  "Holy Bejeebus," said William, whose protection had jumped in this time and protected his ears. "What kind of behaviour is that to welcome visitors." He stared at the fuzzy shape that disappeared into the wall behind him a few heartbeats later.

  "I think we got him," Hilda whispered and winked. "And I would like a cookie too."

  "She would like a cookie." He waved his wand. A box of cookies appeared. "Here we go. Cookies."