by Paul Kater
was almost the same thing Tarkan told William after hearing the plan. The village leader had come out of hiding and now was trying to convince William, Kerna and Rebel that they had to leave.
"I doubt you have a big say in this all," William told Tarkan. "You've been ruling this place for a long time without going somewhere. You were just waiting for the witch. But now the witch has come, so what's next?"
"She will make right what's wrong of course," Tarkan said, his hands flying. "Everything that's wrong."
"And what's wrong according to you?"
The village leader stared at William, searching for an answer to that question. The answer refused to be found.
Tarkan threw his arms up again. "This is an outrage. I knew I should not have come to you." He turned and marched off. Then he turned. "Why am I leaving? You have to leave!"
Kerna stood and looked at the man. "We are not leaving. I am here and I am going to finish what I came here for."
Tarkan stared at her. "You?" He barked a laugh. "What do you think you can do, girl?"
The 'girl' put her pet in her seat and reached out. The broom flew to her hand.
"The wizard is helping you?" Tarkan sneered.
"This is nothing with the wizard," Kerna said, as she made the broom hover. "This is about me. Because I am the witch who is not a witch."
"That proves nothing," Tarkan pointed at the floating utensil. "Anyone can-" At that point he seemed to rethink what he was about to say.
Kerna shrugged and returned to her seat. Dwey seemed pleased enough with that. "I give up on him," she informed William and Rebel. "We should just go with the sensible ones."
William and Rebel agreed. The three looked at the villagers sitting with them.
-=-=-
"I don't have time for this," the witch told Davdruw. "You are not helping to save things, so we'll recruit a handful of people and work things out with them."
She turned and started walking. "Coming?" she asked Maurizio who was still watching the floating spiritual leader.
"Yes, of course."
The two left Davdruw's rooms, leaving him hanging in the air as he yelled out the horrible things that would happen to Hilda.
37. A Pallazi in trouble
"I think he needs to understand that he is not the one to boss a witch around," Hilda shared with Maurizio as they were in the corridor again.
"If you leave him hanging there, he's bound to understand," the captain grinned.
"Sure that's enough? Okay, then. Come, let's find that Pallazi place and see what mess these Council people made of it. I have some hopes there are a few there that are still sensible. They would be good for the meeting."
A blue-haired, silver-clad man walked by.
"Hey, you."
"Do you mean me?" the man asked, looking at the grey-haired woman in black.
"Yes, do you see another you?" Hilda asked, changing the man's face to a puzzle without magic. "We need to get to the Pallazi, can you take us there?"
"Only Davdruw takes people there," the man carefully replied. After all, they were in front of Davdruw's chambers.
"That's not what I asked. And Davdruw's not going anywhere for a while, so if you know where it is, you are allowed to take us there. Davdruw is not going to mind."
The man peered at the closed door. "Are you certain?"
"Do I look like I am in doubt?"
The man could not deny that Hilda looked her ever-confident self. "In that case yes, honoured witch. I know the way to the Pallazi. I will take you there."
"Good boy."
The man in silver seemed to know the way very well. Without passing through the normal corridors, he took them to the small passage that led to the door of the control room. The Pallazi.
"Do you want me to wait here for you?" he asked.
"No, we'll be fine. Thank you for taking us here. This place is a maze."
"It's really not that bad," the man smiled. "Enjoy your day, honoured witch." He nodded, turned and walked off.
"Right. Let's see the damage," the witch then said to the captain.
They walked to the door, did not knock and opened it.
Inside the room, the situation was not as bad as Davdruw had attempted to describe it. It was worse.
Two of the walls that had been lined with machines and consoles before, were now in an indescribably state of disarray and parts. The parts consisted for fifty percent of ceiling and wall, and the other fifty percent had been machinery and consoles.
There were obviously two camps in the room. One group huddled in a corner, the other sat in front of the remaining machines. Hilda recognised Katinki in the second group. The woman had armed herself with a piece of wood, the people with her also had some kind of weapon with them. None of the groups said something.
As Hilda and Maurizio entered, all eyes turned to them in silence.
"Suck an elf. What happened here?"
Many voices at the same time started explaining the state of the room.
Hilda popped up her wand and mumbled something. The mouths were still moving but the jumble of sounds had gone. "Much better. Now, I will let you talk again and then I will point at someone who will do the talking. One at the time, did I make myself clear?"
Heads nodded.
After a new spell, sighs of relief echoed through the chamber.
"So. First the version of you." Hilda pointed at Katinki, who had always struck her as one of the sanest of the bunch.
The woman took to her feet, clutching the wood. She glanced at the group in the corner before she started talking.
"They started to take the machines apart. They said that since you are here, nothing can go wrong." Katinki's eyes went over the devastation. "Well, we're lucky that most of the buildings are still standing, I think."
Maurizio had walked over to one of the machines that still looked undamaged. Then he looked at a ruined one. "Not a professional job," he commented.
"Right," Hilda nodded. "So what do you have to say to your defence?" She pointed at a man in the corner.
He made no attempt to move, instead from his position he said: "It's the prophecy. You come and things will be right again. That way we don't need the machines anymore, so we started disassembling them."
"And killed dozens, you idiot!" Katinki snapped at the man.
Hilda snipped her fingers and the two fighting voices fell silent. Hearing that so many people had died in this bout of insanity shocked her.
"Easy. First, let me tell you that this prophecy is a stupid thing that is interpreted in too many ways. So far we heard two versions. Second, I am not the witch you are waiting for. We have her, she's at the other place with the offspring of the old ones. Your runaway ancestors."
The witch looked at the two silenced people. "You're going to be good again, right?"
Frantic nodding happened and vocal cords were released.
"I think you are both right and both wrong," the witch said as she made a chair appear and sat down. "You're going to be relieved of your - uhm - presence here." Hilda refused to call it their 'work', as they still had no clue what they had been doing here. "I want to take some of you to a place where we're going to talk about this place. I need a few people with sense."
No one spoke up. The fear of being silenced was enough to make the people behave.
"Four or five should do," Hilda continued. She pointed at Katinki. "You are one of them."
As Katinki stared at Hilda, almost shocked, the witch also pointed at the man who had spoken up for the opposite faction. "You are one also. You stood up well, so you can be, what William calls, the Devil's Advocate."
Hilda selected a few more people and ordered them to go and clean themselves up. "You will meet a handful others, so better look smart. We're going to find one of these flying machines that can take you there."
She held back Katinki. "I need a word with you."
She turned to the other people. "And you... clean up the mess here. No more smashing t
hings unless you have a serious desire to find yourself in the ranks of the casualties." Hilda did not mean to hurt anyone, but somehow the people seemed to need this promise. And it sounded good.
The witch looked at Katinki. "You can put away your clobber device now. It's going to be fine, trust me."
Katinki looked at the piece of wood and then almost reluctantly dropped it on the floor.
"Good. I hope you can do two things for me."
"Which are?" Katinki looked surprised.
"First, I need someone who can arrange one of those flying machines for us, and can fly it. And when you cleaned yourself up, can you meet us at Davdruw's room?"
Katinki frowned. "I am not sure if I know someone like that. I usually am here as I am part of the High Council."
"You were," Hilda grinned, "and you are going to be happy about that. Know what: you go clean up and meet us at Davdruw's. We'll take care of the fly-thing."
Katinki nodded. Carefully she reached out to Grimalkin, who rested on Hilda's shoulder, and was allowed to stroke the cat's head. "I will go now."
Maurizio had watched the remaining people as they started taking away the mess that had accumulated against the wall, thanks to their combined efforts. "I think they'll obey, Hilda," he said.
"If not, they'll get a roof on their head, that's all I can say," the witch said, loud enough for all to enjoy. "Come, we have a fly-thing to arrange and a spiritual leader to liberate."
-=-=-
When they reached Davdruw's chambers, they had already found someone to arrange a shuttle. The man they had 'appointed' had promised that it would be ready in time. Maurizio had convinced Hilda that he would remember the name of the place where the shuttle would be waiting.
Davdruw was still where Hilda had