Authors: Paul Kater

Hilda - The Challenge (58 page)

Hilda was on her broom and in the air a flash
later, William was on his broom seconds later. The rectangle, still
vomitting its stream of death, slowly turned to where Hilda was
flying. She was however much faster than whoever it was that
controlled the immense metal slab. "Bregan??", she cried out when
she saw the judge of the challenge controlling the metal board from
his broom.

That, she knew, was impossible. Bregan was
not the kind of mage who could or would do such a thing.

William had also circled around the board and
spotted Bregan. "Bregan! Stop that!", he yelled. All that did was
that the board was now changing its course to point at William. The
stream of fire, ice and poison tore at the ground as the slab
moved. Luckily there were no more people there to get hurt,
everyone on the ground was running towards what they considered
safety.

Nultos and a few other magical people had
gotten onto their brooms also and were approaching the man who
controlled the board and its firepower. Wands drawn and pointing,
there were at least six others coming up.

Hilda and William also had their wands in
hand. William made his broom roll and tumbled out of reach of the
deadly beams just in time.

"Why did you wait that long, stupid idiot!",
Hilda screamed as she saw her wizard spin around and come back
up.

Nultos screamed something, and the power of
four wands hit the board, while two attempted to take out Bregan,
who kept holding on and seemed to work like a maniac to turn the
board that was slowly falling apart.

"You will pay for this!", the man behind the
metal board screamed. It was not Bregan's voice. It was
Lamador's.

Hilda joined forces with Nultos and fired all
she had left at Bregan who now seemed to be Lamador. Nobody knew
where the man took the magic from, but the bolts that were aimed at
him all seemed to bounce off him.

Suddenly William's voice, amplified by magic,
boomed through the air. "Hold your fire!"

All the magical people that were charging at
Bregan stared at the man in blue who was coming up from below. He
was at a direct course towards Bregan. And there was no wand in his
hand!

"William! No!" Hilda screamed, but he did not
seem to hear it.

Nultos and all others also saw that William
was not going to slow down, so they stopped whatever it was they
were throwing at Bregan and the huge metal contraption. The
contraption that now was slowly turning towards the blue-clad
wizard that was shooting up like a missile.

Mere seconds later, William hit the magical
protective shell that was around the madman on the broom. He
crashed into it with his own magic on full blast, his protection
shaped as the head of an axe that slammed in and through the magic
of Bregan/Lamador. He knew he would have only one chance for this
Kamikaze act.

His broom shuddered as the force fields
clashed and then Bregan's broke. William's speed made him bang into
the man, breaking the broom. Bregan stared at him. William saw
Lamador's madness pouring from his eyes, and then the mage was
tumbling down to earth, followed by the metal board that now no
longer was powered.

Nultos and someone else raced after Bregan's
tossing body, attempting to catch and save him.

Hilda made her broom shoot to where William
hung in the air. The wizard was hurting badly, as the pieces of
Bregan's broom had hit him in the ribs, as had the man's body.
"William..." Moving her broom close to his, she touched his
hand.

He looked at her and smiled. "Did I get
him?"

Hilda nodded. "Yes."

"Lamador was inside him," said William. "I
saw his eyes."

"William, my sweet man... are you okay?",
Hilda asked.

"Yeah. Mostly. Let's go down first, and I'll
let you check me." He managed a grin.

"William, just you hold on to your broom. I
will get us down." Hilda sensed, through the bond, that he was
close to falling apart.

William just nodded and let her fly them down
to the ground, to where their tent had been. Once they reached the
ground, there were many hands waiting to take care of the witch and
the wizard. The challenge had taken a lot out of them already, and
this latest feat of air battle had been just enough.

They were more being carried than walking to
another tent, when Nultos caught up with them. "Bregan is dead.
Even in death Lamador made more victims. I don't know how he did
it, but I am glad it is over now."

Hilda just nodded, her heart a heavy black
lump. She and William were taken to a tent, put on a bed, and then
the dim light of day that hung around the labyrinth
disappeared.

A man was sitting on a chair, he got up when
he noticed the witch had woken up. He asked her if she was feeling
well.

"Yes. Mostly," she said.

"There is food and water, and also the
luggage that was salvaged from your tent. Not everything is here,
it burnt in the flames."

Hilda nodded and looked at William. Someone
had put a bandage around his chest.

"The wizard has a broken rib, and we do not
want to heal someone who cannot give us permission," the man
said.

"Heal him," Hilda said as she reached out and
touched William's cheek. "He is my wizard. You have your
permission."

"Very well." The man brought out his wand and
healed William's injuries. "Is there something more we can do for
you?"

"No, thank you. I'll just wait for him to
wake up," Hilda said, not taking her eyes off William's face.

The magician bowed politely and left the
tent.

William woke up. "Tell me I'm fine."

"You're fine, William. Someone fixed your
broken ribs. Come, eat something." Hilda kissed his cheek.

They slowly got up and sat at the table.

"I still feel bad, you know," Hilda said as
she was having a go at a chicken leg.

"That shows you are a good witch,
sweetwitch," William said. "Good people should not have to do
things like that. I didn't feel happy about it either, but the
alternative was that he was killing us. And he would not have had
any qualms about that."

"Yes. I know that." Hilda dropped the bone on
her plate and sipped from her diluted wine. "Well, it is done. We
are alive."

"We are. And that feels good, at least."

"So you've been dead before?" Hilda
frowned.

"No, I have not."

She grinned. "Good. We'll finish up eating
then, and pack up. Nothing more to do here for us."

William nodded. In silence they finished
eating and then they dressed for the flight back home. Hilda shrunk
the luggage, William slipped it in his pocket and they stepped out
of the tent.

There was a small group of people sitting
there, waiting for them. One of them was a pale-looking young woman
with long black hair, black eyes and serious bags under her
eyes.

Hilda stared at her. "Suck an elf," she
muttered as she kneeled down with the young woman. "You must be
Fidelma the flower witch."

The pale woman smiled a faint smile and
nodded. "Yes."

"You survived!" Hilda pulled the young witch
into a hug.

Fidelma nodded. "I'm the only one," she
whispered.

Tears rolled over Hilda's cheeks as she
looked up to William. "She lives. We're going to take her home,
William, and make her parents happy."

Nultos got up. She had been waiting with the
group. "You are free to go home now. The challenge has ended and
you have won. We have repaired the broom of the wizard. We will
take care of everything here." The black witch nodded and then
turned and walked away.

Hilda got up, as did Fidelma. "Do you think
you are strong enough to fly with one of us?", Hilda asked.

F idelma nodded. "If that means I can go
home, I am strong enough. " She showed a brave smile. "But can you
please not fly too high? I am a little scared of heights."

William grinned as he held out Hilda's
broom.

"She's riding with you, William," Hilda
decided.

William grinned again, hugging Hilda.

They mounted the brooms, Fidelma sitting in
front of William. A loud cheer rose up from the camp as they lifted
into the air. After circling the camp and waving at the people that
now no longer had a sorcerer to serve, they turned their brooms
towards the kingdom of Walt and flew off. Not too high.

###

About the author:

I am an IT consultant who loves reading and
writing.

I've been an amateur-author since years,
writing SciFi, Fantasy and lately also Steampunk. My home is in the
Netherlands.

I hope you liked "Hilda - The Challenge".

Note on the artwork:

Original artwork of Hilda the Witch created
for the author by Miss Victoria Smith from Bristol, for which she
deserves everlasting gratitude.

Other books I published:

Hilda, the wicked
witch
(Smashwords, July 2010)

Hilda – SnowWhite
Revisited
(Smashwords, September 2010)

If you want to connect with me online:

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/pagan_paul