by Paul Kater
somewhere?", William asked. "We did send in quite an avalanche."
Slowly they flew around the entire factory, an immense building. Hilda sent up bolts of light so they had a clear view of where they were going. After a slow and scrutinising round, they had not found a trace of Zelda.
"Suck an elf," Hilda muttered, "this can't be. She is here. I feel it in my blood."
"Oh yes, I am here, Grimhilda." The voice seemed to come from all sides, in a most confusing manner.
Then the factory imploded.
-=-=-
They were both covered with factory. At least nine feet of rubble, ice and snow piled on top of them. Or rather, it rested on the layer of energy that William had thrown around them as they were on the way to the floor, as the huge building had come down on them.
Hilda felt the hand around her wrist. It was William's hand and he tugged at her arm. Sort of. "Are you okay?", she heard him ask.
"Not sure if this situation could be called okay. I'm alive, it seems."
"Right. You're okay," William decided. "Do you still feel Zelda around?"
Hilda checked her feelers. "No. She's gone. Now you will tell me why you had to be the protective force for both of us? I can take care of myself, wizard. Thank you very much."
That was the ultimate proof for William that she was fine. "I put in as much of my magic as I could. No magical can sense me. I hoped that if I threw the protection, she would not be able to sense you either."
"Oh."
"And since she's gone,-"
"That means I can't sense her through that dumb shielding of yours?"
"Quiet, witch, and let me finish. Since she's gone-"
"Who are you, thinking you can order me around, wizard?"
"I'm the one who's kept you alive here, remember? And do you really think this is the time and place to pick a fight?"
"I pick a fight when I want to, wizard, and I don't care if there's a building lying on top of me!"
"Right. Scream some more. Zelda'll know you're still alive then."
"Oh." Hilda grumbled to herself. "William?"
"Yes?"
"Sorry. Thank you."
"No problem. Let's get us out of here."
Their combined magic lifted the enormous pile of debris up. Once there was enough space for them to crawl out of, they held the remains of the factory in place and climbed out of their precarious position. After getting themselves into safety, they carefully lowered the mass of concrete and frozen water again. That way it would look as if nothing had happened. Just to be on the safe side, if Zelda would come back to check on what she had done.
"Where are our brooms?", Hilda asked. She knew already, and the link to William prevented an answer from him. "That stinks. They were good brooms." She pulled her cloak around her. "I hate snow."
William looked around, also making sure the cold was not getting to him. There was hardly any wood around to make a proper broom out of. He frowned and popped out his wand. "What do you think of this?"
Hilda stared at him. "That is an iron broom, William. Iron. Not wood."
He made it float.
Hilda drew her wand and produced another metal broom. There was plenty of metal around, from all the machinery that now no longer could be called such. "Hmmm. Clunky. But it seems to work."
They mounted their new rides and slowly lifted off. The brooms were heavy and did not respond as nicely as the wooden variety, but these things would be able to get them away from the factory remains.
"Okay, William, I have to hand it to you," said Hilda. "You thought of it a little sooner than I did. But I am more affected by the cold. That's why."
William snorted.
As they flew away from the factory grounds, they saw that most of the snow in the town was already melting, creating massive flows of water.
"That might create a big problem," Hilda said as she looked at the water under them. But we shouldn't take care of it."
William understood that immediately. Fixing the problem was like putting up a neon sign telling Zelda they were still alive. "Let's get back to the apartment first, sleep some of this off, and see if we can improve on our brooms. You're right, these things fly like bricks."
They made a bit of a detour getting to the apartment they had confiscated. The sun was on the rise, so they were more and more visible. The magical couple just took the chance of being spotted while flying to the front door of the apartment, which was on an outside gallery. Nobody seemed to notice them. They took the metal brooms inside; no need to make anyone wonder about these contraptions, if someone were to come across them when passing 'their' apartment.
Hilda and William crashed onto the bed.
"We're facing something here," William stated the obvious.
"Really. Wake me up if you have brilliant ideas." Hilda kissed his cheek and closed her eyes. "Or better still: remember the brilliant ideas until I wake up." She took one of William's hands and pulled his arm around her. "Nice," she mumbled. A few seconds later she was asleep.
William tried to think up brilliant ideas. He managed that for about twenty seconds.
-=-=-
Hilda saw the ceiling when she opened her eyes again. She heard the soft and peaceful breathing of the wizard next to her. "No brilliant ideas, I guess," she silently whispered to herself, and a faint smile played in the corners of her mouth.
She tried to come up with something herself, and failed as well, even though she used more than twenty seconds. It was hard, she knew, smoking out a witch whose whereabouts were unknown. Next best thing would be to lure her. Slowly she nodded. Lure was good. But... how? What would be something that a witch could not resist? She'd have to think about that herself, and talk it over with William. William would probably not be able to come up with something. He was from here, and not a witch since the beginning.
"What are you thinking, sweetwitch?", a deep voice whispered in her ear. William had woken up also, and picked up the jumble of thoughts that she was harbouring.
"Good morning. Or afternoon." She turned to face him. "I was thinking how much I love you."
"You lie, but it's a sweet lie, so you get away with it," William grinned as he opened his eyes and saw blue sparkles in her black ones.
"I know." She kissed his cheek. "I was trying to figure out how to get Zelda, since your brilliant ideas are on a holiday, it seems."
"All I can think of now is something to eat," William declared.
Hilda could understand that. "I doubt there is something proper in this house though."
The two of them got up and walked into the living room. Most of the ice and snow had gone. They saw that through the large window. Most of the table that was in the room was useful for two proper brooms. They saw that after Hilda had transformed the piece of furniture.
"Not really hig quality wood, but handfuls better than the iron," Hilda commented as she floated around on the broom. "It's in the bristles, always."
They left the apartment through the bedroom window and flew to the outskirts of the town where Zelda's disaster had not struck very much. To their good fortune, they found a restaurant that was still open, thanks to the daredevil attitude of the proprietor and some of his more adventurous staff.
In a quiet sidestreet, the magical couple magicked their clothes into something more this-world looking, Hilda shrunk the brooms that ended up in William's pocket, and William used his wand to generate some money. Prepared like that, they entered the restaurant where they devoured an amount of food that made the waiter frown.
William tried to strike up a conversation with the waiter, about the things that were happening in the town, but for some reason the man was set on keeping his mouth shut regarding the subject, so filled up nicely and knowing nothing more than when they arrived, the couple left the food-place again.
10. Find a witch
After changing back into being witch and wizard again, they flew high into the air, su
rveying the city and hoping for possible clues on where Zelda was hiding. Or busy.
"William," Hilda asked suddenly, "where does the king of this place live?"
"The king?" William was quite flabbergasted. "There's no king here, remember? There's a president."
"Oh. Right. With the amount of people around him that prevent the word of the ordinaries to get to him. I remember that. But isn't there someone who is in charge here?"
"That would be the mayor, I guess."
"And where does that person live?"
"In normal conditions, that would be town hall. Although these are not norma-"
"Take us to the town hall then. Zelda is here to wield power, and there is no better place for that than from the seat of power that is here." Hilda looked very smug, after her deduction.
As it was at good a guess as any, William took the lead and they flew over the city towards town hall. Under them, a regiment of soldiers was working hard to remove the debris that once had been the streets. The magical couple also kept an eye out for helicopters and other flying objects that were more of a hassle for them than something else.
They were in luck: no one from the ground or in the air was watching them, so they had clear sailing until they reached town hall.
-=-=-
Usually there was a lot of business going on around and inside town hall. People with papers, requests and complaints would be going in and out, pestering the civil servants who were present to take the flack from the citizens. How different an image it was when the magical couple arrived.
The street was empty, if one ignored the overturned cars. No people were anywhere in sight.
