Hilda and Zelda by Paul Kater Read Free Book Online Page A

the
stairs to meet them.
    Hilda looked at William and put a finger on
her lips. They had to be silent. Slowly and with the utmost care
they walked down the stairs. Hilda knew that she should not try a
silencing spell of her own, as that would clash with the thing
Zelda had put up. Walking down screaming and stomping would be
smarter.
    As they descended further, the effect of the
dampening spell became more prominent as moving became harder.
Hilda silently cursed the spell, but persisted. Somewhere there had
to be an end to this beast. Through the bond she encouraged William
to keep coming down.
    They had to be close to the exit of the
spell, Hilda was certain. After all, Zelda herself had to be able
to move freely inside it. Just as she reached the landing on the
lower floor, her foot was free of the syrup-like resistance they
were pushing themselves through. With care Hilda dragged herself
out of the layer that made up the spell and waited for William,
notifying him that the ordeal was almost over.
    William left the invisible tar pit and saw
Hilda again holding her finger over her lips. Of course. Now they
were in the open, so sound would travel normally again. He
nodded.
    They moved to the staircase that would get
them to the ground floor, where Zelda probably was. As Hilda put
her foot on the first step, an eerie wailing reached their
ears.
    "She's singing," Hilda whispered, rectifying
William's initial idea of the source of the sound.
    "That's singing?", he whispered back.
    Hilda nodded. "She probably knows we're here
by now. I sense her clearly as well." She progressed downwards, the
wizard in her wake, and when she reached the bottom of the stairs,
she simply kicked open the door.
    The interior of the bar had declined even
more since their first visit. All the furniture, coloured black
now, was piled up in a corner of the large room. In several places
large and ferocious-looking plants grew out of the floor. The large
brown flower-heads turned towards the magical couple as they came
in. They did what probably was the plant-version of drooling. A
large bed stood in the middle of the room, black with everything on
and around it black. On it lay a person. Dressed in black. The
dreadful wailing came from the bed and only stopped as Hilda and
William walked over and looked at Zelda.
    "Oh. It's you," the woman in black said. She
had a deadly pale face, long black hair, and black fingernails. One
would almost think she was fond of black.
    "Yes. It's me. And William. And you're coming
back with us. You have no business here, in this world."
    "Hahaha!!" Zelda sat up and laughed at the
couple. "But you are so wrong, honey. This place is my business as
of now. I like it here, there is so much to play with and so much
to get!" Suddenly Zelda had her wand in her hand and flicked it.
Hilda and William wanted to jump but the bad witch had taken them
by surprise.
    One of the large plants swung at them and
slammed them to the floor, making them roll away from the bed, back
towards the door. Another large plant seemed to fall on top of
Zelda, sucking her into the large flowery head. It swung away from
the bed and put Zelda on her feet close to the exit that led to the
street. "Best for you if you go home, Grimhilda. This was a
friendly reminder not to mess with me. Next time it will be
unpleasant." A flick of the wand later, the plant that had knocked
over Hilda and William dropped a load of sticky and foul-smelling
goo over them.
    "Oh. Maybe this time it is unpleasant
already." Zelda laughed, took her broom and walked out, lifting the
silencing spell for a moment.
    "Crap." Hilda meant it. "Oh crappedy crap!"
Quickly she got her wand out and magicked the goo away from herself
and William.
    "Holy Bejeebus, Hilda, that was just in
time," William gasped as the goo disappeared from his face. It had
started to crystallise, immobilising them and also doing a fair bit
of suffocating.
    "She's bad news, William. Very bad news. We
have to handle