Hilda - Lycadea by Paul Kater Read Free Book Online Page B

food here?"
    "Oh, you don't eat here," Rebel said, "we
have a great mess-"
    "Rebel, can you come and bring the others?"
Maurizio's voice interrupted her explanation. "We have something
that you all should see."
    William as well as Hilda wondered where that
came from. Rebel said "Sure, right with you" to the air and
announced that she would grab Hilda and William again. The magicals
quickly picked up their cats and a thought later they were on the
deck again.
    "How did you know where he is?" Hilda asked,
but Rebel did not seem to hear her. The witch looked at her wizard
as the strange woman walked off to Maurizio. "She said mess. Do you
think she was referring to this whole ship?"
    The wizard did not respond to her question,
not even when she poked him in the ribs with an elbow. "Hilda...
very slowly turn your head and look over that side," he said,
pointing to where 'that side' was.
    "Now why would I do that slowly?" Hilda
muttered. "Witches don't - suck an elf." She stared at a giant lump
of rock that hung far too close to the Mimosa for her taste. If the
Mimosa would get stuck against it, nobody would notice it, so big
was the lump. "What is that?"
    "It's a piece of rock," one of the sailors
said.
    "A damn big piece too," another one
added.
    "And who is going to do something about it?"
Hilda asked as she walked up to the railing. "Who put that thing
there anyway?"
    Maurizio said that the ship would deal with
the rock. "It is a small asteroid, by the way, Mrs. Witch."
    Hilda stabbed a finger towards the looming
thing and said: "That is not small."
    "It is, for an asteroid. And no one put it
there. They tend to fly through space," said William. "And if the
Mimosa deals with it, there is nothing to worry about," he
hoped.
    "It had better make that thing fly somewhere
else." Hilda turned to William and looked at him. He caught
something in her eye that made him worry.
    "There is something you have to tell me,
isn't there, Hilda?" he said as he touched her cheek.
    "Yes, and I'm not going to do that here," she
said, folding her arms over her chest. "I want to go to our room.
Cabin. Whatever."
    William nodded, popped up his wand and made
it lead them to their cabin. Two black cats followed, only a step
behind their magical humans.

8. Shock

    They found their cabin without a problem.
Also without much help of William's wand; as soon as they had
entered the Mimosa's white inside, the two cats ran ahead and sat
down by the door.
    "These two are amazing," Hilda said with
honest surprise. William agreed and watched how she touched the
yellow panel. The door opened and they entered the cabin.
    Once inside, William changed the white chairs
and table into a purple couch like the one they had at home.
Clearly relieved Hilda dropped herself on it. "Finally something
normal," she said with a sigh, welcoming the black cat that jumped
in her lap.
    William sat down also and looked at Hilda. "I
recall you were going to tell me something?" As he spoke the words,
an eerie feeling crawled from the couch up over his spine, and made
the hair in his neck feel all itchy.
    "My magic's gone."
    ... "What?" William did not want to hear what
he just heard. "Your magic is... gone?"
    The witch nodded without looking at him. "I
am no longer a witch," she said, her voice flat as a piece of
paper. "I can't do magic, throw no spells, can't fly the broom. I'm
nothing." As she spoke, she seemed to shrink.
    William stared at the woman next to him. He
did not believe it. At the same time, it would be the explanation
for the fact that he suddenly had lost the link to Hilda. He did
not want to ask 'and now what', as that was the most obvious but
also most clumsy question in this situation. Instead he put an arm
around her shoulders and hugged her as far as Grimalkin allowed.
"We'll find a way to get your magic back." That sounded just as
stupid.
    Hilda shrugged under William's arm. "How? I
never heard that magic came back."
    "Did you ever hear of a witch who lost