In a Weary World

Chapter XXVI: Trial and Error

I'm beginning to think I've led a much too sheltered life. -- Diana Wynne Jones, House of Many Ways

Life at the palace was rather dull with Solvej gone. Not that Hjalmar minded, at least not at first. After the excitement she had brought into his life, it was nice to have a nice, peaceful time with no ghosts or witches or spells. Well, one spell, but the parasite seemed happy to stay out of everyone's way for now.

Everything seemed to be going relatively well. There were no disasters, no emergencies, no extraordinary events of any sort.

That, unfortunately, was why Hjalmar was so nervous.

He had gotten so used to the chaos Solvej brought in her wake that the utter lack of said chaos was disorientating. He went down to breakfast expecting to see her there. He went to the library expecting to find her there. Both times he found an empty room. Both times he was abruptly reminded that she wasn't there. She was off under the sea, doing who-knew-what to solve the third challenge.

He wondered what the merfolk would make of her. Hopefully she wouldn't accidentally start some sort of war between Vardiholm and the merfolk's kingdom.

For about a day and a half, there was no sign of Solvej. Then, much sooner than anyone had expected, there she was. She just waltzed into the dining room without so much as a by-your-leave, smelling strongly of seaweed and grinning triumphantly.

"You'll never guess!" she exclaimed.

"Then I won't bother trying to guess," Hjalmar said. "What happened? Can you solve the challenge?"

Solvej beamed. "Yes! The queen of the merfolk was very helpful! Apparently the Magician has made himself unpopular even among the merfolk -- something about kidnapping and pickling their children -- so they were all more than happy to help us."

Hjalmar refused to let himself think too deeply about the idea of pickling children. Instead he focused on the most important matter at hand.

"So what are we going to do?"

"Well, the queen of the merfolk is getting some of her best mages to cast a spell tonight. It's going to basically part the sea in a certain area of their land, so we can get to the seabed without you drowning. Of course, getting there will pose a challenge... but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Anyway, the mages are going to cast this spell, and then I'm going to cast a spell to turn that part of the seabed into a field, and you're going to plant a tree there. And then the queen of the merfolk herself is going to cast another spell to make the tree grow quickly."

Hjalmar tried to process all this information. "It sounds very complicated."

"Don't worry. I understand it all, even if you don't yet."

~~~~

And that was how Hjalmar found himself sitting on a flying carpet.

Well, it wasn't a flying carpet in the sense of "a carpet specifically designed to fly". It was a flying carpet in the sense of "Solvej cast a spell on a perfectly normal carpet to make it fly". And he wasn't sitting on it as much as he was clinging to it for dear life.

"Hjalmar, you're only a foot above the floor." Solvej managed to sound simultaneously amused and put-upon.

He opened his eyes briefly. Then he opened them wider upon realising that yes, he was only a foot above the floor. He relaxed his grip on the edge of the carpet.

Solvej gave him a sarcastic round of applause. "You're in no danger, idiot! I've put a spell on the carpet so no one can fall off it."

"I don't care how many spells you've put on it," Hjalmar retorted. "It's a carpet. It's meant to lie on the floor, not float in the air! Now get me down!"