Zak Turner - A Twist In Time Read online

  Unseen by the battling wizards, the double rebounded Firmus spell had escaped the cloister through an archway and was racing across the open ground, invisible to non-magical eyes. Without any warning, it hit an onlooker who was staring in amazement at the Abbey, taking in the blinding flashes of light and the explosions. The non-magical father froze, and keeled over onto his back, lying motionless at the feet of his horrified wife.

  * * *

  Sir Philip had walked several paces beyond the elected member of the council by the time he realised that there was a problem, and was drawing his wand out of his robes as he glanced round to look for him.

  The glance saved his life, at least for a few seconds, because it gave him chance to see that the elected member had drawn his own wand, pointed it straight at him, and let loose a killing curse!

  The red streak of light that traced the path of the curse that should have marked Sir Philips’ end, drew lots of attention in the concourse. The baronet managed to dodge it though, and kept his eyes fixed on his attackers which allowed him to dodge the second curse sent his way by the aide.

  The elected member couldn’t fire a third curse without drawing too much attention, and Sir Philip was now warned and would easily avoid it, so he now shouted to everyone in the concourse that Sir Philip was trying to kill them all, and called for the guards to seize him!

  Confusion reigned for a moment, with the guards, who’d been heading for the elected member and the aide, hesitating and turning towards Sir Philip. It was long enough for the two attackers to Abscond themselves and vanish into the crowd. Now that they were invisible, they had a much better chance to catch the baronet by surprise.

  Sir Philip quickly and loudly declared the truth about what was happening, but by the time the guards turned back, the two attackers had vanished. Now there was real danger! Sir Philip knew what had happened, and called out loudly to everyone to fire off Finité Incantio all around them to try and unmask the invisible attackers.

  Suddenly the whole concourse was filled with a blizzard of spells which were bouncing off the walls and ceiling, and knocking people over. There were of course hundreds of Finité Incantio spells, but there were also a lot of other spells flying around too. Before long it was clear that the two attackers had not been working alone, as nearly a hundred innocent bystanders were now lying motionless on the floor, victims of a multitude of Firmus spells.

  Sir Philip Absconded himself to make life hard for his attackers, and quickly moved to the other side of the concourse away from his first position. He felt reasonably safe as it was now virtually impossible for anyone to find him, but then a Finité Incantio hit him, and he became visible again!

  He quickly Absconded himself again, but not before one of his assailants spotted him. He didn’t even have chance to move before a red killing curse was heading towards him from near the porting booths. This time his back was turned and he didn’t see the curse coming, but he sensed it, and threw himself to the ground just as it flew over his now invisible head.

  He stayed on his hands and knees and scuttled towards the porting booths, determined to get out of the concourse as soon as possible. He was a good fighter, but this kind of combat was best left to the shadow-wizards who would surely be entering the concourse any minute.

  As he got closer to the porting booths though, he saw that a steady stream of people were becoming visible as they got close, and he realised that he was walking into a trap. If he got to the booths, he would be revealed, and then he’d be an easy target. He had to escape into the building to survive. He turned and made his way back across the concourse, which was littered with frozen and stunned workers, heading for the council chamber.

  * * *

  The battle at the Abbey was going badly for the students, with only two seventh years still standing. Tella Morton guided her five first years safely to the hidden cellar, and sent them through the portal into the school. Sartrina went through last after Tella asked her to try and find some teachers to come back and help them.

  The seventh year then left the cellar and ran back to the cloister, where she Robert still cowering on the grass between Zak and Tallion. She started to crawl towards him on her hands and knees, amazed that the other two first years were still fighting and apparently keeping the attackers at bay!

  Ross Burns, the other seventh year, was helping Tallion keep the second attacker pinned down in the archway, and he moved away from the eleven-year-old so that they were no longer a single target. Now their attacker had to keep firing spells in two directions, which reduced his effectiveness.

  A series of blinding flashes and thunderous explosions left them all reeling with ringing ears, as a volley of Libra Mortis curses met Zak’s never ending stream of Reverturs. Zak was beginning to tire though; he was using an enormous amount of energy with his spells.

  Tallion we have to move, we can’t stand here forever!

  I know. I can feel my power ebbing too. We can’t leave Robert though!

  We won’t have to. This seventh year will take him out of the way.

  Tella had reached Robert, and started to drag him towards the Warming Room, trying to make him move under his own steam. Zak and Tallion slowly moved with them, back to back, endlessly firing Reverturs at their attackers, but the explosions were not so huge now, and the deflections were getting less and less pronounced. The archway was close, and when Tella dragged Robert through it, Ross fired a volley of Firmus spells at both attackers to try and give them all chance to run for the portal.

  It worked after a fashion, and in the brief lull caused by the attackers rebounding the Firmus spells, the two eleven-year-olds and the seventeen-year-old dashed for the archway into the Warming Room, and raced for the entrance to the hidden cellar.

  Tella had Robert on his feet by the time Zak and Tallion burst into the room, and she was pushing the terrified first generation wizard through the portal into the school.

  Ross hurried Zak and Tallion through the blocked up archway first, and then paused to glance back towards the cloister before he went through it - and found himself face to face with a Libra Mortis! This time he didn’t have Zak or Tallion standing next to him to deflect it either.

  His world slowed to a crawl as he willed his legs to propel him through the blocked up archway into the hidden cellar, but he’d barely moved before the curse struck him and his world went dark. His body fell to the ground, disturbingly half-in and half-out of the blocked up archway.

  The attacking wizard reached the archway himself a couple of seconds later and strode over the body as he went inside. His instructions were to do everything he could to kill Tallion Middleham short of going into the school.

  As his eyes adjusted to the dark room, he saw the back of a boy stepping through the portal, and fired his last Libra Mortis at almost point blank range right at him. He wasn’t sure if the portal had closed before his spell hit it or not, but there was a blinding flash and thunderous crash as the spell made contact with something. At least part of the Libra Mortis remained in the cellar, where it ricocheted off the portal, and hit the attacker himself, killing him instantly.

  His accomplice was entering the cellar at that moment, and the percussion from the blast alone would probably have killed him, but it brought down the cellar roof for good measure. The man, Gelert, was crushed under half a ton of masonry as the Abbey itself finally put an end to the magical battle that had raged within it for less than ten minutes.

  * * *

  Sir Philip made it into the corridor leading to the council chamber and saw a trio of shadow-wizards heading his way. He flattened his invisible body against the wall, and they disappeared past him into the concourse. He carried on swiftly up the corridor, the sounds of the fight dying away behind him.

  He still didn’t feel safe though, and his senses were super sharp. He knew that danger was still close-at-hand.

  Was the elected member waiting for him here, guessing that he would head in this direction? Well
, he’d create a few diversions to flush him out if that were the case!

  The baronet cast a Silencio charm on himself, and moved stealthily along the corridor to a point where he could just see the double doors into the council chamber. He then cast a complex charm on the doors which both unlocked and opened them.

  Immediately, two Libra Mortis spells were fired at exactly the spot where he would have been standing had he opened the doors by hand. He quickly cast two Finité Incantios at the source of both spells, just as the curses exploded against the council chamber doors, following them instantly with a couple of Firmus spells. Two wizards became visible just as they dropped motionless to the ground.

  The first was Lucius Anton, one of the elected members for Southern Ireland, and the second was Rafael Lindan, secretary to the council. Their wands fell from their hands and lay next to them on the thickly carpeted corridor floor.

  The doors to the chamber remained open, and a few seconds later, the cautious and shielded form of Professor Orion Trell emerged slowly into the corridor. He too cast Finité Incantios in both directions up and down the corridor, together with some Revelio charms of his own invention.

  For the second time Sir Philip’s Abscondo was lifted by someone else, this time revealing the armed and very serious looking baronet leaning against the wall staring meaningfully at the headmaster.

  “Lord Middleham,” said Professor Trell. “Would you care to step into the council chamber and enlighten us as to what just happened?”

  “Yes Orion, I would. First though, you need to confiscate those two wands and arrange to regress them, so that we can see what spells and curses they’ve just cast.”

  The headmaster raised an eyebrow at the baronet, and the corner of his mouth twitched up in sign of camaraderie. He then glanced at the scorch marks on the doors, and said quietly, “I think we know what curses caused this Philip, and I assume they were intended for you?”

  “Yes, Orion, and it’s a good job that I’m a cautious man. Between those two wands, in the last ten minutes, no less than five Libra Mortis have been cast either at me, or where they thought I was standing.”

  “Indeed? I think therefore it would be prudent that we check to see if we have any more traitors within these walls, and act accordingly.”

  “My thoughts exactly, Orion, and I think those wands should stay in the council chamber until they’ve been regressed. Their owners can stay in the corridor as far as I’m concerned, until the shadow-wizards collect them in a few minutes, and then lock them up for the rest of their natural lives.”

  The headmaster flicked his wand, and grasped the two wands which flew swiftly towards him from beside their fallen owners. Another flick of his wand bound the hands of the two traitors tightly behind their backs.

  “I need to get back to the school, Philip, I assume that this extraordinary council meeting will not now be needed, seeing as the instigator is no longer a member?”

  “I concur. Let’s do it formally in the chamber though, so that we can all get on with our lives. There’s going to be rather a lot of fallout from this!”

  The two men, and the half dozen or so other council members who’d bravely followed the headmaster to the doors, all made their way back to their seats. The clerk of the council, looking a bit pale, quickly brought the meeting to order and proposed that the session be closed without resolution. The members agreed unanimously, and the session ended, having never properly started.

  At precisely that moment, a spectral messenger arrived for the headmaster, and his deputy head’s voice rang out in the stillness of the council chamber for all to hear.

  “Orion, there has been an attack on students arriving at the school. One student has died, some are missing, and many others are injured. Please return immediately and arrange for shadow-wizards to go to Kirkstall Abbey to search for the missing students, and their escort. You need to know that the Kirkstall portal itself was destroyed in the attack.”

  Professor Trell and Sir Philip exchanged horrified looks and both headed for the door, terrible feelings of foreboding overtaking them both.

  “Artemis!” called Sir Philip as he disappeared into the corridor. “Get some wizards to the Abbey fast.”

  Artemis Drake, the council member responsible for magical law and order, was already flicking his wand sending messengers to different people. If the escort was ‘missing’, it meant his own people in Kirkstall were probably ‘missing’ too!

  2. A Magical First

  Zak and Tallion ran through the portal into the school intending to dive for cover. Tallion had pushed Zak through first because they couldn’t fit side by side.

  As Zak burst into the castle portal room, he met a barrage of noise. Excited students were chattering and calling to each other from the different portals and the spiral stairs, as though nothing was going on! It was like entering a completely different world – which of course is exactly what it was!

  The stark contrast between the life and death struggle behind him and the happy atmosphere in front of him had barely started to register as Tallion came through the portal right behind him, which instantly exploded all around them! The magic that created the portal burst out of the fireplace across the room like an expanding firework, trailing brilliant red streaks of light in all directions. It ricocheted off the walls and ceiling, causing further explosions as it hit the other portals and anything magical. It scythed through the crowd of students in the room like a hot knife through butter, and everyone who was hit fell insensibly to the floor.

  About twenty collapsing students tumbled down the four staircases, which acted like a giant funnel. They crashed into their fellows below, knocking them over, and causing an avalanche of students to cascade domino style into the grand entrance hall below. The excited chattering and greeting was cut-off, replaced by screaming and yelling from the falling students.

  Everyone looked on in horror as one student fell over the handrail, crying out as he tumbled head over heels and landed with a sickening thud on the floor of the Entrance Hall nearly two floors below. A couple of professors rushed to him and started to cast charms and enchantments over him, ordering one of the nearby students to fetch Nurse Salvae from the nearby infirmary.

  The portal room itself became eerily quiet as the screams and cries from the stairs faded away. There was hardly anyone left standing, and the few who were simply stared open mouthed at the carnage surrounding them. A number of shocked pupils began crying, clinging on to each other for support.

  Among the fallen students were Sargas, Shaul, and Lesath Malchus, whose father had carefully timed their arrival at school to be just minutes before the Kirkstall first years. Only Sargas knew why though, and he’d been ready to carry out his father’s instructions if Tallion Middleham showed his face.

  His brother and sister had lingered with their silent sibling for a while as he watched the other students arriving. Shaul was hoping that his elder brother would accompany him into the entrance hall to make sure that everyone knew who he was.

  No students had come through the Kirkstall portal for nearly five minutes after the sixth years, and Sargas had decided that his father’s attack must have succeeded. He told his brother and sister to go on without him, and wait for him at the bottom of the stairs. Lesath and Shaul duly started to shuffle towards the stairs with the other arriving students.

  After lingering for a few more seconds, Sargas had been about to follow them when a group of five first years had come through the portal, all holding on to each other, and clearly very scared by something. Sargas had noted that Tallion wasn’t with them though, and no-one else had followed them, so he continued his vigil. Four of the first years stayed together standing just to one side of the portal as though they were waiting for someone, while one girl pushed her way through the crowd towards a pile of trunks where a couple of porters were standing.

  He’d just decided again that his father’s plan must have succeeded when a seventh year rushed throu
gh the portal with another first year, and then two more first years came through right behind them. He hadn’t had chance to recognise either of them though before the portal exploded, and his world faded to black as he was hit by the wave of magic which swept the room. His brother and sister were just starting to go down the stairs, and the magic from the exploding portal hit them too, sending them tumbling down towards the entrance hall below.

  Only three portals were still working, the exploding Kirkstall portal having knocked out all the others. A couple of small groups of students arrived through them, but found their way blocked by the fallen bodies of their fellows.

  Suddenly the was a bright flash and a sharp crack, and moments later the headmaster emerged through the smouldering London portal. He stopped in shock, his face was a picture of horror as he took in the fifty, maybe sixty students’ unmoving bodies strewn across the room. He glanced over at the Kirkstall portal and saw that it was a smoking, blackened ruin. The two portals either side of it, Raby and Hawkstone, seemed to be the only ones to have escaped completely unscathed, and that’s where most of the still standing students were gathered.

  It took a few seconds, but then the highly experienced headmaster came back to his senses, and started issuing instructions to restore order to the chaos before him.

  First, he sent a student back through the two working portals to stop anyone else coming into the school, telling them to wait at the other side of the portal until someone let them know it was safe to return. Next, he fired off half a dozen messengers to various locations including the wizard hospital in Edinburgh, and the Wizard Council in London.