Zak Turner - A Twist In Time Read online

  Then he called to the staff and students in the Entrance Hall to try and clear the stairs. His deputy head replied rather pointedly that they were already doing just that, and that she would join him as soon as she could get up the stairs.

  The headmaster dropped to his knees next to the closest fallen student, and started to cast charms over her to discover the extent of her injuries. He needed to know what magic had cause the damage before he could safely revive her.

  In the entrance hall below, all the uninjured students in second year and above were sent to their dorms accompanied by their prefects. Because the first years always came through last, only a handful had made it down the stairs, and the head boy and girl took them into the Banqueting Hall. The teachers in the entrance hall were doing a great deal of levitating to clear the stairs, with the physically injured being taken to the infirmary, or treated on the spot. The unconscious victims of the exploding portal were lined up on the floor next to the wall after each had been checked for physical injuries.

  Terry Dawson, the third year who’d fallen from the top of the stairs, had been quickly levitated onto a stretcher and whisked into the infirmary. A couple of minutes later though, with tears trickling down her face, Honor Salvae had covered him fully with a sheet. There were only a few things that magic couldn’t achieve, but bringing someone back from the dead was one of them…

  * * *

  Sir Philip ported directly to Kirkstall Abbey. He knew that the first years were always amongst the last groups of students to go through the portals each September, and therefore any attack on the Kirkstall portal this late in the afternoon could easily have involved Tallion and Zak! Why-oh-why hadn’t he gone with them!

  He arrived at the Abbey before any of the shadow-wizards, and soon realised that there was no one stopping the increasingly curious non-magical folk who were approaching the scene of whatever had just occurred. He quickly cast repelling charms over as much of the ruined Abbey as he could see, and immediately people started to turn away, suddenly feeling as though they needed to go home.

  He was about to go into the ruins when he heard a woman crying for help and turned to see a lady with two young children kneeling next to a man, probably her husband, who was lying on the ground. Sir Philip was torn! He needed to find out about his sons, but he instinctively knew that the man on the ground had probably been hit by a wayward spell! He had to get there quickly and see if he could hide the magic before anyone started to understand what had happened!

  The baronet jogged towards the crying woman and called out to her not to worry, and that he’d be able to help. He surreptitiously cast yielding and calming charms on her and her two crying children, and dropped to his knees beside the man. He needed to use magic to find out what had happened, but not while they were watching!

  “My dear, do you think you could just walk away with your children for a minute while I see what’s wrong, it’ll give you all chance to calm down.”

  The yielding charm did its stuff, and the woman smiled and nodded through her tears, instantly taking her two children by the hand and walking slowly away, talking to them and telling them to be brave. Quick as a flash Sir Philip waved his wand over the man, and found him uninjured, but just unconscious. He cast a powerful Finité Incantio at him and the man immediately opened his eyes, slowly focussing on the baronet next to him.

  “What happened to me? Where am I?”

  “You’re at Kirkstall Abbey my friend, and you took a funny turn and seem to have passed out! Your wife was in a right state, but she’s just taken the children for a short walk to calm them down while I kept my eye on you. You’re alright now though, but I think you should get a check-up with your own doctor tomorrow to be on the safe side.”

  “Thanks mate. Err, what’s yer name?”

  “Philip Middleton.”

  “Thanks Philip. Where’s Tina and the kids did you say?”

  “She took them off towards the Abbey. You sit here, and I’ll go and find them and send them back.”

  “Right you are squire.”

  Sir Philip quickly jumped up and headed after ‘Tina’, and as soon as he saw her, he cast Finité Incantio at her and the children before ducking out of sight. As the yielding charm lifted, she turned immediately and started to make her way back to her husband, relieved to see that he was sitting-up and apparently perfectly fit again. There was no sign of the stranger who’d come to help.

  * * *

  Sir Philip quickly scuttled back towards the Abbey and found that he was no longer alone. A number of shadow-wizards were walking cautiously towards the ruins from all sides. As he entered the cloister, he could feel magic hanging in the air, and it was clear that a ferocious magical battle had taken place. He quickly spotted the prone forms of the two shadow-wizards, and guessed that they were probably dead.

  Across the grass, though, he saw the body of a seventh year student wearing school robes, and his stomach turned over as he rushed forward, dropping to his knees next to him. He quickly cast Revelio charms over the unmoving student and his relief when he discovered that he’d only been hit with a Firmus was almost debilitating! He quickly cast Finité Incantio to revive him.

  As the teenager opened his eyes and focussed on the baronet, Sir Philip put his finger over the boy’s lips as he said quietly, “Just wait here and keep quiet, you’re perfectly safe now.”

  The trembling student nodded, and slowly sat up. Sir Philip moved forward to where the other student was lying face down, and found an identical situation. With another huge wave of relief he quickly revived him and repeated his instructions, getting another nod. Next he moved on to where Cammy was lying sprawled on the floor. The baronet fully expected him to be dead, but was once again surprised and relieved to find that he too was just immobilised.

  Fate had been looking after these wizards; there was no doubt about it!

  He repeated the revival process, but this time he asked Cammy to go and look after the two seventh years and get them out of sight, but to stay inside the cloister.

  Sir Philip then entered the Warming Room heading for the blocked up archway. His blood ran cold when he saw the legs and waist of another student halfway through the false wall, clearly mown down as he’d made a run for it.

  Sir Philip decided to remove the fake stonework from the archway first before checking this student, and was horrified to find a great pile of rubble behind it, burying the boy’s head and shoulders. The hidden cellar no longer existed!

  He quickly cast his Revelio charms, and put his hands to his head in desperation as he found himself facing his worst fear, a dead student! He was overwhelmed with emotions that only a parent can feel when they are confronted with a dead child, and closed his eyes for a few moments forcing back the tears that came unbidden into his eyes.

  The cool, calculating Lord Middleham resurfaced as Sir Philip put his emotions to one side. He needed help to get any further. The stonework above the cellar was clearly unstable, and he couldn’t risk the whole thing coming down. Construction wizards from the council were needed, and fast! He quickly sent a couple of messengers to London, one directly to the wizard he knew to be the senior wizard stonemason.

  A terrible feeling of foreboding was wringing the baronet’s emotions, like an old-fashioned mangle. If the cellar had collapsed, then everyone in there would be dead. The father of three sank to the ground leaning back against the wall, his stomach churning. He had an awful feeling that his sons were under the rubble…

  * * *

  Hundreds of miles away, Headmaster Trell’s emotions were soaring. He’d discovered that instead of having sixty or so dead students, as he’d first feared, he actually had sixty or so deeply unconscious students. Never before had a headmaster been so pleased to have a room full of unconscious students!

  He hadn’t tried to revive any of them yet, because he was still unsure what had happened, but they all seemed to be stable and just magically stunned. He shared the good news with the
remaining shocked students in the portal room, who all seemed to be relieved that they weren’t standing in a morgue after all! The headmaster encouraged them to step between their fallen fellows, and make their way down the stairs to the entrance hall below.

  The aged wizard then made his way over to the Kirkstall portal and looked round. He recognised Tallion instantly, and noted that he’d fallen across Zak’s legs. He was perturbed to see the very clear scorch marks on both boys’ robes though, and realised that they must have been standing right in front of the portal as it exploded.

  He quickly examined them and a frown crossed his face again. Both of them seemed to be suffering from a total depletion of magical and physical energy! It was almost as if they’d expended all their power to counteract something. They were still breathing though, but looked significantly worse than the students at the other side of the room.

  He stood and turned around to examine the destroyed Kirkstall portal. He needed to understand what had caused the explosion, because only then could he safely start to revive the students. Magic always left traces, and a skilled wizard could deduce what spells had been cast if he got to the scene quickly enough. As the headmaster ran through a small armoury of detection charms, his frown deepened.

  “Surely not!” he eventually murmured to himself as he dropped his wand disbelievingly to his side. “They’re just children!”

  He cast a final charm at the fireplace, and felt his heart go cold as the walls inside the fireplace glowed red. His final surmise had been correct. Someone had cast a Libra Mortis at his students!

  “Never in all my days…” he murmured to himself, shaking his head in what looked like bewilderment! He swung round, suddenly suspicious, to see which other students were still in the room, and his eyes settled on one who was slumped against the far wall next to the Birr portal. The headmaster’s eyes narrowed as his face darkened.

  “Sargas… No surprise there! This was attempted murder, and there was even an insurance policy…!”

  The quick-witted headmaster soon joined together what had happened, and couldn’t believe the conclusion he drew. Antares Malchus appeared to have targeted both of the Middlehams, but failed to get either of them! He shook his head in disbelief at how fate had protected the wizard lord and his son.

  “But what was Sargas going to do?” he murmured to himself. “Surely he wouldn’t have killed the boy himself? That would have been far too much bad publicity. No, I know his style, he’d have bewitched another student to do it for him.”

  That bode very ill for Tallion’s future at the school, and for the other students! He’d never be safe here now, not as long as Sargas was a student! This needed some careful thought. He longed to rid the school of the pagan poison that the Malchus children brought to it, but there was no easy way to do it! The headmaster sank into a reverie while his sharp mind raced off in twenty different directions, the unconscious students at his feet apparently forgotten as he stitched together what had happened and why, and started to plan his response.

  * * *

  Sir Philip remembered that Cammy and the two seventh year students were somewhere out in the cloister, and decided he’d better get them away from the Abbey. They needed to get to the safety of the school, but the Kirkstall portal was going to be out of action for some time. Raby was the nearest alternate, but it was a good sixty miles north. He stood up and walked out to the cloister again.

  “Cammy, how are you feeling? Are you up to taking these two admirable young men to school via Raby?”

  “Aye Sir Philip, I’m fine apart from t’ shock o’ bein’ felled by me own reboundin’ spell! Have ye caught ‘em? Murderous swine!”

  “There’s no sign of them Cammy, but the cellar with the portal in it has collapsed, so maybe they’re under the rubble. I have to say that would be a fitting reward for their work today. Natural justice!”

  “It’s a pity we don’t use t’ death sentence anymore Sir Philip, there’s some as would definitely deserve it! Firing off Libra Mortis curses at kids, outrageous!”

  “They were using Libra Mortis?! Against the children?!” Sir Philip’s already tortured emotions suffered yet another blow.

  “Aye, Sir Philip! I know Tallion were with me today, and ‘is pal Zak, but from talking to Sam ‘n James ‘ere, the both of ‘em were fighting back pretty darned fierce like! I’m sure they’ll ‘ve escaped, grand lads they are, them two!”

  Sir Philip paled still further as he heard that his two boys had fought back instead of running…

  “Cammy, there’s no defence against a Libra Mortis, you know that! You can’t deflect it, block it, or rebound it! You can only dodge it! The boys are too young to fight against that kind of magic, they just barely know how to defend themselves against tickling spells…”

  “Sir,” piped up Sam, who was the second seventh year who’d been standing with Zak, “I think that Zak, and probably Tallion, just re-wrote the rules. I was standing with Zak and I saw him repeatedly block the incoming Libra Mortis spells, five or six times at least before I was hit by my own rebounding Firmus.”

  “He blocked them? How? That’s not possible! What happened?”

  Sam pointed at the walls of the Cloister where three huge scorch marks surrounded holes where chunks of masonry had been blasted out by the deflected Libra Mortis curses.

  “That’s what happened, Sir. Somehow he just deflected them! I don’t know what spell he was using, but each time there was a huge explosion as the Libra Mortis crashed into it. His spell was destroyed as they collided, but each time the Libra Mortis veered off in a different direction. Some of them went upwards into the air, but a few hit the walls…”

  Sir Philip was incredulous, and it showed clearly on his perplexed face! The power in these two boys was unbelievable! He dared to hope that somehow they might have survived after all. After a minute studying Sam’s face, and gazing at the scorched walls, he spoke again.

  “Cammy, take the boys to Raby and try to get into the school, hopefully the portal will still be open. If not, then go back to Upper Nettleton and I’ll meet you all there at Procyon Proudfoot’s house. You’re all in danger whilst you’re in the open until we find out who did this.”

  “Right yeh are Sir Philip, we’ll be getting on. Come on lads, stack hands, we’re off ter Raby Castle!”

  Sir Philip walked back into the Warming Room, reluctant to leave the unknown seventh year student, who lay half-crushed under the rubble, and possibly his own sons too. He didn’t know any of the seventh years who’d travelled to Kirkstall from Upper Nettleton this year, but he intended to reward them all for their courage as they’d fought to defend their fellow students!

  * * *

  “Orion! Don’t just stand there, do something!”

  The headmaster snapped out of his reverie as his deputy head finally made it up the stairs.

  “What would you suggest, Cleo? The students have all been hit by unknown magic, and although they’re all alive, I have no idea what will happen if we try to revive them.”

  “What do you mean unknown magic?” said the deputy head warily.

  The headmaster waved his hand vaguely behind him at the blackened fireplace that used to be the Kirkstall Abbey portal.

  “A powerful Libra Mortis was fired at Tallion Middleham as he flung himself through the portal. From what I can deduce, it looks like the portal was closing behind him as the curse hit him, or maybe it missed him by a fraction of an inch. Either way, the curse definitely hit the portal. As we all know, there’s no magic that can stop a Libra Mortis, and the curse therefore travelled through the portal, with Tallion, to the castle here hundreds of miles away.”

  The headmaster, who’d turned to look at the portal as he spoke, now turned back and surveyed the scene in the room, and made a sweeping gesture with his hand as he spoke again, cutting off his deputy head who’d opened her mouth to answer.

  “The portal then exploded, combining its own powerful magic with the Libra
Mortis, and did this! All these students, and the two porters who were up here with them, were hit by that ‘unknown magic’. To my knowledge, no-one has ever blown up a portal using a Libra Mortis before, especially while a large group of people were standing on the other side of it!”

  “Well we can’t just leave them, Orion! We need to try and revive them!”

  “Which of our students would you like me to experiment on first?” asked the headmaster eyeing his rather irate looking deputy with a very ironic expression.

  She opened her mouth to answer very forthrightly, and then realised that there wasn’t an answer, so she shut it again looking perplexed!

  “Well, none of them, obviously!” she finally said. “We can’t experiment on students!”

  “Precisely. So now that we’re of the same mind, my suggestion is that we experiment on one of the porters, do you agree?”

  The rather flustered deputy head looked perplexed, and then rolled her eyes in resignation.

  “Yes, I agree. So what are you going to try?”

  “Me try? Alright then, well, just a normal Enervate to start with. That’s usually enough to invigorate the mind and body. If that doesn’t work, what spell do you cast to revive someone who’s been hit by a Libra Mortis?”

  While Cleo McCathie stared unflinchingly back at the headmaster, with one eyebrow raised and pursed lips, he smiled graciously back and turned away toward the nearest porter. In her opinion, this wasn’t the time for levity, and she was pretty sure that Orion Trell was deliberately trying to wind her up!

  “Enervate,” commanded the headmaster flicking his wand at the porter. Nothing.

  “Enervate!” he spoke again, much more firmly and with a little oomph behind it. Still nothing. He glanced across at his watching deputy head and raised his eyebrows. You weren’t supposed to cast this spell very powerfully; it could cause all sorts of problems with blood pressure and hallucinations. He had no choice though, and poured his full magical energy into his next attempt.