Zak Turner - A Twist In Time (3 page)

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 through 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.

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!