Zak Turner - A Twist In Time Read Online Free PDF

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