Zak Turner - A Twist In Time

by Noel Pogson

  As Steven stared at the place where Uncle Theodore had just faded away, Zak nudged his friend to bring his attention back into the room and the meal.

  “He made me jump much worse than that the first time I met him. I was so scared I yelled out and ran off in a panic! He’s quite harmless though, and very friendly.”

  “He’s a total mischief,” intoned Tallion to no-one in particular as he pushed some more roast gurdy into his mouth. Like the rest of the family, except Zak, he’d been on the receiving end of Uncle Theodore’s pranks more times than he cared to remember!

  * * *

  After dinner the boys set off to show Steven round the castle. Steven was curious about where they learned magic, so they decided to show him the schoolrooms first.

  “We need to go through some secret passages to get there, feeling adventurous?”

  “Aye! Always!” the grinning farmer’s son answered quickly.

  The boys scuttled through the main castle to the picture of Augustus Sapari Middleham, where Tallion walked straight through the wall. Steven hesitated and his eyes went wide as he looked at Zak in concern.

  “Just walk through it, like we did with the gates in the castle wall. You’ll be fine!”

  “Says you! I ain’t exactly in t’ same league as you two when it comes ter magic!”

  The two boys sniggered, and Steven walked purposefully at the wall. He looked much more confident than he felt, and shut his eyes just before he made contact. To his great relief, and surprise, he felt the wall wash around him like a mixture of feathers and jelly, and found himself in a passageway lit by flaming torches. Tallion was standing there grinning.

  “What kept you?”

  “I were a bit worried about walkin’ in ter t’ wall! You two do this stuff all t’ time, but it’s a bit new fer me!”

  “Come on, down here and through the third door on the left,” said Tallion as Zak joined them in the passage.

  Less than a minute later the boys were standing in the duelling classroom. Barty had reversed the enchantment that created the ritual circle, and the room was back to normal, with the desks back in the middle and the duelling strip down one side.

  “This is where we learn defensive magic, and how to look after ourselves if someone decides to attack us,” explained Zak.

  “Fair do’s. After yesterday’s experience at school I reckon yer gonna need lots o’ training!”

  “Blimey, was that only yesterday?” exclaimed Zak. “It feels like ages ago!”

  “What’s this fer?” asked Steven pointing to the duelling strip.

  “That’s a duelling strip. We stand either end of it and cast spells at each other to practise duelling. Want to see?”

  “Aye! So yer gonna have a wizard fight then?”

  “Well, not a real fight. We’ll just cast spells at each other and practise defending ourselves.”

  Zak and Tallion went and stood at each end of the strip and agreed telepathically that Zak would go first, casting at Tallion. Steven sat on a desk quite close to the middle of the strip, his eyes alight.

  “Iactor Dolor!”

  “Deflecto!” replied Tallion instantly, with a swift, neat flick of his wand. The ball that had flown out of Zak’s wand straight at him miraculously changed direction about two feet in front of him, and bounced harmlessly towards the teacher’s desk.

  “Iactor Dolor!” retorted Tallion, and a second ball appeared heading back towards Zak.

  “Resisto Corpus!” called Zak, and the ball stopped dead in the air and dropped to the ground as though it had hit an invisible wall.

  “Iactor Dolor!” commanded Zak, and another ball flew towards Tallion, much faster this time.

  “Tardo!” called out Tallion flicking his wand, and allowed himself a smile as the ball slowed to a crawl but carried on towards him, staying miraculously at the same height when the laws of physics should have made it fall to the floor.

  “Exuro!” he commanded, catching Zak by surprise because he’d never seen or used that spell. The ball burst into flames, still heading slowly for Tallion, and a moment later turned into a shower of ashes. As the ashes floated down to the floor, they vanished too, and there was no trace of the ball at all. Steven was watching wide-eyed.

  “Iactor Dolor!” called out Tallion again.

  “Revertur!” replied Zak very firmly, and the ball rebounded towards Tallion at twice the speed he’d cast it. Tallion had the advantage of hearing Zak’s thoughts so he knew what was coming. He instantly cast a Revertur back again, adding more power. Now the ball was heading back to Zak almost too quickly to see.

  “Revertur!” called out Zak again, sending it back again.

  “Tardo! Aduro! Revertur!!”

  Zak now found himself facing an oncoming fireball, which was moving quite smartly! His response caught even himself by surprise!

  “Aqua Vi!”

  A jet of water rocketed out of his wand, and hit the flaming fireball full on. Water ricocheted off in all directions, soaking Steven and half the classroom while Zak held the spell waiting for the flames to go out. They didn’t, so he quickly changed his spell.

  “Revertur!”

  Now Tallion had to cope with the approaching fireball, but simply bounced it back. Zak simply returned the favour, with a bit more power, a grin spreading across his face.

  “Revertur!” called out Tallion again, and soon the duelling strip was looking like a very dangerous place indeed, as the blazing ball of fire bounced back and forth between the two eleven-year-old wizards. Steven was watching open mouthed.

  “Exuro!” called out Tallion as the fireball headed towards him, and the flames intensified briefly for a moment before they died out completely, and a sprinkle of ashes fell towards the floor.

  “FIRMUS!” he called, deciding to use a real duelling spell against his companion.

  “Revertur! FIRMUS!” responded Zak, rebounding the first spell, and sending a second straight after it.

  “Deflecto! Revertur! Percussus!”

  Zak was surprised! Percussus was the stunning spell the wizard puppets had thrown at them earlier that day, but Barty had never taught them the spell, nor had Sir Philip. How did Tallion know the movement for it? While one part of his mind was thinking those thoughts, another part was seemingly working by itself to combat the spells heading towards him. He decided on a simple defence, rebound them both and add a new one!

  “Revertur! Revertur! Laxo!”

  Tallion was getting good at hearing Zak’s thoughts and reacting to them, but it simply wasn’t enough to have advanced warning of the incoming spells. Zak had once again misjudged the power he was applying to his spells, or maybe when he was in a combat situation his power increased. Either way, his original Firmus went streaking back towards Tallion with an awful lot more power in it.

  The blond wizard neatly deflected it, whereupon it smashed into the wall with a crack and a shower of sparks. The stunning spell came back at him even more powerfully still, and he had no time to cast another defensive spell so just ducked out of the way as it flew past him and crashed into the wall behind him. As he dodged though, the powerful Laxo tracked his movement, and hit home, very hard!

  Fortunately Zak hadn’t poured everything he had into the spell this time, so its effect was restricted just to Tallion, but the blond-haired wizard sagged to the ground like a floppy rag doll, dropping his wand, which rolled away towards Steven.

  “Sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorry,” called out Zak moments later, rushing down the duelling strip to his soul mate. He looked genuinely worried as he dropped to his knees beside him.

  Don’t worry Zak, it was nowhere near as powerful as last time. I also didn’t feel anything as I hit the floor which was something I wanted to work out next time it happened.

  Thank goodness. I was terrified I’d done it again and blasted you at full power. I don’t know what happens to me when I’m in a duel, things just seem to get out of control!

  We both just need
to practise, that’s all. Father and Barty have both said that controlling our power levels is one of the hardest things to do.

  Yeah, we need to get Barty to show us how to bring the ritual circle to life so that we can use the duelling puppets more. I heard the incantation he used but we need the wand movement. Talking of which, where did you get the wand movement for the Percussus spell!

  Umm, I don’t know! It just sort of came out. I didn’t really plan to use it either, but it just seemed like a good one to throw at you.

  You mean no-one ever taught you it?

  Nope.

  The boys were silent for a moment, their minds independently and yet jointly running through possibilities and options. Eventually Tallion thought aloud again.

  I think I must have seen the wizard puppets cast it, and copied the movement I saw them use. They’re the only people who I’ve ever seen casting it.

  Blimey Tallion! How could you possibly pick up that wand movement?! You would need mega eyesight to do that!

  Maybe I have? Maybe when father named me Tallion I picked up some other eagle attributes too? Eagles have phenomenal eyesight you know!

  This needs thinking about. That might mean that you’ve subconsciously filed away loads of wand movements that you’ve seen other wizards use! If we could ever work out a way to match up your memories of the wand movements with the spells that were spoken…

  …or thought, remember we can hear thoughts now too…

  Yeah, but if we somehow get those wand movements out of your head we’ll have loads of new spells at our command!

  True, but they’ll not be much use to me while I’m lying on the floor like an old rag will they?

  Ooops, sorry! Give me a minute to explain to Steven what happened and what I’m going to do.

  The two soul mates hadn’t noticed, but they’d drifted away from using proper telepathy to just listening to each other’s thoughts. Telepathy was a little bit quicker than talking, but not much. Simple thought conversations though were much faster. They were still only just starting to learn about this aspect of the remarkable abilities they shared, but even so, their thought conversation, which verbally would have lasted about two and a half minutes, took only about thirty seconds.

  Steven had watched the duel mesmerised by the incantations, the objects, and the spells that were flying between them. He wasn’t aware of it, but the duelling strip was enchanted so that you could see spells which would normally have been invisible. Firmus and Percussus were usually more or less invisible, but Steven had watched brilliant streaks of purple and gold light flashing back and forth.

  His awe at the finale, which had kaleidoscoped into blazing streaks of light flashing across the room, the merged explosions of the Firmus and Percussus spells hitting the wall, and the sight of Tallion falling apparently lifeless to the floor was absolute! He remained stunned and speechless for several seconds, before the rough Yorkshire farmer’s son struggled back to the surface.

  “Ruddy Nora!” were the only two stuttering words that escaped his lips, in his familiar expression of shock. His eyes flicked between the two blackened scorch marks on the walls and his two friends on the floor at the end of the duelling strip. Eventually he realised that Tallion wasn’t moving, and remembered that Zak had run towards him shouting sorry. He jumped off the table and ran to join them, dropping to his knees at Zak’s side.

  “Is he okay Zak? What did yer do to him?” he asked in a hushed voice, fearing the worst. Zak and Tallion had just finished their thought conversation, and Zak turned to Steven with a grin.

  “Yeah, he’s okay, although he can’t move until I revive him. I blasted him with a Laxo spell; that was the very last one I cast. He can hear us talking, and he can talk back into my mind, but he’s totally relaxed and can’t move any of his muscles, that’s what a Laxo does. I can cast it on you if you like so that you can see what it feels like?”

  Zak sniggered at Steven’s rather worried expression.

  “Err, no thanks. Does it hurt?”

  “Not at all. You just go completely limp, like a piece of old lettuce.”

  Steven gave Zak a somewhat sceptical stare, and then said, “So how do yer revive him then?”

  “Watch.”

  Zak stood up, stepped back from Tallion, and practised the wand movement for the reviving spell. When he was happy, he cast it.

  “Resusipisco!”

  It only took a second before Tallion’s eyes flicked open, and then after a few more seconds, during which his dazed expression cleared and his eyes focussed, he looked up at Steven and grinned.

  “That doesn’t hurt either. The reviving spell just gives you a tingling sensation. Some spells do hurt though, like stunning spells.”

  * * *

  The three boys spent a few more minutes in the duelling room, and then explored the remaining classrooms. Steven gradually felt more and more out of his depth, especially when they started talking about potions and alchemy! Then they visited the greenhouse, where the bemused farmer’s son was perturbed to see plants that should have been inanimate moving about and behaving almost like animals! Tallion pointed out the Trugstork tree and related the incident which had nearly killed him. Steven looked at it very warily, and gave the plant a wide berth.

  After the school rooms, there wasn't much time left, so the boys went to Zak’s suite where Steven looked through their magical school books, fiddled with Zak’s telescope, and once again looked longingly at Zak’s wand. They were just starting to talk about whether they could get hold of a wand he could try, when there was a knock on the door, and Tallion jumped up to open it.

  “These just arrived,” said Bjarne, his voice full of curiosity as he handed over a couple of letters, one for Tallion, and one for Zak. Tallion said thank you, and looked meaningfully at his younger brother until Bjarne realised that he had no choice except to leave the room.

  The envelopes were addressed in different handwriting, even though the words were more or less the same. Zak’s read:

  Mr Zak Turner

  c/o Lofthouse Castle

  Netherdale

  and Tallion’s read:

  Mr Tallion Middleham

  Lofthouse Castle

  Netherdale

  Zak flipped his letter over to see if there was a return address on the back, but it was blank. He smiled anyway and slipped his finger under the flap to rip it open. He always liked to receive post!

  Tallion had a shrewd idea who they were from because there were really only two people who would be writing to them. When he got in to his letter, it was a single sheet of paper covered on both sides with the same small neat handwriting as on the envelope. Sure enough, when he checked the name of the sender, it was from Columbetha Proudfoot. The letter was full of news about the school and things that had happened during the first week of term. Columbetha had been careful not to include much about herself, just news about the school in general.

  “Mine’s from Sartrina!” exclaimed Zak, surprised that she’d chosen to write to him rather than Tallion. His letter ran to three sheets of paper covered on both sides, and provided interesting accounts of the first year lessons, and a few incidents that had befallen the new students at Mhonarr Castle. The last half page was an account of the accident in the duelling club that morning.

  Zak was surprised that he suddenly felt rather sad and disappointed, but after a few seconds he realised that they were Tallion’s emotions, not his own. Before he got chance to do anything other than look up in concern at his friend, Steven spoke.

  “Do you mind if I read it too Zak?” he asked tentatively, “I’d like to know what’s going on there, even though I’ll never go…”

  “Yeah, ‘course mate, here you go.”

  Zak handed the letter and envelope across to Steven whilst he concentrated on Tallion.

  Hey, Lord Middleham, what’s up?

  Nothing really.

  Nothing? Ahem! You forgot we share each other’s minds. It’s Sartr
ina isn’t it, because she wrote the letter to me not to you?

  Yeah. I might as well admit it; I really like her. Surely you must have noticed!

  You’ve keep it well hidden my friend! I notice something in your emotions whenever we meet her, but I always thought it was because of the problems with her mother, not because you fancied her!

  Tallion was quiet for a few seconds, well, quiet wasn't the right word really. He just wasn’t thinking his thoughts as part of a conversation with Zak, but he was still thinking though! Zak kept quiet, knowing his friend was trying to work out how to say what he wanted to say.

  We sort of grew up together, the heir to the vast Lofthouse estate thought quietly to his friend. When her father was alive, she came to the castle quite often, and we went to her house for father to talk with her father, Enoch. He was really nice actually, I never did find out how he died. It was just sort of accepted that Sartrina and I were friends, and, well… It’s left a permanent mark in my mind.

  …but the politics got in the way?

  Yeah…

  That’s silly Tallion! I understand why, but it’s still silly that you had to stop being friends just because of the hierarchy in the village!

  To you it seems silly, but that’s how our world works Zak, and to me it’s not silly. Annoying yes, but not silly. It’s the reason why our world still works. The way you’re thinking is actually one of the main reasons why our world doesn’t like first generation wizards, and treats them badly. They see them as undermining the established rhythm of our society and wanting to change things that have worked well for centuries!

  Well, maybe it will change. Maybe you’ll be able to become friends with her again, properly!

  Maybe, thought his friend in response, but even in his thoughts he sounded like he knew it would never happen. Zak took his soul mate’s hand and provided him with the support he was looking for, both physically and emotionally, their bond once again allowing them to share each other’s problems, and carry each other’s burdens.