Zak Turner - A Twist In Time

by Noel Pogson

  As he scanned along the shelves, his sharp eye spotted a book by someone called Silas Orr entitled ‘Pure Gold’. The tiny notes on the spine suggested that it was about precious metals alchemy, specifically how to turn everyday objects into gold and silver, copper, zinc, brass, and just about any other metal you could think of!

  Without a second thought, the curious nine-year-old opened the glass door and reached up for the book. It was very old and dusty, and even seemed to moan a bit as he pulled it from its long time resting place. He blew off the dust, opened the cover, and saw a drawing of a wizard on the title page, possibly the author, holding his fingers to his lips and saying, audibly, “Shhhhh!”

  Bjarne grinned, it wasn't the first time that a book had spoken to him; at least half the books in the Lofthouse Castle library were sentient in some manner!

  “Okay,” he replied, “I won’t tell if you don’t!”

  “Deal!” replied the drawing in the book with a wide smile and a wink!

  Bjarne moved over to the window and turned the page, letting the bright sunlight fall across it. The introduction was brief and to the point, and the index was even briefer and even more to the point, listing just ten transformations. The first was to create silver from salt and sand, plus a few more crucial magical ingredients. Without thinking about it, Bjarne lowered himself into the comfortable chair behind him and began to flick through the book; all thoughts of lunch fled from his mind. This book was worth many times its own weight in gold that was for sure!

  The pendulum of the grandfather clock continued to swing slowly from side to side, measuring the passing seconds, the hands keeping a perfect record of how long he’d been in the room. The absolute silence, except for the clock, meant that Bjarne became well and truly lost in his book, and it was with a start that he suddenly realised he was already at the end of the seventh transformation some considerable time later!

  A glance at the clock showed it was twenty past three and Bjarne jumped up in panic! He was going to be in big trouble now, double trouble even! Trouble for not coming down to lunch, and then even more trouble for going into the forbidden room! His mother would surely ask where he’d been. Lying never crossed his mind; you couldn’t lie to Lady Middleham.

  The worried bookworm knew there would likely be only one outcome from this little adventure, a trip into the dungeon and a very painful ‘reminder’ about the importance of obedience. His throat was dry and his hand was trembling slightly as he shoved the book quickly back onto the shelf, and wrenched open the door, heading down the stairs as fast as he could.

  Unnoticed, the door closed softly behind him and a quiet whirring noise disturbed the silence of the room as the hands on the grandfather clock swiftly wound back to twelve fifteen where they stopped. The pendulum continued its own ceaseless swinging back and forth, accompanied by the patient tic-toc of the ancient clock.

  * * *

  Bjarne raced down the stairs, leapt over the thirteenth step on the final staircase, and hurled himself into the secret passage which formed the shortcut back to the main castle. He was heading for the drawing room where he knew his rather irritated mother would be waiting for him, and he was planning how to make his peace with her.

  As he got to the top of the stairs in the grand entrance, the drawing room doors opened, and his mother and sister came out heading for the breakfast room.

  “Just in time, Bjarne,” smiled his mother, “I thought you might have been up a tree, but Uncle Theodore just told me that you were up the LookOut tower.”

  It took a lot of effort for Bjarne not to look completely clueless while his racing brain tried to work out what was going on. It certainly seemed as though he wasn’t in trouble for being at least three hours late for lunch, but it also seemed like his mother and sister were three hours late for their lunch too! As for the comments about Uncle Theodore, well, that didn’t make any sense at all! He was determined to stay out of trouble though, so very sincerely he apologised for being late, and scuttled down the stairs walking meekly behind them into the breakfast room.

  He glanced at the clock as they walked in, and to his great consternation saw that it was only twenty past twelve. Now he really was puzzled!

  This needed some careful thought, and maybe some careful questioning.

  * * *

  By one o’clock the Netherdale Academy football pitch was deserted. It was fortunate that only the under thirteens were using the facility that Sunday, normally there would have been other groups following them on the pitch, but the other teams were all playing away games that week.

  Sir Philip created a portal on the pitch back to Lofthouse Castle, and one by one the unconscious boys were taken to the safety of the baronet’s ancestral home. John Turner drove his car back up the dale to The Copse, and used the portal in the back of Tallion’s wardrobe to go to the castle to be with his recovering son, after telling his worried wife what had happened at the match.

  Zak was back in his own suite at the castle where Nurse Salvae had expertly managed to make the unconscious eleven-year-old swallow a rejuvenation potion. It was only a few seconds before his eyes opened and slowly focussed on his surroundings, including the people by his bed.

  “Hi Dad! What are you doing here? What am I doing here?!”

  “You’re recovering your energy lad, I’ll let Barty here explain what happened magically, but you saved a few lives, and knocked yourself out in the process!”

  Zak struggled to sit up against his pillows as he looked across at his smiling tutor, questions written all over his face. As he opened his mouth to ask them, Barty held up his hand to stop him, so Zak said nothing and closed his mouth again.

  “I’ll explain first, and then you can ask questions, if you have any left. Someone, we don’t know who, decided to use the final whistle at the football match as a cover for casting five Libra Mortis curses at various people. Lord Middleham, Tallion, Steven, you, and me. Lord Middleham dodged the one aimed at him, you exploded the ones aimed at you and me, and Tallion exploded the one aimed at him.”

  A frown crossed Zak’s face. It was obvious that all was not well, and Barty hadn’t mentioned what happened to the curse which had been cast at Steven! The young footballer had a terrible feeling of foreboding tearing at his insides again.

  “We only have Steven’s word for what happened next, but he says that Tallion tried to cast another spell at the Libra Mortis that was aimed at him. It seems to have fizzled though. Now, Steven says that he saw the swirling magic behind Tallion, and it rushed into him, but never went down his arm the second time, like it had done the first time. It just went into him and vanished.”

  Zak blanched. He instantly knew what had happened to Tallion’s magic.

  “Our magical bond,” he whispered, a grief stricken look on his face. “I took his magic and used it for my own spell.”

  Zak put his hands to his face as he whispered, “I killed him didn’t I? I can’t sense him in my mind… He’s dead isn’t he, because of me…!”

  “No! He’s not dead, Zak,” said his dad, putting his hand on his son’s shoulder. “Steady son, no need to panic…”

  Barty spoke next, quickly.

  “The Libra Mortis did hit him, Zak, but only because he jumped in front of Steven to save his life. If he hadn’t done that, then Steven would have been hit, and he most certainly would be dead!”

  “So if he’s not dead, what happened? It’s obviously bad because he’s not in my mind, and I can’t find him anywhere…”

  Barty was a bit surprised by Zak’s language, and by how closely the two boys had become linked, but he gave no outward sign. Zak of course could still hear it all in his thoughts anyway.

  “He’s in his own room Zak, with Steven, who won’t leave his side! Your young farmer friend has developed a powerful life debt to Tallion and feels it very keenly, much the same as the one I’ve developed to you! Thank you for dealing with that Libra Mortis for me. I hadn’t seen it coming because I w
as concentrating on getting to Lord Middleham. If you hadn’t got rid of it, I’d be dead for sure! It was only after you cast your spell that I looked back to the pitch. You, or maybe your wand, did something remarkable this afternoon Zak. What spell did you cast?”

  “Revertur, why?”

  “Well, that’s not what came out. What came out was a wall of light, like a huge shield charm, very powerful and very bright.”

  Like a light going on in his mind, Zak suddenly remembered the spell, and his own amazement at the power in it. It was a hazy memory though because he was already keeling over at the time due to the loss of energy, but he could also recall the Libra Mortis hitting the wall of light. The spell would have to wait though; there was something much more important to find out.

  “So what happened to Tallion? How is he? Where is he? I need to go to him!”

  “You can go. We’ll take you in a minute, but you’ll not be able to walk, you can barely sit let alone stand. First though I have a couple of questions which I need to ask here, without Steven hearing them. First, did you see anyone casting the spells?”

  Zak closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to block out his worry and fear about Tallion, and at the same time, recall the nightmare scene on the football pitch. The second part was, unfortunately, much easier than the first!

  “Not to start with. The first curses seemed to come straight out of nowhere, but I happened to be looking in the right direction. By the time the man cast the curses for you and me though, I could see him clearly. He was wearing some kind of shimmering cloak, and he had dark hair and orangey looking eyes. When our eyes met he just radiated evil. It was very uncomfortable!”

  “You saw a man? Was he aware that you locked eyes with him and saw him?”

  “Yes, and yes.”

  “Okay, we might need to talk more about that later. The second question is about your wand. Do you mind if we regress it to find out what spell it cast? We need to know Zak, that was unbelievably powerful magic, and neither Lord Middleham nor I recognised the spell either from our own repertoires, or from anything we’ve read.”

  “Okay, no problem,” replied Zak, slumping a little lower on his pillow. “How do you do it?”

  “With a normal wand it’s easy. A more powerful wizard, or more powerful wand, can cast an incantation over it and the ghostly forms of all its previous spells come out of it one by one until you lift the incantation. However, this is a MacElver wand, and yours happens to be one of the most powerful MacElver wands ever made. Lord Middleham will try and regress it with his wand, but it will most likely do nothing, or worse, it might force Sir Philip’s wand to regress instead. That happens about half the time if a less powerful wand tries to regress a more powerful one.”

  “Therefore we’ll probably need you to do it. That’s a bit experimental, and making your own wand reveal its secrets might have some unexpected results, so we’ll need to have Findlay MacElver here if we need to do that. We’ll not be able to do it today though, even if we need to, so don’t worry about it.”

  “Now, we need to get you through to see Tallion. I think he needs his soul mate to help him recover, and I know Steven wants to talk with you too.”

  * * *

  Barty gave Zak another powerful restorative potion, which made him feel almost normal again. He cautioned the young wizard that it was artificial energy though, and would therefore drain away quickly if he exerted himself.

  Steven was very relieved to see Zak as he walked into Tallion’s room. Although he knew that he hadn’t lost either of his friends, yet, seeing them both unconscious on the football pitch had been an experience he’d never forget.

  “ZAK! Ruddy Nora, yeh both scared me ter death! Are you okay?”

  “I’m a bit wobbly mate, but I’ll be fine. I see you two have made up then!”

  “We did actually make up fer real just a few seconds before all this ‘appened. Tallion came over ter where I were standin’ and we were celebratin’ yer goal, and then winnin’ t’ match too, when suddenly all ‘ell let loose! Nurse ‘ere says yer used up all yer energy castin’ a mega spell, is that right?”

  “Aye,” answered Zak with a grin which quickly turned to a frown, “but I think I used up all Tallion’s energy too, which is why his spell to save you didn’t work. Did he really jump in front of you?”

  Steven looked back at Tallion on the bed and nodded quietly, “Aye, otherwise I’d be a goner.”

  He took Tallion’s hand which was lying on top of the sheet and added quietly, “He knew what that spell was, didn’t he Zak? He knew he might die if it ‘it ‘im?”

  “Yeah, he knew. It’s the same curse that hit him on the way to Mhonarr Castle, although that one didn’t quite hit him, or at least maybe not at full power. He’s the only person ever to have been hit by it twice, and the only person ever to have survived it.”

  “I ‘ope I get chance ter say thanks…”

  Zak looked worriedly at Nurse Salvae, who was waiting for it, and she nodded and smiled encouragingly. Zak felt a huge relief, but it was tempered by the terrible emptiness in his mind and heart without his soul mate’s thoughts and emotions.

  * * *

  John Turner left at about two o’clock to go back to The Copse, but Nurse Salvae, Barty, Zak, and Steven all stayed with Tallion during the early afternoon. Sir Titus Scott, the specialist from the Edinburgh hospital was there for a while too, and encouraged Zak to try and read Tallion’s mind and see if he could make contact with him somehow. There was no response from the blond-haired wizard though, and Zak spotted the worried looks between Sir Titus and Nurse Salvae.

  “We expect the same kind of damage to his skin that happened at Mhonarr, Zak,” said the knight, “but it hasn’t developed yet. It took a few hours last time, so we’ll just keep checking. Nurse Salvae here has plenty of rejuvenation potion. I’m worried that the Libra Mortis will have gone more than skin deep this time though, so we’ve been keeping an eye on all his internal organs too, to make sure that he has no internal injuries. When the skin tissue starts to show signs of damage, that will be when any internal damage will start to show up too. Nothing for it but to sit it out I’m afraid.”

  “Umm, Zak,” continued Sir Titus, “without being indelicate, err, do you think you could get physically closer and lie on the bed with him? I understand from Steven here that you’re very close, and the bond between you will no doubt help him to recover. You need to give him your life energy, Zak, he needs you now more than ever before. Physical contact will magnify the effect greatly.”

  “Of course, I’d have done it even if you hadn’t asked, but now I have an excuse, doctor’s orders!”

  “Right!” said the knight, in his distinctive Edinburgh accent, a relieved smile crossing his face. “We’ll leave you in peace for a while then. Send for us when anything changes.”

  The door closed a few seconds later leaving just the three friends together in Tallion’s room. Zak quickly went into the bathroom and changed out of his miraculously clean football strip into a pair of Tallion’s shorts and one of his t-shirts, and then climbed into bed next to his friend.

  “I’ve never dared ask before,” said Steven with a slightly amused, slightly questioning expression, “but do yer often sleep in t’ same bed?”

  Zak looked a little bit embarrassed as he replied. “Yeah. We hardly ever start together, but by the time we wake up in the morning we often find ourselves back together again. I know it must seem weird, but it doesn’t feel weird, it just feels… complete. That’s the only way to describe it, and just in case you’re wondering, no, there’s nothing like that involved at all!”

  Steven grinned, “I know that! Otherwise Tallion wouldn’t have been jealous of me n’ Sartrina!”

  Zak smiled. “That’s true. He was really upset about it you know, I was very surprised.”

  Zak got himself settled in the bed, making sure that he had physical contact with his soul mate to allow their magical bond to get t
o work. It was a bit awkward because his friend was lying on his back. When he was set, he spoke again.

  “You have a magical life debt to Tallion now Steven, so you’ll probably find that you feel much closer to him than you used to do. That’s certainly how the life debts have affected us.”

  Steven nodded, feeling relieved. His mind had been in a bit of a turmoil since Tallion had dived in front of him to save his life, but he was starting to sort out all his new emotions a bit now.

  “I keep finding meself holding his hand, and wanting ter speak with him, ter let him know that I’m with him. Is that because o’ t’ life debt?”

  “Yeah, could be. Magical links and bonds are really curious, they can give you all sorts of powers and stuff, but they do change your behaviour.”

  Zak was glad that they’d hunted out and read the books about magical bonds, and he explained to Steven as best as he could how life-debts worked between wizards. He saw understanding in the young farmer’s face, followed by determination to honour the debt if he ever got chance. When he finished, he closed his eyes.

  “I’m really tired Steven, can you keep watch while we sleep?”

  “Aye, course,” replied his friend, immediately attracted by the idea. “I’ll wake yer if anything changes.”

  “Thanks. What about yer mam an’ dad? You’ve been out fer ages now!”

  “Sir Philip said he’d phone Mum and tell her that I’ve come back ter Tallion’s house fer tea. They’re dead jealous that I’ve been ‘ere and they ‘aven’t.”

  “They need to know soon, Steven, you can’t keep this secret from them forever. What did Sir Philip say about it?”

  “Same as you. To pick me moment and when it’s right to tell ‘em, but tell ‘em as little as possible. He’s worried that they might go tellin’ other people, but they’ll not. They don’t believe in magic an’ stuff, so they’ll never tell anyone that I’m magical!”