by Alex Kosh
“Come on, come on,” said Chas, shoving me forward. “Wave that broom of yours at them, let them know who’s the boss.”
That was actually what I was planning to do. But only when the trolls started moving. Right then, any delay was to our advantage, and those stoneheads were obviously waiting for something. Or someone. In any case, it made no sense to provoke them.
And then we saw who the trolls were waiting for. Someone in yellow livery stepped out through the gap ...
“Neville?” Chas gasped in amazement. “No ... it can’t be him!”
Neville was followed out by Steel, then Naive, then some pupil I didn’t know, then Caiten ...
“Looks like their Master really did hypnotise everyone he managed to capture,” Alice whispered. “So now what do we do?”
“Don’t worry,” I whispered back. “Maybe while they’re standing there, Shins will manage to find the spot...
Meanwhile another ten people had joined the twenty trolls ...
“We’ve had it,” Chas sighed. “Zach, Alice, I’m proud to have studied with you. Dogron, you’re the most worthy troll of all the trolls I’ve ever seen in my life.”
I took a firmer grip on the broom.
“Drop it, Chas,” I said, trying to calm my friend down. “Look, Kelnmiir’s already finished off his golem. And with the vampire and the troll we have a chance ...”
“Of not being torn to pieces in one minute, but in two,” Chas concluded bitterly. “That really cheers me up.”
“More hysterics,” Alice sighed. “Look, so far they’re just standing there, why are you getting all excited about nothing?”
Oh, she shouldn’t have said that.
The trolls and people started moving slowly towards us. The distance between us was about thirty-five yards, so we wouldn’t have long to wait. As soon as they had covered half the distance I swung the broom with all my strength ... and they were scattered in all directions.
“Give it to them,” Alice exclaimed joyfully.
“Burn them!” Chas added.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw that a couple of trolls had been thrown right to Kelnmiir’s feet and he had managed to finish them off with the knife.
That was two trolls who could be crossed off the list then
“Go on, go on, just flick them all off to a dragon’s den,” Chas yelled excitedly.
Flick ... I didn’t think it was going to be quite that simple. They were bound to come up with something ...
I stood and watched as the people and trolls got up off the stone surface of the yard. None of our friends seemed to have been hurt. By the way, Neville was still holding his spear, and Naive had his club. And Steel was carrying his lengths of rope ...
The trolls stood in a single line and took hold of each other’s arms. The people hid behind their backs ...
“I don’t like this,” Alice whispered.
“I do,” Chas said nervously. “What are they going to do, a folk dance?”
But no, they weren’t lining up for a folk dance. When they started moving towards us again and I waved the broom ... they retreated a few steps, and that was all. They weren’t tossed all other the yard, and they walked on toward us. I had to keep waving the broom all the time in order to hold them back at all.
“That’s it,” Chas summed up. “Now the game’s really up. Shins is still investigating the field as dimwittedly as ever, he’s obviously in no great hurry to destroy it.”
“We still have Kelnmiir,” I reminded him.
“Such self-assurance,” the vampire laughed, walking up to us. “I’m afraid that even with my help it will be hard to handle a crowd like that.”
He was right, and now the crowd had moved so close that I could see the glassy eyes of my friends ... Steel threw one of his ropes at me.
Kelnmiir intercepted it in mid-air, right in front of my face, so I was able to calmly work away with the broom, but the rope instantly wound itself round the vampire’s arms and hands.
“Look at that,” Kelnmiir giggled. “Now I won’t be able to hold the knife. Pick it up, Alice, you’ll be able to use it.”
“Oh come on, you mean to can’t break an old piece of rope?” Chas asked in surprise.
“This is no ordinary rope,” the vampire replied.
The troll went over to Kelnmiir and tried hard to break the rope that was wrapped round the vampire, but he couldn’t. That was no surprise, if the rope could have been broken, Kelnmiir would have done it.
The second length of rope that Steel threw hit the target, i.e. me. I waved the broom for the last time and then suddenly felt my arms being drawn tight against my body. The broom went flying out of my hands. Chas jumped after it, but these few seconds of delay were enough for the trolls to get really close.
Dogron moved forward, together with Alice, who was holding the sword-dagger and Kelnmiir with his hands tied together. The trolls flung themselves on them immediately. In that situation, using the broom was pointless. There was nowhere we could retreat to. Behind us, Shins was still trying to figure out the field, and in front of us the crowd was getting closer ... somehow the vampires and Dogron managed to attract the attention of the trolls, so Chas and I were attacked by our friends.
Naive came rushing at me with his club, and it was a miracle that I managed to dodge the blow. It was lucky that only my arms were tied and I could still run when I felt it was necessary.
Alice, Kelnmiir and Dogron were literally besieged by trolls, but they carried on the fight, and quite successfully too. Alice at least had the knife, but I couldn’t even imagine how Kelnmiir was fighting.
While I ran away from Naive, Neville pursued Chas with his spear poised to strike, but Chas’s hands weren’t tied, and he was holding the broom, so every now and then he was able to strike back ...
We were much too busy to help Shins when the other pupils dashed at him, led by Caiten. They clearly knew what we had come here for ... or rather, the Master knew. Incidentally, I wondered if the mysterious Master was there among them.
All these thoughts appeared and disappeared at immense speed, the way it often happens at moments like this. All my attention was focused on trying to dodge Naive’s club, but at the same time I noticed everything that was going on around me.
So I saw very clearly when two pupils I didn’t know reached Shins ... and were knocked off their feet.
Chas had taken advantage of a small gap that had appeared just in front of Shins, and waved the broom at the attackers. And then he ran across to Shins and kept driving the pupils back, using the broom at maximum power. The attackers were only thrown back a couple of yards and knocked off their feet, but at least Shins had a bit more time now. The problem was that it almost certainly wasn’t enough.
“Alice!” Shins shouted.
I’d got so involved in watching Chas and Shins, that I didn’t notice Caiten creeping up on me from behind. I came face to face with him when I dodged another swing of the club.
“Caiten,” I said in surprise, looking into his glassy eyes.
No response.
He grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, as if he was trying to line me up for the club. But the blow never came, because Naive switched his attention to Alice, who was running by.
“Give me the knife!” Shins cried hastily to Alice.
What did he want the knife for?
Alice obediently handed it to him.
“Bear in mind that when the field bursts, there’ll be a lot of noise,” said Shins, weighing the knife in his hand. “And there could also be quite a powerful shock wave ...”
“Stop blathering,” Chas exclaimed, swinging the broom once again.
The broom didn’t work. The charge must have been completely exhausted.
Shins put the point of the knife against the field. There was a loud crack and bolts of lightning ran across the field. All of them running straight at the knife.
I was absolutely fascinated by this amazing sight, and when
I turned back to Chas and Alice, they weren’t there beside me. The two of them were somehow managing to hold off six attackers ...
Meanwhile, two hypnotised pupils advanced on me. Well, at least they weren’t trolls, or Naive with his club ... I ought to be able to deal with them with my hands tied. I tripped the first one up with my foot ... and then I did the same to the second one. No point in straining myself, was there?
The lightning bolts were striking at the knife in an uninterrupted stream now ... A red flash of lightning struck back at the knife from Shins’s hand – he must have used the charge ring at last.
Suddenly I felt something prod the back of my knee and I collapsed on my back. And that very moment a beam of energy zapped through the spot where my head had been. A mighty bolt of lightning hummed as it flashed from the knife right across the yard and hit the wall of the Academy, then were was another, and soon the flashes had became an uninterrupted stream of blue.
Everyone stopped moving and shuddered as they watched a huge hole appear where the flow had struck.
And Romius had told us the Distant Mountain stone, out of which the Academy was built, was impervious to magic ... sure it was ...
The continuous beam of energy continued without a break for several minutes, and then there was a sound like a huge window breaking and the flow of energy suddenly broke off. There was silence.
I tried to get up off the ground, but while I was still on my knees, the isolation field shattered into tiny pieces ...
Howling, whistling, rumbling ...
The shock wave was so powerful that anyone who was standing was lifted into the air and thrown down against the stone surface of the yard. I still hadn’t got to my feet, so I was only dragged along a few yards in my back ... and it was very unpleasant, I must say. I couldn’t even protect myself with my hands, so at the end of my short journey I hit my head against something and felt hot blood pouring over my temples. While I was down, I spotted Shins flying above me – he was been standing right beside the field when it shattered.
For a while I lay there on my back, looking up at the dark sky and gradually gathering my wits. Soon I got the feeling that I was no longer surrounded by empty space ... that is, space with no magic in it ...
Energy was flooding into the square! Not as concentrated as in the Academy, but after its complete absence, even these few drops felt absolutely delightful.
I got to my feet, swaying slightly, and looked around. On my left there was a heap of stones, which on closer inspection proved to be the remains of several trolls. Beside me, several people in yellow livery were lying on the ground, moaning feebly. So they were still alive. I was glad.
So ... we had destroyed the field. What now? Was it all over?
Neville got up off the floor beside me. It must have been him who knocked my legs from under me and saved me from the lightning bolt....
“Neville,” I began, “How are you ...”
He looked at me with blank, glassy eyes and reached out his hand. A small fireball appeared on it.
“Wait ...”
The fireball hit me in the chest and knocked me off my feet
No, I’d definitely got that wrong. It wasn’t over yet.
The trolls who were still alive and the other hypnotised pupils began to get up off the ground. Not far away from me, Kelnmiir jumped to his feet. His hands were still tied, evidently the rope really was incredibly strong. As soon as he was up, the vampire set about the trolls who had still not got up off the ground ... making sure that they wouldn’t get up. I could only hope that Dogron didn’t feel the force of Kelnmiir’s feet, after all, he was our troll.
When I bounded straight back up off the ground, I found myself face to face with Neville again. This time a firebird appeared in the air in front of him ... I’d really got out of the habit of all this ...
“Why are you just standing there?” shouted Alice, who was suddenly there beside me. She was a bit mussed, but basically she looked pretty lively.
The firebird shattered against the shield that Alice had put up.
Yes, I’d certainly lost my edge. After one day without any energy at all, I’d forgotten everything I learned in more than two months.
“I’m feeling dizzy,” I lied.
Alice wasn’t listening to me, because she was completely focused on defending us from Neville’s attacks. She could barely create shields fast enough for all the firebirds, butterflies and fireballs. I wondered why I’d bothered to waste all that time developing my snakes!
I ran through the familiar pattern and launched a few snakes. Now at least, Alice and I had a while to get our breath back.
“Have you seen Chas?” the vampiress asked, keeping a sharp eye on Neville.
“No,” I answered. “Have you seen any of our group at all?”
“No one, apart from you and Neville,” Alice replied. “Ah, but wait ...”
I followed the direction of her gaze.
The square was slowly coming to life. Kelnmiir was kicking at the trolls so they would stay down, but all the hypnotised pupils were already on their feet.
“The two of us against the rest,” Alice murmured. “How romantic ...”
“Death at the hands of your friends,” I continued. “How touching ...”
We looked at each other and laughed.
“Hey, what are you braying at?” I heard Chas’s voice say from under the scattered stone remains of the trolls. “Why don’t you help pull your old pal out?”
“Cover me,” Alice said and hurried over to help Chas.
“Burn them!” I shouted, launching my fiery snakes after Alice.
I never thought I’d pick up that idiotic battle cry from Chas.
I prepared to erect my favourite wall. If I could only decide where to put it ... Kelnmiir was on my left, kicking hell out of the trolls, Alice and Chas were on my right ... and for some reason, I was in the middle, facing the hypnotised pupils ...
To be on the safe side, I had to erect the defensive wall in front of myself. Something told me the first blow would come my way.
I was right there, no sooner had I erected my defences than it all came flying at me ... the whole works – fireballs, air fists, water spears ...
I didn’t know how hypnosis affected people, but these lads certainly hadn’t lost their common sense. They were working as a team, almost like in the competition ... and that was bad.
“Zach, come over here!” Alice shouted from behind the heap of stones.
Easily said. If I came out from behind the wall, they’d tear me to pieces! But then, on the other hand, the wall was about give way at any moment anyway ...
I waited for a brief pause in the attack and ran towards Alice as hard as I could. As it happened, I chose just the right moment. During that brief pause my opponents gathered their strength and struck at the spot where I had been just a few seconds earlier. The main offensive strike consisted of an immense fireball – I suspected that our own fiery boy must have been responsible for that. The fireball swept aside my defensive wall, and then they let me have everything they had. If I’d stayed behind my energy wall, I’d have been vaporised!
I jumped onto the heap of stones, trying not to think about the fact that this heap had been living creatures. But other thoughts came crowding into my head. Or rather, not thoughts, but feelings. Fear! We were used to having the Monitoring Party– the Craftsmen would always prevent any fatalities. But now they weren’t here.
I automatically launched a bunch of snakes behind me. Just in case.
“Erect shields!” Alice commanded Chas, and the two of them covered me with a double shield.
I hadn’t recovered my strength yet, so unfortunately I couldn’t put up another wall.
“The important thing is to hold out for a while,” Shins said in a quiet voice.
That was when I noticed the Craftsman lying on the stone surface of the yard. He was pinned down by a huge boulder, which must once have been the trunk of a tr
oll (maybe even our troll).
“How are you?” I asked in a dull voice.
“I’ll live,” the Craftsman said, wincing. “Although not for long, without the right help ...”
“It’s okay, you’ll outlive us yet,” said Chas, trying to cheer Shins up.
“But by how long?” Alice laughed. “What do we do now? We can’t hold out against this horde. I can’t understand why they haven’t overwhelmed us already.”
I peeped out from behind the stones.