Zak Turner - A Twist In Time (18 page)

Saturday morning was set aside for doing homework, and Saturday afternoon for chores.  She was going to use Saturday evening to sit down and write her first letter to Zak and Tallion.

However, being the very organised person that she was, she’d finished all her homework by the time she went to bed on Friday evening.  Saturday morning therefore found her at a loose end. 

To be fair, she was still coming to terms with being in Leo house, having confidently expected to be in either Aquila or maybe Moncero.  Finding out that courage and bravery were her primary traits had come as quite a shock! 

For a couple of days she’d been convinced that there had been a mistake, especially as she found herself surrounded by boisterous students with a rather devil-may-care attitude to life.  By the weekend however, she was beginning to enjoy the self-assured ambience of her house, and found herself looking forward to the duelling lessons that were due to start the following week. 

In true Leo style, the prefects had announced that there would be a duelling club on Saturday mornings, and that they hoped everyone would attend whenever they could.  First years would be spectators only, until November, by which time they would have learned enough to take part without it needing to be a lesson for them. 

Sartrina therefore, having an unexpectedly free Saturday morning, decided to tag along with a handful of rather brash first year boys to see what happened.  She was the only first year witch who was waiting in the common room at quarter to ten, but when her room-mate, Andra Tait, saw her standing there, she walked over.

“Are you going to watch the duelling, Sartrina?”

“Yes.  I wasn’t planning to, but I’ve finished my homework, so I’ve decided to go and see what happens.”

“Okay, I’m coming too then.  I just didn’t want to be the only first year witch in the room!”

The two girls ignored the comments from the first year boys about duelling being a man’s sport, until eventually Sartrina asked them if they knew who’d won the school tournament the previous year.  When they looked puzzled, she took great delight in telling them that it had been  Rekha Bartleby, a witch, who’d beaten her opponent in the final by stunning him so hard that he took two minutes to come round.  There were no more comments about duelling being a man’s sport…

“How did you know that?” murmured Andra, looking surprised. 

“I went to look at the list of winners on Thursday evening to see whether there were any powerful Leo witches.  Rekha was a Leo…”

Both girls now felt much happier.  Sartrina had managed a skilful put-down of the first year boys, and Andra had a name to quote to defend herself against the boys’ cocky comments!

The Leo duelling club was overseen by their head-of-house, Professor Vincent Pectus.  He’d been a Leo at school, of course, and although he hadn’t won the duelling tournament, he’d been a formidable opponent, and had progressed to Praeceptor level after he left school.  Now he spent a good deal of time trying to ensure that the Leos were worthy of their reputation of being courageous and fearless. 

About a hundred Leo students turned up outside the Leo duelling room, and pushed their way inside.  After a little bit of magical enlargement, the room was sufficiently increased in capacity to simply appear busy, rather than over-crowded.  The first years sat to one side of the duelling ring, supposedly out of harm’s way, and then the prefects supervised grading sessions for the second years, interspersed with try-outs for the Leo duelling team which would take on the other houses as the year progressed. 

Team duelling was different to the main duelling tournament, and was effectively a free for all that allowed the students to let off a bit of steam against the other houses in a vaguely controlled manner.  Well, almost controlled, depending on how many foul strikes they indulged in!  Being a team sport, it allowed students to concentrate on a particular type of spell and perfect it, rather than having to be a jack of all trades.  Therefore it attracted students were very proficient at casting shield charms, and others who were good at rebounding, and others who were good at attacking.

It was the team duelling that attracted Sartrina, and after watching the A team take on the B team, she decided that she’d be trying out for the first year teams as soon as they were allowed to duel.  It was watching the team duelling try-outs that gave Sartrina her first experience of being on the receiving end of a stunning spell too, just a couple of hours before Zak and Tallion went through the same experience! 

A fifth year cast the spell at a fourth year who tried to rebound it, but his technique wasn’t very well honed, and the spell ricocheted out of the side of the ring straight at the first years.  Sartrina had nowhere to go, and it whacked her fair and square in the chest.  Just as Zak and Tallion were starting their Spells and Charms class in Lofthouse Castle, Sartrina Whitestone collapsed to the floor in Mhonarr Castle as she experienced the whiteout brought on by the stunning spell!

Professor Pectus and the prefects descended upon her inert form, making her comfortable until the effects wore off and she regained consciousness.  Both the fourth and the fifth year students were very apologetic, but apart from a fading headache, Sartrina was none the worse for the experience.  She also attracted a lot more attention from the other first years who asked her to tell them what it felt like, and she duly obliged.  Far from putting her off, she felt strangely attracted to the idea of being able to defend herself with spells like that!

* * *

Lower Nettleton church clock chimed the half hour at four thirty, and Steven started to feel frustrated.  He’d been in the post office courtyard for ten minutes already hoping his friends would come early, and he’d have ridden his bike into the park already if it hadn’t been for the huge wrought iron gates across the entrance.  Eventually he decided to ride up and investigate them while he waited, completely unaware that to anyone non-magical it looked as though he was inspecting thin air next to an open farm gate into a field!

As he reached out his hand to touch the gates, they suddenly swung open of their own accord, and Steven nearly fell off his bike in surprise!  He could see the tarmac road that stretched across the fields, and after only a few seconds hesitation, he decided to ride through the gates and into the park.  He was barely ten feet down the road when the gates swung closed behind him, and in typical Steven style, rather than feeling trapped like anyone else would have done, he simply grinned.

“Well, there’s only one direction to go now Steven, you plonker!  Ye’ve landed yersel right in it this time!”

* * *

Zak and Tallion didn’t have their bicycles at the castle, and they weren’t sure how Sir Philip would react if they went to meet Steven on their brooms.  Although the driveway wasn’t as remote as the moor, it was invisible to non-magical eyes, so if they stayed above it then they
should
be hidden, and the baronet hadn’t specifically forbidden them from flying down the drive…

Zak, out of deference to his adopted father, would probably have decided not to do it, but Tallion was egging him on, which was quite out of character, or more correctly it was Zak’s natural character coming out in Tallion!  The boys had seemingly swapped personality!

The two wizards were therefore sitting astride their new broomsticks by the two oak trees at the top of the hill when they saw Steven come through the gates.  After a quick glance at each other, and deciding to go for it, they shot down the hill towards the unsuspecting farmer’s son at full speed!

Steven had just turned his attention back towards the road after watching the gates close behind him, when he saw two large objects rapidly approaching him at head height!  He didn’t even recognise them as human, let alone as his friends, and he ducked quickly, lost his balance, and crashed to the ground all tangled up in his bicycle!

“Hi mate!” rang out Zak’s voice above him, as the young farmer started to extricate himself. 

“I see you worked out how to get through the gates then!”

“ZAK!  Ruddy Nora!  I thought I were dead or summat fer trespassing, but it’s only you!  I should have guessed!  Gave me a rotten heart attack yer did, and a load of bruises.  Blimey!  Is that a broomstick yer sittin’ on?!  I don’t believe it!  That’s wicked!”

Steven had gone through a whole string of emotions as quickly as he spoke.  Surprise, relief, annoyance, self-pity, realisation, and then wonderment.  After a few moments he added jealousy to the list.  Sure, he was happy being a farmer, but it did seem as though being a wizard was a lot more fun!

“Yep!  Do you like it?  Tallion’s got one too,” Zak replied as Tallion zoomed into view, “and Bjarne.”

“I just can’t believe it!  I mean, I didn’t believe wizards really existed until I saw it all happening before me eyes, but riding broomsticks?!  I was sure that
had
ter be made up!”

“Very real my friend, just like everything else.  Tallion, do you think the brooms will work for Steven?  He’s magical so they should be able to sense him?”

“Yeah, I guess so, and we’re certainly going to get you to try it mate!  I assume by the look on your face that you want to?”

“Too ruddy right I do!  I’m not having you two flying in circles above me head if I can do it meself!”

“Come on then, we need to get up to the castle,” grinned Tallion.  “You need to try on a restricted broom first.  If you try on one of these you’ll likely kill yourself!”

Steven had now clambered back onto his bicycle, and was riding up the road towards the oak trees behind Zak and Tallion who were slowly flying ahead of him.

“Can’t yeh give me an ‘and?  This is a steep hill on a bike!”

“I would if I could,” answered Tallion, “but I don’t know what spell to use to push something.”

“Dur!  You don’t need magic Tallion, you can use your hand like this,” answered Zak.  He flew closer to Steven and reached out his right hand to give him a push.  It took them about thirty seconds to get it sorted out, but soon the grinning Steven was barely doing anything as Zak pushed him quickly up the hill.

“I love magic!” he said, copying a line he remembered from one of the Harry Potter films.

“That makes two of us,” laughed Zak, “and when I’m with you I still can’t believe that I’m a wizard, and you’re almost a wizard too!”

Tallion was now flying at the other side of Steven and pushing him with his left hand, and they were making very rapid progress up to the castle. 

“Will the gates let him through Tallion?”

“Hmm, good question,” frowned the blond wizard, “I think it should be okay, but maybe we should go slowly rather than slam him into them too hard!”

“Gates?” asked Steven.

“Yeah, gates,” answered Zak as they came over the last hill between the trees, and saw the castle walls looming in front of them.  “Those gates.”

“Blimey!  Is your house through there Tal?” exclaimed Steven, his eyes wide with surprise.

“Yep, and they’re magical gates, so they don’t actually open, they just let you through if you’re allowed in.”

“Er, how can they let yer through if they don’t open?”

“Just wait and see.  This is magic we’re talking about okay?”

“Okay, this should be interesting.  What do I do?”

The three wizards were zooming quickly towards the very solid looking gates, and showed no sign of stopping, although they were slowing down a bit.

“Nothing.  I’m pretty sure the gates will let you through because we’re with you, but if they don’t then we’ll all end up in a heap on the floor.”

Steven was starting to be a bit worried.  His two friends were talking nonsense, and were still pushing him quickly towards a pair of huge, very solid looking wooden gates in an enormous and very solid looking castle wall!

“Er, fellas, umm, I don’t want to doubt you, but…  Agghhh!” 

Steven shut his eyes as the trio of wizards approached the gates.  He wanted to pull the brakes on to stop the bicycle, but for some reason he couldn’t, so he braced himself for a painful crash.  So did Zak, having never flown his broomstick through the gates before!  They’d gone
over
the wall on the way out!

Tallion however, with the confidence born of being the heir of the estate, knew that his gates would always let him through, and continued resolutely onwards.  As with the trips through the gates in their cars, there was no crunching accident, no thud as their faces and bodies smacked into the ancient oak timbers, just the same tingling sensation that reminded Zak of the portals that he was now quite used to walking through.  Even Tallion had closed his eyes at the last second as they actually went through, but now all three wizards opened them again. 

Zak and Tallion felt the same ‘welcome home’ feeling that they always got at the sight of the castle, even though they’d only been down to the post office and back!  Steven however, felt like he’d suddenly arrived in another world, almost another reality, which of course he had!

The two soul mates stopped pushing him, and let him stop the bicycle and drop it to the ground as he climbed off and stared open mouthed at the lake and the castle and the breath-taking scene before him.  They stepped off their broomsticks too, and stood just behind him, sensing his emotions, and hearing his amazed thoughts.  It was only the second time that Zak could remember Steven being completely lost for words.  The first had been when he met Columbetha Proudfoot in Upper Nettleton a few weeks before!  Eventually Tallion spoke into the stillness.