Free Zak Turner - A Twist In Time by Noel Pogson Page B

back’s aching and itchy, and I’m so tired that I was thinking about going to bed anyway!”
    “Me too.  How do we find the infirmary?”
    “Er, it’s close to the main entrance, so I guess we just go back there and we’ll find it.  We best tell someone we’re going though.”
    “David, he’s the prefect.”
    Zak and Tallion excused themselves from the other first years, and hunted around the common room for David, finally finding him in a corner hidden behind a screen with a couple of friends discussing the strange happenings of the day.  It was only as they came round the corner that both eleven-year-olds spotted a familiar face.  Sam, the seventh year who’d accompanied them to Kirkstall Abbey, was a Moncero too!
    “Hi Zak, hi Tallion.  I’m Sam, are you two okay?”
    “Hi Sam, yes, apart from being very tired,” replied Zak.
    “I’m not surprised, although I expect Nurse Salvae gave you some restorative potion earlier?  I was just explaining to David and Arcturus here what happened at Kirkstall…”
    “I didn’t realise you were in Moncero Sam.  I’m glad you are though!  Umm, you need to keep it quiet what happened today okay, and how we all survived.  It would be bad for us if word gets around…”
    “Don’t worry, we realise that, and only the three of us will ever know.  You need to understand that there are different groups of students in this castle who have allied themselves to certain, ‘causes’, shall we say.  We three are actively opposed to Antares Malchus and his plans, and it’s a rather dangerous stand to take.  His son Sargas has made life very difficult for many students during his time here at Mhonarr, and no doubt Shaul will do the same, now that he’s here too.”
    There was a pause while the five students looked at each other carefully.
    “We’re going to need to look out for each other this year boys,” said David.  “The rumours going round sound like Sargas might be about to step up his campaign of terror in an effort to ‘persuade’ students to support him, rather than those of us who are on the side of light.”
    Zak and Tallion exchanged a glance.
    Zak, I think we can trust them.  We need to tell them that we’re not going to be here for most of the time.
    I agree.  Having fought next to Sam in the Abbey, I already feel like he’s a special friend!
    The three seventh years were watching Zak and Tallion to see how they would react, but the response they got wasn’t quite what they were expecting.  It was Tallion who spoke next.
    “Sam, after you were knocked out in the cloister, the seventh year girl managed to get all the other first years through the portal to safety.  There was another seventh year boy though who fought with us against the two men and caused a diversion so we could all run for the portal and escape into the school.”
    “Ross Burns, from Leo.  I haven’t seen him since we got to school, but we were quite late and came in through Raby portal.  What happened to him?”
    Zak and Tallion both suspected deep down that Ross was dead, but no-one had actually told them, so they still had a hope which they were unwilling to squash.
    “We don’t know,” answered Zak.  “He pushed us through the false wall into the cellar, and we ran straight through the portal.  We think one of the men rushed into the cellar right behind us and cast a Libra Mortis at Tallion just as he was going through.  We don’t know if it hit him properly, but it certainly hit the portal and made it explode.  I think we were the last two through; I don’t see how any could have followed us.” 
    “I saw the school, just the portal room,” said Tallion, “but then everything faded to black.  Zak saw a huge red explosion sweep past him across the portal room, but then everything went black for him too.  We woke up in the infirmary at quarter to six this evening…”
    There was a pause as the seventh years considered the two new first years in