Williams landed with all the grace of a tranquilised bull elephant at the foot of the stone stairs. He wasn’t sure whether the projectile had been a spell or a grenade, but whatever it was, it had missed him by a country mile. The blast, however, caught him side-on, and bounced him against the wall of the cellar with such force that he was now laying on the floor with a savage ringing in the ears. The dust from the blast had come to his rescue, at least, and as it was settling, the boy he’d come to save had saved him instead. The dust enveloped everything, from wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling, so there was zero visibility in the cellar, but Joachim had seized the initiative and grabbed him by the shoulder, heaving him behind the stack of boxes he’d erected as a barricade before the attac
