Read History Keepers 1: The Storm Begins for Free Online Page A

quickly laid the table in the centre of the room. Then the rest of the passengers assembled: Charlie Chieverley and his parrot, Mr Drake, the radiant Topaz St Honoré, and Jupitus Cole. Jake couldn’t help noticing Oceane Noire perk up as Jupitus strode into the cabin. She stubbed out her cheroot, quickly checked her hair and crossed the room, throwing Jupitus an alluring smile before sitting down in front of him to show off her elegant back. Sadly the whole operation was wasted on Jupitus, who was lost in his own private world, examining charts.
    Jake’s attention was caught by a curious nautical instrument that was suspended from the ceiling above the table. It was composed of a sphere, encircled by three golden rings of different sizes that fitted perfectly within one another. On each ring was a different set of markings, some in numbers and some in indecipherable symbols.
    ‘That’s the Constantor,’ whispered Rose. ‘It guides us to the horizon point. Very important piece of apparatus. There’s another one on deck. You can see it moving.’
    Jake examined it more closely. Rose was right: he could just make out the golden rings turning, almost imperceptibly, on their axes.
    ‘When all three rings are in alignment, we’ve hit the horizon point, and that’s where the fun really begins . Your first time is unforgettable. It’s like the best roller-coaster ride ever.’
    Looking at his watch again, Jupitus flushed with irritation. ‘Norland!’ he shouted down the stairs. ‘Is dinner being served or not?’ The room fell silent as he muttered, ‘Useless individual. What is the point of a butler who cannot keep time?’
    Norland appeared from the galley below. He seemed quite unflustered. (He had learned from experience that the best way of dealing with Jupitus’s temper was to pretend that no crime had been committed). He pulled on the ropes of the dumb waiter, opened the hatch and distributed plates of succulent roast chicken. Everyone sat down to eat, Jake with Rose on one side, Oceane on the other, and Topaz and Charlie directly opposite.
    Oceane took one look at the platters of vegetables and sighed wearily. ‘Dreadful English food.’ No one paid her the slightest bit of attention.
    Jake ate his meal, which was one of the tastiest he’d ever had, and listened in uncertain bemusement to the snippets of conversation around him. Topaz asked Jupitus about his experience in Byzantium defending the silk route from China. Jupitus played down the event in his usual deadpan style , but obviously relished the name he’d been given at the time: Hero of the Turks.
    Oceane loved this story and offered one in return about her ‘intolerable experiences’ in Paris, where she’d found herself facing a horde of French revolutionaries ‘without so much as a nailfile to defend herself’. Inexplicably this led to Norland, who sat down after he had finished serving (keeping the largest portion for himself), telling a long-winded anecdote about hearing Mozart playing the piano when he’d been sent to the Austrian court of Joseph II.
    All these anecdotes were told as casually as if they had taken place on an ordinary holiday in the Costa del Sol. To Jake, it felt like a dream or an elaborate piece of theatre. And yet, what an entrancing, compelling idea it was – to actually travel back into history! Rose had told him that he would ‘see for himself’. Jake was breathlessly waiting for this proof to materialize.
    Every now and then he glanced over at the radiant, confident girl sitting opposite him. She was not like any girl he had ever set eyes on. On Jake’s bedroom wall he had pinned up pictures of people he found interesting. One in particular, which he had cut out of a Sunday magazine, fascinated him: a portrait of a girl, a warrior princess – or so he imagined. Her face was pale and beautiful, her gaze both regal and uncertain. There were jewels in her long hair and she wore gleaming battle armour. Behind her