Read The Wizard of Time (Book 1) for Free Online Page B

in 1824 when, for twelve years, the architect Jeffrey Wattville, commissioned by King George IV, brought the various buildings together with one vision. When it was finally completed, the castle covered some twenty-six acres.
    The immense St. George’s Chapel, although still used for various worships services, had been largely converted into a museum housing thousands and thousands of artifacts from every time and place imaginable throughout human history. Teresa mentioned the relics were necessary for time travel, but did not elaborate. Ohin would explain time travel, she said.
    “Where do you both come from?” Gabriel asked as they walked along the wide hallway. “You both speak such perfect English.”
    “Thanks to this,” Ling said, as she pulled a small crystal amulet on a chain around her neck from beneath her tunic. The crystal was oblong in shape, smoothly polished, with a milky white color. “This is a communication and concealment amulet.”
    “Soul Mages can make them,” Teresa explained. “They create a psychic link between the person wearing it and everyone nearby. They translate language in our heads. And they can change the way we look so we blend in wherever we go.” Teresa seemed to shimmer and then was suddenly wearing a long, blue, ornately milled Victorian dress. She winked at Gabriel and then shimmered again and was back in her white tunic and pants.
    “So, it sounds to you like I’m speaking English,” Ling said, “but actually I’m speaking Mandarin Chinese with the accent of a peasant fisherwoman near Shanghai in 1869, which is when I died giving birth to my fourth child.”
    “I’m sorry,” Gabriel said, looking away. “I didn’t mean to pry into your past.”
    “That’s very sweet of you to say,” Ling said, “but it has been nearly ten years since that day, and while I miss my husband and children, I miss them no more than anyone else who lives in this castle misses those they have had to leave behind. We get used to sharing our pasts. It helps.”
    “It hurts letting go of everyone I’ve ever known,” Gabriel admitted, feeling the emotion of the statement catch in his throat.
    “It sucks,” Teresa said. “But there is one consolation.”
    “What’s that?” Gabriel said, staring up into her eyes.
    “Now we can do magic,” Teresa said with a grin as she cupped her hands and a small ball of red flame leapt into existence above her palms. “And soon, you will be able to take yourself anywhere in time.”
    They walked back out to the Lower Ward courtyard and Ling left Teresa to continue the tour while she ran about some other business. Teresa gave a constant running commentary on the history of the castle and all of the things that had happened in the various buildings in the past, as well as all the things that had happened since she had lived there.
    Gabriel listened as she talked and followed her finger as she pointed from one place to the next. As they walked, he found it harder and harder to pay attention and found himself once again thinking about his family. About walks with his sister, Kyla. About the last time he’d seen her. He thought about how she would never tease him again, or give him a book to read, or try to get him to eat her vegetables at family holidays so she could have more room for dessert. Gabriel suddenly realized that they had stopped walking and that Teresa had not spoken for some time.
    “It’ll get easier,” Teresa said.
    “Really?” Gabriel asked, looking away and rubbing his eye as though there were dust in it.
    “It takes time,” Teresa said. “I was born into a really large family. My grandparents loved kids. Lots of kids. They had seven, and each of their children had at least two kids. I had an older and a younger brother. And the whole family lived in the same neighborhood. We all spent most of our time at my grandparent’s house. There was always somebody running through the kitchen, somebody making dinner, somebody