The Wizard of Time (Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

from one place to another on some sort of business. People from different times. Nearly all of them snatched at the moment of their deaths and brought here. People of all different ages, as well. Teenagers to elderly people. He was the youngest person he had seen. But he hadn’t seen everyone. And the older people were older than they had been when they died.
    Ohin had explained that Heart-Tree Magic, the magic of living things, helped them recover from the things that had killed them and kept them alive much longer. Ohin had said that he was nearly two hundred years old himself. It was difficult for Gabriel to get his mind around. People from throughout time bumping up against each other in a castle one hundred twenty-five million years in the past. People from every time period. Even people from the future. His future. They looked as though they had come from all over the world. Africans, Peruvians, Europeans, Chinese, Japanese, Samoans, everyone from everywhere. Some wore clothes from different time periods. Or they were clothed in variations on the simple tunic and slacks that Ohin wore.
    It was almost too much to take in. But he wanted to take it in. At least part of him did. He had been given a second chance. He had been plucked back from death to be an apprentice Time Mage. It was too much to believe. He would learn to travel through time. To see places and things that others could only dream about. But no one had asked him. No one had given him a choice. Did he still have a choice?  He would never see his parents again. Never see his friends. His sister. He was dead to them. What choice would he be given if he didn’t want to become a Time Mage? He wondered if Ohin had felt this way when he had awoken from death to learn his fate.
    “You’re very quiet,” Ohin said, placing his hands behind his back as he walked.
    “What if I don’t want this?” Gabriel asked. “What if I don’t want to be a Time Mage?  What if I don’t want to travel through time and fight some war?”
    “That is the moral quandary we are faced with every time we extract someone from the timeline,” Ohin said.
    “That isn’t much of an answer,” Gabriel said.
    “No,” Ohin replied, “There are no good answers. If you choose not to become an apprentice Time Mage, and you choose not to help in the war between the forces of Grace and Malignancy, then you will be given the opportunity to live out your life here in the castle. You might become one of the attendants, those who take care of the grounds and do the cooking. Or you could become a librarian or a museum scholar.”
    “So my choices are librarian or wizard of time,” Gabriel said. “Will I go to school to learn magic?” Gabriel asked.
    “A school for magic?” Ohin said, cocking his head to the side. “What an amusing idea. No. There are no schools here. Although your studies will continue. History especially. As for magic, all mages apprentice with a mentor, a skilled and superior mage. It will be my responsibility to train you, to teach you how magic works and how to move through time. And to teach you how to bear the responsibilities of being a mage, particularly a Time Mage.”
    “What sort of responsibilities are there?” Gabriel asked.
    “The responsibility for the Primary Continuum, for one,” Ohin answered. “And for the actions that we mages take within the Continuum and its branches. All of our actions have consequences. And we must accept the responsibility of our actions.” It was sounding like being a Time Mage might not be as much fun as he initially imagined it to be.
    “Will it just be you and me, or will there be other mages who I’ll apprentice with?”
    “You will apprentice with only me,” Ohin said, “but you will join my unit. Mages are assigned to magic circles, teams of six that carry out missions together. Every team has a name. Our unit is called the Chimera Team.”
    “Why six?”
    “There are six kinds of magic,” Ohin said,