The Map Across Time
Second book in the Sacred Sites Series

Sherbourne’s queen is dying from a suspicious illness, leaving her young twins, Aletha and Adin, at the mercy of their harsh and distracted father. Poisoned by greed, the king’s only desire is to obtain all that is rare and beautiful in the world, and this obsession is leading to the downfall of his kingdom through his resultant neglect and tyranny. But, there is more than just greed destroying the land—for Sherbourne is under an ancient curse, and unless it is undone, the kingdom will face utter devastation.

Aletha, beautiful and strong-willed, is protector of her weak, deformed brother, Adin. Adin is loyal and kind, yet the king despises the young prince and is convinced he conspires to steal the throne. In an attempt to win his father’s love, Adin sets out to capture the elusive firebird, a prize the king is desperate to acquire. But as the prince begins his journey, he meets a hermit who has other plans for Adin. He tells him of a magical map that moves across time and will take Adin back to Sherbourne’s infancy, where the prince can uncover the origins of the curse and learn how to counteract its poisonous effects. He convinces Adin this is the only way to save, not just his kingdom, but his father from certain madness, as his greed is fueled by the curse. Determined, Adin retrieves the map hidden in the abbey’s enchanted labyrinth and uses it to travel back in time, unaware that Aletha is following after him by tracking his residual footprints.

Adin lands in the midst of chaos as a siege drives against the land. He is robbed of the map, but, mercifully, falls into the hands of the captain leading the battle to defend the city. Adin joins his cause, all the while looking for the “Keeper,” the one the hermit said would help Adin in his quest. Meanwhile, Aletha has traced Adin’s prints and finds herself alone in this turbulent time, desperately seeking her brother.

Events reunite the twins at the fateful moment when, on the eve of battle, they witness the onset of the curse and, with the help of the “Keeper” learn what they must do to remedy its effects in the future. Little time remains for them to retrace the fading footprints back to their time, and a painful choice tears the twins apart as Aletha decides to stay behind to save the captain’s life, and Adin must return home to save his kingdom.

Adin’s hopes of success are dashed when, upon returning to his own kingdom, he is beset by treachery and thrown into the dungeon. The king is murdered, the vial with the cure to the curse is broken, and all hope is now lost. A friend secretly frees Adin from his chains, but the prince, now completely defeated, decides to abandon his life and return to Aletha by tracing his lingering steps back into the past.

Now, a twist in the stream of time changes everything. As Adin tries to follow his steps back, they vanish, and he finds himself trapped eight years in the past—on the day the queen is about to die. There Adin sees his younger self and realizes that heaven is directing him to manipulate events so that, when the young prince (his younger self) grows up and undertakes the same journey, he will not fail. Through his secret tweakings of time and place, Adin witnesses the success of the quest: the saving of his kingdom, the return of his father’s sanity, and even the miracle of the queen’s restored life. He lives out his years in seclusion, joyfully watching as the young Adin grows to become a wise and capable king, and the land begins to heal from the removal of the curse.

But who made the map? How was it placed in the labyrinth centuries ago? And how was Adin destined to be the one to save Sherbourne? In the end, Adin, now old, is granted a last wish—and more than anything he wants to see Aletha. He returns one final time to the past, where the last mysteries become clear. For Adin, with the aid of the “Keeper” learns he is the one who draws the magical map, and watches as Aletha journeys to place it in the labyrinth of an abbey she has had built, so that, centuries later, our story will begin.