SEM: Adventures Across Time
“An adventures across time, just to return home. A story about overcoming the fear we all share in common, and discovering the courage we all have buried away inside.”
Ally Claude dreams of traveling the world and having adventures like the ones she reads about every day as an editor. There’s one problem: she’s terrified of the unknown. After a mysterious stalker follows her home one evening, Ally’s life of comfort and security is stripped away in a flash of light and arrival to an unknown world in the past where she’s carried to safety in the arms of a man dressed in armor—a man whose fate will soon be tied to her own. Waking up in an unfamiliar home decorated with relics, Ally discovers she is yet another victim of a vast cosmic phenomenon that has transported her from her own world to another place and time, leaving her now stranded among friends in a world between worlds with no way home. Now, Ally and her new friend and savior, Sem, must travel across time to find and save others like herself stranded across the ages in the hope that, one day, she might return home.
Read an Excerpt from the Book
Seleucus grabbed his leather bag by the strap and held it up for everyone to see. “You! You two are thieves!”
Ally shook her head and looked over at Alexander. “No, it’s not what you think! He was going to poison you!”
Alexander looked at Ally and Sem, then over at Ptolemy. Ptolemy gazed back at him curiously.
“Liar! Guards arrest them!” shouted Perdiccas in a booming voice, pointing at Sem and Ally.
The guards walked towards them from their positions around the room, slowly unsheathing their swords from their scabbards. Ally backed up against the wall, fearing for her life. Sem stood next to her, calm and alert. He leaned over and clasped his hand around hers.
“You remember rule number two?” He muttered to her as he reached into his robe with the other hand and pulled out a handful of gray powder.
“Yeah, I think so,” said Ally, watching the guards make their way around the table.
“Good. Now run!”
Sem bolted away from the wall, dragging Ally by the hand towards the guards, now clutching their swords, ready to swing at them with both hands.
“Close your eyes!” Sem yelled, throwing the powder from his pocket at the flaming sconces on the wall next to the guards.
Ally closed her eyes as she ran. A sudden, blinding flash filled the room, forcing the soldiers to lower their swords and shield their eyes. The crowd shrieked in unison and turned away from the light.
Sem continued to run, facing away from the flash with Ally still holding on to his hand with her eyes closed. He shoved a guard out of the way, then ran towards the back doorway with people shrieking and jumping out of his way. Sem and Ally ran through the back doorway down a dark stone hallway and continued further into the ancient garden palace.
“What was that?” asked Ally, still struggling to see.
“Magnesium powder. I stole it from the shop earlier. Figured it might come in handy if we needed a quick escape,” Sem replied as he continued to run. Ally and Sem turned right at the end of the hall and ran towards a flight of stairs. Without thinking twice, they dashed up the stairs, nearly running headlong into another guard who was attempting to foil their escape.
Without hesitation, Sem let go of Ally’s hand and blocked the guard’s swing.
“Keep going!” Sem hollered, tackling the guard and throwing him to the ground, followed by with a swift kick to the soldier’s stomach. The soldier gasped for air as Sem hurried after Ally.
They both searched desperately for a way to escape as they ran throughout the maze of corridors. Stopping briefly at a T-junction, Sem looked down at the aqueduct flowing down the edge of the hall and out through a large hole at the other end.
“Come on! This way!” hollered Sem, grabbing Ally by the hand to stop her from running in the opposite direction.
They hurried alongside the stream of water to the hole, then stopped and turned to see several guards racing down the hall towards them from the other end.
“Now what?” shouted Ally over the rushing water next to her.
“Through there!” Sem said pointing at the hole in the wall.
“What?! Down there?”
“Yes, now go! I’ll be right behind you!”
Sem prodded Ally along as she sat down and started to slide into the hole. Ally slid forward feeling like she was about to plummet down an ancient waterslide.
