Master Mage Read Online Free

a
brief moment of thought.
    “Do you really think that will help?”
Maria asked, her downcast face suddenly brightening. “I will talk
to the gardener first thing in the morning, then.”
    “Don’t tell me you were looking for me
just to cry to me about your flower?”
    “What if I was?” Maria asked, raising
her voice slightly. When Thad didn’t respond, Maria huffed and
turned around. “You’re no fun. I was looking for you because I
haven’t seen you in days. I would like to know what has been so
important you couldn’t visit me.”
    “Things have just been hectic, my
queen,” Thad replied as his mind fished for anything that might
stay her anger.
    “Don’t you ‘my queen’ me. I told you I
want you to report to me at least every other day, not every
fortnight,” Maria said commandingly. “Now what has been going on
with the war effort?”
    Thad sighed inwardly as he thought.
“The elders of Mage’s Roost are still giving me trouble, though
more than a few mages have started to train in preparation for the
war. The enchanting is going slow, but Roger and Marcus are doing
their best to get what they can get done. I still haven’t received
word from Tuck, Crusher, or Reeve.”
    “That’s it? That is all that is
happening that would keep you from my company?” Maria asked, her
anger starting to flare.
    “No, that’s just the most important,”
Thad replied hotly, his patience with the spoiled queen starting to
run thin. “We also have a shortage of proper weapons and armor, and
the blacksmiths want to charge outrageous prices to fill the order.
A few of the nobles have been slow to respond to my summons and
have done everything short of physically harming me when I mention
conscription or taxes. Food stores are low thanks to the influx of
people, which means if we can’t solve that problem, then come
spring, we are going to have a very hungry army. Should I go
on?”
    Maria’s face blanched. “I see,” she
replied weakly. “I think that will be enough. You are
dismissed.”
    “Thad,” Maria said as Thad turned to
leave. “I am glad you are home.”
    Thad could almost hear the pleading in
her voice. He cared for the queen, but his heart was still sore and
not ready to move on. “So am I, Maria,” Thad replied gently before
he quickly headed back to his chambers. Thad knew it wasn’t Maria’s
fault that he was irritable and in a bad mood. Most of that
belonged to the elders of Mage’s Roost and the vast number of other
people who seemed to like to get under his skin.
    It’s good for her to have
someone talk back to her. Someone needs to tell her what she needs
to hear and not just what she wants. I am sure that given the
choice, she would say the same.
    “Coming from you, I don’t know if I can
trust the advice. You have made it clear that you don’t care much
for women, Thuraman.”
    I don’t hate women. I just
don’t trust them. All I have seen them do is twist their words and
use you for their own gains. Brianna was the only one who never
seemed to want anything from you other than yourself. The rest see
you as a tool, an object.
    “I think I let too many of my bad
experiences color your view,” Thad said, shaking his
head.
    I don’t think you have paid
enough attention to your own experiences.
    “You might be right, but I think no
matter what sex a person is, none of them are perfect. There is
good and evil in each of us.”
    It is your life. Just don’t
go back to breaking your back to bend over for them again. The more
you do that, the more they will get used to the notion of using
you.
    Thad decided it was best to end the
argument. Thuraman’s views were not going to change, and neither
were his. He knew that he was too forgiving where women were
concerned, but he didn’t see it as a fault. He believed that if
more people in the world let the smaller things go, then it would
be a much more peaceful place.
    Thad looked longingly at his bed, then
to his desk, where the