The Mage of Orlon: The beginning Read Online Free Page B

was like other princesses, I followed the protocol that royalty follows, after my two hundred and twentieth birthday I became a member of the Elders. The Elders are the king ’ s magicians and tactical advisors. There was a mishap and a lot of people got hurt. I took responsibility, but after that I no longer trusted my judgment where others ’ lives hang in the balance. I went through the training all the scouts went through, and here I have been ever since. My father does not like my choice and shows his disapproval every chance he gets. He just doesn ’ t understand me. ”
     
    Nathan looked at Lela, how many times has he heard this complaint from his friends? She said she was one of the elders at the age of two hundred and twenty, Nathan cringed at the next question that he was about to ask.
    “ Lela, how old are you? ”
    Lela sat for a few seconds calculating her age, “ I am two hundred and thirty eight years old. ”
    Nate looked at the princess she looked to be eighteen. Blinking he thought of all the things she had just told him. She sounded as though she was still a teen seeking her father ’ s approval, she sounded like him!
    “ We are not so different Lela, my father is hard to please too. ” Nathan said quietly.
    “ How so? ”
    “ He doesn ’ t understand why I don ’ t want to follow in his footsteps. I want to find my own way. I don ’ t want to be a pilot.
    “ What is a pilot Nate? ”
    “ It is a job that requires a special school where you learn to fly airplanes. In my father ’ s case, he flies commercial aircraft. ” Nate said looking down at the ground.
    “ Commercial aircraft, what are those? ” Lela asked bewildered.
     
    With a slight smile Nate simplified it as best he could, “ It is a carriage that flies through the air carrying a few hundred people at a time. ”
    Lela ’ s mouth dropped open, a few hundred people flying through the air! What kind of magic could be that powerful? He had to be lying, but the look on his face was so sad.
    “ Why are you so sad? ”
    “ My father doesn ’ t understand why I don ’ t want to fly. ”
    “ It sounds exciting. ” Lela said. Nathan ’ s frown told her this was probably not the right response.
    “ It is, until one of the planes goes down. ”
    “ Goes down, Nate? ”
    “ They crash; can you imagine falling from thirty thousand feet at four hundred miles an hour? No, I guess you can ’ t. Imagine the fastest you have ever rode a horse. That is about sixty miles an hour. So you are roughly going about seven times faster than that. Now imagine you have a front row seat of the ground rushing up to meet you. There are rarely survivors, because the planes hit the ground so hard. We have black boxes that record the pilots as the plane goes down, the boxes are there to tell us what went wrong. My father was supposed to be piloting one plane that went down. He had switched to a later flight so he could make Maddy ’ s first birthday. For a brief moment we thought we had lost him. I never want to put my family through that. ”
    Lela was quiet, the things that Nathan had said to her were fantastic and terrifying at the same time. She began to look around and realized it was getting dark.
    “ Nathan, we will have to set up camp again tonight. We are only half a day from the castle, but I don ’ t like traveling at night. We can talk more, if you want to. ”
    “ I think I would like that Lela. ”
    The tent was set up, Nate helped this time. He was looking forward to their talk, he was beginning to feel at ease with Lela. It had been some time since he had told anyone about his fear of flying. Everyone always said it was still safer than driving, but Nate figured that was just because there just wasn ’ t as many planes in the air as there were cars on the road.
    Once inside the tent Nathan decided to find out more about this princess. It seemed strange that they seemed to be hitting it off so well. Maybe they were even