Free The Sword of Ages: The Mage Breaker Book 1 by A.L. Issett Page A

road he was traveling on was made of stone. A stone road! Who had such money that they could get stone carved and use it for a bleeding road? The king had money like that Tanner remembered and although he thought traveling on the road was a lot nicer than the mud, it was still a bloody waste of money. The fields around Ketol looked well-manicured and numerous, Tanner thought to himself with the forest so far away, he could make a killing selling his hides up here.
                  “Excuse me” Tanner asked Herod. “What are those big towers for?”
                  “The one on the right is the wizard academy” Herod explained. “It is more recently built than the other two and almost everything in there in made out of stone to cut back on fires. Next to that is where we will be staying, the Sun Palace. Off to the right is the Tower of Lords, most of the kings advisers are there. Is this your first time to Ketol?”
                  “Yeah and I’m as wide eyed as a kid about to get some honey” Tanner said as he imagined how big the city was inside.
                  “I’ll admit it is grander than Tavere, the Tavorian capital” Herod said with a smile.
                  As Tanner had gotten closer to the city the gates opened and Tanner could hear an uproar. People were chanting, “Bless our King, Bless our King!” and some type of instrument was playing. Tanner entered the gates and could see people lined all around the streets cheering and throwing flowers. The king pulled his window down from the carriage and stuck his head out and waved, the crowd went crazy. Tanner’s ears hurt so much he didn’t pay any attention to the sights. After what seemed like ages to Tanner he could see up ahead the palace with gates wide open. The convoy went inside as the gates were shut and servants immediately sat about grabbing the horses and offloading gear.
                  “Hey you” Tanner could hear Grodd say as he pointed to a man running by. “This kid is the new servant for Princess Caroline, make sure his stuff is brought up”.
                  “For the princess?” the man replied.
                  “Yes for the princess unless you want the job” Grodd replied.
                  “I’ll see to it right away” the man said. “Please follow me young man” the servant said directing his attention at Tanner.
                  Tanner got off Winny and could now be amazed since his ears were no longer hurting. The Sun Palace was by far the nicest building he had ever seen. Everything was polished marble, just to look at the sun reflecting off of it hurt his eyes. The grass was well cut, how they kept it at that length Tanner did not know as he walked into a side entrance. The side entrance was cramped somewhat, at least compared to the massive doors that were opened in the front for the king.
                  “Follow me and be quick about it” the man ahead of Tanner said. “The princess will want to bathe since she has returned so that will give you some time. Her ladies in waiting are already drawing her bath, you need to get cleaned up yourself and then put on the proper uniform, you look like one of the country people the way you are dressed now”.
                  Tanner kept his mouth shut at such a quip, normally he would have told this bootlicker exactly where he could go and how fast he could go there. But that did bring up a good problem, was anyone supposed to know where he was from? Tanner stayed silent as the man led him into a big room with steaming water in it. How they got the water steaming without any fire is something Tanner wanted to know, he normally bathed in the stream or the pond, sometimes it was freezing, sometimes just cool.
                  “Alright shed your clothes and I’ll see to it that they are cleaned and placed in your room.