“You are right about that. Are we going down for dinner?”
Amaria’s face remained flushed. “I will eat by myself, but I’ll have your dinner brought up to you. I already asked them to do that when I sent the message. It would be better for both of us for you to remain in your room.”
Quint gave Amaria half a smile. “Of course. My presence makes others uncomfortable.”
Amaria cleared her throat. “Something like that.”
“Fine,” Quint said.
He let her go and began gathering his few things. He was back on the road, alone, and riding toward the capital in a quarter-hour.
Amaria could enjoy her meal without the complication of a hubite, but Quint had little appetite for being shuttered away like a crazy aunt.
Chapter Seventee
n
The flat was dark when Quint arrived early the following day. He collapsed on his bed after tucking his bags underneath the bed. Quint woke mid-morning to an empty flat and wrote a different version of his experiences fleeing from the defeat for Colonel Sarrefo’s view only. Quint wrote a note at the bottom to the effect that he was comfortable with Amaria’s account for official purposes.
“I’m surprised to see you,” Colonel Sarrefo said when Quint approached the strategic operations leader just before lunch.
“Amaria and I fled from the battle just before being overrun by the Gussellians. That was consistent with our orders to observe but not join the fight.”
Sarrefo nodded. “You did the right thing. The Gussellians continued invading Racellia and took over the battle camp inside our border.”
“What happened to the army?”
Sarrefo shook his head. “There weren’t many who survived. The Gusellian army was three times our size, and invading with an army that size hasn’t happened for a few centuries.”
Quint nodded. He had learned about the stability of the borders in his classwork at the fort.
“This is my report,” Quint said. He explained that it would read a bit differently from Amaria’s report to her father. “It is for your eyes only, sir. Perhaps we can learn something from it.”
Sarrefo brightened. “Good thinking. I’m afraid our approach will have to change in response to the newly aggressive Gussellians. I’ll read this,” he flicked the envelope containing Quint’s story, “this afternoon. You are dismissed.”
Quint sat by himself for lunch. The refectory was buzzing with rumors about the Gussellians. Few knew he had been assigned to observe, so even those friendlier to Quint didn’t talk to him about the battle.
He sat at his desk, continuing to copy the string book, when Pozella walked up.
“Sarrefo said you’d returned. Did you have an interesting trip?”
“Can we talk somewhere else?” Quint said, looking at the other wizards in the office area.
Pozella took Quint to a small office with a table, bookcase, and two chairs.
“I’ve come up in the world. Welcome to my domain,” Master Pozella said. “You can shut the door, and we can talk all we want.”
Quint tossed the Gusellian wizard’s string book across the desk. Pozella picked it up, and after two pages, his eyebrows rose.
“This is a valuable item,” Pozella said. “Where did you get it?”
“I know what it is, and I recognize that everything is written in willot,” Quint said, “but I wanted to know if there is some kind of hidden etiquette demanding I return this to the wizard.”
Pozella nodded. “There is. You should send this through diplomatic means to the owner. His name is on the inside front cover.”
“I’m going to copy it first,” Quint said. “I’m half finished.”
“Another reason for you to learn the willot language?”
Quint nodded. “I needed some motivation, and now I have it. Perhaps you can help me understand parts of it.”
“I can do that, but I said I wouldn’t be responsible for teaching you willot.”
“I remembered our conversation. There are sixty-seven spells; I’d first like to know what they are. When we escaped, the wizard cast a liquid light that splashed on Amaria’s clothes.”
“You were with Amaria?” Pozella asked, astonished.
Quint told him the story of their escape and how the wizard’s string book fell into Quint’s hands.
“I haven’t used a light string very often since it is easier and less costly to my power to cast fire or a torch for my light,” Quint said.
“We can talk of that later. Finish your copying first. We should get that book out of your hands as quickly as possible. From what you’ve told me, it is something that the wizard might kill to retrieve.”
Quint didn’t want that. The Gussellian wizard had seen Quint and knew he was a Level 3, so locating him in Bocarre wouldn’t be difficult for a trained wizard or his subordinates.
