They had dinner. Pozella offered some war stories and Marena talked about her life in the capital. Quint was happy to listen.
“I’ll visit you soon in your basement palace,” Pozella said as he left.
Quint helped Marena clean up, despite her protestations. He was soon alone in the flat. He sat on the couch and smiled, thinking of good food and good company, something that was in short supply in his life.
He thought of working on the Gussellian string book but ended up going to sleep early. Quint thought he’d have a hard time going to sleep, but morning came soon and his life in the basement resumed.
“Colonel Gerocie wants you upstairs and make sure you are presentable and wear your cap,” an orderly said.
Quint nodded. “Thank you,” he said as he straightened his tunic and grabbed his hat after he cleared his desk and secured his office.
“Colonel, ma’am,” Quint said saluting, his cap underneath an arm. “You summoned me?”
“We are going to a meeting in the council palace,” Gerocie said. “We will be meeting a foreign delegation. Watch yourself and only speak when you are spoken to, and I’d advise carefully framing your responses.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Quint said.
Quint felt exposed as he walked through the Racellian Military Headquarters and out the door. He put his cap on just before he exited the building to hide his light-colored hair.
They were let into a side door to the palace grounds and through another side door to the inside of the palace. The colonel knew her way around, and they stood in front of a guarded set of doors on the second floor of the ornate building.
“You may have met one of those we will be meeting,” the colonel said.
They entered and there were a few military officers dressed in a familiar uniform and Quint recognized the wizard officer who was after him months ago.
“We are having talks with a Gussellian delegation,” one of the civilians said to Colonel Gerocie. “One of our guests asked to meet with Lieutenant Tirolo. I’d like you to meet General Pacci Colleto.”
Quint looked at the wizard officer and gave him a slight bow, which was returned. He didn’t think Colleto was a general when the Gussellian officer chased Amaria and him through the forests of northern Racellia.
“I want to thank you for returning my possessions and my horse. Some of them were very valuable to me. I hope you understand that I was operating under orders.”
Quint looked blankly at the officer since the man had spoken to Quint in the willot language. Quint looked at Colonel Gerocie. “He said, ma’am?”
“He appreciated your returning his possessions to him, lieutenant.”
Quint nodded and pretended that he suddenly understood. “I don’t like taking things that don’t belong to me, and once I used them to avoid harm to myself and my fellow officer, I felt they needed to be with you,” Quint said in the common language.
The wizard officer smiled and nodded. “I understand. It gave me a greater appreciation for Racellians.”
“That is all, Lieutenant,” the same civilian said. “You may take him back with you, Colonel Gerocie.”
They left the room after saluting.
“You performed magnificently. You didn’t expect to see your enemy, did you?” the colonel asked.
“Not in a civilized setting. I returned the wizard’s possessions since I didn’t want him hunting me down on the streets of Bocarre,” Quint said. “He knows I defeated him. I truly didn’t know why he was hunting me. He didn’t care a bit about Amaria Baltacco other than using her as a lure to get me back to the pub where we had our encounter.”
“That wasn’t in the official report,” Colonel Gerocie said.
“I didn’t dispute anything in the official report, but that doesn’t mean everything happened exactly as written,” Quint said.
“I understand that.” She smiled with an amazed look on her face. “What really happened when you left the battle?”
“Is this an order, for if it isn’t I’d rather remain silent.”
“An order, lieutenant. I want to know what happened during the pursuit.”
Quint told her the truth, but he didn’t mention the string book. “I know they spoke willot amongst themselves and I didn’t want him to know that I learned how.”
“Not to mention letting my superior and a council member know a hubite had the temerity to learn the mother tongue. Had you answered the wizard, I would have gotten in trouble, too,” Gerocie said.
“The thought crossed my mind, ma’am,” Quint said.
“That wasn’t what I had in mind when I said you might be let off your leash.”
Quint stopped to pick up dropped papers when he heard two officers speaking willot in a hallway. He listened and picked up many of the words, just enough to make sense of their discussion on where to eat lunch.
Over the months since his meeting with the Gussellian wizard, his mastery of willot had reached a plateau. His vocabulary was enough to understand the wizard’s string book. He no longer had to translate it in his mind but understood as he read. However, he recognized that he needed to listen to the language to increase his knowledge.
He was able to read and understand most of the newssheets of the other South Fenola countries and had begun to provide reports in the common tongue to Colonel Gerocie. Quint didn’t know if his observations were useful since the articles were cultural discussions that were beyond his ability to analyze.
Quint’s only diversion from solitary life in the basement was living in the flat with the three strategic operations officers. Since everything he read was in the public domain, he didn’t mind joining in discussions with his flatmates about current events.
Quint was constantly surprised at how much more he knew about what was going on in Racellia and in South Fenola than they did. Quint still didn’t join them in public settings, but it was enough to keep him sane and the discussions reminded him that he could be contributing to the military diplomatic corps in his own way.
