“The tracking spell. I thought I had fixed that.”
“Not good enough for a seasoned Master,” Colleto said. “I requested that you accompany the delegation.”
“Who did you ask?”
Colleto smiled and slowly shook his head. “I keep my own secrets. Think about my offer.”
“To become a traitor?” Quint asked.
Colleto shrugged. “A traitor to whom? A traitor to a nation that reviles you and your kind. I know how hubites are treated in Racellia. We don’t have hubites in Gussellia, but I suspect we would do the same. Think about my offer. It will stand until you formally accept or reject. If you want to mull it over in your mind for a period, do so.”
Quint didn’t know what to say.
“Do your job of observing. I suspect you have learned to speak willot since we last met or you would be useless as an advisor, if anyone would listen to you. I will tell you that I intend to rule all South Fenola,” Colleto said. “Who knows what opportunities may arise after that. You may use that as an observation. I don’t intend on keeping it a secret for very long. I find that rule suits me.”
“But why be so interested in me?”
“Do you believe your portent strings?”
“I believe in them enough to know that if you look too far into the future that the portent becomes uncertain,” Quint said.
“You are unique. Some people never realize that. You have shown up in more than a few castings, Captain Tirolo. Your roles have changed as the portents have been cast, but there is no denying, you will be an important figure in the future. I’d rather you be on my side than on another’s. Think about my offer. You can have any rank you wish along with vast wealth. You can go back to your room and think, think, think.”
Quint stood and left the dictator’s study. He followed the servant back to his room. He was in such a fog that he would have never remembered the way.
The offer seemed too good to be true, but if Colleto had wanted him killed, he could have easily done it somewhere to or from the meeting. It was clear that Colleto had his own intelligence services embedded in Bocarre. Quint guessed that it was reasonable that Colleto knew he would be able to speak willot, one of his secrets.
His head began to slow down, and Quint decided to record his impressions as they became more organized in his mind. He didn’t see himself standing next to Colleto in any scenario, but he couldn’t bring himself to cast a portent for himself. Those were always notoriously inaccurate no matter what the timeframe. It was too dangerous for a wizard to put himself into a portent string.
General Baltacco had inferred that he thought Quint was special. It would make sense that if Colleto’s portent string predicted a rise in status that a portent sting cast by one of Baltacco’s masters would reveal something similar. Quint didn’t feel very special and didn’t take much time thinking about himself.
Chapter Twenty-Tw
o
The first day was tedious. Quint sat against a wall, away from the negotiating table, while parties on both sides went about defining terms and rules for a negotiation. Colleto was absent and probably some of his senior advisors. Amaria and others didn’t show up to this phase.
Henricco seemed in his element as was his counterpart on the Gussellian side. When they broke for lunch, the Racellian delegation was ushered to another meeting room.
Quint saw screens, drapes and cloth paintings around the room and thought they were under surveillance the whole time. He decided to walk around the room and look behind things. He found a screened square in the wall and pointed to it when he caught Henricco’s eye.
The leader pointed to Quint and put his finger to his lips.
“We should keep our ideas about the rules of the negotiations close to us. Perhaps we can stroll around the grounds after lunch and talk,” the leader said.
Quint didn’t say that there were strings that could aid one’s hearing. He would try to get that across to Henricco at another time.
The servers set a place for Quint at the same table and those close slid their chairs away from him. Eating at the same table was a victory as far as he was concerned, and Quint had no doubt that Colleto was behind it.
The afternoon session involved compromise, but it was a set of compromises of inconsequential importance to Quint’s mind, especially since Quint knew Colleto’s grand ambition.
Even if a treaty was negotiated, it was clear that the dictator would have no qualms breaking it. Quint’s interpretation of Colleto’s comments indicated that everyone was a tool to gain power, and that included turning him into an ally. Quint was just as much a tool as the others in the room.
He returned to his room and napped. When Quint arose, he wrote a benign account of the negotiations. In his estimation no side prevailed, although he felt both sides would consider themselves the winners of the preliminary talks.
Quint was moved up a few places among the Racellians at the dinner table with those who didn’t participate in the day’s negotiations.
After dinner, Quint sat on a patio, eyes closed, soaking up the energy from the sinking sun. Someone sat down next to him.
“You are coming up in the world,” Amaria Baltacco said. “Lucheccia was overruled on the arrangement of diners.”
“I’m following orders, Senior Lieutenant Baltacco. I sit where I’m told to sit.”
“Do you have a sponsor in the Gussellian court?” she asked.
“The only one I know in the court is the dictator. I suppose it is the same with you.”
“It is, but knowing is one thing and getting special privileges is another.”
Quint frowned. “What special privileges have you gotten?”
“I met with Pacci Colleto and a few members of his staff this afternoon.”
“And that was the special privilege, an audience with Gussellia’s leader?” Quint said.