They took a shortcut that Quint took occasionally when the weather was good. When they were about to cross a lane, Quint heard a shout.
“Stop right there, boys!”
Quint’s first response was to run, but Ricci pushed him from the side, making Quint trip over his feet falling to the ground. As he rose, Quint was surrounded by men in green uniforms with an officer dressed in black.
Irons were clapped to his wrists as he struggled, but then he saw the officer in the group pull Ricci aside.
“This is for you, and this is for the wizard,” the officer said.
Ricci opened the envelope and smiled. There had to be paper money inside. Pogi’s envelope looked fatter. Quint stopped struggling. He had been sold to someone, and that was that.
He couldn’t overcome one soldier, much less nine. Ricci gave Quint a smirk and gave him a mock salute. “Have fun for the rest of your life, hubie.”
“Hubie” was a derogatory term for hubite.
“Don’t give him no mind,” the officer said, looking disgusted as Ricci skipped away without a backward glance. “We do the same thing for willot wizards.”
“You collect wizards?” Quint asked, trying to catch his breath after his futile struggles.
“How do you think we staff our country’s wizard corps? Welcome to the Racellian Army, Wizard Corps Division.”
“I’m only fifteen,” Quint said. “I haven’t even begun to shave!”
The officer shrugged. “I’ve pressed thirteen-year-olds before, but most are closer to eighteen. You’ll just be better sooner. Behave, and we won’t have to beat you,” the officer said.
Quint looked at the soldiers surrounding him. “I’m not worth it,” Quint said.
“Your village hedge wizard thought you were. You’ll be tested when we get to the fort.”
“How far is that?”
“Three days away. Behave, and we won’t put leg irons on you,” the officer said.
Quint merely nodded. He would have to wait for a chance to escape, but surrounded by green-uniformed soldiers, it wasn’t the proper time.
They headed north in the opposite direction from the village. They skirted two villages and arrived at Polenza, the town that was the limit of Zeppo’s warrant. Any chance to see his father would be here or not at all. They walked through the town without Quint seeing a familiar face, and Quint wondered if he’d ever see his parents again.
They spent the night in another town. Quint had never been so far from home in his life, and that little bit of information excited him, but it wasn’t enough to overcome his dread.
The food was the same, and people talked and dressed the same, but more willots were walking the streets than hubites, which was new. In the morning, the soldiers left Quint locked in his room until the officer unlocked it.
“Downstairs. We will eat lunch and then head for the fort.”
Another unfortunate pressed recruit sat at one of two tables occupied by the soldiers. This willot looked eighteen or older. The newer recruit stared at Quint’s wrists.
“They even press hubites,” the young man said with distaste written on his face. He certainly dressed better than Quint.
“We invite all kinds into the wizard corps if they are magical. If you don’t qualify, you get to serve in the Racellian army,” the officer said. “I warn you, give us a hard time, and you won’t make it to the training fort. Give the officers a hard time, and you won’t leave the training fort.”
Quint didn’t know if the officer was scaring him to make sure he didn’t give his captors any trouble or if he was serious. The scare tactics were working, Quint conceded.
The officer shepherded all the men outside. Two soldiers were on each driver’s seat, and the other soldiers split up, jumping into the wagons. One recruit was put into each wagon. The officer rode a horse.
Quint looked at one of the soldiers. “Why didn’t you bring wagons when you captured me?”
The soldier almost sneered. “It’s easier to walk when we press in rural areas. Sometimes, we have a dandy chase. Your friend’s shove put a stop to that.”
“He’s no friend of mine,” Quint said.
“They never are, in the end.”
The other soldiers looked bored, but this was all new to Quint. He had never seen these lands. They drove through a city that looked huge to Quint. Every person was a willot. He didn’t know how people could exist in such a place. Where did they get food and water?
As they rode through the city streets, Quint answered his own question. There were fountains and wells at regular intervals, and he spotted wagons like the one he rode laden with grain sacks and vegetables. They even passed a large, barred wagon with sheep standing behind the bars on their way to be slaughtered.
Quint felt like one of those sheep.
They spent another two nights at inns, and then the wagons followed the officer down a long dirt road to Fort Draco, so said the sign. There was a coat of arms on either side. He guessed it was the symbol for the wizard corps since it had two hands connected by lines in the shield.
Quint didn’t know what the fort defended. It sat in the middle of a meadow in a valley. It was like a town with a stone wall surrounding it. As they rode under the gate, Quint flinched. None of the soldiers did.
Was it a magic barrier? He would find out soon enough. Quint wondered if whatever made him flinch was his childhood being stripped away. He wouldn’t be surprised if it were.
They rode past a training field where black-garbed soldiers trained in combat. He expected magic duels, but he didn’t see anyone making strings. They stopped.
“Two recruits,” the officer said, handing two envelopes to another officer in black standing at the top of steps to a three-story building. “One with promise and one, not so much,” the man who had kidnapped Quint said to the other.
