“Very well. Here is your next assignment.” The officer walked down the steps and gave a thick envelope to the kidnapper. “You made it in time for lunch, and you and your squad can be away in time to make it to the next town to the north.”
The soldiers helped Quint off the wagon, but they didn’t get down. The drivers took the wagons away, deeper into the fort, leaving Quint and the other potential wizard standing in front of their new guards. Quint wondered which recruit he was: the one with promise or the one, not so much.
“Inside. We will process you, and then you’ll be tested,” the new officer said. “You can call me Lieutenant Drabano. I will be your superior for the next few days until you are assessed.”
They followed Drabano into the building. The two guards, flanking the lieutenant, walked behind as Drabano led the pair to the counter facing the front door.
“Sarza?” Drabano asked.
“That’s me,” Sarza said. “I’m the older one.”
Drabano looked weary. “I think I can tell that.” He asked Sarza a series of questions and at the end, asked him how many strings he had mastered.
“One,” Sarza said. “Fire.”
Sarza wasn’t any more accomplished than his father, Zeppo.
“You are Quinto Tirolo?”
“I go by Quint.”
“No, you don’t. It will be Tirolo or Recruit, or if you are nice or are in trouble, it will be Recruit Tirolo,” the officer said.
“Yes, sir.”
“You know how to address me. Good.” Drabano glared at Sarza. “Did you get that?”
Sarza nodded.
Drabano exhaled with an exasperated look on his face. “That is ‘yes, sir.’” He looked at the two soldiers. “Take him to the punishment room. Five stripes should be enough to wake him up.”
Sarza struggled with his captors, but there wasn’t anything he could do with his hands still in irons. One of the soldiers created a string and sent what looked like a thick, bright tendril into his stomach. When it hit the recruit, it made a “zzzt” sound.
“That’s one, Sarza. You get four more,” Drabano said, dismissing the soldiers dragging Sarza away with a wave. ‘
Drabano looked at Quint with raised eyebrows. “Did you learn something?”
“Yes, sir!” Quint said, scared half to death by the quick punishment and dread of the punishment itself.
“Good. It’s testing for you.” He began to walk out of the room but stopped and twisted his head toward Quint. “Follow me, recruit.”
Quint hurried, and the pair walked out of the foyer. They stopped at the door. It said, oddly enough, “Testing” on the door.
“In you go. Give this to the tester. He’s the one in a white robe,” Drabano said, walking briskly away without looking back.
Quint turned the doorknob and received a shock that numbed his hand. He tried his left hand, and then he had two numbed hands. Quint had to pull the sleeve of his tunic over his hand and was able to negotiate the door without a shock.
“You passed the first test!” the bald older man in a white cotton robe said as Quint walked in.
“That is a string?” Quint asked, looking back at the door.
“Sir. That is a string, sir?”
“I don’t know the rules, sir,” Quint said.
“You better learn them fast, or you’ll have more than your share of stripes and shocks, young recruit.” The tester held out his hand for the document.
He didn’t spend much time reading it. “Fifteen years old. Which string do you know?”
“Fire. I’ve been learning two more, but I only learned about my magic a week ago, sir,” Quint said.
“Which two?”
“Levitation and Heat, sir,” Quint said.
“Show me where you are with heat.”
Quint was stuck. He would do heat but use Pogi's instructions for levitation. His heat was at a feeble level.
“I’m still practicing, sir. I had only three lessons.”
“Three lessons? Can you diagram this string?”
Quint did as he was asked.
“Interesting.” The tester scribbled something on the form.
