Elder Printin planted himself heavily in his office chair, livid. That maniac had almost killed him, and his throat was painfully sore from the abuse. He’d underestimated Quoi and it was humiliating.
He’d sent parties of townspeople out to search, but the man had vanished into thin air. The irony of the town’s one Tracker on his way to Lumax did not escape him. It forced him to hunt Quoi the old fashioned way until a Tracker could be called in to help. Whatever it took. Quoi could not be allowed to reach Rasa.
He could kick himself for blurting out the truth to Quoi. He supposed a man’s head didn’t work as well with the oxygen cut off.
If Quoi managed to find Rasa, well, Printin didn’t want to think about it. He had too much at stake for one stupid man to ruin it.
He waited for news, hoping beyond hope they would announce Quoi’s capture, but with each passing hour his optimism faded. He needed a backup plan.
Fredi, his assistant, burst into the room. “Elder! Braden is here to see you. He says it’s important.”
“Well show him in for god’s sake!” Finally, some luck. Maybe Braden knew where Quoi was. Fredi showed him in. “Braden,” Printin modulated his tone into a state of calm, as if nothing were wrong in his world. “What brings you here today?”
Braden shifted on his feet, uncomfortable with the fancy surroundings. Books lined the walls and the desk was the finest Shaped maple. The room was wealthy by
Despite the civilized surroundings, something about the man made Braden nervous. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. Braden cleared his throat to speak, wanting to get this over with.
“Sir, I had a conversation with Quoi after the sentencing. Thought you might want to know what he said.”
Printin fought to keep the impatience from his voice. “Go on.”
“He said we weren’t safe. That Rasa wasn’t working alone. He sounded like he knew what was going on,” said Braden. “And now that he’s disappeared, well, I thought maybe he went to get Rasa.”
The Elder sighed in disappointment. “Of course he went to get Rasa! They’ve been friends since they first learned to walk. What else did you think he was doing?”
Braden stepped back, taken aback by the Elder’s anger.
“But sir, he said that it wasn’t just Rasa behind the disappearances. Ain’t you curious about what’s going on?”
The Elder grimaced. Braden wasn’t going to give him any useful information. “We all know Rasa is always into something he shouldn’t be. Why would this time be any different?”
Braden hesitated, not wanting to anger the Elder. “Sir, Quoi was concerned, like maybe Rasa was in over his head. Like maybe someone was forcing Rasa do what he did.”
“No, I’m convinced it was just those two. Quoi was trying to cast suspicion away from them both.” He had to nip this in the bud. He couldn’t afford any suspicions the townspeople might have. A few well-placed lies should solve the problem. “Look, this isn’t public knowledge, but from what witnesses told me, Rasa and Quoi harbored jealousy against the eight missing Metal Shapers. They found a way to get rid of them. We only had enough evidence to convict Rasa, so we resolved to keep an eye on Quoi to prevent him from doing any more harm. It’s as simple as that.”
Braden shifted on his feet, wavering in his resolve. “I guess that makes some sort of sense. I mean, Rasa was more than a little jealous when Quoi discovered his Stone Shaping Gift, and they were good friends. I suppose it could have happened that way.”
“That’s exactly what happened, I’m afraid.” Printin stood and pasted a sad, sympathetic look on his face. “I understand how difficult it is to accept this from people we’ve known since birth. But there’s the ugly truth, plain for anyone to see.”
“All right. Thanks for explaining.” Braden shuffled his feet and stared at the floor.
“Fredi, would you please show Braden out? Thank you for your time, Braden. And if you hear anything else, please don’t hesitate to let me know.”
Fredi led Braden from the room. Printin made a mental note to keep an eye on the man. These days you never knew when people would do something foolish. He disliked all this unpredictability.
He sat down with a huff, the chair creaking under his weight. The Elder pulled out some sheets of parchment and began to write. It was imperative he get Quoi back in his control. He would send missives to all surrounding townships, hoping someone, somewhere, would spot the man and bring him in. Quoi’s distinctive, amber eyes were his weakness. It would make it easy for people to identify him.
Printin finished the missive and called to his assistant. Fredi came running in, bouncing with energy, filled with excitement over Quoi’s disappearance.
“Take this and make seven copies, one for each township,” said Printin.
“Yes sir,” the assistant bobbed and took the missive from him. He scanned it and then cocked an eyebrow in surprise at his master.
“Just do what I say, boy, and don’t you dare breathe a word of it to anyone. Get out of here.” Printin waved him away, irritated and exhausted by the energy of youth. The boy ran out of the office, happy to have something important to do.
Printin tipped back in his chair, worried. It angered him that everything could come crashing down around his ears because of one, stupid ex-farm hand. This had better work or he’d be the one headed to Lumax.
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