“What?”
I must not have been able to keep the fear from my voice because I could see a slight smile crack his lips as he replied. “What you don’t know…” he paused to emphasize that I should have known what he was alluding to, but of course I had no idea what he was referring to. But then with a shake of his head he seemed to dismiss the other half of the thought because the next words out of his mouth made no sense. “And to be honest with you, I honestly don’t care why you don’t know.”
In my growing fear I spoke flippantly, “So what? I get some kind of forger’s jail time or something?”
He either ignored the tone or he just didn’t care, either way, he merely replied to my question, “There is something like that for the lesser laws but for breaking any of the major laws like you just did, no, we only have one sentence for that, execution.”
If I could have fallen, I’m pretty sure I would have collapsed on the spot. I was that astonished that he could speak about an execution, scratch that, about my execution, so casually. I was so frustrated I blurted out, “What?! You’re going to execute me?!” I fought to reign myself in, but all I accomplished was to start stuttering. “Y… Yo… Y… You can’t do that, I didn’t even know these laws of yours.”
“Like I said, I don’t care.” His words were completely devoid of emotion. “Ignorance of the law isn’t a valid excuse in this country; you’re expected to educate yourself about them.” Leaning back against the wall he asked me a question, “So what makes you think I’ll find your ignorance a valid excuse in regard to our code of laws?”
“B… B… Bu… But…”
He used his index finger to signal me to keep quiet, and with that serene look, I was only too pleased to comply with the command. Once he was sure that I would remain silent he went on in a casual tone—I couldn’t believe this, he was casually speaking about my death, great. “Don’t bother trying. I’ve heard every possible excuse you could ever come up with a dozen times over.”
“That’s not fair.” I was grasping at straws and I knew it, but when the only other option is death, you grasped at any straw you could find.
Hearing the derision in his voice I could tell he considered me nothing more than a disobedient child. “Neither is a rogue forger who is doing things that make the rest of our lives harder. All your exposure would manage to do is put magic back into people’s minds." He flashed that threatening index finger back in front of my face as he spat out his next few words. "Let’s see just how poor your education was. Have you ever heard of the Salem witch trials?”
I offered a curt sound of affirmation in response and Alexis continued. “Well what you probably don’t know, though hopefully you’ve put it together by now, is that some of those witches were external forgers like you and me. But they weren’t the ones who brought the attention down upon our kind. They were innocent forgers who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Those rogue forgers managed to escape their punishment.” He paused as if trying to keep control of his escalating anger. “Right now I’m trying to decide what I’m going to do with you.”
I made a last desperate attempt, “There’s no way you have the kind of authority to execute me.”
As he shook his head in reply, all I could see was that calm face. How could anyone so calmly discuss executing someone? “Unfortunately for you, you tried to murder one of the few forgers in the United States that actually wields that kind of authority.”
His revelation stunned me into silence. I couldn’t even manage to mutter a curse, and at this point, that was all I wanted to do. How did I possibly manage to anger two people with that kind of power within a twenty-four hour span? It must be some kind of record. No one was that unlucky. Glancing around I noticed that Alexis was no longer in the hallway, or rather he was no longer in my line of sight. That was when worry truly began to build up inside of me. What would happen to me if he simply left me here?
Tentatively I called out to my would-be executioner, “Alexis, where are you? What are you doing?” I was answered by silence and after having a mild heart attack I called out again, “Alexis, please don't leave me here.”
“Don’t worry boy. Like I said, I haven’t decided what I’m going to do to you, yet.” Alexis answered as he exited his den. As he patted his freshly dawned coat he continued. “First thing’s first, I need to rescue you from that mobster. Then I’ll be able to figure out what I will do with you.” The smile he wore on his face made me think of a ravenous lion staring down at a lame zebra. I only wish I knew who he had pegged as the zebra. Me, Dempsey, or both of us.
Chapter 19
Despite the trepidation building in the pit of my stomach, I gritted my teeth and forced myself to ask the next question. “If you’re not going to execute me, would you take me with you?” To be honest I had no idea what I was hoping for, but I figured if I was potentially a dead man then there was no harm in asking. And if I could go with him, maybe I could convince him to let me live.