Chapter XX
“How could you?” Evelyn shouted at Luke almost as soon as she walked through the door.
“How could I not?” he shouted back. There was no denying it, no games to be played. “The Attorney General wants a conviction and he wants it quickly. He also wants the maximum sentence.”
“David is manipulating you. Luke, don’t you understand how this is going to look?”
“We’ve been at odds before,” he said.
“But never on something like this. As it is, the council wants to vilify me for letting a dwarf into the building. When they find out you’re prosecuting the very man I want to see released...”
“Released?” he cried. “Evelyn, don’t realize the impact this case is going to have on society?”
“Of course I see it,” she cried. “Why do you think I recruited Owen?”
Luke stalked across the kitchen and sat down at the table. “You need to get your priorities in order,” he said quietly.
“What did you say?” she shot back at him. “I need to get my priorities in order? What is it you hope to accomplish by murdering Travis Anton?”
Luke slammed his hand down on the table so hard, she thought at least one of them would break. When he looked at her, his eyes were glowing. “Don’t you dare call a legal execution a murder.”
She threw her arms up in the air. “You’re going to start a war.”
“What are you talking about? Putting Travis Anton to death will avoid the war. We’ll reassert ourselves as the rulers of society and the humans and dwarves will fall back into line.”
Evelyn came across the kitchen and knelt in front of him. She took his hands in her own and held them up to her face. “Please, Luke,” she said. “No one is going to fall back into line. Ever. We’ve pushed as far as we can and now the dwarves and the humans have their backs to the wall.”
He pulled his hands away. “I don’t see it that way.”
“A conviction proves how little dwarf life is worth to the government, not just because of Owen but because of all of the others that were killed that night.” She almost used the word murder again but caught herself in time.
“What is it worth?”
“Oh, my goodness,” she said, standing up. Her tone of voice indicated that she’d completely missed his question. She seemed almost excited. “You could throw the trial. Luke you could set him free.”
He was flabbergasted. Not only was she suggesting something that was illegal, it was also grossly unethical.
“Why would I do that, Evelyn?” he asked. “Why would you even suggest it?”
“You could save the world.” She could just see David’s face if Luke gave Travis Anton his freedom. It would be glorious.
“I could lose my job.”
She dismissed him. “You could get a better job. You could open your own firm and defend people who’ve been persecuted by the elves.”
“Evelyn, have you lost your mind?” Luke stood again and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Listen to yourself. What has that dwarf done to you?”
She looked at him. “I’m not afraid of the new world, Luke.”
His grip tightened. In his frustration, he shook her back and forth. “There is no new world, Evelyn. Whether Anton lives or dies, nothing will change. Eventually, your pet dwarf will either fade into obscurity or do something so stupid that he follows Anton to the chair.”
She pushed him away, breathing heavily. “You don’t see it, Luke. No one sees it. The world is never going to be the same. It never is, but we’re too blind to notice it. You think I’ve gone crazy because I’m talking about dwarves as if they should have rights, but you’re the one who’s crazy for not seeing it. We can give the dwarves their rights or they can take them.”
Luke stopped arguing then. There was more here than Evelyn’s bleeding heart. As usual, she surprised him with her calculated analysis. Evelyn had a knack for stepping into the path of danger and helping to avert it. This time, however, her efforts would be for naught. The dwarves would take nothing. They had no magic, which meant they had no power.
“I will prosecute Travis Anton,” he said. “He will be convicted and he will die.”
Afterword
Castes is the result of a little backwards thinking and a lot of revision, revision, revision. In the original story, Owen was promoted to detective within the police department. He and Jessica were partners. As I began to develop the following books, I found their ties to the law to be restrictive. As you read further, I hope you’ll see how their autonomy is both a blessing and a curse as different parties try to manipulate them.
Zombies! It’s not the end of the world. In this 10 part series of short e-books, live life through the eyes of an eclectic group of characters as they each struggle to maintain their normal lives against the backdrop of a zombie infection. Governments do not collapse. Rogue groups of scavengers do not spring up across the world. Instead, people go to work, go to school, go to the supermarket, and secretly worry that someone they know, someone they love, will be the next victim of the zombie plague.
Please visit https://ninekingdoms.com/ where you can read about ApocalypZe, a post-apocalyptic card game with a back story all its own.
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