Duality by Rowan Erlking (best books for 8th graders .TXT) 📖

those, you know, the scary ones…why do they stick around?”

Nodding, lowering his voice also, the guard replied, “They don’t want to leave the ones we’ve got in prison.”

“Prison?” Bernum blinked. “There are circus performers in prison?”

Nodding once more, the guard looked up to see if anyone was listening in. So far with the cheers going on above in the stands, that was unlikely.

“Yes. Right after the circus changed hands, about four of them attacked Merchant Omoni’s house—broke in, as anyone can assume, to steal back their contracts to flee the country. The merchant’s security took out one of them and had the other three arrested. I hear rumor that those warriors are planning a breakout, but they won’t try it until they get their documents from Merchant Omoni. And that won’t happen ever, now that their wizard had run off.”

“The wizard wasn’t part of the robbery?” Bernum bit his lower lip, thinking.

The guard shook his head. “No. He was actually cursing at them for being so hasty. Apparently he was planning on stealing the documents back. But now, of course, it is too late.”

Leaning against the wall, Bernum folded his arms across himself. “But why don’t they just run off without their documents?”

Snorting, the guard replied, “No one can cross the borders without their documents. They’ve got to go with their animals and all that. The dog trainer won’t leave his pets.”

“But even if they stole them back—”

“I know,” the guard replied with a nod. “Merchant Omoni would send the police after them and haul them back.”

Setting a hand to his head, Bernum exhaled hard.

“Are you feeling all right?” the guard asked, peering at Bernum’s face.

With a slight shake, Bernum said, “No. I think I’m getting a head-ache. I had better just head home.”

The guard led out an arm, guiding Bernum along the wall back to where he had been originally stationed.

They emerged in the tall portal where the amphitheater lights lit the entrance from outside, the colored paper lanterns overhead swaying on the evening breeze. A few early departures gasped with excited stares at Bernum. One waved vigorously to him while another urged her friend to get his autograph. But Bernum jogged out onto the street before the girl got up the nerve.

He felt his pockets before he left the street entirely, groping for his keys until he found them at his hip. But he did not head home. Bernum turned up the street and started towards the hilly district. The roads were mildly busy. A few carts and horses occupied it, though two horseless carriages also rumbled by. None of them were Omoni’s. He jogged towards the more shadowed parts of the neighborhood, peering around the walls to see if there was a good way into Omoni’s property. So far he did not see any.

“How in the world am I going to get in there?” Bernum muttered under his breath.

“That really is the question, isn’t it?”

Bernum searched around then up, wondering if the flying man had followed him. And when his eyes fixed on the straw-colored hair of a pale man peering down at him, he first thought the flying man had followed. But then Bernum’s eyes set on the glowing blue gaze of a stranger who smiled. The rest of figure was wrapped in an indigo cloak.

Bernum tripped backward.

“Wait!” The man hopped down from the wall he had been crouching on, reaching out a hand to Bernum. “I won’t touch you, I just…you’re that magician from yesterday, aren’t you?”

Bernum nodded, taking another step back. “And you’re that demon that has been haunting this city.”

The white-skinned man emitted a tired moan, hanging his shoulders. “I’m not haunting it. I’m just trying to get into one place. That place.”

He pointed at Omoni’s house.

Nodding, Bernum peered harder at the demon’s face. “So you are the demon that Malkia summoned.”

The demon cracked a smile of relief. “And you’re her brother. She told me about you.”

“You spoke with her?” Bernum forgot his fear, his anxiety taking over. “How is she?”

Shaking his head, the demon said while ducking back into the shadow, especially pulling the hood over his face, “She sends me sea shells. Kind of creepy actually since the spell on them is written in blood.”

Bernum cringed, looking up at the house again. “I’m sure she had no other choice.”

The demon shrugged. “All the same.”

“But, you’re a demon,” Bernum said. “Why did you agree to help her? I know demons can’t just be summoned. What’s in it for you?”

Emitting another moan, the demon waved Bernum closer.

Bernum wouldn’t budge.

Finally, the demon replied with another groan, “Fine. If want to know, in that house is something that belongs to me. A cabinet. It was stolen from the military camp I went to as a kid a few years back. I traced it to this country. But that was about as far as I got until your sister sent me a seashell saying she found it, giving me all the directions to get here to claim it. All I have to do is take care of this guy that she says is keeping her locked up. The problem is, I can’t even get into the building. It is heavily guarded.”

“Oh, you gotta be kidding me!” Bernum threw up his hands, stomping on the ground in frustration. “I’ve been waiting for demon that can’t even get to Omoni? Malkia…ugh!”

Watching Bernum fuss and fume for just a second, the demon abruptly dragged Bernum to the side. The moment his hand touched Bernum’s arm, Bernum felt his strength leave him.

Panicked, Bernum jerked from the demon’s grip, staggering to the wall while staring at the stranger.

“I’m sorry about that,” the demon said, pulling his hand away. “But you were making a conspicuous ruckus. I didn’t need eyes looking.”

Shuddering, Bernum drew his arms closer to himself. “Eyes looking? What am I going to do about Malkia? She’s trapped in there.”

Peering around the street, especially noticing the patrolling constable in the distance, the demon urged Bernum to go with him around the corner. They found a darker spot near a clump of bushes where the demon ducked down, pulling Bernum after him.

“Look,” the demon said, “I want to help you. But you need to help me. You can get in there—”

“But not without a good reason,” Bernum hissed back, keeping his voice down. “Besides, just because I can get in there doesn’t mean I can get the cabinet out. I’ve tried already for those circus performers.”

“Why did you try to get it out for the circus performers?” The demon looked boyishly puzzled. In fact, the twenty-something pale-faced blonde started to look downright harmless, if it weren’t for his glowing blue eyes.

Sighing, Bernum shook his head. The entire thing felt insane. “Their contracts are in it. I used a summoning spell, and the spell just splintered.”

He heard the demon snort.

Narrowing his eyes at him, Bernum stared at the crooked closed-lipped smile the demon was covering. “What?”

Meeting his gaze frankly, the demon said, “That’s because I sealed up the doors with spell so no one could open it.”

“Well, they broke into the back,” Bernam said.

Shrugging, the demon replied irritably, “An oversight.”

Bernum frowned, thinking hard of a solution—then he looked up at the demon. “Wait a minute. Did you say that you put a spell on the doors? That red paper sealing spell—that was yours?”

The demon nodded.

Setting a hand to his head, Bernum sat back. “You know magic. I have never heard of a demon that knew magic.”

“Well, I’m a magister,” the demon tossed back with a ‘duh’ roll off the eyes. “Specifically I’m a demon hunter, military magister—though I’ve recently given up my commission.”

“A demon hunting demons?” Bernum frowned with skepticism.

Returning the look, the demon continued, “Most Cordrils are demon hunters. In Brein Amon we are considered part of the society…no matter how disjointed from it we really are.”

Blinking, Bernum leaned in, peering at him. “You are a Cordril magister….”

The demon nodded. Then he snatched up a glove from his pocket and pulled it onto his hand. Extending that covered hand with a smile, he said, “My name is Jonis Macoy. And your name?”

Bernum took the hand, mumbling, “Bernum,” feeling dazed.

Shaking Bernum’s hand genially, Jonis smiled broader, his teeth bright and clean. “Nice to meet you. Now, can we get to business?”

“You’re Macoy?” Bernum still stared at him. “Corporal Macoy, the famous child-genius magister?”

Jonis’s smile twisted in surprise. “Uh. Famous, huh? Well…I’m Lieutenant Macoy now, though I told you I just left the military. I can’t believe you heard of me. I thought I was just—”

“What are you talking about?” Bernum stood up. “Every magician at the Westhaven Township conference was talking about you. But they didn’t say you were a Cordril, just some prodigy.”

Shrugging, Jonis looked back over towards Omoni’s property. “If you understand anything about Cordrils, you would know that I am not anything like a prodigy. What I know simply comes with the territory of having a passed-along memory. Look, I really need you to focus. You want your sister out, and I need a way in. Do you know any way that you can sneak me in or—”

“What? You aren’t genius enough to figure it out?” Bernum folded his arms with disgust. It was like being doubly mocked. “And here I was thinking if I had only studied more magic I could figure a way to break in myself. Aren’t you the one who is famed to have single-handedly cleaned out a city from a demon parasite infestation?”

“I didn’t do it on my own,” Jonis snapped back, his boyish face contorting with irritation. “For pity’s sake, forget whatever rumor you heard about me. From what I get from Malkia, you’re a pretty handy magister yourself, and so is she. I don’t doubt you have tried everything already—within reasonable means, of course. I’m not asking for magical help. If it was something I could just write a spell for, I would have done it already. I am asking for you to sneak me in so that we don’t have to scale walls while the guards shoot at us. Do you know a way?”

Bernum just stared. Gathering his breath, then his wits, he tried to think. A way to sneak in a white demon? It sounded impossible. He didn’t know a way to make him invisible or…. No the demon was not asking about magical means. He was asking him because he had been able to walk inside the merchant’s home without hardly being stopped because he was the hired magician for the show.

“Wait.” Bernum lifted up his head and stared at Jonis. He peered at Jonis’s face then nodded. “I have an idea, but we have to go to the circus. We’ll need their help to pull it off.”

Jonis shifted his weight to the side, cocking his head with a shrewd look in his blue eyes. “The help of circus performers? What can they do?”

Starting into the road, Bernum said, “Most of them are foreigners, and some of them look the same to me—all…you know, white.”

Shrugging, Jonis followed after him. “So you’re saying what? That I look just like them?”

Though Bernum shook his head, he said, “But I can make you look like one of them.”

They reached the corner where Jonis halted, keeping out of the lamplight.

Bernum stopped, noticing the pale demon had stopped. “Come on.”

Jonis shook his head. “I can’t just stroll down the street, Bernum. I’ll meet you there.”

“Do you even know where to go?” Bernum asked.

To that, the white demon nodded with a smile. “Of course. I’ve been tracking the movements of that merchant for the past week. Until I ran across you, I didn’t see an opening to get at him. His twitchy guards carry guns at all times.”

Nodding, Bernum took another step towards the street. “Ok. I understand. I’ll meet you there then.”

Jonis nodded, then slipped off into the shadows again, heading for another way to the amphitheater. Nodding to himself, Bernum started back that way in a jog. He was going to get Malkia