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

page where there was a full-color picture of a boy facing what looked like ruffians throwing rocks at him, something that caught both Malkia’s and Bernum’s attention immediately. Bernum read the other page aloud, though slowly since they were still beginners in reading, as Malkia listened and followed along. He skipped most of the big words.

The story told about a boy named Dodo who was considered a fool in the village he lived. Mocked and teased, Dodo ran away from those bullying him only to stumble upon a small demon—a kirrel—that had stolen bread from his mother’s window where it was cooling. He chased it into the woods where he found a thatched cottage with an old witch sitting outside, leaning on a cane carved out of a human thighbone. Bernum got excited when he read about how the witch drew a circle in the ground, calling to the birds to land inside, trapping them there for her supper. Malkia got excited when they read about how Dodo had come back a second time, running from ruffians only to witness the witch drawing another circle to protect herself from a bear. They were so entranced, then, by the part where Dodo drew a similar circle to keep the rocks the village bullies shied at him from hitting him. In fact, they stared at that page for some time, sharing a look between them.

But that was when they heard the call to go home. The schoolmaster stood in the library doorway, smiling at them both.

“So, how did you like your first day?” he asked as they walked out the door of the school.

Bernum was the first to reply. “Are we going to learn magic tomorrow?”

Startled, Beyan replied while batting the idea out of his face with blinks, “Magic? Well, no. At school we just learn our letters, our numbers, our history and the laws. But if you are still interested when you are ten years old, you can learn magic then. You can be an apprentice with a magician.”

Bernum glanced at Malkia who frowned.

“But that is way too long from now,” Malkia said.

Beyan now blinked at her, smiling. “Maybe for a child, it may seem that way. But when you get older it won’t. Besides, little ladies do not learn magic. You will be training to run a household when you turn ten.”

Malkia and Bernum shared another look, both of them frowning.

“I don’t want to wait until I am ten years old,” Bernum said. “Why can’t I learn now? I can read already.”

Sighing, Beyan replied, peering into the little boy’s face, “Because magic is much harder than you think it is. It takes years to master it.”

“How would you know?” Bernum set his hands on his hips.

How indeed? Beyan stood uncomfortably, realizing that their town didn’t even have a magician. Such folk either traveled or lived in obscure places.

The twins frowned more at him. Their experience had shown them that adults assumed things that weren’t so all the time. They knew Dennik was no demon just as much as they knew that there had to be a way to help him. After reading about the magic circle that could keep Dennik safe, both Bernum and Malkia vowed with all the energy their innocent hearts could muster (and that was a lot) that they would find every book about magic in their school library and learn how to make a magic circle just like Dodo had.

 

It was years later before Bernum or Malkia found the real spell that could protect their little brother. They had checked out every serious book about magic in the school library, only to find they lacked the details that actually made magic. They just contained stories about magicians, wizards and witches, and plenty on demons.

One of the things they learned about magic was that in Maldos only magicians were respected. Wizards were considered very dangerous given that they could perform magic without spells, and they sometimes caused trouble from their natural power. Witches were hated even more since their magic tended to create more demons than any other magic user. Also, most witches were women, and the twins both learned well that women were not traditionally allowed to do magic. It was considered a man’s job.

The balance of duality in male-female relations also caused the twins some grief. Bernum and Malkia still did everything together, except during their fifth year of school the boys were sent to study different trades to decide under whom they would be taking an apprenticeship and girls were taken aside and given lessons on grace, manners, and keeping house, besides taught the changes a girl went through to become a woman. Malkia started taking her cooking classes, sewing classes, and yarn-work classes. The girls were told that some of them could become assistants to men in the work field if they did not marry, but most were encouraged to gather the graces of ladies so that would never have to be an option. It was clear that though Bernum would be allowed to continue magic learning, Malkia would not. So it was that year that Bernum and Malkia started to go behind the backs of their teachers and schoolmaster to continue their magic education.

The public library had a larger supply of books than the school’s, most of them geared towards adults though there was a tiny children’s section on the second floor. The twins were old enough now to go around town on their own, well aware not to split up in case someone decided to kidnap them. They would go there daily after school. Bernum would ask for the books he wanted and then bring them back to Malkia where they would take turns reading in a corner of the library while the other one took notes. These notes they would take home, then experiment. And as long as their studies in school did not suffer they did not get caught.

By this time, Dennik was hobbling about the pharmacy learning how to mix herbs and minerals to create medicines with their father, educated at home in reading, writing, arithmetic, history and all other things that his brother and sister studied at school. They brought it home to him so that he was on the same level as they were. The town had assumed that Bernum would be taking over the shop since their father had not yet taken an apprentice. But by the end of the twins’ final year in school Bernum made it clear that he had no intention of becoming a pharmacist. In fact, he squared his shoulders and told everyone Dennik would be the new pharmacist.

That horrified a great many people. And when they found out Dennik had been mixing most of the herbs in the shop for the past few years, the Pharmacist’s business dropped once again.

But the Pharmacist merely sighed, budgeted his accounts to run tighter, and waited for when the cold season would start.

The fact was, their father knew of the twins’ pursuit for a cure for Dennik for quite some time. He had sought a cure himself to no avail. There was no herbal remedy for naturally deformed body shapes. So when the twins at last came home with the magic spell that went with the circle the witch had drawn in the storybook, using it to protect Dennik from rocks thrown at him by passersby, the Pharmacist watched them make the protective ward with hope that soon they would discover a method through magic to save his youngest son completely.

*

“Hallo!” called in someone from the road over the back fence to their yard.

The housekeeper glanced back from the line of clothes she was hanging, a clothespin in her mouth, blinking at the stranger’s unusual red robes. Then she drew in a breath. The clothespin dropped to the ground.

“Are you the woman of the house?” the stranger asked. His dark eyes were shining intelligently, his white-teethed grin equaled by his strong posture and confident air. He was clearly someone of importance.

Shaking her head, the housekeeper called out, “Pharmacist! Come out here!”

There were bumps and muted calls back for her to wait a minute. And a minute was about as long as it took for him to actually come out. He was wiping his hands on his apron blinking at the stranger at his gate.

“What can I do for you? Customers usually come to the shop door, not my gate.”

Plucking off his rounded hat, the stranger nodded his moderately graying head in a respectful bow. “My apologies, but uh, I was actually merely passing by when I noticed the marking in your yard. That’s wedged in stone, isn’t it? And the spell written in the ground—it is very well made. Who did it? Did you? And for what purpose?”

The Pharmacist leaned back some, peering at the genial features of this man. He replied, “So many questions. First tell me what is your intent by them?”

Blushing only slightly, the stranger raised his chin and said, “I am Jimmit, Magician of the Highest Order. I run the High Magic School out at Yolund. I have been traveling through the country seeking new apprentices for the school, and I was just at the local schoolhouse where the schoolmaster implied that the Pharmacist had a son that might be interested in learning magic. I was just looking for that street when I saw this amazing hate-ward drawn here. I merely asked why because I seem to be unable to step into it. And for a man like me, it is puzzling to discover such an occurrence when I haven’t even a clue to what it is that I am hating.”

Nodding, the Pharmacist leaked out the slightest smile. “I see.”

Blinking at him, somewhat impatient, Jimmit, the Magician, asked again, “So, who made this hate ward?”

The Pharmacist let out a small chuckle. “My children did. I am the Pharmacist.”

“Oh.” The Magician searched around the yard, inspecting the bare grass, the overgrown flowers that had long been neglected and the open dirt area. “So you have more than one child interested in magic. But uh…why is it that I cannot enter?”

“You hate what all Maldos hate,” the Pharmacist replied with a sigh.

Blinking at him, the Magician waited for the answer.

Sighing once more, the Pharmacist called to the house, “Children, you have a guest!”

Almost immediately, the thunder of feet came from within. Bernum was the first out the door, then Malkia and lastly Dennik. Upon seeing them in succession, the Magician first grinned with delight, then looked puzzled, then looked horrified. He watched as all three stopped next to their father, gazing up at him though Bernum and Malkia recognized his red robes as the official clothes of a certified magician. They both got excited.

The Magician’s eyes turned back onto the twins then compared them to the younger brother Dennik. Slowly he nodded to himself, drew in a breath and let it out. “I see.”

“Are you changing your mind?” the Pharmacist asked.

“No.” The Magician fixed his eyes back on Bernum. “But this does complicate things a smidgen.”

He then reached out to the fence, straining to open it. At first he was repelled by a force much like being slapped away, but after taking several deep breaths and peering hard at Dennik he at last managed to get through and walk in the circle. He opened the gate and bowed to the father.

“My apologies. I see the love of the perfection sent by the gods has accepted this poor child. It would not be right for me to discount it.” He then turned to face Bernum. “I heard you want to be a magician. I am a teacher of magic. Do you wish to come to my school?”

Bernum looked at Malkia who bit her lip with hope. He then looked back at the Magician. “Only if my sister can come with me.”

Jimmit looked to the little girl, sighing. “I wish I could. But my brothers at the High Magic School would not look too