Jonis by Rowan Erlking (free children's online books txt) 📖

and took the key.

A frown set on Jonis’s face, as he entered the office with a push on the door. “Corporal Devis, have you seen a tall scruffy looking-man come in? He’s—”

Jonis lifted his eyes, watching the hunter exit the captain’s office. He was shaking hands with the captain. Both men were smiling.

“I just had to have it cleared up,” the hunter said with a genial grin. His teeth were yellow from smoking, or maybe just chewing tobacco.

Cringing, Jonis approached. “Captain, I’m done with my work for today. Uh…I hate to be rude, but what is he doing here?”

Cap. Powal lifted his eyebrows. With a smirk, he patted the hunter on the back. “I was just meeting an old friend. This is Sisrik Counz. We grew up together. I had sent off for him just after you told me our plague was really a demon infestation. I felt it was good to have a backup plan in case you failed.”

Jonis’s face flushed. He looked nervously to the hunter.

“I see.” He bowed, wishing to run. “If you have no further orders for me, Captain, I would like to find a place to sleep tonight. Have you arranged for my quarters in the barracks yet?”

“Ah…that.” The captain looked as if the question caused him pain. “Private, um, there seems to be a problem with that. No offence to the service you have rendered, but the men are a little uneasy with sharing quarters with a demon.”

The bounty hunter chuckled. He didn’t even bothering to hide his mouth or any bit of his amusement.

Casting him a glare, Jonis drew in a breath. “Sir, I assure you, no harm will come to the other soldiers. I never hurt a soul the entire time I was at Dalis Camp, and I shared barracks with my troop the entire time.”

As commiserating as Cap. Powal’s gaze was, he said, “I am sorry. But all the same, I think it is better that you take up residence in the office here. I will have a cot ordered for you in the back storage room. We will remove the supplies and put in a window for you for your comfort. I just can’t have my men so edgy. And you really can’t blame them either. After watching how fiercely you handled other demons, they are quite uneasy.”

Jonis frowned, staring at the floor. “There was no other way to handle the situation, sir. But if they are so frightened of me, I’ll sleep in a closet.”

He turned and headed toward the stairs, the weight of his feet bordering on a stomp.

“Private,” the captain called to him. “I have not dismissed you. We have other matters to discuss.”

Turning around, Jonis straightened his chest out and looked his captain in the eye. “Yes, sir?”

“Come here,” the captain ordered.

Jonis obeyed, marching back to face the captain.

“I heard about your actions on the street,” the captain said. He glanced at the hunter. “You were under strict orders to never remove your gloves to harm another, and yet you did.”

Blinking, Jonis peeked once at the hunter who watched him with a sly, yet closed expression.

Jonis nodded. “Yes, sir. The man was trying to kill me. It was an emergency.”

“Unacceptable,” the captain said. “You have other defenses. It was good that you made that hate ward and had not harmed this man much. But using your demonic abilities against him is unacceptable.”

“Would you have preferred that he run me though?” Jonis snapped. Seeing his captain’s sharp glare, he ducked his head. “Sorry, sir. I did not mean to answer you in such a disrespectful manner. I merely wanted to express that the circumstances required that do what was necessary to save myself.”

Cap. Powal glared down on him. “Hear this, Private. If you ever use your demon ability again to harm a human, not only will you be under court-martial, but also you will be thrown out of the army. Understand?”

“Yes, sir.” Jonis’s stomach clenched, knowing the captain meant it. He could feel all the happiness and warmth go out from him.

“I will let that last incident go with a warning. Next time, I will not be so merciful.”

“Yes, sir,” Jonis said, keeping his eyes down.

“Dismissed,” the captain barked.

Jonis marched immediately up the stairs. He overheard the bounty hunter say as he left, “Ok. You win. He’s obedient. I’ll give you that. But there is a sly look in his eye. He has a lot more going on in his head than he is letting on.”

The captain snorted. “You have the same sly look, you demon hunter. I think it takes that edge to be good at hunting demons. The kid’s all right. He won’t cross the line again.”

Feeling the tension ease off his chest, Jonis skipped the last step, trotting to the kitchen.

With the day’s work behind him, Jonis made himself a sandwich. The tables had been moved back. The demon circle was now a faded white smudge on the ground, proving the floor had been cleaned. There were few supplies in the icebox to eat, but the men had provided something for him to eat on the second day. He did not go to the soldiers’ mess hall except at lunch the third day—but everyone had just stared at him, inching away. In the silence of the office upper floor, Jonis dropped into a chair and munched quietly, letting his thoughts go in and out of memories that really weren’t his.

“Private Macoy?” a timid voice said from the doorway.

Looking up, Jonis saw that mouthy lieutenant that had kept asking what they would do if the demons got away. A medium build man with nothing spectacular about his looks except for that fairly more intelligent look in his brown eyes, his hair had a cowlick, giving him a flip to the right side near his temple. He looked like he was still mustering courage to talk to Jonis. The lieutenant stepped into the room.

“Can I…join you?”

Jonis pulled out a chair, nodding with surprise. “Sure.”

The lieutenant sat down. He didn’t have any food with him. “I just wanted to say thanks, you know, for all that you’ve done, and….”

He looked at the table as if preparing to ask a hard question. His manner made Jonis feel less small.

“What is it?” Jonis asked, watching the contortions of emotional chaos on the man’s face—somewhere mixed between curiosity, terror, and boyish ambition.

The lieutenant looked up and hissed in a low whisper, “Can you teach me some of that magic? We don’t have to tell anyone.”

Jonis laughed. Immediately he slapped a hand over his own mouth, glancing at the door. Jonis nodded with a smile in his eyes. “Of course I can. It would be my pleasure to share what I know.”

Sticking out his hand, the lieutenant beamed, revealing a crooked set of teeth. “I’m Lieutenant Merkam Gillway, pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Jonis put down his sandwich and wiped his gloved hand on his pants. “Private Jonis Macoy, at your service.”

 

Chapter Fourteen: Meeting Friends

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Among ourselves, non-magic users are essentially just as puzzled over the workings of magic, but for us, magic is more tangible.”

 

 

 

 

“Lieutenant Gillway! Wait, sir!” Corporal Reemas called out, waving from across the street.

The city of Ladis had swung into full commerce since the last of the demon wards was made. Little steam cars and carriages were rumbling over the concourses once more, and people trotted about saying ‘how-de-do’ to one another as if there had not been a demon plague weeks before. Cutting through the hospital-square-now-monument-grounds to reach the military office, the lieutenant paused briefly to gaze at the monolith. It was etched with all the names of their dead. He glanced once at the approaching corporal. White flowers bloomed around the monolith in the shape of a demon circle, which was also lined in white stone, creating a real demon circle.

“Corporal Reemas,” Lt. Gillway smiled, hefting the packages he was carrying higher in his arms so they would not slip.

The corporal joined him in front of the monument, glancing at the lieutenant’s load. “What’s that you have there?”

“Oh, supplies. We’re brewing up more of that fungal treatment for the new hospital. Apparently the new head doctor has requested it along with some kind of parasite treating enema he hears Jonis knows how to make.” The lieutenant smirked. “And of course I have a few personal things here, but that’s a secret.”

Cpl. Reemas frowned. “You spend a lot of time with that demon.”

“Actually, technically, he’s not a demon.” The lieutenant continued on his way, turning from the stone monument. He passed the flowers with a light skip to his step.

“I saw what he did to that hunter and his horse. I was with Lieutenant Laslow,” the corporal said. “He’s a demon, I tell you.”

Lt. Gillway chuckled, glancing at the skyline. “Jonis sets you into a quite a nervous stir, doesn’t he?”

“And he doesn’t you?” the corporal snapped, following at a hasty trot.

The lieutenant shook his head. “Nope. I figured him out. He’s a good kid who wants to be like everyone else. He always wears gloves. He never enters the barracks without permission. He tries so hard to please the captain and the lieutenant. Jonis is about as impressionable and helpful as any mother would ever want a son to be.  And he is no demon.”

He could hear his fellow officer moan. That only made him smirk more.

“He can suck the life out of you with one touch,” Cpl. Reemas snapped, keeping up with him.

Lt. Gillway raised his own finger and poked the corporal in the forehead. “I’ve heard it already. So what?”

“So what?” The corporal choked with exasperation. “So what?! Lieutenant? That kid can kill you.”

Stopping, the lieutenant sighed, looking his friend in the eye. “We all have the capacity to kill, Corporal. It is our choice that matters. In his case, he runs from it. And, he is not a demon.”

“He is too! No normal man can do what he can do with just the touch of a finger!” The corporal shouted back at him, his voice starting to draw attention from the passersby.

Sighing, glancing around, the lieutenant said, “Fine. I’ll let you in on a secret.”

He pulled the corporal to the side of the road. Looking left and right again, he spoke in a whisper as he pulled out the other package from his arms. Lifting it, “See this?”

The man saw a box of steaming buns. The corporal nodded his head slowly, wondering what was really in the box.

“In this box is the only food in this city Jonis has never remembered eating before,” the lieutenant said.

“This is a secret?” Cpl. Reemas irritably replied.

“Shut up and listen.” The lieutenant put the box of food back in his sack. “What Private Macoy is, is not demon. He is half-human and half something else. His memory stretches back about three thousand years. These are things I’ve learned just from talking to him.”

“Ok….” The corporal took in a breath and eyed him, especially inspecting the lieutenant’s eyes to make sure they weren’t turning blue. “If he is—what did you call it? ‘Something else’? Then what is he, if he isn’t demon?”

“Do you remember the legend of the Sky Lord?” Lt. Gillway leaned in closer, whispering.

Cpl. Reemas nodded. “Of course.”

“Do you remember where