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

cleansing of Ladis. Though Lt. Gillway had always been friendly with him since that time, there had also been that distance; him being a Cordril with the deadly touch and Lt. Gillway a wisecracking gambler set to keep an eye on him. Lt. Gillway was meant to manipulate Jonis’s skills for the benefit of the army and to keep him under control. However, as they spent time together, Lt. Gillway did not even try to influence Jonis. In fact, as they left their last town Lt. Gillway frankly said that the Patriarch’s orders to keep Jonis in control was a joke.

Jonis smiled as he looked up at the ceiling, recalling Lt. Gillway’s words with a sigh. It gave him some relief.

“You know, you are way too impressionable for a demon. You know by now that I’m here to keep an eye on you while you do your stuff, don’t you?” Lt. Gillway had laughed. The others had been listening. Cpl. Pegsley grew more concerned every minute with how lightly the lieutenant took his charge. “What a laugh. You are so busy trying to get our approval, I don’t think the Patriarch has anything to worry about.”

But Cpl. Higges had been a killjoy then as always, cutting in. “Yes, but Private Macoy is just a kid right now. What will happen when he grows up?”

That always seemed to be the question.

Jonis glanced at Cpl. Higges lying on his bed on the other side of the room. Despite his grim view on life, Higges was one of the few that did not mind working alone with Jonis. He had been setting the permanent demon wards in Wendora with Jonis while the others had lounged in the hotel room. In a way, Jonis guessed that Cpl. Higges secretly agreed with Lt. Gillway in that he was not a threat at all.

“I got it!” Lt. Gillway marched into the room with the paper from the telegraph office in hand.

Everyone except Lt. Pratch sat up. He was sound asleep.

Cpl. Pegsley crossed the room in two steps, nearly grabbing for the paper. Cpl. Higges glanced at Jonis who mentally prepared himself for bad news.

Cpl. Wigg jumped off his bed, his eyes wide and eager. “What does it say?”

Lt. Gillway took a breath and peered over at Jonis. “I suggest you all take a seat.”

“No. That sounds like bad news already.” Cpl. Pegsley groaned.

Cpl. Wigg sat down at once with a frown of dismay.

But Jonis grew hopeful, sitting straighter.

Clearing his throat, Lt. Gillway read the orders:

 

Attention men. Stop. You are to proceed to the town of Kalsworth just beyond Barnid City. Stop. Demon problem. Stop. Must eradicate. Stop. Unusual case. Stop. Not worms. Stop. One demon said to bite victims to kill and eat. Stop. Demon said to have red eyes, fangs, and rotting skin. Stop.

 

Lt. Gillway glanced up.

Jonis’s face had gone ashen, and Jonis put a hand on his mouth as if he were going to be sick. His three-thousand-year-old memory quickly pieced together what kind of demon this creature was.

Lt. Gillway continued to read.

 

Attend to at once. Stop.

 

He put the telegram down.

“That’s it?” Cpl. Wigg jumped to his feet with a shout. “I thought we were only going to deal with worms!”

Cpl. Pegsley’s eyes were on the ground in a grim stare, shaking his head. “Not more demons. I thought we were done by now.”

“This is all your fault!” Rounding on Jonis with clenched teeth, Cpl. Wigg pointed his finger at him. “I could have been taking a bath in Ladis right now! Meeting girls! Gone dancing! But no! I’m out here hunting monsters that can kill me!”

“Hey!” Lt. Gillway interceded with a step between them. “Don’t take it out on him.”

“If we don’t hunt the demons, they’ll eventually come after us.” Jonis stood up as if he would fight. His face was already red, and he was clenching his fists, trying to control his anger “That demon they mentioned is extremely dangerous.”

“As dangerous as you?” Cpl. Pegsley’s body shook, keeping not only distance but also recoiling as if Jonis had led them on that journey only to torture them and then kill them. His voice grew bitter. His breathing went heavy from panic. Only his eyes betrayed his hate.

Dropping back his shoulders with a groan, Lt. Gillway played interference once more by stepping between them and raising his hands, though he was tired of having to do it so often. He cast a look at Jonis for him to be civil, for his sake.

Jonis stepped around him.

“Worse.” Jonis’s eyes narrowed at Cpl. Pegsley in a glare, approaching the man who had been such a complainer since the beginning of their job.

Cpl. Pegsley retreated, backing towards the wall faster than Lt. Gillway could reach out to hold Jonis back. Jonis did not quite get into the corporal’s face, almost rounding on his friend to tell him to mind his own business when he felt a grip on his arm.

Rising from his bed, Cpl. Higges walked to Lt. Gillway, reaching out for the paper, though he also blocked Jonis’s advance. “Can I see this?”

Nodding with a shrug, Lt. Gillway handed it over, letting Jonis’s arm go.

Peering at the telegram first, Cpl. Higges then looked to Jonis. “Ok. Tell us what this means. What are we up against?”

Jonis turned from Cpl. Pegsley with a glare still on him, and he took the paper.

“One demon said to bite victims to kill and eat. Has red eyes, fangs, and rotting skin.” He raised his eyes. “It sounds like a Walking Corpse to me.”

“A what?” Cpl. Wigg recoiled, mostly scowling at Jonis as he backed to his bed.

Giving him a disdainful look, Jonis turned from Cpl. Higges to face Cpl. Wigg. Cpl. Wigg backed off like Cpl. Pegsley had.

“A Walking Corpse. A demon that is not really alive, so it is nearly impossible to kill.”

“What do you know about it?” Lt. Gillway folded his arms, noticing how Jonis’s lips had gone white despite his anger. In fact, Jonis looked severely agitated about their new assignment. Jonis pulled his arms into himself in an extremely defensive posture, which was not the response he was hoping for. What he was hoping for was that look of excitement and relief. He knew that Jonis really did love seeing the countryside and doing what he felt was a good act. For that reason Lt, Gillway had purposely asked their captain if they could still continue demon hunting for Jonis’s sake. And the captain had been only too happy when he passed on the assignment he received from the Patriarch of Brein Amon, which was, for the most part, to continue demon hunting in the land and, if possible, expand their work once their group was properly trained in fighting all kinds of demons.

Jonis handed the telegram back with shaking fingers. “A Walking Corpse kills with a poison. The fangs it has are full of venom. If he bites you, you become infected with his disease. Usually it eats you once your body has been completely overrun, though you are still alive, but you turn into a rotting corpse yourself. In a way, it is a cannibal. It never eats live flesh.”

Cpl. Pegsley staggered to his bed and sat down. Cpl. Wigg turned green, cupping his hand over his mouth.

“So how do you kill it, since it is already—as you say—dead?” Cpl. Higges followed Jonis to where he also looked sick from dread.

Lt. Gillway peered at Jonis’s still-troubled face. Jonis was glaring at the ground, thinking hard, delving into an ancient memory passed on from several generations of Cordrils before him.

“I think…I think…” Jonis bit his lip. He looked up. “You have to cut its head off, and then burn the body. The problem is, if you cut off a body part, it keeps moving. You know, like a chicken that has its head chopped off.”

Cpl. Higges turned his head away, cringing.

“What’s going on?” Lt. Pratch rolled over. “You are making such a racket. Can’t a guy get some sleep?”

“The Cordril got us stuck in another job,” Cpl. Pegsley said, looking ready to vomit.

Lt. Pratch sat up, scratching his scalp. “What? I thought we got all the worms.”

“Lieutenant, get out of bed.” Lt. Gillway crossed the room, grabbing his blankets and jerking off the covers, nearly ripping the lieutenant from out of his bed. “We have orders from the Patriarch himself. We are going to Kalsworth. That’s a town just outside Barnid. Go pack your things.”

Lt. Pratch’s eyes darkened with a resentful glare. Then he fixed that look on Jonis, kicking off the rest of his blankets. 

“I hope you’re happy. I bet you just love having us running around, homeless.”

Jonis lifted his chin without a word. Of course they would see it that way. Only Lt. Gillway looked like he enjoyed going from village to village with him, but then Lt. Gillway really was an odd egg. There was something repulsive and disloyal in the way the other soldiers unwillingly had gone about their duty to clean out the demon threat in the south. Such a viewpoint was not one Jonis could understand. It was like they took their previous comfort for granted, comfort Jonis had wished was a given element for life. Reality told him differently. Comfort was like a pillow, something you used only occasionally and always left at home.

He watched the other men go grudgingly over to their bags, packing up everything they had spread out in the hotel room. Only Jonis had remained packed. His experience and ancient memory had taught him that there was no such thing as stability. Life was constantly changing. He had to be ready for it.

 

They went to the Wendora train station, flashing their military transit passes at the conductors to grab a seat on the first steam engine towards Barnid. The first stop along the way would take them to Harmas. As they took their seats, Lt. Pratch and Cpl. Wigg were already discussing a brief stop to visit the female entertainers. Even Cpl. Higges looked interested in the idea, much to Jonis’s disgust. To his relief, Lt. Gillway nixed the idea.

“We are not stopping until we reach Barnid, and that is that.”  Lt. Gillway folded his arms glaring at them.

“Spoil sport,” Lt. Pratch said.

They took a seat in a six-seater compartment, all on the military tab to cover the high price. The seats were plush velvet of deep hunters green. Brass trim edged the doors and windows, with curtains they could draw if they wanted sleep. Jonis found the train a great deal more comfortable than the airplane he took to Harmas. For starters, his bags were happily where he could see them. That was one thing he really hated about the plane, how they took their duffels and stuffed them away in a compartment where anyone could get at them. Of course, now he was extra protective of the sword he was carrying, refusing to give up to anyone even for a moment.

As the train clacked on the tracks, the steam and smoke spewed by their window with the countryside passing by like a picture show.

Lt. Gillway leaned near to Jonis, whispering. “So. Why so tense? You are master at demon hunting by now, right? What is there to worry about?”

Jonis sighed and turned from the window. He had been watching them pass the jersey cows grazing in the fields among the heaps of hay. “This is not an ordinary demon we are dealing with, Merkham. Walking Corpses are very tricky to kill. They aren’t like other demons. They’re infectious.”

He got an incredulous stare from Lt. Gillway. “Infectious? What do you mean?”

Thinking hard for words, Jonis struggled to explain. “My ancestors avoided them entirely. If they bite you, you have about a few weeks before it either eats you or you become one of them.”

Gasping, the lieutenant’s face drew white. “Become one of them? How is that? No. Demons aren’t like that. They’re—”

“No, Merkham. Demons are any perversion of nature that magic has