Duality by Rowan Erlking (classic books for 13 year olds txt) 📕

“There you are!” Jonis called to them the moment he saw them. “Help me. I don’t know what he put in it to weigh it down, but it has gotten heavy.”

“Maybe there is a weight spell on it,” Bernum said, striding over the torn carpet. “Ever think of that?”

Dropping both feet down, Jonis made a face that said he was too exhausted to think at the moment. Then he hopped up onto Omoni’s desk to peer at the top of the cabinet. Bernum and Malkia joined him, watching the white demon run his fingers across the wood. He scratched it with his fingernails, muttered something under his breath then reached into his side pants pocket where he took out a folding knife. With that he scraped some wood off the top of the cabinet, chucking the chips onto the floor with personal disgust. He muttered again, tapping the surface with his hand. “…disrespect to Mr. Farren.”

“Will it move now?” Bernum asked, tilting his head patiently to the side.

Casting him a look, Jonis nodded. “Yeah.”

He hopped off the desk. Then gesturing for Bernum to take the other side of the cabinet, Jonis grabbed his side and pushed.

It lurched out of place.

“Whoa!” Bernum just about fell over, catching the edge before the cabinet crushed him.

Malkia jumped forward to steady it.

“Let’s get it out the door,” Jonis said, pointing towards the smoke clouds just beyond.

Nodding, Bernum took hold of his side of the cabinet again.

“Heave!” Jonis lifted his side up. Bernum kept the other side.

They carried the cabinet all the way to the door before they had to set it down. By then Malkia had pushed all who and what that she could out of their way so they would not have anything to trip over. As they hefted the cabinet up again, Malkia kept her eye out for any more of the merchant’s guards—though she was also searching for Omoni himself. Among the sprawled and unconscious, he was not one of them. Neither were the butler and few others that she knew.

The cabinet made it out across the front stoop. Bernum nearly dropped it there, tripping when he looked up at the full yard.

“Oh, crud.”

“Hey! It’s getting heavy!” Jonis let out a moan to prove it. The cabinet tipped towards Bernum.

Propping it up, Bernum then lowered his side. “Put it down. We’ve got other problems.”

The white demon peered around the cabinet to see what Bernum meant.

The yard was not full of guards—thankfully. Yet it was full of circus performers, each one bracing behind the stone wall in bunches as they muttered plans. At the far gate where the two guards were either unconscious or dead, the three of them spotted a collection of police officers, all of their weapons drawn, plus one standing in the road with a megaphone. In the ruckus, neither Bernum nor Malkia had heard the polices’ cries, but now they were clear. Give up, or you’ll be fired upon—was all they heard.

“Bernum?” Malkia pulled to his side. “Did you have a plan for escaping the yard?”

Cringing, Bernum said, “Those circus people weren’t supposed to come. I was supposed to sneak out with you while the wizard and Jonis were escaping…you know, how they would.”

“We’re in trouble,” Jonis said. But he then turned the cabinet around, the red spell paper side facing front.

Bernum blinked back at him. “What do you intend to do? Is there a spell in there that can help us?”

Jonis shook his head, feeling over the paper seals, yet not quite opening them. He exhaled with a glance back at the police, then up at Bernum. “No. I just want the scrolls inside. I’ll have to abandon the cabinet.”

Taking in the scene around them, Bernum frowned. His eyes fell on the red warriess from KiTai, bracing herself next to the birdman who lifted one of his white-and-black wings to shield her—though she batted it down with a chastening look mixed with affectionate sorrow. The Blue Lord was on the other side of the wall, his sword ready in one hand as he hissed to the wizard beside him. That Hann man now looked anxious, though not so much for himself as for the others. The Perri assassins hunkered down, ready to die if necessary. The dog trainer with his pets braced himself to handle the police if he must. The bird trainer was on guard with one of his falcons not far off. The clowns were huddled together, planning what gymnastic feats they had to come up with to escape. Then came the megaphone again.

“Demon conspirators! Give up! You cannot win this!”

Bernum blinked then looked back to Jonis who rolled his eyes, muttering.

Malkia drew close to Bernum, whispering. “Do you think they will shoot at us also?”

Shrugging, Bernum gently pushed her behind him then marched down the drive towards the gate.

The police guns cocked, clicking in a chorus as he came closer. Yet, as the chief recognized who was coming, he lifted his hand to call for a halt—or at least a listening pause.

“Magician, are you with them?” the chief called through the megaphone.

Glancing to the Blue Lord on one side, then to the red-haired warriess on the other, Bernum took in a breath and said, “What if I were?”

There was a gasp among the police, especially when Jonis suddenly lifted his eyebrows at Bernum with unique surprise that the young Maldos man would admit it.

The chief said, his voice clear with dismay, “Then I would have to arrest you for assisting demons in—”

“What if they were assisting me?” Bernum asked.

The policeman stiffened. “Is that what is going on?”

Malkia jogged over to Bernum, grabbing hold of his arm yet keeping close to his side.

The police recoiled, a shudder of horror going through them.

“You have conspired with the witch?” the police chief asked.

Looking down at the ground, Bernum cursed. He then lifted his head a little higher, stiffer. “Is it wrong for a man to want to save his twin sister?”

Another shudder ran through the police. Their eyes flickered from one face to the other.

“She was held against her will,” Bernum said, getting bolder and taking another step towards the police. “Merchant Omoni poisoned my father so he couldn’t protest it. So I came here to take her home. Are you willing to contend with that?”

“What proof do you have?” one of the policemen said. Bernum recognized the man’s sneer. The way the man looked down his nose at both he and everyone else in Omoni’s courtyard said it didn’t matter if he were Maldos if he was not a local of Jonori.

Bernum said, “None except the word of my sister.”

Malkia hopped forward instantly. “I choose to walk away. It is in my right to leave a relationship that I do not want, according to Maldos law, isn’t it?”

“Then why didn’t you walk away earlier, witch?” the magician asked.

“She’s not a witch. She’s a magister,” Jonis burst forward, pushing the cabinet down the hill as if it were now on casters. Clearly he had worked a spell to make the cabinet not scrape against the ground, though Bernum didn’t know what it was.

The police lifted their guns up again, bracing against an attack.

“Get back! Demon!” The police chief pointed his weapon at Jonis’s forehead.

Jonis cast a tired look to Bernum. “I’m sorry. I can’t wait. And besides, maybe this will save us some time.”

“So you are the one who brought the demon here!” the chief turned his weapon towards Bernum once more. All eyes followed that way.

Bernum shook his head. “No. The Cordril just came south to claim some stolen property, just like I did.” He then looked to Malkia. “Merchant Omoni had something of his also.”

The police blinked at him, too distracted to notice that behind the twins, the cabinet and Jonis—in the yard the performers were creeping together on one side. Bernum was trying to ignore their scurrying, their rushing about and whispering, especially since he saw the warriess nod to him before gesturing to the others to go to the wizard who acted excited with an idea. That idea took them to a far wall that rested along an embankment leading into another property. The wizard set his hand to the stone. Rather, Bernum kept the attention of the police as best as he could. After all, the performers had saved his life, and they weren’t even supposed to be there.

“How dare you accuse an upstanding citizen—” The police chief was already fuming, his finger pulling tighter on the trigger.

“That—” Malkia swore at him. “—is not an upstanding citizen! He’s a kidnapper, a murderer, and a thief!”

“Silence, witch!” The policeman turned his weapon towards her. “You have caused enough trouble in this city already!”

Bernum shoved between them. “No. She is right, and you shouldn’t talk to her like that.”

The pistol went off. Bernum saw the bullet crack off from his face just a centimeter before it ricocheted into the street.

The policeman retreated a step, peering at his gun barrel.

“I’m a master magician,” Bernum said, taking another step towards him. “And so is Malkia. You cannot threaten us. You should listen to us.”

Jonis nodded once then drew his enormous sword. Several of the police let out a cry of terror, staggering back from him. But the white demon merely drew a circle around them in the ground, encasing Bernum and Malkia as well as the chest and himself. He recited the words to a hate ward then enacted it. Once done, Jonis’s posture relaxed.

“Ok, I realize that we are at an impasse, but I have something to say before you all shoot at me.” Jonis stabbed his broadsword into the ground, resting his wrist on it like one would a cane. His shining eyes peered at the police as he took a step to the side with a gesture for Bernum and Malkia to go behind him. Jonis said with a proper bow, “I am a lieutenant in the Brein Amon Army and a magister. My name is Jonis Macoy. And I came here to—”

“We don’t care who you are, demon!” one of the policemen shouted.

Bernum rolled his eyes at the policeman with slumped shoulders. “Well, you should. He’s famous.”

“Rumor has it he ended an entire demon bird population up north—single handedly,” Malkia said, nodding.

The police chief drew in a breath, blinking at both magic users and the white demon.

Jonis smirked as he gave brother and sister a nod. “Yes. The point was, this cabinet was stolen from the military base up at Dalis, and someone has been selling the property. This cabinet was the prime container for my things. And if you had any sense of the law, you will allow me to reclaim it.”

This caused the police chief to bluster, though no formed words came out.

Another cop shouted instead, “Prove it’s yours!”

Nodding to him, Jonis grinned. “I will.”

He stepped to the side of the cabinet as if presenting a prize and patted the red paper.

“See that? That is a sealing spell, which I know you can read. It has my name right there.” Jonis pointed to the scrawled signature that clearly did say it belonged to Jonis Macoy.

The police bristled, their shoulders squaring a little as if that didn’t matter.

“The only person who can break open the seal is the one who made it,” Jonis said.

“How do we know that is not a lie?” the chief responded, tilting back his chin.

Bernum rolled his eyes and was about to say how, but he noticed just then that the crowd of performers was nearly gone from the yard. The wizard had made an enormous hole in the walled earth, and nearly everyone had gone in. The birdman remained with the warriess and the Blue Lord, them taking up the rear just in case. The wizard was also there, beckoning the others to go in as fast as they could. He cast one look to Bernum as