Duality, Rowan Erlking [best ebook reader ubuntu txt] 📗

alone in the tree. He set Bernum on the boardwalk then took off again as fast as the waves crashed down on the shore, the beach sand stirring up with his wing flapping. Bernum had to bat the sand away from his tightly closed eyes, hoping and waiting for the bird man’s quick return. In the back of his mind it itched with terror that the demon would go back to Omoni’s only to kidnap his sister and fly her off to someplace with the circus over the border into Hann territory. But he kicked that idea out with bite, his eyes turned skyward in search of his sister. It wouldn’t dare. Bernum was sure they knew he would bring down a curse on them all for touching her—and Malkia would do the same. Five minutes later, the birdman landed on the boardwalk with Malkia.

Hopping forward with a bow, the birdman said to Bernum, “Go, magicians. Go home and be free.”

Malkia took her brother’s hand. Bernum nodded to the birdman.

“Thank you,” Bernum said.

The black-and-white feathered demon smiled. “My pleasure. We birdmen like magic makers. Always have.”

He launched into the sky without another word. The sand gusted up, spiraling high into a dust devil around the brother and sister until it settled down again over them in powdered rain.

Bernum shook his hair out as Malkia coughed.

When he could open his eyes, Bernum said, peering to the end of the boardwalk. “Well, I think we’d better get going, like he said.”

Malkia nodded, peering that way also. “We’ll need something to pay the driver, like you said.”

With a glance at the scrolls Jonis had given them, Bernum exhaled. He hooked them into his arm and started off. He knew exactly how long that trip would take, and it would take the rest of the night to get to the inn without being seen to do it. Luckily, none of the police would be looking for them at the shore.

Chapter Five: Requiem

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The carriage cost them ten copper pieces apiece. It cost them another ten for the driver to keep his mouth shut about the state of their sand-covered clothes and the hasty way they heaved up the travel chest Malkia had summoned from his lodgings onto the back of the carriage. They paid him another ten to hurry quickly to Kibilla where they intended to change carriages and go on to Yapan. The driver weighed the coins in his hand with a satisfied fat-cat smile as he skipped to his seat and grabbed the reins. There was only one other rider with them in the carriage. Luckily for them, he was too drunk to notice both brother and sister looking out the window at the cries of the police chasing after a white demon leaving the city skirts.

In Kibilla, Bernum and Malkia hurried to Ludy’s home and emptied out everything having to do with Malkia. All was packed into another traveling case then heaved onto a larger carriage with more spacious room. And both brother and sister washed and changed into more respectable clothes for their journey home. When they arrived in Yapan at the carriage house and hired a goat cart to take their things, the locals stared at the twins with a drawn in breath, blinking in awe. The pair marched to their father’s house with dignity they had never seen in the children before.

“Bernum! Malkia! My heavens, where have you returned from?” Beyan the schoolmaster jogged from the fruit vendor’s stall where he had just been inspecting a guava he had intended to purchase. His basket was still swinging from the crook of his arm, mostly empty. “You two look so…accomplished. Have you finished your studies already?”

Malkia nodded and was about to say she was, but Bernum replied before she could.

“Not quite yet. We’re returning from an internship we were doing on the coast. We’ll be going back to school shortly for advanced study. Do you know if anyone came to see our father while we were gone?”

Beyan shrugged. “Not that I know of. I heard he was ill, but has gotten better. Your brother has been tending the shop.”

The twins halted. Malkia pulled on Beyan’s arm, “Do you know who the constable is right now?”

Blinking at her, Beyan nodded. “Sure. Constable Gulda. Tigert’s father. You know Tigert. He was that bright boy from the weavers’ guild family who could run a mile in six minutes.”

They nodded, sharing a look. Beyan would chatter on about Tigert for an hour if they didn’t stop him.

“Ok.” Bernum gestured to the goat cart for Malkia. “You take this home as fast as you can, and I’ll get the constable. Don’t go outside the house for anything until I get back.”

“Ok, bossy,” Malkia said, though she was smirking at him. “Just hurry at it. We only have so much time before they catch up to us.”

“Catch up to you?” Beyan looked from sister to brother, his eyes narrowing with a twitch. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”

Bernum looked at him, exhaled then put an arm around his old schoolmaster to bring him close and whisper in his ear. He said, “There was this crooked merchant out in Jonori that has double dealt with Malkia and me. Something happened while we were there—something that made it so Malkia and I had to run. But believe me when I say that merchant was a low life murdering creep and deserved whatever we did. He tried to kill Dad.”

Beyan pulled back.

Nodding, Bernum added, “That’s why Dad got sick. The merchant poisoned him.”

“Poisoned?” Beyan’s lips went white. “But Bernum…why?”

“It’s a long story,” Bernum said with a look to Malkia. “But we need the constable now before it is too late. The trouble is going to follow us here, and Malkia and I have to leave Yapan—maybe for good.”

Blinking more at him, Beyan said while taking two steps back from the pair, “This doesn’t have anything to do with the rumors of a demon running around Jonori city, does it? I know you two would not hesitate to do something drastic if you thought your father was in danger.”

Malkia clenched her jaw then said, “It does, but that’s the merchant’s fault. He bought property that belonged to that demon.”

Bernum put himself between Beyan and his sister, watching Beyany’s eyes widen. He shook his head at her with a hiss. “You can’t say it like that. No one is going to understand.”

She just shrugged and went back to the goat cart where the boy leading it had been standing knock-kneed with bulgy eyes at them. With a waved for him to follow her, she trotted off towards their home. The boy followed her, but kept his distance now. Bernum watched with a frown. Despite all promises to the contrary, Ludy had rubbed off on her after all. Malkia was just as flippant as that woman—though this was also much how Malkia was as a kid. Beyan was also watching her trot down the road, maintaining a grimace of disapproval as his eyes flickered over her figure as though mourning the loss of perfection the silent and contained Maldos woman she would have been if she had just stayed in Yapan. Funny, though, as Malkia strode off, Bernum noticed that she had lost all the skittishness she had learned at Omoni’s home, and that made him happy. His sister was free.

“What kind of trouble will follow you here?” Beyan murmured, inching towards Bernum again with a wary twitch.

Turning then taking Beyan along the arm, Bernum marched them both towards the town center to the police station.

“Jonori police,” Bernum said, holding the schoolmaster a little tight, just in case. “They might come here to charge Malkia and me with theft or destruction of property—maybe even conspiracy with foreigners.”

Beyan pulled back again, but Bernum did not let go. “You what? What did you two do?”

Tightening his grip, Bernum hissed lower to the man’s ear. “I’ll tell you all about it as we go up there, but you have to believe me. We had no choice. It was either that or let him get away with Malkia—and I wasn’t about to let that happen.”

Nodding, Beyan leaned in closer to hear as they marched up the road.

Seeing he had acquired his old schoolmaster’s confidence, Bernum drew in a breath then related to Beyan all the details about the letters, the death of Ludy and Malkia’s kidnapping, down to the poisoning of his father and the crooked contract the merchant had made. He explained the situation with the circus performers, their hand in forcing Bernum to deal with them though he left out the part about the deal he had made with the wizard to heal Dennik. It was unlikely the man would keep his promise since the entire circus would flee south to Hann rather than north to Brein Amon. He did, however, mention the deal he and Malkia made with the northern white demon—specifically pointing out that the cabinet was stolen property several times to reassure Beyan their cause was just. Beyan just held his breath until Bernum finished then exhaled as if he had finished running a long distance.

“So…you need the constable to…” Beyan seemed to be at a loss for words. They had arrived on the stoop where the deputy spotted them then stepped out with a curious look at the tall magician and the school master, hiking up the waist to his pants.

“To make sure that my father and Dennik will be protected from any reprisals,” Bernum said.

Beyan breathed easier, nodding. “Ok. Ok. That I can handle.”

The constable came out further, nodding to Beyan though he looked at Bernum as if he wasn’t sure who he was. He certainly didn’t recognize him though Bernum knew the face of his old classmate, Henak, right away.

“What can I do for you?” Deputy Henak asked.

Bernum turned to him with a bow and recited a succinctly watered down version of the events he had just explained to Beyan, then added, “They will make all sorts of accusations against Malkia and me. Don’t believe them. The merchant had the police in his pocket, and they refused to listen to Malkia’s pleas when she demanded to go home. They favor Jonori locals and would not give us of Yapan any ear—no matter how just our cause was.”

The deputy just stared. His hand fallen to the pistol at his hip instinctively. His eyes twitched to look over at the road as if Jonori police were already there, though no one in such fancy clothes stood out on the street. “So you think they might come here?”

“Might,” Bernum said. He then glanced down the road. “Though they’ll go to Kibilla first. And I am sure they’ll send someone to the magic school in Yolund. They’ll call Malkia a witch, so beware.”

“A witch?” The deputy stepped back from Bernum. “She hasn’t become a witch, is she?”

Bernum shook his head, now looking towards his house. “Of course not. She was studying to be a midwife. That’s all.”

He didn’t dare tell them about the magic she could do. He knew those in Yolund were just as closed-minded about women doing magic as those in Jonori. Most non-magic users didn’t understand the nature of magic anyway. Most feared