by Delmire Hart
“Zaxor?” he called, not having to wait long.
The demon appeared almost immediately, a smirk in place and not a single crease on his clothing.
“For Bel,” Barkley explained, cheeks heating at the knowing look Zaxor gave him.
The demon sighed in disappointment as he accepted the book.
“And here, I thought you were ready for more. How disappointing.” He took a moment to study the worn cover, his tail sneaking up beside him to caress the soft leather. “Well, this might be enough to pull the recluse from his research for a few hours.”
“Did you ever meet the author? It seemed like you knew him too.”
“I did,” Zaxor replied, his expression turning nostalgic. “Bel and Wesley were childhood friends and lovers. Wesley was responsible for most of the ‘adventures’ that they went on together. He was still dragging Bel into mischief even during the war, and I was called on more than once to get them out of trouble.”
“Sounds like they had fun,” Barkley said wistfully, only to be surprised by Zaxor’s snort.
“Wesley certainly thought so, and it was amusing for me to tease them before helping them, but Bel is happiest amongst his books. He was a rather unwilling participant to every adventure.”
“Oh.” Barkley’s earlier disappointment returned.
The picture in his head of Belvadair the Brave did not match up with Bel at all. In the stories, he was an intrepid adventurer who went out of his way to help people and often got entangled in even more daring plots.
“Well, just tell him to be careful.” Barkley crossed his arms to give the demon his sternest look. “Even if it’s not accurate, that’s a very precious book of mine. But now I need to go back to studying.”
Zaxor huffed, his tail curling back in annoyance, before he vanished without a sound. Barkley sighed as he turned his attention to the thick tomes he had placed on his bookshelf. As much as he knew he needed to study, he didn’t really feel like it. Especially when he knew it was all false. But, he had time before dinner, and tomorrow he was going to ask the headmaster about taking the exams early. He just needed to bear with it for a while longer.
***
“No.”
Headmaster Archibald, or just Headmaster as he demanded to be called, was just as rude and abrasive as when Barkley had first met him. His beady eyes stared disdainfully down at Barkley as though he was nothing more than an insect on his shoe. Without Max there to temper Barkley, he struggled with the urge to bite back. Instead, he took a deep calming breath before trying to explain himself.
“I forged a contract with a demon to help end this war. People are dying every day and I can do something about it. That’s why—"
“I said no,” the headmaster cut across him before giving him a dismissive wave of his hand. “You are to attend classes like everyone else. I do not play favourites amongst the students here; you will not get any special treatment just because of your demon.”
Barkley grit his teeth in frustration. As he opened his mouth to argue his case again, Zaxor popped into view beside him. Headmaster Archibald’s eyebrows raised as he looked the demon over. It would be his first time seeing Zaxor, but Barkley wasn’t about to let them have a conversation. Before the demon could taunt the prickly mage in front of them, Barkley grabbed his arm and forcibly dragged him out the door. It was probably considered rude to leave like that, but it was better that he preserve what chance he still had of getting his mage licence. Zaxor followed him without resistance and Barkley quickly shut the door behind them.
“That was unexpected,” Zaxor mused as he followed the young man through the winding corridors. “I thought you’d fight your case to the bitter end. I was quite looking forward to putting the arrogant human in his place.”
“And risk getting kicked out?” Barkley retorted, a new plan forming in his head. “I haven’t spent all this time here only to leave now without the stupid mage license. But I have an idea.”
“Oh?” How the demon could drawl out his words in such an amused yet taunting way was beyond him. It was almost impressive, but no less annoying for that. “Something fun, I hope.”
“For you maybe,” Barkley muttered, a sense of resignation settling over him.
If he had to attend class, so be it. But, he would tell each of the teachers exactly why he was there before letting Zaxor loose on them, so to speak. Hopefully the demon mocking their lessons and picking apart their theories would have them clamouring for a way to get rid of Barkley. If enough teachers complained to the Headmaster, he might change his mind in order to be left alone. It was a stretch, but it just might work.
“How exciting. And what, pray tell, am I going to be doing?” Interest could be read in every line of the demon’s body and Barkley held back a sigh.
“I am going to class. You can do what you want,” he replied vaguely, but the fiendish grin said Zaxor had caught on immediately. Or at least, he was taking it as the permission to wreak havoc that it was.
They walked side by side in silence through the twisting corridors. It surprised Barkley; he thought Zaxor would have vanished by now to reappear once he reached the classroom. Yet the demon seemed in no hurry. He walked with an air of leisure that Barkley found himself envious of. If only he could be so relaxed. Pausing at an intersection between three corridors and some stairs, Barkley realised they were lost. It’s what he got for paying too much attention to the creature walking with him and not enough on the warren of hallways and doors.
“I don’t suppose you can just magic us to the classroom like you did my bedroom yesterday?” Barkley asked as he peered down one hall in a vain attempt to work out where they were.
“No,” came the amused response. “In the human realm, I can only teleport to anchors.”
“Anchors?” Barkley turned his attention back to the demon, his curiosity piqued.
“Something tangible imbued with my magic to act as a point of reference that I can travel to. To be able to teleport anywhere outside of the demon realm, we need an anchor in that location. Each anchor must be continually fed a small amount of magic to keep it active as well, so few demons can have networks of teleport locations.”
“The strange stone in my room,” Barkley said as realisation hit. “But you can teleport to me; does that make me an anchor too?”
“Very astute of you.” Zaxor seemed pleased with Barkley’s quick understanding, and with a flick of his hand, along with a small lurching feeling, they were back in his tiny room. It seemed that while travelling to a different plane was smooth, travelling between two points in the same plane was more of a bumpy ride. “Most of the contract magic goes into making the other party an anchor that requires no magical upkeep from the demon. Many humans seem to believe the magic that binds us together in a contract somehow knows the terms of the agreement and will activate when they are met, but that’s not how magic works. Magic is, in essence, energy. Such a primal force cannot see nor understand like we can.”
Barkley picked up the odd many sided stone from his desk to inspect it with renewed interest. It looked as it did before until Zaxor leaned over him to press a slender finger against one of the smooth sides. The inner glow intensified and bright orange runes appeared on every side. Even though it appeared magical, Barkley could feel nothing when he touched it. It felt the same as before even as it almost seemed to hum visually with its magical power.
Placing the rock back down, he turned to Zaxor, questions brimming in his mind.
“Do you have more of these?”
“Yes, in each plane that I have an interest. One here in the human world with you, one in each of the four elemental planes, and one in Althul.”
“Althul…” Barkley repeated, wondering why that name sounded familiar.
“Althul is the empire of the sky people. I believe they share a common ancestor with humans, but they took up residence on an uninhabited magical plane of existence.”
Barkley led Zaxor from his room to begi
n making the journey to the classroom. At least from here he had a better idea of where they had to go, although they might still get lost. The irony of him learning more from their idle chatter as they walk to his supposed mage lesson than he would during the lesson was not lost on him.
“You will meet János, an Althulean, when you come to my fortress in the demon plane. He contracted me some hundred or so years ago and has joined my collection.”
“You really need to stop referring to people as things,” Barkley protested with a frown. “You act like we are toys you are collecting to show off.”
“That’s not a bad comparison,” Zaxor replied, his tail flicking from side to side quickly.
Was that amusement? The demon’s face held a smirk but his body language suggested more genuine amusement than anything mocking. Still, it was hard for Barkley to read.
“In the demon plane, having the power to hold a large portion of land and keeping a house of different souls is a sign of status. Having many different souls available allows me to complete favours to gain favours in return. Plus, when you live this long, boredom is an issue.”
“I don’t understand,” Barkley confessed. No matter how much he tried to see it from the demon’s perspective, he couldn’t think of someone’s life like that. They weren’t things, but living, breathing creatures with thoughts and feelings of their own. “What would happen if they didn’t want to stay with you forever?”
“Most adapt quickly to their new lives; humans are especially quick.” Zaxor glanced at Barkley with an unreadable look. “It falls to the souls in my collection to upkeep my fortress, which gives them enough direction to keep them occupied until they discover a hobby to take up. For many, such freedom suits them more than the confines of their previous lives. In the case that some struggle to adapt, I will look for ways to ease that. I take great care of my own.”
“Has that happened before? Where someone struggles?”
Barkley had continued to put off thoughts about his future; his brief mental foray into the unknown yesterday had gotten him upset. The more he focused on the immediate, the easier it was to keep calm and continue forward. But their candid conversation was too great of an opportunity to pass up. Most of all, he was worried that he would miss his home, his family.
“Most need a task to keep them busy or they flounder, lost in a sea of endless possibility. If one of my souls cannot find their new focus, I will give them things until we find something that sticks. For a number of souls, they need a fresh focus every hundred years or so. It certainly keeps my fortress lively.” Zaxor smiled, an air of deep satisfaction around him.
It was obvious he took a great deal of personal responsibility for each of the people in his care. That sudden insight changed some of Barkley’s understanding of the demon, although that didn’t fit with his current image of him. If anything, it left Barkley even more confused. Was it like him taking care of his precious books? Zaxor took great pride in looking after his property, but instead of books it was the souls of his previous contracts.
“Of all those that have completed contracts with me, János is struggling the most to adapt. I thought it would be the forestkin twins, but the many gardens keep them busy,” Zaxor said idly, more to himself than Barkley.
“What will you do with him?”
“Hmm, well, that depends on you.”
“Me?” Barkley repeated, confused.
“I tried to give him to Temress, one of the great demon dragons, but she refused. A shame really, it would have been a great favour she owed me in return.”
“You tried to give him away?! He’s not a thing!” Barkley was appalled and outraged at Zaxor’s casual treatment of this János. The demon stopped and stared at him, apparently surprised by his outburst.
“Dragons treat their possessions with great care, and she has been seeking a companion for some time. She has carved out a great fortress in the mountaintop of the tallest mountain on the demon plane. It is much closer in appearance to János’s home than my own fortress and would give him a lot of space for flight.”
“He can fly?”
Zaxor chuckled at Barkley's sudden change from anger to surprise.
“Sky people are similar in appearance to humans, but smaller and thinner. Their bones are light like birds and they have great feathered wings that protrude from their backs. The wings are quite magnificent when they are in good health, but János’s show the turmoil in his mind.”
The words brought an image to Barkley’s mind of a bird that one of his peers tried to keep as a child. They had clipped its wings so it could not fly and kept it locked up in a poorly wrought metal cage. The once beautiful songbird had fallen into a depression and pulled its own feathers out. Even the ones that were left seemed to lose their healthy shine and fell out on their own.
“What will you do if he withers away?” Barkley asked softly, concern lining his features.
“If he reaches a point of no return, I will take János back to Althul and kill him.” Zaxor laughed at Barkley’s aghast look and waved his hand to forestall his outburst. “Much like humans, the Althulean are bound in a cycle of rebirth. If I kill him back on his home plane, it will return his soul into the cycle to be reborn and he may start life anew. But, a contract is a contract, and he agreed to give his soul to me. I will only do that as a last resort, if his soul becomes useless to me.”
For all the care Zaxor seemed to take of his possessions, the callousness of his last statement once again reminded Barkley that he had a different perspective. Zaxor was a demon and he did what he wanted. Barkley was just another soul for his collection to be used as needed and looked after like a prized pet. It left a bitter taste in his mouth.
“However, I will see what needs to be done once your contract is complete. János does not get along with my other souls, and I thought perhaps he only needs a friend. You seem friendly enough, even by human standards.”
“Huh?”
“You can be quite talkative, even with me, and you have already made a friend out of one of the mages.”
They had reached the corridor containing all the classrooms, although Barkley wasn’t sure which one they were in that morning. He paused in front of one of the doors before searching the demon’s face.
“Is that why you agreed to the contract?”
“Not at all,” Zaxor replied with a wide, fiendish grin. “That is merely an observation I made after the fact. It has been some time since a human sought out a higher demon, but I agreed to your contract for the same reason as I agreed to all the others.”
What reason that was, he didn’t elaborate, although he had previously mentioned that he wanted Barkley’s soul for his collection. There was also the obvious answer that this was for his amusement. He certainly seemed entertained as he reached around Barkley to throw the door open wide. Inside, Lucille stood in front of the class, and her glare at the interruption caused him to wince.
Well, time to put all that aside for now and focus on the immediate task. He needed his mage license and he needed it days ago. Squaring his shoulders, he strode into the room and picked a seat at the back. It was only then that he realised he hadn’t even bothered to bring his journal, but what was the point when he was learning things that weren’t correct?
“Oh, so you decided to join us today?” Lucille said, her voice dripping with annoyance. She clearly had not forgiven him for the hassle Zaxor gave her the first time they met. Max had mentioned that she was a generally nice person, but her absolute pet hate was when someone interrupted other people’s learning. Looks like he might never manage to get on her good side at this rate.
“I was hoping to take the mage test early and get out of your hair, but I wasn’t allowed,” Barkley replied stiffly.
“Oh? Did you decide you’re too good for our classes? Did that demon of yours fill your head with delusions of grandeur?” Lucille shot Zaxor a scathing look.
While it had no effect on the demon, Barkley was taken
aback. He hadn’t been expecting such venom from her; Zaxor had really hit a sore spot when he had interrupted her class previously. Barkley had seen the flicker of doubt and regret in her expression those few days before. What had changed in that time? Or was this way of lashing out at him purely a way to hide the doubt? Whatever the reason, he was glad the words weren’t aimed directly at him.
“No,” he said shortly, trying to reign in his own tone. He didn’t want to appear affected by her words. “There’s a war raging outside these walls and people are dying every day. I don’t want to sit here whiling away my time when I could be out there helping people. People like my family.”
Silence greeted his words and when he looked around the class, what handful of students there were would not meet his eyes. Even Lucille could not hold his gaze for long. Barkley settled back in his chair to wait for the lesson to continue. He wondered how long Lucille would last before she kicked Barkley out. A glance to the side showed Zaxor lounging at the desk next to him, that familiar challenging smirk on his face.
Barkley would bet everything he owned they wouldn’t last the hour.
Chapter Thirteen
Somehow, the bare minutes Barkley spent listening to Zaxor taunt the teachers was more tiring than the hours of study he did in the library afterwards. Whatever modicum of respect the teachers had for him quickly vanished, and it was only day two of the attempt to force their hands. Lucille had not even allowed him in the classroom after lunch, and Barkley wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Well, he would find out eventually.
He couldn’t find it in himself to feel bad for what he was doing, not given the circumstances. All they had to do was let him take the mage test, or even a letter of recommendation for the army, and he would leave them alone in their isolated little world. As each day passed, he considered just leaving and trying on his own, but he held back. Approaching the army with a demon but nothing to back him up would likely only end up with him being forced to follow orders, nothing more.