City of Demons
City of Demons
The words – which came out as “Geryupyalazpigs” crashed through Garet’s sleeping brain. He stiffened and cracked open one eye. His father’s eyes glared back at him over the top rung of the ladder. Garet kept still and squeezed his eyelid down to the limit of secret sight. With a sour grunt, his father climbed down from the sleeping loft to transfer his loud ill-wishes to his wife.
Garet was always careful around his father, but he would have to be extra careful today.
His father disliked him so much that Garet had once asked his mother if Hilly was really his father. He had been too young to realize the insulting nature of the question, but his mother had merely sighed and pointed out that although Garet had a thick head of hair as black as her own and a smaller build compared to his older brothers, who all seemed determined to catch up to their father in girth and height as soon as possible, he still possessed his father’s grey eyes and high cheek-bones, as well as, she said dryly, a certain stubbornness – especially when facing a difficult problem.
The story follows the adventures of a youth, Garet, living on a poor remote sheep farm with two older brothers, who bully him, and his sister, Allia, who adores him. When a demon breaks into the house, everyone except Garet is frozen in fear by the demon’s power. Garet dispatches the monster with a frying pan, an action that attracts the attention of Master Mandarack, a bane who hunts demons, his assistant, the girl Salick, and the young apprentice banes, Dorik and Marick. Salick is a year older than Garet. They are from the South and are in the Midlands because of the recent appearance of demons there. Demons usually only plague the South while dragons terrify the North. Mandarack takes Garet with them to join as an apprentice bane. Garet is an apt pupil. Demons come in all sizes. Everyone but banes are paralyzed with fear when they sense a demon.
After a series of adventures, including a fight with an unusual demon, the group reaches the city of Sirath where the banehall is located. There, the students live and study to become banes. Garet trains, and Mandarak’s four pupils become closer, especially Garet and Salick. Politics come into play, first at the bane hall where there are factions embroiled as to who will lead the order, and later between the King of Sirath and the banes. Garet is an apt pupil and rescues the day after he and Salick sneak into the palace and save the king’s life.
City of Demons’s pages include a one-page map of the lands, an index of the 27 chapters, three pages with a list of the characters names, and the book closes with an author’s note. All chapters begin with headings such as “The Unexpected Hero” and “The Stranger at the Gate.”
Dense with detail and adventure, with a touch of romance, City of Demons should appeal to readers who enjoy a fantasy tale of growing up fast in a world with monsters and the heroes who fight them.
Ronald Hore, involved with writer’s groups for several years. Under the pen name R. J. Hore, he dabbles in writing fantasy and science fiction in Winnipeg, Manitoba.