Tallis didn’t say anything as he pulled the scabbard holding his sword over his head and leaned it against the wall. Then he approached the pool table and began racking up the balls. He reached for the cue ball, and standing with his left foot forward, I noticed he held the cue with his left hand. He turned his body slightly away from the table and leaned into the shot. He hit the rack of balls and they all scattered in different directions over the table before the solid yellow “1” ball sunk into a pocket.
Alaire nodded and when it was his turn, he eyed the table meticulously for a few seconds before leaning into his shot and sinking the orange and white “13” ball. Then he nodded with pleasure as he walked around to the other side of the table. As he did so, he glanced at Bill. “To answer your question, angel, yes, the ‘Yeti’ as you so irreverently refer to our mutual friend, and I come from a similar background.”
“And what background would that be?” I demanded, throwing my hands on my hips. I couldn’t understand what Alaire wanted from us, or why he was insisting that Tallis play pool when it was obvious the Scotsman didn’t want to play. That and I was still uncomfortable about the fact that he’d basically smelled my virginity and had the gall to announce it.
“I am pleased you asked, my very lovely guest,” Alaire said as he stood up. Even though he’d been about to take his next shot, he rotated his body so he could face me. He studied me for a few moments with an undeniable expression of lust in his eyes. It made me feel sick to my stomach. “Both the Bladesmith and I were warriors once upon a time,” Alaire started. “Though Tallis came from present day Scotland, I am of Swedish descent.” So, I was correct in my hunch that his barely there accent was of Scandinavian ancestry.
“So, dude, you were like, what? A Viking?” Bill asked, awe suffusing his tone.
Alaire smiled as he faced the pool table again and took his shot, this time sinking the red and white striped “11” ball. He chalked his cue before continuing with his story. “Quite so, angel, quite so.”
“That’s rad!” Bill said with a wide smile. “I just saw that movie Thor like a few weeks ago. Bad ass!”
Alaire didn’t respond, but raised his eyebrows as he returned to his game of pool. Taking another shot, he promptly sunk the yellow and white “9” ball.
“So you were a raider and a marauder,” I piped up, irritated to find Bill looking at Alaire like he was some kind of hero. He wasn’t. “So what? Why should that have anything to do with Tallis at all?” Then I frowned at Bill. “And for your information, Bill, Thor had absolutely nothing to do with Vikings.”
Alaire turned around to face me with a wide grin. “So much anger for such a small, pretty creature!” Then he chuckled. “Yes, you are quite right, Ms. Harper, I was not a noble savage, by any stretch of the imagination. Instead, it is fair to say that I plundered, raped, and killed; and what was more, I enjoyed every minute of it.” His arrogant smile suddenly sickened me. “Perhaps it was that very training that prepared me for this post,” he finished. I figured he must’ve been referring to his title of Keeper of the Underground City. “Would you agree, Black?” he made a point of asking Tallis, who suddenly seemed uncomfortable but didn’t respond.
“I don’t care about your history,” I interjected as I eyed Tallis and wondered why he was putting up with Alaire in the first place. Tallis didn’t strike me as a man who did anything he didn’t want to do, which made the whole visit even stranger.
“For someone who very nearly found herself in hot water after the deaths of two of my employees, you speak with great conviction, Ms. Harper,” Alaire barked at me, his harsh expression revealing his irritation.
“That situation was handled by Afterlife Enterprises,” I spat back at him. I wasn’t able to keep the anger from my tone even though I started to quake with nerves on the inside. Maybe I was right all along—maybe Alaire’s whole purpose for this meeting was to avenge the deaths of Ragur and Kipur. Perhaps he was just playing a game of cat and mouse until he was ready to kill me.
I wasn’t sure exactly when I lost track, but when I next looked down at the pool table, I realized Alaire had only one striped ball left, number 14, which he sunk almost as quickly as I’d recognized it was the last one. After he announced which pocket he would sink the black “8” ball in, he did exactly that. He stood up straight and turned to face Tallis with a broad smile. “Good game,” he announced before looking at me again. “My dear Ms. Harper,” he started and I felt my teeth gnashing together, hating the sound of my name on his tongue. “When next you visit my humble city, I do hope you will grant me the honor of being my guest for dinner.”
I felt my eyes growing wide at the same time I saw Tallis and observed a frown marring his features. He gritted his teeth and his hands fisted at his sides. I glanced back at Alaire and shook my head. “No.”
He shrugged as if “no” wasn’t the answer he expected. “If you merely consent to dine with me, Ms. Harper, I will guarantee you safe passage in my city.” Then he eyed Tallis. “As I am almost certain, the Bladesmith will not be available to travel with you during every one of your missions, be he your guardian or not.” He said the last sentence with a slight laugh, insinuating that he didn’t believe Tallis was truly my guardian.
“I would rather try my own luck,” I said, my faith invested wholeheartedly in my words.
Alaire shrugged. “Very well, but in case you change your mind, please give me a call.” He walked over to his desk and retrieved a business card, which he handed to me. It was black and glossy and the only thing written on it was three numbers: 666.
“Funny,” I said without any semblance of humor.
“I do hope you will accept my invitation, Ms. Harper,” Alaire continued. “As it would certainly upset me if I were to find you ripped to shreds by one of my watchful demons.”
I swallowed hard because I couldn’t help it. But I didn’t say anything more.
“Very well,” Alaire finished as he clapped his hands together like he was ready to take his leave. “The car downstairs will drive you to the gates of the Underground, thereby allowing you to avoid any of my least pleasant citizens.”
I nodded, but didn’t comment. Instead, I started for the double doors of his office, now way beyond eager to get the hell away from him. I noticed Bill was right behind me. When I turned to inquire where Tallis was, he closed the gap between Alaire and himself and was now speaking in a hushed tone. I couldn’t make out what Tallis’s question was, but Alaire’s response was loud. “I’m afraid the answer was no, Bladesmith,” he said as he shook his head and pretended to seem compassionate. Then he shrugged. “I did try to argue for you, but alas, Afterlife Enterprises is the ultimate decision-maker on these sorts of things, aren’t they?”
Tallis didn’t reply, but I noticed his posture was again incredibly rigid. He simply turned around and retrieved his sword, which he slung over his neck, and stepped toward the door before Alaire stopped him. “Of course, there has been new … activity that has quite changed the scope of our original agreement,” he continued with a glance up at me before raking me from head to toe. He faced Tallis again and smiled broadly. “Perhaps I can pull a few strings if you can manage to pull some of your own.”
“Nae,” Tallis responded immediately, turning on his heel as he approached us. Grabbing my arm and none too gently, he escorted me from Alaire’s office.
“Envy and arrogance and avarice are the three sparks that have all hearts enkindled.”
– Dante’s Inferno
NINE
Just as Alaire promised, we found the Jag waiting for us outside his office building. As soon as we climbed in, it drove us through the Underground City, dropping us off at the gates that would return us to the Dark Wood. None of us said a word during the trip. Frankly, I wasn’t sure if the Jag was bugged, but I had a sneaking suspicion that it must’ve been. So I decided to postpone my questions for Tallis about everything that went on in Alaire’s office until we were far away from an
y possible eavesdroppers. Since Tallis wasn’t much of a talker anyway, I couldn’t say his silence surprised me. Bill’s reticence, on the other hand, alarmed me until I concluded that Bill was probably just as exhausted as Tallis and I.
Once we crossed through the Underground City’s main gates and were “safely” ensconced in the darkness of the haunted wood, I caught up with Tallis. As usual, he had a good six-foot lead on Bill and me. “So, what was that all about?” I inquired, finding it difficult to keep up with him. The path we were on wasn’t really a path at all. It was more like an obstacle course of dead tree limbs scattered here and there on the uneven terrain of the forest floor.
Tallis didn’t reply right away. Instead, he kept his eyes trained on the ground until I wondered if he’d even heard my question at all. Or, for that matter, if he noticed that I was walking right beside him. In the bright light of the moon, which filtered through the dead branches and trunks of the skeletal trees, I could make out the redness of his cheeks. His jaw was still as tight as it was in Alaire’s office. Any way I looked at him, Tallis had the overall appearance of a man who seemed extremely pissed off.
“Um, hello?” I continued, wanting, no, needing the answers to the questions that incessantly plagued me. First, I was dying to know about the hushed conversation I partially overheard between Tallis and Alaire. More specifically, what Alaire was talking about when he appeared to be making some sort of deal with Tallis concerning me.
“Whit was whit aboot?” the Bladesmith replied, never taking his eyes off the ground. I noticed his hands were balled up into fists at his sides and his knuckles were so white, the skin looked like a cadaver’s. Yep, something was definitely rotten in the state of Denmark, or Tallis’s head, whatever the case may have been.
“What just happened with Alaire!” I demanded impatiently, throwing my hands up into the air with frustration. “What else would I be talking about?”
Tallis shook his head and sighed before casting the briefest of glances my way. He’d been scowling for so long, the ghosts of frown lines remained on his forehead, despite his now neutral expression. “Naethin’ happened with Alaire.”
“Nothing?” I repeated, sounding unconvinced and possibly dumbfounded. Then I started to get angry because there was no way in hell Tallis could make me believe nothing happened with Alaire. However, I wanted to avoid offending Tallis and possibly destroying any chance of him actually telling me the truth, so I decided to rephrase my question. “May I ask what was Alaire talking about when he told you the ‘answer was no’?” I inquired more politely.
“Ah dinnae care ta discoos it, lass,” Tallis snapped at me with a shake of his head to convey that the subject was finished, apparently forgetting that I did understand English.
“Fine then,” I answered, my chin protruding defensively, and of its own accord. “If you don’t want to answer my question, that’s up to you.” It was his business, after all. “But you should tell me what Alaire meant when he said something about you pulling strings for him where I was concerned.” I crossed my arms against my chest as I awaited his response.
“There is naethin’ ta report regardin’ that either,” Tallis answered as he glanced over his right shoulder, then his left, as if he were looking for something. Maybe he was just scoping out the forest to keep us from being attacked by some horrible creature.
“There absolutely is!” I argued, my voice shaking with anger. It was now beyond obvious that Tallis was definitely hiding something from me. “Respect me enough to tell me the truth,” I coaxed. But Tallis showed no signs of saying anything at all so I persisted. “I know Alaire was talking about me because he looked right at me when he said it.”
“Alaire was taken with ye, lass,” Tallis answered in a bored tone. “His comment was meanin’less. He simply fancied ye.” Then he eyed me pointedly. “An’ as yer guardian, Ah am tellin’ ye, ’tis naethin’ fer ye ta be concerned with.”
“My guardian?” I repeated, shaking my head in disbelief. “Since when did you appoint yourself my guardian?”
“Since aboot twenty minutes ago,” he responded. “An’ as yer guardian, ye moost troost in meh an’ troost Ah have yer best interests in mind. So when Ah tell ye that there is naethin’ ta be concerned aboot with Alaire, ye shouldna concern yerself.”
“You’re impossible,” I exclaimed, angry to be treated like I was all of five years old. Since arguing with Tallis was a dead end, I turned around, shaking my head with frustration while waiting for Bill to catch up with me. Sometimes, talking to Tallis was literally like extracting teeth. He was the most frustrating and obstinate man I’d ever met.
“What’s up?” Bill asked as he smiled at me almost sadly. His overall calmness was unusual, to say the least. Ordinarily, he was my lively, talkative, albeit slightly irritating, friend.
“Okay, who are you and what did you do with Bill?” I asked, hoping to get a smile from him as I shelved the frustrating conversation with Tallis into the back of my mind.
“Ha-ha,” he answered, his mood still glum.
“What’s up with you?” I continued, frowning at him. “You haven’t said a word since we left Alaire’s … Is everything okay?”
Bill exhaled a sigh that gave me the feeling everything was definitely not okay. “That Alaire guy freaked me out, Lil,” he replied as he glanced up at me again and shook his head. “The way he was lookin’ at you and talkin’ to you … it was weird, you know?”
“He freaked me out too,” I agreed with a nod. I was thinking to myself that “freaked out” didn’t even really cover the half of it. “But that sort of goes along with the territory since Alaire is the head of the Underground City, you know? So it’s not like we were expecting Mr. Rogers or something, right?”
“Yeah, that’s a solid point, Lils, an’ I know that, but still …” His words faded on his tongue, but when he faced me, I could tell there was more on his mind. “You know how I get those gut feelings sometimes? Like when something don’t feel quite right to me, it’s normally because it isn’t?”
“Yes,” I said as I nodded. Bill was right—he did have an almost uncanny ability to detect whenever impending doom lurked right around the corner.
“Well, I got me one o’ them feelin’s right now …”
“About this forest?” I asked, my voice rising an octave.
“No, no, no,” Bill replied as he waved his hand at me like I was way off base. “No, I’m talkin’ about Alaire, nips. I’m sayin’ I got a real weird vibe from him … like the way he was lookin’ at you, Lils … It was like you were this big ol’ vanilla, er,” he paused briefly and glanced at my hair, “strawberry cake and he was like starvin’ or some shit.”
“I know what you mean,” I said with a shiver when I remembered the particulars. There was no doubt about it, Alaire was definitely off-putting.
“I think we gotta be real careful about him an’ the Underground in general,” Bill announced, nodding his head as if he were trying to persuade himself. “I just got this really bad feelin’ about it, ya know?”
I knew exactly what he was talking about and I nodded. There was something very strange about Alaire and his apparent fixation on me. Despite what Tallis said, or expected me to believe, I knew there was a lot more to the story than he was letting on.
Bill studied me for a few moments, with a pensive expression. “So, you weren’t like … inta him, right?”
“Into him! Alaire?” I shouted in shock as my mouth dropped open in astonishment and a sense of mortification rushed through me. “Of course I wasn’t! Are you nuts?”
Bill held up his hands, implying that he didn’t mean anything by the comment, and I should calm down. “I’m not sayin’ that I thought you were, Lils, so CTFD, yo.” Then he took a deep breath before facing me again. “What I am sayin’ is that I can see how some girls might get all giddy an’ shit ’cause the dude’s good lookin’ and he comes off all Rico Suave an’ shit.”
“Well, those girls, i
f they even exist, aren’t like me,” I retorted, trying to suppress the slight I took from his comment. “There was nothing the least bit remotely attractive about Alaire in my opinion, Bill,” I finished matter-of-factly.
“Good,” Bill said with a nod. “Then you aren’t plannin’ on havin’ dinner with him anytime soon, right?”
I’d temporarily forgotten about Alaire’s dinner invitation. I shook my head. “No, I’m not.” Then I sighed. “I’m not looking for any shortcuts with this soul-retrieving business, Bill. When I signed up, I knew what the risks were.” I cocked my head to the side and reconsidered my statement. “Well, that’s not entirely true, but had I known what we’d encounter, I would have made the same decision again. I would have chosen to live, even if that meant exactly what we’re doing now.” I took a deep breath and smiled at my friend. “Bill, you and I are in this together, through thick and thin. I’m not planning to search for the easy way out.” I paused for a second as I further contemplated my point. “And Alaire isn’t exactly the easy way out. Getting mixed up with him would, no doubt, be the biggest mistake I could ever make.”
“Agreed, nips,” Bill said as he reached over and grabbed me, pulling me into him and squeezing me hard. “I was real proud o’ you with that crazy-ass, postal shit you pulled on Alaire back there. You were like ‘Hi, I’m Nips, don’t freak out ‘cause my sword’s up in your face or nothin’. Shit, the look on Alaire’s face was flippin’ priceless. I was sorta hopin’ you were gonna de-nose him though—then there’d be freakin’ blood everywhere like when Fabio was on that roller coaster and that duck flew into his face and he freakin’ bled all over those Swedish chicks. You ‘member that shit, nips?”