The Underground City Read Online Free PDF Page B

midday, today. Then, Ah expect ye ta train at least three times a week. With a proper diet, ye should be in fightin’ mode in two fortnights.”
    “Okay,” I said, heaving a sigh. I’d never enjoyed diets and, consequently, wasn’t very good at maintaining them.
    Tallis took the pot of stew off the fire using only his bare hands. His jaw seemed tight and his eyes narrowed. I wondered if he was feeling any pain from touching the incredibly hot handle, but he didn’t make a sound. It struck me that he was probably intentionally hurting himself as some form of punishment. About a week ago or so, I discovered him bare-chested in the freezing snow, whipping himself with a cat o’ nine tails until blood streamed down his back. After quite a bit of prodding, he’d admitted that he was punishing himself for past transgressions. Tallis Black was seriously messed up.
    Taking out two wooden bowls, Tallis divvied up the stew and placed the pot in his sink, which was no more than a large metal tub that sat on the floor. Beside it were a jug of water and a bar of soap. He glanced down at his palm with curiosity, as if taking stock of the damage done by the scalding pot. From where I stood, I could see that his entire palm was bright red. As I watched, the angry redness began to vanish into his tan skin. Tallis could heal himself because of the warrior spirit who possessed his body. I didn’t know much more about the warrior, because Tallis wasn’t too forthcoming when it came to talking about himself.
    He handed one of the stew-filled bowls to me and the other to Bill. Bill immediately stood up and inspected the contents of my bowl before addressing Tallis and claiming, “Dude, she got more than I did.”
    “Aye,” Tallis answered as he faced Bill squarely. “An’ as Besom has a full day planned, she needs every bit o’ energy.”
    Bill frowned. “I thought you just said she was going on a diet?”
    “Bill,” I chastised him while shaking my head in an attempt to get him to stop whining. I worried that Tallis would freak out on Bill because the angel could be, in a word … annoying. Bill pouted and frowned, but returned to his place at Tallis’s table and ate his stew, making slurping sounds with every spoonful.
    “So tell me about my physical training,” I said to Tallis, who was standing near the front door. I sat in the other chair at his table, across from Bill. Placing my bowl on the roughly hewn wood, I turned my chair around until I was facing Tallis. “I’ll have a personal trainer?”
    “Aye.”
    “What’s his story?” I continued.
    “He is a demon,” Tallis answered nonchalantly.
    “A demon?” I repeated, with anxiety emerging in my voice. “I thought our main goal was to avoid demons?”
    But Tallis shook his head. “He doesna reside in the Oonderground City.”
    “Where does he live?” I asked.
    “Here,” Tallis answered. “In the Haunted Wood.”
    “And he’s a personal trainer?” I asked, my tone growing dubious. It sounded like the prelude to a bad joke.
    “Aye. He has made it his business ta train Retrievers. An’ he is verra good at what he does.” He paused for a moment or two, but watched me. “Ye are loocky, lass. Not everybody has connections ta Ael.”
    “Ael is his name?” I asked, pronouncing it “Al.”
    “Aye,” he answered.
    “Al don’t sound like no demon’s name to me,” Bill piped up with a mouthful of potatoes.
    “An’ does Bill sound like ah name o’ an angel?” Tallis asked, raising his eyebrows with a lofty expression.
    “Ha-ha, very funny, Shrek,” Bill answered, frowning at Tallis. After slurping his last spoonful and swallowing it down, Bill put the bowl and spoon on top of the table. “Done!” he exclaimed as if he’d just won an eating contest. “Any seconds?” he asked Tallis.
    “Nae,” Tallis answered before shaking his head and muttering something about Bill’s appetite being more like that of a pregnant sow.
    Since they were both