Arena Road Chapter 4

“The woman is my property,” the hawk-nosed man sneered, and the grip of his hand tightened visibly again. “I’ll do as I please with her. Unless you mean to fight me for her?”

His voice was oozing sarcasm when he asked the question, and one of his perfectly arched brows twitched upward to accentuate his mocking expression.

“Sure,” I said with an easy smile. “I’ve got time.”

The man’s expression of arrogant composure flickered slightly, but he recovered himself quickly.

“How bold of you,” he said in a sardonic tone. He was clearly trying to seem bored and unbothered. “Very well. Choose your weapon. But choose wisely.”

He didn’t elaborate on this statement. He just gave me a cryptic, Cheshire Cat smile that was probably meant to unnerve me.

I shrugged carelessly. “Any weapon.”

The hook-nose man shoved the woman down by the throat, and I didn’t bother to maintain my own placid expression anymore as the fury uncoiled in my chest.

I let my face grimace. There was no need for me to tell him aloud that that was the last time he would lay a hand on her. If it were physically possible to melt someone with a glance, that bastard would be a puddle on the ground by now, and he knew it.

He sent me another smug little smile as he strode up to stand at the ready and wait for me to do the same. The crowd around seemed to realize all at once that shit was actually about to hit the fan, and they scattered like flies to stand further back and give us some room.

While this was happening, the hawk-nosed man casually slipped out a blade that was mostly cleaver-like, but with a weird, sweeping curve at the end that made it look uncomfortably like some fancy sort of guthook knife. The cutting edge of the blade was deeply serrated, too. This was clearly a weapon specialized for dueling to kill, and to do it in the most gruesome way imaginable.

The man intended to literally hook my guts out.

“Good luck, jackass,” I said under my breath, and I reached into my jacket to wrap my fingers around the grip of my gun.

I had to chuckle a little as I thought of the fact that I was dueling with this gun. Yes, my Smith and Wesson revolver was a hell of a lot better than the crude, Ye-Olde revolvers used for duels back in eighteenth century England, but it still seemed almost poetic that this was the weapon I had brought to a duel. Even if it was in another world, up against a smug, pompous son of a bitch wielding a butcher’s knife. Even chambered in .38 special, my little J-frame should take care of him easily.

Something about my inaudible mumbled comment and laughter seemed to make the man suspicious.

“What did you say?” he demanded, and his face showed a true undisguised scowl toward me for the first time.

I deliberated for a second. Then I gave him another smile. This one was slow and cold, and I did my best to send chills down the fucker’s spine.

“I was saying a prayer,” I finally replied. Then, after a short pause for suspense, I added, “For you.”

His ugly scowl deepened, and he seemed impatient now as I took my time in walking up to take my place in front of him. I had to struggle not to laugh again despite the seriousness of the situation.

“We duel to kill,” he said in a sharp, belligerent tone that dared me to contradict him.

I allowed my smile to widen. “Of course.”

His ugly expression remained while he gave me a short little bow. Judging by his face, the move clearly wasn’t made out of respect, and he seemed to be waiting for me to reciprocate, so I did the same.

As soon as I straightened up, the man bull-rushed me with his hooked blade in hand.

He was fast as hell, I’d grant him that, but the crude simplicity of the move still made me want to snort with laughter. There was no time to snort, though. I had to focus. My trusty little revolver would take care of this fucker just fine as long as I wasn’t careless.

My boots skidded slightly over the stone ground as I skipped to the side. Then I turned, raised a foot, and sent a sharp kick into the back of the man’s leg.

He cursed and stumbled to one knee.

Before he could rise, I raised my revolver, aimed, and shot him point-blank in the back of the head, execution style.

The little revolver only kicked slightly in my hand, and I was ready for it. I was also ready enough for the flash and bang that I didn’t really flinch from it, although it was far from pleasant for my ears to start ringing like hell. But like I had expected, no one in this place seemed prepared for it.

Every single one of them ducked and cowered in a single flurry of motion.

Soon, most of them realized that their doom probably wasn’t impending, and they started to straighten up. By the time they did, the hook-nosed man had already thudded limply to the ground. The silence that had fallen was so complete that the sound of his landing seemed to ring in my ears almost as loudly as the revolver’s bang.

I glanced around at the crowd to see if any of them seemed inclined to retaliate on the dead man’s behalf.

No one took a step toward me, but a wave of muttering ran through the whole crowd. The sound reminded me ominously of a hive of bees, and I decided it would be best to leave as soon as I could.

But first I looked around for the black-haired fighter to see how she was taking all this. She was already rushing toward me, and her expression seemed torn between shock and urgency. Her long, slender fingers were trembling visibly as they reached up to clench into my forearm.

“We must go,” she urged as she gave my arm a shake. From the way she raised her voice, it seemed like her ears were ringing, but she was recovering well, all things considered. “Keep your strange magic weapon ready.”

The look she cast down at the revolver was extremely unnerved, but she didn’t seem at all worried that I was about to turn it on her. My first response to this was a relief that was tinged with surprise. After all, I was just some stranger who had strode into her city with a terrifying deadly weapon and used it to kill… whoever the hell that guy was to her.

But all these thoughts fled my mind when I took in the appearance of the woman’s eyes up close.

Their color wasn’t quite the same in any one place. I saw shades of smoldering honey, orange, and red in her irises. And what was even more fascinating was that the colors didn’t seem to stay still, other than the whites of her eyes and her pupils. Those remained a color of deep, burnished bronze while the colors in her irises shifted around.

I couldn’t help but continue to stare into her mesmerizing eyes. She returned my gaze for only a moment before she shook my arm again.

“Be ready,” she repeated.

Then she hurried a short distance away from me and knelt by the dead man. My eyebrows shot up as I tried to anticipate her next move. Was she going to spit on his corpse or say a prayer for the bastard? I couldn’t quite tell.

But she did neither of those things. Instead, she knelt and fumbled with something on his belt for a second before she straightened up and came back to me at a pace that was rushed, but not quite a run.

She pressed something into my hand that was small and soft, but clinked and clattered slightly with every movement. I stared down at it and saw that it was a little velvet drawstring pouch.

I frowned in confusion and raised the pouch in my hand. “What exactly is thi—”

“Take it,” she said in a hushed voice. Her hands fluttered at me in a nervous, hurried gesture.

I nodded slowly and slipped the little pouch into the roomy zippered pocket of my jacket.

Then she pressed something else into my hand. It was a thick gold ring studded with what looked like emeralds and black diamonds. I looked back up at her with my mouth slightly open.

But she didn’t wait for me to speak.

She just latched onto my arm again and whispered, “Come.”

I cast another appraising glance around at the crowd as I allowed the woman to pull me along. The muttering was growing slowly in volume, and the people were stirring now and starting to mill around. No one moved to approach me yet, but I saw several angry fingers point in my direction.

My revolver definitely wasn’t up to taking on a whole crowd of people, and even if it could, I had no desire to fire at anyone else in the city. I had just wanted to take that motherfucker down.

And I had.

So I matched the black-haired woman’s hurried pace out of the stadium. I was four or five inches taller, but her long legs still managed to take the stone stairs two at a time. I did the same. She seemed determined to plow a path through the crowd herself, so I followed through the gap she left behind. I couldn’t help but feel impressed at the way she barged through them all like a little bulldozer despite her slender frame.

Once we got to the top of the stadium’s stairs, she halted me again with a hand on my arm. As soon as she had my attention, she pressed her whip and slender sword belt into my grip.

I was completely confused and figured I either had to drop them or take them, so I tucked the weapons under my arm and took the lead at a run. She followed me without hesitation down the wide cobbled road, and then I headed for the similar street that skirted the edge of the city.

As we ran, I found myself wondering how exactly I was going to broach the subject of where she’d be going next. Did she want to leave with me?

I felt a little thrill at the thought, but I quickly stifled it. We had hardly even spoken. I couldn’t just presume she was going to come along with me when I left the city. This was her home, and I was a complete stranger.

From another world.

Whatever happened, I was determined to see her somewhere safe, whether it was with me or somewhere in this city.

The sudden sound of footsteps coming up behind us made me grab for my revolver again, and I glanced back to see about seven people in ragged clothes right on my heels.

My movement caught the black-haired woman’s eye immediately. Her red-gold eyes widened as she looked my way, and she shook her head frantically. For the first time, she seemed slightly afraid of me.

“They belong to you now,” she said in a worried tone. She was hardly even panting despite the breakneck pace, although her voice jolted slightly with every step. “Why would you kill them?”

“What… do you mean… I own them?” I was panting slightly. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d been able to go to a gym, much less do any sort of cardio. I had been on the road too much.

The woman didn’t respond right away. We were just rounding the curve in the main road that told me we were near the place where I had climbed in over the wall. Once we got there, I grasped her upper arm briefly to pull her to a stop, but I released my grip as soon as I did and then swayed slightly for a moment as the group of people on my heels collided with me one by one like a seven-car pileup.

Most caught their balance, but one of them teetered on the edge of tumbling to the ground. It was a white-haired woman in a long tartan dress who was built like a tea kettle.

My arm automatically shot out to steady her, and she sent me a grateful look with her sharp hazel eyes once she righted herself. But then the expression changed to confusion, and I saw it reflected on the face of the other six people who had just crashed into me.

The black-haired woman seemed similarly confused, and I tried not to get lost in her fiery eyes as she spoke to me again.

“Where will you take us?” she asked, and she looked around like I might live in one of the ramshackle buildings around us. “Where is your home?”

“I’m not exactly from around here.” I cast an uncomfortable look around. “And what did you mean when you said they belong to me? What were you talking about?”

“Your slaves, of course,” she said impatiently, and my eyes bulged out of my head.

“What?” I blurted out. “I don’t have slaves, I didn’t come here with slaves. How the… what?”

The woman waved my confusion away. “If you don’t live in the main city, then where is your home? In the Emerald Wood?”

I shook my head. “I came from outside the walls.”

“Outside…?” Her golden-bronze skin paled slightly.

“Well, yeah,” I replied, and now I was feeling a little impatient myself. I got back to the topic at hand and tried to put more emphasis into my voice this time. “I don’t want slaves. I’ve never wanted slaves, that’s… so fucked up. You’re all free now.”

The group of people was staring at me like I had just told them they were all fire-breathing dragons, so I went on.

“I mean it,” I insisted. Then I paused. “Well… If anyone wants to come with me, er, as free men, or women, then you’re welcome to. But I’m leaving the walls. Now. And I don’t want slaves.”

They all continued to stare at me like I was speaking in tongues. Then finally, the white-haired woman took off. Her dark shoes flashed out from under her floor-length tartan dress as she scurried over the cobbles and into the tunneled paths of the city. The rest of the group scattered immediately after her and sprinted off into the night.

Except for the black-haired fighter. She stayed with me. She didn’t speak, but she was looking at me steadily with her hypnotic eyes, and I couldn’t quite understand the expression in them. All I knew was that they seemed to smolder with the light of the sunrise that I knew would light the sky very soon, and I had to force myself to focus again. I was determined to be out of this city before sunrise.

“So,” I said as lightly as possible. “Are you coming with me?”

I didn’t want her to feel pressured to abandon her home, so I tried to seem as casual as I could, like it was all the same to me, and I forced myself to glance away from her. Never mind the fact that I felt like I’d be happy staring into those shifting red-gold eyes for all eternity.

After a second or two, I allowed myself to look back at her, and I realized it seemed like her pause was from sheer disbelief, not reluctance.

“Of course I will go with you,” she said at last. Her tone was quizzical, like she’d just been asked if the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. “I will go wherever you tell me to. You own me now.”

I blinked at this statement, and the cogs in my brain seemed to stop working momentarily.

I owned her? A human being?

What the actual fuck was going on?

“But I don’t want to… to own you,” I explained earnestly. “I want you to be free to do what you want, and go wherever you choose to. You know, like… a person. I just… I saw that asshole treating you like shit, and I couldn’t let him get away with it.”

She was still staring at me almost uncomprehendingly. I couldn’t tell if she thought I was a lunatic or not, so I hurried to amend my statement.

“I would be more than happy to take you with me,” I added. “I’m not trying to own anyone, though, I don’t even know what would make you think I did? I can tell you that I would never hurt you like that asshole in the arena did. But you don’t have to come with me if that’s not what you want.”

I tried to inject as much emphasis as possible into my last statement, to show her I meant my words. But she just shook her head, like the idea was ludicrous to her.

“I will go with you,” she repeated.

“We might not be able to come back,” I warned her. “Not just to this city, but to… well, anywhere in this entire world. I didn’t exactly come here on purpose, and I’m not sure how the portal thing works yet.”

I knew this was probably a hell of a lot for her to take in on the fly, but it was almost to the point of now or never. I could have sworn I heard voices shouting in the distance, although I couldn’t see anyone approaching yet in the light of the lanterns. I wanted her to understand what she was agreeing to, but I also needed to get the hell out of this place before some kind of mob came chasing after me. I didn’t really have time to launch into a full explanation of exactly how I got here and where I’d come from.

Suddenly I realized that the lantern light was accompanied by an ever-so-faint, pearly predawn glow in the sky, and I looked back at the woman’s fiery eyes to see her response.

“I…” She hesitated. “I will go with you, for now. Until you are sure about this… portal.”

“Okay, then,” I finally said, with a conscious effort not to sound thrilled at the prospect. “Let’s go.”

I was going to offer her a leg up to reach the plants that hung overhead from the wall, but she had already leaped up with her ponytail flying behind her. She deftly snatched onto one of the vines and then paused to look down with her fiery eyes and make sure I was following.

I jumped up beside her as I struggled a bit to keep her whip and sword in my grip, and we both scrambled up the latticework of vines, then down the other side.

The need to sprint was gone, but I still didn’t want to loiter around too close to the city walls. So I took off at a brisk lope, and the black-haired woman stuck by my side as we headed toward my truck.

I moved to pass her her weapons back, but she shook her head and nudged them back toward me. Then I nodded and shrugged, because I definitely didn’t mind holding things for a woman as impressive and downright gorgeous as her.

Even if it seemed more normal to hold a handbag rather than a whip and a shitty sword.

“So,” I began. “It sounded like that gargoyle thing called you the… In-doo-yah…? Is that your uh… race? Or your name?”

I was always careful with learning new names, because butchering pronunciations was something I sort of struggled with. Maybe it was because I grew up in a family and town full of Johns, Joes, Marys, and Margarets.

I wasn’t sure whether “Induya” was the black-haired fighter’s name or what, but either way I wanted to respect it, so I watched her face while I said it. She nodded as soon as I finished, and I even thought I saw a small smile play off her lips for a second. But the next second, it was gone, and she was responding to me in the same serious tone that she had used in our earlier interaction.

“Induya is my name,” she acknowledged. “But I am called ‘the Induya’ by most, to indicate my… my status, as a fighter.”

I frowned slightly. “So, it’s like calling someone ‘sir’ or ‘ma’am?’’”

“No,” she said in a matter-of-fact voice.  “‘Sir’ and ‘madam’ are signs of respect, like ‘lord’ or ‘lady.’ They are courtesies. But fighters are not given courtesies. We are given these fighting titles.”

“Titles…” I said slowly. “I guess that… makes sense?”

“Hmmm.” She glanced at me briefly. “You do not sound as if this makes sense to you.”

“True,” I chuckled. “I understand the concept of a title, of course. It’s just that adding ‘the’ doesn’t really sound like a title of honor? It sounds sort of like those people who say ‘fetch the child and bring it here,’ rather than ‘bring my daughter here.’”

“Yes.” Induya offered a frank nod. “This is what the title signifies. So you do understand.”

I raised my eyebrows and wasn’t quite sure how to react to this bizarre-sounding concept. The woman beside me was easily the most beautiful person I’d ever laid eyes on. Just being near her made me feel like standing up straighter and making sure my shirt didn’t have Pepsi or fry grease on it. And the way she carried herself proved she was a hell of a woman, even without knowing anything about her.

So something about her so-called “title,” rubbed me the wrong way. It made her seem like an object, or something not quite human.

It made her seem like something who was meant to be owned.

I swallowed hard and tried to discreetly look at her, and I found her expression completely unaffected by our conversation. Which only concerned me more.

What the hell was the deal with the customs in this world?

“Well, I’m going to call you Induya, alright?” I asked.

The woman whipped her head toward me with wide eyes. “That is not my title. My title is the Indu–”

“I know,” I quickly assured her. “But I’d prefer to not use titles between the two of us.”

Induya narrowed her hypnotic eyes at me, and I nearly tripped over my own boots as I stared back at her. Then she swiftly looked forward, and she only offered a small nod of acknowledgement.

I decided to try and keep the introductions rolling, even as my mind grappled to understand all the strangeness here.

“I’m John,” I said without any flare.

“John,” she repeated in a quiet voice. “Your name is strange.”

I snorted at what I assumed was a joke, but when she didn’t laugh as well, I frowned.

No one in the world thought “John” was anything but plain.

Then again, I wasn’t in my world anymore.

“Uhh… thanks,” I said with a shrug.

Then we fell into silence again.

I felt like a nervous teenager, and it vexed me. I was normally good at talking to people when I needed to be, but suddenly I seemed to have forgotten how to.

We were about halfway to my truck, and the blazing coral edge of the morning sun now peeked over the flat, empty horizon. It cast a soft pink glow over the whole desert, and for the first time, Spitfire became visible as more than just a big rectangular shadow ahead.

At this point, Induya came to an abrupt halt. I stopped and looked back at her questioningly. She was staring at the truck with her normally solemn-looking mouth open in a cute little “o” of surprise that made me smile to myself.

I quickly straightened my face as she turned back to me with a look of awe in her red-gold eyes. They were more radiant than the sun, and I turned to face forward again so I wouldn’t be caught staring as I continued toward the truck at a brisk walk.

Induya caught up with me and kept pace. After a few seconds, she spoke again.

“John.” She said my name carefully, almost like she was worried about tripping up on the one syllable just like I had worried with her own name. “You came here in your… war chariot?”

I opened my mouth, then closed it again and smiled.

“Yeah,” I chuckled. “Something like that. But I just call her my truck.”

“Which city did you come from?” she asked. “And… Where are your horses? Or your gorsicans?”

I immediately made a mental note to ask later what the hell a gorsican was, but for now I pondered how to answer her first question.

Her voice sounded intensely curious. It made me think I had been right in my earlier guess that the city didn’t get many visitors—or any at all.

I hesitated. “I came from a city… very far from here.”

In response, she just stared at me with a furrow in the smooth, golden-bronze skin of her forehead, so I thought I should explain more.

“A city in a different world,” I clarified, even as I realized how crazy I sounded. “My world is called Earth.”

Induya’s face seemed determined to remain stoic. Her jaw locked shut, and only the flaring of her hypnotic eyes gave any indication that she was shocked by my statement. It was almost cute watching her try to swallow that information without being affected.

I was admittedly impressed with how well she pulled it off.

She also seemed determined not to ask a single follow up question, so I tried to contain my smirk and nodded.

“Yeah, so…” I cleared my throat. “Here we are, anyway.”

We had arrived at the truck. I hurried to unlock it and opened the passenger door, and then I started lobbing things off the seat into the back of the cab as fast as I could. There was already a mess from earlier. I was just moving the mess around.

When the seat was clear, I offered Induya a hand up into the truck to help her navigate the climb up to the high ledge to get in the door. She looked like she might decline and try a flying leap the way she had with the vine earlier, but then she seemed to reconsider.

Her hand didn’t shake this time when she reached out to grab the arm I was holding out. I found her face almost impossible to read at times other than the very obvious “what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about” expression I had seen several times on her already, so I was glad to see some tangible sign that she was doing alright. At least, compared to her earlier shock after I obliterated her asshole of a… whoever that guy was?

“Can I ask you something?” I asked once I had leveraged myself into the driver’s seat.

“You can do as you like,” she reminded me.

She was wearing that already-familiar stoic look on her face once again.

I frowned slightly at this, but asked my question anyway. “Who exactly was that guy? The one I killed.”

“My backer.” She seemed thrown off, like this information was supposed to be obvious to me somehow. “And now you have taken his place.”

“Your backer,” I repeated thoughtfully. I was about to put the key in the ignition, but then I realized it would probably scare the hell out of her, so I decided to finish my line of questioning first. “So, what, he wins money if you win a fight?”

Induya nodded in a matter-of-fact way, and I sat back in the seat for a second.

“What do you win?” I asked pointedly.

She sent me an odd sideways look with her fiery eyes.

“I win honor and glory.” She had her chin up when she said this, but then she paused, and a slightly sour look came over her face. “Or… That is what I am meant to do.”

Her voice was filled with bitterness, and it definitely sounded like she had something she wanted to get off her chest. But I didn’t prod her to go on. I just waited as she bit down on her lower lip like she was trying to find the right way to say something. Then she leaned her head back against the headrest and changed the subject on me.

“I do not know what your Earth land is like…” She stated this like she was fishing for details to a question she felt too proud to ask, and I smirked a little.

“It’s quite different,” I replied. “Explain your world to me, though. I’d like to hear about it.”

“You wish for me to speak to you more?” Induya looked at me with more confusion on her beautiful face than I’d seen yet. “You want me to speak my mind when not responding to a question?”

“Yes,” I said, and I couldn’t believe I actually had to clarify this.

My impression of this world was getting more and more unsettling by the minute.

“Tell me about this fighting stuff,” I urged.

“Well…” Induya thought for a moment. “Women fight to settle disagreements between people, and to earn wealth for those who own us.”

“So your backers genuinely… own you?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“You are my backer now,” she pointed out, and she gestured to her weapons where they sat in my lap. “You own me. This is a simple concept.”

I sighed and rubbed my jaw distractedly as I tried to figure out how to phrase my next question. Before I could get to that point, Induya glanced around at the land surrounding us and frowned.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“You have not told me where your beasts of burden are,” she said. “Perhaps you should call them out so we can cover some ground before the day grows hot. This desert is unforgivable, even at its coolest temperatures.”

“Good point,” I muttered. “Alright, well… Brace yourself. This is going to be loud.”

She gave me a resolute little nod and looked around expectantly while I put the key in the ignition and turned it.

Spitfire made a noise that seemed part-grumble and part-roar when she started. Sometimes she leaned more one way or the other, and this time it was definitely more of a roar.

Induya leaped about a foot off her seat, but she recovered herself quickly and sat back against the seat with a dignified air. But then her fiery eyes roved around the outside of the truck, and she glanced down at the rumbling floor of the cab below us.

“So… your beasts of burden are… under the chariot?” she finally asked. “Or is it magic?”

“Errmmm…” I debated how exactly to answer this question. “It’s not magic, exactly. There’s a machine called an engine below us. It… makes the truck move. Or, the chariot.”

I decided I would need to ruminate on how best to describe an engine in a world where there seemed to be no such thing.

But in the meantime, Induya’s fascinated gaze at me putting the truck into gear and turning the steering wheel was threatening to make me blush beet red, so I asked her another question to distract the both of us.

“So you said you’re meant to win honor and glory when you fight,” I picked back up on our conversation from before. “But you’re forced to do it on behalf of the backers instead?”

She scowled slightly. “I am not forced to. Women have always fought to bring wealth to the backers. A woman is nothing but a slave if she does not learn to fight and earn her place in an arena. Fighting is very honorable, John. It is the bad backers who have made it dishonorable. My opponent’s backer was one of them.”

I raised my eyebrows. “What about yours?”

The woman pursed her lips like she shouldn’t speak her mind on this one, and I softened my tone a bit.

“I asked you a question,” I gently pointed out. “I want to know what you think about things, Induya. Please, tell me?”

Induya let out a tense sigh, but then she nodded in agreement.

“Scum,” she said with calm directness. “He was vain and cruel, and dim-witted enough to make his own prize fighter the target of his outbursts.”

She tossed her hair as she made this statement, and I had no doubt she was referring to herself, probably accurately.

Then she went on. “But my opponent’s backer was no better. He took her out of her home in the water and sent her against me with a wooden stick. What honor does that bring either of us as fighters?”

She shook her head scornfully, and I couldn’t help but agree.

Then I remembered something.

“So that was why you didn’t wound her in the arena when you had the chance to?” I guessed. “Because it wasn’t a fair fight?”

Induya nodded. “A fight that isn’t won on even ground brings no honor. As princess, my mother and grandmother were some of the best f—”

“Wait a second,” I interrupted. I was fucking floored, and the truck swerved as I did a double-take. “You’re a princess? A real one?”

Induya shrugged and nodded again.

My eyes widened. “And they treated you that way?”

I was including the way her backer had seemed prepared to beat the shit out of her in this question, but when she responded, I got the impression she didn’t even care about that part as much as the rest of it.

“Yes.” Her voice sounded grim and almost sad. “I have always wanted a backer who would value me as a fighter. One I would be proud to bring riches to. But they are rare. I have not had a good backer since my father died. He was backer for my mother and I. And I have not seen her in years. She must be in another city by now. Or maybe… maybe she is gone, too.”

When I looked over at Induya, I was shocked to see that her fiery eyes had changed color completely. Now they looked like two pools of deep blue water with the sun playing across their surface. Shards of azure, cerulean, and sapphire swam around in her deep blue irises. Her dark bronze pupils and the whites of her eyes were the only thing that stayed the same.

I forced myself to focus on her words instead of her strange and shifting eye colors.

“I’m sorry, Induya,” I said quietly. I wanted badly to reach over and clasp her hand or even just give it a pat, but I felt like that might be presumptuous even if it hadn’t been such a long way across the cab. After a moment’s reflection, I continued. “Is it like this everywhere in your world? Is there nowhere where you would be allowed to fight like… like you want to?”

“I think it is like this everywhere,” she said as she toyed with a strand of her jet black ponytail. “But I have no way to know for sure. The oasis cities are all separated by the desert. It has gotten hotter and hotter over time, until no one could cross it. There used to be trading caravans, but so many of them didn’t come back…”

She raised one golden-skinned shoulder in a weary shrug.

My next comment fled my mind as a big, faded-blue object swam into view ahead.

“Trading caravans,” I repeated thoughtfully, and I downshifted and braked slightly as we approached the object. “You mean like those?”

Induya perked up in her seat and craned her neck to look past me at the caved-in blue wagon to our left.

“Yes, just like those.” She ran her eyes over the busted wagon with a wistful expression. Their vibrant blue of her irises made the wheeled contraption look more faded and shitty than ever in comparison.

Her gaze traveled back to the windshield, but then something outside the passenger window made her whip her head to the right.

“Gorsican,” she breathed.

I stepped on the brakes and turned to look incredulously at the dead many-legged beast that was now rotting in the sun, then at Induya.

“That’s a gorsican?” I asked with complete and utter bafflement.

I thought her eyes were shifting from blue back toward golden-red as she looked back at me, because there were slivers of violet, lavender, and indigo drifting around in them now, with these tiny flecks of red-gold that reminded me of sparks over a fire.

Then I realized she had been responding to me, and I had completely missed what she said as I got lost in her eyes.

I gave my head a brisk shake to clear it. “Hmm?”

“I said that gorsicans used to pull our wagons,” Induya repeated in a tone of utmost patience. “And I asked you if you saw this one from your chariot when you came to my city.”

“Oh, I saw it,” I said darkly as I thought of my gruesome battle with the creature.

“It has a cloth on it.” Induya sounded puzzled. “A… flag? Did you see that, too?”

“Flag?” I asked, and I leaned forward to get a better look. “Oh. That’s my shirt.”

She turned away from the many-legged gorsican beast with my flannel still hanging on its stinger and stared at me wordlessly, like she was waiting for me to say I was just kidding.

I didn’t. I just shrugged.

“Your shirt?” she finally echoed. Her eyes were back to red-gold now, and they narrowed slightly in suspicion or disbelief. “Why does the gorsican have your shirt?”

“Well, it’s not because he asked nicely for it, that’s for sure,” I grumbled. “The ugly bastard jumped on my truck when I was passing by. I had to take care of him with some pepper spray and a tire thumper.”

Induya’s face crinkled up in confusion, but I couldn’t tell if it was from my choice of weapons, which probably sounded like complete gibberish to her, or the idea of me doing battle with the gorsican beast.

But after some reflection, the princess seemed to decide she believed me.

“A worthy victory,” she said with another grave look at the creature. Then she turned back to me with a little smile. “But this gorsican is no ‘he,’ John.”

“It’s a female?” I asked with interest.

Induya nodded simply. “They eat their mates.”

“Oh, so… Praying mantis rules. Got it,” I chuckled, but as I coaxed Spitfire into motion again, something else occurred to me. “Okay, new question. How exactly did people tame those things enough to use them as draft animals?”

“It was before my time,” Induya explained. “But I know that the coachmen made sure the gorsicans were well-fed, so they had less urge to turn on people. And the coachmen had whips, of course.”

“Carrot and stick,” I said with a nod of understanding. “What, er, did people feed them, exactly?”

“Flesh,” she said promptly. “They hunger for almost anything that walks on two legs.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Of course they do.”

Soon the smooth, iridescent white road came into view.

“I have heard of this road before,” the princess said in a soft voice. “The old trade road.”

This was one of the few times I thought I could easily read her tone. She sounded excited, and maybe a little afraid.

After a few seconds, she spoke again.

“John,” she said with an air of formality that was oddly endearing. “Can I ask you a question?”

I smiled partly at the way she mirrored my language, and partly just because I loved that she felt safe enough with me to ask a question without fear of being throttled.

“Fire away,” I answered.

Induya frowned at the statement, and I chuckled at how adorable the golden-skinned beauty was when she was genuinely confused.

“‘Fire away’ means ‘go for it,’” I clarified. “Ask me your question.”

“What will you do with your pouch of Lord Vath’s wealth?” she asked a little hesitantly. “I mean… Are there truly no fighters to back in your Earth land?”

My mouth fell open. Lord Vath must have been the fatheaded man I’d shot back in the city. I had assumed the little velvet pouch just held some of those weird lumpy coins inside, or maybe some other kind of trinkets that would be useless back home. Beyond that, I had almost forgotten about it in light of everything else I was learning from Induya.

“Well…” I tried to decide which part to address first. “What exactly do you mean when you say ‘wealth?’”

“His gems,” she explained. “Backers always carry their wealth with them in pouches, and Lord Vath was a rich man compared to most backers in the city. His wealth is now yours since you won your duel against him.”

My heart sped up slightly at the idea that I might have a little sack of precious gems on me right this second.

I’d never held genuine gems before in my life.

I had no idea how much there could really be in so small of a pouch, and calling anyone rich in a city as run down as the one I’d just come from seemed questionable, but anything was better than nothing.

On the other hand, would gems from this world actually be worth something back home?

“I’ll need to take a look at them,” I said thoughtfully, and I tugged open the zipper of my coat pocket. “Here, will you check?”

Then I took the pouch out of it and handed it over to the princess, and she reached out to take it. Her long-fingered hands felt warmer than before as they brushed against my own.

“You… wish for me to view your own private wealth?” she asked uneasily. “John, a warrior is not permitted to–”

“You’re permitted,” I cut in and nodded toward the pouch in her hands. “Go on, open it up.”

The contents of the pouch clinked against each other as Induya poured them into her hand. When I glanced over, I saw a little pile of gemstones sitting on her palm. The rising sun gleamed off them and cast little panels of colorful light onto the princess’ smooth golden skin as she held them up for me to see.

My mind started to race, partly at the realization that these jewels actually looked valuable, and partly at the sight of the princess’ shifting red-gold eyes watching me.

I’d need to get used to that.

She looked extremely uneasy as she held the gems in her palm, and I got the impression women really weren’t allowed to touch the “riches” of this world. Even though it was their blood and sweat that earned these very gems for backers like the dead asshole in that arena.

But she looked so beautiful with the glinting of the gems dancing on her face. I instantly wanted to cover her in jewels to do justice to how stunning she was, and maybe even put a crown or something on her head.

She was a princess, after all.

Or I could just buy her some decent clothes and feed her better than her old backer had to start. I could make sure she was genuinely taken care of for once. Anything would be better than how I’d found her. And with these gems in my posession, my financial options seemed to be opening up just a little more.

Maybe.

I let out a measured breath as I put aside the thought of getting the jewels appraised for now so I could answer Induya’s other questions.

“There aren’t exactly fighters to back on Earth,” I said. “Well… There sort of are, but it’s absolutely nothing like the way things are here.”

The princess’ expression looked crestfallen when I glanced over at her again. She hurried to turn her face down and look at the pouch while she carefully replaced the jewels in it, but I was sure I caught a gleam of blue in her mesmerizing eyes first.

An idea slowly started to take shape in my mind. It didn’t feel entirely real yet. It still seemed as tenuous and unsolid as the portal’s fog that we would drive through soon, but it was an idea that made my heart rate speed up more.

I took a moment to get my thoughts in order so I could put them into words.

“You said the other oasis cities are like yours, right?” I questioned.

“From what I know, they are,” Induya acknowledged. “But there is no way to know for certain, unless…”

“Unless we go there,” I finished in a musing tone.

Going to the oasis city we were just leaving had proven an easy task in my truck. Assuming my trip through the foggy portal hadn’t been a one-time thing, I could easily cross further over the desert to look for more cities on another trip later as long as I made sure to fill up on gas first.

But that would be a pretty big assumption to make, considering I needed to make sure I could even return home through the portal in the first place.

Still, the idea started to take form more clearly in my head. When the fog came into view on the road far ahead and confirmed that the portal was still there, my heart leaped in my chest.

“So…” I took another glance over at the princess’ downcast face, and I slowed the truck’s pace a bit. “Like I said, I’m not completely sure if I can just go back and forth through this portal thing. But as I see it, there are three options right now. Option one is that I can’t come back. So, uh, you’d sort of be staying in my world, Earth, with me. I would take good care of you, but I would be lying if I said it was much like this place.”

When I looked over again, her face was still guarded, but she gave a little nod, like she was willing to hear me out, so I continued.

“Option two is that, uh…” I hesitated, then decided to just go ahead and say it. “We die. I mean, I don’t think that’ll happen, but again, this was my first time going through the portal. I just thought I should put all the cards on the table, or whatever.”

The princess’ eyes narrowed slightly, and I wasn’t sure if it was the prospect of dying or because “cards on the table” sounded like something absurd to her.

“I am brave enough to enter the fog,” she finally said with a proud lift of her chin. She hesitated for only a moment before she went on. “What is… option three?”

“Option three is that we’re able to return through the portal,” I said, and I kept my voice calm as I tried not to get ahead of myself. “Again, that’s not a sure thing. But if it is, then… well, would you like to go fight in other cities?”

She didn’t respond right away, so I hurried to add onto my statement.

“I would back you,” I assured her. “If that’s what you wanted, I mean. And… I would never hurt you like that Lord Vath asshole. Anyone who ever tries to lay a hand on you again can join him in hell.”

I made the remark in the same slightly offhanded tone of voice that I generally talked in, but I wasn’t kidding around about protecting her.

Her face went blank for a few seconds, and I couldn’t tell if it was from surprise or dislike for the whole idea. Still, I didn’t prod her. I just let her think about it while we cruised down the smooth white road toward the swirling fog.

“I am yours now,” she reminded me for what felt like the umpteenth time. But her voice got softer when she went on, and there was another rare note of shyness in it. “And I will go with you through the portal to your Earth land, even if we may not return. But since you ask… Yes, I would like to fight in other cities. This is my greatest dream, and I would like to fight with you as my backer and earn more riches for you… John.”

The solemn way she said my name made me grin again even before the excitement of the idea set in more.

We were about to drive through the glittery, glowing fog that had gotten me here. Back to Earth, where I would hopefully be able to get a nice little chunk of cash from Lord Vath’s jewels if they were even half as valuable as they looked.

But now, that cash seemed like it could be spent in an even better way than covering the golden-skinned beauty in finery fit for a princess.

I could load her down with weapons instead.

The cash I made could be used to buy weapons for Induya that would be far superior to the wooden weapons and the shitty black metal I had just seen fighters use in the arena.

I could buy new weapons for myself, too, I suddenly realized. I’d have to make sure not to go overboard and blow all my cash at once, but I was sure I’d be able to get myself a better gun at the very least.

My little old revolver had been enough to extinguish that Vath asshole with ease. If the other cities were anything like this one, I would be unstoppable walking in there with myself and this badass warrior princess both armed to the teeth.

And we would leave with more gems.

Gems that I could turn into more cash.

My dream of buying Spitfire suddenly seemed like it was within my grasp, and so did a whirlwind of other ideas that were just as exciting. I could have a life of adventure that I had never even imagined was possible outside my audiobooks.

And the stunning princess in my passenger seat would share it with me. Not only that, but she looked excited about it when I glanced back over at her. She was watching my face again with an almost eager expression, and her eyes were glittering with different colors like two mesmerizing prisms. I almost felt like I was looking at the sun with my naked eyes, and I had to turn away before I could find my words again.

“Let’s do it, Indy,” I said, and I smirked as the nickname rolled effortlessly off my tongue.

I saw her do a double-take in the corner of my eye, and I turned hurriedly to apologize before we got closer to the swirling fog ahead. Not everyone was a fan of nicknames, and this was a princess I was talking to, after all.

When I looked over, there was a little smile playing around her lips. The same one I had glimpsed for a second in our conversation earlier.

I smiled back and then turned forward once more.

Then we drove into the swirling fog, and Indy gasped as her hand suddenly shot out to grip my arm. The fog started to glitter and dance around madly in my vision again, but this time I was ready for it, and I reached up to pat the black-haired woman’s hand where it clutched me for support.

“Don’t worry,” I said as the portal consumed us. “This is gonna be fun. Probably. And I won’t let anything hurt you.”

I could have sworn I felt her grip relax ever so slightly beneath my palm, but she didn’t remove it just yet.

Excitement about the prospect of being able to come back to the desert world and carry out my plan coursed through me as we bumped down onto the gray road just past where I’d been driving last night.

The sun was in the same place in the sky as it had been in the world we just left.

Next to me, the princess’ red-gold eyes were wide and shocked. I had prepared her as much as possible for this on short notice, but I knew the sight of Earth must have stunned her almost as much as driving into the strange desert-world had stunned me. But she slowly withdrew her arm when she saw that the swirling chaos was over. I focused on the road and gave her some time to regain her composure.

Then a weird, wobbly feeling ran through my body that reminded me of returning to land after spending a long time on a ship, like I was regaining my sense of balance, or gravity, or something.

Just in time. I got my bearings quickly and realized we were rolling towards an on-ramp to the freeway, just past where I had disappeared into the fog last night. On my dashboard, the GPS flickered back into life.

It was in my rearview mirrors now, white and swirling innocently around just like it had been before.

There was a way to confirm whether or not I could pass through the portal again. I just had to act quickly.

“Hold on to your hat,” I said.

From the princess’ silence, I realized this expression probably made no sense to her, but it seemed like the warning tone of my voice was universal, because in the corner of my eye I could see that her hand shot out like she was going to grip my arm again. Then she froze in the middle of the motion and slowly drew her arm back to clutch the base of her seatbelt.

I checked all my mirrors in quick succession and craned my neck around. The area was still deserted. So I cranked the wheel as quickly as I dared to the left and thanked the damn heavens for Spitfire’s tight turn radius as we wheeled around.

If I’d been going faster, I wouldn’t have tried such a tight turn even in a cabover, but as it was, my old clunker handled it just fine. Soon we were rolling back toward the fog in the opposite lane.

The calm, stoic-faced princess let out a small squeak as we headed back into the fog. It happened just like before. The fog started to glow and glitter while it swirled furiously around us, and the feeling of weightlessness gripped me again.

And then, suddenly, Spitfire’s tires bumped onto the ground again.

We were back in the desert.

“Hell yeah,” I whooped as I took in the scene. It was the same scenery we’d left behind, and again the sun was in the same spot in the sky.

Now that I had confirmed the fact that we could pass through the portal again, I didn’t intend to stay here any longer. At least not yet.

So after we drove a short distance down the smooth, glossy white road, I turned the truck around again. I took it at a more purposeful pace this time since I had more notice, and I was sort of proud that I managed to wheel the old clunker around while staying on the smooth desert road.

“Ready?” I asked the princess as we approached the fog again.

She seemed to realize this was a sort of a rhetorical question, but she gave a brave little nod anyway. Soon we were hurtling through the glowing fog again.

When we bumped back down on the gray road again, I was fucking exhilarated, and it seemed like Indy was feeling the same, even if she tried not to show it too much. I could sense her excitement at the idea of going back to fight in the desert again later.

The surrounding area seemed as empty as ever and I was pretty sure by now that this mysterious exit was somewhere that couldn’t be accessed by anyone else, but I still took the time to check in every direction again before I changed direction. This time I pulled into the grassy abandoned parking lot where I had stopped briefly last night. It was on the corner of the little road, and it had two entrances. Thankfully, one of them led near the crossroad of what I now thought of as “Foggy Avenue” and another cramped little road. We bumped along it, and we just were far enough from the fog that I was able to unclench my teeth when we passed it by.

Then I took the few turns needed to get us back onto the fogless part of the road, and I picked up some speed as we approached the entrance ramp onto the freeway. When we passed onto it, the swirling fog disappeared in my rearview mirrors.

For a brief second, I had worried that the otherworldly princess in my passenger seat would disappear, too. But when I looked over, she was still there.

I felt like I had just driven out of a dream.

But it was real.

And from what I had just experienced, it seemed like I could go back at any time.