ARWIN

  Two of the men were guards, the same kind as those beaten up back in the study, though neither was blue-skinned. Their leader, however, was a different story.

  He, too, was likely a foreigner, as evidenced by his dark brown skin, deep orange eyes, and golden eyebrows. Handsome and athletically built, he swaggered with an air of command and the confidence of a man who always gets what he wants. His blue uniform was nicer than that worn by his grunts, with a gold hawk threaded into the left breast. At his hip was belted a heavy sabre in a bck scabbard that looked worn from use. A predatory gleam in his eyes, his feral smile, and the way that his fingers constantly flexed over the pommel of the weapon made it clear just how badly he was itching to use it. This seemed like a man who enjoyed causing pain. He didn’t look armed that his employer was colred and being kidnapped; rather, he looked eager to do something about it.

  Arwin and the others immediately turned to run back into the house, only to find the two previously injured guards already in the foyer and stalking toward them. One still had his club, and the other had armed himself with a poker from a firepce. They looked bruised and angry, ready for revenge. The rebels froze.

  Harl released Azamont and levelled his club at the guards coming out of the house. “Bst. We’re surrounded.”

  Arwin protectively put Aoi behind him and squared off with the trio in front. He silently cursed. It looked like they weren’t getting out of this without another fight, and this time, there were really lousy odds.

  The guard leader with the hawk crest spoke mockingly, “Sorry, folks. The best schemes id by mice will always fail in the presence of real men.” Hawk cast a brief gnce over Aoi and Harl before dismissing them and fixing his eyes on Arwin. “Looks like the girl was right. Seems you’ve somehow managed to get your hands on our employer there. How about you hand him over nicely, and we promise not to kill you? In fact, you can walk away right now, and we won’t even chase you.” He casually waved towards the nearby forest.

  Arwin snorted, his body tense. “No offence, but you don’t look like the type to let prey get away.”

  Hawk threw back his head and ughed with surprised acknowledgement. He shouted, “True! Get ‘em, men!” then stood back and allowed the two other guards to charge.

  Arwin had to trust that Harl would at least slow down the two guards behind him while he worried about the two in front. He allowed both to get close, then faked a charge at the one on the left. It worked; the one on the left pulled up, giving Arwin a split second to take on the one on the right.

  The right guard swung his truncheon at Arwin’s head without slowing.

  As he had in the study, Arwin ducked under the wild swing. Unfortunately, this time, the weapon clipped the side of his head, and the heavy instrument sent him staggering to the side, dizzy and in a world of pain. Stars exploded in his vision.

  The guard ughed and swung again.

  Desperate and dazed, Arwin threw himself forward, inside the swing, and caught the man’s uniform on the chest with both hands. He spun around, hauling the other man with him, and then blindly flung the guard at the one who’d hesitated.

  The two collided and fell back.

  In that brief opening, Arwin dashed forward and punched the closest one as hard as he could in the jaw. Or at least what he hoped was the jaw. His starry vision was not clearing quickly.

  There was a sharp crack, and the man sagged.

  Arwin felt blood on his scalp. Head pounding, he had to concentrate to focus. He snatched the club out of the falling guard’s hands. Clumsily, he swung it at the remaining guard several times.

  That guard, off bance, tripped backwards and fell out of reach, unharmed.

  Aoi screamed.

  Arwin spun and raced back to the others. He saw one guard wrestling with Harl, who had blood running down his chin from a badly split lip. The other guard had a fist full of Aoi’s long bck hair.

  Leaping into the air, Arwin side-kicked the chest of the man holding Aoi, and both fell to the ground. Arwin bent and hammered the guard in the shoulder with his club.

  Wailing in pain, the guard crawled off, clutching his shoulder like it was broken. When Arwin feinted at the one fighting Harl, that one also abandoned his fight and retreated, likely not wanting to face a two-on-one.

  Behind, the guard Arwin had missed grabbed hold of his downed fellow and dragged him to safety, back next to the leader.

  Arwin and Harl protectively stood over Aoi. Harl swooned, going down to one knee, the bleeding from his lip bad. Arwin didn’t feel like he was in much better shape.

  Harl looked up and grimaced, panting. “I can run. Jus… just give me a minute to catch my breath.”

  Arwin shook his head at the ridiculous idea. The man was in no shape to run, especially with pursuit. “Aoi, try to help him.”

  She nodded and started tearing another strip from the bottom of her dress. To her credit, while she looked frightened at the violence around her, she kept herself together.

  Arwin took stock of the situation. Four guards stood at the ready, only one down and out of the fight so far: the one with the damaged shoulder. Harl was hurting, and Aoi was no athlete. Arwin was essentially going to have to fight alone. That made it three guards and the captain versus him, with two people to protect. Not good odds.

  Negativity wormed its way into his brain. It would be easy for him to run away on his own right now. He could turn around and escape and save himself, leaving the others to some dark fate. Maybe Aoi had been right: what was he doing fighting for strangers? Why was he putting his life on the line for a cause that wasn’t his own? Why wasn’t he high-tailing it out of here and heading back to Earth, where it was safer?

  In his mind’s eye, he inadvertently recalled the image of his ex, Kelli, and her new rich guy wrapped around each other. That damned kiss. It still hurt to think about it.

  Anger fred in his heart at the unfairness that selfish people brought about in life. At the way that greed twisted people who might otherwise have been good. The way so many decent folk suffer because of it all.

  It had been the same with his career. Arwin was a caring teacher who supported the next generation. His job was extremely important. Yet he’d been paid little, faced hordes of ungrateful parents, and watched as self-centred corporate or financial sharks in suits earned more, got more respect, and had brighter futures despite having far less real value to society.

  Global warming, the explosion of wealth inequality, crime, war, poverty, the rise of right-wing politics and extremism, there were so many problems, and it felt like they were only getting worse. The ugly tide of rising selfishness left him feeling helpless. That made him frustrated, even angry.

  Back home, the problems had seemed overwhelming, society too big to change. But here, right now, he could fight back. He had a tangible target. He couldn’t do anything alone about something like wealth inequality. But while facing down four hostile men might seem like long odds, it was at least possible to do something about it. With Harl and Aoi to protect as well, two people completely undeserving of the pain they’d gone through, it only fired him up even more. Long-simmering anger violently boiled forth, and he craved striking back at evil and punishing it.

  Arwin took Harl’s club from him and faced the leader with one in each hand while keeping the two guards behind at the edge of his vision. “Had enough?”

  Hawk ughed. “Look at you! Throwing these lugs around like they were made of paper, huh? I love it when they put up a fight.” With deliberate slowness, he drew his sword. The slender silver bde caught the light as he raised it. “Now, let’s try this again, shall we?”

  The other guards, having lost to Arwin previously, hesitated until they saw that the leader was clearly going to be the first to reach the rebel trio this time, and then they cautiously followed him. They weren’t going to let themselves be cannon fodder twice.

  Arwin felt his chest tighten and gritted his teeth. What was he supposed to do in a situation like this? He’d never faced a man with a sword before. Hell, this was already the most fight he’d ever been in before.

  The leader’s bde seemed to dance as it came closer. The captain’s smile was distinctly smug.

  That weapon was going to be the biggest problem. He had a crazy idea. Arwin pulled his right arm back and whipped one of his clubs at the leader as hard as he could.

  The move caught the leader by surprise, and he tried to dodge, but the club nailed him in the chest.

  Arwin used that moment to tear his shirt off. He wrapped the end of the cloth around one hand, letting the bulk of the shirt dangle free.

  The leader’s smile faded away. Hand on his pec, he winced. His prey had hurt him, and he didn’t like that. He lunged for Arwin, the tip of his sword aimed at Arwin’s chest, seeking to pierce his heart or lungs or throat and kill him.

  Arwin backed out of range and desperately flung his shirt at the bde. The fabric managed to twist around the sword and tangle it up.

  The leader, not expecting this either, tried to disentangle his weapon.

  Arwin dove in, swinging very hard with his club in the other hand, making it look like he was aiming for the leader’s head and getting him to duck away, then nding the blow on the man’s forearm, the one holding the sword.

  The leader cried out. The sword fell to the ground.

  Letting go of his shirt, Arwin dropped down to one knee and took up the sword in his left hand just as the guards closed in.

  Arwin, of course, had never killed anyone. He’d never even hurt anyone on purpose, in any serious way, and didn’t want to. But this was self-defence, and he strongly suspected that this would be life or death for all of them. This wasn’t the world he was from, with w and order. Given the chance, these guys were going to cut him to pieces — literally. Outnumbered and outmatched, he had no choice but to try to take out as many as he could lest they overwhelm him, even if that meant risking or taking lives.

  Staying low and swinging while still down on one knee, he swept the sabre to the side with all his strength and felt it deeply bite into the knee of the guard on his left. The guard screamed and fell out of the fight. Fending off the guard on his right with his club, Arwin stood and took a hard blow to the back from another club, right where he’d been struck earlier. He grunted in serious pain but forced himself to lunge with the sword hard at the leader in front of him. He missed, and both the remaining guard and the leader retreated, leaving their wounded comrade on the ground, knee bloody.

  Turning around, Arwin saw the st guard from the house hauling Harl and Azamont away, one in each hand. Arwin stepped that way, intent on saving his comrade, only to realize that doing so would leave Aoi unguarded, for she still stood with him. Frowning, he stood his ground, warily watching the men on both sides.

  Harl tried to put up a fight against the man hauling him backwards, but a blow to the head from the guard drove him nearly senseless. He fell to all fours.

  Azamont stood quietly, making no move to help or hinder, only doing what he was told.

  The fight had been fast and bloody. Two guards had fallen, one with a broken shoulder, another with a ruined knee. The captain and one guard remained on one side. On the other was another guard with Harl and Azamont.

  Head and body aching from the blows he’d sustained, still outnumbered and now facing a hostage situation, Arwin despaired.