An Alex Hawk Time Travel Adventure (Book 1): A Door Into Time

by Inmon, Shawn

  From atop the wall, Alex saw Dunta-ak peering down at them. He raised his arm, then lowered it. A rainstorm of two dozen crossbow bolts flew, whizzing into the shields of Sekun-ak and his squad.

  Alex held his breath and waited to see if any warrior screamed or fell.

  They did not.

  “Hold shield wall, keep marching,” Alex instructed both forward and back.

  The effect of being fired upon by dozens of crossbows can never be diminished, but Alex thought it was much less intense than he had expected. The aim of the Denta-ah was good, as many of the bolts had buried themselves in the shields of Sekun-ak’s squad, but they had no effect.

  Alex had thought they might have three to four times the number of crossbowmen on the wall as they did, or at least have others loading and handing the bows up to the men. None of that was happening.

  The squads continued to move toward the gate. Every twenty steps, another barrage of bolts hit home, to no effect.

  Then hell was unleashed.

  A burning mass flew over the wall and directly at Alex’s army. His well-trained squads looked up to see a burning comet descending from the heavens directly at them. Discipline and order evaporated in less than a second. The troops scattered, some running to the side, others forward, others backward.

  The panic saved a few lives, as a massive, fiery tree trunk landed with a spectacular spray of burning embers. It landed precisely where the fourth squad had been a moment before. It smashed down directly on top of four unfortunate warriors who were crushed by the immense weight. Their death was mercifully quick.

  When the stump hit, it bounced, landing on two more warriors, then rolled, overtaking three more. The trail of the stump was marked by sprawled, burning bodies. Uninjured warriors, heedless of their own safety, rushed in to pull the injured and dying from the sudden flames.

  Alex raised his voice, pitching it to be heard over the mayhem and screams of the dead and dying.

  “Squad leaders! Form up! Shields up, but run toward the gate!”

  I don’t know if they’ve got more than one of those damn things, but if we’re close to the gate, they won’t be able to use it anyway.

  “Form up!” Sekun-ak ordered. “Stay with your squad. If the man in front of you is dead, move up and take his place!”

  Tinta-ak and the other squad leaders fought down their panic and put their squads back together.

  Alex looked at the fourth squad, which had been hurt the worst in the trebuchet attack. “Fourth squad! Move back. Follow the sixth squad now! Senta-ah, make it rain arrows inside the gate.”

  Alex’s longbow archers stopped well outside of both crossbow and trebuchet range, spread out to not present a bunched target and notched an arrow, then waited.

  Senta-eh stood slightly behind, notched her own arrow, then said, “Fire.”

  The longbow arrows flew in a deadly arc, far over the heads of their own troops. Some arrows hit and stuck in the gate. Others flew over the heads of the crossbowmen and into the open area behind them. Four of those arrows, though, hit crossbowmen, who tumbled backwards from their perch, leaving gaps between them.

  “Forward,” Senta-eh ordered and the longbow archers moved toward the gate. “Halt!” she said after ten steps. The longbow archers notched and held.

  “Fire,” Senta-eh said, unleashing her own arrow. She followed its parabola and watched with satisfaction as it struck one of the crossbowmen dead center.

  Four others fell at the same moment.

  All longbow archers notched another arrow and peered out to check their target.

  Their targets were gone.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Trapped

  After two rounds of crossbow bolts thunked into the shields of the leading squad, they held for a moment, waiting for a third volley.

  It didn’t come.

  Alex looked around the right edge of his shield and saw that the bowmen who stood on top of the gate were gone. A few of the longbow arrows stuck and vibrated on the wall.

  “Hold positions,” Alex said, then, holding his shield in front of him, sprinted toward the gate.

  The gate slowly rolled open and Alex realized he had been brash.

  I might be the first casualty of my own battle plan. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

  Alex raised his shield and braced himself for an onslaught that never came.

  “Manta-ak?”

  Alex was so surprised that he nearly dropped his shield. He looked into the familiar face of Janta-ak.

  Monda-ak woofed at seeing an old friend in an unexpected place.

  Janta-ak and the dozen men with him put their shoulders into the gate and swung it open.

  “When I sent you to prepare the way for us, I didn’t expect you to have done all the work when we got here.”

  “I don’t think I did. Your longbows took a few of them down, then they abandoned their posts and ran for the interior gate. But, it was at Doug-ak’s command. There was no panic in them. They acted like they were carrying out a plan.”

  Alex considered that while peering over Janta-ak’s shoulder. “Are those all your men?”

  “Those are all men who were slaves. They will fight against Denta-ah.”

  “Do they have weapons?”

  “No. Do you have weapons we can equip them with?”

  “No. We captured three work crews in the forest and gave them what we had.”

  “Then we’ll do the best we can.”

  Alex realized he had left his army standing, turtle-like in front of the gate. “Sekun-ak, shields down. Bring your men forward.” Alex didn’t want to bring all his men in at once, but their goal was to destroy Denta-ah and the only way to do that was to get to the actual village.

  Sekun-ak marched his squad forward. They walked through the gate and glanced around, but the only sound was the wind whistling over the logs and a few birds singing.

  “How far to the gate? Will we have to fight our way there?”

  “I don’t think so. It is one hundred and sixty-two strides from this gate to that.”

  Alex converted that in his head. Five hundred feet, more or less. A long way to fight against an entrenched enemy, but an easy walk with no resistance.

  Since they were under no apparent time pressure, Alex moved his squads in one by one, pausing between. Soon enough, the entire army was inside the first gate, aside from the freed workers.

  Alex took Sekun-ak and Janta-ak aside. “This is too easy. Why would they retreat when we killed a few of their bowmen?”

  “I know how we can find out,” Sekun-ak answered.

  Alex looked at him, surprised. “How?”

  “By marching to that gate, burning it down, and killing them all.”

  Alex sighed and looked at Janta-ak. “Any better ideas?”

  “They built that fire to shoot fire at you with their arrows, I think,” Janta-ak said, nodding at the blaze. “They will probably still do that.”

  “Is there water nearby?”

  Janta-ak pointed at a series of troughs that had been used to feed the animals used to drag the logs back from the forest.

  “Have your men hold their shields under the water and count to ten. I don’t know if that will make them fireproof, but it’s the best plan I’ve got.”

  Sekun-ak told the squad leaders to have their men line up and do as Manta-ak had asked. The first few men had lifted their dripping shields and moved aside when a loud noise came from behind. The men whirled and raised their shields as one, but it wasn’t an attack.

  The gate was quickly shutting. Before Alex could reach it, it had slammed shut. On the other side, he could hear a heavy log being lifted into place.

  They were locked in—trapped like rats in a box.

  Then, in rhythm, a new sound came from the walls on both sides of them. A scraping, thumping sound.

  Janta-ak realized what the sound meant first. “Ladders,” he whispered.

  The heads of dozens of bowmen appeared over
the walls, surrounding them on three sides.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  The Battle of Denta-ah

  Alex reacted immediately, if still too late.

  “Shields up! Form into squadrons!”

  The men were caught unaware and although most lifted their shields up, they did not have time to form into their units and their shield wall.

  The bowmen looking down on them opened fire with devastating effect, then ducked back behind the wall before Alex could return fire. A few moments later, they popped above the wall again and released another withering volley.

  Dozens of Alex’s men fell, pierced by short bolts.

  Alex ran to the middle of the opening, directing his lieutenants, who organized their squads.

  Alex held his shield up to cover part of his body, but not all. An arrow whizzed over his right shoulder—it would have been a kill shot if he had been as tall as his warriors—and Alex heard a guttural grunt, followed by a whine.

  He looked down to see Monda-ak had been hit in his hindquarter. He tried to stand but couldn’t bear his weight and fell. He looked at Alex with terribly sad eyes.

  Alex abandoned all pretense of protecting himself, even as the crossbowmen of Denta-ah rained more bolts down on them.

  Alex spotted a lean-to that offered some protection from the arrows.

  He grabbed Monda-ak by the scruff of his neck and dragged him inside, then shouted at Sekun-ak and his other lieutenants to grab the other wounded and do the same.

  As they pulled the injured but not dead into the lean-to, two more of his lieutenants fell.

  Alex took over one squad and tapped a man whose name he didn’t know to lead the other. The first battlefield promotion in the Battle of Denta-ah. They were forced to leave the downed men who were dead or dying, as the bowmen had seen their strategy. Every time they approached one of their downed men, half a dozen bowmen sent bolts down at them.

  Finally, after heavy early losses, the squads were turtled. The bowmen above continued to send bolts down, but the barrage wasn’t as heavy, as they just thunked into the shields.

  Alex lifted his shield a bit and surveyed the field. Each individual squad looked like a massive porcupine, with bolts quivering as the humans below the shields breathed in and out.

  Beyond a few lean-tos, there were no fortifications where he could form his men into an offensive force. All they could do for the moment was hide behind their shields and continue to live.

  And what happens if they open the gate at the other end and another force comes running at us? What do we do then? We do what fighting forces have always done—stand, fight, and die.

  Alex realized he hadn’t heard an arrow bury itself in a shield in a long moment, so took a better look.

  The men who had manned the walls on three sides were gone, and there was the sound of a battle raging outside the walls.

  He heard the sound of whatever had blocked the second gate lifting and scraping as it opened a crack. One of the men who had been on a work crew that morning said, “Help us open this!”

  Two dozen men threw their shoulders into the gate and pushed it wide open.

  A full battle was underway, and Alex’s last chance army was fully engaged and outnumbered.

  Alex shouted orders at each lieutenant, telling them where to take their squads. The former slaves were outnumbered no more. In fact, they had a sudden, overwhelming advantage.

  Each squad moved to an area of conflict, shields low, clubs and axes out.

  These Denta-ah warriors did not surrender. They fought to the end, but the end was rapid.

  When the sound of clubs and axes finally silenced, the field was red with the blood of the fallen.

  Alex sent scouts around the perimeter looking for any Denta-ah stragglers but found none. As he was directing triage on his wounded, Senta-eh and the rest of the longbow archers appeared.

  “When they engaged in hand-to-hand combat, we had to hold our fire for fear of killing as many of our own as we did theirs.”

  “That was the right decision. Gather as many of your arrows as you can. We will need you again when we storm the inner gate.”

  Alex looked at the dead Denta-ah warriors strewn about.

  “Everyone who hasn’t already, equip yourself with weapons from the dead. This was only the first battle. They thought they had us trapped, but we escaped. Now we will take the battle to them.”

  Alex left his lieutenants to reorganize their squads and incorporate new warriors where appropriate. He turned and ran back to the lean-to where Monda-ak and the other wounded warriors had been left.

  His heart sank as he approached. Monda-ak’s head was in the dirt and his eyes were closed.

  “Monda-ak!”

  As soon as he heard Alex’s voice, the dog’s huge head lifted up, his eyes opened, and his tongue lolled. He tried to wag his tail, but he whimpered and laid his head down. Alex ran to him to examine his wound and found that another of the wounded men had been ministering to him.

  “I am not hurt too badly, so I have been trying to make myself useful. I was able to pull the arrow out and the wound looks clean. It will need to be bandaged, but he will live.” He patted Monda-ak on the head and again the tail thumped once, twice, then laid still. “He is magnificent.”

  “He is my best friend,” Alex said simply. The man saluted with two fingers. The bond between these animals and their humans was known all over Kragdon-ah.

  Alex laid his hand on Monda-ak’s head and asked, “How are the others?”

  “Some have died. Some are wounded but will survive. It is the way of war. It is why we don’t wage war about anything less than this. Nothing else is worth this price.” The man pointed to where he had been pierced by two of the crossbow bolts. “I am not wounded badly. I can fight with you again.”

  Alex laid a hand on his shoulder. “No. You are more valuable here. Stay here and tend to the men who are wounded.” Alex dropped his head low and muzzled Monda-ak. “Stay here. I will be back for you.”

  He stood and felt his weariness wash away. He held his shield and hammer.

  When he turned, Sekun-ak had all the units reorganized and waiting.

  The scope of the battle had changed. The warriors of Denta-ah were now contained in a single area, and since more than a hundred former slaves had been freed and equipped, Alex’s army was no longer at such a massive disadvantage.

  Alex arranged his army so that all his shielded units were up front. Directly behind them, and ordered to hold outside of crossbow range, was the unit of freed slaves, now fully equipped. Behind them were the longbow archers, ready to rain death from the sky.

  This time, as soon as they became visible to the crossbowmen, they took heavy fire. Each Denta-ah warrior fired his bolt then ducked behind the safety of the wall, to be immediately replaced by another archer and so on.

  Every single step that Sekun-ak and his men took was marked by the thud and impact of more bolts hitting their shields, adding to the array they had collected when trapped.

  Some crossbow archers got smart and realized that shooting into the shields was completely ineffective. Instead, they shot high over their heads, hoping to reach the trailing, unshielded warriors. When that failed, they aimed below the shields, managing to hit several of the lead warriors where their leather armor covered their ankles and feet.

  Still, Manta-ak’s army marched forward.

  Alex stood behind the first squad of men, judging the distance to the gate. He turned and shouted an order to Senta-eh.

  She gave the command and her archers released two dozen arrows over the tall gate. Alex stopped and listened. He was pleased to hear the anguished cries of those who had been caught unaware on the other side.

  “Again,” he shouted.

  The arrows flew and again there were screams from the other side, albeit fewer this time.

  On the third volley, no sound came from the other side but the sound of the arrows falling onto cobblestones.


  Alex ordered the regular archers to move up between the first and second squads. They arrived with arrows notched and aimed at the guards on the gate with unerring accuracy.

  Four of the guards fell but were immediately replaced by crossbowmen who fired back at Alex’s vulnerable archers. Three of his archers fell, though the unit in front raised their shields to try to protect them. This allowed the crossbowmen above to take advantage of new targets. Two of his shield-bearers were hit by crossbow bolts.

  We can’t win like this. If it’s a war of attrition, they can wait us out and pick us off.

  “Sekun-ak, take your unit all the way to the gate. Turtle up and burn them out.”

  Sekun-ak and his fifty warriors moved forward under heavy fire until they stood at the base of the gate. They lifted their shields overhead and men dropped to their knees and went to work. Three warriors started to chop at the gate and slowly chipped away a bit of the logs. Three others dug down at the base to create a small hole.

  They took the wood chips they had created and piled them in the hole, then added handfuls of pine pitch they had gathered on their march to Denta-ah. They layered wood chips, pine, wood chips, pine.

  Sekun-ak removed his flint and bent down to start the fire.

  From where Alex was standing, events happened in slow motion, but he still couldn’t move quickly enough to stop them. Atop the gate, he saw warriors heft a long trough and tip it over. He watched liquid fall toward his squad and burn everything it touched. He heard the sizzle of burning flesh and the screams of his warriors.

  “Squad two, recover those warriors. Drag them out of crossbow range.”

  He turned to Tinta-ak. “I need you to finish the job. If the wood and pitch is wet, start on a different log.”

  Tinta-ak did not hesitate. He waited until the first squad had been cleared, then marched forward to carry on.

  Sekun-ak did not allow himself to be taken completely out of range, but he was badly burned, with skin already pulling away from his neck, shoulders, and arms. Alex could see that what he had been hit with was not water, but he did not dare touch his wounded friend to see what it was.