by Inmon, Shawn
They saw the broad gate in the wall. It was closed and looked formidable, like it would take at least six men to swing it open and closed.
Alex held his fingers to his lips and motioned for everyone to follow him.
For the next two hours, as light slowly dawned, they circumnavigated the wall of Lasta-ah. There were guards stationed on top of the wall every hundred yards or so, but the light of the fires made it easy to blend into the woods and avoid their gaze.
Once the sun peeked over the wall to the east, they had gone as far as they could. They had seen the three gates to enter the city and all were essentially identical.
Now, Alex had a grasp on the enormity of what they faced. A city of thousands and an army of hundreds, versus three people and a mighty dog.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Lasta-ah
Alex had no intention of just charging into Lasta-ah. It would be suicide. And, Lanta-eh had been kidnapped more than a year earlier. Another day or two of captivity would make little difference in her life. A better chance at achieving her rescue meant everything.
Now that they had the layout of the city—at least the exterior of the city—they retreated a few miles away to the southwest. There was no path in that direction, so they knew they were less likely to stumble upon someone and have to explain themselves. When they thought they were far enough away, they found a quiet stream that ran through a dense forest. They set up camp as much as they could. Harta-ak had equipped them with blankets, flint, and a pack full of food.
Alex decided not to risk a fire, though. Especially in daylight.
Are there people who camp out in these woods and have fires to cook their food? Likely so. Is it just possible, though, that a column of smoke would attract the eye of an overeager guard who might send someone to check it out? It is.
They had been up all night scouting Lasta-ah, so they agreed to try to sleep during the day. Later in the afternoon, Alex planned to move to a spot at the edge of the forest where they could see what time the city shut its gates each night.
Senta-eh and Werda-ak soon fell into an exhausted slumber, but Alex could not manage it. He finally gave up, and took Monda-ak with him for a walk. No matter how he rolled the problem over in his mind, he couldn’t come up with a viable way for them to sneak in, find Lanta-eh, and spirit her away.
Alex considered the building where Harta-ak had told him Lanta-eh was likely held. It was a secure building, which was bad. But at least they wouldn’t have to run through the streets calling her name or knocking on doors and asking if the Chosen One was home.
As Alex walked, he let his mind wander and, as he often did, he searched history for inspirations. As he rolled through his mental list of battles and strategies, he had a hard time remembering a force as tiny as his ever defeating a city so well-defended. He didn’t have fifty friends that he could pile inside a Trojan horse to get inside a gate. Or, for that matter, any ability to build a Trojan horse.
Alex sat and put his back against a tree, looking up at the blue sky. As he did, a traka-ta—one of the giant homing pigeons that Harta-ak had shown him—flew overhead, no doubt heading to Lasta-ah with a message.
A name popped into his head.
Olga of Kiev.
One of history’s most dramatic acts of revenge.
Alex jumped to his feet, pumped his fist, and said, “Yes!”
Monda-ak woofed and danced with excitement at seeing Alex so excited.
“Come on, let’s go back. I’ve got a plan!”
Alex hurried back to camp, and woke Senta-eh and Werda-ak. He told them his plan, but they were not as excited as he was. In fact, they were dubious at best.
I guess I could just say, ‘Okay, what’s your plan, then? but that’s not fair.’
Senta-eh was the first to come around. “You have had many crazy plans, Manta-ah, and they usually work. What’s our first step?”
“We need to move our camp closer to the gate that leads to the west. Then we need to be quiet and patient.”
When darkness fell, they did just that. They reached the path leading west, and walked half a mile away until they found a place they could move off the trail. They hid themselves, and watched the traffic go by.
There was no movement at all overnight, but first thing in the morning, people appeared. Some were just families walking between two towns, others were tradespeople, and still more were traders, hauling carts themselves or riding horses who did it for them.
With this much foot traffic, there must be another village of some size not too far away in this direction. If we are patient, I will see what we need.
They waited and watched all day, but no one passed them carrying what they needed to carry out their plan.
The same was true of the second day.
Senta-eh and Werda-ak were becoming restless.
On the early morning of the third day, Alex saw his target—a man pulling a cart stacked high with boxes. The exact type of box that Harta-ak had shown them that contained the traka-ta. As if to confirm that, a wind blew and white and gray feathers flew out behind the cart.
Alex said, “That’s the one,” to Senta-eh.
This was the part of the plan Senta-eh had objected to. She was a warrior, and had no trouble killing someone in a battle. But, she objected to killing a man who was just going about his business and who had done her no harm.
Alex had been forced to make a speech. Alex hated speeches.
“There are four of us. We’ve given a year of our life to travel this far. We’ve succeeded against incredible odds, but the longest odds of all are against us now. You are a great warrior. But, if we fight this battle using the rules we did when we attacked Denta-ah, we might as well go back to Winten-ah right now. We will never be able to overpower them. I am asking you to do a difficult thing, and I might have to ask you to do even more difficult things once we get inside. I need to know that both of you will carry out whatever I ask and do so instantly. You can blame me and hate me later. But for now, you’ve got to agree.”
Senta-eh hung her head. A long moment later, she met Alex’s eyes. “I am with you. I will do whatever needs to be done.”
Now, with the moment upon her, she felt a queasiness she had never felt in the heat of battle.
Stealth and silence were their highest priority, which is why Alex hadn’t just jumped out from behind a tree with his ax or stabbing sword. No matter what he did, it was possible that the man would have a chance to raise an alarm. And so, it was the reluctant Senta-eh and her bow.
She nocked an arrow, pulled the bowstring back to her ear, aimed carefully and let it fly.
It was a perfect shot. It hit the man in the ear and the arrow pierced his brain. He fell to the pavement with only a slight gurgle and gasp of surprise. Alex sprang forward with the intention of quieting him if necessary, but it wasn’t. He was dead before Alex could reach him.
Werda-ak hurried from cover, grabbed the man by the ankles and dragged him off the road, then returned and kicked dirt over the blood that had pooled. Alex grabbed the handles of the cart and pulled the cooing birds further down the road. They had picked that particular spot to attack because it was perfect for the ambush, but they had to go several hundred yards to find a good spot to get the cart off the road.
They were almost there when a horse-drawn cart met them going the other way. Alex had no idea how people behaved here. Did they greet each other? Tell the other to get lost? Alex chose the middle path, averted his gaze, and simply plodded along as though he was already tired.
The man and cart continued on without paying him any mind.
Alex slowed and waited until the other cart had disappeared from view before hustling into the forest. That caused the cart to bump along and the traka-ta to complain loudly. Alex pushed on, figuring that the further away from the road they were, the better.
Soon enough, they were half a mile into the dense woods and they stopped to count their traka-ta.
&nbs
p; As Alex counted the bird cages, Werda-asked, “What if these birds are intended for a different home?”
“You mean, what if these birds are not from here? So when we let them go, they will fly off in the wrong direction?”
“Yes.”
“Well, if that’s what happens, the whole plan is a dud. So, we need to hope that their home is Lasta-ah.”
“Hope is not a good strategy,” Werda-ak said, quoting Alex’s own words back to him.
Alex stopped counting long enough to give him a dirty look, then continued.
“Forty-seven,” he finally said. “Forty-seven traka-tas. That should be more than enough.”
“What’s next, then?”
“All we have to do is wait until just before they close the gate for the night. Then everyone will be sitting down to dinner, or having an ale in the tavern, or home already and thinking about bed. And that’s when we’ll release the traka-tas.”
Alex looked proudly from Senta-eh to Werda-ak. He was disappointed to see that they still hadn’t bought completely into his plan.
“Just wait. You’ll see.”
While they waited for the hours to pass and dusk to come, Alex lived with his own self-doubts.
Will this really work? And If this doesn’t work, what other options do we have? There are so many things that can go wrong. What if all the birds fly to the same coop? That won’t create much of a distraction.
He contemplated other crazy plans like trying to mug several Lasta-ahs, taking their clothing, and slipping through the gates just before dark.
The problem is, those are the kinds of plans that work great in movies and books, and don’t work at all in real life.
Finally, the day cooled, the sun dipped below the horizon, and they knew it was time.
“Weapons check,” Alex said.
Senta-eh touched her bow, her arrows, her stabbing sword, and her short knife for close-in fighting. “Good.”
Werda-ak had asked for a fighting ax just like the one Alex himself had gotten and that dangled from his left wrist. He carried a stabbing sword of his own in his right hand and had a sharp knife sheathed at his belt.
Alex had been tempted by the heavy spears at the weapons mart, but had known that wasn’t ideal for the kind of fighting they might have to do tonight. It was an ideal weapon for a single kill, but often, that’s all it was good for. Instead, he had his sharp ax tethered to his right wrist, a heavy iron hammer attached to his left, a knife tucked into its sheath, and a heavy cudgel tucked into his belt as a last resort.
They had worked through the day, making final preparations. They had torn strips of cloth off the blankets Harta-ak had given them. They had tied the long strips to the traka-tas, one strip on each leg. They had been relieved to find that the birds were docile and were already used to having something attached to their legs.
An hour before their attack commenced, they lit their campfire.
Alex took the first bird out of its cage. It was heavy, weighing four or five pounds. He held it out to Senta-eh. She held a small torch she had lit from the fire. She let the flames lick at first one, then the other strip of cloth. It caught like they hoped. It burned, but not too fast.
Senta-eh reached high above her head and released the traka-ta.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
The Battle of Lanta-ah
One after the other, Werda-ak pulled the birds out of the cage, handed them to Alex, and Senta-eh lit the strips of cloth. One after another, the birds were released. One after another, they turned frantically toward home, a small trail of sparks and smoke behind them.
The four of them moved toward the western gate. As they approached on the wide path, Alex was relieved to see that the gate still stood fully open. If it had been closed, their plan would have failed before it began.
They walked at a slow stroll, as though they were citizens returning to their homes in the city after a picnic in the forest. Just three people and a giant dog. Nothing to see here.
As they walked, they listened and Alex continued to worry.
What if the coops were made out of stone? Then the cloth would burn, irritate the birds, and that would be the end of it.
If fortune favored them, the birds would scatter to a dozen different points in the city, lighting the coops on fire, the fire would spread to nearby wooden structures, and chaos would ensue.
They were almost to the gate and Alex was making up a cover story because all remained quiet in the city.
And then the miracle happened. A plume of smoke spiraled up from first one, then a second, then immediately a third and fourth location.
By the time they were thirty paces from the gates, cries of “Fire! Fire!” broke out all over the city.
The guards at the gate had seen them approach, but as the screams increased in both number and ferocity, they hesitated, then responded.
Alex, Werda-ak, Senta-eh, and Monda-ak quickened their pace, and hurried through the momentarily abandoned city gate.
Alex immediately recognized that Lasta-ah was the most advanced city he’d seen in Kragdon-ah. Many of the buildings had peaked roofs, there were real glass windows, and the streets were cobblestone.
The second thing he saw was that his plan might be working too well. He had hoped to light a few fires as a distraction, but all the houses were built of wood and it was the end of summer. Everything was tinder-dry.
It seemed the entire city was on fire.
People poured out of their houses. Cries came from a dozen different directions, all asking for help. There was the beginning of a bucket brigade, but they didn’t have enough buckets or people yet.
Alex and company did their best to just put their heads down and look for the town square, which was where Harta-ak had warned that Lanta-eh was likely to be held. They did their best not to draw attention to themselves, but even in an emergency, people tend to notice Monda-ak. He was hard to miss. People flowed around them both coming and going, but few really paid attention to them.
That held until Senta-eh collided with a man who had come to a stop in front of her.
He turned on her, angry at being bumped into, then his eyes grew wide with recognition. It was the man who had been shipwrecked with them. He had obviously caught the next ship home and beaten them there while they scouted in the woods.
He didn’t scream or yell, but he backed slowly away. When he thought he was at a safe distance, he turned heel and ran.
Alex immediately wished for his heavy spear. He knew he could have put the man down before he made it three more paces.
He needn’t have worried. Senta-eh unshouldered her bow, drew, and fired in one smooth motion. The arrow struck the man just below the neck and he fell to the pavement, twitching.
The chaos was such that a murder on their streets almost went unnoticed.
Almost.
Two guards, both carrying heavy axes, turned toward them. “You there!” one said, pointing at Senta-eh. “Stop!”
They came running toward the trio, though their weapons were not raised. They obviously thought it was a personal drama of some sort playing out in the midst of the crisis. That mistake cost both of them their life.
Alex closed the gap and raised his ax high as if for an upper body strike. The guard’s eyes flew open wide and he raised the haft of his heavy ax as a defensive weapon. Just before he swung, Alex dropped low and sliced a deadly arc at the man’s ankle. The ax bit through bone, muscle, and tendon, nearly amputating the foot. The guard screamed and toppled to the ground. Alex was on him instantly, swinging his heavy hammer and smashing it into the side of his head.
The other guard barely had time to react to that before Monda-ak launched at him, jumping so high that he almost leaped over him. At the last second, the dog changed his trajectory and hit the man square in the face with both feet. Weight and momentum forced the man to flip over onto his back. Monda-ak bit down on his head, but the man was saved momentarily by his helmet.
On
ly for a moment, though, as Werda-ak had also rushed forward and brought his own ax down on the guard’s throat.
Alex, Werda-ak and Monda-ak were all covered in spraying blood. If Senta-eh’s arrow shot could have been mistaken for an argument gone violent, there was no way to mistake the murder of the guards for anything but what it was.
“We need to go, now!” Alex hissed. The four of them took off at a full run toward the center of town.
Lasta-eh was now in complete disarray, with fires burning, people screaming, and behind them, guards approaching. Seeing the three humans and a dog fleeing, they gave chase, picking up reinforcements as they ran.
Senta-eh stopped, whirled, and loosed three shots in less than five seconds. Two of the arrows found a home in the pursuing guards while the third whistled an inch away from another man’s ear. It had the desired effect. The mad chase slowed somewhat. Senta-eh turned and sprinted after Alex.
Ahead, they saw the town hall. It was the tallest building in town by several stories and it looked like half a dozen of the town’s other buildings could have fit inside it. Where most of the houses and buildings were plain clapboard, the hall was made of the same sturdy bricks as the surrounding wall.
Alex had hoped that by successfully creating a major distraction, the hall might be unguarded, but as Harta-ak had told him, this was where the best-trained soldiers served. They had not left their posts, though they were craning their necks trying to see what was happening.
There were four soldiers standing in front of the wide double doors that led inside the hall. Alex gave instructions to Werda-ak and Senta-eh as they ran.
When they were fifty paces away, Senta-eh stopped, turned, and fired two more arrows at their pursuers, slowing them once again. She didn’t even wait to see if they connected. Instead, she whirled, aimed, and fired at the four guards. Just before she released, she noticed that the guards were wearing leather armor from the waist up. She changed the trajectory of her arrow, let it fly and nocked another before the first one hit. Both found their intended targets and sank deep into the meaty flesh of the guard’s thighs.