The Parisian Codex

45 - Swiss Guards

Specters filled the pit. Standing at ground level, floating above our heads, stacked on top of each other like sheets of tracing paper... There were so many that I could hardly see my companions.

Romane stood in the center of the magic circle, the lead box with the codex in her hands. She had stopped declaiming her invocations and stood motionless and mute.

Zagan must have been on the other side of the cave, but there were too many specters between him and me to make out his silhouette. No one spoke.

A few of the Brotherhood's ghosts tried to enter the magic circle and were nuked on the spot.

Unfortunately, the others didn't make the same mistake.

Already, two were trying to take up residence in my body. I searched my memory for a formula to get rid of these intruders.

Against ghosts ... peony root—I didn't have any on me—aristolochia smoke—nope—joulie teeth—I still didn't know what they were...

Ah, there had to be a formula in the millions of pages of manuscripts stuck in my noggin!

I didn't find the answer in the books but in one of my earliest memories.

I was three apples high and had accompanied my master to the home of a sick villager. I had to carry the satchel containing herbs and medicinal powders. But the villager wasn't ill: he was possessed.

Understanding the situation, my master had laid his hands on the villager's head, then declaimed in a loud voice. "Abremonte Abrya, Abremonte consacramentia, Ypar, Ypar Ytumba opote celacent alaphie!"

The words were foreign to me, but the expression on my master's face and the authority of his voice impressed me as he tirelessly repeated the litany.

I spoke the spell.

The two ghosts paused for a moment, but as soon as the last syllable was extinguished, they returned to the charge. So I intoned the formula over and over and over. It didn't seem dangerous to the spirits but unpleasant enough to make them hesitate. They turned toward their pals.

The other Brotherhood ghosts had gathered around Nadine Leroy, and my two personal ghosts decided to join their buddies.

Nadine didn't seem to see them, but when one of them settled into her body, a violent jolt ran through her. Then she rose to her feet and pushed through the group of Brothers and Guards to the very edge of the magic circle.

The circle wouldn't stop a human being.

But if Nadine tried to cross it, the ghost that possessed her would be fried by the magical protection. Did she want to get rid of the ghost?

If only I'd understood Nadine Leroy's intentions, I could have intervened, grabbed her and pulled her away from the circle.

The hallucinogenic smoke had slowed my reflexes and my thoughts.

I stood with my arms dangling as Nadine stopped at the edge of the circle. Then, with a flick of her foot, she opened a breach in the magic line. Suddenly exposed to the specters, Romane shrieked in surprise. The ghosts rushed into the circle. Fear-stricken, Romane dropped the heavy codex box, which fell at her feet with a deafening echo.

The instant Nadine's boot touched the circle, the ghost that possessed her disintegrated. But he had fulfilled his mission, and his colleagues could now take over. Half a dozen of them settled into Nadine's body. I'm not an expert on possession, but I didn't think it promised anything good.

Nadine leaped into the middle of the circle, and Romane stepped back. But Nadine wasn't after Romane: my client ignored the young necromancer and reached for the box containing the codex.

Finally coming to my senses—or what was left of them—I rushed towards Nadine. She mustn't get her hands on this book. But her finger grazed the box, and a shockwave threw her back. She hit me with enough force to propel us out of the circle, ass over head.

Nadine Leroy sat up with a howl, jabbing her elbow into a delicate part of my anatomy in the process.

I took it upon myself not to bend in half and instead held the woman by the arms. "Madame Leroy, stay still!" I breathed through my teeth. "This book won't bring Robert back. It's dangerous. You have to let us take care of it."

Nadine craned her neck to give me an enraged look. "Of course, it's dangerous! It's the Codex of the Lamb! The key to the Apocalypse. The very reason for our existence."

Because Nadine Leroy was part of the Brotherhood.

Of course, she was part of the Brotherhood. That's why she'd come to me. Not to find her husband but to get her hands on the damn book.

Germain, how stupid you can be when you put your mind to it.

Nadine took advantage of my epiphany to elbow me again—this time in the stomach—and free herself from my grip.

Either Madame Leroy spent a lot of time in the gym, or the ghosts that possessed her were lending a hand. She set off in the direction of the codex, and I dashed after her.

From the other side of the pit came hoarse echoes. Zagan was chanting an incantation in the guttural language of demons. I didn't know what it was, but I saw several ghosts light up like candles and disappear without so much as a wisp of smoke.

Closer to me, Nadine, too, faced specters: a line of Swiss Guards had formed between Madame Leroy and the codex, which still lay where Romane had dropped it.

The girl had backed out of the circle and stuck her back to the wall of the cave as if hoping to disappear into the white rock.

The magic circle was now filled with guards as tightly packed as Parisians in the metro at rush hour. Facing them, Nadine and the handful of Brotherhood ghosts who possessed her. I was confident Zagan had rid us of their buddies.

Suddenly, Nadine let out a howl of rage and threw herself into the midst of the Swiss Guards. In response, they launched an attack.

The confrontation quickly turned into a supernatural brawl. Nadine and her ghosts ripped the guards to shreds with their bare hands while the latter wrenched the specters from Nadine's body. But the Brotherhood's ghosts returned again and again to the woman who sheltered them, and each time seemed to regain their strength in an instant.

I decided to deal with my client myself.

As Nadine was focused on her French-Swiss fight, I approached her from behind and wrapped my arm around her neck. The idea was to drag her out of the circle. She reared up with such force that I had to let go and hold my nose with both hands. Madame Leroy had just head-butted me.

But my intervention had sufficiently distracted Leroy, and the Swiss Guards had taken advantage. They had closed ranks around the codex—so much so that it was impossible to distinguish one specter from another. They were now a milky mass, growing brighter and brighter.

The light grew so intense that I had to shield my eyes. The ground shook, and hundreds of male voices echoed through the cave. When they fell silent, I reopened my eyelids. The Swiss Guards had disappeared, and the codex with them.