The Codex Lacrimae: The Book of Tears

Chapter 7: Clarinda's Gambit, Fatima's Ruse

Shortly before Ríg leapt from Arcadian's chamber to pursue the Assassins, in another part of the Krak des Chevaliers, the face of Brother Adelbert, the Krak's Master of the Stores, turned cherry-red with agitation.

"O, le Diable nous prendre pour des idiots, Frère Jeremiah!" he exclaimed, his hands on hips as he stood in the middle of the entry ramp of the lower ward, just within the front gate.

Jeremiah leaned on his cane, and rolled his eyes in exasperation. "That's overstating things, I think, Adelbert," the elderly scholar said. "The devil's not going to take us for idiots. You know Fatima. This is Ibn-Khaldun's daughter—"

"I don't know these other Saracens and, besides, we're under siege. I will not allow their entry!"

A small group of bedouin stood before the two Hospitallers—as well as six soldiers from Saladin's camp under a flag of truce—with Fatima, Khalil, and a gigantic kaftan-clad nomad most prominent.

Behind the group, and braying loudly in the interior courtyard of the front gate, seven donkeys shifted in the harnesses of six large carts that bore pine coffins, the last of which carried two ebony wooded sarcophagi.

"We're at war," Adelbert repeated, his voice almost a sneer as he waved a disparaging hand. "Shouldn't we be putting heathen into coffins, rather than helping them bring their dead into the castle?"

"Brother Adelbert, please," Jeremiah kept to his own crotchety nature but unknowingly adopted the same irritated tone that everyone eventually took with the store master. "I need to return to the Warden Tower for a meeting with Father Arcadian. I just told you: this woman isn't some anonymous bedouin, she's Master Ibn-Khaldun's daughter. We'll make an accommodation. I'm leaving."

"Non! There are procedures to follow. I will need to check the coffins before they pass."

Jeremiah stared at the man, then turned to Fatima and Khalil. "Well, children, you'll need to let him check the coffins—I'm sorry, but Adelbert's correct about one thing: we are under siege."

"Certainement," Fatima said.

"Very well," Jeremiah said, moving slowly to one side. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get on with your procedure, Adelbert."

But Adelbert's attention was on Fatima. He asked suspiciously, "Parlez-vous française?"

"Oui, je suis la fille de mon père, monsieur," Fatima replied, amusedly looking directly into Adelbert's eyes.

Surprisingly, her flirtation disarmed the rigid monk. Khalil raised a hand to his mouth, hiding a smile as his wife batted her eyelashes at the disconcerted bureaucrat. The man started to blush in response to Fatima's beauty and bold manner.

"Adelbert! If you please," Jeremiah said impatiently, "get on with it."

"Bien sûr," Fatima added calmly, "and, just so I'm sure—you'll bothbe the ones telling my father about the desecration of the bodies?"

"Of course," Jeremiah said, mirroring her casual tone. Then, startled, he glanced at her. "Attends. Qu'est-ce que c'est? What was that?"

"I just wanted to be clear when I report this conversation to my father and Grand Master Arcadian. You two will be the ones personally responsible for desecratingthe remains of Ibn-Khaldun's son and those of his retainers? He'll be heartbroken, but I know that the grief of one Muslim family matters little when measured against the needs of a nazaro fortress in wartime ..."

"Wait! What's this?" Jeremiah repeated, apparently mortified, and looking sidelong at Adelbert before returning attention to Fatima.

Then the old man surprised her. He smiled and gave an exaggerated wink that his Hospitaller brethren couldn't see! "Did you say ‛desecration?'" Jeremiah exclaimed, dramatically playing along with Fatima's ruse, but his horror seemed almost too pronounced.