The Codex Lacrimae: The Book of Tears

Chapter 24: Through the Ruined Gate

Aurelius inhaled deeply and, pushing the thoughts of Arngrim's continued scream into the back of his mind, led Perceval down the hall toward the stables.

When they drew near the doorway to the kitchen, two explosions made the castle walls shudder. Both men stayed on their feet, but they heard thousands of arrows hissing through the air, the shouts of men rushing to the defense of the fortress, and the crackling roar of fires. By the time they reached the upper ward, Perceval had transformed back into Jeremiah, but he still moved quickly with the aid of his walking stick.

They emerged into total chaos. The interior gates of the fortress had been blasted apart. Only shards of the wooden planks hung from the ruined metal hinges, and they smoldered from the heat of the fires burning around the entrance. The side of the castle had a massive hole that reminded Aurelius of the puncture that Morpeth had left in the side of Mount Glittertind when he'd come hunting the Norns. He looked past the red metal and the blackened wood; the walls of the Krak seemed to be glowing with reddish heat.

"What kind of fire?" he murmured in disbelief.

"Dragon fire," Jeremiah said, assessing the damage. "It can destroy even a runeporte, so mere limestone never had a chance."

A pillar of smoke plumed up and away from the fire at the breaches in the gate, and for a moment, Aurelius imagined that he saw something enormous and green within the haze, as if some gigantic serpent had taken to the air like a dragon from mythology. He thought involuntarily of Jormungand, and that beast's coils which had crashed through the waves of the fjord with elemental force. A screeching sound filled the air, and further down the exterior wall another explosion shook the fortress.

"Servius, here!" Perceval handed him a stallion's rein.

Aurelius thanked him and then cast about, looking for the cavalry troops that he'd been going to meet. Some clerical monks ran toward the fires with wooden pails that were sloshing water and were much too small to counter such flames. Then he heard the reassuring sound of galloping hooves, and the hundred men whom he'd designated for the sortie came around the corner led by Alexander Stratioticus. He hoped that Clarinda and Arcadian had gotten the caskets to the outer enceinte, or else Aurelius's plan would be for naught.

"Mes amis!" he shouted to the assembly after leaping astride his horse. "Clear the plateau in front of the fortress long enough for those here to fortify this breach! Watch for the banner if you can't hear me, but when the order is given, retreat immediately; there are too many of the enemy for us to do otherwise!"

Arcadian came across the yard and waved encouragingly at the force. "Did you hear that, Father?" Aurelius asked. "Put most of the men hereat the breach and on the ramparts that are still intact—we'll need a fallback position, and ready the burning pitch to cover the entrance tunnel."

"It will be done," Arcadian shouted. "Clarinda's tended to that other matter, Servius. Kyrie Eleison, all of you, my sons!" He made a sign of the Cross, but his words were lost in another screeching sound, and then Aurelius was off, leading the charge toward the breach.

He drew Arngrim as Perceval drew Caliburn, and the two hundred men imitated their actions with a sound whose collective metallic whiskcompeted with the rising shriek of storm winds.

Alex, his horse cantering alongside Aurelius's, heard the two magic swords howl their eerie, discordant harmonies. He looked with surprise at the knight. "I thought you were going to keep that sword sheathed and use another one," he shouted.

"It's fine!" Aurelius's stallion surged forward. "Somebody reminded me of things I'd forgotten!" He let loose a wild yell, echoed by the contingent of Hospitallers.