The Codex Lacrimae: The Book of Tears

Chapter 25: Saladin's Dawn

Shortly before dawn broke on the Syrian plain of Hisn al-Akrad, Saladin watched his army muster. He'd been awake most of the night, dealing with the aftermath of the news that he'd broken to the tribal elders at dinner.

Sunlight briefly spanned into the heavens, bursting over the horizon and dispelling the shadows with pink and gold illumination before the sun passed behind the clouds. The dawn became a grey, sickly thing that seemed more appropriate to a day of war than the light that had blazed briefly upon the walls of the fortress that Saladin had sworn would fall this morning. He looked at the great gate on the plateau and knew that he and his men would soon be riding their horses with the forces of Fafnir himself.

One of his scouts, Hasan, came running down the line of tents toward them. "Master," he shouted, his cry disturbing some of the warriors nearby. "We have to leave this place immediately. It's cursed by Allah!"

"Hasan, calm down. Tell me what happened."

"Ja'far is dead," Hasan replied, referring to his usual reconnaissance partner.

"What?"

"Dead. Killed by five soldiers from the army on the other side of Hisn al-Akrad." Hasan gulped air as he sought to catch his breath.

Anger flared in Saladin. Another member of his army dead, and the battle hadn't even begun. "You were doing nothing but observing, correct?" he asked.

Hasan, though now bending over with his hands on his knees, nodded vigorously. "We had no warning. One moment, Ja'far and I were lying on a small rise, watching for activity in the allied camp. Then we were attacked by at least five men who seemed to spring from the ground itself!"

"So they were very quiet," Saladin said. "Hasan, you didn't fall asleep, did you?"

"No! I tell you, Master, there are demons in that army—some who seem to be corpses, so thin are they, and even ones with hair all over their bodies, like wolves. Those five really seemed to come from the ground. They were covered in dirt, and they had no weapons but the bones of their hands. One of them tore out Ja'far's throat before we could fight, and I'm only here because I tripped when one swiped at me. I ran, and only looked back when I reached you!"

"Go get some water, Hasan," Hamzah al-Adil said coming from behind the man. "The sultan thanks you."

"No!" Hasan put his hands on Saladin's abaand gripped the fabric in clenched hands. "Lord, we must get away from here," he said with terrible fear in his voice. I don't think you know who we're allied with!"

"Unhand me, Hasan," Saladin said quietly. "You must get control of yourself."

"Hasan, that's enough ..." Al-Adil began, but then an enormous explosion resounded through the still morning air.

Another detonation followed quickly, and a gigantic fireball expanded at the front gates. A billowing cloud of black smoke issued forth, joining the charcoal-colored thunderclouds high above the fortress.

Saladin couldn't believe that the castle had been breached so quickly, but he knew that no walls of stone or gates of wood could have withstood those explosions. His eyes narrowed, focused on the slopes of Hisn al-Akrad itself. There was something curious about the darkness that moved on the earthen slope. Then he realized that the movement was from thousands of men, and given that his army hadn't even mobilized, it could only be members of the allies.

What was Fafnir thinking? The tactic baffled Saladin, because a besieging force would be foolish to assay an attack from such disadvantageous locations. Already, he could see the small figures of knights on the ramparts situating themselves for the unleashing of arrows and the launching of vats of boiling pitch. Even if the allied soldiers could reach the walls, the soldiers would have a difficult time scaling them as there were no visible siege engines or ladders. Without the support of Saladin's cavalry, the early breach seemed to be a foolhardy and reckless expenditure of men's lives. What was the allied commander thinking?

Saladin looked down when Hasan grabbed his knees, pleading desperately.

"This place will be the place of our deaths if we stay here," Hasan cried. "They are dead men!"

"Hasan, compose yourself!" Hamzah al-Adil jerked the man's arms from his brother's legs.

"Hamzah," Saladin said, "look at Hisn al-Akrad—Hasan speaks truly."

His brother's head swiveled in the direction of the castle.

In the dawning grey light, they could see that the soldiers moving up the slopes of the Hospitaller mountain were crawling. A shudder passed through Saladin as he recalled Hasan's words.

"In the smoke! Brother, above the gate!" Al-Adil said.

Saladin looked at the ruined gate of the Krak des Chevaliers, and his heart skipped a beat. Fire and inky vapors still obscured much of the castle, but an enormous beast pierced the conflagration, a form so immense that Saladin saw only fragments of it.

Wreathed in the billowing fumes that rose from the destroyed front of the fortress, the beast's green, mottled coloration seemed to glow with its own incandescent fire. The animal lunged at the entrance again; its huge, flapping wings beat against the air, fanning the flames already glowing against the slate sky. Then the thing disappeared, perhaps flying to the other side of Hisn al-Akrad. A bellowing roar resounded across the environs of the beleaguered citadel, so loud that it made the sultan's head hurt.

The sight confirmed his suspicions about the supernatural origins of his allies, and made him feel as damned as the entire region of Syria seemed to be.

The horrendous clamor filled the air again. Rain pelted into the dirt under his stallion, and thunder blasted in the distance. More light flashed along the walls of the Krak, and more smoke belched from the wounds in the walls. Then Saladin glimpsed the beast flying into the sky with screeches that filled the stormy skies.

The sultan prayed as he sprang for his horse, aware that Hamzah was mounting his own stallion behind him. Strangely, he even felt a twinge of sympathy for the Hospitaller nazaroswithin the citadel. Theirs seemed a lost cause, particularly when the crawling men and creatures reached the holes that were being plowed into the once-proud, high entrance walls of the front gates.

The sultan prayed because the dead crawled upon the earth and a dragon from elder times flew in the air above Hisn al-Akrad.