The Codex Lacrimae: The Book of Tears

Chapter 33: On the Plateau of Hisn al-Akrad

The burst of light that flashed across Hisn al-Akrad when Fafnir blasted Aurelius with dragon-fireblinded many of the Muslim and Christian warriors on the plateau. Only Fatima's experience and skill with horses in combat kept her and Clarinda from falling off the stallion.

Clarinda looked over at the sultan. The flare briefly paralyzed Saladin but, as Fatima had done, he reflexively retained a grip on his horse's reins. Their mounts felt the pull on their bits and reared, and Saladin wheeled his animal back to the muddy ground, moving closer to Clarinda and Fatima.

"What was that?" Alexander shouted from his horse, trying to peer through the torrents of rain lashing the soil with a ferocity that matched Clarinda's inner turmoil.

"Is it some kind of Mongol machine?" Saladin shouted. "Black powder from Cathay that makes that wave of fire? That white light? I'd heard the great khans have such magic, but never thought to see such a thing!"

Clarinda blinked a final time and her vision restored itself from the bright explosion. "Alex, Fatima! We've got to get closer!" She leaned forward to direct her friends.

"It's Fafnir, Clarinda," Fatima shouted. "Skuld-side's telling me that Servius just removed Hela's glamour—that dragon's the Fafnir, whom Sigurd slew.

"So?" Clarinda asked. "What else but a dead creature would you expect to be leading the Wilde Jagd?"

"Clarinda, Fafnir didn't know. He's enraged!"

"Dragon?" Alexander scowled, trying to peer through the smoke. "There's no dragon there, only soldiers!"

"I can't hear Aurelius or the Codex in my mind anymore," Clarinda said to Fatima. "They've gone as silent as Arngrim, so I don't know what's happening. Can you see him?"

"An impressionof him, but I don't know if he's alive or dead. I See a vision of him in the future, but in that Sight ... no! He's ... using the Codex Lacrimae. Clarinda, he's using it, and I see him walking between the worlds. I see a future where he's starting to use the Codex to make magic that Norns have tried before—tried and failed. No one's used such sorcery since the Elder Days — "

"And let me guess, in those times, only the Lore Masters could make that kind of spell?"

"Yes. A Gåteful Runer," Fatima said, thinking upon the matter for a moment as Skuld. "A true Gåteful Runer—not the ones that the Norns and Mimir imitate, but a real one. Santini was in two places at once." She frowned. "No, that's not quite right. He's not only in two dimensional spaces, but three. He's folding the arc of the ellipse on itself, without paradox!"

Saladin finished giving orders to his recovering troops, and turned to Alex and the Norns. "Whatever the weaponry," he exclaimed, "Fafnir's head goes on a pike at day's end! Alexander, take these women back in the ranks, or all of you take your chances in that castle!"

Fatima shook her head. "My apologies, Sultan, but we're going right in the thick of things." She hee-yahhed the horse as Alex mounted his steed, and the trio galloped away, heading toward Santini's last known position.

Saladin shook his head as Hamzah al-Adil came beside him on another horse. "Remind me, Hamzah: how was it that we ever trusted the words of Farbauti and Morpeth, or even Fafnir?"

"Do we follow?" Al-Adil asked, watching as Alex and the women's horses drew closer to the robed figure standing in the rain.

"Never! We lead, Brother—come!" Saladin shouted, waving his arm forward to get the men moving.

The sultan's fury had many sources, not the least of which was the fact that he was riding behind two females and a Greek hoplitarch who were charging back into the fray, each of whom fought as well as anyone in his own army. Saladin shook his head. Now, because he'd listened to promises of an easy siege with the help of a so-called "eastern army," Saladin and his men were in this nightmarish battle on this Allah-forsaken plateau.