The Codex Lacrimae: The Book of Tears

Chapter 39: The Huntsmen Triumphant

Aurelius released Clarinda's hand when they appeared on top of the front gate at the Krak des Chevaliers. They arrived just in time to see the Hospitallers Mercedier and Demetrius dragging Jacob and Marcus through the thick door at the other end of the rampart. Before the door shut, Aurelius thought he glimpsed a woman in a dress over the shoulder of a man descending the stairwell.

"Genie!" Clarinda gasped, rushing toward the closing door.

"Clarinda, wait!"Aurelius moved quickly, stooping to each of the fallen Hospitallers on the rampart. None remained alive, and he could tell from the wounds that they'd died with brutal quickness.

Those men weren't Mercedier and Demetrius, he thought. Rather, call them Morpeth and Farbauti.

I'd call them 'gone,' Santini, the Codex qualified, its voice caustic. Lapdogs following Mogthrasir into the Pits. Let's ditch the Trevisan whore and show them what Hell looks like!

"Ignore the Codex and its insults, Clare," Aurelius advised as he kicked against the door, "we need the damn thing still."

"She's a tart, isn't she?" Clarinda said.

I'll show you tart, trollop! The kind of tart that tastes like a tongue stuck on metal in a snowstorm ... taste of blood and pain and—

"I think we're wearing it down, Aurelius," Clarinda smirked. "She sounds a bit desperate, doesn't she?"

The knight grunted noncommittally, irritated that the heavy wood withstood his boot, and about to ask the Codex to blast the door apart. He stepped back a couple paces to get a running start and try a final time, but Clarinda held up a hand.

"Let Gungnir take care of this," she said. Then, spinning, she slammed the tip of the staff against the center of the door. Gratifyingly, the door burst asunder, its shards and splinters blowing into the torch-lit gloom of the stairwell beyond.

"Grazie, Clare," Aurelius said as he ran past her and descended the stairs.

I could have done that, the Codex grumbled.

"But you didn't," Clarinda said, knowing that the Dark Book could hear her.

Nornish hag!

"Puttana suicidari!" Clarinda hissed as she almost fell into Santini's back. He'd stopped at the bottom of the stairwell, and was checking the long hallway.

"'Suicidal bitch,' Clare?" he asked, smiling down at her.

She shrugged. "I was going to call her prostituta, but I can save that one for later."

I CAN HEAR YOU the Codex screamed.

"You're sure you need it?" Clarinda asked Aurelius.

You're the unnecessary one, slattern.

He looked again down the empty hallway. "Against three Huntsmen and the Devil? Sí, I need it." He frowned. "Codex Lacrimae, that's enough. We work together with the Norn. No betrayals, no misinterpretations, capisce?"

I .. .understand, Lore Master. So be it.

"Where are the Huntsmen and Abbadon?"

Where we've felt the compulsion to go. Down this hallway and in the ruined chambers beyond. They old hospital ward. Abbadon is waiting there with the two caskets that contained the Huntsmen's remains, but which the Devil now uses to build a runeporteto Muspelheim. Together, the Huntsmen and Abbadon will try to slay Santini and me, then use my command of the dark energies to open a portal to Muspelheim. Surtur and his legions await in the eleventh sphere ... when space-time folds as only I can do, they will invade and begin the Final Twilight.

The words confirmed the dread Clarinda had expressed at Mimir's Well. "Aspetta. Why? Mimir seems unsurprised, but I don't understand. Their entire effort, the trapping of Santini here with the arrival of Ibn-Khaldun, it was all spent in reawakeningyou, Codex Lacrimae. Why would they want to destroy you?"

"That's all they wanted, Clare," Aurelius said softly. "They just want something called 'dark energy' to make the runeporte to Muspelheim."

Ja, und my return means that the greatest portion of that task is completed. The Huntsmen's purpose has always been to use the power of the Codices to return Surtur to this dimensional plane, then gather the rest of my brothers and sisters to unmake the universe.

"And you're the single Codex they need to begin all that?"

My return unsealed the others. That part of the Huntsmen's task is accomplished. They have won. I earlier thought that I might bind Morpeth to my side—

"She was at Mimir's Well, Codex Lacrimae," Aurelius said dryly. "We're not going to forget that day anytime soon."

"Nor you trying to offer yourself to Mogthrasir when he was Kullervo," Clarinda added. "It seemed as if you would have taken any master."

I want to survive.

"Another lie!" Aurelius countered. "You want to live so that you can destroy the universe on your terms." He hesitated. "I think ... I sense that you have many scores to settle, Codex Lacrimae."

Believe what you will. With my awakening, Taliesin's work at the Fields of Burning Night is undone. All nine Codices of Fate have returned, which means that my own aspirations are, again, mine, and to others ... to some, such as Old Nick and the Huntsmen ... I am expendable.

"You've always been expendable," a gruff voice said from the other side of the hall. Knight and Norn watched, astonished, as the limestone rock flowed into the form of Dietrich the Arch-Mage.

Ja, dwarf-pig. You und Taliesin almost succeeded in destroying all of us!

"Hmmph. Still might, if you wrong this boy," Dietrich grumbled, then glanced up at the knight. "Santini, I can only teach if you're going to listen. You've got to maintain that wall of fire if you don't want others hearing your conversations."

"I wanted Clarinda to hear me talking to it," Aurelius muttered, waving for the dwarf and girl to follow him as he trotted down the hall.

"Then include her within the wall's radius!" Dietrich retorted. "Seriously, boy. You three were talking so loudly, it's a wonder that the Huntsmen didn't—"

A massive explosion erupted in front of them and to the right, casting giant chunks and slabs of stone and concrete at the trio.

"Santini," Clarinda shouted, but then another blast blew her and the dwarf backwards under a collapsing ceiling that threatened to separate them from the Hospitaller knight.