The Codex Lacrimae: The Book of Tears

Chapter 44: A Norn's Moment: The Disguises of Old Nick

I will not panic here, Clarinda thought as she began the return to normal time, and I will not fail the Eternal Triquerta again. I didn't realize that if Urd had died at Morpeth's hands, she'd still have lived through me. That mistake cost us more than I want to think about, particularly the loss of the former aspects of Verdandi and Skuld, but now I've made things worse. I acted directly as Fate against the incarnations of Death and Evil.

Or, have I? Urd just told me to solve the problem of Old Nick. I'm not sure of the consequences of letting Hela roam freely in this dimension, but Satan is wasting no time in acting. I've glimpsed Heaven, the place from where he fell. Oh, Buon Dio. How beautiful and wondrous that vision was ... and, he, he'd bring about Creation's ruin.

What else would Satan do, but ...aspetta.Just wait, Clare, and quit calling him Satan. Satan ... Evil, is part of the universe that I just saw. It was that Entity that spoke to me in the Void when I threatened the Codex Lacrimae in the chapel. It's part of the natural order, but quiet ... latent, and harmless, unless a mortal partakes in it. Old Nick is something different.

What doI know about you, Old Nick? In all your various aspects, what are the constants? The only truth is that you're always lying, you're consistently shape-shifting, and you're a showman. You truly enjoy the spectacles you create, and you ingeniously turn each potential setback into an opportunity for yourself. And all of those opportunities are directed toward one goal, forcing a Santini to reawaken the Codex Lacrimae.

Primo: the alliance with the Huntsmen of Muspelheim. Morpeth and Farbauti wanted to return Surtur to the Nine Worlds, and you need their help in locating and reactivating the Codex Lacrimae, the one tome of all the Codices that can return the rest of the books from Ginnungagap. But what was your purpose in helping the Huntsmen, or even in bringing back the Codices? Satan doesn't need a Codex's power to do anything. It certainly wouldn't help him regain heaven. Was this simply a distraction, a game?

She recalled the malevolence of the Entity that had spoken to her in the Void, a being of ancient and evil power that had seemed so different than any disguise Old Nick appeared capable of.

Secondo: You're the one who consigned these caskets from Padre, via a recommendation by ... Uncle Verrocchio. I'd forgotten about that. Buon Dio, is Verrochio involved with you? That journey from Venice began with a lie, and its completion here is part of a bigger lie.

Terzo: The trap for Santini. Morpeth and Farbauti arranged a transport of these damn runeportecaskets from my father in the west. They then transported themselves across Midgard to pursue Khajen ibn-Khaldun with the Codex Lacrimae from the east, where the elvish magic accidentally cast it after the Battle of the Fields of Burning Night. Old Nick, you arranged for the Huntsmen to ally with Saladin so that his army comes from the south, and made certain that Hela's Wilde Jagdand Fafnir encircled Hisn al-Akrad from all sides.

Quarto: The Codex Lacrimae. You've made certain that the one person who can activate the Codex Lacrimae, a son of the Santinius family line, is here at the Krak; more than here, though. Thanks to the Battle of Mecina—a slaughter that you caused—Aurelius is damaged, unpredictable, potentially a madman or savior, and the fate of everyone here depends on how he manages the Codex Lacrimae.

Those aren't suggestions Old Nick. Those aren't the indirect moves you keep claiming you and Hela practice. Those are well-thought out tactics in a long game, implementing a strategy dreamt up since the Battle of the Fields of Burning Night, and perhaps before. Direct actions upon direct actions upon direct actions!

Wait, I just thought of another lie: the elaborate dinner party at Caesarea where you pretended to be upset at my hiding the caskets, when you knew I'd bring them with me to avenge Father's death. You denied it wasn't you who slew Padre, but even if you assigned the task to Kenezki, that's still more than a suggestion. And Kenezki turned out to be Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent ...

She bit her lip, recalling the time immediately after the battle at Mimir's Well, when she and Aurelius were in the Viking village. Kenezki ... Jormungand could have struck while in his disguise as Heimdall. But, no. The disguised villain waited to launch his attack when they were in the middle of a fjord ...

... at a place where Santini would have been the most tempted to use the magic of the Codex Lacrimae. In a panic, agreeing to the frontispiece lie, and then returning to Midgard, to a castle that Old Nick and the Huntsmen had already penetrated by means of shape-shifting and disguises.

All you've done is lie, Abbadon, and I think I know why. 'A lie hiding in plain sight,' that's what Santini said about the Codex Lacrimae's frontispiece, and the same can be said of you.

Enough. The time for thinking is over.

Clarinda took a deep breath, then sent the calling to Verdandi and Skuld: Norns, to me. Standing as tall as she could in the Void, gripping Gungnir in her right hand, Clarinda-Urd opened her mind so that her plans would be revealed to the Sisters of Fate and Mimir.

Then she willed herself back into the instant between the seconds where she'd left Old Nick in the ruined hospital ward of the Krak des Chevaliers.