The Codex Lacrimae: The Book of Tears

Chapter 48: The Screaming Skull

When Clarinda said, "Sister Nikola, you will turn," her words resounded clearly in Aurelius's mind, echoing through the din of battle in the ward and the few cubits of space that separated them.

The knight dispatched the second of the flaming blue Kludden, then spun, making sure that Devrone, Khalil, and Fatima were with him for the final advance on Hela and Old Nick. Then he heard Sister Nikola's reply, and his thoughts fragmented first into confusion, then angry realization.

"Not now, you Venetian cow!" the scantily clad woman shouted, not looking back at Clarinda as she muttered threats to the choking Jacob.

"That voice ..." Aurelius said, stunned. "Codex Lacrimae, that's your voice! Who is that woman?"

The Codex, however, said nothing. He heard Clarinda speak again, her voice cast in the thought-speech he'd gotten used to with the Codex Lacrimae.

Youdic the Damned, Clarinda was saying, I am Fate, the incarnation of Past, Present, and Future ...

He lost the track of her words as the flagstones buckled beneath his feet and a howling filled the air of the hospital ward.

While completely unaffected by the shrieks, Hela had simply crossed her arms under her breasts, weaving back and forth upon her serpent's tail and motioning to one of her lieutenants that it was time to depart. The remaining ranks of the Wilde Jagdnot near the Queen of the Dead disintegrated in the first microsecond of Youdic the Damned's screams, and even Clarinda's friends began falling to the floor and grabbing for anything that would secure them against the widening vortex that formed in the center of the room.

Clarinda was stunned, but relieved that Gungnir had protected her from Old Nick's blast of hellfire before the woman had fallen backwards in obvious pain. The Norn hadn't known what to expect from the wood chip Cerys had given Aurelius, but her ploy seemed to have proved her guess: she, Aurelius, and Hela were the only ones who stood unaffected both physically and mentally by the shrieking winds and blasting moans coming from the center of the room.

As she prepared to attack Sister Nikola, pain unexpectedly erupted again throughout her body, and she swayed, momentarily faltering in her determination to see her plan through to the end. Urd warned me of being vulnerable if I stepped outside of time, but this ... this isn't just vulnerability, it's pain, and I can't move!

Sister Nikola couldn't take advantage of Clarinda's pained distraction, though, because she had tripped backwards and slapped hands to her ears as the walls rumbled and flooring cracked in broad fissures.

The sound of grinding and splitting stones preceded the collapse of huge parts of the ceiling. The bodies of Hospitallers and Wilde Jagdcombatants began falling through the enormous fissures and spaces that appeared as the limestone walls and floor flowed into the shape of a skeleton's head. The eye sockets and nasal cavity of the vast skull pulled destroyed furniture and corpses into the black shadows. The fabric between the worlds stretched and warped, and the jawbone opened and let loose another scream, marking the arrival of the trans-dimensional demon, Youdic the Damned.

"This isn't possible!" Nikola screamed, successfully grasping a section of flooring that was tilted upward and sliding into the darkness of Youdic's maw. She held on by one hand and tried a couple times to secure another handhold.

Clarinda stepped on the woman's hand the moment that it grasped the broken concrete. This could do it, she thought briefly, tempted to end it now and stay with Santini. I could just slam my heel on her other hand and be done with it ... for the moment. Aurelius and I—

Don't diverge from the plan, Clare. If you take the easy way, he'll just start all over. He waited and plotted for six hundred years after the Fields. This will flummox him. Even he doesn't know what's in Annen Verden, and that'll distract him. I think he's still somehow bound in this dimension—we saw him bound to the rock ... if it wasn't him, then who?—but if you take this ... this part of him to the Otherworld, you'll perhaps delay him enough for Santini to succeed.