The Codex Lacrimae (58 page)

More flashes. In one instant, a dwarf rose from the field where hundreds of his countrymen lay dead, and reached for a glowing star on Ilmarinen's forge. Then she saw Genie and two boys standing in the shoals of a coastline whose cold waters sloshed against a ring of monolithic sarsen stones as dark figures danced a rite of human sacrifice. In another, she saw Aurelius, his clothes torn and filthy, with a large scabbing gash across his forehead, resting in the cleft of a sheer rock face with a woman nestled in his arms, a woman who looked
nothing
like Clarinda and who stretched upward to kiss the knight fully on the lips before falling asleep! Then she saw a mountain-girded lake enwreathed in mist, from which a figure poled a small craft toward her position on the shore; as he neared, dead men, women, and children rose from the still water, and when his face emerged from the shadows of fog and cowl it became a distorted version of her uncle, Verrocchio Trevisan, before melting into the rictus-smile of a Death's Head.

In the way of dreams, she turned away from the skeletal visage and began falling headlong into the water, spinning into a roaring gyre that blended the sound of river rapids with screams she'd heard only in Hela's lands. She alighted on a cave floor for another premonitory glimpse; in this one, Fenris and Skade crept in caverns that grew increasingly light as the couple neared a blaze that could only come from another world, one that Clarinda guessed to be Muspelheim, but which then shifted to a darker place, a cavern where a gigantic serpent descended a stalagmite, moving inevitably toward a man bound in chains to an altar on a raised dais. Thousands of dwarves ringed the altar, shouting with war lust as the serpent neared the captive, and then all flashed again to another place and time. Clarinda found herself back at her mother's glass factory, near Venice on the island of Murano, speaking to a group of women, of whom she only recognized Fatima. Cloaked men approached on a path across the water, and Clarinda spoke urgently to the women in the same way that she gave commands to deck-hands on the Maritina.

Why were she and Fatima together in Venice, and why did the group of women remind her of the Norns?

The question remained unanswered as she stood and looked at Ratatosk. The prophetic dream was ending, but she needed to see it through to the conclusion, needed to know things if she were to have a chance at defeating the forces arrayed against her and Aurelius.

For Santini was still there throughout all the dreams, a shadowed presence whose actions affected everything, and for all the darkness and bloodshed that seemed to be part of his existence there also seemed to be a constant protection of her that took her breath away. With a passion that made her almost weep with disbelieving love for him, the young knight impossibly made her safety a priority in every predictive flash. In one instant, four giants armored in stone shingles rushed at her, striding powerfully from the midst of a crowded chamber filled with screaming members of the
Wilde Jagd
pouring through two subterranean caves as Hela looked on, smiling. Then Aurelius was before her, defending her from the attackers with one...hatchet? Another flash, and he battled three Huntsmen on the outer curtain wall of the Krak, fighting beside another knight who seemed to glow with the same kind of otherworldly might that Aurelius radiated whenever she saw him in her dreams. That sight, as lightning flashed across the skies and rain poured onto the besieged castle, gave her pause.
Three
Huntsmen?
Another
knight who seemed a match for Aurelius and allied with him?

The dream splintered back into waking time.

“Clare?” Ratatosk said, concern in his furry features as he looked up at her. His tone was uncharacteristically serious. “Are you all right? He didn't do something to you, too, did he?”

She shook her head, but didn't speak. There were no more images, but she felt as if she were worse off than before. She needed more information! The vision ended, but reawakening to the subterranean marina did little to ease her apprehensions about moving forward.

The birds lay everywhere. The killings here had been so complete, so sudden, that her physical reactions were lagging behind a dawning comprehension. She took a final look at the dead birds so she wouldn't forget, and then her eyes focused on the top of the hill. Aurelius and the company were out of sight, but from the dwarves' arguing voices she guessed that they'd not yet reached the cave exit to the Alfheim Road.

“Ratatosk, what are we going to do?” she asked, brusquely wiping the tears from her eyes as fear and dismay overwhelmed her.

“In all seriousness?” the squirrel whispered. “And, you know how intensely I dislike being serious — I say
kill Santini
before this gets out of hand. Mimir intends to do it if you bring him to the Well, and the Norns are prepared to help him.”

“What?” she exclaimed. That news she didn't expect, even though Skuld's warning seemed to indicate that something was about to go very wrong. “They said they want to help him.”

“I've watched enough people to realize that the idea of what constitutes ‘help' differs greatly among folk, especially among the so-called ‘wise.'”

Clarinda paused, not knowing what to believe anymore.

“Grimnir, too?” she asked.

“No. Besides you, I truly think that Grimnir's probably the only other ally Santini has.”

“Why?”

“Ah. For reasons that no one can imagine because of the rules of the game being played. You can try to get the information from Mimir and the Norns, but I don't think even they realize how outfoxed they are.”

“Reasons like what?”

“To repeat, for reasons I can't tell you.”

“Ratatosk!”

“No, my friend, I literally can't tell you. I'm bound by ancient covenants where Grimnir's concerned, and I would disintegrate the moment I started to speak those truths. Truly, Clare, I'd be torn asunder, from fur to skeleton to all the blood flowing in between…,” he paused, and nibbled at his tail. “There, see? Was that a flea or is it starting already? Oh, why do I bother with any of you? Nidhogg's more fun on a bad day —”

“I'm not going to kill him, Ratatosk,” Clarinda said positively. “I don't care what anyone says.”

“Clarinda! He just slew about two dozen birds without realizing it because he got irritated with
you
,
O Urd-Yet-To-Be!”

“What did you say?” She spun and looked at him, the agonized accusation of Skuld echoing his words in her memory:
O, Sister-To-Be! Hah! Rather, I name you Fool's Daughter!

“Come on, Clarinda,” Ratatosk said, his voice initially sarcastic, and then softening as he realized how much pain she was in. “Come on. We've known each other long enough for me to be frank with you. Do you really need prophetic powers to see how this is going to end? Not well. What do you think's going to happen if he learns how to use the Codex Lacrimae and really gets angry at somebody?”

Clarinda bit her lower lip, unable to answer, but believing that there had to be another way. For all the nightmares that Urd's visions imparted, there were still the wonderful moments with Aurelius that couldn't be forgotten.

There was a friendship beginning between them that had grown through adventures from the forests of Alfheim to Hela's Citadel and into the wastelands of Niflheim — even when irritated, Aurelius had always made her safety the highest of priorities, and she knew that he felt a genuine relief in sharing these moments with someone from their Italian homelands. Then there were moments when she'd felt the first hints of love — the relief and joy he'd shown when seeing her in Niflheim after the battle, the lingering of his hold when they'd finished their baths in the springs, and the comfort he showed when talking with their friends before falling asleep with her.

She was falling in love with him, she realized, and that gave her the strength to remain silent in the face of Ratatosk's doubts. There was enough despair and darkness in the world to fill an ocean, but she'd put her belief in Aurelius — and, just as importantly, the trust she had in herself — against the uncertainties of any approaching tempest.

“I think I'm falling in…,” she cleared her throat, then said firmly. “I don't think I can kill him, Ratatosk.”

Angst-ridden, she gazed at the top of the hill. Was that it? Was that the only choice here — to love him or to kill him?

She closed her eyes, voicing the rest of her thoughts for Ratatosk: “I just had a vision — a long and brutal dream that seems to follow what you're saying, what you think I should do. There are so many nightmares and dark times coming if he stays alive, if he fully awakens the Codex. War and death, and Hela's
Wilde Jagd
running loose upon Earth. I know the stakes, and the only thing I can tell you is that I'll do whatever it takes to prevent those thousands from dying.”

“Even if it means falling in line with Mimir and the Norns to slay Santini?” Ratatosk cocked his head and gave her a curious look. “That is what you were starting to say about ‘falling,' wasn't it?”

“That's all I can say,” she replied, closing herself off from any more questions. She stared at the powerful guardian of the World Tree. “Is that enough for you, or do we part ways now?”

“Clare,” Ratatosk said simply, leaping onto her shoulder and curling around her neck, “I'm still here, aren't I? Follow your Hospitaller, but if things go very wrong, don't expect me not to tell you I told you so. I can't protect you against him.”

“I wouldn't expect anything different, my friend,” she murmured, and turned one last time to look at the waterside by Andvari's cottage.

But, even the sound of waves crashing against the jetty offered no solace to the mariner's daughter's troubled heart. The birds no longer sang near the subterranean sea.

Here ends the beginning of The Artifacts of Destiny series, The Codex Lacrimae, Part I, The Mariner's Daughter and Doomed Knight.

Part II, The Book of Tears, continues the tale of Clarinda Trevisan and Servius Aurelius Santini, and tells of the youths' struggles against both an awakening Codex Lacrimae and the allied evils that would make the Dark Book their own.

Index of Names

 

 

Adelbert
Master of the Stores at the Krak des Chevaliers, in charge of provisions & chambers

Aesir
younger group of family of Norse gods; led by Odin, who defeated the Vanir in Elder Days; both families reside in Asgard

Aimery of Lusignan
younger brother of Guy of Lusignan

Al-Adil (Hamzah al-Adil)
younger brother of Saladin; vizier of Egypt for his brother and primary advisor, friend

Alexander Stratioticus
eldest son of the noble Stratioticus family, brother of Genevieve, and expert swordsman whose skills and leadership abilities make him the youngest
hoplitarch
(military commander) in the history of the Imperial Guard

Alexios
Greek heir to Byzantine throne and childhood friend of Servius Aurelius Santini

Alfheim
Land of the Light Elves

Andvari dwarf
; Arch-Mage of Nidaveller; married to Traeg

Angelo (Angelo Trevisan)
father of Clarinda Trevisan; Venetian sea-merchant with fleet of five ships

Annen Verden
mysterious otherworld whose access was lost when Surtur was exiled and Veröld Martröđ banished by Taliesin the Druid at Battle of the Fields of Burning Night

Arcadian
Castellan (also known as Grand Master or Preceptor) of the Hospitaller Order in command of the Krak des Chevaliers; senior member of the order in this bailiwick of Syria

Aqib
son of the caravan leader (Gannen); among pilgrims seeking shelter at Krak

Asgard
Golden Realm of the Norse gods, a citadel guarded by Heimdall and labyrinthine fjords

Austri
dwarf assistant to the Arch-Mage, Andvari

Baba Yaga
ancient enemy of Skade the Huntress, and one of three leaders of Hela's Wilde Jagd

Blod Betaling
"blood payment" required for passage into the lands of Hel; collected by Hela's skeletal servant, Modgud

Brother Tomas Benedictine
monk who trained Servius Aurelius Santini for four months a year at Calabrian monastery in southern Italy

Damian Hospitaller
, third-in-command to the Grand Master, Arcadian, at Krak des Chevaliers

Delling
cook and dwarf assistant to the Arch-Mage, Andvari

Devrone di Magglia
sea-captain & swordmaster on Santini family ships who trained Servius Aurelius Santini for four months a year in Calabrian Mountains of southern Italy

Dietrich the Mad
Arch-Mage of the Elder Days, obsessed with collecting Sampos; defeated and exiled by Taliesin the Codex Wielder at Battle of the Fields of Burning Night

Død Bueskytteres
the "Death Archers" of Hela's Wilde Jagd

Døkk River
the “Dark River,” central conduit of the
Underjordisk Elv
in Nidaveller