📚2018 Wattys Shortlist!📚 An ancient evil returns. The Huntsmen of Muspelheim want the Codex Lacrimae, so they've set a trap in 12th Century Crusader lands to get it!
Believed lost for half a millennium, the Codex Lacrimae reappears when an old sc...
Earlier in the week, Clarinda sloshed through the wavelets of Caesarea's harbor and began running onto the beach with two members of her crew beside her. Rapier in hand, she focused on fury instead of grief and sprinted on the wet sand to the closest cement stairwell that would get her back to the top of the wharf.
A glance upward and to her left showed that Kenezki still fought with Alex on the quay in front of the shipwrecked galley, but the sound of their clashing blades was lost amid the shouts of men and clamor from dozens of sword fights taking place throughout the port city. The chaos of war engulfed Caesarea, from the roaring of fires that erupted after the ship-based trebuchets of the Calypso and Maritina cast burning pitch into buildings to the neighing of horses driven semi-mad as their riders galloped them through the streets of the blazing city.
"Mario! Raul!" she shouted to her companions as the three reached the top of the stairs and began running back to the ruin of the Genoese galley. "When we get there, flank Alex and me, and this time don't worry about any of us! I want Kenezki taken alive, but in any event don't let him escape."
"Si, Signorina," both men said in unison.
She appreciated her sailors' loyalty, but would've preferred that the two men had stayed with Alex instead of diving into the harbor after her when Kenezki had kicked her overboard. Her left side still ached from the pirate's booted heel, but she ignored it as she had everything else since discovering Kenezki next to the still-warm body of Angelo Trevisan.
Padre ... did we walk right past you yesterday? We did. You were still alive, and we walked by you, thinking that no one could be on the ghost ship. Evremar intentionally called it a plague ship so no one would think to look there!
Outrage turned into molten savagery as Clarinda ran harder on the limestoned cement of the wharf, closing the distance to the two fighting men.
The realization that her father might be imprisoned on the shipwreck changed the strategy she'd crafted the night before with Fatima and Khalil. Namely, while Clarinda's two ships would still provide naval support to the bedouinand Guy of Lusignan's land forces, she and Alex boarded the shipwrecked galley to find her father. They'd made their way back to the pier in a dinghy just as Pasquale ordered the first of the Greek fire launches from catapults on the Maritina and Calypso.
Clarinda's orders for Pasquale were that his men should target anything combustible in the port city and, if possible, to aim most of the payloads at two areas: the Templar castle of Evremar of Choques and the Church buildings of Archbishop Monachus.
The burning naptha and saltpeter missiles that arced overhead showed her that Pasquale's men were firing at will, the booming explosions and ensuing fires destroying Caesarea.
No time worrying about civilian casualties; with Kenezki, its kill or be killed, only you need him alive. Focus!
She'd almost reached Kenezki and Alex, and all reflections ended as she loosened her sword-arm and prepared for renewing the battle. The urge to kill Kenezki overwhelmed her, but there were too many mysteries that needed solving first.
Padre, I'm sorry! I need to do more than take vengeance for your death. There's something happening here that I need to understand.
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