Free The Codex Lacrimae by A.J. Carlisle

Caesarea, hope not for your father.
    Be wary of Servius Aurelius Santini, Clarinda...he’s alive. He’s the second, black-robed Hospitaller knight in your vision of Mimir’s Well .

    Alex’s strategy for getting her away from his and Genevieve’s father worked perfectly.
    â€œExcellent,” Clarinda said to all the remaining members of the family after the parents and retainers departed from Hagia Sophia. “That was well done, all of you.”
    Alexander bowed deeply. “I don’t like deceiving Father with these plans, but we’re at your command, Mistress Trevisan.” He held out an arm and smiled. “Once we decided to help you, Father didn’t have a chance.”
    Genevieve held up her leathern purse of coins. “I knew he’d give us a little spending money! Did you get some, too, Clare?”
    â€œHey,” one of the younger boys, Matthew, protested, “I didn’t get anything!”
    â€œWe’ll share with you, you ninny,” Genevieve said, putting her pouch into a hidden pocket on the side of her dress, “but run ahead and lead the way with your brother. Your elders have to talk.”
    â€œElders?” Alexius asked, looking around as if expecting someone to come across the relatively quiet gardens of Hagia Sophia. “Where? Oh, you mean you, Genie? At least Alexander has some —” He ducked Genevieve’s cuff at his head and ran to join his brother.
    After a brief stop for a change of clothes at Alex’s military barracks near the Basilica Cistern, the large group set forth, intent on reaching the quays and dockyards of the Genoese Quarter.
    As they walked, Clarinda reflected on the lengths that Alex was willing to go to help her find her father, but feared only that he might expect more than friendship in return.
    Alexander was an enormous man, standing half a handspan above most people he met, heavily muscled, but of an athletic grace in his every movement that it was small wonder that he was one of the most sought-after bachelors in the seven-walled city. Indeed, he was as strapping and poised a young signore as any young signorina such as she could hope to find, but Clarinda simply had never felt the tug of romantic interest that had pulled him toward her since their first meeting as children.
    Still, she knew he’d be a real catch for whatever woman he did wind up with. He’d just been promoted to the position of hoplitarch , which meant that he commanded a small division of the Byzantine army and received many benefits. She smiled, knowing there’d never be romance between them. He’d always be her best friend, nothing more, no matter what his station in life. Her childhood memories simply didn’t allow for the more mature roles that they were starting to each take in adulthood.
    So even if Alex now stared at her some ten years older, fully a heavily muscled man and veteran soldier with responsibilities she could only begin to imagine, he still looked at her with a face she’d seen at each stage of growth. The curious expression on his face, though, still used the same bright and intelligent hazel eyes that shamefacedly looked despairingly at her years ago during a family picnic near the Black Sea when he’d gotten bitten on the rear by two storks.
    â€œ What ?” Alex asked, discomfited by her look.
    â€œNothing.” Clarinda replied, glad for a happy memory when the evening’s events made the world seem a little darker than it’d been before the mass. “I’m just wondering if we all have to call you ‘Hoplitarch Stratioticus’ now that you’re a big, bad soldier and have your own command.”
    â€œYou might,” Alex said, “and, now that you mention it, I think we’ll make it mandatory for you , especially if that smile means you’re thinking about those darn storks again.” He looked thoughtfully at the ground. “Hoplitarch