Free The Codex Lacrimae by A.J. Carlisle Page A

Stratioticus. Yes, I like the title. It’d sound very good coming from you, Clare.”
    â€œOh, please…” Clarinda said, rolling her eyes.
    Genevieve turned to Clarinda as she fell into walking beside her friend and brother. “Now, Clare, this is really exciting. We’re going on a true adventure. Do you really mean to go through with this?”
    â€œI do,” Clarinda smiled. “I know that Padre’s in trouble, and thanks to you all helping me, I think this is the best way to get to him.” She left unspoken that there was still much business to do before night’s end.
    â€œIt’s not fair,” Genie gave a false pout, “you get to have all the fun, going into the Genoese Quarter for a ‘secret meeting’ while I go the bazaar with those two brats ahead.”
    â€œIt’s not a secret anything, Genie — this is ship business, and other than your curiosity, there’s nothing happening except negotiations and signing contracts.”
    â€œThe meeting’s at a bar, Clare,” Genevieve said sarcastically, then smiled, “there doesn’t have to be anything going on, the place itself is busy with ‘distractions,’ if you know what I mean.”
    â€œI thought you were engaged?” Alexander asked. “Shouldn’t you be studying nursing or practicing how to take care of senior citizens or something? Father told me that your fiancé is almost as wide now as he is tall, and four times your age.”
    â€œOh, please, not another judgment lecture from Saint Alex,” Genevieve groaned. “Live for the moment, why don’t you? You’d have me an old maid before starting my path. We can’t all climb the military ladder, you know.” She glared at her brother. “And, for the record, he’s three times my age.”
    â€œThanks for clearing that up — that makes it such a better image. Well, at least the social climbing I’ll be doing is from an upright posi—” Alex started to say, but Clarinda interrupted him.
    â€œThis isn’t your kind of tavern, Genie,” she said meaningfully to her friend. “Seriously. There’ll be cutthroats and brigands there, which is why Alex is coming with me.”
    â€œI could still quietly sit at the bar,” Genevieve protested, although both Clarinda and Alexander knew from the tone in her voice that the image painted no longer held an appeal for her.
    â€œHere,” Clarinda said, handing her the leather pouch full of coins. “Go to the bazaar after we change and have a good time with Matthew and little Alexius.”
    Genevieve smiled, looking at the leather pouch in her hand.
    â€œCome on, Genie,” Clarinda said, “put that away before we reach the Mese and enjoy a night on the town.”
    Genie smiled. “I feel as if you two are gaming me as much as you did Father. But, if a night on the town and free shopping is manipulation, I’ll take the coins and run!”
    Silence fell upon the small group as Constantinople darkened into full night. The street lamps on corners near the Adrianople Gate revealed some soldiers who saluted Alex as he passed. Tendrils of misty air steadily advanced, enshrouding in a gray mantle the Harbor of Eleutherion and then moving to capture Clarinda and her friends in its embrace.
    Clarinda shivered. Alex noticed and lent her his short cloak. She accepted the kindness, but she wasn’t cold — she was afraid. The encounter in the basilica had disturbed her greatly, filled as it’d been with dire predictions from Urd and the fact that a name had finally been given to the second robed man of her dreams: Servius Aurelius Santini.
    At the identification, Clarinda in a flash of awareness had understood the young man’s athleticism and comfortability with a sword. How could the hero of the Battle of Mecina be otherwise? The stories from Syria about that battle grew and