Sword of Zara

The next day King Zara made the last of three ceremonial visits to the oracle. And, sure enough, the word that was whispered and echoed all around the smoky cave walls was "Cefalu."

"What can I do?" the king asked his new catamite when he returned. "I certainly cannot tell my people that my Nubian lover has told me the oracle of Noto lies. They would pull me apart limb from limb and feed me to the Galotes. I am not mighty enough to withstand all of the men who would align against me. And they think you are dead, anyway, sacrificed on the altar of the sun."

"There is no problem, King," Toma whispered in the king's ear as he pushed the king on his back and straddled his hips and began his own soothing ritual once more. "You go alone to the cave. Merely say that you went in and the name whispered was 'Gela.' And that as you were leaving, the cave in confusion, the oracle called you back—twice—and the name 'Gela' echoed each time, providing the three declarations that told you the truth."

"I don't know. I . . . Oh . . . my ancestors!" Toma had descended full way on the Sword of Zara and was sheathing and unsheathing it and melting away all of the king's concerns and reason.

On the day of his departure, as the king was putting on his armament before leaving the palace at Enna, Toma came to him. "Let me go with you, King Zara. Let me show my loyalty and pledge of truth by riding with you."

"No, little one," the king replied. "You ride with me as far as the village of Favara, in heavy disguise, but no further than that. You are unknown in my world, having already been thought to have been sacrificed to the Sword of Zara on the altar of the sun. I cannot give you up, but neither can I display you. And I cannot trust those I am leaving here to protect you. It's a simple village, but they are my kinsmen, and they will give you sanctuary. There will be no guards, no sign that the king's most precious treasure resides there."

On the day of the invasion of the island of Adrano, in the month that Adrano came under the sway of the country of Fonni, Toma was standing tall on the cliff overlooking the beach at Cefalu to welcome the arrival of his sovereign and lover, the Prince of Madness, and a mighty force that included the contingents of the Dukes of Sorso and Jerzu. The allied forces were already inside the walls of the capital of Enna before the army of King Zara, standing patiently and looking out to sea at Gela, even realized that they had been duped by a small Nubian spy with a talent fit for a king.