"I think it's wreckage of a ship. From the storm last night. It's not strange to find ship wreckage on the Cefalu beach after a tempest like that."
Two scouts, on their regular patrol along the Adrano coastline while the forces of the Prince of Madness sought to invade the island nation, had stopped on the beach, their attention arrested by shattered ship planking and tangles of shredded sailcloth washing up in the surf.
"Shall we hope that it is a ship of the Fonni, even perhaps the flag ship of the old mad prince himself?" said the second of the scouts, as they pulled up their horses on the cliff above the beach.
This particular beach had been scouted constantly over the past few weeks because twice the oracle at Noto had said the invasion would come here. If it spoke the same name the third time, this would be a certainty.
"What ho?" called out the first scout. "I see movement below, in the wreckage."
The two spurred their horses along the cliff front until they came to the winding path that led down the beach.
As they approached, a figure was pulling his way out of a pile of splintered timbers. He was slight, but well formed, and brown as the earth in the fields of Riberia. No, he was browner, a rich chocolate brown. And he had black curly hair and was fair of face and limb. As he stumbled to stand and the two riders drew nearer, they could see that his clothes, typical in style and color of the hated Fonni ruling family, were in tatters.
The first rider unsheathed his short lance, ready to erase one more Fonni from the earth, but the other stayed his hand.
"Nay, brother, can you not see? He is one of the browns, one of those we call the Nubians. Not a real Fonni."
"Yet he wears the vestments of the Fonni and no doubt is part of the invasion fleet. He should be dispatched."
"No, hold," the second scout called out again. "Have you not heard? Have you not heard that the browns are meant for the Sword of Zara? The Sword of Zara hungers for them, and this one appears to be well formed. We will take him back to Enna, to the Sword of Zara. The Sword of Zara will dispatch the lad. This too may be an omen, a favorable omen. We will be rewarded."
The small Nubian youth had come to his senses enough to see the two horsemen bearing down on him, in the livery of Adrano. And in panic he turned from them and stumbled in confusion and exhaustion across the burning sands on naked feet.
It was a futile gesture. The two scouts bore down on him, and the first scout reached down and lifted the small young man easily and slung him, belly down in front of him, on the back of the horse.
They two were cantering back toward the capital of Enna when a large contingent of horseman approached from the central plains at a gallop.
The first scout, recognizing the horsemen of the king, raised himself up in the saddle and waved his lance back and forth, signaling that they had news, and by the time the larger force had drawn up before them, the two scouts were off their horses and on their knees, heads bowed.
From out of the pack of horseman emerged a man taller and bulkier and more majestic than all of the rest. He strode to where the two scouts were kneeling, their eyes cast to the ground, their shoulders trembling as all men in the kingdom trembled in the presence of their king.
"Why do you impede my progress?" the king growled. "Are you not supposed to be on coastal watch? What have you seen? And it better not be a trifle."
"No, my lord, it is no trifling matter," the first scout replied in a shaky voice. "We have seen wreckage, the wreckage of a ship, perhaps a Fonni war ship, on the beach at Cefalu. As the oracle said—"
"I know what the oracle said," thundered the king. "I speak to the oracle. Only I. I do not expect my scouts to speculate on what they do not know. The storm of last night was mighty. It may have been one of our ships."
"Beg your mercy, lord," the second scout ventured, "But there is evidence."
"Evidence? What evidence?"
"We have found a survivor. The tatters of his clothes are in Fonni style and color. And, you will be pleased to know—"
"Don't tell me what will please me. Did you leave the body on the beach?"
"No, sire," offered the first scout. "He is here, on my horse. We spared him because we understand the likes of him are for the Sword of Zara."
"The Sword?" The king was suddenly interested. "Let me see this one?"
The first scout popped up and dragged the Nubian youth off his horse and set him on the ground, but so weak was the survivor of the ship wreck that he sank to the ground on his knees.
The eyes of the king lit up, and he smiled broadly and stood his full stature. The muscles on his chest seemed to expand, and he became a god of men, a man of huge and divinely sculpted countenance.
"A sign. Another sign that we are to look to the Cefalu beach for invasion," the king announced in a voice that rung out over the gathered contingent.
"Yes, this is one for the Sword." the king declared. "To be dispatched by the Sword of Zara. And on the altar. We are near the hill of the altar to the sea. Come bring him to me there."