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Prologue

PART I

Ashes fly back into the face of him who throws them

– AFRICAN PROVERB –

DECEMBER 12, 533 AD

Bulla Regia,

Kingdom of the Vandals, North Africa

The winterof the Vandals, and his brother, Tzazon, galloped their horses through the old triumphal arch, past the theater, past the foru town houses When they reached the center of the city, they veered left toward the old pagan toia toward the hills Once beyond the silent houses of the dead, they turned onto a long avenue filled with twisted shadows frorew skittish as the silhouetted outlines of the neglected Teod of the harvest—loole of vines seeether, the entrance to the oracle’s temple hidden in the hill behind the ruins

The twotheir horses to one of the trees

“This way,” Geli Tzazon toward the temple, then up the stairs to the portico They were met by a Moorish child, who seemed to appear out of nowhere

She guided them over the porch of the temple, then beyond the ruins, deep into a cave in the hillside Oil la across inscriptions carved into the walls When they reached the heart of the cave, the girl stopped before an unlit chamber, Gelimer on one side of her, Tzazon on the other Tzazon looked around “Where is this oracle?”

The child raised her henna-traced hand in a gesture of silence “Behold,” she said, “the Sign of Saturn”

As their eyes adjusted to the di coals Above this, a ic square seemed to materialize

S A T O R

A R E P O

T E N E T

O P E R A

R O T A S

It glimmered for an instant, then vanished as the coals burst into flairl noton a tall stool, she wore a turban, and was dressed in robes that shilow from the embers in the tripod When she opened her dark eyes, she seeh Gelimer at the same time

The Priestess inhaled the fumes from the tripod In a voice that seeh the olive trees, she uttered her prophecy “Saturn holds the wheels The balance between Rhea, wealth and abundance, and Lua, destruction and dissolution … Hear, O King of the Vandals, the wheels have slipped Lua reigns”

A chill penetrated Geli of your words”

“It is as it was foretold As Gamma pursued Beta, now Beta pursues Gamma”

“Utter nonsense,” Tzazon said “A children’s rhyme”