DIZZY WITH FLIGHt and the nearness of Olus, I shut my eyes, then open them. I don’t want to miss anything.
How much closer to Admat’s sun are we? An eagle flies by, not far above us.
Air streams across me. I feel a mighty swell of wind beneath me. My left arm is pressed against Olus, but I put out my right with my palm open to catch more of the wind. I spread my toes in my sandals and wish my feet were bare.
I’d love to see Hyte from the sky, but positioned as I am, I can only look up and out. “Olus?”
He says something.
“What?” I shout.
“Don’t be afraid,” he shouts back.
“May I look down at Hyte?”
He turns me so my back is to him. I am tilted downward. We are stretched out against each other. I gulp in the rushing air and try to ignore the feel of him.
Hyte is just a thick smudge on the horizon, but the stepped outline of the temple is clear. I can even make out the triangle of the ramp that leads to the sanctuary.
The wind lifts us higher. The temple shrinks to a dot and the city to a shadow. When they disappear entirely, Olus turns me so I am facing in the direction of our flight.
I think, My love is thoughtful.
My love? Yes, my love.
I love the hairs on Olus’s arm that catch the morning sun.
Admat, is this when you send me love, before I’m to die?
The low hills around Hyte are brown, speckled with green dots of shrubs and date palms.
As we fly higher, the hills rise too. After a while I grow hungry. The morning is passing. The morning of my twenty-seventh remaining day, if I’m still to die.