“DON’T SAY THAT!” I want to run back into the cave for safety, although my love has boasted all safety away.
A minute passes. The sky is still blue. The forest that climbs the feet hills does not catch fire. Olus is not covered with boils.
He shouts, “I am the Akkan god of the winds.”
I shout, too. “Admat, you are the one, the all.”
“What can I show her?” he says to himself.
“Don’t show me anything.”
Two large rocks bounce out of the forest, coming toward us. Admat’s punishment! I throw myself on the ground.
My bones are not crushed. I hear two thuds and raise my head. The rocks are planted in the ground, side by side.
“My clever wind found them. See? They’re both chair shaped.” He sits in one.
The one he’s in is narrower than the other and has a more sloping chair back. Each is chest high with a lower shelf for sitting.
“See how my clever wind—”
“Admat’s wind.”
“See how it placed them to face the falls.”
I stand, but I don’t go near the chair rocks.
“Kezi, I have just one power, the winds. But I’m immortal, and I can see and hear and detect scents at great distances. All the Akkan gods can. My love, believe me.”
“If you can see so far, what is my pado doing?”
“I can’t see as far as the city from here.”
If not for the oath, Pado would be in his counting room, but I don’t know where he is now. If not for the oath, Mati would be at her loom. Aunt Fedo would have come to gossip. Nia is probably praying. Flies buzz in the kitchen. Pado and Mati think I’m still at the market, unless Pazur has already told them I’m gone.
“Kezi, my love, what if you could become immortal?”
Admat, don’t listen to this crazy masma! Forgive him! But I listen.
“Cala became immortal seven hundred years ago. She’s the goddess of wild and domesticated animals.”
Is there some masma spell to live forever? “How old are you?”
“My mati is six thousand years old. My pado is four thousand.”
“And you?”
He shifts from one hip to the other in the stone chair. “Seventeen.”
I can’t help laughing, although I’m disappointed. Giggling, I say, “Your parents are having children at their age?”
“Seventeen years ago they did.” He laughs too.
“But”—I want to show him how impossible his claim is—“before you were born, who had power over the winds?”
“Nin, the storm goddess, commanded them, but sometimes they were unruly. They always do what I tell them. Kezi, believe me. I’m a god. I have numberless years ahead.”
“Olus . . . we can die anytime.” Knowing when death will arrive may be better than believing it will never arrive at all. “You may live many more years, but you will die when Admat wishes. It’s true!”
Instead of answering, he says, “Are you hungry?”
There is no food here. I nod and wait for more magic.
From the pouch on his belt he takes out a wedge of goat cheese. He breaks off a generous portion and gives it to me.
“Thank you.” I take it and touch the empty stone chair. It is solid, warmed by the sun. I dare sit in it, although I brace myself for it to explode.
He takes a piece of cheese for himself and begins to eat.
“Mmm!” I say, tasting the cheese.
He pulls a puffy brown loaf from the pouch. By its smooth crust I can tell that it is not a meat and barley loaf. With the knife he used before on his wool, he cuts a slice for me.
It’s pale tan inside. I smell rye, caraway, and a scent I can’t identify. I take a bite.
The slice tastes like bread, but it feels much softer—cloud pudding. “What is it? It’s delicious!” This is magic.
“Leavened bread. In Hyte you have only flatbread.”
We eat. Sitting there, he appears to be an ordinary—extraordinarily handsome—person. No one could tell he’s a masma. I know how kind he is, and I know I love him. I should leave the rest to Admat.
“Kezi . . . I am immortal, whether you think so or not. But I don’t know if you can be. It isn’t simple.”
If he had said it was simple, I would have known it wasn’t possible. “Olus, if an immortal”—I refuse to say god—“were sacrificed, what would happen?”
“The priest’s knife would hurt, but the immortal would recover. Your pado would fulfill his oath, but you would live.”
Admat, forgive me. “How does a mortal become immortal?”