LESU LEADS US OUT of Senat’s house as if he owned it. In the street Kezi walks with her mati and aunt. Aunt Fedo leans heavily on her cane, her limp worse than usual. Merem’s arm is around her daughter. Senat and I follow them. Lesu and the other priests form a loose circle around us.
People stare. A stray dog trots at Lesu’s side.
I have to restrain my winds, which want what I want: to cast the priests and even Senat into the desert, to blind them with sand, to deafen them, to make them feel the wrath of this god.
The temple rises ahead, blocky and graceless. We enter through groaning bronze doors into a vestibule, and from there into a windowless room hardly big enough to contain us. I wouldn’t have been able to stay here for even a moment before my trial.
Lesu asks Senat, “What is the sacrifice’s name?”
“My name”—she waits until he meets her eyes—“is Kezi. I am a weaver. I love to dance.” She raises her arms. There’s no space to dance, but she kicks out her left foot, then her right.
Merem sobs.
Senat says, “When I swore the oath, I thought—”
“Kezi will come with me now. It won’t—”
“I’m her mati,” Merem says. “Her mati should be by her—”
“Quiet!”
“I gave her life. I—”
“Quiet. Senat may stay during the ceremony . . .” His voice becomes less formal. Briefly, he stops being his office. “Although I think you’d best not.”
I can come too. If I use my winds, no one can prevent me. But I do nothing. I’ll see and hear everything. She knows I’ll be with her from here.
“Will it . . .” Aunt Fedo raps her cane on the floor. “Will it . . .” She raps the cane again to make her words come out. “Will it . . . hurt?”
“Admat will dull the pain,” Lesu says.
Perhaps when this is over, I will kill him and Admat will dull his pain.
Kezi rushes into her aunt’s arms. “Don’t worry, Aunt Fedo. Good-bye.” She embraces her mati. “Good-bye, Mati.” She holds her hands out to me. “I must tell you good-bye.” So softly that no one but a god can hear, she whispers, “Can Admat kill a god?”
I shout, “No!”
Kezi nods. To Lesu she says, “The sacrifice is ready.”
Yet an all-powerful god probably can kill an Akkan god anywhere, any time. If Admat exists and if he is wrathful, there is no escape.