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from the sea. Your pado planted the first grass seed.”
    â€œI don’t understand.”
    â€œYou’re so young, you might as well be a mortal. Time passes for you as it does for them.”
    That’s true, but it doesn’t answer my question. Or perhaps it does. He is agreeing with Hannu. He also thinks mortals are soap bubbles, not worth helping.
    Ten minutes later I am on my donkey, surrounded by my goats, all of us descending toward earth on my sinking wind.

6

    KEZI
    A FTER PADO’S OATH, Mati continues to complain of pain, but she stops begging to die. In the evening she drinks duck broth seasoned with thyme.
    â€œFedo would be happy,” she says, giving me the empty bowl and making a face.
    Thyme is one of Aunt Fedo’s favorite remedies. Mati hates the taste.
    I spend the night doing a restless bed dance. I listen for Mati’s groans and Pado’s footsteps. But the house is quiet.
    When I bring her breakfast, Mati says the pain is gone. She sits up in bed. “Thanks to Admat, your pado may notneed a new wife.”
    This is not very funny, but I can’t help smiling. She eats all her breakfast and sends me back to the kitchen for a plate of figs. I cover the distance in leaps. My toes hardly touch the floor.
    Pado is having his breakfast in the eating room outside the kitchen. He is smiling, too, looking very satisfied with himself.
    Nia serves him bread and cheese. Her expression is serious, as always.
    â€œMati seems better,” I tell her, unable to keep silent about the good news. Then I think of Pado’s oath. But Nia is safe, because she heard him swear it. Besides, a servant would never speak to Pado unless he spoke first.
    Predictably, Nia says, “Thanks to Admat, sower of life, harvester of life.”
    Pado answers with me, “As he wishes, so it will be.”
    In the afternoon Mati goes to her loom in the roofed outer square of the courtyard. I’m thrilled, but now the three days of the oath begin.
    If someone should congratulate Pado, whoever it is will have to die. The sacrifice is Admat’s due. If it isn’t carried out, his wrath will fall on Pado and Mati and me and even on my children and their children, downthrough the generations. Breaking an oath is a grave sin.
    Pado could tell people about the oath and then there would be no congratulations. But telling would make the oath empty and would certainly call down Admat’s fury.
    Doing Pado’s bidding, I instruct Nia to sit outside the house and inform anyone who comes that the family is not receiving guests. Even palace messengers are to be turned away. Nia is the right person for this job, I think. Her glum face is not welcoming.
    But maybe she’ll close her eyes in prayer and a visitor will slip by her.
    â€œNia, you must be watchful,” I say.
    â€œI will not fail in my duty.”
    Together we carry a chair from the reception room and set it down in the street next to the door. I pick up the yellow sickness mat and take it inside, closing the door behind me. The mat warns people away, but leaving it down when everyone is healthy might cause Mati to suffer a relapse or make someone else sick.
    I roll up the mat and place it under Admat’s reception room altar. All will be well. Admat loves his worshipers and we love him. His flame burns as bright in our hearts as on his altars.
    The three days will melt quickly into the safe past. Irise on my toes, come down on my heels, spin on my left foot, spin on my right, raise my arms and smile, smile, smile, rejoicing in Mati’s recovery.
    I’m keeping guard too. From the reception room I can hold off anyone who comes if Nia falls asleep or leaves her post.
    If Aunt Fedo had been there when Pado swore the oath, She would protect us. But she’s still gone from Hyte and doesn’t even know that Mati was ill.
    â€œKezi!”
    I follow my mati’s voice to the courtyard alcove. “Does your stomach