“When a man is this weak, you do not ask him what he wants.” He forces himself to stay calm. “Pillows. Bring me pillows”

Tzidkiyahu’s cave, where they go each day to quarry the glistening white stone, is wide — cavern after cavern, a vast underground stone city.

Eliyahu’s cave near Tzfat was roomy: a good size for one man to make a home, with a corner for sleeping and another for study and eating. But this cave is narrow and shallow; no more, really, than a great crack within the hills. When Eliyahu sits down, back to the wall, his legs touch the other side. He flattens his feet and pushes, hard. His back presses against the uneven stone and pain spreads through his back.

No matter.

He eases into a sitting position, and then, unsure of what to do, he opens the package that Bilhah handed him. There is bread, but he has no means of washing his hands. There’s a water pouch, but it is only enough for drinking. The cheese. He takes a bite and tries to swallow, but it forms a salty lump at the back of his mouth.

He coughs.

Outside, night closes in. He feels around him, and his hands close on his basket of herbs. He thought to give it to Bilhah, tell her how to prepare it for Yannai, but shocked and afraid, they both ran.

His fingers run through the stalks of wild garlic. It will help the old man. When darkness falls, he will steal through the night and into the city. Not through the gates; he will scale a section of the wall that is unfinished, and in doing so avoid the guards.

In the meantime, he pulls the blanket around himself and closes his eyes.

He wakes with a start, cold and hungry. His fingers feel the floor. Where is he?

It all comes flooding back to him.

The memories, along with a certainty: he cannot do this again. He cannot hide away in a cave. He stumbles to his feet, and feels the two stone walls pressing in on him.

But where to go?

He remembers the basket of herbs. Yannai. Yannai is ailing, and he is sheltering here, in what is not even a cave, but the crevice of a rock. How far, how trapped, how desperate?