The rest of the walk was made in silence. Maryam looked at the girls quizzically once or twice but seemed lost in her own concerns. They entered through the side of the Hall of the Lions and walked around the arched peristyles toward the Hall of the Two Sisters. Both girls were preoccupied with what had happened. Layla worried about deceiving her mother, and Ara focused on finding symmetries. At last Maryam spoke. “I must speak to my sister-wife, Thana. I’ll see the two of you at our evening meal.”
The girls hurried into the Hall of the Two Sisters. Ara peered around behind one wall-hanging after another. When she pulled back the tapestry next to the arched doorway, she gasped. A huge crack stretched from floor to ceiling. The Alhambra was failing, being destroyed at its very core. She ran her fingers over the break as if she could hold it together, but nothing happened.
In the space near her hand, a double symmetry tile with a gold leaf on red graced the arched doorway, one leaf slightly out of position. As she looked, that tile righted itself, as if suddenly aware it did not line up with its fellow tiles. From a distance, lions roared. The crack narrowed. An instant later, Ara stumbled, yelping in surprise at the ungainly weight hanging from her sleeve.
Layla looked to see Ara struggling with a large gray cat. “Oh, no, it’s trying to get Suleiman,” she yelled and ran to the rescue.
“Shhh,” Ara hissed. “Someone might hear.” She and the scruffy tabby, which clung desperately to her sleeve, fell in an unceremonious heap to the floor.
With a disgusted look at Layla, the cat spoke, “Thank you for your concern, but I have no interest in eating mice.” Suleiman rearranged himself into a more dignified position and took stock of his new form. After he’d convinced himself that all was in good order, he began a careful grooming, muttering over every misplaced hair. Layla helped Ara off the floor. They both stared at the cat.
“Did you have to knock me down?” Ara stomped her foot in exasperation. “Can’t you warn me when you’re changing?”
The cat barely glanced up from his grooming. “You’re the one who saw the distorted symmetry tile. You knew it would correct itself. Don’t blame me for your poor planning.”
Layla planted herself between the feuding friends. “What are we going to tell Mother?”
Ara grinned. “Well, you said you wanted a pet.”
Layla could visualize her mother’s look of disbelief. “Your pardon, Suleiman, but I don’t think Mother would believe me.”
“Your pardon, Layla,” he retorted, not bothering to look up this time. “But I’m not interested in being anyone’s pet.”
“At least we found the symmetry long before the time limit. It wasn’t as hard as we thought,” Ara said, bouncing up and down on her toes.
Layla continued to eye the cat skeptically. “But how do we keep him with us? We can’t carry him in a basket. He’s… well…fat.” Layla groped through their basket with a clear purpose.
Suleiman turned his back on the girls and continued grooming. “Size is important. No one likes a scrawny cat. I am ample and substantive, not fat,” he hissed over his shoulder.
Ara smiled at him. “Come on, Suleiman, we have to go.” Suleiman ignored her.
“Here, kitty, kitty,” Layla called. She pulled out a piece of fish from their luncheon basket and waved it in the air.
“Don’t do that,” he implored, sniffing the air.
“I think he’ll follow us now,” Layla spoke in an undertone to Ara. “Let’s go.” And she continued to wave the fish in the air.
They exited the Hall of the Two Sisters, two girls and a large reluctant tabby. As they passed the fountain, Ara glanced over. She stopped short.
“Layla! My lion is gone.”
Chapter 25
Tahirah slowly came out of her meditation. The healing continued, so the double symmetries must have been found. Sooner than required, she reflected with some pride.
Her skin prickled as she felt a magical presence enter her room. Surprised and startled, she sought to focus her senses back to the physical world. Somehow, her mathemagic wards had not prevented something from entering. She had thought herself safe, but her protections and defenses had not held. She opened her eyes and slowly scanned the room, prepared for the worst.
A fierce lion sat before her in full feline fury. “You are back,” he said, watching with eyes that saw all. “The cubs need protecting. They are young and clawless.”
Tahirah blinked in surprise and delight. “Oh, noble one, I am honored by your presence. Why have you come?”
Light danced through the lion, his image wavering as he spoke. “We have been bespelled by one who betrays and tortures the Red Palace. Circle upon circle of spells bound us, and now one more band has been broken. He has harmed what is ours to protect. Loyalty shadows him now, Vigilance and Justice close behind. We cannot fulfill our duty until all the spells are undone. Meanwhile, we watch and wait.” His eyes glowed, and the tip of his tail thrashed.
“Why do you come to me?”
“Our cubs, you watch over them.” The lion began to pace.
“Ara and Layla?” Tahirah smiled to herself at the thought of the girls as cubs.
“Yes, the cubs of the harem. They are freeing the bindings on us. We protect our own.”
Tahirah measured every word of her next question, afraid to offend the proud cat. “I called you and you did not answer. Might I know your name that I might call you in need?’
“My name?” He looked away before growling. “It is unimportant. You might call one of my brothers, Patience or Endurance.”
Tahirah hesitated, then asked, “Do all twelve have names?”
The lion lifted his massive shoulders in an almost human shrug. “Yes, the ones I mentioned and, of course, Strength and Prudence. But this is not the time for a family history. My brothers and I were bound in deep dream by the wazir’s spell. Now we are awake and can watch the evil one.”
“You have a plan for the wazir?” Tahirah asked, troubled.
“Payment is due. His death is fated. There is no other pathway open to him. He has chosen his way and walks it as we speak,” the cat snarled.
Tahirah looked off and away. “I would hope that you would be merciful.”
“We are merciful. He will not suffer long.” The lion’s eyes glittered with an inner tension. “But you must hurry. Danger approaches.”
Tahirah stood up, a chilling fear suddenly upon her. “What kind of danger?”
“The evil one, the wazir, hunts the cubs, just as we hunt him.” One moment the lion stood at the door, the next he disappeared. Tawny lights sparkled in his wake.
Chapter 26
The room was silent but for the trickling water from the fountain. As if a tooth had been pulled, only a gap remained where the lion had been. Layla stood, awestruck. “What do you think happened?”
Ara studied the fountain, unable to make sense of it. “He can’t be gone,” she said, her voice cracking. “He’s my favorite.”
“Maybe he’s being repaired?” Layla offered without conviction. The two girls circled the area, finding no clues of the missing lion.
“Should we tell someone?” Ara questioned, unsure if her lion missing was good or bad.
“Yes, let’s find my mother.”
The girls edged into the King’s Hall hand in hand with Suleiman trailing after, all his attention on the fish remaining in Layla’s basket.
The wazir strode purposefully across the room. “So, daughters of the harem, here you are. I would speak with you.”
Suleiman backed up, spitting, his tail puffed out like a feather duster. Ara was unable to force a word out.
“Perhaps some other time, Abd al-Rahmid,” came a slightly breathless voice from across the room. Tahirah rapidly entered, her white cloak fluttering behind her. “They’re late as it is for their class.” She flashed her hand across his path and a burst of stars danced in rapid succession across the stone floor forming a line—Tahirah and the girls on one side, t
he wazir on the other. If Ara had ever doubted that Tahirah was a powerful mathemagician, she believed now.
The wazir hesitated as though confused, then forced a false smile. “Tahirah, how nice to see you,” he said, eyes narrowed with dislike. Then his voice took on the authority of his office. “But I must insist on speaking with these two.”
Ara felt the blood drain from her face. Tahirah came up beside her, and another coil of stars spun about at a twist of her hand. “It’s late. You need to go about the sultan’s business, don’t you?” She turned her back to the wazir and, with a conspiratorial wink, said to the girls, “Come along.”
He shook his head as if trying to clear it, then touched the wall. Ara saw the tile writhe beneath his hand. Then the wazir drew in a breath and seemed to gather strength. “Now,” he said. “I need to speak to them now.”
Tahirah smiled serenely as she steered the girls out of the room. “Regrettably, not today. We are behind in our lessons.”
The wazir started forward as if to push Tahirah aside when a low hiss stopped him in his tracks. Looking around in surprise, his eyes fixed on Suleiman, whose every hair stood on end as he backed slowly away from the wazir. “A cat,” Abd al-Rahmid said contemplatively. “A portly cat with the glow of magic surrounding him.” A sly look of comprehension crossed his face.
Tahirah opened her mouth as if to speak, but instead she flicked her hand once again. Out spilled tiny diamonds that shimmered in the air. They settled lightly on each of the girls’ feet then blinked out of sight. The wazir looked around as if uncertain, and Ara thought they might all escape now.
Suleiman made a sudden leap for the doorway and freedom. The wazir jerked as if the magic had suddenly released. He rushed after Suleiman but halted abruptly as a lion, as transparent as if formed of mist or smoke, materialized in his way. “Your destiny awaits,” the lion said in a deep resonant voice.
Abd al-Rahmid hesitated for a brief white-knuckled moment before stepping through the bodiless lion. “Go back to your fountain,” he jeered. “You can do me no harm.” He dashed after Suleiman into the gardens.
The lion image wavered, then disappeared. Wisps of golden motes of light remained where he had stood.
After a moment of stunned silence, the girls exploded with a whirlwind of words, the loudest being Ara’s, “My lion, that was my lion!”
“The wazir knows! What are we to do? What about Suleiman?”
A visibly shaken Tahirah quieted them with a gesture. “We must leave. The wazir could return in an instant. Suleiman knows enough to run to my quarters. Come, we must hurry.”
“But what if Suleiman gets caught?” Ara whispered, afraid for her friend. Their petty bickering was now a thing of the past.
“The stone lion bought him time. Cats are quick and wary. Suleiman should be safe,” Tahirah said.
Ara wished she could believe in those words, not just hope.
“We will speak no more of this until we are within the protection of my chambers.”
Chapter 27
Tahirah’s hand shook slightly, belying the calm of her face as she poured cups of lemon tea and passed one to each of the girls.
Ara looked around as if unsure what had happened, while Layla stared pensively at the empty basket.
After a long sip of the tea, Tahirah leaned back against the cushions with a slow sigh. “I was afraid I was too late. The stone lion came to warn me, but I was dazed from my trance and then bemused that a lion had come to me. I was so afraid that my tardiness would cost your safety.” There was quiet in the room as all contemplated the danger the wazir posed.
“He can’t come in here, can he?” Layla looked anxiously at the door.
Tahirah reached across and stroked her hair, “No, my child. We are safe here. No evil can pass my door. And he is evil,” she added with a slight shudder. “We need to finish finding all the symmetries as quickly as possible. He doesn’t yet connect you with the magic. He sees you as children and powerless. I cast a spell of forgetfulness on all of us in the doorway. Unfortunately, that spell only works for humans. Suleiman, I couldn’t protect.
“We need more time,” she said, almost to herself, then to the girls, “It would be best if you could stay within the harem as much as possible. Don’t give the wazir cause to remember. Avoid his presence. He can’t go into the harem, nor can he harm you there. If we are lucky, his recollection of us will seem as a scattered dream. He will have trouble discerning fact from a distant flight of his imagination. Unfortunately,” she frowned, “he will remember Suleiman, and now he knows that Suleiman has transformed.”
Layla moved to sit closer to Tahirah. “I’m frightened.”
“Me too,” Ara said.
Tahirah closed her eyes and leaned her head against the wall before saying, “You are wise to be. I was lulled into a false sense of safety, and that is now over.” She placed her hand across her brow as if warding off a headache. “How much time do we have before the next change must take place—about three days?”
Both girls nodded, then jumped as two paws appeared at the window. Claws scrabbled for purchase on the outside wall. Suleiman pulled himself up to the window ledge and squeezed through the lattice grating.
Ara and Layla rushed to his side, helping him from the sill. “We’re so happy to see you.” Ara cuddled him in her arms. “I didn’t mean all the things I said.”
He started to purr. Tahirah looked away, wiping a tear of relief from her face.
Ara sat down with the purring cat in her lap. Layla opened the basket and pulled out some pieces of dried fish, which Suleiman ate daintily from her hand.
Tahirah smiled at the group. “Suleiman, we rejoice in your escape and are grateful that you were able to join us so quickly. How did you get away?”
The cat stopped purring. “I hid behind a drainpipe right outside the door. The wazir sped past in his hurry to catch up with me. In my wisdom, I crouched in the shadows beneath a small spiny bush, while he searched the gardens. Soon he continued on beyond the fig trees. When I no longer heard him, I crept between the roses and into the trees beyond.”
Ara and Layla petted Suleiman, praising his stealth and skill, and he purred again.
“We must focus on our next lesson. Fortunately, it is a simple one.” Tahirah went over to the collection of tiles, sorting through until she picked out four. “Band symmetry are objects that have symmetry along a band or row, correct?” she asked.
“Yes,” the girls chorused.
Tahirah moved more tiles from the stacks in front of them.
“The simplest symmetry is called a translation. The design or object moves one space across the row. It does not reflect. It looks different upside down and right side up, so there is neither horizontal nor vertical symmetry. In fact, it is unchanged in every way but for the fact that it is moved along the row one space. Note that you can tell it’s not reflected because the flower stem points in one direction only. If it reflected vertically, the stem would alternate pointing to the left and to the right.”
“But that’s boring,” Ara said, baffled, looking at the simple flower buds. “How can that be anything? It’s too easy.”
Tahirah smiled. “Not quite as easy as it may seem. Here, look at this one.” She collected six other tiles.
“It’s a double reflection—wait,” Ara frowned. “It isn’t.”
“That right, it isn’t. Now explain why.”
Layla peered over her shoulder as Ara frowned at the tiles. “Well, the red line that goes up the middle—it isn’t the same on both sides. It doesn’t reflect. In fact,” Ara said, looking at it critically, “it doesn’t reflect horizontally either. But that’s strange. It almost does.”
Tahirah settled in a bit more. “Good, you see the difference. Symmetry must obey rules, and this one does not follow those rules for reflection. This is a simple translation. Another word for this symmetry’s motion is slide.”
“Oh,” Layla said, showing more interest, “a
slide, like in dance, a stepping to the side?”
Tahirah laughed. “Yes, very much like dance. The only way this symmetry group can move is by stepping to the side.” She looked out the window. “It is nearing dark. I’ll walk you into the harem where you will be safe. The wazir cannot go there, nor can any man. Remember, be careful. I’ve done what I can to confuse the wazir. Keep Suleiman away from him, but most important, do not put yourselves in danger.”
Chapter 28
Sleep didn’t come easily to the girls that night. Ara wanted to go back to the fountain to attempt a conversation with her lion. Maybe now he would show himself to her and speak.
Layla, terrified of the wazir, argued long and hard that if the lion wanted to talk to them, he knew where they were. Suleiman, after thoroughly investigating the room, selected a soft pillow and, purring blissfully, kneaded it with his front paws before falling asleep.
“Girls, it is almost dawn and soon time for prayers. Why are you not up and about?” To Ara, lost in restless sleep, Su’ah’s voice seemed far away. Something soft flicked across her nose. She opened her eyes slightly.
The tail swept across her face again. “Achoo,” she sneezed. Suleiman pushed the covers up a bit to poke his nose outside the blanket. He’d crawled under last night complaining of a draft.
“Are you coming down with a cold?” Su’ah asked.
Ara shoved Suleiman back under the covers. “No, something just tickled my nose. I’m fine.”
Su’ah stood gazing out the window at the brightening sky. “Looks like another beautiful morning.” She stood watching for a moment, and then said. “Why, there’s the wazir. What’s he doing?”
Ara jumped up and ran to the window to look through the honeycombed slats. “Where?” she breathed, leaning against the sill. Layla opened her eyes wide.
Su’ah pointed to a shadowy figure standing backlit by a flickering torchlight from the palace. “See, it’s him all right. What’s he doing with that cat?”
The Stone Lions Page 12
