The Stone Lions (23 page)

The howling stopped, and Suleiman’s nose
turned toward them. His tail wagged back and forth.

Ara leaned out farther and waved her hand
back and forth. “He can see us, but we can’t talk to him from this
distance. At least he knows we care.”

Layla grabbed Ara as she tipped halfway out
the window. “We should go now. Time is moving fast.”

Ara regained her balance and tore herself
from the window. “Well, where first? How about we look in the Hall
of the Boat?”

Evening came, and though they found a
rotational symmetry, it wasn’t broken. Layla had found it in the
wooden ceiling of the Hall of the Boat immediately upon entering.
Suppertime came and went, and still the girls looked. Suleiman had
to change!

The hour was late.

Zoriah entered the hall, her expression of
worry not completely masked. It was obvious that she had been
tracking them down, bothered that they missed the evening meal yet
unable to meet their eyes. In a low, unsteady voice, she said,
“Ara, I’m sorry about today. I made a mistake. An error of
judgment. We need peace in the harem. You may keep the hound.”

“It’s too late for that,” Ara blurted out. “I
need a rotational symmetry example, one that is damaged. It’s for
our lessons.”

There was flicker of confusion before Zoriah
steeled her face. “Have you looked in the Gilded Room? There is a
symmetry there. Last week, it seemed odd somehow. On the north
wall, as I recollect.”

Ara tensed in excitement. “We haven’t looked
there.”

“Then we should go look now,” Zoriah said,
and set a quick pace while the girls raced alongside her.

The Gilded Room was the loveliest in the
Alhambra. Neither Ara nor Layla had been there since the visit from
the People of the Book. Memories of the knight with donkey feet
still terrified Layla.

As they rounded the corner, Zoriah slowed
down and looked up and down the nearest wall. “Now, where is it?
Ah, yes.” She stopped to look more closely. “See, this is wrong. I
don’t recall them retiling here, but it is different than I
remember.” She placed her hand on a row of tile then, frowning,
walked across the room to examine the tiles there. “These are not
changed. What could have happened?”

While her back was to it and Ara and Layla
watched, the broken symmetry repaired itself. Ara’s body shivered
as a pulse of energy rippled through the floor. Nearby, lions
chuffed to one another.

The girls shot each other a quick look of
relief. Suleiman was now transformed. Into what, they did not
know—tomorrow they would still have to face the wazir and the
sultan. But for now the magic of the rotational symmetry was
completed, and Suleiman would not live out his days as a hound.

Layla grabbed Zoriah’s hand and almost
dragged her out of the room. Both girls feared she would see the
corrected tile and ask difficult questions.

But as they stood in the corridor, Ara
shuffled uncomfortably. Her father’s first wife had helped them
find the broken rotation symmetry. A debt was owed. “Zoriah, thank
you. I shouldn’t…I shouldn’t have been so cross. Please accept my
apology.”

“There’s been too much misunderstanding and
apology in the harem lately,” the woman said with the beginning of
a smile. “You two need to eat. Let’s go and get you supper. We’re
all under some strain.”

Ara squirmed, now wishing she could confide
in her father’s wife. “Zoriah, please do not mention this to
anyone. It’s private, and we don’t want anyone to know that we
search for symmetries. They might laugh.”

She gave the girls a quizzical look, but
agreed. “There are things in the harem that need to stay here and
nowhere else. Today was an reminder of that.”

Outside, high above in the tower, a lone
figure blinked into the night at the almost full moon, and
restlessly moved across the wide window ledge.

Chapter 34

Though the sun was not yet up, Ara struggled
to open her eyes. Su’ah left off stirring the coals and sat down
next to her. “So what happened? I knew that dog was trouble. How
did you come upon it anyway? I heard the wazir was furious.”

She tenderly smoothed Ara’s hair. “Child,
what were you thinking about getting in the way of so powerful a
man?”

Ara sat up on an elbow rubbing her eyes and
yawned. “It’s not his dog. He’s a mean, horrible person.” And just
like that, she was awake. “How late is it? Is Suleiman all right?
Did anything happen while I slept?” She wriggled past Su’ah and
grabbed the nearest clothes. “Layla, get up! We have to get to the
tower.” Her cousin rolled out of bed and wordlessly threw on her
clothes.

Su’ah watched in bewilderment. “Suleiman? Is
he back? I hadn’t heard that he had returned.”

Ara stopped and collected herself. “No. I
just got confused about the dog, that’s all.”

The older woman was taken aback. “How can you
confuse Suleiman with a dirty little hound, even if he is a Turk.”
She shook her head. “Why must you rise this early anyway?”

“We...we want to make sure the dog is not
harmed, that’s all.”

Su’ah went back to her work. “All this fuss
over a dog?”

Dressed, Ara grabbed Layla’s hand and
half-dragged her out of the room, across the hall and down the way.
They leaned far out the window and peered intensely into the
pre-dawn. The moon, almost full, still hung in the sky, but the sun
had begun to peek over the mountain. A ray of light found the tower
and the girls saw something seated on the windowsill. A raptor, its
head tucked under its wing. As they watched, it awoke, stretching
tall and fanning its tail. Turning restlessly toward the mountains,
the golden eagle slowly unfolded his wings one at a time. With his
huge, curved beak he preened his feathers then sharply twisted his
head toward the Court of the Myrtles. Two piercing eyes locked with
the four awestruck ones of the girls, and he nodded.

The sliver of sun became a crescent. Suleiman
stared into the wide, open vista then, with exquisite grace,
unfurled his wings, and with a great whoosh, hurled himself off the
tower and soared up into the sky. Clinging to the shadows far
below, another figure watched, fingering a small broken mirror.

“He’s flying toward the mountains.” Ara said
as Layla watched in silent disbelief. The morning sky lightened
with each exhalation of their breath. The eagle was disappearing, a
small dot far away.

“What’s Father going to say when the hound he
locked away for safe keeping is missing?”

Layla, still awestruck, looked at her with
wide eyes. “What’s the wazir going to say, and how do we get
Suleiman back?”

“We need Tahirah.” Ara grabbed her cousin’s
hand and together they hurried off in search of the seer.

The call to prayer rang out. They turned to
face Mecca and dropped to their knees.

Soon they rose, comfort gained from their
morning prayer. Ara was the first to speak. “Let’s hurry. We can’t
find the symmetry until we know what we seek.” She looked
broodingly toward the mountains. “Suleiman surely will return. He
knows how important this is. Then we should go speak with my
father.”

Tahirah tested her protections again.
Someone, she thought with grim remembrance of yesterday’s scene,
had been trying to break her protections. She felt the discord
reverberate along her wards. It seemed that the wazir was reaching
the end of his tether. How much longer before he snapped entirely?
Deep in thought, she moved from ward line to ward line, reinforcing
each one, checking their strength.

Her servants announced that the girls waited
at the door, and Tahirah requested some food for them. At her
window, she looked across the Alhambra’s vast gardens. The scents
of roses and oranges wafting in lifted her spirits. She took a deep
breath and, invoking the name of Allah, went to greet Ara and
Layla. Within the privacy of her room, the girls exploded in verbal
fragments of worry and excitement, finishing with Ara’s, “He turned
into a golden eagle. The largest I have ever seen.”

Layla leaned out the window to look at the
distant mountains. “He flew off at dawn, Tahirah. What is the
sultan going to do when he finds out the hound is not locked in the
tower?”

Tahirah frowned. “I’m more worried about the
wazir. He knows Suleiman had to change, but I’m sure he expected
him to be trapped in the tower. The wazir is a bitter enemy.” She
thought back again to yesterday’s confrontation. “We have been
underestimating Abd al-Rahmid. Someone has tried to dissolve my
wardings. Who else but the wazir?”

She looked each girl in the eye. Her face was
absolutely serious, compelling their attention. “You two must stay
on your guard. Today is the last day for breaking the spell. Today,
you must find two separate symmetry patterns. You have from now
till Maghrib at dusk to find and repair the first. That leaves only
the hours between Maghrib and Isha, one quarter of a day, left to
find the last broken symmetry. Tonight is the end. It must be found
soon after Isha’s prayer is said, right after midnight. Finding
them is Suleiman’s only hope for regaining his human form.” She
hesitated, debating internally, then spoke very gently, “If you
fail and the wazir succeeds, the Alhambra will fall. And us with
it, I fear.” She closed her eyes, echoes of other times crossing
her face.

Her eyes opened. “You two girls must succeed.
If the magic is not repaired, we will be faced with a bitter war.
Nowhere will it be safe, not even the harem.”

Tears trickled slowly down Layla’s face. Ara
sat staring at her hands, fear for her family entering for the
first time. She looked up to ask in a voice edged with worry. “How
can we go on with the lessons without Suleiman here?”

Tahirah glanced away, then moved to sit near
the tiles. “We must start, even though he must be part of the
lesson for the magic to work. His promise is tied to the magic. We
will begin and pray he recalls the need to be here. Each shape he
turns into has its own animal drives, taking him away from his
human self.” She whispered low, “He must come to himself soon,
inshallah
, or all is lost.”

Tahirah forced herself to concentrate on the
task and placed her hand on the tiles. “With this next type of
symmetry, glide reflection, you will learn the last motion. So far
we have studied three: reflection, translation and rotation. This
newest motion is called glide. In it, the symmetry is offset—”

Layla glanced out the window once again and
gasped. “I think I see him.” Ara joined her and together they
scanned the sky. Gliding on a downdraft from the mountains, an
eagle circled, coming to land on the tower battlement.

Ara jumped up and down. “Is it him? Is it
Suleiman?”

The sharp-eyed eagle peered at them from high
above on the battlement and after surveying the area, flung himself
into the air. He spiraled down to their window, landing hard as he
struggled for purchase on the flat stone sill. “Ouff.”