The Stone Lions Read Online Free PDF Page A

into the ceiling. Other women and children
bathed nearby. Some sat on stone benches, drying themselves. One of
the concubines’ toddlers was crying, indignant at having her face
scrubbed. Hasan and two other boys had been splashing water back
and forth but were stopped abruptly by a fierce look from an older
servant. A slave poured water over Dananir’s hair, while another
moved to gently knead perfumes and oils into her skin.
    Layla stared at her fingers under the water.
“Ara, would you help me search for my ring? I know I had it
yesterday, but I can’t find it.”
    “Your little gold ring with the amber stone?”
She dipped her head under the water for a final rinse. “Your mother
gave that to you for your eleventh birthday, didn’t she?”
    “Yes, and her mother’s mother gave it to her
when she was a girl. I took it off to dance and put it on my
caftan, but it’s missing.”
    “Perhaps it fell while you were dancing. We
could look in the Court of the Lions. And while we’re there, I can
look for more symmetries. Suleiman says that I must find examples
of the symmetry called vertical reflection before he will teach me
the next symmetry. I’ve already found one right here in the
baths.”
    “Oh, show me,” Layla exclaimed, looking at
the many decorations covering the walls.
    “See? There on the wall near where Dananir is
sitting.” Ara pointed. “The gold leaf that repeats over and over in
a line, see how each set of leaves are sort of reversed?”

    Layla studied the design. “Yes, but how do
you know it is a vertical reflection symmetry?”
    “Suleiman told me the design had to be in a
row, and that each pattern had to be exactly the same shape and
size.” Ara ticked off reasons with her fingers. “And you need to
pretend there is an imaginary line between them that they can flip
over. If you could flip each tile, it should match exactly on top
of the one next to it. Suleiman promised to teach me more as soon
as I find all three examples.”
    “But how do you figure out where the line
is?”
    “Suleiman said it is a vertical line.” Ara
held up her hand with fingers tightly pressed against one another.
“So, I look at a tile and pretend there’s a line that goes up and
down—straight down into the earth and up into the sky to Allah. I
try to see if the design on the tile can be split in half. If it
can, I fold the two parts together in my mind to see if the designs
match.”
    They finished bathing and climbed out of the
waist-deep water, then slipped on their sandals set at the edge of
the pool. Hot water piped under the floor made the tiles too hot
for bare feet. Ara was careful to put her sandals on. She had
pretended she was a mystical firewalker once when she was six, only
to blister her feet and get a good scolding.
    “Well, I don’t think
a woman should flaunt herself,” they heard Fatima remark primly
from around a corner. “Tahirah needs to be under her brother’s
control. A woman should be a thing of beauty, not have her nose
forever in books. Why, only yesterday, I heard the wazir say a
woman scholar was a disgrace to our people and a bad example to the
children. Worse, she’s a Sufi, with no regard for our ways.”
    Ara scooted closer, sticking her head around
the corner and peering through the handle of a large urn
overflowing with flowering pomegranate branches.
    Rabab chimed in. “There’s nothing wrong with
being a Sufi. They love Allah, as do all good Muslims. Only they
follow their hearts, not the words of any person.” She looked
around for agreement.
    Maryam, Layla’s mother, spoke up, “A learned
mind is praise to Allah. He, in his wisdom, admires education.”
    Rabab leapt in again. “Our wazir is still
angry because he was sent home in disgrace from the university.
You’d think he would have gotten over that by now—it’s been close
to two decades. The man is forever looking for someone to belittle.
But for his counsel, Suleiman would have been named