The Stone Lions Read Online Free PDF Page B

the stone lions
made burping noises as the water bubbled out of his mouth. “Even my
lion agrees.”
    “I don’t want to get into trouble,” Layla
said. “I worried so when you were outside the palace gates
alone.”
    Ara said nothing.

    Towing the bucket alongside, Ara chuckled to
herself. It had been hard getting the dye, what with Suleiman’s
watchfulness. Days had gone by before he was called away from Ara’s
side, and then no one seemed to be dyeing clothes. But now, after
two weeks of searching, she had it.
    “This bucket is heavy,” Ara muttered to
herself. She moved it to her other hand. The rope handle kept
digging into her palm, and the dye sloshed around, threatening to
tint her clothes a merry beet-red. I won’t be
missed until evening
    prayer . Suleiman’s off teaching Dananir’s eldest—and besides, he
thinks I’m studying in the far garden.

    She was pleased with herself because she had
found one more reflection symmetry in the Court of the Myrtles, red
and green flowers arranged across the wall. Sure enough, she could
see that each flower could be halved exactly. And by flipping over
each half, the pattern would repeat across the row. Find the pattern, you find the motion , Suleiman had
said. She sat down to rest by the side of the palace. Soon , he would have to keep his
promise to explain another symmetry. She checked her left
palm for blisters. She picked up the bucket and continued wending
her way through the palace rooms to the Court of the Lions. After
some thought, she followed one channel far upstream past the Hall
of the Two Sisters.
    Just a little, she
told herself, as she carefully held the pail of dye to the edge of
the channel. Only the least little bit. That’s all
I need to track the water.
    Trumpets blared from outside the walls,
announcing visitors. Ara jumped, bumping her knee against the
bucket and spilling masses of beet juice into the water
channel.
    “Oh!” She watched in wide-eyed dismay as the
red dye rushed down the waterway. Behind her she heard a roar, and
she spun around but heard nothing more.
    The red dye flowed on. Nothing could change
what had happened. Nothing would make it disappear.
    “Bread and water for a month,” she moaned,
gritting her teeth. That’s what will happen to me
if Father or Suleiman finds out.
    “Maybe it will disappear before anyone sees,”
she muttered without much hope. Dragging the incriminating bucket
along, she trotted after the crimson water as it wound through the
corridor, into the Hall of Two Sisters, down to the Court of the
Lions. There it flowed out of the lions’ mouths into a basin
surrounding the fountain to head out again in three more
directions. Twelve stone lions surrounded the fountain, just as
always. Nothing moved but the ever-present trickle of water.
    Ara hoped it wouldn’t hurt her lion to spit
dye. Ruby water spilled into the four channels, and she decided to
look first in the Hall of the Abencerrajes. The channel ended in
the center of the square room, where the water spilled into a low
round fountain. Above the fountain was a golden eight-pointed star
that filled the ceiling. Sunlight poured though arched windows
along each of the star’s edges and, in that dancing light, the
lions almost seemed to stir behind her. She circled the low
fountain, checking for a small gold ring. Nothing. She shivered,
looking at the red dye that now swirled within the fountain. It almost looks like blood .

    All the channels ended except one—there, the
red water finally tumbled over a small ledge and into a drain near
the Garden of the Lindaharaja. Ara sat down behind the bushes,
frustrated and discouraged. An insect buzzed her ear, and a small
pebble poked her knee.
    The whole morning searching, and no ring
found. Instead, she was certain there would be trouble over the
dye. The water trickled by, and she wriggled uncomfortably as the
small stone bruised her. Where could the ring have gone? As she
leaned forward, the pebble