The next morning, Ara woke with a start. She had slept uneasily, dreaming of being chased by a Christian-garbed donkey with an evil grin.
Layla still slept, a wary look flittering across her face. As usual, Su’ah was awake and puttering about, building up the fire and laying out their clothes. Ara rolled out of bed.
“Up early, are you?” Su’ah asked. “You must have had quite the fright. I heard about that horrible boy. Why would anyone want to hurt Layla? The servants overheard the commotion in the guest quarters last night. His father was most displeased. That child won’t be sitting down for some time.” She leaned out of the window to shake dust from a carpet. In the distance, a rooster crowed.
“Su’ah, would you mind walking with me this morning? I need to go down to the Gilded Hall, and I don’t wish to go by myself,” Ara asked, nervous about a chance confrontation with the wazir.
“Now?”
“I need to find something. It won’t take long. It’s important, and I really am a bit afraid to go alone,” she insisted.
Su’ah sighed and looked around at all the work still to be done. With a small shake of her head, she conceded, “Of course, child. I understand. If my aged company would give you comfort, I would be pleased to go. There are too many strangers wandering these halls. And that undisciplined boy. He wouldn’t have behaved like that had he been in my charge,” she continued with an emphatic nod of her head. “I know how to raise a well-mannered child.”
Together, they walked down the stairs and through the Court of the Myrtles before heading into the Gilded Court.
“My, my, someone brought an animal in here.” Su’ah frowned at the hoof prints. “Look at that floor. Hoof prints all over. Zoriah won’t be pleased that livestock was brought into the hall. I had better call a servant to mop this up.”
She stopped a passing slave-girl and spoke to her, pointing at the offending scuffmarks. Ara scooted past a large urn and into a small alcove.
“Ara, where are you?”
“Over here,” she called out as she peered through an arched doorway. She searched the walls from top to bottom. Only a single sad twisted tile remained from the wazir’s magic, but not a horizontal symmetry.
“Soon all will be well,” she whispered, touching it gently. She turned toward Su’ah. “I’m ready to go.”
“What were you looking for? Did you tell me before? My mind isn’t as sharp as it once was,” Su’ah lamented, shaking her head.
“I thought I left a lute string in here last week, but I don’t see it.” Ara felt uncomfortable at deceiving her, but she knew how Su’ah liked to talk. If word got back to the wazir that she searched for symmetries, broken symmetries…she cringed at the thought.
“Child, you’d lose your hand if it weren’t attached. Let’s go back. I’m sure we can find another lute string. I have to get you and Layla off to the baths, dressed and ready for the day’s meeting with those foreigners.”
Su’ah frowned. “Now, you remember, if that boy even looks at you oddly, you come tell your old Su’ah, and I’ll deal with him myself.” She puffed herself up like a hen preparing to defend her chicks.
Ara smiled, thinking about Su’ah and the ginger-haired boy. She would wager on Su’ah every time, though wagering was forbidden. She slowed her pace to match her elder's as they walked back up to their sleeping quarters. “Must we join them this morning?” she asked. “Even after what happened with Layla?”
“I wasn’t told either way, but you must be ready and willing if your father deems it so. He is the sultan. His word is law.”
Layla was awake and dressed by the time they returned, curious where they had gone so early in the morning. Her eyes widened at Ara when Su’ah told her where they had been.
“Did you find what you were seeking?” she asked.
Ara shook her head. “I didn’t see the lute string.”
Su’ah began grumbling again. “Hoof prints in the courtyard! Some hooligan brought a horse or donkey into the Gilded Court. I hope no one saw this and thinks we live like that. Maybe the Infidels let livestock into their homes, but not in this palace!” She hesitated at the door. “You girls head off to the baths, and don’t dawdle now.”
Layla finished putting on her sandals before saying. “Ara, today’s our last day to find the horizontal symmetry, right?”
“Yes, but we’ll find it,” Ara said, to reassure Layla—and herself.
“That’s not what I was thinking about.” Layla paused. “What will Suleiman change into the next time?”
Confused at her cousin’s line of thought, Ara shrugged. “I don’t know, another animal of some sort.”
“Yes, but we have him in my embroidery basket. What if he turns into an elephant and runs trumpeting through the palace. Or a bee and wanders off into the gardens or worse, a fish? There are many things he could turn into and disappear or die. We might never find him.”
Ara looked at Layla in dawning horror. Why hadn’t she thought of that before? Both girls sat on the floor and frowned.
“Well, we’d better keep the basket close to us and try not to find this broken symmetry when other people are around, just in case,” Ara agreed, trying to think where she could hide an elephant.
“Let’s go bathe and get dressed. Maybe we’ll be lucky, and he'll change into something small, cute and cuddly.” Layla said. She checked on the still-sleeping Suleiman before taking up his basket. They gathered the rest of their things and walked down to the baths.
“At least the People of the Book leave today,” Ara said to lift their mood. “I’ll be happy to see that ginger-haired boy go. I do like Lady Anna though. She is nice and smells of lavender.”
“Me too. Have you heard how the talks are going? Mother says a treaty could help keep the peace between us and the Christians.”
“Father is still angry with me. I haven’t seen him at all.” Ara missed the comfort of her father’s smile. “In any case, we need to prevent the wazir from undoing the Alhambra’s magic. Treaty or no treaty, the Castile King might claim Granada.”
“Couldn’t Tahirah do some magic to stop him? Turn him into a toad or something?”
“A Sufi’s magic is in learning and knowledge. Because she is a Sufi, she can do good, but she can’t harm others. That would be evil in the eyes of Allah,” Ara said, remembering a discussion from her teachers. “Though I wondered about that slingshot breaking just as she came into the room, didn’t you?”