The sun was low in the sky when the girls, accompanied by four guards, left Tahirah’s rooms. Worried about finding the newest symmetry soon enough, they searched the walls as they entered the Palace of the Myrtles and headed for their chambers.
Zoriah, surrounded by seven servants, called to them from the top of the stairs, “Are you girls done with your lesson?”
“Yes, but we have assignments to complete.”
Zoriah turned away from them to one servant, who hovered attentively. “No, it can’t be done tomorrow,” she told her. “I want the rugs cleaned now.” She turned back to the girls. “And I want you to go and make sure that the Mirador de Lindaraja is completely cleaned.”
“Now?” Ara said, surprise in her voice. “Us?”
“Yes, now and definitely you.” Zoriah’s voice sounded exasperated. “How do you expect to learn the running of a castle if you don’t start while you’re young? You can’t tell servants and slaves how to do something if you haven’t done it yourself. Now, go with the servants and help them get the rooms in order.”
Ara and Layla looked at each. They were tired, and Suleiman still hid in Layla’s sleeve. Each hour they didn’t find the symmetry was an hour lost forever. The wazir knew something was wrong—what if he looked to those who were close to Suleiman? He might guess they were involved.
Ara couldn’t speak.
“Of course, Zoriah,” Layla finally answered.
As they left the hall, Ara muttered under her breath, annoyed at Zoriah and frightened of what could happen.
“You know she’s right. We have to learn,” Layla said quietly, so the servants accompanying them wouldn’t hear.
“But not now,” Ara snapped. “We have no time. What if we fail? Neither of us sleeps at night for worrying.”
“She doesn’t know that, and we can’t tell her,” Layla said.
“But the wazir is doing something with the Castilians. I know he is.”
Layla placed her hand on her cousin’s shoulder. “Nothing we can do will change that. We must stick to our task, repairing the Alhambra and Suleiman with it.”
Ara sighed and then shuddered at this new thought. “What if the wazir comes looking for us?”
Ara watched as her own fear bloomed in Layla’s eyes.
The girls climbed upstairs to their room, both too tired to talk. Cleaning and scrubbing, airing carpets and polishing floors had taken much of the evening. Zoriah had checked before they had finished and suggested that the kitchen staff could use help the next day with counting a shipment of food that had just arrived. It had been a long evening. As they stumbled into bed, Ara fervently hoped Zoriah would find some other girls to take under her wing and train. She wasn’t sure she would survive her lessons.
The next day servants joined them directly after breaking fast, and the girls followed them to their tasks. The evening ended as the previous one, with both girls falling into bed exhausted.
It seemed morning dawned before they had barely closed their eyes. The voices of the muezzins rang out the call to prayer.
“I’m sore all over,” Ara protested as she slowly pushed off the bedcovers. “I thought we were done with scrubbing and polishing and cleaning when the Christians left.”
“And counting jars and jars of olive oil,” Layla added recalling tallying the large shipment unloaded from the wagon the previous day.
“Break fast time!” chimed a shrill voice near Ara’s ear. Suleiman clambered off her pillow and skittered over to the bed’s edge. “Hurry, get up. We need to eat.”
Ara eyed the mouse with sleepy annoyance. “Can’t you think of anything but your stomach?”
Suleiman drew his portly mouse-self up to his full height. “Of course, there are many things of equal importance as one’s health. One is treating your elders properly. You are a girl and I...”
“Are a mouse.”
Layla, ever the peacemaker, sat up and offered her outstretched arm for Suleiman to climb. “You are our tutor and friend. First we pray to Allah, the gracious, and then we will go with much speed to break our fast.”
Ara muttered under her breath as she stared at the ceiling with ill grace, then blinked in shock, suddenly awake. “Found one!” There on the ceiling was a double reflection symmetry. This one was blue and gold with umber edges. But it was complete, not flawed in any way.
Layla leaned her head back to see. “It’s always dark when we are here. The symmetries are all around us and we have never noticed.”
“Good, you found it,” Suleiman said, sounding impatient. “We now know that you can identify it. Now hurry, we must eat!”