The Stone Lions (18 page)

In the space near her hand, a double symmetry
tile with a gold leaf on red graced the arched doorway, one leaf
slightly out of position. As she looked, that tile righted itself,
as if suddenly aware it did not line up with its fellow tiles. From
a distance, lions roared. The crack narrowed. An instant later, Ara
stumbled, yelping in surprise at the ungainly weight hanging from
her sleeve.

Layla looked to see Ara struggling with a
large gray cat. “Oh, no, it’s trying to get Suleiman,” she yelled
and ran to the rescue.

“Shhh,” Ara hissed. “Someone might hear.” She
and the scruffy tabby, which clung desperately to her sleeve, fell
in an unceremonious heap to the floor.

With a disgusted look at Layla, the cat
spoke, “Thank you for your concern, but I have no interest in
eating mice.” Suleiman rearranged himself into a more dignified
position and took stock of his new form. After he’d convinced
himself that all was in good order, he began a careful grooming,
muttering over every misplaced hair. Layla helped Ara off the
floor. They both stared at the cat.

“Did you have to knock me down?” Ara stomped
her foot in exasperation. “Can’t you warn me when you’re
changing?”

The cat barely glanced up from his grooming.
“You’re the one who saw the distorted symmetry tile. You knew it
would correct itself. Don’t blame me for your poor planning.”

Layla planted herself between the feuding
friends. “What are we going to tell Mother?”

Ara grinned. “Well, you said you wanted a
pet.”

Layla could visualize her mother’s look of
disbelief. “Your pardon, Suleiman, but I don’t think Mother would
believe me.”

“Your pardon, Layla,” he retorted, not
bothering to look up this time. “But I’m not interested in being
anyone’s pet.”

“At least we found the symmetry long before
the time limit. It wasn’t as hard as we thought,” Ara said,
bouncing up and down on her toes.

Layla continued to eye the cat skeptically.
“But how do we keep him with us? We can’t carry him in a basket.
He’s… well…fat.” Layla groped through their basket with a clear
purpose.

Suleiman turned his back on the girls and
continued grooming. “Size is important. No one likes a scrawny cat.
I am ample and substantive, not fat,” he hissed over his
shoulder.

Ara smiled at him. “Come on, Suleiman, we
have to go.” Suleiman ignored her.

“Here, kitty, kitty,” Layla called. She
pulled out a piece of fish from their luncheon basket and waved it
in the air.

“Don’t do that,” he implored, sniffing the
air.

“I think he’ll follow us now,” Layla spoke in
an undertone to Ara. “Let’s go.” And she continued to wave the fish
in the air.

They exited the Hall of the Two Sisters, two
girls and a large reluctant tabby. As they passed the fountain, Ara
glanced over. She stopped short.

“Layla! My lion is gone.”

Chapter 25

Tahirah slowly came out of her meditation.
The healing continued, so the double symmetries must have been
found. Sooner than required, she reflected with some pride.

Her skin prickled as she felt a magical
presence enter her room. Surprised and startled, she sought to
focus her senses back to the physical world. Somehow, her
mathemagic wards had not prevented something from entering. She had
thought herself safe, but her protections and defenses had not
held. She opened her eyes and slowly scanned the room, prepared for
the worst.

A fierce lion sat before her in full feline
fury. “You are back,” he said, watching with eyes that saw all.
“The cubs need protecting. They are young and clawless.”

Tahirah blinked in surprise and delight. “Oh,
noble one, I am honored by your presence. Why have you come?”

Light danced through the lion, his image
wavering as he spoke. “We have been bespelled by one who betrays
and tortures the Red Palace. Circle upon circle of spells bound us,
and now one more band has been broken. He has harmed what is ours
to protect. Loyalty shadows him now, Vigilance and Justice close
behind. We cannot fulfill our duty until all the spells are undone.
Meanwhile, we watch and wait.” His eyes glowed, and the tip of his
tail thrashed.

“Why do you come to me?”

“Our cubs, you watch over them.” The lion
began to pace.

“Ara and Layla?” Tahirah smiled to herself at
the thought of the girls as cubs.

“Yes, the cubs of the harem. They are freeing
the bindings on us. We protect our own.”

Tahirah measured every word of her next
question, afraid to offend the proud cat. “I called you and you did
not answer. Might I know your name that I might call you in
need?’

“My name?” He looked away before growling.
“It is unimportant. You might call one of my brothers, Patience or
Endurance.”

Tahirah hesitated, then asked, “Do all twelve
have names?”

The lion lifted his massive shoulders in an
almost human shrug. “Yes, the ones I mentioned and, of course,
Strength and Prudence. But this is not the time for a family
history. My brothers and I were bound in deep dream by the wazir’s
spell. Now we are awake and can watch the evil one.”

“You have a plan for the wazir?” Tahirah
asked, troubled.

“Payment is due. His death is fated. There is
no other pathway open to him. He has chosen his way and walks it as
we speak,” the cat snarled.

Tahirah looked off and away. “I would hope
that you would be merciful.”

“We are merciful. He will not suffer long.”
The lion’s eyes glittered with an inner tension. “But you must
hurry. Danger approaches.”

Tahirah stood up, a chilling fear suddenly
upon her. “What kind of danger?”

“The evil one, the wazir, hunts the cubs,
just as we hunt him.” One moment the lion stood at the door, the
next he disappeared. Tawny lights sparkled in his wake.

Chapter 26

The room was silent but for the trickling
water from the fountain. As if a tooth had been pulled, only a gap
remained where the lion had been. Layla stood, awestruck. “What do
you think happened?”

Ara studied the fountain, unable to make
sense of it. “He can’t be gone,” she said, her voice cracking.
“He’s my favorite.”

“Maybe he’s being repaired?” Layla offered
without conviction. The two girls circled the area, finding no
clues of the missing lion.

“Should we tell someone?” Ara questioned,
unsure if her lion missing was good or bad.

“Yes, let’s find my mother.”

The girls edged into the King’s Hall hand in
hand with Suleiman trailing after, all his attention on the fish
remaining in Layla’s basket.

The wazir strode purposefully across the
room. “So, daughters of the harem, here you are. I would speak with
you.”

Suleiman backed up, spitting, his tail puffed
out like a feather duster. Ara was unable to force a word out.

“Perhaps some other time, Abd al-Rahmid,”
came a slightly breathless voice from across the room. Tahirah
rapidly entered, her white cloak fluttering behind her. “They’re
late as it is for their class.” She flashed her hand across his
path and a burst of stars danced in rapid succession across the
stone floor forming a line—Tahirah and the girls on one side, the
wazir on the other. If Ara had ever doubted that Tahirah was a
powerful mathemagician, she believed now.

The wazir hesitated as though confused, then
forced a false smile. “Tahirah, how nice to see you,” he said, eyes
narrowed with dislike. Then his voice took on the authority of his
office. “But I must insist on speaking with these two.”

Ara felt the blood drain from her face.
Tahirah came up beside her, and another coil of stars spun about at
a twist of her hand. “It’s late. You need to go about the sultan’s
business, don’t you?” She turned her back to the wazir and, with a
conspiratorial wink, said to the girls, “Come along.”

He shook his head as if trying to clear it,
then touched the wall. Ara saw the tile writhe beneath his hand.
Then the wazir drew in a breath and seemed to gather strength.
“Now,” he said. “I need to speak to them now.”

Tahirah smiled serenely as she steered the
girls out of the room. “Regrettably, not today. We are behind in
our lessons.”

The wazir started forward as if to push
Tahirah aside when a low hiss stopped him in his tracks. Looking
around in surprise, his eyes fixed on Suleiman, whose every hair
stood on end as he backed slowly away from the wazir. “A cat,” Abd
al-Rahmid said contemplatively. “A portly cat with the glow of
magic surrounding him.” A sly look of comprehension crossed his
face.

Tahirah opened her mouth as if to speak, but
instead she flicked her hand once again. Out spilled tiny diamonds
that shimmered in the air. They settled lightly on each of the
girls’ feet then blinked out of sight. The wazir looked around as
if uncertain, and Ara thought they might all escape now.

Suleiman made a sudden leap for the doorway
and freedom. The wazir jerked as if the magic had suddenly
released. He rushed after Suleiman but halted abruptly as a lion,
as transparent as if formed of mist or smoke, materialized in his
way. “Your destiny awaits,” the lion said in a deep resonant
voice.

Abd al-Rahmid hesitated for a brief
white-knuckled moment before stepping through the bodiless lion.
“Go back to your fountain,” he jeered. “You can do me no harm.” He
dashed after Suleiman into the gardens.

The lion image wavered, then disappeared.
Wisps of golden motes of light remained where he had stood.

After a moment of stunned silence, the girls
exploded with a whirlwind of words, the loudest being Ara’s, “My
lion, that was my lion!”

“The wazir knows! What are we to do? What
about Suleiman?”

A visibly shaken Tahirah quieted them with a
gesture. “We must leave. The wazir could return in an instant.
Suleiman knows enough to run to my quarters. Come, we must
hurry.”

“But what if Suleiman gets caught?” Ara
whispered, afraid for her friend. Their petty bickering was now a
thing of the past.

“The stone lion bought him time. Cats are
quick and wary. Suleiman should be safe,” Tahirah said.

Ara wished she could believe in those words,
not just hope.

“We will speak no more of this until we are
within the protection of my chambers.”

Chapter 27

Tahirah’s hand shook slightly, belying the
calm of her face as she poured cups of lemon tea and passed one to
each of the girls.

Ara looked around as if unsure what had
happened, while Layla stared pensively at the empty basket.

After a long sip of the tea, Tahirah leaned
back against the cushions with a slow sigh. “I was afraid I was too
late. The stone lion came to warn me, but I was dazed from my
trance and then bemused that a lion had come to me. I was so afraid
that my tardiness would cost your safety.” There was quiet in the
room as all contemplated the danger the wazir posed.

“He can’t come in here, can he?” Layla looked
anxiously at the door.

Tahirah reached across and stroked her hair,
“No, my child. We are safe here. No evil can pass my door. And he
is
evil,” she added with a slight shudder.
“We need to finish finding all the symmetries as quickly as
possible. He doesn’t yet connect you with the magic. He sees you as
children and powerless. I cast a spell of forgetfulness on all of
us in the doorway. Unfortunately, that spell only works for humans.
Suleiman, I couldn’t protect.

“We need more time,” she said, almost to
herself, then to the girls, “It would be best if you could stay
within the harem as much as possible. Don’t give the wazir cause to
remember. Avoid his presence. He can’t go into the harem, nor can
he harm you there. If we are lucky, his recollection of us will
seem as a scattered dream. He will have trouble discerning fact
from a distant flight of his imagination. Unfortunately,” she
frowned, “he will remember Suleiman, and now he knows that Suleiman
has transformed.”

Layla moved to sit closer to Tahirah. “I’m
frightened.”

“Me too,” Ara said.

Tahirah closed her eyes and leaned her head
against the wall before saying, “You are wise to be. I was lulled
into a false sense of safety, and that is now over.” She placed her
hand across her brow as if warding off a headache. “How much time
do we have before the next change must take place—about three
days?”

Both girls nodded, then jumped as two paws
appeared at the window. Claws scrabbled for purchase on the outside
wall. Suleiman pulled himself up to the window ledge and squeezed
through the lattice grating.

Ara and Layla rushed to his side, helping him
from the sill. “We’re so happy to see you.” Ara cuddled him in her
arms. “I didn’t mean all the things I said.”

He started to purr. Tahirah looked away,
wiping a tear of relief from her face.

Ara sat down with the purring cat in her lap.
Layla opened the basket and pulled out some pieces of dried fish,
which Suleiman ate daintily from her hand.

Tahirah smiled at the group. “Suleiman, we
rejoice in your escape and are grateful that you were able to join
us so quickly. How did you get away?”

The cat stopped purring. “I hid behind a
drainpipe right outside the door. The wazir sped past in his hurry
to catch up with me. In my wisdom, I crouched in the shadows
beneath a small spiny bush, while he searched the gardens. Soon he
continued on beyond the fig trees. When I no longer heard him, I
crept between the roses and into the trees beyond.”

Ara and Layla petted Suleiman, praising his
stealth and skill, and he purred again.

“We must focus on our next lesson.
Fortunately, it is a simple one.” Tahirah went over to the
collection of tiles, sorting through until she picked out four.
“Band symmetry are objects that have symmetry along a band or row,
correct?” she asked.