The Stone Lions (30 page)

Tahirah lifted her head, her eyes pained.
“Would that I could, but my duty to Allah pulls me from place to
place. Yet I am saddened that I must leave. It is late, and there
are tasks that I must complete before this evening can be put
aside. Go, rest. Let us think on this further when the day
breaks.”

Chapter 42

After all had left the room, Tahirah stilled
her being, sheltering herself within a prayer.

The Alhambra was almost healed. The palace
whispered to her and called her name. One final task to do. No
longer did it shun her.

The lions were back in their places but alert
and waiting, claws and teeth prepared for any intruder. Their
thoughts swirled around the room, and she had to hold her mind
tightly closed against the images of fangs and claws that radiated
from the fountain.

The doors to the Hall of the Abencerrajes
remained closed. She knew what waited for her there. She reached
deep inside herself and found…Allah. Peace and harmony flooded her
being. Strength to deal with the ordeal to come.

Slowly, she walked over to the doors. She
felt it even before she touched them: pain, torment. The echo of a
soul in horror of itself. She took a deep breath, grabbed hold of
the door and pulled. The huge door creaked open, admitting her like
an old friend. It was a small room, not suited to this kind of
pain. A place meant for laughter and joy. Here was where the final
healing of the Alhambra had to take place. She closed the door
behind her.

Breathing was hard, and the agony of the
evening rang in her ears and pulsed in the stone beneath her
fingertips. She knew the wazir was no longer there, no longer in
pain. But his memories lingered and clawed at the walls. With
deliberate steps, she began the process of cleansing the room and
completing the healing of the Alhambra. She retraced patterns with
their magical symmetries into the walls. The Alhambra listened and
breathed in the knowledge using the patterns as a structure from
which to repair damage.

Tahirah placed her hands flat on the stone
floor and felt the remaining symmetries heal, one after another
throughout the Alhambra, as the magnificent building incorporated
the mathematics into its foundations. With each healing, she felt
her closeness to Allah and rejoiced in the wonder of her Sufi
mathemagic schooling. And with each healing, the echo of the
wazir’s pain and treachery lessened.

High above, moonlight illuminated the
symmetry of the many windows set in geometric positions around a
center top. As she stared, mesmerized by the light, it splintered
and fractured. But this time, symmetries upon perfect symmetries
danced before her mind’s eye, lit by the moon and the stars.

Allah had granted her a blessing beyond her
wildest imaginings. Mathematics as she had never seen it swirled
before her. Symmetries flashed before her eyes and replicated
themselves again and again across the ceiling. Deep into the bones
of the Alhambra, she followed them. Her mind delighted at the
wonders. Patterns so small that her mind could hardly grasp what
she was seeing. The configuration of a future world she could but
guess, and all symmetries. Symmetries within symmetries, smaller
than one could see, all part of the force which tied it together.
Not to be understood in her lifetime, nor in a lifetime of
lifetimes, but eventually in a land and time unknown to her or any
of the wisest of the wise. A gift of knowledge she could never
share.

Exhausted, she lay on her back, reveling in
the oneness with the Alhambra and Allah, and gazed upwards at the
ceiling into the comforting dark of the sky.

Chapter 43

Su’ah shook Ara awake. “You weren’t playing
with beet juice again, were you? The channels of the Lion Court ran
blood red, or so say the whisperings of the servants.” Her voice
was laced with awe. “A guard told Maryam the stone lions came to
life and killed the wazir.”

She was quiet as if stunned by her own words.
“Do you know what really happened?”

Ara opened her eyes, still blurred with
sleep, and sat up. Layla lay unmoving, watching them. “Su’ah,” she
was solemn. “The lions did come to life. Honestly, as Allah is my
witness. The wazir sent Father into a trap, but Tahirah went to
warn him. And then Layla and I went into the Court of the Lions and
the wazir was there and Suleiman and they fought…”

“Suleiman’s back?” Su’ah’s eyes ratcheted to
her forehead.

Ara smiled. “Yes, he is back.” A weight had
been lifted off her shoulders. Suleiman was human again. The palace
was safe. Father was unharmed. All was back to normal.

Normal? Ara frowned, puzzled. Why did that
bother her? Granada was a wonderful place to live, and the Alhambra
the most beautiful of the beautiful. But Tahirah was leaving, and
Ara didn’t know if she would ever return.

Maybe Tahirah would stay. Father had invited
her, after all. She couldn’t imagine life with Tahirah gone.

At a muffled squeak from Layla, Ara turned to
see a shimmer of light dance across the carpet. Su’ah gasped and
sat down on the bed as the light congealed into the outline of a
lion. Before their eyes, Ara’s lion slowly materialized on the red
and blue carpet. Golden stars twinkled and disappeared as he
solidified. Su’ah looked near to fainting, her hand on her
heart.

Layla scrambled out of bed to comfort her.
But Ara leapt up and threw her arms around the huge tawny
beast.

“I knew you’d come back.” She buried her face
in the thick mane.

The lion purred.

Ara sat upright. “What happened last night
after we left? Are Suleiman and Tahirah and Father truly all
right?”

The lion stretched his huge paws out until
they touched Su’ah’s loom. “Suleiman identified his last lessons,
stubbornness and resourcefulness. They proved useful, did they
not?” He bared his teeth in a cat-like grin. “He and the sultan
spoke long into the night. Suleiman finally agreed to take on the
wazir’s cloak. Your father has a few bruises from routing his
enemies.” He snorted, and his teeth gleamed in a grin. “The
Castilians now need to barter with him for the men they lost when
your father captured them last night.”

Ara nodded, “And Tahirah?”

He snorted. “She is a Sufi, restless and
always on the path to spiritual awareness. Their roads are paved,
not in glory, but in duty.”

He collected himself and rose, towering over
her. “You are the one I call on now.”

“Me?” Ara exclaimed, thinking she must have
heard wrongly.

“The power of Granada fades and that of the
Christians grows. Mohammad’s tolerance of different religions is
used against us. Our sultans, like your father, have been wise and
kind rulers, but it is not enough. Though we have grown rich in
mathematics and science, even that will not defend the walls of the
Alhambra. We are not welcome here. We will be forced out
eventually, back to the deserts and plains of my kind. So now it’s
up to us, you and me.”

“What do you mean?”

“You and I are bonded, child. Our fates woven
together from your birth.”

“Truly?”

“Yes. For each generation in the Alhambra,
one child and one lion are joined. I am the last of the lions to
choose a life bond.”

She sat back on her heels, startled. The lion
was truly hers, connected by magic. “You chose? Father has many
children. Why did you choose me?”

“In each generation there is a trait that has
been necessary for the survival of Granada. A trait that is
foremost in the human they bond to. In the past, my brothers’
qualities have been in much need. Justice and Wisdom have linked
many times, Courage and Vigilance also. My brother Reason bonded
with your father. But my nature has never been needed.” He sniffed
at the flowers sitting in a vase. “Until this generation and
you.”

Ara shook her head slightly, though she
waited for him to continue.

Purring again, the lion licked her with his
rough tongue. “You are the beginning of the end. A start of a new
time. Our ways are being threatened by those with a narrowness of
spirit—those with a disdain for learning, and those who fear
change. Not only among the Christians but also among our own
people.”

“But I’m just a girl.”

“Yes, but a curious one. And curious girls
grow into women of wisdom. The lion roars, but the lioness rules.
You embrace change, yet respect our culture. Let learning and peace
remain part of who you are.” Silver motes danced around him as he
started fading once again. “Remember.”

“What is your name?” Ara called after him,
desperate. “You never told me your name.”

He grinned. “My name is Curiosity. And you,
my curious friend, and those like you, are the hope for our
future.”

Al-Andaluse,
name of Islamic Spain pre-1500

Alhambra, The Red Palace. The palace of the Nazrid
Kings in the Country of Granada

Alhamdulillah,
praise be to
Allah

Allah, God

Aragon, a country north of Granada, now part of
Spain

Baklava, an Arabic dessert made with nuts and honey
wrapped up in a flaky dough

Bedouin, a nomadic tribe of Arabs from northern
Africa

Berbers, a tribe of people from northern Africa. The
only blue-eyed race of Africans

Bismillah
, in the name of
God

Black Death, a plague that wiped out almost a
quarter of the European world around 1350

Caftan, a long tunic

Caravan, a company of merchants traveling
together

Castile, a country north of Granada, now part of
Spain

Childbed fever, an infection of the reproductive
system following childbirth

Concubine, a status of women in the harem, not
married to the sultan, who also bear his children

Court of the Lions, a courtyard in the Palace of the
Court of the Lions, surrounded by rooms on every side. Twelve lions
support a central fountain. The original centerpiece of the
fountain is no longer there. It was removed in the 1500’s.

Crusades, multiple wars fought between the
Christians and the Arabs over the holy lands

Emir, Arab prince, governor or commander

Ewer, a pitcher or container for liquids

Eunuch, a neutered male who worked in the harems

Five pillars of Islam: prayer, fasting, pilgrimage,
almsgiving and the remembrance of God

Generalife, the summer palace of the Alhambra

Gilded Court, a courtyard in the Palace of the
Myrtles

Granada, the name of the Islamic country in southern
Spain between 800 and 1492. It was also the name of the capital
city in the Kingdom of Granada

Hall of the Abencerrajes, room off the south side of
the Court of the Lions

Hall of the Ambassadors, the throne room in the
Palace of the Myrtles where the sultan received important
visitors

Hall of the Kings, room on the eastern side of the
Court of the Lions

Hall of the Two Sisters, room on the north side of
the Court of the Lions

Harem, a protected place where the women and
children lived. A cloistered environment

Hijab, veil worn by Muslim women outside of their
private lodging out of modesty

Infidels, nonbelievers of the Islamic religion

Inshallah
, if Allah
wills

Islamic Spain, that part of Spain that was under
Islamic control before 1492

Jerusalem, the holy city for three religions, Islam,
Judaism and Christianity

Justice Gate, one of the four main gates of the
Alhambra

Khanqa, a Sufi hospice

Mirador de Lindaraja, a room in the Alhambra (mirror
of the Lindaraja) off the Hall of Two Sisters

Mohammad, the spiritual founder of the Islamic
religion

Mosque, religious building for Muslims

Muezzin, the person who gives the call to prayer

Navarre, a country in Spain near the French border
during the 1400’s

Nazrid, name of the family of rulers that controlled
Granada during the early middle ages

Palace of the Lions, one of the palaces in the
Alhambra. One hundred and twenty-four peristyles are in the
courtyard

Palace of the Myrtles, one of the palaces in the
Alhambra, joined together with the Palace of the Lions after the
expulsion of the Muslims in 1492

Palace of the Partal, a group of buildings in the
Alhambra where guests were frequently housed

Patio de la Acequia, a beautiful courtyard in the
Generalife

People of the Book, Christians

Peristyles, tall narrow columns

Prayers and when they occur: Fajr, at dawn; Zuhr,
noon; Asr, midafternoon; Maghrib after sunset and Isha, right
before midnight

Raptor, a bird of prey

Red Palace, the English translation of the name
Alhambra

Rumi, a famous Sufi Arabic poet of the eleventh
century

Saracens, a north African tribe

Scheherazade, a famous heroine of Arabic stories

Sierra Nevada, the mountain range in the south of
Spain

Sitti, a female title of respect

Sufi, a mystic religious order of Islam

Sultan, a Muslim ruler or monarch

Tasbih, a necklace worn and used similar to a
rosary

The Book of the Thousand and One
Nights
, the book of stories told through the voice of
Scheherazade. Aladdin and his lamp is one of the better-known
stories from the book

Toledo, a city in Castilian Spain once under Islamic
control

Ululating, a high wavering sound made with the voice
and tongue to indicate joy or sorrow

Vega, the great plains of southern Spain

Wazir, the office of Minister or Advisor (as in a
minister of government)

Abn
al-Humam, Layla’s Father, Commander of the Army and brother of the
sultan