Toads and Diamonds Read Online Free

the sooner they might buy some garlic or onions to season their plain rice.
    After dipping the pen into the ink jar, Tana drew a grid on the first page of the ledger. She labeled each square with the symbol embroidered on the carrying case's corresponding panel. The first sapphire could be cut to eliminate a flaw on one facet. She turned it over. Yes, a fraction off this side would improve the jewel's
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    symmetry without dropping the weight below a half-rati. With quick strokes of the pen, Tana wrote down her recommendation. "Will that suit, my lovely?" she said under her breath.
    The stone twinkled in response. Tana set it down and picked up the next. Absorbed in her work, she didn't notice her mother watching from the doorway, worry etched on her features.
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    ***
    CHAPTER THREE Diribani
    P-PEACE to you, naga-ji," Diribani stammered.
    The viper's triangular jaws opened. The forked tongue flicked in and out, as if the goddess's messenger could taste a girl's character from the air around her. Trapped in the clammy folds of her dress wrap, Diribani lowered her eyes to stare at the mud.
    How would the naga judge her? If fifteen years was the allotted span for Diribani to enjoy a human girl's body, had she spent the time wisely? Unlike Believers, who feared a hell and prayed for a paradise that their one jealous god reserved for humans only, the followers of the twelve understood that the earth encompassed both. For all creatures, each lifetime's actions determined their condition in the next.
    What had Diribani learned--or failed to learn--that might doom her to return as a lower being? She knew that laughing at Gulrang hadn't been very compassionate, but was it enough to make the gods send her back as a rat, say, or a scorpion?
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    Her arms ached, and a muscle burned in her thigh. Diribani didn't dare shift position. Her nose itched. Mud dried in scales on her skin. Quiet as a temple statue, she waited. The green snake considered her, the tip of its tail vibrating.
    Diribani worked so hard to keep still that she almost missed the moment when the snake uncoiled. Moving with abrupt decision, it swept past her, across the road to the field beyond.
    So. Death was not her fate today. If the goddess was kind, perhaps wisdom or good fortune would mark Diribani's future. Now that she had one.
    Diribani shuddered and pulled herself out of the mud. Her legs trembled. She put down the clay jar and stretched her arms to the sky until the gold bangles danced on her wrist. Relief bubbled up inside her, hot and sweet as strong tea. What a story she had to tell! She was almost tempted to run straight home. Duty dragged the pot back onto her head and started her feet toward the well. The naga might regret sparing Diribani if she acted like the lazy girl the piltreet had called her.
    Within a grove of mango and pinkfruit trees, the well's entrance pavilion beckoned. On either side of the biggest stone archway, two oil lamps burned in their niches, adding their small flames to the day's brightness. Diribani ducked between the carved pillars. Dim light soothed her eyes; cool air refreshed her skin. Diribani washed her feet and legs in a large clay basin. She poured the dirty water into the waste channel and refilled the basin with clear water for the next visitor. After straightening her blouse and twitching her skirts into order, she paid her respects to the goddess's shrine with extra gratitude. Then she carried the jar along the covered walkway to the stepwell proper.
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    Mostly open to the sky, the sides of the large tank were faced with stone blocks and divided by many flights of steps. The stairs descended deep into the ground, separating the wide expanse of the well into areas for bathing and washing. Strung along the edge of the stepwell like pearls on a necklace, pavilions offered shelter from both rain and sun. During the dry season, the water level inside the tank might drop eight or nine or twenty levels, but it was always