Toads and Diamonds Read Online Free Page A

accessible from the flights of steps.
    The recent rains had filled the well to the brim. Water lapped the top stairs and spilled into canals that irrigated the fruit trees surrounding the tank. Unusually, the only other visitor was a goatherd, driving his animals up the livestock ramp at the far end of the stepwell. That didn't make it quiet; monkeys quarreled, and birds whistled in the trees.
    Diribani stopped in the shade of a pavilion and set her clay jar next to a pillar. She splashed a handful of cool water on her neck, dabbling her fingers at two fish in the pool. One darted away, a sliver of gold and green. The other didn't.
    Curious, she reached down to touch it again. The unmoving fish had been chiseled from one of the submerged stone steps. Diribani smiled at the mason's whimsy. She had enjoyed discovering such carvings around the well before, fish and shrimp, lucky frogs and Sister Naghali's snakes.
    As the water stilled, the reflections of the pillars shimmered around her hand, inviting her into a shadowy world. Looking into the water, Diribani felt like a cloud spirit surveying the earth below, or perhaps a sea nymph waving from the waves at her celestial sister. Light played across the surface of the pool, blurring the boundary between the submerged depths and the limitless sky. Diribani
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    flicked the water again. Diamond-bright drops splashed, their ripples dissolving into the stepwell's vast peace. A distant parrot squawked, then quieted.
    In the drowsy calm, hope surfaced like the little darting fish. Tana's transaction with Trader Nikhat should succeed. A diamond in the rough, Diribani's father had called Tana. Hiral, my fiery ruby; Diribani, my unmatched pearl. She blinked away tears at the memory. How happy she had been when her father's remarriage had blessed her with a mother and sister both. Without them, how could she have endured his loss? Together, they would survive it. And if Tana could work on a regular if secret basis, perhaps their fortunes were less dismal than Ma Hiral predicted.
    Diribani dipped her jar into the pool. Full, its weight stretched her tired arms. Girls like Chihra and Gulrang, who'd been fetching water since childhood, could squat, hoist a pot onto their heads, and stand without spilling a drop. This task was new to Diribani. When her father was alive, servants had fetched their water. She had gotten stronger with practice, although she still needed to hold a full jar with both hands. Grunting with the effort required to lift it above her shoulders, she settled the water jar onto the cloth ring that kept it steady on her head.
    Tana would be the first to remind her that poor girls earned their every meal or they didn't eat. Diribani's lips twisted in a wry smile. Perhaps she wasn't as skilled as her stepsister, but she could strive to work as hard.
    Leaving the pavilion's shade, Diribani almost tripped over a pile of rags. She stopped with a squeak of surprise when the strips of cloth parted, revealing two wrinkled hands and a disease-ravaged face. Inside the torn garments, a woman hunched on the stone
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    walkway. Praying? Asleep? A traveler weakened by her struggle through the road's thick mud? Diribani didn't recognize her.
    "Give me a drink, Mina?" The words were slurred, the voice cracked with age.
    "Certainly, Ma-ji." Diribani lowered her jar and stepped forward to pour water over the outstretched claws.
    The stranger slurped the water, dribbling it over Diribani's feet. Diribani pretended not to notice. The poor thing couldn't help her infirmity. Bony, sore-pocked legs stuck out from her ragged garment. She must be as weak as a baby bird if she couldn't manage the few paces to the pavilion's shelter.
    "More water, Ma-ji?" Diribani asked.
    "No, no." A deep cough shook the thin body.
    Diribani hugged the jar to her chest and winced in sympathy. "May I help you to the pavilion?"
    "Thank you, Mina." Spittle flecked the cracked lips.
    Before Diribani could put down the jar