Toads and Diamonds Read Online Free Page B

to assist, claw hands closed over Diribani's elbows, and the old woman pulled herself upright. Either the coughing or the abrupt upward movement must have cleared an obstruction from her throat. Strangely, the crone's voice emerged as sweet as a flute's. "Such kindness merits a gift. What is your soul's desire, my daughter?"
    "Pardon, Ma-ji?" Diribani said, confused by the woman's transformation from beggar to benefactor. She would have stepped back, but the woman held her arms in a firm grip. As they stood face to face, with only the width of the water jar between them, Diribani met the stranger's eyes.
    A deep green color, they reflected Diribani's gaze into eternity, two pools as liquid and profound as the well where they stood. Awe
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    closed Diribani's throat. This was no ordinary old woman; her question demanded the absolute truth. Beauty was the answer that rose to Diribani's lips, but she had no breath to shape the word.
    "Ah," the stranger said, as if she could read stunned silence as easily as speech. Her voice started on a low note and swelled into unbearable richness, a temple bell echoing in the well. "Your sweet nature, kind heart, and hopeful spirit are worthy of reward."
    Like nectar, the rich voice filled Diribani with an emotion too intense to contain. The clay jar slipped from her arms and smashed into pieces on the ground. A shard sliced her ankle, but that slight pain wasn't what caused Diribani to clap her hands over her face and sob as if her heart, too, had been shattered.
    Joy brought the tears: a rush of gladness greater than any she had ever experienced. Washing over her in an irresistible wave, the goddess's regard bathed Diribani in a beauty like sunrise. Or music.
    Or the strong, sure line of a green snake, writing a girl's fate in the sand.
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    ***
    CHAPTER FOUR Tana
    THE courtyard gate slammed. Tana stamped her heel on the loose stone to level the floor over the box's hiding place. She was putting the jeweler's scale on its shelf when Diribani pushed aside the door cloth and stumbled into the house.
    "What's wrong?" Tana caught Diribani's arm, guiding her to sit on the floor. The free end of Diribani's pink dress wrap hid her face, but the mud splattering her skirts and the long hair tangled around her heaving shoulders conveyed distress as clearly as words. Tana had rarely seen her gazelle-graceful sister in such a state. And... "You're bleeding!"
    Ma Hiral scuttled in from the kitchen. "Bandits?" she quavered. "She'll be fine," Tana reassured her mother. She knelt and wiped Diribani's ankle clean with the black cloth she still held. "Just a shallow cut, more mud than blood, see?"
    "Where's the water jar?" Ma Hiral asked.
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    The bloodstained fabric crumpled in Tana's hand. "Did they bother you again, those flesh-eater girls?"
    "Language, Tana!" her mother snapped.
    "Sorry, Ma. White-coats, I meant." Tana dabbed the cloth at Diribani's other leg and found only mud, not blood. If someone had pushed Diribani or taken her jar, it was partly Tana's fault for not accompanying her to the well. At midday this early in the season, the road must have been deserted. Nobody would accost a Gurath girl when others were watching, but if someone caught her alone... And the servants from the overseers' quarter were so touchy, quick to take offense when none was offered. Tana tried again. "Was there an accident?"
    "You broke the jar!" Ma Hiral wailed.
    "No, Ma. You don't understand." From behind the veiling fold of Diribani's dress wrap, two tiny pebbles and a red peony fell to the floor.
    "Bountiful goddess!" Ma Hiral sank to her knees. She plucked the stones from the floor and brought them to her eyes, then creaked to her feet and took them to the window. She opened the shutter a crack, staring intently into her palm.
    Tana looked from the peony to her sister's shaking shoulders. She slid the dress wrap's free end away from Diribani's face. Tears glittered in the doe-brown eyes. But instead of the terror