Zulaykha did not go to the northern wall.
She wanted to run to the northern ditch, where Gonzalo's men were already searching for the outer support. But that would only mean following the enemy's lead. Instead, Zulaykha decided to show the city where Yusuf had been diverting the water.
She went to the most costly garden in the Alhambra.
The orange trees stood with dust on their leaves. The narrow channels between the paving stones were dry. A white deposit remained along the marble edges of the pool. When water flowed through those channels, the garden served as an ornament to the palace. Now its neglect recalled the thirst beyond the palace walls.
The servants at the entrance averted their eyes. An old gardener rubbed a dry sprig of myrtle between his fingers until its leaves crumbled into green dust.
Zulaykha understood why Yusuf had preserved the garden in particular. So long as the orange trees remained green, the palace residents could ignore the suffering of the lower city.
Zulaykha came with the full seal. Behind her walked the masters, Eliaz, Nura, Rafiq, Fatima and several elders of the quarters who only the day before would not have dared enter this garden uninvited.
Yusuf came as well.
"You are wasting time," he said.
"I want to show them where the water went."
She did not inspect the central channel. Everything there would certainly have been closed correctly: Yusuf would not hide a secret diversion in the first place the masters would look. Zulaykha went to the orange tree by the blank wall, where the tiles had sunk slightly beneath the roots.
Rafiq saw it at once.
"The ground is wet underneath here."
Fatima asked irritably:
"Was the garden being watered in secret?"
"No," Zulaykha answered. "Water that everyone believed lost was secretly diverted into the garden."
She made the elders of the quarters come closest. The day before, they had counted bowls at the sabil and heard the children coughing in the queue. If only the masters saw the secret diversion, Yusuf would call it a professional dispute. The elders would tell the whole city what they had seen.
Nura gave her the hammam's slender key. It did not fit the garden sluice, but Zulaykha was not looking for a lock. She was looking for the tooth of old copper beneath the stone. The pin entered the gap, but the stone would not move. Rafiq lay on his stomach and slipped his small hand into a place no adult could reach.
"There is a ring."
"Do not pull it upwards," said Zulaykha. "Turn it towards you."
The boy turned it.
Something clicked beneath the slab.
At first air hissed out from beneath the slab. Then cloudy, greyish water appeared in the narrow channel, with the taste of lime. It trickled over the marble in a thin stream.
The senior master knelt and touched the water with one finger.
"This cannot be."
"It can," said Eliaz. "The taste has already confirmed it."
Zulaykha looked at Yusuf.
"The water that disappeared from the lower aljibe on the night of my lesser seal came here. But the lime did not come from the garden. It came from Gonzalo's ditch. So the cleared ditch was clean only for the envoys."
A murmur rose in the courtyard.
Fatima lifted the veil from her face. Her eyes held the anger of someone deceived supposedly for her own good.
"How much water did you keep here?"
Yusuf answered her, not Zulaykha:
"Enough to prevent panic in the palace."
"And Rafiq's quarter?"
"If the court falls, that quarter will be the first to die."
Rafiq suddenly said:
"Our quarter is already the first to die."
He did not speak loudly, but everyone heard him.
Zulaykha opened the sluice farther. The water ran faster, but remained cloudy. It could not be drunk without settling, least of all given to children. But now everyone could see that the water had indeed been hidden.
The masters exchanged glances. One of them removed the badge from his belt and laid it before Zulaykha.
"The full seal confirms that the water was concealed."
Another said:
"But if the northern ditch has already been breached, the garden diversion will not save the city."
The people believed Zulaykha, but their bowls remained empty. Now they expected her to find clean water and save the city without sacrificing anyone.
There was no such water.
A boy from the palace guard came running into the garden. In his hand was a wet tablet bearing the seal of the Castilian embassy.
Yusuf took it first, but Boabdil, who had come at the sound of the commotion, ordered:
"Read it aloud."
The scribe unfolded the tablet.
"Gonzalo de Mena declares that if his son is not returned by midday, the northern ditch will be breached without further mercy. Responsibility for the water, the people and the consequences will rest with those who detained the water-measurer."
Everyone looked at Íñigo.
He stood at the garden entrance between two guards. They had evidently brought him while Zulaykha was opening the stone.
There was no surprise on his face: Íñigo recognised his father's design at once.
"He will not wait until midday," said Íñigo. "He wants us to think he will."
And deep beneath the garden, water struck stone.
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