“Look here,” she said. “This is a sign for your home, your family life.” She made a show of scanning the grounds, taking her sweet time, like her grandmother taught her. She clucked a couple of times, then shook her head. “I don’t think you need worry about anyone keeping you apart from Mr. Tom. I see no sign of that here. You can see for yourself: the grounds have formed a small mound; they are rounded. That means contentment.”

From under her lashes, she watched Ally lean a little closer. Huda pointed at the saucer.

“And look here—this line is a road. It’s the sign of a journey. I’m not kidding, my dear, this is what your cup says.” She leaned back in her chair, like she was reclining on a sandy beach. “Even the coffee grounds say you deserve a nice holiday at the Red Sea. After that, you will come home refreshed to your husband.”

Ally smiled half-heartedly.

“You said while I drank my coffee, I should focus on the questions I wanted answered. But I wasn’t thinking about a vacation.” She pushed the cup away and stood up to leave. “I was thinking about my mother.”

As soon as Ally said goodbye and disappeared down the hall, Huda snatched up the cup. The three signs were still there. At the base, a tower. On the side, a snake. By the handle, the sword. Huda looked away, took a deep breath, and then eyed the cup again. Tower. Snake. Sword. Loud as a scream at midnight.

* * *

Huda left the old nurseryman at the top of the riverbank on Eighty-Second Street, staring morosely at the currents braiding midstream. She ducked under the shade cloth and hurried past a row of potted fruit trees, back toward her car. Huda’s chest felt tight, and when she put her hand to her heart, she saw that the shade cloth had patterned her skin like a henna talisman painted by her grandmother’s hand.

Huda wished she could hide herself in the soft folds of her grandmother’s robe and listen to the old woman divine a way forward, chart a path through the dangers ahead. Her grandmother would have understood straightaway the signs in Ally’s coffee cup. The tower: a secret leaked to an enemy. The snake: betrayal by a friend. The sword: death, of course.

At first Huda thought the message in the grounds was sickeningly clear—if she and Rania betrayed Ally and traded her secrets for their children’s safety, the girl would end up dead. But Ally had said she was thinking of her mother while she sipped her coffee, and Huda suddenly remembered the faded photo of Yusra, the nurse whose home had been bulldozed. The young woman’s face kept coming back, and Huda had wondered, Was this the message of the tower, the snake, and the sword?