On learning that her husband had been killed for theft of the queen’s anklet (which he had not stolen), Kannagi stormed into the king’s court.

She raised the anklet above her head and threw it to the ground. “Rubies, not pearls,” she bellowed. “The queen’s anklets have pearls, mine have rubies.”

As the rubies rolled along the marble floor, the king of Madurai slunk off his throne. Ashamed at putting an innocent man to death, he fell on his own sword.

But Kannagi was not satisfied. She would take her vengeance on everyone responsible for her husband’s death. Madurai would burn.

Q1. Was it right for Kannagi to burn down Madurai? No, it was not.

Q2. Who were the people Kannagi was angry with?

The jeweller who confirmed that Kannagi’s husband was guilty. The common people who did not speak up. The court, which watched when a great injustice was being carried out. The guards who arrested her husband, and the king who passed the sentence.

Q3. Explain in your own words why Kannagi was right in burning down Madurai.

It was true that the king killed her husband, but why did all of Madurai have to suffer? Kannagi was not right in burning down Madurai.

Q4. Defend Kannagi’s actions in burning down Madurai.

The more Jamie stared at it, the more it felt like a trap. At first, he’d thought about writing something he didn’t really believe … but it was wrong to lie.

Jamie’s palms began to sweat. When Jamie’s palms began to sweat, his elbows broke out in hives. And when his elbows broke out in hives, his legs began to move on their own. It wouldn’t be long before he started hallucinating about toilets.

Jamie raised his pencil to the notebook, but a pair of bony hands reached for him.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you!” Small said, smiling. She had snuck up on him unnoticed, as she always did.

“You’ve got to stop doing that!” Jamie yelped. Small grabbed the notebook from Jamie. “You know what’s better than studying from a book? Visual learning!”

“You haven’t started reading the story of Kannagi for the exam, have you?”

Small didn’t answer.

“And now you want me to ask my father to get us tickets to Kannagi, playing at the old Madurai theatre?”

Small was impressed. “You’re getting dangerously good with your deductions, Jamie. I have read the story. But sometimes it’s good to look at it a different way.”

Jamie sighed. “Okay, fine, we can go, but you better not be tricking me into working a case,” he said. “Not when there’s a Tamil exam in two days!”

Excerpted with permission from Nisha Small: The Ring of Rubies, CG Salamander, Hole Books.