“I’m trying!” I heard the fear in her voice. I reached forward and put my hand on her shoulder. Her body twitched as if she was about to sneeze, but she convulsed slightly as she kept her sneeze internal.
I sighed with relief.
“Are you good?” Zalira asked.
“We’re good. Keep going,” I told her.
My whole body ached from the tension of trying to do everything perfectly. My breathing became more labored, sounding overly harsh in my ears.
“I’m through!” Zalira called.
That meant we were close. Just a few more steps.
“The door appeared,” she told us. Both Ahyana and Suri had cleared the field, and Io was two steps away.
I saw Zalira open the door. When she did so, one of the stalactites by the entrance fell from the ceiling and crashed into the ground. I looked up to see them all swaying above us.
A bitter, silvery taste filled my mouth as fear chilled my bones. Those stalactites were going to fall on top of us and kill us.
“Run!” I yelled. Suri grabbed Io and she jumped to the edge of the field. I did my best to carefully but quickly pick my way through the remaining flowers, terrified that I would accidentally hit one.
A stalactite landed a few feet behind me, and the air suddenly had a sickly smell to it.
The poison!
I reached the edge of the field and broke into a full sprint for the door. My sisters were all in the hallway beyond, and as soon as I crossed the threshold, Zalira slammed the door shut.
We were all breathing hard, waiting to see what would happen. Would the poison come through the seams around the door?
But a moment later the door locked and a new one appeared on the other end of the hall.
“We made it,” Ahyana said.
“And we managed to outrun the poison,” Io said.
“Maybe we should keep moving to make sure,” I said. I liked the idea of putting several more doors between us and the poison-flower room.
Io went down the hall first and read the sign on the door.
Wisdom
“Do you think we’ll have to make some sort of wise choice?” Ahyana asked.
Zalira shrugged. “Maybe we’ll be tested on our knowledge. Like what we learned at the temple.”
Or maybe “Wisdom” was the name of a three-headed monster who waited on the other side of the door.
Io opened the door and walked in.
Another large room. And in the middle were two large statues, approximately twelve feet tall, facing one another. They had been hewn out of the earth itself—they were a contiguous part of the stone surrounding them.
“What are those?” Zalira asked.
“Sphinxes,” Io said. “The head and chest of a woman, the body of a lion, wings of an eagle, and a tail like a snake. The gods use them as guardians. They are special to the goddess of wisdom.”
“What happens if we walk between them?” I asked. Because this felt like a trap.
“Maybe we can climb over their bodies and avoid the pathway,” Ahyana said.
