That idea had some merit. Because the idea of walking forward and being caught in the middle of the two statues, their gazes fixed on us, felt wrong.
The door behind us slammed shut and locked.
I couldn’t fight off the shiver that danced down my spine. “I suppose that means we’ve started this test.”
Not knowing what else to do, I took out my sword. It wouldn’t do me much good against rock, but it made me feel better to be holding it.
I walked farther into the room, keeping my eye on both statues.
What if they weren’t the test? They might be a distraction. I scanned the room and kept moving forward.
Were we supposed to show our wisdom by choosing our path? I didn’t understand what to do.
All I could do was keep walking, closer and closer to the statues.
The sound of rocks churning and groaning surrounded us, much as we’d heard when we’d very first entered the cave. Was a door opening somewhere?
My heart slammed against my ribs when I realized the sound was coming from the statue on the right.
It turned its stone head to look at us, its golden eyes glowing. It blinked and I took a step back.
By the goddess.
Then the sphinx opened its mouth to speak, and its voice was ancient and rough, as if it had been created from deep in the earth. “Dea’s savior, I have been waiting for you.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
I didn’t know whether it was a good thing or a bad one that the sphinx knew who I was. My instincts urged me to flee from this giant predator, who in addition to her tail, also had fangs like a snake.
Something Io had failed to mention.
Was I supposed to answer?
Breath rasped out of my chest, rendering me unable to speak.
The sphinx didn’t seem to notice. “I have five riddles for the five acolytes of the earth goddess. Each must be answered correctly. If you give the wrong answer, my sister, The Devourer, will awaken.”
I looked at the statue on the left. Its eyes were closed, but I assumed that was who the sphinx was talking about.
Anything called The Devourer had to be horrifyingly bad.
Which the sphinx confirmed by saying, “She has a fondness for human flesh and hasn’t fed in many millennia.”
I had to swallow down the knot of fear that had formed in my larynx.
“You will be given one minute to answer each riddle. If you have no answer by then, it will be considered wrong and you will perish,” the sphinx said.
Couldn’t anything about this place be easy?
“My first riddle is this: What is it that you ought to keep after you have given it to someone else?”
My mind had gone completely blank. All I could think about was that a giant rock-monster statue was going to eat us if we couldn’t answer riddles.
“Love?” Ahyana whispered, and I shook my head. That didn’t seem right.
Zalira kept her voice low, too. “What about money?”
“It’s your word,” Io said, making eye contact with me. “You ought to keep your word after you have given it to someone else.”
