She was answering the question, but she also meant it as a rebuke to me. I sensed that it was the correct response.
“Dea’s savior, you will speak for your adelphia,” the sphinx instructed.
“Your word,” I said, my heart beating wildly. What if it was wrong?
“Correct.” Was it my imagination or did the sphinx seem disappointed? “In the form of a fork or a sheet, I hit the ground. And if you wait a heartbeat, you can hear my roaring sound. What am I?”
“Lightning,” Zalira immediately told me. “It can be in a fork or a sheet, hits the ground, and the thunder after is the roaring sound.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Absolutely. I feel it.”
Trusting my sister, I gave the sphinx “lightning” as the answer.
“Correct. Found by the wise, lost by the weak, broken, not damaged, carried, never touched, sweet, not tasted, unique, but universal. What am I?”
Could I ask her to repeat what she’d just said? There had been so much. The riddles seemed to be getting harder.
“I have no idea,” Io said, looking panicked.
Ahyana’s hands went to her sword hilt. “Neither do I.”
I was fairly certain we would not be able to fight our way out of this if The Devourer elected to eat us.
That didn’t mean I wouldn’t try.
Suri tapped on my arm. She put her hand against her throat and then raised it up. She opened her mouth and made her fingers wiggle, as if something were coming out of it.
“Your voice?” I asked.
Yes.
“What if that’s not right?” Zalira asked.
“You will give me your answer,” the sphinx instructed.
We had nothing else but Suri’s guess. “A voice,” I said as I moved my feet into a fighting stance.
The sphinx paused. “Correct.”
“Thank the goddess,” Io said with a sigh, and it was a sentiment that we all shared.
“For our ambrosia we were blessed by Dea with a sting of death, though our might, to some, is jest, we have quelled the dragon’s breath. What are we?”
“What could quell a dragon’s breath?” I asked.
Everyone went silent.
“Maybe it doesn’t mean an actual dragon. There is a flower called dragon’s breath,” Io offered.
“And ‘ambrosia’ is another word for nectar or honey. Sting of death? Flowers? The sphinx is talking about bees.” Ahyana’s eyes shone with excitement.
“What is your answer?” the sphinx asked.
“Bees,” I said.
Another long pause that made me feel like my heart would give out. “Correct.”
