I glanced over at my sack of teeth and found it lying empty and flaccid on the ground.
“Remember that bird I rescued the worm from?” Calla said. “I didn’t want to leave the poor thing hungry, so I helped it out. One thing led to another, you know how it goes.”
Over the field, a whole flock of starlings fluttered through the air, wheeling into dense clusters that immediately broke apart again. Tiny white objects rained from their beaks—my carefully collected teeth, I assumed. As far as I could tell, not a single bird was diving down to grab a worm. Calla must have negotiated a truce.
“So I managed to accomplish absolutely nothing on this quest,” I said. “As usual.”
“This again?” Calla sighed. “Don’t be ridiculous. It was a quest for teeth, and you literally found the teeth.”
“You could have done that. Anyone could have done that.”
“Well, you also kept the sphinxes from attacking us.”
I frowned. “How…did I do that, exactly?”
“My comrades, look!” shouted Probably Truthful as it noticed what was going on in the field. “We have been tricked!”
“This lack of betrayal shall not be met with instant death!” bellowed Probably Lying as it crouched to spring.
“A storm in the air— / Its sharp and pungent odor / Heralds the thunder!” threatened No-Nose.
Calla’s eyes widened. “I thought you said you were getting on well with them! You didn’t ask them the question?”
“What question?”
“The question that makes them not attack us!”
“Calla, tell me what the confounded questionis. I’ve still got one more!”
“You ask the first one what the second one would say if you asked what isn’t the right thing to say to keep them from—Eek!”
She ducked just before a stone claw swung through the air where her head had been. The claw slammed into a tree, which shuddered, tilted, and toppled over, showering us with dirt as its roots ripped out of the ground. Antonio Frühvogel-Featherington and Tweet woke with startled chirps. They launched themselves out of Calla’s hair and took wing.
The birds had the right idea. “New plan,” I said. “Run.”
I grabbed Calla’s hand, and we dashed away. The stone sphinxes bounded after us. The ground trembled with their every step. I might have had one question left, but it didn’t look like I was going to get a chance to askit.
A tail as wide as a barrel lashed toward me, arcing over the sphinx’s head like a scorpion’s sting. It missed by only the barest of margins as I threw myself to the side. My hair sprouted a few inches in panic.
“Help!” Calla screamed. I turned, thinking she was calling for me, but then a swarm of buzzing black-and-yellow darts flew into the sphinxes’ eyes. The monsters roared and shook their heads, batting at the blinding clouds around them.
“Wasps?” I asked.
“I lent them a hand a while back,” Calla panted. “Long story, no time, keep running!”
I revised my opinion—there were worse things than earthworms she could have had in her hair.
The wasps weren’t going to distract the sphinxes for long. No-Nose had already figured out wasps couldn’t do much against stone. It charged forward again. The other two wouldn’t be far behind.
“If we can find somewhere to hide—” I began, but I didn’t get any further before No-Nose gathered itself for a tremendous leap. The stone sphinx sprang, blotting out the sun as it sailed over our heads. It landed in front of us with a sound like a building collapsing and smiled its sharp-toothed smile.
“Crickets are chirping,” it growled rather incongruously. I heard the others catching up behind us. “On a sultry summer night—”
An earsplitting screech rent the air, and something huge crashed into the side of the sphinx, bowling it over. “Ow!” it cried out. “That really hurt!”
“Get on!” my older sister, Jonquil, yelled from the back of her dragon as it dipped low. “Now!”
The dragon’s scales glittered with iridescence, red and blue and green, as they caught the sunlight. Calla and I didn’t have to be asked twice. We sprang on, careful not to put a foot through the delicate wing membrane. The two of us scrabbled at the ridge of the dragon’s spine, trying to find a place to cling to as it hurled itself back into the air.
