followed was a jerky, slow-motion thing. At least I had fallen upon my left side, and my back masked this feeble activity from the woman who had done me in.
My hand was trembling and seemed to be slowing even more when it came to the breast pocket. For ages after, I seemed to pick at the edges of pieces of pasteboard. Finally, one came free and I was able to twitch it high enough to view it. By then I was very dizzy and my vision was beginning to blur. I wasn't certain I could manage the transfer. From across a vast distance I could hear Jasra's voice as she conversed with someone, but I was unable to distinguish the words.
I focused what remained of my attention upon the card. It was a sphinx, crouched upon a blue, rocky ledge. I reached for it. Nothing. My mind felt as if it were embedded in cotton. I possessed barely enough consciousness for one more attempt.
I felt a certain coldness and seemed to see the sphinx move slightly upon its stony shelf. I felt as if I were falling forward into a black wave that was rushing upward.
And that was all.
I was a long time coming around. My consciousness dribbled back, but my limbs were still leaden and my vision clouded. The lady's sting seemed to have delivered a neurotropic toxin. I tried flexing my fingers arid toes and could not be certain whether I'd succeeded. I tried to speed up and deepen my breathing. That worked, anyway.
After a time, I heard what seemed a roaring sound. It stepped itself down a little later, and I realized it was my own rushing blood in my ears. A while after that I felt my heartbeat, and my vision began to clear. Light and dark and shapelessness resolved into sand and rocks. I felt little areas of chill, all over. Then I began to shiver, and this passed and I realized that I could move. But I felt very weak, so I didn't. Not for a while.
I heard noises-rustlings, stirrings-coming from somewhere above and before me. I also became aware of a peculiar odor.
'I say, are you awake?' This from the same direction as the sounds of movement.
I decided that I was not entirely ready to qualify for that state, so I did not answer. I waited for more life to flow back into my limbs.
'I really wish you'd let me know whether you can hear me,' the voice came again. 'I'd like to get on with it.'
My curiosity finally overcame my judgment and I raised my head.
'There! I knew it!'
On the blue-gray ledge above me was crouched a sphinx, also blue-lion body, large feathered wings folded tight against it, a genderless face looking down upon me. It licked its lips and revealed a formidable set of teeth.
'Get on with what?' I asked, raising myself slowly into a sitting position and drawing several deep breaths.
'The riddling,' it answered, 'the thing I do best.'
'I'll take a rain check,' I said, waiting for the cramps in my arms and legs to pass.
'Sorry. I must insist.'
I rubbed my punctured forearm and glared at the creature. Most of the stories I recalled about sphinxes involved their devouring people who couldn't answer riddles. I shook my head.
'I won't play your game,' I said.
'In that case, you lose by forfeit,' it replied, shoulder muscles beginning to tighten.
'Hold on,' I said, raising my hand. 'Give me a minute or two to recover and I'll probably feel differently:'
It settled back and said, 'Okay. That would make it more official. Take five. Let me know when you're ready.'
I climbed to my feet and began swinging my arms and stretching. While I was about it, I surveyed the area quickly. We occupied a sandy arroyo, punctuated here and there with orange, gray, and blue rocks. The stony wall whose ledge the sphinx occupied rose steeply before me to a height of perhaps twenty-five feet; another wall of the same height lay at about that distance to my rear. The wash rose steeply to my right, ran off in a more level fashion to my left. A few spiky green shrubs inhabited rifts and crevices. The hour seemed verging upon dusk. The sky was a weak yellow with no sun in sight. I heard a distant wind but did not feel it. The place was cool but not chill.
I spotted a rock the size of a small dumbbell on the ground nearby. Two ambling paces-as I continued swinging my arms and stretching-and it lay beside my right foot.
The sphinx cleared its throat. 'Are you ready?' it asked.
'No,' I said. 'But I'm sure that won't stop you.'
'You're right.'
I felt an uncontrollable desire to yawn and did so.
'You seem to lack something of the proper spirit,' it observed. 'But here it is: I rise in flame from the earth. The wind assails me and waters lash me. Soon I will oversee all things.'
I waited. Perhaps a minute passed.
'Well?' the sphinx finally said.
'Well what?'
'Have you the answer?'
'To what?'
'The riddle, of course!'
'I was waiting. There was no question, only a series of statements. I can't answer a question if I don't know what it is.'
'It's a time-honored format. The interrogative is implied by the context. Obviously, the question is, ‘What am I?''
'It could just as easily be, ‘Who is buried in Grant's tomb?' But okay. What is it? The phoenix, of course, nested upon the earth; rising in flames above it, passing through the air, the clouds, to a great height-'
'Wrong.'
It smiled and began to slit.
'Hold on,' I said. 'It is not wrong. It fits. It may not be the answer you want, but it is an answer that meets the requirements.'
It shook its head.
'I am the final authority on these answers. I do the defining.'
'Then you cheat.'
'I do not!'
'I drink off half the contents of a flask. Does that make it half full or half empty?'
'Either. Both.'
'Exactly. Same thing. If more than one answer fits, you have to buy them all. It's like waves and particles.'
'I don't like that approach,' it stated. 'It would open all sorts of doors to ambiguity. It could spoil the riddling business.'
'Not my fault,' I said, clenching and unclenching my hands.
'But you do raise an interesting point.'
I nodded vigorously.
'But there should only be one correct answer.'
I shrugged.
'We inhabit a less than ideal world,' I suggested.
'Hm.'
'We could just call it a tie,' I offered. 'Nobody wins, nobody loses.'
'I find that esthetically displeasing.'
'It works okay in lots of other games.'
'Also, I've grown a bit hungry.'
