I follow the creature’s gaze as she stops and looks over the nearly barren field, then on across the land between us and the small town of San El-Hagar in the distance. At length, she returns her attention to me, letting go what sounds like a moan.
My stomach quivers.
“This was my home. It is gone. There’s nothing for me to protect. My purpose is gone.” Sadness fills her tone, Harpoc’s too as he interprets.
The ancient Egyptians placed sphinxes at the entrances of temples to guard their mysteries. This one had been positioned to guard the temple of Amun, but with the temple gone, she’s right, she’s out of a job.
What’s a ticked off, animate, turned to granite, buried for eons, found, and hauled to the Louvre, then reanimated sphinx, to do? My pedigree’s nowhere near hers, but even with her stellar resume, I can’t see employment in her future.
Joking aside, despite the harm she’s caused the archeologist, I almost feel sorry for her. Almost. She still keeps growling at me.
Harpoc keeps tapping his lips. He clearly has no ideas either.
“Prove to me you know my secret,” Harpoc interprets as the creature breaks the silence.
We exchange looks.
Why? Was not the fact that she’s here proof enough?
He takes to rubbing his dark, stubbled jaw for a time. “You don’t want Pell to do that.”
“I do.” The sphinx stares him down.
He shakes his head. “There must be something else. Another temple to guard perhaps.”
The creature wrinkles what little is left of her nose as if smelling an unpleasant odor as she speaks words laced with disdain.
“She suggested going back to the Louvre.” Harpoc translates.
She chuckles and shakes her head.
I shuffle my feet.
Harpoc translates as she continues. “You seem to think you have all the answers.” She gives me a pointed look, and I shrink back, then sense the snip in her tone despite not understanding her words. “What other temples need guarding?” Harpoc translates.
I’ve no idea what ancient temples still exist, but I can’t imagine much good will come from her stalking outside any of them. “I don’t know.”
Way to go, Pell. Open mouth, insert foot.
The sphinx returns her gaze to Harpoc. “Have her prove she knows my secret.”
He looks down at his boots and sighs.
“What’s she planning to do?”
Harpoc doesn’t answer, just closes his eyes and shakes his head.
“Look out!”
He looks up and startles, then whips up a hand as the sphinx closes to within five feet of him. “Please have patience.”
He motions for me to join him.
Nothing I’d love to do more since it’ll get her from between us.
I eye the ground between him and me, with our “friend” between, and opt for a circuitous route. I’ll give her a very, very wide berth.
That pair of eyes, one gold the other silver, bound to the forefront of my mind, but my pulse still races as I take the first slow step. No way will I rile her with any sudden moves.
Steady, Pell, you can do this. I keep the mantra going, over and over, as her gaze follows me every cotton pickin’ step of the way.
Harpoc winks when I at last reach him. I almost want to hug him and never let go. He puts a reassuring arm around my shoulders despite the bulk of my jacket still over my arms.
I don’t care that he’s crazy, his touch grounds me, and I slump in his arm.
“Pell, do you remember the riddle you translated?”
I look up at him. “Of course, it was only the greatest discovery of the century.”
“Tell me again.” His voice is gentle. “Tell her.” He nods toward the creature who’s sitting on her haunches. She keeps glancing between us, but in Harpoc’s arms, I’m not intimidated.
“Often talked of, never seen,” I begin, my voice strong.
The sphinx straightens.
“Ever coming, never been.”
Harpoc rubs my shoulder with his thumb making the hair on my neck rise.
I clear my throat. “Daily looked for, never here.”
The creature flicks her tail but remains silent.
“Still approaching, coming near.” Fluttering erupts in my chest as Harpoc continues moving his thumb.
The sphinx begins to purr as I say, “Thousands for my visit wait, but alas, for their fate.”
I look over at Harpoc and whisper, “Keep going?”
“Please.” His thumb doesn’t still.
I nod and lick my lips as a chill runs up my back. “Though they expect me to appear, they will never find me here.”
My legs turn twitchy, and it’s not from reciting the riddle. “What am I?”
The sphinx looks down and sighs. Harpoc translates what she says next, “I lived to serve and protect. This is my home from which I shall never again be parted.”
My brain is somewhat addled with Harpoc’s thumb circling like it is, but a sense of impending doom settles over me. What’s she saying?
The creature has sadness in her eyes as she asks me, “What is the answer to my riddle?” Harpoc’s translation.
I put my hand over his, stilling his digit, then look between him and her. What’s about to happen?
I open and close my mouth.
“Reveal her secret. She deserves that much,” Harpoc encourages when I still haven’t said anything a minute later.
My gut trembles as I say, “Tomorrow.”
Chapter Fourteen
The sphinx looks skyward and a terrible roar that jars every bone in my body sounds. All rational thought vanishes.
Only Harpoc hugging me to his side with a strong arm keeps me vertical.
“Easy there,” he encourages.
I swallow hard and nod. Keep it together, Pell.
The sphinx turns, and with eyes fixed toward the blue tents launches into the air, heading for the guys!
“They evacuated him to the truck a few minutes ago,” Harpoc says
