CHAPTER NINE
NOTES FROM CLINIYS’ Bestiary, Complete: “The sphinx is a creature who lives out of time, and moves through the realms with ease. Rarely seen and solitary, they often do not care to be found, and discourage those who cross their path. Use caution when encountered. They are sly and tricksters.”
Cleobah said, “That’s my uncle he’s talking about, not me.”
From Ozora’s personal journal.
“But apparently, we need to deal with an invasion too,” Taenya continued before Cleobah could interrupt. “You can literally peer through time but couldn’t give me a heads up about that?” She sounded bitter, and like she might have a reason.
“Didn’t I? I said it wouldn’t be easy.” The sphinx blinked, as if shocked by Taenya’s demand.
“I said to keep your eyes to the west. If I remember right, and I always do, my exact words were ‘watch for the setting sun to rise again.’” Her tail thumped against her back legs, like an irritated barn tabby’s, and she sat next to Fraser’s cage, tilting her head at Taenya and staring expectantly.
“I remember, I just didn’t get ‘Cilirian invasion’ from it,” Taenya grumbled.
We were all on edge; none of us wanted to be there, and it was apparently this sphinx’s idea to reunite us, which was the silliest thing I’d ever heard.
Perhaps being young meant she didn’t have very good judgment?
It was certainly a poor choice to bring the three of us back together.
“It’s like you didn’t listen to me at all.
” The sphinx rolled her eyes so far, her neck circled along.
“I can only tell you about the future when asked, and questioners never understand what I say. It only makes sense after you’ve passed through it.
” Cleobah’s wide-eyed stare was pure innocence, but then her narrow lips quirked in a tiny smirk. “Unless you’re very, very clever.”
Taenya’s mouth opened to protest, but Cleobah finished before she could speak.
“I don’t even know what I’m going to say before I say it. You asked, I answered. More than once even! I helped you as much as I could. It’s not my fault mortals aren’t meant to peer through time.” Cleobah’s voice rose, and her speech ran over whatever Taenya might have said.
“And...” the sphinx added, tucking her tail around her feet.
“When I told you to get her first—” she jerked her narrow chin at me, “—that wasn’t even part of your question.
I gave you that out of the goodness of my heart.
” Here, she grimaced and added, “It hurt, too.” Her golden expression crumpled, lids screwed tight as if still in pain, but from what?
Taenya gritted her teeth. “You said, ‘You won’t sway the one in Hastrior without the one from Emberglen.’ How in the goddess's name am I supposed to glean ‘invasion’ from that? I only got that I was to go to Emberglen first.”
The sphinx drooped her head between her shoulders and front legs. A heavy sigh lifted her wings.
“What. Else. Did. I say?” Her voice was muffled, floating out from where her face was buried in her furry chest.
“You said—” She cut herself off, eyes narrowing and lips pursing. “That I better hurry or I might be late,” Taenya admitted. “Still doesn’t tell me about the Crimson Birth invading.”
“Are you sure?” Cleobah lifted her head, drawing out the last word dramatically.
Looked like the sphinx’s flippant responses annoyed Taenya, too, from the way the woman pursed her lips like she was holding back a tart comeback.
“I couldn’t just come out and tell you the emperor was sending an invasion.
The magic of the timestreams hides the answer’s truth in the rhyme.
” Cleobah sounded like my least favorite lecturers from school.
Taenya groaned, and Fraser laughed, breaking into Taenya and Cleobah’s argument.
“You’re all mad,” he said between chuckles.
“Crazy conspiracies about Cilirians now? Look, I don’t even want to kill you anymore, I just want to get away.
Let me out of this.” He pointed a single finger at the top of his dome, circling it lazily.
“I won’t bother you or your school, and I’ll sail off as soon as Mayhem’s seaworthy.
Promise.” He even laid his hand over his heart to show his sincerity. “I want nothing to do with you.”
My fingers curled into fists all on their own. Sure, he was referring to all of us, but that hard glint in his eye was aimed directly at me.
“No can do, handsome.” Cleobah stood and sashayed away from the numinous netting holding Fraser. “This school needs to be a group effort.” She blew a kiss at him before pacing over to Taenya.
“You were only thinking about the school, that’s why you didn’t understand about the Cilirians.” She bent her head close to Taenya’s ear, pitching her voice low, but not so low we couldn’t all hear. A spark flared in Taenya’s eyes even as that tightness to her jaw must’ve made her teeth ache.
Cleobah’s footsteps thudded behind me, and I staggered as the horse-sized sphinx nudged me in the back with her wing.
“Fortune smiles on this one. You almost were too late. That elf had her. The ship exploding was a lucky break.” Her chuckle had a wicked chime to it.
As if the Crimson Birth’s death amused her. “If not so much for him.”
Taenya’s mouth opened, and Cleobah again interrupted her.
“Think about what you asked, and what I said. It came through, you just didn’t understand till now.
What’s Cassyrra got to say?” It might’ve been the light, the way the morning sun slanting across the hills put a golden haze over everything, but Cleobah didn’t look so young anymore as she pivoted to resume her pacing behind Taenya and me.
Again, it reminded me of an older teacher lecturing students.
When she stepped into the shade of the closest tent, the effect vanished.
Taenya closed her eyes. Her lips moved, but no sound came out, then her eyes flew open to direct a hard stare at Cassyrra, who was now reclined in the field.
“Are you serious? You asked her, too? Now you tell me.” A mirthless chuckle escaped her.
“Yes, yes, it makes sense. Now.” She turned back to face Cleobah.
“When you said, the ‘setting sun will rise again’ you meant the Cilirians. The Crimson Birth are the ‘sun,’ and ‘rising again’ meant coming from the west.” Taenya’s wrinkled, dark brows slowly lifted in comprehension, and I could tell she was telling, not asking, the sphinx.
“The empire,” Cleobah corrected. “But yeah, all of that.” She seemed to genuinely enjoy herself. None of the texts ever hinted that sphinxes had a sense of humor. “I can say it since the attack is in your past. You get it now?”
Taenya grimaced. She didn’t look happy about it. “I think so.” Her green gaze was thoughtful as she slid it toward me, then to Fraser.
“If that’s true, we’ll need more than just these two—” Taenya broke off, only to finish quickly. “We really need that school.” Cleobah’s widespread grin was smugly satisfied. “If they can mend their differences.” Taenya wasn’t asking, so the sphinx merely fluffed her wings.
“You need to pick someone else.” The words burst from Fraser, as if the pressure built to the point he could no longer contain it.
“Nooooo.” The sphinx told him, drawing out the syllable. “It’s all of you, or none of you. Unless you don’t care about stopping what the Cilirians have started?”
Cassyrra rumbled. Taenya nodded. Fraser shook his head, lacing his fingers behind his skull as if he could block out even the idea of Cilirian elves invading.
“You aren’t serious? The Cilirian Empire attacked us?
That’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard yet.
” Fraser spread his hands wide to encompass the world, dismissing Cleobah’s claim.
“They were just pirates. Real ones.” He shot a sour look at the sphinx.
“Trust me. Lots of them hide in the Vauxterels. Or maybe they came from one of the freeports in the Dead Empire, thinking Hastrior might be easy pickings.” He dropped his hands to his sides, his palms slapping the leather of his breeches, the sound emphasizing his declaration.
“Cilirian elves are as dead as their empire. Everyone knows that.”
“That’s not true,” I said. My turn to give him a self-satisfied smirk. “The one who caught me was definitely Crimson Birth. He told me himself.”
Cleobah’s expression shifted to mournful and sent chills down my spine. “The things they were going to do to you. You are so lucky.” She again nudged me with that wing, softer this time, more like a friend offering comfort.
“Caught you?” Fraser’s expression went neutral, but he uncrossed his arms and rested one hand on the hilt of his sword.
“I’m lucky I still have hair.” I drew one finger down the bruise that had blossomed overnight along my hairline and on my neck. Cleobah’s laugh was a short, sharp burst. “You’re lucky you still have breath.”
His expression didn’t change, but his eyes tracked along my face and then lower, growing darker when he saw the extent of the injury.
His fingers tightened on the sword hilt, turning his knuckles white.
Curious. I wouldn’t have thought hearing about my almost-demise would affect him so, considering he just tried to do the same.
“He lifted and dragged me by my braid like I was nothing back to where they’d run their ship aground near Emberglen. He and his buddies were definitely Cilirian elves,” I said.
“So were the bodies we saw in Emberglen,” Taenya added. “Be happy to show you, so you can judge for yourself.”
That closed Fraser’s mouth, but not for very long.
“The Cilirian Empire ended a thousand years ago in the Wars of the Sundering. No one’s seen them since.
Despite your temporary capture and a sphinx’s reputation for telling the truth—” he touched two fingers to his forehead in a mocking salute to Cleobah—“I doubt those raiders you crisped last night were remnants from the Dead Empire.”