CHAPTER NINE #2
He released his sword and hooked his thumbs in the belt. “Now do you want to keep telling tales, or will you let me be on my way? I’ve a ship and crew to see to, and you’re wasting my time.”
“Oh no, pirate,” Cleobah said, sounding indignant. “Truth is not our reputation, it is our nature.”
“Privateer,” Fraser snarled before composing his expression.
He leaned toward the sphinx, where she sat next to his cage, as if he could intimidate her the way he had so many others.
“Tell me I can have my heart’s desire and a king’s ransom in gold.
Can you promise me that, kitty cat, to sweeten the deal?
” He once scared a murderous crime lord with that combination of charm and threat.
Rumor was the notorious crime lord had blanched, stammered, and immediately agreed to Fraser’s demand.
He wasn’t asking; he was daring the sphinx to prove herself. Cleobah yawned.
“Kind of silly, but if that’s what it takes to convince you, okay, I guess. That is technically a question, so...” Golden lids slipped over golden eyes. The lioness woman lifted her chin and half sang, half spoke.
Never again to question.
Never again to doubt.
Your heart’s desire.
Achieved.
Once you overcome your fears.
A wave of numin rolled outward, following the rising and falling of the beast’s singing. It tingled as it passed me, then wrapped around Fraser like a glowing golden cloud before sinking into him, leaving a faint glitter that lingered on his skin and clothes.
The last notes rolled over us before fading as the sphinx blinked and opened her eyes. Slitted pupils widened, making her eyes seem black for a moment before they refocused on Fraser. Her slim lips twitched upward at their corners.
“You’re welcome.” She seemed quite pleased with herself.
Fraser snorted. “For what?” He didn’t seem aware that the sphinx had wrapped him in golden numin that settled into him.
“I answered your question,” Cleobah told him as if it were obvious.
“I didn’t ask you anything.” His eyes went from hard to confused.
“Did.” Her assured tone was catty. “You asked if I could promise you your heart’s desire and a king’s ransom.
I wouldn’t have thought the answer would be so clear, but the magic surprises me all the time.
It even told you how to get it. What happened to the prince’s ransom?
” The question came out of nowhere, and made no sense, but Cleobah’s innocently framed query made Fraser clamp his lips shut.
The sphinx’s golden eyes warmed and narrowed.
With the feline cast to her features, it reminded me of how a cat half-closes its eyes when gazing upon a favored person with affection.
My brows peaked, too, wondering what she meant.
“Okay, okay.” She slid her gaze over to Taenya and asked, “You really didn’t tell them anything?” The dragonrider pursed her lips and shook her head.
“Guess I’d better back up.” Cleobah seemed like she was talking to herself, muttering under her breath.
“They know nothing of sphinx’s prognostication.
Or its costs.” Her face appeared to age in a flicker, becoming a mature, then elderly woman.
In the next breath, she was again youthful, wrinkles melting away like an illusion.
I shot a quick, questioning look at Taenya, wondering if she’d seen the transformation.
She gave a brief bob of her head but seemed unconcerned.
“Here’s the thing.” Cleobah tapped her paw for emphasis, causing little puffs of dust to burst upward.
“If you ask me a question that has to do with the future, I’ll always answer true, but I don’t have control over what I say.
The laws of the timestreams block mortal creatures from knowledge of their future so my answers are.
..” She paused and flicked her gaze to Taenya. “Help me out here.”
“Incomprehensible,” Taenya drawled.
“Until you’re past it,” Cleobah finished with a flick of her tail as a flourish. “So my answer makes no sense to you, right now.”
Fraser looked puzzled as he struggled to decipher Cleobah’s answer. I couldn’t blame him; I was struggling, too. Cleobah didn’t seem to notice.
“You’re not special. Most don’t get it ‘till they’ve already gone through it, and it’s in their past,” she added, as if to clarify things. “The way Taenya only just now figured out my answer was about the Cilirians, and you two.”
After just a short time in her company, it was quite clear why the passages I’d read about sphinxes called them ‘nigh incomprehensible.’ Fraser’s arms crossed his broad chest again, hard and inflexible as his jawline, set and determined and obviously unconvinced.
“It’s going to take a bit more to bring you around, isn’t it?
” Cleobah couldn’t seem to sit still. She was back up and pacing across the grass, weaving between Taenya and me, and the blue dome of energy holding Fraser, then sashayed past Cassyrra.
Her tail waved behind her like it had a mind of its own.
I held my breath, wondering if she’d press against the dragon’s shoulder like a kitty against its person’s leg.
“Lucky for you, I can tell you anything about the past or the immediate present. So let me tell you something that might change your mind.” She rustled her wings as she strode back and forth. “Give me a moment. There’s so much to choose from.”
Fraser rocked on his heels, looking bored. “Take your time. Go ahead, I’m not going anywhere.”
She curved around me as she turned, wings brushing across the backs of my arms and trailing her tail across my calf, then sat next to me, putting herself between me and the numin cage holding Fraser.
“Ozora saw the holding pens in Skirmisher, before she planted those spells.” Fraser’s eyes narrowed at the sphinx’s pronouncement, closing off his expression, but Cleobah wasn’t done.
“She had every reason to believe you were catching and selling hippocamps. Of course, she believed what Gordon told her because she saw that’s exactly what you were set up to do. ”
I nodded in agreement, and he caught my movement, his attention shifting between Cleobah and me.
“She never would have torched your ship if you had shared your plans with her sooner. That sunset sailing you dreamed of would’ve been your fate,” she said in as gentle a voice as I’d heard her use yet.
I stopped nodding. That last part was completely wrong.