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Climbing a wide set of stairs, they came to a flat, open space, and at the top of the stairs was the guardian. Sitting in the center of the archway, partly covered by shadows, a huge catlike creature watched them with huge, unblinking eyes.
As they moved slowly toward the shadows, the guardian moved forward toward them. To Alex it looked like a lion had grown more than twice its normal size, but where the lion’s head should have been, there was a woman’s face.
The sphinx made no sound as it moved forward, and its eyes followed every move that Alex and his friends made. When they reached a point that only the sphinx seemed to know, the sphinx sat down and began to speak.
“If you wish to pass this way, you must answer what I ask,” the sphinx said sweetly.
“May we answer as a group, or must we go one at a time?” Bregnest questioned.
“Either,” the sphinx answered. “Though if you wish to answer as a group, I will choose the one to speak. And if you wish to answer alone, I will choose the order.”
“And if we can’t answer what you ask?” Bregnest questioned.
“I will ask, and you must answer or withdraw.”
“And if we answer wrong?” Bregnest persisted.
“If you answer wrong, you will neither go forward or back,” said the sphinx, nodding to the bones scattered around the steps.
“Can you tell us if another passed this way?” Bregnest asked.
The sphinx did not answer but turned its head slightly to one side and continued to watch them.
“Will you answer our questions if we answer your riddle?” Bregnest tried again.
The sphinx remained silent.
After a moment, Bregnest turned to the company. “Together, or one at a time?”
“We should go together,” said Halfdan instantly. “We are a company and should not divide.”
“But if the one asked the question can’t answer it, none of us may pass,” Val said in a worried tone.
“And if the person gives the wrong answer, we will all be in trouble,” Andy added.
“Some of us must get past or we will never find the Horn,” said Sindar. “The others can wait here, or take their time to answer.”
“Together,” Alex said firmly, his eyes fixed on the sphinx. “We should go together or not at all.”
“I agree,” said Bregnest and turned back to face the sphinx. “We will pass together. To which member of our company will you ask your question?”
The sphinx looked at each of them in turn, as if considering who to ask its riddle to. For several minutes the sphinx said nothing, and they were all starting to worry.
“The young wizard,” the sphinx finally said. “He will answer the question for you all.”
Alex was afraid this would happen. He had never been good with riddles, and he often guessed them wrong. Now his friends were depending on him to get the right answer so they could move on. Of course, if he couldn’t answer, they could still withdraw, but that wouldn’t help them find the Horn. If he answered incorrectly, however, they would be in trouble, and he wasn’t sure how much use his magic would be if they had to fight the sphinx.
Alex tried to remember what Whalen had told him in his letter: Don’t overthink the riddle. Look for a simple answer.
“Are you ready?” asked the sphinx, as Alex stepped forward.
“I am.”
“Unseen but heard, untouched but felt. Relief from the sun, a breath and I’m done. Never staying, always going, gently moving, never blowing. What am I?” the sphinx questioned.
Alex stood looking at the sphinx in wonder. He had no idea what the answer was. “Could you repeat that, please?”
The sphinx smiled at Alex and repeated the riddle. Alex listened carefully to every word. He felt like he should know the answer. It had to be something simple—something so simple that nobody would ever think of it.
“One more time, please?”
As Alex listened to the sphinx repeat the riddle the third time, he felt a cold breeze blow across his face. He wouldn’t have noticed the breeze normally, except the answer suddenly came to him.
“You are a gentle breeze on a warm day,” said Alex.
“I am,” replied the sphinx, bowing slightly and stepping aside so the company could pass.
Once they had all passed the sphinx, Bregnest turned to see if the sphinx would answer his questions about the prince and his party.
“Others have passed this way, but none have returned,” the sphinx answered and then lay down in the middle of the archway, ignoring them completely.
“Well done, Alex,” said Halfdan, slapping him on the back. “I’d have never thought of that.”
“I was lucky,” Alex admitted.
“So you always say, though I think there is more to it than that,” said Bregnest.
The others were all relieved that Alex had managed to answer the sphinx. Alex, however, wasn’t sure if he was happy or not. The puzzle of how he might destroy the lower library had returned to his mind again, and he really had no idea how he could do it.
“We still have a long march ahead of us,” Sindar commented.
Looking at the path ahead of them, Alex could see that it would be both long and difficult. The path from the first gate started climbing the Mountains of the Moon, winding up the mountainside like some monstrous snake, vanishing from sight high above them.
“It looks narrow in spots,” Sindar continued. “Almost too narrow.”
“Let’s get moving,” said Bregnest. “We don’t know how far it is to the second gate, and time is ru
The company began walking once more. The road was fairly wide at the bottom of the mountains, but it became more and more narrow the farther they went. Before long, Alex and his friends were forced to walk in a single file, bent with the effort of climbing. In places they had to use their hands as well as their feet to scramble up the mountainside. Now and then one of them would slip a few feet back down the path before catching themselves.
As darkness was gathering around them, they came to a wide spot that opened suddenly on the side of the mountain. Bregnest signaled them to stop, but it was several minutes before he had breath enough to speak.
“A hard road,” Bregnest finally managed to say, still breathing heavily.
None of the others spoke for some time, winded and exhausted. Alex noticed that the air felt much colder here on the mountain, colder even than it had been on the frozen waste.
“I would not want to be on this road when the snows come,” Halfdan commented.
“This path would be impossible in winter,” said Val. “I only hope we are well off it before the snows arrive.”
“If we have not found the Horn or reached the tower within seven days, we will go back,” said Bregnest in a bitter tone. “We must find the Horn and return it to Alusia, even if we are too late to prevent a war. And if we are caught on this path when winter comes, we may never return at all.”
“Going back would mean passing the sphinx again,” said Andy, sounding worried. “Next time it may not ask Alex to answer the riddle.”
“We have not reached that point yet,” said Bregnest. “We still have seven days before we must consider our options.”
“And if we must go back, at least we’ll have a long winter to prepare,” Halfdan added.
Alex didn’t comment. He conjured a cooking fire for Halfdan and sat thinking. His thoughts were not on going back or the coming winter, but on the second gate and the tower that lay beyond. He thought they would reach the second gate at least, but he didn’t know if they would pass the guardians that waited at it. They needed to stop a war, or at the very least, make it a short war. And if they managed to reach the tower, he would have to try to destroy the lower library. A shiver ran through him at the thought.
Alex put out his magical fire when Halfdan had finished cooking, and they had eaten in the gathering darkness without speaking. Now they were lying half awake, uncomfortable and unable to sleep, wondering how far they had to go and how hard the trail would be before they reached the second gate.