by Jae Vogel
She was startled and backed up. “Why is that?” she asked him.
Matt gave her credit. She didn’t panic and run as he’d expected.
“Because if you don’t, I get to eat you,” he informed the potential tomb robber. “There hasn’t been anything of value in the tombs around the one I watch in thousands of years. But the one I watch is still intact since I’m on a long-term contract. Now turn around and leave before I change my mind. You have crossed the line and it’s within my contract to consider you fair game.”
The woman turned and fled. He never made the same offer again for some reason.
“So you’re also an elemental,” Karanzen said to the grinning figure of Matt. “I can’t imagine how he got control of you. At least these ginger boys have an excuse; he’s worked some kind of spell over them.”
“Some of us don’t have to be bound,” Matt said. “Trust me, I like this job better than the last one I had and the pay isn’t too bad.”
It was sometime during year eight thousand that Matt decided the job was no longer fun. The idiots who approached the tomb thinned out by year five thousand and he was forced to get creative by year six thousand. He came up with the questions by year seven thousand. As a sphinx, Matt had access to all manner of forbidden knowledge the humans didn’t. It dawned on him that to allow the robbers a chance to answer a question would make the assignment interesting for a change. He consulted a few other sphinx guardians who told him they’d done that too for several thousand years and only once had a human beat them.
Matt liked those odds and compiled a huge list of questions to ask anyone he caught who attempted to break into the pharaoh’s tomb. Since he knew ten other sphinx guardians who’d done the same thing for thousands of years, it didn’t take him long to come up with his list.
The way it worked was simple. If a thief answered his question correctly, they could live. They wouldn’t be allowed to take any treasure with them; such a thing would violate his contract. But they could live to tell their friends and family what happened when they ventured into the land around the forbidden tomb. If they guessed wrong, the thief was added to the pile of bones which surrounded the tomb.
For some reason, no one ever answered the questions he put to them correctly. Ever riddle he hit them with was answered wrong. This puzzled him for a long time until Matt realized the thieves were not from the most educated classes.
One day, a man appeared at the entrance to the tomb. The bones formed an entire wall around the pharaoh’s tomb by then and Matt was forced to wait for the occasional fool who tried to scale them. He hadn’t had a break-in attempt in months. The last victim agonized for two hours over the question he put to him and Matt was forced to end it when it was painfully obvious he didn’t know.
The man pushed the bones aside and walked into the perimeter of the tomb’s territory. Matt watched him come over the rise from the next tomb, which was crumbled by neglect, when he saw the man walk past the wall. Thrilled to have some new entertainment, Matt appeared next to him in full terrifying sphinx form.
“If a ship sank on the border between Egypt and Libya,” Matt asked him. “Where would the survivors be buried?”
“The survivors would not be buried anywhere because they survived,” the man said to him with a big smile on his face.
Matt was stunned. Never before had anyone answered one of his riddles correctly. He’d used that one twelve times, but no one ever figured out the paradox inside it. Perhaps the sudden appearance of a sphinx unnerved them, but they never once got it right.
“Very good,” Matt told him. “You get to live. You should also know that you are the first person who has ever solved one of my riddles.”
“You must have some really stupid people coming in here,” the man said to him.
“You have to wonder how bright a person is that would rob a tomb guarded by me,” Matt agreed. “And they all know I’m guarding the pharaoh’s tomb. What idiot tries to make it past me just for a chance at some gold cups?”
“Quite a few from these bones.”
“Now please go,” Matt said. “You get to live because you solved my question. Stay here any longer and I’ll have to eat you.”
“I’ll go, but can you answer one of my questions?”
“I’ll certainly try.”
“Would you like to come and work for me? I could use a good sphinx.”
And so Matt the sphinx made the acquaintance of Seth Bach, the builder over the abyss. He ended up going to work for the real estate developer and found it much more rewarding than attacking people who tried to raid tombs. The clientele might be the same, but they were easier to deal with once you didn’t have to eat them.
“So you see, Karanzen,” Matt told him. “They answer to me now. All I have to do is tell them to get rid of you and you’ll be a pile of ash. So why don’t you just leave the mall peaceably and not cause me any problems?
“Who said we work for you?” one of the security guards snapped at Matt.
“Who else could you be working for?” he demanded. “Seth Bach summoned the last ones. He’s summoned you too and I work for him as well in the operations department. This means I have dominion over you. Case closed.”
“It doesn’t work that way because we weren’t summoned by your boss,” one of the other security guards said. “Since he didn’t call us up, he can’t put us down. So no, we don’t have to follow your orders.”
“Then what are all of you doing here?”
“We want to know what happened to our comrades who were summoned here and disappeared. A few of them made it back after encountering a young lady with a fire opal. How did she know fire opals could put us in a daze? Your master brought us here to deal with some young kid, or so we were told. It seems the target was not as easy as we were told. We want our friends back before we do any more jobs for him. Since they were sent down here, it was the reasonable place to look for them. Now tell us where we can find them!”
“Looks like you little plans have run into an iceberg,” Karanzen told Matt. “Guess I don’t have to worry about the consequences because I don’t work here anymore.”
“You can’t talk to me like that!” Matt snapped at the security guards. “Do you have any idea what I can do to you?”
“Do you have any idea what our combined strength can do to you?”
“I’m a sphinx, you idiots. I’m made out of stone. This is just a convenient form I use. This form is made out of stone too, although I look just as human as the next man does. Now get out of my way. You can’t burn stone!”
“Ever see molten rock? Lava? Magma? I think you should reconsider.”
“Boys,” Karanzen said. “I am out of here. Matt, have fun, it couldn’t happen to a more deserving person.”
The next second, Karanzen was gone, replaced by a cloud of flies. The flies buzzed all over the back office and spread everywhere until they pulled together and swarmed out of the room. In a few seconds, the flies could be heard in the hallway as they made for the nearest outside exit.
“So what happened to them?” the security guards said to the human version of Matt, whom they had cornered in the office. “Talk or we turn this entire wing of the mall into a volcano. And we can do it.”
“I don’t doubt you can,” Matt told them, “but you’ll have to deal with someone else as I’m needed elsewhere.”
And he vanished. The chair behind the security chief’s desk was empty.
“You forgot to tell us he could do that,” one of the security salamanders said to their leader, who had stood directly across from Matt before his disappearance.”
“Guess that leaves the kid they were supposed to corner,” he said. “We’ll need to find him if we want to know what happened to our people. Anyone know where he might be?”
“I’d expect it would be in the fire element section of the mall,” another one of them said.
“Okay, let’s go find him.”
Chapter 12
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br /> “Dion, you are in great danger,” a voice said to his left. Dion turned to see the form of his grandfather standing next to him. The old man had appeared out of nowhere, but he was used to it by now. Even his three companions didn’t find the sudden appearance to be of much issue.
“I’ve been in danger ever since I began this quest,” he told the older man. “What could possibly be worse?”
“Fire elementals. Salamanders are on their way here. You need to get out of the building right away. Take the nearest emergency exit. I’ve disabled the alarm, you can use it with your friends to leave the building.”
“Why can’t I tackle them inside the mall?”
“Too risky. They might burn the entire mall down in their anger. Several of their number was lost when your friend with the fire opal banished them today. They want to know where their companions are, but there is no way to know because the opal caused them to lose their sense of direction. Just get out now. I have to go. Bye.” And his grandfather vanished.
Dion turned to look at the emergency exit door on the other side of the concourse. He was close to this final destination, but he could not ignore this threat.
“We have to get out of here,” Dion told his friends as he took Lilly by the hand and hauled her to the door. Sean and Emily followed them.
Minutes later, they were outside the mall. Dion walked around the perimeter of the mall and saw no sign of the security guards. He walked with his friends and headed in the direction of the parking lot. There still were quite a few empty sections in it.
Dion walked around in the lot and waited. If his grandfather was right, they would be here very soon. He couldn’t understand why they held him guilty for the loss of the other fire elementals, but these creatures were not known to be the most rational of beings. At least he still had the censer in the bag next to him.
“You want me to hold the bag?” Lilly asked him.
“No, I’ll hold onto it for now.”
Sean stood there in the parking lot with Dion and waited. He seemed to feel something was about to happen. It wouldn’t surprise him. Nothing in this mall made the least bit of sense. He stood there with Emily and waited. It was hard to think of her as his fiancée, but Sean slowly adjusted to the idea. They had been through so much these past few days and knew more about each other than he’d believed possible before the adventure with the air sylphs. It wasn’t over yet and he wondered how Dion would deal with this latest challenge.
They were both about to find out.
Two minutes later the security guards poured out of the same door Dion had taken with his friends to leave the building. Dion counted at least thirty of them and the shoppers entering the mall stopped to look at the grey mob that flowed out to the parking lot. The security guards spotted Dion and company. They made a straight line to them. Dion stood his ground and watched the horde of elemental fire salamander’s march across the lot in their direction.
Fifty feet from contact, the salamanders fanned out into a pattern which enveloped Dion and his friends. As the sylphs had tried before, the fire elementals moved into position rapidly and had them completely surrounded in seconds. This time they executed the maneuver with perfection and the four of them were in the middle of a fire elemental mob. Dion knew that all the salamanders had to do was increase the temperature slowly enough and they would be cooked.
“Where are the ones you sent back?” the fire elemental nearest to him demanded. They all had names, but Dion lacked the time to learn any of them.
“Didn’t they return to your realm?” he asked. “They were sent back to wince they came. I assumed it was your realm.”
“Enough of the jokes, kid,” the elemental who faced him thundered. “We’re here on our own. We don’t work for your uncle so we don’t care what happens to your or anyone else in this mall. Now tell us where they can be found or learn what a fly under a magnifying glass feels.”
“Are you threatening me?” Dion placed his hands to each side and concentrated.
The fire elementals began to glow. Each one of them started to heat up and even at the distance they stood from Dion and his friends they could feel the heat rise from them and began to work its way toward them. The asphalt in the parking lot started to buckle and the painted lines on it began to change from a bright yellow to an ugly brown. Sean could feel the sweat on his brow began to drip off his face.
It lasted just long enough for the heat to become uncomfortable. Lilly looked to Dion with fear as the elementals began to burst into fire around them. She found herself in the middle of pillars of fire and no way to escape. Surely, Dion had to do something, didn’t he?
A clap of thunder changed everything. She felt the cool breeze of spring roll through the parking lot as the sky darkened. Seconds later the rain began to fall. First, it was just small drops but in minutes, it turned into a torrential downpour with sheets of rain that drenched the earth. The fire elementals began to send up clouds of steam as the rain washed over them. Lilly saw the glow on each of them recede in the path of the rainstorm and fade. She too was drenched from the storm, but at least it felt cool inside their midst, not deadly hot as it had felt moments ago. Soon, the salamander elementals were back to their human form in wet grey uniforms. They continued to stand in place as the rain pounded them.
A large puddle of water gathered around Dion and friends were they stood and turned into a small pond. It encompassed the elementals as the water began to flow up from the ground. They were in a part of the parking lot where there weren’t too many cars, but it was plain to see the water had cooled the fire elementals to the point where they couldn’t do any further damage.
“You want this to continue?” Dion asked them. “You know I can freeze each of you in place if I desire to do so. I’m thinking it would be a good time for all of you to leave.”
There was a flash of light and the fire elementals were gone. Dion closed his eyes, concentrated some more and the sky began to clear as the clouds dispersed. In a few minutes, the storm was over and the rain ceased. The clouds rolled back and the sun returned to the sky. As the water sank back into the earth, the ground around them began to dry.
They were soaked. All four were in the midst of the storm which Dion had unleashed. Sean and Emily knew better than to complain because Dion had saved them all. Had the elementals increased their heat output, they would have all cooked by now. Once again, he’d found a way to thwart the elementals, although this time it appeared they weren’t under the control of Dion’s uncle.
“What are we going to do about our appearance?” Lilly asked Dion. “We can’t go back in the mall soaked the way we are.”
“Give me a second,” Dion said. “There have to be a few fire elementals left around here. The salamander’s display should have attracted some attention.” He concentrated until he found one nearby and made a deal with it.
A small fireball leaped from the ground and into the air. Seconds later, it had bloomed over them and sent radiant heat down on all four. With the help of a few air sylphs, Dion was able to direct enough drying heat on him and his three companions to get the water out of their clothing. It felt as if they were in a big clothes drier, which in fact they were.
“I assumed you would use that censor against them,” Lilly said to Dion. “But you didn’t. Care to tell us why?”
“I don’t think the censer will work more than once,” Dion explained. “Plus, I don’t think I could have made it work in enough time. In any event, we still have it to use if we need it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Sean said. “I don’t want to tangle with those creeps again.”
Dion felt the warmth from the small fire elemental pour over him and considered what his next move might have to be. His uncle was deadly serious about taking him down or at least keeping him away from the final elemental grandmaster. The salamanders might be running independently, but they still wanted him out of the way. They didn’t trust anyone and held him responsible
for the loss of their comrades. Where had those other elementals gone when Lilly banished them with her fire opal ring? He assumed the realm of their birth, but might they have decided to venture somewhere else? There was no way he could know.
“Is everyone dry?” Dion asked his friends. They nodded.
“I’m dry,” Emily told him, “but I feel like a mess. I’ll have to have my hair redone soon. That storm ruined it.”
Dion looked up at the small elemental over him and gave it permission to leave. The fireball condescended into a small sphere and then a flame no bigger than a lit match. A single spark fell to the ground and rolled away. He watched it as the trail of smoke zipped across the parking lot and was soon gone.
“Of all the elementals you’ve run up against here,” Lilly told him. “Those have to be the worst. They are the most dangerous ones. You can’t argue it.”
“They’re all potentially dangerous,” Dion said. “It all depends how you work with them. I’ve done it on a small scale all my life, so I know what to watch out for. An ordinary person and could get into some very bad trouble.”
“Lilly,” Dion continued. “You’ve been with me the entire week through this quest. You could have left at any time, but you’ve stayed with me. Why?”
“I can’t help but notice how you’ve carried yourself all the time,” she told him. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
“You’ve got college already planned, haven’t you?”
“Of course, haven’t you?”
“Depends on what happens today. So much has to do with rescuing my parents. I don’t think beyond what happens until I can get them out. And I want you to keep that ring, by the way.”
Lilly looked up at him and didn’t know what to say. “Why? Don’t you want it back? It’s expensive?”
“You can keep it until I get you one of gold.”
Lilly threw her hands around Dion’s neck and kissed him. “That is the most wonderful thing anyone has ever said to me.”