Reading 5X5 Writers' edition by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SFF
ISBN: 9781640760424

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Midair, in the shards.

I shouldn’t be here.

Only those born of the gods can stride the void between scenes. Only they drift outside of time. A shadow approaches whose wings blot out the sun. Its body is like a parade yacht. It is a cat of rare breed. A caracel, I think, all tawny and sleek. The face of a woman, the wings of a vulture. The bystanders should be screaming, but they’re as frozen as I am and blissfully oblivious. A sphinx isn’t a creature you wish to meet. The price is death. Always. It’s common knowledge that she eats whoever’s nearest along with any coward who runs. And this punishment isn’t a one and done. The suffering goes on forever, until the waters of Nun drown the world. The Book of the Vizier Ptah-Hotep says that her gorge cannot be filled because it is a tunnel into Never. To be consumed is to be consumed is to be consumed … for all of existence you are chewed into pieces, screaming, falling, dying but never quite getting there. There is no worse fate.

When faced with this creature, there are three outs. First, climb on in. Unwise. Second, throw a neighbor in. This is the preferred escape. And third … no one chooses the third, ever. We dream about it; we brag about it, but it hasn’t been attempted in centuries. The stakes are too high.

“Little mouse,” she says without moving her lips. “What do you fear?”

Cancellation.

She must have heard my thoughts because she bares teeth like sickles. At least she seems pleased with my pun. Sphinxes love wordplay.

“Not many can see around corners,” she says. “My master Osiris is able. As am I. You also can, which is curious to me. Do you know the flections I speak of? Do you know who’s watching?”

Always a question. I try not to even think of an answer. Let it stay rhetorical.

“But here we are alone, you and I. It’s nice to have a place to hide, is it not? And I wonder, if help were sent to you, what would she look like? Me, or another?”

Both.

“Yes! I have caught another mouse, I am catching it, I will catch it. Delicious inevitability. Is it to be you?”

It is one of the faithful.

“Very faithful, amen. Now come find me.”

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