It was mid-afternoon of our third day when we came across the bones. By then, we were in the early edges of the Gold Hills. They were a series of folded land ahead of us. There were made of winding canyons and flat plateaus. Sometimes, we’d find strange formations of rocks balancing on each other. Made me wonder if giants were around to stack them in those precarious positions.
A salt pan littered with bones led to another of the mesas, reddish thrust up stone made up of bands that varied the hue from nearly orange to almost rust. The bones here were old. Gnawed upon. Brittle. They were obviously scavenged but never buried by the elements. The camels didn’t seem to mind, but my nervousness grew as we crossed them. The air danced before us in the midday heat, making it appear that a refreshing lake lay before us. It melted away as we came closer.
Instead, we found a cave.
I swallowed at the dark tunnel bored into the mountains. Lasla’s face had gone pale but Pyrriah looked excited. A subtle flicker of red light, almost drowned out by the bright sunlight, danced through her hair. She dismounted, hand on her tulwar’s pommel. I slid off my camel and stared into the hole. I had to believe I could seduce the sphinx.
I would seduce her. I was Las’s son. His lust bled out of me. I turned women on. I made them wet and aching for my dick. Then I made them cum harder than any other man could. The sphinx would gasp on my cock in ecstatic lust.
“Let’s go,” I said. “Lasla, remove the collar and chastity belt from our dragon-mother. I want my mommy-slave able to transform if things go badly.” I glanced at her. “I’ll trust you to know when it’s right.”
“Yes, Master,” she answered, her voice hard.
The gold collar vanished around her throat. She wore red robes, hiding the rest of her body, so I didn’t see the vanishing chastity belt that kept her clit from growing. Both also kept her small, human form from expanding into her draconic one.
I stared at the darkness before us. Then I fetched some of the torches we brought. We lit them with flint and steels and head in. The cloth wrapped around the wooden staves had been soaked in an alchemical concoction to let them burn for hours. They had a sizzling hiss to them different from any fire I had seen, but they shed a bright, white light.
I led the way into the cave. The air felt so cool compared to the outside. Just a few feet in, and I was groaning in satisfaction. A smooth floor led down and to the right, the stone walls closing in until it was only wide enough for two of us to walk abreast. I led the way, Pyrriah right behind me, then Lasla and Mother. The torches painted the walls.
We rounded the bend, and a rippling light gleamed on the walls. It undulated and played. I could hear the cool babble of flowing water. My heart beat faster and faster as the tunnel curved around and then opened onto a cave. Sunlight lanced down into it from a hole in the ceiling, falling on a stream that flowed through the cave. It had a slight slant to the right. The water flowed from one crack and out the other. Beyond it lay a wealth of gold coins. They were stacked high.
And before them lay a large cat. A lion. Fur a tawny gold, tail idly swishing. Instead of a feline head, it had woman’s. A mane of dark-red hair spilled about her shoulders and down her back. She slept, head resting on great paws. She had her gray-feathered wings folded up along her flanks.
“It’s been a long time since any have come here,” she said, not opening her eyes. Her tail swished faster. “One man, two women, and a… what are you?”
“We’re all humans,” I said, not wanting her to know what Mother was.
“Yes, yes,” said mother. “I’m human.”
The sphinx sat up. Her human face descended to a human chest and large breasts, her skin a tawny-brown. The fur began just beyond those, at her shoulders were her forelegs descend from. She fixed golden eyes on us, slitted like a cat’s. Her wings stretched out wide behind her for a moment then folded up.
“Not you,” the sphinx said. “Her.” She fixed on Pyrriah.
“What do you know about her?” I demanded.
Her eyes flicked to me as I marched forward. I had to be in charge. I splashed across the brook, the water soaking my shoes and soothing my feet. Then I was out on the other side, facing her. She smiled, her tongue flicking across her lips.
“I ask the riddles here,” she said. She sat on her haunches facing me. Her large breasts had a slight sway as she breathed in and out. Her human face was gorgeous. As she spoke, she flashed sharp fangs, though. She flexed her paws, her claws extending and retracting. “Do you submit to my contest and my questions three?”
“Yes,” I said, hand on my tulwar.
She flicked her gaze to the sword. “That is of no use here. You cannot take Cernere’s treasure by force.”
“Cernere’s?” I asked in confusion. “I thought she held her treasure in the Black Vault.”
“She holds her treasures wherever she wills. A horde of gold coins requires no elaborate construction to guard. No labyrinthine prison to contain. Just a simple test of cunning and wit. Something every thief needs.”
“I’m no thief.”
She breathed in. “I can smell all those married pussies on your cock. You steal men’s wives and their future by leaving your progeny in their women’s wombs.”
“Perceptive,” I said, grinning.
“You think to steal the treasure from me through charm and seduction. That you can seduce me with that cock.” She licked her lips. “Show it to me.”
I undid my tulwar’s sword belt and dropped it down. Then I slid off my robe and let it fall down my back.
“Brother,” Pyrriah said. “Maybe you should keep your—”
“Only one may cross the brook,” the sphinx growled, her eyes shooting past me. “Stay on the other side, or the rules are broken. Then I am free to act how I see fit.”
“Like fucking my cock?” I asked.
She glanced at my hardon. “It is amusing you think that will deter me from my mission. I have spent a thousand years in solitude. In anonymity, known only to treasure hunters simply as sphinx or as bitch.” She smiled. “They name thus when I rip out their entrails and devour them while they still scream.” Her tongue flicked across her lips as she stared at me, but not at my cock. “What will your guts taste like.”
“You’ll be too busy gagging on my seed to ever find out,” I said boldly. “You’re going to be mine, sphinx.”
Her lips curled back. “That is not my name!”
“What is your name?”
“I ask the riddles.” Amusement flickered in her eyes.
“Brother?” Pyrriah said.
“Stay on the other side,” I said. “I’m fine. She wants to play some riddles, I’m up for it. Let her get to know all my charms.”
She laughed, her big breasts shaking. “You have confidence. Boldness. You don’t stink of fear, merely lust. And not for the gold. You’re here for me.”
“The gold’s just a bonus,” I said.
“Very well,” she said.
What has lips but is no mouth,
What hungers but eats no food,
What takes seed but is no soil.
I mulled that over, thinking. Lips but no mouth? Hungers? Seed but no… I blinked. It couldn’t be that. It was so simple. I had so much experience with them. I stared at her, my brow furrowing. It was so easy that I felt it had to be a trap, but what else could it be? It fit all the requirements.