I tried to lift my right arm, to pluck that diamond off the navy blanket, to hold it close, but my brain was muddled, arm too weak. My breath turned shallow.
I closed my fluttering eyelids, ready to meet my end. My golden knife lay a metre away from my outstretched fingers—where it had slain the Branokann, it hadn't done anything against the sphinx.
Imagining the warm smile of that single star, thinking of a home amongst the clouds, I felt hot breath on my cheeks.
But I waited. And death did not come.
In spite of myself, I blinked my eyes open just once. If I could, I'd have jumped a metre into the air. The sphinx was frozen mid-air, a centimetre away from gouging my eyes out. A drop of black goo slid from the cut in the beast's torso, sizzling as it dropped onto my shirt. I blinked (what else can you do when you're about to die…but you don't?).
As if summoned, the line of sand dunes that had stopped me earlier shifted.
The sand fell away just like before, revealing eleven other sphinxes, identical to the first. So they might take turns tearing me apart.
But they did not lunge for me.
Instead, they prowled forward, every step perfectly in sync, and the one furthest to the right opened its mouth to reveal white teeth peppered with black dots. "We are the Achieloun Line."
The next one spoke in a low, muffled rumble. "This is who we are."
"For ages we have guarded."
"And only the worthiest may cross."
And just like that, it continued, down the line of golden sphinxes. But instead of and only the worthiest may cross, the last one said,
"We are forbidden to kill."
The sphinx to the right of him continued, "Not in our blood."
"Against our ancient laws."
The message echoed down the line once more, a whisper in my ears. My legs spasmed in pain as another chain began. If they were going to end me, why would they drag the process on? Then my eyebrows furrowed into my hair, eyes widening.
Forbidden to kill.
Then the eleven sphinxes turned towards not me, shuddering in the ground, but their own brother. The one stopped inches from my face, muscles locked, as if his very soul could not stand the kill that had been sure to come. I swallowed shakily, arm feeling like it had been sawed off.
"We are allies, yes."
"With an army older than time."
"But we will only guard."
"For all of eternity, if need be."
"Never shall we take a life."
"Never will we kill."
Robotically, their faces all positioned into primal aggression. As one, they snarled, voices so similar—only an octave different between them all—it sounded as if only one sphinx was talking, "Never will we kill." Again, they did that thing that the first had done. I didn't see their powerful jaws move, but the message repeated, faster and faster and more urgent, like a war chant.
My blood was bubbling, brain going into overdrive, chest perhaps heaving its last. As my head lolled to the side, entirely spent, wondering if I was really not worthy enough to cross, I saw eleven sets of blurry golden paws surrounding my feet.
Methodically, one peeled away from the rest and placed the gentle pads of their paw on my forehead. I could barely see the tips of its claws, illuminated by the glow of a thousand silver gems. Night had fallen completely over the Nogard, and as the cool dark of night replaced the heat of day, I felt a gentle breeze caress my hair, setting it tickling my cheeks. Air…it tasted so good, so fresh, so full of life, life that was slipping away bit by bit…I gulped it down as my breaths turned more and more ragged.
The rest followed, until there were paws at my feet and knees, hands, shoulders, and one on my abdomen.
Their feather-light touches stilled my racing heart. The last one, whose eyes, I realised, reflected the clear colour of the desert sky just like mine, the glinting of the stars flecked in them like clouds dotting the skyline, placed his paw on my heart.
He moved around the sphinx who had broken their code, not even glancing back at him. His sapphire eyes fixed on another pair of bright blue eyes, filled with the despair of death.
The other ten sphinxes stepped a little closer, fixing lethal stares on their brother. I blinked twice as the lion's head, the bat's wings, the human body, and the snake tails turned to vapour and melted into the night.
A demon's death. Like the monster with the body of a beast and the horns of a bull.
"Speak, Chandani." The sphinx with his massive paw over my chest commanded.
I had no idea what to say as Death stooped to gather my soul in his cold arms. So I blurted with all the strength I had left, lips barely moving, "The stars are beautiful tonight." My eyelashes fluttered as the sky became awash with diamonds. "So… beautiful."
The lion seemed to smile, regal and warm. The king of the animals, reborn in the desert.
"Then rise, child of fire."
A golden mist filled my vision, obscuring the darkness of night, and I wondered if I were seeing the marble gates of the angels, or crude obsidian gates leading towards an eternity of nothingness.
But instead of a pathway, I felt myself rising higher, as if some tether had been loosed from my body, and my soul was floating in the air.
My vision was cloudy, a mist over my eyes, but I felt whole, healed as three blurry figures emerged from the fog, floating on top of the rolling white smoke. I looked down, realising I was doing the same.
A knot deep in my stomach loosed, body made of air.
I was weightless.