get it back? Would I be relegated to watching her live a life, my life, and not be able to do anything to prevent it?
Stop. Please? I added. Asking her to withdraw.
After a tense moment, she did. But I felt her resentment and the loss she experienced as I relinquished her to a lesser role again. Now I knew how it felt being a passenger in someone else’s body.
She’d either hidden the worst of it from me or it didn’t bother her as much. If my little taste of having claws was any indication, I would go insane if the situation was reversed and I was the one confined in the body of a lioness. Tia sensed my panic at being mentally caged and her disgruntled feelings disappeared. They were replaced by a soothing sort of empathy. She understood. And that was when I knew she was a stronger…soul than I was.
Perhaps that was the reason, if the opportunity presented itself, she’d rather disappear than be locked in the same form with me for eternity. Assuming, of course, that we were now immortal. Which I guess we weren’t, since the other sphinx was no longer around. I wasn’t sure what all this meant for the two of us, but we both thought it better not to dwell on it for too long.
Dr. Hassan stood. “Isis instructed me to give you these weapons. They are the ones I recovered from the cave.”
He lifted a sort of harness that fit over the shoulders, and there was a long metal stick in each of the two pockets. Reaching out, I took one and pulled it free. The weapon was sharpened on the end that had been resting in the scabbard.
“Ah,” Tia exhaled the sentiment as she stretched out my other hand and took hold of the other weapon. There was an awkward moment of scrabbling for control as my body was literally pulled in two places at once. Both of us froze.
I apologize, Tia said. I did not mean to assert myself.
It’s okay, I replied. It has to be hard to always be a passenger.
I will watch for now.
I’m sure you’re the better fighter, though.
There is no one to fight at the moment. Take this opportunity to learn.
Dr. Hassan watched us with a barely concealed expression of alarm. “How are you feeling, Lily?”
“I’m good,” I answered while giving him what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “It’s just going to take some getting used to.”
“Indeed.”
“So, tell me what this weapon is for.”
“Ah!” He seemed excited and in his true element then. “This is a very rare and ancient weapon used by the gods. Much like Amon’s scimitars, these spears can be used in close combat, but they are also distance weapons.”
“Spears?” They looked more like long sai knives than spears, but the tines on the side were nearly as long as the shaft, like three-pronged machetes. The three elongated blades on each weapon were wicked-looking and came to a sharp point at the tip. “Aren’t they a little short for spears?” I asked.
He held out his hands and I dropped the heavy handle into his palm. When he touched a raised knob in the center, a kind of hidden spring caused them to elongate into full-sized spears. Inside my head, Tia was almost purring with happiness. With a quick press of the button, the weapon compacted back into a size that would fit into the scabbard.
Oscar helped me put on the leather harness and buckle it across my shoulders. “You can use them for both slicing and stabbing at close range or to impale at long range,” he said.
Experimenting, I reached up behind my neck and drew out the spears. They seemed to fit my hands perfectly. I rotated them in my palms, relishing their weight, and was surprised at the natural agility I displayed when wielding them.
I threw one and the head of the spear sank almost liquidly into the thick trunk of a tree a good distance away.
I was about to ask how I felt so comfortable with the weapons when Tia explained. It is likely our instinct. Your senses have been heightened, including your sense of space and touch. Just as I am able to calculate the speed and distance between me and my prey.
But surely it’s more than just the abilities of a lioness, I replied. You’ve never handled a weapon like that before, and it was like I already knew how.
She answered matter-of-factly. We are sphinx. You drew