Pyramid Scheme by Dave Freer and Eric Flint

“We must . . . ” A wave hit him in the face. He choked and spluttered. “Help the others, Bes! Crocodiles!”

Bes chuckled, treading water. “Between Tauret and the sphinxes, the crocodiles haven’t got a holy Shu’s chance in a furnace. A pity. I feel like knocking old Petesuchos, the king crocodile, about a bit. Establishes a decent respect.”

Jerry realized he’d swallowed an awful lot of water. Then he saw a winged monster snatch Cruz from the water.

“She’ll be back for you, in a minute or two,” said Bes.

“But that’s the Greek sphinx! What’s she doing here? And isn’t she just going to eat him?”

“Not if he can answer her riddle.” Bes grinned even more broadly. “And that one was old when Nun the first god was a boy.” In a hoarse singsong: “What walks with four legs . . . ”

A short while later, Jerry found himself transported to shore, some distance from the temple. Henri and Cruz were already there. So were Liz, Medea and a pale gray Lamont. There was also an enormous woman with a gray hippo head, which was beaded with pink sweat. And the gigantic Egyptian sphinx. With his nose still attached. It had, after all, only been hacked off by a Muslim zealot in the fifteenth century. Squatting alongside the Greek sphinx, the Egyptian one made even that monster seemed small.

“Well, Jerry,” said Lamont in a shaky voice. “You know, for a moment there I thought I saw Chicago again. It was so real!”

Jerry swallowed. His entire stomach seemed to be a bag of water. “For a moment you were nearly dead then,” he said quietly.

The Egyptian sphinx was colored red, blue and yellow, which the Pharaoh Thutmose IV had had it painted. Jerry leaned his head against the huge forepaw and was thoroughly sick. Fortunately for him, the giant sphinx seemed more bemused by the episode than anything else. Even, perhaps, a little apprehensive.

“Is it something I said?” rumbled the avalanche voice.

* * *

“I thought about your offer,” said the Greek sphinx to Lamont. “And I’ll take you up on it. Another riddle for my help.”

Lamont sat upright. He’d been cradling his head in his hands, feeling sorry for himself. “All right. But no eating anyone you’ve been introduced to. What do you think, Jerry?”

Jerry sat upright, from where he’d flopped against the big stone-but-alive Egyptian sphinx’s legs. “Hell. What do you mean, Lamont? You want a riddle? I dunno. ‘Why does the chicken cross the road?’ ”

Lamont gave a wry grin. “That’ll do. Why does the chicken cross the road, sphinx?”

“I don’t know. Tell me,” demanded the Greek sphinx.

“Not until I introduce you to everyone,” said Lamont dryly.

The sphinx smiled. “I could get to like you, Ethiope. But why will this riddle be any different from the last one? You humans gossip so. Pretty soon everyone will know this one and I’ll be back where I started. Hungry all of the time.”

Lamont shook his head. “There are two answers.”

“So?”

Lamont folded his arms on his chest. Smiled. “So . . . you decide which is the right one.”

The Greek sphinx mulled over this. And slowly began to smile toothily. “That makes the answer given always wrong, if I say so. How nice. How tasty! What’s your name, Ethiope? You can call me Throttler.”

“Lamont Jackson.”

Bes, hands on his hips, grinned at Throttler. “I don’t think I’ll tell you my name. You want to make something of it?”

“As if everyone and everything hasn’t heard of you, Bes,” snorted the hippopotamus-headed Tauret, summoned by Lamont’s curse. “Anyway, I must be off. Work to do. Babies to catch.”

* * *

Cruz looked up from his important task of comforting Medea, across at Crocodilopolis. The stone-like Egyptian sphinx must have walked across the temple on his way here, smashing it up good. And plainly some of the other curses had come to rest on it. But a party of priests, their shaven heads gleaming in the sun, were heading out of the temple. Behind them came a huge mob of soldiers.

“I’m Cruz, this is Medea, that’s Liz and Mac, Henri and Doc. Now we’re all introduced, can we get the hell out of here?”