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“Will the passage accommodate one as grand as you?” Kagan ventured further.

She laughed softly. “You have little experience with the world, I see. The passage will expand or contract to accommodate the one or ones demanding entry.”

Kagan turned to his brothers with a triumphant smile. “We did it. Let’s go.”

With little else to do, Esme had been staring at clouds, imagining people coming to her shop and seeing it dark with the CLOSED sign on the door.

She wondered if everyone in Hallow Hill knew she’d been taken.

She wondered if they’d really care if she never returned.

Her reverie of blues was interrupted by a saffron bursting into her space.

“Come,” was all she said.

Esme got to her feet and followed the “sister” away from the place where she’d been imprisoned by invisible walls just a moment before.

She hurried behind the Cardinal to the pavilion, where others were rushing in from every direction to see the commotion firsthand.

Palatial hallways momentarily appeared out of nowhere and vanished immediately when one or more Cardinals stepped onto the gathering space. It was dazzling. It was dizzying.

Esmerelda steadied herself, trusting, or rather hoping, that she was on solid ground and looked around.

When the sphinx had said the portal would accommodate her bulk, the brothers thought that meant it would enlarge itself.

They were wrong. Instead, the rip in the curtain that separated dimensions reoriented the size of the sphinx so that she was no taller than the sephalia.

She stood proudly in the middle of the pavilion, facing Araxinthe, holding the pieces of her broken egg, defiantly twitching her snake-like tail.

Naturally, Esme’s gaze went straight to Kagan, who’d spied her the moment she’d been brought in. She was so relieved to see him alive that she almost collapsed into tears. She didn’t, but her eyes spoke volumes, and Kagan got the message. She was very glad to see him.

“The sephalian has persevered and triumphed over your challenge,” said the sphinx. She placed the pieces of her broken egg on the floor in front of her. “Here is the egg you require. According to your parameters, no harm has befallen me or my eggs.”

“But the egg is broken,” said Araxinthe.

“You should be relieved that I had a broken egg to give this new species. How dare you involve me and my family in one of your power games! For this offense, I should take one of your baldies and make her my slave.”

The crowd of onlookers responded with a collective gasp.

“Dorianis,” Araxinthe said as if nothing about the morning was unusual. “Hello.”

“Don’t hello me, Araxinthe. This is cause for complaint to the Powers That Be.”

The sphinx knew that would rattle Araxinthe because the Cardinals considered themselves rivals of the Powers That Be. That, of course, was a misunderstanding infused with haughtiness and misplaced conceit because no one rivals the Powers That Be. Thinking so was an offense in itself.

“You said yourself that no harm’s been done, Dorianis.”

“The truth of that is more to my credit than yours. The hero has returned. Do you accept that he has successfully completed the first test?”

Araxinthe looked upon the sphinx with a slight hint of confusion. “We do. But just out of curiosity, why is that your business?”

“If Cardinals are not keeping their promises, it’s everybody’s business, isn’t it?”

“You think we’re not to be trusted?”

“Said the overseer who sent someone to steal one of my eggs.”

Araxinthe suddenly found the nails on her right hand fascinating, much like the way the sphinx had examined the claws on her own right paw earlier that day.

Studiously avoiding a venue full of eyes trained on her, waiting for her response, she said, “I take your point. Perhaps that was not well-considered.”

“I don’t like your use of the word ‘perhaps’.” The sphinx was an intellectual creature who loved language and could be quite pedantic about the misplacement or misuse of words.

“What do you want?” Araxinthe said, as she was beginning to accept that she wasn’t likely to get off easy. She was ready to skip to the conclusion of the incident so that everyone would go back to work and forget her misstep.

“First, your word that the lion’s first challenge is his victory.

Second, your word that you will never again think to involve me, or mine, in anything without my prior knowledge and approval.

Make this declaration here, now, in front of all, and I will accept it.

But I warn you, Overseer, if you break your oath, you will find that you’re not the only one with connections. ”

Esme saw that the saffrons and even the guards exchanged looks. They weren’t accustomed to seeing their Grand Hiney publicly chastised.

“The sephalian’s first challenge is won,” she said, and, as she did, a very loud and invisible bell that sounded curiously like a 1950s high school rang out.

It was startling enough to make Esme jump.

“As to your part in this, forgive my mistake. There was a time when you loved being at the center of tragedies befalling travelers.” She said this with a forced smile, which meant she was trying to be diplomatic but lacked sincerity.

“But there’s no point in arguing. Your feelings are your feelings. We will not send anyone your way.”

“Ever again,” said the sphinx, encouraging the overseer to add the phrase. When she didn’t, the sphinx said. “Say it. Ever again !”

There are no words to describe how much Araxinthe hated being publicly humiliated, at the mercy of a creature who doesn’t even walk on two legs.

Lips pulled tight and thin, she said, “Ever again,” under her breath.

“I’m sorry,” the sphinx’s smile stretched ear to ear. She was having a fine time. “I don’t think everyone heard you.”

“Ever again!” Araxinthe said loud enough to be heard by all. Then, making it apparent to everyone that she’d had enough, she stood and turned to one of the guards, saying, “Bring the lions to my library,” just before vanishing.

The sphinx shot Kagan a parting grin, gathered up her pieces of broken eggshells, then disappeared, leaving the brothers to wonder if she’d needed a portal at all. It seemed she was free to come and go as she pleased.

Esme was across a lengthy expanse of pavilion, but she was still where Kagan could see her and take solace in that.

It wasn’t much, but it was his to hang onto, and he wasn’t in a hurry to give it up.

When one of the black-clad guards pushed him from behind, he snarled and turned to defend himself.

The idea of being touched without permission was unthinkable to one such as he.

Without hesitation, the guard grabbed Kagan’s shoulder and pushed his or her thumb into his clavicle.

Before Kagan could choose how to react to that, he was paralyzed by an electrical surge that seemed to originate with the guard, who had no visible weapons.

When Keir saw his brother’s eyes roll toward the back of his head, he launched himself at the guard, but was intercepted by another who gave him the same treatment.

Esmerelda, witnessing the entire scene, was screaming for them to stop and straining to free herself from invisible physical restrictions.

Two of the saffrons put a stop to that by removing her from the pavilion.

Fortunately, Kagan was too preoccupied with electricity coursing through his body to be aware of Esme’s treatment.

If he’d known, it would have amped his agitation, which was already barely controlled, even higher.

Killian was hesitating, unsure how to proceed. He reasoned that attempting to stop the guards physically would simply render the same fate as had befallen Kagan and Keir, but at the same time, he abhorred doing nothing and hated himself for it.

“COME NOW!” Vox said, walking their way with a determined stride. The guards both ceased and stood at attention. “There’s no need for that. Why not simply ask our guests to accompany you?” The guards looked at each other, but gave Vox no answer. “Never mind. I’ll deliver them to the overseer.”

She kindly gave Kagan and Keir a couple of minutes to recover before saying, “I apologize for the unconscionable behavior. We haven’t had outsiders here for, well, millennia. I suppose we need some recurrent training on how to interact with visitors. Gentlemen, follow me, please.”

The courtesy was appreciated. Keir and Kagan were both still feeling the effects of being partially stunned.

The triplets walked quietly, observing what could be seen along the way. None of that information proved useful.

Araxinthe’s “library” contained not a single book. There were, however, all sorts of symbols of various sizes that would appear in the air, seemingly spontaneously. Now and then, one would float around the room leisurely before disappearing, but most came and went in the blink of an eye.

She sat at a giant glass table the top of which reflected an array of imagery that would, again, come and go quickly. Keir stared, trying to make sense of it, but his mind would dismiss the images as soon as they disappeared.

Three large chairs appeared in front of her table.

“Sit,” she said. They did. “Vox, to what do they owe the honor of your escort?”

“Yer guards be a bit heavy-handed,” said Kagan.

“Oh?” she asked in a way that indicated she didn’t care, and didn’t like that Kagan had answered instead of Vox.

“The lion is right,” Vox said. “I see no reason to be inhospitable. After all, he’s simply trying to free someone who wants to be freed. Perhaps we’ve been isolated for so long we’ve forgotten civil behavior?”

The sephalia, having the same thought at the same time, turned toward Vox in unison wondering if she might be a potential ally. That thought was quickly followed by wondering how “civil behavior” is reconciled with kidnapping.

“Do not presume upon our friendship, Vox,” said Araxinthe.