Roger Zelazny: Trumps of doom

I cradled the phone and smiled. I thought it very well played. I'd a feeling I'd taken her in completely.

I crossed the living room to the same chair I had occupied earlier, drew up one of the small tables bearing a large ashtray, seated myself, and reached for my pipe: Time to rest, cultivate patience, think a bit.

Moments later I felt a familiar, almost electrical tingling. I was on my feet in an instant, snatching up the ashtray, butts flying like bullets about me, cursing my stupidity yet again as I looked frantically about the room.

There! Before the red drapes, beside the piano. Taking form…

I waited for the full outline, then hurled the ashtray as hard as I could.

An instant later she was there - tall, russet-haired, darkeyed, holding what looked like a. 38 automatic.

The ashtray hit her in the stomach and she doubled forward with a gasp.

I was there before she could straighten.

I jerked the gun out of her hand and threw it across the room. Then I seized both her wrists, spun her around and seated her hard in the nearest chair. In her left hand she still held a Trump. I snatched it away. It was a representation of this apartment, and it was done in the same style as the Tree and the cards in my pocket.

«Who are you?» I snarled.

«Jasra,» she spat back, «dead man!»

She opened her mouth wide and her head fell forward. I felt the moist touch of her lips upon the back of my left forearm, which still held her own right wrist against the chair's arm. Seconds later I felt an excruciating pain there. It was not a bite, but rather felt as if a fiery nail had been driven into my flesh.

I let go her wrist and jerked my arm away. The movement was strangely slow, weakened. A cold, tingling sensation moved down into the hand and up along the arm. My hand dropped to my side and seemed to go away. She extricated herself easily from my grip, smiled, placed her fingertips lightly upon my chest and pushed.

I fell backward. I was ridiculously weak and I couldn't control my movements. I felt no pain when I struck the floor, and it was a real effort to turn my head to regard her as she rose to her feet.

«Enjoy it,» she stated. «After you awaken, the remainder of your brief existence will be painful.»

She passed out of my line of sight, and moments later I heard her raise the telephone receiver.

I was certain she was phoning S, and I believed what she had just said. At least, I would get to meet the mysterious artist…

Artist! I twitched the forgers of my right hand. They still functioned, albeit slowly. Straining every bit of will and anatomy that remained under my control, I tried then to raise the hand to my chest. The movement that followed was a jerky, slow-motion thing. At least I had fallen upon my left side, and my back masked this feeble activity from the woman who had done me in.

My hand was trembling and seemed to be slowing even more when it came to the breast pocket. For ages after, I seemed to pick at the edges of pieces of pasteboard. Finally, one came free and I was able to twitch it high enough to view it. By then I was very dizzy and my vision was beginning to blur. I wasn't certain I could manage the transfer. From across a vast distance I could hear Jasra's voice as she conversed with someone, but I was unable to distinguish the words.

I focused what remained of my attention upon the card. It was a sphinx, crouched upon a blue, rocky ledge. I reached for it. Nothing. My mind felt as if it were embedded in cotton. I possessed barely enough consciousness for one more attempt.

I felt a certain coldness and seemed to see the sphinx move slightly upon its stony shelf. I felt as if I were falling forward into a black wave that was rushing upward.

And that was all.

I was a long time coming around. My consciousness dribbled back, but my limbs were still leaden and my vision clouded. The lady's sting seemed to have delivered a neurotropic toxin. I tried flexing my fingers arid toes and could not be certain whether I'd succeeded. I tried to speed up and deepen my breathing. That worked, anyway.

After a time, I heard what seemed a roaring sound. It stepped itself down a little later, and I realized it was my own rushing blood in my ears. A while after that I felt my heartbeat, and my vision began to clear. Light and dark and shapelessness resolved into sand and rocks. I felt little areas of chill, all over. Then I began to shiver, and this passed and I realized that I could move. But I felt very weak, so I didn't. Not for a while.

I heard noises - rustlings, stirrings - coming from somewhere above and before me. I also became aware of a peculiar odor.

«I say, are you awake?» This from the same direction as the sounds of movement.

I decided that I was not entirely ready to qualify for that state, so I did not answer. I waited for more life to flow back into my limbs.

«I really wish you'd let me know whether you can hear me,» the voice came again. «I'd like to get on with it.»

My curiosity finally overcame my judgment and I raised my head.

«There! I knew it!»

On the blue-gray ledge above me was crouched a sphinx, also blue - lion body, large feathered wings folded tight against it, a genderless face looking down upon me. It licked its lips and revealed a formidable set of teeth.

«Get on with what?» I asked, raising myself slowly into a sitting position and drawing several deep breaths.

«The riddling,» it answered, «the thing I do best.»

«I'll take a rain check,» I said, waiting for the cramps in my arms and legs to pass.

«Sorry. I must insist.»

I rubbed my punctured forearm and glared at the creature. Most of the stories I recalled about sphinxes involved their devouring people who couldn't answer riddles. I shook my head.

«I won't play your game,» I said.

«In that case, you lose by forfeit,» it replied, shoulder muscles beginning to tighten.

«Hold on,» I said, raising my hand. «Give me a minute or two to recover and I'll probably feel differently:»

It settled back and said, «Okay. That, would make it more official. Take five. Let me know when you're ready.»

I climbed to my feet and began swinging my arms and stretching. While I was about it, I surveyed the area quickly. We occupied a sandy arroyo, punctuated here and there with orange, gray, and blue rocks. The stony wall whose ledge the sphinx occupied rose steeply before me to a height of perhaps twenty-five feet; another wall of the same height lay at about that distance to my rear. The wash rose steeply to my right, ran off in a more level fashion to my left. A few spiky green shrubs inhabited rifts and crevices. The hour seemed verging upon dusk. The sky was a weak yellow with no sun in sight. I heard a distant wind but did not feel it. The place was cool but not chill.

I spotted a rock the size of a small dumbbell on the ground nearby. Two ambling paces - as I continued swinging my arms and stretching - and it lay beside my right foot.

The sphinx cleared its throat. «Are you ready?» it asked.

«No,» I said. «But I'm sure that won't stop you.»

«You're right.»

I felt an uncontrollable desire to yawn and did so.

«You seem to lack something of the proper spirit,» it observed. «But here it is: I rise in flame from the earth. The wind assails me and waters lash me. Soon I will oversee all things.»

I waited. Perhaps a minute passed.

«Well?» the sphinx finally said.

«Well what?»

«Have you the answer?»

«To what?»

«The riddle, of course!»

«I was waiting. There was no question, only a series of statements. I can't answer a question if I don't know what it is.»

«It's a time-honored format. The interrogative is implied by the context. Obviously, the question is, `What am I?’»