### 10

Upon hearing you utter the correct solution to her riddle, Shamath recoils in horror.7 You have beaten her challenge and the humiliation she feels cuts her as sharply as any sword.

She begins to whimper. Then, quite suddenly, a geyser of flame shoots from the floor and engulfs her wormlike body. You watch with disbelief as the tendrilled flesh blackens and flakes away in a matter of seconds, to leave nothing but a coiled heap of glowing cinders.

Turn to 261.

[7] This is the correct answer to Shamath's riddle in Section 189.

Text copyright © 1991 Joe Dever.
Illustrations copyright © 1991 Brian Williams.