[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-40194-en":3,"doc-seo-40194-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":11,"is_downloadable":11,"audit_status":11,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},40194,8796095360427,"Lucas Martin","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_994ba38a5ba835b3df7d355c54d3ed8d",1,"Story & Novel","The Books of Babel Book II Arm of the Sphinx","Arm of the Sphinx opens on the Cairo Hound, an airship crew transporting rum toward the Baths while navigating constant danger from pirates, violent wind shears, and unpredictable Tower ports after recent destruction in New Babel. Tension rises as the crew avoids talk, fearing idle chatter will spiral into terror, while their captain remains perpetually drunk. Chapter One introduces a mysterious girl whose sudden appearance and composed beauty draw the crew in, triggering a chaotic chase and confrontation aboard the ship.","The Books of Babel Book II:  \nArm of the Sphinx  \nJOSIAH BANCROFT  \nThis is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living  \nor dead, or locales is entirely coincidental.  \nCopyright © 2015 by Josiah Bancroft  \nAll rights reserved.  \n[www.josiahmedia.com](www.josiahmedia.com)[ ](www.josiahmedia.com)Cover art by Ian Leino copyright © 2015  \n[www.ianleino.com](www.ianleino.com)  \nAuthor Photo by Georgi Anastasov The font, UglyQua, was created by Manfred Klein  \nFirst Edition  \nISBN: 1508713650  \nISBN-13: 978-1508713654  \nFor Ian, with whom the adventure began.  \nFrom the Stone Cloud's logbook in the hand of Captain Tom Mudd  \n“Civilization is like sunshine. Spread it about, and the world blooms with culture, innovation, and fraternity. But focus it all upon one spot, and mankind scorches the earth like a ray from a magnifying glass.”  \nPart I  \nThe Stone Cloud  \nChapter One  \n“The difficulty with a disguise is that it must be worn for some time before it hangs credibly upon the shoulders. But if worn for too long, a costume becomes comfortable, natural. A man always in disguise must take care lest he become the disguise.”  \n- The Stone Cloud's Logbook, Captain Tom Mudd  \nThe airship cruised from the hoary mountain pass on a current as cold as an avalanche. Its hull was like a longship’s, long and narrow, lacking only oars, with a carved hound’s head curling up from the bow. To a jaundiced eye, the ship recollected a rough coffin carried on the back of a laughing dog.  \nTo the crew, it was but a frozen raft.  \nSwaddled in long furs, they stamped about the deck like disgruntled bears. Wind strummed the rigging. The men said nothing. Forty barrels of rum sloshed in the main hold beneath their feet, seeping and sweetening the air with sugar cane and new oak.  \nThe Cairo Hound was bound for the Baths, where rum fetched ten times the price it did in the capitals of Ur. In a few short hours, each of them would have half a year’s wages in their pockets and all the Baths to fritter it upon. But despite the coming payday and liberty, the crew was anxious . They were afraid to speak because, once begun, idle talk turned easily into nervous rambling, and then terror was sure to follow.  \nPirates prowled these skies. Violent wind shears were not uncommon . Then there were the whims of the Tower ports to fret over. A safe harbor one voyage might be a shooting gallery the next.  \nOnly a few months earlier, cannonballs and fire had demolished oneof New Babel’s more reliable ports. A crew could never be sure what sort of welcome the Tower would offer them.  \nAnd where was their captain during all of this worry? Drunk again, still drunk, always exquisitely drunk.  \nNo, it was better not to talk. Better to stay stoic.  \nFar below, rough slopes gave way to a suburb of tents and then a shantytown of canvas and tarpaper roofs . Trains cut through the dense Market on tracks that ran from the Tower like the rays of a compass rose . The Tower did not look like it had been built, brick by brick, by human hands. Rather, it looked like something the world had begun to birth— a new crescent moon, perhaps— before surrendering the effort. The Tower loomed over the encircling mountain range. An imperturbable fog enshrouded its peak. Some romantics called this haze “the Collar of Heaven,” believing it marked the point where the Tower passed from blue sky into bleak, black space.  \nThe Captain always woke up mean .  \nHe stayed mean, too, but there was an excess of meanness in his waking. Drunk or not, mean or not, the Captain would still have to sign the manifest and dicker with the port master over the price of rum . He still had a job to do. They would have to draw straws for who would wake him. The boatswain trimmed straws from a broom and measured them on his palm.  \nThen the girl appeared.  \nShe seemed to just materialize in th","cbCaiqKoBJo6nxOJ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqKoBJo6nxOJ","pdf",2160638,3,407,"English","en",105,"# Part I: The Stone Cloud\n## Chapter One","[{\"question\":\"Where does the Cairo Hound travel, and what cargo does it carry?\",\"answer\":\"The Cairo Hound heads for the Baths and carries rum in barrels beneath the deck.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the crew avoid speaking aboard the airship?\",\"answer\":\"Idle talk quickly becomes nervous rambling, which the crew fears will lead to terror.\"},{\"question\":\"What role does the mysterious girl play at the start of Chapter One?\",\"answer\":\"Her sudden appearance captivates the crew, prompting them to chase her, after which the confrontation breaks out around the rope and netting.\"}]",1783306142,627,{"code":4,"msg":30,"data":31},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":32,"title":13,"keywords":33,"description":14,"schema_data":34,"social_meta":85,"head_meta":87,"extra_data":89,"updated_unix":27},"the-books-of-babel-book-ii-arm-of-the-sphinx","",{"@graph":35,"@context":84},[36,52,67],{"@type":37,"itemListElement":38},"BreadcrumbList",[39,43,47,49],{"item":40,"name":41,"@type":42,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":44,"name":45,"@type":42,"position":46},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":42,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/story-novel/",{"item":50,"name":13,"@type":42,"position":51},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-books-of-babel-book-ii-arm-of-the-sphinx/40194/",4,{"url":50,"name":13,"@type":53,"author":54,"headline":13,"publisher":56,"fileFormat":59,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":60,"datePublished":61,"encodingFormat":59,"isAccessibleForFree":62,"interactionStatistic":63},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":55},"Person",{"url":40,"name":57,"@type":58},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-18","2026-07-06",true,{"@type":64,"interactionType":65,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":66},"ViewAction",{"@type":68,"mainEntity":69},"FAQPage",[70,76,80],{"name":71,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":73},"Where does the Cairo Hound travel, and what cargo does it carry?","Question",{"text":74,"@type":75},"The Cairo Hound heads for the Baths and carries rum in barrels beneath the deck.","Answer",{"name":77,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":78},"Why does the crew avoid speaking aboard the airship?",{"text":79,"@type":75},"Idle talk quickly becomes nervous rambling, which the crew fears will lead to terror.",{"name":81,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":82},"What role does the mysterious girl play at the start of Chapter One?",{"text":83,"@type":75},"Her sudden appearance captivates the crew, prompting them to chase her, after which the confrontation breaks out around the rope and netting.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":50,"og:type":86,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":57,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":88,"canonical":50},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":91},[92,95,99,103,108,113,118,123,128,131,135],{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},90,"story-novel",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":96,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":98},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":51,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":100,"show_sort_weight":101,"slug":102},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":104,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":105,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":107},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":109,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":110,"show_sort_weight":111,"slug":112},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":114,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":115,"show_sort_weight":116,"slug":117},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":119,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]