Daphne sent three arrows straight into three different rocs.
I blinked, wondering if I was only imagining things. But she reached back, drew three more arrows out of the quiver strapped to her back, and sent them into three more rocs, all of which plummeted to the ground, taking their riders down with them.
For a moment, Daphne looked as startled as I did. She stared down at her weapon, Sigyn’s bow, the one she’d had ever since the Reaper attack at the Crius Coliseum, the one that had kept reappearing in her room no matter how many times she gave the weapon back to Metis. Then, she grinned, gave me a thumbs-up, and reached back for three more arrows.
Nike had once told me that Daphne would know what to do with the bow when the time was right. It looked like Daphne had finally figured out what her artifact did, and she put it to deadly use.
But more and more rocs still swooped over the quad. I heard a loud screech and realized that one of the creatures was heading for me, its talons outstretched as it aimed straight for my throat. I threw my hand up, trying to block the attack, although I knew how useless my hand was against the creature’s sharp claws—
A bronze blur moved in front of me, slamming into the roc and driving the bird back. The leader of the gryphons landed on the quad, threw back his head, and let out a loud screech. The rest of the gryphons rose up from where they’d been hiding and launched themselves off the tops of the towers and balconies, clashing with the rocs in midair. Caws and screeches and spits and hisses tore through the quad above my head as the two sets of creatures slashed out at each other with their beaks and talons, and their wings crashed together, sending them all spinning down to the ground.
But with the gryphons involved in the fight, the archers got some much-needed breathing room and focused their arrows back on the Reapers. Wave after wave of warriors flooded the quad, their boots flattening the grass, their bare faces free of masks, their lips curved into evil grins, their black robes swirling out around them like clouds of deadly fog slowly spreading and infecting everything they touched.
Still, as I waited for the Reapers to reach my position, I looked past the ones rushing toward me, searching for Vivian, Agrona, and most important, Loki.
And I finally saw them.
Vivian and Agrona came striding onto the quad in the middle of the waves of Reapers. The two of them flanked Loki, who seemed to float rather than actually walk across the grass. Whatever the laurels had done to him, he wasn’t showing any visible effects from it now. If I hadn’t seen how completely ruined his face was, I might have thought the laurels hadn’t injured him at all.
And then the Reapers reached the library steps, and I
was in the thick of things once more.
Clash-clash-clang! Clash-clash-clang! Clash-clash-clang!
I cut down every Reaper who came close to me. Logan, Oliver, and Alexei did the same, and I got glimpses of my other friends fighting farther out in the quad. Kenzie stabbing at Reapers with a spear, with Talia slashing her sword across another warrior’s chest. Savannah twirling her staff from one hand to the other before smacking the heavy wood into the Reaper in front of her. Then Doug, her Viking boyfriend, stepping in to deliver the killing blow with his battle axe, protecting her as much as he could. Morgan alternating between sending crossbow bolts into Reapers, then stabbing them with the dagger she clutched in her other hand.
Linus, Sergei, Inari, and Ajax were also fighting together in the middle of the quad, with Reapers all around them. And I saw Professor Metis, heading in their direction, her staff in her hands, whipping it back and forth and clearing a path to Linus and the others.
I blinked again. I’d never really thought too much about what kind of warrior Metis was, but she had to be an Amazon to move that quickly. One second, she was fifty feet away from Linus and the others. The next, she was right beside them, taking some of the pressure off their flank. Soon, the five of them were fighting back-to-back, creating a ring of death in the middle of the Reapers.
But it still wasn’t going to be enough to save us. Because even more Reapers streamed into the quad
behind Loki, Vivian, and Agrona, and I could tell we were in danger of being overrun—and then executed.
“We have to push them back!” Logan screamed. “We have to get them away from Dad and the others!”
I knew that as well as he did, but I didn’t see how we could make it happen. Linus and the others were near the center of the quad, and we’d have to kill half the Reapers simply to get to them. Not to mention the fact that Vivian and Agrona were just standing by, as if waiting for Loki to do something spectacularly deadly.
I didn’t know if the god had that kind of magic, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Because it would be just our luck if we managed to take out all of the Reapers only to fall to Loki instead. I wondered if he could wave his hand and reduce us all to dust like he had the stone sphinxes down by the main gate. I shivered at the thought.
A sharp, sudden, clattering sound caught my attention, and I whipped my head to the right to discover that Carson had dropped his staff, and not because he was fighting and a Reaper had knocked it out of his grasp. No, the band geek seemed to have let go of the weapon of his own free will. To my surprise, Carson stepped forward, clutching the Horn of Roland in both hands, as though it were some sort of shield that would protect him from the Reapers and all of their slashing swords.
“Carson?!” I yelled, burying Vic in the chest of another Reaper before shoving the warrior away. “What are you doing?!”
“I’m not really sure,” he mumbled. “I feel . . . weird.” He looked at me, and I realized that his eyes had darkened to an absolute black and had the same odd sheen that the bits of onyx on his horn did. The strange, unrelenting color of his eyes seemed to bleed into his glasses, making it look like the lenses were completely black and yet somehow glowing faintly at the same time. Carson turned away from me and walked farther out into the quad, into the very heart of the battle. I cursed and went after him. I had to protect Carson. He was going to get himself killed, and Daphne would never
forgive me if that happened.
“Gwen!” I heard Logan scream behind me. “Watch out!”
I whirled around. Too late, I saw the Reaper who had snuck up on my blind side. I raised my sword, blocking the brutal blow that would have split my skull open, but the Reaper kicked out with his foot, catching me in the leg and making me stumble to the ground. Still on my knees, I lifted Vic, desperately trying to get him into position to counter the deadly blow that was coming my way—
CLASH!
Suddenly, Logan was there, darting in between me and the Reaper, and saving my life the way he had so many times before.
Logan banged his weapon against the Reaper’s, taking the blow meant for me, before spinning around and attacking the other warrior. The Sword of Thanatos gleamed a ghostly silver in his hand, the edges seeming to blur, as though the entire weapon were made out of mist. The sword didn’t seem to cut into the Reaper so much as it passed right through him, like a cloud of death. That’s what it was in Logan’s hand.
The Reaper collapsed without a sound, and Logan spun the sword around in his hand. I blinked, and the illusion was gone, the weapon solid metal again.
Logan stretched out a hand and helped me to my feet. “You okay?”
I nodded. “Thanks to you—again.” He grinned. “Anytime.”
“Carson!” Daphne shouted from the library balcony. A golden arrow zipped past us and buried itself in the back of a Reaper who’d been about to bring his sword down on top of Carson’s head. But the band geek walked on, completely unconcerned by the bloody chaos raging around him. His steps were slow and measured, and I had a feeling that if I could see his face, his features would be completely slack and blank. The Horn of Roland must have turned him into some sort of zombie, like the Bowl of Tears had once done to Morgan. That’s why Carson was walking into the middle of the fight instead of staying with me and my friends. I di
dn’t know what sort of power the artifact had, but it was obvious that it
had taken control of Carson.
Logan looked at me and nodded, his blue eyes blazing with the same determination that I felt. I gripped Vic a little tighter and nodded back. Now, the two of us had to make sure that Carson lived long enough to use his artifact.
Together, Logan and I hurried after the band geek, trying to keep close enough to protect him. He was like a calm little bunny hopping into a den of angry, hungry lions. The Reapers realized that Carson didn’t have a weapon and that he wasn’t fighting back, and they all scrambled to try to take down such an easy target.
“Faster, Gwen, faster!” Vic shouted, his mouth moving underneath my palm. “You can’t let the Reapers get in between the two of you or the Celt is dead!”
“Don’t you think I know that!” I yelled back at the sword, although I had no idea if he or Logan could hear me over the sounds of the fight.
A Reaper stepped in front of me, but I slashed Vic across his chest, shoved the other warrior out of the way, and hurried after Carson.
Ducking and dodging, sidestepping and leaping, whirling and twirling, Logan and I managed to keep up with the band geek as he moved from the library steps all the way over to the center of the quad.
Carson finally stopped, and I almost slammed into his back. Another Reaper came at us, but before he could attack, Daphne put an arrow into his chest. The Reaper crashed to a stop at our feet. But Carson continued to stand there, staring down at the horn in his hands as if nothing else mattered. I bit my lip. I wanted nothing more than to reach out and shake him, but I didn’t want to ruin his concentration . . . or whatever he was doing.
The Celt will know what to do with the horn when the time comes, Nike’s voice whispered in my mind. That’s what the goddess had said to me when I’d questioned her about why my friends had the artifacts they did.
I cut down another Reaper charging at us. Logan did the same. Whatever it was, I hoped that Carson figured it out soon. Otherwise, the three of us were dead.
Another Reaper fell at my feet, thanks to Daphne and her arrows, and I looked over at the far edge of the quad, where Vivian, Agrona, and Loki were still standing, out of the main part of the fight. Vivian spotted me, then her golden gaze flicked to Carson. She frowned and pointed us out to Agrona. Loki followed Vivian’s finger, but instead of staring at me with hate in his eyes as usual, his angry gaze locked onto Carson instead. His eyes bulged in surprise, then his face mottled with red rage.
“Kill him!” Loki screamed at the Reapers. “Don’t let him blow that horn—”
But it was too late. Carson slowly brought the Horn of Roland up to his lips, closed his eyes, and started to play.
Chapter 26
One sweet, simple note drifted out of the horn, so soft that I thought I had only imagined it at first. Carson opened his eyes, drew back, and frowned, staring at the horn as if he was confused, as if it hadn’t done what he’d thought it would or what he wanted it to.
“Now would be a great time for you to use your music mojo to get us out of this!” I yelled at him, even as I battled a Reaper who was creeping up on his blind side.
“Gwen’s right!” Logan shouted, fighting off another
Reaper.
Carson was a Celt, sort of like a warrior bard, and he could play practically any instrument he picked up. I hoped he found a way to make the horn do whatever it was supposed to do before the Reapers overwhelmed us—
“Don’t worry, guys,” he said, his voice soft and almost dreamy-sounding. “I think I’ve got it now.”
Carson nodded, and that strange black gleam in his eyes brightened, as if he’d finally figured out some sort of great secret about the horn.
More and more Reapers started heading in our direction, urged on by Loki’s continued screams about killing Carson. I watched in horror as one Reaper broke away from the other warrior he was fighting and raced in our direction. Then another one, then five more, then ten more, until it seemed as if every single Reaper on the quad was running toward us with the sole intention of killing Carson where he stood. Even as Logan and I stepped in front of him, I knew we wouldn’t be able to stop the Reapers from swarming over us and taking him out.
“Carson!” I screamed. “Play the freaking horn! Now!” “Okay,” he said in that same soft, dreamy voice. “I
can do that.”
He brought the horn to his lips. Once again, a single, sweet note sounded, but the Reapers kept coming. Daphne dropped three more of them with her arrows, sending the projectiles into three different targets at once. But more and more Reapers rushed forward to take their places.
“Carson!” I screamed again, slashing Vic back and forth as fast as I could, lashing out at every single warrior I could reach, with Logan doing the same thing beside me. “Carson!”
Just when I thought the Reapers were going to overrun us, Carson drew in another breath and began to play in earnest. Note after note erupted from the horn, each one stronger and sharper than the last. Carson blew and blew on the horn, his fingers pressing into the onyx keys as though it were a regular tuba he was playing instead of a powerful artifact.
At first, the music didn’t seem to have any effect. The Reapers kept coming and coming, and Logan and I kept fighting them off, one after another, even though my arms ached from the effort of holding on to Vic and driving the sword’s blade into my enemies over and over again. Meanwhile, Daphne kept shooting arrows, and between the three of us, we managed to keep Carson safe.
But then, through the music, I heard another sound.
Crack.
Crack-crack. Crack.
At first, I thought I was just imagining the sounds through the yells, shouts, and screamsof the fight. Then, I heard it again . . . and again . . . and again . . .
Crack.
Crack-crack. Crack.
Each successive crack sounded louder than the one before it, as though someone was firing a cannon over and over again. I instinctively ducked down, and so did everyone else, wondering where the sounds were coming from and what they really were. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move.
A statue.
One of the gargoyles perched on the steps of the English-history building slowly began stretching and moving, as though it was waking up after a long, long sleep. In a way, I supposed that’s exactly what it was doing. I thought I was only imagining the statue moving, that maybe I’d been fighting too hard for too long and had taken one too many blows to the head. But then, the gargoyle on the other side of the steps began to move and stretch as well, and I finally realized what the Horn of Roland did and why it had fallen into Carson’s hands.
Because it brought the statues of Mythos Academy to
life.
Carson kept playing and playing, the sounds of the Horn of Roland rising up to drown out everything else. It was a soft, sweet sound, but yet, somehow fierce and wild and loud and free all at the same time. It was the kind of music that made you want to dance and dance and dance until you laughed with joy and simply collapsed from the fast, sheer thrill of the movement and the music. Slowly, the Protectorate guards and the Reapers stopped fighting, all of us hypnotized by Carson’s wonderful playing.
Meanwhile, the statues on all of the buildings began breaking free of their stone foundations, as drawn to the music as everyone else was. The gargoyles, the chimeras and dragons and basilisks, even the Minotaur, leaped down from their lofty perches and started ambling toward Carson, bits of stone cracking off their bodies from where the creatures had been standing in the same positions for so long.
And leading the procession were the two gryphons from the library steps.
They looked even fiercer and more lifelike than I ever could have dreamed, as though their dark gray stone was the thinnest sort of skin that housed their utter wildness. The gryphons came to stand beside Carson, one on either side of him, flanking him just like they always had the library steps. Bo
th of the gryphons turned and bowed their heads to me and Logan. All I could do was bow back and hope that Carson knew what he was doing.
Finally, five minutes after it had started, Carson lowered the horn from his lips. By that point, all of the fighting had stopped on the quad, and everyone was still and silent, mesmerized by the band geek and how he’d brought the statues to life with his music.
Carson stared at the statues all around him, his black eyes gleaming with delight, as though he were the ultimate sort of Pied Piper.
“No!” Loki screamed again, breaking through the spell that Carson had put all of us under with his music. “Stop him—”
Carson brought the Horn of Roland back to his lips and started to play again, the tune harsher and angrier than before, the notes coming faster and faster as though he were building toward something dark, dangerous, and utterly deadly.
But spurred on by Loki, several of the Reapers had started to creep forward again, their eyes flicking back and forth from Carson to the statues even as they raised their swords and eased closer and closer to the band geek.
The statues began to grumble in time to the music, low, angry snarls ripping out of their stone throats. The Reapers paused and looked at each other, uncertain what was going on. Yeah. I think we all felt that way right now.
“Kill him!” Loki screamed again. “Now!”
The Reapers looked at each other and charged forward. And still, Carson kept right on playing, his eyes closed, completely unconcerned about the danger coming his way.
“Carson!” I screamed in warning, raising Vic and moving toward the oncoming warriors, with Logan still right next to me, his own weapon in an attack position.
But we didn’t have to battle the Reapers. Because the statues did it for us.
A Reaper neared Carson and raised his sword high, ready to bring it down on top of the band geek’s head. One of the library gryphons reached out and casually swiped his massive paw across the Reaper’s chest, the sharp, stone talons easily ripping into the warrior’s flesh and bones. That Reaper screamed and fell, and the fight began in earnest again.