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. Both 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.
This time, the statues plowed into the Reapers, clawing, biting, and scratching for all they were worth. One wave of Reapers fell. Then another, then another. Everyone in the Protectorate drew in a collective breath and got back into the fight as well. Logan and I stayed where we were by Carson’s side while the two library gryphons protected him—and us too.
Every time a Reaper got within five feet of me, Logan, and Carson, the gryphons would lash out with their paws, talons, and beaks, and either drive the Reaper back or kill the warrior outright. It was one of the most bizarre, wonderful, and frightening things I’d ever seen.
And it slowly turned the tide in our favor.
With the statues fighting by our side, helping us, the Protectorate guards and the rest of my friends were finally able to make a dent in the Reapers’ numbers. Warrior after warrior fell on the quad, and this time, the Protectorate forces were the ones who advanced, instead of retreating. The last notes of Carson’s song finally faded away, but no one seemed to notice, and everyone kept right on fighting, including the statues.
Suddenly, Alexei and Oliver were by my side, and we all pressed forward, cutting down Reaper after Reaper.
Logan was grinning, and so was I. New energy, new determination, surged through my body. Because, now, I thought we might actually win this battle after all—
An angry snarl sounded, lower and uglier than all the others, and I realized that Loki was striding forward through the Reapers, shoving his own warriors out of his way. He stopped close to the middle of the quad, not that far from where Carson, Logan, Oliver, Alexei, and I were standing. A gargoyle bounded across the grass, heading straight toward him. Loki looked at it with disgust, then gave a sharp, short wave of his hand, sending a burst of power forward.
The gargoyle disintegrated into dust, and my heart sank.
One by one, the stone statues moved to attack Loki, and every time—every single time—he waved his hand at them.
One by one, the statues crumbled to dust, breaking into bits and tumbling to a stop at the god’s feet. One after another, they all just . . . shattered. I wasn’t even aware that I was crying until I felt the cold wetness of my own tears on my cheeks. The statues . . . he was destroying them all.
Every last one.
Somehow, that hurt worse than any other part of the battle so far. For months, I’d been creeped out by the statues, always feeling like they were watching me, and now I knew why—because they’d been protecting me. And now, they were being destroyed for their watchfulness.
“No!” I screamed. “Stop it! Stop killing them!”
I would have surged forward and tried to attack Loki myself, but Logan caught my arm and pulled me back.
“No, Gwen!” Logan yelled. “It’s too late! There’s nothing you can do! Not against his magic!”
Loki stepped forward and raised both of his hands. This time, a blast of magic swept over the entire quad, rippling through the air like a heat wave, smashing every single statue that it touched, until the only ones that remained were the two gryphons from the library steps. But even they seemed to be weakened, stumbling around from the powerful blast like the rest of us were.
I kept crying, the tears rolling down my cheeks. I’d been able to ignore the horrors of the battle up until now, but everything hit me at once, and I fell to my knees on the quad, trying to find the strength to get back up.
“She’s down!”
“Nike’s Champion is down!” “Death to the Protectorate!”
The Reapers pressed their advantage and began engaging the Protectorate guards again, their attacks even fiercer than before. This time, without the statues to help us, the Reapers advanced.