Chapter Twenty-Six
I plunged into the pack of chimeras.
The creatures must have been used to people running away from them, because my full-frontal attack surprised them and slowed their reactions for one precious second. One of the creatures swiped its paw out, trying to lay my stomach open with its sharp claws, but I dropped to my knees. Even as I slid forward across the slick floor, I snapped up my sword, slicing it all the way down the creature’s side. Smoke and blood boiled out of the mortal wound. The chimera snarled a final time, then vanished.
Two down, five to go.
Too many to go.
I slid all the way over to the opposite side of the rotunda, but I didn’t stop moving. Not even for an instant. I kicked out with my left foot, stopping myself right before I hit the wall. Then I surged to my feet and whirled back around.
“Rory! Rory!” Multiple voices screamed my name.
Across the room, Zoe stood on the other side of the gate, her hands wrapped around the iron bars, trying to lift it so she could come in here and help me. Aunt Rachel was there too, straining to lift the gate with her, along with Takeda. Mateo was lying on the floor behind them, still bleeding from his injuries.
To my surprise, Ian wasn’t there. I frowned. Where had he gone? Why wasn’t he trying to help me like the others were? Maybe he’d already realized that it was a lost cause and didn’t want to stick around to see my death. Couldn’t blame him for that.
“Guards! Guards!” Takeda barked out. “All guards converge on my position at once!”
He was trying to summon enough men to lift the gate, but it would take them precious minutes to get here—minutes I didn’t have.
The five remaining chimeras whipped around, and they all leaped at me at once. I threw myself to the right, trying to get out of the way, but I couldn’t avoid them all.
I managed to dodge four of the creatures, but the fifth swiped its claws down my left arm, making me scream with pain. I staggered forward and hit one of the display cases hard enough to rattle the glass in its frame. The blow stunned me, and my knees hit the floor. One of the chimeras used the opportunity to leap across the rotunda, charging right at me, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get out of the way of its sharp claws and jagged teeth—
Thunk!
A dagger zipped across the rotunda and lodged itself in the chimera’s right eye. The creature screamed and exploded in a shower of smoke, and the dagger clattered to the floor. I coughed and looked across the room. Aunt Rachel was pressed up against the gate, her arm stuck through one of the openings. She’d thrown the dagger, and her Spartan aim had been true.
“Get me a bow and some arrows!” she screamed. “Now!”
Zoe darted away from the door, but it would take her time to find a ranged weapon that Aunt Rachel could use. Her Spartan killer instincts were the only reason she’d been able to throw that dagger and hit her mark.
“Rory!” Babs’s mouth moved under my hand. “Get up! Get up!”
I shook off my daze and staggered to my feet. I glanced down at my injury and wished I hadn’t, given the blood that covered my arm from my shoulder all the way down to my fingertips. More and more pain pulsed through my body, the red-hot intensity of it threatening to block out everything else, but I forced myself to take slow, deep breaths, push the agony away, and tighten my grip on Babs’s hilt. I couldn’t afford to let myself feel the pain right now. Not with the chimeras advancing on me again.
Another one pounced, and I lurched to the side, barely avoiding the scorpion’s stinger on the end of its tail. The chimera slammed into the display case, breaking the glass and crushing the wooden stand to bits. The hard blow stunned the creature, and I charged forward and stabbed it in the side, shoving my sword deep into its body. The creature screamed and vanished in a puff of smoke.
Four down, three to go.
Still too many to go.
The other chimeras were tired of playing with me, and they moved so that they were all standing in a loose circle around me. Then they slowly started closing in. I drew in a deep breath and raised Babs, getting ready for the multiple attacks that were coming next.
And then there was no more time to think.
There was only fighting.
The three chimeras all pounced at me at the same time, swiping out with their claws and snapping at me with their jagged teeth. For once, I was glad Takeda had spent so much time on agility drills in gym class this past week. I ducked and dodged and spun this way and that, avoiding as many of the blows as I could.
But I couldn’t avoid them all.
One of the chimeras lashed out with its paw, catching me square in the chest, but its claws skidded off the tough leather that Zoe had woven into my dress. I had never been so grateful for armor before.
But it wasn’t going to be enough to save me.
My chest might be protected by Zoe’s braided leather armor, but the rest of my body wasn’t, and the creatures quickly took advantage.
The first chimera swiped its claws across my right arm. The second creature nicked my left thigh, while the third caught me across the back of my right calf. In an instant, I was the one on the defensive, trying to ward off all their attacks and failing miserably. The chimeras realized that they had me trapped and beaten, and they were going to kill me, one swipe of their claws at a time. Even if Aunt Rachel somehow got her hands on a bow and some arrows, she couldn’t help me now. Not with the chimeras all around me. She couldn’t risk shooting at the creatures for fear that she would hit me instead.
I gritted my teeth, pushed the pain of my many injuries away, and kept fighting, just like any Spartan would, just like any true warrior would.
Even if I hadn’t been injured, the chimeras were far bigger and stronger than I was. One of them lashed out with its long tail and knocked my legs out from under me. I hit the floor hard and slid back ten feet, slamming into another display case and losing my grip on Babs.
The sword landed a few feet away, and I slowly crawled across the floor and grabbed her blade with my bloody fingers. But my entire body felt cold, heavy, and numb from where the chimeras had clawed me, and I simply didn’t have the strength to pick up the weapon, much less wield her.
“Looks like you were right about that curse after all,” I mumbled.
“I’m sorry, Rory,” Babs whispered, staring up at me, tears streaming out of her green eye. “So sorry.”
I tried to smile, but I didn’t have the strength for that either. “It’s not your fault,” I mumbled again. “This was my decision, my choice.”
Babs kept staring at me, more and more tears streaming down her half of a face. The drops were as cold as snowflakes stinging my skin.
I looked over at the archway, but I was in the front corner of the room, and I couldn’t see anyone from this angle, although I could hear my friends shouting, along with Aunt Rachel and Takeda. They were still trying to save me, even though it was already too late.
A series of low, pleased growls sounded. The three remaining chimeras all grinned, showing me their teeth, and started advancing on me for the final time. In seconds, they would leap on me and rip me to pieces. I just hoped it wouldn’t hurt too much—before the end.
I stared at the chimeras, too injured and exhausted to do anything but watch them come for me. At least I’d saved Ian, Zoe, and Mateo. I took comfort in that.
The chimeras got down on their haunches and crept forward, one foot at a time, their paws scorching the floor. They rocked back, all readying themselves to leap at me…
And then they stopped.
They just stopped.
The chimeras’ heads snapped up, and they all stared at the glass ceiling. I craned my neck up too, wondering what they were looking at, since all I saw were the moon and stars twinkling in the night sky far, far above…
I frowned. Wait a second. Maybe it was my imagination or the blood loss, but it seemed there were several patches of sky that were darker than the rest and rapidly dropping down toward the museum…
The ceiling exploded with a roar.
* * *
Glass fell down all over me, tink-tink-tinking against the floor like drops of crystal rain. I put my arms up over my head, protecting my face as best I could, but the sharp shards still sliced into my skin, making me hiss with even more pain.
The roaring shower of glass stopped, but a series of loud screech-screech-screeches rose up to take its place. My heart lifted with hope. I knew those screeches.
I dropped my arms, raised my head again, and blinked, trying to focus on the scene in front of me. Sure enough, one after another, Eir gryphons dropped down through the shattered ceiling and landed right in front of me. Balder, the leader, along with Brono, his son, and a third adult gryphon. But what were they doing here? How had they found me?
For a moment, I wondered if I was imagining things. If maybe I was already dead and just dreaming that this was all happening.
But I wasn’t.
The gryphons were here, and they launched themselves at the chimeras. The two sets of creatures went around and around the rotunda, scratching, biting, and attacking each other with their claws, teeth, and beaks. They whirled around in a tangled mass of bronze wings and black fur, so fast and vicious that I couldn’t tell where the gryphons began and the chimeras ended.
But slowly, the gryphons began to get the best of the chimeras. One of the chimeras exploded in a puff of smoke, then the second one. The three gryphons cornered the last chimera, then pounced on the creature all at the same time. A second later, the final chimera also disintegrated into a cloud of smoke…
After that, I must have passed out for a minute, because the gryphons were suddenly standing next to me, with Brono, the baby, hunkered down on the floor right beside me. I smiled and tried to lift my hand to pet him, but I was too weak, and I couldn’t even move my fingers right now…
I must have drifted off again, because the next thing I knew, someone was shouting my name.
“Rory!” Ian’s face appeared above mine. “Rory!”
He fell to his knees, picked me up, and cradled me against his chest. My head dropped down. Maybe it was the pain of all my injuries, but I could have sworn that Ian was holding a tiny whistle in his hand. I frowned. What was he doing with a whistle?
“Rory! Rory! Stay with me!” Ian kept shouting at me, but his voice got fainter and farther away with every passing second.
Then his voice cut off altogether, and the world faded to black.