The Protectors: Book 1 in the Protectors Saga

by Paige Dooling

  The high sun hit Avery as she walked out of the castle doors, soothing over her entire body. The bright sun and warm colors of the outside were in strict contrast to the cool dark castle. It felt to Avery like stepping into another world, the real world, and leaving the dreamlike realm of the castle behind.

  The courtyard was empty, but there were still plenty of sounds floating around the air. From the outside of the wall, the sounds of everyday life were loud and clear. From inside the castle, Avery could hear the shouts of guards, giving and receiving orders. Then, to her left, she heard what she had been listening for, the faint whinnies of horses.

  Avery walked down the path she had seen the stable boys walk with the horses. Once she had passed through the archway in the attached building, she found herself in a completely different courtyard. This courtyard was simply a large square green field of shortly cut grass, surrounded by a dirt walkway. To Avery’s right, was a low-rise part of the castle, which seemed to be made out of wider and rounder stones than the rest of the castle. There were three large arched wooden doors on the bottom floor. The middle door was left partially ajar and the smells of baking breads and cooking meats were filtering out through it. Outside of the door was a small wooden bench with some kind of churn sitting next to it. In front of her was a higher part of the castle, with one of the towers attached to it. To her left, were the stables she had been looking for. The stables were a single level building made out of round brown and black rocks, with a straw roof. The front of the stables had a row of twenty large square windows, with horses heads sticking out of a few of them, whinnying at each other and over to Avery. A large rounded open entranceway was built into the middle of it. There was a wooden fence surrounding the stable that went out about twenty feet. It was split in the center by a small dirt pathway that led up to the entrance of the stables. Inside the fenced area were three loose horses on the right side and a few pigs and chickens on the left side. One of the stable boys that had taken the Protectors’ horses was in with the pigs and chickens, shoveling manure into a cart.

  The smell of animals began to mix with the scent of cooking foods already in Avery’s nostrils, causing Avery to feel slightly queasy. She puffed air out of her nostrils and headed over to the stables. She walked up the small path, through the entryway, and into one of the largest stables she had ever seen in her life. Not only were there twenty stalls of horses to her right and left, but the stable went much farther back than was visible from the outside. Avery ambled down the hay strewn pathway, past two tack rooms on either side of her and stopped in the middle of another row of horse stalls.

  In back of the main stable area was small walled in courtyard where there were more horse stalls built. These stalls were larger than the inside ones, and had both inside and outside access for the horse. In the largest stall, was a tall completely ebony black stallion. He was just as tall as Phantom, but not as bulky. On the outside of his enclosed stall, a gold plaque read, ‘Drako’. The large black horse was on the inside area of his stall, munching on a large pile of green hay. Avery clucked her tongue and the horse lifted his head, a few straggly pieces of hay hanging out of his mouth. He finished munching on the hay already in his mouth, and then slowly meandered up to Avery. He stuck his large head over his circular wooden stable door and straight into Avery’s face. Avery moved her body slightly to the left, to avoid being knocked over by him, and took his giant head in her hands. She scratched under his chin as he nibbled on a wayward lock of her hair.

  “You remind me of my boy.” Avery whispered into the horse’s ear.

  “Um, excuse me, Miss,” Avery turned and saw another one of the stable boys she had seen before, addressing her, “that’s the King’s horse.”

  Avery got the implication that meant, ‘hands off’. She gave the horse one more pat on his neck, then stepped away from him.

  “I’m guessing my friends haven’t come back, yet?” Avery asked the boy.

  “No, Miss Avery.” The boy said back to her.

  Avery sighed, she wondered if she was going to have to have this same conversation with everyone she met, “Just call me Avery. No, Miss, alright?”

  The boy looked completely confounded. He just stood in front of her, staring at the ground, not sure what to say next, or how to address her.

  “Fine,” Avery said, taking pity on the boy, “call me whatever you want.”

  “Thank you, Miss Avery.” The boy told her, already more at ease, “Did ya want me to bring out the Protectors’ horses?”

  Avery smiled, “That’d be great.”

  The boy whistled and two more stable boys, one whom Avery hadn’t seen before, joined him. They ran back to the last few stalls in the walled in courtyard and fetched the Protectors’ horses from them. The stable boys hitched the horses up to the outside fence, and then Avery, sensing they all intended to wait out there with her and the horses, told them it was fine for them to get back to their work.

  Avery sat on the top rail of the fence, in between Steel and Phantom, and waited for the others. She had to continually push Steel’s mouth away from her, as Jade’s horse kept trying to nibble on her leather belt. After about ten minutes, the rest of the Protectors came walking through the same archway Avery had come through. They were being led by Ferris, who smiled and nodded his head slightly when he caught sight of Avery.

  “I hope you haven’t been waiting long.” He told her.

  “Not too long.” Avery said, hopping off of the fence.

  Jade walked past Avery quickly, without acknowledging her. Before Avery could turn and say something to Jade, she noticed Bunny had a large satchel slung over her shoulder that she hadn’t had the last time Avery had seen her.

  “Are those all of the records Gumptin asked for?” Avery asked Bunny.

  Bunny nodded, “Yes, Jade made me carry them down.” Bunny shifted the loaded down satchel strap on her shoulder, cringing a little under its wait.

  Avery grabbed the heavy satchel off of Bunny’s shoulder, slipping it over her own, “You know,” Avery told Bunny, “just because Jade tells you to do it, doesn’t mean you have to.”

  Bunny sighed, “Jade’s still not over the whole, me hitting her with a rock, incident yet. I figured I’d just try and be nice to her and do what she tells me to do for a little while.”

  Avery smiled to herself; she wasn’t sure if that was going to be such a good idea. She could only hope Bunny’s mostly meek personality didn’t get trampled over by Jade’s strong one.

  “Well,” Avery said, “if Jade tells you to go jump off a cliff, which she probably will at some point, just try and control yourself, alright?”

  “I promise.” Bunny laughed sweetly, smiling at Avery.

  Before mounting up on their horses, Avery thanked Ferris for showing the other girls the records.

  “Of course,” He told Avery, “just following orders.” Ferris shut his mouth, then after a slight hesitant look, said to Avery, “Orders that the King doesn’t usually give. I don’t remember the last time he allowed visitors into the records room. In fact, I’m not sure that he ever has.”

  Avery wasn’t quite sure what Ferris was trying to say, “Well…” she said, “we’re Protectors, and Gumptin sent us. So…” That was it. That was all Avery could think to say.

  Ferris stared hard at Avery for a few seconds, smiling slightly, “I’m sure that’s it.” He waved goodbye to girls, “Have a safe trip home.”

  Avery jumped as Skylar, who had, unnoticed by Avery, come up and stood beside her, wrapped her arm around Avery’s shoulder.

  “That, Draven,” Skylar said, slyly smiling down at Avery, “was the tastiest thing I have laid my eyes on…maybe ever.”

  “Skylar,” Avery groaned, shaking Skylar’s shoulder off of her, “you think every guy you see who is even mildly attractive is tasty.”

  “Oh, come on,” Skylar teased, following Avery to the where the horses were hitched up, “don’t tell me you didn’t think he was gorgeou
s?”

  Avery shrugged, “He was alright.” She turned her head away from Skylar, making sure she couldn’t see the blush of a lie forming in her cheeks.

  “Whatever,” Skylar shouted, pushing Avery in the shoulder slightly, before walking over to mount her horse, “I don’t believe you for a second. Now, tell me what went down in that throne room, woman!”

  As Avery approached Phantom, she saw Jade leaning up against Steel, arms crossed, one eyebrow up, staring Avery down.

  “What is your problem?” Avery asked, laughing. She was too shocked by Jade’s look not to laugh. For a minute, it reminded Avery of the look her mother gave her a few years ago when she had been caught sneaking back into the house after going to a concert her mother had told her she wasn’t old enough for.

  “I don’t have a problem.” Jade said in a clipped tone, shrugging her shoulders, “I’m just waiting for you to answer Skylar.”

  “Nothing happened.” Avery said slowly, mounting Phantom.

  Jade didn’t move; she just stared up at Avery, a look of suspicion on her face.

  “Nothing.” Avery said again to Jade.

  Jade shook her head, then turned to mount Steel.

  It suddenly occurred to Avery, that while she had been so busy protesting that nothing had happened up in Draven’s throne room, she had completely forgot to mention to the girls the most important thing that had actually happened in his throne room.

  “I almost forgot,” Avery said loudly, “I did get him to give us permission to use his army.”

  Jade, who was halfway through mounting Steel, fell to the ground as her foot slipped out of the stirrup.

  “What?!” Jade shouted, wrapping her arms around Steel’s neck, and picking herself up, “And exactly what did you do to convince him to do that?!”

  Skylar let out a little wolf whistle, “That’s my girl!” She giggled.

  Sasha was looking at Avery like she had just sprouted a second head.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Avery said defensively, “I didn’t do anything.”

  “Oh,” Said Jade, mounting up fully this time, “so he just, out of the blue, decided to give us his army, which he so adamantly had to think about.”

  It was time for Avery to calm everybody down and clear the air, “First off,” she said, “it wasn’t out of the blue. I kept pushing him about it. Second, it comes with conditions. He wants us to bring him a full plan, and he wants to be involved in everything we do with his army.”

  “So, nothing really happened?” Skylar asked, sounding disappointed.

  “We just talked.” Avery told her.

  Jade squinted at her, as if trying to pry into Avery’s brain, “That was it? Nothing else happened?”

  Avery’s mind immediately flashed back to the electric feel of Draven’s warm lips resting on her cheek, “Nothing else happened.” She said to Jade, trying to block out the image.

  “Good,” Jade said, kicking Steel into a slow walk, “because if you decided to fall for the one guy on this planet or Earth, who called me a dog, I’d be forced to pound some sense into you.”

  Bunny followed Jade out of the courtyard, followed by Sasha, then Skylar and Avery.

  “So,” Skylar leaned over and asked Avery, when she was sure Jade was out of earshot, “what was he really like? You know, besides being hot.”

  Avery thought back to their entire interaction. She was as confused about it now as she had been after Draven had slammed the door in her face. There were moments when he was soft and open, telling her about his father, and their last moments when he had given her his army. Then, there were moments when he was closed off and abrupt, insulting Avery and trying to get rid of her. It aggravated Avery just thinking about him and his arrogant and aloof mannerisms, but she also couldn’t help the warm tingle that rushed over her body when she thought about his laugh and the softer side she was able to see just below his surface.

  After giving it a little thought, and realizing she really wasn’t sure what she felt about King Draven, she told Skylar, “He’s complicated.”

  Skylar looked at her a bit puzzled, “Is that good or bad?”

  That was the question Avery was asking herself, “I’m not sure yet.”

  From the other side of Avery, Sasha said, “If I were you, I’d go with bad, because that boy is way out of your league.”

  Avery was always so completely shocked by Sasha’s insults that she could never come up with a comeback in time. So, as she was staring at Sasha open-mouthed, Skylar said, “Oh, back off Sash, Avery’s smokin’. You’re just jealous because King Cutie didn’t ask you to stay behind and discuss ‘interrelations’.”

  Sasha scoffed, “Please, if I decide to go after that man…he’s mine.”

  Avery suddenly had enough talk about King Draven.

  “Alright,” she said to Skylar, “despite his good looks,” she turned to Sasha, “and despite your ego mutilating statements directed at me, can we please talk about something else.”

  Skylar was silent for about fifteen seconds, and then asked, “Did you guys see how hot that blacksmith was?”

  “You’re worse than a dog in heat.” Sasha told Skylar.

  Skylar acted offended, she shouted up towards Jade, “Jade, now I can join your club! I was just called a dog too! Now we need someone to say it to Avery, so our dog club has a leader.”

  Despite herself, Avery burst out laughing; she only hoped Jade didn’t see her giggling.

  It didn’t help when Jade turned around in her horse and shouted back, “I think our club might be a little Ruff for her!”

  Hearing something so corny come out Jade’s mouth, caused Avery to throw her head back and let out one of her crystal bellowing laughs. It was so loud and contagious, that despite Jade’s previously sour mood, she couldn’t help but let out a chuckle either.

  Just as they were about to ride their horses out of the castle gates, Avery turned around in her saddle and took one last look at the castle. She looked up to the large window on the second floor, and then scanned a few windows over to the right. She knew these were the windows that belonged to Draven‘s throne room. Despite not being able to see much behind the windows, she could have sworn she saw a shadow moving inside one of the tall windows. Before she allowed herself to dwell on the thought of whom that shadow belonged to, she turned back around and followed the girls out of the castle walls.

  Chapter 10

  When they got back to Havyn, they dropped their horses off at the stables, and then walked over to the library to meet Gumptin.

  Gumptin was seated at the large round table, reading a big red leather bound book, waiting for them.

  “How did it go?” He asked the girls as they walked into the room.

  Avery slammed the satchel she had taken off of Bunny’s shoulder onto the table in front of Gumptin, “Here are the records you wanted.” Avery told Gumptin, smiling proudly.

  Gumptin opened the satchel and scanned through the documents inside it, “Are you sure this is everything?” He asked, looking up at Avery, “You remembered everything I told you I needed?”

  Avery hesitated for a second. She hadn’t actually been there when the other girls had gotten the records, so she wasn’t quite sure how to answer.

  “Well, it should be.” Avery said.

  Gumptin blinked up at Avery, “Could you please define what you mean by should.”

  “I’m the one who got the records,” Jade stepped in and told Gumptin, “and yes I got everything you told us to.”

  Without thanking or questioning Jade, Gumptin asked Avery, “Where were you?”

  Avery placed her proud little smile back on her face, “Oh, just getting Draven to agree to give us his army.”

  Gumptin looked a little stupefied, “You…what?”

  Avery furrowed her brow, not understanding why he looked so shocked. After all, he was the one who had sent them to try and get Draven’s army. Why would he have sent them if he expected them to fail?

/>   “Is that surprising for some reason?” Avery asked him.

  “Well…well…yes.” Gumptin stammered, “I thought he would either tell you ‘no’, or give you some vaguely ambivalent answer. Then, after he had time to think about it, he might say yes. Or, I would go see him and convince him of your pure intentions. I had no hope that he would willingly give you use of his army without any argument.”

  “Thanks for your confidence.” Avery said sarcastically, taking a seat in one of the chairs next to Gumptin, “Anyway, there were a few arguments, and a few catches. He wants you,” Avery pointed to Gumptin, “to write down and give him whatever past Avery’s full plan was, and he wants to be involved once he gives us use of his army.”

  Gumptin still just stared at Avery in amazement, “I am utterly astonished…well done. I will get to work drawing up the plan immediately.” Gumptin shook his head, “I cannot believe you were able to get through to him with reason.”

  Jade let out a snort, “I don’t think reason had anything to do with it.”

  Avery was starting to get sick of all the little comments made about her and Draven.

  She turned quickly towards Jade, who was sitting next to her, and told Jade sharply, “Just drop it. What is your problem with Draven anyway?” Before Jade could bring up the dog remark again, Avery stopped her, “Besides that.”

  Avery knew Jade well enough to know that one offhand remark wouldn’t bother her so much.

  “I…I,” Jade ran her fingers through her long black hair, “I don’t know. He just gives me a weird vibe.” She softened, staring Avery in the eyes as she said the next part, “I don’t trust him.”

  “Do not be ridiculous.” Gumptin cut in quickly, “He is the King of Nightfell. If anything, you, Jade Kai, probably give him a weird vibe.”

  “Says the weirdest of them all.” Jade scowled at Gumptin, leaning back in a chair and putting her feet up on the table.

  Gumptin continued to scan through the records the girls had brought back, “His army has more men than I had thought, very good.” He said more to himself, than any of the girls.