Protector (The Full-Blood Book 1)

by Serena Nova

  “Why?” Banu asked him, I heard others question it, too.

  “That is what they want,” Mister Ragdan answered.

  “Are there problems in the world?” I asked our teacher, and hoped he would answer honestly. He looked back at me then, I could almost hear him deciding how much he should tell us.

  “There are always problems in this world, Isadora.” He gave me a weak smile, hoping to redirect me from my train of thought.

  “What is going on then? Why change so much now?” I asked, meaning the Selection test changes.

  “Look, ladies. I know you all have questions about this. We are ordered to do it this way. Kings rules, I can’t go against them. I don’t know what is going on. Except that the Gate isn’t sealed fully. You know that, too. This means that creatures keep coming through it.” He looked at us all and pushed off his desk to walk from one side to the other.

  “Look,” he waved his hands in front of him, “I don’t know what is going on. Normally, they would have found Queens by now; they would have been married, and the spells to close the Gates further would have been placed.” Mister Ragdan rambled in front of us, his brow wrinkled. He rubbed his chin before he continued speaking.

  “The thing I know is that you all have to fight strong creatures from the Dark-world. There are worse creatures you could find there, believe me.” He sighed, and sat down on his desk again. “You all know the story of how the Gate came here. How the last Queen tried to protect us and was killed for it.” He looked up at us all and paused. We were silent, we knew this story. They teach it in the first years of school. He continued telling us anyway.

  “The Gate one day appeared in this world, letting dark-world creatures in to wreak havoc. A war raged between the dark-world creatures and the last Queen’s army of Witches, Elementals, and Protectors. She failed,” he said.

  “She failed, and four of the ten High Houses murdered her for that. They thought they could do it better, leaving the four High Houses to seal the Gate, but that didn’t work entirely. They made a bond between four powerful Elementals, the strongest of the houses, making them the Kings, the ones who used their magic to close the Gate.” He looked us all over after his short reminder of what had happened. He continued with our history, kept on rambling.

  “That didn’t work, either, it closed partway, making it so that the creatures still came through, though not as many as at first. Still, enough to kill us, which meant being a Protector now meant fighting at the Gate, and tracking the creatures that came through the Gate. If you chose that path, you became a Hunter.” He looked at some of the Protectors who wanted to be a Hunter and kept on talking, “You all know what happened next.” Some of us nodded, and he went further with his story. I sighed, we had heard this story from the first year of school.

  “The High Houses pulled all the fighting Witches and Elementals back, they needed to keep the magic lines safe. Left the fighting to the Protectors, found them less important, replaceable. And with no Full-Bloods left, they needed the strongest for themselves. And now, the strongest Protectors are recruited to become a personal Protector to a Witch or Elemental.” He ended his short history ramble, it wasn’t even a real lesson. We knew this story by heart.

  What mister Ragdan said wasn’t something I would choose to be in my life. If I’d had a choice, I wanted to be a Hunter and fight at the Gate. But I had promised Gran that I would stay away from the Gate, too. I’d already broken one promise. I wasn’t breaking this one, too.

  “You girls need to study hard, train hard, and help each other out,” Mister Ragdan said, interrupting my thoughts. I looked up at him as he sat in his chair.

  “You have three weeks, girls. Three weeks, use them well. Schedules are on my desk, they are all adjusted to the upcoming competition.” He waved his hand to the stack of papers in front of him. And with that, we were dismissed. Chairs scraped over the floor, and people murmured to each other. I let go of Astra’s hand as I got up and walked towards Mister Ragdan’s desk. I grabbed a Witch schedule and one for myself. A question popped up in my mind. A dangerous one, one I needed to ask.

  “Mister Ragdan.” I waited for him to look at me, before I continued. “Why aren’t there any Full-Bloods anymore? Weren’t they strong enough to close the Gate?” I kept my voice low, not wanting the others to hear me.

  He sighed. “Isa, the last Queen was a Full-Blood, and not even she was strong enough to close the Gate. I don’t think they would have killed her if she was.” He leaned towards me before he said the next thing, “And all the Full-Bloods went into hiding or were killed in the war. They were the strongest in magic, making them the first targets the creatures hunted. We never heard from them again. People who looked for those who went into hiding came back empty-handed. And to be honest, if there was still a Full-Blood who could help us, they would have said something.” He looked at me, his brown eyes searching something in mine.

  “I don’t know, I wished they were still alive, so they could close the Gates,” I quickly said.

  “Oh no, Isa. Don’t get me wrong, we don’t know if they ever could close the Gates. The Kings possess a lot of magic, and they can’t even manage that. The last Queen, the strongest Full-Blood alive couldn’t even do it.” He leaned back into his chair. “I know you are worried about Astra and this test. But they need the strongest, the Kings need to bond with their Queens. They will help close the Gate more. They will never let anything happen to the Witches in the test, Isadora. Don’t worry.”

  I looked at the piece of paper in my hands. “Yeah, you are right,” I said to him and walked out of the room. Astra was waiting for me in the hallway.

  “What was that all about?” she asked me when I handed her the Witch schedule.

  “Nothing, just a few more questions.” We walked towards the dining hall; it wasn’t time for the next lesson, so we sat down at our normal table. Banu and the others sat down next to us. I looked at the schedule, there wasn’t much changed. Only that we would have six hours of fight training a day and two hours of study in the library, every day for three weeks. One good thing about this all was we didn’t have the boring classes such as politics or etiquette. I never liked them; was never good in them. I used them to catch some extra sleep.

  “What are you guys going to do, when you’ve graduated?” DeeDee asked us.

  “I want to work at the Gates,” Banu answered her. I gave her a small smile. She’d talked about that the last few years. She was an amazing protector and a tough lady. We both looked at DeeDee, wanting to hear her answer.

  “I hope to get selected to protect a Witch or do something other than Hunting at the Gates.” DeeDee was the most girly girl from the group except for Astra. Her parents were Protectors, too, so she had to follow in their footsteps.

  “I want to protect a Witch, too,” Madalena answered. “And you?” She looked at me. With that question, Astra also looked at me, arching a brow.

  “I don’t know, I’ll see what happens,” I answered as vaguely as possible.

  “Nothing big planned?” Banu looked directly at me, a smirk on her face. “You are the best among us, so you’ll probably get to protect the Kings themselves,” she said, and the smirk on her face widened towards a full smile, making me blush. I turned my face away from them. They cracked a laugh, making me laugh, too. We talked about school and what we did when we were younger, bringing up some memories; like when we hid the blackboard chalks, or ate ice cream late at night–which we’d stolen from the kitchen. We’d done so many things together. I looked at those four ladies, these would be our last few weeks together. After this, we all would go our own ways.

  I felt myself tearing up and swallowed past the lump that had formed in my throat. “Come, let’s go and train already. I think they won’t mind if we start early.” I got up from my chair, and the others followed me. This would be the hardest three weeks of our schooling, training for the most important thing in our lives; graduation and surviving the test.
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br />   3

  The three weeks flew by. We all had trained hard, and Astra had really shown improvement. We spent many hours in the library, looking up everything we could find about the Ilunias. I asked the Librarian if she knew of any books about the Ilunias. She had given me two, and we finished both of them in record time.

  We were forever at the library, looking over those two books and some others we had found. We sat at one of the tables, knowing that the test would be soon. I read in silence until I heard a grunt from Astra in front of me.

  “Why isn’t there any part about their weaknesses?” Astra complained, her hands were in her hair while she hung her head over the book in front of her.

  “Probably because nobody really fought them and explained what it was like, or nobody survived fighting them. So, nobody could tell us afterwards,” I told her.

  “Or the teachers have taken that part of the information out,” a voice said from behind us. I turned around to find Thalia and her two puppets.

  “Why would they do that?” Astra asked her. I fully turned around in my chair to look Thalia over. She still looked like an annoying bitch of a witch, only a little more tired. All the Witches had trained hard and for once, were really studying. The Witches got basic fighting the first few years in this school. When they knew the basics, they began learning magic and spells. For the competition, they needed to train more and be prepared for the fight. All of them went to the training without complaining, much. Astra took more training than she had scheduled. She trained with me and the other girls late in the evening. It was a good thing, because the information we found on the Ilunias wasn't good, and she would need all the extra benefits she could get.

  “Because we need to show them that we are the best,” she answered Astra. Discontent lined her voice, and I swear if that girl could roll her eyes she would have done so. Instead, I rolled my eyes for her. Like that answer explained everything.

  “Yeah, that is it. So, go along and do something else we’re studying here.” I waved my hand at them, motioning for them go away.

  Thalia snapped at my hand movement. “You aren’t going to win,” she said to us, then turned around and walked away.

  “Why would she say that to you?” I asked Astra. I knew that she and Thalia used to hang out sometimes. They weren't friends, not like Astra and me. But still, all the Witches were nice to each other.

  “I don’t think she was talking to me,” Astra answered, a little concerned towards me.

  “Why would she say that to me? I’m no Witch, and I’m not even taking your test. I’ll leave that up to you.” I gave her a half-hearted smile. I tried to cover the fact that my heart was beating out of my chest, from the idea that someone may know more about me than they let on. I suppressed the movement of looking around, to scan the area for threats.

  “Who gives a shit, Isa? Her hobby is being mean to you. You know that, and this is one of those moments. Let’s focus on finding something on these monsters.”

  “Creatures,” I corrected her.

  “Huh, what?” was the smart answer I got back.

  “They aren’t monsters, they are still living things. They may be scary and want to kill us, but still, a cat kills a mouse because it needs to eat. And a lion kills a threat to her cubs, and we don’t call them monsters. It is nature.” I looked at the book in front of me. There was a short list of what the Ilunias could do, and one thing about their weakness.

  The list said that they could use all the elements of magic, they had the power to turn into shadow, and they could blind their opponent. The two things known about their weakness was that they were overly confident and there were always three of them. Sisters, the book said.

  “Come, let’s go to bed. We can’t find anything here, and we have to do the test tomorrow.” Astra got up and closed her book. She placed it on the counter, so the librarian could put it back. We didn’t know where she’d gotten them, except that those two books contained the most information about the Ilunias.

  I closed mine and walked over to the desk, placing my book on top of hers. “I’ll see you in a moment. Going to look for something to read.” Astra mumbled a yes back at me, and I walked towards the back of the library. The smell of old books, dust, and old leather filled my nose, it made me think of my youth. I raked my fingertips over the book covers and the wooden planks they were standing on. I needed a moment for myself, to breathe and relax. Tomorrow may not be a big day for me, but it would be for Astra. It was her graduation test, her way to get a better life away from her parents.

  I stood still at the end of the rows, surrounded by the high bookcases, and listening to the silence. Taking a big breath, I blew it out slowly. Reaching out my hand, I closed my eyes as I felt the woodgrain under my fingertips. My thoughts moved towards the test, and how they would have caught the Ilunias–that they even managed to find them, bring them here and use them for a test was remarkable. If it had been me, I would have been pissed off like the hottest fire in Hell. It made me grimace; the idea of them angry. My anger rose towards the Selection council and the Kings for choosing something this dangerous to be used in a test for Witches. I touched the back of my neck, my mind wandering back towards Astra and whether or not she would be prepared enough to handle it.

  I shook my head at that thought. She was the strongest witch I knew; the smartest, too. She could handle it. The next question was, could I handle living without her, never seeing her again? This was one of our last days at the school. Astra would pass the selection. She would be chosen, and then she would leave. I would pass my test, and I would be going home.

  Home, that word rang through my head. A place where I would be safe, in the woods, surrounded by the sounds of the trees, the birds and the other animals that lived there together. But I would still be all alone. A small pain in my chest made me gasp for breath. Lonely, that is what I would be, even lonelier than I already was. Alone with the smells of the earth, the creaking wooden planks of my house, and the memories of my Grandmother who’d lived there.

  I opened my eyes, blinked a few times, removed the tears that had pooled in them, and stuffed those feelings as far away as I could. I didn’t want to think about it anymore. The library was still silent, my other home. A place that had been my home for twelve years, a place that would be my home forever, maybe even more than my home in the woods. It hurt to leave this all behind, to leave Astra behind and go into hiding. I wiped the fallen tears off of my face, took a deep breath, then turned around and headed back to my room. Feeling tired and sad, I needed sleep to remove those two things out of my body and mind.

  I needed to focus. When I reached our room, Astra was already in bed, asleep. I silently put on my sports bra I used as a pyjama top and my sweatpants, and went under the covers.

  Somebody shook me, then pulled off my covers, leaving me exposed in the cold air. I searched blindly for my covers, to get back to the comfortable warm shell I had created. I almost succeeded, until she started to talk.

  “Come on, Isa. Wake up and get out of bed. We need to have breakfast and then the Selection starts.” I opened my eyes and looked at the clock next to me. It was six in the morning, and breakfast didn’t start until seven. I groaned and turned around, finally managing to get my covers back. “Isa. Come on, get ready,” Astra almost yelled at me as she pulled at my covers again. I held them so tightly, I hoped they wouldn’t rip.

  “As, we still have an hour to get ready, please go back to bed or do something else. Stop bothering me.” I pulled the covers over my head.

  I hadn’t really slept the night before, nightmares had plagued me constantly. The usual stuff, not really making sense, and most of the time they were too strange to decipher. Last night was no different, I didn’t even start trying to figure it out. Spider-dogs that wanted to eat me weren't real. I needed to sleep more.

  “Let me sleep for an half hour more, As. Okay?” I groaned out through the blanket.

  “Yeah, fine.” I heard her
walking towards her bed, it groaned a little when she laid down. A deep sigh made me look at her, my lack of sleep forgotten.

  “What is it, As? You can’t be worried about today. You will be fine, you are the strongest Witch here.”

  “No, it isn’t that. I’m just wondering how this all goes. And, Isa, you are the strongest here,” she pointed out to me.

  It made me groan, knowing what she said was true. “Don’t start pointing that out, okay?” I mumbled at her.

  It made her smile, the thing I had wanted to achieve. “Still, forget me, you are the strongest that will take the test. You will be fine. And you will meet the Kings.” I waggled my eyebrows at her. “Have a happily ever after.” I gave her wink, which made her laugh.

  “That is it, Isa. I’m going to have an amazing life.” She looked at me. “Without you,” she added in a whisper. That got me out of my bed, as I reached for her. I layed down next to her and pulled her into my arms.

  “It will be fine. You will be amazing, and I will always be there for you.” I pulled her tighter against me, squashing her.

  “Okay, okay, let me go. I can’t breathe.” Astra chuckled, and I let her go a little. Still holding her, we stayed silent for a short while. This was the last day we would be together, and we both had a hard time dealing with it.

  “Come on, As. I’m going to get dressed. I can’t go in my pyjamas to the Selection, right?” I said, smiling at her. I was rewarded with a smile back. We let go of each other, and I got up. I changed into black cargo pants, a sports bra with green leaves on it, and a black long-sleeve shirt; standard protector’s outfit. I pulled on my boots, placed my knives in their holsters and my two swords on my back. The handles stuck out over my shoulders for easy access. They were made specifically for me; we all have our own weapons. They were always made specially for the Protectors. None of those weapons were the same. The weapons were a personal thing, nobody but that protector could touch those weapons. It wasn't really a rule, and maybe the other girls didn't have such a personal relationship with their weapons. For me, it was a no touch policy for everyone, or they would lose a limb.