The Protectors: Book 1 in the Protectors Saga (2 page)

They kicked their horses into a run and continued
down the dark forest path which led to the Emperor’s fortress. None
of them were focusing on anything but the road in front of
them.

Once the Protectors exited out of the thick woods,
the fortress immediately came into view. Until now, they had only
seen it from a distance. It was a dark crumbling fortress,
permanently surrounded by darkness and mist. Up close, it seemed
even more foreboding than it did in the nightmares they had about
it in their sleep.

The Protectors rode up to the massive wall that
surrounded the fortress. The huge front gates lay open a crack,
beckoning them inward. They dismounted their horses and sent them
on their way, not wanting them to get hurt.

The gates were old and decaying and made horrible
screeching noises as the Protectors heaved them open. Heavy stone
gargoyles guarding the entrance to the fortress cried out warning
alarms, as the Protectors entered into the desolate courtyard.

The troop of mountain trolls that began to charge
them, may have, on another day, been able to hold them back for a
while, but not today. Today things were different. Today they
weren’t fighting out of duty or power; they were fighting for one
of their own.

They drove the trolls all the way back inside the
fortress and towards the circular stone steps which led up to the
top chamber. They battled them up the staircase and through the
enormous doors, into the same darkness that their leader had
entered into not long ago.

As soon as they all set foot into the black room, the
remaining trolls retreated, closing and locking the heavy doors
behind them, effectively trapping the Protectors inside.

The Protectors stood deadly still for a moment,
panting and bleeding, listening to the sounds of bulky footsteps
and the clink of weapons building up on the outside of the
doors.

“What’s that?” Bunny asked, pointing, breaking the
tense quiet.

All their eyes followed to where Bunny was pointing
at. In the very center of the chamber a dim light was gleaming down
from the ceiling, but it was what the light was shining on that
captured the Protector’s attention. There, in the middle of the
light lay a body, a body with a dagger plunged deep into its
chest.

The Protectors stood paralyzed, making the room seem
all the more lifeless. In a matter of seconds, everything that had
just previously happened seemed like a million years ago to them.
The silence in the room was deafening, a pin dropping would have
sounded like thunder.

Skylar was the first one to step forward, followed
wordlessly by the other Protectors. It wasn’t until they moved
closer that they were able to see the full effect of the scene.
Avery’s once white corset was now stained a bright shade of red.
The red continued to form a wide circle around the body, although,
it was hard to make out against the dark stone floor. Avery had
always been porcelain pale, but now her skin was a ghostly white,
almost translucent, void of any color or life. Her lips were parted
slightly and had taken on the color of lavender. The Protector’s
had seen enough death to know what it looked like. They knew she
was dead; they just couldn’t bring themselves to rationalize
it.

When they reached the body, Bunny collapsed down by
Avery’s side. Picking up Avery’s ice cold hand, she held it in her
own and began to cry.

Jade had gone numb the moment they spotted the body.
She felt like nothing in her physically or mentally was capable of
functioning, but now watching Bunny crying, feeling was beginning
to come back into her body. It felt like the shockwave right before
the explosion hits.

“She’s not dead…she can’t be dead.” Jade’s voice was
louder than was necessary and quivering with fear, “Pull the knife
out of her…
hurry
!”

Jade looked around to the others, but no one
moved.

When Jade realized that nobody was going to do
anything, she ran up to Avery’s body, pushed Bunny out of the way,
and gripped the ivory hilt of the steel dagger still embedded in
Avery’s heart. She pulled with all of her strength. There was the
slight scraping of blade against bone as the dagger was dislodged
with enough force to send Jade stumbling backwards. The wound had
stopped bleeding awhile ago, but the removal of the weapon had
caused the body to jerk and fresh blood to spill out of the opening
in her chest.

Bunny, who was closest to the body, released a
whimper from deep in her throat. She strode towards the back wall
and placed her head against the bricks, trying to wipe out the
image of Avery’s wound.

Jade caught her balance and stood stone still for a
moment, waiting for something to happen, but when nothing did, she
staggered back over to the body. Jade fell to her knees beside
Avery’s corpse, looking it up and down. The blood was cool against
the side of Jade’s face as she lay her head upon Avery’s chest,
listening for a heartbeat, waiting for Avery’s body to rise as her
lungs filled with air, but there was nothing.

“Breathe…come on, breathe!” Her voice was starting to
crack and tears were beginning to sting her eyes, “Don’t you dare
leave me!”

Jade lifted her head up and began pushing on her
chest, giving her mouth to mouth, but nothing worked. After a few
minutes of trying that, she began shaking the body and pounding on
it harder and harder with her fists, shouting, “Fight! Damn
you…fight!” She picked Avery up into her lap and rocked her for a
few moments, whispering into her ear, “Please…please don’t go. We
can’t do this without you…please, please.”

Jade lay Avery’s body back down and began beating on
it again, but she wasn’t allowed to do this for very long. Sasha
and Skylar grabbed Jade by both arms and ripped her away from the
body.

“Let me go! I have to help her!” Jade screamed and
kicked as she struggled to free herself, “Let me go!”

“You can’t help her,” Skylar shouted at her, as she
began to cry herself, “you can’t! She’s gone, Jade…she’s gone.”

A savage scream escaped Jade’s lips and echoed
throughout the chamber. She raised her hand to her hair and pulled,
still screaming. When her voice had finally worn out, she collapsed
into Skylar’s arms, and they fell to the floor together, holding
each other and crying.

“How can this be happening?” Bunny uttered, still
facing the wall where she was leaning her head, “What are we
suppose to do?” Her voice began to get more hysterical, “This can’t
be happening!”

“Bunny, calm down!” Sasha spoke for the first time
since they entered the chamber. “We’ll figure out what to do.” She
walked up to Bunny, grabbing her by the shoulders and turning her
around, trying to steady her.

“Avery’s dead, Sasha.” Skylar looked up at her from
the ground, still holding Jade, “What exactly is it that you think
we should do?”

“First things first, we take Avery’s body back home.
We get Gumptin, he might know of something we can do.” Sasha was
taking over the role of leader, “Right now, though, we have to get
out of here, or we’re going to end up getting killed
ourselves.”

“That’s just what I had in mind,” said a voice from
the darkness.

They all turned towards the direction the voice had
come from just in time to see the Emperor emerge from the
blackness.

Their swords were all drawn instantaneously, and Jade
was halfway across the chamber towards the Emperor before Sasha
stopped her.

“Jade…no!” Sasha bellowed, “We can’t do this right
now! We have to get Avery back to Gumptin! You know we do!”

Jade just stood there staring at the Emperor for a
minute, and Sasha thought she might not have heard her, but then a
shiver seemed to run through the length of Jade’s body and the grip
on her sword loosened. Jade and the Emperor exchanged one last cold
hard look before she backed down.

Sasha stepped forward, so that she was just a few
inches behind Jade, “Today is not our day to fight Emperor. The
only thing we wish to do is return Avery’s body back home.”

The Emperor’s laugh rolled over the Protectors like
an earthquake, “Do you think me a fool?” He asked, “The last thing
I would let you do is drag off your leader to your little magician.
Besides, I already have a perfect place on the battlements picked
out for her corpse.”

At these words Jade and the other Protectors moved
into fighting position.

The Emperor continued to speak without emotion, “The
only thing that would make this day more perfect is to have four
more bodies to go along with hers. So, you see, you were right
about one thing; it’s not our day to fight, it’s your day to die.”
He snapped his fingers once and a second later the locked doors
burst open and an army of trolls, Demons, and beasts flooded into
the chamber.

The fiends moved in quickly. Now that they knew the
Protectors were leaderless, they found a new confidence. They were
like sharks in the water that had smelled blood and were going in
for the kill.

The battle was intense and the Protectors fought
hard, but without Avery their power wasn’t strong enough to keep
the enemy back for long. They were weakening and the sense that
they weren’t going to win this battle began to envelope them.

Bunny was the first one to fall. A Bacci Demon,
muscular and wolf-like, trapped her into a small corner of the
chamber. She thought she had seen an opening in the Bacci’s
defenses, so she raised her sword high above her head, intending to
bring it down on the Bacci’s upper arm, but he anticipated this and
took advantage. Right before Bunny was about to strike, the Bacci
made a lightning quick turn and drove his own sword deep into
Bunny’s abdomen. As the Bacci pulled his sword out, he howled with
excitement and blood lust, he knew he had just killed himself a
Protector.

Bunny fell to the ground, holding her stomach. Blood
was pouring from her wound and she knew she was dying. She tried to
call out for help, but the words stuck in the blood pooling in her
throat and all that came out was a gurgle. She died with the taste
of blood overwhelming her senses.

Skylar switched her sword from her right had to her
left because the deeply embedded arrow sticking out of her right
shoulder made any movement impossible. The next arrow flew towards
her from somewhere in the crowd of Demons. It struck her in the
upper thigh and forced her to the ground.

“Ugh!” She grimaced in pain.

She used her sword as a brace and struggled up off of
the ground. Skylar had just barely righted herself when an enormous
ogre, ax held high in his hand, rushed her. She lifted the sword
she was using to balance on and plunged it into the ogre’s neck.
The ogre fell down dead, and Skylar, now without her support fell
back down as well. She was laboring so hard to get back up that she
never even saw the thick silver arrow split through the air towards
her. The arrow hit her with such force, that she was flown
backwards five feet until she hit the stone wall behind her, with a
crushing force.

Skylar lay on the floor for a few moments, trying to
register what had happened before she attempted to get up. When she
finally did try to push herself up off the ground, she realized
that she couldn’t move. She couldn’t feel any part of her body
below her neck. She was paralyzed. Skylar didn’t know if it was
from the force of hitting the wall or the three foot arrow
protruding out of her midsection, but she did know that this was
the end of her fight. She began to cry warm tears that she could no
longer feel once they slid down her neck.

Skylar looked over at Avery’s body, so still amongst
the chaos going on around it. She couldn’t believe it had come to
this, and then she died.

Sasha had seen Skylar hit the wall and immediately
tried to make her way over to her. She took out the troll she was
fighting easily. With a quick kick she took him to the ground, and
then cut off his head with her sharp sword. When Sasha got to
Skylar, she bent down and checked for a pulse, even though, she
knew there wouldn’t be one.

She bent down and kissed her fallen friend on the
forehead. It was the only way she knew of to say goodbye. Standing
up to face the battle she knew would claim her life, Sasha let out
a long sad sigh.

There was a large group of swamp trolls rushing
towards her. Sasha knew that there were too many of them for her to
win, but she quickened her pace to meet them none the less. If
Sasha was going to die, she was going to go out fighting.

Her fierceness took the trolls off guard, and she
quickly took down the first two. Sasha flipped over the shortest
one, severing his head off with her sword on the way down. The
second one received her dagger in the back of his skull.

Sasha was so into the battle that she never saw the
colossal troll moving up behind her. The troll lifted its massive
stone club high into the air and brought it down directly on the
back of Sasha’s skull. There was a terrible crunching sound, and
Sasha fell to the floor. She lost all sense of everything in an
instant. The only thing her brain could focus on was trying to get
herself up off the ground. She was scrambling around on the floor,
attempting to get control of her limbs, when the troll swung his
club down onto her head once again, this time on her left temple.
Thick blood poured from her head in a small stream. Her body jerked
twice before all movement stopped completely, and she was dead.

Jade glanced around the room and saw that she was the
only Protector left. Instead of breaking her, it only made her
fight on harder. She knew when they started their journey to the
fortress, that if they hadn’t found Avery alive, this was going to
become a suicide mission. Jade found herself oddly fine with that,
but she was going to take down as many villains as she could before
she died, and hopefully, most importantly, the Emperor.