The Protectors: Book 1 in the Protectors Saga

by P. M. Dooling

Chapter 9

  The route to Knighton Castle was far easier to follow than the one to Lilydale. Gumptin had told them all they had to do to get there was to continue down the Main Road. He said it would eventually lead them to Knighton Castle, in the heart of the kingdom of Nightfell.

  Since there wasn’t the sense of urgency to reach their destination quickly, like there had been for Lilydale, they kept their horses at a slow trot, enjoying the cool breeze and sounds of the forest.

  “Did Gumptin happen to mention to you why exactly we didn’t try this whole multiple army plan before?” Jade asked, riding beside Avery.

  It surprised Avery that Gumptin hadn’t said anything to Jade about her past incarnation’s disapproval of the King, and her subsequent discouragement in the plan. Then again, it was Gumptin talking to Jade, and he usually tried to say and spend as little time with her as possible. For a second, Avery considered telling Jade exactly what Gumptin had told her, but then she thought better of it. She didn’t want to have to deal with the questions that she knew would follow. Jade would want to know why Avery hadn’t approved of the King, and what exactly the incident with the Fairies was. Avery didn’t have the answers to those questions, and she knew Jade would just chastise her for not pushing Gumptin harder to give her the answers. Avery was enjoying the scenery and ride too much for that.

  So, instead, she just said, “No, he didn’t mention anything to me.”

  If Avery had hoped that answer would satisfy and quiet Jade, she was mistaken, “It just seems messed up, you know.” Jade continued, as Avery rolled her eyes. “If we had a somewhat good plan, and I’ll admit, this is a somewhat good plan, then why would we all ride off to this incredibly guarded fortress alone, on what seems to be a whim, and try to kill the Emperor.”

  Avery knew that Jade was making sense. She would have loved to been able to have the answer to that question, but the truth was she didn’t even have the slightest notion why they would do something so reckless. From what Gumptin had told her, she doubted even he knew why they had ridden out to the Emperor’s fortress that night.

  “I really don’t know.” Avery told Jade.

  “It sounds like a suicide mission. No wonder we died.” Jade sneered, “There’s no way I would have done something so stupid, unless there was a damn good reason.”

  Avery was sure that was true. For Jade to have ridden out that night, she must have either been confident in the plan, or else have a spectacular reason.

  Not wanting to dwell on the subject of their deaths, or what led up to them, Avery decided to switch the topic. She asked Jade about Mrs. Bott’s sweet shop and what her favorite treats were there. As Avery had already known, Jade leapt on the topic. One of the perks of being best friends and spending an obscene amount of time together is you know exactly what subjects they can’t help but talk about. For Jade, it was food, music, motorcycles, and although only Avery knew this, eighties movies, Jane Austen novels, and Star Trek memorabilia.

  The rest of the ride to the castle was a pleasant one for the girls. They traveled down the Main Road for over an hour, with nothing but the forest and its haunting serenity surrounding them. They passed over a dozen small roads, all marked with small wooden signs.

  On the road, the girls passed the occasional traveler, a young boy dragging a donkey, loaded down with misshapen sacks, a scruffy looking man on top of a brown work horse, galloping in the opposite direction. The Protectors had to ride around a family of six loaded into a wooden cart, being pulled by a giant slow moving draft horse. The mother and father sat up front, while the children were packed into the back, amongst several baskets of dark red apples. When the family recognized them as the Protectors, they gave each of the girls one of their delicious looking apples and thanked the Protectors for the work they did fighting the Emperor. Jade was the first to grab an apple, scarf it down, and then ask Avery if she was planning on eating hers.

  A little while later, the girls came to an old looking wooden bridge. A small sign, stuck into the ground in front of the bridge, had the words, ‘Cooper Bridge’ carved into it. Below that, it had an arrow and the words ‘Wildpoint Lookout’ carved on it. The arrow pointed to a small path leading off into the forest, to the right of the bridge. The bridge crossed over a softly moving wide river below. From what Avery remembered of the maps Gumptin had them study, the river was called Moonfound River and it started in the Stormfell Mountain range, ran all the way through the Darksin and Wildwood Forests, and ended in a giant lake called Ravage Lake, bordering the Wasted Desert.

  As they crossed the bridge, the sound of the flowing crystal clear water below sounded like bubbling bells as the water bounced off of the smooth stones and riverbed brush.

  After about an hour and twenty minutes of slow riding, the girls reached a section where the road diverged off into three separate paths. There was a large wooden post sign in the center of the three paths, with multiple directional signs pointing to different villages, nailed onto it. At the very top of the sign there was a board that pointed straight ahead. On it was written the name, ‘Knighton’. Below it was nailed a board pointing to the right road, which read, ‘Blackmore’. Below that, pointing to the left road was a sign that read, ‘Stormfell’. Then, below that, another sign pointing to the right that said, ‘Vowhollow’. Followed by a sign nailed beneath, pointing left, that read, ‘Divinwood‘. Then, a final sign, that pointed right, with the word, ‘Darksin’ written on it and a small black, X carved into the wood after it, in what appeared to be a warning. The sign made it easy enough for the Protectors to understand that they wanted to continue traveling straight.

  The farther they rode past the sign, the denser the forest became. With less light able to shine through the compact tree tops, a darkness fell over them, and a thickness hung in the air. It felt as if the very atmosphere itself were pushing in on them. The trees began to grow so close together, that as the Protectors trotted down the road; it looked as if they were surrounded on either side bay a dark brown wall. When Avery did manage to catch a glimpse of the forest between the trees, the only thing she was able to make out were dark shadows and the occasional ray of light, illuminating a patch of ankle high green grass. The only real color Avery could see were the spattering of multi colored wildflowers lining the edges where the forest met the road.

  After riding for about twenty minutes down the more primitive road, the path began to gradually incline up a large hill. The top of the hill was also where the forest ended.

  The moment they reached the top of the high hill, the trees opened up and a flood of sunlight smashed into the Protectors’ eyes. Avery pulled Phantom up to a halt, allowing her eyes time to adjust to the new brightness. The rest of the Protectors followed her lead. As she reached her hand up above her eyes to shield them from the sun, Avery scanned the horizon in front of her. What she saw almost took her breath away.

  The dirt road they were on led down a hill of Christmas green colored grass, and as the wind blew through it, creating waves, it made the Protectors feel like they were standing in the center of a vast green ocean. When the road reached the bottom of the grassy hill, it leveled out into an expansive valley below. On each side of the road were scatterings of small straw farm houses, each with their own little section of land. From high above the valley, most of the farms looked like they were growing wheat and different types of vegetables. There were animals, sheep, chickens, horses, pigs, bunnies, and the occasional cow fenced into pastures around the houses.

  There were two roads that led off of the Main Road once it leveled out in the valley, one to the right and one to the left. The roads led off into separate sections of the forest. Over a dozen people were using the road, most of them the farmers who had homes in the valley. They were using their horse and carts to take their crops towards the castle. The entire valley and castle were surrounded by the dense Wildwood forest.

  It was the castle that was really leaving Avery in a state of awe. It was the biggest ca
stle she had ever seen. Of course, up until this point, the closest Avery had ever come to seeing a castle was the pink and purple fiberglass castle on course four of Bobcat Bob’s Miniature Golf World, back on Redemption. So she was completely unprepared for the magnificent structure her eyes were now gazing at.

  The castle sat on top of a high hill and was surrounded by a large octangular stone wall. The Main Road they were on led up the hill to the outer wall of the castle and right up to the drawbridge, which led to an arched gatehouse. The outer wall was massive, with high battlement walls built out of a light colored stone. It had a total of eight square towers built into each edge. The top of every tower had a low battlement and circular balcony with arrowslits wrapping around it. The castle, itself, was comprised of a mixture of light and dark gray stones. The tallest tower, cylindrical in shape, was in the dead center of the castle. It had a dark blue cone shaped roof with a long pole coming out of it and a black flag with a silver wolf emblem attached to the top of the pole. There were four smaller cylindrical towers on each edge of the castle. Each had the exact same cone shaped dark blue roof and pole with the flag attached. Built into the castle wall, on the north and south side, were two more towers. These had a flat roof with high parapets. Every tower had a wide circular balcony wrapped around it, near the top. All except for two square shaped towers, bordering the entrance to the actual castle. Arched windows and arrowslits lined the walls of the castle.

  From behind her, Avery heard Sasha say, “That’s it, forget Havyn, we’re staying there.”

  Avery nudged Phantom into a walk, and the Protectors continued down the path towards the castle.

  The closer they got to the valley below the forest; they noticed people beginning to come out of their houses. Men who were working in their fields stopped and stared as the Protectors approached. A group of young children playing in a wheat field began waving at the girls. Avery waved tentatively back. It was an odd feeling, having people she didn’t know interested in her presence. Back in Redemption, even if people knew you, it didn’t mean they were the least bit interested in your comings or goings.

  As they passed a large potato field, a man, who had been tending his crop close to the road, took off his cap as they neared him and said to them, “You is them, ain’t ya…the Protectors?”

  The girls nodded and Jade replied, “Yeah, I suppose we are.”

  The man seemed to get excited, and clutched tightly at the cap in his hands, “Might good to see ya!” The man ginned, “All of us here were just so happy to hear ya weren’t dead!”

  Jade let out a saucy laugh, “Us too, buddy.”

  After they had ridden a few feet away from the man, they heard him yell out loudly, “It’s them!”

  Sasha leaned in closer towards the other girls and said, “Let’s move it a little faster, ladies. I don’t want any more hick farmers telling me how excited I make them.”

  Avery looked back and gave Sasha a disapproving look, as Skylar laughed and told her, “You need to get over yourself, girl.”

  To which Jade responded by snorting and saying, “When horses shit apple pie.”

  They walked their horses up the hill towards the castle. When they reached the end of the road, the drawbridge was down, allowing them to cross the steep ravine between the castle and the road. Phantom and the other horses’ hooves clomped on the heavy wooden drawbridge as they crossed it.

  There were two guards posted at each side of the entrance to the castle. They were dressed in chain mail and wore a black tunic with a silver wolf’s head on it, belted over it. The silver helmets they wore made their eyes the only visible features on their face. Each of them held in their hand a tall lance and had a sword attached to a belt around their waist.

  Avery slowed Phantom up slightly as they passed the guards. It was an instinct, like when she used to slow down her car back on Redemption when she would pass a police car, even if she was going the speed limit.

  Once inside the outer walls, it was like a whole other village had just opened up to them. There were wide flagstone streets. On both sides of the street there were multiple wooden shops, houses, and stands built up against the large outer wall and the castle wall. A hundred different scents and sounds accosted the Protectors’ senses. The smell of food, and smoke, flowers, hay, and horses all mingled together with the smell of human sweat. There were people talking, and shouting, and haggling over prices of merchandise.

  Avery glanced up and saw a guard, in uniform, posted every ten feet along the top of the outer wall. Along the walls of the castle, including the tower walls, there were also uniformed guards positioned every ten feet.

  “Apples, ten in a bunch!” A woman to the right of them, standing behind a fruit stand, shouted.

  To the left, a man hollered, “Fresh fish!”

  Dogs were barking and children were crying and laughing. People were carrying baskets full of goods, pushing carts, and strolling along on their way. They walked in front of, behind, and in-between the Protectors and their horses. It was by far the busiest place the Protectors had ever been to on Orcatia. The bustle threw them off guard.

  Avery looked behind her to the other Protectors, looking for a little guidance, since she wasn’t quite sure where she was suppose to go to now that they were inside the outer castle walls. Unfortunately, the others were no help. Sasha ignored her, Skylar was distracted by a lean muscled blacksmith working nearby, Bunny looked more lost than Avery, and Jade just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.

  While she was still turned to the other Protectors, Avery heard a man’s voice shout above the other noises, “I take it you are the Protectors.”

  Avery turned and saw a blond clean shaven man in his mid thirties standing in front of her. He was wearing the same chain mail and black tunic uniform the other guards had on, except he wasn’t wearing a helmet. Behind the man were two rows of five guards, each in full uniform, and carrying the same tall lances the guards at the entrance had.

  “Hello.” Avery said tentatively, looking down at the man and weapon carrying guards.

  “We’ve been expecting you.” The man said, “I’m General Stone, I command the guards, but you can call me Ferris if you like.” General Stone smiled up at each of the girls, effectively softening his authoritative presence. It immediately made Avery feel more at ease with him.

  “Nice to meet you.” Avery told him, and then proceeded to introduce herself and the other Protectors.

  General Stone said hello to each of them in turn, then said, “If you could please follow me.” He turned and walked towards the castle. The rest of the guards turned and marched along behind him.

  Avery noticed that their little interaction with General Stone and the guards had captured the attention of a number of the people around them. Feeling a bit on display, Avery was happy to follow the General and guards towards the castle entrance.

  When they reached the entrance, just a short thirty second walk from where they had been, they saw a large arched opening, about twenty feet wide and thirty feet high, with a heavy iron gate coming half the way down in front of it. On either side of the gated entryway were two guards. One stood next to a hefty wooden lever that Avery assumed controlled the rise and fall of the iron gate.

  Once inside the castle gate, the Protectors found themselves in the main courtyard. The flagstone walkway had continued inside the castle gate and outlined a lush green rectangular yard the size of a hockey rink. A packed dirt walkway led up the center of the yard and was bordered by rows of five foot tall trees, all dappled with dark red flowers. On the right and left side of the courtyard, the castle walls were straight, but as the courtyard ended, sections of the wall protruded and portions seemed to be built on to the walls as extensions. There was a large rectangular building attached to the middle tower section of the castle, on the opposite side of the courtyard. It was almost the width of the courtyard and appeared to be about five stories tall. It attached to the right section of the c
astle wall with a small two story building. The connecting section had a walled archway through the middle of the first floor, to allow people and horses to walk from the courtyard to the back right section of the castle.

  The part of the castle in front of them had a wide ten step white marble staircase that decreased in width the closer it got to the enormous arched heavy metal double door entrance, which had two large wolf heads etched into the metal of the doors. Above the entrance was a massive window that Avery thought was probably equal to the size of her house back in Redemption. She squinted to see if she could see anything behind the ridiculously large window, but the sun was gleaming off of it, allowing Avery to see nothing but a bright shine.

  Three boys, all in their late teens, came running out from behind the tower section of the castle, through the archway in the small attached building. They were all in lightweight cotton pants and dark colored tunics. They ran up to where the Protectors sat on their unmoving horses and formed a straight line. To Avery, they looked like professional versions of Pip.

  “They’ll take your horses.” General Stone told the Protectors, which gave Avery a little understanding of why they looked like three order following Pip’s

  Avery and the others dismounted, handing over their reins to the stable boys. They watched as their horses were led away and out of sight.

  “This way.” General Stone said to them and walked down the dirt path in the center of the courtyard.

  The Protectors followed him, but the ten guards they had walked in with made their way down the left side of the courtyard and down a small path that led into a different section of the castle.

  When the Protectors followed General Stone up the white marble steps and through the thick metal entrance doors, they found themselves in the most spacious room they could imagine. It was even bigger than their high school auditorium. It shocked them to realize that they were only standing in the entryway.

  The floor was entirely covered in black marble, and the dark stone walls were lined with black and burgundy tapestries, depicting forest landscapes and battle scenes. There were two closed wooden doors to the left of the girls and an open archway to the right that led to a sunlit sitting room with crimson red walls and black cushioned chairs and benches. Avery looked up and saw that the rest of the floors had no floor landings above the square entryway area. She was able to see straight up to the dark blue painted roof. She was also able to see the stone railings for every floor above her. Avery counted them, one, two…five. There were a total of five floors above her. At least, that she could see.

  About a hundred feet in front of them was a long dimly lit hallway. From what the girls could see, it had stone walls lined with suits of armor and unlit torches. On either side of the hallway entrance were the beginnings of two massive staircases. The staircases and railings were polished and carved out of a hard dark stone. They wound around in a crescent moon shape and led up to the high second floor, which in any other building would have been more like the third or fourth floor.

  The Protectors followed General Stone up the right hand staircase. When the Protectors reached the second floor, they became level with the large window that Avery had tried to peer through from out in the courtyard. As unsuccessful as she had been peering in, Avery was able to see out completely fine. She walked over to the stone railing that stood between her and a fifty foot drop and gazed out the multi-paned window. From the height the window was at, Avery was unable to see the bustling society outside of Knighton Castle or the valley below, but she was able to see a great expanse of Wildwood Forest, with its tall lush dark green trees. She could also see the bright blue sky and cotton ball clouds. The sun shone down through the trees, illuminating the rich dark brown of the tree trunks. It was one of the most beautiful sights she had seen all day, and she was including the castle in that assessment.

  General Stone let out a small cough, letting Avery know that he was waiting for her before continuing on. Avery tore her eyes away from the window and walked over to where General Stone was waiting for her. Both staircases continued winding up to the floors above, but General Stone led the girls down a long, torch-lit center hallway. A dark red carpeting ran down the middle of the hard stone floor. Large square canvas paintings, over at least two dozen, in heavy mahogany frames lined the hallway.

  They passed one painting with a small silver plaque attached to the bottom of the frame that had, ‘Ivyville’, engraved on it. It was a painting of a smaller village, with spread out chalet-like houses that had brightly painted red and green roofs. There were no trees to be seen in the village, just open fields of long yellow grasses and a narrow but long river running through the center of it. Throughout the fields there were dozens of horses and foals running, standing, and munching on the grasses. The painting across from the Ivyville painting had a small silver plaque that said, ‘Klover’, on it. The village in that painting was lush and over abundantly green. It was in the middle of the forest, just as Havyn was, but the homes, instead of being built into trees, were built directly next to the trees. They were short one story homes, covered in vines and moss, so much so, that one of the only visible things about the homes were the windows and doors. Next to that painting, was a painting entitled, ‘Lilydale’. It looked just as the girls had remembered it, except without any buildings on fire or dead villagers lying around. The straw homes of the village were intact. The yellow Everlily fields were in full bloom and it almost looked like the houses were built next to a giant field of sunshine.

  It occurred to Avery that all the paintings lining the hallway walls were of different villages in the Nightfell Kingdom.

  “Through here.” General Stone told them. He was standing outside of two heavy oak doors with thick black rails. The panels of the door had the thematic wolf heads carved into them.

  They were walking over to join him when Avery saw, that directly opposite the wooden doors, was a painting of Havyn.

  “Check it out.” Avery told the other girls.

  Sure enough, the little silver metal plaque on the bottom of the picture frame had the word, ‘Havyn’, etched into it.

  The painting looked exactly like their village. It even had the stone well painted into the center of the town and the rows of long picnic tables placed off to the very far right, near the forest. The gigantic trees had little windows, and doors, and chimney stouts coming out of them. Each one of the girls found their house. It was easy for Avery; she knew hers was the first one next to the little painted stable. From what she could see in the painting, it looked vaguely the same, except the door seemed to be painted a different color. She could even see a tiny light brown and black brush stroke, meant to be the balcony outside her room. The only girl who couldn’t find their home was Bunny, who didn’t live inside the trees like the other girls. She lived in one of the farmhouses located in the fields behind the giant trees. In the painting, all that was visible were green and yellow patches of field and little wispy color spots, meant to be the farm houses.

  Jade looked at the painting and snickered, “All it needs is a little sour looking Gumptin figure standing in the middle of the village and yelling, ‘You are late! Lazy Earth tainted oafs!’.”

  The girls laughed, completely agreeing with Jade’s assessment and remembering back to three days ago, when Gumptin had said those exact things to them.

  General Stone gave them a minute to scan over the painting, and then said to them, “Right through here.”

  Before Avery let the others go anywhere, and while they were still in a tight circle around the painting, Avery said to girls, “Now, remember, we’re dealing with a King. So, we’ve got to be on our best behavior. Be professional and confident…we’re supposed to be Protectors.”

  Avery and the other girls all turned their heads towards Jade.

  “What!?” Jade asked, taking a step back and acting shocked, “I’m always on my best behavior!”

  Avery raised her eyebrows, letting Jade know s
he definitely wasn’t buying that statement.

  “I get along with people just fine.” Jade told each of them.

  The girls scoffed, and Sasha literally stepped out of their circle and walked towards the doors, not willing to listen to Jade’s ridiculous comments anymore.

  “Hey,” Jade said, shrugging her shoulders, “as long as you’re not an asshole, I like you just fine and it’s all smooth sailing. That’s why I have so many problems with Sasha…it definitely ain’t smooth sailing.”

  Avery knew that’s the best she was going to get from Jade, so she walked over to join Sasha and General Stone. The General grabbed onto one of the chunky black metal handles on the door and pushed it open. He motioned for the girls to enter into the room and after they all had, he shut the door behind them, staying outside the doors himself.

  The Protectors’ shoes thumped on the hard stone floors as they walked farther into the spacious room. The torches around the room were unlit, so the only light coming into the room was from the five tall arched windows along the right wall. The windows were lined with thick black curtains, which prevented as much sun as there could have been from flooding into the room. As a result, some parts or the room were brightly lit and easy to see, while other parts remained in dark shadows. The walls were covered with red and black gothic themed tapestries, effectively adding to the dark feel. In the dead center of the room was a twelve foot by twelve foot platform that had a step leading up to it on every side. On the platform, sat a grandiose throne. It looked to be made out of black marble, with a strip of silver running down the arms and curved legs. The seat and back cushions were plushy black and a black marble wolf’s head with blue jeweled eyes rested at the very top of the back of the throne.

  The room was sparsely furnished, with only a row of dark chairs with crimson cushions against the back wall, a broad round black table to the left hand side of the throne’s base that had a number of papers strewn across it, a larger black chair with a crimson cushion pushed up against the left wall, and a large black writing desk with a simple dark wooden chair, also pushed up against the left wall.

  A small movement out of the corner of Avery’s right eye caught her attention. When she turned her head in that direction, she saw a tall man leaning with his shoulders up against the wall, next to one of the long windows, his arms crossed over his chest. The man was shrouded by the dark shadows of the room and partially hidden by the thick black curtains surrounding the window. So Avery was unable to see anything but his lean silhouette. When the man saw Avery take notice of him, he pushed himself off of the stone wall.

  “Well, well, well,” She heard a smooth deep voice say, “I never thought I’d see the day when Avery Kimball, leader of the righteous Protectors, would enter into my throne room.”

  There was a definite dripping of sarcasm wrapped around his words, but any inkling of offense Avery might have taken from his comment was wiped away when she heard her name said in his silky voice.

  When he walked out of the shadows and sauntered over to his throne, Avery was shocked to see, not only a young man in his early twenties, but also one of the most hauntingly handsome men her eyes had ever beheld.

  The man was tall, about six foot, and lean, without being thin. He had thick midnight black hair that came down to just below his ears. His dark eyebrows and lashes were the same color black as his hair, making his bright electric blue eyes even more prominent than they would have been. His skin was pale; more like someone’s who doesn’t go out into the sun, than Avery’s naturally porcelain skin. He wore fitted black leather pants, tucked into black boots that went up to just below his knees, and a white tunic, with a black leather belt clasped around his waist. Attached to the belt was a black leather scabbard, which held a large silver-handled sword.

  After the shock of the initial first sight of him, Avery collected herself and played back his comment in her mind. She really didn’t know how to respond to it. So, instead, she decided to get straight down to the reason they had come.

  “Gumptin sent us.” Avery told him, trying to maintain a polished looking calm as she stared into his eyes. No one should have eyes that blue, she told herself, it’s just not fair. Then, realizing her mind was drifting from the topic at hand, she gave herself a mental slap.

  The man walked over to the black throne and leaned his arm up over the top of it, “Yes, I know.” The man said to Avery, fixing her with a crooked side smile, “Your little magician sent me word early this morning, telling me to expect the honor of your presence.”

  Again, his words were twinged with sarcasm, and this time Avery couldn’t find it quite so easy to ignore.

  “Is that all he told you?” Avery asked, wondering if Gumptin had mentioned the reason for their visit.

  “Should he have told me something else?” He asked quickly, staring at Avery intently and not answering her question.

  Avery hated it when people answered a question with another question. It was one of her pet peeves. She reminded herself to stay professional, just as she had instructed Jade to do.

  She opened her mouth to simply tell him, no, when, from behind her, Sasha blurted out, “I’m Sasha, by the way, Sasha Seraphina. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  Avery slowly turned her head towards Sasha, giving her a ‘what the hell are you doing’ look. When Avery turn her head back towards the man, he was smiling broadly at her, flashing a row of straight white teeth. He clearly enjoyed Avery’s displeasure with Sasha’s comment. Avery found it amazing how quickly his good looks had gone from mesmerizing to irritating.

  The man moved his eyes from Avery, over to Sasha, “And it is a pleasure to meet you.” He told Sasha, smiling his side smile at her, “I’m King Draven Night, but you can call me Draven.”

  Avery could almost hear Sasha smiling from ear to ear behind her. It made Avery want to gag.

  “Anyway,” Avery said, putting an end to that little interlude, “we came here to ask you for the use of your army.”

  Draven stared fixedly at Avery for a moment, and then burst into a slow deep laughter.

  “You,” Draven said, through his dying laugher, “came here to ask me for the use of my army?”

  Avery failed to grasp the humor in her last statement.

  “Well, it’s not like we’d need you to give us the army right now.” Avery said, only making Draven laugh harder.

  That was it; Avery was officially completely over his good looks.

  “Look,” Jade said, standing next to Avery, “we don’t have a lot of time to waste. So, if you could just listen to her,” Jade pointed towards Avery, “it would be really helpful.” Jade must have listened to Avery; because that was the most polite she had ever been to anyone who had even slightly annoyed her.

  Draven stopped laughing just as quickly as he had started, which led Avery to suspect that his laughter might have been just for show.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” He said to Jade, “I wouldn’t want to keep you from running off and getting yourself killed again.”

  Avery felt Jade’s body stiffen next to her. Jade took a deep breath before telling Draven, “We were thinking about keeping that off of our ‘to do’ list.”

  A serious look came over Draven’s face, darkening his blue eyes, “I’m not sure that would be a very safe bet.”

  “Who do you think…” Jade had started to take a step towards Draven, but Avery grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back, stopping Jade not only in her tracks, but also mid-sentence.

  Draven smirked, watching Avery take control of Jade, “I believe Havyn’s missing five little girls.” Draven told them, wiggling his fingers, signaling them to leave, “You should run on home now.”

  Avery had had enough. She wasn’t going to go back to Gumptin and tell him that they had failed miserably. She could already see the horrible look of disappointment in Gumptin’s eyes. So far, in the matter of a few minutes, Draven had mocked her, laughed at her, and called her a little girl. Taking all of t
hat into account, Avery was going to make damn sure he at least heard what she had to say before being dismissed.

  “No.” Avery said sternly.

  She stepped up onto the platform and walked up to stand in front of the throne. When she approached, Draven flinched back slightly, not expecting her to get so close to him. He took his arm off of the back of the throne and crossed his arms, as if he was creating an invisible shield to block her with.

  Avery could tell she wasn’t going to get anywhere with Draven by being overly aggressive. She also knew that if she was too passive, he would just walk all over her. Avery came to the conclusion to take Gumptin’s advice and just be herself.

  “I know that I didn’t…” Avery tried to think of the right way to say what she wanted to, “think to highly of you in the past, but I don’t remember any of that. Who I am now doesn’t think of you that way at all.”

  Draven broke eye contact with Avery for a brief second, looking down, but then immediately looked back up at Avery. Avery saw his throat move up and down as he swallowed hard. It was the first time Avery had seen his cocky façade crack, even just slightly, and she was thankful for it. It meant that she just might be able to get through to him.

  “I’d really like for us to start out with a clean slate.” Avery stuck out her hand in front of her, “I’m Avery Kimball.”

  It took Draven a moment to pull his eyes away from Avery’s and glance down at her hand. He hesitated for a few seconds, then stuck out his hand and took hers in his own. They shook hands longer than necessary. Avery’s delicate hand fit comfortably in Draven’s bigger, slightly rough hand.

  “I’m Draven.” Draven told Avery, his face soft, although he wasn’t smiling.

  Standing there having her hand held in Draven’s, Avery almost forgot why she come to the castle in the first place; she almost forgot about the other girls standing there watching them, and she had definitely almost forgotten that less than a minute ago she had thought of Draven as an arrogant jerk.

  Of course, all of those things came rushing back to her when Draven, seeming to realize they were still holding hands after more than a few seconds, cleared his throat and dropped Avery’s hand back down to her side. He stepped down off the platform and away from Avery

  “Well…um,” Draven was uncharacteristically searching for words, “just because you don’t hate me anymore, doesn’t mean I’m going to hand over my army for you to play with.”

  It hit Avery again why she had thought him an arrogant jerk.

  Avery rolled her eyes, “It’s not like we’re gonna go play, storm the castle. We do actually have a plan, and you…”

  “I’ll have to think about it.” Draven said shortly, cutting off Avery.

  Avery bit her tongue, keeping all the insults she wanted to throw at him to herself.

  “Fine,” Avery said, knowing it was probably the closest thing to an answer she was going to get, “you think about it, but before we go we need to see the records you keep on your army.” Avery didn’t ask if she could see them, she demanded it. She didn’t want to be turned down again, so she thought it best not to give Draven that option.

  “Why?” Draven asked.

  Avery shrugged, she really wasn’t sure. It was just something Gumptin had told her to get. He wanted the army records. He wanted to know how many men and regiments the King had and where they were all positioned throughout Orcatia.

  “Gumptin wants to see them.” Avery told Draven, “When we return them, you can give us your answer.” Avery added the last part to let Draven know that she fully intended on getting an answer from him.

  By the way Draven was looking at her, Avery thought he may try to argue, but instead he strode over to the throne room doors and pulled them open. He stepped outside and Avery heard him saying something to General Stone, who was waiting outside the door. When Draven walked back inside, General Stone was following him.

  Draven pointed to General Stone, “Ferris will take you to the records room and make sure you get what you need.”

  As the girls began to follow Ferris out of the room, Draven asked, “Avery, could you stay behind for a moment?”

  Avery and the others stopped in their tracks. She stood completely still, just staring at Draven for a moment, wondering if she actually heard him say what she thought he had said.

  After a moment, without Draven correcting or elaborating on his statement, Avery hesitantly said, “Alright.”

  The rest of the girls turned and followed Ferris, all except for Jade, who stayed by Avery’s side, not moving.

  “Alone.” Draven said to Jade.

  Jade still refused to move, “Whatever you want to discuss with Avery, you can talk about it with me here.”

  Draven smiled at Jade, a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, “Run along little watchdog.” He told her, motioning with his hand for her to leave, “I promise I won’t hurt her.”

  “Watchdog?!” Jade hollered

  Before Jade could say something that Avery would regret, Avery grabbed Jade around the waist and pulled her to the door, where Ferris was waiting.

  Avery whispered into Jade’s ear, “He’s a king, he’s a king, he’s a king, let it go.”

  Without bothering to free herself from Avery’s grasp, Jade turned to her and whispered back, “Well, the King just called me a dog.”

  “Remember what I said about being professional.” Avery told Jade.

  To which Jade responded, “Remember what I said about assholes.”

  Avery had to literally push Jade outside the throne room doors, “Just go.” Avery said, pointing down the hall to where the other girls were waiting, “I need you to go to make sure we get the right records anyway. Bunny will forget the information Gumptin wanted, Sasha won’t care, and Skylar will get distracted by the first hot guy or sparkly object she sees!”

  That seemed to strike some sense into Jade, which Avery knew it would. Jade may at times try to appear apathetic and indifferent, but she hated not getting a job done properly.

  “Dammit!” Jade said through clenched teeth, then pointed at Avery, “Fine, but don’t take long.”

  After Jade and the others disappeared down the hall, Avery slowly turned back around towards Draven.

  Avery smiled nervously, “She’ll be fine.” She told Draven, hoping Jade’s almost outburst wouldn’t affect his decision about letting them use his army.

  “I’m surprised you get anything done with that one safeguarding you all the time.” Draven told Avery, walking over and closing the throne room doors back up.

  It was one thing for Draven to give Avery a hard time, which she really didn’t appreciate, but it was a whole other thing for him to talk about Jade. It was something Avery wouldn’t tolerate from people who didn’t even know her.

  “She’s my family. We protect each other.” Avery said to Draven. Making sure her voice was stern enough for him to get the point to leave that subject alone.

  He got the point. Draven shook his head, looking at Avery from out of the side of his eyes, “I’ve offended you.” He said.

  Avery wasn’t sure if he was asking a question or making a statement.

  “It wouldn’t be the first time today.” Avery said, laughing slightly, so Draven wouldn’t think she was too upset by it.

  Draven smiled, “I’m sorry.” He said, and sounded more sincere than Avery thought him capable of, “I don’t have a lot of contact with people. So, I can sometimes come off a bit…abrupt.”

  He walked over to the window he had been standing next to when the Protectors had first walked in. He leaned back up against the wall and stared out the window. Avery walked over and joined him, curious as to what he saw outside that window.

  It was the same view that she had seen from the large window on the second floor. Except, the position of the room allowed Avery to see over the castle wall and partially down into the valley below. She saw a few of the farm houses and where the Main Road disappeared into the forest.
<
br />   As Avery gazed out of the window, trying to count how many people were walking along the Main Road, she gradually became aware that Draven was no longer looking out at the view, but was instead staring at her. When Avery looked up, he quickly glanced away, back to staring out the window. Avery turned away from him and as she did, her shoulder grazed his chest. He shifted away uncomfortably, and she took up position leaning on the other side of the window. It made Avery happy to be at least a few feet away from Draven. It made it easier for her to think. She tried to think of something to say, anything to break the awkward silence starting to form between them.

  “Why don’t you have a lot of contact with people?” Avery asked. She had been curious about Draven’s statement when he made it and thought now was as good a time as any to question it.

  Draven seemed a little thrown off guard by the question. He looked at her, shifted again, and then looked away. He seemed to be contemplating exactly what to say to her.

  “I was raised with my mother, far away from this place.” He told Avery, matter of factly, no inflection in his voice, “I never had any real…experience with people.”

  Avery wondered exactly where Draven’s mother raised him that prevented him from interacting with other people.

  “I mean, sure I have to talk to Ferris, the Generals of my army, and a few others.” Draven elaborated when he saw the shocked look on Avery’s face, “Not to mention, other kings, diplomats, and aristocracy, but they’re usually so boring that I just completely block them out.”

  “But, you’re a king. You rule an entire kingdom.” Avery said to him, pointing her hand towards the window and everything outside of it, “There are literally thousands of people who, I’m sure, would be willing to talk to you.”

  Draven shook his head, completely dismissing that notion, “I don’t interact with my subjects.”

  “What?!” Avery asked, thinking that was a preposterous thing to say, “Why not?”

  Draven pushed himself off of the wall and went to stand by his chair. Avery could see his back tense underneath his shirt. For whatever reason, he clearly didn’t want to continue with where this conversation was going.

  “What did Gumptin tell you?” Draven crisply asked Avery, turning around abruptly.

  “N…nothing.” Avery stuttered, taken aback by Draven’s unexpected turn of emotions.

  “Nothing?” Draven looked at Avery suspiciously, “He didn’t tell you anything about why you didn’t approve of me before?” When Avery hesitated, Draven continued, “Your friends aren’t here now. You can tell me the truth.”

  So, that was why he asked to speak to her alone, Avery realized. So he could interrogate her about information Gumptin hadn’t given her. It had nothing to do with discussing his army. It was just a waste of Avery’s time and that thought pissed her off.

  “What exactly should he have told me?” Avery asked Draven, stepping up to him. She figured she might as well answer his question with a question, give him a little taste of his own medicine.

  It worked, a little. Draven seemed confused for a moment, searching for the appropriate reply.

  “So, he didn’t tell you anything?” Draven asked, getting his face dangerously close to Avery’s face.

  Avery was going to continue with the run-around questions, but Draven’s eyes, only inches away from her own, looked so pleading, so questioning.

  Although she didn’t completely want to, Avery relented and answered Draven’s question, “Well, not really, he basically told me I was a super warrior machine bitch, who didn’t have a life and had a major stick up her ass about everyone in general.”

  Draven searched Avery’s eyes; a furrow began to form on his brow. The slight side smile of his began to form on the left side of his face and he stood up, taking a few steps back.

  “It’s very doubtful Gumptin would have said that to you.” Draven told Avery, covering his mouth with his hand, trying to wipe the smile off his face.

  Avery shrugged, “I read between the lines.”

  Draven’s smile disappeared, and he became calmly serious again, “You had your reasons to think what you did and act the way you acted. You’re a Protector. You have to be a certain way to keep yourself alive.”

  “’Cause that worked out so well.” Avery told him sarcastically.

  Draven grinned, realizing what he had just said, “Still,” he said, “you should really try to harden yourself a bit.”

  That statement was like a slap across Avery’s face. She couldn’t believe he was actually telling her to be more like her old self. The old self that seemed to make herself miserable and turn away from the people she loved.

  “You don’t know anything about me.” Avery told Draven, trying to keep her anger under control, “The old me…died! She died with nothing to show for herself, except hard work and alienation. I am nothing like her. I may be soft and trusting, and you may think of that as weakness, but I really don’t care.” As she continued, she realized she was more venting now, spilling her frustrations, than yelling at Draven, “I have friends, and family, and interests that don’t include beheading things. So, whatever you think, I’m already better off than that other girl was.”

  After a moment, Draven said to her, “I take it back.” He made a slight little bow gesture, “Stay just the way you are.”

  Avery scoffed, thinking he was teasing her.

  “No, I’m serious.” Draven said, less than a second after Avery let out her scoff, “You know yourself, and you’re able to connect with people. That’s a gift not too many have the luxury of.” He looked down as he said the next part, “Although, I’m afraid it will make things harder for you as a Protector.

  That, Avery believed. Pretty shortly after she had come to Orcatia, Avery had figured out that her way of thinking and the way people felt a Protector should think were completely different. She knew it would probably make things harder on her, but she also knew that there was no way on Earth or Orcatia, that she would ever be able to change it. In truth, she thought she would rather die than switch over to old Avery’s way of thinking.

  “I’m sure, if you tried, you could connect with people to.” Avery told Draven. His words had been the softest thing he had said to her so far, and they had managed to make her feel good about herself. Avery felt that she should try and return the favor.

  Draven let out a hard cold bark of a laugh, “Trust me,” He told Avery, flashing her his teeth, “that’ll never happen. I don’t do…people. I became King to keep my father’s kingdom safe and protected. When he was alive, I let my father down in ways that no son should ever do.” He clenched down hard on his jaw, “After his death, I made a vow to myself, that I would protect his kingdom and his people, to my very last breath. He loved his people, so I take care of them for him, but I do not want anything to do with them outside of that. It’s better for everyone involved, that way.”

  That was far more information than Avery had expected or wanted. So much so, that she had no idea what she should say next.

  “Unlike you, Avery Kimball, I do not connect with people.” Draven spat his sentence out, and Avery was unsure if the cold tone in his voice was directed at her or just his feelings on the topic in general.

  Avery thought about what Draven had said for a minute, and then said the first thing that popped into her mind, “Well, you’re getting along just fine talking to me. I mean, sure you’re a little aggravating, and from what I’ve seen, also a little moody, maybe bipolar, but things could be going much worse.”

  Avery’s statement appeared to startle Draven out of his anger. He opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it.

  When he opened his mouth again, Draven told her, “I don’t…I don’t mind talking to you.” He seemed surprised, “It’s strange, I hadn’t really thought about it, but this is the most I’ve talked to anyone in a very, very long time. It’s just, you…you’re…” All of a sudden, a look something close to fear came over his face, and D
raven quickly turned his back to Avery, “You’re leader of the Protectors.” He said in a short tone, “I have no choice but to deal with you.” He turned back around, an arrogant smile plastered back on his face, “Truth be told, you’re ludicrously annoying.”

  Avery smiled, it wasn’t the first time someone had said that to her. In fact, she thought Gumptin had said something close to that just a few days ago.

  “Well, I’m sure you’re wanting to join your friends.” Draven walked over to escort Avery towards the door.

  “Hold on,” Avery said, pulling her elbow away from him as he took it in his hand, “what about the army?”

  After everything she and Draven had discussed and said, she felt that, surely she deserved more than an, ‘I’ll think about it’. She wanted an answer, something concrete to take back to Gumptin. Draven, however, did not see it that way.

  He gave her a quizzical look and reached for her elbow again, “I told you,” he said, “I’ll think about it.”

  Again, Avery pulled her elbow away from him, this time taking a few steps backwards, to ensure she was out of his reach. When he steadied his jaw and made a move towards her, Avery gave him a pleading look, as told him, “I need more than that.”

  Draven’s face softened, he stepped over to her and once again took hold of her elbow, except this time, instead of pulling on it, he let it rest in his hand.

  “Avery,” he said, “I told you, I took an oath to protect this kingdom, and that’s exactly what I plan to do.”

  With her free arm, Avery reached over and grabbed a hold of Draven’s arm, as it rested on her elbow.

  “But, that’s exactly what the Protectors want, to.” Avery said, emphatically. She didn’t understand why there was such an issue if they were working towards a common goal.

  Draven looked down at Avery’s hand on top of his hand that was holding her elbow. He quickly let go of her and backed away, almost pushing off of Avery as he did, sending her gently back a step.

  Draven sneered at her, “You didn’t seem to do that great of job your first time around.”

  His words stung Avery, just as he had meant them to. He wanted her gone and out of his chamber, and Avery could feel it, but if Draven thought he could so easily wound and dismiss her, he had another thing coming. She wasn’t going to let him take this conversation back to her old self and her old failures.

  “You know what…” Avery snarled, striding over to Draven, sticking her finger into his chest, “screw you!”

  Genuine shock exploded on Draven’s face, “Excuse me?” He asked, smiling slightly, which only angered Avery more.

  “I said screw you!” Avery threw her hands around in the air and paced back and forth in front of Draven, unable to stop the tirade that followed, “I’ve just spent the last week and a half working harder than I’ve ever had to work in my entire life! I’ve pushed my body past its breaking point! I’ve left the only home I’ve ever known to travel to an entirely different planet, just to get yelled at by a psychotically militant gnome, fight creatures from horror stories, and come to the realization that the future of the planet is basically resting on my shoulders, and my shoulders aren’t that broad! Oh, and not to forget, finding out that I actually already died once! Which, can only be made worse, by finding out that I was killed by the dude we’re suppose to go fight!”

  After she finished, Avery took in and let out a long breath. It hit her how much better she felt after her little outburst. They were things that had been coiled up inside of her for a while, and it was inevitable she was going to explode at some point. She just hadn’t expected to do it in front of a king. Avery turned her head and looked at Draven. He stood with his mouth half open, a small smile on his face.

  “I’m sorry.” Avery said, quickly. She really was sorry. Although Draven had peaked her anger, none of that was really meant for him.

  Draven cocked one dark eyebrow up, “You told me to, ‘screw you’.

  Ok, maybe Avery had meant that, in the moment.

  Avery winced, “Well, you pissed me off.”

  “Noted.” Draven told her, and then he slowly broke into a slow loud laughter that resonated off the chamber walls.

  Avery couldn’t help but notice how different Draven looked with a genuine smile and laugh on his face. All the arrogance and mockery were gone. The sternness of his sharp angles softened, making him appear more like a warm human being, than a cold marble statue. Crinkles formed at the edges of his eyes, making him seem even more approachable. Avery might have found his big smile and deep laugh more endearing, if he hadn’t been laughing at her outburst.

  “I don’t know how you intimidate your enemies.” Draven said to her, trying to calm his laughter, “You looked like a little angry dove, chirping about.”

  Avery pursed her lips, trying to let his comment slide off of her back, “Well, I usually try to have a sword in hand when facing my enemies, hoping they see that and not the angry little dove charging at them.”

  Draven tried to make himself look serious, which was hard to as a tight closed lip smile perked at his lips, “I’m sure that’s very effective.”

  His smile, mixed with the image of a rabid dove running towards a troll, with sword in wing, began to break Avery down. Avery bit her lower lip, trying to stop the smile she felt coming, but it was too late. In a second one of Avery’s giant bright smiles peeled across her face and a choked back giggle escaped her lips. In just a few minutes they had gone from yelling, and Draven almost dragging Avery out of the room, to standing just a couple of inches apart, smiling, Draven’s electric blue eyes staring deeply into Avery’s emerald eyes.

  The moment quickly died, when Draven’s smile abruptly left his face and he strode past Avery towards the chamber doors. Avery stood for a moment, staring at the place where Draven had been standing only seconds before. Now, instead of him, she was looking out a long window, noticing the change of color in the sky from a bright blue to an opaque yellow and wondering why exactly Draven seemed so reluctant to just let himself enjoy the company of another human being.

  When she turned around to look at Draven, he was standing with the door held open, eyes pointing towards the ground. She walked slowly towards the door, looking Draven up and down as she came closer. She wondered if he was so difficult to deal with on purpose, or if he had serious emotional issues. Whatever it was, she was done trying to interact with him today. Charming one minute and exasperating the next was becoming too much for her.

  Avery stopped a foot in front of Draven. She stood and stared up at him, waiting for him to say something. She was hoping for a, ‘goodbye’, at the least. Draven didn’t say anything; he didn’t even look at her. His eyes went from the floor, to staring at the far back wall of the throne room. Still, Avery waited, but the only response from Draven was the hard rise and fall of his breathing, which got heavy the longer Avery stood by him. Finally, giving up, Avery sighed and turned to leave. She thought to herself how disappointing this trip had been.

  Before Avery made it two steps away from Draven, he reached out and grabbed a hold of her upper arm.

  Avery didn’t turn her head towards him, instead he bent his head down towards her ear, and said to her, “Before I give you use of my army, I’m going to need to have a full briefing on your plans, and I’m going to need to oversee it every step of the way.”

  In her excitement, Avery turned her head quickly towards him. When she did, her lower cheek smacked into Draven’s mouth. For a few seconds, longer than Avery would have thought necessary, Draven let his lips rest on her cheek. This time when he pulled away, he did so slowly, with no abrupt jerks or back steps.

  “Th…Thank you.” Avery told him in a rushed whisper.

  As Avery moved to walk out the door, she felt that Draven was still gripping her arm. When she delicately tugged it free, Draven’s grasp collapsed in on itself. He cleared his throat and placed his hand behind his back.

  “You know,” Avery said, turning arou
nd before she made it completely outside the door, “I don’t think I’ve smiled like that since I’ve been on Orcatia. So, thank you.”

  Draven nodded and appeared as if he wanted to say something, then thought better of it, then rethought it and told Avery, “I don’t think I’ve laughed like that…ever. So, thank you.”

  Before Avery could respond, not that she would have known how to respond, Draven swiftly closed the door, leaving Avery staring at a thick plank of wood, two inches in front of her nose.

  It took Avery’s brain a little while before it was able to tell her feet to move. Her mind was spinning, trying to take in everything that had just happened. She took a small step back from the door, her face scrunched up in a confused expression. Avery shook her head clear and let out a small giggle. Whatever had just transpired, Avery was pretty sure she was going to be given use of Draven’s army.

  Avery glanced left, then right, and realized she really didn’t have any idea exactly where she was suppose to go. Draven had seemed to be in such a rush to get Avery out of his throne room that he hadn’t given her instructions on where to go to meet up with the other girls. There was no one in the hallway besides her, so Avery couldn’t even ask anyone to direct her to the records room. She raised her fist to the throne room door, to give it a quick knock, but couldn’t seem to make herself bring her fist down on the hard wood. Her emotions were already frazzled from dealing with Draven. She didn’t know if they could take any more interactions with him. After a quick debate, she decided to head back down to the front courtyard and try to find the stables.

  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 gorgeous?”

  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.

&n
bsp;