The Protectors: Book 1 in the Protectors Saga (34 page)

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 castle 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 she
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.”