The Protectors: Book 1 in the Protectors Saga (3 page)

Jade slowly made her way over to where the Emperor
was standing against the wall, buried in the darkness. She punched
and ogre square in the face, knocking him out cold. Using her
Protector strength, she picked up a smaller Demon, throwing him
backwards.

The swamp troll that had killed Sasha ran at Jade,
his killing club held high. Jade spun out of his way, slicing
across his belly with her sword in the process. She was able to
kill the troll, but by doing so she had left her right side exposed
to a Succubus Demon, holding a small blade. The Demon drove the
blade into Jade’s left side. Jade howled in pain and removed the
blade from her body, stabbing the Demon in the eye with his own
weapon. She ignored the sharp pain in her side and continued on
towards the Emperor, sword held tight in her hand.

Jade heard someone approaching from behind her, so
she kicked back hard sending a troll flying. This kept her occupied
for only a split second, but that was long enough for another troll
to stab a discarded arrow deep into her right shoulder. Without
missing a beat, Jade switched her sword to her other arm and swung
it around wildly at the troll, severing his head and spilling
putrid green blood out all over her.

Jade could feel the blood pumping out from the wound
in her side, weakening her, but adrenaline and the idea of revenge
kept her going. She was only yards away from the Emperor when two
long arrows shot out from the crowd of monsters and struck her in
the right hip, tossing her to the floor and making her legs
virtually useless.

Once she was on the ground, Jade had her sword
knocked away from her and received a swift kick to the face. She
grabbed on to the offending foot with her only good arm and
wrenched it upwards, effectively discarding her attacker.

Jade turned herself over onto her belly and began to
crawl towards the Emperor, dragging her wounded legs and arm with
her. She reached down and untied a small crossbow that had been
securely fastened to her belt. She lifted the crossbow up and took
aim at the Emperor, but before she could get a shot off, a Bacci
Demon took hold of Jade’s leg and began dragging her backwards.
Jade flipped over and shot the Demon through the heart with one of
her crossbow arrows. Right after she took the shot, another large
swamp troll descended upon her, knocking the crossbow out of her
hand. She grabbed a dagger she had hidden in her boot and brought
it up, straight through the troll’s chin and up into his brain.

As Jade rolled the troll off of her, she was able to
see at least ten more deadly trolls only seconds away from reaching
her. Jade dismissed any instinct she had to want to fight them off
and instead rolled back over onto her belly and continued on her
path to the Emperor. Knowing she wouldn’t be able to reach him, she
stared him dead in his vacant black slits for eyes, and let her
hatred show all over her face as she spoke to him.

“I promise you Emperor, one way or another, I
will
see you again.” Jade growled.

A second Succubus Demon made his way through the
crowd of trolls. He reached Jade and stood over her, one leg on
either side of her body. The Demon glanced up at the Emperor, and
the Emperor, in return, gave him a quick nod of approval. With
that, the Demon raised the massive broadsword he was holding high
in front of him, and a split second later, brought it down straight
through Jade.

Jade made one last reach towards the Emperor, before
she let out a final breath and lay on the floor dead.

Outside of the fortress the Emperor could hear the
sky going wild. Thunder roared and lightning beat down upon the
ground. The scent of damp rain mixed with the coppery scent of
blood and made for a heady concoction that seemed, to the Emperor,
a perfect perfume for the occasion. The Emperor laughed to himself,
wondering if the storm raging outside was the planet’s way of
weeping for its lost Protectors. He hoped so; he loved the idea of
causing so much pain.

The Emperor’s fiendish army stood covered in blood,
some of it their own, some belonging to the Protectors. They stood
and waited for the Emperor’s orders, ready to do his bidding.

The Emperor took a deep breath, still savoring his
morbid perfume, “Take this garbage,” he waved a dismissive hand
towards the bodies of the Protectors, “and place it on stakes along
the front gate. Let our enemies see what becomes of those who try
to fight us.”

A large number of swamp trolls moved in to carry the
bodies away, but before they could even reach the first body,
something began to happen. The Protector’s bodies began to emit a
warm soft glow, like there was a fire burning on the inside of
them. The glow became brighter and brighter until the Emperor and
his armies could no longer see the bodies, just five bright orbs of
light. Then, in a giant explosion of white light the Protectors
were gone.

The Emperor screamed, in a rage, “That pathetic
little magician!” He spat out, and then turned to speak to his
army, “Go to the Protector’s village and bring their bodies back to
me!”

A small Demon with snake-like features stepped
forward, “But, my Lord, the Protector’s village is located near
King Draven’s territory.”

“So?” The Emperor asked.

“Well, Draven has a large army,” the Demon continued,
“and he protects his lands and the forests surrounding them well.
He will know if an army of our size is in the area, and he won’t
take it well. It would be foolish to risk it just to retrieve a few
corpses. I think it would be wiser to…”

His words were cut short as the Emperor plunged a
steel sword deep into his stomach, and he fell on the floor
dead.

“Does anyone else have anything to say?” The Emperor
asked with a threatening edge to his voice, still holding the
bloody sword. “Now, go…I want those bodies!”

Chapter
3

The small Wizard fell backwards, exhausted. The items
he had been holding in his hands fell the to ground, a silver
necklace belonging to Avery, a small knife belonging to Jade,
Sasha’s hair comb, a bracelet of Bunny’s, and Skylar’s compact
mirror, all personal items belonging to the Protectors.

Gumptin had used them for the summoning spell he
performed. When the Protectors had been killed Gumptin had sensed
it. Being a Wizard since birth, he had a stronger connection to the
elements around him, and he had felt it in the air, whispering to
him…the Protectors were dead.

The villagers had gathered around Gumptin, standing
in the center of their village. They had been worried ever since
the Protectors took off in the middle of the night.

In another flash of blinding white light, the
Protectors bodies re-appeared on the grassy ground where Gumptin
and the rest of the villagers stood.

Skylar’s mother screamed at the sight of her bloodied
and torn daughter lying dead on the ground. She brought her hands
up to her eyes to block the image and turned into her husband’s
arms, weeping.

Avery’s mother had fallen to her daughter’s side and
was now cradling her in her arms, letting her tears dampen her dead
daughter’s long hair.

“Gumptin, you have to do something!” She choked,
staring up at the Wizard, pleading with tearful eyes.

The short old Wizard hobbled up to Avery’s mother and
placed his hand on her shoulder, “I…I do not know if there is
anything I can do.”

“What do you mean you don’t know if there’s anything
you can do?!” Jade’s father shouted angrily, “You’re their mentor!
You’re supposed to look out for them…now you do something!”

Gumptin ran his hands through his long gray beard.
There was only one spell he knew of that could bring the Protectors
back from the dead and it was far beyond his power to perform. In
fact, he knew of only one group powerful enough to perform the
spell that would even grant him an audience.

“I will go and see the Elementals.” Gumptin told the
villagers, making up his mind.

The villagers looked at Gumptin with apprehension.
Everyone knew that the Elementals preferred to watch rather than
intervene in the lives of humans.

“Are you sure they’ll help?” Jade’s mother asked from
the ground, where she was seated next to her daughter’s body.

“No,” Gumptin answered honestly, “but there is
nothing else we can do.”

Gumptin turned away from the tragic scene in front of
him and walked into the thick forest surrounding the village. He
walked along the main road as fast as his little body allowed him
to go. After a half a mile he turned onto a smaller path that
diverged from the road, the path was unmarked and overgrown, but
Gumptin knew it was the one which would take him to where he needed
to go.

As he walked, Gumptin tried to think of what he was
going to say to the Elementals. After all, the last time he had
spoken to them was over sixteen years ago and that time the
Elementals had come to him, not the other way around. They had come
to him and told him that they were going to create five warriors.
The Elementals were a group associated with the order of the
Ancients. The Ancients are the most powerful of beings, capable of
almost any kind of magic. There are good Ancients and there are bad
Ancients, but mainly they just believe in keeping a balance in the
world, the fragile balance between good and evil, and no group
believe in that more than The Elementals. That was why sixteen
years ago they came to Gumptin and told him that they sensed evil
was becoming stronger than good. So, in order to keep the balance
they were going to give five unborn human souls each a different
power. One was to have the power of water, one with air, another
with fire, one with wind, and the fifth one would be given the
power of energy and would be fated to be the leader. The Elementals
would make them stronger, faster, and hardier, with more adept
senses and reflexes than the average human. They had told Gumptin
that the five warriors would be called the Protectors and would be
destined to protect the planet and fight against evil. Then, they
commanded Gumptin to be their teacher and guardian. They instructed
him to go to the village of Havyn. He was given the names of the
Protectors would be parents and told to wait for the five of them
to be born. That was over sixteen years ago, and Gumptin had done
what The Elementals had told him to do without question. He had
trained and guarded the Protectors. Now, he hoped, that The
Elementals would do what he was about to ask.

Gumptin continued down the overgrown path for over a
mile before he finally reached his destination. It was a large pool
of crystal clear water, surrounded by a wall of opalescent rock. It
was beautiful, but there was nothing particularly magic about it,
that is, until Gumptin reached into one of the pouches tied around
his belt and pulled out a handful of white powder. The powder was
made of ground up crystals, snake scales, sand, and five tears from
a broken heart; it was a common summoning powder.

He threw the powder into the pool and recited the
words, “Deax ploria avu Domuvita Elementia!”

A few seconds later, the water in the pool shot
straight up into the air in one long stream, and came crashing back
down, but instead of landing back into the empty pool, it stayed
hovered a few feet above it. Gumptin watched as the water began to
move and churn, until it took on the shape of six figures, three
female and three male, all made out of water, except for their eyes
which glowed a pale shade of blue.

“Gumptin the Wizard,” spoke one of the female figures
in a watery almost songlike voice, “why have you summoned us
here?”

Gumptin gave a small bow of respect to the Elementals
before he began, “The Protectors have been killed.”

“We are already aware of this information.” Said one
of the males in the same sing-song voice, “Tell us what it is you
summoned us for.”

Gumptin swallowed hard, “I am asking for you to bring
them back using the Spell of Rebirth. They have been dead for less
than twenty-four hours, which is the only requirement, and I know
you have the power to do it.”

There was silence and for a horrifying moment Gumptin
thought that they might simply decide to leave without dealing with
him anymore.

Finally, the first female spoke, “Gumptin, that is a
spell that hasn’t been done in thousands of years,” she blinked her
pale eyes and tilted her head towards Gumptin, “and for good
reason.”

“But this planet needs the Protectors!” Gumptin
pleaded, “The Emperor grows stronger every day, and without them
there is almost no chance of stopping him. They are too important
to let die!”

This time, another male spoke, “We created the
Protectors, Gumptin, we know of their importance. However, they
were mortals and mortals die. It is fate that decides when.”

“Then change their fate!” Gumptin shouted. These
girls weren’t just his students; they had become his family, and he
wasn’t going to leave without getting them back, “If anyone
deserves a second chance it is them. They have done nothing but
fight for the greater good all of their lives. They devoted their
lives to the burden that you placed upon them, and
yes
,”
Gumptin spoke quickly before the Elementals could protest, “it was
a burden…you know it was. They deserve a second chance.”

The male was about to speak again, but the first
female held up her hand to silence him and spoke instead, “What you
are asking is not lightly done. You are asking us to affect life
and death, the natural order of things.”

Gumptin started to speak, but this time the female
held up her hand to silence him.

She continued, “The Inamri Ancients cast a spell not
very long ago, a dark and extremely powerful spell, a spell that
will have dangerous repercussions, a spell that could very well tip
the balance in evil’s favor forever. We were going to take the
Inamri to the Council of Ancients and have their spell revoked.
However, if we do this, if we bring the Protectors back, we lose
all authority to challenge the Inamri. Whatever they did will
remain done.”