The Protectors: Book 1 in the Protectors Saga (31 page)

Avery realized Sasha wasn’t exactly taking her side,
and that she just wanted Jade to stop arguing so they could all go
home, but having Sasha Seraphina actually help her out in an
argument was something Avery thought she would never live to see.
It was now official; this day could not get any weirder for
Avery.

Jade, never one to be talked to in a way she didn’t
like grabbed onto the hilt of her sword and said to Sasha, “You
know, Sasha, I was already stopped once today from killing
something that I really wanted to. I’d watch that mouth of yours;
’cause I ain’t gonna let it happen again.”

Sasha just folded her arms, completely unaffected by
Jade’s threat, “You’re all talk, Kai. After what we’ve seen today,
do you really think you scare me one little bit?”

“Alright, I think it’s time we all head home.” Avery
said, deciding to stop things before they got any more heated,
“We’ve had a really hard day.” She placed her hand on Jade’s bicep,
squeezing it slightly, making sure Jade stayed put next to her.

Avery didn’t need to say it twice. Sasha took off;
limping towards home the second Avery finished her sentence. Bunny
waved goodbye, telling them she would see them tomorrow.

Before Skylar headed home, she strolled up to Avery.
In a rare moment of seriousness from her, she told Avery, “You did
a real good job today, you know. I’m glad you’re our leader.” She
said goodbye to Jade and Gumptin and meandered towards her
house.

Jade and Avery were about to walk off together, when
Gumptin called out, “Avery, could you stay behind for a minute? I
need to talk to you about something.”

Jade looked unsure about leaving Avery and Gumptin
alone to talk without her there to lend her opinion, but Avery
motioned for her to keep walking.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Avery told Jade as a
goodbye.

“Avery,” Jade said, before Avery turned around
towards Gumptin, “Skylar was right. I just want you to know, that
no matter what I say, you’re probably the only person I would ever
actually follow.”

“I know.” Avery said, and she did know.

After a few seconds, Jade turned and strode towards
her house, while Avery waited for Gumptin to tell her why he had
her stay behind.

Gumptin cleared his throat, “I thought you should
know that I talked to the Elementals. They told me that they could
not give me any information about the spell that had been
cast.”

Avery stared at Gumptin blankly. She had no idea what
he was talking about or why he felt it was important enough to
bring up to her.

Gumptin, sensing Avery’s confusion, cried out, “Oh,
for Wizarding sake, you have forgotten, haven’t you?!”

“No!” Avery yelled, bristling. Of course, she had no
clue as to what he was referring to, but she wasn’t about to let
Gumptin think of her as an airhead. There would be too many
instances where he could use that against her.

The look in Gumptin’s eyes told Avery he didn’t
believe her for a second.

Gumptin pursed his lips before he spoke, “Well, then
of course, I do not need to remind you of the spell that was cast
at the Elysianth altar in the clearing…the one where you were so
disgusted by the charred bird bone.”

The scene burst into Avery’s brain, “Oh, that spell!”
She gasped, excited to remember, “Ewwww, that was disgusting.”

“So nice to see you did not forget.” Gumptin said
condescendingly, “Anyway, the spell in the clearing had something
to do with a spell that was cast before your deaths. Whatever it
is, it is a very powerful spell, well beyond my knowledge, and that
scares me. There are very few beings who would be able to cast a
spell that I do not recognize.”

The way Gumptin was talking about the spell was
beginning to concern Avery. It seemed to be causing Gumptin
anxiety, which meant there was probably more involved with the
spell than just Gumptin’s ignorance of its purpose.

“Why does this spell worry you so much?” Avery asked,
“We’ve got a crazy Emperor with troll and Demon armies to worry
about. What affect could this spell possibly have on us?”

Gumptin shifted around on his feet, as if he didn’t
want to have to tell Avery the next part, “When you died and the
Elementals brought you back, there was a bigger price than just the
loss of your memories.” Gumptin told her.

Avery wasn’t so sure the loss of her memory should be
considered a price. With everything she knew about her old self and
life, she believed it to be a blessing.

Gumptin went on, “Before you died, there was a very
dark and very powerful spell that was cast. They told me it was a
spell that could possibly shift the balance of good and evil. They
could only right that balance one of two ways; either they reverse
the spell, or they bring you back to life. I pleaded with them to
choose the latter. I suppose you know which one they chose, but as
a consequence, they cannot interfere with the spell that was cast.
They cannot even give me clues or ideas as to what the nature of
the spell was, or who may have cast it.”

All the talk of spells and Elementals was starting to
give Avery a headache. She understood the importance of Gumptin’s
concern, but also knew very well there was no way they were going
to figure anything out anytime soon. Avery wanted to keep her focus
on the Emperor. If there was one rule she was going to enact as
leader of the Protectors, it was going to be to focus on just one
bad guy at a time. Avery rubbed at her throbbing head, trying to
think of a way to make it sound to Gumptin like she cared more than
she actually did.

“Gumptin, I have faith you’ll figure it out
eventually.” Avery decided that sounded like the best answer, “Like
you said, a spell this powerful can’t go completely unnoticed. I’m
sure someone will know something.”

Gumptin scoffed, “Unlikely, this is a bone from a
Hellrise Raven.”

Gumptin reached into one of the pouches attached to
his belt and pulled out the charred bird bone Avery had found in
the bowl on top of the altar. He shoved it as close to Avery’s face
as he could, waving it around in front of her. Avery scrunched her
nose and turned away. The sight of it still repulsed her.

Gumptin continued waving the bone around as he said,
“Hellrise Ravens are very, very rare. They are only found in one
place in all the universe, the Hellrise Mountains to the far east,
across the Wasted Desert. They are magical and evil creatures. The
application of their bones in spells is for the perversion of
memory. It could have been used to erase memories, implant
memories, change memories, or anything else involving memories.”
Gumptin began to get worked up as he carried on, “I do not know who
the spell affected or to what end, and that is extremely
frustrating. I also do not know what other elements were used in
the spell, everything was burnt too badly. Depending on how
powerful the being was who cast the spell, it could have very far
reaching affects.”

Obviously, Avery’s first tactic at ending the
conversation hadn’t worked. So, she decided to try a new one,
“Listen,” Avery said sternly, “I understand that this is a big
deal, but I just can’t deal with it right now. There is absolutely
nothing I can do about it. Spells and Wizards are your department.
I just want to focus on what you’ve been training us for…to kill
the Emperor. So, can we just focus on that?”

While listening to what Avery had to say, Gumptin
seemed to calm himself down. He took a deep breath and placed his
raven bone back in his pouch.

“You are right.” He said, “One thing at a time. We
will fine tune our efforts on simply defeating the Emperor.”

Thank goodness, Avery thought to herself. The
conversation had only taken around five minutes, which was five
minutes too long for Avery.

Before Avery and Gumptin walked their separate ways,
Avery towards her home, and Gumptin towards the library, Avery said
to him, trying to lighten the mood, “You know, Gumptin, none of the
Protectors have any of our old memories anyway. They were taken
away by the Elementals. So, if that spell was designed for any of
us, then the spell caster is out of luck. They can’t mess around
with something we don’t have.”

Instead of agreeing or arguing with Avery, Gumptin
simply told her, “I was very proud of the five of you today. Today,
you were truly Protectors.”

It was so unexpected and genuine that Avery was lost
for words. So, instead, she simply nodded and smiled, before
turning to leave.

In her head, Avery counted the steps to her house.
With every step she took, she realized she was becoming more and
more nervous. Avery wondered how her family would react to her
battle worn appearance. She wondered if they would seem different
to her after what she had been through today. The thought that she
might have left a piece of herself back in Lilydale, among the
corpses and destruction, teased at her insides. Avery had counted
up to step forty-two from the stable to her house, when she reached
her front door. Before she entered, Avery rubbed at her face with
her sleeve, trying to wipe off as much of the blood, sweat, and
dirt as possible. She tucked in as much of her blood stained shirt
as possible. She didn’t want Cinder to have to see her looking like
a victim from some cheesy horror movie.

One deep breath, two deep breaths, and she turned the
doorknob and entered into her home.

The crippling thoughts Avery had of being too damaged
to think of her family as she had thought of them just hours before
were dashed away in a fraction of a second as Cinder, along with
their three dogs, came hurtling towards her, just as they did every
other time she had come home.

Avery kneeled onto the ground and swooped Cinder up
into a crushing hug when the little girl reached her. She let the
three dogs jump all over them, covering Avery’s already dirty
clothes and face with saliva and fur.

Cinder wrapped her little arms around Avery’s neck
and held on tightly, “Why are you all dirty?” Cinder asked,
speaking into Avery’s ear, “Mommy and daddy were worried about you.
They wouldn’t tell me why, though. Why were they worried? Where did
you go? Why are you so dirty?”

Avery let Cinder keep asking her questions, without
answering a single one. Avery just held on to Cinder like she was
the last life vest on a sinking ship. She buried her head in
Cinder’s shoulder and tried to fight back the tears that were
begging to come.

When Avery spotted her mom and dad coming out from
the kitchen and walking over to her, she let Cinder go and rushed
over to her parents, falling into both of their arms. Her parents
clung to her, holding her tighter than she had ever remembered them
holding her.

“Oh, thank God.” She heard her mother whisper into
her hair.

Avery had never been so happy to be home and with her
family in her whole life.

When she felt like everything was getting a bit much,
like she would burst into tears at any minute if she stayed around
her family any longer, Avery excused herself. She told her parents
that she would be fine, that she wasn’t hungry, and that she just
needed to rest. She told Cinder to be good and that she would see
her in the morning. Then, she rushed up the stairs to the second
floor.

The first thing Avery did when she got upstairs was
to go into the bathroom. As she closed the bathroom door she caught
sight of herself in the mirror above the sink. She didn’t think it
possible, but she actually looked worse than she had expected. As
she removed her vest, she saw that her entire shirt was covered in
blood and dirt, so that she could barely see any of its original
white color. Her wild curls stuck out in every direction and had
bit of grass and debris tangled up in it. She shivered at the
thought of having to try and brush it. Even after rubbing off her
face before she had entered the house, her face was still a mess.
There was a small cut above her eyebrow that had matted her eyebrow
in dried blood. There was another scrape tracing her lower jaw
line. Beneath the dirt, she could see a circular bruise forming on
her right temple.

She took off her tunic extremely painstakingly. Any
little movement caused her chest to ache, and the wound she had
received on her arm, from the troll’s knife, was still throbbing.
She felt the skin on the wound separate slightly as she lifted her
arms to take off her shirt. When she finished undressing she looked
over her injuries in the mirror. Both sides of her chest were
covered in deep purple bruises. The bruises on her right side ran
all the way up to her collar bone, over to her shoulder, up her
arm, and to her elbow. The slice on her arm had started bleeding
again, leaving streaks of bright red trickling down her arm, over
the dark red of already dried blood.

Avery just kept telling herself over and over that
Gumptin had said Protectors healed quickly, healing about ten times
faster than the average human being. Giving herself one last look
in the mirror, Avery hoped he was right, because if he wasn’t, the
only thing she would be doing for the next week would be laying in
bed, nursing the pain.

The shower felt like heaven to Avery. The warm water
rushed over her body, soothing her tired muscles. Avery leaned her
head against the blue tiled shower wall and looked down. The water
running off of her and pooling around her feet had been turned a
murky brown color from all the crud being washed off of her body.
Avery stood in the shower, head leaning against the shower wall,
eyes closed, until the water began to turn cold.

Finally clean and wrapped in a towel, Avery stood in
front of the large silver dresser in her room. She had shut and
locked the door, insuring her privacy. The wound on her arm was
still continuing to bleed, and she knew it was too deep to be able
to close and heal on its own. Gumptin had prepared them for
injuries like this. He had devoted an entire day of library studies
to the treatment and care of battle wounds. He taught them basic
stitching, bandaging, and bracing of bones.