Ancient Mystic's War of the Realms Saga - Lady Adellandra Dratianos (best detective novels of all time TXT) 📗

but that is not important.” O’Dell replied. “I actually agree with your mate, for once.”
“You do?” The Apprentice asked, amazed.
O’Dell nodded. “Aye. I also believe it is high time for the Protectors to learn their own magic. After all, it was your idea Apprentice.”
“It was?”
The Grand Shamus giggled, nudging him. “Of course it was, darling. Don’t you remember?”
The Apprentice smiled, kissing her lips. “Certainly.” He turned to O’Dell. “Now, my Lord, will you do the honors of sending them to me for training?”
“I will tell them what to do. You can count on me, Apprentice.”
“I always could.” The Apprentice took his wife’s hand and disappeared with her.
This left O’Dell and Enchantra alone in his brilliant Castle.
“I guess you should listen to him.” Enchantra grinned, hugging him. Before he could say anything, she announced. “You were the one to bring him here.”
“On the insistence of your daughter.” O’Dell supplied.
“Last I knew, Dixilynne was your daughter, too.” Enchantra teased. “If you must, take Young Guardian from her patrols, explaining what the Apprentice had in mind.”
“I cannot take her from her duties.”
“You are the one who gave her those duties. Surely, you can take her from them.” Enchantra said. She stepped away from him. “If you will not, I will.”
“Enchantra.”
“For the sake of this world, my Lord, call her.”
O’Dell sighed, calling a short spell in the air as he pointed to his own Castle’s door.
The Young Guardian, fresh from her patrols, stormed in the Castle. She wasn’t happy. “What is the meaning of this, O’Dell?”
“I beg your pardon!” O’Dell cried.
“You took me from my patrols.”
“For good reason, mind you.”
“Enchantra, not now.”
“Why?”
“We will explain as soon as you bring Derrick here.”
“Tell me why.”
“You will respect me.”
“I want to know why you brought me here.” Ariana demanded.
O’Dell and Enchantra could each see her eyes turning from yellow to red. The two Originators were silent, shocked at her behavior.
“Yours is not to ask why, only to do as you are told.” O’Dell faced her.
She didn’t cower away as she usually would. She only faced him with red-burning eyes and enough red-colored magic around her body to torch the place.
“Not if I don’t want to.” Ariana announced. With a wave of her arms, she disappeared.
It took a second for either Originator to say anything.
“What has gotten into her?” Enchantra asked softly. “My Lord?”
O’Dell could only shrug. For once in his existence, he did not have an answer.
Chapter:
Powers of the Pendant

Derrick searched the entire Dream Realm for his wife, but couldn’t find her. He asked numerous Companions if they’d seen her around, but they haven’t either. That wasn’t the strange part. They called him Protector.
Since receiving the Protector’s Pendant from Shannon, he was used to being called Protector Derrick, but this time, it was different. It was if he had Protector as a title, just as Ariana was the Young Guardian. Did he have any right to demand respect from Lord Guardian’s followers? After all, he was just Ariana’s Earthly Protector. There wasn’t anything special about him besides that.
“Companion, have you seen Young Guardian around?” He asked a leopard Companion.
“Nay, Protector.” The leopard supplied. His eyes widened when they met Derrick’s necklace. “Definite trouble somewhere, Protector. Your Pendant is glowing gold!”
Derrick took it in his hand. “Gold?”
“Go swiftly to Lord Guardian’s Castle. I will warn the others.” The leopard Companion announced before pouncing away in fear.
Derrick was left scratching his head, confused why his Protector’s Pendant was glowing the distinct color of gold.
Before he could go anywhere, he disappeared, waking to the alarm clock beside the bed.

It was time for him to wake up and get ready for work. Ariana was sleeping beside him, eyes moving rapidly underneath the sockets. She was safe, at least. That was a good thing.
He decided to let Shane drive this time. There was too much on his mind. Halfway through the day, the boys went to lunch. Derrick still wasn’t talking, not even to discuss a case they were working on at the moment.

Shane noticed his silence, and didn’t like it one bit. He watched as his partner played with the Pendant around his neck, deep in his own thoughts to notice Shane staring at him.
“Something’s going on and I want to know.” Shane demanded in his best “Shadow” tone. Usually, that tone made any man stand at attention and do what Shane told him, but this time, it was a no-go.
“Derrick!” Shane cried, slapping at his hand.
Derrick looked up at him, circles under his eyes. “Sorry, Shane. What’s up?”
“That’s what I’d like to know.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Derrick told him. “I had a strange dream last night.”
“A dream-dream or a Dream Realm dream?”
“Definitely Dream Realm.” Derrick told him what happened, to which Shane was the silent one. “What do you think?”
Shane took his own Pendant into his hands. “It’s time to become the Protector and the Shadow.”
Derrick was confused.
“Your dream is proof, Reading!” Shane remarked in his “Shadow” tone. This time, it got Derrick’s full attention. “Silver Magic coming from Ariana, a golden glow coming from your Pendant. Clues, Detective.”
“Clues to what?”
“The leopard Companion told you something was going to happen.” Shane supplied. “I’d listen to the kit if I were you.”
“Go to Lord Guardian.” Derrick replied. “What’s he gonna do?”
“Send you to the Apprentice.” Shane said. “Or rather, send us. You see, we were supposed to see him the night we received the Pendants, but we didn’t. We were too busy with our own lives; not to mention you and Ariana were still on the Crusader Project.”
“Oh. That doesn’t explain why I couldn’t find her.” Derrick replied. “She wasn’t patrolling.”
“Was she there when you woke up?”
“Of course, only her Amulet was glowing.”
This got Shadow’s attention. “What color?”
“Silver, I think.”
After a moment, Shadow pounded his hand on the desk. “That’s it!”
“What’s it?”
“In the Pagan traditions, they believe in both a Goddess and a God.” Shane began, barely looking at his partner Derrick.
“So?”
“They say silver is the color of the Goddess, and gold is for the God.” Shane supplied. “It means great magic. In fact, I’ve seen it used before.”
“Sure you have. When the Djinn attacked me.”
Shane shook his head. “No. Long before that.” He remarked. “Remind yourself I was there in the Wars for Power. I was there to fight the Dominionites with the Ancient Mystic Army. I was a Dream Realm Crusader before you. I was there when Mick McNathaniels died in the Dream Realm. I was there when Sabrina placed a spell on Nick to make him think he killed his own father. I was there.”
“So you were there, so what? What does that have to do with Ariana and this new Silver Magic?”
“Everything, if you listen.” Shadow commanded. “Dixilynne Ryan, the System’s boss during the Wars, used it against the Master. She claimed it was the darker side of her Magic working in her favor. I don’t think Ariana realized that when she exorcized the Djinn demon from you. She thought she did it with her own Ancient Mystic Magic.”
“How did Dixilynne use the Silver Magic?”
“I was wounded badly by a shot of Dominionite Magic during the battle.” Shane explained. “She used that to save me from insanity.”
“How was she after the battle?”
“Sore, and sick for nearly a month.” Shane supplied. “She was out of sorts for two months after she was well again.”
“Come to think of it, Ariana’s been out of sorts since she came back from the hospital.”
“How so?”
“Let’s just say I feel I have our new live-in housekeeper as a wife.” Derrick remarked. “I spend more time with Juliet than I do Ariana, and it’s bugging me to bits.”
“Hang on, Protector. We’ve got a job to do.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask.”
“The Apprentice wants to see all four of us.” Shane explained. “There’s something going on in the Canine Valley. Wolf told me so himself. Whatever it is made Ariana the way she is.”
“I don’t get it.”
“You never get it.” Shane joked. “Do as the leopard kit says. See Lord Guardian. He’ll show you where to find the Apprentice.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll be there.” Shane remarked. “Trust me.”

That night, before Young Guardian could patrol, Derrick took her with him to the Ancient Mystic Palace. She didn’t exactly like the idea of being bossed around by her husband, but what could she do? Derrick nearly took her, kicking and screaming. Companions that hung in the nearby wood stared at her theatrics, wondering what the Protector was doing with her.
“It’s okay, Companions.” Derrick supplied as he kept a firm hand on her arm. “It’s for her own good.”
Once they entered the Palace, Ariana couldn’t keep her silence. She disappeared from his grasp, only to reappear a few feet away from him.
“For my own good, huh?” Ariana asked furiously. “What is the meaning of this, Derrick James? You, of all people to take me from my patrols. You – ”
“The man who married you. The man who happens to love you.”
“So what? That doesn’t mean you have to take me from my duties!” Ariana screamed. “First O’Dell and Enchantra, and now you! What is the big deal? Are you guys trying to piss me off?”
“Lately, that seems almost too easy.” Derrick remarked. “Listen to us. I’m sure Lord Guardian had a perfectly good explanation for doing it. In fact, so do I.”
“Tell me already!” Ariana demanded. “Dare keep me in suspense!”
Derrick folded his arms, silently telling her how her attitude would get her nowhere.
“Don’t look at me like that, Derrick.” Ariana cried. “It won’t work.”
“Will it?”
“No! I won’t be anybody’s plaything, and that’s final.”
“Who said we were playing with you?” Derrick asked.
“No one said it. I feel it.” She remarked. “I feel I’m being pressured and pulled this way and that. Frankly, I’m tired if it!”
Derrick unfolded his arms and stared her down. “Think of how we feel about your behavior. Something affected you while you were bringing the Elder Companions from the Underground. Something so fierce, it has our own friend Wolf worried.”
Ariana’s face softened at the sound of her Companion friend’s name. She turned away from her husband, closing her eyes. Derrick could only watch as a wind of her own Magic whirled around her, changing her clothing to those resembling breeches and a long tunic. A brown leather cloak covered her back, the hood of it sitting on her shoulders.
He felt his own Pendant glowing. Putting a hand on it, he watched himself change clothing as well. A golden wind swept around him, rendering him speechless. The wind moved from head to toe. When it disappeared back into the Pendant, the necklace itself stopped glowing. He looked down at his body. On his feet were black leather boots, similar he’d seen in movies set in the middle ages. He wore black hose under a black pair of long breeches. There was a gold stripe along each leg of his breeches.
At his waist he wore a girdle, which held a sword sheath, complete with black-handled sword. Derrick took the sword out to admire it. There was an opalescent jewel in the pommel, the blade was arm’s length. It seemed to fit him perfectly. He sheathed the sword only to glance at his top-dress.
Upon his chest he wore ring-mail. Underneath, he wore a white under tunic. On his arms were battle armor that matched his ring-mail.