Pools of Darkness by James M. Ward, Anne K. Brown Read Free Book Online Page B

creature’s bare feet, humanlike despite their three foot length, emitted streams of hot, jet-black sparks. A single spark would have burned right through the flesh of a normal creature, but each fist-sized flare bounced off its crusty, ebony skin.
    “Power, that’s what it’s all about! Now that Marcus the fool has summoned me to this plane, I can accomplish what I have been planning for a thousand years. Latenat!”
    The fiend’s wings blazed with magic. It summoned more inky darkness and wrapped the blackness around its flesh like a coating of soot. Again the creature savored the scent of blood in the air, inhaling deeply.
    “I’ll use the power Bane has given me and give him some of the souls he wants. But I will keep the souls I need to grow even more powerful. Nothing can stop me. Nothing! Latenat!”
    The horrible creature swung its talons against the nearest wall, punching huge holes into six-foot-thick marble. The stone crumbled to the floor with no effect on its harder-than-steel talons. The fiend sneered at the rubble as it continued gesturing. Suddenly twin spheres of blue energy surrounded each talon-studded fist.
    A strain was evident in the fiend’s voice as it completed the incantation, but no one was present to hear. No one with the slightest intelligence would have wanted to be near while such a pit fiend tried to communicate with its god. Few people could walk away with their sanity intact after viewing such a spectacle. The spheres of energy on the fiend’s fists spread with every magical urging.
    “Kazaranthan!” the monster hissed. The blue-white energy spread from its taloned hands to the tops of its thick, corded arms. “Kallendurm ankerath!” it spit. The spheres spread from its arms to the muscled chest that made the girth of a bull look puny. “Gorgathen tellenl aunduen!” A gasp of pain spewed from the creature with the last of the magical words. The spheres expanded over the rest of the fiend’s body, covering its massive tree-stump legs and heavy, black-veined wings.
    The final effort sent the creature to its knees in pain.
    “I hate that spell. Latenat!” it mumbled. The blue spheres touched without combining, and the fiend became completely engulfed in a protective ward. The enchanted being planned to cast one more spell of protection before summoning the attention of its god. Worshipers of Bane offered sacrifices so they would avoid the attention of their god, and the fiend knew how dangerous it was to ask for direct contact.
    The creature gestured at the floor. Only magical vision would have noticed the golden lines rising up from the granite surface. The pattern made by the shimmering enchantments forced more energy into the fiend.
    “Aaaahh, surely there is nothing able to stop me now. Latenat!” Gasping, the creature reveled in the massive power and pain it felt. Mystical energies coursed through its unholy veins, swelling them to the bursting point. The gigantic creature grinned a fangy grin.
    More gestures and magical words started the process of summoning another creature, this one from the Elemental Plane of Earth. The wall in front of the fiend pulsed with malevolent energy. Ominous fractures crept over a steadily growing bulge in the marble surface. The jet blackness soon outlined a nineteen-foot humanoid form. Rocky protrusions exploded out of the black marble. “Come forth to your master! Latenat!” the fiend commanded. A nearly indestructible earth elemental fractured itself from the wall with a loud crash and stood before the fiend that commanded it.
    A voice like stone grinding on stone boomed in the chamber. “I’m not pleased to be here.” Few creatures had the nerve to speak in such a manner to a fiend.
    Elementals summoned by ordinary wizards were ten-foot piles of rock able to crush walls and a wizard’s enemies. This elemental was a prince of its kind, and its massive rocky protrusions were diamond-hard. A keen intelligence dwelled in the