Pools of Darkness (6 page)

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 creature—an intelligence and a rebellious spirit lacking in its smaller brethren. “What is your desire?” demanded the grating voice.

“You are my shield and voice, creature. You will cast my spells and speak as I speak. Latenat!” The fiend left no chance for error in voicing its command. It directed the elemental to turn toward another wall. Every gesture, movement, and breath of the fiend was instantly copied by the elemental.

With this last precaution, the fiend felt truly safe. It checked its many layers of mystical defensive energy and discovered them to be sound. It checked the enchanted controls over the elemental and found these as solid as the diamondlike materials from which the elemental was made. The fiend reinforced the protections on the single magical entrance to the chamber in which it dwelled; it would not be disturbed. Slobbering at its success, the fiend was now ready to commune with its god.

The fiend’s lips moved to call forth its master, but the sound issued from the elemental. “Bane, my master, I beg you, hear me.”

“AAAAAAaaaaaahhhhhhhh!”

An abominable howl filled the chamber, swirling in and out and around the two figures. A tiny, dazzling dot of light blinked on the wall in front of the earth elemental. The dot cut through the numerous layers of magical darkness in the room, denying any concealment. The blazing energy grew in size and bathed the elemental in a blast of light as intense as the sun. The pit fiend ducked behind the girth of its guardian, grateful that its own skin wasn’t exposed to the blistering, hot light. The fiend’s control of the elemental allowed it to see through the elemental’s eyes; luckily, the dazzling light didn’t harm the rocky servant.

“Tanetal, my diabolical child, I am so glad you called me.” A booming, sugary voice grew in volume as the light grew in size. Soon the entire wall in front of the elemental was blasting forth a beam of energy so intense that the moisture in the air began steaming away in a mist.

“Lord Bane, you are all,” the elemental spoke in the voice of the pit fiend. “I have carried out all your instructions. Phlan is in your power, and the pool of darkness is ready to give you many souls. What more can I do to answer your bidding?” The fiend raged silently at the groveling supplications that hid its true feelings. Its god had spoken its real name. If any other creature heard the name Tanetal, it would be able to control the pit fiend. Among all fiends, true names were never used. The elemental would now have to die, for it had heard the name—but, not until after this conversation was over.

“Fool! Dead thing! You think you have carried out my plan! You worm, you are less than the slime of worms! Where is my city?” The blast of anger from the god snuffed out all the protections that the fiend had spent hours creating in the chamber. Fortunately, its personal wards were not eliminated. The chamber and the huge magical tower shook with the wrath of the god. The earth elemental didn’t even twitch. The fiend still cowered behind its massive body.

Now an enormous ball of light formed in the chamber. It writhed and took the shape of a seven-foot-tall, bald human with a long black beard and mustache. This visage was what Bane allowed his worshipers to see when the god felt the need for direct contact with creatures on the Prime Material Plane.

“Well?” the god-voice boomed.

The deity’s glare was too much for even the diamondlike surface of the elemental. The creature burst into a billion shards. The fragments that hurled toward the god were pulverized into harmless soot. The rocky projectiles hitting the fiend ripped its flesh to shreds and sent the creature to the floor, writhing in pain, despite the protective energies that still wrapped around it.

“That’s much better, my dear drooling son. I do so much like communicating with you directly. Let me tell you what has happened with my plan so far.” The face softened. The pit fiend was instantly drawn in awe and adoration to the god’s every word.

“All the cities of the Moonsea that I wished for my own, except yours, have been collected. They were ripped from the earth and are now in the plane of Limbo. While a few cities are still trying to resist me, their pools of darkness are transforming the human souls into my minions. In a few months, I will be able to put these cities back in their places around the Moonsea and my worshipers will fill the land to overflowing, thus increasing my power in Faerun.

“Listen!” shrieked the god. With that, the many layers of magical defenses around the fiend vanished, all except the blue spheres of protection.

“You poor excuse for an imp!” Bane’s voice was ear-splitting. Now the blue spheres burst with a stone-shattering boom. Not only was the tower rocked, but the land around the massive structure reeled with the anger of the god.

“Do you want to tell me why Phlan isn’t where it should be?” Each word of the god blasted the fiend harder and harder into the floor. The very stones under and around the creature sank and molded themselves to the monster’s body. Its massive frame started to melt from the energy it was absorbing.

“Master! Please! Mute your righteous wrath before I perish and am unable to do your will! Latenat!” The fiend sniveled at the pain that racked its body.

The god smiled and reduced his power to a fraction of what it had been. The fiend still squirmed.

Bane’s light was completely blinding. Crusty layers of flesh peeled off the arms of the fiend. It wrapped its body in its wings, which blocked the searing heat temporarily, although soon the wings would be burned husks embracing a skeletal frame.

“AAAAAAaaaaaahhhhhhhh!” The voice of the pit fiend finally convinced Bane to convert the burning light to a cool radiance. The forces blasting the creature to the floor changed, picked the fiend up, and healed it completely. Huge chunks of black rock fell from the flesh of the fiend and crashed with loud echoes to the floor. The fiend gasped as it spit out its explanation.

“I purposely shifted Phlan to a huge cavern below this tower, using the power of the pool of darkness to transport it. It will now be easier, for you in all your greatness, to shift it back again when all the souls have been pulled from Phlan. All this was done only for you, noble master. All was done to make you more powerful here in Faerun. I know what great effort you expended to pull the other cities away. Was I wrong, most noble of gods? Latenat!”

“No, my loyal toadling. I don’t know yet what you intend, but the souls of Phlan must be mine at the precise moment when I gather those from all the other cities. So hurry up with your plans. Summon me again when our work is accomplished, Tanetal.”

With that, the light vanished and the god was gone. The fiend groaned in relief with the disappearance of the intense pressure on its body and mind. Whatever happened, Phlan would have to surrender its human souls to the pool of darkness, or bits of the fiend would certainly be scattered over this chamber, like bits of the elemental it had summoned.

The fiend wasn’t the only creature present in the mage’s tower. In other parts of the fortress, equally evil activities were underway.

“Fiends,” the Red Wizard said imperiously, “arise. I have a mission for you.”

Three abishai, one black, one green, and one red, flapped down from their golden alcoves in Marcus’s throne room and shuffled over to the wizard. If it were possible to read the expressions on the faces of the ghastly creatures, it would be obvious they didn’t like taking orders from a mere human.

Of the many types of fiends, abishai were among the lowliest. Their distant cousin, the pit fiend, was the most powerful of their kin. The abishai’s bodies showed disgusting similarities to their more powerful relatives.

Like pit fiends, abishai looked much like hideous gargoyles. Thin and reptilian, they possessed long, prehensile tails and great bat wings. Standing seven feet tall, their true heights were deceptive due to their crouching, bobbing gaits. These monsters were powerful, much stronger than goblinkin, and about as intelligent as an average human. And each abishai was more than a match for even the most powerful of wizards. A man wiser than the Red Wizard might have had the sense to be fearful.

“My pit fiend has given you three to me to use as I wish. You will guard my tower night and day. Fly out from the tower three hundred miles and circle the entire area. Kill anyone or anything that might cause me trouble.”

The three fiends grumbled in irritation.

“None of this!” the wizard shouted, waving his ringed hand. “I, Marcus, have power over you. Now go!”

The abishai flew across the room and out of the chamber. As they went, each vowed silently to serve the pit fiend Tanetal for a thousand years, but only if they were allowed to dismember the wizard and rip out his organs one by one, keeping the insolent spellcaster alive during the fun.

No, the red abishai thought, I must offer to serve Tanetal for five thousand years. It was the most intelligent and powerful of the three, and it knew that such a plan might successfully exclude its lesser brethren from the delight of torturing the Red Wizard.

Unaware of the hidden feelings of the abishai, Marcus gloated as he sat on his throne. Invisible among the Red Wizards of Thay, he’d been of their lowest rank and was paid no attention by other wizards in the sect. Marcus’s only claim to fame was a smidgeon of power granted to him after he became a follower of Bane. From that day on, his star had been on the rise. And a dark star it was.

A high priest of Bane had given Marcus the means to summon the pit fiend to Toril’s plane of existence, as well as the name of Tanetal. This evil priest had also told Marcus of Bane’s plan to take over the cities of the Moonsea and fill them with possessed humans who would worship Bane and make the deity the most powerful god in Faerun.

When Marcus summoned Tanetal, he was startled but overjoyed by the massive power of the pit fiend. The creature’s mere touch had given the wizard awesome mystical abilities. And in a snap the fiend had summoned the lesser fiends, the abishai, to serve Marcus in any way the Red Wizard desired.

“Oh, that was a glorious day when Tanetal became my servant. We raised this tower and later we stole the entire city of Phlan. All I must do now is conquer the city with the mystical minions I command, and all will be pleasing to Bane. I will be granted powers beyond those of mere mortals. What more could one wizard ask?” Marcus hissed and seethed in distorted ecstasy.

Over the next hour, Marcus gave instructions to clerics of Bane and then to the commanders of the mercenary armies. Phlan would fall—of that he had no doubt—and all would be perfect. True, the city had resisted the first attack of Marcus’s army. The residents were surprisingly well prepared for battle, and powerful wizards lurked within the city, including one female who cast the most damnable violet lightning bolts. But they would fall; they would be defeated.

Marcus smiled as he thought of the day that the people of Phlan would be submerged into the pool of darkness under the red tower. The evil wizard and his pit fiend would absorb a fair share of the power from those souls, and Bane would never notice the energy missing from his pool. The fiend had been explicit and had carefully described this part of the plan. Bane would get eight out of ten souls, and the rest would be enough to make Marcus a demigod. The very thought of this made the Red Wizard quiver.

Now the mage cleared his throne room. All the orders had been given, and his war plans would proceed perfectly. Marcus’s gray, stormy eyes scanned his golden domain. He had worked hard to tastefully decorate the walls, floors, and ceilings of his rooms in red gold. He didn’t realize that he was the only creature who found them to be in good taste.

His eyes fell on the four fiend alcoves. The residents of the first three had already been sent on their mission, but the fourth held a charming creature, another race of fiend. What had his pit fiend called it? Ah, yes, an erinyes.

“Erinyes, come over here, sweet child.” Marcus’s voice dripped.

This creature’s small size, a mere six feet tall, and its youthful, feminine form belied its age of over twenty-two thousand years. It looked nothing like the abishai, but instead resembled a human female with feathery wings. Nonetheless, it had come from the seventh level of the Nine Hells. In its long lifetime, it had learned how to manipulate those who tried to manipulate it. Stepping from the alcove, the creature lifted lustrous green eyes to the scrawny human on the throne and stretched seductively.