Lady of Poison_ The Priests - Bruce R. Cordell [30]
Then everything opened up, as he flashed past two standing stones, one on either side, and into a wide circle bounded by rune-etched obelisks. At the last, Ususi held back, allowing Marrec to charge into the bowl by himself. He cursed again when he saw what was waiting.
At least ten gangrenous rot fiends occupied the outskirts of the bowl, concentrated to Marrec's left; he saw they were engaging Gunggari and Elowen. His attention was consumed by the man who stood at the center of the ring at its deepest point It was Gameliel. It had to be.
The blightlord wore dark gray plate armor, etched with runes that appeared to pulsate and overlap each other occasionally, and from which seeped an oily, black fluid. He wore reddish gauntlets and a helm constructed of the same blood-hued alloy. In one hand he seemed to clutch a halberd-shaped hole in the air leading into utter blackness. Marrec felt he could feel cold bleeding from it, even from where he heeled his mount to stand several yards away.
Gameliel the blightlord stood in a puddle of ooze that was constantly being replenished from the blightlord's armor. Small tendrils of ooze snaked up away from the shallow pool at the bowl's center, touching many of the flat stones ringing the space.
"You picked the wrong day to visit the Mucklestones, friend," came the blightlord's rasping voice.
"You picked…"
Interrupting Marrec's witty response came Ususi's strident yell, "You've contaminated the portal system You've wrecked the stones!"
She had to shout over the clamor of fighting between the volodnis, Elowen, and Gunggari. Marrec could barely see either the elf hunter or the Oslander. Their fight continued outside the ring and was screened from the cleric's view by the press of rot fiends, but he could hear Gunggari's dizheri singing to itself as the tattooed soldier swung it against the swarming volodnis.
"On the contrary," rasped Gameliel. "I haven't wrecked them. I've re-routed the stones for my own use."
Marrec, in turn, interrupted Ususi, "Call your rot fiends off and yield, or we'll force you to succumb. If you yield willingly and answer my questions about the goddess Lurue…"
Ususi struck, interrupting his ultimatum. A rush of unintelligible words preceded her throwing motion. A bead of fire arced high over bowl then dropped toward the blightlord. Marrec sighed. He'd have to get his answers the hard way.
Gameliel glanced at the falling bead but was unruffled. Instead, he spewed a foul syllable. Even as Ususi's fiery bead fell toward him, the oily sludge in which he stood inflated, as if it was a mammoth bubble of swamp gas on the surface of stagnant water. In a mere second it enclosed Gameliel in a transparent dome. The blightlord stood within, gesticulating and chanting.
The bead of fire detonated directly over the blightlord's head. The rush of heat singed Marrec's eyebrows, but when the flash faded, Gameliel was unharmed. The bubble was gone, and there was less ooze at the blightlord's feet than before.
From the back of his horse, Marrec hurled Justlance at the blightlord. It sped unerringly at Gameliel, but a tendril of ooze rose up and flicked the spear away. Instead of the blightlord's chest, it buried itself in a rune-etched stone, its shaft quivering.
Gameliel finished incanting. A flash of dark green heralded the sudden appearance of a monster no more than arm's length from Ususi. The powerfully built creature stood taller than Ususi on her mount. She yelled in alarm and shrank back on her saddle. Marrec recognized the monster-a forest troll, and a big one at that.
Already Gameliel was chanting away on another spell. Marrec knew a troll so close would challenge Ususi's ability to defend herself, but the cleric judged that he had to deal with the blightlord first, or they might face even more trolls.
Time to use up another hoarded spell, Marrec decided. The slime shield had to be burned away.
He called on what grace was