Pool of Radiance - James M. Ward [127]
Shal and Tarl followed Ren cautiously as they circled the tower. There was a second door of more conventional size on the building's opposite side. It was an ebony door with an elaborate carving of a dragon on it, but this door was shut. Shal cast a spell to detect magical traps. When a yellow aura glowed along the door's perimeter, Shal summoned Cerulean from the Cloth of Many Pockets. As soon as the great horse touched the door with a hoof, a yellow mist puffed from the dragon's mouth. "No!" Shal bit back a scream as Cerulean bolted backward, snorting loudly. Immediately Shal murmured a cantrip to disperse the poison gas, but the puff of wind did not come soon enough to keep the first of the poison from penetrating the big horse's nostrils and lungs. Shal tried to calm Cerulean, but he was shaking his head furiously and snorting violently in an effort to get the toxic gas from his lungs.
Tarl pulled a pouch from his belt and tossed some dust at Cerulean's nose. Immediately the horse began to sneeze, and he kept it up for several seconds. By the time the sneezing finally slowed, Cerulean's eyes were bleary with water and his nose was running thick and yellow. He snorted once more, but then the fit was over. Shal wiped his nose and eyes with a cloth and patted his neck.
You okay, big fella? she asked silently.
Cerulean nodded. His breathing was still a little uneven, mixed with sniffles, but the poison was obviously no longer a danger.
Meanwhile, Ren had checked the ebony door for mechanical traps. Finding none, he eased it open. Peering inside the door, Ren could see that the chamber inside was completely open, from the full height of the tower to the depths of the subterranean cavern below. The door opened onto a roomy landing, fenced by an iron guardrail. A black grillwork stairway led down. The walls inside the tower and the cavern below all glowed a brilliant golden color.
"I've seen this somewhere before," Ren whispered.
Behind him, Tarl answered softly, "In the gnoll temple… The model looked just like this. He'll be here, all right. This must be the lair of the Lord of the Ruins."
"Do come down," called a warm, avuncular voice from somewhere below. "I enjoy company."
The three exchanged surprised glances, but it was Ren who creeped out onto the landing and peered down into the great golden vault. He saw no sign of Cadorna or the soldiers of the Black Watch, but from the top of the stairway, he could see a crescent-shaped pool, a full-sized version of the model they had seen in the gnoll temple. It glistened with an unnatural intensity, as if it created its own light source. "The pool!" whispered Ren." 'Power to the pool.' That's it! The blood from the temples is channeled into that pool!"
Beside the pool, partially hidden from view by the landing, stood a great bronze dragon, identifiable by its metallic color as one of the good dragons of the Realms.
"Please come down," the dragon repeated. Again the voice, which echoed through the golden chamber, seemed friendly and had a genuine warmth to it.
Ren had seen three dragons close up before. Each had seemed bigger than the one before, but this one was easily half again the size of any of them. Electricity crackled along the beast's gums and teeth each time it exhaled, and its tail switched behind it nervously.
"A bronze dragon" whispered Ren to Shal and Tarl, behind him. To the dragon, he said, "We seek the Lord of the Ruins."
"Dead," breathed the dragon, puffing a wisp of smoke into the air. "A puny man, but with tremendous magical powers of possession. As evil as anything I've seen