Read Ways of Power 1: Power Rises for Free Online Page B

Rancoth's glowing green eyes. "Well…laddy, if ya think it's safe…"
    Rancoth smiled. "It'll be fine, my friend, just um…keep quiet, okay?"
    Dorbin nodded, with a slight look of trepidation on his face, and moved back from his bellows to stand out of the way.
    Rancoth knew Dorbin feared his power…everyone did. He hoped that Dorbin also knew that he wouldn't allow any harm to come to him. He had come a long way since that night eleven years ago, and could readily control his demons now…for the most part anyway.
    "Gillbrick, come." The demon’s name and the simple command were the only words Rancoth used to summon any of his minions. Simple, direct, with no room for misunderstanding. He learned long ago that it was the best approach to take with the inherently deceitful, evil creatures he had at his command.
    A thick inky black smoke and an almost overwhelming stench of sulfur heralded the creature's entrance. Gillbrick was a gremlin-class demon; it was small, no bigger than a foot tall, with long thin arms and legs sticking out from a rotund little belly. It's naked, hairless skin was a dark cobalt blue, and like most demons it had no discernible sex.
    It had a small round head with a flat face and snout. Two small tusks jutted out a few inches from its lower jaw. Its eyes were red, with no hint of pupil, and there were two small holes in the side of its head to serve for ears.
    Gillbrick was the first sentient demon Rancoth had ever summoned, and like all of his minions it hated him. Once summoned by a warlock a demon is irreversibly linked to that warlock; it must serve its master, though not always in a cooperative manner.
    Gillbrick had appeared on top of a workbench directly in front of Rancoth. It spoke with a high-pitched scratchy voice, and had a look of irritation on its face. "Aiech drem koll ra ti ma," were the words that Dorbin would hear, but Rancoth heard "What the hell do you want?"
    Rancoth replied in the common tongue, partially for Dorbin's benefit, but mostly because it allowed him to remain focused, and he knew that the demon could understand him no matter what language he spoke. "You and I are going to help my friend Dorbin with his forge."
    The look of loathing that shot across Gillbrick's face was almost an assault itself. "We're going to put your fire to good use," Rancoth said.
    "Good use, my ass! That fat little man can eat shit and die for all I care!" Gillbrick spat back.
    "What you care for is inconsequential. We are going to help him."
    Gillbrick continued to glare without moving. "You're a worthless master. Out of all the warlocks I could have been tied to, I get a goody-two-shoes pussy. My hell fire should be used to burn cities to the ground, and to roast the flesh of your enemies. Pathetic!"
    Dorbin, who could only understand Rancoth's side of the conversation, was getting impatient with his own curiosity. "What's it sayin?" he finally asked, with a mixed look of wonder and fear on his face. His tutelage of the boy had been in the traditional areas of study: math, language, science; things of that nature. He had never seen Rancoth use his power before, nor met one of his minions.
    Gillbrick instantly turned to look at Dorbin, with murder on its mind.
    "STOP!" Rancoth shouted.
    Gillbrick had already snapped its long spindly fingers and held a ball of blue and white flame in its hand, but at its master's command, it didn't make another move.
    "You will throw that ball of flame into the mouth of the forge only, and then you will instantly return to your realm." Gillbrick looked back over its shoulder at Rancoth to offer him one final vile look, before doing as it was commanded. It tossed the ball of hell fire into the forge, sending sparks dancing across the room, and then vanished in a puff of black smoke.
    Rancoth spent the rest of the day helping Dorbin with his new smelting technique. Between that, and occasionally going up front to help when a customer entered the shop, and going