Voronica Whitney-Robinson - Sands of the Soul

"Off with you now," he ordered.

The worm reared up and dived into the sand, disappearing completely.

"Such a good little pet," Ciredor said to himself.

He paused to cast a cursory glance at the dead desert worm before turning back to enter the minaret.

"You take care of the mage-child," he said to the absent worm, "and Tazi will make sure Fannah arrives here unharmed. I just don't know what I would do without such dependable servants."

Upon entering the absolute darkness of the tower stairway, cooler still than the desert night outside, a certainty settled over Ciredor. He flung the doors shut behind him and leaned his back against them as they latched.

Once again in his sacred temple, he lowered his voice reverently and said, "Everything is proceeding just as it should. From all the signs you've sent me, it is as though you've already accepted me, Shar."

One side of his mouth turned up in a lopsided grin, and he resisted the urge to rub his hands together.

"It's almost time," he whispered and bounded up the stairs two at a step, like an eager bridegroom.

As a bloated red sun spread its rosy fingers over the sand, Tazi and her friends decided to move on. She reluctantly realized that they wouldn't consider the absolute logic of returning to the relative safety of Calimport without her. There was no point in continuing to argue with them. It wasted the one thing they hadn't run out of yet: time.

"Well," Tazi said as they threw handfuls of sand on their tiny fire, "at least it won't take long to pack up. See? We're done."

"I've always admired your ability to appreciate the lighter side of things," Steorf complimented her sarcastically.

"Do you feel that?" Fannah interrupted them with a worried look on her face.

"What is it?" Tazi asked, immediately on guard, though she was not aware of anything unusual.

"A rumbling," Fannah explained to them, "not too deep in the ground. It's getting closer. Do you feel it now?"

"I'm not sure-" Steorf started to ask her when their former fire pit exploded.

The force of the blast knocked Tazi and Fannah to the ground in a spray of sand and debris. Steorf barely managed to keep his footing. Rising up like some leviathan from the ocean depths, the purple desert worm reared its head. Its body eclipsed the rising sun like a storm cloud.

"What is that thing?" Tazi shouted.

Both she and Steorf drew their weapons, and Tazi realized that Fannah was unarmed.

She reached into her boot and called out to Fannah, "Right hand, Fannah."

Her friend extended her hand, and Tazi tossed her razor-sharp dagger so that it landed unerringly with its hilt in Fannah's palm. She saw her friend close her fingers around it.

At least she has something, Tazi thought.

The worm swung its head from one side to the other and an odd realization struck Tazi.

It looks like the worm is trying to decide which one of us it wants to strike at first. Why would that matter?

Tazi didn't have any more time to contemplate the worm's intentions before it made them very clear. The creature cocked its head and snapped it forward at Steorf. The young mage nearly failed to dodge the ring of teeth that smashed at his feet in time. None of them expected the worm to continue its descent.

The creature burrowed under the sand, and all three of them looked about wildly, trying to anticipate where it would resurface. The ground shifted in huge waves beneath them, and Steorf lost his footing. As he tumbled, the worm burst out of the sand to his right.

Steorf rolled furiously to the left, and the creature struck the ground where the mage had lain only a moment before. The creature was undaunted by its failure, and Steorf had to continue to roll as the creature shot after him repeatedly, each time missing the sorcerer by a narrower margin.

Steorf was finally able to roll up into a crouching position and slash across the worm's throat. The desert monster squealed, but the injury, a shallow cut, only made it more frenzied.

Tazi dashed over with her guardblade in hand, Fannah trailing just behind. The worm turned, however, and released a stream of sand from its nostrils, blasting the women. Tazi screamed in pain at the stinging spray. She was temporarily blinded by it.

The worm swung back to face Steorf, all else forgotten. As Steorf slashed at the creature again, Fannah came up behind the slithering beast. Tazi's body had shielded her from the brunt of the sandblast the worm had released, so she was uninjured. The blind woman struck the beast multiple times along its body, with little effect, though it oozed purple at every wound.

As Tazi knelt and wiped away the sand from her bleeding eyes, she was certain her vision was still affected for she saw the worm do a curious thing. It wheeled about on Fannah and moved to strike. Neither Tazi nor Steorf was close enough to stop it. However, Tazi could have sworn that the creature paused when it saw the source of the annoying pinpricks in its side almost as though it somehow recognized Fannah. Rather than strike the nearly defenseless woman with its sharp jaws, the worm shifted its position slightly and batted Fannah away like a horse would use its tail on a fly. Fannah tumbled backward and landed hard on the ground. Tazi could see that she was not seriously injured, however, just had the wind knocked out of her. The worm turned its attention back to Steorf.

The mage had little time to defend himself as he had been more engrossed in Fannah's fate, too. The worm lunged down at him, and he dodged again but was not quick enough this time. The worm's ring of teeth tore away a chunk of Steorf's leather tunic and laid bare a patch of his chest. While he scrambled to regain his footing and draw up his sword, the worm shook its head violently. The section of leather tunic it had torn from Steorf was still stuck to its teeth, and the worm whipped its head from side to side like a dog playing with a rag, trying to rid itself of the annoying cloth.

Tazi used the opportunity to charge at the worm. She struck it in the neck in almost the same spot that Steorf had. She managed to widen its wound, and a burst of purplish pus flowed out.

Tazi instinctively dodged the seepage, and the sand sizzled where the fluids splattered.

"Move!" she yelled at Steorf.

She raised her sword and swung once again at the beast. This time, the creature was prepared for her attack and brought its massive tail around front to parry Tazi's blow with its sharp tail. She tried to strike at it once more, and the creature managed to block her again.

The worm caught her sword by the hilt, narrowly missing her hand with its razor-sharp spike. It flicked her weapon away.

Tazi didn't have time to run. The worm slapped her across the sand with the bulk of its tail. She landed against a small pile of rocks and was momentarily stunned. Once again, though the monster had a clear shot at her, it hesitated.

Steorf and Fannah stood side by side and yelled to distract the worm from Tazi. Obviously they hadn't come to the same conclusions as she had about the worm's intended target.

The creature whipped its head around and dived under the sand again. Steorf and Fannah split up, both running in opposing directions. Tazi watched groggily and suspected that even though the worm had two victims to choose from, it was going to attack Steorf.

He probably makes louder vibrations on the sand than we do since he's bigger, she thought.

The worm burst up in front of Steorf in a spray of sand and grit. It pulled back its head and shot forward, bombarding Steorf with a concentrated blast of sand as it had done to Tazi. Steorf hissed in pain and tried to wipe the sand from his eyes while still brandishing his sword with the other. The more he rubbed, the more he scoured his eyes. This was the distraction the worm was hoping for.