“James!” A giddy smile bloomed on Karla’s face. She had no clothes on, but then, neither did I.
“Your woman,“ said Urszula, flatly.
Startled, the Old Ones around me paused and leveled their scepters. “Tell them it’s okay. She’s with me.”
Karla took off running towards me, her arms swinging wildly.
“No! Wait! There’s Fellstraw!”
Either she didn’t hear me or the term meant nothing to her because she kept on running.
A coiled worm leaped at her like a wooden spring un-sprung. She cried out and lurched aside, nimbly, but blundered close to another and set it off as well, forcing her to hop back the other way. The creatures, though blind, could sense her. They bounced and squirmed excitedly, triggering each other in a chain reaction.
“What are these things?” said Karla.
“Stay put, right where you are,” I said, charging at a nearby clump of worms which had come together, inching along like caterpillars, and was organizing into a swarm. I swung my blade, aiming to clear a path for her, but slashing the headless creatures only made things worse. The cut ends reshaped themselves into bullet-shaped tips and then there were two worms.
A transparent pulse burst forth from Urszula’s scepter, rippling the air like heat waves over blacktop. It slammed broadside into the cluster, knocking them over. Unharmed, they picked themselves up, juiced with an extra smidgeon of agitation and aggression. They reared up and panned their tips around like periscopes, seeking the source of their insult.
Urszula seemed shocked that her pulse had not obliterated them. “These beasts are potent. No ordinary mage created them.”
Several clusters of worms joined together into a single swarm and formed an arc between us and Karla. She tried to backtrack towards the gate, but the worms sent two arms rushing out to cut her off before she could escape. Now that they had her trapped, they circled her warily.
They sure acted way too intelligent for a bunch of worms. Together, they had some sort of communal intelligence. Either that or someone was controlling them remotely.
Inexorably, like a camera’s diaphragm contracting in slow motion, the worms tightened the ring around Karla, who stood straight and tall in the very center, arms tight against her sides.
“What’s happening?”
“Don’t let them touch you!” I said. I held out my sword and mustered the bitterest thoughts possible, cultivating a hatred for all things wormy, drawing from sources as varied as my early disgust with a three-year-old neighbor girl who used to eat them, and fishing with Dad, the damned sandworms that used to pinch my fingers when I tried to bait my hook.
I was committed and confident that I could make something happen. I had summoned powerful spells before that had taken out Reapers and spikers. This should be as easy as squishing maggots.
I narrowed my eyes at the thick swath of worms between me and Karla, and conjured that loosening in my core that foretold the imminent unleashing of my bizarre powers. Deep in my torso, energy swirled, building to a critical mass that could no longer be contained. It tore loose and poured out through my arms and out the point of my sword.
A blast screamed out of the blade with the force of a fire hose. It barreled into a batch of worms and pressed them flat to the ground. When the pulse was spent, and my arms were shaking from the strain, those damned worms were still there, entirely intact. They just picked themselves back up and resumed their creeping.
