Dr. Hassan was quiet for a moment, his eyes seeming to bore into my soul. I stared right back, unshakable in my feelings. “Perhaps you are right,” he finally acquiesced. “Perhaps Amon’s consort is as sharp as his swords.”
I was about to ask him what he meant by consort when the cavern shook so hard it could mean only one thing—the demon worm had broken through.
“That’s our cue!” I shouted, and grabbed Dr. Hassan’s arm to steady myself. Rocks fell all around us as we raced toward the far end of the cave. I lifted my free arm overhead in a lame attempt to protect myself from getting battered.
Making our way to the other side of the cavern was much harder this time. The entire structure seemed on the verge of collapse. We dodged fallen stalactites and broken stalagmites, and reached the other side with only a few minor scrapes and cuts. But the chaos and destruction we saw when we rounded the corner was overwhelming.
The giant worm hung from the ceiling, its soft body oozing bloody pus in several places. Water poured in from a fissure in the stone as Amon and Asten fought knee-deep in a pool of it. If the water had risen that quickly, then it would be above our heads soon. The diverted waterfall didn’t seem to hinder the worm. It lowered its body into the stream and writhed back and forth like a grotesquely swollen water snake.
Amon slashed at its side, while Asten created magic dust that blew up in puffs of light bright enough to blind us. In retaliation, the worm opened its mouth, spewing neon-green slime and fat clumps of glistening saliva over everything within range. The rocks that its venom landed on hissed and popped. Thankfully, Amon and Asten darted out of the way quickly enough to avoid the toxic bile.
With a mighty heave, the worm pulled the rest of its body into the collapsing cave, twisting its tail toward Asten while keeping its gaping mouth of razor-sharp teeth aimed at Amon. I gasped in horror when I saw a snapping mouth housed in the tip of its tail.
“Asten!” I cried. “Watch out!”
Responding to my voice, the creature shook itself violently, knocking Amon aside in the process, and slithered toward me, leaving behind shining trails of gooey slime. Its probing sensor, which I now saw was one of several that darted out from holes in the sides of its head, wriggled like a long purple parasite, while its mouth moved in an anticipatory chomping motion. Amon attacked the beast vigorously, driving both of his scimitars deep into its fleshy body, but the worm ignored him and kept pressing on.
“Amon!” I cried as his body slammed into the ceiling.
“He will be just fine,” a voice murmured in my ear. I whipped around, but could see nothing but darkness, and then a tiny spark burst on the tip of my nose.
“Asten?”
“At your service, my beautiful devotee. If you would be so kind as to follow me.”
Enraged, the creature sped toward me, but a hand stretched out of the darkness and captured mine, dragging me into a whirling, dark fog full of sparkling fireflies. Asten suddenly became visible. The worm paused, its feeler testing the air just a few inches from our faces but failing to locate us.
As Amon hollered at the beast, causing the frustrated creature to turn toward him, Asten kept tight hold of my hand. He didn’t allow me to get in a word of protest before guiding us out from behind the stalagmite and back toward the flooded section of cavern.
Once we reached it, I spied Dr. Hassan perched on a rock surrounded by water that would be waist-deep if he were standing in it. Even though Asten and I were on higher ground, the runoff from the waterfall kept rising and was over our ankles in seconds.
“If you would stand aside,” Asten admonished.
“I don’t understand. We have to go back and help Amon.”
“Amon is perfectly capable of extricating himself.”
“But—”
“Trust me.” Asten gave me a look that wasn’t flirtatious or cocky in any way. It was a pleading sort of expression, and one that he didn’t seem too comfortable wearing.