Fighting a worm is very dangerous. Everything about them is venomous. The spikes he uses to propel himself forward and dig are especially perilous. He has a barb on the end of his tail. When you do get loose, stay far away from that.

Education was always the key to success. The more information one had, the more power to defeat. She eased a crystal-centered circular weapon from her belt. Very gingerly she pushed one into Tatijana’s hands and a second into Skyler’s, before pulling a third out for herself.

His mouth contains double rows of serrated teeth, and inside are sacs of venom. We’re going to have to go inside. If you find yourself outside of him, remember his tail can also break every bone in your body with one swipe and his hide is so tough it will slice your skin if you come into contact with it.

I’ve seen them, Tatijana admitted. Xavier fed them humans.

Skyler shuddered and then had to suppress a cry of pain.

I’m going to disorient the worm with sound. Try to close your ears. The vibration alone will hurt your insides, but the sound itself is most troublesome. I know of no other way to distract it. It will thrash a bit and then open its mouth. That’s what we want and we’ll have only a couple of seconds. I can’t stress that enough. He’ll recover fast. Push the poison from your body and shift to molecules. Skyler, have you ever done that? Pushed the poison or shifted into something that small?

She had to know if her young stepdaughter could do such a thing on her own.

Absolutely, Ivory. I can do this. I will do this.

The young voice quavered, but Ivory heard the absolute steel. Are you both ready? The moment the mouth opens and you can, follow me inside. Keep your weapon ready and don’t touch anything inside.

She sent up a prayer that they would make it out, and then, using a pitch that caused vertigo and notes that disoriented and vibrated the very insides of the worm, she began to chant in a singsong voice.

I call to the element of air, used for sound,

Drum to the heartbeat of evil that digs through the ground.

Pitch, harmonics, combine and align,

Fight by attacking the warp evil’s mind.

She had fought the worms several times, but it was always with her heart in her throat, a terrible, frightening fear that was nearly overwhelming. She had a deep faith and she prayed urgently not to be abandoned, not when she had two other lives depending on her.

She continued to sing, but the rhythm of her song changed as Mother Earth responded to her discordant notes, changing the very vibrations within the soil, drawing it inward. The ground shivered with the sound, trembled as the wave of sound went crashing through it. The worm tube began to collapse in on itself. Soil, rock and debris fell around them, tumbling into the tube.

A roar of thunder boomed down the hole just behind the worm and it hesitated, slowing almost to a stop. The entire body shuddered and shivered. Ivory sang again, the pitch reverberating through the dirt, the sound hurting all three of them right along with the worm. The notes crashed through their bodies, shook their minds and turned their insides into a quivering mass of congealed gelatin.

Disoriented, the worm halted all progress, its mouth yawning wide in a terrible shriek that resounded through the ground, releasing all three at the same time.

Ivory pushed the poison from her body and shifted to vapor, still holding the weapon so that it seemed to float through the air. Hurry. Hurry. Keep that weapon close and follow me inside. She didn’t have time to look to see if they followed, but she sensed them behind her as she streamed inside the open mouth of the worm.

Both Skyler and Tatijana could feel the vibration of the disc in their hands as they followed Ivory deep into the creature’s mouth. They went past the double rows of what looked like shark teeth, continued past dripping fangs and thick pockets of amber-colored venom, down into the very throat of the worm.

Ivory had constructed the disc of natural elements, everything gifted from Mother Earth herself, minerals and gems to form the weapon. She had used it many times against the worm, and like always before, it felt a natural part of her. She could tell Skyler and Tatijana were both daughters of the Earth in the way they held the weapon as well.

You’re looking for scar tissue somewhere inside the throat. The worms have only two vulnerable spots and the second is deep inside the body where we definitely don’t want to go. Whatever you do, don’t scrape up against the walls of this worm. Don’t touch anything because everything inside is thick with its venom. The scar tissue is where the master can attach himself and give instructions.

It was dark and dank, very humid inside the throat of the worm. Great streams of amber hung like icicles from the roof of the mouth and dripped continuously. Membranes were covered by strange high ridges, deep valleys of scarring and large misshapen bumps, above and all around them.

The worm shrieked again, the sound echoing up the throat, nearly throwing them against the walls. The creature grew frantic as the tunnel continued to collapse, fighting to make it through to the other side by wiggling, bucking and even whirling like a drill.

The three women searched for the telltale spot inside the desperate worm. As the creature spun madly in an attempt to get out of the collapsing tunnel, venom sprayed around its throat. Only the fact that the three women were in the form of vapor saved them from being doused.

Is this it? Skyler asked.

Tatijana had stayed close to her, hoping to protect her if everything went bad fast, not that she could imagine much worse. She peered at the strange markings on the inside of the worm’s throat. Small raised wounds and blemishes were scattered in a pattern of seven whorls and deep circular indentations, marks she was certain the mage had made.

Skyler’s right. This has to be his mark, Ivory. There’s a fresh wound here.

Ivory inspected the small ring. Perfect. Good eyes, Skyler. This disc is iolite, she identified. Already there was a thin thread of blue-violet light emanating from the disc.

It’s a violet stone that enhances vision on the astral realm, Tatijana explained to Skyler just in case she didn’t know.

Very volatile under the right circumstances, Ivory added. Do exactly as I do and then get out of here fast.

Ivory didn’t wait, shimmering into her natural form, careful to avoid the strings of amber venom seeping in long strings from the roof of the mouth as she hovered in the center of the worm’s throat.

Skyler gasped as fibers reached for Ivory, like tentacles following the source of heat. Ivory was fast, dodging them and using the light like one of her arrows, striking deep, penetrating into the worm’s tough wall. When she let go of the disc, the weapon followed the light, crashing hard into the pattern of scars.