The Demons of Rome

VII - A Sea of Sand

"This isn't working," Aelith said impatiently.

"I thought it was supposed to be big," Iatus replied, snapping back to the task at hand.

"Well maybe it is big and deep. We need to dig further down. You're going to have to summon something."

"But I can't bind anything. It would be useless."

"If you summoned something small, like an imp, we could persuade it that helping is in its best interest."

Iatus considered this for a second then smiled, "Do you have a spirit in mind?"

"Try Opher."

Iatus drew a lazy circle in the sand with his foot and spoke the summons into the night.

There was a small tremor in the ground and then a worm about a foot long came burrowing up to the surface... and lashed out with its head, striking Iatus on the leg.

Iatus cried out in pain and fell over, "Ow, what the hell?"

The worm coiled itself and then sprang at Iatus' head, striking it with a heavy thump.

"Ah, Aelith! Do something!"

Aelith laughed. "But I thought you were the most powerful mage in a millennium, surely you must be able to subdue a worm."

Iatus managed to roll away from the next strike to his head, the worm missing him and diving into the sand. He rubbed his head and got to his feet.

"Where's the blasted thing gone now?"

"It's a burrower, just what we need."

Iatus spun around, looking for any sign of movement in the sand. He thought he saw a shift and blasted it with a beam of white light, leaving the sand smoking but no worm emerged.

Then the ground collapsed about three inches underneath Iatus' right foot, sending him toppling to the ground again. The worm appeared from the sand and wrapped itself around Iatus' neck.

"Here lies Iatus, Hero of Rome, Summoner of Gods, Destroyer of Armies, strangled to death by a worm," crowed Aelith.

"Just... Shut... Up.... And... Help..." gurgled Iatus as he struggled to rip the worm off.

With a wrench, Iatus managed to rip enough of the worm off to blast it with another bolt of light.

The worm hissed and fell away but before it could wriggle into the sand Iatus shouted the spellword for shield, trapping the worm in a floating ball of magic.

"Got it..." said Iatus, relieved and breathing heavily.

"Let me go!" screeched the worm from inside the bubble.

"No," replied Iatus disdainfully.

"You haven't bound me! You can't make me do anything!"

"Just shut up a minute," Iatus snapped and picked up the captured worm, "Now, you're going to do exactly as I say."

"No!" screeched the worm.

Iatus scowled at it and gave the bubble a good shake, sending the worm flopping about.

"You're going to listen to me worm, you're going to burrow down into the sand and you're going to find me the labyrinth that lies somewhere in this desert."

"No!"

"Yes you are, because if you don't, I'm going to feed you to Aelith..."

"Ew!" said both the worm and Aelith.