‘Well, that’s new,’ said Liska. Could Elowen’s magic lessons have actually worked? Or maybe holding Nammu’s heart for so long had changed Lug somehow?

‘Elowen.’ She tugged at her friend’s tattered white dress. ‘I think Lug’s magic is finally working!’

Elowen paused in her own spellcasting and the two of them watched Lug as the aura of orange light spread outwards from him, growing more and more intense.

The ground under the battlefield was starting to buck and roll now. Cracks appeared, tearing the layers of goo apart like soggy sponge. Sparks of energy began to crackle, streaming out of Lug and zipping off towards the hordes of seepers. Something huge was coming.

KRA-KA-KOOM!

A thunderclap tore the air, orange lightning arcing down from the sky, striking the very centre of Bitterblight’s forces.

Precisely where it hit, the ground rose up into a hummock, a hill, a mountain . . . and then it broke open to reveal a worm. The biggest creature the planet had ever seen. An earthworm the size of a city, each segment taller than a treekeeper. It loomed over the battlefield like a colossal tower, head waving this way and that. At the tip of its nose was a star-shaped mouth, gaping wide and lined deep into its throat with teeth like razor-sharp tombstones. A roar blasted out from the thing’s maw, one that shook the earth and pounded the air.

Every single being stopped their fighting to gape.

‘Nematus,’ Liska whispered in awe. ‘The god worm.’

She looked back at Lug, standing now, his arms moving, controlling the epic beast.

‘Do it, Lug,’ she mouthed. ‘Crush them.’

He brought his hands sweeping downwards and as he did so, Nematus followed. It toppled over, hitting the ground with a thud that knocked everyone off their feet, sending a cloud of pummelled seeper particles into the air.

And then it began to writhe and roll, smashing and smearing, crushing and rending – mashing all the rot beasts into paste.

The mages cheered, the shapewalkers roared. They redoubled their attacks, beating down their enemies even as they tried to flee the worm.

‘This is it!’ Liska shouted. ‘This is our chance! We have to get to Bitterblight now!’

‘Charge!’ Fishbone shouted again and Embla began to run at full speed into the thick of the fleeing seepers, heading straight for the volcano.

Chapter 16

Dodging lunging rot beasts, smashing seepers away with her fist, Embla loped up the steep edge of the volcano. Most of the enemy creatures were at the bottom of the slope, slamming into each other as they tried to avoid the thrashing, crushing body of Nematus. The topmost section of cracked and blasted rock was clear. Liska held her breath as Embla scrambled up it, wondering what her first glimpse of the dreaded Bitterblight would be like.

It was every bit as horrible as she feared.