A muffled detonation rumbled deep within the subterranean abyss beneath the eastern terrace, sending plumes of frozen mist and pulverized sandstone into the dry desert air.
Forty feet below the cracked surface, Helen drove her rapier through the bloated central valve of the true sand worm's primary heart.
The colossal organism thrashed in a dying spasm, shrieking a high-pitched sonic death cry that rattled the loose gravel across the canyon floor before slumping into lifeless stillness.
Back in the central crater, the hundred-foot puppet worm shuddered violently as its subterranean life tether snapped completely.
The corrupted leylines that held its rotting, petrified chitin together disintegrated into puffs of foul sulfur smoke.
With a deafening crash that shook the perimeter wagons, the gargantuan husk collapsed onto its side, crumbling into piles of inert, chalky bone and coarse gray grit.
