“You think those are her children?” Chichi said, looking closely at the cave’s wall.

“Either that or her minions,” Sasha said.

“I wouldn’t get too close to the walls if I were you,” Orlu said as they entered the cave.

The ground was free of webbing but not of spiders. There were tiny and not so tiny spiders all over the place. For a while, Sunny looked down as she held up the marbles and tried not to step on them. But eventually she realized that these spiders weren’t stupid and were not about to allow themselves to be crushed. With relief, she stopped looking down.

The cave was cool and damp, the burning house smell stronger than ever. The wide path led even deeper beneath the city. Then it opened wide and high as it came to an end. When Sunny laid her eyes on Udide the Ultimate Artist, the Great Hairy Spider, she screamed.

Udide not only smelled like burning houses, she was the size of a house. She was black with a gray sheen in the marble-light, and her many eyes glowed a rich brown, like truck-tire-sized jewels. She was covered with stiff hairs. Her abdomen was bulbous, the better to weave with, and tipped with a great black stinger. She was on her back, the spiked tips of her eight powerful legs pressed to the cave’s ceiling. And Sunny saw her through both her and Anyanwu’s point of view, which meant she saw Udide on both the spiritual and physical planes. Orlu clapped his hand over his mouth. Sasha started hyperventilating. Chichi just stood there staring, slack-jawed.

Sunny’s eyes were watering as the great spider wriggled slowly, twisting and turning her body so that her legs were on the ground. Then she stood looking down at them. Sunny had watched this process through blurred twitching eyes. Her heart felt as if it was trying to beat itself to death against her rib cage. Of all the things she’d seen since entering Leopard society—ghost hoppers, bush souls, the river beast, the lake beast, the infamous Ekwensu—this creature was the one who threatened to break her grasp of reality.

Udide crouched down, bending her legs to get a closer look at them. Seeing the great spider move again filled Sunny with a strange warmth. The world around her began to swim.

“Do not faint,” she heard Orlu say into her ear as he held her up. He spoke firmly and slowly. “Get a hold of yourself, or we’re all dead.”

His words touched her and she fought her fear with everything she had. Her body wanted to curl up and shut down into a defensive sleep. No, no, no, no, no, she thought. She reached for Anyanwu but couldn’t grasp her. Where had she gone? Sunny wished she could go back in time, before any of this. When she was a different person in a different world. When she wore her hair longer because it looked nice and not because Mami Wata preferred it long. When she wasn’t doubled and had no idea that she could be doubled.