Then she felt the sting on her leg, and she screamed again. There was a large spider on her pant leg working its fangs through the cloth deeper into her flesh. She shuddered and swiped at it, dropping the marbles. She felt Anyanwu start with surprise, and when she looked at the cave wall to her right, she saw a dim golden glow spread over the surface. She screeched again, stumbling into Orlu. Her leg felt like a rod of heat. Orlu began frantically looking at the ground, as he held her. “Are there more?” he babbled. “Sunny, you okay?”

“No!” Sunny screeched.

Udide used a leg to grip her webbing, and then Sunny saw her throw the web at Chichi. It hit Chichi in the chest and she screeched, too, pulling at the thick gray sticky rope in the dim marble light. Sasha grabbed Chichi from behind, but Udide yanked her right out of his grasp and then proceeded to wildly wrap Chichi around and around in webbing.

“Nimm princess,” Udide said. Her deep booming female voice shook the cave so hard that dirt and pebbles tumbled from the ceiling and the walls. The spider’s every hair vibrated at the sound, and all the spiders in the area ran in circles at the sound of her voice. “Trouble. Wahala. Kata kata. Tricky strong women and strong sneaky men. You have taken something from me.”

“Taken what?” Sunny screamed as she strained with pain. “We just got here! We . . .”

“The beginning is never the beginning,” Udide said. Chichi was wrapped now from feet to neck and struggling uselessly.

Sasha pulled out his juju knife and threw juju at Udide. Whatever it was, it didn’t even move one of Udide’s many hairs. He tried throwing another juju and received the same non-result. He picked up a rock and threw it. It bounced off Udide like a pebble.

“There is no juju that can kill a spider,” Udide said. “We are sacred.”

“Sasha, stop it!” Orlu said, his voice calm. But his eyes were watering with tears.

“She’s going to kill her!” Sasha screamed, his voice cracking. He looked around and spotted a spider. He stamped on it.

Udide angrily puffed out a great stench of burning houses.

“You don’t like that?!” Sasha screamed. He grabbed his backpack and brought out a can of Raid. “You think you’re smart? I’m smarter!” Before he could fumble the cap off, Orlu let go of Sunny to grab Sasha. The can of Raid dropped to the ground. The two tussled, but Orlu was stronger. He held Sasha’s wrists. “Stop!” Orlu said, straining, as Sasha looked around wildly.

“Please!” Chichi said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“But your name does, DNA does, your molecules do,” Udide said. “I should kill you myself instead of letting my people feast on you.”

Sunny had fallen to the ground, her heart beating dangerously faster than ever. She stared at the glow pressed to the wall feet away; she could hear Anyanwu in her mind, though she sounded so far away that Sunny couldn’t understand what she was saying. When Sunny spoke to the great spider, she could barely catch her breath and her mouth felt slow and gummy. “Udide . . . Ma . . . Oga Udide, we came a long way . . . We need to . . .” She felt another sting, this time on her neck. She could feel the scratchy spider scramble to her cheek. She groaned.