Claire turned her head. A young girl, her cloak still covered in swaths of web, stood in front of the spider. So this was the person who had been trapped, who had been crying for help. In her hand, she clutched the soup ladle, even though her head barely came up to the spider’s knees. Claire squeezed her eyes shut. She didn’t want to see the spider’s fangs sink into the girl. But no scream burst forth—no shout of pain. Instead, she heard an annoyed click-clack.

“That,” the spider said, “is an amateur’s rhyme.”

Claire’s eyes flew open just as the girl crossed her brown arms. “But it does rhyme,” the girl retorted. “And I’ve called you by your true name. So by the rules—manners—of your own kind, you must stand down, and you know it!”

A sound like chalk between teeth ground across Claire’s ears, and it took Claire a moment to realize it was the spider’s laughter. “Foolish Spinner, you know this can’t end well for you.”

“Away, great spider,” the girl countered. “Er … go stand by the fire!”

Dazed, Claire pulled herself up. And the giant spider—Spyden, Claire finally realized—stood on the far side of the room, its massive bulk almost completely hiding the stove. It clicked its pincers when it saw Claire staring at it. Claire’s stomach rolled.

“What—?”

“Shh!” The girl’s hand slapped over Claire’s mouth. “If you’re within earshot of an unmasked Spyden, don’t ask a question until you’re sure it’s the only question in the world you want answered!” The girl rattled off her words so fast that Claire could hardly keep up. “Spydens are tricky—they know the answer to almost anything! They’re able to catch story threads on the wind and spin patches that will mend any problem. But there are rules. An unmasked Spyden can be controlled by rhymes and is obligated to truthfully answer one question you ask—only one. But if you ask a second question, it’s allowed to attack, no matter the rhyming command. I hope you understand.”

Claire didn’t. She didn’t understand anything.

One second her sister was here, and then she wasn’t. Spydens weren’t helpful creatures after all but giant, hungry werespiders. And somehow this Spinner girl was here … and helping her?

Still, Claire nodded, and the girl removed her hand from Claire’s mouth. Then the girl turned her attention back to the Spyden, lifting the ladle that the fake Sophie had used only minutes ago to spoon soup into Claire’s bowl.