The swarm continued to gain strength. She must have stepped on a nest. Nests were often connected, and her misstep had triggered others in the area. She closed her eyes so she did not have to look at their fangs.

A poor way to die, she thought, before even stepping foot in the woodlands.

She began to count her breaths. Something heavy, much larger than a spider, crunched in the undergrowth.

A vortex of air blasted her from above. She flailed, barely kept her feet. The tendrils of air bundled up dozens of spiders and propelled them into the dark woods around her. Lilia heard them land in the trees and crunch in the undergrowth. Several smashed wetly into massive tree trunks.

She opened her eyes.

Gian stood before her, just a dozen steps down the path, blue-glowing bonsa sword in hand. She looked much taller out here, formidable, like some historic hero from a tapestry come to life. A bear snuffled behind her, licking its snout.

Lilia patted herself down, skin still crawling with the memory of the spiders. “I was all right,” she said.

Gian smirked and came forward. “Of course you were.”

Lilia scrambled away from her, back into the hanging ivy that flanked the path. “I’m not going with you.”

“Aren’t you?”

“I’m sorry. Tell Kalinda–”

“Kalinda’s dead.”

“Oh, no.”

“A sanisi,” Gian said. She sheathed her weapon, putting out the blue glow of it, surrendering them again to the dim light that filtered through the forest canopy. Lilia wasn’t sure of the time of day. She’d been walking for hours, and her bad leg throbbed. Her breath came so heavy, she’d had to stop twice and take her mahuan powder.

“Taigan killed her?”

“Is that his name?” Gian surveyed the woodland around them, as if looking for more spiders.

“Shouldn’t you be an Ora? You can channel Para. All the jistas become Oras.”

“Not all,” Gian said. “Some become healers and seers, those with poorer gifts.” She leaned in to Lilia, peering at her as if she were a mystery that needed unraveling. She had broad cheekbones and black, black eyes. Lilia thought she might stumble into them. “And some of us believe in freedom of the individual over the tyranny of the common good.”

Lilia wasn’t sure what that meant but let it lie. “What are you going to do, now that you’ve found me?”

“Lot of things I could do, couldn’t I? Wrap you up in a vortex and cart you back to my safe house. Maybe just cut you in two and leave you here.”

“You sound like the sanisi,” Lilia said.

“Don’t try and shame me,” Gian said. “It was my aunt killed back there. The woman who saved you, and me, and at least a hundred other children from that hungry war and the Kai’s army back home.”