Needles in haystacks had nothing on this. Finding Aso, asking her if she’d help, then trading her for the artifact seemed like a reasonable plan.

If we had the slightest bit of an idea as to where to look. Brother Death wasn’t helping except in one front: He put us back in DC without having to go back along the cliff.

“What was with the cliff anyway?” Kanesha asked.

Loki shrugs. “She throws people off it.” A pause. “Don’t worry. Only people who never did anything worth mentioning with their lives.”

I got it then. “That cliff is where people are forgotten. Nameless.”

“Exactly. So none of us were in any danger.”

“Do people deserve oblivion just because they didn’t do anything much?”

Loki shrugged. “Oh, I doubt they end up in oblivion. More likely recycled.”

Given another chance to do something worth remembering.

“I’m going to see if I can find Coyote,” he added, and vanished.

I glanced at Kanesha.

“I think I was in danger.”

I shook my head. “No. She can’t throw you off cliffs without asking me. And you heard what Brother Death said.”

“I still have a job to do.”

“Right. That means you’re important, and not just because I love you.”

I did worry a little bit about what it was, but it might be…

“I wonder what it is?”

“It might be as simple as saving somebody from a monster who then goes on to invent something cool,” I pointed out. “Or it might just be that I need you that much.”

“You just said that wasn’t it,” she quipped. “So. How do we find the spider’s missing wife?”

“Hiding wife. I’m fairly sure she’s hiding. I’m fairly sure she’s testing him.”

“You’d think this would get her to come out.”

“Spiders hide.” I let out a breath. “I doubt Mrs Spider is…actually, isn’t it usually Mrs Spider who spins webs?”

Kanesha nodded. “It is. Well. First of all, we have to assume she’s somewhere she can be found. She’s probably not a star or an alien on another planet.”

“I’m betting she’s a person. But that doesn’t help.”

“Well, she’s going to be African.”
“That narrows it down a lot.” I mock punched her.

“No. I can narrow it down further. If she’s a person, she’s Akan.”

I nodded. “That’s Anansi’s people.”

“Right. Exactly. Of course, there are probably people around of Akan descent who don’t know they are.”

“As long as it’s not you. Because if it is, I’m keeping you and he’ll just have to find somebody else.”

I didn’t even want to think about that possibility, but…