A fire spirit was building a tiny fort from the ashes of our campfire.

Sunlight barely peeked through the trees, which stood around us like the bars of a cage. I shuddered. It was still early. Even though I knew it was just a dream, it had felt as real as when Ntuj pulled me into his garden. And those lines the voice had spoken—the curse Choj and Aunt Chan had recited—what did they mean?

I could still smell the scent of jasmine, as if the person who had helped me had been right here….

“You seek the Tree of Souls,” came a quiet voice.

I looked up to find the tree spirit Nplooj sitting in the branches over my head.

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“I listened to your conversation last night.” She didn’t sound the least bit embarrassed about eavesdropping. “Nyom is the queen of the nature spirits in the hills around the Tree of Souls.”

“So you’ve been there? You know the area?”

Nplooj shook her head, making the dry thicket of her hair crackle. “I cannot travel outside my forest. But that doesn’t mean I can’t communicate with my siblings in distant groves. All tree spirits are connected.”

“Siblings,” I echoed, smiling despite a pang of sadness and fear.

“Yeah, like the kind that pull off your leaves just to annoy you,” chirped a new voice. A second tree spirit hung upside down from a neighboring tree. Their large green eyes blinked owlishly. “Or pick at your bark or steal your fruit and spit on your roots while calling it rain.”

I made a face. Still, I knew all about annoying siblings. And I wanted mine back more than anything in the world.

“Do you mind?” Nplooj asked.

“Sorry, sorry,” the other tree spirit said brightly. They didn’t sound very remorseful, but they did leave.

Nplooj released a sigh. She scratched a patch of moss on her cheek. “Anyway, if you find yourself in Nyom’s forest, she will help you if she’s able.”

“Thank you,” I said, but Nplooj had already slipped back into the tree.

I went to wash up at the stream. When I got back, Zhong was awake. Kind of. She groaned and shambled past me like a zombie for her turn with the water. Miv had returned and was curled into a tiny black ball on top of my clean cloak.

“Where’d you go?” I asked. Back home, I always figured Miv was being a creep by poking around in other people’s apartments. As a cat spirit he could go right through locked doors. (Like I said, total creep.) Here, though, it was just a lot of trees.

“Scouted ahead.” He sniffed at a tower of berries that a wildflower spirit was building next to my dried clothes.

The wildflower spirit had sharp thistles growing out of their arms, which they smacked into Miv’s nose. He hissed and knocked over their tower.

I shook my head. “So, what did you find?”

“Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news.” He rolled onto his back. “Let’s wait until Zhong’s here so I don’t have to say everything twice.”

By the time Zhong returned from the stream, I had my stuff packed and ready. I was back in my green dress, along with my galaxy-print leggings and Jedi/hobbit cloak. The wildflower spirit let me eat their berries, and the tree spirit I’d saved the night before even brought me a handful of nuts, which I gave to Zhong.

“Guess what I did last night?” I said, grinning at her.

Her nose wrinkled. “Don’t smile at me like that. You look maniacal.”

I rolled my eyes. “I felt my spiritual energy! You were right. It’s like a current flowing through my whole body.”

Zhong’s expression transformed into surprise, and then she was smiling, too. “That’s awesome! Congratulations. Keep practicing to learn how to control the flow and volume. Once you’re comfortable with that, you can begin trying to direct it to your sword.”

As we beamed at each other, Miv drawled, “Well, aren’t you two chummy. I leave for one night and our whole team dynamic shifts.”

“Don’t be dramatic,” I said, offering my hand so he could climb up my arm and onto my shoulder.

We thanked the nature spirits for letting us sleep in their forest. Then Miv pointed our way forward. “The good news is that we’re not far from the main road.”

He was right. It wasn’t long before the trees began to thin, and I spotted a dusty orange thoroughfare.

“So what’s the bad news?” I asked when he fell silent.

“You’ll see in a second.”

That sounded foreboding. But when we stepped out of the forest, I didn’t know what he could be talking about.

The road continued along the edge of the trees before it curved into an enormous valley between two mountains. Villages made up of squat thatched huts dotted the lush mountainsides between tiers of green rice paddies. Huge banana trees lined the pathway, their large, broad leaves stretching over the dirt.

The sky was a dusky pink, the sun not yet visible. Colorful nature spirits, so many that I couldn’t identify them all, flicked in and out of sight among the trees and tall grasses.

My mouth fell open as something moved overhead. Impossibly, a cloud in the shape of a massive crab hovered over the valley. Its fluffy pincers opened and closed. When it raised its arms, rain poured from the crevices of its shell right where its armpits were, spilling over the trees in a shining cascade. Far past the mountains, obscured by mist and distance, the shapes of other enormous spirits moved against the horizon.

All of it reminded me of my dream, the one with the tree and the gardener. But if that had been a real place, then what I’d seen about Xov’s prison might be real, too, and I didn’t want to think about that.

Wind spirits laughed as they blew over our heads. They sent a sharp breeze to tangle my cloak around my legs. In the mortal realm, wind spirits were normally shapeless creatures with only the faintest impression of a face. Here, they looked like translucent leaping deer. Then, before my eyes, they transformed into a swarm of tiny glass-like dragonflies. They changed again into a flock of long-legged cranes before vanishing over the treetops.

“Wow,” I breathed. “It’s incredible.” Matt would have loved every aspect of this place. It was like our imaginings brought to life. But instead of being out in the open air with the nature spirits, he was trapped in the dusty darkness below with a vengeful ghost.

Miv cleared his throat. “Yes, it’s all very pretty. The bad news is that the Tree of Souls is located at the center of the Spirit Realm.” He pointed to a distant mountain range, barely even visible. “Past those mountains.”

All my wonder turned to dread. “What? How are we supposed to get all the way there and back again in two days?”

“Exactly my point.”

“How do shamans travel in the Spirit Realm?” Zhong asked me like a teacher addressing a student she didn’t think was very bright. Even though I didn’t mind that tone of voice much anymore, I still wanted to throw the berries in my pocket at her.

“Spirit horses,” I said, gesturing down toward the valley, where a pair was pulling a wagon along the road. “But I don’t see any standing around, waiting for riders. Are we supposed to steal some?”

“Not a good idea,” Miv said. “The horse would just kick you and neigh for help. They’re notoriously rude.”

This, coming from a cat who liked to tell me how terrible I was at everything and how I didn’t have any friends.

“We’re not stealing anything,” Zhong said louder, and with an annoyed look at Miv. “As a shaman’s apprentice, I have a contract with a spirit horse.”

Miv casually flashed his claws as he said, “You’ve had a spirit horse at your disposal this whole time?”

“You can put away the kitty back-scratchers. We came here physically, so I’ll need to call her from a rental agency.” She nodded to the town at the bottom of the valley. “There’s probably an office down there.”

“Is a horse going to be fast enough?” I asked before the two could keep at it. I didn’t know much about traveling over long distances, but those mountains looked really far away.

“Don’t worry,” said Zhong. “She’s as fast as the wind.”

Since we’d moved away from the Hmong community, I hadn’t seen many real shamans at work. The last time was years ago, during the New Year, when my aunt had blessed our family and renewed the house spirits’ powers. But when a shaman goes into a trance, projecting their spirit into Dab Teb, they sometimes sit on a wooden bench. The bench symbolizes the horse familiar that carries them through the Spirit Realm. I’d never thought about how a horse and rider actually meet up on the Spirit Realm side.

Also, I’d never ridden a horse, and now I was supposed to get on one “as fast as the wind”? “Will we all be able to fit on her?” I asked nervously.

“It won’t be a problem. We’ll make it to the Tree of Souls in no time.”

What was that look on Zhong’s face? Anticipation?

Eventually, traffic on the road grew busier, and a town opened up past the banana trees. I pulled the hood of my cloak lower over my face, but no one looked twice at us, except for a grumpy badger-woman pulling a cart of turnips and mumbling about “spirits these days.”

Aside from the spiritfolk, though, the town didn’t seem all that unusual. Dusty buildings were topped by chimneys spouting gray smoke. Awnings of brightly patterned fabrics in pink, yellow, and green hung over outdoor shop displays where tables were piled high with vegetables or buckets of freshly clipped flowers. On one corner, we passed a tower of fat squash where a nature spirit in a dress of moss and spiderweb perched at the top like a queen on a throne.

“Don’t stare,” Zhong muttered, giving me a small shove.

Right. I was supposed to be blending in. We didn’t know where Xov’s henchmen were, or if any of the other gods had sent their servants to find me. I doubted they’d expected us to end up in the tunnels beneath the Spirit Realm, though, so I hoped that meant they weren’t looking in this particular area.

“There it is,” I said in relief. I pointed to a red barn with a horse painted in white above the large double doors. It sported a hanging sign that read EQUESTRIAN RENTALS: WHATEVER THE NEED, WE’VE GOT YOUR STEED.

Inside, a striped brown-and-black stallion spirit wearing a monocle and tie looked up from a bucket of apples. I saw a horse once at a carnival, but only from a distance. I was pretty sure this one was bigger than normal.

There was a desk against the wall, but it looked more like a messy snack bar. It was littered with pulpy bits of chewed-up paper and clumps of hay. On a small metal plaque was the name SUAB NAG.

“How can I help you?” asked the horse spirit, who I assumed must be Suab Nag. It was a little hard to understand him, because every other word ended in a whinny.

“I need to contact a friend,” Zhong said. “Her name is Spike. Could you call her for us?”

Suab Nag tossed his mane of thick brown-and-black hair. “Impossible. She could be anywhere in the realm.”

Zhong crossed her arms and said haughtily, “Spike has a shaman contract. That means she must be reachable during all hours in case she’s summoned by her shaman.”

“How do you know that?” the horse spluttered, spraying bits of apple on us.

“Oh, come on, I just washed this!” I grabbed a handful of hay from the desk and rubbed the horse spit off my cloak.

Neither of them paid any attention to me.

“Because I’m a shaman, and Spike is my spirit horse.”

“Then why didn’t you summon her when you crossed over? Ha!” If he’d had fingers, Suab Nag would have pointed one accusingly at Zhong.

“Because I’m here in my physical form,” she said, as if Suab Nag were an idiot for not noticing. “Now either you call her, or I’ll put in a complaint with the Imperial Equestrian Offices.”

The horse whinnied and stomped his front hooves. “Shaman contracts aren’t binding unless you’re here on shaman business.”

“We are on shaman business, you donkey.”

“How dare you!” The horse began to rear up. Zhong reached for her sword.

“Whoa, whoa!” I shouted, grabbing Zhong and dragging her out of harm’s way. “What have I said about trying to solve everything with a sword?”

Suab Nag made a sound that was half whinny and half harrumph and stomped his hooves again.

“Open your backpack,” I told Zhong, who still gripped her sword and looked like she was imagining the horse with a severe haircut.

At my words, her glare shifted to me. “Why?”

“So I can admire your crossbow and count your talismans. Would you just do it?”

She did. But halfway through unzipping it, she seemed to realize my plan, because a sly smile pulled at her mouth. She rummaged through the endless compartments and then brought out a short stack of silver bills. The silver and gold joss paper that we’d taken from my mom’s trunk had transformed into spirit money, just like she’d said it would.

Zhong handed me the stack, and I set it on the desk without a word. Suab Nag’s eyes narrowed. It wasn’t a very effective expression, though, because the monocle made one eye look twice as big as the other.

“Are you trying to bribe me?” the horse asked, sounding scandalized. “Because I happen to be a horse spirit with principles.”

Zhong gave me another handful of silver bills. I set them on top of the first stack.

The horse began to look nervous. “I have…um, principles,” he whinnied.

Zhong took out several gold bills this time. I added them to the pile. Suab Nag shifted from hoof to hoof, tail swishing. Then he coughed and trotted over to the desk.

“Well, they’re loose principles.” With one hoof, he swiped the silver and gold bills into a drawer, which he swiftly locked with his teeth. “I’ll call for Spike, but it’s not my fault if she doesn’t pick up.”

He disappeared behind a set of swinging doors.

“Nicely done,” Miv said, hopping onto my shoulder. “Your mom would be proud.”

“That I just bribed a horse?”

He considered that. “Never mind, she’d be horrified.”

“Thinking outside the box, hmm?” Zhong said, like she was finally beginning to accept the possibility that she didn’t have to resolve every conflict with her sword.

“At least Zhong didn’t have to stab anyone,” Miv continued.

“I’m sure she’ll get another chance.”

I wasn’t sure we could trust the horse to make the call, though. But he was true to his word, because we only waited ten minutes before the barn doors burst open. A beautiful white-and-blue horse with a braided mane pranced in. Her cloven hooves were painted with sparkly silver glitter.

“Spike!” Zhong grinned and threw her arms around the mare spirit’s neck.

For the first time since we’d met, Zhong looked really happy. It was kind of strange. Not bad, just strange. I was used to her looking like she’d smelled something off and then realizing it was everyone and everything around her.

“You’re lucky I was in range,” Spike said.

At my confused look, Zhong explained, “Horse spirits are free to cross boundaries without waiting in line, and calls from small towns like this usually can’t reach other realms.”

“Why didn’t you just come through one of the shaman routes?” asked Spike. “I would have gotten an alert and met you at the usual spot.”

“It’s a long story,” Zhong said. “But we could really use a lift.” She quickly explained our situation, about how we had to get to the Tree of Souls in order to save Matt’s life.

“Of course I’ll help.” Spike flashed me a wide, horsey grin and said, “I bet you’ve never been on a spirit horse before. Get ready for the ride of a lifetime.”