“The Gold Silkworm”
Fantasy Magazine – December 13, 2010 (fantasy short story)
also available as a podcast
“What healing skills I had came by way of Cao Shen, the Spirit of Grass. Madame Ke might think me a charlatan for that, but medicine was medicine.”
Former swordswoman Yan Xue is now bonded to Cao Shen, the Spirit of Grass, which enables them to work as a healer, although they are still working out the two minds in one body thing. They discover that wealthy Master Ke has been infected by a malign spirit with a toxic spell in the form of a gold silkworm. The two spirits do battle through the surrogacy of fighting crickets… — Lois Tilton, Locus Online
Tony Pi, F&SF Writer 