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story identification - Fantasy novel with terrifying trees where people were sacrificed to them cocooned alive and put inside them


Things I remember:



  • One of the characters was a very very old wizard (magician?) who was married to a much younger woman. I think he had some kind of award that was "the Void of Something"?

  • She came from a culture with headhunting and had a collection of skulls. With the right drumming, she could communicate with the souls/spirits still attached to those skulls. I think one of them was her "best enemy". I seem to recall that she came from a culture where women had multiple husbands - I think she might have had several husbands before, but now there's just Old Wizard


  • There were at least two characters who came from a jungle where drumming was used for communication. I vaguely remember a boy and a girl who were maybe coupling off and might have been assuming a parental role for some other kids?

  • Their culture worshipped these giant trees and sacrificed people to them

  • It turned out that the people sacrificed to the trees were wrapped in some kind of cocoon and attached to the insides of the trees, still alive (I found this SO DISTURBING)

  • The Old Wizard and his wife were looking for a lost library or civilization or something which turned out to be in the jungle

  • They traveled in some kind of flying boat/ship, but I think the trees caused them to crash?

  • I remember that the Old Wizard dies at the end

  • It may have been the second book in a series

  • I think it was written by a woman

  • I think I read it somewhere between 1999 and 2006





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