Chapter Sixteen Kasu
Kasu knew that she should move, but her feet remained rooted to the spot. The Pale Lady stood as tall as a mighty oak yet as slender as a birch.
“Listen,” Kasu whispered, turning to Arun, “whatever you do, please don’t say anything that could offend the Pale Lady!”
“What if I try to cut her?” Arun’s hand drifted over the hilt of his sword once more.
“Don’t fight her, either!”
“Then how about—” he began, but whatever Arun was going to suggest, Kasu would never know.
“Well, well! My lead actor goes missing, and when I decide to look for him I discover two little ghosts standing over his corpse. What am I to make of that?” It was difficult to read the expression on the Pale Lady’s face – the moths kept getting in the way.
“Um, Madam Pale Lady” – Kasu hunched over, trying to make herself appear as small as possible – “please accept our deepest condolences for what happened to your actor. We didn’t kill him, I swear.
It was a wolf. A huge white wolf covered in eyes.
A–a curse. We were following it when we stumbled upon the body. ”
The moths covering the demon’s eyes fidgeted and crawled over each other, their small, furry bodies rearranging themselves over her face.
“A curse, you say? A white wolf? Why would my actor be attacked by a curse?”
“Who knows? Maybe he did something terrible. He was a demon after all.” Arun was unflinching in his insolence. Kasu wished she had brought her rag with her so she could stuff it in his mouth.
She dared to glance back at the dead demon.
Curses were born from humans to kill other humans.
It was unusual for a curse to target a demon, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t.
The kill was clean. There were no marks on the body – no blood from a cut, no ligature marks to indicate strangulation, no caved-in skull or evidence of broken bones.
Kasu wondered if this was how all curses murdered their targets. She’d have to ask Ruo about it later.
“Enough. The play is about to start. Come with me.” Again, the Pale Lady gestured for them to follow her.
Walking down a dark alleyway filled with razor blades would probably be safer than going anywhere with a demon lord, but it was not as if they could refuse. Saying no would earn them a one-way trip to the Pale Lady’s stomach.
With Arun and Kasu in tow, the demon lord strode through the narrow alleyways, sweeping past heaps of trash piled against the walls, and down the winding side streets.
Soon, Kasu found herself standing in front of a towering wooden scaffold.
The Grand Pavilion. It was the largest and most lavish theatre in all the western quarter.
To reach the very top, they had to take an elevator pulley operated by two labouring ghosts who would tug on the ropes and haul the elevator box up what felt like miles and miles of scaffolding.
The journey up was slow and precarious. With each excruciating moment that passed, Kasu expected one of the ghosts to let go of the ropes and send the elevator plunging back to the ground.
When they finally made it to the top, she dropped to her hands and knees in fright. The scaffold was so tall it overlooked the entirety of Ghost City.
Kneeling was a mistake. She could feel the floorboards beneath her stinging palms sway ever so slightly. There were no safety rails and no guard ropes around the edge of the platform. If someone fell from this height, they would be nothing but a splatter of blood and organs on the ground below.
“Are you OK?” Arun offered her a hand, which she resolutely refused to take.
“Fine,” she replied through gritted teeth. She was so high up a strong breeze could blow her away.
The longer Kasu refused his hand, the wider Arun’s smirk grew. “I didn’t know you were afraid of heights. Don’t worry. If you hold on to me, I promise I’ll keep you safe.”
Kasu scowled at him and forced herself to her feet.
In the middle of the platform, a large, raised circle and a connecting catwalk marked the stage. Surrounding it stood several low tables with velvet cushions from which guests could wine and dine while watching the show – though how they could enjoy themselves on this death trap was anyone’s guess.
In the centre of the stage she saw a group of ghosts and demons. The Pale Lady was slowly making her way towards them. Willing her shaking legs to move, Kasu stumbled after the demon lord.
“There has been a change in the programme. Our lead actor is dead. Zui, you will play General Shusa in tonight’s performance,” the Pale Lady announced as she reached the group. Actors – Kasu could see their costumes clearly now. They were running lines together before the show.
A demon with red rings around his pupils dropped to his knees and pressed his forehead to the ground. “It is an honour, my lady!”
Without taking his eyes off the troupe, Arun leaned closer to Kasu and whispered, “The under-realm has plays about General Shusa?”
There were plays about all of the heavens’ major gods, though stories about General Shusa were in vogue at the moment.
The four major military gods were each responsible for protecting a different region of the mortal world, with armies of minor gods and heavenly soldiers beneath them and a cavalry a thousand horses strong.
Of the four, General Shusa was the youngest and most famous.
Tales of his exploits had spread far and wide.
Of course, the shows performed in the under-realm were rather … unflattering.
The Pale Lady gestured for them to follow her to one of the tables.
Like Lady Camellia, the demon towered over everyone.
When she sat down, she occupied two thirds of the table while Kasu and Arun had to squeeze together in order to fit.
Thankfully, they weren’t seated near the edge of the platform.
Soon, the audience began to arrive. Demons and ghosts of all shapes and sizes sat down at the other tables, ordering food and drink from servers who had appeared with the crowd.
Though the Pale Lady was taller than every other demon present, no one dared ask her to hunch over or move.
She lifted a branch-like arm, and before Kasu knew it, three cups of plum wine and a pitcher of spirit nectar appeared on the table, followed by a plate stacked with meat buns, another full of slices of winter melon, another of mixed vegetables and pork, and three bowls of rice so white and fluffy they looked like piles of fresh snow.
The Pale Lady picked up her cup between delicate fingers but did not drink. Instead, she tilted her head towards Kasu and the moths covering her eyes shook their wings.
“Um, Madam Pale Lady, it really is true what we said about the curse. We didn’t kill your actor.” Kasu didn’t know how to make the demon believe her. She could only hope. And pray to the heavens.
The Pale Lady waved a dismissive hand.
“You’re Lady Camellia’s girl, aren’t you? The one that works at the exchange desk of Camellia House?”
“I am.” Kasu bowed her head.
“Why are you asking about Sunan?”
Arun stiffened. “How do you know that name?”
Sunan. Arun’s mother, Kasu remembered.
“You asked a fortune teller about her. All fortune tellers are performers and therefore they belong to me. I see what they see. Hear what they hear. It was in the contract I made them sign when they became mine.”
Kasu swallowed around the lump forming in her throat. She was glad Lady Camellia only made her employees sign away their souls.
The moths covering the Pale Lady’s eyes fluttered their silky wings.
Kasu lifted her head just enough to gaze at the demon’s face.
Or at least, what she could see of it beneath the swarm of moths.
It was only when she looked at the Pale Lady, really looked, that Kasu realized she had gone about this all wrong.
This was not the time to grovel; it was the time to negotiate.
She would have to be careful, though. Any talk with a demon lord could still end with missing limbs and severed heads.
“We were looking for her because we heard the rumour about the reincarnation wheel. That it was here in the theatre district. And that you can be reborn if you can pay enough gold,” said Kasu. It was not a lie.
The Pale Lady sipped her wine. “Yes, I am aware of that rumour too. You want to know the truth? That woman, Sunan, stole a reincarnation wheel from the heavens and ran here to the under-realm in search of shelter.”
“Lies!” Arun jumped to his feet, his cheeks red with anger. “She would never have stolen a wheel! And she didn’t run from the heavens; she was exiled!”
Kasu hissed and pulled at his sleeve, but Arun refused to sit.
“Madam Pale Lady, please excuse him!” Kasu hurriedly backed onto her knees and pressed her forehead to the floor.
They were dead. If they were not dead yet it was only because the Pale Lady was considering the most painful way to kill them.
One could not just yell at a demon lord and expect no retribution.
Kasu raised her head in time to see the corners of the Pale Lady’s mouth twitch. She tilted her head and the bells strung around her antlers jingled.
“Believe or don’t believe, it matters not to me. You won’t find Sunan or the reincarnation wheel here any more. She left the theatre district a few weeks ago.”
A few weeks? That was far longer than Kasu had expected. It would take a lot of work to follow a trail that cold.
“And how do you know that?” Arun asked through gritted teeth.
“This is my domain, child,” the Pale Lady replied coldly.
“Then where did she go?”
Kasu wanted to throttle him. Maybe Arun could get away with talking to rulers like that in the Southern Kingdom of Bakrute, but here in the under-realm he was a spider’s thread away from being torn limb from limb and eaten.
“I might remember where Sunan went,” the demon murmured. “You’ll have to jolt my memory.”
“What do you want?” asked Arun.
The Pale Lady tilted her head the other way, like she was trying to get a better look at him. Or perhaps work out the best angle from which to eat him.
“Lady Camellia has something I desire. I heard that she has recently invented an elixir that can make ghosts and demons relive their worst memories. A single swig will cause demons to lose all sense of themselves and turn ghosts feral. I’ve heard it can even drive a god mad.
I want it. Steal it for me. It doesn’t have to be the whole bottle. Just a few drops will suffice.”
Kasu wished she could say that she was surprised, but greed and jealousy were all part of being a demon.
The four lords kept a fragile peace. On the surface, they mostly stayed out of each other’s way, but, like lions forced to share a cage, they always kept an eye on what the others were doing.
Kasu had no doubt that they would stab each other in the back to get their hands on some shiny new toy.
“Why ask me? Aren’t you afraid I might report you to my mistress?”
“Do that and you’ll never learn about Sunan,” the Pale Lady replied calmly.
A flicker of hesitation crossed Kasu’s face. She glanced at Arun, but he was not looking at her. He wasn’t looking at anyone. His body was rigid with anger as he glared down at his wine glass.
“And where do we find this elixir? What does it look like?” she asked.
The moths covering the Pale Lady’s face shifted their agitated wings. “The elixir will be in a small bottle, dark red in colour. Lady Camellia likely keeps it somewhere in her private chambers. It should be easy for you to sneak in, no?”
Kasu pressed her lips together in a thin line. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, but she doubted she would get any more answers from the demon. Not until they gave her the elixir she wanted.
“Very well. It’s a deal. We’ll find this elixir for you.”
The Pale Lady said she was happy with a few drops. That hardly counted as stealing, did it? Lady Camellia would never even notice.
Finishing off the last of her drink, the demon set her cup down on the table and stood up.
“Please, eat and drink whatever you would like.” As the Pale Lady gestured to the food, Kasu noticed a pale silver ring glittering on the demon’s twig-like finger. The band of white running through the middle was made of a material she didn’t recognize.
A gong sounded to mark the beginning of the play.
The Pale Lady smiled.
“Enjoy the show.”