Chapter Twenty-Eight Kasu
When Kasu WOKE, she was inside a cocoon of silk. She tried wriggling free but could barely bend her knees or lift her arms.
Arun. Where was Arun? Oh gods, what if he had been hurt? What if he had been eaten?
Someone was carrying her over their shoulder.
Her silken cage bounced about until she was too dizzy to tell up from down.
Faint lights and colours blurred together through the gauzy webbing.
Noises drifted past. Muffled voices Kasu could barely make out.
Whispers that reminded her of the murmuring trees in the shadow forest. It was unbearably hot.
With each exhale, she could feel her own breath brush against her face.
Finally her cocoon was placed on the ground.
“Hurry up!” a raspy voice snapped somewhere above her.
Someone cut open the webbing, sending Kasu tipping forward and sprawling onto the cold, hard ground.
Coming out of the cocoon felt like someone had pulled cotton out of her ears and cleared the fog from her eyes. She was so dazed she hardly struggled as a pair of strong arms hauled her to her feet and threw her into an empty cage.
“Hey!” she yelled as the door slammed shut.
The cage was barely big enough for her to stand at full height. She crawled to the bars and shook them as several ghosts began tearing open other cocoons and shoving more ghosts into cages.
“Hey, where am I? What are you planning to do with me? If you don’t release me at once, the gods will—”
“Shut up!” one of the ghosts yelled. Her captors were wearing cloth masks tied tightly over the bottom halves of their faces, but she recognized the one nearest to her as the tall ghost from the ramshackle building she and Arun had charged into.
They were in a dimly lit storage room. Cages of all kinds were lined up in neat rows; most held ghosts, but one or two larger cages contained demons. Kasu tried to get their attention, but they all had the same glassy-eyed look about them. Their mouths were slack and their expressions dazed.
A heady fragrance filled the air. Incense? Kasu covered her nose and mouth with her sleeve, but she was already feeling slightly woozy. So that was why her captors were wearing masks.
Like water between her fingers, her thoughts were starting to slip away … until she noticed the ghosts cut open another cocoon.
It was Arun.
They shoved him into the cage next to hers. He stumbled inside, the too-small space forcing him to crouch. Kasu watched Arun’s hand flutter to his hip as though reaching for his sword.
They both realized that his weapon was missing at the exact same moment.
“Hey, you! Where have you taken us?” Arun rattled the bars of his cage. Kasu decided to join him, shaking her own bars as if she might be able to vibrate her way out.
“SHUT IT!”
A heavy wooden stick clanged against the bars just above Kasu’s knuckles. She flinched back, glaring at the ghost.
“Hey, leave her alone!” Arun growled.
Another ghost who had been in the same batch of cocoons as Kasu and Arun crawled up to the door of her cage. She was small and slim, dressed in white funeral robes with a pattern of golden moths sewn into her sleeves.
“Do you know who I am? I’m one of the Pale Lady’s personal handmaidens. If you do anything to me, you will suffer the Pale Lady’s wrath!”
“I said, shut it!” The tall ghost spun on his heel and swung his stick against her cage. The resulting clang echoed through the room like a brass gong, though many of the other captives did not stir.
The girl shrieked and scrambled to the very back of her cage, so far back Kasu could not see her any more.
The tall ghost snorted. “The Pale Lady knows the nature of this city better than anyone. If you’re stupid enough to wind up prey, it’s no one’s fault but your own.”
He was right. Kasu did not like it, but she could not deny it.
This was different from what was happening to the Pale Lady’s actors.
Targeted attacks were not acceptable, but random violence was fine.
Ghost City was dangerous by its very nature.
And if you just so happened to maim, kill or eat a ghost who was working for one of the four great demon rulers …
well, that was simply the nature of the city.
There would be no retribution for Kasu’s death, and she had no protection from it either.
The only person she could rely on was herself.
She glanced at Arun. Under the light of the single lantern dangling from the ceiling, she could clearly see the sweat beading his forehead. His eyelids were drooping. Whatever was in that incense was starting to affect him.
They did not have much time. Even though Kasu was doing her best not to breathe in the smoke, she could feel it affecting her too.
Ghosts who had been caught earlier shifted about in their cages in a dreamy haze.
Demons smacked their lips and stared out into the middle distance through gormless eyes.
Kasu wondered how long they had been kept there.
Just as their captors finished opening the rest of the cocoons and caging their prisoners, a shrill voice echoed around the room.
“Welcome,” it cried, “to the latest version of the meat auction! Meat for the Masses! There will be a new auction for ghosts and demons from all walks of life. And you’re on the menu!”
Kasu shrieked as something flew past her cage. A flash of dark blue. A glimpse of pearly-white teeth.
The thing whirled around the room once before settling in front of her with a deep, mocking bow.
“L–Lord Cobalt?” She couldn’t believe it. The ruler of the eastern quarter, lord of the meat market, was here. Standing in front of her.