Chapter Fifteen Kasu
The curse sprinted towards them like a bolt of lightning, snatching the ball of star silk from the fortune teller’s hand and leaping away.
“Hey!” Arun and Ruo shouted in outrage as the curse disappeared down the street.
Kasu was so distracted, she did not notice how close the Sage of a Thousand Faces was until he was almost on top of her, ready to wring the life from her neck.
“GIVE ME BACK MY MASK, YOU LITTLE WORM!”
“Go after that wolf!” Kasu shoved Arun away.
“But—!” Arun stumbled. His hand flew to the hilt of his sword.
The last thing Kasu wanted was for this to become a battle. “Go on! We need the star silk to track down your mother!”
Arun hesitated for a moment before taking off, pushing through the crowds without care for the ghosts who swore at him or the demons who snapped at his legs.
“LITTLE THIEF! I’LL TEAR YOUR FACE OFF!”
Kasu threw herself to one side as the Sage hurled himself head first into the fortune teller’s stand, upsetting the astral chart and the incense and the sticks of cedarwood.
The fortune teller shrieked. Ghosts and smaller demons alike scattered.
“Sorry!” Kasu punched out a breathy apology as the Sage reared back and lunged for her again.
“Kasu!” Ruo grabbed her by her clothes and flung her out of harm’s way.
The cobbled pavement hardly made for a comfortable landing.
Kasu hit the ground hard and rolled away.
Her eyes darted around the street, searching for Arun, but he was nowhere to be found.
Good. She picked herself up, wincing as she realized the palms of her hands were bleeding, and turned to face the Sage.
“THIEF!” The Sage flailed his arms in apoplectic rage.
“What’s wrong with him? Why is he so angry?” Ruo huffed.
“Don’t you remember stealing the aura mask from him? And then setting his house on fire?” said Kasu.
“Oh yeah, that was us, wasn’t it?”
“THIEF! SCOUNDREL! GIVE ME BACK MY AURA MASK!”
Kasu ran as the Sage charged at her. She really did not have time for this.
“I’m sorry! I will return the mask to you as soon as I’m done with it, I promise!”
“Kasu, hold tight!” Ruo tossed her onto their back. She clung desperately to the cat’s dark fur as Ruo bounded away.
The Sage roared. His long arms swept ghosts and demons out of his way as he thundered after them. Even a pair of tethered headless horses were not spared. The Sage shoved them aside, causing them to trip over each other and crash into a cart selling necklaces made of teeth.
“How much is the mask? Is there a borrowing fee? If I could pay in instalments, maybe we can work something out!” Kasu shouted from the top of Ruo’s back.
“Forget it, Kasu! There’s no reasoning with him.” Ruo raced through the winding streets and around the theatre halls.
“But it’s my fault! I’m the one in the wrong for taking his mask without proper compensation.” Maybe the heavens would forgive her since she had only stolen the mask to protect Arun, but it still didn’t sit right with her.
“No matter how many times you apologize, if he doesn’t accept it, you’re just wasting your time.” Ruo vaulted over one of the many bridges spanning the river and ran along the bank.
The Sage’s cries were closer than before. Kasu did not think he would give up the chase, at least not any time soon. If it was just Ruo, the cat could teleport away to safety, but with Kasu on their back they were stuck with running.
Along the riverbank, Kasu watched a fisherman pull a carp from the river and cut it open. He shook out the skulls inside its belly before hauling the fish carcass over his shoulder. The skulls tumbled down the slope, a few splashing back into the river where the muddy effluence carried them away.
“Excuse me!” Kasu jumped off Ruo’s back and half ran, half rolled down the bank towards the fisherman. She grabbed a child-sized skull and hurled it at the Sage.
The skull hit the demon squarely in the face, knocking his mask off.
With a shriek, the Sage slapped all four hands over his face to hide it from view.
Gingerly, he peeled one hand away to rummage around in his bag for another mask.
While he searched, Kasu turned heel and ran with Ruo by her side.
The cat grabbed her again, flinging her onto their back, and dashed down the narrow alleyways and into the heart of the theatre district.
“Where’s Arun?” Kasu gripped Ruo’s fur tightly.
The curse lifted their nose to the air. “This way!”
Ruo carried Kasu beneath looming archways adorned with string lanterns, weaving past a crowd of fox demons who were comparing the taste of wine, through threads of music that floated in the air, and beyond towering stages upon which robed men whirled their fans.
At last, she caught a glimpse of Arun. He was running through the streets with no care for whose tail he stepped on or whose toes he crushed in his haste.
They dashed back across one of the white bridges that curved over the muddy river, ducking out of the way as demons far larger than either of them stomped through the street.
Following Arun’s fleeing figure into an alleyway between two teahouses, they turned the corner and bumped straight into his back.
“It got away!” Arun looked about, wild and frantic. The alleyway was connected to a network of small side streets that ran behind the theatres – a spider’s web of paths that stretched in all directions.
Ruo swished their tails from side to side, clearly agitated that they had not caught their prey. Kasu slipped off the cat’s back and took a tentative step towards Arun. But just as she reached out a hand, a piercing scream made her jump. It sounded close.
“This way!” Ruo bounded down a path so narrow Kasu and Arun had to squeeze through it sideways.
They emerged onto yet another alleyway backing onto a theatre and stopped frozen in their tracks.
A man lay dead in the middle of the ground.
It was not obvious that he was a demon at first. Kasu had thought him a ghost until she noticed the third eye on his forehead – squeezed shut it looked like no more than a thin scar.
He was dressed lavishly in at least seven layers of silk.
A wooden token carved into the shape of a winter iris hung around his neck.
Kasu frowned. His clothes were far too extravagant for a casual stroll around Ghost City.
A flash of white fur disappeared around the corner ahead. The wolf! Kasu and Arun swerved past the body and gave chase, only to come face to face with a tall wooden fence at least ten feet tall.
It was a dead end.
The wolf jumped impossibly high, landing on the very top of the fence with all the grace of a tightrope walker.
“Definitely a curse,” Kasu muttered as every eye on the wolf’s body peered down at them.
The ball of star silk hung between the wolf’s jaws.
“That’s mine!” Ruo hissed.
The wolf jumped down the other side of the fence. With an outraged yowl, Ruo teleported after it.
Arun rammed his shoulder against the wooden boards. “We can’t let it get away! Can’t you pass through this?”
Kasu shook her head. If her body had been fading away, on the cusp of disappearing for ever, she might have been able to slip through the solid wood, but that was a dangerous position to put oneself in.
Arun swore beneath his breath. “That curse went straight for the star silk. Why? Do you think they know something about my mother?”
That was a possibility, though perhaps it wanted the silk for the same reason as Ruo – it was a fancy ball of thread.
At any rate, it was impossible to catch up with the curse now.
Instead of racing about like headless chickens, they could only hope that Ruo would catch the wolf.
The ball was the one thing the fortune teller could use to track Arun’s mother.
Without it, their search would be a lot harder.
Kasu placed a hand on Arun’s shoulder. “Don’t worry,” she said. “We’ll get to the bottom of this.”
Arun hit his fist against the fence once more for good measure.
Reluctantly, they returned to the body they had found in the alleyway.
Despite the way Kasu’s stomach tied itself in knots, she forced herself to kneel next to it.
With trembling hands, she closed the demon’s eyes and muttered a quick prayer to the heavens.
Demon though he might have been, everyone deserved a respectful forever death.
“What now? Do we just leave the body here?” There was a note of impatience in Arun’s voice. Kasu had a feeling he was hoping that she would say yes.
A white moth fluttered past Kasu’s face. She looked up as its wings brushed past her cheek. A moment later, a second then a third moth flew past, gathering into a swarm. A storm of white wings filled the alleyway, swirling around and around until they formed the vague shape of a human woman.
“Little ghosts, what have you done to my actor?”
In a burst of furry wings, the moths scattered, and the fortune teller stood in their place.
Before anyone could speak, the fortune teller tilted her head back and opened her mouth.
A pair of stick-like arms reached out from behind the woman’s lips and grabbed hold of the side of her face.
A pair of antlers emerged next, protruding from a long head of white hair.
Bells laced around those dark brown antlers rang as if announcing the arrival of something monstrous.
The thing inside the fortune teller’s mouth pushed and pushed until it had thrust its head and torso into the open air.
The fortune teller flopped to the ground, her sagging body pooling around the creature’s feet.
The thing shook the woman loose the way one would a discarded bathrobe and stretched to its full height.
Those antlers; that long white hair that fell to the ground; that skin like tree bark; the moths covering the creature’s eyes… Kasu recognized the entity standing before them.
It was the Pale Lady, the demon ruler of the western quarter.
It was too late to run.
“What did you do to my actor?” the Pale Lady repeated.
“I— We— Nothing! We didn’t do anything! We heard a scream and then we – we found him lying there!” Kasu sharply stepped away from the corpse, hands raised. So the demon had been an actor. That would explain the lavish clothes.
Arun pushed his way in front of Kasu in a defensive stance, his hand wrapped around the hilt of his sword, ready to draw. Horrified, Kasu grabbed him by the arm.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she hissed. “This is the Pale Lady, one of the four demon lords and mistress of the theatre district!”
Arun did not look impressed.
Neither did the Pale Lady.
Extending her bark-covered hand, the demon curled a single finger.
“Come with me.”