Chapter Twenty-Seven Kasu
The moment Kasu had heard the word “pagoda”, she knew where to go.
The auction house was the tallest building in the eastern quarter. Each of its twelve towering storeys was strung with deep blue lanterns that dangled from their upturned eaves.
It was easy to keep it in view, though much harder to navigate around the winding market stalls to get to it.
The streets were circuitous and ever-shifting, brimming with hidden perils – dark teahouses that led straight into the mouth of the abyss, illusory roads that hid deadly snares, and fox demons who would lure you into back-room butcher shops to be chopped up and served to other unsuspecting customers.
Kasu wished Ruo were here to guide them.
The cat knew this fly-trap of a market better than all of them, but they were still avoiding her.
Still angry with her.
Why did she care? They weren’t friends. Kasu didn’t have friends.
The Heavenly Principles were the only things she could rely on.
They were all she needed. Thoughts of her mortal life flashed through her mind.
A small shack on the edge of the forest. A mother with a tight smile.
A sister as bright as sunlight. And yet Kasu had traded her soul for a jade pendant.
“That pendant is proof that we… If you get it for me, you and your sister will… We need it to… It’s the only way.”
Kasu hissed as the memory of something, someone, intruded into her thoughts with all the gentleness of a headless horse ramming into a wall.
“Are you OK?” she heard Arun ask, but his voice sounded watery and distant, as if he were calling to her from somewhere leagues beneath the sea.
“Where’s mother?” Another memory. Another voice. Her own this time. Where was she? Who was she talking to?
“You look pale. I mean, pale for a ghost. Can you hear me? Kasu?”
“She can’t be gone! Wait here while I go find her!”
“Hey, Kasu!”
When she blinked, the memory finally faded, and Arun was standing in front of her, his brow creased with concern.
“It’s nothing.” Kasu hoped he didn’t notice the slight tremble in her voice.
The foot of the pagoda was teeming with ghosts and demons. Even without an auction running, there were still crates of meat passing through the auction house for inspection and grading before eventually being released onto the meat market.
Kasu turned away from the road leading up to the building and instead headed towards the streets covered by the pagoda’s towering shadow.
The fortune teller had said something about an abandoned building, but honestly she wasn’t sure how accurate the reading was.
There were plenty of old, empty buildings in the eastern quarter.
Some of them looked fragile enough to collapse in the slightest gust of wind.
Arun grabbed her shoulder. “Look!” He spun Kasu around. “It’s those ghosts!”
Sure enough, the three ghosts who had been sneaking about Lady Camellia’s private chambers were making their way past the meat stalls and towards an abandoned square where the buildings sagged against one another.
To one side stood a wooden shack with crooked paper doors.
The trio looked around once before slipping inside.
Kasu met Arun’s gaze.
“Let’s go.”
They fanned out across the square, keeping their distance and using nearby houses for cover.
“We have to come up with a plan,” Kasu hissed in a stage whisper.
Arun didn’t seem to hear her. All his attention was focused upon the shack.
Scowling, Kasu hurried to catch up with him.
Maybe if they surrounded the ghosts they could catch them unawares, she thought, but the shack did not appear to have any other exits or entrances.
Of course, that didn’t mean there was no other way out.
There might be underground tunnels in the basement. Or a mirror of departure.
They met again on opposite sides of the door and crouched beneath the boarded-up windows.
“What is this place?” Arun whispered.
“I’m not sure. It could be a stockroom. Or maybe it’s a dorm.” Or perhaps it was just somewhere the ghosts came to relax when they weren’t working.
“Right.” Arun drew his sword.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Kasu gawked as Arun stood up. “We have to come up with a plan!”
“This is the plan,” said Arun. “You stay outside on lookout. I’ll go in.”
Without waiting for a response, he stepped up to the door and kicked it down.
“Oh, for the love of—!” Kasu threw her hands up. Swearing was not something a noble, virtuous person would do – Unclean words invite unclean thoughts – but there was nothing she wished for more in that moment than the satisfaction of a well-placed expletive.
The building was an abandoned teahouse. It looked like a fire had recently gutted the inside.
The walls were scorched and barren, the floor coated in a good inch of soot, and what little furniture remained was heavily charred.
To the right of the entrance, Kasu noted a flight of stairs, though the bottom three steps were broken and the rest looked like they might collapse under the weight of a child.
The ghosts had jumped to their feet as they entered. Arun kicked a chair into one of them while the others drew their blades.
“You’re Lord Cobalt’s men, aren’t you?” He swung his sword in a wide arc.
As the three men tried to surround him, he spun around and lunged for the nearest one, dancing between his opponents’ bodies like flowing water.
Though they outnumbered him three to one, the difference in skill was obvious.
With every swing of his blade, Arun looked like an actor on stage: graceful yet powerful, able to command the tides with a single sweep of his sword.
Kasu wondered if this was how gods fought too.
“Get back, intruder!” Seeing he was outmatched, one ghost abandoned his sword, grabbed the table and threw it at Arun’s head.
Arun ducked and closed the distance between them, delivering a decisive kick to the stomach that sent his attacker stumbling back.
“Arun!” Kasu barked as she scrambled out of the way of the swords and flying furniture.
She was sure she was breaking at least ten Heavenly Principles by charging in here.
Behave towards others as you wish others to behave towards you.
Comport yourself with decorum. In all things be gentle in word and deed.
Do not barge into places that belong to others, swinging a weapon around while threatening people…
But it was far too late to salvage the situation. Kasu would beg the heavens for forgiveness later.
While the ghosts tried to regroup, Arun struck the flat of his blade against their sides, their elbows and the backs of their knees, knocking their weapons from their hands and bringing them crashing to the ground.
“Tell me” – he circled them menacingly – “is it true that a lady from the heavens was sold at the last meat auction?”
“Who are you?” one of the ghosts whimpered.
“None of your business. Now, talk,” Arun growled. Kasu gathered up the ghosts’ swords, setting them on the stairs far out of reach.
The three ghosts glanced at one another in panic. After a moment of hesitation, the tallest of the group spoke. “I don’t know! How am I supposed to remember—” He choked as Arun’s blade pressed against his neck.
“If she was sold at the auction, you would remember,” he seethed.
“Please! I can’t tell you. Lord Cobalt will kill me if he finds out I talked!” the ghost squealed.
“I’ll kill you now if you don’t tell me what you know.” Arun’s voice had dipped dangerously low.
Kasu did not think he would really murder them, but his performance was enough to make their attackers tremble. While the tall ghost opened and closed his mouth like a drowning fish, one of the others tipped his head back and bellowed, “Huina, help us!”
A thin, pincer-like leg lanced through the ceiling and struck the ghost in the gut, impaling him right through the middle.
Not a second later, another leg stabbed its way through, reaching all the way to the ground and cracking the floorboards.
A third followed, then another and another and another.
Kasu and Arun scrambled one way while the remaining two ghosts fled in the opposite direction.
The moment they were clear, the ceiling collapsed and a monstrous shape fell through the middle in a cloud of dust and broken wood.
Through the rain of debris, Kasu could just about make out a large, round thorax attached to eight sleek legs. Placed upon that furry thorax was the top half of a woman, her waist disappearing into the coarse hairs of her main body.
The spider ladies of Shadow Street were known for two things.
The first was that they were incorrigible gossips, always talking while they wove their webs.
There was no rumour in Ghost City that had not first passed through the mouth of a spider lady.
The only reason Kasu had not sought them out as soon as she had heard about Arun’s mother was because of the second thing they were known for.
Their bottomless appetites. The spider ladies would eat ghosts and demons alike; they would even eat each other if they were hungry enough. Their webs were traps meant to ensnare unsuspecting victims, and once they had caught you they would never let go.
“Those two over there, Huina! Kill them!” the tall ghost shrieked.
The spider lady turned to Kasu and Arun. Before the demon could lunge for them, Kasu grabbed a broken table leg from the floor and hurled it at the spider as hard as she could.
The leg hit Huina square in the head, but that only served to enrage her even more. Gnashing her fangs and stabbing her pincer-like legs into the ground, the demon hissed at Kasu.
“I thought the Heavenly Principles discourage violence!” Arun cried as he jumped out of the way of the spider lady’s legs.
“That shows your ignorance. According to the Heavenly Principles, ghosts and demons should be vanquished if they threaten human life.” Kasu circled the demon so that she and Arun flanked her.
“I’m sure whoever wrote it meant ‘vanquished from the mortal realm’.
” Arun swung his sword into the spider’s front legs.
Metal scraped against hard chitin, sending sparks flying.
Though he dug his heels in and threw all his weight into blocking Huina’s next attack, her sheer size and weight eventually knocked him back, throwing him into the wall and pinning him there.
Grabbing another broken piece of wood, Kasu charged at the spider’s back, but either the demon had eyes hidden on the other side of her head or Kasu’s footsteps were too loud.
Before she could impale the spider with her makeshift weapon, a jet of sticky fluid shot out of Huina’s abdomen.
The next thing Kasu knew, she was flying backwards.
The dirty floorboards bit into her back and pain blossomed down her spine.
When she tried to get up, she found herself smothered by the webbing.
“Stay away from her!” she heard Arun yell as the demon advanced towards her.
It was too late. Kasu floundered like a fish caught in a net, but the more she fought the tighter the web seemed to hold her. The spider lady loomed over her, legs piercing the floorboards with every step.
“Kasu!” she heard Arun scream, something desperate and ragged torn from his throat.
Then nothing.