Chapter Thirty-Two Kasu
Kasu couldn’t keep up with the thoughts spinning through her head.
The questions Sunan’s death had left them with were too big to ignore.
How had Lady Camellia known that there was a lady from the heavens in the under-realm?
How had Lord Cobalt known who to catch and put on the auction?
No matter how hard Kasu thought about it, she could only come up with one explanation.
Sunan had come to the Pale Lady for help. The demon lord of the western quarter was the only one who knew about Sunan, and the reincarnation wheel, and the aura mask that should have kept Arun’s mother safe.
“You think the Pale Lady sold her out?” Arun seemed to read her thoughts. His dark eyes were no less piercing than when he was alive.
Kasu swallowed around the lump in her throat. “It’s only a guess, but she was the only one who knew your mother was in the under-realm and that she had an aura mask. Who else could it be?”
She wished she had something more comforting to say. His mother was dead. The reason he had come here was gone. She wished she knew how he was feeling – wished she had the courage to ask.
“I don’t know. I haven’t been in the under-realm as long as you have, but I’ve got the impression Lady Camellia and the Pale Lady don’t like each other.”
“You’re not wrong.”
Lady Camellia despised the plays the Pale Lady performed, and the Pale Lady … well, Kasu remembered the choice things she’d had to say about Lady Camellia the last time they had met.
A fool who puts her faith in all the wrong things. Amusing and pathetic.
“What will we do when we meet the Pale Lady?” Arun asked.
“We’ll talk,” said Kasu.
Both Arun and Ruo looked disappointed by that answer.
“I know we’ve been relying on her a lot. And she’s not the most dependable source.” As if they could trust what any demon in the under-realm said. “But now we know more than we did before. We have more questions too. I’m sure we can get some answers, real answers, from her this time.”
Arun still didn’t look convinced, but he followed her anyway. From the meat market, they traced the river’s path into the western quarter. The sound of music was the first clue that they had reached the theatre district.
“Little flower, dressed in red, blooming in obscurity.
Plucked from the earth, the young man pinned her to his breast.
To work he took her, and to rest – never did they part,
Until a war did shake the land.
Little flower, dressed in red, left alone to wither and rot –
When the young man returned, he cast her aside
And into the mud she sank.”
“The Song of Shusa’s Lover” drifted gently through the streets.
The western district was quiet – far quieter than when the theatres had first closed.
Now, even the teahouses and fortune tellers’ tents were empty.
The vendors had packed away their wares, seeking livelier parts of the city to do business.
Only a few stray musicians remained, along with the beggars lying in the street as their bodies slowly disappeared.
Fishermen lounged on the riverbanks and demons prowled beneath the bridges, hoping to catch unsuspecting ghosts with their long arms and sticky tongues.
A few stubborn pop-up theatres continued to perform General Shusa: Life and Love of a Loser God.
“When the war came to an end, the heavens rewarded him for his courage and might with a position among their ranks, but Shusa wished to see his love. Yet on his return, he found his town had been hit by plague. His beloved had been disfigured by disease. Now she was uglier than the cows he had once herded!”
There was no raucous laughter, no cruel mockery this time. Only silence greeted the end of the play. Ruo snorted, but stopped at the sight of Kasu’s disappointed frown.
“Where do you think the Pale Lady will be?” Arun glanced around the hushed streets.
“Dunno. Where do scary moth-antler-ladies hang out when they’re not doing anything?” Ruo asked.
“We could try to find a fortune teller?”
“Let’s not,” said Kasu. Watching the Pale Lady burst out of a demon’s body once could be dismissed as a unique occurrence. Twice suggested a pattern. Kasu wasn’t willing to risk a third time.
“What about the Grand Pavilion?” said Arun.
Kasu shuddered, remembering how the open-air theatre rose above the rooftops around it, how the platform had swayed and the wooden support beams creaked in the slightest breath of wind.
“I suppose we could try.”
There were two men standing at the foot of the theatre – a ghost and a horned demon with a single eye. The sign on the front said that no performances were scheduled that day and, for a moment, Kasu’s hopes lifted – maybe the Pale Lady wasn’t here – but then the men spotted them and scowled.
“Go away! Our mistress is busy with rehearsals!”
Kasu’s stomach plummeted. Would they really have to go up to the top of that death trap?
“Rehearsals?” said Arun.
“The theatres have been closed for too long! It’s not good for business. The Pale Lady wants to put on a grand re-opening ceremony. She is not to be disturbed as she coaches the actors.”
“But we need to speak with—”
A scream interrupted them. Heads snapping upward, everyone stared – first in shock, then panic – as a body fell from the top of the platform.
They scrambled out of the way as the demon splattered across the stones.
“See? This is why it’s important to have guard rails at the top.” Kasu retreated from the ooze of blood seeping across the ground towards her.
“Do you have to make this an ‘I told you so’ moment?” asked Arun.
Another scream punctured the air. This time not accompanied by a falling body. Instead, Kasu caught a flash of white fur. A flick of a long, bushy tail. A large wolf stood at the edge of the platform. The same beast that had killed the first actor in the alleyway.
Ruo followed at their ankles as Arun grabbed Kasu’s wrist and yanked her towards the elevator. The guards hesitated, but at Arun’s insistence they operated the pulley and hauled them upwards.
Once they reached the top of the platform, Kasu all but tumbled out onto the swaying wooden scaffolding. A pair of demon actresses were screaming.
“M–my lady!”
The Pale Lady lay sprawled across the middle of the platform, her long branch-like limbs set at painful angles and her hair spread around her like a curtain.
Instead of her usual silver dress, she was wearing a military costume that fanned around her fallen form.
Kasu recognized the armour that General Shusa was known to wear.
A wolf stood over the broken demon. A large white wolf covered in eyes.
Kasu turned to the actresses. “What happened?”
“We were practising a scene for the re-opening!” One of the demons replied. Her dragonfly wings buzzed in agitation as her eyes darted from Kasu to the wolf. “We’re short-staffed, so my lady took the role of General Shusa, and then—”
“That creature came out of nowhere! That thing’s the one that has been targeting us!” The second demon pointed a trembling finger at the beast. The bright-red eyes that covered the curse’s body darted this way and that, before eventually settling on Arun.
“Who are you?” Arun grabbed a prop sword from the floor and pointed it at the wolf. “Why are you doing this?”
“And give me back my star silk!” Ruo hissed.
Kasu’s gaze drifted to the pale, sparkling threads looped around the wolf’s neck. The ball of star silk it had stolen had completely unravelled and now adorned the curse like a deconstructed scarf.
The Pale Lady drew a rasping breath. With a trembling hand, she reached for the wolf. “S–Sunan…”
The wolf did not react.
Though the Pale Lady’s eyes were hidden beneath a swarm of moths, Kasu felt the weight of the demon’s gaze swing towards her.
“The ring. Twist twice clockwise. Then once opposite.”
“What are you…?”
The demon ignored her. A terrible croaking chuckle, like the creak of a rusty door hinge, escaped her throat. “The damn heavens…”
Kasu had never seen a demon lord die. It was horrific. It was beautiful. As the Pale Lady lay there, her body slowly transformed into a swarm of moths. Velveteen wings brushed past Kasu’s face, leaving behind nothing but a set of empty robes.
“Sunan?” Kasu turned to face the curse.
The white wolf stared back at her. Every blood-red eye that dotted the curse’s body stared back.
Arun dropped the fake sword.
“M–Mother?”