Page 56 of Between Ghosts and Gods

After all, he was used to chasing after other people’s backs.

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.