Page 58 of Between Ghosts and Gods

“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.

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.