A Crane Among Wolves

31. Iseul

Kingdoms rose and kingdoms fell,rising and falling on a land drenched in tears. Grief had always existed since the beginning of time; King Yeonsan had simply aggravated it. And I had been too naive to see that life had never been normal, that darkness had always existed beyond my mansion walls.

I saw it everywhere I looked now, this soul-ravaging darkness.

But as I flipped through Wonsik’s journal again, I wondered at Wonsik’s insistence that I learn how to find the truth. I wondered if the truth could indeed eliminate great sorrow. Pausing before a page, I stared down at the sketch of the flower left at the crime scenes. Beneath it was a note scribbled:

Baek-du-ong.

Used as traditional herbal medicine.

Blooms in spring and survives through the summer.

It prefers light; it cannot grow in the shade and requires moist soil.

Purple in color.

Sometimes red.

I hadn’t paid much attention to the detail of this flower—not when I had seen it on Young Master Baek’s corpse, nor on Royal Guard Min. It had seemed so inconspicuous then. A flower was a flower, just as the moon was the moon, always present in the night. One could spend an entire month, or perhaps even a lifetime, without truly gazing upon it. Yet as I looked at the drawing now, I studied the flower’s drooping bell-shaped head, its six petals with woolly hairs covering the underside. I held the flower within my mind, twirling it slowly by the stem, and within moments, a memory surfaced.

Suyeon and I had paused before a stranger’s burial mound. We had watched as a family weeded and pruned the hillock, to keep the tomb in neat condition and to honor those buried there. We had both cried, faced with an agonizing truth that we would never be able to tend to our parents’ graves, for we did not even know where they were buried.

In such a manner, we would pause before many more tombs in the following months. My sister would note that there seemed to always be bell-shaped purple flowers blossoming around the mound, greeting us all too merrily. “Creepy grandfather flower,” she had come to call the plant, for it was hairy and bent downward, like an old person’s bent back.

I glanced down at the sketch again. The similarity between the flower in my memory and the one before me was too uncanny.

A rapping came on the brushwood door, interrupting my thoughts with a rush of excitement. The prince was finally here. Retreating across the room, I inspected my reflection in a small, rusted mirror. I pinched my cheeks and bit my lips until they were rosy. When the knocking came again, I quickly strode over to the door and opened it.

I froze.

A manservant stood before me, a large mole under one eye. He then stepped aside with his head bowed, opening onto me the view of a man who filled my heart with thorns of anger and sadness. Every breath was painful. Here stood before me a traitor.

“If you are looking for the prince,” I said, gritting my teeth, “he has not yet arrived.”

My uncle did not approach but remained standing a few paces away. “I came for you. I had a manservant follow that innkeeper the other day, and so here I am now.” He glanced over his shoulder, and as though on cue, four servants carried over a palanquin, then lowered it by the hut. They pulled open the little door, as though expecting me to step into the vehicle.

“Why did you come for me?” My voice was barely audible. I was struggling for composure.

My uncle was too busy looking around. “What a pity that the daughter of Magistrate Hwang must live in such a place.” He then walked over, stopping before the palanquin, patting its roof. “You look pale. I know this is abrupt, but it is for your own good that you leave here. My sister has dozens of servants who will be at your beck and call—”

“Why should I leave?”

He frowned, caught off guard by my sharpness. “Hwang Boyeon, you cannot possibly think I would let you remain here.” He gestured at the rotting hut. “You ought to leave, before the event occurs. It is far too dangerous, and I am duty-bound as your uncle to ensure your safety.”

I strode up to him. Never stare directly into the eyes of your elder, I had often been told. Yet this elder had done nothing to warrant my respect. “Did you also feel duty-bound to betray my father to the king?” I hissed.

His lips twitched. “I am unsure what you mean—”

I struck my uncle hard, so hard that his face snapped to the side. “May the heavens punish you for your offense. And may your death feel like the slices of a thousand knives.” I raised my hand again, but Uncle caught it this time, his grip tight.

“I wanted to spare you the truth,” he cried under his breath, giving my arm a violent shake. “But if you are to remain, then perhaps it is better that you know it…” He leaned in close and snarled, “You will never see your sister again.”

“Do not expect me to ever believe anything you say—”

“I wish I were lying, but there is no way back home for any of the king’s women,” he continued, voice lowered for my ears alone. “They will be distributed as gifts to all the government leaders who join us, and your sister will go to Official Wu.”

My knees buckled. My sister—given to Maggot?

“It is the way of things.” The faintest look of remorse trembled on his face. “A price must be paid for victory—”

“What do you mean?” a cold and imperious voice cut behind us.

We both looked at the figure towering behind Uncle. So lost in horror, I had failed to notice the prince’s arrival.

“Whose decision was this?” Daehyun pressed.

Uncle’s entire face twitched nervously. “It was the deputy commander’s decision—”

“A decision can be reversed. It must be. Iseul’s sister is your niece-in-law.” Daehyun paused, examining the cowardly, dull, and unremarkable man. “You did nothing, did you, when you heard of Official Wu’s request?”

The twitches intensified. “Daegam, what use is there in such confrontation? It is Official Wu Sayong. Next to the deputy commander, he holds the greatest influence over the government. Already he has persuaded over fifty officials to join our cause!” He flicked an uneasy glance at me, then murmured, “And the truth of the matter is, the girl—Iseul’s sister—will no longer have a place in society. She is…” He dropped his voice lower, yet I heard his words all too clearly. “… the king’s whore. She will be scorned for the rest of her life. But what an honor it is to become the respected concubine of a powerful man—”

Grabbing Uncle by his upper arm, Daehyun dragged the terrified man off into the thicket, with worried servants scampering after them. If cries ensued, I heard them not, my mind ringing too loudly with my uncle’s threat. I dropped onto my haunches and stared at my shaking hands, counting.

Thirty-five days had passed since Suyeon’s disappearance.

Thirty-five days of being crushed in the king’s embrace.

For half of those days, I had waited for the coup leaders to release her. Waiting and waiting like the fool that I was, believing the rebellion would carve out a path to her. But they were all wolves, these men with power, and they were bent on pillaging the king’s women once the throne was conquered.

“Iseul-ah.”

I hardly noticed Daehyun as he crouched next to me. Specks of blood stained his white collar, his knuckles bruised and raw. In the distance, the servants could be heard comforting their groaning master.

“We will find a way to your sister,” Daehyun whispered.

“There is only one.” I dug my nails into my skin, wishing I could bleed, wishing for a pain other than the one clawing at my chest. “Remember what I said—when the person you love is taken, you go into the den of the tiger. You go to the ends of the kingdom and across. You go to where they are.” I gritted my teeth to stop their chattering. “I am going to enter Wongaksa Temple, where the courtesans are kept. I am going to retrieve Suyeon myself.”

His eyes widened a fraction, then sharpened into a warning glint. “Do not dare. You will not enter the temple. That is an order.”

“Do not tell me what to do,” I snapped, and before the pain could spill over in a stream of vicious words, I bolted to my feet and left. I stalked through the forest, striking branches aside, cursing as I tripped over roots, charging down the narrow trail until I could walk no farther, my path blocked by a wide stream. The reflection of a young woman, trembling with fury, stared up at me.

I screamed.

Damn these men! I would whisk my sister away before Maggot could lay a finger on her. No—I would take with me all the courtesans and leave the government officials to protest over their missing rewards. Let the new government collapse for all I cared. I would not let them have their way.

Climbing onto a granite slab, I fell to my knees and cupped my hands into the freezing stream. I can bring the women home, I assured myself, splashing my face until the ice water left my bones shivering with determination, I will do it. No official would be focused on rounding up the women, not in the midst of a rebellion. I would sneak them out then, in the middle of all the chaos—

A shadow fell next to me. It was Daehyun, proffering a handkerchief.

“I have already made up my mind,” I said brusquely, water dripping down my face. “Do not try to change it. Only another captive can closely watch over my sister; that captive must be me.”

“If you enter and the coup fails,” he said, shoving the cloth into my hand, “you will be trapped. It will be simple enough to enter, but leaving will be near impossible, and if you do, you will be pursued for the rest of your and your sister’s lives. Is that what you wish?”

I grudgingly wiped my face. “Then the coup had better succeed.”

“Hwang Iseul.” A muscle worked in his jaw. “This is a grave decision you are making. One you ought only make after careful consideration. Give me time to speak with the deputy commander first. Minds can be changed.”

“He will not change his mind. Maggot is too respected and feared. That man is determined to take my sister, and he will if I do not stop him—”

“You have me.”

His voice emptied the tumult of thoughts until only he occupied my mind. Slowly, I glanced up to meet his steady gaze. Surely he was only saying this to appease me.

“You ought to focus on your coup,” I murmured. “Do not concern yourself with me. I will find a way into the temple, and I will bring her home on my own—”

“Come,” he whispered, “sit by my side.”

“Stop looking at me like that.”

“Like what?”

My heart knotted painfully, but I managed to say in a light-hearted tone, “As though you care.”

Holding my wrist, Daehyun pulled me to him, until my face was flush against his chest. The warmth of him embraced me, and I could not will myself to push him away.

“Iseul-ah.” His voice was impossibly low, whispering against my ear. “You have me, so use me. I am your friend and will do everything within my power to assist you. Let me help you.”

Shaking my head, I glared through my tears at the silver emblems decorating his robe. “I thought the coup leaders would surely assist. Now I feel like an utter fool for trusting them. If I lose my sister to Maggot, I will never forgive myself.”

“And you will not lose her,” he whispered. “But allow me the opportunity to try. I will convince the deputy. If I succeed, you must promise to reconsider.”

“The king leaves for Kaesong City in two days,” I reminded him, wiping my eyes. “I must enter tomorrow evening, at the latest.”

“Then give me the morning.”

I stayed quiet, distracted by his thumb caressing the tendrils of my hair. His touch was gentle, almost hesitant, as though he’d never comforted a woman before. Then he lowered his hand down my back. Something is going to happen, I thought, feeling the intensity of his stare, the tightening of his fingers against my waist. Daehyun-gun is going to kiss me.

For a fleeting moment, a tempting thought danced through my mind. I could let him this time. I could briefly return to the carefree young lady I had once been, where a kiss was a kiss and I had no need to concern myself with the weight of life and death, or the consequences of entangling my heart with a doomed prince. In that world, I would indulge in the budding affection between us, succumbing to his touches, letting him spread my hair out across the moss. Then I would giggle all the way back home to immortalize the encounter in my journal, recording my confusion over whether it was love or infatuation that I felt. It would become an all-consuming question that would torment me for days.

But I did not live in that world.

In my world, my sister was clinging to a cliff’s edge, waiting for me. There was no room to indulge in romantic notions. With silent resolve, I shifted my attention back to the matter at hand.

“I am going to tell Yul tonight. I am going to prepare,” I said firmly, “but I will wait on your word. And if you fail…” I lifted my gaze, his face alarmingly close to mine. And those eyes, those dark, exquisite eyes… “I will not fault you, but you must promise to help me enter Wongaksa Temple. That you will not try to convince me otherwise.”

His expression grew rigid as he loosened his grip around me.

“You must promise,” I urged, my voice deceptively steady, “that you will not try to convince me otherwise.”

His mouth parted, closed, and he struggled for the longest moment. “I promise,” he said at last, looking away from me. “You have my word.”