Woo In barked a laugh. “Accepted? Do you really think Enoba united this continent without shedding blood? Enoba convinced many realms to join him, yes. But the lands that refused, he conquered. All except Songland, thanks to my thrice-great-grandfather, King Jinhwa. His shamans enchanted the mountain pass so that only people of Songlander blood, or those personally invited by the reigning monarch, may enter. Every time Enoba tried to bring an army, the land rejected him, sending ice and snow. You haven’t been invited by my mother,” he explained. “Hence the storm.”
“Why are you taking me to Songland?”
“I’m only taking you to the border,” he said after a pause. “There’s something you need to see.”
Before I could ask more questions, the pulsing airstream sputtered, and we dipped violently. Woo In cursed again.
“I’ve grown too weak,” he said through gritted teeth. “We’ll have to find shelter. Hold on … and I’m sorry about the pain.”
“Pain?”
“Once we’re out of the airstream, your wound will start bleeding. So will mine.”
We spiraled down into the valley, my stomach doing backflips until we landed in a bracing puff of snow. Immediately my arm burned. Blood began to trickle down my forearm, and I tore my skirt for a bandage. Beneath Woo In, however, the snow had turned completely crimson. He moaned, but when I reached to pull out the arrow, he shook his head.
“Not yet. I’ll bleed too much,” he gasped. “We—we need …” He murmured something under his breath. Then his head fell limp in the snow, and his eyes fluttered closed.
“Don’t you dare,” I said, shaking his shoulders and slapping his face. “Don’t you dare fall asleep and leave me here.”
Woo In was still. I struggled to my knees and looked around wildly. Nothing but white, white, encasing us like a vast tomb, the sky melting into the ground. Woo In twitched, murmuring again.
Several yards away, a smudge of black and gold appeared.
I swallowed hard as it grew nearer, its glowing eyes fixed on me, a familiar lurid yellow. Snow melted beneath its wide, spotted paws, leaving a ribbon of green grass.
“Hyung,” I whispered.
The emi-ehran stopped, inches from my face. Heat radiated from its pelt, making the ground beneath us soggy as ice turned to water. Feeling seeped back into my limbs, and the leopard-beast’s meaty breath dissolved the frost from my lashes. Hyung cocked its head to examine me, tail twitching. Then it roused Woo In with an affectionately rough tongue to the face.
“I know, I know,” Woo In groaned, as though the beast had spoken aloud. “No need to say I told you so.”
Hyung made a sound halfway between a purr and a growl, and Woo In smiled.
“Admit it. If I wasn’t so much trouble, you’d be bored.”
The beast expelled an odorous huff similar to an exasperated sigh. Then it bent to its haunches. I helped Woo In onto Hyung’s steaming back, then removed the arrow, bunching his cloak to slow the blood. Afterward, I pulled myself up, nervously clutching the beast’s neck as Woo In slumped against me, and we climbed between hill and mountain.
The Jinhwa Pass ended abruptly on a steep ridge overlooking the valley below. Rooftops sprawled in a vast red patchwork, and roads spiderwebbed over the land in gray veins, pulsing with carts and horses. A river swept through the valley like dark blue ribbon, and long white boats shimmered on its surface.
“Welcome to Eunsan-do,” murmured Woo In.
“It’s beautiful,” I said quietly. “I wish Kirah could see it.” She had described Songland’s capital vividly, citing phrases from her poetry scrolls. Golden faces shaded by netted hats, bustling through the streets. High-waisted silk robes sweeping the cobblestone. Fish and noodles wafting from market stands, and muscular women carrying wheat bundles on their backs, rolling their eyes as fishermen called from riverboats. Children scampering across the curved rooftops, chasing kites in the shape of tigers. Kirah had made songs for each image, crooning as she stared beyond Oluwan City. Each note seemed to form a tether, linking her heart to someone far away.
Woo In shifted on Hyung’s back and attempted to sound nonchalant. “Why would your council sister want to come here?”
“I have no idea,” I lied, and punished him with silence for the rest of the journey.
Hyung did not take us into Eunsan-do. When we climbed out of the pass, the frost abruptly disappeared, and green leaves crunched under the beast’s massive feet as we climbed a ridge that hugged the mountainside. By the