mother … You are certain Officer Shim is the killer?”
“There is no doubt about his connection to the murders,” Inspector Han said, and he looked my way. The scratch I’d left on his cheek looked red and raw in the torchlight.
Woorim. He hadn’t mentioned her name. My pulse quickened, beating hard against my right temple.
“When was the last time you saw Senior Officer Shim?” Inspector Han asked me.
The beating in my head grew stronger, making it difficult to think, but I still managed to reply, “Around midafternoon, sir.”
“Hours have passed since then.” He gazed up at the gray-blue sky, the moon still hanging over a cloud. “Shim wouldn’t have returned to the capital. He told a guard he’d come to speak with me, and he must have overheard my manservant through the hanji screens. The accusations against him. Wherever he went, he might already be too far for us…”
As the officers speculated, and as others dragged the shaman’s corpse out from the well, I stood still, unable to move. Woorim’s grip on my thoughts tightened, her fingers wrapping around mine in desperation, cold and sticky with blood. Seol, please help me, please, please help me. Her plea echoed and sent a ripple of bumps down my spine, her voice growing louder and louder until it was all I could hear.
“What is the matter?”
My attention snapped back to Inspector Han, and a light sparked in my mind. “Officer Shim … he might not be too far away.”
“What do you mean?”
“Dead woman Byeol’s house,” I whispered, my eyes widening. “Officer Shim’s helpers, they mentioned that place, that they must return there. Woorim could be there as well.”
Once, my words would have fallen upon deaf ears. But at this moment, perhaps only ever this moment, my voice was like a torchlight raised against the darkness of night. There were no eyebrows raised, no rebukes flying my way for speaking out of turn. There were only men watching and listening.
“And where is this dead woman Byeol’s hut, Damo Seol?” Commander Yi asked gently.
“I … I don’t know, sir.” We would have to go from hut to hut, asking for directions, but we didn’t have time—
My panic stilled at the sight of the old man. “He must know.”
The old man stared at me, pointing his finger at himself.
“Yes,” I said. “That man.”
A soldier pushed the old man, and he came stumbling forward into Commander Yi’s periphery. He flicked a nervous glance toward the near mountain and said, “It is up there on Mount Yongma!”
“Well then,” Commander Yi said. “Lead the way.”
“Me, sir?”
“You offered to be our guide. Now lead.”
The officers, around twelve of them, mounted their horses and gathered into a line. As for me, horseless as I was, I fell behind, far from Inspector Han, far from the possibility of being stopped and told that my lips were too blue, that I ought to stay behind and search for shelter. He would be right to suggest this. And it did occur to me, as I gazed up at the jagged shadows of Mount Yongma’s peak, that I might not survive the icy journey if I followed.
Still, my feet moved forward, one step after the next.
Not because of fearlessness—no, my stomach ached with terror. I followed the officers because the moment I’d grabbed onto Woorim’s hand, trying to pull her out of danger, her destiny had bound itself to mine. I had seen desperation gleam in her eyes and I had touched her wound.
How could I forget? How could I turn away?
* * *
We traveled into the forest that covered the mountain, trees rising like the hackles of wolves. My damp robe had frozen stiff under the spare blanket offered to me, and strands of my once-dripping hair now hung on either side of my face like black icicles. With each step, I could feel my limbs less and less, the cold piercing so deep into the marrow of my bones that tears rolled down my numb cheeks.
As I wiped the wetness from my face, Inspector Han—who was riding ahead of us—slowed and looked over his shoulder. He said something to Commander Yi, then tugged at the reins and steered his horse around. Hooves tramped down the slope, and soon the creature came to a prancing halt a few feet away from me.
“Go back down to the village. I’ll send an officer with you,” he said. “The cold might kill you.”
I shook my head and gritted my teeth hard, to still their chattering. “N-no.”