the edge of the stone steps. I opened the door slightly and peered through the slit. Officer Ky?n took out what seemed to be a tinderbox, and light sparked to life, too bright in the dark office. He seemed aware of this, for his movements quickened, as though time was running out. He rifled through papers inside a box-shaped object and took one. A longer look, and familiarity struck. It was the black-lacquered document box, the pretty one I’d seen sitting on Inspector Han’s shelf.
Officer Ky?n quickly folded the sheet he’d stolen and inserted it into his robe. He blew out the candle, and at once I withdrew back into the shadows as he rushed out of the office and out of the courtyard.
For a moment I stayed still, my hands and legs trembling. I had to wait for Inspector Han to report what had happened. But then an impulse leapt into my bones.
Follow him.
* * *
Outside the torch-lit bureau was absolute darkness. The silence, too, was absolute: not a hum, shuffle, or gurgle. Occasionally patrolmen passed me in pairs, and even then, the only sound was of their boot heels. And the rush of my nervous breathing.
Officer Ky?n was quick, darting from shadow to shadow down an alley, throwing a glance over his shoulder as though he sensed me. Each time he did, I ducked behind a wall or crouched as small as I could. My heart fluttered liked a trapped bird in my chest, so fast I felt light-headed, the exact way I’d felt months ago when I’d tried to run away.
On a night exactly like this one.
Only, I had tried to escape while half-blind, my eyes too puffy from crying all day after hearing the news of Older Sister’s illness. I’d wanted two things in that moment—to find our brother for my dying sister and to run to her side. But a few days after my capture and branding, she’d sent me a note, which Aejung had read to me. A request that I remember my promise to her.
The promise to find our brother’s lost grave.
A promise that had kept my feet tied from running away again. But now something else kept me here.
Damo Seol. The memory of Inspector Han’s voice drew close to me, deep and fortifying. Do you know why your discovery changes everything?
My discovery had mattered to Inspector Han.
I had made a difference.
Suddenly, a strand of cloud blocked the half moon, throwing me into a swamp of darkness. I groped my way through the alley, patting the damp clay wall and the patches of shredded wanted posters, until I saw a dim opening. The cloud rolled away and moonlight shone onto a stone bridge arched over the trickling Cheonggye Stream. By it, a gigantic willow tree stood hunched over, its tresses a pale green-gray in the mist.
It took another glance to notice two shadows beyond the leafy veil.
One was Officer Ky?n. The second wore a tall black gentleman’s hat and a silk dopo robe. His brows and eyes were angled like a fox’s. I held in a gasp at the sight of Scholar Ahn, the tutor of Lady O’s little brother. The one who had visited the commander, asking him a thousand questions about the dead young lady, much too curious about her case.
Blood pulsed in my ears as I edged along the bed of flowers bordering the river until I could hide behind the bridge, close enough to the willow tree.
“Hyung,” came Officer Ky?n’s voice, a harsh whisper I could barely hear over the trickling water. “What are we to do with her, hyung?”
A frown crinkled my brows. Hyung? This was not only the word a younger man called an older man by, but a word that suggested intimacy. An intimacy bound by blood, or in this instance, perhaps by friendship.
“We will do nothing,” Scholar Ahn replied.
“What? Why not?”
“Behind that girl is Inspector Han, and behind him is an entire police force. I do not move or fight unless I see an advantage, and I see nothing to be gained in whatever scheme you’re devising.”
“If you’re not going to move, I will. Seol!” Officer Ky?n hissed, stalking out.
My heart leapt into my throat. The next thing I knew, he was grabbing my arm and dragging me through the swaying leaves, under the willow tree, where shadows swam and moonlight speckled the ground. He threw me down, so suddenly my head nearly snapped back as I landed on all fours before Scholar Ahn’s feet.