corpse always followed. Then at last I woke up, thrashing and entangled in a drenched blanket.
“You have a fever,” Aejung told me, urging me to lie still. She placed a cloth on my forehead. “It is your wound. Infected.”
It got worse, and I was thrown in and out of strange nightmares, unable to recall the time passing or whether the tall shadows around me were humans. Then the bitter taste of something herbal poured into my mouth. I choked and a cloth wiped my mouth.
Female voices consulted one another as they inserted thread-thin needles into my skin.
“Not there!” came a whisper. “When the head nurse trained me in acupuncture, she said the needle should go a little higher. Right here.”
Was I dying?
Then the raging storm stilled, the freezing spray of sea-mist withdrew, and I was lying flat on my back, blinking up at the white ceiling. The world no longer twirled. A strange emotion crept into my chest as I continued to stare. It was as though the storm had blown out the light that had danced around in the swaying grass of immortal green, leaving a dark cavern in me.
I flinched at a sudden noise, the screen door sliding open. Aejung stepped in and knelt before my sleeping mat. She touched my forehead and inspected my wounds before rewrapping it.
“How long was I sick for?” I asked.
“Five days.”
Five days. It had felt more like a single night.
“During the first three days we worried you wouldn’t make it, but then you started recovering on the fourth.” She helped me up onto my feet, peeled me out of my nightgown, stale with dried sweat. My frail and ghostly pale body gave us both pause.
“For five days,” I murmured as she assisted me into a clean dress. “So much must have happened.”
“So much has happened indeed. Inspector Han is preparing an arrest warrant for Young Master Ch’oi Jinyeop.”
Just as Aejung finished securing the sash around my dress, Hyeyeon entered with a table bearing a bowl of gruel and side dishes of pickled cabbage and radish.
“You’re awake.” She set it down before me. “Eat and strengthen yourself again.”
I sat down and picked up a wooden spoon, stirred my meal, and blew the steam away. Tucking an oily strand of hair behind my ear, I took a bite. Surprise lit my stomach at how tasty it was. The finely ground rice swam with pine nuts. The pickled vegetables offered a tasty zing and crunchiness to the soft, bittersweet meal.
“I heard—overheard—that Inspector Han killed a man,” Hyeyeon said.
The spoon stilled in my hand. Unable to look up, I spoke to the bowl. “Is he to be punished?”
“The inspector is a military official,” she replied, and did not elaborate.
“I suppose the higher authorities will overlook it,” I whispered, no longer hungry. “A guilty person was killed—”
“No one would have died had you followed a simple order to stay still. Inspector Han hates blood, but you made him kill a boy.”
I shifted on my knees, wishing the floor would open and swallow me whole.
“A little favor from the inspector, and look what happened to you. Your head grew too big with pride and you forgot your place as a servant.” Hyeyeon clucked her tongue at me. Then she rose to her feet and slid a stare over her shoulder. Our eyes met. “This is what happens when a foolish girl thinks she can be someone of consequence. She creates chaos, utter chaos.”
* * *
A few hours spent outside the servants’ quarter was enough to leave me dripping in cold, panicky sweat.
It was as though a storm had swept through the police bureau, flipping over tables and trays, knocking down shelves and chairs. Hyeyeon was right, I had caused chaos. Inspector Han had threatened to transfer Ky?n out of the bureau for his insubordinate behavior, and everyone knew it was because I had “tattled” on Ky?n. And with the inspector’s threats, speculation spread fast—about Inspector Han’s whereabouts on the night of the killing, about his horse covered in blood.
“Inspector Han killed a boy and is now trying to silence an officer,” some whispered. “A man threatens when he feels endangered.”
Utter chaos, and everyone blamed me for it.
This weight grew heavier when Inspector Han summoned me. I dragged myself toward the western courtyard, and there he stood, alone, his uniform of dark blue flowing in the windy afternoon. The blood seemed to drain from me, leaving every part of my body cold. I clasped my hands before me, carefully,