the memory of my brother’s stories of home, and in the twelve years that had passed without him, I realized that I had been waiting, that I had never truly left Heuksan Island. The home Brother had told me about, I had dreamed of arriving there one day. A home where there was no more sorrow or tears, no more deaths or farewells.
A place of togetherness.
But now this place would change into a haunted mansion full of strangers and ghosts. How could I embrace them? What did family mean when family had gone away and returned, scarred to the point of being unrecognizable? How could you embrace a stranger with haunted eyes that looked right through you?
“After speaking with Madam Song yesterday afternoon,” Ryun continued, speaking slowly and timidly at first, testing to see how I’d respond, “Inspector Han reviewed your record, then journeyed for half a day to a government office in Inchon Prefecture. He interviewed the officers there that night and this morning, and returned to the capital hours ago … just in time for his arrest.”
I swallowed hard, but the ball of pain wouldn’t ease. “What did he find out in Inchon?”
“He found out why you were transferred to the Capital Police Bureau.”
I knew why. My registration in the local government had transferred to the capital, all because of a passing remark, which I shared with Ryun now. “An officer told his superior that I was strong, that damos like me would help him regain Commander Yi’s favor.”
“Did you overhear the discussion yourself?”
“No … my sister told me.”
Ryun shook his head. “That is not the story the inspector heard.”
“What?”
“Apparently, your sister was the one who cunningly convinced the government official. She is the one who told stories of your strength and courage. She did not tell you, did she, that Commander Yi was the closest friend of your father’s? She was probably afraid to let you know, lest you make obvious your association with a traitor. That is why she changed your name too, isn’t it? To keep you in the dark about your family’s past.”
My heart hammered in my chest and I managed to say in a trembling voice, “Ridiculous…”
“After so many years, and after your father’s treason, how could she know whether Commander Yi was friend or foe? But she must have known that sending you close to him would be sending you close to information about your brother.”
Something like laughter shook me, leaping out of my mouth with twisting notes of madness. “My sister sent me to the capital?” I touched my scarred cheek, fingertips burning against the memory of humiliation. “My own sister…”
“Do not blame her so much. What would you have done to bring family together? What is done is done, and right now, we need to help my master.”
It was entirely like my sister to make such decisions, just like the cruel choice she had made long ago, refusing to follow our brother to Hanyang. Rejecting him. Then the bitterness winding my muscles loosened. But I … I had delivered my brother over to the police bureau, without trying to ask for his side of the story, too afraid to face him at all. I could not say who had made the crueler decision this time—my sister or myself.
“Yes,” I whispered. “We must help him.”
Ryun ran a hand over his face. “I was already concerned about my master overworking himself with this case. The physician kept telling him to rest, but he wouldn’t listen. And now this! I looked into his room earlier and saw him sitting in the darkness, so still. Frozen, almost. He’s unable to sleep, and whenever he tries eating, nothing stays down. I think he is afraid, and I have never seen my master so helpless.”
Everything made sense now. Why I was here in Hanyang. Everything fit together.
Almost of their own accord, my eyes turned up to the night sky, as though I were the dancing waves reaching for the full moon. I was reminded of the story my brother had told me long ago. Brother Moon and Sister Sun. It had left the deepest impression on me, the tale of two children who had tried to escape a tiger and so had climbed up a rope into the sky. The brother had chosen to lock himself within darkness so that his sister might not be scared.
I didn’t know why, but I could feel my eyes light with fire.