The Ink Dragon Answers
The cold, icy face that had been glaring down the fire ghosts was gone without a trace; in its place, a frightened little thing clung to me, glancing this way and that, at a complete loss.
It startled me.
I had no idea the child could already wield darkness like that. Was it the sense of danger that brought it out?
"Your Highness, just now……"
I had meant to ask the Crown Prince how on earth he had handled the darkness in such a manner, but deciding that could wait, I swallowed the question.
"Thank goodness. You seem unharmed."
Only after confirming I was all right did the Crown Prince let out a breath of relief. His darkness, too, sank down with that sigh, folding itself away into his shadow.
The boy reached out a hand to me.
"We must leave at once, my lady."
"No."
I took hold of the Crown Prince's hand and pulled him not toward the exit, but toward my bedchamber.
Telling him to go out alone would do no good — he would never listen — so there was nothing for it but to bring him along.
"We're not leaving. We're putting out the fire. I refuse to let Unyeondang burn to the ground."
"With my darkness, you mean? Once you have evacuated safely, my lady, I will attempt it myse—"
"There's a safer way than that."
I dragged the Crown Prince along at a run.
My bedchamber bore a little scorching where the flames had crept in from the outer quarters, but it was largely intact.
Going around behind the folding screen, I found a small table bearing a modest offering altar.
At the altar's center sat a dragon painted in ink, and beside it a water bottle stoppered with a pine sprig.
"This…… is that not a rain-prayer altar?"
"It is."
I nodded to the bewildered Crown Prince and picked up the bottle.
This was the preparation I had made in advance.
There was no time to explain, so I simply turned the pine-stoppered bottle upside down and let drops of water fall onto the painted dragon.
And as I did, I claimed the privilege of a mortal.
"O Dragon God, we beseech Thee. We offer Thee our sacrifice — partake of it, and send down Thy rain."
The barest, most rudimentary of rain rites — a prayer with just enough shape to pass.
And yet the answer came at once.
The drops that trickled down soaked into the ink of the dragon, bleeding outward and gathering into new strokes — forming a word.
ACCEPTED
"What in the……"
The Crown Prince, reading the word formed of spreading ink, murmured in a daze, his soul seeming to leave him.
At that very moment, the ink dragon snapped its eyes open.
Simultaneously, rain began cascading down beyond the windows like a waterfall.
Screams of the fire ghosts rang out from every direction. Soon they could be seen scrambling frantically over the walls and fleeing out into the downpour.
The fire that had been devouring Unyeondang was drenched by the rain and died away. Whatever flames remained indoors, the Jowang-gaksi would see to on her own.
Only then did the tension ease out of me.
I could feel my body going slack, like cotton soaked through with water.
Waking the Queen and speaking with the King alone, the Royal Guard, the audience hall, fire precautions — and now this.
It had truly been a long, exhausting day.
Still…… I suppose I've grown rather fond of this place in such a short time.
Honestly, I could simply have fled. Yet here I was, straining myself like this to put the fire out — that said enough.
As I breathed a sigh of relief, the Crown Prince asked, flustered.
"Just now…… what was that, just now?"
"A rain prayer."
"No — not that. The ink, spreading across the painting…… don't tell me a god answered you directly?"
"Well, hmm."
I hadn't worked a miracle with divine power, nor used any special ability. It was a rite and a prayer any human could perform — so rather than stumbling through a lengthy excuse……
"I happen to be well-loved by the gods, you see."
When I said it with a bright smile, the Crown Prince stared at me, mouth agape. Then he startled and reached out toward me.
"My lady!"
What was wrong with him?
Only after he caught hold of me did I realize my own body was swaying.
Dizzy, and tired. With my original body, this had happened all the time, but in this body it seemed this was the first.
I pushed myself too hard tod—
That was my last thought before my vision curled in on itself and went dark.
Ansi had dragged the three warriors who tried to set Jamryongdang ablaze back to the East Palace, trussed to a single rope like a string of fish. Because the three had bolted in three different directions, catching them had taken longer than expected.
Torrential rain was hammering down around the East Palace.
So Her Highness had, in the end, performed the rain rite she had prepared — just in case.
Then Unyeondang had been in danger after all?
Where might Her Highness the Princess be?
The young phoenix instinctively confirmed her master's location, dumped the unconscious warriors carelessly under the eaves, and went in search of her.
"Her Highn—— Kyaak!"
Stepping into the bedchamber of Unyeondang, Ansi nearly leapt clean out of her skin.
Her master, who had been perfectly fine when she left, lay pale-faced upon the bedding.
The human Crown Prince was keeping watch beside her, but that meant nothing to Ansi. She darted over in a flash and pressed her hand to her master's forehead.
A fever, burning like a coal.
Her blood ran cold. Ansi frantically looked around.
The Crown Prince held a wet cloth in his hand; a water basin sat within reach.
Without a word, Ansi snatched the cloth and the basin away from him, soaked the cloth, and laid it across her master's brow.
Why was she ill? She wasn't dying again, was she? She wasn't going to leave Ansi behind and sleep for decades on end again, was she?
Fear and worry wrung the tears out of her. The young phoenix clutched her master, her face crumpling.
"Princess…… oh, Princess……"
The Crown Prince gazed quietly at the weeping Ansi for a moment, then asked in a low voice.
"Where exactly did the guard of the consort's residence go, to return at such an hour?"
"I w-was seeing to the task Her Highness commanded…… of me."
Straining to speak formally to a human with the pride of a phoenix — supreme among divine beasts — made her feel as though her own tongue were tying itself in knots.
Still, Ansi honored her master's instruction and used respectful speech with the human Crown Prince.
The Prince looked mildly puzzled at the title Princess, then recalled that Ansi was a maid of her original household who had followed Seruhwa all the way from the empire, and let the matter go with a rough nod.
Presumably they had called her Princess back there.
"A task I gave her?"
"Guarding Jamryongdang — she said if anyone came to set it aflame, I was to catch them…… I did."
"At Jamryongdang?"
The Crown Prince's eyes went wide, then narrowed. The boy fell silent, something turning behind his face, and asked quietly.
"Did you catch them?"
"They are tied up in the courtyard…… I did."
"Well done. The consort has taken ill, so attend her closely."
With that, the Crown Prince left Seruhwa in Ansi's care and went outside.
Ansi glared daggers at his retreating back.
I hate that human!
Back when Princess Cheonmyeong slept in the Netherworld, the Jade Emperor had once summoned Ansi and given her several charges.
"For the Princess to pass freely into the mortal realm in a human body is dangerous in many ways. As a phoenix who roams the Three Realms at will, the burden upon you is a heavy one."
"Should the demons stir in any suspicious manner, or should the Princess find mortal life too hard to bear, come and tell me at once."
"And this — I pray it is only my own needless fear."
At that point, the Emperor had hesitated — quite unlike herself — for quite a while. Then, with a deep sigh, she had spoken.
"The Princess may yet come to love that Eodukseoni child. Watch her closely."
"The Eodukseoni is an unclean thing. There is no telling what influence it may have upon her. Being neither demon nor ghost, it is all the harder to fathom."
"If it seems the Princess may draw too near to that child, you must inform me without fail."
Ansi had taken the Emperor's words to mean: stand between the Princess and the Crown Prince, and see that they never grow close.
Fear not, Emperor Your Majesty! This Ansi shall strive with all her might to make Her Highness the Princess despise that human!
The little phoenix clenched her small fists and steeled her resolve.
The rain came down in sheets.
The Crown Prince went to inspect the arsonists Ansi had caught. All three of them appeared well-versed in considerable martial arts — yet they lay unconscious, slenderly felled by a girl of fourteen-odd years and trussed up like dried fish.
These men tried to burn Jamryongdang.
And fire ghosts had come to Unyeondang.
There was no doubt it was a plot aimed at him. And Seruhwa — she had somehow sensed it, and moved to stop it.
Scarcely any time had passed since she had stayed up through the night rousing the Queen. While he himself was too giddy with joy to think straight, she alone had sensed the danger.
And she had strained that small body of hers until she fell ill from it.
Carrying on as though nothing were wrong, as though she were perfectly fine……
How startled had he been when she suddenly collapsed? Her body in his arms had burned like a fireball — he thought his heart would drop out of him.
If the Jimi Court Lady and the maids, who had hurried back the moment the rain began, had not told him it was only a fever, he might have spread his darkness right then and there in sheer panic.
The Crown Prince stood before the subdued men and stared down at his own hands.
My lady has done so very much for me. And what have I ever done for her? Am I not merely dragging her into my own dangers?
He wanted to become stronger.
In body, and in every other way besides.
But how?
"Even if you can't undo the fact that you became Eodukseoni, once you learn to control the power yourself, you'll be fine. Truthfully, it'll work in your favor! Wielding darkness like this is a power far beyond most Gwoeryeoknansin."
What Seruhwa had once said to him.
"The Crown Princess has already laid the whole board for you. A truly remarkable child. So from this day forward, you will live as a Taoist who commands the Dark Arts. Any power you can master will, without fail, become your weapon."
What his royal father had told him today.
"Stay where you are!"
And the words that had burst from his own lips just now, the moment he saw her standing in that burning corridor.
The power I possess…… the darkness that doused the flames and drove off the fire ghosts. A power that, if only I can master it, could become a weapon.
The Crown Prince looked upon the darkness he had known only as a curse — and saw it, for the first time, in a new light.
Yes. This is not something to fear…… I will think of it as my strength.