Stranger Without a Mukun
"Mm, strange characters have been sniffing around Anchuunbugu lately, I hear."
Come to think of it, Keshine had been so preoccupied with asking whether Hong-wi's party had met with any trouble on the road that he hadn't said a word about it until now.
"Do you remember the man who blocked your way when you first came up to Anchuunbugu?"
"Remember him? Of course I do."
As if he could ever forget. That man had been the first to force Hong-wi to take a life.
Hong-wi's hand clenched into a loose fist. The wretch had been rotten beyond any hope of redemption, and though the killing had been pure self-defense, the memory of it still burned vividly in him.
"That man's older brother is one called Kunuma, and he's every bit as vicious as his sibling—no, far worse. Apparently he's been stirring up trouble everywhere, vowing to avenge his brother. I wanted to make sure no harm had come to you, Lord Temushi-i."
"Nothing of the sort has happened yet. But he must be a frightfully dangerous man, from what you say."
"He is. Truth be told, if we're weighing their evils, the younger brother was the gentler of the two by a wide margin. There's only one of them left now, but he struts about throwing the weight of the Kunaha title behind him. It seems he doesn't yet know that you were the one who killed his brother, but I worry for the day he finds out."
Keshine went on in a low, careful voice.
"In any case, I'm relieved your caravan arrived safely, Lord Temushi-i. A few days ago, whether it was an outpost of theirs or some other gang, I couldn't say—men were prowling this vicinity, so my brother Jugang led the others out to drive them off."
"So that's why the road was so peaceful on our way here," Hong-wi answered, his voice dropping.
"Perhaps, for the sake of this place's peace, the sooner I cross paths with that man, the better."
"Hm, I don't shy away from filth because I'm afraid of it—it's just that it's filthy. And yes, I suppose the dirtier the mess, the sooner it ought to be swept away. But the man commands scores of followers and has powerful backers behind him, so we've held our hands lest we bring harm down on Anchuunbugu. Jugang has his eye on him all the same, so sooner or later it will come to a fight."
"If anything happens, send for me. It may be that we'll meet him soon ourselves."
"Likely enough. But first, we must formally admit you into the stronghold as one of us, Lord Temushi-i. Jugang will be coming up to the fortress by nightfall as well. Until then, I'll take you around and make the introductions myself."
"Thank you."
"Then let's be off to Soeburimal."
When Hong-wi and Ho-in moved to follow Keshine toward Soeburimal, Giahuchuyi and Baduri started to fall in behind them. Hong-wi turned and waved them off.
"You're fine—no need to follow. Anchuunbugu is safe enough within its walls, so just rest easy here until I return."
At that, Giahuchuyi and Baduri glanced at each other. If the paymaster said so himself, there was no reason to refuse and tag along anyway. Treating it as paid leave, they accepted the offer.
"As you wish. When might you return, my lord?"
"Not quite a month... but think of it as a long holiday. Send word ahead before I come back."
A whole month. Giahuchuyi and Baduri decided that didn't sound bad at all. A handsome top-tier wage promised in exchange for a month of idle lounging—was that not eating the pheasant and keeping the egg too?
Leaving the two men behind in the village, Hong-wi's party pressed down the road. The stronghold lay about five miles off, in the direction opposite the usual approach to Anchuunbugu—that is, to the north. It was a single path, and rough going at that. Anchuunbugu itself sat in a kind of basin, hard to enter and harder to leave, and Tung Jugang's stronghold was positioned like a sentinel watching over one of its few entrances.
Keshine explained as they walked.
"No soul outside knows of this road. It exists to slip out through in an emergency. If anything ever befalls Anchuunbugu, we can escape this way."
By the time this exchange had run its course, the two of them found themselves passing a great zelkova tree. Keshine slowed and stopped. Hong-wi turned to look, and beneath the tree's shade two men sat facing each other. They were gnawing on strips of dried venison and occasionally tipping a waterskin of liquor to their mouths, gulping it down.
"Ho there, Kakduri. And Tanduri."
Keshine called out to them. Both men whirled around at once—and looked strikingly alike. It took Hong-wi no effort at all to realize they were twin brothers. Truly, there was nothing to figure out.
"Lord Seongnime has come!"
They even answered in unison. It sounded like a single man speaking.
"Drinking in the middle of a watch? Weren't the two of you supposed to be standing guard?"
At Keshine's scolding, the brothers looked at each other and grinned sheepishly.
"Well... it's been so dull that we've had to make drinking companions of each other, see."
"But we spotted Lord Seongnime from far off, so we've just been sitting still."
"Hmph."
Keshine planted his hands on his hips and glared at them for a long moment, then broke into a wry chuckle. The two brothers turned to study Hong-wi.
"Now this one we haven't met before."
"Is that the fellow the elder Seongnime spoke of?"
"It is."
Keshine confirmed it, and the brothers went back to chewing their jerky, regarding Hong-wi with thoughtful eyes. After a long while, Tanduri—or was it Kakduri?—spoke first.
"He's a bit shorter than the stories made out."
It was an odd remark, since Hong-wi was hardly a small man. The other brother picked it up.
"That's right. The rumors say he stands eight feet tall with fire blazing in his eyes."
"Oh-h, so you two heard that tale as well, did you?"
The brothers bandied it back and forth between them, then burst out laughing. Keshine laughed too, in sheer disbelief.
"These fools have been at the midday bottle, I see."
"Aw, we haven't drunk all that much, my lord!"
One of the brothers—impossible to tell whether Kakduri or Tanduri—shook his head. "We've only wet our throats a little, that's all."
"You rascals!"
When Keshine scolded them in mock severity, the two hunched their shoulders and shrank like chastened turtles.
"In any case, everything you've heard about the Temushi-i is exactly as he says, one point of it true."
"If rumors travel that far astray, it's no wonder I look a bit small by comparison. In any case, I am the Temushi-i. I may not be quite the man you were imagining."
"Rumors are made to be wrong," the other brother replied.
The two glanced at each other, then answered simultaneously.
"I'm Kakduri, the elder."
"I'm Tanduri, the younger."
Once again, perfectly in unison.
Keshine threw up his hands. "Announcing it like that would confuse your own mother. Introduce yourselves properly, one at a time."
"Well... he's not wrong, though. Mother could never tell us apart either."
"That's why we had to sort ourselves out by the colors of our clothes."
"How so?"
"His sleeve-cuffs were dyed blue, and mine were dyed red."
"Though now and then we get muddled ourselves and swap them."
"Then it truly gets confusing."
Tanduri and Kakduri traded the lines back and forth, then roared with laughter all over again.
"Enough with the comedy routine... In any case, the elder Seongnime Jugang has invited this gentleman up to the stronghold."
"To the stronghold? That's news to me." The one who was probably Tanduri tilted his head.
"Did you know of this, Seongnime?"
"First I've heard of it myself."
Hong-wi couldn't tell whether they truly didn't know or were playing dumb. Tung Jugang was hardly the sort to keep things from his own companions...
Right on cue, Keshine's temper flared. "First you've heard, have you? Cut the games... where's Maruchi gotten to?"
"We sent him to fetch liquor. He'll be back any moment."
"There he comes now."
As they turned to look, a figure could be seen running toward them from far down the road. And his gait was anything but ordinary. Hong-wi's eyes went wide; he rubbed them and looked again. No illusion—the boy was coming on foot, without so much as a horse beneath him, yet he moved as fast as if he were performing some ground-shrinking art. In what felt like a heartbeat he was right in front of them, setting down the liquor skins he'd carried.
"I'm baaack."
His voice carried not the least trace of strain, though it sounded very young. Hong-wi realized with a start that the boy was younger even than himself. He didn't merely have a boyish air about him—was he just a child outright?
"What took you so long?"
"Right you are. Now there's liquor but nothing to nibble on," Kakduri grumbled, and Tanduri picked up the thread. At that, the boy stuck out his lips and shouted.
"What do I care!"
He flung a liquor skin over. Kakduri grinned and caught it one-handed. Even that skin looked hefty and full, which meant this boy called Maruchi had strength well beyond his slight frame.
Only then did Maruchi address Keshine. "So Lord Keshine Seongnime's come too, I see." Then he turned to Hong-wi and tilted his head. "But who might you be, then?"
"They say he's the Temushi-i," Kakduri answered for him, already well into the liquor skin. Tanduri snatched it away and took over. "Word is the elder Seongnime Jugang will take him into the stronghold."
"Hee-eh."
Maruchi looked slightly taken aback, sweeping Hong-wi up and down with his eyes. "Well now, that big frame of his does look like it'd be good for something."
"Maruchi. Mind your manners."
Keshine gave him a warning. "But he's a stranger, ain't he? What's his mukun, then?"
The mukun was the very highest tier of the blood-lineage rankings the Jurchen held sacred—the closest thing to a bon-gwan, or clan origin, among the people of Joseon. Naturally, Hong-wi had no such thing. Keshine answered for him.
"He has none."
"No mukun? Then what about a hala?"
"No hala either."
"Not even a hala? Then where in the world did this beanpole sprout from?"
"He's not one of our people," Tanduri answered with a humming sort of tone.
Maruchi cocked his head. "If he's not one of ours, whose is he, then?"
"He's from Joseon."
At those words, Maruchi made no reply at all. But Hong-wi caught the way his expression turned to ice. Kakduri and Tanduri, too, stopped dead, the liquor skins frozen in their grips.
After a long silence, Kakduri asked, his face grave. "Did you say a Joseon man?"
"Yes. Didn't you know?"
"We did not," Tanduri answered. The twin brothers looked into each other's faces and slowly shook their heads.
"Seongnime... we know full well the rule—that when we take a new brother into our company, we don't ask where he comes from. Whatever his roots, whatever his blood, whatever tribe he belongs to—we agreed we wouldn't even hold his sex against him."
Tanduri spoke first. Keshine nodded in agreement. "That's right. That was the rule."
"And my brother and I have never once made a fuss about it. When we took in Lord Sonata there, and Tasbuka and his brother Tashari, did we look down on any of them?"
"I know it," Keshine said again.
Then Kakduri opened his mouth. "But this time it must be different. My lord—a Joseon cur, all of a sudden? This is a different matter entirely!"
The easygoing mirth that had slicked Kakduri's face only moments before vanished without a trace. Tanduri nodded along as if to say, well put, brother.
"You know better than anyone what the Joseon dogs did—not only to us, but to Maruchi here, and to Arachi!"
Tanduri's voice was tightly reined in, yet the fury smoldering beneath it rose off him like heat. "Even if it is the elder Seongnime Jugang's will, I cannot accept it."
"Neither can I."
Kakduri echoed his brother. Maruchi alone said nothing, but one look at his pressed-thin lips and glowering eyes made it plain that no answer was needed.