A heavy silence hung for a long while among the three left in the courtyard. Beyond the wall where the man with the dark crimson saber had vanished, only night mist drifted faintly, yet in Pung’s ears the roar of saber clashing against fist still lingered.
“Are you all right, Danpung?”
At Hyeonheo’s question Pung slowly bent and straightened the tingling arm. There was no pain of injured bone, but the force that had ridden the dark crimson saber hummed deep beneath the flesh.
“I can bear it. But that man was truly strong. I saw the path his energy came out along, and still I lost the end of it.”
It would have been a lie to say there was no fear. Yet beneath that fear a heat Pung had never felt before was boiling. Until leaving the mountain, the strength Pung knew had amounted to shoving aside a savage boar barehanded and climbing a sheer cliff in a single burst, but the saber of the man with the dark crimson blade had shown that there was a world far larger and deeper than that.
Hyeonheo pressed Pung’s two arms in turn, examining the flow of energy and blood, then turned toward where the man with the dark crimson saber had disappeared.
“There is nothing badly wrong with bone or sinew. It is that man’s saber art that troubles me.”
“Because of demonic arts?”
“The demonic energy was unmistakable, but in the grain of how he linked his force and let it flow, traces of orthodox sect martial arts were mixed in. It feels like something I saw somewhere long ago, though I cannot say for certain now.”
Pung recalled how the man with the dark crimson saber had turned the point of his blade aside at every decisive moment. Whose orders he took and whom he was after could not be known, but he had not pressed to the end, and even after A-yeong appeared he had not turned the saber on her. There was too much that made no sense to call him an enemy, and yet Pung could not trust an opponent with whom blades had already been crossed.
Just then A-yeong strode over and roughly wiped Pung’s cheek, and when blood stained the end of her sleeve her brows shot straight up.
“You idiot. What do you mean by standing in the way alone?”
“You were behind me, A-yeong.”
“So you thought I would be glad if you got hurt?”
When Pung smiled sheepishly, A-yeong made to scold further, then pressed her lips tightly shut. Seeing that the hand gripping her sword was still blanched white, Pung felt a sting in the chest, but before any apology came, the cellar of the manor to the north rose to mind. Seven people, drugged with poison and hauled away by cart, were still waiting to be saved.
“Elder, we must hurry.”
The last of the smile faded from Pung’s face.
“There were seven loaded onto the cart. I also heard the order to move them to the cellar. There is no telling when they will be sent somewhere else.”
Hyeonheo moved at once inside the inn. While the doors and windows were shut and a soundproofing veil of energy was spread, A-yeong brought paper and ink, and Pung quickly drew the rear gate that had been scouted, the stone stairs where the cart had disappeared, and the positions of the central hall and the western slope.
“If they caught your presence, they will have changed the guard first. If we hurry along the same route, they may move the prisoners or set off the poison.”
At Hyeonheo’s words, Pung pushed down the urge to leap the wall that very moment. A-yeong studied the rough map and set the tip of her brush against the northern wall of the cellar.
“Might there not be a separate passage for slipping people in and out?”
“If the guard at the front and rear gates is that heavy, there must be another route for moving prisoners without being seen.”
As Pung’s observation and A-yeong’s guess locked together, Hyeonheo drew a circle around the manor.
“We watch for movement from outside until dark. If the abductors appear, we shadow them, and if the passage opens, we go in together as far as the fork inside. There I will draw the guards off, so Danpung, you find the energy channels of the confined ones and the flow of the poison, and A-yeong, you hand out the antidote and mark the way of retreat.”
Pung looked down at the hand that wore the golden ring.
“And if that power swells beyond control again?”
Hyeonheo pressed three acupoints above Pung’s wrist.
“Do not suppress the energy completely. Divide it and let it flow out this way. Delay the moment it bursts, then open distance from the poison jars and from the people.”
Once the brief plan was settled, the three took turns keeping watch through what was left of the night and rested their bodies.
Near daybreak the three closed their eyes for a short while. When day came they made a show of packing and left the inn, and after telling the villagers they were crossing the pass to the south, they went out past the entrance to Nohachon. If someone was watching, it had to look as though they had given up the investigation.
After walking about two hours along the main road, the three rounded a bend in the mountain and entered the forest. Taking trees and boulders for markers, Pung turned the way north, and before the sun rose to its height they reached the ridge that looked down on the manor.
Unlike the day before, warriors stood in pairs atop the manor wall, and the guards circling the corridors had increased as well. The branches on the western slope where Pung had hidden had all been cut away, and the place of concealment was gone. While a dark yellow poison haze wrapped thinly over everything inside the wall, several warriors carried poison jars toward the cellar, noses and mouths covered with cloth.
“The guard really has grown.”
At A-yeong’s hushed words, Hyeonheo’s eyes narrowed.
“They are not merely guarding the entrances, they are bringing in more poison. It seems they expect us to come for those people.”
Pung gathered energy into both eyes and searched inside the manor. The energy channels of those confined in the cellar were unclear, hidden by earth and wall, but the faint pulse seen the day before still remained. From the eastern annex, however, no demonic energy left by the man with the dark crimson saber could be felt.
“That man does not seem to be inside the manor.”
“Do not grow careless because of that. He may have hidden his presence.”
While the sun leaned toward the west, the three watched those going in and out of the manor. One cart loaded with medicinal herbs went in through the front gate, but no one came out, and around the northern outer wall the guard was unusually sparse. It looked like a gap, yet Hyeonheo gazed at that place all the longer.
“It has the smell of being left empty on purpose.”
“A trap?”
“Or it may be meant to keep a hidden doorway from catching the eye. We cannot know until we get closer.”
When darkness settled, lanterns were lit here and there throughout the manor. The three came down from the ridge and hid themselves in the scrub woods between the village and the manor, holding the antidote pills Hyeonheo handed out deep inside their mouths. Pung quieted the breath and examined the energy channels within the manor one by one.
The guards changed shifts more often than the day before, and around the cellar entrance three men with energy close to first rate were stationed. A head on clash might be won, but guarding the poison jars while rescuing the prisoners looked difficult. In the end the separate passage A-yeong had guessed at had to be found.
As the night deepened, the darkness north of the manor split ever so slightly.
Part of the slope covered in earth and vines opened inward, and two men dressed in black showed themselves. When Pung drew energy up into both eyes, the poison pouches hanging at their waists came clear. The men examined their surroundings closely, then scattered toward different houses in the village.
“So there was a hidden passage.”
Hyeonheo spoke in a voice lower than the wind.
Pung wanted to go in through that entrance at once, but there was no knowing what devices lay inside the passage. Moreover, if those who had come out were fetching new prisoners, there was a strong chance that on the way back they would reveal the placement of the watch and the traps as well.
A long while later, the shadows that had vanished toward the houses appeared again. Each carried a person on his back, and around the nose and mouth of the limp bodies clung a dark yellow poison haze visible only to Pung’s eyes.
When A-yeong started to rise, Hyeonheo lifted a hand to stop her. She clenched her teeth and lowered herself again, and Pung too held down a boiling heart. Rushing out now might save the two people in sight, but it could mean losing those confined deep in the cellar and the secret of the passage.
Watching the ones being dragged away, Pung repeated inwardly:
‘Endure just a little longer. This time I will bring every one of you out.’
The abductors moved toward the hidden entrance. Hyeonheo brought three fingers together and gave the signal for a change of plan. It meant that they would cross into the passage together before the opened door closed, and that at the fork inside, Hyeonheo would draw the guards away.
Even with the limp bodies on their backs, the men in black climbed the rough slope without hesitation. When the one in front pushed a hand under the vines, a low grinding of stone sounded and the door that had looked like an earthen wall opened inward. Through the gap, where a faint lamplight showed, the men went in one after another.
The moment the last man looked around, Hyeonheo raised a hand and halted Pung and A-yeong. His gaze swept slowly across the brush where the three lay flat. Holding the breath still, Pung pressed down even the energy of the golden ring, and at last the man disappeared inside.
Just before the secret door shut, Hyeonheo crossed the slope like the wind. A-yeong followed, and Pung pushed through the open gap as well. When the door locked into place behind them, the moonlight outside thinned to a narrow line and then vanished altogether.
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