Till The Ryu Tree Blossoms

*** (Fire)

Palace of Eternal Prosperity, Sansuri

THE PALACE WAS ON fire.

It had taken them ten minutes to run from the port to the palace, a time that had been longer than usual due to the gathering crowd. Villagers who had been asleep had thrown open their windows at the sound of the explosion, and now a dozen townspeople stood in the middle of the road, hemp slippers and all, murmuring and muttering as they stared at the burning speck blossoming in the distance.

"It's the palace!"

"The palace is on fire?"

"By Mingyu's name, I pray they're alright!"

"The king - what about the king?"

"What's going on?"

Through this crowd Ryu and Taehyung had had to force their way through, and it had been no mean feat. Though, Ryu reflected, it did turn relatively easy once Taehyung took the lead. The sight of a bloodied, pale-faced man with his disemboweled dog was enough to make anyone take two steps back in surprise.

The guards at the palace gates had their hands full keeping the curious people at bay. Taehyung pushed his way to the front and jerked his hand meaningfully at Ryu. Understanding, Ryu took out the royal pass she always kept tucked into her belt. It was a small tablet of wood, cut into a hexagonal shape with the edges smoothened out. At the back Ryu's name had been carved in it. And the front was inscribed with the King's name and stamped with the royal seal, signifying service under the King.

"Han Ryu, servant of the King. What's going on?"

The guard looked more perplexed than worried. "We have no idea. Only that a messenger from the King came and told us not to let anyone in. He refused to tell us anything else."

Ryu looked anxiously toward the direction of the fire. Here, at the palace entrance, there was no doubt that something had gone up in flames, and that whatever it was it was burning very relentlessly. Despite the chaos that had to be going on, there was no sight of people running about that she could see. No servants, no court ladies, no men. No sign of panic. No sign of any activity.

Too quiet. Everything was too quiet.

"Let us in," Ryu said.

The guard opened the gate. She slipped inside, then Taehyung.

"Sir, about your, uh, dead dog - "

Taehyung barely threw him a glance.

" - it can go right on in, no problem," the guard finished hastily.

They ran and Ryu asked, "Are you going to carry Key into battle like that?"

"You don't know we're going to have a battle."

She glanced sharply over. "Your dog's been disemboweled, something just broke the boundary rope behind the house, and we saw a demon over twenty feet tall. This is going to be a fight."

"I'm not leaving Key behind."

They took a left turning in a corridor, and that was when they saw the chaos.

It was the banquet hall that was on fire, and it was a fire that was spreading fast. Already it had torched two buildings on both sides of it, and even as Ryu watched, she saw a running man go down. She blinked, and resisted the urge to rub her eyes in disbelief. Was it her imagination, or did she actually see a tongue of flame leap out to catch the man?

Men and women laid scattered around, bodies bruised and battered. Dying groans and cries filled the air. Ryu ran toward a court lady crumpled on the floor, white knuckles clutching the corridor pillars, staining the cream-colored wood dull red.

"Are you alright? What - " She stopped, and hissed. Both the court lady's legs had been twisted in an unnatural angle, and the whiteness of bone peeked out from her ankles.

At the sound of someone's voice, the court lady looked up. Ryu cried and stumbled backward in horror.

The court lady's single eye was wild and wide as it rolled around beside its torn and ragged counterpart. She reached out a bloody hand.

"Help me . . . " She made a queer choking sound. "It - it took my right eye."

Bile rose up in Ryu's throat but she forced it down. The court lady dragged herself close and Ryu shrank backward.

"Help me . . ."

"Ryu!" Taehyung was calling. "I found Yoon-ki!"

"Don't leave me . . ."

Ryu looked at the destroyed eye socket, and the raw tendrils worming out of it.

"I - I'm sorry," she stuttered, and she simply fled.

Yoon-ki had his back pressed against a corridor pillar, his face screwed up in pain. Next to him Faye was pressing a cloth to his side, where he was bleeding out profusely.

Taehyung looked around, and Ryu could see the agitation in his eyes. At least now some color is returning to his cheeks. When she'd seen his face as he carried Key, she'd thought he would faint right there and then.

"Where's No-mu?"

Yoon-ki's voice was hoarse. "He's gone to help the survivors. Take them to a safe place."

Ryu thought back to the court lady and swallowed the bile that once again threatened to rise. "How many are dead?"

Faye looked up, and her face told Ryu all she needed to know. "More than those who survived."

"The King?"

"Safe. So is the Queen, but we're not sure of the rest."

"What happened?"

Faye shifted the bandage and Yoon-ki winced. "Demons."

Ryu's eyes narrowed. "Plural?"

The magistrate nodded. His robes were so bloody Ryu could no longer differentiate between blood and red thread.

"Two."

"It took five of us to deal with that polar-bear thing. And you're telling me there's two of them?"

Faye shook her head. "They're nothing like the polar bear. They're worse. These demons - I've never seen them before. They're . . . different."

The ball of dread in Ryu's stomach solidified and hardened. "How different?"

Faye opened her mouth to answer, but stopped as Yoon-ki hacked up blood. Taehyung tore a strip of cloth from his tunic and wiped Yoon-ki's chin. The blood came away sticky. Taehyung stared at it for a moment, then lifted it to his nose and sniffed.

"Your blood's poisoned."

Yoon-ki scowled. "I figured as much. Damn claws."

There was a clattering of footsteps and Ryu watched paramedics streamed into view, led by a huffing and puffing No-mu. Doctors began administering treatment, and able-bodied men gingerly lifted the wounded onto stretchers. She watched a nurse approach the broken-legged court lady, then back away hastily. There was a hasty conference with a doctor. The doctor eyed the victim, then shook his head.

Ryu looked away.

There was a loud cry. An eunuch was flapping the sleeves of his robes up and down, panic making his words tumbled over themselves.

"The princes! The princes are still in there!"

A nurse came running over and knelt down next to Yoon-ki. Faye began relaying information on the wound in curt, low tones. The magistrate gestured with his chin at the banquet hall, and even that little action seemed to sap out all of the strength from him.

"Go. There are more people in there. Save them."

Taehyung nodded. Faye finished talking and the nurse took over.

"You too, Faye."

Faye hesitated. Yoon-ki cracked a pale smile - then cringed as the nurse began dabbing ointment.

"I'll be fine. Your duty lies with the King first and foremost."

The swordswoman dropped her hand to her side and nodded. As Ryu got up to stand with them, she felt a strong grip clutching her ankle. She looked down.

Yoon-ki was staring up at her. Despite his grave injury and the pale whiteness of his lips, his eyes still carried an intensity that rivaled the heat of the fire around them.

"You," he breathed, "stay away from the second prince."

And then the nurse moved and he was blocked from sight. Ryu could only stare.

"Ryu! What are you doing? Get over here!"

"I - coming!"

Faye took the lead, and as one they stepped into the banquet hall. Ryu felt like she was being baked in a large oven, the heat absorbing every last moisture on her lips. The conflagration had climbed all over the walls, and above their heads the beams creaked and groaned in a most frightening way.

"The roof's going to cave anytime soon," Taehyung said, terse. "We need to work fast."

They helped those who could stand and carried those who couldn't. The fire's crackling swirled with the pained groaning of those injured, and the sound churned round and round in Ryu's ears. Thick smoke and bright flares made it hard to differentiate between dead bodies and unconscious ones, and more than once Ryu had rolled someone around only to see a charred, distorted face, lips parted in a soundless scream.

From the other side of the hall Faye waved. Both Ryu and Taehyung ran over. Lying unconscious against the wall with dried blood on his temples was a man dressed in red and blue silk.

"The fourth Prince! Is he alright?"

"I think he knocked his head while running. Let's get him outside."

Faye placed an arm under the prince's left shoulder while Taehyung took his right. When Ryu moved to help, Faye shook her head.

"No. Me and Taehyung got this. You need to find the other princes - they were giving a sword dance when the demons attacked." Faye looked to the far end of the banquet hall, where there was a raised dais. "That's where they were. The demons cut right through the middle" - Ryu noticed the gaping hole five feet away in the wall - "so they were trapped. Everyone could flee, but not them."

"How many princes are there?"

Faye shot Ryu a look. "And this is what you get for not paying attention in No-mu's classes. There's seven. All seven are still in here."

Ryu moved three more people out of the hall before she found the youngest prince. She didn't know it was him, not till she helped him up and saw the imperial flower threaded in daffodil yellow on his red robes. She did a double take. The youngest prince could not have been more than twelve certainly, and when Ryu helped him up his eyes lolled around his sockets. Alarmed, she lifted him easily into her arms and ran out of the hall.

"Someone! A doctor! I've got the youngest prince!"

The royal physician ran close, arms flailing, and when Ryu had passed the child over she dove back inside.

Faye and Taehyung found the fifth, and when they carried him out the eunuch told them the third prince had never attended the banquet since he was unwell, and hence was now currently safe in his chambers.

"So there's only the Crown Prince, the second prince, and the sixth left to find." The eunuch gripped Taehyung's hands. "You have to find them. You have to make sure they're safe."

"We will," Faye said, patting the elder man's fingers before prising them away gently.

Ryu had been looking under tables and overturned chairs, wondering where the rest of the princes were. There didn't seem to be anyone else, and even if they were, she couldn't see how they were surviving this heat. Already her own eyes were rimmed red and welling up with tears; soot had snaked into her mouth and under her tongue, making her wheeze. Her nose stung, her throat burned, and her fingers were forming blisters.

There was a sudden, sharp crack and a beam came crashing down from above. At the same time a section in the wall completely gave way and fell apart.

This place is going to pieces.

Ryu shaded her eyes and watched the burning hall helplessly. Where can they be -

There. A movement. Near a lacquered table, now probably scorched beyond recognition. It was about eight feet away from the raised dais, where the princes had last been seen. Going there meant going deeper into the fire.

Taehyung came running in. "Three more princes, Ryu!"

"I think I saw someone over there!" Ryu yelled. "But this place is going to hell!"

"Let's get them out before it does then!"

They half ran, half jumped over the blazing ruins and wreckage on the floor, closing in on the raised dais. As they neared Faye shouted,

"I see him! It's the sixth prince!"

Ryu could see him now too. As she ran over, a low groan cut through the sound of the fire. She looked to the direction of the voice.

Second prince Kang Jimin was lying at the edge of the dais, barely conscious. Their eyes met for a long second.

Ryu took a step forward, yet at the same time the rest of her body seemed to resist. For a strained moment she watched the prince attempt to crawl forward, and failed. She watched his chest heaved painfully as he gasped. Then she turned around and ran toward Faye.

Stepping in front of Taehyung she kept her eyes on the sixth prince and busied herself with placing an arm around his shoulder. At least this prince still looked conscious enough to take care of himself. When Ryu helped him up, he waved her away and gestured that he could walk.

"The second prince is over there," Ryu told Taehyung, keeping her voice neutral. "You go get him. I'll take care of this one."

Taehyung ran off. The sixth prince limped and looked dazed, but other than that he seemed fine. Taehyung grabbed hold of the second prince and together they began to make their way out of the hall. It was slow progress, as the sixth prince looked ready to faint any second, and Ryu didn't dare pushed him. Anxiety flashed as she realized they hadn't even found the Crown Prince yet. If they moved these two princes out of the hall and came back in, would they still have time?

There was a crash as another beam fell.

"We need to find the Crown Prince!" Ryu yelled over the fire. "We don't have enough time!"

Behind, she heard painful breathing and then a raspy croak. The second prince was speaking.

"Hoseok . . . Hoseok was last near - the ceramic sculpture - "

There's a ceramic sculpture? They moved a little farther on and then Ryu saw it, a ceramic bust of some famous figure - a past king perhaps, or an aristocrat - standing near the wall. Slumped down next to it was a person, and as the fire threw light on him Ryu saw the imperial motif threaded on his robes. She also saw the headband of gold around his forehead, and the lace lattice pinned around his topknot. All symbols of the King's chosen son, the heir to the throne.

"There!" She made to run toward him, but just as quickly Faye grabbed her hand.

Ryu turned around, impatient. "What?"

"Don't - " Faye began.

" - move," Taehyung finished.

Ryu blinked. For a second she could hear nothing but the sound of fire eating through wood. Then it came, a series of very familiar sounds. Like chattering. Like clattering. Like a thousand spindly legs moving.

Clack clack clack.

The five of them went very still. Across the wall, the glow of the fire painted shadows of splintered chairs and toppled tables. Black outlines of broken objects. Immovable silhouettes of non-living things.

Ryu watched one of those shadows elongated upward, higher and higher, before sinking down into a frame supported by bony legs. She tried to count them but failed, there could have been six or a dozen legs for all she knew, and then the shadow split into two and began separating from the other, both shadows going to opposite sides as they traversed the length of the hall.

Out of the corner of her eyes, Ryu saw a black mass flickered.

"Don't move," Faye whispered.

Ryu eyed the Crown Prince, defenseless against the wall. She watched the shadows neared.

Carefully, she took a step forward. Once unnoticeable, now the scuffle of her shoes seemed very loud.

"What are you doing?" Faye hissed. "Get back here!"

Ryu focused on the prince. All she needed to do was drag him away from the wall, the wall where the shadows seemed to be closing in on. Then after that, all they needed to do was walk out. That was it. That was how easy it was going to be.

But first, the prince.

Ignoring Faye's vehement protests, she stepped even closer. The chittering increased in frequency and she froze. Scuttling echoed around the hall floor. Trembling slightly, Ryu turned her head and looked around as much as she dared. Where were those goddamn things? The hall was big, sure, but those things were freakishly tall. By all reasoning they should be visible to the naked eye from a mile away.

But no, all Ryu could see was burning furniture and the smashed remains of a royal dinner.

Quickly, she tip-toed over to the prince and hauled his arm over her shoulders. He groaned, and she clamped a hasty hand over his lips. She stopped. She listened. Nothing. The Crown Prince's eyes fluttered open and reflected the unsteady glow of the fire, dazed as they were as they looked up at Ryu. Just as quickly those same eyes closed, and Ryu clumsily helped him up.

Faye made eye contact and waved madly for her to get over. Nodding, Ryu began to half-drag, half-support the Crown Prince as they moved that agonizingly long seven feet that separated Ryu and Faye. The Crown Prince had some sort of a bangle around his wrist, and with every step they took it jingled.

Jingle jingle shush. They took another step. Jingle jingle shush. Ryu felt weight slipping off her shoulders and adjusted the prince's arm.

Jingle jingle shush. She stopped, and slid the bangle off the Crown Prince's wrist.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, though she wasn't sure he could hear her, "this thing is really noisy and the last thing I need is to grab their attention. I'll return it to you, no worries."

She shoved the bangle into the pockets of her cotton pants. The jingling went silent.

When she was about three feet away from Faye, the prince dropped heavily to the side, throwing Ryu off-balance. She let out a mental curse. Carefully, she went down into a half-squat and pulled his arm even closer, firmer this time, and grabbed hold of his waist with her other hand. Somewhere behind more beams gave in to the fire and came toppling down.

The more time they were in here, the less chances they had of getting out.

Looking up at Faye, Ryu opened her mouth to suggest that they tried going out through the hole in the wall, which was closer, compared to the hall's main doors. But even as she did so an eerie feeling began to tingle down her spine, beginning from the nape of the neck and traveling quickly down to her toes. Ryu watched the hairs along her forearm stand up, and saw all the color drained from Faye's face.

A large shadow fell over her own, as a long, black pincer slithered into sight.