The Mercenary: A Sequel to Hwarang: The Saga of the Sooks Book #2

Chapter 38: Repercussions

When Sook Myeong arrived at his room the next morning – he had insisted she spend the night sleeping in her own bed and even given her orders to get some good rest – she found his arm resting securely in a sling. He was beaming up at her.

She laughed. "You're really excited about today, aren't you?"

She wasn't. For some reason, she was dreading picking up her bow again. She'd even made one of the servants retrieve it from her room and carry it out to the range for her. Sook Myeong hadn't disturbed it since she'd set it down after killing the would-be assassin.

She hadn't told Jong Su. But after she'd helped him back to the palace that afternoon, she had returned to the forest with the soldiers to retrieve the man's body. She'd been suffering through an eternity of seconds waiting outside of the prince's bedchamber to see him after he'd been carried there by some guards. After Eun Sook had appeared, the doctor had sent a servant to report that the family would have to wait at least an hour to visit the patient. The procedure was taking longer than he'd anticipated.

Sook Myeong had nearly exploded with tension then.

Was something wrong? Was he going to die?

Just then, the king's general had appeared to report to him. And Jin Heung had instructed him to head for the forest to collect the body of the dead perpetrator. He had already sent a couple of soldiers to stay with the body, but he had wanted to lead the group that removed it. As her brother turned to go, Sook Myeong had stopped him with her voice.

"I'm going with you."

Frowning, he had turned back towards her. "You don't have to."

"I do. I need to face what I did."

He'd instantly furrowed his brow. "What you did?"

"Killing that man."

"You were defending me and the prince!"

She had nodded. "I know. But the man is still dead."

Her brother's eyes had tangled with hers. The weightiness of death – even a justified death – descended upon them both.

He had nodded. "Come along then. I want to be back before the prince awakens."

The poor man had fainted after walking back from the forest with her.

A few minutes later, Sook Myeong had stood gazing down at the dead man. A man whom she had felled with her own arrow. In death, he had appeared to be simply a boy.

Lee Bom Ho.

A man she had seen from time to time haunting the palace with his father, Minister Lee.

As she had stared down at the young man, she had been swamped by a sudden grief as she realized that she had nearly snuffed out the life of both Ah Ro and Seon Woo. Two of the best people she knew. The finality of death had haunted her in that moment. So had the horror of recognizing that she had allowed her mother to intimidate her into destroying a worthy life. Out of fear.

But it would have been a needless death. Ah Ro hadn't sought to destroy the king. She had, instead, protected him. Befriended him. Respected him.

Sook Myeong had shuddered as she stood over that dead body. And imagined the doctor lying there in the place of the dead boy. Her eyes forever closed to this world. Both Seon Woo and Jin Heung bent over her weeping. Horrified that Sook Myeong could so easily extinguish a life.

In the next frame that appeared in her mind's eye, a different dead body lay prone at her feet. The man she had loved. Seon Woo. His life removed in an instant by an arrow she had meant for his beloved. This time it was Sook Myeong that lay crumpled over his body, her grief pouring down his cheek as she pressed her lips against ones which were already turning blue.