Young-hee and the Pullocho (29 page)

“Yes, well,” said Gumiho uncomfortably. “That is kind. But you must be going. Please give Namgoong Mirinae kindest regards from all of the animal spirits.”

“Goodbye sisters,” said Tiger. “I am happy to know our relations are much improved. Thank you.”

Samjogo turned as if to speak, but decided against it and hurried after his friends. The stone servants escorted them quickly down a deep maze of corridors. Doors slid open and shut,
madang
courtyards appeared and were left behind. They rushed through an amazing but cold and cavernous hall.

Eventually there were no courtyards or paper-covered windows let in translucent daylight. Up some stairs and down many more, the servants broke the darkness with metal-framed lanterns. Finally, at the end of a long corridor, was a heavy wooden door with a thick iron bitjang crossbar that took three servants and many heavy grunts to slide open. Then another set of wooden doors with fish-shaped doontae.

The stone servant stopped at the top of a staircase pointing into the black. “You, go,” and repeated, “Here, go.”

“Uh, hello?” Young-hee said. “Are you the guardians of this door?”

“Hello dearie,” said the right fish, springing to life. “The bats at the front door told us to expect you, and that you needed a quiet getaway.”

“Yes, something like that. You talk with the bats?”

“Sure, guardians of in-between places often keep in touch. We're never really in any one place, so in a way we're everywhere. Or every nowhere. Or something like that. I was never terribly clear.”

“That's all very nice,” said Young-hee, trying to be patient. “But can you tell if it's safe on the other side?”

“Just a moment,” said the other fish. Its eyes glowed like the bat's had. “All clear. No one around at all.”

“Good. Then could you open up?”

“But of course …” And with a moan, the bitjang slid away and the heavy door swung open. The flood of bright sunlight made Young-hee blink hard as her eyes adjusted and she saw a flowing stream and green rolling fields unfurl in all directions. The beauty contrasted with Boonae's warning:
There's a Storm Lord coming after you.

Young-hee thanked the fish for being such good guardians. They seemed to enjoy the flattery, or maybe they were just lonely, since a secret entrance might not get much use. As she ducked under the exposed roots of a huge willow tree that hid the door, there in the distance, Young-hee saw the profile a steep cliff topped with a building.

“Doontae?” she asked.

“Yes, dearie?”

“Do you know the home of the astronomer Namgoong Mirinae?”

“Of course. That's it on the cliff. A fantastic place for a fantastic woman, I'm told. She is one of the most learned people in our land, with all sorts of amazing gadgets and devices.”

“Thanks so much,” Young-hee said happily. She felt closer than ever to the pullocho—and to getting Bum back. Then she noticed the path was back again, leading her ever forward. “That cliff is our destination. Let's go before anyone finds us again.”

She stepped onto the path, as Samjogo and Tiger followed. It was a beautiful day.

✴ ✴ ✴

In a lookout atop the hanok walls, the three sisters surveyed the valley below. Gumiho watched Young-hee, Samjogo and Tiger; Sanyeo watched Gumiho. Gumiho looked pleased, which displeased Sanyeo.

“What are you scheming, sister?” asked Sanyeo.

“Whatever do you mean, sister?” answered Gumiho.

“In our hundreds of years together, I have seen you eat humans' hearts, drink their blood, but never once did you help them. And now you have helped this human girl three times in one day—you sheltered her in our home, advised her, and ran off the Ghost Queen. I hope you are not planning to use this girl in the coming war. We are pledged to help no side.”

“Do not worry sister,” said Gumiho, suppressing a grin, “I am on no one's side.”

Act III

Young-hee wheezed as she pushed up the steep slope as fast as she could, but cold rain and wind froze her to the bone. Thunder boomed and echoed like colossal drums. Looking equal parts misery and exhaustion, Samjogo and Tiger sped on, so Young-hee refused to slow either. They had escaped the ghosts outside of the animal spirits' hanok; but, now, something new was chasing them, something at least as terrible as the undead ghouls: the Lord of Storms himself.

“I don't think he has found us yet,” said Samjogo, “or he would be here already.”

“Why isn't that very comforting?” asked Young-hee, shivering.

“For now he's just trying to slow us, maybe blow us into the open.”

At first, Tiger's thick warm fur protected him from the rains, but eventually the constant downpour soaked him through, too, and his tail and ears fell with his spirits.

“So, what is Nwaegongdo the Storm Lord like?” Young-hee asked.

“Terrible,” said Tiger. “Very scary.
Ya-oong
.” A flash of lightning in the sky, much closer than before, and then a loud crackle, accented Tiger's point.

“Yes, terrible,” said Samjogo. “Nwaegongdo is a younger demon, who became Storm Lord after defeating the previous spirit of the sky. He's fierce, with a demon's face, bat wings, a serrated blade, and hammers that he carries with his feet.”

“His feet? Does he have monkey toes or something?”

“No, … well, I don't know. That's not the point. The point is…”

“He's terrible,” said Young-hee glumly.

“Yeah.”

Another cold wind froze their bones and deadened their fingers. “Ow!” shouted Young-hee, rubbing her forehead in pain as a hard, white ball bounced to the ground. “Hail? Really, hail?
Jigyeowo
!”

Soon thousands of acorn-sized balls of ice pummeled down. The trees lessened the barrage, but hiding under them only slowed them more. Her bag held protectively over her head, Young-hee wasn't sure which was worse, hill or hail. Samjogo shielded his head with his hyeopdo, but it didn't help much. Another flash, with a huge, frizzy crack, followed almost instantly. “It's closer,” Young-hee said.

“He's trying hard to find us,” said Samjogo, scanning the clouds.

“
After many flashes, the thunderbolt will fall
,” said Tiger.

“Indeed,” agreed Samjogo. “We should keep going.” So they set out again on the steep path as it wove through folds of rock, their eyes on the distant cliff-top building.

After what seemed forever, they crested the rocky slope. Their destination was still far, but Young-hee was relieved that the way looked fairly flat. Soon, the burning in her legs cooled and she moved quickly again, determined not to get stuck in the countryside at night.

But then—
boom
! A fat palm tree beside the path exploded in a bright yellow flash and a deafening roar. The explosion knocked them to the muddy ground.

“Lightning,” explained Samjogo, his voice a muddled smear in Young-hee's ringing ears. “Are you okay?”

Young-hee nodded and struggled to stand. She saw Tiger furiously licking his fur, which was covered in tiny pieces of burnt wood and splinters. She realized she was, too.

“We need to keep moving,” urged Samjogo.

They moved almost at a jog, listening to the hypnotic rain. No one talked. Young-hee felt the ringing in her ears slowly fade. Every so often she extracted another splinter from her skin without breaking her stride. Samjogo kept his eyes on the sky.

Young-hee noticed it become colder, then darker. She was fearfully contemplating a night spent in the drenched; freezing woods, when suddenly they stumbled on a large stone wall. The astronomer's home.

Up close it was a lot larger than it had seemed from the animal sisters' home below. With huge walls of precisely fitting stones the size of small cars, it looked more like a European castle than anything she had seen before in Strange Land. Its huge wooden gate had no moongeori
,
and as Young-hee was wondering to get in, a slot slid opened, and a pair of eyes peered out.

“Is that the bear daughter and her friends?” It was the voice of an older woman, but sharp and potent. A light suddenly cut through the evening murk, illuminating the three of them.

“I'm the bear daughter, the human. My name is Young-hee. May we come in?”

“Fascinating,” said the woman, sliding the slot shut.

The rain redoubled, and wind howled, or Young-hee hoped it was wind, not a ghost or some other foul creature.

With a series of clangs and thumps, a person-sized door in the huge gate opened. Inside looked warm and dry. “Come in, come in, before you catch your deaths,” said the woman. None of them needed to be asked twice.

The hallway beyond the gate was huge—as wide as a Seoul road. Two lanterns lit the entrance surprisingly well, with a glow so steady it didn't resemble flame at all. The giant hallway stretched as far as Young-hee could see, slowly sloping up into darkness.
At least it's shelter from the freezing rain
, thought Young-hee shivering.

“So,” said the woman, raising a small lantern, “a human, a tiger, and a … whatever you are, traveling some of this realm's more remote fringes. All the lands under Heaven going crazy, but the stars tell me to expect you. Fascinating.”

Young-hee assumed this was Namgoong Mirinae, but assuming often went awry in Strange Land. She wore a long, flowing
dopo
—a scholar's robe—with a white collar and a fine yellow belt. Her hair was up in a complicated braid, with streaks of white as thick as scallions. Her face was lively with the kind of scowls gained by a lifetime of dealing with people who didn't understand.

“Thank you for letting us in,” said Young-hee. “It's been pouring all day.”

“Yes, hailing, too. Most unusual,” she said, looking them over. “I'm sure you'll tell me all about it. But, first, you should get dried off and warmed up.”

Rather than take the wide hallway, the woman walked to a wooden platform and a complicated beamed structure nestled in an alcove in the stone. “Watch your step,” she said, mounting the platform.

Once everyone followed, the woman grabbed a lever and gave it a tug. With a jerk, the platform rose like an elevator. Thick hemp ropes pulled it up the wall, although there was no sign of electricity or servants. “This was a war fortress, before I moved in,” she said matter-of-factly. “I made a few modifications.”

After the platform clanked to a stop to the top of the wall, the woman led them through a short corridor to an immense room, as big as a banquet hall, that served as living quarters and workshop. Dominating the space was a gigantic series of thick iron circles and gears that took up nearly half the hall, swooping and arcing high overhead. If it was some kind of machine, Young-hee had no idea what its function might be.

Only after coming to terms with the mysterious machine was Young-hee able to take in the rest of the hall. Clothes and all manner of personal things lay in a tight haphazard space by the entrance, while the rest of the hall was crammed with an endless array of odd gadgets and devices on wooden benches and work spaces. There were trinkets small enough to hold and large metal contraptions with complicated cogs and interlocking wheels. Stairs led into the gloomy rafters above the iron circles where stone walls gave way to the wooden roof, with its own platform full of large metal gadgets.
It looks like a telescope,
Young-hee thought. And everywhere were tables full of rulers, calipers, and glass beakers, along with scrolls and papers covered in mysterious writings and numbers.

“I couldn't prepare properly, what with all the rain and clouds,” said the woman, rooting through a chest. “But the worst seems to be over. If it clears up and I can see some stars, I might be able to make a few predictions.” Finding a stack of towels, she threw them to her guests. Samjogo and Young-hee began drying themselves. Tiger shook vigorously, then began licking his fur.

“So, are you Namgoong Mirinae, the astronomer?” asked Young-hee.