Chapter 5: The Hundred Drawers

Chief Councillor Heo received her in his private office, with the shutters open on a garden of clipped pines.

He did not ask her to sit.

"The King's night watch is going well," he said. "The Head Physician tells me you stopped a bleeding."

"His pulse was too thin, my lord."

"So you reported." He smiled thinly, like a man pleased by a clever dog.

"You are quick, Physician Gu. I like that. It means you will understand quickly."

He took a folded paper from his sleeve and laid it on the desk.

She read it where she stood.

It was a report to the throne in clean court script.

It said that His Majesty's illness had passed beyond cure.

It said he could no longer bear the weight of rule.

It asked for a regency under the King's cousin.

The cousin was nine years old, and the Councillor's wife's grandson.

At the bottom was a gap for a royal physician's name and seal.

"I would not ask you to sign it yet," said Heo. "The King may last another month."

"But the court will want your hand on it by the first day of winter."

"And if I find His Majesty improving?"

"Then you will be mistaken," said the Councillor. "Physicians often are."

She looked up.

His eyes were mild and grey and completely dead.

"A woman physician is a rare thing," he said. "It would be a pity if the experiment ended early."

"The Infirmary would say that women cannot bear the strain. I would be sorry to hear it."

"I understand, my lord."

"I knew you would."

She bowed, took the paper, and walked out through the garden of pines with her back straight and her hands cold as stones.

That night she threw it on the King's bedding.

"Read it."

Tae-heon read it by lamplight, sitting up in his white robe.

His face did not change, but she saw the paper crease in his fist.

"First day of winter," he said.

"Thirty days."

"And if you refuse, he has you dismissed and finds a man who won't."

"Yes."

"Seo-wan."

"Don't say you'll fix it," she said. "You are the King of Joseon, lying in bed with a rolled cloth under your arm."

"I don't need you to fix it. I need you to tell me why."

"Not yet."

"Then I need something else."

He looked up at her.

She stood at the foot of the bed with her fists clenched, shaking all over.

She knew it was fear and not anger.

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