Chapter 23: The Second Child

Seo-jun's second labor began in the same room as the first, and it was worse in every way he could have imagined.

He had thought, watching Min-jun, that he understood.

He had understood nothing.

"Breathe," Min-jun said, kneeling behind him on the bed with both arms around his chest. "Breathe with me. In. Out."

"I am breathing!"

"You're swearing."

"That's different!"

The pain came again, deep and wide, and Seo-jun threw his head back against Min-jun's shoulder and shouted at the rafters.

The healer worked at the foot of the bed without a word.

Beside the window, in a cradle, their daughter slept with her fist against her mouth.

Yul had been sent to his grandmother's rooms, with orders to look after the horses.

"One more," the healer said. "One more, Highness. I see him."

A calm voice spoke somewhere near the lamp.

*Now, my son. Give it up.*

Seo-jun pushed.

The child came out in a rush, with a furious wail.

"A boy!"

The baby was laid on his chest, slippery and loud, with a thatch of dark hair.

On the baby's hip, a crescent flared up silver.

Seo-jun looked at it.

And the room went away.

He was standing in the snow.

The snow was white and deep, and up to his knees, and the wind took the breath from his mouth.

The carriage lay on its side at the bottom of the ravine with one wheel still turning.

A small red cloak lay in the drift beside it, with a torn hem.

*Yul*, he thought. *Yul, Yul.*

He knew what was in the cloak.

He knew what was under the snow.

He had been dying for a long time, he realized, with his cheek against the cold, and a woman's voice was speaking inside the wind.

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