This Time, I Stood Up in the Selection Hall novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Inner Gate Cell

Soyul keeps the forger alive by asking for the guard captain's cell, moves into the Detached Palace with her rivals, and finds a box of plum tea at her door with Lady Hwang's card.

"Everyone knows the captain of the Inner Gate," Soyul said.

"Everyone doesn't."

"My father talks about you."

"Your father has never met me."

"Then he talks about your scar."

Captain Kang looked at her for a long moment.

The corner of his mouth moved, just slightly.

"You lie very badly, Lady Baek."

"I've had very little practice."

"That," he said, "I believe."

He straightened and carried the roll back to the dais, and Soyul felt relief after two years.

The Queen Dowager's court lady struck a small bronze bell.

The hall went quiet again.

The Queen Dowager spoke from behind her screen.

"His Majesty will choose his queen from these three. On the first day of the tenth month. Fifteen days."

"Until then the finalists live in the Detached Palace."

The girl on Soyul's left, the youngest, from the south, let out a nervous giggle and clapped a hand over her mouth.

The girl on her right didn't move at all.

Hwang Yeonseo.

Tall and pale in her yellow and crimson, a purple ribbon in her braid, her long neck bent.

In Soyul's first life, Yeonseo became queen.

Soyul had bowed to her on the new year for two winters, from the lowest step, in her faded consort's robe.

Yeonseo never once looked at her.

She wasn't looking at her now.

Councillor Jo stepped forward again with his fan folded.

"The scribe should go to the State Tribunal prison, Your Highness. I'll question him myself."

The scribe sagged between his guards.

In Soyul's first life he hanged himself in that prison on the third night.

Everyone said it was shame.

She stood up a second time.

There was a gasp from the mothers along the wall.

"Your Highness," Soyul said, "the scribe forged a letter against the Minister of War. The Tribunal is the Chief State Councillor's own court."

"What of it?" Councillor Jo said softly.

"If anything happens to him there, my lord, people will talk. I'd hate for them to talk about you."

Somebody coughed hard into a sleeve.

"I ask that he be kept in the Inner Gate cell," Soyul said. "Under the palace guard."

Behind the screen the Queen Dowager was silent a long time.

"The girl has a mouth," she said at last.

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Captain Kang. The scribe is yours. And so is the gate of the Detached Palace."

He bowed.

Councillor Jo tapped his fan once against his palm and said nothing at all.

They let the families out first.

Soyul's father was waiting for her in the courtyard outside the hall, under the gingko tree, his grey topknot crooked.

He grabbed her in both arms and lifted her off the stones.

"Father, they're watching."

"Let them watch," he said into her hair, loud enough for half the court. "My girl stood up in the Hall of Spring Light!"

His voice cracked on it.

Soyul held on to him.

In her first life he had been dead for two years before she died.

His coat smelled of horses and ink, the same as always.

"Listen to me," she whispered. "The grain tallies under your study floor."

He went very still.

"How do you know about those?"

"I've known since I was twelve. Take them out tonight. Carry them on your body. Don't leave them in the house."

"Soyul."

"Promise me."

He looked at her face.

Whatever he saw there, he stopped arguing.

"I promise."

A soft voice spoke behind them.

"Minister Baek."

Councillor Jo stood on the steps above them with his hands folded in his red sleeves.

"Your daughter has a clever eye," he said. "Pray she keeps it."

Then he went down the steps past them, and his men followed him.

Her father's hand closed into a fist.

"Don't," Soyul said.

"He threatened you."

"I know. That's how I know he's afraid."

The Detached Palace stood by the north wall, three courtyards around a lotus pond gone brown with autumn.

Dalrae was already in Soyul's room, unpacking the trunk with furious speed.

She had been Soyul's maid since they were six and eight, and she had never once let her finish a sentence.

"You stood up," Dalrae said. "In front of the Queen Dowager. You stood up and talked."

"I did."

"Your face was white as a radish. I was sure you'd faint."

"I didn't."

"I nearly did." She shoved a rice cake at Soyul. "Eat. You haven't eaten since dawn."

Soyul ate the rice cake.

When she went out to the pond to breathe, Hwang Yeonseo was standing on the little bridge.

Yeonseo had changed into pale grey silk.

She looked at Soyul, really looked, for the first time in either of her lives.

"You stood up," Yeonseo said.

"So I'm told."

"I didn't think you would."

Something cold went down Soyul's back.

"Why not?"

"You don't seem the type," Yeonseo said, and walked away across the bridge.

That night Soyul couldn't sleep.

Dalrae snored on her mat by the door.

Close to midnight there was a soft knock.

Dalrae sat up, cursed, and opened it.

Nobody was there.

On the step sat a black lacquer box tied with green cord.

Inside were twelve paper packets of plum tea.

On top lay a card in a beautiful flowing hand.

For the brave one. Hwang Yeonseo.

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