We rode south for nine days without rest.
Two thousand men, one woman, and one silent assassin.
The snow followed us the whole way. It fell soft at first, then angry. Roads turned to rivers of mud. Horses slipped and broke legs. Men started coughing blood from the cold.
I didn't sleep.
Every night I sat by the fire with the black books from the secret library and studied the Empress Dowager's money trails. Every name, every date, every coin. I was building a noose out of paper.
Min-Jun never left my side. He killed three wolves with his bare hands one night when they got too close to my tent. He didn't even blink.
On the tenth day the attack came.
We were riding through a narrow mountain pass. Walls of rock on both sides, snow piled high.
Perfect place for an ambush.
It started with arrows.
Black arrows with red feathers. Silent until they hit flesh.
Ten men dropped before anyone screamed.
Min-Jun grabbed me off my horse and threw me behind a rock.
"Stay down," he growled.
Then he disappeared into the white.
Chaos everywhere.
Our soldiers formed a shield wall. Swords out. Someone was shouting my name like a war cry.
I peeked over the rock.
Fifty... no, sixty masked men in black pouring down the cliffs on ropes.
Not barbarians.
Palace assassins.
The Empress Dowager didn't even wait for me to reach the capital.
I felt cold, then burning hot.
I was done hiding.
I grabbed the sword from a dead soldier beside me and stood up.
"Lady Seo-Hwa is here!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "Come and get me if you dare!"
Some of our men cheered. Some looked terrified.
The assassins hesitated for one second.
That was enough.
Min-Jun dropped from the cliff above like a demon. Two heads rolled before anyone saw him move.
Then our soldiers charged.
It was bloody and fast and horrible.
I fought too.
I wasn't good, but I was angry.
I cut one man's arm. Stabbed another in the leg. Mostly I just tried not to die.
When it was over, the snow was red for fifty paces.
Twenty-three of our men dead.
All sixty assassins dead.
Min-Jun stood in the middle covered in blood that wasn't his.
He walked to me and knelt.
"My lady," he said, voice rough. "Forgive me for letting them get so close."
I was shaking so hard I almost fell.
I grabbed his shoulder to stay up.
"Get up," I said. "You saved us. Again."
He stood.
That night we didn't make camp.
We rode through the dark with torches.
I wrote a letter by torchlight, hands still bloody.
To the Empress Dowager.
I sealed it with red wax and the phoenix seal I stole from one of the dead assassins.
The messenger left before dawn.
The letter said only this:
I am coming.
Prepare your neck.