Despite the early hour, the king was already dressed. The Chief Eunuch who met Yi Hyun at the entrance to the royal chambers had dark circles beneath his eyes and a gaunt face. Undoubtedly, the news had already reached here.

  The wide doors slid apart with a barely audible rustle.

  “Your Majesty,” Yi Hyun greeted his father and swallowed the lump that had risen in his throat. “My condolences.”

  “You have already heard?” The king stepped closer, then clasped his hands behind his back and began pacing the room nervously. “Good. A letter to Qing must be drafted. You know the regent better. See to it. Show the text to me first.”

  Yi Hyun clenched his jaw.

  Indeed, they would have to justify themselves before Great Qing and once again convince Prince Rui that no mockery had been intended. Instead of mourning, they faced high politics and yet another attempt to avoid war.

  “Of course,” Yi Hyun replied. “As soon as the medical report and the results of the investigation are ready, I will inform the regent.”

  “Investigation?” The king laughed. “The stubborn fool refused to leave and by morning froze to death. There is nothing to investigate. You may write that I am grief-stricken now that the kingdom is once again without an heir. I hope that this time they will have the sense to send the edict to you!”

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” Yi Hyun bowed.

  For the first time since his return, his father frightened him.

  ***

  The news of his elder brother’s death reached Yi Hwan during a break between studies. The sparse lines of the letter delivered by courier reported nothing substantial.

  The Crown Prince had returned to the palace the previous day and died there suddenly.

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  The uneasy-looking courier could explain nothing. The teacher also expressed surprise when Yi Hwan showed him the message. He expressed surprise, shook his head, clicked his tongue, and suggested changing into mourning attire at once.

  Though he was one of his closest relatives, Yi Hwan scarcely knew his elder brother. All his life he had been accustomed to thinking of himself as a poor orphan. The sudden revelation of his origin, a king for a father and two elder brothers, had fallen upon Yi Hwan like snow from a clear sky.

  Even this new name, Hwan, which they considered his true one, felt unfamiliar to him.

  The eldest brother, Yi Yun, with whom he shared the same mother, intimidated Yi Hwan. It was evident that he was a dangerous and proud man. On the night they first met in a forest tavern, Yi Yun had slain so many bandits alone that Yi Hwan sometimes felt fear even thinking of it.

  His second brother, Yi Hyun, was far gentler and more agreeable. Of course, he had been raised as a prince from the beginning. He had long mastered all those rules of etiquette, complex characters, and other teachings with which Mentor Jang had been stuffing Yi Hwan’s head in recent months.

  To be honest, Yi Hwan would have preferred to clean the stables rather than once more repeat the sayings of ancient sages.

  Most of those sages said quite normal and understandable things — that one must respect parents, treat people with kindness, cherish the country. Yi Hwan did not understand why it had to be memorized in Chinese.

  Was it not more important to understand it and apply it in life?

  Once he had seen a hungry man by the monastery gate and had brought him a small sack of rice from the kitchen. Mentor Jang afterward conducted a formal interrogation, asking why he had done so and in accordance with which precept.

  But Yi Hwan simply remembered how one’s stomach cramped after two days without food, and how frightening it was not to know when he would eat next.

  That little sack should have lasted the poor man five days. It was little, but it was more than nothing.

  Later, however, the teacher forced him to think about measures that would help the poor man have rice on his table every day. That proved more interesting, and Yi Hwan eagerly began listing ways to find work or even create more jobs for people like him. For example, palace water carriers were paid daily wages, and that helped many survive…

  But his elder brother had not survived.

  Why? How?

  Even if they had not been close, Yi Hwan now knew that Yi Yun had protected him and watched over him since childhood.

  Now he better understood by what miracle he had not drowned in the river and had awakened upon the shore. Or who had shot the tiger on the neighboring mountain and left it by the path without even taking the hide. Or why he so often found coins in the dust while walking along the road that led into the city.

  Even far removed from court intrigues, Yi Hwan doubted that his elder brother had died a natural death. Therefore, the least he could now do for him was to uncover what had happened and punish those responsible.