Chapter 27  The Watery Embrace

He stood on the bow, a lone figure silhoutted against the dark, as the waves surged, and crashed against the ship bound for Tokyo, the distance between him and the woman that he loved narrowing with each swell, and each fall of the turbulent, stormy waves, which churned, and frothed, and roared, at one with the wind that howled, and moaned, and swirled around the lonely figure on the bow, as if the elements were conspiring to keep him away, to deter him from the call of his heart, and the path that he had chosen.

Wait for me.

I am coming.

He had tracked down the soldier from the Righteous Army that he had saved, and forced him to reveal where Ae Shin was.

"I want to know where she is in Japan. I need to know where she is, so that I can save her."

"She is in great danger."

"Every minute that passes puts her in greater danger."

"I saved you, and I will save her."

"She needs a person who is familiar with Japan to save her."

The man had finally divulged her whereabouts in Japan, and Dong Mae was on his way there, his legs a little shaky from his long voyage, but his heart firm, and resolute, in its determination to locate her and bring her to safety.

For he knew that she was in danger; the strange, foreboding dream that he had dreamt had been a premonition of imminent danger; in his dream, she had beckoned to him, and he had answered her call at once.

She had saved him once, and it was now his turn to save her, and pay back to her the debt that he owed her.

He hoped that he was not too late.

A woman came up to him. She was dressed in a kimono, and smiled brightly at him.

"Do you need a companion, handsome sir?" she said, coming close to him. "I could show you a place where you could have a good time, with wine, and charming company." She winked at him, and batted her eyelashes.

He brushed her aside, and walked on.

"Hee Sung said that I was to take good care of you," she called out to his departing back.

He stopped, and slowly turned.

"Hee Sung?" he stared at her.

"Yes, your friend, Kim Hee Sung," she smiled. 

"Hee Sung wants me to tell you this: Kudo Hina has informed the King of Joseon that your lady friend is in danger, and the King has sent a delegation to Japan. Someone will contact her, and she will join the delegation and return to Joseon," she said.

He stopped at the shop. The soldier had disclosed that it was a hideout for the Righteous Army, where she could lie low, until it was safe for her to leave; which, he thought drily, was never, because the shop was crawling with swordsmen, whom he recognized as warriors from the Musin Society, once his brothers in arms, and soon to be his enemies.

The warriors were battling a lone, slight figure in black at the top of the stairs, and hidden behind a wall; she was shooting at them with her gun, and he could see some of the swordsmen falling.

But she was woefully outnumbered, and some of the swordsmen had dodged her bullets, and were vaulting up the stairs, wielding their swords in their hands.

He took a step forward behind them, and stepped into the fray.

He swung his sword at them, and slashed at them .

The swordsmen fell.

He continued to slash at them, until every last one of them lay dead at his feet.

He stepped over their bodies, and walked up the stairs, wiping his sword on the bodies that lined the stairs.

At the top of the stairs, he saw her.

She was standing there, open in shock.

"You," she said.

He bowed to her.

"My lady."

"This is not a safe place anymore; we need to leave at once," he said.

The potter's apprentice came running in, and gasped at the pile of bodies dotting the front of the shop and the stairs, leading all the way up to the top of the stairs.

"We need to go now," Dong Mae said urgently. "I know a place where we can be safe."

Dong Mae opened the door of the house with the key that Hee Sung's lady friend had given him.

The door swung open to reveal a spacious and well-furnished house, with books lined up on the shelves which were everywhere, in every corner of the house.

"How did you contact Hina to tell her that you were in danger?" Dong Mae asked.

"I sent two telegrams, pretending to be a Japanese stranger: one to Hina, which read: a ball behind an 8-ball, and the other, to Hee Sung to meet at the same place; I had switched the telegrams, for each was meant for the other, and a ball behind an 8-ball means the presence of danger, to convey to them that I was in danger, and needed help," Ae Shin said.

"Everyone is helping you. Hina informed the King that you were in danger, and trapped in Tokyo. The King has sent a delegation to Tokyo, and when they arrive, someone will contact you, and you will join the delegation, and return to Joseon. Hee Sung provided this house, and the important message was conveyed to me by his lady friend, who met me upon my arrival in Tokyo. You will be safe here," Dong Mae said.

"Did you manage to save Minister Lee?" he asked.

"Yes, he is safe, and on the way to Shanghai, with a banknote that will fund the Righteous Army," she said.

The apprentice bowed to them.

"I will take my leave now, my lady," he said. "You will be safe here."

"Wait," said Ae Shin, "we will leave for Joseon together."

The apprentice widened his eyes in surprise.

"Oh, no, my lady," he said. "I am Japanese; my family live in the countryside, and I am returning home."

"Thank you for everything that you have done," Ae Shin said.

"Think nothing of it, my lady," he said.

Turning to Dong Mae, he said, "Take care of my lady."

"You have my word," said Dong Mae.

The apprentice left, leaving Ae Shin and Dong Mae alone.

"You are hurt," she said, looking at his side.

He looked down, and realized that he was bleeding from a cut.

She pushed aside his shirt to look at the wound, then took a roll of bandages from the shelf. She wiped off the blood, and poured antiseptic wash over the wound to clean it. She leaned over closely to pat the wound dry, and applied a salve from a bottle, smoothing it in gently, as he looked at her bent head, and felt her soothing fingers on his skin.

He drew in a sharp intake of breath.

"You always save me like this," he said.

She stilled for a moment, then continued to apply the salve.

"Your hair grew," he said. "Have you forgiven me for what I did?"

"There is nothing to forgive," she said. "I know why you did what you did."

She looked unseeingly into the distance, remembering.

"Sometimes, I feel that that was just a dream, the old me, and the true reality is now." Her voice trailed off.

"Do you miss it, the old world?" he asked.

"There were people that I loved, and I miss them, but I have no regrets," she said, looking at him.

She wound the bandages around his waist, and straightened.

"When will you return to Joseon?" she asked.

"I can never return," he said, giving a twisted little half-smile. "I am a traitor who has betrayed his own comrades."

"What will you do?" she asked.

"I will stay in Japan," he said. "I will be all right; do not worry about me."

She looked at him.

"Remember that I will come to pay my debt to you in three months. Remember that I will only pay my debt to you in person," she said, her eyes looking at him intently.

He looked at her, then looked away.

He could not bear it any longer.

"I will rest outside," he said, and strode out of the door, before she had a chance to speak.

The delegation from Joseon arrived in Tokyo the next day. Dong Mae watched from the balcony as the group of delegates walked past, dressed in colourful flowing hanboks.

He felt an immense sense of relief. Soon, she would be safe, and back in Joseon. Soon.

That night, a woman came to the house.

Ae Shin knew at once who she was.

"It is time, my lady," she said, offering a bag of clothes to her. "Change into these clothes, and then, I will dress your hair. We have to leave as soon as possible."

She came to where he was sitting, at the balcony, where he had sat, and kept watch, and protected her since the day they came.

He looked up at her footstep, and saw her framed against the doorway, in all of her splendour, dressed in a beautiful red and yellow hanbok, her hair held back in a braid, pretty hair pins adorning, and clipping back the sides of her hair.

"I leave now," she said. "They are waiting for me."

She took a step forward, as he rose, and walked toward her.

"Thank you for everything that you have done," she said. "Thank you for saving me. I could never thank you enough."

"You saved me first," he said.

"Goodbye," she said. "I pray that you will stay safe, and find your way back to Joseon."

They looked at each other; her eyes were b with tears.

"Goodbye," he said, his voice raw.

He stood at the balcony, and watched her walk away with the delegation. 

Just before she reached the bend, she stopped, turned, and looked back at him, and raised a hand in a tiny wave; but unlike that wave that had beckoned to him, that had given him the strength to get up from his hiding place, and go to her, a long, long time ago, this time, she was going further and further from him, and her wave was a final gesture of farewell.

Goodbye.

The word lingered in the emptiness of the house, and in the silence of the rooms, long after she had gone.

He stopped at the shoreline, where the waves lapped at his feet, and gazed at the majestic ocean that stretched before him, and beyond, further than the eye could see.

He closed his eyes, and heard it, a whisper upon the wind.

Goodbye.

It would not be long now.

He saw them when he turned.

The group of men dressed in black stared at him silently across the sands.

He picked up his sword where he had left it, embedded upon the sand, and rose to his feet.

They ran toward him, raising their swords high above their heads.

He fought them long and hard.

Dusk fell, and still, he fought on.

He slew the last man, and fell upon the rocks, beneath which thrashed the tempestuous waves of the mighty ocean.

Around him, a pile of bodies lay upon the sand.

In the gathering shadows, he could not make them out clearly at first.

It was the sound of sandals crunching upon the damp sands that made him realize, with a dawning resignation, that the battle was not over yet.

He saw the Chief striding toward him across the sands.

He came to a halt before Dong Mae, his men standing behind him.

The Chief looked at him, and there was a deep sadness in his eyes.

"You are arrogant, my son, to value someone else more than your own self."

Dong Mae said nothing.

Tiredly, he reached for his sword, and forced himself to stand upright, even though his knees were shaking, and he could hardly stand.

"You would willingly sacrifice your own self for her, but do you not realize, my son," said the Chief sadly, "that your own self never truly belonged to you?"

He stepped forward, drew his sword, and slashed Dong Mae, once, across his chest.

Dong Mae fell backward into the ocean.

He felt light, weightless.

He hit the water, back first.

He felt its icy arms wrap lovingly around him,  him into its watery embrace.

His hands stretched out, and his palms floated upward, as if lifted in prayer, as he sank.

The sword fell out of his limp hand, and drifted slowly downward; glittering, shimmering, a shaft of light illuminating the darkness of the fluid, constantly moving abyss.

He felt a strange peace descending upon him.

Images of Ae Shin and Hina flashed before his eyes.

He closed his eyes, and waited to die.