Namgi turns slowly to meet my gaze, raising his hands in a placating gesture. “Please don’t be upset, Mina. As I said, the doors to the palace are barred. No one has ever gotten inside. It’s enchanted. Maybe if you wait, Shin will take you himself. If anyone can breach the palace walls, it’ll be him.”
“I’ll wait.”
Namgi sighs in relief. “You won’t regret your decision. There’s so much for you to see in the city other than the Sea God’s palace.” He ducks beneath an archway into an alley lined with cramped market stalls, spirits scrambling over one another to haggle prices on a variety of items—slippers, celadon bottles of ginseng, and ink and scrolls. He stops to ogle a horse pin with silver eyes, saying with a chuckle, “Looks like Kirin.”
I smile pleasantly.
I need to lose him, but how? I’m not fool enough to believe I can escape through the crowd. He’d find me within moments. He knows the area better, and the city’s inhabitants are more likely to help him than a stranger. One stall sells umbrellas in silk, paper, and cloth. Another shop consists entirely of a wall of masks. There are masks painted like foxes and birds of prey. Some have slits for eyes, others holes for mouths. There are white bridal masks with red dots painted on their cheeks, grandfathers with feather eyebrows and grooves for wrinkles, and a grandmother with smiling eyes.
I’m staring at the last, when it winks at me.
Mask holds a finger to her lips, then moves her finger away, pointing. Dai darts through the throng toward us.
“Mina.” Namgi appears beside me. “What are you doing?”
I quickly pick up the nearest mask—depicting a magpie, ironically—and place it over my face. “What do you think?”
Through the eyeholes, I watch Namgi grimace. “It’s hideous.”
I glance sideways. Dai’s almost upon us. “I want it. Will you buy it for me?”
He sighs. “If you insist.” He pulls from his pocket a long string of coins, turning to the shopkeeper. “How much?”
Dai arrives, sweeping in between us. In the blink of an eye, he grabs Namgi’s money rope and the mask from my hand, placing it over his own face. Then he’s gone, disappearing into the crowded market.
“The little thief!” Namgi runs off in pursuit.
Mask appears beside me. She grabs my hand and hauls me through a gap between stalls.
I stumble to face her, looking around to see she’s brought me into a narrow alley.
“You came right on time,” I say, breathless. “I was wondering how I’d lose Namgi.”
She nods, her grandmother mask smiling its rosy-cheeked smile. “I know the way to the Sea God’s palace. Let me show you.”
“What about Dai?” I look back to the busy street. “Namgi will be furious when he realizes he’s been tricked.”
“Who says he’ll be caught?” Mask says. “Put your faith in Dai, Mina. He might not be very bright, but he’s fast!”
Mask turns, leading me down the alley. On her back, Miki is fast asleep, her little fists tucked against her cheek. Mask hunches down and places her hands more firmly beneath Miki’s bottom, adjusting her hold so that the little girl is secure. She then hurries from street to alley, across bridges and gardens. Pedestrians jump out of her path to make way for a “grandmother” with a baby.
Not for the first time I wonder what she must look like beneath her grandmother mask. Walking with her back to me, I can see the hemp strings of the mask woven through the dark strands of her hair. If someone were to look out of their window down into the alley, they might mistake us for sisters.
Soon we reach the large boulevard that leads to the Sea God’s palace. We hurry forward, climbing up the steps.
“The gate is open!” I shout. Namgi had said it would be closed, but there’s a crack between the great doors, just big enough for a person to slip through.
I’m almost at the door when I realize Mask and Miki are no longer with me. I look back to see Mask at the top of the stairs. Miki, now awake, peers owlishly from over the older girl’s shoulder.
“Go on,” Mask says. “You’re almost there.”
I step back from the doorway.
“Mina?” She tilts her head.
I rush toward her and grab her in a fierce embrace. “I don’t know why you’re helping me,” I say, “but I’m thankful for it.” Miki coos, and I widen my arms, snuggling into her downy hair.
Perhaps I should be wary of someone who hides her face behind a mask, but I feel her kindness and concern for me in every word she speaks, in her gentle hands that reach up to pat my back.