When she was born, she took one breath and no more. We burned the bed outside in the garden, so that it might cradle her in another world.
I trace my fingers across the stripes of the tiger and the scratched feathers of the crane’s wings.
Behind me, the door slides open, and my ancestors enter the room.
32
First, Mask steps through, then Dai with Miki, and even though I’m a little surprised, I’m not at all, because of course they’re my family—they’ve been helping me this whole time.
Dai grins. “You cry too much, Mina.”
Mask walks over, her elegant hands moving behind her head to untie the strings holding her mask in place. It falls to the floor. I look into Mask’s face, and it’s my own face looking back at me, except my face on her is far more beautiful. Or maybe that’s just the love I feel for her reflecting back at me. She takes me into her arms.
I choke back a sob. “You’re my great-great-grandmother, aren’t you?” I can feel her nod against my shoulder. “When I was dying, you sang to me. I thought it was my voice, but it was yours.”
“I sang to you, but it was your will to live that brought you back.”
I turn to Dai. “And you … you’re my grandfather.”
Dai smiles.
“And Miki…” And now I’m sobbing. I can hardly get the words out. “Miki is my eldest brother’s daughter.” The little girl who never smiled that beautiful smile in my world but was given a second chance at life in another. Miki giggles from behind Dai’s shoulder.
“Joon made a cradle for her,” I say weakly.
“Yes,” Dai says. “It was the boat that carried her. She would have fallen into the River of Souls if it weren’t for that cradle. Something crafted with so much love could never sink.”
Mask takes my hand. “Ask us what you need to know, Mina. We couldn’t tell you before—spirits are forbidden to directly affect the actions of their descendants—but we can tell you now, in this most sacred of places.”
I nod, brushing back tears. “I need to know how to return Shim Cheong to the world above.”
Mask and Dai exchange a glance. “It’s never been done,” Mask says slowly. “But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”
“What about going back up the river?” Dai says. “Shim Cheong is whole of body and soul. If she made it all the way up the river, perhaps she could pop back into the world above.”
Mask shakes her head. “The current is too strong. And her body wouldn’t survive the passage.”
Seeing the expression on her face makes me wonder if I look like this when I’m thinking hard about something. I resist the urge to reach out and smooth the crease between her brows.
“In times of great peril,” Mask says, “a wish can be made on the dragon’s pearl.”
I feel a strange stirring in my heart. “A wish?”
“That’s right!” Dai shouts excitedly. “Now I remember. The pearl of a dragon is the source of its great power, and a wish upon one can make even the impossible come true.”
I think back to all the times I’ve seen the dragon—on the boat and in the garden, as it flew through the sky, and ferocious outside the palace.
“I’ve never seen the dragon with a pearl,” I say. Then I remember the mural on the wall of the Sea God’s hall. In the painting the dragon was drawn chasing a pearl through the sky.
“It’s possible the dragon lost its pearl,” Mask says, “which might be tied to the curse.”
“Or it was stolen,” Dai says grimly.
In the Sea God’s nightmare, he was wounded. Perhaps that was the moment the pearl was stolen.
“So if I retrieve the pearl and return it to the Sea God, the dragon will grant my wish?”
Dai and Mask exchange a glance.
“If it were so simple,” Dai says, “most everyone would be looking for a chance to make a wish.”
“Only someone the dragon loves very much can make a wish on the pearl,” Mask explains.
“Someone the dragon … loves?”
Mask nods. “The dragon and the Sea God are one and the same. The dragon is the Sea God’s soul. If the Sea God were to love another, that person would have the power to make a wish on the pearl. In the past, it was always the emperor who was beloved by the Sea God most of all. In times of great peril, it was said he could make a wish to change the world.”
* * *
In the main room, I meet up with Namgi, Kirin, and Shin, and tell them what I learned from my ancestors. Kirin and Shin look unsurprised to find out the real identities of the spirits who’ve been helping me, but Namgi appears satisfyingly shocked.