Brand of the Desert

The sudden attack on the library

The heavy ebony door did not simply slide open. With a piercing crack that echoed like thunder in all directions off the massive bookshelves, the door was violently flung wide open.

The opposing prince strode over the threshold, but what he held in his hands was not a ledger of finances or a scroll of taxes. A dangerous, malicious smile was savagely tugged around his lips, and the eyes drawing a long, concealed steel blade from beneath his purple silk robe were gleaming with a cruel hunger for power. Behind him, a dozen assassins from the factional royal guard in dull dark armor poured densely into the archive. The black blades they drew traced eerie arcs in the sharp morning sunlight, and in the span of a single heartbeat they formed a solid wall of human shields blocking the escape route, locking us inside completely and closing in on us.

"The succession ends today, Emperor." The opposing prince growled, grinding his teeth scarlet-red, and his deep voice sank and rang out as a cold, venomous, razor-sharp metallic sound, having thrown aside all the royal family's pretentious etiquette. "Even that great shield of your border can't protect you here anymore, Your Majesty. This capital city is ours now."

The moment the great rebellion in the imperial palace we had feared officially began.

Hyunjin snapped his upper body straight up on the emperor's throne like a great beast rearing up, and his dark eyes, having spotted the trap before him, flashed with raw, blinding rage. He did not waste even one second. With an overwhelming, fluid burst of military force, he overturned the huge ebony table before him completely to the side. The heavy wooden table crashed onto the smooth black jade floor with a dull, massive crack, forming an immediate barrier directly in front of my slight frame.

"Protect the Empress!" Hyunjin roared. Carrying a low, resonant echo, his deep voice shook the great wooden pillars of the library so fiercely that it immediately reverberated through the hall.

Our eunuchs and the three inner-chamber guards drew their swords at once and threw themselves fully into the converging hail of attacks. The library interior plunged in an instant into the dull, brutal clang of blades colliding, frenzied screams, and a whirling storm of paper scrolls flying everywhere. Hyunjin moved through the center of the ambush like a legendary wave of nature, and his sword cleaved the air sharply, drawing fatal arcs as he mercilessly swept the opposing prince's assassins beyond our defensive line. His broad shoulders, powerfully spread, were braced and aligned for a suffocating, desperate, fear-filled race against time to protect the sacred bloodline hidden within him.

At that moment, a sharp, violent spasm pressed mercilessly into the depths of my lower abdomen and clenched hard, making my breath catch for an instant along my spine. I kept my back firmly pressed against the overturned tabletop, my fingers digging forcefully into the thick, layered silk folds of my hanbok as I gripped the smooth floor, and cold sweat spread across my skin in an instant. The immense stress of this ambush, the bursting adrenaline, and the weight of sheer terror had powerfully triggered something buried deep inside my body.

The baby was coming. Yoonseo was trying to come out through the labor pains right now.

Hyunjin drove his sword deep into the chestplate of the last assassin blocking the rear rock wall, and his golden imperial robes were thickly stained with the crimson bloodstains the enemies had spat out. He turned his head sharply toward me. The moment he traced the sudden, desperate traces of pain in my eyes, his face went completely bloodless and pale beneath the golden crown. He tossed the sword he was holding onto the floor, then ran straight to me in a flash, lifting my collapsing, slight frame lightly into his huge, trembling arms.

"I'm here, Chaewon." He whispered frantically right by my ear, and his hot breath, as he ran while carrying me toward the back corner of the library, was ragged and heavy.

He slammed his huge hand savagely against the hidden latch in the stone wall behind the largest bookshelf. The massive, solid rock panel gave a low, scraping, heavy scream as it slowly opened, revealing the sight of a small, cozy hidden chamber refuge packed full of soft silk cushions and warm fur blankets inside—a private evacuation shelter built into the deep foundation of the imperial palace to protect the royal bloodline.

He carefully and tenderly laid my body down onto the thick fur bedding, and his warm, large hand lingered with powerful pressure as it gave one last reassuring squeeze to my shoulder. Outside the door, the frenzied clash of weapons and the fierce rain of arrows had begun battering the library's high lattice panels violently.

"Hide safely here," Hyunjin whispered. As if he meant to block out the great storm of rebellion closing in on me completely, his dark eyes were locked firmly into mine with a fierce, unblinking gaze of intense devotion. He leaned in close until there was only the space of a single breath between our faces, and his deep voice came out ragged, carrying a raw, emotional promise. "Before the sun even reaches the roof of that back garden tonight, I'll purge this court completely. I'll win this war for sure, and then, Chaewon... I'll come back to save you and hold our child in my own arms."

He drew back, and his long fingers slipped away slowly from my fingertips with unmistakable reluctance. The moment he fully stepped out of the hidden room, the heavy stone-panel door groaned as it slowly shut, sealing me inside the complete hidden refuge and the shadow of pitch-black darkness, and at that very moment the first real wave of labor, ruthlessly tearing through the center of my womb, swallowed my entire body whole.