The Physician’s Betrayal

The road into the valley town was quiet, hushed in the way of places that kept secrets. Yeonho arrived with his clothes torn and blood stiff on his sleeves, his arm wrapped in makeshift leaves and bandages by Princess Vaani. He had forced himself forward on instinct alone, until the walls of the famed School of Medical Sciences rose before him — the place Kim Tae mentioned, the place where the forbidden brews were said to slumber under lock and key.

At the gate, two guards stiffened at his approach. He straightened, brushing back the mess of his hair. “My name is Ka—”

“Mr Kang Yeonho,” one finished for him with a bow, smiling as if greeting an old friend. “The Crown Prince’s guard. Who doesn’t know you?”

His jaw tightened. Fame was not what he had come for.

They escorted him in without hesitation, across stone courtyards that smelled of boiled herbs and ink. At the heart of the school sat the master’s quarters, and Yeonho braced himself for a sage of a hundred years, beard flowing to