“You don’t know?”
“I will be frank with you, Your Highness. My knowledge of the medical differences between humans and elves is lacking. It’s not something they teach at the university.”
The sick feeling in the pit of Rominy’s stomach grows. “Can you help her?”
“I can try removing the stitching in case she’s reacting to the thread itself, but her body healed more quickly than I expected it to, and the stitches are embedded within the tissue now.”
“What are you saying?”
“Sit, Your Highness.”
Rominy drops to the edge of the bed as his legs give out. Nothing about the doctor’s tone makes him feel better.
“Now listen to me, Rominy. May I call you Rominy?”
Rominy nods.
“Your wife is very sick. If she were human, we would be having a different conversation.”
When the meaning of the doctor’s words occurs to Rominy, he almost loses his stomach contents.
“But your wife is an elf. And I have no intention of letting both of you die under my watch. She is strong. Do you hear me?”
Rominy nods. Elowyn’s the strongest person he knows.
“So these are your options,” the doctor continues. “I can try to remove the stitching, but I may cut into the tendons in a way that makes her arm useless to her if I try.”
Useless? Rominy’s breathing becomes more rapid, but Elowyn’s voice telling him to take a deep breath echoes in his heart.
“What other options are there?”
“I could amputate. It would stop the spread of whatever this is.”
“No.” Rominy shakes his head.
“It would save her life.”
“You don’t know that. You said yourself you don’t know what’s wrong. Give me another option.”
“There is one other option, but it’s a gamble.”
“What is it?”
“We get her to her own people as fast as we can and hope we’re not too late.”
“But Feressa is a day away by train. And Darlei—”
“By passenger train. The industrial trains run on a spur directly to Feressa. It will get you there in half the time.”
“And then what? How do I get her to Darlei? I don’t even know—”
“You send a telegram to Feressa now, Rominy. Have someone cross the border to deliver it, and hope against hope that help comes in time.”
Rominy struggles to breathe as he processes the doctor’s words.
“You need to be strong now, Rominy,” the doctor says. “For her.”
He’s not strong. He’s never been strong.
