The Goblin's Heir

Chapter Forty Nine: Hero

A click resounded loudly through the room as the doctor disengaged the hammer of his pistol. He lowered his weapon to the level of his waist. The hate that had tightened his features, stretching his scarred skin over a clenched jaw and narrowed eyes, softened. His lips were quirked in an amused half-smile. "Well, I'll be. You're one of the princes."

Floki's eyes snapped back to the man, his mouth falling open in shock. He'd been expecting a bullet. That piece of lead that would end his life. "You know who I am?"

"Bran said you might show up." Dr. Hughes tucked his pistol back into the waistband of his trousers. His eyes fell to my pale face. "So that's the goblin empress. She's not as ugly as I imagined. What's wrong with her?"

"She was bitten a few days ago. Her leg is infected, I think."

"I see, I've been dealing with a lot of that. Bring her along. Jane, I'll need you to assist me." He abruptly turned away, striding deeper into the mass of suffering filling the old fortress to its brim.

Jane picked up her muddy skirt and began to run after him, then turned back when she realized Floki wasn't following. He was still standing still, uncertainty freezing him in place. "Hurry if you want his help still. He won't repeat himself." She said, beckoning him with frantic hand gestures. 

Floki snapped out of it, readjusting his hold on me. He rested my head against his shoulder and ran alongside the young woman, following after her father from that main chamber up a spiraling staircase and into another room this one seemingly someone's personal chamber. There was one bed and a table stacked high with books and scattered papers. Jars of different things crowded a bookshelf. 

"Lay her down." The doctor ordered, moving over to where a basin sat atop a chest of drawers to wash his hands. 

Floki laid me down atop the bed, cringing at the pained sound I made at the jostling of my ruined leg.

"Good, now move out of my way." The doctor slipped his way between Floki and the bed, shoving him aside.  He and Jane set to work, peeling away my blanket and clothing down to my underthirt and smallclothes, laying the grotesque sight of my leg bare. I felt him touch my leg, gently turning it between his palms. When he tried to bend it, I twisted in the bed, screaming. 

"You're hurting her!" Floki growled.

"If you don't let me work, she's going to be worse than hurt." The doctor snapped back in a level, but stern tone. "She'll be lucky if she lives, let alone keeps this leg. "I don't feel a break. That's good, at least. Are you sure she was bitten? I don't see a wound."

"A friend of ours healed it." His eyes widened, watching Jane remove tools from a leather bag she'd retrieved from somewhere. She set out numerous sharp things, including a particularly threatening handsaw.

"They did a shit job of it. They magiced the break in the skin away, but infection had already set in. The outside looks whole, but on the inside, it's festering." He held out his hand toward Jane. "Hand me that knife." 

"What are you going to do with that?" Floki demanded, anxiously.

As Jane handed him the knife, he picked up a piece of leather from the table by the bed and held it out to Floki. "Her leg is full of puss. I have to drain it and flush out the infection. Here, put this between her teeth."

"Why?" Floki was growing noticeably paler by the second.

"To give her something to bite down on. Have you the spells that ease pain?" 

Floki's face tensed "I know them, but I'm not particularly good at them."

"Try them as best you can. She could use them." He looked again toward his daughter. "Fetch me that bottle there." He nodded toward a dark green bottle sitting on the table.