Vella finished wrapping the ridge boy's ankle, then sent the clinic cart toward the quarry village with Hajin holding the supply crates in place. The village had cleared its grain store for her visit, moving the last sacks aside before laying six cots beneath the open shutters.
Two fever patients waited near the door, while a quarry miner occupied the rear cot with his left arm bound against a board.
His wife knelt beside him with both hands around a water cup, watching gray veins spread above the bandage.
"The quarry healer closed the cut," she moved aside as Vella approached, "but the fever started before we reached home."
Vella removed the bandage, exposing a sealed wound near the elbow where something dark pressed beneath the skin.
"A core fragment is still inside," she held two fingers above the swelling, "the healer closed it against the bone."
"Can you remove it?" the miner kept his jaw tight as another tremor passed through his arm.
