Medicus

10

It had been a day where everything was more complicated than it should have been. When he reached the baths Ruso found he was the wrong sex and had to wait outside ("Women only till the sixth hour, sir-it is on the door, sir…") This afternoon a signaler who had been sent to have a head cut stitched turned out to have tripped on something he hadn't seen. Alerted by the young man's reluctance to meet his gaze, Ruso had insisted on checking his eyesight after the wound was treated. Within seconds he had discovered not only the advancing shadow of cataract in both eyes, but some inkling of the desperate and complex cover-up undertaken by the man and his comrades. Blindness would be the end of any soldier's career, but a signaler with failing eyesight would be invalided out sooner than most.

"I can manage all right, Doc."

"Really?" Ruso gestured toward a notice on the surgery wall. "Read me some of that."

The man turned and stared: not at the notice, but at the blank wall to its left. Then he moved his head and eyed the periphery of the notice from the other side. Finally he said, "The light's not very good in here, is it?"

Ruso said nothing.

The man lowered his bandaged head into his hands. "My girl thinks it's an illness," he said. "She thinks I'll get better."

"Have you spoken to any of the other medics?"

The man shook his head. "I don't need to," he said. "I watched this happen to my father."

It was too early to disclose the idea forming in Ruso's mind. He said merely, "I'll have a word with my colleague."

The man gave a bitter laugh. "Does he work miracles? Because if he does, you tell him I've got a little lad of two and a pregnant girlfriend to support."

Ruso said, "What about other family?"

"None of mine. Her people want me to go for a promotion so we can get properly married." He paused, not needing to explain the irony. He would never be promoted now, and the medical discharge that would free him for marriage would also render him an undesirable son-in-law. He looked up. "We need the money, Doc. Can't you just… keep quiet for a bit?"

Ruso frowned. "If you're sent out into the field, you'll be as much danger to us as to the enemy."

"I've managed so far."

"And who's been covering up for you?"

The signaler said nothing.

Finally Ruso said, "You've had a serious bang on the head. I'm recommending you stay here for two days for observation."

Ruso sent the man down to one of the wards. As soon as the rest of his patients wete dealt with he went straight to the records room and scrawled an urgent letter to the eye specialist he had met on the ship. He was not optimistic. Even if the specialist agreed to take the case, the delicate surgery required would be terrifying for the patient and difficult for the doctor, and would possibly hasten the blindness it was supposed to cure.

On the way back to his lodgings, Ruso glanced across at the builders working on the roof of the bathhouse. He wished he had chosen a trade where almost anything that went wrong could be fixed with a hammer.

He was about to turn the corner when a voice called after him, "Sir?"

He stopped. One of the hospital orderlies was hurrying after him. "You're wanted, sir!"

"Officer Valens is on duty now," said Ruso, who had been hoping to get on with the Concise Guide.

"No, sir, it's you who's wanted."

"Who by?"

"The second spear, sir. You're to report to him straightaway."