Hunter of Legends (Fate of Legends Series Book 1) by Clayton Wood

Author:Clayton Wood
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Clayton Taylor Wood
Published: 2017-08-03T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Dominus sat on the edge of his bed in his spacious suite in the Acropolis, facing the doctor he’d called upon only a half-hour ago. The doctor knelt before him, pulling the boot off of his right foot. Dominus barely felt the boot slip off; his foot was numb, but that gnawing pain was ever-present, as if he’d plunged his foot into ice-cold water.

“Let’s see what we’re dealing with here,” the doctor said, pulling off Dominus’s sock. He stared at Dominus’s foot, trying unsuccessfully to hide a grimace.

The rot had spread, his pinky toe now completely black, as were most of the other toes. The instep of his foot was pale and mottled, a beefy redness spreading from the deep ulcer on the side of his ankle.

He didn’t need a doctor to know that it was dying.

The doctor put two fingers on Dominus’s instep, then on his inner ankle, just behind the bone. He shook his head, then tapped Dominus’s instep with one finger.

“Do you feel that?” he asked.

“No.”

The doctor reached behind Dominus’s knee, digging his fingers in the pocket there. Then he apologized, putting two fingers near Dominus’s groin. That done, he stood, sighing heavily.

“The foot is dying,” he declared apologetically. “You’ve no pulse in either vessel there, and a faint pulse behind the knee. You’ve still got blood flowing through the groin, which is promising.”

“You want to amputate,” Dominus stated flatly. The doctor nodded reluctantly.

“The foot will have to come off,” he admitted. “Your ulcer is infected, and I’m afraid the pus will go to the bone. Once it’s there, it will not leave.”

“Not just the toes?” Dominus pressed. The doctor shook his head.

“It’s only a matter of time before your whole foot rots,” he explained. “If there is any blood flowing to it, it isn’t much…and it won’t last.”

Dominus stared at his foot in disgust, at the gangrene slowly consuming his flesh. He had no doubt that the doctor was correct, that his foot would not last much longer. But it would impair him significantly to undergo major surgery now, to endure a painful recovery, potentially complicated by an infection from the procedure itself. Not to mention learning to walk without a foot, or with some ghastly prosthesis. This was too momentous a time to be distracted by such things; his son’s transition must be ensured, as well as Axio’s.

“Remove the toes,” he declared, looking up at the doctor. “The gangrene only.”

“But your Grace…” the doctor began.

“Cut off the rot when it comes,” Dominus interrupted. “Preserve that which remains for as long as possible.”

The doctor hesitated, then nodded.

“I’ll assemble the team,” he declared, bowing and leaving the suite. The door closed behind him.

Dominus sighed, staring at his foot, remembering how it used to look. Pink, warm, full of life and vigor. It had been with him, a part of him, for his entire life, since he was pushed out into this world. And now it was dying, and if he didn’t remove it, it would kill him too.

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