Page 60 of Truthful Deceptions

There were several canisters of liquids, bowls of food, and a stack of the black flat bread Talins seemed to serve with every meal.

The moment I saw the food, my mouth started watering.

“Are you sure all of that is safe for humans?” Tolly asked.

“Yes,” the healer who brought it said, then left.

Grifforum reached past me. I twisted my neck to see him pull pillows off a shelf and stack them behind me. “There, now you can rest while you eat.”

I relaxed into the fluffy mound with a sigh. This was nice.

Tolly reached across me to pick up one of the canisters, and he opened it before handing it to me. I took a sip, surprised to find that it wasn’t water. It was something cold, mildly sweet, and it tasted faintly of fruit.

It was one of the most refreshing drinks I’d ever had. I took several long swallows before setting it down on the tray. It was only then I remembered I wasn’t the only human here!

“How is Sloane?” I asked.

No one spoke for a moment. I tried to look past Tolly, but the lighting was too low for me to see anything past the ring of light around me.

I grabbed hold of Tolly’s hand. “Tell me!” I demanded.

“She’s very ill,” Grifforum said.

I felt tears welling in my eyes. “Is she going to die?”

Both Talins sounded rattles of surprise at my question.

“No, of course not,” Grifforum said. “I only need to warn you that you’ll be well long before her. We’re going to need to keep her here for at least another five rotations. Even after we’re finished with her treatments, she’ll need to be closely monitored.”

I almost snapped at Grifforum for scaring me. I pulled in a deep breath, forcing my annoyance down, before speaking.

“I only care that she gets better,” I said.

“Try to eat,” Tolly urged, tearing off a piece of flat bread, scooping up some food, and holding it to my mouth.

Grifforum continued to talk about my condition and prognosis as Tolly fed me half the contents of the tray. By the time I refused any more food, I was stuffed and sleepy again.

One of the other healers came over to ask Grifforum a question, and they both went off to look at data on a display.

My belly was full, my pain was gone, and I wasn’t high on drugs, meaning I had an important question to ask Tolly. But first I wanted to know more about Sloane.

“What’s wrong with Sloane?”

“Many things, but the worst was that she had an infection in her kidneys,” Tolly said. “Grifforum might be confident now, but there was a short window of time that he wasn’t sure they’d be able to save her life. They even talked about removing her kidneys and attaching her to a machine while they attempted to grow her new ones.”

My eyes went wide with horror. “Those machines never work on us. You can grow our organs well, but none of the medical machines are designed for us. That would've killed her.”

“That’s what Grifforum was afraid of, but he was running out of things to try,” Tolly said. “Jastura came up with a novel way to use the nanos, and it’s working.”

“Jastura should get to write the articles," I said.

Tolly sounded a rumble of amusement. “I think she’s planning to. Grifforum is very intelligent and methodical, but she’s excellent at improvising. They both worked extremely hard and between you and Sloane, they have a lot to write about.”

I gave him a brief grin. “Glad I could help.” I slid my eyes over to where Sloane was hidden by the dark. “Has she talked at all?”

“She’s come out of her catatonic state occasionally and whispered to Mieshorum, but nothing else.”

I shook my head sadly. “I'm glad they were able to save her body, but I'm worried about her mind.”