PART 2 — THE GIANT WHO BEGGED HER NOT TO LEAVE

“Who are you?” Luka whispered.

Elena set her medical satchel beside the bed.

“Elena Marin. I’m the nurse from Dorna Vale.”

His eyes drifted toward Matei.

“You brought her?”

“I did,” Matei answered. “And you are going to let her help you.”

Luka attempted to push himself upright, but the effort exhausted him. His enormous hand gripped the blanket.

“Send her away.”

Elena raised an eyebrow.

“That’s an interesting greeting for someone who sent a man twenty miles through a snowstorm to find help.”

“I didn’t send anyone.”

“No. You merely became too ill to stop him.”

Matei let out a nervous breath that almost became a laugh.

Luka didn’t.

“I don’t need a nurse.”

“Then you don’t need me. But you do need medical attention, and those are two different matters.”

She washed her hands, lit another lamp, and began examining him.

His condition was worse than Matei had described. His fever was high, his breathing strained, and the injury had become seriously infected. The crude treatment he had attempted himself had not been enough.

Elena worked carefully, explaining what she was doing whenever Luka was conscious enough to understand.

She did not promise him that everything would be fine.

She had learned that false promises were another kind of cruelty.

“You’ve been alone with this for three days?” she asked.

“Four.”

Matei turned sharply.

“Four?”

Luka closed his eyes.

“You were supposed to come yesterday.”

“I came yesterday! The pᴀss was blocked!”

“Then you should have come the day before.”

Matei stared at him.

“You stubborn mountain ox.”

Elena almost smiled.

“Both of you can argue after he is out of danger.”

She prepared clean supplies, arranged the room, and did what she could to stabilize him. She knew she needed a doctor and medicines she had not brought. The nearest physician was far away, and the storm had closed the mountain road.

For now, she could only keep him warm, monitor his condition, and prevent things from becoming worse.

Hours pᴀssed.

The wind rattled the shutters.

Matei kept the fire going while Elena sat beside the bed, checking Luka’s temperature and watching his breathing.

Near midnight, Luka began speaking.

At first, his words were indistinct.

Then he said a name.

“Anca.”

Elena leaned closer.

“Who is Anca?”

His face тιԍнтened.

“Don’t let them…”

He fell silent.

A moment later, he began again.

“Don’t let them take the children.”

Matei stopped arranging the firewood.

Elena looked at him.

“What children?”

Matei shook his head.

“He lives alone. There are no children here.”

Luka’s hand moved weakly across the blanket.

“Don’t open the well,” he whispered. “Tell them… don’t drink…”

Elena leaned closer.

“Luka, listen to me. What well?”

But he was already drifting into unconsciousness.

Matei crossed himself.

“He has been saying strange things since the fever began.”

“Not all fever talk is meaningless,” Elena replied.

She wrote the words in her notebook.

Don’t open the well.

Don’t drink.

Anca.

The children.

She returned to Luka’s bedside.

For the next several hours, he remained restless. Once, he opened his eyes and seemed to recognize her.

“You came back,” he murmured.

“I never left.”

His gaze searched her face.

“Why?”

“Because you need help.”

He swallowed.

“People don’t come back for me.”

Elena adjusted the blanket.

“Then perhaps the people you knew were not worth waiting for.”

He watched her for a long moment.

Then his eyes closed.

Just before dawn, his breathing became more settled.

Elena finally allowed herself to sit back.

Matei approached quietly.

“Will he live?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“You’ve done everything you can?”

“For tonight, yes. But he needs a doctor as soon as the road opens.”

Matei looked at the enormous man on the bed.

“Luka has carried half this valley on his shoulders. When the bridge washed out, he rebuilt it. When the school roof collapsed, he repaired it. When my wife was ill, he brought wood to our house for weeks.”

“Then he has spent a long time helping people.”

“He has.”

“Perhaps now it’s their turn.”

Matei looked away.

“There is something you should know about Dorna Vale.”

Elena waited.

“People have been getting sick. Not just old people. Children, too. Fever, weakness, stomach trouble. Some families have lost more than one person.”

“How long?”

“Several months.”

“Have they all seen Dr. Petrescu?”

“Some. But the doctor thought it was bad food or the harsh winter. Others refused to go to the clinic.”

“Why?”

Matei hesitated.

“Because Captain Vlas told them the sickness came from bad blood. He said certain families had brought misfortune into the village.”

Elena frowned.

“That’s nonsense.”

“I know. But Captain Vlas owns the mill, the storehouse, and most of the land around the village. People listen to him.”

Elena remembered the captain’s expression when Matei had asked for help.

“Does Luka know something about the illness?”

Matei glanced toward the bed.

“He has been investigating.”

“Investigating what?”

“The old spring.”

Before Elena could ask another question, Luka stirred.

His eyes opened.

He looked at Matei, then at Elena.

“Did you tell her?”

“Not yet,” Matei said.

Luka tried to raise his head.

Elena pressed a gentle hand against his shoulder.

“Don’t move. You’re not ready.”

“Listen to me,” he rasped.

“I am listening.”

“The spring… they know.”

“Who knows?”

His eyes filled with sudden alarm.

“Vlas.”

Elena exchanged a glance with Matei.

Luka gripped her wrist with surprising strength.

“Don’t let them send you back to the village.”

“Why?”

He struggled for breath.

“Because the water is killing them.”

Then his hand fell away.

Outside, the first light of morning touched the snow.

And far below the cabin, in Dorna Vale, Captain Radu Vlas was already telling the villagers that Nurse Elena Marin had disappeared into the mountains with a dangerous man.

He was also telling them that she must never be allowed near the village water supply again.