past training soldiers and past her inventory friend Lance Marion as he fiddled with one of the Escarlish guns. She waved as she walked by, but she wasn’t sure Lance even noticed. Finally, they reached a long white tent. Inside, rows of cots were set up. A few were even occupied, thanks to accidents while training and a few scuffles between humans and elves.
In the center, the elves’ healer, a tall, brown-haired elf, faced the chief surgeon, a short, stumpy man with bulging arms. Behind each of them, their various helpers, nurses, other healers, and surgeons, lined up as if preparing to battle.
Time to calm this situation. The last thing they needed was for their entire medical staff to wipe each other out. Essie strolled into the tent and pasted on her best princess smile. “What seems to be the problem, gentlemen?”
“I refuse to—”
“He won’t—”
“Human medical practices—”
“Pointy-eared, stubborn elves won’t—”
Essie held up a hand for silence. With both of them talking at once—very nearly shouting at once—she couldn’t make out exactly what was going on. “Please. One at a time. Healer Nylian, please go first.”
It was probably best to start with the elf healer. If she started with the Escarlish surgeon, the elf would feel like she was giving preferential treatment to her own people by letting the surgeon tell his side first. While the surgeon was more likely to be patient and wait to tell his story second since he would believe she would listen to him.
The elf healer, Nylian, crossed his arms and glared at the surgeon. “I refuse to work with the human healers. Your medical practices are antiquated. My people’s knowledge and skills are far superior.”
“Because you have magic. That’s basically cheating.” The surgeon crossed his bulky arms and didn’t budge an inch under the elf’s stare, which had grown even colder after that comment.
“Far, far superior.” Nylian turned away, as if dismissing the surgeon and all the human medical staff.
“It isn’t like I want to work with you either. Pointy-eared...” Maxwell, the surgeon, glanced at Essie and cut off the last word. Probably some kind of swear word or a demeaning word about elves.
Essie suppressed her grimace. With these kinds of attitudes, working together wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.
“Then you can tend your people with your primitive methods, and I will tend my people.” Nylian waved a hand in the air, further dismissing all the humans in the room.
That could be a possible compromise, but not one Essie wanted to employ. That was the kind of ignoring each other that their peoples had been doing for the past decade and a half. If good was to come out of this war, then it had to bring their peoples together. And that started with the little things, like forcing a bunch of healers to work together...and like it.
Essie plastered on a bright smile. Time to do what she did best. “That would be one way to do it, but that would not be the best use of the unique talents of both sides.”
“Both sides? It is not as if the humans have anything to offer.”
Elves and their annoying superiority complex.
Before Nylian could object, Essie took a step forward. “On the contrary, we humans do have much to offer. No, we don’t have healing magic. But that has pushed us to develop our surgical techniques. We have come a long way from the leeches and bloodletting of past centuries. We have scalpels designed to do as little damage as possible during surgery.” Essie met Nylian’s gaze. “Why should you or your healers waste time digging out musket balls and performing those kinds of surgeries when that is exactly what the human surgeons have trained for?”
“I see.” Nylian turned back to Maxwell and the other human surgeons. His gaze now had a gleam of something that might have been grudging consideration. “I could see how that would be...beneficial.”
“Exactly.” Essie’s smile became more genuine, though no less bright. She couldn’t believe this was actually working. “And, Maxwell, the elven healing magic is really amazing. I have seen them heal near fatal wounds in mere seconds. Working alongside the elves, you will learn much from their knowledge of the body. It could lead to medical breakthroughs we can’t even dream about now.”
Maxwell still had his arms crossed, but his posture relaxed. “So, we turn the medical care into a factory assembly line.”
She wouldn’t have put it that way, but that was the idea. “Kind of. But it would be