Book 3. Chapter 61
Expelling all the water from his lungs wasn’t any easier the second time. He didn’t puke because there was nothing in his stomach, but the sensation was the same, as well as a panicked feeling like he was drowning, suffocating, sneezing, and hiccupping all at the same time.
He tried to see what was going on, but couldn’t force his eyes open until the last of the water was coughed out his lungs. He’d be sure to ask Hogg to practice using Unbreathing pills. He never wanted to go through this again.
When he finally stood, breathing wet but normal breaths, he saw that the Blackcliff Watch had arrived. That was no surprise–this was right outside the city. What was a surprise was that they weren’t shouting, giving orders or arresting anyone.
“Give them some space, please. They are friends. We’ll all have time to answer your questions, but you must give us a moment to collect ourselves,” said Sion, and to Brin’s shock, the Watch obeyed. They nodded and took a step away from Hogg and Brin, and busied themselves by surveying the damage and counting the dead monsters everywhere.
The whole area was a wrecked battlefield. Monster corpses littered the ground and floated in the water. Lurilan walked from corpse to corpse, retrieving his arrows. He was completely pristine from head to toe, no sign of dirt and not a drop of sweat.
Brin’s other friends looked wrecked, but gladly all still accounted for. Sion had taken a few new scratches since Brin had seen him last, but looked energetic and somewhat excited. Zilly was covered with wounds and lay on her back, while Myra and Davi looked tired but hadn’t taken injuries that he could see.
“Sion. Why can you give orders to the Blackcliff Watch?” Brin asked.
One of the Watch raised his gauntleted head so fast that it made his helmet clink and he gave Brin a hard stare, but still didn’t say anything.
Sion raised his hands in conciliation. “No one is giving orders! My apologies Captain; my friend has completely failed to understand. I’m only making polite suggestions, that’s all, as an interested party. I have no desire to interfere with this investigation. Not at all! And the Watch has no desire to offend the Wogan Mercantile Group. There’s no reason we can’t all get what we want, is there?”