Of the several hundred people who had stayed in the cave in the canyon, fewer than sixty had been found alive.
The Blackwatch soldiers refused to give up. They checked every person again and again.
Krian thought it could have been worse. With no hope, there was no disappointment. He had expected no one to survive, so rescuing more than fifty people was already beyond anything he had imagined.
Deputy lit a second bonfire, then a third, warming the entire cave. They also stripped five or six layers of clothing off the survivors, leaving each in a single thin garment.
Their limbs were a horrifying blackish purple, like fruit left outside in winter. After more than ten minutes by the fires, they swelled as thick as an elephant's legs, and the survivors let out unconscious moans of pain.
Without treatment soon, they would not last much longer.
"Please begin."
Iseramar nodded, left the cave, and returned to his true form. He nudged his older cousin Thurlius aside and called on the power of his Dragon Clan body.
Milky-white light, almost like Holy Light, appeared in the cave. Specks of it drifted down onto the survivors with swollen bodies and dying limbs.
The survivors, whose skin had been swollen with fluid like Waterskins, visibly shrank. Their skin turned wrinkled, as though they had soaked in water for hours.
The pain faded from their faces. The survivors did not wake at once, but everyone's injuries stabilized. If they were taken back quickly for rest and treatment, they might recover before long.
The Blackwatch soldier returned to the bonfire, his expression caught somewhere between laughter and tears. More than anything, he looked lost.
Krian understood. The Blackwatch Legion was one of the Empire's eight Imperial Guard, a force countless people had believed invincible.