“
Silverbell, and his human companion Doughty called back to her with a responding, “Heigh-ho!” and lifted their bows in salute. Aleina noted the bandages wrapping the fingers of the duo, digits rubbed skinless by a thousand bowshots a day. She grimly nodded as she rode on, taking heart that most of those arrows had probably found a mark. On her last trip to the city’s outer wall, she had seen a frost giant lying dead in a heap, its body so thick with arrows that it more resembled a giant porcupine than any humanoid creature. Aleina had noted the fletching on some of those arrows, and had recognized several at least that had come from Plenerond Silverbell’s quiver. King Firehelm awaited her in the city’s grand central citadel, a fortress within the fortress. As she rode up to the main door of that massive and impregnable keep, she spotted the king on a balcony, hands gripping an iron rail as he stared out over the city courtyard, the walls, and the bloody fields. He took note of her and looked down with an approving nod, but his eyes went right back to the fields, to the carnage. His shoulders had slumped under the weight of it all, Aleina thought. She handed the reins to an attendant at the door and bounded up the stairs to the king’s chamber, entering
”
”
R.A. Salvatore (Rise of the King (Companions Codex, #2; The Legend of Drizzt, #29))