Chris stood inside Veyrhold's southern courtyard and took in the aftermath with a care he did not allow to look like admiration.
The first thing anyone would notice was the bodies. Gravebound Maulers lay scattered across the cracked stone, some collapsed near the old barracks, some closer to the broken storage house, and others sprawled across the open courtyard where the fight had clearly been dragged away from the most fragile structures.
Their stone-gray hides were split in precise places rather than torn apart by wild force. Dark blood had spilled into the cracks between old road stones and gathered in thick trails near the dead creatures' mouths, joints, and throats. One ordinary Mauler had fallen close to the inner base of the wall, frost still clinging around the wound beneath its jaw where Kara Cale's arrow had killed it.
