Hunters Blade by R. A. Salvatore

Author:R. A. Salvatore [Salvatore, R. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * * * *

Regis found Catti-brie sitting up in bed, a sizable plate of food set out before her. Her smile at him as he entered was among the sweetest sights he had ever known, for it was full of eagerness and acceptance. It was a smile that promised better days and another fight—

something that Regis had feared Catti-brie would never be able to hope for again.

"Stumpet and Cordio have been hard at work, I see," he remarked as he moved into the room and pulled up a small chair to sit beside the woman's bed.

"And Moradin's been good enough to hear their call, for healing the likes of me. Do ye ...

you think perhaps I have more dwarf in me than either of us are knowing?"

The halfling found her answer somewhat ironic, given her own mid-sentence correction of her dwarven dialect.

"When do you think you'll be out of here?"

"I'll be out of bed in less than a tenday," Catti-brie answered. "I'll be fighting again in two—sooner if I find I'm needed, don't you doubt."

Regis looked at her skeptically. "Is that your guess or Cordio's?"

Catti-brie waved the question away and went back to eating, and so Regis understood that the priests had likely given estimates of at least a month.

As she finished with one piece of fruit, Catti-brie leaned over the opposite side of the bed, where a pail sat for the refuse. When she did, the movement caused the blanket to ride up on the side closest Regis, affording him a clear view of her torn hip and upper leg.

The woman settled back before the halfling could replace his pained expression.

"The rock hit you good," Regis said, knowing there was no way to avoid it.

Catti-brie tucked the blanket back down under her side. "I'm fortunate that it bounced off the ledge and the wall first," she admitted.

"How serious was the damage?"

Catti-brie's face went blank.

Regis met that stare and pressed on, "How far will you recover, do they say? That hip was crushed, the muscles torn through. Will you walk again?"

"Yes."

"Will you run?"

The woman paused a bit longer, her face growing tight. "Yes."

It was an answer more of determination than expectation, Regis knew. He let it go and stiffened his resolve against the wave of pity that wanted to flood out of him. He knew very well that Catti-brie would hear none of that.

"Word has come from the south," Regis said. "Lady Alustriel has joined the fight, albeit briefly."

"But Dagna has fallen," Catti-brie replied, surprising Regis.

"Word of such things passes quickly through a dwarven community," she explained.

Regis quieted for a few moments so that they could both offer a silent prayer for the soul of the fallen dwarf.

"Do you think it will ever be the same?" he asked.

"I don't," replied Catti-brie, and the halfling's head snapped up, for that was not precisely the answer he had expected and wanted from the normally optimistic woman. "As it was not the same when we drove the dark elves back underground. This fight's sure to leave a scar, my friend.

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