Elaine winced as she pulled the bowstring for what felt like the millionth time, trying her best to ignore the sore muscles of her arms. Shooting with a bow had turned out much harder than she expected — she initially thought the hardest part would be to learn to aim and hit the target. The truth was, she couldn’t even let the arrow fly properly the first few days. She still couldn’t after her hands grew tired. And she was nearing her limit already, despite not having yet shot a hundred arrows. Since the day of the demon attack on the city, her practices at the training grounds had been suspended. Almost all the soldiers were assigned a duty either in the castle or down into the city, so the place was almost deserted. So she was surprised when Jamie announced that he got permission from P

