From Ash and Ruin

"When we finally came out of the root cellar, the house was gone, the barn was gone, and the king was dead. The fields had been burned. The dray horses were charred bones weeks old. The cow was missing, undoubtedly a meal for troops. In the distance the castle which had once stood proudly was now a blackened lump, its towers like broken fingers in a burnt hand reaching upward for one last sign of hope."