It was busy on the stone staircase that wound back up to the sacred ground as people from all over the eyrie hurried to witness the sacrifice. Mila kept her head down as she ran up the stairs with Finn close behind, no one paying them any heed. They blended in here, the color of their skin making them part of the mix of races that made a home in the heights of the pinnacle.
People streamed in from corridors that led out from the central staircase and Mila wondered how deep into the rock this city of the air penetrated. As they ascended, she noticed carvings on the walls, intricate designs of eagles soaring over treetops, plunging gorges and waterfalls beneath the towers of stone. Then pictures of sacrifice, figures of men and women, even children, pegged out on the sacred ground while eag
