The palace sat on top of the world.
At least, that was how it looked from where Simon stood.
The stairway rose up the brow of the dragon's skull in a single unbroken line, thousands of steps carved directly into the bone. They were pale and smooth, worn down by countless feet over countless years. At every hundred steps, a tall black pillar stood on either side, and from each one hung a long banner bearing the black dragon biting its own tail, the crimson at its center burning faintly like an ember.
At the top of the stairway, between the two broken horns, stood the palace of the Abyss Sovereign.
The horns alone were larger than any tower Simon had seen in Vhal-Sar. They curved backward from the skull and ended in jagged, broken tips, as though something had snapped them off a very long time ago. Between them, the palace rested like a crown on the dragon's head.
