They spotted the fortress from two miles away.
It stood in the middle of the Southern Wastes, towering above the endless red dunes. Even from that distance, Holden could tell there was something terribly wrong with the structure. It looked nothing like an ordinary castle. In fact, the longer he stared at it, the more it resembled the remains of some enormous creature.
The walls were made entirely of bones.
Not small bones arranged over a stone foundation, but massive rib bones taken from creatures that must have been enormous when they were alive. They had been fitted together to form walls nearly thirty feet high, with dark red iron filling the gaps between them.
Even stranger, the iron appeared to be alive.
It ran through the bones in thick lines, spreading across the walls like veins. A faint red glow pulsed within the metal, making the entire structure look as though something inside it was still breathing.
