1-020, '. . . The Grand Public Entrance. . .'

Fearing a reuniting of friends if she returned to the Winter Gardens, a direct route to the Old Palace, Mihai rode the tramwaiter to a more distant exit, to the north and east of her destination.  

The path traversed a labyrinth of narrow streets and broadways, snaking through the artfully created mountains of tall, ornate buildings.  Constructed during the Second Age, this new palace city, better known as the ‘Lower Palace’, eclipsed the Upper Palace from view, except for its central domed spire and the four guard towers at the corners of upper battlements.  Few were the feet on the street this morning, the echo of Mihai’s footsteps  often the only sound to be heard.

At the end of her walk through the city’s streets, Mihai entered a narrow, deep, tapering recess in the face of a high cliff.  

At a juncture where the two walls converged, she arrived at the Majestic - a wide, winding staircase inlaid in the diorite butte, crisscrossing its way up hundreds of feet to the palace proper.  Each flight of hewn stairs ended in an immense grotto that spread out into a beautiful, enclosed balcony carved into the mountain itself.  Giant windows had been cut from the outer wall, providing a breathtaking view for a pilgrim journeying to the palace.

Said to have been built by the Ones Who Came Before as a gift to the children of the First Age, these stairs, like the rest of the Upper Palace, never needed repair nor did they weather with the passage of time.  The Ancients, many of the oldest children of the First Age, called this place ‘the Home of the Living Stones’.

A person needed to see this marvel of engineering to grasp the grandeur and beauty of the ‘Road to Heaven’, as it was often called.  There were no visible construction marks, added building blocks or reinforcements, just one solid piece of finely polished obsidian, carved with intricate designs. . . 

Enjoy other posts: 

Prologue,

Destiny's Road 1-001, 1-002, 1-003, 1-004, 1-005, 1-006, 1-007, 1-008, 1-009,

1-010, 1-011, 1-012, 1-013, 1-014, 1-015, 1-016, 1-017, 1-018, 1-019, 1-020,

1-021, 1-022, 1-023, 1-024 & 1-025  

Of Councils Great and Small 2-026, 2-027, 2-028, 2-029, 2-030, 2-031, 

2-032, 2-033, 2-034, 2-035, 2-036, 2-037, 2-038, 2-039, 2-040, 2-041, 2-042, 
2-043, 2-044, 2-045, 2-046, 2-047, 2-048, 2-049 & 2-050 

Legend's Heroes 3-051, 3-052, 3-053, 3-054, 3-055, 3-056, 3-057, 3-058,

3-059, 3-060, 3-061, 3-062, 3-063, 3-064, 3-065, 3-066, 3-067, 3-068, 3-069,

3-070, 3-071, 3-072, 3-073, 3-074 & 3-075

Forges of Hell 4-076, 4-077, 4-078, 4-079, 4-080, 4-081, 4-082, 4-083, 4-084,
4-085, 4-086, 4-087, 4-088, 4-089, 4-090, 4-091, 4-092, 4-093, 4-094, 4-095,
4-096, 4-097, 4-098, 4-099 & 4-100

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Amazon.com; Smashwords.com; 

Diesel-Ebooks.com, BN.com; ebookstore.sony.com

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