"This is it," Arden said, his voice flat with a mix of awe and fear. He pointed to the towering formation before them. "The Highest Cradle of Thorns."
The "true mountain of the Sun God" was not a gentle slope. It was a sheer cliff face, red and orange rock rising thousands of feet into the sky.
It was scarred with deep lines and long shadows. At its very top, a faint, almost shimmering light seemed to pulse, like a distant star. That had to be. The Desert's Embrace.
"It's on top," Reyes stated the obvious, his eyes scanning the impossible climb. His face, already grim from the earlier fight, tightened further with the new challenge. "No path up. Not for horses. Not for most men."
Joel nodded slowly, his gaze already calculating the angles of the rock, looking for tiny handholds and footholds. "A vertical climb," he said with a low voice. "And the air will be thin up there. It will take every bit of strength."
