in the city,” said Eluna and withdrew her head. There was a door in the back of the stable that led to a platform which jutted out over the city’s edge. She pushed it open and stood on the platform for a few moments, then took off, with a graceful flick of her wings, flying out over the farmlands below. Arren watched her through the window, marvelling yet again at how powerful she was in the air. He had flown on her back a few times, but there had rarely been much need for it and griffins weren’t built to carry anything heavy a long distance; more than one griffiner had died after their griffin had faltered in midair and dropped them.
Arren shivered slightly at the idea and turned away. He left the house via the front door, locking it and pocketing the key, and walked out into the streets.
The city of Eagleholm was unimaginatively named, but aptly so. Centuries ago people had come across the massive, nearly cylindrical mountain jutting up out of the plains. Not wanting to disturb the gods that undoubtedly lived at the top, these early settlers built their homes around the lake at its base using the chunks of stone that littered the ground, but otherwise they left the mountain alone.
With the rise of the griffiners, the mountain had been selected as the perfect place for the new rulers of the land to build a fortress. Huge trees, selected for their special rot-resistant wood, had been felled hundreds of miles away and hauled to the mountain by teams of slaves. They had had the extremely difficult and dangerous task of carrying the cut and treated timber to the top of the mountain and there using it to build the original Eyrie. Other buildings had sprung up around it over time, and that was how the city of Eagleholm had begun. Later on, during more peaceful times, many more common people had come to live there, and the city slowly grew until huge platforms had to be built out over its sides to make more room. These were constantly being upgraded and expanded, and by now there were at least as many houses on the platforms as there were on the stone of the mountain. Food and other supplies had to be hauled up from the villages below using a massive winching device, and plenty of farmers would come up with their produce and sell it in the marketplace. Other, smaller winches had been built to keep up the supply, and Arren had a team of assistants to help him manage them all.
Of course, more than just food came up with them.
Arren stopped at a crossroads and settled down there to wait for Eluna. Eagleholm had plenty of immigrants and descendants of immigrants living in it, but even so Arren stood out. He was tall and slender, and still had a touch of teenage gangliness about him. He had thick, curly black hair, and the top of one ear was ragged from when Eluna had bitten it a little too hard as a chick. His face was pale and angular, a little stern and unsmiling of expression, and he had black eyes.
He bought an apple from a nearby stall and ate it while he waited. Eluna liked to circle around for a while first thing in the morning, to let her muscles limber up and to enjoy the wind in her feathers.
The streets of the market district were already busy, while the traders set up their stalls. Arren watched idly.
“Morning, sir!”
Arren looked around. “Oh! Hello, Gern. What happened to you?”
Gern fingered the painful-looking cut on his forehead. “I went to the Arena last night and there was a bit of a row. But you should see the other man, sir.”
“Gern, I’m only two years older than you. And we’re friends. You could just call me Arren.”
“Yes, sir. Where’s Eluna?”
Arren pointed skyward. “She’ll be along in a moment.”
“It’s a shame you weren’t at the Arena last night, sir. You missed a brilliant fight!”
“Why, did you break another nose?” Arren asked sarcastically.
“I mean in the pit, sir,” said Gern a little reproachfully. “They’ve got three wild griffins in at the moment, and they all went in the pit at once. Once they’d killed the criminals they started fighting each other. One of ’em died, sir, it was amazing. And I won a bet.”
Arren sighed. “I don’t know why people go to those things. It’s so pointless. And griffins