In the SkyWing Kingdom, Clay sits atop a narrow stone pillar arranged in a circle with more pillars as far as the eye can see. The pillars are high up in the sky, far enough that if Clay falls with his wings clipped to his sides unable to fly, it means certain death. Even if he could fall, the prisoners atop the pillars are connected to one another by thin unbreakable metal wire, so even if they could fly, the only way to escape would be for all the dragons to “lift off all at once . . . and then all one hundred prisoners would be stuck with each other” (122). At the center of the circle, the queen’s arena sits slightly less elevated so that all the prisoners can see the battles to the death that she forces them to enter for her kingdom’s entertainment.

Clay observes all this and more in a conversation with the queen’s champion Peril. Peril brings Clay a charred rabbit on his first day in the Sky Kingdom. Curious because she’s never fought a MudWing before, Peril informs Clay that she wants him to eat so he doesn’t die before she gets to kill him.