The 'SandWing stronghold', also known as the 'desert Dragons|dragon
palace' to humans, the 'main SandWing stronghold', and 'Queen Thorn's
Stronghold', is a large palace complex located within the Kingdom of
Sand. It was used as a military base during the War of SandWing
Succession by Burn after the death of Queen Oasis.

## Description

The stronghold is a giant palace that loomed out of the sand like a dark
mountain. It was bigger than all of Valor and has many winding hallways,
long stairways, tapestries, ballrooms, and feasting halls. There is a
small slit of a window near the treasure room that is too small for
dragons to go through, which Rose used to get inside and steal SandWing
treasure|treasure from Oasis. There was a small barracks room with a
stone table that was assigned to Six-Claws' family. The palace also
contained gardens that were surrounded by walls. It contained
courtyards, balconies, and high palace towers. There were several sunlit
great halls where Oasis hosted feasts and dances that contained torch
holders. There were also mentioned to be baths and mirrors within the
hall. Inside the stronghold, lizards, suns, and cacti were carved into
the walls to give an unsettling feel of motion. The thick gates were
flanked by two enormous statues of dragons roaring. There are billowing
white curtains, mosaics with jeweled tiles, torches, and marble floors.

The palace has a history museum with a section for old gifts given
during previous alliances with other tribes, including tapestries. The
palace also has a library.

### Burn's era

When Burn seized the palace, she added thick walls for extra defense and
stationed SandWing soldiers as guards. There were also several dragon
heads placed on spikes over the wall. The foul stench from the
decapitated dragon heads mounted on the outer walls discouraged enemies
from attacking; Burn liked the decaying smell, which could be scented
for miles in all directions. The stronghold also contains a courtyard,
great hall, and corridors decorated with statues from when it was the
palace of the SandWings. A monument to Oasis was built where she died,
and Burn had the walls of the stronghold extended to surround it. There
are oases in the stronghold. Dragons slept beside overturned tables,
with half-eaten antelopes and spilled flagons of agave nectar scattered
around. There was a vast throne room in which Burn would sometimes look
at a giant map.

### Thorn's era

After Thorn became queen, she added a white tent next to the largest
oasis to remind her of the Outclaws' old base, which is her favorite
room in the palace. The sounds of wind and the trickle of water can be
heard, and pale yellow and pink lilies, as well as crimson flower petals
from the trees above, drift across the surface of the pool. The tent is
lit by the warm glow of oil lamps, and it smells like cinnamon and
cardamom tea. It is also occupied by shelves, a tasseled rug, and large
red pillows.

The decapitated heads on the outer walls were removed by the dragons
observing the organized meeting between the royal SandWing sisters, and
the stone was scrubbed and scraped and painted until all traces of their
blood was gone. Guards typically line the top of the wall, and lamplight
glows in several of the windows. The monument towards Oasis still
remains within the enormous white stone courtyard, surrounded by several
gardens. The stronghold was built with lots of places to safely hole up
during a sandstorm, with reinforced shutters and strong doors.

Thorn's bedroom is somewhere within the stronghold. It includes a chest
in a hidden compartment containing the Obsidian Mirror. There are also
kitchens and a throne room, which are led to by covered passageways.
Atop the tallest palace towers, there are tiled, roofed pavilions.

## Notable features

### Dungeons

The SandWing stronghold contains a lot of dungeons, which are connected
to the palace stadium. A section of them can be accessed through a
poorly lit, narrow passage that twists and angles downward. The walls
are rough and scraped, and lanterns flicker from niches along the
tunnel, casting small, jumpy shadows. The air smells odd, like a trove
of decayed lizards buried under a floorboard and forgotten about for
years. Farther down the tunnel, there are a series of locked gates and
several armed guards, posted in pairs. A set of stone stairs leads into
an antechamber with four tunnels branching out from it. There is a low
shelf near the stairs that contains a lantern. The darkest tunnel leads
to Prickle's prison, although the entire dungeon is nearly empty of
prisoners in Thorn's era. Through the tunnels, cells line the walls,
making space for a clear tunnel in the middle; a stench came from the
holes in the floor, and scorpions scrabbled everywhere. Prisoners eat
dried camel for food every day, and there are small, high-up windows.

### Great Hall

The Great Hall has many doors and windows, as well as a threshold that
contains large curtains. The upper windows include shutters.

### Kitchen

The kitchen had copper pots and pans hung from the ceiling, and jars
lined the shelves all along one side of the room. There were pears, and
something that looked like eyeballs. There are net bags around the room.
Rose often messes with the food inside. An Unnamed
characters#SandWings|unnamed female SandWing is the owner of the
kitchen.

### Mausoleum

The mausoleum is a dome that rises above most of the other palace
buildings. It is where the ashes of former SandWing queens are kept.

### Oasis' memorial

Oasis' memorial is a tall, black obelisk surrounded by a circle of sand
wider than a large dragon's wingspan, with an epitaph written by Burn on
the surface. It is located in the center of the main courtyard of the
stronghold. On the surface of the monument, the following words are
painted and carved in gold:

<center>

HERE LIES
QUEEN OASIS
MOTHER OF QUEEN BURN
HER BONES NOW BELONG TO THE SANDS OF TIME

</center>

### Observatory

The observatory is a domed tower, open to the sky. It contains a
telescope.

### Palace stadium

The palace stadium is where duels for the SandWing throne have always
been held. It takes up a back corner of the palace grounds. It is used
within Thorn's era for games and moon festivals, and it is designed as
an oval amphitheater, built of sandstone, with no roof. The benches rise
like steps from the ground upwards, and at the top, sturdy poles can be
folded out to add more places for audience members to perch. The walls
at the bottom are typically covered in paintings from former moon
festivals. The stadium has no royal box or special platform for royalty;
Thorn usually sits wing-to-wing with her subjects. In the center of the
far wall ringing the oval, there is a deliberate indentation, where the
Eye of Onyx fits perfectly. Torches are lit all around the stadium.

### Treasury

The treasury is a roofed space. It contained four rooms that were
formerly filled with gems and gold.

### Weirdling tower

The weirdling tower was a tower that was part of the stronghold when
Burn ruled over it during the War of SandWing Succession. It contained
her collection of "weirdlings," such as stuffed scavengers, three-legged
lizards, and dead hybrids. It was mentioned that Burn would be
interested in Six-Claws' talons. The tower was also the former prison
for Scarlet after she was attacked by Glory and lost her throne. After
Thorn ascended the throne, it was destroyed.

center
Known items, dragons, and creatures of the
weirdling tower

  - Pale stuffed scavengers
  - Webbed SeaWing talons
  - Several tongues with three forks instead of two
  - A coil of tail with strange lichens growing on it
  - Many oddly bent teeth and claws
  - Seven-toed dragon talons
  - Two-headed lizards
  - A Unnamed characters#MudWings|MudWing, hatched with no claws or
    teeth, whose egg was said to be animus-cursed
  - A blood-red MudWing egg with a cracked shell
  - An eerily sleek and snakelike Unnamed characters#Characters of
    unknown tribe|white dragon, with stubs where wings should have grown
    and a horrifying look on its face. The seller claimed this dragon
    was an IceWing-SandWing hybrid.
  - A fish tank with "snails that ooze purple ichor, seahorses with
    fangs, fish with extra flippers, and a weird octopus with twenty
    arms" (This tank was kept after the tower was destroyed)
  - A Unnamed characters#NightWings|stuffed NightWing (destroyed)
  - A tank with strange insects: "bulging caterpillars," "nine-legged
    spiders," "a bright blue dragonfly with bristles on its back," etc.
    (destroyed)
  - Half of a purple and gray speckled SilkWing wing
  - Skin of a dragonbite viper
  - Exhibits of misshappened claws, tails, and melted scales
  - Sky (escaped)
  - Sunny (escaped)
  - Scarlet (escaped)

### Whispering Tower

The Whispering Tower is a tall, thin structure that had been used by
SandWing queens for hundreds of years to make speeches to the tribe. It
is designed for perfect acoustics, so even dragons outside of the palace
are able to hear its speaker.

### Wingery

Most dragonets in the palace played in the shelter of its walls until
they were two years old, under the watchful eye of a pair of ancient
SandWings who taught Oasis to fly. The wingery was open to anyone who
lived in the palace, so the dragonets of servants and nobles all grew up
together. The courtyard for the dragonets featured a sunken pool in the
middle, where they could splash and cool off in the midday heat. This
was overlooked by a shaded pavilion with long white curtains on the
three open sides. The rest of the courtyard was set up to help the
dragonets learn to fly: ledges at different heights, soft piles of sand
to land in, claw holds, and perches everywhere. In one corner, there is
a first aid station stocked with lots of Plants#Brightsting
cactus|brightsting cactus, which is the only antidote to the venom in a
SandWing's tail. The venom does not come in until a dragonet was closer
to three years old, but at this age, they had a tendency to crash into
everything or leap onto their parents without looking first, so there
was a lot of bandaging and antidote-administering required. The young
dragons also spend a lot of time practicing how to be aware of their
tails and everyone else's, so they could eventually be safely released
into the rest of the palace. The indoor passageways of the Wingery are
described to be cooler in temperature than that of the Kingdom of
Sand's.

## History

### The Dragonet Prophecy

#### The Hidden Kingdom

Glory scented the decaying smell coming off from the faraway SandWing
stronghold when she came to the end of the NightWing tunnels.

#### The Brightest Night

Sunny was imprisoned in the stronghold as Burn's gift from Addax. She
was guarded by Smolder, Burn's brother, until the contending princess
returned. Sunny was eventually able to escape from the stronghold with
help from her mother and the Outclaws. The climax of the book took place
at the stronghold, where the dragonets of destiny crowned Thorn as the
new SandWing queen.

-----

### The Jade Mountain Prophecy

#### Darkness of Dragons

Qibli, Winter, Ostrich and Cobra arrived at the stronghold to warn the queen of the Talons of Power (organization)|Talons of
Power's plan to overthrow her. When they arrived, Qibli noticed the
decapitated heads had been removed from the walls and the weirdling
tower had been destroyed. Qibli found Thorn in a meeting with Smolder
and Typhoon, a hybrid dragon from Possibility. Vulture was later seen in
the SandWing stronghold when he blows up one of the treasury walls and
holds up the 'Eye of Onyx.' He then flew over to the mausoleum and made
an announcement about being king until Onyx snuck up on Thorn and tried
to kill her. She challenged Thorn for the throne, to which the event
took place at the stronghold's stadium. Qibli used Anemone's weather
bracelets to sabotage the challenge and to create a sandstorm. The
dragons fled inside, and the stronghold had taken considerable damage
from this event. Six-Claws and Thorn then set up a group of volunteers
to clear away the sand.

In the epilogue, Qibli and a few other SandWings were seen rebuilding
the walls that Vulture had damaged. Later, when Thorn told Qibli that
someone was waiting for him in the observatory, he and Moonwatcher|Moon
reunited there, and become a couple.

-----

### Legends

#### Dragonslayer

With the help of Deathbringer, Wren arrived at the stronghold in order
to rescue Sky, who was gifted to Burn by Sandstorm. She met Rose, who
lived alongside the dragons there. Using resources from the stronghold,
Wren poisoned and killed Sandstorm with mouse poison and managed to
rescue her dragon friend.

-----

### Winglets

#### Deserter

Six-Claws grew up in the SandWing palace, and the stronghold was the
primary setting of Deserter.

-----

### Field Guides

#### A Guide to the Dragon World

In the RainWing chapter of the guide, Python mentioned that she resided
in the stronghold as a RainWing spy in order to learn about SandWing
weaknesses.

In the SandWing chapter, the stronghold was mentioned by Sunny in her
letter to Starflight about Burn's weirdling tower. It also served as the
setting of Smolder's literature#Named scrolls|Strange Time for a New
Pet.

## Trivia

  - The stronghold was based on Tui's impressions of Amber Fort in
    Jaipur, India.
  - The walls that Burn erected would not stop any dragon from flying
    over them, and that they were instead meant to keep out scavengers
    like the ones that killed her mother.
  - Burn's weirdling tower was based on a Ripley's Believe It or Not
    Odditorium in Hollywood.
  - Even in Darkstalker's time, the palace was considered a stronghold
    without the walls.[1]
  - On the back cover of Dragonslayer, there are two RainWing heads
    mounted on the wall.