Chapter 16: Pass, and you're first. Fail, and you can get lost.

Pentos Sect. A stairway road, arched like a dragon's spine, ran straight to the peak. The Misty Stairway stretched for thirty-nine thousand steps. Each tier rose roughly a foot off the next. For an ordinary person, simply climbing it was a brutal ordeal. And that day, the newcomers taking the challenge had to do more than cross a hundred-plus miles of forest and swamp. They still had to scale this spine of stone. By afternoon, several figures with an innate air of authority had taken their seats...