Stone Gardens
The Stone Gardens was the rocky region just east of Undertown, at the farthest tip of the Edge. It was the place where the Edgewater River completed its journey from Riverrise and poured over the cliff and off of the Edge. For all but the last 21 years of the First Age of Flight, flight-rocks grew in the Stone Gardens. Flight rocks emerged from the ground and pushed up the rocks that had grown in the same place already, forming stacks of flight rocks with the largest and most buoyant at the top and the smallest and least buoyant at the bottom, all throughout the Stone Gardens. During stone-sickness these stacks toppled over and no new ones grew.
Role in history
In the First Age of Flight
In the First Age of Flight the Stone Gardens was of the utmost importance as the provider of flight rocks for sky ships. It fueled the entire economy of the Edge. Because of its importance the academics of Sanctaphrax jealously guarded their right to harvest the flight rocks of the Stone Garden. Trespassing in the Stone Gardens was punishable by death. However, few Undertowners would have dared to venture to the Stone Gardens anyway. Most were afraid of the place. Near the end of the First Age of Flight stone-sickness struck the Stone Gardens and completely changed their appearance and importance.
In the Second Age of Flight
By the time of the Second Age of Flight stone-sickness had set in fully upon the Stone Gardens. Flight rocks had stopped growing and the previously grown rock stacks had collapsed, leaving the gardens in ruins. The White Ravens had abandoned the gardens and there was nothing of value left.
In the Third Age of Flight
For much of the Third Age of Flight the Stone Gardens remained as it had been during the end of the First Age of Flight and the entirety of the Second Age of Flight: in ruins and not producing flight rocks. However, during the events of the year 600 ᴇ.ʏ. a storm carrying chine from Riverrise came over the Stone Gardens, and it was cured of stone-sickness and began to produce new flight rocks again.
Role in the Edge Chronicles
In the Quint Trilogy
In The Winter Knights, Linius Pallitax’s funeral was held in the Stone Gardens.
In the Twig Trilogy
In Midnight Over Sanctaphrax, Twig landed in the Stone Gardens after being blown back to the Edge from Open Sky by a White Storm. Later, Twig and Cowlquape landed in the Stone Gardens after sky-firing themselves back from Riverrise.
In The Immortals
In The Immortals, Nate Quarter and his companions found Sanctaphrax floating above the Stone Gardens when they arrived at the Edge looking for Ifflix Hentadile. They were there when the storm that had carried the Immortals from Riverrise arrived and, carrying chine, healed the Stone Gardens of stone sickness, allowing flight rocks to grow again.