Chapter Six
To the Village on the Lake, and Beyond
On and on journeyed Kalesh and Mara and Pon, heading south, south, and ever farther south. He knew not precisely why, of course, but when he had sat that morning atop the mount upon which his ancient benefactor the giant had lain, those long misty reaches south had called him somehow. In the other direction lay wastes of cold and snow, and jagged mountains, grim, brutal holdovers from the Time of Great Ice. West, he had heard, towered forest and more forest, such as he had always known, until the land fell away into the boundless Western Sea, from which none could return. And it was said that to the east the land stretched on forever, forests eventually giving way to wild grasslands followed by endless baking hard-packed plains such as n
