Chapter 24 - Burz

There is a place in the mountain called Saestara ... Looking west, I remembered lots of painful scrabbling up paths that were made by and for mountain goats; looking east, I foresaw more of the same going down. Some distance behind me was a lake called Szurke, on the edge of a forest. I owned the lake and a little bit of the forest and the big manor house near it

The day after Spring Balance day, I embraced him and said good-bye, which is how it came to be that I stood in the pass of Saestara ... Below, at some vague point, was the end of the Empire, and the border of Fenario ... I started down the mountain.

I know of a town where much paper came from, in the west of Fenario where the River of Faerie is young and strong. Burz, it is called ... A town called Burz ... on the River

The transition from mountain to forest was so gradual, I wasn't entirely sure I was out of the mountains for a while even after I had turned north; and this in spite of them towering over me to my left. But eventually, I became convinced that I wasn't getting much lower, and soon enough ... I was in deep woods ... I headed north ... I spent about three nights in the forest after I came down from the mountains ... I would certainly have gotten lost if it weren't for Loiosh and an occasional sight of the mountain. I waded over several brooks and streams ... The trees became lower, sparser, and the grass taller, with large, jagged boulders intruding on the landscape as if the mountain were encroaching ... An hour or so later we found a road ... It was getting toward evening ... "That way," said my familiar, indicating down the road to the right. Since the mountains were to the left, I'd have figured that one out on my own ... [that night, he camps] I'd been walking about two hours the next day before I passed a young man [and asked for directions to Burz] He pointed the way I was going ... in a while the road will fork, and ... you'll likely smell it after that ... "a while" ... turned out to be most of the rest of the day ... As I walked, I noticed that the forest, which I had thought was left behind me, seemed to be returning on my right; or maybe it was a different forest ... Over the next several hours, the forest seemed to come closer, but avoided the road ... I found the fork [and] I followed it, and the road bent closer to the forest. It took us over low hills ... the road had been joined by a fairly respectable river ... I went another mile or so .. The road curved as I came to the top of a hill, and below, still some distance away was [an inn, followed by Burz].

I stopped ... to eat [food] I'd gotten in Saestara (the village, not the mountain).

[The River] began in thunder; a cascade from Lake Fenarr, pouring over the lip of Mount Szaniszlo. From there it cut a deep, straight path through the center of Fenario, eventually joined by other, lesser rivers. It cut a gap in the Eastern Grimwall, after which it turned south toward the sea