Chapter 3: The Wizard
The majestic peaks of the Tirghiz Mountains extended to the north and east of Ravan all the way to the edge of the Bitter Sea, that enormous inland lake which spawned the Harrud and Meshkal Rivers. To the north and east of that lay the wastes of the Gobrani Desert, so vast that few men had traveled its full extent. Past the Gobrani were the steppes of Birsk—and along the northernmost edge of those steppes the Himali Mountains jutted up from the earth as though to form a wall to keep men from falling off the rim of the world.
Few were the human eyes who’d seen the Himali Mountains firsthand, and even fewer were those who’d seen its wonders at close range. Steep escarpments and deep ravines, treacherous avalanches and ravenous monsters tended to discourage people from
