21

While they were climbing up the slope, Bery quietly told his wife about the city. He was very ancient. It grew from a small village, in which the Markats once hid from hostile clans, captured the entire slope of the mountain, deeply bit into its stone flesh. The mountain protected from enemies and from harsh winter winds, nourished with underground rivers and springs, warmed the earth with its eternal internal heat. Day was afraid of this rock. It seemed to her that she, too, was dozing, like those hills - giants, in order to wake up one day.

The city was large and rich, stone barns, warehouses, inns and taverns everywhere. The houses are two-story and three-story made of white stone and massive logs covered with some kind of light lime. The central streets were wide, numerous galleries hung above them, and the alleys wound like ribbons between the houses, narrow, barely enough for one person to pass. But even here, in the city, right next to the houses, luxurious sprawling pines grew