Jade Mountain is built in a river valley which is fairly narrow--no more than a mile wide at its widest point between the Gate of Jade downstream and the Black Falls above. From falls to the canyon that begins with the Gate is a distance of perhaps five miles, though the town does not occupy the whole length.

The valley has four levels: Lowest is the river bank level, meadowland mostly, which is flooded every spring. No one of sense builds here, and the roads that cross this level are on high causeways.

Above that by some twenty or thirty feet on either side of the valley is a bench varying in width between a mere hundred feet and close to half a mile--the greater width is on the north side of the river which rushes so rapidly toward the southeast. On the north bench is found most of the town, strung out for two miles along the rather narrow, straight main street called the Broad Way. Sometimes there are races along this street--foot races, horse races, sleigh-races in the winter. The houses and businesses are close-packed along the Broad Way, and smaller streets yet make a maze of the space behind them. On the south side of the valley, the street along the bench is called the Dark Street, since in the winter it is shaded all day by the hills above it. Here, too, the buildings crowd together, but they are oftener warehouses and stables than dwellings and stores.

Above the bench some two hundred feet, where the steeply rising valley walls begin to slope more gently, is the level called the Inner Ridge. There are a few houses here, sprawling manor houses with enclosed courtyards, and the Twisted Ring is at this level, and the ruins of a few of the ancient monasteries may also be found here. Though there is room for more building, most people avoid this higher level because the roads to it become such treacherous slopes each winter. Some parts of this ridge are wooded. The abandoned quarry which was made into the arena is on this level, also, on the north side of the valley.

Highest of all, another two hundred feet or more above the Inner Ridge is the Outer Ridge. Here may be found the Castle of Lucan, near the head of the valley, so close to the Black Falls that any wind from the north will drive its spray against the castle walls. Here also, scattered along the ridge on both sides of the valley, are the gaunt ruins of the monasteries for which the valley was once so well known.

Houses in Jade Mountain are built tall, with steep roofs to shed the snow, and most have a door on the second floor, so that people can get out if the lower door should be snowed shut. The snow doesn't always get that deep--but there have been years when it did, and no one wants to be trapped indoors for a month or more. Wheels are taken off the wagons and replaced with runners in the winter, and skis and snowshoes are in evidence.

The Gladiatorial Commission, seeing no virtue in suffering (at least for the audiences!), has arranged that the arena be heated by an ingenious system of furnaces and hypocausts--brick-lined ducts which lead warm air from the furnaces under each tier of seats and under the floors of the warriors' locker rooms and the infirmary. This system of heating, which is new to the area, has already been adopted by a few of the wealthier residents, as it is much more efficient than open fireplaces.