Kovyli

A steppe village or section of the Makarovsky estate, home to the sorcerer Yefim Zhmenya and the site, by the old shepherd's account, of a fatal throat sickness Zhmenya was said to have loosed on the community in revenge for being flogged; Panteley is riding from its Kovylevsky section when the story opens. Occupies ground the old shepherd says once held bustard nests, before the great highway was rerouted through it.