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the drawbridge towards them. Most likely it was Halphar, Rolf’s
father; Spencer hurried along at the sight of him. He liked Rolf just fine, but
the boy’s father was a little odd. Some said it was because of his job, which
necessitated him sleeping in that little stone hut beside the moat every night.
There were rumors that in the black of midnight, dread creatures crawled out of
the moat and whispered darkness into the moatkeeper’s ears. Spencer wasn’t sure
about that, but he knew that his opinion of the man wasn’t much improved by the
revelation that the moatkeeper spent his evenings drinking with the
executioner. “Take care now,” Rolf told him, touching the brim of his cap in an
automatic gesture of farewell. “Let me know if you want to see that witch.”
Spencer winced at how far Rolf’s loud voice carried. He nodded abruptly and
then hurried back over the drawbridge, away from the castle and towards the
path that would lead him to the Chasm, and the Haligorn beyond it. He always
took the same path; it was the only one he knew and he feared that if he
strayed from it he would become completely lost.
    It was
difficult to appreciate, as he hurried down the narrow streets and cramped
alleys, just how tremendous the royal city really was. Castle Wulfyddia was
anchored to a small, rocky peninsula known as Castle Point. Bordered on the
east by the icy Veiderling Sea and on the west by the black expanse of the
Chronyddia Ocean, there were only two ways to reach Castle Wulfyddia by land.
The less favored path was to ascend the Black Cliffs. The Black Cliffs were a
mass of jagged volcanic rock, left over from some long ago eruption. Castle
Wulfyddia was carved from the black rock of the highest peak, while the
Haligorn clung to the dark rock of its sister cliff. The cliffs were difficult
to navigate and nearly impossible to grow anything on, which meant that Castle
Wulfyddia was largely dependent upon fish and meat for sustenance. Fruit and
vegetables were a luxury made doubly rare by both the rocky terrain and the
harsh winters.
    The
second, and generally the preferred route to Castle Wulfyddia, was to follow
the black cliffs to the east, where the cliffs suddenly plunged downwards into
a forested valley, where the royal family hunted and fey folk were said to
wander, searching for unwary humans to snare in unearthly enchantments. Even
from the Royal Forest, the road to Castle Wulfyddia was not easy, though it was
not nearly as steep as the path across the Black Cliffs. The castle’s inaccessibility
was a large part of its defensibility, and so none of the royals had ever seen
fit to build a wider road from the valley, or to carve a less treacherous path
through the cliffs. Thanks to the difficult terrain, when the castle was
besieged, it was usually by sea.
    To the
north and the west of Castle Wulfyddia the cliffs met the sea in a sheer drop
that made it a favorite spot for suicides, and the site of many a shipwreck. At
some point some monarch had decided to combat the problem of shipwrecks by
commissioning an enormous lighthouse, carved of dark granite, which loomed atop
the cliffs and sent piercing beams of light into the night, warning away those
who otherwise might have dashed their ships on the rocks.
    To the
east, the shore was gentler, and the cliffs were reduced to rolling hills, and
then to a mild slope which stretched down to the beach. That was where the
ancient port of Castle Wulfyddia lay. Reportedly the first area settled in the
earliest days of the Castle, long before the Lucretius family ruled the
country, or even before Wulfyddia was called Wulfyddia, it was also the most
frequently rebuilt, since constant naval battles throughout much of Wulfyddia’s
history had seen the port razed many times.
    The
keep, the innermost fortress, was where the royal family lived. The keep
benefited from many additional defenses, including the moat, a deep and wide
body of dull green water. The moat was ancient,