Knights of Ferlonia

CHAPTER VI

The white crenellated walls of Zelfiria shone above the residual fog banks of the valley as modest golden rays found a chink between the dense gray clouds that wrapped themselves around the skies like cotton balls. The newly formed couple was on the cobbled road to the citadel, which continued straight to the bridge leading to its only gate, when Viryl stopped to make the detour he had proposed to Anker during the journey from Petratonna. According to him, going through the main gate was too risky because, if Radios had been around, that entrance would undoubtedly have been under his watchful eye.

<<I don't think there are many alternatives.>> Anker had said.

Zelfiria had been built in the natural basin of a small mountain and was protected on three sides, opening only to the south. To make the defenses of the citadel completely impenetrable, a wall had been built arching on the southern slope, ten feet thick and almost thirty feet high, which continued into the insurmountable rock walls of the basin. In the center a gate had been created that served as both a passage for visitors and a point of outflow for the torrent that flowed through the city from north to south, before throwing itself into a violent and foaming waterfall right at the center of the gap. The bridge that led to Zelfiria forked into two walkways just before the waterfall, allowing passage on either side of the three-arched gate.

<<There would be one, actually.>> Viryl had replied, as they calmly headed towards their destination.

Viryl claimed to have found a slight subsidence on the left wing of the walls that would have allowed a climb, if not exactly easy, at least doable. This breach had never been repaired because, as the area below was covered in thick brambles, it would have been inaccessible to an army in force. He himself had used that passage many times, and Radios had never been able to intercept him.

Anker had accepted Viryl's proposal without any problems, because after all he was the guide.

Therefore, at Viryl's signal, they went into the bushes. They walked for a good half hour on extremely rough and lush terrain, where Viryl made his way with a large knife he had pulled out of his bundle. There was not a trace of a path, but Viryl proceeded swiftly as if he knew every single thorn and olive tree in that dense thicket. And so, despite getting a few scratches, Anker found himself at the base of the walls without any major problems.

The climb was also quite permissive: the slope was steep, but the handholds were solid and abundant, so reaching the terrace of the walls was almost as easy as climbing a ladder. The hard part, however, had yet to begin.

Quick as a flash, Viryl had no sooner set foot on the terrace than he had thrown himself over the other side, beyond the inner battlements. Anker, who had climbed up second, noticed that about a hundred yards from the point where the subsidence had occurred, beyond a blind spot that had hidden their ascent, there was a lookout post and two guards were standing there chatting while enjoying the view. So he quickly cast a muffling spell on his boots and imitated Viryl's example, throwing himself down without even checking to see if there was anything below. He landed on tiptoe, crouched, on a tiled roof, with a fall of no more than six feet, with a slight pain in his ankles, knees and back.

From the roof of the building they were on, built in continuity with the walls, they could see from one end of the citadel to the other, which was built in an amphitheater around the torrent, with the maze of houses and alleys sloping down towards the south gate. Some buildings were more conspicuous than others: a cathedral with a white marble Gothic facade at the northern end, to the left of where the stream entered the city, rushing down from the rock face; a noble palace with a garden to the northeast in the third tier of buildings; a wild park to the south, which originated around the city gate and expanded around the torrent; a semicircular square with a monumental statue of a mounted condottiero in the center, built along the main street of the citadel, which cut through it along its axis.