Alcingeria

Chapter Thirty: Queen Yuka

Chapter Thirty Queen Yuka:

Sunday June 27th 1690

Valgate was gigantic. There was a huge circular space that housed various shops, inns and other buildings like that. It was like Riverguard's town square, but much more spacious. It was almost as loud, though. Instead of having multiple roads leading off from the town square like Riverguard did, there was one big cobblestone road that branched off ahead of us, and I could see that it fed off into multiple smaller roads when it got further down. Lining that main street were residential houses that only had one story. These must have been for the lower class citizens. Arc had much the same setup; the closer you got to the castle, the higher class the living quarters and scenery became. The cobblestone here looked new, it must be well maintained. The buildings all looked new as well. I suppose people wanted the city to look good for their Queen... Who happened to be an evil tyrant. Ahead of us about a kilometer or two I saw that the land elevated. I saw a road going up the hill, leading to an imposing black stone castle looming atop it. All around the castle was a high stone wall of the same color.

"How'd they get the walls that color?" Stela asked.

"Coal dust, I'd imagine," Erin explained. "I've seen some cities do it with Lapis Lazuli, to give it a nice blue color."

"So this is what Queen Yuka's city looks like." Don said, looking around in awe. "I'm impressed."

"We should get moving," Ceberus said, cutting him off.

"Let a man take in the sights," William laughed, "you were the same way when we first came here."

"Be that as it may..." he trailed off, "still, we're on a deadline."

"We got here ahead of schedule," William countered, "we don't need to hurry so much. Someone's probably already told her we're here."

There was a thick mass of people, but not as bad as what we were used to encountering in Riverguard. We followed Ceberus up the main street, passing shops, as well as vendors in booths selling whatever it was that they were selling. We ignored them and pressed on towards the castle.

"Even though we kind of have no choice being here," Erin said, looking around, "the city is pretty nice."

"I'll give it that," admitted Ceberus, "the Queen knows ambiance."

After a few more minutes, we began climbing the hill that the castle was built on, still following the road that led up. The shops started fading away behind us, and we started to come into an obviously richer district. The houses here were nicer and more lavish, and more than one story.

We came to a halt outside the gate of the castle wall, there were about thirty guards stationed outside and around the gate, just like on the entrance to the city.

"Halt!" One of them called. "What business do you have with the Queen?"

"Ceberus and William, returning from Riverguard," Ceberus sighed, "we were sent out concerning the item from the old trade route."

"That was you two?" One of them asked. "Who're they?"

"Farmers," came the answer, "good friends of ours, they helped us find what we were looking for."

"Very well," he nodded, "trusted or not though, all parties entering the castle are required to surrender their weapons."

"Of course."

I handed my weapons over to the guards. I saw the others do the same. A guard broke off from the main group and patted us all down, just to make sure.