Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 127: Atka, The Corrupt City

Chapter 127: Atka, The Corrupt City

Everyone was dead tired by the time the sun started rising.

Not that Xaphile could blame them, since they'd been up for more than seventeen hours, but he was determined to reach Atka before they went to sleep and he was mildly enthusiastic about the trees growing smaller as they rode. Near early noon, the tree trunks began to show up brown more often, and a little bit after one-ish, they made it to the path.

It was here that they stopped to eat lunch.

Xaphile couldn't join them. Arms folded behind his back, he paced around in fearful agitation, grinding his teeth with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Vordt watched him with a grim expression, and similarly, nobody seemed to have much of an appetite.

"Atka shouldn't be more than fifteen Kilometers away from here," Ella noted, looking at the map with an observant gaze. "Once we make it to the city, we'll find an inn that will safely hold and care for our horses while we're gone, then we'll all get some rest."

"No," Gus instantly said, lifting his eyes. "I'm staying behind when you go to look for him."

Everyone turned in shock.

"Why?!" Vrael cried, looking flabbergasted. "Don't you want to help us find Adariel?!"

"Atka is the darkest and most corrupt city in this country aside from perhaps the capital," Gus grimly countered. "If we leave our horses unattended, we may return to find that they've been stolen or sold off for extra profit, and then we would be in some rather big trouble."

Ella's eyes flashed and she tucked her chin into her collar, thinking about that.

"Fine," she said after a moment, finishing up the last of her food. "In fact, that was a good call, Gus."

"Save the conversations for the road," Xaphile muttered, still pacing around. "Please."

Ella gave him a look, then sighed and scarfed down the rest of her food.

Soon lunch was over.

After another two hours had come and gone, they finally broke free of the trees and made their way towards a stone outcropping. When Xaphile raised his eyes, his mouth dropped open in shock and his breath hitched. For a long moment, he simply gaped at the gorgeous landscape.

There were gorgeous pine forests far to the north, and in the south, the Nimikan Border's glistening snow-capped mountains stretched on endlessly into the distance. 

But what had his attention was what lay directly in front of him. 

About three miles off was an amazing black-stone castle with buildings stretching around for miles and miles, dotting the landscape until he couldn't see. The trees broke off near the city and all that he could see after that was proof of large civilization.

The layered development style reminded him of a photo he'd once seen of a city in Italy, since the city seemed to have been built on an enormous hill with the castle at the peak, but it was much more majestic than anything Xaphile had ever seen before.